Type A

…is what my personality type is… if you can even put me into a category. I’m so back and forth right now that maybe I should be in a category of my own. But the more I read about Type A personalities, the more I fit into that one. Not all of the characteristics are good ones either, and I have a feeling that it is being this ‘Type A’ that has me all up in nerves and what not right now. Well, really I should say most of the time.

It’s the end of the semester and everything is culminating around me. I had a list of things that need to get done, but that was from a few weeks ago. I should rewrite a list of everything that needs to get done, but I’m sure that I would just forget to put something on it, lol!

So far… I have all of my speech clinic stuff done. Got that all done and completed today… turned in my clock hour form today which was kind of a relief. I also spoke with my supervisor and she said that my clinic grade would be the same as my midterm grade which was a 100%. I will miss her as a supervisor, but happy that I’ll be able to see her around in the next four years.

Next on my list is working out what I need to get signed and filled out for my aud hours. I emailed the clinic director about this and I think she sort of answered me by having my aud supervisor email me. Anyways, I also asked the clinic director about getting a morning slot for clinic in the fall because it would save us a day for before/after school care. Well, I asked her in my email so we will see what she says. Really, it shouldn’t be a problem, but you never know.

I still have a music paper to write (my goal for tonight) and a final to take in that class (goal for tomorrow night) and then everything is DONE for that class. Next comes my aud practicum on Tuesday at 2:30 and then most likely an IEP meeting for Ayden at 3:30 that day. I also need to meet with my aud supervisor for my eval of that (hoping for an A) and to get my hours signed for that.

Then next Wednesday I have my poster presentation for Hearing Science and then it’s study for the exams for Sociology and Hearing Science. All in all, the school portion of things is continuing to go smoothly and I’m not overwhelmed with that in and of itself.

Moving on to other things, we will be MOVING in a month! We gave our 60 day notice today and will be signing the new lease on Saturday. Jay and I really thought about it and weighed the pros and cons of everything and decided that this was the right move to make. And the landlords accepted us and are super nice, I really think we are making the ‘right’ next step in our lives. However, moving brings it’s own set of worries for me.

I don’t have to worry about packing or anything until after graduation which is nice, but we are moving across town which means there is a new school Ayden could possibly go to. I was under the impression that there is open enrollment in Stevens Point and you could chose which school you wanted your child to go to if there was space for them (pending your choice was different than the one the school district enrolled him/her in). My plan was to keep Ayden at his prospective new school, however my boss doesn’t think that is the case. There is a different school closer to our new place. I plan on calling the education center in Point and talking to them about it. This might also change where he will be going for his 4K program this summer as well.

As if that isn’t enough, I am already trying to get Ayden enrolled into the before/after school care program through the Y (it fills up quickly), however we have to go through our case worker and then the Y in order to see if we qualify for any assistance. One good thing is that I read the brochure wrong and at most we would be paying $170/month (with no assistance) for 5 sessions a week. I’m trying to get a morning clinic slot in the fall so we would only need 3 sessions a week which would save us $60/month and we would only have to pay $110/month (with no assistance). As it stands right now we will most likely be receiving no assistance from the county, long explanation regarding ‘education time’ etc etc, but might be able to receive some care through the Y, to which we would only be paying about $60/month for care. This is definitely better than the $300 we were paying for daycare per month and certainly much better than the $600 we would be paying without the assistance we are currently getting. So, we have to get all of that paperwork filled out and what not.

And then to make my day even WORSE, I went and looked up the total amount of debt that Jay and I are in (student loan wise, we only about about $1000 of credit card debt, which in and of itself is enough, but we haven’t used the card in over a year, just paying it off as we can afford to) and it really upset me when I calculated the number. I had a preconceived number in my head already, but needless to say, I was under by a big enough amount. I cringe to think that that number will probably increase by another $30,000 by the time I am done with grad school because grad students no longer receive grants and grad school for me is Madison tuition which is like $10,000/year, so it may be even more than an increase of $30,000. I try to relax and think that I will have my doctorate and will be making a decent amount of money. The projections are that Doctors of Audiology will be making a median amount of $75,000 in the coming years, but in retrospect… being a ‘doctor’, that isn’t a whole lot. Maybe it is to some people, and maybe it will be to me if I eventually make that, but considering the number of student loans we will have, I am fearful of what the future brings. I’m fearful of what we already owe and worry! I am a worry wort to the highest extent! I know that I shouldn’t be worrying and that everything will work out, even if it takes me 20 years to pay back my student loans (which it probably will). When I told Jay, he really didn’t even bat an eye. How can he be so nonchalant about it?

I feel like I should be excited that we are moving and jumping for joy, but really I have too much other stuff on my mind to even think about that right now.

My friend is having her baby (by schedule c-section) tomorrow morning. I am going to visit her tomorrow afternoon, either with one friend at 3:15ish or another around 5pm. I’m inclined to go later, first because then Jay will be home and I won’t have to take Ayden and secondly because the later I go, the more alert and less tired I think my friend might be. I suppose it could very well be the opposite, I have never been to visit anyone with a c-section before. I offered for her to drop her daughter off by us for a few hours tonight so her and her husband could get a last few hours of alone time before the new baby. She said she would call if they think of something to do. I’m so excited for her! She is a great person and a great friend! Not to mention great mommy and wife!

Speaking of babies… everyone should hop over to my cousins’ blogs and give them a big congrats! Amy just announced that her and her husband are expecting for the first time and her sister Amanda is going to be an auntie for the very first time! Super excited for them too! I love babies! Makes me want another one SO bad, but I know it’s not the right timing. I’ll be content just so long as the people around me keep having kids. Hehe… get my baby fill in that way!

Okay, time to get started on that music paper!

CIAO! LOVE ME!

Decisions decisions…

So, today Jay and I went to go look at that new duplex. Well, not brand new, but new to us and I wish the decision was much easier than it is. You see, this place isn’t crying out ‘rent me rent me’, but it isn’t screaming ‘run away run away’ either. Both Jay and I are at a crossroads with what to do about this new place. We see lots and lots of positives, but also some negatives as well. We can’t decide if the negatives out weigh the positives or the other way around! We can’t decide if we want to fill out the rental application or not. And just because we will out the application doesn’t mean we automatically get the place either. Although, I don’t see much reason why we would not get it, unless someone else wanted to rent it as well and didn’t have a pet. We have darn near perfect credit and had no trouble getting our last two places. The owners seem super nice as well! Overall, the upstairs is a little small, but it has a finished basement which is huge that we could turn into an office/play room and that would be great. That would make up for the lack of space upstairs because all of Ayden’s toys could be downstairs. Plus, it has a little back yard. It feels a little more ‘closed in’ compared to our current place, but I think the basement definitely makes up for it. The rent is only $10 more per month from what we are paying now, however we’d have to pay for the heat (which is natural gas) and that would add a cost, especially in the winter. Ugh, I really don’t know what we should do! I think I’m trying to rationalize it in my head that we should apply for it, but I’m so afraid that I will be making the wrong decision. I want to be happy to wherever we move next because I would like to live there for longer than two years. We have about a two year thing going on here… two years at our first place… two years at our current place… hoping maybe at least to stay at our next place (wherever that may be) until I am done with grad school. What to do… what to do?!?!

