Carving Pumpkins with the roomies

Tonight, my roommates and I decided to carve some pumpkins! It has been quite some time since I last carved a pumpkin, but I think overall I did alright . The best part was scooping out the insides, what fun!! Here’s a few pictures from the evening:

Me and my pumpkin!

Here’s Dana attacking me with his drill…eek!!

Fun times in the McCreary trailer

And finally, all 4 of our pumpkins – mine is the second one from the left (the small one)!

The McCreary Pumpkins

New Discovery

I have finally found the perfect little ‘get-away’ here in McCreary County. It is a small little coffee shop in Whitley City called Cafe Macchiato. It is so adorable – it reminds me of the coffee shops in Chicago. It is located in downtown Whitley City and offers coffee along with a few food items. I just had there Tomato Basil soup – Yum! And they also have a wireless Internet, which just makes it perfect

I have come to realize that I just absolutely love spending time in coffee shops. I don’t know what it is, but I could definitely sit here for hours, reading, blogging, plurking, whatever, and be perfectly content.

I think I may have just found my new favorite spot (besides Cumberland Falls) here in KY!

No more cats

Well, our little black kitten passed away the other day. It was very sad for our whole house, but in the end it was probably for the best. The kitten was not doing well at all and we all hated to see him suffer. But on the bright side, we still have Shaggy! She is an amazing little dog. I will be posting more photos soon.

Shaggy, the McCreary County Guard Dog!

Our new roommate

Last week, Ann my rommmate, discovered two very little kittens over by our preschool. One is a black and the other one was gray and white. Unfortunatly, their mother abandoned them, so our house decided to care for these little ones. At first, I was all for it – I mean how hard could it be to care for two kittens, boy, was I in for a little surprise.

These kittens needed to be fed about every three hours and cleaned every single day. And if they were not fed, they would meow until they were – even if it was 2:30 in the morning. Needless to say, I was woken up several times during the night. Our house also discovered that these little ones had fleas, not good! But luckily, we cleaned them in time and I don’t think that our house got infected!

We all were very hopeful that these little kittens would survive, but unfortunatly, the gray and white one passed away last night. But the black one is still hanging on and I am praying that she/he makes it. I will keep you all posted as to its progress.

Here’s a pic of the black kitten:

Our little kitten

Extreme Home Makeover – CAP Style!

This past week, the Christian Appalachian Project along with the Fox Valley Mission Group has been hard at work building a home for a young man who was paralyzed in a tragic 4-wheeler accident. I have been so blessed to have been part of this amazing build. The Fox Valley Mission group brought over 40 people to help CAP build an entire house in just 6 days. Some said it couldn’t be done, but both CAP and Fox Valley had faith and knew that it would be possible.

This is what the house looked like at the end of day one:

Extreme Build - Day 1

And by the end of the week, the house looked like this:

Extreme Build - Day 6

While I didn’t actually work on the house, I was very involved in helping to chauffer some of the group members to and from the site, cleaning their facilities, and basically just playing hostess for the week. I also got to know some of the group members quite well – what an amazing group of people. I am really going to miss them…

This week, I also put together a short presentation of the week and once I get it finalized, I will throw it up on this blog, so that you can all see how this dream for this young man became a reality. The whole week has definitely been a testament to how amazing our God really is and I am so grateful to have been a part of it.

A great big THANK YOU to all of the people with the Fox Valley Mission Group for making this week one that I will never forget!

CAP needs your help!

One of my projects here at CAP is helping with their Christmas Basket program. This program matches sponsors with 100 or more families in each county that we serve (which is about 5 to 6 counties) along with providing gifts for the elderly. These sponsors provide gifts for the entire family. CAP is currently in need of people to help sponsor these families. If you would be interested in donating to this program or being a sponsor, please email me with your address as soon as possible and I will send you all the information. Thanks!!

Not just a 5k, but John Michael Montgomery too!

So this past weekend, not only did I run in the Bittersweet Festival 5k in Mt. Vernon, KY, but I also went to the Kentucky Country Music Hall of Fame in Renfro Valley, were I got to see John Michael Montgomery! He was there promoting his new CD, ‘Forever’ and was doing a Meet and Greet. Did you know JMM is from Danville, KY– I had no idea. I actually like quite a few of his songs, my favorites are ‘Auction’ and ‘Letters from Home’. I haven’t heard his new CD yet, but I plan to take a listen soon. Below is a pic of JMM signing something.  

John Michael Montgomery

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

I also took a quick walk through the Hall of Fame while I was there seeing JMM. It is tiny, but full of some great information on the history of music in KY and all the famous singers/songwriters that came from KY. Below is a picture of someone’s car, I have no recollection on who’s car it is, but I still think it is a nice looking car. And then there is a picture of my friend Jenny playing a dulcimer.   

Someone's car

Jenny and her dulcimer

Bittersweet Festival 5k

I won! I finally won my age group in a 5k run! Ok, so there were only 3 people in my age group, but whatever, I still won and it feels pretty darn good. The best part about winning it though is that they gave out trophies – I couldn’t believe it. Here is this little town in KY and they are giving trophies to the 1st, 2nd, and 3rd place winners in every age groups – it was sweet!

But really the best part was that I have a new PR – I ran the 5k in 25:36 and that was with a bunch of hills! Boy, did it feel good .

Here is a picture of all of us (minus 1) from CAP who ran the race:

The 5k group

And here’s a pic of my trophy:

The McCreary Volunteer House

Finally, I have some pictures of the McCreary trailer and my housemates!

The McCreary House

My roomies - Dana, Allen, Me, and Ann

My week long orientation

Last week, I attended a 4 day orientation at CAP’s Camp Andrew Jackson up in McKee, KY. The orientation consisted  of devotions, seminars, awesome food (thanks Miss Connie!), and lots of hiking. One of our hiking trips was to ‘Pretty House’ as they call it here. Basically, we climbed up this huge hill/mountain and stopped on this overlook. You could see for miles and miles and it felt like you could almost touch the stars. It was amazing. The highlight was seeing about 4 shooting stars that night.

 

During orientation, I was also trained in CPR and First Aid. That was quite interesting – I now know how to cure a snake bite and revive someone if they become unconscious. Hopefully, I will not have to encounter either any time soon.

 

At the end of orientation, we had a commissioning service for all the new volunteers. It was a great little ceremony and kind of capped off the week for me and solidified my decision to be here at CAP.

 

Below is a picture of Camp Andrew Jackson, where I stayed for the 4 days:

Camp AJ

And this is a picture of the Arch at Pretty House:

Arch at Pretty House