Memorial Day Weekend

Headed to Pawleys for the weekend. I'm getting a head start on everyone else and leaving today! I always like to make a long weekend longer. Anyway, me & Rachel will go down today, then O'Hara, Ellen, James, & the kids will come tomorow afternoon. Friday Mom, Dad, Precious, David Jr., Forrest, & Meredith arrive, and Sat. night Joe & Hilary. Packed house. It should be fun! I can't wait for some junk magazines, a good book, sun tanning (even though I know I shouldn't,) turkey sandwiches, kayaks, night fishing...and all the other things we do down there!!

Meet Lali

Lali is my bird. She is an Indian ringneck parrot. Her name is Indian and it means "darling girl" and is pronounced like "lolly." She sure is pretty. PRETTY LOUD. Man, this bird knows exactly the worst time to start skwauking (is that the word?) For instance, she will be silent and sit pretty for hours. Then as soon as I get a phone call, there she goes. She goes CRAZY. Also, if we decide to sit down for a nice meal, she freaks. I just am torn. How could we have children with a VERY LOUD bird around. They live like 30 years. She's 20 mos. Will I be pleading with a bird to hush up everyday for the next 28 years? She's high maintenance. 50% of her diet is table food...and well balanced. She eats better than me. On the other hand, I love her sweet little noises and chirps and she whistles and coos when I hold her. She has a little "show-off" dance that warms my heart! And she is so interesting to watch and just look at. I don't even want to think about her pooping on my new hardwood floors at the new house, though. UGH. Anyway, this is my bird. I love her and she drives me insane.

Sweet little birds

We have a nest in the jasmine on our front porch in Rosewood. I got as close as I could to try and steal a few pictures. I love birds. And I really like to hear the baby chirps. The mama bird stays right in our yard and hops and digs around for food. She flys up and feeds the little ones. It is so neat to be able to watch all of this from inside the house. The nest is RIGHT beside the door. That's the most trusting mama bird ever.

Wedding Pictures

Here are some more wedding pictures. Enjoy!

Out of towners...

This past weekend O'Hara went to Darlington for nascar races. That didn't interest me one little bit, so I stayed home and hung out with a few girlfriends & my brother & his friends...did I mention they are dating each other? It's getting strange! We had fun, though: going out to eat, sitting on the porch having a few beers. I think it 's gonna take a little time to get adjusted to the whole idea, but as long as everyone's happy, right??

Went shopping Sat. w/mom. We had a lot of luck. This has just been the best year ever for me and finding clothes and furniture,etc. that I like! Anyway, we got home to her house and ate supper & I went home. I was scared. All alone. I went to sleep and had bad dreams and kept waking up scared. The dogs were making noise in their kennels, and I freaked out. Where's my new strapping, fearless husband when I need him? Then the thunder & lightening started. I turned on the weather channel and there were tornaod warnings in neighboring counties and I ran out of the house, got in the car, and headed straight to mom & dad's (in night clothes.) What a wimp. I used to live all by myself and didn't get so scared. What's happened to me?

I was glad when O'Hara got home Sun. I missed him. We had a great time at mom's house, eating and hanging out, enjoying the kids. Uncle James got a moped and that was fun watching everyone take turns giving it a go. No, I didn't do it. Too scary. Also, I forgot to tell O'Hara's mother happy mother's day. I really am terrible. Her only daughter-in-law and I didn't even call.

So after a weekend apart, me & O saw each other Sun. night. Then I left Mon. am to o to Charleston and help Rachel pack her house up into a pod. I am still here and should be back in Cola. tomorrow afternoon. Then Thurs. O's going to Charleston to go deep-sea fishing with his dad Fri. am. I guess you get married and never see each other! I'm really looking forward to getting in our new house and settling into some normalcy! I'm gonna put up more wedding pics when I get home.

My life...

Our wedding! The pups, Puddin' & Herbie

Well,

It has been a crazy and exciting time for me lately. I'm a Howard! And I think Ashby Howard rolls off the tongue better than Ashby Chase. Who knew that there was an easier name for me? I'm a proud wife!

Brace yourselves: this is gonna be a long one. After this I'll have no more ideas for blogs 'til June.

Me & O'Hara met Jan. '06 at Jake's in Columbia. We had mutual friends and had great conversation from the get go. I did not want to date, though. I had just ended a 4-year relationship. But I gave him my number anyway. He didn't call.

In March '06 I went to a St. Patty's Day party and he was there. After that night we've been like white on rice. We just have so much fun together. People say that you just know when it's right. I really did. And he says that he knew the first time we met that I was supposed to be his. Cheesy, I know. But so sweet. I can't help it. I used to be so NOT into cheesy.

We got engaged at the end of October '07 and got married April 12. He proposed in his house in Rosewood: in the hallway at 3pm on a rainy Wednesday afternoon. I wanted a surprise and I got it! Who would guess a rainy Wed. afternoon?

I thought it was a good idea to have a pretty short engagement. 5 1/2 months seemed like too long to wait! But that's the best day we could find. Everyone says to slow down and enjoy the process. Impossible. I was overwhelmed. We were so ready for that day. I wish I could say that the planning was wonderful and easy. My take is that there are way too many options for a wedding/reception for it to be "easy," especially for an indecisive like me. I changed my mind 3 times about location, size, wedding party! If anyone wants to know anything about wedding stuff, I'm on it. I can help. I bet most newlyweds feel like experts in the field. Anyway, it ended up perfect, just as friends and family reassured me it would.

Our honeymoon was.... comical. You expected romantic, right? Well, St. John was certainly beautiful. And there was plenty of marital bliss. We had a long walk on the beach, plenty of room service, pina coladas. So what's funny, right? It was family week at the resort. BTW, you guys with kids would LOVE this place. Disney movies in the pool at night, ocean trampolines, toys, games...they've got it all at the Westin Resort. Needless to say, not exactly what we had in mind. We may wait a little longer than planned to start that family we've been talking about having! There was even a baby in the room next door to us who awoke at 4am and screamed until somewhere between 6-7am. Lovely. I was in tears, too. We went to bed so early to prepare for the early morning screams!!

The neat thing about that honeymoon experience is that because we were the only honeymooners, we were separate from all the action. So we kind of did (in a strange way) get the secluded trip we wanted. Cheers!

So we bought a new house 8 days before the wedding and are working on it daily. Funny how there's always 10X more work than you think. We've already done the interior paint, carpet faceplates, and should get the hardwoods in next week. I've been working in the yard. Snakes. Snakes scare the crud out of me. And our yard has em. I'm gonna have to learn to live in harmony...hope they eat the mice that could potentially get in my house! We still have all the exterior work to start on next week and then painting the exterior and maybe a new roof. I like this kind of stuff, though. It's so rewarding at the end of it all!

Finally, we are selling the house in Rosewood. FSBO right now. Hope for an offer soon!