the "proper bowling stance"

last week while my parents were gone, my grandparents came to babysit and make sure nothing crazy happened. it was fun having them here, they always keep us laughing. grandma sings random things all the time and is always happy, and grandpa is a master at every wii game. he is addicted to the wii- every time he comes over he is glued! i think his two favorites are bowling and golfing. grandma on the other hand has no technological skills whatsoever (sorry grandma). they are so funny and i enjoyed their company over the past week.

there is one story in particular that i would like to document...

its morning and i'm just walking around the house, making food and getting ready to go to work. i hear grandma talking in the other room so i listen in

"jerry, listen. i'm sorry."

"i'm sorry!! don't take it personally, okay?"

"i love you! you can't let these things get to you like this."

grandpa hadn't said a word.

and i'm like what the... this sounds really serious. what's going on? should i not go in there? are they fighting or something?

nope.

no fight.

just an embarrassing wii bowling final score on the tv screen-

grandpa: 140 something

grandma:280 something

i can't believe she beat him haha! it was probably the second or third time she had ever touched the wii in her life!
she kept saying over and over again "jerry, its all about the proper bowling stance. if you stood up, i promise it would make a difference!" they played again and she won again. he changed his wii character and she said "oh like that's gonna do anything for you!!!" hahahaha.

after that, i believe the wii got turned off for a while.

it was really funny. i love my grandparents! they are so cute :)

pictures from my phone

my phone is jacked up. i hate it. i've hated it since the day i got it, but i thought i would get used to it... nope. haha now its breaking so i have a legitimate excuse to buy a new one. (not the iphone because i have to wait until AUGUST for my stupid upgrade) (which isn't that bad... waiting is always fun. it will be worth it.)

anyway. i didn't want to lose all of my fun pictures after i take a hammer to this thing, so i sent them all to my email.

and what better place to store them than my blog?

so without further ado, here are completely random pictures from my phone that my heart couldn't bear to delete. with my commentary of course :)

ah, my handsome fiancee. look at him. i am kind of obsessed with this picture... there's just something about a man in a shirt and tie.
the fab five at applebees. i love these girls more than life. look how little we were!! haha, there is a more recent picture coming up. this picture makes me miss high school and the five of us being inseparable
me and my best friend/hoe for life being stupid. this was on our california trip. oh what? you didn't hear about that? click this. we gave each other multiple tattoos haha.
haha stupid. one day a couple of months ago, a few girls on my floor begged me to try this wedding dress on for kicks. they sent a picture to scotty haha. they got it at D.I. for like $20.
two things i love about this picture. 1) look at how dark my freaking chest is. i look hispanic. i want that again. 2) look at how cute afton's face is. i love her
oh snap. that blonde right there is the one and only taylor swift. i still can't believe i was that close to her! she is probably in my top 5 favorite celebs. so inspiring and so cute.
WHAT?! is the end of the world coming?! that's right, your eyes are not fooling you- that is indeed scotty marx in a byu shirt! i was going to use this for blackmail one day, but i guess this works :) i love you babe
the fab five. after a perfect night of pazookie and mean girls. have i mentioned i miss them?
this picture always makes me laugh. jen ballard and i found this junior year. a little chicken man at farm basket!
this was on my present from santa this year- also quite comical. if you can't read this is says

to: ashley

from: santa freaking clause!

oooo the conference center: christmas edition. this was when i went to the mo tab/david archuleta/some other guy concert in december. it was mind blowing. i can't believe i forgot to blog about that concert. david archuleta has by far the most flawless voice i have ever heard in my life.
uhh this is titus. haha my dear katherine dew was playing on a site where you put in a picture of a boy and a girl and it shows you their future child... this is what mine and scotty's child would look like hahahaha. cute, right?
speaking of me and scotty, here we are at his cousin's wedding :) so fun. he is pretty cute

oh gosh. last summer, some crazy guy named hussan brought these pants in and said that we had ripped them (note the somewhat clean tear across one of the legs) he demanded a refund, and we refused because it was obviously not our doing. we're pretty sure he just took a pair of scissors to one of the legs and blamed us to get free cash. i mean, it was a pretty clean cut and all of our equipment is padded... idiot. the man came in like 3 times harassing me and my coworker (shout-out to my homegirl dani) and on the third time we called the cops on him because he was cussing us out and threatening us. "I WILL BOMB THIS WHOLE STORE!" "I WILL KILL ALL OF YOU!" jeeze dude. they're just pants. needless to say, it was the most action the cleaners has seen in a long time.

here i am accomplishing one of my life goals- to drive a convertible. special thanks to kevin hansen for making my dreams come true haha. i drove it my sophomore year in the homecoming parade with royalty in the back. so fun.
oh look, satan making a special appearance on temple square. this guy gave me the creeps! he was holding a book of mormon in his hand saying "WANNA READ MY NEW BOOK?!" what a freak. i hate those people. nobody listens to them anyway.
after i got engaged, this is what i came home to haha. i love my girls. that thing in the middle is like a stuffed animal dove that one of my girls sewed! crazy stuff haha.

well hopefully you found that interesting...

if not, i'll appreciate it in 10+ years

happy tuesday!

i can't believe i'm saying this...

but...

i think i maybe, kind of, somewhat, just a teeeeeennny tiny little bit, almost, slightly, may perhaps be missing my parents.

for those of you who don't know, they're on a cruise. now, now, i know exactly what you're thinking: how could they not take along their favorite daughter? i've asked myself that same question every day this week. they haven't had any kind of communication at all... no cell service, internet, anything!

so while they're away doing this kind of stuff...

i'm here doing this kind of stuff...

