Many of you probably have heard that some things are going on with Thomas's health. I would like to just put some things out there and clear up the facts. Thomas has swelling in this knees and ankles so we went to see our FNP. They did some blood work and they believe that he may have rheumatoid arthritis. We are going to meet with a joint specialist . We do not know anything for certain. We just have a list of symptoms and a list of possibilities. We do not know anything right now. Nothing is for certain. We are going to the specialist tomorrow morning. After that, we should know more of what is going on. Just keep us in your thoughts and prayers. God is for us so who can be against us.

God Bless
Mrs. Chandler

3 weeks and a birthday :)

Celebrated 21 years of life and 3 weeks of marriage saturday. I must say that I had a pretty good couple of days. My parents and grand parents have been camping at trace lake. So Thomas and I went out there and grilled out this weekend. We had a blast. Thomas rode the intertube for the first time. He loved it! I forsee many more trips in our future. There will be pictures up on facebook soon so check those out.
A bit of praise--I got accepted into Surgical Technology school. I am beyond excited. This is what I have always wanted to do. Surgery is my thing and I am super pumped about being accepted. Thomas and I have some major changes ahead of us. Prayers would be appreciated.
We along with our college sunday school class are going to key west florida for a ten days. We will be leaving on Thursday morning. I am so excited! I love serving God and people. I just know He has big things prepared for us. I just pray that we have open minds and hearts and humble working spirits for this trip!! It will be a long drive down there--18 hours I believe. I am ready to go though. I will blog about that when we get back.

Hope all is well.
God Bless
Mrs. Chandler

From the mind of a newlywed

Well ladies and gentlemen I have been a married woman for two solid weeks. It has been the happiest two weeks of my entire life. I am a very happy lady. I do believe that Thomas and I are soul mates. I am so happy to have that man as my husband. We are all moved into our little apartment in Fulton. Everything is put into its place and most of the place is decorated. I must say I like it. I still feel like I am just playing dress up like when I was a little girl. The only difference is that it keeps going on every morning I wake up to this amazing man. I am telling you girls it is worth the wait. I would not trade what Thomas and I share for anything in the world.
The wedding went beautifully. We were truly blessed. The reception went pretty good aside from the intense heat. But honestly at that point I was so full of happiness that it just didnt matter. I was smiling ear to ear. It doesn't seem like it should all be over already. But it is. The stress levels have gone way down since the wedding. So for those of you out there wedding planning...you will survive!!
The honeymoon to destin was awesome. I had never been to the actual beach before. It was beautiful and we had such great weather. We got to do a little shopping and we ate at most of the good resturants (Fudpuckers, Bubba Gump, Longhorn Steakhouse, Cheeseburger in Paradise). We ate a ton of really good food. I really enjoyed the time for just us to relax on the beach. We certainly earned some time away for rest. I did not want to come back to the awful Mississippi heat. But here we are...officially starting our lives together.

I love being married.
Until next time.
God Bless.
Ashley Chandler :)

17 days and counting

In 17 short days I will be marrying the absolute love of my life. I have never been more excited in my life. I am sitting in 17 short days will be the new home for me and my husband, and our little dog too! Planning a wedding has been way more stress than I anticipated but I know that on that day it will all be worth it. I know in my heart that Thomas and I will proudly sit and show those wedding day photos to our children and grand children and probably every body else in between. It doesn't seem like I have waited to marry this man for almost eight years. But then on the other hand it does. Ha. Our apartment is filled with gifts from our precious friends and family. I am so thankful for all the things that we have received. I am anxious to have my husband here now. He is the most important part after all. I look back on our relationship and I can remember those things that happened that we had to work out and pray over. It changed us. It made us grow as a couple and as people. I believe change is part of life we can not avoid no matter how hard we try.
My life has certainly changed in the past year. The plans that I had made I quickly found out were not what my Jesus had planned for me. This statement has not come easy. It is hard as a twenty year old to realize you have no idea what you are doing or why you are doing it. But through the grace of God on a daily basis you figure it out one day at a time. I am officially a graduate from ICC. I must say I was a very proud lady as I walked across that stage. I think my parents were happier than I was. Graduation day was an awesome accomplishment for me. I am so looking forward to my next big day!! The wedding is quickly approaching. 17!!

Have a good week.
God Bless

Pappaw Junior

Pappaw would have celebrated his birthday this month.

