Blog Entry #1

So I've put off writing my first blog entry for a few days now....I'm just trying to figure, what do you write in the first one? Like, I see some people who just start blogging, they write like everyone already knows them and who they are and all that jazz, and their first entry may be on what they ordered at Starbucks this morning. But that drives me crazy, 'cause half the time it's someone I met on a forum, or one of my friends' friends, and I have no clue who they are. Then some people start with their life story. That idea doesn't really take for me, namely because my life story--even at a mere eighteen years in development--is waayyy too long. No, that won't do.
But I feel like my first entry demands some form of introduction.....hm. Cliff Notes, maybe? Yeah.....

Okay, so may I present: Ashley (abridged)...

My name is Ashley. I'm the oldest of a whole bunch of kids, including, but not limited to:
Bobby,
Amanda,
Danny,
Davey,
Dougie,
Jared,
Ricky, and
Erinne.

I say "but not limited to" because there are still two little ones whose names I don't know waiting for us in Heaven. They're waiting there with our mom, Laura, who died of a respiratory disease on February 3rd, 2006. That was the day after Amanda's 14th birthday. *sigh* I miss my mom. She got sick on New Years Eve with what we thought was the flu, but it got really bad really fast, and within a week she was in the hospital in a medically-induced coma, diagnosed with double staph pneumonia and Acute Respiratory Distress Syndrom. They kept her in the coma, waiting for her body to heal itself. But she never got better. Mom was 34 weeks' pregnant with my youngest sister, Erinne, when they made her go to sleep. The meds used to induce the coma freaked Erinne out, and the doctors had to perform an emergency c-section. Erinne came out fine, she spent a little while in the NICU, across the street from the ICU building where they where keeping Mom. It was actually quite a convenient setup. I basically lived at the hospital during the month that Mom was there. I would wake up in the morning, get dressed, grab a quick breakfast, and go to the hospital. I could walk across the street and see Erinne anytime I wanted, and if I timed everything right, I could go and feed give her all her feedings for the day myself. I'd stay at the hospital until 6:00-ish, when the visiting hours were up, and then I'd go home for dinner and sleep and do the whole thing the next day. I had a nice little routine going. Stupid ARDS had to mess everything up.
But I'm sure I'm starting to sound bitter now. I'm not. My God is good, and He had a reason for allowing it to happen. It took me a long time to learn that. I'm still learning it. I wish I had space enough here to tell you the magnificent story that accompanied such a lesson. I think that one day I might take my whole life and just start scribbling it into a big notebook. Yeah....

So today, I work in the mornings as a receptionist, and in the afternoons I stay here with Dad and the guys. Oh, my dad....what an amazing human being. God has given him a measure of strength that I don't understand. Dad is so faithful to us, and he sacrifices so, SO much to make sure we have it as good as we can get it. God bless him, I love my daddy! :o)

In the realm of friends, I have a fantastic group of friends in the college & career group at my church. Excellent people. I love them so much!!
I've met an astounding number of like-minded individuals through the two online forums I frequent, the most noteworthy specimen being my good friend, Joanna. I know it's weird to refer to someone as a "good friend" when you've never even met them in person, but through snail-mail, e-mail, phone conversations, and prayer for each other, I have had the privilege to get to know this amazing girl. She's SUCH an encouragement to me, and her very person is so convicting. She seems to have it all together--even on her bad days--and she's always seeking the Lord. And she's so funny! What an eloquent wit. :o) And I just adore her family. 15 people in her family. I've had the opportunity to talk to a lot of 'em, and I love them all!

I "play" acoustic guitar....meaning I try to teach myself. I've been learning for about two, two and a half years now....I think I'm reaching a plateau. But every time I think I've learned all I can learn on my own, I find something else I can figure out before I start paying someone else to show it to me. LOL.

I like to take pictures with my bee-yoo-tee-ful Nikon N75 SLR camera. I adore that thing!! At some point, I wanna take some lessons or something, but right now I just have fun taking pictures.

I ADORE music, books, and movies (in that order). I won't expand on that, merely because I'd talk for pages. ;o)

One thing you'll probably pick up on real quick is my relentless use of ellipses. Those are the "dot-dot-dots" you've already seen running rampant through this entry. I probably use parentheses and dashes too much as well.

So yeah....that's as much of me as I can think to tell at the moment. And I'm sure that the vast majority of my potential audience already knew all that stuff anyway. But now that all the formalities are out of the way, I can REALLY blog next time!

Thanks for listening.