Mommy and Me Date

Ayden and I had a ‘mommy and me date’ last night! We went to go see the movie How to Train your Dragon in 3D! It was a fun night! We left as soon as Ayden got off the bus because the theater that was playing it in 3D was about a half hour away. I originally wasn’t going to go see it in 3D, but two of my friends said that it was really good in 3D and that we HAD to go see it like that. I figured since the theater wasn’t THAT far away, it just might be worth it.

And it SO was!

I splurged and got the ‘fixings’, lol! Well… it was going to be our supper! Actually, I originally just got a popcorn, nachos, and soda and had declined Ayden’s request for an icee… but then… I just couldn’t resist making it extra special and got him one just because. We shared everything and… get this… had the ENTIRE theater to ourselves! How cool was that?! It was so nice because then I didn’t have to keep shushing Ayden when he would talk throughout some parts.

The movie itself was definitely cute. Not something I’d go see on my own, of course, but it kept my attention throughout the whole thing and I wasn’t bored out of my mind wondering why I just spent $10 on a movie ticket for some crap! And the whole 3D aspect was definitely pretty cool! I’d never seen a movie in 3D before and it was pretty top notch. There were a few points where I could feel a headache coming on, but it wasn’t as bad as I'd heard from my boss about some people’s experience seeing Avatar in 3D. (Speaking of which, we have at home in non 3D and have yet to watch.)

Anyways, it was a good night out for just me and Ayden. Jay worked late, but I don’t think he really would have wanted to come along anyways or enjoyed the movie… mommy and me date it was! And I know that Ayden enjoyed it because he walked out of the movie talking about how it was the best he’s ever seen and wondering when the second and third one were going to come out, lol! And then he was drawing dragons left and right after we got home. Now that’s some dedication, hehe!

I felt that we needed some quality time together since the next two weeks are going to be pretty hectic getting my exams and practicals done… well now its down to about a week and a half. I even brought some of my lab work home tonight to answer some of the questions which would be all fine and dandy… if I knew what I was looking at on the lab sheets, oh ugh! Damn lab!

On the bright side (since I’ve been feeling pretty cruddy lately, but that’s a whole ‘nother post), today was my last day of clinic for the next month and a half. And of course something ‘crazy’ had to go on. My last appointment was supposed to be at 10:30 and wasn’t supposed to take very long. Unfortunately the patient didn’t show up until 11:30! And the appointment took twice as long as it should have! Sometimes I get so frustrated, but I know I shouldn’t. I can’t control everything, well much less anything, and just  need to deal with it. In any case, despite the appointment taking longer than it should have and starting an hour late, it went well and I did my second impression (on an actual patient) of the semester. I’ve done lots of students, but only one other one on a patient.

And now I’m off to ‘pout’ because I don’t understand my lab assignment and really am not in the mood to scour the textbook to try and find out if I could understand it. And just because I’ve been feeling pretty cruddy, but like I said, a whole ‘nother post.

CIAO! LOVE ME!

Madison Mini Conference

Thursday and Friday was spent in Madison at the ‘mini conference’ that my hearing science professor set up for us first year grad students. The Point students had to travel to Madison for Thursday and Friday. We were put up in a nice hotel and spent the majority of the day Thursday and Friday on the Madison campus touring different labs.

We got lots of free food and got to bond with our Madison counterparts. We (and by all of the ‘we’s’ I mean, us Point students) had only gotten to meet the Madison students one previous time at the beginning of the school year for orientation. Well, Katie got to hang with them a few weeks ago at a Special Olympics thing, but Amy and I couldn’t go. In any case, it was a great time! We all got to hang out after the lab tours and get to know each other better. We all get along pretty well and with there being only ten of us, its definitely not too bad! I’ll definitely say everyone has their own unique quality, but I’m sure everyone there is saying the same about us three Point students, so oh well.

We got to tour eight different labs on the Madison campus. I hadn’t been to that campus since the beginning of my senior year in high school when I toured it trying to decide where I would end up. I got accepted to Madison for my undergraduate degree, however chose to go to Point instead because it was smaller (and then got accepted to Madison again for my doctorate degree- because Point and Madison have the joint AuD program). Anyways, I totally forgot how big the campus is! It is really nice, but definitely NOT for me! I like Point, the ‘smallness’ of it… it’s big enough for me, and yet small enough for me to remain mostly anonymous.

It was a long two days, but fun! We also gave our presentations and after thinking I did okay on mine, okay enough to get at least an A-, maybe a B+ at the lowest and was really surprised and happy to find out I got a 98/100! Score! And extra credit for turning in some notes from the other presentations so that definitely will help with the grade (at least a little bit), although I’m not too overly concerned about it.

Thursday night the students got to go out to eat (courtesy of the campus) and chill. It was really nice getting to sit down with each other and get to know everyone a little better! Great time! And then Katie and I hit up the hotel pool and hot tub after we got back to the hotel… that was pretty nice too, lol!

Of the eight labs that we got to see… my favorite one was the mouse lab. It was about the cochlear nucleus, which was pretty cool because that was what my presentation was about. Anyways, one cool part was being able to ‘inject’ some current into a single cochlear nucleus cell! OMG, that was so cool! Even though we didn’t really do anything other than push the mouse button, lol! The lab tech had everything set up for us by the time we got there. But the best part was getting to see an actual cochlear nucleus, cochlea, and the semicircular canals of the mouse brain! Talk about tiny! But SO cool! And then the best part was when the lab tech took a live mouse and dissected the brain out. Okay, so the actual killing of the mouse (it was a tiny baby one who was super cute) was sad. None of us watched that part, but it was nice to hear that the lab tech was kind of spiritual about it and said goodbye to the mouse and what not before killing it.

