What is it with Sundays?

So I will admit I have been spoiled recently by not having to watch money so closely. Now I do budget and stick to it but its been nice to just kinda do what I want when I want. However its funny how God works bc I have enjoyed buying nice things for me as well as others. On Sunday we gave our youth pastors wife a baby shower so I was at the church from 8:25 for regular duties until about 6:45 so needless to say my feet were hurting. As I sat down on the couch Joanna turns to Todd and says Ashley will go with you. I said go where? I am tired. I was out late Saturday night with a very handsome fella and then forgot about time change...which I have never done before. Anyways he said he needed me to go with him to a single moms house and since he is a dude he needs someone to go with him. So I went and that's when GOD started dealing with me. This lady is incredibly smart and has made a nice living for herself and her family however a few months ago something tragic happened and changed their lives forever so she is now single with 6 children to raise. I had heard her story before and thought the situation was sad but when I was standing in her house and putting groceries away and helping Todd check on the heat it all kind of hit home with me. I have the luxury of running into Kroger and grabbing something and then going to a drive thru and ordering whatever and not really thinking about it. But to this lady running in to spend 5 bucks could mean milk in the fridge or trimmings for a meal. Then I decided that the situation really just ticks me off. SO many churches will be helping the homeless this season by getting food, clothing, blankets, etc. but what about the people in your own church. So many people may show up every Sunday with a smile on their face but they could be just 5 dollars short of being homeless. We need to help those who are a part of our church family first! People are good at hiding benevolence this lady to look at you would never know. See she is use to the "high life" so she has nice things but bc of this tragedy she at times struggles to eat and feed her family. I hope this season I remember to continue to help others and remember the true meaning. Thank you God for opening my eyes to those around me who I see every week help me to be a blessing to them and to know that you are always in control.

Sunday! Sunday! Sunday ,and the rest of the week!

I had the honor of taking my Aunt and Uncle to the airport Sunday as they are going to adopt a child from the Ukraine. They already have 3 children but Xhenya (Jimmy) came over on an exchange program and they fell in love with him and decided to adopt. He has lived in an orphanage his whole life. He will be the only adopted person in our family ever, so I think if cool. The crazy thing is that he favors my cousins he will be living with. He has the tan skin, dark hair, and great smile that lights up his whole face. I was only supposed to take them to a church in the area, but half way there they forgot some things and we had to turn around, so I ended up taking them all the way to the airport. I have not gotten to spend alot of time with them recently so it was nice to catch up. We started talking about church and I mentioned that we were getting a new pastor and he was being announced and come to find out they know him. It was the strangest thing, but helped me bc you know sometimes you get away from kind of how you were raised, but still really respect it and its nice to know that a person coming in your family loves and believes in so to say.
Since February of this year our church has been just going through some things. Our former pastor decided to commit adultery and instead of being accountable for his actions decided to skim the truth and resign. Since then he has started a new church trying to cause a church split. Now with that said when I was talking to my Aunt and Uncle they asked who the pastor was and I told them, turns out they knew when this had happened with him just a few years ago. However God is so good, our church is actually growing and people who had quit coming are back in attendance every week. My heart breaks though for those who followed him, some of those people have the greatest hearts and I would hate for them to get hurt and never step in a church again. If you live in Sin all week whether its living with a boyfriend/girlfriend, having sex before marriage, or getting drunk every night and go to church on Sunday and its not only condoned but you feel ZERO conviction I think that is a HUGE problem....just saying. Anyways we are excited about our new pastor I think he will be great ministering to what we have all been through and continue to recover from.
Also since Sunday was Halloween our church had a Boo Bash where we decorated the mansion and had tons of activities going on. We were also having a trunk or treat so we decorated our cars. Has anyone tried to decorate your car before? First off there are like zero costumes for it I guess mainly because you have to drive it. However I wanted mine decorated so I decided to make it into a Hersey Kiss and it was an absolute hit. It took an orange cone and 4 things of Alumin foil but looked great. Boo bash was successful although I did have my doubts about it earlier in the day. However we left there about 10 and it was all in all a busy but great day.
Monday I walked into work and by boss had decided to start putting up Christmas we are in a 1700 sq ft building and from Monday until today we have put up and fully decorated 5 trees and 2 more are waiting for their ornaments to come in. It has been crazy I have worked about open til past close, but our trees look great and we are almost completely ready. I will post pics later so you all can see the trees. In the midst of putting up the trees and decorations we had a customer ask when we would be putting them on sale. I said well they are for sale, she said oh no honey I don’t pay full price for anything. I said well if you check back on Dec 26th you may be in luck. Really, people come on!?!
Well that is my week I know I went more on Sunday than the rest of the week, but decorating trees is not all that exciting when its at work. Now I am going to watch Toy Story 3 with my lil hommees.

