Merry Christmas!!!

A very Merry Christmas to you all!!

Today has been a most wonderful day even though I am now at work. We are currently watching Christmas Vacation which I love :-D

Yesterday we celebrated at my Moms house which was very fun.then we went to the candlelight Christmas Eve service, which I always love even when I get burning wax on my hand over and over. Today we went to my Dad's and then Jared went to his parents and I went back to my Moms for some dinner and on to work. This weekend, we have two more Christmas events and then next week its the New Year! How did that happen so quick?

I got some really fun stuff for Christmas. Really cute sock monkey PJ's, sock monkey key chains, sock monkey key covers. If you notice a theme, there is one. I just love me some sock monkeys! :-)  I got a really fun scarf from my Grandma. I got a Barnes and Noble giftcard from my brother and a Starbucks gift card, I think my family knows what I like! My Grandma Karren got Jared and I new sonicare toothbrushes, which is super nice! I'm gonna have fresh clean teeth!And I even got an orange knife. Jared and I did stockings for each other and I got some super cute snowmen stuff made by one of his friends moms. They are so cute! I'll take some pictures and put them on here!

Today I am just feeling blessed, God has blessed us so much and on this day that we celebrate his birth and then ulitmately his death on the cross, for us! Its just incredible. I have so much to be thankful for, so much more than just the gifts I have received from Christmas.

Thank you Jesus:-)

This is just a super cute photo, someday I'll do this on Christmas!

Wedding ornaments from my Momma! Love these! <3>

Todays tasty ham! :-)

I'm a pretty big fan of our Christmas tree! :-)

Christmas Eve Service. (also my hand that is being burned by hot wax)

Love this! :-D

And just a little self portrait while driving to work. Why yes I am a dork, haha!

It's almost Christmas!!

I am getting so excited for Christmas! Maybe thats because its one of my favorite holidays :-)

I think I am almost all ready, and could even say we are almost all ready.

This past Tuesday Jared and I took the twins to Frankenmuth to go to Bronners, which is the worlds largest Christmas Store!

It was so much fun! The twins did eventually enjoy it, when we first arrived at Bronners Mariah was not to thrilled. After we looked at ornaments and finally picked some out we went out to eat. But more on that in a minute. The twins each picked out a really fun glass dragon ornament, and they each a pickle ornament. You might be wondering why one might want a pickle ornament, 1. the one that the girls got is a real little one, so its cute :-) and 2. they are a Christmas tradition, in other countries the pickle is placed on the tree last and it is hidden somewhere in the tree and on Christmas morning the first person who finds the pickle ornament gets to open the first present. Pretty fun if you ask me. I'm pretty sure that $3 dollar pickle ornament is the twins favorite. My mom even told me that Makayla tried to bring it with her the other morning, lol! Maybe I just have weird siblings...
So we went out to dinner at Zehnders, which has famous chicken dinners. We had the family style all you can eat meal, it was really fun. It was fun to do that with the twins, they just thought that was the best! "you mean I can ask for more?" Yes! So all in all, it was a great day! And maybe we'll start a little tradition of doing that each year. The twins and I also took some really fun pictures with Santa and the nativity scenes outside, Jared however would not take any pictures with us. Oh well, at least the twins are fun ;-)

Well I suppose I should go to bed~

Merry Christmas!!

Adoration

I was just reading a little devotional on my phone and really liked it so I'm going to post it on here. It is on Christmas carols, hope you enjoy it :-)

It made me think, and I've been really realizing that I need to be reading my Bible every day, not especially just one month of the year.


O Come, All Ye Faithful

Come and behold Him,
Born the King of Angels;
O come, let us adore Him

Adoration is a word that we love to use during the Christmas season thanks largely to the classic carol O Come, All Ye Faithful as we sing, ""O come, let us adore Him." So many of us during the Christmas season spend more time thinking about Christ and giving Him adoration than any other time of the year. Think about it for a moment. More people go to church during Christmas than any other time of the year. We also tend to find ourselves singing and listening to songs about Jesus more during the Christmas season than any other time of year. As a result, Christmas is a time when we love to praise Him, honor Him, and adore Him much in the way Philippians 2:9-11 describes.

