Self Portrait

I was in need of a new facebook picture… okay, so that’s a lame excuse. I just wanted a new picture of myself that I thought I looked good in. Doesn’t happen very often as I am usually the one behind the camera. So… I took one last night and played around with it this morning.

Here is the SOOC (straight out of the camera) shot…Not too shabby. I’m digging the hat for this picture, but don’t really have any other place to wear it so I’m probably going to return it (tags still attached in the back). Coloring is a little ‘warm’ too me. Maybe too much red, but overall, thought I could probably ‘spice’ it up in photoshop and lightroom.

And here is the after…I opened the picture up in photoshop first and cloned the bathroom door in the rest of the picture so you wouldn’t see the bathroom wall at all, or the towel rack. After some futzing around with that, I found a texture that I liked and opened that up and put it over the top of the picture and decreased the overlay percentage a little bit so it wasn’t as dark. I saved it and opened it up in lightroom where I converted it to a black picture, moved a few brightness and contrast sliders… and here we go! I know, a bunch of mumbo jumbo, but oh well!

I rather like the picture (although I just did notice that my nose looks kind of big… I hate my nose, haha). I had fun editing it too, but I have fun editing anything, haha!

Waiting for my boys to get home so we can do some trick or treating! Off to watch Twilight now because I don’t want to do any homework!

CIAO! LOVE ME!

Teacher say what?!

Sitting in class, attempting to pay attention and not succeeding very well. Bummer! Mondays are a very hard day for me to pay attention throughout the entire time we have class. I’ve probably said it before, but here is what my Monday schedule looks like…

Fortunately, I get to sleep in until about 7:30 every day during the week, except Tuesdays. For that I am extremely grateful because this has not happened in YEARS! And that means I get to stay up later at night and still get a good nights sleep. I usually stay up until 10-11pm, which really isn’t that late, but it still allows me to get a good nights sleep.

After getting ready, I drop Ayden off at school end get to campus around 9am. From 9am until 10am, I am usually doing something clinic or class related whether its doing edits or printing off new power points for class.

My fist lab starts at 10am and goes until noon. From noon until 1pm, I have a small break for lunch in which I usually waste away the time chatting with my classmates or doing some clinic related stuff. From 1pm until 2:15pm I have my second class… 2:15 to 3pm in which I continue to dick around with my time and attempt to get a few things done.

Then I have class from 3pm until 6:40pm with a 20 minute break, which is usually only five minutes because my professor does not seem to know when her class ends and our break is supposed to start before our next class is supposed to start. She’s a great professor, super smart, but she doesn’t know how to read a clock very well (or keep her students entertained in class because I’m blogging when I should be paying attention). And then… I usually get home around 7pm because it takes me about ten minutes to walk to my car and another ten minutes to drive home.

What a day… and it is not over yet.

Found out some bad news today and hoping whoever reads this can throw up some prays for my classmate… she is in need of some. She’s been having some trouble keeping up with our classes and keeping her grades up and had a conference today with our advisor. It was decided that she will be dropping two of our classes this semester and has to retake one from last year next semester and will essentially still be a second year student next year when myself and my other classmate are third years. My other classmate and I were so sad to hear this because we don’t want to lose our third wheel! We understand that if she needs to do this to continue with the program, then we are in full support of her. But my friends, that is not all. She’s also been having some medical procedures done as of late and she let us know that some of the more recent results were not very good. She would not go into much detail with us, and it is not my place to be putting it all out there for everyone to read,  but I just ask that if you can, spare a pray for her because she is in desperate need of it. She is the matriarch of the group since she is older, has four kids, and is always looking out for everyone. She is the support giver, not the taker. My heart feels for her as she is going through this time of her life and praying that everything us okay.

Only 19 days until I get my tattoo! Shown below is something similar to what I want to get. I am getting three lilies on my side, although I want mine a little smaller and a LOT more colorful. I am going for a colorful bright tattoo! But I really like this design.I’ll definitely share a picture of what mine turns out like after I get it done. I am getting excited for it! When I scheduled it, I thought that it was going to take forever to get here and it was taking its time, then these last two weeks have just flown by (I wonder why). So although I don’t want to wish the next 19 days away, I wouldn’t mind them not taking forever though, if you catch my drift.

