Overall GREAT Day!

You know, Wednesdays tend to be pretty crappy around here, or at least the past few have been. They are LONG and filled with lots of stuff to do, well I guess that is what makes them long, haha! But today… well today… it was just a great day. I had no intention of it turning out so great when it started, but I’m sure glad it did. It definitely made me appreciated it and the little things!

I started out the day at 6am… fifteen minutes earlier than normal because I wanted to get to campus early so I could print off some material for one class and practice my presentation a little bit. And alas, I did get to campus early, but for no good reason because it seems like every day that I do try and get there extra early to print stuff off, the printers in the clinic are not working. Damn printers! So I was kind of bummed about not being able to print my stuff off that I was going to need for class, but no a superly big deal.

My first class is Hearing Assessment and it was my day to give my presentation. I think I did okay. I know I had all of the material that I needed, but you know how it goes with public speaking and all. I thought it would be fine with just two classmates and the teacher… and for the most part it was. I wasn’t extremely nervous, but it could have gone a little smoother I think. Oh well… over and done with.

My next class was Hearing Science and it was short per usual which is good. I was telling my classmates that I don’t know how we will handle it if the class actually lasts until the time that it is supposed to end one of these days. We are so used to getting done 20-30 minutes early. The bummer to that is that the next professor comes in early and since the majority of the students just stay in the room he thinks he can get started right away. Take today for example… our third class is supposed to start at 10:20am. We got done with Hearing Science roughly around 10am and us three Point students (mind you, this is a distance learning course through the TVs with Madison students) went to the lab to print off the newest power points and were kind of wasting the time away. I mean we had 20 minutes before class was supposed to start. Well at about 10:15am, I make my way back to the classroom and find one of my classmates talking to the prof like he had started class already. I mean come on, just because your class is getting cut short today because of the accreditation people visiting your campus doesn’t mean you HAVE to start class early. So, we had to get our other classmate from the computer lab because apparently he didn’t want to wait another five minutes. Next time I say we all just stay out of the room until 10:20… who cares if all of the Madison students are in their classroom. Boo to him, haha!

Anyways, this class got cut short by a half hour today which was awesome and I was even able to answer some questions in it. This prof really likes to review a lot at the beginning of each class which I think is great, but it really puts the pressure on when there are only three of you and only seven Madison students and you don’t review every night at home. I mean what is up with that, who actually does that every night. Okay, I’m sure someone does, it just ain’t me! Lol!

And what made getting done with that class early great was that the second years had their afternoon class cancelled so I was able to meet with Chad earlier than plan. Dustin (my mentor) switched clinic days with Chad this week since Dustin needed to be gone tomorrow and it worked out better for me to just stay on tomorrow and Chad didn’t care and I ‘worked’ with him last spring. He was my mentor then. So we got together and worked on pre reports. He wrote, I commented and actually learned some stuff about hearing aids. I am excited about tomorrows appointments. I think the first two should go relatively fast, but the last one might take a little longer. Should be a good time though.

After getting that done and out of the way… I headed off to work for a little while and that went well. Have I ever mentioned that I love my job. I love the flexibility it gives me and how appreciated I am there, even with the mundane things that I do. It just makes your day that much better when someone says thank you and everyone there is so great! Makes me smile just thinking about it!

And so my day was moving along at a good pace and things were just going pretty good. I got home a little earlier than expected, had a late lunch and relaxed for a bit on the couch before having to go and get Ayden from school. I got Ayden from school and we ran to Walmart quick for some stuff and then came home and went straight to work on Jay’s birthday cake. Nothing special, but Ayden really wanted to make one and boxed cakes are easy enough!

Ayden and I shared some ramen noodles and grapes for supper, frosted the cake, and then we were all out the door for our first family visit to the YMCA! Jay went to work out and Ayden and I headed for the pool. We had the whole pool to ourselves and it was great! They didn’t have the water slide open tonight which was kind of a bummer, but they will have it going tomorrow night so that is cool! Ayden and I had such a blast in the pool! He was jumping in left and right!

Tomorrow night we are going to go again, but first my friend and I are going to work out together and then Ayden and I will go swimming. I’ll be dead tired by the end of that, ha! But it will be good for me, let me sleep like a rock at night as well! I’m excited!

Hmm… I was all set to make this some sort of long blog post and actually have something read worthy in there… wait, everything I write is read worth, haha! But this is taking me forever to write since I keep stopping to look stuff up and am trying to coordinate a time to meet with my friend tomorrow and well I will just get going to bed now…

CIAO! LOVE ME!

Been a few days…

…and in those few days Ayden managed to get sick, and then Jay got sick, and then… I got sick! Thankfully it is only a cold, but colds suck too! Especially when you can’t breathe through your nose! I’m a nose breather and hate feeling all congested and/or having to blow my nose every five seconds. My nose was so runny today that after only an afternoon of Kleenex after Kleenex it is raw and red! I confess though, the Kleenexes that I was using were not the double thick lotion ones either. I mean my work doesn’t really spring for things like that. Actually there I had to take two Kleenexes at a time to make due. Not that you needed to know that, but my blog. And it just got worse and worse throughout the day. I could feel it coming on last night and didn’t think it would be too bad since Ayden wasn’t too horrible, but everyone gets it differently I guess.

