Happy Thanksgiving

Happy Thanksgiving y'all! Spent today with my work family. Started out watching the parade then going to Eric's family for lunch and family time. Where I met his extended family and played games with the little girls that loved me. Food was very interesting. I ate it but did not enjoy it. Haha. Then we went to Amanda's sister's house for the afternoon and we watched the cowboys play a horrible football game. HORRIBLE. And Amanda's sister made us this delicious shrimp/sausage/spicy soup which was FANTASTIC. So yummy! We plan on Christmas decorating tomorrow! :)

These are some pictures I snapped randomly today. We were in the countryside and trees are everywhere kind of looking fall like. Hahah. The trees line almost every road you take here. Especially once you leave the city. But when the leaves start falling off it looks pretty ugly because there is no snow to make it look better or different. 

Interesting fun fact. Eric's family is of Italian decent. So they all drink a ton of wine and salute glasses. Aka cheers. With everyone in the room which is super awkward. Especially when its out of nowhere and no rhyme or reason to it. Haha. So I had sparkling cider with the kids that were to young for the wine which is children under like ten. Crazy I know. So it was pretty interesting to be apart of that and see others family traditions.

3 Months

I've hit the three month mark. Crazy! I love all of y'all and thank you for your support, prayers, conversations, comments, etc. It brightens my days. Its still going good out here. Staying busy and making quite a few memories. I love having shawn and mindys cd here. Its like having a peice of home. Its really comforting! And my wonderful mother sent me a picture frame with our family in it and stuff to make puff rice balls:) so no worries I will just eat the batch by my self. And enjoy every single bite. Haha! Here is a picture of tiger stadium and the river as you go across the bridge. It may have been sunny but it was a very cold brisk morning!

Canoeing in Louisiana

Went canoeing with people from the ward. It was so fun and pretty. Felt a little more like fall being out in nature again. There was more than this many people there this was just my group. But it was a ton of fun. And no unfortunately we saw no gators. 

Happy Halloween

This week was crazy fun. Went and saw meet the Mormons and we had a couple bonfires, had a Halloween party and went to a parade downtown!

Some parade pictures. The group and I got so many beads. So many. Haha they throw more beads than candy. And everyone dances it was great.

more pictures of the Halloween party. With some of the ward! The party was great and obviously I was tigger:)

Before the Halloween party Taylor and I had dinner with the sister missionaries at the institute. I love them! Sister K and sister Dixon

my pumpkin this year

We also made gumbo for dinner. Super yummy!

Sister Dixon

Sister Dixon is one of the sister missionaries here. I absolutely love her. She is from draper utah and half way done with her mission. I met her the second week of being here and she is probably my best friend here. Is it so true that missionaries bless the people around them. They don't even have to try and people recieve numerous blessings. She has helped me to see that a mission no matter where its served, is done in with the Lord's help. And not only are the missionaries never alone but neither are we. Sister Dixon is a great friend and example and it will a sad day when she gets transferred which I hope isn't for a while!

Life in General

I am doing pretty good. Had some great experiences this week. One that I want to mention is people keep telling me how crazy it is that I am straight out of high school and moved away from home and am being a nanny, living with a different family and its not even for school. They tell me how courageous I must be and brave, and a bunch of other stuff. Oh and how they could never do it. Especially being so young. For the longest time I didn't really understand what they were saying but today it kinda hit me. I think I understand. It does take courage to move several states away, to be living with strangers (whom I love and are the best family I could ask for), to continue to go to church, to do things on my own, to practically put my future plans on hold (like college/mission) to just do something out of the normal. I get it now. It does take courage. I have to give Heavenly Father a TON of credit though because I couldn't do any of this with out him guiding me and putting his loving arms around me. I had to have faith that I chose a good family and thankfully I did and I have to be brave and do things on my own. I pretty much had to start over in life. Haha like I felt like I didn't necessarily know who I was without Ashley but now I do. I am not any different but I am realizing that I do things a bit different now, nothing too big has changed but its definitely different because now I feel like I am more independent and I am growing a ton.

A great October weekend

I got to meet up with my amazing friend Bama on Saturday for lunch! Haven't seen her for two years so it was so fun to catch up with her.

Some pictures of the restaurant. Its right on the edge of a couple of lakes out in the middle of nowhere near Mississippi. Its called Middendorfs. They are famous for their catfish which was delicious!  

We ate in the outside deck part, it was such a nice day! Only like 84 degrees. 

This is turtle soup. Yes it has real turtle in it. And yes surprisingly it was good.

thought I would include a fantastic picture of what the humidity does to my hair. You're welcome. 

I also got to go to a park and watch hocus pocus with some friends the other night! So fun. Not a quality photo but I love these guys.