The Compton Photo Gallery

As promised . . . pictures of our latest project. I know you've all been on the edge of your seat, anxious to see them - ha!  Well, we are excited to finally have it finished. This post has just been sitting and waiting for me to drop the last picture in and hit "publish." Yesterday I got a phone call that our picture was framed and ready to pick up.  So, I piled everyone in the car and off we went to the framing store, with a convenient stop at Great Harvest (only because it's across the street, of course) on the way.

Now, this project might not look that big.  You might be thinking that it's just a hallway of pictures. How hard could it be? Well, when you are as OCD as we (Eric) are about straight lines, projects like this take awhile. It doesn't help that we had a ton of pictures to choose from, and I have ideas about what pictures I want to use to depict certain aspects of our life.

This is the hallway space that we have looked at a million times over the last five and a half years. Sixteen feet of gloriously blank and boring relaxed-khaki-colored wall.  When we first bought this house we envisioned filling this entire wall with pics of our family.

Three years ago we received a whole set of Pottery Barn gallery frames that we planned to fill the space with.  A super-generous Christmas gift from my dad and his wife, Norma.  And the picture frames sat.  Now, they didn't sit for the whole three years in one space.  Every once in awhile they would get in the way, and we would give them a change of scenery.  They moved from the office to the extra bedroom (which became Jameson's room) and then they moved to our room (where we would often trip over them in the middle of the night) and they sat there until this last major house purge.

It wasn't really that we were too lazy to do this project.  It was just that other projects had a higher priority.  And this one seemed big, and time-consuming, and well, daunting.  But, now every other project of more importance was done so we decided to take the plunge and get started.

Step #1:  Spread pictures all over our bed, move some around, add more, take some away and try to choose what we want to frame:

Step #2: Arrange frames on our bedroom floor and figure out how we want the pictures to be arranged on the wall.

Step #3:  Start googling ideas for hallway picture galleries because we are at a loss and finally come up with something we like.

Step #4:  Measure butcher paper to cover the height and length of the space we want to cover.  Then arrange the pictures on the butcher paper.  We chose to make a straight line along the bottom of the top row, and along the top of the bottom row.  That gave us a nice straight focal point for the center of the arrangement and gives us room for various size picture frames and room to build on the arrangement going up or down without needing more perfectly even lines.

Step #5: Make certain to know exactly where we want those pictures.  Outline each of the pictures on the butcher paper.  Measure the location of each hanger on the back of the frames and mark that location on butcher paper as well.  Then take a picture of the arrangement. That picture proves  invaluable in a few minutes.

Step #6: Check on kiddos and see how they've kept themselves busy:

Step #6: Tape butcher paper on the wall.

Step #7: Hammer the nails into the designated markings on the butcher paper.

Step #8:  Check on kids one last time to see what kind of damage they're doing (phew - not much, minus the water damage from Eliza splashing water on the bathroom floor while pretending to be a dolphin):

Step #8:  Tear butcher paper away as each picture is hung up.  Use that picture we took of the arrangement to remember exactly where they belong.

Step #10: Wait for final picture to be done at the framing store.

[Speaking of which, I'm going to give a quick plug for Affordable Framing.  I took a Pottery Barn gallery frame into Affordable Framing as an example of the frame and matte I wanted.  I left with their price list for standard frames that look almost identical to Pottery Barn's gallery frames. They are about half the price of Pottery Barn.  And they put the picture in and finish the frame for you.  And they have a lifetime guarantee.  And they are so kind, helpful and full of good ideas. Also - they accidently scratched one of our pictures.  This might seem horrible.  But the way they handled it was so amazing.  They called me immediately, got the name of our fabulous photographer, Daveen, and called her themselves.  They arranged for the re-order, payment and delivery of the picture.  I didn't have to do anything. Then when I picked up my picture they gave me a $20 gift card because of the accident. And, the project only took 3 days longer than originally expected. Such great service. And they almost always have a 20% off coupon on their website.  Enough said. Check it out.]

Step #11: Make sure that all of the pictures are straight and then enjoy a really amazing wall of memories.

Thanks, Babe.  Such an amazing job on this project.  Love ya!

Why My Husband Rocks

There are a million reasons why my husband rocks.  This weekend just seemed to be jam-packed with examples.  Saturday afternoon he didn't care that I went and ran errands by myself.  And that I took a little (from Eric: a lot)  longer than expected because the MAC girls at Nord's looked bored, so I let them do my eye make-up.

