Lifestyles of the Frantic and Frazzled

{you know...}

2012-02-09T11:12:00.001-06:00

I have homework that I could be working on, but instead I am blogging. I think there is something wrong with that, don't you?! Alas, I'm not really in the mood to do homework and it isn't due until Tuesday morning at the latest so in theory that gives me all of Friday, Saturday, Sunday, and Monday to complete something that will probably only take me 30 minutes. Maybe I will make use of my time tonight and instead of spending it lounging in front of the TV from the moment I get home to the moment I decide to crawl into bed. That, and I have laundry and packing for the weekend to get done before tomorrow night. Such is the life of a mom and graduate student, eh?

I have been feeling very blah so far this week and it hasn't helped my mood any. Last night it was especially bad. I think we all were a little crabby in our household. Ayden didn't want to eat what we were having for supper, Jay was yelling when he didn't need to be, and it all just soured my mood and so I went to bed super early. Like crawled into bed before 8pm (even though I watched TV until almost 10pm) and then I ended up sleeping like crap. The sleep I got was good, but I kept waking up. I think I was afraid that for some reason my alarm wasn't going to go off and that I would be late for clinic this morning. It also sucked because I had to get up an hour earlier because I had to drive farther this morning. I feel like I was awake and looking at my clock more than a dozen times last night. Insert sad face here, haha!

I am MORE than ready for this weekend! I am meeting up with one of my besties from high school and her son early Saturday afternoon for a game or two of bowling! Then Ayden and I are heading over to my mom's house for the rest of the day. On Sunday I am getting together with three more of my besties for an afternoon of girl talk and just venting. We got together last just before Christmas and I am surprised that another six months hasn't gone by before our next gathering. We all have families and so it is hard to coordinate our schedules so we all have time to get together. But we did and I am so thankful for it because I always leave our get togethers feeling a million times better. Friends make the world a better place!

I think just having some plans for the weekend is making me excited. We haven't done anything super fun for a couple of weekends so getting out and seeing some different people gets us out of our rut of staying home and getting on each others nerves the whole weekend which is bound to happen if we stay home this weekend. I can feel it already!

The weather has just been cold these last few days and I hate it! Ugh! At least we haven't gotten any more snow so I should be happy about that.

For some reason my school email will not work on my phone or my tablet today and it is driving me nuts. It seems like I can still receive messages, but it doesn't work to send any out and it is extremely frustrating right now. This happens every now and then and I do not know why. What I do know is that it is increasingly more annoying each time is happens because it takes me forever to figure out how to get it working again, ha! Stupid technolog is our best friend and our worst enemy most of the time!

I suppose that along with completing my homework this weekend, I should probably also work a bit on my capstone stuff. I had a meeting with my advisor that went well and now I have some more direction to move in. Pretty happy about that!

CIAO! LOVE ME!

{pen pals}

2012-02-07T09:58:00.001-06:00

Today has the potential to be a long day. I am starting out my second week of clinic and it is at a sister facility from the one that I was at last week. There are potentially three different places that I could be visiting, although I will primarily be only at two of them. I say that it could be long because there are just a few breaks in our schedule. During said breaks (especially lunch), I often use that time to go on my tablet or my phone and do things online. Apparently all of the medical buildings around here have craptastic service for my phone because whenever I enter one (even if I am near a window), I get jack for reception. Normally these facilities have a free wi-fi connection that I can tap into; however, this place's connection SUCKS and it will not connect to my laptop and therefore I am unable to connect to do anything that requires a connection... namely everything I would like to do on my tablet. Oh well... maybe it is a good thing then that we have a relatively busy schedule for the day, right?!

I must tell you about this insane new show that Jay (and his friend JT) have gotten me hooked on. It isn't all that new of a show because I guess the first season was aired in 2010, but new enough and now that we are trying out Netflix for a month I can watch the whole first season and DVR the secoond season until I get caught up. So far they have only played two episodes in the second season so I am not that far behind. The show is called Spartacus and it airs on Starz (I believe). When I watched the first episode or two I thought it was pretty dumb. It is about gladiators in the Roman time and there is a lot of cussing and nudity in the show. Definitely not something we can watch while Ayden is up or nearby. That stuff sort of bugged me at first, but now I just look past it to the story line. I have to say that Jay's friend JT was right when he said that I would have to watch the first couple of episodes to get sucked in. It is truly a dumb and fascinating story all at the same time. I say dumb because just after you get into the show and start liking someone, they go ahead and KILL THEM OFF! So far they have killed off two of my favorite people and from what Jay says, they are going to kill another important person off in the next episode, ugh! It sucks and yet I still watch it! Why do I torture myself?!

A few weeks ago I happened upon a blog that was talking about pen pals and from there I happened upon another blog that had a pen pal group. I remember being in grade school and having pen pals and thought it was the neatest thing to get letters in the mail at that age... plus I formed some awesome friendships. I actually kept in touch with two of my pen pals from Australia for quite some time and still am friends with one from South Africa and one from Israel on facebook. Cool, huh?! So, I emailed the lady in charge of creating the groups to see if the pen pal exchange was still going on and she said that it was and put me in a group! I got the list of people in my pen pal group yesterday. They are all girls (not that I was expecting any guys). One is from California, New Jersey, Pennsylvannia, and get this... the last one on the list was a girl named Ashley... from... none other than Menasha, Wisconsin. What are the odds of being put into a group with someone who not only has the same name as me, but who also lives only an hour(ish) from where I live?! Cool, no?! I thought so. I was so excited that I wrote them all letters last night. I am hoping to gain some wonderful new freinds out of this experience and honestly, who doesn't love getting something in the mail that isn't a bill or another credit card application. Yeah, that is what I thought!

Oh and guess what, because I am continuing to write this as my day progresses and I have a free minute here and there between patients, I finally got my tablet to hook up to the wi-fi system in the building. I don't know why it wouldn't hook up in the first place, but it works now, although my phone continues to have sucky reception! I suppose I will survive... haha!

CIAO! LOVE ME!

{won’t be doing that again}

2012-02-05T19:12:00.001-06:00

One would think that because I use my camera A LOT that I would be a little smarter than I was on Saturday when it comes to wanting to use said camera. We took a little trip to a place in Waupaca on Saturday for the sole purpose of me to take some photographs. No, I did not have a photo shoot, this was purely for myself. I had heard about this place and looked it up online and it looked pretty neat and I want to take some nature pictures there. As a family, we head out of the house and venture to Waupaca (which is about a half hour away). The weather was phenomenal for this time of the year and I couldn’t wait to capture some pictures!

Enter in my stupidity! We get to our destination and I turn on my camera and wouldn’t you know… it displays… NO CARD! *$%(#$*$#%(#$ almost came out of my mouth and would have if I used such words on a regular basis (I try hard not to swear). I couldn’t believe that I had forgotten my SD card in my computer! Because I am using my camera a lot more frequently these days I am uploading my pictures to my computer a lot more and I have a bad tendency of putting my card back in my camera right away. I was SUPER sad that I didn’t have a card to take pictures with (my camera has no internal storage). But I wasn’t going to let the trip be a waste and I got out my phone and started taking pictures with that. 8 megapixels should give me some decent pictures and it did.

Just as I was getting ready to tell Jay and Ayden that I had had enough and wanted to leave I checked one of the pockets of my camera bag (the only one I didn’t check the first time around because I had forgotten about it) and wouldn’t you know that my other SD card was in there. OMG, I was SO happy and I started snapping picture after picture after picture. That turned my WHOLE day around and we stayed for probably another hour walking around. Ayden had a good time playing in the snow and water and Jay was okay with it.

I couldn’t believe that I was so dumb not to check my camera before leaving the house. I should say that I am VERY careful about checking my camera before photo shoots of people. I check my camera the night before and charge my battery and make sure I have both SD cards. Safeguards to make sure my clients get the best experience they can from me.

Here are just a few pictures from both my phone and camera of our adventure!

Well, before I show you those pictures, I have to share a picture of me and my new hat (courtesy of my cousin)! My cousin made me this amazingly cute crocheted hat and I am in LOVE with it! It fits perfect and matches my coat!The place that we visited was called the Red Mill in Waupaca, WI. Me pouting because at this point I thought I wasn’t going to be able to use my camera and had to ‘settle’ for my phone to take pictures. I wasn’t happy, haha!But, we made do with the camera on the phone and I got some pretty good pictures with it. Me and little man enjoying being outside in the beautiful weather!And needed a picture with my main squeeze too! Apparently I have a bad time looking where I need to when taking a self picture with my phone, lol! Oops! It looks okay though! This one is better! Thanks to little man who took it for me and for my honey agreeing to be in the picture because according to him I had said that we weren’t going to take pictures that he needed to be in. And then when we got home you could see the moon really good and I was able to get a cool picture of it!And then today I made another project with the sewing machine and it turned out pretty awesome. It definitely isn’t perfect, but it is darn cute! it is a Kindle cover/case!Tomorrow it is back to school and once again I have been highly unproductive when it comes to doing anything school related over the weekend. Oopsies! Maybe next weekend, ha! Off to watch the Super Bowl halftime show now!

CIAO! LOVE ME!

{contortionist}

2012-02-04T22:32:00.001-06:00

When you continuously see someone contort their life to fit perfectly with someone else's over and over again, how do you tell him or her that you do not agree with how they live their life? Correct answer: you don't. Ashley answer: you don't, you hold it in, and then when you can no longer, you blog about it in as subtle terms as you can, ha! Okay, maybe I shouldn't blog about it either, it isn't fair to the person with whom I do not agree.

Case in point, I just got done telling someone that they need to care less about other people's lives and concentrate on their own instead. Make the most out of your life and quit bitching about other people and what you think they should be doing. Heed your own advice dear woman... you think I would be able to do that, but no.

So, maybe instead of bitching about how I think other people should be running their own lives, I am doing to just take a step back from these particular situations and try and take my own advice. People who are not me and not connected in my daily living can do whatever they please whether I agree with it or not. I'm sure, wait I KNOW, I've done many a thing that people have probably not agreed with. Case in point again... getting pregnant in high school (whether or not it was something I actually intended on doing).

Okay, needed to get little rant out. Think I'm good. Think I may finally need to do what I've been telling myself to do all along, but just can't...

CIAO! LOVE ME!

{another month}

2012-02-03T19:35:00.001-06:00

I am in awe of the fact that it is February already! Where in the world did January go to?! I cannot complain that it is already February though because February, March, and April (and one or two weeks in May) and my last semester on campus is OVER! Time will fly this semester, I am sure of it!

It definitely helps that the weather we have been having is GOREGOUS and totally unexpected for this time of year. If you know me at all, you know I am NOT a cold weather person. I am ALWAYS cold in the winter and so these mild temperatures have been my saving grace. From the current forecast, it looks like it could be pretty mild for the next few weeks and that just means that much less of actual Wisconsin winter weather. Smiles all around please, haha!

I have been a bit busier this week with clinic starting. I have to say, I think I am going to love my placement. Actually, I already do. It is exactly the type of patients that I want to be seeing. After the 'hiccup' of my B+ clinic grade last semester, I was coming into clinic a little less confident that I should have been. But after my first two days, I am feeling right at home. I think it helps that the audiologists at this place have been teaching students at their facility consistently for the last 5-7 years so they know what to expect from a student stand point. At my last placement, they had had students before; however, it was about three years since their last one. That is not to say that I did not enjoy my last placement or my supervisor because I did, I just don't know if she expected more out of me or what. Anyways, I've already spent too much time analyzing why I got a B+ for my clinic grade and getting no where... enough of that!

I am so behind on laundry at our house that it isn't funny! Ayden has been digging through baskets of clean clothes all week for socks and underwear! I have three clean loads that need to be folded and put away and at least three or four loads that need to be washed. Oops! That is what I get for not doing any wash last weekend after I got home. Oh well. My goal is to get caught up on it today after lunch. Or at least to start it.

Jay made some super yummy homemade chicken noodle soup for supper last night. Seriously, the BEST homemade soup I have EVER tasted! So delicious that I could have probably eaten seven bowls of it last night. I stopped myself after two though. I think roast beef is on the menu tonight...

I met with my capstone advisor this week and it looks like my project is right on track. Actually, I think I am ahead of the majority of my classmates who are doing a capstone project right now. I know that I have a lot of work in front of me yet, but I'm not too worried. My classes are progressing smoothly and at this point in the semester I see no reason why I shouldn't get an 'A' in both classes.

CIAO! LOVE ME!

{men in black}

2012-01-29T15:11:00.001-06:00

The last couple of days I have been in Minnesota for a hearing aid convention/conference and my fellow audiology classmates (who I’ve recently found out read my blog, here’s a shout out to you, hehe!) will appreciate the sentiment of the title of my blog! Haha! Thankfully, it looks like I haven’t been scarred for life due to the men in black!

On Thursday morning, my classmates Katie and Bria, and myself started our journey to Minnesota. Katie was awesome enough to drive and Bria and I did our best at being co-pilots. We only took one ‘detour’ and that was my fault, but we didn’t have to turn around, nor did we end up really going out of our way. We all joked that we needed to see some more tractors so the detour was much needed, haha! The plan was to do some shopping at Ikea before checking into the hotel. I had never been to Ikea before and was excited.

About an hour outside of our destination Katie had the bright idea of going wedding dress shopping. We didn’t know if it would be possible because normally you need an appointment to go try on wedding dresses, but we were hopeful. I looked up bridal salons near our final destination and found one with a name that sounded promising. It didn’t have any reviews, but it was called Bridal Accent Couture and anything with the name Couture (spelling?!) has to have good dresses, right?! I had only tried on dresses at one other place and none of those were promising and the same had happened with Katie. We called them up and they were able to fit us both in! We joked that Bria was engaged too so she could try on dresses, but when we got there she didn’t feel comfortable trying them on so she just gave her excellent opinion to Katie and myself.

We definitely lucked out and the place had some awesome dresses (and many that were WAY out of my budget). Katie and I got right into it trying on different dresses. We have totally different tastes in mind and we both had some great dresses to try on… and… we both think we found our wedding dresses. Well, Katie is pretty certain and she definitely had that ‘look’ on her face when she came out in the dress. Her wedding dress budget is definitely higher than what I would like to spend on my dress and so she was totally okay with the price of the dress she had decided upon. ‘My’ dress wasn’t super expensive, but I’ve always been pretty budget conscious and don’t know if I could spend that much on a dress I’ll only be wearing once. My cousin told me that when I found my dress I would just know. Because this was the first place that I have visited that actually had dresses that I liked I’m hesitant to say yes that I found my dress. I can tell you that with the dress on and looking in the mirror and I was already at my wedding. I was envisioning walking down the isle to Jay and the party afterwards. It just worked!

Below are some pictures of the dress that I liked the most. Because I haven’t fully ‘committed’ to the dress, I don’t mind posting pictures of it for others to see. If and when I find the dress and it happens to be this one, no one will remember by the time the wedding rolls around anyways. The dress comes with a removable wrap. I tried it on without the wrap and if I were to get the dress, I would probably only wear the wrap for a few pictures. It is an A-line style dress; however, the consultant at the bridal salon said that it could be tailored in a little tighter on me so it wasn’t so ‘fluffy’ and the way she contoured it to my body was awesome! (I’d had pictures of me in the dress, but I left my camera in the car because I didn’t know if they would allow that as some places don’t.) What really made the dress me was the belt that she added to it which you can see in one of the pictures below too. It totally fit the feel I am going for for the wedding. Overall, I’ve found out that I am not a frilly super big fluffy wedding dress person who doesn’t want a huge long train or a lot of poof.

Only time will tell if this is the dress for me, right?! It definitely was a lot of fun though!

After some wedding dress ‘shopping’ we finished making our way to the hotel and relaxed for a little while before heading out for supper and the welcome reception for the convention we would be at for the next two days. I have to say, I was excited about the hotel stay because it looks pretty nice on the website and even in person. The rooms; however, left much to be desired. First off, Bria found a pair of underwear and socks in one of the drawers in her room. Ick! That earned her and her roommate some free coffee and access to the top floor of the hotel for a night. Secondly, there was no fan in the bathroom, they charged you for internet access and bottles of water in the room, there was no refrigerator and crap for TV channels, and the deadbolt lock on our room broke! The beds were comfy though and had nice comforters on them though, so that kind of made up for it. We got free water for our broken lock and they offered to switch us to a different room, but the other lock on our door worked and we didn’t really care. It was mediocre for a Marriott. The pool and hot tub were nice though… couldn’t complain about those.

The welcome reception/supper was good. We were definitely never hungry! Thursday night was our introduction to the men (and women) in black suits. Because there was maybe 50 students that were invited there was definitely a lot more one on one interactions with the people from the hearing aid manufacturer and at times (okay, more than just at times) it was uncomfortable and exhausting trying to keep up a façade of happiness when all we wanted to do as students was not talk hearing aids. Some of the people sort of held that air of superiority and it was annoying.

Friday and Saturday were both full days of classes and more men in suits. There were a few hands on labs and I have to say that that was the highlight of both days. I loved getting hands on experience with new things. Overall, I have to say that it was definitely an eye opening experience. Best part by far was ‘bonding’ with my classmates. We don’t get to see the Madison students in person very often and so it was nice to be able to spend some time with them outside of class and to be able to catch up. The same goes for my fellow on campus classmates. We see each other less and less each semester because of our schedules so getting to catch up with them was fun as well. I don’t know how much they all enjoyed it, we I had a good time venting about different things with them and hearing how their lives are going.

Katie, Bria, and I didn’t attend either social event on Friday or Saturday night. The group went bowling on Friday night and we went out to eat at Olive Garden and then spent an hour walking around Ikea. I didn’t realize that Ikea was so close to the Mall of America and would have liked to go there, but I know that we will be visiting in the summer so it didn’t bother me too much. Saturday after we got back to the hotel to change for the social event, we packed up and left to come home. Each of us had had enough of it and wanted to go see our significant others and sleep in our own beds. Little did I know that Jay had decided to go ‘home’ and I was headed back to an empty house. I was bummed a bit at first, but was okay because I got home and went to bed pretty quickly. (It was a LONG drive back!)

I have to say that the GPS on my phone didn’t let us down and Katie handled driving in the bigger cities AWESOMELY! I could never have done that, especially on the way home because my GPS led us through downtown Minneapolis and it got a little more crazy than I would have liked. Okay, a lot more crazy! I don’t do driving in big cities AT ALL! But we made it home just fine! Kudos to Katie!

I was definitely exhausted because I went to bed around 11pm and didn’t get up until 10am! Today has definitely been a lazy day for me, especially since my boys aren’t home yet. I got up and moved from my bed to the couch where I watched (don’t judge) Justin Beiber Never Say Never on Netflix. I have to say it was pretty good. I don’t really like or dislike Justin. I don’t really listen to music as country is my genre. I do have to say that around Christmas time I was listening to a song on the radio and thought the girl who was singing it sounded good and then found out it was Justin Beiber, haha! It was funny! Anyways, I enjoyed watching the movie and it made him seem so much more real and down to earth. And, I had to watch it while Jay wasn’t home because I knew he would give me a hard time! He probably still will! It was noon before I showered and got ‘dressed’ in sweats and a sweatshirt sans makeup and doing my hair. It is definitely a stay at home day!

While I was gone, my portfolio type photo book came in the mail. I have to say, I am SO in LOVE with how it turned out. I put a few pictures from each photo session in the last year in it that I really liked. When I ordered it I was worried that it would be too small, but I didn’t want to pay an arm and a leg for it either. I ordered it from Blurb.com because I LOVED how my last photo book from them turned out and this one didn’t let me down either. The size is perfect for what I wanted it for and it just turned out amazing! If you are looking for a very nice photo book at reasonable prices, check out Blurb.com (btw, I am in no way being compensated for my review of them, they don’t even know I exist), you will NOT be disappointed. My 7x7 book with 40 back to back pages (80 pages with pictures on) only cost $40 (sans shipping because I found a coupon code that made that free). Maybe I will post some pictures of it at a later date.

Okay, my boys are home, time to go!

CIAO! LOVE ME!

{story time}

2012-01-25T19:14:00.001-06:00

Ayden and I (well Ayden actually), successfully read through the book of Curious George stories that we have and he did a stupendous job! I couldn’t be more proud of him!!! No, he doesn’t have to hold the book that close to read it, I made him hold it like that for my picture of the day.

Ayden has been very loving lately. Lots of melt my heart moments where he will just stop whatever he is doing and come give me a hug. Can he stay like this forever please?! Today while we were reading he stopped in the middle of a sentence and leaned over and gave me a hug and said you are the best mommy ever. Tears anyone?! Then later after we had finished reading and he was in his room, I called into him and told him how great of a job he has been doing and he thanked me for helping him read so well. More tears anyone?! I should find a way to bottle this up because I know he won’t be like this forever! Mommy’s little boy, that’s for sure! I’ll eat it up while I can!

There hasn’t many other super exciting things going on this week that I feel compelled to write about right now… classes have started and it should be a pretty decent semester (minus the capstone and praxis stuff).

CIAO! LOVE ME!

{last first day}

2012-01-23T19:06:00.001-06:00

I'm pretty lucky and shouldn't complain about school (yet) this semester. It was the first day back to school and my one and only class runs from 1pm-2:15pm... that's harsh, right?! Ayden doesn't start school until 9am, which means the earliest I need to get out of bed in order to be ready to take him to school is 8am. That is totally doable, and yet I'm complaining about being back at school, ha! Likewise, when I start clinic next week, I probably won't need to be there until 8am and from my calculations, it should only take 45 minutes at the most, which means leaving my house at 7:15am and getting up by 6:30. Now, 6:30am is a little early, but I think I can manage it two days a week since when I start my externship, I'll probably be getting up at 5:30-6am EVERY day of the week. That will definitely take some getting used to. I haven't had to get up at 5:30am EVERY day of the week in who knows how man years! I can and will do it though, no choice.

Today was my last first day of school (on campus) and I couldn't be more excited! I can't say that it was my last first day of school ever because unfortunately I will have an online class each semester throughout my externship and from some comments I've read from current fourth year students, that one class might end up being more work than my two on campus classes. So not looking forward to that, but on the flip side, they are 'working' full time and then have a class on top of it. Right now I have two classes and I am not even working part time. However, I know I can pull it off because I worked three days a week when Ayden was a baby and still did two or three online classes on top of that at a time. Totally doable because I am super woman! Haha!

My class today went well. I am excited that the classes we have this semester are shorter in time than last semesters. Two plus hours of one class gets to be LONG. This semester one is an hour and fifteen minutes and then my other one is only 50 minutes. And with both teachers on the Point campus this semester it will make it much easier to pay attention, especially with one of the professors (for at least the first five weeks of the class) is my favorite professor and makes the learning that much easier. For the second five weeks of one class we have a speech professor and although we've had her before in undergraduate classes, I have heard that she is a much harder graduate school teacher and she is going to be teaching us speech perception and I've never really enjoyed that subject. Formants and such... just not my thing. I'm looking forward to getting into the groove of the semester and getting through it. Just one step closer to moving!

We've gotten quite a bit of snow lately and Jay has been working a lot more. He enjoys having something more to do and we definitely enjoy a little extra money in the winter months. It will be nice when he is working full time all year round at a job that he enjoys and we can start paying back his student loans. That is not a topic that I want to think about right now though since it is so depressing, so lets move onto something better...

My cousin, Amanda, crocheted me a hat and I cannot wait to get it in the mail. She posted a picture of it and I love how it turned out! She taught me how to crochet back around Thanksgiving and I'm bummed to say that I've only 'mastered' the single hook or loop or whatever you call it. I could make a scarf, but that's it. It was my goal to learn how to make myself a hat, but I guess that I just wasn't blessed in that area so I asked Amanda if she could make me one because she totally excells at it and she willingly obliged. I think I will stick to photography, hehe!

As I sit here on the couch typing this, Ayden is cuddling up next to me and reading the previous paragraphs that I have written. It is honestly too cute that he is reading it. I guess I have to watch what I am writing since he's getting better at reading. We have been working through a big book of Curious George stories lately and are almost done. He is doing so great and I smile each time we finish with a page. He is also excelling on his speech goals too. And even though he didn't have school today (lucky kid), we worked on his normal routine of homework when I got home and he didn't even complain. Yippie. Not that we get too much complaining these days. For the most part Ayden is pretty well behaved. He does have some outbursts at times, but they are typical of his age and he doesn't get away with them. They are pretty infrequent though, so I'm thinking we are doing something right, haha! We try! We are not perfect parents, but we try!

CIAO! LOVE ME!

{if]

2012-01-21T19:10:00.001-06:00

I'm 'borrowing' a post from a few other bloggers. Fill in the blanks...

If I were to get pregnant again... right now?! I'd be thrilled and scared at the same time. It is no secret how much I want more kids right now, but it also isn't a secret that I have a year and a half left of school and being able to afford another baby right now would be hard. If I were to get pregnant right after getting married I would be over the moon! We'll just see what God has in store for our family!

If I could have any job in the world... I'm actually really looking forward to my future career as an audiologist. I love going to my clinical rotations and experiencing the different stuff that might some day encompass what I will be doing full time. If I had to pick any other sort of job it would probably be something that helps people. Maybe a counselor of some sort.

If I had a day to myself... I would meet up with some friends and chat the day away! I am not able to get together with my friends as often as I would like and so a whole day with them would definitely not go to waste!

If I could get married all over again... I'm not married yet so I don't have any 'do overs' for my wedding day, although I'm definitely excited to start some planning for things and have learned from people I know and weddings that I have been to. Bring it on!

If I could live anywhere in the US... it would be somewhere that was warm all year round. Snow on Christmas or a cold winter are WAY overrated if you ask me. But it would suck living so far away from my family so my guess is that we won't be moving to any place warm all year round any time soon! Oh well, a girl can dream, right?!

If Ayden were a girl he would have been named... I don't actually remember if we had any girl names picked out before finding out if he was a boy or a girl. I do have a running list of baby names for any future children, but who knows if we will end up using any of those either. Just names that I like and I thought why not start a list.

If I could have any talent in the world... it would be to be to better my photography skills. I continue to work at it and enjoy learning new things. I am my own worst critic.

