As 2010 turns into 2011…

I think it is only fit to go back through 2010 and take a look down memory lane, eh? And what is a ‘rewind post’ without a few pictures to help tell the story too? Well, each picture was taken in the specified month of the year, but it may or may not have anything exciting to go along with it. Although, there are WAY too many pictures (3713 pictures to be semi exact- added up all of the folders I have pictures in from this year, although I do have a few copied from my mom and Jay’s aunt). 3000 pictures for one year, not too bad, right?!

Let’s start at the beginning of 2010… (I had to go back through old posts to find all of the ‘good’ and ‘fun’ things about 2010.)January 2010: Ah, the beginning of another new year! I started my second semester of grad school, wondering how I ever made it through my first semester. My first semester being alone for clinic and I was freaking out! I found out I got a scholarship for school, of which I apparently had to do work for. Nothing is free these days, even money they hand out to people who didn’t even apply for it. Ayden and I had lots of fun playing in the winter snow. Apparently January wasn’t too cold since I didn’t make Ayden wear gloves outside when we were playing. Or maybe he was just being a silly five year old and took them off for a while. January was a laid back month. I love Januarys because I always have the first three weeks off to relax and recoup from the horrible semester before!  February 2010: Ayden got his very first plane ride in February! It was SO awesome and he LOVED it! And the best part was that we were taking off and landing on a frozen lake! How cool is that?! Maybe we will get to do it again this year?! Valentine’s Day also happened and with a little ‘nudging’ from me, Jay bought me a ring for it. He’s not so romantic anymore and needs those gentle nudges, haha! He also took his friend sturgeon spearing for the first time and got him hooked and Jay got his first sturgeon with his new shanty and spear! He was SO excited! School continued to progress and I became more and more overwhelmed and began to think I wouldn’t make it through another semester. March 2010: Apparently we got some good weather in March because the above picture was taken only about halfway through it. No joking, hehe! Anyways, not complaining. Unfortunately, my mom had to put our family dog to sleep this month. It still sucks going over to her house and not having Misty there. Ayden learned how to ride his bike with no training wheels on and it only took him two days! He hasn’t look back since and it was such a great moment seeing him ‘get it’! We also took a mini family vacation to Wisconsin Dells during Spring Break and had a great time. It was lots of fun to just spend a few days as a family at some place other than our house!April 2010: I went to the eye doctor and got me some new glasses and then got some contacts for the first time in who knows how many years. I am SO glad that I went and got contacts again after not having them for a long time. I LOVE them! The only bad part is that now when I don’t wear my glasses or contacts I realize how blind I really am, haha! I also flew across the country to… SAN DIEGO, CALIFORNIA!!! I went to the national audiology conference with a few classmates of mine and it was SO much fun! That… and I got to go to California! Mostly because I knew I would never get there unless I had to pay for my whole family to go! Ayden and I also went to go see our first 3D movie! It was super cool! May 2010: Last month of my first year of grad school! Holy smokes that went SUPER fast, but SO glad that it came to an end! Two super hard/stressful/big exams, but I passed them both! Made it through my first semester of being on my own for clinic as well and LOVED it! Really felt like I knew I was going into the right career! We spent a lot of time at the golf course this month. Ayden got better and better with his swing and Jay showed off his! We got a fluke snow storm in May that left a good few inches on our lawn, but thankfully it all but disappeared in only a day or so. I had a few mommy nights with my friends and Jay ventured to Minnesota to visit with his friend and hit up a Brewers game and he graduated from college! Yeah him!June 2010: Ayden finished up his first year of school and ‘graduated’ from kindergarten! With the fabulous summer weather hitting us up, we ventured to the pool a lot this month! Ayden became a fish and even went down the water slide a few times. (Mommy wouldn’t let him the year before.) My brother graduated from high school. My brother graduate from high school… I still can’t believe that and its almost been a year. The summer semester for school started, as well as another session of clinic. Ayden started summer school and really enjoyed it!July 2010: We went to a hot air balloon festival and Ayden got to jump on a big trampoline. It was at that time that he let us know that he was afraid of heights. Don’t think I really believe him though. We also took the boat out on the river for fireworks and then got totally rained out! Like poured on horribly! It was the first time I got on the boat this past summer and the first of only two times at that! We got some new family and engagement pictures taken that I still LOVE! Actually, thinking about having the photographer take some more this coming spring. We went out on Lake Michigan to catch some fish and apparently I get sea sick! The ride totally sucked and I will not be doing that again any time soon! Ayden didn’t like it so much either! August 2010: August was a busy month for us! Ayden and I both celebrated our birthdays! I REFUSE to believe that he is SIX years old! My mom took Ayden to see Walking with Dinosaurs, we had two family camping events, and Ayden started first grade at his new school! Camping was lots of fun with both families and I totally saw my first wild bear running across the road as I was driving home from some place. We had our very first emergency room visit… and I’m glad that it was what it was. Scary nonetheless when your child needs to visit the emergency room, but thankfully it wasn’t anything horrible and we made it through. Well, Ayden made it through! September 2010: I started my second year of grad school and got completely overwhelmed in the first few weeks. It was horrible and I didn’t think I would make it through! We ventured to the Dells with Jay’s family and went hook and line sturgeon fishing for the second year in a row. Definitely a change from the previous year as the weather was super cold this year and we caught a lot of fish (although no keepers). Jay celebrated his birthday and we celebrated seven years together! My friend Kristi and I tried Zumba for the first time and fell in love! We didn’t attend class as much as we would like because we were both so busy all of the time! I created my photography page on Facebook and loaded all of the pictures that I’ve taken for people there. October 2010: I got a new car! Too bad it was because some idiot ran a stop sign and smashed up my old one! I LOVE my new car and hope that I have it for years and years to come because it is what I’ve always wanted and has so many more features that I could ever need. (I was pretty deprived with my other car.) I continued to crawl my way through the semester just wishing for it to be over! I took a lot of pictures of the beautiful fall colors this month and had a great time editing them!November 2010: I got my fourth tattoo and I couldn’t love it anymore! It hurt like you know what by the end, but it was SO worth it! I fell in love with Ryan Buell from Paranormal State and watched his show over and over when I should have been studying or doing homework or studying some more. I wished every night for the end of the semester and had many many many love/hate days with my decision to continue school after graduating the first time! When will it end!December 2010: I finished the semester with five ‘A’s and only ONE ‘A-‘… totally great! I had my last day of on campus clinic and couldn’t have been happier and was a total bah-humbug until the last minute when I had no choice but to put up the tree and decorations and then I went crazy with making Ayden let me take pictures of him! We all had a great Christmas and can’t wait to see what 2011 brings us!