I had to keep telling myself that it was just a mouse and that if it were in my home I’d have no problem setting a trap to kill it and get it out. But they were so cute, lol! Okay, so we just tried to ignore the fact that when the lab tech was cutting into the mouse brain that it was alive just seconds before. It was pretty easy. Does that make me morbid? Lol! But watching her find everything and show us was SO cool!

We got home at a decent time last night… managed to get some cleaning done which was good. I had a whole list of things that I wanted to get done this weekend… still have a few things on that list, but the majority of it is done!

Mostly caught up with laundry too… seems to be my nemesis these days!

Today was Ayden’s second soccer game. I thought it was going to get cancelled because it was raining this morning, but they kept it going. It had stopped raining for the most part by the time it was his turn, and then rained for just a bit during the actual game. He is on a pretty decent team this year… he is probably the most timid one on the team. Their team won again which was good because Ayden was proud. He had a few good kicks during the game, but I had to apologize to Jay during the game because as of now it looks like Ayden has gotten my athleticism, lol! We’ll see though! I hate playing most sports… I’m not very good at them and don’t really care for the uber competitiveness that comes from some people. But that’s just me…

After that headed to the bank and to run some errands and came home. I headed to Kohls this afternoon because I’m wanting a new dress for a wedding Jay and I are attending this summer, a new dress for Jay’s graduation party, and maybe a new dress for my brother’s graduation party… and alas I haven’t found one that I liked, lol! But I did have a 15% off coupon burning a whole in my wallet and couldn’t pass up the following cute shoes!I don’t think of myself as a uber shoe collector, but I do have to say that I have quite a few pairs, lol! But I wanted a cute pair of tennis shoe like shoes that I didn’t have to tie! I hate wearing shoes in the first place, but hate having to tie shoes even more and so these ones are perfect! And they were on sale, doesn’t that count?!I also got some new eye shadows… they were on sale for $6… and couldn’t pass them up. I don’t wear a ton of makeup, but having something to choose from other than like a grey and brown is going to be exciting, lol! I’m definitely not a makeup expert, but try to look halfway decent everyday. Doesn’t help that my face is super oily! Hate my skin!

On the agenda for tomorrow… more relaxing and procrastinating on studying, you know finals are fast approaching! Only TWO more weeks of class… OMG! Really?! Can’t wait!

CIAO! LOVE ME!

Life Continues

It’s Tuesday, and Tuesdays are my clinic days (clinic mornings to be exact), and this morning was shaping up to be a busy clinic morning. No problems, I was ready for it, didn’t seem like there was going to be anything too major going on. But, you know, when you have everything planned out to a ‘T’, things are bound to go haywire, right?

Ayden didn’t have school today… it was kindergarten screening so only the kindergarteners had off, and you know what, because it wasn’t on the school calendar, Ayden didn’t get signed up to go to the Y for today (actually I don’t even think they had it as an option since only the kindergarteners were off) and that left Jay and myself with no babysitter for him while we had school.

Unfortunately, Jay had to miss his one class this morning because I had clinic and well missing clinic in anything but an emergency is not a good thing. Can I use no babysitter as an excuse?! Lol! Anyways, Jay only had a review in his class so he said it wasn’t anything major, but I still felt bad that he had to miss his class. I’m sure he was totally fine with it though.

My morning started off good. I had to hearing evaluations and it was a husband and wife couple. I got done an hour before my next (and last) appointment of the morning because the couple ended up with good results and didn’t need the consult they had also scheduled. This was good, it meant that my reports would be short and I could get them written before my next appointment.

The plan was that Jay would bring Ayden into school by me when I was done with clinic for the morning and he would spend the afternoon on campus with me while Jay went off to work. Normally I get done with clinic at noon (or am supposed to) and I told Jay that he shouldn’t leave the house any earlier than 12:10-12:15 so he would get to campus just before 12:30… just in case my last appointment ran long… you know…

I wasn’t planning on my last appointment running long, it wasn’t supposed to take maybe 15 minutes. I had to run a quick test on the patient’s hearing aids and we could give them back and/or send them in if need be. Well… said patient was running late and then I had to work with hearing aids that I haven’t before and a program I haven’t before and had no idea what to do and my supervisor wasn’t really helping me any (oh I know, the whole spread your wings thing and learn, but seriously, I just wanted her to tell me what buttons to push so we could get this appointment over with).

Turns out we have to send both hearing aids in because they are not up to manufacturers specifications, but are only going to send one in at time. And then it just seemed like my supervisor was dragging out the appointment and the patient didn’t really want to hurry out and it’s already almost 12:45… 45 minutes AFTER I am supposed to be done! And then I STILL have to get this hearing aid boxed up and write the summary and fill out some forms and Jay and Ayden are waiting patiently at my desk for me, you know, after I said I would totally be done by the time they got there.

