So, as y'all know, I'm searching in earnest to find a church position before too long. However, I keep running into a major roadblock. It's that almost every church now wants someone who's "experienced". Now, why this is frustrating me is that none of these churches are taking into account that I have volunteered for nearly every position that is available to me in a variety of different church settings. Why doesn't this count? And also, if I can't get a job, how am I supposed to get experience?! It's SO frustrating. I know that God wants me to serve, and I know that I'm doing the right thing in applying to places, but where is it all leading right now? I know God's leading me, and I know he'll put me in the right place, but I just don't understand everything right now.
Arg. Got to get homework done too. More later....
1/27/10
1/11/10
Snow Pictures
Almost forgot to post these...:D 
Callie: Not amused.
Let me in!
Front of the house. :)
Tasha being frozen!
Looking down the street from our house.
The side deck. About a quarter-inch, I'd say.
Uh, what is this?
Let me in!!!!
The front lawn
Can you find the frog?
Around the bushes in the front of the house.
More later! :D
Callie: Not amused.
Let me in! 
Front of the house. :)
Tasha being frozen!
Looking down the street from our house.
The side deck. About a quarter-inch, I'd say.
Uh, what is this?
Let me in!!!!
The front lawn
Can you find the frog?
Around the bushes in the front of the house.
More later! :D
Panini Press
So, I just used our panini press that we got at our wedding. Yeah, I just used something for the first time that we got two and a half years ago today. :D It worked wonderfully, and it seems like it's going to be an easy thing to clean, too. So, tomorrow night we're going to have chicken quesadillas. Good stuff! :D
For the weirdest reason, I just have not felt good all day long. It probably has something to do with the fact that I have had a hard time getting to sleep the last two nights. I fell asleep on Sunday morning at around 3:30, then last night I was asleep at about 2:30. Tasha woke me up at 9:30 for about 20 minutes so that I could call down to her doctor's office to get a note saying that she was there, and then I went back to sleep until 1. I usually am not this lazy, but I just felt awful! I'm about to head to bed here now (it's 11:40), so hopefully I'll be able to get back into a normal routine in the next two days or so.
Got to run for now. Going to sleep. :D More later!
For the weirdest reason, I just have not felt good all day long. It probably has something to do with the fact that I have had a hard time getting to sleep the last two nights. I fell asleep on Sunday morning at around 3:30, then last night I was asleep at about 2:30. Tasha woke me up at 9:30 for about 20 minutes so that I could call down to her doctor's office to get a note saying that she was there, and then I went back to sleep until 1. I usually am not this lazy, but I just felt awful! I'm about to head to bed here now (it's 11:40), so hopefully I'll be able to get back into a normal routine in the next two days or so.
Got to run for now. Going to sleep. :D More later!
1/5/10
The Aughts...
Nathan reviewed the early part of the 2000s already, but I'm going to take his idea and personalize it a bit more.
Btw, the reason behind the title is that many people in history would say 19-Aught-1 when they wrote or spoke, so thusly, we are completing the aughts decade.
2000 - We moved to a ranch home in Sandy Springs. In January, we had one of the worst ice storms to hit North Georgia ever, and I was stuck in Athens at JanFest! Because of a massive oak tree falling down, we missed nearly a week of school, and we huddled around the giant fireplace in the ranch-style house off of Abernathy Road. Later that year, Dad left FBC Sandy Springs, and the day after I graduated from North Springs, we moved to Mableton. That summer, Dad and I found a 1982 Buick Electra for me to drive. Who would have thought that this car was sensible? Apparently I did. I ended up driving it until 2002 when gas went to $1.30/gal....I left in August to attend Shorter College (oops on that one, right?) and completed my first semester of college by essentially losing the Hope scholarship with 2 Cs, 1 D, and 1 B. Oh well, right? My grades have gotten better since then! :D
2001 - Decided that Shorter was not the place to be for me, and I transferred to West Georgia. It ended up being a better fit for me at the time, and I got re-involved in Marching Band. I also got to be in a couple of choirs and attained a small music scholarship. That summer, I went to my last Youth Music Camp. (Too bad that they don't have those down in Norman Park anymore, right?) That Fall, I was in my first major stage production at West Georgia, Ten by Four (ten one-act plays written by four different authors). I almost got a scholarship for theater, but the company that was providing it decided not to offer to any of the actors that year at West Georgia. I'm sure I would've been the next Matthew McConaughey, except that I would actually have talent. :P (j/k!) I also decided that I was going to be a history major this year. How did I make it through?!
