The City Scramble!

Sorry for the lack of posting (to my 2 loyal readers - hehe) ... each day seems to go by quicker than the one before!! Work is crazy busy getting ready for testing in April and my weekends have surprisingly been jam packed with fun activities! Last Saturday I participated in an "Adventure Race" around downtown Tampa called The City Scramble! It was so much FUN! We (Britt and I) were given a piece of paper with 12 clues - 9 being places you had to take a picture at, and 3 involving different puzzles/challenges. You could start at anyone and check off the activities in any order, but the clues were actually pretty hard and it was necessary to have a phone-a-friend (or 10!) helping out! You couldn't use any other form of transportation than your feet and we up ended running around for about 5 miles and completed it in 2 hours and 08 mins! We placed 8/25 ... which we considered not too bad since we were mapless! Oops! :)

Afterwards Justin and Melissa picked us up and we went out for lunch... and one too many drinks! What a fun day! :) Pictures below are in a crazy order - I thank blogspot for that for making it so annoying to change the location of each!

I will definitely participate again next year... with a map! Go Team BASH! (Britt/Ash put together.. clever, I know!)

-Ashley

Couch Potato... to 5k!

Well, I FINISHED all 3.1 miles without dying so I would say that it was a success! It ended up being SUPER hot when the clouds went away... 84 or so! :) My goal was 45mins.. I finished in 43. I never said I was a running super star, but I did increase my time of almost 3 miles in 47 minutes when I first started... and that's all I really wanted to do! My 5X (or more!?) marathon running bff idol Heather was there for support and met me at the finish line all smiles! Zach chose to sleep in and not go to the "community jog", but I guess he is forgiven! ;) hehe. I actually had a lot of fun and would do one again in the future! I ended up running a lot more than walking which was another one of my goals... I hadn't "trained" in over a week due to our trip to Louisiana and such, but I'm happy with the way the morning went! Anyway.. here are so race day pics!

Heather and I before...

I was too fast to catch... haha!

Thirsty much!?

My first medal!

Shoutyyyyy: Congrats to Heather for finishing the half marathon in the Top 25 Females... and to my other bff Brittany for finishing her first 1/2 Marathon ever - and not stopping! WOW! Love you guys!

-Ashley

The Big Easy: Our Night OUT!

Last Thursday my brother Justin, his fiance Melissa, and myself made the long drive from Tampa to New Orleans to hit the town before my grandmother's funeral on Saturday. We missed Mardi Gras by one day, but I'm totally okay with that now! It was crazy enough on a non -holiday occasion! lol. Anyway, we stayed the night in a pretty fancy hotel and hit the bars by 6pm! It was quite the night filled with a lot of laughs and drinks! I love my brother and my soon to be sister (April 29!).

Our hotel one block from BOURBON street!

My favorite older brother and I with the famous Tropical Isle hand granades! :)A hurricane from Pat O'briens! A grenade from Tropical Isle! Wooo! lol.
After a couple of hand granades! ;)
Two hurricanes, Missy?! hehe.
We ended up being back at the hotel just after midnight and slept until about 10. We had hit the road at 6am on Thursday and after 9 hours in the car.. we were exhausted! Next blog will show pics from our day out in The Big Easy!

-Ashley

Wiggin' Out!

In early February two good friends of mine had a joint 25th birthday party! If you know my friends you know "themed" means FUN"ner"! We went out for dinner at a nice restaurant dressed up in.. WIGS! Yes, we got stares, but it was worth it! I decided to go blue while the bday girls went pink and green! It was so colorful and different and everyone loved it when we went out for drinks and told them why we were walking around with crazy hair! Zach chose to work through the event so he was unable to join us, but I had a blast out and about in Tampa!

The birthday girls and I!

Should I go blonde!? Hehe..

I went brunette too!

Days of Love!

Zach and I have celebrated VDay this year over a couple of days! It started Friday night at a lovely dinner at The Melting Pot! He surprised me with reservations after I got home from work and it did NOT disappoint! Mmm! :)

Take One!

Take 2!

