Where does the time go?

Started 8/19... finished today...

Jack... I had a great dream about Wentworth Miller and Prison Break last night. Not very often that I dream about him, or well that I remember it anyways. Must be a sign that I cannot wait for it to start back up in less than two weeks! I'm so super excited! And let me tell you, it was definitely a good dream, lol! Okay, not good in that way, but we did break out of prison together and then hold hands on a walk to some restaurant. I know... you are probably thinking, huh? What kind of dream is that? I guess you'd just have to have been there. That gorgeous face! What a way to start the morning, right? Sounds like a good day is on the way!

But I should probably put it into rewind for a little bit and pick up from where I left off in my last post. Let's see here... my weekend, how did it go? It went super fast and was really busy! Saturday morning we got to sleep in to about 8am and then Ayden woke us up. Despite the fact that some mornings I would love to sleep in a little longer, I absolutely love it when he gets up in the morning and comes and crawls into bed with me and Jay. Then he lays there and pokes your nose ever so gently and says 'Wakey wakey' and then when you open your eyes (because I actually wake up when I hear his door close in the morning and thus am already awake, but pretend sleeping when he crawls into bed with us) he has the biggest smile on his face. It's not too often that he will crawl into bed with us in the morning and be in a bad mood. That is usually when we have to wake him up, and might come a little more often this fall when we are going to have to get up a little earlier than we do now. So anyways, we got up and lounged a little bit watching some cartoons.

Then I decided to shower and finish getting things ready to leave. I think we were out the door at 10am which was about the time that Jay had wanted to leave I think. We didn't really have any plans until 2pm, but that was okay. We could hang out at Jay's house until then and that was precisely what we did. Ayden played his V-Smile Pocket most of the way home and I was glad that he finally had something to keep him occcupied with because I know how sometimes those rides can get pretty boring. Especially for a little kid. I often wonder what he is thinking about when we take those long drives and he doesn't end up falling asleep. Oh to know the minds of children, eh?

After we made it to Jay's house we played outside for a while and caught up with his mom, even though it had only been a week since we had seen her. Jay practiced his shot with his bow. He says that he is going to go bow hunting this year. I guess that that is okay. He hasn't gone in a couple of years and I know that he really misses it and likes it. Maybe he will get another deer. I told him though that that would be fine, but we wouldn't be able to pay for it to get processed because that is a hunk of money in and of itself. He said his grandparents would pay for it. Okay, yeah because I'm so open to taking handouts. My pride is too high for that. Who knows? We will cross that bridge when we come to it I guess. We ate some lunch and watched a little bit of Santa Claus 3 and then it was off to the Chilton Pool for some swimming!

Jay decided that he wasn't going to go swimming, which was fine by me. Ayden and I could go and he could watch, which was precisely what he did. Plus, a lot of my cousins were there so it wasn't exactly as if we were alone. At first the pool was pretty cold, but as you moved around more it got better. My sister, dad, brother, Alexis, etc... were there so we had lots of people to play with. Ayden was also able to wear a tube so I didn't have to be as watchful of him. He loves the water, but this pool starts out a little deeper, 3ft 6in, so he definitely can't touch without going under. The pool in Point starts out at 2ft 11in and this year Ayden can touch. I want to go to the pool here a few more times before the summer comes to a close, but I don't know if that is going to happen.

We stayed at the pool for just about an hour and then decided to get out because Ayden's lips were turning blue. I had fun doing a little 'swimming' of my own while someone else watched Ayden. I raced my brother and sister down the pool, but didn't do so hot because I couldn't stop laughing. I was definitely no Michael Phelps, but props to him for winning all those gold medals! His parents must be beaming with joy. I couldn't imagine how proud I would be of my child if they were destined to do that. However, I feel proud of my child everyday for just being him. It's a gift beyond description to become a parent! Sometimes I wonder why I was given such a gift... why me? I'd like to think that it's because someone thought I'd be good at it. Who knows?

Getting out and dressed was a little more difficult that usual. At our pool I usually just get Ayden dressed and I stay in my suit until we get home. We live like a minute drive from the pool. Pretty easy stuff. Well, I decicded to shower and wash my hair because of all the chlorine (usual for me) and Ayden decided to shower with me. Fine with me... but I couldn't get the shower to work decent so we took a very luke warm shower with very little shower pressure, however we made it... clean hair and everything. Then it was time to dry off and since Ayden had gotten out of the pool at one point and used his towel, it was already soaked and hard to get him dry with it. We managed and ended up fully dressed (if not still a little damp) and headed off to the corn roast, which just happened to be a short drive down the road to my aunt and uncle's house.

