Random cuteness

Last night our community group celebrated Matt Ham's (one of our leaders) graduation from seminary with a cookout and lawn party at the Lukes' house.

This is our community group's first baby... little Barrett is 4 months and has the cutest, most expressive eyes and funny expressions.  She also looks JUST like her daddy!

This was our attempt at giving her an alfalfa sprout, though you can't see it very well in this picture.  I think she was a little surprised by the flash in this picture - don't you love the double chin? :)

And here's MY baby, in one of her new positions - her head hanging off the side of the bed.  I don't see how that's comfortable, but whatever.

Tim McGraw!

Summer is starting... and that means fun things to do with fun people I love!

Friday night, for an early birthday present, Wade got us tickets to the Tim McGraw concert as a surprise!  I've been to a handful of country concerts at Verizon Wireless Amphitheatre (due to the country megaticket I purchased 2 years ago), but I've never gotten to sit in the actual seats close up.  Nor have I ever gone to a concert with "a boy" as I told Wade... I tell you what, it is really fun to go on a date with someone you love - dress up cute, hear them say you look beautiful, hold hands and share each moment together - ok, ok, too sappy.

Anyway, here we are before the concert (me with the cowboy hat I borrowed from his sister):

There's ol' Tim singing:

Us with Tim in the background to prove we were really there:

Tim signing autographs:

After a great show:

And here's a little snippet of Live Like You Were Dying for your enjoyment:

Thanks for a great night and that $13 strawberry daquiri babe!

New Job!

I am super excited about this news...

I have officially resigned from the Girl Scouts and accepted a job at Christ Covenant Church as the Media Production Coordinator! The new job seems like it will fit perfectly with my skills and experience, and I will be able to use both for God's kingdom instead of the world's.

I've had plenty of good times in my 3.5 years with the Girl Scouts and some co-workers whom I love, but recently I have been feeling very frustrated, discouraged, and disillusioned by the management and direction of the organization overall. I'm sure there are plenty of Girl Scout leaders and girls who love the Lord and seek to follow Him through their Girl Scout activities, but that is not the case with the "professional" part of the organization, which is more and more about seeking the approval and opinion of the wealthy and elite community members, wanting to boast about all the great things being done "for girls" that are actually quite self-serving. I also have a hard time wanting to devote my life to building girls' self-esteem through a program completely devoid of the One who actually gives them their true value.

God has truly been leading me in this whole process, and has been faithful even when I was fearful and anxious.

I'm also looking forward to...
(1) Working across the sidewalk from where Wade is going to be teaching next year :) and visiting him at lunch or after school
(2) Being 5 minutes from my mom's house, so I can visit on lunch breaks and chat with her on the porch by the waterfall
(3) Interacting with people I know from my days at Christ Covenant, and people who know my family and Wade's family
(4) Maybe getting to go on a work-sanctioned mission trip (if they have those :))
(5) Having prayer as an integral part of staff meetings and work in general
(6) Working for a boss who cares about my spiritual growth, as well as my relationships with family and life outside of work
(7) A 37.5 hour work week!

I finish up at the Girl Scouts right before Memorial Day weekend, and then I'm going to enjoy 2 weeks off to lay out by the pool, hopefully do some gardening, get some car repairs taken care of, hang out with Wade, distance myself from the negative environment I've been in and get ready for the next chapter :). I start at Christ Covenant June 9th!

I'm in the news!

Click here for the Charlotte Observer's website, the entertainment/events section...

http://www.charlotte.com/blacktie/gallery/607237.html

I'm in picture #22!

Graduation

This weekend was the moment I've been waiting about 9 months for... Wade's graduation from Covenant College! I'm so proud of his achievements, and so ready to experience the next chapter in our relationship - and mostly SO EXCITED to be able to live in the same city together!

It was a special & fun weekend, because both my parents and Wade's parents got to make the trip up, as well as his Aunt Kim, whom I had not met yet.




