GSA Chapter 9: It's Been Awhile...

It has been so long since I last blogged that when I clicked on my blog tab where I'm always signed in it asked for my password. I apologize to those faithful few who read my blog. I'm not dead. :)

Last time I wrote it was Halloween, now it's practically Christmas (well not really but it's December so that's close enough). Not a whole lot has happened really, just the usual eb and flow of a normal day/week/month as an assistant dean here at Gem State. My parents came for a visit in early November and it was a very productive visit too. I got outfitted with a snazzy new dress, awesome new skis, new snow pants and even an epic new coat. It was a blast! We stayed up late, we giggled like crazy people, I put 250 miles on my car driving back and forth from Boise, I got to eat at the Old Spaghetti Factory (woohoo!), and just had a super grand time. I really like my parents (and yes, I think they actually read this so I don't mind them knowing). We get along most of the time and I definitely know I'm their spawn because we have the same epic sense of humor. My family is the bomb. Anyway, after they left it was the count down to Thanksgiving. Nothing too exciting happened between those two events. Although I did take three of the kids to Coldstone Creamery one night. One of the girls came in shorts, T-shirt, and flip-flops. She's nuts.

Anyway, Thanksgiving finally came and I flew to Salem, Oregon to visit my amazing aunt, uncle, and cousins. We had a blast! We baked, cooked, ate, ate, ate, oh and we ate. Around 9pm on Thursday night Auntie D and I decided to go to Toys R Us. We figured that since it was so early there really wouldn't be anyone there. We were very wrong. We had to stand in line in the rain to even get into the store because they were only letting 50 people in at a time. We waited about 15 minutes before finally getting into the store. Then we wandered around, battling the crowds at every turn. When we finally had everything we wanted we went to find the end of the line. Turns out the line to check out started in the very back of the store. We ended up zigzagging through the aisles of the store, back and forth and round and round until finally, 1 hr 18 min 8 sec later we were at the cashier. It was crazy! But we got a screaming deal on some things that I think the kids will be totally stoked about. We had a great time. It was a particularly special Thanksgiving because I've never spent this holiday with these guys. Unfortunately, on Monday I got sick. I'd been fighting off the twinges for a month and I finally caved. I got a cold and a sore throat. I thought I was going to die. I have now spent the last week and a half feeling lousy and taking more drugs than I care to mention. After all that, I finally got some antibiotics (thanks dad) and am feeling quite fabulous. I'm not 100% yet but definitely on my way. So now the next thing to look forward to is Christmas. I really like Christmas but for some reason I'm not feeling very Christmas-y. We have a tree in the lobby here in the dorm and I've been listening to Christmas music and such but I just don't have that magical feeling like I usually do this time of year. Maybe I'll find it when I go home. We are having a REAL Christmas tree in our family room this year and I'm a so ridiculously excited about that I can hardly wait to get home and decorate it while listening to Christmas music at an outrageously loud decible and eating (it doesn't matter what I eat as long as its Christmas food).

I'll probably have a huge post about how much I love Christmas coming up in a couple of days (or weeks). Also, this year during Christmas break we are hopefully going skiing in Colorado. I was totally against the idea for a while because CO is a LONG drive but then I discovered that I may see my lovely friend Sarah while I'm down there and now I want to go to COLORADO (hint hint dad). We go skiing every year right after Christmas and so I usually spend New Year's Day in a car. I don't mind though because we go skiing. How awesome is that? I'm going to stop now because I feel like I'm rambling. I'm sorry that I don't have anything profound to say right now about my dean experience but I basically just summed up my life over the last month so there ya go. :)

-Ashley

Musings on Fall

Well, today is Halloween. I would like to take this opportunity to reflect on how much I love fall. No matter what you call it, Fall or Autumn, it is still a pretty epic season. My favorite part of fall is the leaves. I absolutely love when the leves change color. I definitely want to go to Boston in the fall.

I would actually just like to spend the entire season of fall in a place where there is an actual prolonged season of fall. I'm from North Dakota and in terms of seasons it goes something like this: Spring __  Summer ___  Fall _ Winter __________________ ... Well anyway, you get the picture. Usually fall sets in around mid-September. You can smell the change in weather on the wind. It is absolutely magical. I love how the wind does that. Unfortunately, the wind is what ruins fall for me. As I said before, mid-September is when fall sets in over in North Dakota; probably around September 15ish. Well around September 30, just enough time for the leaves to start changing and things to get beautiful along the river a nasty wind sweeps in and blows all the leaves off the trees, which translates to a very ugly fall and a sad me.

There are many other great things about fall. My mom and grandma and many other irreplaceable friends have their birthdays during the fall but among these holidays is another holiday that I don't really celebrate anymore but I love looking at all the fun little kids have; that would be Halloween or "All Hallows Eve" as the Christian world allegedly calls it.

Mostly I like Halloween for three reasons. Adorable children's costumes, pumpkin carving, and candy. Here are some pictures to document my love for these three wonderful things.