Side Note

So not a whole lot is going on. Relaxing from the wedding and trying to get back on track with my working out and eating right...easier said than done. Work is crazy tomorrow is my last day off for 9 days. We will be decorating trees each with a different theme so I will be done looking at Christmas before it even begins, and light riding is one of my favorite things to do. lol Something crazy happened last night and I am sure I am making a bigger deal out of it than it actually is, but it was creepy. I went to bed around midnight and was woken up at 2:30 with a phone call from a Restricted number. Here is the conversation.
Guy Voice- Ashley?
Me- Yes
Guy- Wassup?
Me- Who is this?
Guy- You know who this is.
Me- No, who is this
Guy- You know me.
Me- Hang up
He called back we had the same EXACT conversation and I hung up. He called back again and I ignore it and turned my phone off. I have no clue who it was or even why I hung up, normally I want to know who it is and what they want, but lets face it at 2;30 a.m its a good thing I know my name. It has bugged me all day really just kinda annoying I guess.
On another note I have had a great week with a few of my friends I went and saw Social Network which I was uncertain about but ended up being extremely funny and interesting. Last night I hung out with the kiddos and a friend came over and made a tent the size of our living room and we all watched Garfield the movie under it. Praise the lord for great times and good friends!!

Craziness Weekend ENDS!!

So this weekend was crazy busy, praise the lord I have a great boss. My day started Friday at 3:30 at the ATL airport picking up one of my cousins whose plane was oh an hour and a half late. Its all good though except that when she landed at 5:00 we had one hour to get to Macon to be on time for the wedding rehearsal. Being I was Maid of Honor and she was Wedding Coordinator we thought we should be on time at least lol. Well I am driving down 75 going about 80 ( which is rare for me) and we come to a dead halt....not looking good a semi and VW decided to play. We finally were moving again about 5:30 and I started going 85 and praying there were no cops. We made it to the rehearsal at 6:30 which was perfect bc they had just finished unloading the car and arranging the room for Sunday. From rehearsal we went to dinner at a Vietnamese restaurant which was amazing. Finally got to Paula's (my cousin) apartment and my sister says hey Ash where is the dress you brought for me to wear.....um about that its still hanging in my closet in Loganville. :/ I totally forgot her dress after she told me she was depending on me to bring it. Thankfully I am an over packer so she had 2 dresses to choose from and they were cute. We went to bed around 3 Saturday Morning woke up at 8 Saturday Morning to go get pampered. I was like we are waking up to go get pampered this doesn't make much sense in my head but I am here for the ride. Three hours later we leave the salon and go do more errands....did I mention there was a wedding today for the grooms sister. I think it is impolite to announce your wedding date as the 17th and your sister says well then I will do mine the 16th?!?!?!?! Girl you are crazy!! That means that not only do you have to postpone your honeymoon but that you also have to be IN another wedding the next day. I will say it was nice on the Grooms family who was in from out of town they could do both weddings in the same weekend. Saturday while Le Mai and John were at the other wedding the rest of us went to roll egg rolls!! If you don't know much about my family you know we are southern to the core but we have egg rolls at every major family get together. LOL Afterwards we went and met up with Bride to be and made sure she got plenty of rest. Sunday was our big day we started decorating about 9 and were done at Noon... the rest of the day leading up until showtime was filled with getting ready, photos, and making sure Le Mai ate. We start the wedding about 4:15 and everything goes as plans I help her circle the groom 7 times as its part of Jewish custom and take my place on stage. The rabbi starts and states " in a moment the couple will exchange VOWS"...Oh crap Le Mai had handed me her vows and I gave them to the Paula (the coordinator) who was suppose to hand it back to me walking down the aisle, but we both forgot. Looking panicked I turned and catch the attention of a cousin and tell her to get Paula..she breaks out her phone to text her when I see the photographers assistant. I get her attention and she comes over to me and I whisper to her the situation, she goes and gets the vows and hands them right to me. Praise God for photographers the only people allowed to get on and off the stage and not one person wonders why. Everything from there was perfect from the first dance until we sent them off under sparklers it was the perfect day for her. I finally made it back to Paula's place about 11:30 we soaked our feet as we had been in incredibly high heels for most of the day. The wedding and craziness was finally over and everyone was happy and good to go. I woke up Monday morning to leave Macon and come to work. I was so tired all day Monday but it was well worth it. During this weekend Stephen and Tabitha got married and my best bud Anil had his engagement party if I could have been 3 places and 2 states at once I would have, I may be dead today but I would have celebrated with everyone. :)

