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

Busy, Busy Bees!

Where, or where, have I ... or should I say we! been?! We've been BUSY! With school in full swing for both of us - the weeks are just flying on by and the camera has been MIA at the bottom of my messy purse somewhere. We've done a lot to keep us moving, but I have been horrible at capturing the moments. Oops! Anyway, I have had my phone around the past month or so - so lets catch up, shall we!?

Being silly with the girls one Friday night!

Every Friday afternoon you can catch me at Happy Hour with my "teacher friends"! :)
We are really good at HH, btw...

Britt finally reached the "50 Club" at World of Beer! (That's 50 DIFFERENT beers bought) Justin and Melissa came over and cooked/grilled for me not too long ago! It was DELISH! :) Zach and I hit up a Bucs game (or 2!) .. and we WON!
It has been pretty exciting and Science-full in my classroom!
One week we did marble rollercoasters *kinetic vs. mechanical energy*
for the Science Olympics - two students from my class won and get to go compete at MOSI! :)
Meet Max... our class fish! :) He sits on my desk and is my bff as I work!
It has been quite rainy around these parts... but many rainbows have been present!!
Another fun Science project... Can you light a bulb with just a D batt and a paperclip!?

After lots of exploration *and burnt fingers* - my kids can! :)

My days go by so fast, but so do my nights and weekends! I love my class and I really enjoy teaching fifth grade a lot more than I thought I would! All they really are ... are older fourth graders. lol. :)

-Ashley

Birthday Celebrations

Not last Saturday, but the one before - man, I'm behind my parents took Justin, Melissa, Zach, and I out to dinner at Macoroni Grill. It was a lot of fun getting to catch up with everyone and getting a chance to celebrate M AND J's bday! Melissa's bday iss on Aug. 14th and Justin's bday is Aug 19th - one year and 5 days apart *I won't say that Melissa is older though* lol! Thanks for the dinner, Mom and Dad! :)

On the way to dinner! After dinner...

With their bday gelato! Making a wish! :)

-Ashley