{One of Life's Treasured Moments...}

My heart is full today. I have spent the better part of this past week fretting, stressing, and starting many fires that my husband dutifully puts out behind me as I struggle to prepare myself for this tremendous change. Today was unlike any other day this week, and any other week up to this point, for that matter.
Today Jeff and I had the great pleasure and honor of going through the temple for the first time together and were sealed for time and eternity. I was overcome with emotion having my family peaceably assembled alongside some dear and treasured friends that we have been blessed to have in our lives this past year. My heart and mind wandered to thoughts of my brother, so far away and isolated from us in his diligent work, and my grandmother who just recently passed on. I'm truly grateful that she was able to attend our wedding in February, but I deeply missed her today. Still, I couldn't help but feel her love and presence envelop me like the quilts of hers I keep on my bed.



I can't stress enough how truly deeply grateful I am for the edifying, supportive, and overall phenomenal friends we have that were both with us today and were not. I am humble enough to know that I [and Jeff] have only gotten this far in our lives because of the help that we've received along the way from some tremendous people. Thank you.




After a long drive home from Columbus, Jeff and I were treated to a wonderful dinner with my parents, where I may or may have not tried to kill jeff with a tasty bite of scallop ( no worries, he's currently in a benadryl coma, safe and sound).  When we got home, he surprised me with a sweet, and thoughtful surprise.
You see, I love traditions. I love the idea of carrying through an act in respect of those who have come before, and paying homage to memories and events past. That being said, we had a decision to make about cake - wedding cake. Our anniversary is not until February. We will be long gone by then.. and I don't think packing a cake in my carry-on will go over well. My solution? Well, to celebrate our second wedding date... so to speak. While Jeff was less than thrilled to eat frost bitten 10 month old cake, he knew it was important to me, so I pulled it out the night before so it would be ready when we got home this evening from our eventful day.
As we settled in, unpacked, and I went to fetch the cake, Jeff interrupted me with a beautiful surprise. He had taken the time to have another cake made that looked  and tasted pretty darn like ( if not better than) the original cake that we had saved. I still insisted in one tortured bite of the original, but then we delved into the fresh, DELICIOUS [early] anniversary cake.





I have such a sweet, thoughtful, and generous husband. Sometimes I don't quite deserve him, but I intend to spend the rest of my life and more trying my best to fix that.
Love to all,
- Ashley

{Gingerbread Oranaments}

As my time draws to a close at work, Nancy and I have been trying to get as much done as possible together. Over the Thanksgiving weekend we made some gingerbread ornaments. I remember doing these as a kid. They are easy, fun, and smell amazing!

(simplified from a recipe from Martha Stewart. She has great recipes, she just gets so carried away with details!)

1 cup ground cinnamon

1/4 cup applesauce

Craft glue

Rolling pin

Utility knife, or cookie cutters

Baking sheet

Length of thin ribbon for each ornament

Prepare Dough

Step 1

In a medium bowl, mix together 1 cup ground cinnamon and 1/4 cup applesauce using a rubber spatula.

Step 2

Stir in 1/2 cup craft glue. Stir the dough until consistency is smooth and dry. Let stand 1 hour. Applesauce gives the dough pliability, glue makes it firm, and cinnamon imparts a lovely fragrance and a gingerbread color.

Step 3

Turn out one-quarter of dough onto a cool, flat surface; flatten with your hands.

Step 4

Flatten with a rolling pin to 1/4 inch thick. If dough becomes too dry, spritz with water. If it sticks to rolling pin or work surface, sprinkle with additional cinnamon.

Step 5

Cut out shapes with cookie cutters and set aside.

Step 6

With a straw, poke a hole in dough. Air-dry ornaments on a wire rack lined with paper towels for 24 hours, turning them over every 6 hours or so to keep them flat. Alternatively, preheat oven to 200 degrees. Transfer ornaments to a baking sheet; bake, flipping once, until dry, about 2 hours. Once dry, decorate using beads, glitter, or paint.

Enjoy!

