Overwhelmed!

 Friends, I am so overwhelmed at the beautiful responses! Its funny how there were no comments listed here yesterday, but the loving texts and Facebook posts absolutely made my day! Thank you all for your support and friendship during this difficult time.  I think I can speak for my family when I say we are so blessed and thankful for the friends and family that really reach out to us.
THANK YOU!!! 
I decided to bless you all with some updated pictures. Hah! Above is Justin and I before a date night recently.  He is so good about giving us a weekly date night, we always have a blast! I love him so much it hurts.  Below is my sweet sweet Shelby! (People that don't know me, she is not my child...even though sometimes it feels like it!) She brings me so much joy... and like I tell everyone, she is giving me unrealistic expectations about children! She hardly ever fusses, is a good eater, and giggles constantly! She is so smart, loves books and loves to clap. I think Justin and I decided that if we were guaranteed our first child would be like her... we would have one tomorrow! But ah, no guarantees in life, so I think we are going to stick to the 5 year plan... :) which means we've got one year down, possibly four to go.

 

have a lovely Thursday my friends, a tearful (full of joy) post will come this weekend!

warmly,

molly

One Thousand Gifts

I am really going to try and be better at this, I swear! Here is a brief update:

On July 19, we received a phone call that would change our lives temporarily.  My father-in-law, Paul, had gone to the doctor to get a lump in his neck checked out.  They did a biopsy, and found that he had 2 more lumps and that they were cancerous.  After more tests, they found that the cancer was located in his left tonsil and had spread to his lymph nodes. Thankfully it had not reached the status of Lymphoma, but was still full-blown cancer and would need to start treatment immediately.  The prognosis is good, but the treatment is absolutely brutal.  The number one thing I have learned about cancer is that it is an hour-by-hour process.  His health varies throughout the day.
We wanted so badly to be there with our family that day, and it really hit us hard that not living near family really, for lack of a better word, sucks.  We had always talked about settling in Greensboro one day, but that day had come.  This was the push that we really needed to go on ahead and get there.  God since then has opened door after door to get us there. 

Sadly, I will be leaving sweet Shelby and the Carpenters (Allie Carpenter of The Saturday Housewife), when she turns a year old and starts day care.  Justin has a great opportunity with Syngenta brewing up, and we are simply waiting on that call for his formal job offer. We have to be ready to go at any moment! The hardest part of all of this is leaving our beloved Summit Church.  WE LOVE SUMMIT.  More than I have ever loved any church, ever.  Few times in my life have I had the opportunity to play with such talented musicians.  However, God is seriously at work....The Summit Church has a brand new church plant in Greensboro which we are feeling led to be a part of! I am so blessed and happy to be serving a God who takes care of the details.

There is something else I am going to start doing, which will hopefully enable me to write more (gosh I miss it)....GOALS!
Here are my September Goals (which I realize it's already half over but oh well)
1. Run 2-3 miles per day instead of every other day (my new kicks really help!)
2. Lift weights 2-3 times per week to supplement cardio
3. Finish reading One Thousand Gifts
4. Start packing up the apartment
5. Have a Pumpkin Spice Latte on the first day of Autumn!
6. Start reading The Hobbit so I can actually say I've read it and go see the movie

So there we go. I have so many things to be thankful for. The book One Thousand Gifts has taught me that living in "eucharisto" is absolutely essential to the Christian life and living in reverence to God. It is the source of complete Joy! I now understand how to achieve this "joy joy joy joy down in my heart".  The root word of "eucharisto" is "charis" which means "grace". God's grace. Understanding grace, how can we not live in complete thanksgiving? The root word of "charis" is "chara" which means "joy". THERE it is. The literal root of grace and thanksgiving is Joy! Start naming what you are thankful for today and not just one day of the year.

in Jesus name,

Molly

SO, readers, if there in fact are readers....

I am terrible at blogging. Actually, that's not true, I love writing, but this past year has been so full of ups and downs that I couldn't even keep track or get away long enough to tell everyone about it! Maybe only a few of my close friends know the things I've gone through in the last year, and now I can share it here without shame or holding back.

Fact: Being married is by far the most incredible experience in life! If I didn't have Justin by my side, I swear I would probably go nuts and be emotional/irrational.  I've never met someone who is so grounded and can teach me to calm down while fighting, fighting FAIR, and encouraging me in everything I jump into. Justin, I love you with every fiber of my being and have enjoyed every minute of our marriage thus far. Happy Anniversary, beloved.

On August 15, I stepped on the scale and stepped off in shock.  I looked at myself and cried.  Not that I was terribly overweight, I just hadn't seen a number like that in months.  I worked so hard to fit into my wedding dress the year before and actually hit a number UNDER my goal weight for the big day.  Needless to say the dress fit me PERFECTLY and it is now my goal to be able to fit into the dress every year on April 10.  I decided it was time to really being taking care of myself and my husband, so I start a daily exercise regime and eating incredibly healthy meals. I knew nothing about nutrition, so I frequently consulted my friend Jared about such matters. Great friend, great advice.  To motivate myself, I signed up for my first 5k on Thanksgiving and ran it in 26:32! Not bad for my first! I then signed up for my second and ran it is 24:39! I was working my butt off and then decided to go big and run a HALF marathon.  Was I crazy? Yes.  I have severe asthma and am on lung steroids for such.  Advair is usually prescribed to older patients with COPD. I don't have COPD, but Asthma is something I've struggled with since first grade, so I've known my limitations with exercise and being outside....seeing as it is induced by exercise and allergies. I was definitely that kid with all the health issues!  After crossing the finish line of the first 5k, it was the most exhilarating feeling in the world! I had my husband at the finish line there to document my feat, and i received a big hug and a banana.

The half marathon was a different story.  I began training on January 1 of this year, making the race my NY resolution. (My other resolution was to quit my current nannying job, which if you know me, you know how running kept me sane because it was so awful).  As I increased my weekly mileage, my weight increased about 2 lbs. per month.  Now, up until this point I had lost 17 pounds and was keeping it off...so I was very confused as to how running more would make me gain weight! I did extensive amounts of research and crying to Justin about it.  I became very discouraged, no matter that I was running 10 miles+ per weekend.  I wasn't focusing on my accomplishments, I was focusing on eating raw foods and running myself to death.  There was nothing that was going to stand in my way of finishing that race and telling asthma to go to hades.  But let me tell you, finishing that race is in the top moments of my life!! I RAN 13.1 MILES IN 2 HOURS! I mean come on! Several people have told me to write my story and send it in to Ellen! Which I still may do. This is not the full story, but the highlights. SO currently, I am back at the weight in which is started, which sucks, but I have done something I could have never done before I started! (Yes people, most of the weight I gained was muscle, but the soft parts are not. so there)

Recovering has been/ was a very hard process. I went uninjured, however I was unable to exercise daily for about 3 weeks. (One of those weeks I was in Mexico for our anniversary). The rule of thumb is to take a day off for every mile you ran. So 2 weeks were spent, on my butt, focusing on nutrition and letting my body recover. I am now doing the reverse taper method and starting an exercise regime like I did when I first started this whole thing.  I've got a 5k on June 22 in Greensboro, and my father-in-law is talking a lot of smack about beating me, so my rear is in gear!! I am shooting for a time of 24 minutes!

This is probably enough writing for today, but I will close in saying that I now have a job that I ADORE, a God who is bigger than me and has a plan for my life, the world's BEST husband, family that I wouldn't trade in for anything, and new friends.  Elizabeth and Hillary, I hate that you are leaving but the Lord goes with you! I will miss you tremendously.

ta ta for now!