The holidays...

I'm the youngest of the three kids in my family. As a child, like most kids, I looked forward to Christmas (especially since in my family no torturous church outings were required!) probably more than any other day of the year. I spend far too much time contemplating Santa and how he did what he did. (For the record, my conclusion was that, "There is no way that Santa isn't real because there is no way that all of the adults in the world would lie to children like that." Boy was I wrong!) As I've gotten older, there were younger cousins below me, but unfortunately we didn't spend nearly as much time with them as in many families. Since all the kids are grown up now, we've had many a Christmas that seemed to lack that magic, that spark that I remember as a kid.

Somehow the exercise of making a Christmas list when I'm 25 years old seems a little bit selfish. Yes, I can tell you I would like a list of knitting gear, some Gocco inks, some kitchen gadgets, but I surely don't need any of it. In fact, more often than not I struggle with not just buying the things on my list as soon as I put them there (I'm not a very patient person!). I sometimes feel like the whole process is a bigger bother to many people in my life (my brothers, dad and boyfriend included!). I love making and buying gifts for people in my family. I love trying to figure out the perfect thing, the perfect wrapping and the perfect card. (In fact, each year I have had a wrapping "scheme" of sorts, one year it was tulling with snowflakes drawing on in paint, last year it was brown paper and bright ribbon, this year blue paper with red crepe paper puffs on top!) Yet, despite all my efforts, the holidays seem to hit a little sad note.

I am fairly certain the difference is children! With no children in the house, it just seems silly to all sit around and exchange gifts. We are all adults, we can all buy the things we want/need, so why bother doing it for each other? But kids, they are a different animal all together. They get toys and things they can't just go get for themselves. It is a glorious day of happiness and surprise for them.... and to me it is the kids that make Christmas great. One of my favorite new Christmas traditions is getting toys and clothes for a child for the salvation army. They give you an age, sizes and their little wish list and you go get things for them and turn them back in. I love going and picking out items for the kids... even though I don't get to see their reactions. I'm sure their reaction to the hats and gloves is less excited, but I'm sure the toys always get a great reception :)

This will be the first year my family has a "child" around again. I only say "child" because my niece Anna is only 9 months old. Although I had a blast picking out her hippo shape sorting toy, I don't know why kind of a reaction I'll get, and she is surely too young to understand Santa yet. I can't wait until Anna (and any brother or sister she may have by then) is talking and gets all excited for Christmas. I think having a kid around at the holidays will make everything a little more magical and special. I also can't wait until I have kids and can do all the same, but that is quite a ways away for me! For now, I have had to settle on getting my "kids" dog and cat toys, and I'm pretty sure they aren't really going to appreciate the meaning. Not to mention I can't exactly put them under the tree since I'm too scared to have a tree right now with the way these two play. :)

Happy Holidays Everyone!

A little quiz...

I have been being seriously lazy in my blog writing (seriously, where have the last few months gone!?). I have seen this fun little quiz on several blogs as of late and wanted to re post it. Hopefully it will give you some insight into me, and well, maybe it will get me motivated to write more. :)

Here's the rule: Bold the things you've done & post on your blog!

