The Gospel and Stone Mountain

The Gospel
One of my favorite things about my time living in Dallas was attending The Village Church. My roommate/friend Amanda and I drove about 45 minutes from Dallas to Flower Mound (or Flo Mo as it is referred to) every Saturday night to attend one of their 6 services.  The Lord used the pastor Matt Chandler's preaching of the Gospel to really grow my relationship with Him.  At the time Matt wasn't well known widespread, but since then he has become well known across the country and is now the President of the Acts 29 Network of churches taking over for Mark Driscoll.

I follow Matt on Twitter and in February he tweeted about his upcoming book tour for his book The Explicit Gospel.  They were coming to Atlanta and since Amanda lives in Atlanta now I immediately emailed to let her know that we would be going.

So on Friday April 20, I headed to Atlanta to meet up with Amanda and go hear Matt preach.  Although I have listened to many of his sermons via podcast since living Dallas, it had been about three years since I had seen him preach live.  I had forgotten about how much movement his arms do during his preaching!

Afterwards there was the opportunity to wait in line to get Matt to sign your book and take a picture with him.  Now, this whole concept of a pastor going on a book tour and then people waiting in line to take a picture with him was a little strange to me.  When Matt opened his preaching, he had stated that the publishers had approached him about doing this, and he agreed because this was another opportunity to preach the Gospel.  My current pastor several times has mentioned that frequently well known pastors are idolized. And to me, this whole situation of waiting in line to meet him was an opportunity to idolize Matt.  But, I waited in line anyway.

I got to chat with Matt for a few minutes and informed him I had gone to The Village while I lived in Dallas.  He was incredibly nice and was quite interested in the fact that I had done an internship at Baylor since he spends so much time there now. We also took a picture which made awkward by the fact that 1) Who goes up to their former pastor and is like hey we never met because there are thousands of people in your congregation but lets take a picture and 2) He is like 6'4" and I'm maybe 5'2 so naturally I was standing on my tip toes.

Stone Mountain
JP was in Atlanta for work for three weeks. So, between weeks 2 and 3 he stayed in Atlanta over the weekend since I was going to be there.  After staying Friday night with Amanda and eating lunch with her Saturday, I headed over to meet up with JP who stayed Friday night with his friend Daniel.  We immediately headed to Stone Mountain.

JP lived super close to Stone Mountain until he was about 10 years old and his family moved to Arizona.  We checked out every possible thing at Stone Mountain and he talked about what he used to do at each thing as a child.  Our most favorite parts were the hike up the mountain- which he said he used to run up as a child and play at the top with his brothers- and the hike around the mountain.  This hike didn't just go around the mountain but around the lake as well. We tend to start trails without knowing there distance.  This one ended up being about 6 miles long.

After finishing the trail we caught the laser show- which started 30 minutes later than it was supposed to- and then headed back into Atlanta.  We checked into the Loews Hotel where we were staying for the night. After showering, we finally made it to dinner at Tap around 11:30pm.  We were quite hungry since we had walked over 10 miles that day at the park but had yet to have anything to eat since before noon.  I ordered a burger which was quite tasty!

The next day we slept in super late and then enjoyed some of the Dogwood Festival in Midtown- which was where we were staying. We wished we could have seen more of the dog show! It was fun watching them do tricks with frisbees!

This weekend was so much fun- one other perk of the weekend. I didn't have to drive to and from Atlanta by myself.  My sweet sister Sarah rode with me and spent the weekend with her friend Caroline.

House Update: April 2012

The title of this post is somewhat misleading. Why? Because there is nothing to update you on. During the month of April we did absolutely nothing on this list:

JP was out of town for work every week in April & we had something going on every weekend in April.  Although we did not get anything done on the list, it seemed the few times JP was home he ended up doing yard work.

Weekend of April 7: We were in Decatur with my family for Easter. JP did manage to mow the lawn and cutting down a town of branches that weekend before heading to Atlanta for work. It takes the city about a week to pick up out of ordinary loads like our tons of limbs and branches so we had an obnoxious pile sitting in front of our house for a while.

