Visiting Kentucky's State Capital

I got this great idea while we were in the middle of this cold winter here in Kentucky, to go visit the state Capital in Frankfort.  I got online to see their hours and get some information, and then I planned out the whole day.  I thought it would be a good way for Matt to relax away from his busy seminary schedule.  When we got to the capitol building, it looked completely deserted.  There weren't even any cars in the parking lot.  We walked around the capital building to see if any doors were opened and they weren't.  Well, as you probably guessed, I made another Cali girl mistake.  The Capitol building in Kentucky was not open in the winter on weekends.  It never even dawned on me to think that it would be too cold for any tourists to come.  We came.  :) :)  We had lot's of fun looking around the building and around town anyways.  So here's a few pictures from our adventures in the capital city of Frankfort, KY.

Here's the back of the KY, state Capitol Building

And... here we are in the front of the Capitol.

I was really cold, can you tell?

I think that most state Capitols pretty much look the same.  I guess we all like to try to copy the White House or something.  :)

Sun glorious sun!! For a little while the sun came out and I just had to soak up some rays.  :)

When we first got married and we were living in California and I made Matt a scarf.  He kindly said "thank you" and then it went to the back of a drawer and was never again used.  He said he didn't really like scarfs.  This winter he was begging me to make him a big thick warm scarf.  Let's just say, he likes scarfs now and he puts them to good use.  :)

We also visited the cemetery in Frankfort.  Here I am reading the historical marker for the grave of Daniel Boone.  If you look really close you can see the Capitol dome in the background.

Here's the monument for Daniel Boone's Grave.

At the cemetery there was a section dedicated to babies that had never been born (lost to miscarriage).  I've never seen anything like this at any cemetery that I've been too.  I found that it really touched me being that I have been through the loss of children through miscarriage.

Theses are the Bible verses that were displayed at the monument for the unborn children.

We enjoyed our tour of the candy factory at Rebecca Ruth Candies.  We felt like we were walking onto the set of the I Love Lucy movie where she was stuffing all of those chocolates into her mouth.  This candy factory is famous for making Kentucky Bourbon Balls.  Don't worry, we didn't try any, we're good Seminary students.  :)  Matt did find his new favorite candy though.  They're called Kentucky Colonels.  It's a mint filling with a pecan half on top covered in milk chocolate.  He loved them!  It was great touring and sampling chocolate from this world-famous candy shop that has made it through several of America's economic crisis including the Great Depression and even prohibition and the sugar rationing of World War II.  

Christmas in Louisville 2013

For Christmas 2013, we decided to stay in Louisville and see what this great city has to offer for the Christmas Season.  I'm glad we decided to do this!!  There's so much to do at Christmas time in this city.  Here are some of the pictures of the different things we did and places we went.  Enjoy!!

First, I must mention, that Christmas time ushered in the beginnings of the Polar Vortex over here in Kentucky.  This is Matt's truck covered in icicles  right before we left to go to the Creation Museum in Northern Kentucky.

This is a pretty bad quality of a picture, but it's the only one that I actually took at the Creation Museum.  So this is the only actual proof that I have that we went there.  :)  Matt got to hold this huge snake, I didn't really want too.  I'm not a snake person.  :)  We love to visit the Creation Museum and this was the first activity we did to usher in the Christmas season here in Kentucky.

We spent the entire day at the Creation Museum, and then spent the night over in Ohio, near Cincinnati.   We quickly realized that Matt's windshield wiper blades from California had given up the ghost and were no match for the Northern KY, snow.  :)

Louisville, is known for having the best city water there is.  I don't really have anything to compare it with since I'm a country girl who grew up on well water.  I still don't drink the water from the tap here though.  In this picture Matt and I are walking around the water treatment plant's reservoir.  The water is pumped in directly from the Ohio river and treated here.  It was a really cold and windy day; that's why my hair looks even more wild than it usually does.  :)

Here's something really unique that we did.  We went and saw Christmas lights inside a cave.  It was pretty amazing.  It was called Lights Under Louisville.  This picture is the entrance to the cave.  I thought it was interesting that the first light display said, "Keep Christ in Christmas."  The next few photos are from are time under Louisville enjoying the light displays.  It was about a 20 minute drive through this amazingly festive cavern.

