I miss....

....tennis. I haven't played in quite some time. I haven't even had a chance to play with my new rackets.


Did I tell you all that Lucas got me two new beauties like this for Christmas? He is a good husband. He'll be an even better husband when he gets around to stringing them for me.

Leagues should be starting up soon. They won't start soon enough.

***Remember to comment to be entered into my giveaway.***

OMG! I'm so excited!!!

Remember her?

Well.... a few weekends ago we went over to her house to have dinner with she and her husband. They surprised us with some news.....

SHE'S PREGNANT!!!

Yep, I think she is about 9 weeks along right now. Words cannot express how excited I am. This was a big shock. We have always talked about getting pregnant and raising our children together... though she was always a bit reluctant. Now our child will just have an older, protective friend. We'll just have to see how much older he/she will actually be! ;)

I have officially dubbed myself as 'Aunt Ashley' (this is my same title given to me by Rocky, their precious little puppy... that isn't so little and isn't quite a puppy anymore). I can't wait to spoil both Aida and Baby R rotten.

For your viewing pleasure, I'm throwing in a beautiful picture of their Hawaiian wedding so that you can see just how gorgeous Baby R is going to be.

Pay it Forward - Bloggy Giveaways Carnival

If you remember this post, you'll recall that I won a beautiful bracelet from Rare Designs Jewelry. However, I was confused about which bracelet I had won. It turns out I won a beautiful children's bracelet similar to the bracelet below.

I think it is so precious. Unfortunately, I don't have any cute little girls to pass it on to. SO - I spoke with Renee at Rare Designs and we are going to be giving away this bracelet here as part of the Bloggy Giveaways Carnival. Make sure you go visit Rare Designs and check out all of Renee's beautiful hand-crafted jewelry!

All you have to do to enter is leave me a comment! I'll throw anyone who comments on Monday through Thursday's posts into the drawing. So come and visit me everyday and that will be at least four entries (multiple comments on one post will not be included). I'll pick a winner on Friday! Good Luck!!!

(Shipping within the U.S. only. Sorry!)

Musical Mondays

Jori and Diane started Musical Mondays a few weeks ago and I've been meaning to join the fun! Although I myself am not very musical, I do love songs and lyrics and belting out tunes (by myself - for the safety of others). So this will be my first Musical Monday post! I hope you can play along, too, so I can learn more about your favorites and the meanings behind them.

As my second anniversary is less than two week away, I figured my first few weeks will be easy to fill with wedding songs!

I'll Be - Edwin McCain

This song was our wedding song played during the unity candle lighting. We laid individual candles on every seat with the wedding programs. Next to the 'Lighting of the Unity Candle' listing in the program, we wrote a short note to our guests:

We appreciate the impact that each of you have had on our lives. We hope that you will participate in this portion of the ceremony by lighting your candles and passing on the unity light in show of your support for our future together. Thank you.

When it came time in the ceremony, the music began and our dads walked to the very last aisle and lit one person's candle on each side. While our guests passed the light through the rows, my good friend Jarrod played the guitar and sang. He was accompanied by Megan, my college roommate. (She also played the piano for our ceremony. She's very talented.)



Our mothers were the last ones to receive the light. Once both of their candles were lit, they walked up to the unity candle and lit the side candles. Lucas and I then lit the main candle.


I picked this song for a simple reason, but it became very meaningful to us both. I desperately wanted Jarrod to sing at my wedding. I've always been blown away by his gift. (I think he should try to pursue a music career, but that's a topic for another day.) Suffice it to say, he is very good. I wanted to pick a song that would showcase his talent and that he would feel comfortable singing. Of course, he encouraged me to pick a song I liked and he would adapt it for his voice. As I was thinking of songs, I remembered hearing Jarrod singing 'I'll Be'. I remembered him singing it poolside with friends and giving us all chills. I remembered him singing it in a karaoke bar and the entire bar stood still and silent listening to his voice. I remembered every time he sang that song, it made my heart stand still and dream of whoever might one day be that person to me. I knew he had to sing this song. (Tid Bit of Trivia: My favorite song Jarrod sings is Mary Jane's Last Dance by Tom Petty but I didn't think it was appropriate for the wedding.)

I'm sorry that I can't get you a recording of Jarrod singing. He is better than Edwin McCain (no offense to Edwin).

