What have I done??

Today I spent some time with my wonderful mother.

Yeah. That beautiful lady.

Well....I introduced her to Pinterest. 

Gave her the full tutorial, made her profile, got her the Pin It button, everything.

 Tonight I got on the computer to check email and such. 

To find that she has pinned like 283 things.

Not really but it was a lot.

What have I done??

Just kidding, Mom. I'm gonna love looking at your pins. 

But if Twitter is next....I'm not going there. No way.

Love you. :)

InstaFriday.

I <3 Insta-Friday.

Jordan made me a happy little breakfast last weekend. :)

Me and my girl Sydney at church on Sunday. I was showing her the wonderfulness of Instagram.

We had a fun night of bowling last weekend. I came so close to beating Jordan, which is crazy. Then I scored less than half of my previous score. Seriously?? How does that happen?

Then Jordan hooked up the ol' trusty Super Nintendo. What a treasure.

I got these beautiful babies on Tuesday when I was having a rough day. My man is so sweet. :)

My church buddy every Wednesday - the adorable Anjali. Precious.

My brother cracks me up.

This is what happens when I'm doing my Bible study and my mind wanders to dinner. I do love chicken, but not that much. "Christ" would have been a much better choice. I laughed about this for about 10 minutes straight.

Don't forget that I'm giving away these friendly little bird plates along with other cute things in my bird giveaway! Go enter! :)

Have a fabulous Friday! Much love to all my blog friends!

baptism - part 2.

I woke up in a grumbly, grumpy, complainy type mood yesterday. The day before I had slept in way too late, so that night I couldn't get to sleep. Therefore, when I woke up bright and early yesterday, not having much sleep, I was finally tired. Not good timing. I was perplexed because I didn't exactly know what to do for the baptism. I laid in bed and whined to my husband. "Do I get a shower? I'm about to get wet again. Do I wash my hair? That'd be ridiculous. What do I wear? I don't have any plain t-shirts. Do I wear gym shorts? Do you think that's okay? Wet pants would feel awful. Will I wear a robe? Should I wear my hair up or down? Should I wear any makeup at all to the first service? I wonder if I can find my waterproof mascara. What if I can't find it? What should I do afterward? Should I scrunch my hair before I come back into the service? Should I bring a hair dryer? My hair takes forever to dry. Why does this have to be so complicated? Why can't I just get baptized in the ocean?"

"It doesn't," he replied, "This is just the devil trying to provide distractions for you so you won't be focused on the wonderful thing that's about to happen." I was not happy with this response to all of the questions I had just asked. It didn't help me at all. I gave him a sour look and claimed, "You just don't understand what it's like to be a girl!" and stomped off to the bathroom in 13-year-old girl fashion, probably adding to the annoyance of the lady below us. Sorry, lady. I know you already dislike us.

Yes, I know, you want to slap the yesterday morning me. Me too. Jordan was so right. I should've been thanking God that I am His child and overjoyed about being baptized. Instead, I was worrying about trivial details and not wanting to be up in front of everyone. Yes, I know, I used to be in front of thousands of people at one time, but that was different - it wasn't as myself, it was as a Storm Squad girl. I don't like being up in front of people as myself. So the devil was indeed attacking me with these thoughts.

Thankfully, my sweet husband helped me gather my items, cheered me up, put me in a better mood, and prayed with me on the way to church. But I think that he actually put me in too much of a good mood on the way, because I was laughing hysterically at him right before we got to church. If you know Jordan, you know that he makes some pretty ridiculous jokes quite often. We then pulled up to a parking spot that had a big sign in front of it saying "NO ICE", confusing us, but then made me laugh even more after we figured out the T had been blurred out in the middle. 

