Thursday, December 31, 2009

One Year ago....

...I was kissing my son good-bye as the surgery team wheeled him into surgery.

To read more about my most memorable NYE visit my blog www.godsgroovygirl.wordpress.com.

Monday, November 30, 2009

I HAVE MOVED

Dear Loyal Readers,

Due to tough economic times, I am being forced to move locations for my speaking website. Boo Hoo! My new site will take on the form of a blog site, with more tweaks. My new site where I will be blogging specifically about my speaking is www.godsgroovygirl.wordpress.com. I will be changing is to godsgroovygirl.com...minus the "wordpress" soon.

I will still be writing on here from time to time, but any speaking/acting news will on the groovygirl site!

Tuesday, November 17, 2009

Out of sight...out of mind!

Sooooooo.....I'm blogging. Yup, it's me. It has been a while and I know the five of you have been dying to know what has been going on in my life that has kept me from blogging. Well, here it is in a nutshell.....
August 14th through November 17th.....

Spoke at a Women's League Training
Mother-in-law's first visit in 18 years (1 week)
Brother-in-law and wife, 3 kids and her cousin visited
I left town while they were here...went to the lake for a long weekend
Came home
Joined Facebook
Kick off week! I spoke at Cedarcrest Church, Grace Community Church, Cobb Vineyard Church and West Cobb Church
Rested for a day
Brother came for a week
SEPTEMBER
Started a Bible Study in my house
Started weekly facilitator training in my house
Redecorated our school room
Quit Facebook
Rested for 3 days
Mom and Dad came for a week
Rested for a day
Started school...not going well
Started building a Speaker Team
OCTOBER
Sunday night services...didn't miss one
Speaker evaluation
Started basketball practice for Tahd (6 hours a week in a parking lot waiting for him)
Planned and ran a retreat
Kelsey's Birthday
Made a quilt
Ruby's 60th birthday
10 billion other birthdays
Started a new curriculum for Kelsey
Tahd's retreat
Working on a huge presentation for TWL for our Speaker's Bureau
Halloween
NOVEMBER
Kelsey got a bunny
Presented my presentation
Wyatt sick
Levi sick
Me sick
more birthdays
my Bible study ended
basketball games start
working on a teaching for Winter/Spring Kick off's
Doctor appointments out the wazoo
Made a quilt
baby shower
basketball, basketball, basketball
started Dave Ramsey
first free Saturday in months...I raked the yard!
Wyatt sick...strep throat
More doctor visits

Today....drove to Tahd's school and back 4 times, home schooled, cooked at the church for Night of Hope, and went to the chiropractor. I fell asleep to Dancing with the Stars. Woke up to Jay Leno asking a guest if they have ever Googled himself. I googled myself, found my blog after 3 months and here I am.

Good night!

Thursday, August 13, 2009

When I Grow Up....

Wyatt has been playing Levi's electric guitar and trying to do everything that his big brother Tahd can do on the guitar. He works very hard at mimicking him. He comes to us all the time to show us the latest music he made up or mastered.

Tonight he said, "Hey mama! Listen to this." He played a little somethin' that he heard on "School of Rock."

"Wow Wyatt! That was great," I said.

"Yup! Pretty soon I'll be on the Worship Team," he responded.

"Is that was you want to be when you grow up...a guitar player on the Worship Team?" I asked.

He responded, "No, I am going to do that soon. When I grow up I am going to be a Ninja."


What did you want to grow up to be?

I wanted to be a wife, a mom and a teacher. Check!

How about you?

Saturday, August 8, 2009

PITIFUL!

Pitiful describes many things about this week:


1.My ability to update my blog.


2. The amount of time I have spent building a website!


3. Our unexpected visitor.


I wanted to take one day at a time and write about my She Speaks trip. Well...I got all the way to Thursday! Pitiful!


Instead of filling in my blog I decided to build my website http://www.godsgroovygirl.com/. Part of my She Speaks training was on marketing myself and catching the attention of people through a value statement and a tag line. Why should people want to hire me and what value will I leave with their church or organization when I leave them? I want to be known for more than, "She was a nice speaker. I liked her outfit."


