Happy Valentines Day! :)

What an amazing "Hallmark Holiday" this has been!! Zach spoiled me rotten with my amazing ring, two dozen roses delivered to me at work, and an iPad2... Also while at work I had 21 more little valentines waiting to celebrate with me! How did I ever get this lucky?! I seriously wonder if I really deserve all the good I have in my life - I'm oh so blessed and couldn't be more thankful :)

Upgraded!!

Cupid came early to the Sechrist household this year!! Zach had quite the scheme to get me to give up my old ring for five whole days so he could buy me a new one and get it sized and soldered without me knowing... The story starts on Tuesday afternoon while I was busy teaching Reading to my crazy 5th graders! I was wrapping up guided reading and realized my phone was lit up, meaning a text or call had occurred in the past 60 seconds. I go to check and see that I had quite a few text from Z asking what time exactly my lunch break started, what I was doing, etc. Right before I was about to respond my class telephone rang and the office secretary told me my husband was in the office. Wondering what was up, I lined up my students, dropped them off in the cafeteria, and went to the office to see Z sitting in a chair waiting patiently. He took me outside and showed me a letter from Kay jewelers saying that if we didn't have our rings checked out by the end of the day we'd lose the lifetime warranty. *Sidenote: I hadn't had my ring checked in almost 5 years Z said - oops!*. Anyway, I hesitantly give him my ring and head back to the lounge to eat my lunch. A little later in the day Z texts and says something on my ring was cracked, and because it wasn't a diamond issue, they would fix it for free, but because it was so close to Valentine's Day it wouldn't be fixed until Friday. Well, at least it was getting fixed ... I'd just have to suck up having a naked finger! Fast forward to Friday! I was anxiously awaiting getting my ring back... it was really annoying freaking out every time I realized it wasn't on my finger. lol. It was a teacher work day so I went in around 9:30 and got a lot done during the day. I texted Z asking if he had heard anything about the ring, and he said no, but he'd go to the store and see what was up. Eventually he called and tld me he had good news and bad news ... I told him bad news first. Bad news he said was the guy who was fixing it had a family emergency so it wouldn't be ready until Monday. Good news? He argued so much he got a 50$ gift card to the store. lol. Nice job, babe. I was sad, but nothing he or they could do so I whined for a few minutes, then moved on. Saturday (yesterday) I woke up and had to run some errands. I thought Z had to work on Tuesday so we had decided earlier in the week we would do VDay on Saturday. I knew what I wanted to get him, I just hadn't bought it yet, and I had to go to Target to pick up a gift for my friend's baby who was turning one so I went out on my own. While I was out Z texted that he had had some errands of his own to run, but he'd be back soon., but after me. I bought his gift and the baby's and got home quickly showered for the bday party and when I got out Zach was home. He told me he needed help getting something out of the trunk. I walked out with him and didn't see anything in the trunk, but as I got closer I noticed a little silver box. Had my ring really been picked up already or did he get me a new one? Or was it not really a ring in there at all? I gave him an are you serious look and proceeded to open the box... a shiny, white gold ring with a beautiful princess diamond stared back at me, soldered do a white gold band lined with small diamonds! ARE YOU SERIOUS!? I looked at him in shock... it's seriously so beautiful and in the sun in was blinging like crazy! :) What a wonderful surprise! He took the ring from me and placed it on my finger -a perfect fit!

He really never ceases to amaze me... He swore I wouldn't get a new one until at least 20 years of marriage! He bought the one I had previously when he was 20 and I was 19. At the time it was what I wanted, but since then my preference had changed greatly. I always said our 5 year anniversary was when I wanted it/deserved it (lol), but I guess the extra 6 months wait was worth it since that day passed back in August! :) He did such a great job with the surprise and went to great lengths to keep me and my "Sherlock Holmes" ways surprised with fake "official" letters and gift cards - what a keeeeeeper!

My bling bling from the front!

A little zoomed in look from the side! Gorgeous, right??

Happy Valentine's Day (a little early!)

-Ashley

Gasparilla 2012!

Last Saturday Zach and I headed down to Bayshore Blvd. near downtown Tampa to celebrate a day dedicated to pirates, Gasparilla!!.A friend of mine from work hooked us up with tickets to the Captain Morgan tent which meant we had free food and drinks all day, and had amazing seats and were supplied with tons of goodies - it was amazing! (thanks Teresa!) Before we went to the tent we stopped at my friend Cristina's boyfriends house. He has an amazing home just a few blocks away from the parade route so we started super early with mimosas and some snacks there. The weather was absolutely perfect. There we also ran into a few people from work and some I knew from high school. We had a blast, to say the least! After the parade we went back to Brian's house and hung out with some of my friends I had not seen all day until it was time to go home (8:30!?) lol. Can't wait for next year...

Some of our loot!!

Work ladies (Ashley, Denice, Ashley!)!!

Zach having a blast...

After... Getting stabbed - no biggie!

Before Zach found the wig/sword!

More girls from work... (Teresa, Ashley, Cristina, Annmarie)

Waiting for the parade...

