catch up and kick off

Oh my word. Ya'll. Time is flying.

Like, I have always known time goes quickly. But days and weeks and months are literally passing at light speed and there is no slowing it down.

I know it's been a while since I last blogged, so this is going to be a catch up post and a kick off post... catching up over the last two months, and kicking off a new season of yet another attempt at consistently blogging. Round and round we go :)

We bought a house. A real, live, 3-bedroom 2-bathroom one story house with a pool. Sam moved in the day we closed (January 2nd), and Delilah moved in a couple weeks later once there weren't so many boxes. We have spent the last two months painting every room in the house (all we lack is the office), cleaning and organizing, and are now working on refinishing the kitchen cabinets. It is so fun decorating and planning together... even the parts where we disagree on shower curtains and wall colors. More on that at a later date. I'm still at my apartment (obviously) until we get married. Which bring me to the next news:

We have set a date! Friday August 29, 2014 will be the day I become Mrs. Samuel Ford Smith. It is exactly 170 days away. That feels like an eternity, lets be honest. But we know it's not, and like I've already said, time is flying.

Between painting and remodeling and bargain shopping for cool furniture, we are planning a wedding! It's going to be back home in Tennessee, which makes planning easier and harder at the same time. Harder in that we are essentially making decisions like venue and photographer and cake maker and flower arrangments blindly, easier in that we have a wedding coordinator who is doing most of the work and all we have to do is email her haha. It's coming together, that's for sure. And I found my dress!

Wait, let me back up. I forgot to tell you that we did some traveling in February. Sam made the trek across a few countries and went to the 2014 Winter Olympics in Sochi, Russia. Yes, I'm serious. To Russia, by himself, to stay in a hotel he found by looking at Google Maps, to take a train into Sochi every day for a week to watch Olympic Events like curling and ice hockey and the biathlon. He's crazy, and independent, and adventurous. That's why I love him, duh. While he went there, I took a few days off work and went to Tennessee to do some wedding stuff. I had 2 full days. In those two days, I found my wedding dress, toured the venue we had already booked but had never seen, and met with our photographer who we had never met before. Also I met my new baby cousin, spent time with my fam, and had a birthday dinner. It was a super productive few days!

this is my "I found a dress!" face. It was a long day, don't judge my hair

#SaminSochi #thecutest

I forgot something else. Before we traveled, we got to spend an entire weekend with over 1000 kids 7th-12th grade at Prestonwood's biggest student event of the year, Freedom. It was absolutely amazing to watch God move in the lives of our students and staff and ourselves. Like, really, amazing.

In other news, I'm still loving my job. I love my coworkers and am slowly but surely making friends that I can get lunch with and do life with outside of work. It's exciting to see relationships transition to that. Sam is still loving his new job as student minister as well, and he's still rocking it, of course. It's kinda what we do. Our students are what consumes the majority of our time and the great majority of our hearts and prayers. There are no other people in the world we would rather do life with.

Our most recent adventures took place this past weekend. My best friends from college came to visit for the weekend, which could not have been more fun. It was the ultimate sleepover weekend, complete with moving matresses to sleep in the same room so we could stay up til 3 am talking about boys and late night Walmart trips that ended with dying hair. Besides the fun, it is so refreshing to share how God has been faithful to us and how God is teaching and growing us. Soul sisters are the best.

And at the tail end of the weekend, Sam did a little more traveling back to Tennessee to Chattanooga. This is where we are taking Junior High students for a mission trip this summer, so he went to preview the facility and make a game plan for July. Just an overnight trip, but I'm glad he's home.

I think that pretty much brings you up to speed. Fill in the few gaps that there are with budgeting money, watching Netflix, cooking dinner, packing lunches, and learning how to merge two separate lives into one that revolves around THE One, and there you have it!

Promise I won't let so much time pass before we talk again.

Love from Texas!