Well now that I've overloaded this post with pictures (probably to make up for the increasingly apparent lack of pictures in my other posts), I will move on to talk about how much I love carving pumpkins. (There are no pictures of candy because I don't want to give you an enormous hankering. And yes, I know that some of the carving pictures aren't actually done on pumpkins but what can you do? I really like penguins and owls...and watermelon.)

When I was a kid, every fall around Halloween time my brother and I would go with our parents to Papa's Pumpkin Patch and pick out the perfect pumpkin for each of us to carve. My mom never really got into carving but that's ok, like ice fishing it was something special we did with our dad.  Anyway, I don't really have any specific memories of what I carved, just that I did. When I was younger I mostly just picked out what I wanted my dad to carve and then I helped him gut the pumpkin and helped tape the pattern onto the pumpkin but after that I quickly lost interest and left to come back to the most amazing pumpkin a 6 year old could ask for. My dad is a master at carving stuff. That's sorta why I included the watermelons. My dad used to carve all kinds of things. He is awesome. I digress. As I got older I progressed to actually helping poke out the little dotted lines that are the secret to any amateur pumpkin carver's success. And as I continued to age (like cheese...or wine...) I actually did some of the carving. I have so many memories of carving. It was always a blast. On a particularly sad note, I remember one year when some teenage hooligans thought it would be funny to smash our pumpkins in the road. Needless to say, my brother and I were crushed, devastated, reduced to tears. It was very sad. But moving on, I never really got into the whole costume thing. I was a Christmas tree once. I think that was the last time I went trick-or-treating. I was 17 haha. A group of friends and I went to the governor's house and trick or treated. We actually had to wait in line to get to the door. Anyway, the governor (ya Hoven!) told me I made a very cute Christmas tree. :)  Wow. This is getting ridiculous. If you have actually made it this far in this post, I am VERY impressed. :) I should probably stop talking and save some for next time. So until next time, Happy Halloween! 

-Ashley

GSA Chapter 8: Highlights of the Last Three Weeks

Well, a lot has happened since the last time I wrote but I was feeling lazy and didn't want to type. So I'll bullet point the highlights.

HIGHLIGHTS

Pedro the Pumpkin

• I'm getting a NEW room, complete with a bathroom and snazzy lighting. (Pictures to come when the room is complete.)
• Went on a crazy Dairy Queen adventure a couple of weekends ago with the kids in the dorm on a Saturday night. *more later*
• My fish Ingrid the Survivor is the best fish ever!
• I really love living so close to family.
• I visited the fam in Salem last weekend and we made the cutest cupcakes on the planet!
• My littlest cousin is going as Indiana Jones for halloween...he has a whip and everything...he's legit.
• Chaperoned the kids at a corn maze. Who had the brilliant idea to take a bunch of high school kids  with raging hormones to a corn maze?! We probably should have done a hickey inspection as everyone got back on the bus...
• Found the most adorable costume on the planet for a baby (a candy corn!).
• They shrunk the girl's laundry room so there is now a laundry room and a kitchenette! Well, not yet but there will be a kitchenette and baby laundry room sometime in the near future and that is something to get excited about.
• Speaking of getting excited...THE FURNITURE FINALLY CAME!!!!!!!!! Fabulous pictures to come.
• Locked my phone in a school suburban overnight.
• Watched the Blues Brothers...very educational. lol
• Was reminded that kittens are such good therapy for an exhausted soul
• Learned that truckers have an ENORMOUS blind spot...or at least big enough for my car to hide in...mayhem must have been there...I almost died. (not really)
• Discovered a ridiculously comfortable couch!
• Learned that I could feasibly wear pink for a whole month without repeating an outfit. (I may have to actually put that claim to the test)
• Finally posted a new ukulele video
• Carved the coolest pumpkin named Pedro the Puking Pumpkin
• Discovered that feeding ducks may become my favorite pastime when I'm old :D
• Got my school pictures back today.
• I REALLY MISS MY AU FRIENDS!
• I'm really excited about Thanksgiving. :)

I think that's all the highlights. Ok, so more on the mini bus adventure.

So I was on duty and it was a Saturday night. Nothing was planned for the kids and they were all really bored. They kept begging me to take them somewhere and do something so I finally conceded and took all 13 of them to Dairy Queen. We piled into the mini bus and barreled off toward what I thought was DQ but when I went to turn toward the only DQ I knew of the kids told me to turn the other way and assured me that they knew where they were going. So, I followed their directions only to end up in the middle of no where and the kids wondering where DQ was. I finally dug out my phone and used the GPS app to get us there and I now know where DQ is in Caldwell...sort of. The other interesting factor was that I was driving the mini bus, which they affectionately call the "Bumblebee" and let me tell you, it was SCARY. But not nearly as bad as I thought it would be. I don't like driving my dad's excursion so this was only about 500 steps up from that. It was a hilarious and terrifying event that I will probably remember for a very long time.

