23 Aug 2009, Comments (0)

Settling In

Author: ashley

Well, it has been one week and two days since we have moved to Virginia. I think we are settling in pretty nicely. Brandon and I have started eating healthy since we moved here (minus the first two days, I mean, there is a Wendy’s like three minuets away). We have been going to Whole Foods & Trader Joes and getting organic food. I can tell such a HUGE difference in how I feel after I eat. Maybe its just psychological but it still makes me feel better so we are loving it! We also have some cousins out here (Tim and Katie) who have been helping us get situated. We went over to their house on Friday for dinner. They have 2 precious girls, and a little boy on the way. It is nice to have some family out here!

One huge difference between Fairfax and Las Vegas (other than the obvious climate) is how many educated people there are out here. About everyone I have met has asked me “What did you major in?”…like they all assume that you at least have a Bachelor’s degree (thank goodness I do). It seems like having a BA is like having a GED. The good thing is that it is inspiring me to go back to school sooner.

Other than that not much else is going on. I still don’t have a job but hopefully that will change soon. I hope you are al doing well. TTFN

21 Aug 2009, Comments (3)

A video of our new place in Virginia

Author: ashley

20 Aug 2009, Comments (2)

The Big Move

Author: ashley

Once Brandon and I found out that he would be attending George Mason University in Virginia, we started planning. We chose a moving company, decided on how we were getting there and even made a trip to Virginia to find an apartment. Every thing seemed to go smoothly until *duhn…duhn…DUHN!* the moving company decided they wanted to charge us $1,000 more than the quote. And they were so gentlemanly enough to tell us AFTER they packed half of our lives into their moving truck. So we so kindly (ahem) told them to bring our stuff back up and leave.

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.

brandon

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.

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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.

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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!

9 Aug 2009, Comments (1)

New town, new….HAIR?

Author: ashley

So I have wanted a new haircut for awhile now. I have enjoyed my long hair for long enough and I am ready for a change. What better time than now? I will be living in a new place, making new friends, working at a new job….shouldn’t I have a new hairstyle to go with it all? I think so! So here are some options.

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

Taraji

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

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

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Gotta love the Emo-style:

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

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selena1

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SELENA GOMEZ AT WALT DISNEY WORLD IN FLORIDA

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!

12 Jul 2009, Comments (2)

A Big Ball of STRESS!!!

Author: ashley

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!

30 Apr 2009, Comments (3)

Nothingness

Author: ashley

Hey, don’t really have much to blog about but figured I should blog anyway. Brandon and I have just been looking for places to live and a job for me in Virginia. We have looked at a couple places that seem nice so when we go out there at the end of May we will see how the neighborhoods are and what not. We have decided not to take a car so we will probably sell ours before we go.

Jobs have been really hard to find for me. I am either overqualified or under qualified. There are lots of government jobs but nothing promising. The physical therapist that I worked for said he knows a therapist out there who was looking for a personal trainer to work in her office. So that might work out for me.

I am a little scared and nervous because so many things have not been decided yet. I like to have things planned out and right now they are not. So hopefully after our trip out there we will be able to set some things in stone.

This weekend I will be laying out by the pool because I need color. I am so white! Not like cool-vampire-white, like the “are-you-sick ?” kind of white. Yeah, it sucks. So hopefully my girlfriends will join me and we will have a fun and relaxing Saturday. Oh and on Friday I am babysitting for Heather.

Sorry my life isn’t too eventful right now. I will soon be though…I hope :)

16 Apr 2009, Comments (2)

Thumbs up to United Airlines

Author: ashley

There have been a lot of news articles lately about United Airlines and their choice to make obese people pay for an extra seat while flying on their airline. I think that United Airlines, and all the other airlines that are currently doing this, deserve a big thumbs up. I think it is horrible how everyone has to keep accommodating to obese people, so that they feel “normal” or like they fit it. Truth is…they don’t. They don’t fit into tiny airplane seats, movie theaters or theme park rides. Does this mean we should make all seats bigger so they can enjoy all of these? No, because then we are telling them it is ok to weigh a lot, and we will keep expanding with their waist line.

