Out and About

No sleeping in for me this morning, and its Saturday, what a bummer! Not really since I was excited to get up and get my day started because I had plans.

Friday night was relaxing at our house, not that it isn’t normally. Ayden and I were totally going to play some Mario Brothers on Wii, however Jay beat us to it, so instead of us playing, we cuddled in my bowl chair and watched Daddy try and beat the levels. It was fun and we cheered him on and laughed at him when he kept dying in the same spot. After almost an hour of that, which was some great family time, Jay was done playing and then Ayden played for a little bit.

We had some super yummy pot roast, potatoes, and carrots from the crock pot for supper last night. It was SO yummy and I am SO not a meat person. Jay hasn’t made it in a long time, not that there is much to it besides putting it in the crock pot for all day, and I surely stuffed myself full last night! And I just might have some more as leftovers for tonight, haven’t decided yet.

Today I went shopping with my best friend and her almost three year old son. I spent too much, but it was nice to get a few things for myself (not that I am severely lacking in that department), but I did need to replenish my dress pants stock and that I did and for a GREAT price too! We hit up a few stores, but mostly spent our time in the play place at the mall we were at since her son was having such a good time there.

Her son was pretty crabby the entire time we were out. Everyone has different parenting styles… and mine is definitely different than my friends. Different isn’t bad. I do know, that Ayden would never have gotten away with what went down. Or maybe he already has in different ways, always hard to compare. In any case, we did have a great time being able to catch up again since we don’t get to see each other very often.

And I had a great time driving faster than 25 mph ‘on the open road’ from my town to the one we met up in jamming to some good loud music! I don’t drive much, except thru town and you don’t get to go very fast and don’t get to be in the car for a while and get some good jamming in. I don’t know about you, but I do love to turn my radio WAY up every now and then (when Ayden isn’t accompanying me), put in one of my favorite cds and sing along as loud as I can because no one can hear me. Today’s favorites rotated through some Sugarland, Bowling for Soup, Colbie Calliat, and EVE 6! Eve 6 is by far my favorite… their album Horrorscope. Its a copy from a friend that is almost 10 years old and I still know the whole cd by heart and still LOVE it more than anything. Its the music that I go to when I’m having an especially bad day or really want to just belt out something good when no one is listening. I don’t know what it is about the music, but I just like it. And the funny thing was, I thought about putting it in on the way to the store, but had other songs I wanted to listen to, and then when I got into my friend’s car, she had her copy in! Ironic?!

That meant I totally needed to listen to it on the way home and listen I did! I sang as loud as I could for the whole cd (which is only about 45 minutes) and my voice was hurting for it by the end, but it just felt good, you know?

I even finished taking some notes that I started yesterday. Tomorrow I just might start the lab that I have due on Friday… but Friday is so far away, lol! I will attempt to keep motivated.

CIAO! LOVE ME!

No creative title…

I brought absolutely nothing school or clinic related home tonight, not after being on campus until almost 7pm tonight, nope, no siree bob! Although, I do admit that I did get to go home for some of the afternoon and had a good lunch and nap (just pretend like I didn’t) so my excuse for being on campus and not bringing anything school related home is a valid one. Okay, sounds good to me!

I was busy this morning though… I had an optional (and by optional, I mean mandatory) clinic slot to fill. The clinic supervisor asked if any of us first years would volunteer our time to go to the Head Start facility in town and help the lady there doing hearing screenings. Well, in reality, we weren’t really allowed to say no, it would have looked bad to all of the supervisors. Just so happened that I was available during the time that we were needed.

This morning from 8:30-11:15am, myself and Katie were at Head Start running OAEs on a bunch of little ones. It went really well, I do have to say, and was some really good experience, I just sort of resent the fact that the professors and supervisors assume we can drop everything to do what they need and have all the free time in the world. Like we don’t have lives or jobs outside of school and want to do all of this extra work, yeah okay… Running the OAEs just involved putting a tip in the kids ears and waiting for the machine to read ‘pass’ or ‘refer’. We just needed a quiet room and for the kids to sit still. The kids did great (they were in the 3-5 year range), but it took a bit to find a room that was quiet enough. Once we found that it went pretty smoothly. Although, we did get started a little late… we could have been done by 10:15 had we started right at 8:30 versus at 9:30 when we actually started pulling kids from their classrooms. Katie and I are going back next Tuesday afternoon to help again and it should go a little faster since we sort of have a routine down now.

After clinic, I went to work for a little while and then came home for a late lunch and nap (when maybe I should have done something more productive, but I was just so tired). Then it was time to head on back to campus for a late night lab that lasted the whole two hours and was more of a two hour lecture versus a two hour lab and now we have lots of extra work to do. Ugh! And thus the reason for not bringing anything school related home tonight. I wouldn’t have done anything productive tonight anyways.

I got home and plopped down on the couch and pulled Ayden over by me for some cuddle time. I needed some cuddle time with my little guy… I had to leave early this morning and didn’t get home until late. So we cuddled on the couch for a little bit and watched some of Ice Age: Dawn of the Dinosaurs. He ‘read’ me some of my People magazine that came in the mail today, telling me what was going on in the pictures.

Another early morning tomorrow. Need to write up some pre-reports for clinic on Tuesday and then start rewriting the notes that I took turning lab today because they ended up pretty messy and I took a lot of notes. After that, I have my hearing aids lab which I’m sure will take the whole two hours and then work and then more school stuff I am sure. I want to go to Maurice’s tomorrow and look at some new dress pants. I got rid of a few old pair, from like six years ago, the other day when I ‘de-cluttered’ my closet and need some new ones. But it all depends on when I get home from school because I doubt Ayden will want to come with me and I’ve been busy these last few nights with school stuff that I haven’t gotten the kind of time I want to in with Ayden and because Jay and Ayden are leaving for the weekend on Saturday, I want some mommy and me time in.