1. Started your own blog
2. Slept under the stars - Does in a tent count? I hate bugs :)
3. Played in a band
4. Visited Hawaii - Zach, hint hint ;)
5. Watched a meteor shower
6. Given more than you can afford to charity
7. Been to Disneyland - Disney world, but I think that counts
8. Climbed a mountain
9. Held a praying mantis
10. Sang a solo - No, and that is truly best for everyone.
11. Bungee jumped
12. Visited Paris - Again, if anyone wants to take me, I'm game.
13. Watched a lightning storm at sea
14. Taught yourself an art from scratch - I learned to knit with the minor assistance of a class, I learned minor web design, completely from scratch.
15. Adopted a child
16. Had food poisoning - Denny's eggs, if they look runny don't eat them!!
17. Walked to the top of the Statue of Liberty
18. Grown your own vegetables - Zach and I have done so the last two summers, in fact I think we have created a semi-competition with our neighbors over it!
19. Seen the Mona Lisa in France
20. Slept on an overnight train
21. Had a pillow fight
22. Hitch hiked - No thank you.
23. Taken a sick day when you’re not ill - Not at my current job of course ;)
24. Built a snow fort
25. Held a lamb
26. Gone skinny dipping
27. Run a Marathon - That would really be a miracle
28. Ridden in a gondola in Venice
29. Seen a total eclipse
30. Watched a sunrise or sunset
31. Hit a home run
32. Been on a cruise - Well, we will be leaving on our first one February 2nd!
33. Seen Niagara Falls in person
34. Visited the birthplace of your ancestors - If being in Germany counts, then yes. Did I got visit somewhere specific there? Well no.
35. Seen an Amish community
36. Taught yourself a new language - I sort of learned Spanish and German... I didn't use Rosetta Stone or anything, I took classes. Does that count?
37. Had enough money to be truly satisfied - Now, I think truly satisfied is a bit of a stretch for a silly quiz!
38. Seen the Leaning Tower of Pisa in person
39. Gone rock climbing
40. Seen Michelangelo’s David
41. Sung karaoke - Our "friends" put us up to it, much to the Mister's chagrin. He left very angry... despite being a musician he DOES NOT like karaoke.
42. Seen Old Faithful geyser erupt
43. Bought a stranger a meal at a restaurant
44. Visited Africa
45. Walked on a beach by moonlight - At a friend's wedding a few years back.. it was on the beach and we danced into the night!
46. Been transported in an ambulance
47. Had your portrait painted
48. Gone deep sea fishing
49. Seen the Sistine Chapel in person
50. Been to the top of the Eiffel Tower in Paris
51. Gone scuba diving or snorkeling
52. Kissed in the rain
53. Played in the mud
54. Gone to a drive-in theater
55. Been in a movie - An ex-boyfriend from high school asked me out with a message on a movie screen before the movie we were going to see. Does that count?
56. Visited the Great Wall of China
57. Started a business
58. Taken a martial arts class
59. Visited Russia
60. Served at a soup kitchen - My mom and I did one Christmas... I know it was supposed to be life changing, but it was depressing and there were actually too many workers there. Evidently a lot of families do that at Christmas... so if you plan to do it and want to actually do some good, pick another time of year.
61. Sold Girl Scout Cookies - My mother refused to allow me to be a girl scout.
62. Gone whale watching
63. Got flowers for no reason - Plenty of flowers, but generally a reason (birthday, new job, Sweetest Day etc.)
64. Donated blood, platelets or plasma
65. Gone sky diving
66. Visited a Nazi Concentration Camp
67. Bounced a check
68. Flown in a helicopter
69. Saved a favorite childhood toy - I've saved a lot.
70. Visited the Lincoln Memorial
71. Eaten Caviar
72. Pieced a quilt
73. Stood in Times Square
74. Toured the Everglades
75. Been fired from a job
76. Seen the Changing of the Guards in London
77. Broken a bone
78. Been on a speeding motorcycle
79. Seen the Grand Canyon in person
80. Published a book
81. Visited the Vatican
82. Bought a brand new car - My beautiful "kiwi" green Ford Focus (Yes, I actually bough an American made car, don't blame me for the auto industry needing a bailout!). Otherwise referred to as "something that came out of a giant's nose" by the jerk at the Taco Bell drive-thru window.
83. Walked in Jerusalem
84. Had your picture in the newspaper - Well, actually my family was in the newspaper, and I was in my mom's belly, only about 3 months into my fetus life.
85. Kissed a stranger at midnight on New Year's Eve - I don't kiss strangers.
86. Visited the White House - I saw the outside, and I saw the homeless man outside it who can get squirrels to climb on him for food. Post September 11th, that is about the best you can do.
87. Killed and prepared an animal for eating
88. Had chickenpox - I hear they have a vaccine for this now. That makes me sad. I think this is one right-of-passage all kids should have!
89. Saved someone’s life
90. Sat on a jury
91. Met someone famous
92. Joined a book club
93. Lost a loved one
94. Had a baby
95. Seen the Alamo in person
96. Swam in the Great Salt Lake
97. Been involved in a law suit
98. Owned a cell phone
99. Been stung by a bee

31 out of 99... I can't decide what the heck that means. Maybe I need to get out more :)

In case my lazy nature continues, happy holidays to all!!

