Our First Christmas

This year was our first Christmas together. For me, joining a family means new traditions, and unpredictable holidays. Whereas I can picture exactly how a Christmas day would happen with my family.
Megan and I would be wide awake at 8am, bugging each other just because we are anxious. No one can leave their rooms, preventing us from seeing what Santa brought. So I use my cell phone to call my parents upstairs, to beg them to wake up. Finally around 9am us kids all line up on the stairs from youngest to oldest, and we take a few pictures. Then my dad plays Santa and one by one he hands out our gifts. After we open gifts my mom makes a delicious breakfast while us kids play with our new toys, ignoring everyone and everything around us. For the rest of the day we hangout, the boys watch football/basketball, then we get dressed up for dinner at grandmas. We have a big Christmas dinner with all our aunts, uncles and cousins. It ends up being a great day. Not to mention we have advent calendars full of candy from grandma!
This year was very different but just as great. This year Frank and I spent Christmas in St. George Utah at his aunt and uncles house. Normally I would wake up early so excited for presents. This year I woke up at 6am because my back was killing me. I finally fell back asleep around 8am, so i slept in till 10am. Then Frank, Tim, and I went to go see Mission Impossible 3, which was a great movie. Then Sal, Tanya, Grandpa Jack, aunt Kathy, and the kids came over for lunch. We watched the Maveriks game, and a western movie. Around 6pm we had a delicious ham dinner, compliments to Toni and Tanya. Then around 7pm we all opened our presents. We got some awesome stuff! Some of my favorites, my Chinese CTR ring, "Always Kiss Me Goodnight" wall sticker, and my favorite victoria secret lip gloss and make up!  Yes I lost some sleep, and had to watch basketball, but we had a great weekend. I loved meeting Frank's grandpa who lives in Texas. I loved being able to show off my skills when I gave two hair cuts, then curled Marianne's hair and did her make up. Most of all, I love how generous, kind, and caring his family is. They all put others first, no matter what the circumstance.
This Christmas was very different, but one to remember. I really look up to Frank's family and I'm grateful for the man they have raised. I look forward to the many holidays we will all spend together.

Christmas Photo Shoot

I have the cutest husband ever. I love you Frank. You make me so happy and I can't wait to spend our first Christmas together. :)

We Aren't Elves

It's true. We aren't elves. We tried to decorate our little apartment for Christmas and so far it's a little crazy. We have white Christmas lights above our kitchen cupboards. A bowl of cinnamon pine cones. A 4 foot Christmas tree with colorful lights and ornaments, and our latest, a ginger bread house. We had a blast decorating our first ginger bread house, although as you can see Frank had a little trouble with the frosting. Since decorating, the little tree and ginger bread man have accidentally been eaten, but it was a delicious accident! Maybe next year if we stay home, we will go all out and have the craziest apartment/house in town. :)

Week One

It's been a while since I have had the time or strength to write something. On Monday I started my medication and my first night was rough. The doc says it will get worse before it gets better, so I warned frank and hoped for the best. Monday night, the first night taking my medication, I had horrible insomnia. I woke up at 2am, 3am and finally I was wide awake at 4am. I decided I should go watch tv and hope to fall asleep. I ended up eating a banana, staring at our Christmas tree, and running to the bathroom every hour. My body was aching, I wanted to sleep but couldn't, and I felt like I was tweaking out. It wasn't until Frank woke up at 7:30am that he knew how weird my night was. He looked all over for me and found me on the floor between the couch and the ottoman. He laughed and asked what I was doing on the floor. My only response was "I have no idea, but I've been here for an hour." That day I went to school, and worked from 6pm-12am, all while still being wide awake.
Ever since that night I've been fine. I sleep well and after a week's worth of medication I have become a whole new person. Unfortunately this is a person Frank isn't too fond of. I used to be a neat freak, loud, weird, terrified, and grumpy. Well my kitchen is covered in dishes, the carpet hasn't seen a vacuum in days, I sleep in, I can keep my mouth shut for more than 5 minutes, and I'm calm. Frank says it's weird that I don't randomly dance around the house, sing, change my voice, or annoy him, yet he likes it. He hates that I don't care to clean. Our rule is, he cooks, I clean. Except now he cooks, and I clean 4-5 days later.
Don't get me wrong, I'm still pretty crazy and the same Ashley I was before. Just now, I feel a lot happier being more relaxed. Although if I want to maintain my marriage I better get to cleaning. So basically things are great.

