To all of my scrapbooking and crafty friends out there, November is Stampaganza month at Close to My Heart. What that means is that if you purchase two sets of Acrylix stamps, you get the third free! Yay! I am SUPER excited about this. It is a great opportunity right before the holiday to pick up gifts and stocking stuffers for your crafty friends. If anyone is interested in placing an order, please leave a comment. Click on the link below to view the full details on the flyer.
Ok, I know that it is probably not polite to laugh, but when I saw this picture, I couldn’t help myself….
I mean…..REALLY?
For the full slide show and story, click here.
Andrea
Children's Letters to God, Coughlin-Saunders, Sept 13, 2009
Our friends' son, Carson, was in it. He is the one in red on the table.
We had a great time at the musical with our friends
Steven and me
Leah and her sons
Brad and his son
Kayley...at Cane's before the play
We took Vivian to see the musical Childrens Letters To God. It was very cute. After we arrived home, Vivian spent an hour dancing and singing! I knew she would like this! She watches a lot of the old musicals on Netflix.
Yesterday, before we went to work on our rent house, she had to dress up and have a fashion show. She dug out her play microphone from Cracker Barrel and made me introduce her. She also had a solution for world peace and some other things I couldn’t quite understand.
Vivian's entry
Exit
Coming back for a curtsy
Even though I was still in my nightgown, she insisted I participate in the fashion show too. So, I strutted my stuff, complete with magic wand and all. NO THERE ARE NO PICTURES OF THAT! Thank God!
countertops and sink in...need to install pulls
The paint it took to make this house look decent again
I also posted the after bathroom pic here. I put it with the before pics so you would have something to compare it too. It is far from done, but, progress nevertheless.
Anyway, we had a good weekend. We hope you did too. Back to work tomorrow.
Andrea
I could have danced when I received the email from the Louisiana Trust for Historic Preservation’s representative. Due to the Historical Association’s, and mainly, Charles K. Charrier, President of HACL, diligent work nominating two CENLA buildings, the CLSH Dairy Barn in Pineville and the Armour Building on Lower Third in Alexandria, will receive local and national recognition by being placed on the Louisiana Trust’s 10 Most Endangered list. The Louisiana Trust is part of the National Trust. Each year, the Louisiana Trust for Historic Preservation recognizes the state’s ten most endangered historic properties to draw attention to the importance of historic preservation of our rich Louisiana heritage. Previously, Central Louisiana has had seven properties placed on the 10 Most Endangered List. We are proud to see that number grow to 9!
CLSH Dairy Barn 9-01-09
Armour Bldg, Lower Third 9-01-09
There will be a reception at Nottaway Plantation on September 20th, and at that time, there will be an unveiling of each structure that has made the 2009 list. As of now, I do not have a list of the other properties. This is exciting news for CENLA and for historic preservation!
“We shape our buildings; thereafter they shape us”. Winston Churchill
Andrea
Thank you Town Talk for spotlighting this historic building.
“Too-costly repair plan leaves Alexandria’s Armour building vulnerable”
The old Armour & Co. building in Alexandria is potentially facing the wrecking ball again. This time, local preservationists want to save it for good.
“Enough is enough,” said Charles Charrier, president of the Historical Association of Central Louisiana. “So much of our past is gone. Much of our downtown is gone. Many of our commercial and warehouse buildings are gone. Our position is it’s time for the ‘just tear it down’ mentality to stop here in Alexandria.”
The former meat processing plant at 1901 Third St. is a good place to take that stand, Charrier thinks.
Built between 1909 and 1914, the building for decades housed a packing plant, which would receive meat via railroad and process it for sale locally. It has been vacant for about 20 years.
“It’s one of the last surviving industrial buildings that depended on rail transportation for its existence,” Charrier said. “That’s why it’s significant, along with the grand design and historic character.” …for the rest of the article, click here.
Great article in the Town Talk! I regret the ignorant comments that were made on the TT’s website.
