About
Ashley and Ryan Swartz
We are a twenty something newly wed married couple who are searching for a way to make it.
We receive plenty of advice, most of which is unsolicited, from Roy, Ryan’s Dad, who just wants us to know how dumb we are. . .
On the other hand, we feel that through a lot of trial and error, we’ve discovered certain things that do work. We are always striving to find more information and better ways of doing things.
Our life is very simple. 
We live in the Shenandoah Valley, near Harrisonburg, Virginia. Ryan was born and raised here and Ashley is a transplant. Ashley grew up on the Outer Banks of North Carolina and moved to Harrisonburg after high school to attend James Madison University. Ashley received a finance degree from JMU in 2007, and after four years in the a Valley, knew this was where she wanted to stay.
We both have full time jobs that are quite demanding of both time and energy.
Aside from our jobs:
We own rental property that we manage ourselves.
Ryan and Roy own a small furniture company, there is some info available at www.virginiacraftsmen.com. Hopefully we will find the time to get more info on that site soon!
Ashley is a REALTOR, Serving the Central Shenandoah Valley- www.ashleyswartz.com
And we spend all of our free time learning to be great photographers! Check out our photography site! www.swartzshots.com
Simple, and busy. 
We take full advantage of every free second to work on our many endeavors. We are using this blog as a way to keep up with it all.
This is us.
On our wedding day, 08.08.08:
This may have been the first day that Roy called us dumbyoungins. . . well, no, the engagement had to be the first.
This is our dog, Sport. He is a 6 year old Yellow Lab Mutt. He is a spoiled brat, and he is a little eccentric. He will eat absolutely anything that Ryan will eat, including radishes, apples, bananas and jalapenos. I know it can’t be good for him, but he will die if he doesn’t eat what Ryan eats, or at least he thinks so. . .
Roy calls him Merle.
The name dumb youngins stems from the nickname that Roy, Ryan’s Dad, has given us. No matter what we do or say we are just dumb youngins, and nothing will ever change that in Roy’s mind. Roy is a character, to say the least.
This is Roy:
Kind of reminds me of Grumpy from the story of Snow White and the Seven Dwarfs.
He was particularly upset on this day, our wedding day, because he was forced to wear a suit.
It was the same suit he wore on his wedding day 40 years earlier; this was the second time that it had been worn.