Just a quick recap… Hope 2010 ends fabulous for you all and 2011 starts even more amazing!!!

CIAO! LOVE ME!

Practical versus Impractical?!

Jay and I received very little this Christmas in actual physical gifts. The majority of our 'presents' came in the monetary form. Nothing to complain about, it just means that we are then able to decide what we would like to buy with that money instead of getting something that we would not like. Props to the gift givers, however that leaves both Jay and myself with a dilemma. Do we spend the money that we got for Christmas on ourselves and get some stuff that we would like, or do we use that money for something practical, like paying for rent next month?!

Part of me thinks that we deserve to use it on ourselves because had we not gotten the money, we would have gotten actual physical gifts. So instead of me using it to go buy a pair of jeans, I would have gotten a pair of jeans from someone. You know? Like, why should we have to use our Christmas money on rent? But the other part of me is thinking, well... it would be nice to your bank account if you did use that money on rent instead of another pair of jeans that you don't need.

And then I think... well, I already have set aside two of the three Amazon gift cards and a Barnes and Noble gift card for textbooks, I took back a sweater and long sleeve shirt (that didn't fit) and two wall decorations (that I really did like) because Jay needed new jeans. Those are all practical things, right?! Shouldn't I be allowed to spend a little of our Christmas money on myself/ourselves?

I will admit that I did use one Amazon gift card to get two books for my Kindle ($25), and let Ayden spend a little bit of his Christmas money ($30), got Season 2 of Burn Notice on DVD for Jay ($25), and bought two filters for my camera lens ($19). So, it's not as if I didn't get to spend ANY of it yet. I think maybe I'm still a little bitter that Jay and I didn't get each other anything for Christmas. Unfortunately, my car needed a 'minor' repair that ended up costing us $270 which totally sucked! Thankfully my car is working the way it should (minus the fact that we now realized it has racing tires on which totally SUCK in the winter weather, but that's a whole 'nother rant of its own) and I am grateful for that, but there went any money we might spend on each other. Not that I needed a gift from him, but you know, its nice every now and then and seven years into our relationship, he's about lost any spark of the spontaneous 'I love you' gifts.

