A Little Life Update

 Hey there friends,

I've been gone from here for almost a year this time around! The last time I posted was in March of 2021. Life has been wonderful and crazy all at the same time. I'm so excited to say that I've got a brand new blog post to share with you. But, I thought it may be nice to share a little life update before we get to that.

Firstly, I've taken on some responsibilities with our church. I do the scheduling for the kid's ministry. I am one of the teachers for our K-4th grade Sunday School class and I help with Children's church during service. Noah helps lead the youth Sunday School class and I got to chaperone our youth camp back in June. We took on hosting our community group every Sunday night for a while until we recently started meeting at our church building. All this definitely gives me a lot more to do with my days and I have loved being more involved with our church. 

At the end of June, I took my friend Alyson and her friend Mar to a Sunflower farm. I met Alyson in Bible school back in 2019. She lives in Austin too and is absolutely obsessed with sunflowers so when I saw this spot I knew I had to take her. It was so fun and so beautiful and so fun!

Over the summertime, Noah and I had a goal to get away or do something one weekend each month. So in July, Noah surprised me with a trip to the beach! We drove the four hours to Port Aransas and spent two days in sunshine and saltwater.

On September 21st we celebrated our one-year anniversary by finally going on our honeymoon. We chose to go to Colorado for a week. We went to the Great Sand Dunes National Park where I lost my phone. We drove Pike's Peak and walked around the Garden of the Gods. On our drive back we stopped at some hot springs in New Mexico and Cadillac Ranch here in Texas. It was an awesome trip celebrating marriage with my love.

October was a crazy month for us. Firstly, we moved! We were living in Oak Hill, a part of Austin, in a house with our friend Will. But Will was moving North to be closer to work. Another friend, Darrien, we then going to move in with us when he decided to buy our pastor's house instead. So, we ended up moving into Darrien's house with him. I know it sounds complicated... it was! But now we are living out in Dripping Springs which is just outside of Austin. We love living out here! It's much quieter and we have a lot more space. It's a lovely but short drive into Austin if we need to go for some reason. The one downside is that we're further away from some of our friends. But, all in all, we love it so much!

And then later in October, just a few weeks after we moved into the new house, we adopted Smokey Boy! Noah and I both grew up with dogs and we had been wanting one for a long time. But, our old landlords wouldn't allow us to have one there which was okay with us because they were pretty great landlords. When we figured out we were moving in with Darrien we asked if we could get a dog and he was down. I immediately started looking. Our friends Morgan and Allen had adopted a dog a few months prior from Austin Animal Shelter. She is the sweetest pittie ever so we decided to go through the same organization. We knew we wanted a pitbull between the ages of 1 and 3 years old. I had my heart set on a girl too. We looked online and saw one that I fell in love with and contacted the foster family that had her. After a call with them, we realized that she would not be the best for us, our home, and our lifestyle. So, we kept looking and decided to visit the shelter. There we a couple that we liked, specifically a girl named Diamond who was so sweet. We knew we weren't ready to adopt that day and that we would come back the following week for a more serious look. To my relief when we returned on a Saturday Diamond was still there so we asked about her. We found out that she was bonded with her kennel mate. This means that one or both of them get distressed when they are separated so the shelter would only be adopting them out together. We definitely couldn't take on two dogs at that time so we moved on to our second choice. A boy named Smoke. They told us that he was ready to be taken home that day but we needed until Monday to finish preparing for him. We left that day so excited but a little anxious too. We made a few phone calls and a trip to Petco and rushed around the house hoping we could bring him home the following day.

On Sunday the 24th of October we went into Austin Animal Shelter and filled out all the paperwork. Smoke got the last of his medication and he came home with us! He was officially our and he was so excited to be with us. He loves snuggles on the couch or in bed. He loves playing outside with ropes, balls, and sticks. He is so well behaved and listens so well. He loves people and other dogs so much. That doesn't mean he didn't come with his issues though. We have been working hard with him on his behavior and he has been learning so much! He comes when called and sits on command. He is potty trained and crate trained. He still doesn't get "lie down" and can be a little too mouthy when he's playing. he has separation anxiety and chews things when he is anxious so we have lost three pairs of shoes, two charging cables, one hat, and Noah's glasses so far. But, we are so grateful to have Smoke in our lives. He keeps me company, makes me smile, and gives me a reason to get up in the morning. He is such a happy boy and keeps us so busy!

This past year I've been making new friends on Bumble BFF. It's like a dating app but for making friends and I've made a few! Firstly there's Morgan and Allen. They're a couple that moved from up north and we hang out with them almost every weekend. We love to do dinner and a games night with them but we've also been bowling, played mini gold and went to six flags. There's Isabella who's family lives in Austin but goes to college a little ways away so we got to hangout and talk all about Jesus over the summer time. Just a few weeks ago I met Ines. She's an aupair from Venezuala that lives just down the street from us. We've gotten coffee, baked together at my house and painted pottery.

In January my sister, Jordy and her fiance, Dan, flew down from Canada to spend a week with Noah and I. That week turned into two weeks when they weren't able to board their flight home due to a mix up with their covid tests. But, we made the most of those two weeks. We went on a couple hikes and watched the sunset. We played mini golf with friends a group of friends and went rock climbing with another group of friends. We played disc golf and had a bonfire complete with smores. We ate so much good food and of course we had to take them to Bucees. They got to meet Smoke, all our friends, our church family and Noah's family. While they were here Noah and I attended our first NHL game in Dallas. It was such an awesome game and Noah and I had a great time. Next time we will definitely be getting a hotel room in Dallas because the drive is three to four hours which means we got home at 2:00am.

So, that's my life update! These last few months have been incredible and I loved looking back on them as I wrote this post. God has been so good to us this past year. I can't wait to share with you all that is coming too! If you want a daily look into my life be sure to check out my Instagram (@darcy_rea). There are a ton of super cute photos of Smoke on there too. I am currently working on another post so you shouldn't have to wait to long to hear from me this time. I hope you all have been healthy and happy too. Let me know what your highlight of the last year has been. I'd love to hear from you and chat with you!

Until next time,

Darcy-Rea Rogers