We received...

the keys to our place today!! So excited for tomorrow to get here so we can be all moved in! Verizon is coming early to install internet/TV, then the movers... so by the end of the day we'll have all of our stuff up and running! Woo!




Here's hoping everything goes smoothly tomorrow...

-Ashley

Furniture Assembly

Zach and I woke up early this morning and went and dropped off my car for an oil change. Instead of waiting around we decided to go shopping for a new TV stand. The one we're going to have delivered on Monday we bought in KY for 20$ at a garage sale and is slowly, but surely, falling apart! We went to a few different stores, but I decided I liked the stuff we saw at Target the best. I wasn't sure if they would have anything of good quality, but what we picked out is actually pretty heavy duty and I love it! We decided to get the matching coffee table too...

We got home and spent a lot of time finding pieces and screwing screws, but it got done and looks great (minus the fact the piece of wood dividing the shelves in the stand is on backwards... but we'll fix it some other time!) lol. I took a few pictures of Z and my dad hard at work, but I can't seem to find my dang camera cord... so I'll post those some other time!

The Coffee Table... The Stand...

Zach and friends finished painting and it looks SO good. I'm so happy with the way everything is turning out so far! :)

I'm supposed to go out tonight to celebrate a friend's birthday so I hope this rain decides to stop sometime soon... Enjoy your weekend everyone!

-Ashley

Happy Birthday!

Just wanted to write a quick HAPPY BIRTHDAY note to my sis-in-law Leigh Anne!!! I'm sorry you had to postpone your birthday dinner at the Melting Pot due to renovations, but I hope you find somewhere just as nice and special to celebrate at!!

Missing you and your amazingly cute little family lots!


-Ashley and Zach

Moving In

Tomorrow Zach and his friends will be spending their morning painting our apartment! Tonight we went out and bought paint for the bathroom, living room, bedroom, and the kitchen and I'm very excited! The last two places we've lived at had ALL white walls and I think having color will make it so much more "homey". Thankfully our leasing agent is letting Zach paint before we're allowed to move in because we aren't going to sign the lease and actually get the keys until Sunday afternoon... The movers will be here sometime on Monday, which is why I am not going into work. I'm hoping they will be here before or after Zach's afternoon class so I'm not directing them on my own. Lol.



I am mostly looking forward to having our own bed... it has been about 2 months since we've slept in it! Yay for Monday and the things that will be happening!

Wish us luck...

-Ashley

My First Paycheck

Well, my first one in over a year and a half! After working 55 hours with no pay, I'm finally receiving a check tomorrow for 40 hours... they are working on paying me back the 55 they owe me (starting by paying me for 8 hours a day instead of 6 1/2, and paying me on Monday when I'm not even there - yippee!) Anyway, I was totally excited when I checked my paystub online this morning and realized I'm getting $0.71 MORE than I thought I would be. It doesn't sound like much, but I did the math and it adds up to about 30 bucks more a check, 60$ more a month. Not too shabby if I don't say so myself! No direct deposit yet so tomorrow it's off to the bank to deposit my monies!

-Ashley

Happy Birthday!

Just wanted to take a few moments to wish the greatest mom ever a HAPPY BIRTHDAY!
I appreciate everything you've done for me lately and I just want you to know how much you're needed and loved!! It's so fun seeing you throughout the day at work ... I never really know when you're going to walk around the corner. Hehe :) Hope you had a FABULOUS day - you deserve it!



Love your favorite daughter!

-Ashley

Little Caesar's

Seven years ago today I met the love of my life in the craziest of ways. It was definitely fate! I was a junior in HS and it was a Friday night. I had SAT's in the morning and decided to make it a pizza/movie night with the girls so I was well rested (ha!). Anyway, that year the Tampa Bay Buccaneer's had made it to the Super Bowl for the first time ever. I had decked my car out in Bucs stuff... the window flags, shoe polish, the whole 9 yards! Extreme? Of course!! I love TB!

Anyway, I drove myself and two of my friends to Little Caesar's to get the 5$ hot and ready and that is when I saw a bunch of boys standing outside of their car in the parking lot. They had "GO RAIDERS" (the team that the Bucs were to play that following Sunday) stuff on their car. I was NOT pleased that they were cheering for them so I decided to voice my opinion and tell them how I felt. I rolled down my window, said a few words, and then drove off with my pizza.

