this is what i do.

I know I need to post something new but nothing new is really going on! I have spent most of my free time lately getting things organized for the Osteopathic Fun Run that I'm in charge of. It's been such a great experience but it really does require a lot of time on my part. I was so stressed out about it last week that I was kind of a basket case and I think Eric was remembering the not-so-nice Ashley that he has been all too familiar with in the years past. I made myself take a break over the weekend and put it out of my head and today I'm feeling a lot better with lists anew and things waiting to be crossed off, which brings sweet joy to my heart! Feel free to visit the blog that is associated with the run and leave comments too so I don't feel like a loser...thanks. I'm just in the midst of wrapping up sponsors and then I'll have a fresh load of work to do.

And just as a side note, I really want to live in this picture right now. Of course I stole it off the internet so I don't know where it is, but I want to sit on the fence and look at those gorgeous mountains, wherever they are.

my project happiness.

I woke up this morning with my eyes sealed shut with puss and mucous from the stink eye (pink eye). I've had this sucker twice in one year...how is that fair? And this time it was in both my eyes! If that wasn't bad enough my ear felt like someone hit me in the head with a hammer. Needless to say, it wasn't a great morning. I hooked Bostyn up to "The Lion King" followed by "Spirit" and then just a touch of "Monster's Inc." I took myself a six hour nap, yes, you heard me right...SIX HOURS!! It was fabulous and I must say I'm feeling a lot better now. So good in fact that I finished up this project.

(I'm still not sure if it's too Halloween...you can tell me.) This project was inspired by this lovely lady who had the B.E.S.T. idea ever and she teaches a mean turbo kick-boxing class to boot! This idea came from my dear sister who is absolutely amazing! So there you have it! Here's to Project Happiness!

a trip to 1000 hills.

It was a whopping 30 degrees on Saturday and I was feeling pretty good about a little outing. I mean it may have well been spring!! So we took a drive to my favorite place in the world a.k.a 1000 hills state park. I've posted pictures of it in the past... it is amazing to watch it go through the changes of the seasons. My first experience with it was this huge gorgeous deep blue lake surrounded by millions of bright green trees, then in the fall the lake turned sort of a grayish color and the leaves were browning up by then and now the whole thing is frozen solid, there are billows of snow all over it and random chunks of frozen ice, they sky is always pretty grey and they lack of contrast is actually quite lovely. It makes these creepy groaning noises like there are strange creatures living under there.. I got there at the perfect time when the sun was just about to set and got some really cool pictures I think...so enjoy :)

the window.

I love my little family. They make me so happy!

wishing...

I want to look outside and see this...

instead of this...

Is it too early to be wishing for Spring?

a little bostyn update.

Our cute little booger face, and her new accomplishments...

Bostyn has impressed us with her mad "hard-core parkour" skills.

Ready. Steady.

Go!

Look at that concentration!

She takes it quite seriously and is very proud of herself. Sometimes she doesn't land so great and needs some love from daddy.

Afterward she likes to climb in the dolly's "walk" and go for a walk around the house.

Followed up by a mouth full of forks. (So that's what she likes to eat.)

She gathers her flowers and plays "flower shoppe" for a good 15 minutes by herself. I peek my head in there from time to time and she's just happy as a bee sticking those flowers in and out of the window just chattering away.

She has developed quite the little temper (ahem...Eric) and if she doesn't get her way she throws crayons at me. :(

And...she is officially over her fear of the snow, which makes for some good mommy-daughter walk time.

We love this little one.

longest post ever

Well I suppose it's time to update about all the Christmas Break festivities even though the thought makes me nauseous. I hate blogging when I have to, but since this is pretty much replacing my scrapbook I've just got to suck it up! So without further ado I present to you...break09...

The fun began with a 3 hour drive to Kansas City to catch our plane, it's a good thing we left early because we had a 3 hour delay. Wouldn't want to be late for that! Once we were all settled onto the plane, Bostyn decided to throw up all over the place. I'm usually OK with all of Bostyn's bodily functions but I was really struggling to keep it together in the back of the plane. I felt really bad for all the other people who had to be stuck with us...sorry! Luckily Eric was there to pretty much take over because I wasn't much help. But after a full day of traveling we arrived at our destination. I was pretty bummed when we all ended up getting sick. So the first week we were pretty much out of it, and did lots of sleeping.

But we still managed to have good times...


We did a lovely Christmas Eve dinner with the Beal Family followed up by some awesome family home videos of past Christmas's. We ran into a couple birthday's too. (Ryan: "dad what about me? what about me dad?"...one of those you had to be there moments.) Ah, I love my second family...they are hilarious!




