PumpPumpPump it up!

Miranda and Justin came over Friday to carve pumpkins. We had been keeping them in our laundry room and I guess you shouldn't do that because two of them grew mold. Lesson learned. So we had to run out real quick and grab a couple more.

We all decided to carve symbols. M - Peace. J - Honda. A - Deathly Hallows. D - Batman.

I tried out my black eye today and it came out awesome! Can't wait to take pictures of the whole costume!

The Friday Five - Costumes

It's almost Halloween! It's almost Halloween!!!

I'm not going to a party or anything but I am dressing up for work. Hint: My costume involves a black eye. I'll post pictures on Monday.

Every Halloween I think back to some of my favorite costumes growing up. I was an indian, flapper from the 20s, french maid, catwoman, dead cheerleader (because regular cheerleaders are just so yesterday), but my favorite one of all was ALF. I was obsessed with ALF as a kid and getting to dress up as him was just awesome.

1. Me as ALF. 2. Me as a french maid and my grandpa with his crazy teeth. (They are fake!)

So here is my list of best Halloween costumes.

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1. Pup Costume - Stegasaurus dog! This is one of the best dog costumes I have ever seen. Love your dog but also love dinosaurs? Best of both worlds. Perfect!

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2. TV Character Costume - This definitely goes to Erin in last night's episode (although Andy's Chuck Liddell was pretty awesome) of The Office. It's cute and clever.

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3. Sexy Costume - The whole sexy costume started becoming really popular about the time I graduated high school and for some reason the fad hasn't gone away. I'm not really a fan of these costumes because they all start looking the same - short skirt, skimpy top. Yawn! But I do really enjoy this sexy nerd costume. A costume with glasses is always a win in my book.

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better view of the entire dress in this video:

4. Wish List Costume - This is a costume I have always wanted to wear. Yeah, Allison from Hocus Pocus knew what was up. And I don't want some cheapo one from Party City. I want an authentic one. It's just so pretty and cool. I love old clothing like that.

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5. DIY/Kid Costume - This costume is cute, creative, and just downright cool. I love when parents and their kids can be creative and not just take the easy way with a store-bought costume. This toy soldier is another amazing DIY.

An Open Letter to My 15 Year Old Self

One of my fave bloggers posted this on HelloGiggles the other day. It made me think about what I would say to my own 15 year old self.

Dear 15 Year Old Ashley,

First, put on your damn glasses. I know you won't start wearing them full time until junior year but you will find that not only can you see the world more clearly, but you will start to love them. They will become part of your identity and believe it or not, one day you will feel more beautiful in them than without them.

You have always thought math was your enemy. You two have never seen eye to eye. But you might actually learn something if you went to that class more often. So instead of skipping to go to McDonalds, skip on over to class. Speaking of school, really take the time to appreciate your friends. Spend more time with them instead of worrying about boys. I promise you that only 4 years from now you will find that love you so badly want. Not only will you fall head over heals for a lip ring wearing, drummer, with a passion for the Steelers but he'll end up becoming your husband and the two of you will create such a happy, fun life together.

You still love Harry Potter all these years later. You should tell your grandma how much her giving you The Sorcerer's Stone last year really meant to you. But also read and enjoy other books. Immerse yourself in them just as you do while reading Harry Potter. Even some of those required reading books you just skimmed through for English are pretty good.

Learn to speak up for yourself. I know you have such a hard time doing so but eventually you learn that telling people exactly how you feel can be such a relief. Better to learn that sooner than later. I know it's hard. I know you panic just thinking about it but once you get it out, you'll feel so much better. Never apologize for being honest.

Enjoy doing nothing. Take in feeling bored. It's not such a bad thing having all the free time that you do. You will soon get your first job and that's it. You'll be a working girl from there on out.

Appreciate the moments with your family. The older you get the less they will be apart of your life due to time and distance. Let go of all the anger and hurt you are feeling towards your father. It's just a waste of time. Stop wishing for change when you know deep down it isn't coming. The sooner you mourn that relationship the better. And the constant fighting with your mother? It does get better once you move out. You two will never be on the same page. Your personalities just don't click but you will find a peace with it and learn to cherish the moments that there aren't any yelling, rolling of eyes, or frustration. Keep spending as much time as you can with your brother even though it will never feel like enough. He will grow up so quickly and soon he'll be THE teenager. He'll be the one who walks you down the aisle on your wedding day and it will be a very special moment for the two of you.

There will be lots of struggles headed your way but just remember to breathe and know it will all pass eventually. Also, some of the best times of your life are still yet to come. Try not to rush so much. Just stay in the moment and take things as they come. You're going to be just fine. Better than fine.

Love,
Future You

Found

I first read this article about the new book coming out called '101 Uses For My Ex-Wife's Wedding Dress'. Pretty awesome.Then I checked out his blog.

