2005 News
Merry Christmas and a Happy New Year to all. As I re-read my journal and look over the photos from the previous 12 months, I am always amazed at how much stuff has happened in just one year. One more time, we get to proclaim how good God is.This year has been one of great joy and great sadness. My (Jim’s) paternal grandmother (we called her Gran) went to be with the Lord in April. She was just one day shy of her 95th birthday. We were so sad to see her go, but she had been ready for quite a while. I really wanted to “do” a web site in her honor, but there are so many other responsibilities pulling at me that I just couldn’t get around to it. Maybe this year. As we went through her things, I took family photos that no one else wanted. I have taken an interest in documenting the family history, so they trust me with it (for good or ill). If there’s anything anyone wants to see or have, please let me know. I guess I should do an inventory of what I have and post that. I’ll put that on my to do list too J.Our little dog, Scotty died in November. We had 14 wonderful years with him and he was starting to really show his age. We were sure that he wouldn’t live a whole lot longer, but were hoping that he’d make it through the holidays. On November 15th, he took a major turn for the worse and we decided it was time. We were on the way to the animal hospital and he died in Jeanie’s arms. As much as we hated to see him go, it was a special way to say goodbye. He was a sweet doggie and we will all miss him, but he was mostly Jeanie’s dog. They had a bond that was special.
Melody
Melody is moving closer and closer to graduation. When she is done in December 2006, she will have degrees in Psychology and Finance. She is a top notch student and as such was one of the few students invited to a symposium of seven Nobel Laureates. She spent the day with some of the smartest people in the world! One of Laureates recounted how many other Laureates they met before they became a Laureate themselves. They then challenged Melody that now that she has already met her first seven, she is well on her way to becoming a Laureate herself. We wouldn’t be a bit surprised! In April, Melody and I (Jim) ran in the 10K Cooper River Bridge run in Charleston. That was a first for both of us. She ran it in 1:00:59 that’s one hour and 59 seconds! I ran it in 1:17:19. As my first race at 47 years old, I was just happy to be able to finish it at all. It was really cold and rainy that morning and I thought we would freeze. Melody squeezed into the warm, dry Starbucks Coffee shop that was literally wall to wall people to wait for the race. I waited outside in the cold. About half way through the race, it quit raining and the sun came out. This was our first race, but it was the last one for that bridge which was replaced with a new bridge this summer. I’m glad we got to race on the old bridge before they demolished it. Melody interned at the CMC Medical Center in Charlotte, working in the Emergency Room. The highlight of the time there was early this December when she got to serve a shift with the rescue helicopter crew! How cool is that? |
Kathryn
Kat has finished her first year at Central Piedmont Community College with awesome grades. She has decided to give Auto Mechanics a try. She has been working at Bruegger’s Bagels near home on the weekends and has decided to take a job learning the ins and outs of auto body work at Worship One Customs. For fun, Kat continues to play the bass guitar and hang out with her friends. I am both happy and sorry to say that Kat has my sense of humor. She likes to take what we say literally and play off of it. Many people say that she is God’s revenge on me. One night, I said something and she replied with a smart-aleck remark. She looked me in the eye and said, “I really am your revenge!” She is sweet revenge. |
Erin
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Danae and Mark Ogren
Danae and Mark have now celebrated three anniversaries together. Hard to believe that it has been that long. This year, Mark achieved the rank of first class in the Navy and he is in the middle of achieving his dream of becoming a pilot. He has been taking flight lessons for a couple of months now. You should see his eyes light up when he talks about it. Danae created a costume to wear to the opening of the movie, The Lion, the Witch and the Wardrobe. She dressed up as Susan Pevensie and I dressed as the Professor. While my costume was just a tweed jacket, a bow tie and a hat, hers was a replica of the costume Susan wears in the movie. She did an incredible job of it. As we watched the movie, each time we saw Susan in that outfit, we realized that she nailed it. You can see photos of it here. They will be transferred to Charleston early in 2006. They put their house on the market and sold it in two days! Not only that, but it closed within a month. Incredible! Mark was in the middle of refit where he has to work long hours, so he wasn’t as available as he wanted to be for the quick move to a temporary location. Danae rented a big truck and was so proud of herself for backing it into their driveway unassisted. She asked a few folks at church at the last minute if anyone could help out with moving their stuff. She had nine people show up (including their pastor) ready to do all the hard work of packing and moving. I think that is an awesome example of what Jesus would do. It will be hard for them to say goodbye to the great friends in Kingsland they have become so close to. They will be moving to Charleston in a few months which will be like going home for Danae. She plans to return to school and earn a degree in Music Therapy. We are all cheering her on for that. |
Jim & Jeanie
Jim and Jeanie took a vacation together in TX visiting her sister and family and Jim’s cousin, Chad and his family. We had a terrific time visiting lots of the local attractions including the Schlitterbahn water park. At the Schlitterbahn, we not only got to enjoy the park, but we connected the two Texas branches of our families. We all had such a great time.
Jeanie feels so called by God to her job as a Nurse. The positive comments by patients and other nurses just show how much she is using her strengths. Coworkers have given her numerous WOW cards for the great job she does. Patients have mentioned her by name and one even sent an email to the CEO of the hospital praising Jeanie along with a couple of other nurses for the excellent care they gave her during her stay. One comment worth special note is that one of her patients called her, her “guardian angel”. We are so proud of her and the way she uses her gifts and abilities to help others.
Jim is doing well at Wachovia in his IT Service Manager role. He got to make his first trip ever to California to participate in the Butterworth Communications Institute (BCI). He extended the visit by a few days to be able to go to San Diego and visit his Uncle Bill Groff and his cousin, Harry Groff and family. Jim had never met Harry’s wife Dawn or their children. What a wonderful family! They showed him a terrific time at Disneyland and Harry and Jim went running and hiking at Mission Trails Park.
BCI was incredible! Jim learned more about public speaking in those three days than he could have imagined. He gained a confidence that he’d never had before and learned about how to polish a talk until it sparkles. The folks at the local Toastmasters Club immediately noticed a positive change in Jim’s speeches after BCI.
We were blessed to have a lot of our family here in Charlotte for Thanksgiving. All of our immediate family, Jeanie’s mom, Jeanie’s sister and her family and a friend from church. We have so much to be thankful for.
We had such a full house for Thanksgiving, we didn’t have room for Jim’s mom 
and she was planning a trip to Wyoming for Christmas with her niece, Annette and her family, so she came in early December for a late Thanksgiving/ early Christmas.
Thanks, God for the lovely family you have loaned us… May we be the people you want us to be.