Not Me Monday!!!

I've joined the ranks... and have decided to follow McMama's lead over at mycharmingkids.net (I admit, I am definitely a lurker at her blog... it's great! Read it!) and get with everyone else on this 'Not Me Monday' thing. Besides, it's pretty fun and I enjoy reading what everyone else did not do in the past week. So here goes mine...

This one is actually from today... I did not wish for my client to not show up today so I wouldn't actually have to start therapy. And I secretly did not rejoice when they didn't. Nope, not me! Now I feel even more behind everyone else, but also am relieved because I still haven't actually had to teach this client something.

I did not procrastinate all day yesterday and not start studying for my psychology test tomorrow. Nope, not me!

I did not let Ayden skip lunch yesterday and put him down for a nap instead. The kid claimed he wasn't hungry, wasn't going to feed him twice. And I did not tell Jay to just throw some easy mac in for him when he woke up from his nap because I was too lazy to cook something. Nope, not me!

I did not let Ayden drink a whole bottle of Sunkist after our pictures yesterday because he behaved well for them. Me let my child have soda! Never! At least mostly never...

I did not take my son into Pizza Hut on Saturday with a face covered in Oreos that didn't make it to the mouth. No way, I definitely should have cleaned it off using that good ole' mom spit! Nope, not me!

I did not bribe Ayden with money during our picture sesssion yesterday so we could get some good shots. Bribing really gets you no where, right?

I did not go to work on Friday simply because the door was locked and the recepionist was out of sight so I couldn't get the key. I did not even consider asking the lady in the next room to see if she should get me in. I did not decide to take the afternoon off and relax a little before picking Ayden up.

I did not silently curse my supervisor for making me watch some movie about good teaching that took up an hour that I could have been working on Friday morning. And I most certainly did not fast forward through most of it. Nope, not me!

I did not feel grateful when a classmate of mine told me their score on the GRE and I realized that mine was 400 points higher and she took it twice. I did not think that my chances were better at getting into grad school than hers.

I did not leave some cake batter in the bowl when making Jay's birthday cake tonight just so I could eat it. Who does that? Certainly not me!

I did not sit outside and watch Ayden go play with his tractor in the puddle outside our aparment. I did not think that he should probably have some socks and shoes on and just let him continue to play regardless. And really, I did not just continue to sit there and continue to watch when he decided that he needed to get more wet and layed down in the water.

And right now, I am not continuing to put off studying by posting my 'not me's' and reading others! Nope, not me!

Too much fun... I hope everyone enjoyed my post and all the things that I did not do! I really enjoyed reading everyone else's and it helps to realize that I am not the only 'real' person there is and that other people are not perfect either. Perfectionism is way over rated anyways!

Maybe I should get some studying done, but I will not continue to procrastinate and go play 'hide n seek' with Ayden!

CIAO! LOVE ME!

P.S. Oh, and I did not buy two pair of shoes today and justify it because I can wear them for clinic and because they were from Walmart and so really I got two pair for the price of one!

Feeling Lost

Jack- It's been a while since I specifically addressed you, or at least it seems that way. Today was kind of a hodge podge of a day. This morning I had my dress fitting for alterations in Kaukana at 9am... means I left point at 7:30 and arrived pretty much at 9am. I wasn't sure if it would actually take me that long to get there, but it's a good thing that I didn't leave any later than I did. I'm not sure if I could have taken an alternate route that would have been faster. I know of one way that would have been a little faster, but because of current construction I could not go that way today. In any case, the appointment really didn't get started until 9:30 because some other lady's appointment was running behind. I didn't mind all that much, but it would have been nice to get in and out faster than what we did. My dress still fits perfect! I needed it hemmed up and they are sewing boob cups in for me. Nice! Now I will at least look like I have some boobs and won't have to wear a bra! Lol! I'm definitely not 'blessed' in that area. Although Jay says he likes them just the way they are, if we ever come into some excess money (ie: winning the lottery that we don't play) I am so getting a boob job! Maybe TMI but you'll deal... anywhoo, my sister needed a little more done to her dress so that is why it took a little longer.

I got out of there at 10am and was worried because I didn't think I would make it back in time to catch some of Ayden's soccer game. I drove faster than I probably should have on the way home, but I wanted to catch just a little bit, and I did get to see about 10 minutes. He totally rocked today! Jay also videotaped it so I watched it after we got home. I am definitely beeming with pride for my little soccer star!!! He was so close to scoring two goals today. He is doing great and I'm so thankful. Jay thinks that soccer might be 'his sport'. We were both really worried that he wouldn't like it, but it turns out that he's taken to it pretty good. Three more weeks and then swimming lessons will start. I talked to Ayden about swimming lessons and he seems excited for that as well. That will be during the week though. Still need to sign him up for that though.

After the soccer game we went to Pizza Hut for lunch and stuffed ourselves full and had plenty of left overs to bring home. It was so yummy!!! When we got home I unbuttoned the pants and layed down on the couch. Tired and stuffed to the brim! I 'napped' for about an hour. I use quotes because I really didn't sleep because Ayden was playing pretty loudly. But I did get a little rest which was nice. Not nice to have to get up before 7am on your days 'off'. I hope Ayden sleeps in tomorrow, at least a little bit. He didn't have a nap today so maybe he will.

The rest of the afternoon was pretty layed back. Ayden and I played some games, played outside, watched a bit of TV. I didn't do any homework at all today, despite the fact that I should be studying and working on my next lesson plan. Speaking of that, I still haven't heard from my client's parents. I'm worried that maybe I should call again, but then again, like I said yesterday, is it really my responsibility to call after leaving two messages and it being the weekend?! I'm confused, worried, wondering...

Tomorrow we are getting Ayden's four year old pictures taken. I've been planning this for a while now. Have had outfits picked out for a couple of weeks, but due to the busyness (sp?) of these past weekends I haven't had a time to schedule them. Well finally I took matters into my own hands and decided that this weekend would be the weekend. He's only be four for a month now, lol. We are also going to get a family shot or two. The main reason for going is for Ayden, but I can never pass up a family shot. I love getting professional pictures taken. There are a few photographers that I'd love to check out here in Point, but they cost a TON and so Sears is definitely fine with us. They do a good job and have a really good package price. Maybe I will get ambitious and post some tomorrow if they turn out really good. Which I am hoping for. Ayden's been primed for this event as well. Need 'pretty teeth smiles', lol!

I talked to one of my best friends today. We haven't talked since Ayden's birthday party and we really needed to catch up. She recently moved and doesn't have the internet and we are both really busy. Not really a good excuse for letting time get past us, but it's true. Anywhoo, I found out that she is getting a divorce. It kind of sucks because she's only been married for a little over two years or a little under, can't remember her exact wedding date (even though I stood up in her wedding, bad friend, eh?). Well, after hearing the reasons and what not, I don't really blame her. I've met her husband a handful of times (we haven't been able to hang out all that often since I moved to Point) and he seemed well enough, but apparently he's got quite the temper and has become pretty controlling. Now, I'm not all for divorce, but if she is not happy then their child will be able to pick up on that and that isn't healthy. Hopefully she can get through this easily and move on with her life. Currently her husband is doing okay with it all and doing the whole sharing custody thing pretty well. I hope that it continues this way because she also said that he's been going back and forth with being okay with this.

But after talking to her it has made me think even more about not getting married. I want it a permanent thing and can I be sure of that, well right now no. But it doesn't really matter, does it? It's not like I'm being pressured to get married or anything. Jay is fine with us not getting married right now. It hasn't been brought up by any family members. Content the way things are. Plus it's not like we could afford it and we are still young. Funny how I think 22 is young to get married (well at least for me, if someone knows they want to get married younger then I say, go for it... everyone feels different about things) but anyways, I no longer thing 22 is too young to have a 4 year old. Ironic, huh? Or crazy... or just speaking a whole bunch of nonesense that doesn't make sense.

That is okay, I've been thinking a whole bunch of nonesense lately. Lots of different thoughts going through this tiny head of mine and sometimes I get scared by them. Worried if I am going in the right direction in a lot of areas of my life. Is the stress of the semester getting to me that much already? Am I sure I can make it through the rest of this semseter, much less the rest of this year. And what if other aspects of my life change? I don't know... I'm kind of feeling lost right now...

CIAO! LOVE ME!

'Can I wash dishes?'

...Those were the words that came out of my son's mouth today after supper. Apparently he felt the need to help around the house a little bit. And so being the nice mom that I am, of course I couldn't say no. He washed a few bowls and spoons that did not fit in the dish washer and he did a might good job at it if I don't say so myself. He also vacuumed his bedroom and my bedroom. Great, huh? That I did pay him for. Fifty cents for each room. Hasn't forgotten about the toy that he wants to buy yet. But it is only day two.

