More snow...

The snow had started falling just before I went to bed last night. There is not much prettier in God's creation than falling snow! The havoc the snow creates on roads and businesses is not much fun, but this particular time it was perfect. About an inch or so, but none sticking to the roads! Just gorgeous!
Yesterday was an interesting day for me! I had to go out selling at work. Now keep in mind that I am in management for a reason!! The X's and O's of day to day operation is a specialty of mine! However, the knocking on a strange door that has never seen me is not! But, the economy has pushed my company to the point of needing new customers, and that falls directly on my shoulders and the owner's shoulders. We are both doing something out of our comfort zone, but I guess pushing your own preconceived boundaries is a good thing!
Anyway, I had GREAT responses yesterday and even picked up one new client! Very good start, but still not my favorite thing to do! It is very akin to sharing the Gospel with someone! The same insecurities, fears and such surrond both!
Last night at church, supper was great! Fellowship was great! Cubbies worship was incredible!! (Cubbies are singing in big church this week, so they got to sing the songs for me that they have been learning on Sundays!) Then the choir's mid-week worship was incredible! The songs we are starting with in February have been amazing! Still missing some people due to illnesses and what not, but it was a great time of worship that I hope will last me until Sunday!
C

Weekend in review

We had too much fun this weekend!! Friday night we went to the Lovett's house for my birthday dinner (a little belated!). We had a great time talking and eating and such. Bailey had a lock-in at school for chorus, so we got her to that. Saturday, we had Grif's last ballgame of the year. They won by 2 and ended the season with only one loss!! He got better all year and has seemingly fallen in love with the one sport I know the least amount about!! LOL.
Saturday night Grif had a jump rope performance at halftime of the Woodland basketball game! He did great and Woodland killed South forsyth! They played a great game. We went to eat at El Nopal and headed home for the evening!
Sunday was an incredible time of worship! I was scheduled to be in children's church with the 3/4th grade boys during second service, so I only got to sing during the first worship service! It was a great set and the choir sang Our God Saves for the special music! It sounded incredible and the congregation was singing out during the congregational worship! It was a blast!
Sunday night there was some kind of sporting event on t.v. Jon Hodorff (biggest Packer fan I know) and Sydney have been pumped about this game for the last 2 weeks. So we went over there to watch with them and to have tacos. Great food, and great fun! The game was one of the best Super Bowls I have ever seen. Great battle between two very good and evenly matched teams! Well worth the time spent watching it!
Oh, also on Thursday I made (for the first time) from scratch brownies!! I got an incredible recipe off the internet! I will NEVER use a box brownie mix again!!

Ingredients
1/2 cup vegetable oil
1 cup white sugar
1 teaspoon vanilla extract
2 eggs
1/2 cup all-purpose flour
1/3 cup unsweetened cocoa powder
1/4 teaspoon baking powder
1/4 teaspoon salt
1/2 cup chopped walnuts (optional)
Directions
Preheat oven to 350 degrees F (175 degrees C). Grease a 9x9 inch baking pan.
In a medium bowl, mix together the oil, sugar, and vanilla. Beat in eggs. Combine flour, cocoa, baking powder, and salt; gradually stir into the egg mixture until well blended. Stir in walnuts, if desired. Spread the batter evenly into the prepared pan.
Bake for 20 to 25 minutes, or until the brownie begins to pull away from edges of pan. Let cool on a wire rack before cutting into squares.

VERY SIMPLE, BUT VERY GOOD!!!!
C

Growth...

Normally, the day after a big political event, such as the State of the Union Address, I would write a political blog with my reactions and thoughts, but not today!! I did not watch the address. I instead supported the local chapter of the Fellowship of Christian Athletes by going to annual banquet last night. I did hear a little of the speech while running at the gym this morning, and plan to read the transcripts later in the day, so you might still get my opinion of the speech soon anyway! I did, however, LOVE one comment by a Republican: "I agree with 80% of what the President says, but unfortunately I disagree with 80% of what he does"! WOW! Calling the President two-faced, or claiming he talks out of both sides of his mouth is either dumb or courageous, I don't know which? But, he may have a point if you believe in the old addage that actions speak louder than words! We'll see after I read it all!

