Sunday

I was really excited for today to come because one of my friends Chelsea from BYU was going to be here for her cousin's homecoming and so me and mandy would be able to see her! we decided to meet at 3:30 at the temple because it was close to where her grandparents lived so she would be able to walk over and meet us there if she wasn't able to get use of a car. The thing we stupidly failed to realize is that there would be MILLIONS, ok.. not millions.. but plenty of missionaries roaming the grounds to make us feel maybe a tiny bit out of place :P but we eventually got over it and found a tree far away from everyone to sit under and just talk for the few hours we could until she had to leave to go to her family barbeque and i had to go to my cousins baptism :) Well we are just chatting away like old times (seriously mandy, chels, i cant WAIT until we all are livin together!) when all of a sudden we see a group of probably 20 elders walking straight for us! haha we immediately start freaking out wondering if we aren't allowed to be here or something when they all come up to us and suddenly blurt out... "will you take a picture with elder evans? he is kinda a nerd and wants to take a picture with you beautiful girls before he leaves to San Juan on wednesday!" we were stunned... uh, sure... then one elder as if it'll help motivate us to take the photo says "I'll even bear (bare?) my testimony for you in spanish!" haha so we agreed and 20 or so (im not exaggerating) elders most with cameras start snapping away getting their photos and laughing UNCONTROLLABLY at elder evans who at this point im sure felt quite awkward :P and then as promised, the one bore his testimony to us in spanish :) i dont understand much spanish seeing as jose only taught me restaurant words the other day but it seemed like he knew what he was talking about :D anyways here are a few pics from the whole ordeal lol

mandy, me, and chels :)

our view of the provo temple from the comfort of our shady tree :)

wow. haha you can just tell how awkward this was by just looking at this picture! lol it looks like he has takin a liking to mandy though ;)

we finally recovered from our shyness in front of all those missionaries in order to take a decent picture.
chelsea, me, elder evans, and mandy :)

after we finally said goodbye i sped home (im in a bad habit of speeding as of late) in order to change into some church clothes to be able to make it to my cousin Cullan's baptism! it was good to see family as always!! and we of course had the most delicious desserts ever afterwards (what is a baptism without "light" refreshments?) all in all it was a great day despite the combined priesthood/relief society lesson on living within your means. not that it was a bad lesson its just a scary thought that someday i wont be able to rely on my parents for money, insurance, food, housing, etc. haha but im sure i will survive :) anyways here is a pic of me, my sister kris, and lauren (one of my fav cousins) at cullan's baptism

another crazy weekend :)

two double shifts in the past 2 days. to say im tired puts it mildly lol. Im sure it only gets worse from here (at least that seems to be what people feel inclined to share with me. point and case my 19th birthday out with my friends at olive garden and waiter asks, "how old are you this year?" i say 19. and he says.. "it only gets harder, good luck") wow. I am not gonna lie to myself and say that he is wrong, but as it gets harder it gets more worth it right? growing up isn't easy but there are a lot of great things about going to school, getting married, having kids ya know? i dunno but it seems like the things you have to work the hardest at and for are the most worth it to me. but sheesh pessimism on my birthday was unacceptable!! ;) haha
anyways, so me and tava started out our weekend on friday by waking up at 5:30 and going to do baptisms which is quickly becoming the thing i look forward to every week! It is good to be able to do that with her and talk to someone about everything :) everyone is just so busy working (or getting married, cough.. ha jk i love you tiff, beth, kylee and marissa!) so when i do get to see my friends it is so much fun. then after i went running! also becoming one of my favorite things. haha you can run any emotions you have out of your system happy, mad, sad ya know? after running 5 miles i literally sprint to the shower and get to work in time to open all in like 40 minutes! i know. be shocked! this is me we're talking about, i am slow at everything! especially getting ready in the morning :P im at work and time goes on.. and on.. and on. and next thing you know im closing at wingers and get home at 12:15 am at which time i COLLAPSE into bed. I wish i could say that as a good girl trying to train for a triathlon i made it out for a run or to the pool, but alas i barely woke up in time to shower before making it back to wingers at 12:00 pm. sad i know! I tried to console myself by telling me that it was ok and that i could run after i got home from work but once again i end up getting home WAY later then expected and now what do ya know? I am not running but writing on my blog. meh oh well. It was so fun though!! today during the dead time between like 2:30 and 4:30 at wingers Jose and Nacho (two of the cooks) were teaching me and Aysia spanish!!! Pollo means chicken! my name is ashley is me llamo ashley! me encanta bailar means i love to dance or something like that, and Losiento? i dunno how to spell it means sorry and yeah..., i forgot most of what he taught us :P it was so funny we would be like Jose! como se dice... such and such and he would tell us real fast and we'd be like.. uh say it slower!!! man i wish i could speak another language so bad! I think it is so cool that people know more then one language! anyways me and Aysia have a long way to come before we can even say one sentence right in spanish! Jose was quizzing us on the restaurant terminology and we didn't know anything! :P I said Jose! I am a gringo (cause he was laughing cause i cant roll my R's) haha and he goes I not gringo im a browno! haha he was so funny today :) I think its amazing that missionaries can learn languages so fast!! definitely because its the Lords work i guess! anyways then it got super super super busy! so me and aysia were first and second off and i didn't get home until 10:00 pm! wow well what a day/ weekend! good thing i dont have a social life or i might feel like im missing out working the weekend away :D ah well i am happy and loving life for the most part!

