Rant from one exhausted quit coach ( or: why I hate the end of the year)

Dear Tobacco Users who are trying to quit on January 1st,

First off, good for you! Deciding to quit smoking/dipping is awesome. Okay, now that I have that out of the way...

Why are you acting like such a turd? Seriously. I am trying to help you. And although you must think my idea of a good time is sitting on the phone with you for 45 minutes why why you are quitting for your cat's health and not your 2 year old that has asthma- it is not. Way not.

Yes, quitting smoking is hard. But there is no reason for you to be mean. And definitely no reason at all for you to yell at me. I am sure you are a perfectly nice person when you are going through withdrawals, so can you try to find that part of you that isn't condescending and spiteful and be nice. Heck, you don't even have to be nice, just not super mean.

I have thick skin. I've had some tough jobs. I've been punched at, broken up fights, cursed out more times than I can count. I did suicide hotline for a while. What I'm getting at is that you aren't hurting my feelings any, I mostly just feel sorry for you going through this tough process, but it sure does make for a long day for a quit coach. I will talk to you as little or as much as you want me to, I am just here to support you so if you could remember that before you berate me I would very much appreciate it because I am really really tired.

Sincerely,

Ashley

PS. If all you needed was willpower to quit then why didn't you quit like 17 quit attempts ago? Think maybe you ought to try a different approach?

In the year 2010....

One of the awesome things we did while we were in Tulsa was open up our time capsule we made in 1996. My dad, brother and I put thinks we thought would be valuable or interesting 15 years later. I vividly remember making this time capsule and couldn't believe when my dad pulled it out as a surprise for us to open! We were suppose to open it last year but with the crazy snow we got last year we were busy playing it!



So here it is with my threatening note on the top



Dad cracking it open!

There was a super funny note inside that my brother and I had written. My brother wrote about how he was putting his most valuable baseball cards inside the box. I wrote about how we just got a computer and the internet was getting really popular and how it was crazy that on tv commercials people were starting to put their email addresses. I also wrote about hot the OKC bombing was the year before.

All of the goodies- baseball cards and McDonalds toys (Brian), pogs and Nickelodeon magazine (me), Charlie's Angels cards (dad) and then a newspaper with a real estate section so we could compare.


It was really cool to look at the things and laugh at our notes we wrote and what we valued 15 years ago, despite my predictions for the future I will not be retiring early due to selling my way awesome pog collection. Oh well.

Indian Tacos

So I've mentioned Indian tacos several times down here and no one seems to know what I am talking about. Is it an Okie thing? If so, I'm so very sad for the other 49 states because Indian Tacos are AMAZING. I took some pictures when we were in Tulsa (this was our Christmas lunch) so I could attempt to portray their deliciousness.

Start by making some fry bread, I think it's just buttermilk and flour. I think my dad took this picture (he loves the up-high shots) unbeknowst to us, you can see how very helpful Andy and I are being in the kitchen helping my mom out ;)


Fry that baby up!


Okay, fry bread is delicious on it's own. Heck anything fried is delicious right? Well things are about to get crazy up in here. Are you ready for your mind to be blown?
ADD CHILI.
ADD CHEESE.
And this is a case where more is more. Heck, you are already eating a piece of fry bread the size of your plate, why skimp out now a few hundred more calories?

Now on top of that chili you add whatever the heck your heart desires...



Behold it's greatness. I sure am, in fact, I just may have to make that my computer's wallpaper for awhile. Mmmmmmmmm.....

Christmas 2010

So on the forever long drive home yesterday I unbuttoned my pants. You know it's been a good trip when your pants don't fit anymore. I couldn't even be upset about it because I enjoy the holiday so very very much. Plus, what is the whole January 1st thong if not to delude yourself into believing that this will be the year that you get your act together and stop binging on peanut M&M's and laying on the couch watching work out videos. I digress. The point is that this Christmas rocked. Now on to my way too long, with more pictures than anyone other than my immediate family wants to see post....

We left Wednesday and drove to OKC to hang out with Andy's mom, we exchanged presents (she got me some way awesome Beatles stuff I'm pretty psyched about) and made some candy mice.



Then we left Thursday morning and headed up to Tulsa to my family. As always, it's nice to just hang out, be with my family, be goofy, eat lots, and watch cable (lame but exciting to use since we've never had it- and who in their right mind wouldn't be pumped to watch a show about a woman obsessed with eating toilet paper? Come on now, there's just some things you can't get with rabbit ears).

