Lauren's Visit

These first 2 pictures are from Lisa's birthday party. We all went to dinner at Por Fin, which is just 2 blocks from our apartment. Lisa was really surprised and we had a lot of fun visiting with everybody.

Dr. Lauren Wilburn, DDS came to visit us! Unfortunately, rainy season started the week she came. I love this first picture of her! We would wake up in the mornings and if it was pretty we would hurry down to the pool. A little thunderstorm would come through so we would take cover and then go back out to the pool after it passed. We definitely shopped and ate a lot while she was here! We went to Merrick Park and found dresses for her graduation and graduation party. One day, in between the rain showers, we went to Bayside to ride Thriller. This is the little yellow boat that I rode with my mom . It goes really fast and takes you to see celebrity homes. Well, this boat trip was very different from my first experience. I warned Lauren that sometimes the boat would turn while going really fast and it would feel like we were on a wave runner that was spinning out. We both grew up spending a lot of time on the lake/river, so we're not normally nervous on boats. WELL, after the tour was over the guy driving the boat turns towards South Beach, rather than turning to take us back to the mall. This guy is going super-duper fast and he just kept gaining speed. Lauren and I both had white knuckles as we gripped the handle bar for dear life. I was attempting to get my foot in the life jacket under the seat in front of me just in case I went flying out. You know how when you're in a boat going fast and you kind of hit hard and it makes a thud noise? We made that noise about 10-15 times and didn't even slow down! The water was rough from the storms earlier that day but we just charged right into the big waves. I was honestly pretty scared! The guy driving would turn around and yell "Faster?!" and some people would let out a "wa-hoo". I usually sit quietly when those questions are asked but this time I was yelling as loud as I could (which didn't sound loud considering we were traveling faster than the speed of sound) "NOOOO!!" I couldn't wait to get out of that boat! Anyway, it was definitely an adventure!

"I'm sorry, I didn't know this was going to be happening today! And now my hands are paralyzed from holding on so tight!" (Don't worry if you don't know what I'm talking about right now, it's the SNL surprise lady.)

Everyone in the boat was wet from being splashed so much.

No idea what we were getting ourselves into...

Dropping Lauren off at the airport and picking up Andrea. Andrea's visit will be the next post!

Some of the houses we saw on our thriller tour: This is Will Smith's.

Inventor of Viagra lives here. He had the palm trees imported from South Africa for $9,000 per tree. And he has 40 of them! His wife is a public school teacher, which is pretty neat because she definitely doesn't need the money!

Sylvestor Stalone's

Shaq's (although it belongs to his ex-wife now)

Scarface house! Final shoot-out occurred on that top balcony.

The yellowish house is Rosie O'Donnell's

Ricky Martin's

You can rent this house on Star Island for $12,000 per night, with a minimum 5 night stay. So if any of you decide to do this, I expect an invitation.

This was Madonna's before she got kicked off Star Island for partying too much. Gloria Estefan (her neighbor) complained and got her outta there.

Elizabeth Taylor's house. The bunny statue was a gift from her friends as a symbol of how she likes to "jump" from man to man.

Vacant lot on Star Island that Brad Pitt just purchased for $6 million.

I can't remember, but I think this is the house from the movie Bad Boys.

House from The Adams Family movie.

Ashology

I had the best week last week! First Lauren came to visit and then Andrea! I'll update on their visits soon. I'm waiting on Andrea to email some pictures. :) I copied this from Brian & Brittany's blog. I love doing these.

***********FOODOLOGY***************

What is your salad dressing of choice? Italian, but sometimes Ranch. It depends on my mood.

What is your favorite sit-down restaurant? I have two favorites in Miami: Anacapri and Da Vittorio. They are both Italian. Real Italian.

What food could you eat every day for two weeks and not get sick of? Well I already eat chocolate every day that I'm alive. I think I could eat steak every day and never get sick of it.

What are your pizza toppings of choice? Pepperoni, sausage, & black olives

What do you like to put on your toast? I never eat toast but when I was little I loved it when Nana made us toast with lots of cinnamon and sugar on it!

***********TECHNOLOGY***************

How many televisions are in your house? Currently we only have 1. Our house in Nashville had 5 TVs in it. Basically every room except for the bathrooms had a TV.

What color cell phone do you have? Silver

Do you have an I-Pod? Yes, and it is sliver also.

***************BIOLOGY******************

Are you right-handed or left-handed? Stupid question. Who cares? But I'm right-handed.

Have you ever had anything removed from your body? I had a mole removed and then they called me and said it had A-typical cells so I went a little crazy and tried to have every dark freckle I spotted on myself removed.

