Swimsuits, Sun, and Self-Esteem

June 27, 2011 By ashleylately 14 Comments

Hey y’all! I hope you all had a wonderful weekend!

For the most part, my weekend was pretty chill. I had a kinda rough week at work, so to say I was in need of a calm weekend is an understatement. All I had on my agenda for the weekend was sleep.

Lots and lots of sleep.

When I went to bed Friday night, I put my phone on silent so no one could call me early. When I finally checked my phone around 1 pm, I had a missed call and two missed texts from Joyce, wondering if I was alive. When I finally called her, she said they were going to take their boat out on the lake and I needed to go with them.

Sitting outside in 100+ degree weather was not on my agenda for the weekend. After begging and guilt-tripping from Joyce, I finally agreed to go.

I drug myself out of bed and dug out my swimsuit. If you follow me on the Twit, you’ve heard me talk about this, but oh my goodness, y’all, do you know the best way to kill your self-esteem? Put on a swimsuit. Seriously, whoever invented them was a complete moron.

I really can’t think of any article of clothing that causes more panic and anxiety than a swimsuit. We work so hard in the spring to get ourselves “swimsuit ready” for summer. I know I’m not the only one who stresses about this!

I’ve been losing weight, but I definitely don’t feel like I’ve lost enough to be wearing a swimsuit in public. I texted Joyce about how bad I felt in the swimsuit, hoping that would get out of going to the lake with them. It didn’t work. She basically told me to suck it up! I threw on a cover-up and headed out to the lake.

I covered myself in sunscreen before I left. I’m super careful because I am at a higher risk for skin cancer. After we’d been out for just a little while, I put a shirt on over my swimsuit and reapplied sunscreen to try to protect myself. When I got home, I found this…

Lovely, isn’t it?
How I managed to burn in that weird pattern is beyond me!

I also burned on my forehead, nose, both shoulders, the top of my head, and a weird spot in the middle of my back. Fortunately, when I got up this morning, all of it was better, so I’m crossing my fingers it doesn’t peel!

Next weekend, I’m going home, so I hope it is a much better weekend than this one!

Jack, on the other hand, had a pretty fantastic weekend…how about you?

Boob Tube Babble-Grey’s Anatomy

June 24, 2011 By ashleylately 15 Comments

Hey y’all!

It’s finally Friday! Time for some TV talk!

Today I’m talking about Grey’s Anatomy.

I’ve been watching a lot of Grey’s Anatomy lately. Since most of my shows are on hiatus right now, I don’t watch a lot of tv. When I’m at home, I always have to have some kind of noise going, so lately I’ve been turning on old seasons of Grey’s Anatomy. I really miss how the show used to be. It used to be fun and a little silly, and the last several seasons have been kinda boring and depressing. So today, I’m taking a little walk down memory lane and remember the good ole days of Grey’s Anatomy!

Seriously?

I absolutely love this scene!

Probably the best elevator scene ever!

Don’t you just hate when your shows go from great to just ok?

What shows are you watching? Link up your tv talk with Neely and Meagan!

Bloggers Take Chicago Part 2

June 23, 2011 By ashleylately 11 Comments

Hey y’all!

I was going to post this later in the week, but I just can’t wait any longer! Here is the rest of my Chicago recap!

On Friday, we met for brunch, then headed over to Millennium Park.

The bean was very cool!

After the park, we went on the Chicago Movie Tour!

There are so many movies that have been filmed in Chicago!

The tour started at McDonald’s so I got my first fountain Dr. Pepper of the trip! I was a happy girl!

Our goofy tour guide

Be sure to check Neely’s blog for more tour pictures!

Friday night we had dinner with Meghan’s husband, brother, his fiance, and her friends Sally, Julie, and Christy. Loved getting to hang out with all of them!

After dinner was the New Kids on the Block & Backstreet Boys concert!

13 year old Ashley, Neely, Meghan, Sally, Christy, and Julie were all VERY happy!

Jordin Sparks opened for them! I loved her on American Idol, so I was very excited to get to see her!

Soooo excited!

NKOTBSB!

The New Kids went out into the audience. I zoomed in when Jonathan was walking to Meghan, Sally, Christy, & Julie! So cool!

My favorite New Kid & Backstreet Boy
Joey & Brian!

Saturday morning, we had cupcakes for breakfast!

I had one called Cookie Monster

It had chocolate chip cookie dough in the center! Yummers!

We had lunch at Billy Goat Tavern & Grill

The cheeseburger was WONDERFUL!

