The Foot Story

To start from the beginning... I have been walking, running and mostly dancing on a fractured foot for  over a year. I know I am a bit crazy! My foot started hurting back in September 2012, when I came to BYU I was working with my Dance Trainer twice a week doing deep tissue massage and different exercises to help strengthen what I thought was just tendon or ligament issues. But nothing was helping... it was not getting better at all! It was time to go in and see a doctor. So I was able to meet with a doctor back in October 2013 and they took X-rays. I couldn't believe that the bone was cracked in half, the X-ray could have been analyzed by a 5 year old it was so clear. It was so crazy to see my bone just chilling in my foot, BROKEN! My doctor suggested we do surgery by December but I wanted to continue to dance so I said I would rather have it done in Winter semester or after. Besides I would be going to China for 10 days dancing with my BYU Contemporary Dance Company!

{my CDT family in China}

My next appointment was made with my surgeon. Dr. Robert Faux. He said that while he was studying my Xray and MRI that he noticed that the bone that was broken was actually DEAD! This is called osteonecrosis! This usually happens only with elderly people... this was fun news to learn! NOT!

{my foot when it was scarless}

I made the best of the rest of the year and my time with my dance company. The surgery was finally scheduled for the last day of Finals... haha what a reward for finishing school! I got surgery Wednesday, April 23. I had to be at the surgery center by 5:00 AM! Early Morning! They put me under so that they could remove the bone completely (sesamoidectomy). There was nothing added to my foot to replace the bone just because it is a minor bone (lateral sesamoid). But the surgery was a success! I was in and out of the surgery center which was nice! 

{before the surgery}

Like most people when waking up from anesthesia, I was saying some funny things Austin (my husband) said. The first thing I said to him was "Shut up, I'm sleeping"...then I guess I kept asking for Chapstick over and over again hahaha! 

{after surgery... out of it}

{my bones, they didn't let me keep them I was so mad}

{my bone broken into two pieces}

We headed home and I was to stay on the couch for 3 days with my foot up so I was sure to check out lots of movies from the library! Austin took such good care of me! I love him so much! 

 {musicals, ballets, classics... thank you BYU library}

    {3 days like this with my movies}

{we played quite a few games and I was on FIRE even on pain pills}

{what a sweetheart helping me get ready for a bath}

10 days after the surgery I am up and walking around, I got my stitches out today too! It was so fun to see my whole foot and the cool scare I will have forever on the bottom of my foot! My doctor said every thing looks pretty great! I just have to take it easy and wait for a while to get back into the dancing scene again!

{crutches are my armpits enemy but I am grateful to be out and about instead of on the couch}

{super cool scar}

I am so grateful for all of the help and support I have been give through this little pain in my life! 

Thanks everyone that helped and checked up on me!

~Ashes~

Summer is around the corner!

Winter semester is almost over! Today is my last day, one final left tonight and it shouldn't be so bad! It will feel so great to be done with yet another semester of college! Austin and I are so excited to hang out and enjoy summer this year. We don't have much planned but we love begin able to spend time outside on our bikes or hang out with great friends! We might take a couple trips home to see our families too! 

So this past Sunday was so awesome, one of my favorite Sunday's I think that I have had here in my ward. I am currently the Primary President of my ward and I love this calling so much! If you are not familiar with this... basically I get to be with all of the babies of the ward 16 months old to 4 years old and teach them about the gospel! This Sunday was especially special because it was Easter. I had Austin come and assist me along with my counselor and her husband (the husbands were so excited to be in there and playing plus they got to have snack time with the kids... perks of being in primary). So we played with the kids for a bit then we had a short lesson about what Easter is all about. The only way the kids would listen to the lesson was if they had their fake play phone and we acted like we were talking on the phone with them... Hilarious really! After the lesson one of the little girls actually said, "ok I have to go now, I have to make a call!" So she pretended to dial another number and this is what she said, "Hello Jesus, hi it's Miley! How are you?" This was so cute. We asked her if that was how she usually talked to Jesus. We tried to teach her that actually it is that simple, if we ever need to talk to Jesus or our Heavenly Father we can just say a little prayer.

I am always learning from my little ones in primary!

So after our lesson is was snake time... I was so excited for this part of primary.

I had the husbands go hide eggs in the front yard of the church building. Inside the eggs I put goldfishes for them to snack on once they found all of the eggs!

