What's Up Wednesday? May 2015 Edition

It's the last Wednesday of May, so it's time for What's Up Wednesday?

What we're eating this week: It's the final 2 weeks of school and we are in lazy mode. Monday, we ate at Mr. B's parents' house. We had smoked chicken, steak, boiled red potatoes with butter and fresh dill, french bread, cabbage salad, and my orange dreamsicle trifle. Tuesday, it was Spring Creek BBQ for our monthly BOGO meal since they were way too busy on Sunday. Wednesday, homemade pizza. Thursday, beef sausage with shells and cheese and baked zucchini. Friday, I'm dining with coworkers so he's on his own. Saturday is still up in the air.

What I'm reminiscing about: Mr. B and I celebrated 6 years together (5 married years coming up in July). We did a #tbt pic of our first ever pic together at a house party I threw circa 2009. We met up with my sister and friend at a Buffalo Wild Wings on 5/21/09. I had a small house party on 5/23/09 where we took this pic together and later shared our first kiss. Then 5/24/09 we had our first official date at Olive Garden.

What I'm loving: I'm actually loving the freedom from my TV schedule now that pretty much all my shows are on break. I'm getting back to reading. I read 2 1/2 books over the long weekend. Bonus: they were fiction books. It's been a couple of months since I've read any fiction books. I'm also loving the new season of The Bachelorette and texting back and forth with a couple of girls at work about what's going on.

What we've been up to: I've been in a frenzy trying to finish up end of year testing, grades, and paperwork for the final days of school. We've been planning our vacations for the summer and some home improvement projects. Other than that, I'm just trying to survive the rest of the school year while Mr. B puts up with my crazy.

What I'm dreading: We are still having problems with our roof. We thought we got the roof fixed so no more water was getting in. With all this rain we've been getting, water is still finding its way into our bathroom. Still dreading the final cost of all the repairs.

What I'm working on: deciding on when and how to paint the front rooms in our house. I'm also working on an article for our church publication on the Fruit of the Spirit. I chose self-control to write about.....

What I'm excited about: When school is out, we are headed to spend a week with my family. Mr. B, my parents, and I are spending a couple of days in New Mexico. Then we get to bring this adorable little guy home with us for a week of baby goodness!

What I'm watching/reading: As mentioned earlier, I've decided to commit to watching The Bachelorette so I can have fun with the girls at work with commentary. I read the next two books in a series that I've been working on: A Shade of Vampire by Bella Forest. She has 13 books out now and book 14 will be out June 10th!

What I'm listening to: I enjoy my classic country Pandora station when I'm working around the house. I wish there was a local radio station that played the classics like that.

What I'm wearing: I'm still rocking the maxi dresses. I can't get enough of those. They're cute, comfortable, and affordable. I may or may not have an addiction....

What I'm doing this weekend: Friday night I'm getting together with the girls at work for some social time. Saturday I'll run some errands before going to game night with friends from church. Sunday afternoon I'm painting with my twin BFFs.

What I'm looking forward to next month: clearly summer vacation! My trip to see my family. And just in case one picture isn't enough for you.....I'm looking forward to a week with this dude!

What else is new: Mr. B and I have decided that it's time to start a family. We've been praying about it and really reflecting on our marriage and where we're at in our life. We're ready to begin our journey to parenthood.

*Bonus question-What is your favorite thing to grill in June: Mr. B makes a mean burger. Last summer we also attempted grilled pizza. This summer should be grill-tastic since we're getting a new gas grill!

Life Lately....

I'm nearing the end of the school year, so I've been super busy trying to get things done. We've decided to take a vacation right at the start of the break. This year, the hubby is going to use his vacation time during the summer. I've been testing students all week at school, getting grades together, and getting paperwork signed. I've got 2 more weeks of this craziness. I'm getting ready for a busy week at school this upcoming week:

• Tuesday: EOY writing test
• Wednesday: awards ceremony and baby shower for a team mate (Yay baby Caroline!!!)
• Thursday: Field Day (hello hot and humid....I'll be a sweaty mess that day I'm sure)
• Friday: finish up reading tests, grade writing tests, enter in grades

I'm so thankful for the ladies at work who keep me sane everyday. That next week I'll be trying to take my classroom apart and do some de-cluttering (is that even a word???). The Saturday after the final day of school is our annual pizza pool party with the gang. Then Sunday afternoon we head to West Texas for a week with my family. Yay baby Jude time.....yeah, yeah and everyone else.

