Paisley

Monday, January 31, 2011

My Day: *Cough* School *Cough* Dinner *Cough* Tired

So today started out as a pretty bleh day. My 6:30am run with Elyse didn't end up happening, although we did text each other for like 15 minutes at 6:15am to determine that Elyse did not have the proper attire to run in the chilly weather. I was pretty impressed by the coherency of our texts at such an early hour! I convinced myself that I would workout after class, because of course, by then, I would be feeling better.

Well after being awake so early I decided to get some Becker work done and get ready for my day. I stocked up on meds for the day, sudafed, advil, etc. when my Dad texted to tell me he'd be down in Lex for the day! Yay! I offered to make him and my brother Ryan dinner, so it was off to the grocery store for me! I honestly HATE the grocery store, since I am such a penny-pincher, it seems like the numbers and aisles all start spinning out of control,  making me feel dizzy. And there are WAY too many options, and as a novice cook, 2 options are too many!  But today was much worse, I think because of the high dose of meds I took all at once, the grocery store was extremely dizzying. I tried to get in and out of there as soon as possible. What I did not know at the time was that I'd feel like this for the rest of the day, boo :(.

Then came the part of the day that I won't bore you with. School, school, and school from about 12-6:15. I felt like poo the whole day but tried my best to fight my way through it. After my group met up to discuss a project, I RUSHED home to throw together a dinner that I didn't realize would take an hour and a half to make. I got home around 6:30 and my Dad and brother arrived for dinner around 7:15, it was definitely not ready yet. I made (for the first time) Chicken Parmesan, asparagus, salad, bread and chocolate chip cookies for dessert and Ryan brought over some Sangria! :). I am a very self conscious cook. I may be kind of obnoxious the first time I have made something asking, "um, does that taste ok?!, "are you sure?!", "please be honest with me". But after all of my thrown together cooking, the result was pretty satisfactory, all of the men cleared their plates and me, the only woman, did not, but I think it was because I took to much?! haha! When all was sad and done though, I was glad I made it, quickly put together dinners like this may be the reality of my future, when there are jobs, kids, and etc. to tend to!

Here's Michael's photo of the day of our food!


Well the fam left around 9, and now I have a butt-ton of dishes to clean up, a blog to write, and homework to do for tomorrow. I'm glad I got to infuse my day with a little bit of family time though, it definitely turned it around for me.  Despite the fact that I wore my workout clothes all day today, and alas no working out! OH WELL.

 Michael starts real surgery tomorrow (today was orientation) and he has to be in at 5am. I feel bad for him, sleep deprivation will become his friend sooner rather than later! But for me, it is time to do some work before an early bed time for the early riser! Goodnight Friends! :)

*thinking of all of you effected by the apparently huge blizzard that is ripping it's way through the US*

Sunday, January 30, 2011

Almost 12 hours of sleep later...

Hmmm today, what to write about? Well I woke up after going to bed at 9:15pm at 8:30am this morning, let's just say there was nyquil involved, feeling a tiny bit better. I came down stairs ate my Special K, watched a Becker Audit video, then began to feel miserable again and headed back up to bed at about 9:45 am. I was planning on trying to make it to church but I decided a little to late that I would put some effort into getting ready. However I convinced myself to get ready and have lunch over at the Kasten's, despite feeling terrible, still.

It was lovely to be out in the fresh air finally after being cooped up the previous day. We even cracked the windows on the car ride over, the fresh air was overwhelmingly great. Jan (Michael's mom) made a yummy Caribbean meal of Jerk Chicken, Mango Salsa, Rice, Veggies, Corn Cakes, and delicious rum cake with ice cream for dessert. It made all of us feel warm and look forward to the summer.

Even after lunch I still felt like poo, but still wanted to go to bible study. Michael and I enjoyed B-stud tonight, it was a smaller group but we played an interesting marshmallow game that taught us how to communicate better and we got to hear everyone's "when I realized I liked him/her" stories, which were cute, sweet, and funny. I'm glad I went, lets just hope no germs were spread!

Let me tell you about what JUST happened, like right now as I was sitting here thinking about what to write. Michael took the dogs out to pee while he got the mail (yes, I realize it's Sunday, no mail, but Michael didn't really leave the house yesterday either, so no trip to the mailbox was taken). Well when they were walking back in Michael thought Carson was slowing down to stop and wait for him to open the door to let him in. Well, he was wrong, Carson ran at full speed into the glass storm door. I could hear the loud BOOM as he ran into it. Michael was cracking up and Carson didn't even seem to realize that he just killed half of his brain cells. This dog is crazy. Lately we've been calling him Mr. Kangaroo because of the hops this white little doggy has. When offering him a treat, he will jump a few feet in the air, repeatedly. The joy he has for life is overwhelming and awesome. I wish I had the energy that he had sometimes, maybe not his brains, but definitely the energy! :)

Hopefully tomorrow will bring a healthier feeling body, I've already planned for an early, 6:30 am run with Miss Elyse Hoxby, so we shall see how that goes!

Saturday, January 29, 2011

I've taken ill

Sadly, I must say that I have been sick ALL day today. You know on the warmest day we have had in a LONG time. I have barely moved throughout a 5 foot radius in the house. My entire body aches, head is pounding, nose is stuffed, ALL day. I think the stress of the week finally caught up with me or something. I basically slept through the entire UK game. I don't feel well.

