4.

Loved this time with my precious husband so much.

A cabin.

A romantic steak dinner.

Love letters.

I love being married to him.

And I love what God is doing in us.

3.

Night Heron.

This place is quickly becoming a favorite.

 

 

2.

Jeff & I got our new iPhones today!!!

It only took four visits to the Verizon store, but it's finally in my hands!

So excited!!!

1.

I decided to pick this blog back up for two reasons.

First, because I want to feel beautiful again.

Somehow taking pictures of myself, seeing myself in different ways, helps.

Second, I want to choose gratitude again.

I want to see the goodness of God and the beauty of the life He has given me.

I will probably not post every day.

The point is more in counting blessings and keeping memories.

So on this day, there was a soft little afternoon shower, after which I rode my bicycle to bible study with the girls.

 

187.

well friends,

it looks like i'm going to have to let this blog go for awhile.

i'm shamefully behind anyway.

i am going to be in haiti for the next eight weeks and i don't think i can manage to keep this up.

but i am looking forward to starting again when i get home and sharing more photos with you.

it's sure been fun for me.

i hope it has been for you, too. ;)

it's been a stressful and emotional few weeks trying to get ready for this trip.

it seems like just when life gets intense and i need to be focused and collected, emotions start piling up and become hard to deal with.

and consequently i become hard to deal with.

but i think God has been allowing these things to break me down and open me up, preparing me like soil to receive every drop of grace He is ready to give me.

i am restless.

i am ready to experience God in a new way.

to meet Him in a new place.

and i know there is meaning to it all.

a little resurrection every time i fall.

i want to leave you with the beautiful words of my musical hero jon foreman.

"i am the sea on a moonless night,

calling, falling, slipping tides.

i am the leaky, dripping pipes

the endless aching drops of light.

i am the raindrop falling down,

always longing for the deeper ground.

i am the broken, breaking seas,

even my blood finds ways to bleed,

even the rivers ways to run,

even the rain to reach the sun,

even my thirsty streams.

even in my dreams,

i am restless,

looking for you.

i run like the ocean to find your shore.

i'm looking for you.

until the sea of glass we meet,

at last completed and complete,

the tide of tear and pain subside

laughter drinks them dry.

i'll be waiting,

anticipating,

all that i aim for,

what i was made for.

with every heartbeat

all of my blood bleeds

running inside me

looking for you,

looking for you."

if you're reading this, i love you and i'll miss you.

see you on the flip side. :)

- molly

186.

and this, my friends, is what two months worth of clothing in a carry on bag looks like.

i have soooo much more STUFF to pack!

185.

so my neck and back have been hurting almost constantly (and getting steadily worse) ever since the wreck.

this week i started going to the chiropractor to get things fixed and it has helped immensely.

but here's the thing.

when i'm laying on my face and he's cracking away on my back... i can't help laughing.

i mean giggling hysterically.

it's rather embarrassing.

and btw, i love andy griffith. ;)

184.

ahh, what a day.

definitely one of the most unique christmas days of my life.

we went to church and then ate lunch at my grandma's house.

we were planning to go to the theater to see war horse, however, our theater of choice was sold out.

so we went to plan b.

different theater, different town.

we got into the movie and all was well until a rather annoying individual came and sat next to/on top of me and spilled her pop on me.

the movie was good and afterward we were hungry, so we started looking for food.

buuuut... it's christmas day.

the only place open was burger king.

and there was a line a mile long.

and they were out of food.

on the hunt again we spotted an open sonic and pulled in.

after spending about half an hour trying to dictate our order to dad, he finally pushed the button.

and we waited...

and waited...

and i said "it's probably broken"

and we waited...

and it was broken. :)

so after moving to another station and more waiting we finally got our christmas dinner!!!

silly americans addicted to fast food.

i was one.

on christmas day.

