Hey y’all!

It feels good to be home!

I got back from Blissdom yesterday, and I am physically and mentally exhausted. I had one of the most incredible weeks of my life, and I’m thrilled to be sharing the fun with all of you. Because I’m still trying to process everything, today’s post will be part one of the fun stuff. Hopefully tomorrow, I will have part two of the fun, and then Thursday I will share with you what I learned about myself and blogging.

Tuesday, I headed to Dallas to spend the night with Neely. Kiley met us at Neely’s house Wednesday morning, and Amber picked us all up. Then, we started the 10ish hour drive to Nashville.

The conference was held at the Opryland Hotel in Nashville. The hotel is beautiful, and I wish I’d taken pictures. All I have are pictures I borrowed from people on Twitter :)

Thursday, we went down to registration, and within minutes who did we see?

Jenn! Jenn is more than just the fabulous person who designed my blog. She’s a precious friend, and I seriously could have left Blissdom right after I met her and been completely satisfied with the trip. She’s amazing in the blog world and even more amazing in real life!

Thursday night was the kick-off party.

Meghan, me, Neely, & Kiley

Friday morning was the official start of the conference.

Paula, Alli, & Barbara, the wonderful women who created the conference!

Jon Acuff, the opening keynote speaker

Oprah! She recorded a special video inviting us to Girls Night In. The words “Hey Blissdom” have never caused 750 women to scream so quickly as they did when they came out of Oprah’s mouth!

My sweet Twitter friend Jen! We have wonderful chats about our need for caffeine, and I’m so glad we got to meet in person!

Neely and Maggie, also known as Gussy!

She is just the cutest thing ever! It was wonderful to meet her in person!

The Lorax hung out with us all day Friday!

Neely and Kiley at the Lorax party Friday night

My bff!

Kiley and me

Rachel and me

Jenn tried grits for the first time! I don’t think we explained them well enough to her, so she didn’t like them.

My roadtrip buddies

Me and Meghan! I’m so happy we got to spend time together again! I’ve missed her!

Neely, Crystal, and Amber

My wonderful roommates

Jenn and Rachel

Meghan and Amber

Molly and Baby Callan

Joe Jonas performed first! During one of the songs, he reached down and took my hand. We had a moment. It was nice :)

Up next was Rascal Flatts! They were amazing! They sang “Why Wait”, “Fast Cars and Freedom”, “Bless the Broken Road”, “Banjo”, and “Life is a Highway”.

Gary Levox

Joe Don Rooney. He’s gorgeous

Jay Demarcus

Me with Joe Don!

Neely and Joe Don

We met the guys after the show! It was awesome!

Before the concert, we had dinner with Heather and Tiffany! They are both super sweet, and I’m so glad we got to meet!

Up next, all of the Saturday fun!

Full House was probably my favorite show. I thought Stephanie and I should be best friends, and Uncle Jesse was sooooo cute!

A few more favorites…

Family Matters

Home Improvement

Step By Step

These were all so great, and we could really watch TV as a family. There aren’t too many shows these days that families can watch together. Sad :(

What were your favorite shows as a kid? Link up with Neely and me!

Hey y’all!

I am definitely not a fashionista or style expert at all. However, I am absolutely in love with headbands!

I get asked about my headbands all the time, both in everyday life and in the blog world. I have people ask all the time where I got my headbands, and I also hear “I’d love to wear them, but I don’t think they look good on me”. I thought I’d offer a little bit of headband advice today!

I hope this helps y’all! Please let me me know if you have any other questions!

Hey y’all!

I’ve got a lot of things on my mind right now, but nothing is good enough to have it’s own post, so y’all are going to get a random post today :)

I am finally feeling like a normal person again! This sickness is finally gone, and I am so thankful it is outta here!

Last night, I was talking to the mom of a little boy I’m babysitting that also goes to the preschool where I sub. She told me that he has added me to his nightly prayer list! Melt my heart!! He’s two years old, and he is just precious! Totally made my day.

The drawer under our stove has somehow gotten off-track. I tried to fix it, but I got absolutely nowhere. Colby tried to fix it, and this is what we ended up with.

Seriously, it won’t move. Guess it’s time to have maintenance come, but how do I explain this to them??

My kitty cat isn’t allowed to lay on my pillows or sheets, but he loves to be sneaky and do it anyway. Yesterday, I got up to go get a drink, and I came back and found him like this.

Little brat! (And yes, those are my sheets from when I was a kid. My good ones were in the washer and I didn’t want to wait on them!)

I saw this on Pinterest, and I thought it was funny. It would definitely be a good motivator to get out of bed!

Once again, Carrie Underwood is my pick for best dressed at the Grammys!

It’s not my favorite of her red carpet looks, but she still looked amazing!

I can’t believe Blissdom is next week!

One week from today, I’ll be in Dallas with Neely, and Wednesday morning, we are hitting the road with Amber and Kiley! Then, it’s four days of fun with lots wonderful girls. I can’t wait, but I seriously can’t decide what to wear! I tried to plan my outfits last night, but I just gave up. It’s so hard to decide!

I have to admit that I read Hunger Games last week, and I didn’t like it at all. I hope y’all still love me!

Be sure to stop by In My Twenties today! I have a post up about my cute grandparents!

Hey y’all!

I’m linking up several times today! I’m linking up with my bff Neely as well as with a couple of Blissdom link-ups!