I can already see everything laid out in my head and where it would all go, I can see picnics in the back yard, parties with friends, faux bon fires (you know the type of pit you set up on TOP of the grass), sand box, but… oh I’m so confused!

As if this week wasn’t already bad enough. Well, I’m not saying that having to make a decision like this is bad, but it has definitely added to the ‘stress’ of the week and it is ONLY Tuesday!

I had a HORRIBLE test yesterday in my Hearing Science class. You know, the one that I complained and complained about not wanting to take. It was EVERY bit as horrible as I imagined it was going to be and the whole class (well I’m assuming almost everyone… we had a pretty big group in the lounge before class complaining about it) agrees with me. Everyone is hoping for a curve and or a re-do. Simply put… the test was total BS! One might say, well maybe you should have studied more, longer, better… oh I did study, both Saturday and Sunday and then for over an hour BEFORE the test on Monday! Apparently I am not cut out to be Hearing Science material!

On a different note, I was my grad student’s patient today for his practical exam. I felt bad for him and terrified for next year because that will be me. You see… he knew what he was doing and probably got a really good grade, but he had all three supervisors watching him/grading him while he was giving me the tests. Talk about nerve wracking! But he did great (well at least I thought so) and I was proud of him. Well as proud as one mentee can be of her mentor, lol! And it was my last day of aud clinic so that was good too. Tomorrow is my last day of therapy and I got my final therapy report all done! And it will be last day of having to dress up! Yeah again!

Going to go see if last weeks episode of Prison Break is online because apparently they aired it at 7pm instead of 8pm last week and… I MISSED IT! No biggie though because it is not as good as the first season. Anyways, it will give me something to do because I missed the new episode of NCIS tonight (although since finding out when the new episodes air, I don’t think we’ve managed to catch a new one, lol)…

CIAO! LOVE ME!

Less than 20 days!!!

It is less than 20 days until I graduate! I emailed out my invitations this afternoon and am going to mail out the rest tomorrow morning. I am trying to save stamps so I went the email route for those who have access to that. I know it may be not be the ‘best’ way to go about it or the most ‘formal’, but really I don’t care. I am not having this all out huge extravagant party anyways so what does it matter. I did make some super cute invitations though… do you like?

Definitely cheaper than ordering them and I think more personalized as well! Anyways, I like them and that is all that matters. I also included a little letter from myself that had more details about the so called party. I’m getting more and more excited about it, well just graduating in general. It completely bites that we still have two weeks of class left. I keep thinking that this coming week is our last week and that it is. It is good to one point because it is the last week of clinic and that helps with lots of stuff.

Here is my to-do list for the end of the semester (minus studying for tests): finish poster slides/layout, get presentation note cards ready for poster presentation, practice presentation, finish final therapy report, one reflection, one more lesson plan (well half of one because we are having the parent conference on Wednesday as well), practice for aud practical exam, go through with aud practical, music paper, music exam online, and then study for sociology and hearing science (again!) before finals! The list is kind of long, but in reality, it really isn’t all that much and after my exam tomorrow I know that I am on the final stretch.

I already have most of my final therapy report done… just need a few revisions. I’d say the only big project would be getting the music paper written because that isn’t started yet. The poster project just needs a few revisions as well and then taped onto the board. We start presentations on Wednesday, but I’m hoping that I don’t have to go until Friday or next Monday. I really don’t want to prepare for that because I hate public speaking. And well it’s for hearing science and I KNOW that you all KNOW how much I am not liking that class.

Jay and I have a duplex to go look at tomorrow. It is sounding pretty good from the description from the  owners, but the only problem is right now they are saying no pets. Well… we have just a little issue with that… he’s called Diesel. Jay and I decided that we would go look at the place and if we really liked it, then we would discuss it with the owners. We’ve had no problems with Diesel at our current place, no accidents, etc… We also decided that unless it was a super GREAT place that we couldn’t live without, we were not going to consider getting rid of Diesel if they would absolutely NOT allow us to have him. I am not getting my hopes up because that is never good for me, but I thought I’d tell you all about it. We’ll see how it goes.

I went to the campus library today to get some studying done. It was the first time that I went to the library on a weekend to study! In all FOUR years that I’ve been going to school here. I guess that really isn’t such a bad thing considering I haven’t been living in some noisy dorm and need the quiet, but today I needed to get away for a while and get some studying done alone. I studied for an hour and them came home. And you know what… I still don’t feel like I know anything. I am really freaking out about this test. I think I’m getting a B+/A- in the class giving the last two test grades, so I really need to do well on this test. I suppose that I would be okay with a B at the lowest for my grade in the class overall, but I really want that A and thus am going to try and get it. That… and the final is comprehensive and who likes that? Seriously… who does that anymore… comprehensive finals?! Ah… I just MIGHT survive, just maybe…

The rest of our weekend was pretty lax. With the crappy weather we really didn’t get a chance to get outside and have fun. Also, I was trying to procrastinate on studying and thus we spent a lot of time watching TV. Not so good, I know, but Ayden and I did play some games together and color… it’s just easier on crappy days to sit and watch some TV, you know? This next weekend will probably be spent here in Point as well, but hopefully won’t be as ‘stressful’ and not as much studying to do either… and maybe some good weather?! I’ll keep my fingers crossed.

Off to maybe get some more studying done… good thing I’ll have an hour in the morning with probably some other classmates which is definitely how I study best!

CIAO! LOVE ME!

New Friends

The weather today was absolutely gorgeous!!! Well this morning sort of stunk it up (weather wise), but it definitely redeemed itself by this afternoon! I woke up at 7:00am to a rumble of thunder. I got up and shut the window because I didn’t want it raining it, didn’t think much of it, and laid back down. My phone started ringing at 7:30am and I was wondering who the heck was calling me that early in the morning. I was already awake so it was okay… and it was a friend from school so it was no bother that she was calling. She had a few things to tell me about the impending surprise baby shower we were throwing. It then dawned on me that it was still Friday and it was raining outside! I was totally bummed because today was supposed to be great weather… GREAT WEATHER! And well… rain and thunder was not going to do it!

Fast forward a little bit and I’m on campus helping my friends set up for the shower. We go to class and I can barely make it through paying attention. I was a little frustrated because our professor did not review as much as he should have had for our test on Monday. Needing to get some good studying done this weekend! Trying to stay motivated!!!

The baby shower was a total surprise for my friend Kristi! It was so great to see the look on her face! I was so happy for her! And the food that everyone brought was so yummy! She loved her gifts and was left speechless! Props to my friend Leah who had the idea and made everything work out so awesome! She was totally awesome! Go Leah!!!