Here are our two families before his Senior Banquet Friday night. Tell me my mom doesn't look so cute and hip in her outfit? She had that cute fitted little top, a kindof flared-bottom linen skirt, and the belt accent. Who else could wear that with 2 ostomy bags underneath and no one would even notice?




Posing for lots of pictures in the cap and gown after the ceremony... This is just one :).




Saturday night, my parents wanted to see Covenant's campus, so we walked around and Wade gave them the full tour. Then we took some pictures one last time, sitting on the Covenant College sign.

It's been so fun for me to visit every few weeks or month, and see where Wade lives and meet his friends. It's a little sad that we won't have that beautiful setting for visits anymore, but I will definitely "settle" for Charlotte scenery and seeing Wade multiple times a week :). He's substitute teaching up there at least for this week, and after that it will depend on how much substituting they have for him. My vote is for him to come home THIS weekend, but we'll see what happens :). He's coaching basketball camps this summer before school starts in August and he starts teaching little 8th graders about physical science!

Congratulations baby!

A little TOO emotional

I've been feeling a bit emotional lately.  Sometimes I notice this about myself in my relationships - I get a little more frustrated with being far from Wade, I get a little more hurt if I'm left out of a social activity, I get a little more overwhelmed by busyness at work.  But a lot of times I don't notice those things first.  What I do notice first is when I start to get teary-eyed at stuff on TV that really should NOT make me cry!  A random commercial, The Bachelor or something like that.

Well today takes the cake.  I actually CRIED a little bit at SAVED BY THE BELL!  Hahahaha.  I can't believe I'm admitting that on the internet.  Wade gave me a whole bunch of seasons of SBTB on DVD, so I'll watch them periodically when there's nothing better on.  Today I watched the episode where they all have to do a class presentation about their heritage and ancestors.  Lisa's ancestors were slaves and Jessie's were slave traders, so Jessie goes all crazy trying to make it up to her by doing all these favors.  

But that's not what got me choked up - Zack finds out he's related to this Indian chief and he goes to a Native American guy to find out about him.  He doesn't really care at first and just wants to know enough for his presentation so he can run in the Bayside track meet against Valley, but then as he learns more, it means a lot to him and he becomes close with the Native American guy.  Then after Zack does his presentation and is set to run in the track meet, he finds out that the guy just died suddenly and decides he (Zack) can't run in the meet.

So I'm watching all this sitting on my sofa, and when they find out he died, I felt the tears prick behind my eyes and literally had drops start spilling out onto my face, before I got up to close the blinds and was like, "I am CRYING.  Over Saved by the Bell!"  I'm glad no one can see me right now.  Haha.

Oh man, well, please don't laugh too hard at me :).  But I will understand if you do.

Bar... Meet Girl Scouts

A funny thing happened to me at work today (ha, I always wanted to say that line :))...

We had our annual Women of Distinction luncheon for the Girl Scouts today at the Westin hotel downtown.  It all went fine, whatever, and then after we had cleaned stuff up and were close to leaving, the next event was setting up in our space and I hear this voice ask me, "Are you here for swearing in?"

I turned around and said no, but as I did I saw that the lady's nametag said Mecklenburg County Bar on it, and I said "Oh my gosh, Mecklenburg County Bar - I used to work there!"  She was a little surprised, but I recognized her as the woman who took my old boss's job after I left and my old boss left.  (For anyone who doesn't know, the Bar was where I worked for 6 months after I graduated, and I left there to work at the Girl Scouts.)

The lady said that the other staff were there too, because it turns out they were having the spring swearing-in ceremony right there at the Westin in the afternoon!  (When I was there I helped plan the fall swearing-in ceremony.)

So I ran over and said hi to Lisa, Jill and Jen - three of my former co-workers (about the only 3 that are still there!) and talked to them for a bit.  They crack me up.  They're just funny characters who roll their eyes at the Bar, but they stay working there anyway because that's just the way things are.  I got to show them some of my handiwork because we had some of the event programs and our annual reports that I designed there with us.

It was just so random and fun to run into MCB people at a Girl Scout event :).