While it's great that Christ earns so much of our attention and adoration during Christmas, it's important to remember that we should pay that same amount of attention to Him 12 months a year instead of just one. Sure, it's easier to get caught up in all the Christmas hype and spend more time thinking, singing, praying, and adoring Christ during December, but in order to have a true relationship with Christ we must adore and spend time with Him daily and not just during Christmas. This year as you move out of the Christmas season and back into the normalcy of life, strive to find a way to capture that Christmas spirit that will enable you to adore Him and grow with Him every day of your life.

What things keep you from adoring and spending time with Christ on a daily basis? What steps will you take to ensure that you spend time daily with Christ?

Make War

Well I wanted to write this last weekend when I got home from our super awesome youth group retreat.  It was a really great time away and really fun getting to know some of the high schoolers more. We talked about making war on specific sin in our lives. And it was really nice to have everyone share at the campfire what they were going to make war on. The sin that I am making war is my swearing. I do that far more often than I would like to admit, especially when stressed or in the heat of something. So God showed me some verses in Proverbs 4 verses 23-26 to be exact. And it reads "Above all else guard your heart, for everything you do flows from it." And these next verses are why I am memorizing these. "Keep your mouth free of perversity; keep corrupt talk far from your lips. Let your eyes look straight ahead; fix your gaze directly before you. Give careful thought to the paths of your feet and be steadfast in all your ways." I currently have those verses written down on a note card in my car so at a light I can look at them and hopefully try to memorize them that way. But that is definitely my goal. If I just were to even memorize one verse a week, I could have 52 verses memorized by next year! That to me is a great motivator.

While we were on the retreat, besides lots of hanging out time, the teens did the low ropes courses. It is always really cool to see everyone come together as a team and figure out who should lead and talk. We even did trust falls, and all of the leaders did them too. I may have freaked out a little bit!
We went ziplining that day too, which was fun. Although nothing in comparison to the crazy zipline from Honduras.( I dont think I've written about my recent trip on here, soon my fellow readers) But all in all it was a fabulous high school fall/winter retreat! We have some amazing teens and pretty much the best youth pastor around!

Alright, I'm off to memorize some verses and read my Bible, which I have been trying diligently to do every day even if just a few verses.

 God is good.

Fun picture with Britt and the lovely Makayla and Bailey

Me and Ashley about to go zip lining

Trust Fall! Scary!!

 A great group pic!

And of course a goofy one! :-)

Christmas Time!

The Christmas tree is up and decorated! And I just love it! Now I just wish I wasn't working the next 2 days so that I could be home decorating the house. Christmas is one of my favorites!

Woohoo!

Thanksgiving was great this year, even despite the fact that I worked from 3p-11p. It was really slow at work, in fact we didnt do any surgeries the eight hours I was there. So that was definitely something to be thankful for! :-D

Ok thats all for right now! Its the holiday season...  

Putting the lights on the tree:-)

The twins helping pick out the tree

Miss Kitty sleeping on the Christmas pillow

All decorated and ready for Christmas fun! :-D

just a post....

I always say I'm going to write on here more often, but then I don't. You would think I might more often as I have the internet readily available now (which by the way is so nice!).

Well here I am....
I never finished telling about my trip to Panama. It was just so good! God showed up each and every day and gave everyone strength in ways that we might not have expected, like when it was so stinking hot (which was every single day) and the students didn't think they could keep going, they did and God totally blessed them because of it. I just have so many great memories and made so many lasting friendships. God is just so good. I really need to get my journal out and then write more. I just loved it and am currently signed up to hopefully go with Big World Ventures and Never the Same Missions to Peru next summer. I'll be writing more about that on here and keeping everyone up to date with my financial situation.
Here is a God story for all you readers about going to Peru. In Panama they showed us a really cool video about the trip to Peru and I watched it and pretty much decided right then that I was not going to Peru. It didn't look very exciting, and I definitely did NOT want to fundraise, I wanted a nice normal summer where maybe I could go on vacation and just do what I wanted. Shortly after thinking that, I knew that God wanted me to go. I can still say that I'm not all that excited about fund raising but I do know that God wants me there next summer. I am not entirely sure why or even how I am going to get there but still I am willing to go and I know that God will definitely provide. And some pretty amazing people are going back as well, so I am sort of excited:-D

I think I'm getting sick, ugh!!! Seriously? It might have something to do with the fact that I worked 19 hours straight on Monday. What was I thinking?!?

