{hop back to it}

It is no secret that over the last month my eating and workout habits have declined. How could it be a secret when I blog about how horrible both are almost every time I blog, haha! Truth be told, I have not made much effort to rein in my food habits too much and go back to the way I was. It was much easier to eat super healthy when I wasn't busy all day and I didn't have to cook for three. I could make Ayden something for supper and then eat something myself when Jay wasn't living with us. Lately, it's been typical summer food more often than not... hot dogs, brats, burgers, you know! What I have been trying to do is just decrease the amount that I eat and not pig out. Although, we all know that that is WAY easier said than done. Case in point... cookies from Quik Trip the other night, I may or may not have had four... four cookies at 250 calories a piece! Oops! Lol! But I had my booty kicked at my 5:30am boot camp Monday morning, so that's okay, isn't it?! Haha!

Speaking of boot camp, my legs are... KILLING ME! They weren't too bad afterwards or all day, but the day after…oh goodness! It is that good feeling hurt though. That feeling you want to feel after a good workout!

And the best news is that I've found a workout buddy to help keep me motivated! She is an almost next door neighbor and I am fastly growing to love her! Last week we went for an almost eight mile bike ride and then on Sunday we went swimming for an hour! Oh, I am going to love the fact that our town has a pool that is free for residents. Swimming just might become my new favorite workout! Plus, it burns a ton of calories and I really enjoyed it! In fact, I enjoyed it so much that I am thinking about going again tonight.

Here is me and my new friend, Sarah, after our bike ride last week! Have to admit, jealous of her bike, she kicked butt on that while I huffed and puffed on my bike!Life overall has been going good. We had a good weekend. It was mostly relaxing. Ayden got to spend some time with my mom and my dad. Sometimes I feel like he is away from the house more than he is at it lately. But that is okay because he is spending time with family that we don't see very often and for us to see them regularly now is great. He has probably also slept away from the house more days in the last month than he has in the last year. As long as he is enjoying himself I am okay with it. I can't say that I don't enjoy some extra alone time with Jay. We've never had this much alone time before and it has been really good for us. Overall I think that Jay is just happier that we are in Chilton. Not that he wasn't happy when we were in Stevens Point, but to me, he just feels more laid back about things and likes being able to see everyone so often.

My externship continues to go well. I cannot believe that I have been there a month already. Time flies (as I put in almost every post)! My only gripe continues to be time management. I hate running behind. Love my supervisor to death, but yesterday we spent forty minutes just shooting the breeze with a patient. Now, I have no problem chatting with the patient after we have finished up, but this put us behind for other patients and then I didn't have any time to finish my chart note. It's no wonder my supervisor was so behind before I got here... she just can't stop talking, TO ANYONE! However, as much as that can annoy me sometimes, I think it is a big part of why her patient's keep coming back and like her so much. She is an amazing audiologist and even in the month that I have been here I have learned so much, but she also gets very personal with her patients. I think that might be something I can take from her. I think I tend to get too focused on getting the patient in, fixing their problems, and then getting them out so I can get the chart note done and get ready for the next patient. I see no problem chatting with the patient, but because I am such a Type A personality that needs everything to run in perfect order, it bugs me when we sit and talk to a patient forever when there are other things I could be doing to get ready and then I won't be running behind. Alas though, this is not my practice and I will do things the way they are done here and not gripe about it. Life will go on. And despite that point, I do love it! My supervisor and the other audiologist on staff are amazeballs! The office managers are fabulous and everyone has made me feel like a part of their small tight knit family already so it is great!

CIAO! LOVE ME!

{mall of america: sleeping with the sharks}

I promised a picture post of our fun time at the Mall of America and here it is! You’ll have to forgive the imperfectness of them though because I didn’t feel like editing them before posting them on here. That takes time, which I am usually running short on here! Enjoy!

First up is our view coming into Minneapolis… we didn’t actually have to go into the city, but the view of the big buildings was pretty cool and I am glad that we didn’t have to go into the busy town. We followed Jay’s friend, JT, to the Mall of America… that is his truck in front of us.Here is little man in the Lego store! He couldn’t get enough of it! But then again, what little boy could?!Look at ALL of those LEGOS!!!My two favorite guys and then another one that probably ranks within the top 10 (only because he means so much to Jay as a friend and he is pretty awesome with Ayden as well), haha! Jay, Ayden, and JT were playing a flight simulator in the Microsoft store. Check out the stingray and some other members of the Cub Scout troop trying to get a good picture of the fish under the water!