The strands in your eyes that color them wonderful
Stop me and steal my breath
Emeralds from mountains thrust toward the sky
Never revealing their depth
Tell me that we belong together
Dress it up with the trappings of love
I'll be captivated
I'll hang from your lips
Instead of the gallows of heartache that hang from above

(Chorus:)
I'll be your crying shoulder
I'll be love suicide
I'll be better when I'm older
I'll be the greatest fan of your life

Rain falls angry on the tin roof
As we lie awake in my bed
You're my survival, you're my living proof
My love is alive not dead
Tell me that we belong together
Dress it up with the trappings of love
I'll be captivated I'll hang from your lips
Instead of the gallows of heartache, that hang from above

(Chorus)

I've been dropped out, burned up, fought my way back from the dead
Tuned in, turned on, Remembered the things that you said

(Chorus)

An award for a few of my bloggy friends

Thank you, Nicki @ The Kenningtons, for this awesome award! Nicki and Mathis are high school sweethearts who fell in love and got married. They are just the cutest young couple. Nicki is also a fellow Obama supporter so you know I love her. She is a daily read of mine. If you haven't yet, go check her out.

Rules I have to follow:

1) Choose a minimum of 7 blogs that you find brilliant in content or design.
2) Show the 7 winners names and links on your blog, and leave a comment informing them that they were prized with "Honest Scrap." Well, there's no prize, but they can keep the nifty icon.
3) List at least 10 honest things about yourself.

In no particular order, here are 10 honest things about me:

1. I sleep with a pig. Or I used to at least, until I got married. He is appropriately named 'Mr. Pig' and was given to me by my father when I was around 13 or 14. Every time Lucas would come to visit me (we were long distance, you see) he would poke fun at Mr. Pig and tell me I should have named him Bacon. I knew he was secretly jealous because he didn't have a pig of his own to snuggle up with. So I bought Lucas a piggy and a black leather spiked collar for him. Then, I bought him a little engraved name tag labeled 'Bacon'. Now Mr. Pig and Bacon live happily with an assortment of other stuffed pigs in one of our guest bedrooms which is now affectionately known as 'the pig room'.
2. This leads right into a perfect honest thing about me. We are living proof that long distance relationships work. Lucas and I were friends for several years when we lived in the same town, but we didn't take our friendship to the next level until he was off and living in Miami, Florida. We dated long-distance for almost two years before we got married and he moved back.
3. I am cheap. Very cheap. I have always been a bargain hunter. Then, I married Lucas and we set a budget. He taught me the difference between 'wants' and 'needs'. I still splurge by buying cheap 'wants' every once in a while but remain steadfast to the budget. We may not spend a lot now but we'll be sitting pretty (or at least that's the plan) when we're older.
4. My mother is my best friend in the whole world. Sorry, Lucas. I love you. But you understand.
   
5. Family is most important to me. Of course, this includes Lucas, my parents, and my grandmother and grandddaddy. But not all blood relations are 'family'. I consider family to be those who love you unconditionally, who truly care about your well being, and who would go out of their way to ensure your health and happiness. Unfortunately, I have a few 'family' members who don't fit that bill. I don't understand them and it is very sad. If they aren't interested in others then it is their loss and I pity them. My true family also includes those few very important friendships that will forever and always be a part of my family.
6. I am very passionate about politics. I love debate but despise ignorance.
7. I think I am Mexican. Really. I am a Mexican born in a Southern girl's body. How else can you explain the deep attraction that I have to all food Mexican? I think I could eat a fajita taco salad with a large margarita every day of the week and not have enough. Fortunately for my body and weight loss, I limit my Mexican to Wednesday nights - when the Mexican restaurant across the street from our neighborhood (there is one on practically every corner in Alabama) has 'Buy One Get One Free' specials on their entrees. Go before 7:00 and you get happy hour drink prices, too. See - I told you I was cheap.
8. I am fascinated with babies. You show me a blog with baby pictures and I'll give that blog another follower. I'm telling you, I'm a sucker. I have always wanted to be a mother, but I haven't always been like this. I think as the time for motherhood is approaching (not yet, ladies), my demeanor towards children has completely changed. Before I was a little bit scared of the unknown around children (I'm an only child). Now I just want to scoop them up in my arms or color with the older children or have whatever interaction I can. Note: I'm still afraid of my boss's seven year old triplet boys. They are terrifying.
9. Am I only at nine? Okay. I play adult league tennis and I absolutely love it. Although I enjoyed the team and trips in college, I love adult tennis more because it is so relaxed and stress free. Plus, there is no coach to make me practice at 5:30 a.m. Yes, 5:30 a.m. However, some of these women take their tennis very seriously. There can sometimes be quite a bit of drama involved in adult tennis which is just absolutely comical to me. Chill, people. And come on ladies. We're all adults. I'm the youngest one of you all. There is no need to cheat. Good gracious!
   