Ayden came home Thursday after school and complained a little bit about a sore throat, but then had something to drink after we got in from getting off the bus and he said it felt better. I didn’t really think anything of it because I just figured that he was thirsty. After all, he said that his throat felt better. But he woke up Friday morning and you could tell that he was getting a cold. It wasn’t too bad Friday morning so I sent him to school, with the intention of keeping my phone handy while I had class just incase they decided he shouldn’t be there. You never know this fall/winter with everything going around about H1N1. I mean we got an email from the chancellor saying we should stay home if we had any cold/flu symptoms what so ever! But he made it through school. He was definitely worse by the end of the afternoon, but no fever so I knew it was just a cold. He did a lot of laying around Friday afternoon and night and Saturday morning, but didn’t do a lot of complaining which was good. He was congested and had a slight cough, but is now doing much better.

We did not go to soccer Saturday morning. He had a game at 8:30am and at that time he wasn’t feeling the hottest and I didn’t want to make him run up and down the field for an hour if he was congested and coughing, not going to help that any. But by Saturday afternoon he was doing much better. I was thinking Jay and I were totally in the clear. I should have known  better!

By Sunday night both Jay and I were starting to feel sick, him more so than myself. And by this morning… well Jay was pretty crappy. He didn’t sleep much last night and didn’t go to his classes. I don’t blame him because I probably wouldn’t have gone either and if he had, they probably would have told him to go home. I was slightly congested, but not too bad so decided to go. As I said before, it only went downhill as the day went on. Thankfully my classes were cut short today due to the accreditation people visiting our clinic. My one class was pretty pointless since the professor only went over what was going to be on the test and he could very well have saved us the time and typed up a quick review sheet, but I suppose that that is better than sitting in class learning something new for an hour… so I wasn’t going to complain, well at least not to him, haha!

The aud students got lunch from Jimmy John’s today. It is like a Subway and the clinic provided it for us… a bribe to say good things, haha! And actually one of the third year students talked most of the hour. It was nice that she was so open to answering a lot of the questions. Also, many of the questions were geared towards the second and third years because they have more experience in the program than us newbies. We’ve only been in the program for five weeks now. And we’re still smiling so that is good, right?! Ha!

Ayden and I went ice skating on Sunday again. He was much better this time. Jay was being a dick about coming out on the ice with us, but I don’t really want to get into it because it left me in a pretty pissy mood Sunday. Ugh! Anyways, he did take some pictures for me and some video. Ayden and I are going ice skating this Sunday with Jay’s aunt in a different town. She said she really likes to ice skate and wanted to come with Ayden some time and since we are going ‘home’ this weekend I found an ice rink in that area we can go to. I’m excited!

Actually, minus this damn cold that I have, this week is going to be a good one. I’m having some friends over tomorrow for a spaghetti supper, Wednesday one of my afternoon classes is cancelled, Thursday is Grey’s Anatomy (I’m getting hooked on that again!), Friday is going to a hockey game with Ayden (Jay leaves for Kansas City Friday afternoon with JT to go to two Nascar races this weekend), Saturday (if the weather cooperates) is soccer in the morning, Day on the Farm early afternoon with my mom and sister, then corn maze, and Sunday late morning I am going to take some pictures of my best friend and her son and afternoon we are going ice skating and then possibly meeting up with my classmates that night to work on an assignment together. So it’s a full week!

CIAO! LOVE ME!

Ayden Ice Skates!!!

Thursday Rants

It's called should be working on my Instrumentation Lab, but sitting here at the computer blogging instead. Another long day on campus almost over with which is good. It would be over with already, had Dustin not decided to get sick this morning and not come in for clinic.

Because of that, I had clinic with just my supervisor and he did not go over the case history form like I expected him to so I am staying late to observe another eval and use that case history because I know the grad student who is doing it will go through it and then I can start my presentation project for either next Monday or Wednesday. Nothing like leaving it for the last minute to complete. Actually, it shouldn't be too bad...

(*Insert update here: I ended up staying late to watch that eval done by another grad student only to sit around waiting for twenty minutes to find out that it was cancelled at the last minute! I was pretty bummed because that leaves me with pretty much NOTHING to do my presentation on. I emailed my professor about it and she said that I could use the hearing aid checks that I observed or she would give me an extension to try and observe an eval, since it is evident that I’ve tried to observe some, but I’ve definitely lucked out! I’ve decided that I am going to try and use the hearing aid checks that I’ve seen  because I don’t think its fair that I should get an extension even though I know that my two classmates would have no problem with it because they are great like that.)

Last night we went out as a family to the Charcoal Grill for supper for Jay and my's anniversary. That and I really didn't want to cook. It was our first time eating out there and it was pretty good. Nothing spectacular in my opinion, but definitely worth the money and it just so happened that last night was kids eat free night so we got Ayden's meal for FREE! I like that! He got a corn dog and french fries, Jay got his own little pizza, and I got a panini which was really good... and lots of food! I ended up bringing home half of my panini, most of my fries, most of Ayden's fries, and one piece of Jay's pizza. So it's leftovers night tonight... one more night that I don't have to cook. And because Jay is hopefully going to be finishing the patio portion under my swing in the backyard he will not be wanting to make supper either. Thus... easier for both of us, haha! Me likey!

