We also went to Raleigh to visit with Jeffrey and Jennifer. Aaron grew up with these friends in the youth group in Nash County. They live in Apex now and are great hosts! It was so relaxing to stay with them in their beautiful home. Aaron was invited to sing at their church on Sunday morning for Pastor Appreciation Sunday. The pastor, Jeff, was Aaron's youth pastor and they were very close. He has started a new church in the last 2 years in Holly Springs, Destiny Life Church. It was a complete surprise for Jeff that Aaron sang on Sunday morning. We enjoyed the service and catching up with him and his wife Tonya afterwards. Jeffrey and Jennifer. Jennifer led the worship band in a practice on Saturday morning and then they grilled and served lunch for us. That night they took us out to eat in Cary, and of course we went to Marble Slab for ice cream!

Jeff and Tonya. Aaron really admires this man of God.

Our Sunday School class started a new study two weeks ago. We are reading some chapters from this book, Recovering Biblical Manhood and Womanhood. There are a number of authors that contributed, but it is edited by John Piper and Wayne Grudem. We are trying to gain a better understanding of our roles as male and female in our family, in church, and in everyday life. We are learning so much...we have to recommend it!

We had a relaxing weekend in Salem, VA. We stayed at home for a change! On Saturday we had lunch with Tyler and Jenny, gave Bow a haircut (he looks so handsome!), and enjoyed Grandma's company at the Flores house. She fried some fresh fish that she caught at the beach, and then the guys went swimming while the women stayed at the fire pit. On Sunday, we kept the toddler group in the nursery at church. It was entertaining and enlightening :). We had lunch with good friends, and that evening I accompanied Aaron across town for a volleyball game that he'd been invited to. He is playing in a league now...it's getting serious! We had dinner with the Flores family again (minus Grandma...she had to get back to Raleigh), and it was fun to hang out with Stephen and Michael. They were in town for fall break from UVa. These are great days! Now it's back to work!

We love fall decorations. A few weeks ago Sierra and I went to a Southern Living at Home party and I got this door hanger. I went to Michael's to find something to fill it with. Aaron said it was "on point". I like it, too! If you're interested, the door hanger was really discounted when I bought it...maybe it still is!

This past month Aaron joined the praise team at our church. On most Sunday mornings he gets to help lead the congregation in praising Christ. I am so proud to be the wife of a man who is honoring God with the gifts he has been given! It also reminds us of how thankful we are to be settled in one place so that we can feel wholly committed in our service, even for the future.
On Wednesday nights after choir practice, the praise teams practices around the piano with the band and I stick around to listen. It's an awesome worship hour. Aaron is on the far right. The picture is not great...I had to take it quickly and from the back so that I wouldn't embarrass him. :)

On Friday night we drove to Raleigh to visit Travis and Emily and go with them to the State/Clemson game. We had a fun time even though State lost. The stadium was packed in the beginning, but this picture was taken in the 4th quarter when the team was losing. Pretty sad.
Travis and Emily are committed fans. They have lifetime rights to these seats and they get season tickets every year. They haven't missed a home game in about 4 years!

As far as man-made things, the stadium was very impressive. It was a lot different (better) than when we had been 3 years ago.
The red looks so good to us! It's a good break from maroon and orange.Travis and Emily so graciously hosted us in their home. We loved her chocolate chip cookies and catching up with them.

We are driving to NC tonight...gotta see a Wolfpack football game this season! We haven't been to one since the fall of 2004.They are playing Clemson tomorrow. It will be fun to see how the stadium has changed. The best part about it is that we will be staying with Travis and Emily! Pictures to come soon...

Last night we loved having Sireesha to our house for dinner. She is from Hyderabad in the southern part of India, and she is here for 2 months for her work with GE. We met her last weekend at church. She is a believer! She has an amazing testimony, which she shared with us last night, and conversation with her is a huge encouragement. She does not take the Gospel lightly. She found West Salem (our church) through a search on the Internet. Very God-ordained, we believe! She is living very close to us in an extended stay hotel. We hope to see her much more in the next 6 weeks.

Bride is 2nd from the right.

On Sunday we volunteered to host Afterglow at our house. This is for the youth group at our church...after their teaching and worship, they usually go to someone's house for food and conversation. We had around 30 people in our house! We were glad to do it, although next time we will have more food (we served 100 chicken wings, a huge bowl of fruit, veggies, chips, 3 2 liter drinks, and we ran out after about 30 minutes!). When we saw we were running low on food, Aaron lit the charcoal and he (I mean, these 6th graders) grilled sausages for us.

Aaron planted this tree in our front yard a few weeks ago. He dug it up from his dad's land in Spring Hope. It has survived the heat and drought, and we look forward to seeing it grow with our family in the coming years.

I teach 3 out of these 4 kids. Maybe I will have Braulio, the 4th one, in my class in 5 years!

This week I have recovered an old CD friend...Indelible Grace. I have two of their CDs, and they have been the only things playing in my car the last few days. If you haven't heard their music, you have to go to their website and order some.

From the website: "Our hope is to help the church recover the tradition of putting old hymns to new music for each generation, and to enrich our worship with a huge view of God and His indelible grace."

an NC State bandana for Bow :). Kind of silly...don't know how long it will last.

We have had a very memorable weekend. Hope you have, too! Here's the play-by-play:

Friday afternoon we drove to Greensboro and checked in to our hotel, prettied ourselves up, and went to downtown for a nice dinner at Liberty Oak (thanks for the recommendation, Jonathan and Joy!). After dinner we went to see one of Aaron's favorite bands, UPhonik. Aaron could explain the kind of music better than I can, but I've heard him call it "Indie rock n' roll". Their website is here. It was an awesome night of live music. We highly recommend that you download their song, Help Me Out. It's great! We're sure it will make them really famous.