Back in high school, Char and I had two fairly clear hopes for our future friendship. We dreamed that post-college we would move in together in a small apartment in New York, and we would own two dogs named Merry and Pippin. And for later in life, we joked about being old women together after our husbands died (not any kind of morbid wish, just going with the statistics that women live longer than men): we would, being crazy old women, travel to Ireland specifically to kiss the blarney stone.

Well, we’ve reached the first of those milestones, and things have turned out a little differently than our teenage selves had hoped. Instead of sharing an apartment, we live about two thousand miles apart. And instead of two dear pups, we both found something we hadn’t reckoned on — two incredible, lifelong companions in our respective hubs’.

Marriage has strengthened my appreciation of my girlfriends — and my appreciation for the steadfastness behind Char’s and my friendship. Happy birthday, my beautiful friend, and I look forward to many more to come! And life might not have given us one of our goals, but I’m still holding out for that blarney stone expedition.

Love,
Ash

All photos by Shannen Norman Photography.

As I’m sure everyone was aware, yesterday was the longest day of the year and the first day of summer. I was intending on laying by the pool with my hubs, who had the day off, but sadly, after weeks of 90 degrees+, there was a chilly breeze floating around yesterday. It made for gorgeous weather, but not pool weather. So after a sweet dinner together (Cheddar Chicken, a favorite), we headed to the driving range: John to break in a new golf club and me to read Jane Eyre outside as the sun went down. It was a simple, lovely time. I wish I had taken a picture, but Jane’s story is just starting to pick up, and I could not be distracted.

How did you celebrate the longest day?

Thank you, Dad, for being my parent first and my friend second.

Thank you, Dad, for not only loving me, but showing me every day by spending time with me.

Thank you, Dad, for coming to my soccer and softball games, swim meets, choir concerts and plays.

Thank you, Dad, for always telling me I could be anything I wanted to when I grew up, and then never discouraging me when I said I wanted to be a librarian, teacher, whale trainer, singer, youth pastor, Marine, writer, journalist.

Thanks for working so hard so I could graduate college and start my life without any debt.

Thank you for not giving me daddy issues (that one is from John too).

Thank you for always making me believe that I could do anything.

Thank you for showing me what a marriage should be and staying committed and in love with my mom for 29 1/2 years and counting.

Happy Father’s Day!

My favorite things this Friday are two websites that have been providing me endless amounts of entertainment. I’m talking about HelloGiggles and Overheard in the Newsroom.

HelloGiggles describes itself as “the ultimate entertainment destination for young women.” It was founded by Zooey Deschanel, Sophia Rossi and Molly Mcaller. There you will find a diverse amount of content ranging from articles and videos, some original and some compiled from other places, all intended to make you smile, think and encourage you. There are funny cute animal videos, witty culture commentary, recipes, how tos, music and it goes on. I think my favorite part about this site, however, is that it has a staff who provides content but it also solicits content from its audience! Anyone can contribute to HelloGiggles, and I think that takes it to the next level by letting the audience feel like it belongs to them too. You can follow the site on Twitter for all the best links. But be careful at work. This article on not having a cute dog had me LOLing the entire time I was reading it. I also really enjoyed this article on the Top 10 Old School Nickelodeon Hotties.

Overheard in Newsroom: I’m late to this party that started in January 2009, but I don’t care. This site is hilarious at least for us in journalism professions. I tried to read some of these to my hubs, and he found some of them entertaining, but not nearly as much as I did. The site went crazy over Weinergate with sincere (and not sincere) statements coming off as intentional comedy bits.

You can click this link to see my favorite Weingergate quote, #8012. As it is a dirty joke, I decided to post it as a link since my grandmother may or may not read this blog.

My favorite newsroom quote from today that has nothing to do with Weinergate: #8083

Editor: “That economy story is pretty long. Forty-two inches long.”

Page designer: “Geez!”

Reporter who wrote story: “Sorry. The economy is pretty messed up.”

I love my job. I really do, and I’m really thankful that I have a job that I don’t mind waking up to on Monday morning. It’s the waking up that hurts. I’m a night owl and love sleeping in, that’s no secret. So when Wednesday comes around, I get pretty giddy about the fact that there are only two more days of 6 a.m. alarms.

Every Friday I reward myself with a latte. Today's is hazelnut.

This weekend my baby bro is coming to see us and bringing his new puppy! I’m so excited and a bit nervous for our pups and his puppy (like a real puppy, not 2 and 3 years old like my “puppies”) to meet. This weekend will be full of dog walking, swimming (weather permitting) and cooking delicious food for my brother. You probably wouldn’t know it from all the food I blog about, but he’s really the chef in the family. Growing up he loved to experiment in the kitchen and I didn’t have a clue, so now, I always like to impress him with how far I’ve come from grilled cheese and box brownies. I’m testing my first homemade pizza on him, so I’ll tell you all about that next week.

It’s Father’s Day weekend, and I’ll be celebrating with a blog tribute and a phone call, since my dad in in California, and I’m in Missouri. How are you celebrating your dad this weekend? Big plans?

I have been munching on this salad all week long, and it is delicious and full of those dark, leafy spinach greens that are so healthy for you. That’s all this salad is raw spinach + strawberries.  And of course, the dressing. Who could forget a dressing like this? Never in my life have I met a salad that was a more perfect combination of flavors, and I have met a lot of salads and fallen in love with many, but this salad, this one is my soul mate if salads and people could be soul mates. Make this for yourself and it will get you through the week or make it at your next cookout or dinner party, and people will beg for the recipe. That’s how it fell into my family’s hands.