What is the last heavy item you lifted? Lauren's suitcase.

Have you ever been knocked unconscious? Nope.

************DUMBOLOGY******************

How many pairs of flip flops do you own? Probably over 20. I'm not kidding. It's all I wore in Dominica.

Last time you had a run-in with the cops? In Dominica when the "undercover" cops were carrying machine guns around our apartment.

Last person you talked to? Ryan

Last person you hugged? Ryan

**************FAVORITOLOGY****************

Season? For the past 2 years the only seasons I've experienced have been rainy season and dry season. I much prefer dry.

Holiday? Thanksgiving is my favorite because there isn't all of the stress of buying tons of gifts. However, part of what I love about Thanksgiving is that it is the kick-off party for the Christmas season. I LOVE decorating for Christmas, listening to the music, baking lots of treats, going to parties, etc. But it all starts at Thanksgiving. Plus, you get 2 days off work!

Day of the week? Friday

Month? December. Everybody's in a better mood that month.

***********CURRENTOLOGY*****************

Missing someone? Lots of someones. I want to go home!!!

Mood? Somewhere in the range of good to very good.

What are you listening to? Family Feud on TV

Watching? Family Feud

Worrying about? Eryn's mom.

***************RANDOMOLOGY*****************

First place you went this morning? To the bathroom. Isn't that everybody's first place of the morning?

What's the last movie you saw? Steel Magnolias with Andrea. She had never seen it!

Do you smile often? Yes, but when I'm not smiling my "normal" face looks mad.

Sleeping alone tonight? No way, jose!

***************OTHER-OLOGY*****************

1) Do you always answer your phone? Nope. I hardly ever answer it if I don't recognize the number.

2) It's four in the morning and you get a text message, who is it? Wrong number.

3) If you could change your eye color what would it be? I like my green eyes. I used to want to get those colored contacts that make your eyes look blue or brown, but Ryan was very opposed. He doesn't like it when I change anything. Even though I don't want to change the color, I would like to change the size. I wish I had really big, bright eyes. Mine are pretty small.

3b) If you could change your hair color, what color would you change it to? After much research, trial and error, I'm a brunette. Sometimes I'm brown with light highlights, sometimes I'm brown with auburn highlights. My goal for the past year has been to find my natural color so that I can stop coloring it. The problem is that the sun keeps bleaching it out and so I have to continue covering up my roots. Andrea just colored my hair for me this week so now it is a golden brown.

4) What flavor do you add to your drink at Sonic? I always get Cherry Sprite.

5) Do you own a digital camera? We have 2.

6) Have you ever had a pet fish? When I was little. Adam and I both got a fish (his was a boy and he named it Frunkus and mine was a girl). We put them in the same bowl and my fish ate Frunkus' tail (so he died). Adam was furious so he threw my fish in the toilet. Every time we stuck the little net in the toilet to catch her she swam back up in the hole. We tried to lure her out with food. We had only had the fishes for 1 day so I didn't really know how to feed them. My mom told me to put a little fish food in the toilet, but I really really wanted her to come out and stay there so I dumped half the box in the toilet. We just kept fishing out food and eventually had to flush the toilet. After that traumatic experience, I've never had another fish!

7) Favorite Christmas song(s)? All I Want for Christmas is You by Mariah Carey and Tender Tennessee Christmas by Amy Grant

8) What's on your wish list for your birthday? The fancy Charlotte Cecil cake from Chocolate Fashion. I've had my eye on that for months!

9) Can you do pushups? Yes. I can only do a few of the real ones but I'm pretty good at girl pushups.

10) Can you do a chin up? Haven't tried since 9th grade.

11) Does the future make you more nervous or excited? Excited!

12) Do you have any saved texts? I saved a picture of Barkley my dad texted me.

13) Ever been in a car wreck? Oh yes. You all know about that.

14) Do you have an accent? No way. But after I moved out of TN I noticed that everybody else does!

15) What is the last song to make you cry? I tear up pretty easily with songs.

16) Plans tonight? Making hamburgers for dinner and Ryan and I are going to watch the last 3 episodes of 24 season 2! Can't wait!!! And to top it off, I made cookie dough for dessert! :)

17) Have you ever felt like you hit rock bottom? No. I'm too blessed to feel like that.

18) Name 3 things you bought yesterday? I didn't buy anything yesterday! That's a great feeling! I'm about to go down to the drugstore right now any buy diet cokes, milk, and popcorn.

19) Have you ever been given roses? Duh. I'm a girl.

