greg and stacey

Hi! Haven’t posted in a few days because there is not a lot going on……THANKGOODNESS! Greg and I did make a quick trip to Salado last Thursday to have our official engagement pictures taken. The photographer for our wedding took a few pictures of us and now we have those in addition to the ones my friend Katie took. We ordered our wedding invitations and will sit and wait for those to arrive.

Last night we went to Dallas to see the show STOMP! Greg had seen it before but this was my first time. It was OUTSTANDING!!! If you ever get the chance to see it I highly recommend it! During the show Greg leaned over and said, “it’s like watching River Dance on crack” and that is a perfect way to describe it. I talked to my brother Greg this morning and he said that he loved it so much that he saw it twice also. Once you see it you will understand why….it is really good.

We are getting ready to go on our mission trip with the youth group. Our group has worked so hard on preparing to teach little kids about Daniel. I can’t wait to see them teach! We will meet tonight to put the finishing touches on our lesson. When you think about it over the next week pray for our trip and for all the kids that will be coming to Vacation Bible School.

I want to ask you to also pray for Royal Family Kids Camp that will be going on next week. This is a camp that is near and dear to my heart and it is a camp that serves abused and neglected kids. The counselors will need your prayers for energy and patients this next week. Several of my close friends will be there and I would love for you to join me in praying for them EVERY TIME you think about it from now until next Friday. Pray for the kids that will be attending this camp. If you have ever worked with kids that have been abused or been in abusive situations you know how difficult it is and how heartbreaking it can be. Royal Family is an amazing ministry that spans around the world and we are so fortunate to be able to serve the kids in Tarrant County that are living in abuse and neglect.The road to married life is good! Greg and I are gearing up for our premarital counseling and we both highly recommend the book Sacred Marriage by Gary Thomas.  It is a book that was recommended to us and we are just about finished reading it. Hope your week is fabulous!

Every May the Colonial PGA golf tournament comes to Fort Worth. Along with this exciting week several of the PGA golfers pay a visit to Cook Children’s Medical Center. As part of my job (and I do get paid to do this) the child life department creates a putt putt course in the atrium for patients to come play putt putt, meet pro golfers and get autographs.

Two of my wonderful coworkers-Katie and Audra-decided that this year our hole should be themed, “Going to the Chapel.”  As you can see that is what “we” decided on. It wasn’t my idea but I jumped on the bandwagon fast when I heard their ideas. We made a chapel out of boxes, made a car with cans tied to the back and even had a sign in book with one of our engagement photos at the check in table. We had wedding music playing, a bubble machine and we even went as far as to find the worst dresses we could in our storage room to wear as bridesmaid dresses! It was tons of fun and I got to tell every patient, family, staff member and golfer about Greg. (I think Katie and Audra were ready to throw up by the time it was over). There are more pictures of the event under photos if you want to look at a few others.

Hope your weekend is good. We have been working on invitations and the invitation list and are about to have all that goes along with that wrapped up.

We had the pleasure of eating dinner with Derek and Jace Senter last night. They invited us over for fabulous fajitas and incredible chocolate chip cookies that we discovered is a secret recipe….too bad for us!  I was very excited when we walked in and saw that they had Rockband in their living room. After dinner we turned it on and played a little. Another part of my job at the hospital is playing games such a Rockband…..always with the patients of course and so I have had lots of practice on this game! I do have to admit that I was a little excited to show off my guitar playing skills to Greg since I am now playing on the level Hard!  I really thought that he would see how good I was and then he would try-not do very well (because he has never played) and then go on to tell me how “good” he thought I was. Well, once again things didn’t quite work out that way. He hit 90% of his notes…..ON HIS FIRST TRY and by the third round he was playing on level MEDIUM!  Needless to say I didn’t bring it up on the way home!!!!!!! HaHa.

We met with our Ruidoso group today and got lots accomplished! I think after another meeting or two our group will be ready to teach Daniel and the Lions Den to 30 rowdy 5 and 6 year olds!!! We are praying for the Mexico mission trip that left this morning! It’s the largest mission group we send out all summer and I know the town and the people they will be working with will be blessed! Please pray for them this week!

Have a great Saturday!

It is already Thursday and I have yet to let you know about our wonderful weekend. First of all I have been asking Greg to write a comment and FINALLY you get to hear a few words from him!!!! Hopefully you will read more of his thoughts on the wedding, the planning and all the fun that goes along with it! (and yes Greg does consider it all fun-hee hee!)