So all during the Lord's Supper I kept holding back laughter for many different reasons. First of all, I knew as soon as we started singing that my dear Grandma was in the building because I could hear her voice reverberating from the other side of the sanctuary. Secondly, I don't know what it was, perhaps it was the air turning off and on, but every 4 or 5 minutes a small, short noise that sounded exactly like a kitten was heard from across the room. I was picturing the most precious kitten stuck in the air conditioning unit. I told Jordan that it sounded like a kitten, which made him laugh, which made me laugh more, and then the noise would go off again, and the cycle would repeat. I am very thankful that my mom was on the other side of me and not my brother or my dad or it would have been over. I would've been laughing so much that I would've had to leave the room. I'm not kidding. 

Also, for some reason, I kept picturing terrible yet hilarious things happening in my head. Like four men standing up to share a Scripture at the exact same time and having to figure out who goes first, or even drawing their swords and dueling it out in the center aisle. And when I say swords I don't mean their Bibles. This one lady in front of us had on a large hat, and I kept picturing the man beside her standing up with gusto, only to knock her hat flying into the air and landing on a sleeping old man. Just things like that. I don't know what is wrong with me when I get in those moods, but for some reason I can think ANYTHING is funny. Then when we were passing the bread, I looked over and Blake was trying to take a small piece off, which wasn't working, and he ended up with this long strip of bread. Which then made me think that I bet he was happy about that because he loves bread, and then I pictured him pulling out squeezy butter to put on it. This was getting bad. I had to shut my eyes and lean on Jordan, praying and concentrating very hard to not hear the kitten noise (which was still happening) as I focused on why we were there, to remember what Jesus did for us. Thankfully, God helped me have that time of remembrance without distraction...somehow. Only by His grace, definitely not by my mental capabilities. 

I share all of this to disclose how the devil had already been attacking me before the baptism even happened. At first, it was with a bad mood. Then, it turned into a giggly, ridiculous mood. Both were equally distractive. Only with God's help could I turn my attention on the reason why I was there and why I was being baptized, which you can read about here. So praise the Lord that He did help me, and I did find my waterproof mascara, and I decided on my trusty Moe's t-shirt, and everything ended up going smoothly. And glory hallelujah I was baptized in the name of the Lord Jesus Christ! 

Mr. Mark Schell baptizing me - Jordan had a backstage view!

Me with the others who were baptized and Mr. Mark. And a random man behind us.

interesting searches.

Blogger is kinda creepy. It tells you lots of things about people. I get to know what countries have viewed my blog, what kind of browsers people use, what websites they use to get to my blog, etc. But my favorite thing to see is what people search for to come to my blog. When I say this, I mean what they type into Google that leads them to my blog on the internet. Some of them are definitely interesting and occasionally pretty funny. So I thought I'd share a few with you to give you a laugh. If it was you who used one of these searches, don't be embarrassed, I love it. 


"ashleyhamshelley bloodspot" - This sounds terrible.


"josh hamilton pictures of family" - It's weird to me that people search this.


"shannon hills bible chapel crazy" - Umm..what? Crazy?


"i want to respect my husband how do i respect my husband submit to my husband how to submit" - Slow down, woman.


"i'm a newlywed and loving life!" - I'm glad that you are so happy about this that you decided to type your exclamation in the search bar and then go to my blog.


"i want a girl who likes sports" - Maybe you should go to a sporting event and ask one out. Good luck.




So now you know what I mean. If you want to make me laugh, type in a super weird search that could lead to my blog. They crack me up.

tv tonight.

So this is about to be my quickest post ever, but I am just so pumped about tv shows tonight. It's been a while since the good ones have been on, and I am especially excited for THE OFFICE! And guess who will be on The Office tonight....Will Ferrell! Ahhh :) Hilarity is sure to ensue. 


I will leave you with this quote, from one of my favorite Office scenes of all time:


Michael to Toby:
"Why are you the way that you are? Honestly, every time I try to do something fun or exciting, you make it not... that way. I hate... so much about the things that you choose to be.."

our honeymoon - Universal Studios.

