‘I’m a COUNTRY BOY!’

Enjoy the little video… I had no idea he actually knew all these words to the song… it’s great to watch though!

CIAO! LOVE ME!

‘Wii’ Joined the Masses…

Haha, get it? We got a Wii! I am not as excited about it as Jay is, but I’m okay with it. I had kind of given up on getting one since EVERY store that we had visited was out. Besides, it wasn’t really my top priority either because after all, it was just Christmas last week. Early this afternoon Jay called Walmart to see if they had gotten any in and wouldn’t you know it, they just got a shipment of six in… off Jay was to go and get one. Well, first he okayed it with me and I pretty much was like, you decide. He jumped at the bit and we are now proud owners of a Wii! We just got the game console and the Wii Sports game that came with it. I told Jay to look around for Mario Kart, but of course EVERYONE was sold out of those too. He also said that he looked for Wii Fit, but of course EVERYONE was sold out of those too.

I’m pleasantly surprised at how much I like it though. I have only played it once before this at a family function last year (was it last year, have they been out that long?) and it was bowling and I really didn’t get into it. Also, I was worried that Ayden would be a little too young to play it and it wouldn’t be worth the money. Having had it for only a few hours I cannot say we have gotten our moneys worth yet, but Ayden definitely LOVES it! He is really good at the golfing one and boxing one. Just take a look below!

Jay LOVES it all and is giddy with delight that we finally have one. I would have rather used the money we got for Christmas in a different way, but that is okay… I am getting better at the bowling and have tried boxing and golfing. It’s sad to admit, but Ayden is totally better than me in boxing. Who knows when we will get anymore games, but this is suffice for now.

It has been a rather lax day besides the excitement of getting the Wii. I finished my sixth book and have started the seventh one… only about 30 pages into it though because I wasn’t really in the mood to read anymore.

Ayden didn’t nap today. We will see in about an hour or two if that was a good thing or not. We took about a 15 minute ‘rest’ on the couch while I was updating the pictures on our refrigerator (happens about once a year). Might just warrant an early bed time… but other than that, he has been a really good boy today!

We all get to stay home and sleep in tomorrow! Well hopefully ALL of us, pending no snow. Jay was working all of last night. He worked from about 10-4:30pm yesterday and then they went out again around midnight and got home around 7am. He slept until noon and then Ayden and I woke him up. He will probably not be tired too early tonight, but that is okay. Shouldn’t mess with his schedule too bad.

I made some super yummy chocolate chunk cookies this afternoon as well because I was totally craving some sort of junk food and what we have at our house just was not cutting it. They turned out pretty good too, despite the fact that Jay and I both had our fair share of the dough before it was an actual cookie. Wait, I would never do that!

Jay’s family might be coming up tomorrow and for the most part my house is pretty clean. Not that I need it clean for them to come, but I am sort of like that. Don’t need people seeing how messy we can get. Actually, if you caught any of the surroundings in that little video of Ayden you will notice toys ALL over the floor! But the living room is really the only bad place. I got most of the kitchen/dining room clean earlier today and put stuff away.

CIAO! LOVE ME!

‘A’ Okay!

Ayden’s recheck of his ears today tagged him as all healthy again! After a short consult with his doctor we decided to leave his tonsils alone for now and see what the future brings for us. They are still slightly enlarged, but she said that was fine. I don’t want to do anything that isn’t necessary. If he gets recurrent sore throats/strep/etc in that area we will look into it further, but as of right now, no worries. Yeah! That means no worries as far as me missing school goes either. Double yeah!

Another great revelation today… my work office is closed tomorrow. News to me! I was all ready to go to work tomorrow, same as today, but then found out that they are closed. Of course I knew they were closed for the first, but didn’t know about the 31st. I was excited to know that I got another day off this week. Now, if I remember correctly, Ayden’s daycare is still open, but I’m no longer 100% sure on that. Either way it doesn’t matter.

I’ve spent the afternoon (well the part where Ayden was napping) loading songs on iTunes. I had it on my old computer, but when that crashed I lost all of the songs I had on it. Thankfully it was probably only $50 worth of lost money because most of the songs had come from my cds. Today I redownloaded iTunes onto my new computer and have been importing my cds into so I can ‘refresh’ my iPod music. So far I’ve been at it for about two hours, not too bad seeing I only have two cds left.

Ayden took a great nap today which was unexpected as I told him he just needed to rest. He is always in a better mood after he naps though. Actually, he has been much more behaved since we have been back home and in a more settled routine. He is eating great again and ate like a champ last night. He had a thing of applesauce, two helpings of hamburger helper, some peas and then fruit snacks. I was really surprised because he hardly ever eats that much, but hey, I wasn’t going to argue with him about overeating.

It is snowing out pretty heavily right now. Jay didn’t have to go to work until 10am this morning, but I have a feeling if the snow keeps up like it is, he will be out for most of the night. That kind of bites, but not much we can do about it. At least he was able to do a bit of the cleaning that I had asked this morning before I left for work. He got all of the cardboard outside and the dishes done. I really don’t know where they are going to put all of this snow that we are getting. It’s bad, I hate it, lol!

On a more serious note though, it is getting dangerous… as far as the amounts we have and the places it is ending up. At least for people like me who have a super duper tiny car. I get up to an intersection and am halfway out into the cross road before I can see if any cars are coming. Yeah, that is really safe, eh? Maybe that is why I hate it so much, because I cannot see while I am driving. And you never know what the other person is going to do. I used to give other drivers the benefit of the doubt… never again! It’s not fair, I know, but I assume every other driver is going to do something stupid, so I am usually a pretty cautious driver. Or try to be anyways!

I am about halfway through book number 6 in my Sookie Stackhouse novels. There are currently 8 books in the series and I have the first 7 (they came in a boxed set)… I am aiming to get book 8, but it is not out in paperback until March (paperback to me equals cheaper) and there is a 9th one being released in May. Now they are nothing super great (compared to some other books I have read) but they are definitely pretty good. They’ve kept me coming back for more through six books so something must be pretty catching. It’s a vampire series and as I perused Target’s book selection yesterday I noticed many more authors coming out with vampire books since the hit of the Twilight books. A trend maybe? Who knows? I also want to get the book The Lucky One by Nicholas Sparks because it sounds really good. I love his books as well and received The Guardian for Christmas. My sister said it was really good and I asked her if it was going to make me cry and she said, when don’t his books make you cry? Tis true…

I thought I would grace you with a picture of my super cute littlest sister and my super cute son (who happens to look not so happy in this picture, even though he really was). This was at my dad’s house just before we opened gifts. By the way, my dad makes the best mashed potatoes from scratch! Not that you cared to know, but I cared to share! And he made us some super yummy ones when we were there visiting.

Ayden got the Tag reader system for Christmas from Jay’s parents. So far he seems like it and the dinosaur book that I got for him to use with it. He already knows most of the book by heart because it is so short. He even brought it with us to the doctor’s office today. He was so good at the doctor that we got to take an elevator ride (his special treat if he is good) and we happened to hop on an elevator with a bunch of people so it was an extra long elevator ride today. He really liked that!

It doesn’t seem like tomorrow should be Wednesday. Getting all turned around with my days because of not having to go to class. Hmm… I guess I can deal with that.

CIAO! LOVE ME!

Why… it couldn’t be ME!

Even though MckMama isn’t doing Not Me Monday, I already had mine started early (oh wait, I wouldn’t do that)… and am going to post them anyways. Btw, keep MckMama and her little Stellan in your prayers as he seems to have caught some sort of bug and is on his way to the Children’s Hospital (per the last post on her blog)…

Were my holidays full of things that I couldn’t have possibly done, of course not… I had the perfect holidays and nothing went wrong, was funny, or mishapped!

I did not eat so much food over all the family places that I went that I feared not fitting into my clothes at the end of the week. I did not eat peanut butter ball after peanut butter ball… chocolate covered pretzel after chocolate covered pretzel… and bowl of chicken cordon bleu soup after bowl of chicken cordon bleu all because it was simply there in front of me!

I did not tell more than one family member that we were not going to sit and hand out presents one by one. I wanted to see everyone carefully rip off their wrapping paper and see what EVERYONE got to Christmas. I wasn’t the least bit upset that it was 9:30pm before we even started opening gifts. As if the great grandchildren hadn’t had a long enough day already.

I did not let Ayden go with my sister Friday night knowing he would spend all day Saturday in the same clothes and he didn’t have his bibi (blanket). I did not hope that she would get him to go to sleep without him crying about that fact.

I did not consider going back to Stevens Point Friday night because I was sick of sleeping in a different place and all I wanted was my own bed. I do not get home sick like that and miss just being in my own house.

I did not worry about our cat being home alone for a couple of days. I did not worry that he might trip the tree over. I did not worry that he might rip into Ayden’s presents that were sitting under the tree.

I did not freak out when I was putting gifts under our tree and realized I couldn’t find the check Jay’s grandma gave us. I did not lose a check worth that much money. Jay did not come in the bedroom later that night to tell me he did not find it in his glove compartment.

We did not buy a new microwave today with one of our gift cards because our prior one was not still in perfect working order. We did not just want one that was actually ours and a little smaller because our first one is not my mom’s old one.