Last weekend started with the arrival of Greg’s mom and sister. His mom arrived on Thursday evening and Lauren arrived on Friday. In the middle of them being here I ran down the Austin on Friday to see my cousin, Travis, graduate from high school. We had several family members in town and it was so fun to see everyone. On Saturday morning Greg and his family came to the booming town of Salado. We met with the lady making our cakes and then we were off to show Anne the church and Tenroc.  It was fun to get to show them the place where we will be married and the reception site.

On Sunday we had our first shower! It was our church shower for RHCC and was held at Jenni New’s house. Thanks again to all the wonderful hostesses…..Jenni, Jamie, Janalee, Allison, Starlyn, Kelly, Kellye, Pam and Donna! These are all ladies that I love dearly and I loved having all of you host my first shower. Thank you for the cupcake bar too! What a yummy treat to have after I was FORCED to sit in my seat and open gifts!!!!!!! Ha Ha! It was so nice to get to introduce my mom, Anne and Lauren to women in my life that I love and respect so much! Thanks to everyone that came!

The week has been busy as usual but lots of fun. We are gearing up for our mission trip to Ruidoso, New Mexico. We are not completely ready for VBS with over 200 kids but I’m sure we will be by the time it gets here.

Have a great day!

On August 30 of this year I’m getting married!  It’s a little overwhelming to think of all the things that had to happen for this to occur.  In biblical times marriages were often pre-arranged by the fathers.  I’m a Christian - making me a child of God (John 1:12).  Has my Father arranged this marriage?  All of the odd, seemingly ironic, circumstances that brought about my meeting Stacey has brought about a greater significance to my life.  I really believe God is at work here.  Just 4 years ago I was bouncing back and forth to China working for a furniture company in TN.  I remember on many occasions asking God to provide for me a wife.  I mean, why pray if you don’t believe God can change things, right?  I prayed knowing that He could if that’s what was best for me.  He knew what was best, and as a result my entire life was uprooted, moved to TX, and through the most unlikely of places and circumstance introduced me to my future wife.  As I write there’s a countdown on the right currently showing 89 days.  The day I was born the countdown began…I just didn’t know it yet.  Welcome to the world Gregory, if you wait patiently and hold to what is true and right, you can have your wife in 11595 days…and counting!

In the midst of planning a wedding I was able to sneak away for a weekend in Mississippi to see my sister and her family. My mom and I left at the crack of dawn on Thursday and got back yesterday afternoon.  My niece, Beth, graduated Thursday night……from 6th grade!!! Yes I did drive 8 hours ONE WAY to see her graduate-don’t all doting aunts do this?  It was a proud moment when she stood to walk to the stage to give her speech. She is second in her class and gave a speech about fixing your eyes on Jesus. She is an excellent speaker if I do say so myself! As they called her name to walk across the stage I couldn’t help but think of that day 11 years ago when Brad walked out into the waiting room at St. Paul in Dallas to let us know she had arrived. Everyone knew they would be having a girl but they kept the name to themselves. Then on the day she was born Brad proudly walked to the glass, held her up and introduced her to us. Yes it was a 6th grade graduation but my niece only graduates from 6th grade one time and I am happy to say I was there to see it!

On Friday morning we woke up early got ready and headed back to the school. It was Will’s turn to shine and he did BIG TIME! They handed out awards for kids in all  the different grades. His name was called a few times but the one he was most proud of was getting the Golden Eagle Award. He was the only kid in his class that had all A’s the entire year! 

Greg didn’t get to go with us due to work but his ears were burning all weekend. On Thursday when we arrived we drove straight to the school to surprise Will. He saw us coming down the hall and was just a little excited!!! As he walked me back to his classroom he announced to his teacher and classmates, “hey ya’ll this is my aunt that’s getting married!”  His teacher informed me that the entire 3rd grade class knows everything about our upcoming marriage! Then at the graduation party later that night Beth took me around to introduce me to all of her friends.  She would say, “this is my aunt stacey….you know the one marrying Gingles?” I told Greg that he is a local celebrity in the Mississippi Delta! We did get to talk to him a couple of times on the phone. In the picture you can see Will talking to Greg. I think he was telling him about the awards he had won at school earlier that day…….I told you he was proud to win the Eagle Award!!!!