Most adorable costume for a baby! 

In other news...most adorable cupcakes EVER!

A lovely view of the front desk, door to the dean's office and the double doors on the left are the front doors of the dorm.

The amazing painting on the wall next to that super fancy fire alarm...

Um...this is a picture that didn't get rotated but you can see how pretty the rug is at any angle.

Six Reasons to Eat Out Alone

My top six reasons for eating alone and why it isn't weird.

6. Small talk. Sometimes it is just nice to be able to sit at a table and enjoy a meal without having to make a comment on the weather in your home town or how your dog, Bowser, is allergic to rice.

5. The wait staff are very attentive. They probably think that you just got dumped or that you don't have the charm necessary to have a boy/girlfriend and are very kind and even doting; making sure you have everything you could possibly need or want. For impatient people, this is ideal.

4. Get your food sooner. You are a party of one. That means you don't have to wait for Uncle George's fettuccine alfredo and Aunt Matilda's lasagna to be ready while your tortellini sits under a heating lamp so it doesn't get cold. You get your food as soon as its ready and since the wait staff are so attentive, you will barely have time to finish your salad before they bring out your entree.

3. Relax. Sometimes it's good to have a little alone time. People watching can be very relaxing. I find it interesting to see how families interact with one another.

2. Self-confidence booster. There's nothing like walking into a restaurant and asking for a table for one. Sure, the hostess might look at you a little funny but if you walk in there with your head up and your shoulders back, like you own the place, people will know that you are there because you decided to go out and treat yourself to dinner.

1. You can order whatever you want. Because you're eating alone, no one is going to judge you for what you order. You want the actual size dessert instead of the mini? Fine. Have it. Your friends aren't there to question your selections. The server doesn't care as long as you eat and are happy and the cooks don't even know who you are. It is a beautiful thing. You can order the mozzarella sticks, the four cheese pasta, and the chocolate cake and no one is going to care that you just ate like a pig. Plus, if you're smart, you'll save some for leftovers so you have a meal for the next day.

Eating alone is NOT something I recommend that you do often, however, it can be cathartic and a nice change of pace from eating alone in front of the TV with your fish. So go out and enjoy yourself. Be single, be proud.

-Ashley

My Bucket List

I figure this should probably get written down so I don't forget to do any of them and so I can start crossing them out.

Ashley's Bucket List*

1. Publish a volume of poetry

2. Record an album

3. Travel

3a. England

3b. Korea

3c. Thailand

3d. Italy

3e. More of Africa

4. Go to Paris, France and sword fight with baguettes in front of the Eiffel Tower

5. Change a life

6. Find love

6a. Get married

6b. Have kids

6c. Have the "American dream"

7. Keep in touch with my best friends no matter the distance

8. Find a career I'm passionate about

9. Go skinny dipping

10. Visit every state in the US (I have been to 39 states so I have 11 states left)

11. Do some sort of acting

12.  Volunteer at an elephant orphanage in India or Africa

13. Volunteer to work with big cats

14. Go to the Galapagos Islands again

15. Visit every island, country, or ice berg with a penguin population

16. Meet the president of the United States

*This list is subject to change. Additions will definitely be made. 

So far this is all I can think of. If they are crossed off they are done.

I'm excited. 

GSA Chapter 7: Jr/Sr Girl's Retreat

After homeleave things continued at their usual academy pace until last weekend when I got the awesome opportunity to go with 25 of the junior and senior girls up to what I think might be the most beautiful spot in Idaho. We went to Cascade, ID and stayed at a place called The Depot. It used to be a train station for the Oregon Shortline Railroad. Built in 1914 for ticketing, waiting, and baggage there was also a second story home for the station manager. The station was moved in 1986 to its current location in Cascade.*

The house was so picturesque. It sits right along the Payette river which was unseasonably warm for this time of year. We enjoyed the fall colors, the swimming provided by the river but mostly we enjoyed doing the simple things. Eating, painting our nails, singing, dancing, watching movies...you know...girl's stuff. The girls spent all day Sabbath painting each other's nails. This school boasts some very talented nail artists. Sad to say, my camera has stopped functioning and so I wasn't able to get very many pictures. Hopefully, I can get them from some of the girls.

This week I've had trouble sleeping. I was up until 3am last night despite the fact that I had to get up at 5:45 this morning. Then, this afternoon I took a nap at 3pm and intended to wake up at 4:15...that didn't happen. I woke up at 7:40pm! I woke up in a panic thinking it was tomorrow and I was late.

