Today Addison’s school had a Character Book Parade.  I guess some people don’t “do” Halloween so to preserve the fun of the day the kids were allowed to dress as a book character.  I refuse to buy 2 costumes, so we decided to choose a book character for her to dress up as for Halloween and for the parade.  She chose to be Fern from Charlotte’s web.

Alivia and I bundled up and went to watch the parade this morning.  It was really chilly, but it was worth it to see all of the children dressed up as all sorts of book characters and of course Addison was so happy we were there.

We saw 3 of the seven dwarfs,  teachers dressed as Curious George and the man with the yellow hat, lot’s of Wicked Witches from Wizard of Oz and a few princesses.  There were many more adorable costumes but my favorite one had to be my little Fern.  She is such a sweet girl and I just love her!  Here are some of the pictures I snapped while Livie and I froze our tushies off.

I hope everyone has a Happy Halloween or a fabulous non Halloween if you don’t participate!

Don’t let the first picture fool you.  There are some others in this post that will make you judge me.  I hope you don’t judge too harshly though…I was only 16.

When I was 2 my family moved to Germany.  My dad was in the army and although I was very young I do have memories of living there.  We were only there 3 years, but it was long enough for my parents to make lots of  friends including a German couple with two daughters ( Bianca and Daniela).   I found this picture today while looking through a box. 

I thought I looked so cute with my pigtails and my little German friends.

I was able to go back to Germany when I was 16 (and not nearly as cute as the first photo) as a part of an exchange program through my German class in high school.  Sorry the picture is blurry.

I am the short one in the front wearing the cutoff khakis and huge green anorak ( I was such a fashion maven)

Each person hosted a student in our home and then we got to go spend a week with them in their homes as well.   Our group was there for 3 weeks.  We spent 2 weeks in Munich with just our teachers and the other American students and then a week in Aschaffenburg with the family of the student we hosted back at home.  I kept a journal of it, but I haven’t run across it in years.

I wish I would have been a little more mature at that age.  I was like all about socializing and I thought it was like so awesome that the drinking age in Germany was like 16 or something.  Yeah I was an insightful gem back then.

I didn’t appreciate the fact that my parents paid a good sum of money for me to have this experience.  Only 16 or so people participated, so I was pretty fortunate to be involved.  But to me it was a chance to go somewhere without my parents and have fun and be free.  Priorities you know?

We had chaperones of course, but we found a way to misbehave and I said and did stuff that makes me cringe with embarrassment now.

Oh and I loathe the fact that while drinking beer and kissing a German boy that I hardly knew I wore a W.W.J.D bracelet.  What would Jesus do?  I don’t know, but I can tell you with certainty what He would not do.  He would not be acting a fool in a foreign country!

Of course I wasn’t all bad.  We went to many cool places.  We took a bike tour around Munich and that was one of the greatest things we did. We also went to the BMW museum.

outside of the BMW museum

We went to a place called Schloss Mespelbrunn that was simply beautiful!

This is the "Water Castle"

This was on the grounds of the water castle.

We had the sweetest fresh strawberries I have ever eaten at a cafe up on a roof.

The rooftop cafe with the strawberries

We explored the streets of Munich.

This is a few of us acting silly with the police

We hung out at parks and took many pictures.

I know it's kind of blurry, but it looks like he is peeing...16 yr old humor for you

We took a boat tour of some other towns in the area and that was fun as well.

I almost got attacked by a crazy parrot in a random tree.  i think he wanted my milkshake. (typical)

I made some really great German friends and became closer with some of the people from my German class.

Check out my eyeliner....and yes those are overalls! Ack!

I want to go back someday with Adam and the girls.  I would like to visit again now that I have had a little life experience and I can appreciate it.

Whoa…did you make it all the way down here?   Bravo!  I know it was long, and you should get a prize for hanging in there.  Too bad I don’t have anything to give away.  Wait you can have the stuff in the back of the van going to the Goodwill.