My two main men getting ready to go on the tour of the facility!Ayden and his best buddy, Shane, from school. Those two were pretty inseparable the whole time we were there and it was SO cute!

A five and a half hour drive home and I would be knocked out too! Love it, haha!CIAO! LOVE ME!

{as the week continues}

I had a very productive day 'off' yesterday. (Which really was Wednesday because as the norm lately, I started this post one day and am finishing it another.) It really wasn't a day off because I spent it being busy and having a good time. We have been having some super warm weather in the area lately with high humidity and we do not have air conditioning in our new house... bummer! However, I've pretty much gotten over that fact and like I mentioned before, we are now using two small window air conditioners to cool the bedrooms down at night so we can sleep when it becomes that hot out. It is survivable!

The day was spent with Ayden and my younger sister Alexis. Ayden had spent the night at Alexis's house the night before because Jay and I were going to go to Country USA and when Ayden was being dropped off Wednesday morning Alexis looked sad and I asked her why. She said she didn't want to go to daycare and told her mom that if it was okay with her that she could spend the day with Ayden and I as we had no other plans. And so it was just Ayden, Alexis, and myself all day. And I think I sat and watched maybe a half hour of TV. Actually, I don't think the kids watched all that much either.

We went to the park, went on a walk, kicked the soccer ball around, ventured to the library, did a bit of grocery shopping, played in the sprinkler and with water guns, and my dad took the kids swimming late in the afternoon. I also loaded the dishwasher (I know, big deal, right... well it is because I don't do dishes at my house), did some laundry, organized the office a lot more, and painted the rest of the patio table, and started on some homework. So you see, it was very productive! I didn't really stop moving until I went to bed last night. Jay also made some yummy homemade chicken noodle soup for me too. I had been craving it and it is just so yummy! Although, it was a little too hot out last night to really enjoy it because eating a warm bowl of soup just made me warmer!

Tonight we are going to venture to Country USA again. (Which really was Thursday night.) We never made it on Tuesday because we took my car and it started acting up on us again. I know, I have the world's most awesome car, right?! Why can't it ever just work like I want it to? Although, I kind of thought it might act up on our drive and was glad that we took it and that it did act up because it pushed Jay and myself to order the new part right away. I had been driving it to work this week and it was fine, but I didn't quite trust it yet. The new part should be in sometime today.

We almost made it to Country USA, but not quite. The second time the car started to act up we were probably only 15-20 minutes away; however, that time it took Jay a lot longer to get the car started again and it got me a little more worried. I didn't want to be stuck in Oshkosh at midnight with a car that wouldn't start. That would definitely have been no fun. So, we turned around and stopped to eat supper at Tom's Drive In... by this point it was almost 8pm. We let the car cool down a little bit and enjoyed some couple's time and then headed home. The car made it home fine and I made Jay take it to work this morning. Tonight we are going to take Jay's truck. I really don't want to miss seeing Sugarland. Plus, tonight (Thursday night) it is supposed to be a lot cooler out too. Tuesday it was super hot.

And so, to make a long story short for this post… we made it to Country USA. Haha! I will talk about how much fun that was in my next post!

CIAO! LOVE ME!

{sleeping with the sharks}

We made it to Minnesota and back this weekend. It was one heck of a LONG drive, but it was SO well worth it! 5.5 hours of driving each way! We survived though and even Ayden didn't whine too much about the long drive. I thought the drive coming home was a lot worse than the drive out there though. We ended up taking Jay's truck out there because I didn't quite trust my car yet. (To be honest, even though I am back to driving my car to work every day, I still get nervous driving it and it will take me some time to feel completely comfortable with it again.) I know that it cost us more in gas to drive Jay's truck, but it was surprisingly less than I thought it was going to be which made me happy. I drove almost all of the way out there... when I stopped driving we maybe had a 30-45 minute drive left and that is only because I didn't want to drive in the city.