If you met me in real life you would probably say... I was shy and reserved, although working with patients and photography clients has definitely opened me up some. I never thought I would be in a job that required working with people every day, but I am and I love it! And I'm not shy ALL of the time, just when you are getting to know me.

If I could go back to school and get a different degree... ha, I'm still in school! One degree wasn't enough... bachelor's degree, ha... I needed the doctorate, lol!

If money were not an object... Jay and I would be married already, we'd have a house, more kids, no student loans, and more feul efficient vehicles (well at least his, mine is okay), we would travel all over and just have fun. Remember, money is no object, right?! Jay would start his own lawn care business and I would only work part time. I would need to work, I'm not cut out to be a stay at home mommy, but it wouldn't be full time, just part time.

If I could meet one celebrity... I don't know who I'd meet. I'm not 'obsessed' with any celebrity so... um... can't even think of one, maybe a band that I like... Sugarland or Lady A!

If I could only shop at one store for the rest of my life it'd be... shopping just for me? Then it'd definitely be Maurices! Shopping for the whole family... Kohls maybe?!

If we get another pet I would want a... dog! We cannot have any more pets where we live now, but I'd love to get a dog. I know they are a lot of work, but I miss having a dog around from when we lived at my mom's house. I know that Jay really wants one too and Ayden would love growing up with a dog as well! What kid doesn't love dogs?!

If I could go on a trip, RIGHT NOW, I'd want to go to... Hawaii! Warm, beautiful, warm, warm, warm!!! I couldn't imagine the pictures that I could get!

If I had to chose between a house cleaner and a personal chef, I'd pick the... personal chef! I HATE cooking! I could clean my house all day long and even though I'd get sick of it, I could do it. I can't stand cooking!

If I had the option of plastic surgery I'd get... a b00b job and/or nose job. I haven't been blessed 'up stairs' and I had my profile picture because my nose just sticks out there! Maybe having some more kids can take care of my 'up stairs' haha! Only the future will tell!

That's all for now...

CIAO! LOVE ME!

{catching up}

2012-01-20T18:57:00.001-06:00

I feel like I am mostly caught up with the stuff that I got 'behind' on when my computer was out of commission. There are still a few things that I would like to get done, but nothing too pressing. I've been keeping myself pretty busy this week getting stuff done and not lounging around and watching too much TV. I surprised myself the other night when I got up and started entering some more capstone data for my surveys and found out that I only had twenty more surveys to enter when I thought I had at least half of them to go yet. It didn't take too long and now I can start to analyze the data and see what the respondents overall view were on my hypothesis. Should be interesting.

I have a list of things I would like to get mostly done by the end of the week and that includes: mailing a wedding present, working on 'up cycling' a frame, finishing a photo book online and getting that ordered, starting another photo book, start and finish editing last weeks engagement session, and do some more capstone work. I don't know that I will get all of that accomplished, but I should get a good start on it. The only one that I would really like to get done is the photo editing. The rest isn't mandatory, but you know me... I'm a perfectionist when it comes to getting things done.

We had an appraiser come to the house yesterday morning to appraise the value of it for our landlords because I think they said they were going to refinance. Anyways, I know it was just some person coming to look at the bones of the house and not at our stuff, but believe me, it was clean! Okay, so not clean clean, like the kitchen floor could have been scrubbed instead of just swept, and the bathroom could have used a deep cleaning instead of just a little cleaning (done by little man of his own free volition, amazing what a kid won't do when you give them free reign with a spray bottle filled with water and a wash cloth), and the windows could have been sprayed down, but everything was picked up and orderly, just like I like my house, haha! Well, most of the time I just look past the disarray that Ayden's toys are in down in the basement. I mean, everything is picked up, but nothing is in the correct bin and ~~sometimes~~ most of the time that bothers me. But not enough to go through everything and put it in the right bin. That won't happen until we are going through everything to move.

The wonders of Facebook have allowed me to find out this week that three people I know are pregnant. As much as I am excited for them… I am secretly totally bumming that I cannot be among them at this time. My friend and I were just talking about this the other day… we both are sick with baby fever! But we have a plan… a year and a half from now, us besties are going to be preggers together, haha! Shh, don’t tell the hubbies (well soon to be hubby on my part)! Oh, wait, maybe I shouldn’t have spilled the beans, lol! We both have a year and a half of school left and the end cannot come soon enough for either of us!

And because a post wouldn’t be any good without a few pictures… here are a few from the last couple of weeks that I’ve wanted to share!CIAO! LOVE ME!

{proud mommy moment}

2012-01-18T17:59:00.001-06:00

I received an email from Ayden's reading teacher yesterday morning and I wanted to share a little bit of it with you all... 'I have enjoyed working with your son, Ayden, this year. He has made tremendous progress in his reading achievement. He is highly motivated and a pleasure to work with.' Ah, if that isn't a proud mommy moment, I don't know what is!We have been consistently working with Ayden on his reading for at least the last two and a half months and I am glad that other people are seeing the progress that he is making besides me. He works really hard each night after school going through his check off list. Here is the list of things that we do every night after he gets home from school: empty his folder, mom or dad signs his planner, he reads through his list of 25 vocabulary words (50 words if he is still working on his previous sheet), we go through 10 spelling words (since his school isn't really pushing spelling and I feel it is important for him, especially with his reading difficulties), he copies two sentences that I've written to practice handwriting, he writes two sentences of his own to work on writing, he does some sort of math (on Wednesdays he comes home with a math packet from school, on other nights its either a worksheet of triple digit addition or subtraction, counting money, reading a thermometer, that sort of stuff), we read through 10 words, phrases or sentences that concentrate on a sound he is working on in speech, and then he reads to me for 20-30 minutes. That is a lot of work for someone who doesn't have nightly homework and has just come home from being at school all day long. But I think it is good preparation for the future when he does have homework and really it takes us less than a hour each night, if we have a little boy who is in a good mood, haha!Lately, I have been the one working with Ayden on his homework every night since I have been home and on Mondays, Wednesdays, and Fridays I will still be able to help him, but Tuesdays and Thursdays might become Jay's territory once again when I start clinic. We shall see how that goes. Jay used to be the one who primarily worked with Ayden and for the most part it went really well. I couldn't stand reading with Ayden because he wasn't even trying and it would drive me up the wall. Not so much anymore because I know that he is trying a lot more. Jay surprised me Monday night while we were doing some grocery shopping at Wal-Mart. Normally, I am the one more prone to go buying things for Ayden on a whim. I mean, what mom doesn't like to spoil their child every now and then?! As Ayden and I were headed in one direction in the store, Jay said he had to go get something and would meet up with us. I thought nothing of it as this happens sometimes and avoids us having to walk all around the store if we split up. Little did I know that he would be bringing back a toy for Ayden. I was surprised. Jay said that it would be a treat for Ayden if he continued the hard work he has been doing through the end of January. Nice little incentive! It was really sweet to see Jay go out of his way to get him some sort of extra incentive (we normally do $1 at the end of the week for doing his homework and chores). So, Ayden now has a countdown on his iPod until the end of January when he can get his new toy (which is displayed on his book shelf as extra incentive). He worked extra hard last night and tonight.

That’s my boy!

CIAO! LOVE ME!

{craft-a-holics anonymous anyone?!}

2012-01-18T17:43:00.001-06:00

I have been crafting up a storm lately… all thanks to Pinterest and here are a few of my latest creations!

1. Melted crayon art. I taped a bunch of crayons to a piece of cardboard at the top of the canvas board I had and used a hair dryer to melt the crayons and watch them drip down the canvas board. Too cool! Then I painted the ‘you & me’ at the bottom to add a little flair to it. Me likey!2. Mini chalkboard prop to use in my photo shoots. Made with all materials that we had laying around at home… including some scrap wood and left over chalkboard paint and spray paint. Love the rustic feel that it has to it.3. More canvas art. (I may be slightly addicted.) I had the two outer canvases done already and wanted to add to them with some canvases that I had gotten for Christmas so I just painted the base coat and then the words ‘love endures’ on the top. Simple and chic, me likey again!4. Custom ruffled camera strap cover! I braved using Jay’s mom’s sewing machine to make this beauty and it took me almost all morning, but I think it turned out awesome! I cannot say that I didn’t think about giving up here and there because I did have some difficulties with the sewing machine (we are not exactly back on speaking terms yet), but I love how it turned out! My camera strap was dying for an upgrade, hehe!5. Picture collages mod podged onto some extra canvas board I had lying around from a previous project. Turned out really nice and I am already planning how I am going to hang them on the wall, will post a finished project when I’m finished!6. One more picture collage.7. This last one isn’t anything special, but I have decided to start saving some money to upgrade my camera. I made a money jar and painted it and then put a ‘count-up’ on the side of it. I am going to put all of the money I make from my photo shoots into the jar. It will probably take me a good year to save the money up, but hey, that’s why they call it saving!I have two projects in mind yet and will be sure to share those with you when they are complete! I love crafting! And I thought I’d get it all out before the semester starts next week!

CIAO! LOVE ME!

{mommy time}

2012-01-14T19:37:00.001-06:00

I've made myself very comfortable tonight. Sitting in 'the' spot on the couch, wrapped in my heating blanket, Hallmark channel chick flicks playing, and my tablet on my lap (getting my laptop back tomorrow), and good mood food in my belly! It doesn't get much better than this, does it?! I am enjoying some mommy time tonight, although given the fact that I've been able to enjoy some me time every afternoon for the last two weeks, it wasn't much needed mommy time. I am enjoying it none the less though and while the boys are away, mommy will play... or watch the Hallmark channel all night long, hehe!

The boys are gone a family christmas. I would have joined them, but I had a photo shoot today and I am going to my cousin's birthday/Packer party tomorrow. Excited to try out the new tires on my car for a long road trip.

Just wanted to pop in and say a quick 'hi'. Hoping to have some pictures to post the next time you hear from me. I'm also working on a new canvas project to add to something I've already done. I know... yet another canvas project. My walls will be covered with canvas in our new place, trust me! More canvas than one can take!

CIAO! LOVE ME

{video chatting}

2012-01-11T18:44:00.001-06:00

The weather in Wisconsin the last few days has been unseasonably warm and I couldn't LOVE it anymore, especially the last two days. To have 40 and almost 50 degree weather in what is almost the middle of January is usually unheard of and believe me, I took some advantage of it. I should have taken more advantage of it with the impending snow we are supposed to be getting. (I'm still holding out hope that the predicted 5-8 inches of snow really ends up being only 2-3 inches.) But, I was outside with my camera non the less and I came out of my camera slump. For awhile there I hadn't really picked up my camera for much. Let's face it, I took almost zilch for Christmas photos and for a few weeks before that it sat collecting dust in its bag. But now that I have gotten back into my groove, I do not have access to my computer to get my edit on. I cannot tell you how anxious I am to get my computer back, to sit down in front of it and go full force! By the time I get my computer back I will have three seperate photo shoots to edit, along with numerous different photos that I've taken for myself that I want to edit! And it will be my last week of vacation before classes start.

I know that I talk about my weight a lot on my blog (my blog, my writing) and I'm sure it bugs some people. Heck, it even bugs me. I feel like I am writing the same thing over and over. It depresses me and stepping on the scale tonight REALLY depressed me! I have gained 5 lbs since the semester ended and it it is ALL MY FAULT! Yes, I am taking accountability for it and that is what depresses me. I let myself gain the weight. I've done nothing overly active for over the last month and I've continued to tell myself that one more dessert won't hurt, one extra bite is okay... I will start dieting again tomorrow, I will start working out again tomorrow. Always tomorrow. Remember how I was going to start working out again. I did and it lasted for... THREE days! That is IT! THREE pathetic days. Say it with me my friends, I am a BIG FAT FAILURE! Ugh, it sickens me, it really does! At this point I cannot wait for the semester to start up again so I am gone more of the day so I don't sit at home eating all day. That is all I do right now, sit and eat. No wonder I have gained back some weight. I know that I am at a healthy weight for my body type right now, but I worked so hard to get to where I was and I feel like now I have failed myself. But hear me out readers, I WILL lose these five pounds again. It might take me until the end of the semseter, but it will happen. I am going to start over again, but this time be more realistic and start with changing my eating habits first and try to slowly work back into working out. I WILL succeed! I WILL! How is that for persistance?! That's why I have it tattooed on my wrist!

Tonight while Ayden and I were working on his reading (which is going really well by the way), and my dad called him on his iPod (my dad was using my younger sister's iPod). Instead of stopping the reading, I had Ayden finish reading the book to Grandpa and Alexis. It was very cute and I love that technology has progressed to the point where we can video chat with people because otherwise Ayden wouldn't have been able to do that. He loves his iPod and is on it quite a lot and he is able to video chat with other people. He talks to Alexis on it quite a lot and to be able to see her more often. It really is pretty neat. We have video chatting capabilities on our phones as well, although I don't know that I can chat with Ayden and his iPod, but it is nice to be able to see him and Jay when either of us are away for the night.

I found out tonight that my sister has found a teaching job and I am super excited for her! She finishes up her student teaching any day now and she will then transition to teaching her very own first grade class! How awesome is that?! My sister has wanted to be a teacher for as long as I can remember and I don't know anyone who would be a better teacher than her! She is great with kids and they just seem to gravitate towards her and that is how I know that she will only prosper as the years go on. Her first grown up paying job! I cannot wait to join the ranks of those people... a year and a half and I will hopefully be there with her and so many others! Congratulations Emily!

CIAO! LOVE ME!

{love him}

2012-01-09T19:22:00.001-06:00

{fairy tales don't exsist...}

2012-01-09T10:00:00.001-06:00

...but happily ever after might!

For as long as I can remember my parents have been divorced. I don't have many, if any, family memories of when they were still married. But that isn't saying much because apparently I don't have very many childhood memories in the first place. I do remember some things from when my parents were getting divorced. I don't remember how old I was at the time, but obviously old enough to remember tidbits of it. I know that my brother wasn't very old and therefore probably has no recollection of when my parents were together. I suppose I am glad that I don't remember my parents divorce because then I don't know if it was messy or not. Given how my mom and dad get along now, I'm inclined to believe it was all pretty amlicable, but I haven't ever really talked to either of my parents about it. I guess I don't really care. Even with my parents not being together, they generally acted as a unit when raising us kids and we had a good upbrining. That.. and I got to live at two different houses, which had both its ups and downs.

But being a child who grew up with her parents divorced kind of jaded me when it came to my own marriage. In high school I was the one who was going to grow up and never get married or have kids. Ha! Now I can't wait to have more kids and I'm getting married in precisely 621 days!

It took me a long time to know that I was ready to get married. Ultimately, everyone enters into marriage thinking it will last forever, okay, so hopefully everyone does. Because I know the perks and pitfalls of growing up in two different households, I knew it was something that I didn't want Ayden to have to endure. Just because Jay and I weren't getting married, it didn't mean that that still couldn't happen, but why go through with a marriage if one of us wasn't certain about forever?! And for a long time, I wasn't certain.

Our relationship hasn't been all peaches and cream... no relationship is. And for a while a few years ago there was a point where I didn't know if our relationship would last or even if I wanted it to. Why consider marriage when you are having those kind of thoughts?! And then it hit me... he was the man I wanted to be with forever. I sit and look at the ring on my finger and believe with all of my heart that Jay and I will be together for the long haul. I mean, we've made it eight years already, doesn't that say something for us?! Most of the people I know who've gotten married and have kids have only been together for half that amount of time, if that. I think we've got something special here, no, I know we do and although I know our future will be full of twists and turns, I have faith we can work throught it together.

I know there will be days where I don't even want to look at him, I'm not obvilous to that fact. But I also know there will be days where I want nothing more than just to look at him. It is a part of what relationships are. Can't be peaches and cream all of the time.

Happily ever after doesn't negate the fact that the road to it won't include bumps, road blocks, and even some detours, but as long as I know Jay is by my side along the way, we'll make it. I mean, we've passed the seven year itch, haha!

CIAO! LOVE ME!

{tomorrow is monday}

2012-01-08T19:21:00.001-06:00

Well, dear readers, it has been a rather low key weekend around our house. Lots of sleeping in, watching TV, playing with toys, and being creative Pinterest style!

I moved one of my photo shoots that was scheduled for this upcoming weekend to this weekend because the weather was supposed to be warmer and it was a family photo shoot with a little one year old. The photos turned out awesome (I cannot wait to get my computer back to edit them) and I am doing an individual indoor baby photo shoot this week as well. The little baby who is almost one is the most smilely little girl I've seen in a long time and she made the photo shoot go so smoothly, LOVED it! We managed to get it over pretty quickly because even though it was warmer than it will be next weekend, it was still cold!

Speaking of my computer, it is fixed! Turns out there was just a big dust ball in the fan that was causing it to over heat and turn off right away. I cannot wait to get it back! I want it back already, but since the plan is to go home next weekend, it really doesn't pay to drive home to get the computer before then and use gas when it is expensive to begin with. And I don't really NEED my computer right now anyways, it's just want at this point in time.

I was semi productive this weekend and created two different things that I found on Pinterest lately. Both turned out awesome and I will upload pictures of them when I get my computer back. One is a crayon canvas art and the other is a mini chalkboard prop for photo shoots and I cannot wait to use it with some upcoming photo shoots I have! Super excited!

Someone I know is getting married a couple of weeks after me and I find it funny and scary that she is already planning things for her wedding. I mean, she has more than 622 days to go! But then I sit back and wonder if maybe I am behind the game in planning things already?! I mean, does it really take more than a year to plan a wedding? Maybe to book a few things like a church and venue, but we don't really need either of those. I already booked my photographer and that is like my only mega important thing that I wanted to make sure was good. At this point in time, the wedding really isn't at the top of my to do list. Getting done with this semester, doing good in clinic, and finding a place to live and a job for Jay are top priorities right now. I figure I'll have more time to work on wedding stuff next summer after we get settled in to our new place and are hopefully closer to home. Or maybe it's just that I am jealous that other people are planning for their weddings when I'm not... I did however ask my cousins at Christmas to be bridesmaids in my wedding. I made cute little boxes that asked and they both said yes. I had previously asked my sister quite awhile ago to be my maid of honor and of course she said yes. And I asked one of my college friends as well! I debated long and hard about asking a friend to be a bridesmaid, but Kristi and I have that sort of unspoken bond between us, and we've already betrothed our children to each other, so she'll be around forever, haha! I'm excited. Jay hasn't asked any of the groomsmen yet, but they will for sure be at least his brother, my brother, and his friend JT. He is debating about one other person. And Ayden and Alexis of course!

Another week starts tomorrow... one week closer to the beginning of the semester! I am close to being ready for it to begin, but I know that with that is going to bring a lot more stress than I want to deal with. Winter break has been so relaxing so far and I wish that it could continue for longer than we have left. Actually, there is two weeks left and I know by the time that both of those weeks are over I will be ready for class again. I am beginning to miss seeing patients and having more than just a little bit of work to do when I do go to work. I won't miss sitting at home eating all day, that needs to stop!

CIAO! LOVE ME!

{ouch}

2012-01-04T19:13:00.001-06:00

Hmm... this working out thing is overrated, have I ever mentioned that before?! I'm in pain and it's my own fault. My shoulders and back hurt. Why? Because I was the idiot who was picking up the basement the other day and saw Jay's 15 pound dumbbells laying on the floor and said to myself that I could do 10 bicep curls with them with both arms at the same time before I put them away. And I did. I was struggling by the last two reps, but I did it. And now I'm paying for it. Stupid me! And then getting back into working out this week is working muscles that I haven't worked out in a couple of weeks. Last night was supposed to be a short night and with only a 15 minute HITT workout, but then I added in 15 minutes of strength training on top of that. S.O.R.E! But it is a good kind of sore so I should stop complaining.

I had an episode with a strong willed child last night! Ayden and Jay got home from school and I could tell already that Ayden was in a bad mood. We do a list of homework almost every night when Ayden gets home from school. With Christmas break and being gone and busy so much in the last two weeks, I will admit that we haven't been on top of the homework at home thing and after Ayden's first day back to school he wanted nothing to do with homework at home. That led to more than an hour in his room whining and crying about doing his homework. I wasn't budging and just told him to come and get me when he was ready to do his reading. Needless to say, we didn't get all of his homework done until well into the night. Thankfully tonight was a TOTALLY different story and Ayden was all ready to go when he got home from school. Much better and we were all happier about that!

I dropped my computer off with my mom today and am keeping my fingers crossed that it can be fixed. I'm already missing not being able to go on it! I know that I can do almost everything I can on my computer on my tablet or phone when it comes to the internet, but not everything is the same. With some time off of school I was looking forward to getting caught up with my capstone data entering and doing some personal photo editing, but I can't do either of those things on my tablet. The orginal plan is to get my computer back next weekend at a family birthday party, but if it can be fixed before then I'd love to get it back sooner! I'm way to technologically connected and dependent, haha! Only when I don't have anything else going on.

I could go for a big bowl of ice cream right about now. All that hard working out down the drain! Or not... it's probably a good thing that we don't have any at our house, or many other junk food items because I don't have any will power. Today is my 'day off' according to the Turbo Fire program and I had every intention of working out today and 'banking' the day off for another day when I didn't feel like working out, but I am still pretty sore and so thought I would give my muscles a day to recoup so I can actually move tomorrow. That might be nice, eh?

CIAO! LOVE ME!

{jumped back on}

2012-01-03T17:48:00.001-06:00

Last night marked Day 1 when it comes to working out. I'm jumping back on the band wagon and restarting my Turbo Fire program! I could not believe how one little month of not working out could leave me so out of breath when doing just a 30 minute workout, but it did and I regret not working out this past month more than anything right now! I had my endurance and stamina pretty high there for a while and now it is all gone! Ugh! But, I am going to put forth the effort again for real this time and not just like my last two attempts in the last month that lasted only a day or two. This time is for real! I have 20 days until the semester starts and I am going to use them to get back into shape and then continue that when the semester starts! I need this push! I am also going to give up soda again. Even the 0 calorie stuff that I have been drinking isn't good for me, not with all of the sodium that is in it! My goal is to drink LOTS more water, like at least three bottles a day! One in the morning, one with lunch, and one with supper. I know that I should probably be drinking even more than that, but that is my goal (at least for now).

CIAO! LOVE ME!

{i'm gonna miss this}

2012-01-02T15:01:00.001-06:00

Since my computer has decided to hate me this weekend, I thought I'd sit down with my tablet and blog once again, you know since I'm taking a 'break' from everything else that is calling my name. Actually, I have been rather busy so far today and got a lot done. Our Christmas tree is now out of the house, the decorations are most put away, most of the rooms are clean and organized, the laundry is 90% done (just needs to be folded and put away, and only three small loads), picture editing is complete, and even some vacuuming was done in the house. I was able to finish editing my latest photo session last night when my computer was behaving, but today it hates me.

Here's the thing, I think I jinxed myself. Jay and I went to Best Buy this morning just to research computers. My current one is going to go at some point and I kind of wanted to look at the prices of ones out there now... see the differences between a desk top and laptop and just ask a few questions. The employee there was very helpful and he suggested I blow out the fan on my laptop with some air (I've been told to do that before, but just hadn't gotten around to it) and so we bought a can of air and I was hoping that that would do the trick to my computer overheating and it would last me maybe another six months or so. We get home and I go blow out the fan as best as I could on my computer, let it sit for a while and clean the office.

When I was done cleaning the office I turned my computer on because I wanted to do a few things on it before doing some more cleaning. Everything was going smoothly until I tried to scan some stuff with the printer. I was having trouble with the printer earlier in the day and had thought I solved the problem and was starting to scan a document when my computer just shut off on me. Okay, so that is nothing new, but this time it wasn't as if I was running four different programs at once. I chalk it up to my computer just being stubborn, until I try turning it back on. It starts up normally and starts to load everything I have on it and then shuts off again (sidenote: my computer takes about 4-5 minutes to completely load everything because it is over four years old and I have a lot on it). What the heck! So, I start it up again and SAME THING HAPPENS! UGH! This is really starting to frustrate me and I'm starting to get worried!

I backed up all my computer files probably a month or two ago so I have almost everything on my external hard drive, but there is stuff on there that I would like to get at! I have only my three most recent photo sessions that I haven't backed up and maybe a month or two of personal pictures (but I haven't been all that ambitious with my camera these last few months). What would irk me the most is losing my school stuff! I know there is stuff in those files that I saved in the last two months that hasn't been backed up. Although classes are over and it wouldn't be super damaging to lose it, it would still suck!

Jay went and tried getting it to start before and it loaded up and stayed on for a little while longer before shutting off. I think we might let it sit over night and try again in the morning. I'm keeping my fingers crossed because I really didn't want to get a new computer right now. I was just researching. Also, my mom's husband is a computer guru and so I'll have him (or someone at geek squad) look at it before I call it quits! It just makes me sick to think I could go through losing my computer again in just a matter of four years. Ugh! So, if you feel so inclined, please keep your fingers crossed that my computer can be saved!

But this post wasn't supposed to be about how I am going to miss my computer if it cannot be saved, it's supposed to be about how I am going to miss Stevens Point when we have to move. I am going to miss the familiar streets. I am going to miss all of the stores that I have easy access to. If I cannot find something at one store, I have like five other stores I can try! I am going to miss the parks and the Green Circle Trail (a 26 mile trail that goes around Stevens Point and Plover). I am going to miss the city pool, the school system, the little river we go swimming in, all of my favorite photography places, Ayden's cub scout den, my job, our current house, the feeling of being at home, and SO much more! The closer we get to our potential moving date (because the date isn't set in stone yet), the more scared, nervous, and not ready to leave I am feeling. At the beginning of the school year I was SO ready to leave and start fresh and now I don't feel ready to have to start over again. The other two times we moved while here in Point were because we wanted to... now we have to. I'm nervous we won't find such an ideal place for us to live and I will hate it for the next year. I'm nervous for Ayden to have to start fresh at a new school and for Jay to find a good job and for me to fit in at my placement. It's all coming to a head and well before we even have to start packing. I'm sure to have a panic attack before May even gets here!

