Those Eyes

This would be a perfect picture for Wordless Wednesday. I wanted to give it a name, it says so much, but I couldn't think of anything. The lost look in her eyes. She looks like one of those starving homeless children, you know like a picture you'd see on World Vision.

She isn't though, she is a highly blessed little girl. Her name is Olivia and she is my best friends daughter. Melanie has five children ages ranging from 13 to 7 months. She has 2 sons and 3 daughters. Highly blessed and favored! I had the honor of spending the night at their house on Friday night and baby sitting them all. We had such a good time.

I didn't sleep good, all those mothering instincts picked right up with the little baby in bed with me. She woke around 4 am with the biggest smile on her face. She just cooed and talked to me, rolled around and wallered me, finally laying her head on my tummy and falling back to sleep. Precious.

The little one, that you see above, was an absolute mess. You can see that attitude in her face. She was mad at me and didn't want her picture taken. I love it though, I think it captured so much.

Melanie fixed us all a baked spaghetti for dinner and it was delicious. I helped her older kids set up blogs and we listened to lots of praise and worship music. I came home wore out.

This morning at 4 am I woke with a terrible stomach virus, it finally let up around 11. I'm still nursing myself in bed and thought I'd share this sweet little girl.

Worship with Me

This is an awesome live version of this song. I'll be posting the history of this song was written soon. I thank God for His love!

Stop the Abortion Mandate

Pictures of the Missions Trip

Back from a missions trip

It was so wonderful. We've spent months gathering food to take to a desolate place in West Virginia to feed those less fortunate. It's been an awesome time as our church has drawn together, worked together for the glory of God and grown closer to one another.

Today as we handed out boxes of food we shared the gospel of Jesus Christ and how He died on the cross to save us from our sins. There were souls saved, there were seeds planted, there was much encouragement, word from our Lord, praise and worship and a wonderful time of fellowship.

Doors opened. Eyes opened. I'll talk about the doors later. This is special to me.

What a great time in the Lord. I love that Pastor is training us, that I am his protege. I love that I actually got to get out in field, over my fears, and share the love of Christ with strangers.

How long its been.

True missions.

I'm so looking forward to the next assignment from the Lord.

I'm so excited about what God is going to do in my life as well.

Continuing to pray for all of you, and as always, your prayers are appreciated as well.

(I'll be adding pictures later.)

Meadow's Pool Party

I'm a little late in posting about Meadow's 8th birthday that was in July. We had a very nice pool party and swam until 10 pm. She had a blast as you can see and I just loved the way her cake turned out. Beautiful!

I love this Scripture

How, then, can they call on the one they have not believed in? And how can they believe in the one of whom they have not heard? And how can they hear without someone preaching to them? And how can they preach unless they are sent? As it is written, "How beautiful are the feet of those who bring good news!" Romans 10:14-15

Beautiful Feet....what a beautiful name. Lord may my feet be beautiful!

Awesome Revelation Louie Giglio - Laminin

You have got to watch this!
God never ceases to amaze me, and you know what?
He never will!

Our 16th Anniversary-Chateau Morrisette

This is one of my most favorite places to go. It's pricey and last year was the first time we actually dined in at the restaurant. Tony and I decided that we would try to do this as our own little date thing each year for our anniversary. This place is absolutely gorgeous. I dream of one day owning land off of the parkway near these places we love to visit.

The Chateau Morrisette Winery

Inside of the winery

Where you do tastings

Inside chandelier

Entrance

Me by the outside waterfall

Again

Walking from the winery to the restaurant

beautiful

place for the kids to play

the sandbox

The restaurant

again

The sign over the doorway entering the restaurant

Tony waiting for us to be seated

Outdoor dining area

again

The view from our table

Tony viewing the menu

I completely forgot to take a picture of the Manhattan style Clam Chowder, fresh sour dough bread and garlic butter. These dishes below are from the appetizers that came after the soup and after we'd eaten them. We had the chef's choice of 3 different scallops, one with a dill sauce, one with fruit salsa and another with a buttery sauce. Then we had the low country jumbo crab fondue that was accented with roasted red peppers, sweet corn and served with grilled pita bread. You can see why we devoured these before thinking to take pictures!

My entree was the slow roasted prime rib of beef, a 13 oz cut of choice rib served with Yukon gold potatoes and a creamy horseradish sauce. It was delicious. I love the horseradish sauce.

Tony's entree was the shrimp and grits with black tiger shrimp sauteed in Cajun spices and served over organic, stone ground grits smothered with Carolina low country gravy with andouilla sausage, tasso ham, bell pepper, scallions, and tomatoes served with grilled country bread. This dish was my favorite. The grits were nothing like we'd ever eaten before and it simply melted in your mouth.

This was after the meal, a nice couple offered to take our picture together for us.

Again.

For dessert we had Jeremy's Coconut Cake served with grilled pineapple and fresh pineapple coulis. The cake part reminded me of an angel food cake, not at all like the southern coconut cakes that we are used to, so this wasn't my favorite. Couple with the delicious whipped topping and pineapple made it delectable. I had never eaten grilled pineapple and this will definitely be something we try at home.

This was leaving the restaurant. I think this walkway is so romantic. There is ivy growing all along the inner walls.

Well, thats it. We had a wonderful time. I believe the next trip we take will be for the Sunday Buffet! I should have gotten more pictures of the flowers too.