This world has a problem. Should we be conformed to this perverted world or should we be transformed by the renewing of our minds? Consider the following: God gave Moses an Ethiopian woman to be his wife. He gave Sarah’s Egyptian maid, Hagar, to Abraham. King Solomon’s mother, Bathsheba, was of a different race. Even Rahab the harlot, who helped the Israelites capture Jericho, was of a different race.
God see people, he does not see race. In fact, God did not create race. He did not create black and white. The Bible said, “…so God created man.” Gen. 1:27)
One day, there will be no more race, just one people, and at that point no one will have a reason to be racist, for we will be one people.
For more, click on the link above. In a previous post, I commented on racism and, through my experiences living here, note that the perpetrators of racism are not always white. At my garage sale two weeks ago, a man came through with flyers and handed one to all of the African-American customers. I put my hand out twice to receive a flyer, and he skipped over me twice. The customers noticed and came over and gave me a flyer. It was an invitation to attend their church. I guess since I was white, I was not invited.
Anyway, thumbs up for this article
Andrea
I saw this billboard a couple months ago and was struck by the glaring discord of the message vs. the picture. I am sure this is a nice man and everything, but if you were excited about Holy Ghost Revival, wouldn’t you at least smile a little?
Like the crazed madwoman I am, last night I decided to have a garage sale this morning. So, I got up at 6:30, tossed everything outside on the tables, put out my signs and waited on customers. I love to people watch. If I could go back to school for leisure, I would study the human brain, psychology, sociology and why we do what we do. I find it interesting that you can present a problem to two people and they would come up with completely diverse solutions to that same problem.
Before I start, I would like to say, like I have before, that I am white. If you want to be technical about it, right now I am actually red (from the sun) and purple (bruises received from setting up tables). You are probably wondering why in the world I am making this absurd declaration. Read further and you will understand. I live in a melting pot of a neighborhood. There are a lot of African-American people, a few Asian and a few white. Today, at my garage sale, I met a man who was well dressed, well spoken, classy and very polite. He invited me to the Shriner’s parade and told me all that was going on. Recently, I read that donations for the Shriner’s hospitals have been dwindling, so I perked up when he was speaking and told him what a great cause he supported and I wished him well.
I also met several ladies who were polite, considerate, thoughtful and conversational. Some of them even invited me to church. If I had not already had a church I attended, I might have been compelled to accept their invitation. All of them were African-American.
Some had causes, some had families, some had churches….all of them were the wonderful diverse people I call neighbor. I find it interesting that most of the people I refer to above who had beautiful manners and whom invited me to Shriner’s events were not your typical average joe white person. Nope, they were ALL African-American. To all the backwards racist people who live in Alexandria, I would like you to meet these people. These are the faces of the African-American community. They are not drug dealers, they are not con artists, they are not out to eat you for dinner. These wonderful people march to the same drum of life, as do all of us, just with a different beat. I find it a sad injustice to lump a whole race into a negative category, based on a few bad apples.
Incidentally, I find it nonsensical when reading the recent story the Town Talk did about the car vandalism wherein persons of low intelligence are commenting and using racial slurs and putting all the blame on a certain ethnicity in Alexandria. Rubbish! The persons behind all of the vandalism in Tennyson Oaks and West Point is probably some Momma’s precious little baby who is bored, spoiled rotten and thinks that daddy’s pockets are deep enough to take care of his little messes.
I am so tired of racial profiling and all of the ignorant stuff I hear out of Alexandrian’s mouths. It is time to grow up and stop using daddy’s opinion and get your own educated opinion from firsthand experience! Further, I find it interesting that people have a whole lot to say about things they know nothing about. The people who criticize me for living here go on and on about the crime…have never lived here. What crime? My car was not vandalized. My house has never been broken into. So, does that mean that all the people in Tennyson Oaks need to move because of the crime that happened there? Crime is not a respecter of persons or race, nor is it a predisposition of one race over another. Nor does it only happen in poor areas of town and skip over the well-to-do areas of town. I just find it absolutely ridiculous the things people say to me. I don’t know if it is steeped in ignorance, stupidity or if some people just lack tact. Might be a combination of all.
