Five Things

{five things I have a passion for}
1. My husband. He is the central thing in my life and I always want to show him how much he means to me.
2. Learning about history. I really love listening to podcasts and reading books to get a broader knowledge on all the random things that have occurred throughout time.
3. Teaching. Perhaps it's because I'm bossy but I love showing people what to do.
4. My puppy dog. Duh.

5. Yarn. Knitting. Anything involving yarn or knitting. 

{five things I'd like to do before I die}
1. Climbing Mt. Kilimanjaro has been on my bucket list since I watched an IMAX movie about it in the 10th grade.
2. Buy/own/wear a pair of leather pants that look really amazing on (a teensy bit shallow but gosh darn it...I want it).
3. Make babies!!
4. Backpack through Europe and doing all the stereotypical touristy things like pretending to hold up the leaning tower of Pisa and being sung to in a boat by an Italian man in a striped shirt.   
5. I want to run the Easter Island marathon.

{five books or magazines I've read lately}
1. Winger by Andrew Smith
2. The Shadow of Blackbirds by Cat Winters
3. The Delirium Series by Lauren Oliver
4. Before I Fall by Lauren Oliver
5. The Fault In Our Stars by John Greene

{five favorite movies}
1. Donnie Darko
2. Grease
3. Life Is Beautiful
4. Steel Magnolias
5. Charlie Bartlett

{five places I'd love to travel to}
1. India is my number one destination right now. 
2. Masaii Mara Wildlife Reserve in Kenya
3. All over Italy
4. Costa Rica
5. I really want to take my husband all along the west coast to where my family is from. He has never seen the redwoods or the beauty of Oregon and Washington.

{five things I say alot}
1. 'I do what I want.' This is usually given as a sassy explanation to my husband about why I didn't do a chore or task like I said I would earlier.
2. 'Who do you think we are? The Rockefellers?' This is something that I picked up from my mom and once again, is said in a sassy voice whenever we talk about finances.
3. I sigh a lot. Loudly and probably at inappropriate times. It's just a form of stress relief but it's kind of a ridiculous habit.
4. 'Who's got a big stick?' No weirdo...I don't say this to my husband but rather my puppy dog whenever he finds a stick in the backyard to play with.
5. 'I can't hear you.' My husband seems to always want to talk whenever I am brushing my teeth, doing dishes, washing my face, etc. I have my head near running water and he decides to talk to me about something from the other room. It happens without fail.

{five blogs I love} 
1. The Other Juliette. Such a funny and witty lady. If I could pick any blogger who I would be BFF's with, it would be with this gal (said in a completely normal and non-stalkerish sort of way).
2. It's Kayla Layla. So this lady has only been blogging for like a month, maybe two but she is already one of the sassiest, funniest ladies around.
3. Kisses and Croissants. If you have ever had the dream of going abroad, falling in love with a frenchman, marrying said frenchman and then moving to France permanently - read this blog. This girl did it and writes about being an American in France and all the fun things that come with marrying someone from a different culture/background/language.
4. Nat the Fat Rat (now Hey Natalie Jean). She is a blogging goddess and made the cutest baby in the world. I love me some Huck!
5. Hubby Jack's Blog Attack! The only male blogger that I read and the only one I will ever need. Think of Jim from the Office, and a little bit more attitude and you have Jack.

Find me on instagram, facebook, pinterest and twitter. Because I am cool like that.

 

~ With Love, Ashlee ~

Currently...

Reading - This past weekend while camping I read two really enjoyable books. The first was this month's book for my 'Not So Young Adult' book club at a local bookstore. It was called 'The Shadow of Blackbirds' by Cat Winters and was a historical fiction/young adult/paranormal/mystery book all about the year 1918 with WWI and the Spanish Flu pandemic that swept through the US that year. It was also a ghost love story and I do love myself some ghosts. 

The second book I read was called 'Winger' by Andrew Smith and I didn't know a thing about it when I started reading it. Didn't even read the blurb on the back or anything. Just liked the cover and went with it. It started out as an endearing and hilarious book and ended up being probably in my top 5 books of all time. I don't want to say anything about it really because I really think it is just better to go into it blind. You just need to know that it is a young adult fiction novel and from the perspective of a charming 14 year old boy. I have already told my husband that he has to read it during his winter break this school year.

Watching - I may be the only person in America still watching this show, but every week I watch 'Siberia' and hope that it either a) explains itself or b) redeems itself. I am so confused at what the heck is going on, mad at it for not divulging more plot, and disappointed in the writing....but yet I keep watching it each week to my husband's chagrin.

