London - Day 16 & 17

The past two days have been a bit uneventful. Everyone has left that I was in the program with and I am back at my cousin's flat just hanging out and enjoying some down time. Yesterday we went on a walk around the area and made our way to a really old cemetery. The headstones were really interesting to look at as a lot of them were from the 1800's.

Chapel roof was destroyed by fire in 1970's

Path leading into the cemetery

Someone enjoying a seat

Cool headstone

Look closely and you can see St. Paul's Cathedral. Bench was behind me where you could sit and see it

Can you see how many letters and hearts there are on the crust

Ally, my cousin Andrew's wife, saw that I posted a picture on facebook a while back that I enjoyed the Steak and Ale pie I had at a pub. So Ally took it upon herself to make me a pie last night.

It was delish.

This morning I woke up and took a walk around town.  Unlike the university I was staying at, where they live isn't the most easy place to get to downtown and back. 

So I basically spend my time walking about the area close to their flat.  It isn't all that bad though.  Less traffic and congestion, which is a good thing for someone who doesn't like large crowds. 

Today I walked to a place called "Lordship Lane" which seems a bit of a weird name for a place.  However, it seemed fitting once I got there.  It is all about consumerism and shopping.  Really expensive clothes and other items a person might desire.  So yeah, very fitting it is called "Lordship Lane." 

Tomorrow I head back to the states.  I am flying from London - Heathrow to Detroit and have a 6 hour layover there.  Hoping to catch up with my buddy Jeff and grab a bite with him.  Then I'll head back to Nashville where I am staying with another buddy until Wednesday when Mrs. McGoo can pick me up. 

Pray for safe travels as the Mrs. and I are both traveling. 

Oh, I got a little bored the other day and decided to make Mrs. McGoo a comic strip.  She got a kick out of it.  Let's see what you think?

London - Day 1

I made it to London after a full day of travel from Nashville - Atlanta - and London. Was a little worried at first considering my flight out of Nashville was delayed, but Delta quickly stepped up and moved me to a different flight and got me to Atlanta after a few hours wait.

I was telling Mrs. McGoo on the way to drop me off that I feel a bit coarse with 'goodbyes' considering I had to say it twice a year when I was a kid. Visiting my father when I lived in Kentucky and my mom when I lived in Tennessee led to many tearful farewells, so they don't seem to be as hard for me as they use to be.

However, seeing a wife who was trying her best to hold back tears when I left was pretty darn hard. Fortunately, I was able to put on some sunglasses and sit and wait on a plane. Mrs. McGoo, on the other hand, had to try and drive across traffic in Nashville to reach her brother in law and sister's house.

Maybe they're Florida fans

Once I made it to London, I quickly had to get some money exchanged, then find the 'tube' (subway) and make my way across underground London to find my cousin Andrew, who I am staying with the first couple of days and a few on the back end of the trip. Once I got to Andrew, we made our way back to their 'flat' (apartment) and then went to a 'pub' bar for some much needed food.

View from my room

We then went to watch a 5 a side tourney that some of his co-workers are playing in and caught a bus back to the flat to meet up with his wife, Ally. We had some dinner and I headed to bed. I tried to stay awake for Mrs. McGoo to skype with, but quickly fell asleep and woke up around midnight and got online to quickly say goodnight. (Note: it doesn't get dark here til 10 or so and gets light around 4am)


I woke up around 4am, closed my blinds and went back to sleep. I didn't wake up til noon and moped around for another hour and caught Mrs. McGoo on skype before she was leaving for work. Then headed out to look around the city for a bit and grab a bite to eat. My first official meal - Fish sandwich and fries.

Still a little jet lagged here, but looking forward to getting out tomorrow and spend a full day around London before I have to head over to the University that I am staying at.

Fish Sandwich and a Brew

Questions Abound

Coming back home from a vacation is always tough because you want to stay where you are at. Coming back home from family visits during the holidays is tough because you can't quite seem to have enough of the food you grew up eating. As much as we love HOME, getting there when you have been in a place that steals or has some of your heart can be difficult.

Much is the same for me when I leave Ethiopia. It quite simply is never easy. The toughest part is leaving the relationships and kids you have come to care so dear for. And it isn't like leaving a place that is a days drive or so away. That being said, life doesn't stop here in the states when I am gone. So while I am suppose to be reading 200+ pages worth of journals before I head off to England in July, I am struggling to do so.

I continue to be conflicted with the direction God has the McGoo family headed. One on hand, I love my life here in the US. I have a lot of family, friends, furbabies, a great gig with the soccer program, and an incredible church home. I really don't want to go anywhere. However, the more I am around safety, security, suburbs, and a world that is built on keeping up with the Jones's, the more I'm drawn to get away from it.

