Déjàvu?!

I went into work late today... reason being... I went to the clinic this morning to get some ear impressions done on myself. You see, as first year students, we (we being us three first years) are able to get hearing aid listeners and one extra thing as sort of a perk of the program. A hearing aid listener is something that you put in your ear, like the ear piece end of a stethoscope and at the other end it is a mold that fits around hearing aids. It is something that we can use to help determine if a hearing aid is working properly. Well, we have two of these devices available for our use in the clinic, however the ear piece end is not custom made for our ears. What we get is a piece that fits customly in our ears, thus the need for ear impressions. Ear impressions are when you stick a cotton ball type material in someone's ear, make sure it is blocking the ear drum completely, then proceed to put some goo type stuff in the ear canal and wait for it to harden. Well, that's the short version.

Katie, one of my classmate's, had a horrible experience as an undergrad when she volunteered for a graduate student to do ear impressions on her. The consensus after the fact was that the material was left in her ear for too long and it created a suction and by the time they got the impression out her ear was gushing blood. Not good! Thank goodness our school is right next to the hospital and we have a great relationship with the ENT there. Turned out it wasn't anything more than a scrap on the ear canal wall that bled a lot, but everyone was worked that it had ruptured her ear drum or worse. I wasn't there for the ordeal, but Katie was pretty traumatized. So much so that she did not want us to use her as an example when we were first learning how to do impressions.

Well, we've all done quite a few impressions since we learned how to do them and feel pretty comfortable with it. So, Katie gets everything set up to do both of my ears. We were using some new materials because that was what was sent to us and our supervisor suggested that we use them. We were kind of all against it because we liked how our stuff worked (but after using the new stuff, we kind of liked that better, haha, funny how that works out). Anyways, Katie put the stuff in my first ear and was getting the stuff ready for the second ear and Amy kept checking to see if the first ear was dry enough to pull out yet. Apparently they waited a little too long because as Amy was trying to take it out, I could feel the pressure building behind the impression material. Not good! It didn't hurt yet, but I was thinking of what Katie went through. Katie took over trying to get the impression out from Amy because Amy wasn't really twisting like you should, but more pulling. Katie kept twisting and twisting and I could still feel the pressure and was starting to get mildly freaked because the seal hadn't broken yet. Finally Katie got the seal to break and the pressure decreased and she got the impression out. Oh, but I was thinking déjàvu  for a second there! My ear canal was bleeding a little bit she said when she checked it afterwards, but nothing gushing blood and it didn't hurt too bad, just a little sore. It is not uncommon for the ear canal to be red after an impression or to see a little bit of blood so I wasn't worried. But man, it could have gone south fast!

I could tell that Katie was worried about the other ear drying too much before it came out because she kept touching it to see if it was dry enough. She was a little freaked out and then it was her turn to sit in the chair and get impressions done... for the first time since her 'experience'. I did one ear and got it set up and impression material in and then she took it out herself because she was so nervous about it. Turned out good. Then Amy was going to do the ear that had gone bad last year. She got everything in and once again Katie took it out, however Amy didn't get the material in far enough so we had to redo it. I redid it this time and then ended up having to leave for work before Katie took it out. I haven't gotten any phone calls or texts saying something went bad, so I'm assuming all went well. Then Katie was going to do Amy's ears. I knew after Katie's first ear came out good that she had calmed down about it a little bit.

So, not only are we getting our listeners, but we also get to choose something else that we want and I am going to get custom made ear bud attachments for my iPods ear phones. They simply slip on and then fit in your ear just like a custom made hearing aid. I'm excited because I can keep my iPod ear phones in most of the time, but you know how it goes, they don't always stay in as you are being active. Yeah! Can't wait to get them back!

CIAO! LOVE ME!

Time Flies…

I was laying (is it is lying? I never know which is grammatically correct, oh well) in bed the other night thinking about how fast the hours go by each day. I know, the best thoughts always come to me right before I end up falling asleep. That is when I spent my time stressing about things when I can't just drift off to dream land like I want to. Lately, though, I've been falling asleep rather quickly. So, I was thinking about how fast the time flies. I mean, some days it feels like I just got up and already we are headed to bed. Where do the hours go that I am awake? What do  I really spend my time on during the day? Is it something important, or am I wasting the hours I was given that day?

Our days are numbered... I may not know what number I was 'given', but that's okay with me. I know I won't live forever here on earth. And as much as I might like to live to a very old age, it just might not happen. But I did realize that I want to live the time I do have in a meaningful way. Or at least as meaningful as I can. I'm not perfect, I don't pretend to be perfect, I have my bad days, good days, depressing days, happy days. I have my active days, lazy days, etc etc etc. But I want to make sure that whenever my time comes that I leave knowing that I lived a good life.

Sometimes I get to the end of the day and feel like it slipped away from me without me even knowing. I really want to enjoy these summer months with Ayden because I know they are coming to an end rather quickly, but I don't always feel like I am being the mom I can be at the end of the day. I've tried to cut back on the amount of time I am on the computer each afternoon or that I'm reading. And it's worked to a certain extent. Ayden and I've been going for bike rides. He's getting really good on the two-wheeler! He used to not want to go on bike rides because he wasn't as sure of himself yet, but now that he's doing really well, he likes them! We've gone swimming a few times, to the park, played outside.

Super exciting news!!! Well, maybe not for you, but for me! I was all resigned to not seeing Eclipse (the new Twilight movie) until next week because my schedule is so busy at the end of this week. That was until I realized that I had the release time all wrong. It comes out at midnight tonight, well technically 12:01am tomorrow morning. You know what that means?! I can go tomorrow night to see it! Hopefully anyways... I think I might have to stop in and see if they have reserve tickets for any other times than the opening one because if so, then I'm sure they are sold out as well. The showing that I want to go to is at 6:30pm (they have a 12:30 and 3:30 one as well, but I have no babysitter to watch Ayden during those times). I plan to go about 45 minutes to an hour early to make sure I can get in and get a seat. I am going to bring a book along to read during that time to keep myself busy. I am about halfway through Breaking Dawn (the last Twilight book), and this is the fourth time that I am reading it and it is still just as good. Yes, I know, I’m crazy, lol!