I ‘grabbed’ Ayden from Jay so he could leave for work and had Ayden follow me around while I tried to finish up some of the stuff that I needed to before the afternoon clinic slot started and I couldn’t access the lab until 3pm… unfortunately that didn’t happen so Ayden and I went off to work for a little bit so I could finish up some things there. Ayden was an angel while I was doing some work. He drew some pictures for me and didn’t complain at all. After that, it was back to the clinic where I finished up my summary (of which I sort of just slopped together- definitely not my best one to date), called the hearing aid company regarding a few things, and hopefully filled out everything correctly on the hearing aid repair form that I sent in. And then Ayden and I left for the afternoon and I kept my fingers crossed that I wouldn’t get called back in for a hearing aid repair since it was my day for hearing aid duty and we left just after 3pm and it goes until 4:30pm. Thankfully we were not called back and by we, I mean, Ayden would have had to come back with me since it is almost 7pm and Jay is still not home from work. Making up hours that he won’t be able to work late on Thursday or Friday night because I will be gone.

After that we went to JCPenney’s because it is going out of business here in Point and I wanted to see if they had anything cute on sale. Oh, they have sales all right, but I really didn’t find anything that I wanted that bad, especially since they didn’t have the mega sales going on just yet. Then it was off to Maurice’s because they had a really cute dress on their website that I found last night that I wanted to get for a wedding Jay and I will be going to in a few weeks. Unfortunately, they didn’t have any in my size left, but they were having some good sales too and I left with two cute shirts. Shirts that are dressy enough for clinic and chic enough to wear with a pair of dressier jeans too… love ‘em and will be wearing both of them later this week!

It was too bad that I didn’t find any dresses at Maurice’s, however I got some coupons in the mail for Kohls and they had some pretty cute dresses on their website so I will be off to that store sometime this week to see if I can find anything that I like. I also want to get a dress for Jay’s graduation party… nothing too fancy, but figured something spring/summery like would be cute… maybe?! I’m not a super big dress person, but you never know when you find the right dress. And then maybe I can wear it again for my brother’s graduation party (or get another all together for his, hehe)!

By the time we got home I felt a little more relaxed, but for a moment there this afternoon I felt like I was going to have an anxiety attack because I had so much to do and remember and I felt like I wasn’t getting any of it done.

My first class is cancelled tomorrow and I was all ready to sleep in for the day, however I will be headed in at 8am (even though class doesn’t start until 10:30 because we have a lab that we need to do which is really sort of a bummer, but we thought since we had the time we should really get it done). And… I really need to work on what I am going to be saying for my presentation because well, ugh, I still don’t know. I think I have most of the powerpoint finished… maybe just a few changes here or there, but nothing major. I will be happy to just it done with!

Because let me tell you… once this semester is over with… Ashley will be reading reading reading and reading for the four-five weeks she has off before her summer semester starts. I can’t believe that I am almost done with my first year of graduate school! OMG!

CIAO! LOVE ME!

San Diego Recap!

Before I get started on my trip to San Diego, I have a bit of a side comment to rant about a little bit. Well, maybe not rant, but need to just get out there because… well I want it. So today (and on a few other occasions), I’ve had people tell me what good pictures my camera takes and how awesome it must be to have such a good camera. I’d sure hope that my camera would take good pictures, I forked over a hefty chunk of change for it, but its NOT just my camera, actually, my camera is probably only 1/3 of how my pictures turn out.

It’s hasn’t happened often that people have complimented ONLY my camera… I’ve had plenty of people tell me that they love my pictures and say nothing about the quality of my camera. However, it was brought to my attention today by someone asking me what kind of camera I have because it takes such good pictures. I don’t think she was trying to be mean by saying that, but I don’t think she thought beyond the camera, like, its part of who is behind the camera as to how the picture turns out. You can give the best camera to someone who knows nothing about photography and you won’t get any better pictures than someone with your run of the mill camera because they won’t know anything about it. I’ve read and read about the features on my camera and different things about photography and experiment with things outside of the box and then I edit and edit… that counts for the majority of how my pictures turn out. I delete and delete and delete too! In any case, I just wanted to get out that yes, I like the pictures that I take (at least the ones I post online) and I love my camera, but my camera isn’t ALL that makes my pictures look like they do…

Okay… onto my trip! I had to get up bright and early on Wednesday so we (Amy and myself) could make it to the airport on time. I was super excited, but it still didn’t seem real. It really didn’t seem real until I was on the plane on the way to Chicago! I had no problem with getting air sick, never have. I love flying and this time was no exception, although the flight from Chicago to San Diego was a little long! We landed in San Diego and waited for the other two AuD students from Point that were coming, but who had taken a different flight. They arrived within the hour and we headed off to our hotel.

Unfortunately, we found out that our hotel wasn’t very close to the convention center… about a half mile away which was definitely within walking distance, however there wasn’t really an easy way to get there, as in we didn’t walk home at night in the dark… NOPE!

On Wednesday we headed to the convention center to check in and check a few things out. We didn’t get there in time to attend any sessions on Wednesday, but we attended the SAA reception which had a bunch of free food (actually, I didn’t pay for a meal the entire time we were there, other than a few snacks in the airport) and then Amy and I headed back to the hotel room while Nicole and Janelle went to a baseball game (we got free tickets through the convention), however they didn’t stay for the whole thing.

Thursday morning was another early morning since Amy and I wanted to go to some morning sessions. We went to one on cochlear implants which I thought was really interesting and then had a bit of a break before the afternoon sessions started. During that time we walked around down by the San Diego bay for a little while and went into a few shops.

