Summer Fun in The Sun

I have loved the summer time this year so far with my little bumble bee! 

She got a little kid pool for her birthday and we have put it to full use! She is lovin the slide! 

Dalton teaching her to beat on her chest and make Tarzan sounds....
Why I'm not sure...possibly because he needs a son lol

Brynlee poking my camera 

Yeah we ditch the swimsuit while at home 

I'm looking at her from upside down...lol she makes the cutest faces

Savings at Target!

I love when i find a good deal! It's like this giddy high I get for super savings, which is highly addicting!

So today, I ran to target for other things than what I bought of course. I needed a salad spinner BUT we have been needing patio furniture and so I have been keeping an eye open for clearance items. You know wedding budget and all. 

So I found this table for $21!!!! And it just so happens that last year we bought the matching chairs that go with this table when they were on clearance!!! Talk about perfect! 

Then I bought a Schick razor pack that included 5 extra cartridges, shaving cream and a travel cover for the blade on the razor $12.74. BUT of course I had a coupon for $4 off a schick razor. So basically I got all that for $8. Which if you do the math a razor, cartridges and shaving cream all cost more than $8. In fact the razor alone cost more than $8. So i was pretty pupmed! 

And I tested the razor out, and I'm pretty sure I will never use another Venus razor again. I am officially a Schick chick!!!! 

So ladies if you are in the Arlington area and have the Schick coupon, the Target off Cooper has a bunch of those marked down razor packs left, just saying!

My Bumble bee is walking!!!

My little one started walking this week!!! I just could not believe it! At first it was a couple steps here and a couple steps there. Then on Friday June 24th she started taking more than just a few steps!!!

Luckily I did happen to get it on video and then was able to send it to Dalton while he was at work.

I can't believe my baby is growing up so fast...

Meredith, Dalton's cousin stayed with us this weekend, so she got to witness the milestone in action. And now can tell Brynlee later, that she was there when she first walked! We just asked Meredith to be in our wedding also!!! Exciting!

This weekend was super crazy! Meredith came on Thurs or Fri (I can't remember lol). Saturday I worked on a house in Fort Worth for habitat for Humanity with some FBCA members. Sunday we had Church and then a Fundraising event for Gina & Julius who are going to East Asia. It was their last Sunday with us at church as well. So weird. But all the girls did great and we have some talented ladies in our church who can make awesome things! And today besides swimming and spending our last day with Mere, I mowed the lawn in 90 degree heat. Ugh! 

Im gonna sleep good tonight!!!

Ruth: Loss, Love & Legacy

The new Bible study I am doing with the gorgeous "Knot" ladies in my Sunday school class at church.

I thought I would take you along in my journey on this study with my thoughts etc. Sometimes it takes me to let things "sink" in or type it out to figure out what "this all really means", to me at least. God's word can mean so many different things to different people. 

Session 1: Two Journeys

"For physical training is of some value, but godliness has values for all things, holding promise for both the present life and the life to come." 1 Timothy 4:8

Have you ever been up late at night watching the infomercial of excessively greased up men and women working their "core", and for only 6 easy payments of 39.95 YOU TO CAN LOOK JUST LIKE THIS?!!? (lol) But your intrigued anyway. You buy the program and a couple weeks in your ready to give up because the results just aren't what you'd expect. 

WELL DUH! 

Like all things strengthening "your core" and strengthening your walk with Jesus takes time. The results aren't always visible, it's not always easy, you might feel like you don't always have the time, or the energy. But it always seems once you finally go to the "gym" you get more energy, you feel better, after a while you can visually see the results, and everyone is benefiting. So for a fitness fanatic like myself I can relate to this. And I say feel the burn ladies!!!! You might be sore tomorrow but in the long run it's worth it! (That was a metaphor in case you didn't catch that).

Another part of the study touched me and it basically gives the example of Naomi and her journey from Bethlehem to Moab and then her journey from Moab back to Bethlehem. 

