Words From the Wise

Here's the last of the archives of my journal of last year's travel adventures! I did it! I made it! I survived! Southern Indiana and I have shared some quality time together..but I’m ready to break up. The last 2 weeks I’ve had a car that doesn’t have Sirius. Ugh. But I’m dumb and realized I could totally hook up my iPod about 3/4 the way through. And thus I give you #onlyonashlynsipod (I felt a hashtag was necessary for this). So… I heard Amy Grant (so one of my guilty pleasures from my childhood. Hey, we all have them.) followed by Without Me- Eminem #onlyonashlynsipod Blink 182 followed by the stud of a crooner Michael Buble #onlyonashlynsipod Another One Bites the Dust by Queen then Lovebug by the JoBros #onlyonashlynsipod Gosh. I have such great taste in music. Here we go..for the last time this season! THE GOOD! - Prior to these last 2 weeks I haven’t been on the road as much. My fantasy team had taken a beating during that time. I didn’t have lunch visit...

Here's another page of my journal of last year's travel adventures! The end is near, I can see it. (Actually the end is already here because I’m writing this 2 weeks late. Go Ashlyn.) This week of travel is one I dreaded the most- 4 night hotel stay in Evansville. NOOOOOOOOO. That means I have to figure out how to spend my evenings in lovely Evansville..please be nice to me Eville (see what I did there..because I think Evansville is evil.) Random story from the road time! Remember when we were younger and the boys totally thought there were couches in the girls bathroom? And we totally told them there were? Well…I hit the holy grail this week. I walked into the faculty bathroom and TA-DAAAAAAA! There in front of me sat a large couch. I had only ever imagined of such a thing. Did my dreams finally come true?! If you honestly think my dreams would be finding a couch in a bathroom, you’re dumb and wrong. My dreams are way better..like going on a shopping spree, snow of Chri...

Here's another page of my journal of last year's travel adventures! So last week I had this started…but didn’t save it. And not I don’t remember anything I was going to say. Well, we’re 1/2 way through Ashlyn’s travel season! Week 3 was so easy to motivate myself because it was only 3 days of travel. And it was all close. Since it’s a shorter week, there wasn’t too much that happened… The Good- - Little Caesar Crazy Bread. Yum. Yep. That was totally my dinner one night of travel. So worth it. - With some down time, I had the chance for Christmas card shopping! Whoot! - My hotel greeted me with warm cookies. -CHICKEN-N-DUMPLINGS! - I had some girl come up to me during a lunch visit and say I have really great style. Totally confidence boost. The very next day I had a girl tell her friend I looked “so old”..no longer feeling so great. - I watched 2 boys have a pretend fight with pretend lasers. Sounds effects included. The Bad- -You know you’re craving food, other...

Here's another page of my journal of last year's travel adventures!  This last week has flown by, thank goodness. These first few weeks of travel have been pretty lucky - I get to sleep in my bed most of the nights. I really can’t complain too much. I chatted with a counselor this last week who told me he’s on the road for a solid 9 weeks. His closest school is 3 hours away from his college. Yikes. That’s A LOT of travel. Suddenly life doesn’t seem so bad. This week I had the chance to deal with some interesting students and parents. I’m so use to the typical “Hi! Let me know if you have any questions about the university.” that when someone says something I don’t expect, it totally throws off my game. So imagine with me..it’s 7:40 and your fair is almost over. You’re thinking about how you can’t wait to get in the car and drive 2 hours back to sleep in your own bed. And you’re trying to figure out what fast food sounds the most appetizing (which is a task all in its own...

Last year around this time, I decided to write down some of my adventures to Southern Indiana while traveling for my old job. I figured it's time to share some of these adventures. Enjoy! Most people think staying in hotels and eating out for a week sounds like a pretty nice time..but chances are they haven’t done that..ever. I’ve decided it’s time to keep entries of my travels this year. Last year I was the new counselor. I had no idea what to expect. This year I at least have an idea, but there’s still room for surprises! Let me start off by saying southern Indiana is beautiful…and big…and has so many curvy roads. So many. Like to the point where I sometimes I have slow down because I’m starting to feel car sick. It’s so great. What makes it even more great is when you’re on your way to your VERY FIRST visit and the traffic is completely stopped. Dead stop. Man, I was on a roll too! So instead of 25 minutes early I was 25 minutes late. I thought things could only go up. Gu...

Oh my life. Where have you gone?! Finally made it to my new home! The good news is I'm officially moved out of Indianapolis. The bad news is I still have some things to unpack. My creative life has been put on hold for a very, very long time....and is still on hold. My entire scrapbook and crafty goodies are stock piled at my parents house- there's not enough room at my new place! I saw Becky Higgins posting all of her new Project Life products and I was getting so giddy..until I realized how many of her products I already have and haven't had time to use. Sad day. Quick view of the start of my decorating! But I have been lucky enough to start decorating my new office! My last office had zero sense of theme. It was what I liked to call "creative clutter". There were mixed matched items everywhere. The only theme was "colorful". So this time around I thought I wanted to have some sense of theme. Keyword, thought. I journeyed to the local Ta...

Wondering where I've been? Don't worry I'm still here. But all of my crafting/scrapbooking is packed up. Why you ask? Because in 1 week I will be moving! Hurrrrrraaaayyy! Boooooo! (the many emotions I'm feeling) A snapshot of my living room floor. I recently accepted a job that will bring me closer to my hometown. I'm very excited for this new adventure. Needless to say, I'm still faaaar behind on my projects. My PL book has not been touched (except to pack it) since the last time I posted about it. I've been so busy packing and doing some last minute shopping. Yes, I said shopping...at Michael's and Sephora. Clearly very important places. I was so pumped Michael's now carries PL but when I looked at the list of stores none of them were close to my new home :( And there's no Sephora close by either! Every girl needs a good crafting store and make up store close by! Of course, wedding planning has been put on hold for just a minute too...e...

Ferris Bueller was so right - Life moves pretty fast. You don’t stop and look around once in a while, you could miss it. My life has been busy, so I've done a horrible job at blogging. BUT NOW I HAVE SOMETHING FABULOUS TO WRITE ABOUT- The proposal at Disney World! *Warning* This post could make others nauseous with the overwhelming amount of cuteness and romanticness (is that even a word? Is now.) Read at your own risk. But really, you should read. Because it's cute. And I said so. It all started back in January when Brandon drove to my parents house to tell them the news and ask for their permission. Immediately my parents asked how they could help. Minutes later, my mom brings out my Grandma Irene's engagement ring and tells him she'd be honored if he could somehow use it. After weeks of Brandon e-mailing my mom, he had the proposal all figured out. Just look at that cheesy smile! My mom put the ring in her purse the night before we left for Disney. My da...

Well friends, I've been a busy worker bee! I think I'm close to being done with my trip to Ireland. I have a ton more pictures, but decided to edit it down. Feel free to scroll down and see some of my work! Sorry for the blurry picture- you still get the idea! I was trying to make my trip not too green, but that started to make things tricky. And in comes all the green..whoops! I did want my pages for St. Patrick's Day to be green, I managed to make a few days before then green too. Green is my favorite color, so what can I say? It was really easy to find St. Pat's Day stickers. And it was really hard to find Ireland stickers. I did manage to score a sticker book of just shamrocks from JoAnn Fabrics for $1..Ashlyn for the win.

Today we ventured out of Belfast and in to Dublin for St. Paddy’s Day! It was a very long day. Our train left Belfast at 6:50 am. Let’s just say I fell asleep as soon as I sat down on the train. So we’ll just move to…the arrival in Dublin’ yay! We seriously had no game plan. And a game plan is crucial with this bunch. After walking around, we decided to get a good “seat” for the parade. So 2 hour before the parade starts, we find our spot and stand. And wait. And get annoyed with people around us. Apparently the European thing to do is show up 30 minutes before the parade and shove your kids to the very front so they can see. Then they say “excuse me, can you move so the children can see?” this did not settle so well with the Americans. We had been standing there for 2 hours so we deserved our spot. And I don’t want kids kicking me, stepping on my feet, and smacking me in the face with their flag. It happened. And then I got the pleasure of having some short woman behind ...

I’m gonna make this post quick. Today was our last full day in Belfast (tomorrow we are heading to Dublin). We decided not to have much planned for the day. I thnk this is where it’s important to add in we started with a rainy day. The Bot We started our morning eating breakfast. Breakfast consisted of soda bread, potato bread, bacon, egg, sausage and baked beans. Yep. That’s a traditional breakfast here! We then head to St. George’s market for one last look and come up short. We venture over to city center to walk around and then head to the BBC building. This was our surprise from Hailey. We got to sit it on the taping of a small show. It was pretty interesting. After the show, we decide it’s time to head back for lunch (and yes it’s still raining). Hailey decided she wanted Chinese but mom and I wanted fish and chips. So we drop Hailey off and head the The Bot for fish and chips. Now first I must say that the name The Bot reminds me of The Dot and therefore Degrass...

Well I guess I knew the day would come when I wouldn’t have much exciting things to say about our day in Belfast. We met up with Jackie and her son Daniel (these are the people I talked about in my other blogs who are from America and live here now). They took us to Hillsborough. I guess this is where anyone of status (like the US President or the Queen) would come to stay if they were visiting N. Ireland. This little town was very quaint, green and quiet. It was cute. We just walked around the town and chatted about things. We stopped in to a cute little store and then in a bakery, where I ordered a shortbread biscuit. I don’t know why, but the shortbread biscuits here are soooooo yummy! Then we venture down the street in to another cute little store. Mom was having me look at some jewelry and I was saying things like “aw, how cute.” and “I love that!” and “how adorable?!” Then the cashier looks and me and says, “I could just sit and listen to your accent all day. I just...

I managed to sleep in this morning, after a night of tossing and turning. You see, it all started when my friend that is staying in my apartment while I'm away sent me a message and said her key wasn't working. Longggg story short, I emailed the complex to let her in my apartment so she could check on things. So I hadn't heard anything when I went to bed that night and all I could think about is why didn't the key work. And then I started worrying about when I got back. I got an email today saying they would let her in. She sent me a message that our friend was telling her the wrong apartment number this entire time...whew. sigh of relief...ok back to my day. So after the stressful night, I slept until 9:30. I took my time getting ready and then mom and I decided to walk around Queens University. We walked around the botanic garden (which was beautiful!!) and then ventured in to the library. You see, there is something very special in this library. One t...

I think I'm starting to adjust to the time a wee bit more. I'm still finding that lunch is the hardest. Dinner, however, is easy! Enough about jet lag and adjusting to time! On to about my day! (which I am sure you equally care about) Morning started out a little rough. Told mom to wake me up at 8:45...she comes in at 9:25. Now usually I wouldn't complain on catching a few more z's, but when you have to catch a bus at 10 and you have to shower and dry your thick, long hair it's nearly impossible to to get ready in that amount of time. So needless to say the hair wasn't as dry as I would have liked. We hopped on the bus and got to our double decker tour bus. We sat outside. Which was freezing. And my hair was wet, making it worse. The bus tour was pretty great though. We learned all about the history in Ireland,mass where the Titanic was built, and learned some interesting facts. Once the tour was over, we had about 2 hours to kill so I FINALLY g...

I am exhausted. Mom and I spent the day on a bus tour. And by spending a day, I mean from 9:30am to 7pm. It was pretty sweet though. The bus arrived at our flat and we hopped on. Right away I notice these 3 obnixious college girls from the States. I was already tired so they fueled the fire to my crankiness. We pick up a a few more groups: an elderly couple from Scotland, a quiet couple from England, a duo from Iowa and a family of 6 from Canada. (this is where I should add that the family of 6 had 4 children all under the age of 5...yeahhhh) Our tour guide /bus driver is a loud middle aged Scotsman. Now I'm gonna jot down some places we went with minor details and while they may not seem exciting on the blog, they were great to see in person! Let's keep in mind that we made a lot of stops...and with the exhaustion, hungry and terrible memory I have I can't remember every one. So we'll just hit the biggest stops Stop 1: Carrickfergus castle. It's a 1...

Well clearly you know I made it to Belfast safely. So we'll fast forward to our arrival! We get through the airport in a breeze, but we have to find the bus to take us to the city center. Sounds easy, right? Ha, you thought I was going to say "well it wasn't easy" but that's where you're wrong. It was easy! Mom and I hop on the bus and between my exhaustion and mad hunger, I manage to open my eyes and look out my window. Ok, ok. I know many people have talked about how green Ireland is...but you don't realize how green it is until you experience for yourself. I mean it's fresh, luscious green. (and for those that are wondering, we did see lots of sheep!)  Fast forward, we arrive at the city center. Next task, call Anne (the lady we're renting the flat from) and let her know we've arrived. Here's where our first adventure comes in: the pay phone. Let's just say after leaving half of a voicemail and finally reach Anne's...