We stopped at a gas station to switch drivers and to meet up with Jay's friend who lives in Minnesota, JT. JT was giving us two window air conditioners that his parents no longer used for us to use at our house. Our new house does not have air conditioning and it has been MEGA hot these last few days! We put one in our room and we are going to put the other one in Ayden's room and use them mainly for sleeping at night because that is when the heat bothers everyone the most.

So, we got the air conditioners and then followed JT to the Mall of America. It was nice to see him again and I know that even though Jay won't admit it outloud, he enjoys seeing JT in the flesh every now and then too! They talk a TON on the phone all of the time, but it does suck when you don't get to see your friends in person! Anyways, we didn't need to check in for the Sleeping with the Sharks until 6:45pm and we made it to the mall shortly after 4pm. We walked around for a while and just hung out. It was nice.

When we were bringing out stuff into the mall and Ayden's buddy, Shane, saw him, his face just lit up and he ran over to him to give him a hug. It was SO cute! Shane's mom told me that on Ayden's last day of school that Shane tried to be brave, but when he got home after school that day that he just broke down in tears and missed his buddy Ayden. Break my heart! Those two were pretty inseparable the entire time that we were there and it was too cute! It seemed like utter chaos during times with all of the kids and what not, but it well pretty well.

We got a tour of the facility and even got some behind the scenes looks at different things. My favorite part was the shark tunnel. I literally could have spent the entire time in there watching the sharks and the sea turtles and what not, SO COOL! Ayden elected to sleep in the tunnel with the rest of the kids and the majority of the adults. Jay and I decided to sleep by the jellyfish because it was cheaper. Little did Jay know that when he picked the spot by the jellyfish that he did with our sleep mats that he picked one right next to a jellyfish tube that had the light on ALL night long and we are not talking a little dim light, we are talking bright. Ugh much! Not to mention that sleeping on an inch or two of foam really isn't the most comfortable thing and then add other people in the room and no white noise app on my phone... I slept like crap, haha! It maybe wouldn't have been so bad had it been darker and had I had a white noise app on my phone. I had an app for that awhile ago, but for some reason or another I had deleted it and let me tell you, you don't get cellphone reception in the basement of the Mall of America... which meant no downloading a new white noise app. Oh and I forgot to tell you about the lovely 'tidal pool' that we were close too as well that made this loud annoying noise just about every minute! I think I finally fell asleep sometime after 2am and we were awake by 7am... fun times! Haha! We left the Mall of America shortly after 9am and were home by about 2:30pm at which time Jay left to go to some family gathering and Ayden and I stayed home.

I elected to stay home because I was bone tired and because honestly, I just wanted to be alone and not around people anymore. I slept on and off on the couch for a few hours while Ayden played with his toys.

I think I am back up and running at full capacity now, not as tired anymore. I was not so secretly happy that it was storming out yesterday morning because I really wasn't in the mood to get up for my 5:30am boot camp class. Oops, haha! Next week though!

My online summer class started yesterday and it looks like a lot of online participation is in store. Boo! I am so not in school mode right now, not at all! Working all week long definitely takes its toll on me as I've written before and honestly, it gives me a whole new level of respect for those who do hold full time jobs and families because it requires a whole new level of balance that I haven't had to worry about in the last seven years. Everyone has always told me how proud they are of me for continuing on with school while having a child so young. I never knew any other way. Not going to college was never an option for me. Not graduating from college was never an option either. It was something that I always knew I would complete. So, even if other consider it hard work, I just did it, I didn't have a choice. I made it work. Now I have a new level of appreciation for what my mom went through when she was getting her degree while working full time and raising three kids! Wowers! All that said though, I still want more children. And like I had mentioned in a previous post, maybe at some point Jay and I will be financially stable enough for me to work the hours I would like to and maybe not. I thoroughly enjoy my time at clinic, but I also enjoyed the last couple of weeks of being able to leave clinic at clinic and coming home and just worrying about family time. Now I need to fit back in school time as well. Only for the next year though... actually, less than a year!

I will post some pictures from our fun trip soon!

CIAO! LOVE ME!

