Happy 2 Month Wedding Anniversary!

Tomorrow, April 4, 2012, is our 2 month wedding anniversary!! Guess what we are going to be doing??? DRIVING 10 HOURS TO MISSISSIPPI!!! Although, I may not be elated about the drive to MS, I am SUPER excited to see MY Granny & Poppa, Bella, Dad, Sisters, Aunt Debra & Uncle Buddy, my 2nd family (aka The Cothern's), PJ & Shea and ALL my other friends!! Family is the most important thing to me. I am purposely not including my friends in that prior statement because you are not JUST my friend (if I've kept you around this long :) ) You are MY CHOSEN family!! lol It really does seem like we have been married forever. I guess that is just how it is when you are soul mates. It has truly been the best 2 months of my life, but I can't really say that because ever since the day I met Jason (which was May 26, 2009), he has made every day the BEST day of my life. I am reminded each day how blessed I am to have such a sweet, thoughtful, God fearing, loving, respectful, handsome, amazing parent to Gracie & Bella, intelligent... (the list could go on & on) man as my husband. I am not sure what I ever did to deserve such an amazing husband, but I sure am SO thankful. I pray that our marriage continues to grow each day & that we continue to have the strong drive to strengthen our bond any way that we can.

You can also be looking for our wedding announcement in Sunday's paper!! YAY!! Finally!! It only took us 2 months. That's not too bad.. Right?? After the picture being too large, then too black & white, then not being able to find the right one, we finally chose.... THIS ONE! God worked the timing of the announcement being published perfectly! We will actually be home to see it first hand. I am constantly reminded that God's timing is always PERFECT.

FASHION, SHOPPING, & BARGAINS

As most of you know, I LOVE shopping, fashion, and ESPECIALLY a good deal. I have been a member of eBay since January 2006, but mostly as a shopper. As you may not know, I tend to hoard my shoes and clothes. It is bad.. I have clothes that I had since Middle School.. maybe older. Just to show you a little sneak peak of how bad it is.... here is a picture of the shoes I am selling.

The sad thing is, my closet is still FULL of shoes! The first step is admitting you have a problem. Right?? lol Anyways... since I had all this stuff that I wanted to get rid of I decided to start selling it on eBay. I love it. I started shopping just for stuff to sell and I quickly realized how much fun it truly is. I have always thought one of the most fun jobs in the world would be a fashion stylist... lol this is the first step! JK, but this is a really fun way to combine my love for fashion, shopping, and deals! You can always check out the items I'm selling. My eBay member name is jmac9985.

JESSICA & JASON'S BOOK CLUB

Jason & I just started a new book together called "Love Is A Verb" by Gary Chapman (btw he is one of my FAVORITE authors)! It is an amazing, inspiring book (not just for couples, but for ANYONE) that is easy to read and will leave you with a happy heart and tears in your eyes. Each story has reminded us how blessed we are to be given the lives we have and that we should make the most of EACH day.

Alrighty, well it's been a nice, one-way chat with you guys. I guess I gotta go pack now! Boooo. I haven't even started! Maybe Gracie will help me! I will leave yal with ONE more picture! Gracie says byyyeeee!

Pictures to See, Wreaths to Make, and Movies to Watch

Happy Sunday Funday!! 

Jason & I decided to write a blog together, as a family, Gracie included!

The Ashe household has had quite an eventful week. March 20, which was last Tuesday, was our 1 year anniversary of our engagement at the Biltmore in Asheville, NC. That day already held a great deal of significance for us, but to top it off we also received our wedding pictures from Mandy. Needless to say, our night and a great deal of the week was filled with sorting through 1400 wedding photos. Here is a sneak peak of what is to come!!! 

Since it has almost been 2 months since our wedding, it is really coming down to the wire for us to put our wedding announcement in the Enterprise Journal which means we have to pick ONE picture out of the 1400 that we have gotten back. 

*Drum Roll Please* 

AND THE WINNER WAS.........

There were so many great pictures to choose from, but we both agreed on this one. Once we both decided on this picture, my bestest friend, Amy Hathorn, put her magical, artistic touch on it! The only thing that may make me love this picture even more is if Gracie was photoshopped right in the middle! lol. I am hoping that yal will see it in the paper next week, however, I am not sure how long Enterprise Journal takes to process these announcements. I do know, for certain, that Granny will be very impressed with the write-up about the wedding that Jason & I carefully prepared.

 I REALLY can't wait to make Granny & Papa, Dad & Cassy, & all Jason's family a book of our wedding pictures. I have heard that Mixbook is great... if any of you have any other recommendations on the sites that are best for creating a wedding book, please let me know.

Last weekend, Jason & I were at The Dollar Store with some friends. I quickly migrated to the Easter decorations. I found a vast array of plastic eggs, ribbons, and small wooden wreath rounds, as well as many other goodies. Well, as many of you know, I am pretty much a Pinterest addict, so I wanted to make a creative wreath for Easter! I wasn't exactly sure how it was going to turn out because unlike most wreaths I have worked with, this one was wooden, therefore, it wasn't flat or even. The eggs of course were an assortment of colors, but round, nonetheless. Anyways, it worked perfectly! All I did was wrap the ribbon all the way around the wreath in order to be able to glue the eggs. I then started gluing from the inside to the outside. Jason helped me tie the bow & wahhhlahhhh here's what you get!

