Home and Loving every Minute of it!!!

It is just so great to be home. I have had so much fun the past couple days. Christmas eve I went to Olney to see my family away from family. We had a blast.
Then Christmas day Mom and I got to hang out all day. Looked at Pictures, played Wii, went to eat Chinese.
Today (Friday) I got to spend the day with my dad. We went shopping, and then back to our watering hole. Tonight we went to my Uncle Joeys. Again, played Wii, at way to much food, and just hung out. It was so nice.

Tomorrow (Saturday) I have my Groves' Christmas's. It will be so much fun. I havent seen that side of the family. So I am sure a few tears will be shed, and lots of hugs and kisses will be given out. I just cant wait.

If you want to get ahold of me, just send me a message. I will try to check my blog this weekend. I hope to see everyone around.

I hope everyone has had a great Christmas. The weather is just crazy. But very nice.

Love ya
Ash

I made it!!!

Another update.  I finally made it to Illinois.  I am kind of stuck up north.  I am in Oaklawn.  With Brittany and her parents.  I will be taking the Greyhound bus to Mattoon.  I will be in Jasper Country late tomorrow afternoon.  Just a little delay, but I am so happy not to be stuck in an airport.  And I am safe.

Hope to see you all soon.

Love ya

Ash

HOME TO ILLINOIS!!!!!

Hey Everyone,

I just wanted to give you an update on my travels.  I am in Anchorage right now.  Still at the hotel.  I have to check out at 5:30am.  To get the shuttle to the airport.  Then I leave out of Anchorage at 8am Alaska time.  I fly into Chicago and arrive at 5pm Illinois time.  So I lose my 3 hours in the air.  Thats ok, I will give them up to be home.

Then My Bestest friend Brittany is driving down to Mattoon/Charleston area.  Where I will spend tonight.  Tomorrow I have plans in Mattoon with Amberson.  Then I head south to Jasper and Richland county.  

Hope to see everyone while I am home.  

If I dont see you, I hope you have a very Merry Christmas and a Happy New Year.  Stay safe and warm.

Love ya

Ash

Yes, I am counting the hours now!

I am so excited to say that there are only 150 hours left until I land in Chicago.  I just can not wait.  I have so many things I want to do, and so many people to see while I am home.  I am just so excited to be coming home. 

I hope everyone has a great week.  I will be seeing move of you in just over 7 DAY!!!!

Love you

Lots of Love from ALASKA!!!!

Thats me, and Zoey!!!!

and even more package!!!!

I am not done yet.  Here are some more.  :)

Read to the end, there is a twist.... only in the Groves family.

This was my birthday package from Amy, my old roommate.  Who I miss so much, we had so many good time!!  Thank you for all the great memories, and all the great gifts to remind me of ol Chuck Vegas.  The Sadie Dog is on my couch and I cuddle with it every evening!!

PS, I still have not saved my legs... haha - ok thats a lie, its only been a week or so... haha
SOOOOO, he is where the twist comes in. I go to the post office like normal  I have two packages.  I am like, wow, thats great.  I look a little closer the package says "FOR ZOEY"  I am totally serious, this package was for Zoey.  As soon as I set it on her sled she knew it too.  She was smelling it and everything.  Then we got it home and she was in heaven.  She loved it all.  She got this big bone first and it was gone in one evening.  I want to send a BIG thank you to Marty and Lonnie from Zoey and Kerri for the very special thought and care package.


know, to top that, or maybe not quite top it, but Kerri gets a package from Marty and Lonnie also.  She reads the letter, which was so nice, of course I almost cried.  Marty wanted to thank her for being such a dear friend to me.  Marty knows how close I am with my family and friends, and it is so dear to me to have that.  She knows Kerri and Zoey are very important to me, and that it would be so hard up here without them.  So she wanted to share her appreciation to Kerri.  She had a wonderful Care Package and was very thankful.  Marty your the best.  Thank you so much.  It was still ironic to go to the post office and see I had a package but on top of it is says "For Kerri".  I told Kerri she could carry her own package.  haha

More packages

Ok, here are some more... My family and friends were very nice to me for my birthday!  thank you so much!!

Much love from Alaska.

See you all SOON!!!