It is so easy to log on to Facebook and see a comfortable life in store for me and my network. The problem is that I don't know that I want that. And I know that God doesn't want that for me. Yeah, I want to provide for my family, but what is providing? Buying a large house with a picket fence? Getting the biggest car I can get because I think I deserve it (I've driven a 96 Saturn since I bought it brand new)? It's just not me. And I don't think that is what God has for me. I'm not saying it is all wrong, but I am constantly reminded of the things that do not matter the more I get out of my comfortable surroundings.

I'm basically a man torn between a life of comfort with a society that tells me I deserve all I should have and a life of servant-hood with a God that tells me less is more.

I have a confession to make. I went on this last trip to Ethiopia thinking it might be my last for a long time. I thought I could get this sports ministry program up and running and they wouldn't need me anymore. Exact opposite. I left with more questions than resolved answers. I left knowing that I was needed there more than I could have imagined. I left after having conversations with missionaries, government officials, and university presidents and ultimately God telling me they needed more of me. That after a years worth of work, I hadn't even touched the surface of what needed to be accomplished.

One can certainly be discouraged by it all you know? However, God let me see what was possible. God showed me how when listening to him, he'd provide the way. I had a government official tell Nega (The director of Onesimus Children's Development Association) that if I had come all the way from America to tell people about Christ, he thought it would be good if he listened and learned more.

My Ethiopian Princess - Ruth

And just like that, God said, "See Kelly. I'm here and I am with you."

I spoke with a missionary who said it took years of prayer for him and his family to decide to GO. The two hours worth of conversation with him was the best part of my trip. It affirmed in me that I didn't have to make a rash decision about things and that "providing" for my family didn't have to entail the American way of providing with big cars, big boats, private schooling, and the latest trends. I bought my first apple product before I went. Now I'm sick to my stomach because of it. I could have made better use of that money.

All of this just affirms that I have a lot of prayer and decisions to make over the course of the next two years (While Mrs. McGoo is in nursing school), but I know one thing is for sure. I'll be back in Ethiopia sooner than I thought.

Anniversary Weekend

Last Wednesday Mrs. McGoo and I headed out for a late anniversary trip to St. Louis and Kansas City. Our actual anniversary is actually March 17, but with Mrs. McGoo and I both being in school, this past week presented the best time to get away for some fun times.

We made our way up to St. Louis, only stopping to get some throw'd rolls at Lambert's in Sikeston, MO. I decided to check out priceline.com following a recommendation by a buddy of mine. It turned out we got a pretty good deal as we secured a $300 room at the Hyatt in downtown St. Louis for only $65 a night. Then we were upgraded to a corner suite when I told the lady we were there for our anniversary. Take a look at our room and view. Not too shabby.

Once there we made our way to the Budweiser Brewery tour and then went to a Cards baseball game. Again, secured a great deal on tickets - 2 $93 seats for $32 total. We ended up right by the first baseline and I got to watch Albert Pujols knock one out of the part while my bride was trying to take pictures. This, unfortunately is not the picture she took. This was taken from the panoramic feature on my phone. Not too shabby either...



After we enjoyed a good time in St. Louis, we headed over to Kansas City where most of my MILC's family lives. On our way over, we had some awful weather getting out of St. Louis. It wasn't until the next morning did I realize that we missed the tornado that hit the St. Louis airport by a few minutes or so. All that time I was blaming the bad tired on our car for the reason it felt like we were all over the road.

Once we got in, we stayed with UILF and AILT for the visit. We got a good steady dose of Mrs. McGoo's cousin's kids. It's neat to see how fast they grow when you only see them once or twice a year. Clayton, the middle child, and I seem to hit it off every time I come in. Last year he had me watching the Backyardigans and this year he almost had me playing Thomas the Train with him. It would be encouraging to see that he can now call me Kelly and not Telly, but instead, he has learned the phrase, Smelly Kelly. Who could have taught him that, I don't know....

Saturday night we had the whole family over for dinner and uFrank had been smoking some brisket for 24 hours or so on his new electric smoker. Unfortunately for him, the meat came out a little dry. This unfortunate happening just allowed us to lather the meat up more so with BBQ sauce than normal. I could tell he was a little bummed, but pushed through it. I think somewhere his son-in-law Dan put a curse on the meat since he referred to the electric grill as "cheating."

The next morning we made our way to church for Easter service and then came back to the house for some grub before we hit the road. We were all set to be treated to a wonderful meal by aTerri when uFrank's string of bad luck on the grill continued. This time on a propane tank. I know...difficult right. Some where on one of the many shows he "Likes to watch" he saw that you can put greasy bacon on the grill and cook them. So he decided to give it a whirl. I don't know if 5 minutes went by before all the girls in the house start screaming. I am playing with uFrank's iPad at the time and asked what was going on. They're all now laughing and saying that uFrank has caught the grill on fire.


Knowing this is too good of a moment for me to pass up, I quickly grabbed my phone and went to take pictures of this kodak moment. Much to my delight, the flames were blazing about the time I got over there. Here, in all his glory is what happens when a bad grilling weekend comes to an end.

