we're getting married!

it's true! i can't believe i'm actually writing this post. i knew this day would come eventually...but i was caught completely off guard on a random tuesday afternoon and here we are!

it all started last saturday, march 3. it was our one year anniversary and (little did i know) chad had an elaborate proposal planned for that day. i had tried so hard not to get my hopes up that it would happen that day, but when it didn't...i was definitely a little disappointed. what happened was that he had been working with a ring designer and had received the ring on monday, february 27. when he got it, the center stone was made to look a little yellow in comparison to the stones all around it. so, he sent it back right away to have a higher quality stone put in, hopefully to get it back by friday. unfortunately, the ring was not ready by friday...so his dreamy proposal could not happen as he had planned. in retrospect, i'm  definitely glad it couldn't happen that day, because when it did, i was absolutely beyond surprised. more than you can imagine!

tuesday was a pretty normal day, teaching classes and dealing with students. :) the weirdness started when i was on my prep and sitting in the front office with our secretary. the school phone rang and she picked it up, as normal, and i heard her side of the conversation:

"st. raphael's school, can i help you?"
"angie carroccio? she's actually right here! do you want to talk to her?"
"oh, oh, oh!"
"oh, okay...bye!"

i looked at her quizzically and said "what? who was that?" she giggled and replied, "wrong number. oops!" yeah, okay. i still had no clue as to what was going to happen. i thought chad was going to have flowers sent to me at school and they were just calling to confirm that i was there or whatever. she wouldn't give me any info, so i just brushed it off and moved on.

at the end of the day i was all ready to get outta there, when my boss approached me and told me we had an issue with a student and that we needed to meet quickly before i left. this happens regularly, so again, i didn't think anything of it. i just got my stuff ready and waited to meet. a couple teachers and i were standing in the hall outside my room talking when all of the sudden kids kept coming up and asking me to buy fruit roll-ups (i sell snacks in my room for our student council). little did i know, they were just trying to keep me in my room! after a little bit of this business, the magic began...

i first saw bill (chad's roommate) with a video camera.
he was followed by my roommate, anna, carrying a dozen roses.
and then chad's sister, heather, with another dozen roses.
then my other roommate, kk, holding even more roses and singing a brooke fraser song.
she was accompanied by our friend randy, playing the guitar.
then there was my love, carrying 2 dozen roses.
and our friend/photographer, rachel, was snapping pics the whole time.

i obviously caught on quite quickly as to what was happening...but i was SO surprised! i still can't even believe it happened that way! chad walked over to me, set down the flowers, and tearfully told me some very sweet things. he then got down on one knee and asked me to be his wife! of course i said yes, and he placed this beaut on my hand:

he did quite the job designing it! :)

we were both shaking and hugging and were (and still are) bursting with joy. i'm so, so, SO happy to have chad as my forever. i can't believe God has blessed me with such an incredible man to be my best friend, my leader, and my husband. waiting 27 years and suffering a few broken hearts along the way were all made worth it when i met chad. he is exactly the man that i've always wanted, along with SO much more that i didn't even know i wanted. we are ecstatic and looking forward to our future together. i'll post more pictures as soon as rach edits some of them, and the video too!

here's to love and life.

sincerely,

the future mrs. king :)

trusting.

trust. this is a constant theme in my quiet times. probably because i have a hard time with it. we had a worship night last night, and my wonderful roommate, anna, spoke some incredible truth about fully trusting God and what that looks like. she spoke about how we are quick to say "i trust you, Lord" ...but do we really trust Him? what does that look like for you? i'll be honest. i have a tendency to worry. i'm an "N" (myers-briggs), so i see everything big picture style and i worry about the future. i worry about getting things done. i worry about what's to come...but God speaks against those things.

"when i am afraid, i will trust in You. in God, whose Word i praise, in God i trust; i will not be afraid."

ps. 56:3-4

here's the thing about it: we can speak those truths into our lives, but we really need to do it. we need to give every burden, every worry, every fear, every doubt over to the one who sent His son to die so we could do just that. Jesus gave his own life to free us from these afflictions. read that sentence again. his LIFE. for us. for our freedom. i've never thought about it that way until today. we absolutely better be trusting Him. talk about a perspective shift. 

post-Christmas

so...as i've previously said, i lead worship at an incredible church in the twin cities, substance. this Christmas, i sang in a spectacular production that i am still truly so honored and humbled to have been a part of. our team arranged a very, very cool version of "o come Emmanuel" that we filmed and recorded live...and the video's done! check it out... and also check out our worship blog!

seek ye first

i've been praying lately that God would give me an insatiable hunger for Him. you know those times- when you're out running errands or at work or out with friends or whatever...suddenly you just want to rush home, grab your Bible, and be with Jesus. i love, love, love those times! lately though, unfortunately, i've been so busy and life has been passing so quickly that i haven't had many of those times. i've been meeting with the Lord on the regular, but it feels shallow and flat on my end of things. one of my new year's resolutions was to journal every single day. i don't know about you, but when i journal, i journal prayers. as of late, my journals have been seriously lacking. they're full of "thanks for [whatever]," "it was a good day," "i'm excited for [whatever]." this just isn't okay with me. i want my journal to be a place where God reveals Himself to me and i'm able to process with Him. i've been praying for that. i've been praying that He would light a fire in me and that my heart would burn for Him. last week at our worship night, my lovely roommate kk began to sing out this chorus:

the more you seek Him, the more you find Him

the more you find Him, the more you love Him

wow. talk about convicting. i totally realized that i wasn't seeking Him the way i'm called to. i wasn't searching for His passion, so i wasn't feeling His passion. it all makes so much sense now. since then, my journaling and prayer times have changed drastically. i've devoted time to reading His Word- i mean really reading it- and praying for extended periods of time. and, shockingly enough, the more i do all of this, the more hungry i am for Him. i encourage you to spend some real time with God today. rest in His presence and truly give Him all of you during that time. let go of distractions, let go of schedules. He's our King. He deserves our undivided, whole-hearted attention. 