Weekend of April 14: I headed to Huntsville to visit some friends Friday night. Check out the update if you haven't.  JP got home from Atlanta Saturday afternoon and had to leave Sunday afternoon so there wasn't much time for productivity.

Weekend of April 21: I spent the weekend in Atlanta spending some time with Matt Chandler, Amanda, and JP.  Look for an update on that soon!  It was such a fun weekend!

Weekend of April 28: I spent the early part of the weekend in Atlanta... again.  And then, on Saturday we hosted an wedding shower at our house. So yes, a lot of things got done to the house in preparation but just cleaning related stuff and a ton of yard work.  Nothing on the list.  Look for an update on this weekend as well!

So, as you can see, there is good reason why our to-do list has not gotten shorter.  Hopefully May will be a little more productive!

But keep the old...

April has been a packed month with travel occurring every weekend.  One of these weekends consisted of me going to Huntsville to see some of my good friends from college.

I drove up to Hunstville on Friday after work and met up with Laurel and Emily.  We enjoyed Greek food followed by frozen yogurt.  After dinner, Emily had to go home so Laurel and I spent the evening looking at our yearbooks from high school.  We laughed a lot!

Saturday morning Laurel, Emily, and I participated in their churches 5k.

Afterwards, Blair arrived in town and we all spent the rest of the day spending time together. 

It was a good weekend catching up with friends that don't live in the same town as me!

Learning to lift things up...

One of my goals for 2012 was:

Lift weights at least 5 times/week.  I'm weak. Just ask my husband, my sister, and my mom.  I have to keep up with my push up doing husband, my 12lb weight lifting sister, and my daily weight lifting mom. Plus I should probably help my bones out so they will be strong when I'm old.

I've always gotten exercise in, but weight resistant exercise has never been my strong point.  I wasn't sure how I was going to achieve this because to be honest I've tried to do this before.  I realized that I can't hold myself accountable in this area!  Thankfully, one of the girls in my home group had talked about going to workout classes at Dawson Baptist.  I decided a class is just what I need to hold me accountable.

Since January, I have been going to 2 classes a week.  The first class is a boot camp where we do a lot of cardio with some weights and abs at the end. The second class is short bursts of cardio mixed in with a lot of strength training.  I don't think I have worked out this hard- especially the boot camp- since high school! Since the weather has been nice, we have been going outside and doing sprints and a few other things that remind me of high school athletics.

One great thing about these classes- other than the fact they are a good workout- is the cost.  If you pay for each class, it is $3 a class. However, if you buy a punch card you pay $30 upfront for 15 classes- $2 a class.  If you just do the classes and not use the equipment on your own time, you don't have to join the facility.  So the excuse that going to classes is expensive no longer works!

Although this is only twice a week, I am really motivated on the days I don't go to class to do something.  Before I didn't really even know where to start so I just wouldn't do any weights.  But now, these classes have taught me a lot of new weight bearing exercises and have encouraged me to do more cardio.

One thing that I have found to help me get a good workout in at home is using some the circuit workouts I've seen on pinterest.

I turn on some dance music and get to it!  Doing things like this are great! You don't have to be outside- if its cold, rainy, too hot, too late- but you also don't have to have any fancy equipment.  All I use are some 5lb weights.

I plan to continue doing these things through the year... and hopefully after!  I've found that it isn't as overwhelming or take as much time as I thought, and I actually enjoy it!

House To-Do List: First Quarter

Here is a look at our house to-do list at the end of the 2012 first quarter.

House Update: March 2012

I felt like we did not get a lot done during March, but while writing this post I realize we got more done than I thought.