We did not actually consider buying a Wii today because we said we weren’t going to. All of the cousins on my dad’s side do not have the Wii and I am not completely starting to get jealous of them. Hey, I have PS2 and plain ‘ole regular XBox. Oh wait, Jay has those, lol!

I did not literally jump for joy when Jay paid for our purchases at Walmart with our tax money from LAST YEAR! I totally believed we actually still had any of that money left on our card and was not completely excited to see we still did!

What did you not do this past week?

CIAO! LOVE ME!

Busy Busy Holiday!

Started Saturday night…

Where didn’t we have to go over the holidays this year? It seemed like once we got going, we didn’t stop for quite a while, and that was just what happened. We started on Christmas Eve and had Christmas every day following thru Sunday. Christmas Eve… my mom’s, Jay’s mom’s parents, my mom’s parents.

That day went pretty well. I think I told you a little bit about that. Ayden was pretty good that day. At my grandparent’s house we managed to open gifts before 10pm, awesomeness! Seriously though, I couldn’t believe that some of the adults wanted to hand out presents one by one. Do they remember what it was like to have children? I’m guessing not because then we wouldn’t be waiting until after 9pm to open gifts and we wouldn’t even be considering opening gifts one at a time. I wish I could remember what it was like when we were younger. But I must have repressed those memories, lol! In any case, it was fun and Ayden had fun.

Ayden got his very own digital camera from his godmother Sam (Ayden is lucky to have two godmother’s and a godfather… we asked Jay’s brother’s godparents to be Ayden godparents, but that is another story in and of itself). He is in LOVE with his camera and was taking pictures left and right. And they actually have turned out pretty good quality wise too! I’m glad that he got one because we had actually considered getting him one and decided against it because we didn’t know how good it would be and it is pretty good for a little kids digital camera. And it is definitely high duty as far as kid friendly.

Christmas day was Jay’s parent’s house and then off to Grandma Hoerth’s house. Oh man, was it ever PACKED there this year. You would think that I am pretty used to it by now, but this year it just seemed to be VERY full of people! We stayed through lunch (which was SO YUMMY!) and gifts and then headed on out because Ayden was in need of a nap. I got to eat some yummy meatballs and Grandma Hoerth cake and I was happy! Ayden got a John Deer (is that spelt right? I’m thinking there is an ‘h’ in deer, but whatever) soccer ball from his godfather Robert. It is the cutest thing and he is excited to use it in soccer the next time we have it in the Spring.

Day after Christmas was Ron and Janet’s house (Jim’s parents) and that was good as well. Once again Ayden was spoiled! We had fun there and then Ayden went home with my sister to stay the night at my dad’s house with Alexis. We are heading over there later today after my dad gets home from work. Once again more presents. It is nice to have a little time away from him because we’ve been with him constantly for almost the past two weeks. Not that I don’t love my child, but I am definitely not stay at home material at this point in my life. Especially since the first week Ayden was sick and this week we’ve been not on a normal routine so that doesn’t help. It will be nice to get back to Point and relax for the next two weeks before classes start again. Then we will have fun!

Tomorrow is my dad’s parent’s house for Christmas and then hopefully a half way decent ride home to Point to have Christmas as our family. I’m kind of excited to get back to our place and to sleep in my own bed and just have some alone relaxing family time. And then we can really get out all of Ayden’s stuff that have gotten because most of it we have stored in the truck right now so we don’t have to take it in the house more than once and we don’t lose any pieces of any of the toys.

I also got my Lia Sophia jewelry that I ordered and I LOVE it! I’m a jewelry fanatic and it is all precisely and I imagined. Slowly but surely, I am building up my stock, lol!

Monday afternoon now…

We finally made it home, as I stated yesterday night. Ayden loved all of the gifts that he got at our house and it was nice to sit and open gifts just as a family. Now it is just a matter of finding spots to put all the new gifts. Ah, we need to get a bigger house/apartment, lol!

CIAO! LOVE ME!

I'M BAAACCCKKK!!!!

Well... home in Point that is! We made it home tonight around 5:15pm and I am elated to say that the drive back here was GREAT!!! The roads were better than they were on my way to Chilton and I cruised at 70mph almost the WHOLE way! I was so relieved to have decent roads and I didn't have to drive in the dark for very long! SO HAPPY TO BE HOME!!! I cannot wait to sleep in my own bed tonight!

This is going to be a short post... just wanted to let all my readers (if there happens to be any consistent ones) that we made it home safe and sound. Off to put things away and relax a little bit. I'll be sure to post all about our week away tomorrow!

CIAO! LOVE ME!

Merry Christmas Eve!

So, I am finding a little time to get some blogging in. Currently, Ayden and Jay are both asleep downstairs at his parents house. I had one CRABBY little boy on my hands for about 15 minutes there. I definitely do not know where he gets that temper from... oh wait, probably me! I am hoping that the rest of the day goes over well because if his mood from this morning is any indication of what tonight could turn out to be, I don't want to be anywhere near him. Ugh! And he got plenty of sleep last night...

We opened gifts at my mom's house this morning. It was lots of fun and then she made us some breakfast for lunch, yummy! Ayden was back and forth with behaving there and I could tell that the was really in the need for a nap. I was thinking that we might forgo one, but I am definitely happy that he is taking one right now. It will make for a MUCH better night, seeing we have two places to go. I'm excited though... I love Christmas and spending time with my family. We don't get to see everyone all that often (doesn't help that we live an hour and a half away) so when we do, it is always nice! But the weather today... let me tell you... could get possibly get ANY more snow. Seriously, it HAS to stop!!! I know me saying that over and over will not help any or change anything, but we are STILL in December here. I'm so sick of it!

Okay... I think I might go enjoy a little bit more of my book since Ayden is sleeping for awhile. I'm on the fourth book in the series already and still loving it. I like series of books where the characters are all the same, especially when you get really connected to the characters like I have seem to do with these books. Readaholic me!!! Maybe more another day...

CIAO! LOVE ME!

Not Me… Definitely NOT ME!

Before I get started with everything that I most certainly did NOT do this past week… I got to give props to MckMama for this great idea. Head on over to her blog and check out her Not Me’s and everyone else’s!

I did not procrastinate on my studying this past week and leave most of it until the very last minute.

I did not have to take my son to the doctor two times this past week because he was not sick as can be and wasn’t looking pretty sad most of the week.

Because I did not take my son to the doctor, he definitely did not only go to school for a 1/2 day this week. He was so healthy that he attended each and every day… all day… and Jay and I did not have to coordinate our work and study schedules around caring for our sick child.

I did not think that this was probably the best week for Ayden to get sick if he HAD to because if it was the week prior I would not have had to miss any of my last classes and if was next week we would not have to worry about the offices being closed due to the holidays.

I did not take Ayden to work with me on Friday for the first time in three years because I did not tell Jay that he could work all day, thus leaving me with no other choice.

On said way to work Friday morning, I did not drive the whole way repeating ‘We will not get stuck today’ and ‘We will not get into an accident today’ because it DID NOT snow out lots over Thursday night and I was not silly enough to go out and drive in it! And of course the roads were super clean and plowed greatly by the city trucks!

I did not buy the box set of the Sookie Stackhouse books because I simply wanted to. I could have bought the first book, but then that would have left me needing to go back to the book store tomorrow because I did not finish the first book tonight! At said book store I did not tell Ayden he could pick out a book because I do not love buying books for myself and for him! Anyways, reading really isn’t all that beneficial, is it?

I was not disappointed when Jay called to say that he would not be home at noon when he thought was most likely. I was not even more disappointed when he called later to say that he hoped he would make it home before MIDNIGHT! Stupid job… it’s not like we actually get money from it. Oh wait, yeah, it does pay some bills.

I did not let Ayden eat pancakes for both breakfast and lunch on Sunday because it was easier than making something else. It’s not like I offered to make something and he said he wanted pancakes again. At least I gave him syrup both times, lol!

I have not been enjoying these mornings of ‘sleeping in’ because ‘normal’ people would not call 8am sleeping in. 8am is not sleeping in, is it? When your normal wake up time is 6am… it most DEFINITELY IS! And who am I kidding… I LOVE IT!!! And by normal people, I mean those who do not have children. I guess I can say I’m lucky to have only one right now… one that sleeps until that time because I know other moms who’s child/ren are up MUCH earlier than mine.

I have not been having weird dreams about my best friend’s current boyfriend. There hasn’t been two in the past two weeks and they aren’t super weird. It’s not like I actually know this guy and dated him for like a whole month how many many years ago and then turned into a good friend of his. So really, weird dreams are nothing, right?

I have not been avoiding a different friend of mine for reasons really unbeknownst to me, other than I’m trying to clear my head. I do not feel bad for doing so and want nothing more than to write a simple letter… it is something that come so naturally to me and the words are following just as easily as this post, or NOT! I am not dreading hearing from them either.

I am not sitting at my laptop listening to TSO and bobbing my head all around like a crazy nut because I am not addicted to this music and it does not raise my spirits LIKE CRAZY! I am not trying to keep my hands on the keyboard instead of waving in the air like a conductor because that is SO what this music does to me!

I am not insane… or am I? Lol!!!

What did you NOT DO this week?!

CIAO! LOVE ME!

