My Life in 250 words or less ...

Born on ‘Christmas Adam’ in the Sunshine State. 

Won ‘Most Beautiful Baby’ award in a beauty pageant at age 1. 

Moved to Colorful Colorado. 

Lived in purple cowboy boots, oversized promotional liquor t-shirts and leggings. 

 

Spent hours combing my great grandfathers hair and eating the abundance of zucchini my great grandmother fed me. 

Painted everything that I could find with puffy paint. 

Decided that I wanted to be a multi-million dollar actress. 

Gave everyone handmade pot holders for Christmas. 

Got some bad haircuts. 

 

Wore tie dye overalls to middle school and lived to tell about it. 

Got grounded for spreading glitter over every inch of my mom’s house while making her a scrapbook. 

 

Wore red and khaki thanks to Target.

Went to college and discovered Indian food. And knitting. 

Never. Stopped. Knitting. 

Had a handsome stranger waddle over to me during a college basketball game. 

 

Became best friends with this handsome stranger and shared many late nights together which included Monopoly, bowls of mixed nuts and lots of laughing. 

Went to Africa for three months and started to realize how much more my best friend was than just a best friend. 

Best friend became boyfriend. 

 

Moved across country with boyfriend. Boyfriend became fiancée after a proposal on our air mattress.

 

Started selling jewelry on etsy on a whim as a fun project.

Fiancée became husband. 

I became self-employed with ‘My Sweet Nomsa.'

We became Southerners and adopted a black lab puppy. 

 

Law school for him, blooming business for me. 

I am joining up with 'Story of My Life' to blog everyday in May. 

Today's topic was to write about your life story in 250 words or less (mine is 249 if you are counting).

Semi-Naked Sweaty Men

If I had asked my husband, 'Hey Honey, do you want to celebrate your birthday by having sweat tossed onto you while watching two almost naked men wrestle around?' 

I assume the answer would have been 'no, not really.'

I had stumbled upon a LivingSocial deal about a month ago which advertised a package including a sumo competition, sushi dinner and sake tasting. 

If those three things don't spell out, 'Hooray, I'm turning 30!' then .... I'm confused. 

Sunday morning after a month of secrecry, I spill the beans to my husband that we are going to go watch a sumo competition. After a lot of confused laughter, the excitement set in. Then like the true pupil he is...he began studying and read all morning about sumo culture, rules and fun facts. 

 

The event took place at the Opera house in downtown Atlanta. Nothing spells sumo competition like opera house. 

 

When we got to our seats, we were greeted with edamane and sake.  

My personal favorite was the Bonzai Bunny Blueberry Sake.

 We also got a pamphlet on sumo wrestling with all the US Sumo association sumo wrestlers and their stats. No trading cards though :(

 (sidenote: Did you know that there are female sumo wrestlers?? And I weigh more than a lot of them?????)

 Oh did I mention that I paid extra so we were VIP. That meant we got sit front row, center. Only feet away from the ring. 

The two men that we got to watch were Byamba and Kelly Gneiting. 

Byamba is from Mongolia and has been the World Sumo Champion three times and Kelly is from Idaho and has been the US Sumo Champion four times. 

Their stats - Byamba is 27 years old, 6'1" and 365 lbs. Kelly is 42 years old, 6'0" and 420 lbs. 

(Byamba left, Kelly right)

While they sumo wrestled, we ate sushi, drank sake and I was delighted to be a handed a cupcake when I had consumed my daily quota of raw fish.

Here's a video I took of their last match of the evening...

And lastly, afterwards we got to do a meet and greet with them.

Note to self: next time you get your picture taken with a sumo wrestler, do a thumbs up.

Colorado friends, I just looked at the LivingSocial website and the tour is heading to Denver April 27th and 28th. 

Jump on it!

High Five For Friday!

Hey You! It's Friday! Hooray! I'm linking up with Lauren to share the five things I am pretty excited about this Friday.

one. 

This weekend the husband and I are doing part 1 of his birthday celebration! It's not for another week, but I have a special day planned and it had to be this Sunday due to scheduling constraints, so that's when we will pretend he is turning the big 3-0. 

I am wayyyy more overwhelmed by him turning 3-0 than he is. I keep staring at him and going, 'I can't believe you are turning 30. You're going to be like....30' And then he goes, 'Meh.' 

I can't even imagine the third-life-crisis I am going to have in three years.

His big birthday surprise has been just that. A surprise. As soon as I planned out his surprise, I asked him if he wanted to know. This was my way of asking, 'Hey Honey, you know that I can't keep a big surprise secret for very long, so can you please pretend like you want to know so I can tell you and not feel guilty about it not being a surprise?' He told me he wanted it be a surprise, more out of wanting to watch me squirm for a few weeks, rather than actually caring about having a surprise. 

I am t-e-r-r-i-b-l-e at keeping surprises to myself, and I figured out what we were going to do over a month ago, so I have been sitting on this damn surprise for way too long and I can not wait until we can all openly talk about how awesome his birthday gift was. 

I think on Sunday it is going to feel like I finally got to pee after holding it for far far too long.

two. 

This past Birchbox I got a sample of Miss Jessies Pillow Soft Curl Cream. Besides it smelling like a dryer sheet (literally...it says that was what they were going for with the scent on the label) it is so fabulous. I have really wavy, fuzzy and poufy hair and this product actually gives me big, loose curls without making my hair crunchy. 

It is honestly the only product that I have ever used on my hair to make it curly that I actually like.

I went out and bought the full size of it from Target for $22.00 and I think I can make it last for about three months, so I consider the sticker shock to be worth it. 