It was only after we had reached my friend's house that I realized that those boys had followed us all the way home! I got back in my car, drove around the neighborhood trying to lose them, but it didn't work and I eventually went back to the house. We talked to the boys for a few minutes, I gave out my number, and then went inside. (I was wearing a beanie and Zach swears he told his friends "I want the one in the beanie!") Later that night when I went to leave I saw that they had tagged my car... who did those boys think they were?! I had a boyfriend at the time so I ignored Z as much as possible, but his persistance and sweetness lead me to fall for him and the rest is history! We started officially dating March 7, 2003. We got legally married in Kentucky on March 7, 2006.

And I love him now more than I ever thought possible!!

-Ashley

Swollen Lip!!

So I was just checking Facebook, minding my own business, when all of a sudden my lip started to really itch. Not too long after that it slowly started to swell on one side! What the heck... it's been like 20 minutes and it's still swollen and itchy... My mom sprayed Febreze not long before, but something must've bit me! Hmmm.

After looking at this picture I realize I need my eyebrows waxed bad! lol

Hope everyone has a good weekend and hope this lip of mine becomes better soon as well! I'm hoping to a dinner date with the hubby tonight, but I barely see him these days. Sigh! We shall see I suppose!

-Ashley

Family Pictures

On Christmas Eve Leigh Anne had one of her good friends, who is also a great photographer, show up early to church to take a few pictures of the family. It included Zach and I, my 2 bro-in-laws (John and Scott), my mom-in-law (Deb), my sis-in-law (LA) and her hubby(Josh)/son (Caleb - the cutest nephew EVER!). She did such a good job and I think they turned out awesome!

A and Z!

The whole fam-damily!
Prom 2003 reenactment.
(We know we're dorks)
Love them all! :)

-Ashley

My New BFF

Yesterday from 5am-2pm I had a new best friend. I spent time with this friend every 15-20 minutes consistently...

My BFF

I was SO sick yesterday. I think Zach passed it on to me, but I got it WAYY worse. He got sick a few times on Friday and slept the day away, but nothing too crazy. I woke up yesterday morning at 5 not feeling so hot and had to make a run to the bathroom literally every 15-20 minutes for the next 9 hours!! I'm feeling better now, just really weak. On a good note, I have lost 5 pounds! lol. Once I start eating again I know it will come right back, but I'm glad I can see something positive out of this experience for the time being! hehe.

Luckily I already had today off so I can spend the day in bed relaxing, but it's back to work tomorrow (the day I start getting paid!)!

-Ashley

Happy Birthday...

To the silliest pup we have ever met! Our snuggle puggle Kahlua turns TWO today! :) She makes us laugh every day and never ceases to surprise us with her crazy personality. Our dogter is surely special and our family wouldn't be complete without her!

Love you Lua!!

-Mom and Dad

Let Me (Let Me) Upgrade Ya

I want to start off by saying I've had the same phone for 1 year and 8 months. That's like a lifetime for me to go through without dropping it, losing it, letting it go for a swim...etc! I'm so proud of myself! :) Zach is on his third phone since we got on this contract together, but I still have my little, beaten to death LG Venus and I'm ready to move on! It was just 2 weeks ago a friend of mine asked me what was up with my phone... it really looks that bad!

I decided for my next phone I want a BlackBerry. I have a job now and hubby has the GI Bill and since I'm not totally relying on his income I'm going to treat myself to something I really want and something really nice! I was eligible for an upgrade on Jan 11th, but I've somehow managed to wait and not be SO impulsive like I usually am ... and in doing so I've learned that the one I wanted, the Tour, isn't going to be top of the line anymore. Verizon is releasing the Tour 2 around February 3rd (I've done a whole lot of researching) so I'm going to wait! It looks exactly the same, but has a track pad instead of the ball (which I've heard is awful) and it will have wi-fi and supposedly a faster processor, but I'm no geek so that doesn't really concern me.

Anyway, I'm excited and hope that all my "crackberry" friends are right in the release date or I might just go crazy having to wait even longer ... I don't even have the phone yet and I already love it! lol.

