An incentive to keep checking in..

Well I just realized that I haven't been on here for a while...and there's soooo much to blog about! I seriously need to take like a day and a half to just sit down and write about my summer. My little trip to the Dominican Republic was fantastic. That's all I can say for now. More pictures to come in the near future! This is one of me jumping off a 35 ft. cliff into a really cool water hole. I still can't believe I did it because it is so unlike me. But it was a blast!

So I have two hot dates tonight....

Yes, you read the title correctly. Two dates!! One is with a special someone I often refer to as Human Anatomy homework. Now, I like Human Anatomy but I'm totally being a two-timer and hanging out with Chemistry homework too. We're kinda having a rocky time right now so I'm really trying to get out of it...doubt that's gonna happen tough. Gosh, both of them are so darn needy! They seriously need to gain some independence and solve their own problems. I'm pretty confident that it's not gonna work out for either one and I, so the plan is to break it off in the spring sometime. I'm sure they'll understand. 

For FHE we're going to the old folks home to help throw a V-day dance party. I'm actually pretty excited about it. Maybe it's just me, but that sounds a lot better than sitting at home and watching a sappy chick flick with a tissue box in one hand and ice-cream carton in the other...not that I've ever done that...

Happy Valentine's Day kids!!! To my friends, family, and everyone else special in my life: I LOVE YOU!! :)

The arch nemesis has arrived.. yes, it's time for war.

Well there I was, frolicking through the fields of life's happy bliss, minding my own business. Everything was great. School was going well. I was somewhat organized in my day-to-day duties and activities. What can I say, life was a peach. But then out of nowhere...dun dun dun...my enemy showed its all too familiar and ever-increasingly hideous face. Some people refer to it as..shutter.. February. I think a more appropriate title would be "Stupidestmonthary". But hey, that's just me. Now let me clarify, it's not so much that I hate February, rather it's that I hate February in Utah. In fact I despise it. Loathe it even.

And upon its arrival, I was greeted with the ugliest and most miserable cold front of my life. Thanks a lot February, that was such a great way to reunite. not. For those of you who don't know, I do NOT do cold, and I become the biggest wimp when temperatures drop. Seriously, I thought I was going to just lay down and die on a lonely campus sidewalk. I'm tellin' ya, walking outside between classes was killer. The wind was blowing unforgiving gusts that would leave you gasping for air in desperate search of breathable oxygen. A few times I started hyperventilating with sheer panic. It's actually kind of amusing to think back on it now. But I would not wish that kind of weather on ANYONE. Well, maybe Al Gore.  

But, I will NOT let this nasty month get me down. I like to think of it as the last stretch before the finish line (which in this case is spring). It's painful, you're tired, and you want to give up because the finish line is oh so far and you feel like you're running through a path of tar and mud. All the other kids are running faster than you. Even the obese kid who rarely leaves the couch. Yep. It's rough. But I'm telling ya, February ain't gonna win this time cuz I ain't givin' up. I'm gonna OWN that final stretch of the race track! haha. so hooray. :)


To play a little catch up, I'll just note a few highlights of the past couple months:

-Family trip to Cancun. Freakin' amazing. Yes mom, I used the word "freakin" and I apologize. I know you don't like that word but it just felt so right. If you have a good replacement word, fill me in.
-Having a sinus infection during all of Christmas Break...good times. I think I went through 3 kleenex tissue boxes and a roll of toilet paper on the side in one week.
-I went and stayed up at Jess and Andrew's for two weekends which was soooo much fun! I pretty much just played with Little C and ate their food. It's what I do best. haha.
-I gave an RS lesson for the first time in my life and I didn't die! haha.
-I went tubing up at Soldier's Hollow. So much fun!
-Went snowshoeing up to Donut Falls which was beyond cool. I'm so gonna have to take that up as a hobby.
-Had the COOLEST b-day party thanks to the COOLEST family.
-Went to Rodizio's for a b-day lunch with friends
-Got a steal of a deal on two really cute dresses...happy birthday to me!
-Found the jacket I've been searching for all of my life...happy birthday to me again!
-Got some really cute sunday shoes for ten bucks...yep, you guessed it, happy birthday to me!
-Aced my first CHEM exam. The average was a 79 and I got a 92. :) That's totally unheard of for me
-Went to Park City and saw the aerial skiing world championship. sooo cool. Course I think the coolest part is it was for free.

And yeah, that's pretty much my life so far. But I will say, funner things are ahead so stay tuned!

Welcome to 2011, the Year of Exploration!

"Risk! Risk anything! Care no more for the opinions of others, for those voices. Do the hardest thing on earth for you. Act for yourself. Face the truth." -Katherine Mansfield

Thank you 2010 for helping me get back on my feet, now it's time to start climbing. No second-guessing is allowed. Only hope, faith, and a little curiosity. No more looking back at the past in regret. Instead, look for new-found wisdom in the experiences. Time to look forward with unfailing focus.

