How did that happen

I just read an article from our local news saying that police are investigating the theft of a TV from our local mall. What is so amazing about that? Well, it was a 42 inch plasma screen TV that was taken in the middle of the day from the front desk of a portrait studio. Whoever did this was able to successfully unplug all cables pick up the TV and walk out of the mall without being noticed. This is was the quote from the employee at the studio: "I realized that it was gone when my boss came in and said the monitor was gone. And I said the monitor was gone? So I just jumped up and saw that the monitor was gone. That was pretty much it. I was in the back putting plain t-shirts in a box."

I don't know how this person got out of the studio without being noticed, but once he/she hit the mall it was easy. Mainly because the police officers that are assigned to our mall are jokes. They spend most of their time hanging out with employees of the mall. I used to work for Chick-fil-A in our mall, and the police officers at that time would come and flirt with the 16 and 17 year olds all the time. At one point, one of the officers was hanging out with us when the other officer called over the radio to tell him to come to another place in the mall to check out a girl. These were men in their thirties (old enough to know better), and way too old to be flirting with teenagers. This behavior has not changed throughout the years, and I guarantee is the reason someone was able to walk right out of the mall with a 42 inch plasma screen television. It really is ridiculous.


Just to put it in perspective, this is a 42 inch plasma screen television.

Whining gets you things

Who says that whining gets you nowhere. It got me a whole post (written by Mike at Wunderkraut) dedicated to Royal Destiny. That hopefully should increase our traffic here. But that also means I have to try to post everyday. sigh.... with great whining comes great responsibility. It was well worth it.
By the way thanks for everything you said Mike the feelings are mutual.

I'm Hurt

I have had this blog for a while now and have linked to Wunderkraut (Mike my best friend) several times. I just now realized that Wunderkraut has not only never linked me, but I am not even on his blog roll. I realized this when he added another friend to his blog roll and posted about it to let everyone know. All I have to say is that hurts man that really hurts.

Questions I Have?

Joanna's cousins and aunt and uncle are here for the a few days. They come every year and we have a really fun time with them. Her cousins (Becca, Laura, and David) plus Joanna's sister Erin (who is in town from California) are staying with us . Last night, I opened the shower curtain to get in the shower and I saw something in the floor of the shower. I picked it up and found that it was an orange seed. Finding this caused many question to immediately cross my mind.

Why would anybody have an orange in the bathroom?

Did the person eat the orange while bathing?

Did the person bathe with the orange to get that nice citrus scent?

Did the person eat an orange while using the bathroom and spit the seed in the shower?

When I got out of the shower, I told everyone what I found and nobody admitted anything. Alas, I will have to chalk it up as a mystery.

Here is the scene of the crime

This is a reenactment of the crime itself.

Christmas Lights

Every year, I go looking at Christmas lights with Joanna and her family. This has a been a tradition for a number of years. We grade every house we see with a letter grade from A-F, and we are ruthless. Usually you hear comments like "I give it a C for Crap" or " a B for Barf" or " I'd rather eat vomit than look at that house". Granted most of the time that is coming from my mouth, but it is mainly because people do stupid things to their houses. Like puting up only red candle lights in their windows and that is it, or people who seemingly just plug in their lights and then throw them out the front door into the yard. It is just stupidity and deserves stupid comments to go with them.
Anyway, We give out two awards at the end of the night. One for the most lights in the yard, and the other for the most elegantly decorated house. For the first award, we could care less how the house looks it is strictly just the most lights someone could fit in their yard. Giving it out is easy because usually the same house wins every year. The other award is more tricky. We are really looking for the most elegant and tastefully decorated house in the city. Almost always the decision comes down to spot light placement. We believe very strongly that a well decorated house should have a spot light on the door. What makes this hard is that alot of people don't do this. There are some really well decorated homes that would probably come close to winning if they would just put a spot light on their front door. I don't get it but most people don't do this. It is a mystery to me. Anyway, here are some pictures from that night. One is just a really big tree decorated. The others are an example of a good elegant house and the other of a good most lights house.

