Just a little update...

Okay so I haven't blogged in a while. I'm not surprised, you're not surprised, and it's probably not the last time I go months without updating. But I'm here now...so get ready!

What's going on in the world of Ashley? Well let's see...Tyler started working weekends about a month ago. What does this mean you ask? Well, he leaves for the studio around 4pm on Friday and comes home around 6am on Monday morning generally working the ENTIRE time at the studio, sleeping maybe 9 hours the entire weekend, and usually sleeping on the couch at the studio instead of our nice comfy bed. It's been a huge adjustment but I'm finally getting use to it and we've gotten really good at spending our weeknights together and having date nights during the week instead of the weekend. So what do I do on the weekends without my hubby? Friday night usually consists of me crashing our 8pm because I can lol I take Carmen to obedience training at 11am and then we usually swing by the studio to bring Tyler his toothbrush and deodorant lol Then it's usually time for a nap and then maybe a target run or starbucks run or kroger run. Sundays we go to church and usually out to eat with friends and do the usual laundry and cleaning and of course a little jog or two with the puppy now that she's leash trained! Sound like a fabulous weekend that you're totally jealous of? It's okay to admit it...I love it too!

As for some random thoughts that have crossed my mind...here's a couple! Starting a cupcake business, for real this time! I've had a couple offers to buy my cupcakes for different events lately and I'm starting to think I'd rather sell cupcakes than chase after toddlers all day...but we'll see what happens. Going to AFRICA!! Tyler and I have talked alot lately about going to work in an orphanage and I really think this is in our near future. Pretty much completely excited beyond words if this opportunity actually gets to happen. And last but not least, my little Manner. Okay I know he's not that little now but I will always consider him little brother. He's making incredible progress right now but I pretty much have tears in my eyes every time I think about him. I can only imagine being 14 and away from all my friends and family...I know it's what he needs but I miss him more than I ever have my entire life. I love you Manner and I can't wait to see you in October!!

And now what you've been waiting for...a few of my new favorite things! Drum roll please...

(1) DRY SHAMPOO!!! How in the world I have gone almost 27 years without this miracle hair product I do not know but I highly recommend this to every girl out there to use between shampoos when you need to clean up your roots and make that style last just one more day. Just shake, spray, and rub it in!! There's alot of brands out there but this is what my hair stylist recommended if you're looking to try it...Batiste Dry Shampoo found at Sally Beauty for only $6.99 :)

(2) A new snack of course...Trader Joes Yogurt Stars (Crunchy star shaped vanilla cookies dipped in three different yogurt coatings)! I was actually introduced to this yummy treat at preschool during our end of the summer class party last week. I'm pretty sure the teachers ate more than the kids but hey they're just that good! If you're look for a crunchy, sweet, and semi-healthy treat then this is a great pick!!

(3) I know summer is almost over but if you're looking of an easy to read extremely interesting book then I highly recommend "Somebody Else's Daughter." I started this book around the fourth of July and I just loved it. The general premise is a young couple has to give up their only daughter for adoption as an infant and seventeen years later the biological father is a teacher and has his daughter in class. There's obviously alot more to it but I don't want to give away all the secrets. So yah, go read it!!

Okay that's all for now! Hopefully I'll be a little better at updating more often, but who knows lol Have a great week!!

Meet Carmen!

This past Saturday Tyler and I decided to go shopping for a puppy and we found the perfect fit for our family. Her name is Carmen and she is just a sweetheart. We aren't exactly sure what breed she is but we're guessing a hound mix of sorts. She is one year old and weighs about forty pounds. She is extremely intelligent and already responds to simple commands like sit and stay. She LOVES to snack and to nap, my kind of friend!! She's extremely calm in the house and basically spends her time following us around the apartment and laying at our feet. However, once you get her outside she turns into the adventurous one smelling EVERYTHING and is extremely curious about her surroundings. We've gone on several walks and we're slowly getting her use to being on a leash. It became very clear to us the first time we went on a walk with her that this was a new concept compared to the complete freedom she had at her previous home in a backyard. But she's slowly getting the hang of it. She's also working on being housetrained...sometimes it works and sometimes it doesn't lol We're also working on training her to sleep in her crate at night but this is definitely one thing I easily give in to. I'm pretty sure Tyler will come home many nights only to find me sleeping next to her on the floor, she's just too sweet to leave alone. I guess that's all for now. Here are a couple pictures of the newest Browder in the family!!

Historic Flood

I found this video on youtube tonight and thought I would share it with everyone. It's an interesting perspective on what we just experienced in the last week as lives were taken, homes destroyed, and history rewritten. I know my life will forever be changed...

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=pFjaQoOdJvI

OH Dear!

So one of my mom's in my class shared a cooking/baking website with me today and I must pass it along! It's http://smittenkitchen.com/and it is AMAZING. I haven't looked at very much accept for the baking selection, no surprise there. But not only does the website provide easy practical recipes but the author is slightly sarcastic and definitely makes you chuckle while reading. She also posts amazing pictures that basically make you drool on your laptop because everything looks soo good! So if you're bored over the weekend and are looking for something to do I highly recommend browsing this website and possibly baking a thing or two, I know I will!!

