New Leaf

So, I was sick of having sad blogs, so I'm writting a happier one. Since my G-ma's funeral (thanks to everyone who participated, it was pretty amazing) a lot has happened. I am moving to Orem, to live with my cousins, in my old grandma's house! and I am also getting to start a new ward and a new job. I'm really excited and i just wanted everyone to know that my life isn't completely falling apart! I love you, all! and thanks for all the support.

Announcements!!!

Billy and I have broken up, just so that there aren't anymore embarassing "congratulations" ;). I still love you, family. And don't worry everything is ok, I have a great family backing me up and I have a testimony that the Lord will help me through hard times.

Christmas

This is very delayed but like Jess I wanted to change my top post because I found out it is "inappropriate to cry at work." So, I'm going to do this tag that Mrs. Danielle sent me.

1. Wrapping paper or gift bags? I love Christmas and I love watching people unwrap presents just because you can see they're anticipation, but sometimes there are times for gift bags when there is ZERO time.
2. Real tree or artificial tree? I'm torn. I LOVE decorating fake trees because you can bend the branches, but I love the smell of a real tree. (Although we have never actually had a real Christmas tree...)
3. When do you put up your tree? Psh, when ever our house if finished enough to decorate and we actually want to celebrate. (about once every five years). When we DO put it up, its about the beginning of December
4. When do you take the tree down? Usually after Christmas.. I don't really remember.
5. Do you like eggnog? Never tried the stuff, but I don't want to, drinking eggs is what body builders do...
6. Favorite gift received as a child? I once got a Barbie Jeep and I loved it. And once I got a little bag of goodies from my great grandma Stubbs, and she was so near the end of her life that even at ten I was really grateful that she even thought of her great grand kids at the time.
7. Hardest person to buy for? My parents!! Agh...
8. SAY EIGHT!! SAY EIGHT!!! haha I'm pretty funny I think
9. Do you have a nativity scene? Sure don't! my mom does...
10. Mail or e-mail Christmas cards? I don't like braggy brag cards, so I don't like them much unless they have pictures.. I can't read anything with out pictures, jk... (I have never received an email card, except at work, and I just delete them)
11. Favorite Christmas movie? Top three are (in this order) Elf, Christmas Vacation, Christmas Story.
12. When do you start shopping for Christmas? It varies, usually in November because I hate being places where there are crowds of people and now room to breath without breathing "already breathed air."
13. Have you ever recycled a Christmas present? I don't think so...
14. Favorite thing to eat at Christmas? I dunno junk food! I pretty much eat as much as possible!
15. Lights on the tree? I didn't realize that was even an option.. its just mandatory.
16. Favorite Christmas song? I like a lot of them.
17. Travel at Christmas or stay home? home, but then to utah county
18. Can you name all of Santa's reindeer? um... i don't think so. I tried singing the song and it just didn't work out for me.
19. Angel on the tree top or a star? On mine this year I a configuration of twigs and sparkly sticks and things.. to answer the question: headdress style.
20. Do you open presents Christmas Eve or Christmas Day? we used to open our pj's on Christmas eve, and then everything else on Christmas day, but then we stopped celebrating Christmas and we stopped getting pj's. Now we open a puzzle.
21. The most annoying thing about this time of year? Grumps!!!
22. Favorite ornament theme and color? I got to decorate our tree for the first time in a long time, and it was gold and bronze and I LOVED IT!!!
23. Favorite for Christmas dinner? Thanksgiving re-do but with Ham...
24. What do you want for Christmas this year? Ca$h Baby
25. Favorite Christmas tradition? well our only Christmas tradition is doing a puzzle Christmas eve while we watch Christmas movies then, we go to my moms side and watch all the pandemonium

The Delayed Post

Dear Grandma

I'm sorry I haven't been down to visit you yet. I just got done with my finals this morning and I promise when I'm done with work I will come to see you. It hurts my to know that it has taken me so long to make it down. I know that if it were the other way around you would be at my side as soon as you found out, because that's the kind of person you are.

I remember coming over to visit with you, and you would make sure that we were all well feed and had plenty of Diet Coke for the trip home. You would always make sure that we all had what we needed and if we didn't you would do your best to help.

