Warm Yumminess

So thankful for my cup of Bewitching Jo this morning... all thanks to my MIL. It's my favorite from Lexington Coffee House and Tea in Lexington, Kentucky... it's their house blend. My MIL often treats me to a new batch of beans to take with me after a visit to KY.

Although it's the same blend, they always change the name of it for the seasons... as you can see by the label below it made of vanilla, cinnamon, almond, & hazelnut. Pure yumminess. This month for October/Halloween time of year it's called Bewitching Jo. As Christmas approaches it'll change to another festive name, but always keeping the "Jo" within it. Fun stuff.

KY Wedding Travels - Part 2

Following the wedding ceremony within the vineyard (after Mr. & Mrs. were introduced), we all enjoyed a celebration together. Food, drinks, and some great bluegrass music. Here is the second and last part of my photos from the weekend.

My beautiful Mother in Law

Niece Grace and Granddaddy dancing the night away

Mr. McGoo and Niece, Grace dancing up a storm

Niece Grace made the rounds- Dance Partner 3, Joe

The beautiful BRIDE & GROOM

Is that a pose, or what?

JUMPING PICTURES!

Hugs & Kisses before our departure

Words that spoke to my soul today from a blog I follow...

To say the last year has been life changing, a vapor, and completely more than I ever thought God would have for us is an understatement .... ARE YOU READY FOR GOD ???  I think I have to ask myself this question daily ... Are you ready for Him to provide, Are you ready for Him to make your sick child well,  Are you ready for your well child to become sick, Are you ready for Him to say GO,  Are you ready for Him to say SEE,  Are you ready to be Peter and step out of the boat or Nehemiah and rebuild the wall,  ARE YOU READY TO SAY YES TO WHATEVER HE HAS even though it isn't your plan ???

These are words that truly resonate with me today! I am so thankful for God's activity within my life and the life of Mr. McGoo and I together. I hope and pray that you can see Him moving in your own... He is, and He so desires you to allow Him to do more! Will you let Him?

KY Wedding Travels - Part 1

Last weekend, Mr. McGoo and I piled into his brother's truck and joined him and our niece Grace for a trip to Kentucky for family time and a wedding celebration for their sister. Although it was a quick trip - Thursday late night until Sunday afternoon - we had a great time and enjoyed the beautiful weather, great company, and fun wedding festivities.

The Bride & Groom were married at Lover's Leap Vineyard. It was beautiful. The ceremony was held right in the middle of the vineyard, and although a little toasty, once the sun went down the night turned out to be a gorgeous evening with an even more beautiful bride!

Here is part one of the pictures I'll share from the weekend...

Dinner preparations Friday Night - "pinwheels"

The Brothers... just missing one in CO

Husband & Wife... the beautiful bride & groom

In the middle of the vineyard... loved it!

Niece Grace and her Daddy, Mr. McGoo's brother at the reception

Catching the sunset in the rolling Kentucky hills

Cardboard Testimony

A few weeks ago, our church participated in something called CARDBOARD TESTIMONIES. As presented by another church in 2008, our church home thought it would be a great starting point for our new series on "Contagious Christianity". The point of the cardboard testimony is to show who you WERE on the first side of the cardboard, and after a few second, turn the cardboard sign over to present who you ARE BECAUSE OF CHRIST JESUS! It's powerful stuff!

Mr. McGoo and I are so thankful for our church and often talk about how authenticity is preached from the pulpit. The goal is not to pretend like all is well, rather the goal is to serve the Lord even in light of our own inadequacies. None of us are worthy or able on our own... it's only by the power of the cross!

Below you can check out one of our services and the cardboard testimonies that were presented there. May God be given the glory!


Central Church Cardboard Testimonies 9:25 Service 9-12-10 from Central Church on Vimeo.

Here is Mr. McGoo's cardboard testimony...

BEFORE

AFTER

Partnership Campaign & Door Prizes

So the organization that Mr. McGoo and I are totally involved with and working for this December in Ethiopia, The Forsaken Children, is hosting a Partnership Campaign! Within this campaign, the goal is multi-dimensional: to raise awareness about The Forsaken Children, their mission, and the children in Ethiopia they serve; to make donating a little more fun for people by having door prizes associated with the giving; to gain additional future partners for TFC in the future; and to gain a large number of funds for specific needs of TFC (i.e. covering the increased expense of a larger compound for Onesimus, school fees for the children, helping increase the number of children touched by the ministry, etc).

We invite YOU to be a part of this Partnership Campaign!

For just a $10 donation, should you choose, your name can be entered into a door prize drawing with some great prizes... "A Week of Dinner for 2" - giving you 7 gift cards to some great restaurants; a NOOK Wi-Fi; or even some additional small gift cards. The drawings will happen on Oct. 28, 2010 so you have until the 25th of October to get your donations in - spread the word!

Spread the word - post the link (http://theforsakenchildren.org/partnership-campaign/) on your Facebook page or own blog post and invite your network of friends and family to join in!

With a whole lotta people giving just a little bit... this Partnership Campaign can be a HUGE SUCCESS with YOUR HELP and benefit street children in Ethiopia for a lifetime as we share the lasting hope of Christ!

We invite YOU to be a part of this Partnership Campaign!

Note (because some will ask):
Although the funds going for and through the Partnership Campaign will not go towards my and Mr. McGoo's efforts to raise support for our journey to Ethiopia... we can testify that God is providing already for that trip for us and we are certain He will continue to do so! We want to advocate for this Partnership Campaign, and ask you to give $10 here, $20 there, and spread the word, in order to help TFC continue to reach and minister to the street children of Ethiopia that we have fallen in love with! THANK YOU for your help in doing that!