One night we went to Wolfgang Puck's restaurant. I felt like such a fancy pants. Needless to say, ol' Wolfgang has got his shiz-nick together and we had some crazy good food.

A terrible shot of some of our appetizers

My amazing salmon

After Wolfie's we went to my dad's station for a second and while the "adults" (nothing like going home to make you feel like a kid again) were talking to some of my dad's co-worker, we snuck off to take some pictures at the news desk.

"You think you're too cool for school. But I got a news flash for you, Walter Cronkite…you aren't" *Quick- name that movie!!!*


Pretending we are on Jerry Springer


We also played some serious ping pong, singles, doubles, and my favorite- around the world!


And what's Christmas without fear that a full-on wrestling brawl can break out at any moment? Brian and Andy have been wrestling for years, I remember it happening in my tiny apartment in college, they don't seem to mind time or place, just as long as they can get the other one in a choke hold and talk ridiculous amounts of smack. This was as we were leaving, I like to think that this is their way of saying "I love you bro"


And of course the main event of Christmas, sitting around with blankets and dog in front of the fire watching Christmas movies




Molly loves to walk around on her back legs and this skill comes into particular use in the kitchen- she was eye-ballin those roasted veggies!



On the way home we stopped in the city again and I got to have lunch with some of my oldest and dearest friends, Holly and Marie, unfortunately I forgot to get a picture. Then we headed over to my other forever friend's brand spankin new house to see Sara and Drew. Holy Moley. They just bought an amazing house, wait, I don't even think house is a grand enough word to describe what they are living in....it is a fortress of awesomeness. I'm so happy for them and drooled my way through my tour of the house. Here is my sweet friend with her super fancy pot filler- see? Way cool.



So, that's it. We had a good Christmas and are very happy to be home and looking forward to 2011. Hope everyone else had an unbutton-your-pants kind of Christmas too!

Facebook Christmas Story

They showed this video at church on Sunday and it really touched me. We've all heard the story a million times but to see it through another perspective really makes you think about the awesomeness of the Lord we serve. Very cool.




So although I can go on and on about how much I love the decorations, baked goods, the presents, and really everything about Christmas, I hope we can all realize what this holiday is all about. Merry Christmas!

Marriage- best and hardest thing in my life

We've been married for 4 1/2 years. Cra-zy. First couple of years were tough. Not like "Why don't you replace the toilet paper" tough but like "Holy moly how is this going to work?" tough. And we knew what we were getting into too- dating for seven years you got a pretty good idea of what you are in for. But then there's the other part. Getting married at 22. What do twenty two years old know? A whole lot of nothing important- that's what. I knew that Andy was a cute boy that would make me laugh a lot and take care of me. That's it. Good starting place but man oh man if I could go back and talk to 22 year me I think I would say something like "You better get over yourself real quick cause you are about to figure out the world isn't all about you and being someone's wife, or at least doing it well, requires you to continually be loving and gracious in times when you aren't feeling particularly loving or gracious. So what I am getting at here is that over this past four years there has been a lot of growing up. A lot of forced maturation for the sake of not ending up some divorce statistic and CHOOSING to love each other. I blab on this blog all the time about what an amazing man I am married to (and the stories I tell about him are just the tip of the iceberg as far as him awesomeness goes) but I wanted to write this to say that sometimes I have to choose to love Andy and most certainly there are times when he has to choose to love me. Part if this process has been full acceptance of who we are married to. I can be emotionally needy, hard-headed home body who has some pretty regular selfish moments. I am most definitely a work in progress and will continued to be for the rest of my life.
So this rant is coming from a picture we took a few weeks ago I just stumbled upon and struck me. On this night I was going to a Christmas party and Andy worked in the garage all night on his car. We both had awesome nights. I think it just made me realized that even a year ago I would of dragged him to that party because I want him to enjoy going out and getting dressed up as much as I do, well he doesn't. Not at all. Just like I don't enjoy going to test drive cars for a date night (true story). Last night I went to a different party without him and had a wonderful time because I was able to sit and just be with friends all evening and know that he has as happy as a clam at home in the garage. What peace has come to our marriage when we embraced the other one and stopped trying to help them become the person we think they should become. I have some wise friends and family members so I know this is all old news to you, well really good for you guys, but I'm a little slow to figuring out this whole marriage thing so you'll have to forgive me. I have a long ways to go for sure, but having that foundation of "you're my partner no matter what so be your little happy self" sure goes a long ways. The good news we have all the major things in agreement (spirituality, finances, future goals, values) but anything else you couldn't find two more opposite people. And boy does that make life interesting...

