Who wouldn’t want to be there? Or what about the Bahamas where my sister Shilo just got back from. That would work too.

But seriously, I need a vaction to a tropical paradise asap. I mean listen to what my weekend consists of: Friday night date at none other than Costco. Saturday night date, studying in the library at GMU.

Someone help!

Just kidding, I am sure you haven’t missed me that much.  It seems like everyone is having a busy summer, including me.

So last time I blogged I told you that I would tell you about all the crazy things going on in my life. Well, here they are:

In May I went on vacation with my family to Ocean City, MD. It was boat loads of fun. Shilo and I played on the beach like we were 5 again, I took some awesome pictures of East Coast beaches and we rode a surrey on the boardwalk.

Here I am, swinging on the rope

Iceburg, right ahead!

Sunset on the beach

After we spent time in Ocean City, we drove down to D.C. to do some sightseeing. We got a guided tour of the West Wing. It was pretty awesome. We saw the Oval office and the press room (where we took pictures even though we weren’t supposed to) I also got to “meet” Zach Galafinakis!! I put meet in quotes because I didn’t actually meet him, I awkwardly said hi because I could not find any other words to say and he replied with a hilarious/creepy hello. Oh, classic Zach.

At the end of May, Brandon and I flew out to California for my cousin’s wedding. It was on a gorgeous hillside in LA.

Then we drove to Las Vegas to visit family and friends! It was so good to see everyone. We only had like 1.5 days there so we had to fit a lot in. We met up with my BFF for breakfast and then had lunch at a buffet with Brandon’s old mission companion. By that point I had never wanted to purge so badly in my whole life. I seriously contemplated for 10 minutes on how bad it would really be if I went to the bathroom and vomited so that I could fit more food in muh tummy (I didn’t of course. I just sat there and let the food slowly digest. TMI yet?). Then that evening we hung out with the IC (aka: Inner Circle for those of you who are not in it)

We ate at BJs and then spent all evening hanging out and enjoying each others company

The girls

Ronnie and I made an unbreakable vow that we will go to The Wizarding World of Harry Potter in the Summer of 2011. We Slytherins know how to do things.

Lets see, what happened next. I don’t think I did much in June. But in July we went up to New York for the 4th. It was the first 4th I have spent with Brandon where we didn’t light off illegal fireworks in front of his parent house. We actually didn’t see fireworks on the 4th. We kinda stayed home and then went to the park where we couldn’t see anything at all. But we did go to Coney Island which was fun (and freakin hot).

Ahh…this encompasses beach life

The weeks after getting back from NYC got pretty crazy. I resigned from my job, we moved to a townhouse on the GMU campus and had to put Lily to sleep.

Now I am working on my art and studying for the GRE. I plan on applying to grad school for the spring 2011 semester. I want to get my Masters in Public Health at GMU. We shall see how that goes.

Well hopefully it wont be such a long lapse between posts now that I am not working. I hope you are all enjoying your summer…I know I am

This past week I got sick. It lasted for what seemed like forever. And my sister came to visit me last weekend even though I was a huge party pooper who just wanted to sleep.

Last Saturday Shilo and I went shoe shopping. I have been looking for warm slippers that aren’t a million bucks. And I happened to find them this weekend

I know, I know…fringe… peace signs…utterly terrible. But let me just tell you that they are super warm and super cheap. I have since cut off all the fringe and colored in the silver peace sign. That right, my shoes went from super gay to just a little gay. Later that day Shilo made a new BFF

Precious. (Minus the fact that it looks like Lily is trying to run away)

Later that night we went out to dinner. I have been hearing wonderful things about a certain Mexican restaurant and we decided to have dinner there. Unfortunately my meal was no bueno. See for yourself:

It was supposed to be a cheese enchilada but it was nothing of the sort. It kinda  made me want to vomit. You should see the close up version…it was a million times worse.