I went to work for a little while after that and then headed out to pick up Ayden from school. I had big plans to go to the park or the beach or something. It was too nice out to just go home and stay inside all afternoon, no matter what Ayden wanted to do. He said he wanted to make cookies so I told him that we could make cookies after we went outside. I’m good at bribing  compromising with my child, lol. I even said that we could use our sidewalk paint outside today. Normally this would be a total NO-NO because after using it once and it not coming off very easily (lots of hands and knees scrubbing) I decided that we would not be using it anymore. However, with the impending rainy weather all weekend I thought it would be an okay idea. Lots of rain will definitely wash it all off.

So, we set outside to paint on the sidewalk. What started out as me and Ayden turned into the two neighbor kids joining us, as well as their dad. They’ve been living by us for about six months now, but this is the first time that Ayden has played with them. We had fun painting and getting to know each other. There is a little boy (10ish) and girl (7ish) and they are too cute. Ayden got lots of fresh air and it was great! He even went outside after supper to play with them himself and it was too cute to see him playing with some new friends! My little boy is growing up! I know that he has friends at school and plays with them all the time, but to actually see him playing with some new friends is great!

CIAO! LOVE ME!

Almost done… almost done… A.L.M.O.S.T!

These last few weeks cannot go fast enough, although I really wish that they would speed up a little bit. I won’t deny that the individual weeks are going by swiftly, but we STILL have two weeks of classes left AND then FINALS! I know that I shouldn’t be complaining because I am forever wishing that time would slow down so I would have more time to do stuff, but I just want to be done with it all. But what am I saying, I might be taking a summer class. I really should look into that if I want to get that done because before I know it I will not be able to take it anymore. Speaking of that, I need to send something in for that as well. Forever increasing my list of things that need to get done. Ah, but what am I saying, compared to some people my list of things is rather short.

I was listening to a friend complain about all the stuff that they had to get done before the end of the semester. I wanted to tell her that if she actually put time into things instead of spending all weekend going out or all night on the phone that she wouldn’t have so much to do. Don’t put everything off until the last minute and then it wouldn’t be so bad. However, I cannot blame her for being busy all weekend because she is spending time with her boyfriend who she only gets to see on weekends… the complaining is just getting pretty old. I mean like seriously… no one’s life is perfect.

Who am I to talk though, right? I guess it is just different because the first thing out of my mouth to her isn’t a whole long list of complaining about this and that and what nots. Oh well…

I learned how to do acoustic reflexes today on the tymp machine. My grad student was going to show me how, but he ended up having a last minute hearing air repair so another first year grad student offered to teach me and I thought that was super nice. She did a great job teaching me as well. I feel much more confident with my abilities for that machine now when my practical exam is up (which is like two weeks from now which is great!). On Monday, my friend and I are going to practice everything that we will know for the practical. We have an hour set aside to do it and I’m excited to feel even more comfortable about it. Ah, grad school prep!

I wrote my final lesson plan tonight and I am excited to have our last session. But this excitement isn’t for the last session part, but to be able to do the activities together. I met with my supervisor today to go over my final therapy report and there are only a few things that I need to change on it and it will be done. Not even all that much that I needed to change on it. I feel that I’ve learned a lot this semester in therapy and having this practicum was definitely not as bad as I thought it would last fall. I remember being super freaked about starting clinic and now it is coming to an end.

My friend, Kristi, and I went out to lunch today again. She is the one that I went out to lunch with about two weeks ago to Dairy Queen. Today we skipped took a break from our Sociology class and went to Culvers. We thought we deserved it, lol! Actually, I think it was the first class that I skipped took a break from all year long. I could be wrong, but at least I know it was the first one this semester. We definitely needed it because that class is just… well… I guess you’d have to be there. As well, we did our presentation on Tuesday and didn’t want to sit through more today. We figured since the information wasn’t going to be on the following test and we weren’t going to be missed that it was fine, hehe! As well, we were doing a service to our classmates by decreasing the number of students to make them nervous during their presentations, lol! Besides… Culvers was SO GOOD! And I figure it will probably be the last time that I will be able to skip take a break from class on my own free will. In grad school probably the only time that I will be able get out of class will be when Ayden is sick or school is cancelled. And then I won’t be doing so willingly because I’ll be missing important stuff.

This weekend will be filled with studying for Hearing Science… test on Monday. I am hoping that he is able to do a pretty thorough review tomorrow because I am feeling pretty lost at this point. I know that we have covered material since our last test, but it doesn’t seem like he has gone into anything really in depth and what he has gone over is completely over my head. Who knows. Hoping for an easy test! But probably won’t happen…

CIAO! LOVE ME!

Expectations

I try not to live life with too many expectations, but that doesn’t really ever happen. I suppose that maybe I should rephrase that… I try not to expect too much from the people around me because it just seems like I am inevitably disappointed at some point or another… so when I don’t expect anything, I am not disappointed. But this is definitely easier said than done (isn’t a lot that way though).

There are certain things that I’ve grown to expect from my family and certain things that they don’t follow through with. Does it hurt when they don’t follow through, yes… but they are only human and if they don’t know my expectations then how can they follow through with them.

There are certain things that I’ve grown to expect from my friends and.. pretty much the same thing applies. I think of myself as a rather friendly person. Maybe some people don’t see me like that because I am so shy that it may come off as ‘standoffish’, but once you get to know me that persona is pretty much gone. After I get to know someone I don’t think they would think of me (well those exceptionally close to me) as shy per say, but probably/most likely as quiet/reserved.

Anyways, I’ve been let down by friends in the past and try as I might to let it not get to me… it does.

But lately it’s when I don’t expect things from people that it’s surprising me the most. I’m specifically speaking about Jay and my’s engagement. (Is that correct grammar? Grammar never was my strong suit… oh well). Anyways, I really didn’t see it as that big of a thing and really still don’t. However, many people are congratulating me that I never thought would. And that is definitely not a bad thing… I guess it just goes to show me how many people out there do care/are nice than I had imagined. I try to give people the benefit of the doubt, especially if I don’t know them personally, but you know the kind of people that you wouldn’t expect something like that from… and then they go and surprise you and it’s great.

I don’t really know what all that was about, but I felt like I needed to get it out… so there… done…

I had my third to last therapy session today and it went really well! I had to give an articulation test today (Goldman-Fristoe for anyone who cares) and it was my first time giving it to a client, well first time giving that specific test as it was and I was nervous that I would screw up or something, but I didn’t. My client flew through the test, but I think that was mostly due to the fact that he was given it at the beginning of the school year and he knew what to expect. And the rest of the therapy session went really well! Only two more actual therapy sessions (which I will be doing post baselining testing in) and then the final one will be the parent conference. I’m excited to be done… but it will be bitter sweet.