10. Hello. My name is Ashley, and I am addicted to blogging.
    

Of course, there are way more than seven of you that deserve this award. I'm going to try and spread out the bloggy love by not giving it to some of you who have already received an award from me (so don't get your feelings hurt if you don't get this one). Also, I would just like you to know that there are 100+ blogs on my reader so you know I'm loving you all. Alas, I must pick seven. So here we go....

1. Rachael @ Little Bites of Heaven - I told ya'll I am obsessed with baby photos and this girl has got three of cutest little babies you've ever seen. They are growing up quite fast but these 'peaches' are still as cute as can be.
   
2. Aubrey @ The Fam Five - Most of you probably already know Aubrey. But she introduced me to 'Think Thin Thursdays' and also has a rockin' new blog design so she is definitely deserving of an award.
   
3. Angie @ theArthurClan - This girl is a major photographer. Beautiful photos! And she and a friend just started iHeartFaces. Go check it out!
   
4. Jennifer @ The Fun House - Jen has a lot going on with five kids running around her 'fun house'! I can't even imagine. Her youngest little 'Pickle' is too precious. You have to see her in the cutest dress ever.
   
5. Caution Flag @ The Human Race 600 - Go cheer her on as she is on a quest to do one chin-up. She is hilarious!
   
6. Katy @ whatkatydid -So creative! And she lives in Australia. That's neat. So she gets an award.
   
7. Vicki @ Not So SAHM - So I said I wasn't going to give this award to anyone I gave the previous award to but I'm making an exception for Vicki for a couple of reasons: i) She recently gave herself an award for being 'mediocre' and I disagree. So I'm giving her this award in support of her non-mediocrity. ii) She lives here in Alabama but will be moving soon. So she gets an award as my signal to her that she will be missed. iii) She wrote a particular post which I happened to strongly disagree with so I voiced my opinions as such. But I want her to know that I meant no harm. I've tried very hard to be civil throughout this election season but sometimes my passion (that I mentioned above) gets the best of me and I lay it all out on the table. This is my show of solidarity that even though we may disagree we can all live together happily. So ya'll please go show her some love. Thank you! :)

My Last Post About Colombia

For some reason I don't really feel like writing about this today, but I can't seem to come up with anything else that would be better. So here it goes - how we spent Christmas and New Years in Colombia.

Christmas

In Colombia they celebrate Christmas on Christmas-Eve after Midnight. Lucas's parents invited the family from the neighboring farm over to the farmhouse for a great meal and a few drinks.

Then, they proceeded to teach me to how to dance Colombian and then requested that I teach them how to country line dance. Let's just say that it was a good thing I already had a few in me for that.

After the neighbors finally left, I gave everyone their first present from 'Santa' - pajamas - and requested that everyone go put on their pajamas before we open presents. This is my own family tradition that I'm passing on to Lucas's family. Last year we mailed them all pajamas. My family generally opens one present - pajamas - on Christmas Eve. And we all look nice for the Christmas morning photos when Santa comes. Here is everyone in their new pj's.

(Here is a picture of Martin in his pajamas. I didn't get one of just him standing there so this is him opening presents. This particular present was from Rafa. It is Martin's favorite cereal from the U.S.)

Then it was time to open presents!

My parents got the boys Alabama gear. Roll Tide!

Martin models his shirt...We got Simon a bottle of Watermelon Smirnoff because apparently they don't have that flavor in Colombia and it is one of his favorites....
We gave Lina a 'Coach' purse ;)
His parents opening their gifts from my grandparents....This was my favorite present of the night. Lucas's mom had been asking me if she could buy my purse like this. I kept telling her that I would think about it but that it was special because it was a present from Lucas. I didn't want to let on that she would be getting the exact same purse for Christmas. She was so excited!My parents gave Lucas's mom a makeup bag and a tote with places to put pictures. She filled the tote with pictures of us and then stuck more pictures of the two of us inside the bag. Lucas's mom was flipping through the pictures and asking about each one. I think this was her favorite present.
Here is one of the much talked about canvas pictures.... They turned out beautifully.Lucas got a duffel bag from Martin. (Thank you, Martin. I know you say you don't read my blog you just look through the pictures every once in a while. But if you happen to read this part around the photo of your gift he is loving having his own bag to use for travel instead of using mine. And he is traveling all the time!)

