Retail Therapy

It’s been a few days since I last blogged, but I just haven’t gotten around to it. I’ve thought about doing it here and there, but then I get sidetracked with reading other blogs or facebook or looking at photography stuff and then when I am done with that, I don’t feel like I want to write anything and then instead go to bed. That and a whole lot of nothing interesting is going on right now. Well, I take that back… a few things have been going on, but they are too personal and I don’t feel like I want to put them on here. If this was something that no one was going to read I would pour my heart out because I just feel like it needs to be written, but by doing that I’d need to put a background story and everything because it is all just really confusing and ugly and who wants that anyways. So… I just won’t write about that.

But anyways… today is Thursday and I don’t have class OR clinic on Thursdays so after a short morning meeting and a bit of work, I went and did what most girls do best… retail therapy! It’s not like I needed any therapy today, but I figured since I had a 15% Kohls coupon, I might have well make use of it (seeing the last one I had was for 30% and I didn’t make use of that). And make use of it I did!

My goal was to find one or two sweaters that I could wear when it is cold in the clinic or the classrooms (which is like always). Sweaters that button up the front and are easy to slip over just about anything and I was lucky and found two that I liked and for a really good price as well!

I also had a pair of jeans in my hands and was considering a pair of shoes, but alas purchased neither. I didn’t really like any of the shoes that they happened to have in my size. Okay, so I liked them, but couldn’t justify buying them because I do own quite a few pair of shoes already. I’m no shoe-a-holic, but have enough I’d say. And I so would have bought the jeans, but then I found a necklace and bracelet that I really liked and wanted those more. The necklace is very similar to a locket in that you can put a picture in it, but it also has a cute design on the back that you can wear showing. The bracelet is simple and has the words love, hope, live, and believe on it (I think) and it just really called my name. So, I exited the store spending not too much which was nice!

I’m definitely not a fashionista by any means. The stores I frequent the most are Kohls, JCPenney’s, and ShopKo. I don’t by high end… in fact I have a hard time paying more than $40 for a pair of jeans! I don’t consider myself knowledgable on fashion what so ever, but don’t exactly veer off course with crazy purchases either. I buy what I like and mostly comfy. I love me some jeans a sweatshirt, but also don’t mind dressing up once a week for clinic either. That being said, I wouldn’t call my ‘dressy’ attire all that dressy either. It follows the guidelines, but once again, not high end stuff.

Now this really got me thinking… I’d say most of the time I only dress up completely when I have to for clinic or a special occasion like a wedding. I’ve started wearing more dressier shirts/sweaters with jeans, but that’s about it. And so… I was thinking about the holidays that I dress up for. Usually for Thanksgiving I’m a little dressier, Christmas, and maybe Easter… that’s about it. What makes these days ‘dress-up’ days? Other than the fact that my parents made me do it since I’ve been young? To me, nothing really. Why should my family that I get together with on those days love me any less or more if I’m dressed up or not. And really, it is not like everyone dresses up on these days as well. I’d say the one that most of my family dresses up on is Christmas. I’ve even ‘made’ Ayden dress up the last couple of years. I mean coordinating outfits look nice in the annual Christmas photo, right?! Sure, but does it really matter? Not to me!

So, this year I’ve decided that maybe I just won’t ‘dress up’ for the holidays. Just maybe I’ll let Ayden pick out his own clothes… even if they don’t match. Just maybe I’ll visit family in a hoody and jeans… because to me, its not the outfit I’m wearing that makes the day, its the family, the memories, the fun! Or just maybe I’ll find something really cute that I want to wear and do that. I haven’t decided yet because despite the fact that I don’t think its necessary in the least to dress up for things like that, sometimes I do feel nice doing it. So, we’ll see… in the mean time, I’ll stick to just having to dress up once a week for clinic, sounds good to me!

As far as how this week has been going… pretty good! We haven’t done a whole lot though. The weather has been pretty decent so we should have gotten out of the house a little more, but it gets dark so early now (really not like that… I mean REALLY not liking it) and enjoyed it, but oh well. I’m thinking about taking Ayden to the park today after he gets off the bus because today has probably been the best day so far this week weather wise. And then we might go to the library because I’m itching for another good book and I’ve been reading more and more to Ayden each night as well. We’ve started mini chapter books. The first one we read was…

and it has some pictures every few pages. It was about 60 pages long and took us two nights to read. Not bad at all I thought. I would stop every so often and ask Ayden questions about what was happening to see if he was paying attention and to my surprise he was listening really closely. I wasn’t sure if we should start these kind of books yet or stick to the shorter ones with more pictures, but he really liked it. I think it might have helped that it was about dinosaurs too. I have three more books about the Dinosaur Cove and then its off to find something else. I love curling up on the couch with a good book and love it even more when I can share my love of reading with Ayden!

Tomorrow I have a lab from 9-11 and then work and then… who really knows. No hearing aid duty, thats for sure though! The lab will probably run long since we will want to get most of it done which is fine with me so I might not have as much free time as I did today, but honestly I think I’d rather be busy that not busy if that makes any sense.

I had advising today for my classes next semester. We really don’t get to chose any classes since everything is pretty much laid out for us, but it is nice to be able to see what we are taking. One of our classes might get dropped and worked into the material of other classes which would be a total life saver. Okay, not really, but it would take out a two hour class on Mondays for us which would be really nice! If that happens, there is an online class that I am considering taking. Both Amy and Katie (the other first years) have already taken this course (it is educational psychology) thru the university. It is not something that I HAVE to take, but it is something that I HAVE to take if I want to be licensed to work in the schools. Since there are only THREE extra classes that I NEED to take to be able to work in the schools I thought it might be a good idea. I don’t really want to work in the schools, but it will give me the option to if I ever get in a pinch where those are the only jobs available. You know?!

Anyways, in order to take that class through our university you need to apply to the school of education and all that jazz and that is not something that I want to go through. So, this class is also available to take online through LSU for just under $300 including book prices. You can start it at anytime and are allowed 9 months to finish the work. From the webpage describing the class, there are 14 lessons that you have to complete which are basically chapter reviews, a midterm, and a final. No more than three lessons can be turned in during a seven day period, so obviously you can do everything the first week if you want, but you have to space out the submitting it portion. I have taken online courses before and have done well in them so I am thinking this will be the best option for me. I will most likely start it around Spring Break and finish by the end of the summer… hopefully! At least that is the plan now. One of the other two classes we all have completed already and the third one is worked into our course scheduling for the next three years so that is no problem.

I’m excited to get next semester started already! Don’t hold me to that though because I might just be wishing I hadn’t said that when it actually does start. And now, I don’t want to wish the next couple of months away, time goes too fast to begin with, ha!

Off to finish some laundry that I’ve been procrastinating on!

CIAO! LOVE ME!