Hello sidewalk...

...meet Ashley. Ashley...sidewalk.

Yes, it was not a very good start to my Friday morning. Oh friday, you are supposed to treat me well and you spit in my face first thing?! Not COOL!

Remember how I wanted to get some running in but my schedule would not permit???? Well I tried to make it happen this morning. Emphasis on TRY. Set my alarm for 5:45, got up, dressed, and I felt awake, alert and ready to go for once. (this is never how I feel in the morning!) I thought, "oh it's still very dark out and scary, I'll take Carson, PLUS he needs to get some of that crack energy out of his system!".

So we were off. The stars were still out, but it was perfect running temp. I had a long sleeve shirt and shorts on which is my fav running combo. ANYWHOOOO...we get going, everything's going well. I pass a couple running together and all's well. UNTIL...

SPLAT GOES ASHLEY!

Yep,  my body met the sidewalk. My body actually wanted to face first slide into the sidewalk. OUCHY. Guys, this is the third time in the past year this has happened to me. I don't think i can see in the dark or something, but the sidewalks are pretty crappy. BUT that's not the worst of it!

Remember how I was running with Carson?! Remember how Carson is the most skiddish and frightened dog out there?! Remember how he is super fast and basically trots/walks while I'm huffing and puffing running? WELLLLL...as I went down he got scared...then his retractable leash got really close to him and it freaked him out even more. He had to get away from the leash.

He takes off zig zagging across Chinoe (a pretty major road, luckily it was 6 am -ish at this point). I pick my self up, bloody hand and all and take off running after him. Screaming, sprinting, crying, feeling burning pain in my hand. And he's off. And I'm scared. I'm running down Chinoe screaming, waving my hands, trying to get cars attention. I've lost him and I don't know what to do. Carson is barely over 1 year old and not the brightest crayon in the box. I felt like he would run until he died, trying to get away from the darn leash that would never leave his side. A car stopped and I sobbed to the woman, she was confused. Then the runners I had passed ran back to me. They said they saw Carson running like a bat out of hell.

They tried to chase him as well with no luck. I'm still sobbing at this point and screaming his name. They tell me they will help me find him and said I should run home and look for him to see if he went there. I told them he's not that smart, he won't. They were like we are going that way, we'll run with you. Crying still we run about a half mile back and there sitting at the door scared to death is poor little Carson. Leash in tow.

I sob with joy now. I'm so happy he's there. He's so smart! He made it across the super busy Alumni Road without getting hit. So happy. but obviously still shaken up.

I call Michael sobbing. He thought  Carson got hit or something but was relieved when I told him what happened. Midway through the convo I look down and our carpet is covered in little red spots. Wellll...i see Carson licking his paws. All four of his little paws are covered in blood. :(

I guess he ran so hard that all of his claws became REALLY short, like too short! :( (I was just thinking about how we needed to take him to Petsmart to get his claws trimmed) I force the poor pup into his cage to protect our carpet, and now he thinks he's in trouble. I get a closer look at his paws and his one back paw pad is ripped up exposing the underneath! Man he must have ran hard. I attempted to wrap his paw and had to get to work.

I called the vet and am taking him at 3 to check him out and make sure there's nothing in his paw that will get infected. But wooo what a morning. I am emotionally drained and still sad about my lack of running while standing ability and not finishing my run.

Now I will post some pics...please be aware that there is blood in them and if you don't like blood (I do not, then don't look at them)



my ouchie



ouch! Notice his pad is ripped up :(

his poor little bloody toes :(

Exile....to keep him from bleeding....polite though, cross legs

 This is how I made myself feel better once I got to work today....



On 2 other non related and happier notes...Michael and I got gas at Kroger yesterday for REALLY cheap!


AND I saw my twin Annie at Zumba class yesterday! I had no idea she was coming and she showed up wearing basically the exact same outfit as me! v-neck tie dye shirts, dark shorts, headband, same exact blue sports bra, and yellow and grey Nikes....so weird, I loved it! I had to snap a picture!