The weather was pretty crappy today, but it is supposed to get nice out by the end of the week. This weekend is the senior pub crawl for us ComD girls! I’m excited although I don’t even know if I am going yet, lol. The pub crawl is where the whole class gets together and bar hops. Sounds like fun, eh? Expect that I don’t drink and I have a concert to go to at 7:30pm that night. Actually, I just want to go to be able to hang out with my friends for a night… plus we all got awesome shirts made up for it! I need to call my one friend and see if she wants to go with me. She’s pregnant and so of course can’t drink. She had previously stated she wanted to go but didn’t want to be the only one not drinking. I figured we could go beforehand when everyone is still sober and eat with them and then go. Well, she could stay, but I’d have to go to my concert. I thought about going afterwards, but don’t want to go when everyone is super drunk. Not my cup of tea… but we’ll see.

CIAO! LOVE ME!

Relaxing Weekend!

Prison Break started again on Friday, too bad its only for a few weeks before it is off again and this time for good! Although, I definitely think it is time because they are starting to get a little far fetched with it at this point. I am pretty much just watching it because of Wentworth Miller. I’d gone the last four months without it, I’m sure it wouldn’t have matter all that much if it hadn’t come back on… that and I have the best part of the show already on DVD (Season 1) and could watch it whenever my Wentworth cravings got too high, lol!

We had another great day of weather yesterday… too bad that Ayden and I spent most of it inside. We did go outside for a little while and he was riding his bike around and then he got attacked by a bug and freaked out. Okay, so I don’t think he actually got attacked per say, but a bug flew at him and that was it. He jumped off his bike and was in the house for the rest of the day. I didn’t even get a chance to see what type of bug it was. I asked him repeatedly over the course of the rest of the day if he wanted to go to the park or the beach or just go outside with mommy and he said no. He said he just wanted to stay inside and watch TV and play with his toys.

During the morning hours we had the TV off for quite a while and did worksheets together and then he made some Transformers out of construction paper. I love seeing his imagination at play and the things that he comes up with it. It is SO awesome. While he was busy creating those Transformers (which I believe started out as dinosaurs) I was at the table reading the rest of Midnight Sun.

What is Midnight Sun you ask? Well my fellow Twilight lovers might already know… it is going to be the fifth book in the Twilight series, although I’m not quite sure that you could call it a fifth book. You see, it really is the first book all over, but written from Edward’s perspective instead of Bella’s (because that is who the first book perspective is from). And the book isn’t actually out yet, but I found Stephanie Meyer’s website and found a draft of the book on it. Apparently some copies of the draft were released on the internet a while ago. I don’t know the specifics, but Ms. Meyer decided to release the draft on her website as well. It is only the first 264 pages and just a draft so when she does decide to finish the book parts of it could very well be changed and what nots, but the overall plot is the same because like I said, it is the first book over again.

So, I read the draft and really enjoyed it, even though I knew everything that was going to happen. It was so different because it was from a completely different perspective. It got me hooked on the story again so what did I do last night after Ayden was in bed… slapped the DVD in of course! And being like the third or fourth time that I’ve seen the movie… it’s still just as good. Well, I admit that it doesn’t flow as good as some of the higher budge films produced from Hollywood, but I think it fits good for the story. I don’t know, just my opinion anyways.

Jay did not get home until about 9pm last night and he hadn’t even gone home to drop off the washer and dryer yet. He got to JT’s house and they went golfing instead. I was okay with that because they hadn’t seen each other in a while and it is something that they both enjoy doing and JT paid for Jay so that was nice. I told Jay that he could Ayden with him today to take the washer and dryer home. Because the weather is kind of icky today it would give Ayden something to do besides sit and watch TV all day again. Jay, Ayden, and JT all left around 10am this morning and probably won’t get home until later this afternoon. And me… I get to sit at home and continue my relaxation.

Just three more weeks of classes! I am getting more and more excited as the days play out. I made up my graduation invitations last night and I think they turned out pretty well. Now I just need to email them out to everyone. I went looking for some decorations today, but I couldn’t really find anything that I wanted to get. That and I don’t want to spend all that much either because I am not having a big party. I think I might have a few things at home that I can use as well. I am really just hoping for good weather!

CIAO! LOVE ME!

Slacking!!!

It’s pretty much become my middle name by now… Slacker! I’m slacking on pretty much everything that I can these days and I blame the culprit on the wonderful weather that we’ve been having. It is pretty darn near impossible to want to get anything done with the last few great days that we’ve been having! I have managed to get done what I’ve needed to as far as school and clinic goes, but I’ve been slacking on the blogging right now. Kind of gets pushed to the back burner when I have clinic write ups to do and then a poster project that I finally got emailed in (well the first draft that was due anyways)…

My week went moderately slow and fast at the same time. Make sense? Maybe, maybe not… but that doesn’t matter.

Therapy on Monday and Wednesday went well, as did my aud clinic on Tuesday. I found out on Wednesday that Ayden would be having his speech evaluation on Thursday. Oh, btw, did I mention that he had this kindergarten screening this week as well. I think I did, but I don’t think I mentioned how well it went. He passed of course, didn’t think that he wouldn’t. Anyways, it went so well that he asked on Wednesday morning if he was going back to his new school. And then he got upset when I told him that he didn’t have to go back until summer was over. Although I was super happy that he wanted to go back already!

Back to the speech eval… I was happy to find out that he was going to get one before the semester was over because I had thought that his teacher had kind of forgotten about it. Two grad students were going to administer the tests at his daycare/school along with their supervisor (the one that Ayden sees come to his school once a week to work with other students). They gave him an articulation test and a speech intelligibility rating. We are going to have a meeting in a few weeks to go over the results and discuss where we should go from there. I am thinking that most likely Ayden will need some sort of speech, unless he drastically improves over the summer. Because it will most likely be through the school (the speech therapy) he will not start until the fall. I will be able to work with him throughout the summer, but do not know if I can make lots and lots of progress with him. They might give him another artic test in the fall and go from there. We’ll see…

I had my first grad school advising meeting today. I found out that next year there will only be three audiology grad students instead of the six that we were expecting. The good thing about that is that the three students will be the three from my class that applied and we all know each other and get along. The down side is that I have no idea how they are going to split up the clinic hours… if it will be more work or not. I’m excited to know that there will just be the three of us because we will definitely get more one on one attention with the teachers with the smaller class sizes. As well, we all do get along really good. I’m just hoping that I can make it through the next four years!!!

The weekend does not hold a lot for us. Jay is going to pick up our free washer and dryer from his friend’s house in Minnesota. I think he is more excited about seeing JT than he is about getting our free washer and dryer. We don’t need a washer and dryer right now, but might if we ever move and to pass up on a good set that is free, well you just can’t. Well, I just can’t, lol!

