Happy Halloween!

We stayed at home versus going home for this Halloween… the first time in the last four years! Every year since Ayden was born we have gone to my dad’s house and went trick or treating down the same two roads… the same two road that my brother, sister, and I used to go trick or treating on when we were young.

Ayden’s costumes have ranged from being a lion, to superman, a dragon, firefighter, and this year Optimus Prime. And for the first time in four years, my sister has not accompanied us on our trick or treating excursions… ah, but that is okay. I thought about going through my archives of photos and looking for pictures of him in each costume, but that would require going through cds upon cds looking for those pictures and I’m just not up to the right now. Oh well…

Anyways, we had no other reason to go home this weekend and thus decided to just find some places around here to go trick or treating, I mean our city is bigger than the one back home anyways, and with some help from my co-workers, we had some good places in mind. The thing is, Point definitely has its ‘good’ spots and its spots where I’d rather not go, I mean it being a college town and all. Obviously it is no Milwaukee or Madison, Green Bay, or even Appleton, but you know, it’s definitely bigger than where I grew up!

So anyways, trick or treating time rolls around and out we go! I’m happy to report that despite a little colder weather, we walked around for about an hour and hit up many houses before Ayden decided that he was done and wanted to go home and get warm. Jay and I both could have gone longer, but we weren’t going to make Ayden do anything he didn’t want to, especially since it was more for him.

Optimus Prime and his daddy off to find another house with their light on… will they get a trick… or a treat?! Ayden was a little shy at first and didn’t want to go up to the house by himself at first, but after a few houses he was all for it!

Ayden actually has an Optimus Prime helmet he got for his birthday that he was going to wear with his costume that even changed his voice, but then he decided not to because he said it was too heavy! Ah, he still looked cute with the one that came with his costume in the first place. Loved it! My Optimus Prime was too cute!

And here he is in full robot mode! Trick or treat bucket all ready as well! We had a great time even though we were only out for a little while! Might even stay here again next year and do it again!

Other than trick or treating, the day was pretty laid back. I feel like I should be doing something for school, but I don’t have anything due this coming week except clinic stuff… so really I don’t have anything school wise to even do. Actually feels kind of nice though, and I’m relaxing with a good book this weekend. I got some great suggestions from friends on facebook, however I picked up a book that I already read about a year and a half ago. It is not too often that I reread a book, but this one was really good and I’m liking it just as much the second time around. I’m about half way through it and hope to finish it either tomorrow or Monday night, we’ll see.

Tomorrow is probably going to be another relaxing day… fold the laundry that I washed today and put it away, maybe go swimming at the Y, just enjoy some family time. I don’t know what the weather is supposed to be like, but if it is nice enough out we might even go outside for a little while. Who knows?! I like not having any plans or some place that we NEED to go.

Okay, off to read some more! Happy Halloween!

CIAO! LOVE ME!

Is it the weekend yet?!

First off, if any of those reading this haven’t already come across my cousin Amanda’s prayer request, I’d like to ask all of you to pray for Amanda’s sister, Amy, as she is just shy of being 34 weeks pregnant and her water broke this morning at 1am. (You can find each of their blogs by clicking on their name.) Thus far mom, baby, and dad are doing fine and labor will be started Friday morning if it doesn’t happen sooner. Please pray that mom and baby ‘come out’ of everything healthy and happy and dad as well! Thanks!!!

I love this picture! I don’t know, there is just something about it. I’ve been practicing more and more with the new lens that I got a few weeks ago and cannot get over my fascination with being able to make the blurry background and with the awesome scenery outside it is totally cool to use Ayden as my subject, willing or unwilling, ha!

But it really has been one of those kind of weeks... I'm having one of those kind of weeks. Maybe I can attribute it to pre-pms?! You know, getting moody before regular pms? Although I wouldn't exactly say that I get pms-y either. I thought it was a good excuse though.

I've been more blah than anything. Working my way through the day by sort of just going through the motions. I'm looking forward to kind of sleeping in a little tomorrow and getting to really sleep in on Friday and finally on Saturday this week as well since it doesn't look like we will be going to hockey. Ugh, hockey...

From the looks of it at this point, we will be quitting hockey. Ayden is quite adamant about not continuing with it and gets visibly upset when we even talk about it. I've tried everything to get him to try it a few more times to see if he might like it, but NOTHING, even bribery, will work and I've decided that I WILL NOT be one of those mothers who pushes their child to do something they don't like. Obviously there are different reasons for making your child do something they don't want to and what not, but I don't want Ayden to be out skating crying because he really really doesn't want to and then make him shy away from even more sports. So, we'll see if he wants to give it a try on Saturday and if not, we'll return his equipment and maybe try it again in a few years. It is a bummer, no doubt, but oh well.

Ugh, I need to finish some homework and I really don't want to. It is nothing that bad, but it involves reading three articles and answering some questions. And then finishing my lab. I wish I could curl up on the couch and just shut off my brain. I have been thinking too much lately, not good for me. I've been complaining too much lately too, just ugh!

I slept really well last night which was really nice. It hasn’t happened in a couple of days so it was nice to last night, yeah! But the dreams I had were super weird. I know it had something to do with what I was thinking about before I went to sleep though so that explains it.

…

Its later in the day now and I’m feeling a little bit better about my week. My brain has sort of stopped thinking about things I didn’t want to think about and I’ve been trying to get back to the positive way of thinking.

I am printing off some pictures at this moment, I haven’t printed any new ones off for myself probably since the semester started so I thought I would take some new ones into the clinic tomorrow to put up on my best. You know… make it look more homey like, ha!

Then Criminal Minds is on in a little over a half hour and I am going to sit down, or  maybe lay down in bed and watch that. I finished my lab for Friday so I don’t have to worry about that anymore which is good, just need to look at two more articles before the clinic meeting in the morning. Ah, good ole clinic meeting. But since Ayden is going to be at the Y tomorrow because the kids don’t have school, I don’t have to worry about being home in time for him to get off the bus so if I need to stay after for anything that is fine. Actually, I should be able to get home at a pretty decent time because we have the clinic meeting and then I will head over to work for a little while and then probably back home for an afternoon of nothingness. I am SO tempted to start a book and I SO know that I shouldn’t, but seriously, it is hard for someone like me to LOVES LOVES LOVES to read to go for this long without diving into some good reading. HARD HARD HARD!

Okay, off for a bowl of oreo ice cream!

CIAO! LOVE ME!

Uncreative Post Title Inserted… HERE!

I’m in a blah mood at the present moment and have been pretty much all day. I got the ‘prescribed’ amount of 8 hours of sleep last night that the commercials recommend for adults, but its not enough for me. I’m tired… I feel headachy… I’m knocking on wood over and over that I’m not getting sick. I’m hoping against hope that I’m just tired and with enough sleep tonight will be back to 100% percent tomorrow. Is it better luck to keep my fingers crossed or uncrossed?!

