the sky on the way back from the hike  

birthday dirt cake (one of mom's specialties) 

these are some random shots from the break...hiking along the chattooga river and my birthday day o' fun with liz that ended up with my family, liz, bekah and yetty and i watching the uga - ga tech game...the game was a bummer but it was a fun day.  

hiking in south carolina with pops, bryan, keith and christi (christi took the picture) 

so in light of auburn beating uga this past weekend and dropping them from the top ten while boosting ourselves to #11 in the AP poll, i thought, what better way to share the events of the weekend than in some top 11 lists. so here they come, in no particular order...
 

top 11 likes/dislikes
likes (apart from the obvious: the Lord, my family friends and elizabeth)
1. sports (watching them talking about them or playing them)
2. thoughtful actions
3. competition
4. complimenting people
5. telling stories that are too long and really when it comes down to it, not that funny
6. cold, sunny days
7. the mountains
8. camping/backpacking/climbing/rappelling - anything involving being out in the wilderness
9. surprises
10. having long, encouraging conversations
11. addicting internet games

dislikes
1. uga sports and their redneck fans that have never actually set foot in a classroom there before
2. kristin and jason from laguna beach
3. selfish people
4. bama and their fans
5. people who think they're better than other people
6. shaving and looking like i haven't shaved
7. hot, humid, cloudy days
8. 85 degrees in mid november
9. T.O.
10. rudeness
11. cherry flavored candy
2.

top 11 game moments
1. Kenny's first TD
2. Kenny's second TD
3. 2 delay of game penalties in a row on UGA
4. sutherland fumbling
5. karibi dede picking up the fumble and takin it in for a TD
6. obomanu's beautiful reverse run for a TD
7. cox's 4th and 10 pass to devin
8. devin's 60 yard run
9. courtney taylor with the heads up diving on the fumble play in the end zone
10. wasting the clock down to 8 seconds
11. john vaughn to win the game

the top 11 funny comments heard this weekend:
1. shoot, i don't come out to play till 3 - fritz
2. that sounds sick, now i could see if someone said deuces like a player - liz
3. i dunno, he just kept...rearranging right in front of us! - i don't remember who said it but it was one of the girls and it was funny, don't worry about it
4. whatever mo said right before he posed for that picture above...i don't know what he said but i'm sure it was funny, look at that pose!
5. nah, i mean, have you seen their new commercials? ah gah they're great! they make it look real classy...sucked me right in...it's the champagne of beers, you know - aj
6. we're 30-somethings...are you from jacksonville? - the 2 beyond shady guys at darcy's apartment party
7. oh wow, her name's darcy? i've always wanted to meet a darcy - aj
8. all i heard was somebody talkin about 2 fingers like a player - fritz
9. we've got a great waste management system here in athens, you should take a tour of it - random guy that ended up flicking liz off (and conceding victory) walking home from the game
10. f you auburn, you guys f'in suck - sketchiest uga fans ever in the back of david's apartment complex parking lot
11. yeah, that's pretty much what the scoreboard said - carly in response to #10

a few top 11's

top 11 events of the weekend (for the 15 of us that went to athens):
1. Auburn University 31 - University of Georgia 30
2. Watching all of the UGA fans dead silent (minus a few sketchballs here and there) after the loss
3. Kenny Irons (#23 seen above) 179 rushing yards and 2 TD's
4. the shadiest apartment party ever - complete with two 30+ year olds who were without a doubt from Jacksonville...and according to them, Sarah was too.
5. a jewish band party...need i say more?
6. eating dinner friday night in a meth lab-turned pizza joint
7. walking through the arch
8. seeing all sorts of long lost friends at a barn party...and playing cornhole with dave, scott and moise. if alan and i had another shot, we would have dominated.
9. only a small crowd knows about this one - the random dude plopping down on the couch next to carly, kicking off his boots and taking one of his socks half off, laying down, and taking like a 2 hour nap while sucking his thumb. i'm not kidding.
10. sleeping 13 people in a 2 bedroom apartment
11. the 4th and 10 throw and catch from Brandon Cox to Devin Aromashodu that went 60 yards and resulted in the John Vaughn field goal to win the game.