Oh, while I'm on the subject of dumb stuff that I somehow manage to do here's a story for you. So I got a blender. It is not a big scary blender but a little blender with equal scare value. It is very cute and was only $16. I decided to make a strawberry smoothie from frozen strawberries and chocolate SILK (best stuff ever!). I must mention at this point that the cord for this blender is very short and because of this I had to precariously prop my power strip on top of a box fan and then wedge the power strip between the fridge and the dresser. So everything is going peachy and the smoothie was almost done. I had the lid off the blender because I was stirring the concoction and pushing it toward the blades at the bottom when all of a sudden the power strip slips off the fan taking the blender and smoothie with it. Now at this point I must say that it is a miracle that most of it landed on the floor and not on the enormous pile of clothes in the middle of my room. It sloshed all the way across the room and even hit my TV which is probably about 10 feet away from the dresser where I was blending. It was a horrible mess that I'm still cleaning up. It got all over my bed spread so I have to wash that tomorrow and hope that the strawberries and chocolate silk come out of my mostly white bed spread. It was awful. It was a mess of truly epic proportions.

This weekend we are doing out door church. I hope its warm because it has been FRIGID here this week! (I must put "frigid" in perspective. It has been in the upper 80's since I got here in August and all of a sudden the rain swooped in and it has been in the upper 50's and lower 60's all week. That's cold for us right now. Come this spring that will be toasty.) I'm excited for the change in weather though. It gets boring when its day after day of the exact same weather: sunny and hot. As I'm typing this I'm watching Ingrid the Invincible (my fish) swim wildly around her bowl. She is named Ingrid the Invincible because I didn't feed my two fish (Ingrid and Sven) for FOUR days; Ingrid survived, Sven did not.  My computer is having issues again. The disc drive is broken so I need to take it to Boise tomorrow and get it fixed.

In other news, its the weekend of volleyball tournament and our team, the Lady Jaguars, are heading to Walla Walla tomorrow. I hope they do well. Let's go Lady Jags! Anyway, I should go now because I'm rambling. K, bye.

-Ashley

GSA Chapter 6: The First Home Leave

I had the weekend before homeleave off so I decided to go visit my cousin Courtney in Selah, Washington which is near Yakima. Its about a five hour drive to her house from Gem State but that's nothing. I've driven farther distances for less time. I had a blast and we didn't even do anything out of the ordinary. We watched movies, went to church and just hung out. I haven't really had a whole lot of social interaction since moving to Idaho and so the long weekend was a welcome change of pace. Since my day off is Monday I got to spend a long weekend there. I drove there on Friday and back on Monday. It was amazing. When I got back to Gem State I did a little bit of deaning in the evening and then Tuesday was my day to be on call. Being on call merely means that if someone needs to be taken somewhere in the late afternoon or evening I take them or if there is an emergency I pitch in. So on an average day, being on call is fairly boring and pretty quiet.

Wednesday was an entirely different story, however because it was the start of the most epic idea of all time. HOME LEAVE. The definition is very self explanatory. A time where the kids leave and go home. In my case, I flew to Salem, OR where I got to visit my amazing family. My aunt has been wanting her two sisters (one of which is my lovely mother) and me to come visit her and do a trip that was mostly shopping and girl time while her kids were in school. We haven't been able to do that trip until now because whenever her kids are in school that usually means I'm in school. This year is different though, so the dream finally became a reality. I flew into Portland and waited for my mom and Aunt J to fly in from ND. Then we ate lunch and grabbed our rental car to drive to Salem. Wednesday was filled with...well I don't actually remember what we did Wednesday. But Thursday was packed with SHOPPING!!! We went to the Woodburn Outlets and literally shopped until we dropped. Then we went out for amazing Indian food at 9 at night. After Indian we went to a karaoke bar where we rocked it until midnight. It was so fun and completely random and I loved it. We were there until the bar closed at midnight and I ended up singing the last song of the night. I happened to choose "Like a Surgeon" by Weird Al which was pretty funny. Friday was supposed to be just as crazy but we were so exhausted from Thursday that we sort of walked around in a daze the whole day. Friday night we had pizza for supper and Uncle E and I took the kids swimming. We swam for two solid hours. I was exhausted afterward. I haven't done a whole lot of hard core swimming like that in a while. But it was fun. 

On Sabbath the four of us ladies drove to Tillamook where we had lunch with their Grandma, my Great Grandma. She's 100 and she made lunch for us. It was fantastic. After lunch the four of us squeezed onto the couch and sang hymn for Great Grandma for an hour or more. We spent a lot of the time laughing so hard that we were crying but occasionally we could hold it together long enough to actually get through a whole song and we sounded pretty great if I do say so myself. Everyone was so giggly that I felt like I was in an alternate time period and I was somehow transported to a time when my mom and two aunts were just teenagers and I was along for the ride. It was a blast. We ended the day with TV in our hotel room. This morning we went to breakfast at an omelet place that was amazing.

I'm sitting at my gate waiting to fly back to Boise now and I'm sad that the fun is over. Thankfully, I live a lot closer to Uncle E and Aunt D so hopefully I will be able to visit more often than I have in the past. I'm thinking Thanksgiving sounds grand to me. I miss everyone already but I have very fond memories of this weekend and they are memories I won't soon forget. Uncle E, if you're reading this, you never burned that CD for me. Miss everyone. Its time to board to Boise.

