I've decided….I'm going to blog again. :) Thanks to my lovely friend Whitney, I have been inspired to chronicle more of my life these days! Needless to say, it's much more interesting than 2 years ago! We've bought a house and had a baby since then. Life has been a ridiculous time warp of emotion and exhaustion so incredibly wonderful. Now that I'm staying at home with my princess and done with college for now, I've got time to burn baby! Who am I kidding…I have chores and laundry on laundry up in here. But for now…I shall blog. I've got some projects to post that I've completed as of late. Stay tuned!

Oh…I suppose I should introduce my absolutely amazing daughter - Audrey Fay | born 10.25.13

Be blessed y'all!

Where oh where...

Has the time gone?? I could've swore I was a few weeks behind...then a few months...and BAM. I'm WAY behind on the bloggity blog thing. I'll have some free time this weekend though, so hopefully I catch up like I need to! Geez, life has just been flying by! 

Two years ago yesterday...

I married my BEST FRIEND! We celebrated at Pappadeaux's, and of course, it was delicious! :) 

I even had my favorite dessert...creme brulee. mmmmm.

  

But before dinner, I took my first hot yoga class. BOY OH BOY was it HOT. Sweat was dripping all over the place and it was hard to breathe! Although I wanted to pass out in pain, it was such a good class and I'm so excited to do it again next week! I just know that I'm sore today and I need a warm bath.

We've been doing great lately, just blowin' and goin' as the summer flies right by us. School starts next week for all of the kids in our youth group...unfortunately that also includes both Corey and I! But I'm sure it's going to pass by rather quickly! This weekend we're getting about 15 new 11 year olds into our youth group! There are some crazy times ahead...I can feel it. HA! Mainly because 12 of the 15 are BOYS. Lord be with us! We had a few seniors leave already and head off to college, which is very bittersweet. We've got some awesome kids in our group that God has surely blessed us with. We're excited for what's to come!

4th of July Part 1

So, I'm an absolutely horrid blogger. I've been really lazy busy lately! But here's a taste of my SWEET 4th of July weekend until I get a chance to get to all my other pictures!

I leave for Camp Destin on Sunday!! I'm SUPER EXCITED!! Pray for our kids, youth leaders, and sponsors that great things are done next week at camp, and that an everlasting fire is ignited!

Warrior Dash Pictures!

Here are the pics I got from Warrior Dash! I would've gotten more but they're too expensive to buy! HA! ;) Maybe next year. It was so much fun! I can't wait to do it again!!

 Before:

After:

I have a lot of posts coming up. I have to catch up for the past year pretty much, AND we've got Garrett's birthday, Gigi's 80th birthday, and Papa's birthday coming up this weekend...and you can dang well guarantee I'll bring my camera! :)

Warrior Dash!!!

I ran the Warrior Dash on Sunday and it was SO much fun!! I'm super sore and my muscles are tight, but it was well worth it. 3.24 miles and 13 obstacles and a GREAT memory to look back on! :) Here's one picture I've got, more to follow!!

My Wall Collage

I LOVE IT. I still need some random new things to add. I want to make another one to put in our bedroom...but knowing we'll be moving out at the end of July isn't very motivating! But I guess I should just put one up and enjoy it until then! :) PS...the pics are pretty cruddy because I used the wide angle adapter lens on my iphone. Not perfect quality but it works!

Astounded

Lately life has been so crazy!! We're here, there, everywhere. Spending time with lots of friends, family, the kids. It's been a whirlwind, I don't even know where the time has gone! But looking back so many good memories have already been made. I'm ready for more! This year will be good, better than the rest I like to think! I've started giving piano lessons again, and that makes me really excited. I've started playing the guitar which is SO much fun. I'm learning more and more about the teenagers in our youth group. Our junior high kids are AWESOME. Our seniors are AWESOME. ALL OF THE KIDS ARE JUST PLAIN AWESOME. I promise I'm going to take WAY more pictures and post them. :)

Sunday the kids did an AMAZING drama that gave me chills. I'll have to post it once I figure out how to get it from my phone. Technology these days...so complicated.

OH! I forgot to share! On March 4th, the people above our apartment were just moving in, when they accidentally started a fire when they set a box on their stove that was supposedly left on! Their sprinklers went off water began leaking through our ceiling! THEN the fire department went in with two hoses....lets just say it's was rainin' in our apartment after that! Luckily the fire department grabbed what looked important and threw it under tarps. That saved A LOT of our stuff from water damage!! We had a few things get ruined, but nothing that couldn't be replaced. SO thankful that they did that for us! Needless to say, we had to move into a new building....on the THIRD FLOOR. It has been quite an adjustment. But it's been good. I feel like we've started fresh...and it definitely forced me to do some spring cleaning. ;) Corey and I were both just SO thankful that nothing important was damaged and the whole building didn't burn down. Here are some pics!

