Happy Anniversary!

Happy 32nd Anniversary to my Mommy and Daddy! Love these two!

They're pretty cute, don't you think? I have been so blessed to have them as my parents. 

Congrats, you two! You've managed to produce three of the most beautiful, talented and gracious (also humble...) people on earth! ;)

Daddy Loves Daughter (a proper Father's Day)

For as long as I can remember, my Daddy has informed us that Father's Day is the day that fathers set aside to celebrate and indulge their children. Every year we got presents (as kids a Coke and a candy bar, now the money to buy it) and when we were home he'd cook our favorite things or take us out to eat or to do something fun.

Obviously, we never objected to this.

Yesterday this arrived in the mail and I fell out laughing:

Then teared up:

My Real Daddy

Isn't he the cutest? (Read about him here)

I'm a lucky girl!

Yes I'm Am!

Nathan says, "Yes I'm am," all the time. As in, "Yes I'm am a robot, Auntie." Or, "Yes, I'm AM your nephew!!" I think it's just so damn cute.

I decided I'm make a Yes I'm Am list today.

Yes I'm Am...

An Auntie! This seems like a logical place to start seeing as I stole the topic of this post from the 3 year old nephew. And I can prove this by my membership at SavvyAuntie.com!

A dog spoiler. I can't help it- look at that face! I was scolding myself for my lack of will power against Van's pleas last night. I almost always lose. And Katie has already submitted a list of no-nos for when I keep June Bug (It may be my fault she sleeps on furniture...)

A wine drinker! If you're reading this blog, I doubt I need to explain this.

An LSU Football fan! I'm also of the crazy, over the top variety.

A horseback rider! I grew up doing it and have not done much since I lost my horse a few years ago. But I want to get back into it. And I live in the land of the cowboys now, so surely this can't be too hard.

A pirate... three hundred years too late...

If you missed the Jimmy Buffet reference here you are fired from reading my blog. Also, I'm not really a pirate. I am just playing one in this picture because AC is a pirate.

A fisherwoman. I freaking love fishing! And I will kick your ass any day.

A sister! There's no better job.

A Mama's girl

Still a child. I sleep with my rabbit every night.

Also a major Daddy's girl!

Refer back to dog spoiler...

A reader! I always have a book with me. If there's no book in my bag, it's probably not me.

A new resident of The Woodlands, Texas and loving it!

A lover of all things margarita!

A massive T Swift fan

And a Jennifer Nettles (but no so much Rhianna) stalker.

Quite possibly certifiable insane. At the very least completely crazy!

OK, that was fun! what "am" you??

Whew!

When it rains, it pours... right?
Yep, exactly right!

What should have been two weeks of packing and rejoicing has turned into two weeks of little sleep, drama, stress and wine for coping. Sally's hip replacement went well. But none of us imagined how difficult the recovery would be. We've been fighting our way through quite a lot of pain and tears. It's a nightly event to get through with the pain meds, Sal being pissed about the pain, and a bunch of general craziness.

Then comes... a new friend. Hmm... that makes it hurt to leave. Short version: I don't handle things like this well. I can't start something I won't finish. It's hard for me.

Also- my nephew is in Boston Children's Hospital due to fluid in his lungs. And I've been sick.

Yesterday I had a wrap-up doctor visit before I leave. Turns out my heart murmur may be acting up and I need to see a cardiologist. It's doubtful that it's anything serious. But just one more thing. And with me- after losing about 2 years of my life to medical drama any little thing pushes me over the edge.

Then on to U Haul loading. But the U Haul wasn't ready, of course. So we had an hour to load up. We made it!

Last night we ended up with an emergency trip to the ER (of the ambulance, paramedic, fire department type). Sal had a reaction to one of her meds and her tongue was swollen to the point she was having difficulty breathing. That began at 1am and ended at 5. She's home now, and supposedly OK.

So the saying is true, when it rains it pours.

