2009

It's my next to last day at the CDC (not center for disease control, although sometimes...) anyways I was playing Bejeweled Blitz and began thinking "What if you only thought about the 'bad' things that happened to you this year?" So I decided to lay them out then challenge them with the greatness:

Meh or Bad
1. I have PCOS (insulin resistance)
2. Another year w/o a baby
3. MeMe went to assisted living
4. Miss my family
5. Miss my friends
6. Mingus ran away
7. Had a rough job most days
8. Didn't lose much weight this year
9. Took a large paycut
10. Moved from my house (unsold) to tiny apt. (1 bathroom and small closet)


Great things:
1. Moved to NC (weather is great!)
2. Made lots of friends
3. Saw Dr. Peacock who diagnosed PCOS and has a plan
4. Lost a little weight
5. Mingus came home and goes to puppy school
6. Had a job
7. Got a new job(s)
8. Was able to visit home a lot
9. Live near Myrtle Beach - got to go once!
10. Learned to live on less (space and money)
11. I'm no longer responsible for carrying the insurance!
12. Tim is happy @ work
13. Time to read - (more than fiction)
14. VBS!
15. Variety
16. Living in a big city
17. Time to bake!
18. QT with Tim (no grad school)
19. Visits from Fam and Friends
20. Charlotte One
21. SNOW!!!
22. Mountain trip!
23. Working with College students (youth and children)
24. Paid off some debt
25. Sending Care packages
26. Adam will be near us while at lutherie school
27. So many close states
28. Dog parks - Reedy Creek
29. Adventure

My list really could go on. I know people get down in the winter, so maybe they should make lists. I'm a list maker, from to-do lists to pro/con lists. They always make me feel better. The great things that have happened to you this year far out weigh the negative. The most simply being you lived another year. God has provided for you for another year. I know a lot of people lost jobs and things got tight, but you made it there was a new tomorrow and maybe you got to volunteer somewhere, maybe you got to know others w/o jobs. Maybe you found something else. Look forward and don't dwell on that stuff that you can't change!

I'm still here at school (3 more days), counting down to quitting, and getting to TX. I'm ready to wrap all those presents I sent there and spend some good times with the fam. The Christmas musical was excellent and I miss seeing everyone already (not that I want to have marathon practices again, just want to get together). I'm excited about my brother coming back to NC with us after Christmas and starting a new job in January. I'm ready to go see Dr. Peacock on the 21st and have him tell me I'm doing better since we're walking Mingus regularly. I'm ready to get into a rhythm and be excited about what I'm doing. I guess that's it. What a great year 2009 was and 2010 can only get better (except for that whole turning 30 thing!)

What a Mess!

So Friday, I took two children in to the bathroom. Well I stood at the door and they went in as we still had kids on the playground. I thought they both came out but evidently I left one inside for 30 seconds. I thought I was going to fall apart when I turned around to see her in the hands of my boss. Therefore, I was put on administrative leave until Monday. ( I didn't know this at the time, but that will come later.) Since I'm only going to be there another month, Tim thought maybe I should go ahead and resign, because if they did fire me, it would follow me on my employment history wherever I went. So Monday morning at 6 am I called and left a message. I got up later to do whatever since I wasn't going to work and was really praying for direction. I'm a neon sign kinda girl and wanna hear it. So I was digging through Tim's bag and found his copy of Utmost for His Highest. The one for Monday was 1 Cor 10:31, "Whatever you do, do for the glory of God." Smack me in the face. So I went upstairs to tell Tim I'm going to quit and we'll just suck it up and make it. As I'm telling him the phone rings. It's my boss, asking could I come into work. I said yes, still not sure that I wouldn't go in and quit. As I'm getting ready, Tim checked my email from his iphone to find that a school wanted an interview and as he's reading that I get a call asking for another interview. Wow! God is awesome! So I went in and kept my job, but still interviewed for the others as HE may need me here for a little while longer.

Things going on

Sunday, after returning from Youth retreat I made about 3 dozen Cake Pearls for college "Short" group. We didn't eat many and I took them home. Monday, I took some to work to share and when I returned home the plate was empty. What I didn't tell you was my car was in the shop so I was driving Tim's. I called him and asked if someone brought him home and they finished the cake pearls. He said no. I said come on, yeah you did. He said no. Mingus ate 8-10 cake pearls! I'm so thankful they weren't chocolate, but I'm sure his stomach didn't feel very well.