Christmas Day.

Christmas Night with the Anderson Clan.


The cutest angel in all the land.


This was an "Ashley" moment that I'll go ahead and share with all my readers. We were eating dinner with the Beal's and anyone who knows me, knows my sneezes can be quite powerful. Well to be polite I turned my head away from the table and sneezed with such vigor that I whacked my eyebrow on the corner of the chair. There was blood and everything. Leave it to me to do something completely idiotic!


The blasted corner.

Bostyn finally feeling better!

Eric even had time to fit in a portrait of cute Cohen.

The New Years Eve Extravaganza included a night with our friends Mike & Brit and Arm & Rachel. How we miss them!! We rocked out on rock band for most of the night because well we were pretty amazing. There was good food, good laughs, inappropriate humor at times but overall so so fun to be back with our peeps.


My sexy rock star!


Lunch with my sister's (minus Cristelle)


He doesn't look like his mom or anything.


Cutest Ginger.


Boppy & Papa.


The beginning of the end.


Bostyn falling apart.



The end.

Yellow teeth and a shovel.

I really have a lot of blogging to catch up on, but all I really want to write about (vent about) is this man I had the pleasure of meeting yesterday. (she thought sarcastically)

So I get a door bell ring around 3 in the afternoon. I hate answering the door when #1 it isn't someone delivering me a package, #2 when it's someone I don't know, and #3 when it's a creepy man with yellowing teeth and a bike.

Well it happened to be the latter. He goes on for about 5 minutes about how my walk and driveway are really icy and there is a big storm coming and he will clear off all the ice prior to the big storm and then come in the morning and shovel us out of the drive-way all for a mere $15. Oh and btw people are being fined all around the city for having ice on their walks...poppycock!

I know it's my fault. I have a problem telling people "no" even though in my head I'm thinking creepy yellowing teeth & his bike = rip off. But to get him off the front porch I said OK. It's not like I don't have $15 lying around or anything. ( :( )

Well he wants to be paid up front and I say "you usually get paid after you complete a job." He goes on to tell me he really needs it now and that he is 100% trustworthy...big red flag, but still I continue to indulge him so I grab him the check and decide to head to the library while he does the ice under the car. I come home to find the drive-way exactly how it was the moment I left the house and the bike man gone. GRrrr. Second red flag. But oh no too late I already gave him the money.

Do I even need to tell you that he didn't come back this morning to shovel the drive way? No, I don't think I do. But he didn't and the car did end up getting stuck so Eric missed a quiz and a lab. I called that Bill Mears and gave him a piece of my mind and he called me a "hate-full woman."

That may be true but I'm sick of being taken advantage of. When am I going to learn my lesson....right now I tell you, right NOW! Never again will I let anyone do simple tasks like shoveling the walk when I can do them myself!

Oh and I had nightmares all night of this man breaking into my house and killing me. If that happens you'll know who it is...

beautiful night

to celebrate my parents' anniversary the whole family met at temple square to see the beautiful lights. afterwards we gathered at their home for delicious chocolate cake and frivolity. I'm so happy that my parents tied the knot 36 years ago.

the bitter cold.

It has been frigid here lately frigid I tell you! The first snow of the season left a nice layer of ice over everything. Although it was only about an inch or two high they closed the schools for the day and now i know why. It is impossible to drive on these icy roads, unless you want to end up in a ditch or slammed into a stop sign since there is one placed unnecessarily on EVERY corner! So we haven't gone out much except on Sunday we ventured out to the lake. I think these pictures do Missouri (mi-sery) justice.



Doesn't it just look so cold and dank....well it is. But we are still able to find beauty, for example we were just playing outside at the lake and we hear this eerie kindof squawking, and it just keeps getting louder and louder and then around the corner comes thousands of these birds flying over the lake. It was quite spectacular. I've never seen a flock of birds like that in motion, it was breath-taking!


Eric & I have been loving our new camera! Taking pictures has a whole new meaning for us now. We love it! Thank you discover card for making it possible for us to own something we really can't afford..:)

So this lady in my ward, her husband makes desks out of oak and they always have left over scraps laying about so she brought in a huge bucket of these perfect little blocks. Bostyn is totally loving the blocks lately so I thought this would be a perfect Christmas present! After the first couple were painted i realized my artistic abilities are quite hideous so i decided to do them this way instead...