Some of the children The Forsaken Children minsters to through their partner ministry on the ground of Addis Ababa, Ethiopia: Onesimus - uniforms provided and donated by The University of Memphis! Go Tigers!

Photos and Quick Thoughts

Thanks to a friend's talent behind the lens AND continued talent with photoshop, Mr. McGoo and I got a new shot to show off for awhile. These photos were taken at another friend's outdoor wedding outside of Nashville in May. I absolutely LOVE the one of my good looking man. Our friend captured my hubby's hotness in the shot below (esp the one by himself) and I can't get enough of that smirk.

In other news... I'm reminded tonight after some time in my online class orientation that good time management for the McGoo's over the next few months will be critical. Exam, papers, and other assignments will all be due before we know it... if we do not start now, we'll go crazy in a few weeks - - - especially with our upcoming travel schedule that begins this weekend when we embark to Lexington, KY to celebrate the wedding of Mr. McGoo's sister. It should be good fun and I hope beautiful weather. I know the bride will be a knock-out and they are having the festivities at a winery... in Kentucky, I can only imagine how picturesque that will be. Here's to hoping that I catch some good shots with my own camera lens, both of Mr. McGoo's family and also maybe one or two new ones of me and Mr. McGoo.

Alumni Weekend

The weekend before last, I helped put on, plan, organize, and run the 2010 Lady Tigers Soccer Alumni Weekend. Overall, I think it was a huge success! We had a fabulous group turn out, and a great response from those that couldn't attend, hoping to join us next year.

The weekend consisted of dinner and watching the U of Memphis Men's Team play on Friday, followed by an Alumni Cookout with family on Saturday evening, while we rooted on the current Lady Tigers to victory over LSU, and finally we concluded the weekend with a little kick around on Sunday morning.

I'm just now stopping to publish photos from the event onto Facebook, so I figured I'd share a shot or two here. Below is the alumni photo from Saturday evening. We're missing a few ladies in this picture that were there and participating in the activities, but for the majority this was the group of the weekend. We were thankful for their attendance!

Here is a shot of the Alumni Guru, Mary on the right. She is totally responsible for most of the entire weekend. I am simply this girls right hand "man"... and together, I think we did alright. Sandwiched in the middle of the two of us, is our dear friend, Robyn. She has been a roomate of past for both of us, a past teammate too, and still a good friend!

And last but not least are the rock star bags each alumni attending received... a bag of goodies, complete with an Alumni Tshirt, and a "program" giving all the who, what, and advise for the current Lady Tiger team from the alumni attending. Good stuff!

Go Tigers!

Something New: Baked Apples

On a whim last night, while waiting on our salmon to come off the grill, I google'd some "easy baked apple recipes". I found one with a quickness and thought it looked easy enough to give it a try... plus I had most of the ingredients.

Turns out... it was super tasty and right up my alley on ease... I left out one of the ingredients suggested, party because it didn't sound that great and ultimately because I didn't have any to give. With Fall on our heels (I can't wait for the crispness in the air), an easy baked apple recipe is something everyone needs. Below is the recipe found on the Simply Recipes blog, tweaked minimally by Mrs. McGoo.

Baked Apples

Ingredients:

• 4 large apples - I used Fuji because it's our favorite
• 1/4 cup brown sugar
• 1 teaspoon cinnamon
• 1/4 cup chopped pecans
• 1 Tbsp butter
• 3/4 cup boiling water

Photos from: http://simplyrecipes.com/recipes/baked_apples/

How To:

1. Preheat oven to 375°F. Wash apples. Remove cores to 1/2 inch of the bottom of the apples. It helps if you have an apple corer, but if not, you can use a paring knife to cut out first the stem area, and then the core. Use a spoon to dig out the seeds. Make the holes about 3/4-inch to an inch wide.
2. In a small bowl, combine the sugar, cinnamon, and pecans. Place apples in a 8-inch-by-8-inch square baking pan. Stuff each apple with this mixture. Top with a dot of butter (1/4 of the Tbps).
3. Add boiling water to the baking pan. Bake 30-40 minutes, until tender, but not mushy. Remove from the oven and baste the apples several times with the pan juices.

Makes 4 servings.

Simply Recipes suggests serving the apples with a side of vanilla ice cream... sounds delish, but we didn't have any to try. Thanks Simply Recipes... bon appetit!

Balance Beam

Mr. McGoo and I are in an amazing Connecting Point class (think Sunday School) at our church. The class includes a group of wonderful people, and although we have grown in numbers in a big way lately, we are still continuing to be authentic and real with one another. It's such a blessing!

One of the things our class has done to help us go deeper in our walks with God, as well as deeper with one another is to have a bi-monthly Bible Study - just girls and just guys. It has been a sweet time, but unfortunately now that I have school every Wed night until December 8th - - - I'm missing out this fall.

The girls are doing the book, Crazy Love by Francis Chan.
I read the book this summer and posted some things about it on this blog, here and here.

The book has become a best seller... but my prayer is this... my prayer is that folks do not read this book and say, "aww... good point. Yeah! God is good. Wow, I should do more" and then be the same that they were yesterday! My prayer is that what Chan brings to light draws each and every one of us that read the book into a closer relationship with THE MIGHTY GOD! And with that, we are forever changed.

One of my classmates posted this video last night after the girls met for the first time about Crazy Love. I so wish I was there... but am thankful for what God will do during that time for the others!

Check this video out - wow, puts things in perspective for me.