Finally!

I finally have the pictures of the house made and loaded into the computer~ Here is a picture of the front of the house if you haven't seen it yet.

Living room. The door is the front door. The archway to the right leads to the 2 guest bedrooms and bath.

Living room. This is the bamboo rug that the dogs love to click-clack around on.

Living room, the archway you see leads down the hall to the master bedroom.

Living room, this archway leads to the kitchen.

The guest room/my art room. Matt did my cool Empire State building mural and NYC skyline.

The desk on the left is where my sewing machine is kept.

Matt's manly office/study/library - The Captain's Quarters

The kitchen, Matt has left the Captain's Quarters and deemed himself worthy to do the dishes. He's a keeper!

The dining room, directly off the kitchen.

Master Bath

Master Bedroom

The view entering the backyard from the gate.

Matt's gorgeous hibiscus.

Our fish pond (there is actually an Oscar in this pond named Aubie. He is a hoss.)

The back of the house and our pretty yard. I'm please to see it looks much greener in these pictures.

Long Time, No Blog - A month is TOO LONG

I have been working hard to get back into a schedule. I feel as if I have been totally flipped upside down since March. In April we searched for the house, secured the loan, agonized over the loan, chewed on fingernails over the loan, closed on the loan. – Crazy month since we were also super afraid to spend any extra cash in case we needed it for the closing. In May we started moving, painted the house, went to Disneyworld, went home for Mother’s day, kept moving, kept painting, MORE moving, MORE painting, passed up a trip to Perdido and Gulf Shores because we were so tired from moving and painting. Oh yeah, and we unpacked, organized and settled in. In June we continued to unpack and paint and finished up just in time to host my family for a week and then Matt’s family the weekend immediately after. Then, just as the families were leaving and we were catching our breath, I left for Lakeland, FL for a 3 day conference. Anyways, long story short, we have been ultra busy.

I know I have promised new house pictures on here for the last 4 blogs, but I am having trouble getting several pieces of technology to work at the same time (ex. Digital camera – Where are the batteries? In the Wii remote of course, are the charged? Not hardly…). Plus, tonight I have to pack up for our trip to Florence for the 4th. I will get pictures posted of the house as soon as I can. I plan to actually take the pictures tonight since I will have the opportunity to show the pictures to grandparents and family members this weekend who are anxious to see what we’ve done with the white box J. But therein lies the problem of first having to straighten the area I am photographing. It will not do to show off my new home with stuff lying all over the place. Especially our bedroom, my grandparents don’t want to see our laundry piles (though notably high they may be). Ok, enough boring house stuff.

I am excited for our trip home. Matt’s family is having a family reunion all weekend at his folks’ house on the river so there will be a lot of skiing, boating, swimming, fishing and tasty food. We’re going on a cruise (party boat) of Wheeler Lake on Friday night that will stop by DoubleHead in time for the fireworks. It’s actually a 3 hour tour (Gilligan’s Island – Hopefully I won’t end up stuck on an island in the middle of Wheeler Lake. There’s no telling how long we’d be trapped there since the island won’t have coconuts or bamboo for us to fashion a raft or home out of.) The cruise should be really fun. I LOVE watching fireworks and especially on a boat in the middle of the river. I’m even looking forward to the SMELL of the river if you can believe that. It’s unique and comforting because it smells like home.

Despite my venting of my stresses on this blog, I do know how fortunate and blessed I am. I have a wonderful husband/best friend and share a lovely home with him that has every modern convenience I could ask for and then some. I can afford the gas to drive home to the Shoals. I have 2 sweet puppy dogs who are very fun, loving and affectionate with minimal doggy accidents and disasters. I can get to the beach in 20 minutes. I can sit in my back yard and eat my hubby’s homegrown tomatoes. I have a job with fun people and relatively low stress that takes me to Orlando occasionally with an excuse to stay and go to DisneyWorld. God has blessed this Crockett family with so many blessings so far and I truly know and appreciate how blessed I am.

Matt – You proposed to me in the most creative and original ways 6 years ago on July 3 and I have never looked back. I love you with all my heart! July 4th is our holiday. Matt and Ashley day!