Anyway, last night was a great time! Jeff Francoeur was the keynote speaker and did a great job! He spoke to the ups and downs of his baseball career and the place he is in with God. It was a good message of "growing" up in you Christianity and giving everything to God. (Especially the parts of your life you think YOU have under control) Boy, could I learn from that!! "God, I have this part under control, will you handle that part over there?" LOL - How juvenile we must sound at times to our Saviour! Anyway, if you know me, you know I love the pomp and circumstance of events like that! I love everything about it! I like getting to meet new people. I like getting to see old friends! I love a meal served by caterers! I LOVE having my gorgeous wife on my arm to take it all in with me! It was a blast!

A theme is kind of developing already in 2011, it seems. Growth.

Our pastor is challenging us to pray. To really have lives of prayer to God. That definitely leads to Growth in our walk.

I have told a few folks that Growth in our numbers in the choir is a goal I would like us to achieve.

My daughter's Growth has led to filling out paperwork for High School already.

The message we had at church Sunday from a guest preacher was about being committed Christians. (Growth).

If this is going to be the theme God has for me (or us) it could be a painful year! Growth is tough and often painful, but typically fulfilling in the end, right?

C

Changes and such

My "little" girl is in 8th grade. I can't express just how proud I am of Bailey. She keeps excellent grades, has excellent friends, excels in any sport she wants, and is respectful at home (most of the time, ha)! This has been a great week and a horrible week for us as parents. We are filling out paper work for the honors program at the High School?!?!? You have got to be kidding? My baby is not old enough to go to High School!! ugh! Anyway, the paperwork is a job in and of itself, but through all of the stuff Bailey has had to write about herself, I've gotten to see my daughter through her own eyes. Of course, she is a 14 year old girl, and doesn't view herself as confidently as I think she should, BUT she has done some amazing things during those 14 years and seems to be proud of herself! That's a pretty good feeling for a father!!
Tuesday night we had the Helton's out for dinner. Caroline has been in the hospital and is still not 100%, so we wanted to make at least one night for them a little easier, with no cooking or cleaning and such! Anyway, we had a blast hanging out with them and talking past bedtimes! Note to self (and anybody else): things we need to do more of: hanging with friends!
Note only does the food always fill you up and nourish you, but the fellowship is always fun and makes for great memories!!
Last night in midweek worship, Frank announced that I am the new choir "president". Jaybird has been in that position for a while, and was ready (probably past ready) to lay it down. I don't know what all extra that will involve, but I would say if I can do anything to help the choir grow that I will have done a good job! There are sooooo many talented singers in our congregation that do not sing in the choir! We have enough talented singers in the church to easily double our numbers in the choir..... So, with that said.... COME JOIN US!! And, if you are already in the choir, INVITE someone to COME JOIN US!!
C

1st round blunders

It seems Atlanta sports teams build teams to make it to the playoffs, but not to win in the playoffs. There is a different intensity that should go along with playoffs! But, unfortunately, the Hawks, the Braves, the Falcons, don't seem to have coaching staffs or players that are capable of getting up to those intense levels. Very disappointing end to the Falcons season on Sunday!

However, the rest of the weekend was wonderful! I met Donna for dinner at Moore's Market on Friday night, and we had some great food and wonderful fun! Then we went to my grand parents house to visit with them for a while, enjoying the wonderful fire they had in the fireplace!! It was a great time!

Saturday, I hung out with my neighbor for 5 hours or so, running errands and such! He is 85 and needs to get out of his house for stimulation! We got our hair cut, ate lunch, and went to watch Grif's basketball game. We got home and went to eat with the Hodorff's and Lovett's and back to our house to watch the afore mentioned atrosity that was the Falcon's playoff loss!! I went to bed disgusted!

Sunday, was awesome though! A phenomenal music set at church followed by a great message! Bible study was great, but challenging as always! Donna and I took a Sunday afternoon nap together!! Then we all hung out until time to go to bed! They made me watch the recording of Miss America, so in turn, I made them watch one of my episodes of the Walton's!! Good Trade!

Anyway, it's Monday and I am back at it! Work is a little busy, which we need after the wasted week last week!! Workouts this week are going to hurt a little, since I only worked out twice last week!

C

An interesting start to 2011?!?

