Desperate HouseWIFE

So for those of you who follow me on Facebook, you will have seen that a couple of weeks ago I managed to burn Hamburger Helper. Seriously...WHO DOES THAT?! This, of course, had me questioning my skills as a housewife. So...tonight Jake came home from this bachelor party and I decided that I was going to have him walk into the apartment to a cold beer and a delicious dinner. I literally HAD to pay attention to nothing but the food otherwise I would forget and then we will have a repeat of the HH massacre. I cooked mesquite pork roast, roasted garlic potatoes, and green beans and it turned out AMAZING! :) As you can see I am slightly proud of myself...and Jake was proud of me too! He kept complimenting the food and THE COOK! Hopefully he wasn't just being nice...

Here is the fabulous finished product!

Dont Get Married Without Me

Rob Cross is our videographer...we haven't even worked with him yet and we already LOVE him. His work is amazing and we cannot wait to see the final product. Here is a link to one of his couples. With him, you get your own website with full footage of the wedding, the barefeet, daddys girl, and photos. All of these things will make more sense when you watch this couples website! :) Enjoy and I definately recmmend him for anyone.

http://stefanieandbrad.com/barefeet.html

Progress

Lots of wedding things accomplished today :) I LOVVEEE those days! We bought all of the frames we need for the entry into the reception all for the sign in table and the memorial table. We also got all the candles for our sweetheart table. I have scheduled our "barefeet" with the videographer for Wednesday and my Boudoir session with my photographer for next week at Hotel ZaZa (which is the same hotel Jake and I are staying in our wedding night...ZEBRA CARPET!) I've picked out my three outfits for the session and now it's down to fasting and tanning so I look as good as possible :) I booked the suite at the Marriott in Sugarland for the night before the wedding so all my girls can stay with me! 9 of my favorite people in the whole world to spend my last night as a Zotyka with?!?! Could not imagine anything more perfect! There is still lots and lots to do but school is over in 4 days (PRAISE THE LORD) and I will then become bridezilla....well maybe not that extreme but wedding will definately consume my life.

Jake survived his bachelor party and DEFINATELY had some stories to tell :) I'm ssooo glad he had a blast and was able to enjoy a real bachelor party.

Hope you're enjoying your day off of work :)

A

Boys Will Be Boys

Jake is currently in Corpus Christi with his buddies for his very own bachelor party. I know...most of ya'll are thinking of "The Hangover" scenario...but I'm not at all worried. I want him to have a great time and if that includes titty bars and lap dances than so be it. I'm not at all a jealous or insecure person...I just want him to have fun! I even told him that I WANT him to see some pretty big nice boobs because after this weekend, he is stuck with mine for the rest of his life :) Actually, the first text he sent me was a picture of an old womans saggy boobs saying those were the first he had seen all weekend! It was hot. As long as he come back in one piece then I am okay with whatever. I definately cannot wait for mine on June 12th!

I have had a extremely peaceful and relaxing Memorial weekend. I am very blessed with work with such amazing people, have friends that will do anything at the drop of a hat for me, and an absolutely incredible and cRAZY fun family. GOD IS GOOD! :)

Hope you all had an equally relaxing and great weekend!

Still waiting on baby Colt...

:) Ashley

Pictures!

You didn't think I would leave ya'll without pictures did you?!?! :)


"Your buddies will marry and bury you" :) They will definately all be marrying us in 25 days! Love them all!


Gator 2

Jake carrying in the flag for graduation

My graduate :)

Life Moves SSSOOO Fast

We have been crazy busy these past several days. Jake graduated last weekend from Texas A&M University with his Bachelor of Science in Human Resource Development with a minor in business and I could not be more proud of him! :) It was an overwhelming feeling watching him walk across that stage. I've watched him grow and become the incredible man he is today all four years here. He was asked by his college to carry thier flag into the ceremony which was also pretty amazing. How often do you get asked to do things like that? AND how highly thought of are you to even be asked?! Like I said, he has made incredible strides these past four years as a Corps member, humanitarian, and most of all, a man. If you can't tell, I was BEAMING with pride and coule brag about him for hours. THAT'S MY MAN! He also had Final Review with the Corps and then we moved him out of the dorm for the last and final time. He moved back in with his mom because we have chosen not to live together before the wedding. We want to experience that together for the first time once we are man and wife. We want it to be an experience we can grow from. Man I cannot wait till we are finally living together...just the two of us in our own little apartment. :) Us and Tini of course!

This past weekend, we went to New Braunfels with my cousin and her fiance for Kurt's birthday. It was crazy fun! We floated the river and relaxed all weekend which is something I think both of us needed especially with everything else crazy going on right now.

We had our 30 day out meeting with Lesli (our wedding planner) and it turns out we are way more ahead of the game than most people at this point according to her so YAY US! Or more, yay my mom because most of the details wouldn't be done without her. We nailed down the details of the ceremony and reception and I know it's going to be absolutely perfect.
I got all the bridesmaids gifts in the mail and they came out way better than I expected! I am so excited about them! We ordered our cake topper and our God's Knot. For those of ya'll that don't know what a God's Knot is, we are doing it in place of a unity candle. Here is the link with more information. It fits our ceremony and what we believe is the basis of our marriage. http://www.godsknot.com/

Only 8 more days of school for me! And I cannot tell you how amazingly excited I am to finally have my first year of teaching under my belt. We have been busy getting things ready for next year and I have been trying to move all my things to my new classroom. Volleyball is all set for next year so it should be a pretty smooth transition into next year WITH MY NEW LAST NAME! :) The coolest part...I've been tagging my bookshelves and file cabinets that I want to take with me to my new room with a bright pink sheet of paper that has "Zotyka/Manchaca" on it! It's absolutely wonderful. And all my kids are pretty wonderful too. They are already calling me Mrs. Manchaca. It defiantely brightens my day to hear that.

