Thoughts Along The Day

Today was such a perfect day for multiple reasons. 
1. I had a good day at school today. It was one of those days where you're just happy and content without anything earth-shattering happening. A pleasant happy. A good happy. 
2. I got to enjoy dinner with a few of my favorite girls: Sarah, Gretchen & Embry at one of my favorite places to eat, Ramsey's. They constantly remind me of how thankful I should be to have girls like them; I have no idea where I'd be without em!

 3. Sundy Best DROPPED DOOR WITHOUT A SCREEN TODAY. This topped off my day & made it perfect. They're kinfolk-y/country and I love it; they're from Lexington too, which makes me love them that much more! Local celebs, they're pretty cool. 

4. I finally feel like I'm getting a handle on this whole junior year, tons of school work, APs, extracurricular stuff, social life thing & it's so nice! Verrry time consuming but I'm convinced it'll all pay off in the end. No worries.

I hope y'all are having a wonderful Tuesday and guess what?! TOMORROW IS HUMP DAY Y'ALL. Have a wonderful rest of the week! Xoxo, Ash

First Week of School & Hard Decisions

YAY it's Saturday! So happy to finally be finished with the first week of school.. I forget how much I look forward to the weekends during the school year! It was great to be reunited with lots of friends I hadn't seen in a while & to get started on my insane class load for this year. I'm excited about every bit of it. 
Along with all of my classes, junior year has already brought hard decisions and choices in my life that will change the course of my year, no doubt. I've got a heavy heart when it comes to making this decision. But, I feel relieved sticking to my gut & going in the direction I've decided, but there's always the voice in the back of my head that pulls me back & reminds me of the regret I could feel afterwards. In my mind, I'm hoping a big risk may bring big rewards. But we'll have to wait it out & see. 
Last night, I had such a sweet conversation in the car with one of my best friends, Janie Poulton. It was so amazing to see how God was intertwined in everything we said to each other and how much she supports me in life, no matter what. It was one of those moments where I'm reminded of just how much I'm cared for. My heart was so full. The conversation reminded me of a quote off the back of my camp's staff shirts:  

Today will never come again. Be a blessing. Be a friend. Encourage someone. Take time to care. Let your words heal, and not hurt.

Janie had an opportunity to convince me to change my decision, to give me grief for what I chose, or blow me off for how I felt. But in that moment, she decided to love me & I couldn't be more thankful.. It was a blessing in a day full of not-so-great moments. 
Joshua 1:9 was a nice reminder today.

This blog post is the epitome of a jumbled mess, but that's okay. It's a pretty good depiction of my mind at the moment. I hope y'all are having a wonderful day. Enjoy this pretty Saturday! Xoxo, Ash. 
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I forgot, I thought I might add a few pictures from the first day of school. We were all pretty darn cute!

Moo & I on our first day of junior year!

The group text on the first day!

LNOS & Really Good Friends

      Well, it's the last day of summer! So insane to me that it's already over :( But, I'm so excited to get back into the swing of things with school and see all the sweet friends I haven't been able to see! I got to spend LNOS (last night of summer, for those who didn't catch on) with my favorite group of girls - "the group text" - and it was SUCH a blast. I loved getting to see them all & spend time with em! They're the sole reason for my sanity sometimes :) 
      I couldn't have asked for a better summer & I have absolutely no regrets looking back on the past two months. It's so sweet to know how much I've done this summer & how much I've changed. Two months doesn't seem too long but it pushed me a lot & got me to grow up a little bit more. I had a lot of firsts this summer..

• I did my laundry at a laundromat.. It was a major struggle.
• I was away from home for 2 weeks, I missed my bed & my pup the most!
• I drove myself to & from camp on those crazy roads.. I felt like a big girl :) 
• I road tripped to Danville.
• I got my first car, and the Durango has been through a whole lot this summer.. 
• I backed into my brother's car.. And put a huuuge dent in his bumper. Whoops. 

