a gift.

written a few weeks ago...

It has been a long time. Too long, in fact. As I lapse in my commitment to spend time with God each day, I feel further from His presence. I cannot stress enough the importance of intimacy w/our God. He longs to meet with us. I know this not only because the Word tells me so, but also because I can feel it. For two weeks I met with God regularly. in those two weeks, I could feel the Holy Spirit giving me strength, peace, wisdom. Then I found myself busy with trying to get the house ready to put up for sale and I started to spend my spare time selfishly. Over the course of these last few days I've been worn down and burdened by the changes to come. I've fretted and complained about almost every obstacle in my way- from the customers at Starbucks to my friends and family. Wednesday the Holy Spirit gave me some insight and wisdom to share with my junior high girls (ironically enough, it had to do with this very issue) at Old Union, which I was incredibly thankful for, but beyond that I've been without. The happy ending to this story, though, ends with grace. A God who forgives and sanctifies. A God who welcomes back His prodigal child and prepares a feast for her. A God willing to love the unlovely.

some journal entries are dying to fly out of your head and onto a piece of paper. i don't have the discipline to journal everyday, but every once in awhile i get the urge and find later that it was truly therapeutic. the day i wrote this i remember that i started to sit down to read my bible after several days of not doing so.... i felt so empty and broken and sad that i'd yet again neglected my relationship with God. (i feel this depression comes once you've made an attempt of spending real time with Jesus on a daily basis for a long period of time and then lapse into lazy, old, and selfish habits.) near the end of my entry, God reminded me who He really is, which makes up for who I really am. i think this shows at the end. i had no intention of ending on a positive note, but that is the gift that God gave me.

my little mvp

second cutest dog ever:

kingsley

first cutest dog ever:

hehe. i win ;)

eclipse.

i am reading new moon for the 3rd time.

i finished twilight again while i was visiting nyc. i definitely loved reading it more than the first time, but not more than the second. i find myself lingering on little parts this time. small details like jasper putting his hand on the small of bella's back as he walks her through the airport. the way the cullen family just scoops bella up into their arms when they need to get her somewhere. of course we all appreciate edward's character. but the cullens are something special... they are the perfect in laws :)

did you know that jacob and isabella were the top baby names of 2009?! so even though bella will be the new "lindsay" of my graduating class, i don't care. my first daughter (if i have one i get to name) will still be bella!

i am currently trying to read new moon and eclipse so i get the timing right for the eclipse movie. i saw twilight for the first time when i was first reading through eclipse. with the books so fresh in my mind i absolutely beside myself with anticipation. with new moon the movie, i had re read the entire series and then had a month or two to wait. i wasn't as excited :/ this time around, i want to be like a junkie looking for a fix!! these books are so fantastic... i hope one day to have a little bella that i can share them with!

i am so lame!!!! :)

now... this i am ecstatic for!

i love that a dollar from each book sold will be donated to the red cross for their relief efforts in Haiti and Chile. woop!! love me some stephenie meyer!!

i'm home!!

yay, it's good to be back!! while i really enjoyed my time in new york, a huge part of me missed my midwest. new york definitely is a different place, with different manners and a different pace. i won't complain, but the best illustration i can give you is this:

on the shuttle after our delta flight to the laguardia airport, plenty of women were standing while plenty of men were sitting. no one gave up their seat. also, there wasn't any conversing. most people fiddled on their cell phones and avoided all possible eye contact.

on the shuttle after our flight home to indianapolis international airport, a man gave up his seat so that mikie and i could have one instead. people made eye contact, smiled, and spoke to each other. mikie had a conversation with a woman and her daughters from brownsburg. a man joked about bumping his head. a woman had a discussion about flight delays and additional charges.

most new yorkers were great, especially the man who helped us at butter lane and the woman who served us for brunch on sunday who wished mikie a happy mothers day 3 times :) but overall, i missed my midwest.

so i will start by posting pictures of alicia's view. i didn't take a ton of pictures and sorry, hannah, i'm not sure i have anything extraordinarily exciting to share with you aside from all my food stories.

alicia has an incredible view. it's a studio on the 7th floor of her building and she said the view is something she truly will miss once she moves to japan.