So... clinic today was interesting. I think I had clinic one other time with a supervisor without a grad student mentor and that was last semester and with a different supervisor. Today I did a lot of watching which was good, but I also was able to use the audiometer and do some air and bone conduction thresholds which was even better because had Dustin been here I wouldn't have been able to do that since our supervisor would have wanted to see him do it. So I got some clinic hours in which is good. I've been feeling kind of jipped in a way when it comes to clinic. I mean I have had clinic for the past three weeks and it has been busy the whole time, but the first two weeks were UMOS screenings and I didn't really have to do anything except hold kids and the other first years had to be there as well. The other first years also have a clinic day and they've actually had evals already to do where as I've only really had hearing aid checks and you don't have to do a lot of writing for that. Don't get me wrong, I'm all for it being kind of easy right now, but I also feel like I should be doing some more work as well. Like I will really be in for it when the real work starts getting piled on. I know I shouldn't be complaining about not having enough work, but I do want this grad experience to be everything that it can be, you know?!

Guess what I did?! I bought a new lens for my camera! Actually, there were two that I wanted. I can't remember if I wrote about this already or not. One was VERY reasonably priced (50mm f1.8) and another one was a little more expensive, save worthy (55mm-250mm). Both are not super expensive, however I can’t feasibly buy the more expensive one at this point in time. It just wouldn’t feel right. So… I bought the other one. I can’t wait to get it! I’ve been pulled into the world of photography and it is SO not good! I’ve found a great website with an awesome forum that I can’t stay away from! The people and posts are so great! I love seeing examples of other people’s photos and it is so inspiring! I can’t imagine ever being that good, nor am I trying to ‘perfect’ anything at this time. I pretty much take pictures for the sake of taking them. I’ve always been big into taking pictures, even before digital cameras! And it just so amazing what people can do!

Grey’s is about to start… two hour season premier tonight!!! Love it!

CIAO! LOVE ME!

It was 6 years ago today…

…that Jay and I made it ‘official’… we started dating, but our story starts before that. At least my ‘part’ of it does.

I don’t think I have ever told the ‘story’ of how Jay and I ended up together, so sit back, relax, and take a stroll down memory lane with me.

It all started back when I was a sophomore in high school. My graduating class was not very big… only about 100 students. Well at least I don’t count that as very big. The high school here in Point has probably over 500 students per class, but it is the only public high school in Point.

Anyways, during my sophomore year I volunteered to be a wrestling manager with my best friend. She had been one the year before and said it was a lot of fun. I mean what isn’t fun about guys in tight singlets, haha! Anyways, I didn’t know much about wrestling, but thought it would look good on college applications since I wasn’t in sports or really any other organization.

So… I became a wrestling manager and grew to know some of the guys on the team. Know them by sight anyways. We definitely had fun watching them practice! Haha! Anyways, that year my friend had a crush on Jay and even went so far as to ask him out. Unfortunately for her, he said no. It wasn’t until towards the end of that year that my crush on Jay started to develop. And at that point it wasn’t a full on crush, but he was some good eye candy.

Going into my junior year and throughout that year I was involved on and off with another guy who did not go to our school. However, that year I was not only a wrestling manager, but also a football manager. That meant more time for me to stare at Jay, hehe! Like he didn’t know! Even though I was sort of seeing someone else, I coveted any time I ‘spent’ with Jay at school, whether it be a same class or after school at the sports practice. And I say ‘spent’ because at that point it was a just in the same room sort of thing. Or you know that high school flirting kind of stuff. I’d pretty much bend over backwards for that guy.

During my junior year, I found out that Jay liked a different friend of mine and had asked her out. Unfortunately for him this time, she said no. I was secretly super happy she said no. He claims he also liked me at this time, but I don’t know if that's necessarily completely true or not. We definitely flirted enough that year, but nothing happened.

Oh wait, I forgot something! It was also in the spring of my junior year that my cousin asked me to stand up in her wedding. It just so happened that the guy she was marrying was Jay’s cousin! And it just so happened that her fiancé had asked Jay to stand up in their wedding as well! And it just so happened that Jay and I would be standing up together! Seriously… who could imagine?!

I remember when I found out the news that we would be standing up in the wedding together… it was like fate, okay maybe not, but totally cool to a smitten 16 year old! Ah, where would we be if it weren’t for Amanda and Shaun, hehe!

Anyways…fast forward to the beginning of my senior year. Once again, I was a football manager. So one Thursday night, like maybe a week or so into the school year, at the weekly football supper, I was getting ready to leave. I had just gotten a new car (well used, but new to me) and somehow Jay ended up in the driver’s seat wanting to test drive it. Like it was so hard to convince a girl that you know likes you into letting you drive her car. And wouldn’t you know, probably not even fifteen minutes later we end up smashing into a tree and totaling my new car. A new car that I had maybe a month, if that.

Yeah, I know, right? What a perfect what to start a relationship, crash the car of the girl you like into a tree! Things could very well have ended there, but they didn’t. At first I didn’t think things were going to go anywhere. Way to go, lost my chance with Jay and then have to stand up in a wedding with him yet. But they didn’t stop right there.

Later that next week he came over to my dad’s house a couple of nights and like maybe a week later we made if ‘official’ (because you know in high school you have to actually ask the person out) and started dating. He wanted to wait until his birthday to ‘ask me out’ so he would never forget our anniversary. Ha, like I was going to let that happen….

And now six years later… here we are!

I do know that without Ayden, our relationship probably would not have lasted. He would most likely have gone to Northern Michigan University, and me to Madison or Point. If we would have lasted through our senior year, the distance college would have brought, most likely would have tore us apart. That, and well we both would have been exposed to so many other people. Now, I can’t say with all certainty that we wouldn’t have lasted, I can only speculate.

