U-S-A!

I am shamelessly addicted to the Olympics, so much so that I have consistently been staying up waaaaay past my normal bed time in order to catch each event. I have even gone so far as to set the DVR to record every bit of the action. In fact, it is all I can do in the morning to wake up, sleepwalk to the shower and then to the coffee but I just can’t stop. I have to admit that I have always been a little crazy about the Olympics, but this time it is serious. Surprisingly, Drew and I have enjoyed swimming the most so far probably because of the machine that is Michael Phelps. He really is incredible and I think now that swimming has concluded I might lose a little interest in the games. This is not to say that I will stop watching because it is beyond me to do so…I really am addicted.

I can’t believe it is Monday…where did the weekend go? It seems like it was just Friday and now here it is, Monday again. Another week of work is starting and I have no interest in responding to the 100 emails that I received over the weekend…is that so wrong? I will have to ease into that and I can tell you that if there is even one paper jam in either the printer or the fax machine, I just might walk off the job. J No, I would never do that….but I do refuse to believe that there is in actuality a “paper jam” 1) because it has never actually been seen by anyone I know and 2) the printer/fax will inevitably begin to work again the minute I have called IT over to fix the problem. IT probably hates when people do this as their job entails so much more than fixing lame-A printers and faxes. What can you do? I can say that I remain so very thankful that I have a job…it is so hard these days for so many people and I know that I am extremely blessed.

Drew has decided to get his teaching certificate and we are both very excited about it! I know that he would make an excellent and dedicated teacher…we are both looking forward to this new endeavor. I am very proud of him already as he is putting a lot of work into this. The other night he made me the BEST spaghetti I have ever had and surprised me with the most beautiful flowers…stargazer lilies. They are the same flowers that my wedding bouquet was made of. The smell is so amazing…it takes me back to our wedding day. I love him very much!

For those of you who read of my cat adventure, I am happy to report that Mismatch and Grenade have become best friends. Grenade has even been so kind as to teach Mismatch how to destroy multiple rolls of toilet paper with much ease…I have gone to great lengths to make sure that not even one more roll is shredded but to my demise one still sneaks through every now and then. In fact, last night I heard some noise in the bedroom and went to check it out. This is the scene I observed…Mismatch had a roll down in the floor and Grenade was poised on the edge of the bed ready to launch into his part of the attack…it was a double-team escapade that proved even further my inability to outwit a cat. What can I say? I have been defeated once again.

All in all, I had a wonderful weekend and spent some much needed time with Drew. We miss our friends horribly but the good news is that JBLAKE is coming to town!!!! WAHOO!!! I have already started planning what we will do…
I hope all of you have a wonderful and fabulous week and to those of you who posted your “trip-artist” stories, it is much appreciated. I somehow feel much better about myself!

Free Falling

You know that old saying, “If a tree falls in a forest and no one is around to hear it, does it still make a sound”? Some will say yes, others might say no but I kind of need to know the answer and quickly. This is a legitimate question we have here. The reason I am wondering is because I am trying to decide if I am a little insane…not scary insane, but weird, goofy, lame insane. To explain myself further, I must expose a most embarrassing event that happened to me this morning at work. I was walking into the ladies restroom when suddenly everything started moving in a quick, downward motion…I was falling. What 24 year old person still trips and falls? Ashley does. It all happened so fast…my corporate life flashed before my eyes. In about one millisecond, 1000 thoughts went through my mind, none of them logical. What if my boss was in one of the stalls and came out laughing at me? What if I got hurt and couldn’t walk back to my office and someone had to carry me there in front of all my co-workers? What if…I broke my favorite pair of heels? The truth is that no one else was in there (thank goodness). Damn you rug. Damn you high heels.

This all brings me back to the original question. Shouldn’t I have been less embarrassed once I realized no one was in there to see (or hear) me fall? Well, it didn’t happen that way and I can tell you that I was entirely embarrassed. Then I started laughing which brought on another situation…there I was with my ankle half broken, my skirt out of control, my face red standing in the middle of the bathroom laughing when a lady from the Training Department walked in. I must have looked like such a loon…I didn’t explain myself I just quickly washed my hands and took off toward my office. Maybe this was the wrong move, but who can blame me.

I realize I am falling more the older I get and it isn’t right. Once in high school on the stairs, twice in college (no alcohol involved) and now at work. I can’t escape it…I am a 24 year old trip-artist.

I hope everyone has a fantastic week and that no one falls…and if you do, I expect you to tell about it so that I might feel better about myself.

Love you all!