After food, we went to Wrigleyville. The Bears were playing the Yankees.

Saturday night, we met Sally, Julie, and Danielle for dinner, along with Neely’s childhood friend Kelly and our Twitter friend Sara!

We ate at Enoteca, and it was really good!

After dinner we went to The Shambles. A chill evening turned into a huge dance party, featuring music by Toto, Bieber, Miley, Kelly Clarkson, BSB, and others. I think I will just let the pictures speak for themselves.

I just heart her!

The girl saw my camera out, grabbed Neely and these guys, and yelled “TAKE OUR PICTURE!” We have no idea who she was.

Pretty sure that Justin Bieber was playing when I took this picture!

I love these pictures of Meghan and Neely!

Oh the bird…

Sunday, we slept in, grabbed lunch, then hung out at Meghan’s apartment until it was time to go to the airport.

Aside from the sickness I developed on the flight, we made it back to Dallas without any complications.

I miss these girls already! We had such a wonderful time, and it was super hard to leave not knowing when any of us will see each other again.

Meghan, thanks so much again for everything! I am so glad that I finally got to meet you in person! You are super sweet and I wish you lived closer to us!

Neely, I heart you so much, and I loved getting to spend more time with you. We are going to need to get together again very soon!

Bloggers Take Chicago Part 1

June 22, 2011 By ashleylately 8 Comments

Hey y’all! I am so excited to finally get Chicago pictures up on the blog! I have about six thousand pictures, and I have had such a hard time choosing which ones to post, so there will probably be more than one recap. Can’t help it because it was a wonderful trip!

Ok, y’all know I was pretty nervous about the flight. It wasn’t as bad as I had built it up in my mind to be, but it definitely didn’t go according to plan. After an unplanned stop in Indy, we made it to Chicago three hours late. Not fun, but all of the craziness was worth it when we finally got to meet Meghan!

Seriously, y’all, Meghan is the sweetest person ever! She was a wonderful tour guide and had so many fun things planned for us to do. I am so glad to be able to call her a friend!

Wednesday night, Meghan took us to one of her favorite restaurants. The food was sooo good! It was a lot of fun to just get to sit and chat for awhile.

Thursday morning, those cray cray girls got up at a ridiculous hour and went to a bar method class. Not gonna lie, I stayed in bed, and it was wonderful!

We went to brunch at Bongo Room.

The food was amazing!

After brunch, we headed over to Harpo Studios!

The street in front of the studio was recently named after Oprah!

I was so excited! It was at the top of my list of things to do in Chicago, and it was awesome!

We also went across the street to the Oprah store!

Lindsey came too!

We did a little bit of shopping…

Target has an elevator…

…and an escalator! My first thought when I saw them was ‘oh my goodness, Tara would just die!’

After shopping, then went over to the Willis Tower skydeck. It was exciting and scary all at the same time!

The view from the top

I was super scared, but Meghan and Neely held my hands and I put my big girl panties on and stepped out onto the plexiglass ledge!

Crazy girls

We had some pizza!

Seriously, would a trip to Chicago be complete without some pizza?

After we ate, we went over to Meghan’s apartment.

Her apartment is just adorable!

We found out that there were a lot of celebs in town, so we did some stalking .

Trump Hotel & Tower
We didn’t find anyone :(

Ok, to keep this post from being ridiculously long, I’m going to stop here. Part 2 will be up tomorrow!

Hi Friends!

June 21, 2011 By ashleylately 15 Comments

Hey y’all! I made it back to OKC yesterday after a wonderful five days in Chicago with Neely and Meghan. We had such a fantastic time, and as happy as I was to get back home to my bed, it was super sad to leave my girls!

I’m still sorting through the five million pictures I took, so I will have a recap up hopefully Thursday. I can’t wait to share with y’all all of the fun things we did!

It’s kinda hard to believe that our vacation is over and I have to go back to work today. It’s going to be soooo hard to go back!

I am trying to catch up on everyone’s blogs. I feel like I’ve missed so much! I’m excited to see what y’all have been up to.

Since I don’t have much to say today, I will leave you with this picture my brother sent me. It was sent to him from a friend from back home. This picture was taken at the Sonic in our hometown. Read carefully.

I’m so embarrassed.

I hope you all have a wonderful Tuesday, and I’ll be back soon!

