I just talked to my mom on the phone about how to buy a car. Not a $300 car off of Craigslist like last time (may she rest in peace). A real car (no offense, Martha).

I'm not typically the type of person who needs a car, but it seems to be a useful thing in a cold and spread out city that does not have bus service to all of the places I need to go. So, I'm looking into it.

Anyways, her first question was, "What kind of car are you looking for?"

"A yellow one."

Man, I'm just like the kids. Madeline likes any car that is red and Duncan likes any car that is blue.

Oh well, one day I'll grow up.

Monkey Chop Banana

We had a post-ripe banana in our fruit bowl, so I made chocolate chip banana bread with the kids yesterday. The thing is, I don't actually like banana bread (or anything that tastes like banana without being an actual banana. I love bananas).

So, I halved the amount of banana and doubled the amount of chocolate. It is delicious, though some may argue that it barely qualifies as banana bread.

MINUS FRICKIN' 49 DEGREES?!

That is what it got down to today with windchill. (That's -56 for all you Fahrenheit folks.)SICK SICK SICK! I live in Calgary now, and should really get over it, but that is just too cold. Especially when you have two small children to keep busy all day.

Also, today I learned that the burnt feeling in my big toe is frostbite from my lovely afternoon trip home yesterday. Also, my mild allergy to our laundry soap has progressed quite rapidly and now the stuff is causing me to break out in hives. I'm such a mess!

OK, now I have to go call my mom and brag about how cold it is here. (Yeah, I said brag... I'm secretly quite pleased with all this cold weather nonsense... after all, you know how I like a good story.)

Public Transportation

I just got home from church. I had to wait outside for 40 minutes for the bus to come. It kind of reminded me of Ghana. Except for the part where there is a blizzard and the windchill temperature is -35C.


...and tomorrow's supposed to feel like -44C with windchill. SICK.

(for all you Americans out there, -40 is where the Celsius and Fahrenheit scales become EQUAL... so it is VERY COLD either way.)

precision of language

The Giver. I love that book. There's a funny part where the protagonist's best friend Asher asks for a snack, but accidentally says smack. To prove a point about precision of language, his teacher smacks him.

The other night someone said, "Ashley, you are just so cool." She must have meant something else, like cruel or fool. Precision of language. And to prove that she was mistaken, I will tell you about what I am doing tonight, Friday night.

First of all, I'm blogging.

Second, I have been in my pajamas since 8:30pm.

Third... well, let me show you...

I have spent all of my free time in the past two days manipulating/creating images with Photoshop so I can print them onto t-shirts. Just for fun. The top two are the ones I made yesterday/today. The Transformers are the ones I made for Sam's birthday in December. (Optimus looks pretty sweet on the computer, but Bumblebee looks way better on the actual t-shirt.)

Fourth, I'm going to bed now.

Ayudame!

It is so dry in this city and my lip balm has been missing since Sunday!

(P.S. Cassy, can you please explain why Sam insists on referring to my lip balm as John-Mark's booty?)

(P.P.S. Sam, if you perchance remember what I wore on Sunday, maybe that will help me figure out where the lip balm is.)

Superheroes, eh?

A few minutes ago I heard the kids running down the stairs yelling "the superheroes are coming to fight Ash-a-lee!" (Ash-a-lee is how anyone under age 8 pronounces my name.) The funny part is that, when the superheroes ran through my bedroom door, the 5-year-old had absolutely no clothes on and the 3-year-old had two pairs of pants and 3 shirts on. I tickled them for like 10 seconds, then they ran upstairs. Terrible superheroes, if you ask me.

Week(end)

Man, what a busy week... I worked M-F and had something going on every single evening. I almost used a whole book of transit passes!

I also knitted 2 toques due to the fact that the first one I knitted was to small and will have to be given to one of the many three year olds in my life. I think I'll make little mittens to go with it. (I think it was prophetic that Celia sent me mitten patterns for both adult and kid sizes.)

THEN... it was the weekend again. And SAM was here for the WHOLE WEEKEND! She called on Thursday and said, "I'm in Calgary!" and I said, "WOW! I'm so excited!" That's exactly how it happened. Really.

Friday evening we went for dinner with Sam's Aunt Tammy and cousin Annie, then we set up her grandma's new Wii and played some sports with her. I sucked at basketball, Sam sucked at skill ball, Nan sucked at darts. Or did Sam suck at darts, too? I can't really remember.

Saturday we woke up and played Cassy. That's the game where you watch The Weather Network for 30 minutes after you wake up. Sam only made it 14 minutes but I watched for the whole 30. (Let me tell ya, time does NOT fly when you are watching The Weather Network.) We played some Super Mario on the SNES, took Annie to the mall for some cookies, played some more Wii, and went to my house to "watch the kids" (they were already in bed). Basically we just played Duck Hunt and we played on Facebook because Sam does not have her own Internet in the developing nation of Hanna. Then we slept.

