My "Meorte" (X-Men 3 Review, Golf, Hanging Rock & More)
A few years ago a group of friends and I created our own holiday called "Heorte" (pronounced Hay-or-tay). Heorte is the Greek word for festival. Heorte began one weekend when Beth was out of town, so it was like one big guys only party, full of hot wings, golf, Rook, and anything else we felt we had the freedom to do with no women around. Ever since then, every time Beth (and now the kids) are out of town, we celebrate "Heorte". This past Friday was one of those occasions. Beth and the kids left early in the day to head up to her parents house where they planned on spending the night. I made my usual calls to let the guys know that "Heorte" was on but to my disappointment, every one of them were going to be out of town. So with the whole day to myself, I celebrated the first ever, "Meorte" (Greek for - "my-festival).
"Meorte" started about 1:00pm, when after finishing all my assigned duties Beth had left for me at the house, I decided to catch a movie. I'm not usually a big "go to the movies by myself" kind of guy but since this was "Meorte, all bets were off. I arrived at the cinema at 1:44pm with the hopes of getting in to see the 1:45pm showing of "X-men 3". To my luck it wasn't sold out and when I got in to the theater, I found a great seat on the end half way up. I loved the previous X-Men movies so I had high expectations for this one. It did not disappoint. It was in my opinion the best of the three. The story and special effects were great. Since I had read no spoilers about the film I was left to be surprised by some of the results from the action scenes. (I don't want to spoil it for you so I'll leave it at that) A terrific movie and one I'll see again with Beth. 3 1/2 out of 4 stars.
After the movie my friend John Fulton called and we decided to go play 9 holes of golf at Pine Knolls. The weather was great, the course was empty, and I shot the best nine holes in my life. Granted I only play 3-4 times a year so this score isn't that great to some but for me to shoot a 44 on 9 holes was fantastic.
After golf, we met John's wife Melissa at a great little Mexican place in Oak Ridge. We shared a few laughs, told some stories, and finished off what was a very successful inaugural "Meorte".
On Saturday we had a church day-hike planned for Hanging Rock. We left the church at 11:00am to head up for a short picnic and then some hiking up the rock and then to some water falls. After our lunch, a few more folks met up with us and we started our climb. It was a great hike as usual with some very funny moments turned in by the youth. We all took turns having our picture made hanging upside down from the limb under the big rock. The weather was perfect so we took our time laying out on the top of H.R.. For most of the people that went, it was their first time ever going so it was neat to see them enjoy it. When we made it back down the mountain, we took a couple of short hikes to some water falls where we frolicked through the water and took turns splashing around. After that we were all pretty worn out so we headed over the the Mabe's for a cook-out. Food and fun was in abundance so a great time was had by all. We arrived back to the church around 7-ish where we all parted ways with the expectations of meeting up again bright and early the next morning.
I had figured that our attendance would be way down on Sunday with so many people traveling but as usual, I was proved wrong again. We had a another packed house which led to some great worship. It's been really cool to see a shift in people's thoughts regarding our Sunday morning worship services. For the most part, the majority of folks now show up not as an obligation to God but as something they seem like they really want to do. Like they can't wait to see what God has for them next. Church is going really well right now, probably the best ever. We made the announcement this past week of the new Thomasville Campus we'll be planting and the concerns have been minimal. Most are all for it and the ones that have some concerns are very legitimate but easily solved. There are still more questions then answers but we're confident that this is where God is leading our church.
On Monday the family and I went to my moms for lunch and so Dad and I could load up a new swing/play set they bought the kids for their birthdays. It was fun to spend some relaxing time with Beth and the kids along with some quality time with my parents. Dad and I brought the set to my house and set it up then Beth, my mom, and the kids came over and we had an impromptu grill out.
This weekend was really great. Good times alone. Good times with my church. And most of all, good times with my family.
"Meorte" started about 1:00pm, when after finishing all my assigned duties Beth had left for me at the house, I decided to catch a movie. I'm not usually a big "go to the movies by myself" kind of guy but since this was "Meorte, all bets were off. I arrived at the cinema at 1:44pm with the hopes of getting in to see the 1:45pm showing of "X-men 3". To my luck it wasn't sold out and when I got in to the theater, I found a great seat on the end half way up. I loved the previous X-Men movies so I had high expectations for this one. It did not disappoint. It was in my opinion the best of the three. The story and special effects were great. Since I had read no spoilers about the film I was left to be surprised by some of the results from the action scenes. (I don't want to spoil it for you so I'll leave it at that) A terrific movie and one I'll see again with Beth. 3 1/2 out of 4 stars.
After the movie my friend John Fulton called and we decided to go play 9 holes of golf at Pine Knolls. The weather was great, the course was empty, and I shot the best nine holes in my life. Granted I only play 3-4 times a year so this score isn't that great to some but for me to shoot a 44 on 9 holes was fantastic.
After golf, we met John's wife Melissa at a great little Mexican place in Oak Ridge. We shared a few laughs, told some stories, and finished off what was a very successful inaugural "Meorte".
On Saturday we had a church day-hike planned for Hanging Rock. We left the church at 11:00am to head up for a short picnic and then some hiking up the rock and then to some water falls. After our lunch, a few more folks met up with us and we started our climb. It was a great hike as usual with some very funny moments turned in by the youth. We all took turns having our picture made hanging upside down from the limb under the big rock. The weather was perfect so we took our time laying out on the top of H.R.. For most of the people that went, it was their first time ever going so it was neat to see them enjoy it. When we made it back down the mountain, we took a couple of short hikes to some water falls where we frolicked through the water and took turns splashing around. After that we were all pretty worn out so we headed over the the Mabe's for a cook-out. Food and fun was in abundance so a great time was had by all. We arrived back to the church around 7-ish where we all parted ways with the expectations of meeting up again bright and early the next morning.
I had figured that our attendance would be way down on Sunday with so many people traveling but as usual, I was proved wrong again. We had a another packed house which led to some great worship. It's been really cool to see a shift in people's thoughts regarding our Sunday morning worship services. For the most part, the majority of folks now show up not as an obligation to God but as something they seem like they really want to do. Like they can't wait to see what God has for them next. Church is going really well right now, probably the best ever. We made the announcement this past week of the new Thomasville Campus we'll be planting and the concerns have been minimal. Most are all for it and the ones that have some concerns are very legitimate but easily solved. There are still more questions then answers but we're confident that this is where God is leading our church.
On Monday the family and I went to my moms for lunch and so Dad and I could load up a new swing/play set they bought the kids for their birthdays. It was fun to spend some relaxing time with Beth and the kids along with some quality time with my parents. Dad and I brought the set to my house and set it up then Beth, my mom, and the kids came over and we had an impromptu grill out.
This weekend was really great. Good times alone. Good times with my church. And most of all, good times with my family.
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