Ashley’s blog

Well it's been a big week at our little home.  Cole passed 3 of his 4 tests this last week and that is not a small feat.  He took his registry written test last friday and had to wait until monday to get his results.  It was excruciating waiting 3 days for a simple pass or fail.  But let me tell you he passed and was oh so relieved with the news.  He said it was the worst test he's ever taken in his life.  Yes this coming from a kid who doesnt like tests but the anxiety he had the following 3 days leads me to believe that it was pretty gruesome.  Then monday he had to take the written portion of his consortium exam in Bozeman.  He took this test last year but there was still a lot riding on whether or not he passed.  Luckily for us he passed and was able to take the physical portion. He passed his physical portion and improved his time by about a minute.  The physical portion is 8 exhausting events that you have to complete in ten minutes.  This year he was far more prepared but it still didn't help the nerves. He hardly slept the night before and i have a suspision that he may have had the flu the day before and the morning of his test..........It was going around in my family that we were staying with.  So that just adds to the fact that I am a proud girl of all that he has accomplished in the last week.  He has one more test next saturday but isn't to concerned because it's the skills portion of his registry test and this is the stuff he is actually comfortable with.  So thats all the news from us, sorry no pictures they don't really allow the fan club in to watch them test, it unfortunate really.

Well I was looking at my past posts and realized that the last time I posted the wedding was like 130-something days away and I'm here to tell ya people there are only 45 days until our wedding!  Since it's been so long since we've posted there are a lot of things to catch up on.  I think I shall start with the fact that I will be marrying a man who just passed his 3 semester Paramedic Class with an "A".  Proud??? Who me??? Not at all!  Seriously it was a huge deal and I think he is absolutely amazing for making it through and doing so well.  The getting A's concept was a popular trend in our house as I just finished my last math class in the same fashion, not nearly as big of a deal but it's a great feeling that I will never have to take another math class again.  Cole now has 2 tests to take and pass before he actually has his paramedic and one test to take along with that to get a job on the fire department.  We can only hope and pray that the city is going to be able to hire on new firefighters sometime soon.  He's kind of freaking out because it is suddenly very real that he is no longer a student and much much closer to being a professional firefighter.  Hooray for Him thats all I have to say about that.

As for the wedding things are moving right along.  We have finished our sessions with the pastor and really liked getting to know him.  My girls' dresses came in and all but one fit pretty much perfectly, what a relief.

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  I take my dress in on thursday to get it hemmed and trying it on the other day I've found that it fit as perfectly as the day I got it so thats a good feeling I guess.  Invites are officially out of my house and in the mail and I can not tell you what a relief that is.  Now the only big things left are getting the guys fitted for their tuxes and continuing to work on the music.  Things are coming together quite nicely, but I'm finding that a lot of little stuff you don't really think about is sneaking up.  I had my bachelorette/birthday party a couple of weeks ago and that was a lot of fun. 

Here are some pictures of my party, and of course chief stud my male companion for the night.

 Then last weekend I had the first of my showers.  We got a lot of really great stuff for the house and it was really nice to see everyone before the wedding.    I've posted some pictures of some of the fun stuff we got for those of our loved ones far away (that's you Jess) to see and some of our loved ones not so far away to see.  We got a lot of good things for the bbq and Cole loved that, his favorite presents were the toaster oven from peggy, the bbq set from aunt shelley and the wafflemakers from Jessica and Grandma Lenora.  As if you didn't know, he's a big fan of food.  Here are a few pics of some of things we got that haven't been put away yet.

  The Waffle Maker from Jessica and this cute serving tray that I was really hoping for!

The new clock, cute candle votive from shayla, spoon bouquet from Terri go figure and of course the toaster oven.

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My New Pitcher, napkins and placemats, very very fun!

Oh yeah and our stimulus checks were put to good use according to government standards, our new 42 inch Flat Screen LCD High-def, like I know what any of that means but he's pretty proud of it.

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Well I think thats about it for now, we'll keep you posted (no pun intended) on the testing situations and wedding updates.