One thing I am ready for is to PURGE PURGE PURGE! After trying to find places for Ayden's new Christmas presents, I decided that if I could have a rummage sale tomorrow, I would! We have SO much stuff that is not going to be coming with us when we move! SO much stuff that I want to try and sell at a rummage sale. It NEEDS to go! A lot of it I wanted to save for future children and there are things that I didn't get rid of, but I do know that any future children will be getting toys of their own as well so I don't need to keep everything. We did quite good at our rummage sale two summers ago (I think it was two summers ago, or maybe it was this past summer, I cannot remember), and now it is time to purge again. Especially if we end up in a place that is smaller than what we currently have. Ayden, Jay, and unfortunately myself all have things that need to go, go, go and I cannot wait to start getting rid of things. If money were no object and I wouldn't need to worry about getting something out of what we currently have, I'd donate all I could today, but alas, I would like to make a little bit from what we do have that needs to go. And let me tell you, that stuff I will not miss, hehe!

My little child tried to pull one over on me today. It was quite good if you ask me and it scares me, haha! Him and I were downstairs cleaning in the basement and I was putting some board games away and had asked Ayden to pick up some of his legos. He was doing good picking up his legos and then he became very adamant that he wanted to put the board games away by himself and that he wanted to pick up everything in the basement by himself. I was very proud that he wanted to do everything himself, but told him that it was okay if I helped because I wanted to put some of the games in a specific spot. Ayden got kind of grumpy that I wouldn't quit helping and insisted he wanted to do it alone. I should have caught on then, but I didn't. I continued to put the games away and happened upon why he wanted to pick up all by himself. Awhile ago he must have been playing with the paints and didn't pick them up and left a bit of a mess behind some of the games. He saw it before I did and didn't want me to see it and for him to get in trouble. Sneaky little boy trying to get out of that by saying he'd pick up all alone. Haha! I kind of chuckled to myself when I saw it and asked him if that was why he wanted to do it alone and he said yes. I just told him that we'd throw the stuff away (it was all kind of gross) and clean it up together and all would be fine. I think he was nervous he would get in trouble. Am I in for it already if he's trying to put things past me like that?! Hope not!

CIAO! LOVE ME!

{goals, resolutions, ambitions}

2012-01-01T16:54:00.001-06:00

2012 is a new year and I am ready for it!

I have a few goals, resolutions, ambitions that I would like to accomplish this year. I know that you don't have to start these at the beginning of a new year, but I figured why not start fresh?! And when better than the new year?!

What are these so called resolutions?!

First off, I want to continue to be healthy. I weighed myself this morning and was surprised to see that even after all of my Christmas gorging, I have stayed plateau'd at 115lbs. I'd say that that is pretty darn good! So, my goal is to start working out regularly again and continue to be healthy! It has almost been a year since I started to take better care of my body. It is the only body that I will have and I want it to stay in tip top shape! I have not been good at working out since Thanksgiving and I would like to get back into it starting today!

Secondly, I want to blog more this year! In the last year I only blogged just over 100 times... that is half of what I blogged in the previous years and it bums me out. I love blogging, both writing down my own thoughts and feelings and reading other's thoughts and feelings and blogging helps me stay centered, so that is something I would like to do more of! So, stick around and I promise to try and blog more than I have in the last year!

Third, I am starting another Project 365! I redid an old blog that I used for it when I attempted the project a few years ago. I cannot promise to make it through the whole year, but I am really going to try this time. I will post the blog site on here for you to visit when I put my first week of pictures up! I really want to make it through the whole year! Of course, it is only January 1st... but I will try my hardest. I also want to continue photographing other families and children and slowly expand my photography. It isn't going to be a career for me, but I love doing it as a side job! I want to continue to grow in my photography skills and provide people with images they will cherish forever!

Fourth, I want to try harder in school, especially this semester. Last semester I know that I slacked off a lot and because of it, my clinic grade suffered and I feel like I need to redeem myself (mostly for personal satisfaction), but it still needs to happen!

So there you have it... the four things that I am aiming to work on this coming year! Of course there is a lot more things in my everyday life that I will continue to work on and areas that I know I continually need to grow in, but that is with everyone!

Along with some things that I'm excited to work on this year... 2012 will bring along a lot more great things for myself and my family and I cannot wait to see all of the things that will happen that I don't know about yet!

Some exciting (and scary) things that will happen that I already know of include: moving in May/June, starting my externship, Ayden turning 8, me turning 26, Jay turning 27, Jay finding a new job, Jay and I celebrating 9 years of being together and one year until we get married, starting to really plan for the wedding, and SO many other things! I cannot wait to see what 2012 will bring for my family and friends! It is bound to be one heck of a year for everyone I know!

Bring it on 2012! We are ready for you!

CIAO! LOVE ME!

(Three posts in one day... is that going over board on blogging more in 2012?! Haha!)

{did someone say wave pool?}

2012-01-01T16:31:00.001-06:00

As if three full days of Christmas celebrations wasn't enough to cram in for our time off from work and school... we had to add in three fun days at a water park in the Dells as well! My mom, brother, sister, sister's boyfriend, Jay, Ayden, and myself all ventured down to the Dells last Thursday morning for three fun days at the Wilderness Resort. It definitely cost us enough for two nights at the resort, but they were SO worth it! The only downside was sleeping in a room with six other people when more than one of them snore and/or breathe loudly and you cannot sleep! Ha!

We all got down to the Dells around noon on Thursday and got in some mini golf, arcade playing, and swimming before our room was even ready! My mom, sister, sister's boyfriend (John), and I went on The Hurricane waterslide and I'll admit that I shut my eyes for the majority of it. It was fun and I kind of wish I would have went on it again, but we didn't. Ayden and my brother went down a few waterslides too, but the majority of our water park time was spent in the wave pool which was AWESOME! The water wasn't even all that cold which was fun too. And we even got to have fun in an outside hot tub while it was snowing out!

An adventure pass let us get in some more mini golf, laser tag, a mirror maze and haunted hotel, and some more arcade fun! Ayden hit it big on one of the games and ended up with 1000 tickets after just his third game! That was awesome and made the money that we spent on the games WELL worth it. The games were fun and I think everyone had fun playing them.

Each afternoon/night after we were tired of swimming we headed back to the room and had fun playing games. We had some hard core games of spoons going on! Jay gets pretty violent with that game too! Haha! The time went WAY too fast, but I think that everyone had a great time there! I didn't feel the greatest on Saturday so I was glad that we were leaving that day. We got home shortly after noon and I spent the rest of the day in bed with a headache and stomache... pretty much sucked! But I took some Advil PM last night and was dead to the world after 9pm and had the best nights sleep in the last week! I think I was still partly recovering from the cold that I got after Christmas as well. I just hope that no one else got the stomache like me.

Like Christmas, I neglected to take my camera out the entire time that we were there as well. Oops!

Ayden is already talking about going back to the wave pool! I told him at some point we will probably go back, hehe!

CIAO! LOVE ME!

{obligatory christmas post}

2012-01-01T16:15:00.001-06:00

Well, since my computer decided that it did not want to work for me right now, I thought I would go on my tablet and write up my post about Christmas at our house (and the many houses that we visited during our stay at Jay's family's house). I was in the midst of editing a recent photo shoot that I did, but apparently my computer likes to overheat a lot these days and likes to just shut itself off on me. I definitely think I need to start looking for a new one! Ugh!

Okay, let's talk Christmas...

A few days before Christmas I went to Green Bay to visit my bestie and to take some photos of each other. I wanted to put something together for Jay for Christmas, but I have yet to finish the project... oops! This was the third time in as many months that I was able to see my friend which was awesome because usually we only see each other like once every six months. In any case, we ended up having a great time and we got some great pictures of each other. I just need to get motivated to get the project done. Well, I would if my computer would work for me. Someday I'll get it done.

We left for 'home' in the late afternoon the day before Christmas Eve. We were supposed to leave earlier in the day, but the weather wasn't very good and Jay didn't know if he would have to work or not. Turns out that he didn't have to work and we got home at a half way decent hour. That was nice because we needed to get up early to go to my mom's house Christmas Eve morning!

Christmas Eve was a busy day for us. We headed over to my mom's house by 8:00am because she had a Christmas scavenger hunt for myself, my sister, brother, and Jay to do. Ayden came along as well and was on Jay and Casey's team. There was a whole list of things that we were supposed to go out and take pictures of. Some of the things were different Christmas decorations, some were roads signs, and so on and so forth. I think there was like 50 items on the list and we had two hours to find as many as we could. It was a lot of fun and my sister and I thought that we had in the bag, but we ended up losing by 5 points. I know, SO disappointing, but we got a consolation prize anyways.

After the scavenger hunt, we opened presents at my mom's house and ate a yummy lunch. It was the second time we were had potatoes and ham as a meal... the second time of many over the next couple of days. The obligatory Christmas meal I guess, haha! We had a fun time at my mom's house and then it was off to Jay's grandma's house for supper. More food and presents and visiting with family before heading off to my grandma's house later that night for even more presents. It was a late night and by the end of it Ayden was getting pretty crabby.

We weren't up super early Christmas morning, but it was still early enough. Sadly (or maybe not so sadly), I left my camera in its case for the majority of Christmas. I wanted to really enjoy Christmas with Jay and Ayden this year instead of being behind the camera worrying about trying to get pictures of it all. And I'm pretty okay with that (for the time being anyways). Ayden got lots of presents on Christmas morning. He LOVED his iPod! He was spoiled this year, but then again, when is he not?! Haha! I had SO much fun watching him open presents this year and seeing his expression! It wasn't long before we had to head off to Jay's other grandparent's house for a little while. Ayden and I didn't stay too long at the Hoerth's. Too many people and I don't think that either of us really felt like socalizing all that much. It was a little bit too much overload at that point. But later Christmas night we went to my dad's house to watch the Packer game and get more presents. Ayden and Alexis and my sister were all playing with their iPods and had a great time! Another late night!

The day after Christmas was spent at my other grandparent's house and my mom's husband's parent's house. More food, more fun, more presents... just an overall great time! But I was SO ready to be done and go home and sleep in my own bed! We finally headed back to our place late afternoon on Tuesday after a photo shoot that I had that morning. It was a maternity shoot for my friend's sister in law and it went really well! I also had first hand experience driving two different ways to and from Sheboygan and seeing how long it would take if we were to live in Chilton and I had to drive each day to clinic. I was attempting to edit the photos from the shoot before when my computer decided that it no longer wanted to work for me and shut off, hence the blogging!

We were only home for about a day and a half when we packed up again and headed down to the Dells for a family vacation...

CIAO! LOVE ME!

{let’s play rewind}

2011-12-31T19:24:00.001-06:00

I did a yearly recap last year with pictures and I thought I might do it again this year. I really enjoyed looking through my post last year about all that we did throughout the year. So, without further ado… we will rewind through 2011 as it turns into 2012! (An obligatory Christmas post coming soon… along with one about our recent trip to the Dells!)

JanuaryThe year 2011 started off a lot like 2010 did. I enjoyed a few weeks off of school before starting my second semester of my second year of graduate school. I was nervous to start my first off campus placement, but it turned out to be pretty awesome! I experimented with some do it yourself canvas art this month and LOVED how it turned out! My friend Kristi and I got our families together a few times this month. We went out to eat and had a Wii family fun night together! Also, my first ‘official’ book of photography came in the mail and it turned out great… totally worth the price!

FebruaryWe started off February with some cell phone drama. Our cellphone company switched unexpectedly on us and the transition was not very smooth. Both Jay and I were very unhappy with our service, but there wasn’t much we could do about it at the time. Ayden had his first blue and gold banquet for Cub Scouts and it was held at a hotel that had a pool. Ayden had a blast swimming with his new Cub Scout buddies! Jay got me an open heart pendant for Valentine’s Day and I still love it. What a sweetie! I worked on some of my photography techniques this month and also had an indoor shoot with a cute little munchkin!

MarchI started off March with another photo shoot, this time for my classmate and friend who had gotten engaged. The pictures turned out awesome and some of them are still my favorite to date! We went to the Dells again this month for Spring Break, only this time it was with my friend Kristi and her family. We stayed at Hotel Rome and we had such a great time together! The waterpark was small enough for her girls, yet big enough for Ayden to have some fun yet. We also had some really nice weather again this month… spring was on the horizon!

AprilI tried giving up soda this month and lasted for awhile, but I don’t think that I’ll ever be able to fully give it up again. My brother, sister, and I had our annual Mother’s Day photo shoot to make our mom her Mother’s Day book. My sister and I started something last year and we were told that we needed to continue it this year and so we did. Apparently it is something that we are going to need to continue in the years to come as well since my mom enjoys the books so much. Along with giving up soda, I also started to diet a little bit this month which ultimately led me to losing about 15 pounds by the end of the summer! And lastly, I shot a gun for the first time this month. It was kind of scary and I really don’t see myself doing it again anytime soon!

MayMother’s Day was very nice this month. Jay and Ayden got me the most awesome flower basket as a gift and I couldn’t get over how cool the flowers looked! I got down and dirty with Jillian Michaels and fell in love with her Ripped in 30 day program! I was featured on the Pioneer Woman’s website this month for one of her photo contests and couldn’t believe it! It was too cool! I finished up my second year of graduate school with good grades. Ayden ‘graduated’ in Cub Scouts from a Tiger Cub to a Wolf! He loves Cub Scouts more and more! Ayden started his spring soccer session, we went deer fawn tagging, and I started my summer clinical rotation which turned out to be pretty awesome as well!

JuneMy weight loss goals continued to progress this month and I couldn’t have been more happy! I continued with my off campus placement and was SO happy to be done with it shortly after Ayden was done with school! It saved us SO much money on childcare this summer. Ayden also started his third year of summer school and he really enjoyed it once again. I’m sad he won’t be going to it this summer because we are moving. We had some updated family pictures taken this month and they turned out awesome! Jay’s brother graduated from high school as well!

JulyMy mom came to visit for a few days at the beginning of this month and we had a great time together! We also participated in our first carp tournament and caught one big fish. Unfortunately we didn’t win anything, but that was okay. I was just surprised that Ayden stuck in so long! We kind of decided on our wedding reception venue this month, although it is still not set in stone. Jay was doing really good on his weight loss goals and he lost about 30 pounds by this point in the summer. He was doing great! Ayden went tubing behind a boat for the first time and loved it! And, we finally got a sectional couch for uber cheap off of craiglist!

AugustI spent the beginning of August in Colorado for an audiology summer camp and had a really great time! The mountains were beautiful and I learned a lot. I also went white water rafting for the first time too! There was also Hoerth camping where we floated down a river on tubes for the first time and Schwobe camping where we got rained out, but still had a lot of fun with everyone. We visited Whitefish Dunes State Park and Cave Point County Park and I fell in love with both places! Ayden and I both celebrated our birthdays and I almost cried that my baby turned seven years old! We had a birthday party and I dreaded the start of another semester of school! I had a few more photo shoots, I started the Turbo Fire workout program, and I began freaking out about having to move in the coming months!

SeptemberAyden started second grade this month. I started my third year of graduate school. Ayden had his first ‘surgery’, which wasn’t actually a surgery, but he did have to be put under because he had a bead stuck in his ear that needed to come out. Jay and I celebrated being together for eight years! Wow, time flies!

OctoberJay had a big month this month… he got a new truck! Well, it wasn’t by choice. His old truck died and we found ourselves the proud owner of ‘The Beast’ in which we all have decided that we love just a little more than his other truck, hehe! My bestie from Green Bay came and visited for a few days and we went to try on wedding dresses. Well, I tried the dresses on. There weren’t very many dresses to try on, but it was fun to try them on for the first time. We also went through quite a few corn mazes this month and missed out on trick or treating because of the crappy weather, but that was okay because Ayden didn’t really mind.

NovemberI had two externship interviews this month and after one of them, I visited with my bestie in Green Bay this time. We had a great time together! I got a new flash for my camera and experimented with it a little bit. I still don’t have it all the way mastered. I blogged WAY less than I wanted to. I got sucked into the world of Pinterest and just had a great month with my family.

DecemberI finished out the semester with pretty good grades. I wasn’t very happy with my clinic grade, but what can you do. I will just have to amp it up this coming semester. We had a great Christmas and then went to the Dells with my family and had an even better time. Both of which I will blog about soon!

There you have it… a mini recap of 2011! Overall, I have to say that it wasn’t a bad year or an overly awesome year. It was a blessed year though and I am so glad that I got to spend it with my family and friends. Definitely looking forward to all that 2012 has to offer for me and my family!

CIAO! LOVE ME!

{that's a wrap}

2011-12-22T16:49:00.001-06:00

Well folks, the semester is done and over with for me and I couldn't be more excited. Honestly though, I haven't had much to do/worry about for the last two weeks. It hasn’t been a very stress filled end of the semester for a change and I couldn't be happier! I am waiting on two final grades for my clinic and capstone credits. I ended up with an A in my Counseling class, an A in my Implantable class, and an A- in my Pathologies II class. I was pretty upset with the A- because the professor neglected to inform the students how she was determining the grade (which was different than the grades posted online) and here I was pretty confident I was getting an A... guess not. And she didn't even include one of the homework assignments that we had which I had gotten a 100% on and I know that would have helped. And what makes it worse is that I barely got the A- with a 90.6%! Ugh! Hoping for an A for capstone and clinic though. We shall see...

Ayden had his school Christmas concert this week and both Jay and I went to see him. It was cute! They only sang two songs and I was only able to get one of them taped though because I forgot how to use the video function on my camera at first and then by the time I figured it out again, the song was over, ha! But the second song was pretty cute. I also found out that Ayden won a coloring contest in his class the other day! How exciting! He is very artistic!

I am counting down the hours until Friday. I am excited to go 'home' for a few days and to see everyone. We are going to have a very busy couple of days, but that is okay. It is always a lot of fun. I think I am most excited about Ayden opening his presents. We definitely went overboard this year, okay, so it was me who went overboard, but that's okay. I can't remember if I mentioned it or not, but we did end up getting him an iPod Touch. I haven't really gotten any negative comments about getting him one when he is only seven, but I have read a few things on other people's Facebook pages discussing the ages that we get children electronics these days. I did see a lot more people getting their children thing at such a young age. And, yes, I do think that Ayden is maybe a little young for one, but I also know that he is fairly responsible. He has had his Nintendo DS for a year and a half now and he has been very responsible with that. He plays on my tablet all of the time and is very good with that too. What I thought was insane was these parents getting their children these super expensive cameras and/or giving them their old ones. We are talking about giving a six year old a $400 camera! Not in my house, haha! But all the more power to them. I won't judge their parenting styles because I know how much I dislike it when people do it to mine.

It looks like we will not be having a white Christmas this year, but you know what... I could really care less! I don't like the snow and don't want any snow. If I have to deal with the cold temperatures, I'd rather deal with them when the ground is not covered in anything. Ha!

I have all of the presents wrapped and am most of the way packed for this weekend. We will be coming back to our place for a few days then going to Wisconsin Dells for a few days with my mom, brother, sister, and her boyfriend. I am really excited about that because Ayden is tall enough to go down all of the water slides this year! I hope that he doesn't get afraid.

Final clinic grade came in and I’m not very happy with it. Makes me want to cry. It’s passing and all, but still… not what I wanted to find out before Christmas… ugh, trying to get myself out of this funk with the grade and ready to have a great holiday weekend!

CIAO! LOVE ME!

{end of the semester}

2011-12-15T18:49:00.001-06:00

WEDNESDAY: The fall semester is winding to a close and I am SO happy! I have one final and one presentation today to get through and then I will be done with my late classes! SO excited! I also have one final and one assignment due next Monday. I am almost done with the assignment and I'm not too worried about finishing it up. The final is a little worrisome. I haven't had to study for any tests this entire semester. They have all been online or open book. My grades have been pretty good. I need to do pretty well on the final we have today, but once again, it is online/open book (although that doesn't always mean it's easier). The final next Monday is an in class final that I actually have to HAND write! I haven't had to hand write anything all semester. I am so used to word processing everything on my computer. It is rare when I actually have to turn in something that I've hand written. It is also cumulative which bites, but it is for my counseling class so I'm not overly worried. What I am not looking forward to is having to hand write it because when the ideas get flowing it is so much easier and faster to get them on out on the computer than with a pen and paper and it is A LOT faster! Not mention having to avoid hand cramps, haha! Yes, I'm complaining about something so trivial as having to hand write a final exam.

I was looking forward to being done after Monday, but now I have to work on my capstone paper. Ugh! Actually, I might get motivated and work on it a little bit tomorrow and Friday since I won't have anything going on for the majority of the day, other than working for a little while in the morning. Our second revisions were supposed to be due not this past Monday, but the Monday before and I was waiting on one of my committee members to add some more edits; but I guess his edits were just the ones that he sent in an email. At this point in the game, I am just so over my capstone project and it isn't even halfway complete yet. I have to finish entering in all of the surveys and then analysis the data and write the second half of my paper. SO not looking forward to it . Then I have to create a PowerPoint presentation and then present it. Thank goodness we only have two classes next semester otherwise I'd probably be up a creek! My motivation is next to nothing so the less I have to do the better, ha! I am SO over school at this point!

The weather has been pretty craptastic lately, but it looks like it is going to get nicer for the weekend and that is good because I am photographing a small wedding on Saturday. I am excited about it and then I am having a girls afternoon with my friends on Sunday. I am excited to get my camera out again. I haven’t really had it out all that much in the previous weeks and I feel bad. I need to get it out and get back into my photographing mood. I am ready for it! It will make for a fun weekend and I am looking forward to it because the last couple of weekends have been pretty boring and laid back at our house. Don’t get me wrong, it was definitely nice to have a weekend to ourselves.

THURSDAY: I had intentions of finishing this post yesterday. I always have intentions of finishing the post when I start writing it, but it doesn't always end up that way. The grade for the final I took yesterday is already posted and I got a... wait for it... wait for it... an A-. Okay, so an A would have been better, but for the class and the teacher and the format of the exam and the fact that as I was going through it I could really have cared less about some of the answers that I put, I was pretty happy with that grade. I was pretty ecstatic to even see that it was up already because that teacher is known for not putting grades up right away. I also found out that I got an A on my last presentation in that class which was awesome. If I factored my grade out correctly, I will be getting an A... heck yeah! The presentation that I had to give yesterday went well also. I'm pretty much guaranteed an A in my other two classes, but I won't say for sure because then I'll jinx myself and end up with an A-. I need to get at least an 85% on both my presentation and my last assignment for my Implantables class to pull of an A in there and at least a 75% on my final in my other class (and that is factoring in 100% for my class participation grade and I think I participated enough in that class to get all the points for it). And I'm anticipating on getting better than all of those grades. All of this math is making my head hurt, haha!

I am excited for this weekend because I am going to be photographing a small wedding. I haven't had my camera out nearly as much as I would like and so to get it out again is exciting. To get back to my element. I haven't had many photo shoots after this fall, so to have another one is exciting. Sometimes I sit back and look at my photos and think, man did I really take those. Of course I have ones that didn't turn out just the way I wanted, but then again, I have ones that I absolutely fall in love with!

Then on Sunday I am meeting up with my besties to do some shopping. I am so happy that we've all been able to continue to get together after we graduated and still want to get together. Love those ladies and any time we spend together is never enough, but we always have a blast. The last time all four of us were able to make it was back in August (I think) and so it's been TOO long! Can't wait to catch up with everyone! And I'm so excited that I'll be moving closer to one soon! Of course that means leaving the one that still lives here in Point with me. So it's exciting and a bummer at the same time.

Next week, if the weather holds, I'm heading to Green Bay to spend some time with another bestie of mine. We are going to do a mini photo shoot of me. I want to make something nice for Jay for Christmas even though we said we weren't going to get anything for each other. I'm excited to be in front of the camera for once and to get some nice pictures of myself. My friend is dabbling in photography and it's going to be free so it's not really spending any money and I get to spend time with my bestie, which happens WAY less than it should! And then it's Christmas! This money is really flying by, although this week seems to be dragging. I cannot believe how slow this week is going. Maybe it's because I haven't had a lot to do and so I haven't done too much and it is making time go slower. I shouldn't be complaining about how slow time is going because I'm so often complaining about how fast it is going, but I am, haha!

CIAO! LOVE ME!

{get to it}

2011-12-11T18:08:00.001-06:00

I have to admit that my ambition to work out lately has been nil… I took two weeks ‘off’ after Thanksgiving and haven’t had the want to start back up. These last two weeks have led me to eating less than healthy, from eating too little to eating too much and not working out at all. This past week I told myself that I was going to start working out again on Monday and get back into a good routine with it. With the holidays I know that my eating habits were not going to be stellar and that by working out I could allow myself to indulge a little more than I have been these last few months. I was pleasantly surprised when I came back home from Thanksgiving and I hadn’t gained any weight and let me tell you, I wasn’t watching what I was eating AT ALL!

Since Thanksgiving… I’ve gained a few pounds back. Nothing that I ‘should’ be worried about, but it doesn’t make me happy and I know I have only myself to blame. I haven’t been working out and I have been eating/snacking WAY more than I need to be. What can I say, chocolate is just calling out to me! I haven’t had any willpower to stop myself either. If it’s there, I eat it. My portion sizes have gotten bigger and I just tell myself that at the next meal I won’t eat as much and it doesn’t happen. Then I say that tomorrow will be better and tomorrow comes and it isn’t any better. And then I get mad at myself for the number on the scale. I NEED to curb this now because I’ve worked too hard to start gaining back the weight that I’ve lost. I know that I’ve been through this over and over here on my blog, but my writing all of this out on here, it holds me more accountable. Or at least I’m hoping it is going to hold me more accountable. We are taking a mini vacation to the Dells right after Christmas and I want to be swimsuit ready still by that time.

I worked out on Thursday and Friday and then didn’t yesterday. I know I should have and I feel bad about it. I am going to work out tonight… right after I finish this post, I am going to go work out. I think that not working out has been one of the big reasons that I have been feeling so low lately. Working out is not only good for the body, but also for the soul and I know that when I was working out consistently, I was in a much better mood. Lately with not working out, I can feel that not only am I eating more, but my moods haven’t been as good. I’m feeling down, mad at myself, lazy, just don’t want to be around people. That has to changed. I need to get out of this funk. I will get out of this funk. Especially with school ending soon, I need to keep on the upswing and not the downswing.
With that… I am going to GET TO IT!!!

CIAO! LOVE ME!

UPDATED: I worked out tonight and did some strength training and I have to admit, despite the fact that I feel all wobbly now, I am feeling much better than I have all day long!