This Friday is my grandparent’s 50th wedding anniversary party. I was all gung-ho on wearing this cute shirt I recently got from a friend who went through her closet and wearing it with my skinny jeans and my boots… thinking that that would be dressy enough for something like that. I mean, seriously, its not a wedding, so it shouldn’t really matter. And then Jay decides he wants to get dressy and wear a blazer and maybe a shirt and tie with some dress pants. What?! Hold up, since when does he want to dress up more than me? So, I have a question my readers, think he can pull off some good jeans, a halfway decent t-shirt and the blazer over the t-shirt or are we too Wisconsin-ish to pull off something that would work elsewhere in the country? Because I really don’t want to get any dressier than what I have picked out and I don’t want him going dressier than me and/or anyone else there because then he’d just look funny. Ha, that doesn’t take much!

CIAO! LOVE ME!

From this…

broken car (which really doesn’t look too bad on the outside)……to this new car that sits in my driveway! Yeah! I finally got my Ford Focus that I’ve always wanted… you know at some point when I could finally afford to get a new car. Unfortunately, the amount I am getting back for my old car did not cover the cost of this car, but we did have some extra money set aside so we were able to buy this one without taking out a loan or going broke which was good for us. I am in love with this car!

It came with all of my prerequisites and MORE! It is an automatic, has power steering, power locks, power windows, a six disc in dash cd player, keyless entry, remote starter, 4 new tires, newer front brakes, cruise control, power mirrors, a moon roof, and is just plain awesome! I’m so stoked and excited! I loved my old car, but don’t miss it nearly as much anymore!

I took some pictures of Jay’s newest cousin (but not for long, since one of his aunts is due in just a few short weeks, bummer that she lives in Iowa though) on Saturday and here are few cutes ones that I got. This little girl is SO cute and she did so good! We didn’t get many smiles out of her, but she didn’t fuss until the end. And of course I left the shot I wanted to get most until the end and we didn’t even get to try it. Oh well, maybe next time!

In this first picture she is holding her mommy’s ‘Believe’ necklace. This necklace is special to her mommy because she wore it throughout her entire pregnancy (and even before). This little girl was conceived after years of infertility struggles and so she is extra special to her mommy and daddy!

We had a busy day yesterday… after I got done taking pictures in the morning, we had to run to my mom’s house to get some paperwork for the new car, run to my dad’s house to wish him a happy birthday, and then back to Jay’s parents’ house for his brother’s birthday party. I was glad to get home last night after such a long day, even if it was kind of late.

It was nice to sleep in this morning and get a lot of stuff done around the house today. I’ve been doing laundry all day, washing load after load of clothes and the sheets on our bed, folding clothes and putting clothes away. I need to sit down and work on some school related stuff, but I really don’t feel like it at this point, although I know I should.

I feel like I’ve been a slacker blogger lately, and I know that I have. Maybe I will get a little down time this week to sit down and write some more. I’m hoping so!

CIAO! LOVE ME!

Weekend Wickedness

Okay, so my weekend wasn’t really that wicked… in fact, it wasn’t really wicked at all, but I thought it made for a good blog post title, hehe!

My weekend was pretty laid back, given some of the stressful ones that I’ve had recently studying for tests and what not.

On Friday I was able to get a lot of stuff worked out with my insurance company regarding my car. It was officially totaled and the tow truck came and picked it up yesterday at some point. I miss it!

I’m now in a rental car, the newest car that I will most likely ever drive. And it is a boat! It drives SO great, but it is definitely not something that I could see myself driving all of the time, just too big for me. I’m supposed to have the car until Friday, but I’m most likely going to need it for a little while longer. I still have to deal with the stupid insurance companies.

The appraiser from AAA called me yesterday and I got the name of the agent and claim number for them. I attempted to call that person this afternoon, but they were not available and so I left a message. Hoping to get a call tomorrow because I have to sort out who is paying for the rental. Not me! And then I need to call my insurance people back and get that sorted out and see if they can give me when I’ll be getting my money in the mail. Hopefully soon because I already have a car picked out.

And you know what… I am incredibly naive about this whole car buying process and it ticks me off at every next thing I find out that is costing me more and more money! UGH! Just want everything over with and a new car in my driveway that I can drive and don’t have to worry about money problems and all of that good jazz. I’m sure anyone who has had to go through this knows what I am talking and would just want it done and over with already!