Don’t Worry

I just wanted to forewarn my loyal readers, whoever you may be… do not worry during the next week if you do not see a new post from me. As I am so faithful at writing EVERY day (yeah right, eh?) and it may be a week before you hear from me again!

Ayden and I will be starting our holiday travels tomorrow as it is looking to be the best travel day out of, well tomorrow and Tuesday. Unfortunately, due to the prediction of more snow, Jay will not be accompanying us home until probably late Tuesday night and/or sometime on Wednesday. As it stands, he has been working since 8am this morning and will probably be working until almost midnight. He’s been might busy these past few days. Always happens around Christmas time… kind of a bummer as he is always so tired then and misses a lot of family gatherings as well.

So, back to the point, we will be out of town and not that I won’t have access to the internet, I just hate to impose on Jay’s parents and use their computer. Even though I know they have no problem with it. It’s just who I am… lol… Five years of dating their son and it is just starting to feel like home when I am there without Jay. Crazy me, I know…

I will most likely post my Not Me’s for tomorrow before we leave and you will probably not hear from me until Sunday night (next weekend)when we get home (or if the weather is bad then), Monday when we get home from our week away! Guess that means I best get started on my packing!!!

CIAO! LOVE ME!!!

‘That’s cool… What’s an audiologist?’

You know when you go to family functions and everyone asks you the same thing for the millionth gazillionth time… what are you going to school for again? Okay, maybe you don’t, but I get asked it A LOT! It’s not that it bothers me, I like the fact that extended family is taking interest in what I am doing (or they feel like they need to make small talk). Either way, I enjoy talking about my schooling and what it is that I am going to school for.

So what exactly would that be?! An audiologist… well duh, it’s not as if I haven’t already talked about that before. But I think I sometimes take my knowledge of what an audiologist is and assume other people know as well. And that definitely isn’t always the case. Actually, I’ve run into many people who don’t know what it is. Can’t say I always knew what it was either, but because I am so well versed in this communicative disorder (and starting to gain more knowledge in the audiology area) I sometimes forget that others don’t know.

Okay, back to my my point, what is an audiologist. Wikipedia describes it as…

‘An audiologist is a healthcare professional specializing in identifying, diagnosing, treating and monitoring disorders of the auditory and vestibular system portions of the ear. Audiologists are trained to diagnose, manage and/or treat hearing or balance problems ^[1]. They dispense hearing aids and recommend and map cochlear implants. They counsel families through a new diagnosis of hearing loss in infants, and help teach coping and compensation skills to late-deafened adults. They also help design and implement personal and industrial hearing safety programs, newborn hearing screening programs, school hearing screening programs, and provide special fitting ear plugs and other hearing protection devices to help prevent hearing loss. In addition, many audiologists work as auditory scientists in a research capacity.

Audiologists have training in anatomy and physiology, hearing aids, cochlear implants, electrophysiology, acoustics, neurology, counseling and sign language. An Audiologist usually graduates with one of the following qualifications (BSc, AuD, or MS *actually they require a doctorates degree now), depending the program attended.’

And so there you have it… at least a somewhat condensed version. Usually I just tell people that it’s an ear doctor, which in some sorts it is, but when it comes to diagnosing something like an ear infection, that we cannot do. We can tell our patients/clients (whatever the correct terminology is these days, we use both interchangeably at the clinic) that the ear drum looks red and refer them to their physician and/or suggest they go see their doctor to get it checked out. We cannot formerly say ‘You have an ear infection’ and write out a perscription, even if we know that that is the case. So ear doctor isn’t technically correct as I presume many people think of ear infections when I say that.

My dream job would be to work with children who need cochlear implants and be a part of that team. Until recently that would have required me to live around the Children’s Hospital area as I’m pretty sure what was the only hospital that does that, in Wisconsin at least, but I could be mistaken. At any rate, I know now that Marshfield has recently started doing them as well and that is definitely a lot closer to my current residence. However, we are talking four years from now and I may very well find a different path that I love and go into that. I’m keeping my eyes and ears open!

Anyways, just though I would enlighten you with what an audiologist does, if you didn’t already know. And if you did, well now you just refreshed your memory.

CIAO! LOVE ME!

Sookie Stackhouse Novels

I have found a new source for my reading. It has been maybe two or three weeks since I have read a book. The only book that I read throughout the semester (meaning the last 16 weeks, and that is a long time for me because I love to read) was The Secret Life of bees. Btw, a good book, might want to consider picking it up. I really would like to see the movie now, even though they never hold up their end. anyways… i was pretty busy throughout the semester and didn’t want to fall behind on my studies while getting sucked into a good book. As recently as like two days ago I was blog perusing and happened upon a lady who said she liked the sookie stackhouse novels by charlaine (sp?) harris. They are more vampire books, and well you all know me and my love for twilight!!! Ah, edward!

I immediately googled this author and her books and they sounded pretty interesting and off to the book store i was yesterday. She has a series of about 8 books involving the same characters. And wouldn’t you know, the first seven come in a boxed set. So can Ashley just by one book to see if she likes them, of course now, i bought the whole boxed set. so, i have the first seven and finished the first one today. Pretty good if I don’t say so myself… kind of remind me of patricia cornwell’s novels involving kay scarpetta. Definitely some good reads as well! I am really looking forward to getting my ‘fix’ of reading in over the next three weeks because I’m thinking I won’t be getting a lot in once the spring semester starts again. I so love just going off into the world of my books. It is what really calms me down and makes me feel good. You know how some people take baths to feel relaxed, some eat yummy ice cream, some go for walks, etc… whatever you do to really just feel relaxed and calm… i read!

Jay was gone all day today at the wrestling meet. Well, from 8am till about 3:30pm. Ayden and I painted and did work sheets today. We made handprints of our hands and he wrote our names below them. He is getting so much better with his letters, it’s amazing!

It is currently snowing out and I’m led to believe that Jay will be gone all day tomorrow plowing again. kind of sucks because that will be the third day. But what am I complaining about… some people have their family members gone all day almost every day of the week, if not every day of the week. i cannot imagine that. i’m happy with what I got…

It is so nice to not have to worry about classes anymore. Someone please remind me why I am applying for four more years of that crap? Seriously, i am so done with it and I want even more? What am i thinking? I will definitely be all schooled out by the time i finally graduate for good. They better not extend it even further in the next four years. And ugh, I won’t even be making the six figures. not with the way our current economy is going… it is a good thing i have to go for another four years. maybe by then things will be looking a little better.

Who knows…

CIAO! LOVE ME!

3 'A's'... 1 'A-'... 1 'B+'...

...I think it is safe to say I did prett well this semester. I didn't think my grades would be up so quickly, but none the less, they were and that is how they stand. I'm a little bummed about the B+ (in my abnormal psych class, btw...) but was kind of expecting it. I walked out of the final yesterday thinking that I did okay on the test, but didn't ace it. Combined with the fact that I got a B+ on the first exam, and a C+ on the second exam, a B+ in the class works for me. And if I am figuring it all out correctly... I AM GRADUATING WITH HONORS!!! Okay, so not summa cum laude, or even magna cum laude, but hey... cum laude is better than nothing, right?! Four years of college and a child, think I did pretty good for myself.

I also got my audiology clinic assignment for spring semester and am paired with a first year grad student who also has a son so he definitely knows what I am going through. Should be an interesting semester. I also got an email from my supervisor saying that she has been talking me up to all of the audiology professors and saying that they shouldn't let me slip by. Seriously, HOW GREAT IS THAT?! I didn't even ask her to say anything! She is the greatest!!!

Ayden came with me to work today for a little over an hour. Three years of working there and this is the first time that I have brought him in. Everyone really liked seeing him and he was really well behaved. I even got some work done! Of course he was pretty shy and didn't say much at first, but that is Ayden for you. Speaking of him, he is pretty much back to himself now. On amoxicillin for the ear infection and some ointment for the impetigo... back to the doctor on December 30th for the recheck. At that time the doctor is going to look at his tonsils and possibly refer us to an ENT to look into getting them removed. It's not that Ayden is chronically sick with sore throats or what not, but she noticed that on both times that we were there he was really breathing through his mouth a lot. Despite him being pretty congested, he is a BIG mouth breather. She said that if she feels the need to refer us, she will refer us to the ENT (of the two at the hospital) that is less likely to take them out. That way if he decides to take them out it will because he really believes they should be taken out. Not that the other doctor isn't as good, but she said the other one is more likely to take them out.

I've done a little research on it, but of course have a bazillion and one questions. Probably getting a little ahead of myself here. But I'm thinking that if this is something that should be done, we should probably jump on it because we have the next few weeks of school off and that would definitely be a good time to get it done. Who knows... I'm not rushing anything... just going to see what the doctor's say...

Jay has been out working since 4:30am this morning (currently 6:19pm) and he has a wrestling tournament in Rapids tomorrow morning that he is gonig to ref for. And it is most likely going to be an all day thing. I hope that he gets home soon so he can get some rest before tomorrow. Otherwise he is going to be one hurting/tired unit tomorrow at the tournament. He is pretty excited and nervous about it at the same time. I think it will be good for him though because he hasn't really done anything with wrestling in a couple of years.

