Marathon Training Week 1 Recap

Week 1 Totals: 31.85 miles in 4:03:59 for an average pace of 7:39.6/mile

Tuesday: Run 1 of the week was centered on a 5k race in Opelika, AL.  This are held every Tuesday and it is a challenging course with a good number of hills, which includes a steep climb at about the 3-mile mark.  My fastest time on this course was 20:55 and this week my goal time was 21:17, which assuming exactly 3.1 miles for the course would be a 6:52/mile average pace.  As the case with most races, the Garmin GPS distance did not exactly match, either due to not running the exact course tangents, the watch having poor signal, or the course just being measured inaccurately.  My time this week was 21:36 with my watch measuring a distance of 3.18 miles, a 6:47.5/mile average pace.  In addition to the race, I did about a 2-mile warm up and then ran the course after the race at a slower pace to log 8.36 miles for the day in a total time of 1:03:40 for an average pace of 7:36.9/mile.  Overall, I was very satisfied with the day’s run and thought it was a good start to my marathon training.

Running Shoes: Nike Free 5.0 V4

Thursday: Run 2 of the week was a hard workout at the old Auburn track.  The goal of this track workout was to run 10 by 800 meters (approx 0.50 miles) with a 400 meter cool down in between.  This workout is commonly referred to as Yasso 800’s, which are used with varying success to predict an expected marathon race time.  If you can run 10x800m at 0:03:10, you should be able to run a marathon in 3:10:00.  My goal for this workout was to run the 800’s in 3:07.  I had never run more than 7x800m before in trying this workout tonight, so realistically just finishing all 10 would be an accomplishment.  My 800m times were 3:02, 3:09, 3:17, 3:15, 3:19, 3:22, 3:17, 3:22, 3:27, 3:25, which comes to an average 800m time of 3:18.  The times were slower than I wanted, but again just finishing all 10 was difficult.  Running around a track in hot and humid weather for a total of 7.5 miles takes a good bit of physical endurance but just as much if not more mental endurance.  For the cool down and warm up, I logged an additional 3 miles for a total of 10.81 miles for the day in a total time of 1:23:33 for an average pace of 7:43.7/mile.  This workout means I still have a good bit of hard work ahead of me to get into a 3:10:00 marathon shape but knowing that I have made it through one of these hard workouts gives me a good bit of confidence going forward with the training.

Running Shoes: Newton Distance

Saturday: Run 3 of the week was an early morning steady state long run around Auburn (http://www.gmap-pedometer.com/?r=3841787).  The goal was to get in 10 miles at a 7:05/mile average pace.  After a short warm up around campus, I took off on the run.  I knew a 7:05/mile pace would be very challenging to hold (stretch goals are always good).  Instead of draining myself in the first few miles and then running out of gas, I ran at a challenging yet comfortable pace.  I was very satisfied with how the run turned out.  I hit the 10-mile mark at 1:14:25 for an average pace of 7:27/mile with the mile splits being very consistent.  Consistency is something I have to work hard on throughout this training because I have a tendency to run hard at the beginning of a race and then run completely out of gas having to really struggle to the finish line.  Using the McMillan Running Calculator (http://www.mcmillanrunning.com/mcmillanrunningcalculator.htm), the 10-mile time corresponds to 3:28:26 marathon.  Again still a lot of work to do before I am ready to run a 3:10 marathon but if I can get to the 3:15 – 3:20 range for Tupelo, the 3:10 will be well within reach come December.  With the warm up and cool down the total for the day was 12.68 miles in 1:36:46 (7:37.9/mile average).

Running Shoes: Nike Zoom Victory

Recipe of the Week: Vegan Chocolate Protein Recovery Drink

1 cup of Silk Chocolate Soy Milk

1 cup Almond Breeze Unsweetened Vanilla Almond Milk

1 scoop of True Protein Premium Chocolate Peanut Butter Cup Rice Protein Concentrate

Calories:                      287

Carbohydrates:            30 g

            Sugars: 19 g

            Fiber: 5 g

Protein:                        28 g

Fat:                              7 g

This drink is very tasty after a hard run and it gets some good protein in my system to help the body start rebuilding for the next run.