It was a fun weekend and I am counting the days until I get to see them again!! Speaking of counting days the official count down til the wedding is now UNDER 100 days…WOOHOO!  All sorts of fun stuff is happening! Greg’s mom and sister will be coming into town this weekend. We will be making a quick trip to Salado so that they can see the church and reception site and then back to Fort Worth for a shower on Sunday!

Happy Memorial Day!

FINALLY a weekend to enjoy instead of running around crazy. Life felt somewhat like the old days…….before we were engaged and trying to plan a wedding in 5 1/2 months. It’s been a little over two months since we got engaged and almost every weekend has been planning for the wedding or we are out of town.

This weekend however was a great time of sitting back and enjoying the weekend and the weather! Sunday night was our last D-group for the sophomores in our youth group. We have these groups three times a month and now they are over until school starts back in the Fall. Another way to phrase that would be to say that D-groups will start back up after our wedding!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

I’m pretty sure there are about 20 kids in our youth group that think they will be doing something special at the wedding in August. On any given week I will have at least 5 of them come tell me what special job they think they need to do during the ceremony. As of Saturday Rebekah and Carli B. want to randomly stand up and sing a song…….just whenever they feel like it. Sounds good to me! heehee.

For our last D-group we took the sophomores to Bear Creek Park in Keller. Greg grilled hot dogs for everyone and we played volleyball and ultimate frisbee. Of course my natural athletic abilities came out during an intense game of ultimate frisbee. The best moment of the game happened about half way through. Greg was on the opposing team and threw a gorgeous pass to one of his teammates. I knocked the pass down resulting in my team getting the frisbee. For some reason I thought it would be smart to get in Greg’s face and let him know who the real ruler of this game is…….ME of course. The problem with this “smart idea” was it wasn’t smart at all. Greg proceeded to throw me over his shoulder and run all the way down the field. Just for the record…..it’s not a good idea to eat a hot dog, Doritos and Dr. Pepper and then be flung over someones shoulder and ran down a field. I’ll just go ahead and tell you that it’s better if you don’t do those two things in  a row! Anyway, the evening was a ton of fun and I can hardly wait to go to New Mexico with these kids this summer.

My good friend Katie took engagement photos of us this evening. I love that we picked the one day that it is 99 degrees to take pictures. Greg sent me a text message today asking me if I had arranged the hot weather? I obviously didn’t but it did turn out to be a good evening for picture taking. We went to the botanical gardens and got some great pictures. Katie is a wonderful photographer and I will be more than happy to give you her number if you need pictures taken. Thanks Katie for squeezing us into your very busy schedule!

Have a great week!

Happy Saturday! Hope everyone is having a wonderful weekend. Last night Greg and I got to do two of our favorite things……eat PaPa Murphy’s Pizza and watch The Office. It is the stupidest show on television and it is the funniest. We actually had not seen the last three episodes so we had a mini Office watching marathon and ate great pizza.

The week has been good. We are working on getting our engagement pictures taken in the next few weeks. Salado was hit by three tornado’s this past week and I’ve been told by my mom and our photographer that the entire town is being cleaned up. Hopefully when all the fallen trees have been removed we will be able to jet down and get a few pictures taken.

Three of my favorite college students are home for the summer! (well two of them at least). On Thursday night Lauren, Jessica and Morgan let me hang out with them over dinner. Nothing like being with college kids to make you feel young and cool. All three of these girls were in our youth group and have since graduated and moved on. I cannot tell you how special these three young ladies are to me! It has been fun to watch them grow up and mature in their faith and in their walk with Christ. I love any time I get to spend with them and Thursday was a ton of fun. I will get to spend more time with Morgan and Jessica this summer but Lauren will be off working at a camp this summer. 

Today is the first day in a long time that we haven’t been out of town or had some major event going on in town. It’s nice to wake up and not have to dart out the door! The weather is perfect and it’s Saturday! What more can you ask for!

Hope you have a wonderful weekend!

stacey

So sorry it has been a couple of weeks since I have posted! I am still here and for most days run around like a chicken with my head cut off. Wedding plans are going well with all sorts of good things happening.  Tuxedos are ordered, bridesmaid dresses are ordered, hotel arrangements have been made and we’ve registered at Bed Bath & Beyond and Dillard’s. I will go ahead and tell you now that we spent six hours in BB&B. Yes, that is the number after 5 and before 7……..SIX! Am I proud of this……….no! The only reason I am telling you is because Greg thinks it is funny and loves to tell people that it took us that long.  So I just thought I would go ahead and get it out there!!!!!

