Wednesday's Weekend Highlights

We were SUPER busy this last weekend.  As Summer is coming to a close we have lots of

loose ends to tie up.  Last week for example we gave the Big Horses a bath - wonderful

bonding time with each other and the ponies - I was even able to spray my mare in 

the face with the water ... I haven't done that with her in years 

(which actually was her last bath - please don't judge me).

On Saturday we attended my High School Reunion and had so much fun catching up with my old classmates and Thomas fit right in!!  We actually spent almost 11 hours at the reunion...shh don't tell anyone though!!

On Sunday we got our act together and took the horses "out" for a ride - just in our back yard and actually TOOK pictures!!  Last time we took them out we rode around the neighborhood and came across a Stallion, my mare was whinnying and neighing for a good 4 hours after that encounter.  So we thought we would play it safe and stay on our prop.  I so enjoy the support and willingness that

Thomas shows to participate in the things I love to do.  I love that he joins me on Horse Rides

and is my partner in life in so many different ways.  

The horses did well, Jazz better than Rags - he is 27 and way more responsive than my 8 year old filly!!  It is amazing how long its been since I have worked with him and he still remembers so much, probably 10 more minutes and we would have flying lead changes again.  I wish I knew how I trained him to be so good so I could translate that onto my little girl...I guess she just needs A LOT more hours on her!

Here are some pics of our riding adventure...

 both are so used to this...I ponied her around for about 2 years.

 she has proven to LOVE the camera...ears forward in almost every shot!

 my beautiful handsome men

 I love this photo!!

 me and my beautiful baby girl!

 its hard to get a photo of the two of us with the horses with no one around...thank goodness for a timer shoot option on the DSLR!

next time I think I will have my hair down! 

I also am linking up to Kendra's Link and Mingle #1 over at her BLOG



 

♥ Ashley

[recipe] Blackberry Crisp

When I got home yesterday - after a long day at my NEW JOB!!!! - I thought it would be fun to spend some time with the dogs and pick blackberries.  Now is the time and the season for these delish wild berries.  So I grabbed the dogs harnesses and leashes and a mixing bowl, put on some boots (so glad I didn't wear flipflops) and walked down the street.

It took me about an hour but I got a FULL bowl and I wondered what I wanted to make.  I was not in the mood to attempt a pie crust - though I almost have it figured out - so I went with a crisp. I am quite pleased with how it turned out!

Ingredients:
 Filling:
LOTS of Blackberries like at least 5 cups
1/2 c white sugar
2 T corn starch

 Topping:
1/2 c. flour
1/2 c brown sugar
1/2 c. oats
1 tsp cinnamon
1 tsp ground ginger
1 stick butter

Directions:
1. Pre-heat oven to 375, prepare baking dish by coating with cooking spray
2. In a large bowl combine berries, white sugar and cornstarch
3. In a separate bowl mix together the dry ingredients then cut in the butter until it forms pea sized crumbles.
4. Pour berry mixture into baking dish, then cover with the Topping.  Place in center rack of oven and cook for about 40 minutes.
5. Let cool and then Enjoy with Vanilla Ice Cream!!

Oh you want to know about my new job?!?! Well I actually signed the paperwork back in the middle of July but I have kept the offer under wraps until well today!!  I got a job in a new school district close to my home and I will be teaching at the High School Level - my goal all along while attending CWU - I will be teaching Weight Training, PE, Health and Anatomy/Physiology.  I have been spending the last couple of weeks going over my curriculum since its been 4 years from the last time I taught in the classroom.  I am super excited.   Also this is only a part time position so I made the choice to look for other employment options within the district and I will be teaching in the Extended Day School in the afternoon for an extra 2 1/2 to 3 hours at the Elementary level.  These are going to be super long days but I am so excited for the opportunity to continue to work with the little kiddos!!

So that is some of the updates going on in our lives right now -- we are still waiting for our phone call from our adoption agency, keeping our fingers crossed it comes soon!!

Linked To: Tasty Tuesdays and 

What I Whipped Up Wednesdays

♥ Ashley

10 Years!?!?!?!?!

I can't believe that it has already been 10 years since I graduated High School!!  I went to a small private school with about 86 in my graduating class.  Luckily for Facebook we have been able to keep somewhat in contact with each other but there are a few that do not have facebook.

I was waiting and waiting to see if anyone would step up and organize our 10 year reunion - since we didn't have an ASB President it was up to whomever had the guts to put it together.  As I was really hoping to see lots of my alum friends I got my act together and started the organization process.  Our class had a student whose family owns a large horse racing farm that we frequented to in elementary school for field trips.  He graciously offered the farm for our reunion.  It was totally laid back and lots of fun.  I didn't want it to be expensive or pretentious so I had it be a Pot-Luck style.

