100 day journal

alright, listen.

i'm not trying to toot my own horn here or anything...

but basically, i came up with the best idea ever.

and i think all of you single/engaged ladies would be wise to follow in my footsteps

this here is my "100 day wedding countdown" journal.

if you're not so hot with taking obvious hints, the journal is to document the 100 days before my wedding day. it has been my favorite thing lately! i only write wedding-related things in it (what else would i write about, anyway?!) and i think it will be so fun in 10+ years to look back and remember all of the little details and remember what an exciting time this was. i dont want to forget anything!

the dedication page (yes, my journal has a dedication page) reads as follows:

this journal is an attempt to document every last bit of excitement, planning, stress, ideas, drama, color changing, booking, annoying moments, and all other emotions that accompany the difficult task of putting together a wedding, in hopes that one day my dear children will find it entertaining or of use, or perhaps my sweet scotty and i will read it for laughs. or maybe i will come to realize that this book is of more use to ME than others- giving me a space to rant, rave, vent, or spill all of my "I'M GETTING MARRIED!!!" giddiness so the public's ears can have a rest. regardless of where this will go and who it will help, i'm doing it! so join me for the next 100 days until i become a lawfully wedded wife.

awesome.

i have no problem filling the pages because i have a million things on my mind!

and every day, something new comes up that i can write about.

it's a nice stress reliever, and as stated before, it will be enjoyable to read later.

AND since i am channeling all of my wedding excitement into this book, you should feel relieved to know that there will be a significant downswing on the wedding blog posts.

it's a win-win-win all around!

coming of age

i've realized over the past few months that i am getting really old.

older than dirt, i feel like.

i might as well start looking into glasses and walkers.

i mean, im going to be a wife in a mere 96 days.

i still feel like a little 16 year old bopping around vegas and eating fro yo every day!

doing the stupidest crap and taking a million pictures of myself!

see what i mean?

don't get me wrong- i'm totally excited to grow up and be a wife. it's just weird. DIFFERENT. so unreal. i used to look at girls who were getting married and think that that phase in life was so far away for me, and now here it is! 96 days away!

i am SO excited.

yet at the same time, i feel SO unprepared!

will i make a decent wife?

why haven't i stepped foot in the kitchen the past 10 years?

why haven't i made a dish for my family that wasn't spaghetti or chocolate chip cookies?

why didn't anyone tell me how horrifying the gyno's office is!?!?

what in the world am i supposed to cook for my sweet husband every night (starting in 96 days)?

all of these are questions i've asked myself recently.

so i've taken the next three months and dedicated them as "ashley's wife preparation"

it's gone pretty well so far. i wore an apron for the first time, and i made a four star dinner. the whole family liked it, which is saying something considering tanner is part of my family.

(click anywhere inside these parentheses for a video supporting my last statement)

my bread (that i made ALL ON MY OWN) isn't exactly the prettiest shape... but it was delicious.

and it beautifully complimented the entirely-home-made chicken fettucini i whipped up. (ALL ON MY OWN)
it was a pretty big deal.

i also acquired my FIRST DISHES this past week (thank you kim!) and am starting our collection of kitcheny things. so far it consists of a can opener, lasagna dish, pie dish, and two other dishes.

also, i've even been doing some homey crafts and purchased my very own hot glue gun.

i guess you could say things are getting pretty serious!

p.s. did i mention 96 days?

one down!

oh guys...

i know my endless rants about how madly in love with scotty i am are probably getting so old and so annoying.

but i am SO madly in love and i dont care if you think it's getting old or annoying!
heres the coolest thing about today:

exactly a year ago, scotty and i decided that we were "official" and that we didnt want to date anyone else.

so for a whole year straight, THIS GUY has been the only one on my mind!
oh gosh look at him. he's so cute, huh?
i can't believe today is our one year anniversary. and not because "time flies by so fast!" or "it seems like it was just yesterday!" ... but because in all honesty, it feels like it should be our 10th year anniversary or something haha.
i know it's cliche, but i feel like i've known scotty my entire life! our love and friendship is the strongest i've ever felt, how have we only been dating a year?! haha.

we have had so many laughs and good times over the past twelve months. i used to think my insane level of giddiness would wear off after a while... but it just keeps getting worse! i hate spending any time away from him! (my mother will back me up here)

i really dont know how i got so lucky. i dont know what good deeds i did previously in my life to deserve such a handsome man as my fiancee.
i dont know why scotty thinks that he is lucky when i am CLEARLY the one getting the better end of the deal here!
i dont know if i will be able to survive the 2 months and 15 days away from him before our wedding while i'm at school. i dont know if we'll ever come to an agreement on a basketball game (note byu/unlv rivalry picture below) and i dont know if i will ever get sick of staring at his adorable face.

but what i do know, is that in exactly 106 days i will be marrying my sweetheart for time and all eternity in the las vegas temple (typing that makes me giddy, too). and i could not be more excited.

happy anniversary scotty boy. i love you!