I’m 25 years old (26 on Friday!), and I live in the Oklahoma City metro.

After working in the field of adoption and foster care for a few years, I’m taking a break, and I’ll be starting a new job in March managing the newest Vintage Pearl shop!

My wonderful family

My precious friends

My adorable kitty Jack

Music I love

My favorite things!

I also cohost a Friday link-up with Neely called Boob Tube Babble!

I love to people-watch, and I invent stories about the people I watch, usually involving serial killers and kidnappings. If you catch me watching you at Blissdom, I either recognize you and am too nervous to introduce myself, or I’m inventing a story about you :)

I  have scoliosis, and I’ve had two spinal fusions, one when I was 11 and one when I was 15. I have three metal rods and numerous screws in my back. I carry a card in my wallet from my doctor describing all of the hardware, just in case I should set off a metal detector!

I put ranch dressing, cheese, or chocolate on everything I eat.

I have an obsession with song lyrics and movie quotes.

I absolutely love Mexican food, and I could eat it every day.

I hate to sweat, which makes the whole exercise thing a little difficult.

I am probably the most organized messy person you will ever meet.

I love shopping, but shopping during the holidays makes me want to stab someone.

I rarely leave the house without makeup, but I never wear lipstick/gloss.

I have a Dr. Pepper addiction.

I refuse to use a public bathroom if I can help it.

I am super girly, and I love girly things, like dresses and jewelry and headbands. Makes me happy!

I love live music. I go to lots of concerts, and I have gone with friends to artists that I don’t even know, just because I enjoy live music.

I’m a big hugger, so if you come introduce yourself to me at Blissdom, you’ll probably get a hug :)

I hope this helps you learn a little more about me! For all you Blissdom folks, can’t wait to see you in just a few days!

Hey y’all!

In case you missed my announcement on the Twit yesterday, I shared with everyone that I got a new job! I waited to get confirmation that I could talk about the job publicly, and since I got confirmation last night, I am SO excited to share the exciting news with y’all!

Beginning officially March 1st (with a few things before then), I will be working for this wonderful company!

Their business has grown so much that they are opening a new store in the Oklahoma City area very soon, and I am going to be managing the new store! It is unlike anything I’ve ever done before, and I am incredibly excited for this new challenge!

I have spent a little bit of time with Erin and several other staff members, and they are just the SWEETEST people! I feel so blessed to be working with such wonderful Christian people. They have already made me feel so welcome, and I’m so excited to be a part of this team!

I just want to give a big thanks to all of you who have prayed for me and encouraged me since I left my last job. I can honestly say that I have felt your prayers, and you all have been such an encouragement to me. I especially want to give a big shout-out to Jessica, Teddie, Neely, and Lindsey who have been my cheerleaders through this whole process! Y’all are amazing, and I love you so much! Momma and Daddy and the rest of my family have also been wonderful supports for me. I don’t know what I would’ve done without them! I also want to say thanks to my sweet friend Alyssa! We’ve been friends since I was in college, and she is a director of the preschool I subbed at in college. Since I left my last job, she has been letting me sub again while I searched for a new job. She has also been such a wonderful support, and I’m so thankful for everything she’s done for me!

Seriously, y’all, I feel like the luckies girl ever!



I fulfilled a life-long dream of going to Harpo Studios! It was one of the most exciting things I’ve ever done, and I love that I got to share it with two of my favorite girls!

Through blogging I learned about the awesomeness that is Pioneer Woman, and I got to meet her at a book signing! Yes, I know I’ve mentioned this about a hundred times, but you have to admit that it’s pretty fantastic :)

Most importantly, I’ve made some incredible friendships.

I gained a best friend! We are so much alike in so many ways, and at the same time we are so different in so many ways. What did we ever do without each other?

I met so many amazing girls, and I love that I can call them friends!

There are so many wonderful girls that I haven’t been able to meet yet, but I hope to someday!

Blogging helped me reconnect with Regina, a precious friend from college! Oh how I miss her!

And, because no post about blogging would be complete without this picture:

You know you love it :)

Why do you blog? What do you love about blogging? Link up with the girls!

Happy Monday, y’all!

Hope you all had a wonderful weekend! Here’s a little bit of what I’ve been up to lately.

Friday I babysat twice! First, I watched a little two year old boy from church. He was so precious! We spent nearly the entire time playing with hot wheels cars. He had the coolest hot wheels track, and I have to say that I was probably more excited about it than he was :)

Pretty cool, right?

I also tried hummus for the first time. His mom told me to give him some with his lunch, and when I was scooping it onto his plate, he said “Miss Ashley have some?” How could I say no to that?

It was actually pretty good!

Saturday, Joyce and her girls were home by themselves, so I spent most of the day with them just hanging out and watching girl movies.

We watched Mean Girls because they had never seen it! Can you believe that? Unfortunately, I don’t think either of them liked it as much as I do or understood why I liked it. Sads.

We also watched Something Borrowed. Good stuff!

Sunday was church, baby class, and LTC. After church, I skipped the Superbowl party, and instead watched halftime at home, then laid around waiting for The Voice.

I loved Kelly Clarkson’s performance of the national anthem and Miranda Lambert & Blake Shelton’s performance of America the Beautiful! They are all such fantastic singers, and I loved that they were picked to sing! Here’s a video in case you missed it!

What did y’all do this weekend?