I had two classes today of which the first one went well and the second one… I don’t think I got a thing out of it today. It was definitely a wasted hour that I took some notes in, but don’t know if any of them actually make sense or were worth actually writing down, but I needed to do something to keep my mind from wandering all around.

Then I went to work for a little while and then came home. It was nice to come home and have a semi relaxing afternoon at home. Our landlord finally came over to look at the few things that needed to be fixed since we moved in. Nothing major that we couldn’t live with so it hasn’t been a big deal to us that these minor things haven’t been done for the past couple of months. Since Jay was at work I took care of that. Everything will be in order on Friday which is nice. We are getting a new faucet, dishwasher fixed, Ayden’s bedroom door fixed, and office light in the basement fixed. All is well!

I also worked on my lab write up for a bit. Shouldn’t be too hard from what I was seeing which is good and then I took about a half hour nap which probably made me more tired that I am already am. Oh and I did three loads of laundry so I don’t get behind on that again. Of course I haven’t folded the last load yet, but at least I hung up the first two.

Tonight we need to run and get a few groceries. I really don’t feel like it, but we need some milk and cereal and a few other things, can’t really be avoided, that is unless I don’t feel like having breakfast in the morning and really I am a breakfast person, lol!

And then tomorrow is my clinic day and we have three hearing aid things so that should go well too… or so I’m hoping.

So, I need to get out of this funk I’m in today and be happy. I’m also feeling kind of down because I’m having some friend drama. Drama that should have extinguished itself years ago, but hasn’t. I don’t feel like going into it, but its affecting me more than I should be letting it. Ugh! So, I’ll try to think positively!

Have I mentioned that I pulled off a 99/100 on my second grad school test! How exciting is that?! I was stoked to find that out considering I was expecting like a 95 AT BEST! The test must have been curved to a certain extent because otherwise I don’t know how I pulled that off… seriously, I don’t know how I could have done that well because I wasn’t that confident when I turned the test in. Oh well, I’m not complaining in the least! Yeah! Next test… two weeks maybe?! I don’t know, but I’m not worrying about them yet either.

We also have another lab practical at the end of the semester, but I’m not too nervous about that either. Despite being a first year clinician, I feel like I am gaining some confidence with working with the patients… every patient is a new experience and I try to take something away from each one.

This past weekend was kind of blah. We went home and didn’t get a lot done. Jay went hunting for a little bit. I’d say the only thing we got done was A LOT of eating, lol! We hit up Hu Hot Saturday afternoon and I definitely stuffed myself full there and then Jay’s mom made this delicious beef stew for supper and I stuffed myself with that. Oh, it was so yummy! And then Sunday was Steven’s birthday party and the food Jay’s parents prepared for that was delicious as well! Yummy barbequed wings, pizza, Grandma Hoerth cake (although it was poppy seed and I didn’t have any, Ayden had like three pieces), munchies, wild rice stew, all sorts of stuff, and let me tell you I ate my fair share there as well!

CIAO! LOVE ME!

April 14-17!

I am officially off to

San Diego for the

Academy of

Audiologist

convention!!! I

can’t wait!!!!!!!!!

San Diego here I

come baby!!!

A Day OFF!

I’m not going to finish the second half of the 50 things you didn’t know about me, at least not during this post. I don’t really feel like it.

Today was a nice day off for me. I didn’t actually have off as I still had to rise and shine before 7am, but only 15 minutes before that… 6:45am, versus the 6am that I had to the first three days this week. It felt nice to sleep in for a little while, that and I went to bed semi early last night. And I slept really well.

We had an 8am meeting for clinic which I think is such a waste of time, but whatever. Then I went to work for a little bit and since my boss is gone today and tomorrow and wasn’t there much yesterday, there was not a lot for me to do. After that I ran back to the clinic for a bit to do some revisions to a report and since that is all confidential information, it had to be done in the clinic. I was able to get that done and printed, but couldn’t find my supervisor so let my second year take care of that duty.

After that I hightailed it home and have been here ever since. It has been a great day so far. I folded and put away almost two weeks of clothes. How does that stuff creep up on me like that?! Way off topic, but if we ever have more kids, I keep thinking about how much stuff I have to do now and how it will get doubled or tripled with more kids and hope that I can managed it all. Sometimes I feel like I’m just hanging by the tips of my teeth and making it through. Although, if we have more kids, I keep telling myself that I won’t be busy after work with homework and studying… work will stay at work (hopefully) and home life will be home life. Or so I’m keeping my fingers crossed.

Anyways, I got the clothes folded and put away, ate some lunch, and then laid down and took a nap. And boy it as a nice nap. Maybe I shouldn’t have taken it because now I’m feeling kind of lazy. It was hard to make myself get up so I would be able to sleep tonight, but I think a nap does a body good sometimes. Tomorrow I only have one class and it should normally be a short day, but the lab that we have to do is going to take a long time I think and then I have to go to work for a little while. So, we will see how it goes. It doesn’t really matter to me if I have to be there all day long, because it has become the norm these days. It is just nice to finally have a day to relax and feel like I’m able to catch up.

I have one question to finish on a lab that is due tomorrow, but I’m not worried about it. I already have most of it done.

I had a test yesterday afternoon. It was relatively easy, but I had no idea how to do the extra credit question and don’t know if I got a 100% like my hearing assessment test, but I’m at least hoping for a passing grade. I know I didn’t fail it, but you need a 83% or higher to pass for our major, so who knows?

Ayden has been back to school yesterday and today. He was home on Monday and Tuesday. He had a fever on Sunday and half of Monday and the schools didn’t want him back until Wednesday. He has a cold, but nothing worse. The fever didn’t stick around long and he didn’t show any flu symptoms so I don’t think it was anything worse. He still has a bit of a cough and runny nose, but is doing well. Jay and I both bombarded him all day Sunday, Monday, and Tuesday with questions about how he was feeling. How is stomach, ears, throat, head, etc felt. At his age he is old enough to let you know. And all were fine, except he said his head hurt when he woke up on Monday morning and had his fever. And now that I’m finished writing this all, I’m pretty sure I already posted all about it already… oh well.

But boy was he crabby last night! I think it was a combination of still not being 100% healthy, having to get up early that morning, and five year old attitude. That and Jay had a short fuse last night as well so that didn’t make it better. I’m severely hoping that this afternoon and tonight go better because I so do not want another crabby kid.

Hockey/learn to skate on Saturday morning and then I’m thinking HuHot for lunch! Can’t wait! Now off to make a birthday card!

CIAO! LOVE ME!

Bet You Didn’t Know This…

…or maybe you did! I’m stealing the last post my super wonderful awesome cousin Amanda has on her blog. And no, I’m not being overly nice about how superly awesome and wonderful she is just because I’m her favorite cousin ;), because if you haven’t already noticed… she is pretty awesome!