Yesterday, Ayden came up to me and said that he wished we all (as in our family) had a baby. What?! He said he wants brothers and sisters... someday kiddo... Mommy wants you to have brothers and sisters too, lots of them... Oh how I want lots more kids and to have had them yesterday. Someday... it will happen when the time is right... but it was cute hearing him say that. Oh how I love the things that come out of his mouth, lol!

I'm hoping Ghost Whisperer is new tonight! It was supposed to be on last week, but it wasn't. We'll see!

CIAO! LOVE ME!

D…O…N…E!!!

That’s right my fellow readers, DONE for the next three or so weeks! DONE with clinic (well have been for a while now)… DONE with classes…DONE with homework…DONE with studying for tests! I am free a bird to relax and do nothing!

What am I going to do with my time off, since I will still be working a few hours a day, do you ask? I will be enjoying time with Ayden, I will be reading, I will be watching lots of TV, I will be enjoying the busy holidays, I will be working on new blog headers and backgrounds, I will be sleeping in, I will be staying warm, I will be doing everything EXCEPT worrying about school, oh and FINALLY getting my audiology grad school app in!

Feel the relief just rolling out of my fingers as I type this…

And after another trip to the doctor, we do have the diagnosis of impetigo and some cream to put on it… but more about that another time.

For now, I’m off to photoshop to work on some blog backgrounds and headers. I’m a woman of change and love nothing more than perfecting my ‘artwork’. I’m waiting to get some good family pics at Christmas time to add in. Maybe after the New Year I’ll ‘update’ my look again because after all, I did just change it to the current one. Always changing… but that is me for you!

…hoping we don’t get lots of snow tonight!

CIAO! LOVE ME!

Diagnosis I’m expecting…

…impetigo… Off to the doctor once again tomorrow… see the rash between Ayden’s nose and lips… that’s what I’m assuming it is. A child at daycare was diagnosed with it a few weeks ago. Could have come from him/her, could be because of his cold, or maybe he does really have strep?!

In any case, we started to notice it later this afternoon (kept him home from daycare again today because we wanted to get some antibiotics in him for his ear infection, and by the way, he is acting MUCH more like himself tonight) and looks like we will be keeping him home tomorrow and Friday too.

Worst part… I read (and heard) that impetigo is pretty contagious, hope Jay and I don’t get it!

In any case, he’s still a little cutie in the picture!

Off to try and study for my last final tomorrow!!!

CIAO! LOVE ME!

Diagnosis Is…

Otitis Media… (like my use of an awesome audiological term) and for the people out there who in the off chance do not know what that is… it means ear infection!

Yes, that is right, Ayden has an ear infection and after repeated asking by me in the past two days if his ears hurt I always got an answer of no.

Here goes today… Ayden was feeling a little better this morning so we decided to try and send him to school. He was definitely in a better mood when he woke up and even asked for his vitamins and chocolate milk. And then I let him after a popsicle because I am a great mommy like that and popsicles do help sore throats. I had to leave before Jay took him to school, but I asked Jay to see if he could get Ayden to eat anything before taking him because Ayden didn't eat anything for supper last night and would most likely miss morning snack by the time that he got to school. Ayden is at school for about 3 1/2 hours and then Jay gets a call to come and pick him up… they think he might have strep throat. Ah, that is just great, Jay and I had a test at the same time today, what were we going to do?

Luckily, Jay’s friend’s girlfriend (who lives right down the road) was able to watch Ayden during our tests. And Ayden knew her so that made it better. Thankfully that worked out pretty good.

A late doctor’s appointment today got us with no strep throat, a pretty bad cold which led to the ear infection and pretty swollen tonsils. I’m hoping that at his two week check up his tonsils will have gone down so we don’t need to consider anything further like a tonsillectomy. But I won’t get ahead of myself.

Pharmacies are closed and thus we will not be able to fill his prescription until tomorrow morning. I’m hoping that his ear doesn’t decide to start bother him tonight because that would drastically suck. Actually, I’m guessing that if it did, it would be because it is about to burst and burst ear drums hurt when they happen! Run into the pharmacy in the morning to get his medicine and get him better asap! Needless to say, going to keep him home from daycare tomorrow.

So, because my lovely sick son would not eat anything today and hadn’t eaten since yesterday afternoon, I made Jay tell Ayden that if he didn’t eat/drink something that he was going to end up having to stay at the doctor’s over night. Maybe not the brightest idea in the book, but he was vehemently refusing to eat or drink anything and in hindsight, he would have ended up in the hospital sooner or later because of dehydration. So I wasn’t really lying to him… was it a little harsh, maybe… but it got him to eat and when it comes to his wellbeing, just about anything goes. Last thing I want is to see him hooked up to an IV in the hospital. I know moms whose children have been in the hospital and I’m positive they didn’t enjoy the whole experience. In any case, seems like we are on the track to getting healthy again. Does a little boy running around chasing the cat signify someone feeling a little better? I’m thinking so!

Bummer... I didn't win the raffle way going on at MckMama's... but congrats goes out to Sharon M. who won with lucky number 68! I'm sure she is itching to get her hands on the prize package... Okay, enough being bummed, did you see the amount of money that was raised?! Seriously, it was almost like $19,000!!! That is awesome for the short time that the raffle way was going on. AMAZING!!!

BRRR!!! It is really super cold out AGAIN! Not as cold as yesterday, well maybe, but the wind doesn't seem as bad today which I can deal with. I am on campus from 8am thru almost 5pm today! That is a long time. A little bit of work, a little bit of an exam, a lot a bit of studying, and then a two hour jeopardy game. I will most definitely let you know how that goes. I'm so cold that I am not even typing right! I hate cold fingers!

Well, it is after my jeopardy game and I’ve gotta tell you… it definitely didn’t last the full two hours which I was happy for! It lasted for about an hour and a half. I ended up with a pretty decent group for which I was thankful for as well. I won’t know my final grade for a day or two yet. I was a little peeved though because a group of us studied for about an hour and a half and like none of it was on the test. Crazy teacher! We had fun studying though, always do! My other final went pretty well today as well. Nothing super easy, but not super hard either. One more on Thursday later in the afternoon. Will start studying for that one tomorrow. Tonight is a no brain night…

I had a rough night on Sunday night... lots of thoughts and emotions going through my head, but I'm happy to say that yesterday and today (so far) have been going really good. I've sort of settled on a track that I want to take for the next couple of weeks and I'm hoping that they go good. The holidays will keep me busy and my mind off of other things like I want to happen. I know, it's probably not good to just bury things deep inside. Rest assure though, that this has nothing to do with my current relationship with Jay. Well, I sort of take that back, it kind of does, but not in the aspect that we need to discuss anything. Right now, Jay and I are doing pretty good. I'm happy with where we are and I'm pretty sure he is too. We are both excited about celebrating another Christmas with our families and are thankful for the time we have with them. Not everyone is as fortunate as we are in all areas of life. I can only be grateful that we have what we have.

I’m thinking maybe I could wrap some presents tonight, but not really feeling it. Found out that Jay has his first wrestling meet to ref for on Saturday. Went out and bought some shoes for it tonight. Spent enough on them, but what he will make on Saturday will cover the cost of them plus some. I guess that is okay. It is the first of six events that he has scheduled within the next month. I’m thinking that is a good thing, besides wrestling only goes until like the end of February and that is it. Better than nothing I guess. He will be making almost $500 total with all the meets he has so far scheduled and they are only middle school and/or JV meets. He is pretty excited as well. And I won’t have any school stuff to worry about so maybe if the weather is half way decent Ayden and I will trek outside to play. Hopefully he is feeling good enough to go to school on Thursday and Friday. We will see…

CIAO! LOVE ME!

Nothing to help…

A mommy can only do so much to help her children when they are sick and when there is nothing else to do, you feel so helpless. And that is precisely how I feel right now as Ayden lays sleeping on the living room floor. He was up at 5am crying about his throat. A quick drink of water seemed to soothe that for a little bit. He then proceeded to sleep until almost 10am. From 10am through 11:30 he pretty much watched TV. He had a bit more water and I coaxed him to eat some fruit snacks. Then he took a bath and that seemed to perk him up a little bit. Lunch time was pretty successful as he drank most of the milk and ate all of his rice. He still complained about his throat, but had/has no temp so I’m not assuming the worst yet. After lunch he seemed more back to normal and even played with his toys and some of the monster truck game. I told him that he didn’t need to take a nap today because he didn’t get up until late, so I didn’t think he would even fall asleep for one.

Jay got home from his two tests and Ayden was doing pretty good. I left for work for a little while and got home and Ayden was pretty sad looking again. His lips are so chapped that they are bleeding. We gobbed him up with Vaseline, but of course he didn’t like that. Read a tip from another blog and will put lots on before I put him in his bed tonight. That will help.

I made some soup for him for supper thinking that would be good, and he loves soup. He didn’t want any and is currently sleeping on the living room floor and it is only 6:30pm. I suppose he will let me know when he is hungry though. I hope that he is doing a little better in the morning because Jay and I both have a final at the same time tomorrow afternoon. Hmm… I’m thinking if worse comes to worse I could get our neighbor lady to watch him. I’m hoping he is healthy enough to go back to daycare though. We’ll see…

In the mean time, I did get a bit of studying done today which is good. I made up my ‘cheat’ sheet for one of my classes that we are allowed to use. The second test I have tomorrow is the game test and I am meeting up with my friends two hours before hand to study so I am not even going to look at it tonight. Plus I’m kind of bushed myself and Prison Break is on. Need to let the mind relax the night before. After tomorrow then I only have one more test on Thursday afternoon. Just need to make it through tomorrow and the rest of the week should be a cinch!

