TAG! You're it!

I'm such a slacker. This was sent to me by Lara! Sorry I'm just now getting to it!

Here are The Rules:
1. Link to the person who tagged you.
2. Post the rules on your blog.
3. Write six random things about yourself.
4. Tag six people at the end of your post and link to them.
5. Let each person know they've been tagged and leave a comment on their blog.
6. Let the tagger know when your entry is up.

1. most things in my apartment are covered in dog fur. I often find dog fur on my body in not so great places and wonder how it got there.
2. i love planning all the details of our wedding. it's kind of like my baby. i'm so proud that i'm cheap and crafty enough to make most of the things myself so thatwe could splurge on the location, food and drinks.
3. i use wikipedia as a fact checker. I often dispute pop culture knowledge with phrases like, "well, according to wikipedia," "I read about that on Wikipedia and that is not what happened."
4. i'm pretty country. i say stuff like "fixin" in my lexicon "git" and "go" are synonyms. My mom says, "warshing"
5. i don't like clutter, but i don't know how to get rid of it.
6. i had never been to the east coast until i met my fiance and now i love the east coast!
Tag! You're it!
Elaina, Katie, Jodi, Lynsey, Tish, Amber

I'm Back!

I enjoyed a nice, relaxing break and I so happy it's 2009! A few highlights of December 2008:
Christmas
We had Abby at Christmas this year. It was the first time she had met my little brother and half of my extended family. This year we had a mini-reunion at Christmas and we had a great time. Abby got to ride her first horse (which is odd because she lives in a small-town in Kansas and her grandparents live across the street from some stables) Anyways, we had a lovely time with the family, but I think with our two huge dogs and hyperactive daughter, my parents and brother weren't sad to see us leave.

Lynsey
I got to see Lynsey! Lynsey came back from Denmark for Christmas break! We got together with some other members of LAD for a yummy dinner and Margaritas at Gloria's! My favorite place! It was good times with my old NJWPT/Groggy friend

Some low points of December 2008:
LAD Christmas
getting so enibriated at the LAD Christmas party that I entered a bipolar state. First it was crying over my cousin's death and then laughing hysterically. Murad came to pick me up and I'm pretty sure he was confused. I was crying over Philip, then laughing, then I threw up when I got home and then tried to seduce him. nice

loss of a former student
one of my former students died on christmas day. i taught both her and her older sister and it was during that time that their father died in a car wreck while they were on vacation in Hawaii. it's still hard to believe that this happened to their family again.
car problems
on new year's eve I was found out my car has about $2000 worth work that needs to be done....still trying to figure out that one!

It's a New Year though and I'm trying to focus on the positive! We spent New Year's with Abby here in Dallas. This was a big change from my previous New Year's Eve in which I almost got into a fight! I guess I'm growing up!? Don't answer that! I also had a wonderful shower thrown for me by Amber & Katie in Wichita. It was so great to have the ladies in my life there to celebrate our upcoming marriage. I got tons of great gifts, but most importantly I got to see old friends and family. Katie & Amber really outdid themselves. They made cupcakes with periwinkle icing, favors with periwinkle mints, and chocolate covered pretzels. They also had a hot chocolate bar and other tons of goodies. We played a fun mad lib wedding game. I think I was apalled by the lack of grammar knowledge my friends and family have. We said an inspiring prayer and watched a wonderful slideshow of our engagement pictures. It was the best shower I've attended! My aunt goes, "Ashlea you're the only one in the family whose shower is more than three weeks away from the wedding and you're not pregnant." We are so country. I love my family though!

the wedding is approaching! I finished the invitations and they're going out Tuesday! On Wednesday we are officially two months away from the big day! On Wednesday Murad and I have our tasting for the rehearsal dinner and I meet with the photographer on Saturday. We did get some bad news, not only are Murad's mom and little brother not coming to the wedding, but neither are his aunt and his little cousin. So now, Abby is our only flowergirl. Murad and I both are really bummed. I'm not sure how we'll tell Abby. We also had a little snag with the flowergirl dress for Abby. When we looked at the measurements they didn't match so we had to find a new dress that would fit her. I actually like the new dress better. It already arrived, but I have to send it back because they sent the wrong size.

