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Thursday, May 28, 2015

A Corgi Visit and Other Nonsense.

Ok, so last week was FULL.

We celebrated a birthday, a promotion and a long lost friend who decided to visit us.

Needless to say it was the best. I believe birthdays are so, so important. They aren't just about gifts, their about living and celebrating another wonderful year of life. I just remember that not everyone gets to celebrate a year older, so it really is a special gift.

This is the face I always get when I want to take a picture. One day Matt Coates, you'll thank me. One day.



There was lots of playing on the WiiU. I get so excited about old school games. I secretly have a love for Super Mario 3. You can just ask my brother, 92% of our fights over the summers growing up were because of this one game.



I have to say this year I got super creative and wanted to share this super cool idea. It's a bottle opener that you can hang on the wall. 

I recently discover Etsy, before you judge me too hard, I knew about it before, but never shopped on it. What's even more cool the people who made this craft went to the Air Force Academy (clearly these people made me a client for life), and will design this anyway you want it. 

Paola is super amazing and is very attentive to your specific needs. We love our new bottle opener! Check out her store here. They have tons of other crafts on their site. Keep them in mind for the holidays, they ship super quick.



So there was Matt's promotion ceremony, which was super cool. After we got to go to a local pub and had a great time. I don't even mind that Matt's boss is photo bombing this picture. 


Oh yes, so I said we had a friend come visit. Yes, T-money came to visit and he brought his Corgi, Watson with him!!! Don't worry Tirah, Watson didn't bother the cats one bit. He was one sweet puppy dog! Plus, I was amazed the cats didn't even bother him. Maybe this means we can get a dog?!? 


We decided to go on the trails. Which were spectacular this Saturday morning. We hiked about 5 miles, can you imagine how many miles this was for this Corgi? He probably thought he was going to die out there. Poor baby and those short little stumps. Don't worry Watson made it. 

Random tangent: Troy you have turned into a straight hipster. I love it though. 


 Our hike called for some soul food at Roscoe's Chicken and Waffles in Long Beach, CA. Y'all it's pretty freaking amazing. I didn't remember to take a picture of my food, but you can take my word how glorious it was.


I guess because Watson was hanging out with us, Lou needed a little lovin'. He gets needy sometimes. Yes, he was all up in my dirty hair. Cats love dirty hair, it's really weird, and extremely convenient that I only wash my hair every two days. Don't act like you wash your hair everyday. 


We ended our weekend at Hermosa Beach and Santa Monica Pier. These days we don't get see our friends as much as we like to, but when we do it's the best and try to make the most out of it. They say if you have a friend for 7 years, you'll mostly be friends for life. 

T-money, looks like you can't get rid of us now. 

A blurb to our other friends: Get out to California STAT. You're missing out on sunshine, especially if you live in Texas... 





Thursday, May 21, 2015

It's One Special Day.

Today is a day that I am so grateful for because today is my husband's birthday.

HAPPY BIRTHDAY MATT!!!!



This old man is turning 28. I officially am married to an older man again and feels amazing. Yes, we are 6 months apart, but I squeeze all I can out of those 6 months of being the younger in this relationship.


Here are four fun facts about this old man bear:


  • He has a love for Doritos that is everlasting. *** they must be Cooler Ranch, I made the mistake of not buying Cooler Ranch and there was hell to pay. ***

Clearly, there is little different between home vs public Doritos.. 



  • His nickname is Coatesy Bear. He is kind of furry like a bear and often gets confused with an actual bear. All the academy kids will get this. Which incidentally can look like this when hungry. Don't worry I keep my distance. 

  • He would love nothing more than to have a million Nalgenes. The water bottles. The man is obsessed. We have approximately 785937459873485 that he consistently only puts smoothies in. Do you know how hard it is to clean smoothie out of these?! Difficult. 

  • This fun fact I get to brag.. This hunk of burning love is also promoting today. He is one of the hardest working people I know. For example:  6 months straight, he would go into work before 4am to work until 6pm just to make sure all would get done and try to alleviate stress on the rest of his office. He always stays so humble and never takes credit for anything. 
 I love you, Matt and am so proud of all you have accomplished. You deserve this. I hope you have the happiest of birthdays. 

  


I hope everyone has a wonderful weekend! 





Friday, May 15, 2015

Happy Friday!

Happy day it's Friday. One of my favorite days of the week!

I just realized I neglected to tell you all about my last weekend happenings. Probably because, well, it was my anniversary and I was too preoccupied celebrating with this giant bouquet of pageant flowers.


Those flowers were bigger than my face and there were just about a million different flowers, you know just incase I changed my mind last second on which flowers I liked. OR maybe this was an alternate way of telling me I was winning at life because we're still married. Either way, they were beautiful.

Don't worry the cats enjoyed them too, all the foliage was properly eaten through and that little gladiolus thing at very top never stood a chance.


And some exciting news on the homefront.. drum roll please...