{some people}

My week has been going great (and not so great), but mostly great. The week started off slow and I had a long day at clinic on Tuesday, but I was ready for my day off on Wednesday and I have to say that I thoroughly enjoyed it. Ayden and I did not do much, but I did get some stuff done around the house. I have to say that I was semi productive. My attempts to eat healthier have been minimal at best. Like I said previously, I do well through lunch, but then when I get home it is horrible. I think a lot of that has to do with the fact that we haven't been having good sit down cooked meals as of late because it seems like everyone is just coming and going at our house. That and the fact that we have ice cream in our house. I think that because we haven't had an abundance of junk food in the house for quite some time I am dealing with an internal struggle of craving the ice cream and knowing I shouldn't eat it. Most of the time this week, my craving has won out. Each day is a new day though and since the ice cream is gone, today will be a better day, right?! YES! Haha!

I'm bummed about a completely different situation, although it is one of those situations that I won't be blogging about. It breaks my heart, but to be honest, I think I saw it coming. That's about as much as I'd like to delve into that topic right now. I know, quite evasive... I probably shouldn't even write about it if I am not going to talk about it anymore, but oh well. That covers the not so great part of my week.

Jay and I have been doing great lately. Did I ever mention that I feel the whole, absence makes the heart grow fonder thing might just be true?! Jay and I may have had a harder than normal time during our time apart (which seems like eons ago now), but I know that the stress of the end of the semester was weighing heavily on me and that the stress of his new job and being away from his family was hard on him too... we both has shorter than normal buttons to push and we pushed each others a lot more than usual. But now (and I hope I don't jinx myself), we are back in our groove and doing great. I cannot believe that in just over a year we will be married. MARRIED! In the past Jay and I have had some big issues between us and me being the stubborn person that I am, I was bound and determined not to budge on them. (I think I get that from my mom, haha.) But I have been really trying to work on that and I think it has helped our relationship. Honestly, as much as I enjoyed sleeping alone in our bed while we were living apart, I am much happier sharing the bed with him again. Insert smiley face here!

This weekend we get to 'sleep with the sharks' at the Mall of America with Ayden's cub scout pack. I don't really know how excited Ayden is about it. Actually, I feel like I haven't really seen much of Ayden all week and it bums me out. He slept over night at Jay's parents house again last night so Jay's mom could sleep in this morning and I was totally okay with it, but because she picked him up before I got home from work/clinic last night I didn't get to see him and haven't since yesterday morning. I am kind of looking forward to it just being us as a family over the weekend and seeing some familiar Pointer faces while we are away. We need some family time away from the house as well because when we are home we are busy doing house stuff.

Although, I have to admit, that the more we get put away, the lazier I seem to be getting at night. I have four baskets of laundry that need to be folded and put away. I have almost three weeks worth of 'pictures of the day' that I need to upload to my blog yet. I have the pictures from my cousin's photo shoot to edit and then I said I would edit some pictures for a friend of mine as well. The office is still in shambles. All of this stuff out of it's designated spot bugs me, but I'm just not motivated enough at the end of the night to do anything about it. Oh well.

I am glad that I took the time to read a few books the two weeks before we moved to Chilton. I needed the relaxation time and it was really relaxing to sit outside in the sun all afternoon without a care in the world. I got a few good reads in (they just might have been the dirty smut of the Fifty Shades of Grey series) and now that I am busy again, I haven't felt the urge to read at all. Although, usually when I read a good series, it takes me some time to pick up another book and get into it because I'm still stuck on the previous characters. I'm hoping to find a new good read soon.

CIAO! LOVE ME!

{jinxed}

I haven't been as on top of blogging every other day as I would like to be, but that is okay, for the time being. As a whole, I'd have to say that my weekend went rather well. I was done with clinic early on Friday as my supervisor was headed up north to visit her son. It was nice to get home a few hours early and spend some time just relaxing in the sun before another busy weekend. I finished up the book I was reading and now I need to find another one to start. I think I might read the final Hunger Games book. We shall see.

Friday night was spent at Jay's aunt's house setting up stuff for the rummage sale on Saturday. It was 'sneak peak' night on Friday and so Jay and I watched the sale and helped out while Jay's aunt and uncle went around to scope out some of the other places. Jay's mom and grandparents where there helping as well. It was a nice night and the weather wasn't too bad and we ended up selling quite a bit on Friday as well. Always good.