Mei

So, I haven't posted in a while. Life gets busy and I forget to write. Tonight I think I will show the pictures of baby Mei. She is so cute. So without further ado here she is:

She is going to be an amazing niece. We can't wait to hold her and love on her.

Adoption

My sister Jennifer and her husband Mike (wunderkraut.com) are adopting a child from China. The adoption process has taken over two years, and the wait has not been easy at times. Yesterday they finally got the phone call telling them their referral has gone through. The lady told them they were adopting a 9 month old baby girl whose name is Feng Yun Man. She said that Feng Yun Man has alot of hair that stands straight up on here head, and that she was very cute. They will get her picture through email today, and Joanna and myself will go over to video tape their reaction. We are so excited for them, and are extremely happy to be Aunt and Uncle again.

It's Tuesday

Tomorrow is tuesday which means it's our day off. We haven't had a tuesday off in a long time so this is really exciting. On the agenda.....sleeping in. We don't even have to set the alarm. It brings a tear to my eye just thinking about it. Tomorrow is going to be a great day.

PGA

There is a guy I went to high school with that is trying to qualify for his PGA Tour card. His name is Josh Broadaway , and he has been playing professional golf for a while now. Anyway, he has made it to the final stage of the PGA Tour Qualifying school and is in day four of six straight days of golf. He has to finish in the top 25 to get his card. Yesterday he had the round of his life. He went into the round yesterday tied for 58th place, but shot a 6 under 66 and is now tied for 10th. He still has 3 more rounds to go, and I really hope he makes it. Where others would probably have given up by now he hasn't, and I believe he deserves to be rewarded for his tenacity. So I've decided to pray for him that this would be his year. I believe the Lord honors those who don't give up on their dreams, and I believe this is the year he makes it.

I'm Tired

After a day of 4 huge plates of food and 3 slices of pie, I was looking forward to a great nights sleep. Did this happen? Absolutely not. Why you ask? Because of all the times for my dog to get sick, it was on Thanksgiving night. I knew something was bothering her because she could not get settled in our bed. She then came up and laid across my stomach (which after 4 plates of food was not fun because she weighs almost 60 pounds). I finally noticed that her stomach was contracting really bad (probably stomach cramps), and she was whimpering a little bit. I finally told Joanna to get some sleep and I would take her into the other room (I am amazed at the things I will do for my dog...I really question it sometimes). Anyway,I lied on the couch and she moaned and groaned for a while on the floor.She finally started getting relief around 4 in the morning, which is when I went to bed. So, a full stomach with a sick dog and only 4 hours of sleep has left me pretty out of it this morning.


I think Cassie will look like this the rest of the day.

Figure It Out

Give me tragedy or crises and I will pass with flying colors, but if I should accidently drop my clean underwear in my dog's water bowl before people come for Thanksgiving (which happened today), and you would think my world has come to an end......go figure

Happy Thanksgiving!!!!!!!!

I hope all of you have a great thanksgiving. This is the one day a year I let tryptophan totally take over. I should look like the picture below by about 2:30 this afternoon.

Counter Attack

Well the counter attack has started on me. I posted yesterday about me shooting down a wasp nest. Today, I step outside and out of no where a wasp or a bee attacks me. I mean really attacks as in dive bombing at my head over and over again. And then all of sudden, I am covered in biting red ants from my chest to my shoes. I wasn't even near an ant bed. I am telling you I have messed with nature one to many times and they are taking their revenge. If I disappear, you all know what happened to me...don't even bother looking. Or if I come down the road looking like the guy below.....run!.....just save yourself.....save yourself.....