Today I had an interview with Elon Park Elementary. It's in South Charlotte and the weirdest interview I've had yet. They were scheduled every 15 minutes and I felt like just as I sat down and told a little about myself, it was over. I drove about 40 minutes for about 12 minutes of get to know you. I'm not sure if that's enough time to tell them if I'm right for the job, but we'll see!

Wednesday

I'm not a big one for concerts, nor am I easily star struck. BUT -- last night we saw Susan Isaacs and Donald Miller at Charlotte One. They were both excellent speakers and Tim and I found that we would like to go see more authors speak (recreational compansionship!). After we ate, we were on our way back to the cars and saw that their tour bus was still on the street. I went to sit on the steps while the rest drooled at what it would be like to talk to them and Evan went and knocked on the window. We squealed like 3rd graders at a Jonas Bros. concert and Donald Miller came out. He and Susan stood and talked to us for awhile, took pictures, then invited us to see the bus. I'll admit it, I was the first to say yes and ran up those steps right on Mr. Miller's heals. Oh how I have fallen! But it was super nice and they both were amazing. Read their books - Susan Isaacs "Angry Conversations with God", Donald Miller "Blue Like Jazz", his newest I can't recall off hand.

Catch UP

Last weekend we went to the mountains. I've never been much of a mountain girl, I love the beach. But, our friends have a cabin in Boone, NC and it was amazing. I jumped in Tim's car Friday afternoon, he had it packed with Mingus and a Spiced Pumpkin Latte and we were off. I was a little nervous driving after dark, since I thought for sure it was going to be difficult getting there. It was a breeze. (I did miss an exit, but thanks to the magic phone, we found an alternate route). We arrived and ate some homemade chili we'd brought and settled in. We woke up Saturday to temps in the 30's and gorgeous trees. We took Mingus for a walk and then drove around the mountains to get pics. Tim took a million. Then we just came back and hung out in the silence. We get so wrapped up in phone service and internet it was nice for the peace. I think it was tough on Mingus, he couldn't settle. On our way home we had some excellent seafood and were back to civilization.

Surprise Visit

Tim's birthday was Saturday and on Wednesday, he called from TX and asked if I'd like to come home too. So I did! I surprised my mom and dad @ 11pm after they'd been asleep for awhile and we had a great time!

Labor Day Weekend

Friday was an atrocious day at school - the children were ready to be at home as was I. So we went and hung out with the Eade's and then the guys went to jam. Saturday morning I go up and made eggs and pancakes. Then we went to Reedy Creek Park and took Mingus on a long walk. Then off to Matthews for the Matthews Alive festival. Nice! We got Adam's birthday present and had some great homemade soda. Then we went to look at TV's (what Tim wants for his birthday but isn't going to happen.) Then to the Apple Store to find out that a RAM upgrade would be $1200. No way. We'll buy it from crucial.com for $80. Ridiculous. Then back to the Eade's to teach them Mau. Sunday - back to 2 services, YEAH! and then lunch at home and Momentum (College home group) at the Fulghum's. I made cake pearls - coconut and carrot cakes and we had homemade ice cream. We played Mau until 1am. Monday we did nothing until we got it together and went to 3 chick-fil-a's for their free sandwiches. We took the extras downtown and gave them to homeless people and hope to really organize next time a restaurant does that and have a college challenge.

This morning, I took Mingus out to pee, and out of the corner of my eye, I see something moving. At first I thought the cat was caught in the garage door, but no it was a OPPOSUM! It's tail was caught and it was trying desperately to get free. I went inside hysterical and got the garage door opener and tried to raise it so it could get free. I had to raise it almost the whole way and then it almost squished him. Then his paw got stuck and finally it fell to the ground, landed on all four feet and stared at me. I whimper/screamed and it ran back into the garage. We live above the garage. If it's in there, there's probably more. What if it gets in? What if it messes with Mingus? Oh gross, we have to get this taken care of before Tim leaves or I'm going to have to sleep at the church!