Rock the Hammock

Stevie is in love with our new backyard hammock. She can get up out of the uncomfortable grass and float on a multi colored cloud. She's very pleased with herself here. She likes this hammock almost as much as she likes the new jute rug in Matt's study. The material is a weave of wool that is scratchy and a great place for her to wallow around on her back to get a good scratch. Wil's favorite part of the house is now the living room where we have put down a bamboo rug. He loves to run all over it and hear the clippity clack of his doggy toenails. (It's becoming loudly obvious that I need to clip them.) Both dogs love to have a good chase around the circle created from the hall, kitchen, dining room and living room. They seem to be adjusting to the new house well. We can really tell they like the carpet. It's good to see them adjusting. I think they were confused when we kept going from house to house for so long. It's nice for Matt and I too.

Below are some pictures of our back yard. Matt did a ton of work last night. It looks awesome. We need to mow the yard, but we're letting the grass grow long to establish the roots since this is new sod. Plus, we don't have a lawnmower yet. Our fire pit has been really useful for burning brush.

Wii Fit

Matt and I preordered the Wii Fit that came out last week. We have had a blast with it! It has some really cool games and features. The BMI and weight can be a little harsh, but it's honest for sure. It will tell you if you're overweight, underweight or even obese. The system has strength training, yoga, balance games and aerobic excersise. The balance board measures your balance and helps you do the movements properly. It's a really good workout. You even have a personal trainer that shows you all the moves and talks you through the workout. It's such a cool way to play and workout. I really enjoy the hula hoop challenge. We've used this "toy" daily since we got it. Such a good way to sneak in some excersise.

We are resting at home this weekend after a crazy month of packing, moving and unpacking. We finally cleaned out the other house earlier this week and I mailed the keys in this morning. It's a relief to be done moving. This will be our first weekend here in our new home with no guests. I plan on sleeping in. I will take interior pictures this weekend and post them.

Updates...

We're finally moved in. There are only a few small things left at the townhouse. Now I've got a week to get it cleaned. We're supposed to be out next Saturday. We have all the rooms painted. All that's left to paint is 2 hallways. We've left them white to give us a chance to move in. It's been a long process. But, thankfully, because it's been long, it's been less stressful. We moved most of the furniture in last weekend and we've been settling in to the new place all week.

My parents are coming into town tonight so they'll be our first visitors to our new house. We're excited to have someone down to see it.

These past two months have been so busy and stressful. It's nice to have the worst behind us. In one week we closed on the house, Matt got a promotion at work and we went to Disney World. It was a pretty amazing week! I'm glad now for a few weeks to relax and enjoy the new place. We're always thinking of new things we want to do. Especially to the yard. Matt has planted a huge boxed vegetable garden, we have a fire pit and a little pond with a fountain. It's very cute. We're slowly going to create a little patio out there. It's very pleasant to sit out there (as long as you have strong bug spray).

For Memorial Day we plan to go to the beach and just rest. I'm really looking forward to it. Hopefully we'll also fit in a trip to see Indiana Jones! We've been looking forward to this movie for a while.

I'll post pictures of the house as soon as I take them. We just finished all the arranging and picture hanging tonight so I'll take some in the day to post so I can show everyone my colorful home.

Our New House

Sorry I've been so long in posting again. We've had a busy few weeks. Matt and I finally closed on our first house last week. It’s a new construction in Crawfordville, Florida which is about 20 minutes south of Tallahassee. This puts us that much closer to beaches. There is actually waterfront only 10 minutes from our house! The area around it is very rural so it’s quiet, which is nice after living in town for so long. No more horns honking and tires squealing at the red-light down the street. We are super proud of it. Owning our own home is something we’ve talked about for a long time. Almost since we began dating, which was 7 years ago! We’ve been painting and moving stuff bit by bit for the past week. We’ll officially move everything out of our townhouse on the third weekend in May, although, we don’t have to vacate the townhouse until the 31st.