Eating - We got a little bit lazy in the cooking department these past two weeks with me being sick, going camping and then coming home to an empty fridge. As a result, we went out a bit and many of my favorite foods were eaten such as Chipotle, take-n-bake pizza, biscuits and gravy, ice cream, more pizza, Moe's burritos, fried green tomatoes, and more pizza. It's been a delicious two weeks for my belly but a bit sad to my saddlebags.

Working On - Our home has been a complete mess the past two weeks. This is one of the first years that we have lived in the same place two years in a row, so I am trying to do a deep clean of the place and doing all the sort of crazy cleaning you do when you are trying to get back your security deposit. But I am moving slow thanks to my business doing well and not so thanks to being sick. So this Saturday, my partner in crime has agreed to help me clean the ceiling fan blades, bleach our windowsills and take a toothbrush to our grout so we can finally get this place settled again.

Thinking About - One of my favorite memories from camping this weekend was bouncing around ideas and brainstorming with my husband about the book that I want to write. You guys have no idea how many good ideas John has. I swear, this book is going to be all of his ideas and my voice behind them. I now have pages of notebook paper with details on what I want this book to be about and where I want it to go. I still have a ton of gaps and content that needs to be filled, but I finally feel like I have enough of a concrete idea that I can actually put pen to paper.

Listening To - I don't know when it happened and I fully blame living in the South, but guys....I like country music. I can't believe it myself, but Luke Bryan has stolen my country heart.

 

Mantra - I read this quote in a magazine over the weekend and I have seen it three other times since then. I feel like the universe is really trying to pound it in my head.

via etsy

Am I alone in watching Siberia and do you have any good book suggestions? I need some new ones!

~ With Love, Ashlee ~

Oh hey there...

Oh hello. 

After having a cold that knocked me off my feet for a week and then taking a long weekend to go camping, I haven't been around these parts much lately.

But after spending the weekend going 'balls to the wall' and eating a bag of non-vegan marshmallows and my body weight in guacamole, I am back with a vengeance (and a tummy ache).

Sidenote: I ran 17 miles today and my body H.A.T.E.S. me right now. Feeding my body crap for a week and a half and then pushing it to it's breaking point with running makes for a sad Ashlee and sad tummy.

But back to more awesome things. Like camping with an adorable puppy and handsome husband.

If you don't remember, I recently wrote about my last camping experience here and our encounter with a bear. Needless to say, I was beyond terrified to go camping again but decided to suck it up and went back into the woods armed with a bear bell and bear mace (which I bought off of a stranger I met online and had to go to a local gas station to get the goods/exchange money. Isn't the internet so weird?).

Other sidenote: I am pretty sure my punctuation on that last sentence with the parenthesis was way off and I am sorry if that bothered you or you judged me for it. I get confused and flustered with commas and parenthesis. I have been told by many of teachers that I am too comma happy.

So besides having bear mace in hand and better flashlights than before (so I could peer into the woods every minute after it got dark), I still was unbelievably stressed out the first night. My anxiety level was at an all-time high and I honestly didn't fall asleep until the sun began to rise in the early am. From 8pm to 6am, I was convinced that a bear was sneaking up on me to maul me to death (or steal my marshmallows). Each night got a little bit better but I never did sleep through the night and had terrible nightmares when I did finally pass out. 

Wait...wasn't I supposed to be talking about awesome things, not how much of a freak I am now about bears? 

So on to the cool things...

/My husband made me some of his amazing guacamole to eat for lunch/dinner one day. I was in an avocado lover's heaven\

/We stayed at a campground called Cooper's Creek and it definitely lived up to its hype for our black lab Cooper. PS...we may or may not have been swayed on staying there because of the name.\

 You can see the creek in the background on the right hand side of the photo. 

/Cooper is a very good and appreciative camper.\

 

/Our camping trips consist mostly of reading, drinking, playing games and letting our inner pyros out.\

/On Monday, we hiked up a little bit of the Appalachian Trail which was a first for me and it was so incredibly beautiful. I have to remember that not all the pretty mountains are in Colorado. Although most are. Also, I get to cross this off of my 52 in 2013 list.\

 

/Guys....fall's coming. And isn't nature so cool.\

 

I hope you guys had a great labor day weekend and are pretty much recovered from whatever mischief you found yourself in. 

 

 

Linking up with Sami for some Shenanigans. 

PS....I'm embarassared to say how many shots it took to get this pic and now looking at it....I don't look all strong and awesome, just awkward and constipated. 

 

~ With Love, Ashlee ~