I Did a Bad, Bad Thing

I may have stolen....no, I may have accidentally, haphazardly, by mistake taken home a cat from work. I know, I know, I already have a cat but this one was just too cute to pass up and I figured that Grenade could use a friend of his own. The whole thing started a few months back...my office has a large parking lot that backs up to a fence and on the other side of the fence there are a few houses. I had seen this particular cat many times, along with a few others, and couldn't decide if it belonged to anyone. It was always out in the parking lot dodging cars and eating out of the dumpster so naturally, I started to assume it didn't really have a home. A couple of months passed without seeing the cat; I didn't really think too much of it. Well, the other day here it came, strolling through the parking lot. It is so mismatched...I will try to describe this cat to you. It is NOT a kitten but it is the same size as one. Isn't that everyone's ultimate dream about animals, to have a kitten/puppy and have it stay that size forever?? It is so strange and I still can't figure out why it is so small but man, is it cute. It has a tiny little black head with the greenest eyes you have seen all put together on a somewhat fluffier brownish body. It must sound so "un-cute" but I promise you it is adorable.

Anyway, so Wednesday of this past week was D-day. I decided I was taking this cat home with me and so the operation began...a few ladies that I work with went in search of the cat and surprisingly, it was easy to find. We packed it up in an Office Depot box and I prepared to take my new pet home (all without informing my car pool buddy or my husband!! ) The ride home was intense...so many ridiculous thoughts were racing through my head. What if I stole someone's cat? What if they reported it to my company and I in turn got fired? What if it scratched my co-worker''s leather seats through the cardboard box and I had to pay to have them repaired? What if Drew got mad at me for bringing another cat home? What if Grenade hated it and decided to kill it in its sleep? None of these issues were enough to make me change my mind however; this cat was coming home with me. Now don't get me wrong, if it turns out that this was actually someone's pet, I will graciously return it. I am convinced though that even if it has an owner, it wasn't really being taken care of. Back to Operation Gato...my co-worker dropped me off at my car and I loaded my cat-in-a-box into the passenger seat of my car. I proceeded to call Drew on my way home the way I always do and while we were on the phone, the cat started meowing and loudly. I was busted. As soon as I got home, I toted the cat up the three flights of stairs it takes to get to the apartment and let it loose for Drew and Grenade to see. It was a hit!! Drew must really, really love me to allow me to have two cats....it has since been named Mismatch.

I have another topic on my mind as well...I will keep this person anonymous but I must share their story. A lady that I know has struggled to get pregnant for many years. Throughout all of her doctor's visits and whatnot, she recently was diagnosed with early ovarian cancer and her doctor urged her to have a hysterectomy as soon as possible. Anyone who has kids or wants them in the near future can imagine how devastating this would be. She began to pray for God to help her and her husband with this decision as it would change their lives forever. Finally, she decided to have her surgery in August and hoped that one day after things settled down, they could at least adopt. Last week at one of her pre-surgery appointments, she learned she was pregnant!!! This is what she had been praying for for many years and finally it had happened. She talked this over with her doctor and found that she could wait until after the baby was born to have the surgery...there is no doubt that this will be a difficult pregnancy but I know that God has given her this baby just in time. I will keep her in my prayers for sure and ask that all of you do to. What a miracle!

I hope all of you are doing wonderfully and I will continue to keep everyone updated on our search for a job, our new addition, and anythng else that comes to mind. I will also use this post to call out the other Porter Family...Don't Let the Blog Die!!!!! ;)

Forget you WebMD

Monday is not so bad this time around. Waking up was easier today than it should have been but maybe that was because I went to sleep last night at the ridiculous hour of 9:00 (I go to bed pretty early most of the time, but this was pretty extreme even for me.) I had been feeling like my body was revolting against me…I am always tired, my stomach hurts pretty much all the time, food doesn’t even sound good to me...so I felt like I should go to bed early last night. Being the anxious person that I am, I have incessantly logged on to WebMD to come up with a diagnosis but then I realized…I am just STRESSED OUT! There were a few times I thought I had actually come down with a rare disorder…WebMD is dangerous for people like me. With everything that has been going on lately I have just worn myself out so it must have done some good to get to sleep earlier than usual because today I feel pretty rested (which is not the same as saying that I am not worried, haha). Without giving specifics, I would ask that everyone send a few prayers toward Drew and I this week…nothing too serious, we just need God to carry us through a few things that are happening within the next few days.