And then to top it off, I ended up returning my iPod Touch (never could get it to work at our house, despite all of Apple's 'help') and using that money- money which was birthday money and/or money I had earned from my wedding shoots- to BUY CHRISTMAS GIFTS! Once again, using money that should have been used on ME on someone else! Yes, I know that that's the spirit of Christmas. I'm not complaining that I had to buy gifts for other people, I do really enjoy that, and seeing their faces when they open them, I'm complaining (once again) that I'm a poor college student who is sick of 'this part of of her life'.

And so, instead of going out and buying an iPad (which probably wouldn't work at our house anyways since the iPod Touch didn't) or a Samsung Tab or any other tablet that would be pretty nifty, I'm probably going to deposit any money we got for Christmas and use it to pay bills. Oh, now that is what I call Christmas fun!

I apologize for two bitchy posts in a row, I can't hide how I am feeling, its hard. I have no one else to complain to, well actually, I don't want to complain to anyone else, I'd rather just write about it.

CIAO! LOVE ME!

Jealous much? Yeah.

In the last month, I know of AT LEAST six different couples who have either gotten engaged or announced a pregnancy. Am I jealous much? Totally! Because of the ones that have gotten engaged, all of them will be getting married well before I will, and I’ve been engaged for almost two years already! Jealous! I know I shouldn’t be, but there is a difference between knowing what you should and shouldn’t do and then actually following through with it.

I just want to get done with school, get married, and have lots more babies! School sucks! Haha! Especially this coming semester since I’m going to have to spend almost $400 on textbooks. Ugh, that is a high number! The most then I’ve ever had to spend unfortunately!

I continue to try and tell myself that ‘my day’ will come where I will be the one walking down the aisle and/or announcing our next pregnancy, but to me it can’t come soon enough. I just want to get to that next stage in our life like everyone around me seems to be doing. I’m sick of being stuck in school and having it continue year after year (even though each year goes faster than the next).

Pity party for one please!

I know that when my time comes, it will be grandiose and wonderful and everything I wanted it to be and that I should just sit back and enjoy life as it is now. But sometimes it is hard when everyone around me seems to be moving forward and I am stuck right where I am year after year after year.

Alas, great things are in store, I am sure… I just need to continue to be patient and life live as it is right now and in the moment because we are not promised tomorrow, the next day, or even the next year. I need to be happy and elated with what I have and not long for what might be to come. But, its hard sometimes, harder than I thought it would be…

CIAO! LOVE ME!

Amazing Christmastime!

Since I got lazy and started this post last week and then didn't finish and/or post it before the Christmas festivities begin, it will be a hodgepodge of what I had written and what I did write today.

Last weeks installment went a little something like this...

It's been a relaxing few lately, with no class, homework, tests to study for. Relaxing it is! Definitely feels nice, and I definitely don't miss the whole school thing right now, but I do know that I will be ready for the semester to start again once break is over... you know, to just get on with it because the sooner we start, the sooner we can be over! Give me a few weeks to recoup from this semester and I'll be rearing and ready to go for next semester. Anything has to be better than what we went through this fall! But, we do have SIX classes this spring. Count them... one, two, three, four, five, SIX!!! AND clinic! But clinic is off campus so when I leave for the day that's it, nothing more to take care of! And I still only have class on Mondays and Wednesdays and I will have breaks in-between so I will still be able to fit in a few hours of work and NO CLASS ON FRIDAYS!!! Or hearing aid duty! Oh how exciting!!!

And my class list does sound kind of enticing this spring. The only downside is having to take three classes with the third years and I am not looking forward to that. It means bigger class size, but oh well I suppose. In any case, here is what I will be learning about... Pediatric Audiology, Amplification part 2, Vestibular Pathologies, Geriatrics, Practice Management, and School Methods. Despite the fact that my hellacious Monday schedule will not become a hellacious Wednesday schedule this week, I have NO LABS!!! And that will make up for it, I hope anyways!!! Keeping my fingers crossed, keeping them crossed tightly!