Happy Mother's Day

Every year, Mother's Day has so much more meaning as I learn to appreciate and love my sweet mother as each year passes. I was so extremely blessed to have been placed under her love and care, and am eternally grateful for that. I pray that one day when I have sweet babies of my own I can be just a piece of the mother she has been, and I know that will magnificent and more love than I can ever comprehend.  It's funny how our relationship has changed over the years. When I was very young, I adored her. I wanted to wear her make up and high heels and pretend to mommy my baby dolls like she mommy-ed me. I wanted to be just like her. 
Then, a few years later around early middle school, she and my dad both just embarrassed me, being around them in public was a humiliation most of the time, but in the walls of our own home, I still admired her. 
THEN, came my precious pre-teen and early teenage years.  I just knew her one mission in life was to make me miserable and unpopular.  We would have scream matches that ended with both of us in tears. I remember being a selfish brat and making her cry, which I now still feel HORRIBLE about. I didn't like her, and didn't mind telling her how much I didn't like her, but for some reason she just brushed it off and kept loving me unconditionally. 
Finally, I started growing up a little and realized all the times she was out to destroy my life and friendships were actually for the best. All the times she said "No", she had a good reason.  I began to appreciate her knowledge, I still got defensive on occasion when I didn't get my way or when I chose to bring home a loser and she would bluntly express that he was a loser :) This is when we started to develop our friendship. She was always there. All through high school, she was at every event as my biggest fan. When everyone else fell through, she was there.
When it came time for me to leave for college, I was itching to grow up and be independent. I remember a month or two before I left home, I would threaten not to come back and visit, I am sure she laughed so hard inside. My sweet mama and I cleaned, decorated, and moved me in with my dad and brother's help, then we had to say goodbye. I remember it like it was yesterday, I begged her to stay one more day, but she had to leave and let me grow up. The second my family left me in this new home in a strange, new city, I felt like I was as dependent as a 5 year old again, I wanted to pack up and meet them back at Corner, I called her crying countless nights and she just comforted and supported me the best she could from 200 miles away. I visited home EVERY chance I got, there wasn't a weekend my first semester that I stayed away, it was just as hard for her as it was for me. It was like being separated from your best friend. Somehow, I survived that first year and four more after that, to today.  Each year, we have become closer and closer and I develop more respect and love for her everyday. I don't know why she put up with me through some of those difficult years, but I am so thankful she did and we can laugh at it now. 
I can't wait to have babies one day, FAR from now. But, when I do, I want to be just like my mom.  She has always told me how terrified she was when I was born because babies don't come with rule books, but whatever she figured out was perfect. I love you, sweet mother, and am so blessed to be your daughter!

On a similar- since it's Mother's Day, but completely different- because it has nothing to do with REAL moms, Lance and I have expanded our family and have a sweet new baby- Bo Jackson.  He is a 6 month old, dapple colored dachshund, and absolutely precious. We rescued him about a week and a half ago, and he is such a sweetheart. Big brother, Maximus, is still trying to figure out if Bo is another dog or a toy.  Max and Bo have both been sick babies this week, and Lance and I have spent more time (and money) at the vet than we desired.  Bo has kennel cough and Maximus somehow got pink eye.  They seem to both be doing better now, such a relief.