So I thought about what I bring to the stage and what I leave there. I HOPE that I leave a passion and a desire for women to start a new trend in being in tune with God, following after Him, life change, getting into the groove He has made for them to follow. There was my tag line! The domain was open and I went for it. And you want to know what was cool? As I fretted over buying the domain and building the site and the cost, I prayed that God would give me clarity that this was the right thing to do. I added up what it would cost to build and run the site for 3 months and then I checked my checking account which had my donations for She Speaks in it. (I knew I had just a little left over from the trip.) It was exactly the amount plus 1 cent! I couldn't believe that I had the exact amount through donation! So thank you to those who donated to my trip. You helped pay for my new website also.



The last thing that was just pitiful was our unexpected guest on Thursday. On Wednesday, I heard this dog in my woods just barking its head off. I had not heard this dog before and after it went on for 1/2 hour straight through my quiet time, I decided to find the dog and rip its head off. Just kidding...sort of. But I did go down to see if it was stuck or what. As soon as I called for it, it ran off and I went back to my quiet time. The next morning, during my quiet time AGAIN, the same dog was back and he brought a buddy to join in the barking. This wasn't normal barking ...it was as if it was barking AT something . Visions of baby deer and defenseless, adorable kittens flashed through my head. I went back down the hill and the dogs took off. I decided to search for a bit to see if I came across anything. I felt a little like Nancy Drew as I pieced together clues like trampled plants, muddy footprints, muddied water...and then I saw it! Laying in the creek bed, almost completely covered with mud, was an Opossum. It appeared that it had fallen into the mud which acted like quicksand and trapped it. By all appearances, I think it had been there for days. I thought it was dead, but upon further investigation, she was barely breathing.


I got gloves, a box, and a towel and pulled the poor, pitiful thing out of the mud. To this day, I have never seen such a pitiful sight as her. She was caked with mud and skinny as anything....see for yourself. This is our guest after I washed her off with 3 gallons of warm water to remove the mud.


It seemed as though her back may have been broken, so we called the Humane Society and they sent Animal Control. During our wait, she started coming out of her "playing dead" mode and her little nose started sniffing the air. We offered her a little snack and she devoured it. She ate a whole hot dog and a can of cat food before Animal Control came. The lady assured my kids that they would take care of her and a vet would check her out. If she was OK, they would get her strong and then release her. She even said she would contact us and release the opossum in our yard if she did recover.
I know not everyone would have rescued this baby, but my dad taught me that you do what's best for any animal you can. So little Miss Pitiful at least got a chance and my kids got a chance to help one of God's precious, all be it ugly, creatures.
Day two of She Speaks will have to wait another day!

Monday, August 3, 2009

She Travels!

She's Home!!!
I've decided to tell you about my trip one day at a time. Too much to say at once.


My girlfriends picked me up at 10 am and off we went. 3 Sanguines and a Phlegmatic make for a lively trip...at least 3 of us were loud! The trip was perfect, no problems! We loved the surprise text from Skyler letting us know that Mr. G was arriving the next day. We all did a "Praise Jesus" Happy dance in our seats!
Lots of potty stops and lunch at Zaxby's. Yum!

We arrived and threw our luggage on a Dolley and then realized how pitiful we all were...we over packed just a bit.


Our hotel room was magnificent. It was as big as my entire downstairs...a 2 bedroom suite. Mmmm...my own comfy bed. First order of business was to set up the coffee maker and then off to dinner at the Rocky River Grille in the hotel. Here is where the first "issue" with Jodi's food began. I had read that this placed had incredible mac'n cheese so decided to try that with my dinner. My dinner arrived and the mac looked yummy! I was excited. I took a bite and I guess I made a face that said, "What the heck is in this?" I couldn't quite place the odd taste, but they definitely didn't make it like Aaron makes it. I tried one more little bite to find it FILLED WITH ONIONS! Yuck!!! God blessed the women I was with by not letting me puke in front of them, but it was close. My side of coleslaw was HOT...gross! The food took a long time to arrive so they gave us free chocolate cake. At least that was delicious! Make note...a trend in bad food just started.
Leaving dinner I ran into one of my favorite people, Amy Carroll. She is a P31 speaker and was my evaluator last year. She is also my mentor when it comes to speaking. I love her to pieces. It was great to see her right from the start and we enjoyed some time together the night before the conference started.
We headed back to the room and Christie and I read through our teachings to Kim and Denise who were not being evaluated as speakers. Then off to bed to get ready for that 6 am alarm.
She Sleeps!

