Here's the latest shirt I made- I will be wearing it to Sasquatch festival- hope Sufjan likes it!

How I spent my lazy sunday (part of it)..with Desiree, Callie and Leroy the cat.

A guy named Andy was wearing this shirt- I thought it was funny- he said his friend made it for him. It inspired me to make more shirts.....

Okay so tonight I went to Melissa's surprise 22 nd birthday party. Lots of friends (I only knew 3 of them to start with but got to know some more tonight) good food, wine, music, dancing, Castle Fun park and hot tubbing (all in the same neighborhood!! See here is the shirts I made for Melissa and for myself. Stencils work wonders....

You Are 25 Years Old

Under 12: You are a kid at heart. You still have an optimistic life view - and you look at the world with awe. 13-19: You are a teenager at heart. You question authority and are still trying to find your place in this world. 20-29: You are a twentysomething at heart. You feel excited about what's to come... love, work, and new experiences. 30-39: You are a thirtysomething at heart. You've had a taste of success and true love, but you want more! 40+: You are a mature adult. You've been through most of the ups and downs of life already. Now you get to sit back and relax.

What Age Do You Act?

A friend from elementary school (Janelle Starke) just sent an e-mail saying she is getting married! I think the date in Sept. 9th, 2006. Here is a picture of her and Paul. I wish them all the best and best of all, God's blessing on them.

Africa here I come!!!! The following is an e-mail from one of my classmates spearheading this adventure for summer of 2007:

First I gotta apologize to those of you who I have not discussed this with because this may sound totally out of the blue, but last summer I took a trip to Zambia, Africa and had an amazing time staying at an orphanage and visitng the local hospitals.

As a result, I thought it would a great place for us nursing students to visit!!! I have been discussing taking nursing students to Africa with the faculty at the school, but honestly, and yes this may come as a surprise, trying to organize anything with the school is absolutely painstaking (hmmm, big shock, right? hehehe)

HOWEVER, I talked to the lady who owns the orphanage (she visits africa every six weeks) and booked Africa for us a slot (two weeks) for an Africa Trip in June 2007, just after our third year. What usually happens is "teams" go down to africa and have a plan to, for example, build buildings, hand out care packages, or teach the children, etc., we can pretty much come up with a schedule of what we want to do. Nursing students from school in Ontario have gone, and we can look at what they did if we want to do the same thing.

I know this must sounds like a lot to take in but the organization does this soo often everything really does go smoothly. The organization has a few other orphanges (which take care of HIV + orphanes) around the world, and what they do in Africa is they is house "teams" in a guest house right next to the orphange which is all located on a 1 acre piece of property. We have our own cook (and western food), laundry lady, and bathroom/shower. Zambia (the country we go to in africa) is also a politically stable and safe country, so there's none of those crazy stories you hear on TV. The whole trip which includes airfaire, all meals, housing, transportation, and costs about $3000.00. The 3,000.00 is also considered a "charitable donation" so it is tax deductable.

I am just trying to get a rough idea of who is interested, and don't feel pressured to commit ASAP, if you have any questions please call or email me any questions/concerns you have. there's also a website www.seedsofhopecm.com that you can go on to check out the organization. It is run by a church, but is not at all "preachy," but if you want to make to incorporate your faith they are perfectly willing to accomodate, they're really sensitive and want to make everyone feel comfortable. Also Susan (the woman who owns/runs the orphanages) is in Africa right now and will be back in 2-3 weeks and we were planning on having an orientation meeting for all of us, so everyone can get some more info. on the trip.

Please please email me any questions, I hope this all doesn't sound too looney, its a far away place but really the whole thing is so professionally done there's no worries.

Allright, i'm done I promise,
Talk to you soon,
Ashlee

ok folks - here it is - a hilarious rap video about being an ER nurse- it's a recruitment video from University of Alabama. Go to the following link and double-click on the pic to see it in a Window's media file: http://www.gruntdoc.com/2005/10/uab_nurses_rap.html

Spring is in the air here in the Fraser Valley, and along with that allergies, asthma, but hey it's all worth it! It's so funny I was walking down the hall in the hospital towards surgical day care area and saw some trees that looked like they were covered in snow- i gave my head a little shake and realized- hey there is blossoms covering the trees and it's magical. I pretended it was winter again for a second and they got excited for the spring! One thing I have noticed about being in the nursing program is how I am constantly feeling I am leaving God out of my life because of all the business of school and other things. But at the same time I have never had so many moments where I 've realized that I really can't do anything, especially nursing, on my own strength. They have been many times I have cried out to God for His help and direction with life, and I want to keep Him close as life happens..