Lance and I are very settled into married life and enjoying it more and more each day.  I graduate on Friday, and hopefully will have a job very soon.  Lance is still working on his dissertation, and we are praying about our future after he graduates.  For now, we are just enjoying our little family :)

Running with Faith

The Sovereign Lord is my strength; he makes my feet like the feet of deer, he enables me to go on the heights.  Habakkuk 3:19

That verse has so much meaning to me.  I know it was not written about or to a runner specifically but for anyone just going through life.  God is our ultimate strength in any situation, and with him, anything is possible.  As I run my first Ultra-marathon tomorrow morning since last October, that verse will be one of the many I repeat to myself as I try to make it through the race.  As an ends, running really does mean much, but it can be used as a means to get so much more out of life.  Not only can one obtain an increased level of health from running, but also in some extraordinary cases, one can use their talents in running to change the world one step at a time.

One of the most famous American marathoner runners, Ryan Hall, is a strong Christian that utilizes his amazing talents to help raise money to fight worldwide poverty (http://thestepsfoundation.org/).  Another less publicized runner, Sam Felsenfeld, is currently running 60 marathons in 2010 to raise both awareness and money for the fight against autism, through the Train 4 Autism foundation (http://www.operationjack.org/).  These types of ends for running both fascinate me and inspire me.  I hope that one day if I were in either man’s position, that I would have the strength to do half as much as they are doing.

After learning about Sam Felsenfeld’s quest to run 60 marathons in 2010, I immediately knew that it was something special.  I have run 2 road marathons and know how difficult a task just one is and cannot even fathom how difficult 60 in one year would be.  After my most recent one in Atlanta last November, it took me until just this April to feel my body was anywhere near ready to begin training for another race. 

Now that I am back in training mode, I want to utilize my running and my personal quest to qualify for the Boston marathon to help Sam in his quest to raise awareness for autism.  In my cases, this will require significant training and improvement in my running to achieve the qualifying standard of 3:10, which is a 7:15 pace for the 26.2 miles. 

In conversations with Sam, we discussed having him come pace me for my next road marathon, the St. Jude Memphis Marathon.  This marathon would bring Sam’s total for the year to an astounding 61.  I have a really good feeling about this race, with my wife Lacey having used it to qualify for Boston, and now having the opportunity to have a man with such impressive running credentials offer to pace me.  It is difficult to be confident about something as daunting as a marathon but I am confident that I can do it.  Jesus said that with faith, one could move mountains, so as I continue to grow in my faith I know that a 3:10 marathon is always within reach if I am willing to go for it.  In doing so, I hope to inspire others to do what they dream of doing. 

So, join me as I support Sam with my running passion and support any way that you can.  Any donation amount to my donation page (http://operationjack.kintera.org/lancehaney) is greatly appreciated and even just words of encouragement mean a lot.

Catching Up!

Yes, this one may need subtitles. I have had good intentions to write many blogs over the past few weeks, but never got around to it :) So, here is what has been going on in our little Haney house...

Easter
For Easter, we went to Corner and stayed with my parents. It was a nice weekend. Maximus LOVES playing in the country and getting spoiled by Gran.  This year, Easter fell on a very special day.  It was the same date, that 15 years ago, my wonderful Granddad passed away.  The anniversary of his death has never been on Easter before, and I found that to be very special this year. My Granddad was not just a mediocre, average granddad, but he was, by far, the BEST granddad there has ever been. I have missed him terribly for the past 15 years, but I know he has a front row seat at everything I have done since then and I can't wait to see him again one day.  Easter is an amazing holiday, I pray everyday we are reminded of the significance and meaning it gives to our lives.

Happy Birthday, Lance!

Lance's 28th birthday was April 11th, so the weekend following Easter, we loaded up and headed to north Georgia to visit Lance's family. Another nice trip. We took Maximus along to Taylorsville for the first time, and he did very well, except for the attempt Lance made at introducing him to his cat, Popcorn. That was not very pleasant. Lance had a nice birthday, it was the first birthday I have celebrated with him and we can't wait for MANY more :) He also racked up. Lance got a new pair of flip flops, dress shoes, and three shirts, plus a "husband" birthday card! .....in two years he will be 30 :)  Once we got back to Auburn, Sunday afternoon I made Lance a special birthday dinner, which will lead us to the next topic.  For dessert, I made my first ever attempt at vegan baking. I have made plenty of vegan dishes, but was very excited to bake! This is not the prettiest picture (and, No, the marshmallows are not vegan, but they are Lance's favorite!) but, if had tasted it, you wouldn't care how ugly it looked, the BEST thing I have ever tasted.

