Posts Tagged Christmas

Getting into the Christmas Spirit.

Dec 4

Posted by Ashley in General | 1 Comment

I figured that I’ve neglected my blog for far too long and with Christmas just a few weeks away I thought it’d be nice to switch over to a lovely Christmas theme to bright things up. Not to mention, I won’t be decorating for Christmas at all so the least I could do was decorate my blog! Hopefully, there isn’t any major issues with the switch since I had to redo the widgets and got rid of a lot of the side junk…if things look odd, I’ll fix it.

For now though, I think I’m going to head off to bed since I didn’t get much sleep last night due to staying up to work on classes assignments. Luckily, I have finished all major assignments for the rest of the semester so all that’s left is to study for finals pretty much; I have been so busy with everything that I haven’t even had time to write about things like self storage, not that you’re missing out on anything. I’ll have a better more interesting blog tomorrow, promise!

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Hope you had

Dec 26

Posted by Ashley in General | 2 Comments

a very Merry Christmas! :) My Christmas was alright, nothing over the top or too exciting but just alright – it was nice spending time with the family but even that can’t seem to happen without some kind of minimal drama SOMEWHERE, go figure. I got the WD Passport 120gb external hard drive I wanted from my mom along with a case, Super Mario Sunshine (gamecube game to play on the Wii), a Wii Points card, mini food processor and electric mixer. I also got a pair of jeans, 2 shirts and some PJs along with some candles and soup mixes/salsa/pickles from my grandparents. I ended up with a couple of gift cards too: one to target and the other for the mall. I made out pretty well and I’m happy with what I got…I still have presents to open when Alan gets here, so I’m excited about that :)

Bah, I need to dry my hair and get dressed for work (6p-10p) and walk down to the mailboxes to check the mail. I can’t wait for tonight! Again, hope everyone had a great Christmas :D

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Full House!

Dec 24

Posted by Ashley in General | 1 Comment

My brother arrived around 6:30pm last night from Kansas – he had a 3 hour layover in Charlotte than his plane got delayed…seems to happen any time you fly anymore. He’ll be here until December 29th (leaves around 8pm I think). Alan comes in at 11:30pm on Wednesday and will be here until January 1st (leaves at 6am) – we’re going to have a full house for a week but I couldn’t be happier. Having my brother living in Kansas makes me miss him actually :P and it nice when he does visit or I visit Kansas because I only get to see him maybe once a year…twice if I’m lucky. I don’t particularly like going to Kansas anymore though because there are a lot of old memories that come back EVERY TIME I go to Lawrence that I can’t seem to get rid of – those “I wonder what it would be like if…” kind of memories, but now as the years have passed I wouldn’t have things any other way at this point in my life.

I have to finish Christmas shopping, gogo me waiting until the LAST damn minute and waiting until Christmas Eve at that, lol. I have to pick up one or two more things for Alan, haven’t exactly decided :P , before he comes in because I don’t want to deal with it on the 26th. Around 6pm or so, I’ll be going over to my grand parents house to do presents and eat with the rest of our immediate family. There’s never enough time in the day on Christmas Day so we’ve been doing gift opening with our immediate family on Christmas Eve since the extended family comes over to my grand parents on Christmas Day. I’m glad Christmas is almost here but at the same time…it doesn’t even FEEL like Christmas, partly due to weather, partly due to age I suppose – I miss Santa Claus :P

PS: If you’re buying a house, decorating a house, or just want to change your exterior lightingto something cool looking, I’d have a look at the site I linked – I’ve visited before and think they have some really neat looking fixtures to fix up any house!

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Christmas Shopping.

Dec 22

Posted by Ashley in Shopping | No Comments

Christmas is three days away and I haven’t finished Christmas shopping yet…what the heck is wrong with me? Not only did I wait until the last minute, but now I have to battle long lines, traffic and other people who waited until the last minute to get the things I need/want :P Ah well, it isn’t entirely MY fault since I didn’t get paid until yesterday which is why I waited so long – I picked up two of Alan’s gifts last night, I just have to decide on what else I want to get him and get it either tonight after work or tomorrow since I don’t go to work until 8pm! While he made it easy to buy for him by giving me a list, it’s still kind of hard because it’s mainly Xbox 360 stuff (games, hardware etc.) and I don’t know if I want to get him a game or the hardware or something entirely different – at least he doesn’t want some ugly gold cufflinks :) And I still need to figure out what the heck to get my mom…sigh!

