Im officially not a Blogger.....

Apparently, you need to have INTERNET to blog. Also, a computer is necessary.... But Ashley didnt really have either of those things for the last 6 months while living with the brother. (except on the smart phone of course). My one and only laptop crashing and burning didnt help things, and so here I am. 6 months after moving from Bryan, 6 months after Matt began his new career, 1 month into living in our new house!, and a few days after CHRISTMAS!
How should I describe the last 6 months?? A few words come to mind:
Camping - we were living out of boxes and tubs at Aarons house for wayyyy longer than planned. We shared a tiny bathroom between the 2 of us, and the rest of the house with Aaron. It was a lot of fun, and sometimes I really miss it. We got to hang out a lot with Aaron and there was always something going on. Our pantry was a couple boxes on the floor in the dart room. Our closet had summer clothes ONLY in it, so when October/November rolled around, and those random cold days showed up, it was fun finding a wardrobe. Even though it was challenging, it made me realize how little I really need.
Dejected - I still have not found employment. This is not because I am not trying - I have sent my resume so many places I've lost count, applied online more than I ever thought I would, networked, and had a couple phone interviews. *sigh* Maybe soon.....
Blessing - We are so blessed. We are blessed to have a brother who let us live with him for longer than planned. We are blessed to have finally found a house of our own, after several contracts that didnt work out. We are blessed to be closer to family (mine in town, Matt's up I-10) and friends. We are blessed that Wiley is a VERY adaptable and flexible, easy-going dog, because bless his little canine heart, we have dragged him all over this great state of Texas these past 6 months. He's had about 3 or 4 different homes. He's been a trooper and nothing short of the best dog ever.
Weddings - Yes, this past 6 months has been full of WEDDINGS. Matt was in 2, I was in 3, we were both in 1 in Colorado. And we had about 4 that neither of us were in. This is the marriage season of life! We've got a few more friends to marry off, then we'll be done with that. And then on to baby showers! haha.

We had our first house guests (Travis, Amanda, and baby Kyle, YAY!) and it was so great! We walked to Twin Sisters for breakfast, met Matt for lunch, played with Kyle (7 months old at the time) and went to the Riverwalk to eat Mexican food and see the pretty lights. Although, I have to interject that the city changed them to LED this year to be "green" (pshhhhhhh! Insert eye-roll) and I HATE them. Are you listening San Antonio?? Bring back the good old electricity wasting PRETTY lights that have real bulbs and twinkle! Rant over.

Christmas has been really fun this year, and I have enjoyed decorating our new house! It has a pretty front porch, so I had a lot of ideas. I also braved the eave lights, and put them up BY MYSELF while Matt was at work. Let me tell you, a lot harder than it looks. And, I learned some things - apparently, instead of dragging a ladder around the house every 4 feet and doing it from the ground up, smart people get on the roof and do it from there! Makes so much more sense! I will be doing that next year. That was my aha! moment.

So far we have gotten a fire pit for our back patio from Matt's parents, I got Coach perfume and a kitchen island from the hubs, and I got some cute clothes in Ft Worth.

Here is to a New Year - 2012 - and hopefully more blogging so I can look back on these when Im 80 and say, "Remember when we were that young? Remember when we were that BUSY??" And hopefully I'll be saying that as I am zip-lining or skydiving or something outrageous.

Goodbye, Aggieland

Well, it's official. We are leaving the great city of Aggieland and heading southwest to San Antonio! Matt graduates and he got a job there, and we are moving. We've been working on fixing up and cleaning the house, putting the house on the market, and going through the process of showing it. It's exhausting, but Im happy that we have a contract on it, and have SOLD the house! It really is incredible, considering the housing market right now. I guess all the blood, sweat, and tears that were shed while doing the updates actually paid off, and God sent the right buyers our way. I will miss our home. It's really great.

We will be moving in a couple weeks, and my last day of work is in one week. This has been a busy time. The past two weeks are a BLUR. Ive been packing slowly every evening I have the chance, while also trying to see friends that I wont see for a while and enjoying our last weekends in BCS. I will miss A&M and the campus, the community, the way everyone is friendly, the traditions. But I'll also miss Bryan. The history, its uniqueness, the quiet cute neighborhood we're in, downtown, our neighbors.  Our best friends here in town had their first baby 2 weeks ago, and we've been holding him as much as possible and getting in as much time with them as we can before we leave. Our neighbors also had their third baby, so we've had fun with all the newborns.

Aaron has so graciously and generously agreed to let us live with him in SA til we get our feet on the ground. We have to get through a few weddings that we're in, Matt has to start work, I have to FIND work, and then we can look for a house there. This is indeed a very busy season in life. Im wondering when the relaxing season of life will begin. Maybe when Im 60? 65? These past 2 years have been great. We can't wait to see where our lives go during this new adventure.

Let's Rodeo San Antonio!

I am so excited to be leaving TODAY to go to San Antonio and see my very best good friends!

We will be at the Riverwalk tonight at my favorite mexican food restaurant. Saturday, I am helping my BFF since KINDERGARTEN move into her very first apartment! Yay Katie!