Love him :)

-Ashley

Week 5, Day 3!!

I'm so happy to post that as of today both Allie and I are finished with Week 5 of the Couch to 5k program!!! Today we both ran a whopping 20 minutes without stopping! That means not a second of walking for those of you a little slower... Hehe. Anyway! The most we had ran without stopping previous to today was 8 minutes, so I'm super proud of both of us for doubling our time and then some! Exactly 4 weeks until my 5k I signed up for... And 3 weeks until I finish the program! So excited and look forward to kicking last years time by at least 5 minutes! Congrats to us!!!!!

-Ashley

Reason 424!

That I love my husband... I forgot my lunch yesterday and had a training after work, then had to go back to school to do some paperwork for an observation I have on Wednesday... So when I strolled through the door at 5:40 I was pretty darn hungry! Well, my needs were met as soon as I walked in and saw:

Thanks Zach you sure know how to make a girl smile!

-Ashley

Happy Birthday Mom!

Happy late birthday mom!! I was going to post on Friday, her actual birthday, but I decided to wait until she had opened her gifts! Mom turned "29" this year and had a wonderful day... Complete with dinner out with friends and family!! We love you and hope this last year before thirty is a great one!! Xo :) below are pics of two of her gifts. Justin and Melissa bought her flowers and Zach and I got her a hand painted Lolita wine glass, a bottle of white zin, and a corksickle (a cork that keeps your wine at perfect temp). She seemed to like all of it!!

-Ashley

Run, Ashley and Allie, Run!!

Just wanted to check in and tell all of our fans that we are still trucking along! Lol. Today I finished Week 4, Day 1 and Allie just finished Day 2! Almost half way done and we've already come a long way! This week our runs consist of a 5 minute warm up.. 3 minute jog, 1.5 minute walk, 5 minute jog, 2.5 minute walk, repeat cycle, 5 minute cool down! Keep it up Running Buddy!! Go us!! :)

Happy Birthday Grandma!!

Just wanted to give a birthday shout out to my grandma H!! Today she turns 85!!! We celebrated on Saturday night at dinner (where Zach and I gave her a tiara that she wore all might) and we will get together again tonight for cake and ice cream. :) She is such a wonderful woman - beautiful inside and out! Happy birthday grandma - we love you!

Vacation... Booked!!

In seven weeks Zachary and I will officially be on the Carnival Dream cruising to Nassau, St. Thomas, and St. Maarten for seven days! :) So looking forward to the vacation with him! :)

New additions!

For Christmas my parents got Zach a set of tools. Since then he has been super busy around the house adding new things and coming up with projects that allow him to use them! I really appreciate his hard work and creative ideas! I really never know what I'm going to come home to!! :) Below are a few of his latest projects...

Shelf for our spices...

Less space in the cabinets... hanging pots!

In the laundry room...

P.S. I'm so happy I finally downloaded the app for my iPhone... This post was so much easier than doing it from my laptop! :)

-Ashley!

The Giraffe Ranch!

Zach and I had such a fun day date today from a Living Social deal I had purchased almost a year ago. The Giraffe Ranch is not a zoo, but a family's "farm" of exotic animals including, but not limited to, giraffes (obviously), zebras, lemurs, antelopes, warthogs, hippos, deer, camels, donkeys, guinea pigs, and porcupines! The walking tour and Jeep safari were included, but we also paid extra to feed the lemurs which was such an amazing experience!! They are the cutest, most gentle and friendly animals ever! It was a blast and I'm so happy that after eleven months of trying to get Zach to go he finally agreed! I hope we can go again another time in the future!!

Hair blowing in the wind ... enjoying the safari!

I was a little scared here... haha!

A lot of zebras on the ranch!

Hand feeding a lemur...

They really love grapes... and their tongues are soft! lol.

Running Buddies!

It's that time of the year again... time to train for the Gasparilla 5k race that is the first week of March this year! This year I decided to download the app C25k (Couch to 5k) and in 8 weeks I should be able to run without stopping by running different lengths of time just 3 times a week! It works out perfectly and I love the app because it tells me when to walk, when to run, and beeps at appropriate times. I also use iMapMyRun to keep up with my stats for the week. This time I have someone to motivate me to keep with it and it's oh so exciting! Allie, my brother-in-law John's fiancee, decided to do it with me! Each day that we run we text each other some sort of picture when we finish and give props on completing another day to the finisher! I love my running buddy! I of course have to give a shout-out to my bff/role model Kara Goucher... I mean HEATHER! :) She is the inspiration for signing up!

Anyway, today I completed Week 3, Day 1 so I'm caught back up with Allie! :) It's gets harder each week, but I'm looking forward to the challenge!
This is a picture Allie sent me... KEEP IT UP AL!

This is right after I finished the C25k today... I usually end up going further on the trail then the minutes asked... hence the green dot! This is from some other day, but I love how it saves your stats. I have definitely improved already... especially when it comes to my pace! :)
-Ashley!

Blue Man Group!