So the rest of our honeymoon was an absolute blast. Monday we traveled to Orlando, checked out our awesome place we stayed in, and went to good ol' Walmart for some groceries. You know how Walmart is at the beach in the summer? Like a million people all wanting to buy the same things? It was like that times 87. Soooo many people, it took forever. Our most important purchase was a FAN because we both are so accustomed to sleeping with one that it was absolutely necessary. Another reason why we were meant for each other.

Our sweet room with awesome tub!

Tuesday we went to Universal Studios. I had never been...and it was AWESOME! So many things I could talk about, but I will limit myself to one story.


So there is this one roller coaster, The Mummy, and it is located indoors. 

The Mummy

Jordan was excited for me to ride this because he knew I would like it, and it was our first roller coaster of the trip. We said hello to the guards at the entrance and proceeded inside, past some people who were exiting the ride. It led into a hallway with many of those red velvet dividers leading the way. There were no people waiting, but this had been normal so far because it was still early in the day and there weren't long lines the week that we went. We went through more hallways, following the dividers, and still saw NO people. The hallways were looking less like the inside of a ride and more like a weird office building. Instead of being dimly lit and mysterious, they had florescent lighting and brick walls. It took a couple more minutes for us to realize we were not on the right track, but absolutely lost.


At first we didn't know whether to turn back, or just take a chance with a door or another hallway. We found a door and cracked it open, finding a person with a large turban and flowing outfit who definitely looked like he was from the movie. "Where did you come from?" he asked, startled at our appearance. We explained that we were somehow lost, and trying to find our way to the ride. Realizing that he needed to be in character like all the other workers, his voice suddenly shifted to an Arabian accent as he pointed us toward an elevator. We thanked the sometimes Arab-ish worker and got on the elevator.


When we exited on the second floor, we stepped out and were exactly where the ride was boarded. There was a man in a wheelchair in front of us, and to our left was a long line of people, the line we should have been in, waiting for the ride. We stood there awkwardly waiting for the man in front of us to get on. One of the workers gave us a confused look and said, "Are you with Child Swap?" Apparently Child Swap was something where you could leave your kids in some room somewhere and ride rides. I don't know. We were not with Child Swap as we did not have children. We told the guy that we didn't really know how in the world we ended up there, that another worker had sent us up the elevator. He hesitated for a second, but then just said, "Okay, go ahead." We skipped the entire line and got on the ride, seated in the first row. The ride was really fun. I love the feeling of drops, and when it's pitch black and you don't know it's coming, it makes it pretty exhilarating. We had a great time and left to go ride other stuff, still wondering how we were able to get by all the other people.


Later, after riding some more rides and watching some shows, we returned to The Mummy for our second go. We went past the guards again, toward the entrance, questioning if we would be able to make it through without getting lost this time. But when we walked up, the doors were closed. Hmm...we looked for why this was different. Oh. A handicapped sign. On the door. To the entrance. Well.


If you refer back to the above picture of the outside of The Mummy, there is a small entrance to the left (the handicapped entrance), and a large entrance to the right with giant, gold columns. We should have headed for those glimmering columns. We realized that the reason we took the small entrance was because of the people exiting from there the previous time. We also realized that those people exiting had been helping a guy in a wheelchair. Therefore, we had mistakenly taken advantage of a handicap entrance skipping all other Mummy riders by sneaking around and using the elevator. Just as in the GPS incident, our observational skills were down that day. But we now knew the secret of The Mummy. And then had to wait in line for our second ride like everyone else.


So, our trip Universal ended up turning us into rebels that day. But it was a blast. Another roller coaster there was a new one that had a huge drop. You could pick a song for your individual seat speakers during the ride. My choices for the three times we rode this were: "Can't Touch This" by MC Hammer, "Intergalactic Planetary" by the Beastie Boys (I was ecstatic that they had this choice, my former teammates will know why), and "Stronger" by Kanye West. Excellent.