Time to find something for me to eat!

CIAO! LOVE ME!

Missing Post and Not Me’s

Here is a bit of a post that I was working on for Friday and apparently forgot to post it. Here it is now…

She had too...

because it just wouldn't have been right if my ComD professor actually let us out ON TIME during the last day of class. Per normal procedure she kept on lecturing for a FULL five minutes after class was SUPPOSED to be done. And like people don't have places that they NEED to be/get to in the ten minutes we are alloted between class times. Hello, what if someone needs to get clear across campus! Ugh, it just kind of bugs me! Plan your lecture for 50 minutes, not 55! If you wanted to teach longer, have your classes twice a week for an hour and fifteen mintues. Oh well, done with her for another year. She's a great teacher, don't get me wrong, but that one little thing REALLY bugs me. Can't ya tell?

MckMama is holding the drawing for the Rebel Without For A Cause in two days! Wouldn't it be lovely to actually win the prize? Someone will... I'm trying not to get too excited and/or get my hopes up because I know that probably everyone that reads this blog is just as excited to see if they will win as I am to see if I happen to be that one lucky person. I can still hope, right? Have a little faith? I bought a ring yesterday that says... Everything is possible when you have faith! Oh yeah, I have faith... faith that the person who is meant to win, will. And by that, I most certainly mean ME! Hahaha, or maybe not. Two days!!! And if you haven't already bought your raffle tickets, hurry up... time is running out! To find out how to enter... CLICK HERE!!! Actually, it’s over today at NOON! Get your click on!

The girls weekend that my friend and I were planning might be coming to a halt. She lives in Green Bay and I was planning on going there for Saturday and Sunday, however the nice lovely ALWAYS CORRECT weather people are saying that Saturday into Sunday could leave us with some rainy/freezing rain/sleet/snowy conditions and some icy roads. The last thing I want is to be out driving if the roads are going to be bad. I'm thinking it wouldn't be too horrible because I would be on major highways the whole time, but I've heard some bad stories about how Hwy 10 (although it is somewhat highly travelled) can get pretty crappy with freezing rain and I don't want to have to deal with that. I have a very small car (a Chevy Metro for those of you who are wondering) and I not an experienced winter drive, well you get my point, and just don't want to have to worry about it and/or get stuck in Green Bay on Sunday. I really wanted to go, but it just might not be worth it in the end. Although we were going to go to the Tundra Lodge waterpark and then HuHot afterwards for supper. Keeping my options open because seriously, doesn't that sound like an awesome way to relax before finals? Yeah, I thought so too! Girls weekend was a success as you probably know from my previous post!

Without further ado… here are my Not Me’s for today. Also, don’t forget to check out MckMama’s blog for hers and everyone else’s!

I did not have a pretty great drive to my friend’s house and home from our girls weekend. I did not crank my radio super loud and listen to the Trans Siberian Orchestra the WHOLE WAY! I do not have all four of their cds and am not obsessed with their music.

I did not have a totally fantastic time at my friend’s house as well! We did not go to the water park and I did not act like a crazy lunatic because that would not be appropriate in public. Besides, she gets me and Jay would not just look at me like I was crazy. We also did not proceed to ‘guy scope’ even though we both have significant others at home. Hey, sometimes it’s okay just too look! Besides, we totally found every guy there was worth looking at… or not! We also did not spend the whole weekend just chatting it up about every little thing! It was SO not great!

I am not totally stoked that today it is wickedly cold out and windy because if it were yesterday I’d be petrified to drive back to Point and that wouldn’t have been good.

I am not excited that I don’t have to venture outside until this afternoon because just looking outside makes me cold!

I did not call home yesterday from my friend’s house and have Ayden tell me that his throat hurts. Uh-oh… a sore throat? I did not get home too a stuffed up congestified (yes, I made that a word) child who didn’t like swallowing.

I did not proceed to cuddle with said child on the couch wondering how we’d make it through finals week with someone who cannot go to daycare.

Whilst at my friend’s house I did not learn of a new thing called Red Box where you can rent new release movies for a $1/day! Like we have anything in Point like that?! I did not tell Jay about it and he did not proceed to tell me that yes we have one in the Walmart that we frequent so often. Man, I’m not really that blind, am I?

From there, I did not say we needed to go to Walmart to pick up a few things and then to get a movie as well. I mean, for a $1 a day, who could go wrong?!

I am not keeping Ayden home from school today because he sounds completely fine and in fact is not still in bed at this current moment. Everything has to be completely okay if my child sleeps past 8am, right?

I am not worried that it might be a little worse than just a cold and sore throat. Strep anyone? I am not keeping my fingers crossed that tomorrow will be better because Jay and I have a final at the same time and if Ayden is feeling as great as he is today we totally can take him to daycare and won’t have to worry about finding a sitter. All is perfect, right? Or not! Plus, if he isn’t any better by tomorrow, that totally means we don’t have to go to the doctor. Jay already brought up the option last night, but I told him we’d see how today goes. No use going in if it is JUST a cold! We will see how today goes!

I am not sitting here writing my Not Me’s when I should be getting a start on my studying because my child is STILL sleeping!

Okay, maybe I should get going… What did you NOT DO this past week?!

CIAO! LOVE ME!

Girls Weekend!

I have a little time to write while my friend is in the shower. I ended up going to her house for girls weekend despite the travel difficulties that I might have. Actually, my drive was good all the way here and the sun was even shining! Today, Sunday, it is pretty rainy out which kind of sucks, but it is warm enough that it shouldn't freeze to the road and I shouldn't have any problems driving home. We've had so much fun thus far! We really haven't done a whole lot either.

I got here yesterday around noonish and we did a little bit of shopping and then headed off to the Tundra Lodge water park for a few hours. That was a blast! Lots of fun on the water slides and venting in the hot tubs. We even got to sit in the hot tub outside which was awesome. Hot tubs in the winter outside... prime! Lol! After our Tundra Lodge experience we went to HuHot! I seriously have to thank my cousin's Amanda and Amy for introducing me to that place because I doubt I would have ever gone there by myself. It just didn't sound like something that I would like, and wouldn't you know it... I LOVE IT! Thanks you two! Anyways, we got our food and gorged ourselves because we were so hungry at this point. It was so good and we both left with our stomachs filled to the max! When we got back out to Niki's car we realized that it was sounding like of funny and then the check engine light popped on. It was a good thing that we were close to her apartment because we didn't want to get stuck on the road somewhere. Like we would know what to do? So we made it back to her apartment and decided to take my car to Sears to visit her boyfriend for a bit and then go rent a movie. Have you ever heard of a thing called RedBox? Yeah, pretty cool! We rented the movie Definitely Maybe and it was pretty good. Nice chick flick that produced some tears to say the least. Jay probably wouldn't have liked it though. And we made some super YUMMY puppy chow! Oh how I love puppy chow and it is so easy to make. Needless to say that I gorged myself on that quite enough, even had some for breakfast, lol!

Today I think we are going to run to a store quick so I can almost finish my Christmas shopping and then I will probalby head home. That way I don't get home too late and can have some 'weekend' time with Jay and Ayden. Ayden was a little sad that I was leaving yesterday, but Jay said that he was a really good little boy while I was gone and they even went to Mickey D's for supper. I didn't care though because I was going out too!

I have an online final to take today some time... probably after Ayden goes to bed tonight becasue it is a 105 question test. I also need to start studying a little bit tonight because even though I don't have any finals tomorrow, I have two on Tuesday and they both will require some study time. I will most likely go to work for a little while tomorrow and then come home and spend the majority of the day studying because Ayden will be at daycare all day. We are paying for it, might as well get some studying time in, right?

Okay... gonna get going for now... more later... CIAO! LOVE ME!

Super duper generalization!

Either I am a great SLP (speech language pathologist) already or my son is just super smart!!! Or maybe it’s both… which ever, here’s a good story…

First things first, Ayden has trouble with saying some of his sounds. It is normal for his age, but being that I’ve studied so much already in speech development I can’t help but work on his sounds with him. It is nothing that require therapy, but I’m used to doing it.

So, one sound that I can tell Ayden really has trouble with recently is the ‘sp’ sound, like in spoon, spin, spider, etc. He would substitute the ‘sp’ with an ‘f’ and the words would be foon, fin, fider. I’ve tried getting him to say the ‘sp’ without too much coaching/therapy stuff, but it didn’t seem to be working. Well, one day about a week ago Ayden wanted to play Uno Spin. Ha, a great game and we can use ‘sp’ sounds in spin ALL throughout the game. I know that Ayden can say ‘s’ and ‘p’ in isolation so that was no problem, just putting them together.

We played the game and worked on the ‘sp’ sound whenever someone had to take a spin. We would elongate the ‘s’ and then say pin. It was working really good and Ayden was getting some really good ‘sp’ sounds. I was so proud of him, and hey, I wasn’t doing too bad at this therapy thing either, lol!