Speaking of Jay and Ayden leaving this weekend… Jay has been a great fiance and daddy this week. Not that he isn’t always great, but after hearing what my classmates husband does, which is about nothing it seems, I’ve really grown to appreciate Jay. Now obviously, I don’t live with my classmate and see what goes on in her household, but from what she talks about and does everyday, I can only imagine what she also does at home. Her husband is a lawyer and from what I gather is pretty busy and brings in the only household income. So, from that stand point, of course I think he is pulling his weight, but it just doesn’t seem like he does anything else to help out. I’m not saying in any way that he doesn’t love his wife or kids or doesn’t care for them at home, but my classmate is constantly on the go making sure all four of her kids are to and from school and after school activities and all this. But, my guess is that her husband is probably busy at work all day and cannot do these things. In any case, I’m not judging the way she lives whatsoever because if it works for them, all the more power to them, but I am appreciating the fact that Jay can be home more at this point and does help around the house because there might come a day when he is too busy at work and I take care of more of the ‘domestic’ stuff.

I love that if I need an hour of ‘me’ time, Jay will take Ayden to the basement to play or I can lay in bed for a little while and not have to worry about Ayden bothering me. I love that I can do the same for him. I mostly just love having the support of someone and have grown to appreciate it so much in the past five years because I definitely give props to those single parents out there, it is definitely not easy!

I SO want to head to the theater next Friday to watch Dear John! We have a free movie pass on our fridge that I just might have to use and go see this movie. It looks really good! I’m pretty sure that I’ve read the book already, but it has been a long time so I don’t really know the plot or the ending anymore. And that’s if I even read the book in the first place. Besides, Channing Tatum isn’t half  bad to look at and I really like Amanda Seyfriend as an actress, I’ve really liked her since seeing her in Mama Mia! I’m hoping its a good movie, because the previews sure look good!And next weekend is flight time too! Can’t wait, just need to make it through one more week of school. Ugh! Feels like I barely made it through this week. Hope this semester goes fast, pretty pretty please! Would like for summer to get hear as soon as possible, but wait, I have summer classes then too and well that isn’t any fun. No more summer off I suppose, at least I enjoyed them while I had them.

Now its time to go and relax!

CIAO! LOVE ME!

Week 2

Classes are going well so far this week, ha, I’ve only had one day of classes to compare to last week so how much of a ‘going well so far’ I can say I don’t know…

I had clinic today as well as hearing aid duty. Being on hearing aid duty means that you are available from 8am-4:30pm to fix any hearing aids that come in throughout the day. Talk about being on campus all day! Okay, so we really don’t need to be on campus, but like within 10 minutes of the clinic and need to be able to be reached by phone. Because I have clinic on Tuesdays, I am here from 9-noon no matter what… really 8-1pm if you take into account the fact that I come early to turn things on and the fact that I am doing reports and such after my clinic block.

Today, I had my first hearing aid fix and I flew solo! Well, I really didn’t fix anything because the hearing aid was working when I tried it and then needed to talk to my supervisor about it because since it was working I really didn’t know what to do next. We decided to send it in for repair because what was happening was the same thing that was happening at a previous time and it was sent in then for repair as well. So that meant I had quite a few phone calls to make, ugh! If you know me, you know that I don’t really like making phone calls. It really wasn’t that bad, I think I’ve overcome the whole not wanting to make phone calls thing. Everyone I talked to was super nice and helpful and I think I managed to get everything in order the way it was supposed to be and sent out and all good… hopefully! Keeping my fingers crossed.

Tomorrow is going to be nice… my 9am class was cancelled which means that I get to sleep in  and sleeping in on a week day does not happen very often, how awesome is that?! No class until 10:30am! Greatness!

One class, meeting with free pizza for lunch, work, afternoon class, and then home for the afternoon! Should be a great day, right? Thursday, possible clinic adventure in the morning, and then work and then home, and Friday… lab, work, lab. Looking forward to the end of the week already, but mostly just looking forward to sleeping in tomorrow!

Off to enjoy my cozy bed!

CIAO! LOVE ME!

Special Find

It’s no secret that I’m a photo fiend. No secret that I love taking pictures. No secret that I love editing them just about as much as taking them. So, I started thinking the other day… I love taking pictures so much, but what do I do with them after taking them… most of them sit on my computer, just sit there.

If you’d look at the walls of our place, they are covered with frames that hold pictures, maybe too many, but I don’t care. Every wall has something on it and I love it. But I can’t just keep adding to the walls, well without them starting to look too crowded.

I’ve scrapbooked Ayden’s first two years, did digital pages for his third year, and then something cute for his fourth year, so yes some of the pictures I take end up off the computer.

But I wanted something for myself. Some place I could print off those pictures that weren’t of Ayden or anyone else, those ones I took just because, weird things… pictures that turned out awesome, but really only mean something to me.

I went in search of an album to put these pictures in today and found something that will work perfect. It was on sale and I love it. Its not big enough for full sized pictures, but that’s okay because its perfect for me. Lots of pages and I think its super cute! So, I printed off all of the pictures that I wanted to put in it right now. Only one page done so far… I’m so excited to put more pictures in it tomorrow while I am on campus for hearing aid duty and have nothing better to do…My desk in the office, all filled with my current ‘project’! Like I said, once I dive into something, I go head first and can’t wait to get more of my book done tomorrow!For now… time for bed!

CIAO! LOVE ME!

Photographing my ring…

CIAO! LOVE ME!

Finally Friday!

First week of school... over and done with! Well, not exactly since I do have one lab yet this afternoon from 1:30-3:30pm and I am really not looking forward to it. It is our ABR (auditory brainstem response) lab and the professor for it flat out told us that the lecture and lab were not easy classes, but could sometimes be rather difficult. Not something I am looking forward to because well, I don't like having to think too hard about classes, lol... okay, so grad school isn't all easy peasy and I do hunker down and do some actual thinking here and there. You know, occasionally, hehe!