Vegans :)
That's right, Lance and I have finally made the full conversion to vegans.  It took a while, but I think our process is a very successful one. We never really had vegan as our ultimate goal, we eventually just stumbled upon it. We started out just vegetarian, then we went all-natural (we ate nothing processed, hydrogenated, or with high fructose corn syrup) which was a very extensive label reading processed if we bought something pre-made, this led to us making a lot of things from scratch to eliminate all the preservatives.  Then, we decided to rid our diets of dairy. We figured the only thing we should do now is proclaim a vegan diet, so we did. I love vegan cooking, some of it can be very involved- it's so much fun. I had a few recipes down, but they have gotten very repetitive in our weekly dinner menu, so I ordered my first vegan cookbook and am anxiously awaiting the delivery of veganomicon.  I have never heard a bad review of this book, so if only UPS could get it here a little faster, I would be thrilled :) Lance and I have found quite a few favorite staples in our diet.  We LOVE Almond Breeze almond milk,  we buy the refrigerated one, but they also sell a shelf stable :) It is amazing, we get unsweetened vanilla.  Another favorite discovery of mine (not so much for Lance) is carob chips- Oh my!- they taste just like robin eggs Easter candy. Carob is the replacement for chocolate, you can get carob chips or powder, and I am sold, I love it! I am addicted to these  Luna bars. They are amazing, I also can settle for caramel nut brownie, since you can find them for cheaper in a box of 6, but cookies n cream and white chocolate macadamia are my FAVORITE.  Lance likes to explore gluten free options and loves his tapioca bread. We traded out our Kroger bagels for Thomas, just check the ingredient list and see the high fructose corn syrup- yuck! We love Morningstar chik'n grillers , and vegan Bocas.  I am very proud of myself, I now make my own polenta :) I love whole grain oats and frozen raspberries each morning for breakfast, I made this switch from instant oatmeal :) Lance still has his egg beaters and occasional fish, he's a laid back vegan.  I actually got lobster for his birthday, it was precooked so I just had to let it thaw and boil it for a few minutes to warm it up. It was a WHOLE lobster, I used to like seafood, but this really grossed me out. I lost my appetite, I just knew at some point it was going to start crawling away!

School
On to our final subject, school. I GRADUATE IN LESS THAN A MONTH!!! I am so excited. What the future holds, who knows! Hopefully a job, that would be nice. Lance is presenting his PhD proposal next Wednesday, the  21st. I am very thrilled, I get to attend and make goodies to take for his committee :) I am using some of my new Fiesta serveware :)

So, there is your Haney update :) We are just loving our married life. It's so special spending every day with your best friend.

She's got a NEW 'DO!

Yes, I have a brand new hairdo :) And I LOVE IT! I finally took the plunge and made an appointment to get rid of the LONG mop.  I wanted to cut it a long time ago, but with the wedding I wanted long, pretty hair. Now that that is over, I needed a new married woman look :) AND I found a great back-up reason- I had plenty of length to donate my locks to locks of love.  They require a 10 inch minimum, and I had about 14. 
There was only one problem, I felt really bad because my absolute favorite hair dresser is 150 miles away and I had to let a previous hair dresser chop away at the locks.  I felt like I was betraying my amazing stylist.  The girl who cut it is actually the only hairdresser I have ever used in Auburn, so I was not very reluctant to give her a call; however, it has been about 3 years since I had seen her.  I knew I had to decide on someone local to cut my hair because I can't just run home in the middle of the week anymore and spend 4 or 5 days with mom and dad just to have my hair cut. So, I called up the ex-stylist (This sounds like a crazy break up story, I know, but hair dresser relationships become very important!) and she cut away. 
Since I had decided on locks of love, you have to cut the hair in a ponytail or braid.... Here is what my 10 inches looks like.... And, for some strange reason it grosses me out every time I touch it.