Michael and I were supposed to hang out with the Armstrongs tonight, but considering I am still wearing the pajamas I slept in, I realized that wouldn't be happening. Which is sad because we haven't seen them in forever.

Michael and I ended up watching "Fantastic Mr. Fox" tonight. Super cute and funny. I would recommend. It was recommended to me by the family I used to nanny.

I wish I could write more but sitting straight up is not tickling my fancy right now. Although it is 9 o'clock I think I will be heading towards bed very shortly. Fun Saturday night, right?

*I hope I don't get Michael sick since he's starting surgery on Monday, that would be terribly unfortunate*

Good night world, tomorrow's another day, where hopefully I'll feel better and be able to attend church and bible study. bleh....

Friday, January 28, 2011

To run or not to run?!

Ok, so in the past 2 years I guess it would be, I have been a crazy active runner. Always signed up for the next race, always training. Well since the wedding and everything I haven't really done much in the way of running. Well, Michael, Amanda, and her boyfriend Stu and I ran the Chicago half on Sept 12th of last year but that was the last race. It has been weird not training for a race and because of the lack of race in the near future, my desire to run consistently has decreased enormously. I was thinking about signing up for the Louisville Derby Half Marathon on April 30th, I know the race is huge and I haven't done much running in Louisville besides the Papa John's 10 milers which is the week before the half. Michael has ran the full version of this race twice and he enjoyed it. So I'm debating. Should I do it? Michael's sister Andrea, said she was thinking about doing it, so it'd be fun to do it as a family thing, but I haven't heard about it in a while.  What do you all suggest?! Would anyone want to run this race with me??? (this is the training schedule I always use if interested)

I thought it would be fun for me and maybe a tiny bit interesting for you to hear about and see my running past. It's reflection time!!!....

It all began at Gray Middle School, I was recruited in the 8th grade to join the Cross Country Team, I never had run before, but was not really good at sports so I gave it a shot. I made some really good friends and ended up not being half bad, I believe that was the year I got to go to state. As time progressed, my running never really went anywhere better, but I continued to do it, I never went to state again, but I definitely wasn't the worst on the team. 

Then came college, I hadn't run in a while and it took me a while to get into the whole swing of things, I would randomly go and run on the treadmill but it was weird being in a new city that I didn't know and was afraid to run outside on my own. I was used to running the course at our High School and that's about it, running and laughing with my friends. So running kind of took the back seat for a while. 

Well, it all started up again when Miss Becca Colbert and I were roommates. One of the best roomies in the world I must say! :) 

Our relationship is awesome, don't even doubt it!


We became running crazies when we decided to sign up for UK's "Training for a Half Marathon" Class. It was spring semester, so half of the time we were running in snowy, wintery, FREEZING conditions!  In preparation for the half, we ran the Papa John's 10 miler, which resulted in a HILARIOUS story about Becca, that you'll have to ask her about! My first half marathon was Cincinnati's flying pig marathon!
 
 Although I screwed up my ankle and was hobbling the entire run, I really enjoyed myself! It was time for more! I was now addicted!!!

As you look at these pictures realize all of these took place probably within a year and 1/2 time frame. I was race crazy, signing up for as many as possible. Also, you will tend to notice, that in most races, I am soaking yet, yes, it always seemed to rain when I signed up for races or there were arctic temperatures! It always makes everything more interesting!

Here's the list of races that I can remember ( I know there were more but I cannot recall):
- Papa John's 10 miler - April 2009
-Cincinnati Half Marathon - May 2009
- Bluegrass 10k - July 2009
-Midsummer's Night Run, 5k - August 2009
-Bourbon Chase - Oct. 2009
- Indianapolis Monumental Half Marathon Nov. 2009
- Disney World FULL marathon - Jan. 2010
-Lexington Half Marathon - March 2010 (my birthday!)
-Midsummer's Night run, 5k - August 2010
-Chicago Half Marathon - Sept. 2010
(can you even imagine the amount of dinero I spent on all this running, plus equipment, plus travelling?! ahhh! ) 


One of my most memorable runs/experiences was the Bourbon Chase, which is a 200 mile run along Kentucky's Bourbon Trail. (it's a relay, no worries) With a team of 12, 2 vans were required to transport us all. Our team started with a co-worker I had at the Kentucky Chamber of Commerce, Becca ended up running it too. Our team basically didn't know each other and people were from ALL over the United States, it was pretty awesome and we formed great friendships! :) Let's just say the inaugural Bourbon Chase was pretty interesting, VERY HILLY, VERY WET, and VERY COLD! And oftentimes VERY DARK, as the race went straight through the night lasting 2 days!

Van #1 at the Kentucky Bourbon Chase ---check out the bourbon chase!
The entire bourbon Chase team - what happy and fond memories despite the freezing, rainy conditions

 After the Bourbon Chase Becca, our friend Ben (the tall redhead), and myself went officially crazy! I mean what got into us?! We immediately signed up for a half marathon in Indy. It was a blast and we rocked our half time !

