Barbados Part II - The Wedding

There is nothing more beautiful to us, in this season of our lives, than to be present at a wedding. This wedding was super special. I was able to see my brother (one of my best friends) marry the love of his life, a woman that cherishes his heart and finds joy in being around him. Thanks for being such a fantastic couple, Chase and Jackie. We are so thankful for you both.

Barbados Part II - The Wedding from Whitney Todd on Vimeo.

Music from this video: Evolve by Bosc

This Week in the Todd Family... Oh yea, and our Finished Bedroom

It's finally here. Our bedroom transition #35... or something like that.

Finished Room from Whitney Todd on Vimeo.

This Week in the Todd Family:

Papa is BACK! He came home yesterday and we welcomed him home with a nice crockpot full of beef stew and cornbread. Thanks to a friend in my core group at Community Bible Study (and Julia Child), the beef was deliciously tender... not to mention all of the other secret tips my mom has taught me about cooking an awesome meal and beautiful presentation. Papa looks good - he has color in his face but still seems to be a little weak. Overall, he's 99% back to our Papa. :)

JD's dad, Mr. Jim, went to the hospital Sunday night after they got back from Theresa's wedding with a painful and terribly swollen knee. The doctors drew out the fluid and he should be going home today.

My parents (Mama E and Mr. Reid) are doing well... just getting ready for a spooky weekend at the Adams Family Home. Hopefully, dad and I will get to carve our annual Halloween pumpkin.

Theresa and Brandon will be coming home today from their honeymoon so we're expecting some exciting stories from them later this evening.

Chase is doing some awesome blogging so check out The Chase Scene if you have yet to do so. Jackie visited her sister in Virginia last weekend and is back safely, working on a pretty cool event which you may have heard of... The American Cancer Society joining up with Dancing with the Stars. Yeah. It's super awesome.

Finally, JD and I are celebrating our FIVE MONTH anniversary - BOY! Has it flown by! We woke up this morning and had bacon, biscuits and coffee. I'm not quite sure what the plans are for tonight... maybe some beef stew leftovers and The Last Samurai (latest Netflix movie that has come in) all by candlelight. :) Moments are what you make of it. When you're newlyweds on a small budget, you definitely have to learn to make moments like that super special. We wouldn't have it any other way though.

Above is a photo that our friend

Robyn Sutton

took and edited. I love this vintage/antique look. :)

New Friends, Splash Mountain, Eatonton & Debit Cards


In honor of receiving our new debit cards from our local Eatonton bank that have pictures of Brer Rabbit, Brer Fox and Brer Bear adorning them... we wanted to share with you a pretty cool history lesson. You might remember Splash Mountain at Disney World, the movie "Song of the South", the song "Zip-a-dee-doo-dah" or maybe even The Uncle Remus stories your mom read to you in bed at a young age. Surprisingly enough, all of these derived in some form or another from an author that lived in Eatonton, Ga.

On July 20, 1879 an undersized thirty-year-old journalist from Atlanta known as Joe Harris began a journey from relative obscurity to interregional fame. On that day, the Atlanta Constitution published the young copy editor's "Story of Mr. Rabbit and Mr. Fox as told by Uncle Remus." Within months, magazines across the country were reprinting his tales, and after more than 1,000 written requests for a collection, the first Uncle Remus book was published in November, 1880.
[Taken from the Uncle Remus website.]
JD and I have yet to visit the Uncle Remus museum but we hope to very soon! When we do, you better believe we'll be posting a video about it. :) We're also hoping to visit Dubble Bubble acres in Madison soon too.

In the meantime, here's our video footage from the Taste of Eatonton, an introduction to our little town and to our new friends John and Robyn.


Also, Brandon and Theresa's wedding was AMAZING this weekend in Tupelo, Mississippi. It is so beautiful when two believers come together as one in the name of Christ. Gosh, we love marriage and all that it entails.


Music Choice: She Knows Her Way Around by Act of Congress
*We used this song because this was John & Robyn's first dance song at their wedding. :)

Weekend Update

We've had very busy weekends!! JD went to Tupelo for his soon-to-be brother-in-love's bachelor party weekend (it was tame, don't worry) and I stayed in Georgia to host Theresa's (JD's sister) bachelorette party weekend at All Fired Up in Atlanta. I made some His and Hers "mocha mugs." :) We both had amazing weekends but prior to the weekend, we were DREADING it because of the mere fact that this past weekend set the date of the first night we spent apart from each other since May 29. Ugh. I thought that I would be tossing and turning all night with nightmares, but the Lord really saw me through it and instead gave me some pretty pleasant dreams. (If you don't know me very well, I have a tendency to have some pretty vivid nightmares so it's not out of the norm.) Gosh, it was such a joy to see him drive up last night. Fortunately, I had some chocolate covered cheesecake and strawberries left over from Theresa's party so we celebrated our return into each other's arms with some delicious dessert!

