Mint Hill North Carolina is a great little and growing town/ suburb of Charlotte North Carolina. I grew up (in high school) in Mint Hill. My parents still live there in Farmwood - which is actually the largest neighborhood in the Carolinas!

Our address, when I was growing up in Mint Hill, was Charlotte, but Mint Hill was its own town as well. It is a great little town with a ton of families living in it!

It is also right next to Matthews, which is where I work. When my wife and I were both leaving work last night, my parents invited us over for dinner… at their home in Farmwood - Mint Hill North Carolina. So, we got to have dinner with them there at their home. My dad was going to barbecue some chicken, but we ended up eating some barbecue pork from “The Rock Store.”

The famous site of the original “Rock Store” is in Matthews North Carolina, just up the road. But now there is a new site for the Rock Store, and it is right in Mint Hill! They say that business has been BOOMING since they opened up recently.

So we all hung out together at my parents house and had some good barbecue and barbecue sandwiches and brunswick stew and mac and cheese and baked beans and slaw from the Rock Store. Good times.

If you have never eaten barbecue from the “Rock Store” and you live near Matthews or Mint Hill North Carolina you should definitely check it out and have some for dinner with your family.

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A few years ago I learned about something pretty awesome called the “Bible Experience.” I was listening to a podcast in my car on my iPod driving to work and I heard an interview with the creator of the “Bible Experience.”

It sounded awesome! They gathered all the best actors together for this project. They were going to create an audio Bible. But this would not be just ANY audio Bible! This was going to be like a MOVIE that you listened to. A dramatic audio presentation of the whole Bible.

And when I say they gathered some of the best actors together for this project, I mean it. Actors like Denzel Washington, Cuba Gooding, Jr., and Samuel L. Jackson are major actors in the “Bible Experience.”

So, the “Bible Experience” came out a few weeks after I heard that podcast and I bought the New Testament. It was AWESOME. It is SO REAL! The Bible completely comes to life! It has full sound effects, a movie-like soundtrack for background, and every actor plays there same role throughout the whole “Story” of the Bible.

Then more recently the released the Old Testament and I actually won the WHOLE Bible (Old and New Testament) at a conference. About a year ago I put a stereo in my bathroom and listen to things while I am in the shower and getting ready in the mornings.

Last month I started with the New Testament and decided I was go straight through listening to it on the Bible Experience just while I was in the shower. I finished this week! I listened to the whole New Testament in less than two months! That is pretty awesome.

Now I am going to start on the Old Testament. I wonder how long that will take me. Probably a lot longer than the New Testament, but it is a great use of my time!

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Tonight the Carolina Panthers played on Monday Night Football on ESPN! Their opponent was the Dallas Cowboys - “America’s Team”… or they used to be anyway. Now they are definitely Jerry Jones’ team as he just built the Cowboys a new stadium to play in.

And that brand new stadium in Dallas, Texas is the site of this Monday Night Football game tonight. This new stadium that the Dallas Cowboys call home is an absolute marvel! It is a dome stadium with a retractable roof. So, it can basically be an outdoor game when the weather is nice and then they can just close the roof if it’s raining or the weather is bad.

The stadium also flaunts a HUGE plasma jumbo tron screen that is the biggest to ever go in a stadium! You can see the screen from way down the street in Dallas. It is so big that a punter actually hit the screen with the ball in one of the Cowboys’ games this year!

The Panthers have started off VERY poorly! We are 0-2 and need to win this game desperately. I think only one team ever has started off the season 0-3 and still made the playoffs! We are all hoping Jake Delhomme steps up under that huge plasma screen there in Dallas and throws for two or three touchdowns and NO interceptions (which would be a first this season).

I am looking forward to watching this game played in this pretty amazing stadium.

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I was at the James J. Harris YMCA here in Charlotte North Carolina all afternoon today. It is located in the Southpark area of Charlotte (South Charlotte) near Southpark Mall.

It is a very nice YMCA. It includes a “Teen Center” that is a really cool addition that most YMCAs do not have the luxury of including in their arsenal.
This “Teen Center” has several really cool “party rooms” and there are always birthday parties going on in those rooms for kids. Plus there is a full range of video games and table games all throughout the party area!

