There is proof...

...that my honey still does 'romantic' things every now and THEN, hehe! We are not all up on that holiday stuff at our house, or anniversary stuff, etc... More often than not we find something before the actual day and say it is for the upcoming 'event'. For example... Father's Day. Jay bought a welder probably two months before Father's Day and justified the purchase by saying it could be for Father's Day. Well, that pretty much stuck because other than a little drawing/card that Ayden did for Jay, we didn't celebrate the day very well. We went to the parade and such, but that was about it. That is just kind of the way we are I guess, and for the most part it doesn't bother me.

On occasion we do surprise each other with little items. I'll bring him back his favorite candy bar from the grocery store, he'll bring me donuts home after work, he'll surprise me with potatoes on the grill... nothing that costs a lot or is super big, but its the small stuff that really matters. That, and we don't really have the money to do big things for each other.

But... last night I was in the bedroom reading my book and Jay came in and told me that he forgot to tell me about something that he bought. Now, we don't require in our household to tell the other person about EVERY little thing they buy, however when it comes to larger items, we kind of like to discuss it first. Like I said, we aren't made out of money (but then again, who is? Okay, I know their are rich people out there, but I think you know what I meant.) and thus we make a decision as a couple on whether or not to buy something. So, when he said he bought something that he didn't tell me about, I was a little hesitant to find out what it was and what it ended up costing. He told me it was tickets to go see a concert at the Resch center for us. At first he wasn't going to tell me and just let it be a surprise, but then he reasoned that if I really wanted to know that I could just look it up because he told me that it was at the Resch center. Personally, I was just going to go along with the surprise and see who it was going to be when we got there, but he ended up telling me. He got us tickets to see Sugarland next Wendesday!

How exciting is that?! It has been a while since Jay and I have had any 'us' time or went out for a 'date night' so I am super excited about this upcoming concert. That... and the only other 'concert' that I have been to has been the Trans Siberian Orchestra and well they aren't superstars per say... although I'd go see them again in a heart beat because I am in love with their music as well! And, lets be honest here, I am a country girl at heart when it comes to music. I never really listened to it before dating Jay, but he converted me and I've liked it ever since and Sugarland is one of my favorite bands! I'd really enjoy going to Country USA, Summerfest, Fudfest, (any of those huge countryfests around the state) but they are big 'drunk fests' and I really don't want to be around those kind of people. I am sure that there are people who go to listen to the music and not drink, but I'm going with the fact that the majority don't just do that. I'd like to go with a group of people who don't drink and just have a good time. I'd love to see Taylor Swift, Carrie Underwood, Rascal Flatts, Dierks Bentley, Kenny Chesney, Brad Paisely, etc etc etc in concert someday! But for now I will settle for Sugarland (oh and Billy Currington, who is opening up for them!)

Jay already lined up a babysitter for Ayden (his parents) and its all good. It will be a long night and early morning since we decided we are just going to spend the night at his parent's house and leave in the morning for work/school, otherwise we wouldn't be getting back to Point until probably 2 or 3 in the morning.

All in all... EXCITED!!!

We got a lot of work done last night in the garage... organizing it and putting things away. We have a bit to do yet, but shouldn't take too long. Oh, and we are FINALLY all done with our old apartment. Just waiting for the security desposit back! Yeah!

However, our efforts in cleaning the garage last night were not without its rewards drawbacks. I park my car in the garage every night, I mean we have one, why not, lol! Well, we put a lot of things up on shelves and one of the things that Jay put on a higher shelf/rafter thing last night was Ayden's stroller. It looked like it was up there pretty secure, but apparently not. Jay was leaving for work this morning and found 1- that our garage was left open all of last night (*note to self, if Ayden says the garage door shut, make sure you check and see that it really is, thankfully nothing was taken, but I like to think we live in a relatively safe part of town) and 2- the stroller that we both thought was pretty secure, had fallen down and hit my car. I was thinking bad damage, I mean it is a bigger stroller, my car is small, and it fell from a higher distance... thankfully though just my passengar side mirror was broken off. It was a clean break, but now I am only left with one. I am hoping it will be a cheap fix, but who knows. It's okay for now though, I guess... since I only drive around town to begin with.

CIAO! LOVE ME!

Piggin’ Out means Workin’ Out

I’ve been home alone all day long and I miss my boss already! I always enjoy some ‘me time’ when I can get it, but today I’ve just been kind of bored. Bored… I thought I was looking forward to the weekend alone? Well, I was and it has been relaxing, but I still miss my boys! They left around 6:30pm last night and I haven’t done a whole lot since then, haha!

I did get my hair cut this morning and totally love it! I posted pictures in the post before this one, let me know what you think? I have been wearing my hair up for the majority of the last month, in fact I’ve worn it up for the last two weeks straight! I both wanted/needed something a little shorter for the summer. I mean what fun is long hair if I am never going to wear it down… plus I just really haven’t been all that motivated to do anything ‘glamorous’ with my hair lately. In any case, now all I have to do is throw some mousse in and blow dry quickly and all set to go. Shouldn’t take much longer than combing through the longer hair and pulling it up, plus it is a ‘fresh’ new look for the summer. I love my hairstylist!

As for the rest of the day… I pretty much sat/laid down and watched TV/read/napped. I took two short naps today… hoping I can sleep yet tonight. And I pigged out on junk food! I should not be left alone in the house with chocolate, lol! And because I felt bad for doing nothing all day and eating so much, I finally made myself get up and decided to put on my rollerblades and hit up that trail next to our house. I rollerbladed about 3 miles in a little over a half hour and got home just as the rain started to really come down. I was lucky that I went right when I did because I was pretty much soaked by the time I got home and I was probably only in the rain for a minute (apparently it was really coming down, hehe)… but I did feel great after my blading and hope to do it more often, and maybe make it longer!

After a quick shower, I decided to give my blog a face lift. I haven’t done one in a while and what a better night than tonight when I am all alone with nothing better to do. I know that when I updated my look a while ago my sister said the format looked really weird on her computer when she would read my blog, so PLEASE let me know if it is not showing up properly (ie: all weird and crazy like) and I’ll see what I can try to do to fix that. It looks how I want it to on my screen, but every one’s computer is a little different and I’d hate it if it looks weird or screwy on other’s computers and not know about it.

