Dear Goals,

You're nice.  You give me something to work for.  I've taught a few lessons on you here and there.

I make a nice fatty list of you every single day, hour to hour.  

This Thanksgiving break, my goals will not consist of anything academic.  They won't (although they should) consist of trying to drop my 10 lbs that I still have yet to lose.  They won't consist of me studying up on my Spanish.  In fact, they won't even consist of much of anything that would be considered productive.  

HOWEVER, after contemplating long and hard about what I wanted to achieve this break, I could only come to one real logical conclusion.  

so, here it is... (hey it's just a thought unless you write it down, right?)

My goal this Thanksgiving Break is to learn Beyonce's 'Single Ladies' dance from her music video.  

Shallow?  Maybe.  Ridiculous?  Okay, fine.  

Have I been a slave to school lately?  YES.  

Thus, I will do whatever I darn well please this break.  And if I want to spend some time with Beyonce, I will do just that. 

Cheers.  

(p.s. I am blogging from the Denver airport.  Layovers are just spectacular, aren't they?  Thank you free wi-fi). 

Dear Elder,

Eh hem... I mean, Sister!  (Elder sounded better...plus there's that amazing website that kept JD happy in the MTC with plenty of letters).   Yep!  My roommate Maeg left on her mission yesterday.  She's going to be such an amazing sister missionary... and I still get to see her on Monday's in the TRC for a couple weeks at least!  She will be serving in the Temple Square Mission and she will so great!

Those poor 19 year olds... Maeg is such a hottie! 

p.s. check out Maeg's mission blog that Dani will be updating:

maeganatthesquare.blogspot.com 

Dear I love leaving Provo,

...even if it only is for one weekend.

Can you guess where I went??? 

Rainbows in November?!  ...Unheard of.

More details to come... 

Dear Fall Ball,

As promised, the roommate photo shoot pictures are here!

Since Maeg left to go home before the MTC and Natalie moved in, we had to have some pictures with all of us so we had a nice little photo shoot a few Sunday's ago with Landon as our photographer.  Let's just say I really love my roommates/best friends.  

happy fall, all.  

Dear Buckeye State,

You make me the happiest ever.

Yes, it's true! I went home Halloween weekend to vote!  I know, I know... "haven't you ever heard of an absentee ballot?!"  Yeah, well... we didn't exactly get that in time so Padre took it into his own hands and since Ohio is such a huge swing state, I jumped on a plane Friday morning and got to stay until Monday night.  It was such a good weekend visiting the family and getting to vote in my first Presidential election.  I love my family so much and I was so grateful for the time I got to spend.  It made me even more excited to go home in two weeks for Thanksgiving break! 

 

Mamacita and myself:

Some of the greatest people I know:

Blizzard dog! 

America.  I love this country!

Families are forever... and I couldn't be more happy with mine! :) 

Dear never felt so sore in my life,

Okay, fine.  I'm being slightly dramatic.  But seriously.  My right arm hurts like a mother and my inner thighs are so sore, I wouldn't be surprised if I looked down and they were black and blue.  

You're curious.  "How could she possibly be aching so much?  Intense night at the gym?"  No...I'll do you one better.  Intense Family Home Evening at Thanksgiving Point.  Now I know what you're thinking, "What?  Pull some muscles in the corn maze?"  Guess again.  Try the fact that I rode on the mechanical bull for a good 2 minutes.  Doesn't sound like much, I realize that.  I was even in shock when I woke up the next day feeling practically worse than I used to after a grueling day at cheer camp (yes, I did just mention cheerleading camp on my blog).  I was so confused.  Many thoughts were racing through my mind, "I'm in shape, right?  Why am I SO sore???  Dang it Tanner, why did you tell me to lock my legs???  I KNEW I should've held on with both arms."  Luckily, we got at least one picture out of this experience.

It's official.  It's practically Friday and I'm still aching.  Will the mechanical bull be seeing my game face next fall?  No.  

Okay, that was me being dramatic again.  I'll be there... AND I'll be upping my time.  2 weeks of an aching body?  Pocket change.  

p.s. Is October really almost over?! 