I love you for always helping. I remember when you took care of my sister when she was so down, and I don't know how we would have managed with out you. You always knew the right thing to say.

You have taught me some of the most important lessons I know. That Olive Garden has the best olives in their salads, and they are very stingy with them, so you have to ask for extras. That when you go to the bathroom in an out-house to always make sure the seat is down. To go to the bathroom before bed so you don't wet the bed. How to bring a family together. To always keep your house neat and tidy. How important the gospel is and how to live it throughout your whole life.

I would never exchange anything for you. I hope that when I have my own family that I will be able to live up to you.

I love you.
Love Ashley

Big Birthday!

My birthday was last Wednesday. I just wanted to share with you guys how everything went! It started out very early because I had to get to a meeting very early with people from our "market" and after the very long dull meeting, I had to work a ten hour shift. I didn't get off work until about 7:30.

Right after work I went with Billy to Olive Garden, in Downtown Salt Lake, because Billy's parents gave me a $25 gift card. There, Billy gave me my present! (a Guess? watch)

After dinner we went to temple square, to look at lights

This is where Billy purposed! Yup I'm engaged! Neat it acutally happened. He purposed right underneath the temple and a kind on-looker started taking our picture right after it happened and here there are! (ps we're thinking March 14th so keep it open)

PUBLIC APOLOGY!!

To Whom it May Concern:

Preface:
Once upon a time, on a certain Thursday afternoon, Billy and I went to go eat with my fathers family. It was Thanksgiving, and I being indredibly swfit, decided that I was going to skip breakfast so that I could fill myself fuller with the main dinner. Although on paper it would have been a great idea, I forgot to calculate in the fact that I don't do well on low blood suger, making me grumpy and hard to deal with.

My Apology:
Poor little Billy, I just wanted everyone to know that my attitude on Thanksgiving was due to my own hunger and emotions, not because I dislike Billy. When we lift Billy was upset because he thought that I had been QUITE the butt head and was worried that I gave my family the impression that he bothers me. I just wanted to let eveyone know, for his sack that he doesn't bother me and that I actually kinda like having him around. Thanks for all your understanding, and I hope that my prickly-ness didn't affect your accepting him.

Have a great day!
Ashley the Great

Holy Snap!!

So I just wanted to remind everyone that my birthday is in EXACTLY one month from today so just get ready for lil' ash to turn the TWO-ZERO!!!

That's all...

UGH!!!! i got tagged JAMIE-LOO-WHOO

Here are the rules: got to the fourth folder and pick the fourth picture in your picture files! Here is mine.

This is me at work in our food donation box (there is no food in it don't worry) but Jamie and me were bored so she dared me to get in the box and then we were playing jack in the box... it was great!!!

What happened to October?!

So to sum up the last month! I have been super SUPER busy! Lately I have been doing about the same things but I have no sitting time anymore... I work full time and have a full school load, and when I'm not up on campus or at work, I am usually doing homework with Billy. On my weekend off I have been doing some research on the internet to find a new job! Yup, that's right I am job browsing.. not really sure if I'm 100% sure I want to leave my job of one and a half years at AFCU, but we'll see. (If any of you hear anything about a good job in Salt Lake, let me know!)

Also this month I went to THE ZOO!!!! it was so fun!!! One day I had to get my blood drawn to have tests done to see if I was still healthy or if my thyroid had kicked out yet... I am terrified of needles! So Billy took me to the doctors and held me down while they took the blood, then we went and got me a new phone (because I left my phone charger in Hawaii a while back and it was a better deal to just buy a new phone than it was to get a new charger) and then after that it was off to the zoo. When we went it was right when they opened on a weekday so it was just us and an elementary school on their field trip, but we conquered the whole zoo in about two hours and went home!! What a day... here is the story, picture book style....

"O, I was tricked!" This isn't the water that I wanted.

The tigers were off exhibit, so this is the next best thing.

Elephant head next to Billy head...

This giraffe is licking the wall...

This rhino was chasing the other rhino while it was peeing.

A gorilla, enough said

A BUNNY!!!!

No... this is not little minnie, its a wild and vicious animal... can ya see it?

Stress Over?

