It’s been so long since I’ve blogged I may or may not have forgotten how… I’ve been trying to figure out what happened that suddenly halted the desire to write, but I don’t know if it really matters. What DOES matter is that I’m still here – and I just may be ready to jump back in. I hope there are some of you still around to actually read this…
I need to just get somethings out and then I’ll get to the more serious postings later -
- My baby girl turned 1! I can hardly believe it – but on June 28th, we celebrated Rylee Lyric’s birthday! We had a wonderful time with some amazing friends, a GORGEOUS cake and a pretty darn good photographer…
- We sold our house! YAY! We are so thankful for a quick sale – only on the market for a month and we got a great price for it and a relatively smooth transaction. Shane and Christie Register will Coldwell Banker did a fantastic job selling it for us – thanks, guys! I am a firm believer in STAGING YOUR HOUSE before you list it for sale. I think we have personally proven that this works (our last home sold in 7 days without a realtor!). I promise I will do a separate post on my tips and tricks for a quick sale. Anyway…we move into our amazing new home next week! I am obsessed with Hagood Homes – this is our 2nd home built by this wonderful company and let me just say that they have been unbelievably and uncommonly wonderful to work with. Every detail is attented to with such care and they have truly gone above and beyond in the customer service department. (thanks, Andrea!) I’ll have more to say about them later, too… I can’t wait to post some pics of the new place and to have some super fun parties!
- I went back to work! When Rylee was born, I decided to take an extended maternity leave and it has been just what I needed. I have really enjoyed taking time away to be with my children and I know that they are my first priority and my first ministry responsiblity. I cherish every moment I have with them and Don and have felt so blessed to have been able to take this time. But – I know that the Lord has been leading me back to work and I am really excited about what He has planned. Last week, I went back to the office two days a week to work in the creative art’s department at Rock Church again. Because I have been and will still be leading GAFA, I know that I can not feasibly do both full time on a permanant basis. Both jobs deserve and require more time than I will be able to give to them. So we will see who the Lord leads us, but for now…. I’m back!
- GAFA is rocking and rolling! Last Spring, we made the decision to turn Glory Academy into a “free tuition” Fine Art’s school. What a HUGE step of faith for us, but God is proving Himself faithful and the response has been so amazing! We are still in the process of securing a large portion of our yearly budget, but the community response has been so wonderful – classes are filling up and we are hearing from so many how this will be their ONLY opportunity to give their families quality education in the arts and I am so honored to be able to offer this to our community. We are going to have an incredible year! If you want to partner with us as a financial contributor please let us know! All contributions are tax deductible. Just give us a call at 910-602-5302 or e-mail us at info@gloryfinearts.com. That’s all for now – there is a TON more I need to blog about – trying to not be afraid to open the floodgates again… !
This past weekend was GAFA’s production of “Psalms”. Sooooooooo much work went into putting this together and everything was just perfect! I seriously have the best staff on the planet and I am so proud of them for all of their HOURS of hard work. They are not only a great staff, they are my dear friends and I am blessed to have them in my life. I will post pics of the show as soon as Matthew gets some edited for us. But before I do that, I wanted to take this post just to let these amazing women know how much I adore and love them! You ladies are the best and I am so thrilled to have you on board with what God is doing at GAFA!.
Wow – I didn’t realize how long it had been since I posted anything. Shame on me…. 
We are in Durham, NC with some of our dancers from Glory Fine Arts at the Dance Revolution Conference. This is an amazing event for our students – they leave exhausted, but they work so hard and are encouraged and ministered to by some incredibly talented and anointed dancers. It’s a crazy weekend, but so worth it. Here are a few pictures from last night and this morning…
Junior/Senior Audition Class
Denae transforming into Cindy LooHoo for the Dance Party
Mrs. Casey and Jessica ready for the Dance Party
"Alternate Angle"
"Blockbuster Bash Dance Party"
Melanie in the Instructors Class This Morning
We had a fabulous time in Nashville last weekend – we took 30 students, GAFA staff and parent chaperones 12 hours away to hold workshops for “Peculiar Dance” School of the Arts at The River at Music City. For two days, the students worked their little tails off in ballet, pointe, tap, jazz, modern, Hebrew and choreography. Melanie, Casey, Destiny and Grace all did an amazing job with the girls (and Noah Now we’re in Dallas at the C3 conference at Fellowship Church – learning so much and being challenged every minute. I’ll post later about that. In the meantime, here are some pics from the Nashville trip. (courtesy of Matthew Ray – thanks, Matthew!)
We started out at Centenial Park and took some great shots of our GAFA girls…
This one was at the Red Caboose Park with the girls from both studios…
Destiny’s Conditioning Class – ouch!
Mrs. Melanie’s Conditioning Class for the babies…
Grace: “You want me to do WHAT?”
Kristen, you are amazing!
Casey’s Pointe Class
We’re in Winston Salem with about 20 of our dancers and a bunch of moms and staff for the 2007 Dance Revolution Conference. What a great event…world class instructors and hundreds of dancers have invaded the hotel in down town Winston and we are having a blast! The girls are working so hard and are exhausted after just the first half day – but it’s all worth it. They will leave this place having learned so much and been exposed to so much great talent in the Kingdom of God.
Here is a glimpse at their schedule – makes me tired just to look at it!
This was in the seniors ballroom this morning – their ballet class…
Last night they had a dance party with a futuristic theme. Everyone dressed up in costume…these two are some of the DR staff… I’m sure the hotel staff will be looking for these lamp shades today.
These are three of our girls – Hannah, Jessica and Haley. They were called up on the stage for having one of the best costumes. They won last year, too for their interpretation of Fred and Wilma for the “Back In Time” Theme. (our girls are so creative!)
Our dancers are the best! We have so much fun… this is (from left) Madison, Natalie, Felicia, Victoria and Denae.
OK – so this last one I just couldn’t resist. His face has been blurred to protect his identity. (and because he was dancing so crazily that my camera wouldn’t focus) This was in the teacher’s ballroom (classes for studio teachers, not DR instructors…) (Lynne and I think this is Cameron in 20 years if there isn’t an intervention.)
See you all when I get back!