I am SO ready for Christmas! Not for the gift getting part, but for the seeing my family part and to just be together with everyone. We have such a busy schedule, but it will be fun and totally worth it! Yesterday morning, Ayden asked me if we could leave cookies and milk out for Santa before we leave, and then he said that if we didn't have carrots for the reindeer that we could leave them some sugar out. It was super cute and I think that we might be able to wing it and make it look like Santa came while we were gone visiting family. We went and visited Santa at our small town mall the other day and I have to say that I was highly disappointed. I didn't expect much, but at Ayden's age, he knew he wasn't the real Santa. But he was okay with that and with my explanation for him.

Finals grades were put up late yesterday afternoon and wouldn't you know that yours truly pulled off five 'A's and only ONE 'A-'... how fantastic is that?! But I was disappointed in my balance final exam grade. Katie told me that she had gotten a 94% on her final and so I was expecting at least that or better since I did so much better than her on every other test in the class, except, apparently this time. My final exam grade was almost 10% LOWER than hers! I got an 85% on the final exam and I know that grades were curved because he always curves them! It makes me sad to think that even with all of the studying that I put in, I still did so bad. It doesn't even matter to me that I got an 'A' in the class, its the bad grade that bothers me. I suppose I should just be happy though, right?! Could have been worse!

I found out last night that there is a good chance that I will only have five classes next semester. The one that we might not be having is just a one credit School Methods class, but one less hour of class a week, I'll take it!

And here is the installment from today (pending I actually get ambitious and post this sometime today as well, haha!)

We had an AMAZING Christmas! It was SO great to get to spend some time with family even though we were super busy and shuttled from one place to the other. The weather was decent... not super cold or super snowy so Jay was able to be home and enjoy all of the Christmas festivities with us which was nice! Ayden was spoiled at almost every place we went, and super great memories were made all around!

I co-founded the Couch Club with my sister and cousin on Christmas Eve and it was hilarious, all thanks to one mistaken statement we were all laughing so hard we were almost crying! I have to say, that was probably the best memory of the weekend! I also got to play some Royal Rummy (or Rummy Royal, however you say it) and have LOTS of fun doing that! I had never played before and we laughed and laughed again, and my sister and I tried to cheat help each out. Unfortunately, Jay caught us and we were unsuccessful. Maybe next time though, hehe! And we played some Taboo and I helped our team pull out a win the second round (or maybe I just think that I helped)! It was a fun time, that’s for sure!

Here are more than a few picture that were taken this past weekend. I didn’t get as many as I would have liked, but I was just too lazy at some points to get out my camera and take pictures. I was more interested in just sitting back and enjoying the time with my family. And I need to learn how to accept that not every picture is going to be perfect and that I should just sit back and shoot sometimes instead of worrying about how the picture will turn out.

Here are just a few of the peanut butter balls that my sister made for Christmas. I think she said that she made over 100 and I probably ate at least 50 of them! They were SO good and addicting! The amount of chocolately goodness that I ate this past weekend is insane! I probably gained like sixty pounds! And then there is Ayden with the Swamp People t-shirt that my sister made for him! He LOVES Swamp People and can’t get enough of them!

I saw a lot of this, this past weekend… Nintendo DS in hand and Ayden not paying attention to anything around him. I think he got four new games for it for Christmas, which means that he is now up to eight games. He was having SO much fun playing each new game and the best part was that each game was easy enough for him to play by himself and he didn’t need any help from myself or Jay!I really just love this picture that I took of the Christmas tree lights so I had to share it with everyone!Jay’s mom made me a new camera strap for Christmas. This isn’t the original fabric that she had picked out, but she said that the stuff that she originally got was too short and so she just made one with some fabric that she had at home. I really like how it turned out, but in all honesty, am going to need to get some new ‘me’ fabric and have her make me a new one, which she said she expected anyways. But she made it with this fabric to see how easy it would be and how it would turn out.

And, apparently, my younger sister Alexis is obsessed with Justin Beiber, like every other girl in America, and so my other sister Emily made her a Justin Beiber t-shirt and she just about flipped out when she saw what it was! She was SUPER excited!