so happy :)

so, yesterday was a great day! :) A) wes called me from the airport and we got to talk for about 25 minutes!!!! it was seriously the best I cant even explain in words. haha i dunno it felt so good to talk to him again! i had told him about something i've really been struggling with in my life in the last letter i sent him and he like.. studied all about it and talked to one of his teachers about it and really gave me some amazing advice and yeah.. it was so so cool! I love missionaries :) its so neat to see how wes and danny and brandon and everyone on missions has already changed!! its so incredible really :P when he first called me though (it was 5 am) and i was so out of it that i hit the side button that turns off the sound and like threw it on the ground like i always do in the mornings and then.... it HIT ME! oh my heck!!! this is the day wes is leaving. maybe that was him calling from the airport, not my alarm! sure enough it had been a no number phone call and he left a message which totally made it sound like he wasn't going to call again and i was freaking out! oh my gosh this sounds so stupid but i seriously prayed so hard that he would try to call me one more time!!! it took 10 minutes(he had to buy a new phone card or something) but he called again and i was on cloud 9!! seriously it was the shortest 25 minutes of my life though :P haha im so glad i got to talk to him and im so glad he chose to go on a mission! i know he is going to be so awesome :) anyways... wow... sorry so long but this is my only form of journal so i want to be able to remember everything ya know? so keep that in mind as i ramble on like every post i ever write everybody haha :D from the lack of comments it would seem nobody reads it anyways which is fine and means i can ramble as much as my heart desires! :P anyways.. back on track... my day was so great B) because we got to watch my neighbors dog for a little while!!! anyone who knows me knows that i have desperately wanted a dog my whole life!! ah! but my mommy doesn't like them so i have to wait until im the mom lol. We even let him run and play with us in the house (since my mom is gone at girls camp and my dad was gone on business which left me in charge :D) mom if you read this sorry! i couldn't help it! you know me :P anyways here are some pics of me and the most cute adorable dog ever! i want to adopt him! oh and the funny thing on his collar is something that shocks him when he barks. they are trying to train him to bark less cause he is a loud little one :D

isn't he so cute!! ah! i want him.

me and little catcher :)

movies!!

So on Saturday after my little brother Andrew got home from scout camp we decided that since neither of us were doing anything we were going to go to a movie!!! Actually, it was all his idea. I was shocked really that he would want to go to a movie with me instead of hangin with his friends or passing out on the couch after scout camp! But he asked if i wanted to go to Ironman so... we did! :) He was my first hot date since wes left and it was a blast :D lol oh wait. he told me i wasn't allowed to call it a date. well it was my first time out to the movies with a boy since wes left haha but still... not a date!! :D He also informed me ahead of time on the way out to the car that if I got scared and "jumped on him" like i did to wes that he would move 5 seats away from me! lol so I contained myself from jumping the whole movie like a good girl :P The sad thing is that for just the two of us we got the big tub of popcorn and yes... we ate the whole thing!!! well minus like an inch on the bottom but still.. it was extra buttery and everything! heart attack in a tub really :P why are all the things in life that are bad for you taste so darn good :P but thats why i go running.

there were only a few other people in the theater besides us :P and when we first got there as you can see we were the ONLY people in the theater!

Andrew and me waitin for the show to start!

