Who's thinkin Mexico??

Happy Holiday’s to everyone! I hope you are thinking of fun and sun amongst this snow and cold! To anyone thinking of attending the most amazing wedding vacation trip ever, just wanted to inform you all of the update with our travel agent. We have a new one, actually she is the original but she is back from medical leave so you may start contacting her, if you do contact Eileen (travel agent listed on invites) she will forward everything on to Karyn. Karyn is pretty to the point and speedy with her responses. Karyn Fallon1-877-938-6871imaginekr@comcast.net I know it is around the holidays and this George Bush economy is crap but flights are looking lower than they have in a while and hotels will soon change their rates to the higher 2009 rates, so it is best to book early if possible. You have a few options for booking. See website for more information. www.mywedding.com/ashleynathan

· If you want to pay towards your hotel stay you can call Karyn and put down a deposit and add your air on later, air must be paid for in full at time of booking. In order to put down your room deposit you will need to know your arrival and departure dates, so now is the time to determine how long you want to stay. The deposit to hold your rooms is $150 per person, then you can pay towards the remaining balance up until the trip.

· If you are ready to book the whole deal, call Karyn and get movin!

· Of course you may use your own travel agent or book online on your own, we don’t care how you get there as long as you come!!
I am also happy to answer questions and help in any way that I can. It is important to us that you are with us on our day and that you have an easy and convenient travel booking process.! Love,Ashley and Nathan... but more so Ashley

Say NO to the dress.....

Okay, so we went dress shopping this past Saturday in St. Paul. It was my first real dress shopping experience. I had tired on a couple right when I got engaged, but I decided Saturday was the day we would purchase the dress...If anyone knows me, they know I CANNOT make a decision if my life depended on it (hence being engaged for 9 months before setting a date) I second guess every decision..it is quite annoying, makes most things take forever to complete. So Nome, mom, and two of my bridesmaids headed to the Wedding Shoppe in St. Paul, which is apparently like the kingdom of all wedding dress places... It was Satruday morning, so it was pretty crazy.. Now let me tell you, there are some UGLY dresses out there people, just plain ugly. There were a few other brides trying on dresses the same time I was and I wanted to scream at them how completly horrific they looked, as their mothers ohhhed and ahhed.. It was pretty tragic, I saw white trash bride, and plain jane bride, and oh my gosh who is marrying you bride....and then there was me...it was my goal to look like a little Mexican doll...and it was the third dress I tried on, it was everything I said I didn't want, and it was perfect! I have never seen anything so beautiful...mom cried, I cried and refused to take it off, sat and stared at myself in the mirror... I told mom and Nome I am more sure about the dress than I am about the groom (totally kidding) I have included some NOT the dress pictures for your enjoyment, got a good laugh out of some of them.. You will have to wait until Mexico to see the real thing!

Update

Okay, so I have really been slacking with the updating of this blog, after a visit with Grandma Bev last week, apparently this blog is how most of the Komestakes' communicate! So I will try and keep you all posted...

Let me see, since my last post I think a few things have changed....I am currently working at the Chamber of Commerce of Fargo Moorhead, as a leadership development coordinator. I have been here for one year this month. I coordinate two leadership programs for the FM community, one is geared towards business professionals, the other towards high school sophomores and juniors. These are both 9 month programs that kick off in August and conclude in May. The students meet once per month for all day sessions, the contents of these sessions are my responsibility. Work keeps me very very busy! I also hostess once or twice a week at a Restaurant called Ushers, which is the old Red Bear.

Nathan and I moved yet again....but this time just down the road. Our landlord found out about our cat and we got the boot! So now we live in a crappier more expensive apartment in the ghetto.

Wedding plans are coming along, after an all out battle with the invitations, they will be sent out next week. I decided to design and print them myself....big mistake. Please check out our wedding website for all of the details on our Mexican Getaway!!
www.mywedding.com/ashleynathan

I am going dress shopping in November in St. Paul to a place called the wedding shoppe, my goal is to find a dress that day! No messin around!

Destination Wedding It is...Get your passports people!!!

So after 6 months of deliberation....(yes I have been engaged for almost 6 months now!) We have decided that we are going to do it! We are going to have our wedding on the beach in Mexico! It is something that I have always wanted to do, it is really the only way I have ever pictured getting married.....So mom and I are headed to Mexico in a few weeks to tour a few resorts and pick the place. We are shooting for May of 2009 for the date, but will have to wait and see the availability of the resorts we see. We are all really excited, and I can't wait to start planning. I will post details as they come up!