But it doesn’t pay to speculate on the past because we cannot redo it. And I firmly believe that this the path that was handed to me. It may not be a straight and narrow course, but then again, whose really is? We are all handed different challenges in life and Jay and I were able to make it through together so far!

I’ll be the first to point out that our relationship has been far from perfect, but it is great in its own way. I can’t wait to see what the next six years bring and the six years after that! It definitely doesn’t seem like six years have gone by since we first started dating… they just fly by. But in the same respect, I can also say that it doesn’t seem like five years ago that Ayden was born. I think I have a harder time believing that Jay and I have been together for six years than believing that Ayden is five years old already. Weird, I know… but that is me!

In any case… we had an unconventional start… what with the whole crashing into a tree thing and then getting pregnant our senior year of high school, but it only adds to the story of our love I guess. I know that many many guys would not have stuck around like he did and been such a man about it. He’s been there for me through thick and thin… and neither of us is letting go anytime soon!

Alas, take a trip through the years with me (please excuse the poor quality of some of the pictures as I was taking pictures of pictures and that doesn’t always turn out very well)… enjoy!

              

LOVE YOU BABE!!!

CIAO! LOVE ME!

Feeling Lousy

This look pretty much sums up my current mood. Thankfully it doesn’t sum up Ayden’s mood since it was pure coincidence that I got this face as I was snapping away… but it does do a good job at depicting how I’m feeling at this moment. I got the following shot about thirty seconds later… (although I don’t always like the sassiness that comes along wit it)! We didn’t have super crappy rainy weather here today, but dreary enough to make me feel kind of down… rainy weather has a way of doing that to me. And well, I’m just not looking forward to tomorrow… the long day of the week. I hope I don’t always dread Wednesdays.

My day started out good enough. I had a good time at work before having to come home so Jay could go to class. I got a lot done which was good as well.

Then it was off to the dentist with Ayden where that went well. We go back in two weeks to get the rest of the work done. I think part of my crummy mood is feeling like a cruddy mom for letting his teeth get so bad in the first place. I’m in no means perfect and don’t necessarily try to be, but I feel like it is my fault. And really it is… I mean I’m the responsible adult who should have kept an eye on that stuff. Like it doesn’t matter that Jay is the parent too… like he can’t take some of the ‘blame’. I could say he is just as responsible, which he is, but he doesn’t feel the guilt like I do. I don’t know.

In any case, Ayden was a champ at the dentist and has no worries about going back in two weeks, which is great!

After his dentist appointment we came home and relaxed a bit before eating lunch since he wasn’t supposed to eat right away. A yummy lunch of mac and cheese and then some movie watching before my mom stopped in for an hour to visit on her way up north for a week with her friend! Nice little visit…

The rest of the afternoon was pretty laid back. Ayden was definitely not in shape to have gone to school after his dentist appointment so it was good that I kept him home. He wasn’t in pain, but he was all numbed up and he laid down for quite a while after we got home. He probably would have been pretty out of it at school. His next appointment is later in the afternoon so he will be able to go to school for the first half of the day.

I was kind of moody when Jay got home. Ayden was starting to act up a little bit and I wasn’t in the mood to deal with it, but Jay didn’t help any. He pretty much just picked on me and made it worse. Sometimes I wish that Jay would just take some initiative and ask Ayden to play with him. He is definitely good in the way of taking care of Ayden’s needs… getting him food, helping him shower, getting him ready in the morning, turning on cartoons for him, etc… but its the actual playing with him that I don’t ever see. Of course they rough house and wrestle, but then I’m always worrying about Ayden getting hurt. And Ayden does help Jay fix stuff so they have that ‘bonding’ time, but I never see Jay getting down on the floor and playing a game with him, working on his letters with him, reading with him, going outside and playing soccer with him. And if it does happen, then its because I said something about him not doing it and then he’s doing it with a chip on his shoulder. I guess I’m kind of bitter about that. Jay’s really good at getting Ayden set up with something, but then retreating to his computer.

I won’t deny doing that at times too, more than I should, I know. Every parent needs a little ‘me’ time if you want to call it that and we all know that I enjoy some ‘me’ time, but I also put my computer aside for Ayden more than Jay does. I play games with him etc…

And I don’t mean this to sound all bad and negative or that Jay is some negligent parent or something because he is DEFINITELY NOT! And he does work a LOT more than I do and provides for our family in that way. So in essence, shouldn’t I be fulfilling my job as the parent at home and taking care of the child? It just gets to me sometimes… I know that I should talk to him about it and sometimes I do, but I have a hard time making it come off in a nice way. I try not to be judgmental sounding, but don’t always make the best impression.

*Total side note… remember the other day when I was complaining about my shift key not working… well it is working again! Don’t ask me how or when it started working, but as I was typing this post I hit it and was like ‘wow, that pressed down really easily!’ I thought maybe it was just the quick way that I pressed it so I went to hit it again and YUP it works! Yeah, I’m so happy because here I thought I was going to have to put up with a crap shift key for the next however many years I’ll have this computer!

I’m not ready to have class tomorrow. I like my short Mondays and even shorter Tuesdays… long Wednesdays are no fun, but hopefully tomorrow I won’t get a call about my son taking the bus home when he shouldn’t be! Definitely writing that note in the morning! Not going to worry about that happening again!