so i have a confession to make. i never really like to put too much serious stuff here, but i had such a cool experience at work this morning. if you don't know what i mean by work, let me fill you in. i work maintenance at moore's mill golf course. so when i say i've been at work, on wednesdays and fridays, that means from 6am to 9am. some of you probably threw up in your mouth when you heard that because let's be honest, it's college, we stay up late and don't get much sleep as it is, why should i get up at 5:30 in the morning to go mow tees at a golf course. well, to give you the real answer my life is not my own. what i mean when i say that is that i have a Heavenly Father that tweaked my heart to be extremely moved by nature, (mountains, cloudless skies, cold weather and sunrises particularly) to the point where getting up early is worth it and when i'm there it completely shuts down other thoughts and makes them obedient to the call the Father has placed in those things. i'm trying not to be overly dramatic, but those of you who really know me just know that it's just how i am...i am really moved also by seeing my breath and the stars at the same time, a good windy, sunny day and just being in the mountains period. it gets to the point where i get...well..giddy to be honest. now am i proud that i have to use the word giddy to describe myself in those situations? of course not! but am i proud that my father loves and pursues me to the point where His changing the weather makes me giddy? yeah. i am. so i say that to say this: know that at 5 till 6 it's just the beginning of sunrise and not really much lighter than dark. if i'm doing a job by myself, like mowing, i'll slide my ipod in my pocket, slide to the option "shuffle songs" and click. for those of you who aren't down with the shuffle, you need to know that it just plays random songs...but it seems like they're not really random. a lot of times, i'll just be praying for the morning, to wake up, to enjoy the weather, to pay attention to what i'm doing so i don't f things up for the golfers, for my family, elizabeth, my friends, you know, whatever the Lord puts on my heart. well this morning, i'm shufflin along mowing tees, and i get to the 12th tee box and i'm looking over my left shoulder at the treeline and i know people always say this stuff, and it kinda sounds cheesy, but it looked as if the sunrise had just been one hand of red paint, one hand of orange paint smeared into the sky. it was the most vivid sunrise that i've noticed in a while, it really almost took my breath away, and i'm not really the kind of guy to say that something took my breath away. so as i'm watching the sunrise, i just sat and turned off the mower (justin, if you're reading this, don't tell scott) and looked, and the song "fix you" by coldplay came on. so as i'm listening to the song, the lyrics are more clear to me than they've ever been before:
"when the tears come streaming down your face,
when you lose some thing that you can't replace
when you love someone and it goes to waste, could it be worse?"

at this point in the song, i'm talkin back to chris martin and saying...no...that's pretty much a sucky situation, it couldn't be worse. but then, the chorus grabs my attention and twists the meaning in with the sunrise and the timing of it all...
"lights will guide you home,
and ignite your bones"

if the Lord had audibly said this right into my ear, it couldn't have been clearer...the heavens declare the glory of God; the skies proclaim the work of His hands. (psalm 19:1). and there it was, the song, the scripture and the sunrise blended into a perfect whisper to remind me i'm loved, to remind me He paid the highest price for a reason, to remind me there's a calling on my life that His kingdom needs. the scripture explained what the song was speaking to me. when things just make you feel alone, look for the lights in the sunrise, in community (hello, we're called to let our light shine for what reason?), a sunset or maybe a perfect blue sky to guide you back where you belong, in the Father's heart. the word says that our God is a consuming fire and when He calls us back to His heart (our home) it's usually to burn away the lies that have been creeping in. so my encouragement is to rest in the fact that amidst all this talk these days of seeking God out where He is and always moving forward this and that, the heavens still declare the glory of God and He is still the best at pursuing His bride's heart.