We’re painting every room a different color. The living room is green with a hint of an olive tint, the dining room and kitchen are a bright beachy aqua blue, the master bedroom is dark gray, the master bath is brick reddish-brown, the guest bedroom is a stormy blue-gray, the guest bath is rosy pink and the study is walnut brown. When we picked up the paint at the store, the paint mixer said, “Y’all are going to have a colorful house!”. We just laughed. We have lived in whitewall apartments for TOO long. We love making the house have our personality. It’s looking less like the house we looked at before we purchased it and more like our home.

Matt has already planted his large plants in the ground out front. They look great and also do a lot to make the place look homey. He’s going to build a box for a vegetable garden in the back. So, hopefully soon we’ll have some tasty veggies to add to our meals. I cooked our first meal in the new house last night. I went ahead and moved down most of my kitchen stuff so we could go down there after work to paint and still be able to eat. Painting has been harder than we thought it would be but it’s been so fun to fix up the place and make it our own.

We’re proud of it and I’m extending an open invitation to anyone who wants to come down for a visit. We can’t wait to see you!

Crocodile Rock

Elton John was a fabulous concert. We really enjoyed ourselves. He did great songs, ones I knew all the words to, and we just had a blast listening. He's an absoloutely amazing piano player. They had a camera on the keyboard of his piano and his hands were just flying across the keys. It was really awesome. We even went out to eat at Qdoba before the concert which was a fun treat. I didn't get a tshirt or souvenir, though, they were incredibly expensive. I really don't need a 20 dollar tshirt, even if it looks cool. There was an awesome denim jacket that had dice and "Saturday Night's Alright for Fighting" on the back of it for $150. Matt and I wanted to see someone wearing it. No luck though. Here are some pictures.

Rawhide....Rawhide!

I am incredibly tired today. I got to work at 6 a.m. yesterday morning and I am feeling it today. I am not an early riser, so, this is not something I do often. I have intentions of getting up early almost everyday but when the alarm goes off, nothing feels better than to hit the snooze. So the excersise, cooking or laundry that I had planned to take care of that morning gets pushed back to the evening. This is not such a bad thing. I always get every task completed eventually. But, I had committed to helping with an awards breakfast and then a luncheon so I had no choice yesterday morning but to get up and get dressed.

Other than being super tired, I'm feeling great. We've got some exciting things going on this coming week. Work stuff for Matt, house stuff for me and an Elton John concert next Wednesday night. It's the makeup date for the concert that was cancelled in March because of Sir Elton's kidney stones. The concert should be awesome. I am expecting to rock out.

I bought Stevie and Wil some rawhide bones at the store this weekend and brought them home as a surprise. The last time they chewed rawhide was when Wil was very small and he got a soggy piece clogged in his throat and it almost choked him. I actually did a doggy heimlich on him to help him cough it out. So, I tried to stay away from that stuff when they were small. But these bones were made with small strips of rawhide, and Wil is bigger, so I thought it'd be safe. These bones have provided great entertainment. Not just for the dogs but for Matt and I as well. Steve will happily be chewing away beside you on the couch and then Wil will pounce out of nowhere. Usually growling like Snoopy to scare Steve away so he can chew it. Then an awesome wrestling match ensues where Matt and I just try to stay out of the way of flying paws. Yesterday Wil had found a sunny patch at the backdoor and was going to town on a tasty bit of bone. Steve just sat beside him and stared and whined. Every now and then she'd pitifully glance back at me or Matt to see if we were going to help her out. She was begging Wil for the bone just like she tries to beg us. It was hilarious. Wil paid her NO attention whatsoever. Steve tried to look her most pitiful but Wil was not swayed.

They are peacful now, snuggled up together on the couch. The battle will resume in the morning.

New Kids On The Block, Let's ROCK!

Can I just say I am pumped about the New Kids reunion? These guys were a huge part of my childhood. I remember listening to them as I fell asleep every night. My parents must have felt sad when their little girl graduated from listening to a Disney tape with kid’s songs like “The Green Grass Grows All Around” and “In the Good Old Summertime” to “Hangin’ Tough” and “Please Don’t Go Girl” overnight. I would imagine myself as one of their backup dancers and I would choreograph dances to all their songs as I fell asleep.