This is a holiday package I recieved from our speech pathologist.  It is a great package!!
This package from my cousin Marty and her boyfriend Lonnie.  They are so nice.  I love it all, and the letter. It is very ironic though.. She messed up and sent me a Cubs Pez dispenser, when I know she meant for it to be a Cardinals one.  I am glad it got back to the Cubs fans though.  :)
This is the holiday package I received from our school district.  It was a great surprise and a wonderful package.
This is a wonderful package I got from Julie and Harrold Forester, Amber Tonn, and Uncle Rodney.  I want to give 99% of the thank you to Julie and 1% to Amber.  haha  Thank you so much to my other family, I miss you guys to much!!!  See you soon!  :)
My mom also remembered my birthday.  I got a wonderful birthday package from my mom.  It is wonderful.  I have done several of the craft project already, and watched the DVD several times.  Thank you mom.  See you soon!  :)

Care packages!!!

I know I have been slacking on my post lately.  But I have been super busy with school work, and life in general.

So here are some pictures of the wonderful care packages I have received over the past month!

thank you so much for everything.  I know I have said it before, but getting packages, emails, mail, letters, cards and phone calls make it so much easier being away from home.

I will see you all in just over 12 days!!!  I cant wait.

Love ya

My Birthday care package from Amber and Jason.  I love it all!!!  I cant wait to fill the pooh photo book to show pictures off while I am home.  I already have my new wallet filled!  And the chap Stick is a god sent!!!
Birthday care package from Paulina.  It was wonderful all the best things.  All though I dont like Mint they didnt go to waste, Kerri was more than happy to get them.

I great birthday package from Sheryl.  It is wonderful.  She had an Illinois theme!  Thanks so much

16 MORE DAYS!!!

So, if you look back to when I began my blog, I was counting down until I left Illinois.  Now I am counting down until I return in Illinois.  I have 16 more days in Alaska.  Then I will arrive in Illinois.  I know I will only be in Illinois for a few days, but it will be a GREAT few days.

I am so very excited to see everyone.  I cant believe these past 5 months have flew by so fast.  I cant believe I have not seen my family and friends for over 5 months.  CRAZY!!!

While I am home I hope to see as many people as I can, and do many things I want to do.  I have several Christmas events to go to and several other events to attend to... haha.. Some of you know what I mean.  I am very excited that my plans for New Years Eve involve going out with all my great friends from Olney.  I hope we have a fun night out all together again, like we did all Summer.  :)  I miss all the guys from Olney so much.

As most of you know I will have my uncle's car, (Thank you Uncle Joey) so I will be able to have my own schedule.  yey..  Yes, this is the car I sold to my uncle in July.  

I hope to have my dad's cell phone, so I can make plans and let people know where I am going to be when... or where I should be... haha, most of you know I am always late where ever I go... so just expect that.   you have waited 5 months to see me, what's another hour going to make a difference, because I am sure I will be late.

Well I hope all of you are doing well in Illinois.  Things here in Alaska are good.  It is starting to look and FEEL more like winter here.  Okay, so it has looked like winter for months now, but it is even more white now then before.  The cold weather has come to stay I think.  But as long as I dress warm, and I am not to lazy to get dressed to go outside, I will stay warm.

I want to also thank everyone for all of their support.  You have made it possible for me to survive these past 5 months away from the people I love so much.  I don't think it would have been possible without all of the support from home.

Miss you all so much, see you soon.

Lots of love from Alaska.  :)

Love Ash  :)

COLDEST DAY!!! so far.....

Well, 

I guess since it December it is time to start getting cold.  Today is the coldest day it has been here so far for me.  The temperature itself is -22, and the windchill temp is -51.  Yes, you are reading that right and I typed it right, -51 with the wind.  

I have only been outside long enough to go from my apartment to the school, which is right across the street.  About a 35 second walk.  Maybe it was a little faster today.  

We will see what it feels like when I go for a longer walk to the post office this afternoon.  Of course then I will have more clothes on, and my parka.  I will try to get a picture of myself in the weather.  

Here is a website that shows all of the weather details for AKP.

http://www.wunderground.com/US/AK/Anaktuvuk_Pass.html

Hope you are all staying warm in IL.

Miss you so much, see you soon.

Less than 21 days until I am in IL!!!!

Love 

Ash