We enjoyed going to the Frazier History Museum in Downtown Louisville on a Sunday afternoon.  They had a bunch of Christmas trees on display and each one was decorated to the theme of a different country.

For our Christmas Eve dinner this year we had schnitzel with spaetzle.  As you can see it was definitely a German themed dinner.  We were on a schnitzel kick and it seemed like it would make a great Christmas Eve dinner. We even made the spaetzle from scratch.  After our dinner we went to Clifton Baptist Church for the first Christmas Eve service that we have ever been too.  We really enjoyed our time at church, and then we went around town and enjoyed all the different light displays at people's homes.  It was a great Christmas Eve night finished off by watching the Nativity, and sleeping out in the living room by the Christmas tree.  

Our Christmas morning tradition is to wake up and have freshly made maple cinnamon rolls.  We love the recipe from the Pioneer Woman's cook book.  They were so good as you can tell by the empty plate.  :)

This is a crazy picture.  We look like we've had way too much sugar or something.  :) Matt's mom sent us our Christmas gifts and when we opened them, confetti exploded everywhere.  It was so funny!! Our carpet was literally covered in confetti.

I got Matt a bunch of calligraphy supplies for his gift.

Matt got me some really nice frying pans and also some quilting supplies.


We really had a great Christmas as we celebrated our Lord's birth over here in Louisville, KY.  We constantly praise the Lord for where He has brought us and what he is teaching us while we are here at Southern  Seminary.

A Time to Give Thanks...

This time of year always seems to be the busiest for us.  Matt is busy studying and working, I'm busy with nanny responsibilities and sewing, but in the midst of all this business it's good to stop and take time to give thanks.  God has been so good to us!  Matt began his second year of Seminary in August and he is now in his last weeks of finishing up this semester.  As I'm writing this post, we are sitting in Barnes and Noble and he is studying, reading, and preparing for his finals next week.  We are so thankful for every circumstance that God used to bring us here to The Southern Baptist Theological Seminary.  At work, Matt received a promotion to operator; which came with a nice raise.  God is good to us financially! I could not be happier with my job as a nanny.  It is the perfect job for this season of our lives.  Since both of the kids that I nanny are in school, I have the whole middle of the day to myself.  This has allowed me to be able to attend chapel services with Matt on Tuesdays and Thursdays.  I'm so thankful for what God has been teaching me through all of the Godly chapel speakers.  God is allowing us both to grow so much in the knowledge of Him and Who He is while we are here attending classes.  I just finished up my third semester of Seminary Wive's classes by taking a discipleship class.  I learned so much from this class, but one thing that stands out to me is this profound lesson:  "ministry wives will need to learn to be 'self-feeders' before they will ever be able to feed (disciple) another."  This class greatly challenged me in my own personal walk with God through helping me to be more consistent in my daily Bible reading, prayer, and worship time.  I'm so thankful that Mrs. Mohler, the seminary president's wife, began this special school to train up minister's wives alongside their husbands.  I don't want to give any of you all the false impression that we live perfect lives.  No, we don't have perfect lives, and everything doesn't always go our way.  But, we are doing our best to learn from what the Apostle Paul said:  "I have learned in whatsoever state I am therewith to be content."  Even if that state is Kentucky and not California.  :)  Yes, we miss California, but we know that God has us over here in Kentucky to prepare ourselves for the future ministry He has planned for us.  We both can boldly say that whether in good times or bad, God has always been there working in us and even through us, and for this we are ever thankful.

Okay, now I will get you all up to date with some of the pictures of our latest adventures since our last post.  I don't know about you, but I love looking at pictures, so if you're like me, than this section of this post is for you.  Enjoy!!

Back in September, Matt and I went on a little mini-vacation to the Madison Art Festival in Indiana, which is about an hour away from Louisville.  The town of Madison, IN is reminiscent of small-town America, and we really enjoyed looking at all the amazing architecture from that era.  We had a great time even if it did pour on us the second day we were there.  There were many local artists and artisans with some very unique art on display.