I had to get up on Saturday earlier than I do during the week. Ugh! Haha! We headed out to the rummage sale early to help set up again and then spent the rest of the day there. Jay's aunt and uncle were awesome for letting us bring stuff and set it out. Because we had the most stuff in the sale I thought it was important that we be there and help out as much as we could. Jay had to work on Saturday morning, but he came afterwards to help. I left around 11:30am because I had to head to Madison to do a photo shoot with my cousin. Well, they actually live in Middleton, so the drive wasn't too bad traffic wise. It was long enough, but the way I took let me avoid most of the busy roads closer to Madison.

The photo shoot went awesome and I cannot wait to get started on the pictures! I really hope that my cousin likes them! Unfortunately, my drive home wasn't so uneventful. First off, I followed my GPS and ended up on a busier road than I wanted to be because I was on the phone at the time and just turned. I knew it was going to get me home, but it was a little nerve wracking for a few minutes. In any case, I made it just under halfway home and my car started to act up. By act up, I mean that it died on me while I was driving on a divided highway... ALONE! Thankfully, the highway was not overly busy and I was not in a super busy location. However, I still had a dead car. Insert panic!

Praise the Lord, Jay answered his phone right away when I called him and told him what was up. He handles these situations much better than I do. Him and his dad were able to secure a trailer in no time flat and were about to come get me. During all of this, Jay was directing me to look under the hood of the car at the battery to make sure the wires were still hooked up nice and tight. Yeah, me, look under the hood of a car, ha! Actually, I knew how to do that and the battery was fine, but that doesn't mean I wasn't still on the verge of tears the whole time. Just before Jay and his dad were about to leave, they had me try to start the car one more time (on previous attempts when I would turn the key, I could get the radio, but the car wouldn't turn over) and it was at this point in time that I realized the car was still in drive. DUH! Don't laugh, the last thing I thought about when I pulled over to the side of the road and my car was dead was to put it in park... I mean it was already off, lol! Anyways, I put it into park, tried to restart it and it started.

I continued on my journey back towards home and made Jay stay on the phone with the still shaken me. I was able to make it just past my mom's house before the car started to act up again. This time it did not die completely on me, but it was not driving right at all and I had all sorts of lights flashing at me. Jay hopped into his truck and came to the rescue since I was only about a mile or two from his parent's house. He fiddled with something under the hood and thankfully I was able to make it back to our house alright. This is the EXACT same thing that happened last year on our way to Milwaukee and so the verdict was to look at what the mechanic did last time to the car. That worked and the car seems to be working fine now, although I made Jay drive it this morning and I took his truck. The last thing I wanted was to be driving to Sheboygan and have my car die on me. Thankfully when it did happen it was the weekend and I could get a hold of someone. On my way to work, I don't know what I would do because Jay doesn't answer his phone at work. And we all know that after the last time we ran into this situation (even when I was WITH Jay and his friend JT, I had the maturity level of a five year old to deal with situations like this... I just want to cry). At least this time I was a smidge more calm, but still on the verge of tears until I got home.

After we got home, we headed straight back out to an anniversary party in Jay's truck. The party was a good time. Ayden had a GREAT time playing with his cousins and I didn't see him hardly at all that night. Jay attempted to teach me how to play poker with a bunch of his uncles. I sort of caught on, but we didn't win. It was fun though. I love his family. I mean, his parents pretty much dropped everything to come help me with my car. I know, it's family and when someone is in need, people help, but they didn't have to. It's the fact that they are SO willing to help in the time of need without even thinking about themselves. It just amazes me. I love it and love them for it. That is not to say that my family wouldn't do the same thing; however, my mom doesn't really have access to a trailer or vehicle to pull one that fast and although my dad has a truck, he doesn't have the means to get a trailer that fast either. I did call my mom while I was stopped and she tried to help as much as she could. She did offer me one of her vehicles to drive if I needed one. Just another reason why I am growing to love living closer to home a little more.

Ayden spent the night with Jay's parents on Saturday after the anniversary party so Jay and I got to sleep in a little bit and relax Sunday morning. Although, we didn't really relax. I put more things away and we started to hang some pictures. There are NO boxes in my living room any more. So that means pictures of my house are soon to come!