Ayden and I are going to chill at home and revel in the great weather that we are supposed to have and some of the rain that we might get as well. I am hoping that the rain stays away for most of the day. I am going to try and work on my graduation invitations as well. Another thing that I keep slacking on, not that I have a whole lot to send out because I am not having a big party or anything and could just as easily email everyone, but I am artsy like that and like to do things like that…

Okay… CIAO for now! LOVE ME!

Easter Weekend

I haven't had the chance to update everyone on our Easter weekend... I sort of got sucked into a new show last night on MTV. Normally I am not all up into watching MTV, except for shows like True Life and during some seasons Real World and occasionally The Hills. Anyways, they had been running previews for this new show called College Life and it's about four college students that tape themselves with cameras pretty much all the time. It's supposed to be more 'real' because they aren't being taped by a filming crew etc etc etc... anyways, it looked kind of interesting and so I wanted to see what it was about. The premiere was last night and I had to watch it. Guess what?! Turns out the that college that these students are going to while they are filming themselves is none other than... UW MADISON... IN WISCONSIN!!! Hello! I totally know that school! Okay, so I didn't go there or whatever, but it's IN Wisconsin and ON MTV! Seriously, how often does something like that actually happen. Obviously I do not know these students, but I know the area and it is just super cool (or maybe I'm a total dork). I cannot say for certainty why they chose UW Madison as the school of choice for this particular show, but I'm lead to believe that Madison has a very high 'rep' as a party school. It may be a very good school as well and hard to get into, but when people say Madison, they have to think the drinking party as well. So anyways, the first show was okay. Definitely not something that I NEED to watch, but I think I might continue with the show just because it is taking place in Madison and I want to see what goes on. Ought to be at least a little interesting to some extent. Anyways, had to let you know what I 'discovered' last night.

Oh oh oh!!! And... GUESS WHAT AGAIN?!?! Prison Break starts up again THIS FRIDAY!!! I am so totally stoked about that! It's been off for a good three/four months now. I don't know why they are putting it on Fridays now, but I suppose that that is a better day for me because Monday nights are always so busy for me. I do not know how much longer the show will run. I know that this will be the last season of it, but don't know how many episodes they have planned for it. I am so excited to get my Wentworth Miller time back, lol! Say it again please... yes I know I'm crazy. Crazy in love with Wentworth Miller, haha! I'm in a pretty good mood this Tuesday morning. I am currently waiting for my Aud clinic to start and should be working on my poster presentation. In my defense, I did get about five slides done for it before I started blogging so that isn't bad. I just need to write the paper before Friday... and it is only going to be the first draft... all is well!

So... finally off to our Easter... or should I say the weekend...

Friday night we stopped at Hu Hot on our way 'home' and it was so yummy (like usual)! I was surprised that when we got there we were able to get seated right away. We didn't arrive until about 6ish and on a Friday night I thought it would be pretty busy and we'd have quite a long wait in line. Luckily we got there when we did because by the time we left there was quite a line. Ayden ate really well and so did Jay and myself. I always leave that place stuffed to the max and last Friday was definitely no exception!

Saturday morning we headed over to my mom's house for Easter egg coloring, an egg hunt and just to have a good time. And a good time it was! Ayden got to go on an egg hunt that had clues built in and he was super excited and did a great job! Coloring eggs went really well and the pizza burgers we had for lunch were SO YUMMY as well! We spent most of the day there.

Sunday was our 'busy' day with heading over to my dad's parent's house and then Jay's mom's parent's house. We didn't get home until about 9pm Sunday night and then Ayden had to 'hunt' for his eggs and basket at our place. It was worth it though! It was definitely nice to see all of our families again and just chill out for two days and not worry about school. I did bring some work with me and got a little bit of done, but didn't stress out about it or feel like I should be doing any of it. Of course that doesn't mean I didn't feel the stress of trying to get everything ready for school Sunday night. Printing out stuff for clinic, making sure everything is ready for that, checking my hearing screening schedule, knowing what I have to do get done for my poster presentation and all of the extra what nots and who nots... But it really was a good weekend!

Today Ayden had his kindergarten screening. I got to take him this morning. They do it with groups of children so the parents don't have to stay. Ayden seeemd pretty excited and didn't cry or anything when I left. I tried to keep him really upbeat about it and that he was just going to have fun playing with some new friends for a little while and then dad was going to pick him up and take him to his regular school for the rest of the day. He was pumped and gave me a hug and smooch bye and a big high five! I've had a few people tell me that I am going to cry on his first day of kindergarten and I'm all thinking that it probably won't happen. I mean I didn't really even flinch when I dropped him off for his first day of daycare when he was a baby. But... as I was driving to campus this morning the tears almost started flowing. What a mom, right? Not even his first day of actual school and already I'm getting all choked up about it. But hey... I left my little guy at his new school... the school where he will be starting kindergarten at! OMG! It's all starting to hit home!

CIAO! LOVE ME!

ENGAGED!!!

Jay and I recently got engaged!!! I know most people would be jumping at the bite to let the whole world know… especially if they are an avid blogger like myself, and its not that I’m not excited about it or don’t want to let the whole world know, but I think because it wasn’t some romantic planned out escapade that I’m not jumping at the bit to spill all of the details. That… and this is the first time that I’ve had all weekend to just sit down and write (and it’s not even the weekend… it’s already Monday night!)

So… here goes with all of the details, as unexciting as they may be and probably unromantic in many eyes, but none the less.

Jay and I have been dating for over five and a half years now (long time, right?) We’d talked about getting engaged in the past, but were never at that right point in our relationship. No matter what, we are tied together for life due to our wonderful son Ayden, but just hadn’t made things one step more serious. Does that make sense ‘one step more serious’? How much more serious could a couple get if they already have a child together?

Jay and I could have gone down another path, we could not have stayed together, but this is where we have been led and through the many ups and downs of our relationship, we have prospered, grown together, continue to grow together, and we both felt/feel that getting engaged at this point was the right next step. We could have done it earlier, we could have waited, but I don’t know, it just feels right at this point in time. Still making any sense? I don’t know, but its my blog so I suppose that I don’t exactly have to either, right?

So anyways, I’ve been hitting up craigslist quite frequently looking at their listing for apartments/duplexes/whatever because as you know… I want to move. Well, you know on those days when you are supposed to be doing something else with your time, should be doing something else with your time, but are just lolly gagging around on the internet surfing pages. You blog readers know what I mean, we all blog surf at one point, right? Well… I DO! Not only did I look at the apartment listings, but I would kind of peruse the jewelry listings as well, just incase I happened upon something. Jay would have LOVED to be engaged much sooner than me, but since our talks about not being exactly ready I think he was scared away a little by the thought of asking me fearing I might say no. Thus, I took some initiative and started looking for myself.