Okay, that’s not the great part. So, we were playing the game last night again and of course using the word spin and what does Ayden do, he says ‘spin’ just great! He was saying it just like we had practiced the last time. I couldn’t believe that he had taken what we worked on over a week ago and remembered to use it this week. And not only has he used it with the word spin, but I’ve heard it in some other words as well. It’s great to hear him saying it correctly! I mean, not that he NEEDS to say it correctly, but it’s something we were working on. Ah, gotta love speech therapy, lol! And to think I am going into audiology. Am I making the right decision? Yes, I know I am, audiology is where my heart lies!

Ayden is taking a bath right now, thus a little time for me to blog. He didn’t need a bath, but he wanted to take one which was fine with me. Makes him smell so yummy when he gets out.

I so do not want to go to class tomorrow. Today feels too much like a Friday and well, ick, one more day of class! I could so just not go, but I need to get the last day of notes for both classes for the finals. And get this, I found out in one of my classes that our final is going to be a group game of jeopardy. How crazy is that? Our professor is going to split us up into teams of about 5 people and then we are going to compete in a jeopardy game. She stated that she would make sure everyone got a chance to get a good grade. I suppose that this saves on the amount of studying that I will need to do and/or increase the amount. I could always rely on my team mates, but then again what if I get stuck with a team of not so smart people. However, I guess I cannot say that anyone in that class is not so smart because most everyone is. So I’m pretty sure no matter what my team will rock. It’s just too bad that we couldn’t pick our own team because my friends and I would have so rocked, lol!

Speaking of that particular class… I got my test grade back for the last test and I got an 84%… an 84! That’s horrible! I’ve gotten high ‘A’s’ on the first two tests, how could I have done so bad on this one, and we even had half of the test questions ahead of time. I was a little peeved and it makes me a little more worried about my grades. I figured it out and I need to get two A’s, two A-‘s and a B+ to still graduate cum laude. So far, I have one guaranteed A, and one pretty sure A. I’m thinking maybe an A or A- in my ComD class, hopefully an A- in my Social Psych class and maybe an A- in my Abnormal Psych class, but hoping for a B+ at the lowest. I suppose that those are pretty good grades. I cannot say that I’ve extended a super amount of hard work into this semester, but I have definitely not slacked off either.

Jay kind of got into it tonight with the manager of our apartments. They were pretty much yelling at each other about the shitty plowing job that has been done thus far at our place. It is HORRIBLE compared to last year and it really bothers Jay because he does that for work and knows how it should be done and how crappy the people that were hired actually do it. I was a little upset at Jay because he could have just let it go and everything would have been fine, but he had to keep going. Like the managers need more to not like about us. I guess I don’t know if they don’t like us or whatever, but we’ve been told a few times that we cannot keep toys on our patio, etc… and then Jay had to go and get into it with the guy. Funny thing is by the end of it I think they were actually chit chatting about other things. I don’t know, I wasn’t outside with them and hearing everything that was being said, but I hope that they ended the conversation on good terms. Jay did find out that if we ever are being annoyed by our noisy neighbors that we have permission to call the managers at ANY time of the day (even 1am in the morning) and they will take care of it. And if it is a second time that we are calling, they will actually call the cops and file a complaint. It hasn’t been THAT bad yet, but it has gotten annoying a few times. Did I ever tell you about the time I hurt my hand banging on the wall?

My cousin informed me today that Grey’s wasn’t new tonight, bummer! Maybe ER is, but I’m not keeping my hopes up anymore, lol. I’m just tired and want to lay down. Actually, I am just sick of school and want it to be done. I was doing so good and not getting worn down, but now I’m wanting it to be done and bad, looking forward to a little break.

CIAO! LOVE ME!

Can you say…

100%!!!

That’s right folks, Ashley Jane Marie Schwobe got a 100% as her final clinical practicum grade! A freaking 100%! Can you believe it because I sure cannot! I could believe a 100% as my first grade, but to get a 100% as my final grade! I have not received an A+ in ANY class that I have taken throughout my college career and then here comes the ‘class’ that I am dreading the most… the one that I am thinking I will do horribly in… and I get an A+! How great is that?! When I got my grade this morning it totally made my day, no wait, it more than made my day! It was just great!

Also, can you say… addicted to change! I’ve gone and changed my blog AGAIN. For probably the millionth time since I’ve started blogging and it hasn’t even been a year yet. That is what happens when I am left to my own devices and I ‘blog surf’ for a little while and find some great hints from people and different things to try and do. I have to say that I am pretty happy with how it turned out. There is one little thing that I want to change, but every time that I try and change it, it doesn’t work. In any case, it is nothing that makes the blog look ‘bad’, but I’m just extremely picky about things. So, suffice to say, it’s great that SO many people blog these days and are willing to share their backgrounds and advice. My thanks goes out to everyone who does that… it helps us ‘beginners’ kind of get the hang of things. When I started blogging I had no idea that you could do so many different things and have changed my background and elements so many times now. But it’s great, and hang in there, I’ll probably change it another million and one times before my first blogversy. Did I spell that right? Yes, it’s a made up word that I grabbed from somewhere. Think I could probably grab a gadget for it too. So, in the mean time, I hope that you enjoy what I’ve conjured up for now.

It was a pretty cold day here in Stevens Point, but I’m thinking it was probably pretty cold all over Wisconsin. I had an online test to take this morning and I was seriously thinking about emailing my professor after taking it. I got an A- on the test, fine with my grade, but the supposedly 60 question test was really more like a 100 question test. Here’s the deal… the test was worth 30 points, each question was 1/2 a point. However, within about 10 or 12 questions you had to match anywhere between 7 and 10 items… 7-10 actual questions that were worth altogether a 1/2 point. Seriously, what is this woman thinking? Does that even make sense to you? Anyways, I was a little irate because 10 questions that add up to 1/2 a point, a little ridiculous if you ask me. Whatever though… I have a feeling that the final is going to be that way as well.

We ordered a panormous pizza from Pizza Hut last night and it was SO YUMMY! We definitely had leftovers today and that was my lunch. Just as good in my opinion, and Ayden had it for supper tonight as well. I think there is even some left over for me to have for lunch tomorrow too, well that is if Jay doesn’t get at it first. That guy eats like his stomach is a bottomless pit. I’m inclined to believe that a lot of guys eat like that. But he works hard enough, been up at 3am everyday since Saturday, or wait was it Friday?

Last night he went to bed pretty early though. It was kind of funny because I started watching a movie (Just My Luck) at 7pm and when we put Ayden to bed Jay wanted to go lay down in bed too, but he asked me if I could finish watching the movie in the bedroom with him because he didn’t want to lay down alone. He said that if felt weird laying in bed alone. Aw, I love you too hun! So, we laid down together and finished watching the movie and went to bed around 9pm. I have to say that I slept rather well last night too.

Tonight I watched the sheets, pillow cases, and duvet cover on our quilt. Everything smells nice and fresh and clean. I love how the laundry smells when it is fresh out of the dryer. Am I crazy like that, maybe? That’s okay… I don’t mind.

Two more days of classes and then done with the actual classes for the semester. Stupid UWGB is done with classes today. Wish I was there, lol! I so do not want to go to class tomorrow, it’s cold outside! I’m sick of walking in the cold to class. And you know what, it is just starting! I realized today that I am going to get screwed for parking next semester because I will not be getting to school until later. Right now with my class schedule I get front spot parking almost everyday and it cuts about 30 seconds off of my walk in the cold. Oh, 30 seconds is a lot longer than you think when it is super duper cold out like it was today. You know the cold, well at least my Wisconsin readers and others from places that get cold, that makes your fingers go numb after only a few seconds out in it. Wear gloves you say, well of course I do, nice thick ones, but ones that you need to take off to unlock your car door. I just don’t like the cold, lol!

My mommy sent me a wonderful care package full of cookies! Mommies are the best! The cookies are SO yummy too! I fooled my sister and told her we got two bags of cookies where as she only got one. Hey, don’t yell at me, it was my mom’s idea. Besides, I’m the older sister, I can do things like that and well it could happen, as my mommy loves ME the best and most! Not only the longest (as like I said, I’m the oldest) but also the most! Don’t let my sister or brother try to tell you otherwise, my mommy and I know the truth. Only, she pretends that she loves them the most sometimes so they don’t get too jealous. Too funny, we (my sister, brother, and I) have arguments about who is loved the most, and of course my mom assures us she loves us equally (well you and I know really it’s me). We will write on her calendar who she loves the most, put it on her phone, etc… it’s great fun!

Okay, a new Ghost Hunters is on and a new Estate of Panic is on after that, suppose I could take a little time for myself tonight and watch them… or I could blog surf some more because it is SO MUCH FUN and catch up on some of my blogs!

CIAO! LOVE ME!