Tour 1vs.

Tour 2

-Ashley

Cold Weather Gone ... Cold Symptoms Back

I can't believe I have ANOTHER cold... or is it the same one?! The weather here in Tampa has been CRAZY! Record lows, frost on the ground in the morning, etc. (although now it's back to 70 something and humid as heck and this has nothing to do with MY cold, but it has been cold). Anyway, back in November was the first time I felt pretty crappy. That took about a week to get over, but once it was gone there were no lingering symptoms. Well, a week or so before Christmas it was back again. I had the super stuffy nose, congestion, on/off headaches, but it went away leaving an obnoxious cough. The cough finally went away after Christmas and is BACK! ... with the sore throat/sneezing attacks/etc. My parents think I'm allergic to dogs, but the first time it happened they weren't even around me. Maybe it is allergies, but who knows. I just know I want to feel 100% for longer than a couple of weeks at a time.

Okay, I'm done complaining. I'm going to go find something to do so I'm not stuck in the house for my whole FOUR day weekend. Adios.

-Ashley

Officially Official!

This week has been pretty crazy... Zach started back to school *FULL TIME!* and he seems to be really enjoying it and is shooting for a 4.0. I know he can do it! :) He spent last night at the Tampa Bay Lightning hockey game, tonight he's going to a hockey event, and tomorrow will be another game. Having those season tickets means less time I get with him, but more fun he has out with his guy friends! I think he is enjoying being home just as much as I am!

Anyway, I started working last Tuesday as an ELP Tutor. I'm enjoying it and staying busy with seeing 30 kids or so a day. I've worked every weeek day since then for 6 1/2 hours (meaning I've worked for a total of 33 hours or so). It usually takes 2 days after the interview to get paperwork/fingerprints done to work for the county (I interviewed in Dec!), but by yesterday morning I hadn't received any news yet. By mid-afternoon the data processor called down and told me that my application was denied and that I'd need to refill it out. The only application they had on file was one that I filled out about 3 years ago for a totally different position so they didn't have that I was a certified teacher yet. I quickly left her office and went to fill out another application online with my license number and degree info. A little after that the principal called me into his office and told me there was a pretty big chance my Oklahoma certification wouldn't be enough to be hired for this position and if that's the case there would be no way he could pay me for the past week... My heart sunk and I got SUPER nervous. What was I going to do if this fell through!? The assistant principal joined in on the conversation soon after and said her and the principal would do everything they could and more to get me all figured out, but there was a chance it just wouldn't work out right now and I'd have to take some tests/classes to be certified in FL.

At this point the thought of paying rent in February was crossing my mind. We would be able to pay it, but the deposits we'd need to pay for everything else like electric/internet/etc would be hard to pay along with our regular bills... I knew Z would kill me! Soooo anyway I came home at 2:30 and after about 3 minutes of relaxing my mom called me and told me I needed to go back up to the school and to bring my new application number, my teaching certificate, and my letters of reccomendation. I hurried back up there and the AP faxed them right then and there and told me I'd know by tomorrow (which is now today). I got there this morning and nothing had happened yet... by 11 I was called into the principal's secretary's office and she told me it still wasn't approved and she suggested I stop working after today if we didn't hear anything because she does payroll and she knew she wouldn't be allowed to pay me if I wasn't in the system as hired. While I was down there she got my SSN and made a bunch of phone calls on behalf of my principal. The head honcho down at HR said she'd deal with my file personally and she'd call us back by the end of the day. Well, the end of the day came and I hadn't heard anything. I walked out of the building with my mom to do her end of the day duty and that's when the AP casually walked up and said "so, did you hear you're good to go?" I freaked out, gave her a big hug, and my mom hugged her too! lol. It was such a relief... She said I could take some days off and get paid, or they would add on hours to each day I work until they pay me back those hours I've worked so far.

I'm sooooo happy everything worked out and I'm SO thankful the principal and AP did what they did for me. The AP said the principal made a ton of calls for me. He's been working for this school system for years and knows a lot of people so I can't thank him enough for bending over backwards for me! :) Yay!

-Ashley

The Oldest 25 yr old in the World!!!