Last Wednesday night I just so happened upon a ring for a GREAT price that I thought was beautiful. This was the second time that this lady has posted this ring and I just knew that I had to ask Jay about it and see what he thought. Actually, in the back of my mind I had already decided that I wanted to email the lady about it and see if it was for sale. But Jay thought it was very pretty as well and said that I could email the lady. At that point we really hadn’t talked about what the ring would mean. I didn’t want to get too excited because knowing my luck it wouldn’t even be for sale anymore… BUT… it was!!! A few emails were exchanged… a meeting point set up… and Friday was the pick up day for my ring.

Before then though… Thursday night Jay broached the topic of what the ring would mean. We talked about it and both thought it would be great if we made it official, called it an engagement ring. I mean, what I bought was a wedding set, it’s just whether or not we would call it that. Jay was SO excited and happy and elated at our decision. If it’s possible, I think he was more excited than me. I don’t know… like I said, it just feels right now. So, like I said at the beginning, it wasn’t anything all planned out ahead of time, romantic, or whatever proposals are supposed to be, but that really isn’t what matters (at least to me). It doesn’t matter that I picked out the ring, it doesn’t matter that the ring is used, it doesn’t matter that it’s not a huge two carat diamond (or whatever)… it only matters that I’m in love with a great guy, a superb father, the one that makes me smile…

Without further ado, here are the before pictures of my ring… it’s nothing super big, but it’s perfect for me and I’m in love with it! I say before pictures because it is soldered together right now and not my size. It is currently being resized and unsoldered and cleaned. I will post some after pictures when I pick the ring up on Wednesday.

 

Okay… I’m sure there is a lot more that I could write about this, but I’m about to sign off and chill out for a while before going to bed.

Btw, have any of my readers heard of Skype? I just downloaded it tonight and talked to Jay’s aunt in Iowa… it’s the coolest thing and it’s FREE! Well for the most part, like the video calls through your computer! I’m so excited to figure more out about it!

CIAO! LOVE ME!

Breath of Fresh Air

I feel like so much is starting to fall into place these past couple of weeks. Everything that I've been worrying about (and if you didn't already know, I'm a habitual worrier- I worry about anything and everything... even knowing there is nothing I can do to change things... I worry... I definitely need help with that/this) has sort of started to fall into place. I know that the iron clad details of many things are not worked out yet, but to have some sort of plan in my head of how things are potentially going to turn out is like a huge weight off of my shoulders. I know things can/will/and with me are bound to change in the blink of an eye... but it is not something that I am going to concentrate on right now.

First off, Jay and I are pretty sure what we are going to do for child care this summer. I might have stated that already in an old post, but there it is again. It feels good to know what is going to happen on that front. Also, both Jay and I have pretty much figured out our potential schedules for the fall. Actually, Jay has finally figured out what he wants to major in for college and how long it will be before he is done. He is going to switch majors once again. This time he will be going from the business major to the American studies major. His advisor said they are pretty much the same thing and the job outlooks are the same. He will be able to get the same kinds of job with either major. However, the American studies major is less strict about GPA and because the business major is doing so much restructuring there is a slim to none chance that Jay would even be accepted into the program itself, much less get into the classes that he needs. With this new plan of attack he will be able to graduate next May. We played around with a few options... a full summer and then fall classes and possibly graduate in the winter, however that would not work and would leave him with one class for the spring. Because of that we decided to not bombard him with school this summer, let me work full time like usual, and then he will have 12 credits each semester next year. Also, his fall schedule is looking very nice... morning classes all week and the whole rest of the day to work! I'm excited about that! When it comes to my schedule, my classes vary throughout the day and week, however it leaves me enough time to fit in work and extra hours on campus to get my clinic stuff done without having to worry about child care costs because Ayden will be in school. Also, from the looks of it we might only need before and after school care a few times a week. I don't know what my clinic schedule will be, however I do know the days that it will fall on (either a Tuesday or Thursday and either from 9-noon or 1-4pm)... so it is good to know that as well.

Also, Jay went to the parent meeting at Ayden's school yesterday and that went really well too. He came home with a bunch of papers... ugh school! Lol! But he said that Ayden was great at the meeting and got to meet his potential teacher. All of the kindergarten teachers were there and they met the little kids. Next week is his screening and I'm relieved to know that it will not just be Ayden and a teacher. There will be other kids there as well so it makes it more comfortable with the little guys. If it were just Ayden and a teacher/slp/whoever does the screening... I have a feeling that he would be painfully shy. Of course I could be wrong, I'm just going by what I see on a daily basis. Anyways, I also found out that we can go and meet his teacher the day before school starts which is great as well and take all of his school supplies in!

I had a great afternoon today… I had my first college field trip to the Aging and Disability Resource Center here in Stevens Point. We had to provide our own transportation so there was no bus full of senior ComD students, but I’m sure that would have been funny! I thought about not going because I thought it was going to be pretty boring, and well it was… but I decided to and one of my friends rode with me. On our way there she suggested that we go to Dairy Queen afterwards and since I didn’t need to get Ayden from school right away I was game! So after our totally awesome tour of the Lincoln Center we headed off to Dairy Queen for a much needed lunch at that point and chatted it up for quite a while. It was really fun and just what I needed. Of the five of us ComD girls that got close over the past two years… her and I have a lot in common. Four of us have children, but two of us four are older and them getting pregnant and having children wasn’t such a big deal since one already had adult children and the other one was 26 or 27 at the time. Kristi and I were both young and definitely did not have our mind set on having kids at the time. Although Kristi was in college at the time, it wasn’t something she was looking forward to at that point in her life. But we all know that we are not in control. And now Kristi is expecting her second little one in just a few short weeks. It was nice to be able to talk to someone who can relate to me. Obviously I have other friends who have children and family that is close in age to me, but they are all at different parts in their life and we all have different worries. Kristi and I not only are both in college, but we are in the same major. We have the same classes, the same stuff to complain about. Overall, it was just a very nice afternoon!

Oh oh oh!!! And the weather today was GORGEOUS GORGEOUS GORGEOUS!!! So much so that I walked around outside in a sweatshirt and WASN’T cold! I even braved it today and wore flip flops to class this morning. Oh how it felt nice to wear no socks or shoes! I am SO looking forward to summer! Actually… I am just looking forward to this weekend and the gorgeous weather that we are supposed to be having!

Tomorrow is Friday and that means HU HOT! And on the way to Hu Hot we are stopping in Waupaca to pick up a little something. I am so excited about tomorrow and this weekend. I am not excited about the prospect of yet another weekend where I get nothing done, but hey… what can I do? Lol! Maybe get my butt into gear tonight and get some of that Hearing Science paper done, I mean the first draft is only due next Thursday and I haven’t really read the article yet. It’s not as if I have ER to watch tonight either, right?

CIAO! LOVE ME!

Disconnected

MONDAY…

That is precisely how I feel right now and I don’t know if there is really any logical reason behind that. My motivation for just about everything is lacking and I am busier than I want to be. I’ve been slacking on my writing and that is what makes me feel complete (most days)… I think I am just in a funk.

