Home Sweet Home

This past weekend Ross made plans to spend time with his buddies in Columbus.

I had every intention of staying home by myself and catching up on all of my reading for my classes, but an opening to get back in to be a patient with my lifetime/childhood family Dr. opened up on friday, and I immediately packed up and skipped my friday class so I could make it home in time for my app.

(I was so looking for a reason to go home, and not have to be here all by my lonesome for 3 whole days and nights!)

I was seeing a Dr. out here where we live so I would have someone to go to while we lived out here for a year just in case I needed anything, but I really didn't like her. I was so lucky to become a patient again with my wonderful family Dr. who I have been going to since I was about 6 yrs. old! My whole family has been going to her for years and she is wonderful!

So my best friend was super excited that we would get to see each other this weekend instead of having to wait for when I was planning on coming home next weekend for my grandparents 60th Anniversary!

I had tons of homework and reading to do, and I planned on studying hard, but I of course wanted to see my bf, and she was going to the mall, and I needed to return a sweater, so why not go with, right?

It was honestly a quick trip and I was good and didn't buy anything! Had to be the first time I walked out of the mall with more money than I left with! Ha!

Saturday my mom hosted our family's Ladies Chat that we have every couple of months with cousins, aunts, mothers, daughters, etc. It's so much fun!

Time to eat!

We eat great food that normally goes with the theme of whatever time of the year it is, and play two rounds of LRC (Left, right, center)

It's grandma's turn!

Hello, delicious food that made my belly full and happy!

My mom and I. 

My Aunt and I. 

Future flower girl.

How adorable is my cousin? Her two sisters are just as beautiful! 

Chat time! 

I of course ended up buying my assigned reading on audible.com to catch myself up on the two hour drive home. 

Virginia Woolf, you can be a bit dry.

My spanish homework was completed  by 11:30p.m.

 I am going home again next weekend. Maybe this time I will aim to get as much homework done before I go home for the weekend? Let's hope! 

I do believe that dark chocolate Snickers bar I ate an hour ago made me catch my second wind. :)

I know I didn't have time to hang out with many ppl this weekend, but my school reading load is insane right now! Hopefully next weekend I will have more time to see people! 

Saturday evening I will be busy with my grandparents' anniversary party, but maybe earlier in the day someone will be up for a trip to the mall so I can use my AE gift card?!

Hope everyone had a great weekend, and feel refreshed for a new week!

p.s. Friends, family and whoever else reads this...
I completely won't think you are a creeper for reading my blog.
That's why I post a link on facebook and Twitter! :)
Don't be afraid to leave me a comment, I would love it actually!
All you have to do is click below where it says "Post a comment"!
I would love to get a "hey, good to see you this weekend!" or "hey brat, we better hang out next time!" lol ;) Seriously, I know you read it! It's okay! If you read this far, you might as well give me a shout out! :)

These shoes weren't made for walking.

For the past couple of weeks, I have spent precious time away from my assigned reading for my two English classes, and working on my spanish homework and studying by spending hours online trying to find the perfect pair of training shoes.

What I have been looking for:

-Something I can wear inside my apt. only! I don't want to work out on my carpet in dirty street shoes! Yuck!

-A shoe that will allow me to move in any direction without hurting my feet or keeping me from comfortably doing any one move in particular.

-A shoe that is somewhat appealing to me in color and design. (Trust me, I have really lowered my standards in color to sacrifice for the best shoe for my work outs)

So in one of my recent posts, I showed you that I bought these shoes...

I liked the blue, and the dark gray would look alright with the mostly dark work out clothes that I usually wear. (Love my V.S. yoga pants!)

However, when I lunged to the side, I received a giant uncomfortable sharp pinch from the top part above my ankle! I couldn't make it through a 10 min work out!

I bought them from Dicks Sporting Goods online, and if I am going to pay $90.00 for a pair of shoes, they better NOT hurt my feet! Am I right?

I sent them back, and I was sad.

So after checking out tons of shoe sites, I went back to Nike because they were the only ones that had shoes that were supposed to be made for moving around in full motion. (Hence the fact that the shoes above were the motion fit, but yet they hurt my feet when I was in motion...not cool!)

So I tried again with a pair that a woman in my class wore one day and told me she wears them to Zumba and all around, and they are super comfortable.

The downfall was, I love the color blue, and they only offered purple and pink. 