Sometimes we lose faith in God because difficult things are happening to us and we think we know better so we leave where we are to find an easy place. Even if we don't feel called to be there. Somehow I related this story line to leaving home. As a teenager I basically had a countdown of when I could move out, because I couldn't wait to come and go and I please, and it would just be more fun. In fact I practically moved out while I was still in high school. I would just come home for showers or clothes and then be gone again. Looking back now I can see why this specific time I lost my relationship with God. Because I wanted to follow my own path (which let me tell you was NOT GOOD..ugh that was such a horrible time) and in it I lost myself and God. I also took this time to weep backward (booo me). Thing things that were happening we hard and I cried but never moved forward. Eventually I moved on and cried forward. It was a lot of crying in both directions but like Kelly Minter says " Although there will be weeping in this life, the direction in which we weep is what truly matters....It is possible to cry and walk." Then when I realized things were greener on the other side I went back. But I wasn't following my spiritual needs then either but my personal needs home. Coincidentally the song that immediately popped into my head when I was reading this part was "The house that Built Me" by Miranda Lambert, who is from my hometown, where my parents live. Weird. 

I leave this final study with these realizations. 1- Don't give up because your results aren't immediate. God sometimes as a long term plan that involves just making it until you reach his fantastic plans for you. 2. Don't find an easy way out, when it's not God's way. 3. Bad things happen they just do, but shutting out the world is not doing anyone any good. especially if your shutting out God. Weep forward my friends. You can do it! 

Food for thought:

"It's easy to kid ourselves and justify our behavior when our hearts aren't really committed to God. But when we grasp His love and the truth that obedience is for our freedom, we will change our circumstances to protect our environment to obey."

Recipe of the Week

Healthy Eating on the Run 

Thats always hard to achieve. I know I'm always looking for new and healthy ways to pack a lunch for Dalton to take with him to work. So here is a simple recipe thats super quick if you love fish. 

Ok so this is so easy.

Basically if you buy fresh tilapia or salmon at the store bring it home and freeze them in filets 

(if not already cut that way) 

Take the filets and lay them on top of a bed of spinach (Organic of course, and the amount to your liking) in a tupperware container.

 Remember when spinach wilts what looks to you as a large amount dry is a fairly small amount wilted.

Take a long with you a lemon sliced in half and some pepper and/or lemon pepper.

Put the tupperware container and spinach in the microwave for a few minutes. Fish like tilapia and salmon cook fairly fast even when frozen. 

B/c the fish was in there frozen it kinda makes a steamed affect on the fish and spinach. 

And then just sqeeze the desired amount of fresh lemon juice on top and sprinkle some pepper and your ready to eat!!!

Father's Day

This year Father's day was budgeted due to the wedding. 

I made Dalton a bell pepper, spinach, and cheese omelet before church complete with bacon and strawberries. YUM!

I got Dalton a few shirts and "The Power of A Praying Husband" (a book he had wanted)

Church was awesome! I had like this gospel high by the end of the service after singing Hosanna. And then I was starving and ready to get home. 

Then we came home I made some sandwiches with chips and we all took a nice nap! 

When you have a little one to keep up with or you work the hours Dalton does a nap is the greatest gift to give to a dad. Especially a 2 hour one.

We then attempted to get Dalton some tennis shoes at the mall ..NIGHT MARE ...

Horrible idea and we left. 

We took Dalton's dad and step mom to dinner at The Keg. It was so good! Plus we had awesome service. If you go ask for Anthony, he's a pretty good darn waiter

Then we came home got in bed and I worked on my bible study while he read his new book. Apparently it's pretty good because he kept cracking up a little while he was reading which was kinda distracting in all my Ruth-ness focus.

It was a great day! 

The Birth of Brynlee Ashton Carroll (03/26/10)

I was clearing out my facebook inbox, because i hate clutter, and I came across a video I made and had messaged to special family and friends at the time of Brynlee's birth. I completely forgot about it. But for safe keeping I would like to re post and re-live that special day :-) Not to mention perfect timing near Father's day!

