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I started watching Heroes when I was on the road with WIll in the winter and I loved it. He let me borrow the season and by the next week, I had watched the entire season.

This was my first venture getting really into a television show. I’d never really watched TV regularly before this (except for SportsCenter, but what guy doesn’t do that?), but I became very close to addicted to a few shows. By the time season four of LOST kicked off at the end of January, I had watched a couple of recaps and I was ready to go. I’ve decided that I’m going to watch all three preceding seasons (and maybe four again) before season five kicks off. However, I’m only allowed to watch LOST with Hannah so she doesn’t get behind and she’ll be ready too. We’re almost through season one, but I wanted another show to watch during my free time without her…I knew I needed season two of Heroes!

However, that hasn’t come out on DVD yet. The solution: Hulu. It streams some popular tv and movie episodes and clips all online for free! I was overjoyed when I found all of season two online. I watched it all for free and I’m ready to go for season three when it kicks off in the fall (supposedly…?).

Now to finish LOST…

I have been able to get my hands on a little new music in the past couple of weeks and I haven’t been able to stop listening to it. There aren’t very many, but this is the kind of music that gets deep into me and I probably will be rocking for the next couple of months and much further.

• Viva La Vida, Coldplay - Although Michael says this is an album made for musicians, I’ll join Will and disagree. This album is a fresh breath of air to music and Coldplay as a band. The title track, Viva La Vida, might be my favorite song on it right now, but many others are closely following it. This album is a must have…not just for musicians, but for everyone.
• Where The Light Is, John Mayer Live in Los Angeles - I actually just got this CD/DVD yesterday, but I haven’t been able to stop watching or listening to it. It’s definitely worth the extra money to get the DVD also. John plays all three acts of the show. He plays a few songs acoustic, a few with the John Mayer Trio and a few with his whole band making an awesome collection of 22 songs. Although you can get the music and videos on iTunes, I would suggest going and buying it at Target, Walmart or wherever you buy your music.

From time-to-time, I’ll try to post some kind of question and get you, the reader, to comment and leave an answer to the question. This really hasn’t ever worked for me. I’ll ask a question and one person will respond…and it sucks.

So, I’m asking you, if you can answer this question, please do.

What has been your favorite thing that Oak Leaf has ever done? This can be for you if you’ve attended the Leaf for a while, or if you’ve only been once. It could be a song, illustration, message/series, event or anything.

I’ll go first…my favorite thing was when we kicked off our first service at Woodland. We started the service with a video set to “Beautiful Day” (by U2) that had some clips and pictures of people from church events up until that point. The Video started with a title of “Oak Leaf Church At The Movies” At the end of the video and halfway through the song, it said “First Sunday at Woodland” and faded to a black screen. Tenth Avenue North kicked into the song without missing a beat! The lights all came up, the three screens put images up and everyone went crazy! I loved it!

What about you? What’s your favorite thing Oak Leaf has done?

Right now I’m conference room at the Hampton Inn with the Oak Leaf staff working on putting some details together on our move back to the theater and the building and move to the campus at the House of Rock.

I’m pumped about what’s going on at Oak Leaf in the coming weeks and months! We’ll be heading back over to the theater on July 20 and that’s going to be awesome! How cool is it that you can have church in a movie theater?! Michael talks some here about the moving back to the theater.

Come check it out…Oak Leaf at the Movies Strikes Back! July 20 with services at 8:45, 10:00 and 11:00!

• It was good seeing everybody from North Point again today. I haven’t seen most of them since last August when my internship ended…
• And it was good hearing this guy speak today…I’m pumped about his book coming out in the fall!
• I missed being at Oak Leaf today, but I’m pumped about all the things that lie ahead within the coming weeks.
• I really appreciate Jake taking over today…Robin spoke and led the discussion. Her and her husband, Curt, rock so hard!
• Tonight, Hannah and I are meeting up with the rest of the staff and their spouses for dinner (I’m the only one on staff who isn’t married)…and it’s in Kennesaw! No drive!
• Tomorrow, we head to Chattanooga for staff retreat, which will be awesome! I’ll be rooming with the Mitch Moyer…yeah!
• I’m really excited about The Dark Knight coming out in a couple of weeks…I’m debating going for the midnight showing.
• My cousin, Jacob, is coming in from Washington state, where he is serving in the Army.
• I’m still trying to get through season one of LOST…Hannah picked up with me over our vacation. Hopefully I’ll be through it by the end of July and on to season two.