Anyways, the professor who taught the lecture part of the class is on sabbatical this spring and thus we have a different professor of which I will be enternally grateful for this semester. The lecture class was so hard that two of the second years 'failed' (got below a B) the class and are not retaking it with us. That is scary because you are only allowed to 'fail' one class your entire three years or you get kicked out of the program. And the teacher that is on sabbatical also teaches ABR II next fall, so I'm not holding my breath there... UGH with a DOUBLE! Or maybe that should be DOUBLE UGH! Lol!

I have a major gripe with Charter Communications... I just about HATE them and their money hungry company! We all know that I hate how money makes the world go round yadda yadda yadda, but some of these companies are just out to steal from you and this is one of them. Of course you have to pay money to get stuff... unfortunately we are not able to even get local channels at our house (even with those new digital box things they have now, maybe like one or two channels), so we really had no choice but to go with Charter to get our local channels since they are the only ones in the area that provide it. Ugh! We have Dish Network for our 'cable' package, but kept our locals with Charter since we were getting a halfway decent deal on the internet price, which 'expired' this past December. So, upon recieving the larger bill that I wasn't necessarily expecting this month, we decided we needed to get rid of Charter once and for all. If only we could be so lucky!

We found out that AT&T now offers internet service in the area and were under the impression we could just add our local channels to Dish. How exciting! Turns out, AT&T is promoting their service wrong and at this time the fastest internet they have in this area is only marginally faster than dial up (the reps told us we could get the highest speed, which would be the same we have now but for half the price of what Charter is charging us). Now, yes, if we were in super money crunch, we could go with that. I mean, it still works, however, Jay would not be able to play his game and the amount of time it would take me to upload pictures to Facebook would be ridiculous. I know, I've done it before when we first started off with dial-up four years ago. I rather prefer the speed of our internet and would only consider going a little slower. So, until AT&T offers the faster rate, which we hope is soon, we are stuck with Charter for internet. Hey, at least we could still get our local channels on Dish, right? WRONG! Turns out, our actual dish is in the wrong spot and trees block reception to the local channels, not to mention that we have the wrong dish. And in our lease, we are not allowed to add anything to the roof (ie: putting the dish on the roof). What does that leave us with... going back to Charter! UGH NO WAY! I told Jay that I'd rather go without the local channels and that is just what we are going to do. Unfortunately, this means no more new Criminal Minds, Grey's Anatomy, or Ghost Whisperer, or local news... not that we watched that all that often in the first place. Totally bites, but TV doesn't run my world so its not that big of a deal. I just can't wait to finally get rid of Charter all together. Someday hopefully! For now, if I get that desperate, I'll just have to see if the shows are posted online, which I'm sure a majority if them are.

I got a letter in the mail from my best friend the other day. The last time we saw each other was New Years when she invited me bowling and she still hadn't written me back yet. She has a bad track record when it comes to that, hehe! But anyways, not that we couldn't pick up the phone and just chat it up that way (because we could), we've always been the writing sort. We wrote each other every day in high school even though we saw each other everday and I think I still have those letters somewhere... quite possibly. Anyways, it was good to hear from her. I needed that because I was having a down day and have really been reflecting on the friendships that I have in my life at this moment. I have very few people who I would call a best friend, one of those pick up the phone anyday anytime type friends. Actually, one of the friends that I used to call that, is no longer that (at least in my book)... over 10 years of being that close and things have changed... I don't know how to describe it, but at least from my side, I don't feel like I can just pick up the phone and call her with anything like I used to. I know its partly my fault, but I just don't feel the need to fix it either. I feel like we are headed in different directions in life... anyways, who knows what the future holds.

Because the friend that I got the letter from... well we were best friends throughout high school and then our senior year we had sort of a falling out of sorts and didn't speak for almost two years and then somehow we reconnected and forgot the reason that we stopped talking in the first place. And ever since then we have been keeping in touch, not the greatest touch, but we still have that type of friendship. I guess it's hard for me to put into words. We cannot talk for months on end and then see each other and hang out like it was just yesterday that we talked last. Like this past summer when we got together for lunch. We went out to eat and then just sat and talked for a couple of hours, it was really nice! So my point, I was glad that I got a letter from her because I was severely lacking in the adult convesation/friend gossip department and needed something to cheer me up. Of course I have friends at school, but they aren't the type of call you in the middle of the night friends, you know? We are definitely close and have told each other some pretty deep stuff...

Okay, this is super long... I suppose I should go and see if there is anything that I need to print off for my next lab... UGH! ABR! Actually, I've seen some ABRs done last semester and I think I am going to like it and might actually want to study it a little more, who know?!

CIAO! LOVE ME!

SCHOLARSHIP!!!

I was awarded a scholarship this semester and I’m so excited about it! Not my first scholarship since I got one when I graduated from high school, but it wasn’t this big… this one will cover almost half my tuition for this semester and given Madison tuition, that’s plenty for me! I’m so excited!

At first, one of my classmates told me that she had gotten one (she had assumed I got one as well since we both got 4.0 GPAs last semester) and I told her that I hadn’t because at that point I didn’t know about it yet. Obviously I was happy for her and let her know, but secretly I was a little miffed, wondering what the heck had set her ‘above’ me since we both got 4.0s. But, after a while, I was like whatever, its great that she got one, I’ll get one at some point (hopefully).

Turns out, my congrats letter was sent to the wrong address. One of the speech students received it, and it wasn’t even an address we used to live at. She was super nice and brought it in today and gave it to me. I was so excited when I opened it and found out and grateful that it was sent to someone who knew me versus someone who didn’t and it just ended up lost in the mail somewhere. I’m assuming it was some sort of clerical error because the clinic does have my correct address and she comes right after me in the alphabet.

And… it was a great day of clinic as well. NINE hearing screenings and all went well/as planned! I got nervous here and there with my supervisor watching, but by the end it was pretty routine and I was feeling it. The more I interact with patients, the more comfortable I become doing it. I’m not exactly a super people person and didn’t think I wanted a job that had me dealing with people on a daily basis (kind of hard to escape that when you are in this field), but its growing on me. Not to mention that I really love what I’m doing too!

CIAO! LOVE ME!