Anywhoo… she posted 50 things about herself and I liked the post so here are 50 things about myself that you may or may not already have known about me!

1. My career aspirations have changed many times since high school… I used to want to be an archeologist, then architect, then forensic pathologist, speech language pathologist, and I finally settled on audiologist! Recently I also discovered ultrasound technician and thought that would be a cool career, but think I’ll stick with audiologist since I’ve already put so much work in. And really… I love me some ears! Yes, I realize that might make me sound a little crazy, but oh well! Everyone has their ‘loves’!

2. I became a mom at the young age of 18. Before Ayden I was soley career oriented and didn’t want to get married or have children any time soon. Since becoming a mom, I can’t wait to have more kids! I’m not stay at home mom material, but I do have the utmost respect for those who are because I think they have one of the toughest jobs, if not the toughest job imaginable! I want at least two or three more kids, if not four! My mom thinks I’m crazy, but Ayden has changed my perspective on it all!

3. I still have no rush to get married. Is that bad? Most people think marriage then baby, I did it backwards. Definitely not planned, but there is nothing I can do about that. I finally feel ready to get married and spend the rest of my life with Jay, but am in no rush to plan anything or get it ‘over with’.

4. I LOVE LOVE LOVE to read! I would read all day if I could, but alas I haven’t read anything for pleasure in the last eight weeks. I’ve been dying to start something good, but know that I don’t have the time at this point. When I read I get sucked into a whole new world and don’t want to leave. It is such a great stress releiever for me and love the feeling I get from it.

5. I sleep with three pillows. Two under my head and one in the middle of the bed. I like my bed space! I also cannot fall asleep cuddling with Jay. I need to be on my side of the bed all ‘situated’ and comfy. He doesn’t like this, haha!

6. I feel naked without my jewelry on. I need to have a watch, necklace, bracelet, and at least two or more rings on most days or feel weird. But I take all of it off before going to bed at night, even my engagement ring. I cannot sleep with any necklaces on or feel like I’m being choked!

7. I’m very organized in almost everything I do, although lately have been forgetting a lot of stuff, have been horrible at keeping up with my planner, and need to work on it some more! But I am anal about where things go and how they look. I put coats, shoes, and toys away most nights. I make beds that are going to get messy at night anyways, I arrange coasters, picture frames, and everything has it’s specific spot. Slightly OCD… maybe?!

8. I love to write… journal or letters that is. I’ve been ‘journaling’ since the early days in high school and it is great to do it again, only in the blogging form. I feel better after getting words out on paper, whether anyone reads it or not.

9. I’m a shy person when you first get to know me. My close friends might not describe me like that, but its true. I’m an introvert at heart and proud of it. Because of that, I don’t often like having to call people that I don’t know. I don’t like having to go outside my comfort zone, but am learning to do so more and more because my future career involves dealing with different people every day. Each clinic day makes it that much easier!

10. I’ve always been a photo enthusiast. Even before digital cameras became ‘the thing’ I took pictures upon pictures, only it was more expensive. And then digital cameras were introduced and I had to have one. My ‘obsession’ has only gotten worse since then and after finding MckMama’s blog and seeing what she does with pictures, I found myself craving something more than a point and shoot. And when an opportunity arose to get one, who could pass it up?! I don’t know if I’ll ever consider myself ‘professionalish’ or want to do it professionally, but I do know that I love it and will continue to try and improve my skills, so long as Ayden stays in front of the camera.

11. Along with the whole photo thing, I’ve become addicted to Photoshop (well the cheap version of elements) and don’t know what I did without it. I love doctoring the pictures I take and making them my own. I wish I had more knowledge of the things I could do or the money to get the ‘real’ photoshop and expand my skills.

12. I don’t wash the dishes at my house or clean the litter box. Jay takes care of both of those tasks and I do the laundry. I used to keep up on the laundry really well at our old place with the washer and dryer in our closet, but since it is now in the basement, I’ve been slacking at folding and putting away things. Its the washing part that is easy, haha!

13. I’m a horrible passenger driver, at least when Jay is driving. I have a fear of crashing and although I don’t let the other driver know (if it happens to be someone other than Jay), but I secretly hope nothing bad happens. Because of this, I often look out the side window instead of the front one.

14. I write in the margins of paper. I started this in high school and have done it ever since. I think they are such a waste of paper and utilize every spot that I can. I also print instead of use cursive. It takes me longer than average to write my name in cursive because I hardly ever use it and can’t remember the letters. I probably wouldn’t remember all the letters and how they are supposed to look if I had to.

15. I have four more years of schooling before I’m done! Sometimes I wonder why I decided to go the route I did and put myself through this, but often tell myself that in the end it will all be worth it. Student loan debt and all!

16. I will be in way over my head with student debt when I graduate, but have faith it will not stay that way forever. I am happy that that will be the only debt I will have when I graduate as we have one credit card bill that we are close to paying off and don’t plan to use it anymore anytime soon. And we don’t plan on buying a house until we know where our careers will take us.

17. I am jealous of my brother and sister and the things they seem to get from my parents that I never got, or maybe more so since I’ve moved out and more so from our dad. Although I am thankful that my mom let me live with her for a year after Ayden was born.

18. I have a younger half sister that is three weeks younger than her nephew. I wish we were closer and hope we can have that sisterly bond as she gets older, but will probably always look over her like a second mother.

19. I’m addicted to facebook and blogger. I’m on them both numerous times a day and feel disconnected when I don’t get on to see what everyone is up to lately. I’m kind of stalkerish like that and wonder what I did before I discovered these two things. I read a lot of blogs and feel like I know the 'blogger’ and their families even though I don’t know really any of them in real life.

20. I enjoy some ME time every night decompressing. I like to lay down in bed after Ayden goes to sleep and watch a half hour of TV just by myself to relax and unwind.

21. I love me some ice cream! A nightly bowl does my body some good!

22. I hate cooking! I think it is such a waste of time getting everything together and messing up all those dishes and then waiting for it to cook and then all those dishes to clean up and did I mention that it takes a lot a time. I’m all for easy no step meals that take no effort. And no that doesn’t mean we eat out all the time, just that I don’t cook elaborate meals!

23. I can’t stand coffee! Not the smell, not the taste, not anything about it. I prefer to get my caffeine source from the caffeinated beverage source been soda. I try to stick with one soda per day and am usually pretty good at that. I once went an entire school year without drinking soda, possibly my sophomore or junior year in high school. It was hard, but worth it. I’ve tried again, but alas have failed at all subsequent attempts!

24. I love being barefoot! If I could, I’d go all year round, but living in Wisconsin and having the cold winters we have make that hard. My soles get really rough in the summer because I hardly ever wear shoes or sandals outside unless I have to. It feels good to go barefoot and I don’t mind the rough heels. Although Jay complains about them!