Here comes the snow…

It's one thing to get a call from you mom, it's another thing for her to start that conversation off by asking if I am prepared for the 'blizzard' that is coming through. Blizzard?! What blizzard?! I wanted to cry... okay, not literally, but that much snow? Shows where my head was this weekend, not keeping up with the local weather, that's for sure! Well, I wrote it off and told her that we WILL NOT be getting that much snow because I WILL NOT allow it. Yeah, like I have some sort of super powers like that! Just put a big shield up over all of Stevens Point to protect us from the snow. I wish! So, upon waking up this morning, I decided that maybe I should take a gander at what these weather people are predicting for snow and wouldn't you know, we are supposed to get anywhere from 4-7, 7-10, 8-12 inches of that white shit. Yes, you read that correct, it can be inferred that I HATE SNOW!!! And because we are right on the line of things, we could get all sorts of amounts. I'm secretly hoping for lots because then maybe they would shut down campus tomorrow. Wait, I hate the snow, but want lots? Well yes and no. If we get a lot I would want class cancelled (like that EVER happens for college students!) and if not, then I want a little. Here's the thing also, if it just so happens that we don't have class tomorrow, it would provide an awesome opportunity for Ayden and myself to go outside and play in the snow. I may not like the cold icky stuff, but Ayden sure does and for that... I guess I kind of do love it in a half heartedly weird kind of way! I know, crazy me!

Tonight is Ayden's daycare Christmas concert. They hold one every year, but this if the first year that we are going to attend. In previous years it really has been a passing thought because I didn't think Ayden would actually participate. He might have last year, but doubtfully. I'm hoping this year he will participate without a second thought. Jay's mom had thought about coming up to see it, but she has something else going on at the same time and could not make it, which in retrospect is probably a good thing considering the type of weather that we are supposed to be having tonight. I wouldn't want her driving in that what so ever. We have decided to tape it for her, well we were going to tape it either way. Ayden seems excited about it and has been practicing his songs ALL the time at home. Some of them are so cute!

Tomorrow is our last swimming class and this I am sure of thinking. However, I just checked the Y’s schedule and it says that classes run through the 20th. Does that mean we have another week after tomorrow? I do not know because last week at classes I heard that the teachers would be handing out progress reports this coming week and I thought that they did that on the last week. Oh, I don’t know. I guess I will just have to ask.

Later… We are at home right now, should be on our way to Ayden’s Christmas concert, however because of the weather, it was cancelled. That is okay with me because the snow has really started to come down and I didn’t want to have to worry about driving in it. The daycare director said that they would be having a little something at the center next week because some of the kids were really upset that they were not going to be able to sing. Ayden didn’t seem to care either way.

It has been a pretty lax night. Jay and I both took little cat naps this afternoon while Ayden played the monster truck game on play station. He is actually getting to be pretty good at it. Not winning any races or anything, but he is making it around the track and not whining about not winning. Jay really needed the nap too because he was up plowing at 3am this morning. He is also now currently resting on the couch. I told him that he should just go into the bedroom and go to bed already because more likely than not, he will be up pretty early again plowing snow. He didn’t have to work after school today and should have napped then, but he was probably playing his computer game. Me… I was just tired and not feeling good after my lunch. Actually I still don’t feel 100% and hope that it isn’t anything worse than a little upset stomach.

Prison Break is on tonight. Yep, not only is it Not Me Monday, but it is that time of the week again! I’m excited! Always love my show time of the week!

I have an essay that I could be writing tonight, but it isn’t due until Friday so I probably won’t be writing it until Wednesday night. I am keeping my fingers crossed about classes tomorrow, but am not keeping my hopes up. Okay, so I am keeping my hopes up, but will not be surprised when I don’t have any emails saying that my classes are cancelled. Oh well…

My last speech lab went well today. Actually all four of them that we had over the semester were a waste of time, but extra points in the class that were easy to learn. Don’t think I really learned anything during them, but whatever. I don’t really care. We are only going to have four potential classes before our final and I am wondering what kinds of questions she is going to have on it. I would like to know if it were going to be cumulative because then I would start studying already. Okay, probably not already, but at least I would know what to expect. However, this teacher will probably not let us know until two days before the test because she is like that, always behind on things.

Ayden has been kind of whiny tonight. Don’t know if it is overly whiny or not, but recently he has really been driving me nuts. As much as I proclaim to be the perfect mommy, most of the time I am just trying to be the perfect mommy. I’m really getting sick of all his ‘I want that…’ and when is summer going to be here and just being overall pretty whiny. Or maybe it is just me being over sensitive to it. I try to just blow it off, but sometimes it is just too much. Need to take a breather! And then he does something that makes me forget about all that whining and melts my heart all over again. Take us driving home from daycare today. We were talking about the letters in the alphabet and out of the blue he spelt his name. Just like that, said my name is A…Y…D…E…N! I couldn’t believe it! I mean, I knew he could write it without my help, but to remember it and say it outloud without writing it, awesome!

So right now he is waiting to play a game with me on the computer. I told him to give mommy a few minutes to finish what she was doing, but like any other little kid, he has asked about fifty million times if we could play yet. Suppose I should probably get going so we can have some fun!

CIAO! LOVE ME!

More Not Me’s!

It’s become a weekly thing now… would feel like of weird if I didn’t do it… join the fun over at MckMama’s blog (the creator) and everyone else’s Not Me Monday’s!!!

I did not let Ayden frost our cookies all by himself and find him eating more frosting than putting it on the cookies and did not find him all dyed blue from the frosting!

I did not clean up Ayden’s room by throwing all of the toys that were on the floor into whatever bin was available because I am not always an organized clean freak and would never do that just so I could walk on his floor!

I did not buy two pair of gloves today while we were out Christmas shopping for other people because they were so soft and comfy and because I definitely needed them as well. Like I certainly don’t have three or four other pair of gloves already at home that I could wear for free. The gloves were on sale, does that count?

I did freak out when the computer system wasn’t working on Thursday morning at school when I needed to print off copies of my final therapy report for my parent conference. I am calm, cool, and collected at every moment, especially when things start to go wrong. I was not super relieved when my supervisor told me that it wasn’t just me and that we could make it work.

I did not let Ayden put ornaments all over the tree even if they aren’t perfectly spaced and not looking great. He had fun doing it, the main objective!

I did not slack on my Not Me’s this week because I was busy finishing up clinic stuff and other stuff for the end of the semester. And thus forth, I do not have a fun filled list of Not Me’s like maybe previous weeks.

What did you not do this week?!

CIAO! LOVE ME!

Scrapblog Creations!!!

CIAO! LOVE ME!

Christmas Beauty

Our patio windows with all of our Christmas stickies on it. Ayden helped a little bit, but mommy did the majority of it. We definitely have a lot more Christmas ones than Thanksgiving and this is only one half of the window. It was fun putting them up though and as you can tell, I am definitely not all for perfection, just the fun of putting them up with my family. I think Ayden had more fun taking down the Thanksgiving ones than anything.

Here is our wonderful tree sans any ornaments and with a little help from the awesome features on my camera. I like how the lights are all twinkly like because if you use your flash and try to get a decent picture you can’t really tell that the lights are on and it doesn’t look as good. Thought this one turned put really well!

Here is Ayden and our tree, plus awesome effects from my camera again. This time the tree has ornaments on it, but you can’t really tell from this picture which is okay. I wouldn’t say that our tree looks like one of those spectacular awesome Christmas trees where everything is perfect. It was lovingly decorated by me and Ayden late this morning and we had fun just pulling any ole ornament out of the the Christmas totes and putting them ALL over the tree. My whole goal was just to have fun this year and let Ayden do what he wanted with the ornaments. This being said, we probably didn’t put on as many as we did last year and a lot of the ‘good’ glass ones didn’t get put on, but that is okay. I don’t really care what our tree looks like as long as Ayden likes it and we had fun putting it all together. And doesn’t he look so happy to be standing in front of it…

Here is my pride and joy hiding under the futon trying to escape the crazy mommy with the camera who is always snapping pictures of him. We were having fun playing together today while daddy was at work plowing for most of the day. That kind of sucked, but Ayden and I played with his trucks and hide and seek and colored and watched some good TV together and had a good rest on the couch. For some reason I was really tired today and didn’t feel like doing a whole lot.

Right now I am sitting in a dark bedroom blogging and listening to the Trans Siberian Orchestra. If you have never heard of them or listened to them I highly suggest that you check out their site here and click on one of the songs. They are GREAT! I have seen them in concert about two or three times and even though all of the performances were the same, I would go again in a heart beat. They are just amazing and their music is very soothing for me. Plus the concerts were nothing short of amazing. I would love to go again, however the price of tickets isn’t necessarily cheap and I know it would be the same thing as before. My mom is the one who actually got me hooked on them and even Jay likes them now. He even came to one of their concerts with me… Anyways, they are supposed to be coming out with some new music at some point and then my mom, Jim, me, and probably Jay will trek once again to their concert! Until then, I will be content just listening to their music.

Like I said before, we really didn’t do a whole lot today. Ayden and I were home all day long and Jay worked from about 6am until 4pm out in the bitter windy cold. It was good hours for him this week, but I know that he is pretty tired now. Tomorrow, I think we might brave the cold for a little while to see if we can get a little bit of our Christmas shopping done. I haven’t been in the mood to go out and get a lot of it done right away, but I suppose that while I don’t have anything else to worry about that I should get a start on it. I have a few more ideas so that is good.

I have a short paper to write for one of my classes that I think I will do tomorrow. It is pretty much an opinion paper so it shouldn’t take too long which is good. Not worried about the grade that I will get on it because I have gotten an A on every other paper that I have had to write for this class.