Well that's it for today. Please pray for Caron's little feet..I feel so bad!

Wednesday Recap (cause it was just that good)

So since I am stuck with doing a workout Wednesday on Wednesdays I thought that I might recap a little bit of wednesday and catch up with some stuff now because it was noteable:

First of all, you should be starting to understand my love for anything and everything pumpkin. Welllllll tonight Michael and I went to Sonic to celebrate...what were we celebrating? Michael found out his Step 2 Boards exam scores today and he did EXCELLENT! Like ridiculously awesome, he is SO happy and relieved! Anywhoooo we went to Sonic to celebrate and Michael immediately pointed out to me the pumpkin milkshake they had on their menu. Um yes please!

(please note that yes, I am wearing pajama pants, I am also wearing a hoodie and slippers...in public)
p.s. also note that there was a ton of whipped cream (pumpkin pie is the best with whipped cream, no?!) and crumbles on top!

It was good but REALLY filling...i couldn't even finish the whole thing, and that is a strange thing for me when dealing in all things ice cream or pumpkin related! But go getcha self one!

In other news this is my totally cool husband:

This is what happens when you aren't prepared for a flag football game on campus and the refs won't allow you to wear your sweat pants and your team will be forced to forfeit due to lack of players unless you get shorts. Then you promptly run to the car with your wife and change bottoms (I had just finished working out...ick) Thankfully these were lucky booty shorts for Michael and his team because the medschool boys won the game playing one man short and with no resting...and believe me these guys are hard workers and were most definitely worn out from long days doing surgery, rounds, etc.! I was impressed and thrilled by their win not to mention cracking up the entire game watching my hubs run around the field in my bright pink short running shorts!

(can you say taking one for the team?!)

Here's a game shot!

check out those booty shorts from a far!

Oh and here's a pretty sky shot I captured while sitting in the dew covered grass on a fall evening! It was sprinkling a bit where I was sitting but gorgeous!

Oh and my recent lunch obsession?! -- of course I know you are dying to find out -- I've been making a salad with carrots, goat cheese, craisins, sunflower seeds, pumpkin seeds, and a bit of couscous (we had it left over from dinner the night before and I thought I'd try it in a salad, it was good!) with a bit of balsamic vinaigrette tossed on top...heavenly and filling!

Sorry this post was all over the place but I thought you all might enjoy some randomness!! If you get a chance make sure to congratulate Michael on his sweet accomplishment!

Workout Wednesday!

Hello and welcome to another workout Wednesday! Hope your workouts have been going well...my beginning of the week workouts were definitely lacking but hopefully I get back into the swing of things, typically my workouts are better mid to late week, maybe because its because I have this weekly reminder to workout!

I've REALLY been wanting running to outside to get back into my schedule since it's so nice out but I feel like after dinner it's either dark or i'm too full and i've been trying to get back into workout classes at the JC. So i'm stuck. I guess I need to give up a JC workout to run!

Anyway, here is my weekly recap!

Thursday: ZUMBA!! This workout brightened my day. I love dancing and shaking what my mother gave me in this class. It's such a fun and easy way to get an EXTREMELY sweaty workout in. I'm glad I reintroduced Zumba into my life after a few month hiatus due to schedule conflicts. Hopefully I can make it again this week!

Friday: R.I.P.P.E.D -- a new class that is taught by my friend Aly -- I had never tried this class and hadn't heard much about it but I was all for trying it out! It was definitely intense, which is the kind of workout I love. I felt like we were all over the place and my heart was going to beat out of my chest. WONDERFUL!! Here's the JC description of the class:

"The One Stop Body Shock! A high energy body conditioning class incorporating Resistance, Interval, Power, Plyometrics and Endurance training. This class will target all muscle groups by combining free weights and anaerobic conditioning. Designed to tone your body, improve muscular strength and increase cardiovascular endurance"

Saturday: Was a day full of workouts that left me feeling exhausted. The hubs and I woke up and headed to KY fit club. This week we did insanity cardio intervals (or something like that) and we felt like we were going to die. Everyone had a hard time keeping up with the class but I definitely felt like it was a good workout, especially if you had done it a few times. But I guess that's why they call it Insanity! 
After KY fit club Michael and I met up with Michael's Dad for a 20 mile bike ride on the Legacy Trail. Perfect weather. loving fall! And Michael and I finally have helmets so we can be safe!

