A day in the life... Day 1

I think I will start a project detailing my day for a week. This is inspired by the Library Day in the Life Project.

References to my library work day will be blogged at The Not So Shoeless, Librarian, while the personal parts of my day will be blogged here on A Life, Ashley K Parker.

I am interested in seeing the patterns of my life emerge, as I often get so wrapped up that I rarely take time to thing about where I spend all my time.

Putting this in context: I am a 28 year old public librarian living in central Arkansas.  I live in a city of 9,000 and a county of 30,000.  I live with my fiance and we have custody of our 17 year old nephew.  We have two inside dogs.  I am currently taking online classes to earn my MPA.  I serve on several local, state, and national committees.  I am planning my own wedding without outside help.


Sunday, Feb. 26, 2012

• ‎9:00 - Breakfast
• 9:30 to 12:00 - wash 2 loads of laundry, wash a load of dishes, clean stove, clean kitchen counters and table, clear all "crap" from kitchen area, sweep and mop kitchen, teach my resident nephew how to clean a bathroom, and take out trash
• 12:00 - shower
• ‎12:15 to 1:15 - play on computer
• 1:15 to 3:15 - errands
•  3:15 to 3:45 - dismantle library display
• 4:00 to 5:30 - homework and snack
• 5:30 to 6:00 - play on the computer
• 6:00 to 6:20 - start blog and switch out loads of laundry
• 6:20 to 7:30 - put away and wash dishes, fold 3 loads of laundry, wash 2 loads of laundry, bathe dogs, sweep laundry room
• 7:30 to 8:20 - dinner, folding a load of clothes, then washing dishes
• 8:30 to 10:00 - listening to music and discussing songs for our wedding ceremony
• 10:15 - grab a snack and head to bed

Looking to the Future

So as many of you know I became engaged to my sweetie at Thanksgiving.  We plan to get married in October of this year and in planning our wedding and talking about our future, we have discussed our future thoughts of parenthood.  Of course to me this means pigtails and cute outfits and to him it means wrestling and fishing!

Yesterday I stumbled across this website that will morph two pictures into babies.  This allowed us to create images that suggest what our future children will look like.  I wonder how accurate it is?

Us:

What our future kids might look like?:

A student again

Today I became an official student again.  I started online classes today at Troy University for my Master of Public Administration program.

Troy's program is ranked in the top 5 Public Administration programs in the country and they offer several specializations to choose from: Public Management, Government Contracting, Justice Administration, Healthcare Administration, Environmental Management, Non-Profit Management, Public Human Resource Management, National Security Affairs, and Education.  I will most likely pursue my specialization in Non-Profit Management.

I am really excited to go back to school, but I am nervous about finding the time to dedicate to school since my schedule is so busy at work and at home.

Save the Date!

Love Filmstrip Scarlet Wedding Save the Date

Find unique birthday party cards & address labels at Shutterfly.

View the entire collection of cards.

I love the save the date cards  I ordered to announce our wedding!  I can't wait til they get here!

I'm Engaged!

I am so excited to announce that Michael has finally proposed!

Michael and I have been together for just over 2 years and we have a great life together!  We moved in together in April when we bought a house and we quickly expanded our family by adding a second dog, Faraday (I adopted our first dog, Novella, before we started dating).  Faraday and Novella are both shelter dogs and I love them so much!

I have been waiting for Michael to propose for almost a year now and we have been talking about our future wedding for about 6 months.  We know we want to get married outside in the fall.  Now that I finally have my ring, I can start planning!

Michael and I were spending Thanksgiving apart.  I was with my dad's family ( 6 hours from where we live) and Michael was staying home to celebrate with his family at our house on Friday.  Thursday afternoon, just after lunch, I was surprised to see Michael walking up the sidewalk to my grandmother's house.  I ran outside because I was so happy to see him!  As soon as I got outside he fell to one knee (shaking the whole while) and started proposing!  It was so wonderful...and I was so surprised!

I can't wait to spend our life together!

Shoe sale: an addicts joy

Basic black platform heels from  Dillards

Red wedge sandals from Kohls and Navy wedge sandals from Dillards

So in the past couple of weeks I have enjoyed a mass of shoe shopping.  There have been great bargains on shoes at several stores and to top it off I stopped at Dillard's this past weekend and all sale items were an additional 40% off!  A shoe addicts dream!

The recent shoe shopping began with a hunt for the perfect black heals, and quickly a hunt for the elusive red shoes and brown dress flats.  I had a pair of red shoes until earlier this year when the soles disintegrated.  The brown dress flats have been a difficult find for the last several years.


Well the shopping spree uncovered many great finds and lots of super bargains, but still no brown shoes.

Black velvet platform heels with sparkle bows from Dillards

Silver and gemed heels

Coach flats and black patent flats from  Dillards

Red Flats from Belks 

Weight-loss Success (so far)

I have been working diligently to loose the weight I have gained over the last few years.  I had trouble doing it on my own, so I started working with a medical weightless program on August 18th.  I have refused to allow myself to get on the scale since that first appointment.

I have been using a really great food log that the doctor provided me to keep track of my meals / calories, exercise, and water intake.  My goal was to stay between 600 and 1000 calories (preferably closer to 1000) and drink 100 oz of water per day.  Some days this was easier than others, but when I really thought about what I was buying and eating, it wasn't so bad.  Probably the hardest part of the program has been giving up cheese and drinking 100 oz of water per day (on average I have been managing 67 to 84 oz a day).

I will admit, I haven't been exercising like I should.  So far I have walked only 3 times.

On September 13th (the 26th day of my program) I went back to see the doctor for my first follow up visit.  He went over my blood work with me and everything looked good.  Then I got on the scale.  I was so nervous I didn't want to look....after I sat back down, I peeked over at my chart the nurse was holding.....I had lost 10 1/2 lbs!!!!

Now I am working on the 2nd month.  I have been told not to expect as much weight loss this month, but that I should see more inches lost in this cycle of the program.

Here's to hoping for more successes to report!