(P.S. - if you don't do Birchbox and want to try this product, if you go to Miss Jessies website here, you can get two free product samples of any of their stuff. I really recommend it.)

three. 

Tonight we are hanging out with our 'little.' 

John and I have been doing Big Brothers, Big Sisters for a few months now and really love our little. Tonight he is coming on over, eating dinner and watching a movie with us. 

This is basically just an excuse for me to get to buy frozen pizza and watch 'The Lorax.'

four. 

My husband bought me a 'just because' present the other day and it arrived today. I had been wanting to read it for a while but I was number 387 (no joke) in the HOLD queue at the library so it was going to be a few years before I got it. Hoping to dive into it this weekend a bit. 

five. 

A new Indian food restaurant opened in town today and I am so excited. The hard opening was only today, but it is already getting rave reviews from a lot of trusted sources. 

Indian food is my ABSOLUTE favorite (besides the Olive Garden, Chipotle and Panera) so I think if I play my cards right, I might be able to go stuff my face with some saag paneer within the week. 

Hey husband, let's go get Indian food this week! Please?!?

John's Wet & Muddy Half Marathon

Yesterday we drove about an hour northeast of Atlanta for John to do a trail run half marathon. It has been really rainy here the past few days (2.5 inches since Thursday night) so it made for a wet, muddy, slightly cold run through the woods. 

John loved it. So much. 

I sat the race out yesterday because it didn't fit into my training plan for the Atlanta marathon in a month. I actually need to go run 19 miles today (BOOOOOOOOOOO), so if I ran the 13 miles yesterday, I wouldn't have been able to get my full long run for the week in.

Walking with others about a 1/4 of a mile to the starting line. The race was is Fort Yargo, a Georgia state park. It was really pretty besides the crummy weather. 

 

John was easy to spot on the course with his bright colors and represented Colorado with his socks!

This is what the course was for 13.1 miles. Definitely not possible to stay clean during this race. 

  

Just getting started on the course...

13.1 miles later! And yeah, his nipples bleed a lot when he runs. He has tried a lot of different things to stop it from happening, but he always looks like he got bullet wound when he finishes. 

My husband thought I should end this post with a close-up shot of his bloody nipple, but after seeing it all big and bloody on my blog, I decided that it was a slippery slope that I didn't want to venture down. 

So you are welcome for not including a chaffed nipple shot. 

~ With Love, Ashlee ~

High Five For Friday

Happy Friday Everyone!! I am linking up with Lauren at the 'From My Grey Desk' blog to feature five things that I am excited about on this wonderful Friday!

one.

I discovered the most beautiful neighborhood about two miles from where I currently live. In the last 24 hours, I have walked my puppy through it three times and each time I feel all creepy because I am just stopping to stare at all the architure/amazing landscapes. 

It has seriously become my dream neighborhood. I am planning on taking my camera there sometime in the next few days to show you guys how amazing these houses are. 

I saw a 'for sale' sign in the front yard of one and went online once I got home to check it out and gasped at the price tag .... $750,000. 

I told my husband he better be studying really hard for the next month for his law school exams. 

two.

These shoes....

one / two / three

I bought these three shoes online from Target yesterday. Thanks to a gift card from Christmas, a 50% off shoe sale, and free shipping.... all three of these babies only cost me $4.00. 

$4.00 for three pairs of shoes!!!

three. 

My husband found out that he is going to be on the mock trial team for his law school next year. He had the try-outs last weekend and did awesome. They only accepted 16 first year students and him and his bff are two of them. I am pretty darn proud of him. 

four. 

Since my husband is busy studying for his law school finals, I have complete control over the netflix queue. These came in the mail yesterday...

via

via

Oh yeah....I've got big plans this weekend.

five.

The puppy and I have gone into some quite intense training sessions this week and I think we might be making progress. I think I have taught him 'turn-around' (walking around in a circle) and now he can lay down and roll over and speak pretty well. 

Besides being cute, he might actually be somewhat smart too. 

Happy Friday Everyone!!

Visiting Maine

My goodness, the last few weeks of February were filled with lots of travel and after being back home for a week, I finally feel like I am almost settled back into some sort of routine. Almost. 

My husband and I went to Maine for a long weekend to attend a memorial service for my grandfather-in-law. Besides the somber reason for gathering, we had a great time hanging out with my father-in-law's side of the family, most of whom I had only met during our wedding. It was so great to hang out and hear stories about that side of the family, many of which I never heard before.

This was my first visit to Maine and I would absolutely love to go back soon. Any place that names the 'Whoopie Pie' as their official state treat is alright in my book.

I had never been in the northeast before, and was really taken back by the beauty of the landscape there. We arrived in the middle of a snowstorm, so we had the pleasure of seeing the landscape covered in snow during our trip.

I took a few photos, but as usual, I forgot to take many photos or any really good photos. Shout-out to my sister-in-law Kristine for allowing me to use some of the photos she took. 

My sister-in-law, mother-in-law and husband in Belfast, ME

 The restaurant my grandparents-in-law owned and operated. It wasn't a bright, vibrant Mexican restaurant then.

 A baby bear meets a stuffed bear. My relatives like to hunt.

 View from my relative's house. Apparently, John Travolta lives on that island across the ocean. 

So close, yet so far.

 Cold, cold, cold family photo.

 Stud muffin.

Sister-in-law with husband doing blue steel.

 Protecting my husband.

 Getting a tutorial on how to eat clams. I tried a few, but they weren't my thing.

 These were definitely my thing :)

We are ridiculously good looking.