Well kids, here we go....and we're startin' the new year off with a bang! haha.......no seriously, right after I'm finished here, I'm gonna walk out to the garage, get a big firework, and light it off in the front yard. It's gonna be pretty awesome. :) Happy NEW YEAR!!!

Oh what an interesting, offensive, immature, painful, and wonderful life...pretty funny too

Well life is just grand. School is almost done and I am precisely 10 days away from sunshine, sandy feet, and an endless supply of pina colodas. The only things keeping me away from such blissful goodness are three exams and one abnormally large research paper. Seein's how I want to get done with this crap as quickly as I can, I'm gonna keep this post short. Just to get you up to date...hehe...date, yes.

Sooooooooooooooo we had a ward date night last week. Let's just say that was a rather interesting experience. The guy was great but we just didn't quite connect. For instance, he got totally offended when I jokingly said that I didn't believe in hand sanitizer because I grew up on a farm and had a strong immune system. You'd think I just told him that I killed his favorite childhood dog because I didn't believe dogs should be pets or something. Ya, I had a hard time recovering from that one but we managed to push such a sore (and apparently touchy) subject aside. Since then, whenever someone offers me hand sanitizer I just take it with a grateful smile and keep my mouth shut. No need to be going around offending everybody. I still don't believe in that crap though.

Oh but hey! It's time for....drum roll....drum roll..."Ashley's spaz moment of the night!" haha. Are you ready for this? K, so when we were at the church, playing kickball with the other dates, I took a quick break to go to the bathroom. Having the first date jitters, I walked into the bathroom rather quickly. Upon reaching and entering the first stall, I began to close the door as I turned around..still rather quickly. After a serious miscalculation from my peripheral viewpoint, I swung the door directly into my face and just about took my whole nose off. Thankfully no one else was in or near the area, because I let out a yell as my eyes began to water and my mind flooded with sheer panic thinking that I'd just broken my nose. Don't worry, I didn't. It took a few breaths for me to realize that I was going to live and that the nose was A-O-K. Sure had a nasty headache for the rest of the night though.

On a good note, during our group segment of the date, we had a putting contest and I beat 'em all!! haha. Even in the absence of my nifty two-ball putter. I was quite proud of myself.

Some friends and I went and watched "You Again" at the dollar theater on Friday. GREAT movie. I'd never heard of it before but it was pretty good. I highly recommend it to girls who had issues with other girls in high school. Funny. Clever. and Cute.

On sunday, Tommie (aka Martha Stewart) and Ryan (aka Chef Boyardee) taught me how to make home-made oreos, real bread, and stir-fry. We ate them in that order too. haha. It was pretty sweet. I was so proud of myself though! I can kind of cook! well...with correct and proper supervision of course. Then Tommie taught me how to knit. Still workin on that. But hey, I don't think I've ever had so much domestication in one day. It was amazing.

Then yesterday, we went to IKEA! It was puuurty cool. Though I must warn you. Upon entering the kids' section, you'll notice an optional entrance to your left that's a cute little 3-foot high tunnel with fun streamers hanging down. Yes it may look like it would be fun to bend down and walk through it, while feeling like a giddy child again. Do not be deceived by its innocent appearance!..... If you so happen to be foolish enough to walk through it, you will obviously bend down and walk through the streamers with pure joy and laughter. But mark my words, the joy lasts for only a few seconds. Due to your overstimulated excitement, you will more than likely miscalculate how much further you have to walk before you can lift your head up and resume regular standing posture. In other words, you're gonna jump the gun...big time. If this results, you'll shoot up with a silly smile on your face, hit the ceiling with a thunderous head-bonk, come close to nearly caving in the back of your skull, feel your heart stop, lose your silly smile, and then fall directly to your knees. While that sounds bad, the worst part will actually be when you look up (as you're massaging the crap out of the back of your head) and see six adult bystanders looking at you like you just got hit by a car. Recovery? very unlikely. Just get up, laugh like you meant to do it, and go hide in the modeled walk-in closet (that you appear to be very interested in) until they all leave. Don't worry, you're friends will still claim you. And even better friends will offer you an Ibuprofen with a swig of their Mt. Dew.

NOT that I would know anything about such an unfortunate event. Sounds like it would be pretty humiliating. I just can't even imagine....

Oh, random silly moment of the day, my biology teacher cracked a joke that really wasn't all that humorous. Of course, he laughed, because that's what teachers do when they think they're hilarious. But when he laughed, he totally snorted. hahaha. And he wear's a mike so the whole class heard it. I've been laughing about it all day. Yeah, I know, it's really not THAT funny but I tell you what, it totally made my day.

Ummm...when did september end???

Holy crap. Where did my life go?! Seriously time is flying at warped speed right now. I don't know if I should like it or not. I'm thinking it's the latter because the term 'warped speed' originates from Star Trek and I HATE Star Trek! ...sorry Dad. haha. That show drives me nuts. But anyways...I don't like this feeling that I'm flying by the seat of my pants. Now don't get me wrong, I'm loving life. I just wish things would get kicked down a notch. Oh well, can't do nothing about it but whine.