empire state building

the first night we were there we went to red mango !!! i had blueberry frozen yogurt, with mangoes and raspberries.

our first full day we were there we went to lunch at caracas arepa bar, which is a venezuelan place. i'd never had venezuelan food before, but it was pretty good! we all had an arepa, which is hard to describe. it's made out of a pita-like type of bread, only it's made from corn so it has a very strong corn flavor. it's sort of spongy and filled with all sorts of stuff. i had the "la mulata" arepa, which was filled with fried plantains (naners... that was the best part!), black beans, red peppers, jalapenos, and some sort of white cheese. this place also served some of the absolute best guacamole i've ever had! the chips that came with it were actually a sort of dried plantain... absolutely phenomenal! here's a picture of what an arepa looks like:

source

kind of a strange little guy, but very good nonetheless! for dinner that night, we enjoyed thai cuisine. i had pad see ew and thai iced coffee, of course. to be honest with you, it didn't compare to jasmine in my eyes but it was definitely good! the vibe of the restaurant was the best part. i wish i could remember the name... the decor was beautiful, the staff very friendly, and a little girl with her dad at the bar was a charming little new yorker!

that's all i got for now! :)

wanted.

if i broke out of jail and was wanted for murder this is what my wanted poster would look like.

hahaha times a thousand. this is by far the worst picture i have ever taken.

backstory:

this is my new license picture. tomorrow i am supposed to fly out to new york and of course, the plane ticket i have is for "misty spanburg." however, according to my license i am still "misty mason." yes, i know i am a terrible wife. thank goodness they were open (they usually aren't when it's an election day) because i'm pretty sure i wouldn't get through TSA's security with my ID listing one name and my plane ticket the other. i received a paper copy until my official license arrives in the mail, but was told that TSA must accept the paper copy because it has both a bar code and the official state seal. wish me luck and catch ya in a few days!!

*cue sex and the city 2 trailer music*

source

and it's official.

tim and i officially put our house up for sale today.

wow. my first house! it feels like a combination of surreal, sad, and excited. i got emotional the other day when i thought about all of the little decisions we made together as newlyweds. i remembered the conversation we had at lowes over light switch covers. he liked the cheap ones and the ones i preferred were a bit more expensive... but he caved because he loves me...

i don't know. it's silly, really. i will definitely miss this house, that's for sure. even the country has grown on me. i'll trade corn and friendly neighbors for a city where i won't know anyone. i think it's important to make this move though, because if we didn't, we would be apart 3-4 days a week so he could commute. the commuting costs and living expenses would make it even worse.

we are currently looking at different suburbs around the chicago area. deerfield, IL (home of trinity evangelical divinity school, a/k/a: TEDS) is apparently a part of the second richest county in the country. we are hoping to find a quaint little place close to a train station so that tim could just catch a train to school each day. with the cost of living being so high in deerfield, that would help us save some money.

we hope to sell our house by august. keep that in your prayers. if we don't, he'll commute to school until we do. we are hopeful, optimistic, and trusting that God will sort all this out in the end. tim will stay on part time with the church for the time being... he'll head home on the weekends a few times a month and i'll hopefully be joining him for at least two of those weekends.

5.

today bobbi asked me a very important question

if you had only 5 concerts left to see in your life

which 5 would you choose?

here are my 5

1 sufjan stevens

2 josh ritter

3 the avett brothers

4 david bazan

5 my brightest diamond

the avett brothers are the only band on this list i have yet to see. sufjan's concert was unbelievably romantic. my brightest diamond was the most impressive on a vocal scale. david bazan spoke to my heart. and josh ritter just plain put on the best show i've ever experienced.

tonight i've been a music listening fool. i was excited to clean my house as i listened to regina spektor, wilco, shane & shane, kristian stanfill, and sufjan stevens. i'd like to do that more often. trade general hospital & oprah for some avett brothers, coldplay, & david crowder. i don't even like kathie lee & hoda. why don't i pass on them and instead opt for josh ritter, fiona apple, or deftones?

so what would your 5 be? do share. if i had to make a guess, cookie (or are you sprinkle? i can't remember) one of yours would obviously be shane & shane. hannah i'd say yours would be... dave? do share!