20) Current worry? I'm a worrier by nature, but right this minute I'm doing alright. :)

21) Current hate right now? Ugh. The media. And pretty much every driver in Miami...leave me alone and stop honking and passing so fast and cutting in front of me with no blinker! And when a light turns yellow...just slow down!!!

22) Met someone who changed your life? Lots of someones! Most importantly, Jesus. All of my friends and family change my life for the better!

23) How did you bring in the New Year? At Paige & Dave's eating pizzas and playing games with friends, which I much prefer over going out and paying tons of money!

24) What song represents you? Lucky by Jason Mraz - "I'm lucky I'm in love with my best friend. Lucky to have been where I have been. Lucky to be coming home again."

25) Name three people who might complete this? I'm just going to say Andrea because I've tried everything else to get her blogging again!

26) Would you go back in time if you were given the chance? Sure. As long as I could come back to now. I would love to see different parts of history.

27) Have you ever dated someone longer than a year? Yep. I've been "dating" Ryan for 7 years.

28) Do you have any tattoos/piercings? I will never get a tattoo because there is nothing that I want tattooed on my body when I'm 90 and wrinkly. My ears are pierced. I "rebelled" (ha!) and got the top of my ear pierced in college. My mom hated it and told me I looked like a carnival person. I eventually took it out and let it grow back together. So, I'm boring and traditional with the basic piercings.

29) Will you be in a relationship 4 months from now? I'm not even bothering with this question.

30) Does anyone love you? Or this one.

31) Would you be a pirate? No. I get sea sick.

32) What songs do you sing in the shower? Church songs. I was singing Ancient Words in my last shower.

33) Ever had someone sing to you? Yes. Ryan likes to sing a little George Jones to me from time to time. :)

34) When did you last cry? Saturday night. We were watching 24 and Kim was on the phone with her Dad and she thought he was going to crash in a plane and that she would never talk to him again. Lauren and I were both crying.

36) Do you like to cuddle? Love it! I'm a big time cuddler!

37) Have you held hands with anyone today? Not yet.

38) Who was the last person you took a picture of? Andrea.

39) What kind of music did you listen to in elementary school? New Kids on the Block!!! And pretty much all 80s music...Paula Abdul, Debbie Gibson, Tiffany! Still love the 80s!

40) Do you believe in staying close with your ex's/prospects? Nah.

41) Are most of the friends in your life new or old? Well I have a lot of new friends from Dominica, but I still have a lot of old friends. Of my 11 bridesmaids, this is how long we have been friends:
Julie, Marissa, Emily T. - 15 years (since 7th grade)
Sarah - 12 years (since 10th grade)
Paige, Beth, Emily N., Lauren, Mandi - 9 years (since first year at Lipscomb)
Emily S. - 7 years (met Ryan)
Ashley H. - 5 years (first year at FDH)

42) Do you like pulpy orange juice? Yes. I like it fresh.

43) What is something your friends make fun of you for? Oh, everything. I get lost all the time. I eat cereal with a fork. I freak out if people touch me with their feet. I'm kind of clumsy. That's enough, I think.

44) If it were possible, would you want to know the day you were going to die? No way.

45) If you could change your name, what would you change it to? I changed it to Paige (my middle name) when I was in elementary school. There were 2 other Ashleys in my class and I thought I was too unique to share my name. After a few days my teacher talked to me and told me to stop signing my assignments Paige.

46) Would you drink an entire bottle of hot sauce for $1000? I would try but I'm terrible at drinking gross things. And I hate spicy things. I drive Ryan crazy because he wants me to drink Alka Seltzer Nightime Cold when I'm sick and I just can't do it. I feel like I'm going to cry when people try to make me drink something I don't like. Yes, I am a big baby.

Take a laugh break

Sort of like a smoke break, without the health risks. The following are videos that have been sent to me in emails. I hope they brighten your day! If you have any funny video emails, feel free to forward them to me. That is one kind of mass email I enjoy receiving!

Turn your volume up and enjoy! :)

Mother's Day

Ryan and I have wonderful mothers. I wish I had some older pictures of them, but these are a few I have on my computer. In honor of my mother's 27th Mother's Day, I have written 27 things that I learned from my mom.

1. Do not chew gum in church. According to my mom, we all look like a bunch of "billy goats" when we chew gum.

2. Euphemisms count. We were never allowed to say "gosh," "darn," "shoot," and especially not "freaking".

3. A lady really shouldn't drink out of anything but a glass/cup (no cans or bottles). She never enforced this, but just wanted me to know proper "etiquette".