So I got an email from my previous supervisor saying that my client's mom needed a call. I called her work and cellphone at two seperate times and left a message, and yet I still haven't heard back from her. That it is not to say that I will not hear back from her yet, but I'm worried. Do I call again? Do I call tomorrow? Do I wait? Do I tell my current supervisor? What if they don't show for therapy on Monday. I talked to Jay about it... his opinion... wait and see. Here's my logic. We are calling from a 'professional place.' When the doctor calls to remind you about an appointment, they usually call once and if you don't answer they leave a message. It is then in your hands to either show up or call and cancel. I've called twice and left two different messages and my number. I also called yesterday and left the clinic number and my number. I think I should leave it up to the family and wait for their next move. I don't want to be 'stalkerish' and don't think that I should have to call on the weekend. Would your doctor call you on the weekend? So yeah... we'll see I guess.

I'm glad the week is finally over. I have two tests that I need to start studying for this weekend. Will I get any studying done? Don't really know... I have a dress fitting in the morning for my cousin's wedding. Excited! And then hopefully make it back to Point in time for Ayden's soccer game. Pray the rain holds off and/or stays away! And on the way back to Point a long overdue phone call to my best friend who just recently surprised me with some crazy news. I am anxious to hear how this came up about and can't wait to catch up with her. We haven't really talked since Ayden's party which was almost two months ago.

I also recently got a letter from Lee and boy did it surprise me as well. He explained me to a situation that I've been waiting to hear about. I knew that at some point he would tell me what all went down, but I didn't want to push him. I've tried dicussing things with him in the past, but he always said he didn't want to talk about it and would let me know when the time was right. Well, I don't think that the time was right, rather he explained it because he needed to clarify some other thoughts that I was currently having. But he did say that it was only fair that I knew and because we have such an open and honest friendship that it was time. I was more surprised though because I rather bluntly told him my opinion about something he is currently going through and it wasn't very nice. I admitted at the same time that I knew it was mean/rude, but because we have that open line of communcation that I thought he deserved to know what I was thinking. It doesn't pay to 'hide' my true feelings about it. He said I was being a bitch, but that he understood and he was glad that I was open and honest about it and that is why we get along so well. No hard feelings on either part. I told him that either our openness is going to keep us super good friends for a long time or be the end of us someday. I hope the first... Btw, I know that you may or may not understand any of the previous... but that's just the way I am. It's not my story to tell and there are some aspects of my life that I'd prefer to not divulge right now. Sorry...

So I am off to get Ayden to bed and pout because I thought Ghost Whisperer was on tonight and it really wasn't. Poor me! I really should be getting into bed myself because if I have to leave by 7:30am tomorrow I really won't get to sleep in either! UGH!

CIAO! LOVE ME!

You want me to fit that in when?

It's been a busy week to say the least and I've done every in my power to accomplish absolutely pretty much...NOTHING! Okay, I fib, I did do a bit this week. I took my first test of the semester, but you can't really call an online quiz where you can use your book and notes a test, can you? It was timed, so maybe. I ended up with a 24/30, but I have quite the bone to pick with the professor. Well, maybe not a bone, but there are a few questions that I did not like how she worded and thus will probably get a few points back. I hope that it will be enough to get my grade back up to an A or at least an A-, because right now with her ridiculous grading scale I'm sitting at a C+. Ugh, I dislike professors who mess with the nice 90, 80, 70 scale, lol! And I also wrote up my second lesson plan and had two one on one meetings with my supervisor and a mass group meeting, and I'm sure a few other school things got done as well.

Along with school, I did four loads of laundry, folded and actually put them and last weeks laundry away, semi cleaned, although that really didn't get anywhere because everything is a mess again (sometimes I wonder why I bother and then I remember... I'm anal like that!), and I've been trying to keep the TV off more and spend more one on one time with Ayden. It's not that I don't often play with him, but I've personally noted a lackage of it during the middle of last week. We often get home from daycare and I sit down to eat a little something, turn on a little bit of afternoon cartoons for him, then get started on whatever homework I should be getting done and he often plays by himself. Those are the times where I really wish he would have a play mate. Not that we could afford another child, but Ayden would definitely love it. In any case, we've drawn pictures together, taken walks (well I walked, he rode in the wagon), had pretend picnics, read books, and tonight I plan to make cookies. Me cook!? Nah, simply put them on the pan and in the oven type cookies, but Ayden loves to help with those kind. I guess it's the little things that matter, right? No one's perfect.

So, what do I have to do tonight... watch the two hour premier of Grey's Anatomy of course. Along with getting my lesson plan finished. I don't have a whole lot to do on that, just some simple revisions. I don't know if I will actually watch Grey's, but it was a good thought, right?

Last night Ayden decided that he wanted to go to bed early and watch a dinosaur movie. Since he hasn't watched any movies in his room since early last week I said that he could. It gave me a little extra time to work on my blog background. He stayed up to watch the whole thing... I think that was until about 9ish. We started the movie shortly after 7pm I think. So while he was doing that I was busy creating a new blog backgroung, again, and not getting it uploaded with any success yet. I'm following ALL of the directions on the website I found to the TEE and yet my background is STILL too big for the screen. I am resolved to try one mroe thing tonight and then I am emailing the website for advise. I totally love the new background that I made because, well I created it. I've found some awesome free digitial scrapbooking downloads and have been using those. The sucky thing is that my computer so really slow. Now is when I could use a new one, or maybe it's just because I have so much stuff on it. Maybe a bigger memory or whatever would help. I am not all about computer lingo.

Off to class now... more later...

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Okay, at work now... class is done for the day and I'm done with what I needed to do today at work. My boss will be gone today and tomorrow and so there is no rush to get what I do have left done today so that I don't have anything to do tomorrow and then don't even need to come. Now that would be a waste of a day, wouldn't it? LOL!

I think it has been a pretty good day thus far. I am about to go get Ayden from daycare in about a half hour and then I think we might go to the Children's Museum. I mentioned something to him about it yesterday, but it was too late at that time to go. So, if he is in a good mood when I pick him up we might head over there to kill an hour or so. Then Jay will be done with class and we can enjoy the afternoon together. Jay does not work on Tuesday or Thursday afternoons because he doesn't get home until 3:30pm and it would be kind of pointless for him to go in for an hour. His schedule on those two days is kind of wacky and he does end up with about three hours of nothing to do between his classes. I told him that that is homework time and/or me writing a list of chores for him to do. He is usually pretty good when I give him lists of things to do. Of course it is nothing really big though. He is definitely not all for putting things away. He brought a dart board in that was sitting next to the dumpster two and a half weeks ago and it has been sitting on our counter since then. It would probably sit there for another two weeks, if not more, before he decided to do something with it.

We got our digital TV converter boxes yesterday. I was kind of excited to see if we could get our local channels through it and then get rid of our 'cable local channels' but it doesn't look like it will work. We get like two or three channels. Of course they come in good, but I don't know. Haven't talked to Jay about it yet.

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At home now and I just received an email from my supervisor about a movie that I am supposed to watch. I had emailed her about being able to check the movie out of our clinic library and being able to take it home to watch it. I wanted to make sure that that was okay before I did it because there are consequences for ‘breaking the rules’ in the clinic and well I don’t want any of those. Unfortunately, I cannot check out and take home the movie as it has sib nits of clinic therapy on it and that requires me to watch it at school in the clinic. Well, this morning I just gave my supervisor my schedule and she commented on how my mornings were very busy. I told her yes, they are and then I leave and pick my son up from daycare. Literally, this semester I have NO free time during the day. I bounce back and forth from class and work all day all week. Wait, I just thought of something. I do have from 9:15-10am on Mondays and Wednesdays before therapy free. I could watch it during that time. Of course it would take two days because the movie is an hour long and I still would need some time to set up for therapy. Hmm, that might work, but of course I start therapy on Monday as well. Just another thing to fit into my already jam packed school schedule.

Ayden and I did go to the Children’s Museum today. We played for about 45 minutes and then it got a little busier than I would have liked and we decided to come home. I was even nice and let Ayden get a bottle of soda on our way out. Sunkist… yummy! Mommy drank most of it. We got home and I snacked a little bit and then started to do some cleaning. You can partially see the living room floor again.

Ayden is at the stage now where he wants everything he sees on TV. Every commercial for every stupid toy- ‘Mommy, I want that!’ ‘Can we buy that?’ ‘’Let’s go get that!’ Well, tonight I sat and had a talk with him. I talked about how we cannot get all the toys that we want. I took sort of took something that I read from another blog. I printed a picture of what he wanted the most off and taped it to a tupperware container. I told him that every time he did a chore he would get some money for it. I don’t know how this is going to work, how much I should be giving him, etc… but we are going to do some experimenting here. He’s already fed the cat and is picking up his room right now. I figure if he can earn half of what this toy costs I will pay the other half. It costs $50, so if he can earn $25 and still wants the toy, we can go get it. I will not get it before two weeks is up though, because I want to see how much he wants it and what he is willing to do to get it. He’s 4, he might lose interest. Maybe he will learn a little bit about money. I don’t know… like I said, kind of experimenting here.