Here are Emily and Alexis playing with my camera at our dad’s house and taking silly pictures with it! Love ‘em both!And here are just a few other pictures that I took copying something that I seen on the computer a few days ago. I wanted to try it out and see how it would work and I sort of got the effect that I was looking for… I think, haha! Just a few of about the fifty pictures that I took turned out, but that’s okay!

And before I get too lazy again to post this… here goes…

CIAO! LOVE ME!

And this is why…

I heart Photoshop and always will!

Because I can take an ordinary picture like this…And with the help of some free actions and textures, can turn it into something like this!I may be getting better with my camera each time I use it and each click makes me tingle, but I can’t deny that part of my passion lies with the editing that I’ll get to do with each picture too! I know that some people would rather ‘perfect’ the camera and the correct settings so that they didn’t have to edit so much afterwards. Probably the ‘true photographer’ would, but not me. Although there are techniques that I have no idea how to do yet and might never know, at this point in time I don’t care because I’m usually only making me (or friends and family happy- and they don’t have a choice but to say they like the pictures I took for them for fear of hurting my feelings, okay so they totally can tell me if they don’t like them, I’ll only mind a little, but do understand that everyone has their own taste and theirs’ might not be the same as mine, as long as they understand ahead of time what I’m capable of and don’t expect the world of me, we’ll all be good).

Anyways, I was seriously just playing around with some new actions that I downloaded tonight because I have nothing better to do (untrue) and opened the first scenery picture I could find and went to town on it and I really really love how it turned out!

And because I was bored before I decided to download some new stuff, I was playing around making a new profile picture for Facebook and this is what I came up with.

Finally done with classes for the semester and boy does it feel great! I have a few things to turn in yet for my clinic assignment this spring, but nothing homework wise and nothing that I need to completed, just some paperwork for where I will be going. Nothing hard or stressing!

My last final (the dreaded balance one) was horrific! I think I maybe knew 50% of the material on the test and not for lack of studying either! I studied, believe me! Even with all of the procrastination I talked about, I studied for at least an hour (if not more) every night this past week, as well as for two hours before the test on Friday morning with my classmates. We thought we were prepared for this test. Apparently not. I’m not worried by any means about failing the class or not getting the grade that I want because I did so well on everything else, but just the fact that the test was so hard to begin with pissed me off. I mean seriously! And I know that because I had so much difficulty with it that one of my classmates had even more difficulty with it and because of that, it could determine if she passes or fails the class. I’m praying that she passes it because the last thing she needs is to have to retake it. That would uberly suck for her! Keeping my fingers crossed!

Ayden and I ventured out to finish up our Christmas shopping today while Jay was a ref at his first wrestling tournament of the season. Why it didn’t occur to me that today is Saturday and the last weekend before Christmas is beyond me, because even in our semi smallish tow, the stores were PACKED and we didn’t get a whole lot before calling it a day and coming back home. Jay and I decided that we would go on Monday when everybody should be back at work. Overall though, Ayden was really good while we were in the super busy stores and had to wait in line FOREVER!

I also made two ‘tie blankets’ this afternoon. Didn’t take me as long as I thought they would and they turned out good so I’m happy about that. I did all of the laundry, folded everything, and put it all away and kept procrastinating on wrapping any presents. Maybe I can get Jay to do most of that tomorrow?! I really hate wrapping, mostly anything that isn’t in a box that is easy enough.

It looks like we will be able to fit all of our family Christmases into the three days that we will be home. That means… non stop going! Here is what I have planned for next week…

Monday night- the fabulous four will be getting together (kids in tow) for the first time since August. I’m keeping my fingers crossed that no one gets sick in between now and then because we’ve been planning this for a few weeks. I’m even taking Ayden out of school an hour early so we can leave a little earlier. I have no qualms with taking him out an hour early, especially since he hasn’t  missed but one or two days so far this year.

Tuesday afternoon/night- watch Kristi’s girls because she has to work and her hubby has a final to take. Totally love them and can’t wait because its always a lot of fun!

Wednesday night- going out for a little while with my classmates and two of my supervisors for an end of the semester/Katie’s engagement celebration. Totally our supervisors idea, we think she is craving some girl time because she has three boys and her hubby at home.

