Being a Beach Bum with my Besties

So this weekend I got to hang out with 2 of my best friends in Port Aransas! Holly and Marie have been my friends since 7th grade Mrs. Tubb's journalism class and I don't know how I would of gotten through the awkardness that is middle school, the drama that is high school, the craziness that is college without their friendship. I know it is rare for people to stay friends this long and I am blessed by their friendship.
So Holly and Marie drove down Tuesday and spent the night in Austin. I unfortunately had to work that week, so they went down to the beach Wed morning and I planned to join them Friday evening after I got off work for the weekend.
So I get up Wed morning and I am sick but in complete denial. I refused to acknowledge "the funk" that is creeping over me. Thursday morning I am working and on the phone with a client and I get the "holy moly, I'm going to be sick" feeling, which in my opinion is one of the WORST feelings ever. The lady will not get off the phone! Literally within 5 seconds of getting off the phone I get sick. I realize that not everyone enjoys a good throw-up story as much as me so I will spare you the details, but let me say this: it was bad. I could deny "the funk" no more. It had revealed itself to me and it was not happy.
Determined to go on beach trip I called in sick to work Thursday and Friday and rested all day long and chugged Emergen-C and popped pills like no other. It worked! To utilize the most of my time and since Andy didn't want me to drive the truck down to the coast on my own I flew down to Corpus Christi and Holly and Marie picked me up. I had to switch planes in Houston. When I walked into the Houston airport the first thing I hear is "Ashley Luksys, please report to gate 24, your flight has boarded..." I think they said something else but I was FLIPPING out because I looked up and I was at gate 54! So I pulled a "Home Alone" and sprinted through the airport! I made it!!! Nothing was going to stop me- not "the funk", not stupid SW flight schedules, NOTHING!

So it was just a fabulous weekend. We did a whole lot of nothing. It was great to just lay around on the beach, in our condo, and to eat good food. We did had a traumatic eating experience, let me just say- NEVER eat at Castaways. You've been warned.



Our fabulous condo.....




Swear we didn't plan this....



Holly is a floppy hat connoisseur and she bought me this amazing hat! What a good friend I have. I seriously can't wait to rock this hat out all summer long!

PORT ARANSAS

Last week Andy and I had a glorious week off of work and my parents came down and we hung out in Port Aransas for a few days. It was A-M-A-Z-I-N-G, yes the caps and dashes are needed to convey the greatness of it. "But Ashley, Texas beaches are lame..." Oh no my friend, oh no I say, when you grow up in Oklahoma and your water recreation choices are between a muddy lake and a muddy lake (not knockin my okie roots, just sayin...) then the ocean is pretty ding-dang stinkin awesome!
We stayed at this amazing condo that a friend recoomneded and it was probably a big part of what made the trip aso great, it was so nice and spacious but still really home-y. My dad's blog has a lot of great pics from the trip, plus a video of us (and by us I mean me) freakin out about seagulls attacking (and by attacking I mean flying around us)- http://danthrelkeld.blogspot.com/2009/06/back-from-vacation.html

We had some knee/boogie boards, so we actually were in the ocean a lot. We walked around Port A and on the beach, ate lots of yummy sea food and most importantly just hung out together! It was wonferdul and I hope we can try to make it an annual thing.

We went on Dolphin Watch tour! It was exciting! Not because of the dolphins but because the captain of the boat was drunk as a skunk and a ship wreck was not completely out of the question....

3 Years!!

June 3rd was our 3 year wedding anniversary! It was a wonderful day! We celebrated after work by going to Hula Hut, . It was SOOOOOOOOOOO yummy!




Andy also completely surprised me with tickets to "Wicked", a broadway show that is coming to Austin in August! I can't wait!

We have come a long ways in 3 years and not a day goes by that I am not thanking God for my adorable, funny, hard working, sweet husband!

Can't believe this was only 3 years ago....

Guadalupe River State Park Camping!

So this weekend we went camping! I had never been to the Guadalupe river and was super excited about it. We went with friends from my work. We had so much fun! The river was low so we weren't able to float it, but we did swim and go on a pretty serious hike (Andy and I's walk-to-Dairy Queen exercise regime was quite obvious!)We are looking forward to taking a few more camping trips this summer and really enjoy seeing how beautiful Texas is.
The group (in our camping prom-esque picture)
Kim, Ryan, Kari, Mac, Ashley, Andy



Molly was one happy girl!

YEAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAA!!!!

So, most of you know that the only thing Andy and I can't seem to agree on cars. I feel like a car is something you use to get from point a to point b and andy, well, you've met him, you know.... He has a real passion and talent for cars.
So we had 4 cars, my car, a truck and 2 race/ project cars. These projects cars were very time consuming and not really allowing a lot of energy for much else. It was becoming quite an issue, not just for me either, Andy was drained from always working on them and tired of spending entire weekends in the garage.
Well last Monday we decided we would just look at see what was out there for me when we sell my car. We stumbled upon a car that Andy has wanted for a while, and to make a long boring story short, we bought it. The agreed upon compromise was that since Andy would have this new, sporty car then he would sell the project cars.
Can I have a moment of silence to celebrate just what a huge thing this is....
Alright, enough silence.
So we bought Andy a 2008 Mazda Speed 3, it is practical but with a turbo so Andy is happy.


Since we now have a super reliable vehicle, Andy finally convinced me to sell my car. I won't make you take another moment of silence for the loss of the best car that ever was, but I should-it's THAT great of a car.I've had that car for 8 years! Since high school! I have so many fun memories in that car. We posted it on craigslist and it sold the very next night! As the car drive away from me in the HEB parking lot, I'm not even going to lie, I totally cried. It was a moment.
Good bye my friend, I will miss you!



Andy just got home and apparently a friend of his is planning on buying the RX-7 from him this weekend! YES! 2 cars down 1 to go!
Woooo-hoooooooooooo

Sick and bored.....

So this is day 4 of no work and being sick, I am feeling a little better, I got a doctor's note so I will FINALLY get to use some of my sick time (my work will only let you use it if you have a doctor's note for 5 + days, so I had 180+ hours of sick time!) That is a blessing. What does one do when they are sickly and can't do a whole lot and doesn't have cable???
Watch awesomely bad internet videos of course....here are some of my favorite:










Okay so they are weird, but you gotta admit that Indian Thriller one is catchy....

Projects, Projects, and then more Projects...

Lots of projects the last month or so. The biggest and hairiest has been the CRX. Let me take 1 sec to explain Andy's eternal love of his beloved CRX. He bought this thing in college and has done TONS to it. I wouldn't do the list justice, so I won't even try, but basically anything that could be switched out or amde better has been. As a result of the pampering of this, this 20+ year old beast of a car will just never die. It was covered in rust and a ever flaking cheapo paint job challenged him to learn to do body work and paint it. So, for the past 2 months Andy has taken apart, cut out the rust, did a ton of body work and then painted it. It is beautful paint job, and hopefully we can now sell the car! So, if you know anyone....

Before

Work in progress:

After!!!!!
(still has a tiny bit to go, but you get the point)

We have also bought a RX7, which Andy assures me will just be a daily driver when he's done with it, but when I hear talks of a a corvette motor swap I am a little dubious of that. We will see what happens!!!


We've been able to do some house projects along in between. Most recently we painted the living room "jalepeno jelly". It is bright and probably for most a little much, but I LOVE it. Between the yellow room and now this room I've let go of the fact that everyone will agree with my love of bright colors and that is okay. My brother recently compared my decorating style to that of Elvis...and I told him that my Jungle Room was a-comin'!
;)


We have some curtains up now which helps and Andy is going to make me a window cornice which I am pretty pumped about. I think it will make a huge difference when get some stuff on the walls too. Also looking for new rug and throw pillows since none of the old stuff worked.

Another work in progress is the back yard. It is almost completely shaded and so had little to no grass. The green stuff you see was mostly weeds. It was a sad little back yard.


Being the cheapo's we are we opted for seeding as opposed to sodding the yard. I'm so glad we did because it's been so awesome to see the cute little blades popping up and slowly making us a yard. It still has a ways to go and I'm sure we will continue to seed for a few more falls and springs, but it's so cool to watch the progress.



I would like to say there are no more projects planned ofr right now, but it's just not true. We are attempted to be a little bit more balanced though, we had people over last night to grill out and play Wii and then this we are going to Midlothian this weekend to see Andy's sister graduate (woo-hoo Kari!) and looking forward to hanging out with family!