Blast from the Past

I'm going to try every month to post a pic from the same month years past. Here's one of Nick and I at my high school graduation in May 1999 - Go Mustangs!

Look out for the whale....

For everyone who doesn't believe that I really gained 80 lbs while pregnant with Lexi, here's the proof:

Let me tell you, walking was difficult in those last few months!

Arrrgh...

Living with someone who has Alzheimer's is difficult. And tiring. And frustrating. Kids are so much easier. Remember to breathe, remember to breathe....

Some fun pictures from camping in December I never posted

While I was organizing some photos in my Flickr account, I realized I never posted my pictures from camping the week between Christmas and New Year's at Cars Park.

My sis-in-law Ashley ready to partay!

Four wheelin' it like real rednecks

He thinks he's hiding

Nick's cousin Sam, look closely and you'll see a lizard hanging from his ear

Spencer getting the party started

Chillin' in Aunt Jenny's RV (so much more exciting than our tent!)

Ballet

Lexi's professional pictures taken at ballet a few weeks ago:

My favorite one

I don't want to hear any snickers about her face and that pole...

Pool Party

A few pics from the party yesterday, I didn't take many because I was too busy running around...

Lexi and Rachel chillin'

Spencer on the trampoline

The cake I made, the recipe can be found here

It was a lot of fun, we'll probably have another one before the summer is over.

Bored...

Basics:
Name:	Ashley
Date of Birth:	7-14
Birthplace:	Palm Beach
Current Location:	Merritt Island
Eye Color:	Brown
Hair Color:	Brown
Height:	5'1"
Heritage:	Irish, English, don't know what else
Piercings:	5
Tattoos:	1
Favourite:
Band/Singer:	Dierks Bentley
Song:	Long Trip Alone
Movie:	Clueless, My Best Friend's Wedding, Cruel Intentions
Disney Movie:	Lion King, Nemo, Cars
TV show:	Smallville, Heroes
Color:	blue, pink
Food:	pizza
Pizza topping:	cheese and pineapple
Ice-Cream Flavor:	birthday cake
Drink (alcoholic):	Long Island Ice Tea (if it's made right), Madres, Italian Wedding Cake Martini
Soda:	Wild Cherry Pepsi
Store:	Target
Clothing Brand:	anything on sale
Shoe Brand:	see above
Season:	winter/summer - I can't decide
Month:	July
Holiday/Festival:	Christmas
Flower:	daisy
Make-Up Item:	lipstick
Board game:	Life
This or That
Sunny or rainy:	rainy
Chocolate or vanilla:	chocolate
Fruit or veggie:	veggie
Night or day:	night
Sour or sweet:	sweet
Love or money:	love
Phone or in person:	in person
Looks or personality:	personality
Coffee or tea:	coffee
Hot or cold:	hot
Your:
Goal for this year:	have fun, don't stress so much, breathe!
Most missed memory:	hanging out with my friends and having no responsibilities
Best physical feature:	don't know
First thought waking up:	are the kids up and what are they doing?
Hypothetical personality disorder:	OCD
Preferred type of plastic surgery:	lipo
Sesame street alter ego:	Cookie Monster
Fairytale alter ego:	Tinkerbell
Most stupid remark:	???
Worst crime:	shoplifting
Greatest ambition:	be a good mom
Greatest fear:	losing one of my children
Darkest secret:	if I told you, it wouldn't be a secret
Favorite subject:	math
Strangest received gift:	don't know
Worst habit:	cracking my knuckles
Do You:
Smoke:	no
Drink:	yes
Curse:	only when my kids aren't around
Shower daily:	no
Like thunderstorms:	yes
Dance in the rain:	yes
Sing:	unfortunately for those around me
Play an instrument:	not anymore, I used to play piano and flute
Get along with your parents:	yes
Wish on stars:	yes
Believe in fate:	yes
Believe in love at first sight:	no
Can You:
Drive:	yes
Sew:	yes
Cook:	yes
Speak another language:	no
Dance:	not really
Sing:	not good
Touch your nose with your tongue:	no
Whistle:	yes
Curl your tongue:	yes
Have You Ever:
Been Drunk:	yes
Been Stoned/High:	yes
Eaten Sushi:	yes
Been in Love:	yes
Skipped school:	yes
Made prank calls:	yes
Sent someone a love letter:	yes
Stolen something:	yes
Cried yourself to sleep:	yes
Other Questions:
What annoys you most in a person?	lying
Are you right or left handed?	right
What is your bedtime?	whenever i want
Name three things you can't live without:	Coffee, ipod, computer
What is the color of your room?	white
Do you have any siblings?	yes
Do you have any pets?	yes
Would you kill someone you hate for a million dollars?	if i knew i wouldn't get caught...but i don't think I could go through with it
What is you middle name?	Irene
What are you nicknames?	Ash, Ashes, Ashtray, Oooshley, Delectable, Rizzo, Boobs Magee, Ash-hole, Yelhsa
Are you for or against gay marriage?	for
What are your thoughts on abortion?	pro-choice
Do you have a crush on anyone?	yes
Are you afraid of the dark?	no
How do you want to die?	in my sleep
What is the largest amount of popsicles that you have eaten on one day?	don't like popsicles
Would you take a bullet for the one you love?	yes
What is the last law you’ve broken?	speed limit
In a Member of the Opposite Sex:
Hair color:	don't care
Eye color:	don't care
Height	taller than me (which doesn't say much)
Weight	healthy
Most important physical feature:	eyes
Biggest turn-off	smoking
Take this survey or other MySpace Surveys at PimpSurveys.com

Too cool for preschool...