After uFrank's Bacon Explosion (kind of funny since he once sent me a recipe called that) we headed back to M-town to try and get in at a reasonable time. It's always a tough place to leave. They treat me like one of their own and really do a great job of taking care of us while we're there.

I know we're missed because we always get the same sad face when we leave.

Happy Birthday Mrs. McGoo

Happy Birthday to my WONDERFUL and INCREDIBLY INCREDIBLE WIFE.

I have enjoyed sharing my life with you and love you more and more each day. God has completely blessed me beyond belief with you and I cannot wait to see what the future holds being with you.

Melt. My. Heart.

As someone once said about this picture, I feel the same way.

Going Strong

Hello Blog. I almost forgot about you. I'm sure everyone else has, so this is probably a me and you conversation. So I'll update you blog why I've been neglecting you.

School:
Going strong. Taking a lot of classes and most of them are project based. So very soon, I'll be in research mode.

Soccer:
Not going so well. We're currently on a five game losing streak with our most recent loss coming at the hands of the #5 ranked team in the country Tulsa. Tonight we take on Central Arkansas and need a big win before we set off on a three game road stretch taking us to Orlando, Miami, and Kentucky. I'm very excited to go off on the trips with them, as I do not normally travel with the team. That being said, it certainly takes me away from my life here in Memphis for two weeks.

Travels:
As I said earlier, I'm heading out for what almost amounts to two weeks worth of travels, but the McGoo household has been traveling like crazy already. Mrs. McGoo has been to Kansas City, Lexington, and San Diego in the last two weeks, while I've been to Lexington, Birmingham, and Knoxville recently. You might ask how is this possible with all the stuff going on here in Memphis. My answer would be, "I don't know, we've just fit it in somehow."

Ethiopia Bound McGoo's:
We are just about fully funded for our trip to Ethiopia this December. I am incredibly excited about going back. I feel like a part of me is still there. We just recently booked our flights and we both leave on Dec. 10th and fly to Chicago to Istanbul to Addis Ababa. Heather will come back to Memphis on Dec. 26 and I will stay there until Jan 5. One of my favorite times of the year is the time around Christmas, so it will be a change that Heather and I will be spending most of that time in Ethiopia. However, I know this is what God has planned for us and I couldn't be happier.

If there are people actually reading this blog, I really do appreciate all of you that have supported us in our initial trip and now in our current trip. I am fully confident that God chose each one of you to help us and I thank you for listening to his voice.

As you can see, life is pretty busy. Nothing that God has given us is something we cannot handle. It is exciting times in the McGoo household. I wouldn't want to be anywhere else.

Late Birthday Gift and Public Speaking

I celebrated my 35th birthday on Wednesday as I have celebrated every day for the past two weeks. I celebrated it with three-a-days with the soccer team. I was showered with a ton of encouraging words on facebook and over the phone. It is really nice to know that you have that many people that care.

Mrs. McGoo told me on Tuesday that she had a small gift for me, but that her big gift would be late. Now, I don't know why I heard what I heard, but something in her voice sounded weird. So my reaction to the word 'late' was something that even I didn't expect. I asked her, "late, as in 9 months late?" I could hear her smile over the phone when she responded "no Kelly, I'm not late and no, I'm not pregnant."

Thought that was worth sharing...

She also called me and told me that we have been asked by our church to go before the congregation on Sunday and speak about our trip to Ethiopia and what God was doing in our lives. I thought this was kind of neat and scary all in one. I don't think I've ever spoken to that large of a crowd before. While I know that the Lord will give us the words to say, my first thought was, "why in the world do they want to hear anything I've got to say?"

Thank goodness I got an 'A' in public speaking last fall.

Who Wears the Pants

Been a while since I last updated. Sorry. Been a little preoccupied with this Sport Law class I've been taking. It's required a TON of reading and writing case briefings. I've finished everything except for my final which is at the end of the week. So I've got a small bit of down time before the soccer team starts preseason training on Monday. We'll be having three-a-days in this heat. Should be fun.

Last night, Mrs. McGoo and I were sitting down and both studying a little when she told me a statistic she learned in her "Family Development" class (I hope that is what it is called). Widowers are four times more likely to remarry than widows. I asked why is that, to which she replied, "Because women take care of you and you wouldn't know what to do without us. So naturally, you'd remarry sooner than women." Dang...kinda harsh don't ya think?

This morning, I got a phone call from Mrs. McGoo asking me to remember to put the pork tenderloin in the crock-pot because she *forgot.

Last night Mrs. McGoo needed help moving documents somewhere so she could print them at school. Enter Mr. McGoo that gave her a jump drive and moved them over for you. This morning, she forgot the jump **drive.

These are just a few examples of the many that I could list that proves who takes care of who in this house.

So there you have it. Statistical research debunked. I think we all know who wears the pants.






