New perspectives...same place

The new year has begun which means several things:

New life changes! Including graduating grad school (hopefully!), moving to Alexandria, turning 23 (don't you all feel so old?)

Meeting new friends? Probably going to happen, I'm just the talkative type. Thanks family for that one.

And if those few things aren't enough, everyday life keeps occurring. Sometimes I wish that I could press a button on a remote and have my life go in slow motion. Its a love hate relationship currently. I love my current life and can't wait to graduate and move on with my life yet the thought of leaving my comfort zone in Harrisonburg and my close friends is on the hating side. Yet, I remain positive on everything happened this year and look forward to what God has planned for me in the upcoming months.

I got to spend the last several weeks in Kansas catching up on my family and friends there. It was a blessing to see Cassi and Dave's girl before she gets too big to remember me. Seeing old classmates and hearing their perspective on life now that we are 5 years out of high school was an enlightening experience as well. Seeing my besties, Brit, Darren, and Josh is always an exciting time as we seem to still think we are 15 years old and do stupid things.

I woke up on the day of my flight back to VA with a swollen throat and my voice sounded odd. Not liking my odds on beating sickness, which I never seem able to do, I crammed my system with sinus and cold meds. Yup, just as I thought, did NOT work. Once again, I sent myself into the doctor's office after not being able to sleep after 5 AM one morning due to pain in my ear. And once again, a double ear infection, swollen lymph nodes, and closed nostrils have plagued me for this entire week. Ohhh Goody.

I only have 3 classes this semester and am a bit at odds with what to do with all of my free time. Part of myself is glad that I have all this extra time to sleep and read, yet time seems to drag by much more slowly now due to this. Last night Keron and I watched a movie and drank two whole cartons of orange juice (it was a race to see who could finish first as we were attempting to pump as many vitamins and good things into my system as fast as possible so i would be healthy for the weekend). As we watched the movie, I painted my nails a sparkly color. The farther we get into the graduate program, the more recessed other parts of our lives seem to become. Between becoming jittery and knocking over cups full of liquids constantly, using sparkly bright colors for everything, and going to bed at 8 AM, we decided at lunch today that we are around 7 years old.

Looking forward, my timeline consists of several important dates:
March 2: MY 23RD BIRTHDAY
March 7-12: SPRING BREAK IN FLORIDA!!
May 8: GRADUATION AGAIN.
July 4 Weekend: DONE WITH REVIEW COURSE
Month of July: SITTING FOR CPA AND MOVING.
August 8: START MY NEW JOB!

Anyway, when I look at everything I have to accomplish in the next several months, I get nervous. But don't worry mom, I can't chew my nails due to the sparkly new paint coating they have.

Til next time,

Ash

I did it. Cut off all my hair.

Dutch Kitchen

And some pictures from the kitchen hopefully will attach themselves?

December

The month of December has come upon us which leads into several scary but exciting things. The most important thing is that finals have arrived and I am almost to the end of my first semester as a graduate student...now to only pass those exams. I took my first one yesterday and while I'm pretty sure I failed it, I think I will still be okay on my final grade in the class. After all, all I'm shooting for is "B"s, just can't get any of those pesky little minuses next to that B or I lose my graduate assistantship.

I have my HUGE tax final tomorrow night, therefore I've been studying that stuff as fast as I can consume the information into my head. I haven't cooked, slept, or had social time in over a week. All I do is go to school, learn more in my classes, go to work and enter all the professors grades into Blackboard as they have procrastinated giving my this work until the last week of class, I don't cook because it takes way too much of my time so I usually end up at a restaurant with some friends with our textbooks spread out all around us. Last night that place happened to be IHOP, on Wednesday night, the local IHOP gives all college students 50% off of their meal, thus we went and took up a couple of tables. After listening to ourselves talk for a couple of hours though, we started making fun of us and how rediculously smart we have to sound for anyone overhearing our conversations. We call it our nerd talk. My friend Keron was the first one of all of us to break down which happened last night. Devon's pretty sure its going to happen the minute she walks out of that exam Friday night. I can't afford to break down and lose those precious 20 minutes of studying therefore I keep plugging along.

I'm also old enough that the concept of pulling allnighters to study for these finals or even finish all of these huge projects due for each of my classes is a foreign thing. To those people such as my brother that will pull the classic allnighter as a college student, good luck.

On an upside, its Christmas season! Music is playing all around me and I love it. I have presents under my 9' Christmas tree. My parents thought they would be funny and sent a present home with me from Thanksgiving. You don't know the temptation it has been sitting upstairs. The positive thing is that I'll get to open it next week as I am leaving until January to come home. Kansas home that is. To those of you who are reading this from Kansas, I miss you all and am very excited to come and eat at the Kitchen every Friday morning. I will warn my cousins that I sent some of your children Christmas cards and I might have mentioned Santa. Therefore if we don't believe in Santa or you simply have children that are too smart and know that Santa is really mom and dad, well, sorry to make you have that conversation with your child!

I know you already all know this but my parents did bring me the Toyota Matrix which has replaced the Alero. I shall do a memory post for the Alero at some point for those of my friends reading this who have their own memories! I decided on Trixie as the new name of the car :)

As a side line, back to that Christmas music thing that I was talking about, if you are looking for an amazing Christmas music CD to get you and your family through this holiday season, get the Glee: Christmas CD. I have had it on repeat and I love it. Even if you don't watch the show, their voices are amazing and blend perfectly together.