Spinach and Strawberry Salad

Ingredients

• 1 lb fresh spinach
• 1 pt fresh strawberries, sliced
• 1/2 cup sugar
• 1/4 cup vinegar
• 1/2 cup cider vinegar
• 1/2 cup olive oil
• 2 Tblsp sesame seeds
• 1 1/2 Tblsp minced onion
• 1/4 tsp Worcestershire sauce
• 1/4 tsp paprika

Directions: Whip dressing ingredients in a blender. Refrigerate.

It’s that simple!

Summer is my absolute favorite time of year! Every year fall and spring almost have me thinking that the moderate temperatures and beautiful colors they both bring to the table are better than sunshine and sweltering heat, but no, I’m a summer baby all the way. Even though it does a number on my frizzy hair and sometimes it gets too hot to even think about turning on the oven to cook, I love summer. I love the clothes. I love the food. I love the drinks. I love the heat so suffocating that all you can do is lay out by the pool, which is great because our new apartment complex has a pool. The whole season just feels like vacation. Even when I’m working in a cubicle all day long, when I get off work and that suns still shining until 8 p.m., there’s still time for grilling up some dinner and reading a book by the pool.

Which brings up what will I be reading by the pool this summer? Well this year’s reading list is brought to you by you. Other than Jane Eyre (which I’m reading right now), I didn’t really have any books on my mind to read this summer. I have an appetite to read, definitely, but I’m just not sure what I’m in the mood for. So I asked people on Facebook and Twitter for some suggestions, and here’s what you came up with:

A Visit from the Goon Squad by Jennifer Egan

Evolving in Monkey Town by Rachel Held Evans

I Capture the Castle by Dodie Smith

The Help by Kathryn Stockett

And I’m adding a leftover from last year: Abraham Lincoln Vampire Hunter by Seth Grahame-Smith because I didn’t get a chance to read it, and every summer needs some twisted entertainment, right? But first, I have to get through this monstrous edition of Jane Eyre.

Sometimes when I’m struggling with what to blog about, I go back to our About the Blog page, and I’m reminded what this blog has always been about — What would I talk to Ash about if we were sitting across from each other drinking tea?

Today, that is easy. I would tell you, “Happy Birthday!” I wish I could be there to celebrate with you in person and take you to afternoon tea or something fabulous like that, but I’m sure Mr. Ace and the Cali friends will make sure this day is fabulous! I’m so thankful to have you in my life. You are truly my sister, and you inspire me everyday.  Here’s to many more years of life and friendship and one day going to Ireland as fashionable old ladies.

When we moved we realized we didn’t have a microwave. Our old apartment had an awesome one built in. Our new kitchen doesn’t nor does it have a ton of counter space to set one on. So instead of spending money on something that would swallow our counter, we didn’t buy this supposedly must-have appliance. And so far, we’re okay without it. The only time I really miss my microwave is when I’m baking and I have to dirty an extra pan just to melt the butter, but I get over it fairly quickly. That led me to wonder what else I could give up.

Cable?

Potato chips?

Dr. Pepper? *gasp*

Honestly, since summer has started, we’ve watched very little actual cable. During the regular TV season, our DVR works overtime every night to record our plethora of shows, but now that they have ended for summer break, all we have left on our DVR is The Daily Show and Conan and soon True Blood will start again (on my birthday actually!). Honestly, True Blood is the only show we watch that doesn’t make episodes available online the next day. After fall comes and takes True Blood away, I’m having a really difficult time justifying our $121/month cable bill when all we need is an Internet connection and our $10/month Netflix account. Since making the conscious effort to not turn on the TV unless its to watch something specific, my house is cleaner, I’m reading and writing again, exercising and have more time to cook healthy meals and snacks.

Which leads me to the other thing I’m giving up: potato chips and other unhealthy sides/snacks. This is hard because they are so good and convenient. Coming up with sustainable sides and snacks outside of these convenient snacks takes planning and prep. I’ve been trying to stick with veggies since they seem to be the most important thing when it comes to nutrition. This means I’ve been eating a lot of salad and hummus with baby carrots, grape tomatoes (fruit?) and sugar snap peas. Then there’s always the good old celery with peanut butter. If you have any suggestions for other yummy healthy snack options, please leave a comment!

All of this is in an effort to find the best way to live a quality life. With school finally over, grown-up jobs taking off and a new start in a new city, we’ve been all about figuring out the way in which we want to live our lives, and this journey of sacrifices is a part of all that. I’m searching for that happy balance where we live simply and cheaply but still enjoy those things that we love so much (like movies, traveling, eating with friends). Anyone out there been there, done that? Have any tips? Is there anything you thought you couldn’t live without but discovered you can?

*I’m not sure I will ever be able to give up Dr. Pepper. Maybe cut back but never give up.

Today might be my last post for a while since tomorrow after work I will be turning over my beloved MacBook, Stevie, to the genius bar for repairs. About five weeks ago, he needed a new screen and something must be loose in there because the screen won’t stay on when it’s opened unless the computer is held just right. It’s annoying.

All that to say I will be without a computer for probably the majority of the week, and even though I have the WordPress app on my phone, typing all this out on this screen is tedious. So if something incredible happens I might pop in for an quick update, but if not, here is a picture of some pretty flowers I bought yesterday on this productive, restful weekend.