Happy 4th of July!

Happy 4th of July Folks! I hope you had a super patriotic day, I had a great one!

First off I'd like to wish a very happy 1st birthday to this guy, Carson:

The Puppy version of Carson

The big boy version!

He got to try some watermelon today!

Also, I blame myself for doing this but I forgot to wish Lela and Eric a very happy 1st anniversary yesterday, I guess my mind was just too full of things to write about!!

And also a very happy birthday to Anne, a great running friend!!

The fourth was a great day spent with loved ones! Michael and I woke up bright and early for the Bluegrass 10,000...and we met up with these lovelies (Becca and Ben) cause we HAD  to get a bourbon chase picture!

The race was pretty tough cause it was humid and the air was NOT moving, but I'm glad I did it even though I didn't hit the time I wanted. I was at 53 minutes, boo that. Oh well! After I finally stopped sweating after the race Michael and I ran home quickly and showered to meet my parents and Lisa's parents for some Bob Evans for breakfast since many local eateries were closed for the holiday.

After breakfast the men went to golf and the girls checked movie times and dashed over to Woodhill to see "Larry Crowne"
 
The movie was super cute and funny and even though I was the youngest one in the theater by lets say 30 years I still thoroughly enjoyed myself some Tom Hanks and  Julia Roberts!!

After the movie it was time to celebrate the 4th over at the Kasten's home. Good times and good foods were had all around!

Lisa and I made this Strawberry Cake Pie...i was good and pretty!

Lisa and I

The amount of dessert options was ridiculous! This wasn't even all of them!

Dad and Lisa

Michael's Dad, Greg, very happy with his Mint Choc chip Ice Cream

my fav!

the woman of the night, after working night shift, marching in a parade, and cooking a huge feast she was still smiling!

Andrea and Matt!

Michael and I in our reverse clothing options!

The fourth was a great time, even though Carson is TERRIFIED of Fireworks and sat on the ground of the car the whole ride home from the Kasten's house cause he was so scared. I am loving that fireworks are now legal in KY and there are super awesome fireworks to be seen everywhere now!! I love this country!!

Weekend in Review

Hey Frieeennndss!! How was your weekend?! I 'm sure it was spectacular! Well let's recap some of the stuff I did this weekend!!

First of all this is what I consumed after  my test, nothing can get in the way of a girl and her popcorn and TV!

Friday was a blast at Flo-Critt, we made homemade ice cream sandwiches with HUGE chocolate chip cookies we made, they were so good, but also TOO big!!

Then after Flo-Critt I went out with Michael, Nicole, Drew, and Catherine for drinks at Cheapside (well one drink), it was the PERFECT evening for sitting out on the patio, it was great!!

Then it was Saturday, Michael and I got to sleep in for the first time in a while so we enjoyed that and after hanging around for a bit went downtown to Lexington's Farmers Market with Steve, we all enjoyed Crepes!! I got the Nutella Crepe with bananas, gosh, I def could not eat it all! The boys got savory crepes with ham and cheese and they loved them! The farmers market was packed with people, children, dogs, fruits, and veggies and DANG was it hot out!! I love going down there for the farmers market though!  We then eventually dragged ourselves to the gym. I forced myself to do 6 miles and it was TOUGH, it was soooo hot inside, but I did the mileage at least!!

supery sugary crepe!

Then it was time for our surprise random trip!! We packed up the dogs, tent, and camping gear and headed to Michael's Dad's farm about 30 minutes away in Willisburg, Kentucky! Michael and I registered for a tent for our wedding (well I did) and Dustin and Christina thankfully got it for us and this was our first time using it!! On the way there I talked to my Dad and he asked, "isn't it too hot to camp?!" Well it was fine, a little toasty but fine!

We arrived at the farm it was a little after 7, so we had about 2 1/2 hours of light. It was perfect! We got the tent and our area figured out and then we went on a walk with the dogs! I'm so glad we could bring the boys and let them run, they are so good! We went down to the creek and rolled up our pants and played in the creek with the dogs. It was cool and refreshing!

we borrowed Michael's Dad Nissan XTerra cause we def needed 4-wheel drive

our little campsite!

the view from our tent with Carson sprinting towards us

more of our view!

Tent building success!

our fortress!!

 Then it was dinner time, Michael successfully created a fire and I warmed up a can of baked beans and hot dogs and we enjoyed a tasty little dinner!!

Beans and Dogs (Hot dogs that is!) on the fire!

Hot dogs, baked beans, carrots, Fritos, and a beer for Michael...oh and our table was an up-side down recycling bin

Our puppies still wet from playing in the creek!