So, I found a new car (most likely for sure, going to test drive it tomorrow, but in my head it’s already mine), and despite the drama I’m having to deal with tonight regarding extra costs in buying a new car, I’ve been having a pretty stellar week.

I got my two test grades back yesterday and got a super stellar grade on one of them and a good enough grade for me on the other one! Oh yeah! Especially given the amount of time and studying I put in for those tests, I was super happy!

And clinic today went pretty great too! Overall a pretty darn good week!

Here are some pictures to enjoy until next time! CIAO! LOVE ME!

Let’s hope it all ends as it should!

I don't like dealing with people over the phone. I'm an introvert and don't like having to call people. My 'fear' of that has definitely decreased over the years, but I still don't like doing it. I get nervous, sick to my stomach, and just overall make myself upset. And... then it doesn't help when the person on the other end of the line is a jerk.

I got my first phone call from 'idiot drivers' insurance company and I didn't care for it. The lady on the other end wasn't unnecessarily rude, but I could tell from the tone of her voice that she probably didn't want to be sitting at her desk all day calling people regarding insurance claims etc... maybe I'm wrong, I mean she did say 'you're welcome' before we hung up, but that was probably just because she was glad to have another phone call over with. On the other hand, the lady I had to deal with for my insurance was super nice and helpful. Is is always like that?

Now I have to wait until I get a call from an appraiser for 'idiot drivers' insurance to set up a time to come and look at my car. I have no idea how any of this works so I REALLY hope that I don't get screwed out of anything. I'm a young woman who's never had to deal with this stuff before. With the accident for my first car I was only 16 and my parents took care of that and it was just our insurance because we had hit a tree. With Jay's accident, it was his fault and his insurance company took care of everything (plus his insurance company is smaller and his agent is super nice too!) so I'm very naive with everything and don't know what to do, say, or expect. And to think I was having a pretty stellar day before this, ha!

Had my morning meeting with my supervisor and he didn't have anything super horrible to critique us on which was good. Just normal things... my first year and I are rocking it out! Then, he had very FEW edits for our latest reports which I was pretty stoked about because normally he has a lot of edits and is very critical of how you write things. Not this time! Wonder if he was just in a hurry though because normally he would have a lot of them. Oh well, I won't complain or question him!

I have almost three pages of my capstone introduction done. Our professor set a minimum of 3 1/2 pages so I have a bit more to go... but its been a very difficult thing for me to write. If I haven't explained it before, our capstone project is sort of like a thesis. When you get your PhD, you have to write a thesis which is super long, takes LOTS of time, and is probably all around a pain in the butt. But, I not getting my PhD, I am getting my AuD and in place of the thesis, we have to do a capstone. In retrospect, it is a much shorter thesis. We are conducting research and writing a paper on it, but it is not a 100 page paper or anything, more like 20 pages tops probably. For my research, I am going to be looking at factors that influence individuals' decisions on whether or purchase hearing aids or not purchase hearing aids. My hypothesis is that the primary factors involved are perceived benefit and/or lack there of that an individual might get from the hearing aids and cost of the hearing aids. I'll be conducting a survey of individuals, specifically elderly individuals (although haven't picked an age yet... thinking 60 or 65 and older). I'm excited about it because it is pretty interesting. At least to me, haha!

CIAO! LOVE ME!

Um… thanks, but no thanks!

Despite the fact that I had this horrific test scheduled for Monday afternoon, my week started out pretty good. I didn’t study as much as I would have liked over the weekend… I was pretty lazy about that, but in my defense, I had studied my patootie off for the test the week before. I did manage to get a good hour or so of studying in on Monday before our test with my classmates and that always helps. I was pretty nervous about the test before it was handed out, but once we got the actual test and I was able to look over it, I took a deep breath and relaxed. The questions were A LOT easier than I had anticipated (especially given the horror stories we were told by the third years about this given professors exams) and I walked out of there thinking, no knowing, that I at least passed the test. Maybe not aced it, but definitely passed it!

My Monday was actually pretty good… given that I was on campus from 9am until 7pm and it was already dark on my walk back to my car after my last class. We (the Stevens Point students) even rocked our balance class when it came to participation because at one point the professor had specifically asked the Madison students to answer a question. I was happy about that because it is not too often that the Madison students get called out like that because there are three times as many there (even though only one answers the questions).

