And then...

After the excitement of the movie and shopping, we met friends for dinner.

Brandon's birthday continued

Since Ron and Karen were unable to come down to visit during Brandon's birthday, we had to switch our plans pretty quickly. So this is what Brandon's celebration day looked like: 

We drove to Buford, Georgia (~45 minutes) to the Mall of Georgia to see the movie "The Dark Knight" in IMAX. 

You KNOW that Brandon was excited for me to take this picture, but he was a good sport about it.

We walked around the mall a bit and Brandon thought this helmet was rockin'. For some reason I feel like when we have children of our own, we'll have lots of little boy or little girls photos like this.

As it happened we also were up for a new phone with our cell phone provider, so on the birthday Brandon got a new phone! Can you see how happy he is? His old phone had lived a long life of nearly 4 years!

Just in case you couldn't figure out what he was doing in the below picture!

This was the bubble wrap in the package from Brittney, he didn't know I was video-taping which makes it even better!!

A Start to a GREAT Birthday

It's always hard to decide what to do for one's 27th birthday... but you always know it's going to be  a good day when you catch Brandon enjoying his gift from Brittney...

It's that time again!! Go Dawgs.

We are so blessed to have such wonderful friends!! Chad, Karla, and Piper are so wonderful to have in our lives. We are cheering on Coach Chad/Hubby/Daddy at the home opener v-ball match again GA Tech. It was such an exciting match and a bonus was that I got to hold Piper!! 

This is the first photo of B and I in front of Sanford Stadium on the tracks. The tracks run north to south of UGA's campus; and before the stadium was added onto people could watch the Dawgs play from the tracks. 

Coach McCartney made sure the Jones' got matching Georgia volleyball shirts! This means we are superfans!

This is UGA VII, he is the newest member of Bulldog Nation... and probably the most popular and pampered.

Raise The Roof 1994 Style

I love going to church. 

I didn't always love it. I used to take as long as possible on sunday mornings in hopes that I might actually get left at home and could watch cartoons by myself and eat three bowls of cereal. Then I went to college and didn't have the parents making me go, so I didn't, regularly anyways for two years. Church was boring and a duty. Not cool. I still loved Jesus but not going to church. It felt like I had heard everything before. This was far from the truth, but thats what it felt like, I'm just keepin' it real wich ya. 

Then I found a church of my own, to call my own and there was excitement from the people at this church [there is a reason that I say the people and not me… you'll see]. It is a growing church and I tried to get involved. I taught 3rd&4th grade boys sunday school and also went to the Men's Bible Study…most of the time. I really enjoyed sunday mornings, but that was where I left my enjoyment of learning and talking about God. 

Since moving to Georgia and literally starting anew, I have had a lot of priority shifts and revelations, in a lot of areas of my life. I'm not going to tell you about all of them. Instead I am going to tell you about one that has bugged me about me lately. Here it goes, straight forward, sorry if I get to preaching but I think it may be in my genes, right Dad.

I am tired of people [like me] who love Jesus and believe in what he did for us [died on the cross and saved us from our sins] just sitting on their hands at church as if it was a school classroom. Are you kidding me? When was the last time you went to a concert or sporting event and didn't make a peep. I'm not just talking about singing, clapping and waving your hands in the air as if you just don't care. I'm talking about "cheering on" your pastor, being excited to give back to God, and seeing lives changed. If you went to a concert or sporting event and nobody cheered, would you go back or think that the fans were really all that interested in what was going on? Would you, who are fans tell anybody about how great your team was? There is no way. Then why in the world do we do that at church. It is proven that Bands and Sports Teams perform better when the crowd is behind them, so why would you not "cheer on" your pastor when they are trying to change lives for eternity the greatest cause in the world. Your excitement will breed more excitement. When you look at churches that are growing rapidly, you will notice that the congregation is participatory in the service not sitting idly back. If people have a good time at church then they will more likely come back. If church is just another classroom… did any of us really like going to school?

The more excited you are at and about church, the more you will talk about it and people will be more compelled to check out what all the excitement is about. Think about it.

It has really changed things in my spiritual life. I read the Bible now more than ever. I listen to sermons almost everyday of the week, via podcasts, and God is changing me little by little. It is incredible how my excitement for and at church has breed excitement in my everyday life. 

Surprise your pastor and help pour into them while they are pouring into you.

Podcasts with great teaching… My favorites

CompassChurch.com – Current Church

Elevation Church – Pastor Steven Furtick [My favorite by far]

LifeChurch.tv

NewSpring Church – Perry Noble

Orchard Hill Church – Cedar Falls, Iowa

– Brandon

Chicago Fire–que