We are having a crock pot dinner tonight and it smells delicious right now. Should be done in about 10 minutes. I tried to fix my blog once again, but the idea that I had did not work either so I am back to square one. Actually, like I said at the beginning, I think that I am going to email the creators of the website and see what they have to say about it because I really want the whole background to show.

I know I have some more to say, but I am going to go right now… CIAO! LOVE ME!

Soccer, Fishing, 5 Years Together!

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Jack- Above you will find some pictures from Ayden’s soccer game on Saturday and his fishing excursion later that same day. You might also notice, that in two of the pictures from the boat, my son IS NOT wearing a life jacket. Now, this is quite odd as we ride the boat a lot and Ayden knows very well that he HAS to have his life jacket on at all times while on the boat. So, as the story goes, which I am apt to believe because this sort of stuff happens… neither Jay nor his parents realized that Ayden did not have his life jacket on until after the first few pictures were taken. I did not find out how long it was before these pictures were taken, but I doubt it was more than an hour or so. As soon as it was noticed, of course on went the life jacket. No harm done, but it was rather amusing. It is cute that Ayden and Jay match as well.

In the video, Ayden is the little guy with a red shirt and red shorts, hope you enjoy!

Today is mine and Jay’s 5 year anniversary. I cannot believe that we’ve been together for 5 years now!!!

Ayden is currently enjoying a bowl of ice cream and telling me more and more about his weekend fishing and staying at the cabin with no lights so they had to use flashlights. I’m bushed so I’m going to keep this short tonight and go cuddle in bed with Jay as soon as I get Ayden in bed. Some good TV time tonight, even though I should be studying for my first test tomorrow. However, it’s online and open book, so I’m not too worried. I have my lesson plan done and am looking forward to my one on one meeting with my supervisor tomorrow to discuss getting therapy started on Monday…

CIAO! LOVE ME!

Teleportation Anyone?

Jack!!! Get this, starting this week, there will be three days during the week where I walk back and forth from work to class to work to class and finally back to work one more time! And to make matters worse, work and my classes are on opposite sides of campus! Too bad they haven’t invented teleportation yet because I could surely use it. I work for an hour, class for an hour, work for an hour, class for an hour, and then work for almost two hours. Talk about a back and forth day. Makes work go a little faster when I don’t have all that much to do, but definitely gives my speed walking legs a work out and makes me feel all discombobulated all day long because of all the back and forthness going on. That is my gripe for the day, clinic messing with my schedule yet again!

Speaking of clinic, I had my first ‘weekly group meeting’ today and it was a waste of an hour if you ask me. It was like an extra class that I so did not want to pay attention to. I’m not sure if anyone really learned anything and she is giving us extra work to do. Okay, this time I kind of got off easy because well I have class 15 minutes into the meeting, but I guess she had one partner pair look up journal articles and then another pair this week. Probably a good thing I’m not there right away at the beginning. I guess I just don’t know. And it’s me and one other group who have language clients, but at least they are a pair. And their client is a little older. Still kind of sour about this whole particular situation, if you cannot tell. I have a lesson plan to write by Wednesday morning. Technically I could have waited until Friday to have my meeting with her, but I figured that I might as well get it over with right away and go from there because I am probably going to have another lesson plan to write up by Friday we well. I don’t really know and right now don’t really want to think about it.

I’m back to being the envious mom going to school who wants to be one of those stay at home moms who don’t have to worry about getting things done at a specific time and can sort of go with the flow. Maybe it’s more of the I just don’t want to have homework when I get home. I hope that when I finally do get my doctorate that I can go to work and then come home, but leave work at work. I cannot wait to actually do my profession, but it will stay at work. When I come home, I want that to be family time, not all this extra having to worry about other stuff time.

Tonight is Prison Break and John and Kate Plus 8! My weekly ‘alottment’ of specific TV shows. I watch enough during the week, but nothing I need to watch. I might try and get a start on my lesson plan as well during the commercials, but after Prison Break I am done for the night… relaxation time. I do have a work sheet that I could possibly finish before my Speech Science class tomorrow, but I’m really not in the mood to. I hope that she doesn’t decide to collect it because I have most of the answers to fill in yet. Just not really something I wanted to find the answers for because it involves getting out previous classes material which is stuck away somewhere. But I guess I should probably do that.

Crap, forgot to put the lasagna in, guess we are eating a little later than expected, lol!

CIAO! LOVE ME!

Procrastinating… AGAIN!

Jack- Watching one of those Hallmark movies right now, Shark Swarm. It’s actually pretty bad, as in poorly made and doesn’t make a whole lot of sense, but nonetheless it has caught my attention and it’s on for another hour. Hmm, should I continue to watch it or start getting some of my ‘homework’ done? I wouldn’t exactly call anything that I should be getting done homework as I am not going to be getting graded on any of it. But I do have two worksheets due in a week that I need to finish, a worksheet that my teacher suggested that we do, and some notes to finish typing up. So I thought that since I had the house to myself today I might take advantage of some of that stuff.

I know in my last post I kind of up and left pretty abruptly. Jay and I had a bit of an argument, but we got over it. Something stupid, like most of them, but it’s done and over now and not worth rehashing here. All is well in our world again.

Yesterday was Ayden’s first soccer game! I was a little disappointed because I wasn’t going to be able to watch it, but I got a great report from Jay. I was nervous for it because Ayden said that he didn’t want to play when we were putting his shin guards on at home and that he just wanted to go up north and go fishing right away. I talked to him about playing and we discussed more about the game and all of that good stuff. About how he wouldn’t always get the ball and how sometime people might bump into him and that would be okay.

Jay said that Ayden got right out there and played like a champ. They also got their jerseys. Technically Ayden’s team lost 0-1 and the last goal was scored right before the end, but they don’t keep score. He also said that Ayden even fell down a few times and that he got right back up and into the game. Ayden had a little trouble with direction at first and was running towards the wrong goal, but that is okay. I was just so excited to hear that he didn’t whine or cry at all and that he had lots of fun. And his friend Seth wasn’t even there. The kids also got a snack after the game which was great as well. Now I’ll be a real soccer mom because it’s our turn to bring snack in two weeks. I cannot wait to see the pictures that Jay took. Next week Jay is going to bring the video camera. I told him that he didn’t have to bring it this week because we didn’t know how Ayden would react and didn’t want it to be a waste.

Yesterday was also my cousin’s bridal shower and that was pretty fun. We had some good laughs and my other cousin came up with two pretty neat games to play as well. I’m not all for games at showers, but these ones were not too hard or two easy so that was good and they were fun. Plus there was ‘Krystal cake’ there which I might add tasted very similar to ‘Grandma Hoerth cake’… which means it was really good! Lots of good munchy food and I ate way too much! My cousin got a lot of wonderful gifts as well which I’m sure she and her fiancé are really excited about. Well, according her, Grant was going to vacuum the night away, lol. I cannot wait until Jay and I get married to get all that good stuff, jk… Married, me? Ha, not for another couple of years. Jay and I have discussed it before, first we have NO MONEY to get married, nor more importantly, are we ready to get married. Tuesday will be our 5 year anniversary… some may think that after 5 years of dating and having a child together we might know if we want to get married someday. Maybe he knows, but I don’t know. And well, it’s much easier to ‘break up’ than get a divorce. And thus, until I am absolutely certain, we won’t be getting married. Neither of us needs a piece of paper to prove that we love each other.

Okay, so while at my sister’s birthday party last weekend I saw that Casey had stitches in his ear and asked him how he got them…  unbeknownst to be, he had surgery! And he was going to need it again. It wasn’t major surgery or anything, he had a hole in his ear drum from an ear infection and it needed to be closed (I love ear stuff, it’s what I’m going to be going to school for next year!) and I was never informed of this. Not that I need to know the everyday activities of my brother, but one would have thought that my lovely mom would have informed me that he had surgery and would need it again. Wonder what all else I am missing out on while living in good ole Point?!

Speaking of living far away, driving home for the bridal shower yesterday cost me an extra $25 on gas. Ugh… and prolly another $15-20 next weekend when I go for my dress fitting. I hate gas! It definitely needs to go down and soon!

I have my first test on Wednesday. The good thing is that it is open book and online. Online- possibly bad because it’s timed and I don’t know the format of it, but good because then I can do it at home without the added pressure of sitting in class with all of the extra students sitting around me. And with that, I’m sure I will have other tests just around the corner. I cannot believe that we are heading into the fourth week of school already. It still feels like the beginning. Maybe that is because I haven’t really gotten into any set schedule with clinic yet. I feel like I am getting so far behind everyone. I hope that that does not effect my grade at all and that my supervisor doesn’t expect me to make up these times because I do not have any extra time.

