Mattie Rae Bayliff - 3 Months

2011 has brought many changes to the Bayliff household. First of all, the best change has been the addition of our sweet baby girl, Mattie! She is three months old today and I can not tell you how much she has blessed Megan and I over the past 12 weeks. She brings joy and laughter to us every day and night and we are so proud to be her parents. I am humbled everyday when I think about how God has created such a beautiful little girl and how He has allowed me to be her daddy. Here are a few pictures of our Mattie Rae (in order of course)....

October 19th, 2010October 22nd, 2010

October 26th, 2010

November 14th, 2010

December 8th, 2010

December 18th, 2010

December 27th, 2010

January 3rd, 2011

January 8th, 2011

January 10th, 2011

January 16th, 2011

January 19th, 2011

It is really hard to believe that three months have gone by since we finally got to meet our little girl. I feel so blessed to have such a beautiful, healthy, and wonderful daughter!

For my un-born daughter, Mattie Rae

Mattie,

Today’s date is Thursday August 12th, 2010 and you’re anticipated due date is rapidly approaching….. Tuesday October 26th - this is less than 11 weeks away! I want you to know how much I have enjoyed these past few months. Watching your mommy’s belly grow and seeing you punch and kick her stomach is something I will always cherish, because I know that God is taking care of you as you grow! He has given you life and He has blessed us with the opportunity to be your parents, and for that I am very grateful.

The best memories I have had during these last few months are the ones when I was able to hear or see you! We have been blessed to hear your heart beat on several occasions and we have seen you twice through an ultrasound (we even made a video of your 4-month ultrasound)! I guess what I am trying say is that I am really excited about finally meeting you and holding you my arms. I am curious to see what you look like… if you favor your mommy (PLEASE GOD!) or if you favor me. I am excited to change your first diaper, rock you to sleep, and say prayers with you at night! And even though you won’t be able to read this until a few years later, I want you to know how much you are loved and how much I care about you. No matter what happens in life, I will always be Mattie’s Daddy and I like the way that sounds!

All my love,

Daddy

Thanksgiving Day Corn-hole Champions!

Thanksgiving.... Family was present, food was plentiful, and everyone was having a good time. Among eating, some of the other things that took place were snacking, eating (again), tasting, and.... oh yea, the first annual Galloway / Bayliff / Elder / Snyder & Hatchell Corn-hole Tournament!

This tournament was spontaneously put together and totally random, but turned out to be extremely fun. First, the prize... everyone put coupons, old gift cards, spare change, and/or anything they could spare from their wallets and purses. Next was the teams, in order to pair each player with a teammate - each player's name was randomly selected from a hat. Once the players were paired and the brackets were drawn, the tournament was underway.

This was the first time that my dad ever played - he was by far the best player out there!

Next year this thing is going to be huge... I think we should see about getting it televised next year (maybe on ESPN "the Ocho!")

Recent Pics of Gray Gray

In light of my last post - Kevin said that I should have posted a more recent picture of Gray, so everyone could see just how cute she really is...

These two pics were taken in April during one of our trips to Conway... I got to hang out with Gray for a whole afternoon that day - We watched TV, played "rock stars" and hung out - it was pretty fun.These were taken in our house shortly after we moved in. You should know that Gray loves Mack.... probably more that she loves Megan and I (at least for now). The day these were taken, she was feeding him one piece of food at a time and kept getting in his crate and shutting the door.

Can I tell you how blessed I really am??

You know... sometimes in this life, we experience moments that lead us to the ultimate fact that God has truly blessed us! I have felt this so much as of late. It is unbelievable how blessed I really am. Continually, I am amazed at how God never seems to fail me. Here are just a few reasons why I feel so blessed...

- God created me out of love, sent His Son out of love, and now I can truly love others!

- I have a beautiful and loving wife, who I truly believe is not only the hottest woman in the world, but is also my only true soul mate.

- I have the greatest family anyone could ever ask for - I know that they would do anything for me if and when I ever needed them.

- I have the cutest, most adorable, and growing way too fast goddaughter... I love you Gray!
- My friends and brothers in Christ keep me accountable and humble -1 John 3:16
*Jack - we got to get a current picture...

- I have a loving church - and get to hang out with, by far the coolest youth group you could ever find... (You guys are awesome).

- God has blessed me with a job and the ability to earn money and with the uncertainty of today's economy, I have realized that having a place to work is a great privilege.

- I can not begin to tell you how awesome our home is - Megan and I are so blessed to have such a nice place to call home...

- My dad has announced that he will be retiring at the end of this year. Let me tell you, if anyone deserves a good life after retirement, it is my father. I have watched him work hard over the years and he has been a perfect example of what a father should be to his family.
- God has blessed me with the ability and the opportunities to play golf. Golf has been a huge part of my life and I am always amazed at how much I learn about God and life through the game of golf.