* Crock-pot was an idea by said wife who was trying to make sure her husband was taken care of for dinner since she knows he'd most likely not eat due to not knowing what I make.

** Jump drive was forgotten because said wife was making breakfast for her husband who was watching T.V.

Busy Busy

As Mrs. McGoo alluded to in her blog, things have picked up quite a bit for us. This hasn't been the typical summer for us. We've both been extremely busy and I realized the other day that I have hardly spent much quality time with my wife.

Whether it has been school, kickball, work, housework, or some other things, we both have had plenty to keep us busy.

Summer school has been very hectic for me recently. I took a financial management class in what is called a "pre-term" session at the beginning of the summer. It was basically a semesters worth of work, wrapped up in 2.5 weeks. Crazy times I tell ya. Now I'm taking Sport Law and it is kicking my butt. It is basically law, applied to sports. I feel like I'm in law school. It is pretty neat to cover contracts and stuff, but some of the other things are a little boring.

It hit me two nights ago that things are about to pick up for us. As if our lives aren't already busy, the fall will present a whole new scope of things for the McGoo's. I came home from watching a movie with a buddy the other night (Inception, which I highly recommend) and I tried going to sleep. I just couldn't. It started to hit me that this fall was going to be crazy and my mind started racing.

I began thinking of all the things that are going on this fall and began to question how was I going to be able to manage it all. Here's what it looks like:

Soccer, School (20 hours - junior and senior level classes), house projects, my sister getting married, helping my mom try to move from Kentucky to Arizona. These are all the definite things happening.

There is a potential for something else on the table that I cannot speak about right now, along with bible study on Wednesday nights and potentially another bible study in the works. Then just trying to be a husband and spend time with my wife, friends, and family that is important to me. And finally, which should be first...trying to improve my personal walk with Christ.

I haven't even mentioned Kickball and fantasy football that seem to take some time to do.

As I was saying, I couldn't sleep the other night. Therefore, I went out into our living room and grabbed my bible and started praying. Just praying for clarity in knowing the things that I needed to do and pushing out some of the things that I don't need to do. Prayed that God can give me wisdom in knowing that he won't put anything on my plate that I cannot handle. It is the clarity that I seek in knowing what is from Him and differentiating what is from me.

That being all said, we'll just take one day at a time.

"The future is no place to place your better days"

Now to get back to reading chapter 7 on "Sexual Harassment." Joy

Traveling and Gods Directions

The past couple of days have been fun. On Saturday the wife and I headed out to the Blue Ridge Mountains to meet up with the Wilson clan for a family vacation. This would be the first that I and my brother-in-law Brent have attended since we both wed two of the three Wilson girls.

Anyone that has ever traveled with me knows that I love to travel. The one area that I could improve on is the preparation for the travel. For some reason, and I can't explain, I turn into a bear when we are getting ready. I get moody and short. My wife, who has experienced this more than anyone, understands this and, for the most part, lets me be. I'm not sure if I am worried about forgetting something or what, but I do know that I see travel as a time schedule and if we are not on it, I start getting stressed. I like to get on the road with no hassles and put 'life' behind us.

Once we got on the road, I calmed down and we had a rather pleasant drive. The area of Blue Ridge Mountains we are staying at are tucked away in an area that basically is the tip of Georgia, North Carolina, and Tennessee. Think the Ocoee River for some of you that have been near there. Where we are staying is actually in Georgia. As I was saying, the drive is beautiful. We took the route that takes us across the bottom of Tennessee, into Alabama, into Georgia, back into Tennessee, and then into Georgia again. The wife slept most of the way to the cabin, which should have taken us around five in a half hours. I say should because we ran into some trouble finding the cabin.

Once we made it to the point where our GPS no longer detects roads, we followed our printed out Google maps version. It said to take a right on Hardscrabble then a left on to Laurel Springs. CHECK. Once on Laurel Springs, go .3 miles and take a right onto Dana Rd (Which is where our cabin is). CHECK. Oh wait...there is no Dana Rd. So we drove up this street 3 times trying to find Dana Rd to no avail. My wife was manning the directions and I was following them to a T. Obviously she did something wrong! So she tried calling my father in law, but she couldn't get a signal. So we backtracked a bit and went back a few streets to make sure we didn't miss something. I pulled into a Dollar General about to walk in. I looked at the directions and pointed something to her that she missed. I had printed out text directions as well as mapped directions street by street. All you had to do is LOOK AT THE MAP and see what the next street was near DANA Rd. Pretty simple huh?

I'm being nice in this 'depiction' of our journey because it was anything BUT nice. I basically told her that she couldn't read directions and THIS is how you do it. So I went back where we were missing and was going to show her! The problem...still no Dana Rd. Fortunately we were able to get a signal (I did with my phone) and called my father in law to which he told me that you had to turn onto RHONDA RD (which we saw) and then turn onto Dana Rd. So we finally made it...only an hour later than we should have. And a good argument in between.