Yesterday Ayden and I went to a new water park about a half hour away from our house. My friend had mentioned it at the park on Thursday and I thought it might be fun to try some place new. I googled it and found the directions and decided since it was supposed to be hot and sunny on Friday that we would go. The weather was great and we made it to the water park just fine! It was okay… LOTS of people so it was kind of crowed. Had a little melt down with Ayden because he wanted to go down the slide, but was too short. This one had a height requirement and so I thought that that would make him less upset when he saw that he was too short, however I think it just made things worse. Then he kept saying that he wanted to grow up faster so he could go down the slide. I talked with him and told him that if he was not going to swim and have fun that we would leave and that changed his attitude right around. We had a great time! We were there for about two hours. They even had a concessions stand and I had just enough cash left over to get both of us a bowl of ice cream and we got PLENTY for our money! I thought that that was the best part! I mean for a $1.50 we got a LOT of ice cream! We enjoyed the ice cream and then headed on home!

At one point Ayden complained of a stomach ache so we took a break on our towels and I took some pictures. His stomach felt better after a short time and we were back in the pool. With all of the people there I was too chicken to take my camera any closer to the water!

Catching some sun!!! (Too bad he’s all lotioned up and really didn’t catch any color… me on the other hand… burned the back and legs just a bit!)

Ayden and Mommy enjoying the beautiful day!

So, I was at Best Buy the other day because I needed to pick up some new ink and paper for my picture printer and just so happened to find that Canon offers the Photo Album 3”x3” Pocket Size and had to get it! MckMama had mentioned something like this a while ago, but I think it was through a different company. Since then I had wanted to get my hands on something like that, but didn’t know about their prices and so forth, plus it required ordering it from the net. (Not that I don’t like ordering stuff online… it just takes more time than I prefer) But when I saw these in the store, I had to try it! It comes with enough ‘stuff’ to make two photo books and costs $15. Personally I think that that is a little pricey, but I wanted to see how good it really was.

I got home and almost immediately set forth making my first album. I got the cover printed and then was going to print the pages. Here is where I ran into some trouble. My printer would not take the photo paper. It is kind of thick and after about five or so tries of getting the paper to feed correctly/all the way into the printer, I got fed up for the night and said screw it. I was pretty bummed thinking I wouldn’t be able to make the albums and it would be a waste of money. Well… I tried over on Friday night and somehow managed to get the paper to feed all the way into the printer, however I am anticipating the same problems when I decide to print the next album. In any case, the pictures turned out great (for the quality of my printer which is over four years old) and I was happy! I think the book is too cute and can’t wait to show it off to people!

I want to do a family photo shoot outside once the weather is a little cooler (maybe this week?) and make that the next album!

  

And now I am off to read some more!

CIAO! LOVE ME!

Haircut!

Before…

After…

What do you think? I’m in LOVE!!! It gets shorter in the back… you know one of those ‘inverted bob’ type haircuts!

CIAO! LOVE ME!

Minnesota Trip

I am trying to plan a family trip to Minnesota for later this summer! Key word... trying... We will see how it all goes, but I would really like to make it happen. Jay and I talk all the time about how we want to do something during the summer as a family, but nothing ever really pans out. Most of the time it is just us not following through with our plans... things getting too busy and so on and so forth! This time I am a little more adamant about wanting to go. I'd like to have enough money to fly somewhere super fun or whatever, but that just isn't feasible at this point in time. At first I thought we might go to Chicago and do the Shed Aquarium and the huge Children's Museum down there, but I'm a little leery about driving in Chicago.

I then heard someone talking about the Underwater Adventure at the Mall of America and thought maybe we could go there instead. It's maybe a little closer to us than Chicago, but probably not a significant distance closer, and it is cheaper! I also found the Minnesota Zoo and thought we could do that too, seeing it is only about 10 minutes from the Mall. And we are talking Mall of America here... LOTS of other stuff to do as well! Plus going through Minnesota.. Jay is going to find some excuse to stop in Red Wing to see JT. I think that he would really like to go golfing with him, but I'm at a loss of what Ayden and I might do during that time. Maybe us two will tag along... Ayden loves golfing with Daddy and JT (and hasn't gotten to in a LONG time) and I could just bring a book along to read.

We are thinking about doing a Sunday thru Tuesday sort of trip because then hopefully the places won't be overly packed because it isn't a weekend. Nothing long or super fancy, but a family trip and something besides going home for a weekend like most of our summer ends up being.

Keep your fingers crossed that it all works out because I am excited about it!

CIAO! LOVE ME!

Weekend Full of Fun!

It was another uber busy weekend for us here at the homestead, although we were not home for much of it… well actually any of it. We left Friday later afternoon, but not before Jay added seven pails of sand to Ayden’s sand box. Seven more tonight and it will be full (and we made the whole thing for FREE)! Can’t wait to get outside tomorrow and play with it because it is supposed to be a hot ‘n humid day in good ‘ole Wisconsin. Maybe we’ll hunker down in the basement where it is cool. Tomorrow it is supposed to be a high of 90-95 degrees with super high humidity! Lots of fluids to keep us cool and hydrated is in store! Actually, I think a trip to the pool is probably in order, it is almost June... I mean July, I wish it were almost June, that'd mean my summer isn't flying me by, and we haven't been to the pool yet. Although, we haven't had super warm weather like we are having now either.

So we head off on Friday to Hu Hot (have I ever mentioned how much I absolutely LOVE LOVE LOVE that place)? I wish I could make it at home. The one attempt that I tried turned out okay, but not as well as I would have liked it. Oh well... We met up with Jay's aunt and uncle there and had a great time eating together! They love Hu Hot as well and just so happened, didn't have anything going on that night. We were also able to get a free dessert courtesy of my sister and facebook... sweetness!!! Yummy s'mores made at the table, how delicious!