Wednesday, July 29, 2009

My Bags Are Packed!

Well, my bags are packed.






They are filled with my favorite outfits,





shoes too uncomfortable to wear to a conference but too stinkin' cute to leave at home,



directions, schedules, my coffee maker and favorite coffee since my Starbucks runner(AKA Chad) is not coming this year, make-up, hair stuff, jewelry, earplugs(never leave home without them), toothbrush and paste, notepads and my Bible.


Tucked inside my bags are two precious pieces of paper that will be pulled out and shared with a group of strangers... my teaching and testimony for evaluation time.





I have fretted, prayed, written, erased, tweaked, crumpled up, started over, timed a hundred times, and had critiqued...two little crisp sheets of paper. Memories flood my head every time I think about my testimony. This 3-minute version is about my brother and his car accident that took the life of another and marked our "Fisher" name forever. This was probably the most painful part of my childhood, but here I go, spilling my guts in the name of Christ and what He has saved me from. One thing is for sure, my story won't be the worst one shared. There will be stories of unimaginable hurt, but complete victory in Christ. Like the story of my evaluator, who was brutally raped and beaten on her graduation day.

Coming with me are the prayers of precious people who think I should do this thing called speaking, people who believe in me and want to see me better myself. They have contributed to my funds, paid for my hair to get all pretty, will watch my kids and pets on this trip, have helped me by critiquing my teachings with love and all in all just told me to go for it. This is the precious thing that I couldn't leave home without.
Two more things in my bag...2 pictures that Wyatt drew for me.
The first looks like a scribble. This was our conversation when he gave it to me:

M-What's this?
W-A map.

M-Oh, to where? Where am I going?

W- I don't know.

M-Then where will I know where I am going?

W-You just walk and follow it and you will know when you get there. Oh and bring a shovel.

I sure don't know where I am going on this adventure of a ministry, but God does. Wyatt may have just been playing, but he spoke life into me that day. I just need to follow the path God has placed me on and I will know when I get there.

The 2nd picture is one that Wyatt drew of me and him with a heart in the middle. He gave it to me last week when I was heading out for another conference. As I was getting into the car after saying good bye to all my kids, I wondered if they understood what their mom was doing. I wondered if they believed that this was OK...for mom to leave a lot and do this ministry. Did they support me...especially Wyatt because he is so young? When he came running out of the house to catch me as I was pulling out of the driveway to bring me that picture, God told me, "He does."

Only a few more things to do:

Enjoy my last day with the family
Drop off my dogs and doggy day care
Finish packing my boys
Drop off the little boys with Jen
Kiss everyone good bye
Wait for my ride
and have the time of my life!

See ya!






Tuesday, July 28, 2009

CUTENESS!

IN CASE YOU HAVE EVER WONDERED WHAT CUTENESS LOOKS LIKE, I FOUND IT!

LESSONS I LEARNED FROM WYATT THIS WEEK:

#1-YOU CAN RIDE YOUR BIKE FASTER IF YOU WEAR "THE FLASH" COSTUME!















#2-NOTHING SAYS ROCKER LIKE A MOHAWK!






#3- EVEN ROCK STARS NEED BATHS, BUT ALWAYS BE READY FOR THE PAPARAZZI TO SHOW UP AT ANY MOMENT!







PRICELESS!



Saturday, July 25, 2009

PRESSING IN!