Well seein's how I shouldn't even be on here right now because I have three exams this week and a vocab quiz in the morning that I should be studying for, I'm gonna keep this short and sweet.

My life in the last month...

-Many funny stories...a number of them would be blog worthy but I just don't have the time nor the creativity right now. To name just a few of my favorites: "The Parking Lot Break-up outside my bedroom window". Probably the most pathetic and hilarious bf/gf interaction I've ever seen. "Having a 20 dollar bill and not being able to afford 4 water bottles at the gas station". Let's just say I had a little blonde moment. Dad got a kick out of it and so did the cashier.

-Trip to Cambria with Mom, Dad, and Grandma R. Had a fabulous time! Thanks for the grand adventure!

-Deer Hunt with the guys. Super fun, super cold, and super sparse (as far as bucks go). I loved being up on top of the mountains though. Even though I was terrified of mountain lions and such like the whole time. Especially during the night while we were 'sleeping' in the tent. I totally thought I could hear a bear outside so I was just freaking out a little bit....then I realized it was Jed snoring. Yeah, he and Dad had a nice little duet going on all night. Jake will back me up on that one.

-Attended a String Quartet concert for my music class. I was one of the first in there when the doors opened and it was general admission (sit wherever you want) so I bolted upstairs to the balcony section and got the front seat. It was awesome. I felt so cool and like I was filthy rich while looking over the commoner crowd below. Oh and the concert was great too!

-Went to the student health fair on campus. I was super excited about this...pretty big disappointment. Just a bunch of vendors trying to get your money basically. I should've known. And of course all the booths are handing out free candy as an incentive for people to stop and hear their whole schpill. Did anyone else catch a problem with this?? HEALTH Fair .... and free CANDY everywhere... ??? I didn't either. Hey I'm a college kid; I grabbed as much free crap as I could. Oh and word to the wise, just skip the Planned Parenthood table. Their handing out free stuff in wrappers but it's definitely not candy. But hey, there were actually some good things there. I got my blood sugar tested and it's normal. Yay. So that's good news I guess. Then I filled out a depression questionnaire and according to the results I'm happy as a clam. :)

-Decided to take on the p90x challenge! Brave? Ambitious? Stupid? I don't know yet. Today is day number 1 and I'm going to do the workout right after I'm done here. I'll keep you posted on how it goes...

Get in shape girl!....tomorrow...no today!

Okay so yesterday I was so pumped about a newly organized life where I'd fill every ounce of time with productivity. I'd get up early and use every ounce of daylight for good. Yep I was pretty excited about life. So excited that it was hard to fall asleep last night. I was thinking of all the good things I was going to be involved in. It kind of felt like Christmas Eve! Well friends, it was no jolly Christmas morning. The only gift I got was from Mother Nature. Yes, all that previous excitement went straight down the tube when I rolled over to turn my alarm clock off and felt the cramps eeking their way into my body. All I wanted to do was stay in bed. But I braved the day! I was actually more productive than most days in the past, but still wasn't as effective as I would've liked to be. But hey, I'm giving myself a pat on the back anyways. I feel pretty good for doing as much as I did while feeling like a bloated cow who just wanted to go home, get in her pjs, grab a gallon of ice-cream, and watch a sappy chick flick. Because of the simple fact that I didn't give into temptation and kept my focus primarily on schoolwork, I'll consider it a productive day.

In relation to this dilemma, I realized that life is ALWAYS going to throw you crazy curve balls, whether they be random or monthly occurrences. Because of this, it's easy to criticize yourself and say you "just didn't do enough today" because you maybe didn't accomplish all the things that you had previously scheduled. I once was a pro at this...a few years back I used to write out huge/highly unrealistic to-do lists of all the things I wanted to accomplish in a certain period of time. Obviously I could never finish them all. Either something would distract me from doing them or I would just get intimidated with the overwhelming demand that I had voluntarily placed on myself; I would avoid it because I knew I couldn't do it all so why even try? and that would leave me feeling like a complete failure. If any of you are guilty of this, STOP IT! It is so unrealistic, unfair to yourself, and actually less productive.

But at the same time, don't jump to the other extreme of not setting any goals or forming lists of some sort. How the heck would we ever progress if we didn't push ourselves every now and then? So that's why I suggest forming a small list of To-Do's. If your list is over ten things, shave it in half. Right now I'm focusing on six specific goals I want to work on at least 5 days a week. I'd like to do all six every day, but knowing myself and my history, I realize that some days just aren't going to allow that. So for now, if I get at least 3 of the 6 done in a day, I will consider it a good and productive day. Once I get comfortable with doing any 3 everyday and the idea has developed into a habit, I can then proceed to bumping it up to 4 a day, etc.

So yes, today was in fact productive because I accomplished three things on my pick-six list. I feel pretty satisfied and yes I'm still excited about life! Although I really could go for some ice-cream right now...