rushley & crew

We were supposed to go to England in January . . . unfortunately, Russ and I weren't feeling very well on the last Saturday in January, so the date was postponed until last weekend.  For all the trips this year, Russ won't know where or when we are going until I do a little something to let him know. For England, this is what he found on his nightstand one day :) First item of business: Gotta look posh if you're going to England! Russ wore a sport coat and I put on some pearls :) (though you can't see them . . . )  Next, we got our first stamps in our passports! Then it was off to England for some afternoon tea and crumpets! Okay, so actually it was evening tea and scones, but I hear that people in England have tea at any and all times of day and that scones are an appropriate accompaniment, so we still maintained the England atmosphere ;)  We even raised our pinkies! Which I've heard isn't actually something they do, but hey, ...

Once upon a time this past summer, I was surfing the web for date ideas. I was trying to create a giant list of ideas so that Russ and I could have a list to refer to anytime we wanted to go on a date [since anyone who knows us knows that we're completely indecisive in areas like that :)]. One site I came across was  The Dating Divas . It's a site run by a bunch of girls who post almost every day about ways to strengthen marriage. Sometimes they post gift ideas, sometimes they post their own insights about marriage, and oftentimes they post date ideas ranging anywhere from simple to extravagant. It's a really awesome site. While surfing the site, I found  this  passport idea and thought it was awesome! I also thought it was the perfect gift to give my husband for Christmas :) You might have noticed the gift in some of the pictures on my  Christmas  post. A lot of people would love to travel the world, and I am definitely one of those people. However, as a ...

For the first 19 years of my life, I've spent Christmas like most people: with my family.  I'd wake up in my bed Christmas morning and anxiously wait until the whole family was showered and ready to open presents. But this year was a little bit different. For the first time, my bed wasn't at my parents' house. It was in my very own apartment with my wonderful husband :) and christmas morning at our own place was perfect. We woke up, ate German pancakes for breakfast, and opened presents together (we couldn't wait to open our stockings . . . those got opened Christmas Eve). He got me awesome things like Balto ,  What I Like About You  season 1, and a sweet card. Though I spent a ton of time in the days leading up to Christmas making him a passport for destination dates in the upcoming year, his favorite gift turned out to be The Snowman , his favorite Christmas movie from childhood (so favorite, in fact, that the tape got broken from overuse!). He teared up b...

So in the last month . . . Russ and I spent Thanksgiving in Idaho with the fam . . . we both got sick . . . so did pretty much everyone else . . . we watched a lot of Monk . . . and of course ate fantastic food!   It was wonderful :) Russ and I celebrated our 6 month anniversary! Crazy to think that just a year ago, Russ and I were just starting to date, and now, a year later, we've already been married for 6 months! Crazy how life works out . . . I love it :) To celebrate, we ate a real breakfast . . .  camel eyes, sausage, and sparkling cider . . . and then that night we ate the top tier of our wedding cake. She decorated it differently than our real wedding cake, and it turned out beautifully! :) It was a nice day :) I also had to study A TON and face finals. They didn't go as well as I would have liked, but not too bad. Not to mention there were a lot of little miracles concerning finals . . . like a teacher being willing to give me some points someth...

Last Friday, Russ and I went to the dollar theater. We saw The Odd Life of Timothy Green. We thoroughly enjoyed it. We also both bawled our eyes out. Yeah. It's one of those movies. :) We highly recommend it. We also started a Thanksgiving family tradition! We adopted it from Russ's family. In Russ's family, they have what they call Gordon the Gratitude Gobbler. They put him up at Thanksgiving time and then write things they're thankful for on feathers for Gordon. When Russ told me about it, I liked it a lot :) So our turkey has a different name and looks a little bit different than the Holmes family turkey, but it's the same basic idea :) Meet Tomothy the Thankful Turkey! **ashleynicole

Russ and I have officially been married for 5 months now :) It's crazy how the time passes, and even crazier how incredibly happy I am to be married to this wonderful man :) Here are a few things that I have learned about him in the past 5 months. He makes crazy noises when he stretches . . .  . . . but his noises always make me laugh. He has really bad morning breath . . . . . . but I'd still kiss him anytime. He likes to pop out and scare the heck out of me . . .  . . . but he always holds me close afterward. He steals all the covers . . . . . . but that just means I get to snuggle closer to him. He eats all the food in the fridge . . .  . . . but he also makes almost all the food in the fridge. He is really opinionated when it comes to politics . . .  . . . but I like to hear him get fired up about stuff. He likes to tickle me mercilessly . . .  . . . but it's actually kinda fun. He always distracts me when I'm trying to ...

I've always been super opinionated about elections, whether I was informed or not. And that wasn't any different with this election. I was quite opinionated about Romney being the best man for the job.  But for the first time, I feel like I was at least a little bit informed. I watched part of most of the debates, I tried to understand what was important to both candidates, and my opinion stayed firm.  Regardless, it looks as though Obama gets 4 more years.  I want to get mad. I want to yell at people and tell them they're wrong. But that's just me being immature and stupid and contentious. And all this contention isn't what America is about. America is supposed to be about unity. People banding together to create something wonderful. That's what our forefathers fought for. That's what they designed for this country.  But there's just too much fighting. Too much of people caring about what they want instead of what's best for America. And w...