And, for every person who is jealous of thick hair, don't be! The picture isn't great but here is a cross-section view of that  mop...

It had to be razored before it could even be cut because it is so thick and tough!

I have no regrets and am so glad that hair is finally gone. Best diet ever, I probably lost five pounds and have decreased the load on my neck dramatically.  What does it look like now? Well, here goes...

I love it, Lance loves it, and Maximus loves it.  Hope you like it, too.

Jamaica, Mon :)

Yes, for our honeymoon we went to Jamaica, the loveliest place in the world.  If we could leave right now and go back we would not hesitate for a second. We stayed at the Sandals Grande in Ocho Rios and would recommend it everyone.  It was fantastic!!!
After the wedding, we left for Birmingham and stayed Friday night at the Tutwiler hotel.  We had a beautiful room and a fantastic time there.  We had a bag of food packed for us from the wedding and devoured fruit, hummus, shrimp, and cake, of course :) We had to leave at 6 am Saturday morning to get to the Birmingham airport and begin our journey to Jamaica.  We left out of Birmingham at 8 am and arrived in Charlotte, NC an hour later, then boarded our flight that would land in Montego Bay, Jamaica :) We were so excited and enjoying every second as husband and wife.  We finally arrived in Jamaica around 2:30 local time Saturday afternoon.  We had to deal with immigration and customs, neither of which were too difficult, then board a bus that would take us to the resort.  The drive to our resort was about 2 hours from the airport. By the time we arrived in Ocho Rios, it was about 5pm and we were very graciously welcomed and began our check-in process. We were taken into the concierge lounge because we had been given an upgrade to our room.  We were expecting a beach side room (The resort has a mountain side and a beach side), however we were taken to a very nice suite type room on the mountain side.  We were a little confused since our previous room was a beach side room.  I am a beach BUM, and my sweet husband was going to do everything in his power to make me happy.  We decided we would rather just have the beach room. After A LOT of back and forth rides around the resort we arrived at our beach room....we were tired and very sleep deprived and arrived in a room that was slightly less than our expectations. We decided just to go to dinner, and hopefully it would be better when we returned (we were also STARVING!). We picked a restaurant nearby and were so ready for food. I didn't understand this 5-star dining operation, apparently.  I just wanted a salad, so I ordered a salad...I recieved ONE piece of lettuce with some toppings over it. The menus are designed for you to order an item from each selection... an appetizer, salad, soup, entree, and dessert and that makes a normal size meal.  We got back to the room and the news had reached our AMAZING  travel agent, she called and talked to Lance. She told us we weren't upgraded on the beach side because no rooms were open that day, but she would call and have our room changed the next day... and she did because like I said she is amazing! The next morning we got a call that our room would be changed at noon.  This is Sunday now, so that morning we spent the morning at the beach then changed rooms, to the most amazing, beautiful room ever!! The rest of the honeymoon was much less eventful, which is just like we wanted. 
I am not an adventurous person and after all the excitement and eventfulness of wedding week, I wanted to be lazy. Lance wanted to be Mr. Explorer and adventurous. I compromised some days and left my beach chair to kayak with him.... until we almost kayaked into a SHARK...,aqua cycle which was fun, and visit Dunn's River Falls which was incredible.  This was me everyday:

We ate A LOT. I had ice cream at least once, most days twice along with dessert with every dinner.  We had a favorite waiter, his name was Courtney. I can remember this because he looked just like Courtney Taylor, an old Auburn football wide reciever.  Lance would visit him about 9:00 every night and he would sneak us ice cream. Here is what he sent one night:

Oh, he was a doll.  We wanted a picture with him, but his restaurant was closed our last night :(  We also had a spa day. When we made our reservation we recieved a spa credit, and using it was one of the best parts of the honeymoon. 