These are the blankets they give you after the race to retain heat, this is in Indy.  So many people had ponchos during the bourbon chase. We coined the term for these runners as  "PONCHO MONSTERSSSSS", this is us acting those monsters out!
Before the race, it was chilly, believe me!
  After the Indy Half, we got SUPER crazy! We were going to take it to the next level and run a FULL, 26.2 mile marathon. Now I had come to prefer the 13.1 half marathons, they were much more manageable, but GEEZ LOUISE, Marathons are ridiculous, the training, the race, everything! The road trip down to Orlando was fun, we stopped in Atl. on the way to see my family then finished our way down to Orlando to stay with the Roblin Family (always awesome hosts!). The morning of our race (beg. of Jan.) it was a record low for Orlando, it was in the 20s! We had to be at the race start around 4 something AM and the race didn't start until like 6. Let's just say we froze our butts off and we were not expecting such CHILLY weather in Florida! The marathon was the hardest thing I have ever done, and my body has never been in so much pain. But we did it and we were super happy with our times.
Freezing our butts off waiting for the race!
  
Mile 24, feeling completely dead!
  
We loved our blankets afterwards, the sweat on our bodies cooled and left us freezing while we searched for the car in the huge parking lot!
 This race was the inaugural Lexington half marathon, which started at Fasig Tipton and took us through the Kentucky Horse park and back. Another rainy race and this one was on my birthday! Becca and I enjoyed our run together and were basically frozen afterwards. All race finishers could enjoy a free cup of Kentucky Ale after their race! :) Michael's Dad and Andrea (ran the 5k)  ran this race too!

Freezing afterwards but all smiles! :)


Finishing together was always the best part! :)
 The most recent race was the Chicago Half Marathon. The race conditions could not have been more perfect for this race, but I myself had a hard time with the race. I think that is why I have been so slow to sign up for another race because this was was so mentality and physically hard for me. I think it's because I ran the first 3 miles with Michael and psyched myself out. Never a good thing to do. But I'm glad I got to experience such a beautiful race by the lake on a sunny September day with friends!


Amanda, her boyfriend Stu, her sister Lori, Michael and I after finishing the flat race





I really do enjoy running, it has just become very time consuming and with my schoolwork, working, and being a wife, it is hard to find the time. But I really would like to get back into it again. I guess it has really only been like 4.5 months since my last race but it feels like it has been forever. I think I may try and make it happen again! Wish me luck!

***seriously, if you wanna train with me, let me know! I would be more than happy to have a running buddy for the next race, whatever and whenever it may be!***

Thursday, January 27, 2011

survival of the speaker!


UHHH exciting news! I survived my foray in public speaking today! Ok, ok, ok, yes so the speaking was only for a minute and a half... BUT... you don't understand the fear associated with public speaking that I have. I practiced so many times yesterday and today and when it was finally time to go, I didn't mess up a thing! I even got a few laughs. Needless to say, I am very proud of myself. The real test is when this 1 1/2 minutes goes up to 5 minutes for the final part of the project! But I have faith that I can do it! Not only did I rock my presentation, this presentation took place after our first advanced auditing exam, which consisted of 10 multiple choice questions, writing, writing, and more writing until my hand was nearly rubbed raw. Let's just say I'm glad that midterm is done, and that I can say we are halfway through that class!

My Becker CPA review class technically starts back up Saturday morning, 8 am. ICK, DOUBLE ICK, EWWW! But I haven't decided if I will work on it on my own at home because I've already started a portion of the first section. Oh and yes I will be preparing for the audit exam that I am taking Feb. 25th, which is...ahhhh!!... less than a month away! So that will be IN-to the-TENSE!

Also, Everyone please keep Mr. Michael in your thoughts as he studies for his 2 shelf exams tomorrow, Neurology and Psychiatry !
This was Michael's "Photo of the Day"

Michael is very excited to be finishing up this rotation because he will be starting...drum roll please... SURGERY!! yay... yay... applaude... wooo... clap! Michael is super pumped and excited about the surgery rotation to come. He is starting with a month of vascular surgery, which is what he is interested in for real life, ya know, not pretty and fun pretend life. So this will be a great opportunity to explore a possible career path and see if he really likes it.

Although, I must prepare you all, there may be some complaints from the peanut gallery (*ahem ahem*, me) about this next rotation. (Hey, at least I'm giving you fair warning) Why you ask? Yes, I am happy for Michael, but surgery entails a butt ton of time. Michael said one of his friends averaged 96 hours for ONE week. Medical students are crazy, aren't they?!  They impress me with their abilities to function with major deficits in sleep, abilities to learn UBER fast, and to retain super relevent and applicable knowledge or sometimes useless knowledge. So I will miss him. Dearly. I will be a single, 2 puppy momma, slaving over dinners for one and doing the laundry of some "Michael Kasten" that apparently lives with me but the only sign of his existence will be dirty scrubs. Oh yay! But realistically, school will continue to blow my mind, and it probably won't be a HUGE deal. We'll survive for sure! :)

I've gotta say, with the test and the speaking out of the way today, I have been revived with a new energy. I feel very spunky right now. I better use this energy that I've been missing for a while for the better. There is some laundry that has been washed, but unfolded, for nearly 5 days (this is VERY unlike me) eagerly waiting for me to get my hands on it. Oh joy.  Later gators, enjoy the ever so lovely Thursday evening! Peace!


IMPORTANT NOTE! ****** - I have enabled commenting for ALL people now, you no longer need to be logged in to any type of account to leave a comment. Therefore, no excuses for the lack of comments, bring 'em in, I wanna hear them! I need some feedback friends!

