Living up to the Wanderlust name!

#1 favorite thing to do of ALL time:

TRAVEL

I can't help it. The traveling bug bit me at the ripe age of....uhhh...well I was so young I can't even remember how young I was, so it must have been way young. I was so incredibly blessed that my parents allowed me to go anywhere and everywhere that the wind blew me. I always think "Why o Why did I pick an occupation where you don't need to travel at all?!?" So since I didn't pick an occupation where I can feed my traveling urge, I'm going with plan B (which has yet to work out)....marry rich so I don't have to work and I can just travel the world!!!

Don't judge me...you would do it too.

A few weekends ago was Dallas. One word - amazing. The weekend after that my brother and I joined my dad in Sin City! Lets just say there were some beyond awkward moments. O don't you fret - you will hear all about it.

On Friday night I arrived in Dallas around 8:30 to a welcoming crew who had started drinking the moment they boarded the plane from Dallas. Wonderful. They both tried to play it off but genetics are cruel and you could spy their rosy colored cheeks from across the airport!

Once we got to the hotel we had a fabulous dinner at a placed called the Red Door (or something to that effect) and then went to the House of Blues. Now this was by far Adam's highlight of the entire trip! We saw Steel Panther, which is an 80's Hair Band Cover Group. He literally did not shut up the entire weekend about feeling like this was his calling. Lets hope thats not true. Had I been with anyone other than family this might have been an enjoyable experience. But they really liked to talk about the P word....and the D word....and what the D word would do to the P word....Okay okay you get my drift.

AWKWARD MOMENT #1!!!

Adam and his future calling

Sleeping....at the concert.

Ready for awkward moment numero dos?!? That would be our lovely next door neighbors that felt the need to broadcast their sexcapades from 3:00 - 5:00 in the morning! We all pretended to sleep because we didn't want to acknowledge the fact that we knew what was going on. And we were also toying with calling the police because it literally sounded like she was dying/crying/laughing/hurting/etc. Awkward.

Below is just one of the shots from our frequent photo shoots. Adam called this

"Black Swan"

Myself - the movie was creepy

Adam - LOVED the movie & super excited

Dad - hadn't seen the movie so he was looking for it

The GQ men before we went to the Cirque show LOVE, which I LOVED!!!

(Side note: if you do go to Vegas, I would recommend the Cirque show KA - it's beyond incredible and action packed)

On Sunday we went to an Indoor Sky Diving place. AMAZING!

We don't have any pictures from that (rats!), but I have to say we were pros!

Sunday night we went to the Cirque show Zumanity.

AWKWARD MOMENT #3!

WARNING: Never EVER go to this with your family members.

Here is a brief preview: Your MC is a tranny (who was hilarious and I loved), you see so many body parts that you actually forget that you're seeing body parts, there is a flying midget (also a highlight), but the noises....o the noises are the worst part! Lets just say you could listen to what was going on and know EXACTLY what was going on. Ewww....

Later Sunday night the boys and I went to New York New York which was great fun. This might be my favorite part of the trip. Let me preface this story with the fact that Adam HATES roller coasters and heights. Well I was dying to go on the New York New York roller coaster and as a joke I asked Adam & dad to go on it. Without hesitation Adam said yes! I was shocked. I figured it was the alcohol that was giving him a brave buzz but I wasn't going to fight it. We got into the seats and began the ascent to the first big dive...

Adam: Holy Explicative....THIS IS A REAL ROLLER COASTER!!!!

Ash: What?!? Of course it is!

Adam: What the explicative...explicative....explicative....etc.

Turns out he saw a dinky roller coaster going throughout the casino that just takes people on little tours. He had no idea there was a real one! Turned out he loved it once it was all said and done. So worth it.

So clearly what happens in Vegas does not stay there and maybe it should, but I have a big mouth and thought you all should know. So there.

Dallas BIRTHDAY weekend!

This weekend myself and a few of my very favorite girls went to Dallas and it was one word - AMAZING! I'm pretty positive I would have fun with them in a sewer, but I rather not test that out. We had originally planned on driving down on Thursday after work to make it to an Amos Lee concert, but stupid weather got in the way (don't worry Amos - we'll hit you up next time). I'm shaking my fist (not to be confused with fist pumping...I do NOT fist pump) at winter right now! So we drove down on Friday in time to make it to one of my favorite things EVER.....

Dallas Stars vs. Chicago Black Hawks

It was A-MAZ-ING! Typically a game is just 3 periods...this one went into 5!

AND DALLAS WON WOOOOO!!!!!

And the games they play in between periods are just icing on the cake!

Yep those are grown men dressed up as beer bottles about to go thru an obstacle course.

