January 30, 2009

Insanity

I have recently fallen out of the blogging sphere for several reasons. Which I plan on outlining here:

1. my baby-my laptop-and I were calmly walking down the stairs when in a twist of terrible fate, I slipped and fell and my laptop went bouncing...resulting in my screen looking like this:


Sad sad sadness... the wonderful, friendly (not) people in the geek squad section in best buy calmly told me that my screen was cracked and there was nothing I could do to fix it.

Luckily, I am now the proud owner of 2 mac books-one with a broken screen that I can't part with yet due to all the pictures, music and general info still stored on it, and one beautiful new one I am currently typing on. Yay!

2. My family moved into a gorgeous house with lots of space for all of us. In a stroke of genius, we moved the weekend of thanksgiving and my mommy's 40th birthday. Like I said, brilliant.

3. Even with my own room apart from the rest of the children, life at home is crazy-so when my amazing friend Maggie invited me to move in with her into a house in town-I said yes. I'm moving out in a week. Who does that?
4. In December, my life was hectic. I overtook the project of the annual Christmas program at church-where I work. It was a HUGE ordeal for my little 19 year old self. And it turned out FABULOUS! I had a dance team who worked incredibly hard
 and a cast about 20 3rd-6th graders put on a play about the nativity. So precious.
5. I also got to be in a SUPER fun murder mystery masquerade for our youth group's volunteer appreciation dinner.  All dressed up and acting like a snob. So fun.
I think thats it....thats a pretty quick catch up on what I've been doing for the last few month...pretty exciting huh?


November 13, 2008

Snow White

Oh the fairest of them all....
They SAY mirrors don't lie...
Hmmm....

I'll let YOU be the judge.

Harvest Carnival 2008

Sisters!

ANYONE who knows me, knows I take EVERY opportunity to dress up. You don't have to ask me twice. :D Heres what I mean:

Butterfly

Indian Girl (This one is authentic-I actually wore this around India)Waitress (For the EDGE)

Super Splash! Twin NightA Pirate? Go figure....

Ezekiel : Psychedelic!
Guess it kinda runs in the family :D

October 13, 2008

Cats Beware!

My little sister's birthday was last Thursday.
She loves dolls.
She has grandmothers who love to sew.
What does that equal?
PLENTY of new dolly clothes for the birthday.
BUT...
There are 4 brothers living with me and my wonderful little sister.
And two cats.
Hmmmm....
4 brothers, 2 cats, LOTS of new doll clothes...
What does that equal?
Dress up time for Dorito!Luckily Simon must have been stuck outside.
We'll have to dress him up later.
Sad thing is...
This isn't the first time this kind of thing has happened.
And it's not usually the boys' fault.
I once did a whole photo shoot with my kitties and dollies.
Complete with backdrops and props.
Not even kidding.
:^)

I won't go into all the other crazy things our cats go through.
Involving socks...scotch tape....CATapults...
Yea...
I'll stop there for now.
Believe me!
We love them!
We really do!

October 8, 2008

Life...in general...and otherwise...

I promised to ramble, so here I go:

We're moving. Yep, for serious. Hopefully to a house just down the road. Bigger bedrooms, newer house, less land. EXACTLY what my family needs right now. However, moving means just that; MOVING. The whole crazy process of packing, cleaning, re organizing, and learning to be comfortable in the NEW home dwelling. How long does it take for a new house to become your home?



I enrolled in the Bible School-Discipleship Course-Counseling-Theology-Worldview-Thing my church offers. It's pretty sweet. My little group of people I get to sit and study with are pretty awesome as well. Randi babe! You bless me! Every time I'm around you, be it for 5 min. or 3 hours, I leave feeling so uplifted, you rock! Anyways..back to the school itself: Lots of reading and self evaluation. I've been identifying ways my view of God is incorrect. Kinda painful sometimes, but good. It means I'll be able to go deeper in my relationship w/my best friend. That's always a good thing right?
Part of my homework:
I finished Chip Ingram's book: AWESOME book. Made me take a close look at what I actually believe and why....really, I was challenged. Healthy processing for me. Yay!
The book I start this week is:Should be good... :D



My little sister's birthday is tomorrow. Her first one in America. It's a BIG DEAL. Princess party, pink cupcakes, presents, pop up jumpy castles....We are so excited to BLESS this little soon-to-be 10 year old joy who is now a part of my crazy wonderful family. :D



The nucleus of my life. The center of my world (other than my Father-but you know:). The core of what I do. This ministry, that I help direct. Nearly daily blows my mind. I plan and plan and plan and give it all to God. And WOW. I'm astounded by what comes out of what my flawed being tries so hard to create mixed with the AWESOME, HOLY power the Almighty graciously gives. I mean, I realize there is NO WAY I could EVER do the stuff I get to do all by my onesy. But with Him, all things are possible. I have also been BLESSED with an amayzing team of volunteers and the coolest co-director ever. MCT-your passion rocks, the kids love you and God's gonna work some amayzing things through this ministry this year! God is good. All the time, and all the time, God is good. I feel blessed. ALOT.



"Embra". 'member her? my bestie? my awesome buddy? my other half? ya...gone again. Moved back away overseas. This time-no tears on my part yay! Gonna miss her....like crazy...all our late night FRIENDS marathons, crazy Phoebe obsessions, LCC companionship, silent laughter, hurting faces, rants on her bed, and just the overall everything we had together... specially since my other good buddy moved away too...Leaving me 'good buddy-less'. Isn't that sad? Guess it's time to find new friends...
Me and Embra on one of our "Little Cruise Club" outings...more on those later...


This is my other buddy-after 'kidnapping' me for my 19th birthday from another party to bring me to MY surprise party at my house. They were not gentle...but it was fun! :D

On the other hand, my wonderful Hippo friend is back in town until December at least. Which means we can go Hippo Shopping! YAY! Again...more on that later...



