Three Promises

Ladies and gentlemen. The engagement pictures have finally arrived. Unfortunately I will only be posting some of them here (since I have to upload them one at a time), but I will be posting even more on facebook. Enjoy!

the night matt asked me with mom's engagement ring

getting ready to call up the family!

telling the story of how he proposed

here we are grabbing a bite to eat before ring shopping

ring shopping <3

the ring has been found! and we can have it today?!?!

matt shows off the ring at dinner

our lovely cake (courtesy of matt's family)

the two happy families (except sam who was at a play)

engagement collage (courtesy of ms. flo)

i guess i've dragged this out long enough. HERE is my beautiful ring!!! you can't see it but there are also little diamonds on either side of the ring as well as a pink diamond near the bottom of the ring. AND notice that that are THREE diamonds other than the engagement diamond as in the three promises matt made to me. Wasn't planned but doesn't that make the ring all the more perfect?

So this weekend,  I watched The Proposal (with Ryan Reynolds and Sandra Bullock). In the movie, the main character is being deported back to Canada (reminds me of the movie Green Card – another good movie). Determined to stay at her book publishing company in NYC, she blackmails her assistant into proposing to her. The two then travel to Alaska to meet his family (the rest of the movie is about their time in Alaska). Very cute movie. Especially cute dog. Watching The Proposal was a great way to wind down after a long week. Well I guess that is the end of this blog…. Except you guys already know the exciting news! That is you already know about the real proposal.

Yes ladies and gentleman. Matt proposed! In case you can’t tell, I’m just a tiny bit psyched. The wedding will not be for awhile (we are thinking the summer after we graduate), but I’m so excited that Matt and I have taken this next step. Now my original plan was not to tell this story on my blog. After all, it is so much more fun to tell the story in person. However, quite a few people have asked me to tell the story online anyway…. so here we go.

In order to understand Matt’s proposal, you have to hear the story about the first time he told me he loved me. As it so happens, Matt wrote a blog about that over the summer.

http://jumptoconclusionsmatt.wordpress.com/2009/06/23/the-l-bomb/

STOP! Did you read the above blog? No? Go back and read before you continue! Seriously guys, you must know that story before you hear about the proposal. I know you want to jump ahead and get the part where he pulls out a ring, but this is not like when you read the last page of a book to decide if you want to buy it or not.

Okay you read it? Keep that story in mind. The day after we watched The Proposal was Friday. After sleeping in (yay for Fall Break), I told Matt that I desperately needed to run errands (Halloween costume, groceries, a planter for Basil, etc.). So off we went. We stopped by the Halloween store to get some ideas. We went to Target to find a planter (turns out they didn’t have any). We dropped off The Proposal back to Walmart. We decided to grab dinner while we were out. Since Olive Garden is right by the mall, we also thought it might be fun to walk around the mall for a little while. Pretty much everything was perfect. The weather was beautiful, and I felt completely relaxed.

We figured we’d go grocery shopping the next day and go ahead and start some homework that night. We went back to my apartment and pulled out some books. The previous day, Matt made a list of things he needed to get accomplished. He had shown me the list. I knew it existed. So I wasn’t surprised when  he told me that he forgot his list in the truck. He needed to go get it. Still talking to me, he got up and headed toward the door. As he gets to the door and slightly opens it, he says, “Will you marry me?” ANDDDD proceeds to shut the door!

Now you can imagine how I reacted.

*Door shuts*

Ashley (thinking): He’s kidding right? I mean he’s headed to his truck right now to get the list. Right? Seriously wasn’t he kidding? You know what that’s not a funny joke. That is DEFINITELY not something you should joke about.

Ashley (begins to talk out loud): Is this a joke? Is he kidding? I’m going to go tell him this isn’t something you joke about!

I cross the apartment in several strides and swing open the door. To my surprise, there is Matt in front of my door on his knee and with my mother’s engagement ring in his hand. He repeated, “Will you marry me?” Once I had a second to register that this wasn’t actually a joke, I smiled…. and said YES! He picked me up and kissed me. I don’t think I could’ve been any happier. So that ladies and gentlemen is how my amazing fiancé asked me to marry him. He wanted to take me by surprise just like with that first “I love you.”