-Ashley

GSA Chapter 5: Weekend Duty and Other Exciting Adventures

I have absolutely no recollection of what happened this last week or what I did because the weekend itself has felt like a week. This weekend was my first official weekend on duty. The deans work in teams of two so that there is always one boy's dean and one girl's dean on duty during the weekend. This weekend my shift was the PM shift every afternoon/evening starting on Friday. Friday night we went to Lizard Butte which is an absolutely gorgeous spot to usher in the Sabbath hours. In order to get to the top we had quite the climb; not a long climb just one that was very steep.  The speaker that night was an alumni of 2011 and he spoke about how we need to choose to play for the right team. (In his illustration that was the BSU Broncos and not the Oregon Ducks.) After vespers the students enjoyed sometime to just goof around and enjoy the evening.

Sunset over the river from Lizard Butte

On Sabbath, Sabbath school was cancelled because no one wanted to teach it, which I think is a really pathetic excuse since we actually do have a chaplain. At any rate, church was, interesting to say the absolute least. After church and lunch we loaded the bus for some outreach in the park called the green belt because I think its the only green spot in the valley and is probably visible from space because the surrounding area is so brown. Anyway, it was absolutely gorgeous. We handed out water as we walked about a mile and a half to where supper was ready for us. The posters claimed it would be a barbecue but that was a lie. There was no barbecue, just sandwiches, potato salad and brownies; more appropriately known as a picnic. I honed my frisbee throwing skills and enjoyed the pleasant evening in the park. Later that night we watched Soul Surfer which was just as good the second time around, I just cried less.  

Sunday was the first time I had to dorm worship. I read them a story out of one of the Jesus Freaks books and they seemed to like it ok. I was reassured that there would indeed be a fall and that it would eventually cool off enough for me to wear sweaters. However, I also learned that it will only get as low as the teens at night. I may as well not even bring my coat back after Christmas. How lame. That night during study hall, I offered to help one of the girls with her algebra 1 homework. She brought it to me and showed me the problem that was giving her trouble. I looked at it and instantly knew that I was in trouble. It was a word problem. Give me an equation and I'll be able to figure it out eventually. Word problems...not so much. If she didn't know the answers to the odd problems were in the back of the book she knows now... 

Monday night I foolishly stayed up until 3am, knowing full well that I had to be up at 6 to open the dorm. I was running on three hours of sleep. Tuesday was rough, I thought I might have to call in sick but I made it until about 1:15 when the next dean came into the office and said he was bored and offered to go on duty and hour and half early. He was a life saver. I willingly relinquished the desk and ran to grab my purse. I drove to the mall, went shopping, got my nails done, got food, came home and crashed hard at 9pm. I woke up this morning at 10:30 after 13 and a half hours of glorious sleep. I looked at my phone to see that I had a text and realized that it was picture day. I jumped in the shower and got ready for pictures in 20 minutes. I was pretty impressed with myself. I walked into the library where they were taking pictures, signed my card thing sat down they took one picture and I was done. That was highly annoying. After that I checked my mail where I found a lovely letter from my awesome friend Jared and I got to skype with Katie during my lunch of pizza rolls and yogurt. Now I'm sitting at my desk watching my new fish, Sven the Spaz and Ingrid the Introvert. They are pretty funny. This weekend is my weekend off, it should be pretty boring. If anyone reads this call me or something. TTFN!

-Ashley

GSA Chapter 4: People and Paperwork

I have now done my first official week acting as a dean to a dorm full of kids. There are close to 50 kids in the dorm, most of them girls. So far, I'm loving it. Sunday was move in day. Let's just say it was a very overwhelming day. I met so many people, both students and parents and I was beginning to wonder if I was ever going to get anyone's name straight. My day consisted of checking people in, dealing with roommates (everyone has a roommate, which is a blessing for the school but not necessarily for some of the students), meeting parents, trying not be overwhelmed, smiling, and trying to remember all the names people were throwing at me. Students started trickling in around 10am and didn't stop until around 8pm that night. 

Now I make that day sound very traumatic, but in all actuality it wasn't really that bad. I was just really blown away by the number of people in the dorm. My graduating class was 8 people. My high school had about 43 kids in it when I attended. So the fact that there are over that many kids in just the dorm is astonishing to me. It really was a great day though.

Monday, I innocently volunteered to help the guy's assistant dean open the dorm at 6:30am. What was supposed to be a 9 hour shift turned into an 18 hour shift. The only thing I remember from that day was meeting one of the "cowboys" at 6:30am when I was trying to figure out how to use the little allen wrench thingy to open the front doors. He walked in and I immediately stopped trying to open the doors and returned to the office to heal my wounded pride and regroup to do something I knew how to do. I remember sitting there thinking to myself, "This guy is nuts! I'm not going to make conversation with him. It's way too early in the morning for things like civility!" The rest of the day was a complete blur.