Monday night was pretty unproductive at home because who wants to do anything school related after that many hours at school. Not me! But that is okay because I was going to have Tuesday night work on my capstone introduction… or so I thought!

Tuesday during the day on campus was pretty awesome too! Tuesday is my clinic day and we had two hearing evaluations. The first one went normally and I think I totally rocked it, haha! The second one started off good and then we found out that the patient had a lot of ear wax that was blocking our view of his ear drum and that meant we couldn’t continue with the testing (you know, unless we removed the wax). And because we had ample enough time, my supervisor suggested we try removing it mechanically, which means we would use some small tools and remove it by digging it out. Well, an attempt by myself and my supervisor was both unsuccessful. Here I thought that we were going to get done early and send the patient to his doctor to get it irrigated out… until my supervisor said that we could try that at our clinic. We have the means to, but we hardly ever do it because in order to do it properly it takes at least a half hour.

Um, okay?! I hadn’t done water irrigation since last spring when we first learned on an undergrad student. This was a real live patient! But, I went at it with confidence and what do you know… it worked! I was so excited because other than refill the water for me and show me how to hold the water pik a little farther in the patient’s ear… I did it all by myself! I was so proud! That is not something we got a lot of practice doing on campus (water irrigation) and neither of my classmates have done it yet this semester, although they have both been successful with the mechanical removal.

Then I went to work for a while and picked Ayden up from school before we both headed to the Y so I could zumba it up with my friends and Ayden could play with Lily. Both Kristi and Robin were able to make it to zumba last night and it was good to work out with both of them! :)

We left afterwards and headed home so we could have supper before Ayden and Jay could go to Ayden’s first cub scout meeting. Things didn’t happen quite like that though…

Ayden and I were half a block away from home driving down the street when an idiot decides to skip the stop sign in front of him and pull out right in front of me. Um, yeah, unfortunately he decided he wanted to ruin both of our nights because I couldn’t stop fast enough and swerve out of the way and we collided. UGH! And we were SO close to being home! And then to make matters worse, the guy was in a hurry to go ref some sport and wanted to just exchange information so he could keep going. NOT GOING TO HAPPEN BUDDY! I called the police and they dispatched someone to us. No one was hurt thank goodness and Ayden was so good. He didn’t even shed a tear! Maybe would have made the other guy feel worse if he did cry though. Haha! And then the cop didn’t even give the other guy a ticket! OMG! At that point I didn’t really care though, I just wanted to go home.

We managed to get my car into the driveway, its driveable somewhat anyways. But now I have to deal with all of that insurance crap! We took the car to a mechanic today to get an estimate and he said if it were up to him, the car would be totaled. The outside cosmetic damage does not look too bad, but I guess that once you lift the hood, the whole radiator frame/bracket thing is pushed over and a few other things that would involve major repairs are out of sorts. But, its up to ‘idiot drivers’ insurance on what will happen. And here is my dilemma… as much as I would like a new car, we can’t afford one right now. And this is where the insurance people fail you because if it is cheaper for them to total the car, they will; however, cars depreciate and there is no way I will get enough for my car to get me another one as good as mine currently is. So, even though the accident was totally not my fault, if my car does get totaled out, I’m still the one at a loss! UGH again! Praying that everything works out!

In the mean time, until I hear from the ‘idiot drivers’ insurance company, I am driving Jay’s truck and he is borrowing his works truck to drive to and from work. Hopefully I will hear from ‘idiot drivers’ insurance company soon so I can get a loaner car.

Needless to say, Ayden didn’t make it to cub scouts and my paper didn’t get finished. I was barely even able to sit down for five minutes after the accident, I was so wound up. And then when I went to go to sleep last night, every time I closed my eyes I saw the collision over and over. It sucked! :(

Today was a little better, I’ve definitely tried to look on the bright side of things today and just not worry about it and I had some good moments. Definitely need to finish my paper tonight though, thinking I will be able to, although I should have done it earlier today, haha! I wasn’t very productive at school while I was there this afternoon. I talk too much!

CIAO! LOVE ME!

Can’t get enough!