Matt asked me to marry him with my mother’s engagement ring, because he wanted to give me the chance to help pick out my own engagement ring (plus mom’s ring was too big for my ring finger). So we went home (Houston) the next morning to go ring shopping. I invited my family to go with us in search for the perfect ring (We invited Matt’s family as well, but they agreed to meet us later at the engagement dinner). Off we went to Jared’s, Tiffany’s, Zales, Gordon’s, and finally IWMarks, which is where we found my ring! In fact, they were even able to have my ring fitted that day! Now I’m not going to post pictures quite yet since I am waiting to get pictures from my parents. But know that my ring is beautiful!

The engagement dinner at Pappas Grille was lovely. Both families were there to laugh and tell stories. At last, it was time for Matt and I to make the long drive back to Waco (we had a lot to get done on Sunday). Now we are in a new school week. The stress is back, but I know that I have my fiancé waiting to give me a hug any time of day. And if he is busy with school or work himself, I have this amazing ring to distract me just a little.

I don’t know about y’all but I love to go to the zoo! That is one part of my childhood that I never really grew out of. Don’t you remember going as a kid and picking out your favorite animals? Not everyone could choose the cheetah so somebody had to be the giraffe and somebody else had to be a antelope, etc. Remember patiently (or maybe not so patiently) putting up with the fish and birds at the beginning until you could see the really cool animals (lions and tigers and bears. oh my!)? Well this weekend I got to relive my childhood. I came back to Sugar Land to celebrate my Aunt Pat’s birthday. Her birthday request? A trip to the Houston Zoo.

When I say I lived out my childhood, I mean I REALLY lived out my childhood. I spent nearly the entire trip reenacting the different animals (I am actually twenty years old). So please enjoy the following.

me and my fellow ducks

I'm an eagle!

Anyway, I had a great time whether you consider my actions mature or not. Unfortunately, I spent the weekend being sick on and off (my body can’t seem to make up its mind). However, this week is a four day school week! I’m psyched about the long weekend…. mostly because it’ll give me a chance to catch up school work and cleaning the apartment. Lame but true. I apologize for how ridiculously short this blog entry is, but I have to attend a colloquium in an hour….. and my computer is about to die. Hope everyone had a great weekend though.

Oh and even though Baylor Bears lost this weekend, here is a really cool bear from the zoo.

So on yesterday’s ACL blog, I made a comment about how “attending a major concert in the rain” was a part of my college to do list. I was not being literal (as I so often tend to be). Rather, it just seemed like a great story to tell twenty years from now. However, it did get me thinking about what would I put on such a list. I think my list would’ve looked something like this when I was a freshman.

1. Go on a road trip to Dallas. My family once stayed at a hotel in Dallas for a day or two (I think), but we didn’t do any real exploring (it was raining and we had the dogs with us). My only other Dallas experiences are driving through the city on my way to Oklahoma. This just seems wrong living in Texas. After all, Dallas is the third largest city. Lucky for me, Dallas is only an hour away from Waco. So sometime before I graduate I’m going to make a day trip to Dallas to see what is has to offer. (My actual freshman list would’ve probably included Austin as well, but I’ve been there quite a few times now.)

2. Go to ACL. While I wouldn’t have insisted that I attend it in the rain, I would’ve had ACL on my list of college things to do. I actually told Matt that ACL was on my unwritten list of things to do last spring, which is why his family surprised me with tickets for my birthday. Don’t get me wrong. I’ve attended other concerts before and had a great time. But it seems like a big deal in college to attend ACL, and now I can say that I have!