I am such in the Christmas spirit! I love having a child to spoil and explain what Christmas is all about. She doesn't act like she gets it at all but i haven't been this excited about Christmas since i was a kid. It makes me want to create warm family traditions like we had when i was a little girl. As I look back on all the memories i have about growing up and Christmas, it makes me so so grateful that i grew up in the family that i did. Thank you mom & dad for making things so fun for us and getting SO excited about everything. Thank you sisters for being my best friends and sharing in those memories.


Me and Bostyn ventured out into the frigid cold yesterday to play in the snow. I was trying to get her all pumped up..."Bostyn aren't you so excited to play in the snow? oh it will be so much fun!! I can't wait!!" this was all intermixed with clap claping, dance dancing, and of course the awesome facial expressions. I got her all bundled up and out we went. At first she just slowly walked out onto the porch, very observant-like and then she turned into a stiff board and started screaming.

She kept saying "It hurts! It hurts!" I don't really think it did but wow, I was so sad. I tried to comfort her and teach her how to throw snowballs but to no avail. She just stood by the door trying to turn the doorknob. We'll just have to keep trying, but not today.

night frolicking

last night Eric went outside to recover his pad of sketch paper that had been airing out because of mold infestation. (ew.)

Unfortunately, it didn't get much airing out done because it was hiding under a blanket of freshly fallen snow...boo for Eric, yay for me!

I love the first snow of the season, it's magical! We thought we'd try out my new tripod and get some pictures....

And there you have it, winter in Kirksville.

happy holidays to you!

I am so excited for Christmas! I just came to this realization after setting up my Christmas tree. Honestly, I kind of forgot that we had one but I was rummaging around in the cupboards yesterday and I found the box! So i spent the day finding little odds and ends around the house to use for ornaments. I found a bouquet of flowers and threw those on there and then some random ribbon. I know I'm no pro, but I will toot my own horn for just a moment and say I think it looks pretty good! After that i was just giddy with excitement for the holiday season. After spending an hour or so trying to find the perfect holiday mix on pandora (and it never happening) I threw in the piper & chloe holiday mix, turned out all the lights except for the tree and me and Bostyn danced around singing Christmas songs. I was off in my own world singing for awhile and I looked down and Bostyn had fallen asleep under the tree with her "mimi" (blanket). It was so precious. (Then i picked her up to take her to her crib and she woke up and whimpered for about an hour before she fell back asleep.) But it was beautiful while it lasted.

Churches...

Bostyn & I are all about the walks. Whenever weather permits, (and even when it doesn't) you're sure to see us strolling around the streets of Kirksville. These are all the churches I get to walk past on my way to the city center.

Mary Immaculate

First Baptist Church

First Presbyterian Church

First Methodist Church

Masonic Temple

First Christian Church

Trinity Episcopal Church

winter = misery

It has been so dreary here the past couple weeks. I mean tell me honestly... do these pictures invoke any sort of happiness for anyone? After looking at them, I just want to make myself a nice cup of cocoa and put on my fluffy socks!


Boppy and I have been going a little stir crazy, these are some of the things that have kept us entertained...


moving all the furniture and running back and forth from wall to wall.


pretending I can't see her wrapped up in this thing and calling for her over and over again.. "Bostyn, where are you?" Oh she gets the biggest kick out of this.

pretending she's a lizard.


After being cooped up for a few days I decided I'd had enough so we went down to a little park and tried to find something beautiful and here's what we found...


kindof looks like a heart.


Bostyn being a tree-hugger...this one even got a kiss!

One lone flower...okay weed, but still.


I did find one tree that still has it's leaves...


I didn't realize that we were running through a swamp until it was too late, so we were filthy with mud surprise all over us when we got home, but it was worth the extra load of laundry to be outside for a little bit! We are so happy to have Eric back after his crazy week of finals. We get to have him for a WHOLE WEEK! Yipee.

the arch

(Forgive the randomness of pictures...) Boppy and I had a fantastic time on our trip to Utah! We miss those mountains and dry air so much already. It was busy busy busy and I can't really say it was much of a vacation, however, the showcase was a huge success and we are so happy that it went so well.

the girls

the ty & bostyn

the bostyn

I'm looking forward to a break from that blog so I can focus more on my own. So the flight home went great, after my initial take-off-anxiety attack, I did alright. Bostyn slept for about an hour and they gave me a whole row which I was super grateful for and just a plug for delta, they are seriously awesome to work with when you have a kid, at least for me, both times they put me in a better seat.