To Band Aid, Or Not To Band Aid

So I have a story...A story about blood, hair, and how to combine the two. You see, the golden rule when cutting hair is to NEVER cut past your second knuckle. If you look at my left hand, you will see why. I recently got my fourth scar. My first I got on my thumb while I wasn't paying attention. I have two on my pointer finger from cutting too fast, and I just got my fourth on my middle finger. If I continue at this pace, I'm thinkin' I'll lose all my fingers before I graduate. This is how it all started:
It was the beginning of a long Saturday at Taylor Andrews Hair Academy. The smell of hair dye and rank old lady perms filled the air. Walking down the hair-covered halls gave the appearance that everyone wore "boots with the fur." As the clients occupied our empty chairs I became very anxious. Waiting and hoping that my chair would be filled next. Today was the day that I was going to finish my January grid. Once you get ahead, stay ahead...that's my motto. Out of the 60 monthly tasks, I only had 2 more to get passed off in order to get my February grid. So I took the initiative and requested a men's haircut for my grid. At 11:30 a.m  the man who was about to change my day, sat in my seat. With my crazy personality my man, Nolan, and I quickly became friends. Nolan was just looking for a good trim to freshen up before his girlfriend came in town for the holidays, and I wanted to hook a brotha up. I started to get comfortable chatting away and choppin' hair. I know this because then I broke the golden rule and my scissors chomped on my middle finger. It actually didn't hurt, I only noticed because blood was slowly spreading all over my finger. The good news is Nolan didn't notice. The bad news is, he didn't notice because I hid my finger in his curly hair. Hahaha, whoops. In this situation you are supposed to immediately excuse yourself and get a band aid, without mentioning that you need a band aid. Believe it or not, pretty much nobody wants a bloody finger in their hair. So I panicked, I didn't want him to see my face's reaction because then he would think maybe I took a chunk out of his hair. Except then I'd have to say no, but explain it was just a chunk out of my finger. Either way I was in a rut. So I did the obvious, I wiped my finger on the apron and finished the haircut. HA. When it was time for my instructor to check off my haircut I went and got a band aid. I was relieved to have the cut hidden in something other than his hair. Thinking I was in the clear I went about with my routine and took Nolan to the shampoo bowl for a wash and scalp massage. This is where I realized it is a blessing we don't have mirrors in our shampoo room. I was in the middle of the scalp massage, the kind where even though Nolan was a talker, this was able to shut him up. (Although it can be creepy when they lay there, eyes closed, with a smile on their face, all because you are massaging them). As I washed his hair I felt something weird, I pulled my hands out of his hair and the weirdness was revealed. My band aid was hanging off my finger. I quietly giggled as I looked around to see if anyone had noticed. Nobody did, so I threw it in the trash beneath me and kept on going. The haircut ended up being a success, although now that I think of it, he was my only client not to tip me. RUDE. Luckily I still got my stamp, I finished my grid, and I have another battle wound to add to my left hand.

My Fear Factor

Hi, My name is Ashley Chou. I am 20 years old, and for the last 5 years or so, every day has been a constant struggle for me. It's something I've tried to hide because I am embarrassed and I know it's ridiculous. However, in order to get over your fears, you have to face them. So today is the day I put an end to my OCD and anxiety. For the past few years these are the ridiculous things that give me panic attacks:
-People vacuuming or cleaning my room
-People coming over or spending the night
-A messy environment, even one piece of paper on the counter
-Showering when I just washed my hair at school
-Teachers writing on my papers when correcting them...the list goes on.