He took me out to dinner at Screen Door in Portland with some of our fave friends. Conrad and Kari. Yes, we take pictures of our food. Go ahead.  Covet that dinner.  Best fried chicken ever. We haven't eaten since then. Ha!

This is the weekend where we finished - wait, let me restate that - started and finished 99% of one of the biggest projects we've wanted to finish.  It took a good portion of Monday.  Pretty much the whole day. We are waiting for one picture to be done at the framing store. Then this project will be 100%  finished, and I will post photos of the finished project.  Because I know you're all dying to see it.  And you should be.  Because Eric is amazing.  And a little OCD about straight lines, which is why it took the whole day.  But, I'm not complaining because what he did looks incredible, if I do say so myself.

As if finishing one huge project wasn't enough, Eric did more than that.  It was a three day weekend but rather than just veg-ging (how do you spell that?) he worked a lot for me on our house.  He hung at least 30 pictures and Jameson's room is (finally, 14 months later) finished.

Sorry this picture is blurry, but I was stuck with my iPhone.  My camera battery died because I leave the camera on all the time.

And, he roasted a chicken.  Uh.maz.ing.

I'm not writing this post to make all you wives out there envious of my super-hero hubs.  The thing is, Eric is an awesome guy. a treasure. a true "catch." But, keeping with my recent theme . . . he's not perfect.  And neither am I (working on that perfectionist thing in me.  it's taken me a long time to get comfortable with the fact that I can't be perfect.)

We've faced heartache in our marriage.  Heart break at realizing that we are both sinners.  That we are going to hurt each other.  In ways big and small. And, when we do either (a) our worlds will fall apart or (b) we will press into Jesus and learn the true meaning of faith, hope and love. (eek - sounds like a bad Point of Grace song from the 90's . . . maybe you don't know who Point of Grace is.  I will just embrace my dorkiness and admit to being a Contemporary Christian Music nerd. I can't help it).

Seriously though, I just finished studying First Thessalonians this past week.  Talk about a treasure.  It is one of those little "T" letters in the back of the New Testament that I've skipped over countless times.   
In it, Paul writes to the young church at Thessalonica: "We continually remember before our God and Father your work produced by faith, your labor prompted by love, and your endurance inspired by hope in our Lord Jesus Christ.  (1 Thess. 1:3)."  Just like the Thessalonians, our work, labor and endurance (in our marriage and otherwise) are not prompted or rooted in a good heart or being a "good person." They are a direct result of the  faith, hope, and love which are a gift as "God has poured out his love into our hearts by the Holy Spirit, whom he has given." (Romans 5:5). He is the one who has convicted of us of our need for Him and drew us to Himself.

When Eric and I got married in 2004, it was the second marriage for both of us.  We both felt like this time we had it right.  We're good this time around.  We're more mature.  We've got it figured out. We've found the right person.  Um, pride issues?  What we've had to learn, especially this past year, is that Jesus is what makes this marriage work.  It's not us having figured things out, or finding the right person, or striving to be the perfect spouse.  "He [Jesus] is before all things, and in Him all things hold together" (Colossians 1:17), including each of us individually and our marriage.

When we face hard times, pain caused by each other, it is because of Jesus and his redemptive work on the cross that we can say "As for you, you meant evil against me, but God meant it for good." (Genesis 50:20). It might sound harsh, but there are times when Eric and I hurt each other and we definitely didn't intend it for good.  However, God intends to use even that yuck for good.  And we know "that in all things God works for the good of those who love him, who have been called according to his purpose." (Romans 8:28).

We've learned to love grief, heartache, and conflict because of the good that is inevitably on the other side. We can forgive each other.  Sometimes it seems crazy to me, the ability to forgive.  I often wonder how it is even possible. But that's because it is impossible.  Humanly impossible, anyway. But, as Jesus has invaded my heart and Eric's, we are given the power to see each other the way Christ sees us and love each other the way Christ does even when we are unworthy of it or have treated each other poorly. (And, Jesus knows full well (and so does Eric - ha!) that I am so unworthy). Paul prayed for the Thessalonians that the Lord would "make (their) love increase and overflow for each other and for everyone else." (1 Thess 3:12). I'm learning to pray that same thing for myself - that God would do this in me!