I am fortunate enough to be back at North Point Community Church this Sunday morning. I’m very excited because I haven’t been there since last August, when my internship ended. I’m playing at Xtreme, the middle school environment, with Chris Coleman.

When I was there last, I was telling them about Chris and trying to get him a chance to play there. Within a couple of months, he was booked at North Point or one of its campuses almost every week of the month. Last week, he played and led at BigStuf Camp. I’m really proud of Chris and how he’s grown as a worship leader and a believer in the past year. God’s doing awesome things in Chris’ life and through him and his talents. Rock on, bro!

It’ll be good to be back there, see everyone from NP again Sunday, and to hear Andy live again!

I wasn’t very clear with what was going on in yesterday’s post, so let me explain that a little more. She had a spot (like a mole or freckle) on her chest that she was concerned about, so she went to the dermatologist with it. If looked suspicious to them as well, so they decided to do a biopsy. The results took a little while to get back to us, but they told her that she had squamous cell carcinoma, the second most common skin cancer. Unlike some other skin cancers, this one can spread to other parts of the body. Since it was found early, they were able to treat it early…hoping that they’d get it fixed before it spread to other parts of the body. When found and treated early, there is a 95% cure rate.

She had surgery today, in which they were going on to go in and scrape around the spot and get all the cancer cells out, while seeing how far they’ve spread out. It went really well and they got all the cancer cells out, as it hasn’t spread much.

Thank you for all the support and prayers. It means a lot to my mom, me and our family. I’m glad that this is all over so soon…

It’s one of those words you hate hearing about because it never means good news.

I think about just today, I’ve heard about at least 5 people that are battling cancer right now. Some of them are really close to me, some I’ve never even met.

I haven’t said anything to anyone really about this yet, but my mom has skin cancer. We found out almost a week ago. It’s the second most common kind of skin cancer and I guess skin cancer isn’t the biggest of worries when it comes to cancer. Still…just hearing the “C word” put in the same sentence as my mom scares me to death. I’ve been going through Rhetta’s cancer with Hannah and her family and I’ve seen how hard it is. My mom will have a procedure done early tomorrow morning to try to see how much the cancer has spread. We’re really hoping that tomorrow will be the end of it all, especially since we caught it so early, but please pray for my mom and her procedure.

I don’t really know why I haven’t mentioned it on here or to anyone personally. I guess, it’s not the easiest thing to bring up in the midst of a conversation, but I think I’ve also tried to put my mind off of it. I believe that my whole family has done that (I guess that vacation was good timing), and we’re not really thinking about it being anything more than an issue that’s fixed tomorrow…I guess we’re hoping for the best. So, I’m sorry that I haven’t mentioned it before now, but I guess I just thought that I needed to let some folks know and you can never ask too much for prayer.

I’ve been hearing lots of stories about how God is using cancer in lots of people’s lives. He is literally using songs and stories of people with cancer as a megaphone to the world that God is bigger than any sickness. His love and grace are stronger and more powerful than anyone life or issues in life. I read stories about it here…and listen to songs about it.

God is even using cancer like crazy to bring glory to His Name. And that fires me up…

I am alive…and back to blog (if anyone actually thought that anyways).

Sorry for the lack of posts lately. I shall return tomorrow…

I’m down at Cape San Blas, Florida with my family right now…really away from civilization for the most part.

• I hate being somewhere that I don’t have cell phone service because I’m afraid someone won’t be able to get a hold of me when they need me. But I think that this will be good for me. 
• I just got a new devotional book to go through with Hannah. I’m excited to kick that off tomorrow.
• I brought LOST season one down here to catch up myself and Hannah to what’s going on. My goal is to be through seasons 1-3 before next season starts.
• I missed buying Coldplay tickets today but I’m still going to try to get some for Brink, Paul, Brian and I. I don’t want horrible seats, but I guess I’ll have to do what I can.
• I did get my MacBook pro, but I’m still trying to get it all set up the way I want it. 
• I’m excited about MovieFest tomorrow night…I know it’s going to be a hit! Make sure you’re at the Cartersville Chick-fil-A at 8 pm to watch Transformers!
• This place that we’re staying at is very strange. Apparently we’re not supposed to turn on any outside lights in the evening because it will mess with the sea turtles and we’ll get fined. Hmm…