You're the line in the sand when I go to far, you're the swimming pool on an August day, and you're the perfect thing to say...

Have any of you had one person in your life that has had a huge influence on you that you have never met? I have one of those people in my life. Their life and their decisions have helped to shape my past, my present and my future. I have spent many hours wondering what it would be like to meet this one individual, wondering what I would say if we ever met, would I be full of questions, or would I just be thrilled to finally meet them? Would I know them or would I walk past them like a stranger on a street? With that being said if you had the opportunity to meet two people (past, present or future) who would you meet? Just for kicks and giggles let’s say that you have 2 hours to spend with these people. Who would you meet? Why would you meet them? Would you meet a famous person or would you meet an average joe that has touched your life in some way? In case you haven’t figured it out I would choose the second option. But seriously my dear readers who would you choose to meet and why would you choose these two people? If you tell me, I’ll tell you my answers, okay I know we aren’t six but I do want to know your answers.

*What song is the title of the blog taken from, hint: it is my new favorite song (yeah that didnt help any of you)

The Business of Being Born

I recently heard about a documentary called The Business of Being Born. Have any of your watched it, heard about it? I heard it is about home births, Any thoughts... I am not sure how I feel about this topic, I am sure that I will have all my children in a hospital (I am a pretty nervous person and I cant think outside the box), but I really want to hear your thoughts about natural childbirth and the film. I ordered it from blockbuster so I will let you know what I think after I see it.

I found all I've waited for and I could not ask for more...

Brian and I were never freshman together, so we never got to participate in freshman traditions together. I am two years younger so that would make sense. Tonight we decided to participate in the wonderful freshman tradition of walking around campus in the evening. In case you haven’t (yes all 3 of my wonderful readers) had the privilege of being a freshman in the summer at BYU let me tell you about this tradition or how this worked when I was a freshman. Basically you pair off to go on walks, you end up going with that “cute” boy from your FHE group or “Prince Charming” from your ward. You circle the dorms and the main campus, with occasional trips up to the Provo temple. Going on walks is a pretty big deal, it is almost as important as that first fateful DTR (well actually you can have a DTR on the walk), you get the idea, you go on enough walks and you are considered a couple (well I think that is how it worked 4 years ago). I know can you even imagine a more romantic evening, way more romantic than dinner and a night at Movies 8. Okay so back to the story, since Brian and I weren’t freshman at the same time we never went on these walks together. We decided to go tonight. We started out by the little river by Heritage, walked through campus, around the botany pond, through a little “forest” and ended up wading in the little river. It was a pretty exciting night. We saw lots of fun freshman couples, ducks and some fish in the Widtsoe aquariums. It was the perfect end/beginning for my freshman filled week. Obviously we took our camera along, because we didn’t want you to be bored with our blog so here are some pretty thrilling pictures from our big adventure.

The Heritage Waterfall, we needed a cliche picture to start our adventure


Me on the Heritage waterfall


This is one of the many "couple" spots on campus, there were a few couples with blankets and even picnics up there (in case you are curious this is right under the Marriot center bridge), sorry you dont get to see the couples, I thought they were weird


Look closely at the sign behind us. Say what you want about the BYU Bookstore but I couldnt have gotten my undergrad without them (who would have paid for it) and I wouldnt have gotten into grad school. Sadly I am slightly loyal to the Bookstore, you can hate them but they are nice to buy back books, stop whining, read the dates for buy back (in case you couldnt tell book buy back was this week, buy back= angry students and their angry parents)
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Continuing to the botany pond


This is the school of engineering, pretty fun


BYU has the best grounds out of any place I have ever seen, I just thought you might want to enjoy the flowers before they get ripped out.


My favorite sign ever, doesnt it look scary? why did they choose this font, it is like a bad scary movie


Drum roll please... you know that no tour of campus would be complete without a visit to... the testing center. This is my least favorite building on campus, if you havent been a student here you cannot truly undestand how awful this place is... well there is really nothing good to say about it.


*what is the name of this song (the title of the blog)

My Favorite Time of Year

This is one of my favorite times of the year to be in provo. I started as a freshman in the summer and that might be part of the reason that I like it so much. My favorite part of this time of year is the freshman parents. The mother stands really close to the freshman and is tearful the whole time, occasionally she asks questions and she is really angry when university staff does not bend over backwards to help little timmy or mary (who by the way is 18 and did get into college). The father stands behind the whole group, he holds the map and the checkbook, he complains every once in awhile about how much everything costs, and constantly reminds the group the “things have changed a lot since I was here!” The freshman looks fearful and stands between their parents, they don’t ask questions but instead they look around like a lost puppy, they step away from their parents when they see their roommates and pretend that they don’t know those “old people”. The whole weekend is comical, the best part is going to Walmart. The mother pushes the cart that holds one of every item sold in the store, the father puts things back when she isn’t looking and the freshman looks like they want to cry. Last year I saw a freshman who filled an entire cart with frozen pizzas, he argued loudly with his mother that everything would fit into the tiny little freezer that he was going to share with 5 other 18 year boys, the dad in the meantime wondered off to McDonald’s to hide. I just love this whole weekend! It also makes me laugh that these freshman who cannot figure out how exactly alphabetical order works will laugh at the next round of freshman in the fall, they will pretend they never stood in line to get an ID card, they will pretend that Mommy and Daddy didn’t do all their shopping for them and they will act like they have always known where the SWKT, JSB, ESC, and WILK are. I love this time of year! In honor of this wonderful time of year I have decided to include pictures from my first summer so you can get a gist of the freshman summer experience.


