SPS - Texan Girl Travels

I'm writing this post after drinking a pretty tall Blue moon, so bear with me. 

I left Charleston two Fridays ago and have been on the move ever since.  

This is a much shortened version to let you know we have arrived and are alive, until I can get internet this week! 

Our trip looked a little like this.. 

Two very miserable cats. Those paws are paws of desperation, before we even left the apartment. 

One very angry cat. The other one was extremely drugged at this point.

Charleston SC --> North Carolina --> Knoxville, TN --> Alabama --> Mississippi --> Louisiana --> College Station, TX --> Fort Stockton, TX --> New Mexico --> Tucson, AZ --> Los Angeles, CA

We went to visit very good friends in Knoxville, TN. They are amazing and I can't wait to tell you about them. 

I hope you are amazing. 

Love, 

Your Texan Girl. 

Our relationship is a Fourth grader.

Hello, hello.

With all the hustle and bustle of moving, I have to take time to celebrate us. I actually do this a lot, even when there is nothing to celebrate, but today marks our 9 years together.

Nine years. My goodness, I really didn't think it's been that long. Not whole lot has changed.

We're still ridiculous.

Galveston, Summer 2007

We still try to be fancy. 

Senior Prom 2006

Matt still eats Doritos.. On occasion these days. 

Omaha, September 2012

I still have the same reaction with snow, thinking that it's not that cold, when it still is. 

Vail, Spring 2008

We still try to be foodies and eat bougie places. 

Sunbird, Spring 2009

We still laugh everyday. 

Fall 2011

In 9 years, the only real thing that has changed is my last name and I love you more than I ever have. 

May 12, 2012

Happy Nine years together. I love you, I love you, I love you. Thanks for always being my rock and supporting all my decisions.  I can't wait to see what the future holds for us. 

Love, 

Ash

SPS!

This week we did things like this:

Don't worry our cats fully judged us. Can you see the judgement in this cat's eyes?

I hope everyone had the most fabulous Valentine's day. I was a little too thrilled when I found this, and you bet I promptly sent this out to my Golden Girls. 

We were extremely excited to start our Valentine's day festivities. I mean at this point we had eaten breakfast and went to Lowe's all before 9am. We're adventurous these days. 

We went to pay for parking and got cash back. Apparently the universe was trying to tell us something. 

After a fabulous early dinner at Bonefish with friends. We made reservations at 3:30 because everywhere else was booked. It actually worked out because we had tickets to see The Book of Mormon which was in the parking lot over and were able to just walk and not have to worry about parking. 

So my husband is a HUGE FAN of South Park and as you know the writers of South Park wrote this play. It's about Mormon missionaries and how they try to get people to follow the LDS religion in South Park style. If you get the chance to see this. See it. 

I hope your Sunday is amazing. I leave you with this awesome Harry Potter reference. 

I'm in a glass case of emotion.

I've been putting off this post for awhile.

As you know we are military, and some people think that being in the military, you just get used to saying goodbye. 

Let me just say, you never get used to saying goodbye, and it's always hard. Always. 

Charleston has been an amazing place for me. I've gained so much over the past three years. 

I started my marriage here. 

I gained my education here. 

I found some of the best friends i'll ever have. 

I want to point out one person in particular. One of my very first friends in Charleston. 

She was there during each of my husband's deployments and literally walked with me every step of the way. Invited me to her family's thanksgiving dinner without a second thought, when I wasn't able to go home to mine.

She always helped me put my crazy into perspective, no matter what it was. 

She is my black Friday shopping partner in crime.

She supported my outrageous addiction to cats and has since been an avid contributor.

She is my own personal cheerleader and picked me up off the ground alot.

She has cried with me on numerous occasions. 

Most importantly, she has become my best friend and I love her dearly. 

Her name is Olivia/Liv as I call her.  There is not one memory I will have of Charleston that didn't include this girl. She is one of the most accepting people i've ever known. She genuinely tries to see the best in everyone and she doesn't even know it. 

God sure knew what he was doing when I met Liv. I needed a real friend who could place me back in to reality, to knock me down a few pegs when necessary and to love me unconditionally- my quirks and all.

As I write this, not only am I on an emotional roller coaster, I keep thinking how can I tell her goodbye? I've been fearing this day for three years now.  