I miss that man more than anyone will ever know. I think about him everyday. I think about how we would sit at the Trolley while Mammaw went home, and we would eat so much ice cream. Then Mammaw would return and we would run to the kitchen, looking like we had been working our fingers to the bone while she was gone.

I think about him singing I'll Fly Away so many days as we worked side by side in that little ole Trolley car. I think about cleaning up at night when it was time to close. I would be so tired and yet I wasn't half his age and he kept right on trucking. He worked harder than anybody I knew. Not for recognition. But because that's who he was. I think about all the summers we worried about Pappaw because he worked in the garden in the hottest part of the day, and he didn't sweat enough. But he loved it so we let him keep at it.

I think about how he hated any kind of drink that wasn't milk or pepsi and how if he knew something had cheese in it he would refuse to eat.

I think about how we drug out those Christmas lights the day after Thanksgiving every year for as long as I can remember. The older I got the more I watched Pappaw during this time. He was just like a little kid. He smiled so big and he enjoyed rolling out every light and checking every tiny little bulb making sure that it would light up just right. I think about the first blow up item that we bought him to put in the yard for Christmas. I think we eventually got up to about ten or twelve different things. But no matter what we always put the manager scene up and he would say "This is what it's all about"

I think about those amazing Trolley burgers that he could cook up. I think about the way he taught me to make a Pappaw Breakfast. I can just see him teaching us grandbabies to dutty ump. This was Pappaw's dance for us. Basically he would clap and say dutty ump and we little tots that we were would dance and he would laugh cause he thought it was the cutest thing in the world.

I think about how he always wore a red hat, sitting up too high on his head. I think about the many trips that me and Mama made taking him to the doctor after he got sick.

I can remember him being in the hospital like it was yesterday. I can see so vividly the scans of his brain that the cancer had eaten away at. I also remember him talking to me when he wouldn't talk to anybody else.

I will never forget my last days with Pappaw. I sat beside him on a stool at his house as he laid in the bed, just waiting on God to call him home. I wasn't there when he took his last breathe but the ones that were there know without a doubt that the angels came and swept him right out of this world and into a brand new body that no cancer will ever touch. Like a bird from prison bars has flown, I'll fly away. I believe that is just what he did.

His funeral was a very sad time for me and my family. But so many people came to his visitation. I have never seen so many people in my life. He touched people's lives and most of the time he never knew it. That was just Pappaw, hard working and dearly loving. We celebrated his life that day. I will never forget us singing I'll Fly Away at his funeral. That song will forever remind me of Pappaw.

Nothing will ever fill the place that Pappaw held in my heart and life. I love that man dearly. I am what I am today because Pappaw taught me that this world doesn't give you anything you don't work for.

Happy Birthday Pappaw! I love you!

nothing fancy...about my life..

I have come to the conclusion that wedding planning is very stressful but with the help of my precious mama that we are going to enjoy every minute of it. Yesterday we went to the Bridal show in tupelo. We got tons of great ideas. I am so excited/nervous. I am such a planner and I want everything to be perfect. My precious fiancé. He has been so good. All he wants is to be married. Thank you Lord for this beautiful man who will be my husband so soon! I have a very long list of things that I need to get done as soon as possible but I am trying to not be a bridezilla!! I think I am doing okay right now ha ha. I will get back to you on that in a month or two!!

My classes started today. I am going solely online this time. I hope that I like it and can handle it. Full time online is going to be tough but I have faith in a higher power for greater strength! I hope you all are enjoying this new semester and new year. To all of you that are student teaching, I wish you the best. You are touching lives on a daily basis!!

I hope that this week brings you great joy and opportunity. Take Care. God Bless.

hello bloggers

hello people of the blog world. i have not written in this thing in such a long time. i think i might have forgotten about it. so much has happened since my last post. i was in nursing school and it consumed my whole life. terrible is probably the word that i would use. so as of right now i am not taking any nursing classes and i am searching for what i really need to be doing. i am praying that health care is where he leads but that is still open. it is hard because in five short months my whole world will change. i will be married. where has the time gone? i was talking to an old friend today and we fill like we are getting so old. everybody we know is finishing up college and getting married and having children. seems like we should still be running from the boys on the playground. time really has flown by in the last couple of months. christmas at the house was great. my last one of a part of my family. next year i will have my own family!! i am so excited. i am going to try and keep some things posted about the wedding. hope you have a good start to this new year.