Last night he came home with a bouquet of tulips! They are pink and so pretty! I decided to give him part of his gift as well so he got his card and his Skittles *since I forgot to get those for his stocking he can now forget that I did that....*

Thennnn today around 1pm my door opened and in walked an ESE teacher with another bouquet for me... but this time they were gorgeous roses!! 12 red, 6 white! I felt so special and all of my kids did the famous "ooooooh aaaaaah" and asked if they were from Mr. S. I told them I hope so, and they were right! :)

I got home from work and gave Z his other gift. We had been talking about blu-rays and I finally bit the bullet and bought him a player, 2 movies, buuuut no cord! Siiigh! Way to read the "sold separately" Ash! lol.. He seemed to enjoy it and was surprised anyway!Thursday of this week I leave early in the morning with my brother and his fiancee to go to my grandma's funeral in Louisiana. We are going to drive to New Orleans first and stop there for dinner/a day of shopping and touring until we pick up Z from the airport around 4... Then we are going to go to Baton Rouge for dinner with the family Fri night and the service on Saturday. I'm looking forward to family time, but not so much the reason for the time!

Hope everyone has a happy, love filled day!!

-Ashley

Re: Why Bother???

So.. it has been awhile since I have posted and I thought now would be a better time than ever! I didn't know what I was going to write about until I saw the last post!! Well, there are ALWAYS two sides to EVERY story! :)

Okay.. so! Last Thursday we had Math/Science night at my school scheduled from 6-7:30. I reminded Z that this was the case every night before *Mon, Tues, Wed... and I tried to remind him Thursday, but he never answered his phone* I eat lunch at 11:53-12:23 so after school we had a couple of hours to go grab a bite to eat so we wouldn't have to wait until after 8 to have dinner. My work-wife Melissa decided we'd (M, C, and I) go to Sonny's. She ended up buying our meals and I ended up getting a meal and calling it a day...

Fast forward to 6:45pm. Right in the middle of the activities going on... One missed call. Two missed calls. Three missed calls. Four missed calls. I finally excuse myself (thinking someone must've been hurt or dead!) and call Z to hear him complaining about me not being home from work yet and he just couldn't figure out what to do about dinner. I nicely replied that, being the fantastic wife that I am, that I'd call him when I was done and I'd pick HIM up something for dinner.

I apologized 10 times for not telling him I ate, but I did take the food he made to work the next day and that made me super happy not having to make a lunch at 6am!

So... here's my side and I'm sticking to it!!


-Ashley

Why Bother???

This is Zach...

I left football practice today around 615pm and was wondering why Ashley hadnt called or anything, when I finally remembered that I thought she said something about having to stay late at school. So after calling her several times and her finally answering she confirmed this.

She was saying how she wouldnt leave there until like 730 and would stop and get food for dinner on her way home if I wanted. So that thought ended with her saying she would call me when she left.

TRYING TO BE NICE... I got home and starting cooking up some dinner. I wanted to suprise Ashley and cook dinner. I thought since I dont do this very often she would be happy, but since she had such a long day she would be SUPER happy. Boy was I wrong.

Turns out a co-worker of hers bought her some Sunny's BBQ earlier. She wasnt even hungry. Why couldnt she have told me this on the phone earlier, I will never know.

This is my rant and rave about Ashley, but truthfully, she is the greatest and I love her~

North.. or South?

Zach and I have decided that we are going to use our tax return to treat ourselves to a fun getaway! I'm thinking we should do it for his birthday / our 5 year anniversary in July/August... He thinks my Spring Break / my birthday would work (that's only 3 months away!)... We are debating on two completely, totally different options... 5-7 days in Jamaica doing the all-inclusive resort thing OR! go on a week long Alaskan cruise (which don't start sailing until May so my date options work better!) lol! I've done the Caribbean thing 100 times on a cruise, but never a resort thing. Living in Florida we have plenty of beaches and SUPER hot weather in August so we're thinking maybe a nice, chilly vacay would be great... But lounging next to the pool/crystal blue water sounds so amazingly relaxing! I just dont know...

This

OR

That!?

What a tough decision..

