My Undying Love... for breakfast.

What could be better than pancakes drenched with maple or blueberry syrup, fried eggs and toast buried under the sweetness of a freshly opened jar of blackberry jam, some pieces of bacon so crispy that you pick it up and it crumbles as you throw the pieces into your mouth and a glass of apple juice and a mug of coffee to top it all of? This is only one of the many meals that I would love to wake up to and have the time to fix every morning.

There's something so savory and relaxing about even the thought of a bowl of cheerios and a mug of coffee on the bistro table on my porch while I read the daily newspaper that I don't get at my house. If you have guessed that my college lifestyle doesn't have time for this kind of thing, you are right. In fact, this morning I grabbed two muffins I baked on Saturday night and carried around a cup of yerba mate as I got ready for my 8a.m. class.

I read a blog that is solely pictures of breakfast. The pictures of certain breakfasts the blogger creates cause my mouth to water with the sheer desire to be able to have that kind of time.

Breakfast, I love you.

Here's one of my bests "breakfasts" from this semester so far:

Inspiration

Last summer, I started a magazine project. I tore out magazine pages that inspired me in different ways to compose in a binder. I've never composed all of them in a binder because I need several as I am inspired by a myriad of things. I tend to write down intriguing websites and blogs that catch my eyes on the pages of these aforementioned magazines. I found the adorably creative blog called A Cup of Jo over Christmas break. Yes, the name of the blog did entice me because of it's allusion to coffee, however it was the creativity of Jo that caused me to keep reading.

She finds some of the coolest little trinkets on the web that just make me smile. Recently, she made my mouth water for some tea with this fine little tea thing from Monkey Business:




I have a horrible problem of not being able to just look at that one item at a little trinket store, so of course I found some irresistible salt and pepper shakers that could turn any gloomy day into a rather sunny one filled with laughter. They make me laugh at least.
I can just see the corners of your mouth looking upwards as a grin begins to spread across your face. It's okay, just embrace it.

Driving The Distance

Ironically after the last post, I've fallen ill. However, I have a feeling I was already starting to get sick when I wrote that as I did feel rather lousy.

I came down to Houston to the doctor on Tuesday. Wednesday we did some medical testing. (We'll get those results back Saturday?) Thursday, I woke up even worse than I had been on Tuesday. It's been a great week of midterms. Out of 4 tests, 1 presentation, 1 bibliography and possibly something I've forgotten in the midst of it all, I've completed one test. This being said, next week is going to be a long week.

I drove up to CS last night to pick up some books, clothes, etc. that I'm going to need to read, wear, etc. This morning, I hit the road to come back to Houston and recover here and get ready for next week.

I've decided that one of my favorite things in life is waking up, grabbing some Chickfila chicken minis and some green tea and driving on an open road as the sun sets itself high in the sky. I prefer some Ben Stuart speaking some truth into my life or a mixture of beloved cds, some Christian music or some country twang ringing in my ears, preferably in the form of Brad Paisley.

Really though, I enjoyed my drive home this morning.

Apparently my heart is able to be won in under an hour.

It's been 11 days since I have posted which is way not okay. It's been hectic around here though. In that time, I believe I've been to two retreats, told a group of junior high girls who my crush is even though it's super light as far as crushes go and almost bought the sweetest adorable dog ever. Which of those do you think I'll be talking about?

CLYDE! The world's cutest and sweetest dog. We are perfect for each other and I'm not joking. He's got the exact same temperament as me and it's amazing. I wish he was with me right now sitting on my couch instead of my backpack, which is just not quite as adorable. I met him at Petco while trying to help Zara look for her pet rat she wants. We instantly meshed during the time that didn't even amount to an hour that we were together and now I can't get him off my mind. After a bunch of thought though, I just can't take on the responsibity of him. It makes my heart hurt. I wish my Dad would adopt him, but there doesn't seem to be a great chance with that. I would go pick him up right now, but it's just not feasible for me right now. It's exactly like Catherine said to me last night, "I wish we were older so we could do stuff like this." Amen. I'd love Clyde in my life, but it just wouldn't be fair to either of us as I don't know where God is taking me in life yet.

Ironically, that's been one of the main things on my mind lately other than some greatly unsettling things that were settled, but I won't be writing about that tonight. I've got some Wilson time to catch up on plus my professors feel like I should be writing papers, doing projects and taking tests. What a silly idea! Oh college...

Before I go though, I think Jared Anderson must love me or maybe Integrity Music emails do. Either way, he's releasing a new live cd and I want it. If you haven't listened to him you need to go check him out as he's one of my personal favorites. Also, if you're in the DC area, check this amazing event out that the Spy Museum is hosting. I wish I could buy the new Jared Anderson and listen to it on a plane ride next to my dog, Clyde, while heading to the Spy Museum.

Instead I'll listen to Jared Anderson's old music, while enjoying my yerba mate and writing in Wilson before settling down to read some Dante's Inferno. Somehow, it just doesn't seem the same...

Photography is a magnificent treasure from God.

The events, faces, smiles and more of Nicaragua are marinating in my mind. I haven't exactly narrowed down what I want to share of that experience yet.

As my mind has been marinating, I've finalized a layout for this site. I went back to a past facebook note which I thought was fun. I'm posting the Rules just in case you want to do it too or you just want to see the results you would get:

a. Type your answer to each of the questions below into Flickr Search (http://www.flickr.com/).
b. Using ONLY the first page, pick an image.
c. Copy and paste each of the URLs for the images into Mosaic Maker. Change rows to 3 and columns to 3 (http://bighugelabs.com/flickr/mosaic.php).
d. Save the image and post it on this note!

The Questions:
1. What is your name? Ashley
2. What is your favorite food? empanadas
3. What is your favorite color? tie dye
4. Favorite drink? Green Tea
5. Dream vacation? Around the world
6. Favorite hobby? travelling
7. What you want to be when you grow up? a helping hand
8. What's one thing you call valuable on this earth? friendship
9. One word to describe you? creative

& That's how the photography collage at the top came into existence.