Moral of that story for me. Be cognitive of my words to my wife. I didn't want to talk for a bit after that and it occurred to me later Saturday night that it was exactly what Satan wanted me to do. Here we are trying to get away from 'life' and enjoy each others company and yet he used something as stupid as bad directions to cause an argument. It's amazing to sit back and realize how the enemy can interject himself into something so small and make it so big.

I thought about asking Heather for us to pray before we left on the trip. That God would watch over us in our travels and continue to bring fruit to our marriage and conversations. I thought about it and decided I didn't want to. Turns out I should be more sensitive to the spirit when my convictions are telling me something.

Turns out I neglected the most important directions before the trip ever started.

Off to Church

Yesterday was interesting as we made it in to Addis and headed over to the SIM Guesthouse to get checked in. We had lunch at the guesthouse and then sat to discuss what some of our plan for the rest of the day was going to look like. Mrs. McGoo, Joe, and KC managed to run a few errands while I took a nap and came back to wake me up for dinner.

We headed out to a restaurant called the "Loyal Restaurant" and met some of Joe's friends there. I enjoyed it immensely as I am finding that I have a common language with many people here. Football (Soccer) has been a great form of communication and way of building trust and friendships with some of the folks here. They look at me as if I don't know what I am talking about, but as soon as I get in depth with players and teams, their eyes light up. I had a conversation last night with two of Joe's friends (and for the life of me, I can't remember how to pronounce their names...will ask Joe and fill this back in) about football. Only one of them spoke English and he told me he was a Manchester United fan. His friend, didn't speak much English at all, but when I said the word 'Arsenal' is who I was a fan of, I got an immediate smile and he shook my hand. Interesting how the beautiful game can make friends.

After dinner we came back to the guesthouse and sat around and talked for a bit. I was eagerly waiting to watch the US vs England match in the World Cup first round. I made my way into a room where four older ladies were sitting around watching "Finding Nemo" and I asked them if they would be watching the match. One lady said to me in an english accent, "Not if you plan on wearing that US shirt (I was wearing a US shirt for the game). She sort of grinned at me and I looked at her and said, "Yall are from England huh?", to which she replied, "You've got an interesting accent for a Yank." By the time the game had started, the room was full and divided in half with Americans and British fans. It was a great way to take in the match...which ended in a 1-1 draw. It certainly made up for watching it on a 18 inch screen. ;)

I came to bed around 11:30, as the game was shown here in Addis at 9:30 pm (12:30 pm Central time). I woke up around 5am to the sound of the Islamic Prayer call that went on for oh...say about a hour. Needless to say, this was my first experience with it and apparently will be use to it by the time we leave. The bed was actually quite nice and Heather and I got a reasonably good amount of sleep.

Right now it is 10:15 and we are about to head to church. I am desperately in need of a nap though because I have been awake since 5am, so I'm a little tired (probably some jet lag still). We plan on hitting up a cafe' for some lunch afterward and then most likely run some errands before the rest of our team gets in town tonight around7pm.

As always, I continue to thank you all for your support and prayers. This is already shaping up to be a life changing moment for us. God is definitely here...all around. Even in the ugly, he's here. We've met some very interesting people. More on that later, but God has his hand in what we are doing. It's awesome!

Love you all

The Forsaken Children Blog

Mrs. McGoo and I will be blogging on the "Forsaken Children Blog" for the next couple of weeks. We'll try and blog on our own accounts as well, but have heard that "blogger"domain doesn't work well in Ethiopia, so we'll see what happens.

In the meantime, I've got the blog linked over on the left-hand side of my blog.

Or if you're eyes are that lazy, you can click this link:

http://theforsakenchildren.org/blog/

We're traveling to Rome and then Addis Ababa tomorrow. 15 1/2 hours. Fun fun. Good thing I love planes. (sarcasm)

Mustard Seed

Today I begin the journey of a lifetime. God has led Mrs. McGoo and I to drop everything and make a trip to Ethiopia to further his kingdom. I must tell you, I've had my doubts over how it all would happen. I don't know why...just now, I was thinking about all the times in my life that God has followed through with his promises to me. The times that I never thought the outcome would be what it was, but God provided.

Example...

After getting laid off from work and having a hard time finding a job, I prayed about it and God said, go back to school. I asked him, "God, how in the world can I go back to school? Hello, I just lost my J.O.B....how exactly do you expect me to pay for this?"
God says, Ye of little faith...and provides a full scholarship and books.

Additionally, months ago, Mrs. McGoo and I discussed doing a mission trip. I told her the costs were something we couldn't afford. She looked at me and said, "Ye of little faith." 3 months later, God provided more than the $6000 needed to make the trip happen.

Matthew 17:20
"Because you have so little faith. I tell you the truth, if you have faith as small as a mustard seed, you can say to this mountain, 'Move from here to there' and it will move. Nothing will be impossible for you."

