Good afternoon!  My name is Lauren and I'm a grateful, recovering alcoholic/addict.  I used to be dying.  Now I am living. Ceasing to expect anything from tomorrow?  I wasn't expecting anything from today. Today I want as much as I can out of life, and want to get as much as I can out of tomorrow as well.  God gave me hope when I got sober. I had lost all hope in myself and everything about myself when I was drinking and using.  I didn't think I was worth anything.  I had almost given up on myself.  My family had not, and wouldn't let me.  They gave me the boost of confidence I needed to go to rehab which was the one thing I needed to get me back to the "real" me again.  Alcohol was poisoning me, killing me one day at a time.  And I want to live.  Today I spend time with my kids, we play outside.  I help with homework. I cook dinner, not just hotdogs, or mac and cheese. I am involved in AA, I chair meetings and such.  I want to see what tomorrow brings, so I make the most of today.  That's all I got.  Have a great one!  

Good morning!  My name is Lauren and I'm a grateful, recovering alcoholic/addict.  I think my rock bottom was, when I was lying in bed at 3 in the morning and I was out of alcohol and I was shaking and throwing up and just waiting for the gas station to open up so I could get some more vodka.  It was in January.  It was freezing out, snow on the groud.  I needed my vodka.  I was just lying there waiting...thinking it would be so much easier if I were dead.  No one would have to worry about me anymore.  No one would care.  I had life insurance, so the kids would be ok. Looking back now, I feel terrible.  Seeing how sick I really was, how bad the alcohol had taken over my life.  But that bottom is the foundation of my life now.  God is my rock.  God saw my through that and has brought me to where I am today.  And continues to guide me every day.  I can do all things through Christ who strengthens me.  My bottom may be different from your bottom, but I hit mine and don't want another one, and I'm sure if I went back out there and drank again, my bottom would be worse.  So I will just stay sober and enjoy my wonderful little life.  That's all I got for today.  Have a great one!     

Good afternoon! My name is Lauren ane I'm a grateful, recovering alcoholic/addict.  I have always wanted to have a lot of friends, but it took me a while to realize I needed to be a good friend for me to have good friends.  And I was going to have the kind of friends, I was.  If I was a shady friend, that's what I was going to get as well.  I had to be a good, true, honest, genuine, friend, if that't what I wanted to get.  And sure enough I got sober, and became a real friend, and got real friends.  Now I had real friends before too, but when I drinking, I wasn't as good of a friend. Today, I have friends, real friends, friends that are there for me.  Friends that support me through my recovery and help me through my struggles.  Friends I can call anytime I need to talk, even if it is at 2 a.m.  They are there for me to cry on their shoulder, as they are mine.  That's all I got for today. Have a great one!   

Good morning!  My name is Lauren and I'm a grateful, recovering alcoholic/addict.  There have been a lot of changes in some close people in my life, but that is life.  But when life closes a door, God opens a window, or maybe a bigger door.  There is also another quote a saw that I liked.  It said, Until God opens the next door for you, praise Him in the hallway.  I though that was cool.  Because not everything is in our time.  We want everything now.  If we lose a job. We want one the next day.  If we wreck a car, we want it fixed now.  We are impatient people.  (Well, maybe just me, but you know what I mean.)  But it is all in God's time.  But God will see you through.  God will take care of you. He has a purpose for you.  Just put your trust in Him and He wil carry you through.  I know it is easier said than done. And you have to work at it too.  If you lose a job, you can't just sit on your butt, and think one is just gonig to find you.  You have to put forth the effort, but also put your faith in God, and the right one will come along.  But stay positive.  Everything happens for a reason.  That's all I got for today.  Have a great one!  

Good afternoon!  My name is Lauren and I'm a grateful, recovering alcoholic/addict.  Today, I saw this verse and it stopped me in my tracks.  I had nothing more to say but Amen.  There are some days when Laney comes home from school and she has had a rough day and all I can do is listen to her and talk to her and hug her. I can't take away her pain.  I can't make kids be nice.  I won't be able to make the boys not break her heart.  Or stop best friends from back stabbing her. Same for Oli, girls will break his heart.  All I can do is pray.  I can talk with them, listen to them, hug them and love them.  I can share with them my experiences and how I dealt with them.  I wrote a lot.  That was my way of getting things out. I don't know if they will do that, but I can offer that option.  But I will pray, I know I will do that.  I know my parents did.  There are a lot of things I cannot do alone.  That I must put my trust in Him for.   To protect myself on a daily basis as well, not only my children but myself.  I need protection...physically, emotionally, spiritually, mentally, and in every way.  That's all I got for today!  Have a great one!  