4. Every Sunday should look like this: church, lunch, nap, snack, church, dinner, family time.

5. If your pant size is above a certain number, you might want to stay away from pants with patterns.

6. We eat healthy food just so we can eat dessert.

7. A mom is the only person who knows what you want/need without having to ask.

8. There are certain places where linen and white shoes may be worn year round. Jackson, TN is not one of those places.

9. Lock your car doors the second you close them.

10. Always eat with one hand in your lap. Cut your food one bite at a time. And bring your food to your face, rather than having your face inches from your plate.

11. Say "yes ma'am" and "sir".

12. Say "excuse me" instead of "huh" if you need someone to repeat themselves.

13. Always say your prayers. Especially before eating a meal and before bed.

14. Sing out in church. God created your voice, so He must think it's beautiful.

15. Family is more important than anything else.

16. Always write thank-you notes.

17. Jesus loves me.

18. Mom's cook your food and fold your clothes exactly right. Everybody else does it just a little differently. Ryan and I still can't agree on fabric softener. I want my clothes to smell like snuggles, and he likes his to smell like the fabric softener his mom always used.

19. Mom's will always be on your side, even if it's all your fault.

20. If you're going to grill a steak, buy it fresh (never frozen).

21. If you're going to have cream on your dessert, make fresh whipped cream yourself. It's way better than cool whip or whatever comes in cans.

22. If you are having people over, having fresh flowers and lighting a candle instantly make you home more inviting.

23. You can leave a letter and money in the mailbox and the postman will put a stamp on your letter for you.

24. I said all 66 books of the Bible in front of the church when I was 3 because my mom practiced with me so much.

25. Never turn your nose up or comment that someone's food is "gross", "disgusting", or anything bad. In my house, we didn't have to eat things that my parents ate if we did not like them, but if we commented that their food was gross, we had to take a bite.

26. Moms are a girl's best friend. She's old enough to have all that wisdom, but she's young enough to remember what's it's like to be you. She'll stay on the phone with you for as long as you like and just talk about nothing, and pretend she's not too busy to talk about nothing.

27. Nobody loves you like your mom (except maybe your dad, but today's not his day)! They love us to Dominica and back.

First Half Marathon

Well, these pictures are just all out of order! I ran in my first race ever last Saturday. Some people might decide to start with a 5K, but I went straight for the half marathon. I decided 6 weeks before the race that I really wanted to start exercising and I really wanted to go to Tennessee. I downloaded a 6 week training schedule online and just started running. My dad said he would do it with me. He's in much better shape than I am, so he really had to slow it down for me. First of all, 6 weeks of training is not enough (especially if you are not already exercising). Secondly, having bronchitis does not help! I'm just going to describe the pictures and then I'll write about the experience at the end. Ryan took this first picture at mile 12. Dad's feeling great. I'm ready to lay down in the grass.

Waving at Ryan.

Big Bear in the race. It was really hot so I have no idea how he was able to run in that costume.

Our D-Tags that kept us with our time.

In line at the port-a-potties before the race.

Steve McNair at Carson's baseball game (his son was on the other team).

Brooke came out to support us.

Nashville.

Finished!

Dad gave us these masks to wear on the airplane to keep from getting the Swine Flu. We didn't really wear them.








Dinner with friends. :) The boys were there too, but we didn't take a picture of them.

Theresa's shower.







Pearman boys at Carson's game.

Playing short.