It was good to see a lot of my family again since I probably hadn't seen Easter and/or before then. A cowboy golf/ladder golf/whatever else you want to call it tournament was set up and Jay and I entered as a team. I warned him ahead of time that I was not very good (he already knew that though) but really wanted me to play with him so I did. And like I said, I was not very good and we lost in the first round. We were winning, right up until the end though. I think I may have even played a little better than Jay, lol, but it doesn't matter. We had fun. At first Ayden was a little shy. I also think that he was tired because of all the swimming that we had just done and the fact that he had had no nap yet that day, but after a while he warmed up to everyone. He had lots of little cousins to play with and he enjoyed that a lot. I think it was probably the first time that he really got to play with a lot of them. My aunt and uncle have a big trampoline with one of those gate things around it and that was the hit of the party for the kids. The rule was that only four people could go on at a time and it was so popular that a list was kept to make sure that everyone got a fair shot and equal time. It was so funny, but it worked very well. And needless to say Ayden was one of those kids who loved the trampoline. He has jumped on Gerald and Michele's, but there doesn't have a gate around it so he's always had to be super careful about jumping, but now he could go crazy wild and not worry too much. Of course I was a big worry wart though. I tried not to be and just to let him have fun, but I'm a mom, it just comes naturally. And the corn was so good as well! Wendy brought some of her infamous chocolate carmel bar thingys and I think I had like four of them! I was so stuffed by the time that we left!

At some point during the party Jay and I ran to Walmart quick to get some munchies for our day at the zoo on Sunday. Emily watched Ayden for us, and it only took a few minutes. We wanted some juice boxes for Ayden so he would have something to drink during the day. We stayed at the corn roast until about 8pm, although I know we could have easily stayed longer. But we needed to be up by 6am to get ready for the zoo and I didn't want Ayden super tired or crabby. He didn't fall asleep on the way to Gerald and Michele's like I thought he would. They were having a small bonfire too and we sat outside with them and then somehow Jay remembered that we still had our fireworks there and then he decided that he was going to set them off. Ayden loved watching them! We had maybe 20 of them and the were moderately big. Big enough for some oohs and ahhs and to get some of the next door neighbors dogs barking, lol! And then it was bed time! I think Jay and I got into bed around 10pm and I had the alarm set for 6am. We brought our own pillows this time because the ones that were on his bed were super firm and niether of us liked them very much. I slept okay, but not super good. The morning came too fast and then it was time to get up and ready for the zoo.

Ayden was in a pretty good mood which I was happy about. We made it to my mom's house shortly after 7am and left around 7:30am for Milwaukee. The drive down didn't take nearly as long as I thought it would. It was a good thing that we left a little later than we had wanted to because Milwaukee got rain and it looked like a lot. In no way did I want to get stuck driving in the rain in Milwaukee. Okay, so I wasn't driving, but you know what I meant. And I thought we were supposed to have a sun filled day?! Well, we got to the zoo about ten minutes before it opened and you could see the sun trying to poke through the clouds. My awesome mom took care of our ticket prices (well she got them for super cheap through her work) and then she even took care of the food ticket costs (which once again were super cheap through her work). She refused to let me pay her for our portion of the costs. Hey, I was okay with that though. So before we started our animal adventure we stopped at her work's booth for the day and picked up some free soda and then we were off! We were at the zoo from 9am until 2pm. I couldn't believe how fast the time went and we all had so much fun! This time we payed to get in by the sting rays and shark and were going to feed them but we didn't go at the correct time for that. Ayden put his hand in the water by the sting rays for a little bit, but then when they would come closer he would pull it out and say that he didn't want to touch one. That's okay I guess, wasn't going to make him do anything he didn't want to and scar him for life. Okay, probably not scar him for life, but you know. I think everyone else managed to get a little touch of a sting ray. They are the same slimy that I remember from Florida, but it was fun anyways!

I think the only animals that we didn't really 'explore' were the farm animals. We went there last to feed the goats and get some ice cream and then Ayden decided that he wanted to go. By that time he was getting kind of antsy and I think everyone else was pretty much ready to call it a day. Five hours at the zoo is plenty for me! I started off taking some pictures, but somewhere along the way I got stuck pulling the wagon and Jay took over camera duty. He was snapping pictures left and right. Not that I needed a picture of every animal or anything because I don't think they changed all that much since last year, but he seemed to think I did. Thank goodness for digital cameras. He took over 100 pictures. But at least he had fun doing it!

