Thursday, December 31, 2009

Busy bee

This is one of my favorite pics of my dad showing off his miniture peppers.
Kojie reunion
Erin and Emerson
Halloween!
The hunter and the deer

Buzz, buzz, buzz....ok so i'm going to update you. I know, I live such a fantastic life and you all are
just DYING to know what has happened since October. Don't worry :) I'm about to fill you in. Grad school and work. YES! You guessed it! Good for you! You shall win a dum-dum! Let me tell you something while we are on the subject. I park outside on the street, and some birds decided to have a colon cleanse on my car. Therefore, I went to a carwash. I had a coupon to get a free $10 car wash at Team Clean, so I did. As I drive up to the entrance, the attendant comes out and gives me not one but TWO dum-dums. Of course I was very gracious, but deep inside I was like, "ooh dums-dums disgust me. I will just throw them away." Those of you who know me well know that I can't just toss food without first giving it a nibble. I ate the dum-dums, and guess what? They were good! I really felt good about rekindling my love for suckers.

Halloween was fun besides the extreme flooding. My roommate and I dressed up together. I was the hunter, and she was the deer. So cute! Then I went Harding homecoming where we had our 70th Kojie reunion. It was so so wonderful to see everyone!

Let's see, grad school went well. Before my presentation for Satan's class, I asked my teacher for a Xanax. It's true, I did. He obviously does not get jokes and said, "Ashley, I am not licensed to prescribe medicine in this state" and then gives me a how are you in this class because you are stupid look. aaaahhh no sense of humor! What a hardship that must be for him!

CAC going well. I was asked to play in the student/faculty basketball game. he he. My height must fool people. I told them it was a BAD idea. I guess they thought I was being modest. It was the most regretted 2 minutes of the game. I didn't know I could get so distracted. People would yell at me or for me...I would wave. I didn't want to neglect my fans who paid $2 to watch me. Sometimes when I was running down the court, I felt compelled to leap. What other times will I have a basketball court to leap on? And then for the final fiasco...I was open. I saw the other player look straight at me. I said, "NNNNOOOOOO!!!" And he did it. He threw it at me. I ducked ( I don't like things coming towards my face...bad memories from when a basketball hit me in the face when I was in the 4th grade and wore glasses. Let's just say the glasses were terribly bent) and the ball goes over me. Then some evil person knocks it back to me, and I throw it...to the opposing team. It was like a hot potato! OOH! They took me out right away.

Let's see...over Christmas break I read three books. I have not pleasure read since June. Oh how I have missed it! I read Life of Pi, The Lovely Bones, and The Pilot's Wife. All of those were awesome! I wish I could've read more! Maybe my grad school work load will be less this semester.
Boring but busy! I will update on the holidays soon!

Wednesday, December 30, 2009

Ace

Ace came through the 4.5 hour surgery. He's still in recovery and in a lot of pain. Dr. B said some of the polyps are questionable, so they are being checked by the pathologist now. We will know in the next 24 hours if it's cancer. All for now. Keep praying!

Tuesday, December 29, 2009

Prayers please!

Hi my fellow bloggers. I know my posting has decreased; grad school overwhelms me. I have a special prayer request, and I need you all to pray fervently. My cousin Ace had a colonoscopy today, and the doctor found 40 polyps. Not good. We don't know if they are malignant yet. The doctor said that he couldn't remove all of the polyps because there was a large chance he might cut the colon wall which could be fatal. So Ace is having surgery tomorrow at 9 am to remove about 2 feet of his colon where most of the polyps are. The polyps will then be sent off for a biopsy.

Ace is only 28, and he and his wife are expecting a baby. His older brother Jon had colon cancer 4 years ago, so please pray that Ace isn't in the same situation. I promise to update you soon!

Monday, October 19, 2009

cheese samples and other important news

Friday night was girls' night. We had dinner at Bossa Nova then went to Ferneau then hopped on down to Baci. It was cool outside but finally pretty enough to get dolled up. I just couldn't get up early the next day to do the race, so I just had my own race in my neighborhood. I won. Yes, so true. Even the cars couldn't catch up with me. Though I wasn't the speed of sound, I was the speed of lightning. Then went to Jill's for an after the race brunch.
I don't know how many of you know how awesome my hearing is, but I must tell this story. I can't hear well...at all. I get every lyric wrong to every song. At the brunch my cousin Tekia was singing the new Miley Cyrus song "Party in the USA" and I just happen to like that one. A very catchy tune. So I'm
singing along, dancing, and singing. I sing, "...and the J.V. song was on. and the J.V. song was on, and the J.V. song was on!" Those of you who are familiar with that song know to which part I am referring. Jill quickly stops me and says, "Did you just say J.V.?" I said yes and she said,"It's Jay-Z. the rapper." Ya know, there could be a singer named J.V. I mean, really it is catchy. It doesn't have to stand for junior varsity.
After brunch I went to my long-time friend Tessa's baby shower. It's just so weird when your friends start shooting out children. It was great to see her and the rest of the White crew.