Beautiful!

This is a must listen to song! I found it today on another blog, someone added it to a slideshow of photos they were sharing of a new baby and I found it SO fitting… I needed to find out what it was called and who sang it… LOVE IT! And hope you do too!

CIAO! LOVE ME!

Like I Never Left

I ventured back to campus today, well the building where all of my classes and clinic are held, I work on campus and thus have been there throughout the entire break, but not to the actual building where my classes are. And… it was like I never left!

We (the first years) got to pick out our desks today and it was SO much fun, hehe! Who knew that picking out my very own desk could be so exciting. I have this whole huge desk TO MYSELF! I don’t know what I am going to do with all of the extra space that I have because let me tell you, I do have extra space. Extra space that I am going to relish for this whole semester and the summer because come next fall… it is back to sharing a desk again! There are 30 speech students that will be joining us in our now quiet grad room and well, we don’t have nearly that many desks… I think there are maybe 20 desks in that room and that is a high guess for 30 speech students and 10+ (don’t know how many first years there will be next year) audiology students… I shudder, lol!

Our clinic meeting today went really well and like being back in the building, once again it was like we never left for winter break. Just back to the norm!

Clinic starts already this week and both myself and Katie have it on Thursday. I have it for the first time this semester, but we are only doing screenings on Thursday and Tuesday so that will definitely get me back into the groove of things. Screenings involve looking in the client/patient (we interchange these terms all the time) ears and then having them listen to the tones and press the button when they hear them. These take about 20 minutes and for the a three hour block, I could theoretically do 9… but I don’t know that they have the entire block scheduled out. And because they are only screenings it means that I don’t have to do pre-reports for this week or next week as well as any reports or summaries at the end either! Double yeah for the first two weeks of clinic!

I don’t know that I’m ready to start class tomorrow, but I don’t have a choice and I know that after a few weeks it will become routine and will go fast enough!

CIAO! LOVE ME!

Lost

I’ve been feeling kind of down these last few days and I know of at least one reason that is probably exacerbating that feeling, which would be the soon arrival of my friend. Each month, a few days before it arrives, I notice myself not acting like myself… damn women hormones, lol!

But, I’ve also been sitting at home like a hermit and that doesn’t really help the situation. The more I think about it, the more I realize that those I’ve called my best friends over the past few years, really do not fall into that category anymore. I don’t have one person that I feel like I could pick up the phone and just talk for hours with. I cannot put the blame of this situation upon anyone, but mostly myself. I tend to internalize everything and so those super close friendships definitely don’t come easy for me. Thus… my blog. But the two friends that I did consider those pick up the phone on a spur of the moment type deal have sort of disappeared. One really disappeared all together and I haven’t heard from them in almost six months to which really lies heavy on my heart since we were so close. (But that’s a whole other story). The other one… I just feel us drifting towards different things in life and when things are going good for them, I don’t hear from them, but when life gets bad or doesn’t go their way, then I’m the ‘go to’ person. In that instance, it doesn’t bother me so much that the friendship has gone to the wayside.

Of course I have other friends, ones that I email now and then, talk to on facebook here and there, occasionally hang out with, but these aren’t the type of friends that I’d feel comfortable with just picking up the phone and telling them all about a good or bad day, you know?

What I missed most over the course of winter break was the socialization I got while in school. Because whether or not I’d like to admit it, I hardly EVER socialize out of school. I don’t go out to the bars, which SO many of the people my age do, so its hard to find someone who enjoys a night in with my kid in tow just sitting and catching up. So, what I’m looking forward to the most in the next few weeks is being able to talk to my classmates and have that adult conversation. I’ve missed it!

As much as I want to start school again, for the sake of having something to do, I’m also starting to feel some apprehension about it as well. I know that I will be able to make it through the semester with the help of my supervisor and first year friends, I’m still apprehensive about actually starting it.

I was pretty nervous about starting my first semester of school, thinking so much more was going to be expected of us being grad students and what not and actually, they kind of to expect a lot of us. I just thought I wouldn’t feel it again this semester. We have one of the same professors as last semester (who also happens to be my supervisor this semester), one professor who’ve we also had before and I think will be okay with just the three of a students, one that I had as a guest lecturer in class who I think will be a good teacher, and one that I don’t know yet in a class that I’m not really looking forward to.

I think what I want most is the routine that the semester will bring. Of course I loved having a little over a month off to not worry about school/homework/clinic, but I don’t work very much during the week 10-12 hours (could have worked more over break if they’d had the work, but generally I get everything done pretty quickly and thus they didn’t have anything extra that needed to get done) and so I was left with a lot of free time. I definitely enjoyed it at first and got a lot of reading done which felt really great, but now I’m wanting something to fill up my days with. And the fact that it’s winter and cold out just makes me more itchy to get back into a routine.

In the summer when Ayden and I are home for the majority of the day, we fill up our days with being outside and enjoying the good weather… beach time, bike time, park time, walking through the woods time, etc… I don’t like being outside in the winter. And the fact that it gets dark so early is definitely a big bummer too, makes me not want to do anything for the rest of the day either!

I came to many of these realizations yesterday while I was sitting on the couch in a not so good mood. I’ve felt more positive about things today and got out of the house for a bit this morning to run some errands and we are getting out again tonight to go the Y to work out and then go swimming. I want to try and go to the Y three times a week. We’re paying for the membership and we haven’t been using it so I told Jay I was going to either cancel it or we needed to give it a serious effort and go. We’re going to give it one more month and see how it goes. Hopefully good because I’ve heard that working out makes people feel better… more energy etc… I hate working out, but I think I need to get motivated a little bit and moving around more and that might help me get out of my funk. Who knows?!

CIAO! LOVE ME!

The sun will come out… TODAY!

Are you about sick of pictures from me yet?! I didn’t think so! The sun came out today and I couldn’t just sit inside with Ayden and let the beautiful day to go waste. Especially since I just got done wishing for the sun to come out earlier in the day because I was feeling pretty darn dreary because this week was sucky and cloudy! So… the sun came out and outside we went to have fun and play!