In so many ways that sounds like forever and in so many other ways it's so soon!  We are now 132 day from saying "I Do"  and the closer we get, the more we get done, but there's still so much left to do!  I met with the florist and finally figured that out.  We went a totally different direction from what I thought we would but I think we'll be really happy with everything in the end.  We decided that the main idea of the bouquets will be; red roses, stargaizer lily's, dark purple cali-lillies, and bright pink roses.  It should look similar to one of the pictures I posted before I think it was the last one in that set.  It's a goreous arrangement and we actually found that it will tie in really well.  We ordered the girls' bridemaid dresses today so yet again one more thing out of the way.  I can't wait for the dresses to get here so we can finally get an idea of what we are looking at.  Its so hard to base so many of your decisions on pictures.  We were able to see one the dresses on one of my girls but it was the wrong color and didn't fit her well so it's so hard to think about everything coming together and not being a total disaster.  Now my big item to work on is ordering our invites and getting started on putting the music together. 

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Bridesmads

As for the other major things going on in our lives, school is going well for both of us.  We were excited to learn that last semester Cole and I both received all A's in our classes.  Cole is as busy as always, it's hard to believe that he'll be done with school in May.  I don't really think that has hit him yet.  He finally observed his 3rd and final baby delivery and now he is looking foward to the rest of his shifts either being at Kalispell Fire Dept or the ER.  Along with school and work he's also been really busy on the volunteer dept.  He did a 12 hour overnight shift on Tuesday and now he's doing a 24 hr shift for tonight and tomorrow.  So its a busy life as always for us!    

So we are officially at 6 months and boy oh boy is it coming fast.  Our engagement was 14 months and we are on the down hill slope and I can't believe it has come so fast!  I feel like we have so much done but it just hit me that we have so much left to do.  The bridal fair is this weekend and so that should help narrow some things down.  I am so ready for it to be here!   Changed my mind on the bridesmaid dresses and they will be in little black dresses and I'm so excited.  It was what I wanted in the beginning but Cole wasn't crazy about it, but then he saw it somewhere and liked it a lot more than he thought he would.  I think it will be a lot easier to coordinate and I think it will really bring out the other colors.  I've also looked at some pictures and gotten a pretty good idea of what I want for the bouquets and will be calling the florist on Monday.  Saturday we will reserve Chairs and table so that's just a few more things to cross off the list.  Invitations will be ordered next month, and I have decided to put together our own music selection and I have a friend with equipment that is willing to help run it so thats yet another few things to check off our list and saves a few pennies (ha try like 700).  That should be all the wedding stuff that needs to be done for a while and then it will be here before we know it.

These are some of the ideas I've found for bouquets the first one is my favorite and I like the second one for the bridesmaids but on a smaller scale.

As for last year, we had an amazing Christmas with our new nephew and his little family.  He was so much fun to have around.  I can't believe how much love one little boy can bring out in everyone.  It was great to see you too Jess you are very missed around here!  I can not believe how busy our holidays have been and I think that next year we are going to have to break down and devise some sort of the system that excludes some of the running around it's too hard when you have to go to work the next day.  We had so much fun with our visitors that when it came time for them to leave we didn't know what to do with ourselves the next day.  I still have yet to cook a meal in 2 weeks I think I may have gotten a little lazy, hehe.  

Some Pictures of little man playing with his very proud uncle I love the last one on the right! 

As for our New Years we didn't even stay up until midnight.  We had some heavy hearts and needed to get our minds off things so we went out for dinner and a movie (courtesy of shayla).  We had some HuHot and went to see National Treasure, which was very good.  We came home looked at each with tired eyes and decided it was time for some sleep.  We then were woken up by the fireworks outside our window said "Thats Annoying oh yeah Happy New Year" and that was about it.  Well I think that pretty much sums it up, I hope everyone has a great year to look foward too!

Sorry it took me so long to post these, but I finally had a chance and here they are!  Let us know what you think!

Sydney Sue

We Hate this One, but it seems to be a big hit with everyone else

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We had our engagement pictures done today at Woodland Park.  It was the perfect day for it and I can't wait to see how they turned out.  We even took our little dog, but she wasn't on her best behavior so that made things a little difficult.  Cole got a chance to see how our photographer works and I think it went really well.  She is amazing and I think Cole really enjoyed her.  We were a little akward with some of things she had us do, but we trust her and who knows those may turn out the best.  It was nice for us to get some time together and have a little fun.