Today is supposed to be Not Me Monday (hosted by MckMama)… but little Mr. MckMuffic (or Stellan as we all so lovingly know him) is still in the PICU at Children’s. Please continue to keep him and his family in your thoughts and prayers and he continues to fight through his SVT! If it happened to be one of those Not Me kind of Mondays I would be saying that I certainly do not check MckMama’s blog almost a million times and keep up to date with her Twitters. I did not seriously consider getting her updates on my phone because I wanted to know that bad. I have unlimited texting so I would not be worried that I’d go over my limited amount of texts because MckMama doesn’t keep us that up to date. I am not thankful to her for that because I do not worry about her little man and her whole family!

Maybe it’s the fact that I’m still so worried about little Stellan and his family that I don’t feel like writing. He is in my thoughts throughout the day many many times… always wondering what is going on and how he is doing.

Our weekend was very good. It was busier than I thought it would and I was able to get a lot more done than I thought I would, even though I had anticipated in getting a lot done. I finished Breaking Dawn on Sunday night! It was just as good as it was the first time which made me think I spent my time reading it wisely… because I know that I should have been doing homework or something else when I was reading it.

TUESDAY…

So… I’m back again… trying to actually get this post done. I ran out of ambition last night to finish this post and just sort of stopped. Back to my weekend. Friday night was not all that busy, but Saturday was our busy day. The weather was nicer so Ayden and I made our first trip to the beach. Beach?! Yes… we went to the beach. If you’ve been following me for some time now, you will know that we have a little beach area down the road from us that we like to frequent. Of course it was too cold to go swimming, I mean it probably wasn’t even 50 degrees outside, but we had SO MUCH FUN!

We brought the sand toys and made sand castles and Ayden even got wet (despite my best efforts of trying to keep him dry).

Here is our river (beach) that we love to frequent in the summer. Last year it was a lot fuller at this time compared to the height of the water this year. It is perfect for little kids because it is so shallow and the water actually gets pretty warm in the summer! I love it!!! And so does Ayden!

So much for trying to keep Ayden dry… walking right into the water on the edge. At least at this point his feet were not wet yet. Or so he says, but I believed him because I took this picture shortly after we got there and he didn’t start complaining of wet feet until we’d been there for a while and he’d been in the water A LOT more!

These are my lovely feet… only hidden under shoes and socks! Oh how I wish it was warm enough to have gone to the beach bare foot, but I suppose that in early April in WISCONSIN (of all places) that I should just be happy that it was warm enough to get outside and to the beach rather than be cooped up in the house all weekend!

It’s really hard work carrying that bucket full of water up to me. Check out that hard working face he has on!

 

And like I said… we went to the beach dry and I tried my best to keep my little guy dry, but unfortunately no such thing happened. We left the beach with pants and shoes and socks soaked! It was a fun afternoon and the fresh air certainly tired both Ayden and myself out… but that wasn’t the end of our busy day…

While we were at the park I got a call from my aunt. She had told me back around Christmas time that her son would be playing a basketball game in Point in April and that she would call me when they came up and we could go out to eat or something. Well, I had totally forgotten about that until she called me Saturday afternoon. She asked if we wanted to come over to their hotel and go swimming with them.

Jay headed back to Chilton because he was going to attend a gun raffle with his parents. He left in the afternoon as Ayden and I were leaving for the beach, so he didn’t get to come swimming with us. But Ayden and I went swimming around 5pmish with my aunt and uncle and cousins. It was a blast! The best part was that I was smart enough to bring Ayden’s life vest along with us and I put that on him before we got into the pool. We were the only ones in the pool so that was even better. Once I showed Ayden how if he jumped in, his life vest would help him float… he was jumping in right and left by himself. It was definitely a plus to have that along because then I didn’t need to be carrying him around all the time or have to worry about him as much. Of course I was still pretty glued on him/close to him because I wanted to make sure he would be okay, but it made swimming so much more fun! I wish I would have brought my camera because I would have loved to get some pictures/video of him jumping in by himself. He had lots of fun and was even more tired after we left.

After that my aunt and uncle took us out for supper to Mickey D’s… it was super nice of them! Lots of fresh air and then some swimming totally led for early bed times for both Ayden and myself on Saturday night!

On Sunday… Jay got home in the early afternoon and I went and did some shopping at good ole Kohls! I got some new shorts for myself because I haven’t gotten any in like the last fours years. Plus I had a 20% off coupon! It wasn’t too bad… and by that I mean my spending habits! Lol!

Monday brought hearing screenings and therapy… reflections and lesson plans… studying for a test… and trying to complete an assignment that I had no idea what I was doing on. Hearing screenings went great. I totally remembered how to run the tymp machine and was worrying about nothing. Therapy went pretty good, although my client was a little energetic, but I managed to keep him relatively reigned in. And my supervisor said that it went well so that is good. Reflection and lesson plan writing took a lot less time than I thought it would. Studying… well didn’t exactly get to that until this morning because I was so not motivated last night. And that stupid assignment… well I turned it in only half done. I even spent extra time trying to figure out how it should be completed and then said screw it and turned it in the way it was. I’m upset that we had to even turn it in in the first place because we were not informed that we would have to. Oh well… we should be getting our tests back for that class soon… I hope!

Speaking of tests… I got some studying in for my test this morning after my aud clinic. I thought the test was pretty easy so we will see. I’m hoping to get an ‘A’ but in all honesty will be okay with a high ‘B’ because this class is not my top priority.

And my aud clinic went really well too! I got to do some bone conduction with masking today which was pretty awesome. I had to be taught all over how to do it, but that was okay. It’s all about a learning experience anyways. And then I got to be a part of two hearing aid consults which was pretty cool as well. I am hoping to be able to make the appointment when the hearing aids come in because I think that is the coolest part… programming the hearing aids! Oh… all this audiology talk, makes me all warm and gooey on the inside, lol!

I have five more hearing screenings to do tomorrow. I am okay with that because they went really well on Monday, but it also kind of sucks because we (Jay and I) have our first ‘parent meeting’ at Ayden’s school tomorrow night precisely at the time that I have my last two screenings. That mean Jay has to go alone with Ayden and remember all of the important information for me. Lol… he is okay with going to the meeting alone, but I really wish that I could go along because well I am a mom and I like to do that sort of stuff. That and next week is his kindergarten screening and I will be able to drop him off, but Jay will have to pick him up because I have aud clinic on Tuesday morning and once again he will have to remember all of the important stuff to tell me. He’d better have a good memory!

Okay… feels kind of good to get some writing done! Have clinic tomorrow (semi wishing that it would get cancelled so I wouldn’t have to worry about anything therapy related until Monday of next week) and it should go well. I have some good activities planned… well good in my eyes and my supervisors. Doesn’t necessarily mean that my client will like them or want to do them. Can never know with the little kids, lol!

CIAO! LOVE ME!