Distractions are really hard for this Sanguine, people lovin', wanna have fun all the time but I can't because I have to get down to business kind of girl! I am midstream preparing for 2 evaluations at "She Speaks," a 2 hour teaching for our WILD Workshop on August 15th and 4 Kickoffs all in a row at the end of August. It excites me to be used by God in this way, I just wish all the other junk would just float away.
When the final 'straw that broke the camels back" distraction reared its head the other day, I found myself crying out to God in frustration, but I gave it to Him. He reminded me that this was no shock to Him, He was in control and He would move it if He needed to. Now what is my part in this equation? Distractions are here and they will continue, but I have a job to do, prepare teachings.
I need to press into my God now stronger than ever. I visualized myself pressing into His body like a child who has fallen asleep in His parent's arms. I want to leave a visual indent in Him that will cause Him to be indented into me. I need Him more than ever.
I felt like yesterday He told me to begin writing out my Kickoff teaching with the info that I have been gathering since February. I came up with a lot of buts as to why I couldn't start on that day, but I was obedient and sat at my computer and began. A few moments later, I received this email from one of the churches that I will speak at for kickoff:

Today please pray for our Kickoff speaker, Jodianne Adams, as she prepares her message--that the LORD will give her direction and clarity for His message to us, and protect her time to work on it; also boldness to speak the Truth in Love.

"She speaks with wisdom, and faithful instruction is on her tongue." (Prov. 31:26)

"Trust the Lord with all your heart and lean not on your own understanding; in all your ways acknowledge Him and He will make your paths straight. Do not be wise in your own eyes...." (Prov. 3:5-6)

"Pray also for me, that whenever I open my mouth, words may be given me so that I will fearlessly make known the mystery of the gospel...." (Eph. 6:19)

"Give thanks to the Lord, call on His name, make known among the nations what He has done, and proclaim that His Name is exalted... Let this be known to all the world!" Is. 12:4,5)

Thank you, bless you!

(Getting rooted, growing stronger)

Whoa! How awesome!

So here I go, I pressing in!

Wednesday, July 8, 2009

Two Brothers and a Funeral



Our sweet little S'Mores

My heart was tendered on Sunday night as my little boys said good-bye to sweet, little S'mores, Levi's guinea pig. We have lost pets in the past, but when it is a child's first loss, it is especially hard. S'mores stopped eating and drinking last week. The vet couldn't figure out what was wrong, so basically we brought him home to live out what little was left of his life in peace.

Dexter, Wyatt's guinea pig who shared a cage with S'mores, couldn't seem to understand why his little friend wasn't playing anymore. We had to take S'mores out of their cage so that he could have a little peace from the rough housing that Dexter was tormenting him with. We let Dexter out of the cage to roam and he chose to go lay beside his friend, just outside his cage, until he passed. OK, that choked me up a bit.


Then I watched my little boys hold each other and cry over their loss. This tendered me to no end.
We told Levi that he could get another guinea pig. So the next day we headed out to go to every store we needed to go to in order to find the right one. Thankfully, we found Snickers at the 2ND store. He was perfect! Levi fell in love with him as soon as he saw him and Snickers proved to be gentle and loving to Levi.



Dexter and Snickers first moments...a lunch date!

Dexter was thrilled with a new buddy. I don't think he enjoyed his first night in his life alone.

We had a funeral today, sorry you weren't invited. Mom dug the hole and said the prayer. Levi carried the casket (an empty Ziploc bag box) and Wyatt filled in the hole. Tears still flowed, but two brothers stood by each other and carried each others pain.





"He ain't heavy. He's my brother."

So S'mores is gone but Snickers is here. Life is sweet!

Wednesday, June 24, 2009

Sticky situation

Note to self:

When the at-home hair remover wax system says to not get the wax on any hair that you don't want removed, BELIEVE IT!

Please don't stare at my right eyebrow...or lack of. Thanks!

Tuesday, June 23, 2009

Perfect!!!

They were words I have been waiting 6 months to hear. From behind the curtain I heard Dr. Fantastic say, "I couldn't have hoped that it would have healed up any better." He came around the curtain and said to me,"He's perfect."

PERFECT...the words I have waited for. Perfect. It is hard to believe that this whole ordeal with Tahd started almost a year ago. Longer than that if you count the years that he suffered in silence, not knowing he had an issue. When things are wrong for what seems like forever, you just assume they are normal.