So sweet

052007 056
Originally uploaded by AshD23.

What a wonderful sight to see when you go check on your children at night...

Saving Dinner...

Have you seen this website? I bought her book a long time ago, but I kind of forgot about it until I visited her website recently. I stopped eating meat - again - about 5 weeks ago (I was a vegetarian for about 6 years until I got pregnant with Lexi), and I've been struggling to find good vegetarian recipes that everyone in my family will eat (especially Nick). I downloaded her free Vegetarian mailer and made all those recipes, and we loved all but one of them (Split Pea soup, but we're not really split pea people).

What you do is you print out a mailer that contains 6 recipes, along with a shopping list that lists everything by type in the grocery store (produce, cannned goods, etc.) She also gives you suggestions about what to serve with each meal and highlights those ingredients with an asterick in case you decide to serve something else. She tells you which meal each item on the shopping list goes with, so you can easily find the recipe if you need to make substitutions. I bought almost everything on the list and only spent around 1 hour there (important when you're shopping with small children) and about $120 (that included a few other things I needed that were not on the list) - and I had dinner for the rest of the week! Totally worth the stress involved with dinner time for me and resorting to takeout when I have nothing planned (I am not a cook, although I do fine with a recipe - I cannot just got into my pantry and "whip something up").

She has a bunch of different menus - Regular, Low-Carb, Heart Healthy, to name a few - in different serving sizes, and you can try them for free - go check it out!

Long time no blog

Wow, I can't believe how long it's been since my last post. It seems like I've gone on some sort of internet diet this semester. I think it's because I didn't have any online classes this semester, so I had no real need to log in every day, and I just couldn't make myself come on more than once a week. That's not necessarily a bad thing, but it wasn't great since my job at Labschool is to be the e-mail person for preschool and the parent leader for toddler, so it did pose a problem when important e-mails needed to go out and I didn't send them as soon as I should have. It is good in a lot of ways though, because when I come on the computer I tend to get "sucked in" - Nick says I enter computer world - and hours can pass without me realizing it. So that's one reason I'm glad I haven't been spending too much time online.

So, what have I been up to? Let's see, I just finished the spring semester and I will FINALLY possess some sort of degree - just an AA but hey, it's something to show for all the work I've been doing. And I managed to keep my 4.0 to the end, I had nightmares I would screw up in the final semester, but all was ok. Actually, my Economics professor said my average for the class ended up being 100% - woo hoo!! There was one final headache at the very end...my previously mentioned Eco professor called me and told me when she tried to input my grade, she found out I had been dropped for non-payment from both of my classes. I went to BCC the next day and was told by 2 advisors that I would either have to take them over, or go through an appeals process with the deans where I would have to get both of my teachers signatures along with the dept. chair and hopefully get reinstated back in my classes. After almost breaking down in tears, I went to the dean's secretary, and she asked my name, disappeared into a back office for a few minutes, and came out with a signature on my add/drop form. She asked if I was ready to pay and took me over to the cashiers office where I paid and got back in my classes. No signatures, no appeal, nothing. It turns out, they had been expecting me because my professor had been e-mailing everyone telling them to get me back in. Have I mentioned how much I love this teacher? I was so glad I was able to work out my schedule this semester so I could go during the day, mostly because I wanted her again (since I had her for macro), she is an awesome professor!

In other news, Lexi is graduating from Labschool this month and moving on to Kindergarten. I can't believe it, my baby is growing up. I have been dreading this transition for a couple of years now, it's going to be hard to leave the safety of Labschool and move on to PUBLIC SCHOOL...dun dun dun. Actually, we're really not going far, since all but one (and she's most likely going to get in also) of the 5-day class is going to the same school. I'm so glad I will be able to move on to a new school with the same network of support I have had for a few years now. These parents are truly awesome, and if I wouldn't have joined Labschool 4 years ago, I never would have met them. I truly grateful to the labschool program for allowing me to meet so many wonderful parents and friends.