Well I am going to go as I keep shooting side glances towards my closed tax book sitting next to me and keep feeling guilty.

I miss you all and wish you all happy holiday shopping!!

Ashley

A Time of Thanks

Its official...I'm the worst blogger ever. I can't ever seem to find time even though the people reading my blog are probably the most important people to me. Well, except my friends here, and my professors who give me my grades, and my boss at work. Okay okay, just kidding...you all are very special to me. Which is why, I dedicate this specific post to a list of thanks I have as I seem to have plenty to be thankful for in this time of the year! So if you were in my position, what would you be most thankful for....

I'm going to have to go with no more deaths in the family to begin with. This year I lost my second grandmother which was a very difficult time to go through as the only left grandparent I have doesn't even know his left hand from his right hand half the time. Lord only knows how he'll react if you try to get "the box" out of the closet in his room...that's only for Paul and don't you forget it. Thus, leading back to my original thought, thank you God for keeping my family safe.

This summer I lost a very good friend due to a motorcycle accident. It was a hard time but you always discover the most important things about your personality during difficult times such as those. I will always remember Jason and all the great laughs about the midwest he gave all of us but recognize that people learned how to grow up due to that experience. To which leads into why I am thankful. God turned his death into a learning experience and his death is a connection that links all of my close friends from college from drifting too far away.

At this point next year, I will be living in Alexandria, DC, as an employee of Kearney & Company. Yes, you heard me right, I ACCEPTED MY POSITION AT KEARNEY!!! Just in case you didn't get it the first time, I'm finally employed after 5 years of school!! Okay, technically its 17 years of school...geez, one would think I would have learned tons more then I really haven't. For those of you reading this (you know who you are) who I've asked to move to DC with me...I still think you should. PRAISE JESUS I HAVE A JOB. And now to start paying all those school loans.

I've met some great people during my times at JMU thus this far into my semester, therefore I am sooo thankful for all these people who have helped me during the midnight study sessions and the one weekend we spend 50 hours studying for our tax midterm...yes, that happened. Anyway, without them, my world would not be complete. Joel, if you're reading this, you have made my life soooo great this year by being such a great friend. You have my entire thanks.

As my car hasn't broken down on my completely yet after being faithful to me for 8 years...I must send my thanks out to it :) Don't get me wrong dad, I'm still looking for a new car as its only a matter of time. My blinker has stopped working most of the time. Sigh.

My health. Ironically enough, I'm writing this after having tonsilitis...still can't hit high notes when I sing. But even with that being said, I feel so much better now and am praying that flu/cold/bronchitis/pneumonia season decides to forgo me as I seem to pick those up like mosquito bites. Also, my ears for the most part have not ruptured, lost hearing, or discovered another weak area where a hole would like to pop up in my eardrum...thus, I'm so thankful for that!!

To my family, thank you for all the support you have shown me this semester. Even when you thought I was crazy for continuing on in school and building up more debt, you still stuck behind me. As it turns out, might not have been such a bad investment!

Anywho, its now 1:00AM here and I'm looking at a solid 7 hours of sleeeeeeeep. I'm so excited after getting 6 hours every night for the last couple of weeks. If you expect me to do anything but sleep over Thanksgiving break...give it up...not gonna happen. This girl will be in sleeping position, whereever that may occur. Or stuck somewhere with textbooks lying all around her.

Leaves are Falling

Just thought I would post this to show everyone that Fall is finally upon us and Kat and I are VERY excited. Meant to add it to the last post and forgot to! Whoops

Cough Cough Cough

As the title states...that seems to be all I'm doing lately. Well, that and waiting for a call from any of the 4 companies I had second visits to. Its just turning into a waiting game and hoping and praying.

And its Friday which means I have this whole weekend to lay in my bed and forget that I have a tax retake exam on Monday. Yesterday I arrived home to a package from Amazon that I had ordered in June. There were 3 books inside and one of them got released on Monday, therefore they waiting to ship all of them until this week. It was super exciting!! Now the decision to read or study plagues me. My choices could be a lot worse I suppose.

It has decided to turn cold here this week. I saw jackets of all sorts coming outs and boots. Its interesting being on a large school campus as there is name branding happening everywhere. I can look at almost any girl and pick out the brands that she is wearing. Whether it might be UGG boots or North Face jackets...I'll be able to tell what every one is asking for Christmas.

I started looking at apartments in DC and there are so many options to chose from! I'm currently accepting applications from anyone who is interested in moving there with me as rent is so much cheaper with more than one person.

I'm also thinking about investing in a new car. Heard a speaker yesterday who really put things into perspective about finances and school loans. I'm afraid of not getting a good interest rate once my credit score is hit by all the aspects of moving to the city. My poor car has been through a lot with me but when I start is and the anti-lock button pops up about 4 minutes after being started and sometimes it shudders instead of braking...ya, not feeling too safe. Might I also add that it has left me stranded in the middle of a busy road already once? Anyway, any ideas what kind of car should belong to me? I'm really loving the Honda Civic hybrids. I want a four door, good gas mileage, preferably not white. Not so hard? Right?