So last week marked all the season finales for most shows I watch. It'll be late September/early October before they come back. There's not a whole lot in the summer that I watch. I usually binge watch something on Netflix and/or read a ton of books. Both of which I plan on doing this summer. A couple of girls at work convinced me to watch the Bachelorette this season so we could give commentary during and after the show. I watched this show when it first came on, but I quickly got tired of it because the person I wanted to get chosen never got chosen. I caved in and started watching this season. The girls told me their husbands would secretly watch and give comments here and there. When I told this to Mr. B, he said "absolutely not!" I thought I would catch him glimpsing every so often, but nope! He was dead serious about not watching. Monday night's premiere found him like this:

Since it was a 2 night premiere, night two found him in a similar position:

I love how Dixie is also in the exact same spot. I kid you not, this was two separate nights. This is our life pretty much every evening. We may watch some shows together, but we are usually on opposite sides of the couch multitasking on the iPad and watching TV. I do usually always have my constant companion with me when I'm couch sitting:

Wednesday we picked up our friends' kids and took them to Bible class. We had them sleeping at our house after church until their dad picked them up. I should have got a picture since they are oh so adorable while they sleep. 

Thursday we did some lazing around after work. Mr. B did some yard work while I cooked a simple dinner. I just threw some sausage and BBQ sauce in the oven. We had shells and cheese with roasted brussel sprouts. I decided to tweak my usual recipe with brussel sprouts:

• I get the baby brussels from spouts and cut them in half.
• I threw in the last few cherry tomatoes we had
• toss with olive oil, grated Parmesan cheese, seasonings (I use onion powder, garlic salt, pepper)
• place on a baking sheet
• I then chopped up 4 pieces of uncooked bacon and sprinkled on top of veggies
• bake at 400 for 30 minutes

They turned out delish! I just finished the leftovers as I was typing this. I added a touch of butter, a dash of garlic salt and Parmesan cheese before microwaving. Even better on day 2:)

Friday is errand running day (much to Mr. B's disappointment). He hates running errands, but he is such a trooper and always goes. He was really a trooper yesterday since he didn't feel well with his horrible allergies. We ate at Chili's so he could have a burger (of course). I ended up ordering something new....Fresh Mex Chipolte Bowl

The Chipotle Chicken Fresh Mex Bowl has marinated grilled chicken, house-made corn and black bean salsa, rice and chipotle pesto layered with cheddar cheese, house-made pico de gallo, fresh field greens, chopped cilantro, tortilla strips, sliced avocado, and a drizzle of cumin-lime sour cream.

This was absolutely delicious...and healthy, too!

We went to the grocery store, Bed Bath Beyond, and Target. It was a long evening. Mr. B came home to get shower, take some allergy meds, and have a hot drink while we watched some Family Feud.

Saturday: I had my final workout with my trainer. I learned that I am much stronger and motivated in the morning. Usually I work out after work when I'm exhausted. I was fresh and ready to go. I can't believe how far I've come in these 10 sessions I've had with the trainer. I started out only being able to use the bar with no weights for exercises to having multiple plates on the bar. Here's what I did for my last session:

• incline bench press: warm up with 10 reps with bar only, 2 sets of 10 with 10lb weights on each side. My trainer thought I could add more weight...I was skeptical as usual. I was able to do 2 more sets of 10 with 12.5lbs on each side!
• shoulder presses with 20lb dumb bells: last time I did this exercise he upped my weight to 15lb dumb bells. I thought he was crazy then because I was hurting bad. So imagine my shock when he walked up with the 20lb weights. He said I'm stronger than I think I am. Once again, he was right. I knocked those out in true #beastmode. 4 sets of 10!!!
• balancing on stability ball while doing rowing exercise on cable machine: I started with only doing 30lbs. Way too easy, so he upped it to 55lbs. I don't remember how much I finished with, but I know that I only had 3 more plates to go before I stacked the machine. Hello strong back!
• triceps exercises: still on the cable machine doing 4 sets of 10 with 35lbs. Goodbye Oprah arms!!!
• biceps curls: started out with the 30lb curl bar only to find out that it makes a great warm up because I knocked out 4 sets of 10 with the 40lb curl bar!
• squats with weights: I went to the squat machine and did squats with the bar. Each new set he would add a 10lb plate to each side. I made it up to 4-10lb plates on each side.
• Fianlly, my favorite leg press machine: I've actually made it up to 6-45lb plates on each side. It's doable...but today we only did 4 plates on each side. I did 4 sets of 10 before the ladder set. After the last set with 4 plates, he removed a plate from each side and I immediately jump into another set of 10 with no rest until I'm down to 1 plate on each side. Today, he had someone help him remove plates so the rest time was non-existent between sets.2-3 plates on each side feels like nothing to me now!