Ah, feeling better already. I love how writing sort of soothes my soul sometimes!

CIAO! LOVE ME!

Ice Skating!

We’ve had another great weekend here at our household. A weekend not filled with running around, but not a boring one spent at home the whole time either. I’m sad that tomorrow is already Monday and it is back to ‘the grind’. But that’s okay because it is not like I hate school… actually I like my classes and what not, despite all my complaining. What I don’t like is the fact that the left shift button on my keyboard isn’t working like it should be! Ugh, you have to press it in just the right spot and pretty hard to get it to work. And my computer is only a year old!

Anyways… Saturday morning was soccer and Ayden ended up playing on the wrong team. Totally MY fault though! I looked at the sheet before we left for soccer and it said field one. What I failed to notice was that it was a typo. The Y does have a board out each Saturday with the teams and what fields they play on, but I was the dumb mom who didn’t go confirm that her son was supposed to be where I sent him. And being that I didn’t go the first week and Jay wasn’t with me, I had no idea who his coach was or what kind of kids he had on his team.

So, I sent Ayden out to play with the ‘black’ team. After a little bit I heard the coach say that he looked new and she didn’t remember him from the previous week and asked his name and said she didn’t have an Ayden on her list, but that he could play with them for this week. At that point maybe I should have gotten up and found his correct team, but I figured since she said that he could play with them I’d just let him. He wasn’t upset about it and I didn’t want to make him upset. Well then Jay showed up and kindly let me know that he was playing with the wrong team. I told him that he could go get Ayden and move him, but I was just going to let him for this week. And play he did! His ‘surrogate’ team lost, but he played great. Next week we will make sure that he ends up back on his ‘regular’ team. It is kind of funny because his actual team plays the team he was on this week. Ah, oh well, haha!

After soccer we hit up the grocery store and we needed too BAD! We hadn’t done one of our ‘big’ shopping trips in over a month! We’ve just been getting the little things that we needed like milk, bread, etc… but we were out of A LOT and we ended up getting a lot. Our freezer before grocery shopping was pretty much empty and that NEVER happens! I mean we had like a package of hotdogs and some freeze pops and some meatballs… definitely not a lot!

So we did our grocery shopping and them came home. Most of the afternoon I spent inside relaxing. Isn’t that what weekends are for? Jay and Ayden spent some time outside doing some yard work that they had started on Friday night while I was gone getting my hair cut and colored. It was a pretty lax night, but overall good day.

Today was much of the same. Ayden got up too early, but that was okay. We made a mid morning run to Mendards to get a few patio bricks to help keep my swing from sinking into the ground when people sit on it. We didn’t get as many as we needed though because we brought my car and I didn’t know how well it would tolerate 600lbs of bricks… my car is a teeny tiny car! So Jay needs to pick up about five more bricks tomorrow. These are no tiny bricks either, they are 16 inches square and weight about 40lbs each… good thing they were cheap and on sale! We also got a wireless opener for the garage. One of those number keypad things so I don’t always have to keep the opener in my purse. It was a great price and makes things a lot more convenient!

And then later this afternoon we took Ayden ice skating for the first time! I figured since he was going to be starting hockey in a month that he should at least have a little ice time before hand. His hockey class is going to be more concentrated on learning how to skate versus the actual rules of the game, but it can’t hurt to have him a little bit acclimated with the ice ahead of time, can it? I didn’t think so!

It was quite an adventure, let me tell you! Jay was a scaredy cat and didn’t come skating with us. Apparently many failed attempts during childhood has led to him not liking the ice, hehe! Me… well I’ve only been ice skating ONE other time and that was once in high school with some friends. But I love to rollerblade and although they are not the same thing, it helps being able to do that. I have to say that by the end of the hour we spent there Ayden was doing rather well for his first time out. Of course he fell about a million and one times, but he kept getting back up! I only fell once… thanks to my lovely son, but we just got right back up and kept going!

I don’t think that he wants to go back, but I think we are going to continue going every weekend. I think it was fun and will get him used to the ice. Well maybe every weekend… this time I think the cashier gave us the wrong price. He charged us ONLY $5 for both the of us plus skate rentals. I checked the website prices and I’m pretty sure we were supposed to be charged $3 per person plus $3 per skate rental so $12 total. Think we lucked out there! We will see if they get it right next time or not. I wasn’t going to complain, haha!

Enjoy some pictures! They aren’t super quality because Jay was taking them through the glass and with my older camera (well its not older, just not my ‘new’ one) because I left the disk to my new one in my computer. That will teach me! Good thing I had both cameras in my bag!

It’s back to class tomorrow! Only two classes on Monday which is nice. Might get some clinic stuff done with Dustin, but I think that they have class a little longer.

Tuesday is Ayden’s dentist appointment. I’m not sure if I mentioned it already or not. I don’t think I’m sending him to school at all that day. What?! He’s only going to the dentist you say… well school for him starts at 9am and his appointment is at 11am. I know, stupid time to make it for but when I made it I didn’t think about that and well just thought it would be easier to keep it rather than change it. And to make it to the appointment on time we’d need to leave at 10:30, so is it worth it to get him up and ready for school just for an hour and a half and then pick him up. It is only kindergarten, he won’t be missing much. And since he is having some work done, I’m assuming the appointment is going to take at least an hour, if not longer. So we are talking 1pm already. Plus, with the work he’s having done, I’m pretty sure they are going to give him some sort of laughing gas and I don’t know how much pain or out of it he will be afterwards, thus don’t know if I should send him to school after it or not, especially if it is only for an hour and a half. I guess we will have to wait and see how it goes.