I am SO ready for this week to be over with, well at least thru Thursday night. Tonight we had our weekly chat session at my friend’s house for our online class. On my drive home I almost hit a deer. It was pretty close, but didn’t send my heart pumping. Funny, because as close as it was, it probably should have. But I wasn’t going very fast and it was light out so I saw it as it started to cross the road and hit my brakes. Now just need to come up with some more questions as the discussion leader for next weeks class, need to come up with some questions for our project interview, need to start my article review, and need to take a quiz. And then clinic all day Thursday. Yes, I am complaining about it. I don’t know why I thought having clinic all day would be easier than twice a week for the rotating slot. Oh well… I’ll just be glad when we finally leave the house Thursday night and head ‘home’, only now because of my recent almost deer crash, I’m going to be paranoid looking for them the whole drive home. Speaking of deer, on our drive back from my friend’s house last Friday night, Ayden and I saw nine deer on the drive. Thankfully none were in our path on the road and only one eating next to the road, but still! In a forty mile drive… NINE deer! I think that is a lot! Ugh, I hate dark summer driving in the dark!

Okay, I started this out all serious and it ended up all random, but isn’t that the theme of the majority of my posts. I just write… anything and everything that comes to mind (well almost anything and everything).

Oohh oohh oohh and guess what else?! I’ve given up soda! I’ve gone two days without a soda! Maybe not a big deal to a lot of people, but I’m a soda a day person and so to stop is a big thing. I would like to lose a few pounds, but without any heavy dieting (is that possible?). So, I thought I’d start out by cutting out soda and slowing down on the snacks. Being home most afternoons has definitely increased my snacking and it got a bit over board. I wanted to cut out all snacks together, but I’m not that strong yet, so I’m just having one a day now versus like the three or four I was having. You know… two candy bars and a bowl of ice cream really aren’t all that good for you, lol! Today I had a few chocolate chips. Wish me luck because I don’t have very good will power, but I’m really hoping to at least stick to the no soda thing and try and drink more water!

CIAO! LOVE ME!

Just came to me!

Remember how in one of my last posts I had mentioned something about wanting some professional family pictures taken of my family, yet not having the money to pay the hundreds and hundreds of dollars it is bound to cost to actually have a professional take them?! Nope… well then pretend you do, haha!

Anyways, the other weekend one of Ayden’s old daycare teachers (not the one that I’m taking pictures for in August), but a different one, whom I also had in a class a few years ago and have as a friend on facebook got married. Some of the pictures were posted by their photographer and I checked out her fan page and really liked some of the other pictures she had taken. Well, I took the initiative and emailed her and asked if she would ever consider doing family/engagement type pictures and what she would charge. Turns out that she isn’t in business yet, but would like to be someday and that at this point she is slowly building her portfolio. She said she would love to take some pictures for my family and she would only charge us for travel costs (she is from the Oshkosh area) to Point and would give us a cd with all of the edited pictures on for us to do as we please. Her price was WAY more than reasonable and I’m thinking I might actually give her a little more than she asked for if I really like the pictures because I’m just like that. Anyways, we’ve set up a date at the end of July to get the pictures taken. I’m really looking forward to having some pictures of just Jay and myself because we haven’t taken any together in a long time and I suppose we could call them engagement pictures (even though we’ve been engaged for over a year now and the wedding isn’t in site yet)… whatever works, lol! I’m just excited for the pictures because I really liked the style of the photographer! And the fact that we’re able to get it done and not spend gobs and gobs of money as well!

Since the last time I blogged, my mom came up for a visit. I think I might have mentioned that she was coming up in my last post. She got here Tuesday around supper time and stayed until Friday late morning. We had lots of fun while she was here, although we didn’t get out and do as many things as we did last year when both her and my sister had come for a visit. It didn’t help that I had work and Ayden had summer school and then I had clinic and my online class as well. I didn’t take a single picture, but my mom did so maybe I can get some from her.

Wednesday afternoon we hit up the pool again. Well actually, Ayden and I went Tuesday afternoon as well. We swam for over an hour and a half and he was a literal fish. I bet that he spent more time under the water than above it. It was crazy! I can’t wait to see him at his swimming lessons in the coming weeks. I signed him up for the beginner one and I’m thinking that he might already know all of the things for that class. I suppose that we will see though. The one sucky thing about these swimming lessons are that they don’t let the parents watch (except for the first time). I’m thinking that Ayden should be okay though.

So, anyways, we hit up the pool Wednesday afternoon and my mom suggested that Ayden try the water slide. We hadn’t tried it yet this year and he was too shot for it last year. I thought he would be tall enough for it this year so I told him to go ahead. I was surprised that he wanted too so bad as soon as my mom suggested it. She went up the stairs with him and went down after he did. He did great on the slide and it slowed him down enough at the end that he didn’t get pulled under the water and he is just tall enough to walk/swim out of the area to go up again. His only problem is walking back towards the stairs to do it again instead of running and the life guards are big sticklers about running, as they should be because of the dangers of wet flooring and slipping. He did the slide a few times and then it was back into the pool.

After the pool, we hit up Kohls because I had a 15% off coupon. I got two tank tops, a pair of skinny jeans (I rather like how I look in my other pair), and some new underwear. My mom got two pair of pants and a shirt and we just made it over $50 together to get the $10 Kohls cash. Then we stopped at Walmart where my mom proceeded to spoil her only grandchild and buy him a toy.

I was gone all day Thursday at work and clinic, so it was just Ayden and my mom. I did manage to come home for a hour to eat and play a game of Go Fish with them before I had to go back to campus. Clinic went really well. I had two evaluations and a hearing aid repair. I made it home by 5pm and we spent the rest of the night chilling around the house. And yesterday morning we took my mom to our favorite spot on the river by the damn and all of the rocks and then we went for a walk in the woods before she left.

Yesterday afternoon Ayden and I drove to Wittenberg, which is about 45 minutes away from Point to visit my friend who is having twins and her son. I only had to turn around twice on my way, haha! The first time I saw the road I wanted to take and drove right past it, lol! I’m prone to doing that, I think I get it from my mom because she does it a lot too on her way to new places. And then on the directions that I had written down, I hadn’t written right or left for the first turn and ended up turning in the wrong direction. But thankfully I didn’t go too far in the wrong direction before I realized it and turned around. We made it to my friends house just a bit after I had originally wanted to and proceeded to hang out there for the rest of the afternoon.

Ayden and Seth (who is about a year and a half younger than Ayden) had a great time together and probably would have continued playing really nicely for the rest of the night. It was really nice because it afforded me and Leah a good few hours to just sit and talk. And every girls needs that with her friends now and then. And she needs time to just sit and put her feet up because we don’t want to meet her two little girls too early now. Aim is to avoid any and all NICU time! I can’t wait to get my hands on those two cuties!