(if you can't tell, this is a picture of me doing absolutely nothing)

i guess all i'm trying to say here is i miss my mom.

and sometimes, i even miss john too :)

i love the cute little couple.

they are pretty awesome, and i feel the need to list some reasons why i like them so much...

1. they both cook fabulous meals

2. they both are righteous and amazing examples

3. they are both so funny (just in different ways)

4. john is great at proof-reading papers and answering hard questions

5. mom is good at giving me hugs and making me feel better

6. they let me move home and destroy the downstairs bathroom

7. they are fun to play games with

8. mom sings to birds and talks in british accents

9. john inspires me to be more creative and outgoing

10. they are pretty attractive for their old ages

and the worst part is, i don't even know when they're coming home. haha!! i was so excited for them to leave i couldn't concentrate when they were giving me instructions and running through procedures. i think it's either saturday or sunday... and who knows what time. i guess i just have to stay glued to my phone so i can hear them call for a ride from the airport

finally.

ladies and gentlemen, the day we've all been waiting for has FINALLY ARRIVED!

what do you get when you mix the smartphone of smartphones and america's most reliable network? one very happy ashley.

february 10th, people!!!

oh happy day.

well. i don't know about you, but over the past five days i have acquired a whole new meaning to the word "starving."

friends, meet THE MASTER CLEANSE.

(i stole this picture from suzanne roberston's facebook haha)

it looks harmless.

but in reality, it is the worst form of torture i have ever experienced.

haha just kidding. it's not that hard. basically, all my body has been consuming for the past five days is a mixture of syrup, lemon juice, water, and (on occasion) cayenne pepper.

i've lost 8 lbs and i feel awesome!

now now, before you jump to conclusions and say stupid things like "you're gonna gain it back when you start eating" or "that's not good for you at all!" or "you're gonna die!" just stop. first off, i'm not stupid. obviously i'm going to gain some of the weight back when i start eating. but the thing is, this isn't all about losing weight- its a detox. i dont think that dr. oz would go on national television and proclaim to millions of people that this was a great thing to do if he didn't mean it. if you read this website, you will come to find that this 10 day cleanse is actually really good for you. it flushes all of the crap out of your colon that has been sitting there for who knows how long! i see it as a transition to a healthier lifestyle. it's about practicing self control. and my mom needed a support partner :) i really do feel more energized. i went to a body pump class today at the gym and i felt like the most vigorous person in the room haha!

my favorite line of the site is this:

Your body will purge itself of toxins that are lodged in joints, soft tissue, cartilage, and mucous membranes.

gross! doesn't that just make you want to do this?

so we're halfway done... five more days!

wish me luck.

my last night in 2010

what better way to spend the last night of 2010 than with my favorite person ever?

we started the night off with some panda express... i got my wisdom teeth out this week and chow mein was the only thing that sounded practical.

we then went to the bus station and took the free shuttle down to the strip.

my cute fiancee figuring out our routes

2-0-1-1!

we got downtown and had a blast walking around. all of las vegas blvd was blocked off, so everyone was walking in the middle of the streets! we laughed at all the crazy drunks, hookers, and obnoxious tourists.

naturally, we had to go to the bellagio and watch the fountains. it's our thing :) so fun. i feel like my grandma joy when i say that i could watch the fountains for hours and not get bored.
so pretty!
after the bellagio, we ventured in the freezing cold to find the bus stop. it was a complete failure. we saw plenty of busses going the opposite way, but none going the way we wanted! we walked from the bellagio to the convention center! i'm thinking it was around 3 miles. two days later and my feet still hurt. luckily we got some hot chocolate along the way :)
finally we made it to gary's condo. gary is scotty's boss, and he has a sweet place just north of the strip. we had an awesome view! all of the fireworks were eye level for us.

happy new year! 2010 was great, but i have a real good feeling about 2011...

bring it on.

my resolutions

i like making goals. i really do.

the only problem is i have a hard time following through after the first few weeks of success.

exhibit a:

the sticky note on my computer of 2010 resolutions.

1. run 365 miles this year. clever... funny... but now that i think about it, i didn't even keep track. and i probably ran four times all of fall semester. FAIL.

2. read the whole book of mormon. now this one has some justification... i was reading it, but then i started my D&C class in september, so i dedicated my reading to that and kind of pushed the book of mormon aside. that sounds bad. but, nonetheless, FAIL.

3. read the scriptures every day. i think the first day i missed was in march. then after that it all went downhill. i'm not horrible at it, but i definitely could be better. FAIL.

4. not get engaged. HA! i laughed so hard when i saw this a couple weeks ago. too bad i am madly in love and words can't describe the excitement i have for my engagement. FAIL.

5. stop swearing. well world, it's time to make a confession. i think swearing is fun. but this year that habit significantly decreased. i only fell in times where my life was threatened or events of same severity. or where it was of upmost hilarity. just when you thought i was a complete failure- WIN.

6. lose enough weight to have a healthy BMI. this one was really important to me. 2010 gave me a greater appreciation of working out and running. i almost cried tears of joy the day i stood on wii fit in my living room and it told me that i had reached a healthy bmi, and was no longer in the embarrassing "at risk of being overweight" column. WIN.

so i accomplished 2 out of 6 goals. awesome. that's like a 33%... definitely an F.

this year i've put together a few goals that are perhaps easier to achieve haha. and i am posting them on the internet so that everyone in the world (or at least my mom and leah) will be witnesses. so without further ado, here are ashley's goals for 2011:

1. read scriptures every day

2. hit 145 lbs at some point during the year

3. be smarter with money/only buy clothes that i need :)

4. go to the temple

5. work out at least twice a week

6. incorporate small acts of service in my weekly life

7. cut down on fast food

8. spend quality time with my family

and that's that. wish me luck.