Well, it's been two months and I figured it's time for an update. Today is my lazy day and I haven't had one of those in a VERY long time. I'm in my last semester of nursing school and holy cow.. it hasn't been too difficult so far, but I feel like I don't have a free second ever. I think my poor husband expected our conversations to be based around his schedule (we both did), but now we can only talk for an hour at 9pm (his 6am) because I have to be in bed by 10 so I can wake up at 5am! Waking up at 6am when you don't have anything planned for your day till 9 isn't the funnest thing. Love you Rich :)

Some of the things I have been doing lately, Kaleb turned 4 in August.

I went down to Hurricane's Peach Days with my sister Heather and her family.

My sister Heidi had her little girl, Adylee (did I get the spelling right this time? ha ha)

Before all of that (sorry, these aren't in order) I went to Washington to visit Rich one more time before he left the states. We did SO much while we were there... The space needle probably isn't worth the $16 per person to go to the top FYI if anyone goes. Unless you REALLY wanna be able to say you've gone up there. I didn't think it was that amazing and there are plenty of other things I'd rather do with $32. Rich's Aunt and Uncle live in Washington so we made a Sunday drive to go visit them. They came to our wedding and I hadn't met them before, or seen them since so it was really good to get to know them better. They have two "dogs" that they love very much, Jasper (picture below) isn't really a dog however.. He's a wolf! Check it out..

With Rich being away, I started doing a little business. I'm not going to go into details, but if you're married or have friends who are getting married and might be interested in bridal shower/wedding gifts let me know :) I have the perfect ideas for those occasions!

Rich has been gone for three months now. It has gone by very fast and very slow at the same time, just like so many things in life. It's really easy to look at and talk about the negatives in situations, so here is my attempt to be positive:

Because of my husband's service...

I get invited to free dinners with prizes. I got two free day passes to the Canyons :)

I get to drive this for a year!

Military discounts.. usually not a huge amount, but hey, it adds up!

Roommates :)

And if that's not enough, I get the satisfaction of knowing that my husband is defending all of our freedoms and gets to wear this uniform every day. What's hotter than that?? ;)

Till next time!

-Ashley

Girl's Night

In a little over a week my brother and his wife Kacee are moving to Georgia!  They'll both be going to school there and Kacee will be running for Georgia State.  We don't know how often we'll get to see them, so while we were all in town this weekend, we decided to have a girls night!  All of us wanted to spend more time with Kacee since she just barely officially joined the family and now she's moving. :(

For our night, we decided to go to Color Me Mine in Provo and then out to eat for dinner.  I had never been to CMM and it ended up being a lot of fun!  I'm not usually the crafty or artistic type, but I just starting drawing whatever on my little vase and I think it turned out pretty good!  I haven't seen it after it was fired yet cause I'm back in Cedar, but I hope it worked out ok!  It's interesting to see everyone's different styles and ideas.  I think everyone made darling items and I'm excited to see them all when I go home again next week!  Here are a few pictures:

Heidi was finishing a bowl that Parker started a while ago.  It said "Race James Low" around the whole thing and parker put stickers on the inside that read, "food here" with an arrow pointing to the center.  Ha ha, I'm sure Race will love it.

Heather made a little piggy bank for Eliza.  It was yellow with pink and purple flowers all over it.  She was the last of her kids who didn't have a piggy bank yet and it was close to her 1st birthday so it turned out perfect!

My mom had only been to CMM one time before and I think she just helped with kids on that trip, so pretty much this was her first time too :) She made a large cup/bowl with primary colors and her name around the inside.

I think Kacee's was my favorite.  She made a large cup and saucer with orange and yellow brush strokes all around both of the items.  Around the outside of the cup, she found a stamp of a city, so she did that in black (looked really cool!) and wrote "Georgia on my mind" on the saucer.  I think she even added a peach to the inside of the cup at the end.. fitting :) 

Mine was just a vase that I tried to get close to the colors we have in our living room.  It's hard to tell if you've put enough coats of paint on cause if not, the color will be a lot lighter and somewhat transparent.  We shall see what it turned out like this next week!

Told ya it was cute ;)
Heidi finished the bowl early cause it was already mostly done, so she started making this turtle, also for Race.  I can't remember if it was a little bank, or just a turtle, but she didn't quite finish it cause we had to leave to dinner.  Maybe next girl's night ;)

The (almost) finished product.  It's hard to see, but it will say Eliza on the side in a really light yellow and the rest of the bank will be a darker shade.  I'm excited to see all of these!  It's killin' me!
Ta duh! This is one side of mine.  The other side is close to the same, but has a swirly section too :)
And last but not least, my mom's.  She had little baby stars all around the outside in yellow, red and blue (maybe it was purple?? It's hard to tell when it's not fired) 

After CMM, we went to Pizza Pie Cafe in provo with all you can eat pizza, salad, and pasta.  My favorite Pizza was the Cherry Cobbler dessert pizza.  SO good...  I'm excited for the day that my whole family is around again and we can have more nights like this one.  Kacee and Nate, have fun in Georgia and be careful! You're not in Utah anymore ;) We'll miss you both but I know it'll be a great adventure!

