We finally have a photo of a big blessing of ours from this past year. That is our small group Bible study we’re involved with thanks to Buckhead Church. Sunday night we had an awesome Christmas party, complete with a ham, multiple homemade casseroles, appetizers, and cheesecakes.

Left to right: John & Molly, Jeff & Katie, Lauren & Josh, Cody & Christina, Terri & Chuck, Kelly & Kelly, Jill & Andy.

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On Thursday, my first day without Josh around, I came home after trying to connect to my school’s wireless (unsuccessful). I then realized that I had throughly confused my computer, who then refused to connect to the home wireless. (Not an Apple, obviously.)
Very frustrating, mainly because I know Josh could have fixed it in a heartbeat. However, I can still connect via wire, so I am not complaining. Furthermore, I’m still feeling guilty that I live in America after seeing some of those Idol Gives Back clips. No wireless, no problem.

Then my first weekend without Josh, I left on Friday to go to Mom’s, where Katie, John, Mary Ellen, and Caroline babysat me. (Thanks, girls.)
I came back on Sunday just in time to read up before small group (so it’s fresh on the mind) when I walked into my bathroom.
The last calm thought I had was that the floors were especially shiny that night.

Then I stepped into a puddle of water that spread throughout the bathroom floor and had formed a small stream into the hallway. (So small, I missed it on my way in.)
The toilet was completely full. And had, evidently, overflooded.
Then comes the best part.
I went into our pantry/storage/laundry room to get the mop, and stepped into another puddle of water.
The nasty toilet water (it may have been clear, but I wasn’t fooled) had leaked through the tiled bathroom, under the shower, and into the storage room. Now two rugs were soaked, not to mention a pile of darks. (Don’t worry, those were washed twice, Ultra Clean, Level 12)

However.
Let it be known, I did not cry. I (sort of) calmly called Josh and then the Maintenance Man, (okay, fine, I called my mom too) who unfortunately didn’t have the necessary parts on a Sunday evening to fix said toilet.
I went to small group single, germy, tardy, and unprepared since I never was able to read the chapter for this week. (But I finally got around to mopping the bathroom and storage room.)
I mostly went to learn and grow. A miniscule part of me went because they had a working restroom. TWO even. Spoiled Americans.

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Is the sign of a great product when you both dream about it in the same night?

Yesterday I broke in the Nike+ product that counts your steps and coaches your workout. And though I didn’t do much more than just the basic calibration through a quick walk to the bank, it made enough impact for us both to have wacky dreams about it. It’s a cool little device. Very smart.

I explained to Lauren how it counted the calories I lost on my walk to and from the bank. And that would be just about enough for the dreams to work with. I dreamt that I had decided to walk to Anderson, S.C. to visit our friends Jeremy & Jen. Half way there, I realized I didn’t turn on the iPod, so suddenly, my walk was in vain. With that knowledge, I took a pit stop along my journey at a nearby “rock farm” to look at all the interesting rocks. All by myself, just looking at rocks on the ground along this dopey trail. I woke up soon after I realized what I was dreaming about was a waste of time.

Lauren’s dream was a bit more frantic. A quick backstory… We were at a Luke Mather’s birthday party last night and just totally grubbed on all the food all night. It was so good. All these brownies, chicken fingers, chips, coke, cake, you name it. TONS OF FOOD. Well she dreamed that as we were at the party eating away, her iPod was actually counting the calories she was eating. It was as if she was standing on a scale throughout the entire party. As she watched the calorie count reach close to 8,000, she panicked. Thinking the iPod must have been broken, she attempted to restart it, but it came back with the big bold 8,000 calories and counting situation.

I can’t think of another time when we both dreamed of the same thing in the same night, so maybe it’s a sign that Nike and Apple did their job well.

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Yesterday, along with the Thurmans, Lauren and I had the pleasure of getting to tour the forthcoming home for Buckhead Church. Like any other North Point/Buckhead event, the polish and attention to detail on the event itself was top notch. We got to see each of the four floors of the building, as well as the main worship area.