Tennessee Travels Part 5: All-American Girls

June 20, 2011 By ashleylately 6 Comments

*While I’m livin’ it up in Chicago with Neely and Meghan, I’m doing flashback posts of my 2009 trip to Tennessee*
When we were getting ready to pick the dates for our trip, we decided just for fun we would check and see who was playing at the Grand Ole Opry. We thought if anyone decent was playing, we would go just to have something to do. We pulled up the schedule, and the last night of our trip, guess who was playing!

Oh yes! Carrie Underwood!

We had tickets bought within about five minutes! No way could we miss an opportunity to see our girl at the Opry!

We were so incredibly excited!

The show opened with Little Jimmy Dickens. Let me tell you, he is just the cutest little man!

Connie Smith

Jeannie Seely

Jim Ed Brown

Bill Anderson performed “Give It Away”, the song he wrote that was recorded by George Strait that won Song of the Year in 2007.

The Cherryholmes also performed, but none of my pictures turned out.

Clay Walker performed too! I was super excited because he was one of my favorites when I was younger. He sang “If I Could Make a Living” and “Fall”, which I loooooove!

Closing out the show was my girl Carrie!

She sang “All-American Girl”, “Just a Dream”, “Wasted”, and “Get Out of This Town”.

It was wonderful to get to see her perform at such a legendary place and to experience it with my Momma and Mom-mom. I’d seen Carrie in concert a few months before that, but this was the first for them.

It was definitely a great night and a great ending to our trip!

Nashville is such a cool place, and there are still several things I wanted to do that the sickness forced me to miss. I’m thinking maybe next summer. Anyone want to go? :)

Tennessee Travels Part 4: Hangin’ Out Downtown

June 19, 2011 By ashleylately 6 Comments

*While I’m livin’ it up in Chicago with Neely and Meghan, I’m doing flashback posts of my 2009 trip to Tennessee*

I was very excited when I woke up the next day feeling some better. I was still a little bit weak, but I was ready do more Nashville exploring.

Momma and I had read about a new boutique called H. Audrey that was owned by Holly Williams, the daughter of Hank Williams Jr. She has also released a couple of albums and has played at the Grand Ole Opry! We thought it would be cool to find it and walk around a little in that area.

As we were getting ready to leave, the door of the shop opened and in walked Holly! We talked with her for a few minutes, as well as to the guy working in the store, who we found out is from the same part of Oklahoma that we are from. Small world!

Holly was super sweet and posed for a picture with us!

I did go out and buy her most recent CD after we got back home, and I love it! I also downloaded her first CD on iTunes, and it’s pretty good too.

After leaving H. Audrey, we headed downtown. Of course, we had to stop at Coyote Ugly!

Y’all are probably going to laugh at me, but my first time in a bar was at 23 with my Mom and Mom-mom!

We went in the middle of the day, shared a cheeseburger, and drank water! :)

I had to take a picture with the girls!

Wildhorse Saloon

CMT Building

We walked around a little longer, then headed back to the hotel to get ready for an evening at the Grand Ole Opry!

Tennessee Travels Part 3: Will the Circle Be Unbroken

June 17, 2011 By ashleylately 3 Comments

*While I’m livin’ it up in Chicago with Neely and Meghan, I’m doing flashback posts of my 2009 trip to Tennessee*

I woke up still feeling a little weird, but I was NOT going to miss out on any more of my trip! We grabbed a quick lunch and headed to the Country Music Hall of Fame and Museum.

Momma and I had been to the Hall of Fame before, but we had a very specific reason for going back again.

Carrie’s gorgeous red dress that she wore when she sang “I Told You So” the night she won Entertainer of the Year was on display for about six months. We had to see it!

These pictures definitely don’t do it justice. It was absolutely beautiful!

It was so much fun to see it!

“Country music is music with a lot of class. It’s just oridnary stories told by ordinary people in an extraordinary way.” -Dolly Parton

Up next, hangin’ out downtown!

Tennessee Travels Part 2: Down Home with the Neelys

June 16, 2011 By ashleylately 6 Comments

*While I’m livin’ it up in Chicago with Neely and Meghan, I’m doing flashback posts of my 2009 trip to Tennessee*

We are all big Food Network fans, and we just love the Neelys! We knew we couldn’t leave Memphis without stopping to eat at their restaurant.

The food was wonderful! I had barbecue chicken nachos, and they were AMAZING!

We posed for a few pictures with them.

After we ate, we hit the road and headed for Nashville.

We planned to check in to our hotel, then find a cool place in the area for dinner. Unfortunately, things didn’t quite go as planned.

By the time we made it to Nashville, I was sick. By sick, I mean SICK. We are pretty sure that I got food poisoning from the restaurant. I don’t think I have ever been as sick as I was that night.