I will miss our beach days, where we let the salty air and the waves take away our frustrations, and when we leave life makes a little more sense. 

I will miss our random trips to World Market, always keeping in mind how we want to decorate our future houses with ridiculousness and always obsessing over mustaches/small animals on just about anything. 

I will miss your spontaneity.  

The future has holds a million unknowns, but I know this: She'll be in my life forever. Our friendship is timeless and I know every time we get together we will pick up right where we left off. 

Thanks for all our memories, Liv. You are my person and I'll love you always. 

I fully expect us to make more memories, STAT. 

A Beyond Fabulous Weekend in Texas.

This week my mind has been racing a mile a minute. 

There is simply not enough time. 

If you don't have time for this story turn back now, because this is full of random tangents. 

We recently went to my best friend's wedding reception and it was amazing. We had an excellent time and I can't believe how fast everything went. 

We left on Friday morning and took a plane out of Atlanta. Atlanta is about 4 hours away from Charleston. Instead of driving the 17 hours to Texas we flew Spirit Airlines for about $350 roundtrip including the rental car. 

Talk about a win-win.  

So let me skip to the wedding reception. 

As you know, Same-sex marriage isn't legal, yet in Texas, so my friends wanted to celebrate their commitment to each other and get the real thing later. 

The reception was off of 6th street in Austin at Imperia. It was this swanky little asian bistro, which my friends rented the WHOLE thing. It was awesome. 

This was the man of the hour, he was so busy and moving so fast, this was the only real time I got to see him. 

In little places like this, the rooms are dark( and always setting the vibe, or something), and I'm not coordinated enough for flash. 

***Texas Girl Tangents***Look below,  I want to talk about this dress i'm wearing. I looked high and low for a dress like this one, I always wanted a lace dress with sleeves. 

I went to Saks Off 5th, because I'm not bougie enough for the real thing. 

Anyways, they had HUGE clearance racks with massive amounts of clothes on them and I found this dress out of no where. I immediately knew it was the dress for me. It was buy ONE get TWO free. I was like, OH JACKPOT. 

However, being the spaz I am, in the midst of finding my free items and being indecisive, I PUT THE DAMN DRESS BACK ON THE RACK WITH ALL THE OTHER MILLIONS OF CLEARANCE ITEMS AND COULDN'T FIND IT. 

What in the everloving hell did I think I was doing?! Don't worry, I grabbed a sales lady and she found it right back, because I wasn't leaving that store without the dress. 

Desperate, yes. Crazy, No.  

You could say I'm pretty proud of this dress. 

This was the other man of the hour, the fabulous Caleb. He was looking very sharp in red. I'm going to stop a minute and just talk about how happy I am that Dan found this guy. I have never in my life seen Dan so happy. I love how life has a way of bring people together.

Love never fails, people. 

This girl I've known since elementary school, her name is Sunayana. I reconnected with her at this wedding and I wish I would have hung out with her in school. I hate that about life after high school, i've met some incredible people that I completely missed out on. Don't worry we hung out the entire rest of the night. 

While Sunayana is adorable, we snapped this because of the Mr. Heisenberg look-a-like in the background. We literally thought that could be him, or his doppleganger. We were trying to be discrete. I'm also going to chalk this up as a win. 

Dan came back to show us love. LOVE Him. 

The rest of the night was awesome. There was an open bar until midnight and lots of dancing.

I would like to note that this is Dan's 80 something year old grandmother, Shoshi.

She did a headstand.

Did you hear me?

A HEADSTAND. SHE'S PRETTY AMAZING.

CAN YOU SEE THIS LADY BREAKING IT DOWN?!
She plays tennis and all sorts of things I don't. She's pretty much my hero.

At the end of this weekend, I gathered one thing:

ATX- 1
Ashley- 0

You can imagine what that one was, and you'd be almost correct, i'll tell you that tangent later.

Don't worry I made it back to Charleston, very sleepy and in one piece.

Life as of lately.

I have to say things are going quite well these days. Well you know since the NCLEX came in and out of my life so swiftly, thank goodness. All my skies are blue.

I'm not gonna lie one of the very first things I did was put ALL my nursing textbooks on Amazon. Man, that felt amazing. Let the money just roll in.. even if it is only about $100, after I spent hundreds.