so you may be asking yourself, what will Ashlea obsess over after this wedding is over? LOTS!
Graduation
Immediately after the wedding Ryan and I graduate. However, we're only going to Ryan's graduation. I already have one master's degree so I don't feel the need to attend this graduation, but this is Ryan's big day!
Redecorating
I want to buy some furniture and refinish it for our apartment. I want to find an armoire for the living room TV, a dresser for Abby and a nightstand for our bedroom. Our apartment kind of has a shabby shic/cottage/vintage feel so I'm looking for things that echo that theme.
prepping
Murad will prep for grad school this summer and next fall. His top two choices are Wichita State University and SMU. Wichita would be ideal because we'd be close to my parents (some may say too close) and we'd be closer to Abby. Right now she really needs us in her life. SMU would also be ideal because we could stay here. He is applying to some other schools too, so we'll see where we end up! I'm excited either way
saving
right now all our extra money goes towards this f--ing wedding, but afterwards it will go towards paying off any lingering wedding debt and saving for a house. We hope to buy in the summer 2010. Even if we don't buy, we'd like to be in a house instead of an apartment. Murad and I are both trying to build our credit (mine is good, but why not get it better) so maybe we won't have to make a down payment, but just have more in savings
honeymooning
we are either taking our honeymoon in August 09 or March 2010 (our one year anniversary) we couldn't afford to go right after our wedding, so we figured that would give us time to save $. We're leaning more towards March so that we can have Abby with us for the whole summer this summer. We have already decided that we are going to Punta Cana, Dominican Republic! I'm so pumped!

more dogs
we're thinking of getting a little dog to complete our crazy family. i know...we're crazy!

TTC (trying to conceive)
Sorry to get your hopes up, but we won't try to conceive for a while. Murad and I both don't want kids before the age 30, so fall 2011 is the earliest we'll ttc. we love our freedom right now and having a baby would change all that. That means that Abby will be at least 10 years older than her siblings from us. I think it will be good because she will get to be a true big sister to them. Right now she is only three years older than her sister from her mom and they have the more traditional sister relationship.

Well that's an update on my life! Hope you enjoy. I'll try to write more!

And the winner is....

Wow, three posts in one day! Okay, so I'll post the picture of the winning flower girl dress. I'm also posting a picture of my wedding day shoes! I love them and my shower invitation that my bridesmaid (and best friend) Amber designed. I'm so lucky to have her as a friend. The invitations are beautiful and I know that she put so much effort into making them. I can not wait for my shower. I know she and Katie have tons of surprises in store!

Some pictures from Thanksgiving

Some pictures from our trip to New Jersey & Pennsylvania! Isn't Murad so handsome? I'm so in love! Okay, I need to stop gushing!

Pictures of my dogs

Because I love them! I took these pictures because I was going to use them to make Christmas cards, but I ran out of $$! Aren't they so cute! I put treats in the hats to get them to go after the hats, but they tried to chew them up without the treats

probably the hardest thing...

for me to find is the perfect flower girl dress. I want something that is not junior bride-ish and periwinkle, but that's impossible. All the periwinkle dresses have spaghetti straps and are A-line which is not my style at all. I found a cute baby blue dress that would work, but I'm afraid that it won't be purple enough to match the lavendar hue in periwinkle. I found a cute one that is ivory with a perwinkle sash. So, I need y'alls vote! Dress #1 is ivory dress/periwinkle ribbon ( I would like this to be reversed ideally, but this will do) I love the style of this dress...i.e. no spaghetti straps with poofy little girl skirt. Dress #2 is not the actual dress I found (lost the website), but it's the baby blue color I'm worried about. The actual dress is more of the style of the first dress. I could add a champagne or ivory sash to it, as well. Dress #3 is periwinkle and that's about all I like about it. hate the cleavage and spaghetti straps. let me know!

It's the most Wonderful Time of the Year!