Sunday we woke up and the kids were REALLY excited that Sam was here because they REALLY like Sam and have been talking about her ALL week. (I don't really know what triggered this, as they had only played with Sam once before today, and it was way back in November or December.) Anyways, she built a ship with them and they made her some lovely crafts and I'm sure I'll be hearing all about how great she is for at least another week or two. When I got home just now they were very disappointed that Sam did not come home with me.

Anyways, we went to church and then for lunch at Timmy's and then Sam went back to Hanna and, well, I miss her again, but I will be OK. I AM from Horsefly. That's an inside joke, directed at Sam, who does not have Internet. Oops, shouldn't have done THAT.

________ partridge in a pear tree

Sam is in Hanna! (That reminds me of a joke, and a TV show, but I will spare you of both for now.)

Anyways, I know Sam has her own blog and that I don't really need to tell you that she is in Hanna, but I miss her, and I'm gonna keep missing her, so I guess you'll just have to live with my references to Sam and Hanna. Anyways, I'm excited to hear all about life in the sticks from a city girl such as Sam.

Things in Calgary are getting SUPER busy for me, which is actually a really good thing because that way I won't have time to be bummed out about my friend being farther away. (It's really quite the pathetic sight when I get bummed out, just ask anyone who has lived with me.)

Here are the sources of my new busy-ness: I picked up an extra 10+ hours of work a week watching a 3-year-old down the street (they have a Wii, I'm excited); I'm going on a missions trip to Brazil in August that'll require a good deal of preparation (not to mention Portuguese-learning); I'm starting UW correspondence courses as soon as my books get here.

Oh! And I also decided to pursue one of the ideas I had while I was brainstorming hobbies to take up. I'm knitting a toque! I might even get ambitious and try to make some matching mittens since the mittens I bought for 4.95 at Superstore are falling apart (imagine that).

I've also got a couple of adventures in the works. I'm heading to BC for camp's ski retreat, followed by who knows what. The possibilities are endless, as I have the whole week off. I'm also headed back to Southern Alberta Bible Camp in a few weeks to randomly volunteer at some weekend retreat that I know nothing about. Should be a good time, it's nice out there.

I guess that wasn't really anything too exciting, but I suppose once in awhile you just need to give the general update on life. There you have it.

Don't tell the kids.

The kids and I had some crackers for a snack today. They tasted so minty, it was weird. I kept asking the kids if their crackers tasted minty and they kept saying no. I thought they must be crazy.

Later on I put some more chapstick on my poor chapped lips. It tasted like the mint on those crackers. The chapstick WAS the mint on those crackers. DANGIT!

Yes Subject

First off, can I brag about how today I bought a $20 one-way plane ticket to Abbotsford? (One way because I'll likely use a flight pass I already have to get back). WestJet called it their best deal ever. It's true!

Second, my new hobby is going quite well. I have almost learned to stop on ice skates. That's a big deal for me, alright?

3th, Sam is leaving this weekend! I don't really know what else to say about that except that I will really miss having her here in Calgary all the time. Like, a lot. And also that it's a good thing we saved Donkey Kong when we did. Can I brag again and tell you that we beat the game with 102%? We are so amazing, it's crazy.

New item for the canteen in summer '08?

Flavors include (I'm not even kidding):
1. Natural Field Turf Soda (featuring Josh Brown)
2. Sports Cream Soda (featuring Matt Hasselbeck)
3. Perspiration Soda (featuring Deion Branch)
4. Dirt Soda (featuring Lofa Tatupu)
5. Sweet Victory Soda (featuring Walter Jones)

The Seahawks have their first playoff game in a couple of hours. I bet the soda is selling out all over the place.

GO SEAHAWKS!

Oh, Internet.

Haha, I just discovered this bio of myself on the youth website. Someone is pretty funny. (Kelly? Allan?)

This is Ashley. Ashley is one of the event leaders for Sr High. Ashley likes to drink coffee, but only ethical coffee. She's a nanny, but not like that crazy nanny from that terrible TV show.

Well? (Cistern?)

Anyone know how a Graysen Rock ended up in my Nalgene? Hmmmmm? I could have choked. Honestly.

Here's Johnny!

Man I love Johnny Cash. And that's the closest I'll ever come to appreciating country music.

Scrabble

I was at the airport super early for my flight to Seattle on the 24th, so I waited for about an hour and a half before I could check in. There was a guy waiting next to me. He spent the entire hour and a half reading the Scrabble dictionary.

Also, I am up past my bedtime. It's 1:30am (even though my blog says 12:30... I don't know what's up with that). I have somehow adopted the sleep habits of a teenager (or maybe those of a certain 23 year old Calgarian).