Well speaking of mission trips, I am going to Honduras in almost a month!!! AHHH!!! :-D I can't wait! The trips to Honduras are always really refreshing because incredible people go, God shows up and we get to do surgeries for people who are actually grateful, even if you just fix up their ACL. I love seeing the joy on the Honduran faces as we help them and I love being able to do my job and serve my Creator as well. And I'm looking forward to going because my friend Lauren is going. We actually met on one of the previous trips to Honduras and I'm super excited to serve with her again! :-D

Well I think thats about all for now. I'll write more soon (notice I did not say tomorrow, hehe)!!!

Feels like fall!

Today is extraordinarily fall like and I love it!!

Thats really all I have to say :-) I'll write more on here later!

But I am so excited about the fall weather!! hooray!

hmm

I feel like writing but dont know what to write about...

I could easily write about my Panama trip which I did say I would do but just dont feel like it. I also dont feel like using apostrophes so I'm not going too. At least not in the word dont. Also apostrophes is a weird word.

I really dont want to work at 9am tomorrow morning, yuck! I hate needing to be to work by 9am, anyone that works at 7am sorry for complaining. But still, EWW...

Zeena keeps sitting and staring at me and whining as I write this and its really annoying. I keep telling her to stop and she just keeps whining...Thank you weirdo dog

I got to hang out with some of my friends from Panama last night and this afternoon. It was so nice!! And lots of fun!!

I ate a really good cantina chicken burrito today from Taco Bell and oh my word it was soo soo tasty. So surprising, so if you like Taco Bell which I would hope that you might you should definitely try one. I would even say that it rivals Qdoba. SOO GOOD!!

I'm still reading Harry Potter and the Goblet of Fire and I'm pretty sure I'm going to have to check it out again at the library, for the third time.... Who does that? ugh!!

Jared just turned off the light in the bedroom, left and is now watching tv...really? And I'm still sitting in the dark...

My grammar and punctuation in this post are awful. Sorry to all of you...

Today was a beautiful day so was yesterday, it was the perfect temperature!! AHHH :-D

Well since I have to get up early tomorrow (yuck) I should probably go to bed. Although I say that and I probably wont even go to bed until after midnight because that always seems to happen.....

Internet at our house!!

So I'm writing this from my living room! So excited! Its the little things yes, but I am pretty excited that we have internet! Its nice to be able to go on a real computer:-)

Today Jared and I went to the beach and I got fried! Seriously? I mean it was overcast so it didnt really feel like I was getting to much sun so that's probably why it happened. oh well, I'm sure I'll survive and in a few days have a real nice tan.

I went to Panama and LOVED IT!!!!!! IT was just incredible and God taught me so much and gave us on team 4 the best team ever. The girls and guys on my team were so amazing! I just feel so blessed that I was able to go and then to meet such amazing teenagers. God is such a great God! We learned about God's will for our life and it was really neat to see some of the teens finding out what that meant or means and how they were going to change when they got home. Gosh, it was just so good!

 

 Me and the twins on their first ever plane ride!

 Mariah looking all cute in her cat costume and I love the coloring.

 Me and Shiane leaving the Embera tribe. (I'll write more about that later)

 Crazy hair night! I have dinosaurs in my hair! RAWR!

 Those are the hand dug out canoes that we rode in! Coast guard unapproved :-D

 A part of our team in a canoe!

 Me and Mariah with a beautiful view behind us!

 Mariah and her new friend from the tribe;-)

 I bought some super sweet orange earrings!

Such adorable kids!!!

Mariah and Makayla with some cute Panamanian twins!