Jay is at work today, Saturday, and it is a big bummer. He said he that he’ll get off Wednesday then. I’d rather him have off today when we can all be home than on Wednesday when Ayden and I will be gone half of the day. But I suppose that he will be home tomorrow so oh well. Ayden is being really good today so I can deal.

Now that we are getting some family pictures taken, that means that I had to go and find some outfits that would match good enough for the pictures. I had a shirt all in mind to get at Maurices, but Ayden and I stopped at Walmart early this afternoon because he had some money saved up and he wanted to buy a Bionicle. While we were there I looked at the boys clothes and found the shirts I want Ayden to wear. I had already picked out Jay’s outfit from clothes he already had at home and needed something for Ayden and I to wear that would match Jay’s. I got Ayden a short sleeve button up shirt and a blue plain colored one to go under it. He has some pants at home he can wear.

I found myself a necklace and bracelet that would go with the shirt I wanted from Maurices, but we took a detour through the women’s section on the way to the check out and instead of paying what I would for two shirts at Maurices, I found one for our pictures, two other shirts, four tank tops, Ayden’s two shirts, and my necklace and bracelet. Suh-weet! I don’t normally get a lot of clothes from Walmart, but every now and then they’ll have something I really like and being the poor college student I am, I can’t go wrong. Especially since I can’t afford the high prices of anything else, haha!

I have clinic all day on Thursday this week. I checked the schedule and it looks like I have a hearing aid fit and three complete evaluations. That means I’ll probably be in clinic late in the morning since both this week and last week the supervisor went late (she has a tendency to talk A LOT and go over the allotted time slot and doesn’t really care) and then even later with three full reports to write up. I’m hoping that there aren’t many repairs and that I can be out of the clinic by at least 6pm because I still have to drive ‘home’ that night with Ayden and if we leave by 7pm at the latest (assuming I’m running a little behind and still have to eat before we leave), we’ll make it to Jay’s parents around 8:30 or 9pm. Going to be a long day and then the next I get to take some pictures with my cousin Amanda for her cousin’s wedding.

Speaking of her, you can totally check out her blog here, and while your at it, pray for the carpal tunnel she is experiencing at the end of her pregnancy to ease up because its really bothering her right now and I want her to be able to enjoy taking pictures next week because I know how excited she is to be doing this as well and I don’t want her to be in pain. Thanks!

Depending on when we leave the wedding, I might head back to Point Friday night, or Saturday morning. Next weekend is Riverfront Rendezvous in Point and Saturday night is Love and Theft! Jay’s parents have graciously said they would keep Ayden until they come up Sunday for the fireworks which means Jay and I can enjoy the concert alone. And it was totally his mom’s idea to keep him, so I’m even more thankful because we so wouldn’t have asked. Actually, I didn’t even consider it.

That’s all for now, tomorrow I really need to catch up on my class work. Need to look for an article to review, as well as get started on the discussion questions that my classmate and I will be doing for the following week, and then come up with a paper topic, and some interview questions. Oh the work, haha!

CIAO! LOVE ME!

I Spy…

Over the last three days... I spied the sun, and you know what it did to me... it BURNT ME!!! Well, I probably deserved it since I wasn't 'protected' the way that I should be and in reality, I sort of wanted to get a little more color, and in reality, I'm not really THAT burnt and don't hurt THAT bad. And I did add some color, haha!

My first day back to clinic went well. I was finally able to get on the computer that I needed to get the hearing aids that needed repair checked out. My two appointments went well too which was good. My reports got written, new hearing aids were ordered, and I was still out of there shortly before 5pm... I call that good! Not looking for a repeat this week since I have two evals which will take longer to write up afterwards, but by 5:30 hopefully. Knock on wood for only a few repairs (or none!).

After I got home, I set to pricing all of Ayden's toys that needed to be priced for the rummage sale the following day at my classmate's house. I managed to get all of that done and eat supper before I had to leave again for my classmate's house for our online chat session. Katie, Amy, and I all decided that we were going to meet up at Amy's house for the online chat so we could also talk to each other out loud and it worked pretty nice. At first I wasn't sure that we were going to be able to get online at her house because her code wasn't working. Turned out she had the wrong code and we figured it out and got everything working before the class started. Whew!

The discussion itself was pretty funny. I wondering how tomorrow night will go. I still need to see if we are all getting together tomorrow night for the discussion as well. Would make it more entertaining, haha!

Friday was spent at my friend’s rummage sale all day. Ayden came along with me and had a kool-aid sale. The people who bought some were SO nice. He made just over $3 which I thought was pretty good for charging a quarter a cup. Sitting in the sun all day definitely left all of us tired. Ayden had a few minor meltdowns, but nothing sitting inside watching a little cartoons didn’t take care of. I thought he was really well behaved for being there all day. We got there at 8am and didn’t leave until after 3pm. We had a fair number of sales and did pretty decent for what we were selling.

Saturday was much of the same, except that we didn’t stay open as long because it was A LOT slower and both of us had stuff to do. I went over to help her set up, but then I had to stop at campus for something and then take Ayden swimming since I said that I would take him Friday night if he behaved at the rummage sale and then found out it was free on Saturday morning. So… we went Saturday morning for about an hour and it wasn’t as cold as I thought it was going to be or as crowded which was good. Apparently it is free almost every Saturday morning from 10-noon with different companies in town sponsoring it. Worked for me since the sun was out and shining.  After we were done swimming, Jay and Ayden left to go ‘home’ while I stayed in Point. I helped my friend clean up the rummage sale, brought all of Ayden’s toys home, and did some laundry before retiring to the couch around 3pm where I started to watch Twilight, but ended up falling asleep and taking a good nap. When I woke up, restarted Twilight were I had stopped it and watched the rest. I ended up sleeping really well Saturday night too even though I didn’t think that I would.

I had to get up pretty early again to head ‘home’ for Father’s Day. I was headed to my dad’s house and then to watch my home town’s annual parade. It was another good day in the sun which led to some more sunburn, but that’s okay. More color… lol! Okay, I know that I should have put some sun screen on and by no fault of my sister’s, some of the spray on lotion she was putting on herself drifted on the breeze and ended up on me, haha!