Through this hard year, we've learned how to fight.  I like to fight, I like conflict.  I guess there's a reason I went to law school, eh? Now Eric fights back.  Things get worked through, and the conflict is so good. We've experienced the Gospel in a tangible way. And, Eric leads me and this family to love Jesus better than ever.  He prays with me, he prays with our kids. We treasure and value what we have more than ever.

So, I am thankful for my husband.  He is a true super-hero hubs (super-hero who needs Jesus). I heart him. I mean, check out this cute tush.  What's not to love?

And he makes really cute babies.

Detox for Me, Detox for the House

Hmm - not sure why I'm blogging right now.  Wait.  Yes I do.  It is 11:00 on Monday night (see - started this post on Monday and I'm just now finally posting on Friday! It's been crazy around here - in a good way), and we are in the middle of  the most massive purge of our house. Ever.  Bags and bags and bags of garbage type of a purge.  And bags and bags and bags to UGM.  I mean this is insane.  Insane, I tell you.   But, Eric has taken a break to talk to his BFF, Paul.  (I just love that he has a BFF - they are so good for each other.)  So, I'm going to take a break to document that we did all of this cleaning.

This post is not about my two oldest when they were little.  I just put those pictures in because they are funny.  And, I know a lot of you really just want to see pictures of my kids.  And there aren't any others in this post.  Because this post is about the house detox.  I am trying to detox from the Christmas-sugar madness (yes, we have made salad for dinner every night this week.  yay us.)  And, now we are detoxing our house from the materialism madness.

The kids and I didn't leave the house much this past week.  They had the stomach flu.  Yes, all three of them.  At the same time. Uhthankyou.  For those of you who are keeping count (because aren't you all) that is three times that we've had the pukes here since August.   How does one family throw up this many times in four months?

Anyway - I have escaped the stomach bug - well for now anyway.  I guess it could still hit me but I didn't have it last week.  My point is that the kids were stuck on the couch.  So, I started cleaning and organizing.  And, I just couldn't stop.  Then Eric got in on the cleaning over the weekend.  Because we were pretty much stuck home all weekend.  And, he couldn't stop either.

I finally decided that everything that we don't use has to go.  I hate throwing things out.  It's like I freeze-up and think the kids might actually use that half-finished coloring book or eventually find the other half of the pieces that go to that puzzle (even though it hasn't happened in three years).

What was I thinking??? After 16 gigantic bags of garbage I'm exhausted, but my house contains way less stuff and I love it.  I'm on cloud nine.  I'm elated.  I'm ecstatic.  I just keep walking from room to room and opening drawers to admire how clean they are.  And leaving cupboards open just because they are organized.  Ha! My suburban is packed with its third load ready to take to the Mission.

(And, at the same time I'm kind of disgusted because how did we have this much stuff in our house, this much junk?   And, I'm not sure what we're teaching our kids about things, and the amount of toys/gadgets/stuff you need in life.  Something I'm giving a lot of thought to this year as we get organized and scale down and try to instill thankfulness in our children.  I'm not sure what exactly the Lord is doing in my heart with all of this, but it's something I'm praying through, wanting to know what He wants to show me.)

Now, when I said gigantic bags of garbage I meant this big.  Contractor size garbage bags:

Why yes - that is our Christmas tree (still up) in the background.  With a whole section of lights out.  Right after we finished decorating the tree, all of those lights went out.  And, we tried everything to fix them and nothing worked.  It is a pre-lit fake tree (oh, how un-Oregon of us) so we can't just take off the string of lights.  There was no way we were going to undecorate and get a new tree and redecorate.  So it was the year of the striped tree.

And we've been to IKEA twice now, Eric has built a ton of new furniture.  We finally replaced our broken bedroom furniture.  Our bed was broken, and my nightstand was lit-ra-lee falling apart.  We had piles and piles of books that needed shelf space.  I'm going to brag on my hubs for just a minute because he is amazing.  IKEA seems super-affordable when you are there and loading up all of the furniture.  Like, wow!  Really?  Only this much for that bedframe?  What?  But, they neglect to mention the price you pay in human sacrifice on those price tags.  Eric's poor hands. Blisters, cuts, bruises.  Since Saturday he has built 6 bookshelves, 2 nightstands, a giant dresser and a king-size bed.  This is totally a fuzzy picture - I forgot and left the flash on.  But, Eric built all of that furniture over the past few days.  Plus more that is in the kids' rooms.

Happy 2012 to us!  Now I think we'll take the rest of the year off.