The something something Rock-It roller coaster. That's me looking rather small standing in front.

Another highlight of the day was when we were walking and heard loud 90's rap music from a random street, and then saw baby chick and bunny mascots dancing through it. Interesting. We joined them. Picture Jordan and I shaking our bootys with bunnies to "Let Your Tootsie Roll." Wish we would have filmed it. I learned that we were breaking it down with the stars of the new movie "Hop". It made me want to see that movie.

Chick from the movie "Hop"

That was our Monday and Tuesday of the honeymoon. Wow, I am explaining this honeymoon quite slowly. Oh well, it's a once in a lifetime thing. I'll share more later.

our honeymoon - Savannah travels.

Our honeymoon was literally the best week ever. I knew it was going to be awesome, but I underestimated how awesome it would actually be. There are many things to tell, but I'm just going to give a few highlights. Probably in multiples blog segments so it's not entirely too long.


The day after our wedding, we packed up the borrowed BMW z3 convertible (pure sweetness) and headed south to Savannah, Georgia. We had the aid of a handy dandy Garmin GPS, which was newer then my own dear "Garmilton". We looked at the GPS arrival time - it was about 5:15 or so. So we had a little drive ahead of us. We were pumped. We were married.

On our way!

So we're driving, we're singing, we're talking about everything that happened at the wedding, and then we check back to the GPS e.t.a. and it's down to about 4:30! Wowww we were making great time! This made us even more excited for our travels. We continue along our merry way, finding radio stations and talking about Harry Potter, and then all the sudden the GPS says 3:45! We are making the best time EVER! Now we're talking about everything we want to do when we get there, and how awesome everything is going to be, and before we know it, the GPS says 2:30.....2:30?! At this time it was about 1:30pm. We had 168 miles or so to go. What in the world?


Jordan says, "It's saying that we are getting there in an hour. We are 168 miles away. This is impossible."


I'm laughing pretty hard at the confusion the GPS has caused, and then reply, "How fast would we have to be going to get there by then?"


..............


Sometimes I don't think before I ask questions. Jordan took a long pause while looking at me, then finally answered, "168 miles per hour."


I hate math, yes, but I'm really not THAT bad with numbers, I promise. I laughed about this (my silent, shaking laugh) for approximately 3.2 minutes. Once I calmed down, we inspected the GPS to see what on earth it was thinking. We turned it off and back on. It still said we were going to be there in an hour. 


Finally, Jordan takes it off the stand, looks very closely at it, and sees one little tiny word we hadn't noticed. Instead of saying just the arrival time, like any other GPS I had ever worked with, it said ever so small, "Arrival IN". So it was not telling us we would arrive AT 2:30, it was saying would arrive IN 2 hours and 30 minutes. I then laughed about this for a good 10 minutes straight, and by that time we saw that clearly it had been counting down every single minute of our trip. How....HOW had we not noticed this? For HOURS?! I don't know. I guess we were blinded by our marital bliss. But it was not one of our smarter times, that's for sure. 


Slightly bummed that we were not making the excellent time that we thought we were, we adjusted our hopes and dreams from 2:30pm back to the reality of 5pm. And kept on trucking. Or z3ing, rather. 


We did make it to our destination of Savannah! It was lovely. We were tired. We hadn't been tired at all after the wedding surprisingly, probably because we were so hyped up from everything. But now it was hitting us. So we walked around and ate but soon headed back to the hotel, where we relaxed and watched basketball for the rest of the night. Jordan should be glad that I also love basketball. I doubt that it's many a girl's dream to watch a lot of basketball games on their honeymoon, but I was the one finding out the times of every game. We were made for each other.

in downtown Savannah at the city market!

Well, that's all for now, and I've only talked about the first day. The other stories shouldn't be as long, but y'all know how I am with my story telling...I like to draw things out a little bit. :) God blessed us so much with an amazing honeymoon and so many people are asking about it that I must share. So I'll be back with more.