this blog is my favourite right now. it is called Moleskinerie: Legends and Stories. it is all things Moleskine. And as many of you know i have used Moleskine for years…since i was 16, so 8 years to be exact. i love my Moleskine…and i love them. they have documented my life…the ups and downs for 8 years.

see…look

so…go over to Moleskinerie, click around a bit.

i hope you like it as much as me.

Do you like Moleskines? oh, and what is the favourite blog you are reading right now?

Tomorrow also means that Chad and I have been married for 700 Days. (Our 2 year anniversary is April 5th)

Facebook reminded us of this.

700 Days. It seems like such a long time. Yet it has flown by.

700 Days = 16800 hours
700 Days = 1008000 minutes
700 Days = 60480000 seconds

together.

[oh and this is what i did to do the math]

You should do the math of something and share it here!

Weary from our cross country trek to be welcomed here by the staff and friends of Whipple Creek.

We have been working to get our house set up the way we want it.  here is a pic from the outside.

It is super cute! Cant wait to start gardening and being at home.

Thats all ive got right now. We are going to Portland this afternoon so we must get going to get ready!

24 hours after we intended on leaving Birmingham. But that is life.

So we loaded our lives into a U-Pack Relo Cube as well as a small U-Haul trailer and we are driving the country.

We stopped at a Hotel in Paducha Kentucky…probably one of the most comfortable beds i have ever slept in…or maybe it is that we are so tired. ;)

so now we have 16 hours to drive to Colorado Springs….but we are not in a hurry.

if you want to follow our trip i would recommend following me on twitter here.

we are so grateful for everyone who came to our party and all those that we got to see before we left….our lives are richer because of our friends…so thank you.

we are so excited about this next step…but for now we are taking a week of a rest and then will hit the ground running at Whipple Creek.

we would appreciate your prayers for safe travels as well as an all around good time.  love yall and have enjoyed and cant wait to do life with ya!

Our next 2 weeks will be filled with packing, packing and more packing. Work and then precious moments with friends we will miss.

I have to be honest in saying that while i was packing the other day i came across a note from a friend that made me cry. She is younger than i am, in high school in fact. But i realized that by moving away i would miss seeing her grow up through her High School days and graduate.

This last week and a half is going to be hard to get through. Knowing that it will be lasts all over the place. There will probably be tears, you know, since i cry now, and happy moments.

My goal is to not let my sadness get in the way and hurt the precious moments that are celebrating the years of friendships.

But the truth is….

Moving is hard.
Saying goodbye Sucks.

But i know Chad and i are taking a step of faith and growing together…and that excites me.

So excuse the absence the next few weeks. I will update as much as i can…without internet and on the road. ;)

But when i return and my life is a little more normal you will get to hear of the new adventures of Chad and Lynse. I cant wait!!

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Dark night, dark blood carrying with it a river of rage that had brought her to this point. And the horror of it suddenly shone with the clarity of her face in the mirror as she reached down for the razor blade. She always kept a constant supply of loose blades for when the rage took over. The cutting helps relieve the tension, she says to herself in a reassuring voice. I’m not addicted, I don’t have to do it, I just do.

She lives on the street in San Franscisco, it gets cold at night. She doesn’t know where her home is, she doesn’t have a home. Every passing day she is more mad at herself for where he life is, or isn’t in her case. She holds so much rage and pain in her sixteen year old being. People say singing or writing is their therapy but it is really their “release” from a “free” world where everything is dictated. She sees drugs, alcohol and citing as her way out of a life she dreams of leaving everyday.

The blade is bone chilling as she drags it across her stomach as she does each time. She stops and sits in silence for a minute or so, and waits. She is waiting for the pride inside of her to die and the courage to rage so she can have the guts to push hard enough to break the skin. You would think after two years of cutting it would e no problem, not for her, it’s more like a ritual. In this ritual she is waiting for the pride to die so she can humble herself before her “god” an refuge of cutting. She places cutting before anything, before life, love and herself. The pain that is carried with cutting, pain on the outside is no match for the pain that she feels inside, the void of something she has never felt for herself.