Everyday, we had a new towel animal on our bed. This one was our favorite, we thought it looked like Maximus :)

Our honeymoon was wonderful. I loved everyday with my new, amazing husband.  At the end of the week, we hated to leave Jamaica but I was excited to start our REAL life together. 

Now, we are back in Auburn and enjoying every second together. We can't wait to see what all married life has in store. I still believe I am the luckiest girl in the world.  Hopefully we will see Jamaica again soon :)

Wedding Wedding Wedding

Since there is so much to catch up on, I decided to break the posts up for the wedding and honeymoon updates. So, here goes with the wedding review :) I could sum it all up into one word...PERFECT! But, I will elaborate :)

I guess the whole wedding day process kind of begins with rehearsal day. Thursday morning, Lance and I departed for the first time in a while. He went to stay with his family who had just arrived in town while I did some fun stuff with my bridemaids. That afternoon, my sweet MOH/best friend, Linnzie, stayed with me and we got ready for rehearsal. Of course, Lance and I had coordinating, wedding color themed attire :)

Rehearsal and dinner were great. It was so wonderful to have so many special people under one roof :) After rehearsal, Lance and I split ways not to see each other again until the big doors swung open and I was walking down the aisle :)

Now, on to the fun stuff! Wedding day finally arrived! It only seemed to take forever, and in an instant it was gone, but I promised myself I would enjoy every second of it....and that I did. My best friend, Linnzie, spent the night with me after rehearsal...no worries, no parties, we crashed about 10 pm :) We woke up the next morning to open my sweet wedding gift from Mr.Haney. A beautiful engraved jewelry box.  He had engraved the sweetest little love note on it and it plays "My Girl" when opened. I got Lance Newton running shoes, they are his own little piece of heaven.  
I had to check us in online for our flight the next morning to Jamaica, but ran into many complications and ended up in tears over the airlines.  Our wonderful travel agent, however worked everything out, and we were able to handle everything at the airport the next morning. After the stress from the airline, I went for a little treadmill run to calm my nerves.  My sweet, amazing, incredible bridesmaids arrived at my house early afternoon along with my hairstylist who did all of our hair, and an amazing job at that! We had the best time just hanging out and relaxing with each other.  I don't know how many people can say this, but I had the best bridal party ever. They are beautiful on the inside and outside. These 4 girls are truly my BEST friends,each one of them has stuck by my side through every good time and bad. I didn't ask any of them to be my bridesmaids out of fear for hurt feelings or to make sure everyone was included which is sadly what some brides must do to avoid hurt feelings, I asked my girls because I could not imagine such a special day without them.



 I was a very calm and excited bride. I had no need to worry or be frantic, I was about to marry my prince charming. We got to the church a little before 5, which we were a little late from my specific itinerary, but I tried not to be too bossy. I was so excited, but had a little anxiety... I had to fit in my dress! All the girls got ready because it took an army to get me in mine so I had to wait! They looked beautiful, the dresses were all perfect. Finally, I couldn't take the wait any longer and had to get in my dress. It went on perfectly.  Everything came together more perfect than I could have ever imagined. Our photographer was incredible, Candace and Tyler Hilley. Tyler shot the guys and Candace took the girls for pre wedding pictures. They were so fast and awesome. We were ahead of schedule. So, we had some time to sit and wait...thankfully we had the sweetest ring bearer and flower girls to entertain us.