September

So what's going on with the Groves? We're coming up on 9 months in NC. WOW! I'm on 1000mg of Metformin to help with the PCOS and insulin resistance. I also see a dietician every six weeks or so. Mingus is in his advanced training class. If he passes it we'll take the Canine Good Citizen test and he can be a therapy dog that goes into hospitals or nursing homes. I applied at an elementary school to be a teachers aid and the school district liked me a lot but have wait 20 days to see if there numbers will allow for a new hire. (fingers crossed) The weather is amazing. Monday, Tim and I agreed it felt like Christmas in TX. Hilarious. I'm ready for Christmas music and to go home in Nov. Tim goes home for his birthday next week. (Jealous!) So that's all we're really doing right now!

Ang

I went to the Dr. yesterday for a follow up on my test results. I did the glucose test 3ish weeks ago and we were seeing if that is what keeps us from being prego. My glucose levels were fine. But my insulin levels... at fasting a normal level should be 10. Mine: 120. After the drinking the glucose a normal level should be 20. Mine: 101. So I have extremely high insulin levels which determines I do have PCOS and an insulin blocker. woot. so I have started taking Glucophage which will slowly bring my insulin under control and help me lose weight (That's good stuff) But... I will be on this forever. I don't like that. I am a more likely than not to have a child with insulin issues. You are welcome baby Groves. That's my biggest beef with this whole thing. Me have issues fine. I don't want to pass it on. But here's my silver lining. I am not diabetic. If I can get this under control I will not have gestational diabetes and will be thinner. If we had not moved to NC we never would have known. While I loved my Dr. in TX, she was ready to send me to an infertility specialist (too expensive). Since this leans more towards a diabetes setting, insurance will cover it. If we had not moved to NC, I would not have run into people who knew exactly my symptoms and were so willing to help me go in that direction. God is amazing how we wait and pout but he is always on the same page. I'm also very thankful for the 5 1/2 years with Tim by ourselves. We've gotten to do a lot that had we had children wouldn't have worked and how many people want to be on the 5 year plan and never make it? We did! Now, we're still not sure how long this will take but at least we know what it is.

Angela's 6 month update

So we've been here six months, today! My how the time flies. How you miss your family but you don't miss the heat. I miss my Mexican food, but love being closer to the beach (eventhough we haven't been yet!) I love our new friends and church but miss the old ones too. Jobs? Mine - meh - take it or leave it! Tim's? Great! Mingus is doing great, he's in intermediate training and we're working hard. Babies? I have a follow-up appt. with Dr. Peacock on Monday. So we'll see. What a journey! How wonderful it is to see where we've come from and know we're on the right path.

Snow - the theological implications

As I sit here at 12:30 on March 2, I'm watching the back of a snow storm Charlotte is going through. We had something called "Thunder Snow" which, to me, sounds like the name of a really bad band from the 80's. What it is, however, is the winter equivalent to a Thunderstorm in the summer, complete with heavy show fall, thunder and lightning - it really is a beauty to behold.
Let me also say this, having been raised in Texas (which I am grateful for), I have never seen a weather occurrence like this. There's several weather occurrences I have never seen, typhoons, earthquakes, tsunamis, mudslides, just to name a few. Yet this snow fall was such a beautiful picture to me.
Aside from the flittering huge white flakes floating to the ground and landing in an exact pre-determined spot (okay, maybe not, but it's kind of cool to think about), there's the fact that the snow, especially when it falls in such a great amount begins to cover every surface it touches.

Wood, covered.
Plastic, covered,
Automobiles, covered,
Roofs, covered.

It doesn't matter what the surface, hard or soft, new or old, light or dark. The snow will cover it.

This is a picture of God's grace. His grace covers all surfaces, no matter how cracked and weathered, no matter how small or large. The snow doesn't look at the roof of a mansion and think "oh man, that is WAY too big of a surface, let's skip that." It falls where it wants, and in this type of storm, it falls EVERYWHERE. My car has more snow piled on it right now than it has ever had before. I hope it starts in the morning.
Earlier tonight, Ang and I went out to play in the snow for a bit (this included running around on the deck without shoes on and slipping and sliding all over the place.) It was a blast. Spontaneity keeps people young. After we made our places in the snow from tromping around, I watched, hour after hour as the snow continued to fall - that those spots in which we disturbed the snow were being covered up again. As if we had never been out there, and I began to see a new picture of God's grace.