Our drive home was uneventful and seemed to take a little longer, but then again, don't they always. We got back to my mom's house around 3:30pm and planned to hang there until after supper. Jay found out that Casey got XBox 360 and the game Alaskan Crab Fishing or something like that. Anyways, its the one that Jay has been trying to get for the computer since the end of May, but they always push back the release date. To date it is still on 'backorder'. So Jay got to play that and was pretty happy. Casey and Becky were cleaning Casey's room, and Emily, Ayden, and I were relaxing and playing. I also got my birthday presents which were the books I had asked for. Actually my mom got me all three of them. I was so stoked! I was about to jump into Breaking Dawn right away, but my sister said that she wanted to read the Tori Spelling one as well and so I had to read that one first. I was okay with that because that one was only about 300 pages... easy read, done in a day and a half. And it was pretty good too. I think I might have been a bit disappointed had I bought the book for myself though and then read it. And right now I have about 200 pages left in the 742 page book of Breaking Dawn. I started it Monday night and got about 150 pages into it then and read until page 542 yesterday. I've been a book hermit after work this week so far. Literally, I've been stuck on the couch reading hardly ever coming up for air as Jay likes to say. I hope to finish the book today so I can actually get some stuff around the house. 200 pages should take me just over two hours if I have it uninterupted. I'm excited to see how it ends!

I have a meeting with our case worker today to get everything straightened as far as our daycare help goes. Actually, it is an annual meeting. We get reviewed every six months to make sure everything is up to par like we say it is. Ie: to make sure we are still working, etc... At the six month one we just fill out a bunch of forms and send things in, at the year one, someone has to go in for a face to face meeting. Pretty much the same thing goes on, except I have to sign something saying I understand it all and yada yada. This time though I have some questions because our 'help' is up when it comes to us being in school in like two months. Would be fine had I graduated this past year like the rest of my class, but I still have another year left. I will need to see how it works out and if we will still get some assistance if Ayden is in daycare during hours that we work. It will cost us about $150 to send him to daycare/week. Outrageous! However I have some questions for the daycare director as well regarding 4k and how that will work into there too.

Is this a long enough post yet? I haven't even gotten to my birthday and that is another story in and of itself. See, all I wanted for my birthday was to sit at home alone and read... the whole day, well after I was done with work. And Jay knew this, afterall, I had just gotten three new books from my mom. But I was expecting something kind of big from his as well, as he had told me that he budgeted about $250 for my present. Little did I know I was about to be hugely surprised! The morning started off like any other morning. I got up and ready for work and so did Jay. He left and then I left. So far so good. I worked for a while and got done a little early and headed home ready to relax and read. I pulled into the driveway and Jay's truck is there. Hmm... what is he doing home? Did they really have that little of work to do? Did he stop by to fix something for my birthday and I wasn't supposed to be home yet? Did he get hurt and sent home for the rest of the day? What was going on?

None of those things... he took the day off for my birthday. Great present, huh? Well, it was really sweet of him to do that and I admit that I didn't fully appreciate it at the time. I was pretty peeved. We need the money he brings in from work, how could he take a day off of work and not discuss it with me first? And if he knew that I just wanted to be alone and to read on my birthday why did he take off in the first place? We weren't going to spend anytime together so what was the point? It was pretty much a waste if you ask me. I was sick of the arguing about it and was already in a bad mood so I grabbed a lawn chair and headed off to the beach to read for a while. I just needed to be alone and to calm down. I stayed at the beach for a good three hours and then headed home in a much better mood. I didn't do anything more than read when I got home either, but the overall mood was better. Jay and I went grocery shopping and then made some super good pizza when we got home. It was really yummy! And that was pretty much my day.

The rest of this week has been good too... just reading! Well I finished Breaking Dawn today and I'm kind of sad. I get so sucked into the world of Edward and Bella and don't want to leave it. They are too perfect and I'm sad to see the story end. The book was definitely worth it and I would love for there to be another, but so the story goes... there will not be anymore. Do I dare start the next book I have on my list? I have two days before the little monster comes back, think I can finish it in that amount of time? I don't know... not sure if I even want to start another one right.

Speaking of the little devil, according to my mom, he is having quite the time at her house and so is she. Today they were supposed to go to Bay Beach. The weather has been good so I hope that they had a good time. He went last year with my dad, but I think he might have more fun this year. I would love to take him at some point too because they are still uber cheap and I haven't been there since a couple of years before he was born. That is a long time! It would be a lot of fun, at least I think so. I can't wait to see him though, you know that mommy part in me is dieing to see him. He didn't want to talk a whole lot to me on the phone last night, but I could hear him in the background telling stories left and right. He's been taking good naps too which is a super good thing!

I'm sure this post is long enough and that I'm probably missing a few things that I had wanted to talk about when I started it, but I will let you go now. I'm sure I kept you for enough minutes today... CIAO! LOVE ME!