A friend posted this article on facebook. It made me cry. Love is forever.

Rupert Grint in a music video.

The Early November reunion show looked like a fantastic time. Fingers still crossed they will come back to FL one day. Love this video.

Awesome makeup ideas for Halloween. Who needs a costume when you have makeup? That reminds me - I need to look up youtube videos on how to make a black eye with makeup.

This pirate themed bday party is the cutest thing ever.

Sims 3 is taking over my life

I went to my annual eye exam on Saturday and it came as no surprise that my prescription changed. I'd like to blame it at all the computer staring I do at work but I'm sure it's from all the Sims 3 staring I do at home.

Dustin had Sims 3 Pets waiting for me on my desk last Tuesday when I got home from work. I have not stopped playing it since. Dogs, cats, and HORSES! So of course I went on an animal making spree. There are also wild animals like racoons and squirrels. I have yet to see a squirrel roaming around but I did have my first raccoon interaction. You had the option to 'pet, watch, or shoo' the raccoon. I made my sim try and pet it and the damn thing ran away. Then Dustin made me follow it all over town. I realize I just wrote about how we followed a fake raccoon through a game but I am not ashamed. NERD forever. It's seriously so much fun. And lucky for me the new Batman and Battlefield games came out recently so Dustin is busy on his xbox360 while I am on my computer just taking pups for walks and teaching my sims how to ride a horse. Exciting stuff!

AND I just found out how to make Sim videos. Yes the nerd meter just goes higher and higher.

Climbing a rocky area of town.

Saying hello to a wild horse (that obviously doesn't like her - haha!).

Doing a bit of traning. You can train your dog to sit, roll over, shake, etc. It is awesome!

Here she is digging a hole in the back yard. Oh yeah, and you can also teach them to be non-destructive by scolding bad behaviors and teaching them good behaviors (like peeing OUTSIDE) by praising them.

You can take your animals all over town. They can have babies! and personality traits (ex: obedient, playful, hyper). You can even play from their perspective. Tonight is the first time I haven't played in a week but my eyes are crossing even as I type this so no sims tonight. My new lenses come in next week. I was going to get new frames (and I still might) but they had such a shitty selection. They were either wired, frameless, or plastic with lots of flash (fake diamonds and hideous designs on the sides). So I think I'm going to keep the ones I have or at least buy a new pair of the same exact frame (which my insurance doesn't cover - sad face). Of course they cover all the awful frames. I think my insurance just wants me to walk around looking like an idiot. Well, I do that by myself - no need to add to it with tacky frames.

I just had my second piece of this ridiculously awesome tasting pumpkin cheesecake - in 24 hours. Dustin and I made it together on Sunday night but it needed to be refrigerated for about 765 hours before we could dig in. I brought each of the girls at work a slice. And we also delivered some to Melissa and Miranda at their new place (which by the way is super nice and cute). Moving can be fun and exciting because it is all so fresh and new but it's mostly a pain in the ass. So glad they are happy where they are though and they are settling in.

The Friday Five - Flaws

I didn't have time for one of these last week - booo. But it's back!

My co-workers like to mess with me and say things like "Ashley's perfect". A completely false statement but it made me think WHY they say it. It's because of my anal-retentive personality. I like everything organized - my desk, my emails, notes, etc. I also hate being behind or playing catch-up of any kind. So I always do whatever I can to get my work done in a timely manner. Work Ashley isn't so different than regular Ashley except work Ashley doesn't cuss. And I just wrote about myself in third person. Ah whatever. But I'm very much the same in my every day life. My entire house is cleaned every single week, I have been known to spend whole days organizing, I use my phone and physical calendar for everything, etc. It's just my personality. It's who I am but I am certainly NOT PERFECT. So this week's Friday Five are my five flaws.

1. SENSITIVE/OVER EMOTIONAL - I cry over everything - happy, sad, indifferent, stupid. It's pretty ridiculous. This morning I cried over a blog I read and the other day my eyes filled up with tears while I was at work even though I was trying my hardest to fight them back. And don't take me to the movies because I'll flood the place. A damn mess! I also take pretty much everything personally (Dustin tells me this all the time). I try not to but I do. I feel better once someone assures me they didn't mean it the way I took it. But initially I always take shit personally.

2. TEMPER - I have been known to have quite the temper. It's not something that happens all the time. I don't just walk around like a smaller version of the Hulk. But in traffic I will straight up flick you off while screaming "MOTHERFUCKINGPIECEOFSHITETCETC". I get mad easily over really dumb shit like when my Sims 3 stops working and I haven't saved my game. I will throw the nearest object. But I usually keep my cool when arguments break out with Dustin, friends, or family. It's always the little stuff that pisses me off and sends me into a rage. Definitely something I don't like about myself and hope to eventually change.