Well thats all for now, I'll write more about the trip maybe tomorrow! Just because I can! YES!~

A post about why I'm a dork

So I was reading my sister in laws blog and she has a post about being a dork and not being ashamed of those dorky things....

Since I enjoyed reading her post so much here is my list of things may make me a HUGE dork, but I don't really care what anyone thinks because I am who I am and even love the dorky side of myself. ;-)

I'm Ashleigh and;

I love love love to read.

I love to have a night all by myself.

I like my animals more than most people.

I love vampires, whether that is the twilight books, watching vampire diaries(soo good!), true blood. I'm not sure why that is, yes SUPER dorky! If they were real I would date one :)

I have never been to a casino, and don't really have any desire to go.

I like to wear dresses and sometimes think I was born in the wrong era. I think I would have done well back in pioneer days.

I am fascinated by Amish people. Sometimes I wish I was Amish, it just seems so much more simple and just plain(no pun intended) cool!

Sometimes I'm probably to much of a "good dutch girl" as I use almost everything til there is one drop left or less of something, examples would be shampoo, toothpaste, cleaning products.

I know that I don't like beer, but yet I always try it hoping that it might change.

I love getting a good deal, even if I don't necessarily need something I will buy it because it's such a good deal!

I am not ashamed to admit that I buy clothes at Meijer, Walmart, Target, Salvation Army and Goodwill(good deals at those last two!!).

I love eating ice cream! And could easily eat it every night.

I love cheese.

I really like to cook and bake but rarely do because I hate leftovers.

I would much rather stay at home and read then go out to a bar or even to a movie.

I've never been to Mackinaw Island and I've lived in Michigan my whole life.

I've never smoked anything.

I love my Chacos (sandals) and wish I could wear them the whole year.

I love warm weather, sun, and sand! I wish I lived near a beach.

I love my iphone and will probably always have one. My iphone is the one piece of technology that I don't absolutely despise.

I really love getting my hair hi-lighted, it makes me feel so much better about myself when its done nicely and looks good. Really dorky that makes me feel better...

I hate going to walmart because they have 50 lanes and there are only ever 2 open. Seriously?? How does that make any sense???? UGH!!! Can you tell that I was there recently? For one thing mind you and I didnt get it because I couldnt stand that I was waiting for 5 minutes and it would have been more like 15-20.

I like to take self portraits of myself :-) alot of those occur while driving.

Well I know that there are alot more and maybe as I think of them I'll add them. So stay tuned.

And I love jeep wranglers! Probably way more than I should, I said earlier that I wouldn't want to go to a casino but this weekend at a casino nearby one could win a jeep and I would go for that reason alone! I think that they are the best car in the world! Yep I'm a weirdo:)

Almost there..

So in just 3 short days we'll be hosting a celebration of Jared and I's marriage.

Hooray for a tasty pig roast and more importantly a mashed potato bar! And the cupcakes which I am also excited about it!

I got all my fun pictures in the mail and am looking forward to having those out! I still have quite a bit to do in the next 2 days, including getting plates siliverware and all that jazz. Getting some frames and picture holders. And just the last minute things that come with having a party. But I am really excited to see so many people! :-D

I always have really great ideas of what I want to write on here and when I finally sit down, I can never remember.

Currently: I am still reading Harry Potter book 2. It's as thought I cannot get through it!

I am at work right now but its my Friday!!

I ran 3.6 miles on Sunday and my mom, twins and myself are all signed up for the color run 5k, on August 5th. I am actually really looking forward to it! Mainly for the color aspect of it, they throw different colors at the runners at each K. So its going to be fun! And while on Facebook earlier I saw that Binder Park Zoo has a 5k on June 23rd...hmmm maybe I'll venture out and do that and then I get a pass for the zoo for the day and of course a t-shirt which pretty much makes it worth it to me. Yep, I'm a dork.

On Saturday I have only 3 weeks left until Panama!!! AHH!!! SO excited!! :-) But I still have alot to do!

I'm hoping that tomorrow we will make pizzas for dinner, we bought everything on Sunday and right now it sounds so delightful.