On Weddings...

I have a confession to make. I stalk wedding blogs. In fact, two of them are in my blog list, and far more are on my google reader. Wow, I feel better already for just admitting that.

Now, Zach, if you are reading this you need to take a deep breath and keep reading, I swear this will get better.

Despite my obsession with learning about and following other people's weddings, I still have no desire to have a large wedding myself. In fact, the more I read and the more beautiful pictures I see, the more clear it becomes to me that having a big blow-out wedding with 200+ of my closest friends and family is the LAST thing I really want. There are a million reasons why people want a big wedding, but here are some of mine for why I don't:

1) I hate having people looking at me and being the center of attention. So does Zach actually, which I think is odd since he is in a band, but that is what he tells me. I feel sick just thinking about a bunch of people staring at me when I walk down the isle.

2) The idea of spending anything more than about $250 on a dress seems crazy to me. Now don't get me wrong, I have justified the purchase of purses that are slightly higher than this price range, but I use them about a million times, which makes the price per use seem almost justifiable. A dress I'll wear only once? Not so much.

3) I can think of a lot of better ways to spend $28,000+ (the average cost for a wedding these days). To name just a few: down payment on a bigger home (if the market ever picks up so we can sell the first one), one (or three) SERIOUS vacations, paying off Zach and I's student loans, paying off a chunk of the mortgage for the place Zach owns now, fun home renovation, or well... just about anything. When even a part of me things about that big wedding, all I can think is the $$ we'd be wasting. To me, a commitment to each other shouldn't have to begin with a major expenditure or debt up to our eyeballs.

4) My parents (and Zach's) are no longer together. A wedding means the bringing together 2 sets of people who were once married, and are no longer. Although I know that everyone would be civil, just think about the wording on the invitations if we tried to include parents?! Maybe if our parents were still together there would be some great meaning to having a wedding with everyone there, but without that it just seems like a mess.

5) I still can't figure out why a meal that costs only $25 when I get it in a restaurant, suddenly costs $85 when it is done for a wedding. I just don't think that $85 is really a reasonable price for chicken.

This isn't mean to be a judgement on the people who have big weddings, because they are beautiful wonderful affairs that I actually like attending. If those events work for you, and you (or your parents) have the money to bankroll them, I say more power to you. I'm not that girl and either is my bank account. I work for local government people, I'm not going to be rich any time soon.

It is also not meant to say that I won't some day get married, because I hope that I will. It just might include a tiny ceremony and a kick ass party afterwards that include darts and bar food instead of rubber chicken and a dance floor. To each their own I guess.

Sometimes people worry me....

Here is your SAPSA (Squirreled Away Public Service Announcement) for the day.

There is an e-mail going around which has made it to three people I know already this week. It claims, "I'm against the $85,000,000,000.oo bailout of AIG. Instead, I'm in favor of giving $85,000,000,000 to America in a 'We Deserve it Dividend'. . . So divide 200 million adults 18+ into $85 billion..... that equals $425,000. My plan is to give $425,000 to every person 18+ as a We Deserve It Dividend." It goes on to explain how great this would be, how we could all pay off our mortgages, save for our kids college, blah, blah, blah.

Only one MAJOR problem. The math is off, by, ohhhh, 3 zeros. We would each get $425 not $425,000. That money is NOT going to pay off my mortgage, get me very far saving for mythical Junior's college, or even pay off the "puppy debt" I have accumulated since Rigby's arrival at my house.

If you get this e-mail, please pass on the REAL math to your friends and loved ones.