P-A-R-T-Why? Cause it's Christmas!!!!

Three Christmas parties in three days....let the weekend begin!!!!!

Hanging out with our two favorite kids

Last weekend we got to spend some time hanging out with our nieces- Daisy and Tessa! Their parents were going to a Christmas party so we got to baby sit overnight for the first time. It was so awesome because everytime we are together we never have to do all the things we want to do, so we played lots of board games, did a few different Christmas crafts, played at the park, and of course lots and lots of variations of attack/wrestle/hold down Uncle Andy.




There was a pretty intense marshmallow gun fight at one point (again, everyone was against Uncle Andy) that was fun until a certain someone (cough cough TESSA!) figure out it is way more fun to shoot half chewed up marshmallows cause they stick to your target. LOL. It was amazingly gross and sadly we had to end the game their before we destroyed the house too much. Needless to say it was a lot of fun and I every time we leave Midlothian I wish we lived closer cause we love us some Mapes!

Wreath Making Party

It's here! It's here! I can proudly and obnoxiously celebrate Christmas with all the normal people that just started their Christmas festivities, even though I started a while back. So last week I had a few girls from the Young Marrieds group at church come aver and we made wreaths. And who doesn't love and little girl time, add hot glue and lots of glittery decor and I'm in girl heaven!





Had fun ladies! I'm so blessed to have so many fun female relationships. In fact, I'm about to leave to go to a pottery place to paint ornaments with some friends tonight. Christmas is great for a million reasons but I love all the excuses to get together!

Yet another reason I am happy December is here

Because it is no longer November- or Mo-vember as my moustache loving husband celebrates by growing a moustache the last couple of Novembers. I can't complain too much because it is for a good cause, raises money for prostate cancer. I'm still not exactly sure how having growing a moustache raises money but his team has raised something like $700 so far.
Here is a link about it.
Anyways, I suggested (read: told) Andy this morning since it is now December it comes off. Hallelujah. I think some men can look good with moustaches but I think Andy just looks creepy. Way creepy.
So here it is on all it's glory. It has been funny to see reactions to it, the guys have all been way supportive of the mustachio (What is it with guys and facial hair?) and the girls tend to just give me a sympathetic look. Thanks ladies. Thanks for nothing guys ;)



Goodbye Moustache!
Hello cute Andy!

Thanksgiving 2010

I'm still coming out of my turkey coma so I will just say this- Thanksgiving was awesome, I got to spend the whole weekend with my wild and crazy family that I love so much and we ate lots and lots. Now here's way too many pictures....

Andy was in charge of the turkey and thought massaging the meat would make it more tender, all I know is it looked a little creepy.







Black Friday- one of Andy's favorite days of the year- my least favorite. Everything I don't like- getting up early, big crowds of people, people being rude, the "ohmygoshIhavetohavethat47inchflatpanel!" attitude that posseses people. Anyways, Andy was going to go on his own but I decided to try to be nice and go with him since I didn't last year.

Us leaving at 3:30am - aka- Ashley not happy


We did a yelling match in the electronics department between two guys about where the line started. Sad.


One night we went to Main Event and played lots of games and rock climbed for a little bit. My brother has been rock climbing for years and years and is way awesome so it was cool just to watch him and how talented he is.





The other night we went and saw Pancake Theater's The Blind Side, which is were comedians basically make fun of a movie the whole way through. Way fun, We've been to a couple of them and definitely encourage anyone in Austin to check them out. So that's it. Our fun holiday weekend. Hope everyone had a wonderful Thanksgiving!

Have yourself a spazzy little Christmas....