Well I suppose I should wait 20 minutes and begin my trek home!

Still alive..

I'm still around even though my blog might not show that. I'm currently at work after a nice 5 days off.

After having 5 days off I really would prefer to be at home but alas I am here. So I'll make the best of it and blog:-)

What have I been up too?

Well we went to Florida for 9 days which was great! I loved it and getting to do all the fun parks and dinner shows. My favorite was probably Sea World and I'm even going to write that I cried while watching the Shamu show. It was just so cool to me to see how incredible God's creation is. Jared was a trooper and a super nice husband because I know that doing all the animal parks and dinner shows are not his favorite. But he did get to go to Harry Potter, which I also enjoyed and I am now actually reading the books. Everything at Harry Potter was very true to the movies. One of the rides made both Jared and I feel SUPER sick, so I didnt even end up going on the other major roller coaster. So that really is not so fun or it made me realize I might be getting old and I can't ride roller coasters anymore...I'm hoping that it was just the ride and that I can still enjoy Cedar Point maybe even this summer.

Currently(besides being at work) I'm looking forward to our reception/pig roast fun on June 9th. Hopefully the weather will be nice. I just ordered some fun collages, canvas prints and a couple other picture things for it. I'm excited to see how they turned out! I am also quite excited to have a mashed potato bar and have super yummy cupcakes!! YES!

And then at the end of June, its time for Panama!! Yeah mission trips! I'm so excited to go as a leader and be able to have that experience. God is so good. And I'm also excited because we finally have a youth pastor at church and I think we may start small groups soon and I would just love that. But back to the mission trip, I know its not about the fun excursions that we are going to have although we are going on a boat to an island where howler monkeys abound! And then we are going on a jungle viewing thing, which is going to be beautiful! And I am also most excited about being a leader and meeting and being able to impact alot of teens.


God is so good!

just a random post

So as I was wishing that someone else had posted something new, I decided to write a new post.

I'm sure its not going to be very exciting, so be forewarned.

I did FINALLY go see The Hunger Games and.......I loved it! It was actually very close to the book and I just loved all the people who starred in the movie. I feel like they did such a fabulous job of picking people who were portrayed in the book. I dragged Jared to the movie, I'm not sure if he understood the whole thing but at least I didn't have to go alone.

I need to find a new dresser and have been looking but havent found anything that I have to have yet. Oh well, I guess the search will continue!

I think we may be getting internet at our house (still feels weird to stay that). Which would be quite nice! Then we can watch Netflix and be able to go on the internet, besides on my phone.

Well thats all for my nothingness post. Maybe if I think of something exciting I'll write more later. Or maybe I'll go on my phone and put up a picture or two.

Mrs.

Well if you can guess from the title, we got married :-)

I am so terrible at keeping up this here blog but whatever. March 29th was the day, and yes it was a Thursday if you are looking at a calendar and wondering. It was so fun and laid back. And everything went well!

I am now an old married woman, Mrs. Ashleigh Wendzel to be exact.

We went to Chicago for the weekend after the wedding, and it was really fun. I felt really wealthy since we stayed at the Ritz Carlton! Whoa! But it was so fun! Really pretty hotel as well!
We got city passes which was great, because then you have to wait in next to no lines and its a really sweet deal! If you go to Chicago, you should probably get yourself some city passes.

And now in less than 2 weeks we are going to Florida!!!! YES! And going to Universal Studios to none other than The Wizarding World of Harry Potter! Oh yeah!

Yesterday we had my mom, stepdad and twins(sisters) over for Easter and it was way fun and all of my food was pretty tasty too!

So married life is good as well. It still seems strange to have someone there all the time but good as well. The only problem we had was my bed, which had a really comfy piece of memory foam for one person but with two people it was a FAIL!! Last Monday morning I could have really hurt someone because I got no sleep and I was mad! But.....problem solved without the memory foam:-) And I am now a much happier woman and maybe even wife, haha!!

A much needed post!

So I officially stink at keeping up my blog!

A lot has happened recently and yet there was silence! Oops! But here is an update...