Tuesday, I woke up later than Monday which was good. I ate breakfast packed my gear and jumped on the bus to head up to Camp Ida-Haven. We were up there until Thursday. While we were there we did the SA Handshake which made the name learning thing even more intimidating. Thankfully I'm getting the hang of it now. We did activities like class scramble and a brush pile-up competition. (We still don't know who won that.) I had a blast hanging out and getting to know the kids. Went swimming with some of the senior girls, attempted to play volleyball, did a two-high with one of the RA's, ate 8 marshmallows and was on a super duper sugar high, and those are just a few of the highlights.

After we got back on Thursday afternoon I don't remember what I did. But Friday I definitely remember. (I would hope I remembered at least that far back.) On Friday, I was on duty from 3pm until the usual 11 or 11:30. I was supposed to wait up for a new student coming from about 12 hours away. At 5pm they said they were about 5 hours away; they must have been driving 30mph because they didn't get to GSA until 1:30 AM!!! I was so cranky that even though I had every right to be cranky, I felt bad. And then this kid wanted to talk to their family that brought them and I about lost is. Needless to say, I slept in on Sabbath morning. I skipped Sabbath School and got up just in time for church. I figured I should attend church since I was doing song service. After church and lunch I went back to bed and slept for another two and a half hours. I was very glad to have today (Sunday) off. 

Today, despite the fact that it was my day off, I took two of the volleyball girls shopping for gear. Then came back to the dorm and wrote a letter on post-its; a proud moment for me. Then I joined a group of fabulous women and went to see "The Help." Turns out one of the ladies knew me when I was a little girl. She used to clean my family's house way back in the day. I was shocked. It was a great evening spent with amazing women and a good way to start a brand new week here at GSA. Here goes WEEK FOUR in Idaho! I can't believe its almost been a month. Oh and I have a pet fish named Otis. k bye

-Ashley

The Moon and Me

This blog was originally started because of my interest in poetry. I wanted it to be posted somewhere rather than just sitting on my computer. So here is a poem I wrote last night about relationships and the moon.

The Moon and Me
8/24/11

As I lay here in the grass
And stare at the moon
Thoughts of you come creeping back
Frustrated, I look away
But everywhere I look
My eyes fall on something
That reminds me of you

I wish you were here
I wish I was there
Either way, I want to be near you

The what-if's come tumbling in
Each one a stark reminder
Of things that will never be
A thousand miles seems pretty far
Double that
And you may as well be on the moon
There it is again...the moon.

-Ashley

GSA Chapter 3: RAs and Meetings

Being allowed into the inner sanctum of teacher-dom was not as exciting as I had hoped. The inner sanctum includes numerous meetings that are long and boring. Since you have to go through rigorous training to be allowed into the sanctum of teacher-dom, I can't disclose any of that information (haha not really, its just super boring) so I shall move onto something far more interesting. Something like...RAs!

Our RA team consists of four wonderful young people; two girls and two guys. To protect their privacy all of their names have been changed for the purposes of this blog.  So our girls are Violet and Taylor. They are really cool. Taylor is super outgoing and very spunky. Violet is a bit more reserved but she's a hard worker. Mo and Tom are the boys and they are equally as awesome. Mo is very hilarious and just as outgoing as Taylor. He is quick to take initiative which is really awesome. Tom is silent most of the time but he's funny in his own way. The whole team seems to really mesh well together and I'm really excited to work with them this year.

Today while the head dean, Matt, was in meetings the dean/RA team set to the task of cleaning every single dorm room in the dorm. Matt figured it would take us a solid three or four hours and we finished in around 2 hours. Like I said, great team of hard workers. Later on, we were told to move a pool table out of a room that is getting some renovations. If any of you have ever moved a pool table, you know what kind of daunting deed that is.  We had to take the bumpers off and then balance this huge, three-slate table on a tiny furniture dolly and try to wheel this thing out of the room and into the chapel. (Ironic, I know.) After about 15 minutes of maneuvering this table toward the door we finally made it through the door that turned out to be just the right size and managed to move the table into the chapel around the corner. It took seven of us to move it. After we got it into the other room we had to remove the felt because we are re-felting the table too! We worked really hard and it was a great day. Matt was really impressed with the team's ability to do stuff so fast and so well; very efficient. :) 

Tonight, Amanda and I played Apples to Apples with Tom and Mo while we were waiting for the girls to get back from volleyball practice. That was a great way to be able to sort of get to know their sense of humor, which is always great to know. After that we had a dean meeting. Now let me tell you, dean meetings are WAY more interesting than teacher meetings...mostly because dean meetings are actually helpful. We talked about being observant and noticing things that may not be quite as obvious. Also, testing our ability to notice specific things during chaos. It was interesting to see who could do it and who couldn't. Then we watched this clip from America's Got Talent about this phenomenal singer who sang some Frank Sinatra. It was astounding. After the clip was over we talked about how sometimes we pass over people who probably have amazing talents but they don't look the part. He read us the verse in 1 Samuel 16 that says "But the Lord said to Samuel, 'Do not look at his appearance or at his physical stature, because I have refused him. For the Lord does not see as man sees; for man looks at the outward appearance, but the Lord looks at the heart.'"  That's verse 7. I love that verse. As a dean that is something that I really have to be careful to look for. I can't "judge a book by its cover" so to speak because the ugliest book often contains the most beautiful story. I can't wait to see what God has in store for this year. I can already sense that its going to be a year I will never forget.