Hiccups

I’ve had the hiccups twice tonight alone! I can’t remember the last time that I’ve had the hiccups (although I’m sure it hasn’t been forever ago) and then to get them twice in one night! And I didn’t even get them from laughing too much! What gives?! Oh well… they’ve gone away yet again and hopefully they will decide to stay away for the rest of the night.

I’m so glad that it is Friday night and tomorrow is Saturday and then Sunday… two days off! I suppose that I shouldn’t really term them off because I will most likely be trying to get some stuff done. Actually, I am sort of dreading Monday. On Monday I have to start the hearing screenings with the Physics 115 class. Now, it wouldn’t be so bad, but we need to do tympanograms on them and wouldn’t you know that in the course of the last… what three weeks since I’ve had my aud midterm, I have semi forgot how to use the tymp machine! Probably not a good thing. My first appointment isn’t until 8am, so if the clinic opens at like 7:30ish I should have plenty of time to get everything set up and ready to go. I have five people to do Monday morning… oh joyous world! I remember most of it, but would feel comfortable being able to practice on myself again at least once or twice to remember for sure. You know how it goes… it’s the whole getting back on the bike thing after a while. Although I’m inclined to say that one never really forgets how to ride a bike, so maybe it’s not like that at all, lol!

I’m thoroughly entranced with Breaking Dawn (again!)… I didn’t think it would be as good rereading it… well it is! For the most part I already know what is going to happen, but I’m amazed at how much of the small detail that I forgot and being that I read it way back in August, I guess that that is okay. Plus, it’s not as if I haven’t had enough to worry about this past school year. Actually, speaking of the whole school year, it seems like last semester was SO long ago when in fact it wasn’t. Its even kind of fuzzy remembering the classes that I had to suffer through compared to this semester. I’ve been really lucky with only have two actual on campus classes and then my clinics and work and then my online class. And it really is just flying by! When will time stand still? Stupid question!

I went shopping today and didn’t buy really anything. I thought about it and then decided against it. I liked the clothes, but not enough to buy them. I might check out two more stores tomorrow, but who knows if I will actually get anything. I did buy three more charms for my charm bracelet and really like how it looks now. They didn’t add up to much because they were all extremely on sale. We also did some grocery shopping tonight… needed a few staple items.

Off to start a power point project for my Social Gerontology class… wish me luck!

CIAO! LOVE ME!

Hearing Huh?

Hearing Science test number 2 done! Results still unknown… expected results… hoping for at least a B or better… lots better than the last test, but definitely still not easy. Walked out of the room, first one done, with about five minutes left in the class period. Hence forth, test was LONG! But I don’t think it was a long as the previous test, nor as hard… but still needed to know A LOT! Not that we shouldn’t be expected to know a lot, this is a 400 level course (and as far as college goes, that means hard, or so I’ve heard) and Dr. Henry definitely is no easy professor. Needless to say I am not as depressed as I was about the last test. Should get the grade back in probably a week.

After my test today I had therapy and it redeemed my day for me. See, I didn’t sleep worth nothing last night and felt pretty crummy this morning, what with having to study more for my test and then taking the test. I really wasn’t in the mood to have therapy and deal with an over energetic client like he was on Monday. But really… today went GREAT! I was so proud of my client! We have started working on our sounds in a different position and even though is percentages weren’t great, he worked really hard and we had a good time. Plus… he is generalizing for initial /l/!!!! I am so stoked and his mom said that he is doing it at home as well! To know that I’ve had an impact on my client’s life is awesome!!! I’ll miss my little buddy when the semester is over!

Tomorrow I have my aud clinic for the week. I was supposed to have it yesterday, but my grad student changed to Thursday for this week because of a conference  andand because it is a follow up client (and I have yet to observe one of those appointments) I was able to switch my time to Thursday as well. I am really excited about it because the client will be receiving hearing aids and I cannot wait to see how he/she reacts to them and watch my grad student (yes I have pretty much laid claim to him, lol) and supervisor program the hearing aid and everything that goes with it! The things I get excited about, right?

I’m still in the mindset of wanting to move. I check the apartment listings on craiglist about a million time a day to see if anyone has posted anything new. Nothing so far… Today we went to see my friend’s apartment. We looked into moving where she lives before we found our current place, but never got a tour of the insides so didn’t know what they looked like. She has a three bedroom apartment for a pretty reasonable price. The apartments themselves are pretty nice, but I don’t think they will work for us. The layout is okay, but there is no dining room area like we have now and the living room is a little smaller. It works for them really nice, but I’d rather stay where we are now. But that doesn’t mean I am not looking pretty hard for someplace new to live. My only hurry as of right now is if we do find a new place, depending on where it is, I might have to transfer Ayden to a new school and such. I’m not going to worry about that right now… and it’s not as if we don’t like where we live at this current moment because we do. I’ve said it over and over… I really like our current place, we just want out of apartment living. Someday… when the time is right!

So, my best friend just went through something that I was going through a few months ago… however, she made it through successfully and is happier than I’ve seen her in a while. I see only good things in her future and am so excited for her! She was a bit concerned about what she wanted to do and/or how she was going to do it. I told her that she needed to jump at the opportunity presented to her because she saw that I didn’t and got screwed in the end and I really didn’t want that to happen to her. It doesn’t mean that she will not get screwed in the end because no one knows the future, but she is on the right path and I’m excited to see what the future holds for her!

Ayden has been a bit of a crab this week. Maybe it’s the crappy weather that we’ve been having and his lackage of outdoor time. Or maybe he’s just having a bad week. Whatever it is… it’s annoying, lol! Everyone is entitled to crabby days though. I think Jay is having a bit of a crabby week as well because he has been snapping at Ayden more than usual too. Sometimes Ayden asks for it, but Jay just flies off the handle a little too fast. Oh well…

I am hoping to get some good sleep tonight. The season finale of The Real World is on tonight and I am looking forward to watching it. I haven’t watched all of this season of it, but caught a few episodes and it seems like this season wasn’t as full of as much drama as some of the other ones. I dunno… I usually don’t watch all that much MTV except for the occasional Real World or True Life (that can be pretty good sometimes).

My friend finished the last book in the Twilight series and gave it back to me tonight (I let her borrow my copy) and it is SO calling my name. It is sitting on the stool in the kitchen and I am feeling the pull of it for me to pick up and start rereading it. Oh how easy it would be get sucked into it once again and just revel in the world of Edward and Bella. I would like to reread the first three books, but I’ve seen the movie three times now and so rereading the first book would be kind of redundant, the second book is too much about Jacob, and the third book… well it was good, but why not just dive into the last one (because it was the best)? Maybe I will tonight… nothing better to do.

Nothing better to do my butt!!! I have to big projects that I should start on… just might start on them this weekend since it seems like Jay will be gone. But I think I just might have said that before so who really knows?!

CIAO! LOVE ME!