There is a “Dance Dance Revolution” type game along with a few race car driving games like “Cruis’n USA”. There are video games all around the room including a whole room of Xboxes and stuff like that hooked to TVs. THen there is a foosball table, a pool table, and a ping pong table! Definitely a fun room if you are a teenager or a kid (or an adult!).

It also has all the great accommodations you are accustomed to in a YMCA. It has a state of the art exercise room as well as other free weight work out rooms. It has a gym with a full track above.

One thing that this YMCA boasts that few YMCAs have is a full service Deli restaurant! Garden Fresh Deli, owned and operated by my good friend Don, is the best place to get a sandwich in the Southpark area and it is right there conveniently in the YMCA!

Charlotte NC. Charlotte North Carolina. Charlotte North Carolina Real Estate. Charlotte NC Real Estate.

Today my wife went to “Festival in the Park” with a good friend here in Charlotte North Carolina. Festival in the Park is held each year in Charlotte’s famous “Freedom Park.”

The description from the “Festival in the Park” web site is = Since 1964, Festival in the Park has been bringing good music, good art and good times to Charlotteans and visitors from around the world. The sounds of “big band music” drift across Freedom Park’s lake whose still surface reflects the lights strung from Camelot exhibit tents.”

Just today I was talking to one of my native Charlottean friends about the “Festival in the Park.” This is a friend who was born here in Charlotte and grew up here and has lived here in Charlotte all his life. He has lived in East and West Charlotte. Recently as an adult he has lived in uptown Charlotte and in NoDa (”North Davidson = arts district) currently. They have a few children under the age of 7 and another one on the way. Needless to say - they hit up ALL the festivals and stuff like that!

So, with that as the background, he told me that this is the BEST festival in Charlotte. They love it! They go to this one every year and it is their favorite.

So, that is high praise for this “Festival in the Park” here in this great city of Charlotte. It has won all kinds of awards too. So, if you live here in Charlotte then definitely go check it out = it ends tomorrow!

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The greatest rivalry of all time! And this is our year again! Once again (finally) the Yankees are on top and the best team in baseball after missing the playoffs last year!

Us Yankee fans HATE the Red Sox. We would rather beat the Red Sox than almost anything! So it was definitely unfortunate that we started off the season losing our first eight games to the Red Sox! That is just embarrassing.

But since then the Yankees have really turned it around! We have figured out our starting pitching staff with most guys throwing on all cylinders now. Sabathia, Burnett, Pettite, Chamberlain, and Hughes have really been solid for us! Now we have been five to six games up on the Red Sox in the AL East for several weeks now!

So, we came into this series knowing that if we could sweep this series against Boston in the new Yankee Stadium then we would clinch the division and probably home field advantage throughout the post season and even in the World Series (since the American League won the All Star Game this year).

Well, we started off the series well because we played great tonight! Joba Chamberlain pitched really well and only gave up 1 run through 6 innings until he gave up a homer to David Ortiz. But the Yankee bats were on as we scored nine runs! Everyone was hitting great and has been hitting great lately.

Hopefully we are hitting our stride at just the right time.

Charlotte NC. Charlotte North Carolina. Charlotte North Carolina Real Estate. Charlotte NC Real Estate.

It is that time of year again. Many of the television series are starting back up with their season premieres. This week was a big week for many of the big ones kicking back off. Of course, the best ones wait until January to kick off - like “24″ and “Lost”.

But, today my wife’s favorite television show came back on with the two hour premiere! The extremely big hit show “Grey’s Anatomy” (which is also the name of the famous Anatomy and Physiology medical student handbook for nurses and pre-med students). The opening premiere was shocking.

One of our new favorite shows also began again tonight = “FRINGE”. It is really really awesome and has a gripping story focusing on the phenomenon of fringe science. This is only the second season. It has a few great actors and an ongoing suspense and thriller feel to it. It is like “24″ meets “Lost”. And that is a pretty dangerous combination!

With all these premieres we also made sure to watch a series premiere. We heard about this show a few months ago that would be kicking off from the writers of one of our favorite shows = “Lost”. The name of the new show is “Flash Forward” and it airs on Thursday nights at 8pm here in Charlotte (Easter Standard Time). It was pretty good and seems like it will be a really good show.

“Lie to Me” cranks up on FOX next Monday in it’s second season. I am fascinated by that show as it follows the expert in the field of “micro expressions” working big cases each show.