Human Bowling!

Saturday we did what every girl does in Dallas....SHOP!

I made my dear sweet friend, Stephanie, be subjected to a MAC makeover and

she was quite the trooper!

The MAC lady was great...she didn't do the typical MAC tranny look at all!

VOILA! Doesn't she look beautiful?!?

Hmmm....what should we do next....

Tattoos?

Okay!

Christie and I tried to peer pressure the other two into joining us.

Didn't work....this time.

My new one is the wrist on the far right. It's a dove and I'm in love with it! It symbolizes my faith. And supposedly European Superstition believes the devil and witches can turn into any bird BUT the dove.

Good. To. Know.

Not gonna lie...this one hurt much more than the last! My other one (the wrist on the far left) is my favorite bible verse - Proverbs 3:5 & 6

Trust in the Lord with all your heart

And lean not on your own understanding.

In all your ways acknowledge Him

and he will direct your path.

Christie Lou had "dum spiro spero" on her wrist which is Latin for

"While I breath, I hope."

Why my wrist? It wont stretch when I'm pregnant. Yeah...thats pretty much it. And in case you were wondering, yes I know it's permanent.

Still smiling after its all said and done!

Jac got one too!!!

Okay not really, but she was close! This is what we sent her mom just to freak her out a little. I drew this on Jac's wrist as a trial run to see how she likes it.

Met some of my very favorite lovelies from Baylor at Fireside Pies in Dallas!

So SO much fun!

LOVE my bestfriend :)

Move to Dallas now, please?

Ladies and Gentlemen I have an announcement:

Christie Lou has not had meat in 4 1/2 years until

THIS VERY MOMENT!!!!

She had crab and LOVED IT!!!

The morning we had to part ways :(

A wonderful weekend surrounded by wonderful people...

8 Months of Enlightenment

8 months ago I started my Clinical Fellowship Year at an Trauma 3 hospital in Amarillo, TX. One thing about acute care - it's the toughest job imaginable. There is just a few months left and I started to think about all of the things I have been exposed to. Some of these things I swore I would never EVER try....but alas I gave in. Some things I had heard of, but never witnessed. Below are a few of my highlights.

1.

My first big girl purchase from my first real world paycheck - Cowboy Boots! Okay I've heard it all before..."You lived in Oklahoma and you didn't own cowboy boots?!?" They're not quite as popular there as they are in Texas. Well that night was the first (and the only) time I wore them. For some reason I just feel like a poser in them! I can't even walk naturally in them. I'll try to give them another joy ride one day.

2.

Finding a home for stray pups is a full time job! And to be honest I completely suck at it. Charlie now is a permanent fixture to my dear mom's hip. She now has 2 stray pups- one from my sister and one from me. Adam just needs to bring one home now.

3. Halloween IS a blast and sometimes having no plans leads to having amazing fun!

4.

The concept of ThunderSnow was completely foreign to me until I came to Amarillo. It is basically a Thunderstorm with snow instead of rain. It's crazy believe me! And actually kind of creepy but I love it. I always thought Oklahoma had crazy unpredictable weather and Amarillo totally trumped it. It was 60 degrees yesterday and this morning I woke up to this...

5.

Friends can make the most horrible weekend into the most amazing Monday! Stephanie is truly God's gift to me throughout these past 8 months. She has taught me so much about being a good friend. She is wonderful. If you're lucky, you'll get to be her friend too.

6.

No Christmas break really sucks. Missing Christmas celebrations with your family really sucks. Having to go home right after Christmas really sucks. Decorating the apt. for only your dog to see really sucks. Basically I wont be repeating this next year. Family is what makes Christmas special...not the decorations, or gifts, or the music (even though I did enjoy my Rat Pack music mix). This will not be happening again.

7.

Amarillo's Skies are absolutely breath taking! I can't even express how beautiful they are. Every morning and every night you get to see God's beautiful designs.

8.

Tumbleweeds ARE real! Honestly I thought Fievel Goes West made them up. Yeah there are lots of them. And I've been told (however, not witnessed) that they can be as big as cars! This also bring me to point 8.5 ...the WIND here is completely nuts. Seriously I thought I was going to lose Ruby a few times. Forget doing your hair....ever. Or wearing lip gloss. Or looking half way decent after coming in from outside. I went outside with my hair wet once and 3 minutes later I came back inside looking like Einstein. Yeah I couldn't pull that off.

9.

It's freakin cold here. Last week actually trumped this. It was -1 with a wind chill of -24. Who knew it could possibly get that cold in Texas?!? I was not informed about this. I now laugh at the fact that I thought I could withstand Chicago winters. Riiiiiiight.