This is what happens when 6 18 year girls live together and the curfew is midnight, We stayed up really really late and one of the few things to do was figure out how to use my new camera.

I think this picture was taken sometime around midnight during that summer, these girls were great rommates.


We went to a dance over the summer, These were my first rommates, minus one.


This was our kitchen, this was probably after a cleaning check but isnt it so exciting!


This was my very first dorm room, I know it looks pretty exciting

T

"I'm Ernie Simon's son and this has been NPR's Weekend Edition"

Brian and I were listening to NPR in the car on our way to Logan this last weekend and the host gave a tribute to his own father in honer of Father's Day this last weekend. While I think that you should all go back through and listen the segment, I am realistic enough to know that you wont... I thought this segment was especially poignant so I have so kindly included it for all of you.

"on those Saturday mornings in the studio when the red light dimmed and even though the audience around him was just the mailman, an engineer and his little boy my father would rally to truly entertain, I'd like my daughters to know that he was funny, but even more I'd like them to know that even when he was sad and exhausted he kept trying, good father's give us whatever they have..."

I was lucky enough to have an amazing Dad Over the years he has been to plenty of soccer games, band concerts (some better than others) and graduations, he gave up the ability to watch real television for decades (I think we made him watch every Boy Meets World, Sabrina the Teenage Witch, Dr. Quinn and Doug episode ever aired), and listened to HUNDREDS of hours of whinning about things that dont matter. He made us his top priority even though we were pretty obnoxious at times (if only you all had the pleasure of knowing me at 17, wow). We were lucky enough to know that someone loved us and believed in our abilities even when there was plenty of "weeping and wailing and gnashing of teeth". Thanks Dad!

In honor of Father's day I thought i would pass on a recipe that my grandpa gave me recently (yes you read that correctly, he is becoming quite the chef) I have changed the name of the recipe but you get it.

Grandpa's Quick Spicy Wraps

2 wrap size tortillas, jalapeno tortillas give it a little kick
1 bag coleslaw
2 T. mayo/salad dressing
1 pkg. lunch meat, he uses pastrami
4 slices pepper jack cheese
2 T. peppercini juice

mix 1/2 bag of coleslaw with mayo and peppercini juice, set aside. Place meat and cheese in a skillet to heat up, place tortillas in another skillet, heat until warm. Put half of the meat and cheese into one tortilla, add half of the coleslaw, wrap up and eat like a burrito.

The wraps are pretty good, try them you will be surprised what a good quick snack these are.


If you would like to hear the whole section it is under NPR Weekend Edition Saturday June 14, Remembrances
http://www.npr.org

What Have Brian and Ashley Been Up To Lately?

So what have be been up to lately? I am sure you all are scratching your heads wondering, I know you are all on edge waiting to know. Well we havent been up to much. Brian finished classes for the semester on Monday, I think that he was pretty excited about that, he turned one final in and just has one more to finish. I think he will be happy when that is all finished. So what else? Well we went to Logan for a wedding reception this last weekend. We stopped in Brigham City for some chinese food on our way there, it was a pretty thrilling adventure. We went to the Logan temple and had the wonderful opportunity to tour Utah State University. I had never been there so I thought it was interesting, we were pretty sad that we didnt have any Utah State Alum to show us around but maybe next time. The campus is WAY bigger than I thought it was, I am not sure what I was picturing but I guess something else... Before we went to the reception we spent some time touring the fancy neighborhoods in Logan, the houses were pretty fun. We also had the opportunity to celebrate father's day this weekend with Brian's dad and older brother, and what would a Suker holiday be without a little bit of golf. Yes, for those of you in shock you did read it correctly, I did actually manage to watch some golf... I cant say that I enjoyed it but I did actually understand most of what was happening... yeah. The US Open ended in a tie so we got the privledge of watching ANOTHER 18 holes and yes Tiger Woods did win in a sudden death round. So I heard this might be Tiger's year (I thought every year was Tiger's year but anyway I guess that isnt important)



One of the house we saw on the hill in Logan


Another Extra Cute House

Another Extra Cute House


Cache Valley

I finally finished!!!!!!!!

So for Father's Day this year I decided that I would go with the "homemade" gift. Now if you know me well you know that my attention span is about 12 minutes (I have a hard time watching a whole sitcom) but somehow I had this brainwave to make this quilt (it took slightly longer than 12 minutes to make) I was pretty sure that I would never finish but sometimes you get lucky. I finally finished. I started this project a few months ago but got a little bit distracted so yeah it is finally finished. It isnt perfect (please dont look closely) but still who cares at this point... I just really really really wanted to say that i finished it.


my quilt


Me with my quilt


Me again