This Weekend

This weekend has been pretty productive and fun – though lazy at the same time. Phillip has been working a lot on UTA athletics stuff and I’ve been compiling all of my wedding information into one single binder. Hopefully, I’ll have it finished soon so I can feel accomplished and not all over the place. We’ve been pretty much just sitting on the couch as we have done these two things side-by-side.

Our food selection has been similar to what it usually is when Phillip comes to visit with some slight modification. Thursday night I had some pasta that I made and Phillip nibbled at it but didn’t eat since he ate a huge meal before leaving (surprise, surprise). Friday for lunch we had Laynes (duhh), then dinner was Boston’s. I had a coupon for a free one-topping pizza and then I had water (that classifies me as a “cheap date”). Yesterday for lunch, Phillip had his Boston’s leftovers and I kind of picked at some pretzels since I really wasn’t feeling too well. Last night we went to Buffalo Wild Wings for dinner so Phillip could watch some of the Missouri game. And today for lunch we had Laynes yet again, and will be cooking a breakfast dish for dinner that Phillip discovered.

So what else have we accomplished this weekend? Nothing really. I have a personal best time for solitaire Bananagrams of 27 minutes and I’m pretty sure I’ve watched more TV this weekend than I have all semester. Go figure.

The rest of the weekend will probably be much of the same. Phillip will leave tomorrow around noon and it’ll be back to the daily grind. Luckily I have absolutely nothing due this week (well I guess a quiz is the exception), so I get to kick back and prepare myself for the terrible week that will follow.

Good news though – only 12 more days until Spring Break!!

Phillip Tonight!!!

Phillip will be on his way within an hour. I’m so excited! I’m ready to spend the whole weekend with him doing nothing. He’ll do some work here and there and I’ll study, but overall it’ll be a nice relaxing weekend with nowhere to go and nothing big to do. I’m ready. :]

I Have An Awesome Friend :D

So I was cleaning out my message inbox on facebook and came across this wonderful message from my sweet friend, Shauna Mennis that was sent the night Phillip proposed to me and I figured I’d post a bit for you to read:

“Ashley Nicole Galloway or shall I say soon to be Ashley Nicole Long I am so happy for you! It's funny because last night Katherine was telling me that she had read on your blog that Phillip was taking you somewhere really nice tonight as a surprise. After her saying that, we both immediately said, this is it! He is going to ask her and we got really excited yesterday because we were hoping that we were right. When I got your text tonight, I flipped out! I am so happy for you! Every time I think about you and Phillip, I think about that AMAZING summer we had. That was probably by far one of the greatest summers I have had. We had so many good times and it was just us and the boys. It was before all of the drama and hard times we faced over the next few years. It was a time before we grew up. I am so glad that you got to meet Phillip at such a great time in our lives and then grow with him through all of those good and bad times. The way you knocked that boy off his feet is just unheard of and the way he healed you from all the bad stuff in the past is simply amazing! What you two have is so rare. I am truly glad that I have had you as a friend and can call you one of my oldest friends.
I miss you dearly and hearing the great news today combined with how much i miss you just combined to form this looong sappy letter! I've also felt really bad because I didn't get a chance to respond to your text the other day and your wall post yesterday because I've just been really busy! Anyways, I am so excited for you and anytime you feel like chatting and catching up on life just give me a call. I am sure you're loaded with people calling you and you having to call people (which is why I apologize for this ridiculously long message!) so I will just let you call me whenever you have free time and want to talk!
I am so truly excited to see such an old friend find her true happiness! I love you!! “

Pretty much, I love her a whole lot. :)

SNOW :)

That’s right! Today in College Station, it snowed – 3 inches!! It was so pretty to watch and tons of fun to be in. I’ve never seen such huge snowflakes in my life! It is my understanding that these large flakes are what DFW saw when it snowed about a foot. But still, it was incredible. No less impressive than 30 inches of snow. Snow is beautiful no matter if it accumulates or if it is mixed with sleet and rain. It’s just plain perfect and pure and soft. I love it in moderation of course!

[This was the view from our back door – early in the “snow storm”.]

So today I had a great day after a very rocky start to my morning. I got to see the wonderful weather, had my meetings cancelled, and got to finish everything that needed to be done, and got to spend some time with Grace and Emily.

And Thursday. Thursday I get to see my love. He hasn’t been down to College Station since the beginning of December. Boy is he going to be shocked when he finds that absolutely nothing has changed since the last time he was here. Well, I guess that’s not entirely true… we have a new IHOP now. :-P

But I get to see him. I’m so ready to spend 5 days with him! He’s staying Thursday evening through Monday morning. I’m excited!!!!! I want to just hang out and spend time together. College Station is the perfect place to come and do nothing – and that’s just what I want to do. I don’t have any tests next week so I’m ready to relax and unwind so that next week I can start preparing for the terrible week that will follow the week of nothingness.

