The Honeymoon Chronicles

I think my idea of blogging resurfaced while I was on my honeymoon. I thought it would be fun to document the honeymoon and life as a new wife to look back on one day. And because I am married now, so what else do I have to do? Just kidding, someone needs to clean the house. 

So, here is the beginning (and the end) of The Honeymoon Chronicles. 
Just a little background: the husband and I both got very sick right before our wedding.  In fact, my sister (and fabulous maid of honor) took us both to urgent care two days before the wedding.  

1:00 am It is the first night of the honeymoon at the airport hotel and I cannot lay down to sleep without coughing.  So, this wife does what any good wife would do....looks up local 24 hour pharmacies for the husband to go get me medicine in the morning before our 7 am flight.  Then, I eat a leftover wedding cupcake at 1:25 am while the husband is sleeping away.  I think I could get use to marriage :). 

2:00 am I still can't sleep and am looking through photos of my baby puppy on my phone. Uh, what am I supposed to do? I come across a photo of the first wedding item I bought...cocktail napkins! I realize I never saw them at the wedding, so I do what any good wife would do, I wake up my husband to tell him we never used them To this he responds that they were used and he briefly considered getting one for me. Aw, thanks dear. Then he says "is this what you're laying there thinking about?" To which I respond "Yep!" 

Cheers to honeymooning!

High Five For Friday!

I follow Lauren Elizabeth who always does High Five for Friday! I love this idea and wanted to give it a try. Plus it is nice to look back on the high points of the week.

1.  I went to a wedding this past weekend and got to see two of my girlfriends from college who I miss dearly! 
   
2. This adorable face is my weakness! She came to work with me on Wednesday and was a big hit. Duh, how can you not fall in love with her?!
   
3.  My in-laws are in town and we had a delicious family dinner of pho. It has become my obsession!
   
4. Thursday night the husband and I had the evening to ourselves and enjoyed take out, catching up on our shows, and spending time together.

   

   Old photo, but wanted to include one of us anyway :)

5. I have been working for two months with a team at work to apply for a grant. Today is submission day and I cannot wait! This has been an awesome experience of growth and learning for me. 
   

Cheers to a great week!

The latest Shenanigans of Harvie J:

"But mom, I'm so cute
how can you be upset with me?"

This adorable furry child of ours LOVES to chew.  She will literally eat anything and everything, which we have unfortunately learned the hard way.  When we first brought her home we assumed she was learning and testing boundaries.  After she dug and chewed into the drywall of our home (yes, it is exactly how it sounds) we decided to start crate training her. Yes I know, we should have been doing this from day one and no, the wall has not yet been repaired.

She has since eaten an entire outdoor stick almost the length of her own body.  This incident resulted in barfing and diarrhea for 2 days followed by a costly visit to the vet for treatment of an inflamed lymph node.  Then there was the time she ate one of her rubber balls.  We assumed she was just playing with it until we could no longer find it and the evidence showed up in her morning business.

But this weekend’s shenanigan takes the cake.  Our sweet little Harvie got ahold of my tax refund checks and chewed these to her little heart’s content.  We did not leave her in the crate, but rather let her have free roam of our bedroom and I, unthinkably, left the checks on my nightstand where she reached them.  She was kind enough to only eat the edges, but I will need to look into how to fix this because tax refunds are definitely a necessity.  I wonder if the IRS will accept the excuse “my dog ate my refund?”  

Cheers to the adventures of puppyhood!

What Do You Want To Be When You Grow Up?

What do you want to be when you grow up? A simple, common question with so much thought and meaning behind it! Since I was in high school (probably around 15 years old) I knew I wanted to be a Registered Dietitian.  I really do not know exactly when I decided this is what I wanted, but it had been my focus and goal for years and made applying for college fairly simple since I knew what to study.  

For years I had been interested in Nutrition and health overall.  I was fascinated by how food impacted your life (in both good and bad ways) and wanted to learn everything I could about nutrition and the human body. I would spend hours reading nutrition and other health-related articles in magazines, books, on the internet, and pretty much anywhere.  Nutrition was my passion and my hobby and I wanted it to become my career one day.  My mom always said to "find a way to get paid for doing something you love" and I believed becoming a Registered Dietitian was it for me! 

Thus began my journey of going to college to study Nutrition.  My entire SEVEN years of undergrad was quite the experience, but that is an entire post in itself for another day...maybe.  I now finally have my degree in Foods and Nutrition with an emphasis in dietetics!! However, I am not yet working in the nutrition field.  I go back and forth between what I want to do with my career. I love the job I currently have and I am apprehensive about leaving my job to enter the nutrition world.  Becoming a Registered Dietitian goes beyond simply having a degree, which is a huge struggle and sensitive spot for me (again, an entire post could be based on that alone).  I still have the dream to one day be an RD, but until then I am figuring out my path and enjoying life in the meantime.



Cheers to careers!

The Loves of My Life

Naturally, I thought I should introduce you to two very important loves in my life. I am fortunate enough to have two loves of my life. One has four legs, a tail, and the cutest wittle face I have EVER seen and the second is truly my better half. These two are listed in no particular order, of course (although, the husband would say differently).

This is our adorable baby puppy Harvie. She has a manly name, but it suits her well and I love it. She is a ten month old Cavapoo (part King Charles Cavalier and part Poodle) who has me wrapped around her cute little paw. She loves to play fetch and tug-a-war, will eat anything, snores loudly at night, and loves to snuggle close!

This is my husband, Chris, who is the first priority in my life. We have been together for seven and a half years and married for two and a half months! He really is my best friend and makes me a better person.  If you did the math you would see that we began dating shortly after I turned 18. He was around for the formative years of my life and had a huge impact on my life and the person I am today. I honestly do not know where I would be without this man. Chris is the love of my life and I am so happy to finally be his wife and see where life takes us!

Cheers to family! 

Welcome to Champs & Pearls

Hello Internet, I am Ashley and this is the beginning of my blogging journey! I have considered blogging for a while now and this weekend my sister named my blog and it all just seemed to fall into place. So, I present to you Champs & Pearls!

You may be wondering about the blog name…well as mentioned my sister created this name. But, it definitely fits me and is now the place to portray the happenings of my life. I love champagne and the term “champs” was coined from the fabulous Heather Dubrow of the Real Housewives of Orange County (believe me, I’m not that clever). As for pearls, in my opinion, they are the classiest accessory a woman could own and I have always been a fan. The pearl also just so happens to be the jewel of my sorority, Sigma Kappa. 

I envision this being an outlet to share my thoughts, daily happenings, things I love most in life, and some health/nutritional information. Hopefully, in 30 years from now I will be able to look back on my life and relive my twenties and the early days of marriage...or maybe I will still be blogging. 

Now for a little bit about me...

1. I am 25 years old.

2. I am married (since January 4, 2014).

3. I am a Sigma Kappa.

4. I have a Bachelor's degree in Foods & Nutrition-dietetics option.

5. I work in the district office of a Charter School. 

6. I LOVE to clean and organize.

7. I am a born and raised Southern Californian. 

8. I HATE onions and tomatoes.

9. I am obsessed with my puppy, Harvie (you will meet her, I promise!).

10. I am sassy and sarcastic, which you will learn to love about me! 

I hope you continue to get to know me and I look forward to my future of blogging. 

Cheers to a new endeavor!