Saturday evening, we will be going to the stock show and rodeo for the first and only time this year! I dont think I've missed a year of rodeo except maybe once, but Im pretty sure not. I LOVE the rodeo. Ive been every year since I wore my first pair of tiny wranglers and red boots. I can smell the wonderful food smells mixed with sawdust and cow patties as I type this. (So gross, right?) I will be having a turkey leg, roasted corn on the cob, and a funnel cake, thank you very much. I will watch the piglet races. I will go to the horse barn and dream of the horse I will own in the future. (Yes, I am a horse-lover at heart.) I will NOT ride the scary carney rides, but I may play a game or two. I will go to the petting zoo, even though I probably exceed the height limit. Then, Josh Turner is performing and he's so dreamy.

Freezing February = Fail

Wow, since when did I not live in Texas anymore? It has been SO cold here the last couple of weeks. Wiley has spent the majority of his days inside, and while Im sure he would be fine outside in his house in the 19 degree weather and freezing rain, I refuse to believe he would enjoy it. So Im being a good puppy-momma and keeping him in.

All last week, the first week of February, the groundhog clearly mustve seen his shadow because WOW. It has been below freezing, with ice on the streets, and on the 4th, it snowed! We woke up to a beautiful 3 inch blanket of snow!

We went out and played in it and let Wiley make yellow snow, before school and work all got cancelled for the day. I worked from home, but all-in-all, it was a great snow day. I worked in my PJs next to a hot fire all day! It was wonderful. The snow/ice didnt completely melt until Saturday, so we didnt drive until that evening. We tried to go out and see True Grit, but it was sold out. Boo. We rented the American instead at redbox, and I DO NOT RECOMMEND. We hated it and turned it off about halfway through. The only reason it was not turned off sooner is because the boys kept wanting to "see where it was going". And when it went nowhere good, the girls made an executive decision to turn it off.

Sunday was the superbowl! I could care less about the teams playing, and the commercials weren't all that great, and the halftime show was AWFUL, so it was just disappointing for me. But I ate some delicious food! haha. Isn't that what it's all about?? no?? Oh, its about football? No way. Stop pulling my leg.

This weekend will be spent doing more painting/house repairs/cleaning. Guess what holiday is coming up?? The day of LOOOOOOOOVE. Of course, if youre like me, you believe that every day should be a day of love and that candy/cards/flowers should be given any ol' day of the year. Call me crazy. We will be staying in and making chocolate dipped fruit like we've done for the past 5 years.
Oh yeah, our "togetherness" anniversary was in January - 5 years of love for Ashley and Matt!

Where did January go?

Well, that's ok. We'll just skip riiiiiiight over it! Nothing important happened anyways... NOT!
Ok, so a LOT of big things happened in January!
We went to the shack for New Year's celebrations with my family. The weekend included duck hunting, fishing, eating, more eating, and relaxing. Really fun! The highlight was probably the awesome fireworks that the boys set off for us each night.

Matt had his knee surgery, which all went as "planned" and he is recovering very well. My wonderful mother came to help me play nurse and she was a HUGE help around here! I dont know how I would have done it those first few days on my own. She cooked, cleaned, ran errands, and helped me around the house. Love you mom!

I've been working hard around the house, mostly painting, but also learning new skills since Matt's been in recovery... I now know how to caulk, use a power drill, use a chop saw, replace quarter-round, do some minor electrical things with light fixtures, and replace air registers. I think after I learn grouting, I'll be set for life.

We traveled around to celebrate my birthday and my brother's birthday! Aaron turned 28 and I, 25. I dont want to talk about it :-) But really, it was a lot of fun to celebrate and see everyone.

The weekend before my birthday, we celebrated Travis' birthday and mine together (like we usually do, since theyre only 4 days apart.) This year, it was on a much bigger scale! Thursday for his birthday, we went to Boston's. Friday, Amanda planned a BIG surprise party for the birthday boy at our house! We had about 30 people here, and it was definitely the most people we have had in the house at one time. It was a lot of fun and a big success.... he was surprised! Amanda did a great job party planning.

Saturday, we woke up and drove to Houston. The original plan was just to go to eat dinner there. After Matt and Amanda started planning the weekend, it turned into many fun things and spending the night there in a nice hotel! We ate at the Grove in downtown, which was FABULOUS, and went to a comedy club afterwords. It was an improv type club and they helped us celebrate our birthdays by singing to us and making signs. We did not know that the Houston marathon was that weekend, so we had a lot of traffic and people to deal with...
Sunday morning we got up early and went to brunch before heading to IKEA, the craziest store on earth. I had never been there, and boy was I overwhelmed. I had no idea it was a warehouse....
On Monday, my actual birthday, when I got to work, my coworkers had decorated my office, and gotten donuts and kolaches to celebrate! They also bought me an orchid plant? I hope I can keep it alive.... My family had a beautiful flower arrangement delivered to the office for me. It was the first time I had anything delivered to the office and I felt so special :-) It was in a Hershey's kiss vase and had a big birthday balloon, so no one could miss it! Surprisingly though, certain people still found a way to make my day miserable. Ahhh, work.
Monday night, we went to eat hibachi at Atami, and saw The King's Speech. Highly recommend it. No wonder its nominated for 3 or something Oscars. We came back home and I was greeted by an incredibly neon-iced cookie cake, with the brightest most beautiful colors!

Well, January is over! It was busy, and very fun. This spring is going to bring a lot of changes for us and we are very excited!

February plans: finish work on the house. Celebrate with my Valentine. Go to the RODEO! Declutter.

bye for now!