Wednesday, January 26, 2011

Taco Night


MMM..mmmm..mmmm!! I love me some taco night. Not only is a taco just plain delicious but the meal is sooo quick to put together! Michael started the taco meat when I was on my way home from class and we were sitting down to dinner about 5 minutes after I got home! How awesome is that?! Anyway, I do love taco night, I'm glad tonight was taco night. I could probably have taco night once a week. I believe my husband would prefer enchilada night, which is a pretty good night too! :)

Let's just say I'm glad tonight is taco night. Michael and I both have pretty important things going on in the next couple of days and a complex meal would have been very taxing! Michael has 2 shelf exams on Friday and I have my first exam tomorrow (we were given a list of 7 possible essays, that's a lot of things to remember when only 2 of them will be selected and we've only had about a day and a half to study) and a group presentation tomorrow. Talk about how exhausted I will be tomorrow?! VERY!

Since Michael and I have been in full study mode our house has become a wreck. I have felt like a chicken with my head cut off for most of the week and the house is becoming a good example of how my brain feels. Tonight we took a few minutes to pick up, but not to Ashey standards, but it'll have to do until I have time, like in August, to clean it up! haha!

Well I shouldn't waste much time on here writing, I'm sorry for such a disappointing post, but it's what I've got! I hope you aren't studying your life away right now like me! And goodness gracious snow, would you PLEASE go away, haven't you gotten the multitudes of messages I've been sending you about how much you suck and how you should go away? um, well, k, thanks snow! You are ignorant and do not listen, how do you even have any friends?!

Tuesday, January 25, 2011

Breakdowns and Broccoli Soup

 Today I discovered/rediscovered 2 things about myself.

1. I made soup for the very first time, like ever, tonight. My Aunt Carin (my mom's sister) emailed me her recipe for Broccoli Cheddar Soup and I must have messed up somewhere. The soup never really did thicken up even though I did use the corn starch, which is the thickening agent. OH WELL, it still tasted good, just not perfect, and hey, it was my first experience with soup. As Michael said if I were on a cooking show I'd be told, "Ashley, it has great flavor with improper execution" or something to that extent. :) Here's a pic of the thin soup!


2. I was NOT created to be a public speaker.

I am having major stress issues with this whole public speaking thing. See, most of you know me as kind of being a ham, not minding attention. But for some reason when there is a set time where Ashley is supposed to stand up in front of 1 - 1 million people and talk about something, well my speaking abilities basically are shot. It gets so bad to the point where I can't breathe or complete sentences. Then I'm left standing in front of a group of people gasping for air, hands shaken utterly out of control, and semi-stuttering slinking it's way into my speech, it's awful, sad, and embarrassing!

Any way, today my small group of 4 met to practice our presentations and I literally only have to speak for a minute and a half. Well apparently that is even too much for my body to handle! My group asked me if I was ok, embarassing to say the least. I called Michael crying afterwards of embarrassment, why can't I talk?!? I even tried practicing in front of JUST Michael when I got home and the same thing happened! 

Luckily I have such a great man that he helped me edit my paper to a more manageable size and giving me more opportunities to breathe while speaking instead of reading a 2 lined sentence and about pass out midway through it! God is testing me, he is wanting me to get passed this. I am trying my best. Michael told me it's performance anxiety and it's normal, but it just seems so strange to me comparing it to the way I interact with people normally, no nervousness, rarely at all! Weird, oh well!

Oh and it seems that the bloodshot eyes will be sticking around for a while. I will be the four-eyed girl as Sam Coons refers to me when I wear my glasses. It's something about this time of year that my eyes really hate. It's funny to think it's allergies because nothing is really living outside at all!! 

Well I'm off to bed, the next 2 days are going to be craziness on crack. Homework due tomorrow, a test and a presentation on Thursday. Please keep my sanity in your thoughts!

Monday, January 24, 2011

Case of the Mondays...

This morning I woke up with goop in my eye, you know sleep, but a lot. I go to look in the mirror and my eye is red!!!!

It felt like this:

 But really looked like this:


But it was still an ouchy. I could tell my body was sending me signals that I was stressed. And I've had it up to here with that stress, oh only like 7 months of it left to go, no worries, I'll survive...I hope.

Any way, I decided to move on with my day and cope with the pain, just about 3-4 hours of work on my group project and then 2 hours studying for a quiz and then class 3-6...oh wasn't my day totaling up to be a grand one?!

Well things got better after class! Michael, his friend David, and I headed up to the Johnson Center for a good workout. I planned on running while the boys played raquetball. Well, I had asked Michael to grab some clothes for me so we could get out the door fast. What I didn't think about is that Michael has never picked out workout clothes for me before, nor do men wear the same type of clothing women wear to workout. Ok, so he did a good job picking stuff out he just forgot ONE, vital article of clothing. Oh you know, the sports bra. Well there goes my time on the treadmill. I honestly tried running on the treadmill and it lasted 50 seconds. Women, I hope you know what I mean by this and Men please respect us for wearing these uncomfortable things, keeping the girls up above the belly button is always a positive for a girl who is 22!  I wasn't mad with him just sad about no running. BUT I did end up spending an enjoyable 40 minutes on the elliptical and running into Mr. Miles Stephens and chatting it up with him a bit too! So it was all good!

After my cardio I went down and shot hoops with the boys. I'm terrible. I think I made like 3 baskets altogether, but it was fun to play around. 