10.

I, Ashley Holden, went to a.....wait for it.....wait for it....COUNTRY CONCERT! I can hear the gasp from here. And as much as it hurts me to admit this, but it wasn't THAT bad. We boogied. We people watched. We laughed. We were stalked by creepy old women. It was a blast. Now don't get carried away, I won't be tuning my radio to a country station anytime soon....or ever. BUT I have a small little confession that only Santa and me know. I might have asked for a very somewhat embarrassing CD to be placed in my stocking. No not Miley Cyrus. Gah what kind of girl do you think I am?!? I asked for the, geez I don't even want to admit this, the Taylor Swift CD. And I listen to it...a lot. Yeah I don't feel any better getting that off my chest.

11.

Doodling is the ultimate stress reliever for me. I might have tendonitis now and can't feel 3 of the fingers on my right hand, but I'm stress free!

12.

A little brother's heartbreak hurts real real bad. You hurt in your core just like he does. I never realized how much you can hurt for someone else. I realized my #1 love language is giving gifts. It seemed to work. And yes, those are The Flash underwear. Don't be jealous....have your heart broken and I'll buy you some too!

I have really learned SO much just in a few short months. I've learned a lot about myself as well. I would never take back this experience. I've met beyond wonderful people and I have learned more about my profession than I thought was possible. I could never thank my co-workers, friends, and most of all my family for getting me through this. It's been tough, but I know this was God's plan and he always gave me that light at the end of the tunnel that I needed. Now I'm just ready for him to fill me in on where I'm heading next!

Dance the Cold Away!

Yeah thats not me (I know the leg muscles totally had you fooled). However, she is doing one of my favorite things - Dancing around in underwear. There is just something freeing about dancing in your undies. Increased range of motion? Sure why not...lets go with it. There are certain songs that you just can't help but start to dance. I mean you seriously (and this may sound corny) feel it in your bones. Well today was exceptionally cold (wind chill of -24 people...thats NEGATIVE 24 people!) and I could not warm up. So I put on my Fancy Pants Dance Mix and warmed myself right up. Below are my absolute favorites to spaz out to. Feel free to borrow these suggestions b/c lets me honest...they rock.

• Forever by Chris Brown
• My Life by Billy Joel
• Come On Eileen by Dexy's Midnight Runners
• I'm Real by Jennifer Lopez & Ja Rule (O you know you loved this too back in middle school!)
• Dancing in the Moonlight by King Harvest
• Canned Heat by Jamiroquai (Center Stage anyone?!?)
• Ain't No Mountain Enough by Marvin Gaye & Tammi Terrell
• Beggin' by Madcon
• The Way You Make Me Feel by Michael Jackson (More Center Stage...such a great movie)
• Sexy Back by Justin Timberlake (Check out the So You Think You Can Dance clip with this song...it will blow your mind).
• Too Fake by Hockey
• You Make My Dreams by Hall & Oates (Yeah make fun all you want...this is a classic)
• Nothin Ever Hurt Like You by James Morrison

For Your Entertainment....

Step 1: Turn off the music at the bottom of this page

Step 2: Hit play on this video

Ste 3: Sit back and relax

Step 4: Laugh your arse off

Step 5: Repeat step 4 until you're crying

Christmas 2010

He is going to kill me.

Resolutions? I prefer to call it Ambition.

Now I'm not particularly fond of New Years Resolutions. But I really dislike the statement "My New Years Resolution is to not make a New Years Resolution." If that statement has left your mouth before, then thats lame. I feel like calling it a resolution gives people the idea that when the resolution is broken, then they can't possibly attempt it again until the following year. For most of us that is within the first few days. Like uh oh...I promised to not eat junk food but now I stumbled into a McDonalds. Well there goes 2011.

My good friend, Stephanie, and I seem to have an ongoing list of "ambitions" as I like to call them. No not all of them started on the first day of the year. Whenever something happens that we don't like, then we just add it to the list. The list has gotten pretty lengthy, but I don't feel there is anything wrong with that. You should never stop trying to be a better person.

Here are a few:

1. Less Complaining. Just b/c I don't love my current situation doesn't mean everyone has to hear about it. I'll save it for Ruby.

2. Cook more - this should be easy. I simply can go from cooking nothing at all to cooking sometimes. Voila ambition completed.

3. Hate less - I seem to "hate" many things right now and thats not even a word I like to use. However, I did try goat cheese again and I still hate it. I'll let that one slide.