We have found the best spot for eating fresh seasonal food at The Blue Dog Bakery and Cafe.  It's walking distance from the Seminary, and they have the best soups, pizzas and sandwiches.  Everything there is so fresh, and a lot of it is served farm to table so we are supporting our local farmers and enjoying good food. 

Last year we got our pumpkins from Huber's Farm in IN, so this year we figured, "why not make it a tradition while we're here."  Matt had never been to an actual pumpkin field to pick his own pumpkin.  This was quite fun watching my perfectionist husband trying to pick the perfect pumpkin in a field of 100s of pumpkins.  

In October, my mom surprised my dad by flying me home for his birthday.  It was so good to see family again, and to meet my cousin Mike and his family for the first time.  It was a quick two-day trip.  Just a little teaser to make me miss California even more.  :) 

Before I left California to go back to Kentucky, my parents took me to see the ocean.  I sure do miss the Pacific Ocean.  The Ohio River here in Kentucky just doesn't compare to the great big Pacific Ocean.  

I've always had this fear of cooking steaks, but I love to eat them.  So recently I decided to conquer this fear and learn how to cook a good steak.  I've been doing pretty good so far, and Matt sure does like steak night Saturdays.  

Every year, since we've been married, Matt and I have packed up shoeboxes for Operation Christmas Child.  We always have so much fun shopping for the items to put in our boxes and then coming home and trying to fit everything into the box.

Ok, I'll admit it.  Kentucky does have something up on California.  The trees all turn the most beautiful colors here during the fall!

As a side job, I sew vintage belts for two ladies who have a business designing the belts and selling them to boutiques. When I'm not sewing these belts, I love to quilt.  I made this wall quilt out of a bunch of vintage scrap material that I found at the thrift store here on campus.  All the pieces of material were already cut into shapes, so it was quite a challenge trying to piece them together, but I like the end result.  

Matt and I took our Christmas card picture the weekend before Thanksgiving.  It was freezing outside at Cherokee Park.  Matt was a good sport though.  We had to use the timer on my camera and set it up on a tripod to take the pictures for us.  It took us a while, but we finally got a picture we both liked.  The picture above is not the picture we used for our card, I didn't want to put that one on here only on our Christmas card.  

Ice Cream, Fairs, and Festivals Oh My!!

At this season in our lives, God has placed Luke 12:48 heavily on my heart.  "Everyone to whom much was given, of him much will be required, and from him to whom they entrusted much, they will demand the more."  We are both being given so much training while we are here at Southern Theological Seminary.  I truly feel like a sponge doing my best to be saturated with the good Godly teaching we are being influenced with on a daily basis.  Then, it dawned on me the other day, we are going to be very responsible to the congregation that God leads us to after graduation.  We have been given much, and then it will be our turn to give back.  That's definitely a scary thought, but I have all confidence that God will never give us more than we can handle, and that He is always there to strengthen us to the task He has laid before us.  Which brings another excellent passage to mind from Joshua 1:9b "Be strong and courageous. Do not be frightened, and do not be dismayed, for the Lord your God is with you wherever you go.”  What an excellent promise to hold on to wherever God has brought us to in our lives.  He will be with us wherever we go.  Once again I stand in absolute awe of what an awesome and mighty God we serve!!  We are definitely enjoying this season of intense training in our lives right now.  Which is good, because we have 3 years and 11 months more of it, not that anyone's counting down or anything. :)  Besides a busy schedule of studies, Matt and I find time to enjoy the Southern life here in Kentucky.  So, without further ado, here are the pics of what we've been up to since the end of July.  Enjoy!!

Ok, I had to start with this pic, because we have eaten more than our fair share of ice-cream this Summer. :) 

We experienced our first tow.  It was fun!!  It didn't cost us anything thanks to good Costco Insurance, and it ended up being the alternator which Matt was able to replace himself.  In the pouring Summer rain, it was a pretty interesting experience, but one that God blessed throughout.

Louisville is definitely known as a foodie Mecca.  So, we've been trying a lot of the local restaurants.  I loved the grilled cheese at Tom and Chee, but Matt didn't like it so much, probably due to the fact that he's really not a cheese lover. :)  I'm so blessed with a husband who took me to Tom & Chee anyways because he knows that I LOVE cheese.