I can NOT get enough of the fall colors lately! I’ve had my camera out more than normal trying to capture it all because I think it is just SO pretty. I’ll see a colorful tree as I’m driving and writhe in agony because I don’t have my camera with me to stop and photograph it! Okay, so I don’t writhe in agony, but I do moan (inside) a little bit because it is just so colorful that I want to eat it up! Anyone else like that or am I just going insane?! Probably the later, right?!

Here are a few of the pictures that I took (and then edited) on the bike ride with Ayden the other day! (I’ve been very big into the water shots lately too, the blue is so inviting!) Can you see the train going through beyond the trees?! We were right under it when it started, stopped there, took pictures, and then biked to where we were for this picture and it was STILL going through! We have some LONG trains where we live! And when they stop and block the road you need and you end up sitting there for 20 minutes, you learn real fast the ways to see if a train is blocking the road before you actually go that way! Haha! I’ve recently become obsessed with the ‘up the tree’ shot this fall too! Those red and yellow trees against a good blue sky, amazing! I probably have a dozen different ‘up the tree’ shots this fall so far and will probably take more! Hehe! I don’t care if anyone else likes them, I DO!

And just because I love him so much, here’s the light of my world! Shaggy and not so shaggy! I buzzed his hair the other night because it was looking pretty long and he needed it bad and we have the hair cutting thing at our house and so I didn’t have to pay for it! Usually Jay and I do it together to double check ‘the outcome’, but it was all me this time and I think it turned out pretty good. I mean, it is just a buzz cut after all! I think he looks so much older when it is buzzed! 

I am SO tired right now. Drove over three hours today to go ‘home’ for Jay’s grandparent’s 60th wedding anniversary (I kept thinking it was their 50th, but that didn’t seem right, and I didn’t know exactly how many years it was) and stayed for a few hours before heading home to study MORE! UGH!

CIAO! LOVE ME!

A Six year’s old world view!

These past few days I’ve been making an attempt to spend some more time with Ayden. Lately I’ve been feeling more like the parent who just goes through the motions of being a parent and isn’t full aware. It makes me feel guilty and sad at the same time. I’ve always said that family first, school, and then work. And for the most part, it’s always been that way, even to the point where my grades have suffered (albeit not significantly). But I feel this semester I’ve put more emphasis on school than my family (work still just falls in where it can) and it’s been school school school and then Ayden and then Jay. When in reality it should be Jay and Ayden, then school.

I know most of all that Jay has been getting the shaft and know that I’m becoming aware of that fact, I want to change it. But, since he is gone for the weekend, I’ve been spending time with the other favorite guy in my life!

On Thursday, it was Ayden and I at Kristi’s house after school where he had fun.

Yesterday, I walked to get Ayden from school, something I haven’t done a whole lot of this school year (but did almost every day in the summer) and we enjoyed our walk home together. After we got home, we jumped on our bikes for a bike ride together. We both brought cameras so we could take some pictures of the pretty trees! I used my big camera and I let Ayden use my little camera (although he has three of his own, yes I know… a six year old has THREE cameras)! Two of them are actually ‘kid’ cameras that he received as gifts for either his birthday or Christmas from family members, and one is my sister’s old digital camera that she doesn’t use anymore.

We had a great bike ride, biking probably close to almost two miles! Here are some of the pictures that Ayden took while we were on our ride!

We went right under a train bridge and just as we got under it, a train started going across! Talk about scary when you weren’t expecting it!   Honey… you need to move your finger from in front of the flash! Hehe!

Ayden- ‘Mom, I’m going to take one that is crooked. Okay?’ Me-‘That’s fine buddy, mommy does it all the time!’ Haha! 

We had such a fun time! I took a bunch of pictures as well, but that’s for another post.

Today I managed to get us outside again for some nature walking. Ayden was pretty crabby about it at first, but once we got to the place and he realized what we were going to be seeing he was in a much better mood! I didn’t bring my camera along this time because I wanted to just have fun with the little dude and not worry about getting this or that on camera. It was just me and him! And lucky that I didn’t bring my camera because the place we visited was a photog’s hotspot this morning. We saw one leaving with a family when we got there, and three others with families while we were there! Craziness! When I went last Sunday I didn’t see any there so I’m hoping that when I have a photo shoot there in a few weeks on a Sunday that there isn’t anyone else there because I’d feel like such an amateur. What am I talking about, I am a amateur!

