Update

I have been busy getting everything ready to go for the summer. I have finally gotten my trailer all cleaned out and ready to load up with my stuff. It is amazing what kinds of junk your cousins leave when they don't really care about the trailer. Then again, that was the weekend that Cody got busted so I think other things were on his mind then. I will be living in my trailer for at least three months. It is so ghetto fabulous. It was new in 1972 when my great grandparents purchased it. For being that old it is actually in great condition. I don't know if I am going to have a roommate yet. My boss hasn't called to confirm it yet. If I do have a roommate I hope they don't mind the rules that I will have. No drinking, no smoking, no one over past 11 pm. I am going to attempt to have more fun this summer. Last summer was a lot of fun, but I want to be able to go out more and spend more time on the river this summer.
While gearing up to leave home again I am also gearing up to welcome my brother home. He will be returning from the Korea Seoul West mission on May 15. He will report his mission on May 17 at 9:30 am in the Parker church building in Parker, ID. We are getting so excited at our house for this home coming. It has been weird not seeing him. Having your only sibling gone for over two years. The time has flown by, but it will be nice to have him home. I also think that will take some of the attention off of my moving away again. Grandma has a hard time every time I leave to go on a new adventure. It will be nice to have her a little distracted.
I got to meet my new little cousin on Sunday. My cousin Brandi and her husband Tyler had a baby girl named Chloe and I got to see her for the first time at a little get together at Granny and Papa's house. For those who don't know, Grandma and Grandpa are my mom's parents and Granny and Papa are my dad's parents. Growing up I had tons of grandparents because all but two of my great grandparents were alive till I was 12. So that is why we have to call them different names, we just had a ton of grandparents.
We have been taking my Great-grandma Vae to church with us. She cracks me up. She likes to be about fifteen minutes early to church and then as soon as Sacrament meeting is over she wants to go home. So I get to skip at least part of Sunday School to take her home and have a chat every Sunday that I am in town. She cracks me up. She gets around pretty good for someone who is 91. I spent most of my summers with her and Grandpa Irvin. Dylan and I really enjoyed spending every day with them and helping make brownies and cookies and helping Grandpa with the gardening.
As to my love life things have been turning up. I have been going on dates with a nice guy for once. He is a newly returned missionary who is still kind of afraid of girls, which makes him absolutely confusing! So we will just have to see how things go, but don't expect any announcements any time soon. I am still not quite ready to give up my independance to settle down quite yet.
Well, I've got to go and start dinner. Hope every one is having a wonderful day!
Ashley

5 Things Tag

5 things I was doing 5 years ago:

1. Finishing my first year at college
2. Getting ready to move to Lake Tahoe, NV
3. Finding an apartment for my first year at BYU-I
4. Saying goodbye to all of my friends in Montana
5. Figuring out what to major in

5 things on my to-do list for today:
1. Laundry
2. Making a Wal-Mart run
3. Finish my personal statement for grad school application
4. Call to get some letters of recommendation
5. Figure out what I need to do to my trailer for the summer

5 things I would do with a million dollars:
1. Pay tithing
2. Pay off student loan and other debts
3. Buy a new car
4. Get a few new clothes
5. Put the rest in savings

5 places I have lived:
1. St. Anthony, ID
2. West Jordan, UT
3. Incline Village, NV
4. Jackson Hole, WY
5. Helena, MT

5 jobs I've held:
1. Telemarketer
2. Market Researcher
3. Ranch Hand at the Ponderosa Ranch where Bonanza was filmed
4. Melaleuca Associate
5. Bar J Chuckwagon person, I do a little bit of everything for them

5 things I want to be doing in 5 years:
1. Done with grad school and in an actual career!
2. Possibly finally be married (we'll see on that one)
3. Dancing
4. Own my own home
5. Finally be settled down

5 people I tag:
1. Sherry
2. SarahLynn
3. Kathryn
4. Megan
5. Lindsay

Headed to Idaho

So a lot of stuff has been happening this week. At work on Tuesday we had employee evaluations and I had a good chat with one of the therapists, then after that my supervisor let me know that my position was being eliminated and that my last day would be Friday. It came as a huge shock, mostly because they had not said any thing about closing down the home I worked in. So after processing for a couple of minutes I had to go back and work with the kids and not let them know anything. The kids didn't even find out until yesterday what was going on. I had a hard time at first, I have only been laid off once before in my entire life, so this was hard for me.
After talking to my parents, and praying a lot, I decided that my best bet would be to move home and see where life takes me from there. So on next Friday, March 13, I will be moving back to Idaho. I am actually really excited to move back home, mostly because I really am not that fond of Utah. The things that I will miss the most are the new friends that I have made and my institute class. I was a class representative and so it is really hard to just have to walk away from it, but hopefully I will be able to get enrolled in a class back home.
So now for the good news. I have a job, for the summer at least. I called up my old boss out at the Bar J and they said that I had a job waiting for me starting Memorial Day weekend. I am super excited for this, I loved working out at the Bar J, and the person who caused most of the drama last year will not be coming back this year. In fact, I will be living in her spot at the camp site. Dad and I get to fix up my grandparent's old trailer from the 70s and that will be my home from May till October. I don't mind living in such a small space, I handled it fairly well last year and I am excited to see how the summer goes.

This is me and my favorite person at the Bar J,
Donny!

