Meet Colby

January 22, 2016 By ashleylately 3 Comments

Hey y’all!

I’m taking a little break in my blog hiatus to link up with Kelly’s Show Us Your Singles! I surprisingly talked my brother into letting me do a post about him!

Meet Colby

Colby is 26 and lives in the OKC area. He works as an exercise physiologist at a weight loss hospital, where he helps people with their workout plans before and after weight loss surgery. He loves his job, and he really enjoys helping people.

Colby is an active member of the Church of Christ. He is a wonderful Christian man, and he is a great example to those around him. His relationship with God is very important to him, and he is looking for a girl that will share his faith.

Colby LOVES sports! Baseball, football, basketball, golf, you name it, he loves it. His favorite teams are Texas Rangers, OU Sooners, Dallas Cowboys, and OKC Thunder.

Colby loves children, and they love him. All of our friends’ kids pretty much think he is the greatest thing ever. He is so good with them, and I have said for a long time that he’s going to be a wonderful father. Some of our friends are foster parents, and he is an alternate caregiver for them, meaning he’s on a short list of people approved to babysit their kiddos.

Colby loves going to movies, sporting events, and just hanging out with his family and friends. He is very sweet, and he is just an all-around great guy. If you are interested, leave a comment or shoot me an email at ashleylatelyblog@yahoo.com, and I’ll pass the info along to him!

Four Weeks of Paleo

August 12, 2015 By ashleylately 5 Comments

Hey y’all!

For the last four weeks, I have been following a (mostly) paleo diet. My doctor recommended that I try it because of some skin issues I’ve been dealing with for a few years. So far, I’m feeling pretty good and I’ve lost about ten pounds, but it has definitely been four of the hardest weeks of my life. I’ve gotten a lot of support and advice from friends as I’ve tried to learn this new way of eating, but it’s been a lot harder than I ever expected.

Here’s what I’ve learned so far…

1. It’s NOT easy. Changing your diet not just adjusting the things you eat. It’s adjusting the way you look at food completely.

2. The cravings DON’T go away so easily. Friends, blogs, and websites all told me that if I can stick it out for two weeks, the cravings for the bread, cheese, and sweets will go away, and those things won’t sound appealing anymor. Four weeks later, I wake up every morning thinking about how I would cut off my right arm for a Dr. Pepper and a piece of cheese.

3. Cooking just really isn’t fun. After working all day, the last thing I want to do at 6:30 pm is stand in front of a stove or a grill to eat something I’m not crazy about.

4. Reading food labels is terrifying. Because I’m eating grain-free and dairy-free, I have to read labels on everything. I’m shocked at the things I normally eat that have ingredients that I can’t pronounce. It’s made me a lot more aware of what I’m putting in my body, and even when this trial period is over, I’m going to be careful what I eat.

Even though most of it hasn’t been fun, there are a few good things that have come out of this new way of life.

1. Ten pounds are gone! It’s not a fun way to lose weight, but it works!

2. Salsa is a lifesaver. I literally put it on everything.

3. I have weird random bursts of energy in the evenings. One night, I mixed up some cleaner and bug spray, one night I cleaned A LOT, and right now I have three drafts of blog posts ready to go. I’m cooking a lot more and experimenting with new foods because I have all of this energy. It’s nice!

4. I will try new things when I’m desperate. Before paleo, I would’ve never eaten squash, but I made spaghetti squash a couple of weeks ago and actually enjoyed it!

5. If you close your eyes, lettuce wraps almost taste like tacos. Almost.

I’m excited for these last two weeks to be over so I can start introducing grains and dairy back into my diet. I’m hopeful that it’s not contributing to my problems and I can eat what I want again, but I will definitely be more aware of what I’m putting into my body.

Any advice for following a paleo diet?

Leslie Sisti

July 29, 2015 By ashleylately 2 Comments

Today, the blogging community is mourning one of our own. Leslie Sisti of A Blonde Ambition passed away on Monday night from a heart condition that worsened over the last few months. When I saw the news on Tuesday morning, I was in shock, and I felt like I had been punched in the stomach. I’m just heartbroken.
leslie4

Leslie was one of the first bloggers I started following on a regular basis, even before I started blogging myself. I’ve been following her for so long that I can’t even remember when I started reading her blog. A few years ago, back when blogging was just about sharing your life and meeting new people, I stumbled upon Leslie’s blog.