HP7P2

i literally just got back from harry potter 7 part 2.

i am still giddy.

you may or may not remember that i happen to be a loyal harry potter fan.

it seems like just yesterday i was all hyped up about part 1... and now it's all over.

it's all over.

EW! those words are like fingernails on a chalkboard.

in attempt to overcome the sadness i feel when thinking about the harry potter series being over, let us go through my thoughts about the final movie.

1. i forgot how much i LOVE professor mcgonagall. she was outstanding!

2. hermione and ron's kiss after destroying the cup was definitely a favorite moment (and right before that, when ron opens the door "harry talks in his sleep" ...haha)

3. almost started to like malfoy... until he crossed the line when voldemort said "come join me" .... punk. wish he died instead of fred.

4. remember when harry, ron, and hermione were in the room of requirement and malfoy's stupid little friends set the room on fire? was anyone else thinking of aladdin escaping from the cave of wonders!? oh my gosh it was all i could think about haha. essentially it was the same exact scene except harry was on a broom and aladdin was on a carpet.

5. snape made me cry. snape's love for lilly made me cry, too.

6. i miss the old dumbledore.

7. i thought the last little bit (19 years later) was precious. to be honest, i completely forgot about that whole chapter being in the book until after the movie was over haha. then it all came back to me. harry's son was adorable.

8. i hope 10+ years from now nobody tries to make some stupid sequel about the kids. i'll die. you can't add on to these 8 movies. (does number 7 count as two movies?) you just can't.

9. neville longbottom = champ

10. all in all, i'd just wrap it up with the word "amazing"... my jaw dropped, my eyes watered, my heart pounded, and my eyes were glued. very well done.

i dont know what to do with myself now. no more midnight parties to buy a new harry potter book, no more racing with friends to read the book in a matter of days, no more fighting with mitchell to take turns reading, and no more midnight premiers drawing a lightning bolt on my forehead. it's been a bittersweet night for the potter fans.

i can explain.

listen...

i'm sorry.

I KNOW!

i'm sorry!!!

i haven't blogged in forever.

i've had like one post in the past month and a half.

forgive me?

-if your answer was "yes," feel free to stop reading here.

-if your answer was "no"... proceed.

but i have excuses!

here's what i've been doing lately instead of blogging:

1. working 40 hrs a week

2. looking at wedding blogs

3. creeping on wedding pictures on facebook

4. exploring the wedding section of pinterest

5. traveling to utah to have engagement pictures taken

6. reading bridal magazines (i have about 12 in my room)

7. daydreaming about scotty

8. feeling different materials for chair sashes

9. discovering that there are A TON of different shades of pink (pink, baby pink, coral pink, dark pink, shrimp pink, bubble gum pink, fuchsia pink, hot pink, cherry blossom pink, flamingo pink, i cant stop seeing pink)

10. attempting to become domestic by cooking and cleaning

11. going crazy by keeping a day-by-day countdown til the wedding. (136!!!!!!!!!!!!)

12. annoying everyone i come in contact with by talking wedding talk. (it just comes up.. like word vomit)

13. wasting the past 10 minutes to fail at finding a youtube clip of the scene in mean girls where cady talks about word vomit

14. sleeping

15. changing my mind every few days about what the wedding announcements will look like

16. practicing for the day when we will register at target (so we have a plan of attack)

17. playing fun games on my new iphone

18. eating

19. reading articles on how to design a wedding favor that is practical, and at the same time meaningful and cute.

20. trying on my wedding dress every few days to make sure i'm not getting any fatter

21. debating cake or no cake (i want to have a cake cutting but i dont really like cake)

22. writing in my journal lots and lots so i dont forget this special exciting year of my life (nothing will ever be quite like this!)