 ~they had a blast~

 ~the sun was really bright~

 ~she wasn't too sure about the egg~

 ~snack time~

 ~what did you find in your egg~

 ~counting how many eggs each has found~

~my hubby helping me with the little ones~

Fun pictures, huh!! I really love my little primary kids! Sometimes it makes me so excited for when Austin and I will start our little family! 

So on a new note. I will be getting surgery tomorrow... my first surgery ever! Wish me luck! I will be getting a bone removed from my right foot because it has been in there broken for over a year and now its completely dead and just a PAIN! I am a bit nervous but I know all will be fine because I will get a blessing tonight from my husband, grateful for the Priesthood! I will be done for a little bit so I am sure I will be posting again. I will be tracking my progress via the blog! 

Have a Happy Week!

~Ashes

I'm Back...

I have been terrible about blogging... life has happened for sure and other things have become more important! BUT... now that this semester is coming to an end I thought that I would give this whole blogging deal again. So we shall see how it goes...

Since my last post...

-finished my DisneyLIVE international tour {a phenomenal experience}

-got certified as a CNA (certified nurse aide)

-celebrated my best friend's homecoming {Elder Austin Page} from his 2 year mission serving for The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter Day Saints in Neuquen, Argentina

-got engaged to my BEST friend in the whole world {Austin Neal Page}

-met my first cute baby nephew {Mason Andrew Riley}... i like to call him Mase-Face!

-FINALLY... on 12.28.12 i was sealed to the love of my life in the LDS Denver, Colorado Temple this was a very chilly day {-15} but none the less it was the best day of my whole life!

 I WILL FOREVER LOVE YOU AUSTIN PAGE!!

then... school started... wow that was a slap in the face to bring me into reality... no more disney dancing and the wedding party was over... time to get serious and busy...ROUGH! but at least i still had my PRINCE by my side!

So now to fast forward to today... April 15, 2014

Can I just say I never really believed people (especially "adults") when they would say things like, "you better enjoy life now because time flies by..."or "as you get older time goes by faster..." well I am here to say

I BELIEVE IT NOW... HOLY COW!

Time is just running from me, in some cases it's great like for example when I am stuck in a classroom with no windows, no internet, listening to a monotone professor straight up read his power points to us for TWO AND HALF HOURS! {can you feel my frustration a little} 

But other times I hate how fast time is going for example when Austin and I are spending time together, laughing together, cuddling, talking, riding bikes, going on evening walks, cooking, watching movies or even stupid Jimmy Kimmel youtube videos!! OR when I see pictures of my NOT so baby little sister... she is growing up into this amazing, top model, strong young women... and it kills me that I can't even be there to see her change and watch her experience the wonderful opportunities that she is being offered {admit: tears rolling down my face} I love you SYDDERS! Your sissy is so proud of you... keep working hard and become the person your Heavenly Father wants you to be!

Ok tears dried... wow this blogging just caused me a roller coaster of emotions... I see now why it can be such good therapy tool and maybe even an addiction??

This week will be filled with reviews and studying for finals! Wish my hubby and I luck!

I hope to post soon.... {fingers crosses}

I think this will be a fun little hobby for this summer and spring! Thanks to those of you that will read my posts and follow... 

Besitos (little kisses)

~Ashes~

Hello blog, it's been WAY too long!

Dear Blog, 

I am so sorry I have been so forgetful about posting my fun and crazy adventures, a lot has happened since the last post. I hope you can forgive me and be willing to allow me to continue posting my adventures because I really do enjoy writing about them and sharing them with my fellow blog followers ;) Thank you for always giving me more space then I will ever need! Hope to post more often!

Sincerely,

Ash

HAHAHA but really I am so sorry to all of you that do follow my blog for my poor updating... I want to do better, I have so much to tell you!!

So since December (In Indonesia) I have been able to surprise my family, mainly my mom and sis for Christmas! Take a 15 hour flight to Australia! Celebrate Christmas day in the quite city of Perth... kinda sad! Celebrate an amazing New Year in the Gold Coast on the beach! Surf! Snorkel the Great Barrier Reef! Hit a kangaroo with a rental car... that was scary and sad! See the Great Sydney Opera House! Cheer loud at the Australian Open Tennis Match! Pet a Koala! Played in the SUN! Tried to get an Australia accent... I wasn't very successful with that :) Then after the six weeks in the chill Outback there was another 15 hour flight that I had to endure to make my way back to the USA!