Also, my mom is going to visit a friend on Tuesday and has to drive through Point to get there so she is going to stop in on her way up and will be here right around 3:30 and since Ayden doesn’t get off the bus until 4pm, I might as well keep him home so he can see his grandma, right?! Hehe! I know he’d survive if he didn’t get to see her, but it’s been a few weeks so why not. And… my friends are thinking about getting together on Tuesday night for another picnic supper so we might have that going on. Just a busy busy Tuesday, eh? And to top it off… I might have to observe some clinic because I don’t know if we will have an eval on Thursday like I need for my presentation possibly on Monday, but hoping I can be the one that goes on Wednesday… who knows…

Okay, I think I’ve babbled enough… time to get some reading done for class, or at least attempt to get some reading done for class, haha!

CIAO! LOVE ME!

Yeah… ITS FRIDAY!

Ahhh... the relief that comes with the end of the week! Well that, and the fact that I do not have any classes today helps just a little bit too. Normally I am supposed to have a class from 9am-11am... my hearing assessment lab, however with the WSHA Fall Update going on today it got cancelled. How sweet is that? Definitely helps my week and it has been a long week at that.

Normally I'm a glass half full kind of person, and well I'd like to think that at this point in the semester I still am, but it has been a long three weeks already. And if the first three weeks are long, what is the rest of the semester going to be like? We are just getting into a routine of things and I'm not liking it very much. Okay, so I lie, I can handle it, things are not THAT bad, but some days are worse than others and having two long days in a row are tough. Lets face it, the last four years here in Point have been relatively easy. I don't have a full time job and I go to school. Of course these past years have had their rough spots and times that I didn't think I could make it through, but that is not what I'm getting at. The point I'm trying to make is that my days have in no way been LONG. Like gone from the house long. More often than not, I'd be gone for the day for four or five hours tops. Daycare is expensive so every second that I didn't NEED to be on campus was spent keeping Ayden out of daycare and the expenses down. And in all reality, I didn't NEED to be on campus all that much. College is a breeze when it comes to classes... no more eight hour school days... class from 9-11 and that's it... oh yeah!

And now... I'm on campus A LOT more than I'm used it. It works out fine because there is no more daycare with Ayden in school, but it makes for a LONG day that I haven't really acclimated to yet. Which means for an early bed time, because lets face it... I am SO not an early morning person. I have no idea how I once was able to get up at 5:30am! Of course then I was going to bed a lot earlier as well... typical bed time now is between 10pm and midnight, although earlier these last two nights because I've just been too tired.

Yesterday was my clinic day and it turned into a much longer day than I thought it would be. Started out at 8am with our weekly clinic meeting. The meeting was really just an hour long waste of time. We had to read over this article and then discuss it and although I actually read the article and found it semi interesting, I didn't think that we needed to waste that amount of time talking about it. Just busy work for already busy grad students. Then, Dustin and I had clinic from 9am until noon. We had to hearing aid checks before the UMOS kids were supposed to come again at 10am. The first HAC ran long and I felt bad for the second appointment because we saw him last week and his appointment got pushed back then as well. Thankfully his check went quickly and we sent him out the door happy, I think. We even had time to spare before the UMOS kiddos were supposed to come, since the week before they were late. Dustin and I then worked on a little bit of stuff, but didn't want to get way in the middle of something and then have the kids come so we didn't do everything we probably could have. The kiddos ended up being over an hour late! We were all a little upset, but what can you do?!

They didn't have as many as last week and they seemed healthier overall, but we were all very conscious of washing our hands to make sure we didn't get sick this week. With all of us helping we were done before noon. Unfortunately the day didn't end there... there was a guest speaker from Phonak (a hearing aid brand) that wanted to talk to us about their HAs hearing aids (I've been doing too much clinic writing lately and its transferring to everywhere else). The only plus about this was that they brought food for us. Oh, and I got a free pen, haha! That lasted from 12:30 until 1:30, then Dustin and I worked on some hearing aid stuff and our write-ups. Actually, I did the write ups while he did the hearing aid stuff and I constantly bugged him about what I should or shouldn't be writing. It was a little difficult because I didn't know what I should or shouldn't include. After that we had a quick meeting with our supervisor and let me tell you... so far I actually don't mind having the particular supervisor that I have, it has been pretty good.

Then it was off to work for the little while that I could work before I had to high tail it home to get Ayden off the bus. The rest of my night... spent relaxing on the couch... ugh I was tired! I even got Jay to go to Arby’s and get me some supper- since it was his night to cook supper and he didn’t want to. Ayden got home from school yesterday and wanted to show me an experiment that they did at school. It involved three marshmallows, a plate, and red, yellow, and blue food coloring. I was hesitant to let him do anything with food coloring, but since he apparently did it in school I let him show me what he learned.

He knew just what to do! They were learning all about colors this week and I guess they took the marshmallows and mixed colors and then ate the marshmallows. Once Ayden got into the blue, well there was no stopping him! He rolled the whole marshmallow in blue then proceeded to pop it into his mouth. Ah, we love food coloring… and the blue fingers he still has today because of it, haha! It was too cute though so I had to take some pictures!