Saturday morning we (and by that I mean Ayden and Jay's brother, Steven) went swimming in the lake. I am not a big lake swimmer and the water wasn't exactly warm either so just those two went. They had lots of fun for the amount of time that they were swimming and Ayden even jumped off the pier a few times as well. I was so proud of him. He didn't really care for the mouth full of lake water he ended up with at one point though. He told everyone that it was pretty disgusting! Lol! But we did spend most of the day Saturday outside and it left Ayden pretty drained. Because after the fun lake swimming we went to my cousin's graduation party and had lots of fun! We spent the better part of the day there... probably from 3pmish to 11pmish... LONG day in the sun, but Ayden had a blast. My dad showed up and brought Alexis. I was surprised to see them there, but then again probably shouldn't have been because even though he is technically not part of that family anymore, everyone still treats him like it. It was definitely nice to have Alexis there because Ayden and her just went off and played a lot together. Ayden also hung on my brother for a lot of the night... cool dudes they were together!

I had fun just sitting and relaxing and shooting the breeze with my cousins and sister. We always have a good time when we get together. And since the ones that I am referring to are most likely reading this... we should plan a girls Hu Hot date since we all love it so much! Any takers? Jay spent most of the day talking to other people which I was fine with. Not like he enjoys the girl talk anyways, hehe! But it was a nice time outside and the weather couldn't have been better, even though I/we all got mauled by mosquitoes! Really... I think you are right Amy... she needs to get Bounce next time. None of this cheap dryer sheet stuff, lol!!! We all bug sprayed up after we got feasted on.

Sunday was another semi busy day. We all slept in because we didn't get to bed the night before which was really nice and for not being in my own bed, I slept pretty good! Then it was off to the annual Father's Day Parade that my home town has every year. It is usually pretty long and really not all that exciting, at least that is my perspective. It is exciting for the kids who get to collect candy and Ayden definitely got his fair share! At one point he turned around and said 'I wasn't expecting it to be this long!' I could tell that he was getting tired as well because he kept yawning, but heaven forbid you let any of that candy they are throwing go to waste. We then stayed at Jay's aunt and uncle's house for a little while before heading out to my grandparent's house so I could see my dad and give him his gift. It was good to see him for a little while and he got to give Ayden a nice long four wheeler ride and I think Ayden really enjoyed it! Ayden had lots of fun wrestling with his older cousins. Well actually since they are my first cousins they are like his second cousins? I don't know how that all works, but either way, he was having fun.

I think we were headed off to Point around 5pm which was probably a bad idea because then we all forgot that we didn't have supper until about 9pm that night. I actually gave Ayden a sandwich in bed at 10pm because he was still awake and said he was hungry. Such a nice mom I am to forget about supper, but he hadn't mentioned anything earlier. He slept the whole way home... was asleep about 10 minutes after we got into the car. I love watching him sleep!

Yesterday was Ayden's first day at his summer school program! He had a great first day and wanted to go back the next day which was even better. I'm not so sure I liked how they dismissed the kids. Okay, so it makes perfectly good sense, but they could have informed the parents beforehand how they were going to do it, or at least the ones who have their children in summer school for the first time. I think I have it figured out, after spending 10 minutes trying to find Ayden yesterday. Found him with his teacher and all was well. Will hopefully find him faster today. Keeping my fingers crossed, lol! But his teacher seems really nice and it looks to be like it will end up being a good choice for him.

After summer school and lunch yesterday we hit up the city pool for the first time this summer! It was so nice... and we are going again this afternoon! Today it is SO hot out so I am expecting the pool to be pretty packed, but it will be nice to just get out and enjoy the weather without sweating super bad!

LATER…

This afternoon was pretty great! We went to the pool again like I thought we were going to and as predicted… it was PACKED! We spent just about an hour there and then Ayden wanted to go. I could have stayed longer, but it was really packed and you always had to watch what you were doing for fear of hitting/bumping into some one, so we headed out. Once we got home I set up the kiddie pool and let that warm up for about an hour. Ayden and I had some popsicles and then went outside so he could play in his sand box for the first time. I put the kiddie pool right next to it so Ayden could play in both. I didn’t care what he did with the water and the sand and he had lots of fun while I just rested my feet in the water beside him.

Jay was home from work early because the weather was so hot… they went in an hour early so he did get an extra hour of work in this morning. We went to Shopko tonight and got ourselves a new futon frame since ours broke. We got it on super sale so I was excited about that. We also got some luggage which we don’t have. Well, I take that back, I think I might have a small set that is still at my mom’s house, but I couldn’t pass up the deal that we got. Other than that small set that I think I have… Jay and I each have a duffel bag and that is it. Our new luggage was originally priced at $199.99… we paid $53! It is a NINE piece set! It is seriously wonderful! Oh, and I got a new purse as well which was on sale for $12 (originally $60)! Couldn’t pass it up, lol!

Okay, this is long enough…

CIAO! LOVE ME!

Taking a Breather…

It has been quite a week thus far! Busy busy busy, that’s for sure, but definitely an enjoyable week, which will most likely leave me wanting to sleep for hours upon hours… well it already is actually, lol!

On Monday Ayden accompanied me to work again! He was such a good boy while I was completing some projects, and he was such a good helper as well. He brought one of his Transformer books along and read that quietly to himself for quite a while. Well, he didn’t actually read it, but he was talking to himself while turning the pages. It was just super cute watching him do it, and it left me available to do some of the things that he couldn’t help me with. We made it through the little while I needed to be at work and then we headed off to Walmart for a few things.

Oh wait, before I even came to work, I helped a friend with her Mary Kay business. She is just starting to be a consultant and needed a friend to be a listener on an interview type call from her director. My friend pretty much just listened while her director and I talked (three way phone call) about the Mary Kay business. She was just getting the ropes of everything. I was actually surprised to learn the kinds of things I did about the Mary Kay business and if my life wasn’t busy with school during ¾ of the year (and I wasn’t such an introvert) it would be something I might just try.

In any case, I learned a lot, and my friend got her interview call thingy checked off her list… and I didn’t have to buy anything. Although, I just might sometime this summer, lol. They do have some good things, even for almost none make-up wearing people like me!

Ayden and I picked up what we needed at Walmart and headed home! We had lunch and then decided to wash my car and make a cake for my sister’s birthday the week before. I can’t remember if we made the cake or washed the car first, lol. Like I said, it has been a busy week so far. But my car really needed a wash because it was covered in pollen! We didn’t do a full out wash though… just filled a small garbage pail with some soap and water and grabbed some wash clothes and had fun! We managed to get it looking a lot cleaner than it was, but not car wash clean, if you catch my drift. And then Ayden had fun with the water and the ant hills in the drive way. That was a lot more fun than washing the car, lol! He’s slowly getting over his fear of bugs.