We're Engaged!!!

I am wayyyy to excited to type the story of how it happened so if you really want to know please call my cell phone, 612-207-3783, I have no idea when we are getting married or where, but at this point I am leaning towards a destination wedding, I am open to suggestions!!! Love you all!

Such is life....

So as some of you may have already heard, my company will be closing the end of next week and I will officially be "unemployed" for the first time since I was 14...... As I think back, I have always had a job..My first job was as a dishwasher at the Ole Kettle in Breckenridge, I would ride my bike to work because I was so young I didn't even have a license yet, I was also so short that they had to get me a stool to stand on to reach the high shelves, and the cooks would always have to put things away for me that I couldn't reach.
When I was 15 I got my job at the Dairy Queen, which led to a massive weight gain my sophomore year, but I was happy..chubby...but happy. In the summertime I taught track, arts and crafts and other various Parks and Rec jobs.
When I was 16 I became a lifeguard and taught swimming lessons, which were the best two summers of my life, all I did was sit in the sun all day, chatted with my friends who also worked there and taught swimming lessons to cute little kids, it was the best, and as I look back on my teenage years, I wish life could be as simple and fun as it was then.
When I was a freshmen in college my parents made me get a job, although I did not have a car, which posed a bit of a problem.. Good thing I was fired about 5 months after I got that job.. That was the one and only job I had ever been fired from, and to this day I don't really know why...I was a cashier at Cub Foods and apparently my till was always off and I didn't scan coupons properly, I wasn't stealing, I was just confused, either way, I was relieved when that happened, that job was a complete nightmare and required me to take the bus to and from the ghetto of St. Cloud.. NOT COOL. So, to supplement my income, I needed a new job. I had a deal with mom and dad that they would give me 100$ a month...I had a meal plan at school so I wouldn't have to spend money on food, but no one can live on 100$ a month...so I had to get creative..... I mostly mooched off my roommate Megan, who was nice enough to let me, I would go with her to her parents house on the weekends (they only lived a few miles from St. Cloud) I would do all my laundry there, so I saved on that, and I would eat there all weekend as well... they were happy to feed a starving college student.... Then a great thing happened, the janitors of the dorms went on strike....Which meant they had to hire college kids to keep the dorms clean, and pay them a decent rate. So for 8$ an hour, I was assigned floors 3, 6 and 10 in a 13 story dorm, each floor had 4 bathrooms, and i only had to do the girls, so 2 on each floor, you did your own time card so sometimes... I may have exaggerated the time I actually spent doing it...So for about a month I would take my wet floor sign, my garbage can on wheels and rubber gloves and would hit up the bathrooms... and from then on, every party I went to someone was always like " Dude, you are the chick that cleans the bathrooms on my floor..." To me, it was a pretty good gig, I set my own hours, I got above minimum wage, no supervisor and some of the bathrooms had radio's, so I didn't get bored...My friends thought i was crazy, because college kids do not keep the bathrooms clean, some got pretty nasty, but I have never had a problem getting dirty or dealing with icky stuff...
For the next few years throughout college I answered my calling as a waitress, the nights got long, and late, but I always made good money, and good friends.... I can't imagine ever not working, I think that is the one thing my parents instilled in me that I still carry with me, a good work ethic.
So, in closing...my job will end this week and I will get severance until November 28th, meaning I get paid my normal paycheck for 6 more weeks.... I don't know what I am going to do with those 6 weeks, but I will try and come up with a money making scheme.....

Lost Camera Cord

I CANNOT find my stupid camera cord!! So I can't get any pictures up, but I think I am going to break down and go buy one, I want to take pictures of Grandma's move this weekend and of course more of Mya, who I haven't seen in 2 weeks! So Nome if you are reading this, I think it is possible my camera cord may be at your house....it is gray, you should look for it, the world needs to see more pictures of our lives!

I also went to look at rings again last week at Schmidts in Fargo, I think I am just too picky because again nothing jumped out at me....at all. I think I am going to have to hit the custom design option. Besides that, pretty much nothing new going on with me... I am still making plans to: A. Apply to Graduate school at NDSU, I am taking the GRE ( entrance exam, like the ACT's) in October, meeting with the director of the program today to see if I would be a good fit... and just sent out an email request to my references for letters of recommendation, if I am accepted I will begin classes Spring Semester 2008 (which is this January)
Option B. Moving...buying a house/townhome in Fargo/Moorhead, especially if I plan to be here the next couple years

So that is the Ashley Update!