Here are some pictures before we headed off to the parade… my younger sister Alexis! My totally awesome brother in his totally ‘rad’ aviator shades! Doesn’t he look happy! I do have to say that he was a good sport after the parade and had a good water fight with Ayden and Alexis. It was fun to watch and I escaped with only a wet leg! YEAH! Because I had to drive home later, it would have been no fun to drive home in wet clothes!Ayden and I ended up leaving around 4pm and got home around 5:30 and we just relaxed for the rest of the night. Another long day meant two tired people and once again I slept really good last night which was surprising. I wasn’t expecting to, but definitely enjoyed it! Always enjoy a good night of sleep!

My mom is coming up tomorrow night and spending a few days here. I’m looking forward to it, however also kind of bummed because she won’t be here until tomorrow night around supper time and then I have my online class from 8-9pm. Then Wednesday for the first half of the day I have to work and Ayden has summer school. We have Wednesday afternoon together which is nice, but then Thursday I have to work and then clinic in the afternoon. I am calling Ayden in on Thursday to school so he can spend the whole day with my mom, however I’m bummed that I won’t be able to spend the day with them since I probably won’t be getting home until after 5pm and then she is leaving Friday morning at some point.

I’m excited for next week because Eclipse is coming out in theaters. And although I probably won’t see it until the following week when the theaters won’t be at their max, still almost full I’m sure, but not overly crowded (at least I hope not on a Monday or Tuesday night) and then its the fourth of July weekend which I’m really looking forward to. I found out tonight that Jay’s parents not only offered to watch Ayden while I had to shoot the wedding with my cousin Friday afternoon/night, but would keep him until they came up for fireworks on Sunday which means Jay and I will be able to go to see Love and Theft by ourselves. Not that we couldn’t have taken Ayden with us, but it will just be easier to enjoy and more fun without him.

CIAO! LOVE ME!

Keeping Busy

I’m sitting here on campus, on this glorious Thursday afternoon (because believe me, even though you can feel the humidity rising, it is a glorious day because the sun is out for the first time in what seems like weeks and the sky is blue)! And… I’m stuck on campus. Argh!

I have hearing aid duty today and clinic. I have two things sitting on my desk that need to be ‘fixed’, however, Katie (who has clinic right now) is logged into the computer that I need and thus, I cannot do what I need to get done. That’s okay though, because she should be done with her clinic slot just about any time now (well actually 13 minute ago, but her supervisor tends to talk a lot and go long) and then she can log off for me to get my stuff done.

Two of my four appointments cancelled on me today. But that is okay because they rescheduled with me for next week and I have hearing aid duty stuff that will fill in for the time I will miss. In the mean time, I have finished all of the paper work that I needed to and asked all of the questions that I needed to and I am stuck waiting on Katie. What better time to blog and NOT read my occupational audiology assignment that is sitting open next to me.

We have our first online discussion/chat tonight. I’m interested in seeing how it is going to go. One of the students that was supposed to be going into his third year this fall, will be joining our class since he took this last year off due to some personal reasons. I’m just glad that he is not back here in Point with us, but instead at the Madison campus.

Ayden and I kept pretty busy yesterday afternoon. Tuesday was a rough afternoon for us since it was raining out and we couldn’t go outside. I think that Ayden and I were both getting on each others nerves and watching too much TV so I decided that on Wednesday afternoon we were going to do some fun stuff after I picked him up.

When we got home, we both had lunch. After that we took a walk to his summer school/new school where he will be going until we up and move again (possibly in two years), so for at least first and second grade. Anyways, I had called the bus company earlier in the day because I wanted to know what bus Ayden was going to be riding to summer school since he didn’t come home with a slip like I had anticipated he would. The nice lady on the phone informed me that we lived within the walking zone to his school and that he would not be getting picked up by the bus, but would be considered a walker and that there would be a crossing guard. What?! Excuse me?! Do you not know that my child is five years old and WILL NOT be walking to school by himself.

I don’t care that we live only like three blocks away from the school, the blocks that he would have to walk alone are not blocks that I want him walking alone. No siree bob, not going to happen! So, we walked to his school so I could time out how long it would take if we both walked and/or his babysitter would be walking to pick him up. In case you cared, it took just over ten minutes and that was walking at a leisurely pace. After getting there, we played on the playground equipment for a while and then headed back home.

Once we got home, I decided that we needed to make a Walmart run. I needed to get my dad’s Father’s Day gift and I wanted to get a cake mix so Ayden and I could make some cupcakes. Unfortunately, I just assumed that we had enough cupcake holders at home to make them. We had 12 cupcake holders left so I made 12 cupcakes and a small cake. To make them fun, we added food coloring to the batter and made rainbow colored cupcakes and cake. Oh so yummy! Ayden took the cupcakes with him today to his babysitter’s house to share for dessert after lunch since he will be there all day while both Jay and I were at work and me and clinic then this afternoon. Take a look… don’t they look yummy! We were going to do some sprinkles as well, but we waited too long to put those on and the frosting got hard and the sprinkles wouldn’t stick.

 

After the cupcakes, it was time to paint some flower pots. We have some flower seeds left over from a wedding that we went to and I want to plant them so while we were at Walmart, Ayden and I picked up four pots to paint. Unfortunately, he dropped two on the floor at home and only one could be saved. Here are our creations… can you tell who painted which one?!

And our broken pot that was able to be salvaged. It wasn’t broken all the way through so I just added some super glue in hopes that it wouldn’t break further. It was drying while we painted so this one still needs some decoration!

Then… Ayden and I headed outside where it was time to make use of some of the scrap wood that we had laying around in the garage. Ayden got creative and decided to make an airplane. I managed to hammer most of the nails in rather straight, and Ayden even gave it a shot for a few of them. Thankfully neither of us smashed our fingers with the hammer. I was pretty careful about that because believe me… when you do that… it hurts! Lol! Not that I would know or anything. Nope, I’ve never accidently smashed my finger with a hammer before. And then we when we were done putting it together, Ayden took it inside and painted it all sorts of different colors. I think it turned out pretty cool!

