ECU = C-USA Conference Champs

Yesterday was such an amazing day! I went to my very last ECU home football game as a student at ECU, and I was kind of sad at the beginning of the game because I knew I'd never be sitting in the student section at an ECU game again.

However, I wasn't sad for long...because we totally beat Houston, the #18 ranked team in the nation!! AND, we claimed the title of C-USA Conference Champs. AND, we're headed to the Liberty Bowl January 2nd. AND, we're the only team in our conference that has EVER won the conference 2 consecutive years!!

So, while I was bummed that this was my last game...I was totally pumped that my last game was so amazing :)

ECU- 38
UH - 32

New Puppy Dog!

Me & Dustin got Bindi Sue a new baby brother. Meet Bruegger boy:




He's the son of Dustin's parents dogs Beau & Fancy. He's a Rat Terrier Feist & very hyper...but he's a sweet boy. We named him after one of our favorite places to eat, Bruegger's Bagels. Plus, we wanted to name him a "B" name, too...like Bindi!

Bindi isn't too thrilled to have a baby brother right now, but I think once he gets a little older she'll grow to love him.

Christmas Time<3

So it's been quite a long time since the last time I blogged. Not a whole lot has changed, except for the last day of classes is on Tuesday and then I'll have 3 exams to go before I can head home for the Christmas<3

Christmas is my favorite time of year. I just love the feeling of joy and happiness I have in my heart during Christmas. I know that sounds cheesy, but it's true! I love Christmas music & decorating. I love Christmas parties, wassail, sausage balls, trash, cheese balls! And I LOVE spending time with my family, playing Monopoly, and falling asleep in front of the fireplace at my grandparent's house. Reading the REAL Christmas story from the Bible, The Polar Express, and The Night Before Christmas with my family before we head to bed. AND...of course I love watching all the Christmas movies that come on TV, especially A Christmas Story and Home Alone! I guess you can say that I'm a Christmas geek. I'm also so excited to see how Jett reacts to his first Christmas! Me, Brittany, Momma, and Daddy played Santa and stood in line for and hour and a half just to get into the Toys 'R' Us on Black Friday to get presents for Jett for his first Christmas. He's going to have a HUGE Christmas...my parents just can't stop buying him presents! But I'm just so thrilled to be a part of his first Christmas. I just love that little boy<3

I am counting down the days til I head home to see my family & my sweet baby nephew that I miss so terribly. [11days]

Don't ever

Mess with my dog! Just don't.

My dress

I have found THE dress! I am so excited about it!! Tomorrow me, my mom & sister are going to order it then go looking for dresses for my bridesmaids to wear. I would post a picture of my dress but then my fiance would see it & I want it to be a surprise to him and the rest of my guests. Just a month and half longer before our wedding day will be officially a year away!

Hiking with Rattlesnakes

Me & Dustin went hiking today at Morrow Mtn. State Park near Albermarle, NC. We had already made it to the end of the trail and had to turn around to head 2.5 miles back to the car. When we had walked maybe 200 yards back down the trail towards the car we heard an extremely loud rattle. Me, being very cautious all the time in the summer of snakes, took off running with Bindi down the trail yelling "it's a rattlesnake!" Dustin just stood still looking around for the snake and spotted this huge 5 ft rattlesnake sitting coiled up about 15 feet away from the trail. He was about as big around as a grapefruit and not very happy that we were in his territory. I got close enough to zoom in with my video camera to video him but was still a good 20 feet away from him...too afraid to get too close.

Engagement Pictures

Me and Dustin receive our engagement photos today & we are very pleased with them.
Our engagement photos were taken by Matt Bryant. The contact information is as follows if you're interested in getting photos made for a special occasion.

-www.mattbryantphotography.com
-info@mattbryantphotograpny.com
-336.689.1823

Wedding Planning Weekend in Wilmington

This past weekend me & Dustin, as well as our moms, my sister, and my grandma all headed down to Wilmington for two days of wedding meetings. On Friday we met with the riverboat to put down a deposit for our reception, then we met with the aquarium to put down a deposit for the rehearsal dinner. We also visited the spot on the beach where we're going to get married & set up a rain plan just in case it rains on our big day. We viewed a room in the hotel we're staying at and actually found some time to eat! -ha ha. On Saturday we shopped in downtown Wilmington for a couple of hours before heading to our cake tasting...which was amazing. Me & Dustin decided on the flavor of our cake & are so excited for our wedding next September. We got a lot done but still have a lot more to do!

Here are a few pics from our trip:





This last one has the riverboat, Henrietta III, in the background that we're having our reception on!