What’s that?  You don’t want that?  Phsaw!  Fine aren’t we snooty?

Kidding Kidding!  I am hoping to come up with some sort of giveaway soon.  Mwuah!

This is my 100th post.  I noticed that it was approaching and I imagined some brilliant post about why I blog and the meaning of life and blah blah blah.  Instead I am feeling disenchanted.  I got my first hateful comment.  Of course I didn’t approve it and it could have been worse.  However I am really disturbed.  I am not upset that someone thinks I am a “%*@*-ing idiot”….it wouldn’t be the first time and probably not the last.  It just bothers me that someone took the time to make the comment at all.

I guess as a blogger I have to assume the risk that some people will think what I have to say is stupid and useless and not funny at all.  I guess if I don’t want to take that risk I could just write in a journal or something like that.  The thing is…I am willing to keep writing posts that may or may not matter to anyone but me.

I can keep it real.  I am nothing special.  I am just your average person.  I live in a city and I watch tv.  I have a husband and kids.  I have a dog and 2 cats.  I shop at Old navy and Target and Walmart. I like my kids to wear Gymboree clothes and I like to drink wine.

And  I am aware….it’s all been done.  I dropped out of college to be a homemaker.  I clean toilets and make grilled cheese sandwiches for a living.  And that living is grand and it is wonderful.  I worship a God that some people think is non existent.  I know. I get it.

Guess what?  I will continue to believe what I believe and the years will pass by like minutes.  We all have something to contribute.  I will probably never do anything that is noteworthy to anyone else than the people who love me.  I am ok with that.  What I am not ok with is the people who have hate in their hearts.  The people who are so hurt and ignorant that they choose to hurt other people through their words and /or actions.

I may never be an intelligent educated blogger who writes about things that really make a difference.  But I am not writing for a pat on the back.   The most important thing is that my life is interesting TO ME.  And I LIKE it here!

If you don’t…..you are not invited anyway.

I have not always been interested in politics.  And the only reason I started to care about the subject is because I became a parent.  As the years have passed I started to realize that it really does matter.

I am not one to get into rowdy debates.  I love America and I love that one of our greatest freedoms is to vote for who we as individuals support.    My beliefs have become more conservative as I have gotten older, but that does not mean that I am a right wing nut.  I would consider myself more of a conservative independent. But, I do not like to box myself in.

I will admit that I pay WAY too much attention to the media.  I have made it no secret that I love Bill O’Reilly and that I listen to conservative talk radio.  I read all sorts of articles and blogs and I am pretty informed.  I primarily watch Fox news because I have found that they really are “fair and balanced”.  One thing that bothers me about watching Fox…all of the ads are directed at senior citizens.

I mean really?  Just how many commercials for viagra, the scooter store, glucose meters and AARP can a 27 year old woman endure on a hourly basis?  Just last week I seriously received an AARP card in the mail with my name on it.  Yesterday a local audiology clinic sent me an invitation to a free “lunch and learn” so I could learn about hearing aids.  Ok whoa!  Can a girl feel any older?

I feel like I need to just admit that I’m old and go to Walgreens and buy some adult diapers and call it a day.  Because clearly I need to find a supplement card for my medicaid plan and to remember to take my monthly Boniva.

Oh hey.  I just came to tell you that I woke up with some sort of a head cold.  I am also being visited by my monthly nemesis and all of that combined means I am not writing anything today.  Oh…but by the way when I turn my head to the side just right I can breath through my left nostril for a couple of seconds.  I was already behind on housework and now it’s only getting worse.  I need a Merry Maid because I am not doing anything merry or maid-like today.  I still love me some ya’ll so I will try and whip something interesting up for tomorrow.  Until then I am going to go and practice moaning.

Reasons I am so glad I went to BlissDom08:

- It was so freakin’ sweet to get out of the house for the day and not have to cook for anyone, clean up after anyone, wipe anyone’s butt or stick my boob in anyone’s mouth. (although a few more Blisstini’s and I might have done that last thing….oh I joke!)

