I wrote 4 posts at once. You'll have to read 4 posts back in order not to miss anything. Of particular interest to me are the posts from August 22-26 and September 5 & 6.

September 9-12, 2010

Yard Sale and Cape Girardeau, MO

I've been trying to sell our king-sized bed for many months. I've tried different avenues such as Facebook Marketplace and Craig's List. I even tried giving it away once but it seemed we'd be stuck with it forever. Bobby and I loved the luxury of a king bed but because we decided to exchange bedrooms with our daughters, the kind just didn't fit comfortably in the smaller bedroom we moved to. So the little girls were sleeping on the king. If Grace didn't do better in her own bed with padded rails, there'd be plenty of room for her in that bed too. Finally, Bobby suggested we have a yard sale in September and he was confident we'd sell that bed. We also discussed going ahead and selling some other furniture that we've had for years, is outdated hand-me-downs, and really needed to go.

So at 5:00 AM on Thursday morning, the 9^th, we stumbled around carrying furniture outside. We began welcoming customers at 7:00 and by 7:30 we had probably 2/3 of our furniture sold! By Thursday afternoon we had sold all of our furniture except an old painted dresser, (It's so old it used to belong to then bachelor, Robby McGee when he lived in a single-wide trailer!) and what else...the king-sized bed. It rained all day Friday so we kept everything covered up or inside. Saturday turned out to be beautiful but since we had pretty much made up our minds the yard sale was over, it didn't dawn on me until 9:00 that I should put the yard sale signs back up and set at least a part of the king bed out in the driveway. We were getting ready to hit the road by noon so we weren't paying much attention to the driveway and watching for customers.

But finally at 11:00 or 11:30, someone knocked on our door and my heart took the chance on hoping one more time. Sure enough, an older gentleman took that bed and gave us $100 for it. It's not what I had been asking but we wanted that bed GONE!

We had an easy drive to Cape Girardeau, Missouri and checked in at my favorite hotel chain, the Drury Suites. If you know anything about the Drury, you know they offer not only the complimentary hot breakfast, but also a good-sized evening snack called the "5:30 Kick-back" featuring baked potatoes and toppings, hot dogs, chicken wings or tenders, nachos, salad, cut veggies, soft drinks, tea and coffee!

While we were enjoying the evening snack (dinner) downstairs, Pastor Ken Strong from Father's Arms Fellowship in Scott City came in to check on us and join us at our table. We had a great time of fellowship for about an hour and we spoke with anticipation about the upcoming service in the morning.

We had a great service the next morning and it culminated to an altar call and then finally ended with Pastor Ken singing a duet with Bobby. They served a wonderful large lunch after church in the fellowship hall and then we were on our way back to our hotel room where I did something VERY unusual. I took a NAP!!! That never happens on Sunday afternoons these days! But it did that day.

We drove back toward the Scott City exit and this time turned right off the exit toward Chaffee where we sang that evening at Chaffee First Baptist Church. Another very young pastor leads the congregation here.

It was a joy to sing and speak to this welcoming congregation and we felt even more at home when Pastor Ken and his family walked in. Pastor Lucien and his precious wife from the East Cape Girardeau church where we sang in June were there as well. Actually, the pastor's wife from Chaffee First Baptist attended that concert in June and she encouraged her husband to have us come to their own church.

Upon arrival back at the hotel we promptly grabbed a couple of bags of popcorn from the lobby on the way up to the room and got settled in bed. But the lights wouldn't go out until the Titans game was over.

I enjoyed a workout and my quiet time in the fitness center the next morning and we made another easy drive back home.