After dinner we went to go see Alice in Wonderland in 3D IMAX. Blackmail photos to follow:

I like how Shilo looks all glamorous and I am a huge cheese ball.

I was pouting about something no doubt. But lets be honest, this picture is freaking hilarious.

Shilo and I enjoyed the movie but the rest of our crew didn’t like it as much as we did. I enjoyed watching all the adults (it was a 10:30pm showing) reaching out towards the screen as if they could touch the objects in front of them. That never gets old.

Favorite quotes of the weekend (the names and context have been excluded to keep the privacy of those involved):

“I forgot to get my hepatitis shot”

Looking at the phone: “Taylor Swift is watching No Reservations!”

“He can’t sue her cause he is dead!……………Too soon.”

So this weekend I have just been catching up on the latest trashy t.v. shows that I subject myself to. Nothing too exciting. Maybe today I will paint. Yes. Good idea.

Happy March!

We had to think fast and decided to rent a moving truck, tow our car and drive across country to get us to our new home: Fairfax, Virginia. We (as in me, Brandon, his brother-in-law, nephew, Dad, MT, MT’s frat brothers and some of the EQ) packed up the moving truck and parked it at my in-laws. We stayed there at the Robison’s for about a week before we left on our journey.

We left Las Vegas around 8am on Wednesday morning. We drove across Arizona, New Mexico, and Texas on the first day. We stopped in Texas so we could get sleep (only 3 hours) and showers. Then it was “On the Road Again” (I kept singing that song and let’s just say that it is banned from car rides for the rest of my life) through Oklahoma, Arkansas, Tennessee and Virginia.

We made it to Virginia around 1pm on Friday (took us about 36 hours altogether to get here). After we signed our paperwork and got our keys, we started to unpack. Brandon’s new friend from GMU offered up his assistance and he helped Brandon carry all the big stuff up to our new apartment. We unpacked mostly everything before we drove to D.C. to pick up my sister Shilo from Union Station (she came down from New York to help us unpack…I love her!) The next day all we did was unpack and put the house together. Shilo cut my hair and I dyed hers. On Sunday we went to our new ward and dropped Shilo back off to go home.

This week we have finished unpacking, have been organizing the house, putting up artwork and looking for a job (for me). I have a couple of hopefuls but there is nothing for sure yet. We are slowly learning the area, or at least we are finding where all the Wal-Marts and movie theaters are. We have a neighbor that moved in the day after us and she is nice. We actually ran in to her today at the DMV.

Ah, the DMV. Out here their DMV is located in a mall. A MALL ladies and gentleman! Unfortunately, having it in a mall didn’t make the experience any less painful. It was filled with loads of rude people and employees who don’t know what it means to be “pleasant”. We should be getting new Virginia licenses in a week or so. I had to take my picture and the lame thing is that you can’t smile in your pictures….you have to “look natural”. And we all know that if I don’t smile in my pictures, I don’t look natural…I look awkward. So I might post my license picture if it comes out as funny as I think it will.

I will let you all know as soon as I get a job. We will be shooting a video of our new place and I will post that soon. Thanks for reading!

I was originally inspired when I was watching the 81^st annual Academy awards and saw Taraji Henson’s hair. It is absolutely amazing:

So I started to look at other amazing short cuts like these:

But I know that those might be to short for right now. So here are some medium ones that might make Brandon more happy

Gotta love the Emo-style:

Then, of course, there are my fashion idols Nichole Ritchie and Selena Gomez. Here are some pictures of their super adorable hair:

So as of right now I am torn. I am not sure what length I will go with, but I will be sure and post pictures once I have done it. Yay!