(Side note: my extremely annoying neighbors just turned on their extremely loud and annoying music!) And speaking of neighbors, the ones that live next to us are moving out. They are a nice quiet couple who I am going to miss, not that we’ve gotten to know each other, but for the fact that it now leaves the apartment empty for loud partying college kids to move into… or maybe a nice couple with a child Ayden’s age. Now that would be great.

Back to the point that I was going to make… I was ranting and raving to Jay the other day how I think the professors sometimes don’t even think about the students who are nontraditional and have families to support and other things that just school to worry about. I do NOT have the extra time for all these extra meetings scheduled at any time of the day whenever. I have a set schedule for my son’s daycare and set schedule for work and cannot change it. Personally, because my work is so flexible I know that if I needed to take off I would not get fired, but it is not like that for everyone. My friend Robin is working nights to support her family and going to school during the day. I can only imagine what that is doing to her physically and emotionally. I cannot really say because we haven’t talked all that much since the beginning of the semester, simple answer, too busy!

I’m going to watch the end of my movie now and restart my computer so the updates I installed will take effect and hope that my neighbors turn off or down their music before it really starts getting on my nerves… stay calm Ashley. It usually only lasts for an hour or so…

CIAO! LOVE ME!

FINALLY Friday!!!

Jack…It's been a crazy end to my week and thus why I have not written in the past few days. Give me a break... I follow a lot of blogs where it is not updated daily- I don't care, I understand people have lives other than their blogs. Anyways, two days away means only that much more to get caught up on. I've also just been so tired lately that I've done a whole lot of nothing in the afternoons anyways. Actually, yesterday was definitely my lazy day of the week. I rested on the couch most of the afternoon and Jay and Ayden worked on the boat. Boat? JT's boat to be exact, but we house it in our garage. Jay is such a nice friend, eh?

Anyways, I was even in bed last night at 7:30pm with every intention of falling asleep, only to turn the TV to a channel where Grey's Anatomy was starting at 8pm and it just so happened to be the last episode or two of last season. It was two hours long and now I am mostly all caught up with it and am ready for the two hour season premiere next week. Okay, maybe I shouldn't be adding another TV show that I need to watch, because Monday nights are my night, but I sort of like Grey's. But then again, ER is on Thursday nights too and this is supposedly it's last season. I watched most of the season last year when it was on. Maybe, maybe not this year. Depends on how busy things get.

Ayden went to 'bed' early last night. He told us that he wanted to watch a movie in his room around 6:45pm and we said that that was okay. He probably didn't watch much of it, but instead played... that is okay too. Actually better because I know that he watches too much TV. I try to keep it limited... try being the operative word. He will not get any TV this weekend because he will be going up north with Jay and his family and they are staying at 'The Palace' in Beecher. Family joke, but it's a cabin that Jay's grandparents have that has no power. Really roughing it up there. Worse than camping with the camper and having power, but camping with a camper really isn't truly camping if you ask me. So, in any case, Ayden will be getting lots of outdoor time this weekend.

Nighttime now… Ayden is currently whining about having to brush his teeth before bed. Me- don’t really care, it needs to get done. It’s already past bedtime, cranky time has set in. Actually, I’m kind of tired too and was just going to shut my computer off and go to bed, but then I thought about all my ‘lurkers’ and how disappointed you would all be if I did not update you on the magic show.

Some magic show, huh?! Good thing we got in for free because I would have been pretty disappointed had we paid. I give the guy some credit because he tried to put a good show on, but it was hard to keep the little kids attention. He talked too much and didn’t really do anything too spectacular. Ayden had a hard time paying attention, but for the most part he was pretty well behaved. We didn’t have to get up and walk out if that says anything. It only last for an hour which was long enough for us. Ayden was more than ready to go and so was I.

This house is full of crab asses tonight! Ayden is crabby, Jay is yelling at me and well now I’m crabby… sorry blogger buddies… more tomorrow… :(

Trying something new…

I’m working with a new bloggie thing here called Windows Live Writer and am just trying a few things out. We are going to a magic show on campus tonight (FREE!) and I hope to get back on here afterwards and catch up on what’s been going on in life… that is if the show doesn’t last too long and I’m completely not in the mood anymore when we get home. Until later… CIAO! LOVE ME!

Crashed...

It's been a tough week...

Hot Stove

Jack, I have therapy again tomorrow, wish me luck! I am still a little nervous, but not as much. Actually, I wasn't horribly nervous sick to my stomach on Monday either, just wanted to make a good impression. Did I, don't really know? I have yet to go and get my review sheet from my 'mail box' and see how I was graded. Despite the fact that my supervisor said that we did really good, I'm still apprehensive about seeing my first 'grade' for clinic. Worry wort! Pretty much always have been and always will be.

I was looking over what my schedule could potentionally be in the Spring and it is looking like it could be pretty good. I am only taking three classes and then clinic and another one credit class. That would leave me with 12 credits, the minimum for a full time student. The three classes would be: Hearing Science, Social Gerantology, and some psych one, possibly Children Disorders (or something along that line, don't know the exact name). And then I will have clinic two hours a week. The one credit class is going to be a two time CPR class that I took two years ago and it was super easy. It's a eight hour thing split into two four hour days. After the classes you are certified in CPR for one year and First Aid for three years. I guess technically I am still certified for First Aid, but the class was easy enough and gives me 12 credits and is just twice during the semester. Less for me to worry about.

WOAH!!! New flash... just recieved an email from my supervisor about clinic and apparently things are about to change. Well, possibly will change, but not final yet. It appears that two of the clients might be joining a language group at their preschool instead which would leave just one client left. And this client might be joining another language group. If that is the case, I might lose my partner because her schedule works better than mine and get a whole new client and be BY MYSELF! By myself?!?!?! Kind of freaking out here! Or maybe they would pair me with someone who is by themselves right now. Not so sure how this is going to work out here and now I'm getting worried. I was just getting comfortable with the way that things were going to go. Sure, we had some energetic kids the first time, but we were going to get things rolling during the following sessions. Now the parents don't want to move the clients because of us as clinicians, just that it will be easier on the kids to stay at school and get therapy versus leaving and then having to go back to school. Completely understandable, and being a parent myself, would probably prefer that. I guess I just need to take a few deep breaths and calm down. I will not be handed something that I cannot handle. I've been handed bigger challenges than this before and have overcome. I guess this was not the plan for me/my partner/the clients/their parents. If Plan A doesn't work, move to Plan B.

Tonight: So the rest of the afternoon was pretty good. Jay's last class was cancelled so he was home with us for most of the afternoon. I have to say that I got nothing accomplished. Oh wait, I did finish reading the article for my summary review that is due on Friday. We have to answer three questions which I thought would be pretty easy. As it turns out, I actually have to use brain power to do it. The plan is to try and get some of the answers typed up when I am done on here. We will see how that goes. I will probably get like one done and then call it a night.

We took the training wheels off Ayden's bike today, per his request. He decided that he was ready to be a big boy, but once realized what having the training wheels off actually meant, he wanted them back on. Jay pushed him around for a little bit and then Ayden had just about enough of that. For right now I've decided that we aren't going to put them back on right away, but niether am I going to push him to try and learn to ride a two wheeler. We might practice a little bit on the days that the weather is nice. In hindsight, he probably won't learn until Spring, but that's okay. I'd be fine with it if he had training wheels until he was 20.

Ayden and I also picked up his room tonight. It wasn't a good sort through like I would normally do, I mostly just wanted to be able to get to his bed without having to step on or over or around something. Yes, it was that bad. And I know I could have just pushed the toys to the side and made a path to the bed and dresser, but it was easier to throw everything into an empty bin. Empty because Ayden dumped everything out of them onto the floor. He did really good with that. We still have toys out in the living room, but he needed SOMETHING to play with.

We also had a minor emergency tonight. Nothing that required the ER, but enough to scare a mommy and daddy. Here's the scenario. I'm in the kitchen getting the ice cream out of the freezer (it was one of those little cardboard box ice creams) and set it on the stove to put the rest of the stuff back in the freezer that I had to take out to get the ice cream. Little did I know that the burner I had set the ice cream on was still hot as Jay had just gotten finished using it. I had no idea he had had it on because Ayden and I had ate supper about an hour earlier and I had turned everything off and left the pan with the potatoes on said burner. Jay then ate and had cleaned up the kitchen, but apparently he turned the stove back on to warm up the potatoes. So sweet child of mine goes to grab the ice cream off the stove and touches said burner. Ice cream goes flying to the floor and Ayden lets out this shriek. I had no idea what happened because like I said, I did not know the burner was on. Thankfully Jay was also still in the kitchen and it quickly registered that Ayden had burnt himself and he grabbed him and immediately put his hand under cold water. I grabbed an ice pack and those two went to go sit in the living room to try and calm down. By this time Ayden was no longer crying and it was determined that the burn was just on the tip of his pinky finger. Not even enough to blister it (thank God), but definitely scary enough. Ayden proceeded to eat his ice cream (with sprinkles I might add) and all was well. All accidents cannot be avoided... I'm just so thankful that it wasn't worse.