3. Pull an all-nighter. Why did I think this would be a great college experience? Let me tell you that it is not. I pulled several almost all-nighters (meaning I got at least one to three hours of sleep). However, I did pull a couple all-nighters as well. The worst one was for a biology 2 test. Matt (who I’d only been dating for a couple months at this time) was kind enough to offer to stay up with me. We studied away at the library for hours on end. Poor Matt fell asleep on the library couch. I kept studying though until about 5:30 a.m. At which point, I laid my head down on the desk and drowsily stared at my book for the next hour and a half. Finally, the dining hall opened at 7 at which point we loaded up on coffee. I took my test at 8 and have no recollection of the rest of the day. No more all-nighters in college please!

4. Attend Pigskin or Sing. For those of you who don’t attend Baylor, Pigskin (held in the Fall) and Sing (held in the Spring) are Broadway-like performances that different campus organizations put on while competing against one another. Pigskin is pretty much the best of Sing from the previous spring. I don’t know if I will have time to go to Pigskin this year since I have quite a few tests to study for that weekend, but it is my goal to attend one of the two before I graduate.

5. Participate in community service. For those of you who didn’t go to Saint Agnes, you may not be aware how much they promote community service. To graduate, you must have at least 100 hours of community service. I loved volunteering in high school (Texas Children’s Hospital, MDA summer camp, Mayor’s Youth Advisory Council, etc.). However, I haven’t had much time for that in college. That is why I chose a community service class to push me back in the right direction. So far, I’m really enjoying my time with the hospice and abuse center.

6. Understand college football. First of all, I should get credit for having just attended some of the games. I am not a huge football fan (my family was always more in to baseball and basketball), but I would like to at least be knowledgeable. Mom and Matt have tried to explain some of football to me, but I still don’t get it (I have this problem of tuning out after the first couple of minutes). That will change before I graduate (I hope).

7. Go to Homecoming. I actually never went to homecoming in high school. I never got one of the huge mums or attended the homecoming dance. To some degree, I regret that, but oh well. Not seeing the big deal, I skipped my first college Homecoming to head home. However, I did attend Homecoming last year (or at least part of it). My cousin Katie came to visit. We all went to the big bonfire and participated in the Homecoming fun (some speakers, rides, etc.). I admit that I didn’t go to the morning parade (too early!), but I did go to the game. That counts, right?

8. Donate blood. In high school, you had to be 17 (I think) to donate blood. Since I’m one of those late May babies, I could only donate (in theory) as a senior. Senior year, I was all excited to donate blood for my first time. They took my iron count: satisfactory. They took my heart rate: too high. What??? But I’m healthy? Well, yes. However, the nurse said I was probably overly nervous or excited. Nothing wrong with those emotions, but they prevented me from donating. Instead, l I had to wait until college. So far, I’ve donated 3 times!

9. Attend a fraternity or sorority party. Isn’t that the thing you are supposed to do in college? Animal House, right? Probably not, but it seems like another one of those good stories to have. I’ve been to parties in college, and I’ve even gone clubbing. None of these were related to a fraternity or sorority though (and Baylor has quite a few fraternities and sororities). Since I have no interest in joining a sorority myself, my goal is to at least attend one of their parties. We shall see.

(Actually, after writing this, I realized that I DID attend the Stoplight Party my freshman year for the black fraternities/sororities. I think it was actually the guys hosting it, but I do not remember what their Greek letters are. Any guesses?)

10. Catch a squirrel. I know this is a weird one. However, there is this list of Baylor things to do before you graduate (take a picture in Judge Baylor’s lap, climb the Suspension Bridge, attend Church Under the Bridge, go to Dr. Pepper Hour,  etc.). One of them is to catch a squirrel. I’m not sure how many people have actually achieved this…. I probably will not be one of them. That won’t stop me from trying every now and then though!

my freshman year

Good morning ladies and gentlemen. Another weekend has gone and another school/work week has begun (gross, right?). Oh and what a busy weekend it was!

I told you about my Friday plans. The ride-in with a RN was great. I can’t  elaborate too much due to confidentiality reasons, but I really think I’m going to enjoy volunteering with the hospice program. However, I was running a little late after my lunch with the nurses. Thankfully Matt helped me clean up the place while I packed. I was ready to go in an hour, and we were off to Austin!