Thank you to those that have prayed, supported, believed in us, and have been sensitive to the spirit. I won't be the same after today. For tomorrow, I will move mountains.

Finally, no more school...til Monday

This past spring semester seemed to go on forever. Maybe it was because I took 20 hours, or maybe it was because Mrs. McGoo and I stayed so stinking busy. Either way, I'm happy that it's over. I've had a week to relax and it has been nice. Before I get to what's ahead, here is a brief recap of what has been going on...

• Finished the spring semester and now have 60 hours under my belt. Not exactly what I wanted at this stage in time, as I would have much rather had more hours, but I'm exactly halfway finished. I would have had more hours, but I only took 12 and 12 my first two semesters. I think I was more concerned with my retention from 12 years off of school and that made me a little hesitant to commit to a ton of hours. Now that I know what I'm capable of, I'll be taking a lot of hours the rest of the way.
  

• Camping and getting school credit for it? Sounds like the best of both worlds now doesn't it. For the record, I absolutely love being outdoors. Whether it is camping, fishing, or traveling, there is something about being outside in nature that resonates with my soul. Sure, I love being indoors and enjoying my big screen like the next guy, but it always seems like I can never get enough of being outside.
  

• Nashville, Nashville, and Lexington. There was a three week period where Mrs. McGoo and I were out of town every weekend. We went to Nashville twice for weddings and then went to my hometown of Lexington to visit my Mom. I hadn't been in home in over a year, so it was a welcomed experience. That being said, we've discovered that because of our age difference, we're getting a double dose of weddings and babies. Whether they are showers or ceremonies, we've had a lot of them and that will continue into this summer and the fall. I'll say that we both feel honored to be invited to them all, but we've recently discovered that we have to say no some times. If we didn't, we'd have something every weekend and would never get anything accomplished. That being said, Heather is in a wedding in the fall and my sister is getting married in the fall as well. So there is certainly more on the way.

• Whiskey and Horse Racing. As I mentioned, we managed to make it back home for a long weekend and in doing so, I was able to show the Mrs. around a little bit. Each time we go back, I try and show her a little piece of where I'm from, and this visit was no different. This time around I took her to the Woodford Reserve Distillery and to Keeneland Race Track. Anyone that knows me, knows I love whiskey, so this was a special treat. I actually had a satisfy a "tour" for my Tourism class in school, so I got credit for this as well. It was fascinating to see how the whiskey is distilled and bottled. The aging process was really cool and the warehouse they store the barrels in smelled incredible. Mrs. McGoo loved every part except for the sample at the end. Keeneland was also fun, as I had not been there in years. It was a real treat to get to take the wife there. Keeneland, unlike many other horse races, goes on for a full month in April and October. It's like a huge tailgate party in the Grove at Ole Miss meets horse racing. Needless to say, it's a lot of fun and isn't limited to one day.
  

• Crawfish for a Cause - If you have kept up with my or Mrs. McGoo's blogs lately, you'll know that we are going on a mission trip to Ethiopia in June. In order to help raise money for the trip, we decided to have a crawfish boil. My brother and sister in law kicked in a ton of help. They allowed us to use their house for the party and even purchased the crawfish for the eating. All in all it was a blast and we had a great turnout. We raised a lot of money and it ended up helping us meet our goal of $6000 for the trip.

I am heading out of town for the weekend. I'm going to see the Reds play the Cardinals twice at the Great American Ballpark in Cincinnati on Saturday and Sunday. I grew up loving the Reds but these days, have become disillusioned with baseball. It is nearly impossible for a team that isn't in a large market to have success for more than a year or so. The Reds, like some other small market teams like say, the Royals, don't have the market and resources to compete with the Yankees, Red Sox, and Dodgers of the world. By the time their young players get to a point where they are good, the small market teams farm them off to the large market teams in order to turn a profit and try again. Needless to say, I grew up going to Riverfront Stadium and when I moved away, haven't been since. They tore Riverfront (Cinergy Field) Stadium down and built a new stadium a few years ago.

We'll leave Friday around 4pm and get back Sunday around midnight. Just in time to get up and start summer school. Sounds fun? Yeah...

Life in the fast lane

Happy Birthday to someone special...

Today marks a special day. It's Monday.
.
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Oh yeah, and it is the birthday of my mother in law - Cindy Wilson.

I could think of many words to describe my mother in law, but why waste words when you've got pictures

Look at her here ruining what should have been a perfect picture.


I must say, I tried to find a 'good picture' of her, but apparently she just doesn't take things serious. So, this is what we are left with. What can I say...


....I guess I should say that every time Mrs. McGoo laughs, I hear my mother in law. Every time I get injured (which seems to happen a lot), Mrs. McGoo tells me I'm a wimp (just like my mother in law). Every time I need a little encouragement or pick me up, Mrs. McGoo is there to slap me on the butt and get me going, (like my mother in law...minus the butt slap...she punches me). See a theme here?

So what does it all mean?

