Wednesday, September 29, 2010

Wordfull Wednesday

Working on a very sssslllooowww project at work and the 'best' part about it is that I can't even speed it up because I have to wait for the computer to download the information that I need each time I'm done looking something up. SO much fun! But it leaves me a little time to do some blogging, which I don't really get a lot of time for these days. I feel like I want to just sit down and blog blog blog because I really enjoy writing all of the time and getting what's been going on and happening in my life down on paper (or type on the computer screen) does seem to help me a little bit. My schedule just keeps me going going going throughout the day though, that when I end up getting home at the end of the night and do sit down for a little bit I am in the mood to do nothing other than sit and vegge out in front of the TV for an hour before going to bed. I do love me some TV time at the end of the day to relax.

And right now I'm in the process of creating a Facebook fan page for my photography. I'm calling it Frozen Moments Photography. I'm not officially going into business or anything, but I thought it was time to maybe move the pictures that I take for people off of my personal page and put them onto a page themselves. However, I've also decided that all of the pictures that I want to put up on the photography page should be watermarked/copyrighted and in order to do that I need to open all of the pictures, add the watermark, and resave each picture individually. It takes quite a bit of time, especially since I have probably over 300 pictures I want to do it too. But it will be worth it I think since there are quite a few people that I've taken pictures for so far. I'm definitely open to taking more pictures for people, but I'm not really putting myself out there to make a living off of it. I don't think I am anywhere near THAT good. I just love to take pictures that people love! Mine definitely aren't as good as the ones that are taken by those who do this for a living and have the best lighting equipment and the years upon years of knowledge, but I tend to like most of the pictures that I take, although I know I'm biased. Haha!

Off to the clinic now…

CIAO! LOVE ME!

Sunday, September 26, 2010

Ready for another week!

I was finally able to get my photo shoot in with my cousins this past weekend and this is one of my favorite pictures from the shoot and this was totally on the spot! LOVE it! We had SO much fun and they were so great!IMG_1553 I can’t remember if I wrote about all of the rain we got this past week or not… in any case, we got like 6 inches of rain on Thursday and here is a picture of our favorite beach area under the water! All of this water… is NOT supposed to be there, it is all overflow from the small river that we wade in during the summer!IMG_1784And during our day home this weekend, we road tripped it to an apple orchard about an hour away and had a great family day!IMG_1796 IMG_1818 IMG_1851IMG_1858IMG_1884 IMG_1883IMG_1882These last few are some water pictures. The first two are sunset pictures that I couldn’t NOT take, they were just calling to me, haha! And the last one is the Wisconsin River!IMG_1709 IMG_1717IMG_1790 I hope you don’t ever get sick of seeing my pictures, but a stop isn’t coming anytime soon! Photography is what keeps me sane in the midst of all of the drama of school. No pressure and SO much fun!

CIAO! LOVE ME!

Friday, September 24, 2010

Another week come and gone…

We are almost in October! I thought September had just started… like yesterday!

I’m currently sitting in our ‘gliding’ chair wrapped up in my heating blanket watching Forrest Gump with Jay. It really is a joyous time! Actually, being all cuddled up like this with only one light on in the living room, Ayden in bed, and no impending class looming over me tomorrow is pretty relaxing. I must say that this week was considerably less stressful than any of the other weeks I’ve had so far this semester. I probably just jinxed myself by saying that. *Knocks on wood*

One of my classes was just a work day on Monday and believe it or not, I actually got a lot of work done during the time that we didn’t have to sit in class listening to a lecture. It also helped because Monday is our long day and this past Monday was possibly the longest Monday… ever! But I survived, always will!

Tuesday was clinic and it went well. We’ve had quite a few ‘different’ situations pop up for us this semester so far where clinic is concerned. Definitely kind of exciting and interesting, but I’m ready for just a few weeks of normal clinic stuff. This coming week I will be having a different supervisor, along with the next week. The good thing about the second week is that we are doing screenings at a local center and that means we don’t have to write reports or summaries. YES! A break! Haha! I know I shouldn’t be like that, but everyone needs a break every now and then.