Many people think I am some kind of super girlie girl, but I'm really not. I will take anything in blue over pink and purple any day!

However, these were on sale for $50.00 on the Nike website, and they even offered free shipping. They arrived on my doorstep today.

I read comments by users saying that they were great for cardio work outs. One buyer even mentioned that she worked out to Jillian Michaels Dvd's, which is exactly what I want them for! 

But alas, they had the same pinch problem by the top of the tongue, and the tongue part was uncomfortable all the way down. I'm going to attempt to wear them once to work out inside and see if I can get used to them or something, but they are even more uncomfortable than my last pair.

SO...I would really love to know, if anyone is reading, and you have a pair of training shoes that are actually comfortable to wear while doing cardio exercises, please give me some suggestions. 

Most likely, these are going back. I'm not even going to go into the joy of returning items bought online either. I had to pay 2 bucks to return the last pair, and I was really hoping I wouldn't feel the need to go through that again with these. We will see. 

I will find out soon enough when my food settles from my late lunch/early dinner if they can stand up to the wrath of Jillian Michaels. I might wander over to her website and see what she wears. I am sure she just has a sponsor and wears whatever she gets paid to wear. 

Next time though, I try before I buy, and hopefully I buy in person! My pudgy belly can't wait any longer to do cardio! Mcdonalds Monopoly is not helping either! Ha. 

Let's hope these just need broken in! Wish me luck!

Hi Procrastination, It's me Ashlie!

This was my first weekend after a short week of my new classes. I'm taking a class on Virginia Wolfe, Spanish 104, and British Literature. Seeing as I spent the majority of my first week of classes going over the syllabus and taking notes, I was still in a very relaxed state of mind and didn't feel a strong desire to start my reading and homework on Friday night. But instead, Ross and I hung out with our upstairs neighbors. Yeah for making friends! We went out to the local bar, and surrounded ourselves with drunk college students for a few hours. Still a good time though. They are good people. I seriously hope we can hang out with them more often! :)

Saturday came and I swore all day long I would get around to reading. I did go out to lunch with my other neighbor who lives in our apartment building, and once again, it was super nice to have someone to meet out for lunch. I love Ross, but a girl needs girlfriends, and mine are little too far away to meet me for coffee.

But then, I got on facebook, checked my twitter account, read my email, looked at the new straps on the Sseko designs website, (if you have never heard of it, pleaes check it out! http://www.ssekodesigns.com/)
I know this is bad that I am encouraging you to procrastinate from whatever it is that you are supposed to be doing at this time, but I love sites that are for great causes! It makes my heart melt, and my throat get that chocked up feeling.

Kind things and good deeds touch me. I am a sap for happy stories and people going out of their way to be kind to one another.

While getting the link for the Sseko website, I stumbled across their blog, (http://ssekodesigns.blogspot.com/)

How style your Ssekos.

I am a happy contributer to Sseko Designs. You can buy one pair of handmade sandals and get as many different colors and styles of straps to match any outfit you wear. There are many different ways you can tie your straps that are offered on their website and on you tube and even other blogs.
http://www.ssekodesigns.com/blog/

Here are the straps and shoes I have...

Starboard Straps.

My favorite straps!

Which lead me to this blog...http://31bits.com/necklaces/cat_2.html
It's a compnay that support women in Uganda who make jewelry which is then sold here. If you are interested in helping or hearing more about this organization, please check out the website!



While attending Kent State University, I bought a similar product called bead for life. It's nice to be able to contribute to a good cause and get something cute out of it too that will remind you of people who are less fortunate than you and make you appreciate what you have more. Each time I wear the jewelry, I think of the women who made them.

     http://www.beadforlife.org/indexB.html

When all my searching these great sites was said and done, saturday was done. Then sunday came. Not only did I swear I would work out now that I bought these great new motion fit shoes by Nike, that will never touch the pavement and be my 100% indoor work out shoes, I have yet to cut off the tag, and tie them on my feet. I am going to a wedding this saturday, and it is already tuesday. Have I worked out yet in my great new kicks? No. I am a bad procrastinator.