One year down, the rest of eternity to go!

A few weeks ago Rich and I celebrated our very first anniversary!  Leading up to our anniversary on Saturday, we were in Bear Lake with Rich's ENTIRE family.  I've been married to the guy for a year and just BARELY met the rest of the fam.  It was an eventful weekend and we all ended up having a lot of fun!  On Saturday afternoon, we took off to Salt Lake to celebrate our anniversary.  For those of you who know me at all, you know I like to be in control and always know exactly what's going on.. well we decided Rich gets to plan our first anniversary since I planned the honeymoon.  I had no idea what we were doing and I left it all in Rich's hands (it was a big step for me, alright?) ;) We decided to go check in to our hotel so we could get dressed and ready for dinner.  We were trying to find the place (he wouldn't tell me what it was called) and he "accidently made a wrong turn" so he pulled into a parking lot to flip around and I saw I sign that read,

Wohoo!  I've always wanted to stay a night there but it's a little on the expensive side for newly-weds (thank goodness for AWESOME military discounts).  We checked in and when we got to our room, this is what it looked like:

Pretty fun stuff!  He didn't tell me where we were going for dinner either till we got to the hotel.  We ended up going to the Roof (is that what it's called?) above the Joseph Smith memorial building:

In the morning we got breakfast at our door made right to order!  

This last year has been a lot of work, but it has been the best year of my life.  I couldn't have asked for a better husband.  Rich is so perfect for me.  I can't wait to spend the rest of eternity with him!  We had a great opportunity around our anniversary to live it up together knowing that Rich was leaving for a year.  He left just over a week ago and we got to do a lot, thanks to two amazing families, before he left.  Here are some pictures of the last family events we did before he took off:

Boating with some of my family (the ones who could make it that is)

Race and Bekah

Puttin' our feet in the water

Rich on the tube

Rich and Ashley

These next pictures have a short little story to go with them:  After blowing up the tube, it got tossed in the water in preparation to pull someone.  Bekah, being the fearless little girl she is just hopped off the edge of the boat onto the tube!  None of us were watching her like we should have been... it's a good thing she had a life jacket on :) I don't think she understood that it wasn't like a pool and the water was deeper than 6"

Rich being the good uncle he is hopped on with her so we could give her a short ride, they were sitting a little too far toward the front so when we started going...

They both got dumped.  Rich was fine, but as you can see, Bekah wasn't too happy.  My mom obviously thought it was pretty funny though (as did the rest of us, ha ha).

Once Race got used to the life jacket, he was in heaven on the boat.  He almost fell asleep a few times in Heidi's lap.

Eliza and Heather came a little later in the day and Eliza LOVED everything about boating.  When we went fast, Heather would try to block her face from the wind and Eliza would move her hand out of the way cause she wanted to see everything!  

Heather and I tried to take Bekah on another ride later in the day, but she was still traumatized from her experience earlier that day.. she was obviously not having as much fun as we were.

These last few pictures are from the Brandt family get together at Bear Lake.  During the short weekend we were there we played (a lot of) games, watched movies, rode 4-wheelers, went to a cave, rode "Big papa's" Harley, got famous raspberry shakes and went swimming with all of the kids.  We didn't get our camera out till the last day, so here are just a few pictures of us hanging out around the cabin we stayed at.

Chuck and Lauren.  It was either this picture with Chuck giving the stare-down, or the one with Lauren showing her chewed up food... figured this one was a little better, ha ha ;)

Jake and Rob. 

Joe and Lindsay making lunch for everyone with assistance from Jen and Ren

Rich showing off his new haircut.  I was so depressed..

Ashlee and Kez sharing lunch

Before Rich took off for the year we also went on a trip together to Kauai, spent a day at 7 peaks, attended my brother's wedding, and took family pictures with both of our entire families (I'll post them when I get them).  We had a lot of fun, and we're both hoping this year flies by as fast as the first year did!  

Rich is still in the states, so he still has his phone on him if anyone feels like sending him a text or giving him a call, chances are he can't answer, but I know he'd love to come back from his day to a voicemail from a family member or friend!  Also if anyone wants his address to send out letters let me know, and if you're feeling super patriotic/supportive you can even send a package :D Happy Independence day!