I do have to say that registering together may be equal to thousands of dollars in premarital counseling!!!! You learn a lot about the person you are going to marry when you spend that much time in one store. I haven’t decided if it’s a good thing or bad thing that most of the staff at Bed Bath and Beyond AND Dillard’s know us by first name when we walk in. I think at this point they are expecting an invitation to the wedding!!! We had a great time and picked out some fun gifts. Greg has put a link to our registry on the website. You will see some random items on there and I want everyone to know that Greg was in charge of the scan gun!!! I am not responsible for any wacky gifts that made it on the list!!!!!

I was fortunate to spend Mother’s Day with my mom this past weekend. She came up to look for her a dress to wear to the wedding. We found a few and hopefully she will have one picked out in a few days.  We managed to get some regular shopping in too. It’s not often that I get to shop with my mom or sister but when I do it is absolutely WONDERFUL!!!! We had dinner on Saturday night with Greg, my aunt Mary, my cousin Ashley and her precious little girl Emrie! Greg said that she was the happiest kid he has ever met. She is so precious and is developing quite the little personality.

Church on Sunday was great especially because my mom was in town.  At the beginning of service they had all the moms stand up. My aunt Mary was on the other side of my mom so it was really special to watch the two of them celebrate this special day. Rick said a special prayer for all the mother’s and I looked up in the middle of the prayer and saw my mom and her sister locked arm in arm in a hug during the prayer. I thanked God that she could celebrate being a mom AND celebrate it with one of her sisters!

One the most special aspects of getting married is you get to talk to all your good friends all the time! I can’t wait to tell you about all of my bridesmaids and hope to do that soon. (there are eight of them) All of the girls that will be standing beside me on my wedding day are girls that I have know for a very long time. In fact they have so much dirt on me that this is the pay off….they GET to be in my wedding and they keep their mouths closed! HaHaHa.  Most of them live out of state and even the two that live here I don’t get to see that often.

Recently Amy and I got to have dinner together. We have been trying to do this for a couple of months now and finally it happened. Amy is one of my college roommates and one of the best girls you will ever meet. (I feel that way about all the girls in the wedding party) I loved sitting across the table from her and listening to how God is working in her life and when I say He is working…….He is working. Amy and Brian have flung the doors wide open and are letting God penetrate every area of their life for His glory.  Isn’t it fun to have friends like this? These are the kind of girls that I have has my closest friends! They love the Lord, they love their families, they love their friends and they love living………..all of them! As I drove home after dinner I couldn’t wipe the smile off of my face! I was blessed to spend the evening with Amy and I look forward to many more times like that in the coming months.

I hope your week is off to a great start! Thanks for reading and for being a part of our lives!!!!

 ps. my aunt Irene said I don’t post often enough SO just because she wants to read more I will write more often (or try to)! Love ya reney!!!

Hello friends and family!

It has been a wild and crazy two weeks since my last update. Wedding plans are coming right along with lots of planning now behind us. It’s nice to get to spend time with Greg and not have to discuss details of August 30th the entire time.

My parents came up for a short visit this weekend and they experienced Texas de Brazil for the first time.  My dad was in beef heaven and my mom enjoyed all of it. It was a quick but fun visit. Thanks for making the trip ya’ll. My dad informed me that he will be wearing a “will work for food” sign around his neck as we walk down the aisle! HE thought it was funny!!!!

Last weekend we went with our high school youth group on the Spring retreat. It was an incredible weekend being with the teens and being reminded that we have just a blink of the eye to live our life.  I love being with our teens and watching them fall more in love with Jesus every week!!  We had an amazing weekend and our praise and worship time was incredible. It is powerful to watch these teens worship the Lord….not only on the retreat but every week at church.  They are an amazing group of teens. Greg and I will be going on the Ruidoso mission trip with the sophomore class this summer. We will be hosting a VBS for kids in the town. I had the priveledge of going on the Colorado mission trip last summer with this same class and they are FUN!!! I can hardly wait for Greg to experience an entire week with this group. 