CIAO! LOVE ME!

Feet!

I don’t like feet… I won’t rub feet, I don’t feet touching me, I can’t stand things being in between my toes, etc etc etc… but I love these little feet and wish they would stay this small forever!

But that’s not what I’m hear to talk about. Last night was the first night in MONTHS that I’ve worried about money. It hit me like a ton of bricks! I didn’t realize just how nice it was to not worry about it for a few months until it hit me again. And it’s not as if I need to be worrying about it at this precise moment, but I can’t help it because I’m sure I will be worrying about it in the coming months. See, normally we get a nice tax refund and use some of that money to help us make it through the summer, but because of Jay’s screw up when he filled out his W4’s last year, we will be getting next to nil back, and might even have to pay in this year. Not to mention once fall hits, we won’t be getting his usual help of financial aid, instead he’ll be working full time. My only saving grace is that I’ll need financial aid this summer because I have classes so maybe I can get a student loan to help out if we need it.

I had a great fall semester grade wise, but that isn’t everything. Actually, the majority of it was stress free for me. I didn’t worry about money, I didn’t have unnecessary friend drama, I loved my classes, clinic went really well, Jay and I were doing great, and Ayden is my everlasting sunshine. I’m hoping to have another similar semester.

So, I’m going to take the saying on my ring to heart… Everything is possible when you have faith! I have faith that no matter what is thrown in front of me, I will persevere, we WILL persevere!

And in the mean time, I’m going to sit back and love on the little boy that these feet belong to because that makes even the worst day bearable! Am I right, or am I right?CIAO! LOVE ME!

Countdown!

47 DAYS!!!

Not that any of you are going to count out 47 days and see when it actually falls... so I will just tell you. It is (or should be if I counted right) March 1st! What happens on March 1st, well nothing really, other than it is the downhill slide to spring. Yes yes, I do know that living in Wisconsin, we are apt to have snow in May sometimes. My graduation last year was like below 50 degrees! But, listen here... by making it to March 1st, I have effectively made it through the harshest part of winter. Or at least I hope the harshest part of this winter. Someone please kick me if we are still having frigid frigid days halfway through March. I'll cry! Hehe!

I'm not anticipating that once March 1st rolls around, the temperature will all of a sudden be warmer than 30 degrees (or higher) EVERY day, but I will know that I have made it through yet another winter and warmer weather is on the way! And I HATE winter! Ugh! The faster spring and summer can come the better and then it can just slowly move along thank you very much!

I finished another book yesterday and started another one and am already 60% of the way through it (according to my kindle) and will most likely finish it today. It is a short book so that is why I am so far already. Some stupid romance one that was a free download. Its rather predictable, but I needed a flaky read for right now.

Okay now it's 46 DAYS because I didn't finish this yesterday when I started it. That's okay though...

Question of the day is... how many times do I have to ask Jay to put his hunting clothes away before he finally does it? I have asked him every day since last Sunday (and they had been washed almost a week BEFORE that)! And... he hasn't had to do anything this week except sit at home and hope it snows... so why can't he simply put those away?! Or do the dishes that are once again piled on the counter? I can't wait until our dishwasher piece comes in (hopefully today or tomorrow), or file away the pile of papers in the office? I shouldn’t have to ask, he should just do, right? Well he’s a man so I guess it shouldn’t be required, hehe!

45 DAYS! I should really just post this now!

CIAO! LOVE ME!

Outdoor Pictures

I took some pictures outside yesterday, but I wasn’t able to get all the way down the rocks like I wanted too because they were covered in snow and I really didn’t want to miss step and end up going down the river camera and all, that probably wouldn’t have been very good, right?! And it was cold out so I didn’t stay out too long, but I got a few good ones and with the help of Lightroom (oh who am I kidding, Lightroom is my saving grace most days)… enjoy! CIAO! LOVE ME!

SNAP!

Just found out what my clinic schedule is likely to be this semester and WHAM… did I luck out! Morning Tuesday slot with the supervisor I wanted, and rotated morning Thursday slot with the supervisor I had last semester… which means… NO DH for my first semester ALONE in clinic! How did I rock that one?!

So excited when I found out! Going to be a great semester… I can totally feel it! Plus only 91 days until San Diego!!! Now I just need to pay the $189 registration fee and I’ll be set. When did they say the financial aid was going to be distributed this semester, hehe! I’m up to my eyeballs in student debt, and will be 10 feet under when all is said and done… BUT… BUT… BUT… Jay graduates this year so that is awesome, no more loans for him! (Please refrain from reminding me that we must now start paying his back… it will only depress me and I would like to enjoy the last week of ‘freedom’ before the work starts piling in, hehe!)

At some point, never mind how many years that is away from this current point, we will be out of student debt, but really, I’m not going to worry about that. I’m not going to live my life worrying about when I am going to get out of student debt. Of course I would like to be debt free some day, and IT WILL HAPPEN, but that is not what life is about. Life is about love, happiness, etc… NOT money (even though it does sadly make the world go round). I will enjoy life and as long as I (we) can support our family, that is all that matters to me. And besides, its not like we’ll probably ever be completely debt free unless we win the lottery, they are called 30 year mortgages for a reason. And somehow, I just don’t see us staying in the same house for 30 years straight. Maybe… but well probably not, who knows.

Anywhoo… this happy post about getting a great clinic assignment is turning into a depressing one about money so I shall retreat to the couch with a bowl of moose tracks ice cream and watch the hour long special of Paranormal State that is going to be on tonight.

Tomorrow Jay is going to take me to a place down by the river so I can take some pictures. It’s a place we’ve been to before and I was going to go today, until I got there and realized the parking lot wasn’t plowed and my car wasn’t going to make it through the snow. Jay’s truck will though and he said he would drive me because I’m too chicken to drive it through the snow myself since I don’t like to drive in the snow. I’m looking forward to it since the area is really pretty and have gotten some good pictures there before. I thought it would be cool to see if I could get some winter ones there, well all depending on if I can even get down by the river. We’ll see…

Ice cream time (yes I’m an addict)…

CIAO! LOVE ME!