Good afternoon!  My name is Lauren and I'm a grateful, recovering alcoholic/addict.  There are so many new people I have met in recovery.  I love having a story for how we have met...and remembering it.  I hate seeing someone out in public and knowing they look familiar, and having no idea how I know them.  Knowing it was from a party, but not knowing what happened.  I could have just seen them there,  talked to them, made out with them, or who knows what.  It's actually pretty pathetic when you really think about it.  Now, I'm not saying I don't know who anyone is, and I made out with every guy at every party, but you know what I mean.  But now I can remember how I meet people, and who they are.  I can have a real story of how I meet someone.  We meet people for either a blessing or a lesson.  It's either one or the other.  Sometimes in the beginning we think it is a blessing and ends up being a lesson.  I guess it's a matter of perception.  Well, that's all I have got today.  Have a great one!

Good afternoon!  My name is Lauren and I'm a grateful, recovering alcoholic/addict.  Don't give up.  Change is hard. and yes, the begininning is going to be the hardest.  But once you get going, it does get easier.  I remember when I was first getting sober, learning to do everything over...sober.  I had done everything for so long, drunk.  It was wierd doing things sober.  It was weird doing things sober.  Now this is terrible, but it was weird driving when I got home...sober.  Everything I had done before, I was always in a haze.  I was now clear headed.  Grocery shopping, I don't remember the last time I had gone grocey shopping, sober.   In the past few weeks, we have had a few people come back in the rooms, that have relapsed.  That has got to be a hard thing.  I am very proud of them for being able to come back though.  Some people don't come back.  But, don't give up, you can do it.  It is soooo worth it. Life is so much better being sober.  At least for me it is.  That's all I have for today!  Have a great one!

Good morning! My name is Lauren and I'm a grateful, recovering alcoholic/addict.  Words are a very impactful thing. They can help or hurt.  One word can make or break someone's day. They can inspire and they can destroy. Once they are spoken they can never be taken back.   I need to taste the words before they leave my lips.  I have been trying to think before I speak.  Before, I would just blurt out what came to my mind.  Sometimes I still do it, but I am trying to work on that on a daily basis.  I am getting better at it, but it I am a work in progress.  But being kind, and letting someone know how I feel is more important to me now.  I am trying to be less selfish.  I am not perfect, and still do think about me, but am trying focus on others not myself.  The world does not revolve around Lauren.  And I do feel better when I do things for others, and I know others feel good when I do something for them, so say something kind, so I will continue to do so.  Be kind, and say something nice to someone today. That's all I got for today!  Have a great one!  

Good morning!  My name is Lauren and I'm a grateful, recovering alcoholic/addict.  When I was drinking/using, there were different stages of my fear.  In the beginning, I had no fear.  Before I was married, I lived a more risky life, using and selling.  I could do what I wanted, but I hid from everything, by drinking and using.  Was it that I had no fear or did I have no care?  I was living in a fantasy world, not thinking anything bad could ever happen to me.  I didn't think I would ever get caught.  Then friends started ODing and dying.  Boyfriends were going to prison for years. I should have been there too.  But I just kept on going.  I would not answer my phone iif it was a number I didn't know, because I knew it was a medical bill.  Today, I am paying back $1000's of dollars that I wish I would have at least made payments on then.  But that was one of the decisions I made then, and that is one the consequenses I am paying for now. I was living in fear all the time, I was hiding alcohol everywhere, hoping no one would find it.  Driving around drunk all the time, or at least have been drinking.  Always fearing someone would find out.  Fear was a daily reality.  And I should have a healthy fear now to face everything and rise instead of the previous alternative of forget everything and run.  I have learned the differences of the two.  So now I can put one foot in front of the other and not take a drink today.  I can do the next right thing today. That's all I got for today. Have a great one!  

Good afternoon!  My name is Lauren and I'm a grateful, recovering alcoholic/addict. When I first got sober, I wanted to change everything and I wanted to change it now.  I wanted everything to be perfect, and great and happy and normal, and that was just unrealistic.  It was not going to happen overnight.  I had to be patient. I had all these ideas of what I wanted to do, and how I wanted to change, and how I wanted to feel.  Where I wanted to go, what I wanted to do.  Getting sober opened so many doors for me, I didn't know where to start.  I had to slow down, and do one thing at a time.  That's all I could do.  One thing at a time. I was trying to overwhelm myself.  But looking back before I got sober, thinking to the GETTING sober part, I thought of how much my life I would have to change, and that scared me. but that was the alcohol talking, and because it would be denying that of itself.  Once I took that away, I had so much more to look at.  Change is scary for any of us, in any part of our lives, work, school, anything. And it doesn't come easy, but it is inevitable.  Things are always bound to change.  And we must get used to that. And at times we must make those changes, for the better, even if they are hard changes.  That's all I have for today. Have a great one!