But for now, I suppose it’s time for me to get some sleep. Classes are cancelled until 10:00 am (pray they push that time back at least half an hour so I don’t have to go to my only class tomorrow) so I get to sleep in a little bit. Good night!

P.S. The First United Methodist Church in Irving is letting us put our names down on all three June 2011 Saturdays with no deposit!! We’re going to go look at the place in person over Spring Break and hopefully fall in love with it. It’s exciting to know that we have a strong possibility – though scary to know that nothing’s official until September. The waiting game… story of my life….

Apartments and Churches and Website OH MY!

A lot of updates have happened in the last week – in the last 24 hours even. I have found a few great apartment options for Phillip and I’s future residence, have found the PERFECT church (and a few runners-up), and my dad has made the website even better than it already was!

APARTMENTS

So here is a list of the apartments currently on the radar for Phillip and me. We obviously have plenty of time to figure it out, but these two have really caught our eyes and are definitely going in the “favorites” list:

Name:	AMLI at Fossil Lake	Haven WC
Website:	http://www.amli.com/apartments/dallas/fossil-lake/	http://www.havenwc.com/home.asp
Location:	I35 and Western Center	I35 and Western Center
Pros:	-Great Price -Lots of Options -Hardwood Floor Options -Separate Dining Room Possible	-W/D in Every Unit -HUGE Pantry -Guaranteed Dark Cabinets and Black Appliances
Cons:	-W/D in Select Units -Prices Increasing	-More Expensive than AMLI -No Hardwood Floors

 

CHURCHES

That’s right, after googling for several hours and exploring just about every option within a 30 miles radius of the Ballpark, I have compiled a list of 5 churches that could be the future location of our ceremony. I found my absolute favorite (I might even like it more than Arlington) and some other options that “will do”. Take a look at these:

First United Methodist Church of Irving (Chapel): www.fumcirving.org (20 min from Ballpark)

First United Methodist Church of Arlington (Sanctuary): www.arlingtonmethodist.org (Arlington, 5 min from Ballpark, BOOKED AS OF JANUARY)

Community of Hope United Methodist Church: www.communityofhope.com (Mansfield, 20 min from Ballpark)

Epworth United Methodist Church: www.epworthtx.org (Arlington, 9 min from Ballpark)

Handley United Methodist Church: www.handleyumc.org (Fort Worth, 15 min from Ballpark)

New World United Methodist Church: www.nwumc.org (Arlington, 9 min from Ballpark)

WEBSITE

My dad really beefed up the website in the past few days. The website was gorgeous before all of these great changes, but he managed to make it even better. The Thank-You section has been updated (as well as the wedding party page), a song has been added to the home page, and a countdown to the tentative BIG DAY is visible on the home page and the ceremony page. Please go take a look at the masterpiece my wonderful dad has created for Phillip and me. Feel free to post a comment on our guestbook too. www.phillip-ashley.com

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So as you can see, I have been a busy bee this weekend! And now you have some important tasks at hand. I need feedback! From all of you! Comment here, send me a facebook message, call me, or email me. I need to hear what you think. :)

Relaxing Mornings – Present and Future

I woke up this morning in a relaxed state. I really have nothing to do today that can’t wait until tomorrow afternoon. What a great feeling! This is the first weekend I’ve had in a long time where I don’t have anything to do and nothing to get ready for.

So I’ve remained in bed since waking up. Now I did go make some breakfast and a cup of coffee. But presently I find myself propped up in bed drinking my Chestnut Cream Coffee (with white chocolate macadamia nut creamer), chocolate whipped yogurt, and toast with organic cherry jelly. What a relaxing morning! Food network is on in the background – wonderfully relaxing and mentally stimulating at the same time.

I enjoy Saturdays and Sundays when I have nothing to do. I forget when I’m constantly hustling around and getting my enormous to-do list finished, that life is about these in-between moments when you can just live and breathe and enjoy a great cup of coffee. (The best part of the cup of coffee – besides the wonderful taste – is that when the cup is gone, I can simply make another one!)

All of these lazy days and wonderful feelings about life make me enjoy my current situation but also anticipate how they could get even better in the future. I can’t wait to spend every weekend with Phillip. We’ll both prop ourselves up in bed on our laptops. I’ll drink my coffee and surf the internet while he catches up on his sports blogs (or work-related things) all while watching whatever sport happens to be in season (not as mentally stimulating for me as food network, but still the same effect of background noise :P). We’ll stay in bed as long as our agenda and chore list allow us to. Those are the moments of married life I can’t wait for.