I think it is crazy sometimes how OBVIOUS things can be yet we still choose to ignore them for whatever reason. Since Drew and I got married in November of 2007, we have been looking for a church home. My mom had suggested a church that is near where we live but for some reason we just never went. Then I got a comment on an earlier post that I wrote from a wonderful blog friend; she suggested the same church that my mom had mentioned. Drew and I decided to try it…our first week there was the first week of July. We absolutely loved it and couldn’t wait to go back…I hadn’t really ever felt “connected” to a church before. I liked the church I attended growing up, but it grew too fast and lost its personal touch. The next two weeks, we were out of town so we couldn’t attend but we returned yesterday and once again, we loved it. I can honestly say that I felt as if the message was directed toward the exact things that Drew and I have been going through…like it was specifically prepared for us to hear. God wants us at this church and I can tell a difference in myself after each time we go. I feel a sense of renewed hope and almost a sort of calm comes over me. I wish we could have seen this much sooner, but things happen in their own time and I feel blessed that I can see good things happening in our lives.

On a crazier note…I have become a huge fan of guava juice. I had gotten into the habit of drinking it quite often but had taken a break from it until yesterday. I don’t know why I like it so much but I have been thinking about it all day at work…I am so weird.

Also, my beautiful sister-in-law is expecting a sweet baby boy VERY soon. I can’t wait until he arrives and we will be praying for a safe delivery and a healthy baby. He is so lucky to become a part of such a wonderful family and he will have the cutest nursery on top of it, I can already tell. I can’t wait to report his arrival!

Anyway, I think that is all I have for now…I am still in the process of fixing up the look of the blog, I just haven’t had the time to complete it just yet. I hope all of you have a great day/week!!

UNDER CONSTRUCTION

The time has come for me to make the rash decision to change up the blog! Hey, I made it almost a month without a change!

Overload

I have some catching up to do with my blog/blog readers! I usually check everyone’s posts quite often but have gotten overly busy lately and have been a bit of a blog slacker. My mind and heart have been on emotional overload lately…it is hard sometimes being a young, newly married couple. I can honestly say that I fall in love with Drew more and more every day, but sometimes life’s everyday stresses take away my focus and it becomes difficult to be the person/wife I want to be. I find our relationship so refreshing; it is what keeps me going when I lose focus on the wonderful things in life and start looking more closely at the not so wonderful. Money shouldn’t be such a stressor but it is and I wish we could just all win the lottery and spend our lives doing what we want…spending time with our husbands/wives, our kids, our families and friends. I think I will just do it anyway…I want and need to spend more time with Drew and I think work will just have to compromise with me sometimes, even if the only difference it makes it getting to leave earlier a few nights a week. Even still, throughout my entire life, I have been so blessed and continue to be on a daily basis…God is watching over me and I am learning to trust in Him rather than spend hours worrying about things I cannot control. Drew has taught me so much about optimism and faith. I admire his spirit and the way he encourages me…I hope he knows how much he means to me.

On a lighter note, we went to Grapevine this past weekend and had such a fun time. It was so great to see all of Drew’s family and I know that they are one of his greatest blessings. Saturday we went out on the lake and I am proud to say that I was brave and entered the water…anyone who knows me understands that I am a cautious person to say the least, so now I can say that I have swam in a lake, however lame that might make me look in the light of all you adventure seekers out there. My favorite part of the weekend was just getting to relax and have crazy conversations…some of the things we talked about still make me laugh when I think of them. Hopefully, we can go more often.

Anyway, that is about all I have for now but I am sure once my mood lightens and this particular Tuesday is over, I will think of funnier things to talk about. I hope everyone has a great week and if you are in Texas, watch out for the hurricane!

Oh Grenade

I have a cat that is what you would call…BAD. He is not bad all the time but he picks and chooses when to be especially cruel. I guess I am making him seem worse than he really is. The truth is he is very cute, pretty well-behaved and over-all a pretty good cat. Despite all of this, sometimes he acts crazy and gets himself into quite a bit of trouble. His latest obsession is the toilet paper. It started a few weeks ago…I heard some noise in the night so I went to see what it was and low and behold, there was Grenade (this is what I get for naming him after an explosive) in the bathroom with a pile of white fluff surrounding him. I figured it was a one time deal and that it would stop but no, it has only gotten worse. For a while I left the TP on the roll but this only provoked him to unroll the entire “double roll” and blast it to smithereens. My next solution was to take it off the roll and set it on the counter but this only made him more interested so I started covering it with a towel and/or my Texans hat. This seemed to make it more fun for him…it was like he would scout out the bathroom until he came upon the toilet paper, devise a plan to get it into the floor and then rip it to shreds as usual. My third and final plan was to store it under the sink which is quite an inconvenience to Drew and I. HAHA! I finally stumped him….or so I thought. This morning when I went to get ready for work I discovered Grenade in the bathroom floor covered in TP shreds with the cabinet door wide open. Do you mean to tell me that a cat figured a way to open a door in order to ruin my bathroom and my pride? I have been outdone by a cat and it isn’t right. I took a picture of him in the act and he looked quite shocked to see me standing over him. I will have to post it later but for now I must go back to thinking of another solution. All I can do is laugh.