And you can't go camping without SMORES!! *yes I have something in my teeth, it was dark so I guess Michael' couldn't warn me!**

Then after watching the stars for an hour, which were Ah-mazing, we decided we should hit the hay. Michael fell asleep instantly, I on the other hand did not, the dogs would awake to any noise and I just couldn't get comfortable. Eventually I fell asleep and was awoken pretty early by Carson, who has ALWAYS been an early riser! So we got up and munched on some poptarts, we didn't want to attempt another fire.

Then it was time for another walk through the woods with the dogs. *the camera died the night before so we have no more pictures!*, the walk was nice except for the MAJOR amount of spider webs, I hate walking through them and then you just feel silly swiping them away!

Then we had to take down camp and everything before it got way too hot. What a great time! The point of our little trip was to #1 camp with our new tent but #2 test out the camping with doggies waters, I think it was a success. They listened and obeyed. Got to run around leash free. And basically allowed us to get a good nights rest! YAY!

Today after cleaning up Michael's Dad's car and cleaning the house Michael and I both napped before church, which was great as usual. Tonight we had a cereal party for dinner as well. We got some blueberry shredded wheat and Honey Nut Chex and watched the "Freakonomics" documentary on Netflix which was actually very interesting!!

Well that's about it for this weekend, I am tired and have to get up early for the 7:30 AM Bluegrass 10k, please pray for no rain and cool temperatures and my survival!! Good night friends!

Random excursion

Hey guys so Michael and I decided to take a random trip for the night with the doggies, I will have a full report for tomorrow so with that in mind gave a great Saturday evening!

Catching you up on life + 1st Anniversary day!

Hey guys, whew, at least I can finally say I am done with that test for now. Ok, it was terrible. You know I always say that rightt?! well this is for reals, like I honestly gave up at the end, I wanted to bang my head on a computer screen. After 3 1/2 hours of staring at a test I finally gave in and let the stupid thing win. And now i"ll have to sit and wait for 3 months to find out I failed and then sit to take it again in the fall/winter...booo that....oh well for now I will move on with my life, cause there's nothing I can do about it now...good attitude right?!

Anywhoooo lets get back to the Madisonville trip. It feels like it's been ages since I talked about it. If you wanna catch up you can find out about Friday and Saturday by clicking on the days!

While waiting for breakfast I snapped these pictures of Michael...

(he's a cutie!)

Wanna hear about breakfast of morning 2 at the B&B?! WELLLL... Saturday night the Ruby Lodge had altogether 6 guests including us, so for breakfast Sunday morning we had new friends to chatter with! One was the mother and daughter combo in the room next to us who went to Maggie's wedding and the other was a couple from North Georgia (canton?) celebrating their 27th annivesary, they had never been to Kentucky and wanted to explore it a bit. We felt lame compared to their 27 years but they happily wished us a happy anniversary as well!!

Breakfast was delicious AGAIN! We had yogurt again with berries but this time instead of granola we had slivers of almonds on top. (sorry we didn't take pictures, I felt awkward because the other guests would have thought I was weird!) Then we had some cheese danish...mmm... then Shirley brought out a homemade quiche with zucchini, onion, and red peppers. I love me some zucchini and I had never had it in a quiche before. It was soooo good and filling!! Chalk up another one for the Ruby Lodge and their delish breakfasts!!

After breakfast we showered and started to get ready to leave since it was another stormy day in Western Kentucky. Before we left Michael gave me this super cute card...

that looks time consuming! (it says 365 for the number of days we've been married, if you are having a hard time reading it!) And then Michael snapped a photo of me lounging on the bed watching tv in my new target purchase. SUPER comfy LONG dress!

seriously, so comfortable to wear on a car ride home plus you don't have to sit like a lady in it, which I believe is the best part!

So Michael and I sadly packed up and got on our way back home. About halfway though I had to stop for a delicious and nutritious snack...right?!? of course a McDonald's small fry and a snack size M&M McFlurry!

Then other stuff happened that I won't bore you with. Picked up the pups, they immediately crashed once we got home, they always have SO much fun at the "Grandparents" house with their large fenced in back yard!

Then it was off to bible study. What were we doing for bstud this week? Well since its the summer we were going Putt-Putt golfing! YIPPEE! Michael and I decided that since we didn't get any workouts in during the weekend that we could maybe run there from our house considering it's only 2.4 miles away!! WHEW, that was tiring. Michael is much faster than me AND Alumni road is SOOOO hilly, you don't realize these things until you actually run on them!! As we were running 2 different couples from our bstud honked and waved at us! We actually beat one of the couples because they got lost!! Then once everyone had arrived we played 2 rounds of miniature golf. This takes a long time when you have like 12 people playing!