2002 - More band, more chorus. Got a 1992 Mercury Tracer this year. I hated that car. It had a spark plug that would never work quite right, even if you replaced the wire and plug itself. I worked at the Chinese restaurant for a while as a delivery boy, then worked at Zubeyda's 'Italian' dining (more like mostly alcoholic underage college boy bar), then at a chicken place. (The last two places are out of business, and the other is barely hanging on last time I went by.) Needless to say, I stayed busy again, and began to think that I should work in a good restaurant for once. Too bad that wouldn't happen for another two years!
2003 - Got in my first wreck! Got rear-ended by a girl who was not paying close attention, so there went the Tracer. Dad appeased me and got me my only Mercedes. Oh, good times, pretty car! :D I also worked part-time as a music minister at Rocky Mount Baptist Church in Carrollton. Who would have thought that this would end up being important later on? I think that this was the first time that Dad and I got to work professionally together at a church.
2004 - The major thing to happen this year was that I broke my hands over a stupid girl. Not a day goes by do I not regret that decision, but I realize that it was part of the growing process. Too bad I never thought that it would cause so much pain through the rest of my life; I try to translate this into good whenever I can.
2005- After all of the turmoil of 2004, I ended up working as a singer for Carrollton Presbyterian Church in the Fall and through the following Spring. It restored my love of God and Christ. The people there just loved on me, and gave me back a spirit of hope that I had lost.
I also ended up working at Arby's this year. It was an amazing place to work, even if it was fast food. I had a boss who actually cared for the workers, and we had great camaraderie outside of work as well. I had my Mercedes crack its engine this year, and got to drive the old stand-by, the 1995 Dodge Spirit. The strangest thing happened during November. The light switch began to short out while I was driving it, and finally burned partially out after work. I didn't have a phone number of anyone who could come and get me (since it was close to Thanksgiving break), and so I walked from Arby's to my apartment, about four miles away. This wasn't too bad, except that it was about 29 degree, spitting snow, and I had my nasty work clothes on. Thankfully enough, I was in an apartment where I could take a nice, long hot bath after I got in, and was able to fix the car well enough to drive it for another year (more on that in a minute).
One other thing that happened this year was that I did not participate in symphonic band. I decided to fulfill an old promise to the Opera teacher at West Georgia and I participated as a singer in The Mikado that Spring. It was a lot of fun to be back on stage, and I got the best reviews in the local Carrollton paper.
2006 - I finally decided that I was going to go to culinary school and not finish my bachelor's degree at this time. I worked until June of this year at the church and at Arby's, and moved into Mom and Dad's home in Blue Ridge. After getting fired from the job that I took after one day (after resigning a few weeks early to take this one), I found myself hunting for a job. I landed at Dairy Queen as an assistant manager. I ended up training in Kansas City and then Tampa for this job. Sounds good, right? Not so much. I ended up working 100+ hours a week until I finally couldn't take any more. I lasted from July until November of that year. No fun, but learned a lot. I ended up taking some weeks off and got a job at Taco Bell in early December.
In December, I filled in for the music minister at FBC Blue Ridge, and after the service, I had two of the youth girls come up to me and tell me that they had the *perfect* person for me to take out on a date. This person was Tasha. We wrote one another through MySpace for about half a week, and I asked her out to go to Chinese food in Jasper on that Friday night. We ended up staying at Chinese until the place closed, talking about TONS of stuff. Then we went looking at Christmas lights, and generally enjoyed being together. We ended up going on another date the next week, and then Tasha took me to her school's Christmas party two weeks after our first date. I knew that it was going to be something special, but I had no idea HOW special.
2007 - This was when things began to fall into place for me! In February, I proposed to Tasha, and we originally set a date of September for our wedding; we realized a few weeks later that this was going to be impossible for both of us since we wanted to take a true honeymoon after it, and moved the date up to July 21st. This sped everything up considerably! I moved from working at Taco Bell (after finding out that the manager and her husband were stealing vast amounts of money from the place), and went to work for Checker's hamburgers. I stayed there until about two weeks before the wedding. I also was urged by Tasha to go back and finish my bachelor's degree, and I agreed with her. I made preparations to attend Kennesaw State University in the Fall, and ultimately did.