One of the things I loved about Leslie was that in a sea of mommy bloggers, she was a single girl about my age that I felt like I could relate to. She was a great writer, honest and funny, and her posts always brought a smile to my face. I loved her style posts and beauty posts, but I also loved when she just blogged about what was happening in her life. It was evident that she had a heart for God, and I love that she talked openly about her faith. She loved life, and she was one of the nicest, most genuine girls I think I’ve ever known. We started following each other’s blogs, chatting through comments and emails, and we eventually started talking on twitter and instagram, and I considered her a friend.
leslie3
I remember being so excited for her when she first talked about Stephen and how they met. I cried tears of joy when she announced their engagement. They seemed so happy together, and I love how the world of blogging brought them together. I loved following along through their wedding planning, and she was one of the most beautiful brides I’ve ever seen. I’ve loved watching her become a mother to Caroline and Ainsley, and I have looked forward to seeing their lives as a family of four.

Leslie’s death hit me pretty hard. She shared about her health problems and that things weren’t good, but I never expected to wake up to news that she was gone. It doesn’t seem fair that such a sweet wife and mother was taken so soon. My heart aches for Stephen and the girls and Leslie’s whole family. I can’t imagine what Stephen is going through, and I feel sad for Caroline and Ainsley to have to grow up without their sweet mother.

A GoFundMe account has been set up to start a college fund for Caroline and Ainsley. Please consider donating if you are able. The link is http://www.gofundme.com/d53bgd5p8s, and I know it would mean a lot to the family. Also, please keep Leslie’s family in your prayers as they have a very difficult road ahead of them.

As hard as it is to lose a friend, I’m thankful to have known Leslie through the blog world. She was a light to all of us that knew her, and we will miss her terribly.

Leslie always ended each of her blog posts the very same way, so it seems fitting to end my post that way today.

Be Blessed Lovelies!

My First 29th Birthday

April 6, 2015 By ashleylately 2 Comments

Hey y’all!

I can’t believe I’ve been 29 for over a month now! I was definitely dreading 29, but it hasn’t been as bad as I thought it was going to be, at least so far :)

I had a fun birthday week! On my actual birthday, Cathy surprised me with a cake she made for me! It was beautiful, and it tasted even better than it looked! I was a little sad when it was gone!

Ashton took me out to dinner after work, and we also got treats from Starbucks! It was great!

Neely was scheduled to come into town early Saturday morning, but she surprised me at work on Friday afternoon! It was the perfect surprise! She had lots of fun goodies waiting for me at our hotel.

We got up Saturday morning to do some shopping. We were really excited to find that several local boutiques carry Ashley Brooke Designs mugs! They are so cute, and I want them all!

I went to my fabulous hair girl, and she gave me a new ‘do for my birthday dinner!

We met the girls for Mexican food for dinner, and then went to a piano bar for some music.

I had never been to a piano bar before, and I was surprised how fun it was! There were a lot of other birthday party groups there and several bachelorette parties. They played a fun mix of great songs, and we even got called up on stage to sing and dance to “Proud Mary”!

It was a great night and a great way to celebrate my last year in my twenties!

Have Courage & Be Kind

April 2, 2015 By ashleylately 1 Comment

Hey y’all!

Growing up, Cinderella was always my favorite of the Disney princesses. As I’ve gotten older, I’ve still always loved her and her story. When Disney announced that they were doing a new live-action Cinderella, I knew I had to see it!

I love having my sweet Littles in my life, and I’ve loved getting to take two of the girls to see Cinderella. I took them separately so they could each have their own special night away from all of the others. It also gave me an excuse to see the movie twice :)

I took Little Girl first. She knew she was getting to do something fun, but she had no idea what we were doing! I picked her up at home and took her to a theater with big comfy reclining seats.

She was so excited to see Cinderella and the adorable Frozen short that played before it. We got popcorn and drinks and had a wonderful time!

Friday afternoon it was Little Miss’s turn to go! I surprised her at daycare, and she was super excited to get to ride in my car with me. She really enjoyed the movie too, and I wish I would’ve had my camera ready when she saw the stepmother rip Cinderella’s dress! She was horrified!

She and I got to go a little earlier in the day, so we had time for dinner at Chick-Fil-A after the movie! She got to play on the playground where she danced around singing about marrying her prince. It was adorable!

