Day 15, Favorite Pins

For this post I am going to let the pictures talk for themselves so check out my favorite pins below and check out more in the board I got them from! http://www.pinterest.com/ashleyblegen/love/

Day 14, My Earliest Memory

So I think so far with these 30 day challenge posts I have been able to keep positive and I haven't had to talk about anything sad, well I guess a couple posts have had a sad topic, but for the most part I have tried to avoid getting too deep into anything sad from my past. So since I was looking to keep with up beat topics when I was trying to think of my earliest memory I tried to think of a story that would be cute or funny and I thought of a lot of cute and funny stories but they weren't my earliest memories but I was going to type them up anyway because they were all that I could think of. Well right before I clicked on "new post" I thought of what really is one of my earliest memories but it is going to require me to open up a little bit so here we go.

My earliest memory is from when my parents and I , maybe my sister was born, were living in either Provo or Orem Utah. We were living in a townhouse and since they were in Utah my parents had a lot of friends with kids my age so I was always playing with someone. One day I remember that I was hanging out with one of my friends, a boy, and we were playing on a grass area just him and me. I don't remember what we were doing but I do remember something that happened.

As we were playing a man drove up next to the curb by where we were playing and rolled down him window and he asked us if we wanted any candy. At that moment I remembered how in preschool I had learned to never take candy from a stranger and if a stranger offers candy to you then you should scream and run away. From what I can remember my friend started to walk to the car but I turned to him and told him that he needed to scream and run home and I did the same and of course the man drove off not wanting to have to deal with the police.

I was terrified and apparently I had not told my mom about it until a month later so nothing happened with the police. I do remember though having the same nightmare all throughout my childhood. In the nightmare the scene from that day would play but when I would run away walls would appear around me stopping me from being able to get home.

I know that this is the origin of my fear of being kidnapped. It has been something I have had to deal with my whole life and now as mu daughter is getting older and I am having to think about how I am going to have to send her out into the world in a few years to start school I am worried out of my mind because I will not be able to be there to protect her all the time and I am so scared that something like this will happen to her and she will either get taken from me or she will develop the same intense fear that I have developed throughout my life. I will be determined though to make sure I teach her what to do if something like this ever happened so she will know what to do just like I had known what to do.

I hope this wasn't too upsetting for anyone. I think it was good for me to be able to share this with anyone who reads it and hopefully convince parents of the importance of teaching their children the same lesson that I learned as a child to never take candy from a stranger! That lesson may have saved my life!

Day 13, Somewhere I would Like to Move or Visit

I am pretty sure I have said this before but I would love to move to Washington state somewhere in the Seattle area.

I have so many reasons for why I would love to live in Washington.

-First of all there are a lot of great companies in the Seattle area that would be perfect for what my husband wants to do long term.

-We have a lot of family that lives in the seattle area and a lot of family that lives within a day or two drive!

 Ryan's sister Jackie lives in Seattle, I couldn't pick one picture because I love both of these!

Ryan's dad and step mom live in Redmond.

Along with Ryan's siblings Kinsey and Sam.

 Ryan's mom and step dad live in Snohomish.

My sister Caitlyn is going to be attending BYU Idaho starting in January and Rexburg is only a 12-14 hour drive, I would know since I made this drive multiple times during my time in Rexburg!

 I have many friends and family in the Provo, Orem and Salt Lake City area, which is only a 3-4 hour drive from Rexburg, who I would love to be able to see more like my Uncle Wes who is in the picture above, his wife Jen and their children, my aunt and uncle Josh and Lindy and their new baby boy, My cousin Mackenzie and her family, my mom friend's, who I also consider to be my friends too, Tracy and Cheryl. I also have two cousins in this area, Marly and Talbot, who I would love to be able to get to know!  Another two friends we have in Provo are Jamie and Matt, Matt was one of Ryan's close friends from high school, they have a daughter a little older than Savannah and are expecting their second soon!

 I have a lot of family in St George, Ut, which is a 4 hour drive from Salt Lake so about a 2 day drive from the Seattle area. My Grandma J pictured above, my Grandpa Binny, my aunts and uncles who are Tina, Keith, Kes, Ally and my awesome cousins, Jacob, Ben, Joel, Gabe, Brianna, Zach, Ava, Matthew and Eli!

Some more relatives we have in Washington are Ryan's grandparents, and his aunt and uncle and cousins. I would love to be able to get to know all of my new relatives better and be able to spend more time with my family's relatives also.

Ben and Kelsey are also in Washington, Ben was another one of Ryan's good friend's from high school and they still keep in touch. I would love to be able to get to know Kelsey better because she is a young mom like me, although she has almost four children so I still need to have a few more to catch up ;), and I know Ryan would enjoy having someone who he can hang out with who is his age and who enjoys playing video games just as much as he does or even more!

-Another fun thing with moving to Washington is that I love the rain and it rains there all the time!

-I also love snow and I know it doesn't snow too much in the Seattle area, I do know that it snows a lot in places close to Seattle like the mountains or Idaho or Montana or Utah! Above is a picture of me driving in the snowy mountains in either Montana, Idaho or Washington.

-Also it is beautiful in Washington. It has what I love about Connecticut, the trees, and what I love about Colorado, the mountains, all in one state!

Well there are just a few reasons for why it would be great to move to Washington! I know that it might not happen and if it doesn't I will be sad but I know I will love living anywhere as long as I have my husband and baby girl! Also if we can't live here then it would be the place a I would choose to visit, along with Connecticut assuming we leave Connecticut.

Where are the places your would most like to visit or move to?

A Journey Through The Last Two Years!

Today October 14, 2013 is my husband and my 2 year wedding anniversary! To celebrate this day I thought I would put up a post to share with everyone what our relationship has been like through these last two years with pictures.

Some wedding pictures:

He still loves me even though I smashed cake in his face twice within two weeks of being married!

Honeymoon picture: (we went on a cruise to the Caribbean)

We survived a trip across the country in a car together! We drove from Idaho to Connecticut.

He survived a pregnancy with me!

And he was next to me during labor! I couldn't have made it through it without him!

Then there were three!

I loved him even more when I saw the amazing father he was to our new beautiful daughter!

Now we get to how we are today! 2 years later and one person added! I couldn't imagine being happier than I am today with my wonderful husband and our daughter! It has been the best 2 years in my life!