Sunday-Tuesday: Appropriately colored blue because I became lazy. OK well I was really only lazy on Tuesday. I'll explain. Sunday there was no time for a workout but I cleaned my butt off, lets just say I was sweaty from that for sure! I can't even remember what I did Monday now that I think about it so no excuses there. And Tuesday I was not feeling good what-so-ever and had every intention of going to the 8pm RIPPED class but by the time that came around I was down for the count, sadly, because I enjoyed that cclass so much!

Wednesday: Today I went to what I thought was a class called Piloxing -- another new to me class. Here's it's description:

"try the latest Hollywood fitness craze! PILOXING uniquely blends the power, speed and agility of boxing with the beautiful sculpting and flexibility of Pilates. It is a fat torching, muscle sculpting, core-centric interval workout, guaranteed to whip you into shape. "
 
About halfway through the class I realize we have only been doing Kickboxing stuff and I have no idea why it has this special name until the end when the instructor says next week we will have the real Piloxing, thanks for letting me sub. I was like ooohhhh that makes sense. But the workout we did do was still excellent: lots of kicking and punching and jumping jacks!

Well that's it for the workouts...now I hope I can continue this string of working out! Wish me luck! 

Fillin' in the blanks

1.   The best thing I did all last week was     come home from a lot of traveling to see my husband and doggies and celebrate passing the CPA exam  .

2.    rainbow sprinkles     make me super happy.

3.  Pets are   the funniest, most loveable creatures out there. They all have different personalities but they love you just the way you are  .

4.    My husband   is the best thing about my life.

5.  With the cooler weather I am looking forward to    wearing my pajamas around the house, pumpkin flavored everything, fall decorations, hoodies.

6.  Something that's on my "wish list" right now is    a massage. I've never had one before and would love to try one out!

7.  This weekend I am going to    be all over the place. Hangout time with friends friday possibly. KY fit club saturday morning then baby shower in NKY then wedding in Georgetown. And I can't even remember what's happening Sunday!

Dog-iversary

Doesn't it feel great to be able to check things off your list? Today after work I was able to accomplish that by knocking off 4 gifts from different registries at Babies R Us, Bed bath and beyond, and Target. I must say though that shopping for registry gifts can be quite frustrating especially when you have a tight budget and it doesn't help that these stores are monster stores OR the fact that I was still wearing my work clothes, AKA heels. Tromping around these stores searching for items within my price range was tiring on my poor feet! Hence, no workout today, I was exhausted from the shopping extravaganza. But atleast I know I am set on gifts for all events taking place in October!


Speaking of October I CANNOT believe that it is right around the corner! Which means I need to start looking for gift ideas for Michael's birthday on the 26th!

Speaking of Michael, I walked in from running my errands to him folding a load of whites. He decides one of his undershirts is too nasty(all of them are, I don't know what his toxic armpits produce but the shirts don't take too well to it) and decides that Willis needs to wear clothes. Willis is hilarious when you put stuff on him, he like refuses to move and gets the saddest look on his face. This picture was captured while using taunting words like "treat" to get his attention. oH and exciting information, today, September 26th, marks Carson's one year adoption anniversary and time spent in the Kasten household, I am so glad we have this playful pup, his spunk always cheers me up! (oh and sorry, Carson doesn't have any manners with his private parts!). Enjoy!

