Successful Yard Sale

After the horrible weather we had on Thursday evening and the rain on Friday, Andrea and I were praying that the weather predictions for a beautiful Saturday would hold true. They did...except that the beautiful warm sunny part of Saturday showed up about the time we closed up shop on our Yard Sale. It was successful. The grand total was around $340...which was more than I was expecting. We sold almost all of our large items and made a dent in the clothes. Now all the left-overs are either at Goodwill or the clothes closet at my church. I forgot my camera, but Andrea took some pictures before and after! I have never seen so many stuffed animals. About noon my mom came by to see how we were doing and we were talking and I said..."I know what we should been doing...'A free stuffed animal with every purchase' campaign". By then it was too late! Oh well...those stuffed animals will live on in many other homes.
When I get the pictures from Andrea, I'll post them on here.

I'm planning on moving my Christmas, camping and other few things into my storage room today...because according to the weather-woman...rain for Tuesday-Thursday!

Happy Spring!

Proven Once Again Why He's my favorite

Cough...Cough - Too much JUNK!

My sister and I are having a Yard Sale next weekend. When she moved to her house in December, a lot of her "sale" items went to my mini-storage. We discovered last week that she has an issue with keeping things for WAY TOO LONG! Some of the clothes we found in her containers were from high school...8-10 years old. She also kept pretty much all the clothes Camryn has worn in the 6 years of her life!
Last weekend we tackled many boxes of clothes and priced them. We went out to the mini-storage and got overwhelmed when we opened the door at the sheer amount of junk that we have been holding on to for years. However, because we were overwhelmed we got a couple of boxes and left...resorting to going through the storage this weekend.
Well, since the forecast is for rain this weekend and it was warm and sunny here yesterday, I went out and tackled the storage room. Pulled everything out and started at the back pricing items and then put it all back in there. So now we can load up a trailer next Friday night and move all that stuff to Andrea's for the Yard Sale.
This was therapy for Andrea as she has vowed not to keep stuff she doesn't need anymore! YAHOO! I have never been a "pack-rat" so this was music to my ears! This is my favorite thing about moving, throwing away junk and trash and getting rid of things that have become useless to me, but someone else can use.
I'm planning to take pictures of all the Yard Sale festivities next weekend. So I'll make sure to post about that!

A Time for Healing

Blogs are a view of what is going on in the life of the writer of the blog. I have over the past year or so, kept you up on the happenings in our lives (or at least the happy happenings). So this post is going to take a different turn. At this point in my life, I am going through a healing process. So this post is going to be some "therapy" for me.

For about 6 years, my husband has been in the throws of alcohol addiction. This has caused much emotional and financial pain for our marriage. He has had legal trouble, been in the detox unit of the hospital (several times), been in outpatient treatment and one 30-day stay in a residential facility (October 2007). After this 30-day stay, he did really well on working the 12-step program, going to meetings and obtaining a sponsor. However, he went to make amends with a friend (who is an alcoholic as well) and he picked up the beer and drank it. That lead to a few more episodes of drinking. These were usually one night and then clean for 8-10 days. About 2 weeks ago, he had a time of drinking for 4 days. During this time I had a long visit with our pastor. He just let me vent, cry, talk it out. I had finally come to a point that I needed to step out of God's way so that HE alone could get to John's heart. You see as a wife of an alcoholic, I had been trying to "fix" him and things. I had to come to my "bottom" and decide to let God work in this situation.

I approached John about going to long-term treatment (6-12 months). We had talked about this before and he was not ready to commit to that length. I let him know that I was at the point that I could not "live" this life anymore. He needed long-term treatment for himself and I needed the time for myself to recover.

Last Wednesday, March 12th, we drove to a facility in Texas that is a Christian treatment facility. The program is 6 months and there is after-care/work program after that time that he can participate in as well.

Our pastor preached on John 15 a couple of Sunday's ago. That is the reason I changed the name of my blog to "Learning to Abide in Him". That is what I am focusing on during this season of my life - Abiding in Him...letting Him flow through me to produce much fruit.

I ask that as my blog friends that you would send up prayers for me and this healing process I am in. Also, send up a prayer for John - a prayer that God will get to the root of John's heart and break away the selfishness, pride and rebellion and rebuild him to the NEW CREATURE that he is in Christ.

Thanks for "listening" to me as I put out this personal information. I know that I need all the prayer warriors I can get during this time.

PrimeTime Dance Competition

This past weekend Camryn had another dance competition. This one was spread out a little more.

Friday Night - Solo "I'm Cute" - 1st Place award - Here are the pictures captured by the local newspaper photographer that covered the event on Friday night. She nailed this performance. She did not have any nervousness and she did great! The judges comments were very complementary and gave her some technical pointers to work on.

Saturday - Trio "Chocolatte" - 1st Place award - Good critques from the judges. One judge said “Ms. Blue is getting with it..she really knows this dance…y’all need to stick with her” then later when Cam moves up he said “Ahhhh, putting Ms. Blue in front”.

Sunday -

"Chapel of Love" - Large Group Tap - 1st Place award and #4 out of the Top 5 for Petite Large Group

"Ice Ice Baby" - Large Group Hip-Hop - 1st Place award and #2 out fo the Top 5 for Petite Large Group

Here are a few pictures of Camryn in her Ice Ice Baby costume.

Another competition in St Louis in 3 weeks. I will not be attending but if there are pictures, I'll post them here on the blog.

Life Trumps Choice

This is an issue that is very highly debated. I found this link to BlogHer site from Rocks In My Dryer (another blog I check daily). Wow! Shannon does a great job stating why she is Pro-Life.
Check it out!
http://www.blogher.com/why-im-pro-life#readmore

Showbiz Dance Competition

This is Camryn's second year to dance as a Company Dancer at Ms. Karen's Dance Studio. This year she is in two large group numbers, a trio and a solo. Here are some pictures of the little dancer from the competition this weekend.

Trio "Chocolatte" - the girls (Addie Gracie in lime; Tess in hot pink; Camryn in tourquoise) won a 1st place trophy and were 7th overall of their age group in duets/trios.

Large Group - "Chapel of Love"




"Ice Ice Baby" - No photos available. I'm not sure why we didn't get a picture of her in that outfit, because it is the cutest of all! Oh well, she has another competition in 3 weeks and I'll try to get a picture then.


Solo - "I'm Cute" - 1st Place trophy
I call this "Dance Competition Wipeout" - What happens after spending 13 hours at a dance competition on Saturday (including dancing 3 numbers), not getting but about 5-6 hours of sleep, getting up and dancing a solo for the first time on Sunday morning:

Her entourage (Momma, Nana, Pawpaw, Aunt Alison and Uncle John) felt like this but most of us had to drive home!