23. shopping at michaels with mother to buy supplies for a cute DIY centerpiece idea

24. meeting with different reception decorators every other night (sometimes for two 1/2 hours at a time)

25. stopping to stare at the temple when i'm on the top floor of the regional justice center and feeling all giddy inside

that's all i got.

was that enough for you?

yes? good. thank you for your understanding.

no?! bite me.

isn't it about... time?

hey! hey! hey!!!

remember this?

yeah. i do too.

and exactly four months after the iphone was available to verizon and practically taunting me with every other commercial, i made the best purchase of my life.

i'm kind of really really really excited about it.

trying to fall asleep last night was hard.

anyone have apps they recommend?

wanna play words with friends?

facetime?

i'm so cool now :)

haha just kidding...

but really.

farewell, my friend.

a wise woman once said, "devote today to something so daring even you can't believe you're doing it." now, i don't know about "daring," but i'll be doing something later on today that i can't believe i'm doing- watching this woman's farewell show.

oh oprah, how do i begin to convey my feelings for you to my blog readers?

i'm not exactly sure when or where this obsession started... but the farthest i can trace it back to is early middle school. i remember coming home from school almost every day and watching the oprah winfrey show with my mom- it became our bonding hour. and in 8th grade english class, we had to write a professional letter to a company. i wrote one to harpo asking for tickets to the show for my teacher and myself. (although we never heard a response, i got an A). then freshman year, leah and i were absolutely thrilled to meet Stedman Graham when he came to speak at bonanza. i will never regret ditching class for him. i still smile when i think about the fact that i've hugged someone Oprah has hugged.

it was very exciting. even more exciting than the night leah called me and told me that her mom was staying at the same hotel as oprah in hawaii. oh what i would have given to fly there and stalk her down. then sophomore year came around, and i was assigned an 8 page biography on anyone i wanted. you guessed it: oprah winfrey. as if i didn't admire her enough before, writing the biography changed everything. i learned specific details about her humble beginnings and childhood that i had never heard. i learned about charities and scholarships and service projects that she put on without even announcing on the show. she gives so much more than we know. she truly is inspirational. i wrote all of this in my paper, and then emailed it to oprah. even after my multiple letters/emails to her, i never made it on the show. so this is the closest i've gotten to her:

a wax figure. i guess it will have to do. junior year reminds me of watching oprah with friends. one of my favorite episodes is oprah & gayle's road trip. the fab five and i had a party to watch the road trip episodes together! oprah and gayle are so funny, we were all laughing the whole time. and when we found out oprah and gayle had matching pink crystal pinky rings, leah and i bought ourselves some matching pink crystal pinky rings. leah is my gayle. year after year, we watched her favorite things episode and envied every person in the audience. senior year, oprah was a vital part of my daily routine. with most of my friends gone for college, who better to turn to than opie? (that's her childhood nickname, incase you were wondering). then i moved to college, and realized that my life was lacking without oprah due to my tv-less dorm room. i ripped out a picture from her magazine and thumb tacked it to the wall on my desk. the picture was of her at the very beginning of her career. i kept it there all year to remind me that i can do anything i set my mind to. it made me work harder. i know this is dumb and cliche and weird, but in a way i feel like i grew up with her. yes i know she is 37 years older than i am. but i remember her 50th birthday celebration, and she inspired my ideas for girls camp as youth camp director. i wrote poems about her in high school, and she introduced me to dr. oz. we laughed together, we cried together. she shared her "ah-ha moments" and i read the O magazine monthly. i was there when she found out she had a half-sister! she may not know it, but i say we have a pretty solid bond. some of our favorite things are josh groban, the color green, ipads, chicago pizza, chips, playing scrabble, and ugg boots.

i can't believe today marks the day of her last show. no doubt this will be a day i remember for the rest of my life. everyone remembers significant days like this. "where were you when the berlin wall fell?" "where were you when you heard the news about 9-11?" "...when princess diana died?" today can just be added to the list. sometimes i hope that an "OWN network 2" will come out and just be reruns and reruns of oprah shows. did you know she has recorded over 5,000 episodes? they should be compiling them into a multi-disc collection like they did for the 20th anniversary. and when they do, i'll be first in line to get it. but until then, i say farewell to oprah. it's been a great 20 years. don't laugh at me when i bawl my eyes out watching the final episode later on today.

love you long time.

more lovin:

http://cathyzielske.typepad.com/my_weblog/2011/05/what-she-has-meant-to-me.html

http://www.nytimes.com/2011/05/23/business/media/23oprah.html?_r=1&smid=tw-nytimes&seid=auto