Busy Bee

This July has been one crazy busy month for me and it now extends into the first half of August, but at least the "busyness" has been of the good variety. I have been so blessed even amidst driving a lot of miles, to spend time with some amazing people and get to lead worship at different churches and venues and God has done some amazing things as he always tends to do. This past weekend I left Rome on Friday and drove to Athens so spend time with some people that I not only call friends, but are really more like brothers and sisters including Erin, Michelle, Evie and Vic. We hung out, ate dinner downtown, and had one of our legendary jam sessions and it was just a really sweet time. I love and miss those guys very much and felt truly blessed to get to spend time with them for a few hours. I drove to Conyers later that night to my parents house and spent the weekend with them and also got to see one of my best friends, Aaron and his new fiancee Meredith. Brittany and I are very happy for the two of them and can't wait to be a part of their wedding.

On Sunday, I had the opportunity once again to lead worship at my home church. I go even express how incredibly blessed I am to get to come back to the church that has meant so much to me. I started going there with my family when I was in 3rd grade and there are still many people in the church body that I have known for so many years and they all mean so much to me. God really moved in the morning services and I feel that people truly felt His presence and responded authentically to the greatness of His glory. Some of you are probably thinking.....where was Brittany? Well, she had another good friend, Mandy Massingill come into town from doing ministry work in Mexico and their women's bible study group got together and had a good time. Brittany also had several things to do around the house the rest of the weekend and got a lot done, although she was missed very much.

This weekend I am heading to Buckhead to run sound and help lead worship for the Youth For Christ Conference which has people from all over the Southeast coming together so that should be really cool. More info to come later in another post. For now, here are some pictures from the weekend for your enjoyment. Give us feedback in a comment and tell us what you think about our blog. Take care and God bless.

Good Times with Great Friends

Sorry it has been a while since our last post, but we haven't exactly had the most free time in the world the last two weeks so I will try and catch everything up with this one. Brittany just finished her summer semester of classes for Grad School this past week. She got A's in all three classes, which comes as no surprise. She absolutely worked her tail off for 6 weeks with so much work and class time, but it paid off in the end with her grades and now she can graduate next May rather than have to take an extra class next summer so I am so proud of her. She has an amazing work ethic and I don't think I could have handled what she did nearly in the same fashion.

As for me, I spent last weekend up in Charlotte, NC with my best friend Vic just hanging out, playing music and then we lead worship together at his church that Sunday morning. It was totally worth the drive up there getting to spend some good time with Vic since I don't get to see him very often anymore and we always enjoy worship together so I was blessed to have been a part of that and we got to eat lunch with another good friend, Josh Davis that Saturday which was great.
This past week it was more of the good times with great friends. Kirk Warmerdam, another great friend and groomsmen in our wedding came into town Wednesday night from California and stayed through Sunday. Also, Christina Lynn and Rachel McLemore stayed with us and we all had a blast. Yes, we had 5 people staying in our two bedroom apartment, but we made it work. We played about 6 hours of volleyball, 3 hours of disc golf, had my concert Friday night (more info in a second), and also had some movie/game time in there as well. Let's just say we packed a lot of activities into a long weekend and it was awesome. We are very blessed to have great friends and thoroughly enjoyed the whole weekend.

I played a concert as most of you know Friday night at the Nest. It was fun because there was a full band with me including Michael Smith on bass, Tribb Robison on drums, Brandon Trapp on electric and Carrie Pinckard on vocals. The only problem was there was a mixup on the time so we didn't get to play until 10:00pm that night. However, there was still a great turnout with around 50-60 people there at the start of the show and because of being so late, we were down to about 20 at the end, but still it was an awesome time and a lot of fun. My parents and brother drove up from Conyers just for the show and then drove all the way back and that meant a lot to have them there, especially on my Mom's birthday when she could have been doing something else so to my family: I love you and appreciate you. Videos/pictures of the concert will come later so stay tuned.

This week should be a little more calm. Brittany has about 2 weeks to relax and rest before pre-planning for school starts and although I have to work, this week doesn't look to be too busy. I am driving to Conyers this weekend to lead worship at my home church, Rockdale Baptist, so that should be a lot of fun although I will miss my wife a ton as she will not be able to come. A good friend of hers, Mandy Massingill is coming into town for some fun with the girls' Bible study so I'm excited they will have that time together. Well, that should just about sum it up. Let us know what you think about our blog by leaving a comment. Take care and God bless!