{housing wanted}

2011-12-11T14:01:00.001-06:00

Jay and I got into an argument about moving the other night. Your typical run of the mill argument. But I'm dreading trying to find a place to live if these will continue to happen. Although, I'm not anticipating that they will. I understand that we need to move. He understands that we need to move. I've sort of let my Type A controlling personality slide a little bit on this issue because even though I would LOVE to know where we are going to be moving to in the next five/six months, I realize that the chances of finding a place to live right at this moment are slim to none. No one rents out their place six months in advance, they just don't. It's as simple as that. So, I was relinquished to that fact and even though I peruse craigslist for apartments/duplexes/houses, I'm not really thinking I am going to find anything.

Here's the dilemma... I DO NOT want to end up back in an apartment and Jay thinks we pretty much will. I have been spoiled these last three years with our current living situation. Is everything perfect about our current residence... absolutely not, but it's pretty darn nice for what we can afford and what we got. I would love a larger living room with more natural light, a bigger kitchen that was more up to date and definitely a bigger bathroom. But in contrast to all of that, we have a garage, a private back yard, clothes lines, TWO bathrooms, an office area, laundry area, AND a toy room! Our basement may be outdated with the paneling and the thin stained carpet, but just to have a finished basement is AWESOME! I don't want to have to give any of that up when we move. Now in all likely hood, I will probably have to give some of it up, but I'm not going to jump into the first apartment that is for rent. If we were to end up back in Chilton, what we are paying for rent now should go further there and get us something better. I think about our last place compared to what we have now and don't think I could go back to it. I don't WANT to go back to it. I do NOT want apartment living again. I want duplex or house living! I'm AM NOT moving back to my hometown to settle (not that I think anyone thinks we are doing that). I am getting my doctoral degree, I am making something of myself! There WILL be a day where we do not have to worry so much about money. I am making SURE of that with my career! Does money mean everything, of course not, but I did not decide to become an audiologist SOLELY because I love the ear. Heck no, I also looked at the potential pay check in the bank once I got a job as well. Audiologist are pretty well paid that that definitely was a perk of the career for me.

Okay, back to my point... I was already dreading moving, now I'm dreading it more so. That and the fact that so many of our family members seem to want us right in our hometown and I'm not so sure I'm ready for that kind of small town living again. I love Stevens Point. I think that is mostly it. I'm not ready to leave Stevens Point. I'm ready to have my family close again, but they should all move to Stevens Point. It has everything I need. If I cannot find something I want in one store, I have ten more to choose from and I'm not going to run into ten different people that I know when I go to the store either. Simple as that. I'm not ready for that again, I don't think. I'm a whole ball of emotions when it comes to thinking about moving and leaving the city that we have called home for the last six and a half years. I know Stevens Point and I love Stevens Point and I don't really want to leave.
It is going to take me the next six months to get used to the idea of leaving, it's a good thing we have that much time before we actually have to leave.

We went and got our Christmas tree this weekend. We went to a Christmas tree farm and picked one out to cut down ourselves. It was pretty bitterly cold outside, but we still had a pretty decent time. That was pretty much my extent of Christmas enthusiasm. Actually, I could really care less if we had a tree or not. Have I mentioned that we did not to St. Nick at our house this year. I didn't feel like digging out the stockings for it and Ayden didn't even know the difference. (Probably because he thought we got our St. Nick gifts when my mom gave us our now christened 'Turkey Nick' gifts.) I had no ambition to do any decorating this year. I didn't feel like digging out bins or getting everything out to decorate the tree. It is just a lot of extra work that I didn't want to do. Why decorate our house when I have to do all of the work myself and no one comes to see it? I just don't see the point. Yes, bah humbug! But, we got a tree and it got decorated. Jay did a haphazard job of putting the lights on and Ayden put 99% of the ornaments on and it looks good enough for someone who doesn't really care if they have a tree. I honestly don't care what the tree looks like, looks perfectly 'imperfect' to me and I'm happy, well except for the fact that I'm probably going to be stuck taking the ornaments off and putting them away. I suppose I can deal.

I was working on one of my last homework assignments earlier on my computer and it shut itself off on me and I took that as a sign I should take a break and blog. I'm blogging on my tablet right now, giving my computer a rest. Apparently it thought I was working too hard, haha! Actually, lately when my computer gets too overheated it shuts down by itself. Its rather inconvenient, but I'd rather it do that than over heat completely and stop working and I had saved my project so I didn't lose anything. Save often!!! A lesson I've learned the hard way one too many times. I need a new computer, but I'm hoping the one that I have now can at least last until my birthday in August and then maybe I'll get a new one. I would like it to last longer than that, but it is already four years old and although that doesn't seem old, for laptops and the pace technology runs these days, it is. I am contemplating getting a desktop for my next one, but we'll see. By August I will be in my externship and will not need to go to an actual class anymore so the need for a laptop decreases... especially with having a tablet. Keep your fingers crossed it will last that long. My class load this coming spring really isn't too bad so I can take it easy on my computer then too.

I went ahead and bought Ayden a new ipod touch for Christmas. I kept looking and looking on craigslist and nothing was coming up. I found a pretty good deal at Best Buy for a package bundle that was the ipod, a case, screen protector, and ear buds (even though the touch comes with ear buds). Now Ayden will have ear buds for his touch and his Nintendo ds. I cannot wait to see his face when he opens it on Christmas morning! He's going to be SO excited!

CIAO! LOVE ME!

{nothing lasts forever}

2011-12-06T08:11:00.001-06:00

I was paging through some old photos on facebook last night as I was laying in bed trying to fall asleep (stupid short nap I took in the afternoon screwed me up on that one... and I think the caffine I had for supper probably helped too) and I realized that my little boy isn't so little anymore. Okay, so he is... I mean, he's only seven years old, but he has come such a long way since he was born. And I don't mean that in he had to go through any huge medical scares or anything, just that he has grown so much. I feel like I blinked and the last seven years passed me by in a haze. I was looking at his picture on the first day of second grade and think where did my little boy who needed his mommy for everything go?!

I have a little man now who doesn't need his mom to accompany him downstairs to play. I have a little man who can pick out his own clothes and get dressed himself. I have a little man who is responsible for bringing home stuff from school every day to get signed. I have a little man who used to be my little boy not too long ago.

Time is fleeting and it goes so much faster when you have kids. The saying is SO true! And... it just seems to speed up just that much more every year that goes by. Sometimes I wish it to go a little faster, like those days when Ayden and I are not on the same wave length and neither of us can get along... yes, as a parent, it does happen. Not our best parenting moments, but everyone has them. And then on days (most days), I wish it to slow down just a little bit more. I want my little man to still need his mommy and still want his mommy. And for he most part, he still does want his mommy. Case in point, I got home from clinic tonight and he wanted to cuddle with me after I got in the door. Love him!

Speaking of clinic, today was my last day until the end of January. I am happy for the rotation to be over, but I will miss it. I did enjoy going. I brought donuts as a treat for my last day and I was able to get to see an appointment that I have been wanting to see for a while now which was pretty cool.

I've read two books in the last week. Well, probably less than the last week. I started the Hunger Game series. I had heard some good things about it and then I saw that they were making at least the first book into a movie and the preview for the movie looked really good so I thought about reading the book. The first book was really good and so I went ahead and read the second book as well. Another good book. I love getting sucked into a series and really getting to know the characters and feel like they are real. I tend to get attached to the characters in my books, especially if the books are really good. And then it makes it harder for me to finish a good book and then pick up a new one and having to get drawn into the new characters and story when I am still attached to the old ones. That is what I think about series, you don't have to get to re-know the characters. Anyways, there is a third book in the series and I don't know if I am going to read it or not. I was all gunho on downloading and starting it right away tonight after finishing the second book, but I read some reviews about it on amazon and although it has far more good reviews than bad reviews, it is the bad reviews that are holding me back. I have read the synopses of the book and overall it just doesn't sound as good as the first two and I don't think I want to 'waste' the money on it when I'm sure there are better books out there that I can read. But, I did just read two books and the semester isn't quite over so I probably shouldn't even start another book until my last final is over. Unlikely, haha! Once I get into my reading moods, I usually read 6-8 books in a row and then don't read anything for another month or so and then go through my cycle again.

CIAO! LOVE ME!

{no good excuse}

2011-12-04T19:15:00.001-06:00

I'm sitting in my bed with my tablet on my lap. I wish I had some good excuse as to why I haven't blogged in the last two weeks, but other than being lazy and not really feeling like it, I don't have one. It's the norm these days, right?! I only posted four times in November... FOUR!!! That is less than one whole hand! That is B.A.D.! I am a bad blogger. I feel like the more time that passes the less and less I blog, okay, so I don't just feel like that, it is actually happening. I have been blogging for over three and a half years now and although I do genuinely enjoy blogging, it is becoming less and less of a priority to me. Life is changing. I do not make money from my blog so I don't have a 'good' reason to update it regularly, other than for myself. And I do love to write. I enjoy blogging when I do it because sometimes it is just what the 'doctor' calls for... a good vent session to someone who doesn't talk back.

I am listening to the Trans Siberian Orchestra on Pandora right now. LOVE them! I wish I could go see them in concert again this year, but it is probably too late to get tickets. Well, that is if they are even playing in Green Bay this winter. I haven't been to see them in concert since Ayden was born which was seven years ago. I cannot believe that it has been that long. They are amazing and I love listening to them at this time of the year. Their Christmas Eve cd rocks my socks off everytime I listen to it.

Life continues to move forward in our household. We are getting ready for the holidays. We had a good Thanksgiving. It went by a little too fast, but then again, most days seem to around here. It was nice to see all of my family and Jay's family. My cousin taught me how to crochet and I've been mastering the basic stitch ever since. Oh okay, so I haven't done all that much since we got home last weekend, but it was a busy and tiring week, who can blame me, haha! I got to do some Black Friday shopping with my mom, aunt, and the same cousin who taught me to crochet, Amanda. It was a TON of fun and it felt like the old days when we used to all go shopping together! Many years ago the aunts and cousins on my mom's side of the family would all go shopping together on Black Friday (there really wasn't a whole ton of us) and it was lots of fun. Slowly everyone started to sort of separate and do their own thing and then my mom would have to work that day and so I sort of just stopped going. I missed it. This year felt like the old days and I really had a great time! So if you happen to read this mom, Julie, or Amanda... thanks for Black Friday shopping with me! And thanks Michele for watching the little guy so I could go!

I ended up getting some awesome deals and the majority of my shopping done. It was pretty great! Now I just have to wrap it all, oh wait, Jay can, ha!

The semester is slowly coming to a close. It is taking FOREVER! But thankfully I don't really have too much to worry about this semester. One more presentation to do which should be super easy and then two finals which I'm not overly worried about either. Kind of an easy end to the semester. Just need to get through it now. This will be my last week of clinic for almost two months. I'm kind of excited, but then again, I know that I am going to miss it after a few weeks. I enjoy clinic and I enjoyed my placement this semester as well. My supervisor was pretty awesome and I got to see some pretty great things. But I am also ready for it to be over as well. Time for another placement.

Speaking of clinic... I have made my decision as to where I am going to be doing my externship and I couldn't be more excited! We have no idea where we will end up living, where Jay will be working, or where Ayden will be going to school yet, but one thing checked off the list is exciting! I'm trying not to get too ahead of myself with all of that again because it just stresses me out when I think about having to move and all of that. I cringe the thought if we would have to move back into an apartment building after living in where we are for the last three years. I'd love to find a house to rent or something similar to what we are currently living in. We just have so much space to spread out where we are now that I can't imagine going back to living in a small apartment, even if it was just for a year. Our basement/toy room/office is a life saver right now! It provides the space we need when we are all getting on each others nerves. I mean, our upstairs isn't really all that big, but with the addition of the basement it makes this place so much more tolerable. But once again, I am getting ahead of myself and I just got done saying I didn't want to do that.

I redesigned my blog for Christmas... likey?!

I feel like I could write a book or more yet, but my Kindle is calling my name... I'm in the middle of a very good book. Until next time then...

CIAO! LOVE ME!

{satisfied}

2011-11-20T20:55:00.001-06:00

What a great weekend I had. Okay, at most it was an okay weekend. It wasn't overly exciting or packed full of things to do, but it wasn't horrible either. Ayden and I were able to spend the second weekend in a row together without Jay and this weekend went a lot better than last weekend, although I can't say that last weekend was horrible either. I do know that on Saturday of last weekend Ayden and I were at each other's throats early in the day and it wasn't shaping up to be a good weekend. This weekend was the complete opposite and I think I maybe raised my voice once (or twice), but it really wasn't that bad.

I picked Ayden up from school on Friday and we went to the library right away. We got a few books to read and then we went out for pizza for supper. It was an early supper Friday night, but it was SO worth it. The pizza was delish and we had some cinnamon knots for dessert and they were SO yummy! Oh just to die for! We were supposed to go to the holiday parade for Cub Scouts, but it was cold out and I really didn't want to go so after our early supper we headed home for a relaxing night at home. It was a great start to the weekend and a much different night than the previous one.

Thursday night was Ayden's parent teacher conference and although the conference went really well, we had a rough time with Ayden and his reading before we left for the conference that night. I didn't really hear anything at the conference that surprised me. He is behind where he should be for his grade for reading. His teacher marked him on the bubble, but let's face it... he's behind. I'm not ashamed to right that my son is not up to par with the peers for reading and he is in second grade. No one is perfect and I love him just the same. Although Ayden hasn't been formally tested for it, I have a suspicion that he might have a small reading disability and our lack of helping him learn reading at home has only hindered him. He does receive extra help for reading at school each day and he is progressing, but he is still behind. Where he is behind in reading, he excels in at math. He is his father's son when it comes to math. I was never particulary bad at math, but it definitely wasn't my super strong suit either. I was happy to hear that he is doing well in that area. He is also doing well in speech therapy. I am sad that we will be moving after this school year and he will be getting a new speech therapist next year (because lets face it, he will still probably be in speech in third grade too, but alas, I still love him just the same). Overall, there wasn't any talk of Ayden needing to repeat the second grade at this point. We are going to try extra hard through the coure of the rest of the year to help him along so that doesn't happen, but if it does... we'll roll with the punches!

But back to our weekend... Saturday was pretty laid back. Ayden and I didn't do much of anything yesterday. We played a few games, I read to him, we watched a lot of TV, I worked out and ate too much, and we just relaxed. Such is life, haha! Actually, Ayden was really well behaved and it was a very peaceful day. While I was in the basement working out last night apparently the doorbell rang (I didn't hear it and usually we can in the basement) and my lovely son decided to answer the door without even checking with me. This after we had just talked about safety in his last Cub Scouts meeting and what to do if something like that happened. I guess there was a guy at the door and he asked if Jay was home, although I don't know if he asked for Jay by name or if he just asked if Ayden's dad was home. My super awesome son gave the worst answer possible. He said that Jay was out of town! I couldn't believe it. After the guy left (Ayden never let him inside), Ayden came down to tell me and I just about lost it. Numero uno time that I kind of yelled at Ayden this weekend. I mean seriously, we have had numerous talks at home about proper answer the door technique. It scared me, honestly! I don't know who this person was. I asked Ayden if it was our neighbors and he didn't think so. So, I don't know if it was just some stranger or what! Needless to say I was a little paranoid for the rest of the night. I made sure the doors were locked... double and triple checked him and then stayed up late with the lights on. Originally I had said that Ayden could sleep in the living room that night, but after that instance I told him he had to sleep in his bedroom. All I could think about was some psycho breaking in and Ayden being right there in the living room farther away from me. I mean seriously, this person could have literally just kidnapped Ayden while I was downstairs working out and I would have never known! We keep our doors locked about 95% of the time, when we are home so if someone would have tried to get in last night, it would have been harder for them, but when Ayden opens the door for them, oops, he could be gone! It really just freaked me out. After my initial freak out on Ayden (I think I was just super scared something could have happened to him), I calmed down and sat down with him and we went over safe answering the door techniques and I explained that even though we hope the people that are coming to our door are nice, we don't always know and want to make sure we are being safe. I don't think he'll think about answering the door alone anytime soon! That aside, our Saturday was pretty low key.

Our Sunday wasn't much more exciting... I had two photoshoots this morning and they both went really well. Ayden came along and he was very well behaved until the end and I don't blame him because it was pretty cold out and even I was ready to be done. I couldn't feel my fingers anymore, hehe! After that, Ayden and I went to get a few groceries and I got my eyebrows waxed... they needed it, haha! We had Subway for lunch, man we've been eating out WAY too much lately, and then went bowling! We had the whole bowling alley to ourselves which was pretty awesome and it was pretty cheap for two games for both of us. I did some data entering for my capstone project this weekend and a little bit of homework, but nothing overwhelming. And now I am going to watching a little more TV before falling asleep for the night!

CIAO! LOVE ME!

{day with mommy}

2011-11-14T20:18:00.001-06:00

Ayden didn't have school today. Instead of going to school (well no one was there anyways), he spent the day with me. Normally on days when he doesn't have school he attends the YMCA Great Escape Days Off Program and he should have gone there today, but he didn't. Here's the thing... when I signed him up at the end of last school year for this school year's days off I was given a piece of paper that indicated the dates I had signed Ayden up for. Silly me, I 'misplaced' that sheet sometime between last May and now. I know, how I could I lose such an important sheet of paper within the last six months, haha! Normally when there are days off from school and the Y is holding their program you get a reminder in the mail (and or email) reminding you that your child is signed up for the day off. Well with no mail coming last Friday I was thinking that if Ayden was signed up, we'd probably get the reminder on Saturday or Monday when it was too late. Worse comes to worse and I would just call the Y on Monday morning to see if he's signed up or not. I don't have class until 10:30am on Mondays so it wouldn't have been a big deal had I needed to call.

The weekend comes and goes and no reminder comes. Jay doesn't get any emails (they send emails to his address) and so I began to assume that we had probably not signed Ayden up for the day off. And then I began to think that maybe we didn't sign him up for any days off. I went through his school calendar and most of his days off are on Fridays and I don't have class on Fridays so he wouldn't need to attend the Y program. In any case, I ended up calling the Y at 8:00am when the child development office opened and left a message asking them to call me back and let me know. 8:30 comes and goes and still no call back. By this time I pretty much assumed that Ayden wasn't signed up for today's day off and told me him that he could come to school with me. He really wanted to come with me anyways and was excited about that. I did end up getting a call around 9:00am letting me know that in fact Ayden was signed up for today. I let them know that he wasn't going to be there and Ayden and I headed off to school shortly there after.

Having him come to school (and work) with me wasn't really that big of a deal. I only have one class on Mondays and it is just an hour and a half. There are only two students in my class, myself and Katie, and the professor is in Madison. I set Ayden up at the end of the table and he wasn't even on camerea so I don't know that anyone in the Madison class even knew that he was there. I brought along a bunch of things to keep Ayden busy with and he was an absolute angel during class that I almost forgot he was even there! He didn't bother me or interupt at all. After class I needed to go to work for a little bit. My job is awesome in the fact that if I show up for a few hours Monday, Wednesday, and Friday and stay on top of what my boss needs done, she doesn't really care if I leave early here or there or if I have a visitor with me. I was able to get the majority of what I needed to done today at work and Ayden had a great time helping me. Once again, he was an angel!

After work we went through the little museum that is in our campus library before walking back to my car and coming home. It was a good day for the most part. Would I have preferred not to bring Ayden with me... yeah, probably, but he was so well behaved that it didn't really make my day any harder and everyone liked to see him. Turns out I had him signed up for two other days for the Y days off program as well. I wrote those down so I wouldn't forget them. I also treated Ayden with a Redbox Wii game rental for the night for being so good while we were out and about today. He deserved it.

I booked a mini family vacation for myself, Jay, Ayden, my mom, brother, sister, and her boyfriend to the Dells shortly after Christmas today. It was my sister's idea and actually she had originally suggested just a mother/daughter thing, but since a trip to the Dells can be rather pricey I thought a whole family trip would be fun and this way if there are any water slides that Ayden cannot go down and Jay and I want to try, we will have someone to watch him. I think my sister might be a little apprehensive about her boyfriend coming along and having to share a room with her whole family at the same time... especially since it will be probably only the second time we are meeting him (and that's if he can make it to our cousin's wedding in two weeks). But I think it will be a lot fun! We haven't been on any family getaways with my mom in years and despite the fact that it is just going to the Dells, I am excited about it. I mean, we are going to the Wilderness afterall... the Wilderness is fun no matter what! How can it not be fun with three huge indoor water parks?! Yeah, I thought so! And the price is pretty reasonable for all of us as well. Ended up being $99/person total for the two nights. Pray for decent driving weather there and back please! And I think we are headed to the Dells the weekend after for Jay's family Christmas, only I think the plan is to stay at the resort we stay at for sturgeon fishing which doesn't have any indoor waterparks. In any case, I'm sure that that will be lots of fun as well!

I am five and a half weeks into my Turbo Fire program at this point and let me tell you, it is harder for me to maintain weight than it is to lose it. I've been trying to be good with working out and still eating in moderation to maintain my weight, but it's harder than I thought. I've been snacking on the good stuff a little too much lately and the scale is not my friend. I have worked so hard these last six months to make my goal weight and I don't want to start heading backwards at this point in time, that would suck! I told Jay that he should probably start his P90X program again. He will most likely be done working this week and I can totally see him sitting at home all winter just eating and gaining all of the weight back that he worked so hard to lose as well. It WILL happen to him if he doesn't watch himself. I can already see him starting to eat more in just the last few days that he has been home with the bad weather. I don't want to seem critical of him about his weight, but I don't want him to travel backwards either and it will happen. But he is his own person and he needs to want it for himself just as much as I want it for him. And who knows if he does at this point in time.

CIAO! LOVE ME!

{you know, this and that}

2011-11-13T15:25:00.001-06:00

I haven't been as ambitious lately as I probably could have been. The days are blurring together and before I know it I've started Monday morning and it is already Friday night. I remember driving to clinic on Tuesday morning and wishing for the day to be over already and now here I am on Sunday afternoon and the whole rest of the week has just flown by. Sometimes I cannot believe how fast time goes and other times it just seems to drag on and on. When I sit down and think about it, we are almost already half way through November and that means just a few more weeks of class for the semester. Quite honestly I remember starting it and thinking it was going to drag on and here I am almost finished and sort of wishing it would slow down a little bit.

I had advising for my classes in the spring this past week (wait, I think it was probably last week)... anyways, it wasn't really advising. At this point in the game we already know the classes that we need/have to take. It really is just meeting with our so called advisor to write the classes down on a sheet of paper for her. Turns out this spring I will only be taking two classes. I am pretty excited about that prospect because that is even less time I need to be on campus. The classes are School Methods and Pediatric Amplification. I am unsure who is going to be teaching the School Methods class as the professor who used to teach it left at the beginning of this semester. The other class is taught by at least two professors from the Stevens Point campus and that I am kind of excited about because it will be easier for me to pay attention. This semester it has been SO hard to pay attention in class when all of my professors are broadcasting from the Madison campus.

I had my phone interview for my other externship placement this past Friday and it went really well. Actually, the audiologist pretty much offered me a position with them for my externship so if Green Bay doesn't work out I know for sure that I will have a back up placement; however, after my interview, I am kind of torn about where I want to do my placement. I really enjoyed my time at Green Bay and the audiologists there were really cool, but I really liked the sound of the Sheboygan placement too and the audiologist is very seasoned and I know that I would learn a lot, as well as gain quite a bit of experience in a private practice. So... now I am torn about where I want to go (pending the Green Bay placement thinks I am a better fit than Katie). Ugh! Decisions decisions! But I am really excited about it all and should know by the first of the year where I am going and then the real excitement begins!

Jay and I get new phones in a few weeks and I am super excited about it. Our current phone contract expires in about three weeks and it cannot come soon enough! Jay and I have been researching the best phone companies and plans to go with and what kind of phones we want. Got to do our research, hehe! New phones... I've been counting down for the last year to when we could switch our phone company. For at least this event time cannot go fast enough, ha!

Speaking of my lover boy... he left for the weekend to go do some hunting. Just me and little man at home and we are having a good time. We made some puppy chow on Friday, went to go see Puss in Boots yesterday afternoon and went ice skating for a little while today.

I had no photo shoots this weekend and have finished editing the ones I did last weekend. This weekend was dedicated to doing laundry, cleaning a few things, and getting productive with some homework and my capstone project.

We got this freak snow storm this past week and got WAY more snow that I am comfortable with this past week. I could have cried. Okay, so it really wasn't that much of a freak storm because it is perfectly logical for us to get snow this time of the year, but I am not ready for snow just yet and the fact that the majority of it probably won't melt until spring sometime is really kind of depressing... but I am trying not to let it get me down.

Here are a few photos from the last week or so that I have been meaning to post, but haven’t… since I have been such a bad blogger. My little man definitely needs a haircut sometime soon. Probably before my cousin’s upcoming wedding in two weeks.If you haven’t heard of the website Pinterest, I don’t know where you have been. I found this super cool supper idea on it a few weeks ago and really wanted to try it out. It looked easy enough and fun and something that I know Ayden would definitely eat. You basically skewer cut up hotdogs with uncooked spaghetti noodles and then cook the noodles. Looks grosser (is that a word?) than it actually is!Here is the finished product! We actually put some alfredo sauce on top of our noodles to add some flavor, but I wanted the picture to show the end product without the sauce. And of course you cannot forget the huge honey crisp apple in the background or the can of Dr. Pepper 10 either! I had to admit that Jay has converted me to a Dr. Pepper fan, despite the fact that I don’t drink a whole lot of soda anymore.And then because I cannot get enough of this lovely face I just had to post some more pictures of him working on some homework after school (and play around with my flash some more). He doesn’t actually get a lot of homework yet in second grade, but we have a few things that we work on each day after school and we have been pretty good at keeping up with it each week so far. Other than life moving at warp speed these days, things have been going pretty good lately. I’ve had a few instances occur in the last couple of weeks that I’m working through and trying not to let get the best of me, but I’d rather not go into them. I need to realize that I am my own person and everyone else in the world is their own persons and get over it… it has been hard, I’ll admit it, harder than I know it should be. I normally don’t let things as trivial as these ones bother me, but this time I have and I am regretting it. But as I stated, I am working through it as best as I can.