3. PATIENCE - What's that? Never heard of it. I hate waiting for anything. I like everything to be done or happen right that very moment or I get super grumpy and complain like there is no tomorrow.

4. GRUDGE HOLDER - I just asked Dustin to name a flaw of mine and although he was very scared to do so he said "grudge holder". I kind of have to agree with him. But I think it's more stubbornness (which is no better - believe me I know). I hate to give in first. I will always apologize and admit my wrongdoings but man oh man do I hate being the first.

5. OVER ANALYZER - I will literally think about something that is bothering me so much that it will make me sick. Physically ill from thought. I will pick it apart in my head for days. A fight. A hard time. A dream. Anything. I will think about a trillion different scenarios and what I should have said or done differently. I hope to someday learn to let things go a little easier. I don't need to hold on to things and let it take over my brain. I'm good about telling others how I feel but I definitely let shit eat me up before doing so.

This list could have gone on and on...paranoid, perfectionist, over-reacter, moody, control freak...

fuck yeah we can live like this - weekend part two

dustin and i BOTH woke up early sunday for what i like to call the 'pajama pumpkin pancake party'. dustin cooked breakfast and i was his helper. i did things like squish bananas and crack eggs. dustin did all the hard stuff - like actually cooking. he made chocolate chip banana pancakes, eggs, bacon, and toast. so damn good! miranda and cash came over to enjoy breakfast with us and carve pumps. we all ate breakfast but dustin was so full he didn't feel like carving anymore. i was pretty disappointed. actually, really disappointed. but we all decided we would get together (justin included) over the next week. so for now i have 4 pumpkins sitting in my laundry room.

since we weren't doing anything with the pumpkins, i suggested we watch 'hocus pocus' - a halloween treat of a movie. so we all laid on the couch and enjoyed the story of the sanderson sisters.

miranda left a little later and i just stayed on the couch. i had an awful headache that lasted just about the whole day. so i rested. then i watched the steelers game with dustin until i had to leave for the show. i checked nfl.com a few times while at stop lights just to make sure the steelers were still winning. thankfully they pulled it off. a lost to the jags would have been seriously embarrassing.

sam got there before me and was already waiting in line. so i joined her for the hour wait outside. it was nice to just be able to catch up. girl talk! show talk! tourist watch! erin and katie stopped by to say hello then headed to the back of the line.

once inside, we scouted out a good spot to enjoy the show and guarded it. we waited in this spot for about 30 min while jamming to al green waiting for the opening band to come on. HOB actually serves food during shows (which we didn't know) so sam got some chicken. she enjoyed that chicken.

first up was company of thieves. i had never heard of this band but immediately loved them. especially the lead singer. she is so cute and spunky and her voice is awesome. she just had such a fun presence on stage doing her thing. sam has their first CD and got really excited for the song oscar wilde (which by the way is really good).

my personal fave song that they played was 'look both ways'

next up was motion city soundtrack. i own a CD of their's and remember listening to them a bit in high school but they are really not a band i'm all that into. it was one of those bands that never really stuck for me. they didn't have anything extra special for me to keep me listening to them. sorry boys! however, i'm sure we were standing next to their biggest fans. those girls had some lungs! and my ears totally felt them the whole way home.

and finally my jack's mannequin came on. i've lost track of how many times i've seen soco/JM live at this point but it's the one band i have to see every time they are in town. andrew and the rest of the boys put on a damn fine show. i've still yet to see someone rock out on a piano like andrew. and this show he did not disappoint. it was actually one of my favorite shows ever. i'm not sure if it was because of the music, or the company, or the atmosphere but i felt so incredibly happy that whole night. it was just such a good time. i can't describe the fun that was had but i do have a video. of course i have video! i actually had 20 min worth of video that i tried to get into 5 min.

downtown orlando @ night is a comforting sight.

totes magotes - weekend part one

i haven't been on here in awhile. i have just been so busy having fun that i haven't had anytime to write about all of it.

we got up early saturday, picked up M and made our way about 25 min into the middle of nowhere to enjoy some fall festivities. first up - petting cute animals. we ran into mini horses and not so mini horses, a donkey, baby ducks, and my favorite of all - baby goats. have you ever seen a baby goat? seriously cute and friendly! i didn't realize they all had such crazy eyes though. they have these horizontal lines in their eyes that i never noticed before. we were all kind of amazed by it. i had to fight the urge to steal one. as you can see below i was a little too excited about those goats.

betsy ross apparently wasn't up for visitors.


pretty sure this donkey was very disappointed we didn't have food.