C&B
Hayes Party of Two

My Experience at the Braves Game :)

So, I know that I went to the Braves game to #1 see Chris sing the National Anthem and #2 see the game, but I found another reason to have fun at the game!!! I played a lot with this little friend! :)







~ B Hayes

Rome Braves and Independence Day

I had the chance to sing the National Anthem at the Rome Braves game this past Thursday, July 2nd. It was a neat experience and I guess I would even have to admit that I did okay. My family and some other good friends were there to support me and even though there were not a huge number of fans at the game, it was still a lot of fun. We did catch it on video for your enjoyment although it was from my crappy digital camera so the quality is not great, but you get the idea nonetheless.



This weekend marks the only weekend this whole month that I don't have a lot of things to do. In fact, only one other weekend this month will I even be in town so Brittany and I decided to just enjoy each other's company this weekend and do some married things. We went to a movie last night and since we saw Transformers 2 last time, it was time for a chick flick so we saw The Proposal with Ryan Reynolds and Sandra Bullock. Although very predictable for a girl movie, I have to admit it was really funny and I enjoyed it. Afterwards we came home and made some pigs in the blanket and ate some other snack foods and just took it easy.







Saturday was about the most uneventful day we could ever have, but I have to admit it was nice to simply sleep in late and do nothing at all for the day. Brittany had some school work to do, but other than that, it was a nice day of rest. Don't worry, we'll still watch the fireworks once they start and enjoy the holiday traditions. I'm not sure who decided that a good way to celebrate our nation's birthday is to blow things up, but I applaud them.

Lastly, a shameless plug, which I will continue to repeat on every post for the next two weeks. I am playing a concert downtown Rome at The Nest on July 17th. I'll be playing with a full band and also doing a few originals by myself and will cover a large spectrum of musical genres, but I can promise it's going to be a lot of fun for everyone. The show is from 9-11pm and it's a Friday night so come on out and join us there!

C&B
Hayes Party of Two

Life, Death, and Everything in Between

We had a good date night last night. Dinner at WOW Wings (World of Wings) and then we went to see Transformers 2. For those haven't seen it, the movie was highly entertaining and better than I thought it would be. There's a ton of funny parts throughout the film, lots of action, incredible special effects as expected and pretty good acting for the most part. The one thing I would say that I wasn't a huge fan of was the language and innuendos that were mainly said by the robots. It wasn't awful language, but just felt random and that it didn't really need to be in there. I still like the first one better, but this one was really good so I will definitely buy it and look forward to the third one.

In the last three days we have heard news of the deaths of 3 pretty big celebrities...Ed McMann, Farrah Fawcett, and the King of Pop, Michael Jackson. While I do not condone MJ's lifestyle or private life in general, he was probably the greatest musical entertainer of all time and I love his music. It's fun to sing, dance to and just doesn't get old for the most part. He was bad, dangerous, black and white, the man in the mirror, and wasn't afraid to tell people to beat it or that the kid is simply just not his son. Michael, in one word, your career was simply "thriller".

Although the Braves have been about as mediocre a team can be this season, I still love them (not romantically) and cannot wait to see them play the Red Sox on Sunday with my boy Russ. He invited me to go so I just could not turn it down. It will be weird seeing Smoltz in the other dugout, but I hope we can get a win while I'm there. Nothing like seeing a ballgame at the park, although I'm not sure how happy my wife is that she isn't going, haha, it will be okay though.

I know this has been long, so I will end this post with a personal thought, then a really good quote. I have been blown away by how faithful God is the past couple of weeks. The funny thing, it's not been due to things in my life, but His provision to people close to me. I can't go into too many details because I don't know how much these people want others to know, but let's just say that the Lord has provided a fiance', a job, a baby, and great news regarding someone else's job that was not expected and is exciting. The Lord is good and his timing is absolutely perfect. He is constantly working for our good and even during our trials and hardships, he is shaping our character and strengthening our faith and ultimately causing his name to become greater. Remember that when you are finding it hard to be patient, struggling to have faith, can't seem to see the way, or whatever you are going through, that if you are a child of God, your King, Savior, Deliverer and your Great Father is working for your good at all times and will work everything out for your good and for his glory. That is reason to rejoice and respond to Him in worship. I'll finish with this quote by Pastor Harry Reeder:

"Circumstances don't dictate our character, they reveal it and give us a chance to improve it."