I live in fear. Fear someone will come out of nowhere and attack me. When I walk to my car, I always kick my feet as I open the door, because I fear someone will be under my car, waiting to cut my Achilles Tendon. I'm afraid of germs. I do not share food or drinks. If someone with diabetes came and sat on my couch, I fear I could get diabetes. 
This is just the beginning of my impractical fears. I know these feelings are so ridiculous it's funny, however I can't control it. I want to control it. I want to feel normal and not get upset over a messy counter top. Life happens, and people move on. Yet I can't seem to move on. Therapists and pills could have solved my problems years ago, but then I feared if I got things under control and let loose, I'd end up living in a pig sty. Then instead of reading about my crazy problems on my blog, you'd be watching me on Hoarders or My Strange Addictions. See, now even my fears have fears.
I am tired and exhausted from living this way. I miss my old, fun, carefree self. The help from my amazing mother and husband has been more than I could ever ask for. Even though they couldn't understand, they always supported me and told me things would be ok. I came to terms that it was time for a change when I realized my fears were affecting others. I have a temper like no other. I'm grumpy and anal and it puts a strain on my marriage. I've lost friends because I won't invite others over and I really prefer not to be at their houses either. And unfortunately I have hurt a lot of people's feelings and have made them feel unwelcome. 
So basically I'm saying today I went to the doctor’s. I'm going to try a low dose anti-depressant that helps with anxiety and OCD.  I am nervous because as a side effect the anxiety makes things get worse before they get better. I hope this, along with therapy, will finally bring me peace.

Update On Siale

For those of you who don't know, Frank's best friend, and the best man at our wedding was in a horrible accident. About four weeks ago he was driving a kid to the airport, they slid on black ice and hit the middle divider. Everything and everyone seemed ok though, until Siale got out of the car to see if there was any damage. As he was looking, another car came along the highway, slid on the ice and hit Siale at full speed. Siale broke both his legs, pelvis, and three vertebra in his neck. Ever since that day Siale has been in the ICU and non-stop surgeries. About two weeks ago they said he would permanently lose his right leg. Siale had been heavily sedated and had no idea he was about to lose his leg. They woke him up before the surgery, and by a miracle he was moving his leg, but very slightly. He has had multiple surgeries since, the most recent they removed muscle from the thigh and placed it in his calf. We just found out the blood is clotting and rejecting the surgeries. It looks like he will lose the leg after all. This has been a very sad and hard thing for us, especially frank, to watch his best friend go through. He is in our daily prayers and we can't wait for him to be healed. The nurse cleared him for sitting in a wheel chair, so he is progressing. The last four weeks he has been bed ridden with a neck brace, tons of metal in his legs, and a metal brace on his right leg. Because of these circumstances he couldn't even have visitors for the first few weeks, moving his neck could of paralyzed or killed him. We are so happy to be able to visit him now and see how he is slowly but surely getting better. I can't imagine what it would be like to be in his position. However i truly believe Heavenly Father doesn't give us obstacles we can't over come. I know Siale is such a tough, strong, and an amazing guy, this won't stop him. As Frank and I were leaving the hospital on Saturday, Siale grabbed me by the hand and told me about the accident. He said the only thing he could think about when he got hit was his beautiful wife Nicole. With tears in his eyes he told me he knows how much Frank loves me and to cherish every moment together. Even with his circumstances he was giving me advice and encouraging me. I am so blessed to have him in our lives.

  We never know what life is going to throw at us. It's so important to cherish every moment, forgive and forget, love one another...including our enemies, and to keep that eternal perspective. Please keep Siale in your prayers as he spends the next three weeks or more recovering in the hospital.