I have been calling AC and Niki almost constantly in various states of panic. Thankfully I have friends with the ability to remind me who I am, what I need, and why I am doing the things I am. I love that when I call Niki she can tell me what to do and why because she knows me so well. Quote of the day: "There are plenty of single cowboys in Texas!!" And poor AC- I think she will probably be glad when I take my drama and go!

This is the loaded U Haul yesterday, and my sweet Daddy-o pretending to be my knight in shining armor with a BBQ grill lid.

I grew up fishing with Daddy. I aaaaaalways got stuck on the bottom. I would think it was a fish and get all pumped and then be crushed. And then, I got so used to being stuck that I would just hand the pole over regardless. Turns out, about half the time it would actually be a fish! Over time these childhood incidences turned into a life lesson from Daddy:

"Life can be difficult, but step out and try again and again. Sometimes when you're stuck on the bottom, it might be a big fish."

Here's a prayer of thankfulness for friends and family, for new friends and old, for cowboys, for nephews and nieces, for help stepping out of your box, for friends that know you better than you do yourself, and for a God big enough and wonderful enough to bring us together.

I'm off!!

All His Boys are Girls

I was listening to a sermon (Church of the Highlands, my fave) on my iPod this morning on the way to work. The speaker was talking about his kids and the types of gifts they asked for and he made the comment, "All my boys are girls," because he has all daughters and just loves it. I thought that comment was pretty cute, and it hit home for me because I have two sisters and no brothers. My Daddy loves having girls and he's never regretted not having a son.

He was absolutely the GREATEST Daddy for girls. He drove us absolutely crazy teaching us to be confidant, stand on our own two feet, and to have the complete ability to care for ourselves. And I think we are able to have those traits because we always know we have him if we need anything.

He taught us to throw a football (Amanda's the only one that's good at this), play softball (I'm not sure any of us were good at this), and shoot hoops (all of us, including him, stunk at this). He drove Katie, Sally, me and the horses to horse shows, dressed up as "Joe Cool" to escort Amanda and a friend to a dance, dropped us all of at college, attended every single game I played in or cheered at (and I was always the absolute worst- see my cheer leading post), went on field trips, brought puppies and kittens to our classes for show and tell (he's a Veterinarian), took us fishing; all of it. He even played Barbies and watched Cinderella every day with Amanda when Katie and I were too old to hang out with her. 

This is just a little tribute post because I love my Daddy! And I am grateful to him, because I think that great fathers create strong, healthy daughters. 

How cute is he???

PS- totally made the collage frame pink on purpose. When we were little everything was pink, as you can imagine. He decided one day that his favorite color was pink after hollering, "Pink, pink, PINK! All I see is pink!" To this day- he will tell you pink is his favorite color. Which is a good thing because me lives in my Mama's house and the walls are pink (no joke). 

Case for a Creator

I have been reading a book by Lee Strobel called The Case for Faith. This is the third book of his I have read and I really enjoyed The Case for Christ and The Case for Faith. Lee Strobel is a journalist and former atheist who interviews various experts in a myriad of fields to prove that Christ existed, why you can have faith, and in the one I am reading now: why the universe must have had a master designer, or creator. The difference with this one is that it is dealing with the beginning of the universe and it references physics and chemistry and things I don't understand.

Now, I totally find these kinds of books fascinating. I love having the history of the Bible, why it's reliable, the theology of it, etc explained to me. I just think it's cool. But after reading a chapter about why there must be a creator because the setting for gravity has a one in a billion trillion trillion trillion trillion (I'm serious- he said it was a one with 56 zeros after it) chance of being set exactly at the spot it is and if it were moved even a (insert some other incomprehensibly small number here) percent humans would be instantly squished, I was just confused. And my brain started to wander. And I come to the following conclusions as to why Ashley Lane must have been created (and mine are much simpler):

My grandparents never should have met.