1. I got engaged!!! Yep:-) its true! Jared asked me and I said yes. I suppose I should write the story but I'm not feeling very motivated currently so maybe tomorrow. Then it wouldn't be so long between posts.
2. I am getting married in 3 weeks from today!!! Ahh:-) I'm excited! Then in April we are going to Florida! Which will be fantastic!
3. I am going to Panama in July for 2 weeks! I am so looking forward to it! God is so good!
4. I read all of the hunger games books and loved, loved, loved them!! They are so good! I am so looking forward to the movie coming out, even though I don't have high hopes for it even coming close to the book, I still think it will be fun.
5. I can't think of anything else so that's all!

Happy Birthday to Me!

Today is my birthday! And I'm going to be having one the above cakes today! I am pretty excited!!

It is from Boonzaaijer Bakery in Kalamazoo, it is my favorite place to have cake from. They are a dutch bakery and have other tasty dutch treats, and even chocolate letters at the right time of year. My great grandpa used to go to the Netherlands and would always bring us back the first letters of our name in Droste chocolate.

If you have never had their cakes, well you are missing out:-) If you are ever in the area you should definitely go buy a slice or a cake.

I Made It! (well almost)

I have survived 5 days of taking care of the twins, numerous horses, 4 dogs and 5 cats. Whew!

Well it wasn't bad at all, despite what I may have just made it seem like. It was fun! We did a lot of fun things and had lots of really tasty foods! Currently the twins are out riding their donkeys and I am finally relaxing.

We went to the library and I am currently reading The Hunger Games and finding it very good. I am trying to stay out of the book zone where all I think about is the characters and then forget about real life, but if I hadn't been watching the zoo all weekend I probably would be on book 2 at least and definitely in a book zone. So I guess its a good thing, I am in charge here.

On another note, my birthday is tomorrow! I both love and hate my birthday. I love it because well its my day, I can pretty much do what I want and for some reason I feel pretty special all day. But I don't really like it because I'm turning another year older, 26 to be exact. Where did 25 go? I feel like I just turned 25! and now tomorrow I will be 26! What?!

I don't really know what I might even want for my birthday, I need my hair hi-lighted so maybe I'll ask for that or I could really use some new make-up. I also need to decide where to eat for my birthday dinner, since it is my birthday I should probably decide. I am kind of leaning toward Olive Garden and getting the tasty ravioli that I love which has mushrooms and tasty sun dried tomato sauce. I think I may have just made my decision, now that I'm salivating and wishing I was eating that right now. I guess tonight I will have to settle for some Annie's organic Mac and Cheese.

Maybe you'll even get a post from me tomorrow on my birthday! I guess that will depend on what I end up doing with my day:-)

Brrr!!

Not only do we now have snow :-( but this morning it was 7 degrees! Super cold!
But I will admit it looks pretty see the attached photo:)

Off to church I go!

No snow, no snow, no snow! :-)

And yes, I am so glad about this!! :-D

I love that we havent had much snow at all, maybe 2 real snows. I know that not many people would not agree with me, but I am most definitely a fan. But then again, I could easily live where it is warm all the time.

So, seeing as I havent posted on here in well forever, here is an update.

Christmas was very great! I got spoiled at all of the Christmases I had:-) I got many fun things, even gnome pajamas! and a new front door! I cant wait to see it installed! I'm not ready to take down my Christmas decorations and see the emptiness that will be there. boo! But I think I may start taking things down tomorrow which makes me sad. I'm going to ask Jared to bring up all my storage bins and then I'll have to repack everything. And then it is going to look boring. Yuck! And that means that my Christmas tree will be coming down soon too, which also makes me sad. Its such a pretty tree. I really could see myself leaving the tree up all year but it might be weird to do that too. hehe!

I want to paint my refrigerator with chalkboard paint :-) Maybe to make myself less depressed about Christmas decorations being down I'll do this! If and or when I do, I'll post pictures.

I got a new dog! Her name is Zeena, shes a doberman and such a lovely lady! I'm very glad she is now a part of my animal family.

Well I am off to waste some time on Pinterest(which I just love!!)