Ayden slept until almost 11:30am. He needed that extra sleep, he has been outside almost all day everyday for the last two weeks. We picked him up and then came back to our house. My sister Alexis came over shortly there after and then Ayden went to her house to play. In the mean time, I went rollerblading with my bestie and we got to catch up which was a lot of fun!

I also realized that Father's Day weekend is this coming weekend and not the one after. For some reason, I had it in my head that Father's Day weekend wasn't for another two weeks... nope! That sort of put the kabash on my plans for a big rummage sale that weekend because we are heading to Minnesota on Saturday. So, what I think I am going to do is just have the sale on Saturday for a little while. We cannot leave until Jay gets home from work, which is usually between 10:30-11am. So we'll have the sale from like 7-until early afternoon. My mom has agreed to stay after we have to leave for a little while. I mean, hopefully we will sell some more stuff. We still have a lot of toys that need to go! We did good at the rummage sale this past weekend and made about twice as much money as I thought we might. Won't complain about that!

I am ready for next weekend already though... other than some senior pictures in the morning on Saturday, it should be a relaxing weekend full of watching TV and doing nothing, haha! I am looking forward to that!

In the mean time, I will look forward to this weekend and Sleeping with the Sharks! Another weekend of not getting to sleep in though. Boo! I can't imagine that Saturday night will be a lot of fun sleeping, lol! We get to sleep on a small mat with a sleeping bag, oh fun, haha!

I will leave you with the fact that I kicked butt at Boot Camp this morning, despite the fact that I really did not want to get up and go!

CIAO! LOVE ME!

{relieved}

Best (audiology) news to date... I PASSED THE PRAXIS!!! What a relief that is! To be honest, I was a little nervous that I wasn't going to. Like I said after I took the test, I didn't walk out thinking I had totally bombed it, but I didn't think it was the easiest thing in the world either. As I was logging into the website Tuesday night to check my score my heart was racing. The last thing I wanted to find out was that I needed to retake it. Then, as I was looking at the scores they didn't really tell you if you had passed or not, they just gave you your score so I had to scour the website trying to find what the passing score was. I have to say, unfortunately, I did not pass with flying colors, but I passed that is all that matters. Future job placements will not be asking me what my Praxis score was, they'll just need to know that I passed it and am a licensed audiologist. SO happy to have that done and over with. Just need to pass the practical portion of the exam now so I can get my first real full time career job. But we have a few months before I need to start worrying about that.

I cannot remember if I've mentioned on great Jay has been doing on losing weight. Forgive me if I have already, but I feel like I need to mention it again because even though he wasn't really trying like myself, he has rocked it and is even lower than he was at this point last year when he was trying a little more. I told him last summer what I thought should be an ideal weight for him. I know what he was in high school because of wrestling, so I knew what he was capable of getting down to and I knew what he was at the beginning of last summer. I fully knew that he wasn't going to get to the weight he was in high school, nor did I want him to try and get that low. (In any case, I know that I probably shouldn't have been the one to tell him what I thought he should weigh, but in my defense, I had offered him a 'prize' if he got to that weight that he couldn't pass up, haha!)

So, last year, Jay was able to lose quite a bit of weight, but he never quite got to the goal he had agreed upon. Although, about a few weeks into our weight loss challenge, we had agreed that the original weight was probably five pounds too light so we increased it. This year without even trying, he has made it to his goal weight. He still hasn't won the 'prize' because we had agreed that he needed to maintain it for at least a week. Haha, but even still, my man is looking hot! I know that if he were to actually work out and build more muscle now he would eventually weigh more than he does right now, but his physique would be better. I've always found Jay attractive, but even more so when he's fit. Stupid guy doesn't even have to try though, bugs the dickens out of me. Although I suppose when you spend all day walking around and on your feet the weight sort of melts right off. He literally is like walking and working out all day long at his current job and he loves it. And I love that he loves his job.

Me on the other hand... I have to work for my body to look the way that I want it to and for the last two weeks I've been eating like a hog. It was the week before 'shark week' though (I seen some friends on a fitness page call that woman's week that and I kind of liked it, haha) so all of the chocolate and sweets cravings were explained, lol!