It really scares me that people don't stop to question things they get as e-mail chains... so much of it is just plain garbage. Not only this one but there are plenty of others out there that people seem to believe are the truth somehow because they come through their e-mail server. The other BIG one I remember is the one which is circulating about Obama being a Muslim, and hates America and other things. If you'd like to check out the "fact check" on that one you can do so here: http://www.snopes.com/politics/obama/muslim.asp. I remember a lady I used to work with who got the Obama one, passed it on to others, and was continually warning people about the things listed in it. She had previously stated that she was going to vote for him too! It scares me that she didn't stop for a second, think it through, and try to check out some of the facts in the e-mail she got before she contributed to the madness.

So please people, think before you hit "Forward".

Thanks you, and have a nice weekend :)

Managing my Time... and my Life

As part of my new job, I have been enrolled in a "Leadership Academy" which is attended by a lot of the Village's management and supervisory staff. The group I am going through it with includes people from all departments and provides a pretty interesting cross section of our employees. The program lasts about 9 months, and we meet every 2 weeks for 2 hours on a Tuesday morning. So far, I've had two classes, both of which I have found supremely interesting.
This week, the section was entitled "Managing my Time". When I saw the title, I thought, mange my time!? - I don't get to have that luxury in life, I work in local government, but ok humor me.

First she asked us to complete the following statement... Time is.....

My answers: precious, always getting away from me, structure, and hard to manage.

Then, she presented the following, life changing model.

THOUGHTS

impact our

FEELINGS

which impact our

BEHAVIORS

which create our

RESULTS

Now, maybe without the explanation this doesn't seem earth shattering or maybe because it was 7 am and my brain was still waking up, I was easily impressionable, but for me this is providing me a whole new way to view my life and my control over it.

Here is her example, and to me it makes a lot of sense. If my THOUGHT about time is something like "it is always getting away from me" this will created FEELINGS of a lack of control and a rushed "I better get this done quick" vibe, then my BEHAVIORS will exhibit a rushed attitude, which may or in my case, may not, provide the RESULTS I want.

The stinker is, often our THOUGHTS about things (Time, love, money, etc.) are long standing, often parentally infused, ideas that we don't even really "think" about. They are things that may have been put there by the actions and ideas of others, long before we really cared to worry about any of them. The great thing is, if we don't like the RESULTS we are getting, we can work backwards and figure out what core belief we have that might be causing this chain reaction, and work to reprogram our brains for different results. Now this is my kind of self-help.

For me, the time example rings 100% true. I have about a million things on my desk and in my head that require my attention. I often find myself rushing through things I enjoy, and I constantly worry about the next thing on the list and whether or not "there will be time". This isn't only in my work life, this is at home, on vacation and everywhere in between. I wake up on vacation thinking, "Oh my gosh, it is already 10:00 am! We are going to miss something, we are wasting our vacation!" In the same vain, I often find myself so overwhelmed with things I want to do at home, that I end up vegetating on the couch doing almost none of the things I want to do. I feel NO control over my time, or at least I didn't until I started thinking about it differently.
This week, I have decided to reprogram my brain to see Time as a commodity that I control and can choose to spend in a variety of different ways, kind of like money. I will no longer allow myself to think about time as something abstract that I have no control over. At home, this means that when I get home, I take the Rigby out for a walk and enjoy the outdoors (it is still nice out afterall, and I should enjoy it while I still can!) and I bring him home, get him dinner and play with him and the cat. Last night, after all the doggy fun, I sat down to watch TV and thought, is this really something I enjoy? Is this a VALUABLE use of my time? Of course the answer to this is a big NO, so I went upstairs and worked on my Gocco swap project until there was something on TV that I actually was looking forward to watching.

I know this might not sound all that exciting to anyone but me, but to think about this model for all the things in my life that I might be less than thrilled with really has made for an interesting week. I find myself feeling a sense of control over my life and the way I am spending it, which is pretty new for me. It has enabled me to live in the moment in a way I have been striving to do for a long long time.

Puppy update..

Wow, I have a blog for a few weeks and already I have fully neglected it! Sorry for the delay, the addition of Rigby (Named in honor of the Beatles' Eleanor Rigby), the puppy mentioned in the last post, has turned my life a little upside down...

Rigby the great.