- Even though our puppy, Mack, has been a little devilish lately, I am thankful for him too. I never thought a dog could be so much work... oops... I meant to say fun!

- As you can tell, I am a very blessed man. I can only hope that God gets the glory for everything in my life because I am nothing without Him!

Random Thoughts on Halloween

- I don't care that it is raining - I am just glad to have a weekend off from work.
- Apple Jacks are good.
- Going to the Clemson football game today with my beautiful wife.
- Calvary Homecoming tomorrow morning - More good eats than you could imagine.
- My dad turns 64 on Sunday and we are having the fam. over for dinner at our house.
- My head is all stopped up.
- If all goes well, next weekend should be for a long overdue trip to Conway! (Happy B-day Gray!)
- I passed the P.G.A. Playing Ability Test this past Monday.
- Life goes by too fast.
- Our garage is still a mess from moving.... in May!
- I am really tired of being in school. (19 years is a long time to be in school... bad part is I probably have more coming....)
- This time next week - me and kevin should be eating at the trestle, motor inn, or donzell's!

Long Time - No See.... (write)

OK! -So it has been a while since I have made a post.... but I do want to let you know that I am still alive - just very busy. I have had some very interesting things happen here lately, so I will be writing in the next day or two to tell you all about them. For now - I will leave you with what I thought to be a very funny Megan thing to say...



"I have five dollars - what do you want from Wendy's!"
(this coming about two minutes ago on her way home)

The Virginia Creeper

The Virginia Creeper runs through the towns of Abingdon, Damascus, and White Top Mountain, Virginia. It is the site of an early 1900's railroad called "the Creeper." The creeper was developed out of necessity for these mountain towns to be able to ship out their most profitable resources (fuel & timber). The creeper, when completed, ran all the way from Jefferson, North Carolina to Elizabethtown, Tennessee. It was 55 miles in length and spanned over 101 trestles.

When businesses left these small mountain towns, it left the creeper to survive only on passenger travel. Unfortunately, passenger travel did not produce enough revenue to keep the railway alive. The tracks were removed in 1979 and the land was given back to the states. Virginia decided to collaborate with North Carolina to make what is now called the Virginia Creeper Bike Trail. Unfortunately, North Carolina did not cooperate and lost the portions of their railway back to private property, but Virginia held up their end of the bargain and created a 34 mile long (on the original railway bed) biking trail. It runs from Mountain Top through Damascus and ends in Abingdon, VA.

Megan and I decided to make a day trip out of it, and we ventured up to check it out. When we arrived in Damascus, we picked our bikes out and went across the street to get a quick bite to eat. Shortly after, it was time to head up the mountain. We had an "ole country feller" take us up by ourselves. He said he could drive the roads with his eyes closed and blindfolded (I told him I would rather take his word). He knew the roads alright... and we about got sick a few times along the way.

When we got to the White Top Mountain, our journey down the mountain began. It was a really cool getaway, because at times it seemed like we were the only ones on the entire mountain. We crossed over 30 something bridges (trestles) and stopped for lunch at this country cookin' place in a little town called Taylor's Crossing. We took our time and stopped along the way... it took us about 3 hours to ride the 17 miles back down to Damascus. We had a great time and we would definitely recommend it to anyone!

Work & School

For some of you that may not know, I work as the assistant golf professional at Kenmure County Club in Flat Rock, NC. The past couple of days have been pretty busy... we had the member-member tournament this past weekend and I have been giving more lessons as of late. Kenmure is really a nice place to work - it has its ups and downs just like any other, but I believe it is where God wants me to be right now. The schedule is one of the toughest things to deal with because it differs so much from Megan's. She is always off on Saturday and Sunday and I work most every weekend. This has made us realize that we need to be willing to be creative and open about spending time with one another throughout the week. This has worked out well so far and I pray that we would continue to encourage each other throughout the year.

Also, I am enrolled at West Virginia University in their Athletic Coaching Education Master's program. My second year fall classes have officially begun and that will be another time consuming thing, but in all honesty - I am thankful that I have so much to keep me busy. God has truly blessed me with an opportunity to further my education and I am excited about graduating in May next year! Keep me in your prayers with this... as I tend to stress out about school work.

A challenge for the Youth…

Last night was great! After I was finished showing off my crazy David Beckham skills (with a beach ball)… we talked about what it means to live a life that is devoted to love and service. It was cool because we discussed some of the most ineffective ways to reach people for Christ and then we also talked about the ways that Jesus chose to act around other people and we compared the two.