Since I have been home I have been able to see some really great friends... one of them being Garrett Carter who is actually now official "Elder Carter"! He came the first week I was home to hang out with me and my family before he would be leaving to serve a 2 year mission in Puebla, Mexico for The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter Day Saints. We had a really fun week together just relaxing (me trying to get over jet-lag) and laughing like best friends do!

The following week I was able to go back to Provo, Utah to visit my roomies and good college friends! It was definitely a needed visit! I loved seeing everyone again as well as meeting new faces! BYU without a doubt has such an incredible spirit about it and I hope and pray that I will be able to go back to school there when my journey with Disney LIVE is over!

Now I am home relaxing and spending quality time with my wonderful family... oh how I love them so much! They are my best friends for sure... we have been able to make dinners together and watch many episodes of NCIS and The Big Bang Theory! I am so grateful that I have been able to have these 5 weeks to refuel so that I can go back on tour as a positive and professional employee of Feld Entertainment! I am very excited to be going to another new country...JAPAN and then Taiwan! I have been doing a lot of reading about both countries and I can wait to experience the cultures and be opened up to more unique parts of the world! I am so grateful for the blessing to travel, dance and meet so many people! I still can not believe that I was chosen to be part of this adventure, I have grown so much and hope to continue to grow much more as a person, a friend, a dancer, a world traveler, an American, a student and most importantly a daughter of God!