Going to attempt to get some homework done now... CIAO! LOVE ME!

Therapy Success

Jackers...So, I am at work right now and my boss hasn't been in since last Thursday and thus I have no new work. Well, technically there is something I could work on, but I need my boss's opinion on something before I make the final move. Not worth explaining, but I cannot move forward without her go ahead, but can't really get her go ahead when she isn't here. What is a girl to do? I could go home, but then I wouldn't be getting paid, right? Everyone is on lunch break now... is that an excuse to be blogging? Probably not, but I'm not hurting anyone, am I? Who cares...

I'll start with the most recent- I had my first therapy session today! And I survived! But boy were we in for a surprise! Three little guys with lots of energy, that's for sure!!! My activities didn't pan out as expected, which was okay. We ended up just matching the things for bingo and playing with the little people animals for most of it. The kids were getting kind of antsy and couldn't sit still for the other things that I had planned. We might try them at a different point. I was kind of sad because we didn't get to use the There Was an Old Lady Who Swallowed a Fly poster and animals that I spent time making. But I guess that is what you get coming into something that hasn't been done in the last ten years with children that you haven't met before. But overall, I think it went well. At least that is what our supervisor told us. Actually, I felt like we didn't get anywhere. Not that we are supposed to make giant strides during the first session, but it was hard to focus on them individually with three of them and two of us. I guess it will be something that gets discussed with our supervisor at our weekly meeting on Friday. I need to write a reflection for today's and then get started on next Monday's lesson plan. My partner has to write the lesson plan for Wednesday's session. But in all honesty, it wasn't as bad as I thought it would be. Only, I was late (like one minute) getting to my next class because one of the parents was late picking up her child. No biggie, just hope it isn't a weekly thing.

Tomorrow is Ayden's turn to bring a treat to daycare for snack time. I am thinking something like goldfish crackers or whatever. I'm all for baking some awesome snack, but the thing is, they eat it at 9am and I don't think they need cookies/brownies/cupcakes at that time of the morning and also because of children's allergies, I don't want to make something and have child not be able to eat it because the teacher doesn't know what is in it. So I thought I'd go halfway nutritious and nothing homemade. Good idea? I don't know...

Jay was very cuddly last night which was good. Lately I haven't really felt all that close to him. We haven't been fighting or anything, on the contrary, getting along pretty fabulous. But that's about it, just getting along... cohabitating and parenting. Not really doing anything together or setting time aside for each other. Kind of bumming if you think about it, but honestly with school starting to pile up on me all I want some nights after Ayden goes to bed is some alone time to watch TV. Now I wouldn't mind watching TV and cuddling with Jay... the only problem is that he hardly ever likes what I watch (and constantly complains about my channel surfing abilities, which I admit, I HATE COMMERCIALS!!!) and with football and baseball on... I hardly like what he wants to watch. And to then when we both find something we can compromise on, niether of us really want to be watching it in the first place. IE: tonight is Monday which for me equals: Prison Break and a taped episode of John and Kate plus 8, but for Jay equals: Monday Night Football! He has stated he would watch Prison Break with me in the event that football isn't on, but when will that be, in Februray after the Super Bowl? Lol... I hate watching sports on TV. Actually I'm not a sports watcher at all, unless I personally know someone playing. IE again: I could watch high school football when Jay was playing and high school wrestling when Jay was wrestling. Heck, I was a manager for both teams for three years... I pretty much had to like it. And I did, but after high school, not my forte anymore.

Speaking of Prison Break... YEAH I GET MY WEEKLY DOSE! I'm always excited for Mondays. Not that you aren't sick of me oogling and googling over Wentworth. Sorry then, you'll survive.

My cousin's bridal shower is this weekend! The plan was just to come home for the day, but now Jay is saying that he might be coming home as well (which means bringing Ayden) because his grandparents want their peir out and he usually helps with that. I don't, I sit and watch. Doesn't look like any fun. So, I was thinking that I probably wasn't going to be bringing Ayden to the shower, and probably still won't, but it's more up in the air now. Not that she would care anyways because I'm sure her nieces will be there, or at the very least, the eldest. She's what you call a laid back bride. The best there can be... go with the flow. Well, that is not to say she doesn't have her hands full and isn't really stressing to the max, don't really know, and if that is the case, she hides it well. Bravo Amy! (And I totally know you-and Amanda- are reading this so... super excited for Saturday!) Can't believe how fast the days are going by. I remember when she asked me and thinking, yeah, that's a long time away, but it sure does creep up on you fast!

Later tonight- I got my first therapy review done now. Not a whole lot of work for it and I should be working on some other homework, but I thought I would finish up here first. I have this Chapter to ready for my Speech Science class and then have four questions to answer about it. Sounds like fun, eh? Maybe one of you should do it for me. Now is one of those times where I wish I could just come home from school and leave everything at school. School is worse than a full time job, because it comes home with you. Okay, so people often bring home their work as well, but can't I complain a little. I'd rather my only full time job be is being a mom.

Ayden and I rode our bikes this afternoon for a while. We also went through some letters. He still doesn't know all of them, but I am not going to pressure him to learn them. Some kids know them way earlier and some don't. I want Ayden to be smart, but I won't push him to the point where he doesn't want to do it yet. He'll know them all by kindergarten and be able to write his name and much more I'm sure. There's no rubric he has to follow to get into school. Okay, well there is stuff they 'test' him for during screening (I think) but I am in no way worried right now. We have a whole year to learn that stuff. A nice progression into I think. Funny to think that he will be starting kindergarten when I am starting grad school. How crazy is that? My little guy in kindergarten!!! Enough with the dramatics Ashley, that is a year away yet.

A grocery trip to Walmart tonight stocked us up on groceries once again. This one was actually one of our big shopping trips. We haven't done one of those in a long time. The past couple of months it's usually been just the basics and what not. We don't always go all out when we eat. If I haven't stated it already, I don't really care to cook and when I am the one doing most of it, we LOVE hamburger helper around here. Lol!

Okay, enough babbling for now... just might try and read that chapter I spoke (actually wrote of, haha) before... CIAO! LOVE ME!

Weekend?

Jack, it's supposed to be the weekend, but it really doesn't feel like it. Maybe it is because it is going by so fast. Can't we just freeze time for a little while so I can get all my 'homework' done and still get a little relaxation time in? Okay, if we can't do that, then can I at least just be able to sit and watch an hour of TV? Probably not that either... but what I'd really like to do is get lost in a good book...

Soccer was cancelled this week due to the rainy weather yesterday. Even if it wasn't cancelled I don't think I would have taken Ayden. Maybe it's okay for older kids to play in the drizzly weather, but I wasn't going to put Ayden in a situation where he was able to get sick easier. We were both kind of disappointed because he was really looking forward to it this week and so was I. Jay was already at home so he probably could have cared less either way. But because soccer was cancelled that left an extra hour of our morning free and it only pushed up the time that Ayden wanted to go to McDonalds. Didn't really want to eat lunch at 10:30am so we played around the house until 11:30 and then headed off to Mickey D's. Boy were there a ton of people there and even more kids. We didn't sit in by the play area because there was no seating in there. I told Ayden that if he ate really good then he could play. Well, he ate really good, but he decided that he didn't want to play and off to Alexis's house we were.

The drive was okay... rainy the whole way (complete side note... I am on Jay's computer at the moment and the litter box is right below it and it STINKS HORRIBLY- mostly because Diesel just went into it and let all the stink out through the door and is probably going to stink it up more and I refuse to clean it). Anywhoo, we made it to Alexis's house a little after 2pm even though the party wasn't supposed to start until 3ish. Not that my dad cared anyways. Ayden and Alexis had fun playing together before everyone else got there. Actually most everyone on my dad's side of the family came. I was surprised, but it was lots of fun. Tons of good food and lots of dessert. I had a brownie, dirt cake, and a piece of birthday cake. The cake was from Walmart and it was super moist and good, but the frosting was a little too sweet. Definitely not a Grandma Hoerth cake by any means, lol.