On July 21st, Tasha became my wife, and we spent the next 6 days up in Gatlinburg at the Park Vista hotel on our honeymoon. We came back and spent two days in Blue Ridge at our parents houses, and then moved to Cartersville, GA. Tasha began working at Allatoona Elementary School in the first week of August, and I began to attend KSU a week later.
At the very end of 2007, I began working for the Office of Development as a student assistant. This was the first time that I had worked in an office, and was invaluable towards helping me learn how to be a good office worker, but how to run an efficient office as well.
As for vehicles, we got two new (!!) cars this year. I got my Hyundai Accent after purchasing a Mazda Millenia that blew smoke like crazy. We later traded Tasha's Honda CR-V in when gas got up to $4/gal. We thought that it was there to stay. Oh well! Tasha has her Sonata, so it's good. :)
2008 - Tasha and I decided that we wanted to buy a house, and we accomplished that in March of this year. We moved to 19 1st Street, Emerson, GA, and have been living there ever since. I continued to take classes and work at the Office of Development.
2009 - I finally completed my degree!! :D :D :D Apparently, miracles never cease. During the previous summer, I had done a large work in KSU's archives for my senior seminar, and was asked to do a research project about civil rights in Cobb County. I consider this the crowning achievement of my academic career, knowing that I have a paper that is preserved in the archives.
During the summer, I found out that I had high blood pressure and high cholesterol. I was working for Bank of America at the time as a bill collector, and unfortunately used all of my sick days and vacation days. Due to this, I had to resign my position after only a month and a half, but this did work to an end. I finally realized my true calling in life and have become a Liberty University Seminary student, working towards a degree in Christian Leadership. I finished my first semester on December 18th. Tasha also went back to school at Lincoln Memorial University off-campus to work on her specialist degree.
2010 - So far, it looks like Tasha and I both with be graduating with our degrees, and we hope that we will have an addition to the family soon, either through natural means or through adoption. We are praying that God will lead us through this year and that we will be receptive to what he has in store for us!
What a decade, and how far we've all come! More later! :D
Btw, the reason behind the title is that many people in history would say 19-Aught-1 when they wrote or spoke, so thusly, we are completing the aughts decade.
2000 - We moved to a ranch home in Sandy Springs. In January, we had one of the worst ice storms to hit North Georgia ever, and I was stuck in Athens at JanFest! Because of a massive oak tree falling down, we missed nearly a week of school, and we huddled around the giant fireplace in the ranch-style house off of Abernathy Road. Later that year, Dad left FBC Sandy Springs, and the day after I graduated from North Springs, we moved to Mableton. That summer, Dad and I found a 1982 Buick Electra for me to drive. Who would have thought that this car was sensible? Apparently I did. I ended up driving it until 2002 when gas went to $1.30/gal....I left in August to attend Shorter College (oops on that one, right?) and completed my first semester of college by essentially losing the Hope scholarship with 2 Cs, 1 D, and 1 B. Oh well, right? My grades have gotten better since then! :D
2001 - Decided that Shorter was not the place to be for me, and I transferred to West Georgia. It ended up being a better fit for me at the time, and I got re-involved in Marching Band. I also got to be in a couple of choirs and attained a small music scholarship. That summer, I went to my last Youth Music Camp. (Too bad that they don't have those down in Norman Park anymore, right?) That Fall, I was in my first major stage production at West Georgia, Ten by Four (ten one-act plays written by four different authors). I almost got a scholarship for theater, but the company that was providing it decided not to offer to any of the actors that year at West Georgia. I'm sure I would've been the next Matthew McConaughey, except that I would actually have talent. :P (j/k!) I also decided that I was going to be a history major this year. How did I make it through?!
2002 - More band, more chorus. Got a 1992 Mercury Tracer this year. I hated that car. It had a spark plug that would never work quite right, even if you replaced the wire and plug itself. I worked at the Chinese restaurant for a while as a delivery boy, then worked at Zubeyda's 'Italian' dining (more like mostly alcoholic underage college boy bar), then at a chicken place. (The last two places are out of business, and the other is barely hanging on last time I went by.) Needless to say, I stayed busy again, and began to think that I should work in a good restaurant for once. Too bad that wouldn't happen for another two years!