Since September 23rd, Tahd has had a catheter in place for 6 months, 2 of those months with 2 catheters. Tahd went to school with one in place for 3 months, and missed 8 weeks of school. He spent almost the entire school year catching up. He endured 2 visits to the ER for attempted catheterizations (12 times all unsuccessful), 3 operations, scopings of the most private kind, and many embarrassing moments. But unless you were one of the few people who saw him on the 2 days following his major surgery, you never heard a complaint or saw his face without a smile. He was so brave, so patient, so PERFECT.

I never have felt helpless in my life, until I spent 10 hours away from my son while he was in surgery and recovery. As Chad and I sat there alone, waiting, worrying, praying, I took comfort in 3 things:

1. God loved Tahd more than me and would take care of him in my absence.
2. Dr Fantastic was THE best doctor...he invented the surgery he was preforming on Tahd.

3. My friends were lifting us all up in prayer.

To look at Tahd you would never know anything happened. He may have a few physical scars, but it is as if he is emotionally unscathed. I think this was God's protection over him. He can talk about his ordeal and not be embarrassed and he can talk to his father and I in an open way that may not have been if we had not walked through this journey together.

Jen said it best. She was one of the few that I allowed to come see Tahd at his lowest point in the hospital. The day after surgery she commented on how sad and hurting he seemed. She recalled looking at Tahd and looking out the window at Stone Mountain in the distance. She told him that someday they would hike to the top of it together when he was all healed up. On our vacation together, as she watched him jump off the big rock with the biggest smile on his face, she was glad to see him healed and able to do whatever he wanted to do.




He is perfect! Thank you Lord.

Saturday, June 20, 2009

JUNE 18TH-LAST DAY










GROCERIES-$300

GAS FOR JET SKI'S-$120

TUBES AND FLOATS-$25

SUNSCREEN-$15

DOCTOR'S VISIT FOR SWIMMERS EAR-$40

PRESCRIPTIONS AND MOTRIN-$37

A WEEK WITH FAMILY AND FRIENDS CLOSE ENOUGH TO BE- PRICELESS!




JUNE 17TH...STILL HERE!

QUESTION.
HOW DO YOU GET ONE OF THE WORST CASES OF SWIMMERS EAR THE DOCTOR HAS EVER SEEN?
JUST ASK WYATT.
IT IS AS EASY AS ONE...



TWO...THREE...


JUNE 16TH...WE STILL LIKE EACH OTHER


ASHER, ARE YOU NOT HAVING FUN?
OK, JUST CHECKING!

HEADING OUT ON THE TUBE, KELSEY AND ROSIE


WHO'S DRIVING THIS THING?


SO MUCH FUN!

JUNE 15TH...THE PARTY CONTINUES...

YELLOW RIVER FALLS...OR SOMETHING LIKE THAT
JEN AND A SNOOZING ROSIE ON OUR PONTOON RIDE HOME...

LEVI WENT DOWN THE LITTLE FALLS. IT WAS SUCH A BEAUTIFUL PLACE.


NOTICE THE POOL OF WATER BEHIND THEM? IT WAS ABOUT 15 FEET DEEP, HENCE THE LIFE JACKETS...



ISN'T SHE BEAUTIFUL?


OMG!!!! YUP, THAT'S TAHD JUMPING OFF THAT GIANT ROCK WHILE I TAKE A PICTURE, HOLD MY BREATH AND FEEL 100 MORE GRAY HAIRS POP OUT OF MY HEAD!


BETTER SIZE ROCK TO JUMP FROM...NO GRAY HAIR.



LEVI WAS THE FIRST TO TACKLE THE KNEE BOARD. HE DID AWESOME!








June 14th- LAKE WEISS ALABAMA

Yes Jen, I am totally copying you. You are worth copying!
DAY1...


PATIENTLY WAITING...


KAYACKING FUN... AARON AND RACHEL, TAHD AND KELSEY







CUTENESS...


BIG TABLE... BIG FUN...AWESOME FOOD... BLESS CHAD FOR COOKING AND ALL THE OTHERS.
MY FAVORITE PICTURE!