Then last night an old friend Coulson Goodwin and I went to Get Smart. It was hilarious!! we thought at least :P ok maybe just I thought it was because I tend to be easily amused, but I love Steve Carell he is hilarious and I quite enjoyed this movie :) Me and Coulson go way back to the ALL program in elementary! yay for "all lindon losers" (that is what the rest of the school called us cause we were the nerds lol. it really stood for accelerated learning lab) haha I haven't seen him much though since we went to seperate high schools up until I started working at Wingers where he and his friend are regulars :) It was lots of fun to hang out with him again. and apparently he doesn't live very far away. He somehow still remembered where my house was and "claimed" we rode the same bus in the 6th grade... how the heck does somebody remember that? but it turns out he was right we did ride the same bus my little sister vouches for him. I must be gettin too old im having memory loss problems ;) haha jk have a great day everyone!

summer fun! :)

this week i have been able to get out of the house and do some fun things! yay! I went to seven peaks with some of my family (those of us who were home this week) and it was lots of fun :) I haven't been getting out enough lately so it felt awesome to have stuff to do this week! The sad thing is the new ride at seven peaks that they got last year was closed... lame.. so i still haven't been on it, but my brother, Nate, said it isn't that fun anyways haha :P Also me and kristin swear that the waves in the wave pool are way wimpy compared to what they used to be like? anyone else notice that lately? maybe its just us :D haha they seemed way bigger and lots more fun when we were little.

Nate lounging in the sun :)

kristin, nate, mommy, and shay shay!

shaylyn in her tube lair.

I also got to go to the Rodeo with Heather!!! woot woot! it was so much fun :) and bein there with pleasant grove royalty has its perks ;) haha free food and more importantly... strawberries and cream! which is the best part about Strawberry Days :D We had so much fun watching the rodeo too although we didn't understand any of the scoring and technical things about it haha :P although i didnt like the calve roping it looked so cruel! their was also a moto cross show in between the wild cow milking and bull riding and it was... ridiculous! holy cow i was scared for their lives! my question is how they practice all those ridiculous tricks without killing themselves! i mean, they cant possibly do them all perfect the first time! they are ridiculous tricks! flips, handstands, no hands, swervy swerves ... haha ok i dont know the real names of the tricks but me and heather seriously screamed on the first trick lol scared for their lives for them i guess. after the Rodeo we went to her house and watched the results of SYTYCD and i am pleased with the 2 that got voted off. I didn't like Susie and Marquis was AMAZING technically so he should go dance on some professional company but i didn't really like his personality and agreed with the judges that his solo was all tricks. So far all 4 Utah dancers remain!

me and heather in the stands! its a small world! the girl behind me to the right, was in my ballet class at byu. apparently one of her roommates is from pleasant grove who i coincidentally used to lifeguard with at pg pool :D

me and heather in front of the arena! it was so cute all the little girls waved at heather and wanted to talk to heather haha she was like real royalty to them :) so cute!

Then Yesterday after all the rodeo excitement i got to go with another friend, Tava to do baptisms at the temple :) We have decided to go every friday and atleast try to keep up with all of our friends out on missions in the spiritual growth department :P I am so grateful that my friends are such a good example and positive influence on me! I love them dearly! Because we were the only two at the time doing confirmations, one of the cute little temple workers told us about the people that we were confirming. They were from Belgium, born in the 1750's, what was going on during their lifetime etc. I thought that was really cool nobody has every told either of us about the people we were doing work for before, and it was cool :) it made it more personal somehow haha.. i hope he is there every friday! he was so cute :) he also winked at us when he told us that in 110 yrs when we die we'll get to meet them in heaven :D haha i hope im not still alive in a hundred and ten yrs!!!

since i haven't introduced tava to the blog here are some pics
me, casey, caitlyn, starlee, kayla, and tava at the manti pageant last summer :)

me and tava showing off our colorful teeth after we ate Popsicles at the zoo last summer :D mine are red, hers are blue. haha i love this girl :D

Happy Fathers Day!!!

Happy Fathers day Dad! and to all fathers and future fathers out there :D i hope you had a great day! Thanks dad for all your hard work!!! I love you so much and seriously think you are the best dad in the world... unrealistic i realize since everyone thinks that, but you really are!! You have been the best example to me and even though all my guy friends in highschool thought you were scary (ok not all) and all my girlfriends thought you were shy, oh boy do i know different!!!!! you are the funniest, nicest, wouldn't hurt a fly kinda dad in the whole world. I love it when you wear your "stylish racing stripes" sweats that we got you after we made you retire your 100 yr old sweats. and i love when you dance around the kitchen like me and shay. i love it when you wear your safari hat whenever you are out in the sun. I love when you wake me up in the mornings and you're the only one who successfully gets me up with out making me grouchy hehe. I love that you keep the family from killing each other haha the ultimate peace maker :P and thanks for paying for my schooling!! you dont know how relieving it is to not have to worry about if i can afford it or not. I still remember when i was little and i lost my friends giga pet and mom got super mad at me and i was really upset in my room you told me it would be ok but that i would have to help buy my friend a new one :) you have always been good at making me feel better after i've gotten down on myself. or the time i lost yet ANOTHER pair of earrings when i was 12 and you told me it was ok and that you lost a lot of things too that i just had to try harder to put them in the same place so i didn't lose them haha. not to mention you've been the perfect example of how to honor your priesthood to me and i hope someday i can marry someone as awesome as you! LONG STORY short, thanks for everything you do for me and our family we all LOVE YOU SO MUCH!