When Is My Wedding

Wedding Ticker from WhenIsMyWedding.com

i am ready for thanksgiving break. fall break was good. but it was a teaser. ha. i have got so many things to do in such a small amount of time. i think that this is probably what my mama was referring to when she said that there is never enough time in the day. why how that woman gets smarter as i get older. i like that this week started on wednesday. i don't think it is going to be a very hard week. but in nursing school anything is possible. how precious :) my life is going pretty good right now. i have been presented with some pretty awesome possibilities recently. still brewing and praying over these before i am ready to reveal them. hope you all have a wonderful SHORT week. take care. God bless.

• nursing school is going to fry my brain
• october is fast approaching. this means two things.....
• the 4th is 8 months until our wedding!
• the 5th is 7 years as boyfriend and girlfriend! :D
• i have so much planning to get done.
• working and going to school full time is HARD.
• i love my life.
• my sister got top 15 in the pageant at NP (will post pics later)
• my good friends jon and bridget had their little boy. Welcome to the world Jon Owen!
• i am going to decorate my apartment for the fall tomorrow. excited
• ginger is a year old. (my dog/daughter)
• thomas turned 23 on the 23rd. we had a good time going out for this birthday.
• i realized that this semester has a lot of events that i probably will do for the last time since i will be married next year. wow.
• If I Die Young by The Band Perry is one of my new favorite things.
• i love days off work.
• the weather has turned cold and i love/hate it.
• hope you have a wonderful week!
• God Bless!

ahhh

Well guys I made it through my first checkoffs AND my first test. The knot in my stomach and the my shaking hands are gone. Praise my Sweet Lord! I Passed! It feels good to know that all the studying and preparation I put in paid off.

This weekend will hopefully include some relaxation. I am looking forward to it for sure. Not too much has happened since last time. I went to North's first game and saw Jessi cheer and perform at halftime. She did great. Oh and we WON the first game. Exciting? Very much so. Later that night, I got to catch up with some friends from high school. It was so good. I missed those girls. I don't think we got much sleep for all the talking! Love it!

The second BSU was tonight. We had 160ish people there. Also, there were three young men that came to know our Lord. Thank you Father for their new faith in You. It was so awesome. I know He has big plans for this semester, and I am so excited. Please pray for the leadership team, that we will continue to pray and prepare for the weekly services. Our goal is to have so much growth that we have two services. May He continue to bless.

I know that many of you are in the full swing of classes now. Good luck with that my friends.

Love and God Bless.

One week down

This week was crazy. I jumped head first into my first week of nursing school. WOW! It is so fast paced and I can not believe that it is here. I love it though. I feel like for the first time in my education career I am doing what I love and I am actually learning things. Work is great too. I really love my job. Being a CNA is not easy but I am building some great skills for my nursing career.

Wedding Plans.

I have met with the lady that is doing our flowers. Her name is Gina by the way. I don't think I said that before. Anyway. We looked through all my crazy ideas and narrowed it down. I think we are pretty much on the way to having an awesome wedding. :D I am glad that we got that out of the way. I guess the only big thing left is deciding who to put in the wedding. That will come later though. We are continuing to count down the days. Thomas starts school Monday so we will have a very busy routine for a while.

Have a great weekend.

God Bless!

288 days.

Blog Change

Finally I have internet at my apartment. Hopefully I can update this blog more often. We shall see. I want to write about wedding planning stuff on here. I will post pictures of things that I like and might want to use. Feel free to comment and tell me what you think. I am going to meet with the lady that is going to do our flowers on Saturday. I am nervous and excited. The planning process is really underway!

School started back today. Nursing school is going to be fast paced but I am ready for it. Today was really good. I made it through my first lecture. It almost seems unreal that I am finally doing what I have dreamed of for so long. My puzzle pieces are coming together, and yet I know that I am only seeing a corner of what God has prepared for me.

Thomas and I will be getting married in 295 days. I am starting to freak out a bit because it's less than ten months. But I am so in love with that boy. We have been through so much together. I am so excited to plan for this wedding and prepare for our future together. October will be 7 years since he asked me to be his girlfriend. My how time flies. The wedding will be here before we know it. I hope I can successfully plan and work and go to school. :O

Here are some of the things that we have decided:

Date & Time: June 4 2011 @ 4 pm

Color- mermaid

Flowers- pink, orange, and yellow Gerber daisies

We are planning on getting married at Thaxton Baptist Church and then having the reception at the gym. That is pretty much it right now. The wedding party list is still incomplete. But as soon as that is settled (it will be a while) I will post it.

