High Five for Friday


Happy Friday All!
It's High Five for Friday time again! I really liked doing this post last week; it gave me an opportunity to reflect on the week and think of all of the good things that had happened. I don't know how, but this week flew by and I hardly remember any of it. It was, as always, overly busy at work. Today I was scheduled to take off at 1:00pm for a doctor appointment, but due to low staffing I stuck around as long as possible without missing my appointment. I got off at 2:30 and sped to my appointment. I could not believe how HORRIBLE traffic was on I-205 today. I barely made my appointment but I'm so glad I was able to go in. After my appointment I headed home to do some cleaning around the house. Mark has a patient coming in this weekend (probably tomorrow) and we have neglected our home with the hustle and bustle of the busy week. I got about an hour of cleaning in when the fire calls started coming in to our dispatch center... so back to work I went. I do like it when it is busy! So on to my High Five for Friday post...
1. Amelia working on a craft project for a very special someone! I love that Amelia shares my love of arts and crafts! 
2. Wednesday was my Mama's birthday. I am so lucky to have such an incredible mom! This weekend she is coming to town and we will be going to the zoo as a family on Sunday. I am so excited to go since it will be Amelia's first trip ever to the zoo. 

3. This little man spends every morning on the bathroom counter hanging out with me as I get ready. He sleeps until he hears me set my make up on the counter... then he wakes up and paws it all onto the ground. 

4. So finally, after only 1&1/2 months I finally went in to the doctor for the spots I have ALL over. I knew it was some sort of fungus, and I am quite positive I got it at the gym. I have tried over the counter creams and they were just not touching it. Sure enough the doctor confirmed it was a ring worm type fungus. She said that with the crazy rate this is spreading I need a prescription to take care of it. Hopefully this helps. 

 5. My latest addiction. This is as close as I can get to a hardcore coffee drinker. 

Well that's it folks. I did participate in the Foodie Pen Pal program for August and should be writing my post on it tonight, but I'm too tired to post anything more. Look for what I received tomorrow! Enjoy the holiday weekend. 

Ashley Elizabeth
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A Beautiful Union


I've known Sheena for years now. Her and I first met in high school when I joined the tennis team. Her sister Briana and her (they are twins) were a doubles team and I always had so much fun going to matches with them. Since the girls are two years older than I am they went on to college while I remained in high school. When my best friend Molly and I (my doubles partner) decided to go to college at OSU we were very excited that we would get to hang out with the twins again! We have so many great memories and so many great years of friendship. When Sheena introduced us all to Jason you could instantly see the chemistry that they had. Jason is such a wonderful guy and together they make one incredible couple. I am so happy that they are now man and wife and I wish them every happiness in the world.

 The Bride and Groom

 The Beautiful Bride and I

 Gorgeous!

 The Ladies (Ali, Margaret, Briana and Kelsey)

 Ribbon Dancing... heck yes!!!
Jenna entertaining Amelia on the dance floor... because every pony should be allowed to dance

 The Man and I

 This Bride sure knows how to get down!

Even the ponies had a great time
Ashley Elizabeth
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High Five for Friday


Friday Friday Friday! Oh how I love Fridays! I'm going to start a regular Friday post (as often as I can) to list 5 great things about the week. So... here is my first High Five for Friday post... an idea that I got from the blog From My Grey Desk.


1. Thank you to my sister Erica for scanning tons of childhood pictures! It was a blast looking through them this week. This is a picture of me when I was little.

 2. The first haul out of our garden! Cucumbers, Sugar Snap Peas, Turnips and Tomatoes

 3. My Sleeping Beauty! I am pretty sure Amelia is growing. Both Wednesday and Thursday nights when I picked her up from work she immediately fell asleep in the car... and then proceeded to sleep through the entire night and not wake up until 7 the next morning.

 4. Great movie! I saw it in the theater with my sister Erica and just had to buy it. Mark even liked it when we watched it Wednesday night. 

5. What a great sunset... and such a pretty girl. I'm glad the weather was a little cooler this week! I love the end of summer when we start to move into fall. 

So that's it for my first High Five for Friday post! 
Ashley Elizabeth
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Hello Hello


I can't believe how long it has been since my last post. The days are just going by way too fast and I can't believe I'm already talking to Amelia about her Halloween costume, but it will be here before I know it. Work has been keeping me extremely busy, we've sent engines all over the state to fight fires and our own district has been busier than the past few seasons for sure. In my free time I've been trying to catch up on sleep and family time. Amelia is definitely a little neglected by her Mama lately, unfortunately. Our weekends have been great lately and I'm trying to get as much Mama Amelia time in as possible. Here are some pictures of what we've been up to...