I am sure there have been times where you have sat on an airplane next to someone overweight and it was the worst experience ever. I know that the seats on airplanes aren’t that big, but they are cozy enough for 3 adults to sit next to each other. An argument for the obese people saying that it is unfair to make them pay for an extra seat because obesity is a disability, or disease, something they can’t change. The problem with that argument is that obesity is a lifestyle and can be changed. If they still want to fight and say that it can’t be changed, then tall people need to have more leg room. It isn’t their fault they are tall, so why should they have to pay extra?

A quick story to show my frustration on this topic: One day I was at work (I work at a physical therapy office and see a lot of overweight people with many joint and back problems) this grumpy obese lady comes in. I greet her and walk her back to her room. On the way to her room, pushing her walker she says “Can’t they make these halls bigger for G—sakes!” I could not believe my ears. Does she really think it’s easier to tear down our walls to make a bigger hallway than to lose weight?! That’s when I realized how much we do accommodate for obese people and now they are starting to complain when they don’t get their way.

There have been so many accommodations already for obese people, such as larger blood pressure cuffs, larger hospital beds and gowns, larger coffins and hearses (its true, Google it) and furniture. If we keep making things bigger to appease the obese, then we are telling them it is ok, and that we can keep making things bigger for them.

I don’t hate fat people. If people are healthy and still overweight, I have no problem with that. But when people have become so fat that they are a health hazard, and then I do not sympathize for them. Obese people will frequently get handicap stickers for their cars…why? So they don’t have to walk as far? They are the ones that need to park miles away to walk off some of their weight!! And they are taking up spots for people who truly need them, like paraplegics and quadriplegics.

Also, obese people seem to complain about discrimination at work. Well, if I were hiring someone and my choices were a young healthy 25 year old, or an obese 25 year old, I would choose the healthy one. There are so many health issues that go along with being obese, and as an employer, I wouldn’t want to have to deal with that.

So, moral of this blog is that I am glad Americans are starting to realize that we can’t just keep accommodating to obese people. For far too long, we have been willing to change for them, and it has given them the signal that it is ok, and we accept it. If obese people don’t want to pay extra on an airline, then lose weight. If obese people want to feel comfortable in a movie theater chair, then lose weight. If obese people want to go to theme parks, they need to lose weight. This may be blunt, but it is true. Obesity is life threatening and needs to be taken seriously, more specifically by those who are obese. With all the bariatric surgery these days, it has become more and more simple. There should be no more excuses.

15 Apr 2009, Comments (3)

My new obsession

Author: ashley

Clothes. Since I am too poor to buy a bunch of clothes, I have become addicted to looking at them online and drooling over them in stores. I have decided that I needed to figure out what my “style” is. I have come up with a few celebrity icons which fit my style well. Now, before you go and find these celebrities in hideous clothes, take in to account that there are a few outfit choices that I would NOT wear. But for the most part, I adore their style: Nicole Richie, Lauren Conrad and Miley Cyrus.

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

Nichole Ritchie:

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

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Lauren Conrad (gotta love the moccasin boots!)

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Miley Cyrus

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

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

Gladiator Sandals (Miley wearing them in first picture)

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Peacock Feathers

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FLANNELS!!!!!

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See how Lauren rocks it….

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I heart these looks:

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And I need this jacket:

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

5 Apr 2009, Comments (0)

Serverus Snape

Author: ashley

*ATTENTION: THIS BLOG CONTAINS SPOILERS ABOUT HARRY POTTER 1-7. DO NOT READ IF YOU DON’T WANT TO FIND OUT WHAT HAPPENS IN THE HARRY POTTER SERIES.*

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.

31 Mar 2009, Comments (7)

Are you pregnant yet?

Author: ashley

No.

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)