I will still be in Labschool of course, because Spencer is moving up to the 3 day program. I am really excited for him, because I know he's going to have a blast. After 4 years of the toddler program, I am finally leaving it behind. It was sad for me this year to only register 1 child for Labschool instead of 2, it made me realize my days in this program are numbered. I know, I still have 2 years, but I am already dreading the day it's over. It almost makes me want to have another one...almost. However, we did have a scare here a little while ago that really made me realize how satisfied I am with both of my kids, and how happy I am to be leaving the baby stage behind and moving on to new experiences. It's not that I don't love babies, but I am finally at a point where the end of my school is in sight, where Nick and I can go away for a weekend knowing the kids are ok, where I can sleep through the night and be happy to get up in the morning, where I don't have to change diapers and make sure I'm not away for more than 3 hours at a time so I can feed the baby, where I can take medicine for a headache without worrying about the effect it will have on the baby. I have 2 perfect, adorable, wonderful children and while I will always cherish the time I had with them as babies, I am at peace knowing that that time in my life is over.

For the summer, my graduation present to myself was taking the whole summer off. I have been going to school every semester since Spencer was born, so I'm glad I will get to just chill out all summer with my family, not having to be anywhere at any certain time and just having fun. It turns out that was a really good decision, since it's possible that Nick might be gone for work for most or all of the summer. Don't feel too bad for him though, because he'll be in working in HAWAII! The company he works for is bidding on a job out there, and if they get it they'll be sending him. They say it will only take about 2 months, but that means at least 4...we know how this whole thing works. We'll found out in the next few days. It's not going to be fun for us, but at least the bulk of it will be during the summer when I don't have school, nightmeetings, etc to have to worry about finding babysitters for. We're going to get webcams and he will take my laptop so at least the kids will be able to see him and talk to him every night.

That's about it, I'll have a craft update soon, although sadly there's not much to report. Hopefully that will change over the summer.

Here's a few pics that I have in my flickr acct, I need to update that with more but I'm on the wrong computer right now.

Spencer before his haircut at Labschool:


One of Lexi's favorite pastimes, eating cheese at Grandma Dot's:

Spencer and my sister-in-law Miranda, giving eachother what appears to be the same look. Genetics?

Every Mile a Memory

Nick and I did end up going on our concert weekend, and it was so much fun! I was right up against the stage for Miranda Lambert, Jason Aldean, and Dierks on Thur night. I got to meet Jason Aldean:

FYI - he is so cute and nice! He signed my shirt (he said I needed a new one because that one said Dierks!):

Miranda Lambert was on first, she put on a great show, she is my favorite female performer.

Then Jason Aldean, his show was good too, although I wish he would've done more of his stuff, instead of some of the covers he did:

Dierks was next, and everything about his show was awesome. I was right up against the stage, and he pointed to me 4 times during the show (yes, I actually remember how many times, I also remember during which songs, lol). It was the best performance I've seen from him, it was perfect. I met some really cool fan club members there too. We were in the "pit", but we were surrounded by great people who held our spots if we had to leave and respected our space.

Dierks tried to reach my hand to sing to me, but he couldn't so he got the girl next to me :-(

Dierks and Jason at the end:

On Friday night I got to meet him through a meet and greet I won through the fan club.

He was so nice and down to earth, he is just as beautiful (both inside and out) in person as he is on tv. He makes each person feel special, and he even remembered people he had met a year ago. It is true, once you meet him you become an even bigger fan than you were before (if that is even possible).

I also met a couple really awesome girls through the fan club, Kelly and Kristin, who had a meet and greet with me in Live Oak.

We are planning on going to another concert together soon!

We had really bad seats to this concert because it was a weekend long event and the gold cicle seats (those right in front of the stage) were $350 each. Since I didn't have $700 to spend on one night, we sat behind the gold and silver sections on the side. But, since I was so close the night before, being that far back was unacceptable. So, when the lights went out and the security guard wasn't looking, Kelly, Kristin and I jumped the fence! It was so much fun, we got all the way up to the front by the end of the show. We were standing on our chairs and dancing, and Dierks pointed us out a few times and pointed directly at me for So So Long...one of my favorite songs. He knew us because our meet and greet was before the show. Here he is looking directly at me and waiting for me to take his pic:

I didn't take too many pics at this show, since I had a bunch from the night before and I just wanted to enjoy this show.

The next night, we went to Kenny Chesney and Sugarland, where I met another fan club member and also ran into a mom from Labschool last year! Small world huh? None of my pics came out from this concert, since we were about 35 rows back, but I'll have lots in June, where we'll be 4th row. They put on a great show, it's easy to see why Kenny's won Entertainer of the Year for the last 2 years.

That was our weekend, such a blast. Nick makes fun of my concert obsession, but I just can't get enough of them. I love music, I define my life based on music, I can hear any song and tell you what I was doing when I first heard it and what it means to me. I just love the energy at live concerts, and the community of being with hundred or thousands of people who are just as passionate about it as you are. Nick likes them too, but he doesn't go as crazy as I do. In order to pull off this whole weekend, I had to agree to not go to any more concerts for the rest of the year, except for Kenny in June, since we already have the tickets. I'm also allowed a free pass if Dierks comes anywhere within a 5 hour radius from here. Crazy huh?