Thank you to all of you that do read and follow my blog or FaceBook posts, I really appreciate your love and support! Please feel free to drop me a note or an email anytime, I want to hear what my friends are doing!

~~~Ashes~~~

Home Sweet Home

I can hardly believe that I am home and it's DECEMBER... the end of the year... wow time flies when you are having fun! So I was able to surprise my whole family minus my dad because I let him in on my big secret of coming home! I have know for about 3 months that I would be able to come home for a short break in December but I thought it would be really fun to make it a BIG surprise for most of my family so I kept it a secret and just had them all believe that they would see my face after my trip to Australia which would be in February!

Oh boy did I surprise them all!!

I had a very VERY long couple of travel days leaving from Surabaya, Indonesia to get to my small home town of Eagle, Colorado. When I finally arrived in the -8 degree weather without any winter clothes my mission had begun... how to surprise my mom!! My dad picked me up from the airport and we talked of a game plan... we made a decision... I would show up at her work... PERFECTION!

If you didn't already know my mom works at a middle school as a librarian, dad and I made sure to contact her boss (The Principle) and ask her if she could help us pull off the best surprise and Christmas Present, she was delighted and of course helped us! So I stuck into the school and went into the back office and sat at the large desk. We had the ladies who work at the front of the office call my mom to the office claiming that her boss needed to have a couple of words with her...HAHAHAHA... she had no idea that I would be sitting right in her bosses desk... Brilliant so far huh! The blinds of the room were shut and one of mom's co- workers had a video camera ready to capture the surprise! I was so excited to see my mommy... she walked into the room and had a confused face on... she said that she thought at the time that she would be getting fired or something... poor lady! She finally noticed the familiar face at the desk and slightly screamed! She was overtaken by emotion to finally see her world traveler so the tears, of course, began to flow! It was so so wonderful to finally get to hug my mommy! I am pretty sure she was relieved as well to finally hug me and see me in really life instead of just through a computer screen! Mission #1 accomplished!! Next of course was my sister... she was schedule to go to a dentist appointment so she would be expecting a call from the office to collect her stuff and check out BUT she would not be expecting MEEE! I stood in the office with my back to the entrance (pretending to do paper work) and she walked in and headed to the sign out sheet near the door. I walked over to the sign out sheet where she was and bumped into her to also "sign out" she backup and said "Oh sorry ma'am, excuse me" all polite and then she was just staring at my profile with the most confused look on her face, she said that at that moment she thought she was dreaming or going crazy, she didn't really move till I turned to her and said "Hey! What's up Syders?" then she practically tackled me with the biggest hug and repeatedly kept saying "Why are you here? How are you here?" It was one of the best moments! I really enjoyed surprising my mother and baby sister! Merry Christmas Mommy and Syders! Through out the rest of that day I was able to surprise many more of my family member and see such fun expressions from all of them! I am planning on enjoying this cold and snowy weather to the fullest before I head to the other side of the world once again to Perth, Australia! I can not wait to spend more time with my family and friends! I have missed them all so much! Merry Christmas to all and please do not forget the real meaning of Christmas, how blessed we are to have a Savior and elder brother, Jesus Christ!

Merry Christmas and Happy Holidays!!

XOXOXO's

-Ashes-

These are the days of "My" life

 We live in a wonderful world that is full of beauty, charm and adventure. There is no end to the adventures we can have if only we seek them with our eyes open.”– Jawaharial Nehru

Family! Friends! My eyes have been very open the past six months, more than ever before in my life. I feel so blessed to have had and continue to have this opportunity to experience so many wonderful adventures and to have meet so many incredible people along the way! Thanks to all that have continued to support me with email, letters, facebook messages and Skype. I hope you know how happy it makes me to hear from all of you! I love and miss you sooo much!

So... I have done a ton since the last post. So much craziness! Forgive me for not updating this blog of mine, sorry! 

                                                           

The Grand Palace

Let's start from the top... Thailand, ABSOLUTELY incredible! The first week in Bangkok  was really nice and very relaxing! Many of us ventured around the city to see the beautiful temples located right around our hotel. The Grand Palace was by far my very favorite! I loved the traditional structure, detail and beauty!   

                                                                                 

At many of these temples a dress code is required. They provided us with wraps(long skirts) to fulfill the required code. Mine was so beautiful I wanted to take it home! 

Later that week about ten of us went on a day tour to the Floating Market, 

Floating Market

an elephant camp, the Tiger Temple, and a WWII museum! It was such an eventful day with tons of pictures taken. My favorite part, of course, was the Tiger Temple! 

Tiger Temple

There I was able to watch tigers run and play as well as pet them and take pictures with them! It was so fun! I  don't think I will ever be satisfied with a normal zoo again hahaha! That day I saw and touched more wild animals than I have ever seen before in my life! It was AWESOME! 

The next week in Bangkok went well with all the shows and learning the show in Thai. Actually that was hard! Strangely enough I kept singing the songs in Chinese instead of Thai. Never thought that would be a default language of mine...hahaha... weird! We performed about eleven shows and all went well! 

Week three was absolutely AMAAAZINGGGG!  I took a side trip to Chiangmai, Thailand which is way up north in the jungles of the country! I packed only a backpack with limited clothes and things I really needed, like TP! The first day we arrived we stayed at a cute little backpackers inn and ventured around Chiangmai a little. The next morning we woke up and headed out for the Jungle Trek! 

Our tour guides name was "Jungle King" or "Simmons" so we called him a mix of the two... "Jungle Simmon". 

Jungle Simmon

