The Traveling Orkin Act

Yesterday someone asked me what my address was...normally, not a very difficult question. However, these days we really don't have an address because we are currently living here. Yep, that's where you'll find us, in O'Fallon, IL. And next week we'll be in Eastern St. Louis...and the week after...Columbia, MO...and the week after, who knows! In relief society I was asked where Marcus and I were currently living and I had to admit sheepishly in the extended stay down the street. Oh such joys lie ahead of us this summer...

Speaking of relief society, this past Sunday we had a male teach our class! His wife (who was suppose to teach) was at home sick, and so he taught our class on prayer. It was definitely a first for me! Have any of you been taught by a male in relief society before? That poor man, how intimidating!Well for the next couple of days I will be working on some of these. My sister in laws decided that we should start card making once a month. Luckily for me that means I now have something to keep me busy with during the days...! What are you doing today?

The Two Ashley Henry's

Although many of you might not know this, but when I, Ashley, married into the Henry Family I knew that I must always do my best to uphold the Henry family name. Of course any of the original Henry's will deny this, but lets be honest here. When thinking of the Henry's, what are some words that come to mind...Cheerful (Bill)....Great genes, ex;Beautiful daughters (Rachel, Tara, Jen and Ashley)...Wonderful Cooking skills (Carolyn)...and Hardworking boys (Nate and Marcus). However, I had the privilege of not only having the Henry name tacked on to my name, but I also share my first name with my sister-in-law (Laura Ashley Henry) who goes by Ashley Henry. Yes, you heard me correctly, two Ashley Henry's in the same family! The Ashley's.

Fortunately for us, we really get along great! Sure the whole family differentiates between the two of us by calling us either Ashley Bauder-Henry or Marcus' Ashley and Ashley Henry or Laura Ashley Henry (including Emma) and Cory still never knows which Ashley Jen is talking about when she tells him a story about either of us,... but up until now we've gone almost a whole year without any problems!

So last week my mom went to Marcus and I's bank to deposit some money into our account. She filled out the deposit slip and the name as going to me: Ashley Henry. For the last week, Marcus and I have been waiting for it to turn up into our account, but it never showed. We finally started to get worried and I called the bank to ask them where this "missing money" had gone. Finally after 3 phone calls, 2 phone transfers, 30 minutes, and one very unhelpful bank teller later, she finally determined that the money had been deposited into Laura Ashley Henry's account and not ours; even though my mom had written the right account number on the deposit slip! I then asked the women why she couldn't just transfer the money from Laura Ashley's account to ours and she said she couldn't without Laura Ashley Henry's permission. After my annoyances began to settle, at that point I was just grateful that I actually "knew" the other Ashley Henry and she could give the permission that was needed to withdraw the money back from her account into ours. What a mess right!?

At the end of it all, the bank teller politely said, "Sorry about all the confusion Laura, have a great day!" I grumbled a mere "Thanks," and decided to leave it alone. Nevertheless, even after all of this, I just wanted to post proudly that I love sharing a name with the other Ashley Henry, almost as much as I love her... even when it complicates things

Welcome to St. Louis

Well here we are in St. Louis! Marcus is working Pest Control for Orkin this summer and I am running the office for Daryl Kelly who is the manager out here. Besides misspelling St. Louis wrong a dozen times, living with only a microwave (no stove), and working 6 days a week 10 hours a day, things are going great! Marcus has done really well with sales, and I have been busy reading blogs and catching up on my favorite television shows. What a life! This summer we are going to be moving around the Midwest to a new city almost every week. So although moving our stuff will be a pain, we are looking forward to seeing this part of the country. Although, we have quickly determined that there's not a whole lot to see in between cities! St. Louis is beautiful. It is surprisingly VERY green, but there has also been a whole lot of rain. Right now we are currently on the Illinois side of St. Louis in O'Fallon but we are enjoying our time in Extended Stays and Motels...and yes, we know, crazy right? We have become "those people" who stay for weeks at a time in armpit motels...But what an adventure! This is the only time in our lives where we'll actually have the opportunity to just get up and go while living in new cities every week without worrying about anything. Or at least that's what we keep telling ourselves to make this seem bearable.

Marcus said the other day, "Remember when summers use to be fun?" and I thought back to those lazy days of summer out on the Columbia, staying up late at friends' houses, and looking forward to getting off work just in time to go on that special date with a certain someone. Man have things changed! However, there's nothing better than actually being able to go home at the end of the day "with" that special someone :) Now...Does anyone have any ideas on things to do here?

It was Wicked...and we liked it!

Along our travels, we stopped in Hollywood to see the Broadway play WICKED. What a great show. The play itself was pretty good, but the music was phenomenal! We prepped by learning the songs beforehand, but we were afraid that we would be disappointed once it was in person. Luckily we were not let down! Elphaba (aka the Wicked Witch) had a better voice than anyone we had ever heard and Glinda (The Good Witch) was a close second! All in all, the show was wonderful and we definitely recommend seeing it. After the show, we had a chance to meet the stars as they signed autographs and took pictures. And you bet Ashley was rubbing elbows with all those kids to try and get autographs and pictures! We had a chance to talk to the Wicked Witch and asked her how she becomes green for the show. For all of you who wonder the same thing, they actually use a powder base and it takes a half hour to apply. Shesays it is really easy because it comes off with soap and water and she just sits there while others apply it! What a life? We would have never suspected that she actually did look normal until we saw her after the show! So the next time any of you are in L.A., Chicago, or New York, it is worth the time and effort to get tickets and to go see it! BEFORE

The Wicked Witch of the West (Elphaba)

The Good Witch (Glinda)

Life of a Beach Bum

We're finally back from our trip and finally in St. Louis! Our cruise was everything we hoped for and more. We tried to think of the best way to write about it and decided that we would just post everything in one post. So bear with us!

The Ship: We had too much food, met some interesting folks, and even got sea sickness to boot! It's actually harder to adjust to than we thought, but our ship was beautiful and the entertainment on board was hilarious!

Cabo San Lucas: The water was amazingly clear, the locals were...interesting (to say the least), and the snorkeling is the best in Cabo. We took a water taxi to Lover's beach and had the greatest time looking for tropical fish.


Mazatlan: Had a great beach, but was pretty ghetto in some parts. We took a boat to a secluded beach on Stone Island, where there was all you can drink pina coladas and daquris. Unfortunately they couldn't make them without alcohol, SO, we didn't have any. We took a banana boat ride (which was kind of like tubing, only on a banana), and it was pretty scary to be so far away in the middle of an ocean. Our food wasn't so hot, but it was definately authentic. Right before they fed us they said how many people in Mazatlan feed iguana in the place of chicken because supposedly it tastes the same. We can testify that it doesn't because we ordered the chicken and it didn't taste like chicke! Luckily, our cruise was having all you can eat crab that night.

Puerto Vallarta: Was so much fun except for the sleazy Latin men. We took a Canopy Zip Line Tour in the middle of the jungle over canyons and waterfalls....we even did it backwards while hanging upside down! We became quite the adventurous duo! The beach was okay, but the markets were the best for picking up souvenirs!

Overall we had a great time! Luckily Marcus spoke Spanish, otherwise I don't know what we would have done. So many people tried to rip us off just because we are American tourists. Mexico has a completely different culture and it was really hard to get use to their way of life.

They have no set prices and barter over everything, and when we had a large bill in pesos, they thought it was a fake!
Nevertheless, we were glad to get back to the United States and are so grateful for all that we have, more beach and snorkeling pictures soon to come!