The reunion was this past weekend and we had a blast.  (I am so proud of my hubby - if you would have observed the reunion you would have thought that HE went to my high school with me even though he had never met anyone that was there!!)  We BBQ'd, drank beers, took shots of Fireball, played sand Volleyball.  One of my boots got thrown up on the roof - so Thomas and I had to stunt to get me up there to retrieve it - no pictures of that taken.  The venue was AMAZING - I wish I lived there!!

Please enjoy the following pics.

Beautiful setting...we are hanging out on the inside of the practice racetrack where they have a pond, outdoor kitchen and covered "lodge" room.

the "petting zoo"

pig named Bacon!!

a zebra and mini horses

and a pygmy goat

not pictured a mini cow, alpaca's and a sheep

another outbuilding with a little pond/fountain and a well

cheers to the class of 2002!!

have you had your reunion yet?  what was yours like?

♥ Ashley

Congratulations!!! We have a WINNER!!

Well my second giveaway (actually 3rd) was not as popular as I had hoped but since I only had two entries I am awarding both entries as WINNERS!!

Congrats to:

E. Hayes

and 

Alicia Lomas

Send me your addy's so that I can get your Lollies in the mail!!

♥ Ashley

[Picture Thursday] Our Firepit

Have you entered my GIVEAWAY yet?  You have until tomorrow August 17th to do so - remember you are helping me to celebrate my mom's birthday!! Click HERE to enter!!

I have been having some MAJOR internet issues here on the farm and just realized my post from last week actually never posted - so I just remedied that.  I can't believe it has already been a week since my last post ARGH this internet!!!

So I guess you haven't actually learned about our Firepit - as that was part of last weeks post that didn't actually post until moments ago.  Anyways - We have finally gotten our act together and figured out a spot in our backyard for our firepit.  Tuesday night we broke it in and made our first actual fire pit fire - complete with s'mores (sorry no pics of that part) but here is our first fire!!!

Well I hope you are all having a wonderful summer!!

♥ Ashley

[Picture Thursday] Around our Yard

Have you entered my Giveaway yet?  Click HERE you have until August 17th!

another edition of Picture Thursday (happening on Friday as I had no internet yesterday)

 

We have a "wild"addition to our menagerie.  A wild bunny - we have named him Baxter.  

 He is totally cute and loves to spend time in our flower garden and veg patch.  He let me get close enough for this picture and turned to look at me when I said his name!!  We love our wild bunny!

 And our project - 4 years in the making.  I have wanted a nice large fire pit in our back yard since we moved in.  As most of our yard focus has been in our front yard this has not been a priority.  We just recently (this year) turned our focus to fixing up the back yard - when we bought the house it was so jammed packed with trees and such it was hard for the dogs to find a potty spot!! We removed the "tumors" (junipers) x 4 of them!! The holly bushes, the devil bush - a barberry, a blue spruce, a pine, 2 azaleas and 2 rhodadendrons.  We are left with a giant maple, two lilacs, a dogwood, a redbud, and a black smoke tree.  We added in some grass - thanks to Thomas' brother ordering too much sod - and 4 hydrangeas!

 We finally decided upon a spot for our fire pit but were debating the material to use.  As we have a TON of these white landscaping rocks - thanks to the previous owners - we thought we would recycle what we already had and save some money!! All this cost was time, effort, and two bags of sand!!

I am so excited to put in some wood, set it on fire and make s'mores!!

♥ Ashley

Happy 4th Anniversary!!

Have you entered my GIVEAWAY yet?  Click HERE you have until August 17th!!

I had all sorts of plans to do posts leading up to our wedding anniversary...but then I got stuck with Jury Duty and I couldn't find my cd of wedding pictures (and FB doesn't let you access your own uploaded pics!)  So I will make due with this - maybe next year I will be organized - this year not so much.

I won't bore you with the deets of our wedding in this post nor do I plan on bombarding you with gushy mushy lovey dovey stuff.  At least I will try!!

4 years ago today we said "I Do"

We got engaged on December 6, 2006 and set our date 08.08.08 which gave us plenty of time to graduate from college, buy a house, get jobs and plan the perfect wedding.  

We got married at The Canal in the Ballard neighborhood of Seattle Washington.  They also did the catering.  The weather was gorgeous for both our rehearsal and our wedding and poured down rain the next day - today actually was the nicest we have had on our anniversary since we got married.  We saw each other before the ceremony to take pictures.  

Our wedding colours were a chartreuseyish green and brown - it was a challenge but we did find brown tuxes.

Our wedding date was also the opening day/ceremony for the Olympics as 8 is a VERY lucky number in the Asian culture.

Here's how it went down:  Girl meets Boy.  Girl is dating different boy and Boy is dating different girl.  Let 2 years pass.  Boy see's Girl on AOL instant messenger and asks on date.  Girl says yes.  Girl asks Boy to be on college cheer team.  Boy says yes. Let 1 1/2 years pass. Boy asks Girl to marry him. Girl says YES. Let 1 1/2 years pass Girl marries Boy they say I DO.  Let 4 years pass Boy and Girl are still VERY happily married.