Well Eric was waiting for me at the airport and we had previously planned to spend the day in St. Louis since we rarely get to be in a big city so we started at the Gateway Arch which is borderline one of the coolest places I have ever been. It is so much bigger and higher than I ever imagined. We rode the little cable car thing to the top that overlooks the Mississippi and the city, it was seriously old school. It really felt like you were in a capsule, just a tiny little pod and you had to hunch over in your seat, but totally cool!

helicopter

building

city

in the arch

the bridge that inspired the arch.

Our day had to be cut a little short because we were both tired and not wanted to do the 3 hour drive home...oh but i planned ahead and uploaded "breaking dawn" onto my ipod...oh what a nightmare. I mean it's cheesy enough reading it in the privacy of your own company, but then to have it read out loud, while driving with your husband, oh the agony. I didn't think it was that bad when I read it the first time, but it is being banned from now on.

trip to utah

well in the process anyway. I decided to upload some pics since my memory card is almost full...and since Bostyn woke up at 5:00 this morning (again) it seems like I've got some time on my hands. Enjoy. (especially you babe...we MISS you!!)



Ah...the mountains...they are so lovely!


At the park.


I got to meet my new little nephew, Emmett. Oh he is precious!


Boppy and the cousins at Gateway.


Adorable little Ty.

piper&chloe

since you are all my beloved friends and family, I want you to enter this fantastic give-a-way for a $20 gift certificate to the best showcase in the salt lake valley (seriously) and if you don't live in utah...just try to win it anyway and then you can give it to me!!!

I love you all!!! Enter here....

We are enjoying the colorful fall that Missouri has to offer. It has been pretty rainy, so the first few days of sunniness and dryness, we took a walk to this amazing tree that has been just a pleasure to watch change. I wanted to get some pictures of it before all the leaves fell off. It turns out I forgot to take a picture of the actual tree but we decided to play in the leaves for awhile. This was the first playing-in-the-leaves experience for Bostyn and she was having a ball!

We also went to Truman Farm. I don't really know what the significance of this place is, other than the fact that Truman State University is in the same town??? Anywho we got to ride on the wagon-thing, gosh it's late...you know what I'm talking about...the tracker pulls you around...

Then we met Tanto the horse and Bostyn got to pet him!! (I'm laughing out loud at how lame this sounds)

Then she got to pick a pumpkin from the pumpkin patch! The littlest one for the littlest one!! And a spooky face from me! Happy Halloween! Anyway it was pretty fun and Eric got to be with us, which makes me happy no matter what we do.

This is what lies just beyond our doorstep. And that is all...goodbye.

potty blues

whoa, i'm tired. so i decided it would be a great idea to try and potty train Bostyn today. i did my research. i read a few potty training books. got all my supplies... my sussied up potty pants, an array of delicious treats, the wetting baby doll. i had my list of notes and steps to follow...

but the next 5 hours left me VERY frustrated and wanting to post-pone the whole ordeal. i think she might be too young, or at least that is going to be my excuse for the next couple months until i get the courage to start again. boo.


i drew the line when she starting climbing IN the potty.

little ginger snap...

Today I am getting a new little niece. I couldn't be more thrilled...well that's a lie, I wish I could be there to see her and to hold her, and to take care of her cute mama like she did for me when I had Bostyn 18 months ago. Thanks Linds, I'll never forget that! Gosh it's crazy how fast that has gone. It is amazing how much they change in the course of those first 18 months. The first month is a blur of all night feedings and daytime naps. Then the anticipation of smiles, laughs, and rolling over. The introduction of baby food and scheduled nap-time...life-saver!! Then when they start to develop a little personality. The scooting, the crawling, then the walking, followed by the running at full speed into everything. The first words, first sentences, first "I love you." Oh having a child is the most amazing thing in this world. Here's to all you stay-at-home mom's who get to experience it all first hand!

stage 5 clinger

How do you other mother's out there handle this phase? I really am in need of some advice. Bostyn is a little bit of a clinger. I can't really do much of anything unless it involves her being constantly in my lap, or hanging onto my leg. The exercise group that I'm involved with has 2 babysitters and probably about 8 other kids running around, a huge garbage can full of toys and it's in a racquetball court where there is room to run wild, but instead of playing with the other kids, or toys, or even running around, she sits in one of the girls' laps the WHOLE time. Is that weird? I don't know, maybe I'm more worried about it than I should be, but I really wish she was able to entertain herself. Is that something that can be taught? I love spending time with her, don't get me wrong, but everyone needs a break right? So be a sport and tell me your own experiences...