SO... I decided to post a blog about "the week that was supposed to have less stress," also known as the week after Danielle and Danny's wedding, and all my midterms:D

I took a day off so that I could go to the doctor and that ended up only taking a half hour so I worked on homework all day, but because I took that day off, and my life sucks, I still had to get 30 hours in somehow at work. This weekend will be spent at work (Friday and Saturday, 11 hour shifts). Whoever said that college is going to be the greatest time of my life was sure right. Because also this week I caught the cold that everyone has been getting at work! (I think that means I get workers comp right?!)

One up side is Danielle, bless her little soul, is on her honeymoon in Mexico, so guess who has the bathroom to herself!! That's right me! It's a wonderful feeling knowing that I can use ALL the counter space, and not just my little half, not only that but I have even been using her plugs so I can listen to music, blow dry my hair and have my straightner heating up all at the same time (because its my right to be as noisy as possible at 5am when I have to get ready for school).

AND.. GROSS FACT OF THE DAY: Today in my anthropology class, my professor thought that it was time to teach us about zooarchaeologists (is personal specialty) by taking us to his lab and showing us what he does! So, I got to go on a field trip, which was really fun, but the lab was really cold. Well when he was done, he asked if anyone had questions and one little sweetie asked "where did you get all your collections?" and he said well I have a permit to pick up dead animals, as in he stops on the side of the road and looks at road kill to see if he needs that particular animals bones, and if it's not too smooshed. The sweet heart then asks, well what do you do with it then, how do you get the bones out? and the professer, Mr. Show and Tell, is what I call him, says "I'LL SHOW YOU" he takes us all into the tiny tiny room (which smelt like rotting dog food and death) 5-6 at a time and opens this cabinet and there is a dead deer, covered in magets and beetles! yup, he has special beetles that eat dried meat and they clean the bones off for him. I'm going to have nightmares tonight.

I REFUSE TO DO HOMEWORK!!

I really don't want to do homework, and I still have an hour before my next date, so here is something that I stole from my little friend Jamie's page...

List 3 joys, 3 fears, 3 goals, 3 current obsessions, 3 surprising facts about yourself. Then tag 5 people at the end of your post.

3 joys:

• Sleep. For those of you who know me, this isn't necessarily a NEW joy, but it has come a little more important to me ever since school started. No more 3-5 hour naps... this is really cramping my social life.
• My little kitty. Minnie really makes me happy! She did the cutest thing yesterday, I was sitting outside on a bench we have in our yard on the phone with one of my friends and I was eating nachos. When I was laughing at something Corrianne said, my little Minnie crept up on me and stoke some of the cheese off my plate and run off with it! I laughed about if for days after.
• My ALL THE WAY DONE ROOM, (minus blinds still, but they're ordered) I love spending time in my room, it makes me happy and last week I invested in brand new sheets that make my bed feel like I'm sleeping on a cloud!!

3 fears:

• Marriage. At least for right now. I just think right now I am too immature and selfish to try to help some other human being survive. I still rely on my mom to make me dinner! I just think that "for life and all eternity" is a really long time, and maybe its ok that I give it more time:)
• Fish. I hate the thought of swimming in a large body of water and one of these slimy guys touching me! Yikes
• That for some odd reason I will be the very last person on earth surrounded by half human, half mutant monsters and I have to fight for my survival, and worry about being eaten!

3 goals:

• Get my patriarticle blessing!
• Kiss a different boy for everyday of the week. (please don't share this with my dad)
• Grow 5 inches! Too bad this one will never happen.

3 current obsessions:

• People watching on FrontRunner and Trax! Some people really worry me, yet at the same time give me hope that maybe, JUST MAYBE, there is someone out there for me.
• *guilty confession* Guitar Hero... no more need to be said
• Going as long as I can without showering... whoa, am I kidding, or am I being serious... no one will ever know

3 surprising facts:

• I have never kissed a boy...!
• I once at a dandelion in junior high gym class after watching Ice Age and seeing them rave over how fantastic they were... I had to leave school early because I was sick.
• I can wiggle my ears

Well I suppose now I have to do my grammar homework.

work, school, and boys

SOO... I have been super busy lately doing work 30 hours a week, and being on campus 20 hours a week, so as you can figure I have been having much of a social life. This has made me be a little bit more creative and I have started to go on dates for lunch in between classes, and try to squeeze dates in after homework, this has resulted in a few days were I went on multiple dates in the same day. (At least I'm being frugal and I'm not spending money on food, the joys of being a girl.) Today being one of those days, I had a "study session date" in between classes, and currently am waiting for my next date to get off work so we can have a homework date as well. So in the mean time, I don't wanna do homework because that has been my life it seems like the last three weeks and I thought that I would take the time that I had to update my MANY readers.

