Black Friday

Black Friday is my favorite day of the year! Seriously. I'm a professional shopper.

This day every year me and my sis would start planning out our attack. The ads didn't usually come out until Thursday, (this year is different for some reason) we would go to the stores and check out where they are putting things and get a mental visual of the floor plan.

My sister started calling me"ELBOWS"

My sister needed me to fight the crowd and make a path for her to get through so she could get her kids everything that was on Santa's list. Sometimes I would have to use my elbows on people. No big deal just learn to get out of our way!

I don't know what it is, when they open those doors after standing in line for hours, I go crazy! Maybe the cold gets to my head or to much hot chocolate trying to keep warm. Whatever the reason, My adrenaline starts pumping and I start shopping like it's going out of style.

I hate those that sit in their cars the whole time and then minutes before its time to open the doors they charge to the front of the line. I get a little bitter and have been known to pick fights with the little cheaters.

First we would hit Shopko then Target, Kohl's, Toys are Us, Mervyns then back to Kohl's (we would always forget something there) Never Walmart because that is just a zoo on normal days and that's where the REAL fights would always break out.

I have never missed a Black Friday mission since she started having kids.

But this year....I have $4 to my name.

No need to start sending checks in the mail or to feel bad for me. It's just been crazy with James new job and new pay schedule.

Even though I know there is no possible way I can go shopping this year I still have it in the back of my mind that somehow if I just get up at 3 am, I will magically have more money in my bank account. Who caused me to have such a huge shopping addiction? Can I blame genetics?

I guess I was just born with this horrible problem.

It's like crack to me, I HAVE TO SHOP!!!

Is a shopping addiction as real as a drug or a gambling addiction? I might really need help.

I wonder if they have help meetings for such a addiction.

But if I did go to S.A (Shopaholics Anonymous), I of course wouldn't have anything to wear and would have to go shopping to get a new outfit to out do the other shopaholics.

Maybe I could pick something up this Friday for my new S.A. meetings with my magically new found money!

"Hi, My name is Ashlee and I am a Shopaholic!"

If you are one of those that sit in your car till the last minute, Your off the hook this year but...We will have our "conversation" next year!

HAPPY THANKSGIVING ALL!

I certainly have a lot to be thankful for this year.

Her name was LoLa...

I let my dog in the house the other day and she followed James up the stairs, As soon as he got the baby gate open she bolted for the bathroom and this is what I found once I got upstairs...

What a funny dog we have!

We have a kiddie pool in the back yard that in the summer I could not get her out of and if she wasn't in the pool she wanted to be running through the sprinklers. The poor baby must miss her pool and wanted to take a warm bath instead.

Me and Lola have a love-hate relationship. She is a pure bred German Sheppard and people often mistake her for a wolf. She thinks she is a lap dog and does not understand how big she really is.
Today I love her, Maybe not tomorrow but today, for her quirkiness and for not biting Bella or ever snapping at her when she tries to take Lola's bone.
Look how well behaved our dog is, She isn't even upset Bella just stole her bone right out of her mouth!

(Dont mind the fact they are both sitting in my closet)

Now if I could just teach Lola that she is in fact a large dog and that she can not jump on people, especially bella then we will have a keeper. Wonder if I could teach her to use a toilet to?

Rest Peacefully Dylan

One firefighter dies in plane crash; two rescued

Dylan was dating a good friend of mine for a long time. Although they may have broken up about a month ago, I know she still loves and cares for him very much. The Viewing is Friday, Funeral is saturday and his wake Saturday night at Port-O-Call.

The story of what happened is below.

A private plane carrying three Salt Lake City firefighters crashed in a remote area high in the Uinta Mountains on Friday, and one died of his injuries.
Dylan Hopkins, 25, was a paramedic and firefighter in Salt Lake City for four years. Late on Friday morning, he and fellow firefighters from Station No. 5, Bryon Meyer and Craig Weaver, took off in a Cessna 172 for a weekend trip to Colorado Springs, Colo., said Salt Lake City Fire spokesman Scott Freitag.
Somewhere over Wasatch County, pilot Weaver was attempting an emergency landing when his plane crashed in a small, remote clearing high in the Uinta Mountains. Weaver, who is also a flight paramedic for AirMed, called the helicopter rescues dispatch center on his cell phone about 12:15 p.m. as he and Meyer tried to revive Hopkins.
Three rescue helicopters launched a frantic search for their injured colleagues, whose white plane was nearly impossible to see in the snowy mountains 9,800 feet above sea level.
Weaver's voice cut in and out about 50 times under spotty cell phone coverage, as rescuers combed a grid around where the plane dropped off the radar.
"We could hear the emergency transmitter going off through the cell phone, but we couldn't triangulate it," said Brain Simpson, AirMed program manager.
The search lasted for an hour and a half, but at 1:49 p.m. dispatchers heard the helicopters' rotors through the phone line and knew they had found the spot. All three helicopters landed in the snow.
Flight paramedics took over the effort to save Hopkins and continued after landing at University Hospital. He was declared dead about 3 p.m.
Weaver and Meyer reached the hospital in serious to critical condition and are now stable.
"We are a family," Freitag said. "We deal with this sort of thing every day, but when it happens to one of our own it is very hard."
In his short time with the department, Hopkins distinguished himself by continuing to learn new skills, like heavy rescue.
After his death, his father remembered a 6-year-old Hopkins writing about how excited it would be to become a firefighter one day, Freitag said. Hopkins was not married and had no children, but his parents will be offered the department's counseling services.
"He was always smiling," Freitag said.

You will be missed Dylan! My heart goes out to your family and especially your "Special friend" Becky. May you find peace through all this becks.

Here is a link to his Obituary.

It will give you a better idea of his accoomplishments he has made in his life.

We all will miss him.

Christmas wishlist

Considering I woke up with my car covered in snow, (BTW...thanks for cleaning off my car James!)

I decided that it is now time to talk about the holidays!

Take in a deep breath….We can get through it together!

Serisouly, I am so excited for Christmas this year. There are not enough words to describe the excitement I have.
I will be able to have my very own Christmas tree. Every year me and James moved we always some how ended up moving just before Christmas and it was kinda of pointless to put up a tree.
NOT THIS YEAR!!!!
I am going to decorate my house so much, by the time I get done with it, it’s going to look like Chris Cringle threw up. (sorry James you are just going to have to deal with it)
I decided that it is never to early to tell Santa or anyone that is thinking about buying me an extravagant gift, what I would like for Christmas this year.

Ready here it goes...........Deep Breaths......

1. Wii Fit

2. 4 Runner

(I will accept any year between 1998-present day)

Just go ahead and put the keys in my stocking I know this will be to big to put under my new Christmas Tree!

3. Couches with a chase lounge

I want to finish my basement so the majority of my wants will be towards working on fixing that up
4. Fireplace
It gets pretty cold downstairs
5. Flat Big screen T.V. That will hang on the wall
What good would the couches be with out some entertainment?

I also would like the bedroom downstairs to magically make the ugly disappear. It needs to get rid of the ugliest purple paint you could imagine and magically create a play room for Bella to go to while we are watching our new flat screen by our new christmas tree.

But I understand that will take more than a christmas miracle to get that finished.