Everyday Ashlie

Pleh! Blech! Pleh! That's me spitting the fuzz out of my mouth from where I just about swallered my foot! I hate when I do that. Stick my big ol' fuzzy-sock-covered foot in my mouth, that is. Last night I stopped by the Circle K for an after-dinner treat (because we are fans of treats around here) and that's when it happened. I was standing in line to check out and noticed that the cashier was a young man with a very jovial personality. I was in a good mood, since I was getting a yummy King Cone, and thought I'd exchange some friendly banter with said cashier. I noticed that his name tag said "Semaj." See if you can tell where this is going..... I jokingly said, "Is your name really 'James'?!" **I know y'all have seen the silly names that crazy teenagers sometimes put on their name tags, right?** The poor guy gives me a semi-pained smile and says, "No, it's 'Semaj'- James spelled backwards." What could I do but just ...

I've done tags before where I had to tell little-known facts about myself or things that I love/like/dislike etc. But this tag from JuJu required a little more thought. I'm supposed to tell 3 things that I love about myself ! The three things can be physical or personality traits. I don't know about you, but this is kind of hard to do! I don't spend much time pondering what I love about myself. So, after a few days of mulling it over, here's what I came up with. 1) I love that I am a good listener and my friends (sometimes even strangers!) feel comfortable confiding in me. 2) I love that I am sentimental and keep random things just because of who gave it to me or what the object meant to me at a certain point in my life. 3) I love that I am dorky and have several quirks that make my husband and family roll their eyes. Life is more fun when you can laugh at yourself!! Okay, I'm going to pass this tag on to a few beautiful women. Take a few minutes to appre...

My heart is heavy tonight. This dear man went home to be with the Lord today around 4 pm. He fought a short but hard battle with cancer and won the victory today. Not in the way you might imagine, his body was not cured, but his spirit was set free. Free to be with Jesus forevermore. I haven't seen Daniel in years but he's one of those people that you never forget. I'll always remember his huge smile and ready laugh. The sound of his voice raised in song is something I'll treasure forever. This was a man who made impressions on everyone he met. Impressions that last a lifetime. Go look at his blog and read the comments from all the people who love him, then maybe you'll get a sense of who he was. He was a man who deserves to be remembered. He wanted everyone he met to know that Jesus loves them and died on the cross to give them a second chance at true life. And if he wasn't sure if someone was a believer, he'd ask! That is cause for awe in my timid mind. ...

No. I'm not pregnant. Let me just squelch your excitement now. I'm talking about a project I was working on that I couldn't show y'all until now. You see, I made a Ragamuffin Garland to send to my sister and I didn't want her to see it before it arrived in the mail! That would have defeated my whole intention of sending her some unexpected Happy Mail. Once again, this is a copycat project, which I found on the ever-creative Darlene's blog. In case you didn't know, I am not above copying other people's creative ideas. We can't always come up with masterpieces on our own, now can we? Anyway, this was a super simple craft and really fun to make. I made one to send to my Sis and of course I had to make one for myself. I'm a little selfish that way. Our two garlands were slightly different but don't worry, I'll show you both of them! Remember to click on the pictures to enlarge them. Let's get started... I painted my wooden letters ...

Back in April, we gave our teeny tiny bathroom a much needed face-lift. Nothing major, just a new coat of paint and some pretty accessories. I would have dearly loved to get rid of the mauvish-pink tile that surrounds the shower and lower half of the walls. But, that was a bigger task than Hubby and I were willing to undertake. I suppose pink tile was popular back in the 60's when our little abode was built. We changed the room's paint color from flat white (we're talking chalk consistency here) to a warmer tan with a hint of pink undertones. The windowsill was the original stained wood but I wanted it to stand out against the tan walls. So, I painted the windowsill "Gallery White" in a gloss finish. The cabinet doors got a good sanding and a coat of Gallery White in a satin finish. Supposedly, if you change up the finishes of your paint, it gives the room interest. I don't know how well that works in our bathroom, which is the size of most people's pantr...

I just got done cleaning my towel hamper. Yes, you heard me right. My towel hamper. With a Clorox Disinfecting wipe. Why? You ask. Well, after putting in a load of towels, the hamper was empty, naturally. And I guess I've never really inspected the bottom of the thing before, but it was nasty!! Really, you should all go take a closer look at your hampers. You'll be amazed just like I was. Of course, we do live with an ENORMOUS black lab so I expected a little dog hair to be in there. But the dirt and stains that appeared to be coffee (I hope)? No clue. I mean, how can a hamper get so yucky when it only holds towels that have dried off a clean body? I'm just going to assume it's all the more visible because it's made of white plastic & has "vent" holes on all sides. While I'm on the subject (soap box), who invented white plastic, anyway? It's really never a good idea. Think about it...your white plastic tupperware? Stained with spaghetti sauce....

Little house, on a little hill You've been such a sweet home, Humble and still. Your footprint is small, Your walls not too tall Little house, on a little hill. Opening your doors & windows can be tough Never would you be called a diamond. After all, your edges are somewhat rough, Little house, on a little hill. You've been our first home Inside your bounds our love has grown. Our eyes never from one another to roam, Little house, on a little hill. May your possessions Never become our obsessions Little house, on a little hill. You've been such a sweet home Humble and still Little house, on a little hill.

I made it through my first weekend on dayshift. And, I have to say, it wasn't half bad! I learned (or re-learned) tons of stuff and was able to gain some confidence in my ability to take care of adults! Ha! It's amazing how much about adult nursing I had forgotten since I've only been taking care of babies for 4 years. Thankfully, most things came flooding back to mind with just a little prompting from my preceptor. With this weekend down, I have 4 more days to work on the med-surg floor until I move on for orientation on another unit. Hopefully, I'll be able to re-learn even more skills before I go. I have a few things I'd like to be able to do before I move on. As busy as that floor is, I'm sure I'll have ample oppurtunity! Thanks for all your prayers, I appreciate them so much! So far, I feel really good about the change. And I LOVE being able to come home at night and see my sweetie!! By the way, he had wonderful suppers waiting on me every night this we...

Whew! Today was a big day for me, y'all! I worked my very first day shift in approximately 4 1/2 years. And, I wasn't even that nervous, which was a big surprise to me!! Crazier still, I had little to no trouble getting up before dawn this morning! And I was even early to work! Those of you who know me understand how unusual that is. I am not a morning person. Or, at least I didn't think so! Let me give you some background. Ever since my sweetie and I got married, we've wanted me to be on day shift. Yes, I said "we." He missed me while I was gone and I hated having to leave him at night after only seeing him for about an hour after he got home from work. So, I put in my request to go to days in September 2007 and I am just now getting my wish. You see, I have been charge nurse in the nursery for about 4 years and for the last few years have been the only RN who could charge. There was one other RN who would occasionally charge in the nursery if I had to be go...

It's one of my favorite "Alabama" songs. And it also happens to be the term I give to anything that makes this Southern girl happy (as of this post anyway--I just came up with it). Corny, I know. But hey, I can only work with the dorky genes God gave me, right? Anywho, back to my point... I love being a girl! The clothes, the jewelry, the ability to get away with crying for no apparent reason...I could go on and on. Sometimes when I'm feeling especially excited to be a girl, I'll say it out loud and then my hubby just shakes his head and laughs at me. He's just jealous. Yesterday, I got to go ramblin' around with a friend of mine whom we shall call "K." She's going to be in a wedding this weekend and needed someone to go get their nails done with her. Who am I to deny a friend in need? So naturally, I tagged along. We caught up on each other's lives since we haven't seen one another in awhile. We nosed around a cute little paperie...