Life Is What You Make It

So basically a lot is going on right now. Not like now now because right now frank is playing video games and i'm laying on the couch, but like now as in, this present time now. Today was my first day back to school and I wish i could report that it was a very productive day, but it wasn't. Because Frank's car is in the shop, i let him use mine, which lead to me forgetting to grab my mannequin. So today i helped McCall with her all over color client. This girl was a blast, we had so much fun hanging out and doing her hair, she stayed well after she was done just to talk with us. Then since i had no mannequin to do work on, i went to lunch. (which means i just sat in the break room for an hour, it's totally different from what i was doing before ;))After lunch our class got canceled so McCall and I went into the wax room and tried to take a nap on the beds. Trying to avoid trouble we ended up cleaning the whole room. We also tried waxing random parts of our body which led to swollen, red, painful patches of skin. But don't you worry, I wasn't going to do all of that out of the goodness of my heart. I had McCall bring my teacher into the wax room, she assumed i needed help with a wax. She was surprised to see me spot mopping the floor, funny how the timing was perfect for that. She was very impressed that we had spent the afternoon cleaning a room that wasn't our daily chore. (Our school is clever and makes the students do the cleaning at the end of each day).I was hoping to get a stamp on our monthly grids, but since i'm a huge teachers pet she gave me four random stamps. Now this is the kind of treatment i'm talking about. So technically it was a very productive day.
On the down side, i'm starting to get sick. Sore throat, weak body, and some delicious bloody bathroom visits. Living the dream basically. I would like to blame my severe lack of correct spelling on the sickness, but i can't fool anyone. Today I tried spelling "Awfully" like this..."Offley" hahaha WHOOPS. I swear my spelling isn't usually that bad, I must be really sick. At least in hair school, spelling, or math for that matter, aren't a necessity. If they were, I'm not quite sure I'd have a bright future ahead of me. But if there weren't people like me out there then we'd all be a bunch of goofy looking smart people....boring.

O Christmas Tree O Christmas Tree

It's always hard saying goodbye to my family and friends, but I know i'll be home again soon. Frank and I had a great Thanksgiving in California. Frank loved playing football then joining the big family game of kickball. It was rainy and cold but it made for some good times. Like when Mike Nash rolled off first base and ate dirt, or the delicious donuts we ate before hand, or when the little kids made a home run. The down side was I limped away with a scratched right leg and a bitter heart because my team lost.
The good news is, frank and I made it home safely and with a little adventure. I told frank that Whataburger was in Phoenix, where we had our layover. This is his all time favorite place to eat at. So with only an hour and a half, we ran off the plane and into a cab. $50 and a half hour later our stomachs were full, frank was very happy, and we were back in our terminal. The things you do for a burger. After arriving in SLC around 4, we stopped by the hospital to visit frank's best man, Siale. Once we got back in the car, it was time for a pick-me-up. Who can turn a frown upside down quicker then my main man, Justin Bieber and his new Christmas CD (compliments of Kayci Wright). Feelin' the Christmas cheer, Frank and I left the bags at home and went out to do some holiday shopping. I believe I was way more excited then he was. At Lowes i wanted every reef, santa bathroom rug, blow up rainier, and all the christmas lights around. However with a $25 gift card we settled with two boxes of lights, a little 3 foot tree, and some delicious cinnamon smelling pine cones.
While I was gone, Frank exchanged some protein powder for a glass tv stand with his friend. So now we have a new tv stand, a little tree covered in colorful lights, stockings, and some white Christmas lights that are strung above our kitchen cabinet. I love christmas and I can't wait to spend this one with my best friend.

It's That Time Again

I figure it's about time i start writing again. I guess i waited too long to figure out what i should be writing about, thinking I had nothing to say. But we all know, I ALWAYS have something to say! I want to write about how awesome my daily life is, my four months of marriage, my struggles and accomplishments as a hairstylist, and the arrival of favorite holiday, Christmas. So you better start Keeping Up With The Chous, you don't want to miss what's goin' down in Utah's Winter Wonderland.