Sharing my Happiness

Everyone has those little things in life that just make their days better, smiles bigger, and hearts a few degrees warmer.  Don't pretend like you don't.  Whether it is a yummy dessert, a certain song writer, or a board on pinterest! We all have those simple pleasures that make us so so happy! I can name ten of my "happy" things in life.  In no specific order.

1.  Puppies

     I cringe when people say "I'm a Cat person..." What does that even mean?  Unless you are referring to Shlynny on the Cats, just don't mention cats around me. Comparing cats to dogs is like comparing ice cream to celery.  We all know which one is better.



I don't think I have ever related to a quote so closely before.

  

2. Café Rio

    I don't know what it is but nothing beats Café Rio tortillas, Sweet pork, and their creamy house dressing! Holy cow, if my mouth was in love, Café Rio would be it's soul mate.

3. Man Candy

    Sometimes you  just need a celebrity crush to get you through the day.  So who is on my list?

Bradley Cooper

Eric Dane
(McSteamy)

Aaron Rogers
two words.
Football Player.
Actually, let's make that three words.
SEXY Football Player.
 

Harry Connick Jr.
I know, I know! He is more than twice my age. But seriously. Look at him. I don't know if it is his face or his humor that I love more.  But something about him just gets me! American Idol may not have the best contestants this year, but I definitely will be watching JUST for Harry!

 

Well this "man-candy" list could go on forever, but let's move on...

4. Soft Blankets and Fluffy Pillows

    Okay, my fantasy of cuddling one of the hotties listed above may never come true, but I will always have soft blankets and fluffy pillows! Nothing beats taking a nap like taking a nap with a soft blanket and fluffy pillow.

5. T.V. Shows

  Yes, being a lazy butt and watching T.V. really CAN make you happy. If you don't agree, then you probably don't own a T.V.. My favorite shows include The Tonight Show with Jimmy Fallon, Parks and Recreations, American Idol, Grey's Anatomy, Parenthood, Saturday Night Live, The Bachelor, Nashville, oh gosh there are so many! I am probably forgetting some!

6.  Singing in the shower

     Is it just me, or does your voice sound way better in the shower? I love pretending I am an American Idol for those few minutes in the shower every morning.

7. The Beach

     Sand, Sun, and Water. The ingredients to happiness. No joke. Why in the world do people go to places like Paris.  Too walk around a boring city, with boring people, and boring sight seeing? I would much rather go to the beach, ANY day. (No offense to my French loving friends, it's just not my thing I guess.)

8. My Cats

    You know what I'm talking about. Those six beaut's who are my best friends, and I am lucky to call them my cats.  It's a long story how we got that name, it has to do with a large Cafe Rio order, a long road trip, and a day at the beach. Love my cats more than anything though.  They can cheer me up so easily. I love them more than I love Christmas. I love them more than I love Grey's Anatomy.

9. My family

     Yep, 14 of the coolest people I know. Okay, technically I don't "Know" one of those people yet. Because she is still in my sister's fat belly. But, I know she is going to be pretty great because I am her aunt... My family can always make me smile.

10. Food

      fatty.

      My favorite foods are Red Velvet Cake, Peanut Butter Cups, Movie theater popcorn,              gelato, Lucky Charm marshmallows, Oreos, pringles, sushi, Mashed Potatoes, Café Rio, Pizzeria Limone, Bacon, Chicken nuggets, and pretty much any food with little nutritional value. Obviously.

 

The truth is, there are so many things in this awesome world that make me happy.

I am very blessed.

 

xoxo

 

Ashlyn





2014, 3rd times the charm...

Dear whoever this is that actually takes the time to read about my life.

You may have been looking at my blog the past few weeks and been thinking to yourself.."Wow, Ashlyn is one lazy chick" but really I am not.  I just have been having so much fun. I have had no time to update my blog.  I'm a really cool person you know.... So that may have been a lie.  I have had a few opportunities to blog.  And I took those opportunities, I really truly did! Twice actually! I sat down on January 1, 2014 in Hawaii to update my blog for the first time this year.  I started it off listing one exciting thing in each month of that year. So here is what that looked like.