As I have probably already told some of you, Jason & I read a couple's devotional book everyday along with any couple's books, i.e., The 5 Love Languages, The Love Dare, His Needs Her Needs etc., that we find helpful. We have found that this time together with God is essential to our relationship. They really help to bring us back to the core of our relationship and it always helps us to remember what is really important. It is very important to us that we not only grow as a couple and as a team, but we want God to be at the very center because with Him at the center we can be guaranteed a successful marriage. We understand that we may still have some troubles, as all couples do, but we will have God on our side to help us overcome any obstacle in our way.

Along with every other tween & young woman, I was caught up in the whirlwind of The Hunger Games trilogy. I read all 3 books in about a week and was anxiously anticipating the movie. Jason was lucky enough to be able to hear me rant and rave about the books, so he was somewhat aware of the plot of the books and movie. He surprised me Wednesday with tickets to see the movie on Friday! He is such a sweetheart! Right? I enjoyed the movie, however, the books were much better! My main issue with the movie was Peeta! I felt that in the book that he was described as being really attractive. I pictured Gale and Peeta being almost equally attractive, except in different ways. Peeta was even shorter than Katniss?? Weird. All in all, if you've read the books, it is a MUST see movie! Jason even enjoyed it. We are both anxiously awaiting the release of Catching Fire.

While you would probably think our entire week would be full, we still had time to watch The Girl with the Dragon Tattoo, by FAR one of the best movies from a book EVER!! I was so impressed with how the movie so closely depicted the book! My dear friend, Lindsey, is the one who got me hooked on this series. At first, I was very reluctant because in the bio's it just didn't seem like my kind of book, but once I passed Chapter 3 or 4, I was never able to put it down. I am on the 2nd book now and it is just as amazing. I absolutely can not wait to see this movie! Jason did enjoy this movie more than The Hunger Games.

That about wraps up our week! I hope you all have a wonderful Sunday night & a great week ahead.

Love,

Jason, Jessica, and Gracie Ashe

My First Blog

It's official... I am a blogger. Yay!!

I have had SO many positive things going on in my life! I am extremely excited to start documenting everything from our wedding, recipes, fitness tips, daily inspiration, updates on our life, animals, crafting ideas, books to read and SO much more!

As many of you already know, February 4, 2012, I married Jason Bentley Ashe.

 It was hands down, by far, the BEST, most precious, prized day in my entire life. Our wedding was a fairytale! I couldn't have imagined that day or that moment any more perfect. We were so blessed to have our friends & family by our side especially my grandparents! My grandpa, Papa, turned 82 on our wedding day and my grandma, Granny, turned 74 just yesterday! I love them to PIECES!!! They have shown & taught me the true definition of unconditional love!

I was also blessed to have THE BEST bridesmaids! They were so helpful & supportive throughout the entire process... from me changing the wedding from Jamaica to MS, changing EVERYTHING, late night spastic calls from me, flower vendors canceling 1 month before the wedding, throwing me beautiful showers, entertaining me while I was home without Jason for 1 month etc. I am SO incredibly thankful for MY BEST FRIENDS! It would not have been the fairytale it was without them.

Jason & I were so bless to be able to go on the honeymoon of our dreams. We went to Sandals Montego Bay, Jamaica. We left Granny & Papa's house at 2 AM February 5, 2012 to drive to New Orleans. I have never been so tired, but felt so alive & awake. At that point, I am positive we were both high on love lol.

 Once we arrived at the airport, Jason bought me some excedrin and coffee because I was starting to get a headache. I took one, but dropped the other. We looked everywhere for that pill, we soon realized that it had fallen into my coffee. Jason then proceeded to tell me to just drink the coffee and it would be the same thing. It def. helped to keep our minds off how tired we were.

Needless to say, we arrived in Montego Bay, Jamaica around 12:00 PM. The weather was absolutely perfect the entire time we were there. I am pretty sure Jamaica looks very similar to heaven! It is the most beautiful place I have ever seen. All the employees at the resort were SO happy and it wasn't because they were getting large tips either. They seemed to just be happy & thankful to be alive. It was a contagious feeling. The resort was stunning! The beaches were so tranquil! The food was DELICIOUS!! I need some Jamaican cooking lessons for sure! Jason & I were both happily surprised by my love for snorkeling! Jason & I both agreed that we will go back every year.... lol possibly move there.

One of the most exciting, surprising qualities about the resort was..... the number of random CATS! There were stray cats everywhere! I love cats & it was my first time to be away from Gracie for that length of time so it worked out perfectly. Random.... I know.

Our honeymoon was an absolute dream. We made lifelong friends with several of the couples we met there, as well as, a couple girls who worked at the resort.

On our way back to the US, we went through customs and were asked to step aside. Apparently you aren't allowed to bring sand back into the US from another country because some have tried to smuggle drugs back in. Well, of course, there was the cutest idea on pinterest where you take sand from each place you take vacations & put it in a container & label the sand, so we needed the sand. The customs worker was very understanding. He ran a chemical test on our sand & apparently, it wasn't drugs, so we were allowed to take our sand & proceed. lol Here is a picture of Jason collecting our sand on our last morning in Jamaica.

 We flew into Dallas to a blizzard. Typical. I am so thankful we were also able to spend a couple days with Granny & Papa before we came back to Columbia.

I am SOOOOOOO excited because as I type, our wedding pictures are on their way to me!!! Hopefully, by tomorrow I will have them! I can't wait to see all the moments our amazing, talented photographer, Mandy, captured. EHHHH CAN'T WAIT!!!

Well, I'd say I had a productive first blog experience. I have so much more to say, but it will have to wait until another day. :)

I LOVE YAL!!!!

Jessica Corban Ashe