CIAO! LOVE ME!

{cave point in a flash}

2011-11-11T16:51:00.001-06:00

*I have been drafting this post for over a week now and haven’t had the time to finish it and post it, so I am going to attempt to do that right now as my cat is in my lap trying to get some attention and Ayden is right next to me wanting me to play beyblades with him. Wish me luck!*

I was able to visit one of my favorite places in Wisconsin this past weekend (which is now last weekend) and I got some gorgeous (in my opinion anyways) photographs. That place… Cave Point County Park up just past Sturgeon Bay, WI! I am literally in LOVE with that place and have promised myself that I WILL get to spend a whole day there sometime this summer. I told Jay that we needed to spend a weekend up in that area sometime this summer. The Whitefish Dunes State Park that is right next to it is pretty awesome as well, but I didn’t visit that this weekend.

Why was I able to visit a park that is about three hours from my house you ask? Oh wait, you didn’t ask… haha! I’m going to tell you anyways. I was able to visit this lovely site……because I had my first externship interview over in Green Bay and I spent the rest of the afternoon with my bestie who lives over in that area. We both wanted to get outside and take some pictures with our cameras and so we decided that it would be fun to drive up there and take some pictures. It is only about a half hour drive from her house so we thought why not!If you are wondering about my interview (and not just interested in looking at my beautiful pictures, okay yes, I am being highly biased here), it went well. At least I think it went well. I’m hoping it went well. It was the most lax interview that I’ve ever been on and I don’t know that you can even call it an interview because the audiologists didn’t really even drill me about anything. It was pretty great! I really enjoyed the facility and think that I would fit in really well there. The thing that sucks is that my classmate is ‘interviewing’ there as well While I was gone this weekend (which as I stated before is now last weekend), I also picked up a new flash for my camera. I have wanted an off camera flash for my camera for sometime and I finally took the plunge. The one that I got was not as expensive as I could have gone, but obviously, I cannot afford a hugely expensive flash at this point in time either and I don’t think that I really need one for the kind of work that I am doing.

I have to say that I am already in love with the flash and I haven’t even used it all that much. I played around with it some this weekend and I am SO happy with the results. Just a simple off camera flash has improved my indoor pictures a million times over. I totally get the forums that I read now with statements saying that the on camera flash is rarely, if ever, your friend. I’ve grown to not enjoy using my on camera flash and prefer natural light above anything else, but the problem is that my house has nil for natural light! Like NOTHING! And it sucks! So this flash is awesome already!

Here are just a few examples of what I’ve taken so far with it! My really like this picture of my pretty kitty, Diesel! So often when I take pictures of him the background is SO dark and I lose the detail in him because he is all black, but when I bounced the flash off of the ceiling it allowed the background to be more properly exposed yet also get the detail in Diesel’s fur. I really just love this picture of my pretty kitty!I then took some picture of my adorable little guy last night after his shower and right before he went to bed. I LOVE LOVE LOVE that in this picture I used the flash and bounced it off the ceiling and there is NO shadow behind him! LOVE it! And I LOVE the little guy in the picture too. Isn’t he too cute!In this last picture, I bounced the flash off of the wall to the side and I got some more dramatic lighting on one side of his face. Oh the new things that I can do! I’m SO excited and IN LOVE! Do you want to hear it again… I am IN LOVE with my new flash! It is going to do wonders for my indoor pictures. Mostly just the candid ones that I take inside because I don’t really do indoor photography.Okay, so I didn’t really add anything to this post other than the beginning. I had intentions of writing more, but what I want to say is a whole new blog post in and of itself, so I will stop here and start drafting that one in the hopes that it doesn’t take me another two weeks to finish it up and post it. I have been a pretty bad blogger as of late. What can I say… time just gets away from me!

CIAO! LOVE ME!

{time stands still}

2011-10-27T09:27:00.001-05:00

Time stands still... but only when I am in class on Mondays and Wednesdays and when I am having a slow day at clinic. This week has seemed to drag on forever! Another slow morning at clinic today, but mostly because my supevisor is gone and I came in to see some cochlear implant appointments, but I don't think that the appointments are until the afternoon and my supervisor neglected to let the other audiologists on staff know that I was coming in and so they weren't expecting me and now I sit here until this afternoon with my thumb up my patootie with nothing to do because the appointments I want to see aren't until then. My tablet only has half power left, although it should last me until the afternoon. My phone gets no reception in the building so I can't make any phone calls unless I go outside and I didn't bring any homework along to work on. What a joyous world, eh?

Well, actually, I did bring a little bit of homework along. I finished that already (twice)! Twice because I had written in once on my tablet and then switched applications without saving (I know, naughty me, but I was on my tablet and I had done it before and it worked) and then when I was done with whatever application I had switched to, I hit the 'kill all active apps' button and it 'killed' the app that I had up that I was typing my assignment on and I lost it! Thankfully it wasn't a very long assignment, but I was almost done with it and so I was pretty upset that I had to retype it. I think the retyped version actually is better than the first, but still, that is twenty minutes that I won't get back. I guess I need to be more on top of saving things on my tablet as well. Oops! Life goes on though!

I happened upon a blog yesterday through some other blog that I was on (I was blog hopping) and something that the person had written struck a nerve with the inner photographer in me. The writer of the blog was pregnant and had her sister take some maternity pictures for her. No biggie. But she wrote that her sister had a nice camera and so she didn't want to have to pay someone else to take the pictures if her sister could just do it. She said that anyone with a nice camera can take good pictures and make them look professional. Okay, so I know that she didn't mean anything bad by that and it was just a simple statement, but it is SO far from the truth! Really! Just because you have an expensive camera, it does not mean that your pictures will be great. Yes, the expensive SLR camera have the ability to do things that your compact point and shoots do not, but you have to know what you are doing with the camera to get those effects. And even I still don't know how to work everything on my camera to get all of the looks I want. I am still learning. I am a hobby/amateur photographer. I will not and do not put myself into the professional photography category by ANY means! I can manipulate some stuff on my camera to get what I want, but I still don't go full manual very often (if at all). So, it just bugs me when people think they can go buy an expensive camera one day and turn 'professional' the next. One good picture out of 50 doesn't mean anything! And it really gets me when people see a picture and say wow, you must have a really great camera. Um, hello, how about the person behind the camera?! Doesn't my talent count for anything?! My vent for the day... still with me?

I officially have two interviews set up for externship placements. One in person at the clinic in Green Bay and one on the phone with a clinic in Sheboygan. Exciting (and nerve wracking at the same time)! Keep your fingrs crossed for me!

I have been eating WAY too much junk food lately and not working out as diligently as I should be. I am kicking myself for it right now. Last night after I got home from class (at 7pm) I had supper and then I literally went back and forth in my head for the next half hour about whether or not I should work out. One minute I was like, yeah, I will get up off of the comfy warm couch and get at it, the next I was like, it isn't going to hurt me to sit another night on the couch and not work out (the night before was my day off for the week). It went back and forth like that for a good half hour. Ultimately, I decided against working out. I was warm on the couch and didn't want to. LAME excuse. I know. I feel horrible about it. It sucks. And then to make matters worse, yesterday I had brownie bites, two bite size candy bars (the smallest ones, not the two bite funsize), a large hershey's chocolate peanut bar, a handful of chocolate chips, and then two chocolate chip cookies! PIG out, OMG! WAY too many sweets yesterday! I couldn't believe myself, but I also could't help myself, I was craving it, even though I wasn't too hungry for it. This morning I weighed in at 115.4 lbs... that is 2.4 lbs more than I was on Tuesday morning. Ugh! However, despite the fact that I did enjoy seeing 113.0 lbs on the scale Tuesday morning, 115.4 lbs really isn't bad either. It is still less than what I started and I should still be proud of myself for getting this far. Just right now I am not very proud of my motivation or willpower.

It's definitely been motivating to see my clothes get looser and looser, but the thing is now... NOTHING FITS! Today I have a pair of Maurice dress pants on, size 7/8 and they literally slide right off my hips! I've pinned them tighter so I can wear them! Did you see that, I have to PIN my pants so they will stay on! But, I know I have said it before, Maurice pants sizes must run big because even the size 3/4 ones that I have are a little big on me too. My shirts definitely fit better than they were; however, some of the ones that I actually liked how they fit are now too big and baggy and make me look bigger than I actually am when I wear them. Yes, I am complaining about my clothes not fitting because I'm too skinny. Deal with it. I don't have the money to go buy a whole new wardrobe. And besides, its my blog, I'll write what I want. You don't like it, don't read it. Just like how I did't have to keep reading that one blog of the lady who irked me with her camera comment. If you want to, go ahead and bitch about me on your blog. I don't care. Well, I do. So those of you who I actually know in real life that read, you can bitch, just please do it behind my back. I'd rather not have to find out online. Those of you who I don't know and just happened upon my blog (if there are any of you out there), go right ahead. Haha!

I got to see some pretty neat cochlear implant stuff so far today. The first appointment was with a patient who used sign language as her primary mode of communication and so she had an interpreter with her. I LOVED, just LOVED watching them communicate! So much so that it has made me think about finding a sign language class to take. I did take one class as an undergraduate in college, but I do not remember very much of it. I would love to learn more and become more fluent with it. I think that it would be so neat! I also got to see a patient for the second time with his implant and he is continuing to improve with it which is AWESOME!!!

Are you tired of reading yet?! Ha!

CIAO! LOVE ME!

{introducing}

2011-10-26T14:16:00.001-05:00

~~I’ve~~ We’ve been pretty busy around here lately… what with cub scouts two weeks in a row, trying to find a new vehicle for Jay, and not getting home until later at night. Add on top of that homework that I don’t want to do, turning in a research proposal draft, and asking for recommendation letters from old supervisors, and then editing four (almost five) photography sessions. It’s all kept me from wanting to blog lately.

It has been a slow day at clinic for me today (where I happen to be right now), but that is okay. I have needed a slow day at clinic for a while now and it gives me some time to get other things done.
We had a good weekend. Jay has a new truck now and he loves it. Ayden and I have nicknamed it 'The Beast' and Jay doesn't like that name. He's going to have to deal with it though because it stuck!

I had a photo-shoot on both Saturday and Sunday. Both went really well. I have one of them already edited and ready for the client. The other one shouldn't take me too long to edit. I have two more shoots this Saturday. A maternity one for my cousin and a couple's one for the photographer who takes our family pictures. I am excited about those as well, although I will admit that I am a little nervous to take pictures for another photographer. I hope that I can impress her!

Classes continue to go well. I'm ready for the end of the semester already, but I don't want to wish away the weeks too fast. There is essentially only a month and a half left. I've had one test so far and I did really well on it. We have weekly quizzes in another class and the last two quizzes have not gone well for me. On last week's quiz I got an 80% and on this weeks quiz I only got a 60%. Oops! But in my defense, it doesn't take much to get a 60% when there are only 10 questions on the quiz, haha! It was hard though because a lot of the information wasn't on the PowerPoint slides we had (well I suppose that it doesn't help that I have a hard time paying attention in class as well). Hoping this weeks quiz is a little easier!

The externship hunt is moving forward at a snails pace. I've asked for letters of recommendation and have three of them so far, plus a glowing recommendation from another professor that I essentially didn't have to ask for. I did ask one other previous supervisor; however, I have not heard back from her yet. She did say that when I was with her that she would give me a recommendation if I ever needed one so we will see. According to my classmate, Katie, who is with her right now, she is pretty busy with some personal issues right now. I'll just be happy to know where I will be going for my externship and where we will be living by like January or February. Hoping sooner rather than later and I know with the coming holiday months that time will essentially fly by me without me even realizing it.

I have the two photo-shoots this weekend, two next weekend, and then one more scheduled. I am thinking about adding in clause for my clients that states they will have to pay extra if they are late. I have had three people be late in the last two weeks and it drives me nuts! Is my time not important to them? I am habitually on time or early and it drives me nuts when we are running late (which is hardly ever) and so it drives me even more nuts when I have to wait on other people. Really, I don't care if you have no kids, one kid, or six kids, plan your time wisely and budget for things to take longer and you WILL be on time. Really, how hard can it be?! Now, five or ten minutes late doesn't usually bother me, but after that it gets a little long, especially when it is an important event. Oh well, there is my gripe about that.

I took some initiative at home with Ayden's school work. He doesn't typically come home with any homework, except for a packet of math sheets on Wednesday nights. We are supposed to read with him for 20 minutes a night and for a while there we were pretty good about reading with him, but it wasn't for 20 minutes. Yesterday I got home from work a little early and had a bit before I had to pick Ayden up from school so I cleaned out his homework box that I had made him awhile ago and filled it up with some stuff. I have decided that we are going to set the timer for 20 minutes each night and read a chapter book. I read a page, he reads a page. For the most part, he is reading the majority of the 20 minutes because the time it takes me to read a page is significantly shorter than the time it takes him. We are also going to work on his handwriting and math skills. I have a check off sheet for him to do each night and it includes: emptying out his school folder, mom or dad signing his planner, reading 20 minutes, writing the book name down in his reading folder, going through his vocabulary words, math worksheet and hand writing worksheet. All in all, this shouldn't take more than an hour and I think that that is even long. But with the check off sheet I think it will hold Jay and myself more accountable for our actions because last week I noticed that it was too easy for us to sit back on the couch and watch TV as a family than to pick up a book and read as a family. And at this point, reading is WAY more important than watching TV. Both Ayden and Jay know that his check off list needs to be completed before the TV goes on for the night. Keep your fingers crossed and wish us good luck with this. We are entering a whole new phase of parenting as Ayden continues to get older and although he is more able to be independent on things, it is a whole different level of help and responsibility that we need to give as parents.

And since there are a whole lot of pictures that I want to share yet and don’t really feel like continuing to write, enjoy! CIAO! LOVE ME!

{what it's all about}

2011-10-17T20:19:00.001-05:00

Despite the fact that last week was not the greatest week in history for me (I can't mark it as even close to one of the worst either), I had a pretty darn good weekend!

I'll start out with some of the bummer news and work my way into the good news. Bummer news is that Jay's truck can be fixed (wait that's not bummer news... ha, wait for it)... for a price. Price being upwards of $3000+. What's wrong with the truck... what isn't wrong, ha! Actually, if I remember correctly, I believe it is something to do with the torque converter and the transmission. Wait, I think the torque converter is in the transmission. Who knows?! But what I do know is that to fix it at the auto repair shop, it will cost more than the truck is worth. That means, new truck. That means spending money. That means sad Ashley! And a headache in trying to find a new truck. Good news about this whole situation is that Jay's grandparents are rock stars and are letting us borrow their extra vehicle for the time being. Hopefully time being isn't too long. LOVE them!

Our weekend started off okay Friday night. We headed home after Jay got home from work and I got to drive in the wicked wind from the west (that mind you, still hasn't let up)! Horrible driving in the wind! But we made it safe and sound! Jay went to the football game Friday night with his dad, while Ayden and I stayed at home and relaxed on the couch, played games, and watched a movie.

Saturday was a busy day for me. I had two photo shoots and they both went great! I am in love with the pictures that I got! If you haven't already, head on over to Frozen Moments Photography and take a look at the sneak peaks I put up. I still need to upload some pictures from previous sessions that I've had as well, but I just haven't gotten that far yet. I photographed my lovely friend Kristi and her family and then my friend Rosie and her family! Both beautiful families!

After my photo shoots were over, I headed over to my mom's house for the rest of the day. I got over there around 2:30pmish and Ayden and I were there until probably close to 8pm. It was a great afternoon! My sister showed up and my brother came over and we had a nice family dinner and then went to the corn maze. It's days like that that make me realize how much I miss my family by living so far away and not getting to see them very often. I don't remember the last time that my mom, sister, brother, and I were all sitting in the kitchen as supper was cooking and joking around. It was a good time. And then not to mention the fact that we ALL even ate around the table for supper!

We all headed to the corn maze just as dark was approaching. As we started the corn maze we didn't really need the help of our glow sticks that we were given, but we weren't too far in before they were helping us find our way through. It was a TON of fun, even if I was tripping over corn roots and rocks every five seconds and we went in ten million circles just to find our way to the bridge and out. Ayden really enjoyed himself and got to lead us on a lot of the ways. We all thought our way was probably the right way, but really when you are in the dark of night going through a corn maze with paths every which way and only have a glow stick to see, do you ever really know where you are or where you have or haven't gone before?! I think not! Ha! Eventually we found our way out! There were two mazes and it only took us a little over and hour to get out of both of them. I thought that that was pretty good, considering it took about an hour and 20 minutes for Ayden, my friend Niki, and myself to find our way through a corn maze a few weeks ago in the DAYLIGHT!

I had another photo shoot on Sunday for a senior and that one went really well too. I am excited to get all of the photos edited and sent out to everyone. That is my goal for the week because I have another three photo shoots coming up this weekend. I've been booking photo shoots right and left lately and I love it! Although, I do know that I need to slow down a little bit before this starts to feel like a job and I no longer enjoy it. But, I have to admit that the extra cash is a little nice!

CIAO! LOVE ME!

{ebbing instead of flowing}

2011-10-12T17:45:00.001-05:00

Remember a while ago when I wrote that life has it ebbs and flows and that during that time I was flowing right along?! Well, now I’m ebbing… not having a very good week this week. Feeling out of control (although are we ever in total control?) and things are just not going the way I had anticipated them. I am having one of those weeks.

I feel like my clinical supervisor thinks that I know nothing because she likes to ask me all of these complicated questions and I have to say that I don’t know the answer over and over. Ugh, make me feel bad numero uno for the week.

Last night I received an email from my advisor regarding my research project. Apparently she received an email from the daughter of one of the patients I had sent a survey too stating that she noticed a few spelling errors in my informed consent. (Disclaimer: these spelling errors were not glaring errors because I missed them, my advisor missed them, and the department chair missed them.) But really, you had to go and email someone about some stupid typos when you were probably only 1 of 3 people out of the almost 300 surveys that I sent out that caught the error. Really?!?! Way to make me feel like a huge idiot! Ugh, make me feel bad numero dos for the week.

And finally, I found out that my number one choice for my externship will be a no go and that there are even fewer and fewer options than I had originally thought. But seriously, I told my advisor that I would be willing to go pretty much anywhere in Eastern Wisconsin, it shouldn’t be that hard to find a placement for me. I mean, there are only two students you need to find externships for. Ugh, make me feel bad numero tres for the week.

It is literally just not my week. I cannot wait for the weekend!

CIAO! LOVE ME!

{right frame of mind}

2011-10-11T21:14:00.001-05:00

It’s been a couple of days since I have blogged (again), but I’m sure you didn’t miss me all that much!

Life has been continuing to roll on around me. Some days I feel like it is flying at warp speed and I am just watching it all go on around me and am not really in it. If that makes any sense. And other days I feel like it is dragging on FOREVER! I can’t believe though that at the end of this week we will already be half way through October. Where has the time gone, really?!?!

Last Friday was like Christmas at my house for me. A bunch of stuff that I had ordered came in. My Thirty-One party stuff came in… LOVE it all! My Lia Sophia jewelry came in… LOVE it all also! And, I finally decided on a new workout program and that came in too!

As I had previously written in a different blog post, I was getting into a rut with working out. I was getting bored with the workouts that I was doing and it was making me not want to work out at all. In fact, I took almost all of last week off. Then, it was like super right timing because as I was thinking about what I wanted to try next with working out, my cousin Amanda (who is currently a coach for Beachbody and doing her own Turbo Fire workout) offered a discount to individuals for the program. She was letting people order the program with HER discount and honestly, I really couldn’t pass it up! And… I had been thinking about it anyways, just didn’t know if I was fully committed. This was totally a sign for me! So, I let Amanda know that I wanted to order it and it came literally like two days later!

I said ‘screw it’ to not working out for the rest of the week and got started with the Turbo Fire program. Something must be wrong with me… giving up two more days of not working out just so I could start a new program?! What can I say? I was really excited!

I watched the Getting Started DVD first and then the first workout before trying anything. The workouts all have a new to class option in which the moves are broken down for you. Friday night I got my workout clothes on and got ready to get my Turbo Fire groove on! I’ll admit that I was a little bit nervous to start after having watching it earlier in the day and I’m not going to lie and say that I wasn’t dancing around like a fool during some of it, hehe! At one point about halfway through it I was SO ready to just hit the stop button and say screw it because I wasn’t getting it, but I pushed through and kept going. I kept telling myself that it was only my first time doing the workout and that it was going to take practice before I got the hang of it and really felt comfortable with it. I was so glad that I pushed through it and let me tell you, I was dripping just as much as any other workout too.

I think one of my favorite thing about the program is that it tells me what I should be doing every day and there is no guess work or trying to decide what I should do. And… they give you a day off! Because of when I started the workout, my day ‘off’ ends up on Sundays which is kind of nice, but I know in the coming weekends it will probably end up being some Saturdays because we won’t be home. In any case, I think I am really going to enjoy it. The second workout was one of the HIIT workouts which stands for high intensity interval training and even though it was only 15 minutes long, I was huffing and puffing like none other by the time I was done. Definitely high intensity and I loved it! Short workouts that leave me huffing and puffing are my favorite!

Tonight was the Fire 55 EZ workout and let me tell you, EZ does NOT stand for EASY! This workout kicked my booty and (don’t tell anyone), I didn’t even finish it! I made it through about 40 minutes of it before I almost passed out! I guess that I am going to have to work up to the whole 55 minutes. But if it makes any difference, I had to do the new to class option first and so that meant I was doing the first routine twice. Once again, dripping in sweat though. I am seriously LOVING this workout! It is EXACTLY what I have been looking for. I love the whole tae-bo/kick boxing aspect of it and the high intensity and the fact that the instructor is actually working out with you. In so many of the other DVDs that you get the instructor works out for the first 30 seconds and then spends the rest of the time telling you should you should be doing it. In this one, Chalene is kicking your butt at the same time that she is working her butt off too! Awesome!

It was another busy weekend at our house, well at least for me. On Saturday I was able to get together with two of my besties from my undergraduate course work. The fourth was unable to make it and we were all sad because it is just not the same when someone is missing and all four parts of the whole are not together. We had a scrumptious lunch at Olive Garden and then headed off to get our nails done before doing some shopping. I just got a manicure done, but no fake nails. I cannot stand fake nails, well on me anyways. Did it once, won't be doing that again anytime soon, at least no acrylics. I don't mind the Sally Hansen kind that you can do yourself at home.

After our mani/pedis, we hit up the consignment stores in Appleton. I had never been to Platos Closet before and let me tell you, I WILL be going back! Lots of awesome things for cheap! I will admit that I probably won't be buying a pair of used jeans for $18, even if they are Silver... I just have a hard time paying that much for a pair of used jeans. In any case, not all of their clothes were that highly priced and I have nothing against buying used and saving the difference. This time though, I kept the debit card in the wallet and didn't spend any money.
The same cannot be said when we went into Once Upon a Child though. I did find a nice pair of dress shoes for Ayden for only $3 which I bought, along with a few books. My total there was only $12 so I didn't think that was too bad. And Ayden needed the dress shoes for an upcoming wedding and one can never have enough books.

On Sunday we went to the apple orchard that we found last year. They had a corn maze that we went through and I have to say that it must have been super easy and/or Ayden got really lucky with the paths that he was choosing because I swear that we were only in the maze for a total of 15 minutes. I didn't think it was all that fun. Oh well though, this weekends maze is sure to definitely provide some excitement! We also picked some apples and pumpkins to take home with us. We found two huge pumpkins to carve and I have to say that I am kind of excited because we haven't carved pumpkins at our house in the last couple of years. And these are some massive pumpkins by our standards and they were relatively reasonably priced given that the pumpkin crop was apparently pretty bad this year. I have an ever increasing list of things that I need (and want) to get done this week and about the ambition of a slug to get them done. And now I’m kind of bummed because I received some not so pleasant news from my teacher/advisor. Ugh, maybe I’ll have the ambition to go into it tomorrow. Ugh again!

CIAO! LOVE ME!

{sunshine}

2011-10-05T17:59:00.001-05:00

It has been a beautiful week so far. The sun has been shining and the weather has been nice and warm. Kind of atypical for this time of the year, but I am not going to complain. Complain about sunshine and warmth, me?! NEVER! I just wish that I had more time to be outside to enjoy it because I know that not too long from now the cold weather will be here and it will be here to stay for the next umpteen months. But you all know how much I hate the cold weather already so I won’t complain about it in this post, not when it is so beautiful outside.

My mom and I have decided to go skydiving. We have always wanted to, but have only just talked about it. I told her the date that we should go. June 30th, 2012. That gives us over six months to save up the amount to go because it is a little pricey. But I SO want to go and I think it would be such an adrenaline rush! I think we should also get my sister to go, but I don’t think that she would, although I haven’t asked her yet so maybe, hehe! Maybe she will read this blog and send me a resounding YES (or no). I’m pretty sure my brother would be too chicken to go and I know that Jay doesn’t want to go.

My capstone survey return rate is already at almost 41% which is awesome! I was talking to my boss today and she actually said that survey return rate was only about 15% which is a lot less than my predicted 50% so 41% return rate is pretty awesome already! I have exceeded my wanted 100 responses by 16. If another survey doesn’t come in I will feel good; however, I hope more come in just so I didn’t jinx myself.

I have a bunch of photo shoots coming up in the following weekends. I can’t remember if I have mentioned that already. I am pretty excited about it, but most of them are for friends who I have already photographed. In any case, it’s fun. I did a photo shoot last weekend and it turned out really well. Next weekend I have three shoots, the following weekend two more, and the weekend after that a possible two more with at least one more that needs to be rescheduled and maybe another one, but I haven’t heard back from the girl yet. And according to my friend who I just photographed, she has had multiple people ask her for my information. Makes me excited, but on the other hand, I don’t want things to get too out of hand either because this is not my career of choice and I don’t want the pressure to become big. One of the reasons that I prefer not to do weddings (unless I’m rocking one out with my cousin)!