The pictures below are some ideas that I have for bouquets and centerpieces for the reception.

I like this for the bridesmaids. I don't know

if I want to do something that big though.

This could be the centerpiece for

the food tables.

I am thinking this is what

I want my bouquet to look like.

I really like the colors and way its put together.

I think this would be really cute

on the reception tables.

I like this one a lot for the bridesmaids.

It's simple and cute.

http://www.davidsbridal.com/Product_Short-Jersey-Dress-with-Keyhole-Detail-F13408

This is the link for the bridesmaid dress. I couldn't get the picture to work.

The color is the very last one on the top row. It is called Mermaid.

Until the next time.

God Bless.

295 until Mrs Thomas Chandler

so i am a slacker

well ladies and gentlemen my name is ashley and i am a slacker.
haha. i havent updated in a while. sorry abou that. i am sure that all of you are dying to know what i have been up to. this week has been super busy. let's see.
so the 12th of june was our vbs at church. we do a one day vbs and it turned out really good. i believe that we had 78 people there. i got to talk about missions and i think the kids really paid attention. it was great.
as of monday i have a new apartment. i moved into a one bedroom apartment. it is in a really good place and i can have ginger live with me so that is great. i decided to live by myself. i haven't had to best of luck finding a good roommate. and i will be in nursing school in the fall and i can't handle the stress of a crazy roommate on top of school. anyway. i think everything will work out for the best.

i hope everybody has a good weekend. try to stay cool.
i am going swimming this afternoon :D

God Bless

ps 353 days until I am Mrs Chandler :)

Life is busy

well i have started a new job, working at the meadows in fulton as a cna. i love it. i am already so attached to my patients. they are all so precious. i have been working some crazy shifts, but i think it will be good. i just like it a lot.

thomas is gone until the 30th on a mission trip to maine with his sunday school class. they are working with a church up there. i am not too sure what all they are doing. it changes from day to day. they drove up there from thaxton. it was a long drive!

courtney's wedding is in two days. i am so happy/sad. i can hardly believe that it is here already. i love that girl so much. she has been my friend since the first grade, and now she is getting married. i am really happy for her and ross. they are a perfect pair. i know that they will have a wonderful marriage. it is going to be a busy weekend too. the rehearsal is tomorrow night. i hope that the weather holds out until the wedding is over. i know courtney wants everything to be perfect and she deserves it.

i am living in fulton this summer while i am working. i hope everybody that is going out on missions has a great time and does His work. love yall

God Bless

The end

well this semester is coming to a close. it sure has been a while since i wrote in my blog. sorry guys. i have been a busy person this semester. but i must say it has paid off. i am a certified nursing assistant and i will be filling out my paper work to begin my new job at 9 am tomorrow morning. i am super excited because i will be working with the elderly people and that is really what i want to do right now. i just love them so much. i am looking forward to what this job is going to teach me about my career. the nursing applications are in and i am........waiting! i hate this part :( i was called in for an interview with the LPN program last monday and i should know in a week or so if i was accepted into that program. i am keeping my fingers crossed that i get into LPN so that i won't be as stressed while i wait for RN results, which won't be until JUNE!! if you think about it send up a prayer for me please. nursing is a burning desire within my heart. i am looking forward to how the Lord will use me in this field.

courtney is getting married in less than 20 days. geez where has the time gone. i will make the final payment on my wedding dress within the next two weeks. i am excited/terrified. tomorrow is 13 months until thomas and i are getting married. the planning shall begin soon. i do love that man though :) (i expect for you to be there if you are reading this blog!) life is moving so fast. if the next year goes by as fast as this on has then i will be married in no time! i found out today that my good friend jon and his wife bridget are having a little boy. i am so happy for them. that little boy is going to be spoiled rotten!

this week is finals for us indians at icc. i will be glad when they are finished. i don't have it too bad though. only three finals.

i hope everyone has a great week.

God Bless

ashley

Stop Time!