Cole finished his first rotation with Kalispell Fire Department on Saturday and oh man is he excited!  He had a pretty good week considering he earned himself 100% on his ACLS test, which is a really big deal.  He had a great day at KFD he got to know a lot of the guys and a lot of them knew who he was so that's a really good sign.  They had a big pancake breakfast that morning so he was able to visit with his cousin and her new husband and then he was able to meet all they guys who weren't working that day too.  I'm so proud of him, he is doing such a terrific job and he loves what he is doing.  His application for employment with the city is already in so now it's just a matter of time and hopefully things will work out. 

As for me just workin and goin to school, it doesn't sound like much but it sure is.  I'm really excited because I only have 8 days left at my bank and then I move to the new one.  I'm really looking foward to the change.  Wedding plans are at a hold for now.  Not much left to do til it gets closer but we can't wait.

So here's the thing!  After watching the season finale of Greys Anatomy not so long ago, I decided to swear off the show (yeah right).  Well here I am in shock after watching the season premiere!  I'm totally disgusted by the fact that I went soft and thought I could watch just one episode, that's like eating just one M&M, Not possible.  But as soft as I was I'm still just as disgusted as I was 3 months ago.  Is it so wrong for a girl to think that Love should conquer all, that for as jaded as you may be that you might find some sort of comfort and happiness in the future.  I have watched this show religiously for the last 2 years and I still have some sort of hope that Derrick and Meredith should end up together and just stay happy.  There's enough going on with the fact that Burke walked out on the wedding (secretly makes me freak out a little)  and that Izzy and George have this thing going on.  Is that not enough do we really have to watch Derrick and Meredith makes the same miserable decisions over and over again every season.  Ugh......I really do have a life I did go to class and finish my homework, not to mention worked 8 hours today, but it's kinda lonely around here on Tues and Thur nights.  I have to have something to dwell on.  As much as I can't stand to admit it I'll hang in there for another week, well because that's what I do and undoubtedly I will  tune again next week just to see how much more complicated things can get and then I'll get all worked up AGAIN!  Let me say for all of you who are thinking it.....TURN IT OFF WOMAN.....Get A Life!  So sad my pitiful dedication to a show I despise that gets me worked up enough to feel the need to write it all down and post for the world to see.

Cole has officially started his clinical hours for his paramedic class.  Yesterday he spent 12+ hours in the OB playing with babies.  There were 11 babies total and he actually changed a dirty diaper all by himself.  Big deal for him.  It's a requirement for his class that he observe 3 live births and this means the real deal, C-sections don't count.  So it's pretty difficult with the fact that a lot of C-sections are a last minute decision.  Not only that, but you have to have the permission of the parents to be and this is a struggle for the guys.  He has 2 girls in his class that have already observed at least 1 and none of the guys have been able to yet.  But last night Cole got a yes and when his shift was over she hadn't gone into labor yet so the OB said they would call when things picked up.  Sure enough at 11:30 Cole was called to go watch a live birth.  He said it was kind of gross at first,  but after he got over the initial shock it was pretty amazing.  So now he's got 1 down and 2 to go.  Last night he had another set of parents that agreed to let him watch, but by 2 in the morning it was looking like she was going in for a C-section.  He was pretty excited about his day and said that the father of the baby was really nice and was relieved to have Cole in the room because they were the only 2 guys in there during the birth.  Cole says they talked hunting videos the whole time (I'm sure the mom loved that) but I guess it's good that he got parents the seemed to be pretty laid back especially for his first time and who knows maybe it made it less stressful for the father.  All in all he had a great day and it pretty bummed because he only has to go there once and he's already done. 

Well we've made lots of progress on the wedding so far.  We now have our invitations picked out and now all we have to do is get our engagement pictures taken so we can send in our order.  Woohoo that feels like a huge load off my shoulders.  I also now have my undergarments for my wedding dress so all I need to do with that is get it altered, which I will wait a while to get that done.  We sent our deposit in for the photographer so they will save our date.  I have my bridesmaids dresses picked out but again that's going to be a while before we get them ordered.  Cole decided on wearing a tux for the wedding which is good I'm excited to see him all dressed up!  We had a very productive long weekend and now it's back to work and back to school.