We ended our night with some ice cream before meeting her Momma!

I loved getting to have some alone time with both of the girls. I think it’s important for them to get some one-on-one attention and do special things without all of the other kiddos around. I also loved the message of the movie, “have courage and be kind”. Those are two things that I pray for these girls, that they will grow up to be strong women and that they will always be kind, especially when things get hard. I pray that they always know how speical they are, and they find their happily ever afters.

Ashley Lately

March 31, 2015 By ashleylately 2 Comments

Hey y’all!

Wow, I think this is the longest I’ve ever gone without blogging! I’ve missed it for sure, but it’s been hard for me to even figure out what I wanted to say here. While I had a little bit of inspiration, I thought I would take advantage of it and say hi and let you know what I’ve been up to!

A few of these things will get their own post, but here’s what’s been happening around here lately.

Ashton, Christine, Connie, and I went to see Dancing Pros: Live featuring Karina, Chelsie, and Edyta from Dancing with the Stars!

I turned 29!

Neely came to OKC, and we all went out to celebrate.

I finished Friends on Netflix. I finally understand all of the hype!

I got LOTS of snuggles from the kitty cat.

I also got a lot of snuggles from Little One! She’s the sweetest!

I saw Cinderella TWICE!

I got an awesome pep talk from Jon Acuff!

And we got a ton of snow, which was not awesome.

I’ve got more posts coming, and I know I say this all the time, but I really hope to be around here a little more often!

Have a great Tuesday!

Five Years of Ashley Lately!

January 27, 2015 By ashleylately 8 Comments

Hey y’all!

I can’t believe that as of today, I’ve been blogging for five years! It seems crazy to me that when I first started my blog, it was something I thought would probably be a short phase and that I would probably drop it after a few weeks. Once I really found my voice and this space started feeling like me, I realized that this could be a big part of my life.

Little did I know.

I feel like this blog is more real and more me than anything else I’ve ever done. I feel like I can be goofy and weird, and it’s ok because this is MY space! I can blog about headbands, country music, and my crush on General Holden on Army Wives, and you still read!

I’ve blogged about this a lot, but by far my favorite part of blogging is all of the wonderful friends I’ve made! Blogging brought me Neely, who I can’t imagine life without. It brought me so many wonderful friends across the country, and I’m grateful for each one of them! People who don’t blog don’t understand how we can form real friendships through our computers, but it’s possible, and I’m thankful for these relationships.

I am so thankful to all of my wonderful readers, those of you who are new to the blog and those of you who have been here since the beginning. If it weren’t for my readers, I wouldn’t be celebrating five years in this space. Even when I have taken weeks off of blogging, whenever I come back, you’re still here, and I appreciate your comments and emails so much! This is more than I ever could have ever imagined, so THANK YOU!

I’m excited to see what is ahead for this blog! It’s been hard to be around here the last few months, but I’m hoping to have a little more presence around here this year. I’ve missed being here!

Five years down. Can’t wait to see what the next five years bring.

*Huge thanks to my fabulous photographer Ashton and my wonderful photo editor Carly for the super fun photos and hand-cut confetti!*

“Friends in Low Places…”

January 20, 2015 By ashleylately 5 Comments

Hey y’all!

Did y’all really think I would go to a Garth Brooks concert and not post about it? :)

The concert was amazing. If I could’ve gone again the next night, I totally would have. It was THAT GOOD!

Colby and I met Momma and Daddy at our hotel in Tulsa, got concert-ready super fast, and headed for a quick dinner. We tried to take pictures, but little brothers happen…

This was my fourth concert at the BOK Center, and it is one of my favorite concert venues. It’s big, but it still has a smaller feel, and the music sounds amazing!

The BOK Center renamed the streets after Garth songs! It was very cool, so of course we had to take a few pictures!

Family selfie!

When we finally got inside, seeing the giant ‘g’ on the stage made me SO EXCITED!!

I had been tweeting about the concert pretty much all day, talking about how excited I was, sharing pictures, things like that. While we were waiting for the concert to start, I got a message on my phone from Twitter…and then I screamed.

Karyn Rochelle, an awesome singer/songwriter opened the show, and then it was time for Garth! The lights went down, a countdown started, and then…there he was!

