What's in YOUR bag?

So it's been a few days since I last posted and I can promise you that not many exciting things have come up. But I will say that its nice to be through all of the season finales! I dont remember a time when there were so many right on top the other. I can also say I am 100% satisfied with the outcomes of all of my favorite shows including: One Tree Hill, Grey's Anatomy, Dancing with the Stars, Ruby, Celebrity Apprentice, and Biggest Loser.

Here's a look at the winners of DWTS, CA, and BL.

Derrick and Nicole shined all season and ended up pulling out the win for the Mirror Ball trophy over Evan and Anna. They were amazing!

Bret Michaels pulled out the win on Celebrity Apprentice, beating out Holly Robinson Pete. I dont care what anyone says, sympathy vote or not, Bret did a great job and I was happy to see him one. I also have to give Trump a few classy points for working with Snapple and getting money donated to both finalist's charities despite the show only usually giving money to the winner. Nice move Trump!

In Biggest Loser news, Michael came back to win the coveted title of Biggest Loser on Tuesday night. You have to give it up for this guy! He lost an incredible amount of weight in such a short time. And, can I just say, turned into a TOTAL babe?! Congratulations Michael!

Now, to the non-television oriented portion of today's post...which is brought to you by new experiences and the Faith that Works Bible study.  A few weeks ago I was invited by a fellow Mercy friend to attend a Bible study put on by the wonderful women of Faith that Works. I really wasnt going to know many people so I was slightly hesitant to go but God has been pressing it on my heart that this was something that I needed to do and that there's something in this that He's wanting to show me. I'm so glad I listened to Him! Even on the first night I could feel that this would be something special. We will be doing a study on the book of Joshua called "Peace of Mind or Mind in Pieces". This week was more of an icebreaker and we'll dig into the the study next week but I'm so excited to see what God has for us. We did a really cool exercise where we all emptied out our purses and examined what we needed to keep and what we could get rid of, what was weighing us down, and what we considered important. This plays into the idea of different voices speaking into our lives...what messages from others do we need to keep and what are those that we can throw away, that are keeping us shackled to our insecurities. Its a great group of young, outgoing women who are hungry to hear from God, grow in His Word, and walk in His freedom!

I must now draw this to a close as I need to be getting up early in the morning to spend the day with two of my favorite little girls. Am hoping its not tooo terribly hot so we can go to the park, but lets be honest, it IS St. Louis...therefore expect 80* heat before noon. lol.

Goodnight Kids!

Deep cleaning the house and it's applications for the soul

After catching up on some much needed sleep I decided to get to cleaning the house today. I live with my mom and sister and its not like we make much mess but spring cleaning has been wayyy overdue.

I started with the bathroom and scrubbed the tub, toilet, and sink. I was just going to sweep the floor but decided instead to steam it and there begins the biggest hunk of my cleaning for the day. Once i started in the bathroom I ended up being a steaming machine! I vaccumed/steamed the hardwood floors throughout the house and when that wasn't enough I steamed the carpet in the living room....each floor I steamed about 3 times over. Once I finished that I windexed all of the class, pledged the wood, and cleaned the leather furniture. Not quite satisfied with my work I RECLEANED the hardwood floors with this great cleaner that my sister picked up for me to use. I then placed all of the furniture back in the rooms, while Nicole cleaned the stainless steal in the kitchen and eventually I stood back to marvel at the work.

The floors actually shined! The carpet felt sooo much softer and looked sooo much better! The stainless steel appliances looked brand new! Its amazing what hard work, determination, and HEAT can do to return things to a healthier, cleaner, shinier, much more appealing condition.

How true is this of our lives?

Often times we have to go through difficulties, tough times, and HEAT for God to work in the mess that is our lives, clean up the grime, dust, and stains and really make us shine. This process is not one that we can do on our own. Like with my sister helping with the finishing touches, often we need people to come beside us and help us work through the difficulties to come out stronger and more beautiful on the other side.

-Ash

One week till' reality

It seems as though my mini-summer break is very quickly slipping through my fingers...why you ask is my vacation mini? Well, this is because this recent college grad will be starting her first official post-college, non-retail job! I accepted a receptionist position with Mercy Ministries here in St. Louis and begin June 1st. So this night owl will have to become an early bird...YIKES! I do appreciate the set hours, no nights or weekends, but conditioning my body to getting up early again will take some getting used to, but thats okay!

So for the past few weeks I have been enjoying the heck out of staying up late, sleeping in, and doing whatever pleases my fancy but this will very soon be coming to an abrupt end. I didnt realize this, for some reason, until this morning after a very rough night of sleep and waking up to the feeling of complete dispair at the thought of doing anything more productive than getting out of bed. Oh dear. lol

In other news... I dont know if you all heard, but, Brittany Murphy's husband was found dead in their home yesterday. If you remember it wasnt long ago that Brittany, herself, died of natural causes. He was quite a bit older than she was and it really makes you wonder about soul connection. Often times when a spouse dies, the remaining partner's death is often not far behind. He seemed to be absolutly devastated at her death, as if something inside of him had gone with her. Could it be that really it had? What are your thoughts on this?

Here's the link to the story on Yahoo!.

http://omg.yahoo.com/news/brittany-murphys-husband-is-found-dead-at-home/41269?nc

Also in today's news... Tonight is part 1 of the "Dancing with the Stars" finale. Who is your favorite? Who do you think will win?