If you're married, do you remember the first night you spent away from your spouse and all of the emotions you experienced? If so, we'd love to see a comment from you below. :)

Thankfully, I stayed at my parents' home Friday night so I wasn't completely alone. I would have had a terrible time sleeping at the cabin by myself. Why, you ask? The blinds probably would've fallen down and I wouldn't have been able to get them back up... just like this video.

Falling Blinds from Whitney Todd on Vimeo.



In other news, prayer is immensely powerful. Thank you for all of your sweet prayers for my grandparents. Papa is still in the hospital but we're hoping that he will be coming home this week. Please, please continue to be praying for them. They need A LOT of rest!!

The Fall Wreath.

Last Wednesday, my Gingin needed to drive to Milledgeville to go to Belk. And who doesn't love/want a shopping partner!? I didn't have any money to spend of course, but she really wanted to get JD and me a fake autumn bouquet at Wal-Mart so that we could revamp the wreath hanging beside our door. I thought this would be a great project for us to do together. However, she took my Papa to the hospital Thursday and they are still there highly anticipating on figuring out what in the heck is going on with his body, but we're hoping they will be pleasantly surprised with the wreath and all of the un-read newspapers sitting in Papa's comfy leather chair when they arrive back home.

WAY more than a side note: Please continue praying for our Papa. Pray that the doctors will be able to find out what the problems are and that the procedures to take care of them will be painless and will have very very few side effects, if any! Also, as wives know, please be praying for our Gingin. She lost her grandmother in July and now she's having to see her husband in pain. She is the strongest woman I know and she's determined that the Lord will be faithful during this time. In this circumstance, once again, we belittle God if we don't believe that His healing grace will prevail; and she, thus far, has never experienced a time when that Truth did not ring true. :)

So here is the video of JD and me putting together our new Fall Wreath! We hope it inspires you to add some autumn-loveliness to your front porch too.

Fall Wreath from Whitney Todd on Vimeo.



Music in this video: This Side by Nickel Creek

DIY: From Shed to Closet

Well, here's our finished closet!!!... well, we will never "finish" it but it's finished with the main touches. We will be posting our finished paint job/moving in of the different furniture next week.


In other news, JD's life is amazing. God is seriously rocking both of our worlds right now. JD got his first paycheck two weeks ago and he is really helping to build TechKnow Gurus (the company he is working for). He had some offers to apply at other places but he doesn't want to leave the area... or the company. He has the heart of a "Guru" now. He's the most dedicated and faithful man I know. :)

In my life, gosh. God is so good. JD told Bo Fowler (area director of Fellowship of Christian Athletes around here) to be praying for me because if I don't have just one thing to focus on, I try to take over the world basically. Haha - so Bo suggested that I work with FCA in the area. Little did we know, God had already started planning it all out. After tons and tons of other "God Moments", Bo presented the idea to the FCA Area Board last night that we have a need. A need for a female to be in a position to minister to the other female students, coaches and coaches' wives in the area. They whole-heartedly approved the new position of the full-time Female Area Staff Member. Praise the Lord! Seriously. He is the only One to praise in all of this because His hand has been ALL OVER IT!! However, before I can be placed on staff, I have to raise 75% of the funds -- probably somewhere between $25,000. Or rather, God will PROVIDE those funds. We have complete trust and faith, knowing that God is all in this. It sounds like so much money, but we would be completely belittling God if we didn't have faith in know that He will provide because He is a MIGHTY and LIVING God. :)

Just as God is all over it, we know that the enemy will be too. Please please be praying for our marriage, our hearts, our determination and our dependability... for them to all be completely founded and buckled into the Heart of Christ.

Sprinkling a Little Summer Into Fall

This video was taken August 31, 2010, before all of this BEAUTIFUL CHILLY WEATHER started coming in. So before the Fall comes in full force, we wanted to share the gloriousness of Lake Oconee with yall from a jet-skiers point of view. One reason we love living on the lake, besides the million other reasons, is that there is nobody else on the lake during the week. It really is amazing. Don't worry. As with all vids, we include some more wildlife in this one. :)

In other news, our closet is FINISHED!! Wahoo!! We also painted one of our walls a deep chocolate brown. Most people would think we're crazy and too risky, but we love taking design risks... and we think this risk was well worth it. Gosh, we cannot wait to share that video with yall!


Song in this video: The Great Salt Lake - Band of Horses

The Proverbial Proposal

Today marks the one year anniversary from when JD so sweetly proposed to me on a Wednesday evening... literally in the middle of 200 screaming sorority girls. :) We have a couple of other videos ready to post for yall but I thought it would be most appropriate to give yall the opportunity to journey through this perfect night with us.

Google Chrome and Arcade Fire Team Up... What!? Yes. So Excited. :)

Good Morning Everyone!!

We just wanted to share this super awesome link with y'all that our friend Shannon Donelson shared via Facebook. Click here for the Wilderness Downtown and make sure that you put your childhood address because you might start crying. :)

The Wilderness Downtown
www.thewildernessdowntown.com
Check out Arcade Fire's new interactive HTML5 music experience, “The Wilderness Downtown”.