This should be a good season for TV.

Charlotte NC. Charlotte North Carolina. Charlotte North Carolina Real Estate. Charlotte NC Real Estate.

That’s right everyone! Louie Giglio is going to be on TV in the morning!

I wouldn’t really say that I have human “heroes” per say… but if I did, Louie Giglio would be one. When it comes to ministry, Louie is probably the person I would say is my hero.
Of all Christian leaders he has definitely had the most profound influence on my adult life… by far.

I have read every word he has ever written and probably heard almost every talk or sermon he has ever spoken! I eat up everything he has to say and soak it in like a sponge. God made Louie to lead a movement of this generation to be passionate for one thing = the glory and fame of God.

Louie Giglio is the founder of the Passion Movement. A next generation awakening that has spread around the globe of students and twenty somethings passionate for God’s glory. He is also best friends with Andy Stanley and worked from North Point Community Church in Atlanta for over ten years where he began 7:22 - the largest singles worship gathering in the country.
He is also the founder and president of sixsteps records. The song writers of sixsteps records have written the songs that have become the most sung songs in church on Sunday mornings! Surpassing even songs that have been written for hundreds of years!

Anyway, it’s true that he will be on TV in the morning! On ABC family at 10AM Eastern time. For you who live in Charlotte and have Time Warner Cable that is channel 29 or channel 205 if you have HD! I can’t wait to see Louie in HD on TV!

Charlotte NC. Charlotte North Carolina. Charlotte North Carolina Real Estate. Charlotte NC Real Estate.

Yesterday I wrote about Dorian’s restaurant in Matthews North Carolina near Charlotte. Today I am writing about a restaurant that I eat at even more often and it is just right down the street from Dorian’s… Kristopher’s in downtown Matthews!

Kristopher’s is awesome. It’s bigger and flashier than Dorian’s, but just as great in different ways. Kristopher’s is the epitome of your home town sports bar with great food and great prices and lots of regulars like us.

We’re eating there today just like we as a staff eat there almost every Tuesday. Why do we eat there pretty much every Tuesday? Because Tuesday is BUY ONE GET ONE FREE PIZZA DAY! That is a really good deal! Usually four or five of us can eat for around $15.

Plus I am now convinced that Kristopher’s has some of the best pizza in town. It is piping hot and the cheese on their pizzas is amazing!

We can basically each pick what toppings we want on half of a pizza. I pretty much always get pepperoni and sausage! Those are my favorite two toppings. Other people switch it up sometimes or maybe they get three or four toppings. Kristopher’s has pretty much every topping you can imagine! From pineapple to bacon…

Kristopher’s is on the corner of Matthews-Mint Hill Road and Sam Newell right at downtown Matthews.

Well, I better go because we’re going to eat some of this great pizza right now!

Charlotte NC. Charlotte North Carolina. Charlotte North Carolina Real Estate. Charlotte NC Real Estate.

Dorian’s is a restaurant I probably eat at once a week. You have never even heard of it? Well, that doesn’t surprise me. It is a family owned, family run restaurant tucked away on the side of Matthews-Mint Hill road (Old Highway 51) in Matthews North Carolina VERY near Charlotte North Carolina.

If you are driving down Independence Boulevard (Highway 74) away from Charlotte and toward Matthews you would turn right on highway 51 at the Exxon on the Run. Then you will probably drive right by Dorian’s because it is so easy to miss! It will be on your left in less than a mile. It has a small blue sign that simply says “Dorian’s”.

The look of the restaurant doesn’t win you over but the food sure will! Our office is less than one mile down the street from Dorian’s so we eat their as a staff all the time. Plus I have a lot of lunch meetings there during the week as well.

Well, we ate at Dorian’s today. It’s refreshing to sit in this quaint “mom and pop” restaurant that is native to Matthews North Carolina and has been there forever. It is one of our own little secrets. If you are in Matthews it is a place you simply have to eat. Every town has several of those places.

I always eat the Reuben sandwich and the homemade chips with ranch dressing. Those homemade chips are famous and addicting. You can’t get enough. They put their seasoning on them and they taste unbelievable!

Let me know if you’re coming to eat at Dorian’s! Maybe I’ll be there too?

Charlotte NC. Charlotte North Carolina. Charlotte North Carolina Real Estate. Charlotte NC Real Estate.