    Random addition to today's post: I was at the mall today to prep myself for first semester when out of the blue a precious soon-to-be fifth grader comes up to me, it was one of my Co-Ed campers! I love getting to be their friend & getting the chance to invest in them. I love that they love camp & the Domain just as much as I do & that they carry those friendships with them everywhere. I love getting to be an influence & role model in their lives.
    Today I'm thankful for my top notch friends, the Durango, summertime, strengthened friendships, LNOS, Lexington and Chick-Fil-A (I ate a looot of it). 
      Hope y'all are having a fantastic last day of summer. Enjoy it! Xoxo, Ash.

Home Sweet Home

      Shew, today has been all but quiet, that's for sure! The Wallace fam bid farewell to Sanibel Island & headed back home to the Bluegrass state today (at 5AM I might add) and I couldn't have been happier! It was such a blessing to be gone for so long (2 weeks total for me, camp right next to family vacay) but there's nothing sweeter than coming home to Kentucky & a clean room :) 
      I've been frantically trying to prepare myself, outwardly & inwardly, for school in 2 days (wait.. WHAT?) & I've been all but productive in my eyes. I've got a mile long to-do list to finish in two short days & lots of friends I want to see before the summer comes to a close. My schedule isn't looking too clear around this time of year, and I don't mind it one bit :) I'm looking forward to the regularity and schedule of the school year but not quite as excited to take on my insane courses this year.. They always tell you junior year will be tough but I'm holding out hope that maybe it'll take it easy on me! 
     Just wanted to stop by to sort out my mess of a brain & keep myself occupied. Xoxo. Ash.

Summertime

     Well, I'm officially a blogger - weird/strange/out of character/mildly stupid, I know. I just got to thinking about Junior Year (what?) and how absolutely insane it is going to be, and how badly I want to remember it all. So, here I am, sitting in front of my laptop on the back porch of our beach house on Sanibel Island. 
     As I was getting everything re-packed and ready to go for our flight tomorrow, I got to thinking about this summer and how absolutely AMAZING it really was. As it's coming to a close I realized how incredibly fast it went! I've been gone for 5 entire weeks this summer, hands down the longest ever but I was more than thrilled to do it. I spent one week away at camp as a true camper - best week of my summer - and the next 3 and a half counseling kiddos from 1st grade all the way through 5th. I had been a counselor before but for some reason I walked away with a lot more than I had in summer's past. It was so rewarding to get to become such good friends with such great girls. Girl talk was always the best with them - they've got the greatest personalities :) It was nice to have the weeks broken up a bit, to get some relaxation by the pool & my laundry done! 
     In between my weeks at the Domain, I had to (regretfully) say "see ya later" to one of my sweetest & greatest friends, Mary Thompson. It was so sweet to spend an awesome year with her while she was still living in Danville but I'm so thankful for the new start she gets to have in Memphis! It was definitely one of the hardest things I've had to do, but it made me realize how lucky I was to have her in my life to anchor me down when I started to get a little outta hand.. Which is pretty often :) It reminded me of that sweet Winnie the Pooh quote, "How lucky I am to have something that makes saying goodbye so hard." The goodbye was tough but I'm so happy she's become such a big part of my life and who I've become in the last year.
     I've spent the past 9 days (long days, I might add) laying on the beach and by the pool on Sanibel Island with my family. It's been nice to have some alone time (actually lots of alone time) reading my summer reading books and catchin' up on my tan that I've lost from being at camp so much. I've also come to the realization that this is probably our last full family vacation for a while. With Ben (my oldest brother) scheduled to graduate in December and Clay (my middle brother) starting his sophomore year in college, we will be hard pressed to get all five of the Wallaces together for more than 5 minutes once school starts. 
     It's hard to believe that summer is wrapping itself up and school starts in 4 days - I might wanna finish up all this summer reading I've got left to do.. But it can wait :) I can't wait to see all the cool things I get to do this year with The Cathedral Domain and Henry Clay. It's about that time to start taking the ACT again & work on some GSP applications for the summer of 2014 (okay, maybe I'm a little ahead of myself there..)! 
Here's to a wonderful Junior Year.

{Attached are a few pictures to show off the highlights of my summer} 

The Cathedral on the property {credit: Mary Thompson}

These were from Senior Conference, when I was a camper. Loved every second of it.

 Hated saying goodbye to this sweet girl, but I loved getting to meet all her sweet Dtown friends. 

 While we were on the island, my mom's parents and her sister + cousin + my newest cousin, Lillian Lynn came to visit us!