Before we continue with that, let’s talk a little theology. We know that we are saved through faith, but what about works? Does works not count for anything? Last night, we read James 2:14-26 and learned that God values the things that we do even more than what we say or profess. The old adage “walk the talk” proves true in this case. I believe that if we are genuine about our faith in Jesus, we will want show compassion and love to others. So does compiling good works get you to heaven? No – Faith does… works are just a byproduct of the faith in our lives.

Ok – back to last night… we mentioned and have talked about “the bullhorn guy ministry,” this is when some Christians choose to tell others about Christ and really do nothing to follow up. These people show what I like to call ‘empty compassion,’ it has no genuine love or concern. This exact situation is outlined in just a few verses in the book of James. James 2:14-17 “What use is it, my brethren, if someone says he has faith but he has no works? If a brother or sister is without clothing and in need of daily food, and one of you says to them, “Go in peace, be warm and be filled,” and yet you do not give them what is necessary for their body, what use is that? Even so faith, if it has no works, is dead, being by itself.”

So we know that the ‘bullhorn guy’ is not effective… Let’s look at how Jesus interacted with other people. Was He just an information messenger, or did He develop genuine and loving relationships with the people around him? The fact is that Jesus had close friends… He humbled Himself and washed the feet of others… and He showed love and compassion by feeding the 5,000. So what does this show us about our own lives?

I challenged the youth last night to come up with at least one ministry opportunity per month. I told them to be creative and consider all worthy causes. In James, it says that when we use our faith and couple it with showing love and compassion for others, our faith is perfected... and that in those moments we are called friends of God! This is why we feel so gratified after helping a stranger, or doing something unexpected for our family, or showing genuine love and concern for our friends.

I am excited to hear their suggestions and even more excited to see what God is going to do in their lives and in the lives of those that we come into contact with!

Summer is officially over.

Today marks the beginning of a new school year for most people in Spartanburg County and for my wife; this means another school year and another group of students. She will be teaching 7th and 8th grade resource classes again this year at Boiling Springs Junior High School.

A snapshot of what I think Megan’s year will consist of is probably only a portion of what she actually does throughout the days, weeks, and months of a school year… but I will try anyhow. Here goes – Preparing lessons, teaching material, administering tests, grading papers, parent conferences, faculty meetings, departmental meetings, morning and afternoon duties, lunch duties, tutoring, writing Individual Educational Plans, coordinating IEP meetings, and last but not least, volleyball tryouts, practices, and games – just to name a few! So, as you can tell, being a teacher does not allow for a whole lot of free time!

As a husband of a full-time teacher and friend of many teachers (Good luck this year K-Lock!), this is what I have learned over the past couple of years… teaching in today’s society is not an easy task! As a matter of fact, it can be (and often is) demanding, time consuming, overwhelming, and seemingly impossible from time to time. Teachers are expected to perform at high levels each and every year. However, if you have ever met a teacher who genuinely loves their job, it is because they enjoy helping children discover and learn.

I say all that to say this – Megan, I want you to know that I am very proud of you and I totally support the fact that you are a teacher. You are awesome at what you do and I know that you will have a successful year. When things get tough, the days get long, and it seems like there is not enough time in the day, remember that I am here for you always and that I am your biggest fan! Good luck this year Mrs. Bayliff – I love you!

Purpose...

What is purpose? Purpose, to me, is all about why we do what we do. Now – A lot of things do not need explanation… such as eating, sleeping, breathing, etc. However, there are things that we do on a regular basis that could use explaining. For me, I like to ask myself, “what is the purpose?” So for this particular situation, “what is the purpose of writing my thoughts down so others can read them?”

Well, I would like to say that it is because I have something to offer or that I might even be interesting or entertaining to some, but (sorry to say) this blog is not for any of those reasons. The purpose of this blog is simply this; to glorify God!

Now – Imagine that it is year 2999 and one of my great-grandchildren decides to Google their name (which just so happens to be passed down from yours truly) and right there amidst the results is this little blog. To their amazement they click on the link and, with that, they are greeted with the thoughts, cares, concerns, trials, tribulations, successes, and failures of their great-great-great grandfather.

Just consider for a moment that you had this information for your mother, father, or grandparents… Would this not be an invaluable and cherished part of your life? Think of all the influence their lives would have had if you were given a tangible record of their thoughts and beliefs. I believe that we often wonder how our family “came to be” or what it was like living in different times. A blog can serve as a bridge for many of these questions.

For me, the most gratifying thing about passing on my thoughts to you and to future generations, is knowing that my beliefs about life will be expressed throughout the words on each page. It is my hope and prayer that God would be glorified through the life that I live and the words that I write and it is my ultimate intent, that God would use this blog to help me grow closer to Him!