Mele Kalikimaka!

Almost...
I still need to get presents for some people!
So late I know!!
Ahh!

Haha, anyways, just wishing everyone Happy Holidays!

♥Ashley

December 18th, 2008

Wow, I've been slacking when it comes to this blog. Here are a few updates since my last post:

-Only spent 40 of the 200 euro I brought to Czech.
-Still recovering from pink eye.
-I've been putting in major overtime to make up for all the money I spent on presents (& the $100 on myself at Forever 21...yikes!)
-I'm going to talk to my trainer about me possibly taking a class in Early Childhood Development (the CDC will pay tuition & a co-worker said he would let me borrow his books!)
-I'm really excited for my visit to Cali (even if it is at the end of February, ha!)
-Going downtown on Saturday to spend the rest of my euro :)
-I made 3 pies today lol...but they were those easy ones that you make with pudding.
-Our Christmas program is on Sunday & I have to sing "The Night That Christ Was Born" by Kirk Franklin with my sisters :/
-Courtney's 17th birthday was yesterday!
-I've decided that I have too much stuff! Clothes, shoes, purses...etc.
-I despise the weather here! I've slipped at least 5 times already.

& That's all I can think of. Tchuss!

♥Ashley

Going to Czech again!

Have a nice weekend everyone!

♥Ashley

I love these!

*The bad spelling is intentional :)



















I hope you enjoyed those. If you want to see more, then just go to http://icanhascheezburger.com/.

♥Ashley

Danke!

Happy late Thanksgiving!

I am thankful for:
*God
*Family
*Friends
*My job
*♥
*That it STOPPED snowing! At least for now...
*The 5 lbs I didn't gain back after Thanksgiving dinner haha.

Anyways, I hope everyone had a great day!

♥Ashley

Talk about LAZY!

Sorry I'm taking forever to post pics of Paris. If you're still dying to see some, look at Katie Ortiz's blog!

♥Ashley

Ps. Her name is the link :)

Bonjour mon ami!

This is where I will be until Sunday! I'm soo excited. Our youth group is going for a conference & there are supposed to be close to 800 people there. I'm so nervous because we have to sing! So pray for us. I will update with pics when I get back :)

♥Ashley

A forward I got...

Thought you might enjoy this interesting prayer given in Kansas at the opening session of their Senate. It seems prayer still upsets some people. When Minister Joe Wright was asked to open the new session of the Kansas Senate, everyone was expecting the usual generalities, but this is what they heard:

Heavenly Father, we come before you today to ask your forgiveness and to seek your direction and guidance.
We know Your Word says, 'Woe to those who call evil good,' but that is exactly what we have done.
We have lost our spiritual equilibrium and reversed our values.
We have exploited the poor and called it the lottery.
We have rewarded laziness and called it welfare.
We have killed our unborn and called it choice.
We have shot abortionists and called it justifiable.
We have neglected to discipline our children and called it building self esteem.
We have abused power and called it politics.
We have coveted our neighbor's possessions and called it ambition.
We have polluted the air with profanity and pornography and called it freedom of expression.
We have ridiculed the time-honored values of our forefathers and called it enlightenment.
Search us, Oh, God, and know our hearts today; cleanse us from every sin and set us free.
Amen!

Lately.

Ayden.

My group (missing 2) on the playground Friday.
Oh-Livia & Bekah.Bekah & Tracy.
Joelle!
I do some work here & there...
My little workers...
Cameron (Sara's brother).
Sara Mae!

♥Ashley

I voted!
& So should you :]

♥Ashley

I couldn't just let them sit there!

Some of the kids in my class left their pumpkins & we weren't allowed to keep them in the CDC because we have an inspector coming on Tuesday, so I had to take them home. I got a pumpkin carving kit from the Commissary & here's what I created:

I had a template for this one...

But this was all me!

& I have 3 more pumpkins that I want to carve this week. No ideas on what I should do next though. Leave me some suggestions ;)

♥Ashley

A week isn't that long...

So I stayed away from the internet (even the computer) for a week, & it wasn't even that bad! I had more time to do things that really needed to be done (& that does not include ONLINE SHOPPING). I've been reading my bible, & as of right now I am in Matthew 25...still following the bible reading list from TRC :]

Anyways, work has been pretty hectic this week. We went on a field trip to the pumpkin patch on Thursday. Here are some pics from that:

Shelby & Kaitlyn picking a pumpkin.

Trinity.


Adrian & his tall dad.


Ayden.


Tyler & his mom. He didn't want to pet the chicken lol.

Stephen.

William chasing a chicken!

Ayden & Ariana looking at the geese. They were hissing at us!

The group, minus a couple of the parents.

♥Ashley

The "Job" Thing.

Some pics from work!

I get to play with playdough!

The "infamous" William.

Collin showing me his hand.

Ariana not looking at the camera lol.

& Ayden...I will just leave it at that haha.

I will try to take more tomorrow!

♥Ashley

Quote of the Day

Future gain is worth present pain.

:)

6 Unspectacular Things...

Rules:
Link the person/people that tagged you
Mention the rules on your own blog
List 6 unspectacular things about you
Tag 6 other bloggers

Here we gooo.
1. I just cleaned my closet
2. My walls are concrete
3. & I knew this but still tried to hang stuff up with thumb tacs
4. I'm a neat freak
5. One of my eyebrows looks shorter than the other
6. I shop online too much

I was tagged by Carly!
& Idk who to tag...so I tag everyone who hasn't been tagged yet?
:]

♥Ashley

So...pray for me?