After the JC we had dinner with David, he suggested King Tut's. Michael and I had never been there, it has been like a million different middle eastern, mediterranean, etc. restaurants and always looked shady to me, but I was up for trying. We went in and the place was a lot nicer than I thought. And the food was yummy !!! I had the chicken shawarma sandwich, only $4.95 and warm and tasty! I would definitely recommend King Tut's on South Limestone next to Chipotle! The only thing I regret about eating there is the nasty garlic breath I have had, and will have all night! ewwwy! But I believe that is what comes with the Mediterranean cuisine territory!

Afterward, Michael and I did some grocery shopping, oh I know, super fun and exciting right?! We lead ultra thrilling lives! Aunt Carin sent me a broccoli and cheddar soup recipe that I am going to make.  The recipe includes Velveeta cheese and you know who has never heard of Velveeta cheese or seen it before in his life?! MICHAEL KASTEN! Boy, that guy has missed out on the greatness and endless possibilities Velveeta has to offer. I will open up his world to this semi-cheese phenomena!

After shopping we then finally dragged our tired, sweaty bodies home. It was a long day, not getting home until around 9:45, no relaxing really and no homework done for sure, but it was good to stay busy and be fit. And I am ok with the no relaxation. It just means I am that much closer to going to bed RIGHT now! Goodnight!

Sunday, January 23, 2011

The Steelers and THE Ohio State Unviersity....barf...

ok people, so I know some of you may be Steelers fans or Ohio State fans but these are the 2 teams that I despise and annoy me the most. Oh, and it just so happens that they are on top of the world this weekend. BOOOO sports!

My dad is from Philly, so naturally our family cheers for the Eagles in football. The sight of the Steelers dominating, so far, tonight made our family dinner together (parent's were in town for the evening) at Sutton's on Richmond Road slightly sad. Now I don't want this to turn into one of those silly debates where a Steelers fan gets all up in my grill, I'm just talking about something, at least I'm not just telling you about my day! :) Why Steelers fans must you be SO obnoxius? Why must you make obnoxious facebook statuses ALL the time?! You can have a good sports team and not be obnoxious about it! Please and thank you! I mean you are so frightening with your terrible towels and all, whipping up a wind storm in the stadium, but seriously, how frightening is a towel that looks like it's been soaked in hot dog mustard?! 

This is frightening on a whole other level








Unless you are scared of mustard, which according to Google, is called mustophobia! tehehe


Now THE Ohio State University. Why are you undefeated in basketball? So unfair, yes I am sad because I am a UK fan. I think being from Northern KY has helped me developed the dislike for Buckeye fans. Plus there are SO many of them, Ohio State has approx. 1 billion students, so with parents, residents of Columbus and parts of Ohio, there are fans everywhere. It's insane.

When I hear Ohio State I kind of throw up in my mouth a little, especially when it's Ohio State Football...bleck! Oh and they even made sweater vests icky, thank you Jim.

I think everyone is allowed to have teams they don't like, so don't judge! :)




Coach Jim Tressel may be slightly well-known for rockin the sweater vest


But good for you icky sports teams that I do not like, you are kicking some behind currently. But please don't think it's jealousy or that I wish to be like you, because that is not the truth. I will just accept your crazy obnoxious-ness as it is and continued to be annoyed by you while you kick butt.I bleed blue.  I can still have my hope for my UK basketball freshies, we finally won on the road this weekend! yay us!





Polson got some real play time
And Terrence was the dunking master! :)

Almost forgot post!

Laid down in bed and immediately realized I forgot a blog for today!
Real quick summary

-group project at library 11-3
-Gigi's cupcakes with Adrielle and watched her brother's basketball game at the Dunbar Community Center
- UK game at Matt and Andrea's with pizza, puppies, and parents
-Beer Trappe with Bay and Tim and Euchre afterwards!

Good day!! tomorrow will be even more schoolwork filled!

Enjoy this video, for the lack of writing!

Friday, January 21, 2011

Snow White's Guardian Angel!

Today Snow White, my 98 civic, had a guardian angel looking out for her. Or in other words a good neighbor. 


 This morning I was about to leave for work when I realized that was going to be impossible. I went to unlock my door and it was frozen shut! Oh this is surprising?! Well no, it's not. Snow White has a tendency of freezing shut in the winter. It became so frequent that last winter I always left my back seats down, open to the trunk, so that if the doors were to freeze I could crawl in through my trunk and drive my car until it was warmed up enough to open the doors. Real ghetto and safe sounding right??

Back to the story, I was unable to leave for work. I remember my dad telling me to get a lighter and heat up my key to unfreeze the lock. So I ran in the house and got the lighter, well it was soooo cold the lighter wouldn't really light outside. fail. However, I stuck my key in the lock and I guess it had warmed it up enough to unlock the door. Well that was only the first issue solved. Now that the door was unlocked I go to pull the door and it's super frozen. 

Snow White also has this problem where the door doesn't really seal and sometimes when it rains really hard it rains in my car, only on the drivers side. Well I guess since I had driven my car yesterday some of the water that had melted on my car came in the door jams and frozen in the extreme arctic temperatures last night. I'm sitting there yanking and pulling on my doors when my graduate school-aged neighbor that drives a Honda leaves his garage, pictured behind my car. I guess he could see me just standing outside looking at my car in the frigid weather and he jumped out of the car to help me.