And here is a picture of the wall with all of the toys that are going to leave our house somehow. Haven’t quite decided what method that will be by yet. Ayden and I also helped do some landscaping work yesterday. Jay is in the process of taking out all of the lava rock that was in the front ‘beds’ of the house and putting in some pea gravel like stones. I mean who likes lava rock these days?! I don’t know… I don’t care, but I do know that what we are doing now looks better than it did before. So, Ayden and I got down and dirty and helped pull out some stone and dang if it didn’t take a lot more work and effort than I thought it was going to, lol! And we haven’t even gotten it all out yet. Here is a picture of what we (and by we, I mean mostly me) managed to get out yesterday. There are still some rocks behind the bushes and tree, but not too much left. Definitely saved Jay some work! And because I can’t get enough of our lilies that are blooming, I took a few more pictures of them to share with you too! Last night there were two, almost three fully bloomed, and this morning Jay said that there were four now! Can’t wait to get home and see them! Here’s the same shot, only with different exposure settings. I love playing with my camera…

  Ayden and Daddy working in the garage together. It is a lot cleaner now than it was a few days ago. I had my go at it again. There are still a few boxes that Jay needs to go through of tools and junk from when we moved, but will he… probably not. Oh well, at least I can park my car in there now and not worry about running over anything or hitting anything when I opened my door.And here are just some pictures that I took around our house last night while Ayden and Jay were working on putting some of the new gravel in the ‘beds’ out front and edited using Lightroom (my favorite obsession)! Enjoy!

And now… almost an hour after she should have been done… I am going to see if Katie is logged off of the computer that I need to use.

CIAO! LOVE ME!

Pretty flowers and even prettier little dude!

Oh how I’ve been wanting to get my camera out so bad these last few days. The icky weather has kept us indoors and we really haven’t done a lot of stuff that I feel like taking pictures of. But today, after the rain stopped, I ventured outside and saw that our tiger lilies and some other kind of lilies that we have opened up! I was so excited because I have been waiting for this for a LONG time. Well, like since I saw all of the buds on them. I love lilies!!! Can’t wait for the calla lilies to bloom! They are coming up now and I’m so excited. Look for those pictures in the coming weeks! I’ve also been waiting for the weather to clear up so I could take Ayden outside and take his six year old pictures. Even though he’s not six yet, haha! Okay, lets face it, I just wanted to take some more pictures of him because I had the cutest outfit picked out. And because I couldn’t get outside today, I took some inside. Of course, he was oh so willing… or not, lol! He was just not feeling the camera today. And… he was done! I did get some cute ones though and definitely saves me from having to go get them done professionally. We haven’t been to a professional photographer since Ayden’s four year old pictures. Wowsers, eh? I’d love to get some recent family ones and even just some of me and Jay, but I don’t want to pay studio prices. I want some summer outdoors ones and don’t want to pay outrageous professional photographer prices right now either. Someday maybe…

CIAO! LOVE ME!

Proving myself and missing out…

It's no secret that Jay and I have done things 'backwards' according to today's norm. You know, the whole get married and then have babies thing, not the whole have babies then get married thing that the is the 'norm' for celebrities these days. What, you didn't know... Jay and I are actually famous celebrities, haha!

Sometimes I feel since we did do/are doing things 'out of order' that we are missing out. I'm sure he could care less and doesn't feel the same way, but I'm a girl, I'm entitled to these feelings, right? I missed out on enjoying my first pregnancy because I was too ashamed that I was pregnant. I might have come out and blatantly said it like that before, but yes, I was ashamed. Not ashamed of the baby growing inside me, but of the fact that I had gotten pregnant. If that makes any sense?! I was pregnant in high school, I was a straight A student, what happened? LONG story that includes time before Jay and I got together. But that’s not the point of this post.

So anyways, I was at a baby shower this weekend and it was really great. It was for Jay's aunt. Everyone was so happy to see her pregnant (not that they should be anything but)... and then I think back to my baby shower. Can I remember that long ago, haha! I don't remember the kind of joy that was at the baby shower this weekend. Maybe its because half of the people at my shower I really didn’t know because they were from Jay’s side of the family and at that point I really didn’t know a lot of them. I guess I really didn’t give it much thought at that point, I just didn’t want to be the center of attention (not my sort of thing). But I feel that at the party this weekend everyone was so ‘yeah she’s having a baby’ to the soon to be mom, and at mine they were thinking ‘poor her, hope she can make something of her future now’. I’m sure I’m wrong, but its just how I am feeling right now.

I think I have one or two pictures of myself showing my pregnant belly, and they are probably from my shower, when now I wish I would have an album full.

And now that Jay and I are engaged everyone keeps asking when we are going to get married and I hate having to tell them, who knows… hopefully someday we will have the money, when all around me people are getting engaged and planning weddings and have been together half the time that Jay and I have. I feel like people are getting so excited for these other couples and that by the time Jay and I get married, they will be like… well its about time, instead of all excited. Once again, I’m sure this isn’t/won’t be the case, but it’s how I am feeling right now.

Like because of how things happened with having a baby so young, that its taking seven times as long to do everything else that we should be doing and that I have to prove myself that much more to everyone. Not only go to college, but get my doctorate. Well, I didn’t set out to get my doctorate to prove to everyone that I could make it with having a kid so young, but its like, yeah, that’s right, I did make it. Not only are both Jay and I college grads, but I’m going to grad school.

But not only do I need to prove that I can make it, I feel like I need to prove to others that Jay is to. IE: his graduation party. Everyone kept asking him what he was going to do now that he graduated. Not that it is any of their business, but he’d answer that he was going to keep working where he is now. I know he didn’t see it how I thought everyone else was… the ones who don’t know our every day lives. I saw it as ‘oh, you’re going to just keep working at your college job even though you have a degree, you’re not going to do anything with your degree’ (even though no one said that obviously, I couldn’t help think that that was what they were thinking). So when I was around him and they’d ask, I felt like I needed to interject and explain why he was staying there and that he didn’t get a business degree to do a desk job, but to learn more about opening his own business because that is what he wants to do someday so him continuing to work where he is now is a good thing and he is getting paid decent etc etc etc… Like I needed to prove to them that he just didn’t get a degree and is wasting it, but is going to do something with his life.

And then there is the whole notion of wanting more kids. I can only hope Jay and I will be blessed with more kids someday. At this point we are preventing any future bambinos for the time being. But I can’t help think that if I did get pregnant, whether by us actively trying or it just happening, that we’d be looked down upon once again. But any other 23 (almost 24) year old who was married and in their career or a recent college grad would have their family ecstatic. Instead I feel like our families would be like, why didn’t you get married first, or why didn’t you wait until you were completely done with school or Jay got a ‘real’ job. That’s not to say they wouldn’t be supportive, but its something I fear, maybe because of the first time. And I’m sure it could be totally the opposite, but its just how I feel right now. Like I need to work twice as hard and prove everything to everyone because of something that happened when I was 18. The something that changed my world forever… the something I wouldn’t change even if my life depended on it because… that something holds my heart in his hand each and every day… that something is my Ayden…

What a bummer post…

CIAO! LOVE ME!

Let there be light!