Another passage that Matt read was 1 Thessalonians 5:12-22. This section is Paul telling the Thessalonians how to live and what they should do to maintain their exemplary relationship with Christ. It goes like this. "And we urge you, brethren, to recognize those who labor among you, and are over you in the Lord and admonish you, and to esteem them very highly in love for their work's sake. Be at peace among yourselves. Now we exhort you, brethren, warn those who are unruly, comfort the fainthearted, uphold the weak, be patient with all. See that no one renders evil for evil to anyone, but always pursue what is good both for yourselves and for all. Rejoice always, pray without ceasing, in everything give thanks; for this is the will of God in Christ Jesus for you. Do not quench the Spirit. Do not despise prophecies. Test all things; hold fast what is good. Abstain from every form of evil." Its a long passage but the more I think about it the more it perfectly describes how we, as deans and RAs, need to live our lives. One thing in particular that jumped out at me was the part that says "...warn those who are unruly, comfort the fainthearted, uphold the weak, be patient with all." That little section basically describes a dean's duties. That is my job description, 1 Thessalonians 5:14, 15. My ability to be able to do those things depends on how I carry out the next few verses. In order to do all the things that I need to as a dean I must also "Rejoice always, pray without ceasing, in everything give thanks; for this is the will of God in Christ Jesus for you." 1 Thessalonians 5:16-18. That's it. That's the dean's commission. Interestingly, I was reading that passage last night and I ended up going back and reading 1 and 2 Thessalonians and 1 and 2 Timothy. It was a great encouragement. I'm so excited for what God has in store for this awesome team of people this year.

This is a really long post. If you've read all of this I commend you.  If you stopped after the first paragraph and skipped to the bottom, I urge you to read the section right before this. Now I'm tired of writing and kinda sleepy so I think I'll sleep. 7:20am comes fast. Until next time, may the peace of God be with you.

GSA Chapter 2: Teacher's Retreat

After being at GSA for a grand total of approximately 15 hours, I met the other girl's assistant dean. Her name is Amanda and she comes from the Portland, OR area. We are getting along quite swimmingly, I think. An hour or so after she arrived we packed up and drove to Camp Ida-Haven, which is near McCall, ID for teacher's retreat. As soon as we arrived I noticed their fleet...FLEET of boats. There were four in the water and I noticed another two or three that were trailered. Three of the boats in the water were Master Crafts. It was beautiful. Another beautiful thing about Ida-Haven is that it's up in the mountains which makes it a lot prettier and greener than what I first experienced in the valley where Caldwell is. I like northern Idaho much better than the southern part.
I mentioned "teacher's retreat" earlier. What exactly is a teacher's retreat? Well, don't feel bad, I didn't know what it was either. Now I know and its one of those things where I didn't really mind not knowing.  Basically, this retreat involved lots of meetings that were all fairly irrelevant to me and because of that, dreadfully boring. I felt like a 15-year-old who walked into the wrong meeting. However, at the same time, I felt as though I was allowed to view the inner sanctum of teacher-dom. It was rather enlightening at times.
I got the opportunity to meet most of the teachers that will be working here at GSA this year. They are all a riot and I look forward to working with them this coming school year. I am very appreciative to Denise, the cook, who gave me some wise advice about chocolate and coffee.
In my down time (there was a surprisingly large amount of it) I laid on the beach and soaked up the sun. I may have soaked up a little too much sun however because I am now suffering from a pretty hardcore sunburn on my back. I also got to go wakeboarding a couple more times. I had a lot of fun and it just made me more anxious to get back to GSA and start the real work.
Today we got back with plenty of day to spare and so Amanda and I went shopping for various necessities to make our rooms more homey feeling. I purchased a very exciting pink floor lamp and an equally exciting but significantly smaller green table lamp. I also got the most epic little pink table ever! I can't wait to finish moving in and unpacking so that I can put the finishing touches on the room such as buying a chair (I already have a lovely green chair picked out that matches the green lamp) and putting things on the walls.
It has been a good few days. I'm excited to see what the next few days have to bring. For those of you who are curious about my life here in Idaho, I've only been in the state for a grand total of 6 days and most of those days weren't even spent at GSA. When the real work begins and the RA's and students start arriving (RA's arrive a week before the students) then I'll let you know how being a dean is going. For now, I have no clue because I haven't had to do any actual deaning. It has just been teacher's retreat and now unpacking and what not.  I can't wait to experience the next chapter of my adventure so that I can share it with whomever happens to read this. Comment if you made it this far. Love to all of my friends from GSA.
-Ashley

GSA Chapter 1: The Arrival

After what seemed like forever, I have finally arrived at Gem State Academy in Idaho. I am here to be one of several assistant deans. What does an assistant dean do, you may ask. My answer, I have no clue. Am I excited? Absolutely.