Ayden decided that he wanted to sleep in his ‘tent’ the last two nights and I had no qualms with that. He slept really well and had fun doing it… and it was in his room so I saw no problem with it (or the picture opportunity that it presented)!I know that it has been super warm out lately, but while I was at Walmart the other day I came upon the cutest hat and scarf and since I haven’t gotten a new hat or scarf in a couple of years I thought I’d treat myself to them. They weren’t expensive either and the hat as the softest material on the inside! I can’t wait to wear them in the winter… well I can since I don’t want it to get cold out!I got my hair cut and colored today and thought I would share some pictures of that as well. I really only got it trimmed and then highlighted with some copper high lights. It is kind of hard to tell in these pictures though because the lighting is kind of harsh on my hair, but I really love it! Soccer tomorrow morning… and then a weekend of relaxing at home. We might even go to the ice skating rink on Sunday… I haven’t decided yet. One thing I know for certain is that I need to not procrastinate on my reading like I did today. Ugh, I totally just did some laundry and then watched a lifetime movie.

CIAO! LOVE ME!

What do you mean he’s not there?!

I had one of those parent feelings that you don’t want to feel today. One of those feelings that set your heart racing and mind wandering to all the worst possibilities… ugh!

On Wednesdays Ayden goes to school early and is stays late. We love us some Great Escape program for the kids. Despite the Y’s outrageous prices, I am grateful for the program so there is some place safe for Ayden to go to on the days that Jay and I cannot stay with him until the bus comes or be home when he gets off.

This morning Jay dropped Ayden off and all was well. The day progressed per usual. I called Jay when I was done with work this afternoon before my last class of the day asking him if he could pick up Ayden on his way home from work so I could stay after and print some stuff off. Might as well make use of the $20 I paid for paper in the clinic.

My lab this afternoon is slotted for two hours, but doesn’t necessarily take that whole time. Today we did not have a lot to go over and took just under an hour. That left me plenty of time to get my printing done and still head over and get Ayden before he had to stay for too long after school.

I was walking out of the building and calling Jay to see if he was on his way already to get Ayden or not since it was close to the time he was getting done with work. He did not answer so I was going to try him again once I got to my car. About a half block down I got a call from a number I did not recognize. Turned out it was from the Y’s Great Escape program and they were calling because Ayden did not show up for the after school program.

What?! I was pretty certain that we drilled it into Ayden’s head this morning that mom was going to pick him up from school and that he was NOT to ride the bus home. They were going to call the school and see if he was wandering around somewhere, but I was pretty certain he was on the bus. I was about two blocks from my car and it was about two minutes before his bus usually drops him off. If he was in fact on the bus there was no way I was going to make it home before the bus dropped him off, mind you, I’m about a 5-10 minute drive from our house (depending on traffic).

My little boy would be getting off the bus by himself and no one would be home to meet him!

So, I get a call from the Y just as I get to my car confirming that in fact he was on the bus and had just been dropped off. I had no fear that Ayden would get to our house fine. His bus stop is about a block away from the house and we’ve been practicing and had talked about what he should do if at some point no one met him at the bus stop. But we are only in the third week of school and he had to cross the street to get to our house! My fear was him crossing the road! We don’t live on an overly busy road, but you know drivers, not everyone is extra cautious of people walking down the side of it and we don’t have sidewalks. But, we’ve been practicing looking both ways to make sure there are no cars coming before crossing. I was also afraid of what he would do once he got home and couldn’t get in. Would he wait on the steps? Would he start walking somewhere trying to find us?

My drive home could not have gone slower! Luckily the traffic wasn’t bad and there were no cops around. An anxious mommy stepped on the gas a little too much.

PTL I found my sweet son sitting in the back yard on my swing. He was none worse for the wear. No tears or anything. He told me that he looked both ways before crossing the road and sat on the gravel in the driveway but that was boring so he stood there and that was boring and then went to sit on the swing.

His school was great and called and made sure he was home safe and sound and had the bus drive by to make sure he was okay before I got there. His teacher called as well and apologized back and forth about sending him on the bus. I had sent a note both the first week and last week stating that on Wednesday afternoons he was to attend the Great Escape program. She said that Ayden was pretty adamant that I was picking him up, but she got a little mixed up and he ended up on the bus. We got everything sorted out (although I’m sending a note every week from now on because she has more than just Ayden to worry about) and then told me that he was doing great in school so far.

I talked with Ayden about what happened and made sure he wasn’t upset by it. I made sure that he knew he did the right thing. I reinforced that if that EVER happens again, he is to do the same thing by going to sit on the swing. I told him that we are going to try very hard to make sure that doesn’t happen again, but in the even that it ever does, he knows what he is supposed to do. I didn’t want to make him feel bad for riding the bus since his teacher told him to and that it was okay and that mommy was just so happy to see that he got home okay.

So, I got the adrenaline rush that I really didn’t want today and maybe the start of some grey hairs, but no one is worse for the wear. Things could have gone a lot worse. I’m proud of my boy, not upset with the school or his teacher (actually so happy and grateful that they were so concerned and helpful about the whole situation), and full of hope that we have no more pit of the stomach happenings for a LONG time, because I know being a parent that I’m never out of the woods.

Two more days this week… UGH!

CIAO! LOVE ME!

Sharing Gone Wrong

I can’t remember if I talked about my first clinic session or not. But I see that my last post talked about how long my Wednesdays are (and well they haven’t gotten any shorter, ugh!) so I figure that I didn’t. I’ll start with Thursday then because, well that is where the ‘sharing gone wrong’ goes into affect.