The Proposal

So...me and Dustin are engaged :) And here is the story:

We went to Tennessee on Thursday for a family reunion on Dustin's side. We love Tennessee...especially Gatlinburg & Cades Cove. So Dustin had planned for us to go on a hike Friday morning before the rest of his family arrived so we could have do something fun before all the family festivities began. Friday morning we woke up and looked out the window and it was pretty cloudy, but Sheri (Dustin's mom) was very persistant that we go on our hike (dumb me didn't see this as a clue). So we headed to Cades Cove and we got lucky...the sun started to come out so it wasn't super cloudy anymore.

Dustin had already done alot of research on this trail we were going to hike on. It was the Ace Gap trail and it was supposed to be peaceful, beautiful, included a cave, and an awesome view from the top of the Smoky Mountains. So we're riding through Cades Cove and come to the road we're supposed to get off on to ride to this trail. This road is extremely bumpy, has tons of potholes, isn't paved, and has trees fallen across the road. Dustin starts getting really upset and apologizes to me over and over again and says, "I'm so sorry, this day was supposed to be perfect!" And of course...I'm just trying to make him not be upset! I kept trying to figure out why he was so upset about the road being terrible. So he decides to turn around and takes us to this trail we past on the way up to the Ace Gap trail.

This trail that we decide to hike on is really grown up & looks pretty sketchy. There isn't a sole in sight and we were pretty scared that a bear might attack us because we had already seen several bears that morning on the way through Cades Cove. So we walk maybe a quarter of a mile up this trail before we turn around...we found TICKS crawling up our legs! Because of this, Dustin starts saying "I'm so sorry, this day was supposed to be perfect!" all over again...and he was truly getting upset. We then turned around and went down to another trail that we had traveled before and knew wasn't sketchy or would give us lymes disease from high grass with ticks crawling in it.

We came to the Abrahms Falls & Elijah Oliver trail and begin our journey successfully down the trail. We come up to the Elijah Oliver Place which is this cabin that was built in the 1800s. We walk around and take videos of the cabin and were acting silly and taking pictures when Dustin asked me to grab a lens for his camera out of the backpack. So I go through the bag and grab the lens he asked me to get...and he asked me to open it for him. When I open it for him there sits this GORGEOUS ring and I immediately begin to cry. I was crying so hard that I couldn't see him sitting on one knee until he grabbed my hand and told me to come closer to him. He grabbed my hand and said, "Ashley, you're the only girl I want to spend my life with. I love you so much...will you marry me?" It took me a good minute to answer him because I couldn't catch my breath...and then I of course said YES!

He had planned this perfect day out for us and when it didn't turn out the way he had planned he got really discouraged. But I told him I didn't need to be proposed to on the top of the mountain...because I was already on top of the mountain when he asked me! And I also see this cabin as symbolism for our engagement; this man, Elijah Oliver, had built this cabin for his family and raised his family there....and now me and Dustin are starting our family :)

I truly feel like I am the luckiest girl in the world & feel so blessed to have a supportive fiance who loves me and pushes me to be the best I can be at everything.

So far we have decided that we will be married on September 25, 2010 at Fort Fisher Beach, NC.
More wedding planning details to come!

Independence Day

Yesterday I celebrated Independence Day with my family. We went to my aunt's house & swam, ate barbecue, talked & goofed off, and shot of a few fireworks before heading to our local park to watch real fireworks. While shooting off our own fireworks, Dustin & my cousin Jesse decided to play a trick on the women in my family. They tied firecrackers to the tree behind my family (i was video taping) and lit them. I witnessed my grandmother jump about 10 feet in the air and laugh until she cried! It was a good time! Then after shooting off our fireworks, the kids in the family got everyone racing each other in sprints across our field.

With this said, I'm so proud to be an American and live in the United States where we are free to do this sort of thing without fear of being shot on a daily basis. And while I was sitting in church this morning I was thinking about how truly blessed I am to be able to worship God without fear of being killed because of my beliefs. I'm so thankful to live in this country :)

Technology

It's amazing how much technology has taken over my life. It used to be that I was only obsessed with AIM. Then I moved on to AIM & MySpace. Then I dropped MySpace & AIM. I added Facebook. I added a blog. I then started to receive Facebook alerts on my cell phone & email. Now I not only have Facebook, a blog, and Facebook on my cell phone, but I have now added Twitter & update it via my cell phone. It's an epidemic. Summer only makes me too dependent on technology :X

The S.S. Bindi

So today me & Dustin took our kayak out to lake Thom-a-Lex for the first time. It was so much fun. We spent over 2 hours just paddling around & fishing a bit. I know for sure that if I do this very often that my arms, shoulders, and back muscles are going to be so toned! Here are a few pics of our first adventure together on the S.S. Bindi!