The afternoon was spent in class… we each went to four other ones and then wandered around the exhibit hall where all of the hearing aid companies were ‘selling’ their stuff. We got a bunch of free pens, and even a free rolling duffel bag, but also found out about some pretty cool products! It was fun to hear everyone say they had the best stuff! And we got lots and lots of free food!

Thursday night (since the sessions ended at like 6pm), Amy and I walked around downtown and did some shopping since I had forgotten my id and wasn’t able to get into one of the hearing aid companies parties that we had gotten passes for. I didn’t know about the party before we left for the day and only brought my convention badge for the day since I didn’t anticipate needing my id for anything, however that wasn’t exactly the case and well I wasn’t going all the way back to the hotel for it because it wasn’t a party that I needed to get into anyways. We could hear the music from outside the gates anyways and we had more fun shopping! I picked up some jewelry for myself, a t-shirt for Jay, and a t-shirt and little stuffed animal for Ayden.

Friday I slept in with Nicole and Janelle and Amy headed off to the convention early since she had to volunteer. We got to the convention around 10ish and I walked around taking some pictures since the first class I wanted to attend wasn’t until noon. I went to two and a half classes, since the last one really wasn’t doing it for me information wise. After that, I walked around the poster presentations and then we all headed back to the hotel to get ready for the parties that night. All of the hearing aid companies were hosting parties that we had plans to attend!

We hit up one at the HardRock hotel with super good food and drinks (although I stuck with water) and then headed to another one on a boat with even better food! Anyone ever seen mashed potatoes martinis?! Okay, they weren’t actually martinis, but mashed potatoes in martini glasses and then a whole table of condiments you could add! I though they were SO cute!

And after that we went to the USS Midway for the Beach Boys! More free food and drinks, although by that time I was stuffed and didn’t need anymore food. Beach Boys were awesome and then we got to see some fireworks (actually twice that night since the baseball team won their game and they shot some off just as we were getting back downtown)!

Saturday was another early morning and another long day flying high in the sky! It was nice to get home and have today to relax, although today went really fast. I had every intention of doing some homework today, however that went out the window. I am fairly certain that my first class is cancelled tomorrow which means I will head into campus early and will work on my presentation then instead of tonight. I really just needed today to relax and not worry about anything. Since the weather was nice, I washed all of Ayden’s bedding and hung it outside to dry, but there is about four  loads of laundry still sitting in the basement that need to be washed and who knows if that will happen before the weekend.

This week is another short week class wise since we will be headed to Madison for the mini conference on Thursday and Friday. Means I won’t have double clinic this week which is good, but another two days that Jay needs to be home from work early in order to be able to get Ayden off the bus. Oh well… at least the semester is almost over!!! Can’t wait! So much studying to do, but SO happy that two of my finals are TAKE HOME! Well one is take home and one is online and the last online one I had was pretty easy, so at least I think so. Got an A on the test I took last week so that was good!

Well, I didn’t go into as much detail as I thought I was going to, but I’m really just wanting to sit down and watch some TV since I really haven’t done that at all today… too busy playing with Ayden, cleaning, or editing pictures!

CIAO! LOVE ME!

San Diego Pictures!

Here are a few (or more than a few) pictures of my recent trip to San Diego to tide all those who happen upon my blog over until I have more than just a few minutes to sit down and get a post out on how awesome the trip actually was!!! Enjoy!Just outside of the convention center! Audiology NOW!!! Rocked in San Diego for 2010! Chicago 2011 here we come!Artwork just outside of the convention center, San Diego had some awesome artwork on their streets! I loved it, especially this piece!Palm trees lined the streets! Miss them already! Couldn’t leave without taking some pictures of them!Across from the convention center was a main part of downtown San Diego, I can’t say ‘the main’ part because San Diego is really big and I’m sure there are other parts, but this was definitely a well known part, right next to the baseball stadium! A big ship coming into the bay!Only a SMALL part of the convention with two high rises behind it… apartments I’m assuming? Or office buildings? Don’t really know other than they looked cool in this picture!Picture of San Diego bay!Heading into Seaport Village! Lots of cute little shops in which I was good and didn’t buy anything, although I very well could have! My favorite flower that I saw while we were there… I think its called bird of paradise?!Maritime museum… wanted to go on this boat SO bad, but didn’t have time! Downtown San Diego at night!One of the Beach Boys!!! You’ll have to excuse the fact that I don’t know their names, but we got to see them for free and it was great! More about that later!

CIAO! LOVE ME!

Look what I made!

There is the photography website that I frequent on a daily basis… I go to seek inspiration from other photographers, to learn, and to just see the awesomeness of their photographs and to wish that someday I might even be a quarter as good as they are. Well, many of these photographers on the website do newborn photography, and if you know anything about that, hats and headbands with big flowers and bow are IN! They aren’t just in for photography, they are in for little babies and little girls in general (well hats for girls and boys). I’ve perused many an etsy shop that sell these hats and headbands and thought to myself, well I can make at least one type of headband myself, or at least I can try, right?