He opened the show with “Man Against Machine” from the new album before going right into a wonderful mix of his greatest hits, including “Rodeo”, “The Beaches of Cheyenne”, and “Ain’t Goin’ Down (Til The Sun Comes Up)”.

I was blown away by his energy on stage. I don’t think he ever stopped moving. I was exhausted at the end of the night from standing and sorta dancing, so I don’t know how he kept going with all of the running and jumping he did, on top of the singing!

Seriously, he was climbing on the set!

Partway through the show, Trisha Yearwood joined him for their song “In Another’s Eyes”. Their voices are amazing together, and they are seriously so cute!

Garth took a little break while Trisha sang a few of her songs, including her new single “Prize Fighter” and my personal favorite “She’s In Love With The Boy”!

I was surprised at how emotional I was! I knew I would probably cry when he sang “The Dance”, because it’s my favorite song and I cried when he sang it at the Toby Keith concert, but I didn’t expect to cry during “The River” or “Unanswered Prayers” too!

It was such a great night! I’ve seriously been a huge fan of Garth’s since he released his very first album, and I’ve wanted to see him in concert ever since! When he performed at Toby Keith’s tornado relief concert, I got a tiny little taste of what a Garth show is like, and I can honestly say it was well worth the wait. Not only does he have a great voice and great songs, but you can tell he genuinely enjoys what he’s doing. He was born to make music, and I’m so glad that I got to spend an evening watching him bring these songs to life.

If you ever get a chance to go see him, go! Even if you’re not a huge country music fan, go! You won’t regret it, I promise!

Five on Friday

January 16, 2015 By ashleylately 3 Comments

Hey y’all!

I’m excited to be linking up again with the ladies of Five on Friday again! It’s been awhile :)

{ONE}

Today is the day, y’all. Today will be a dream come true for me. Today, I finally get to go to a Garth Brooks concert! Seriously, I’ve been waiting for this for basically 25 years!

via

{TWO}

Colby and I are meeting Momma and Daddy in Tulsa for the concert. I’m excited for us to have some family time for a bit while we’re enjoying some great country music!

{THREE}

I’m kind of obsessed with Kelly Clarkson’s new song “Heartbeat Song”! It’s been waaaaay too long since we’ve had new music from her, and this song is lots of fun! Have you heard it yet?

{FOUR}

Tuesday was Ashton’s birthday, so a few of us went out to dinner to celebrate! We tried a great new restaurant and ended the night with cheesecake!

{FIVE}

I just finished my second week of physical therapy, and my therapist is already starting to see some improvement in my neck! We spent a good chunk of our last appointment talking about The Bachelor :) He said his wife makes him watch with her, but I think he secretly enjoys it :) Are you watching this season? I’m kind of liking Britt and Megan, but it may be too soon to tell. Who are you liking so far?

via

How has your week been? Do you have any fun weekend plans?

My Favorite Things of 2014

January 7, 2015 By ashleylately Leave a Comment

Hey y’all!

I can’t believe we are already a week into 2015! For me, 2014 was not the greatest year, but there were a few fun things about this year. Today, I wanted to share a few of my 2014 favorites!

Songs

“Something in the Water”-Carrie Underwood

“Uptown Funk”-Mark Ronson feat. Bruno Mars

“People Loving People”-Garth Brooks

“Bang Bang”-Jessie J, Ariana Grande, & Nicki Minaj

“Girl Crush”-Little Big Town

“Blank Space”-Taylor Swift

Shows

Scandal

via

Nashville

How To Get Away With Murder

via

Dancing with the Stars

Reign

via

Movies

The Other Woman

via

The Fault in our Stars

Divergent

via

St. Vincent

Shops

Hazel and Olive

What can I say? Hazel and Olive is my favorite! The dresses and tops are my favorites, and I usually wear something from there several times a week! The quality is great, and everything is so cute!

Lush

Lush is a local OKC boutique that I discovered this year! There have a lot of OKC Thunder, OU, and OSU clothes, as well as other fun boutique items. It has become my new favorite place to get gifts!

Ashley Brooke Designs

I’m OBSESSED with Ashley Brooke coffee mugs! Neely and I have gotten each other mugs the last two years, and they are my favorites! There is also a darling notebook that I’m dying for :) So cute!

Target

Do I even need to explain this one? It’s my happy place.

Now I want to hear from you! What were your favorite things of 2014?