things i got from my dad:
*love for being active!
*my awful jump reflexes
*my habit of losing things
*i hate conflict and fighting
*try to be honest and nice to everyone
*his bushy eyebrows
*his big bubble bum haha (he says its good for biking :D)
*im better at sinking then swimming
*im stubborn and competitive

things i didn't get from my dad
*his HUGE brain
*probably alot of other things... i just didn't get his smarts... ok and he probably tried alot harder in school then me. im still working on fixing that one :P

pics of my daddy!

me and my amazing parents after graduation

dad bein goofy! this was right after i got my camera and he was testing the automatic picture taker setting. apparently it takes when the subject smiles so he put on his goofy grin :D

my mom and dad in front of the st. george temple :)

dad and all us kids on his birthday last year! haha im not sure what face nate is making in this picture lol.

Euphoria!

4 words. I got a letter!!!! I cant even explain my excitement! It wasn't very long as he is busy. but he always knows how to cheer me up and make me smile! it was amazing. and i can already tell that he is lovin his mission. i dont care which rude people come into wingers tonight and treat me like crap i am in a permanently FABULOUS mood! :) for today atleast haha. hope all of you are doing well! have a great night!

love love LOVE this show!!!

which show you're probably asking yourselves well none other then... SO YOU THINK YOU CAN DANCE!!!!!! I absolutely love this show i cant even say it enough :P and the fact that their are 4 dancers on the show from utah out of 200 that made it to vegas week proves that there is an amazing amount of talent for dance in utah!!! tonight after i got off work i sped home (the first time i've been this excited in awhile) cause my parents (whom i adore :D) taped the entire show for me since i had to work through the whole thing. thanks thanks thanks! anyways, it was amazing and it really does get better every year!! usually it takes a while to get to the point where every dance is really good but this year i honestly think they were all good! obviously some better then others but still! last year i had people that i REALLY didn't like and this year i dont know who i want kicked off yet!
my favorite dance tonight was definitely Katie and Joshua's hip hop to "no air" by jordin sparks and chris brown though... im embarrassed to admit that i cried but i did. haha not unheard i know, and some of you are thinking duh ash you always cry. and it is true i am often touched by dancing and have cried countless times at dance events, competitions, etc. but seriously!! i dont think i have EVER cried in a hip hop dance!!! but seriously it was amazing if ANYONE didn't see it you should seriously You Tube it or something... or borrow the tape from me :D (only if you give it back!) ah! it was amazing i cant explain it but the whole story line (he was going away to war) and idea behind it was amazing and definitely hit home to what i am kinda feeling right now and yeah... ok i'll stop blabbing on and on but seriously it was amazing!!! heather if you didn't see it you are borrowing the tape!!! (and i miss our SYTYCD sessions we used to have at your house. we should start those up again) seriously everyone look it up it was a great dance. ok fine i'll make it easy on you all go to this site http://youtube.com/results?search_query=Katie+and+Joshua+SYTYCD&search_type=&aq=f
nextly my new claim to fame is this... i danced for 2 years with contestant Chelsie Hightower from orem utah!!! woot woot! no im not claiming to be as good as her because im not :) she is freaking awesome and i hope she makes it far!! she actually quit at studio one when we were about 14 in order to keep on with ballroom. she was doing both at the time haha i seriously dont know how she did it but yeah she is gorgeous and amazing and everyone should vote for her!!