Sunday funday

Today was a nice little Sunday but busy the whole day! I accomplished going to church, lunch at the kastens, cookies with Adrielle, major cleaning and laundry, Bible study outdoors, and a good 2 hour long chat with my stepmom Lisa who was in Lexington this weekend and visited while we finished off the yummy pumpkin pie I made yesterday. All is good.

Now to tackle the work week and Michael's 4 am wake up call! Goodnight!

Today was a full yet exciting and calorie burning day. Which I am glad to say I am exhausted from. It included things such as:

-An insanity cardio interval workout with the Kentucky fit club.
-Making my first homemade pumpkin pie of the fall 2011 season.
-riding about 20 miles on the legacy trail with Michael and his dad.
- somehow escaping the rainy forecast for today and enjoyed the wonderful and sunny 70 degree day.
- grocery shopping with the hubs
- driving through the country.
-Going over to the Larson's to watch UK get creamed by Florida. Surprise surprise.
- consuming homemade chili, my pumpkin pie, and mass amounts of corn bread (I'm addicted) and yummy dip
-falling asleep on the Larson's chair while the boys played football video games

And now I have a few pics since I'm posting from my phone and it wont allow me to post the pictures throughout for some reason (if someone knows how to make that happen please let me know!) I hope you enjoyed your Saturday as Much as me!

I'm on an Audit!

Since I found out I passed my CPA exam on Wednesday and you all probably don't know much about my job I wanted to leave you this Friday with this little nugget....enjoy!

A brand new attitude

 So quickly the last two pictures I took in Evansville. the above picture is the view from the office at the river, I thought it was rather pleasant looking!

 Below is what I had for dessert yesterday before we left. We stopped by a bakery and I was going to grab one of their delicious chocolate chip cookies and it was my lucky day! The bakery was celebrating their 13th birthday and had free cake and lemonade for everyone! YUM cake and cookie, always a good thing!

 So yesterday at around 7 I arrived back in Lexington. It's amazing how just being home in your house with your own bed can change your attitude but it really has! I just needed a little time home during the week that's all! Not sure if you saw this on Facebook..buttttt... I found out I passed the last section of the CPA exam yesterday and I celebration HAD to happen! So I called up our awesome friends, The Larsons, to see if they would want to celebrate with us AND celebrate Mr. Larson's birthday this week! They were down! So we headed to Pazzo's (pizza place on campus) for pint night and pizza!

I recently decided that my facebook photos were falling behind so I made everyone take pictures. I really like this one of Michael and I and it was on my phone's camera!

 I warned the Larson's that the flash on my camera was bright. Jonathan decided it was necessary to react to this flash while Kara decided to stay beautiful!

 This is my, "take that CPA exam, I will celebrate my defeat over you with my first ever pumpkin beer!" face. I actually really liked it and might try it again, I don't normally like beer, like at all, but this celebratory beer got me really into the fall spirit!

 I'm not really sure what's happening here but I would like to think I am about to stab Michael because I had just found out about his secret frisbee golf disc purchase that he made a while back!

 After dinner I begged to go get ice cream. I've been asking all my coworkers the past week for ice cream and it didn't happen and since McDonald's 49 cent cones were right next door to Pazzos it was perfect and luckily my hubs and friends are very much like me and really do enjoy a nice value cone!

 The happiest girl in the world...with a slight lazy eye apparently...I blame it on the flash!!!

Oh, and that's my weird husband. He eats ice cream weird and thinks it's necessary to have an ice cream mustache the whole time he's eating the cone!

So yesterday evening was perfect. I loved spending time outside of a hotel room with people I really do love they definitely can help with the mood issues!! Well that's all that really happened yesterday, it's a semi relief to finally have something to write about for once and pictures with it too! Look at me, so proud! Well goodnight friends, tomorrow is Friday, who's excited?!

Workout Wednesday

Look who's not too ashamed to post their workout wednesday this week?  ME! Cause I actually tried to make it work in my schedule so here goes!

Thursday & Friday - still in workout funk, no time to even think about working out so it didn't happen unfortunately

Saturday - KY fit club!! This week we did another beach body video called rev abs, but the actual video did not involve many ab focused drills, it was a lot of kickboxing moves. I was definitely sore afterward.