25. I hate shaving my legs. I do so in the summer only because hair legs in shorts doesn’t exactly look good. In the winter… I do so only every so often. And when I do shave my legs, I do so out of the shower because I hate spending too much time in the shower. If I do, then I feel like I’m getting dirty again. Have I ever mentioned that I have weird quirks like that?! Hehe!

Okay… I’ll leave you with the first 25 tonight and try and come back and finish the second 25 tomorrow night! Hope you enjoyed!

CIAO! LOVE ME!

Study Break to Blog!

I am taking a much needed study break to blog a little bit… then it’s back to the books, well one book, not even a book, but a binder already filled with PowerPoints and articles (that I may or may not have even looked at yet) and lab reports. I have a much dreaded Instrumentation test tomorrow of which all of the second years say is really easy just so long as I know the answers to the questions that the professor asked in the powerpoints. So far… I feel moderately confident.

I was also able to meet with one of our professors from Madison today as he came to Point to go over our first tests with the first years. Turns out all the worrying and freaking out I did about this test was for nothing because we did not receive a grade. The test was effectively five questions long, of which everyone got the last question wrong. He explained what he was looking for in that question and asked us to redo it. Fine with me because it is easy enough. He also talked to us about our upcoming presentation at the end of the semester. We are no closer to deciding on a topic, but we do have some in mind. Turns out the one that we were thinking about doing was done last year by the second years. After I found that out I felt bad for bringing it up at our meeting because I didn’t want the prof thinking we were just taking their idea. Honestly, this was an original idea… I had every intention of asking the second years what they did, but didn’t get around to it before going to our meeting. In any case, we have a few weeks to decide and get started. It only has to be a 10 page paper between the three of us, which is like a little over three pages per person… totally easy!

Ayden stayed home from school these past two days. He woke up Sunday with a slight fever and the start of a cold. By the end of the day Sunday he was pretty worn out. I was hoping he would wake up Monday morning and all would be well, but unfortunately that was not the case. He had a worse temp Monday morning and thus wasn’t heading out to school. And since the schools want the children fever free for 24 hours without medication before returning to school, he was automatically home today as well. By the afternoon yesterday he was fever free, but still coughing. Today he was also fever free, but still not himself. We are hoping he is more energetic tomorrow morning, but won’t make him go to school if he isn’t feeling 100%, and besides, even if we did, they would just be calling us to pick him up anyways. So we will see. It would be nice if he was able to go to school because Wednesdays are our busy days… both for Jay and myself, but we’d deal I guess. I also have a test tomorrow afternoon, but you gotta do what you gotta do, right?

I’m looking forward to Thursday and Friday of this week. I had clinic today and it went well. I am starting to write more reports which is good and doing more in clinic which is also good, I guess, lol! Still kind of know nothing when it comes to hearing aids, but that is what next semester is for, right?! Not super nervous about having to be alone for clinic yet, but I will do whatever I have to do. I was super nervous about starting speech therapy by myself last year and I made it through that alright. Maybe I should have stuck with that?!

Ayden was supposed to have his second learn to skate practice tonight, but since he wasn’t feeling up to par we skipped it. He did great at his first practice and spent almost two hours on the ice which I thought was great! I hope he is that enthusiastic about it this weekend as well! Me… I don’t know what we’ve gotten ourselves into! The place that he takes lessons at is like an outdoor ice rink with a roof over it! Much colder than the ice rink that we started going to which means that I was definitely not dressed properly for when we went.

Okay, my half hour is up… back to studying for another half hour and then calling it a night! Wish me luck on my test! And if you haven’t checked out my latest pictures, I hope you do and enjoy them! I had so much fun taking pictures for my friend and her boyfriend! I even set up a shoot with another friend for this spring once the weather gets nice again. I don’t have the equipment to get super good lighting indoors and she has young kids that I don’t want to make sit outside in the cold for pictures and she is having another baby in the spring so I thought we’d wait and then I could try some newborn pics for her as well. Plus, she lives a ways away. Of course for free too since I’m not trying to start a business or anything, at least not at this point. Its just a fun hobby for me that I’m trying to improve at! I can’t wait! And inbetween now and then, I have other friends in the area with kids who I might just call up!

Okay, now I’m really going back to studying!

CIAO! LOVE ME!

Hockey

Okay, so the hockey pictures didn’t attached to the last post so here they are! I promise to do an update post soon since I’ve been so busy lately and haven’t really had the chance to sit down and just get everything out. Maybe tomorrow, but I have a test to study for so most likely Wednesday night or Thursday sometime… hopefully! Enjoy!

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CIAO! LOVE ME!

Weekend Pictures

I took a ton of pictures this weekend! First comes Ayden and his first learn to skate/hockey practice… then the pictures (well just the edits) of my friend Niki and her boyfriend Kevin… and then some that I took of Ayden and a few that my friend took of us as a family! Enjoy!

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CIAO! LOVE ME!

Pre Hockey Pictures!

CIAO! LOVE ME!

Changes I Mentioned…

… were carried out yesterday. Without going into the hows and whys of it, I am with a new second year mentor. Probably should have been placed with her from the beginning, but I don’t work the schedule so whatever. And so far so GOOD!

I now have clinic on Tuesday mornings instead of Thursday mornings, but we also have clinic this Thursday morning since my second year decided to take over this weeks slot. Works for me since we’ll only have clinic on Thursday morning once more for the rest of the semester. As it turns out, I am able to go Thursday morning as well which is good I guess. I mean I’d rather not have clinic twice a week, but not much I can do about it and I figure the more experience the better, right? Yes, right!

Today went really well. We were done a little early, but I was even able to do some stuff. I also helped with some hearing aid stuff which was good as well because I need to get experience in that too.

It is only Tuesday night and already it has been a pretty eventful week…

Monday morning we had our first ‘in class’ exam and our professor was going to allow us students (the whole three of us) to start at 7:30 instead of 8am for an extra half hour of time. We were all okay with that because none of us like to be rushed. The extra half hour actually was pretty nice. I got to campus around 7:15 to give myself a few extra minutes of study time and was sitting down in our classroom reading over my notes when all of a sudden the lights go out. We have sensored lights on campus and if there is not enough movement in the classroom, the lights go out. I thought that that was the case until I turned around and realized that the hall lights had gone out as well. The campus had lost power! The generators quickly kicked in, but they only lit up the hallways. Can’t really take a test in the dark now can you?

Our professor probably would have pushed back the test had we asked her to, but we were ready to just get it over with so we decided to find another spot to take it. First we tried the grad room, but that wasn’t completely lit and it was kind of noisy. Then we realized that the lights in the sound suites were working so we went in there to take the test. It was nice and quiet, but I’ll admit that it was kind of weird taking a test in there. Oh well. For the most part I thought that the test was pretty easy, but won’t know for sure until I get my grade back probably tomorrow or sometime next week. I’m not too worried about it though. Turns out the power outage was due to a construction mishap on campus and it was restored to most of the campus by about 8:30am.