Birthday Bash!

Happy Birthday Drew! As of yesterday my hubby is 25 years old, a quarter of a century. Austin sure offered a nice break from the stresses of work and home and we had an absolute blast! We had been planning this birthday trip for over a month and it seems like it took forever to come around but it was surely worth the wait. We drove in on Saturday morning and checked into our hotel around 3:00. It was a beautiful place…the Sheraton on 11th. I was happy to see Drew so excited…I have always believed that birthdays should be 100% about the birthday boy/girl. It is one of my only-child downfalls probably, but everyone deserves a day for them at least once a year.

Anyway, we spent the earlier part of the night at Trudy’s with the group. The food and drinks were delicious…the special was a Sangria Margarita! Yum! I think we all had a few of those. They had Mexican Martinis as well but I wasn’t brave enough to try one, maybe next time. After dinner, we all headed to our hotels to get ready for the evening. I stressed all week about what I should wear and then realized I didn’t really care. ;) I opted for casual comfort and bypassed the idea of wearing a dress or skirt. I did, however, wear heels as usual but this proved to be a deadly mistake. My feet still hurt as I write this post but that is what I get. Are jellies back in style yet?

The best part of the night was the dancing. We had all been walking into various bars, having a drink or two and then leaving in shame because we couldn’t let loose on the dance floor. We finally found a place with enough room for us all to dance and so we did…for a full hour at least. Keep in mind it was 101 degrees in Austin that day and most of the bars on 6th didn’t offer much in the way of air conditioning. Needless to say, we were all about dead at the end of that hour and by then it was time to head back anyway. Drew was the star of the show as he usually is when it comes to dancing…I knew I loved him the first time I saw him moonwalk, haha! We were in a rush to get back to the cool AC of the hotel, but that didn’t stop my bestie and I from grabbing a piece of pizza from one of the street vendors. It wasn’t the best idea, but at the time it seemed delicious.

The next morning we drove home and had a little birthday celebration at my mom’s. I had been planning to have dinner and birthday cake over there so that it could be a surprise. Have I ever mentioned that I am terrible with surprises? It is just because I get so excited that I HAVE to tell the people involved…so if you ever want my help with surprising someone, think again. Anyhow, I think Drew was half-way surprised…

All in all I’d say it was a pretty fabulous weekend. I hope Drew had a great birthday and I think I will do more special days for him from now on. He is always so appreciative of everything and everyone and that makes me fall more in love with him everyday.

I’m definitely the lucky one!

Reverse...

Everything happens for a reason, right? That’s what everyone keeps telling me. This will be a short post because I want to talk about happy things but a lot has happened in the past week. As I wrote earlier, Drew had been offered a new job. He started last Monday and it just didn’t work out. It was no fault of his; it just was not a good work environment…not a good job and definitely not good people. I hate even thinking about it because we were both so excited but I know that things will work out, something better will come along, and God will provide. I am still proud of Drew…he handled the whole thing with exceptional class and I love him so much. We will work through this together…in fact, someday we will probably look back on all of this and laugh! So the job hunt begins again and I will keep you all posted.

Jam Packed Weekend

Ok, so I have a confession to make. I am a rollerblader. I have done this ever since I can remember and don’t really have a good excuse for it. I could come up with some excuses if I had to like:

I broke my shin once and running/walking/jogging hurts too much

It is actually really good for your butt and thighs

It used to be cool (in the early ‘90’s)

All these excuses still don’t make up for the fact that rollerblading is lame, but I just can’t help myself. I can even convince Drew to go with me sometimes and yes, we both have a pair of rollerblades (I think he does this just to make me happy). It makes me laugh just thinking about what we must look like. Our most recent outing was on the morning of July 4th. I had it in my head that I was going to forego the diet and eat some good stuff that day so in turn, I needed to exercise. This particular morning was rainy and overcast but a break in the clouds came so I figured it was safe to venture out. Drew and I took off through the neighborhood and not until we were many miles away from home did it decide to start raining. It sprinkled for about 7.89 seconds and then it began to pour! Not only was I getting drenched, I had convinced myself that rollerblades are not all-weather vehicles and that I would surely wipe-out and possibly take Drew down with me. The ride (or roll) home was much less fun since I had to concentrate on what I was doing…all we could do was laugh as we must have looked like the biggest losers on earth…but as soon as we got home, I realized what a blast we had just had. I live for moments like that!

