Thursday, November 29, 2012
I do not fear death, rather I fear an unlived life
Ok yes this is my next tattoo but I wanted to raise the question of Bucket Lists. I believe you are never too young to start one. I just wrote mine and it will forever be a work in progress. But I am pinning it up on my bulletin board and crossing out whenever I do something. Also be true to yourself when writing it. Write down things you truly want to accomplish, whatever is important to YOU. And I say it like that because I wrote on mine Buy a home and crossed it off immediately because yes I will own a house one day but you know what, that is not a dream to me. And thats ok with me. I am not going to write something down just because I am SUPPOSED to own a home, I am only going to write down things that truly are important to me. Write your Bucket List out and lets get to living a life worth living, whatever that means to you!
Wednesday, November 21, 2012
Future Thanksgivings
It's holiday time!
Now that Thanksgiving is tomorrow I have officially started imagining what life will be like next year when I have my own house and my husband to share our "first" Thanksgiving together. I can't wait to decorate and put pumpkins and turkeys on the table and hang fall wreaths on our door. My poor fiance already knows he's in trouble when it's time to decorate. At least he has already mastered "Yes dear" :)
I hope you all have a wonderful Thanksgiving and here is a glimpse of what my house will most likely look like next year :)
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| Love this for outside! |
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| These would look great on a coffee table |
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| What my centerpiece would most likely look like. |
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| The cutest place settings in the world |
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| For the mantle |
Now, let's hope I get that crafty when the time comes.
With love and pearls,
Ashley
Monday, November 19, 2012
Public Schools
Watched Waiting for Superman documentary last night and some facts I learned that I would just like to share...
The Teachers Association Union funds more candidates than the NRA.
There is this system of weeding out the smart and the dumb that was introduced in the 70s when most children were not going off to college...and it worked then because you find the smartest and help push them along because they were going to be your next doctors and lawyers and politicians...but today that system fails more than 50% of the children because in order to make a living today you must attend college and more than 50% of the children are not college ready by the time they graduate.
There are certain schools that the government knows more than half of the children will drop out or be sent to prison.
The average cost of an inmate for one year is $33,000 and if you times that by 4 that is still more than if you send a child to a private school for 12 years.
The charter schools came about because they are government funded but do not have to follow all government regulations that public schools must follow.
The Teachers Union has something in their contract that does not allow you to fire a teacher or take away their certificate even if you know they are a horrible teacher. So instead of firing a teacher you must pass the teacher along to another school in something called the Lemon Dance. So ALL these bad teachers are still teaching or should I say NOT teaching our children. Now being a nurse I know that if I am incompetent my license can be taken away. So why is it that we are entrusting our future into the hands of someone who is incapable of doing their job.
There is a charter school called KIPP that started in the Bronx, an area where most kids knew more people who overdosed than went on to college and this school came up with a curriculum where no child is left behind and they even increased the school hours and held school during weekends and summers in order to keep every child up to par and guess what...these kids now score BETTER on standardized tests than the rest of the other public schools in the nation...yes these same kids that were once expected to drop out and OD or go off to prison.
The No Child Left Behind Act is coming up to its final years where 100% of the children are supposed to score average on the standardized tests and guess what..in all states it is still only at about 20%.
Americans are not qualified for the jobs in America especially the technology based ones and that is why we are hiring Non-Americans to fill those positions!!!
So people get involved in your child's education, PLEASE!!!
The Teachers Association Union funds more candidates than the NRA.
There is this system of weeding out the smart and the dumb that was introduced in the 70s when most children were not going off to college...and it worked then because you find the smartest and help push them along because they were going to be your next doctors and lawyers and politicians...but today that system fails more than 50% of the children because in order to make a living today you must attend college and more than 50% of the children are not college ready by the time they graduate.
There are certain schools that the government knows more than half of the children will drop out or be sent to prison.
The average cost of an inmate for one year is $33,000 and if you times that by 4 that is still more than if you send a child to a private school for 12 years.
The charter schools came about because they are government funded but do not have to follow all government regulations that public schools must follow.
The Teachers Union has something in their contract that does not allow you to fire a teacher or take away their certificate even if you know they are a horrible teacher. So instead of firing a teacher you must pass the teacher along to another school in something called the Lemon Dance. So ALL these bad teachers are still teaching or should I say NOT teaching our children. Now being a nurse I know that if I am incompetent my license can be taken away. So why is it that we are entrusting our future into the hands of someone who is incapable of doing their job.
There is a charter school called KIPP that started in the Bronx, an area where most kids knew more people who overdosed than went on to college and this school came up with a curriculum where no child is left behind and they even increased the school hours and held school during weekends and summers in order to keep every child up to par and guess what...these kids now score BETTER on standardized tests than the rest of the other public schools in the nation...yes these same kids that were once expected to drop out and OD or go off to prison.
The No Child Left Behind Act is coming up to its final years where 100% of the children are supposed to score average on the standardized tests and guess what..in all states it is still only at about 20%.
Americans are not qualified for the jobs in America especially the technology based ones and that is why we are hiring Non-Americans to fill those positions!!!
So people get involved in your child's education, PLEASE!!!
Happiness Project
So I picked up this book called The Happiness Project. The insert read something like..."I am not particularly not happy but I'm not the happiest I could be. I have a husband and child, am a writer and live in NYC but I feel as though I am not appreciating life as I should be...blah blah blah." I said this is perfect a woman's journey to find happiness when she already has it, I must read this book and see what more she finds out. Then as I started reading, I thought to myself, wait there are definitely a number of things I want to change in my life but when I think of them all it seems overwhelming and so you always put it on the back burner for a rainy day, yet the rainy day never seems to come. And it clicked, this chick is simply taking something we all want to do, which is better ourselves and progress to some type of growth through out our daily lives and has simplified the shit out of it. She has picked 12 things to change or alter or better about herself or something she wants to learn and dedicates a whole month to that one thing in hopes that it will carry on. Research has shown that it takes 30 days to break or form a new habit and so this project seems completely doable and worth trying. And at what better time then start of a new year. I have tried to narrow it down into 12 things...here is what I have so far and in no particular order of importance...
1.) Cook more
1.) Cook more
2.) Write
Book
Blog
3.) Health
Exercise
Drink more water
Decrease Alcohol
Poop regularly
Cleanse
4.) Meet new people
5.) Money
Work
more
Work out Debt
Launch Double Aces Event Planning
6.) Learn French
7.) Learn piano
8.) Simplify life
Connect with nature
Hike more
Walk more
Camp
De-clutter
9.) Bond with my son Colin
10.) Be a better girlfriend
Be
sexier
11.) Become more cultured, worldly
Better
vocabulary
Current events
Volunteer
12.) Learn Photography
So here I go...on my journey to a happier more balanced me.
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