Just a Thought

So its been a while. I know. I know. Better later than never. I finally had a night tonight where I could come home catch up on everyone Else's blog and now write one of my on. A whole lot has happened in my life and a lot is still happening. I have learned a few lessons lately that I thought I would share, and you may already know this but its things I am figuring out now.

1) People don't really care, they do for a season or when its convenient but past that its all about them.

2) People are so desperate to get married they decide to lower there morals for a relationship that in the end or even from the beginning is doomed. The saying Having someone is better than no one needs to be compared to Having the wrong someone is worst than having no one.

3) People abuse niceness or think you want something more if you are just being nice.

4) Budget...its not that difficult and just bc someone else acts like they have a lot of money, you are better off looking out for you not trying to keep up with the Jones. Just bc someone acts like they have money doesn't mean they do. Credit cards do not mean you are good with money it means you are good at being in debt.
5) Read the fine print in EVERYTHING if its too good to be true it prob is.

6) Just be you... in the long run You are You have and its good enough... its the best.

To be friends or not to be?

Wow! I know its been awhile...but I have been oh so busy. However I will not bore you with the Drama of my family reunion weekend ( it was beyond amazing) or tell you about the church situation. I will however start with how I feel today at this moment. Since I am a woman it could all be different tomorrow but for now this is how I feel ...I am so thankful for the friends in my life. I am so glad that whether I talk to them everyday or just every so often we are fine and we can pick up where we left off. This past weekend was so jammed packed that when I woke up Monday morning I felt drugged. I did however end it at one of my favorite friends baby shower. Although I wish I would have went solo and just stayed the night it was nice and well done. She is one of my friends that I would love to talk to everyday (even though she hates talking on the phone) but we can always talk and catch up and it not be weird. I have found that all girls in my life cause me far less drama than the guy friends in my life. I love that my friends know that I am just a phone call away and will help however I can. However in a friendship I do expect certain things and what I expect is respect and communication. I am so tired of when someone is done talking to you they ignore text and phonecalls and you are left like Ok I thought we are fine but obviously not. I am so tired of being the nice friend and then get nothing back in return it really pisses me off. With all of this being said I think it may be time to clean out my friend basket. I am just tired of being in one sided friendships dont use me and then be done with me. If you want to be my friend then freaking talk to me and communicate with me. It really is not that hard. I feel like I stay so busy with things ALL the time but I still make time for what is important to me. Do you?

Just Rambling

Wow what a week it has been. I have seen 2 movies Dear John and Valentines Day they were both really good. However I did think that Dear John could have ended better but what do I know. I have had 2 parties a Superbowl party and a valentines party they were both pretty fun one lasting much longer than the other though.
Twane and Bobbi Jo got a new puppy name Khole she is so cute. I told her we had to give her a last name bc all my other "Dogs" have a last name and since they are not in the witness protection program I will name them Meah Tronopolis (sp?) Dakota Fanning Rosanna Bar and now Khole Kardashian. Meah and Kota have moved a few hours away but they are so sweet and even go to their spot which we all know as the time out corner. Miss you pups!!
What else is new....oh yeah MY KIDS seem to think that KC has hung the moon not only did they stay the night at his house the other night but today Chase asked me when KC was coming over to do something on the Wii and then when he got here Lillie was sitting all up next to him???? Excuse me that that is not ALLOWED lol. However I am glad he is such a good buddy these past months would have been hard without him he is a great FRIEND.
It is amazing how time changes things. When I was little and I stayed home from school I went NO Where for the whole day. Now kids miss school and go to friends houses or go shopping or whatever. My mama said if you are sick enough to miss school you are sick enough to not go anywhere but home. The reason I say this is bc so many kids have been sick this week including "mine" and they are still going to games,parties, and sleepovers. I guess this may change though when I become a parent who knows.
It snowed here this week and it was so so pretty however people around here can not drive in the sunshine much less Snow so things were interesting. Heading to a friends house on Friday night there were 4 cars in ditches. However me and my me maw driving self made it just fine.
I know this is all over the place...Sorry! Hope you all have an amazing day.