THIS GIRL IS EMPLOYED AGAIN, and I'LL BE WORKING AT A HOSPITAL DOING NURSE THINGS. My goodness, that felt amazing.




Do I know when I start? Nope. Just waiting on the old background check to go through... I'm gonna pump the brakes for a few minutes, and thank everyone who supported my mind and heart through this process. Those closest to me, know what a struggle this was. I can't tell you how blessed I am that you are in my life. 

Celebratory foot rubs from my wonderful husband. Bless him. 
Y'all I can be an absolute train wreck to live with sometimes. 


Then we later on went to see a movie in the park. They played Pretty Woman. This has to be one of my all time favorite movies. Ever. And of course, I don't know how Matt got around this, but HE NEVER ACTUALLY SAW THIS ENTIRE MOVIE. I don't know how we've been together for this long and I had never realized. I feel shameful. 



We met up with some friends. SO excited to be social again. This picture is super grainy, but the people in it are most definitely not (do you see what I did there? PUNS!) and hope to be hanging out with them on the reg.

Sorry cats it's been real, but human interaction helps we stay sane. Love you mean it.


*Tangent: if you like picture books then this might be your favorite blog post. Little bit of rambles here and there, but mainly pictures. 


Best part of this experience, FOOD TRUCKS. There were about 15 food trucks right near the park that stayed open the entire time the movie was on. I never realized my love for food trucks until this Fried Nutella sandwich came in my life. FRIED. NUTELLA. SANDWICH. Matt was pretty stoked.


So on Sunday, we decided not to be fatties and go for a hike. Yes, we left the house on Sunday. It almost never happens, but with all this sunshine, I needed a little vitamin D in my life, according to my husband I just need a "little tan" because i've been made aware i'm extremely pasty, and never mind that this sentence is the biggest run-on ever, I really sometimes put in commas to make you think I'm eloquent at writing. 

On to the trails! These trails are 5 minutes from our house. I couldn't believe it. When Matt wanted to go on a walk, I had no idea this is where he would be taking me. 






These Stargazer hiking trails go on for miles. I appreciate California a little bit more after today, this makes me forget about all the traffic, concrete, and the hustle and bustle. This really is a beautiful place. I loved that no matter where we were on the trails, there were people everywhere enjoying these views right along with us. 






They even led down to the beach.



We will be doing the trails again very soon. 

I hope everyone has an amazing Friday. 


Tuesday, May 12, 2015

Three Years Ago Today...

It was our wedding day.

I had dreamed of this day my whole life, and couldn't believe it was coming true. I was getting to marry my best friend in a beyond beautiful chapel, at the Air Force Academy. Sappy I know.

I remember the whirlwind of 18 hours worth of finals I had to take early to get to this day, the packing up my whole apartment to move to Charleston, SC, and to rally up my family to fly to Colorado Springs. It was exhausting, but actually fell into place perfectly, even my crazy family cooperated.

Little did I know this would be the start of something absolutely amazing.

From the moment I stepped in to this chapel in 2006, I knew that if I ever got married to Matt, it would be here. I absolutely fell in love.


With this picture, you can definitely see why. 


One of my favorites. 


This was before the ceremony. All my emotions were everywhere, because every moment was fleeting.  


Dear Matt, 

I want to let you know that the past three years have been so great. They have exceeded every expectation i've had about marriage. You put up with all of my crazy and I thank you a thousand times over. I'm so glad I met you so early in my life, I will be forever thankful. 
I know the world around us may change, but I know one thing that never will, you and me.

Love, 
Ash




All of these people mean the world to us. I was so proud to have them here for this day. 





I hope everyone's Tuesday is amazing.


Wednesday, May 6, 2015

An Ode to Nurses

Happy Nurse's week to all my fellow nurses.

You graduate nursing school and you look like this.



There are good days.. When you leave your shift and you absolutely feel accomplished.


Then there are bad days... When you're days are filled with poop and you can't get the smell out of your nose, no matter how hard you try. 

This has happened to me before, maybe on a smaller scale, but nevertheless. 


There are days that you actually question everything you know. 



Friends send you all kinds of pictures and text you about a million ailments, which is cool. 
Until you realize that other people who aren't your friends are doing the same thing... Then it gets weird.


You'll be busier in this line of work then you ever thought before.. when you go to the bathroom to just sit down and realize you haven't peed in 7 hours. 



But at the end when you see something like this.. 


There is absolutely nothing better. You know in your heart of hearts, that this is why you became a nurse.   

Days like these make working your 12 hour shifts not as bad, you hear the ever ringing call bells fade, and you savor moments like these forever. They don't come as often as you'd like, but when they do, you're reminded of why you chose this profession and couldn't see yourself doing anything else. 

Today, I seriously couldn't imagine myself doing anything different. If you're a nurse, pat yourself on the back, not everyone can do this job, and you got to this point for a reason. 

If anything else, just know you are appreciated!

Below are some of the most amazing nurses I know first hand. Love all of them. 




If you aren't a nurse, you should thank one the first chance you get. We always accept thank yous!