Author Archives: Chase & Britt
thankful
As I am sitting here listening to Christmas music and watching my family finish up these fun Christmas ornaments by kojodesigns… I am reminded that I have much to be thankful for…. to name a few…
- A gracious Savior who renews my spirit, loves me unconditionally, & saved me from despair
- Great family who enjoys eating, talking, cooking & crafting 🙂
- A wonderful husband who loves me more each day
- Sweet friends who inspire me to love Jesus more
- The ability, desire, funds and support to move overseas in January
- A place to rest our heads on our travels & great food along the way
- Snow that fell this morning (wasn’t sure if I was going to get to see snow this winter or not…)
Hope you all had a blessed thanksgiving and quality time with friends & family. I am thankful for you!
Happy Turkey Day!
(I made this in Brooke’s Pre-K class last week- it was fun to be a kid again! ha)
-ings
My good friend Jord and her sister have an amazing craft blog and on Saturdays they do, “-ings” to let their readers know what they have been up to! I thought it was a great idea and thought I would try it out tonight…here it goes…
1. driving… we have driven over 4500 miles since September 30th! and we will continue to put on the miles till we leave in January!
our faithful CRV!
2. visiting… we have been in Oklahoma this weekend visiting Chase’s grandparents, aunts, uncles, and my brother. It has been such a blessing that we have had the time to spend quality time with family.
Tulsa with Papa & Joy
at the Tech game with Shawn!
3. eating… I feel like all we have done lately is EAT! Being “on the road” doesn’t exactly let you eat healthy food or allow for exercise… one day this will happen again for us! The picture below is of us at Coney Island in Tulsa– I have heard about this place since Chase and I started dating… his family loves this place. It was a super cute/old fashioned place. They serve mini-hot dogs with chili & cheese (mustard & onions if you want it) – if you get 3, you get a free coke! I must say they were pretty good, however, I should have NEVER gotten 3– I am still full!
the Coney Island
p.s. chase was in heaven… it was fun to see him so excited about them!
a mcgough halloween!!
This year we had our first ever McGough family Halloween party! Glenda and I had so much fun looking though the Martha Stewart Halloween magazine for ideas and shopping at Target & Party City. I got to do lots of crafts which I have been missing since we have been on the road- so my heart was happy!
happy halloween! what did you all do?
Party Activities:
- “Best Costume” contest: winner– Hannah as a Texas Ranger Fan
- Pumpkin Patch Coloring contest: winner- Colin with a very creative, colorful pumpkin
- Watching of the first game of the World Series: Rangers vs. Giants (I am sure you can guess who we were all cheering for?!)
The food:
- Witches Brew= drinks (orange Sunkist for the kids- very Halloween)
- Chili= a McGough Halloween tradition
- Ghoulish Dippers= chips & fritos for the chili & queso
- Gooey Goblins= apples and caramel
- Creep Cakes= chocolate cupcakes with candy corn & sprinkles
- Boo-nilla Shakes= vanilla shakes with whip cream
Decor:
- dry ice with witches kettle
- spiders with cob webs
- pumpkins
- halloween sign
- bats
- ghosts made out of white balloons with green glow sticks in them
- candy
- goody bags with bats & a moon on them for the kids with halloween socks, candy, and tattoos
on the road… again…
Sorry our posts have been far and few between. We have been on the road for a month now. We started this journey on September 30th and now it is October 30th- hard to believe!
Since I am so far behind on my posts I am going to post a picture from each place we have been over the past month. We have been living out of our suit cases and doing laundry whenever we are in a place for more than 2 days- I thought I would be more sick of it by now, but thankfully I am not. We are currently in Orlando for some training and the first thing I did was unpack! It felt so good to put things in drawers- its the small things in life that make me happy these days! ha
Hope you enjoy the pics. Know that we are doing great and are finding strength in the Lord in our travels. Each mile has been a blessing. Thanks to all of you for letting us crash at your place and for feeding us! We love you all and are thankful for you.