Shooting A Wasp Nest

The other day when we were at the Collins' house watching their kids (this is the family of Hannah Cate, who I posted about the other day). Their oldest son John Craig (11) came inside and said he had shot at a wasp nest with his BB gun and knocked a few wasps off. Now I know what your thinking, being the responsible adult I am, that I told him to stop because it was dangerous. But, nope, I said, "awesome lets go do it again". So, we went to the front of the house and he showed me the wasp nest. It was a fairly good size one and had about 4-6 wasp hanging off of it, and it had a ton of eggs in the holes of the nest. So, I took the gun took aim and shot. Being the great shot that I am, I shot the whole dang nest down. Now, we were within ten feet of this nest, and John Craig semi whispered "you shot the whole thing down"!!!

Now this brings an off subject question. Why do we whisper when situations like this occur? Last time I checked wasps can't understand us, and I don't even know if they have ears. Yet it is always my first inclination to whisper in those kind of situations also. Just wondering....


So, John Craig says "you shot it down" and I yell "run, John Craig, run". And I mean we took off running. About half way to the side of the house, I realized that I don't sprint at 28 years old quite like I did when I was 18. This became even more evident when we jumped through the bushes to get to the side of the house. I know your thinking that I had this revelation that what we did was dangerous and because of that I told John Craig that we should never do that again. But I didn't. Instead I suggested we sneak around the other side of the house and see what the wasps are doing. So, we sneaked over and as we suspected the wasps were not happy. What was my adult suggestion you ask? It was to shoot won of the angry wasp on the ground. Which we did and caused him to lose a wing and only be able to walk in a circle. I then suggest we steel the fallen nest. So, I sneaked up and quickly took the nest and off we went again. We sprinted back around the house away from the danger, and had a good laugh. It was not until the next morning that I realized I put my legs through alot and, therefore, they made me suffer for two days after the incident. I have to say it was well worth it, though. I haven't had that much fun with a BB gun in years.



This was about the size of the nest

I Have Strong Feeling of Disaproval for Tom Brady

Hate is a strong word and I don't like using it towards any body. So I have very strong feelings of disapproval towards Tom Brady. Why you ask? I really don't know, I just can't stand the guy. I don't like anything about him. Is he a good quarterback? yeah, he's a great quarterback. Is he a hall of famer? Yes he is. But I can't stand him. There is just something about him. I think it is because he acts like a robot. He controls the game like a robot. He shows no emotion at press conferences. All of his answers are patent answers. I agree with Mike from wunderkraut.com that he is a plant from the CIA. He has to work for the government...he has that kind of personality. So what I am saying is don't be surprised one Sunday when Brady throws a touchdown while taking out a sniper in the rafters, and then goes into hiding for the rest of his life. I really can't stand the guy.


Tell me he's not CIA

We Are Back

So I know I have said this alot lately, but sorry for the quietness on here. It has been a heck of a two weeks. We have a family of eight in our church (2 adults and 6 children 4 of which are home schooled) that we(mainly Joanna) helps 3 days a week by going out there and helping with the kids. The second to last child is 4 and a half years old and has down syndrome. Her name is Hannah Cate and she is amazing. We have been praying for her healing for a long time and know that God is going to heal her. Right before we left for California, Hannah Cate had surgery to have her tonsils and adenoids taken out and her sinuses and ears cleaned out. The surgery went great, but she did not recover well. The doctors ran her blood and found that she has leukemia. This was a big shock to all of us, and the next day she was taken to Atlanta to a children's hospital. The hospital has been administering chemotherapy and other treatments for the past two weeks. My sister watched the rest of her brothers and sisters last week and Joanna and myself took them this week. Well, Hannah Cate finally came home tonight. She was extremely happy to be home and see her brothers ans sisters. It was a great evening.