After I found out that I passed the Praxis on Tuesday night, Jay, Ayden, and myself walked to the town ice cream shop and celebrated and then because I felt like I needed to 'redeem' myself after the ice cream, I went and rollerbladed 5.5 miles around the track and then ran some hills. I ran up and down, did 10 push ups, up and down, 8 push ups, up and down, 5 push ups, and then up and down and 3 push ups... all bare footed. Huffing and puffing at the end for sure, but felt great! And then yesterday I wimped out and only biked 4.6 miles. I was kind of having a poor afternoon and thought maybe a bike ride would improve my mood; however, it only made it worse. It made me miss Stevens Point and the Green Circle Trail even more. I felt like I was just wandering aimlessly around town and I didn't like that. To make matters worse, the radio station that I was listening to on my phone wasn't working and it was annoying me to high heavens. I am going to try and make tonight's ride better and just maybe head out of town instead of riding around town.

The house continues to come together a little more each and every day. Jay took a truck full of stuff to his aunt's house for her rummage sale this weekend and we didn't even price a bunch of boxes in the basement because we didn't want to overwhelm her with how much stuff that we were bringing. It is kind of crazy. I am excited to have more and more things put away and getting things more organized so I can start the actual decorating part that I have been craving. I cannot wait to get the pictures hung and I have a bunch of cool ideas I've gotten off of Pinterest that I want to do as well. All in due time I suppose, hehe!

Story of my life...

CIAO! LOVE ME!

{this thing called boot camp}

Remember yesterday when I said I had a 5:00am wake up call for a fitness boot camp this morning... well I SURVIVED! I slept like crap last night in anticipation of it and I even dreamt about it. I had this crazy weird dream that I was going to miss it and that just screwed with my sleep. The boot camp didn't start until 5:30am, but I wanted to give myself enough time to eat something before hand and get dressed and then walk over. Too bad there is a fence behind my house because if there wasn't, it would make getting to the football field a LOT quicker. Not that the three minute walk from my house is long or anything.

Anywhoo, boot camp kicked my butt, but in a good way! It was 45 minutes long and I have to say that it went pretty fast. I think it helped that there were other people there as well. I liked the group thing. I didn't know how I was going to like it because I've always worked out alone, but it was fun. I think it helped that there were also people there that I knew. I have to say though, when I'm working out, I sort of get into a zone and try to push myself to the next level so I might have seemed a little more quiet and 'standoffish' than usual.

I think my proudest moment was doing the push-ups. I HATE push-ups, but I knocked the first eight out in no time and I could feel the strength in my arms. What I need to work on now is doing them not on my knees. I'm a work in progress, that is for sure! And despite the fact that I had to get up at 5:00am for it, I am looking forward to next week. In any case, the sky is pretty in the morning at that time of day. Even took my picture of the day of the sun rising! I don't know how sore I will be tomorrow, but that is okay. I think I might even try and get out for a bike ride or some more rollerblading tonight. Who knows. I don't really like working out, but I LOVE the feeling I get afterwards... of accomplishment and doing something good for my body. Feels great!

Week one down... seven more weeks to go... BRING IT ON!!!

CIAO! LOVE ME!

{in transition}

I still feel like I am in transition with my life right now and it is sort of bumming me out. I feel like a part of me, a big part of me, is still stuck in Stevens Point waiting for the rest of me to come back and for like to pick back up like normal. And we all know that that isn't going to happen. We are Chilton residents for good... at least for the next year. I've said it a bazillion times already, I know, but I will say it again, it STILL feels unreal.

I have started my externship and I have to say that it does not feel like I will be at this place for the next year. A solid year! Last summer I did my summer placement at the VA and I did my placement five days a week for five weeks in order to get it done and over with almost by the time that Ayden was done with school so we wouldn't have to worry about child care costs during the summer. Going to my placement five days a week wasn't too bad. I managed to get through it and I actually liked it. I got into a routine with it, but I also knew that it was only for five weeks and that the end was in sight soon. I have to say that it did drag when I would get home at 5pm and the night was almost over, but like I just said, it was for a short period of time.

