The McMillen Family

One year ago, today, we met a sweet little boy sitting in the same small waiting room as us with his father.  Justin had just finished signing his life over to me, literally, and we had moved up to the next waiting room for the rest of the day’s procedures.  From one waiting room to the next and then back to this one.   A sentence or two into the small talk, the father replied, “You aren’t from around here, are you ?”  I’ll have to say, the northerners catch on fast.  A few sentences into most conversations returned the usual reply, “Where are you from?”  Or my personal favorite, “What part of the South are you from?”  The conversation continued as Justin commented on the little boy’s balloon, the boy never said anything much.  The father replied, “ Tell him, you have to be real brave to get a balloon.”  I can’t imagine the fear going through either of their minds, but knowing the procedure was the same for this 3 year old little boy was overwhelming even just to me.   I don’t remember

One year ago, today on October 10 – Justin and I woke up to a beautiful crisp morning in Boston.  We had arrived early that morning around 12:15am, and spent our first of many nights at the Holiday Inn.  I still remember how heavy my heart felt and yet the peace that the Lord provided.  I remember trying to enjoy sight-seeing and making certain that every moment was well spent and memorized!  We started the morning with showing the cab driver, the map!  That’s not usually the best thing to do when you are going to tourist attractions in the Boston Harbor.   Is it just me or should he know where that it is?  Nevertheless, we arrived safely and the horn on the car was not wasted to say the least.  We walked more than we probably should have considering the circumstances, but enjoyed the day just the same.  We saw the Harbor, a beautiful rose garden, the USS Constitution, and ate a big lobster (or Justin did!). Stay tuned for post 2 in series, One year ago today . . .

Our last post (which was a month ago) begins our story for today.  Over the last few weeks Justin and I have spent quite a few nights over the grill.  It has been a blast!  We have grilled for all of the Mississippi State games, enjoying each of them with yummy food served up on our MSU platter (which I painted in Hilton Head ).  Jerk Chicken – so good! We have had jerk chicken and hot wing chicken.  Both have been delicious.  Paired with sweet potato fries that are tossed with Tony’s.     Our latest was a Boston Butt which we smoked yesterday.  It took all day and we have some perfecting to do, but it tasted good!   I only have the before picture  (it was way too late when it finished cooking to worry about a picture . . .) Moving on to growing, Justin and I, as most of you know, do a little gardening each year.  We tried potatoes for the first time this year and have enjoyed them thoroughly.  The white potatoes came in around the same time as the peas, and we put a few up in