We are praying for nothing less than her total and complete healing. The enemy has stolen enough and its time it stopped. So we are going after this until she is totally set free from both down syndrome and leukemia. Please join us in our prayers for her 100% complete healing. God is not the author of any of this, and because of that we can pray His will (which is that she be completely set free from all of this). The picture below is our favorite picture of Hannah Cate. It displays her personality perfectly



You can find out all the latest updates on Hannah Cate at www.caringbridge.org/visit/hannahcatecollins

Heading to California

We are headed to Redding, California for a week to attend the annual Bethel Church Leaders Advance. It should be lots of fun...looking forward to what is in store for us. We are flying from Atlanta to San Francisco and then driving 3 hours to Redding. We have decided to spend next Friday in San Francisco sightseeing and then fly out Saturday morning. We will try to post while we are out there, but will definitely post with pictures when we get back. Until then...see ya.

Heroes

Well we have added a new tv show to our list. And that would be Heroes. We watched the first few episodes of the first season last year, but never watched again. We liked the show and decided to get caught up. So we read (yeah, I said it, read) every episode recap of season one on the internet. And then watched all of season two's episodes up to date. It took us three days, but it was well worth it. Heroes is an awesome show. We really need tivo though, it would make our lives a whole lot easier.

Sports when I am tired

When I am tired like today but know I have to post, the easiest thing for me to write about is sports. I may have written before, but I am a major sports fan. I love all kinds of sports whether its baseball, basketball, golf, football, soccer, polo, rack and field etc.... Pretty much if it's something competitive, I can watch. I am ashamed to say that I have even watched and somewhat enjoyed the occasional PBA (Pro Bowling Association) match.

So for today, I think I will focus on football. As stated in a previous post, I love Peyton Manning. It is a purely platonic love, but regardless I really love the man. I believe he is going to go down in history as the best quarterback of all time. This season there has been talk that Tom Brady (the quarterback for the New England Patriots) is the best quarterback in the NFL. Now I will admit that Brady has put up some amazing numbers as of late, but does this make him the best. I will argue no. Brady is a great quarterback, He has won 3 super bowls (2 of them consecutively), but he has not consistently put up the numbers that Peyton Manning has in their careers. Until last year I would have said that Brady is the better quarterback, but with the Super Bowl win for Manning (plus his numbers) he should be considered the best quarterback in the NFL. For those who are needing proof (Mike) you can look at their stats here for Manning and here for Brady. Notice the more touchdowns for Manning (the fact that Manning has been in the league 2 years longer does not matter seeing as he has over 100 more touchdowns that Brady), and the more fumbles and sacks for Brady. Anyway this is what I believe to be true. And I believe the Colts will beat the Patriots in two weeks also. Which will cement all that I have written here.

Awesome...... Just Awesome

New Website

We decided to design a website for our church. Joanna has been designing the site with her new Mac. We got the website up really quick and it looked awesome, but it ran really slow on everyone's web browser. Strangely in didn't run slow on any Mac. The web design software was already installed on the Mac, and apparently only Macs could handle the file size of the web design. This of course gave Mike another reason to hate Macs, and us another reason to love them. Anyway, we ended trying tried a different web design program, but the program was extremely complicated and we couldn't figure it out. So we finally found a good design program that is easy to use and creates the page so that it runs smoother on web browsers. We are in the process of getting the website back up, but if you want to look at it you can go to www.iwellspring.org. It should be finished within the next couple of days.

Women's Retreat

We just spent the whole weekend at Callaway Gardens for the WellSpring Fellowship Women's Retreat. It was an awesome time. We flew in Beni Johnson and Judy Franklin from Redding, Ca. Joanna led worship, she did and amazing job. I played guitar for her, and Mike ran the sound board. There were 220 women that came. I believe just about every one left having had an amazing encounter with the Lord.
I think the most amazing thing that happened was on Saturday night when a women found a jewel in her hand after soaking. She opened her eyes and there in her hand was a red gem. It is totally amazing that God would do that. It was her birthday and God gave her probably the best present she will ever get. Well, on Sunday she came up to show it to everybody and had another gem that she said she had gotten sometime that morning.
We have a picture of both of them here:


By the end of the Sunday service people were finding gems all over the right side of the conference room. Here is a picture of some of them:


It was awesome. You know I think Jesus just likes for us to know that the Kingdom is among us. And that we have access to what is there. I believe that things like gems, and gold dust, and diamond dust, and feathers appearing are all signs that heaven is invading earth. It is why Jesus said your Kingdom come on earth as it is in heaven. What is up there shows up down here when we pursue His Kingdom.