Denver with my Aunt, Uncle & cousins
Downtown Denver to see Chase's Aunt & cousins
more in Denver! Kirsti, Adam, Burke, Piper Jane (Karla & Mark- not pictured)
O'Malley's Steak Pub for Chase's birthday with new friends! (Chase got to grill his own steak here-- he loved.it)
Marcy & her boyfriend "Toast" met us at the steak pub
New Belgium Brewery in Ft. Collins for Chase's bday!
Great Bed and Breakfast in Ft. Collins with Chase for a little R&R!
We drove to Santa Fe after Ft. Collins to see my aunts, dad, Linda and cousins- did not get a picture!! But it was great to see everyone.
Lubbock for a joint b-day party for these boys!
San Angelo to visit Anja & Josh!
Georgetown to visit Gary & Darlene
New Braunfels to see Mo & Tony! Chase got to go fishing on this trip & got one!
Austin to see Tom, Sally & Chris
Houston to see Amy & Geoff
Breakfast in Houston with Cary!
In Dallas we got to see Bon Bon!
Our travels are still continuing… will post more later! Hope you all are doing well.
beautiful Colorado #1
Chase & I just got back from a 2,155 mile trip to New Mexico, Colorado and back to Texas! It was the start of all our travels over the next 3 months.
We spent 2 weeks in Colorado Springs (with a trip to Denver in between- post on this later) at a language acquisition training course. It was a course that taught us different techniques on how to learn another language. I enjoyed the course for a few reasons: the instructors were great (have an amazing life that God used in mighty ways), the people we met were super encouraging, and I am now actually excited about learning Arabic! For a while now I have been excited about the idea of going back to school and being able to do it with Chase, but not so excited about actually learning Arabic- when I thought about it, it seemed too difficult and almost impossible, however, after this course I have discovered that it IS in fact possible and that I am super excited about learning it. It still isn’t going to be easy and I am sure there will be lots of tears, but I hope there will be more laughter than crying and that whenever I get discouraged I hope that I can look back at this past two weeks and remember that I can do.
Here are some pictures from the gorgeous fall that was already in Colorado– which I am missing now that we are back in Texas.
more pictures & stories from our trip to come…
outside our training facility
Garden of the gods.. always have to "get our guns up!"
gorgeous FALL colors & leaves
balloons!!
Chase and I got to go to the annual Balloon Fiesta in Albuquerque again this year with my family and our friends, the Remkes. (check out their website… Jord took some great pics of the balloons!) There is something magical to see all the different colored and shaped balloons hovering over the city and in front of the mountains.
I took Kead & Sayla swimming in our hot tub Friday afternoon! It was so fun! They loved the jets and swimming in just their panties!
Kead found a worm and LOVED it!
Sayla kept saying, “Down sissy, down!” – she was not a huge fan of the worm.
Thanks for the great weekend family!! We love you! Glad we got to spend the weekend with you.
Glad we got to do another balloon fiesta with you guys! Next year we will have to find one overseas somewhere… and pretend like it is fall!
new beginnings…
So, our house is officially on the market…
We have spent the past week packing boxes, making tons of piles (keep, take, throw-away, give away..) taking things off walls, touching up paint, deep cleaning, etc… It has been quite the week. We had tons of great help from our wonderful parents (thanks mom, Glenda, & Cecil- we love & appreciate all of you more than you know!). I am not gonna lie the past week was kind of a blur- it was emotionally, physically, & mentally exhausting. But at the same time I am super thankful that we did it now and didn’t wait until December! Now we can just enjoy our time in Lubbock with friends & not have to be packing and cleaning. I can’t tell you what a blessing that will be.
I have mixed emotions about the house… it is sad and exciting. Sad because we got engaged in the backyard, we had many of TECH victory bonfires in the backyard (which included burning down a chair once! ha– good times college was), it was our first house together, we hosted our small group with our church for over a year in our living room… And exciting, because it means that our “new beginnings” have officially started. It feels like we have been talking about, praying about, and dreaming about this move since we started dating and it is actually really happening now… the “for sale” sign makes it all the more real.