Don't get my wrong, Rigby is a wonderful puppy by all accounts. Sure, he still hasn't fully gotten the going potty outside thing down....but I can't really complain since he is doing remarkable well for a puppy who I don't think had EVER gone outside before. In fact, I think at his "shelter" he did his business in his little cage. Considering that, I think he is doing quite wonderfully! He really only has occasional accidents, mostly because we aren't watching close enough or are being lazy about taking him out in the AM.

Max and Rigby during their first meeting. If you look VERY closely you will see that Rigby has one of Max's favorite toys in his mouth, and Max is actually mid-jump in swating him. Their battle royals will be caught on video soon and hopefully posted here. They are pretty entertaining.

My brother, sister-in-law and niece (who is only almost 6 months old!) were visiting this past weekend and Rigby was pretty good with the baby around. He wanted to play with her (and her toys!) but he was pretty decent all things considered. My brother and sister-in-law were really impressed by his attitude and his relatively calm demenor. Just one of the many great things about Bostons!!

The strangest thing about the puppy, is that my mother, Zach's mother and Zach's father are pretty much obsessed with him. Zach's dad actually called me last night, when Zach wasn't even home, to check up on his "grand-dog". Now, I understand that Zach's parents don't currently have any real grandchildren yet, but their obsession with my dog makes me wonder what their reaction to real live children will be like. I appreciate their enthusiasm about the pup though, especially my mom, who isn't really a dog person. She even agreed that he could come along to Wisconsin the next time if we would like! I don't know how her cat will feel about that, but I guess we will find out...

Other than the puppy, life has been moving along as normal. I signed up to do a Gocco postcard exchange being put on by Lisa over at www.thebunnylog.com/journal. A big HI!! to any of you who are reading this because you are fellow participants!! I have been stressing about what to do for the design, and I am honestly a little bit nervous about what I will come up with. There are some seriously talented artists involved, and it makes me worry that they will get my cards and be really disappointed. I am planning to spend much of this weekend plotting for the postcards so I can hopefully print next weekend when my paper gets in.

We officially have our first child...

A Puppy!!!!

Our beautiful new edition!

This Sunday Zach and I did what may very well be the most spontaneous thing we have done... we drove 5 hours to St. Louis to procure the ADORABLE puppy you see above. We actually filled out the on-line application for this little guy sometime late Saturday afternoon while sitting at our friend's house, and the time we got home late that night the e-mail oking our adoption was in my inbox and taunting me to come collect him. We made a tentative decision to maybe go get him the next morning... and by 8:00 am I was up and waking up Zach to help me make the decision of a lifetime (or at least the next 12 years).


Zach, in what can only be described as puppy fever, hopped up and started getting himself ready. By 9:30 we were on the road to St. Louis and both a little amazed at what we were actually doing. Zach's puppy fever, which unbeknownst to us actually translates into "lead foot", got us to St. Louis in record time.


The puppy was every bit as sweet as he looked in his pictures, and within the hour we had paid for our little man and were on our way. The place we got the puppy was ok... they rescue dogs that the "puppy mills" couldn't get rid of otherwise, and there were a LOT of small dogs there... I worry a little about any lingering health problems that might pop up with him, but he will be getting a full work-up tomorrow at my vet, so hopefully he will get a clean bill of health.

So far, we are one night down. He sat in Zach or my lap the whole way home (all 5 hours of it!) and was happy as a clam. He did his business outside as he should and has been generally well behaved. He even made it through the night, all crated up, and didn't keep us up all night. What more could we ask for?!


Max and his meeting was pretty amusing, but I'll post more on that later. The photographic evidence is truly priceless!


He hasn't quite been named yet... he was Billy at the shelter, but we aren't really sold on that. Any suggestions?

My High School is stalking me...

Earlier this week, I got a postcard from my high school asking me to update my personal information with them for some alumni directory they are attempting to assemble. My first thought was, how on EARTH did they find me? I have lived in at least four different places since my high school days, and two of those have been out of state. My last move was over a year ago, and I have had actual important mail that had a difficult time finding me at my new address. How exactly did my high school, who usually sends mail to me at my Dad's house (he still lives at one of my past addresses) find me all the way in Illinois? Now, to make matters even more creepy, they also have my e-mail address and sent me an additional request through that.