This is what we woke up to on Monday January 10th. Before all the footprints of play ruined it!

Griffin and I doing a little ridin and slidin!!

Bailey and Bailey getting ready to head down the hill. (Large Hill!!)

Top of the hill neighborhood snowball fight!!

Well, when God gives you a blanket of snow that you "can't" make it to work in, you just have to turn into a kid again! Donna's 3 kids went out playing for most of the day on Monday! We had a blast that the above pictures just can't show! All of North Georgia got snow. Our area got 6 inches or so, followed by a tenth of an inch of ice. Further south of us (Cobb County) got less snow, but more ice and their roads still look horrible!

Saturday, Bailey had All-State auditions and Donna was there helping compile scores. Bailey made a 100% by the way, a score not achieved by many!! That's my baby girl! That left me to do the preparing for the weather predictions. I went to the dump (normal Saturday thing) gassed up the 4 wheel drive truck, grocery store (I'd have rather given blood!!) etc. We got everything handled and then Grif had a basketball game. He scored A LOT. We couldn't keep up with the counting so we don't know exactly how many! He played great defense too! That's my boy!

Sunday was a wonderful day of worship at church! Music set was wonderful!!!! Then the pastor's message was on prayer!! His words had conviction, because I think he was convicted to preach on this particular topic at this particular time to this particular congregation! I can't wait to see where it takes us!! It was a powerful message!

Sunday evening we went to the Hodorff's and had homemade vegetable soup and watched Green Bay narrowly pull out a playoff win to earn the right to come to Ga and get their butt kicked, oops, I mean play Atlanta this weekend!! Go Falcons.

By the time we got home, got a little hot chocolate made, and buckled down for the night, the much predicted snow began. It was gorgeous. Heavy downpours of snow with big flakes. Lightening and thunder as well, Which is a rare occurance they call "Thundersnow" (Sounds like a wrestler on tv, huh?). Anyway, I took some medicine as I had begun to feel bad, and prayed I would feel like playing in the morning!! Then we woke on Monday to 6 inches of snow!! A GREAT amount! Not totally paralyzing, but plenty to play hookie from work and play in!!

Some type of football game was going on Monday night, I can't remember what!!

Oh yeah, I remember, the university on the plains in Alabama, the cult I married into, Auburn was playing for the National Championship.

Amazing game! Long game! Stressful game (according to Donna)! Auburn U came out with the win on a field goal with NO time left on the clock. Wonderful championship game!

War Eagle

Tuesday I heeded the D.O.T. s warnings not to get out again unless absolutely necessary and stayed home from work again. We had another great day of games and such. I ventured out to work this morning, but as of now (10:35) haven't seen a customer!! LOL - I doubt I will be here all day. My parking lot is so iced over, I'm afraid my customers couldn't make it in here without falling anyway!!

Last thing: Two years ago right now, I was laying in a hospital bed at Redmond Regional in Rome, GA. The night before, I had a major heart attack at the age of 37 that radically changed my life. I'm lucky to still be here after the heart attack doctors call "the widow-maker", because generally you first feel it on your way to the floor, and it's generally the last thing you feel. By far the scariest night of my life up to this point. I am thankful to God that he still had things for me to do here!! Mentally was probably tougher on me than physically. Physically, I can just eat better, and workout, and my cardiologist is happy (and so is my heart!)! But mentally, the understanding that tomorrow is not guaranteed to anyone, even a 37 year old, is a tough pill to swallow! Of course, it is also a liberating thought too! I have gotten to know my wonderful wife more over these last two years. It is not as though I didn't know her before, but I like to pay more attention to the small things now that I probably didn't notice before. She is a gift from God that I treasure daily now!

Here's to no more abulances and maybe a little more boring life?!?

C

Next item up for bid..... A new car!! (In my best "Price is Right" voice)

This is my new car that follows my beloved Charlene. I say follows and not replaces, because you can't replace a legend!!
2010 Toyota Corolla, Power everything, keyless entry, cd, ipod, automatic (ugh!) blah, blah, blah!
It is exciting to get a new car after 16 years. She seems like a good one, but the jury is still out.
No, she doesn't have a name yet!! You have to drive a car for a while before she tells you her name! Duh!!
Anyway, now you have met the new addition to the Guyton household!
C