183.

it just so happened that christmas eve was our family's christmas day this year.

we had a delicious brunch, played cards and hung out together.

then we adjourned to darcy's house for snacks, more cards and hanging.

and finally... after a mega delicious christmas dinner... we opened presents. :)

i got some fabulous gifts, including a vintage bicycle and a ukulele.

how fun is that?

182.

i spent the morning over at darcy's house making christmas yummies and playing with brennan while snow fell outside. :)

then went into town for a recital ben was playing in.

got some amazing christmas gifts from friends including some awesome OWL socks and... PUPPY CHOW!!!

MY FAV!!!

(and yes, it's already half gone)

;)

181.

made Christmas goodies all morning, then wrapped presents all afternoon.

topped the day off by going to see sherlock holmes with friends.

soooo good!!!

good day.

and it's starting to feel like Christmas. :)

180.

spent the afternoon with nellie, planning and making lists for haiti.

then played frisbee and i just have to say it was COOOLD!!!

then went caroling, followed by hangout at the wickham's and... ultimate spoons.

i've banned myself from playing spoons because i get too violent. ;)

but i can still watch. :)

179.

so i finally went to bed at about 2am and got up at 6:30 to drive an hour to work.

so i was pretty tired all day.

but i kind of like driving with the sunrise. :)

178.

this evening i went out on the town with some friends.

we had a nice dinner and then went to see the trans siberian orchestra.

it was amazing!

they do an incredible show!

crashed at the wickham's house and slept through ocean's eleven.

177.

tonight we decorated our Christmas tree, listened to Christmas tunes, drank egg nog and at cookies.

i'm trying to get into the spirit, i really am. ;)

i love this family. :)

176.

alright, i told you i had a good excuse for missing some pictures.

sunday night we had a sort of talent show/Christmas party at our church.

ben and i were on our way home at about 10:30 and ben was driving.

apparently he just dozed off for a second and the car started going into the ditch.

i yelled at him and grabbed the wheel which sent us flying toward the opposite ditch.

bad idea.

we went up the embankment, went airborne and rolled once or twice into an open field.

the whole thing felt like a dream and i only remember closing my eyes and screaming through the whole thing, so i'm not exactly sure what happened.

when i opened my eyes we were thankfully right-side-up, ben had blood running down the side of his face, my left shoe was gone and my phone was nowhere to be found.

none of our doors would open, but the windshield was gone, so we climbed out of the car to go get help.

we realized we were about 3/4 of a mile up the road from where some friends of our live, so we walked to their house and got them out of bed.

we didn't know the extent ben's injuries so the ambulance came and took him to the ER where they did a CT scan.

everything checked out fine and they released him around 2am.

i only have a few scrapes and bruises and a very, very sore neck.

we are so very grateful that things didn't turn out worse!

God is so good!

He even protected our guitars that were in the trunk and He allowed my phone to be recovered too!

i feel drained, but blessed. :)

175.

wow!

i have a whole weeks worth of pictures to catch up on.

i did miss a couple days, but i have a good excuse which i will explain later.

i can hardly remember last saturday! ;)

oh yes, it was moving day for darcy and jason and brennan.

i didn't get to help with it much, but it's soooo exciting to see their beautiful new house coming together!

then i went to my friend cori's birthday party.

it was a dance party, oh yeah!

we did ecd, swing, line, waltz, and anything we happened to make up on the spur of the moment. ;)

i just love dancing!

also played a little rummy and had some good conversations.

parties are the best.

174.

today was random photo friday (ahem, a weekly holiday i invented), so i decided to introduce the world to my cousin steve who lives in my office.

other than that it was the cooooold kind of a day that makes me want to hibernate.

173.

today i went to town with a mission.

to get aaallll my christmas shopping done in ONE trip!

aaaannnnddd i all but succeeded with only two gifts left to buy.

win!

172.

having deep chats when i should be learning creole...

i want to have a good base of creole knowledge before i go to haiti in january.

it's a pretty funky language.

pa kapab tann haiti! :)