Then it was off to frost and sprinkle the cake! We had way too much fun with that as well! The cake (funfetti!) turned out awesome and was super yummy when we dug into it on Tuesday. We also made some pudding pops after supper that night. I was trying a new ‘recipe’ or what I could remember of it and they turned out okay. Next time I need to make them a little smaller or just make sure that I actually have the cups that I thought I had that I wanted to put them in. They are just pudding, some whipped cream, and crushed Oreos mixed together and frozen. It was a busy but good day!

My sister (Emily) and Ayden with her birthday cake right before heading out!

Tuesday we waited for my mom and sister to show up in the morning. Finished moving a few things around in the garage so I could finally park my car in there, but alas I haven’t yet because we’ve had the bikes in the way. My mom and sister arrived (separately) just fine… I can write good directions! Shortly after they arrived, I headed off to work alone to get a few things done. They (Ayden, my mom, and sister) went to the nearby park for a while.

After work, I came home and made some sandwiches for lunch and we enjoyed time around the patio table outside because the weather was so nice! Then it was bike ride time and because Ayden didn't want to bike himself, I hooked up his little trailer tow behind thing and we headed off. Wait, before we headed out… we first needed to pump up the tires. It was a good thing I knew where the tire pump was and was able to get it to work. I’m sort of semi handy like that, well sometimes, lol!

We biked about three miles and let me tell you, hauling an extra 50lbs behind you, biking into the wind… IS HARD! Ayden is about 40lbs and his trailer is probably about 10lbs, but I made it! It would have been nice to go a little farther, but I was dying by the half way point and we still had to go back. But I digress, it was a great workout!

Tuesday night we also went over to the old apartment and finished up the cleaning. It took us about two hours to get it done… just need to go through the ‘final check out’ and we are rid of that place! It definitely feels nice to have the cleaning done and my sister and mom were so super nice to help us with it! (We treated them to ice cream from Belt’s last night!) And because we could, we grilled out for supper! Yum yum yum, or more so, Jay grilled out for us!

Wednesday (yesterday) was busy as well! I worked for a bit in the morning and we had a full afternoon! We frequented the ‘big blue park’ for almost two hours in the morning. Played for a while and then took a walk and fed some ducks and got hissed at by mama geese. Ayden was obsessed with the ducks so we spent a lot of time by them. It was a fun morning! After a yummy lunch, we relaxed outside for a while. Well, my mom, sister, and I relaxed outside while Ayden played inside. For some reason he didn’t want to enjoy the good weather with his mom, aunt, and grandma… too much girl talk probably, haha!

Ayden and Emily racing down the slide… Ayden won because he cheated and took the middle one… the faster one, haha!

Ayden and me being silly!

Ayden and Grandma hanging out!

Bridge time fun!!!

We had so much fun feeding the ducks! They all came flocking when they saw we had food!

Ayden’s photography skills… Emily, me, our mom!

Action shot!!! And he got up with a smile!

Later in the afternoon we decided to do another bike ride, only this time Ayden was definitely biking himself! We tried out a new trail in the woods (well the same on Ayden and I went on last week, but we went farther into the woods this time) and probably biked almost three miles. Ayden did pretty good, but I felt kind of bad because he has to peddle a lot more and faster to go the same as the big bikes, but we took breaks and he kept the complaining to a minimum.

Ayden and me with our friend Mr. Turtle… who we saw on one of the paths!

Bye-bye Mr. Turtle!

Taking a break while biking… one of many breaks! 

Sweet corn was our entree of choice for supper and Jay found some great stuff at Walmart! It was super yummy!!! A late supper meant a late trip for ice cream. We left for ice cream at about 8pm and I thought we wouldn’t have to wait in line at all because it was later. Boy was I wrong. I totally underestimated the love Stevens Point has for Belt’s ice cream! We waited in line for probably a half hour, if not longer in order to get our ice cream and the line was just as long when we left! But it was SO worth it! Even the over hyper Ayden that we had to deal with. I’ve discovered (finally after almost five years) that an over tired over worked Ayden gets very hyper and loud and not very obedient and then I shoved more sugar into him! He was in bed at about 10pm last night, but he slept in this morning which was great!

This morning I headed off to work yet again for a while… my sister had to leave before I got home because she had to work at noon… boo! But my mom was able to stay until this afternoon. After I got home from work we quickly decided that we were going to see where that trail we were on yesterday led (my boss said it led to the beach that we like to frequent) and have a picnic. We packed the sand toys, lunch, towels and were off. I hauled the trailer with everything in and Ayden biked. He did great once again! We discovered that we were pretty close to the beach yesterday when we ended up turning around and now know that we can bike there this summer! It was fun!

We played for a while and caught minnows with our sand pails and then decided it was time for some lunch. As we were eating it started to sprinkle (it rained both Tuesday and Wednesday night and today we are supposed to get some pretty bad storms- supposedly), but we really didn’t think anything of it. Before long it was really raining and we were holding the towel above our heads to keep dry while eating. It wouldn’t be a ‘grandma visit’ without an adventure in the rain. Last summer we biked to the park and got rained on! Thankfully our bike ride back to the house was dryer! And then it was time for grandma to leave and mom and Ayden to chill and watch some TV! We’ve been going going going for the last couple of days and it feels nice to just relax for a bit. We were really lucky to end up with nice warm weather while my mom and sister visited! Super happy!

Arriving at the beach…

Trying to catch those minnows!!!

Did I get any?!?! 

With mom’s help… we ended up with quite a few minnows… which Ayden proudly let go when it started raining out!

We’ll get to see them again on Saturday at my cousin’s graduation party and the weather for this weekend is supposed to be really nice as well so I am even more excited about that. And!!! Because we are headed home tomorrow for the weekend… Jay said that we might be able to hit up HuHot for supper tomorrow night! Oh how great that would be, lol! We all love HuHot in this house!

If you’re still with me… hope you have GREAT weather this weekend and a GREAT weekend in and of itself… even if it is only Thursday!

CIAO! LOVE ME!

No sitting still!

It was a weekend of activeness and that was great! Although Friday was a day of lots of sitting still (at least for me). But overall it was another great weekend for the books!