4. Love more - sounds cliche but sometimes I just need to remind myself of all that there is to love.

5. Cuss less. Okay okay okay...I don't have a sailors mouth by any means, but occasionally "damn" just seems appropriate. Well I'm gonna cut back. I've tried using other less offensive words, such as "rats" and "stink" and I get somewhat the same satisfaction. On another note - as I listen to the music I have playing while my blog is up, I realized a Mumford & Sons song I picked drops the wicked "F" bomb a few times. I apologize. However, I said I would cut down on the un-lady-like words. I can't say the same for Mumford & Sons.

6. Less couch-potatoing (yes I'm using that as a verb) and more activity! I always say there is nothing to do, but honestly I never look for much to do unless its knocking on my door. I'm going to try to be more proactive....even if this means going to the Western Horse Museum. Woo. Hoo.

7. Affirm more. I love the 5 love languages, but I do not speak the "Affirmation" love language. So I need to work on that b/c it is other people's love language. To start it off - Mom you are a wonderful woman and I love you more than words (and affirmation) could ever express!

8. Uh oh the dreaded EXERCISE MORE ! AAAAHHHHHH!!! Okay actually this one isn't terrible. I'll tell you why. The gym I go to always has Cash Cab on so I walk while learning meaningless trivia that I'll never use. Isn't that great?!?

9. Judge Less. I might not voice all the nasty little judgments I seem to come up with, but it doesn't mean I don't think them and it doesn't mean it makes them less hurtful. I have to remind myself that I have no right to judge. Hey it's a work in progress.

10. Travel to more places! Hey why not add something on the list that I absolutely LOVE to do!

These are not resolutions, but ambitions. I might stumble on these a lot, but it doesn't mean that I can just cross it off the list and better luck next year. I'm a work in progress...nothing wrong with that.

Post Christmas Laughs

This years Christmas was wonderful of course! Santa brought me everything I wanted. Man she...I mean he is good! There were some pretty hilarious conversations floating from house to house that I just must share (Or maybe you just had to be there).

Story 1

Starring Ponder Deborah Babbington

(little toe head on the left)

Age: 3

Interests: Playing her Dora piano and watching the Old Man Movie (a.k.a. "Up")

Action:

Laura: Ponder you're so silly!

Ponder jumps up and stomps over to Yaya (her grandma)

Ponder: I am NOT silly! You no say I'm silly! I AM NOT SILLY!

Jenny Lynn (her mother) trying to calm her little one down so Ponder turns to her...

Ponder: I am NOT silly! She say I'm silly....I'M Not Silly!

Ponder then turns back to Yaya and continues to shake her finger and yell at her (and probably use some choice words if she knew any)

Ponder: I AM NOT SILLY! Monsters are silly, I'm a big girl! I'M NOT SILLY!

And scene.

Who knew "silly" was equivalent to the "B" word to a 3-year old.

Story 2:

Starring: Afton Adelle Babbington

(cute little brunette on the right)

Age:4

Interests: Singing bible songs at night, playing with her pink camera, and loving every person she sees!

Setting: Christmas Day after opening gifts right before lunch....or so we thought.

And Action

Afton's Mom & Dad: Okay girls it's time to eat lunch.

Afton: WHAT?!? We can't eat LUNCH before BREAKFAST! (Cue some serious alligator tears)

Mom & Dad: Well it's close to lunch so we're just going to eat lunch.

Afton: (continuing to ball/hyperventilate) We CAN'T have lunch if we don't have breakfast! NOOOOO!!!!! We didn't have breakfast we can't have lunch! (Insert a lot of unintelligible words here due to the hyperventilation).

Mom & Dad: We can just skip breakfast and just eat lunch

Afton: NOOOOOOO!!!! We can't do that!

Story 2 cont:

Setting: sitting at the breakfast table eating a very tiny bowl of cheerios for "breakfast" right before she has a PB&J for "lunch." Little Afton over hears her mom talking to her Yaya.

And Action!

Jenny Lynn: Hey mom can we set up Rose's (Afton's littlest sister) bed in your closet so it's quiet?

Afton: WHAT?!?!? (Insert more Crocodile tears and unintellible balling) You can't put people in CLOSETS! People sleep in rooms! No not closets! Don't make her go there. People go in rooms!

And Scene. Gotta love the drama.

Story #3

Starring: Tyler and Myself

Age: 10 & 24

Interest: Legos, Spongebob, Pens, and Video Games

Action:

Me: Tyler Austin you better stop being a toot or Santa isn't going to come see you tonight.

TT: He's not real.

Me: O (awkward pause.....) Who told you?

TT: Nana and Papa. But I already knew.

Me: O really? How is that?

TT: Because Santa never gives gifts to poor people. It just makes sense.

Me: Good call.

And Scene.

Hope everyone had a Holly Jolly Holiday!