This Saturday I am getting together with my besties, Leah, Kristi, and Robin! I cannot wait to see them again because once again, it has been too long since we have all gotten together (which was only back in July I think) and here we thought we were going to wait until Thanksgiving/Christmas time to get together again. Who were we thinking that we could be kept apart that long! We are meeting at Olive Garden for lunch… yummy! And then doing a little bit of shopping and then Kristi and I are getting manicures. I am excited just to see them all again and get caught up. We always have a grand time together!

I am hoping for some good weather this weekend as well because I would really like to go to the apple orchard with my favorite boys. We will see I suppose.

OMG, this class that I am in is DRAGGING on FOREVER!!!

CIAO! LOVE ME!

{dresses, cake pops, cameras, and corn mazes}

2011-10-04T20:08:00.001-05:00

It was one super busy weekend over at our place... it was go go go pretty much the whole weekend, but in the same respect, it didn't seem like it flew by which is always kind of nice too. I like weekends at home where we have a few things to do and aren't sitting around doing nothing all weekend, but yet it doesn't seem like I blinked and there went the weekend either. I'm sure that you can all relate!

At first I didn't know if a lot of our weekend plans were going to go off. I was having a pretty up and down week with everything. It seemed that with every good where was an equal downer to accompany it. The week started out good with me getting 20 survey responses back for my capstone project (I'm now up to 82 survey responses back already and my original goal was 100). I didn't think that I was going to get so many back so quickly, but I wasn't going to complain.

Tuesday was your average clinic day. It went well and I enjoyed it. Nothing too good or bad happened then. Wednesday was a day full of ups and downs, but mostly towards the end of the day. I did a little bit of shopping Wednesday morning after work because I don't have class until the afternoon. I had a 30% Kohl's coupon that I could not pass up, hehe! Then I sat through my almost four hours of class. It's getting brutal folks, let me tell you. Ugh!

During that class I was checking my email (among other things, hehe) and found out that I was awarded an amazing scholarship that I had applied for the previous week. The amount was almost twice the amount that I had originally thought I might get if I was awarded the money so that was amazing. I called Jay on my way home that night, mostly because I couldn't wait another ten minutes until I got home to tell him the good news. That's when he delivered the bad news of the day... his truck wasn't working and Ayden was sick with a fever and sore throat. Ugh again!

Turned out that Ayden was still pretty sick on Thursday morning so I stayed home from clinic. My original supervisor had the day off and I was going to go in and observe someone else and see a bunch of cochlear implant stuff. I was pretty excited about it, but it turned out for the best because me having to stay home with Ayden meant that Jay could take my car into work that day because as I previously said, his truck wasn't working. Ayden and I pretty much lounged around all day in our pajamas because he wasn't feeling so hot. Thursday was also Jay's birthday, but because Ayden was feeling so down in the dumps it sort of got pushed to the wayside. We didn't go out to eat or anything or make him a cake, but we made up for that on Saturday.

By Friday Ayden was feeling a little bit better and I went ahead and sent him to school. This was the fourth week in a row that he had missed at least part of a day during the week, if not a whole day. The first week was for his annual check up, the second week was for the ENT appointment for the bead in his ear, the third week was to actually removed the bead, and this past week (the fourth week) was because he was sick. Hoping this week he gets to go all five days, lol! I'm going to start getting calls from his school. However, before Ayden got dropped off at school, we had to run Jay to work because his truck still wasn't working. Trip one to Wisconsin Rapids that day.

I worked for a while after dropping Ayden off and then came home and cleaned the house for awhile before Ayden got done with school and we had to make trip two to Wisconsin Rapids to pick Jay up from work. By the time we had gotten home my friend, Niki, had arrived. She lives in Green Bay and was coming to spend the weekend with us. We don't see each other nearly enough and it was WAY past due for us to get together. We had an amazing weekend together and the weather was beautiful!

She had recently purchased a new camera, the one that is the version just above mine and we spent the weekend playing around with it and me teaching her different things with it. It was a lot of fun!

After we got home from picking Jay up at work, I made supper and then Niki and I were out the door again for trip number three to Wisconsin Rapids for the day. This time it was for me to try on some wedding dresses for the first time. The place was a small little boutique and it only had a small selection of wedding dresses, but I tried a few on and sort of got an idea of what I might like. It was more for fun than anything. I couldn't go shopping and buy something without my mom. I think I will probably go with my mom and sister sometime next summer and really start looking and buy. They say about a year to a year and a half in advance. I am really in no hurry right now, although it did sort of seem kind of surreal trying them on for the first time and actually thinking that at some point I would be getting married.

Here are three of the four dresses that I tried on. I really liked the first and the last one, although the red in the last one would have been a different color had it been ‘the one’, but alas it wasn’t.The rest of Friday night was spent teaching Niki how to use her camera and the different modes on it. It is definitely a learning process and she was having such a great time.

On Saturday I had a photo shoot for a friend and her family and it went really well. There was a mom, dad, and six little kids. Six kids to photograph that were 7 years and younger. I have to say that it definitely was chaotic times, but because we knew each other it wasn't too bad and the weather was beautiful and the kids were pretty well behaved for the most part and most importantly, I did get some super cute pictures. That took up a good portion of the morning. We all went back to my place for lunch and then the family left again shortly before 2pm. A little while later, Niki and I headed out again to go to a different park to play with our cameras some more. It was just too nice to stay inside all day long (although that is pretty much what Ayden and Jay did). We had fun at one of my favorite places in Point (Jordan Park) and got some super cool pictures. The funniest thing is that we both have these really nice cameras now and neither one of us got a picture of the both of us the whole weekend. Ayden did take a few pictures of both of us together with his camera, but his camera is super old and who knows how they turned out!

We were going to go to a corn maze on Saturday night, but it got a little late and we had been running around all day and so I didn't really want to go. Instead we made some cake pops for Jay's birthday. It was my first attempt at making them and I think that they turned out rather well. It wasn't too hard to make them so I was pretty sure that I wasn't going to mess anything up. Basically you bake a box cake according to the directions. Wait for it to cool and crumble it up and mix in about 3/4 of a can of frosting until it is about the consistency of meatloaf. From that you roll out some cake balls and put those on a pan and into the refriderator or freezer for about 15-30 minutes to harden a little bit. After that you melt your dipping candy, put a stick into the cake balls and dip in the candy. Our candy didn't end up being as runny as I would have liked in order to dip the cake balls evenly, but we spooned it on and it worked fine. They just didn't turn out as smooth. Afterwards before the candy hardens, sprinkle with decorations. We ran out of the melted candy and had to melt some chocolate chips for the last 10 or so cake pops, but it tasted just as good. The box of cake makes about 35-40 cake pops and they were super yummy! And they are almost gone. I think I might like them a little bit better than an actual cake. Usually when we make a cake at our house only half of it gets eaten before it gets too dry or goes bad. That's what happens when you only have three people in the house and two of them are watching what they are eating.

While we were at Jordan Park I took some of my iconic fall pictures and I am in love with how they turned out! I just love fall! The colors amaze me and I could really just sit outside in awe of them ALL day long!Sunday was the corn maze and it was a lot of fun! I wish I would have known about it in previous years because apparently this was their 5th year doing it and it wasn't all that far from our house and it wasn't expensive at all. It took us about an hour and a half to get through it. At one point Ayden wanted to give up and go back out the beginning, but we wouldn't let him. He got back into it after that and we all enjoyed it. Once again, Jay was a party pooper and stayed home. Well, actually, he was working on his truck with some friends trying to get it to work again and they think they succeeded which would be awesome! I'm keeping my fingers crossed!Niki left Sunday afternoon and Ayden and I relaxed the rest of the day. I needed some down time because I felt like we were going going going all weekend.

My workout ambition has grown increasingly lacskidasical lately... I've begun to workout less and less and in fact, I am giving myself this week off. Ha! I think I've gotten into too much of a routine with what I am doing and I am getting bored with it and don't want to do it. Thinking about trying something new. We'll see. I just need something new and easy for me to follow since I am not very coordinated.

I haven't really given any more thought to moving since my last post. The days sort of just keep flying by and I hope it continues that way so I don't have to sit and dwell on that fact just now. I can't do anything about it so I don't need to dwell on it.

My 'to do' list is continually getting longer and longer and my ambition to do anything just keeps getting shorter and shorter. It is actually a big bummer because I know that there are a lot of things that I should be doing, but don't actually do. Joyous world, right?! I currently have 82 surveys that I need to go through individually and record the answers down onto my excel spreadsheet so I can analyze the data and I am sure that by the end of the project, I will have well over 82 surveys to record. I told myself that I was going to record at least 10 surveys and I didn't. I also told myself that I was going to work out and read over my capstone proposal and neither of those things got done either. Instead, I crawled into bed at 8:30pm last night and watched some TV before falling asleep.

Tonight after supper (I am writing this during my lunch break at clinic today, you know, instead of eating lunch, lol, actually, I did have a Special K protein meal bar for lunch), I have to head back to campus to work on a lab with Katie. We get to explore the BAHA implant and answer a bunch of questions about it. Not really looking forward to it as it is probably going to take a good two hours, but alas, it needs to get done. Maybe tomorrow after I am done with work I will record some surveys instead of watching TV. I should really go to the library or something to record the surveys instead of going to the grad room on campus because that will make me work on them and then I won't be at home watching TV and doing nothing, but when I have two or three hours open during the middle of the day and I have class until almost 7pm that night, the last thing I want to be doing is more school related stuff, you know?! But it does need to get done... I will think about it, lol!

And I think that this post has become long enough, what with all the pictures and everything...

CIAO! LOVE ME!

{i wish it was time}

2011-09-26T10:05:00.001-05:00

I'm sure I have shared (more than once) that we are 90% sure we are moving in the late Spring. We have to let our landlords know by the end of Februrary whether or not we are going to renew our lease and the answer to that is a 99% sure resounding no. That means I am already in moving mode. Because I know that an impending move is on the horizon (okay, so still eight months away), my love for our current house is waning. I can't help but imagine what our new place is going to be like. I can't help but hope that it will be a teeny bit better than our current place... I just can't help it. I've tried not to get sucked down into wish land where our next place will be perfect, but it's too hard. The reality is that we may end up back in a large apartment building in an apartment that is half the size of where we live now and honestly that makes me cringe. I LOVE our current house with it's upstairs and (semi) finished basement. I espeically love the fact that we can have a playroom and that the majority of Ayden's toys stay there. I LOVE that we have an office area. I LOVE that we have one and a half bathrooms. I am not in love with the smaller type bedrooms and closests that accompany them (although we do have an amazing linen closet and two rather large coat closests in the living room). I do NOT love the kitchen. My least favorite place in the house is the kitchen. I could go for a larger living room as well, but this house as served us well and I would hate to 'move backwards' when all I want is to move forwards in life.

I feel like I am at such a stagnant place right now just wishing the next eight months away so we can move, I can start my externship, we can be settled again, Jay can have a new job, and all of the other impending stuff that comes with a move can be done and over with. I can feel it all just looming over me ready to get dumped onto my shoulders at any second and that thought literally terrifies me. Our other moves were because we wanted to move. We decided that it was time and we really weren't moving all that far (other than when we first moved up to Point). Moving across town once and then again didn't mean Ayden had to change daycares or docotors or dentists or banks or learning new roads or finding new babysitters or even friends. It just meant a change of scenery and a new address. This time; however, it is going to be different. When we moved up to Point I had just turned 19... I was young and niave (yes I will admit it), but I wanted out on my own and wanted to experience life with Jay and Ayden as our own little family. We've made it work since then and have gotten into a nice little groove. Now that we are older (and maybe slightly more mature, hehe), I think we are ready for the next phase in our lives to start. Okay, so I don't know about Jay, but I do know that I sure am ready for it... it just doesn't seem to becoming fast enough. And this time I'm not talking about babies, although they are never far from my mind. As much as it pains me to write this, no babies for us until after the wedding. And although most people would think that that is the only logical option, we all know I would love to have another baby tomorrow. But don't discount a baby within nine months of the wedding, hehe! You'd better believe it!

And I know that I am not the only one feeling this way. My classmate (and friend), Katie, and I were having this very same discussion just to today. We are both getting married shortly after graduating (her at the end of June) and we are both going to be moving at the end of this academic year. Neither of us have any ambition to do anything school related and just want to be out in the real world. We've been in school for FAR too long. Really, when I think about it, I did 12 years of education (plus kindergarten) before graduating with my high school diploma. I will have done nine more years of education just to get out and work. Typically it is only eight years, but I took an extra year to get my bachelors, which isn't bad considering having a kid just out of high school. And believe me, this will not be the last time you hear me talk about this, ha! It's going to be a LONG eight months my readers... please bear with me as I continue forward with life and find out what surprises and excitement wait for my family and me!

I cannot remember if I shared my frustration with you when it comes to helping my wonderful son learn to read. At this point I know that he is behind where he should be in comparison with his classmates when it comes to reading and writing. I think I was in denial about it for a while. Jay and I had expressed our concerns with his first grade teacher a few time throughout the year last year and she continued to tell us that he was on pace with the majority of his class and that she did not see any major concerns. I think I was complacent with her response and didn't worry or push the subject like I probably should have. We occasionally read at home, but we did not push it like we should have. I love to read and can only hope that Ayden will enjoy books as much as I do someday, but at this point, I'm just hoping he makes it through second grade. We are about a month into second grade now and about two weeks ago my concerns about Ayden's reading really started to hit again. I realized that over the summer I was (yes, I am admitting it) lazy when it came to reading with Ayden. I did not put forth the effort that I know I should have. I kept thinking he was going to be okay. For him, that was not the case. He struggles in reading, struggles to the point where I started actively seeking out a tutor for him for the extra help.

Ayden and I had a very bad experience trying to read last week and I felt like the worst mother in the world afterwards and it hit me that maybe the best person to help teach him reading was not me. We did not click together for this subject. Jay had much more patience than me and took over the task of helping Ayden with reading. I did my part and started researching Slyvan learning center because my friend had a very good experience with them and her son. I wasn't looking forward to having to pay the price for tutoring, but I was willing to. And then... a note came home from school saying that Ayden was going to be receving Title 1 services at school for reading... extra one on one help everyday for reading and I don't have to pay for it! Now Ayden receives speech and language services and reading help. Despite the fact that he is being pulled out of the classroom twice a week for 20-30 minutes for speech and what I think is everyday for probably a half hour or so for reading, I am happy. And I will not be so complacent in the future when I know something further can be done. I am the parent and I know best, or maybe I should say, Jay and I are the parents and we know best! Also, I have tried working with Ayden a little bit more with reading and trying to just be super patient and it is starting to pay off. Ayden and I have been working together and it is going well. It's a learning process for both of us and I'm praying we continue on the right path.

Other than wanting to move and making changes when it comes to Ayden's reading life has been going pretty well!

CIAO! LOVE ME!

{it's that time again}

2011-09-24T20:27:00.001-05:00

Time for another anniversary post! This will be the fourth anniversary post that I have written for my blog about Jay and I being together. I went back to look at other ones and I cannot believe that I have been blogging for as long as I have been. I blogged about being together for five years, six years, seven years, and now EIGHT years! (Note: our actual eight year anniversary was yesterday, I just didn’t have enough time to blog about it then.) Not only does that mean I have been blogging for a long time (almost three and a half years already!), but that means Jay and I have been together for an even longer time... EIGHT years today! Eight years... sometimes when I say it I cannot even fathom that we have been together for that long.I ‘borrowed’ the following from a friend…

I don't pretend to know what love is for everyone, but I can tell you what it is for me… love is knowing all about someone, and still wanting to be with them more than any other person. Love is trusting them enough to tell them everything about yourself, including the things you might be ashamed of. Love is feeling comfortable and safe with someone, but still getting weak knees when they walk into a room and smile at you.

For me… love is being with Jay… now and forever!

CIAO! LOVE ME!

{it’s a bird, it’s a plane}

2011-09-21T17:40:00.001-05:00

Actually, it’s a BEAD! And it was stuck in Ayden’s ear and because the ENT doctor was unable to extrude it during an office visit, Ayden needed to be put to sleep to get it out. The doctor attempted to get it out in office and was able to make some head way; however, it was painful for Ayden and after the first attempt, he would not let the doctor anywhere near his ear despite my best attempts at trying to calm him down. The next best option was to schedule an appointment where Ayden would be put to sleep and the bead would be extracted the rest of the way. Said appointment was scheduled for this morning, bright and early. We had to be at the hospital by 6:45am. UGH! SO early! But it was kind of nice because Ayden was not allowed to eat or drink anything from midnight beforehand and it meant he wouldn’t have to be hungry for very long.

I let Ayden sleep in until about 10-15 minutes before we had to leave. He complained about not feeling very good before we left, but I knew it was because he was hungry and that he was nervous.We had gone to Walmart the night before and I let Ayden pick out a prize for after the procedure. He picked out a lego sticker book and was told that he could have it after we got home from the hospital if he did a good job. My main concern was him whining and being a typical seven year old and not wanting it done because we had some angst about it earlier in the week. Yes, I bribed my child… and it worked.The hospital and the staff was super nice. They let Ayden bring in his favorite blanket and/or stuffed animal as a comfort item and he even got to take it to the procedure room with him (although his procedure was pretty uninvolved). I do have to say though that this isn’t his favorite blanket… he didn’t want to bring ‘bibi’ because he didn’t want it to get dirty. He was such a brave boy. He answered all of the nurses questions. We did a lot of sitting around and waiting. And lots of angry birds playing as well. I think having my tablet to play was kind of a lifesaver because it helped keep Ayden’s mind off of what was coming.The type of anesthesia that he was under was considered general, but he didn’t need to get poked with any needles or anything. They simply put a mask over his nose and mouth and he got to breathe in some strawberry smelling gas and slowly drifted off to sleep. Or so he says because I didn’t actually get to watch. I got to walk with him down to the hallway of all of the surgery rooms and then we had to part, but like I said before, he did SO good. I think he was a little bit afraid, but he didn’t shed any tears and the nurses said that he told them all about his legos and home.Afterwards… which was really only maybe 15 minutes after they took him, most of those minutes taking him to fall asleep and wake up, we had more waiting around to do just to make sure that his vitals were stable and everything was good after the anesthesia. No medications, no restrictions, just a simple extraction procedure and because of all that, a full day home from school!Here is a similar picture of what the bead looked like that was in his ear. I did end up keeping the bead… I mean totally! I am a future audiologist, this was super cool for me! However, I didn’t take a picture of it yet, not that you want to see the actual one that was in his ear because there is some ear wax on it yet and I know that anyone who is not an audiologist probably thinks ear wax is pretty gross.I have no idea how long the bead was in his ear or how it even ended up in his ear, but I am glad that it is now out. Oh the joys of having children and the things they do, hehe!

CIAO! LOVE ME!

{exhausted}

2011-09-16T09:59:00.000-05:00

I am just plain tired today. I thought getting up early to workout was supposed to wake you up?! It's definitely made me more tired today, but it has been a long week and I know that I am not getting enough sleep. Naughty me. I've been going to bed too late and then having to get up too early. That combination does not work good together. And I won't get to sleep in at all this weekend. Bummer. That's what five hour energy is for, right?! Ha!
I've had a really good first week at my clinical rotation and I am excited about the rest of the semester. My supervisor said that she was going to try and get me into to see a cochlear implant surgery in the coming weeks and then get to see the testing afterwards. I would totally LOVE that! I think that it would be uber cool! Wait, more than uberly cool, like mega uber cool! On Tuesday I got to see how they program a cochlear implant; however, it was just the device. It was a replacement device for a patient who already has one and so I just got to see the software and such and not the patient, but I'm hoping to get to see some patients with implants this semester. I think it's definitely going to be a good placement for me! Lots of variety and interesting cases! All what I haven't really had a chance to see yet.

My classes are continuing to go well. Albeit, it is only the second week. I need to get all of the due dates written down in my calendar so I know when things are due because we do have a fair amount of homework this semester despite only having three classes. It isn't an overload by any means, but I don't want to get behind or miss any due dates. I am pretty anal about getting things done on time, well actually before they end up being due. It's part of my type A personality.

I feel like lately Jay and I have been more cohabitating and co-parenting then actually being together. I'm sure a part of that has to deal with the fact that we are home less together now as well since the semester has started. I don't get home until 6ish on Tuesday nights and 7ish on Wednesday nights and then we eat, I work out, and by the time that is all done and over with all I want to do at the end of those days is just relax and watch some TV before going to bed. I know that we need to make more of an effort to spend more time together, but it just never happens. He's playing his stupid games downstairs and I'm upstairs watching TV, doing school stuff, or on my computer. It's a struggle. Something else that I need to learn how to prioritize a little better is making the time I do get to spend with Ayden a little more special. As with Jay, when I get home later at night now, we don't get to see each other too much before he has to go to bed. I know that it is a struggle that every working parent faces so I know that I am not alone. I need to learn to work with my guilt and make the time that we do get to spend together more meaningful. And I try, I do try. It's a learning process and I wax and wane at it at different times.

One thing I didn't realize until last night was how much when Jay and I fight affects Ayden. Jay and I don't fight often, we try not to raise our voices at each other, but it does happen sometimes. Well, last night Jay and I were in the bathroom together getting stuff ready for this weekend talking animatedly about something (I cannot remember right now what it was), but we were not arguing or fighting and Ayden pops his head in and asks if we could go just one day without fighting. It was a little humorous, but it also made me realize that he thinks we fight or argue a lot and that makes me sad. That is not the impression that I want him to grow up with.

My parent's got divorced when I was in the 5th or 6th grade, so I wasn't much older than Ayden is now. Actually, he is probably the age my brother was when my parents got divorced. I don't remember much of when my parents were still together, so I can imagine that my brother remembers even less. But one thing I have to say is that I don't remember ever seeing them having a full blown arguement in front of us children. Now maybe they did and because I was younger I don't remember it. But I do remember my mom and her current husband arguing. Having full blown screaming matches at each other and I know that I hated it so I can imagine how much Ayden does not like seeing Jay and I argue. It's definitely an eye opener, that's for sure.

CIAO! LOVE ME!

{maurices is my friend}

2011-09-14T16:19:00.001-05:00

Best part of this week so far... I went to the store Maurices today to look for a new pair of low heels for clinic and ended up trying on some dress pants and I ended up having to get a size 3/4 in the pants so that they would fit properly AND the size 3/4 was still a little bit loose. Yes, I know I am gloating, but come on people, I have NEVER been a size 3/4! Probably not since I was like 12 or 13 and maybe not even then! This working out thing is AWESOME! And, the scale read 115.0 yesterday! HA! Made my goal! SO happy and excited (even though I'm sure you are sick to death reading about my working out and weight loss). My blog, if you don't like it, don't read it. But keeping it realistic, the majority of my pants are still size 7... I put on a pair of size 7 jeans this morning and they fit perfectly. Not too tight or too loose, I can deal with size 7 pants. Besides, every different brand of pants has a little bit different sizing so really, being in a size 3/4 isn't that big of a deal because some of my pants are still a size 9 (albeit they are a little looser than they used to be).

I ended up finding a cute pair of shorter heels, two pair of dress pants, and two dress shirts that were on sale. Maurices tends to get me in trouble, hehe, its just as bad as Kohls, although I don't go there quite as often. I could have spent a lot more there, but I was trying to rein it in. And, I had lost my 20% off coupon for Kohls so I couldn't go there as well. I did have a coupon for Maurices and ended up saving almost $50 so that's good.

I had my first day of off campus clinic for this semester yesterday and it went really well. I think that I am really going to like it. My supervisor seems really cool and everyone there is really friendly too which is always really nice. I even got to see a couple of really cool cases on my first day which is probably the best part. Tomorrow Jay and I get to carpool together to work. Aw, so much fun, right?! But it is going to save us on gas money for at least one day a week so that is good! Anything that saves money is good!

We had Ayden's first cub scout meeting of the year yesterday and it went well. We get to the lovely job of selling popcorn again this year. They even let us taste test some of it this time and I fell in love with the Mud Puddles! I am not a big popcorn lover, but popcorn covered in chocolate, yum! We are definitely getting that kind, and probably two more kinds. I am kind of bummed that this will probably be Ayden's last year of cub scouts with this Pack. We decided that if we have to move away that we are definitely going to look into getting him into cub scouts wherever we end up, he likes it too much not to. Also, we are going to do all of the summer activities too with his current pack. They are going to spend the night at the Mall of America sleeping in the shark tube aquarium! Last year they slept with the Dinosaurs at the museum down in Chicago and we couldn't go because of a schedule conflict. Ayden is excited to go this year as he has become really close with all of his den members (and I've grown to love the leader and his family, they are great).

Today is my late night class. Being back in class is kind of weird. Seeing the campus full of students again is kind of weird. I need to write down all of the due dates that I need to remember before they start creeping up on me as they are bound to do. I don't really like getting home at 7pm at night... it means eating late and working out even later. I should have gotten up earlier this morning to workout. I even had my alarm set to get up, but when it went off, I reset it for an hour later. I was just too tired after a early and long day on Tuesday. So, I will end up working out later tonight. I picked up two new dvds yesterday to try. As I think I stated previously, the two P90X ones weren't really my favorite. I got a Biggest Loser one and a Tae-Bo one. I'm debating which one I want to try out tonight. I skipped working out last night since I got home, ate supper, and then we left for Ayden's meeting and didn't get back home until almost 8:00pm and by then I was just SO not in the mood to workout. Everyone has those kind of days, right?! Hope so!

CIAO! LOVE ME!

{made it}

2011-09-12T18:03:00.001-05:00

There has been kind of a lull around here lately. Nothing overly exciting going on, making finding an interesting blog topic that much harder. Although, I think it's pushing it saying that all of my blog posts are interesting, or even the majority of them. But when our days are mundane and all similiar, my want to blog is next to nil.

Last week I had an appointment with one of my professors regarding my research project, off campus clinic in the Spring, and my externship. Overall, the meeting went really well. I am able to start mailing out my surveys, I think I know where I will be for clinic in the Spring, and the possible externship sites over in eastern Wisconsin better be multiple or I might cry. I am pretty much set on us finding an apartment/duplex/house to rent in the Chilton area and sending Ayden to that school district. But we all know, even the best laid plans often do not go as planned.