Sheets

When JP and I bought our king sized bed in August, I could not find any bedding that I liked so his grandmother let us borrow a set of king sized sheets.  I later found bedding but since it was winter I bought flannel sheets.  As March weather began to feel more like June, we quickly realized we needed to find some non-flannel sheets.  I did some research and determined that Sam's Club would have the best deal.  I went in expecting to spend ~$80 on sheets. As I placed the sheets in the cart, I realized that there was a small section of sheets on sale.  Sure enough, there was a set of king sized sheets in the color we need on sale for $45- in a higher thread count than the regularly priced sheets.  You better believe I picked those up and put the regular priced ones back.  Apparently the sale sheets were from their fall line- but to me it did not matter!

Blanket
On the same trip to Sam's, I got this super soft blanket for the living room. 

It really is the softest blanket I think I have ever owned plus it is really warm.  All of this for just $15.  Although I like this blanket a lot, it is a little warm for it now.  So, I'm still looking for a lighter throw for the living room that is more warm weather appropriate.

Door

This has been quite a project. Our front door was painted, and we wanted to remove the paint and stain the wood.  JP and his grandfather did a lot of work on the outside of the door in the fall, and his grandmother finished the outside later in the year.  This was a much more time consuming job than it seemed! 

Thankfully the inside of the door did not have quite as many layers, but it still was a job looming over us.  JP's grandparents were so kind to come visit us one Saturday and finish removing the paint from the inside of the door.  They even applied wood putty to fill in some holes/cracks.  Now it is ready to be stained. We are so appreciative of their hard work!

Table
Our big purchase of the month was a dining table.  We have not had a table since we got married as our apartment was too small for one, so we have just been eating on the couch for the past 3+ years.  After searching for tables, we knew we wanted to get one from World Market but we wanted to wait until a sale.  They always put things on sale... you just have to be patient.  One Sunday we were at O'Henry's hanging out, and I randomly decided to check World Market's website.  I discovered that they were having a sale on their dining furniture!

We immediately packed up our stuff and went to World Market.  It took us a while to decide which table we actually wanted, but we finally decided on the Tradesman table.  We weren't a hundred percent sure about it so made sure we could return it if we did not like it once we got it home.

Thankfully my sister has an SUV and was able to help us transport the table.  The table literally fit perfectly into her car.  We did put some of the chairs in JP's car.

After putting it together, we realized that we liked the table much more in our house than in the store. 

Of the two tables we were deciding between, this one won because it would be able to extend to seat more people.

We were quite pleased with our purchase and felt we got a good deal on both the table and the eight chairs. We had been pricing tables and it seemed like even if we found a good deal on a table we liked the chairs were always at least a hundred dollars a piece.  With the sale we were able to get the table for $318 and the chairs for $65 a piece.  That is a savings of 47% Since the chairs were less than we thought we would be spending we were able to get eight instead of six.  Not that we need eight chairs all the time but we figured it would be nice to have a times.



You also may notice that decorative piece I have on the table.  I got this from At Home and just love thinking of all the possibilities for the contents of the jars!

Legit Photographer

Photography has become quite a trendy thing these days as it seems everyone is picking up a D-SLR and calling themselves a photographer.  And yes, a good camera can help make everyday pictures look good and knowing how to work with the aperture etc can make them look even better.  However, there is nothing that can replace the talent of the one behind the camera.  There is a difference in the person who takes pictures and the person who thinks and lives photography.

So I wonder, when I tell people that my brother-in-law Michael is a photographer, do they understand that he is legit.  He has talent.  It is not just the camera. (And I should know- I have the camera he used to use and there is no way the photos I take with it are anywhere close to the ones he took with it!).

Michael has gained excellent experience in his year and a half at Visionyard Photography in Phoenix and has had the opportunity to shoot many weddings and grow his portfolio.  Today Michael was published on TWO wedding websites- Storyboard Wedding & Bridal Guide (you know... the people who make that huge wedding magazine you always see).. Yes, two!  I am quite proud of him!

I love this quote from storyboardwedding.com: There are times when choosing which images make it into a post is an easy task, and there are times when the combination of photographer & couple make it incredibly hard! This is most definitely one of those times!


Check out his work!

Bridal Guide- Photo of the Day

Storyboard Wedding