You see, it’s not really about the wedding for me – though planning a wedding is loads of fun!! To me, when I envision our wedding, I always seem to fast-forward to after the honeymoon. I imagine our flight home holding hands and then arriving back to our new apartment – our new life. I have to convince him to pick me up and carry me across the threshold (even though he’ll probably think it’s old fashioned and embarrassing with our next-door neighbors curiously peering out of the corner of their eyes as they pretend to be “searching for their hidden keys”). We arrive into our new living room and see all of the gifts we forgot we registered for. He of course will want to go straight to catching up on all of the sports news he couldn’t hear over the week of honeymooning, and I’ll want to unpack and organize everything in sight. And I can envision our first dinner in the new place. I’ll want to make some extremely hard recipe and take tons of pictures to put in the scrapbook. I will scour over millions of books and internet websites for the perfect thing to make – each being vetoed after I realize there’s an ingredient Phillip doesn’t like in it or after sadly realizing that we haven’t even gone grocery shopping yet. So after hours of frustration, Phillip will suddenly suggest getting Chili's to-go or Wendy's for about the tenth time. And then suddenly, that sounds like a fantastic idea.

I know I seem to have it all worked out and it will go nothing like the above prediction, but I can dream right? As you can see, I obviously have a gift of being able to see the future clear-as-day as if it were plainly written on the wall for everyone to see or as if I were some director of a movie with incredible vision.

But nights like those and days like these are the ones I cherish and will cherish over a lifetime. Right now I relish these moments by myself and the much needed alone time. In the future, though, I’ll love getting to spend time with my husband who is just as lazy and just as relaxed as me.

And that, my readers, is love. :]

A Boring Weekend Ahead

So this weekend will be the first one spent in College Station since the weekend after winter break. I am looking forward to sleeping in in my own bed and relaxing. But it’ll be quite boring. I have nothing on the agenda and since I can’t spend money, it really limits what all I can. Unfortunately, I also have two exams and two papers due next week. I guess I’ll get around to writing and studying at some point. Probably not.

Monday’s Exam: Consumer Health; Tuesday’s Paper: Health Program Proposal; Wednesday’s Paper: Health Communication Movie Application; Wednesday’s Exam: Anatomy.

Phillip and I talked on the phone for two hours last night. It was the longest conversation we’ve had in a long time and was filled with some good discussions. I feel better now because of it and I’m still glad that after so long, he still loves me. That constant, consistent love is what’s going to last a lifetime. I’m so lucky.

Lent, Life, and Other Things

So today starts Lent. This year I have decided to give something up in order to refresh myself and gain a new perspective. So what am I giving up? Spending. That’s right, for 40 days I will not spend any money. The exception to this will be the obvious – bills and gas are necessities and cannot be cut out altogether. I do plan on limiting my consumption of gas, but bills are rather concrete. I went grocery shopping yesterday for necessities and have a ton of food in the pantry and freezer that have been needing to be consumed. So I have plenty to eat. I am allowing myself $40 to be realistic. This is because obvious a loaf of bread can’t last for 40 days and I know my milk expires before Lent is over. Plus, if I need something (like contact solution) I need to have a “safety net”. It’s a pretty ambitious task, but I know I can do it. I’ve been spending too much money lately and It’s about time I have a lesson in minimalism and frugality.

One of my friends has decided to take on blogging about 40 scriptures for 40 days. I read hers today and it was about life and how we are only here for a short while. It touched me because I forget that I need to be more present-focused. I’m always running toward the future and while I don’t look back, I never enjoy the moment. I need to start enjoying the moment. There are no guarantees in life. Pretty insightful.

Today Tony officially left for the Army. He’ll be gone for 8 weeks in Georgia and doesn’t know what will happen from there. But it’s hard to see Manda so hurt. She’s having to deal with essentially not having a husband for that span and she’s dying inside. Don’t get me wrong, she’s so strong but it’s still sad. I couldn’t handle being a military wife. I know it’s selfish, but I’m not strong enough for that. But she is and I admire her so much for that. Just please keep her and Tony in your prayers.

Well I know this entry has been all over the place, but that’s kind of how my thoughts are these days – scattered. Today I’m taking a sick day since I don’t have hardly any energy. I have to go work tonight but other than that, I’m just hanging around my bed today. I hope I’ll feel better tomorrow!!

My Future In-Laws :)

This is the picture from Christmas this year.