My roommate and I took a very relaxing trip to Hot Springs to her parents condo. Sometimes you just need to get away. We left Saturday night after watching the wonderful Razorbacks lose. We went to whole foods to get us some snacks. You know what I love about whole foods? They put out lots of samples. I ate gouda, white cheddar, and white cheddar with cranberry cheese. I even stole a crouton from the salad bar. Samples make the world go round. All of my fondest memories involve food. Imagine that. I remember driving all the way to Texarkana to shop at the Sam's Club. Oh boy, did they have samples! It was sample Heaven.

Now that you know my love for samples...We got back last night and did 30 Day Shred. Caroline and I have done it for 7 days straight now. I would do it this morning, but I have a horrible crick in my neck and a sharp pain in my shoulder. I must have slept in a weird way at the lake. I shouldn't have worked out last night but oh well. I may have to sit out a few days. Boo.
Caroline and I at Hot Springs enjoying an afternoon boat ride.

Saturday, October 10, 2009

I wish I had Hermione Granger's time turner

Watch Harry Potter and the Prison of Azkaban and you will understand. Where does the time go? Oh ya'll...where do I even begin? I apologize to my blog family; I've not updated in 3 months. I'll give you a quick rundown of the goings-on in my life.

July
  • grad school started. There goes my life. I took two classes in summer school.
  • went to Hot Springs for the 4th with Caroline and Sarah
  • went to Dallas to visit one of my best friends from college, Meredith.

    Meredith and I at House of Blues.

Meredith, Kyla, Buzz and I at Mi Cocina.

August

  • I moved in with my friend Caroline and a girl named Haleigh. I only moved 7 streets from where I used to live so it was an easy move. I just HATE moving! So gross! I absolutely the house. Please come visit!
  • Went to New York and stayed with a friend there...stayed in Harlem and might I say that was an adventure. I got seranated by a man on the subway in Harlem. He sang "My Girl" but he switched up the lyrics. They went something like this: "Talking bout my girl (white girl), talking about my girl (white girl)." Yes that's right. He said he like my feet and that he wanted to take me to his house and make me some Kool-Aid.
  • I saw Mary Poppins and Shrek. I was a bit disappointed with Mary Poppins. All of you who know me know that if I were to be reincarnated it would be as Mary Poppins. She is my icon. But fair friends, this was based off of the book. Who knew there was a book? I mean really? Shrek though was FABULOUS! I highly recommend it.
  • I tried to get a man selling Obama condoms to come to church with me the next day. As you can imagine, it didn't go so well. hhhmmm....
  • Sarah, Brian and I rented bikes to ride through Central Park. We biked around the entire park! It was took about 5 hours, and I even wore a dress. Did I show my goodies to everyone? Yes. My attempts to be like Julie Andrews in The Sound of Music did backfire but not untilt he last 15 min. I did so good all day. The weather was perfect! And then I was rounding a curve and BAM...the dress flies up in my face. Luckily it wasn't a day I chose to go commando! My dress flew up in my face, and in my attempts to get my dress out of my face and keep driving, I almost wrecked.
  • During our bike trip, we stopped at the boathouse. You know, that really famous place on movies where all this fake happiness happens. Yes that boathouse. We rented a boat and sailed away. My friend Brian thought it would be funny to get really near the shore and yell "Land ho." I did and then I forgot to row back out and actually crashed into the shore. Then I told them I was from Arkansas and they understood. I might've peed on my self from laughing to hard. Hard to tell if it was pee or sweat. Oops!
  • This is my cousin Jamison (Mica's son).
    This is the condom guy.Bike riding in Central Park.This is me laughing after the boat dock incident.




Watch and be amazed.

September

  • Razorback game at War Memorial.
  • A few birthday parties
  • A wedding
  • Mom's 53rd birthday
  • My friend Kaitlin stayed with me as she passed through to Monroe.

That, my friends, sums up my life for the past few months.



Monday, June 29, 2009

Welcome to Babyland!


This is my friend Karson and me doing our tribute to Michael Jackson. The restaurant where we went was playing all Michael Jackson songs, and we couldn't help but dance. Everyone was staring which made me get even crazier. Sometimes I danced to them. I'm sure they enjoyed it.

