graduation city

This is a big year for my friends & family in terms of graduation. My best friend finished her degree in school psychology (side note, I was so focused on writing psychology that I originally spelled "pschool" instead of "school." oops.), and another one of our friends just graduated with her law degree! On another note, I have really smart friends.


My brother Zach finished his degree in Exercise Science from Ottawa University last weekend, so I drove home to help celebrate

Bella helped Zach open up all of his presents!


Next up on the graduation list was Sam, who finished law school this week! I want to write a longer, more involved post about this so I'm going to skip down to my baby brother Nick who graduated from high school on Sunday! Sam and I booked it to KC on Sunday morning after several days of festivities and arrived just in time to get seated and watch the ceremony.

Our "baby brother" is a high school grad! I really can't believe it. It seems like just yesterday he was my show and tell in first grade the month after he was born. I personally think I had the best show and tell of the whole year. 

 Nick with one set of our grandparents :).

 It's hard to believe that it has been 5 years since Zach graduated and SEVEN since I did. I can remember my graduation weekend so clearly, it's like it happened a week ago.

 Family photo.

 Me and all of the graduates! It honestly looks like Sam is just another brother in the family. 

 2013 graduates!

After this whirlwind weekend, I'm ready for a little break! And by break I mean I have to work 6 of the next 7 nights :).

sibling love

I'm pretty sure neither of my brothers read my blog, but whatever. I think the blogosphere should know just how much I adore my little brothers, don't you?

Meet Nicholas. 16 year old drummer extraordinaire.

 Nick and I were apparently prepared from more of the same genes than Zach and I, because we look scary similar. Seriously. Pull out our pictures from our respective 13th birthdays and its difficult to determine who is who {acknowledging I was NOT an attractive 13-year-old}.

 We both love roller coasters and amusement parks, although he's terrrrified in this picture. I can't remember the name of the ride, but it was super fast (at Cedar Point).

 Our temperaments are very, very similar. Quick to anger, quick to forgive. Usually I can rationalize with him better than anyone else can.

 We share a love for our dogs. Still miss handsome Mr. Charlie.. :(.

 I love that he'll be goofy with me, whereas a lot of other people won't.

Clearly a fan of the thumbs up in this joint. I love Nick because he makes me laugh, and because he is so different from me, yet so similar. He's so smart, and surprises me every day with the knowledge that he has. He's an amazing musician...you know those people who can hear a song and then play it from memory? Yeah, meet Nick. Although we are seven years apart, we've become super tight since I moved home in May and I love it.


And here's Zachary. 22, soccer player extraordinaire.

 See what I mean about Nick and I looking more similar? No offense to Nick, but I think Zach hit the market on the genetic lottery. We looked more similar when we were younger, probably because we're only about 19 months apart. People used to think we were twins when we were little, but we don't get that anymore.

 Zach is much more mild tempered than Nick and I. Maybe it's a middle child thing...

...because Zach is a lot like Sam, who is also a middle child. He is the peace maker, the even tempered one. He is able to think about things calmly, rationally, and keeps his thoughts to himself a lot of the time.

 Zach also shares the puppy love. Obvi our family was obsessed with Charlie. Zach is the athlete of our family. What I attempted, he excelled in.

 The thumbs up are also a running theme in the fam, too, I guess. Nick is Zach's shadow. If I didn't think Nick would kill me, I would retype an essay he wrote in 5th grade which is HILARIOUS. It's all about his name and how he would change it to Zach because that's clearly the better name ;). My mom asked Nick when they were redoing their wills who he wanted to be his legal guardian, me or Zach. Nick picked Zach, and when my mom asked him why, he said, "Molly makes me do my homework and she doesn't have an X-box or let me eat McDonalds all the time." Super awesome reasoning ;).

My grandmother told me the other day, "You and Zach were always two peas in a pod." It's totally true. Maybe for some people it's hard to have a sibling close in age but an opposite sex, but it totally wasn't for us. We played together (even Barbies, thanks bro), even if we were over at a friends house. We fought rarely (except an incident where he unbraided my American Girl doll's hair...and when he beat me once at Harry Potter trivia...I told you I was quick to anger).


Anyway, moral of the story. I love my brothers, a lot. I'm so lucky to have siblings that I get along with (for the most part). I know it a lot of people aren't as fortunate.

the weekend through the iPhone (and dslr, if you're counting).

Have I mentioned the love affair I'm having with Apple products? How about Instagram? Once or twice? Sorry, keep bearing with me. I'll never stop gushing about them.

Sam's fall break was this week so he came to spend a long weekend with me. The stars aligned and by some miracle I had Monday and Tuesday off from school, so we got to spend 4 days together! That's unheard of nowadays!

