New website and blog!

www.BenjaminandKelly.com

it's official

we're moving to ETHIOPIA!

That's right ladies and gentlemen...this summer Ben and I will be packing up our charleston life and starting a new {not-so-cushy-but-oh-so-exciting} life on the other side of the pond. We are THRILLED!

The word is out, and it's starting to feel real. Very real.

We'll be trading in our jobs here to work together for Water is Life International. I really can't think of more perfect jobs for either of us at this stage of our lives. This definitely wasn't in out 5 year plan {if we even had a 5 year plan that is}, but we are confident that this is what we are supposed to do. And we are blessed beyond words to have families that are not only ok with it, but are cheering us on every step of the way.

So, in ONE month Ben and I will be packing up our lives in Charleston and will be heading to Colorado Springs, Charlotte, and Raleigh to prepare for our departure in June.

Wow, we're really doing this.

Water is Life

1. "Drinking" Water


2. The Well


3. Life

beautiful people

...and we're back

After two weeks on the other side of the globe, we're back {and tired}.  We were greeted in Charlotte by a fresh blanket of snow.  Nothing like freezing temps to gently welcome you back from Africa and back to reality.  There's no way to really adequately share what we've seen in the past few weeks, but over the next few days we'll try to share some pictures and stories from our time....mostly pictures probably, because let's face it, they're easier to bear than jet-lagged journal entries written by the light of a headlamp under a mosquito net at 3 am in morning.

More to come....

Over and Out

In just a few hours we will be boarding a plane bound for Ethiopia. On our way we'll have a little stopover in DC to watch {via the tv at the boarding gate} as President Obama is sworn in. What a day! And, we woke up this morning to a thick blanket of snow covering everything.

Snow
Inaugaration
Trip to Ethiopia

One can only handle so much excitement in a day.

We're leaving this behind....

.....and heading on to 70 degree weather.

We'll be back in just over two weeks with loads of pictures and stories to share.

Until then.....

MLK Weekend in Boone

This weekend we had our annual MLK weekend in Boone with the Huegerichs and Myricks. It was wonderful {as always} for a multitude of reasons....

1. The Ham Shoppe- This is probably our most anticipated meal of the year {and yes, it's a sandwich}. We talk about their sundried tomato bread all year. Before you die, you need to go.


2. Mast General Store- Old Fashion Candy Barrels and bottles of cheer wine, it doesn't get much better than that.
3. A chilly hike in the mountains with friends that are just as crazy as {if not crazier} than us.

4. A long winter nap on possibly the most comfy couch.

5. An unending supply of entertainment including puzzles and games. Just for the record, the girls team won Trivial Pursuit (twice) and, contrary to popular belief, it was not pure luck.
Oh, and "Tess of the D'Ubervilles", yeah, that's an impossible charades pick. Try acting that one out.


6. Breakfast at Dan'l Boone Inn- Family-style country breakfast around a big table, the true southern experience.

{Happy Birthday Emilia!}

7. Walking in the falling snow to get to the cars parked at the bottom of the mountain. After growing up in Africa, snow still fascinates me every single time, i love it.

We've been coming up here for MLK since 2006. It is hands down one of the best weekends of our year. Last year we had all just gotten engaged and came up with our wedding binders and Martha Stewart wedding magazines in tow. This year we had no agenda, we just relaxed in newly wedded bliss:)

How incredibly blessed we are to have friends like this.

Countdown

two and a half

that is the number of days I have left of work before our whirlwind trip to Ethiopia!and 2 1/2 days till our Martin Luther King Weekend Reunion with the Myricks and Huegerichs in the beautiful mountains of Boone, NC!

ah, i can't wait!

Coffee

This morning I was making coffee at work and the smell of the fresh ground coffee {ok, so maybe it was a big industrial can on pre-ground coffee} made me almost pass out with excitement. That smell takes me right back to the streets of Ethiopia. If the breeze blew right, you could smell the fresh picked coffee berries being roasted on an open fire. I miss waking up to that. Now if the breeze blew wrong...well, Ethiopia has a whole range of rather unpleasant scents as well...but I won't go into that. I could have sat right there on the kitchen floor and breathed it in all day long. But instead of doing that, I am working- and trying to hid the fact that I am almost uncontainably excited about the fact next monday I will not be sitting at my desk, but getting ready to fly half way across the world....back to the smell of fresh roasted coffee.

Weekending

B and I have this whole weekend off work together, with absolutely no obligations.  This could possibly be the first of its kind since we've been married.  I'm not going to lie- I won't miss the crazy restaurant hours one bit when Ben retires from cheff-ing {hopefully it'll be soon, very soon}.

I'm still sick.  And I've had quite enough of it.  My voice has now almost completely disappeared.  Maybe it has something to do with the fact that we've been walking the beach...in Janurary...a little too often.  Or the fact that we snuck out to get ice cream...in Janurary... at night... with a cold.  Brilliant.  

   it may or may not have been half eaten by the time we got home:)

the cure for the common cold