Sunday - day of rest/ clean the house day ...which can oftentimes be considered a workout!

Monday - 5k on the treadmill at the Hampton Inn. THe one convenient thing about traveling is that the gym is REALLY close so you honestly have no excuses because your choices for hotel entertainment is either tv or workout. I surprisingly did not turn my hotel room tv on once the whole time we were there!


Tuesday: After eating mexican food for dinner i was very doubtful that a workout would happen but after about an hour of digesting I convinced myself to do a workout video that I am trying out this week, it''s called Chalean Extreme (it's a beach body video). I was recommended this video as a good supplement for me since I'm a runner and this mainly focuses on weights work. The only thing is I have to do everything with a tube band and so I didn't feel like the workout was as great as it would be using weights. I'll give it another go or two and then make my decision on whether or not to get it. I really do need a workout that will help me focus on strength training because that is equally as important as my cardio work! Why am I trying out this video for the week? Because I get to pick any beachbody video of my choice for FREE because I won a KY fit club drawing! If anyone has any beachbody suggestions please let me know! Checkout Chalean, she's intense!

Wednesday: I woke up at 5:30 central time this morning to get a workout in because I knew I wouldn't want to after a day of traveling back to Lexington. I did 3.5 miles in a little under 29 minutes and man was I a sweaty freak!

So yes, I am a little less ashamed of my workouts this week, still not as much as I would have hoped, I'd like to have probably one more workout but due to my schedule I'll accept this! Stay fit friends!

cubicle land

Oh my goodness, another boring day in Ashley-land. Yeah, I really have nothing to write about, actually it feels like today was just a repeat of yesterday except we ate at different places for lunch and dinner and I did a different workout, but besides that you know it basically felt like Groundhog Day!

Speaking of ...great movie!

However I did get to talk to Michael on the phone for about 30 minutes tonight and my dad for about 15 so at least I was semi-social hanging out in my hotel room by myself!

Oh and for those of you who work in cubicle-laden lands of success and prosperity... I don' t know how you do it. We are working in cubicles at our client this week and I have the hardest time EVER concentrating. On one side there was a man that definitely over-shared for about 2 hours making sure to not leave out a single detail about his doctors appointment and the one time he couldn't find a winery that he was trying to visit with his wife.

On the other side a woman who does phone services for the client talks at her top volume ALL the time.

 I guess people don't realize that there are other people there trying to get things accomplished, but maybe that' s just us... just kidding! :)

Welcome to Evansville!

Greetings from Evansville, Indiana where I will be residing for half of the week. This lovely city greeted me with rain and continued to stick around for most of the day. Come on now city, don't you want to give me a good impression?

I'd like to tell you I did something fun and exciting all day. But I audited a bank. Do you want to learn more about that?! yeah, I didn't think so.

The highlight of my day was eating a delicious salad from Bar Louie for dinner. Is that sad? It was sooo good: pear, craisins, pecans, and apple cidar vinegarette...yum!

After dinner I immediately forced myself into the gym to run a 5k. Which I surprisingly did to my disbelief. I even watched the new 2 and 1/2 men with Ashton Kutcher in it. I've never watched the show before and probably won't start but it was entertaining enough to get me through my 25 minute run. But now I am off to bed for I fear I have an early start in the morning!! Happy Monday!

Blandy McBlanderson

I feel like my blog posts have been REALLY bland lately. And I am honestly sorry if I've been boring you to death. Life has been out of control I feel like lately. I definitely lack the extra time to blog during the week and then weekends like this one I sink into laziness and lots of pajama wearing and then I lack anything interesting to blog about what-so-ever. So my goal this week is to find something semi-interesting to blog about. Any suggestions?