2003 - Got in my first wreck! Got rear-ended by a girl who was not paying close attention, so there went the Tracer. Dad appeased me and got me my only Mercedes. Oh, good times, pretty car! :D I also worked part-time as a music minister at Rocky Mount Baptist Church in Carrollton. Who would have thought that this would end up being important later on? I think that this was the first time that Dad and I got to work professionally together at a church.
2004 - The major thing to happen this year was that I broke my hands over a stupid girl. Not a day goes by do I not regret that decision, but I realize that it was part of the growing process. Too bad I never thought that it would cause so much pain through the rest of my life; I try to translate this into good whenever I can.
2005- After all of the turmoil of 2004, I ended up working as a singer for Carrollton Presbyterian Church in the Fall and through the following Spring. It restored my love of God and Christ. The people there just loved on me, and gave me back a spirit of hope that I had lost.
I also ended up working at Arby's this year. It was an amazing place to work, even if it was fast food. I had a boss who actually cared for the workers, and we had great camaraderie outside of work as well. I had my Mercedes crack its engine this year, and got to drive the old stand-by, the 1995 Dodge Spirit. The strangest thing happened during November. The light switch began to short out while I was driving it, and finally burned partially out after work. I didn't have a phone number of anyone who could come and get me (since it was close to Thanksgiving break), and so I walked from Arby's to my apartment, about four miles away. This wasn't too bad, except that it was about 29 degree, spitting snow, and I had my nasty work clothes on. Thankfully enough, I was in an apartment where I could take a nice, long hot bath after I got in, and was able to fix the car well enough to drive it for another year (more on that in a minute).
One other thing that happened this year was that I did not participate in symphonic band. I decided to fulfill an old promise to the Opera teacher at West Georgia and I participated as a singer in The Mikado that Spring. It was a lot of fun to be back on stage, and I got the best reviews in the local Carrollton paper.
2006 - I finally decided that I was going to go to culinary school and not finish my bachelor's degree at this time. I worked until June of this year at the church and at Arby's, and moved into Mom and Dad's home in Blue Ridge. After getting fired from the job that I took after one day (after resigning a few weeks early to take this one), I found myself hunting for a job. I landed at Dairy Queen as an assistant manager. I ended up training in Kansas City and then Tampa for this job. Sounds good, right? Not so much. I ended up working 100+ hours a week until I finally couldn't take any more. I lasted from July until November of that year. No fun, but learned a lot. I ended up taking some weeks off and got a job at Taco Bell in early December.
In December, I filled in for the music minister at FBC Blue Ridge, and after the service, I had two of the youth girls come up to me and tell me that they had the *perfect* person for me to take out on a date. This person was Tasha. We wrote one another through MySpace for about half a week, and I asked her out to go to Chinese food in Jasper on that Friday night. We ended up staying at Chinese until the place closed, talking about TONS of stuff. Then we went looking at Christmas lights, and generally enjoyed being together. We ended up going on another date the next week, and then Tasha took me to her school's Christmas party two weeks after our first date. I knew that it was going to be something special, but I had no idea HOW special.
2007 - This was when things began to fall into place for me! In February, I proposed to Tasha, and we originally set a date of September for our wedding; we realized a few weeks later that this was going to be impossible for both of us since we wanted to take a true honeymoon after it, and moved the date up to July 21st. This sped everything up considerably! I moved from working at Taco Bell (after finding out that the manager and her husband were stealing vast amounts of money from the place), and went to work for Checker's hamburgers. I stayed there until about two weeks before the wedding. I also was urged by Tasha to go back and finish my bachelor's degree, and I agreed with her. I made preparations to attend Kennesaw State University in the Fall, and ultimately did.
On July 21st, Tasha became my wife, and we spent the next 6 days up in Gatlinburg at the Park Vista hotel on our honeymoon. We came back and spent two days in Blue Ridge at our parents houses, and then moved to Cartersville, GA. Tasha began working at Allatoona Elementary School in the first week of August, and I began to attend KSU a week later.
At the very end of 2007, I began working for the Office of Development as a student assistant. This was the first time that I had worked in an office, and was invaluable towards helping me learn how to be a good office worker, but how to run an efficient office as well.
