guest post!

My great friend Marisa had me share some thoughts on wedding planning from back in the day over on her blog.  She blogged everyday this month AND she's planning a wedding for January!  Kudos!

Check out the post and her blog here!

p.s. Dawgs beat the Gators 24-20! Made my weekend :)

gator hating

Georgia playing Florida today!

Hoping for a big win!

Life this fall

Up here fall has been amazing.  Favorite one so far- at least on the weather point.  It's now starting to get chillier and the upcoming cold has begun to creep into my mind.  With the temps slowly falling and the days getting shorter, I know the winter is approaching.  I've pulled out boots and scarfs and begun making soup again.  

Here's a little fall basket on our patio!

I just can't get over how fast it's gone by.  It really has felt like a blur, a haze- as the beginning of the school year always does.  Here are a few of the things we've been up to:

Missions Conference:
Hub's heart for the nations pushed him to get our staff to put on a college missions conference.  Here's a picture of him and our church pastor speaking there.  Nearly 150 people came, which was encouraging. Proud of him!

Hubby

Pastor John

Meeting with students: 

I also meet with several groups of girls and here's 1 of the sophomore small groups we have over every week:

They're super fun! 

One girl, Heidi, in the purple, even came over this week and wanted to make these awesome pumpkin spice cupcakes.  So easy: 1 can pumpkin and 1 box cake mix.  That's it! We frosted them with cream cheese icing.  They were great and actually healthy!

As for the juniors and seniors women I meet with, I'm making them pick a meal that we cook together so they have at least one go to meal when they graduate that they know they can do.  A couple are kitchen whizzes and a few have some hilarious stories of mishaps!  I thought this was one way to incorporate them more into my life now and teach them a practical life skill.  Plus I have Titus 2 in mind and I want to teach them how to walk maturely with the Lord and hospitality is part of it!  Teaching them to love their husbands is another part of that verse and cooking is usually one part of that!

Here's Anna's menu of what we made last week:

1) Lemon Rosemary Grilled Marinated Chicken Breast
2) Broccoli with Almonds
3) Baked Sweet Potatoes (bake at 425 for 1 hour)

She did a great job!

cookin' it up

With the beautiful weather we've been having I was pulling out some summer recipes, but we've since turned the corner of autumn heading toward winter and it's been warm weather food.

Here are some of the things we've been lately:

1. Paula Deen's South Georgia Pound Cake

2. Butternut Squash Soup

3. The Pioneer Woman's Cajun Chicken Pasta

4. Mushroom Frittata (to which I also added some red bell pepper and a thawed, strained package of frozen spinach for a little heartiness)

5. Andrew's chili and lots of cornbread

6. My mom's incredible Crawfish Pie recipe- it sounds weird to non-Louisianans but think chicken pot pie but cajun style.  It takes like crawfish etoufee in a pie.  SO good! And it reminded me of home :)

This week I'm planning to try this new crock pot Chicken Tortilla Soup and later on saute some kale from the farmers market as a side with some rotisserie chicken.  

The farmers market has been great for us and along with lots of veggies and late season berries we got some pumpkins we'll carve this week!

fall break

Andrew and I drove up 2 and a half hours up the Minnesota "coastline" to see the beautiful fall colors change.  It's the MN equivalent of driving through the Blue Ridge Mountains I think.  We stayed up in Two Harbors which is 40ish minutes north of the bigger city of Duluth.

We stayed at a Bed and Breakfast hosted by this amazing God fearing couple who actually were back from working with a tribe in the Philippines.  They actually went there with the Peace Corps and grew disillusioned with trying to help people and not really seeing anything happen.  A poor family there continued to show them love and grace and it broke down the bitter couple to see their sin and need for Jesus Christ as their Savior.  Sweet story!  So after a few years of being in the States they finally made it back to spend nearly another decade with this tribe preaching the good news.  All that to say, it was so encouraging!

We also ate at some great restaurants and hiked a little trail and saw lots of beautiful trees and colors!

the view at our B&B

gorgeous sunset

we saw so many deer! this one was just walking down the street!

winding around the coast

beautiful trees!!

 Lake Superior view

reading by the water one morning

 Split Rock Lighthouse

New Scenic Cafe. one of the best meals I've ever had! seriously!

(from google images)

This little trip was actually Thursday through Friday because Hubs was actually preaching at our church.  We have a Saturday night service and 2 Sunday morning services so we wanted to make sure he'd be rested and prepared for that change of pace.  I was so proud of him!  He did a great job, but I am glad that preaching isn't an every weekend thing!  It takes a lot! I have even more respect for preaching pastors and their families!

...and it's October

Where did the rest of September go?

We've been keeping up with students and getting wrapped up in football games, weddings, meetings, dates and enjoying the fabulous fall weather up here!

We went to the Desiring God Conference up here and heard Louie Giglio speak. 

We've enjoyed some beautiful weather.  Here's a sunset as we grabbed ice cream and sat at a local park to wind down one evening.  

Andrew also took me on a fun day date to a local apple orchard:

  

 Hubs making his "scary" face at the Halloween picture cut out

The beautiful lake behind the orchard- they're everywhere up here!

and of course we had to get some fresh apple cider and apple pie!

We've also been able to see the leaves start to change!

On another note, we've been really grateful that Georgia has finally pulled out some wins!  Hannah and Elliot are fully up in Minnesota and Hannah and I got to enjoy the Minneapolis Farmer's Market this weekend which was great!  I got a 1/2 dozen ears of corn, a butternut squash, blackberries, strawberries, button mushrooms, a ton of cherry tomatoes, roma tomatoes, chives, and a bag of sweet onions- all for $20! 

Some friends of our Kelsey and Pete got married this weekend and it was a blast to celebrate with them! Their rehearsal dinner had great food as it was at Sawatdee, a great Thai place downtown.  

The rest of September and the beginning of October have been great and we've enjoyed the amazing (and actually warm!) fall weather here!