She never cuts deep enough to do more than hurt the skin, she is too afraid. She doesn’t know that cutting the outside is killing her on the inside. So many people care that she doesn’t know about. Since she left home when she was thirteen she has thought parents have no care in the world. They only think about themselves.

As she presses the blade a surge of pain jets through her body giving her a “supernatural” feeling, if she even believes in anything spiritual. It feels so good. How could other people not get how good it feels? The blood trickles down her stomach and pools into her bellybutton. It’s like she has left her body. Like she is sitting on the stairs, watching herself. She knows that it hurts but not knowing what else to do. Cutting is her way out of a boring life into a life less ordinary. A life not too many sixteen year olds lead. Cutting to the world is wrong, it’s morbid and people that do it deserve to be locked up and need only counseling.

But to her cutting is all she has to survive the nothingness her life is.

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As I read this I was taken back to when I was 16. And when all of those feelings and emotions were true to me. I was a little girl trying so hard to get caught. To be found out so I wouldn’t have to live in silence.

It makes me wonder how many other people are out there just wanting their addictions to be found out so the silence can be broken.

When we moved in it was a house….well, actually apartment, but regardless…it had white walls, plain everything…nothing on the walls, no decoration. But it was the first 2 years of our life together. and over those 2 years it became a home. the refuge. it became comfortable. the place we wanted to go at the end of a long and frustrating day.

but as we take things off the walls and the character of our home gets packed into cardboard boxes it becomes a house.

see, this is what i mean…

This was taken like 2 weeks ago…

and this was last night….

the process has begun…

how long did it take for your house to become a home?

well, we have almost been married for 2 years and i have realized that i have not shared any of our pictures….

so, for those of you who want to see them here is a video. The pictures were done by the incredible Zach and Jody Gray with Gray Photography. If you are looking for a wedding photographer i would highly recommend them. They made this nifty little video for us. And almost 2 years after the wedding i am still glad i went with them…and i love my pics. (sorry for the promo)

So here it is….

I dont know that i have felt this full on the inside in a very long time. it is like a beautiful collision of the music in my ears, the smells and people around me but i am totally satisfied in life at this point in time.

I have a best friend that i get to live with and spend the rest of my life with. i have an incredible manager and fellow partners alongside me at Starbucks. I have a dog that loves me no matter if i had a good or bad day…he is happy to see me. my best friend and i are about to embark on the biggest journey of our lives together…and we are together.

It took a huge step to resign from my other job….one that was hard…but one that i dont think i will ever regret.

You may think i am “just serving coffee” or “working in food service” but for me it makes me happy. my legs on the other hand arent as “happy.”

i am satisfied and content. right now.

Are you? if not what would it take?

Now, i dont really know how to cook or bake. Most times i stumble my way through a recipe…but i am convinced that the more i do it the better i will get.

Friday when i went to pick Chad up from work he introduced me to one of the parents of a child he hangs with at the Y (he works at the YMCA…nothing creepy) and she writes for Southern Living and does this. She told me that her major goals was to come up with things that have minimal ingredients and that can be done quickly and the kicker….VERY LITTLE CLEAN UP. Which i am all about.

She gave me a quick crock pot recipe for Pulled Pork…you know, like if you go to a BBQ restaurant and get a pulled pork sandwich…ya, i can now do that. And if you know me well you know that i love BBQ and crave it and Mexican pretty much weekly.

This recipe is super easy….

1. a pork tenderloin
2. a can of chicken broth
3. one onion sliced
4. salt and pepper

This is what mine looked like going in….

here is when it started smelling so good and i wanted it right then…but it was not done….

put all that in a crock pot on high for 4-6 hrs. Then take it out and with two forks begin shredding….SUPER EASY! it practically falls apart.

once shredded you can put it on a salad, baked potato or a bun…or alone, and enjoy!  (oh, and for the record, no, my arms are not that hairy…that is Chad helping me.)

people…it was so easy and so good. maybe i can do this whole cooking thing…seems easy enough…follow the directions.

Do you cook?  What is your easiest favourite recipe?