As for vehicles, we got two new (!!) cars this year. I got my Hyundai Accent after purchasing a Mazda Millenia that blew smoke like crazy. We later traded Tasha's Honda CR-V in when gas got up to $4/gal. We thought that it was there to stay. Oh well! Tasha has her Sonata, so it's good. :)
2008 - Tasha and I decided that we wanted to buy a house, and we accomplished that in March of this year. We moved to 19 1st Street, Emerson, GA, and have been living there ever since. I continued to take classes and work at the Office of Development.
2009 - I finally completed my degree!! :D :D :D Apparently, miracles never cease. During the previous summer, I had done a large work in KSU's archives for my senior seminar, and was asked to do a research project about civil rights in Cobb County. I consider this the crowning achievement of my academic career, knowing that I have a paper that is preserved in the archives.
During the summer, I found out that I had high blood pressure and high cholesterol. I was working for Bank of America at the time as a bill collector, and unfortunately used all of my sick days and vacation days. Due to this, I had to resign my position after only a month and a half, but this did work to an end. I finally realized my true calling in life and have become a Liberty University Seminary student, working towards a degree in Christian Leadership. I finished my first semester on December 18th. Tasha also went back to school at Lincoln Memorial University off-campus to work on her specialist degree.
2010 - So far, it looks like Tasha and I both with be graduating with our degrees, and we hope that we will have an addition to the family soon, either through natural means or through adoption. We are praying that God will lead us through this year and that we will be receptive to what he has in store for us!
What a decade, and how far we've all come! More later! :D
Far be it from me to criticize...
I know that I will appear hypocritical by stating that someone is wrong for criticizing another person on their blog by stating this, but it's just bothering me. In short, we were involved in a church in Cartersville a few years ago now. We became a bit disillusioned with the pastor there, and I saw another reason why his leadership style is flawed (btw, I don't want to appear that I am criticizing his leadership of his church, he is more than free to do as he sees fit, how his congregation allows him to lead, and how their elders allow him to).
Recently, there was a scandal at a church in Canton, GA. In short, the pastor had an affair, was forced to resign, and has now announced that he is going to start another church without having accomplished what many people feel that he should have done before coming back to the ministry, much less as the leader of another church. I do agree with the pastor of the church we had attended in that he has not done what he said he was going to, and is going to further split the church the first church even more. However, I do have a problem of a preacher criticizing another pastor publicly in another church without the person being able to defend themselves. I personally feel that this is a bit of back-stabbing, even if the motives of the pastor are innocent. There is no reason to share with a church body that is not directly affected by what is happening in another church in another association and to be critical of what he is doing. Again, while I believe the pastor who had the affair shouldn't be doing what he is doing right now, it's not appropriate say things such as "If you think you're called to start a church & you don't meet the qualifications of Titus 1, you're being "called" by someone besides God" in your church service.
As I stated before, I know this will appear to be hypocritical of me to write something publicly about a church leader that I do not attend his church anymore, but I hope that you see the difference is that I am not criticizing him as a leader of a church to the congregation. I hope that I will be able to, if the situation ever arises, more efficiently and without malice to help the pastor who is in the wrong become a man without question. I hope that I will be able to accomplish this by not doing this in public either.
Thanks for letting me rant. The next post won't be so heavy...:) More later!
Recently, there was a scandal at a church in Canton, GA. In short, the pastor had an affair, was forced to resign, and has now announced that he is going to start another church without having accomplished what many people feel that he should have done before coming back to the ministry, much less as the leader of another church. I do agree with the pastor of the church we had attended in that he has not done what he said he was going to, and is going to further split the church the first church even more. However, I do have a problem of a preacher criticizing another pastor publicly in another church without the person being able to defend themselves. I personally feel that this is a bit of back-stabbing, even if the motives of the pastor are innocent. There is no reason to share with a church body that is not directly affected by what is happening in another church in another association and to be critical of what he is doing. Again, while I believe the pastor who had the affair shouldn't be doing what he is doing right now, it's not appropriate say things such as "If you think you're called to start a church & you don't meet the qualifications of Titus 1, you're being "called" by someone besides God" in your church service.
As I stated before, I know this will appear to be hypocritical of me to write something publicly about a church leader that I do not attend his church anymore, but I hope that you see the difference is that I am not criticizing him as a leader of a church to the congregation. I hope that I will be able to, if the situation ever arises, more efficiently and without malice to help the pastor who is in the wrong become a man without question. I hope that I will be able to accomplish this by not doing this in public either.
Thanks for letting me rant. The next post won't be so heavy...:) More later!
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