After our nature walk, we had some more mommy and son time at Mickey D’s for lunch because I didn’t want to cook and Ayden was being so good! The rest of the afternoon was spent inside and out playing with legos and studying. SO much studying! But I think that I am actually starting to understand the stuff and I’m probably going to shoot myself for saying this, but liking the material. Probably because I am starting to understand it! I needed to take a break, thus another post in one day. Doesn’t happen too often these days!

Tomorrow means more studying, but hoping to do good on the test!

CIAO! LOVE ME!

Name Frame

I’ve done name frames before… I did one for my cousin as a wedding gift and one for Jay’s parents as a Christmas gift, but both of those were using pictures that I had not taken but gotten elsewhere.

I’ve been wanting to do a name frame from pictures that I have taken for quite a while, but just haven’t gotten out to take the pictures. Well, last weekend when I was supposed to be studying, I went out and got five of the six letters that I needed to get. ‘R’ was hard to find and I googled other ‘nature letters’ to get ideas of what people used for it. I saw that on some websites they had used the side of a bench and then during this week I scoured campus until I found one that looked just like the ones online. LUCKY! And so today, while I should be studying for another test, I fished my computer design of our name frame!My next ‘mission’ is to print off each picture individually and put them in a frame. But, custom frames are kind of expensive. I was lucky enough to find a six picture frame for Jay’s parents around Christmas time the other year so I’m hoping that I will be able to again this year. Thinking I just might go out and try and find some more letters because these would make good Christmas gifts again this year… only to different people! Maybe I will… maybe I won’t. Guess it all depends on how motivated I get as well!

I thought for my own pictures, it turned out pretty cool!

Okay, back to studying!

CIAO! LOVE ME!

Whew... made it thru THAT one!

Monday night at precisely 5pm I thought my world was going to crash and burn! Okay, I'm being a bit overly dramatic, I mean DH's exams are not THAT hard... or ARE they?! YES, my fellow blog readers, they are THAT hard, or at least the ones he gave out in my undergrad Hearing Science class were! And so, I was about ready to freak out when he handed out the test and I wasn't going to know a single thing on it! All of the hours upon hours that I put into studying for the stupid thing and it was going to be a waste... or was it?!

Let's back up a bit... I studied for my balance test, definitely not as much as I should have alone (I am a better group studier) and studied in a group on Sunday night, although we definitely didn't study as much as we should have. Although I am a better group studier, our group gets side tracked very easily, haha!

Monday morning at 10am brought about our balance lab. I opted to be the 'patient' for the lab and get hooked up with electrodes and such so I wouldn't have to do anything for the actual lab. Good 'ole me, right?! But I wasn't just a 'patient' for the lab either, I find that I tend to ask a lot of questions during lab whether or not I am actually doing something. Probably to the annoyance of my two classmates and the professor.

We had lab until noon and then a three hour break until our next class. Normally we would have only had until 1pm before our next class, but thankfully our next class was scheduled to be a 'work day' on one of our assignments and we opted to not work, but to study. We studied our butts off during the next three hours and honestly I think that that is what saved me on that test.

And so... THE test! It was a piece of cake... for the most part. Definitely not a regular DH test by any means, otherwise I would have bombed completely! There were two questions that focused on a section that I had not studied because it was not on the study guides and thus didn't think it was going to be on the test and thus didn't study. I totally botched one question and think I managed to get a few points on the second question. But overall, I felt pretty good about handing it in, thinking at least a B+ for a grade and for a DH test... that is GOOD! What was not so good was having another hour of class after the test!

Apparently I've been cursed with professors who do not know how to read a clock or know what time class ends at this semester because all three of my professors like to talk well PAST the time that class has ended. Okay, so one isn't TOO bad, one has just told us to let him know when class has ended because he doesn't like going over and this past week was a mistake on his part and one I think just DOESN'T CARE! The one that doesn't care is a Madison professor and I think she's the DH of down there, haha! I probably shouldn't be saying that. Both of the professors are super smart, have accomplished A TON in their lives so far and are great teachers in their own way! I definitely have respect for both of them, just not their tests, haha!