God has given us a perpetual, unstoppable snowstorm of grace in our lives. He gave us this when Jesus Christ took on our sin and died on the cross. Now we live, not free of sin, but hidden beneath the snow of God's grace, we we no longer are slaves to our sin. When God sees us, He doesn't see our sin any longer, He sees us as undisturbed, pure white snow. This is God's grace. It doesn't matter what you've done, or how dirty or old or worn down your surface is, God's snow still falls on it and covers that brokenness with His perfection.

This would have been enough for me, but as I sat out here watching the snow fall just a few minutes ago I noticed how heavy the snow sat on the trees, how much it weighed them down especially when the wind would pick up. The way the trees lamented having the extra weight, you could just feel the stress in their branches. And I thought, "okay, smart guy, so how does God's grace weigh people down?" and maybe this part is a bit of a stretch, but track with me for just a moment.

Have you ever met someone that was so involved in everything? Every activity, every opportunity, every possible social, ministerial and community event that they had nothing left of themselves? Did it seem as though they were weighed down?
I have been in that place. Where I could not say no, where I was worried about not making the right people happy and pleasing their ideal of what I should be. I was weighed down, I wasn't aware of the freedom which grace allowed me to have.
Rob Bell puts it this way - the only thing I have to focus on is pursing my relationship with God to reflect His glory and discover how beautiful He is, anything beyond that is sin. So it is possible to be weighed down, maybe not necessarily with God's grace but with our perception of what we need to be or do in order to win God's grace. What we must realize is that God has already given us all the grace He can and all the grace we need. There is nothing more we can do to convince God to give us grace.

All we can do is accept it or ignore it.

If we ignore it we live life like those trees, heavy laden, lacking vibrance and energy and hanging our head to the ground.

If we accept it, we live life hidden underneath the snow storm, covered in a white, continual blanket of God's grace.

The snow has just about tapered off now, though there might be more coming, who knows. But I pray that we would all learn to live under the blanket of God's grace, not weighing ourselves down with the expectations others put on us,

My brother Trey, and I had a conversation when he first moved back to Texas a couple of years ago. He said "I don't have time to worry about what other people think about me or the ministry in which God has placed me, I have to focus on running after God."

Maybe Trey should write a book...

A Lyrical Ode to the of Love of My Life on Her Birthday

Here it is your Birthday
And it’s your 29th
30’s just around the corner
Let not think about that tonight!

For 29 amazing years
You’ve brought joy to all you’ve known
You’ve showed them all the love of Christ
And how you too have grown.

You’ve grown into a Christ Follower
You’ve grown into a Friend
You’ve grown into someone that we all can trust
From now until then end

But for me you’ve been so much more
More than literary efforts can portray
A friend, a helpmate, cheerleader, and true love
Growing closer day after day

And although I’ve known you now
For only nine wonderful years
I’ve seen in you all that is beautiful
Through laughter, hope and some tears

I am so blessed to call you my bride
To come home to you each night
To hold you, protect you, care for you too
To love you, even when we fight!

So here’s you my Princess Goldstar
My Icy Hot, daughter of the Most High King
Happy Birthday, my wife –the love of my life
I can’t wait to see what tomorrow will bring!

In the classroom all day

and only 1 meltdown and it wasn't me. There was 1 poop in the pants during nap and 1 wet the mat during naptime. But I didn't have to clean either up. WooHoo! But I like my class. There's definitely opportunity for ministry to kids and parents. I'm making cake pearls tonight since Tim's at Men's Frat. Other than that not much is going on!

1st day at IHBC & Happy Birthday Daena

Happy Birthday MOM! We miss you and love you and hope you're having a wonderful day! Our first day at IHBC was great! We spent the night at Judy's so we'd have a bed, but overslept 30 minutes past when we wanted to get up. We still were early to the 7:40 call, but we sure would have liked to have been there earlier. I flat ironed my hair and put on makeup in the church bathroom but no big deal. First service went amazingly well (contemporary), and Todd and Tanya (pastor and wife) and I snuck off to Bojangles for breakfast during the S.S. hour. (Shhh it's a secret!) They don't have donut shops on every corner so they have to eat real breakfast foods on Sunday :) Second service was again great and we're about to go eat Chinese with the Children's Pastor Sarah and her family! Have a great day! Oh if you haven't see our video on Facebook - Now all of NC thinks we're nuts too!