Dear Something New Part 2,

Well, here are some pictures of the new cut.  I know people... it's quite the change, but each day I start to like it more and more.  I'm not one to be all upset if other people don't like it as much as I do, but let me tell you one thing that does bother me: when people voice their disliking in what they think is a clever way.  For instance, and I think the best yet, is when they say, "Do YOU like it?"  Yeah.  That one kills me.  Something about the phrase really gets beneath my skin.  Luckily, I've only heard it once thus far... let's keep it that way!  

So... here it is!  The latest and greatest Ashley... and p.s. the last picture is from our roommate photo shoot.  The pictures are great... post to come!  

Dear Something New,

She BANGS, She BANGS...

Well, it was time for a change.  We got a little bored the other day and decided it would be a really great idea to let Maeg cut some bangs for me!  After a couple snips of my hair throughout my scarf and 20 minutes later, I had bangs!  Maeg is such a little pro at everything though, so I wasn't too worried.  Not only does she go to college, but she's going on a mission AND hair school when she gets back.  Talk about real life achievements.

Now I have something to remind me of Maeg always when she leaves us for Temple Square next week :( 

Dear School,

I hate your stinkin' guts.

You make me vomit.

You're the scum between my toes.

Love,

Ashley

Dear Blessings,

I have so many of you lately! 

I am so blessed.  Really, I am one lucky lady.  I was looking at pictures from this summer: Peru, EFY, and my time spent with family and friends and I was once again reminded of how great my life is and really, has always been.  Such amazing opportunities seem to fall into my lap quite frequently and I am grateful for the lessons I'm able to learn from each of them.

This is me giddy and gay-faced about how happy life is making me these days:

Life isn't perfect, but it's close enough.  Things are just peachy-keen and I have no complaints. 

So blessings, you're more than welcome to keep pouring down. 

Dear Spanish Tutor,

I need you badly. 

As some of you know, I'm going back to Peru in May!  Woo woo!  I'll be doing the same thing, with the same kids, same place, yada yada.  Last summer I went for 10 weeks, but this time I'll only be going for just the month of May because my brother graduates in June so I need to make it back in time for that, and then EFY will start once again.  SO, I will be returning to Cusco, but for a shorter amount of time.  I couldn't be more excited though!  AND, this time I'm much better prepared.  I just found out yesterday that I'll be getting a Spanish tutor.  The professor set everything up...and lucky for me, I already know him!  He is from Lima, Peru and is a freshman this year at BYU.  I met him when we first got to Peru in April.  He is such a doll and I am so excited to finally become fluent!  

(That's just a picture of me and him in Lima my first day in Peru!) 

Dear hermanos de Peru.

One of our last days there with the boys :( ...we had them put their hand prints all over our shirts! 

This boy may have been one of the reasons I was supposed to go to Peru. 

They thought the guessing game was so much fun! 

Sweet little Armando.  I have a great video of him singing a song in Catchuwa that is too cute. 

Alberto!  He's a wild child and I love it!

Shoes, shoes, shoes.  They got a little out of control with the paint that day. 

Installing windows in a school... I cut my finger open that day.  I've got the battle wound to prove it! 

Just thought they would show off my non-washed, root infested, hair! 

A city outside of the Amazon.

One of the boys took this picture.  Such good photography skills! 

Mi hermano de Peru.  (My Peruvian brother).

Bernie!

Maxi, Alberto, and I watching movies on my camera

Luis!!  I love this boy! 

Putting the little kiddos to sleep during movie night. 

"Momma, momma!"  

I love my little brothers.

Maxi and I on one of my last days there.  

Taking Floix out for his birthday dinner one night (after I gave him his present).  

We just found out Efrain got adopted by a family in Argentina! 

These boys had me whipped! 

I miss these boys so much and think about them everyday.  I can't wait to go back in May and see them again!  They really did change me for the better and I am so blessed to have had this opportunity.  I thought I was the one going there to serve, but I couldn't have been more wrong.  I learned so much about life, people, and myself from those boys and I cannot thank them enough for the lessons they taught me.  

...so to my little Peruvian brothers, I miss you and love each one of you crazy guys!