As if that didn’t add enough excitement to the week already, today the campus was put on lockdown when someone thought they saw a student with a gun on campus. Security and the city police were called and as it turned out it was just a prop for an acting class. I don’t know if the prop was a ‘toy gun’ or something that just looked like a gun when it was wrapped up. It was not in the building I am in all day nor did I know about it until we got an email later in the day. They did announce something over the PA system, but I was in clinic at that time and didn’t hear what was said. I did hear some beeps, but we were busy and didn’t really pay attention to them. Apparently it was big enough to hit the news though because Jay’s mom called him about it. Did they have nothing better to report on today than a false alarm at our school? Especially since his parent’s local news station does not cover our area. Oh well…

It snowed out by us yesterday, like pretty much all day! I am happy to report that just about NONE of it stuck, but it was really depressing to see it. Personally I am not a snow person! I’m not a cold person either! That is why I am looking forward to nice some sunny weather on Saturday and Sunday. It isn’t supposed to get really warm or anything, but warmer than what we have been having and sunny and I am having some friends over and we want to be outside doing some stuff so good weather is making me happy!

Overall I have just been really happy lately… or optimistic I guess is the best way to put it. Of course things aren’t always going my way or perfect, but I’ve been trying really hard to look at the bright side of things. We can’t control anything anyways, even when we think that we can… we can’t. So, I am happy with whatever is going to happen. Or at least I’m trying to be. Take this whole clinic ‘experience’ and how everything went down. I could be really pissed and upset about how things turned out, but I’m not. I forgot about an appointment that I had today and I definitely felt bad about that, but we were able to still make it happen and everything was okay. Was I down on myself for a little bit, yes, but I looked at the bright side… we still were able to get done what needed to get done. I guess it also helps that I haven’t been too overly stressed lately. I’ve been busy yes, but not overly stressed. If I don’t let myself get stressed, then I won’t get stressed, right? Wrong, but at least I can think positively!

I haven’t heard from one of my friends in a couple of weeks. If anything is sort of putting a damper on my mood, it is that. I've been trying not to think about it and being so busy helps with that, but it is upsetting because I thought that we had finally reached some common ground on some things. I’m trying to think positive about this as well and that something else must be up, but as each day goes by it is a little harder. Oh well, I won’t concentrate on it right now because I don’t want to get down.

For now, it’s off to work on some flash cards for my test next Wednesday, watching an 18 Kids and Counting Special tonight, going to school early tomorrow to print some stuff, working my way through a normally long Wednesday, clinic Thursday, and clinical practicum on Friday. It will be a good week! Plus Ayden starts hockey on Saturday and my friends are coming to visit! Be ready for some pictures after this weekend! I can’t believe that we are almost half way through October! Eight more weeks and it’s done with semester one of grad school!

CIAO! LOVE ME!

Lifetime Movie Weekend

If that doesn’t describe it all… then I don’t know what does! Because that is precisely how I spent the bulk of my weekend, on the couch watching lifetime movies! Oh how I love me some lifetime movies!

Ayden had soccer on Saturday morning (bright and early) and boy was it super duper cold! He really didn’t want to play, but we somehow coaxed him out onto the field. His team this week consisted of four players. The other team only had five so it wasn’t too lopsided, but I thought that it was kind of funny that hardly anyone showed up. And next weekend hockey starts so Ayden won’t be there either… hopefully some of the other players show up. Anyways, the other three players were all really good for their age and Ayden’s team finally managed to win a game which was awesome! Ayden has grown increasingly less aggressive this season and really was acting kind of weird throughout the game on Saturday. I don’t know if we will sign him up for soccer in the spring… who knows?! It is free though in the spring since we are now members so maybe, can’t tell at this moment.

After soccer we came home and Jay and Ayden packed up to go home for the weekend. I was staying at our place and getting to relax. This past week wasn’t exactly stressful to say the least, but it was busy and I just needed some time to decompress and it was definitely nice to sit and watch some TV without really having anything to worry about. The lifetime channel was my friend this weekend and I watched my fair share of movies.

By the time I actually got to sit down and relax on Saturday, it was the afternoon. And I also spent an hour finishing my hearing science exam. I still don’t know if I have the correct answers for everything, but it will have to do I guess. I don’t know where else to go with it so I am leaving it as be and will see what kind of grade I get. Unfortunately in grad school you need to get pretty good grades to stay in the program… wish me luck!

I got to sleep in this morning which felt great! I stayed in bed until 9am! I know that doesn’t sound too late, but for me it was an extra three hours of sleep than my average… I loved it! And then I stayed in my pajamas until almost 11am when I finally got showered and ready for the day… which was spent watching more TV. Boy, I was super active this weekend, wasn’t I? I shed some tears watching some movies. I don’t know, but I’ve been sappier than ever lately when it comes to sad movies and today I actually had tears rolling down my cheeks when I was watching one. Pathetic… maybe? But at least it was a good movie.

I also got together with my friends for a study group later this afternoon for about two hours. I think I am relatively prepared for this test, or at least I hope I am. We’ll see tomorrow morning I guess. I need to study a little more tonight before I go to bed, but I don’t feel like there is anything that I really don’t know or understand which is good. Then a test next Wednesday, but not super concerned about that one at this point either. Start studying Tuesday a little bit probably.

Jay and Ayden got home early tonight and had a good weekend which was good.

This coming weekend I am having a friend and her boyfriend over and I am going to take some pictures for them too. My idea again, but I know she will enjoy them! Or at least I hope so. Hoping for some good weather so we can get some good shots. I have some good ideas in my head and hope we can pull them off. I am so getting into this photography thing, but like I’ve said before, don’t know if I could do it as a profession because I would be too worried about what my customers thought and if they were happy since I know I am not really that good. I like my style, if you can call it that, but know that everyone may not, and I definitely delete more pictures than I keep and have a lot of just ‘point and shoot’ types which I am fine with, but they aren’t ‘photography’ quality… if that makes any sense?!

Anyways, I’m excited for that and Ayden starting hockey. And we are going swimming at the Y on Sunday so even better! Should be tons of fun! And then the next two weekends we are potentially going home for… and then it is November already and only four weeks until the end of the semester. Ugh are we really that close to Christmas already?!

Today marks the five year mark of Jay’s brother’s death. I feel bad because I didn’t even know until one of his aunt’s said something about it on facebook. Jay and I were together for just about a year when he died and Ayden was just over a month old. Although Jay and I had been together for a year, I really didn’t get to know his brother all that much (or his family for that matter at that point yet), and so although his death affected me, definitely not in the direct way that it affected his immediate family members and those who knew his brother a lot more than I did.