-Ashley

{Do you Skype?}

I do! So will Jeff, he's just still working on getting his set up (slacker). If you don't know much about Skype, it's a nifty messaging system that will allow us video an voice chat for free from our electronic devices( ipad, iphone, laptop, etc). If I choose to pay, I can also make calls to cell phones from it ( I'm looking into it, that sure would be nifty! )

Anyway, if you have one, you should most definitely add me ( and Jeff when he gets around to it) to your list! If you don't have one, you should think about it!

skypename: ashley.a.mclemore

{Strike a Pose}

Well, I tried out an experiment by attempting to post this through my email. So far nothing has shown up, but I'll be keeping my eye out just in case there is some ridiculous delay. This would be pretty handy and crucial if it works out because of the unpredictability of the internet in China. While I'm not overly concerned about the censorship, I do like to be prepared for things and I want to be as ready as possible for the change in culture as it applies to technology before I go because let's face it, I'm definitely a product of our era. I'm going to deeply miss social media, and it's versatility.

That being said, I got an early Christmas gift today!


That's what I'm calling it at any rate. I really wanted a new camera to help document this upcoming year. Jeff wasn't exactly as enthused as I was but he was supportive none the less ( Thank you dear!). Nancy spent the afternoon with me striking poses and giggling as I played around with the different features. She's an awfully good sport.






One month tomorrow before I head out, and I'm more excited, terrified, and overwhelmed than ever! Thank goodness for Jeff and his knack for task-managing. :)

Stay tuned!
-Ashley
P.S. Make sure to follow this blog to keep up with the latest updates! It's easy as pie - all you have to do is sign in through your facebook!

We've Moved...

Hello fellow bloggers!

As my previous post mentioned, I've been struggling to find compatible sites to blog from ( That DON'T cost an arm and a leg) while I'm in China. Unfortunately Blogspot is not one of them. So, I've set up shop over at typepad instead.

The McLemores go to China <--- click it, bookmark it, enjoy!

I've honestly loved the blogging experience here of sharing my thoughts, following yours, and the interraction that comes from this community. I don't want to give it up, especially with such an exciting year of adventure up ahead!

I hope that you choose to take the extra little effort to check in on me over at type pad every so often. I promise I'll do my best to make it worth your while.


Happy blogging!

P.S. It should be easy as pie to comment and keep up with this new blog of mine, as I believe all you have to do is have a FB account to comment!

P.P.S I'll hopefully be able to post it straight to facebook even though I won't have access to facebook itself.

P.P.P.S I'm still sending emails and addresses just in case, so if you are looking forward to the handwritten communication, make sure I have your address(es). :)

Ashley :)

{Busy Bees and Packing Fiends}

You know, I feel absolutely blessed to not only have such amazing friends to support Jeff and I, but also to have so many connections to people who have been in our shoes already with wisdom to spare! Thanks to Mrs. Katie Harper I got the inside to this blog which *cross our fingers* will work without too many issues whilst in China. I'll still be sending out emails, so one way or another I'll be able to keep in touch.
There have been so many hurdles in getting prepared for this move, and slowly we've been jumping each one. We officially start the visa process this week, and if all goes well, I'll be leaving around the 15th of December, and Jeff will be following me on the 24th.  We'll be living in the city of Suzhou located just a couple hours north of Shanghai in central China. It's darn near the same climate as Kentucky, so hopefully acclimating to the weather won't be too much of a challenge.
Jeff is honestly more hyped up and excited than I am... I catch him researching all the time, and he's already making plans for all the things he wants to do while we're there. He's ambitious. He's already moved the majority of our things in storage... a month and a half early. Apparently someone is ready to go!
I really have appreciated all of the support from our friends so far. I look forward to this journey, and hope you keep up with this little blog so that I can take you along for the ride with me too. :)

(Originally posted 11/7/2011)

Brand New Adventure

For those few of you who have NOT heard, Jeff and I are moving to China at the end of the year!

I got a job through Disney English teaching English to young Chinese kids for a year. Exciting!

We will be living in the city of Suzhou. It's a beautiful city well known as a tourist destination because of it's plentiful gardens and canals. The climate is actually very similar to Kentucky, so we'll feel right home with the weather, if nothing else.

We have been frantically trying to get everything into order before we go, jumping through hoops to get Jeff a passport, get visa paperwork together, and ceritification complete. Packing, repacking, purging, packing some more, and researching has been a very large chunk of our life the past few weeks.

Unfortunately, I will not be able to keep up this blog while we are over there ( unless I invest in a VPN... I'm doing research on that) beacause of the heavy censorship over there, but I will be sending out periodic emails with updates and anecdotes. If I haven't already gotten ahold of you for your email address, send it to me and I'll add it to the list.