Modeling a polo shirt from Simon and LinaI'm modeling this beautiful necklace that I got from Martin. I don't even get jewelry from Lucas. Kudos, Martin!

As you can tell, we had a great Christmas and Santa was very good to us. These aren't even a quarter of the photos of all the gifts but I wanted to make sure and post a few of my favorites of everyone.

New Years

We celebrated New Years at the neighbor's farm. We had a great dinner (and drinks, of course). Then celebrated in a tradition of writing down on one sheet of paper the bad things that happened over 2008. On another sheet, we wrote down our wishes for 2009. We take the bad list and....

Burn It!

We keep our well wishes with us throughout the new year. You wanna' know what mine were? Sorry! :)

When the clock struck midnight we celebrated with champagne and hugs for everyone!

The festivities continued throughout the night but I wasn't feeling too well. One girl tried her best to get me to dance which annoyed the crap out of me. We ended up leaving early.

I definitely prefer New Years back home (with friends in a bar) but there was one part I enjoyed just as much in Colombia - my New Years kiss from the husband.

(Notice my ever-so-feminine Colombian poncho? I love that thing. Wish I could wear it here without looking silly.)

Think Thin Thursday - Volume III

My goal for the second week of 'Think Thin Thursdays' was to exercise 4 times this week. I got off to a very slow start but knew I had to make it up to reach my goal. So I've done 30 minutes on my elliptical machine the last four days. See - having you all hold me accountable really does work!

The good news is that I didn't gain a pound this week. That's right. That is definitely good news if you know anything about this week. Let's re-cap the pertinent information:

Saturday - We ate lunch at a fried catfish restaurant to celebrate my dad's birthday. Then, we headed to Nashville where Lucas and I ordered up a big burger and fries at a steak house downtown. AND if you read my blog about our trip to Nashville, you should know that none of those rum and cokes, cocktails, or beers that I had in my hand were part of an approved diet.

Sunday - We were starving after our late night escapades and hit up Cracker Barrel on the way home. I had southern fried chicken fingers with hashbrown casserole, fries, and macaroni and cheese along with the gratuitous biscuits and cornbread (with butter, of course).

Tuesday - Cracker Barrel leftovers for lunch. Tasty, but not so diet-friendly. Date night with the husband to P.F. Chang's led to lettuce wraps (which sound healthy but they aren't) and Chang's Spicy Chicken.

Wednesday - I attended a luncheon for my college tennis team's alumni. I had a great time while stuffing my face with lasagna, bread, and sweet tea. Oh, and there was cake. AND - you all know that Wednesday night is my Mexican night. So last night I had chips and salsa, a taco salad, and a couple of beers.

NOW - do you understand why I am happy that I didn't gain weight this week? Lord have mercy on my soul for this week's meals. I vow to do better this week.

This Week's Goal
I wonder what I could do if I worked out 4 times a week AND ate healthy? Well, let's find out. My goal for my third week of 'Think Thin Thursdays' is to make healthy food choices (except for Wednesday night's Mexican) AND exercise at least 4 times for at least 30 minutes on my elliptical. This should be a good week.

My task this week is to tell you about my breakfast. Well, there's not much to tell there. Thankfully (and sometimes regretfully), my work keeps stocked up on all kinds of snack foods. I generally just snag a 100-calorie treat of some sort or a 90-calorie rice krispy treat out of the basket. This morning my breakfast was a 100-calorie pack of Oreos. Not as good as the real thing but they hold me over. :)

Also, I want to fill you in on something I just found.... like just a few second ago. Over at fitnessmagazine.com, you can sign up for their free weight loss program. They'll send you an email once a week with healthy recipes and work out tips. They have a program going on right now to lose 10 pounds in 8 weeks - perfect for me. The best part of this site is all of the features you can take advantage of. They have an activity and food log, where they calculate the caloric content of what you have eaten plus keep track of your calories burned through exercise. Just plug in what you've eaten and what you've done and they take care of the rest! There is a tracker that helps you find calorie information for all the foods you can imagine - even from restaurants. This is very similar to Weight Watchers online, but you don't have to pay! Here I am raving about it and I haven't even had it for 30 minutes but this just seems so useful. I've already plugged in today's food and exercise and am off to a good start! I also noticed a video log where you can put together your own personalized workout based on the equipment you have at home and the exercises and order in which you want to do them. I'm off to check that out right now...

Good luck to everyone participating in 'Think Thin Thursdays' this week!