I am officially done with clinic stuff, minus getting my hour form signed! I am excited about that! However, I did not end up with many hours this semester which kind of sucked and if I get a once a week client next semester I will not have that many more hours either. I suppose the only good thing is that I will have my speech hours done for my grad school part because I think we need like 10 hours of speech for that and I already have that done. My meeting with my supervisor went well and it got done a lot faster than I had anticipated which was good too. Just need to see what my final grade for that class will be, kind of expecting an A since I got a 100% for the first grade that she gave me. I hope to get all A’s this semester, but I am not going to be depressed if I get any A-‘s… it’s the B’s that I am worried about. Two classes are kind of worrying me right now. I need to do really good on both of my psych finals and they are the hard classes. Get my study boots on I guess! Maybe that is something that I will try and get a head start on this week and/or have my friend help me next weekend during girls weekend. Just what we will need to be doing during our girl time… studying, lol! You gotta do what you gotta go though, right?!

I started this entry kind of in a bad mood, but after a good chunk of TSO my mood has increased a lot… sort of has a way with me I guess! I love TSO!!!

CIAO! LOVE ME!

Friday Wonderfulness!

My morning started out rather normally today. Wasn't expecting it to be a grand ole Friday or anything special like that. My work wasn't open when I went there this morning, but that wasn't new so I had a little while to spare before my 9am class. Around 8:30am I headed to the clinic to get a little bit of paper work done for my client and really didn't find anything that I was looking for in his file so that was kind of a bummer, but as I was walking out of the CMC I ran into the clinic director (not literally) and she asked me about my spring semester and if I had a few minutes to talk with her about the audiology practicum. I happened to have a few minutes so we quickly talked about what I had open and it just so worked out that my open slot worked great for her and we scheduled that in. Along with that she told me that she would kind of give me preferential treatment as far as getting a client assigned/time for the spring because she knows my current daycare situation/work stuff and that later in the afternoon and early morning wouldn't really work for me. I was super stoked to hear that, along with the fact that she would try and find me a partner and easy client that maybe was only once a week. How great is that! And from there, the day just kept getting better! I went off to the little 7 computer lab we have and logged on quickly to check my email. Oh wait, before I got there I stopped in the little student lounge we have and checked my clinic mailbox and had gotten a paper returned to me with a 100% written on it. This being a class that I can get A's in, but never a 100% because something is always not quite perfect. I was elated to see that, even if it was only worth 20 points. On to the email, and wouldn't you know it... my 11am class is cancelled for today because my teacher is sick. Even more greatness! Talk about an awesome Friday!

So my 9am class went pretty well. We didn't get through a whole lot of material, but that is okay. What we did get through was rather interesting, although we watched an Oprah segment on someone with borderline personality disorder who was a severe cutter and it was really graphic and disturbing. I am not usually one to shy away from watching gruesome stuff, but this was real and she was in pain and it hurt to watch. I wanted to see what they did with her for treatment, but we didn't get to see that part. Oh well... Then it was off to work for a little while and helped my boss get some things done and then I went to go see if I could meet with my supervisor early (I have a meeting set up for 2pm) because I was pretty much done for the day, but she was no where to be found.

After my unluck trying to find my supervisor I went to the cafe and ran into one of my friends and she had to wait for her clinic partner until noon so we sat and talked for a little while which was nice because we haven't gotten to do that very often over the course of the semester. It was nice just to really catch up and chat about school and what nots. So around noon she had to go and I thought I might give finding my supervisor another shot, but none such the second time either, and I think she has a meeting with someone else at noon. I have resigned to the computer lab and have decided to wait until around 1pm to see if I can get in just an hour early because I don't feel like wasting another hour on campus if I don't have to. I could very well go home unitl 2pm, but I would rather just get the meeting over with now.

I have also been trying to get a hold of Jay because he didn't know if he had to work today or not and I decided that if he didn't have to work that he could get the Christmas stuff out of the garage for me to find our stockings tonight. It is too cold for me to want to be out there helping him so I hope that he gets my message and does it for me! Lol, wouldn't that be nice. Otherwise I can just be a mean girlfriend and tell him to do it by himself either way. Haha, I'm radiating with evil, lol.. just kidding!

So, anyways, now I am in the computer lab trying to waste some time until I can get in and meet with my supervisor and get everything completed that I need to. Shouldn't take more than an hour I would think and Jay said that either way he would pick Ayden up from daycare today so I don't have to worry about it which is really kind of nice. I still have to walk in the bitter cold to my car, but I suppose that I can try and deal with that.

Grey's and ER were both really good last night and I am glad that I decided to watch them. I also just found out that I have this coming week and the following week of Prison Break left, so TWO more weeks of my lovely gorgeous Wentworth Miller. And here I thought we would only have one week left. Yeah for Prison Break! Self proclaimed addict, that is definitely me!!!

As for the weekend, not so sure what the plans will be. I thought maybe we would go get our tree, but we are supposed to get some snow tonight, possibly 1-3inches I think, which would mean that Jay would be out working tonight and probably most of tomorrow. I suppose that if he doesn't have to work tonight that it would be a compromise, but it would still kind of suck. Plus it would put us back on decorating, probably even getting our tree, and then who knows if I will be in the mood to on Sunday. Okay, getting a little ahead of myself, the money is still good so that is really all that matters right now. We need money and if that means Jay has to work when it snows, then so be it...

CIAO! LOVE ME!

Server Down

What is a girl to do when she has clinic at 8am and the clinic doesn’t open until 7:45am and she has four therapy reports to print off and the server for the computers is down?Hmmm… is crying okay? Okay, so I didn’t cry, but I was just about freaking out! I got into the clinic in time and thought I was going to have plenty of time to print off my extra therapy reports this morning (since when I went to the lab yesterday afternoon, which consists of about 7 computers for the undergrad clinic students, they were all being used and by graduate students who have their own lab that they can use and I didn’t have the time to wait for someone to get off because I needed to quickly print something and then head off to get Ayden from daycare.) So, my plan was to print them off this morning, but I tried logging onto three different computers and it didn’t work. Finally, I went to my supervisor who informed me that it wasn’t just me going nuts, but that the whole buildings server was down and they were trying to fix it. Great, that meant I had one report for four people to look at during our parent conference. And not to mention, this one had writing on from me when I turned it in earlier this past week and when it printed on Monday it came out of the printer looking kind of weird. Argh, wasn’t looking like it was going to be a good meeting. However, the parents showed up not too late and the meeting actually went pretty well. My supervisor even said I did a good job after they had left. It was kind sad knowing that I wasn’t going be seeing my client anymore. You know, that getting attached kind of thing. They say that you will always remember your first client and I’m pretty sure that I will. A bitter sweet Thursday.

The rest of my day went pretty good. Got a few things done at work for my boss and she was ever so grateful. She always is which makes me know that I am appreciated and that is nice because not every job is like that. I had two classes and we didn’t really get a lot done in either of them which was kind of funny because we are so behind in both of them. I guess that is okay because that is less material we will need to know for the final, right? I only have two more assignments and one online test that I need to do before finals. Wait, three more assignments, but I think the third one will be pretty easy so I am not worried.

Last night I downloaded a bunch of cool new fonts for my computer. And they were all free as well. I needed something more than Word could offer me because some of them are just not creative enough. It was nice to get some of the ones that I had on my old computer back. Crazy, I know, but I missed them.

Tonight we went to Walmart and got a little bit of Christmas shopping done. Oh, and went to Kohls as well. I had a coupon and Jay needed some new jeans. He has a habit of taking his good jeans and turning them into work jeans and/or blowing the pocket out in the back of the ones that he does have. Hmm… not fitting him as well as they should?! Getting kind of tight.

I think I must be doing something wrong with Ayden and spoiling him too much. What? Is it possible to spoil your child too much, well in some respects yes, because he was throwing a fit today when I wouldn’t let him get a toy at Walmart. He believes that we can get a toy every time we go and I am trying to teach him that we cannot. Apparently I am not doing something right because we had quite the scene in both Walmart and Kohls. Kohls wasn’t too bad after a few minutes, then he got really quiet and stayed that way until we left which I was really surprised about. I had to look in the cart/stroller thing at Kohls to see if he was still awake he was that quiet.

Grey’s Anatomy and ER are both on tonight and new! YEAH! These past two weeks have been kind of nice getting home from school and not having a whole lot to work on school/homework wise. I get to hang out with Ayden and play with him a little more. He thought he was high and mighty tonight because Mommy let him play a monster truck game on Daddy’s playstation. He was doing pretty good at the game too and he played it for almost an hour.

We only had a pizza for supper tonight. Didn’t really feel like cooking anything further and really I made Jay make the pizza. Not that throwing a pizza on the pizzazz thing is all that hard, right? I mean open the pizza, slide it on, turn on the machine, wait a few minutes. And might have some ice cream tonight. Don’t really know. Kind of tired and just want to be able to sleep in. Glad that this weekend we are staying home. Not that I didn’t get some time home last weekend, but it’s nicer when Jay is home as well.

Last week of classes next week! Cannot believe it!!! Oh, but I’ve been through that more than once now.

Overall, this week has been a pretty good week. Still have a lot of different thoughts going through my head which don’t help any or make things any clearer for me, but I am taking things one day at a time and going from there. If I worry too much about the future I get too stressed about the whole situation and thus… live today for today!

CIAO! LOVE ME!