We decided to leave around 7:30pm, which would put us home around 9pm. But then Jay and Ayden decided that they were going to stay the night at Jay's parents (I had brought extra clothes for Ayden... you know, the emergency clothes) and so Ayden had clothes to wear today and Jay didn't really care about wearing the same clothes the next day. He would have an extra chance to go hunting. My drive home was okay. It started to rain pretty hard before I got to Appleton and thought I was in for a rough drive. It was one of those hard rains where you can barely see and I don't do good driving at night and in the rain. However, by the time I got to Waverly it has slowed down and I was okay and made it home precisely by 9pm. I pretty much crashed right away and slept really good. It was nice to sleep in until around 9am this morning. I could have lounged in bed for another hour or so, but made myself get up so I would be able to get some decent sleep tonight. That and I had some stuff to get ready for clinic yet.

Speaking of that, I still haven't heard back from my supervisor about my lesson plan and whether or not it is okay. I went ahead and made what I needed for my last activity. I would have liked to hear from her by now so that I don't have to make any last minute changes tonight. I am all for getting things done ahead of time and so I don't have to rush at the last minute. That, and I would like the second half of my day to be for myself. Just to relax and chill. I just talked to Jay and they won't be leaving for another hour or so, plus the hour and a half that takes them to get hom... so I have at least the next three hours to myself and would thoroughly like to enjoy them.

Jay said that Ayden slept until 9am this morning too. He woke up just as Jay was getting home from hunting which was kind of nice. That way his parents really didn't have to watch Ayden while Jay was gone. Not that they would have minded, they just had to be home. They were at a wedding last night so I don't know what time they got home at and how long they slept for. His parents are usually pretty early risers.

Back to the grind now... well actually I might look for something to make for lunch. Pizza rolls anyone?

LOVE ME!

Tired anyone?!

Jacko- I really hope that Ayden sleeps in tomorrow because I am TIRED! I know I know, get to bed earlier... and why is it that I don't do that, no good reason really. It is precisely 9pm right now and I should get into bed, but what I am doing instead?! Blogging to all my blogger buddies, but that is okay because I was already on my computer before I came here. I was perfecting my lesson plan, hopefully that is. I had a few tweaks to make and some activities to add and sent it off to my supervisor once again. It technically wasn't due until Sunday at 10am, but I'd rather know before then if I need to make any changes. And that way I don't have to be back and forth from my computer all day Sunday. That, and we won't be home most of the day tomorrow so I wouldn't really get anything done then. It's my hope that my supervisor will read it over tomorrow morning and get back to me before we have to leave for soccer and maybe I could even get another revised version back to her before we leave (if need be). I already have to make all these animals things for the story that I am going to be reading. Oh, and we found out today that there will be another little kiddo joining us so it's up to three clients now. Joyous world! And two more were evaluated this week with the potentiality of joining us as well. We will see how it goes. I know we won't be saddled with more than we can handle either.

Jay left to go home tonight. Well actually it was late afternoon and Ayden and I spent the night together. We practiced some soccer, folded about three weeks worth of laundry (yes, I was that far behind on folding it- good thing I wasn't that far behind on washing it otherwise none of us would have had any clean underwear, lol!), had some good mac n cheese for supper and painted some rocks for Alexis for her birthday. Oh and we got her presents wrapped too and I printed off a few things for other classes. Did you know that for a thorough handwashing it is supposed to take almost 2 minutes. That is a long time! Honestly, who has that much time to wash their hands after going to the bathroom, especially if you have one or more children with you. Now, of course I am all for the whole handwashing thing, but 2 minutes! Seriously... but really in all honesty, we do have a humungo amount of germs on our hands. I just chose not to think about them because otherwise I would go crazy washing my hands. Sometimes a few germs are good for us, lol!

Anywhoo, other than barely making it through my classes alive today and probably only paying attention in them for 1/3 of the time, not a whole lot went down. I had a meeting about prepping for grad school and boy was that informational. Info overload... AGAIN! That is seriously what this semester is shaping up to be. Just when I think that I am getting things under control again and will be able to handle everything, we get all this new crap dumped on us and are expected to absorb it within the next 24 hours. Okay, the professors aren't that mean, but sometimes I totally feel like I have no idea what I am doing and that I am expected to. Maybe it's just the fact that I don't like feeling like an idiot or having to ask about things that I think I should probably already know. That whole newbie thing in the clinic, even though we are seniors. Have all the grad students ahead of us. But at least next year we will be sort of less like newbies, only we will be again because we will be at the bottom of the totem pole as far as grad school. Oh ugh, just thinking about it is making me sick.

I think it's time for a stiff drink (ha! maybe if I did drink... oh wait there is a bottle of kesslers and doctor's on the top of my fridge, how about some of that) and then to hit the sack. And for those of you who really DO know me know that I don't drink and that liquor was for the purpose of Ayden's party and our guests and well for Jay too because he adds some to his soda every once in a blue moon. CIAO my diligent readers... until next time! LOVE ME!

Baby Mama Drama

Jack...Rain rain go away, come again another day... Ashley wore flip flops to class! Okay, minor brain toot this morning. Watched the news and even took my umbrella to school with me, but did I think twice about wearing flip flops?! NO! So when my 11am class gets over and I see that it is POURING outside and realize that I have to walk all the way across campus to work I get a little glummy. You see, by the time I got to work (even with the roofs of two minor buildings that I escaped into on the way here) my feet were not only soaked, but so was the entire length of my pants almost up to my news, ON BOTH LEGS! It was a good thing that I didn't slip at all because me and flip flops that are wet and/or ground that is wet do not get along very well. But I made it here safe and sound and able to blog about it. Lol, the highlight of my day, I'm sure!

Last night Jay and I got the movie Baby Mama from Walmart. We both wanted to see it and thought it would be good and wanted to add it to our movie collection. It's not too often we buy movies, even less that we rent them, and even less than that that we actually go see them in the theater. We were both looking forward to seeing it and laughing and it being pretty good. Unfortunately, niether of us thought it was anything outstanding. It did have comedy and there were parts that we were both laughing outloud, but it was pretty predictable and lacked in areas where the humor just couldn't make up for it. On my scale from one to ten, I'd give it a 5 maybe. Not that I'm any movie critic or anything. I probably watch more cartoon movies than anything these days. Lucky to say that our Jurassic Park watching has definitely decreased, but there are days where he still askes to watch it.

My cousin is having a purse party tonight, a purse party that I unfortunately will not be attending. :( Not that I need a new purse (have two news from my sister's party) but one can never have enough. Maybe that's just a woman thing?! However, I cannot forsee the gas money it will cost for me to drive the hour and a half there and then home to attend the party. Plus the money that I would inevitably spend while there on purses. Maybe if I didn't have class on Friday's and I could stay for the weekend, but no can do. I actually have clinic meetings on Friday's as well so really no can do. But I hope that everyone has a stellar time and finds some awesome purses!

I'm getting my hair cut this afternoon and I'm still undecided on what I want to do cut wise. I keep going back and forth between just a trim and maybe getting an inch or two off to make a little more of a drastic change, but nothing too short (as I'm trying to grow it out). When it comes to my hair I cannot go long with it being the same. I am surprised that I lasted the last year without getting it cut. But, I'm trying to grow it out, right? So why am I getting it cut tonight? Lol! I can only last with the same hair for a certain amount of time. I'm weird, I know, deal with it...

So my best friend has met a new guy and well that is always a good thing. And this time she has decided to take things slow with him. She's been known to jump into relationships before and that has never seemed to work. Although, with her last serious boyfriend things were looking pretty good for awhile, even I thought that they might get married one day. Little did anyone know, things didn't work out, but that's how life goes. Anyways, I'm excited for my friend and this new guy in her life. She even said that she liked starting out as friends first and seeing where things go. She's thinking it will lead into a relationship which would be great for her (and finally one not long distance, even better). Here's to new beginnings and hopefully happy endings! Or no endings at all...

Lately I've felt kind of distant from my friends at school. It's most likely due to the fact that we only have one class together this semester and don't get to see each other other than that time. Well, at least I don't get to see them. I have no free time this semester so yeah. And we haven't spent any time together outside of school other than Six Flags this summer either. Most likely also due to the busy factor, as we all have kids.

Tonight... back from my hair appointment and I only got a trim. The highlights turned out awesome and I love the change. I'll try to get a picture up sometime tomorrow, maybe...

Got an email back from my supervisor about my lesson plan. She says that I have a great start and thanked me for explaining myself so well. I'm glad that she liked it so far, but saying that I have a great start, but how much more do I need to do for it? I hope not too much because I did put quite a bit of thought into it thus far. We have a meeting in the morning so we will see what needs to be done further. I'm excited though! Therapy should start Monday!

CIAO! LOVE ME!

Procrastination at it's BEST!