This past weekend we went home because Jay wanted to do some goose hunting and I just didn't feel like sitting home all weekend with Ayden. Jay didn't get any hunting done, but we did spend a majority of the weekend out on the boat because the weather was so nice and the lake was relatively calm. Okay, so it was nice and calm Saturday night, like glass almost, and on Sunday it was kind of wavy, but not too bad. It was a little rough heading out to where we wanted to fish, but once we got the boat anchored and situated, I felt a lot more comfortable. We caught a decent amount of fish both days. It was fun. I just like being out on the boat and the best part is that I get to go out on it both days this weekend as well because we are going hook and line sturgeon fishing in the Dells. I cannot wait! I think this is the third year that we will be going to the Dells to go and so far the weather looks like it should cooperate.

After being going this weekend and not eating all that great, when we got home on Sunday night I was expecting to see a not so good number on the scale, but the number I did see surprised me. What was even better was stepping on tonight and seeing the magic number that I have been waiting for.... 115.8. Like before, let's pretend that the 0.8 isn't actually there and that it is just 115 pounds. SO excited because honestly I didn't think I was going to make my goal weight and now I have without having to really push for it. I've still been working out, it's become a habit now and I've been eating pretty good. Not overly healthy, but not overly dieting either. I definitely enjoy some chocolate here and there!

Okay, don't blame me when you get to the end of this post and realize it really wasn't that interesting either, ha! I start my off campus placement tomorrow and I am excited about that too. The hours don't sound too bad and I should be home by 5:30-6:00pm at the latest. And guess what?! Lady Antebellum's new cd comes out tomorrow. Guess who is definitely going to go buy a copy (along with some body wash and fash wash because we are running low on both of those) tomorrow night! ME!

CIAO! LOVE ME!

{third year}

2011-09-06T18:56:00.001-05:00

I know, I know. I said that I was going to blog every day this month and it is only six days in and I have already failed. I am not too good at keeping to my word, am I? Haha! I thought about it last night, I did. I even worked out early in order to watch the show that I wanted to and then still have enough time to blog before it got to late and then I just got lazy. I was tired and didn't have the ambition to blog about the details of our final day of the last weekend of 'summer'. I think you all survived though, correct?!

Today starts my first 'official' day as a THIRD year graduate student! When did I become a third year graduate student?! I remember starting graduate school as a newbie... coming in and thinking that the next four years were going to go SO slow and that I would never make it through! Graduate school is a daunting thought! And here I sit, writing this to you as a third year student. Yes, I will write it again... a third year student. That means that after this year I am out on my externship, one year closer to the real world. One year closer to having my own patients and not being supervised. I am just in awe of it all because a few weeks into last year and I thought that I was never going to make it through! Last year flew by and I am sure that this year will be no different. It's like moving up the ladder in high school and then moving up it again as a undergraduate and now I've almost reached the top for the third time. And then as my friend Katie said today, we start all over in our careers.

I am officially done with beginning of the year AuD orientations. It seems weird to write that. The one today seemed kind of pointless. They didn’t tell me anything I didn’t already know. It was nice to see all of my fellow Madison classmates again though. We only actually see each other (in the flesh) twice a year. It was nice to catch up with everyone, especially since when we see them they are about two inches tall on a TV screen.

I think the only thing that the orientation did today was overwhelm me with all of the stuff that I need to accomplish this coming year. I cringe at the thought of it because it seems like a lot more than I had originally anticipated, but it really isn’t. I was reminded about a super huge test that we have to take at the end of the year… I thought I was done with all standardized tests, but I guess not. Alas, I will not worry about it right now. Can’t get stressed about something that is currently so far away.

I made myself get up early this morning and work out before heading off to work. 6am wake up call! In order to feel more awake, I drank about 3/4 of a 5 hour energy drink. I’m sure you’ve seen it advertised on TV. I read a large amount of reviews about it on Amazon and the majority of them we positive. I honestly don’t know if it gave me the jolt of energy I was looking for. After I drank it, I went and worked out right away and I know that working out helps wake you up as well. It didn’t make me feel jittery or anything and I didn’t have a crash later, but like I said, I don’t know if I got the right effect from it. I have to get up at 5:30am tomorrow in order to make it to my orientation on time and will not have time to work out in the morning so I might take the other one then and see if it helps with the early morning drive.

I think the best part of today was finding out that what I thought was supposed to be a Monday and Wednesday 8am class is really only a Wednesday night class! You cannot imagine my excitement! I don’t even think the sleeping in is the best part, it’s the fact that Ayden doesn’t have to attend before school care those two mornings now. That is going to save us $51 a month! I am elated!!! (And of course now I get to sleep in a little bit as well!)

CIAO! LOVE ME!

{all’s fair at the fair}

2011-09-04T20:46:00.001-05:00

After a rough day yesterday between myself and Ayden, myself and Jay, and Jay and Ayden… we all needed to get out and do something fun together. Unfortunately, everyone’s moods this morning were still pretty sour and our Sunday didn’t quite start off as planned.

Jay made everyone a nice big breakfast that was super yummy. Eggs, hash browns, and venison bacon. Just what I needed, a nice fattening breakfast, ha! Right before breakfast was done, Ayden managed to accidently spill an entire glass of chocolate milk in the living room. Yes, we do eat in front of the TV. Our ‘dining’ room really isn’t conducive to sitting down and having meals at. The table is our catch all place and because our kitchen area is so small, it works best to keep the table pushed up against the wall in the corner which means only two available seats. And, eating in the living room works for us. We’ve had plenty of spills before, but for some reason this one this morning just really got to me. Most of the milk ended up on a side table not even hitting the carpet, but that was the last straw. Despite the fact that it was an accident, Ayden is now eating at the kitchen table for the rest of the week. I will re-evaluate the situation at the end of the week. One of our biggest rules about eating in the living room is that we do not watch cartoons while we are eating. Ayden has the tendency to not pay attention to what he is doing then and we end up with more spills.

Thankfully, after breakfast was done, everyone had full stomachs and was in much better moods. We all get ready and headed to Marshfield. The main purpose of the trip was to find the clinic that I will be working at this fall for my off campus audiology rotation, but it just so happened that the Central Wisconsin State Fair was going on in Marshfield at the time as well. I thought it would be a nice family outing.

Due to some current construction, we discovered that my drive to the clinic will take just under an hour. Boo! But thankfully, most of the time I should only have to make that drive once a week. For my other clinic day, my supervisor said that she is usually at the Wisconsin Rapids clinic which means I might even be able to carpool with Jay on Thursdays which would save us at least a little bit of gas. The drive to the clinic was relatively easy so I’m not too worried about that.

After finding the clinic, we wound our way around town until we ended up at the fair. Well, actually, we just followed the GPS. It wasn’t that hard.

We did all of the normal fair things, except for ride any rides. I had sort of wanted to ride a few rides with Ayden, but they were expensive and it had already cost us $21 to get into the fair. So instead, we just walked around and looked at all of the animals and had some yummy fair food! It all smelt SO good and I could have had just about one of everything the vendors were making there. This lion head bunny was the cutest thing there! I could have just cuddled with it all day, just so long as it didn’t bite me, ha! I have a fear of being bit by little animals like that because, dang, it hurts!Ayden was too chicken to pet the pony! They had a little petting zoo type set up and then an animal show. We had gotten seats for the animal show and were all set to watch it and then it started to rain. So instead of sitting in the rain and watching it and getting wet, we got up and went into a building and walked around looking at some more stuff. But this little pony was super cute!And what is a fair without an ELEPHANT EAR! Oh, it was SO yummy and SO worth all of the calories it was filled with! I could probably have eating two! Yes, I ate the whole larger than the plate elephant ear by MYSELF! And Ayden ate an ENTIRE foot long hotdog in a foot long bun! And a little while after the elephant ear, Jay was so kind to ‘share’ his deep friend cookie dough with me. (I mean, it’s not like I ‘demanded’ that he give me some too, even though he hadn’t eaten anything for lunch yet. I would never do such a thing.)And then we saw some beautiful Clydesdale horses! They were SO pretty and SO huge! This horse’s body was taller than me, we are talking body of the body where the saddle would go, taller than me! Now that is a large horse! It was cool to watch them go around the ring though. It was a good way to spend the afternoon and we were all in better moods having gotten out and about for a while.

When we got home, Jay found some little critters in our back yard that he thought would look cool as pictures. One was a spider and the other a nice big bumble bee. I don’t think I’ve gotten so close to either one of these things before, but with my camera in hand, I ‘braved’ it and shot away at both bugs. It was easier to get to the spider because I knew it wasn’t going to go anywhere, but I was a little apprehensive that the bee was going to come flying right at me. I mean, I had to get pretty close and I have this huge aversion to anything that can sting me!I especially like how the bee picture turned out because you can see the hair on the body of the bee and the flower is really pretty!I must admit that I have a small love affair with whom I’m affectionately now referring to as ‘The J’s’. I started working out again on August 8th and since then I have worked out 26 of the 28 days and it’s starting to become a bit of an addiction. Okay, so maybe I wouldn’t say addiction, but I am actually enjoying it. It is still hard for me to get up earlier in the morning and workout then, but by the end of the night I am looking forward to going downstairs and working up a good sweat because I know I will feel good afterwards.

I really enjoyed Jillian Michael’s Ripped in 30 dvd. Even after 26 days of working out, her 20 minute workouts have me dripping sweat afterwards… that (for me) means I’ve done some good work. But I’m getting to the point where I think I need to up the ante and workout for a little while longer.So, I popped in her Banish Fat Boost Metabolism dvd the other day, even though I haven’t quite finished the Ripped in 30 Week 4 and got my sweat on! That dvd says that it is a 40 minute workout, but it is more of a 50 minute workout when you include the warm-up and I don’t even do the stretches afterwards. I made it through the first six (of seven) circuits before I was huffing and puffing too much to push through the last one. And I didn’t even stop! I have to tell you, I felt awesome afterwards!

But alas, I wanted to try something new as well because repetition for me starts to get boring. I looked around at the store and read some reviews online and decided that I was going to try one of Jackie Warner’s workout dvds as well. This is the one that I ended up getting, although I wanted her new timesaver one (the store just didn’t have it and I wasn’t going to order it). I’ve been a fan of hers since seeing her show on Bravo… Workout. She is hardcore trainer.

Unfortunately, this dvd was a little lack luster for me. I did the entire 40 minute total body workout tonight (there is a 40 minute total body workout, 15 minute total body workout, 15 minute upper body workout, 15 minute lower body workout, and 15 minute ab workout). I had tried the 15 minute total body workout yesterday and thought it was okay. I have to say, it’s not that you don’t work your muscles with the 40 minute total body workout (or even the 15 minute one) because you do. I was especially cringing during the ab workout because it hurt, but even after 40 minutes of constantly moving, I wasn’t dripping sweat like I had anticipated.I’m wondering if maybe I need to up the weights that I am using. I am currently using 3 pound weights in each hand and although I am feeling somewhat of a burn, I think my muscles are asking for something a little bit heavier. Personally, I think if you are a beginner and/or looking for something that will help tone you up, this is a good workout. If you workout avidly, then you might not get anything from this. I am going to continue to use it because I know that it will continue to tone me up, but it doesn’t offer the cardio that Jillian does. I think if I alternate between Jillian’s cardio and Jacki’s muscle training I won’t get as bored. I am also going to work in a little bit of what I can do of P90X’s cardio and kenpo.

All in all, like I said before, I might have a tiny love affair with both Jillian and Jacki, hehe! Bring it!

CIAO! LOVE ME!

{love}

2011-09-03T19:54:00.001-05:00

I had every intention of blogging about my started out good turned sour turned good day, but my ambition to do that has left.

So bullet points for today it is…

I worked out this morning instead of at night.
I also biked 12 miles this afternoon and afterwards the scale read 116.8 pounds!
I tried a microwaveable pre-cooked Johnsonville brat tonight from the store and it tasted almost as good as the ones done on the grill the day of.
I had an all out pretty much screaming match with Jay this afternoon. We are all good now.
I rose my voice more times than I care to admit to Ayden today. Not one of my better parenting days and not one of his better listening days.
I played with Photoshop instead of writing the blog post I had written in my head all day and created the above picture.
I love my family more than anything!

CIAO! LOVE ME!

{everday}

2011-09-02T16:19:00.001-05:00

I've set a goal for myself to post to my blog every day for the month of September. I haven't been blogging nearly as much as I would like to in these last couple of months and I would like to do it more frequently again... mostly for myself, but you may find some enjoyment in it too. It may be a long post, it may be a short post, it may be just a picture, but I want to do at least one post every day of this month. Wish me luck!

Ayden enjoyed his first 'week' of second grade. His first 'week' consisted of only this Thursday and Friday, but none the less, they were a good two days. He said that they even had a party today for the second day of second grade and got popsicles! Lucky! He has his very own planner that he has to write his homework on everyday and that the parents have to sign. I think it has definitely been a good start to the school year. I'm keeping my fingers crossed for the rest of the year. I won't think about the fact that he will be in the third grade after this school year is over because I thought second grade was too much... third grade is inconceivable right now!

Jay and I talked a little bit more about our future this afternoon as we were waiting for Ayden to get done with school. I think we are both on the concensus that moving back towards our home town is in our best interest. There are pros and cons to not moving back towards that area and pros and cons of moving back towards that area... and it looks like the pros of moving back there weigh out the pros of not and the cons of both. That, and Jay has been having a hard time with his current boss and doesn't know if he wants to continue working there past the winter.

My willpower this week with sweets has been nonexsistent. I've had two bowls of ice cream in as many days. I have trying not to over eat during my meals so that the ice cream would sort of balance it out. The ice cream just kept calling my name though and it was so hard to say no. It is like the best ice cream ever and it is just too bad that I had to give into my seven year old son and buy it at his insistence. Oops, haha! I have been doing good working out though. I am now on Week 4 of Ripped in 30 and pushing through it. Day 3 is tonight! Working out at night seems to work good for me, but I am really going to try and get up earlier in the morning and get my workout in before leaving for class or clinic in the coming weeks. I'll be sure to keep you posted on my progress, whether or not you really want to know.

And that about ends it for my second day of posting this month!

CIAO! LOVE ME!

{different people}

2011-09-01T19:56:00.001-05:00

I've struggled to find the words for this post, so bare with me if it seems kind of discombobulated. (P.S. love that word!)

What kind of qualities is a best friend supposed to possess?

Urban dictionary (I know, legit source, right?!) defines a best friend as very special people in your life. The first people you think about when you make plans. The first people you go to when you need someone to talk to. Someone you phone up just to talk about nothing, or the most important things in your life. Someone that tries their hardest to cheer you up when you're sad. Someone who gives the best hugs in the world. They are the shoulder to cry on, because you know that they truly care about you.

I think that is a pretty good summary of what a best friend should encompass. I know that many friendships encompass so much more and many encompass so much less. But we're talking about an honest to god best friend here. Not someone who you occasionally run into while you are out and about.

I'm a relatively private person in real life, unless you really get to know me. Oh, of course here on my blog, ha! Although, I can censor what I put out there for the whole world. (Or the two of you who actually read this.) I don't always go into how I'm truly feeling about something, although a lot of times I do use my blog as a sounding board when I need to vent. I have only a handful of people that I would consider close friends. I have three very close friends who I know I could call up at the drop of a hat with anything and everything. We are a tight knit group of women who have each other’s back no matter what. With these women, I know that we can go days, weeks, even months, without speaking and when we do happen to get back in touch, it’s like we never stopped. What is so great about these women is that is not consistently about them. It is not about how horrible their life is and how things are always going wrong for them. Of course we have our vent sessions, but the friendship is always equal sided.

I’ve struggled in that area with someone who I used to consider my closest friend. We have been friends for as long as I can remember, but our friendship today is no where near what it used to be. Or maybe it is exactly the same and I just refused to see it for what it was all those years ago. Or maybe I was a less selfish person back then?!

I don’t consider myself a selfish person now; however, I am more aware of the people I allow in my life and the impact they have on me. I don’t have the want to expend the emotional effort in making a friendship work when I get little to none in return. It is just not something I am willing to deal with right now. I’m tired of it…

I suppose that only time will tell what happens, where life leads us, and the consequences of it all…

CIAO! LOVE ME!

{last summer hoorah}

2011-08-31T20:43:00.001-05:00

I know that I’ve said it multiple times before, but my baby starts second grade tomorrow! To offset the fact that this was the last week of summer vacation, Ayden and I had a picnic at the beach on Monday afternoon. I had everything packed and ready to go when I picked him up from the sitters house and we spent the next three hours relaxing at the beach. It was a great afternoon, especially since we hadn’t gone a whole lot this summer… The weather was nice, but the water was pretty cold! Once you were in the water for a while it didn’t feel so bad. Ayden had a blast in the water and that is all that matters!We brought a lot to the beach… it’s the only way to go, ha! Or not, the last time that we went, we biked and brought a pail and a net. That’s all you really need. This time, though, we drove, so I could bring a lot more. It was nice to have a chair this time. And I brought a lot more sand toys, although we didn’t use about half of them. My little fish with his goggles on upside down. He didn’t care, just so long as they worked!I think I have a picture (or multiple pictures) very similar to this from years past with the same yellow bucket. I should really look for them and compare how Ayden has grown over the years. We really do love the beach because it is so shallow and the water is clean and usually pretty warm. It never hurts to stop for some lunch either! I ended up eating pretty much as soon as we had gotten set up at the beach which was around 12:30pm… Ayden on the other hand decided that he wasn’t hungry until about 2:00pm. He worked up quite an appetite though from all of the running around he did in the water and ate really good!I feel like I should have more to blog… but I don’t really have anything that I feel is super important to say, so I’m going to go for now…

CIAO! LOVE ME!

{somewhere someday}

2011-08-27T19:52:00.001-05:00

My type A personality is starting to win out on me. I am a planner, a planner at heart and with the unknown of the coming year comes a lot of apprehension for me. I absolutely hate not knowning were we will be 9 month from now. A baby in my arms?! Ha! Got you there, didn't I?!?! No, no baby in my arms, although I do wish. But I won't get started on the whole baby thing right now. I hate not knowing where we will be living, where Ayden will be going to school, where Jay will be working, where my 4th year placement will be, who we will have for childcare... all of the unknown is driving me nuts and it is still 9 MONTHS away! Ugh! I know that I just need to chill out and that everything will work out as it should, but like I said at the beginning of this post, my type A personality is getting the best of me! Instead of worrying about this fall semester starting, I'm fast forwarding to the end of Spring already and i all honesty, I do not want to wish the next 9 months away. They will go fast enough with me doing that.

Speaking of this fall semester, I got a letter in the mail today saying that I got another scholarship. I was sort of expecting it because I got all 'A's last spring, but despite that, I am still grateful for it. Any little money will help and it comes at the end of the semester, just in time for Christmas shopping... even better! I was also able to get most (if not all) of my paperwork finished for my clinic placement this fall. I emailed it out today and I will hopefully hear from the facility sometime Monday if I need to send anything else in. Then it is just a matter of going in for an orientation and starting my placement. I am kind of excited at the possibility of seeing some surgeries this semester since it will be at a hospital.

I've been keeping up with my working out despite not really wanting to. I have to say though, the promise of getting Ripped in 30 is a little misleading. I am about halfway through the third week (one week left) and although I can definitely see a bit of a change in my arms and I probably have a bit more thigh strength, my abs are definitely not as flat as I would like them. I have to say that the second time around with this DVD, I haven't had to stop through any of the workouts while I am doing them. So I know that my stamina has definitely increased and I can workout longer. That is not to say that the workouts aren't hard and that I am not sweaty and gross afterwards. I have debated about what I want to do after I am done with this DVD. I don't think I want to do it again. My cousin recently became a coach for the Turbo Fire program and so I thought about that. After looking into it and reading some reviews and seeing some videos, I am totally convinced that it works and works well, but I don't think that it is the right program for me at this point in time.

Around the time we moved into our current place (just over two years ago), I bought two The Firm dvds and thought that I was going to do those. Um, I am not coordinated enough to do those dvds... they go way too fast for me and do not have enough instruction. After watching some Turbo Fire videos on youtube, I have come to the conclusion, that although not like The Firm, this program is probably too intensive for me at this point. I would get it and be so confused and get frustrated that I would not bother with the program. That is not to say that I have written it off completely though and maybe in a month or so, I might revisit the idea of it. At this point in time, I am going to rotate through another Jillian Michaels dvd I have, a new Jacki Warner dvd, and two of the P90X dvds that Jay has. Jacki Warner is another well noted fitness guru and from what I've seen of her workout dvds, they are in a similar teaching format as Jillians (ie: a format that is slow enough for me to follow). I am going to do the Cardio and Kenpo dvds of the P90X program as well. I have seen both of those and even semi worked out to both of them while Jay was previewing them. I can't say that I will be able to do all 60 minutes of those dvds, but my goal is 40 minutes each day... 10 minutes more than what I currently do because including the warm-up with Ripped in 30, it is about 30 minutes long. If I can keep up that schedule for a month, then we will see what comes next. I'd really like to continue to workout on a regular basis because although I am almost cursing my way through it sometimes, I definitely feel good afterwards! And that is an accomplishment!

I am writing this blog post on my new Asus tablet! My original goal was to get an iPad. I was going to use the money that I made this summer doing photos and my birthday money to purchase one. Jay was totally against the idea at first because he didn't think I needed one. Well, of course I didn't need one, but I wanted one and its not as if I was using just any money, it was money that was mine. (And he didn't even get me anything for my birthday.) We ventured to Best Buy at the beginning of the week to look at the different tablets that were out there. You know, wanting to make an educated decision and all. We talked with some of the techie people at Best Buy about the different tablets. Jay's friend JT thought I should go with an Android tablet since he like that operating system better. I suppose it is all fine and dandy, I mean we have Android phones and I like it well enough. Maybe with the Android system, I could sync apps from my phone to the new tablet. So... we were looking at two different tablets when the tech told us about a different one all together and how he thought this new one was probably the best Android tablet on the market.

The iPad didn't come with any docking station, no SD card slot, nothing. You had to buy all of that seperate. The Asus tablet didn't come with a docking station or SD card slot either, but it was $100 cheaper than the iPad and the same amount of storage. Plus, you could buy the docking station, which came with USB ports and an SD card slot for an extra $150. That put the total $50 more than I had wanted to spend, but I really couldn't pass it up. Unfortunately, the store didn't have any in stock and they had to order one for me to come in later this week. In the mean time, I found the tablet on Walmart's website for $50 cheaper and when my tablet came in at Best Buy they price matched it for me and I got the tablet and docking station/keyboard/SD card slot all for the price I would have paid for the iPad! Score! And I can sync apps from my phone to the tablet and vice versa. For example, there is an app on the tablet that I can use to take notes with in class and the notes will sync with my phone and my computer. So, no matter where I am, I can have access to the notes I've taken in class and study anywhere. You know, because I am such a study-aholic! Haha! Plus, this will beat bringing my computer to school everyday... it starts up so much more quickly and is a lot smaller and lighter and yet I still have the functionality of a keyboard! I think I'm in love, hehe!

CIAO! LOVE ME!

{something new}

2011-08-26T14:26:00.001-05:00

Trying something new here... hoping that this posts. Sorry if you were looking for an actual blog post, will update the blog with something actually worth reading a little later...

CIAO! LOVE ME!

{an update of sorts}

2011-08-24T16:07:00.001-05:00

I am sitting at my kitchen table with my laptop right now listening to some Eve 6… I have been listening to their music, one cd in particular, since my sophomore year in high school and boy does it bring back some memories!

I have done two photo shoots in the last week and I thought that I would share some of the pictures with you. If you are my friend on Facebook and ‘like’ my photography page, you’ve probably already seen these.. but if not, I hope that you enjoy them here!

The first shoot was for a classmate’s niece. I have previously does a shoot for another niece of her’s, as well as her niece and parents. Apparently the family likes the pictures because they keep coming back. That makes me smile! This little girl was so cute and so much fun to photograph! I could just eat up those little cheeks!The second photo shoot I had was for some senior pictures. I have done two previous senior sessions; however, both of the clients (for lack of a better word) were guys and they just don’t get into pictures the way girls do. I was SO excited for this shoot because first… the girl was gorgeous, secondly, she was willing to try pretty much ANYTHING, and thirdly, I just love any good excuse to get my camera out!

We (myself, the girl, her mom and sister) ventured all around downtown Stevens Point and found lots of cool locations! It was literally SO much fun! Everyone clicked really well and everyone was chiming in with ideas and such. I really had a great afternoon with everyone and I think this has been my favorite shoot to date! I have been going through the pictures and editing some and I am literally in LOVE with what I am seeing. I can’t wait to send the cds out and hear what the client has to say as well!

Here is just a taste of what I took!So, she had brought her prom dress from last year and after we got some good ones with it on, we got a little crazy with it and by the time we were done, she was soaked in her prom dress!There even was this rope swing by the river and her mom wanted her to try and swing on it with her dress on! Crazy awesome ideas… I tell ya! And she so would have, but the water was a little deeper than we wanted it to be and she probably wouldn’t have made it back to shore and we still had one more outfit we wanted to do and didn’t want to mess her hair and make-up up with the water.Next day… since I got distracted and then didn’t finish this post…

I am ready to go pick up my little man tonight. He has been spending the last couple of days with my mom. I feel like he hasn't been home at all this month and in all reality, he hasn't been home all that much. It is the 24th of August and Ayden has only been at home 7 of those 24 days. That is not to say that Jay or myself have only been with him 7 of those 24 days because that isn't true. One or both of us has been with him 13 of those 24 days... so yeah, he has been gone 11 days so far this month. August is always the month where he is gone quite a bit spending time with all of his grandparents. They save us on childcare that way! SO grateful!

But I get to pick him up tonight and it will be just me and him for the next couple of days. Lots of mommy and me time and I am looking forward to it because he only has one more week off and then school starts for him again. Second grade, AH!

About two weeks ago I left a list of stuff that Jay needed to finish before he left for his weekend away. He leaves Thursday morning and only one thing is crossed off on that list. His friend is coming tonight and I doubt that he will do anything more on the list. There are also two other regular chores that he needs to do before he leaves as well. The list isn't really anything extra... it is just stuff that he started but never finished. Like putting away sprinkler stuff he was working on, organizing the side of the house that he was working on, putting a few things away that he got out and never put back. And honestly, I will be IRATE when he leaves tomorrow morning and EVERYTHING on that list is not done. He has had TWO weeks to finish it. The total time he would actually have to spend on everything on the list is probably less than two hours. He has had WAY more than two hours of free time in the last two weeks. He had ALL of yesterday morning off because of the weather where he could have been doing some of that stuff... but NO he didn't. It just pisses me off. And my only reason for having him do it before he leaves is because once he gets back, I know he won't do it afterwards and it will stay that way until Spring when all of the snow has melted. Argh! Okay... I needed to get that vent out.