Although my weekend has been semi-bland, one of the more positive things was bible study tonight. I love getting together with these awesome people and it was even greater cause some of us went to A&W beforehand and then we had the actual b-stud outside surrounding a fire pit in the midst of the beautiful Kentucky hills in the country. Perfect way to cap off my weekend, chill yet thought provoking. Plus who doesn't love being around a group of super hilarious and super loving people?! I mean these folks are my fav!

Well i should wrap this up since I have to hit the road early in the morning to Evansville, Indiana for a few days of work and I still need to pack a little and finish up the laundry. Hopefully I'll find something interesting to blog about in Evansville! Happy Fall Sunday to all.

Fillin' in some blanks!

1.   You should always take time to     be appreciative of what you have. You won't realize some of the things you love until you stop and think about those things.

2.    Ice cream and puppies      make(s) the world a happier place to be.

3.  I can hardly wait for   Thanksgiving. A week off work, good food, family, and some sort of traveling (personal, not work) that I will shove in that week   .

4.    Saturday (duh: sleeping in)   is my favorite day of the week.

5.  Something totally dumb and ridiculous that I love is    people watching (I could have just sat and watched people tailgating today, so much ridiculousness, school pride, and BLUE!) .

6.  If I could, I would   have a maid clean my house, it's amazing how dirty it gets without me even being here during the week...boo that .

7.  I rather like    wearing loose fitting pants with elastic in them (aka pajama pants), a hoodie, and my slippers whenever possible. I am definitely not about bein' a pretty girl, if it's comfortable though, I will LOVE living in it  . (I probably haven't worn my slippers since my REG studying in December! I am currently wearing the exact same pictured outfit.)

 

Oh and my furry friends say heellllooO!

Happy Saturday!

Home sweet home

Finally made it back to lex Vegas after a fun but draining and tiring week in south bend....glad to be home with playing pups and my bed and my hubs

What does a girl do in SB on day 3?

She does not feel rested. (Which may be due to a late night)

She has 9 very full hours of training.

She does not exercise due to lack of time, energy, and full tummy. (No workout Wednesday)

She goes to an Italian restaurant with 30 of her newest financial institution auditing friends for a very long dinner.

She sneaks into the hotel hot tub after hours to gain the warmth back in her limbs that she had not felt the entire day.

She FINALLY gets to actually talk to her husband, first time since Sunday. She loves him.

And she munches down these free snacks from training before bed. Healthy. Real healthy!

What does an accountant do on day 2 in SB?

She wears a UK shirt to college night at the local bar where Rudy was shot (bear in mind I'm in Notre Dame land)....

What does one do in south bend indiana?

Train all day.

Go to a brewery restaurant with other accountants

Play pools and cornhole at an empty bar with other accountants on a nice September evening

Life is goooood!

A Wedding, some airplanes, and Indiana

So last night we got home at a kind of late hour from the wedding that took place in Cincinnati. That's why there was not a post with much detail. But now you'll get to see the pictures of the fun times we had!!
Of course there was the first dance:

Then a huge and delicious fancy meal:

And pictures with good friends:

And dancing of course:

The wedding was a awesome time and a great opportunity to see friends from school that I haven't really been able to hangout with in a while. Such a great time!
This morning after a late evening I was woken up to lovely pancakes served up by my hubs. What a great surprise!! He even made pancake letters! How awesome is he?!

 I got up and packed up my stuff for my week long stay in South Bend, Indiana for training. Surprisingly the airports seemed normal even though it was the 10th anniversary of 9/11. I made it safely to south bend after a stop in Detriot and got settled in.
A friend of mine from the Dallas office met up with me and he brought a girl from his office and we went and gave ourselves a little walking tour of Notre Dame (the college of course). The campus was gorgeous, green, and spread out. It was nice too since it was Sunday with families and children milling about and students lazily wondering along exercising and hanging out.

 

After our walk I chilled for a bit in my room and then met up with some people to head to Buffalo Wild Wings for dinner to catch some NFL (LOVE football season!). And now i'm sleepy so this girl is gonna head to bed! Goodnight friends!