Friday morning Ayden and I left to go home so I could go with my mom and brother to my brother’s hearing appointment. Ayden stayed with Jay’s mom and brother for the day and I headed off to Madison. Ayden had a great day that included fishing with Uncle Steven and helping Grandma Michele out in the garden/potting shed. He had lots of fun and wore himself out good.

We left for Madtown around 10am and arrived just about two hours later, even though Casey’s appointment wasn’t until 1pm. My mom wanted to allow for extra travel time in case we ended up getting lost or what not, but we definitely did good. Of course she had directions ahead of time, but was pretty scared about driving down in Madison. Apparently we got lost the last time we were there (which was when we were touring the campus) and then she took a wrong road when she was there with my sister. It didn’t help any that our trip started off with a detour because of road construction, lol! But alas, with only one wrong exit and a quick fix of that, we arrived safe and sound, with no help from the GPS lady might I add. Oh, we had Ms. Magellan but she kept telling us to make legal u-turns when necessary and well… we didn’t like her directions, lol!

The appointment itself went really good. It was awesome to see a real audiologist at work. Of course the ones on campus are real too, but they are also professors so it isn’t their everyday job and they are constantly teaching as well. I also got to see inside my brother’s ear when the doctor was looking (he put it up on the TV) and I thought it was super cool. My mom just thought it was weird. Guess she just doesn’t get us ear people.

The trip back home went smoothly as well and this time we didn’t take any of the scenic route. My mom made it back in time for work and I headed off to see my little munchkin. It was nice to get away for the day, but of course I missed him and wondered what he was doing often, but what mom doesn’t?

Friday night I was in bed at the same time as Ayden… precisely 8:30pm. Way super early for me, but I didn’t go to bed on Thursday night until midnight and had to get up at 7ish so I was beat and with a whole day in the car… I don’t know… just tired! One wouldn’t think that sitting in a car for most of the day would make you tired, but I was sure bushed! I slept great that night too and Ayden woke me right on schedule at 7am Saturday morning!

We headed over to my mom’s house around 9ish on Saturday morning and then we went with her to Walmart to pick out some flowers. I left with a little more than just flowers. Her Walmart has the best sales! Our clothes never get down to $1 and thus I had to take advantage of their $1 and $3 sales and got some shirts for both Jay and myself! I was super stoked because I saved probably almost $45 on clothes if I would have bought them all new. Super savings!

Flower planting went great! Ayden helped dig the holes and put the flowers in! He was such a great helper! And the weather on Saturday was GREAT! Well actually the weather all weekend was GREAT (at least by us in Point, I heard Green Bay got some storms)!!! We also just hung out and played for a while at my mom’s house, but didn’t spend too much of the afternoon there because Ayden wanted to come back to our house. Mostly I think he saw some bees and didn't want to play outside, but Grandma and I weren’t coming inside. But it had been a full two days for him thus far and I also think he was a bit tired and took a great nap on the ride back to Point. The driving both days for me was great and every now and then I do enjoy long drives like that.

Today (Sunday) we had another busy day! Well, yesterday after we got home, we found Jay working in the back yard and that was going all well until he sliced his leg open. It wasn’t a bad cut that warranted a trip to the hospital, but it did lay him up for most of the rest of the night. I don’t blame him though, looked like it hurt. But don’t worry, he was back to normal today and we got a TON done!

This morning we headed over to the old place and washed the walls, vacuumed everything, and did the windows. Another couple of hours and we can be done with that place FOREVER! We also grabbed a load from the garage… one more and that will be empty too! I’m so looking forward to it! By the end of this week!

After that, in which I almost lost my cool with Ayden, but we managed, we went to Walmart where we picked up some flowers and then stopped at Lowes and got some more flowers and then went back to Walmart (they are right next to each other) and had lunch at a boy scouts brat fry. It was fast and yummy and cheap (for a fund raising brat fry) and then it was back to the house where we worked out butts off some more. First we worked on organizing the garage a bit and put up some shelves. I’d say we got about half the work done which is a good start. Then we headed to the back yard and planted flowers all afternoon. Like I said, it was a long day of work! All three of us were covered in dirt, but it was so fun to work as a family and know we all had a hand in it. I will take some after pics when Jay gets the bark in. I already have some before pics. It is already looking really nice. I also hung two loads of wash out to dry which was nice. Right, hanging out clothes is so nice, lol! Only I would say that!

There is still a list of things I want to get done, but I think there always will be. I think that once the garage is the way I want it and we are completely done with our old place everything will feel complete!

My mom and sister are coming up this week (Tuesday thru Thursday) and I just checked the weather. Tuesday is supposed to be the nice day while Wednesday and Thursday (actually thru Friday) there is supposed to be rain. Ugh on the weather front! So not liking that, but not much you can do about it either I guess. It is only Sunday so they could be wrong about it… just push it until later in the week, like rain Thursday thru Saturday. But we are going to a grad party on Saturday and it would probably be nice if they could have it outside so who knows, lol! I am just super thankful for the great weather that we got this weekend! Lots accomplished! :)

I’ll leave you with a few pictures!!!

Ayden and Mommy!

Ayden and Grandma Wendy planting the flowers!

Ayden and Grandma Wendy with the finished products!

Ayden and Alexis! (My dad stopped by to drop off my sister’s (Emily) bike and because Emily got out, Alexis had to too and I couldn’t pass up a photo op with her and Ayden! They both look so old!

Hope everyone else had a STELLAR weekend as well!

CIAO! LOVE ME!

Ear Appointment

I know it is probably totally dorky of me to be so excited about attending my brother’s ear appointment tomorrow, but I am. I will admit it… I can’t wait to see what they are going to go. Well, actually I know how the hearing test is going to go, but I want to see what type of machine they use, how fast they go, if they are going to do a full exam or a just a quick screening type thing, what they are going to say to my mom, what type of lingo they will be using, how much I will be able to understand, etc etc etc… I know that my brother will probably think I am a big dorko for coming along and so forth, but I don’t really care. That is what big sisters who are going to become an audiologist are for, right?!

I have been trying to upload some pictures from this summer so far to facebook, but it hasn’t been working. I was able to get a bunch of our new place uploaded, but none of the ones that I want to upload right now will do so. It is probably because they have all been tampered with (photoshoped) and the file is too big or whatever. I’ll figure something out, but in the mean time, I’ll let you enjoy some.