So as you can imagine, Sunday went like most of saturday. I caught up on my favorite shows on Hulu and Project Free TV.com. I am embarrassed but will admit that my favorite shows right now are,

The Lying Game

Vampire Diaries

Dancing with the Stars 

(though I admit I only watch the end sometimes to see who was eliminated)

Glee

The Secret Circle

Modern Family

So basically, I watch shows like I am a 16 year old girl...I am awesome. lol 

Monday came. I went to Spanish class and thank God I had stayed at school after class on Friday and finished my homework there, or I would have been up late on sunday. After class, I worked on my spanish homework again, went home and...got online. Do you see a trend here? Evil internet. My weekend routine repeats. Finally, at 7:00p.m. Ross and I decide to go to the library. We stay till 11:00. I have ALMOST all of my reading done, but I feel like I could fall asleep. I am thinking...

I am a bad bad procrastinator. I will never wait until the last minute to read again! I finished my reading last night and went to bed at 1:00a.m. 

Needless to say, I'm tired. It's now 11:09p.m. and I have class tomorrow morning. Time for bed. You would never believe I actually came to bed tonight at 9:00p.m. My computer is my best friend and my worst enemy. It is a love-hate relationship. I especially hate it when iphoto decides to forget that I just uploaded pictures and can't find them, and when picnik on blogger replaces old edited pictures with my most recent one. I love to blog, but sometimes it leaves me yelling at my computer screen wondering why it is acting so evil at the moment.

 I love you apple, but you need to get a few things figured out. A Mac is still better than a Windows. By far! 

Well, I'm officially super tired. I will however actually get enough sleep tonight before my class tomorrow! Yay! Then when I get home, I will beat this procrastination bug! I will NOT turn on my lap top. I will open my book, and read for class first. Then I have to open my lap top because my other readings are online. The evil procrastination of getting on anything but my class website is not allowed! 

I hope everyone has a great hump day! Just three more weekdays! 

p.s. Please don't feel like you are being a creeper by reading my blog. I post it on FB and Twitter so people CAN read it! A friend of mine blogs, and I read her blog and comment all the time. Don't be afraid to leave me comments. I do all of this writing, and take the time to take pictures and post them, so please, I welcome your thoughts and comments! But, if you can't say something nice, don't say anything at all. I try to be a positive person, and I prefer only positive feedback. If you don't like the blog, you surely don't have to read it. No hard feelings. Everyone enjoys to read different things. But please, don't be afraid to shout me a hello! I would make me feel great to know that I have readers! I would love to interact with my readers too! SO leave me a comment! 

xoxo

-A

Fall and a dedication to a fighter of evil masses.

Ross and I are finally in our new place, so I will give you a sneak peek. 

The family room.

The bedroom with our new comforter! It looks more mature
than our last one. (Don't mind that stuffed animal, that is very mature) ;)

The office, home of my clothes,
and official air drying space.

I was so excited about having a new place, that I picked up some new decor.

I love my fall candles!

How cool is this candle holder?
I love owls! <3

My favorite scent so far by Bath and Body Works

New shower curtain.

New towel rack.

New towels.

New bathroom rug. Can you tell I love blue?

While we wait for our new cat to arrive,
we are holding ourselves over with our new
Betta. His name is Chance.

This weekend while I was home visiting with family and friends, I decided to pick up a couple of things to get myself ready for Fall and back to school. Fall is officially my favorite season! 

A new purse that is easy for me to carry to school.

Cute new Fall Essie color.

Forever 21 Top.

From Forever 21.

Last weekend was also a trip home to visit a dear friend of mine who is losing her battle to lung cancer. My friend Megan sells Premiere Jewelry and decided to donate 100% of the money she would have earned to help pay to bring Marsha's daughter home to see her before her time here on Earth is over. Meg has such a big heart! It was so nice to see Marsha. She has made such a big impact on my life. It's so sad when you have to watch the kindest people in the world suffer. I dedicate this blog to Marsha. 

Megan and I at her Premiere
Jewelry open house.

Marsha, you meant the world to me, and I am better for having known you. I hope you look down on me from Heaven, and continue to help lead me in the right direction in life from up there. Love you!

Marsha and I.

If anyone would like to make a donation to bring home Marsha's daughter MJ from California to try and see her mom one last time. Please leave a comment on this blog, and I will get in touch with you. We are working to contact the Make a Wish foundation who help adults who are short on time get special last wishes granted. We are hoping they might help her daughter and two grandchildren fly home to see her. The rest of the money donated will be going to helping her and her husband pay for certain medical bills from the process of her Chemo and Radiation. Please keep her and her loved ones in your prayers. She is one special woman for sure!