The rest of the day we went to my mom’s to hang out with the family for July 4th. The rain continued for most of the day so we didn’t get to swim or barbecue like we had planned but we had fun anyway. After dinner, we got ready to go watch fireworks and we were all so excited that we ended up arriving at the Country Club about an hour and a half before it was even dark. The fireworks were great and when they were over, we hurried home to shoot off our own since earlier in the day we had all gone to the firework stand to pick out our artillery. We decided on a jumbo assortment pack which had mostly silly stuff in it but there were some good ones too.

On Saturday, we headed out on the town to do a little furniture shopping. We probably went to 50 stores and found nothing but I have decided it’s because we didn’t go to Pottery Barn which is my favorite. We did end up finding a new end table and lamp so I was happy about that. (I never thought I would be the type to act crazy over a piece of furniture, but I proved myself wrong).

Sunday we tried a new church that was suggested by a wonderful blog friend. We loved it and can’t wait to go again. It was pretty contemporary but had great music and a great message. It seems like there are a lot of people our age so that is definitely something to be excited about.

Drew started his new job and I can’t wait to hear how it went…I am still VERY proud of him! His birthday trip is coming up this weekend and I can’t wait to see our friends and get to have a little extra fun. I am already contemplating whether or not we are too old to have birthday parties but I don’t care…we are still young enough in my eyes!

That was long…I have just been so thankful for everything in my life lately. God is so good! I hope all of you have a fantastic day and I will see some of you soon!

Yay!!!!

Yay!!!!!!!!! Drew got a new job! We have been praying for this for a long time and we feel so thankful that he has been given this opportunity. It almost doesn’t seem real yet, maybe because it all happened so quickly. Drew saw a posting on the internet for a Graphic Artist and applied right then hoping he could at least get an interview. A lady from the company called within hours and asked him to come for an interview the very next day so needless to say, we were hopeful and excited. Drew is so sweet…he spent the whole night before preparing and getting his portfolio together…I wanted this for him so badly! The interview went well and he was offered the job the same day!

I can’t tell you how proud I am of him. We still get that nervous feeling like it isn’t really happening…but we have faith that it will. He is supposed to start on Monday so I am anxious to hear how his first day goes. A HUGE THANK YOU to all of you out there that have been sending your prayers our way…it makes all the difference and we appreciate it so very much.

I hope all of you have a wonderful and safe Fourth of July!! Eat some good food and enjoy the fireworks!

LaFreak??

3 Joys
1) My sweet Drew…the absolute love of my life!
2) Family-time. Even as crazy as it can be, you have to love it.
3) Animals…so weird but I love them! I am a loser.

3 Fears (I have way more than 3...)
1) Losing my husband.
2) Money…I think everyone worries about this sometimes.
3) For some reason, I am afraid of driving lately. How lame am I? Hopefully this is one of my “phases” that I go through. At least it better be or I can’t go to work and make money for reason #2…this is the paranoid cycle my mind works in. :)

3 Goals
1) Find a Bible Study group that fits with Drew and I. It would be so nice to find a “young married’s” group that is a little more modern yet still includes good values and teachings. Let me know if anyone knows of some good churches in the Houston area. We are still looking for a church home!
2) Keep up my improved eating habits that I have had recently. It is amazing what water and decent food can do! Who would have thought? ;)
3) Do a little more decorating for the house. I am not much of an interior designer but I think I can come up with something!

3 Obsessions
1) Blogging: I love to read everyone’s blogs! It is such a cool way to keep in touch with friends and family. I also get a little addicted to changing my blog layout all the time…I can’t decide on just one so I change them constantly! I have vowed to keep the current look for at least a few weeks.
2) I like cooking new things. I am proud to say that most of the things I have attempted to cook lately have turned out rather well! I am lucky to have had such generous friends and family that gave Drew and I our endless kitchen supplies!
3) Good smelling laundry…I have searched far and wide to come up with the best detergent and fabric softener combo. Go ahead and laugh…but you too should appreciate a good smelling piece of laundry. I must have 4 or 5 bottles of laundry soap at home, 2 of which I will no longer use because I despise the smell. Oh well, at least I gave them a fair shot!

3 Random Facts
1) It is much easier to write Porter than Loprete. It is also much easier to get people to understand how to pronounce my last name now that it has changed. I knew “Loprete” had to go when someone called my work phone and asked for Ashley LaFreak.
2) I would eat marshmallows all day and night. I have always loved them and really can’t tell you why.
3) I once was addicted to the musical stylings of Hanson. My childhood best friend always allowed me to blast their CD every chance I got, and only recently did she tell me that she secretly hated them! HAHAHA…it still kills me.