I am Done!

So today I decided that it was time to do what Ashley wanted to do and stop living for other people. I do not care if you need some one to watch your dog, house, car, or kid. I do not care if you have 10,000 people coming to your house and have no food or time to prepare. I do not care if you repeatedly get yourself in the same situation bc you feel the more you hang out with the guy one day he will fall madly in love you with you but you come home with the same sob story (NOT LISTENING). I know this may sound harsh but I am tired of being the friend that is Always there that always listens to your sob story and only a phone call away if you get yourself in a pickle. I am over it I have a life its a nice life. A few days ago a friend and I were talking and she said you know Ash we are just nice people and others see that and take advantage, you know what she is right. It makes me so mad that bc you think that I am single I can go and do for you all the time. I should not feel bad if I want to go get my hair and nails done or go on a shopping spree or take myself to a movie. I am actually okay with that....I refuse to be at any ones bake and call c'mon now! I refuse to change my plans bc you did not make any of your on until the last second and somehow it is my fault....although we dont know how its all my fault. If you want to include me in your plans please do so immediately as I am not bailing on another friend bc something else came up. *********Okay I feel better I just really really wanted to say that although this blog is not pointed at any persons directly I feel better for having said it.
Now today has been a good day started out with a breakfast with a friend who I had some questions for and completely forgot to ask .(I think I need to start writing more things down) Then I went to work which seemed to drag by for whatever reason we had plenty to do and evidently plenty of time to do it. A few of my favorite customers came in so it was nice. After work I had decided that I was having some me time came home and decided to go have dinner with a few people and some new friends. Ran in Wal-Mart where I ran into 6 families that go to my church this is the only place I am sure to go and see someone that I know. However they all saw me Yelled and I was late to my dinner. Oops! :( my night went on from there and now it is definitely time for bed.

What a Rainy day!

Superbowl is this weekend and I am sad some of my good friends who ALWAYS host a party have moved(you know who you are P.F.C.K.W and Marine Wife Webb) and now the only one I know of just will not be the same. Everyone around here seems to be sick and I am finally much better after about 2 weeks. I am however struggling with FAKE people this week. It amazes me how people walk around thinking they are the best thing since sliced bread and using people and totally not seeing anything wrong with it. How can you sleep at night? What gives people the right to put themselves on a pedestal? It's just wrong to me. If they would just come down a few notches they could actually learn that people have feelings and if you communicate the RIGHT way with them things could go your way. But who knows. I am so tired of every ones drama I don't want it...it's not who I am. I am good with being plain ole Ashley who is easily amused and entertained if you don't like it you don't have to hang around me. I am good with me. :) One of my preschoolers looked at me today and said Miss Ashley you are the silliest person I know and I laughed because I am OK with that. I love my Lil kids. Guess that is all for now.

So its been a while and SO SO much has happened! Over this past year I have learned so much about who I am and what I am willing to put up with relationship wise as well as work wise. I was in a relationship with a guy who I thought was amazing. The truth is I still think he is a great guy but he is not the one for me. I do hope one day for whatever reason we will be able to speak and get along on a normal basis. I am working 2 jobs and having a blast....so far. I definitely know that I do not want to do it long term but for now the money is nice. I have moved out on my own or with a roommate rather I like it but do miss my family time so to say. I feel that I am an easy person to live with and living with 6 other people for 5 years I thought it would be a breeze to go to one. She is great but its odd getting up to a quiet house or even coming home to an empty house but I am learning.
I do struggle with all of my good friends being married and some starting families while others have already had them. I know one day my prince will come but it gets old being the only single one at the party or the family reunion or just being the single friend. This past relationship made me really not even want to date again but I have moved past that now and feel ready. I guess only time will tell.
This week has been interesting all on its on I have had the unique opportunity to work in a store where I can grow I am going to Vegas with the company in April for a premiere which I am so pumped about. I also learned something to which I pose this question if you knew someone was struggling with a situation and knew it was about to hit them again would you warn them? I want to but not sure quite what to say or if it is even my place. I have expressed how I feel about it and yet they keep doing the same thing, but now I don't want to say I told you so, so I think I may just let them do their thing and just be a friend to them when it happens. I D K....this prob does not make much sense but I had to get it off my chest so to say.