Other than that little issue...we are enjoying the beginnings of fall here in Missouri. Today is the first day it's been cool, as in bust-out-the-jacket cool. I love it! The air feels a little bit different than the dry, crisp air we're used to and I don't really know how to describe it other than it's not dry and crisp, just cool...so there you go! The leaves are starting to get that dried out look and some trees have little hints of red and yellow. I know it is going to be absolutely beautiful once all these millions of trees are in their apex of color-changing. Like this little forest me and Bostyn took a walk through the other day. Oh I can't wait!


Eric is doing well and enjoying his first quarter. I'm so happy for him, I can see such a huge difference in his aura and I know that this is exactly what he needs to be doing. He will be such an awesome doctor. He was voted class Vice President and has started a little group called the Secret Society of Study Stuff (SSSS) where a few students work on study guide materials and compile it into a big packet and send it out 24 hours before tests. It's such a great idea and I think it will help so many people. I wish we had something like that in undergrad!

thank you daddy

I love music. I don't just love music, I am passionate about it, i adore it. A good song can change my whole day and make me giddy with happiness.

thanks to my dad, who has taught me to appriciate music since my very first breath. I will always have fond memories jammin' out to the beach boys, tears for fears, and depeche mode on road trips when I was young. Even now he still is introducing me to cool music like boys like girls and plain white t's. How did I get such an awesome dad!

He even took me to my first concert when I was about 4 or 5. Tiffany, I thought she was the coolest person in the whole world! Check out this video...totally rad, but I'm 90 percent sure I was actually at this video shooting. I remember being in the front row because my dad had the hook up, I remember looking under the stage and thinking to myself..."man I really have to pee!" Well I didn't quite make it to the bathroom and I got my picture taken with Tiffany afterwards and you can see that I peed my pants. I bet no one has a cooler story than peeing your pants at your first concert!!

I also have to say thank you pandora for creating a musical revolution where I can find the most perfect station. My favorite station right now is The Secret Handshake. Every song is fit just for me.

charlotte

So when I was living in Logan, one day I walked across the street to my then boyfriend Eric's house, and saw a massive spider hanging from a tree. My walk turned into a run and I found Eric and told him to come look at this spider. We sat there and watched it for quite awhile in disgust.

So while we were sitting on the porch the other night, sipping our mountain dews, I saw out of the corner of my eye a huge scary spider building a web, not just any web mind you, this is a 3-foot project. We decided it was the same brand of spider we saw in Logan, so we continued to watch the spider build her web and it was actually pretty cool. And although a little creeped out, I throughly enjoyed myself. After watching such an undertaking of web building I became a little attached to my friend spider and decided to give her a name...Charlotte. Every night this week, right as the sun is absent from the sky, out creeps Charlotte into her web. I decided to introduce Bostyn to Charotte and now everytime we go outside she says "where the bo-bo." (spider) I thought 'oh how cute.' But the last couple nights she's been waking up at night crying and the first word out of her mouth is "bo-bo." I think she might be getting scared and can you blame her. Gosh what a sick mom am I introducing her to Charlotte. I'm knocking down the web today with mixed feelings. Call me crazy.

some catch-up

I had kindof a rough day I'm not gonna lie. It's been so nice having Eric around for the past month and a half and now that he has started school and is gone all day long I am feeling quite lonely....sigh. I miss my family. I miss my nieces and nefews. I miss Salt Lake City and I miss my comfy bed. Ok now my pity party is over and I will tell you that we kindof made some friends, well I don't want you to get too excited for me, it's not a for sure thing yet, but we were invited to this birthday party for this guy in our ward. They had a recipe for Cafe Rio burritos and just in time too because I was just telling Eric how bad I wanted one. Anywho when Eric told me we were invited I had this mixture of excitement + major anxiety. Meeting new people is such a scary thing for me. For some reason I have the worst social anxiety and get extremely awkward and nervous around people I don't know very well. But I figure I need to get over it sometime and what a better opportunity than now! So we went to the party and there was probably about 12 people there and everyone was really cool, there was a good flow of conversation, some hilarious jokes, frivolity, and I had a good time. I was happy that I went even though it did take me a bit out of my comfort zone. So with that said, here are just a few more pictures I've taken since we've been in Kirksville.

These are some pics of us in Adam-ondi-Ahman.

This is becoming one of my most favorite places in the world. It's called 1000 hills park and it is absolutly gorgeous. This lake is surrounded entirely by the greenest trees you've ever seen.

Steamboats and the Mississippi

Beautiful Nauvoo