Ok, now I'll start from the beginning. I flew home Monday, April 20th. I was pretty sick and had been for a week and a half. The last 30 minutes of the flight I thought my ears were going to explode. If I had been a child I would have been screaming my head off. Mom and Theresa picked me up from the airport and we went shopping and found a dress for Mom to wear to the rehearsal dinner and then we went to dinner at Carraba's (one of my favorites). Tuesday morning Mom went to the doctor with me and I still had bronchitis and I started an antibiotic and got a shot of steroids in my hip. The doctor said I had blood in my ears from the flight. I started feeling much better pretty soon after getting the shot. I couldn't believe that when I took my prescription to Walmart it was only $4! And they didn't even ask for my insurance card. Somehow I didn't know about that deal. The rest of the week was spent visiting with Nana and Grandaddy, getting well, playing games with my parents, Brad & Emily, and jogging with Dad. It was wonderful! Ryan arrived in Nashville Thursday night and went to dinner with some of his buddies. Friday morning my parents and I left for Nashville and registered for the race. We ate pasta with my aunt and uncle and then tried to go to bed early (about 10:30). We woke up at 4:30 Am to get ready for the run. Ryan was so nice to get up with us and drive us to the starting place so that we didn't have to try to park and take a shuttle. He stuck around until the race was beginning and took pictures and then he left to go to Brooke's soccer game. Before the race started I was feeling anxious. I wasn't sure what I had gotten myself into! My dad had some cough drops, kleenex, and my inhaler in his pocket for me. When the race started I was actually sucking on a cough drop. When I decided to sign up for the 1/2 marathon, I wasn't really worried at all about my time, I just wanted to finish. Two days before the run dad and I went jogging and he announced that our goal time was to average 12 minute miles. So, there you go. That was our goal. We got in our assigned corral (like a bunch of cattle) and waited for our turn to start the race. The entire time I was worried that I was going to have to go to the bathroom because the antibiotic had messed up my stomach. I was also feeling a tad claustrophobic being in a line of 30,000 people. The girl beside me was blowing her nose into her hand and then wiping it on her shorts. Gross. I mean, you can be athletic and still be a lady. And it wasn't like the race had even started. The actual race began at 7:00, but our group did not start until almost 7:50. The first mile went pretty fast. The second one came pretty slow...probably because of the hill that seemed to stretch forever. A lot of runners were having a hard time because of the heat. Well, since I trained in Miami I was used to the heat. What I was not used to were the hills! Wow they can really slow a girl down. When I got to the first water station I didn't know that the white cups were water and the yellow cups were Cytomax (energy drink). I accidentally grabbed Cytomax and did not like it. I don't like to have anything with a taste when I'm running. I pretty much tasted it for the rest of the race. When we crossed the 5K mark I was feeling good. When we passed the 10K mark I thought to myself, "wait, this isn't even halfway?!" They had bands playing all along the course, but honestly I only enjoyed 2 of them. The others were just kind of playing their guitar and talking into the microphone when I went past them. Around mile 8 we were running uphill and a band was playing "Blessed Be the Name of the Lord" and that song moved my feet up that hill. Although I kind of wanted to stick around and enjoy the rest of the song. When Dad agreed to run in the race with me I imagined we would have almost 3 hours of great father/daughter talks. Ha! Our conversations consisted of Dad talking and me nodding. I couldn't talk/breathe/run at the same time. I wouldn't say I actually ran. We jogged the majority of the time, walked fast to catch my breath, and only really took off running if I could tell we were going downhill. Dad was like my servant during the race. He ran ahead of me at every water station and got me a drink. Then he would act like he was teaching me to walk and he would hold the water out to me and be jogging backwards so that I would have to pick up my pace to catch the water. He also threw water over my head to cool me off. He carried a washcloth and handed it to me to wipe my sweat. He was a great running buddy! There were tons of people cheering on the sides of the road and giving out fruit slices and drinks. I slipped on an orange peel (kind of like in a cartoon). There were some guys sitting in their front yard giving out free beer. Can you even imagine that people drank beer while running a long distance on a hot day? There were also people spraying their water hoses so that we could run through them if we wanted to cool off. After Brooke's soccer game Ryan was waiting for us at mile 12 to take some action shots. Then he ran to the finish line to take more pictures. He was very supportive. :) When we got to the finish line Dad and I held hands up in the air and crossed together (even though the records show that I crossed 3 people in front of him). 13.1 miles. Our official time was 2:45:16, which means we kept our pace of 12 min miles. After it was over I realized that I could not feel one of my toes. When I took off my sock and started moving it it was really throbbing and hurting. Well, not to gross you out, but a couple of hours later the toenail was lifted up and there was a big blister on my toe that extended under the nail. It still has not fallen off, but I'm pretty sure it will. After the race we went to lunch with my parents and aunt and then we went to Carson's baseball game. We went to a big dinner that night with Will and Jenny and I ate so much food! I was starving from all the running. Just to give you a preview of how busy our time at home was, this was our Sunday schedule: went to early church, went to Target to get a birthday present for Cutler, I went to Theresa's shower, had Jeremy and Cutler's birthday party, packed for Jackson, had dinner with lots of friends, drove 2 hours to Jackson and visited with my parents and Nana. Busy, but perfect! I just realized today that we could be moving back to Tennessee for good 2 years from now! That doesn't sound that far away. We got back to Miami on Tuesday and that night Ryan came home from the library with a package. He ordered me a trophy! :) It has my name and the Country Music Marathon and the date. He was proud and wanted me to have a trophy. Here's the funny part...he couldn't decide between 2 of them, so he ordered me 2! I now have a tall trophy and a short trophy (for the same event). As I said before, very supportive! :)
http://www.asiorders.com/view_user_event.asp?EVENTID=45789&BIB=29297&S=230&PWD= This is the link if you want to see more pictures that were taken at the race.