It was wonderful to see Matt’s family (Shakespeare and Princess the poodles included). After some fun conversation (such as Farmville strategy -a potential later blog topic) and some yummy pizza, we headed out to visit Angela. If the pizza wasn’t enough, the sushi certainly was. I stuffed my face with seaweed salad, part of a caterpillar roll, and part of a spicy tuna roll. Then to top it all off, we stopped by Amy’s Ice Cream for a Muddy Dalmatian. Good friends… good food… what more could a girl ask for?

Apparently, I must have secretly asked for rain because that is what I got most of Saturday. As you may recall, Saturday was the day we had tickets to ACL. Since the skies were looking gray, we stopped by a CVS to buy a poncho, but they didn’t have any. Oh well. At least, we had a big umbrella. We should be fine, right? Yeah, they confiscated that. They claimed it was “too big.” Our new guard against the rain: the blanket that we borrowed from Matt’s family.

catching some rain with my tongue

Despite the on and off rain for about 7 hours, we had a good time. Imagine a big field with about 8 stages, numerous food vendors, and quite a few art vendors. I could’ve done without all the smoking (not a huge fan of first or secondhand smoke), but there was some great people watching to be had. Also amazing food: a “cone” (a chicken, avocado, some sort of sauce, and tortilla in a sno-cone cup), fish tacos, chicken tenders on a stick, etc. Even some funny signs and flags, such as the following:

Plus, we saw some great concerts: the Virgins, Mute Math, the Airborne Toxic Event, Flogging Molly, …And You Will Know Us by the Trail of Dead, Mos Def, and the Decemberists (there were also quite a few that we didn’t see). I admit I only knew the Decemberists, but I enjoyed being exposed to all of the new music. I especially liked Airborne Toxic Event. They put on a great show. Thus, I can officially check “attend a major concert in the rain” off of my list of things to do in college.

Wet and tired, Matt and I said goodbye to his family (thanks again guys!) and drove back to Waco on Saturday. We wanted to devote Sunday to grocery shopping, homework, etc. Things did not run as smooth as planned on Sunday. My major concern was a physiology lab group assignment. My group had agreed to have everything sent to me by 7 p.m.. By the deadline., only 2 of the other 5 members had sent me their work. Another member said she’d send her work in an hour. Another member said he’d send his work by 11 (turned out to be more like past midnight). The last member never replied. You can imagine my frustration.

Nevertheless, it is a new week, and I hope it’ll be a good one. I have no tests (only some quizzes and a paper). Plus, Matt and I will be going home this weekend. I hope all of you have a good week as well. Feel free to comment!

Ding dong the physiology test is dead! I missed you guys, but I’m glad I took the time away to focus on my physiology test (which was all about the central and peripheral nervous systems and how sensory/motor/visceral/etc information travels between the two…. fun right?). That was a beast of a test, and I feel pretty confident that I did well. However, now my physiology test, my history of medicine presentation/paper, and the pop ochem quiz are behind me (yeah we won’t talk about the ochem quiz). Thank the Lord!

Today I get to go on my first ride-in for the hospice. I’m pretty excited. A ride-in is when one of the volunteers (such as little ol’ me) drive with a hospice worker and in a sense shadow them for an hour and a half (this is only one part of the fairly in depth training process). Today I will be following a nurse, but I will also have the opportunity to do a ride-in with a chaplain and a social worker. It should be very interesting.

Plus, once I’m done with my ride-in, I get to go home, clean the apartment, pack, and head to Austin! Matt’s aunt and uncle have been kind enough to let us stay with them (thank you guys!). As well, I’ve already promised to see Angela (one of my lovely UT friends) sometime this evening. Best of all, I get to have sushi! Sushi? Really Ashley? Yes! To be frank, I don’t trust sushi in Waco (we only have a couple of places that offer sushi, and one of them is a buffet). That just seems fishy (bad pun, I know). So I only eat sushi when I go home OR when I go to Austin! I’m sure we’ll also get a highly caloric treat in the shape of either Amy’s Ice Cream or It’s A Cupcake.