It is actually cold here in Dallas! 37 degrees, but it feels so much colder outside! I love it and so do my dogs. It actually feels like Christmas. I feel like I'm starting to come out of my depression, which is surprising because winter makes you want to curl up under the covers. I feel good about my life and what is to come. I still get really sad, but the persistent feeling fades away. I'm ready to start really living!

Thanksgiving was awesome! Murad and I had a great time with his family in New Jersey. One of the highlights was going to the Thanksgiving Night Philadelphia Eagles game. Murad's dad got us tickets to the pre-game party. The Pre-Game party was held at the stadium in which the Phillie's play, so that was pretty cool (in case you didn't know, the Phillies won the World Series 2008). I, of course, took advantage of the free alcohol provided. We skipped the buffet because we were both pretty full from attending dinner at his aunt's house and his dad's house. We then ran across the street to Lincoln Financial Field for the Eagles game against Arizona. It was awesome to see Donovan McNabb come out. He crawled out like a lion. Murad's dad got us awesome seats, so we got to see all the action! It was so cold outside, but Murad and I were on a high; an NFL high! Thank goodness, the EAGLES WON!

The rest of the week, we mostly hung out at Murad's brother's apartment. We played Wii-bowling until 2:30am most nights. It was so much fun! I love that game! There were a lot of competitions going around those nights between Murad, Qadree (Murad's bro) and Joel (Qadree's roommate). Murad and I decided our next big purchase will be a Wii. We also found out that Abby is going to bring her Wii when she comes to stay with us.

While we were in NJ we got treated like queens and kings and I drank a lot while we were there. Murad's bro made sure I always had a beer in my hand (score point). We met up with Murad's old cross country coach and his fiance and I had quite a bit of beer and wine. While we were there, Murad's aunt and stepmom cooked us a feast of a breakfast one morning. We also went to visit his aunt and uncle in North Jersey who fed us as well. Lots of eating. Probably not good for me, but oh well!

We've had to adjust to reality, but luckily Christmas is just around the corner, so just a couple more weeks of madness. We started celebrating early by having people over for dinner on Saturday. We had our friend Christina (my bridesmaid) over along with our friends John & Shawndra. We met John & Shawndra at a relationship panel the day before Valentine's Day. They've been married for a little over a year now. Ironically, our friendship with them started because John and Murad got into an argument about religion and relationships. John argued that both people needed to be Christian, and Murad was like "no way, I'm not like that. " Anyways, we ended up becoming good friends with them, despite our differences. They are a really fun couple. Sadly, they're moving in July to Atlanta to start a church.

We're going to Kansas on December 22nd or 23rd. We're stopping in Meade to see Abby and her family. Abby is going to spend Christmas with our family, so we'll drive to Wichita on Christmas Eve for the service at my church. Then on Christmas Day we're going to my aunt's house for Christmas. My aunt and uncle have this huge building on their land that we use for family events. It is like a big game room with a kitchen, guest room and two bathrooms. It's going to be like a huge family reunion because a lot of us have moved away in the past year(s). My cousin Randi (who I am so EXCITED to see) will be there with her six children (her husband is overseas, so he won't be there). My cousin Micah and her husband will be there from Australia, and my aunt Lori will be there from D.C. Randi and my Aunt Lisa both have daughters Abby's age, so I think it will be a lot of fun for her. The next day we're heading back to Dallas with Abby (Murad has to work.) Then Abby and I will come back to Wichita on January 1st and then my wedding shower is on January 3rd Woo-hoo! Abby's grandma and aunt are coming, so they'll pick up Abby and take her back to Meade then. So a busy Christmas, but a good one. I'm excited! I know some parts of Christmas will be hard. We used to always do Christmas with my aunt's family (Philip's family) after Christmas. Usually my cousins would stay a couple of days with us afterwards, but we haven't done this in a while. Hopefully, I can reflect on the good times and those good memories.

I do have some things I need to get done over Christmas break:
do my grad school internship reflections
make my invitations
address my invitations
order a bird cage to use as our card holder
order table runners

yeah, I've kind of forgotten about getting married. haha! There is still so much to do, but I will get it done, right?
Well, I need to end this post.

Guess what...it's snowing!