Lets first clarify that this is Zach talking here and not this ever popular Ashley....

On Friday I did something that most people do at 50. I went in for a colonoscopy and a upper endoscopy. The military had diagnosed me with IBS (irritable bowel syndrome) but never did any tests or procedures to confirm this. So for the past 3 years or so I just avoid certain foods such as brocolli, cauliflower, spicy things etc. Doing this and trying to keep my stress level downs as well as medications has helped but I would get a bad stomach ache atleast once weekly. So before my medical coverage ends on tuesday I asked the military to do something to confirm the diagnosis. They agreed that a colonoscopy/endoscopy was the best thing.

On Wednesday I had to drive to Palm Harbor to see Dr. Amin and he agreed to do the procedure on very short notice. Wednesday night Ashley and I went to dinner at Outback but we went really early, 530pm. After leaving there at like 630pm I didnt eat anything else that night. On Thursday I was not allowed to eat anything at all. I was to only be on a liquid diet. This really sucked pretty bad. I was drinking sprite and eating jell-o and werthers all day. At 5pm that night I had to take 4 Dulcolax (laxative) pills, which I think just helped the process. At 3am on Friday morning I had to get up and start drinking the "mixture" (gatoraide and miralax). This really really sucked. It doesnt take long for a whole bottle of miralax to take effect, I will spare you the details. My good friend Gordy was a great sport and took me to the procedure and brought me home. I was completely knocked out during the procedure and therefore remember absolutely nothing. If you are 50 or whatever age the doctors reccomend a procedure then go do it and dont be too scared. Its really not too bad, just not something you want to do on a annual basis. Ashley wanted me to blog about it, so here it is. I am sure she will get on here and add pictures and correct my grammer, but baby gets what baby wants.

~~~Sechrist Out~~~

Mini-Vaca in Naples

Last Saturday Z and I drove down to Naples to visit his grandmother for the weekend. I was all excited about walking on the beach and hanging out on a towel by the water, but it was FREEEEZING! This past week has been incredibly cold in the sunshine state and record lows have been set. It "sleeted" this morning here and it's just crazy-ness! It was my first trip to the beach in FOREVER though - much needed.

Anyway, back to our trip. I spent about 15 minutes down by the water before I decided to head back to her house. She only lives about 2 blocks away from the water - SO nice! On Sunday night we visited his cousins and had dinner with them. It was really nice to get to spend time with all of them. Hopefully we'll make it down there again in Feb/March!

My little seagull friend.

Freezing.. pretending to be happy again! Lol.

Didn't even try to go in flip-flops.
The view!

Another view...

-Ashley

Bowling

In high school my friends and I used to bowl ALL the time. A lot of us were actually pretty darn good... Last Saturday night for the first time in over a year I was able to go bowling. I was pretty excited and hoped that I hadn't lost my touch.. or my roll! hehe. I did pretty good and had a great time hanging out with 4 girlfriends and one of their husbands. I came in 2nd the first game (the guy we went with has gotten a 300 before so there was no way I was going to beat him!) lol.

Earlier in the day the NOLES had won their bowl game...

Ash and Chris!

The score...

Heather and Kelly didn't bowl.

I decided to be artistic. There were 5 girls... and 5 sides = a star.

-Ashley

New Years 2010!

I rang in the new year in downtown Tampa with two of my good friends K and B! We went out to dinner at Bennigan's then went out for drinks until the fireworks went off at midnight... I'm a sucker for them! We eventually walked home (we stayed the night at my brothers/his fiancee's place not too far from the bars), and just really had a great night out. We danced, drank, and danced some more!

Zach had to get up early because he was going to the Outback Bowl game so he didn't join us and I missed out on a New Year's kiss, but there is always next year!

Getting silly with my girlies! :)

Boom! Don't know what I'm doing with my arm!
-Ashley

Happy New Year!! / 100th Post!

Just wanted to wish everyone a HAPPY 2010!! I hope your year is full of love, laughter, and happy memories!

I can't believe this is my 100th post already. I'm so happy I decided to start a blog though - it's fun to look back at pictures/posts, even if it was only a few months ago! I will post about my fun NYE tomorrow-ish!

-Ashley