See, we really don't just go to festivals and eat all the time, Matt does a lot of studying too.  

I just had to mention this.  I don't think I'll ever stop saying "you guys."  

That's what a tobacco plant looks like.  It kind of looks like seaweed to this CA girl.  There was a whole exhibit of all the varieties of tobacco at this year's KY state fair.

Ahh...now doesn't this State Fair exhibit look so healthy?  Do not be deceived though, this is not how all Southerner's truly eat....see the next picture and you will know what I mean.  :) 

Yep, you're seeing this right, Krispy Kreme Donuts on the grill!!

And here's what they're turning  those Krispy Kreme Donuts into.  Jelly filled sloppy joes, and donut burgers.  

I know...You're asking yourself, "who would eat such fattening weird food?"  Well, this picture says it all.   Hungry seminary students will! :)  Yep, Matt loved them, me no thank you.  :) 

Ok, this is the last fair picture, but isn't it just so creative?!!

For my birthday this year, I got the most amazing dutch oven ever!! Thanks to my wonderful husband and mother -in-law.  I've already cooked pork roast, and creamy chicken noodle soup in it and they both turned out amazing.  

One thing about being way out here in KY is that I don't get to go shopping with my mom for my birthday. :(  But, she sent me a JCPenny's gift card and I was able to buy a whole new outfit.  I was so excited because I have lost 25 lbs since we've come to KY and my clothes were making me look like an orphan.  It's so nice to have an outfit that actually fits now, plus I had fun picking it out.  

This lovely little Southern vegetable is called Kushaw and it's actually from the pumpkin family.  One of the men from the church in Turner's Station was always sharing produce from his garden with us, and one Sunday this is what we got.  They told me that pretty much anything that you make with pumpkin, you can use Kushaw instead.  So, I was pretty excited to try cooking with it.  I have to say, it made me feel kind of Southern. :)

Here's what it looks like on the inside.

And here's the finished product....Kushaw pie.  The verdict:  it tastes even better than pumpkin pie!!

Ok, we've discovered that late Summer and early Fall is definitely festival time here in Louisville.  Matt enjoyed at least 3 of these pina colada's at The World Fest in Down Town Louisville.  I know what you're thinking...no they didn't have alcohol in them, we're in Seminary. :) 

While at the World Fest, I thought I died and went to Heaven when I saw that they had Elote...which is Mexican corn on the cob.  Oh how it made me miss the little street vendor in San Jose, CA that I used to buy it from every Saturday while I was going to college in the Bay Area.  

And the festival's continue with The Bluegrass Festival.  The Kettle Corn was amazing!!

So, what's the best way to enjoy bluegrass music?  Flat on your back on the lawn according to Matt.  

Before the Bluegrass Festival was over, God decided to roll in some "music" of His own with a huge thunder storm and buckets of rain.  Needless to say, the rest of the festival was canceled for the night.  That was okay though, because Matt and I enjoyed watching and listening to God's "festival" much more anyways.  Not that bluegrass music is bad or anything, you just can't compare to perfection.  

At the Seminary's Fall Festival this year, the them was "The World's Fair 1904."  We had the best time ever.  We were so surprised to see that they even had boba.  We haven't seen boba since we left CA, where we used to get it every Thursday night after classes at CBU at Boba Loca.  The night ended with an amazing light show right on the face of the Seminary's library.  I'm so thankful that we attend a Seminary where they truly care about their students.  

Ok, this last picture is just so you guys don't think that all we eat is fair and festival food all the time. :)  We actually eat really healthy during the week thanks to a great local farmer's market that we go to just about every Saturday.  

Well, I hope you all enjoyed that picture journey of our lives since the end of July.  I just wanted to include a list of a few things that we would like you to join us in prayer for.

1. That God would lead us to a permanent church home here in Louisville.  Matt finished off the summer preaching at the small church in Turner's Station, KY.  After much prayer, he decided that he would not be able to have the time to adequately server the church there during the school year.
2. For Matt's studies here at Seminary.  Especially for time management.
3. For both of us to be a light and witness at our jobs.