It’s been quite a lazy weekend around here. Love it! I had a baby shower to go to yesterday, but that was it. The rest of the weekend was spent at home doing… a whole lot of nothing, hehe! About time that we had a weekend like this. Although, lets not tell anyone else, but I’m secretly looking forward to tomorrow because I will have work and then hearing aid duty. Something to do because today was a little boring.

I’ve been bugging Jay for quite a while now about getting a screen door for our living room. We put one on our back door last summer (kudos to Jay’s parent’s for providing the one that they were not using to us) and I LOVE the light that it lets into our kitchen. If I haven’t mentioned before, our house is definitely not bright enough when it comes to natural light from outside. Definitely not light enough! So the addition of the back door has been great! It just makes it seem so much more open and it is!

Today we went and got a screen door for our front door. This one was a little pricier since Jay wanted to get a storm door for it the back one is just a wood frame like $20 one. With the okay from our landlord, we added the screen door on today and I love it! It makes the living room so much lighter (without having to use the actual lamps) and it feels so much more open. I didn’t realize how much I missed our patio doors from our old place until now. They let SO much natural light in and made the living room feel really open. Anyways, that was the big adventure of today. Lol, really not a whole lot.

Oh, and we’ve started a landscaping project as well. I know what you’re thinking, landscaping… the place isn’t even yours. Well, I do have to say that what we’ve done so far hasn’t really cost us a whole lot since Jay got a lot of the materials from work. We’ve only had to pay for the plants we got last spring, as well as thing spring that didn’t come back. So… the flowers really, oh and the bricks under my swing in the back yard, but those were really cheap. What we are doing now, once again, with the okay from our landlord, is just removing the lava rock along the sidewalk and replacing it with some pea stone gravel like stuff and moving some plants around. Jay was able to get the gravel from work for free since they had it left over from another job and we really didn’t need a whole lot and the plants were already there, we are just moving them to make them look better. I’m excited because it really didn’t look all that appealing when we moved in.

Although, it has turned into quite a bit more work than Jay had anticipated because apparently the people who originally put the lava rock in, put a bunch of brick pavers beneath them to keep out weeds instead of just weed barrier felt. So, now we have a pile of brick pavers that Jay is going to take to work because we don’t need them. It really was a crazy thing to do, but oh well. I can’t wait until it is done. I probably should have been out there helping Jay a little bit today, but he likes doing that sort of stuff.

This coming weekend is Father’s Day and as much as I would like another lazy weekend at home, we will most likely be going ‘home’ for it to be with our dads. I’m hoping that the weather is nice so we can get outside and go boating. I mean, we are almost at the end of June (okay so only halfway through it this coming week), and we haven’t been out on the boat yet. I am really craving me some boat time! Lol! Anyways, I need to call my dad and see when he will be home so we can visit with him as well and get a hold of my sister to see if she has gotten him anything yet or if we can collaborate on something together. We usually do.

And then next week my mom is coming to visit for a few days and Ayden starts summer school. And we are at the end of June then, well almost. It just feels like we are at the end of June already. Anyone else feel like that. Maybe because there is so much going on this summer that I am feeling slightly overwhelmed at this point and summer really hasn’t even started.

My friends and I are having another get together this week… only this time without the kiddos! I wasn’t thinking we were going to get together again so soon, but I’m glad that one of them brought it up. We are getting together at one of their houses and making homemade pizzas and are going to just gossip gossip gossip, lol! Isn’t that what girls do best together?! This time I’m going to try and get a picture of all of us. Might be kind of hard since no one else will be there to take it, but hey, that is what the camera timer is for, right?! Thought so, lol! Anyways, I’m looking forward to a girls night in without the little dudes!

CIAO! LOVE ME!

From drab to fab!

I know I probably shared this picture from my trip to San Diego before, but I was doing some photo editing the other day and was re-editing some pictures from my trip with some new presets that I had downloaded and I really liked how this one turned out, so I thought I would share it.

SOOC (straight out of camera) is really drab and dull… First edit done shortly after my return from San Diego and probably the one I shared the first time around. Looks better than the SOOC, but still kind of dull. And then… Even brighter edit done with a new preset that I downloaded. I love the vibrancy the the last picture. The colors pop out so much more and the water looks really cool. I realize that I have ‘blown’ the sky and even some of the bridge in this edit, but I’m not going for ‘perfection’, I’m going for what I like. And… Ashley likey, haha! Especially in contrast to the SOOC.

We haven’t done much around our house this week. The weather has been pretty wonky so it has been hard to get outside. Ayden had his first non family babysitter and he loves the girls that are watching him. Actually, I think he likes their younger brother more since he is pretty close to Ayden’s age. I love that he loves it. He enjoyed his time over there so much this week that he’s been asking when he can go back which is a good thing, I assume, lol. My only qualm is that my friend wouldn’t let me pay her daughters what I thought was reasonable. She said it was too much, so I conceited and paid what she thought was a better price. Saved me money and I wasn’t going to continue to argue with her about it.

On Wednesday I was able to get together with my three friends from school and their kiddos. It was the first time in a LONG time that all four of us were able to make it and I was so happy. The weather was great and we met at the park so the kids could play. Although, we decided that next time we were going to forgo the kids and have it just be a mom’s night out. Hehe! I really love my friends and appreciate them SO much!

I didn’t think I would ever feel at home in Point, but my friends have really helped. And the fact these three friends all have kids, it helps to have someone else who understands what you are going through. I mean, I have friends who don’t have kids as well, but sometimes I find that we are on different wave lengths. Actually, this has happened repeated in the last year or so with someone I used to call my best friend. We have different goals in life and I find it hard to relate to her sometimes, as I’m sure she finds it hard to relate to me. But I’ve been trying to not let it get to me right now.

On Monday starts my summer semester. Not really looking forward to it because I have hearing aid duty bright and early on Monday morning and then again on Thursday, along with my first time back to clinic. I’m actually kind of sort of looking forward to that though because it has been about five or six weeks. And really, shouldn’t I be looking forward to it because I’m going to be doing this for the REST OF MY LIFE. Let’s hope so anyways, nine years of college better not be for nothing, lol!

I’m sure it will make the rest of the summer fly by though!

Have I mentioned that I loved Ayden’s speech teacher at his old school?! Well, I did (and still do). She sent us a packet in the mail of things we can do with Ayden over the summer to keep his speech skills up to par and that he doesn’t regress over the summer. LOVE her! That was really nice of her. I had mentioned it at our last meeting, but that was almost a month or so ago and I had thought that she had forgotten about it, but apparently not. So happy!