-Ashley

Army Wife

Why is it that I only want to blog when I am bugged about something? Seriously... you all (if anyone actually reads this... ha ha) would think I'm the biggest complainer if I actually followed through on all of the blogs I've wanted to write (or written and deleted) on things I've been bothered about.

This time I'm going to follow through.

So now that my blog is private and the whole world can't read what's going on in our life, for those of you who don't already know, Rich is getting deployed to Iraq. He leaves in June for a year.

Now, here's the part that bothers me.

Most of you when first hearing this feel inclined to say something to the effect of, "A whole year!? That is soooo long!" "Oh my gosh, that's so scary! I'm so sorry for you!" or "That sucks! What are you going to do while he's gone!?"

Trust me, that's not what I need to hear.

I know that a year without a spouse is a long time (for both him and I), and I don't need you to remind me how bad it's going to suck. I don't need pitty, I need support. The reason I didn't want to tell people right away is entirely due to the fact that I didn't want to hear all of that. I mean, it's great to know that people care and are concerned, but put yourself in our shoes now for a second. You get married and your spouse is in the military. You know that means that eventually they're going to be deployed. You just hope that that part comes later rather than sooner. Then comes the time you find out they're going to be leaving sooner than you thought. Right after your first anniversary in fact. You're sad and don't really know how to prepare for it because you've never done anything like this before. You and your spouse discuss what's going to happen while they're away, but seriously, no one really knows how a whole year is going to pan-out, do they? It's all kind of up in the air. Now, whenever you tell someone that they're leaving, would it be of help to you to know that they think it sucks too? How about if they emphasize how long a year is or tell you how sorry they are for you and how glad they are that their spouse isn't in the military? Yeah. Not helpful.

Granted, I would probably say something similar had I not been put in this situation myself, so I try to be patient and understand that not everyone has been in this position and they don't all understand.

So, in an effort to help myself and every other Army wife out there, PLEASE, when you hear that their spouse is getting deployed, offer words of encouragement. If you really are concerned and want to help them out, let them know that you'll be there if they ever need someone to talk to, to go to the grocery store with cause they're sick of going alone, and probably the best thing you could do is be there to distract them. I know from experience that time goes by VERY slowly when Rich is gone and I don't have anything but school to keep my busy. I sit and think WAY too much. On top of that, let them know that a year isn't really THAT long... (a mission is TWICE as long!) Try to keep the conversation positive. Not focused on the bad things. If you haven't done it, don't act like you know what they need to do. If you have done it, give advise freely ;)

Let's be honest, I've never been through this. These are just things that I've heard from others who have, or at least been through something similar. This sounds like what I'll need. Who knows, maybe I'm just going off for no reason and other people who are in my situation might think I'm crazy... I guess everyone is different.

Here's the part where I usually talk myself out of publishing these posts. Right now I'm thinking, "Geez, I just scripted out every conversation I'll ever have with anyone who's read this. I don't want people to be fake or not want to talk to me because they're afraid of hurting my feelings..." but I still kind of want to post it... So don't judge me, ha ha. I'll post something happier later.

Christmas

It's been nice to have a break from school! It was much needed and like always, I don't feel like it was long enough. Back to school for me and Rich on Monday. Here are a few things we did over the break:

We started off visiting Rich's parents and going back to the Manti temple for the first time since our wedding six months ago! It was good to be back in Rich's home town for a few days and of course we visited the neighbors who let us borrow their horse when Rich proposed..

After a few days in Manti, we continued up to Lindon with my family. We spent a lot of time with the nieces and nephews :) Rich's idea of baby sitting: reading the DVD case. Looks like it was working though!

It's not food, it's marker. She bit off the whole tip of the marker! This girl will eat anything from crayons to flour without a second thought.. leave her alone for two minutes and this is what happens, good luck mom!

We had my whole family at my parent's house for Christmas. The little kids were the greatest to watch. Grandma and Grandpa really pushed their patience when they "made" us do a little Christmas program with singing and all before we started opening any presents. Kaleb and Bekah were DYING to start!

My favorite. Christmas pictures courtesy of Nate's facebook page, ha ha. Starting on the left, Race (Heidi's first), Kaleb, Bekah and Eliza (Heather's three).

And the best part of the whole break, my brother got engaged! Unfortunately, she runs for the U and Nate runs for SUU, so they aren't going to see each other much till the summer... what an engagement.

For New Years, we went with some of our friends to Parawan and all hung out as couples. It was really fun playing games, eating food all night and of course, getting a New Years kiss at midnight for the first time! No pictures though, we were having too much fun to take time to get out the camera ;)