So I have a great couple of weeks. I love my new job. I work for a drug testing company. CNA class is almost over. And SPRING BREAK is in a week! I am so ready for spring break. I am not going on the mission trip with BSU, and I have no clue what I will be doing that week. I am supposed to have a state board test for my CNA license that week. Pray that this goes well please! I am ready for it to be over with. I believe that there are about 8 weeks of school left for the semester. Nursing school applications are being sent out. I am hoping that I will get accepted at ICC. We shall see! Well guys I must go. have a great weekend. God Bless

Hope you missed this...haha

1. I am entirely too busy with school and work.

2. Spring Break is coming quickly! :D

3. I am almost a certified nursing assistant.

4. Clinical experience is nothing like what you read in the textbook.

5. 468 days until I am Mrs. Thomas Chandler.

6. Planning a wedding is insane.

7. I need a major vacation.

8. I could drink a gallon of sweet tea right now.

9. My valentine's day was wonderful.

10. Courtney Brooke is getting married in less than 3 months :D!

11. There is nothing in this world like true friendships.

12. My Lord told me that He would never give me more than I can withstand, but my sometimes he certainly piles it on!

13. When life gets busy, why is my Bible reading the first thing that slacks?

14. My heart misses Indonesia. real bad.

15. There are 9 weeks of school left for this semester.

16. I can not pick the colors that I want to use for my wedding :(

17. Little sisters grow up too fast. Jessi will be 14 this year

18. Oh no! She is going to HIGH SCHOOL!!

19. We should be allowed to have pets in the dorms.

20. I love the rain, except when I must go to class. lol

21. Dave Barnes- you have an amazing voice.

22. Russian violinist-Alexander-I have his autograph. :D

23. Did I mention that I will be married in 468 days?

24. This blog is so random.

25. Sorry it has been so long!

Have a great week faithful blog reader.

God Bless.

A Grant

Where has the time gone?!

---8 days until Christmas---
I can hardly believe that it is time for Christmas again. Life is going by too fast. I was thinking early this week how things have changed so much over the last two years. The older I get the more I see that there are people in your life are going to be there through thick and thin and then there are other people in your life whom you thought would always be there...but they won't be....they move on to "better" things. I have realized that the friends that matter the most to me know what matters the most in my life. I love them more each day, and I know that God has placed them in my life. Everything seems to be changing so fast. I am getting older quickly...and planning a wedding!!!!! All of which are huge things. I am so happy with my life. God continues to bless me and my family. Christmas time helps to remind me that the blessings of life are so precious, and I should not take advantage of them. There are many people in and around my community that are sick. Many have been diagnoised with cancer just this week. Thank you Lord for my family's health. I hope that all is well with your families this Christmas. Remember what the reason for the season is!
**So I have my grades!! Only one B and an A in 5 classes. I am super pumped. It helped my GPA a lot. Next semester is going to be hard. I am going to be taking a CNA class so I can start working in the nursing field asap. I am excited about it, but I know it is going be stressful. Please pray that I will be successful in this class, along with my other academics.

--So I'm not even sure that anybody reads this blog anymore....sorta thinking about deleting it...idk...--

Merry Christmas.
God Bless.

No need for a title

so i watched a pretty amazing video on chad mccoy's profile a minute ago. it was pretty awesome. brought tears to my eyes. my Jesus is amazing. i have been so stressed with school. finals are here and i am not excited about that one. i haven't blogged in forever. i missed you blog! i was not very excited about this time of the year this year...the holidays...this was pappaw's favorite time of the year. i knew it was going to be hard without him here this year. thanksgiving was a blessing, being with my family and being able to eat and be filled. but in my heart i miss pappaw so much. saturday was the ecru christmas parade. for those of you that knew my pappaw, you know that the christmas parade is what we worked so hard for. we put up lights every year because pappaw wanted people to enjoy seeing his yard decorated. but this year not a single light lit my grandparents home. we just couldn't bring ourselves to even get the boxes out. i know that pappaw will have the best christmas ever in the arms of Jesus but oh how my soul misses him. i don't even know why i am putting all this on here but i just need to get it all out and i guess this is the easiest way for me. cherish your family. being in a foreign country this summer taught me two things- love your family and be thankful that you are an american. we are blessed beyond belief. God has given me so much and i deserve nothing but a horrible death. but God is merciful thank you Lord. i hope that each of you have a wonderful week. good luck on your finals! :D love you all. God Bless.