NFL Picks

Since I have nothing else to write on, I thought that I would give my picks for next weeks NFL games. I'll also give my picks for the superbowl. So here we go:

NFL:

Vikings at Bears: Vikings 7 - Bears 28

Dolphins at Browns: Dolphins 14 - Browns 35

Redskins at Packers: Redskins 21 - Packers 14

Bengals at Chiefs: Bengals 35 - Chiefs 10

Titans at Buccaners: Titians 10 - Buccaneers 21

Rams at Ravens: Rams 3 - Ravens 24

Texans at Jaguars: Texans 17 - Jaguars 21

Eagles at Jets: Eagles 42 - Jets 12

Panthers at Cardinals: Panthers 10 - Cardinals 28

Raiders at Chargers: Raiders 3 - Chargers 49

Patriots at Cowboys: Patriots 17 - Cowboys 21

Saints at Seahawks: Saints 7 - Seahawks 24

Giants at Falcons: Giants 38 - Falcons 10


Superbowl: Indianapolis Colts Vs. Washington Redskins:
Colts 35 - Redskins 21- I love Peyton Manning

There you go. To the ones who are actually interested in this (which is proabably nobody)...let me know what you think.

Best Guitar Solos Ever

I really like the Eagles. I think they are some of the best guitar players ever. In fact, I believe they have one of the two best guitar solos ever. Hotel California:

I love this video it's part of their farewell tour so they are quite a bit older in it... but anybody that can play a two neck electric guitar is just awesome in my opinion. I love how effortlessly they play...they don't even have to think about what they are playing their hands just do it. That is a sign of someone who has mastered their craft. It totally amazes me. On the other side, I really don't have any idea what the song is about, but if I was to guess it probably isn't about good things.
The other song is Freebird by Lynyrd Sknyrd (I don't know what this song is about either, but again I don't think it's about good things) I heard it on the radio today which inspired me to write this post. It has an amazing guitar solo also:

I believe they had true God given talent. Especially those guitar players. I think they were born with a gift to play guitar. I just don't think they used there gifting for God's glory. There is a bible scripture that says the giftings and callings of God are irrevocable. They were born with a gift from God that could not be taken away, but they chose not to use those giftings for Him. They still sound amazing to me though....I wonder what they could have accomplished in life if they had used their gifting to glorify Him. In the era they were playing in...I believe they could have changed history.

Television

I have to admit that I am just as much a TVaholic as I am a moviaholic. I love tv programs. Just to give you an idea, I am currently watching: My Name is Earl, The Office, The Hills (which I am most embarrassed about, but can't stop watching), Bionic Women, Life, The Contender, and Chuck. I think right now my favorites are Bionic Women and Life. Mike has come close to disowning me for not just watching but actually liking Bionic Women. What can I say I like hero shows, and a show about a girl with a superhuman arm, legs, ear, and eye saving the world is right down my alley. It honestly is really good, it has a great story line.
You might be thinking right now that I am a little weird, but thats because I am. But it has nothing to do with the 75 TV programs I watch, I'm weird because I'm just quirky. Anybody thats been around me long enough knows that already. No, I watch TV programs and movies because it's how I relax. Some people read, some excercise (which I do, but there is nothing relaxing about it to me), some talk, some play video games (Mike), some write. I choose to wind down watching movies and television. You don't have to think, you just have to watch and be entertained. What can I say I like mindless entertainment. If I had to use my mind, it would then require thought...which would then require my brain to work...which would mean I wasn't relaxed...which would defeat the whole purpose of relaxing. So give me the option of mindless entertainment and I'll take it everytime. It's what quirky people like me need to give our brains a break for a while.