He couldn't open the door immediately either so he ran in the garage and sprayed all of the cracks of the door with de-icing spray. We stood there for a minute waiting for it to work. Well it loosened a bit but we would pull and the door would only move a tiny bit. So he runs to his garage again and grabs a screw driver and a towel. I was thinking, WHAATTTTT is he going to do with that?!? Well he gets the door open with it that's what! I was so grateful, after 10 minutes of work on my car door it was open and I was so relieved! Thank you neighbor dude, you're awesome!

I guess that I can learn from this that Snow White is kind of like me, hating this cold weather and not wanting to go out into it. I don't blame you Snow White, these winters are miserable!

Thursday, January 20, 2011

Sleepy, Slouchy, Snowy

Not to make complaining a consistent thing in my blog, but today was another not so fun day. I have a feeling a may be saying this until these 2 classes end the first week of March, but for reals school week, don't make me hate you. This school week has only resulted in negative things for my weekend too. I know all I really have to look forward to is doing homework. No plans of any type, homework is on the horizon. 

ALSO, WHY LEXINGTON?! WHY did you have a snow blizzard that took me 50 minutes to get home from class (normally about 7 minutes)!!! WHY did you have to cancel my fun hangout time with my friends tonight, we were going to eat spaghetti, lounge, watch tv, maybe play a little Just Dance 2. Ya know, cause I've only played it 3 times so far and I wanna play it with some girlfriends cause Michael doesn't particularly enjoy it. and WHY do I always wear the wrong shoes when the weather turns bad? Socks were wet and pants were soaked halfway up my leg?!?!  (ok weather, I will not blame you about the poor shoe choice, it's not your fault I'm not prepared)

I still have hope for this evening. I'm not too sure what it'll bring, but I'm thinking it'll probably be Thursday night television. Ya know, since the snow ruins everything (well everything besides sledding and skiing and snowboarding, it helps with that ;) ) Which most of my shows have made their return from a long winter break! 30 rock, community, and the office are back on tonight, excitement! Still patiently awaiting a few other shows but it's probably for the best, homework is pushing my television programs out of the way! BOOO homework!

kenneth the page
The best and funniest 30 rock characer, Kenneth! I love him



 30 Rock quote about Kentucky, man we always look so good! haha

Jack Donaghy: You know, Ted, Kenneth here is one of our more promising young pages. He knows everything there is to know about the business.
Kenneth Parcell: I studied TV theory at Kentucky Mountain Bible College.




In sad news, my friendy friend friend, Jennie Rhoads will be moving away tomorrow! :( sad day. I will be joining her for an early 8 am breakfast at Lexington's very own and very delish Doodles to send her off! If you haven't eaten at Doodles you definitely should, KY proud and yummy too! I will miss you Jennie and your super fun attitude!

Doodles website with menu: http://www.doodlesrestaurant.com/


Jennie is the one my head is on!

A surprising twist to a poopy day

Most of the day was pretty icky for me today but it took a nice twist after class this evening. I get out of class at 6 everyday and Drew (in my program AND in my couples bible study) invited me over to his swanky apartment for dinner with himself and his wife Catherine. W(Michael was there too of course!) Drew and I worked on homework/projects while awaiting for our spouses to arrive.


This is Drew and Catherine Hamilton:
Aren't they super cute?!?! They got married this past New Years Eve!
 I had just gotten a paper back with a not so great grade, ok so terrible, yeah, it pretty much blew ALL focus I had for the rest of class today. But Drew and Catherine knew how to boost my mood. Michael and I got to enjoy Catherine's yummy baked Ziti, salad, and bread and Michael ran by Kroger on the way there and grabbed some Oreo Klondike bars! PERFECTO!


After a scrum-diddly-umptious dinner, Drew and Catherine asked if we wanted to play a card game.

And then Drew said it... "How about Euchre?"...

Bleck...I threw up in my mouth, growing up in Northern KY there were definitely Euchre snobs and I had been taught Euchre at least 10 times, intentionally forgetting how to play because the game annoyed me. The only game my high school youth group would play together was Euchre and it took too long and required too much of my attention span. 


But being the good sport that I am.. :)... and  Michael's super excitement about learning the game, I decided maybe I could try it again. AND YOU KNOW WHAT?!!? I thoroughly enjoyed myself! Michael and Catherine were on a team and Drew and I were on a team. Let's just say Drew and I dominated (it definitely helped to have a Euchre expert on my team) we won both games!  Michael enjoyed the game so much he made Euchre his "photo of the day" 

I have really enjoyed getting to know Drew and Catherine over the past months and I can't wait to hangout with them more.  We always seem to have a good time together, God has really blessed us with a strong core group of friends and it is amazing how he has extended our friendships beyond our weekly bible study. I feel like we see someone from our bible study 5 out of the 7 days in a week and that makes me happy! :)
And even though I am still up right now finishing up homework and trying to write my blog without falling asleep (Michael and I normally go to bed at like 10:30, Michael's long gone) it was totally worth the sleep deprivation to be able to hang out with such an amazing, God-focused couple!

Sorry if there is SUPER bad grammar beyond the usual or any nonsensical speech, Ashey is exhausted! Good night blog readers!

Tuesday, January 18, 2011

Some things that I encountered today that I like and dislike.

Like: 
Zumba Class.