January- Stringham's visited Salt Lake City from Spokane.

February- Weston got his mission call to New Mexico! Went skiing with friend's and Zach Clegg hurt his shoulder.

March- Difibrullator Surgery, Moved into New Olympus High School

April- Spent spring break in St. George and Lake Powell with Carly and Courtney

May- Turned 18 years old! Had the best birthday ever! Moved Stringhams from Spokane, Washington to Miami, Florida. Went to Senior Prom with Jason Hoggard, went to best concert of my life (IMAGINE DRAGONS) with my favorite people! (Carly, Courtney, Tessa, Taylor, and Ruby) Finished Senior Year!

June- Graduated from High School, Melissa and her kiddos were able to come visit. Went on Senior Trip to Newport Beach, California with my friends! Traveled to Mexico with Mom and Dad to pick Jeff up from his two year mission!

July- Visited Melissa in Miami with Mom, Dad, and Jeff! Spent fourth of July in Miami. Went to Lake Powell with family, and Carly of course! Went Snorkeling in the middle of Utah, WITH SHARKS! Spent 24th of July with Courtney at a Bee's baseball game!

August- Went to Newport Beach, California with family. Finished summer off with a bang! Started College!

September- Utah Utes won the "Holy War" against BYU! I love football season! Ruby got her mission call to Oaxaca, Mexico! Beginning of Fall, said goodbye to warm weather!

October- Went to Disneyland! Celebrated Halloween with lots of friends, I dressed up as "Shlynny Cat"

November- Christmas Spirit was in the air. Reunited almost all of the cats for a sleepover (we missed Courtney) Sister Hailey Twede got her mission call to Russia!

December- Christmas Time! Enjoyed the many perks of the season, skiing, temple square, Christmas lights, hot coco, and of course Shlynny and the Cats second annual Holiday Bash. We get together every year at Christmas time, have a pajama exchange, and sleepover! Fun Fun, for everyone! Andrea announced the sex of her baby. GIRL! Had an awesome Christmas with my family, got a new Camera from Santa, and spent the rest of the holiday break in Hawaii!

So 2013 treated me pretty good you could say!

Hawaii after Christmas was so much fun! I went with my Parents, Andrea, Sean, Josh, Lindsay, and Jeff.  Unfortunately, the Stringham's weren't able to make it this year.

Here are pictures from the trip! My favorite part was when we went whale watching!

This Sea Lion wanted to eat me. My brother was trying to take the picture and he couldn't get me in the frame so he kept saying "Scoot closer to it Ashlyn!" and every time I scooted closer to the dang thing, it turned it's head to me and made the scariest noises I have ever heard a living creature make! Not exaggerating, if the sea lion had a "People to Kill" List, I would be number one. Guaranteed.




This is how you bring in the New Year, Hawaiian Style!

So the trip was fun, and that isn't even a 1/4 of the pictures I took! Just a few I thought were cute.  So it is 2014 now!

In January, Jeff, Mom, Dad, and I flew down to Miami to visit some of our FAVORITE people! The Stringhams! We drove to the West side of Florida with them when we got there. (the Gulf of Mexico side) and went to a place called "Marco Island' It was amazing! We stayed there the rest of the weekend at a hotel. We had such a blast collecting shells, swimming, and just hanging out! I love those nieces and nephew of mine so much!

 

 

Could my nieces and nephews be ANY CUTER?!

 

So since then, life has just been going on! School, Work, and partying! (one of those three things is a lie)

 

Do you know what the cool kids are doing on Saturday nights these days? uploading their blogs and listening to Disney music....I guess you could consider me one of the coolest kids in Utah right now because I am doing both of those things!

 

Here are a few other things that happened this year!

Ruby had her farewell! It was sad to see her go, but knowing that she will be such an amazing missionary makes me happy!