Let’s just say, I vowed that night that I would NEVER eat barbecue again, and now, two years later, I still haven’t had any.

Beautiful, isn’t it? Smeared mascara, gross hair, near-death.

I actually can’t believe I posted this picture.

Our cool place for dinner? Our hotel.

Our food? Sprite for me, vegetable wheat thins from the vending machine for Momma and Mom-mom.

This may be a bit too much information, so if you have a weak stomach, you might not want to read. I was so weak that I couldn’t get out of bed to run to the bathroom when I needed to throw up, so I had a trashcan beside my bed. Momma can’t handle when someone throws up, so when I would get sick, she would run to the bathroom and turn the water on so she couldn’t hear! She left Mom-mom to take care of me!

This was NOT the wonderful first night in Nashville that I had in my mind. I was really afraid that I would have to spend my entire vacation in the hotel room.

Up next, the day after The Sickness.

Tennessee Travels Part 1: Walkin’ in Memphis

June 15, 2011 By ashleylately 10 Comments

Hey y’all!

Today is the day!

After months of waiting, counting down, and packing (ok, maybe just hours on that one!), our Chicago trip is finally here! Because there is going to be way to much fun happening there for me to take time to blog, I’ve got several posts scheduled for while I’m gone.

While I’m gone to Chicago, I wanted to share a little about the wonderful trip I took two summers ago with my Momma and my Mom-mom to Tennessee. It was a pretty fantastic trip, and I’ve briefly mentioned it a few times here, so I thought I’d do several posts about that trip. Let me tell ya, it was definitely an adventure!

Before I get into my first Tennessee post, I wanted to let y’all know that I’m guest posting for my wonderful friend Lindsey today! I’m sharing a few of my favorite summertime songs. Be sure to check it out!

——————————————-

In 2009, I really wanted to go on a fun summer trip out of Oklahoma and different than the usual Dallas get-away trip. I’d been wanting to go back to Tennessee since the first time I went back in high school. We decided to go back and take my Mom-mom this time. She was a super big Elvis fan when she was a teenager, so we knew we HAD to take her to Graceland.

The trip started way down in Small Town, Oklahoma. I should first mention that none of us fly, so anywhere we go has to be within reasonable driving distance. It’s about an 8+ hour drive to Memphis (minus bathroom breaks), and another 3 hours to Nashville (again, minus bathroom breaks). Reasonable driving distance? I’m not so sure anymore.

After we’d been on the road about an hour, we stopped for a potty break. We knew we’d be taking lots of pictures this trip, but had no idea they would start an hour down the road. We walked into the bathroom and saw this.

No, you aren’t hallucinating. That’s a restaurant booth INSIDE the bathroom stall.

The only word I have for this is why. Why?

Many, many, many hours later, we pulled into Memphis!

We stopped in at the Welcome Center to see a couple of friends.

Mr. Elvis Presley

Not quite tall enough to reach!

We hung out with BB King for a bit too.

We drove around trying to find some dinner, got lost in the ghetto, the GPS yelled at us, I yelled at the GPS, and finally, we gave up and went to our hotel. Our trip was off to a…uh, great start.

The next day, we headed to Graceland!

Waiting for our tour to begin

Let’s have a little talk about Elvis right now. Have we had this conversation before? In case you didn’t know, I don’t buy into the lie that Elvis is dead. Seriously, I’m not joking here at all. My theory is that he was tired of the constant attention and scrutiny that he faked his death to get out of the spotlight.

I believe that he still lives at Graceland in his room upstairs. The upstairs is completely off-limits, even to the people who work at Graceland. Plus, the house is randomly closed by the family at different times. Why is that? Because he’s there!

Oh, did I mention I have proof? We saw him. No, I’m not crazy. We saw him.

This man was walking around down in the horse pasture. He’s definitely too old to be working there, plus he was not dressed like any of the workers. He looks to be about the age that Elvis should be, and he was in an area that is not a part of the tour. Who else could it be? (And no, I’m not interested in any other theories. Just let me believe it was him!)

We ended the tour at the grave sites. Elvis, his twin brother who died at birth, his parents, and his aunt are all buried at Graceland. We stopped first at the grave of Elvis’ twin brother who died. As we were leaning over to look, we heard these words come out of my Mom-mom’s mouth: “Wonder what kind of grass that is…” Seriously? People were crying, CRYING and she’s admiring the foilage. I cannot tell you how many times we’ve laughed about this since then.