Ayden and I went for another nature walk the other day on the other side of the train tracks near where we went the last time. We didn’t get to too far because well Ayden has shorter legs and it takes more out of him, but I did get some cool pictures. And yes, he is in his pajamas in the pictures because the last day of school was pj day for the kids and I just let him wear the pajamas all day long. If it is any consolation, he put them on in the morning when he woke up because he didn’t wear any to bed.

Mommy and Ayden with the wonderful scenic landscape!

Pretty orange flower (weed?) that we found while walking in the woods!

I love that we have this beautiful area inside the city. Walking on the trail you would almost forget that you are in the city, well except for the constant trains that you hear since the trail is right behind the train yard, but isn’t it SUPER pretty!

‘Come on MOM! Enough with the pictures! Let’s keep going!’

‘YEAH! We are heading back home now!’ …Really I didn’t make him walk that far, lol!

Today Ayden came with me to work for a little while. They are great at work like that and half of the people that are usually there, were not so it wasn’t that big of a deal. Plus, I didn’t have a whole lot that needed to get done and what I did need to get done, I had Ayden help me with. He was so good!!! I was so happy!

He then drew the cutest pictures! I told him that Grandma Wendy wanted his help in picking out some flowers on Saturday and then she wanted his help in planting them. I suggested that he make a list of the kind of flowers that he wanted to get with Grandma on Saturday by drawing pictures of them and the colors of them. He did such a great job! That, and it kept him busy for a while since I had a few things to accomplish.

After work we headed to Walmart because we needed some milk at home and I needed to get some light bulbs. Getting closer to Walmart I could smell a brat fry and decided that that was what we were going to have for lunch. I have a bit of cash in my wallet and thought it would be nice to help the Lions Club… I got a cheese burger and Ayden got a hot dog and we dined in the car. It wasn’t super hot out today so it worked perfectly. I could have drove home, but it was more fun to eat in the car with Ayden and talk to him. We had fun!

Later in the afternoon Ayden and I decided to take a bike ride. We could not spend the rest of this pretty gorgeous day inside… so outside it was! I didn’t think the bike ride would be very long, but we biked OVER two miles! Ayden was a great sport, although next time I will remember to bring some water and maybe snacks along to help us recoup some energy because we did some pretty big hills (well for Ayden)! It was a lot of fun, but we were both pretty pooped out by the time we got home. We sat outside on my swing drinking some juice boxes and just talking. Ayden comes up with some of the cutest stories to tell. I love children’s imaginations at this age!

I also took advantage of the day and washed the bedding in the house (minus the quilts- which I just hung on the line and sprayed with febreeze) and hung them out to dry. Everything smelt so good when I brought it inside tonight! And now we have clean bedding! But, while I was hanging things out the line semi broke so we need to get some new stuff (although I couldn’t find any in Walmart, nor could I find someone to ask, but I wasn’t in the mood to hang around and try to find someone). We’ll get some in due time!

I have left a list of things for Jay to do while we are gone tomorrow night and Saturday. The list isn’t too long and he didn’t complain about it when I showed him. I am hoping that he can get most of it done, I mean it probably would take an hour or two max if he did it all at once, maybe even not that long. It is just a few odds and ends that need to get done. And then Sunday it is a little bit of cleaning at the old place. Should be a good weekend!

CIAO! LOVE ME!

Another Day…

I am definitely dragging today... and I don't really know why. I've also had a bit of a headache/fuzzy head yesterday and today. I get this every now and then and don't know why. I'd like to attribute it to me not drinking any caffeine because I haven't had a soda yet today, but I don't think that that is why because during the school semester, I wouldn't have soda until supper time normally and never felt like this. Maybe it is me not getting enough sleep... I know the being tired is part of that. But I thought I went to bed at a decent time last night and I slept SUPER good, only because I didn't get a lot of sleep the night before.

I just want to lay down and sleep for a couple of hours. Most likely an early bed time tonight! On the plus side though, today has felt like the first 'normal' day in our house hold. Wait, have I said that before, I can't remember. If I have, then I take it back, lol! Today Ayden and I just got to lounge around the house doing whatever we wanted and go about a 'normal' schedule. I finally folded the laundry (haven't put it away yet) and we enjoyed cartoons and played together. I also dumped almost every bin out in the play room because I need to organize it all so that he knows where all the toys are. I haven't made it through the whole pile yet, but I did get a big chunk started this morning. We are making head way, lol!

I need to empty out my car this afternoon. It contains stuff from our old garage. I'm thinking at least two more loads with my car and Jay's truck and we will have everything over. I would really like him to get the garage halfway organized this weekend while Ayden and I are away. Some shelves up so maybe I can get my car parked in there. And maybe we could have a bonfire or something this weekend?! Would be nice! But don't know how the weather is going to hold out.

Ayden told me the cutest thing last night. I don't know how we got talking about it, but somehow the topic of marriage came up between Jay and I and Ayden was sitting next to me and he told me that he didn't want me to get married. I asked him why not and he told me with a serious yet sad face that he didn't want me to get married because he didn't want me to leave them (Ayden and Jay). I thought it was too funny and then told him that I wasn't going anywhere and that I was going to marry Daddy. He perked up a little bit after that, but then decided that he didn't want me to marry daddy, but that he wanted to marry me instead. It was too cute! My little guy has entered the 'I want to marry my mommy' stage! :)

The summer seems to already be flying by. Ah, what am I saying... its only the second week of June, but time never stops, nor do the things that need to get done. Lets freeze time, catch up on everything that needs to get done, sleep for a week, and then restart it. Wouldn't you enjoy that?

I also really hating this 'cold' weather that we are having. Well, it is cold for June anyways... definitely cold when I have to turn my heat on in JUNE! It was about 65 degrees in our place and that was just TOO cold for me so we tested out our heat. We turned it on and got the house to 70 degrees and then turned it off. It was a good test of the furnace though and it proved to be faithful! In about 10 minutes you could already feel the place warming up and it warmed up to 70 degrees in no time. I did the same thing again this morning. I am dreading winter though because I/we are going to keep it cooler than what we are used to at our old place. We have natural gas heating now and that costs WAY more than what we were paying. Well, hold up... we had gas at our old place too, but we didn't have to pay for it. Now having to pay for it... we'll just add more layers, lol! Then I will really relish when we go to Jay's parent's house so I can enjoy the fire! Oh how I love how warm it gets there now!