Plus, I get to be home when Dylan gets home from his mission. His release date is May 15, so we will have about a week together and then I take off. Luckily Jackson is only about an hour and a half from home, so I will get to go home quite a bit and visit everyone.
I am also applying for grad school at Idaho State University. They have the exact same program as the one I was looking at at Boise State and it is about $2000 cheaper than if I went to Boise. So cross your fingers and pray that I get accepted.
All in all I am actually really happy to be going home. I didn't even cry at my last night working with the girls last night. I will really miss some of them, but for the most part, I will be glad going back to working with adults and not having to baby sit people with extreme issues. So wish me luck on my last week in Utah, and I will be seeing all of my Idaho friends again in about a week!

This is one of my favorite pictures I took last summer from the top of Snow King.

Another Day

So my girls lost their game to go to state, so our season is done. It is kind of bitter sweet. I got to spend a lot of time with them and got to know so many of them better than I ever knew I would. Then again, there was a ton of drama that happened during the season that I will be glad not to have to deal with any more. But unfortunately the drama does follow me to the rest of my job.
It is hard to watch these kids make these mistakes and think that they don't have to deal with the consequences for their actions. It is my new perspective to help them realize that what they do now really will effect them forever and that they need to think before they act. It is a hard lesson to teach, and an even harder one to learn. This makes me even more greatful for the way my parents raised me and my brother. We aren't perfect, but we are a family who loves each other and we are able to talk to each other and respect one another. We love each other for who each person is and we are all okay with that. This job reminds me of how much my family means to me and how much I am glad to have the family that I have.

More Basket Ball

So we are headed to Green River, UT this week to play in the cross over game to see if we make it to the state tournament. This trip will be about three hours away and we get to take a bus full of girls excited to get the day off of school to get there. The game I am excited about, the bus trip, not so much. This will be a lot of fun for the girls but kinda stressful for the coaches. If we win on Tuesday then we will play in the state tournament on Wednesday in Richfield, which is three hours in the opposite direction. The state tournament is a double elimination tournament and we have the possibility of staying all the way through Saturday. Pretty crazy if you ask me. All I know is that I am headed home next weekend for a few days out of Utah. I have really decided that I don't want to live in this state on any kind of permanent basis. I just don't like it here.
So I am apply for grad school at Boise State and University of Utah and hope that I can at least get in and get working on my masters so I can have a little bit better job in the long run. Wish me luck!

Almost Over

So this is the last week for our regular schedule for our basket ball team. While it will be sad not to see all of my girls as much, it is time for our season to be over. Four months is a long time to have practices and games. Plus now I will be able to get a second job, which will definitely help with the paying back of student loans issue.
I am really excited, this week I get to go to the Draper Temple Open House with my friend John. I am way excited, the last open house I went to was the Rexburg one over a year ago. It is always an exciting thing to be able to go with others to see the temple and know that in just a short time they will be used to help those who cannot help themselves.
I am also taking an institute class on the teachings of the living prophets. I love getting to learn more about our apostles and prophet and learn more of their teachings for us. I took the same class back at BYU-Idaho, but we have some new apostles since then, and it is always fun to read their talks to us after each conference. My conference issue of the Ensign is always marked up and all written on because that is the best way I have found to record my feelings and the inspiration that I get when I read the talks.
Another fun thing coming up is that I get to go home in two weeks! I am so excited! I would have to say that I really don't like living in Utah very much, the water and air stink and the drivers are crazy! So I enjoy getting to go home and see my family and hopefully some of my friendsthat are still there. I am very excited to get to go home, if you couldn't tell. I enjoy getting to spend some time back in Idaho, land of the potatoes. So soon I will be back there.
Another tid bit of info, I am applying to graduate school for political science. I am applying at the University of Utah and Boise State. I hope I get in to at least one of them and at this point I would enjoy going home to Idaho and going to school in Boise. That way I can at least I can see my mom more often when she comes over for meetings. I am excited to get back into politics. I have missed them a lot and I am looking forward to working with the state level of government. I don't think I would like living back east very much and local government is a little too mundane for my likings. So wish me luck on this new adventure!

Loving Coaching

So the last few months have been occupied with coaching a 1A girls basket ball team that is associated with Westridge Academy where I work. At first they didn't win any games, but had a great attitude about everything. They learn the plays and have finally started to execute them to the point where we can adjust our defence to meet the strengths of the teams we play against. Finally two weeks ago our hard work paid off. They are on a winning streak! If they win their game tonight we are almost guaranteed second in our region, which means we go to the state tournament. This is very exciting because this is the first year this group of girls has played together.
Because of the nature of our program, the kids generally are only here 10 months, with a few exceptions. Because of this they are generally not here more than one season for any sport. We were lucky to get a group of girls who are able to learn the plays and listen to the coaches and then go and execute what we ask them to on the floor. It is so much fun to see them finally learning the plays and finally making their shots.
Another great thing about this program is they have a huge resource in our athletic director. He is none other than Shawn Bradley who used to play for the Utah Jazz and the Dallas Mavericks. For any who remember, I had a huge crush on him in high school and college. It has been so much fun working with him and getting to learn some of his great knowledge of the game of basket ball. I promise pictures will come shortly, mostly because my brother Dylan wants to see how short I look next to all 7'6" of Shawn. As if I'm not short enough already!
So wish us luck tonight and in our next five games and hopefully I will be coaching a team that is going to the Utah State Championships!