 

The Last time Shlynny and the Cats will ALL be together for almost 2 years!

Also me and some of my friends went to the ski competitions in deer valley! We had an awesome time! The skiers were amazing! There were even a few Olympians there competing!

Another fun thing that happened is that my long time buddy Alice Abrams got her mission call! She is going to Cincinnati! She leave in June and is going to be speaking English! So amazing! I love Alice! She has always been one of my best friends!

 Well, if something cool happens to me (like a shark bites off my right leg, or I become BFF with a hobo at taco bell) I will be sure to update you all about it.

 

Let's hope neither of those things happen.

 

xoxoxo

 



Imaginary Concussion

Oh how time flies! When your having fun! NOT!!! It has been a stressful past couple of weeks.  Studying, Writing, Reading, Studying, Writing, 5 minute nap, Studying, eat, repeat. That's how a lot of my day's have been going. So you probably know what is coming up in my life. FINALS WEEK. Oh wait, technically it is final weeks right now...and what am I doing? Blogging. I think it is only fair for me to take a minute to blog because A) It is good practice for writing B) It is a stress reliever for me and C) I stayed up until 11:00 last night writing a 10 page paper, then I woke up this morning at 7:00 A.M to finish it. And guess what? I FINISHED IT! Oh it feels so good to have that over with! Now I just have to study for Sociology and Communications.  There is also a 13 page math packet waiting for me in my backpack, that I have yet to do.  Now I know there are a lot of college student's out there who are having the same kind of week as me, or even worse! So here are tips from shlyn on how to survive finals week. (ya tips from a freshman in college, you heard me right)

 

1. Get a lot of sleep. Some of you may be thinking it is impossible to sleep right now. You must get as much studying in as you can with your few hours left! But, this is simply NOT true.  The best thing you can do right now is get rest.  So, wake up by 8 A.M. everyday this week, and go to bed by 10:00 P.M.  This will give you a full ten hours of sleep, making you awake, focus, and aware of what you are doing all day. (I know I mentioned earlier that I stayed up until 11, and woke up at 7, but this is only because I was able to fit in a Sunday nap yesterday)

 

2. Drink lots of water. Actually don't. This will only make you need to pee a lot, setting you up for distraction's along the way to the bathroom. (The other day I left my homework for two seconds to use the bathroom and ended up making cookies. How? I just don't know)

 

3. Take productive study breaks. If you are going to take breaks, don't spend them on pinterest. Get outside, go for a walk, do yoga, take a bubblebath.  Either do something productive, or something to relax you. (pinterest shouldn't count as either of these things)

 

4. Remember to breath. You will do fine, if you are studying as much as you are stressing, you will be FINE! Just study and remember it's okay because if you fail, everything will be okay because CHRISTMAS IS NEXT WEEK!

 

So you are probably wondering why I have such an odd title.  Well let me just start by telling you that Courtney is back in town! YAY! She is very lucky to be done with finals.  Anyway, Courtney and I hung out the night she got here. We got ice cream and snuggled. On Friday I went shopping with my mom, then hung out with Jeff, Carly, Courtney, Phil, Tyler, Dubs, Sydney, Anna, and Lou.  We made gingerbread houses at Phil's house. Failure? For me, Courtney, and Lou yes. For the other teams? No. pictures soon to come.

 

On Saturday, I went up to meet Courtney in Park City to watch the looge competitions.  When Courtney called up there that morning, they said the race was at 5-6:30. So we got there around 4:30, and when we went inside the lady at the desk told us that they were over already. We were so sad and disappointed. So since there were no looge races to go to, we went to eat at Red Rock. Yum!