I am still trying to wrap my mind around working full time, haha! What does that mean? In the back of my mind I knew that at some point I would graduate from school and life would become 'real' in the sense that I would no longer be a student. But this working full time thing?! Is it going to be for me? We all know that I am not the type of person who could be a stay at home mom. That job is just not for me. I would not be completely happy and my kids would not be completely happy. It just wouldn't work for OUR family. Maybe at some point in the future we will be financially stable enough for my to only work part time because I think that could work. I honestly have to say that I HATE leaving Ayden for the full day. I get home at 5pm or later every night and it leaves us SO little time together. I think the perfect job would be the one that started just after the kids started school in the morning and ended just before the kids got home in the afternoon. A girl can wish, right?!

In the meantime, I will fully embrace my externship and try to take as much from it that I can so that it will be a rewarding experience and I will be a well rounded audiologist when I graduate. I am looking forward to everything that this next year is going to bring and my supervisor must already love me because she already ordered some business cards with my name on them. Please explain to me why I need business cards. Even so though, the thought was awesome and I fully love her for it! All in all, even though there are things that I am going to have to get used to, I am fully in love with my placement so far (despite the getting home a little later than I would like most days).

I am also starting to love our house a little more, even given the fact that a small part of me is still suck in Stevens Point. I am trying to embrace this Chilton thing, hehe! I think I’ve seen my mom more in the last two weeks than I’ve seen of her all of last year! Can’t complain about that! Speaking of my mom, she informed me last weekend that her and her husband have decided to get a divorce. It was kind of out of no where, but if we are being honest here, I am surprised it didn’t come sooner. In any case, I support whatever she decides to do with her life as long as she will be happy in the end. That is all that matters. She’s supported me unconditionally in all things (it is kind of a parent thing) and it is only right that I return it.

Our house is ever slowly turning into a home. We do not have a garage at the new place. It is a storage area under the house and it doesn’t even have a cement floor. As we were moving all of the boxes into it a few weeks ago I have to admit that I was slightly worried how we would manage to get everything we had in our old garage to fit into the new storage area. And I wasn’t the only one with that worry as I heard more than a few people who were helping us comment on it. But today, Jay and myself got down to business and organized the ‘garage’ and low and behold… we have EMPTY shelves! I think helps that all of Jay’s tools are being stored in the basement and we are getting rid of a bunch of stuff at rummage sales in the coming weeks. We were also very productive and priced a lot of the stuff we want to sell. We have quite a bit left to price, but even still, it was a good start. Both Jay and I called it a very productive day!

Yesterday was more of a lazy day at our place. We had all intentions of being productive, but after we ran to Appleton for a few things, we got home and my sister stopped over and then Ayden and I went to my dad’s house and then we all went out to eat at HuHot for supper for my sister’s birthday. HuHot was delicious, even more so when my dad offers to pay! So nice of him!

However, HuHot was definitely not on my list of pre-approved meals, haha! I admit, I have been terrible this past week when it comes to eating, but only after I get home. I eat a good breakfast and lunch and then gorge myself when I get home and then I haven’t worked out in two weeks. Gah! I really need to get back on track and guess what, there is no time like the present. I ate good today and I even went and rollerbladed a few miles around the track behind our house. It wasn’t super long, but it felt good to get out and be active again. Plus, I had to see how much my endurance has gone down in the last two weeks because the crazy person inside of me decided to sign up for a fitness boot camp at 5:30am on Monday mornings. Argh! What did I get myself into?! Be prepared for a full on account in my next post!

I really want to make a habit of blogging more. I don’t even think I blogged ten times in May! Boo on that one! My goal for the month of June is to blog at least 15 times! That is about once every other day. I am going to try hard to accomplish that!

It feels really good to be living together as a family again full time. It seems like Ayden and myself living apart from Jay was SO long ago. We found our groove all being together really fast and honestly, I can atone for the fact that absence makes the heart grow fonder because I feel like Jay and I have been a lot closer lately. I also feel like we are each making more of an effort to get along with each other and show each other that we care. We sort of drifted apart while we were not living together and then we would argue when we were together on the weekends and it was just not healthy for us. But things have been good for the last week.

With that, I think I am going to put a few more things away before I call it a night… after all, I have a 5:15am wake up call in the morning!

CIAO! LOVE ME!