CIAO! LOVE ME!

Not Me Monday!

It has been a couple of week since I have joined in the Not Me Monday fun created by MckMama! If you haven’t visited her yet… you best head on over there and check out her ‘Not Me’s’ (pending she has them posted at some point on Monday) and enjoy hers as well as many many many others Not Me’s! It is so much fun! Trust me!

This past week… I did not… wait, I’m perfect so there is nothing that I want to admit to. Right… I am so totally perfect! Not!

I did not pop in a DVD each morning this week for Ayden while I caught some more zzzz’s laying on the couch next to him. We did not have any TV to watch all week and I was not craving it. I am not a TV addict what so ever. I do not wish I could go with less TV. I do not envy other parents who have more than one child so their kids have playmates. I do not use TV as a babysitter sometimes to just get some things done. I did not use it more than I’d like to this week because I was not trying to put the house in order. I do not wish Ayden had playmates/brothers/sisters!

I did not spend much of the week unpacking boxes and putting things away. I did not get frustrated when I had a great idea to put something somewhere and it would NEVER fit! I did not begin to wonder if we made the correct decision in moving. I have missed our old place once this week. I did not spend an hour at our old place with Ayden on Friday for the cable guy (when in reality we really didn’t even need to be there) and think about how small it seemed compared to our new place. I did not realize we totally made the right choice. I did not realize that even though things weren’t fitting where I wanted, everything was falling into place otherwise.

I did not get frustrated too easily with Ayden this weekend. He has not gotten sassy with me on more than one occasion. I am not trying to nip it in the bud asap because I can totally deal with it. He is not too young to be sassing back to me and I know I should allow it all the time. I am not hoping my technique is going to work… and if it doesn’t I will not be asking you (my readers) for advice.

I am not excited for next Friday to accompany my mom and brother to my brother’s ear appointment. I do not think it is kind of geeky of me to be excited about an ear appointment. I am not wanting to see how the audiologists do it in everyday life and hear some more ear lingo. As well, I am not excited to get away from Ayden for even a couple of hours. I digress… I am such a stay at home mom it isn’t funny. I do not need some ‘me’ time every now and then. I do not give super props to all those stay at home moms out there!

What did you not do this past week?!

CIAO! LOVE ME!

More Normal

Today was a ‘normal’ day for us on a Saturday. It was definitely nice to get to sleep in a little bit with Jay (since he has to get up early and leave for work most days before I am out of bed) and have Ayden come in and wake us both up. It was also nice to lay on the couch in the living room with my family and watch some cartoons and just relax. Not worry about moving or boxes or anything!

Today we did a huge grocery shopping trip. We did not get a lot of groceries in the weeks up to our move because we did not want to have to move a lot of food. It worked because our food supply was pretty sparse when we moved, however we needed groceries and BAD! So we went around 11am today (when we finally decided to get up and moving) and got home probably around 1pm. We also had to make a stop at Menards for something. We totally stocked up on groceries and should be good for a while now. Yeah!

And the rest of the day was spent just chillin’ really. Okay, so not so much… I spent the majority of the afternoon going through more stuff. I have the ‘office’ pretty much organized and the play room is looking more like a play room. I have just a few more things that need to get gone through and then we need to hang some pictures and it should all be official. Like everything in its place! That will be left for tomorrow, but that is okay. I also did two loads of laundry as well, and still have some from Tuesday that I didn’t fold yet. Oh well… I am really bad at that.

And with the crappy weather that we are having this weekend it is good to stay inside and get things done. Oh wait, I just remembered that we aren’t going to be able to get anything done tomorrow if we have to leave for a graduation party in the morning. Kind of ugh, but oh well.

I think we have figured out when we are going to clean our apartment… our old one that is. We have planned to do the carpets, windows, and walls next Sunday… and then the laundry room, bathroom, and kitchen while my mom and sister are visiting. I know that they will be surprised when I tell them that we are going to go do some cleaning, but hey they will survive and it will go faster with more people as well! Then we have to get the carpets professionally cleaned (as we are only vacuuming them) and we will be ALL done!

Okay, so I am just babbling on. Nothing too exciting going on here right now so I will let you go for now!

CIAO! LOVE ME!

In love with…

PHOTOSHOP!!! I’ve been messing around with photoshop over the past few days learning more and more about it. Actually, it’s not the real photoshop, just photoshop elements because I’m too cheap to afford the real thing, but this definitely works for me and has been the best picture editing software that I have worked with thus far. I’d love to work with the real photoshop some day, but will make due with what I have and it’s definitely okay with me. I wanted to show some of my edits of the last few days… enjoy! The first one of each series is the straight out of the camera shot and then subsequent photo(s) are edited thanks to photoshop! :)

Jay and I enjoying some down time on my swing before we moved and me messing around with trying to get a good shot of both of us! I really like how the edited one turned out!

Ayden and I went on a nature walk the other day and I brought my camera along (because what mom doesn’t love taking pictures of their children?!) and got some great shots!

I really liked how this turned out… but I liked the following one even better when I messed with the different black and white effects!

 

This first one turned out a lot darker than I thought, but I liked the picture and with a little bit of lighting changes…

I love how this one brightened up so much just by working with the lighting effects and the colors! My little guy running away down the hill from me!

For this one I blurred the background a little more on the edit since the picture wasn’t all the way in focus when I took it (Ayden never stays still!) and then turned it black and white!

I really liked how the brighter more vibrant colors really make the picture stand out!

 

Hope you enjoyed the pictures!!!

CIAO! LOVE ME!

Randomness

Wednesday

I think tonight we just might be able to get everything from the garage into the house. Most of what is left out there is stuff that Jay needs to help me carry in. Also, the carpet is dry in the basement (and free of spots!) so I can start rearranging stuff downstairs. Today I carried a lot of the boxes that were upstairs down there because the carpet is dry. Although I am ready to start setting up, I don't know how much I should do because I do not know what the cable guy is going to have to do on Friday. I would think that he wouldn't have to do all that much, but I don't know. I know that I can start going through the boxes though and distinguishing stuff that can be kept out and stuff that can be stored away. I also found another great storage spot today... under Ayden's bed! I hadn't thought of it until today, but we kept one side of the drawers out and leaves the other side open for all storage!