Our hearts are happy and content and excited for what is to come. Even though we will miss Lubbock, our house, our friends & our family dearly, our hearts are happy and content and excited for what is it come. Our friends, the Remkes told us one night (when I was super sad about leaving Lubbock) that if it isn’t hard to leave somewhere than you didn’t do life well there. So I guess the Lord blessed us with a good life in Lubbock so I will praise His name for that!
After a sweet early morning walk with Paige.
mixed emotions! 🙂 🙁
here's to new beginnings!
So……
McGough…..(magoo)
Do you remember the movie liar liar? There’s a line in the movie where Jim Carey is talking about his ex-wife’s boyfriend (to his wife):
Jim Carey: “…he’s just soooo…”
Wife: “…magoo..?”
When I heard that, I was in total bewilderment. What does that even mean?
But, it never fails, someone whips the phrase out when they learn my name with a chuckle as if it is something that I naturally identify with. Huh? Are you comparing me to an old cartoon man? Did you see a cane in my hand? Do I look like I am all bent over from a bad scoliosis episode?
Maybe there are some similarities though. Besides that fact that we pronounce our names similarly, us McGough’s do tend to get ourselves into some interesting situations. AND somehow things happen to work out.
There are some other characteristics. We have a high aptitude for saying the wrong thing at the wrong time. For example, my lovely wife (who is developing the family trait quite well after two years of marriage) pointed at a stain on my shirt after our 2 year anniversary dinner and said, “Aww babe,…your such a mistake (messy).” Thanks, babe. Love you too.
I, on other hand, am much more natural. My intentions are more thought through. I once gave a pump up speech to my high school football team during half time. We were losing 56-0 at the half to Southlake Carrol. In my speech, I compared us to the Alamo, and that the historical Gold Smith Stadium was our Alamo. Crickets. It did not have the effect that I had envisioned in my head. Whenever I am home, my friends tell me to “remember the Alamo.” Awesome.
So, this is us. We are loud. We say and do quirky things. We drool (me), we are clumsy, we lose EVERYTHING, drop EVERYTHING, can get lost in our own house, are sometimes confused between dreams and reality (Britt), and are completely jovial/unaware in the whole process. This is who we are.
Moving overseas should be interesting.
fall
wishing it would be fall…
It has continued to be in the upper 80s-mid-90s here in the LBK. We are about to move somewhere that stays pretty warm all year long (70s in the winter) and REALLY hot in the summer (130 degrees!). Therefore, I would love it if we could enjoy some cooler weather here until we go. For now, I guess I just get to enjoy our house decorated for fall and the beautiful flowers from Chase (pictured above)
I love fall for that following reasons:
- the smells… pumpkin, cinnamon, mulled spices, fire pits, etc
- the weather…
- the clothes… I love wearing long sleeves & scarfs
- college football… tech is 0-2 so far with a BIG game against UT this weekend!
- thanksgiving… the food & time with family
- drinks at starbucks… pumpkin spice lattes, caramel apple spice cider
- hot chai tea sounds attractive… one of my favorite drinks
- that you don’t have to use the AC or the heater… therefore you have cheaper electric bills!
- the colors… browns, reds, oranges, yellows… what my house is decorated in year round
Hope you all are enjoying your “fall” so far! We have only 3 weeks left in Lubbock till we are on the road for a while… which has made my heart sad lately. I am trying to trust in the Lord and His soverignty and perfect timing.
Look for a post on “Things we want to do in Lubbock before we Leave” soon!
confession
"old school" FRIENDS
I have to admit to you all that Chase and I have become obsessed, well addicted, to watching the FREINDS dvds. We just love them! We started at season one and are now at season nine. We put them in and just laugh for hours. I think part of it is for rest and relaxation and part of it is because we are really just escaping from everything that we HAVE to do, NEED to do, SHOULD do and WILL be doing…. does anyone else do this or feel the same way?
We know that there are more productive things we can do with our evenings- pray that we can find the balance and discern when to watch and when not to.