Yes these brightly dressed latinos are in the Zumba video that Brittany Meyer owns.
 Not only is dancing as a workout extremely fun, it also makes me feel like I am about to die, which definitely qualifies it as a great workout. Constant dancing for 50 minutes to fast paced latin, hip hop, and other types of music makes my heart feel like it is about to beat out of my chest and definitely brings out some scents from people in this class that you really don't wanna smell. If you have the chance you should definitely try Zumba. I went tonight at the Johnson Center and have been going since last semester, an awesome and fun alternative to running on the treadmill!


Dislike:
Balls on Cars...GROSS



 

Someone in front of me today had balls on their car. I do not like them, they are completely disgusting. The only thing it does signify is that the driver is most likely a tool and to not make eye contact when you pass in fears of creepy nods or eyebrow raises.

Like:
Child-like dinners

Yes you see fish sticks, ketchup, peas, and mashed potatoes. PS I despise any type of seafood but I will eat creepy frozen fish sticks. How weird am I?!?
 Now that I am married it is more rare for me to have dinners like this but Michael and I definitely still enjoy the kiddie meals and it's always a plus that these meals are cheap. Mac and Cheese is definitely a frequent meal at our house and if its a really special dinner ;) we will add hot dogs to our mac and cheese hahaha! Not only do I eat like a child at home I also ALWAYS order Fazoli's child's spaghetti with meat sauce, it's the perfect portion and only like $3 with a drink!

Dislike:
Group Projects
 
 I am in 2 classes right now that last only 8 weeks, lets just say I have those two classes everyday Monday through Thursday so assignments are crammed in here and there CONSTANTLY. Our 2 classes decided to have group projects in them. Apparently us MSACC students have no lives beyond working on group projects together. Yes, when you are in undergrad it's hard to get people together for group projects. Well in grad school its hard too, a lot of us have jobs, responsibilities, spouses, etc. so these next 2 months are going to be a big bundle of joy as we work on these quite large projects. BOO SCHOOL!

I am jogging my brain with something that I encountered today that will allow me to end on a positive, happy, good feeling note...uhhhh.....ummmm....hmmmm...

I've got it!

Like:
French looking puppy dogs!

So yesterday Michael got me flowers, they had this purple papery stuff with them. We decided it would be a good idea to tie it around Willis' neck. Uber cute, and looked spectacular was his black fur. Apparently Carson was jealous of Willis' stylish look, obviously Willis is perturbed that Carson is trying to de-scarf him. He says "Oui Oui, this is my tie not yours Monsieur Carson!"

Well that's it! A little of what I liked and disliked about today!

P.S. I'd like to wish a very happy 86th birthday to the coolest Grandpa in the world. He lives in Atlanta. They got a huge snow storm last week. Please let me share a quick story about him with you. With all of the snow and ice in Atlanta, my grandpa decided it would be wonderful to whip out the old sled and ride it down the street. And that's what he and my Grandmother did. They went SLEDDING and they are in their 80s. My grandpa was telling me that when he was going down the road he saw an SUV coming down the road and imagined the SUV sliding sideways down the hill and smashing him so he lurched his body to the side and threw himself off the sled into the grass! (how intense is he!?!) The SUV ended up turning before it got to him, but I could only imagine that in my head. HILARIOUS!! Way to be Grandpa Chuck!

That's my handsome grandpa on the left! :)

Monday, January 17, 2011

MLK 2011

No, the title of this is not MILK 2011, read carefully, MLK , like Martin Luther King Day silly--- as much as I do like milk, there would probably not be a day dedicated to it! :)

So first thing is first...if ya'll haven't noticed there's a page views counter at the bottom of my blog and I believe last night I surpassed 1,000 views! WOOO celebrations!! hahaha...anyway just wanted to make note of that!

So I will devote today's post to commemorate fun MLK activities of days past. I would like to give this post to a special group of friends who for 2 years went to Gatlinburg, TN for MLK weekend to spend a fun weekend together in a cabin in the mountains! 2008 and 2009

This post is for you: Vanna Armstrong, Mike Armstrong, Sam Coons, Sam Giffin, Laura Benninger, Ian Banta, Becca Colbert, I love you all sooo much!

So much has changed since we went to g-burg, Laura, Mike, Vanna and myself are now married. Sammy Giffin lives in Cali. Sam Coons and Ian Banta are working their behinds off as Christian Student Fellowship Staff. And Becca is rolling her way through her degree and working.

Much thanks to Vanna's parents for letting us trek down to G-burg with their minivan both years. Also, thanks to Poppa Giffin (Sam Giffin) for arranging our lodging each year, he was/still is awesome!

These trips meant so much to me and I miss the times we had together. It was awesome to be able to devote an entire weekend to our special close group of friends. Although we have all moved on in our lives we still have the special bond and laughs that MLK weekend brought us.  Whether we were hiking through the woods, slurping hot chocolate because it was frigidly cold, hot tubbing, playing board games, cooking together, walking the G-burg strip, dancing in the car to sweet jams, or dining together, a good time was always had and smiles were always left imprinted on my face. MLK weekend was like a little preview of heaven and a good time, always!

Let's recap and remember a little bit of the good times that we had!