Make an on-line slide show at www.OneTrueMedia.com

Thankful Thursday!!!!

Its Thursdayyyy!!!! 

I - Am - So - Exhausted......

But with that said!...I'm still Thankful!!! (I know doesn't my cheery disposition make you wanna choke me? Please don't I blame the exhaustion)

1. That God always provides. "Trust in the Lord with all your heart and lean not on your own understanding"-Prov 3:5 Thankfully when my budget crunching mind goes in high gear and I spaz out God gave me an opposite to remind me that everything will always be ok and to bring me back from spazo land. 
2. For my friends who are having TWINS! So exciting! I hope for them a safe and healthy pregnancy with no complications. (And that since the mommy is in my wedding she will have strength to travel with two new 3 month olds!)
3. Our daughter who continuously drinks pool water although I encourage her not to! And her continuous sentence of "ay yi yi" thanks to her Grandma D lol
4. For my knitted slippers which I am wearing right now. My feet would have frost bite no doubt without them and if not worn Dalton would never let me near him with my feet. Although I try very hard to convince him my feet are that cold so I could post them up on/or under him for warmth. :-) 

A Merchant Carroll: Gina & Julius Go To East Asia!

A Merchant Carroll: Gina & Julius Go To East Asia!: "Ugh so exciting!!!! A couple I know is moving to East Asia in 3 weeks!!! Seriously can you imagine?!?! Up and going? Leaving behind A LOT ..."

Gina & Julius Go To East Asia!

Ugh so exciting!!!! A couple I know is moving to East Asia in 3 weeks!!! 

Seriously can you imagine?!?! Up and going? Leaving behind A LOT of stuff ..i mean A LOT. 

Um I'm pretty sure if I tried to go I would ask PODS if they could pretty please with cherries on top send all of my stuff to East Asia haha. Seriously. And everything I absolutely had to get rid of I would take of picture of for memories sake. Again..seriously. You would never guess that with all that said I hate clutter. 

ANYWAY! So basically they are going to East Asia "to teach with faith driven motives" AMEN!
Prayer Time!!!
"Father I pray that Gina & Julius will speak the word of God with boldness and that they can present the gospel clearly to unbelievers. I also ask that you fill Gina & Julius with Your joy in all situations and let this joy sustain in all situations-Amen"

I am happy to be apart of such a Christ loving couple's lives as well as I am happy that they are apart of mine. With that said I am fundraising for them with SCENTSY (which I sell).

If you are interested in buying SCENTSY products for yourself or as a gift:

1. go to my site https://ashleymerchant.scentsy.us 
2. Under my picture you should see "OPEN PARTIES"
3. Under that it should say "Gina & Julius go to East Asia"
4. Next to that it says "Buy from Party"
5. Click on "Buy from party" and anything you purchase a percentage of that will go directly towards Gina and Julius. 

Please spread the word to anyone and everyone! Your help would be greatly appreciated! And plus who just doesn't love Scentsy!?!? 

"Will You Be MY" invitations

So I just wanted to catch up on wedding posts that got deleted, since I'm trying to document my engagement journey!

These are pics of our bridesmaid's "Will You Be My" invitations. I went with a classy beach theme since our wedding will be at the beach (woohoohoooo!!!)

 And these are the invitations I made for Dalton's groomsmen. Camo themed of course being the former Marine he is. 