I married a woman just like my mother in law. And you know what....that's not too bad. :)

Happy Birthday to my favorite Grinch.

Now could you teach your daughter to cook like you?!?!?

Feeling a Tug

I have recently begun to feel a slight tug on my arm. No, it is not Mrs. McGoo pulling at me to go with her to the store or to get out of bed (she pushes me). The tug is coming from a higher power...

I'm not one that is in to looking back on his life with regret, because if I did, I would worry myself to death with all the things I missed out on. However, I did look back on my life in 2009 and was fascinated with all the things I was able to accomplish. It was pretty neat to say that I went back to school and barely missed the Dean's List. It was also pretty neat to say that I got to travel to some pretty cool places. Likewise, it was pretty cool to say that I won my fantasy football league (one of them) and got to cash in some money. Additionally, I became closer to some people and made some new friends.

Here's the thing...
As a man of Christ, who I claim to be, did I further the kingdom last year? I can honestly say that I don't think so. So without that, looking back at everything I did last year; it was an utter failure.

So recently I've felt God tugging on me to be more involved with my church. Mrs. McGoo and I are going on a mission trip to Ethiopia and that's really centrally focused my attention outwardly, but I've realized I'm lacking in community. Sure, I've got a ton of friends and most of them I met at church, but I couldn't tell you the last time I've had a conversation with many of them about what Christ is doing in our lives and it's bothering me. We cook together, watch games together, host parties together, go on dates together, go on trips together, talk trash together, yet when it comes to the single most important thing in our life, nothing.

I recently made a trip to Nashville for a wedding and got to spend some time with one of my best friends who is a pastor for Green Hills Church. It was some of the first meaningful Christ-centered talks I've had with some of my closer friends in quite some time. It was exhilarating. I had almost forgotten what it was like to have the depth and vulnerability. For men, that can be difficult, but this past weekend, it was easy.

So I'm left with the what now. I have asked some of my buddies before about starting a bible study, but it kind of got shot down. Not that people told me NO...just more like I didn't get much of a response. I remember telling my buddy this past week that it seems that time is the biggest factor in it all. I hate overextending myself (the exact opposite of Mrs. McGoo) and therefore I get nervous about how much time I will have to be able to put into a study. That being said, I feel confident that the Lord would not put anything on my plate that I cannot handle. Especially when it comes to serving him and growing closer to him.

Mrs. McGoo has been or is currently in about three or four and this isn't counting our sunday school class we attend. If this were a race, she'd be the equivalent of Usain Bolt and I would be the equivalent of, well, ME. Those aren't good odds.

So I'm throwing the gauntlet down...time to get back in that race.

Lord. You Talkin' To Me?

It's pretty safe to say that McGugan is not a real common last name. So you could imagine our surprise when our friend Karyn Bridges sent us this photo.




This is Desselign. He is one of the guards that works on the compound where we'll be staying.

Now, after seeing this, do you think God is telling us something? Kind of sounds like GO! Whenever someone asks me from now on how God speaks to you, I'll show them this.

In case you were wondering, Mrs. McGoo and I are going to Ethiopia in June on a mission trip. You can learn all about it on Mrs. McGoo's blog. (http://itsnotmydiary.blogspot.com/2010/03/raising-support.html)

Probably best to not back out of this trip eh?

What I Dream About

I woke up last night thinking that I had to blog about this....

I have never been one to dream a whole lot, but for some reason lately, I have been. Yeah, I know, you dream all the time and you just don't remember it...blah, blah, blah...I'm tellin' ya, I didn't dream ok?

Like I said, more recently in the last couple of months I've been dreaming a lot. Here's the top 5 list of what my dreams are about (subject matter)


1. Zombies
I'm a big fan of Zombie movies...always have been since I was a kid. I don't really know what it is about Zombie movies that I like because they usually deal with a lot of death, gore, and the end of the world. Sounds kind of cryptic really, but for some reason they have an appeal to me. Most recently the Mrs. and I went to the drive-in to see a Zombie remake called "The Crazies" which was decent. I'd give it one eyelid closed.

2. Spring Break
For some reason I keep thinking I'm on a beach laying in the sand and getting some sun. Maybe it's because I'm on my spring break from school....I digress. But I'm not really doing anything in the dream other than laying with the Mrs. on the beach.

3. Spring Break w/ Zombies
For whatever reason, Zombies have completely taken over the beach and I have to save the Mrs. from a big breasted bikini-Zombie that wants to eat her brains.


4. Kelsey's Wedding (Doing the Thriller Dance)
I don't care if we are taken over by Zombies in the near future, this one better be the dream! For some odd reason I'm supposed to do the 'Thriller Dance' at her wedding...apparently I was supposed to do it at Brent and Robin's and I didn't get the memo. Maybe if I was eaten by a Zombie it would come natural to me...