I got here after 17 hours of driving, a lonely stay in a hotel, and many miles of brown. Idaho must have been where God drifted off with his finger stuck on the "brown" key of the color keyboard. But the area around the school is green and it will be covered with snow for most of the year anyway so I really shouldn't complain. I got a tour of the dorm from the head dean. As we walked through the empty halls he shared his vision for the year and I'm ecstatic to work toward that goal with him. There are so many possibilities but first we must get down and dirty...literally. There is lots of cleaning and maybe even some painting to be done before this dorm is suitable for anyone. Tomorrow we are loading up and heading up to Camp Ida-Haven for a few days of planning, excitement, and networking. I can't wait to meet the rest of the faculty and staff.

Something I'm particularly excited about is having my own room. I play alright with others but not when it comes to closet space. Although I think I may have brought less stuff here...maybe. I can't wait to go lamp shopping. Ok, its late. More later in the week. 

I just want to know

When you read a book, have you ever sneaked a peek at the ending; just opened the back cover and flipped to the last page and read the last paragraph or sentence? I do it all the time. I'm too impatient I want to know what happens at the end. If the last sentence doesn't sum up the whole book then I'll read the sentence before that and before that until I get a basic summary of what is going to happen. Sometimes I wish I could do that with my life. For example, if I'm about to embark on some new adventure, such as a new job or a new boy or a new class I'd like to know how its going to end. Will I get fired or promoted? Will my heart be broken or will I find true love? Will I pass or fail? Sometimes, I'd just like to know. That's all.
-Ashley

Make a Wish

Blow out the candles
Make a wish
First star of the night
Make a wish
Look at the time
Make a wish

Each and every time
I look into your eyes
I make a wish

I wish for you to be mine
I wish for endless sunshine
I wish for days of laughter

Now, I wish away the tears
I wish away the ache
I wish away the thought
The thought of you not being there anymore
-Ashley

My Summer. The Abridged Version

Well, I am not very good a blogging apparently since I haven't been on here in almost eight months. Here is a brief over view of my life. In February I decided to be a student missionary next school year. In March I went to the countries of South Africa, Swaziland, and Lesotho. In April I finished my second year in college and made the decision to be an assistant dean at an academy in Idaho. In May I went to San Diego, California and Mexico with my dad and watched my brother graduate from high school -tear-. In June we rented a convertible camero and grabbed the motorcycles for a road trip of epic proportions down the Pacific Coast Highway. Then camp meeting and camp down at Flag Mountain Camp in South Dakota. I also found out that I was headed to Idaho for sure and went to my family reunion. July brought intense heat and more camp but this time up at Northern Lights camp. It also brought my great grandma's 100th birthday party! The secret to longevity is beans, in case you didn't know. Now it is August and its already been busy. The first week of August took me to Berrien Springs to visit some friends I hadn't seen in a year. It was a week that was very epic in many ways. I will never forget that week. Now I'm back home and I'm packing for Idaho between going to weddings, birthday parties, and musicals. I leave for my 1,000 mile trek on Friday sometime. I'm very excited about my new job in Idaho but very sad about leaving all of my friends in BS. It was a very difficult decision but one that I look back on with no regrets. I will attempt to keep my blog updated for those of you who read it occasionally.
-Ashley

Crisis

It's been a while since the last time I blogged. I don't really think anyone reads this but that's fine with me. Its a new year and a new semester. I think that this year will be the year that I finally read through the Bible in a year. I've never actually read through the whole thing. I've read bits and pieces; books and chapters. But never the entire thing.  I'm going to do that this year. I'm going to Africa in March. I'm very excited. I hope to see all the animals I've ever dreamed of seeing.
Speaking of animals, I'm going through a mid-college crisis. I'm not sure if I still want to be a vet. I'm not sure if my grades are good enough to be a vet. I'm not dumb, I've just never learned to really apply myself. Its a problem that has been plaguing me for at least three semesters. So I don't know if I'll even apply to go to vet school. I'm thinking about being a trainer or a zoo keeper or something. When I was little I always wanted to be a trainer at Sea World. It was my dream and currently I'm applying for an internship at a little place called Gulf World Marine Park. Its basically a Sea World knock off but I'm sure they'd be offended if I described it like that to their face.  I would have the opportunity to work with dolphins, sea lions, and penguins. Its like a dream come true. But first I have to get the internship. We'll see how that goes. I have a chemistry test tomorrow and I'm going to ace it. And if I'm going to ace it that means I need to stop blogging and actually study for this test. Here I go! Wish me good favor with teachers and chemistry. Much love to anyone who actually reads this! xoxo
A.