It’s like the moment we found out is frozen in time in my head. I remember exactly what we were doing when Jay got the call, exactly how Jay’s face looked when he told me. I remember how slow the drive seemed to his parent’s house seemed from my mom’s even though they live like three miles apart. It’s not something I wish on anyone, but too many people know that pain. We can’t escape death, but can have faith that we’ll see that loved one again some day.

I feel bad that I didn’t remember the day. I feel bad that I didn’t know his brother very well. I feel bad that Ayden will only ever know him from the stories he hears. Jay hasn’t said anything about it (at least to me) today. He hardly ever talks about his brother anymore. I don’t know how often he thinks about him, but I don’t necessarily ask either. He’s only cried about it a handful of times (in front of me) since then. He told me once a year or so ago that he thought about his brother a lot and it was hard. I feel bad that its hard for him, but because it is such a sensitive topic I hesitate to ask him about it. I don’t want him to hurt anymore than he already does.

I’ve heard that the divorce rates are higher among families who have lost a child. I think if anything, Jay’s parents are only closer. I admire their relationship and hope Jay and I can share a love like that from hear on out. I don’t remember my parents like that and know that I don’t want my marriage resembling anything like that of my mom’s and dad’s subsequent ones. Obviously they have to be happy with their new spouses or they wouldn’t still be married, but I’ve seen the pitfalls of both of their second marriage as well. But I’m not exactly the same as either my mom or my dad so I know my marriage won’t be exactly like theirs either.

Okay, enough deep thought for tonight… back to hearing assessment and the fact that a small ear canal volume on a tymp reading could mean cerumen occlusion or the probe tip being against the wall of the ear canal. Just pretend like you understood what I just wrote. Trying to study here… lol!

CIAO! LOVE ME!

Mulberry Farm Collages

Here are some pictures from last weekend at Mulberry Lane Farm with my mom and sister! We had such a great time despite the colder weather, probably the best time we’ve had so far! Lots of great pictures and many good memories!

I love this last picture of my mom, sister, and Ayden (even though Ayden isn’t looking)! My sister may always have a real smile, but many times my mom’s smile for the camera looks fake (sorry mom if you’re reading this, hehe)! and so those spur of the moment shots are the best because you get the real smile, the genuine happiness of the moment! The same goes for the picture of my mom holding the chicken with Ayden. Maybe its a family thing since my grandpa has that ‘pained’ smile in many of his pictures and my brother has it now too, haha! Who knows!

Ayden wanted a silly face smile with the picture! Are we silly looking enough?!

The top one is a picture of Ayden on the tractor from this year and the bottom one is a picture of him on the tractor from last year. They are different tractors, but last year was a lot warmer… notice no hat or coat, both are cute though!

And I really love this picture of Ayden and myself, even if he has that look of ‘let go of me mom’ on his face! It was one of those cute things and because most of the time I am behind the camera, it was totally awesome of my sister to actually get me in some pictures and I know she had a good time playing with the camera too! If you’re reading this Emily… thanks for taking some pictures for me, even though it is not as if I had to beg you or anything! :)

CIAO! LOVE ME!

Changes...

...are on the horizon, well possibly! Today was my fifth week of clinic (sixth week of school technically, but we didn't have clinic the first week) and of those five clinic days, I've 'observed' with my mentor twice. And of those two times, both were UMOS where we weren't really doing anything in the first place and like two hearing aid checks. The third week he was sick, last week he switched clinic days with someone, and this week he is having some personal issues. Nothing I'm entirely sure on or would feel comfortable talking about on here. I mean, after all, its not my life and what I do know or think I know, really has nothing to do with me whatsoever. So its not up to me to talk about it, comment on it, etc... except only to say that I feel like I'm getting screwed when it comes to this whole mentoring thing!

As it goes, my other two classmates have had five weeks of successive mentoring from their second years and even though they might not know all that much more than me, I feel like I'm not getting all that I can from this mentoring program. With that said, I talked to my supervisor about it today and what needs to happen if things don't improve. I know I've stated before that during the times I did work with Dustin, he was very professional and helpful, however I would like some sort of consistency and with it being half way through the semester almost and us first years doing clinic on our own next semester, I would like to feel more prepared than I already am at this point. I have to say that the two times that I worked with Chad, another second year, I've learned stuff as well. That and I 'observed' under Chad last spring so I sort of know how he works things.

So, hopefully within the next week or so things get sorted out and become a little more consistent for my sake so the money that I am paying for this 'education' (haha!) isn't going to waste!

But overall, today was another good clinic day! We had a hearing aid consult with someone who's hearing aids were being returned from repair and a new hearing aid fit with someone. The second appointment ran a little long, but that was okay as well. We had some computer technology problems, love 'em, right?! And Chad and I (well mostly him) got both of our reports written up all before I had to head to work so that was good too. And when I left there were no hearing aid repairs in and hopefully it will stay that way since poor Chad got screwed with them last Thursday.

Anywhoo... I accomplished a whole lot of nothing last night. I revised my paper for my test that is now due on Monday instead of tomorrow and got that done and out of the way with. I have probably two of the four questions on the test completed with two more that I know some what of an answer, but not the whole thing. Instead, my friend told me about the sweatshirt sale that was going on right down the road from campus and well couldn't pass that up. We usually hit up the one in Wausau, but Point had one this year and last year and I decided to hit up this one instead. We headed over there and I found myself two sweatshirts and two tank tops and three sweatshirts and two t-shirts for Jay. All for a GREAT price! We stoked up last year on sweatshirts so I really didn't NEED anymore, but I'm a hoodie lover at heart and Jay needed some more for work because apparently he didn't have any, but then I found two in his work clothes pile when I got home. Oh well, he said he liked one of them too much to make it a work sweatshirt and wanted to keep it is a good one. Whatever floats his boat I guess.

So I didn't get home until about 6pm and then sorted through all the laundry I had laying around and did another load. I now have probably four baskets of laundry to fold and put away (all crammed into three baskets) which probably won't get done until this weekend. Our hall closet is empty of towels which NEVER happens, but because we have been swimming more lately, we use towels for that.

By the time I was done cleaning and what not I really didn’t feel like doing anything else and was in bed by 9pm…

I will be in bed much earlier tonight, it is only 7:20pm and I am already thinking about calling it a night, however Grey’s is on so it would be nice to cuddle up in bed and watch that and then fall asleep, not to mention that tomorrow is my day to sleep in. I actually get to sleep in more tomorrow than I do on Saturday morning. I can’t wait for Sunday morning though because Jay and Ayden won’t be home and I will get to sleep in for as long as I want and then get up and lay on the couch and do nothing all day long if I feel like it and after this week I just might feel like it, ha!

Off to get Ayden ready for bed since he was pretty tired after school as well… long day!

CIAO! LOVE ME!

Morning at the park!

First ever 'photo shoot'!