Thursday night- after Ayden is done with school we are leaving to go ‘home’, but before we get there, we are stopping at our all time family favorite… HuHot for supper! Can’t wait for it and we have some gift cards for it so we don’t even have to use our own money!

Friday- Christmas at my mom’s house, Jay’s mom’s parent’s house, and my mom’s parent’s house!

Saturday- Christmas at Jay’s parent’s house, Jay’s dad’s parent’s house, and my mom’s husband’s parent’s house.

Sunday- Christmas probably at my dad’s house and at his parent’s house and then hopefully head home late that afternoon and crash into our beds and sleep for 24 hours straight because that is a lot of places to go in such a short amount of time! But it will be great, I’m sure of that!

CIAO! LOVE ME!

Closing in…

Two more tests, one more report (of which I'm totally irked about having to write, but will suck it up and just get it over with asap) to finish and then I am calling it QUITS for the next 31 DAYS!!! NOTHING school related will be happening, whatsoever! Unfortunately, I doubt that that will be the case because I still have a few things that I need to turn in and get taken care of, but nothing I need to study for or finish after tomorrow, and for that I am grateful because this semester has just about drained me and I am itching to get out and finish my Christmas shopping and use my 30% off coupon at Kohls! Yeah! Just in time for Christmas!

I had my two hour long practical yesterday for my balance class and I have to say that I was definitely not as nervous about it as I thought I might be. I kind of sort of just went into what I call 'clinic mode' and pretended like I was working with an actual patient instead of just a classmate of mine who was volunteering to help me. I think that definitely helped, and the fact that I had my teacher as a supervisor all semester and I am not afraid of him anymore in that way. I know that I probably could have done better in some areas, but I also know that he wasn't looking for perfections so I better get an 'A' on that, or an 'A-' at the least because I totally think I deserve it.

I don't think I announced that I got an 'A' as my clinic grade and a great commendation from my supervisor (same a-hole that I hate most of the time)! To be more precise, I got a 98%... that is a SUPER high 'A' from the supervisor notoriously known for giving nothing higher than an 'A-' because you can always improve something. I was astonished! I don't think I deserved that high of grade, but I won't complain. It was just very surprising and made a great start to my week on Monday and I couldn't wait to share it! :) It was a big accomplishment for me this semester! And it means that I can do that much worse in a different class and still hopefully get a scholarship next semester. And by 'that much worse', I mean get an 'A-' instead of an 'A' in a different class.

I'm not keeping my fingers crossed for all 'A's this semester because it was a rough one. I got an 'A' in clinic, I'm thinking an 'A' in my balance class and balance lab class and an 'A' in my research class, but I'm holding out hope for at least an 'A-' in my ABR class and lab because those ones definitely sucked and I only got a high 'B' on my first test and a 'B-' on my second test and an 'A' on my presentation. This last test will hopefully yield me another 'A' and then I can do the extra credit for a few more points as well.(I really just love this picture and the processing that I did to it. There’s just something about it that pulls me in, but almost any picture of Ayden can do that for me!)

The test itself was pretty easy, but by saying that I probably jinxed myself and now I will fail it. Actually, the test was online so we had full use of all of our notes and textbooks. Usually those kind of tests are more difficult, but that wasn’t the case this time. The extra credit was also pretty easy, so hoping to pull out a few points there as well!

I’ve been trying to study all day for my next exam and it is not going as good as I would have hoped. I’ve resigned myself that I am going to walk out of the classroom tomorrow crying. Maybe not that bad, but not keeping my hopes up that it will be good. If I go in pessimistic, will it really be that bad? Or if I go in optimistic, will it be better?! Hoping so!

Jay made this super good pot roast stew tonight! SO yummy! And best of all, I didn’t have to make anything or clean anything up! Even better.

I did a little bit of shopping today between taking my test and before I had to go back to campus for a meeting with my supervisor (in which she didn’t even show up for) and stopped at Bath and Body Works. I got over $100 worth of stuff for just over $50 with all of the great deals that they have going on and the $10 off card I had. They were having a buy three, get three free lotion, soap, body wash, spray deal going on and their hand soaps were on sale 6 for $20! So I got six regular size bottles of lotion for $30, 6 hand soaps (which I love and stocked up on for our house), and then 3 little bottles of lotion that they are going to premiere as new scents in mid January for $1 each. I heart Bath and Body Works!

