New Logo For Sunnyside's Band "The Shout!"

Summer...Vacation?

Back in the "Good Ole Days" summers used to mean vacation time. Even in recent years it has at least meant somewhat of a slow down for the Sharps. This year however seems to be the summer from hell. In fact, that's exactly how I'm going to remember May 2009-August 2009 in the annuls of my memory. I have been busier this summer than last Christmas season, which is saying A LOT considering that is a Worship Pastor's "busiest" season. There is a wedding every weekend, and camps coming out my nose. How in the world does a church as small as ours have some sort of camp every week? (Oh, and no Sunnysiders, we are not in a big church).

Traci has school EVERY morning and work EVERY night, and we have to shuttle Emmi to a bevvy of babysitters every morning and night. To be honest with you I feel incredibly guilty that we haven't had ANY family time in FOREVER. We get to see each other PART of the day on SOME Saturdays and that's about it. I spend more time with my family in choir practice than I do at home. Sad but true.

So my only time to unwind...oh, at about 11pm-1am after everyone else is in bed. It's funny, but I have to stay up late in order to flake out a little and de-stress. My destressor of choice at the moment:

This is an ingenius little game where you basically just run around a little town you create, living out your life. It's sort of a "Sims" type game where you go fishing, gather sea shells, catch bugs, talk to other residents (in the form of little animal people), and just kind of "live life". Emmi loves watching me play this game, especially the fishing part. I know it's silly and it took me almost a year before I picked up a used copy, but I'm glad I did. You can also share "friend codes" with your friends who have a Wii and this game, and you can go to each others' towns and even talk to each other if you have the Wii Speak microphone peripheral that attaches to your TV.

I'm also playing through "Ghostbusters" for the Wii, which is cool because it is the next story in the GB sequence of events, in essence making it the 3rd part of the Ghostbusters Trilogy. Well, enough blogging. Time to get back to the grind. See you 'round the 'net.

Wedding of the Century

That is a picture of my sister Andrea and her new husband Matt.  This past week was action packed with VBS every night, and then straight on to Knoxville for Matt and Andrea's wedding.  It was a gorgeous affair, and I had the honor of singing Malotte's "Lord's Prayer" at the wedding, and Sister Hazel's "This Kind of Love" at the reception for their first dance.  The rehearsal dinner was in the skybox at Neyland Stadium!

It was a great weekend and I love ministering in Kingsport, but times like this really make me miss Knoxville A LOT.  People here in Kingsport have often asked me "What is it about Knoxville???"  Well, honestly, for me, it's home.  I supposed wherever you are born and raised will be speical to you no matter what.  All my family still live there, my favorite teams still play there, and I have some incredible memories there.  Plus, it's close enough that I can get there within 2 hours if I need to.

Anyway, my sister popped up on Facebook last night, which surprised the heck out of me because she is honeymooning in Costa Rica right now.  She said she is literally in the jungle and that the only form of communication is the Internet.  Funny, I always thought of Costa Rica as being a 3rd world mission field, being just south of Nicaragua.  Who knew it was a hot vacation spot?

Also, last night Jonathan Smith, Andrew Gibbons, and I had the privilege of leading a 21 year old lady by the name of Tiffany Lawrence to the Lord.  It was wild because she wasn't even the person we were looking for at that house during visitation.  I love God ordained appointments!

Well anyway, that's all for now.  I'm exhausted.  Like, the can't keep my eyes open, head hurts, need to lie down and close my eyes or I'm going to vomit kind of exhausted.  So I'm going to go find a quiet corner and hide for a few minutes to try and shake the nausea, just in case you come by the church and can't find me for the next half hour or so.

Week One of NutriSystem Down and VBS, Funerals, and Weddings, Oh My!

If I live through this week it will be incredible.  I am on my second week of Nutrisystem, VBS is in full swing, I have a funeral this afternoon, and my sister is getting married this weekend.  I am singing in the wedding and at the reception, so I've got a lot going on there, plus it's in Knoxville, which complicates things.

VBS started last night, and it went really well.  I think VBS is an incredible idea that has worked for decades, and is STILL a viable and effective evangelism tool for the church.  But dang does it wear out the teachers and workers.

Now, as for the Nutrisystem...I tried this last year and looking back on my journal entries I lost an average of 2 pounds per week while on it until about the 13th week, where I just stopped losing.  I don't know what happened, but my weight loss completely petered out around that 13 unlucky week, and never started back again.  I went about 2 months without losing weight before finally just giving up on the program.  Almost a year later, I had gained 27 of those pounds back and started looking pregnant again.

I had decided around January of this year that I would try Low Carb again.  To be honest with you, I really gave it an honest go for about 4 months and didn't lose any weight.  I KNOW I was doing it the right way because I was hyper careful, and I'm REALLY well educated and REALLY well read on the subject.  I even bought a membership at the YMCA and averaged 5 days a week working out.  Nothing.

Well, here I am after the first week on Nutrisystem again, and what are the results?  My official first weigh in 9 days ago was 213 pounds.  My weight this morning is 206 pounds.  There's an extra two days in this first week because my official weigh-in days are on Mondays, and I started on a Saturday morning, but still...two days ago I weighed 208, which would be 5 pounds in 7 days, which is still incredible.

So anyway, I will be making entries every Monday morning specificially related to my weight loss.  I am also taking measurements, but I don't have those on me right now, and I'll probably only post those once a month anyway.

Brian's Weight Loss Chart:

October 1st, 2007:  230 pounds (My heaviest point, and the true beginning)

May 23rd, 2009:  213 pounds

June 1st, 2009:  206 pounds