Naturally the girls and guys split up between holes.  Here are some super cute pics...yes the boys were there but they really didn't take fun pictures and the pictures we do have they aren't really standing together:

this is at the Ark...remember our putt putt is bible themed!

Doesn't this make that Celine Dion song just pop into your head?! Neaaarrrr Faaaarrrr whereeeeevvveerrr you are ....

Another cute one minus Nicole

And a little proof that the boys were there

We had a great time playing and worked up an appetite so we headed to Waffle House!!!! WhOOP WHOOP! The girls and guys sat at booths that backed up to each other and we enjoyed delightful breakfast for dinner, you know I love that!

After filling myself to the brim with a waffle and a LARGE bowl of grits Michael and I arrived home realizing we had to "eat" our wedding cake. It was a kinda scary process, like sipping the milk that is dated a few days old, not knowing if it's gonna be ok. Since Michael and I were sooo full we just had a tiny pinch, how romantic haha! (I did try to eat the cake a day or two later, it was ok just WAY to sugary, so I ended up throwing it out!)

So nice to have this honker out of the freezer!

Questionable...possibly?!

Here weeee goooo!! Its our champagne cake with almond something or other icing

What a great day!! I loved spending alone time with the hubby and then getting to spend  a super fun, stress-free evening with some of the best friends in the world!!


One other thing I wanted to posted before I forgot about it and it slipped into oblivion was the dinner I made Monday night. It was apple chicken sausage  Sweet and Sour Stir Fry!! I picked up Johnsonville's new chicken sausage (apple chicken sausage) with a coupon earlier and looked for recipe to make with it, luckily Johnsville had a recipe on their website and it was superb and healthier for an Asian meal!! (Michael loves sausage, like chicken, pork, whatever so I knew he'd like this). We loved the pineapple and the recipe was SO easy to make, I would definitely recommend checking it out!

Besides ALLLL of that, that's about it. I'm gonna head out to Flo Critt for the evening. I hope you enjoy your Friday evening too!!

Warning: Lame excuse post

Hey guys, so I'm gonna have to put off another anniversary day post because for some reason these CPA exams put me in a weird funk where I don't want to do ANYTHING, like cleaning (which I don't mind doing), studying, exercising, or anything. So instead we met friends for Froyo tonight so I could relax my mind a little and now I must get a good nights rest so I can become one of these:
Hopefully tomorrow brings my last CPA exam. But honestly folks, not feeling too good about this one at all. I feel like my brain is at capacity and I've had a hard time remembering things, so it's kinda freaking me out....oh well...here goes nothing!

How I Worked out Wednesday

Lets try this post again!! I will be getting to part 3 of the trip and our actual anniversary tomorrow since I don't have much time to upload pictures onto blogger because I MUST study!! booo, cannot wait until Friday, although, I am very frightened about it to, the fear of not knowing enough and not passing. It's  my last one of 4 for crying out loud, and I wanna pass it bad and have it done and over with!!

Anywhoooo workouts...lets go!!

Wednesday: Turbo Kick!! I am still loving this class, a full 50 minutes of intense cardio and super sweating is my thing! I love the up beat tempo and music, definitely sticking to this class!

Thursday: Ended up being a rest day since I had worked out 3 days in a row and I was tired and I may have had plans but I can't remember

Friday: 6 mile run. Another not good one but I somehow ended up doing it in 54ish minutes. I felt terrible the whole time, walked a lot but made it home in time to quickly rush around the house and pack for our trip

Saturday: Uh...hello...vacation = lazy Ashley

Sunday: Since we were driving back from Madisonville on Sunday Michael and I hadn't planned a workout but since our bstud played putt putt that evening (which I will hopefuly be discussing tomorrow) we decided we could run to the putt putt course, it was only 2.4 miles but it was hilly PLUS I was running with Michael who runs 4 miles in like 26 minutes which is ridiculous, so obviously I felt like I was going to die!

Monday: GUNS (we used the TRX things at the JC, hard to explain what they are  but basically they are suspension training and it made my arms feel like they were going to fall off only after a 15-20minute class!) and then Turbo Kick...both classes with Katrina. We were both super tired and SO sweaty afterward. Loving the Monday workouts with her!

Tuesday: 6 mile 9 pm run with my fav, Becca! It was perfect and we did it in around 50 minutes, no timer but rounding! Running with someone + running in the evening created a much better run for me then I've been having in the past few weeks. It is exactly what I needed!

Wednesday(today): TURBO KICK!! WHEW, so sweaty and awesome. Seriously everyone, you NEED to try this class!!

Well that's my how I worked out Wednesday! Hopefully you are finding some kind of rhythm to your workouts or trying to incorporate them into your busy daily routine, now I MUST get back to studying!! later loves!