The most magnificent day! Thank you all for coming to celebrate with us in Jamaica or sending your well wishes!
Surprise! We actually got married at our home church on February 4th. Our ceremony in March was symbolic.
We traveled stateside too! This was really our year of travel..
We really traveled in 2019. This was a cruise… Rating 6/10 Not our favorite way to travel. Bahamas was a 7/10, maybe if we’d explored more… idk.
Obviously, Jamaica is special to us. That’s why were getting married here! Whew, if you look back at the 1st baecation, we done grown up…
We got Jersey Wersey in March of 2018. His name was originally going to be Kane or Simba, but those names didn’t work out. He is our JERSEY! If you know, he is the most spoiled but the sweetest puppy there is. You know how small dogs are yappy, (no offense), but our puppy isn’t like that, he rarely barks. When he does, it’s ferocious, LOL. He loves almost everyone… except children.
OMG! Look how young we look! Whew, thank God for time.
Where do I start with this.... I started to plan this special moment around February of 2020. It was a lot - coming up with different ways to propose and having our loved ones there for the moment was all I could think about. Coming up with a location with Qiana only took a few days. But if you know me you know I can't hold back gifts and things that I do for Ashlei. The hardest moment was sitting on the ring for a few months. The engagement was great because all I wanted was for her to be surprised and that goal was accomplished. I knew she would say "yes". Just seeing the joy and smile that she had on her face caused to me to get emotional. That moment was priceless... as a young kid never seeing myself in these positions, but now knowing that you found your best friend and your love, it's only right that I made it official.
If I’m gonna tell it, then I gotta tell it all…. (Okay, so we are listening to Confessions, while I write this) Anywhoo, so Charlotte is home. Phillip is playing here, I’m solidifying myself in the education game (okay, Teacher of the Year 2020). It’s time to buy a house, y’all this is big, a HOUSE. Okay you get the point, but this process was hard. It’s not as easy and fun as people make it seem. You like a house, bid, offer not accepted then you start all over again. We thought we had this house in the bag, like this was it… SIKE, in the eleventh hour someone comes through and beats our bid. SMH…
This goes on until April 1, 2021 - a whole YEAR later. We found our house with the help of two amazing ladies, Pamela and Blaire… May 21, 2021, we closed and we were HOMEOWNERS!
From a twin bed in a shared dorm room, to our very own home! Shout out to God because… He really be blessing! We love making our house a home, finding what we like, watching Phillip be a “handy man” and thinking I can DIY everything (which Phillip *kindly* reminds me is not an option).
Fall 2016, Phillip graduates and goes to Denver to train. I still have another semester, and I’m moving to Charlotte upon graduation.
Spring 2017, Phillip signs to Indy and moves to Indiana for 2 and 1/2 years. Then he moves to Houston in 2019, until the PANORAMA shut everything down in March 2020. Meanwhile I am in Charlotte, teaching.
During the off season, he’d come to Charlotte and I’d travel to Indy and Houston to visit during the season. Let me tell y’all, it was hard. Living separately after being up under each other for so long. FaceTime was our best friend. Life came at us fast… But you know, we needed those years. We needed to figure ourselves out and you know what they say about absence and fondness or whatever.
When everything shut down, we were quarantined together. Late March 2020, Phillip signs with the Panthers. *Google, play I’m Coming Home by Diddy*
Let me say, God really looked out and moved us back together. Covid came with it’s challenges, but for us… we fell deeper in love.
Growing up it was basketball, basketball, basketball… but somehow, someway my life began to revolve around football. It started so slow, I had the Cherry and White pass and would be all in the student section, hype as could be. But when Phillip and I started, I wasn’t just cheering for Temple, I was rooting for Phillip. I went from the Cherry and White section to the Family Section with Micha, Mount, and Yassy.
Before I knew it, Micha was picking me up from Temple and I’d stay at their house and travel with them to away games. Then she’d drop me back off to campus. #theRealMVP. I knew I was in this for real, when I missed class to travel to a game.
No actually, it was for real, for real when my mother started traveling to games and actually sat in the cold with me to watch Phillip play. Y’all know if family starts to support, it’s real.
Jan 2015…. Oh, I guess things started to get pretty serious. I mean, technically we had been living together. But we decided to go out of the country to Montego Bay, Jamaica. This was such a fun trip, I learned that Jamaican Rum is DIFFERENT and my tolerance isn’t all I thought it was. Phillip’s thoughts: “Lightweight from the beginning”
But I also learned that this was the MAN for me… He took care of me and made sure that I was good the entire trip… He says this is when he knew, but I think it was mutual.
HA! Isn’t that what the old folks call it! So, we started sleepovers late Spring semester of freshman year. Twin bed living in 1940.
Let me tell y’all how real this is… The security guards in the dorms would just let us into each other’s dorms because we were there so frequently (Shout out to Wayne and Ms. Darlene).
Sophomore Year, my mother, Qiana would always rant and rave that she was paying for a dorm that I never stayed in… LOL butttt Phillip had his own room soooo what do we expect? I even stayed on campus that Summer with Phillip in University Village.
Junior year- MY first REAL apartment, we lived off campus and had roommates. This was also the year we got Fatz, a bad little bunny.
Senior year, we had apartments but of course, we still lived together.
So, our first date was to a bowling alley… He picked me up from my dorm at 1940, and we had a ball! Sidenote: people always talk about bowling dates but this just fed our competitiveness. We went on plenty of bowling alley dates throughout college. What other dates did we go on in college hmmm, go kart racing, skating, Six Flags. Oh we explored, but really food and shopping was (and still is) our thing! You would think - broke college students LOL, but somehow (s/o to our support systems) we were able to fund this lifestyle of food and shopping.
From Chick-fil-a Mondays (because the chicken is fresher after being closed on Sundays) to Hibachi Lunch Special (thank you Ashlei for exposing Phillip to Hibachi), to Ishkibbles and Max’s (best cheesesteaks) all the way to sharing Diamond Dollars (because Student-Athletes have the best meal plans) - food is an integral part of our relationship.
Okay, you get the food, but where does the shopping come in, wellllll we lived at Cherry Hill Mall and we had the occasional venture to King of Prussia. Before any event, party, or date, we had a new outfit… Don’t get me started on Phillip’s shoes.
Where do I start? Well, it all began in 2013, let me set the scene…. Class: Teens and Tweens, Ritter Hall at Temple University. Ashlei being her normal self was late to class and Phillip (or PJ as y’all know him) had to sit in the front of class (football rules). -PJ’s thoughts: “I should have known then, you’re literally late to everything!” ANYWAY! He would always make little slick comments about me being late and give me looks. If you know me, of course I had a facial expression response. This little back and forth game went on for a while…. Let’s fast forward… So the semester is ending, we have a final project, we’re sitting beside each other in class and he makes a comment that he needed help with the assignment. I brush him off, like boy I am not helping you. So after looking at the assignment I realized it was kind of difficult, so I look him up on the class directory (iykyk) and emailed him and he’s like yeah… text me.