Ayden had a dentist appointment on Tuesday and he got a clean bill of health teeth! No cavities! Yeah buddy! They were going to put sealants on his back molars, but I guess that they are not in far enough yet and will do that at his next appointment in six months. I suppose that the fact that he already has some caps, it was a good thing he didn’t have any cavities. Actually, a GREAT thing! I also had Jay talk to them about how Ayden’s teeth line up because it is not normal. I don’t know how else to explain it, or if they have a name for it, but the hygienist said that they have it written in his file to keep an eye on. They won’t be doing anything about it now because he only has his baby teeth and hopefully as his permanent ones come it, it might fix it. In any case, I was happy about the no cavities!

Jay hasn’t worked a whole lot this week. He got done early on Tuesday, didn’t work yesterday because of the rain, and only worked a few hours this morning because of the wind and the misty rain. Small check coming next week… although it was kind of nice to have him home a little more. It allowed me to get home earlier on Tuesday and for us to go get some down and dirty grocery shopping done since we had like no food at home!

On Wednesday (like my progression through the week, hehe)… I had the most relaxing day of the semester so far… it was great! Maybe I can contribute some of that relaxation to the Bath and Body Works Stress Reliever lotion that I had slathered on the morning before classes started?! Who knows?! But it does smell super good! Lab that morning went super fast and actually gave me about an hour and a half to eat and get a few other things done. I haven’t had ANY time really to sit down yet this semester at my desk and just chill and not really have to worry about getting anything done.

Kristi and I hit up the Y that night for a Cardio Mix class that kicked both of our butts! I really liked it though and I hope that we do it again because even though we both couldn’t almost walk afterwards, I felt really good and even if I’m not losing weight with going to one class a week, I love just getting out of the house for an hour and getting to see my friend. That… and Ayden and Lily have a great time playing together in the kids room! Ayden was just as sweaty as me when I went to pick him up!

Thursday and Friday were NO class days for me this week and I actually very relaxed both of those days too! Yesterday night Ayden officially became a Cub Scout! He is in the Tiger’s Den this year and he is really excited about it. Me… not so much! If it were up to me, I wouldn’t have signed him up. The introduction meeting ran WAY too long, they want WAY too much parent involvement, and want you to raise WAY too much money fundraising. Its just a super EXPENSIVE extracurricular really. I was getting frustrated… Although parent involvement isn’t a bad thing, but I’m already super busy with my school and work schedule and homework that fitting another thing in just wasn’t what I wanted to do and I’m definitely not one of those fundraising up the ying yang type parents. So… I left the decision up to Jay and he said yes. And then he told me the one thing that threw me for a loop… he said that he wanted to stop playing his game. He has played World of Warcraft for probably the better part of the last three years and I didn’t think I would see the day that he stopped playing. Well, I just might! I told Jay that if we did this Cub Scouts thing, that he would be the one who took Ayden to most of the meetings and so on and so forth and he seemed okay with that. Bring on the Cub Scouts! I’m glad that we went through with it though because I think that it will be good for Ayden, even if we are only in it for a year or two!

We survived the rain here in Point yesterday, although some places nearby weren’t so lucky. Jay’s grandma, my mom, and my dad all called after seeing Stevens Point on the news in their area. How concerning!

Tomorrow morning I get to pick up a bunch of photography books and props from Jay’s aunt. She no longer takes pictures professionally and although she has sold most of her props a while ago, she still has quite a few left at home and was wondering if I wanted any. OF COURSE! I was so excited when she asked and can’t wait to go and look through them tomorrow! And then I am heading to High Cliff to take some pictures for my cousins! I’m really excited about that too because its not too often that I get to take pictures of people who will actually listen to me when I tell them what to do, unlike Ayden, hehe!

And on Sunday we are heading to an apple orchard in the area if the weather is nice! They have hay rides and a corn maze and we can pick our own apples! I’m looking forward to a caramel apple! Yummy!