]]> http://ashleyrobison.com/2009/08/09/new-town-newhair/feed/ 1 http://ashleyrobison.com/2009/07/12/a-big-ball-of-stress/ http://ashleyrobison.com/2009/07/12/a-big-ball-of-stress/#comments Mon, 13 Jul 2009 07:52:12 +0000 ashley http://ashleyrobison.com/?p=105 Continue reading →]]> Is what I have turned into. Now that the moving truck is scheduled to pick up our stuff in a little over two weeks, I have been stressing out. Not about boxing up the house (because I have been slowly packing since June) but about finding people to rent our apartment, buy my car, and buy everything we are selling. None of these have been very easy.

We have been wanting to find friends to rent the apartment, because we want someone in here that we trust. But no one has been able to. So knowing that we might have some strangers in here, who could possibly ruin the house is a bit scary. I really hope we find someone soon…and hopefully that someone is clean and normal. Is that too much to ask??

As for the car, we have priced it at $4,000 even though the KBB price is around $5,000. No one has wanted to buy it though, and I guess we should have known that since the economy is really crappy right now. So we have been willing to negotiate, but people are asking for too low of a price. This car has been my favorite I have ever had. I got her at 35,000 miles and now, 5 years later, she is at 118,000. I drove her everywhere, including back and forth to my parents house in California. She has NEVER broken down on me, never had any internal damage from an accident and has never had a “check engine” light come on. In a nutshell, she is an amazing car. And everyone is telling me that Corollas will last at least 200,000 miles. So when someone asked to sell her for 2600, I had to pass. She is worth so much more than that. I hope we will find her a good owner soon that will pay the right amount for her. If not, I have no idea what we will do.

And this brings us to the last point: selling a bunch of crap that wont fit into our new apartment. We have 2 T.Vs, 2 T.V. stands, a black bookshelf, and a few other things. We have put them up on craigslist and told friends, but they are still in our house. Ugh.

So because of all of this I am stressing out. Oh, and did I mention that I don’t have a job yet? Yeah, we are going out there unemployed…kinda scary. I have certainly applied to different jobs but have been unsuccessful thus far. So life isn’t so easy right now, but I hope that when we get to Virginia, things will start working out. If not, I guess its top ramen and macaroni for us!

I think my style is a mix of all these ladies. Here are some pictures to prove my point.

Nichole Ritchie:

I especially LOVE how she can make a plain white shirt so absolutely adorable!

Lauren Conrad (gotta love the moccasin boots!)

Miley Cyrus

The shoes below are too much, but maybe flats in that color would do….

There are also some items that I totally need to have. Here is my list:

Gladiator Sandals (Miley wearing them in first picture)

Peacock Feathers

FLANNELS!!!!!

See how Lauren rocks it….

I heart these looks:

And I need this jacket:

My favorite website to look at clothes right now is modcloth.com and Forever 21. I love clothes.

SEVERUS SNAPE:THE GREATEST CHARACTER IN THE HARRY POTTER SERIES

This blog post is dedicated to Severus Snape, who, in my opinion, is the greatest character in J.K. Rowling’s Harry Potter series.  There are few books that can actually suck you in and bring out emotions using only words. In my younger years, I would read Dean Koontz and I would feel fear and have dreams about some of the villains from the story coming to get me. As I grew older, I read less and less for pleasure. It was only school books and church books (not to say that wasn’t a pleasure reading them, but they were learning books, not ones that would take me out of the real world). After the Twilight phenomenon, I FINALLY got sucked into the craze. While reading them I laughed, cried, got nervous and had dreams about the characters. I soon realized what I had been missing all those years of not reading for pleasure.

After I finished the Twilight series, Brandon was reading Harry Potter and he wanted to watch the first 5 movies when he was finished. After watching the Harry Potter movies again in order, I wanted to read 6 and 7. From the very first movie, I had a special love for Severus. I wasn’t sure why but I just new that I liked him.

The books immediately sucked me into the the wizarding world. I remember one night being so sad that I could never experience Hogwarts or that I could never pull out my wand on anyone. A book that brings out those emotions in you shows the talent of the author and will go down as one of the best books I have ever read.