A few more things to get as far as Christmas shopping goes. Kind of looking forward to going and getting that tomorrow after I am done with my test and work. Jay is going to be gone most of the day on Saturday to ref his first wrestling tournament of the year and so I will try and get a lot of wrapping done with Ayden then. Hopefully, hehe!

Can’t wait until noon tomorrow!

CIAO! LOVE ME!

Blizzard of 2010

I haven’t seen my future hubby really at all this weekend and it totally and completely sucks! Oh, I know that women do it all of the time and for much better reasons, you know, those brave wives who go through every day life while the their loves are fighting overseas, but I feel like complaining right now. Wishing he was at home with Ayden and myself, but alas, he is out plowing peoples’ driveways giving them a way to leave in the morning when they have to go to work!

So, while Ayden and I were at home all weekend (no, I’m not crazy enough to even think about driving in the weather that we have been having), we kept busy with taking pictures, playing games, and venturing out into the snow. I procrastinated on starting to study and have managed to put it completely off now. Will start tomorrow, I promise, hehe! I have all morning so I’ll definitely get on it, especially with my final exam in that class on Friday!

Here are a few pictures that I snapped earlier today of Ayden before we went outside. I was really trying for some tree light bokeh, but it wasn’t working as well as I wanted it to, but I think that they still turned out cute, I couldn’t get him to look at the camera long enough because he was busy watching a TV show. And then when I turned off the TV I lost almost all of his attention, hehe! But they are cute none the less!And then because he let me take some good pictures of him, I agreed that we could venture outside together and play in some of the snow that we got! We got SO much snow that I don’t even know where we will put it if we get anymore. We literally have more already than I think we had all winter last year. I don’t know, but it is really crazy! It wasn’t too cold outside today so I am glad that Ayden and I got out to play for a little while!

Check out that pile of snow! That is just from our driveway! Good thing that Jay plows because he easily took care of that and we didn’t have to shovel any of it. Although, our duplex neighbors did get the small snow blower out that Jay brought home this fall and used that for our driveway. I know I wasn’t getting out there and doing it, hehe! Totally a man’s job. Okay, so it’s not, but why bother when Jay will do it and/or the neighbors will take care of it. My job is to provide the hot chocolate afterwards.Ayden and I had lots of fun outside in the snow! We threw snowballs back and forth with each other, shoveled a little bit (you know, because it was already done for us), and kept pushing our hats up because they wouldn’t stay on very good.

I love this picture of him! Oops, the snow went the wrong way, right into his face!

In these last few pictures we have a bit of the ‘Hoerth tongue’, a sneak at Ayden’s hand of Monopoly Deal cards (which by the way is such a fun game), and another super cute picture of my chocolate rimmed super cutie! I was able to get some of the tree light bokeh I was trying for earlier in the day, but not exactly what I was going for. In any case, I really just like this picture!One of my classmates got engaged last weekend on her birthday. I am SO excited for her! Her fiancé did a fabulous job picking out the ring! Quite the rock if I don’t say so myself! Slightly jealous, haha! Actually, although I do like her ring a lot, I know that the one I have is meant for me. I am jealous that she will probably get married before me. Not overly jealous, but slightly so. Although, if she had it her way, they wouldn’t be getting married until we graduate. In any case, I do know that I can learn from her everything that I shouldn’t do when it comes time to plan for our wedding. It will come in due time, I keep telling myself that! But that doesn’t stop me from getting my wedding band out every now and then and putting it on with my engagement ring and seeing how it looks. Darn good if I don’t say so myself! I will be SO ready to keep it on for good come September 21, 2013! Can’t come soon enough, but I won’t go wishing time away. Time goes fast enough the way it is, if anything, I’d prefer to slow it down a little bit, especially with how fast Ayden seems to be growing right before my eyes!

Here is a 2009 and 2010 picture of Ayden in front of the Christmas tree. Does he look a little older in the 2010 picture. Maybe I should say that the picture on the left is the 2009 picture and the one on the right is the 2010 picture. I think there is maybe a subtle difference. Quit growing kid! Seriously, just stop!!!

CIAO! LOVE ME!