I am missing the days where I could come home and not have to worry about anything other than making some supper and doing a load of laundry... the days where I can sit and read all afternoon. I wish I could fast forward to when everything would be put away! I know I said that before, but now I really mean it, lol!I know that in a week when everything is settled in, I will look back at this week and just be like oh whatever. I know I am complaining a lot about this, but I am such an organized person and can't stand chaos!!! I almost NEED everything in it's place in order to function without anxiety. I'm not a psychologist by any means close... but I'd say I have a very small case of OCD or maybe just high anxiety with things out of place yet.

Thursday

I am happy to say that I got the play room into some sort of order last night! It looks a lot more like a room than just some sort of huge storage closet! We also got everything else out of the garage that needed to come into the house... yeah! I wanted to start setting everything else up, but because the cable and internet people are coming tomorrow, I am waiting incase they need to move some furniture around, namely the book shelves and I don't want them loaded down with books when they are moving them. I also started to go through a bit of Ayden's toys. I am sorting out stuff that he doesn't play with anymore, stuff that is broken or missing major pieces and then going to organize everything. It's my dream, lol! Actually at this point it is not.

Most of the boxes are out of the living room... yeah again! I also got Jay and my's closest organize last night. Lots of stuff folded versus on hangers now and we even 'spilt' over into Ayden's closet. But in all fairness, his closet is bigger than ours, lol! And actually he was excited to share his closet with mom and dad. We didn't have to put much in there, but even having to use it kind of depressed me, lol!

It is supposed to rain all weekend. Kind of a bummer since Jay wanted to have our first bonfire this weekend, but also good because it will water our grass for free and it will keep Jay inside all weekend helping me put stuff away. I was kind of annoyed that I was the one who had to organize the closet all by myself, but I probably would have just yelled at him if he was doing it because he probably wouldn't have been doing it right. But he did hang the TV on our wall last night and that works. However, we were woken up at about 2:30am to this huge crash like sound. I mean it was loud because both Jay and I sat straight up in bed. My first thought was that our TV fell off the wall, but then quickly realized it probably would have sounded closer. This sort of sounded farther away. Jay got up to investigate and found the cat still sleeping so it didn't wake Diesel (or Ayden for that matter). He couldn't find anything amiss either upstairs or downstairs and neither could I this morning so we don't know what it was. I am thinking it might have been something in our neighbors place because something that loud in our place would definitely have been noticable when we looked for it (or at least I'd hope so) not that the roof is all of a sudden collapsing secretly on us, haha!

Diesel found a new place to explore. Apparently he can get up into the rafters of the basement via where the laundry shoot is and went around exploring up there this morning. Scared the crap out of me when I realized something was up there. I immediately got him down, but five seconds later he was back up there (that was when I realized how he was doing it) and I just let him be. I figured he would find a way down and he did a little while later. It was crazy though! I think I might see if Jay can put a piece of wood blocking Diesel's entrance up there because I don't really think he needs to be walking around up there, but whatever works I guess.

CIAO! LOVE ME!

Proof

My new house does exist… and I’m normal like everyone else and its not perfectly clean either… actually I’m okay with airing my dirty house to everyone because… well I just am… hopefully I will get some pictures up in a few weeks of what it looks like all put together, but for now just enjoy the mess of unpacking and moving in!

Here is Jay about to walk into our front door. This is a really weird angle, I know… We are renting the back half of the duplex and from what we know a young lady lives in the front half.

 

Here is a view looking in our kitchen. It is much like the kitchen we had in our first place, however with more counter space and cupboard space.

Here is view looking out of our kitchen into the small dining area. With only the three of us we are going to push the table up against the wall to eat at it (when we do eat at it, lol) and still leaves plenty of room to walk through.

 

Looking into our living room and can see the front door. Of course everything is messy and not set up, but you can’t miss the legos all over the floor already, haha!

Another view of the living room, only from the opposite direction… and the boxes that still need to be unpacked and put away. I’m hoping at least by the end of the next week that we have most of everything put away… keeping my fingers AND toes crossed, lol!

 

Upstairs bathroom… I must admit that it is a LOT smaller than our previous bathroom, but I suffice that two bathrooms is better than one, right?

Ayden’s bedroom! He is the lucky duck with two windows in his room! I cannot wait to get all of our pictures hung and make it look more homey in here!

 

 

Mine and Jay’s bedroom… with our new headboard! After we get everything in it’s right place, it will feel bigger in there!

 

The view of our inky dinky closet! Master bedrooms are supposed to have big closets, right? Guess the builders of this place missed the memo on that one! Oh how I will miss our other closet!

Laundry center in the basement! Wish it was upstairs somewhere, but will do! We have a clothes line as well… YEAH! And for a free washer and dryer… it will definitely do!

 

 

Shelving opposite the washer and dryer. Supposed to be a tool shelf, but I’m claiming it for laundry use because Jay has his tool bench out in the garage!

Bathroom numero dos! Finally a place to hide the litter box so that I do not have to smell it whenever Diesel decides to he needs to use the bathroom.

 

 

First half of downstairs play/family room completely piled full of stuff because we were shampooing the other half.

 

 

View of first half from the second half…

 

 

Second half of basement play/family room! I cannot wait to get everything set up and organized! Just need to shampoo the first half tonight!

 

 

Office area in the basement. I am making a folding frame to sort of block it off when people walk past and for a total of only… $15!

 

Hallway from the office area to the play/family room area!

 

 

We also have a backyard, but I took these pictures while it was dark out so those will have to wait. Plus Jay has some super ideas in store so I will get those once he is all done with his stuff!

I am such a routine person… I thrive on routine… and it seems like Ayden does too. We are straining to get our routine back with the move and all, but we haven’t really had a routine at all during the past two weeks so it is hard to go back to a routine that you never really had in the first place. I am craving the end of 4K and the start of his morning class. Having the afternoons to ourselves will be a great delight and we will finally be able to start a decent routine. I feel like the summer will be 1/3 of the way over before we get settled into anything and really it will be. Ha, what am I talking about, it is first only June 2.

CIAO! LOVE ME!