This past week Greg got to meet two of my dear friends…..Janis and Adam Smith. Outside of friends from college Janis and Adam are my oldest friends in the metroplex. Janis and I started within months of each other at Scottish Rite in Dallas many many years ago. Way back then this newly married couple (Janis and Adam) let this single chic hang out with them….A LOT!! Janis left Scottish Rite after she had her daughter and moved over to Cook Children’s. If you are putting two and two together the answer is yes….I work at Cook Children’s because of Janis. She fed  them some line about how good I was and how I would be a wonderful addition to the child life department. Of course none of that was or is true but they bought it and four and a half years later here we are! It was so fun to introduce Janis and Adam to Greg. Eventhough I don’t get to see the two of them very often the night was a perfect reminder of what true friends look like. In today’s world it is tough to find friends who truly care about you. Janis and Adam have been those friends for eleven years now.

(Just on a side note if you are ever in a medical crisis don’t call Janis……..she will take an hour and a half to get to you b/c she wants to make sure she has the right kind of medicine for you. If anyone wants to hear the full version of that story just let me know….it’s quite humorous and it involves my appendix!!!!!!)

Right now Greg is sitting in volunteer orientation for Cook Children’s! He also sat in training this time last week. A HUGE thank you to him for doing that. Every month I get to run a support group for teens with cancer and blood disorders. Over the last few months Greg has started helping me with this group. Since he wasn’t an official hospital volunteer we both thought it was time for him to start getting some credit for all the work he does each month. After tonight he will be an official hospital volunteer!! Woohoo!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

124 days from now will be our wedding day! When I wake up in the mornings I continually thank God for giving us the gift of this relationship!! It is truly a blessing only from the Lord and we give Him all the glory! So many mornings I rolled out of bed onto my knees and thank God for another day, and asked Him to bless the work I would do that day. So many mornings I simply asked for this to be the day I would meet “the man” He had waiting for me. So many days it wasn’t. Everyday continued to be blessed by the Lord. I would get up and ask for His blessing and everyday there it was. Finally, it was time! God chose for the moment to happen at a sad time in my life…..as I spoke at Kelley’s funeral. That morning as I got up and rolled onto my knees I had no idea what God had planned for that day. I can ony imagine that He had a little smile and He was probably thinking…..you better get ready! You’ve been asking me for this one for a LOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOONG time!!!!!!!!

We serve a God that knows our needs…..and wants to give us the desires of our hearts.  I don’t know if Greg and I will ever understand why it happened on that one day in March. The great thing is we don’t need to. We both love that it happened and love that we waited for God to provide!!!!

When you wake up in the morning continue to ask God for that one thing you think He might of forgotten about……I promise you He hasn’t!

After a crazy weekend I rolled out of bed this morning and felt like I had been hit by a truck. I didn’t even make it to the gym but I did manage to hit snooze for a good extra hour!!!!!!

We had a fun but busy weekend. Friday at 4:30 Greg picked me up at the hospital and we zoomed down I-35 to Salado. We met with the caterer at 7:00 and we finally finished some time way after dark. It’s amazing how much time can be spent deciding on what shape plate your guests are going to eat on!! After that eternal meeting we headed over to meet with the florist. That was a lot of fun!!! What girl doesn’t like to pick out flowers!!! First thing Saturday morning we headed over to meet with the photographer who got a grilling from Greg. Let’s just say Doug Spiller will be good buddies with Greg before this wedding is over! For those of you who don’t know Greg is quite the photographer and is know for getting the most unique shots. Of course Greg was polite but he did ask him lots of good questions.

After a quick bite with my mom we zipped back to Fort Worth in time to run home, change clothes and head to the dinner and auction for Our Father’s Children. This is a camp that I have been involved with over the past few years. It serves children around the world who are abused and neglected. Dee Wayne and Kami Cullum were kind enough to invite us to the dinner and to sit at their table. Thanks ya’ll….the evening was a ton of fun!

As we were walking up to our table for the evening Greg realized one of the couples at our table were the same people he had bought his house from almost 3 years ago!! They are also friends with the Cullum’s and were invited to the dinner. Talk about a small world!!

We had a great weekend with lots of planning now behind us. We still have lots to do but I think we both feel like the initial stress of picking a date, finding a place, etc. is over (for right now at least)!!

 Hope you’re weeks off to a great start! Give thanks to the Lord for he is good; his love endures forever!