Some New Favorites!!

So one of my friends posts some of the new favorite things in her life every week and I love this idea! This might turn out to be a very random weekly blog entry but at least it's something to give you a little glimpse into my very simple life!

1)Orbit has always been my most favorite gum but I've always stuck to Wintermint. I accidentally bought Sweet Mint recently and it's been the best mistake ever. I LOVE this flavor and it definitely takes my coffee breath away every morning! If you're looking for a new gum to try I highly recommend this one!

2) True Blue Spa Shea Cashmere Hand Cream! One of my coworkers introduced me to this fabulous lotion and I just fell in love with it when I tried it. We wash our hands so much at work that they are basically raw. So this nice little treat every day definitely helps with the pain. Bath and Body Works, oh how I love thee!

3) Pita Puffs! We've started shopping at Trader Joes more often lately and I came across this fantastic snack this past weekend. They're fun to eat and decently healthy! YUM YUM

6 Months of Updating :)

Okay so once again I'm on the path towards updating my blog more often. No promises yet but shooting for at least two a month lol but hopefully more like once a week! So here goes half a year of updates with a few pictures in between!!

October 2009 - We decided to make tshirts at work to celebrate Halloween baby style. I ironed on letters with phrases that related to working with infants and of course we had to wear pjs for pants! Some tshirt examples included: Spit up happens, Party in my crib at midnight, Sometimes I poop...up my back, Where's my paci, and Naptime is my favorite! (of course the naptime shirt was mine) :)

November 2009 - Thanksmas or shall we say getting the stomach flu on the drive from Nashville to Dallas and pretty much barely surviving in time to drive back to Nashville after four days of ugh. Of course I was a nice wife and gave this lovely gift to my husband so we pretty much spent the holiday in bed but at least we managed to surface for a picture with our matching tshirts!

December 2009 - Christmas!! Thankfully we were much healthier this go around to TX. We were able to to see lots of family and had a great time escaping from the real world in Nashville. It even snowed while we were there and we went with my family to see ICE at the Gaylord :) We also celebrated our first anniversary in this month but I failed to take a pic...we were in the airport flying back to TN after Christmas, I'll try harder next year to capture anniversary number two!


January 2010 - Tiffany came to visit and we went to see Carrie Underwood in concert at the Ryman! I managed to take zero pictures during this visit but I at least managed to steal a couple from Tiffany on facebook!

February 2010 - Happy Valentine's Day and good bye vegetarian Tyler :) Tyler cooked a delicious Valentine's dinner for me this year, I have pics but can't find them, woops. Like I said, I'm working on the whole taking more pics and actually keeping track of them. After two years of only eating veggies my hubby finally decided to enter the real world of meat eating again. A friend from the studio took us out to eat at Chick-Fil-A for this exciting event and Tyler had his first chicken sandwich in over two years. Pretty sure they could sell an ad campaign saying "Our chicken is so good even vegetarians can't resist us!"

March 2010 - Happy Birthday Tyler, Goodbye wisdom teeth, and Hello Abilene!! Tyler turned 25 this year and shortly after we were in TX again celebrating a friends wedding in Abilene and somewhere in there I had all of my wisdom teeth pulled. My dad got Tyler his first record player for his birthday and he said it was like Christmas when he unwrapped it! Now he has a new hobby and can listen to big boppin beats at home. We were also able to celebrate his birthday in TX with family and ate at Babe's to have some good old country cooking. Abilene was next on the visit! I hadn't been back since my grad school graduation in August 2008 and it was sooo much fun getting to see old friends and of course eating wedding cake!

Well it looks like we're all caught up! Hallelujah!! Up next...a few of my favorite things :)

Gatlinburg Getaway!!

This weekend Tyler's parents came to visit and they took us on a mini weekend vacation to Gatlinburg, TN!! It was a wonderful treat for us and we had a great time shopping, eating yummy food and LOTS of candy and of course some good old road trip conversations! Here's a couple pictures from the weekend and I just realized we didn't take any with his parents, oops. We'll have to take some for sure next time they're in town :) THANK YOU again for coming and sharing this weekend with us, we had a LOT of fun!!! :)

A view from outside our hotel room...there was a even a little river behind the pool!

Tyler and I with the beautiful Fall trees behind us (and yes it was very COLD)!!