I work today from 2:30-7:15pm and Sunday from 8pm-12am which I’m not looking forward too. I also work from 6-10pm on Wednesday and I have the rest of the week off to spend with Alan :D I gave my Friday hours next week (only 3hours) to someone else so I could spend time with him and because I forgot it’s Zachary’s 3rd birthday – not sure what we’re doing for it though. Anyways, I’m off to finish getting ready for work and head out!

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It’s so cold!

Dec 17

Posted by Ashley in General | 1 Comment

I don’t really care for snow…in fact, I think I hate it then again I haven’t lived in a state where it snowed during the winter months in years so maybe I like it but think I hate it, lol. Anyways, it’s down to 40 something today which is COLD to me since it was just 80 degree last week. I kid you not, some lady came into Old Navy the other night in shorts and flip flops – it’s DECEMBER, we’re suppose to be wearing mittens and scarfs. Make up your mind weather!!

Alan will be here next week, I’m so excited. I told my managers that I didn’t mind working Christmas Eve and the day after Christmas in hopes that I wouldn’t be scheduled a lot of hours while he is here. I requested the 27th and 31st off since that’s the first day and last day he’ll be here and I want to spend time with him since it won’t be until March/April when I go up to Michigan again. Hopefully, Linda (manager) will be nice and give me days off while he’s here – I’d feel bad if I had to work a lot, which I shouldn’t but being seasonal and it being after Christmas who knows…

On a side note, I really need to get my computer list finished. I’m hoping to build my new PC sometime in January/beginning of February when I get my financial aid return from school – I hope my computer doesn’t decide to completely crap out on me before then. It’s been good the last two days, but it’s still a POS; being three years old it’s about time to upgrade anyways. So far my list for an AMD setup is $926, but I need to go through it and finalize everything and make sure I get the best parts etc. without going to the extreme. If you know anything about computers, I also plan on making an Intel build list and compare the two – it seems that a lot of people are switching to Intel rather than AMD but we’ll see :)

PS: Christmas is only a week away and if you’re like me that means you haven’t started shopping yet! If you have a car buff in your life, I would suggest getting some auto accessories for them – it makes a quick and easy gift!

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Funny how things work out.

Dec 11

Posted by Ashley in General | 1 Comment

I run the risk of jinxing myself when I think about certain things going on at this moment but it seems that when I think things couldn’t get better, they do….and I couldn’t be happier :)

This semester was important to me, more important than any other because it meant me finishing my associate of arts program and being able to receive my two year degree when I was done. I wanted to do well, I NEEDED to do well and at the beginning of the semester the only class I was stressed out about was Astronomy. Our very unlucky section got stuck with a teacher that had never taught the course before – he’s a physics teacher - which made it difficult for us to understand the material along with his horrible teaching style. This was the ONLY class (out of 5) that I worried constantly about through out the semester…much to my surprise when I checked my grades earlier, I received an A. I don’t know how that happened and I’m definitely not complaining, but my jaw dropped to the floor when I saw that A. The most I expected was a B with the least being a C – at this point, I would have been happy just to pass the class with a C so when I saw the A I was ecstatic.

Not only have I received an A in the one class I struggled with all semester – not because I didn’t understand the material but because of the horrible teaching style + tests that didn’t cover ANYTHING we went over in class – I’ve received A’s in all my classes thus far. I’m still waiting for my Criminal Justice grade to be posted but I SHOULD have an A in that also, if that’s the case I’ll receive my first 4.0 GPA for a semester since I started college and it brings my overall GPA up to a 2.7! I really hope MSU will reconsider my application when my final transcripts are sent in, I have improved ten fold since my first horrible semester in 2004 and while it has taken me longer than I expected and planned for, I am still very proud of myself and that feeling is amazing.

Aside from school being over and being extremely pleased with myself because of my grades, I’ve also gotten more hours at work. A few weeks ago, I was ready to throw in the towel with them because I had hardly worked since I was hired at the BEGINNING of November – I was hired for seasonal work but yet they weren’t giving me hours? Anyways…with it being 14 days from Christmas the hours are starting to pour in which is really nice. I work 14.25 hours this week and had an extra 3.5 hours from a shift I picked up this past Sunday. I won’t get paid until the 20th but that check should give me enough money to buy gifts for Alan along with my mom and my brother if I can figure out what to get them. It makes me happy to know that I’ll be able to afford gifts now, especially for Alan.