5. (edited by Mr. McGoo)
Can't discuss this one in an open forum. Love you Mrs. McGoo




So there you have it...I'm tormented by Zombies. Maybe sooner, rather than later I'll be tormented by the John Wall Dance, BBQ, or the Democrats...or maybe the Zombies will eat the Democrats and they'll come after me...who knows...

American Idol Top 24

I realize this will be my first non-UK post in quite sometime, so for those of you that are looking for more UK stuff, sorry, you'll have to wait a bit.

Wednesday night finished up Hollywood week and we saw the top 24 selected for what should be a great season of American Idol. American Idol has a special place in our marriage because we use to watch it with our friends Don and Jana West when we were doing our pre-marriage counseling with them. We still like to get together with them and AI is usually the night we try and do so.

Even though I'm not great at singing and can't play a note on an instrument, I'm actually pretty good with spotting talent (a lot better than some might think) and love watching these next parts of the show. While I don't think the best talent wins it always, they usually do a good job of having the best one or two contestants near the finals. Case in point, I thought Danny and Adam were the best two last season, but somehow Chris managed to make it to the finals and win it. My personal choice would have been Danny because Adam was annoyingly creepy and Chris was too ordinary. However, the majority of people voting are girls and Chris had the good looks and college coffeehouse look going for him.

Mrs. McGoo has a little contest that she does when the contestants make it to the top 12. It is pretty fun to try and pick the winner of the show as well as select who goes out each episode.

Starting tomorrow (Thursday) Idol will post the bios and contestants of the ones we have gotten to know some on TV. I'll give a little incite into who I think could make it to far and who I don't think will do well. As much as I would love to post who, out of the top 24, will make it to the final 12, AI didn't show us every performance of the contestants. So for now, I'll just have to work with the ones we've seen.

Until then...

www.mrmcgoo.blogspot.com
www.itsnotmydiary.blogspot.com

A Servants Heart

It has been a difficult week in the McGugan household as Mrs. McGoo learned that her grandmother, Mary Hansen passed away last Saturday. When we learned of the news, we had just been out with some of our closest friends on a nice dinner and left in a joyous mood. At dinner we were able to celebrate relationships, babies, and life all over a warm cooked meal. Things were very good when we left and I remember looking to my wife that night thinking that the Lord was good. He has blessed us with a great family, friends, and life that we are so happy to have. Sure we struggle with the normal things in life...not having enough money, house issues, day to day life issues and whatnot, but in the grand scheme of things, we are very happy and blessed.

Then Heather's phone rang. Heather was driving and couldn't reach her phone, so I answered it for her. Her father had called and asked how we were doing and what we were up to. I sensed something unfamiliar in his voice when he asked if he could speak with Heather, I knew something wasn't right. I gave the phone to her and as we drove on, I watched her emotions get the best of her. We pulled over and she got off the phone in tears and looked to me and said that her grandmother had passed away. We sat in the car for a while as I grabbed my wife's hand and waited a bit for her to let her tears out and come to grips with what she had just heard. Then I did the only thing that I know how to do in that kind of moment, I held my wife close and spoke to the Lord and it sounded something like this...

"Lord, we're hurting right now as our grandmother has been taken from us. While we feel it is too soon to let go, we know that your timing is what is important. I've never seen someone with more of a servants heart than that of Mary Hansen and for that, I thank you for her life. She has shown us what it is like to be Christ-like to all. Lord, we know that you are welcoming her in to heaven with open arms but I specifically ask that you are with her family and friends right now. I ask that you lay your loving arms all over her husband, Neil, right now, for he is without his bride and I know now more than ever, he needs to feel your love. Mary left behind so many people that loved her. Lord, I know you are proud. So Lord, thank you for allowing her to be with us for so long. We cannot wait until we see her again. In your name. Amen."

From the moment I came into this family, Mary has made me feel as if I was one of her own grandchildren. Heather warned me that if I let her, she'd help me gain 30 pounds by cooking me any meal I asked. From the minute I walked in her door she never stopped offering to serve me....take my coat, get me a drink, offer me food, or anything else you can think of. I've learned a lot from that...how to serve. For someone like me, a Christian, that's the simplest way for someone to see the kingdom. So simple to say, yet for some reason so difficult for so many to follow through with though. Mary, was the exception.

If you look at all of the books that Paul wrote in the bible, almost all of them begin with saying, "Paul, a servant of Christ...Paul, a bond servant of Christ...Paul, a prisoner of Christ Jesus." That was Mary...not only a belief in serving, but embodying it on a day to day basis. Heather's uncle documents her some more in his blog and explains in more detail her servant heart in his life.

Today I am serving as a pallbearer for Mary Hansen's funeral and I couldn't be more honored.

Today, it is my turn to serve one of the greatest servants I've ever known. Today Mary, you get to sit back and let us take care of you for once. After a lifetime of service for your Lord, Creator, Savior, and everyone that came in between, you've earned every bit of the blessings, tears, laughter, and service you're going to get.

We love you. We miss you. God bless you