I thought this was appropriate.

Yesterday, we had a lady come over to assess how much stuff we had to move, since the military is paying for it. She had to inspect every room. Even my closet.

Let's just say the last minute frantic-where-in-the-hell-do-I-put-all-shit sweep of the house before that lady gets here to make it look like I actually clean my house = a million piles of laundry went straight in the closet.

Fail.

We all know what thats like don't we, Pete Carroll.

I'm planning how i'm going to go purge my closet, but for the life of me, I can't bring myself to it.
T-minus 20 days till the move. I got time. I'll just watch an episode of Hoarders and be on my merry way.

The next big life altering thing I'm experiencing is: WEARING MY RETAINER.

Ok, be honest. How many of you people there actually where the damn thing? I got my retainer today and my goodness, what a pain in the ass.

My orthodontist told me I was going to need to wear this for a MONTH full time. That's like flossing every. single. day. It's just not going to happen.

OMGOMGOMGOMG. I don't even know how i'm just now telling you all this.

My best friend, Dan is getting married this weekend. I've known this boy since 3rd grade. Let me tell you a bit about Dan.. He's one of the most amazing people i've ever known. He's a good friend and WILL ALWAYS let you know the truth. That's honestly a trait most people don't have these days.

He's completely inappropriate in the quietest of moments, which is entertaining and not the least bit boring. **sitting quietly in the movies,when someone ridiculous walks in**

There was never a time, when he didn't notice something ridiculous that I didn't. We've had conversations with just facial expressions, it's awesome.

He is the one of the only people that will tell me when I need to get serious and do better, and literally pushed me through few years in college.

He's always been the one I could call to come get me from the airport at 11pm at night when my plane decided not to show up and take me home without another thought. When we are together we pick up right where we left off. Most importantly, he never fails to show me love when I need it the most.

I can't tell you how excited I am to be there for his big celebration. He was there for me on my wedding day, after he graduated the DAY BEFORE. He's wonderful and I love him so much. 

I hope everyone has someone this fabulous in their life. I'm sure glad I do. 

Ipsy post!

I recently got my January bag from Ipsy. Yikes, it's already February, but it took me some time to try everything right?!

You take a quiz in the very beginning and pick all the items that you normally use and they go by your list and give you exactly that. Well almost.

Here's my LOOT:

Let's start with that cute Pink Eyeshadow Brush. I love brushes that feel soft, they tend to hold more powder and apply more smoothly. I love that one item was full size. It was probably the best item out of my Ipsy order. I should probably tell you i'm a brush snob. 

Malin + Goetz Mojito Lip Balm: It feels really good on your lips. Win! It's minty. Win! I'm sure outside of this Ipsy box it's a million dollars. However, I really love being able to sample this!

Nourish Organic Eye Cream: This stuff is really awesome and if I do say so, it really competes with the eyeshadow brush. I REALLY like this stuff. It's not heavy and I put it on at night and wake up and makes my eye area look moisturized. I've been using eye cream since I was 22. My mother started giving me crap about how much time I spent in the sun and said if I didn't wear it, it would look like crows walked all across my face. All in all, I really would buy this in full size at the store. 

Pacifica Eyeshadow: This shadow is really nice. I love how smooth this goes on. It doesn't flake, I think it's a very nice quality shadow. I just wish it wasn't a bronze color and more of a dark brown. 

I'm a makeup snob too. :)

Bella Pierre Cosmetics Eye shimmer: My inner 13 year old was stoked when I received this, my 27 year old in reality was not too stoked. I would wear this stuff if I was going to the club. OH WAIT, I never go to the club. Maybe if I dress up to go to an 80-90's party I would put this stuff on. It's not bad quality though. I guess this would be my least favorite part of the bag. 

Will I keep getting Ipsy bags, YES. 

You should at least try it once!

SPS- Super Bowl 2015 edition

Happy February!!

The half time show was my favorite. There was a lot of hilarious banter going on with all those sharks and waves. I really thought this was absolutely necessary and hilarious.

Ps. I secretly love Blades of Glory with all my heart. WE LOVE YOU DENVER, CITY BY THE BAY!

However, MISSY ELLIOTT stole the freaking show. 

Thank you for making a come back, Missy. Please come back and show these people what talent is.