 

 

From Left to Right: Phillip, Amanda (Phillip’s Cousin), Me, Karen (Phillip’s Mom), Tabo (Phillip’s Grandmother), David (Phillip’s Uncle), Ben (Phillip’s Cousin), Betty (Phillip’s Aunt), Ron (Phillip’s Dad)

Reality Hits Yet Again

After a great weekend with Phillip, I’ve found myself thrown back into the less-than-desirable real world. I came back to tons of homework and studying. I even found out this morning that a simple “little” assignment that’s due Friday is actually a 3 page paper with sources. Awesome.

Phillip and his dad went to the All-Star game last night. From what I hear, they had fun. That’s great news to me since that was my whole goal. I’m glad they went together. I certainly wouldn’t have enjoyed myself and it gave them a chance to hang out. :)

So Saturday night I surprised Phillip with a reservation at J.R.’s Steakhouse in Colleyville. He has said several times of the past couple of years that he’d like to try it and I figured it was time. It’s actually where I thought we were going the night he proposed. So we got there and took advantage of the valet parking. They were having a Valentine’s weekend special, so Phillip and I got to have a three-course meal (I of course enjoyed all three courses, but Phillip patiently waited for the entree). The appetizer was a jumbo shrimp in cocktail sauce, a delicious fried crab cake, and the best fried calamari I have ever had with a chili and sour cream sauce. I even got Phillip to try some of the calamari!!! For the salad, it was a traditional spring salad with walnuts, Swiss cheese slivers, and a lemon butter dressing. It was alright, but nothing compared to the fantastic appetizer. For dinner, I had a buttery flakey Chilean sea bass on a rice pilaf. Phillip had peppercorn crusted steak with mashed potatoes. It was a delicious meal and a great evening out!!!

Happy Early Valentine’s Day!!!!

So last night I finally arrived in Arlington (30 minutes later than expected due to traffic and road conditions). It was not my favorite drive in the world and was pretty frustrating at times. But I’m here, and that’s what matters.

Last night Phillip and I decided to give each other our Valentine’s presents early – this is no surprise to some of you that know we can’t wait to save our lives. But nonetheless, I got my wonderful gifts!! He got me a white rose (my favorite!), a box of chocolates, a giant bear, and an IPOD SHUFFLE (no doubt to help me work off the previously mentioned box of chocolates)!!! He did such a good job and all of the gifts were so thoughtful!!

For those of you who haven’t read Phillip’s status yet, I got him tickets to the NBA All-Star game!! That was the big surprise!!! I managed to find myself at the right place and the right time to purchase them, so ta-da! He was pretty excited and now he and his dad get to enjoy a night of basketball tomorrow night. Yay! :]

So the plans for today consist of eating lunch pretty soon, me getting a haircut (while Phillip works a basketball game), and getting ready for the festivities tonight that I have planned. I’ll give more details on a later post so I don’t ruin the surprise.

P.S. I love him so much and I love how he makes everything better and how much fun we have together.

4 More Hours

Judging by traffic cameras and the current temperatures, I should be able to leave at 1:00 today like originally planned. Hopefully the weather will continue to cooperate so I don’t have a terrible or slow drive. I’m not really in the mood to jump in the car and go just yet but I want to be in Arlington so badly! Why can’t instant travel machines be invented? :-/

But I do get to see him today, after a week. These small in-between-times seem to drag on longer than the longer ones. Maybe it’s because I don’t have enough time to get into a routine, maybe it’s because I’m still on a high from the previous weekend. All I know is that I miss him, he misses me, and we’ll get to see each other today. Not to mention, this weekend is going to be awesome. I don’t think I’ve ever surprised him – or at least not this big of a surprise.

Well, it’s time for me to go take by back-to-back exams before teaching my “lab” and driving north. Health Communication is first, which should be a test over glorified common sense and a few terms thrown in. After that, it’s straight to my math exam next door. I’ve practiced a lot and have kept up with all of the suggested homework so far so I feel pretty prepared. My lab will be pretty usual, then it’s lunch with Grace, getting gas, and leaving!! I should be in Arlington around 4:15 or so. Yay!

5 Months ALREADY!?

Phillip and I have been engaged for exactly 5 months tonight. I can still vividly remember that night, and I’ll remember it for the rest of my life. I can’t believe how fast the months have flown – it just shows how fast the next 16 months are going to be.

Tomorrow I get to go spend Valentine’s weekend in Arlington with my love. I hope the weather will cooperate so I can leave at 1, like I’d want to. But I might have to wait until later in the afternoon or even wait until early Saturday morning to leave. HOPEFULLY my original plan will work.