Now I just have to keep it up and maintain my strength. I'm capable of so much more than I give myself credit for. The rest of my Saturday will be spent doing a few things around the house, doing the budget, preparing for Bible class, maybe attempting an article that's due in a few weeks, or maybe just some relaxing.....(I'm thinking the latter will win out).

Sunday will be my day of rest. Church in the morning, song practice and evening church service, followed by our monthly BOGO Spring Creek BBQ dinner.

Monday I plan on relaxing some more. I have to make a dessert for our dinner with Mr. B's parents. A simple dinner of cabbage salad, hot french bread with butter, and my Orange Trifle dessert and any other surprise menu items that may appear!

Come on summer!!! You're so close I can almost feel you. Speaking of feeling good.....here's another precious picture of my sweet nephew:

Friday Favorites....On a Saturday

I was wondering what in the world I could post this week....well it's Saturday, but I really want to do a "Friday Favorites" post "Saved for Saturday."

Favorite thing at home:

This may sound super cheesy, but I don't care! My favorite thing at home is my husband! This man is the best. He cooks breakfast for me in the mornings, helps me carry my bags to my car (even though they aren't heavy), works all day, comes home and cooks dinner for us, and cuddles up to me on the couch! Lucky lady right here. I found this post on Facebook the other day. Mr. B does all 11 of these things! The girls at work are probably getting tired of hearing how wonderful I think he is:)

Favorite school moment:

I've been calling this little boy in a friend's class "five size" all year. He's super little and adorable. When you ask him what size he wears, he replies, "I wear 5 size." The name just stuck. Well yesterday, he comes running up to me to give me a hug yelling, "big size!" Apparently, I have a new nickname, too.

Favorite thing I've cooked:

I bet it's going to be this cream cheese pound cake I just took out of the oven for a pot luck tomorrow....

Favorite meal we've ate:

We had pancakes, bacon, eggs, and strawberries with whipped cream for dinner one night this week. It's fun to do that sometimes.

Favorite thing I've read:

This one is a little harder since I read lots of good things daily. I started following modernmrsdarcy.com earlier this week. This blogger posts about books and other fun things. Well, this is definitely in my wheel house. One post had a link where you could find out your personality type and get a complete profile. I already know my personality type, but it was fun to take the test and read the whole profile. It was scary accurate. Find out your personality type and profile here. I'm a type A. A personality test I took at a workshop a couple of years ago dealt with shapes. I was a square. Those that attended the workshop with me knew what type I was before I even told them. The girls at work now  refer to me as "square."

This same blogger posted about popular names and what your name would have been if you were born in different decades. Of course I was curious, so I plugged my info in, and here is what I came up with:

In 1985, my name (Ashley) was the 2nd most popular girl's name)

• Born today: Olivia-if I have a daughter, I want to name her Olivia
• 2000s: Hannah
• 1990s: Ashley-I was still an Ashley then, too:)
• 1980s: Amanda-my sister's name who was born in 1988
• 1970s: Lisa
• 1960s: Susan
• 1950s: Patricia
• 1940s: Barbara
• 1930s: Betty
• 1920s: Dorothy-my maternal grandmother's name
• 1910s: Helen-my maternal great-grandmother's name
• 1900s: Helen
• 1890s: Anna

Find out what your name would be here.

Favorite thing I've accomplished:

Well, I finally felt inspired to write for my "Forever Faithful" blog today. I really have been meaning to do a better job of posting to this blog. I'm going to make that a goal this summer....along with revamping my blog as a whole (with the help of simplyswarbrick). My latest post deals with having faith during the "waiting periods" of your life. Link on over to my "Forever Faithful" blog to read my thoughts on this subject.

And finally, Favorite picture of Jude:

4 Things....

It's a rainy Saturday and I'm all caught up on my DVR shows. Sounds like a great time to do another blog post. This was recommended to me by a fellow blogger (who also happens to be a team mate and friend). She texts me and asks if I've seen her "4 Things" post. I replied that I have, and she said I should do one. I accused her of not having any other reading material;) You can check out her post of "4 Things" here on her blog simplyswarbrick.