C&B
Hayes Party of Two

One Year!!

Well, it took a little long for us to post, but after no further adieu, we have details of our one-year anniversary trip to Chattanooga. We have been married for one year!

We drove up there Friday afternoon and when we arrived, we went to the movie theater to see The Taking of Pelham 123. Other than it having a lot of language, the movie was excellent. There was action, comedy, drama, suspense and of course two great actors in Denzel and Travolta.

After the movie we checked in to the Stone Fort Inn, which is a 100 year old Bed and Breakfast in downtown Chattanooga and we loved it. They had an antique pool table that we played a few games on and a very nice suite with two rooms and a large bathroom.


Chris and I played some pool.




Friday night they had a wine and cheese hour from 6-7, which was pretty cool.




However, we aren’t big wine drinkers so after a few sips we opted for a couple of cokes instead. The cheese, crackers and fruit were all very good though and served as a nice appetizer before we went to dinner at Big River Grille.

We walked from the B&B about 8 blocks to get there and back, but it was a nice night and a nice town to walk in so we enjoyed that very much. Before going to bed that night, they had videos you could get and watch in your rooms so we watched Kindergarten Cop, haha…classic!


On Saturday we woke up and went down to breakfast, which was very good. Brittany opted for some cereal while I had some fruit, fancy hash brown stuff and some crepes filled with applesauce, which were awesome. They also had some fresh orange juice. The service was excellent and we really enjoyed our stay there.

After checking out we drove to Ruby Falls and did the tour through the caves to the underground waterfall and then after lunch we went to Rock City and enjoyed that as well. Guess we figured it was important to do some touristy things while in the city.

Chris being silly........

I followed and was silly as well.........




Overall, it was an amazing trip because we got to spend it together and honestly it didn’t matter what we did. This first year has been filled with everything and we cannot wait for however many more years God chooses to give us. Hopefully next year we will be able to do something a little more fancy like a cruise or a nicer vacation, but it was a nice first year anniversary indeed.




When we got home, we got to eat our first year cake. I am going to be honest friends and say it was not the best thing in the world.


The funny part was that it was too tall for the cake topper to cover it. So, Brittany made her own topper. We had no toothpicks in the house, but we did have straws. :)




C&B
Hayes Party of Two

Updates On Life

I thought today would be a good time to give everyone some updates on our lives and where we are at. Obviously, Brittany is still teaching but is off for the summer and has begun her first of 6 weeks of summer Grad classes. Since she is taking 3 classes this summer, she will be able to graduate next May. Pray that she gets though this because it is a lot of class time and a lot of work at a high level. She will return to teaching at Excel Christian Academy in the fall for her third year there.

As for me, I recently took a new position at DFCS (Department of Family and Children Services). I am now a Family Team Meeting Facilitator. Basically what that means is that when a family has an ongoing case with the Department, we do a Family meeting involving the parents, case managers, service providers, etc and develop a case plan and talk about the family's strengths, needs, and things like that. It's a really cool part of the process that seems to be very effective and successful. We also do one right before we close the case to celebrate the good work of the family and to help them look out for things in the future. I enjoy it for the most part, although there is a learning curve involved so as I continue to understand the process, get organized and come up with a solid routine, it gets easier.

I started getting up earlier in the mornings this week and have been running. It's a struggle, but I hope to keep it up. I stay pretty active during the week in the evenings playing basketball, volleyball and disc golf at least 3 nights a week, sometimes more. Hopefully I will be able to lose some weight, get in better shape and be healthier all around. I'm just not the kind of guy that likes running unless there is a ball or some purpose or sport involved so it is a challenge, but hopefully God continues to give me strength and motivation to get up and do it.

Lastly, Brittany and I are so excited about heading to Chattanooga to celebrate our one year anniversary together this weekend. Stay tuned for details and pictures. I also got my haircut, but didn't think anyone really cares to see pictures of me, it's short like it always is, haha.

C&B
Hayes Party of Two