My Paw Paw was sent back to the US from Germany in WWII before the rest of his army unit to get a space ready for them at Ft. Bragg, North Carolina. On a train ride from DC to NC he happened to sit next to a man meeting his wife and daughter in NC. But guess what? He was supposed to get off the train and party it up with a buddy, but he got too drunk and fell asleep. So he left with the nice man instead. At the same time, my Gran was riding a train from Asheville, NC and sat next to a lady and her charming daughter on their way to meet their husband/father. They became friendly and exchanged numbers. That evening the lady and daughter met my Paw Paw at dinner with the man from the other train. The nice lady (no one remembers her name) decided Gran would be just perfect for Paw Paw. The problem: Gran refused the invitation to meet him.

Two days later- Granny is walking down a street where the nice lady just happens to be getting her hair cut and her four-year-old daughter just happens to spot Granny out the window and runs out onto the street, cornering her.

You see where this is going, right?

What are the odds???

Add on that Paw Paw almost immediately was sent to the West Coast instead to be shipped to Japan, then the war ended and then he found Gran again, and you can see that no Harlequin romance Novel can beat this!

My parents never should have met either

My Mama was married just out of college and he left her less than a year after the wedding. She didn't date for years. She just went places with friends- including one of her best friends from high school, Stevie Hendry. In the mean time Daddy made BFF with his freshman year roommate, David Hendry. Their sister was getting married and my Daddy, "Mr. LSU," was somehow without a date. The Hendry boys plotted and tricked Mama into being his date and voila!

Not quite as unique as Granny and Paw Paw, but add on that Mama thought Daddy was breaking up with her while he was proposing and it gets more unlikely.

I could go on, but this post is getting kind of long. Let's just suffice it to say that my life is rather odd and crazy and so many unlikely things happen that someone must be in control up there! Someone funny, actually, because what started off as everyone confusing two girls with the same name (Ashley), one that worked in City Hall and one that worked at the DIB, and an incident with an Elvis stalker (Yep, that's right...) turned into a BFF relationship with AC that I could never, ever survive without.

What's your case for Creation?

This Christmas I'll Be...

Missing this...

Crying for this...

Adoring this...

Doing lots of this!

Cuddling with this...

Laughing with this...

Hugging this a million times...

Seeing this again...

Entertaining this...

Looking forward to this...

An definitely this...

And sitting by this!

Most of all, I will be grateful for this...

Because it means that no matter what I am missing, pining for or hurting from- the best is yet to come!!

Please, please have a blessed Christmas!

Busy Weekend

My weekend is PACKED! I'm exhausted just thinking about it. Or maybe I'm just exhausted from the week I've had. Either way...

I am FULLY looking forward to these things:

Tonight

Dinner at the Global Grill (where they serve my absolute fave dish: Lamb Lollipops!) with my LOVE, AC, and my crazy Mama and Aunt Karen with whom nothing is ever dull! Then we will stroll around Gallery Night.

Saturday

LSU and Auburn are the only two undefeated teams left in the SEC (and, arguably, the only two undefeated teams that matter since the others have crap schedules). T Hamm (sadly) in an Auburn fan. I'm not sure why we're friends at times like these, but we are and so we are trekking out to Daddy's for a tailgate party on the sofa, cookout, and the big game between LSU and Auburn at 2:30. There is just no better way to spend Saturday afternoons that watching football!

Sunday

I will be taking miss Van swimming and sleeping it up!

Fish Tales

While all of you were probably doing very important, refined things this weekend (Sarah drinking port)- I was fishing. And it was fantastic!
There was a midget slumber party occurring at the farm, so I ran away to Perdido and Daddy-o woke me up because the fish were biting. There is nothing like a beautiful morning on the water in Perdido; and they are even better with my Daddy, his boat, and Van along!
Hope your Sunday was as beautiful as mine!

Oh, what a beautiful morning...

Van is a FREAK about fishing. She doesn't trust Daddy with the fish, and she watches his every move. Poor dog has never pointed or retrieved the first bird... but show her a fish and it's ON.

Our catch!

Measuring for Amanda. When we were little, Daddy always told us, "That fish is a long as your leg!"

My 22 inch Red. I made him so very proud. :)