There were 4 fire trucks and 2 EMT trucks. Our dogs were going NUTS.

This was our kitchen ceiling where the majority of the damage was. A pot rack used to hang there. This is the morning after.

Nasty water in our silverware drawer. The ENTIRE apartment smelled like a wet ashtray. It was disgusting.

Our bathroom. The firefighters threw all of our clothes in the closet into our tub and covered it with a tarp. Too bad they were already wet. I'm STILL doing laundry to get the smoke smell off of everything. I've never done more laundry in my LIFE. I need to consolidate my wardrove BIG TIME! Haha. And it thought it was pretty funny they pushed our dresser in the bathroom.

Our bedroom.

I'll catch up with more pics later! I have yet to put my desk together and hook up my computer!! Shame on me. Happy FRIDAY!!

The loves of our life!!

I got some beautiful flowers from my honey!! He wrote this exact song on a paper and left it on my car 4 years ago. :)

I made some yummy cookies for valentines day!

We're doing battle of the sexes with our kids at church. I'm captain of the girls team! This is some of the girls getting Lexi ready for the runway. The challenge was to create an outfit with toilet paper, cotton balls, and duct tape and rock the runway!!

Photo courtesy of Corey. Our dogs love me!!

Geez-la-weez

Okay, so it's been forever and a stinkin' day since I've posted ANYTHING. WOW.

Sad.

I WILL be better about it. I just hate to post without pictures. But alas, it is better to post anything than nothing at all. So here's the scoop:

*Corey became the Youth Pastor for our teenagers here at the church...and all of our kids are AMAZING. :) It has been so fun and a lot of work, but totally worth it! We've got a great group of kids who are just tremendous.

*Corey and I went home for Christmas - it was AWESOME!! Seeing family and friends was so much fun! Can't complain about the perfect weather either.

*We celebrated a SUPER fun New Years/Birthday party for sweet Kristen! SO MUCH FUN!!

*My cousin Jess came to visit in January and we had a great time, as always. It was great seeing her and having her back in Texas! We also threw a baby shower for my girlfriend Brooke which was pretty fun too!

*We had about 4 days total of crazy snow/ice/yucky-ness and got to miss work. I will post my snow pics soon!!

*Did my 1st 5k of the year on 02.12.11 - Cupid's 5k - my next one is on Saturday morning - The Cowtown 5k - The goal is to do 5k's throughout the year and maybe a 10k or a 1/2 marathon if I'm awesome enough! HA!!!

*Corey is in his senior year of college - THANK YOU JESUS!! I'm so ready for him to graduate...and I know he is too! (editing papers isn't very fun!) ...love you sweetie ;)

Well that's the catch-up. I'll be back with pictures. It'll probably just be a slew of photos, but hey, I do what I want!

Love love!!

Grove, Oklahoma ~ Home Sweet Home

There's nothing like going back to the place where the world was so big and full of wonder. Although I went back for the most sad reason possible, I'm so glad I was able to go home. My dear childhood friend Mark Harding passed away shortly after his 21st birthday. He went home to be with the Lord on May 28.

Mark, his sister Ashley, and I grew up together since we were little bitty. We were the three musketeers. When I found out he was in the hospital I prayed and prayed and prayed so hard. When Daddy Bill called and told me he didn't make it I was deeply saddened. I never would've thought something so quick and tragic would happen to someone I knew. But the good Lord giveth and the good Lord taketh away. Mark's in heaving dancing with Jesus now. Free from his struggles on earth and the stress he battled with. For being 21 He'd been through a lot, more than anyone should go through. His deployment to Iraq left him with many battle scars emotionally after watching his best friend die in his arms.

His funeral was held the weekend after memorial day. I picked up my mom in Tulsa and we drove to Grove together. Back to where everything started for us. It was our first hometown with the greatest most loving people you'll ever meet. I was there for 5 days and it was SO nice to go back. :) Here are some photos from around town and the Harding house I grew up in. More to follow once I get the pics my mom took with her camera.



The widest road in Grove

Flower field off the dirt road on the way to the Harding Homestead.

"Good Lord willin' and the creek don't rise" was a literal term growing up. The only way out of the house other than crossing the creek was through the woods in a 4x4. And let me tell you, it is a ROUGH ride!

This is at the top of the hill. I learned to ride my bike down this hill, talk about scary, especially when you're 5 and a 6 year old is teaching you how!

Shante's daughter, Mark's cousin. Sweet little thing. She weighed 20 lbs and her 5 month old brother weighed 22 lbs!! I didn't get a pic with him. :( His name was Judah and I called him "Buddah Judah"!!

Mom and Ashley

Mark's family

Just HAD to throw this in. :) ...That's Mark on the left.