Some interesting tidbits:

Below the 1st floor is a parking lot that holds as many spots as the current main parking lot holds — this lot is reserved for Waumba Land / KidStuff families.

Better still, to get to this special parking lot, you actually drive your car/VAN through a tunnel that cuts into building for easy child drop-off. (It is very cool).

There’s an escalator system and stairwells & elevators designed just for children (to ensure their safety, etc.)

The building is 200,000 Sq. ft. That means it is really big.

The worship auditorium holds 3-4 times as many attendees as the current one does. The “upper-deck” seating area alone holds as many as the current in itself.

Beyond these, I can’t remember all the other really creative ways they solved certain problems with trying to fit a church in such a place and meet the needs of various groups.

Finally, what is more impressive to me was Jeff Henderson’s (Pastor) 15min. talk he gave to us at the end of the tour. What stuck out is that in all the planning and fund raising that has gone into the church, they remain cognizant (as we must be) of the fact that the building remains temporal. He noted that “every church has a closing day” and that one day in the future the building will be sold, abandoned or demoed. So with that in mind, we must use the space in a great way and to the best of our ability through Jesus. I thought this was all really forward thinking and very wise. It made Lauren and I extremely proud of what Buckhead church is doing and how the vision that God has given the leaders there remains laser focused on reaching unbelievers. Sidenote: Jeff also remarked how well the Atlantic Station service went earlier in the day — this is where they’ve rented a Regal Cinema screen for the morning to beam the service to. Apparently they packed out every seat (even having to turn away 50 people). But next week they’re going to reserve TWO theater screens for the same thing. Pretty exciting. Below are some photos of the worship auditorium in construction.

Above: A view from the upper seating level.

Above: A lateral view across the upper seating level. Curves rule this building’s design to beautiful effect.

Lauren and I from the top level.

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A forewarning: Based upon this post’s title, you are probably thinking this will be yet another classic Lauren anecdote. Well actually, this is a Josh post. And yes, it takes place at a fabric store. Finally, there is a discussion of Project Runway — season spoiler ALERT.

Yesterday, Lauren became inspired with some ideas for decorating the apartment for the changing season and wanted to make a run to Jo-Ann fabric store. I obliged after being fed well at Quizno’s. So off we went…

I dropped her off at the door so she could get a head start, but immediately upon doing so, I realized that I’d be the lone male soldier walking into the store all by myself — uncharted territory. I had a slight panic attack, but it graciously receded quickly. I think the panic was due to the fact that I thought I was doing a very efficient (albeit typical male) shopping exercise, only to have the reality of entering the store alone thrown back in my face.

Slight side note: Next to Jo-Ann (can’t stand that hyphen in their name, btw), is a golf store on one side (all husbands, males rejoice!) and another feminine-type craft store. 2 to 1, ladies win.

As I walked in the store I tried to convince myself that I was both Michael Knight and Jeffery Sebelia from Project Runway; manly and confident, yet in touch with his creative, problem solving side. I couldn’t BELIEVE the lines in the place. They wound throughout the store — multiple lines, in fact. A line to get your fabric cut to size, and another winding line to check out. We later found out it was part of the Halloween preparations. I find Lauren and she has a handfull of items already handy, but the main thing she was after was red fabric that matched other items in our decor. She was about to call it quits before I said we needed to check out a promising looking corner of the store. There it was. The winning piece. With boosted confidence, I found myself shooting across to other aisles to find complimenting fabrics. I went over the edge. Tiffany, you would have been so, so proud.

Project Runway. Aren’t we all a little depressed that Jeffery won? Sure, he was the most consistent and innovative throughout the season, but one area in which he wasn’t innovative was his little attitude problem. As Lauren might say to that statement, “Hmph!” It really annoyed me that here he is, doing some really interesting work, but had nothing but the typical artist chip on his shoulder and attitude to give back to other people. Even upon winning, his demeanor persisted. Just had to get that rant out there . . . any other observations on the season? We wanted Uli to win, darnit!

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