Jake started working at Gulf States Trucking with his brother as a financial adminstrator today...please pray for his guidance into this new job and hope that he accomplishes everything he wants to. Also, my beautiful cousin Spenser is expected COLT pretty soon so please pray for a smooth and easy birth with a beautiful healthy baby boy as a result! :) Can't wait to meet him!

We are down to 25 days and could not be more excited! It's going by so fast! :)

With love,
Ashley

A Tribute to My Mommy :)

Pamela Lynn Clark Zotyka ... my mom, my mentor, my confidant, my absolute best friend. I love you so much momma! Happy Mother's Day!

Wade & Wedding

Productive and relaxing are the best two words I can come up with for the past couple of days. Relaxing?!?...well lets just say last night I felt like I was in college again which was incredible. I haven't felt that good, relaxed, and stress-free in a very long time. Jake and I met some friends up at Big Texas to see my man Wade Bowen. He was absolutely wonderful...as usual. I had a great time country dancing with my fiance. Although we may not know all the best country dancing moves (we do know some :D), he's the best dancer because it's like I fit perfectly into his arms and body and our feet just kinda move together on thier own. We always joke about "my nook" which is basically his armpit...that spot was created for me. :) There is no other man on this earth that can dance with me like he can. After last night, we decided that "Who I Am" by WB is going to be our first dance at the wedding! YAY! Jake surprised me with a rose and then took me up to buy a shirt and get it autographed by Wade Bowen...it was awesome! I even got to take a picture with him :) TOTALLY made my night. What made it feel like college again was the trip to Whataburger at 2 in the morning...ohhhh memories.

Productivity has been the word of the week now that I am officially done with track and volleyball. Our invitations came in on Tuesday and my mom calls me and tells me to "call in the troops"...this doesn't sound good. Little did I know that the fine print on the invitation order form stated ASSEMBLY REQUIRED. Two of my least favorite words. Our invitations are what is called pocket invitations. Everything came separate. ggggeeeeezzzzzzz. Luckily, I have an amazing mom, dad, and cousin that helped me put everything together. It took about a total of 6 hours to put 150 invitations together. All that's left to do is place the stamps on the RSVP envelopes and on the invitations envelope then they are good to go! If all goes as planned, they will be mailed out on Monday! whew...one thing checked off the neverending to-do list :) Like Tanya said, that night I dreamt of invitations and glue dots! Today, we had our appointment to pick out our linens for the chairs. It didn't take long since we knew pretty much exactly what we wanted...although they aren't exactly sure they know how to do the tie I want on the chairs. Nothing to freak out over, I just have to send her a picture of how I want them and if she has to teach her set up crew how to do them she will tack on an additional charge. It's only money right?!?! :) I've never realized so much how quickly things add up...it's out of control. I'm just so grateful I have parents who support me and want Jake and I to have the perfect day. I also spent about 2 hours today picking out and ordering the bridesmaids gifts for my favorite girls! I can't wait to see thier faces when they see what I got for them. These girls are my life and have watched Jake and I's relationship grow from the beginning. I know they have always and will continue to pray for our guidance as we enter this convenant together. They will witness and support us on our wedding day. I know there is no REAL way to thank them for something like that...I love each and every one of you more than you will ever know. Things left to do on the list consist of programs, place cards, table numbers, "bare feet" with videographer, ALL of the 30 day appointments with each vendor...come June 2 (once I'm done with school) I'm going to be one crazed bride. :) CAN'T WAIT!

I ask that you please continue to pray for Jake as he searches for a job....no leads yet but I know that the right one is just around the corner. Happiness has a funny way of taking it's own time. :)

Ashley Lynn

Well my final semester is finally coming to an end and it is such an awesome feeling to know I am about to Graduate from A&M and be done with the Corps!!!! The past few weeks have been so weird because reality has been hitting me in the face with all the things that I am doing for the last time in the Corps. The Corps has really taken my life over for the past 4 years and it is so weird to think that in 8 days I will be walking across the stage to graduate in my senior boots and then marching final review for my final pass as a cadet in Gator 2!!!! It's really hard to explain the bitter sweet feeling that I am being consumed with lately. I am definately more excited than I have ever probably been before about all the amazing things that are going on in my life right now and coming up in barely a month!!!!!! I do not know how else to say this but Ashley has been such a major support beam for me these past 4 years in the Corps through all the extremely difficult times that have come up and gone. It takes a hell of a woman and some type of crazy LOVE to stick around all four years of the Corps and I cannot thank her enough for that support she has given me.

Well enough of that cause it's making me feel all funny inside thinking about the past 5 years of college life and everything I have faced and overcome. But, lately has been such an amazing time thinking about the wedding and the new direction our lives are taking. I did not realize how excited I would get about the wedding! People always ask me if I am getting cold feet yet and I understand that this is a large change in our lives but I haven't ever felt something so right and known without a doubt that God has me where he wants me and there is just no question about it! I feel like this blog is kind of me just rambeling on but for those of you who have ever had so much going on in your lives that is so exciting and showing how much you have accomplished in a time in your life then you know the feelings I am having right now. I really don't have much else to say but I am so excited for the next several weeks because I am closing an amazing chapter of my life and starting another amazing chapter that I have been working so hard for the past five years!
I love ya'll and cannot wait to see ya'll at the Wedding!