Jack, In the computer lab waiting for my next class to start. I really should be working on my lesson plan and in fact I do have it sitting out right in front of me. It's crying to be typed up and and worked on, but the enthusiasm is kind of lacking right now. I think it's partly because I am worried that I will do bad on it. When talking with my supervisor yesterday she said that the typical first lesson plan will take about three reviews before it is 'perfected' but I want to be one of the smart people who doesn't need three reviews. That's me, always striving for the best, right?! In any case, the actual lesson plan isn't due until 10am Sunday morning, but she said she would like some ideas by Friday at least. That way we have something to talk about at our meeting. Well, being the case that we will actually start clinic on Monday like planned. I keep flucuating between nervous and excited. Plus, since I am writing up the first lesson plan that means that I will be the 'lead teacher' on the first day of clinic. I met with my partner yesterday to go over how we wanted to proceed and we both have a lot of concepts that we would like to cover, but we are unsure of how to do that. Well, not idea wise, but do we just jump right in and go with them or are we supposed to work on something else first? We also know what both of our clients need to work on, but like I said, how do we approach that? Am I supposed to know this stuff already? We had to make up lesson plans and what not last year and I was good with that, but we weren't actually doing therapy. I didn't make those lesson plans with the intention of beginning therapy. I guess our main concern right now is how to get the ball rolling and then we can go from there. Like I said, we both have quite a few ideas on what to work on.

I had every intention of going to bed early last night, but unfortunately was up until around 11pm. I stayed awake to watch Will and Grace at 10 and then Jay came into the bedroom and started talking to me. At this point I was already half asleep, but when I decided to turn the TV off at 10:30, I was no longer tired. After about 10 minutes of tossing and turning, I turned the TV back on and was asleep probably 15 minutes later. The joys of having SLEEP on your TV. Well, it is probably on most televisions these days. I cannot remember though if I turned the TV off and turned my 'rain' on or if I just let the TV go off by itself and somehow turned my rain on. Guess I was really tired. Maybe I will try and go to bed early tonight? Probably not though...

Got some news yesterday on the possibility of moving. Turned out that the apartments that I had thought were the ones that Jay and JT's friend lived in were not really the ones. He lived on the other side of the road down a little farther and truth be told, those are better apartments. Actually, they are duplexes and there are only four of them in a little culdesac. They look really nice on the outside so I can only imagine how they look on the inside. According to JT, pretty nice. Anywhoo, JT provided us with some more info... there is no big corp that owns the duplexes, just some guy and he only owns two of the four and he rents on a month to month contract. He also said that he usually only puts a for rent sign out when something is for rent. Aaron (the friend who lives in one right now) said he would keep his eye out if anything came available. As for our current situation right now... Jay read our rental agreement and after the initial year, it becomes a month to month contract with a 60 day notice of moving out. It also states on there though that we cannot move out in the months of Nov-Feb and/or will have to pay for something or another if we do. Because we are now on a month to month contract I do not know if that still applies, but that would kind of suck. Given the fact that there are no duplexes currently available I am not going to worry about it, but with my luck something would come available during that time. At least for now I know the situation and will not worry about moving anytime soon. That's okay though, because I truly like where we are living. Knock on the fake wood desk I am at... we haven't even had really any noise issues with our neighbors lately! :)

Jay is planning on going home this weekend (JT may FINALLY go with him) to do some hunting and possibly get JT's boat and bring it back with him/them. He had every intention of bringing Ayde home with him and taking him hunting and giving me some alone time. I was all excited for that until I realized that no can do. Ayden had soccer Saturday morning and I really don't want him to miss it, even if he doesn't play. And I just found out that Alexis's birthday party is on Saturday. Wendy did send us an invitation, but to the wrong address so we did not get it. I've had Alexis's gift for a couple of weeks now and really wanted to go to her party, but then again just wanted to stay home for the weekend as well. Right now the weather isn't looking too good for Saturday (50/50 chance of rain and storms) so we might not even have soccer. If there is soccer Ayden and I will go, go to Mickey D's for lunch if he plays good, and then head off to my dad's for Alexis's party. We will also probably come home that night as well, because then I will have Sunday to finalize my lesson plan. Don't really know right now.

Okay, seriously now... I am going to go work on my lesson plan, well maybe after checking Facebook, lol! Until Later... CIAO! LOVE ME!

Just Another Day

Jack- it's just another day in paradise today. If I think positive things will be positive. The power of positive thought, right? Not a whole lot went down today worth blogging about... well probably, but I'm sort of in a tired funk right now and really just want to lay in bed and go to sleep. However, I need to take a few notes and get a head start on my lesson plan for Monday (hopefully).

I cut Jay's hair tonight and then cut Ayden's and I have an appointment to get my hair cut and highlighted on Thursday. New changes going down, lol. I'm not getting anything drastic done to my hair, just a trim. I've been growing my hair out for about a year and a half now and in no way want it too short. I've just started to be able to pull it back decent.

Ayden and I worked on some worksheets tonight. He was doing really good... We did matching concepts, same and different, sizes, what doesn't belong, etc... He kept wanting to do more because I gave him a sticker for each sheet he did. That kept him a little motivated. Right now he is watching Lion King in his bed.

Kinda not feeling this whole blogging thing tonight... CIAO! LOVE ME!

Two Months!

Hey Jack! We have a new pet at our house... Nemo the goldfish which Jay won at the local carnvial yesterday. Jay said that we almost had four or five goldfish as Ayden had some pretty good aim, unfortunately the ball ended up bouncing out at the last second. In either case... Nemo has a new home with us, forever how long he decides to live. We've had fish before. I've had a few betas at a couple years ago we had a whole tank system set up in Ayden's room with even a little shark. Those fish didn't last too long, but the shark did and so did the bottom feeder. I wonder why, despite the pet store person saying the shark wouldn't kill the other fish. Hmm...

We did have fun at the carnival though. Ayden and I rode the ferris wheel and right after we got on he told me that we had to keep our arms in the air. I couldn't believe that he wanted to do that and that he did that at Bay Beach (because their ferris wheel is much bigger than the one we went on), but never the less, we kept our arms up the whole time. He also rode the race cars and a little train. I think he had the most fun going through the fun house though. I went through it with him the first time and then he went through twice afterwards by himself. We probably spent a good $35 while there, but it was worth it, even though we didn't stay super long. And of course we played the duck game. What parent doesn't let their child play the duck game (even though you get sorely ripped off).

PRSION BREAK IS ON TONIGHT! I get my weekly does of Wentworth Miller, and John and Kate Plus 8 is on, but I have to DVR that because it is on the same time as Prison Break. I'd DVR Prison Break, but we don't get our local channels through the sattelite so no can do. I am destined to do some textbook reading tonight as well, but we will see how that goes. I would really like to get Ayden outside to kick the ball around a little bit, but right now the weather is kind of crummy and icky cold (the way it is looking to be for the rest of the week as well).

My classes went well today too. Second class for two of my classes, whereas last week I had two classes three times already. Niether lectured a whole lot which was good seeing that they are an hour and 15 minutes long each. I get very ADD like after the first 50 minutes. I don't know how I ever made it through block scheduling my senior year in high school. Or how my brother and sister did it all four years. Technically my brother is still doing it. He's a junior this year! I cannot believe it!!! And he has his license! That means this year he considers taking the ACTs and where and what we might do after graduation. My mom doesn't see him going to college, but maybe some tech school. I don't know anymore. I used to say probably not college, but he's had a girlfriend for over a year now and I don't know what her plans are so just maybe. I'd say if she plans to go on to college there is more of a chance he might go with her. But then again, I could be completely wrong. Don't really know my brother all that well. And it's not by choice, more of the fact that we don't live together anymore and are not as close as my sister and I.

Speaking of my sister, I need to call the dress place to make appointments for us to get our dresses altered. They said to call 2 months in advance and today is exactly two months. The bride called a week or two ago and couldn't get in for her fit until only 5 weeks before the wedding. Okay, so she fits into her dress pretty perfectly, but what if that weren't the case? I would be worried they wouldn't be able to get the alterations done in time. My sister and I only need our dresses hemmed up, so hopefully we can get in at a halfway decent time. We'll see what they say though. Later now, and I called the dress place and got an appointment for my sister and myself on the 27th to get our dresses fit for alterations. That should be plenty of time. Like I stated before, the wedding is in exactly two months from today... I'm excited!!! This will be my third wedding (well that I have stood up in) as an adult per say. I've been in two when I was younger- for some reason I think I may have stated this before, so bare with me please- and well, it's more fun when you are older and can remember it.

And thus far, I've loved all the dresses that I've had to wear. Still have them, don't really know what to do with them right now, but that's okay. I like to look at them because I still think they are pretty. I could try to sell them as prom dresses or something, but it would be kind of hard for someone else to fit into them as perfect as me because they were altered for my body. But who knows? Anywhoo, point being, I love standing up in weddings and this one will be tons of fun as well. Especially because four of us get along really well. I'm not saying we don't get along with the fifth person, but I also can't rule out any lingering tension. Because I don't really know her (despite the fact that I'm like second or third or whatever cousins with her) I try to stay neutral on the position...