CIAO! LOVE ME!

Thursday, September 23, 2010

Happy SEVEN YEARS Honey!!!

Today marks SEVEN years since Jay and I ‘officially’ started dating! I can’t believe that it has been seven years already! Looking forward to another seven with my love, and another seven after that and so on and so forth!!!

Here is our first picture taken together! Taken three days before we made it ‘official’! I can’t believe how young we look! I accompanied Jay to his cousin’s wedding and we had a great time! I can’t believe how long my hair was… or Jay’s for that matter! It’s been at least three years (if not more) since he’s let it grow out THAT long! Fell in love with this curls and seven years later they are no more, not even on the little dude. :( Oh well, I will survive!IMG_1501And here we are seven years after we started dating… well technically a little less than seven years since this picture was taken a few months ago during our summer photo shoot. Aren’t we cute?!IMG_1913-2 CIAO! LOVE ME!

Tuesday, September 21, 2010

Sturgeon Fishing and Mirror Lake State Park

Here are some pictures from our busy fun filled packed weekend while I try and fit in some time to blog all about what we did! Enjoy!

 IMG_1189IMG_1241IMG_1192IMG_1493  IMG_1249IMG_1251 IMG_1260IMG_1268 IMG_1267IMG_1286  IMG_1318IMG_1377 IMG_1341IMG_1343 IMG_1310IMG_1449IMG_1381IMG_1404 IMG_1417IMG_1453  IMG_1450IMG_1457 IMG_1467IMG_1476   IMG_1486IMG_1431IMG_1484It was a GREAT time and ended WAY too soon! I’ll hopefully post all about it soon! You know, when time stops and I actually get to sit down for a minute or two or three!

CIAO! LOVE ME!

Friday, September 17, 2010

Running, running, running!!!

My first full week back on campus was craptastic this week! I didn't get home before almost 7pm Monday, Tuesday, AND Wednesday! That is TWO too many days for me! That SHOULD only be happening on Monday's when I have class until 6:40pm. Not the case this week though. :( And I was getting really frustrated with it. Long days on campus with WAY too much floating around in my head lead to bad moods by the time I get home and that isn't good for myself, Jay, or Ayden because it usually means that I am taking it out on one or both of them. And I think my bad moods sort of rubbed off on Jay this week too because I could tell that his patience with Ayden was running short. And then to top things off, my car needs a new muffler, my computer broke, and I have WAY too much stuff to do and definitely not enough time to do it.

Trying to look on the bright side of things a little bit... my car muffler wasn't outrageously expensive to replace. Under $100... Jay just needs to put it on now. My computer itself still works, it is one of the hinges on the laptop that is broken. Because of the broken hinge, however, I can no longer close my computer which means I can no longer take it to school. I need to contact Dell yet and see what they can do for it. I don't really want to go without a computer for a few weeks, but I really like taking my computer to school so I'll have to do something about it... Better sooner than later I guess and definitely better to have something cosmetically broken than something internally broken. Although I did find a virus on my computer last night by doing a spyware/virus sweep. I redid the sweep two times afterwards to make sure it was gone and it was. I just don't like seeing 'virus' pop up on my computer. But who does?!