So… last Thursday was my first clinic slot. Dustin (my mentor) and I had two hearing aid checks and then the UMOS screenings for the little kids. Hearing aid checks went well and UMOS went a lot faster than any of us had expected. We had almost 30 little ones that needed to have their ears checked and then tymps and possibly OAEs ran (if they passed their tymps). Not many passed their tymps… most likely lots of possible ear infections.

Thursday night… I can’t really remember what I did. Apparently not that interesting since I can’t remember.

Friday morning… I had lab that ran from 9-11am and it lasted just about the entire time. It was good, but I didn’t really want to be there for the whole time. It’s a Friday, you know, and I didn’t really want to spend time on campus if I didn’t have to. After class I went over to work for a while and then came home for the rest of the afternoon before Ayden got home from school.

After I got home, I ate some of our left over Pizza Hut pizza and a yummy chocolate bar before getting the laundry done and hung out. The rest of the afternoon went pretty smoothly. Cleaned a little, packed for the weekend, took care of folding and putting away all of the laundry that hadn’t been put away for over a week. Just your normal afternoon, and even night. Actually, Ayden and I went to bed kind of early.

I laid down to watch Twilight and fell asleep about half way through it. Thought it was going to be a good night. Getting to bed early since we had to be up early for Ayden’s first soccer game Saturday morning. Wrong!!!

I woke up probably around midnight feeling like crap! I’ll spare the details, but multiple trips to the bathroom later and a few hours later, I was on the couch catching a few hours of z’s before the sun rose. It sucked! Only plus I guess… that I wasn’t running a fever and it didn’t last for more than a day.

I didn’t go to Ayden’s soccer game Saturday morning (it started at 8:30am) because I still wasn’t feel the greatest and I was still pretty tired. It was a bummer, but I sent my camera along with Jay to catch some moments and he did! I didn’t know if I was going to go along for the weekend to the Dells because I didn’t want to get anyone else sick and didn’t know if I was going to feel the greatest. The last thing I wanted to do was spend the weekend sick not at home.

While Ayden was at soccer, I managed to get up and shower and finish some packing. I still didn’t feel 100%, but I didn’t ‘get sick’ anymore so I decided to go along. I ate a few crackers, but that was it.

The rest of the weekend went pretty good. I didn’t feel 100% on Saturday, but still had a pretty decent time out on the boat with Jay’s family. We didn’t catch a single thing, but always love riding the boat, especially when the water is calm and the sun is shining. Ayden got a little crabby, but it was to be expected.

Sunday I felt more normal and ate a little more, but didn’t want to chance anything.

Monday… today…

I had an 8am class today and went in a little early. It is just easier to leave at the same time Jay and Ayden do. Because I leave when they do, but don’t go with them to drop Ayden off, I get to campus about 20 minutes before class starts. During that time… guess what?!

I find out that we had some ‘sharing gone bad’ on our hands. Ha, I don’t really care if that makes sense or not. My classmate Katie starts telling me how she got sick Friday night. I was like ‘no way, me too!’ And while we were talking, we found out another girl got sick as well! And then… one of our professors was sick and had cancelled his 8am class today. Turns out (or looks like) the little ones from UMOS last Thursday ‘shared’ their illness with us! As well, two other classmates were ill over the weekend too. Of course it could be something else that was going around, I mean we are all around each other enough, but that is the common link between all of us, especially given that one of the girls is a ‘speechie’ and doesn’t have the same classes as us, but helped us with the screenings last week.

Poor Katie has more screenings to go to tomorrow and then we have more on campus on Thursday. Since my clinic slot is on Thursday, I HAVE to be there, but if there are the same amount of children this week as last week, Katie will most likely have to come as well. Ugh, I mean these kids are super cute and all, but none of us can afford to be sick at this point in time.

Luckily I’m feeling pretty much back to normal today. The aud grad students are having a get together supper tomorrow night at a restaurant called El Mezcal. It is a Mexican restaurant and I don’t particularly LOVE that kind of food, but I’ve said that before about certain food and my favorite restaurant is now Hu Hot. So, I’m looking forward to it… getting to know the third years a little better since I’ve talked to the second years quite a bit now, and trying some new food. Should be a good night. Jay and Ayden are going to stay home, which is fine with me. It might turn into a long night anyways and Wednesdays are early mornings for us.

Tomorrow will be nice for me, as was this afternoon. I don’t have class and there are no pre reports that need to be done. So it is off to work for a little while and then coming on home. I checked the schedule for tomorrow and didn’t think I saw any hearing evals on it, and I will need to do one of those either this week or next. I saw one for next Tuesday in the afternoon and quite possibly will do that one. We’ll see.

Okay, so this has been kind of random. Hope you are having a good Monday!

CIAO! LOVE ME!

Picture Post…

…because I’m not in the mood to write all about our weekend and love sharing pictures of my cute little guy!

Maybe I will post tomorrow… it was a long weekend and I’m tired, off to relax in bed before I go dreamland! The following of are Ayden and the sturgeon that was caught this weekend. Unfortunately… it wasn’t caught by Jay, myself, or Ayden… but Jay’s aunt got it! 62 1/2 inches long!!! Only 2 1/2 inches over the legal limit! Yes, they have to be that long to keep them! Ugly ugly ugly, but pretty cool too! CIAO! LOVE ME!