after all the animal loving, we headed over to the pumpkin patch. they had some nice looking pumpkins but they were kind of pricey (as most patches are). we ended up going elsewhere for pumpkins. but while we were walking around the pumps, we ran into sam. dustin just happened to look over and see mike and says to me "hey i know that guy". duh. sam was the one who invited everyone to the little fall shindig. she had all kinds of friends and family to keep up with so we only chatted for a bit.

then it was off to the corn maze. without the corn. it was a maze made out of wood. so i guess a wood maze? doesn't have the same kind of ring to it. it was a very nice wood maze though. well built and a hell of a lot more difficult than i thought it would be. i really thought we'd breeze right through but we had to put a little more thought into it. we also had to watch for spiders in their webs as we were walking. there is no way i would go in that thing at night. we finally made it out and even collected a small prize. the prize was a little bag with a lovely bat ring, one jolly rancher, and a pumpkin tattoo. score!

then we enjoyed a lovely little hayride around the property. we got to see kids jumping on this giant bubble, people gliding through the air on the zipline and traveled through all the christmas trees they are growing.

i had a fun morning with some of my favorite people. i'm not the outdoorsy type but i did enjoy doing things that i haven't done in years. things outside my usual comfort zone.

i don't think sam and i had been in this environment together since that kindergarten field trip.

we were all starving by the time we left so once we got back to civilization we stopped for some lunch. a very fishy kind of lunch. is there anything better than hysterically laughing while eating popcorn shrimp? nope.

then we headed on over to the halloween store where we just browsed around and tried on ridiculous things.

we headed home after a fun but exhausting first half of the day. once i got home i started finishing up some scrapbooks that weren't quite complete. i have made a scrapbook for every year dustin and i have been together so i finished up year 5 and year 6. i have everything i need to start year 7 - except time. i will get to it soon. after i was done, i asked dustin to sit down with me and go through them all. he was actually the one who started this whole scrapbook thing. he got me a scrapbook for my 20th birthday (my first spent with him and only 3 months into our relationship). he even started it with what little pictures, inside jokes, and scraps of paper/ticket stubs we had. so i finished that one around our 1 year anniversary. i just love them so much. it's nice to have something full of so many memories that you can touch and hold and enjoy together. a nice reminder of where we started and how far we've come.

i feel incredibly lucky to have him in my life. every day. by my side.

my sunday was just as fun and exciting but i'll get to that tomorrow. i'm going to get back to playing pets on sims 3. SO. FUCKING. AWESOME. screenshots to come.

thursday night with the maffs

dustin and i made a trip to target tonight.
we tried on hats.

changeling.


sherlock. (yeah, i really want this one!)

straw just isn't his textile.

but he can pull off a banana!

iOS 5

i tried to update my iphone last night. apparently the rest of the planet tried to do the same thing and servers were not working. my update kept failing. i was annoyed but finally got my iOS 5 update this morning before work.

FAVE NEW FEATURES:

iMessaging - this allows you to send UNLIMITED texts to any other iphone, ipad, or ipod touch. this is amazing for a lot of reasons. first, it's FREE. dustin and i refuse to actually pay for text. i think it's the biggest waste of money and still can't believe people pay for it when you can get the same feature for free with AIM. yes you can IM your friends who also have AIM but you can also use it to send text messages (FOR FREE) to anyone you want. so why pay the $30 unlimited text fee? we never have. so this makes things a bit easier for sending things to dustin and my other iphoner friends. secondly, love the picture text. i am probably the only one who finds this cool because everyone who pays for text has had this feature for years. let me just enjoy this moment of not having to email every picture!

notifications - this update is so much better than the old one. it doesn't interrupt you and it shows up at the top of the screen.

reminders - i love any new app that helps me not only remember shit but helps me stay organized.

DISAPPOINTING FEATURES:

camera app - they now have the camera app button on the lock screen. but not really. you have to double click the home button just to see it. i wish it was on the lock screen at all times for quick access because isn't that the point? to be able to grab your phone fast and not have to go through a bunch of steps to get to the camera? this was quite the let down. (if there is a way to fix this in settings please let me know!)

lookin' good but feelin' great

i'm not into fashion. i don't read up on the latest trends or this years 'colors'. i think all that stuff is pretty stupid. i do however support wearing stuff that makes you feel good. whether it's trendy or vintage, name brand or not, expensive or on sale, conservative or wild - whatever. i was never that girl you could put in a category in high school based on clothes (or friends, or interests, or anything really). i didn't dress sporty or preppy or goth. i just wore whatever the hell i wanted. and i still do.

so this is what i wore today to work. my new skirt! (paired with other old items).
i felt pretty. i felt good. i love days like that!

can't a girl take a picture of her damn shoes without being interrupted by her crazy husband?
obviously, the answer is no.

this week's nail creation. more fun with nail art!