I find it so funny when the insurance inspector recently visited my house, his reaction, which was not completely different from other tradesmen and other people who visit, was to inform me of how bad an area I live in and how bad the crime is…blah blah blah. What does he expect me to do? Thank him profusely? Sometimes when people start in on their speeches, you know — to “save” me, I want so bad to emphatically shake their hand and pat them on the back and say “Thank you so much for telling me that! You know, I have lived here for three years now, but I needed YOU to tell me how bad it is here…you know what, I am going to go pack my bags now and move…thank you so much for your kindness and for telling me about my neighborhood. Gosh, I just didn’t know!” How absurd. They don’t even live here! It is just as annoying as people who don’t have kids who think it is their job to dole out parenting tips….oxymoron anyone? I respect my neighbors for the different people that they are and respect that they have a different beat to play on their drum than I. Their beat might not always make sense to me, but who am I to judge what is good or what is bad, what is right or what is wrong? It is just different.
Anyway, off my soapbox and in to bed!
Andrea
“A 29-year-old Pineville woman told police someone grabbed her purse from her arms as she was walking into an Alexandria store Tuesday.
The woman told Alexandria Police that around 3 p.m. she left her car to go inside Big Lots, 3200 Monroe St., when a man came up from behind her, hitting her in the head and knocking her down. The man grabbed her purse and took off in a white car.
A witness to the incident told officers that he saw the man get into a vehicle with several other men, wait for several minutes and then he got out and grabbed the woman’s purse and took off.”
Wow! I witnessed that. It looked more like a domestic dispute than a purse snatching. I almost parked next to her, but her truck was parked so crooked and across two spaces that I didn’t. I parked across. They were talking, then all of sudden her scarf went flying and she started dialing on her phone. I figured it was an argument and that she was calling the police. I didn’t realize her purse was snatched!
Andrea
***I called the police and gave them what I saw. The woman was supposed to go in for two days now to make a full report and to list what was in her purse. As of today, she has not done so. Maybe it was a domestic dispute…it seems like the officer had similar thoughts to mine. Sure didn’t look like a purse snatching to me. Especially since she got up, jumped in her crooked parked truck and sped off like a demon without waiting for the police to come to the scene. I did not see a purse on her shoulder or arm when they were talking. I grabbed my phone to call police, saw her dialing and thought she had already called. I got out to see if she needed help, but she had already jumped in her truck to leave. It is interesting though, what is reported in the paper makes people feel unsafe, when the truth is, there probably was not a purse snatching at all…..anyway…..
Recently, my brother came in town, from New Orleans, for a conference. He was putting something in the microwave and jokingly asked me if I liked to play puzzles. I had no idea what he was talking about until I looked over and saw him pushing around my floor tiles with his foot. “Ha..ha..ha..” I said, rather dryly. It seems that whomever it was that put these ugly .50 cents industrial tiles down, they did not glue them very well, or at all for that matter. When we first moved in, we pulled up carpet in the kitchen to find these tiles. I was glad that the tiles looked better than the carpet. But these tiles are cracked, chipped and not glued down. If you pull up any given tile on the floor, you will find a pile of dirt under it. Gross! I hate, Hate, HATE this floor! Lol… My husband hears about it all the time. I have scrubbed it, scoured it, scraped it, stripped it, mop n glo’d it, all to no avail. It still looks horriffic! It would not take a whole lot of effort, or money, on our part to fix it. But, the problem is, Steven wants to finish the attic and put in a staircase that you would access from the kitchen. So, until we have that all worked out, we are stuck with the ugly floor. Sigh… I guess this is my grumble for the week. If I get really bored this summer, I might line all the black tiles up one side and the white on the other. I was always good at tanagrams.
On another note, our puppy is adjusting well. Vivian is less jealous and actually playing with the dog now. Thank goodness! He is a sweet little thing. I don’t remember if I mentioned it before, but we named the puppy Taavi. He is an Australian Terrier and according to a listing of Australian based names, Taavi means “Beloved”.
Vivian and Taavi taking a nap on the sofa
Happy Saturday!
Andrea
PS: I don’t know what to be more horrified about — the ugly floor, my ugly feet or the fact that I showed you both!