Jay and I are on book 15 in the Magic Treehouse Series that we are reading to Ayden. There are over 40 books and I love that we are still reading them to Ayden. I honestly didn’t think that this would continue for very long, however, we are still going strong. Two chapters each night (well most nights), Jay and I switch on and off, and Ayden really enjoys finding out what is going to happen next. Actually, I think Jay enjoys the books more than I do because he actually goes back and flips through the pages to see what he missed during the night that I read. Haha! Today I went and bought the rest of the books that we didn’t have to get us to book 30. My friend’s son had a bunch that he was no longer reading that she gave to me. It was SUPER nice of her.

Ayden currently wants a race car birthday party for his 6th birthday. I have a few invitation ideas in mind. Might stop over at Michael’s Arts and Crafts store tomorrow to see if they have some of the stuff that I am looking for. I don’t plan on going too all out for it since the majority of the people at the party will be adults, but a few decorations and cute invitations will be nice. My poor boy, turning six and not even having a friends birthday party. Lol, its hard with his birthday being in the summer because I don’t know any of his friend’s addresses from school to invite them, much less their parents, but its only six. Maybe next year. Who knows, and besides, he doesn’t really care yet.

Ready for a relaxing day tomorrow, only hoping that the weather is nice so we can get outside for a bit of it…

CIAO! LOVE ME!

Congratulations Casey!

My younger (but not shorter by any means) brother graduated from high school on Sunday. I can't believe it! That means that I have been out of high school for SIX YEARS! I've been in college for SIX YEARS! I have an almost SIX YEAR OLD! Goodness... where does the time go?! I didn't think I'd see the day when my brother graduated from high school. Not that I didn't think he would pass or anything, but he always seemed that much younger than me. But alas, it came!

The weekend was filled with preparing for his party and then celebrating during the party. On Saturday Ayden and I joined my mom and sister in making some food for the party. We rocked out some bagel dip, seasoned oyster crackers, and some super yummy noodle salad, not to mention a TON of buns that were cut. Okay, so my sister and Ayden made the bagel dip and oyster crackers, while I cut the ham, buns, and stirred the noodle salad. It was a good day though and I had lots of good food. Jay went to his cousin's graduation party, but I had had enough of his family from the weekend before and wanted to spend the day with my mom.

On Sunday was the actual graduation and then party. The weather was kind of sucky, but we couldn't really do much about that. Graduation was good and was a lot shorter than I thought it would be which was good. I got some halfway decent pictures. We had really good seats... second and third row. Oh yeah! That's what going an hour early to save seats will get you, haha! Only, I should have sat in the second row with my mom instead of the third because when my brother was getting his 'diploma' (they don't actually get the diploma until they stop in the office afterwards), my grandma stood up in front of me to get some pictures and totally ruined my shot. And then I was all flustered and the one I did get ended up being blurry. Oh well, it's not like it was Ayden's graduation or anything. Ah, true to my sister… gotta add some flair to the picture! Haha!Aren’t we precious?! Who would of thought my little brother would be SO damn tall?! Haha!

They didn't have a kindergarten graduation at his school. Not that I was expecting them to have one, but it would have been cute, lol. Anyways, we went out last night and got a balloon and some cookies for him finishing kindergarten. He's officially done and his 'report card' looked pretty good for how smart I think he is. He didn't excel at anything, but I wasn't expecting him to. I just wanted him to move onto the first grade and that he accomplished!

Today he was at his first babysitters house. He was a lot better about me leaving than I thought he was going to be, but he is definitely coming out of his shell around new people. Yesterday in Walmart we saw one of the lunch ladies who works at his school and he said hi to her without another thought. I thought it was so cute. I don't think that she knew who he was, but she said hi back. Anyways, I wasn't too nervous about leaving him because the girls that are watching him are my friend's (and classmate) daughters and my friend was home the whole time too. That and it was only for a few short hours. Definitely saved me this summer!

I started going through all of Ayden's toys last night. After talking to my mom over the weekend I've decided to get rid a lot of the toys Ayden currently has and doesn't play with. I will keep the essentials for any future children, like the legos, blocks, little people, etc... but a lot of everything else is going! She brought up a point that I guess I never really thought of. Don't know why, but it just never crossed my mind. Any future children Jay and I have will get their own toys at birthdays and Christmases as well, and we can't just expect them to play with all of Ayden's old toys and never get anything new. Of course thats right, what was I thinking?! So... its sorting time! I haven't decided if I want to have a rummage sale for the toys this summer, wait until next summer, or make a stop at the children's consignment store and get cash that way. I have decided that I do want to donate some of his toys to the clinic media center so future student clinicians can have more toys to choose from, however our media center is pretty great already. I just thought it would be a nice idea. I have about half of it done already! Jay and I were thinking of using the money we get from selling some of his toys for Ayden's birthday present this year. Jay was thinking we should get Ayden a Nintendo DS. We've thought about it in the past, but never really put much thought into it. All my younger cousins have one pretty much and they LOVE them. I just want to make sure that he would play with it enough. He has a game boy advance that Jay's parents found somewhere with one game and he plays that quite a bit, even though I don't think he knows what he is supposed to be doing. At this point, that is what we think we are going to get him for this birthday. But it could always change.

After seeing a piñata at the last birthday party we were at, Ayden is bound and determined to have one at his this year, which is all fine and dandy, except, he wants a Transformer one or SpongeBob and I don't, lol! I'd actually prefer SpongeBob over transformers since we did a transformers party last year. I kind of want to do a pirate party this year. Okay, so with most adults, it really wouldn't matter what kind of party we did since adults don't really care about themes, but I thought it would be cute to have a treasure hunt for Ayden to find his gift from Jay and myself. I don't know, creative crazy mom letting her mind get loose again, lol!

I don't remember if I mentioned the fact that I made my brother's graduation invitations or not... if not, well I did. It didn't take a lot of work initially and I enjoyed doing them for my mom. We had a lot of back and forth towards the end to get everything just right. I was a little bummed when she first got them printed out to see how they would look and she told me that some of the stuff got cut off. My guess is that where ever she got them printed at didn't have their settings correct or she didn't look at them close enough because I made the invite on a 4x6 template so nothing would get cut off. Oh well though, they turned out nice and she got them all printed for like $3 since she had some coupons. Okay, so after I do those for her, she said that her dad really liked them and that he wanted her to make his and her mom's 50th wedding anniversary invitations. Little did he know, I made my brother's invitations. I told my mom I wouldn't have a problem with it since it wouldn't be too hard. Little did I KNOW how damn picky my grandparents are. Jeesh! What have I gotten myself into!