After finishing the 6th book, I was so distraught that I pretended to not believe that the valiant man I loved actually killed the magnificent Dumbledore. I tried everything not to believe it happened, then came to the conclusion that it was for a purpose, and it was not because Snape was evil.

Imagine my surprise when I finally found out that I was right. How could I have doubted my feelings! Of course Severus was good all along…I knew it from the moment I was first interested in his character. Anything bad that Snape was involved in didn’t matter to me. I brushed it aside because I knew in my heart that he was not evil.

I know everyone thought I was crazy because of my love of Snape, and especially after reading book six, I thought that everyone was against me for liking the man who killed Dumbledore. Come to find out they were probably glad that I never doubted him and couldn’t wait for me to read on and have my dream scenario come to play.

Severus Snape was the greatest character in this book because, besides Harry’s parents, I feel that he truly loved Harry and knew how important he was. No one else in the books were courageous enough to play both sides yet remain loyal to the “good side.” Snape had the bravery to actually stand at Voldemort’s side and give him whatever he needed of him.

One of my FAVORITE lines from Snape is when he said to Dumbledore “…you have been raising him like a pig for slaughter-” It truly showed how much Snape cared for Harry and how he wasn’t approving of the fact that he had to die and that Dumbledore knew it. No I don’t think Snape really loved all of Harry, since he was like his father who Snape despised, but his love for Lily was so immense and I think that some of that trickled down to Harry.

Even up until Snape’s dying breath, he was doing Dumbledore’s bidding and protecting the person he had been for the past 17 + years.  No one showed as much courage as Severus Snape. I wouldn’t have enjoyed the book as much as I did had it not have been this line from Harry (in the Epilogue)

“Albus Severus, you were named for two headmasters of Hogwarts. One of them was a Slytherin and he was probably the bravest man I ever knew”.

I am glad that Harry came to realize the importance of Severus and his fearlessness. Now, I am a little perturbed that Severus wasn’t his first name, but I will have to live with that.

So Severus was the greatest character in the series, followed by Sirus and Luna. I know you are probably thinking what about Harry, Ron and Hermione? Well, they made the book what it was, but without the help of the previous three people mentioned, their journey would have not been successful.

I heart The Half-Blood Prince. End of story.

But here are my baby names. I do realize however that since it may be awhile before I pop out some kids, these names might change…reasons why? Someone in my family might use some of these names, therefore I cannot use them or the names might get too popular, and I can’t have a normal name for my kids.

Boys:

Wesley Thomas

Oliver Lawrence

Girls:

Lydia Kaye

Sophia Lien

Jayde Demaris (J.D. for short)

2008 was a crazy year, and it was full of new adventures:

I got married

I graduated college

I started a “real” job

I got my first tattoo

I (we) remodeled our condo

I inherited a fat cat

Started a business

And I am sure there are more, but those are just the major events. All in all, 2008 was a fulfilling year that seemed almost magical??? (Don’t know if that is the right word but it will have to do). A lot of the major events in my life that I have dreamed about since I was a little girl, occurred during the past year. There is nothing I would have changed about my 2008.  Since meeting Brandon, he has taught me not to regret anything. I may have done things differently (like waited a few more months to get married so I wasn’t so stressed out with school and what not) but I definitely don’t regret anything.

When I talk to people about 2008 most of them complain about the economy or the weather, and  hope that 2009 will be better. I hope so too, but I am not too sure that things will change drastically in one year. I do have a few “goals” for the new year, and would like to share them with you:

1. Go on vacation to the east coast for a week or more

2. Read more books

3. Pay off debt

4. Get a raise

5. Brandon and I will move to D.C. and B will go to GMU (This is technically Brandon’s goal but I hope that it happens)

I have other small goals, but I am leaving 2009 pretty open. I am starting to learn to be okay with change and will be okay with whatever gets thrown my way in the next year.

I hope you all had a memorable 2008 and wish you all a HAPPY NEW YEAR full of good health and prosperity!