Lauren and me.

This past weekend I went to Tulsa to visit one of my best friends from college, Erin. She and her husband Cam had a baby girl, Emerson Reese, 1 month ago, and since Cam was gone to a wedding, I thought it would be the perfect weekend to go help out and meet my new sudo niece. It was so wonderful to see Erin and to catch up with her! And Emerson, words cannot express! Cam and Erin are the first of our friends to have a baby, so it was very surreal. I couldn't put Emerson down. I can't wait until I see them next!


Baby Emerson


Emerson and Colt--my niece and nephew.



Monday, June 22, 2009

Father's Day and a commercial

I traveled down to Nash-vegas for Father's Day and had a grand ol' time. Mom and I went and saw the movie "The Proposal" which was hilarious. Very cute...I laughed a lot which isn't hard for me. For those who know me you know my laugh is quite loud, so I'm sure the surrounding people in the theater got an earful. Then we got to TJ Maxx where my awesome Mom loses my keys. She thinks she left them in the buggy. Why she doesn't put things in her purse, I don't know. I went and asked everyone with a buggy, "Did you find any keys in there?" Oh Mother...sometimes I worry. We finally found them at the front counter. Someone was gracious enough to turn them in.

I was a good weekend. Mom and I made cookies for Dad, but we ate most of the dough. Little Jamison Road is changing. I'll have to take pics next time I'm home for those of you who knew what it used to look like. Everyone's getting married and popping out kids. Craziness.

Also in this post, I would like to add that I will be in a commercial for Novasys. My face is like a flash of lightning. Don't blink or you'll miss me type of thing. My sister is all in there and she's also on their billboard. The person pouring the coffee and putting eggs on the plate is me. Be amazed because it's amazing! Not just anyone can work a spatula or coffee pot like that. It must've been that diner experience I had working at the Cactus Grill in Mineral Springs, AR many years ago.

We shot the commercial at one of my favorite diners in Searcy called Bobby's. Bobby Quattlebaum is 62 and said he's about to retire. It will be a sad day in Searcy when that happens. He said he's not going to give his recipes away for someone new to take over. He said, "When I go, everything goes with me." It was an honor and a privilege to cook in the same kitchen as him. Be jealous!! Here are some pics from the shoot.
The waitresses with Bobby. a goofy shot.

Sunday, May 31, 2009

If at times you don't succeed, eat.

Have you ever had one of those out of body experiences when you've had something so precious taken away from you? Lauren and I had one of those today. We were so sad to leave the beach (more about that later), but so excited to eat at our fav restaurant Mi Ranchito. That's right you fellow Harding-ites; it's the same one that is in Searcy. It's the BEST, and I should know since I'm part Hispanic. Well, to my surprise we pull into the parking lot and see that our fav restaurant has A DIFFERENT SIGN! I pull right up to the door with my car (I was definitely in the restaurant's grill fo sho) and this is what the sign said, "Due to parking lot issues, we are closed." What?! Who closes because of parking lot issues? Just tell the truth and say you are closing because you went bankrupt because the only people who ate your delicious food were Lauren and me. I had a mild mital cardiac infarction. So you know what we did? We cheated!!! We went to Senor Tequila where I barked at the waiter because I said I wanted fajita chicken and not shredded and WHY is that so hard to understand???? I guess he didn't know that I had lost something so precious to me.

Goodbye my love :(

That's my only sad news...luckily. Yay for me though! My friend Lauren and I took a major roadtrip to Auburn, Gulf Shores, and then to Smackover. We left Monday for Auburn to visit some of Lauren's good friends from college, Lauren and Rhett Lashlee. They were so kind of enough to let us stay with them for two nights. I felt like I've been friends with them for ages :) Lauren T. and I got facials at Lauren L.'s spa where she works. It was so needed. Wonderful, wonderful and then just hung out. I unfortunetly had a sinus infection that was bad enough for me to get a Zpack, but oh don't worry...it didn't stop me from any of the festivities.

Me, Lauren L. and Lauren T. before going out to dinner.


Our findings along the way...


a snake...not in the best condition huh

After our wonderful time at Auburn, we trecked down to Gulf Shores Wednesday morning where we stayed with Lauren's mom, sister and cousin. We had a wonderful girl trip for sure! Highlights: eating at Lulu's (an awesome restaurtant on the river/gulf? owned by Jimmy Buffet's sister) where I ate the largest 8 oz cheeseburger in paradise known to man that was slathered with jalapenos and bacon (my dad refers to those types of burgers as man-burgers); choked on ice cream; got burnt to a crisp and just relaxed. I have never eaten more junk food in my life, but luckily since I'll never see any of those people ever again in the lifetime of my exciting but sometimes drab existence, I let Petunia (my stomach) hang out all she wanted.
Just a glimmer at the smorgasbord of junk food we had the privilege of eating.

