The Real McCoy!

Yesterday during a Shared Reading lesson we read an article about Elijah McCoy... Who just so happens to be the "Real McCoy". Anyway, my students learned that he invented a device that oiled locomotives automatically, so that they wouldn't have to stop and do it by hand... Which sometimes lead to stalling. What is stalling you ask? That's when something stops, usually unintentionally, which some manual cars still do today. Well, apparently one of my students has an uncle whose car has that same problem! It starts to beep after so long on the road and he has to pull over, type in a number, and breathe into a device.. Probably like the device made by Mr. McCoy!! I then had another student chime in that his car must be pretty cool to have such a neat security system. Yep! I totally agree... But I don't think I want one of those devices!! Hehe :)

Happy Easter!

Yesterday we ate lunch with my family at my parents house! Lunch was super yummy and included ham, mashed potatoes, fresh green beans, potato salad, and Z even made squash casserole that was quite the hit! :) For dessert my grandma made some super cute cupcakes and banana pudding.. and I brought the sunflower cake! I love time with the fam!!

Hope everyone had a blessed holiday!

My kids know I love chocolate... I had eaten one throughout the week.. oops!

Zach and Lu hanging out after lunch!

Dying eggs with my mom! :)

-Ashley

Pinterest Happenings!

I've been on Pinterest for quite some time now, but it wasn't until recently that I have actually used it in "real life", especially when it comes to food. I used to browse the website allrecipes.com a lot, but no need for that anymore! I try to make Mondays "Pinterest Dinner Monday". Here are some of my previous winners!

I actually made this for Easter... not Monday dinner! lol.

I always have my iPad in the window so I can scroll easily and view the recipe!

This was super creamy and yummy.. the final product from above recipe!

Buffalo chicken "garbage" bread... SO good!!

People at worked tried this and loved it!

Salmon with lemon pepper and some other seasonings...

Barbeque chicken and steak kabobs... Yummo!

This post made me hungry... Happy Monday! :)

-Ashley

Gray and Yellow!

Five blog updates in two days?? Funny what one extra day off will do to you! :) Zach and I started our day off with breakfast with his mom at IHOP! I ordered the yummo french toast - what a great way to start my day. She left from breakfast and we headed home so I could go layout... but the weather had other plans so I stayed in and helped him with his HW. (I know, wife of the year here!) While on pinterest I saw a few posts on a friend's board with gray/yellow bedrooms and I just couldn't say no! Right before we moved in our landlord painted the master bedroom a light yellow and our comforter we had didn't really go with the room and I have had an obsession with yellow/gray for awhile so I got an itch to go shopping! After failing miserably at Bed, Bath, and Beyond I went to Targets website and saw two options I REALLY liked and both were "in stock" at my local store. So, after the Rays game we headed to Target and did a little shopping... Here is what we came up with! :)

The duvet cover, sheets, and curtain!

My own personal handy man installing the curtains!

The bed.. including the new throw pillows I bought!

Lace loves the new look so far... can't wait to paint a wall gray and add some matching decor! :)

Early Saturday morning we headed to WalMart and got the rest of the goods...

Zach painting!

One side of the wall...

Final product!! The opposite wall is a little bare.. that's next!

Another wall.. painted some shelves!

The other side!

I'm in LOVE! :) What a great team to get this done so quickly!

-Ashley

The Great Urban Race!

Two weeks ago my bff Britt and I ran in another adventure race called The Great Urban Race! We placed 65th out of 305 teams and had a great time figuring out clues and running around downtown Tampa! :) As veteran adventure racers, we decided to map out our route BEFORE blindly running to a clue we knew. We were calling, texting, and googling answers for the first 25ish minutes, but it paid off when we made one big circle around the city. In this race their was a public transportation option, but we opted to just use our feet for the 4-5 miles we went! Below is our race in pictures! :)

We had to unscramble menu items and take a picture from the deck with UT in the background.

We stopped by the YMCA and walked barefoot on glass... wow!

We had to learn a dance at a dance studio..

We had to blow three ping pong balls in a row into 3X3 solo cups...

Britt had to throw this tire over my head from a short distance...

Finished!

We had to find a group of 5 people and line up descending order! Thanks family of 7!

Our custom made shirts!

Celebrating after at the Splitsville!

-Ashley

Britt's Bday!

Approximately 2 hours after I got off of our cruise I was heading out to celebrate my bff's bday/St. Patrick's Day! Lucky for her - they are on the same day! :) We met in S. Tampa at World of Beer and had a great time hanging out! I played D.D. since I was so tired from my vacation (lol, that sounds funny) ;) but Britt had a wonderful day surrounded by friends AND family! After sipping on water all day her dad had pizza delivered to us at the bar and soon after we called it a night... by 8pm! I guess when you turn 26 you can't hang with the big dogs anymore when you start at 2pm! Hehe. Below are some pics from the day - even though I realize they are the same people, just in different order, in each one! :)

Girls!!

Girls 2!

The bday girl and I!

Girls 3!

-Ashley

Ryan and Steph!

A couple of weeks after the bachelorette party Z and I were able to attend Stephanie and Ryan's wedding! It was beautiful! We stayed at the hotel the wedding was at, which made it nice because Z could go up to bed when he was ready and I could stay out! :) Their colors were yellow and gray (which I have really liked for awhile) and everything went together so well! The food was honestly the best wedding food I've ever tasted - can't be a nice piece of steak and asparagus! Mmm! So happy for both of them!

Our table's centerpiece!

They had a photobooth... LOVE!!!

My bff and I! What a hot bridesmaid!

I like this one of Z and I!

Not such a good shot from the phone...

Z and his buddy Kyle!

-Ashley

Stash Bash Madness!

Back in Februrary my BFFs brother got married to a wonderful gal named Stephanie! I have been meaning to blog, but of course life got in the way and after a few glasses of wine and some quiet time during my THREE day weekend, I thought I'd catch up on the past couple of months! We met at her house for some drinks and games and then a bus (that may or may not have had a stripper pole) came and picked us up and took us to S. Tampa for a night on the town! We had a blast and I absolutely loved the "mustache" theme! So cute!

Todd, the blow-up doll they made me carry around... this was when I got half of Hulk Hogan's mustache to wear!

I won the "Who's Stache?" game! Sadly I left my prize at Stephs...

The girls! Not sure why I thought laying on Britt was needed! :)

The bride to be and I!

Showing off one of my many staches!

Happy my hair made it throught the night..

My bff using her stache as sunglasses!

So happy Steph invited me! What a blast!!