-I feel so blessed to have been in a room full of such talented and insightful women!  I took home SO MUCH information and I hope to become a better blogger.

-Meghan from the Velveteen Mind is hilarious!  I laughed harder than I had in a long time every time she had the microphone in her hand.

-I got to meet and listen to bloggers I read every day….like totally live and in person.  And guess what?  They are all normal people just like me.  I mean I have always known they are real and not internet droids, but sometimes it’s easy to forget that we are all just women with computers who have some really important things to say.

-The first person I was greeted by was none other than Robin at Pensieve and yes she does in fact rock.  She is not only gawgeous…but also incredibly sweet.  Oh how I wish she lived closer to me!  I would love to have coffee with her once a week.

-I shared a table with 2 beautiful ladies. Lori from Front Porch Legacy and Jamie from Blonde Mom Blog. I hope we can get together with some of the other Nashville area ladies again soon…maybe for a Nashville bloggers dinner or something like that.

-I met another secret agent!  Mishelle from Secret Agent Mama!  Found out she is an AMAZING photographer!

-One of the best things was meeting new bloggy peeps.  Such as Moriah at Please Pass the Salt, Kelly at Mrs.CPA with her beautiful baby Maddie, and Jessica at To Live Beautiful

-Two words….Swag Bags ( which included all sorts of fun goodies!)

-I learned soooo much!

-I can’t possible mention all of the superior bloggers that spoke and attended, but it flippin’ rocked to get to be there.

I want to say a gigantic THANK YOU to Epson, One2One Networkand Blissfully Domestic for a great day at The Hotel Preston in Nashville!  I can NOT wait for BlissDom 2009!

Today I went through a box of old pictures and notes and stuff like that from when I was very young.  The box contained things like notes from middle school, really embarrassing  emo poems I wrote in my angsty teen years,  and horrifying pictures of me from 7th grade all the way up into college.  I found a diary that documented my transformation from a normal 13 year old girl into a badly behaved 15 year old who hung with the wrong crowd and cussed like a sailor.  Reading my words made me feel both embarrassed and more than a little anxious about my future.  I have two lovely daughters and I am nothing if not  terrified that they will go down the same path I once traveled and not make it out as blessed as I am.

Presently, I try not to do things I will regret and today I got a backward glimpse of how I came to be the person I am today.  I know that I am who I am because of all of those experiences, both bad and good.  So I can’t regret doing all of the stupid things I did.  I just have to forgive myself and move on.

On a lighter note there is just one thing I have a hard time forgiving myself for.  I noticed a recurring theme in most of the pictures…

My eyebrows.

Why oh why did someone not tell me that I needed to wax?  I don’t even think I knew what waxing was until my freshman year of college.  Finally one of my closest girlfriends took me to the salon and introduced me to the fine art of pain = beauty.

Here Ashley meet this woman…she is going to yank hair out of your face and you will be prettier.

Your welcome.

So yeah back to the lovely pictures of me with the big hairy strips of fur above my eyes.  I found a picture of me and a friend at my very first sorority formal.  In case you don’t know me…I am one on the right with the caterpillars on my face.  It makes me cringe! Enjoy my humiliation!

Now…like most things waxing and plucking should be done in moderation.  Once I discovered this wonderful practice of pulling hair out of my face, I went a little too far.  I would start plucking and just plain ol’ go too far.  My wedding pictures are a prime example.  Not only was I fatter than I had ever been, I also had no eyebrows.

This is because I went a little plucking crazy.  I am going to share a picture of this only because I am secure enough in myself to expose the truth.  No not really….I am just glutton for punishment I guess.  That’s what the “Sincerely Fro’ me to you” carnival is all about right?  So here ya’ll go.  The other side of the eyebrow extreme.  Oh it’s going to be so hard to click publish.  I better do it before I chicken out.

For more things you might not want in your scrapbook visit Kristen over here