And make some uber cute headbands I did and for a smidge of the cost of what one costs online. Not that I wouldn’t at some point buy some from these etsy shops because there are a TON of hats and headbands that I cannot make, but these ones I can. Are they not super adorable?! I headbands came in a six pack, I got the flowers for $1 a piece (although I probably could have gotten them cheaper at the dollar store), and the jewels came in a pack of 20 for about $3, and then instead of gluing the flowers straight on the headband, I got clips for them. That way you can wear the headbands with the flowers or just the flowers alone, or switch up which headband you want with which flower. And they took all of a half hour to make all six of them! I originally started out making them for my friend who just found out she is having twin girls. I was going to give her four of them and then give the other two to my friend who I just took pictures for because she has two adorable little girls as well. And then I was thinking, well I am going to be taking some pictures for another friend in about a month and she has four little girls and I was thinking how cute they would look in them too! So… what I think I am going to do, is go out tomorrow and get another pack of headbands and some more flowers and make six more to give to my other friend. Or maybe I will keep them and/or ask if she would like them after we are done with the pictures and just charge her like $10 for all of them, and if not, I have them for future photography props! Anyways, I thought I would share my little craft of the day! I love how they turned out!

Before I got started on my craft of the day, Jay and I cleaned out our garage. I like that its now all clean and mostly organized and I can drive in there and not worry about hitting something, hehe! Ayden had lots of fun running around on his scooter and just enjoying the nice weather. It looked like it was going to rain out for awhile this morning, but thankfully it didn’t and the day turned out to be really beautiful!

After lunch, we headed out for a little while. We went to the golf course and Jay and Ayden hit some of golf balls on the driving range and I stood by taking pictures!On our way to the golf course! I love these kind of shots! Jay looked at me like I was crazy when I took this picture. Men, hehe!Ayden busy getting his golf clubs out while Jay went to go get a bucket full of golf balls! Looks at me like I’m crazy for taking a picture of him, he should know me better than that by now!Daddy teaching Ayden how its done! Love this shot! Lining up their shots! I tried getting a shot with them swinging at the same time, but they wouldn’t listen to me and I couldn’t get it! Darn those boys who don’t listen when they are supposed to!ALL DONE!We headed out to my favorite photography spot after hitting the golf course, although there were quite a few fishermen down by the river as well. I didn’t get as much shots as I would have liked, but I didn’t want it to be too much of a set up thing either, more so just cute shots if I could get them… think this one turned out pretty cute!

And then I had Ayden take some of Jay and myself. I don’t particularly care for either of the ones that he took, but its very rare that I get any shots of Jay and myself, so to get two that look halfway decent…. I’ll take those, especially since Ayden took them! Love how Jay looks pained in both of them. Its very rare that he smiles ‘decent’ in any picture! Boy, will he have a tough time at our wedding, lol!The other one that I liked… well after some editing of course!I got myself a new pair of flip flops from Shopko today (well actually two) and these ones are super comfy! I’ve only ever really liked the cheap ones from Old Navy and I digress, theses are like a dollar more, but they are super cute and just as comfy so I couldn’t pass them up. The other pair I got was a different kind, but I think I might need to go back tomorrow and get another pair because a woman can never have too many flip flops, can she?Ayden was pretty adamant about finding stuff to throw in the ‘raging’ river! He had lots of fun and didn’t want to leave when it was time to go!As for the rest of the  night, I think I’m going to sit down and watch some TV. I feel like I haven’t really sat down and relaxed at all today. Or maybe I will sit down and fold some laundry… yeah since there is three baskets that need to be folded. Maybe pop a good movie in and do that. Tomorrow will be working on my project day. My goal is to have my rough draft sent in to my professor by then so that she can take a look at it next week and then the following weekend and week I can put the finishing touches on it before my presentation on the 22 or 23… plenty of time in my eyes and during our conference she said that it sounded like I had a pretty good start and I feel like I do so we will see.

Jay has been laid up pretty much all afternoon with a headache. I’m thinking its a caffeine headache since he normally has a soda early in the day and he didn’t have one all day. Kind of a bummer since he doesn’t feel good, but I guess it happens to all of us. Ready for some more beautiful weather tomorrow… might head out to the park or on a bike ride, looking forward to it!

CIAO! LOVE ME!

Got me some better eyes!

I had a visit, well made an appointment, with the eye doctor yesterday. My eyes are BAD! I’ve had glasses since I was THREE! Some pretty UGLY glasses if I don’t say so myself. I’m sure my mom has a pair or two kept in a drawer somewhere, you know as a memento of some sort. Well, maybe?!

I haven’t had my eyes checked in about three or four years and I know that they’ve gotten a lot worse since then. I had contacts in high school, but I don’t think I was ready for them at that point in time because I didn’t wear them all that often and at that point they were more trouble than good for me (even though I could see better with them in).

I figured that when I couldn’t read the guide on the TV from the couch without my current glasses that I should probably go in and see how bad they were. And, I thought it was maybe time to try contacts again. I’d really like to be able to see ALL the time now. I don’t know what sightedness I have… which ever one means that I can’t see far away because that’s what I can’t see, lol!

The eye doctor hooked me up with a trial pair of contacts, you know, after doing the whole puff of air in your eyes, the which one is better, number one or two, and can you read the letters to me tests. I was pretty apprehensive about putting the contacts in while I was at the doctor. The very first time I put contacts in all those years ago, it took me over an HOUR! Just what I wanted, to sit at the eye doctor for an hour trying to put contacts in. Wouldn’t you know, it took me all of five minutes to get the contacts in, if that! It was crazy! I for sure thought it was a fluke!