Laughing and dancing around

 Making silly faces

Amelia's first time ever getting a pedicure

 Growing a garden

 Riding ponies

 Enjoying the county fair

 Enjoying the sun

Patiently waiting to go on a new adventure

 Climbing on daddy

Riding on the neighborhood trolley

After the weekend I am generally more tired than I am all week. I think I try to cram too much into my weekends to make up for my long weeks away from home. Mark is working at his new clinic and has had so many new patients already. I'm really excited and proud of him. Now if only I could afford to quit my job and stay home with Amelia, life would be good. 

I'm pretty sure I've mentioned my poor eating habits during times of stress... well I am definitely living this right now. My diet sucks and my exercising has been even worse. I MUST do something to change this rut I am in. I don't get off of work tomorrow until 7:00pm so I think I will just take a change of clothes to work with me and have Mark meet me at the gym to get Amelia so I can work out. I'm going to set myself a couple of goals until October and then re-evaluate where I'm at. 

Goal 1: track EVERYTHING! I use Sparkpeople.com and was doing very well with my weight loss when I was diligent about tracking what I eat

Goal 2: exercise at least 2 nights per week. I know it should be more but considering it is currently at , ZERO, 2 nights is doable. I will increase it once fire season is over.



Ashley Elizabeth
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One year down... a lifetime more to go!



One year ago today I married the love of my life. Mark and I met while in college and after a year spent becoming best friends we decided that we meant more to one another than that. November 9, 2006 we became official (technically the 8th but that was another good friend's birthday and I wanted us to have our own date... so I waited until midnight to agree that we should date). We've had our ups and downs over the past few years, and we've been through a lot together, but I believe every experience has helped us grow as a couple. May 2008 we got the surprising news that we were expecting a baby. Even though I shared the news with my best friend Molly before telling Mark, he got over it and our excitement grew about the little life we were bringing into this world. February 11th, 2009 we headed into the hospital and after a tiring 38 hours of labor, the evening of February 12th, our little angel was born. Learning and growing as new parents really brought us closer together. May 1st 2010, my 25th birthday, Mark proposed to me and I of course said yes!!! So... that brings us to where we are today. Living in a little home in Oregon City, with our daughter and our cat; complete bliss.

From now until death do us part... I plan on practicing patience, saying I'm sorry, admitting when I'm wrong, not making my excitement so obvious when I'm right, give kisses before bed each night, end each call with "I Love You" and continue to build our family with the most amazing father and husband I know.

Mark and I had planned on going to the coast for the weekend, but with the weather deciding to get up into the scorching hot temps and lightning looming over our district, I decided we better cancel our plans and hang out close to home. My parents took Amelia camping for the weekend... two whole nights away from Mama; a first. Mark and I started out our Friday night at the local pub and made plans to spend Saturday in downtown Portland. Saturday morning we slept in late and then headed to the Portland Art Museum. There were 5 Monet paintings that I was dying to see, and thankfully Mark appreciates art as much as I do.

 Monet

 Monet

Van Gogh
Mark made reservations for us at the Portland City Grill, a schnazzy place on the 30th floor. Let me just say, dinner was amazing and the view was fantastic! All I can say is thank goodness we didn't eat lunch and had a very small breakfast. We started off with a Kung Pao Calamari appetizer, Mark had a beer and I had a Champagne Supernova. For dinner Mark had a steak with asparagus and fries (they stacked his fries all fancy-like and drizzled a sauce over them) and I had crab cakes with gnocchi and some greens. They treated us to a chocolate mousse dessert with brownie, cherries and vanilla bean whipped cream, but Mark had also ordered buttermilk donuts for himself and vanilla bean creme brulee for me. We were so full by the time we left, but it was incredible food.


Kung Pao Calamari

 Champagne Supernova

My awesome husband

The view from our table

It was nice to spend a weekend with just Mark, but we both missed Amelia so much. Sunday we just lounged about and then picked her up. She gave us the biggest squeeze ever! I'm so blessed to have such an amazing little family. 

Our girl this morning... happy to be home with her Mama, Daddy and Rudy Cat.

Our house is still sweltering hot. I think it is time to hit the sheets upstairs with the AC.

Ashley Elizabeth
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