Is this a dream?

Hey sorry for not updating yet. So I arrived on Monday. After the crazy flight from Hades aka Houston. So I flew out from St. Louis to Houston and the first flight was delayed by an hour and we landed a half hour late so no biggie. We land in Houston at 12:45 rather than 12:15... My flight from Houston to Jackson was supposed to leave a 2, so I had plenty of time to get to my gate and be ready. Well, 2 rolls around and we still haven't boarded and the time above the gate changed from 2 to 2:30...So we ask what's going on. Oh our first officer and our flight attendant are taking off late from Mobile, AL and they'll be about an hour late. So we wait and finally at about 3 we board for the first time. Halfway through boarding the announce of the speakers that they are going to deplane us because our Captain has run out of fly time. So we deplane and find seats. 2 hours later they finally find us a new captain. We got on the airplane and sat for a half an hour when the pilot came of the intercom and informed us that now our plane had a maintenance problem and we would need to deplane a second time! :\ seriously??? I had already gotten comfy, I pulled my iPod out, turned my phone off and popped a piece of gum. I did not want to get off this plane, but I did anyway. grrr. So after deplaning the second time they told us they had another plane at the next gate over. So we all shifted and got into line where they told us that there was no plane yet and we needed to find ourselves some seats...we took a quick survey around and realized that there was no where to sit because everyone else was waiting for their own planes. This was MADNESS! So I found a nice noncomfy seat on the floor. Finally another half hour later we got onto our new plane!!! Finally I was on my way to Jackson! I got settled in and ready to go, turned my phone back off, popped in my piece of gum and reached for my iPod which at that point I realized was not there. :( Where was my lovely iPod? Oh on the last plane. So I hop off the plane and walk over to the original gate and a new gate agent is there...I ask her if there's any possible way that the plane is still there and if I can check and see if my iPod is still there...she looks at me and says, "ma'am, look out that window...do you see an airplane there?" I wanted to knock her head off! I knew though that that was probably not appropriate. :( Too bad huh? So in the long run they checked the plane and they couldn't find it, so they told me that it was stolen and not to worry about filling out a lost article form...:\ At that point I just didn't care anymore so I went to the wal-mart a couple days after I got here and bought myself a new one.

After the horrible day of travel, we had a 50 minute drive to Vicksburg from Jackson. The drive was much more enjoyable then my whole day of travel! What's really funny is that there were about 7 or 8 people from AmeriCorps on the horrible, terrible, no good, very bad trip from Houston! So we already had a bonding experience before we even got to campus. Seriously a 10 hour day of travel with 5 or 6 hours in delays really brings a group together. haha. We finally arrived on campus and we had missed everything that happened that day. We even missed dinner, but they had plenty of leftovers and brought us a couple boxes of pizza. We got our room keys and key cards that would get us into the buildings on campus. I found out I was a Delta and would be living in Johnson Hall. I was pretty excited. I got my bags out of the van, got my boxes I had shipped ahead of me from the supply room and headed to my room. I finally got all the way upstairs to my fourth floor dorm room. That's right like a hundred stairs all the way up and apparently they haven't heard of elevators here. :P I walked into my wonderful room and met my awesome roommate Jocelyn! We get along so well. This girl is super fantastic! I hope the rest of my year is this great. :D So yes, my day started off to a not so great start, but by the end I was extremely happy to be here.

THE Welcome Packet & the Whirlwind TOUR!!!!

So the treasured and long awaited welcome packet finally arrived Sat. It's everything I had hoped it would be. :D Now to wait for my travel info. :D

Now that that's out of the way. Beckie took me on a whirlwind tour of St. Louis. We hung out in Forest Park all day. First we tried to go to the Jewel Box but it was closed for a wedding. :( So we started with the Art Museum instead. We saw everything! The Mummies, Monet, Manet, freaky art, cool art, Jesus art...anything you could imagine. It was definitely a good time. Afterward we went to eat at the Boathouse. We both ate chicken fingers and our lunch was under $5 a person. :D Yea we're always up for a bargain. Now on to the Science Center! We built the Arch with some really sweet kids. I told Beckie we were meant to work with kids! Every time we go somewhere we end up working with kids. :D It's always a blast! We went and saw the Charles Darwin exhibit. It was slightly disappointing and it would have been a snore if Beckie hadn't been with me. We can make anything funny. Our favorite thing was this giant armadillo looking thing called the Glyptodont. Yea we had a lot of fun with that word. GlyptoDONT mess with me! Hey GlyptoDONT do that! We thought we were hilarious! haha We walked around the corner and saw this cool science thing we had to try out. They are called science benches...they have 4 or 5 different activities, like analyzing fingerprints or finding wheat germ DNA! Here's a couple pictures of us in our very glamorous scientist outfits!