Mommy and Son Saturday

Ayden and I enjoyed spending the day together on Saturday... since Jay had a wrestling tournament to ref (which went well). We got up and lounged around the house for a little while before heading out for the majority of the day. We had lots of fun things that we were going to do!

First on our list was to stop at Barnes and Noble and spend a gift card Ayden received for Christmas. I let him pick out two books and then added three more for him to the pile, hehe! I love books for him just about as much as I love them for me! I could have sat in that store and browsed for HOURS AND HOURS! I love books! And even though I have the kindle now, you still can't beat the feel of a good book in your hands. That is, unless its a textbook, of which one of the three I ordered came in the mail this weekend. Who really wants to read about auditory brainstem responses?! Okay, so there just might be something interesting in there that I will learn this semester.

Anyways, so Ayden came out with five books, three of which were short chapter books that I picked up... they are from the Magic Tree House books. I just might need to get some more of these?!?!And I got the APA manual that I was looking for. Wouldn't you know that they kept the manual behind the registers on shelves? I thought that that was really weird, but oh well... now I will know how to cite everything with pure perfection, right? As if! But I know that it will come in handy because we NEED to cite just about everything now.

After Barnes and Noble... it was off to Hu Hot for lunch! The wait to get seated was not very long, maybe 10 minutes, but the wait in line to get our food onto the grill was SUPER long! Ayden was a gem though and behaved very well, but I think it was mostly because he wanted to have their s'more dessert and knew he needed to behave in order for mommy to consider getting it. I didn't have to go back up though because Ayden only ate about half of his plate and then I ate the rest since it had everything that I liked and that filled me up. We were running a little late on the time schedule that I wanted to be on and thus didn't really want to get the dessert, but Ayden really did and so we did. They bring this little pot/cup thingy to your table that has this fire going in it. They use some sort of blue compound that burns. Anyways, we roasted some marshmallows, ate some chocolate and were stuffed by the time we left. It was a great meal! Even if Jay was mad that we went without him. That just means he wants it more and the next time we go through Appleton he'll want it and I'll get to go again, hehe! Sneaky sneaky!

After that we headed off to go bowling! We had time for two games and Ayden had a great time! Well, we both did actually! Unfortunately, there were quite a few younger kids present at the bowling alley so all of the lighter balls were being used… I picked one that I could bowl with and Ayden just used that one as well. He was able to lift it up and use it for about a game and a half and then I ended up lifting it up for him because it got kind of heavy for him. It was also really nice because they had this nifty contraptions that kids could use to help them bowl and Ayden used one to help him and of course we had the bumpers up too!

Ayden did always want to use the helper, but he was not strong enough to push the ball all the way down the lane and I didn’t want it to stop in the middle of the lane and then have to call for help. The few times that I let him try to ‘bowl’ for real, the ball barely made it to the pins and almost didn’t knock any down. So when he did want to ‘bowl’ without the helper, we pushed it down together. After bowling we went to my cousin’s birthday party and hung out there until almost 9:30pm and then had to drive back home. Everyone was surprised that we were driving back to Point that late, but really it wasn’t that big of a deal. I wasn’t tired, the roads were pristine for winter, and the traffic was minimal at that time of night. I only ‘ran into’ two cops on the way home, both at the same spot, and I wasn’t overtly speeding at the point which was good since it was dark out, haha! I don’t overly speed though anyways. And I figured, it would feel better to sleep in my own bed and have the day at home than sleep at my mom’s or somewhere else and then waste half the day and then get home. You know? Maybe you don’t, but it worked out good.

At my cousin’s birthday party, not only did I get ice cream cake, I also got to hold my other cousin’s new baby! I don’t think it helped with my baby fever any… hehe! She’s super adorable!

It was a really great day!

CIAO! LOVE ME!

You MUST…

Stop… Look….

And… see these adorable booted feet! (Or wait, is it stop…look.. and listen… to the cute words coming out of his adorable mouth?!) Hehe! Or maybe spy the ‘crazy’ mom* taking pictures of her son’s booted feet while at the bus stop on the corner waiting for it to pick up her little man and take him away for another day of learning! Either way, she still got some cute pics, eh?

*And because I didn’t want to be labeled that ‘crazy’ mom, I didn’t take any pictures while cars were driving past. Wait, can I really escape that ‘crazy’ mom persona? Lol!And then said ‘crazy’ mom takes a picture of one of the cross roads they live by. I love the little house at the end of the street. Someday, I’ll get a picture of a train going across the track, it’s not like we live SO far away from them, lol! Because there is train station down the road from us!

Tonight, we will be making some yummy Wildtree brownies and then sit down and eat the whole pan just one a piece for dessert! Yum! And so easy to make that I’ll let Ayden do most of the work… can we say more pictures?!

CIAO! LOVE ME!

Bath and Body STEAL!

I went to Bath and Body Works today to spend the gift card that I received from my boss for Christmas. And boy did I pick a good day to go! Of course I walked out with WAY more than I had originally intended (seeing the gift card was for only $10), but the sale they had going on was so awesome that it was hard not to. I usually only go to Bath and Body when our hand soap is running low and they have they good sales on it, like for $3 (which they have going on right now) because I really love their foaming soap and for $3 a bottle, well, I think that’s cheap enough. Cheap enough for me.

You see, I’m not super big on the whole lotion thing. I ‘delotioned’ when we moved this past summer and got rid of all of the non-good lotion that I had. All of the cheap stuff that I had gotten over the years. I kept about three or four bottles that I really liked.

So, when I headed into Bath and Body today, I had planned on maybe getting some chap stick or some more soap, but that is definitely not what I left with. I got 10 items and only paid $32 out of my pocket, pretty darn good, eh? That’s how great of a sale they were having right now!