I’m sorry this is such a short blog, but I need to head to biology class (I promised some students I’d glance over their papers since as adorable little freshmen they are freaked out about it). However, I will leave you with this too cute picture. It’s nice to feel like you have a special place waiting for you at home.

This is where my mail will go while I'm away at college. Have a great weekend!

I don’t want to disappear on you my awesome readers. However, Three Promises will be on vacation until after my physiology test on Thursday. Turns out I need to spend every spare second learning about the peripheral and central nervous systems. Wish me luck!

Good morning everyone. First, I must apologize for not blogging last Friday. Things got rather hectic. As you already know, I had to take the fearsome organic chemistry test Thursday evening (the test took two hours, and my brain felt like it had run a marathon. However, I think it went okay – hopefully, I’ll find out my grade this week). Then, I spent the rest of the night revising my colloquium paper due the next day.

Feeling good about my paper, I sent it in the next morning. It turns out I had turned on track changes at some point during the early writing process. For whatever odd reason, it never showed up on my computer (actually it did, but I thought I had turned it off…. not so much). When my teacher got the paper, almost all of my text was in red, and she could see every change I had made while writing. She e-mailed me to say that I had sent an “edited draft” and might want to consider revising before re-submitting. Obviously, I was a little confused since the changes were not visible on my computer (or at least they weren’t until I turned off track changes and then turned it back on). Of course, I found out about this as I was on my way to the hospice to watching the training videos. Considering I had a deadline to submit the paper, I was very antsy (but that is just my nature). In actuality, I got home in plenty of time, and Mom helped me fix everything over the phone.

By the time I re-submitted the paper, it was nearly 2 p.m. I had barely eaten all day (except maybe some pita chips and a diet dr. pepper…. I desperately needed to go grocery shopping). Being the gentleman that he is, Matt was kind enough to take me to Pei Wei. I intended to blog after my late lunch, but the lack of sleep finally caught up to me. I took a nice long nap and spent the rest evening cleaning (there is a direct correlation between a stressful school week and a messy apartment).

So that is my excuse for not blogging on Friday. The weekend was fairly busy as well. On Saturday, Matt and I attended the Abuse Center’s volunteer training/workshop (open to the public). We were there for over six and a half hours and got to hear some great speakers: a Waco police detective, a father whose daughter was murdered by her abusive ex-husband, a woman who escaped an abusive marriage, a prosecutor for the D.A.’s office, etc. Unfortunately, I spent the last hour and a half with a splitting headache. It was back to bed for me (while I was sleeping, our Baylor Bears beat Northwestern! However, one of our star players was injured and will be out for the rest of the season).

Sunday was filled with homework (and lots of it). The major things on my agenda are a physiology lab report due today, a history of medicine presentation and paper due Thursday, and a physiology test on Thursday. Needless to say, this will be another long week. The silver lining is that this weekend is Austin and ACL! Also, next week and the week after have a much lighter workload (no major tests or presentations). So here is to working hard until the weekend!

Today's picture is unrelated to Friday and the weekend. Rather, I saw this guy a couple of weeks ago when walking out of class. Isn't he pretty? These are the types of moments that remind me to step back and breathe. Beautiful things are just waiting to be noticed.

OCHEM OCHEM OCHEM! Yes, ochem is on the brain. My first test is today, and my nerves are on edge. I’m especially nervous that I have to take the test from 6-8 p.m. (not an optimal brain functioning time – especially when I will have just come from teaching SI). However, I will get through it…. I have no other choice.

Since I can’t seem to think outside of my ochem box, that will be today’s topic. Now I know I’m a nerd, but I think it’s interesting when my classes overlap. Freshman year, you are so busy learning the fundamentals that everything is scattered all over the place. But as you begin to take more advanced classes, it seems like the material starts to overlap more.

For example, in organic chemistry we learned about EAS (Electrophilic Aromatic Substitution). To oversimplify it, this is how we add things to a benzene ring. My teacher likes to offer us plenty of practice problems. He especially likes to give us challenge problems to get us thinking (he is the type of man who literally sings to organic chemistry). One of these problems was about a molecule similar to Bextra.