Lake Powell!

my boat tied to the houseboat.

ok so i finally downloaded the pics from lake powell onto my computer and why not write about lake powell since i dont have work today and i have nothing to do haha :) first of all lake powell is my favorite place on earth!!! seriously its so fun, so warm, there are like a zillion great things you can do there and its just... the best! haha i know im crazy. it was an amazing trip as always but by the end of the first day we knew it was gonna be an interesting trip! by the end of the first day the mickelsen's mom had set her bangs on fire, my mom had chipped her front tooth off eating a sandwich, AND our boat got an electrical short on our nightly ski run so we were stranded for nearly 2 hrs!!!! we were finally found and so we got the mickelsens boat and had them tow us 3 miles back to our houseboat in the DARK. it was pretty crazy but we finally made it and in the morning my dad (due to his genious genes which i didn't get!) was able to fix the electrical problem so we didn't have to cut the trip short.

everyone trying to flag down a boat the only one we'd seen for nearly 2 hrs!

my whole family loves boating and we do pretty much everything haha although not necessarily well :D but it is a blast and i love spending the time at lake powell with my fam! one of the highlights of the trip was that we were all able to learn how to wake surf on the mickelsens nifty new boat :) it was so easy to get up but it was hard to continually surf the wake without the rope! i think my longest was about 10 seconds haha :P

my 10 seconds of glory

one of the nights we were there it poured rain and was really windy so both familys (14 people) had to all cram into the houseboat to sleep. it was super cozy and squishy but our worst fear( mostly the girls) was not that we could smell our stinky brothers but that a mouse was running a muck the houseboat and it might end up snuggling with us in the night! eek! previously that night, we had tried to chase it off the houseboat with brooms, but to no avail. in the morning we found it drowned in a bucket of water outside the houseboat. it really was kinda sad and ALMOST made me feel sorry for it. anyways we made it through the trip safely and here are a butload of pics.

me kneeboarding :) sadly i get almost more air on the kneeboard then wake board.

attempting to get air wakeboarding. kris, nate, and andrew are way better then me. nate even cleared the wake this trip! woot woot!

kris and meg loungin in the front of the boat

my favorite thing to do... ski!!!

my adorable baby sis shay

and what is water sports without the many many wipeouts haha they dont call me crashly for nothing :P

i've been tagged!

A. The rules of the game are posted at the beginning.
B. Each player answers the questions about themselves.
C. At the end of the game the player tags 5 people, then goes to their blogs and leaves them a comment letting them know they've been tagged and asking them to read your blog.


Where were you 10 years ago: I was 9... and in 3rd grade? i think haha

Five things on my to-do list today:
1. Go to work
2. write wes
3. take my brother to the dentist
4. go to work again... stupid double shifts haha
5. hm... go to bed!

Five snacks I enjoy:
1. fruit snacks :)
2. graham crackers and milk
3. chocolate!
4. bread
5. strawberries

What would I do if I were suddenly a billionaire: Pay off the rest of my schooling. Buy a house! a cute one and decorate it. travel the world!! visit ingrid and marit in norway. go to all the broadway shows i want and donate to orphans or build a GOOD orphanage! nobody should have no place to live or have nobody to love!

Four of my bad habits:
1. eating when im bored
2. not putting my clothes in the laundry basket when its like 2 feet away from where i get dressed!
3. leaving gum in my pockets
4. I also can not get anything done on my computer without first checking my email/facebook/my blog or friends blogs...so sad...haha

Five jobs that I have had:
1. Server at Wingers
2. Dance teacher at Studio 1
3. lifeguard at pg pool
4. stupid survey taker for credit card companies (research assistant) at PGM yuck!!! i hated this job!
5. babysitter

Five things people don't know about me:

1. I LOVE to read
2. i am very competitive and its my biggest pet peeve that boys are better at everything
3. i still sleep with stuffed animals :P
4. i cant go shopping and expect to not spend money... thats why i shouldn't ever go!
5. i like to scrapbook but it takes forever and it gets expensive!

5 people I'm tagging
1. Amber
2. Heather
3. Jessi
4. Kylie
5. Jody

new blog'n spot

As my co writer on the ashandwes blogspot has taken a long leave of absence, i have decided that it would be best to begin my own blog while he is gone. He is my best friend and i am so glad that he has made the decision to go on a mission and fully support him in that but i cant carry on our blog without him! i will however update on his mission on the old blog occasionally whenever i feel inclined :) as for now... welcome to ashleygreenwood.blogspot.com! And you better appreciate the effort i put into this :P with wes gone i have nobody to help me with the computer stuff that im so undeniably horrible at :D for example it took me literally 2 hrs to figure out how to customize your own blog template... yeah im that bad when it comes to computers!!! another example of my computer un coordinatedness (yeah i couldn't think of the word i wanted to use there) would be the fact that wes set up an online bank account for me in the last week he was here and i, a week later, have already forgotten my user id AND password. oh brother... but here is to a new beginning. a new blog, a new start, hopefully new friends as well :P i cant spend all my free time in my bedroom its depressing!!!