Small bottle of stress relief lotion… tranquil mint scent. Not sure if I believe in the whole stress relief aspect, but thought I’d give it a shot…

 

 

 

 

Small bottle of energy lotion (same size as the stress relief lotion, but I couldn’t find a small picture of it), mandarin lime scent…

 

 

 

Small bottle of warm vanilla sugar lotion, oh how I love this scent!!!

 

 

 

 

Small bottle of sea breeze cotton lotion, another good scent!!!

 

 

 

 

Body spray by Victoria Secret… I got fruity and fun!

 

 

 

 

And because it was 2 for $10 each (originally $15), I also got warm and comfy!

 

 

 

 

Triple hot chocolate lip balm…

 

 

 

 

 

Small bottle of sleep lotion, lavender vanilla scent!

 

 

 

 

Vitamin mentha chap stick…

 

 

 

 

Four pack of metha chap stick…

 

 

 

 

 

Now was that a great trip to the store or what?! I totally think so and now I have lots of little lotion to stock up my desk with once the semester starts! And really, I don’t care of the stress relief, energy, or sleep lotions ‘work’ or not, they all smell good!

And my new lotion stock made me go through our bathroom cupboard to get out the rest of my other lotions and put them in a easily accessible place so I just might use them a little more. I’m also considering taking some to work and putting one in my purse. All lotion, all the time! Besides, it smells so darn good! Lol! I also separated out my chap sticks and put them in a separate place so they would readily available too since my stock is also steadily increasing (I’m a chap stick addict as well)…

Other than my great steal, not a whole lot has been going on this week. I’m anticipating the start of the semester so I will not be at home all day long eating junk food like no tomorrow. Seriously, we STILL have Christmas candy from Jay’s mom. I have no self control when it comes to chocolate! And once the semester starts, our TV and heat won’t be on all day long either. I am already cringing at the anticipated electricity/heat bill for this past month. I try to keep the heat down during the day, even when Jay and I are home… to like 66-67, but sometimes you just get TOO cold and you need to warm it up a little bit. And I’ve been turning it off around 5pm each day so that it slowly cools down by bed time. It doesn’t get any colder than 63-64 at night since we are supposed to keep it at 65… shhh, don’t tell, hehe.

Today I got some of my calendar together for school. I still don’t know my clinic schedule and/or when my ABR lab will be, but that is okay. I’m ready to start the semester and then get it over with! And because its the new year, that means taxes and another go at financial aid. At least Jay won’t have to fill it out anymore, yeah! I can’t wait for him to graduate and see where life leads him.

I’ve been thinking lots and lots about our future lately and have some pretty good plans rolling in my head. But, we all know that the best laid plans are not for me to lay, right?! So, no matter what I may be planning, things can go COMPLETELY different. But… that won’t stop me from thinking about where our lives might go this year! About entertaining all of the possibilities that just might come about! You never know! Ah… 2010… what will you bring to me and my family?!

CIAO! LOVE ME!

Relaxing…

CIAO! LOVE ME!

Taste of the Past

I dug out my old journals (I journaled all through high school) and thought it would be fun to look through them and find what was going on in my life at this point in time- or at least the post closest to January 4th each year-, nine years ago and this is what I found. I found an entry from my freshman year (I was 14), one from my sophomore year (I was 15), and one from my junior year (I was 16)… Goodness, was I boy crazed and young, haha! All teenager that’s for sure!

January 1, 2001

The beginning of a new year and it is already bad. The truth is out. Craig knows about Monica. I feel so bad. I didn’t want it to go this far. Well this what what happened. I got back from Madison and went to Grandma’s house. Got a Printmaster Gold cd and a 3 CD changer stereo. Well,then I came home and called Niki. Confirmed me coming out for new years. Went to bed. Got up and went on the net. Talked to Jerrit for a bit on the net. I don’t think I want to break up with him anymore. Not for sure though. Have to see how tomorrow goes. Well then Niki’s house. Once there Niki showed me the supposed hottie. His name is Rob and he was kind of cute. We four wheeled and snowmobiled for quite some time. Going in and out to keep warm. I finally got up the courage to drive and when I finally did, I didn’t want to stop. We also got stuck a lot. Well after we came in we were informed that Craig had called looking for Monica and me. Well, just as we were going to go on the net they (Jason and Craig) called again and Niki said that we were outside. After that Niki and I were like in hysterics on what to do. We finally decided to call back and tell them the truth. Like I expected they didn’t believe Niki. I wasn’t going to call them. I feel so bad because I really didn’t want it to go this far. And I didn’t want to hurt Craig like that. I only hope he can forgive me and that if would allow it, for us to still be friends. Maybe we will even become good friends that we can call each other. But just friends. I would like that, but worry that there is going to be some kind of a comeback. And not a nice one. Well I guess that that is all I have to write about that situation. Who knows what is going to come out of it. I am really sore from riding the four wheeler, but it was so much fun. Well I am going to go now and relay more late if anything of interest happens to me.