Sunday night (this is PG).. Danielle you already know this story..
So there are a group of boys in my ward that are all pretty cute that Danielle graduated with (one of the boys just conveniently lives two houses down the street from me). Well these boys all get together on Sunday nights to play volleyball and usually watch a movie after. This last Sunday they invited me and I thought it sounded fun so I went to play. O but wait, I forgot that I am horrible at volleyball, so I just embarrassed myself. Once that was over a few of the people who didn't have to wake up at dawn went to the boy's house that lives down the street from to watch Bill and Ted's Great Adventure (1988). Well keep in mind that this group of boys are pretty attractive, and I had developed a bit of a crush on one of them and wanted to sit next to him for the movie so I followed him to the room where the movie watching was going to be occurring so that I could sit by him and it would be too obvious. So it panned out that he sat on the edge of a sofa and I sat next to him, putting him on my right side, and my neighbor planted himself in the seat next to me on my left side. I than grabbed a blanket and so did Mr. Rightside and he started to share his blanket, and Mr. Leftside did the exact same, except his blanket was bigger so it covered all three of us (if you did the math correctly I then had 3 blankets and was still freezing) Once the movie started Mr. Leftside grabbed my hand and started to tickle my arm and be all cute and cuddly with me on my left side, well guess what Mr. Rightside did? O, don't even worry he did the EXACT same but to my right side. Meanwhile, here I am in the middle holding two boys hands, neither of which knew what was going on, on my other side. Lets just say I was trying my darndest to not laugh out loud right there. And the greatest part of all this is, two days later, I don't have a crush on either of them, but have moved on to their other friend! Life is so much fun, lets all just hope that karma is just an old wives tale...

St George, BABY!!

So I took my sister's advice, and decided to write about one of my many adventures... this last weekend me and the girls went to, yup you guessed it, St George! We left Friday night at about nine at night and arrived at about two in the morning. We stayed at a really nice hotel that was still pretty cheap, and the service was FABULOUS(;D).



We thought that it would be a good idea to make a sign that said "kiss me, its my birthday" because we made a rule that you couldn't go home until you kissed someone...which later on the rule was changed, if you kiss someone you don't get a ride home, right before I kissed Neal.. real funny guys...

(me with the sign and the crown)
Anyway, Saturday early in the morning we went and got pedicures and our eye brows waxed, and then we went swimming and laid out...

(our toes after our pedicure)
After which, me and Corrianne went to hit on the front desk boy, asking him "what there is fun to do around here" and "what him and his friends do for him" long story short, after dinner at the Pizza Factory ...

(The whole clan about to stuff our faces)
we went and hung out with the front desk boy (aka Neal) and his friends on dixie rock...

(me and Corrianne standing at the edge with the view)

(Brady, Corrianne, Jamie, and Kicker at the edge)
then watched rambo at Neal's place, (well I think all the girls fell asleep) then we made it back to our room around four in the morning. We woke up at nine to get breakfast and get ready for church, and we had to be out of our room at eleven! so we went to Neal's ward and to a dorm room of Caleb (Neal's friend) and slept. When church was over, we went to Cafe Rio, then back to Neal's house to watch Music and Lyrics (one of my favorites). Right after which we left for home, and I being so smart thought it would be a really good idea to down a RockStar in ten minutes, needless to say our drive home was pretty dang fun!

(me and Jamie celebrating a bathroom break)

(this scary bug that wouldn't stop attacking us)

(the girls working on the car)

(screaming at another bug!)

(then sleeping in the car)

All in all it was a great trip!!! I love my friends, the girls who I went with, and the ones that I made)

O! August...

