Great Read

I gave Ryan this book for Christmas and he read it in the car on the way home from Wisconsin. I was interested enough to take it to AZ with me last weekend and had plenty of time in airports and on airplanes to finish this story. Tim's life was dedicated to the Lord before he was ever concieved, by parents' who loved the Lord and put Him first in their lives. It wasn' that he was born a superstar, he was born into a family who knows God and raised their 5 children to put Him first in their lives as well. Tim's work ethic and moral compass are what has led him to have a HUGE platform to share the message of faith and family. I'm thankful for his story and his faith walk in front of millions of people, many who are critics. All of us don't have this kind of platform, but we all have a circle of influence that we should be lifting toward the Lord.

SURPRISE!

ONE OF THE BEST moments of Spring Break was when Richard surprised Erin for her 15th birthday! She was NOT expecting him to be at our lunch spot and to bring roses was a special touch. Of course, every one of the 60 people from our group received a FUN DIP in honor of Erin's birthday. I may be the usual birthday party hostess but Richard knows how to throw a party on the road!

As a point of interest, Erin has spent 7 of her 15 birthdays at Mission Arlington. Very cool.

My first trip to ARIZONA

The week after my event, I worked for three days preparing our house for showing and while finishing up a few sale details and going to 3 ballgames 5 of us began getting ready to leave for a week on Spring Break. The day after I get home from Spring Break, I flew to Phoenix to help a new franchise owner with her first event. What a wonderful trip! Arizona, what I saw of it outside the store, was so clean and pretty. I told Richard it felt so good outside, if I lived there I would even want to exercise! That's something I wouldn't say lightly! The event was going great, and I loved my time there.

Kyla and Shellee!

Mission Arlington

Last year Sheridan, Richard and I missed the Spring Break trip to Arlington because my Broken Arrow event was the following week, and Richard had missed too much work training for his new job. It was hard not being with our kids and serving in a place we love to serve.

This year Sheridan and I headed off with the girls. Ryan went with the high school choir on a once-in-a-lifetime trip to NYC and Richard had work on both weekends around the week. He surprised Erin on Wednesday for her birthday in Arlington. Had an interview in Irving on Thursday morning, and then hung out with us until Friday when Sheridan and I rode home with him. It was a great week. I loved the mix of college kids and jr high and high school students. We also stayed at a new location which was a fresh look for us all. One of Sheridan's friends came with her mom too and it was especially fun for the two 8 year olds to hang out with all the older kids and help in the apartment complexes with the families we were serving as well.

 Erin getting a Spanish lesson from our new friend Brittany.

Making sandwiches each morning...part of what makes the week glamorous.

BEST READ

My dear friend Becky gave me this book last month and I started it while we were on our Spring Break trip. I LOVED every word of this true story told by Katie Davis, a 21 year old who lives in Uganda and has a tremendous story of faith to tell. She has found the very thing God made her for. She has  "given up" the American life for what anyone would call extreme difficulty and opressive poverty. However, she calls her life incredibly blessed and a tribute to God's wonderful grace. Her words are inspiring and her life is like a Bible story where God uses the ordinary in a crazy way, to follow Him and live out His plan.

I am so impressed with her life and also am personally challenged to live out God's command to LOVE. Simply LOVE. It was great timing to read it on our mission trip as I was challenged by the words: "There really shouldn't be any thing called a 'mission trip' for a Christian because we are called to share the Gospel ALL of the time."

It's been one crazy week. May I not just be a hearer of the Word, but a doer as well.

Blessed with Friends...and co-workers

I didn't know one of these girls before I began my events, now I'm blessed to call them not only Leaders, but friends. They each add special gifts to our event. All of them help me run our events smoothly! I'm so thankful.

Back row: Darla (Rsvl), Rhonda (Rsvl), Maranda (Dardanelle), Nauscha (Havanna), Ashlea (London), Monica (Atkins)
Middle row: Julie (Morrilton), Andrea (Rsvl), Chrissy (Rsvl), Candace (Clarksville), Amber (Rsvl), me
Front Row: Rachel (Economy!), Jaci (Rsvl), Jennie (Dover)

Soccer season

We're watching Lauren and Erin play CHS soccer this year! It's fun to cheer for them both as Erin earned a spot on the varsity team! I made this shirt for Sheridan...it's not straight, and it's not perfect, but it's great for us!

Rhea Lana's of Russellville - SPRING!

Selling Broken Arrow three weeks before my Russellville event was awesome because I could focus on my event and not worry about what was or wasn't happening in Oklahoma. HOWEVER,  I made 3 big errors before we ever started! 1) I ordered the big postcards (double cost),  2) I forgot to put my phone number on those 7000 cards, and 3) I put the incorrect address on the cards. AND THEN as we were checking in the first consignors I realized I forgot to order shopping bags. I only had about 500 in storage! After the sale I was short checks by 110! 

I overcame the shopping bags by ordering from a quick delivery company and getting them in on Monday in time to not ever really run out. I also handwrote the last 110 checks, and was thankful I had all the small checks to write!

If that wasn't enough to put me under, another source of stress was the fact that Suddenlink really put us off about getting our phone lines in and they FINALLY installed them at 12:30 on Pre-Sale day. We coudn't have taken any credit cards without them...it was a potentially HUGE issue that was resolved 30 minutes after my first group came in and were up and running by the time they wanted to check out. (Whew!) 

We had right at 40,000 items and around 420 consignors. Despite my amateur mistakes and lack of good organizing, it was a wonderful event! I'm so thankful Richard was in town all but a day and a half of my event. He can take care of so many things for me, run errands and give me a peace when he's at the store. My leaders were awesome and I have some of the most wonderful and loyal volunteers ever. I'm thankful for how God works at our events and that I was able to handle the stress this event much better than last season. God provided a real sense of peace even in the midst of chaos and planning mistakes.  

Soccer season

These girls are so fun! This picture is from before one of their first home games. This is small town living at it's best. 4 girls in the neighborhood on the same team...riding to and from practices and games together. (Sure am glad Lexi and Arie have cars!)

Early Spring

March 1st and the flowers are blooming! The trees have already budded and the weather is warm and not getting colder. I love the seasons...and it looks like we've made it through winter without any snow to speak of.