The only sucky thing about the appointment was, since it was my first visit with the eye doctor, he dilated my eyes. I’m not exactly sure why since all he did after he did that was look to see how the contacts were fitting and have me look in different directions. Maybe that was why he did it. In any case, having that done, if any of you have had it done, totally screws your up close vision. I couldn’t see anything up close, it was all super blurry! And then I had to go pick out a pair of glasses. Hard to discern between which glasses you like better when you can’t really see them up close. In any case, I only had a few selections that my insurance covered and couldn’t really afford to pay for my own frames, so it didn’t take too long. I found a cute pair that I liked out of the selection I had and I’m excited about them!

Oh wait, the other sucky thing is the fact that the eye doctor said with the way my eyes are or the muscles in my eyes, not exactly sure which it is, but anyways, he said that I would probably see better up close without my glasses or contacts. What?! I use most of my eye sight for close. What is the point of wearing the contacts all day to see far away when most of what I’m looking at during the day is the computer or books right in front of me? So, I wore my contacts today (got them really easily again this morning), and for the most part the up closeness was okay. I think if I am going to sit down and read a book for a long time, then I’d take them out, but it is definitely nice to be able to see far away clearly. I’m excited for my glasses to come in, since they said it would probably take a week, and try them out! My current ones are too tight on my head and give me a headache behind my ears when I wear them too long, sort of like when you wear a headband all day (or at least they do that to me, the hard plastic ones anyways). I’ll definitely take a picture when they come in! I think they suit my complexion and hair color more than the black ones I currently have, although I totally dug the look of the black ones too!

My day was pretty laid back. I got to sleep in since my morning lab was cancelled. Lounged around the house for a little while after Ayden got on the bus and then headed off to work to finish up the packets I have been working on and then went to my afternoon lab which I found was going to be cut short since we didn’t actually have access to the lab assignment. Our professor didn’t either (since the Madison professor made it), so he just lectured about the topic for a little bit and we worked with the equipment a little bit and then I headed on home.

The weather is supposed to be pretty nice this weekend. I’m hoping that we can get outside to clean and organize the garage a little bit. It is pretty disorganized from the winter and I’m all about making it cohesive, hehe! Jay is working on getting the lawn all prettified again. He told me today that in another year or so our lawn will be perfect. I told him that is all nice, but by that time we’ll be thinking about moving out again! He also told me that he gave our neighbors (the ones living on the other side of the duplex) permission to use our clothes line this summer. The backyard is technically ours. I don’t have a problem with that, just so long as it doesn’t cut into when I’m trying to do laundry. Yes, I know that might be kind of selfish, but since it’s ‘our’ backyard and ‘our’ clothes line, I shouldn’t have to schedule our laundry time around when they are doing theirs. Okay, so our neighbors are really super nice (at least the one guy and girl, we haven’t really gotten to know the other guy), and so on the whole I’m okay with it.

And since the weather is supposed to be pretty nice this weekend, might just be a weekend to head over to one of my favorite photography spots here in Point and take some pictures. Maybe I can bribe Ayden to come along, hehe!

On Monday, my friends and I are having another girls night! This time we decided to keep it at home and grill out. One of my friends offered to have it at her place since she lives right next to a little park for the kids to play on. I’m really hoping that the weather holds out! Oh… and one of my friends that is coming is the one having twins this summer and she found today she is having two girls! She knew they were identical already, and today was her ‘big’ ultrasound! I’m so excited for her! She has her little boy, and now will get her girls, because more likely than not these will be her last babies. And photographing little girls is SO much fun! I’m thinking about trying to make her some cute headbands this weekend as a gift. Or at least I might try to make some and see how they turn out! If they turn out pretty bad, then I’ll just have to find an etsy shop that sells some of those super cute ones because I’ve already found my share fair!

I’ve probably gained a million pounds in the last week with all of the chocolate that I’ve been eating. UGH! And my best friend is supposed to be making an appearance in the next few days so I’m feeling especially bloated since that always happen around this time. Just makes me feel wonderful, oh and you’ll deal with knowing this information even if you didn’t want to, lol! Especially a few days before my trip, ugh, perfect timing, right?!

I need to start packing for my trip this weekend. Want to make sure that I am bringing everything that I should.

Monday and Tuesday should be pretty easy. Class and a meeting on Monday. And then clinic Tuesday morning. I have a re-eval with a possible hearing aid consult. Should be pretty easy since the person has had their hearing tested quite a few times at our clinic. They are interested in hearing aids this time around and has already had them so they are familiar with that too. And then I have three hearing aid checks all of which seem that they will be easy. One is only because the warranty is expiring soon so we run a test to make sure the hearing aids are doing what the manufacturers say they should be and if not, we send them to get fixed and if so, send the patient home happy. The other two should be easy as well, at least from what I read in the files as to why they are coming back in. Kind of excited for them.

Okay, so I was doing a bit of facebook stalking and totally just stumbled upon something I really didn’t want to know. UGH! Talk about ruining my night! I know what I found out shouldn’t bother me, and really the fact that it exists doesn’t bother me as much as the fact that I found out the way I did. Honestly, did the person not think I would ever find out? And this happened quite a few months ago! And after everything that transpired in the past, seriously, UGH! Okay, I know that I’m totally not really telling you anything here but because I don’t know who all reads my blog (be rest assured that those of you who I do know read my blog, this doesn’t have to do with you), but I don’t keep track of everyone and well, at this point, I just need to get it out. At some point, I may or may not confront said person(s) I’m referring to, but I’m just trying to digest this now. And this isn’t the first time in the last week or so that I’ve been sort of blindsided by an uncomfortable situation. Maybe more on this later, but I don’t know…

CIAO! LOVE ME!