He was quite the character, leading us through the jungle with his machete in hand! Through out the three days we hiked a ton in the amazing jungle, showered in waterfalls, rode elephants, ate amazing food prepared by the locals, rode on bamboo rafts, and made friends with other backpackers! The trip was amazing... Minus my really badly sprained ankle ;(

I love elephants!

The last week in Bangkok was again very chill. I had some much need down time to rest and ice my ankle.(its great now) I really love Thailand! 

Next I headed back to Singapore! This was such a blessing because I was able to meet back up with my special friends that I made there before! The shows went great in the amazing Marina Bay Sands Theater, so beautiful! The week following our shows I hung out with my Singaporean buddies. I was able to go on a few dates, laughed a lot, eat great food, including kangaroo and crocodile! 

Wong Wei and I 

I was also able to go to church again. Oh my, I sooo needed this! I love the ward so much and hope that someday I will be able to see them all again! I am so grateful for the friendships I made in Singapore. I love them all so much! I LOVE SINGAPORE!

Sorry this is such a long post... So much to tell so little time and space! 

Now I am here in Jakarta, Indonesia. I'm just not too sure about this place. Not very welcoming to Americans, let alone women! I plan on staying in the hotel, not doing much. I am grateful for the internet to keep me entertained.  ("...I have also found one of the best Internet people ever during my time out here..." haha ;)) NOW IS THE TIME TO MESSAGE, EMAIL OR SKYPE ME! I will only be here for four or five more days and I pray they go bye quickly. Then I can move to the next city here in Indonesia! Cross your fingers that it will be more welcoming...please. :-)
I hope you are all well. I love and miss you so, so much!

Love your Disney Friend :) 
Ashley

The Great Adventure!

The World is a book, and those who do not travel read only a page.  ~St. Augustine

How true this quote really is! The world is a book with endless pages and I get to turn several pages and live every story to my fullest! I am continuously learning and growing from the experience I am having while being in Asia on tour with some of the best people I could ask for!

I am currently in Bangkok Thailand. I have not seen much yet, I just arrived yesterday!  I really can’t wait to dive into the culture and learn more about this amazing part of the world!

Sooooo let me catch you up to speed… it's been a while. (sorry) I have now been to China, Hong Kong, Singapore, and the Philippines! All were extremely different from one another and each has memories that I will always keep close to my heart!

When I was in Singapore I was able to meet some amazing young people that I now call my friends. I cannot wait to see them again in November when I return! I was able to go to Sentosa Island while I was there. Sentosa Island is like a mini theme park with lots to do. My favorite was just relaxing on the beach looking at the amazing water and enjoying the sand between my toes... Ahhh one of my new favorite things for sure! The venue we performed at happened to be hosting The Lion King as well. Made me realize how official and amazing my job is...very cool! I am so blessed to be dancing with such a wonderful company that travels to amazing places and is so well known!

Next was Cebu City Philippines! On arrival to my hotel room I received a great surprise!! Do you know what it was? Yep that's right the Cebu City Temple, staring right at me through my big picture window!  So amazing!! I was able to go and feel the sweet spirit of the Savior. How grateful I am for temples.  Cebu City reminded me a lot of when I was in Peru, third world kind of, chickens and dogs everywhere! The hotel we stayed in was great and I really felt at home! I was also able to go to another island close by called Bohol. I was able to see some amazing things and places, like the Tarsier. (It’s an animal. Look it up, it’s awesome) 

The Chocolate Mountains,  

butterflies, and beautiful churches! I also went on a zip line across a valley, screaming the whole way!! I’m sure the creatures in the valley ran like never before in fear of this screaming banshee flying over their heads. I also played some guitar with the locals. So fun!Our shows went well there as well. Then we headed to Manila. We had the first week off in Manila so I didn't stay there for long. I headed off for a “Girls trip” to the island of Boracay! Wow-o-wow… it was so beautiful (of course once the typhoon passed). Yes a typhoon, similar to a hurricane! No big deal just buckets of rain and winds up to a million miles per hour. Ok not really a million miles per hour but strong enough to make the Palm trees lay sideways!  We stayed at a cute little place called the Lazy Dog. There was even a dog named “Whiskey” who lived there. We chilled in the white sand and played in the turquoise blue salty water for hours, jumping and diving over the awesome waves! I really enjoyed having sand in my pants for that whole week... Not! Gross Ashley! But really it was an amazing vacation that I will never forget and I was really able to bond with some of the girls from my cast which was so needed! One of the best things I did while I was there was snorkel for the first time. I enjoyed it so much I went twice. The underwater creatures are so amazing; playing with star fish, some of them even looked like they had chocolate chips sprinkled on top of them!! Yep, that was my favorite I think. I hope I can return to Boracay someday, I would love that! Everything and everyone was so great, what a peaceful yet exciting vacation!

Now back to Manila…vacation is over and time to work. Now when I say time to work I mean it, thirteen shows in 5 days! Killer! The casting director came to watch which added some extra pressure, good pressure, to perform to the best of my ability! The shows were going great and then several people in the cast and crew started to get sick. This meant others had to step up to the plate and cover...and yes that included me! The fifth to last show of the weekend I learned a couple more dances and added some formation changes, only 15mins before show time. Talk about stressful. I myself started to get sick with a cold but was able to hang in there. This job sure is a dream come true but I tell you what... it’s not fun being millions of miles away from your mom when you are sick and also lacking some of the medicines that you usually take. I miss my mommy! I need my bed and some chicken noodle soup please! It was very rewarding to finish all the shows Sunday night. Thank goodness I have the first week off in Thailand…time to recover!

Well, here I am in Thailand and I am very excited to see what it has to offer! Hopefully I will have some wonderful experiences to share after my three weeks here.

I really am enjoying myself and loving this blessing! I pray for all of you that are following, that you are well and SMILING OFTEN! See you soon...ish!

Lots of love from your world traveler!

--Ash