...and quite possibly only ever 'photo shoot', lol! Or maybe not. Like I said before, I even hesitate to call it that, but oh well. I had fun clicking away with my camera and took almost 150 shots, even though I probably deleted like 50 of them. Here are a few of my favorites (editted of course) that I printed off for my friend. I didn't do any 'posed' shots and sort of just took them on the go, but I still think that I got a lot of super cute ones, despite the crappy cloudy colder weather we had.

I love hanging out with my friend and couldn't believe how big her little guy had gotten since the last time I had seen him... which was probably just over a year ago. I can deal with Ayden get bigger (sometimes), but when I see other people's children getting so big it blows my mind!

Enjoy!

CIAO! LOVE ME!

Super duber weekend!

WARNING... LONG POST AHEAD! HEHE!!!

Is it bad if all I want is a day to myself where I don't have to worry about doing anything school related, don't have to worry about any dead lines, due dates, work, nothing at all... all I want is a day to rest my head on a pillow, curl up in a warm and toasty blanket, and not worry about the short amount of hours until my alarm clock goes off! I'm running on a lackage of sleep right now with so much to do and so little time, and really people, I'm not even THAT busy! Sometimes I don't get how I can complain so much when there are people out there who are seventeen billion more times busy than myself and don't complain. Okay, I'm a complainer, get over it... for me... it's called venting. Its called getting it out so I can feel a bit better. Some people say complaining doesn't help any, well for me it does, ha! Lol! Okay, so that made me smile!

Maybe I'll talk about my (for the most part) GREAT weekend! Let me tell you folks... it was one of the best weekends that I've had in a long time and it wasn't even that we did these over the top fun things! In fact, Friday night I pretty much vegged on the couch with Ayden watching TV. I was so tired and he seemed pretty out of it too. He was so good and we cuddled together. It was a good night... until I almost had to go back to campus Saturday morning to print something off.

We got our first take home test for my one class, might have mentioned this before, and it is RIDICULOUS! Seriously... this test is only four questions and a two page paper and I've only figured out one and a half of the questions. Ugh! Anyways, I had to print an article off for it and just decided to do it at home versus on campus. I brought it up on campus just fine so didn't think I would have any problems at home. Turns out when I opened the file on my computer it wouldn't let me print it. It wouldn't even let me save the file to my computer so I could manipulate it myself. It was crazy and I was getting really upset because the last thing I wanted to do was head to campus at 7:30am on a SATURDAY to print some stupid article! I mean... seriously?! When all else failed on my computer I turned to Jay's and thankfully I was able to get it to print off there. I don't know why my computer was being so stupid, but apparently mine wasn't the only one because my classmate Amy's computer did the same thing and I heard today that some of the Madison students were unable to print their article as well.

After getting the article to print and realizing I understood just about nothing on it... I went to bed... and I slept like a baby... too bad it wasn't long enough! Saturday morning was soccer and I was happy Ayden's game wasn't until 9:30 so we were able to sleep in somewhat and I didn't have to rush around getting things all packed up. We both woke up around 7am and I checked to see if soccer was cancelled or not because it was supposed to be rainy weather. Soccer wasn't cancelled, even though part of me kind of wished it was because I wasn't really in the mood to go. But alas, we got everything packed up and headed off to soccer and even got there a little early. This time Ayden ended up playing on the correct team and they did pretty well. I thought Ayden could have gotten in there a little more to kick the ball, but I didn't push him or anything. And besides, after a morning of whining about not wanting to go, he played like a champ and was even really happy that we decided to go! I was happy about that as well!

After soccer we headed off to 'home' to meet my mom and sister at a local farm for a tour like thing sponsored by my mom's work. This was our third or fourth year doing it, I can't remember, but it was still fun... even despite the cold weather! And it was cold! I had my winter coat, hat, scarf, and mittens on! Just enough to keep me from shivering! We all had a great time! The rain held off, minus a light mist here and there, and Ayden was such a great boy! He really didn't whine at all and I was so happy about that. We chased and caught both chickens and ducks! We hugged sheep and fed goats! We almost milked a cow and cuddled kittens! We saw a HUGE pig! We went on a tractor ride and picked some awesome pumpkins! It was a great three hours! And after that fun we headed off to a corn maze! And this was one twisty turny corn maze! I'd recommend it to anyone! At first we didn't think it was going to be very good since about five minutes into it we found three of the six numbers we were looking for and thought we'd be out in another five minutes... well when you find number eight three times... you are lost! We spent the better part of 45 minutes walking through this maze trying to find our way out and we only 'cheated' once and really, that didn't even help us! The only down side to the maze was our shoes getting caked in mud and Ayden getting tired towards the end, but I don't blame the kid. He has short legs, ran for an hour for soccer, and then walked for three hours at the farm before hand. Overall though, he did great!

Also at the corn maze they had a few other things to check out so we did and then went back to my mom's house for some yummy supper and to relax because it was a long day! Ayden and I were both in bed before 9:30, which for a weekend I think is early. Well, a little late for Ayden, but we were visiting family so I didn't care.

Sunday was a little more laid back for Ayden, but I went out and did my first 'photo shoot' and I put that in quotes because it really wasn't a photo shoot. I just offered to take some pictures for my friend, mostly because I wanted to take some pictures of someone other than Ayden and she has the cutest little guy and it gave us some time to spend together as well since we don't get to see each other very often. I'll do a seperate post about that and put some pictures up. I definitely wouldn't call it professional by any means, but I think I got some cute shots!

Ayden and I also went ice skating with Jay's aunt in the afternoon before heading back home. We met at one of Appleton's ice rink and found a nice park close by! Ayden and I got there a little early so we went and played at the park for a little while. Ice skating was fun, but Ayden didn't want to skate as much as I thought he would which was kind of a bummer because I paid $10 for less than an hour of skating. But this rink had these helper things for kids learning to skate to push along that would help hold them up. Ayden was using one and did pretty good with it. That's not to say that he didn't have his fair share of falls along the way, but it was fun none the less. I'm glad that we decided to go because the more he practices, the better he will get. That is what I keep telling him anyways. After that it was time to get back to Point so I could meet with my classmates and have a study session. If only it were that easy! Ha!

Ayden and I made it safely to a gas station right outside of Appleton where I stopped to top off my tank. I then pulled out of the pump area and into a regular parking stall and shut off the car and Ayden and I went inside to get some food. Back outside and all strapped in the car and ready to go and wait, what... how come when I put the key in and turn... NOTHING HAPPENS!!! Not a damn thing! No radio, no beeping, NOTHING NOTHING NOTHING!!! And it gets better... Jay is in Kansas so I can't really call him and get him to come. So I call my mom's husband (since she's at work) and unfortunately he is waiting for someone to come to the house for something or another, so then I called my dad to see if he was around. Thankfully he was available and made the drive to Appleton to come help me out. Isn’t that what dads are for?! Ayden was SO patient in the car during the wait which was about 45 minutes, but it definitely didn’t seem like it was taking that long. He sat and ate his food and looked at his Pokémon cards that he got from Uncle Casey. So the time went fast which was good.