Someone please tell me…

when he’s going to stop growing! I’d really like to know, and not hear the answer of NEVER! Hehe! CIAO! LOVE ME

In one week I will…

be on my way, or already landed in San Diego… in the mean time, I’ll catch you up to date on how our Easter went!

We headed out nice and early on Saturday morning and ended up getting to my mom’s house right around 10am! Seriously, I had to get up WAY too early on a Saturday morning to make it from my house to my mom’s by 10am! But we had a great weekend at ‘home’ visiting with our family and coloring Easter eggs, and doing Easter egg hunts, and eating lots and lots of candy, and playing with cousins! Hmmm… I wonder what color it will be?! This is the third year in a row that we have colored Easter eggs at my mom’s house. (And upon trying to hunt up some pictures that I took during Easter last year, well I couldn’t find any, oops!) Auntie Emmy and Ayden having quite the conversation… ‘What’s that Emmy, you mean I can’t write Mommy on all of the Easter eggs? But she’s the BEST!’ Hehe!I don’t think my sister knows how to take a ‘bad’ picture because like every picture I take of her turns are pretty darn good! After chillin’ at my mom’s house for the majority of the day and early afternoon, we headed off to my dad’s house for the rest of the day. We hadn’t originally planned on it, but Alexis wanted to do another Easter egg hunt with Ayden like we did last year. So, Emily, Ayden, and I ran to Walmart quickly and got some candy and cheap eggs (since Emily needed some for a school project) and proceeded to my dad’s house for an egg hunt. We hid some outside and some inside and because we (Emily and I) are so cool, we remembered EVERY spot where we hid the eggs outside and we didn’t end up missing one at the end of the hunt! Or did we?! Lol! Oops again!And they’re off! How many eggs can you find before the ones who hid them no longer remember where they all are?! Ayden and Alexis played together for the majority of the afternoon while I relaxed and watched them have fun together!

We ended up getting  back to Jay’s parents (well first arriving since we hadn’t stopped earlier in the day) around 8ish and then we watched Blindside with them. It was a pretty good movie, for missing the first half hour. Ayden went to bed later than normal and was up earlier than normal too! How does that happen?!

After another day visiting with family, we ended up getting home around 9:30pm Sunday night… MUCH later than I had originally wanted too, but we had such a good day that it was okay. I am really loving this age that Ayden is at! He is old enough to go and play with his cousins and I don’t need to keep an eye on him every second of it! Although, I still think that I am a little more protective than some of my aunts and uncles, but they all have multiple kids. I probably checked on Ayden more than anyone else checked on their kids, but I still wanted to make sure that whatever he was doing, he was being safe. He ended up getting one small cut, but no tears, a quick Band-Aid and he was off to play some more. Given some of what I know the kids were doing, I’m happy he didn’t get even more hurt.

And now… I must go work on the project I’ve been putting off all week!

CIAO! LOVE ME!

Ramblings of Ashley

It's been a busy week around here, busy for not having classes, that's for sure! I've been up by 6:30 EVERY day this week (even today when my alarm was set for 7am! does that mean my body is adjusting to waking up at 6:30am... because I sure hope it isn't! hehe!) and that is earlier than I get on average throughout the week when I do have class. BITES!

But, I had clinic Tuesday, Wednesday, and Thursday and so I went in early in order to get everything set up and working properly before clinic started. I do have to say that everything went well for clinic. I was able to get my reports written and revised and was able to leave campus around 3-3:30pm everyday, if not a little earlier each day! That's always good, right? I thought so, because I wanted to pick Ayden up from the Y around or before he would usually get off the bus, not that he was spending the entire day there and we didn't get any time together at night.

And then top it off, I haven’t really even been that good at using my ‘free’ time wisely and getting the things done that need to get done. Like now for example, since I covering hearing aid duty this afternoon for my classmate, I need to be available to campus for the afternoon incase any repairs come in. So, I came to the clinic to get my prereports done for next week and to print off the reports that can be put into the file. I have about 45 minutes where I still need to stay (since the Y is really close and driving back home and then back to the Y would be dumb) and instead of working my projects, here I am blogging. But I haven’t blogged all week and probably won’t all weekend since we will be going home, I wanted to sit down and write for a little bit.

I’ve had a pretty decent day so far. My labs were cancelled and two of my aunts, my brother, and two cousins were in town for a bit so they invited me to go out to lunch with them. I got mostly caught up on my laundry, including washing our bedding and hanging it out on the line to dry and relaxed for a half hour because I decided to get up off the couch and come into the clinic because nothing good was on TV anyways. I still need to pack for the weekend, but since we are only staying one night it shouldn’t be too bad (I’m hoping). I hate how I am the one who always get stuck with the packing part though. Maybe its a mom job, lol!

However, to sort of ruin my good day, I got an email from my professor reminding us first years about the clinic exam and practical exam we will have coming up soon. We knew about it already, but I had sort of forgotten about it. Now I need to really get cracking on making some flash cards and studying so I can do good on this exam. We NEED to pass it and by that, I mean if we don’t pass with a certain grade, we continue to retake it until we do. No rewrites for more points, but retaking the test over and over. And this is all info from a class we had last semester, a class in which I think I remember most of the important stuff, but I will still need to go back and study quite a bit for it! As if we didn’t have enough on our plates. UGH!