Aren't we scientifically gorgeous???

When we finished we sadly hung up our beloved lap coats, threw away the lovely rubber gloves and took of the sporty eyewear. After that we headed downstairs to see the super scary dinosaurs!!! Yea they're definitely not as scary as they were when I was 5. :\ Then I spotted the build-a-bear workshop! So Beckie and I decided to go look inside. That's when we saw it. The perfect bear! The bear is all white with a red, white and blue peace sign on it's tummy and a blue nose with a red peace sign. We loved him sooo much Beckie got him for me as a going away present. So Beckie went through the whole process. She stuffed him, picked out his heart, made a wish and all sorts of goofy stuff! Here's a picture! Yes that's Beckie rubbing the bear's heart on her nose. It was too good of a picture to pass up. After we got the bear it was time for the Science Center to close so we walked back over the highway bridge and went to get dinner. We ate at TacoBell. Oh what an interesting trip to TacoBell... After our interesting trip to TacoBell we headed to the Muny so we could get in line for the free seats. It was my first time to the Muny and we saw Titanic the musical. It was awesome! Beckie couldn't believe I had never been to the Muny so she was very glad she could take me for my first time. Apparently that's just what best friend's do. lol. So after the Muny we drove back home and all in all it was an awesome night! Unforgettable!!! Thanks Beckie for making it such an awesome and memorable day! We'll have to do another whirlwind tour when I come back in December!!! :D

Attack of the bugs...

And I'm not talking about real live bugs, I'm talking about the cyber bugs that live in servers and mess with information. Curious yet about my topic? Well, it's those cyber bugs that have caused my anxiety ridden overchecking of the mailbox. I emailed AmeriCorps today and found out that their new system has a few bugs that need to be worked out. It turns out that these cyber bugs are as attracted to me as real bugs because this is definitely not the first time the cyber bugs have attacked. I didn't receive any online updates until a month ago and actually I'm still not getting all of my updates. :( The good new is that my welcome packet was sent today and I should get it in the mail soon. Okay life is good my packet is in the mail and my spirits are up. :D Just thought I'd let y'all know.

peace&blessings, Ash

Going with the Flow

So I'm sitting here while the girls watch Curious George for about the millionth time and I figured I'd go ahead and try to get an update in. I've now had my first rolling with the AmeriCorps flow experience. Since I found out I'd made it into AmeriCorps and I'd be going to Vicksburg on Aug. 2, I've always assumed (yes I know that's a dangerous thing to do) that I would be flying out and arriving on Aug. 2. I've made plans for a party and my last month in St. Chuck is pretty much filled with hanging out with friends and working and just doing things that I know I will miss when I'm gone. So when I got onto our Vicksburg facebook group and saw that we were actually leaving on July 31st I was absolutely crushed! I went into a spaz mode and freaked. I tried to completely replan my entire party in an hour. I found only 3 dates were left available and was a panicked mess. Of course the next day someone called the campus and asked what was really going on and found out we will be leaving on AUG. 2 not July 31. The packet says July 31 in some places because some people who are going by car, bus or train may need to leave earlier so that they can arrive on the 2nd. This has made me realize that I really need to be able to go with the flow even before I leave. Usually I'm fairly good with rolling with the punches, but I think this spaz attack was spurred by my need to control one last event before I go. Oh well, once again God has put me in my place. It's a good thing He's so patient with me. I'm definitely a work in progress.

I'm getting really excited about leaving now despite the spaz attack. The party is still on, I've done some shopping and now all I need is my welcome packet and my travel packet. Most people got those weeks ago, but another girl and I are still anxiously awaiting ours. Constantly checking with my mom on the mail status has become a "horrid habit"(name that movie) haha Teryn, the other packetless girl, is calling the campus today to see what's up with our packets. I should find out later today. Let me tell you what, Facebook is probably one of the best inventions ever! It's really helped us get to know each other before we even get to Vicksburg. I can't wait to get there now that I already know some people. Meeting up will be more like a reunion for some of us.

Okay I'm rambling...I will leave you with a great new quote I've found...

"It's nice to be important, but it's more important to be nice."

Waiting

So I've switched my blog over now it's all about AmeriCorps and the fun that I'm sure will ensue. Right now I'm anxiously awaiting my welcome packet. I feel like I've been waiting for it for a long time now, but now more so than ever. I keep hearing about other people going to Vicksburg getting theirs and it makes me anxious. I want to get mine now. :D I'm quite impatient at times. Like now. I think I've asked my mom everyday for the past week or so. I've been housesitting out in Wentzville and haven't been able to go home and check it myself. When I get the packet I'll get all my travel information and a bunch of other fun stuff, like my packing list!!! I'm a freak like that, I love packing lists. I really like knowing what I'm supposed to bring with me. I know I'm a huge dork.

