Hi Ladies!

My September has been C-R-A-Z-Y so I haven't updated in a while. As Stephanie mentioned, I had a fabulous time visiting her and Eric (and Brandy) in the O.C. As much as I used to think that I was an East Coast girl, I could definitely get used to living in Southern California! Thank you, Stephanie for being such a wonderful hostess - I hope that you enjoyed (are enjoying?) having Eric's family visit.

The weekend after California, I went to my cousin Nora's wedding on the Jersey Shore. Let me tell you, friends: it was a blast. They played fabulous music - all of our Dave and Rae dance favorites. It was so nice to see my family again and my Cousin's new husband Dave is such a wonderful addition to our family. I also spent two nights with our friend Mari from IU. NYC really suits her and she is doing well!

I'm writing this right now from a conference I am working. It's pretty boring sometimes but it pays the bills, right? Let me know how you all are doing - I miss you all!

Stephanie and me in Laguna Beach

Love you all,

Molly

need your prayers...
this last week has been super ugly. the shit has hit the fan at church...the adults are upset that we have little poor black kids coming to church and God forbid we do any music they might like in service and let them be in worship period much less come to fellowship hour and eat any of the treats...after all, the body of the church should be just rich white old folks. ugh! and then, matt and I got to our home this weekend after being in Evanston for class Tues-Fri to find that it had been broken into for the SECOND time in the 4 months we have lived here. Luckily this time nothing was stolen, except a jar of change and 3 of our 5 Risk armies (which is enough to piss me off since i LOVE that game and trying to take over the world). But it must have been some punk kids cause they totally trashed our house, took our oil and vinigar and lotion and dumped it all over our kitchen and bedroom and living room. and then they dumped out all of our board games on teh floor so that all the pieces and cards were mixed up together. ughh! but as soon as i was at the lowest, ready to give up on cleaning and thinking about if we weren't called to live here after all, Jesus showed up in the form of our little neighbor kids who ran straight to our house when they got off the bus rather than running home first. and when they ran in the door let us know they hadn't had their apple yet that day (we keep a ready supply of fruit and snacks) and then informed us that we would be playing monsters and vampires while we ran around our house screaming and roaring. So maybe this neighborhood isn't so bad after all, I just have to keep it in perspective that Jesus lives here too. But please pray for Matt and me and this church and this community. We need it.-Cara

Ladies of 205
Hello from the OC! Since seeing Molly last weekend, I realized it had been a while since I checked out our blog. So here I am checking in.
As self-righteous as Eric & I thought we were for not having a tv the first year of marriage, we really love our big tv and watching a few select shows now. We don't have cable so that limits our fall shows, but nevertheless we've got a line up. I was super bummed that I missed Thursday's line up Annie. It was Back To School night from 5-9 (ugh!) but I will indeed be a Grey's regular watcher. We'll have to figure out how that works with Lost b/c it's my #1 show. Eric says he won't watch it this season but I know he'll get sucked in again. We also have been hooked into PrisonBreak too. Weird, I know, but Eric likes the police chases. :)
This first month of school has been pretty good for me. I haven't felt to overwhelmed and my kids are a fun batch. I'm going on home visits this next week so that will open my eyes to what kind of lifestyle the OC brings. I'll let you know how many gated communities I have to drive through and the number of butlers I see later.
It also was a blast having a Lady come out this past weekend. Molly and I had a fun time roaming around Laguna Beach and generally enjoying a sunny weekend. So thanks Molly for making the trip down to our place!
Eric's folks are coming out this next weekend and I don't know how long they'll be here......maybe not too long? I actually am looking forward to seeing some family, I just pray I won't get sick of them too early in the visit.
I guess that's all from this side of the country for now. Let me know how autumn is settling in and any other fun news.

FRIENDS! I love hearing from you...well a little late, but just finally checked this out for the first time last week. Sounds like things are going well in the life of the ladies of 205. I had a fantastic summer as a newlywed. worked with community kids through the church in Benton Harbor MI, was a counselor for a week of JR High church camp, led a mission trip to cote d'ivoire in west africa, got to go backpacking in the UP of MI and hit up a cubs game with molly...all in all, it was great. into the 3rd week of school now and truckin along. I've had this epiphany this semester that what i'm learning and doing here in school actually has relevance in my future and current work in the church, like planning worship services, pastoral care for home visits, preaching...I think i've decided that in the near future I will pursue and MSW as well. I've gotten to do a bunch of house visits with the kids we work with in MI and have started doing one on one visits with their parents, just to get to know the moms and see how we can work together to get them to church and if there's any way the church can be a supportive community. its pretty scary but exciting work. keep posting and i'll keep checking! love hearing from you all!
cara

TV

So anyone but me excited for the new fall shows coming? Thursday..will be nothing but a tv night for me...with The Office, Grey's, and ER...yikes !

PS South Carolina went allright...still waiting to hear from them...they said end of the month. I will kind of be ok either way