2008 MLK  - Let me just note that this was the period that I first began text-flirting with Mr. Michael Kasten. He was on UK's ski trip out west and I was here and we practically texted the whole weekend. Who knew what would result from that?! Also, Mike and Vanna were not yet dating, but their relationship was definitely blossoming and growing! :)
Being the college students that we were, we were so proud to make a cheap homemade dinner. This was everyone!
Becca hugged trees while we were there
Our classic group shot!
Mel's Diner, a must-have for G-burg...yummy shakes and burgers
This picture definitely summed up the amount of fun we had

 


And Sam proposed to Vanna. (not)
And 2009- the attendees changed up a little bit but the fun was still had...










The blog is being all funky and not letting me add captions to the '09 photos. But this year Mike and Vanna were officially dating I believe, we celebrated Sam Coons' birthday with a variety of cakes,  and the boys loved playing with the ice daggers when we were hiking

Well there ya go, that is a little summary of 2 very special MLK weekends. I am so lucky to have my hubs for this MLK weekend, it's all just positive happy memories when I think about MLK. I hope everyone enjoyed their MLK day and reflected on good long-weekend times!

Gladiator and Golden Globes

Today began with a lack of plans because Michael was on call at the hospital and I had no idea when he'd get off work. I thought I'd do some studying, or something boring like that. Well, thankfully, my hubs only had to go in for an hour and a half, very surprising for a call shift, and was at home by 9:30 AM! What exciting news. I thought someone was breaking into our house when he came home cause I wasn't expecting him, but was glad to see it was him!

Since Michael was home we went out to Southland for church and had the typical Sunday lunch with the Kasten family and the dogs kinda day (today's lunch was German themed with cabbage, strudel, and all!). After lunch we actually stayed and watched a movie too (4th movie day in a row!). I had never seen Gladiator before and that is number 2 on Michael's favorite movie list after Braveheart, so I was forced/told to watch the movie. I think the reason I had never seen this movie was due to the fact that it came out in 2000 and I probably wasn't allowed to see and/or interested in a movie like this.  Michael's Dad also enjoys the movie thoroughly so, it was like a family affair watching the movie on a chilly winter afternoon by the fire. Although chopping off of people's head is probably not my most favorite thing to watch (I HATE BLOOD, it gives me the willies!), I still enjoyed the movie, I approve! 

After our Sunday movie viewing, we quickly ran the dogs home and drove out to Georgetown for B-stud at the Schwartz's, where good times and studies were had. Around 9:30 we had to jump out though because the Robertson's had invited us to the condo to watch the Golden Globes! Of course we arrived like 2 hours late but we still had fun. Becca and Mollie were there too and we had some laughs, they had been sippin on some wine and were very giggly. Bay was especially giggly, she was telling me about "Thomas Hanks and Tom Allen" (Tom Hanks and Tim Allen) who had just come out on the stage. She makes me laugh, that is why she is one of my FAVORITE people, silly willy! :) 


Oh and  Michael and I did end up seeing "The King's Speech"  with his sister and parents. I definitely would recommend it! ALSO, Colin Firth won best actor in a drama tonight, so it proves it, the movie was great!


Colin Firth, Oh, what a cutie patootie!

Today was a great day, loved it, also love the fact that there is no school tomorrow! YAY MLK! WOOOOOOO!

Saturday, January 15, 2011

A day full of FOOD!

So today was the unintentional day of food for me. I'll start you from the beginning:

This morning I woke up feeling like making Michael breakfast in bed, so I did. I made waffles and sausage and it was fun and hard to eat in bed with the fear of making a syrupy mess!

This was also Michael's "Photo of the Day"
After Breakfast we jetted out to run some errands around town and Michael got a spiffy new suit, dress shirt, and 2 ties. Man, does he look good! :)

After shopping with Michael I met Mrs. Vanna Armstrong (weird, I was about to type Sargent, but that is definitely not her name anymore!) at the mall food court. Yes, I have only eaten at the food court like once or twice before during my whole 4 1/2 years in Lexington and in the span of TWO days I have gone twice. But it was the convenience and food options that led us to meet there. I had a great time chatting with Vanna, she is one of my besties and I hadn't seen her in a LONG while because our schedules always conflict!

This is pretty Vanna on her wedding day! I'm in a black dress in the background, Matron of Honor WHOOP WHOOP!
Then, I came home and Michael and I detailed our cars together, it was barely warm enough but we thought it was about time to clean up our cars, they were covered in salt and POO. So we vacuumed at home and then took our cars to the quarter car wash and did our best, they don't look awesome but better than before.

After the car cleaning escapade, Michael had a ticket to the LSU vs UK game (which we KILLED LSU in) so I stayed home and decided I wanted to cook/bake. Here's what I did:

Ingredients for Stuffed Peppers with Couscous...I have never had stuffed peppers before but was willing to attempt unknowingly

Ingredients for Carrot Cake Cupcakes with Cream Cheese Icing - recipe from the Merchak girls I used to nanny!

Ingredients for more puppy treats, they went through the other ones pretty fast!

my cupcakes, yummy!

The stuffed peppers turned out DELICIOUS! definitely something I will add to my cooking rotation

My baked goods, completed, dog treats in back cupcakes all iced in front (Yes, the cupcake wrappers are Halloween, that's all we had and I'm cheap!) I've never made a carrot cake before and i think it turned out quite well

my "perfect" cupcake

scary, how are they going to taste?!?

No worries, they're tasty!
Next for the evening, going to see the movie I talked about earlier this week, "The King's Speech", with Michael's parents and sister, it should be a good time! Hope everyone had a great Saturday!