Gross. I know

I won’t try to explain the problem since it’s pretty complicated if you’ve never taken organic chemistry (it would’ve been way over my head a year ago). However, I can now (sort of) explain why Bextra acts the way it does on a molecular level. At the very least, I understand its structure.

When I went to my human physiology class, we were talking about the Arachidonic pathway. Again, I won’t try to explain the pathway since it has several parts to it (and this isn’t supposed to be a science textbook). However, as my teacher was explaining the pathway, he too mentioned Bextra. As it turns out, Bextra acts as an inhibitor in part of this pathway (the COX 2 portion – which synthesizes prostaglandins). Bextra is used to reduce inflammation, swelling, pain, and fever (so you might take this to relieve arthritis pains).

As my physiology teacher was talking about Bextra, I remembered my organic chemistry teacher saying Bextra had been pulled from the market. He mentioned something about the creators of Bextra being in some big lawsuit. At the time, I didn’t really understand why. However, my physiology teacher explained that while it is better to block just the COX 2 pathway instead of the COX pathway as a whole, we still do not fully understand what the COX 2 pathway controls. Hence, Bextra produced some surprising side effects: abdominal pain, headaches, nausea, etc.

Maybe you could care less about Bextra (I don’t blame you), but I think it’s fascinating when I can apply something from the real world in two different classes. It’s learning about  the same thing but from several different angles. Anyway, hopefully you weren’t too bored by your organic chemistry/physiology lesson of the day. I promise tomorrow’s blog will be science-free.  In the meantime, I shall do some last minute studying!

Imagine you are sitting in History of Medicine class. The weather is rainy and cold (in other words, completely disgusting). You’d rather be curled up in bed, but at least this is one of your easier classes (you just came from the dreaded Organic Chemistry 2). Today’s presentation is about ancient Roman culture and its medical history (I mean the class IS called HISTORY of MEDICINE). You tune out a little bit (thinking about all the things you need to get done this week) but perk up when you see that Michelangelo’s La Pieta is on the screen.

You actually take a moment to look at the speaker (by the way, this is a class where the students do most of the teaching. For example, I helped teach traditional Indian medicine a couple of weeks ago). To sum her up quickly: she is short with pale blonde hair and light pink lipstick. At the moment, she is explaining the core Roman virtues, such as fieles and dignitas. Trying to understand the interconnection between Michelangelo and the Roman virtues, you read ahead on the slide. On the list of virtues is “pietas.” Oh, how cute. She made a play on words, right?

For those of you who don’t know much Latin (don’t worry I raised my hand for this one too), “pietas” is “devotion” or “duty” (to the gods, one’s family, your leader, etc.). Conversely, La Pieta is the famous statue in St. Peter’s Basilica. It depicts the dead body of Christ lying in Mary’s arms.

Here is a picture taken from Mom's camera. We got to see it on our trip to Italy (Rome, Florence, Venice, and Milan)

A little ironic that she’d pick an explicitly Christian statue to put in a discussion about ancient Rome (as in the people who persecuted the early Christians). But whatever, I can go with the play on words. That is I was more than happy to play along until she said this: “This statue is called the Pieta. I don’t really know why.”

Wait. Did she just say what I thought she said? What do you mean you don’t know why? Did you even read the definition of “pietas” when you wrote that slide? How do you not see that this statue depicts a mother devoted to her son even in death? Also, how have you never heard of La Pieta in the first place? It’s only one of the most famous Christian statues (whether you are Catholic or not)!

Perhaps, this is just the artistic snob in me, but I was appalled (slight exaggeration but you get my point). Then again, maybe I should’ve seen it coming. I mean she was blonde (calm down. I’m blonde too). Not to mention, she did put a picture of a Caesar salad on the slide about Julius Caesar…

PS If any of you would like to read about some of Michelangelo’s works, Matt wrote a blog last semester. Here is the link: http://jumptoconclusionsmatt.wordpress.com/2009/02/26/michelangelo/