I have been super productive today. I got a lot of cleaning done, a little bit of shopping, and even some filing. I even stopped at Kohl’s to look at dresses for my cousin’s wedding coming up in November (yes, I know that is still a ways away, I just couldn’t help myself), and I found this cute little number!The best part is that I had to buy it in a SIZE 5! I haven’t gotten anything in a size 5 in almost like FOREVER! I don’t even remember, not even in high school! Okay, so it is just a dress, it’s not like it’s a super cute pair of jeans in a size 5, but still! I’m pretty happy (despite the fact that when I stepped on the scale this morning I weighed 3.6 pounds more than I did Monday morning). I know, I pigged out yesterday. Chicken fried rice for lunch and supper and lots of it… an ice cream bar and a piece of ice cream cake. Um yeah, I’m allowed a cheat day, right?!

CIAO! LOVE ME!

{don't blink}

2011-08-23T09:26:00.001-05:00

I had every intention of writing a ~~sappy~~ post on Ayden's birthday yesterday, but twice while I was on my computer, it shut off on me and waiting for my computer to turn back on and reload just wasn't what I wanted to do... so I kept the post in my head for today.
I wish I had some wonderful insightful post about the day Ayden was born, but to be honest, most of it is a blur. I remember the big things, but part of me wishes I would have been blogging at that point so I have a clearer vision on how it actually was.

I know I was scared crapless... I had just turned 18 four days prior and here I was about to become a mommy! And let me tell you, labor was nothing like I had prepared for. I totally wimped out (I'd like to think the next go around I might have my head on a little straighter, but lets be honest here... that probably won't happen) and got an epidural as soon as they would let me! I know that Jay was happy once I finally got it, he says I was pretty mean to him. I probably was, hehe! That epidural made things so much more tolerable for me. I give mega props to those who go through labor without one... I just couldn't do it.

My water broke early in the morning, I think around 8am(ish) and Ayden was born almost 12 hours later at (I believe) 8:31pm. After almost 2 1/2 hours of pushing the doctor needed to intervene and they had to use suction to help him come out. Thankfully he didn't end up super cone headed because of it and just had a little spot on the top of his head from it. Because they had to use medical intervention to help deliver him there were a lot more doctors and nurses in the delivery room than normal. But he came out perfectly healthy with ten toes and ten fingers.

I think my only regret about getting the epidural was afterwards and not feeling my legs for awhile. There came a point when I had to get up to use the bathroom and I almost fell over because I couldn't quite feel my legs as much as I should have been able to. But alas, all was fine!

We had a stream of visitors in the hospital and I look back on the pictures and think I looked like crap and wonder why anyone would want to see me in that condition, haha! I know, I know, they were there to see the baby, not me! And now here it is seven years later and my baby isn't a baby anymore. He has opininos of his own. He has likes and dislikes. He is more verbal that he needs to be! Just kidding! He has feelings. But he's also not all that different from the baby I first held seven years (and one day ago). He still looks at his mama with those same loving eyes. He still has those same ten fingers and ten toes. He still needs me. Aw man, this is turning into a sappy post!

But, he wouldn't be the not so little boy that he is today without the wonderful people around him everyday. And by wonderful people I'm not refering to Jay and myself. I'm talking about his grandparents, great grandparents, aunts and uncles, cousins, teachers, and friends. Jay and I have been blessed beyond our wildest imaginations with this little boy and we wouldn't trade the world for him. But we've also been blessed with the most wonderful family God has to offer. We may have started out young as parents, but our families were there (and still are there) for us every step of the way! Everyone has been so supportive and that makes life all the easier. We don't need pity, handouts, or snide comments. We just need someone to say good job, keep it up, look at all you've accomplished. And we have those type of people surrounding us each and everyday.

So although Jay and I do the majority of the parenting and raising of Ayden, we wouldn't be where we are without the people we have around us. Life isn't all peaches and cream, well actually I should say ice cream and chocolate because I like those better, but we perservere through each and every day and despite the fact that the people who really need to hear this probably don't read my blog... I really just want to say thank you to each and every one of you (you know who you are) for being there for us these last seven years (and one day, hehe) and for continiung to be here for us all the years in the future. It means more than you will ever know! Argh, more sappiness, lol!

With that... I say... don't blink... because when you do, seven years will fly by and your baby will turn into a little man!

CIAO! LOVE ME!

{feelings}

2011-08-18T19:57:00.001-05:00

I've been doing pretty good lately. Not that I shouldn't be, but I thought you all should know. It's my birthday today... 25 years old... halfway to 50 (as my mom so kindly reminded me this morning) and a quarter of a century old (as my dad's wife so kindly reminded me on Tuesday), but that's okay. I haven't yet reached the point of life where I associate birthdays as getting old. Maybe by the time I hit 30 I will, but even so... 30 isn't old either. Heck, I'll probably still be having kids when I am 30.

I don't have any super exciting plans for my birthday. Last year my friends and I got together and had a great afternoon. It really was a lot of fun and a great way to spend a birthday. This year, I'll most likely be at home all afternoon working on editing photos that I took this past week and relaxing and watching some TV. Jay mentioned something about going out to eat tonight, but I don't know if I want to do that. We went out to eat on our way home from camping last weekend and my dad took us out to eat on Tuesday afternoon when he picked up Ayden for the rest of the week. So three meals out at a restaurant in one week for someone who is trying to watch her weight... probably not the smartest thing.

Speaking of weight, I'm still holding pretty steady in the 118-119 pound range. I'd really love to get to 115, but at this point I don't know that that will happen. As I've stated before, I've started working out to Jillian Michael's Ripped in 30 DVD again and I know that I am getting into better shape and with that I am building more muscle mass and I know that muscle weighs more than fat so that is probably a good indication of why the scale is not decreasing. I've tried not to get too hung up on the numbers on the scale, but some days are worse than others. For the first time since probably May, I went to bed last night weighing less than what I did when I got up in the morning... only by .2 lbs though. In any event, my clothes are fitting loose so I know that I am losing inches which is good. Yesterday I slept in and had every intention of not really working out. I just wasn't feeling it. Instead, I biked to work and then biked around afterwards looking for locations to do the senior shoot I have this weekend and biked home. That was just over 5 miles. Then I went for an almost five mile walk with my friend before supper which was great. Afterwards Jay and I went and got Ayden's birthday present and some groceries and it was almost 9pm by the time we got home. Working out was not on the top of my priority list, but I went ahead and sweated it out with Jillian... at 9pm! I was proud of myself for not giving up and that I pushed through not wanting to do it.

I can't remember if I wrote about running with my sister during camping. My sister has taken up running this summer and I thought that I would give it a try with her while we were camping since I wasn't going to be working out with Jillian. That was a mistake, ha! I am SO not a runner... even if I am sort of somewhat in better shape now than at the beginning of the summer. She totally kicked my butt running! And to top it off, I didn't believe Jay when he said I was going to end up with shin splints even after just a short run. Wrong! My shins hurt on Sunday! Oopsies! I think I will stick with my 20 minute workout with Jillian! I said it before, I’ll say it again… I am not a runner!

Last night I got to hang out with my friend and classmate, Katie. We hadn’t seen each other since the beginning of the summer, although we have emailed back and forth throughout the summer. The sucky thing is that she lives just across town! We had been meaning to get together for a while and go for a walk, but time was never on our side and finally this week it was. We went for about a five mile walk and got caught up on pretty much everything! Clinic, school, friends, wedding stuff. She is getting married about three months before me and so we get to plan our weddings together, I’m super excited! And we even planned a day to go try on dresses in a couple of weeks. I am even more super excited! We both know that our weddings are about two years away (give or take a couple of weeks for both of us), but it’s never too early to go look, right?! She said a friend of hers knows of a good place in our area. And I introduced her to the love of pinterest!

Happy Birthday to ME! Although, I have to admit it’s been mediocre at best…boo…

CIAO! LOVE ME!

{toes in the water}

2011-08-15T21:19:00.001-05:00

We ventured to the Sturgeon Bay/Door County area this past weekend to go camping with my dad’s side of the family and it was a lot of fun. The forecast was supposed to be rain, cold, and icky, but it turned out pretty nice. It did rain for a little while on Friday night, but that was about it (other than some sprinkles Saturday afternoon). Saturday was pretty cloudy and overcast and it looked like it was going to rain for the majority of the day and it wasn’t too warm, but that didn’t stop the fun. We didn’t go swimming at all because it was too cold out, but that was okay with me because I really wasn’t in the mood for swimming.

On our way home from camping we stopped at Cave Point County Park and Whitefish Dunes State Park in Door County and I got some great pictures. The weather was super great and the water wasn’t too cold and I could have stayed there all day long, but alas we had a long drive home so we only stayed for about two hours or so. I wish that it wasn’t so far away because I would love to go back again before the summer is up and I don’t think that we will have that opportunity.

Here is more than a handful of the pictures that I took. Like I said, I could have stayed and taken pictures all day! The sky was a gorgeous blue and the pictures were turning out so pretty.My boys walking off to explore some more… we could have walked and walked and walked down the cliffs and explored all day, but we didn’t. Thankfully both parks were only about five minutes from each other and we got into both of them for free and they were only minutes down the road from the campgrounds so we really didn’t have to go out of our way for either of them.Ayden and I were quick to get our feet wet! The water was so nice and clear (such a change from Lake Winnebago which we often frequent with the boat, but not swim in). At Cave Point the beach was less sandy and more full of little broken shells so we had to be careful when we got our feet wet that they washed off and we weren’t walking around with our sandals full of little shells cutting our feet… but that didn’t really stop us from having fun!This was a close entrance to one of the cave parts of Cave Point. There were a lot of people visiting the area so the amount of pictures taken here were slim because I really didn’t want people in the background of them. There was one other spot that I really wanted to get to and take some pictures (I saw a kid get down to the spot), but Jay didn’t want me to because it was a little challenging to get there and I had wet flip flops on and the kid I saw had tennis shoes on. Oh well… maybe the next time I get there (whenever that may be).Whitefish Dunes State Park was great too! The sandy beach was gorgeous and the water was clear and just walking along the shore line with the waves crashing in… it really let me feel like I was on my own piece of paradise even though I wasn’t in some warm tropical place. The beach went along for a long ways and I really could have kept on walking, but we stopped a nice sandy place and sat down for a while and Ayden and Jay built sandcastles and I took pictures and got into the water and got wet.

I really wish that we would have came with our swimsuits on because then we all SO would have gotten into the water and had a blast! But alas, we didn’t have our suits on so we were only limited to getting kind of wet. I even got Jay to take his sandals off and walk in the water with us. It really was a great way to end our weekend of camping… just our little family! I told Jay that we needed to take a weekend vacation up there next summer so we could spend a lot more time at the parks and just relax and have fun.

CIAO! LOVE ME!

{another day come and gone}

2011-08-11T15:56:00.001-05:00

Written Wednesday…

It was an all out lazy day for us yesterday at the house after I got home from work and Ayden was back from the sitters. We had lunch and then lounged around and watched TV pretty much all afternoon. I took a bit of a nap and Ayden played with his toys. I felt guilty. I should have been up and doing something productive or outside because the weather was so nice, but I wasn't. I was lazy. I watched too much TV, I let Ayden watch too much TV, and we were lazy together. But, I'm over it. That's not going to happen today. Today is a new day. Today we are going to be more active.

I mean, I've been semi active the last three days. I've worked out each day and I've biked to work (which is 1 1/2 miles each way) so that counts for something. (P.S. I've even see the number 117.8 lbs on my scale two days in a row now. Let's pretend that .8 doesn't really count, haha!) But today... today Ayden and are going to bike to the park and play and then bike to a nearby Walgreens so I can look at some color for my hair. My hair needs a change. I don't really want to cut it because I am liking it longer right now and I don't really want to pay up the wazoo to get it colored professionally (not with my car needing to get fixed), so we are going to check out the store. I'm thinking something with a reddish tint in it... who knows?! Both the park and the store are probably within a mile of the house and the store happens to be just down a block from our ride back from the park so they are both doable. We just need to get out of the house and be a little more active today so I don't feel so guilty.

I'm still pretty sore today from working out. I know that by this weekend it won't be as bad. I definitely feel more energized after I've worked out so that's good. This morning I started a load of laundry, swept the kitchen, and took care of the garbage and recyclables before we had to leave the house. Quite a productive morning if I don't say so myself and I only had to get up at 6:45am (we didn't leave until 9am, so plenty of time really). I dread having to get up earlier than 6:45am once the semester starts though because 6:45am seems to be like the perfect time. With class at 8:00am on Mondays and Wednesdays, I'll have to get up by probably by 6:00am. And then I found out that I may be driving to Oshkosh on Tuesdays and Thursdays. Getting to wherever I need to be by 7:30 or 8:00am means leaving Point by 6:30am and that means getting up by about 5:00am if I were to workout those mornings. Those might have to be workout nights... if I intend to keep working out past by 30 days and I hope this time I can stick to it. After the Ripped in 30 is over, I should probably use the other Jillian DVD that I bought. We'll see...

Written Thursday…

Yesterday wasn’t such a lazy day for us which was good. We ventured out to the park as planned and then to the store and then by the end of the night my hair was a new color. It was an all around good day. Today has been good too.

My final ‘batch’ of lilies bloomed at our house this week and I was SO excited. If you don’t know already, I’m ~~a tiny bit~~ obsessed with lilies. They are gorgeous and I’m in love. And of course I had to break out the camera to take some pictures of them!The lovely McDill Pond that is supposed to be filled. This log that Ayden is sitting on is usually completely under water… not this summer. It made a great perch for Ayden, although he didn’t want to oblige his mommy and sit on it for a picture. I could have gotten some really cute ones. I don’t know what it is about the little guy lately, but he’s become afraid of anything bug related outside. It’s really rather annoying!CIAO! LOVE ME!

{colorado}

2011-08-09T19:58:00.001-05:00

My trip to Colorado was lots of fun, but if I would have to do it over again, I doubt that I would... alone that is. It took a lot out of me and by the time the week was just over half done I was ready to go home.

My mom and her husband drove me to the airport on Saturday morning and waited with me until I got through security. I have to say, out of the whole trip, that was my most nervous part because FFA regulations state that your boarding pass must match your ID 100%. Well, my driver's license has my first and last time and my middle initial. When I printed off my boarding pass at home, it just had my first and last name and no middle initial. I won't deny that this freaked me out just a little bit. Worst case scenario, they would turn me down. Thankfully, apparently they don't pay much attention to that middle initial thing because I had no problems with security at all!

The flight to Denver went fine. It only took about two hours and I slept for some of that. I got there in time to make the bus that the hearing aid company provided to the resort and so I didn't need my shuttle. I was then of course out the money it cost for the shuttle that I reserved because it was less than 24 hour notice, but at that point I didn't care because I had needed a back up plan incase I didn't get there in time and I didn't think I was going to make it. Once on the bus, it was another two hour drive to the resort before we were able to get settled in.

There was a schedule for each day of our classes and free time. The hearing aid company did not push their agenda at all. The classes focused on supplementing what we were learning in our classes at our respective classes and I felt like I really learned a lot. They also paid for pretty much all of our food and boy was it some good food! I tried not to gorge myself on the food too much so that I didn't gain a lot of weight while I was away.

I was originally supposed to go on this trip with a fellow classmate from the Madison campus, but a few weeks before the trip she backed out. I don't know the reason why she backed out, other than something had come up and she could no longer make it and/or no longer wanted to go. Either way, I was still going because I had already paid the money. So, I headed out to Colorado by my lonesome. That was an adventure in and of itself because I am such an introvert. I won't deny that it was difficult for me at times. I don't just open up to people and become buddy buddy right away, but I did come away from the trip with some new friends. The majority of the reason why I would probably not go again (alone) is the effort that it took on my part to go outside of my comfort zone and be more extroverted. It really got tiresome and by the end of the trip I was just ready to be at home with my family alone and without 80 people around me all of the time. It didn't help any that a lot of the students were coming with classmates from their schools and the ones that didn't were roomed with someone and they almost always buddied up. Me... I got my own room because my roomie backed out. I loved having my own room, that part was nice, but I think it would also have been nice to have someone to room with. Who knows?!

I think my favorite part of the trip was the rafting experience. I wouldn't really call it white river rafting because the rapids that we went through were very limited and they were at most class 2 rapids and that might even be pushing it. But... it was still A LOT of fun and I would do it again in a heart beat! Although, we did get soaked on the boat and it was cold and one of my feet fell asleep so bad that I couldn't even wiggle my toes to get the blood moving! It took me a good five minutes of bouncing my foot up and down to be able to move my toes again. Guess I listened to the guide a little too well when he said that we were supposed to keep one of our feet jammed under the seat in front of us for stability... I shoved it in there pretty hard, haha!

Here are just a few pictures of the gorgeous mountains. I could probably write a lot more about my time in Colorado, but I’d rather let the pictures speak for themselves… that and I don’t really feel like writing a lot more about it at this point in time.I've decided to start working out again. My cousin, Amanda, inspired me to get my workout on! She's been faithfully working out with Jillian Michael's 30 Day Shred for the last three weeks and seeing her post each day on Facebook about it has kicked me into gear. I made it most of the way through Jillian Michael's Ripped in 30 DVD the last time I did it, so I know that I can do it again this time. I was rereading some of my old posts about when I did it the first time and can’t believe that I also worked out on the elliptical most days as well. This time I am going to just stick with the DVD and continue to eat better like I have been. I picked the right day to start because I will finish up my four weeks the day before classes start. I worked in about three days ‘off’ where I will be gone for the entire day and not have access to a DVD player to work out. Jillian’s 30 day programs are really nice because they are so short. I know that I can make it through the 20 minutes even if I am about to die. It is only 20 minutes, anyone can do 20 minutes! This morning was day 2 for me and even though I didn’t want to continue about halfway through I just kept telling myself that it was only 20 minutes. I know that I haven’t lost all of my stamina from the last time that I did the program though because the first time I did the program I had to stop multiple times throughout the workout. This time I’ve made it through day one and day two without having to stop (although I’ve wanted to). I am a little sore today, but I was expecting it and know that by the end of the week that it won’t be so bad.

I am excited about my family camping this weekend. I can only hope that we have some good weather and don’t get rained out like we sort of did at Hoerth camping.

Off to watch the season finales of White Collar and Covert Affairs tonight!

CIAO! LOVE ME!

{misadventures in milwaukee}

2011-08-08T20:51:00.001-05:00

I haven't driven my car in the last 11 days and I probably won't be driving it for another 11 days... it is in need of repair. A repair that will cost us two arms and two legs in Stevens Point, but hopefully only one arm and one leg back in Chilton.

It all began (look at me, starting the story like there is actually a story to tell. Well, in all reality there is and it's more fun to tell the story now than it was to actually live through it) two Friday's ago (the day before I left for Colorado- which will get a whole post to itself). We (and by we, I mean, myself, Ayden, Jay, and Jay's friend JT) were headed off to see a Brewer's baseball game. The drive was going to take us about two and a half hours and we got started a little earlier than we had anticipate which was good. I had packed us some sandwiches, drinks, and chips to tide us over until we got to the game.

The drive was going smoothly. We had decided to take my car because it would get better gas mileage. Jay drove and JT sat up in front to navigate with him. Milwaukee is not a city that I want to have to navigate. We ran into some construction, but made our way through that and were just about 30 miles outside of Milwaukee on the interstate when I noticed that my car started to act a little funny. I asked Jay if that was the car or if it was the road and then the car really started to act funny. I found out later that he noticed it acting a little funny a few miles beforehand, but he didn't want to say anything to me to freak me out. Jay pulled over onto the side of the interstate and him and JT inspected the car. It wasn't over heating and the check engine light hadn't come on yet, but the car then wouldn't start. Ugh!

We were not that far from an exit, so we let the car cool off for a while. After about 10 minutes or so, it started back up and we slowly and safely made our way to the exit and off of the interstate. Let me tell you, being on the side of the interstate with a broken down car... NO FUN! Thankfully as we were exiting off of the interstate, JT happened to be looking out of his window and spotted a Valvoline oil center and we made our way over there. The car stayed working until the parking lot. Jay and JT went in search of a mechanic to see if he or she could help us at all. Once again, the man above was watching out for us because we came across the nicest and most helpful mechanic there was! He ran a FREE diagnostic check on the car and told us that the car needed a fuel cleaner. $80 later and we thought the car was running fine. We thought we would make it to the game just in time, maybe with just a few innings missed, but alas we were going to be on our way again. One test drive after that to make sure... and the car still wasn't working!

At this point we were pretty sure we weren't making it to the game. The mechanic and another employee stayed WELL after closing time to help us with the car and I could not have been more appreciative. They were seriously SO nice! They didn't have to stay and help at all! Everyone tried numerous things to see what might be wrong with the car, but we couldn't get it working again. Then it was time to try and think of how we were going to get it back to Chilton...

And yet again, the man above was looking out... as we were able to get ahold of Jay's parents who were able to secure a trailer for the car with little effort and they started the trek down to pick us up. In the mean time, we walked to a near by restaurant and had pizza for supper at about 9pm (remember we started this trek to Milwaukee at about 3pm). Jay's parents made it down by us without any complications and then it was another hour and a half drive back to their house for the night (where we were supposed to end up in the first place AFTER watching a great Brewer's game).

I left for Milwaukee again in the morning for Colorado and left my car in the capable hands of Jay, JT, and Jay's dad. At this point they thought it was probably the fuel filter that needed changing. I heard from Jay on Sunday afternoon saying that they changed the fuel filter and the car was running fine again. Haha, that's a joke because my car is stuck in my driveway STILL not working!

Jay and JT left with my car to head back to Stevens Point late Sunday afternoon (Ayden was spending the week with Jay's parents) and they made it almost home when the car started to act up again. Hmm... guess it wasn't the fuel filter. Jay called and let me know sometime on Monday that it still wasn't working right. They did end up getting the car to run all the way to the house, but I refuse to drive it until it is FIXED! Jay called the mechanic that we now use in Point to see if he had any ideas to try before taking it in and spending more money on something that isn't going to work and talked to the lady that we bought the car from (who happens to now work at our mechanics shop) and she said that she had this same problem when she had the car and the fuel pump needed to be replaced. Apparently when the car is 'cold' and not running for very long it works fine, but when the car is 'hot' and running for a long time (ie: driving to Milwaukee and driving from 'home' to Point) it can't keep the pressure up and the car shuts down. The crappy thing is that you can't test to see if the fuel pump is not working correctly unless the car isn't working. Jay told me that he took my car from the house to Wal-Mart and back and it ran fine and said that I should be able to drive it around town and not have to worry. Yeah, I'll get right on that because the second I get into that car and onto an even slightly busy road it will shut down on me. Not going to happen buddy!

Here's the kicker though... in order to the car fixed in Point, it is going to cost WAY more than I want to spend. We know some mechanics back in the Chilton area that can do it for us at a fraction of the price (and who a reliable) and so we need to get the car back there. Haha! That's funny, right?! Because running the car a long ways makes it STOP working! It needs to get there though and so we've decided to drive it and have people on back up in case we do need to trailer it some of the way again. It just sucks because now I am without a car for the time being. One doesn't realize how much they depend on their vehicle until they are without.

I biked to work today. I should have biked to work more often this summer because it only took me 10 minutes and it is good exercise as well.

And so there you have it... our misadventures in almost Milwaukee. Despite the fact that my car doesn't work as it should right now, I am more than thankful that it broke down while Jay and JT were with me and that I was not alone or with just myself and Ayden. I am more than thankful that we broke down so close to a station with such helpful mechanics at. I am more than thankful that Ayden was so well behaved for most of the ordeal. I am more than thankful to have THE best future in laws who gave up their Friday night (the day before the big golf outing that they were throwing) to drive down to Milwaukee and back to pick us and my car up. I am more than thankful that this situation turned out as it did and I wasn't alone and for that I am grateful. Car working or not, we are all still alive and safe and doing well. And I had a great trip to Colorado and Jay and JT had a fun time at the golf outing and Ayden had a great week at grandma and grandpa's house!

CIAO! LOVE ME!

{9 nights}

2011-07-29T14:39:00.001-05:00

I slept my last night in my own bed last night for the next nine nights! Nine nights without the comfort of my own bed and six of those nine nights will be without Jay. Now don’t get me wrong, I enjoy an empty bed here and there (I like to stretch out), but six nights in a wrong is a LONG time! I don’t think Jay and I have been apart that long in years! By the time I get back to my house I will be craving a good nights sleep, I’m sure!

We’re headed out to our first Brewer’s game tonight and despite the fact that I’m not actually all that excited about sitting down and watching some baseball, I am excited to just go with my family. It will be Ayden’s first game and my first game and the Brewer’s are currently doing really well and that makes it more exciting. But of course, I’ve said all of this before.

I think I have all of the packing done… it was more than I thought it would be, but with Ayden and myself being gone for almost the next week and half, we both needed a lot!

Hoerth camping is next weekend and Jay told me that if his boss asks him to work on Saturday that he would say yes, well at least to just working Saturday morning. I couldn’t believe him. Honestly, I don’t care if his boss really needs him to work. He took this job after we had all of our summer plans already laid out and he took it on the premise that he wouldn’t have to work weekends. His boss cannot make him work weekends, but he can get upset if Jay can’t… and we literally have something going on EVERY Saturday until after Labor and have had this stuff planned for quite some time now, like before Jay took the job. But, I didn’t argue with Jay about it and pretty much told him that if he had to work, he had to work. Whatever, you’re the one missing pretty much ALL of camping then because he wouldn’t get there until probably late Saturday afternoon and we leave Sunday morning. Maybe I am a little bitter, haha! But he’s being the good employee I suppose.

I’ll most likely be back in nine days once my trip and camping is over! Hope I have lots of good stories to tell!

CIAO! LOVE ME!