Recipe of The Week

Moroccan Chicken

1 tsp. ground cumin

1/2 tsp. kosher salt

1/4 tsp. ground cinnamon

4 skinless boneless chicken breasts (2 Covered me just fine for 2 Adults & Baby)

1 Tbs. vegetable oil

1 pkg. couscous ( I used a Near East Wheat Blends boxed kind)

fresh baby spinach (amount at your discretion)

1. Stir together the cumin, salt, and cinnamon in a small bowl, and sprinkle them over the chicken. (I doubled my seasoning because it just didn't seem like enough to cover the chicken with). Heat the oil in a large skillet on medium. Add the chicken & cook about 8-12min or until done, turning once. 
2. Meanwhile, prepare couscous according to the directions on the package. 
3. Transfer the chicken from the skillet to a serving platter. Then start cooking the baby spinach in he same skillet, stirring often, for 1-2 min or until it begins to wilt. Blend spinach with the couscous. Serve the spinach and couscous as a side dish with the chicken. 

I did make this recipe and it was so good! Dalton had never had couscous before and now he just wants more! This was super fast to make and Brynlee loved it as well. To spice ours up a little I also added cayenne pepper to our chicken and not on Brynlee's portion. 

Dalton's Surprise to a Ranger's Game!!!!

So first off let me apologize with Dalton for being so mean to him right before the game. haha. This is how it all went down....

Dalton needed to go shopping for some shorts and pants yesterday. So we went to the mall. We only made it to two stores and Brynlee was kinda over the stroller so I thought we could let her play at the kids play area and then finish what we had come to do. But then Dalton was like no lets just go home I'll come back by myself later we can play at home. I don't know why, maybe it was his tone, or the situation but I was kinda irritated by this. Not mad just like, why?..kinda thing. 

Haha Anyways so when we get home I'm like about to start getting dinner ready and Dalton says " my mom just called an wants to know if she can watch Brynlee tonight because she needs her Brynlee fix and maybe we can go get dinner or something" So then i say sure. (Let me just tell you that the call was fake, she had knwon for a week about this and he also fake called her back to let her know I said ok) Then Dalton asks me if "I'm gonna wear that?" YES YES I AM! lol I was wearing a dress i thought was cute geez I didn't feel like changing! So he puts on a rangers jersey. Ok? And then he tells me its 1/2 off Fajitas at papasitos if you wear Rangers gear on game days. So I fall for that and change into a rangers shirt. I know they did that for the cowboys games so I didn't think anything of it. 

So Daltons mom gets here and he didn't have time to tell her I didn't know so she said something (I cant remember what it was) and the secret was out! I was all pumped that we were going to the game! Grabbed my "momma camera" and headed out the door. I did manage to hear her say "Did he tell you where you were sitting?" And I said "No"...and she said "I'll let you find out then." 

So here's a quick summary of the rest of the night. Dalton asks me what home plate cross streets are. I tell him. He then plays it off like we are looking for general parking. Turns into valet parking and we park for free because it comes with our tickets. Go check out the buffet at the Diamond Club before the game because it too is also free with our tickets. Decide to buy 5 $1 hotdogs before heading to out seats. Ask a man to make sure we know where we are going (Daltons at least at this point I know we are by 1st base), the man then proceeds to say "Man those are sweet seats how'd you pull that?" The aisle usher then directs me to my exact seat where I can basically smell the sweat and gravel of the game!!!!! I played it cool though. :-) Until my new security guard friend hands me a game ball and basically I threw playing cool out the window. 

So thanks babe for a wonderful surprise date night!!! 

And my ball :-) 

(The security guard who gave it to me is in the white shirt at the left side of the pic kinda cut off)

The Wedding Planning Journey: Picking Wedding Colors

So I had no clue what I wanted our wedding colors to be once we decided to do destination. For the longest time my colors had been decided from day one but greens and browns just didn't seem to fit the beach scene. 

So what's a newly engaged girl to do??? ...Why go to home depot and raid all the color paint samples! 

Best idea ever! If anyone needs paint swatches I still have them all. I'l save you the embarassment of stuffing your purse full...because I already did it. 

And the winning colors are.......

Love it!

Out on Grumps' Farm

On The Way to Grumps & Gammy's

Gammy And Brynlee

Dalton, Grumps and Brynlee going for a ride!

In the Four Wheeler 

Checking Out Their Horses For the First Time!