Zach and I headed over to Orlando on Saturday afternoon to see Blue Man Group at the Sharp Aquos Center in Citywalk. After checking into the hotel and getting ready super fast - we drove over and parked with a little time to spare so we walked around and then headed over. I had lost the receipt for the tickets (big woops!), but luckily they were easily able to find our order number at the ticket booth and everything was smooth sailing. Z decided to upgrade us to "VIP" which meant we got 2 drinks each, 2 programs, a special area to hang out before and after the show, and we got to meet a "Blue Man" at the end of the show.

After having our drinks we made our way to our seats and watched the show. It was absolutely amazing! I loved it and so did Zach! There was music, comedy skits, and things I can't even really describe. lol. We laughed pretty much the whole time - I can't wait to go again sometime! :) We weren't able to take any pictures during the show, but I snapped a few before/after!

Front of the theatre...

My handsome hubby!! I hate that a few of these are sideways.. oh well!

Hanging out at Citywalk!

Well, we are both off today for MLK so I'm looking forward to relaxing/cleaning up a bit and tomorrow is a teacher work day so I only have students 3 days this week! Woo!

- Ashley

I'm baaaaack!

Who knows for how long though... I kept telling Z right before the new year that my resolution would be to blog more, but that has not been happening (obviously)! lol. I feel like since 2+ months have gone by... I'm not going to be able to catch up with everything we did, so I think the goal will be to blog a little about the holidays now.. and then just start fresh this weekend! Zach bought us tickets to the Blue Man Group show in Orlando so we are headed there for a mini getaway for the night! I'm so excited!!!

Anyway, the holidays flewwww by and now we are both back to the work/school grind. We spent Christmas in Atlanta with his mom, 2 brothers, and the rest of his fun fam! We had a great time getting to see everyone! The first night we spent at his grandmas and enjoyed baking/decorating cookies on her back porch... We then went and stayed at his mom's house and even got to celebrate the engagement of his younger brother John to his now fiance Allie! :) Blogger is so not user friendly as far as posting pictures/typing so I picked a few random shots from the past 2 months from my phone and posted them...

The start of baking cookies! :)My 5th grade team.. we did "Pies in the Face" to raise money at a Fall Festival!

Two of my 4th grade team members at the work Christmas party!
Our tree! :)

I have a 3 1/2 day weekend so I WILL be blogging again soon... if anyone out there still reads this thing! lol.

-Ashley

October!

I truly can't believe that it is already October... 8 days into the month, actually! Seems like just yesterday I was laying on the beach enjoying my summer vacation! At this rate the holidays will be here oh so soon! :)

This week was filled with exciting times, and not so exciting times! It started out on Monday night at Raymond James Stadium. It was Zach and I's first time at a MNF game! The Bucs ended up beating the Colts (woot, woot), but we stayed for the whole game and didn't get home until after 1am! That made the rest of the week for me pretty rough. No time for naps to catch up on my 3 hours of sleep night!

View from our seats!

Enjoying ourselves! :)

After school on Tuesday we had a faculty meeting at work, which ended at 4, and then I went and met up with Brittany and Kyle at D'lites. D'lites is a super yummy and healthy "ice cream" shop. They finally came out with a pumpkin flavor so we just HAD to go that day since they change out the flavors daily.

Wednesday after work I came home to check on the dogs, and then went to Zach's JV football game. I stayed until half time and then stopped by Target because it was on the way and I just can't say no when I'm close by. I'm SO thankful I did because I FINALLY found Pumpkin Spice creamer. I had been checking out local grocery store Publix frequently, but that hadn't got it yet... It is seriously soooo delish! :)

On Thursday after school I came home, showered, and my sis-in-law Melissa picked me up and then we went and picked up my mom. We headed to the mall and got manis/pedis (and waxing!) and then after my mom and dad took us out for dinner at a restaurant called BJ's! :) We had a lot of fun and hopefully can do it again sooner than later!

On Friday Z texted to let me know he had preordered my iPhone 4s. I'm switching over from a Droid and I can't wait! Zach absolutely loves his so I'm hoping I feel the same! :)

After I got home from school on Friday... I came home to Kahlua running around crying and Lacey howling in the bedroom. She decided to somehow lock herself in there. For how long?! No one knows. Since Z left Thursday for a little vacation in NC they were by themselves for 11 hours that day. Poor things. Anyway, her freak out lead to this mess... that was fun picking up! The towels hanging on the back of the door fell off... and she shredded our poor trashcan. Siigh!
Anyway, Friday I went to bed early because I had to get up for a 5 hour training this morning. I did end up taking a 45min nap when I got home, but now I think I'm going to rent Something Borrowed onDemand because Z is still gone, it's raining out, and I think I will snuggle with the pups in bed and just enjoy my last peaceful evening. I hope I can sleep in tomorrow.. that would be FANTASTIC!
I have to pick Z up from the airport tomorrow afternoon, and I also have a TON of grading to do! Hopefully next week won't be as CRAZY!!!

-Ashley