We are having a youth service tomorrow with the church in Mannheim. & I was asked to lead the song service. Can you believe that?! I'm a little nervous, actually very scared (lol) even though it won't be that many people. & I only had about a weeks notice. How does James (Wilder) do it? Geezzzzz. Not to mention I've never done anything like this before. It might not seem like a big deal to everyone else, but for a girl who only sings in the shower, & in church (as part of the congregation), it's pretty intimidating. So pray that tomorrow I won't make everyone's ears bleed.

♥Ashley

HAPPY BIRTHDAY MOM!

Can you believe she's only 16? That's what she tells everyone ;) Anyways, just thought I'd do a post for her! Her bday was the 23rd, so this is a day late. Happy birthday mom! I love you!!

♥Ashley

Just wanted to let you know...

I took my CPR & First Aid classes today!
So I should be getting my certification card soon.
It's exciting. I'm a life saver hahaha.

:)

Just some pics :]

Owen! He's one of my mom's kids at the CDC. Soo cute!

Me & Sarah. She's adorable.

Paige & I being silly after church!

Wow, so I thought I had way more pics. Sorry! Maybe another time. I miss everyone!
♥Ashley

Just keep praying, & believing...

Wow, so everyone wants to be teen parents these days!
It's almost like they're getting preggers on purpose...and a lot of them are. For whatever reason, I have no idea. Which means we need to pray for OUR generation now more than ever. It has become so twisted. There aren't enough young people that are on fire for God, too many of them let others tell them how to live their life, instead of STANDING UP FOR THEMSELVES. They use the excuse that "I chose this myself, I know what I'm doing." Well obviously not if you started going that way after hanging out with a certain crowd. It makes me sad that we as Christians are supposed to be influencing the world, not letting it influence us. Yea, it's hard because we live in it, but we are not OF it. To me, it is weakness if you let someone else pressure you into doing something you know you shouldn't. You should be a LEADER, not a follower. Your "friend" doesn't care about you at all. A real friend would never ask you to do something that will bring you down. There are so many people that I am praying hard for. Sometimes I don't want to, because their actions annoy me. But I know I have to. Not just for them to see the light, but for something to happen for them to see the light. A little bump in the right direction. & I'm not just talking about backsliders, I'm talking about young people within the church. They aren't serious enough. I'm not saying I'm perfect, Lord knows I need all the prayer I can get... & that's why I'm posting all of this. I know what I've been through, & I'm still going through...even now. But I don't mind the struggles. Without struggles, God can't work in us. In order for a miracle to happen, bad things must happen first. & God wants to bless us, but we don't believe we deserve it. & No one does, but yet there He is, BLESSING. We need to believe that He wants to bless us. & God cannot bless us beyond our ability to believe. Ohh Lord I can go on forever. Just be keeping me, & Germany in your prayers. God is doing marvelous things in our church, & I can't wait to see what He has in store!

♥Ashley

Muhahahaha!

Don't you just hate when you do something so sly...but you can't tell anyone?? That's how I'm feeling right now. I just did something very sneaky, so hopefully I won't have to wait that long before someone finds out. Okay, it's nothing bad...but it's not being expected, so it makes it even sly...er. Sorry if everyone is confused. I had to get this off my brain in SOME way.

♥Ashley

Where Will You Turn?

You make one wrong decision that may change your life.

It's not the about decisions you've made, but what you do AFTER, & what you turn to. Are you going to turn to things of this world for a season of comfort, or are you going to get on your knees & turn to God?

It's funny how the devil can take something so small & put a microscope on it. It looks like the biggest log, when in reality, it's the smallest splinter. This week has been tough, & I was pretty discouraged. Then Bro. Wilkins preached last night & his message title was "Where Will You Turn?". David ordered that Joab be killed, & Joab ran for his life. He went into the house of God & grabbed the horns of the altar. I know that no matter what I do, I would rather die at the altar, than in the world.

Just an afterthought-
Don't you just love when something happens during the week that can get your spirit down, but when you go to church, the message is exactly what you need? I notice that whenever I miss church, something great happens. So next time you feel like missing church because you're tired after work, or don't "feel well", just know that you could be missing the very answer to your prayers. Church is 2 times a week, & for a couple hours at the most. How hard is it to just GO? Most of you already know this, but for me, it has been a learning experience.

YAY!!

My background check came in today, so that means I am officially a blue shirt!! Which means I can now be alone with 12 kids :)

Oh, & on top of that I have a 3 day weekend!


♥Ashley

Euro Disney in Paris, France!

Last weekend we went to Euro Disney with our church & the German church in Mannheim. We left Early Saturday morning at 330am & spent the whole day there. We left at 11pm, & got home by 530am. Then I slept for a couple hours & got up for church. Talk about a crazy, tiring weekend! I had a lot of fun though, & here are some pics that I took:


I love this pic of me & my family!

Pooh & Minnie :]

I was blocking Paige haha.

The sign on the door said 'Do Not Enter' :]

Space Mountain: Mission 2, I was scared haha.

Me & the candle guy from Beauty & the Beast.

Singing in the rain!

HAHA! Everyone looks like their having fun, but Courtney's face screams "DEATHHH!"

Same in this one. Courtney cracks me up HAHA.

I liked that rollercoaster.

Me & Paige.

The castle at night. So pretty.

Me eating my candy apple after looking for one for 394839 hours!

That's a wrap!

♥Ashley