Ayden is currently building a 'carnival' with his geo tracks. He loves those things and I love the imagination he has right now. To be so young and innocent again... I'd better have more boys in the future, but we have all the boy toys! I sometimes wonder how Jay would have been had we had a girl. Because of the situation we were in I can see him not being as hands on, but then again, I might be totally wrong. Maybe he would be more protective? He probably wouldn't be so rough and tumbly with a girl. Him and Ayden 'wrestle' all the time. Did I mention that at some point it is probably inevitable that Ayden wrestles? I will not make him if he doesn't want to (Jay's brother Steven doesn't wrestle), but being that Jay was very into wrestling and his dad is the coach... it's in the blood! I have seen PreK wrestlers before and they are too cute! But from our current soccer experience I don't know how Ayden would handle that?

I suppose since Ayden is occupied right now I should go and try and get some reading done. Speech and Voice Science here I come! Or should it be Abnormal Psychology or even Social Psychology? What about Common Diseases? Oh the choices I have right now... although on a serious note, I'm actually intrigued by the last three choices so it might not be such bad reading after all. CIAO! LOVE ME!

Soccer: Week 1... A Bust

Jack... we had soccer today, well Ayden had soccer today. The day started off pretty early as Ayden decided to get up at 6:45am (earlies he has gotten up in weeks!). Don't know why it was so early as he didn't exactly go to bed early last night, but in any case, he was up. Soccer didn't start until 10:45am so we lounged around the house until then cleaning and watching a few morning cartoons. Well, I cleaned and Jay and Ayden watched cartoons.

When it was time to leave Ayden was really excited and I thought we were going to have a good time. I even told him about the carnival rides and if he played good then we could go there afterwards. They seperated the kids into their teams and at first things were going pretty good. His coach seems really nice and really in tune with younger kids. He had the kids dribbling the ball around and practicing a few things and all was going good. Ayden was even excited to see Seth on his team. They started to play a dribbling game and Ayden seemed like he was having fun, but then all of a sudden he kicked the ball and it went past the coach (the object was to 'kick the coach') and he came running at full speed towards Jay and I with tears in his eyes. He got so upset and said he wanted to go home because he kept losing. I think he thought because sometime when he tried to kick the ball at the coach it didn't exactly go where he wanted it to.

Thus started the next half hour of trying to get him to participate again and bribing him with McDonalds if he would go and play with his new friends. There were a few times where he got back out there and attempted a few things, but the first sign at things going wrong he was running in our direction again crying. I had no idea that he was so painfully shy. I tried to keep him going at it and even went out onto the field with him. But alas, about 10 minutes before the end of the practice, I had had enough and it was either he get out there and play with his friends or we are leaving... no rides and no McDonalds. Now, I'm sure I wasn't in the right by 'making' him play when it was obviously 'painful' for him, but by this point I had tried all the reasoning I could and nothing was working. Well, he didn't like the fact that we were no longer going to ride rides or go to Mickey D's and cried the whole way home. To bed it was and about 10 minutes later he was asleep. Tired maybe?!

We've resolved to practice some at home to get him a little more accoustomed to what is going to happen next week. We've talked to him about the jersey he is going to get and have decided that we will make it a weekly thing to go to his place of choice to eat afterwards if he plays like a big boy. You should have seen some of the other little kids there. They were all for it and my little guy looked like I was putting him through torture. Who knows, maybe he just isn't ready for sports yet. I pray that next week goes a little better, but I won't make him play if he absolutely doesn't want to. We will just sit on the sidelines and watch then. I paid for it, I am going to get at least that much out of it and maybe he will slowly want to start to play. Time will tell...

The rest of the day was spent at the house. Ayden slept until 2pm and then we had lunch. Aftewards we played outside for a little while. We also painted some pictures tonight with some water paints and played hide and seek. And now Ayden and Jay are playing dominoes with some Jonny Tractor ones and then it is bed time. We have decided to hit up the carnival tomorrow if Ayden is in a good mood. He knows that he needs to behave in order to go.

I thought about doing some homework today, but passed on that. Really don't have any homework more as textbook reading. And we all know that that isn't any fun. Lol! But I did actually read an article for my social psych class and highlighted phrases in it. I know, crazy right? I already miss my three days weekends. Sometimes I wish that circumstances were right so I could be a stay at home mom and spend all my time with Ayden because he is so much fun and other times I am glad to get 'away' for a little while because I think that everyone needs a little alone time, even if that be sitting in class.

I finally got a letter from Lee today, even though he won't get the letter that I wrote saying I was wondering why he hadn't written in so long (just not in such nice terms). He really didn't have a good excuse, but it was a letter none the less. Updated me on what's been going on in his life, well sort of. It was good to finally hear from him and see how everything is working out for him right now. He's got a lot on his plate.

I was watching the movie Flight 93 before and it brought back so many memories. I currently have it paused because Ayden wanted to play with me and I wanted to watch the rest of it. Love that pause button... but in any case, I wanted to cry. I've only seen parts of the movie before, but I remember my mom telling me that it was good. Back to watching it now, as Ayden just got into bed...

CIAO! LOVE ME!

Fun Fridays

Jack... It's been another insightful day when it comes to clinic. I had my first meeting with my supervisor and partner today to discuss our clients for this semester. As of right now, we have two boys, with the possibility of it being 5 boys and 1 girl during a 45 minute session. All in the ages of 3-4. Six preschoolers and we are actually supposed to get something done? Are they serious? Well, it has been done before, I guess... like 10 years ago and the clinic director did say that she thought we could handle it. Am I up for the challenge? OF COURSE! :) I think this is going to be great fun this semester and honestly, I am hoping for all six children. The possibilities are endless! And, as it turns out, the slot we will be during therapy in and the weekly meeting time with my supervisor fits nice and snug into my schedule! I had to switch one hour of work to a different time slot, but that is still okay. Ayden's daycare and everything else is still peachy keen! That was my biggest concern, but I'm a little more relaxed about it now. YEAH! Week one of classes over and I'm not completely insane either! Good or bad? You decide, lol!

After I pick up Ayden today I am going to go try and find this apartment place Jay was talking about last night. JT was telling him about this place his friend lives in right now over in Whiting. Technically Stevens Point because Whiting doesn't have addresses (at least I don't think so)... anyways, I guess they are about the same size as ours, but with the bedrooms upstairs and a basement and they cost less. JT said they are pretty nice (as he's seen them before) and cheaper! I would love cheaper, but it'd have to be up to par with what we have now for me to move again. I really love our place right now and so I am not going to get too excited about it right now. I just want to drive past and get a sense of the place and area and look of the outside. It's not too far from campus. Definitely further than we are now, but I don't know. Like I said, I will see how it looks later this afternoon when I drive past. Wish me luck! Well, by the time I post this, I will have already driven past and will probably tell you all about what I saw...

Tonight. It is almost 7:30pm and Jay just got home from work. Good because he doesn't have to go into work tomorrow. Bad because now he's drained from working all day and doesn't want to do anything. But at least one of us did something this week. Okay, so I went to work, but I didn't have anything really to do while there. Got paid for being there I guess. I can't wait for another couple of weeks when the ETP classes start again because then it gets interesting and I get to do a bunch of different stuff. Of course my boss is sort of impartial to new classes starting because that only brings in more work for her, but that is why I am there. I like to see the business that people are trying to start. If I haven't already said it, I work in the Small Business Office on campus. Well and the Continuing Education office, but I don't do anything with that. My job is to help my boss with clients starting new businesses or getting help with their current business. I do most typical office help work (ie: filing, copying, etc) but my favorite part is getting the industry material together because more often than not I end up reading through it myself. Lots of interesting stuff!

Ayden and I did take our little drive today to find the apartments I was talking about earlier and we found them. Only a ten minute drive to them from daycare (just a bit longer than that we drive now) so that isn't too bad. It's a smaller complex than we are at now and the apartments are either duplexes or fourplexes. I didn't get that close of a look. Some look newer than others and those ones look really nice (definitely more like a house than we live in now) and others look a little older than I would like to live in. But I guess it would depend on the inside. It's not on a super busy road and does have this awesome side walk for walking/biking/etc (one thing that is lacking where we live now, despite the fact that we have a sidewalk around the building and a driveway-of which I don't let Ayden bike in because I am too scared about all the cars driving around). I kind of wanted to take Jay past them tonight, but I figured he would be too tired so I will mention it tomorrow before soccer. And all of this even before we know if they have any available to rent and/or when we could move out of our current place.

The thing is, when our lease ran up this past year (it was a one year lease) the landlords notified us of an increase in rent, however we did not sign a new lease. Does that techinally mean we can move out at any time as long as we give however long before notice that is require (which I believe is either 45 or 60 days)? I don't know... Getting way ahead of myself here. Changes may be brewing? Who know?

CIAO! LOVE ME!