Last thing for now:
I LOVE MY iPod TOUCH!! I bought one back in feb. and it was cool and everything...but I recently downloaded the newest software... and Oh My Goodness! It has changed my life! I now believe that I own the sweetest iPod EVER! All the new applications have blown my mind. Totally thrilled...happy happy happy happy Ashlie!*This is NOT an actual picture of my iPod-Cause mine is much cooler with LOTS more applications. :D

On a distracted side note: my favorite band right now is Angels & Airwaves. Their song 'Breathe' LOVE LOVE LOVE. :D



So there's a mini snapshot into Ashlie's current insane life...hope you enjoyed it.

September 5, 2008

Imagine....whirled peace.....

Yup, whirled peace. Not the kind the beauty pageant queens want. And definitely NOT the green stuff that comes in a glass jar to feed innocent babies who don't know any better than to eat whatever nastiness we shove in their mouths. This kind is very yummy believe it or not. Because "Whirled Peace" refers to Ben and Jerry's Caramel & Sweet Cream Ice Creams Swirled with Fudge Peace Signs & Toffee Cookie Pieces ice cream. My friend KTLS found euphoria tonight due to a nearly unexpected gifting of this sweet sweet B&J's from my parentals during our Arrested Development session. I know, I'm an addict, I admit it... :) but hey! don't judge me! we ALL have our quirks! I just happen to have more than most.... I on the other hand, thoroughly enjoyed my Everything But The...which, only contains Chocolate & Vanilla Ice Creams with HEATH® Bar Chunks, White Chocolatey Chunks, Peanut Butter Cups & Chocolatey-Covered Almonds. Ooh la la...can you hear my tummy singing and my lack of pancreas cursing!

But anyways, I'm a HUGE Ben and Jerry's fan, so for your pleasure, here is my top fav flavors for good ole B&J:

1. Everything But The....
2. Cherry's Garcia
3. Phish Food
4. Coffee Heath Bar Crunch

Hooray for 2 for $7 Safeway deals! (more happiness for Ashlie :)Thanks for chillin' with me KT! You're the craziest!

September 2, 2008

Not Your Cheese...Not Your Normal Friend

~*Nacho Cheese*~

Yea, that was a 'not so clever' play on words. Not Your Cheese? Come on....thats just...CHEESY.
wow.. Anyway, there WAS a point to this blog. It's in honor of my bestie, I'll call her "Embra"...

Once upon a time, there were two girls. One was weird, one was sweet and demure...(ha). Together, they balanced each other's sanity from their insane family lives. Though not bad, they each lived with crazy, happy, hectic families and could randomly find solace at the other's home. They enjoyed watching full seasons of tv shows on dvd late into the night while passing time before parting ways in international travels.

The two of them planned multiple travels together, but rarely did they get to accompany one another on their multicultural journey's. And while the older one finished her schooling, the younger was very creative, graduating early and traveling before the older. Needless to say, the older was slightly jealous, but insanely happy for her friend.

So it went for about 2 years. Often missing the other because of travel plans; they enjoyed the few months they had at a time together. They did get to travel with each other once or twice...but never for any extended periods of time.

One time, after "Embra" had came home from her traveling super secret ninja style in the middle of the night a few days before Christmas nearly scaring her family to death-Ashlie became very excited at all the crazy fun friend stuff that would happen over that summer... And they did have fun! Including kidnapping Ashlie for her surprise birthday party...that's a story for another day...Anway..."Embra" left for a short trip shortly after Ashlie's birthday and didn't come back...she felt God's call to stay, so she did. This was not easy for her friend, who REALLY doesn't do well with change. She in fact, took several months to get over the fact that her bestie was across an ocean, with an unknown return date...

Until one day, she got over it and had been able to move on. One night after that, Ashlie went home with her little brother to put him to bed while the rest of her crazy family was out; when "Embra" herself was online and wanted to talk! Hooray! One hour, and she was going to call her. Happy happy Ashlie! While waiting, Ashlie showered and prepared for bed when...

BANG!

BANG!

BANG!

Someone was pounding on the door scaring her to death! Finally, she recognized the voice of one of her friends and ran downstep to open the door. When lo and behold-there stood her bestie!
(My face looked something like this)
Unfortunately, as part of one of their inside jokes, "Embra" always attacked Ashlie with liquid nacho cheese. So, the words out of Ashlie's mouth were "Oh my gosh!" then, seeing "Embra's" hands coming towards her face, Ashlie ducked and got nacho cheese RIGHT in her eye ball.
OUCH!!!!!!!

So surprise surprise, her long lost bestie was home. Ashlie could only hug her, smile and jump up and down like a retarded rabbit for the next 30 min. (after all the cheese was washed out of her eyes of course) So for the next 6 weeks, you could see the two of them laughing, walking, talking in gibberish, or trying something daring...

I Love you "Embra"! Thanks for being my awesome, crazy, quiet, 'perfect babysitting sweet-everyone loves you', friend! You make me do crazy stuff that stretches me and makes me even crazier, and in payback, I never let you leave without making your face hurt. :) You're the best!

August 29, 2008

I Grewed Up!

This weekend has proposed GREAT Changes in my life.

1. A DRASTIC new hair cut. VERY exciting:My poor little sis, I'll call her V, her hair will take a lifetime to grow as long as mine was, so she is sad that I cut all mine off...she hid from me when she came home from school! I'm sure she'll come around...at least I hope so...


2. New clothing to go with my new look:


3. My DRIVER'S LICENSE! I know, I know, about time right?


4. A Costco Membership. Now I can grocery shop like the big people do!

Yippee! Needless to say, I am one happy Ashlie.


Lemme Know what you think!