One of the few male “Barbies” I owned was a Joe McIntrye doll I got for Christmas. Joe was the good looking younger man that stole the heart of the prettiest Barbie girl in my harem of Barbies. There was only two other Ken dolls. One that had plastic blonde hair, and one with a shock of black hair (he was not a true Ken). Blonde Ken was always the father of the harem of girls and black-haired Ken was the preacher. There was always a BEAUTIFUL wedding where pretty blue-eyed, blonde curls Barbie (usually with a very girly name like Kimberly or a very unusual name like Amberley or a pop culture name like Melody – taken from Hey Dude! of course) married Joe with all of her sisters as bridesmaids and a few old biddy Barbies as spinster aunts in the audience. She wore a white gown with organza overlay and a satin skirt. The dress was strapless with a pink strap around the chest and a glittery bodice. The skirt conveniently came off to reveal a swim suit for Barbie (not a feature you find on a lot of wedding dresses these days) The groom wore his letterman jacket (no shirt) and fake denim blue jeans. The bride and groom were both barefoot, as was the entire wedding party. It was quite romantic. Matt and my vows were eerily similar to what was said at these festive events. You would think I watched a lot of soap operas as a child, but in truth, I just had a big imagination. Then they would speed off to their honeymoon destination (across the room) in a high-heeled shoe (a perfect Roadster for a Barbie on the go) where they would awkwardly twist their heads and consummate the marriage with a smiling kiss. Joe was quite the catch being a pop star and all.

My New Kids on the Block tape, their second album – Hangin’ Tough - was a Christmas present as well – leading to the final evidence for me that Santa Claus was not a real person. I had put this tape on my Christmas list (I was probably in the 2nd grade) and we were in Regency Square mall doing some family Christmas shopping. It was a big deal to be in the mall on the Florence side of the river and we had just eaten dinner at Morrison’s so it was a big day. We saw some kids that went to church with us, Julie and Chris Kimbrough, in the music store that was up, almost in the corner by Sears. I think it was called Babbage’s. I could be wrong. Although, I know there was a music store in Florence called Babbage’s back then. We went in but didn’t stay long because the store was full of teenagers. A few months later Julie was baby sitting me and I was showing her my NKOTB tape. She goes, “I knew you were going to get that, your parents gave us money to buy it for them after y’all left the store that day.” I was shocked. I already had some big doubts about the whole Santa Claus idea anyways. I didn’t know how one person pulled it off, I think I thought there was some sort of government gift program people called “Santa Claus” and they sent the presents to your house that your parents put out, but I hadn’t totally settled on my parents being Santa yet because it was just too easy and simple. Plus, I didn’t think my parents were cool enough to purchase the New Kids tape so I was really impressed when I got it as a present. I wasn’t crushed by this news from Julie, I was more embarrassed that she assumed I didn’t believe in Santa anymore, and I still kind of did and I felt like a baby.

My mother continued to impress me later that spring when I was going to a spend-the-night party and she was bringing my overnight bag to school on Friday afternoon. She had gone to Wal-Mart or Kmart that day and purchased the most awesome New Kids on the Block sleep shirt I had ever seen. I was so proud to wear it around all the girls at the party. I knew they’d be jealous. I had friends who had been to concerts, had NKOTB sheets, pillows and t-shirts, which I had never asked for because I wanted to use my requests for stuff wisely since the likeliness of me getting it was not always high. I had never dared to dream I would ever own something as frivolous as New Kids clothing, but I had a swinging pair of PJs that I still have today.

So you can bet I’ll be ordering some New Kids tickets and joining all the other 30 and late 20-something women who will be screaming our heads off and singing along to “Cover Girl” and “The Right Stuff (You Got It)”. I’ll even bring my Joe McIntyre doll and my special pajamas in the hopes of getting an autograph.

SURPRISE!

Matt surprised me with a trip to EPCOT this Saturday. I had no idea we were going until he woke me up by getting in the shower at 4 a.m. on Saturday morning. I thought he had gone crazy or was sleepwalking. Once I got over the initial shock, then I showered too and we headed to Orlando. He had reserved a hotel and gotten one of my friends at work to take care of the dogs. It was a GRAND surprise. I really enjoyed. We always have a blast when we go to Disney. Here are some pics of our fun trip.