So here's my four:

Four nicknames
1. choo-ette (it's the hubby's nickname)
2. ashalini (the parents call me this...usually when they want something)
3. shley (sisters sometime address me as such...it's a long story involving a homecoming queen nominee poster I did in high school)
4. Browning (it's a work thing)

Four jobs I've had
1. First grade teacher
2. Pre-K teacher
3. customer service, cashier, fuel attendant at grocery store
4. waitress

Four movies I've watched more than once
1. Letters to Juliet
2. A Princess for Christmas
3. Twilight Saga (don't judge)
4. Pride and Prejudice

Four things in my purse
1. wallet
2. keys
3. hand sanitizer
4. phone

Four cars I've owned
1. 1990 ford tempo
2. 2003 chevy cavalier
3. 2012 honda civic
4. coming soon in the next 5 years......

Four places I've lived
1. Lubbock, TX
2. Arlington, TX
3. North Richland Hills, TX
4. Fort Worth, TX

Four places I've visited
1. New Orleans, LA
2. Nassau, Bahamas
3. Punta Cana, Dominican Republic
4. Cancun, Mexico (July 2015)

Four places on my bucket list
1. Ireland
2. Italy
3. Greece
4. London

Four of my favorite foods
1. chicken strips
2. loaded mashed potatoes
3. chips
4. seasoned brussel sprouts

Four things I'd never eat
1. raw fish
2. olives
3. caviar
4. menudo

Four books I'd recommend
1. The Bible
2. The Power of a Praying Wife
3. Love Comes Softly Series (Janet Oke)
4. Vampire Academy Series (and the spin-off series is great, too)

Four TV shows I watch (for the record, I watch way more TV than I probably should)
1. The Voice
2. When Calls the Heart
3. Vampire Diaries
4. Downton Abbey

Four things I'm looking forward to in 2015
1. Our Cancun all-inclusive vacation for our 5th anniversary
2. getting our leaky roof fixed
3. spending time with baby Jude
4. our 30th birthdays!!!

Fun with the Dream Team

Saturday was a full and busy day for me. I started my morning early by driving to Arlington to judge at our UIL meet. I signed up to be a UIL coach this year. I remember participating when I was in school, so I thought it would be fun to have the experience from the coach/judge side. I coached an event that I competed in: Oral Reading. This event is reading/performance based. Participants choose a poem, prose, or story selection to read. Judges are looking for fluency, expression, intonation, accuracy, and performance. I coached this even with another teacher. We had only one participant in our event. A sweet young lady in 5th grade. I knew from the beginning that she would rock this event. She chose a selection that I performed when I was in school. I was so proud when I found out that she took 2nd place in the event!

Later that day, I went to a party with my team mates from work to celebrate the birthday of our former team mate who had to leave us earlier this year. Even though she left our school, she never left our "team!" We went over to "Mama B's" house for the party. (Mama B is a nickname that one of our teachers earned because she acts like our team mom...always taking care of everyone, including us) We knew that she would go all out and be the "hostess with the mostess." She did not disappoint. She wanted us all to wear hats in honor of the Kentucky Derby. We were having fajitas with all the fixings and my famous loaded mashed potatoes. We got there and she had appetizers for us.

Chips, salsa, guacamole, mozzarella with tomatoes, strawberries, sausage on pretzel sticks. There were also cocktails and mocktails for everyone. She even had Mint Juleps to celebrate the Kentucky Derby. She broke out the fine china for appetizers and opted for paper plates for the main course. We had a nice time time chatting and eating (two things our first grade team is known for).

Yay that baby Gabriella could come hang out!

We spent most of the evening enjoying the wonderful weather outside. The bugs started attacking, but TJ said...." I bet she has a candle!" Yep, she sure did! For dessert we had the chocolate cake I made with sparkling lemonade.

We ended the night with presents! Even though this was SJ's birthday, she brought us gifts also. She told us not to get excited because it was just old stuff of hers. She's retiring and trying to rid herself of all things "teacher!" Teachers will always get excited about "old stuff" from a retired teacher. We get really excited when books are involved, especially when sweet/funny hand written notes are placed inside the books:) I made out like a bandit with Expo markers, erasers, and dry erase boards. While TJ cleaned up in the colorful Sharpie department! Because "when in doubt, do art!" TJ's slogan:)

It was a great Saturday! Just love hanging out with these ladies. Love who you work with and work will always be tolerable....even on your worst day! Having someone to vent with, cry with, and laugh with makes everything better! So sad to lose one more Dream Team member this next year:( 

Clearly, with us you are not forgotten when you leave. We still celebrate your awesomeness!!!