January 4, 2002

I told Niki about the whole foreign exchange thing and she was all like I have to do that too, but luckily her parents said that she couldn’t and she said she doesn’t think she could stay away that long. All for the better though. I have to get some more info about it too. I really hope… believe… that I can do this. I am really fed up with the wrestling team. Four people quit, Bill, Brian, Rob, Chad, and Tommy. Okay, five, but hopefully Rob, Chad, and Tommy will come back out. Chad said he was thinking about it. Jay and Eric didn’t quit though so that is all good. Jay said he wouldn’t though. He was talking to me a lot today which is really good and he was looking at me a lot during practice and I couldn’t help but smile. I am really starting to like him and Niki knows it. Eric almost smacked me in the face today, but he didn’t. I am the only manager (and girl) going along tomorrow. I feel all special. I’ll also find someway home. Hopefully we don’t get home too late either. We shouldn’t because it probably starts at 9 or 10 and it shouldn’t be more than 12 hours. I hope I don’t get a headache from like at Oshkosh. Coach said it was like that too, oh  joy! Oh well, I am pretty good at stats anyways. Better at paying attention than Niki is. When she misses something, she makes it up. Grr. Jay was copying my vocab for healthful living and was writing all over it and correcting my letters and such. It was funny. And Joel was talking to me during care break. He thinks we should get together (we as in: Cassie, him, Dustin, me, and Laura) at Cassie’s house to work on our algebra 2 tests. I have most of it done already, but there are some I have questions on and hopefully we all get together. I wonder if we have any wrestling meets on the 26th because neither Niki or I can go because of Wisconsin Dells. I would love for Jay to ask me to sweetheart hop. I would so say yes. But it would suck if Eric or Joel asked me, even though I like both of them, I like Jay more. I really think Jay knows I like him, Niki and I are only talking about him 24/7. It sucks where he chose to sit today in biology, because I can’t see him. Our lab today was screwed up. I know Joel knows I like him, I and Cassie told him. I wonder how much Cassie likes Jay. Surprisingly I haven’t told anyone except Vic and my sister. I am going to get a sore butt tomorrow. Oh joyous world. Oh, Jerrit quit too, but he was never going to wrestle the way it was to begin with. Today I thought he looks really cute. That is so not a good thing. How could I possibly think that. I wrote Mike a letter today in history. We did absolutely nothing. I suppose I could have worked on my chapter review, and I got the first six matching done, but that’s it. Oh well, I’ll get it done sometime this weekend. I have something going on every weekend like until wrestling is over. Only nine more days until, no wait, I mean nine more pages until I get to the moon pages. My letter to Victoria wasn’t very long because we didn’t get home last night until 10pm and I said screw it and watched TV and fell asleep. I have to get up early tomorrow. Grr again. I wish Jay was coming along, but its only JV. I will do fine, but I’m going to feel weird being the only girl. But then I get all the attention… I wonder… okay I totally blanked out there.

January 3, 2003

I am in Spanish now and we are re-watching the end of Shrek. My night last night was okay. I watched most of the two hours of CSI. They were reruns again, but oh well. I didn’t talk to Lee or Mike. I called Lee twice though. Maybe he was working or something. I was upset once again that I didn’t get to resolve my issues with Mike, but what can one do? I slept really good, but I didn’t go to bed until 10pm anyways. I slept through the entire night. I’m starting to think these lines are too close together. I did however get to talk to Mike for about ten minutes this morning. Nothing got solved though which still sucks. I waited until he started the conversation too and he did. He said he didn’t know how he was and that he would talk to me later. I really hope that he is on tonight because I want to get everything resolved. Does he realize that? Does he want to fix things like me. Well I’d like to say of course but none of it would have happened had he just gotten over the fact of me breaking one promise and trying to help them fix their relationship. Have you noticed my over abundance of talking about him lately? I will go through my spurts. At times he is all I can talk about and others I barely mention him. Its been this way for the past three years. You’ll have that though, right? As Lee would say. I’ve just got to get past it. Oh that’s bullshit, he’s the one that held on to it for way too long. I want to know why though. When we talk next no doubt its going to be brought up. I will do it if I have to. And I will do my best not to get pissed off at him, but who knows what will happen. I just want to get it all out. But that is enough bitching about him for now.

I found a post towards the end of January 2004, however it was SUPER long and full of lots of emotion that I am not ready to put out for all the world to see regarding being pregnant, in high school, being with Jay, the future, etc… maybe at some point in time, but not today. I just wanted to share some stupid silly boy filled teenager posts from my past. Oh goodness, there are tons more, and maybe someday I will share some more, haha! And I do realize that you may not understand half of what is going on in my posts, but oh well. Explaining the world of a 14, 15, and 16 year old teenage girl is pretty complicated, lol! Especially when it comes to the number of boys she likes at one time, haha!

After April of 2004, I didn’t write again until I started my blog. I’m sorry I stopped for so long because writing is a real release for me and I would have had many many stories about Ayden’s first years, but alas, we can’t rewind so I have what I have from when I started this blog.

CIAO! LOVE ME!

Is it just me…

…or does he look ready to go back to school tomorrow?! Let’s just pretend that he is staring off into space brain storming some great idea to write down on paper instead of watch SpongeBob on TV, okay? Okay! Hehe! But he looked too darn cute all warm and cuddly in his new pj’s sitting on the couch for me NOT to take a picture of him!

I’ve come to the conclusion today that I should probably stop reading any blogs where someone just had a baby is someone is going to have a baby… I’m so jealous, hehe! I want to have another baby! Okay, who am I kidding… I won’t stop reading those kind of blogs, at least I can sort of live vicariously through these folks for the time being. I’ll just have to make sure I get in some baby fix this coming weekend at my cousin’s birthday party. *Amy is this fair warning that you, Grant, and Aryssa better be at Alisha’s party since we missed you at Thanksgiving and Christmas… I swear, that little sweetie will be six months old before I see her, lol! (Okay, well if we happen to not cross paths AGAIN… for whatever reason… I suppose, that at some point I’ll be able to forgive you, haha!)

Well enough baby talk, it only makes me wonder more and more about whether or not we could handle it at this point in time and I don’t want to even start really considering it because of school. You know, all the reasons I’ve talked about before. (Although, I’ve heard some people say there will always be reasons for not having more kids and so you shouldn’t worry about it.) When its supposed to happen, it will…

For now, I’ll continue to cherish the snuggles I get with Ayden, like today when he crawled onto my lap after he got his jammies on and we rocked for a little bit. At some point he won’t want to do that with his mommy anymore, boo for when that day comes. For as long as I can, I will keep him a mommy’s boy, hehe! Don’t tell Jay! They grow SO fast! TOO fast! Any parent would agree!

I am all set to be productive tomorrow… ordering my books for school, working on my calendar, putting the rest of the Christmas stuff away, doing some laundry, and cleaning up the basement a little bit. Need to be productive, been lazy too much today (although everyone needs a lazy day here and there), oh and we will probably do some grocery shopping as well since the cupboards are just about bare. Why do we always let that happen?

CIAO! LOVE ME!