So basically I married my Best Friend.  Thomas surprises me every day with how thoughtful and caring he is.  I can never get over the love I have for him when I see him cuddling with his dog, Sakari or the joy he shows in spending time with his goats.  He loves his goats.  He has been loving and supportive over the past 4 years especially with my employment issues.  He aim's to make me happy and always hits the bullseye!! I would be lying if we didn't argue but it seriously doesn't feel like we ever have. We always go to bed with a kiss and an "I love you" and he makes me my coffee in the morning (I have him convinced that I "don't know how").  He truly is the best person for me and I am so lucky to have found him and married him.

 I love this photo.

First kiss as Mr. & Mrs!!

Happy 4 year Anniversary to the Love of my Life!!

♥ Ashley

if you are interested in the wedding deets let me know in the comments section and I will work on making a few posts.

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♥ Ashley

[Tasty Tuesdays] Honey Cupcakes

 Have you entered my Giveaway yet?  CLICK HERE you have until August 17th

I was reading through my blogs the other day (actually I try to do it on a daily basis) and Melaine posted these Honey Cupcakes with Honey Cream Cheese Frosting. 

I haven't made them yet but I am dying to.  I love honey and these just sound so sweet.  Check out her blog and to get the recipe go HERE 

*****UPDATE**** I made these tonight and they are DELICIOUS!!

Enjoy!!

Linked To: Tasty Tuesdays

♥ Ashley

Nominated for a Blog Award!!!

I wanted to give a big shout out to Kendra from "Adventures of Brad & Kendra" for nominating me for my first real Blog Award!!!

I have been nominated for the Liebster Blog Award!! The Liebster Award is given to bloggers from fellow bloggers.  It is a great way to recognize us smaller blogs with under 200 followers in hopes of helping them grow even more.

 

I am so pleased to have been recognized and hope that I can gain more followers...it just makes a girl feel happy. That's all, end of story.

When you are nominated, you are to do each of the following:

• Tell 11 random facts about yourself
• Answer the 11 questions that the blogger who nominated you gave you to answer
• Choose up to 11 other awesome blogs to nominate for the award
• Come up with a list of 11 questions for your nominees to answer 

So here are my 11 random facts:

1. I have no sense of smell - seriously I cannot smell anything (well except for Icy Hot/Menthol).

2. I wanted to become a hair-dresser for my profession - but I was told I needed to go to college first and I found my passion for teaching.

3. I have never broken a bone in my body.

4. When I was five I dropped a mug on my big toe - I needed a needle to poke a hole to release the pressure - then my toenail fell off, I put it in a plastic sandwich bag under my pillow and I got $20 from the "Toenail Fairy".

5. I pretended that I was a mermaid like Ariel.

6. I chose to live in the All-Girl dorm in College.

7. I have never used a lawn mower in my life.

8. I grew up as a Hunter-Jumper and now jumping scares the life out of me - Western Pleasure all the way!!

9. I hate returning things in stores.

10. I don't know how to divide (I missed that day in school)

11. Incorrect grammar annoys the heck out of me - I always have to say the sentence correctly in my head before I can respond. (but I am sure I use it sometimes)


Answers to the 11 questions from Kendra:

1. What is your favorite Olympic event? Women's Gymnastics all the way!! 
2.  If you had to eat only one thing for the rest of your life what would it be? As I did this in college it would be Pasta with Pesto Sauce and Meatballs.
3. What is the number one thing on your bucket list? To have a biological baby
4. What is your favorite meal to make? Ribeye steak, Brewer Brown Rice, and Green Bean Casserole.
5. What is the favorite thing you have posted about? Sharing my infertility and adoption journey has been incredibly healing.
6. What is your favorite TV show? I can't choose just one: Gilmore Girls, Charmed, Covert Affairs, Heartland, too many to name.
7. What is the best place you have ever vacationed? Europe can't wait to go back to England and check out Ireland
8. If you could meet somebody famous, who would you pick? Christina Aguilera
9. What is your number one wish for your blog? To have a strong supportive following and to connect with others who share similar interests.
10. What is the best gift you have ever received? Getting to know my mom for 27 years.
11. If you had a weekend that was completely open with no responsibilities, how would you spend it? I would go on a trail ride with my horses and husband, take the dogs to the dog park, and go to Ellensburg.

My nominee's are:

Rachel from Once Upon A Farm

Christina from The Slice

Gina from Blonde & Dangerous

Ashley from diary of a real mom

Questions for my nominees:

1. What is the strangest place you have ever been?

2. What is your most embarrassing thing you did in High School?

3 What is your favorite accomplishment?

4. What is your favorite flower?

5. If you could compete in the Olympics what sport would you want it to be?

6. If you could live in any Era what would it be?

7. What was your favorite movie when you were growing up?

8. What is your favorite way to exercise?

9. What would your dream job be?

10. What is the weirdest food you have ever eaten?

11. If you were given $5,000 how would you spend it?

Thank you Kendra for nominating me!!

♥ Ashley