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!