A little while ago I received a phone call that my great Aunt Fran passed away. Since Easter my family has lost my grandfather, my great uncle, and my great aunt - all semi-unexpectedly. It is weird to see the older generation of the family pass away. My parents and aunts and uncles are quickly becoming the matriarchs and patriarchs. It is a reminder that life moves quickly and is precious...

This is a forward I received. It is cheesy but I admit it did make me chuckle. A little Christian humor This is one of the best clean jokes I've seen in awhile! Jesus and Satan were having an on-going argument about who was better on the computer. They had been going at it for days, and frankly God was tired of hearing all the bickering. Finally fed up, God said, "THAT'S IT! I have had enough. I am going to set up a test that will run for two hours, and from those results, I will judge who does the better job." So Satan and Jesus sat down at the keyboards and typed away. They moused. They faxed. They e-mailed. They e-mailed with attachments. They downloaded. They did spreadsheets! They wrote reports. They created labels and cards. They created charts and graphs. They did some genealogy reports They did every job known to man. Jesus worked with heavenly efficiency and Satan was faster than hell. Then, ten minutes before their time was up, lightning suddenly flashed across the sky, thunder rolled, rain poured, and, of course, the power went off. Satan stared at his blank screen and screamed every curse word known in the underworld. Jesus just sighed. Finally the electricity came back on, and each of them restarted their computers. Satan started searching frantically, screaming: "It's gone! It's all GONE! "I lost everything when the power went out!" Meanwhile, Jesus quietly started printing out all of his files from the past two hours of work. Satan observed this and became irate. "Wait!" he screamed. "That's not fair! He cheated! How come he has all his work and I don't have any?" God just shrugged and said, "JESUS SAVES"

Hey Everyone!

Sorry I missed you on Monday and Tuesday. I was away at Cheer Camp. (Really!) It was a 48-hour cheer camp with a slumber party in between. I hope that the girls got a lot out of it and had a great time. I thought it was time well spent - for the most part. :-)

I am back and plan on spending today job hunting and running some errands. I hope that you have a great day as well!

<3, a.

Holli booked her tickets to come out and see me in just a couple of weeks! I am so excited.

When are you going to come and see me???

:-)

Wow...

This makes me tired just reading it!

www.duggarfamily.com

I was going through my old emails and found this. I think it is a great idea so I am passing it along...:-)


Hey, everyone!

I wanted to send a reminder to y’all about my friend’s website where you can go buy a care package for a soldier. Last time I emailed y’all, you had to go to ebay and search for the packages. Now he has his own website at istillcarepackages.com!! You can go to that website, make your purchase, and write a thank you note to the lucky soldier who gets your care package.

As I mentioned before, my friend is a Marine Reservist who spent a year in Iraq in 2004-2005 and definitely knows the effect that care packages have on overall morale over there. He makes no money from this – he just uses the money you provide to assemble and ship the packages you purchase. It is a labor of love and I’m proud of him for doing it.

Today is Aug 1. Can you believe it? Wow. In some ways this summer has flown by and in others it has dragged by. ..

I still don't have a job. I have stopped posting about it because it became too hard having to say what I was applying for and then reporting that I did not get it. So please don't feel out of the loop. When I do land a job I will let you know.:-)

I am tired and need sleep. Night all!

Blast from the past.

This is Amy and I at church camp in the 7th grade. So fun-nay!!!

I bought a mattress/box spring/and frame today. Now I just need to paint the headboard and then my spare room will be all finished. Who will come visit me?:-)

Quote of the day from my good friend Jerelyn, in summing up how cute the movie was that we saw tonight:

"You should have no reservations about seeing 'No Reservations!'"

It was definitely a chick flick and oh so good. Go out and see it with your best girl friends!

You know you live in a small town when you have this conversation with the clerk(unknown to me) at Longs...

"You are Ashley right?"

"Yes."

"Ashley Phelan?"

"Yes."

"And you go to the EV Free church right?"

"Yes, when I was much younger."

"Thought so."

This is Kingsburg, friends. Welcome to the twighlight zone. hehehe

I am soooo tired right now. I haven't been sleeping very soundly the past few nights and it is beginning to catch up with me. After this post I am going to bed.

What are some tricks that you have in order to ensure a good night's rest? I am willing to hear and try out lots of advice!

I chopped my hair off today. I have been wanting to donate to Locks of Love for a while now but every time I got close to doing it I got really nervous. I wasn't nervous about giving my hair to a wonderful organization but nervous about parting with my hair that took three years to grow out. My hair grows sooooo slowly and I LOVE having long hair. But, I told myself I just needed to do it. My hair will grow back and if I am that attached to my hair then I need to get rid of it. So I did. It is about to my chin. I am OK with it - it will just take some time getting used to I think. I'll try to post a pic soon...:-)

Night all!

So I hear that KHS c/o 96 is finally having their reunion. It will be on Sept 29 at the gun club. I haven't decided if I will be attending or not. Hmmmm. Thoughts?? Anyone want to be my hottt date?

Awwwww....

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=GVcH4oqrgsk&mode=related&search=

I am way too tired to post but I did want to blog a bit about today to get my daily writing in...

The highlight of my day was Jerelyn's bday party. We went to Red Robin, did a bit of shopping, and went to her apt. in Selma where we enjoyed funfetti cupcakes like we were five all over again. It was great. She is the big 3-0 now. Happy birthday friend!

Now it is time for some sweet sleep...

Eleven months...

See my cute dimple?

When I grow up Auntie is going to teach me to play her piano.

I love my baby doll.

Auntie lets me borrow her sunglasses.

These pics were taken by a wonderful photographer and friend of mine, Amy. She is available to help you with any of your photography needs!

Why I love Holli...

Hard worker.
Open arms to anyone.
Loverrrrr
Loyal
Indiana accent

Very funny (I miss laughing with her!)
Actually ate and appreciated my cooking.
Nicknames (SFJ, GST)
Excellent YL leader
Threw a surprise party for me and it was sooooo fun!
Took me to hockey games! Oooooh yeah!
Excellent counselor
Nice AND beautiful

On Monday it will be two months since I saw her...

Want to know why I love you? Leave me a comment and let me know!

good things about today...

• playing with my niece
• olive garden
• finding a cute shirt for $8
• american idol concert

not so good things about today...

• still no call from samaritan women
• missing the east coast
• frustrations with life, myself
• getting rear ended (yet again) on the way to the concert
  

One of the great things about moving home is being able to be so close to my niece. This past week has been especially nice in that I have been able to spend lots of time with her. Today I had her all morning and it was wonderful. We went to the park. We played on my piano (I will give her lessons one day). We had a lot of fun.

She will be one next month. I am looking forward to her party. It is going to be a puppy theme. She definitely takes after her auntie (and papa) that she loves dogs! It is nice to know that I will be here for such a milestone. She is growing soooo quickly. She is just about ready to walk, her teeth are coming in, she just learned to dance, and she chatters away in her baby language. She is a precious, sweet, girl.

She looks just like my brother. It is really crazy. I am looking forward to being able to see her grow up and what God has in store for her.