My dad showed up and figured out right after I popped the hood that it was a loose battery wire. THANK GOODNESS! During the wait I was imagining a huge towing bill and an even bigger repair bill since nothing was working when I tried turning the key. I was freaking out about not being able to get back to Point that night and wondering when my car was going to work again. Apparently one of the battery wires had worked itself loose. I just got a new battery about a month ago and when Jay reattached the wires, one of them didn’t get on tight enough. Well, it was pretty tight, but somehow bounced off. So, a quick tightening of that and Ayden and I were on our way back to Point. Oh how thankful I was that my dad was able to fix it! My hero of the weekend! And we even made it back in time for my friends to come over for our study session, not that we were able to accomplish a whole lot because the three of us were totally confused, hehe!

We are meeting with a professor tomorrow to hopefully get some insight into what we are doing and/or should be doing and aren’t doing. Hopefully we will come out of it less confused than going in… keep word, hopefully!

CIAO! LOVE ME!

Thursday and Friday

(Thursday) The week is just flying by... and you won't see me standing around complaining! As good as yesterday was, today was quite the opposite. Okay, maybe not quite that dramatic. Actually today was a relatively good day and it did go fast for it being a clinic day and all... you know when things tend to go slower than you'd like. In any case, it was a full day of moving around and doing stuff and not having enough time in the day to do what I'd like to do, or maybe not enough time that before Ayden gets done with school. Ha, before I was complaining that I didn't know what to do while Ayden was in school because I had so much free time and now I'm saying that I don't have enough time. Actually, Thursdays are probably the only days that I don't have enough time, or don't feel like I have enough time, not with all the report writing and having to get together with my second year mentor and fitting that in. It doesn't seem like enough time. Or maybe it was just today and the fact that we had three reports to write and I haven't written one before and I don't know when they need to be completed by and our meeting ran long and all sorts of other stuff...

And then as much as I wanted to just not go to work because I was working on reports and could have stayed in the clinic for probably another hour doing that and what with possible hearing aid duty and so on and so forth... I like work so much and appreciated everyone there that I felt obligated to go and make sure that there wasn't anything that needed to be completed even though a quick email to my bosses would have sufficed and they wouldn't necessarily have cared. They always hype that my education and family come first and as long as I let them know what is going on they are okay with that. But, although it would have just been easier to stay on campus and hit out those reports, I took off from there and went to work for a little while and did get some stuff done that needed to be completed... even if it wasn't super important.

As I writing this... later this afternoon my friend, Kristi, and I are going to go to the Y for our first workout session. Then Ayden and I will come home and eat supper and play for a little while and then quite possibly venture back to the Y for swimming. I might be able to convince him to stay home tonight from the pool (not quite sure if I will want to go back or not) by saying we can go tomorrow night, but who knows. He remembers quite a bit of stuff that I tell him.

I got new tires on my car today! And apparently it was about time! Jay and I have both known that my car needed new tires, before winter FOR SURE, but we hadn't decided when or if they needed it THAT bad. Jay obviously knows more about that stuff than I do and I pretty much just took his word for it. The last time my car got new tires was over four years ago when I was still living at home with my mom... possibly closer to five years ago. So yeah, they needed to be changed. It wasn't until a week or so ago when I was taking Ayden to the dentist and it had rained out pretty good that I realized just how bad they needed it. I was at a stop light going up hill and when the light turned green, I stepped on the gas to go. Well you know, not step on it in the sense that I wanted to go fast, but just how anyone else would. And I didn't go... the wheels started to spin and couldn't get any traction. Thankfully I didn't spin out of control or anything and was able to get the car moving in the forward direction, but it was enough to scare me.

(Friday) So I didn't get this posted like I wanted to last night. We just got busy and then I got into something and didn't have the time to blog because it was almost 10:30 by the time I crawled into bed and normally I would be going to sleep by then. In any case, Ayden and I went to the Y yesterday afternoon and I worked out with my friend for the first time. It went good and we did about 45 minutes of working out. Dead tired though! So out of shape! Need to build myself up, but I wasn't sore this morning so that was good.

Then Ayden and I went back later at night to go swimming because the water slide was open and I said that we could. We might even go tonight if I feel ambitious enough. I want to go work out again tonight, even though the dreary weather is making me want to stay in the house and not work out... I want to stay positive about it and then Ayden and I can go swimming again. It is fun and the water is actually pretty warm at the Y... about 84 degrees... I think that is pretty warm. It is a little cold at first, but tell me, what pool water isn't... you don't want it hot tub warm when you are swimming anyways. And we both had fun last night swimming as well. Ayden went down the water slide a handful of times and I was doing some water aerobics as he was swimming. He was becoming a little daredevil though in the deeper water. He can just barely touch okay in 3'6" water (on his tip toes since he is 3'8", or was at his well child exam in August) and he is jumping in with a noodle to try and catch a ring he throws in. It is fine and dandy when I'm watching, but the times he through the ring out too far and I went to go get it, he would climb out and then jump in all alone. He was fine each time, but it was making me nervous because he cannot touch the best there. Little boys, haha!

Jay left after class today for Kansas... I could tell he was excited! At the point that I am writing this (2:30pm) he is most likely three to four hours into a ten to twelve hour drive! I don't know if he came home after class or left straight from campus and how far west he had to drive to meet JT before starting towards Kansas... hope they have fun though!

My day has flown by so far. I 'slept in' until 7am, which really didn't count because I didn't go to bed until midnight. I had some caffeine last night at 8:30 and after working out later, I just wasn't tired when it came time to crawl into bed. That and I had quite a deep conversation with a friend that lasted a while as well. I just wasn't ready for the day to end, haha! Then I had a lab from 9-11am this morning and was able to get part of it done so far. I have more to do, but it isn't too hard. After our lab, my classmates and I were going to work on another lab that is due on Wednesday, however some hearing aid stuff came in and I hadn't gotten to watch any of that yet so I opted to do that instead since we can work on the lab at a different time yet. The hearing aid stuff was pretty cool to do since I haven't really seen any of that yet and I also got 15 minutes towards my hours and some stuff checked off on my hearing aid list. Then it was to work for a little while and then off to the library to return some books.

They are doing Book IT at Ayden's school. It is still through Pizza Hut and both Jay and I did it during elementary school as well. I remember thinking my own little pizza was the coolest thing! Ayden needs 300 minutes during the month of October to earn his pizza and at the kindergarten level it is being read to, not reading yourself. Oh how I hope Ayden grows up with the same love of reading that I have. Today is the rainy kind of curl up on the couch with a good book and warm blanket kind of day!

Long day finally ends…

CIAO! LOVE ME!