Finally, it was wedding time.  My bridal party and I left the brides room and went upstairs to wait on our ques to walk. We had some time to wait around while the video played and parents walked.  Again, thank goodness for those sweethearts in the picture above. I have never laughed so hard at such a needed time. They were so sweet and giggly. Madison and McKenzie, the flower girls kept saying, "I am just SO EXCITED!" Asher, the ring bearer, was flirting with the girls and giggling the whole time....it was precious.  I was fine and very held together UNTIL it was time for Linnzie to leave me and get in line to walk. We have been BEST friend since we were 2 years old and been through EVERYTHING together. I told her I loved her and thanked her for everything, we burst into tears....I  pulled it together and met my daddy. He did so well.  It was finally time to see my sweetheart.  The doors burst open while the wedding march was playing. I couldn't look at anyone standing, my eyes were focused on the most handsome man I had ever seen standing at the end of the aisle, Lance.
The service was perfect. We had two officiants, both who are very dear. Rev.Wayne Shelton who was my pastor  growing up and like another daddy to me, and Rev. Chris Wilson who is the current pastor at our church in Corner. When Chris and his family came to New Temple, and Lance and I met them we just fell in love with them. Our ring bearer is actually their son :) So it meant so much to have both of them performing our ceremony. Bro. Wayne began with the marriage sermon. I have a FAVORITE bible verse and have always said it would be displayed at my wedding, and you bet it was. It is Song of Songs 8:6-7 and says:
       Place me like a seal over your heart,
       like a seal on your arm;
       for love is as strong as death,
       its jealousy unyielding as the grave. 
       It burns like blazing fire,
       like a mighty flame.
  Many waters cannot quench love;
       rivers cannot wash it away.
       If one were to give
       all the wealth of his house for love,
       it would be utterly scorned.

It was framed by my bride's cake and on the spread of our programs. Bro. Wayne begins the marriage sermon and he has based in on this verse. I found out later he had no idea how precious this verse is to me. When he was waiting with Chris and Lance before the wedding began, he opened the program and was surprised to see it listed... Amazing, just another perfect component. Then, Chris took over and being the funny man he is, cracked a joke that we were about to become Lancey :) It was PERFECT!  He did the rings and vows in which Lance being so precious shed tears. Again, it just made it PERFECT.  Lance kissed his bride and paraded me back down the aisle. We were MARRIED!   We had to run downstairs and cut the cake before returning for more pictures.... This is what we found:

Michelle McLaughlin did our cakes and we can't say enough great things about her.  That girl is talented! We could not imagine more perfect cakes! She also did these to complete our Auburn table:

We finished our pictures together, again with our amazing photographers and headed down to our reception. We were so blessed with all our wonderful friends and family who came to celebrate this exciting occasion with us. My mom has amazing friends who spent the week decorating, and it was truly breathtaking. Our sweet friends from Auburn who introduced us, Blake and Traci, made the journey to Corner, AL for our wedding along with many sweet friends of ours who we are so glad we got to spend this time with.  We left in a beautiful antique car, then spent the night at the Tutwiler hotel in dowtown Birmingham.  The most exciting part was tearing into the reception food that had been packed for us. We had hummus, shrimp, fruit, cheese. veggies, crackers, cookie dough from my sweet mother :), and CAKE!! It was heavenly.

Marriage is such a blessing and we can't wait for the rest of our lives together. We watched our wedding dvd last night upon returning to Auburn and I told Lance I never want to lose that look I had for him at our wedding. That is my prayer and desire. I love my husband more than words can describe and am so proud to be his wife :)

Here are some of my favorite pictures from the wedding.  You can view them all on facebook, here is the link to the albym.

Also, we had a dvd that played at the beginning of the ceremony and have posted it to youtube, here is the link:

One more thing, we HIGHLY recommend our wonderful photographers! Their website is www.hilleyfotos.com and our pictures will be posted soon under the 'proofs' section.  They were such a blessing to have with us on our special day! Their packages are incredible and they are the sweetest couple.  From the bottom of our hearts, thank you Candace and Tyler!!!
And of course, if you live in the Corner/Dora area and haven't already heard about her, Michelle McLaughlin, our cake maker is FANTASTIC if you can't tell from the pictures above. Thank you, thank you, thank you sweet girl! We were blessed with great vendors!

Ok, here are pictures: