{thursday}

It has kind of been one of those weeks that you want over. And then you want the weekend to stick around forever. Because honestly, yeah, it has been one of those kind of weeks. I am looking forward to sleeping in tomorrow because I am just SO tired! I cannot get enough sleep these days and I am going to bed at what I think is a reasonable time. I guess I just like my sleep! It definitely helps that lately the weather at night has been gorgeous. The kind of cold fall nights that allow you to cuddle up with your quilt and sleep with no fan or air conditioners on and just be warm. Yeah, I like those kind of nights. However, it does make it that much harder to crawl out of bed in the morning (or at 1am when you wake up and have to use the bathroom and said bathroom is on the first floor of your house so that means actually getting out of bed for longer than a minute, yeah that sucks). Two story living and one house bathroom problems, lol!

I had my wedding hair and makeup trial yesterday and it turned out great! I am SO excited for the actual day now. I was concerned at first that the hairdresser would not be able to do what I had wanted because my hair would be too short or too fine. But… she ROCKED it! My cousin had originally recommended her and I am SO glad that she did. Not only was she easy to talk to throughout it, but she did great work! I have a feeling that I will be going back to her for my future hair needs! At some point after the wedding, maybe in early 2014, I am going to get a major chop to my tresses and I have definitely been on the hunt since moving from Point for a new hairdresser! I know that the girls in the wedding are going to love their hair and makeup the day of!

Jay and I also finalized the cake and food yesterday. Jay’s grandma of course is making the cake and we went for total just laid back simple cake. Nothing over the top fancy. No flowers. No nothing really. Jay was fine with it. He just wanted his grandma’s cake. He’d take bag’o’cake for a wedding cake, haha! I’m more worried about everyone just having a good time than all of the extra little details. His parents have been extremely instrumental in pulling together a lot of the little details that we need for the day and we could not be thankful enough! Helping me not to have to worry about some of the extra little things that I was wondering how we would pull off. I’ve said it before and I’ll say it again. Both Jay and I have been blessed with some of the most awesome parents around. They are always 110% supportive of us. They may not always agree with what we are doing or how we are doing things, but they always stand behind us. And that is what means the most to us!

I’ve ran twice this week. Once on Monday night with the little guy. I was headed out the door for a run that I didn’t really want to go on and he asks where I am planning on running. I told him around the track, even though it wasn’t really where I wanted to head. He stopped me and asked if he could join. Well, of course! I had plans of getting in a good solid run and knew that with Ayden it probably wouldn’t happen. That was okay though. Wasn’t going to turn down some quality time with my boy. So, off we went. On our run. We started at the track and got a mile in. A slow mile, but no walking. And then I asked him if he wanted to branch out and try some sidewalk running. He happily obliged me. So, we went off and hit the sidewalks and kept running. I wanted to push for three miles, even if we had to walk for a little while. I told Ayden that he was the pace keeper and if he needed to walk, we’d walk. He kept going and going and going. We even got faster towards the end AND there were times where he was going faster than I wanted to, haha! In the end we ran 3.27 (yes the extra 0.27 counts) miles WITHOUT any walking! I was SO immensely proud of my little guy! He is definitely ready for a 5k and I found the perfect one for us to do next month before all of the hustle and bustle of last minute wedding planning gets under way and I CANNOT wait to run it with him!

In the meantime, we are gearing up for a small birthday gathering at the bowling alley for Ayden on Saturday and then I’m off to run the Dirty Girl 5K with Victoria on my birthday on Sunday! I am so excited for another mud run! It is going to be great!

CIAO! LOVE ME!

{lotsa photos}

I've been pretty busy the last couple of weekends doing photo shoots and I have been really enjoying it. I become a completely different person when I get behind the camera and kind of go into my own little world seeing things in a different way. It's fun! Plus, the people that I am getting to work with are such a pleasure and a joy!

 

These next couple of months are going to be pretty busy for our family, what with the addition of wedding festivities, going on our honeymoon, more photo shoots, work, Ayden starting school again... before we know it, the fall and winter will be upon us and really, I am SO not ready for it! Is anyone that lives in Wisconsin?! Okay, so I know that there are people who definitely like the winter more than the summer. Me, I am NOT one of them! I always seem to be cold here people, ALWAYS cold and I HATE it! I hate the feeling of being cold. It annoys me, haha!

 

I had one of my more productive weekends at home this past weekend. I was working up a storm on wedding stuff yesterday and got quite a few projects done. It felt nice. I somehow got a kick in the patootie to get moving and grooving on things and did. I had had enough of just sitting around and doing nothing. Wait, we haven't had one of those weekends in a while, lol (and we won't for awhile either)!

 

That is probably why the summer goes so fast, because we are never sitting around doing nothing. We are always on the go, even more so now that we live closer to home! And a lot of this summer has revolved around the wedding and getting everything ready for that!

 

But sticking to the topic at hand, the lotsa photos... despite taking so many photos of other people lately, I've found that I haven't actually gotten my camera out for myself and taken any pictures just for me and my family. Not necessarily OF my family, but just of every day happenings. And when I do, they are from my cellphone. It makes me kind of sad. I want to get back into picking up my camera and taking pictures just because and not because I have to. I've come to realize that in the last two years my folders of pictures for myself have become smaller and smaller on my computer and the photos of pictures for other people have become larger and larger. I always told myself that my photography wouldn't turn into a job for me because I enjoyed doing it to much and I didn't want to stop enjoying it. And although it hasn't necessarily become a 'job', it has made me step back from my camera more often when it comes to our own personal stuff. And then sometimes I just like to be present at family gatherings and not behind the camera. I do need to make more of an effort though to pick up the camera for me and not just other people.

 

Going to try!

 

At least I know there will be a ton of great pictures while on our honeymoon! Can't wait to get to the tropical paradise and snap away! It's going to be SO much fun!

 

In the weeks leading up to it though, I will sit back, and try to relax. I know that my schedule is going to be pretty full with lots of fun and maybe not so fun stuff until the 'big' day, and I don't want to stress out in the meantime. I'm definitely a type A personality, so the non stress thing may be kind of hard for me, haha!

 

CIAO! LOVE ME

{family time}

It was kind of a low key weekend where I got home Friday night and instead of going to Hoerth camping, I had plans of sitting on the couch in what was the start of a sour mood and just veg in front of the boob tube.

 

Instead, my dad called around 6pm and asked if I wanted to join him and Alexis out at my aunt and uncle's house for a bonfire. This is probably the third or fourth spontaneous bonfire that I've been to so far this summer and I have to tell you that I love it. Whoever is around and can make it comes. I was without Jay and Ayden for the second time, so I could really just sit back and enjoy myself. Ayden was with Jay's parents for Hoerth camping and Jay was out on the boat with my brother fishing.

 

I didn't think that we would stay out at the fire for very long, but we ended up staying until almost 11pm and I had a great time just chatting with my family. The weather was great to sit around a fire. We roasted marshmallows, the kids ran around, and I think a good time was had by all. 

 

The majority of Saturday was spent helping my mom move into her new apartment. Once again, the family that I am a part of did not cease to amaze me! We had lots of help and the move went rather quickly. We loaded everything up, trekked it to a new city, and unloaded it all before noon! And we didn't even start until just shortly before 9am! Crazy! But with everyone helping and pitching it, we got the job done! Now my mom just has to find a place for everything at her new house! That and stay away from crazy cowboy Troy, lol! Oh, we are too funny!

 

I only managed to come away with one small injury from my mom's scared cat and I don't blame him. I survived!

 

I got home around 3pm on Saturday afternoon and was just bushed! I zonked for a bit of a nap and then just relaxed for the rest of the night. Jay and Ayden were at camping and were having a great time. I just didn't feel like going. All of that moving tuckered me out!

 

Sunday... was a semi lazy day. Both Jay and I went down to camping to help pick up and to collect the little man. He had a great weekend overall and I really missed him. As it turned out, Jay and Ayden ended up out on the boat with my brother again for some fishing, and I ended up back at home late in the afternoon doing some cleaning and laundry.

 

I ran in the rain on last Wednesday, which I think I might have mentioned in my last blog post. No workout Thursday or Friday, moving on Saturday counted as my workout for that day, and then I went for a quick three mile run on Sunday. Thinking about a quick walk or run tonight as well if the weather holds out. This week is going to be kind of different from every other week as my work schedule has changed, Ayden has a few events going on, I have a conference to go to on Wednesday, and so on and so forth. I'm actually looking forward to the weekend already; however, I have a wedding to help photograph on Saturday, and a small photoshoot on Sunday morning as well. We like to stay busy busy busy at our place, haha!

 

CIAO! LOVE ME!

{where to go from here}

I think my lack of blogging has been evident this summer. I'm not sure if it's lack of time, lack of wanting to, lack of things to say... so I just haven't been blogging a whole ton. That doesn't mean I haven't been keeping up with my favorite blogs, because I still do everyday. However, I just haven't felt the familiar pang to write lately.

That certainly doesn't mean I don't have lots of thoughts floating around in my head, because I surely do. I just don't know how interested you are in reading every time I post about how I am working out or how I am shoving my face full of food that is not necessarily good for me. It seems like the same stuff over and over.

We've had some busy weekends lately (and will continue to throughout the remainder of the summer), but my usual enjoyment about sharing those with you has kind of waned. It has nothing to do with my readers (however few there actually are), it's just something I'm kind of sorting through on my own.

It might be different if my blog was bigger and had more traffic (and let me tell you, I'm fairly certain I'm glad it is just as nice as small as it is) and I felt like I had an audience that was waiting on me and/or I was making some kind of profit from my blog like other well known readers I frequent. But I'm not, and that is perfectly okay with me. I blog for me. It's that simple.

The thing is, much of what I have floating around in my head that is troubling me, exciting me, etc... it's just stuff that I am not willing to share on the blog right now. Insert gasp here! What, Ashley being tight lipped about something?! It's unheard of! Haha!

Rest assured, life is going great right now, so it is nothing to be worried about. And really, I do have limits on what I will and will not post about. Right now, I'd just rather not share some things.

Jay and I are doing great (less than two months until wedding day)! Ayden has become a little spit fire, but I still love him. Work is great. Working out is semi great, haha!

Sidenote, I decided to go for a five mile run last night and about two miles in I saw some rain clouds rolling in and decided to ignore them and instead of head back home on the three mile loop I could have done to avoid getting wet, I continued on my five mile loop. Um, around mile three, it started sprinkling, and around mile 3.5, it started really coming down! I mean pouring rain! For the last mile and a half, I ran in the pouring rain and it felt... GREAT! I was soaked by the time I got home, dripping EVERY where, but it was good! I don't know why I haven't kept up with the running a little more lately!

So, please bear with me readers if I kind of come and go here and there on the blog for the time being. I'm just trying to sort some things out.

CIAO! LOVE ME!