Brynlee & Her Grandparents

Brynlee Driving 

Brynlee went to her grandparents house in Cedar Hill for the first time on Saturday this past weekend. They usually come here because it's been easy but it finally worked out that we could visit them AND Dalton's boss let him off early that day so it all worked out. 

Brynlee had a lot of fun. She's totally spoiled and well adored. But hey I totally understand!

Standing Ovation

Finally my little bumble bee is standing! She's been free standing now for about a month I think give or take a week. No steps yet. She does shake her little booty while standing sometimes if music is on haha I love it! It's so exciting/sad this whole standing milestone. 

I am completely looking forward to celebrating her first step. But then it's like oh no once she's walking it's a whole new phase! I'm not worried about the chasing but more just sad that her crawling days of major means of transportation are over. She's growing up! (tear) Time for another baby!!! ...just kidding. 

Grandma Janey & Grandpa Hurkey

I haven't seen them in 10 years because they live in Cali. My mom just came home from visiting them and was telling me how my grandfather and uncle take care of my grandmother. When your wife (who you are divorced from technically but have been living together for over 30 years) can't do anything on your own anymore and you feed her, cook for her, make jokes with her, and still live with her, thats love. I am so lucky to have such a couple to look at and be glad they are apart of my life. I laugh at my grandmother asking my mother "how do i look?". My grandmother was always wearing makeup skinny gorgeous hair permed always looked like she came out of one of those 50's betty crocker ads. Now she is 60lbs, hair is cut short and slicked back bc the men that take care of her simply dont know what the heck to do with a perm, and she has to have help doing everything and my mom told her "you look great". Breaks my heart. I plan on visiting them soon. My mother told me she regretted not seeing her grandparents before they past and so I know I would too. My mother told me they don't really grasp the older version of me and although I write them letters and send them pictures of Brynlee's they still talk in the past. My grandfather did say he was happy I found someone that is good for me. Which makes me so happy. I hope that when I go I can take Brynlee and Dalton with me as well. I can only hope that if one day I need the help that my grandmother needs that I can count on my spouse to still love me and be there for me as he did when he married me. That has to be a hard job for my grandfather, i know it is. I pray that they can hang on just a bit longer so I can come see them, and I hope we share wise words together so that my kids who may never know them here will get to know them once again later. 

Thankful Thursdays!...a little late as always

So it seems to be a reoccurring issue that not only am I late at posting my Thankful Thursday blogs but also late to pretty much wherever I go most of the time. I'm gonna go ahead and just say it takes me usually 15min to get all my and brynlee's stuff ready to put in the car, actually put in the car, put her in the car, I usually run back in the house because I forgot something, then get myself in the car and go. Just saying..gimme a break. :-) 

• Even though i haven't had to use it in a while I'm thankful for the HOV lane. With out you my oh so favorite lane I would never make up speed/time when I am running late. 
• I'm thankful for my grandparents. (I'll go into detail in my next post)
• Playing in the kiddie pool in our back yard with my baby girl. I just love it!
• For the way things are now falling together with the wedding. 
• The song Hallelujah by Kate Voegele. I'm aspire to sing that just as well as her one day. 
• For the way God has changed my perception of life. Most of the time I find myself looking at the good side of everything and feeling grateful everyday. Which is unlike the old me because I was a very realistic (which other people would consider pessimistic) person.

The Making of a New blog

Apparently Even though I "thought" i had saved my blog to another email and it was therefore safe to delete my gmail account that I can no longer use. I lost my blog. 

I'm not too sad about this, kinda dissapointed but it was like a forced fresh start over I guess. Things change  and I shouldn't get distrought over a blog. Makes me think back to the sunday school lesson about idols. And I will not let blogging become my new facebook addict...I mean facebook, Im not addicted psh (hmmm I wonder if i updated my status lately...) ha joking! Anywho so here is my new and improved blog!

This is Ashley meets summer 2011! Pray that i never  delete this thing accidentally again!