Love you,
Ang

1%

So I had an interview today with Wachovia Child Development Center for their 3 & 4 year old class. They were super nice and I have a working interview (I go to the classroom for a few hours to see how I fit) on Tuesday. So why the 1%. I put my resume on careerbuilder.com and our Children's pastor told me that 1% of people who put their resume online get an interview. Wow! That is a God thing.

Back to our Mingus drama - So last night he was cold downstairs and started barking at about 3am. So Tim brought he and the crate upstairs and while a little happier, barked until 4am. Tim put a towel over his crate and finally he clued in that it was time to sleep. It's got to get better!

So our belongings should arrive Monday and we'll have 2 cars again and pots and pans! I miss cooking and baking and such. But things are great! You can see videos of Tim's office and the church on our Dads' facebooks.

Ang

North Carolina

So we're here. I'm in Tim's office and he's at staff meeting. Be looking for a video of our travels on Facebook. Our apartment is nice, the living room is much larger than I remember, so we may not have to put as much in storage. This post may be a little random and skip around since the last 2 days I was stuck in a car.

We left at 6:15ish on Monday and I slept for the first few hours. Of course it rained the whole way. Mingus took his sedative and was perfect! We stopped in Shreveport at the Cracker Barrel for breakfast and I drove through Louisiana and Mississippi. We stopped in Meridian for a late lunch at Chick-Fil-A and bought some sheets for our air mattress at Ross (Great tip, Amanda!). Then we took on Alabama. Did you know it probably the longest state in the world to get across? I felt like we were never going to get to Atlanta, GA. Finally at about 10pm est. we got to our La Quinta (they don't charge for pets - Great tip, Elizabeth!) and we ordered some pizza, video conferenced with the Nugents and went to bed. We left at about 9:30 Tuesday morning and found a Shoney's for breakfast (my fave from my childhood trips- love me some cheesy eggs). We stopped in Greenville, SC (such a pretty downtown - Great tip, Dad) and had coffee and walked in the rain a little. On to North Carolina, we got to the house and Judy was so excited to see us. We unpacked what little we had (the movers will be here on Monday, 1/12), and asked where the Wal-Mart was. Judy suggested we go to the Target, but we had several gift cards we wanted to finish up. She said no one goes to the Wal-Mart, but sent us anyways. It was pretty ghetto, not a Super Walmart and there had been several robberies and broken cars, so we didn't take anything but the necessities. We got our air mattress, a shower curtain, a little food (no microwave or pots/pans), 2 towels, and some dog shampoo (gross wet dog). We made it back in one piece and Judy took us to the local Mexican restaurant. It was good, but there wasn't enough kick! (needed lots more jalepenos, less tomato) We cleaned up some and went to bed. Judy was kind enough to lend us a TV, so we didn't have to sleep in silence, but Mingus decided out of defiance that he would eat his bone and his teeth scraping across it nearly made me lose it! But we slept well and are excited to clean Tim's office. We're going to brown paper the walls (Great idea - Mom) and bring all Tim's guitar/recording gear here. Thomas and Kevin (praise team members) had already come in and gotten rid of a lot of things (the music ministers office was the catch-all, IMAGINE!). So we don't have as much to do as we thought, but I am finding music from 1955 to the present so I have work to do still.

I have a job interview with the Wachovia Child Development Center on Friday at 10am. So be in prayer that if that's where I need to work, everything would fall into place (including coming home opportunities). If not, I've applied at the schools, and can sub until God opens the perfect door for me.

We have a couple of nibbles on the lease of the house, so that's coming along as well.

Pray for us as we start this new adventure/chapter and that Huntersville/Charlotte gets on fire for the Kindgom. Todd (pastor) has a vision that there are 100,000 people in a 5 mile radius of the church (Wow!) and we are going to try to touch all of them in the next 5 years. (That's five people a week!) (And always pray for babies.)

Love much (come see us)
Angela