Playing Hooky....Kind of

Another busy weekend ahead. I knew I would be super busy Saturday with work and fun, so I thought I'd take Friday off for relaxation purposes. I usually take the first Friday off in May each year because I need one more long weekend between Easter and Memorial Day. Mr. B took off from work too, and we had planned to drive into Canton to check out their booths for First Monday and maybe drive a little further into Lindale so I could check out The Pink Pistol.
Quick background info: The weekend before the first Monday of every month there is a huge flea market type awesomeness that goes on in Canton. It's about 1 1/2 hour drive from my house. We try to go in May because that's about my only free non-hot weekend I can go. The weather is usually perfect this weekend. This year was no exception. The Pink Pistol is Miranda Lambert's store. We've been to the original one in Tishomingo, OK but wanted to check out the Texas store since it was only 30 minutes from Canton.

However, since we have all this stuff going on with our roof and the insurance company, we decided to not take our mini road trip. Instead we just spent time around the house doing a few chores and running a couple of errands.

We slept in until about 8:30 before Mr. B woke up to make us breakfast. He usually cooks me breakfast most mornings. This morning I got a more complex breakfast since we had plenty of time. He made our favorite breakfast treat that we got off Pinterest, Sausage Cream Cheese Crescents.

We had a nice leisure breakfast with some coffee. I did my daily morning devotionals before heading into the living room to watch a little TV. Later in the morning, we went to Sprouts to get a few produce items. We prefer to buy our produce at Sprouts because it's usually better quality and cheaper than the grocery store. I had to stop at the library super quick to turn in some books and pick up new books for school this week.

Next up was the gym for a workout. I usually work out with my trainer of Tuesday afternoons, but he had to reschedule this week. I told him I could do Friday early afternoon since I wasn't working. I chose a noon appointment. It was great because there was hardly anyone there, and we didn't have to fight for equipment in the weight area. I bought a 10 session package, and this was workout number 7. I started out not being able to last the whole hour, getting real short of breath, not being able to do cardio between weight sets, and barely able to complete weight sets with just the bar. Fast forward 7 weeks and I'm able to last a whole hour now! I hardly get sick anymore; however, there are times when I need some extra rest time between some things to prevent any light headed feelings. I'm doing a full minute of cardio between weight sets now!!! On the bench press I can do 3 sets of 10 with 10lb weights on each side, I can do 12 1/2lbs on each side with some help. My pride and joy was yesterday when I put 5 45lb plates on each side of the leg press!!!!

I had already done a couple sets with 3 plates on each side and one with 4 plates. I did 2 sets with 5 plates, then went back down the ladder (1 set w/4 plates, 1 set w/3 plates, 1 set w/ 2 plates, and the final set with 1 plate). There was no rest between those sets. It's amazing how light 3 plates feel when you've done 5 plates! I immediately went into walking lunges holding a 40lb barbell behind my head. My thighs are going to have some killer muscles!!!

After our workout, we went for a completely contradictory lunch: gyros and fries!

What you see there is the exact portion of food, so not too bad. By the time we got home it was almost 2:00, and we decided we needed a nap. We slept until 3:30. We woke up and realized that we took a really long nap. I turn to Mr. B and say, "Well, you know what this means....?" And he replies, "we get to go to Starbucks for 1/2 price Frapps!" I love how we think alike. Again, this contradicted our workout, but we wanted a treat. We got a tall caramel ribbon crunch and enjoyed it outside since the weather was perfect.

We ran to his parents house to check on some things before heading home and realizing that the day had gone by so fast. I still needed to cook a few things for a party on Saturday, and he wanted to wash and clean both cars. We came back home and got busy. While he was outside washing the inside and outside of both cars, 

I was inside cooking delicious treats for my coworkers for our party on Saturday! Loaded mashed potatoes for the guest of honor since they're her favorite

Chocolate cake for our dessert loving dream team

I cleaned up the kitchen, did a little laundry, and just picked up a bit. I even made a quick dinner of Frito pie for us to eat while we watched game shows on GSN. Our favorite is Family Feud, but we've been enjoying the Newly Wed Game, too. We like to play along and see if we get the same answers and see how well we know each other after almost 5 years of marriage. We ended our day relaxing together on the couch before heading to bed around 10:00 since we both had to be up at 6:00 the next morning. He had to be at work at 7:00 and I had a UIL meet at 8:00.

Tomorrow is another busy day for me. At least he will get some much needed time to relax and have some time to himself. He really needs to clear the DVR because he has shows from 3 weeks ago! That's his job this afternoon....watch TV and clear that DVR. That's one thing on the "honey-do" list he'll be more than happy to check off!