I am not worried about the practical part of the test though. We are doing a hearing evaluation on a patient, however that patient is each other. Well, the first person needs to use someone different and then the second person can use the first person and the third person can use the second person. So, I am not nervous about giving a hearing test to my classmates because we’ve done it all before. Easy peasy! What I am nervous about is the fact that we will have all three supervisors in the eval room with us while we are giving the practical exam and that means my nerves will not just be on edge, but WAY over the edge! I did a hearing evaluation this past Thursday and I thought it went really well. My supervisor did not have really any comments about it for me at all. She thought that I did really well.

Because I am such an introvert, this really wasn’t one of my top career choices in high school, heck what am I saying, I didn’t even know audiology existed when I was in high school. But really no people careers were in mind. So, for me to be going into a career that deals with people pretty much all of the time is weird for me. But when I was doing that evaluation on Thursday, I felt completely at ease, even with my supervisor in the room watching me for most of it. At the beginning of the semester I would get really nervous being watching and couldn’t breathe steadily until about halfway through the eval, but now it is becoming second nature to me which is good! I love it!

Anyways, having all three supervisors in the room with me is going to be kind of intimidating. Two of them I have had this semester and they seem to think that I am doing okay, but the third one is the one who’s opinion will probably mean the most to me because he is considered the hardest grader. Hmmm… I guess we will have to wait and see. If only I could get out of it, lol! That’d be the day!

I just checked my calendar and we only have four more weeks of clinic! I can’t believe it! OMG! Where did the semester go?! Only 11 days until I go to San Diego, I can’t believe it. I didn’t think that the day would ever get here!

I don’t think that I mentioned this because I haven’t written all week, but I won the award/scholarship for most outstanding graduate audiology student, you know out of the 12 or so of us in the program (not for sure on how many 4th years there are), but it was just myself and classmate, Katie, that were nominated by some professor. She won the two other awards that she was up for so that was good too. I don’t know how much it is, but anything is better than nothing. I was excited to learn that!

I haven’t been motivated to do anything Easter this week/weekend. Actually, if I had it my way, I would just stay home and not go to any of the family functions that we have to make an appearance at. I just have too much other stuff on my mind right now to be thinking about ‘wasting’ a weekend at ‘home’. Maybe I should have been more productive this week while we didn’t have class. Actually I think my 9am class is cancelled on Monday as well, yippee! We are going home tomorrow morning to spend the majority of the day at my mom’s house. She wants Ayden to color eggs with her which is good because we aren’t coloring any at our house. I don’t eat hardboiled eggs. The weather is supposed to be crappy as well. Just what I like, travelling in crappy weather. I don’t know if we have to go anywhere else on Saturday, but on Sunday we need to go to Jay’s grandparent’s house for a bit, then my grandparent’s and then to Jay’s other grandparents. And I told him that I would like to be home at a decent time as well Sunday night, we’ll see how that works out.

And then there is getting out our Easter baskets at our house. HA! I don’t know if I am even going to do that. Jay hasn’t said anything about getting Ayden’s basket out. Why should it be me that has to remember and then do all of this stuff? Jay’s a good man, but honestly, I get stuck being the adult and having to remember everything and execute everything all of the time. Why should I always have to be the responsible one? Half the time Jay only cares about Jay. Oh, he’s perfectly capable of taking care of Ayden by myself, but let me tell you, I bet our house will be a disaster zone when I get back after four days in California. Jay doesn’t care about messes everywhere, clothes all over the place, etc. He’s a great daddy alright, but he doesn’t go out of his way to do the stuff that I do. Yes, I can admit that I do harbor hard feelings against him for that sort of stuff and he knows it. We have petty little arguments about little stuff all of the time. And it doesn’t bother me all of the time, just when I am getting overwhelmed and feel like he is overlooking everything.

IE: today he didn’t have class until noon… he could have used the extra time he had after dropping Ayden off at the Y around 9 to clean the kitchen, put the soda and water in the fridge, pick up the cardboard boxes in the kitchen, clean the litter box, feed and water the cat, pick up his dirty clothes, etc… but instead he lays in bed until almost 11:30, showers, and leaves for class. Seriously! If left up to him, the house would never get dusted (oh, who am I kidding, I don’t dust either), but it would never get vacuumed, swept, toilets cleaned, bathroom scrubbed down, toys picked up consistently. He’d do the laundry when he ran out of clean clothes. He’s pretty good at dishes because that’s his ‘job’ in our house, but other than that, I’m the one asking him to do stuff. Oh well, I suppose that is just the way he is. I’ve dealt with it so far, I’m sure I can for the rest of my life. I manage the house, he follows ‘orders’ and works to bring in the money.

I found out that Lady Antebellum is going to be playing at the Wisconsin Valley Fair in August and I really want to go! I’m thinking that Jay and I will go. It is in Wausau, which is close to us and tickets won’t be overly expensive either. I would also like to go see Gloriana this summer too and they are playing in Wausau as well for some fair, a different one though. I love both of those bands. I literally love just about EVERY song on Lady A’s new cd! They are all SO good! I can’t say the same for Gloriana, but they do have quite a few good songs as well!

And because this is getting so long I’m going to get going!

CIAO! LOVE ME

Family pictures for my friend!

Hope you enjoyed them!

CIAO! LOVE ME!