I'm spazzy. It's way true, there's no way around it. I can call it 'enthusiasm for life' but at the end of the day I'm just kind of spazzy. It doesn't take much to get high pitched "OMG-BEST THING EVER!" or just a shrill "EEK" about something as ordinary as well, you name it- having exact change, the perfect amount of wind, it being Thursday ;) So what I'm getting at here is that as spazzy as I am January-October my spazziness goes up a few notches November-December.
I love Christmas. Love. Everything about it. I could list like 100 things here, but fear not, I will not, instead here are my top 10 favorite

1)The most time I get to see my family all year
2)Our Charlie Brown Christmas tree (pictures coming- yes, I already have it up)
3)Seeing how many conversations I can work "You'll shoot your eye out" into
4)Baked goods- I don't discriminate- if it comes from the oven- HELLO!
5)Celebrating the birthday of Jesus- I love that His birthday is (well at least it's suppose to be) about giving and being joyful.
6)Dreaming about snow
7)Makes smores in the fire place
8)Going to see Christmas lights
9)Spending time with friends making wreaths, gingerbread houses, doing Christmas-y stuff
10) Oh no, I'm already to 10? I was just getting started... so if I only have one more space left I will go with my most spazzy Chistmas obsession- Christmas music!!! No lie, if I am sad or having a bad day during the year I will totally listen to my Christmas pandora station to cheer me up.

So, what I'm getting at is that I will have most likely be talking about Christmas a lot on here for the next month or so. Can't help it ;) So to conclude, here is one of my favorite Christmas songs, yes it is crazy awesome and who doesn't like a little Run DMC every now and then but I just remember dancing around and signing this song on repeat over and over again with my brother so it makes me really happy.
Don't judge. What are you favorite Christmas things????

Counting down the days....

What are some of my favorite things in this world?
Family.
Food.
Bumming around the house being lazy.

Yea, Thanksgiving is totally my kind of holiday. I am 95% excited 5% nervous to host Thanksgiving for the first time. My parents and brother are coming down and since I just happen to have the coolest family around I know that even if I make instant mashed potatoes and have cranberry sauce from the can the world will in fact not implode and what matters is that we get be together for few days.

I called my mom (the knower of all things food/entertaining) to ask some questions and the conversation sounded like this:

Me: So I'm driving to the grocery store right now, is there anything I can buy now for next week
Mom: Well, that depends on what you have on the menu
Me: Ummmm....well the menu is thanksgiving-y food
Mom: *pause* (I imagine this pause was spend with her imagining our Thanksgiving disaster that we were so clearly going to have on our hands, but then she does what I admire so much in her- be helpful w/o any kind of condescension in such a gentle way)
That might be something you want to do so you know what to buy
Me: Okay, I guess I should probably start on that then...

That is a snippets of my cluelessness and hopefully not an indicator of things to come. Andy and I are big nerds and did have a Friday night date of going to the grocery store to get a few things, including the main event....



Our 20 pound turkey! Okay, it's 19.88 pounds, but it was the biggest one we could find and a 20 pound turkey sounds so much better than a 19.88 pound turkey. We got Big Bertha for $6.50 too, man oh man there are some good sales this time of year. If I had more freezer room I would definitely buy a few more. I have appointed Andy in charge of that beast of a bird so I'm sure it will turn out great.

So that's what makes me happy this week, dreaming of hanging out with my favorite people in the world eating lots of (hopefully good) food!

Happy Birthday dear Andy!

My sweet husband had a birthday this weekend- 28 years of awesomeness on this earth. Woo-hoo! So we did what we did best, ate lots of good food (is that sad that that's what we do best?)

Barbeque at Rudy's for lunch


Fajitas at Texican for dinner (we felt like such big ballers going out to eat twice in one day!)


I try to ignore the fact that's Andy love of donuts is equal if not exceeding his love for me, the truth hurts- the man loves his donuts ;)

The birthday boy with his birthday loot


So after flipping through the pictures I asked Andy what's up with all the thumbs up and we says "When life is perfect it's impossible to not have two thumbs up". Awwwww...that's my Andy. Happy birthday my love- I am so proud to be your wife and hope you had a good birthday!

Crazy Aggies

On Saturday our sweet friends the Morrows called us up and invited us to the A&M OU game in College Station. We jumped at the chance and even though we aren't much into sports, knew it would be a good game and cool experience. Well it sure was. OU was favored to win, but A&M won! It was a good game and I'm glad they won because, well, those Aggies are kinda crazy ;) So many little phrases and traditions and I had no idea what they were saying a lot of the time but really cool to see thousands of people so passionate about their school.

Brave or dumb to wear our OU shirt with 80,000 Aggies?





Thanks Ryan and Elana for an awesome night! We had so much fun!