*Whew!*

What a weekend! Corey got into town Friday afternoon after spending a week in sunny Orlando. We met when he got off work to eat a quick bite at Zaxby's then head up to the church to do some work. More about that later. We got home to get Katie in the bed for her recital on Saturday. It was incredible. Katie attends Steps of Faith, in Catersville, and their Spring Praise Concert was so good. Katie did a great job with her dance steps and just loved receiving flowers from everyone afterwards and the lunch she picked at Chic-fil-a. After the concert it was back to the church for last minute projects and clean up.

In case some of you reading don't know, Corey and I have been involved with a church plant project....it is a ministry of the main campus of The Church at Liberty Square. The mission of the new project is to reach out to the community and perhaps draw families who aren't inclined to attend a traditional church. The first service was in March, with Corey playing an acoustic guitar as the only music and an old building with turquoise carpet and white walls. Two weeks ago the carpet was ripped and a major renovation was completed by many hours of hard work by people dedicated to making the church a success. The carpet has been replaced with a dark brownish/black color and part wood, the ceiling painted, new lighting installed, new church signs, a Children's Church room with a Hollywood (HolyWord) theme almost completed, a preschool room painted and themed, and now the music consists of a full band (four guitars, a keyboard, and drums) and awesome praise and worship music! My favorite song from yesterday that they did was "Counting on God by Desperation Band. It is just a really cool song that has a great message and the band and singers really sounded great...a lot like the original...so proud of them! Also, another favorite of mine they did was "God of This City by Chris Tomlin" which they played with a slideshow collage of pictures from around the Cartersville area. Sort of similar to the slide that is on that clip I linked to. If anyone would ask about the purpose of Graceland, I would direct them to this song.... Pastor Eric does a great job of delivering sermons with practical living themes, that are "meaty" enough for "churched" people to grow, but simple and intriguing enough for "unchurched" people to understand and apply as well.
So....long story short....this past week has been a busy time of finishing up painting projects, the men finishing up the wood floor installations, general clean-up, etc. The reason being that yesterday was the official "launch" of Graceland. The music was awesome...and I am sure the message was as well (I am the preschool "person" so I was with them during the service).
We are so exicted about the people who will come and come to love God and worship in this environment....I am listening to "God this City" as I write this and I am thinking I have to add it to my song list! You have to hear that song! Yesterday was great...we had 127 people in the service. A website is being worked on, but here is a link to a little info about the church: Graceland I left our camera in Corey's car, but as soon as I get it I will post some pictures from the weekend.

This week will also be a busy one. Corey and I will be working on getting our kitchen and livingroom/hallway painted and ready for us to rip up the floors. This coming weekend the kids are going camping and spending time with each set of grandparents while we put laminate/hardwood floors in our kitchen/livingroom/hallway. We are excited about it getting done....but not so excited about getting started! :) It will be a busy week/weekend....but good. We will also be attending a birthday party at Chuck E. Cheese for our "best friend-in-law's" son on Tuesday night, perhaps going bowling with my brother and his girlfriend on Thursday, and on Saturday be attending a wedding for our best friend in law's sister. *Whew* No wonder we are all fighting colds right now! We have been so busy! As of yesterday afternoon, besides sleeping, Corey had spent about 2 hours at home since he got back into town! Maybe we can get some sleep and defeat the cold before it sets in too badly...no time for sickness around here!!!!