On top of everything, Alan will be in here 2 weeks time. I can’t explain how happy and excited I am – I miss him SO much. He is the one person that I need and want…always and like I’ve said before, I couldn’t be more thankful that I have him. He supports me in everything that I do, he’s there to celebrate with me when I do well (especially in school) and I know he’s proud of me just as I am with myself. He truly is the love of my life :heart: In the end, I’m happy with the way things are going now compared to me feeling shitty just a few days ago when I thought things were completely horrible. It’s funny how things work themselves out in the end, I know things can’t stay bad forever and maybe I jump to conclusions too fast instead of waiting things out – in the end, I know everything will be okay no matter how bad things may seem at any given time :)

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Never Get a Break.

Dec 6

Posted by Ashley in General | No Comments

Between studying and being irritated, frustrated and upset yesterday I didn’t even get the chance to post what I wanted too so I’ll do that now :P  Get ready for what will seem like a bunch of complaining…

Do you ever feel like you never get a break – that no matter what is going on that something ALWAYS seems to happen that brings everything else going on in your life down? That’s how I feel right now, that I never get a break. Between being stressed and upset about money and not being able to afford gifts for Christmas and not being able to pay the cable bill, on top of having to study for exams, the icing was put on the cake yesterday when I brought my car in to get the oil changed and tires rotated. I was informed by the mechanics who did a visual inspection of my car that I have a small oil leak in the oil pan which means it needs to be replaced ASAP before it gets larger and just completely drains any oil that’s put in the car – $100+ for that. I also was told, which I already knew, that my exhaust has holes in it which is why my car is so loud but that’s been there since I’ve had the thing I just haven’t had the money to get it replaced.

Over the summer, I had to spend over $600 getting my A/C fixed when a rock busted it and caused it to leak all the freon out and the driver side window that had been broken for a year. Not only that, but my mom has to switch our insurance so that I can get my windshield fixed because it has two large cracks in it and if I get pulled over I could get a ticket for the window being like that. I swear…the car, a 1995 Honda Civic LX, is a good car – it runs, it gets me to where I need to go and back, and for being a 1995 has pretty low mileage on it – but I feel as if I’m dumping more money into it than what it’s worth but I have too because I can’t afford a new car. Finding out about the oil pan/exhaust yesterday just made me feel like I never get a break; that no matter how hard I try or don’t try (just do things as they come…etc) that something ALWAYS seems to happen, that when things start to look up something comes along and BAM.

My mom is strapped on cash but somehow manages to find a way to pay for things she doesn’t need. I went and got a job because I knew I needed too and I wanted to start saving up money for when I move to Michigan and yet they aren’t giving me any hours – I’ve been looking for another job but haven’t had any luck as of yet finding anything promising. The only thing that seems to be going right are my classes and grades which I couldn’t be more proud of myself than I am already – I have done amazingly well this semester and it feels so good to be able to say, yeah I passed my classes and I got A’s in them…something I haven’t been able to do since I started college (well making A’s that is :P ). The only other thing aside from passing that keeps me alive and somewhat sane is Alan and I couldn’t be more thankful that I have him in my life. But even then, I have a hard time not letting the little things bother me – I can’t afford Christmas gifts, I can’t afford bills, I’m going to school AND passing with A’s, AND I’m trying to make money by working but not getting any hours - I feel like it gets rub in my face that “hey I can afford things and you can’t.” My life doesn’t revolve around money, it never has; I don’t ask for anything because we’ve never had the money to be able to afford just random things my brother and I may want. I don’t spend what I have, I save but when you don’t even have savings to pay things off or buy things you do NEED, it sucks…and I’m trying to do the best I can with what I have on my plate.

And while, I try to focus on the good and not stress out about the bad I can’t help but feel so overwhelmed by the things that go on in my life. My life ISN’T as stressful as it may seem or that I make it out to be but the things that do go on, stress me out till no end. If you’ve ever been strapped on cash and can’t afford bills or because the holidays are coming up and cannot afford to buy gifts for the people you care about – I’m sure you understand how I feel and I’m sure it doesn’t make you feel any better when you KNOW and FEEL deep down inside, you’re doing everything you can possibly do and can possibly think of without putting too much weight on yourself. I can only keep hoping that things will start to look up and know that they will eventually and until they do…I guess I just have to keep on truckin’.

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