I know for a fact I've bragged on here that I have a nice fancy camera, but I ALWAYS forget to bring it with me! I don't know what my problem is. I did manage to snag a few pictures at my brother's soccer game so I'm sharing those as well. 

 My mom and I have a Vera Bradley obsession, so when she got an email saying that the East West Tote bag was on sale at Bette's Hallmark, she flipped out. I was appointed the super important job of going to buy two of them...because that's JUST what I needed. Another bag.

 After Sam arrived, we headed over to watch my brother play soccer. I always get super excited and weirdly emotional watching my brother play soccer. At his last game he scored both of his team's goals and I cried after each of them. I am seriously strange. He's #12 in the black right there in the middle. Also, excuse my camera, that's as far as it zooms.

 Sam's view was a little hindered by the wooden pole.

 This picture is so typical of my mom. Eyes are closed and the flash isn't even on. However, doesn't she look great!? Hair a normal length and everything.

 This picture is so typical of my little bother brother. He sleeps eve-ry-where.

 My cute cousin Mason, eating up a storm. My brothers eat basically nothing at meals, so he's the first "typical" boy we've seen--3 lunches is normal for him!

 Okay a few things about this picture. One, my posture is awful. Two, my hair is all up in Sam's face. Three, I love my mustard yellow sweater from Loft, but Sam and I are most definitely not coordinating.

 Shortly after the first picture, I used my hand to adjust myself and got a major splinter. Luckily my grandma was prepared with a needle AND tweezers and Dr. Sam was able to fix me up in a snap. I would have been able to do it myself except I injured my right hand and my left is like a wet noodle when it comes to anything dextrous.

My beautiful cousin Amanda (who insists my name is Ly (as in mol-LY) and that I call her Da).

 On Sunday Sam and I were going to head to the Truman Library & Museum, but instead decided to hit up the Nelson-Atkins Art Museum. They had a Monet that I don't remember seeing last time and I fell in love. If only I had a few million (billion?) dollars lying around. Sam told me that the StL Art Museum has all 3 of the "Water Lilies" paintings in house right now so we are most definitely going there next time I go to see him.

 They also had a Rodin exhibit at the Nelson. Here's Sam, thinking about the Thinker. Which, if you're into fun art facts, is not originally that size--it was originally only about 2 feet tall.

 We then headed to the pumpkin patch that we discovered last year with my mom and Nick.

 Sam's sporting his $2.50 pumpkin--SO CHEAP and his sunglasses that we found at Gordman's...originally priced at $12.99, they rang up $3. What bargain hunters we are!

 This pumpkin was amazing--very little on the inside, which is my favorite kind of pumpkin!

Yesterday we went to see the Ides of March (my second time, his first), which I highly recommend to anyone who likes politics, George Clooney, or most importantly, Ryan Gosling. I don't even want to describe it for fear of giving any plot points away!...

...and then we carved up some pumpkins.

By the time I took this picture, I'd finished cleaning my pumpkin, plotted out the face, and washed my hands for the 10th time (hate the feeling of pumpkin guts on my hand). Sam's was a stringy mess. I forgot to take a picture of the finished product but they're outside on the front porch so I'll remember to do that before the neighborhood kids steal them to smash in the street (sad but true).


I didn't take any pictures of this, but we also spent a LOT of time watching baseball this weekend. If you live under a rock, the Cardinals are in the World Series, so we watched them all 3 nights Sam was here :).  Here's to hoping that Game 6 will be more like Game 3 and less like Games 4&5!

Happy Fourth!

I hope everyone had an excellent 4th of July! I know I did! Sam got to come in town early on Friday and was here until early this morning. It was fantastic! My last post was really wordy, so I'm just going to show you what we were up to.

Sam and Bellsy bonded.

We practiced our photo skills with some sunset pictures at the lake by my house.

I'm really not good. I'm planning on taking lessons after school is done.

pretty sailboats on our walk around the lake.

Sam and I dominated Family Game Night.

We took a trip to Crown Center where we ate at Fritz's (me for the 2nd time, Sam for the 1st). I highly recommend it if you have small children (cough, Cort!) but if you don't...maybe skip it until you do.

Shot off some fireworks..STL County doesn't allow fireworks, so Sam was pretty stoked that SVille allows you to shoot them off on the 3rd-5th.

We were really happy for our extended weekend together.

What's the 4th without the police? Our neighbor got in trouble for covering the street lamp with a blanket. Don't worry, no one was harmed, ticketed, or arrested. Just some small town officers flexing their muscles :)

Watched some fireworks

I took a nap on the driveway, because how can this view not make you peaceful?

These were a lot more fun when I was 7.

Shot off some more fireworks and enjoyed the 4th!

 How was YOUR Fourth of July?