Movies And Me: A Love/Hate Relationship

I am a movieaholic. I love them. I could watch movies all day if I didn't have other slightly more important things to do, like provide for my family. Anyway, Joanna and myself rented 'Next' it stars Nicholas Cage, Julianne Moore, and Jessica Biel. The first problem I saw before we even started the movie was that it was only 93 minutes long. Now my opinion is that a good action movie with a decent story line has to be at least 2 hours long. If it is not at least 2 hours long, then there is not enough time to develop plot and things get left out. 'Next' had a great story line, a great plot, great action scenes, but it left out one thing....the ending. Yep, the entire stinkin ending. You don't know if he saves the day. You don't know if he gets the girl. You don't know if he lives or dies. It just ends. Pretty much the movie ended this way:

FBI Agent(Juliane Moore):"So are you ready to save the day"

Hero (Nicholas Cage): Yep. Roll the credits.

I am not kidding. That is really how it ended. They built the whole movie up for the hero to find the bomb and save the day. But do we get to see it...No. It really sucked.

Personally, I believe when movies end this way it because they run out of money. And so what do they do, they rewrite the ending and stop production. It doesn't really matter to them whether the movie makes since they just want to pay thier bills and make a profit. Which they do very easily because shmucks like me get sucked into renting the dang movie.

So hats off to you Revolution Studios you got me.

Little bit of everything

-I'm glad to report that I am just about back to normal health wise. All symptoms have left except for a nagging cough, but even that has been much better today.

-Our good friend Faith ministered to us at chruch last night....it was awesome.....I believe everyone ended up on the floor at some point

-Today was pretty uneventful, we went to the church for a while and spent the rest of the afternoon here at home.

- Mike took his two boys to the Georgia Tech game and Tech upset Clemson...Go Tech!!!!

- Joanna and myself have Sunday School tomorrow....we are starting prophecy, it should be fun

-Anyway sorry for the boring post...will write tomorrow

Sick

Yep, I (Jon) am sick. I got the ole coughing, fever, and runny nose stuff. I'm pretty sure I got it from my nephew Charlie who had the same symptoms. I decided to hold Charlie and pray for him while he was sick, and sure enough I got what he had. I tend to have the attitude that if Jesus could touch sick people and not get sick then I should be able to also. I have to say that most of the time I don't. A few moths ago, I held and a prayed for a little girl who had strep throat (which is highly contagious), and I didn't get sick at all. I don't believe I have to stay away from sick people when they are sick. The Kingdom of God is within in me and because of that I should not be ruled by sickness. But I can't ignore the fact that I am sick. What I can do is not back down from sickness. I believe the enemy would love for me to reason that I got sick praying for a sick person, therefore, I will not go near sick people when I pray for them. I refuse to believe lies like that. All it makes me want to do is pray for more sick people and stand as close to them as possible. Faith is grown through risk. The more risks I take the more my faith grows; the more my faith grows the less sick I am. Anyway, that is my take on this cold I have contracted. It will not get me down. :)

Mike

My (Jon's) best friend Mike (www.wunderkraut.com check it out) just started his new job today. This is awesome because his new job is a work from home job. This gives him more flexibility and will allow him to work from just about anywhere in the world if they were to ever choose to move. Mike is amazing. He is one of the smartest people I know, and he is an amazing friend. The quality of a true friend is one who will let you be yourself around them, Mike is one of those kind of friends. I always feel free to be myself around him. The Bible says there are some friends who are closer than a brother. I feel that Mike is one of those kind of friends for me. So this is my ode to Mike.... I can't quit you man :)