Yup, I'm really good at this. Lately I have been quite the busy little bee, and I haven't had time to post any of my extremely exciting activities of the summer! (Which, embarrassingly enough, only include family reunions and reading the Twlight series... I'm so awesome)

It all started with Flaming Gorge, which is my mother's side of things...

This is my dad claiming his territory...

The older sis and I, sporting the "Cook's '08" shirts. Love ya Gram

This is me, pretending to know how to wakeboard...

Aunt Rachel, holding two heavy cousins in life jackets. how cute

....If you would like to hear more about Flaming Gorge, my old sister Danielle (Danielle and Danny) has a more detailed post about the event. (Thanks for that Danielle ;D)

NOW... Lake Cleveland, my father's mother's side. The Powell Reunion...

This is the lake, and my fishing pole (from my view). How beautiful...

Dad fishing at the lake. How beautiful...

Mom Reading while dad and I are fishing. How beautiful...

This is a flower. How beautiful...

My little cousins also came to stay with us. I only have one more picture, and it wouldn't surprise me if Danielle posted something about that as well. I'm beginning to love having my older, more responsible sister with a blog as well.. thanks Danielle!

Little Lexi. I caught her in the act of "putting sparkly lip gloss on"... what a sweetie!

Sorry this one was so long, hopefully I'll be able to post more often so they all aren't nine years long!! PEACE

I HAVE A ROOM

If you remember from my first post, I mentioned that "you're not truely living unless you have carpet and your bed is off the ground." Well, yesterday when I got home from work yesterday, Danny (my soon to be brother-in-law) and my dad were setting my bed in my newly carpeted and painted room (I choose the color, its green:D). My mom even bought me a zebra rug that is friggin' SWEET!!! My room isn't all the way done, but finally I have carpet and space to roam around.

now if I can only convince my parents to let me invest in blinds!

Drama and Potato Chips

Last night, and this morning I have been dealing with what I like to call "dating." The exciting thing that makes people fall in love, or makes people want to kill the entire opposite sex, guess which one I fall into ha ha.. during lunch I was thinking about dating and how my massive fear of commitment makes dating o so fun, and it got me a thinkin'. I would like to know who it is that is inventing the flavors of potato chips...

Sour cream, ok. Onions, a little stinky. Together, "I'm not sure I'm following." Together on a potato chip? Delicious. My new favorite... Salt, great. Vinegar, not so much. Together, "I'm confused." Together on a potato chip? MASTERPIECE*

*WARNING: If too many are eaten, you will lose your taste buds.

I kind of miss the days when living life on the dangerous side was buying barbecue flavored chips. This last Saturday, when I went to buy chips for a work summer party, it was a little over whelming! Some of the new flavors they have out there, are a little discomforting. I don't like that a potato chip is taking me out of my comfort zone, and causing me discomfort. Not at all...

I am now a blogger

Yes, Unfortunately the time has come where I gave in, and I now have a blog. To be honest I'm a little embarrassed, but I think it may pass, and I'll get over it, or just neglact my old woman cat account and move on. Besides I need more things to distract me, when I should be doing homework (or in today's case, training for my 5k or bathing).

So... I don't really know what to write about, so I thought I would share some things that I have noticed/learned in the last week or so...

• I have found that while working at the credit union, if you forget how to say "whats your account number" or something of similar context, if you use hand gestures (like making a square with your fingers) people get confused, but somehow both of you know what you're talking about.


• I also found that I frequently forget how to spell my name. I realized this 10 minutes ago, while I was creating my blog, I had to create a Gmail account... my email is apsiers@gmail.com (this one is tough, even I missed it for 4 minutes)


• My parents got the phone bill, and I realized I spend a lot of time talking about nothing, with phone numbers I don't even recognize.


• You're not really living unless you're sleeping at least 2.5-3 feet minimum off the floor, with carpet in your room.. RIP old room.


• Beggars really CAN be choosers, while attending a ward service activity, feeding homeless at the salvation army, they told us, "do whatever they want, if they want 3 sandwiches, give them 3, if they want the bread bag to hold their mass amounts of sandwiches give it to them." Needless to say I have dropped out of school... GRANDMA'S HOUSE HERE I COME!

uhhh.... I think that is it all my observations. Sorry it's not anymore exciting.. I dunno how to blog quite yet.