As if that isn't enough, apparently I need to be starting and finishing all of my assignments ASAP. Wait, that is supposed to be how it is, right?! Lol! I've definitely been lazy when it comes to the homework front and reading for class. I have to say that on Monday, Tuesday, and Wednesday night, by the time I got home all I wanted to do was spend time with my little guy before he had to go to bed and then relax myself before dropping into bed. It wouldn't be horrible getting home at 7pm every night... IF... IF... IF... I didn't have 70 pages of reading and 6000 mini assignments to worry about. And this week I had literally NO down time during the day. If I wasn't in class, I was in lab. If I wasn't in lab, I was in clinic. If I wasn't in clinic, I was writing reports. If I wasn't writing reports, I was at work. If I wasn't at work, I was fixing hearing aids, fitting in more lab, doing stuff for people because I'm nice, pulling my hair about holding tears back! But no, at the end of the day, I'm still not even close to being done with what I need to get done. I've decided that our specific graduate program IS NOT structured for anyone other than your average student who is rich and doesn't need a job and has NO one waiting for them at home, not even a boyfriend or husband or best friend. They are a loner expected to be on campus ALL day long with nothing else going on in there life. Because let me tell you, the second you attempt to hold a job, even if only for 10 or so hours a week like myself, even if you have a boyfriend, hubby, or child at home, they want you to put school first. THAT'S CRAPTASTIC when you are like me! Even more craptastic when you are like my classmate who has four kids at home! As you can probably tell... I'm pretty bitter about this week still, hoping next week goes better!

My Thursday was a little better. I was home by 1pm, after a morning meeting that was WAY too long because my stupid supervisor didn't edit my reports before the meeting, but instead waited to read them during the meeting so I spent a good 10 minutes just watching him edit them. Ugh, seriously! I was a little peeved about that. Our meeting could have been 10 minutes shorter which in turn would have given me time to do my pre reports for next week yesterday and not have to fit them in today. I couldn't fit them in yesterday while I was there because my meter was up and I had to go to work. I worked for a few hours and then headed back to the clinic for a quick phone call to a client and fill out a little paperwork before heading to Walmart to pick up a few things for this weekend and then I stopped at Taco Bell for lunch and brought it home. I wanted to try their new Flatbread Chicken sandwiches and was in need of a strawberry frutista. The flatbread sandwiches were a little spicier than I would have liked, but still relatively yummy for only 99 cents and the frutista HIT THE SPOT! Yum-o!

I then spent the majority of my afternoon doing laundry, picking up around the house a little bit and finishing up an assignment that is due on Monday that I will have no time for this weekend. I also babysat for my friend's daughters again yesterday late afternoon until night time because her hubby had his class and she was scheduled to work again. I love watching those kiddos, but unfortunately on our walk to go pick up Ayden from school we lost one of the Leila's blankets. Thankfully she didn't have a favorite and it wasn't anything bigger than a small baby receiving blanket. I just couldn't believe that I lost it since I kept looking back to make sure we didn't lose anything and I did manage to catch that she threw her hat out so yeah, I was bummed about that, but her parent's didn't care.

Ayden and Lily (the four year old) ran around the whole time the girls were over. They play SO well together! And Leila (the 15 month old) and I hung out. Leila does not like Jay very much so when he got home from work, she clung to me like a monkey. It was funny! She is SO adorable and cuddling with her was totally fine with me. Definitely got my baby fever going though! These girls belong to my zumba momma buddy! We zumba'd it up again this week! I don't think I was working hard enough because I didn't sweat as bad as last time (although the air conditioning in the room was working this time and not last time), so we think we might stick around after zumba and hit up the cardio class as well next week. Zumba is WAY fun though!

…and because I have to go pick Ayden up from school right now… I gotta run (again)!

CIAO! LOVE ME!

Tuesday, September 14, 2010

High Cliff Pictures

It rained on Saturday morning and so my photo session with my cousins had to be cancelled… however I was able to get to High Cliff State Park on Sunday with Jay to take some pictures of the surrounding areas!

I’ve decided that that location is a MUST for future wedding pictures of mine! No ifs, ands, or buts about it, lol!

And because I’m seriously stressing and bumming this week so far, I’ll just leave you with some of the pictures that I took. Enjoy!IMG_1133 IMG_1086 IMG_1087 IMG_1089 IMG_1090 IMG_1091 IMG_1096 IMG_1101 IMG_1104 IMG_1105 IMG_1106 IMG_1108 IMG_1109 IMG_1112 IMG_1114 IMG_1116 IMG_1119 IMG_1124 IMG_1127 IMG_1131 IMG_1132Hoping this week takes a turn for the better, keeping my fingers crossed!

CIAO! LOVE ME!