-Ashley

SeaWorld 2011

Every year Anhueser-Busch *spelling is probably wayyyy off* amusement parks do a salute to military members/family. They allow one free visit to one of their parks once a year for the person in the service and up to 4 direct family members! We have taken advantage of this deal for the past few years and did so yesterday at SeaWorld Orlando (I actually just learned as a teacher in FL I get a free annual pass for "research".. crazy)! We left yesterday morning, hit up the park until it closed, went to dinner, and then stayed the night in a 4 star hotel (thanks to Hotwire!). Also, thanks to MLK, we had a long weekend and decided to get away for a good 24 hours! It was so much fun riding the rides, watching shows, seeing the animals, and just spending time together - just the two of us! My loving parents watched the pups on very short notice so we definitely appreciated that (another thanks!). We took the camera and got some great shots! Dolphins have always been my favorite animal and I had so much fun feeding/petting them at Dolphin Cove and then I got to "pet" super slimy stingrays, but didn't pay to feed them.

Zach and I hadn't been to the park together in awhile... so since the last time he had gone they had built a new roller coaster called Manta. It's INSANE! I had been once before so I was super excited to see/hear his reaction while on the ride. As you walk onto the coaster it seems like any other one with dangling feet... but as you pull the harness down over you it locks your feet in too. Once everyone has buckled in the dude in charge pushes a button and you start to feel yourself move in the seat. You end up laying down, but with your face looking at the ground. If something breaks and your harness opens... you would fly face first to the ground! Scary thought, huh? lol. The purpose is that you get to experience what it feels like for the manta ray stingray to flow through the water. Zach was impressed, but said he'd never ride again *ya right!*. Our picture was hilarious!!! His mouth was wide open and my hair was blowing in my face, but you could tell I was screaming. If you ever get a chance to ride it... DO IT! At least in the line they have aquariums with really neat fish to look at so it's not too boring. Lucky for us there wasn't a lot of people at the park so we got on pretty quick! Such a great time!

The penguins!

Some bird...

Manta... getting splashed while laying on your stomach and flying, twisting, turning through the air! eeek.

Shamu!

Another orca.

About to watch the seal/sea lion show!

Touching a super slimy stingray! Yucky! haha

Dippin Dots?! Mmm

Love of my Life!

Waiting to feed the dolphins..

Dolphins are my FAV animal EVER!

Anyway, I can't wait until our next "mini getaway!".. hopefully it will be sooner than later! :)

-Ashley

The Circus!

Thursday I ended up staying at work until 5:30... then I had to make a pit stop at Staples... and I finally made it home a little after 6. I was exhausted from my almost 12 hour day, but told Z I was jealous my bff Britt was going to the circus with her bf and we weren't going (he had asked earlier in the week if I was interested and I said yes... although he swears I said no)! He quickly told me to get ready and lets go. I had zero time for a shower, but I did brush my hair and change my outfit. When we got there we realized tickets in the lower area were sold out, so we had to get "best available". Sounds nice, right? NOT! We were literally sitting in the LAST row in the WHOLE arena. I actually was feeling kind of sick walking up there and looking down at what was going on way, way, WAY below! I decided I'd call Britt and see where her and K were sitting. She had gotten free tickets from a doctor at the hospital she is a nurse at. She was all peppy saying they had great seats, and also told me that the dr. had given her friend 3 tickets, but she was not going to come so the seats next to her were empty. I immediately told Z we were moving on up... but I guess we were really moving on down! ;) We lucked out big time and ended up being in the bottom section of seats in row V! They were 100 times better and I was so thankful we were able to crash their date! :)

It was my first time at a "big time" circus and I enjoyed it for the most part. My heart always breaks a little for the animals and I can only hope they treat them nicely when training them... We brought the camera and played around with it... here are some random shots!

Tomorrow, Monday, I have my first official observation of the year done by my principal. Every week I have someone observing or watching me during a lesson or two, but it's usually just my mentor. For some reason the principal makes me more nervous than anyone that has been in... whether it be someone high up from the county or whatever. I hope it goes well.... we have Art at 9:30 so that is the latest she can stay! lol. I'm thankful it will be over early in the morning.. Wish me luck! Eek!

-Ashley