Wouldn't know though, apparently my brain didn't think I had enough balance during the day on Monday... you know two hours of lab, three hours of study, and another almost two hours of test/class time was SO not enough, that I had to dream about it ALL night long! Seriously, I didn't get into a deep enough balance free state of unconsciousness until after 3am Tuesday morning! It sucked!!!

Tuesday was a clinic day and we were headed off to do screenings at one of the local centers in town. They went well, and then we had a child evaluation after we got back from the screenings and I ran through that with my first year without any supervisor intrusion, until the end when I went to get him for consultation help. And... he only had a few things to critique me on and they were things I realized that I was doing wrong as I was going through the testing and they weren't really THAT bad either! So yeah! I was happy about that!

Wednesday was pretty normal as far as class and work went. And Thursday was no class, only work so that went good too.

Thursday afternoon, Kristi and I met up at Kohls to see if we could find some cute outfits for her girls for their photo shoot that afternoon. We found some cute coordinating clothes, although I didn’t get any decent shots of the girls together. After I had gotten Ayden from school, we headed over to Kristi’s house so I could take the pictures. Lily was in a pretty decent mood from the beginning, and Leila was doing okay, but about halfway through Leila had had enough and we weren’t going to get anything good out of her anymore, which was okay.

Here are a few shots that I really love from yesterday! A big shout out goes to Kristi for continuing to let me borrow her girls for photo shoots. A lot of the props that I had gotten from Jay’s aunt, Ayden was too big for or the props were kind of girly like so I needed younger/smaller ‘models’.

I think these first few turned out alright. I’m still working on the whole shooting indoors with no ‘studio’ lighting and just using a white sheet as my background and given that, the natural light we were dealing with yesterday, and the cooperation of the kids, they turned out okay.

These next few are some of my favorites from  yesterday! We had Lily sit in the bucket in hopes that it would get Leila to go in it because she wasn’t having anything to do with the buckets I had brought along. This one of Lily turned out pretty darn cute though!This might be my absolute most favorite picture… EVER… of someone else’s kid! You know I’m biased towards Ayden, hehe! But seriously, this turned out SO cute and it was so spontaneous. Kristi pretty much just threw the hat on Leila’s head, that is how it landed, and I snapped and the hat came off.And I think this one of Lily is SO super cute and precious too! I think Kristi should enter it into a cutest kids contest! Seriously, this one and the one above it! Aren’t they adorable little girls! SO precious!We did a few railroad shots too. Lily wasn’t very keen about these, but we didn’t spend too long on them and definitely had look outs to make sure no trains were coming. We had a talk before hand about railroad safety too, which I’m sure Kristi and her hubby have already done since they live pretty close to them. I thought this one was SO cute too, although I would have liked to have her walking a little more in the distance. Oh well… it is still really cute I thought!And of course, one of the future husband and wife. Who said that prearranged marriages are a thing of the past?! Lily was gun-ho about wanting one of her and Ayden and she totally grabbed his hand for the picture, no coaxing of me or Kristi for that, hehe! Too bad Kristi and Nick (her hubby) are considering moving back home when Nick graduates in the spring to save money to buy a house. Back home for them is two hours from Point! :( Super duber sad face because I am totally going to miss them! Although, their ‘back home’ is only about 40 minutes away from our ‘back home’ so that isn’t too bad. We could schedule visits when we are back in the area. I told her that we will just have to soak up the next nine months because she CAN’T leave me!

It’s back to study time for me. Can’t seem to catch a break lately. Test on Monday that is bound to be twice as horrible as DH’s. Also… need to get working on a paper that is due on Wednesday that has to be three to six pages long. I have some ideas, but to make it even three pages long might be a stretch for me. Tonight’s agenda… study for a while and then relax with some television before zonking out!

Jay went home to hunt this weekend and left Ayden with me. We went for a great bike ride after school today because the weather is so beautiful. I’m excited because that means I will get the bed to myself tonight and tomorrow night! This whole week Jay has been coming to bed when I go to bed and driving me nuts. I was so used to him coming to bed after I had fallen asleep that it was harder for me to fall asleep with him in bed with me. Weird I know… And when I go lay down in bed it is to calm down and just relax, well with Jay that doesn’t happen because he is constantly picking on me and not leaving me alone so I could just decompress. Yeah for tonight! Hehe!

CIAO! LOVE ME!