My choking episode take one.
Choking epidsode take two

ooh la la...i'm albino compared to LT.
Our photo shoot on the beach before eating at Lulu's.

My last day :(


I left a day early because my cousin Seth was getting married. I left around 6:30 on Saturday to make it to Smackover, AR by 3:30. I've never taken that much of a roadtrip by myself before, and I must say it was BORING. I talked to myself some, but mainly had concerts. When I was a few miles from Monroe, LA I was talking to a friend on the phone. You know how you get that itching feeling in your throat when you need to cough? Well I got it. I didn't want to hack on the phone, so I just waited. My eyes start watering and my voice gets real squeaky because I'm about to choke to death when she finally says "bye". I close the phone and start coughing. More coughing and more coughing later, I start dry heaving. Swerving on the interstate I'm thinking to myself, "I've always wondered what it would be like to vomit on yourself while you are driving. Today's my lucky day. Luckily I'm wearing a long dress to catch the vomit." I'm sure the passers-by were getting the show of their life. Two red, crying eyes and one red face later, I'm still dry. No vomit. Good girl. I tell that story to tell you this: If you have to cough and are on the phone, just hang up. Don't try to tough it out or you will be that road goober everyone makes fun of. I pulled over at the next gas station because I thought that nearly losing my life constituted buying white, powdered donuts. Yum! I get in the car, open up my package of goodness and start to chow. I instantly gag. They taste so awful I thought I would surely vomit. I've never been so stinking disappointed. So I finally get to El Dorado where I stop at a college friend's house to get ready. Then I drive the 5 min to Smackover. Have I ever been to Smackover? No. Will I be ok if I don't ever go back? Yes. Nonetheless, my cousin Seth got married to a great girl, Julianne in the most amazing garden I've honestly ever seen. It's something you see in magazines. Shoot, it probably has been in magazines. It was a beautiful day! No rain...hip hip. And guess what else? I caught the bouquet!!! Aw, I know. This makes the 3rd one since June 14th of last year. That means my love life sucks, and God is getting a good laugh. No just kidding or maybe so...who knows.
My wonderful parents!

Brother and sister

Seth and Julianne

Most of the Jamison clan--missing eight.

A little reunion--Scott, Randy and cousin Wes.

cousin Tela

cousin Seth--the groom

So if you don't succeed, eat. I made a pie for my neighbor today since he mows our yard for free. There are nice people in the world :) With the left over pie crust, I put butter, sugar and cinnamon on it, bake it then eat it with a big glass of milk. And I wonder why Petunia won't leave me alone.

Sunday, May 10, 2009

HAPPY MADRE'S DAY!












In honor of all the mother's out there who birthed us, I pay homage to you. I love you, Mom! Special thanks to my sister, Brittany the photographer and to her boyfriend, Waylan my sudo-husband.

she said YES!


Audra and Cole's first dance as husband and wife!!

Audra and Cole's wedding was a success. and i say success because it literally came a flood. we thought we were going to have to build an ark. on friday, the water was over the tires. i like to say that the car was "swimming" down the road.



I love this one!

saturday came. we got up to get our nails and toes done around 10 and it was only misting. the day kept floating on and still no rain. we were crossing our fingers. 5:00 rolled around and IT WAS CLEAR! you could even see the sun peeking out. audra was so excited! she was going to get her outside wedding after all. 6:00--a giant, black cloud floated right over the wedding. we prayed some more and the good Lord was gracious. it didn't rain the entire night! so yay! though i must say my hair was flat as an ironing board, but audra looked stunning.


Audra and me.


The bridesmaids and Audra with our darling gifts.

it was so wonderful to be back with my college friends again! i am so thankful my parents made me go to Harding. i would be a totally different person without them. i did miss little Erin though. she couldn't come because she delivers in a few weeks. we did miss her terribly though!


One of my best friends Meredith Bryan and me.


Caroline, Valorie, Sarah and me at Cantina Laredo.

the weekend was also filled with sadness. a girl that we went to college with was shot and killed by her husband, who also attended college with us. it makes me sick thinking about it. you think your home and family is a place where you don't have to fear for your life, but, like in Micah's case, it is. please keep the Rine and Pate families in your thoughts and prayers. only the Lord can imagine and heal their heartbreak.