Beach Bums

This week I have been at the beach with my parents, Dustin, cousin Jesse, Brittany & Matt...and of course Jett for his first beach trip! It has been so fun seeing his reactions to sand, salt water, and the sea breeze. He loves the sand on his feet...and apparently likes to put a fist full of it in his mouth :/ oops! He loves the way salt water tastes, too. He likes to lick it off his hands after sitting in his baby pool full of ocean water. And surprisingly he doesn't cry and scream like other babies on the beach. He just falls asleep instead. (Awesome!) Here are a few pics of how our week has been going:

I will be...

Officially a senior starting tomorrow at 10:30! And all I have to make on my exam tomorrow to make a B in that class is an 18.33. Hooray :) Sweet summer starts tomorrow.

Project After Project....After Project

I have been working on projects for the past 2 months. No lie. I have already turned in 7 projects and I have one due Friday. One due Monday. One due next Wednesday. Two due next Thursday. And one due the following Monday, which just so happens to be the last day of class. Thank God for that. On top of that, I have to do homework and quizzes every week and take the occasional test. Why is it so stinkin' hard to get a bachelors degree? Did I enroll to get my MBA here or something? Geez Louise.

Home is where the heart is.

This statement has never meant so much to me as it does at this point in my life. I go to school 190 miles from home and the only thing that keeps me sane at school is my boyfriend and my dog. However, there's so much stuff at home that I miss when I'm gone. Number one: my nephew. He's my first nephew and I'm unable to see him everyday, or every week for that matter. I have to watch him grow and smile and cry via skype or video text messaging and it breaks my heart! So when I'm able to come home and love on him without technology helping it is so amazing. He's such a comic. He likes to pee on his mom unexpectidly, make funny faces, and laughs at my animal noises. And when I'm home he makes my visit so much better. Number two: my family. While I'm away at school I talk to my parents everyday & they listen to me cry when I'm stressed and gripe when I'm whiney. But being home makes all of that stress and whininess disappear! I love how my dad is always cracking jokes, my mom is always bossy (but loving, too!), my sister is always waiting with open arms to greet me, my grandparents always want to catch up on what's going on at school, my cousin Jesse always wants to be around me even though he tries to make it seem like he's just hanging around the house for the food, and my other sisters (the boxer girls) always seem so happy to see me and wag their nubbs as fast as they can! Basically, my family is like the mafia. We all have each other's back. We all eat together all the time, watch the news together, ....just sit at the table and stare at each other together. My family is pretty amazing. Number three: My house. I love my house, my town, my road, my family living all around me (most of the time), my land, the trees in bloom in the spring in my yard, and the sound of my dad out in the garage working on a car. I just love my home and Greenville is not my home. My apartment just doesn't smell like my home or feel homey like my home.

And what's great about coming home is that not only do I get to see all of these people that I love, but I also get to bring the good part of Greenville back home with me...Dustin & Bindi Sue.

I hiked it, I liked it.

Yesterday me and Dustin decided to go on a little hiking trip together to Grandfather Mountain. Little did we know that this little trip would be risky to our lives. Grandfather Mountain is a privately owned mountain so you have to pay to go hiking on the mountain. We get up to the top of the mountain and walk across the Mile High Bridge first thing. And at the center of the bridge you are actually suspended a mile above sea level...pretty scary stuff! Especially when it's windy. Then we headed halfway down the mountain to start hiking. We were so excited, so we packed our backpack full of treats for our lunch (beanie weenies, fruit cups, and Gripz cheese its) and headed up the Grandfather Trail. There was a sign we came up to that said, "Caution: Only hike if wearing stout hiking boots" and me and Dustin were like, "yeah ok, whatever!" and proceeded up this trail disregarding this warning. Then, we come up to a rope. I'm kidding you not! We had to pull ourselves up this mountain on a rope! Then, it got worse. We come across some ladders we had to climb up. And the ladders themselves weren't bad but there were a couple we had to climb and we were literally 8 inches away from the side of the mountain and if we were to make one wrong step we would have fallen 500 feet to our death. It was so scary! I cried a little when I got off that mountain out of happiness to be alive! But once we made it to the Macrae Peak, 2nd highest peak on the East Coast, we had a view of the most breathtaking scenery I've ever seen. We felt as if we were on top of the world!