Update to Azaleas

So we went to dig up Azaleas (which by the way bumped up to digging 24 bushes instead of twelve) and when we got there realized that the bushes were big and old and impossible to dig up. This didn't bother me any because, as written earlier, I am not a fan of yard work. It was then decided to go buy the 24 bushes from a local greenhouse in town. So we took off in 3 vehicles and went to go load the bushes. Again, loading 24 bushes from a greenhouse is in the same family as yard work. So although easier to do, I still would have chosen to do just about anything else. When I got there, the worker at the greenhouse said that the bushes could be loaded in one truck. That meant that my truck was not needed and I could go home. To sum it all up, I went from having to dig up 24 azalea bushes to loading 24 bought azaleas instead to having to do nothing and just going home. This all happened because Jesus love me!!!!!
I love Jesus.

Azaleas

This is a picture of an azalea bush. In a few minutes I (Jon) am going to help dig up about 12 of these. I have know idea how big they are. They could be as big as the one in this photo, but I am praying they are much smaller. I have never dug up a bush before, although it seems to me that it might be pretty tough to do. I personally am not a fan of yard work. If I had my choice of yard work or anything else I would probably pick the anything else everytime. But alas I am doing this to help my inlaws and they are well worth it. I will let you know how it goes.

Substituting

Sorry for the slow posting...haven't had a whole lot to talk about as of late. I'm hoping to post more frequently from here on out. I don't think I have announced on here that I (Jon) am trying to get on the list of substitute teachers for our county school system. I turned in my application today and pending approval form our school board I should be on the list and ready to work. One of the needs for the school system is high school substitutes. Most substitutes don't want to sub high school, and since substituting is choice alot say no. So this is a really good opportunity to extend the Kingdom in the school system especially the high schools. Plus it is good supplemental income. Anyway I will keep you posted on how this adventure turns out.

New Equipment

We were able to get some new sound equipment for the church a few days ago. This is really exciting for Joanna and myself because we make up the worship team for the church. Joanna is the Worship Leader and by the way has an amazing voice....she sings prophetically alot on Sundays and the anointing that she carries to do that is incredible. I play guitar and am semi talented at it. I have played for years but really desire to get better at it. So I have decided to start practicing again. Anyway the new equipment is awesome. We were able to get a new keyboard, mixing board, two speakers, a wireless lapel mic, and two more microphones. This is so exciting for us, because it shows the Lord's favor on us. To be a new/small church, but able to get this equipment only shows how amazing our Heavenly Father is. He never ceases to amaze us. He is a Father that gives only good gifts to His children. And this equipment was nothing but a gift from Him.

Odds and Ends

So it has been a pretty busy week and a half. We have not had much time to write anything. I (Jon) finished painting that lady's house I talked about in an earlier post. We went to Jacksonville, Fl. to meet a man from a Church in Redding, Ca. to help us with our strategic planning for our church. We are going out of town on Friday to Atlanta to attend a conference. We will be back very late Saturday night. I (Jon) am preaching Sunday so it will be a whirlwind of a weekend, but an extremely fun weekend. We promise to write more when we get back.

Sunday's Service

Our church service Sunday was amazing. We always have some type of opening before worship where we pray and prepare our hearts for worship. This Sunday there was a sense that we as a church were going to another level in the Lord. Then right before Joanna started worship we heard a transformer explode and all the power went out. The minute it happened I (Jon) had a sense that this wasn't just some accident, but that God was trying to tell us something. During preservice prayer (our prayer time before church starts) I heard the phrase in my head "the air is charged" as in electric charge. When the power went out I felt like the Lord said that what was going on in the spiritual, manifested itself in the natural. The air was charged in the spiritual so it manifested in the natural. So I shared that with the congregation, and then we went on with our service. After the pastor spoke, He said lets stand and pray, and the minute he said that the power came back on. It was really awesome. I believe there is more that the Lord is wanting to tell our church through that encounter, but I don't know what it is yet. It will be fun to search Him out and find all what He is trying to say. Needless to say the whole service was awesome. I absolutely love it when God does new things. He moves from Glory to Glory and to be able to see glimpses of that is such an honor to me. I can't wait to see more!!!