 

So after we went sledding.  It was dark outside, but we didn't care.  We had a lot of fun, until...I had my "Imaginary Concussion" What does that even mean? Well me and Courtney were talking about concussions while we walked up the sledding hill.  And literally 2 minutes later I went down the hill on my sled, biffed it, and landed on my head and rolled down the hill.  Courtney came to help me. I think I just blacked out because I am still confused about the whole situation. But as it was happening, I think I psyched myself out into thinking I had a concussion.  Courtney drove my car home for me, and we hung out at my house. It was actually a fun night! We made pancakes, popcorn, and lemonade of course.  Then Lou and Carly came over. Then Zach Williams came over. Then Jeff, Dubs, Sydney, Tyler, Ben, Phil, and Anna came over! Then Zach left and everyone started a movie. Oh did I mention we got new theater chairs? We got rid of the Love Sacs and moved the two rows of single theater seating down.  On the very back row we put reclining love seats. 4 of them.  So when we started the movie, I realized that I was a ninth wheel.  Jeff and Carly were in a loveseat, Anna and Phil, Tyler and Lou, and Courtney and Ben. Sydney and Dubs left before we started the movie.  So It was everyone snuggling with someone else on the love seats. Then there was me. Hahaha! So I went to bed to avoid the awkward situation. 

 

On Sunday I went to church, studied, and ate dinner with my family.  Then we watched "The Santa Clause" and then I continued to study. So pretty wild weekend I know.

 

I am getting very excited for Christmas! I am also getting VERY excited to go to Hawaii after Christmas! WOOHOO!

 

xoxoxoxoxoxoxo

SHLYN

Fat Pants and Mondays

I have been singing Christmas music at the top of my lungs for the past fifteen minutes until now. When I realized it was 11:30 at night and everyone in my house is asleep. So now I will have to sing quietly, but that doesn't mean I have any less Christmas Spirit!

Well I already know this week is going to be a dud. 

How do I know that? Because I am already ready for the weekend, and Monday hasn't even ended yet.

Why do Monday's feel like an eternity long? 

I try to stay positive. I REALLY, truly do. If you don't believe me, as Carl. She will tell you. The whole way to school this morning I didn't stop saying things like "Oh my, today is going to be AWESOME!" 

(I even sang the word "AWESOME" to add a little Jazz)

So it is only Monday, but I guess I will just have to suck it up and take it like a Man. 

One problem though, I am not a man. I am a girl. A five year old girl at times, because I still wear footie pajamas, and I color hearts on my homework, and at times i giggle so much that I pee my pants. 

Another reason I just KNOW this week is going to be crummy is because I know that I will just be comparing it to last week, and last week was the BEST!

Last week, I only had school on Monday, work on Tuesday, and then I was done for the whole week! 

Can you say AWESOME? (question is, can I spell awesome? thanks autocorrect)

Anyway, so my weekend pretty much started Tuesday night! Awesome!

I hung out with Carl, Tessa, Dubs, Jeff, Tyler, and Lu on Tuesday night. Well I hung out with them until I was too tired to watch the stupid movie they picked out (Inception) and so I went to bed. 

On Wednesday, I slept in, and then later that night I hung out with Carly, Zoe, Tessa, and Lu.  We also hung out with some new friends that I absolutely LOVE! Anna and Sydney! Anna has been mentioned in previous blog posts, but I just recently met Sydney! We had fun with them, then Jeff's friends came over too.  All of the girls left with Jeff's friends to another boy's house except for me and Carl.  We had far more exciting thing's to do. 

When everybody left, me and Carl went to Courtney's house.  Courtney goes to the University of Washington.  We haven't seen her in a long time, since school started in fact. 

Courtney is one of our bestest friends. (oh here we go with the "bestest" I am a five year old)

She came to Salt Lake to have Thanksgiving with her family. 

Wednesday night was the night she got here. On our way over to see her, Carl and I were literally shaking! We were so EXCITED! But this was nothing, when we saw her silhouette in the living room window of her house we SCREAMED! We jumped out of the car, bursted through her front door, and just hugged her! We couldn't even believe that she was there, it felt like a dream!

We hung out with Courtney for the rest of the night, it was so much fun! We even went for our traditional 1 AM In-And-Out run! Yum! 