When he is telling me what they want its like to a 'T' this and that, even colors! So... what did I do. I went to the website that they had found with a sample they liked and made mine look very similar. Can't knock what you told me you liked in the first place, right?! Anyways, they needed a recent picture to put on it and I took some of them last weekend at my brother's party. I edited them and emailed them yesterday so they could tell me if they liked any. I personally thought that they looked really nice. Professional, no... I mean, I'm not a professional, but what I expected given what I know I can shoot, yes. And... they didn't like any of them. I emailed them like 6 or 7! They said it wasn't the quality they didn't like, it was how they looked. Okay, so I get that people want to think they look good in pictures, because I know that feeling. However, I personally thought that for pictures of them, they looked rather nice. You know, when you 'fake' smile the way you do. Anyways, they've opted to use a picture they had originally showed me in the first place. Whatever... I can't pretend that I'm not disappointed because I am a little bit. I liked the pictures. If I didn't, I wouldn't have emailed them to look at. And really, I don't think they actually get how little they are going to look on the invitation in the first place. But like I said, whatever.

But wait, there's more... they also wanted me to take a family picture of them sometime this summer, them and their four kids. I was all for it, until now... I mean, if they didn't like any of the pictures that I took of them before, what's to say they will like any that I take later. I can't foresee any of the children (my mom, aunt, and two uncles) being too picky about it, but after my grandparents not liking my previous ones, well... I'm not thinking I want to do it anymore. Have them not like someone else's pictures. That, and I don't want to invest my time in it if they won't like them in the end anyways. Maybe they will just tell me they don't want me to do it anymore. Maybe they already think that and don't know how to tell me, lol. Oh ugh, what have I gotten myself into!

CIAO! LOVE ME!

‘It’s your FAVORITE daughter calling’

Those are the words I use EVERY time I call my mom, hehe! If the link works below (I think you might have to hit CRTL+clicking the link) and you will see what my sister and I conjured up for her Mother’s Day gift a few weeks ago. She really liked it!

View Memory Book

CIAO! LOVE ME!

Hot Air Balloon Festival and Riverfront Rendezvous!

I've effectively added two more things to our already busy summer schedule! Well, I'd like to add three because I would like to take Ayden to Bay Beach as well, since its like mega cheap and fun! He's been there before, however never with Jay and myself so I'd like to do that. However, haven't quite decided when we are going to fit that in. That, and Jay and I would really like to go to Great America again since we haven't been in a couple of years and we used to go every year. I love me some roller coasters!!! Especially the ones with all of the twists and turns! Its the waiting in line that sucks dramatically! But we've always had a fun time when we went!

I can't wait for July to come! The first two weekends are when the 'events' happen that I've added to our schedule. Not only do my cousin and I get to shoot our first weekend, but its 4th of July weekend and then the hot air balloon festival! Riverfront Rendezvous is 4th of July weekend and this year the band that is coming that I want to see is Love and Theft and get this... ITS FREE!Last year it was Trent Tomlinson and he was pretty good, but Love and Theft has this great song out now, Dancing in Circles, that I really really like and to get to see them in person and for free is going to be awesome! Plus, this year we will know how to get even better spots than last year. I got so excited when I found that out. And then its fireworks on Sunday night. We might even get Jay's parents to bring the boat up so we can watch them on the river! That would be cool!

And then the next weekend is the hot air balloon festival in Wausau. I've never been to it before, but it looks like a lot of fun! I've never seen a hot air balloon in person and to be able to see a whole lot of them being blown up and then launched into the air is going to be really cool, or at least I hope so! I'm excited for it, even if Jay or Ayden aren't, lol! Well, Ayden doesn't know about it yet, but that's okay.

Speaking of my pride and joy, he went on a field trip yesterday. They went to the Appleton Children's Museum. For most of the kids, its probably something new, however Ayden's been there at least two or three times already. It is definitely a fun place and I know that he had a great day with his friends. He got to show them all of the cool things to do! I wish I could have gone along, however with me cutting my work hours next week because Ayden will no longer be in school, I need to work what I can this week. Only two more days after today and my baby will be in the first grade. How did that happen?!?!

He's finally in a 'big boy' bed now. Okay, so he's been in a 'big boy' bed for the last almost two years, meaning a twin size bed, however, at our old place he had gates on both sides of his bed because the bed was not against a wall so really it was a 'big boy crib' so he wouldn't fall out. It wouldn't have been such a big deal, but his bed has two rows of drawers beneath it which means that it sits higher off the ground than your normal bed. Ayden needed a stool to even get into it. Then when we moved to our current place, we put his bed against the wall on one side and only needed on gate. Paranoid momma still didn't want him rolling to the floor. I mean, thats a big drop! It'd hurt! But in order to save the curtain rod that holds his curtains up, we decided to rearrange his room this past weekend and in the process of doing so, we decided to not put his gate back on his bed. It's been a little nerve wracking for me since I really don't want him to fall out of bed, but two of the three nights its been like that have been good. The third night, he ended up sleeping on the floor (his choice). He was having trouble falling asleep so he asked if he could sleep on the floor in his sleeping bag and I didn't care.

I dyed my hair last night. Actually... Jay dyed it for me. Isn't he so nice?! And I love how it turned out. Its probably one of the better times that my hair has turned out after using a box. Haha! I love changing my hair. I think I did a post on all of the different colors and hair styles that I've had. I’m currently trying to grow my hair out again, but it grows so slow that I will probably get impatient with it before it gets anywhere near as long as I would like it. Here are some pictures of me from today with my new hair color. Well the first one is what it looked like before coloring it and the second two are the ones with the new color. I thought it was a pretty big change, however no one at work noticed today so maybe it wasn’t. Or maybe they just don’t pay that much attention to my hair, lol! After Jay got home from work today we headed to the driving range again so him and Ayden could hit some golf balls. Ayden did pretty well again. This time I left my camera at home. And then we went to Applebee’s for supper because Jay had gotten a gift card to it for graduation. None of us had been before and I was pleasantly surprised. The food was really really good and fairly priced. I was expecting it to cost a little more. Ayden and I even got dessert… triple chocolate meltdown and it was SO SO SO yummy! I even have leftovers for tomorrow for my lunch. Yummy! He’s got another gift card to Olive Garden, but we don’t have any of those in town so we might have to wait a little while to use that one.

CIAO! LOVE ME!