"seek ye first the Kingdom of God and His righteousness; and all these things shall be added unto you." matthew 6:33

blogland

my blog is so cute...
it has so much potential...

...and it's incredibly deserted.

how sad! i am quite possibly the world's worst blogger! who doesn't write a blog post for over 3 months? no good, my friends. no good.

i feel that there's so much to say, but there's no possible way to say it all in a mere blog post. Christmas even happened. i'm so sorry. all i can say is that i promise to be better! i would love to see this blog actually go places in 2012 (however, i think that i would get much more traffic if i were a fashionista blogger...).

here's to 2012 (it's already february?!) and to blogging at its finest.

a little something that's been on my heart lately: God's been convicting me in the area of love. i don't mean the fireworks kind of love that chad and i have (he he he). i mean loving His people. i've been praying a lot about loving people and seeing them through His eyes. we've all got a story. we've all got our issues. we've all got something. to be completely vulnerable and honest, i struggle with this. i jump to cynical/skeptical conclusions about people. i get annoyed with little things and then have a hard time being around certain people. but Jesus does not teach this. He teaches us to love. 1 John 4:7 says, "beloved, let us love one another, for love is from God, and whoever loves has been born of God and knows God." He's the one who sat at the table with the tax collectors and whores (gasp!). He's the one who gives water to the thirsty and food to the hungry. and we are called to do the same. i've been striving to always give people the benefit of the doubt. to always love. to always speak with kind words and choose peace and harmony.

harmony.
that's a word that has come up quite a few times in the last month or so for me. that is my prayer for 2012. harmony, love, and peaceful things. i know it maybe sounds a bit unrealistic or fantastical...but it's my prayer. i want to love. to really love.

romans 12:16

live in harmony with one another. do not be proud, but be willing to associate with people of low position. do not be conceited.

cheat day #1.

holy moly.
i survived week one of the slow-carb diet...and my cheat day was magnificent. i told chad that i wanted to eat "as many cookies that will make me not want to eat cookies again for another week." i did just that. by 9:30 last night, i felt sick to my stomach from eating so much (ha ha ha). it was glorious.

i got my delish pumpernickel bagel with plain cream cheese and chocolate-caramel mocha before church. i was pleased. then, during 1st service, i ate an old-fashioned donut (complete with chocolate icing). during second service, i ate 2 rice krispy bars, chocolate on top...obvs. we got back to the operations center around 2, where there was tortellini in alfredo sauce (thank you, Jesus!) patiently waiting, along with some assorted godiva chocolates that someone gave to us. mmmm. we went to chad's afterward, around 4. while there, i ate:
-one seven-layer bar
-3 chocolate chip cookies
-2 pieces of pizza
-some buffalo wing chips
-the inside of 3 oreos
-some dr. pepper and root beer
-half a banana creme pie blizzard.

so glad i got my ice cream in there. i was worried i wouldn't get it! ;) overall, it was a successful cheat day and i look forward to my next one. obviously, i have quite the sweet tooth. i just can't help myself! in all reality, though- i'm already noticing a little more looseness in my clothing. come on, slow carb! i love thee!

the slow carb diet.

okay. i'm on day one of this "slow carb diet" from tim ferriss's book "the 4 hour body." i've known a few girls who have done it and had good results, and it's made for people who simply don't have the time to do full-on workouts. i used to spend 40ish minutes at the gym 4 times a week, and i lost a ton of weight. now, i'm lucky if i can find the time to do a 15 minute walk! with this diet, you're supposed to only do some light cardio and strength training (and never on the same day), or else it will work the opposite and you'll gain weight! yikes! the diet is great, but i can tell it's going to wear on me...oh well, results are results, right? i just have such a sweet tooth...essentially, you don't eat anything but beans, green vegetables, and meat for 6 days out of the week. but then there's the cheat day. the glorious cheat day. ferriss suggests that you eat yourself into oblivion on the cheat day, ingesting all things delicious that you miss throughout the week. i've been operating on a 'sunday is cheat day' mentality for the last couple of years, so this shouldn't be hard for me. i'm just so glad that i get to eat ice cream on that day! here are the things i'm definitely going to partake in on my cheat day:

• ice cream (and lots of it)
• macaroni & cheese (and probably other pastas)
• fruit
• sunday morning bagel
• sunday morning donut (i know, i know)
• pizza
• cookies
• candy (lots of chocolate, please)

just thinking about it gets me excited. haha. i just need to lose like 20ish more lbs. i'll be doing long walks on mondays, wednesdays, and fridays...and doing some light weightlifting on tuesdays, thursdays, and saturdays. it should be good! i've also got chad and some others keeping me accountable (because we know i need it!)...i can't wait to see the results! i hope they come sooner rather than later! :)