Cutest

You know I am truly happy when I smile like that

Don't laugh at me. I wasn't it my "usual" COVERGIRL mood that night obviously because THIS is the best picture we could get of all three of us. That's saying something.

And this is a true candid shot

So Thanksgiving was the next day.  Andrea, Sean, Lindsay, Josh, Todd, Janette, Chandler, and Jackson all came over to eat with me, my parents, and Jeff. It was delicious! I love Thanksgiving. I love mashed potatoes, and stuffing the most.  

After dinner, we all went and saw the second Hunger Games movie, "Catching Fire" it was AWESOME! Except for the fact that I ate a whole bucket of movie theater popcorn! Drizzled with BUTTER! It's okay though because it was Thanksgivin'

(also i didn't feel that bad when I discovered half of it had spilled down my shirt, that means I didn't eat as much as i thought. Of course half of it went down my shirt, because I eat like a five year old)

On Friday, I slept in to about noon and woke up to Courtney calling me asking me to come meet her for lunch at Normandie Cafe with the other Cats who were in SLC.

Tessa, Zoe, Carly, Courtney and I were all there. We were missing Taylor because she was in Disneyland with her family and Ruby was in Santa Cruz for Thanksgiving with her family.

We had so much fun just chatting it up like old times.

Talking Loudly, laughing loudly, and being a disturbance to the whole restaurant. Also like old times.

Courtney had to leave to go to family parties afterwards, but me, Tessa, Zoe, and Carly went to the mall. It was really fun! I went to Carly's house after to help decorate her room for Christmas. We hung a few lights, but then I ended up cleaning her room and putting away her clothes while she was on facebook. Typical us.  I went home and showered after and got ready, then we hung out.  We went to Cafe Rio, then to Ben Hopkins house. He lives in a really big house.  With a indoor basketball court. We have alot of fun there always.  Lot's of people were there. Ben, Ben, Zoe, Tessa, Me, Carly, Sydney, Anna, Dubs, Julio, Phil, the list could go on. There were so many people.  Courtney came later, after going to a Jazz game with her family. We had fun introducing her to our new friends. 

On Saturday night, me, Carly, and Courtney went to Zuppas for dinner. Now writing about it, I want to cry. Not because I am a five year old, not because I am sad, but just because I am now realizing how much I just enjoyed being with my favorite girls this weekend! Courtney, Carly, Tessa, and Zoe. The only thing that could have made it better is if Tay, and Ru were there!

After dinner, the same crew of people from Friday night came to my house to hot tub. We had fun hot tubbing, playing games, and doing a massage train until 2 AM! When everyone left, me, Carly, Courtney, and Jeff just all cuddled on the couch for another half an hour or so.  I didn't want them to leave, I just love my friends so much! 

Then it was Sunday.  I went to church.  Ate Dinner with my family, visited grandma and grandpa, and watched a Christmas movie (The Holiday) with my whole family. I like Sunday's. Lazy Sunday's.

Now it is Monday. 

Oh Monday.

I hate you.

But I love you all at the same time.

...

Just Kidding, 

I don't love you.

But I love life.

I love my friends.

I love good smelling shampoo.

I love Christmas.

I love my dog.

I love peanut butter.

...

Monday's aren't on that list though.

More pictures from this weekend:

Top Left: Zoe getting her ear re-pierced at the mall this weekend
Top Right: In-And-Out run
Middle: Me, Carly, Zoe, and Tessa with Christmas Carolers and the Mall
Bottom Left: The not so covergirl picture of me with Courtney and Carly
Bottom Right: Me and Carly at Zuppas

I love snapchats from Tyler Skinner, while he waited for us to come home in my basement.

BIG IN-AND -OUT picture

Courtney and Ben fell asleep holding hands during the Hand Massage train we all had.
We all put our hands in the middle and just massaged whoever's hand was closest to ours.
Sounds weird, I know. Sound's like something I would invent.

Well goodnight!
xoxo
Christmas is in 21 Days! Don't think I have forgotten!!!