Labor Day Weekend

We had such a wonderful weekend in Atlanta! We ended up driving over to my Dad and Marm's house Friday night. AJ was home from college and Saturday, my brother Ben and his wife, Christy came over for lunch. It was a lot of fun grilling burgers and hanging out.

That afternoon, Jere and Dad went to the Georgia vs Oklahoma State game. This was no ordinary game for Jere. They had invitations to the President of UGA's house prior to the game. There they had pre-game drinks and snacks and mingled. They all loaded up on UGA buses (with police escort)to go to the game together. The buses had tinted windows and on the way there, people were standing on the side of the road waving and cheering them on.. thinking it was the team on the way to the stadium. Needless to say, the fans were sorely disappointed when it was just them. They got to watch the game from the President's box while eating salmon and Fillet Mignon. He sat next to a U.S. Senator and in front of the State Representative from Georgia and Oklahoma. I'm really not trying to name drop (even though I don't know names) but am just sharing this because he was amazed at how laid back and fun the day was. Just a regular bunch of guys watching football. As they left the game, they all got "goody bags" with UGA cups, red/black chocolate covered sunflower seeds, pins, shakers, etc... and GA won which made the day that much better.



While the guys went to the game, we all went to the Center for Puppetry Arts. (http://www.puppet.org) We watched "The Big, Bad, Little Red, Pig Show" by Lee Bryan "The Puppet Guy". It was so cute and the kids had a ball. After the show, Mr. Bryan took down the curtains and showed us how he did the puppets and sound effects all by himself. The kids also went to a puppet workshop and made wolf puppets. It was really fun. Jim Henson's family is donating a lot of his puppets to this Center to display in their puppet museum. That part wasn't finished yet so one day we want to go back and see that too.


Sunday we went to church and again was reminded of what God has been showing us for a while now. We don't need to wait for others to plan and organize ministries for us to "be the church". We just need to act and obey God when he prompts us. There are so many needs that need to be met in our communities and we need to be joining in where God is working! Specifically their church was talking about the needs world wide that Americans take for granted here in the US. We as Christians need to be aware of what is going on and take steps to help whether through prayer, giving, or going. They shared part of a video interview with Bono from U2 and I have to say, it really made me, as a Christian, think about what I am doing for the kingdom.

Before heading home on Monday, we went to visit with Jere's aunt, uncle and cousins. The kids had a lot of fun playing with their cousins too and it was a great visit all around. Doug and Jean have their own Garden of Eden in their back yard. These are a few of the pictures that Jere took. It made me want to just curl up with a good book under the gazebo and just walk through the gardens to spend some time in prayer...listening