This is a tough one for me being that I'm a huge fan of Nicole AND Erin. I would love to see the non-dancer take it. Erin has really proven herself and has come out as one of the shinning stars in this competition. I love her attitude and determination! Plus, she has the best looking partner ever, gotta love Max! I think it will be a realllly close competition even tonight and that the winner could really be any one of them. All 3 finalists are incredibly talented and deserve to win.

Here's an interesting story on just that!
http://www.chicagotribune.com/entertainment/sc-ent-0520-dancing-finale-preview-20100524,0,5398023.story?track=rss


I would love to hear your feedback after tonight's perfomances!



Well, I suppose I should start doing something with this day...a few small things can count right?

-Ash

Saint Louie!

This week Kelly's Korner asked fellow bloggers to share a bit about their home towns and I was shocked to see that St. Louis was not represented so I just had to share a post about our great city!

Welcome to St. Louis!

While I am not originally from this great city, I HAVE lived here almost as long as I lived in my hometown of Portage, IN so I do believe I can serve as just as good a tour guide as anyone else!

St.Louis is home to the World Series winning Cardinals and let me tell you, it's not an exageration when people call this city "Cardinal Nation". They are fanatic about baseball here.

We also host the St. Louis Blue hockey team and the Rams football team (although the jury is out on whether or not we're claiming the Rams as belonging to us! lol).

Apart from sports you will also find the world famous "Arch" which is our most noteable landmark.

One of the great parts about this monument is that you CAN go up inside of it. If you look closely as the pictures you will see small windows along the top of the Arch. These windows are a part of the lookout deck. One of the most amazing views of St. Louis comes from this look out. In order to get to the top, you climb into a small Jetson looking egg and take an elevator ride to the top!

St. Louis is also the home to Forest Park where you can find the wonderful St. Louis Zoo, Jewel Box, Art Museum, History Museum, The Muny (one of the only outdoor open-air live theatres in the nation), The Boathouse, Steiner Ice Skating Arena, and many baseball diamonds and golf courses. This are really is a treasure!

 (Pictured below : The Muny, The Zoo, The Art Museum, The Jewel Box)

        

Not far from Forest Park is the Delmar Loop which is home to many eclectic shops, eateries, concert venues, and the occassional street musician! You will find "Blueberry Hill" here, which is Chuck Berry's restaurant. He appears and plays here every few months.

The sidewalks are lined with stars denoting the various actors, musicians, and other noteables who call St. Louis home.

If you're looking to come to St. Louis for educational purposes, you're in luck. You will find well over 20 colleges in our city including Washington University, Saint Louis University, University of Missouri STL, Fontebonne University, Harris Stowe, Missouri Baptist University, Maryville University, and MANY more.

If you're looking for great food, we can definitely help you out there. St. Louis is known for the delicacy that is toasted ravioli. DO NOT come to STL and leave without trying it! We have a great neighborhood of family owned Italian restaurants known as The Hill.

You cant go wrong with Italian mama's cooking up their best ancient recipes for you and your family to enjoy. We also have our own style of pizza! Check out Imo's to enjoy St. Louis's own thin crust, provolone cheese wonder.

For the best fried chicken EVER, head over to Hodak's. You will likely have to wait in line but it is MORE than worth it for their prices, food offerings, and taste creations.

For dessert grab our famous Gooey Butter Cake or Frozen custard. Just about every town around here has 5 or so custard shops. Check it out for a yummy treat.

There is sooo much more in St. Louis and I could go on for much much longer but I encourage you to come and check it out yourself! This is a great city for families and singles alike. For a better finger on the pulse of our city check out our local arts/events/city paper and website @ http://www.riverfronttimes.com/

Here you'll find everything that is going on in and around St.Louis at any given time as well.

See you soon!

Living Out Love? Nice to Meet You!

I have finally done it. I have finally created a blog and am setting out on a new adventure. Wanna come along?

I am a recent college graduate and even typing that now seems so surreal. It seems as though I just sent in my first college application and should still be waiting with baited breath for an acceptance letter..but I have far more than an acceptance letter. I have a magna cum laude double Bachelors of Arts under my belt and I could not be more thrilled, blessed, and humbled.





God has been doing something with my life that I could not have even begun to comprehend when I was younger and dreamily imaginging what it would be like to be an adult. I have wandered through the valley and stood on the mountain, all the while in the palm of His hand.

But I'll go on about this more some other time.


So what does it mean to Live Out Love? Well, quite some years ago I decided that my life verse, the verse that I would model my life after is 1 Corinthians 13:4-8:


"Love is Patient. Love is Kind. It does not envy, it does not boast, it is not proud. It is not rude or self seeking. It is not easily angered. It keeps no record of wrongs. Love does not delight in evil but rejoices with the truth. It always protects, always trusts, always hopes, and always
perseveres. Love never fails."



To me, what it means to live out love is that in everything I do, in everything that I am and will be, I will strive to embody these attributes of love. I will strive to be patient and kind with everyone I come in contact with...friends, family, total strangers. I will strive to put away envy, malice, boastful pride, rudeness, and selfishness and put on His light and be the embodiement of HIS love. I want to model my life after the greatest of the commandments and be the hands and feet of Jesus to a lost and broken world.

So now that you know what my title means and a little bit about who I am and what I stand for, I'd love to invite you to join in the fun, random, blessed, crazy, painful, beautiful adventure that is my life.