It even SNOWED Saturday night in the mountains surrounding us :)

Lifelong Learner

My husband has told me more than once the past few weeks that I need to find a new hobby or to take up an old one...just something to keep me busy and away from spending my day watching Cake Boss or John and Kate Plus 8 while applying for jobs. So I've decided I want to start doing a research project. I know this might sound kind of crazy but I really do miss the higher education world and the days and weeks spent in the library working on papers and looking at journals and studies. So I've been thinking about something to research or study and I think I might have found it! One of my graduate school professors posted this link today on facebook and I found it extremely interesting. I'm not sure where I'm going to go with it but I'm always looking for ways to connect my bachelors degree and masters degree and this topic might be something worth pursuing. The title of the article is The Case for Early Marriage: Amid our purity pledges and attempts to make chastity hip, we forgot to teach young Christians how to tie the knot. I'll let you read it for yourself and let me know what you think but I found the article to be very interesting so if you're bored tonight grab a cup of coffee and dig in...I promise it will make you think! The link for the article is: http://www.christianitytoday.com/ct/2009/august/16.22.html

Wedding Quilt!!

So my Aunt Connie in California made Tyler and I a beautiful quilt for our wedding and it came in the mail this week. I love it so much and it even has our name stitched in it on one of the hearts :) Thank you Aunt Connie for our beautiful quilt and all of your hard work, it's very much appreciated!!

Fresh Veggies Anyone?!?

So Tyler decided to take a second internship at another studio in town to keep him busy and learning even more things. The new studio is called Sound Barn and a really nice guy owns it and it's in a small house behind his main house in Nashville. The guy records 100% analog meaning he records on tape instead of through Pro Tools (at least that's what I understand lol) which is a computer software program (I think). Up until the 90's everthing was recorded on tape but now for convenience and efficiency and other reasons most studios record digitally and very few record on tape. A reel of tape is like $400 and only holds like 3 songs so it's also cheaper to not use tape. But tape produces a unique sound so some engineers and artists prefer it over the new way. (Tyler if you're reading this and I got some of this wrong, I apologize. But I think I got most of it right lol) Anyway, Tyler was over there yesterday helping him record and when he left he gave him some fresh veggies from his garden, YUM!! He said the tomatoes are great for homemade salsa so now I'm on the hunt for a salsa recipe :)

A Little Change!

We rearranged our living room and Tyler's man cave! We have a farely large living room for an apartment and we originally had put both of our couches in when we moved in. But we thought it might be nice for Tyler to have some sitting room in his man cave so we decided to move the smaller couch in there and leave some room for a chair or something in the living room. So we moved everything around and here's what it looks like!

And yes that is a Coleman camping chair in the living room. Once I'm employed we hope to replace it with a real living room chair :)

Tyler's newest addition to the man cave...a comfy couch!!

Sound Stage Day 2!!

We went back to the studio on Saturday to add some vocal's to Jared's stuff. Here's some pics from the day!!

Tyler doing his thing

Say cheese...Tyler didn't want to :(
I don't think Jared was expecting me to come in lol

I decided I wanted a little bit of the action too!

I even got to sing! or just put the headphones on lol

Tyler and his beard

That's all she wrote :)

Sound Stage!!

So I got to go with Tyler to the studio tonight to watch him record his first live session at Sound Stage! He got to record a friend named Jared for a publishing company :) Here's a few pics from the night. They only tracked the instruments tonight and then they'll record vocals tomorrow but here's some pics so far!!

Outside the studio

The 900 Room

Inside the vocal booth

Jared's guitar ( I thought it was pretty)

The board...doesn't it look so simple?!?

Tyler recording and doing other stuff I don't understand

Talking and getting the guitar all tuned up

Chillin on the couch and catching up on my soaps :)

Gotta get the tempo right!

I'll post more pics tomorrow after they're done recording vocals!!

CakeSammy anyone?!?

Okay so here's the deal. It's no surprise to anyone that I want to open my own cupcake shop....BUT ... here's what I've been thinking. What about selling cupcake sandwiches? :) You know how everyone loves the top of a cupcake, well I'm thinking I just need to design a mold that makes just the tops of cupcakes. I could flip the top half so they are flat on the bottom and the top and call it a cakesammy lol Rachel Ray always calls sandwiches "sammies" so maybe it could work lol Anyway you could choose what flavor of frosting you want in the middle and even on top and even choose two different flavors of cake if you want to for the top and bottom.

My original design of "Cake N a Cup" is designed like a Coldstone where you choose your size and fixings so I'm kind of going off of that idea just with "cakesammies." LOL Choose your size, flavor, and frosting. Also, I've heard from tons of friends that some like a ton of frosting or maybe just a little, this way you can be in charge. You could add fresh strawberries in the middle or maybe some M&Ms! Or maybe you want your initials on the top or a smiley face :) Whatever makes you happy!

I'm still working on the idea but I really want to make it happen so we'll see where it goes! I've googled cupcake sandwiches and the idea is already out there but they aren't being sold yet so I guess I should hurry before someone steals my thunder LOL

Here's a pic of the basic idea..

Congratulations Blake and Katie!!

Two days after we moved into our new home we flew to TX for a week of wedding festivities!! Here's a few pics from the big day in San Antonio :)

Rehearsal dinner on the Riverwalk

Family Pic

Tiffany and the BEAUTIFUL bride!

The Groomsmen

Bridesmaids (LOVED their dresses)!

Family prayer during the ceremony

The beautiful cake and Blake's chocolate chip cookies lol