Ikea

Well, we had a great time at Ikea. We spent about 3 hours there which is about average for us. The trip started off with a bang literally. I (Jon) was unloading the seats from the mini van when I dropped the chair on my toe. While that was happening Mike hit his head on the van, and a little later Joanna hit her head getting into the van. It actually was very funny, it was typical start to a Talley/Gurr outing.

After Ikea, we went to Centennial Park and let the Talley kids play in the Olympic water rings. We had never seen so many kids in one place. It was extremely hot outside so the kids loved it. The rings are in the ground and have tons of holes that shoot out fountains of water. Mike and Jenn's oldest son Nathan( he is 7 years old) was looking over one of the holes when it shot out a stream of water and hit him right in the face. It was awesome, you could tell he was not expecting it to happen. Because the water hit him mostly in the eyes it took him a second to be able see clearly. After the water park, we ate dinner at the CNN building and then headed home. About 40 miles from our home we drove through a big lightning storm. We were driving through mostly farm country so you could see the lightning everywhere. At one point, lightning seemed to strike only a few feet from our cars. Mike and Jenn who were ahead of us called us jokingly and asked if lightning had struck their car because all they saw was orange. It was pretty wild.

Leaving for Atlanta

We are headed to Atlanta... which is not as big a deal as it seems seeing as we live in South Georgia. We are going to Ikea with Mike and Jennifer (My sister and brother in-law) to shop for office furniture for Mike. He is changing jobs from working for our local city as a civil engineer, to working from his home for a private company. What makes this trip fun for me and Joanna is the only thing better than spending your own money at a store, is spending other people's money. Honestly, we are going because we have so much fun with Mike and Jenn, and it will yield a great story when we get back guaranteed.

Painting and a Movie

I (Jon) paint on the side sometimes for extra income. I am painting three rooms of a lady's house in our church. I started the first room on Monday and it was very obvious that it was going to take two coats of paint for that room. Doing all this painting, got me thinking about the proffesion. I think that all professional painters must be perfectionist at heart. Painting is extremely tedious so anyone that would want to do it full time must have a bit of perfectionism in them. The problem with this is that I am not a perfectionist and there would never be a definition of my name with the word tedious in it. I fall under the category of "why make your bed if you are just going to sleep in it again that night" or " use paper plates so that you don't have to do the dishes later, or better yet lets just go out to eat". Now don't get me wrong, I do a good job painting, but becasue I lack the criteria to be a proffesional, I must put all my energy into concentrating to do the job right. I must say though, it is good money and can be done pretty quickly when you get into a good rythym.

We also went to go see the Bourne Ultimatum this afternoon. It was a great movie, definitely in my top 20 of movies ever seen. The movie has come under fire a little bit from the conservative side because of its portrayal of some of the CIA agents their training tactics as evil. They did make the CIA agents bad in the movie, but it was just a movie and it was great story line. I tend to not get bent out of shape if movies make an under handed political statement it just doesn't bother me. I just want the movie to be good. As long as it entertains me, I'm happy. I will say that I personally do believe that the CIA does alot of things that we don't know about and probably don't want to know about. And I am okay with not knowing, just keep my country protected. My grade for the Bourne Ultimatum is an "A".

Day off

Today is our day off. I know...its Tuesday, but since we work for a church most of our weekends are booked up. So we make every Tuesday our day off. The day has been pretty uneventful just relaxing, but tonight we are celebrating our brother in laws birthday. His name is Mike and he and his wife (Jon's sister) are our best friends. He has his own blog which by the way is ten times better than this one. You can check it out at www.wunderkraut.com . Anyway, we have lots of fun with them so we are looking forward to this evening.