I can't say I miss this place.

Thinking back, this is actually the third such request I have received from an old school of mine. Both Carroll College and NIU have sent me the same types of postcards and e-mails in the past year. Looking a little further down the line, it looks like this is the work of "Harris Connect". Clearly this company has some contacts at the Pentagon that help them track down alumni information. Then again, I don't think that even the government is this good at keeping track of me.

Now, don't get me wrong, I don't really have any opposition to the idea of my previous schools having my contact information. I just find the following portion of all of these communications odd:

"CALL TODAY - TOLL FREE 1-800-864-6208
(Central Time)

Mon. - Fri. 7:00 a.m. to 10:00 p.m.
Sat. 7:00 a.m. to 4:00 p.m.
Sun. 11:30 a.m. to 8:00 p.m."

You can only call to update your information. With all the work you have done to track me down, you couldn't have developed some type of easy to fill out on-line form? Not to mention, with such a form they could have contacted me ONCE, I could have filled it out, and they could have just shared my information with all three schools! Clearly these people should hire me to do some of their development work.

I have absolutely no desire to call these people. I feel like the conversation is going to go like this, "So what have you been doing since you graduated from high school?" "Well, I went to college at Carroll College in Waukesha, WI...then..." "Um... can you spell that college for me?" I don't want to spend half an hour trying to update some operator about my life and trying to literally spell it all out for them.

Strangely though, I fully have a desire to share my life and accomplishments with people, especially the people I have graduated from high school with. If there was a form I could fill out, I would 100% participate, but to call, that is just too much work. Does this prove that I am seriously lazy? Yep.

Not to mention, if I call, then these crazy information miners will have my phone number too and that is just too much. Give Carroll and NIU my phone number so that they can harrass me to donate money? Not a chance.

Gocco madness!

Earlier this year, I purchased a Gocco. The Gocco is a small Japanese screen printing machine which has been in and out of production by it's Japanese manufacturer for some time. (For the record, it is currently out of production).

The magical Gocco.

I am in LOVE with this thing!! Although I can honestly say that I didn't NEED the Gocco, it has been a wonderful addition to my crafting addiction. Below is an examples of my most recent Gocco work:

Aaron Williams Limited Edition CD.

The CD above was created for Aaron Williams' Limited Edition CD The Everwinding Road. We did 100 copies, and it turned out really great. As you can see in the picture below, sometimes the layers were a little off, but that is part of the charm right?

The front cover. (I can't for the life of me figure out how to turn this image, if you know, please let me know!)

I do really love the way this one turned out. I was a little paranoid half way through that it was going to be a DISASTER, but in the end it panned out nicely!!

Pedicures...

Pedicures are possibly the best things ever. And red toe nail polish, makes every high heel look sexier! As evidence, please see below.Ok... now that I actually see the picture, I recognize that could be my feet or well... some street walker. And for those of you who know me, that would clearly mean the red nails have done something very serious.

Getting Started...

Starting a blog is a strange and silly thing... I had a live journal account once back in College and I remember enjoying writing that a lot . Of course, there was a lot more silly boy drama in my life to reflect on back then... which frankly made for some pretty interesting posts.

Things are a lot more sane now, but my desire to share my random little life with the world really has not. Let me share a few things about Ashley in 2008.

First off, I have a cat whose name is Max. He is a strange fellow, but provides a GREAT deal of amusement in my life. I am sure you will be seeing more of his antics soon enough.



Second, and possibly more amazingly, I have a serious and stable relationship in my life. Here Zach and I are this past weekend, celebrating our 3 year anniversary with some wine tasteing.



All this normalcy and lack of drama in my life (and FINALLY being done with school of all kinds) has pushed me to some interesting, and somewhat domesticated, pursuits. I've started knitting, doing paper crafts, keeping a kick ass container garden on our back patio and screen printing with my GOCCO (more on that in future posts). I hope to use this blog to comment on some of those things, and any other random thoughts, of which I fear there will likely be a lot.