I can’t wait for Phillip to get his present from me! :)

Easy

Lately I’ve been so stressed about everything it seems. My days are filled with endless amounts of homework, reading, studying, meetings, classes and work. The weekends are my only bouts of free time. So I’ve decided for this entry, I’m going to list out the things in my life that are easy right now – the things that aren’t stressing me out.

1. My relationship with Phillip. It never ceases to put me in awe of how relatively easy “we” are. Even with us living three hours away from each other, we don’t really have to work at it as much as others living in the same city do. We still have things we work at, and we still have to work at our relationship on a daily basis, but it’s never really “work” and it’s never hard.

2. Where I’m headed in life. The thing that has kept me going so far this semester and the thing that will continue to drive me is the vision of my future. I love where my life is leading me and I love my future career. I’ve found my passions in life and couldn’t be more content with or motivated by them.

3. My family. It’s unbelievably how much they have supported me lately. I mean, they’ve always supported me, but recently they have been 120% on board with every decision I have made. It’s nice to know that I have a strong support system that is with me when I’m making big and small decisions.

Well there are several other things that are easy in my life right now, but those are the main three that I felt needed mentioning. This weekend I’m at home again to spend time with my wonderful family and just relax.

Between Class Layover

Currently, you can find me sitting on a bench in the hall, waiting for my next class. It doesn’t start until 3 so I have plenty of time to kill. I have been studying since noon and need a break. I suppose I could go back to studying in a little bit, but it gets to be too draining after a while. Plus, after my class gets out at 3:50, it’s more studying until my exam at 7:00 tonight. It’s Anatomy and Physiology so it’ll be a toughie. Not to mention, it’s the first exam of the semester – soon followed by three exams next week. That’s right, the next week is going to be filled with entirely too much studying to accommodate any form of a social life.

Luckily this weekend I have a lot of time to devote to my class work, reading, and studying. Perhaps I’ll even get ahead in my online class and math class? That would be nice to come back from Valentine’s weekend to. Even though my week is going to be filled to the brim with exams and busy work, I’ll have hardly anything the following week. This means all of Valentine’s Day weekend can be relaxing and I won’t really have anything too difficult to return to.

So to add to my boredom-induced ramblings, I suppose I’ll bring up the shoes I’m starting to notice all over campus. I believe they’re called “Vibram FiveFingers” shoes. They are absolutely ridiculous looking and I can’t decide if that means they’re going to be the most comfortable things on the planet. The article I read about them [posted below] says they’re, “Surprisingly comfortable… [but] …Ugly as a bucket of vomit. Just looking at the shoes is a one way ticket to the uncanny valley. Slightly time-consuming to put on. Sizing is extremely fickle.” That pretty much sums up my interpretation of them perfectly. However, I really want to try on a pair just so I know how they feel and try to fully comprehend the hype.

Random entry, I know, but that’s what you get when I’m bored out of my mind and have that weird in-between class time to share my various thoughts from the day. Lucky you.

Review of FiveFingers Shoes

Engagement Party Planning

Today Heather called to talk about Engagement Party stuff. I am soooo ready for the big shin-dig. We’re going to have some sort of food, BYOB, toasting galore, music, and hopefully a fun (and not cheesy) couples game. As it gets closer, I get more and more excited – I can only imagine what I’ll feel like when Phillip and I’s wedding gets closer!! Lots of things to look forward to…. and lots of other no-so-fun things to do right now. I can’t wait for this hard semester to be over with so I can devote more time to the fun things in life again. Come on May!! Get here fast!!!

Another Weekend Gone

As quickly as the weekend started, it was over. I hate having to live my life in two-week increments. But now I wait another two weeks until I make the journey back up to north Texas. It doesn’t get any easier the more times you say goodbye – in fact, I feel like lately it’s gotten worse. I keep telling myself that I only have to this until December, but even that seems too far away.

It was a busy weekend. Phillip’s grandmother’s memorial service was more sad than I expected. I found myself sitting in the pew and wishing I had known her. From all that I’ve heard, I probably would have loved her. It’s too bad. :-/

So now it’s back to the daily grind. I’ve already spent a few hours on math homework tonight and went grocery shopping (hooray for lunch and breakfast foods!!). On the agenda tomorrow is class, a Consumer Health quiz and assignment, more math homework (yes, I have to do it just about every night), research for my proposal topic in my writing-intensive Kinesiology Health class, a WHOOP meeting, and the start of studying for my huge Anatomy exam that’s Wednesday night.

So much to do and so little time!! I supposed I’ll have to shut myself up in my room again this week. I have three more exams next week, so hopefully two weeks of work and a whole weekend of studying will make Valentine’s weekend stress-free.

Here’s to a [hopefully] happy Monday!!