My going away party is coming along nicely. I'm planning the whole thing myself, my mom doesn't have the time because she's working so much. :( At least she's helping out! I'm paying for all of the invites and fun stuff needed for the party, Mom's paying for the food and my lovely boss Heather Ann and Joyce, another good family friend, are getting me my cake. The party is going to be at St. John Hall at my church. :D It's super cheap for me to rent out because I am a member. Yay! I finally got all my invites addressed and stamped and mailed last night. Well, all except one because I'm still looking for the address. I hope I get it soon because the party is on July 31 and I want people to have plenty of head's up. I hope we have a really good turn out. I'm opening it up to everyone from church so some people I figure will come and stay the whole time and some people will come for a few minutes and leave. That's all cool with me so long as everyone signs my memory blanket. :D I want that thing to be full of signatures and best wishes because I know when I'm gone I'm going to need everyone's support. It will be nice to know everyone's behind me.

Well that's all I've got for now. I promise to be good about updating, but right now there's just not much to talk about. Getting my welcome packet will be exciting so look for that update! And I'm sure once I leave and I'm in Vicksburg I will update almost everyday. haha or almost everyday.

Yours, Ashley

Big News

Hey to all those people who probably don't read this poor blog of mine. I know I need to keep up with this better but I don't. Shame on me. I will do better when I leave for AmeriCorps. Oh, that's a nice segway. I'm leaving for VICKSBURG, MS on AUGUST 2ND!!!! I'm so excited. I pray this all goes through this time.

Movers&Shakers

Hello world! Life has gotten in between me and the blog. I know it's terribly sad. I will try to be better about it. Anyway, the girls are growing, in every way. They are huge, they go through a new growth spurt every couple weeks it seems, they eat us out of house and home. Seriously, they will eat 5 packets of oatmeal and 2 cans of fruit in the morning followed by a huge lunch. Rory is still the tallest, and gangliest. I have a feeling she always will be. Rachel is second tallest, and she is the strongest. She could be the world's strongest baby. Haha. Olivia is the shortest, poor little stumpy. She however has the largest vocabulary. They each excel so well in their own ways. Olivia if you haven't guessed is the language arts QUEEN! She reads her books with you repeating every word. Sings every song you give her and will sit with you just going over words and always asking for more. Victoria is the arts girl. She will sit with a crayon and paper and go crazy. She'll sit there for hours if you let her. She can draw circles and can make X's and she's just awesome. Rachel is, strong, she excels in gross motor activities. She's going to be a gymnast, I swear. She flips and jumps and spins and can carry just about anything and move whatever she wants. She is the surest on her feet. Don't get me wrong the girls each do well in everything. It's just that they each excel in their own areas as well, and they each enjoy different things. Something they're all picking up on really quickly is LANGUAGE!!! There vocabs and communications skills have exploded! Rory is regularly using 3 word sentences. Olivia was the first to say, "I love you" with much coaching of course, but she was still soooo cute when she said it. Olivia also knows the most words. Rachel is right there with them and is very good at communicating what she wants. :D As if we thought the girls couldn't do that. Haha.

Now that we're caught up a little....

Today we were making shakers. Little plastic bottles with rice and beans inside and when you add food coloring the fun really begins. To start, I taped a funnel to the top of each of bottle to make it easier for them to pour their cups of rice and beans into their bottles. HA. The first thing Olivia did was look at me and say, "Oh, no no, Leelee." She then proceeded to rip off the funnel. Yea she's definitely an opinionated little girl. They all are for that matter. So instead of them each making their own at the same time I helped them one at a time with the big funnel. It was fun. Once everyone had their mix inside we added food coloring. We've been working very hard on our colors lately. The girls can name: Yellow, blue, red, green, pink, purple and we're still working on orange. And as we've been learning our colors they've each found that they have a favorite color, and anything that is that color becomes theirs. So, for our little shakers Olivia got GREEN, Rachel got BLUE and Victoria got PINK. I then quickly screwed on the lids, very tight, and let them shake to their hearts content. It was great fun. And thank God it was nice out so we could do it outside. (Less clean up for me!!) After we finished our shakers we played with the funnels in the sand. They love the idea of the funnels. We'll definitely have to do more stuff with those. So that was mostly the day. Nothing too hilarious.

Well, til next time...just keep movin' and shakin'.

Leelee