Hot Stove

Jack, I have therapy again tomorrow, wish me luck! I am still a little nervous, but not as much. Actually, I wasn't horribly nervous sick to my stomach on Monday either, just wanted to make a good impression. Did I, don't really know? I have yet to go and get my review sheet from my 'mail box' and see how I was graded. Despite the fact that my supervisor said that we did really good, I'm still apprehensive about seeing my first 'grade' for clinic. Worry wort! Pretty much always have been and always will be.

I was looking over what my schedule could potentionally be in the Spring and it is looking like it could be pretty good. I am only taking three classes and then clinic and another one credit class. That would leave me with 12 credits, the minimum for a full time student. The three classes would be: Hearing Science, Social Gerantology, and some psych one, possibly Children Disorders (or something along that line, don't know the exact name). And then I will have clinic two hours a week. The one credit class is going to be a two time CPR class that I took two years ago and it was super easy. It's a eight hour thing split into two four hour days. After the classes you are certified in CPR for one year and First Aid for three years. I guess technically I am still certified for First Aid, but the class was easy enough and gives me 12 credits and is just twice during the semester. Less for me to worry about.

WOAH!!! New flash... just recieved an email from my supervisor about clinic and apparently things are about to change. Well, possibly will change, but not final yet. It appears that two of the clients might be joining a language group at their preschool instead which would leave just one client left. And this client might be joining another language group. If that is the case, I might lose my partner because her schedule works better than mine and get a whole new client and be BY MYSELF! By myself?!?!?! Kind of freaking out here! Or maybe they would pair me with someone who is by themselves right now. Not so sure how this is going to work out here and now I'm getting worried. I was just getting comfortable with the way that things were going to go. Sure, we had some energetic kids the first time, but we were going to get things rolling during the following sessions. Now the parents don't want to move the clients because of us as clinicians, just that it will be easier on the kids to stay at school and get therapy versus leaving and then having to go back to school. Completely understandable, and being a parent myself, would probably prefer that. I guess I just need to take a few deep breaths and calm down. I will not be handed something that I cannot handle. I've been handed bigger challenges than this before and have overcome. I guess this was not the plan for me/my partner/the clients/their parents. If Plan A doesn't work, move to Plan B.

Tonight: So the rest of the afternoon was pretty good. Jay's last class was cancelled so he was home with us for most of the afternoon. I have to say that I got nothing accomplished. Oh wait, I did finish reading the article for my summary review that is due on Friday. We have to answer three questions which I thought would be pretty easy. As it turns out, I actually have to use brain power to do it. The plan is to try and get some of the answers typed up when I am done on here. We will see how that goes. I will probably get like one done and then call it a night.

We took the training wheels off Ayden's bike today, per his request. He decided that he was ready to be a big boy, but once realized what having the training wheels off actually meant, he wanted them back on. Jay pushed him around for a little bit and then Ayden had just about enough of that. For right now I've decided that we aren't going to put them back on right away, but niether am I going to push him to try and learn to ride a two wheeler. We might practice a little bit on the days that the weather is nice. In hindsight, he probably won't learn until Spring, but that's okay. I'd be fine with it if he had training wheels until he was 20.

Ayden and I also picked up his room tonight. It wasn't a good sort through like I would normally do, I mostly just wanted to be able to get to his bed without having to step on or over or around something. Yes, it was that bad. And I know I could have just pushed the toys to the side and made a path to the bed and dresser, but it was easier to throw everything into an empty bin. Empty because Ayden dumped everything out of them onto the floor. He did really good with that. We still have toys out in the living room, but he needed SOMETHING to play with.

We also had a minor emergency tonight. Nothing that required the ER, but enough to scare a mommy and daddy. Here's the scenario. I'm in the kitchen getting the ice cream out of the freezer (it was one of those little cardboard box ice creams) and set it on the stove to put the rest of the stuff back in the freezer that I had to take out to get the ice cream. Little did I know that the burner I had set the ice cream on was still hot as Jay had just gotten finished using it. I had no idea he had had it on because Ayden and I had ate supper about an hour earlier and I had turned everything off and left the pan with the potatoes on said burner. Jay then ate and had cleaned up the kitchen, but apparently he turned the stove back on to warm up the potatoes. So sweet child of mine goes to grab the ice cream off the stove and touches said burner. Ice cream goes flying to the floor and Ayden lets out this shriek. I had no idea what happened because like I said, I did not know the burner was on. Thankfully Jay was also still in the kitchen and it quickly registered that Ayden had burnt himself and he grabbed him and immediately put his hand under cold water. I grabbed an ice pack and those two went to go sit in the living room to try and calm down. By this time Ayden was no longer crying and it was determined that the burn was just on the tip of his pinky finger. Not even enough to blister it (thank God), but definitely scary enough. Ayden proceeded to eat his ice cream (with sprinkles I might add) and all was well. All accidents cannot be avoided... I'm just so thankful that it wasn't worse.

Going to attempt to get some homework done now... CIAO! LOVE ME!

Therapy Success

Jackers...So, I am at work right now and my boss hasn't been in since last Thursday and thus I have no new work. Well, technically there is something I could work on, but I need my boss's opinion on something before I make the final move. Not worth explaining, but I cannot move forward without her go ahead, but can't really get her go ahead when she isn't here. What is a girl to do? I could go home, but then I wouldn't be getting paid, right? Everyone is on lunch break now... is that an excuse to be blogging? Probably not, but I'm not hurting anyone, am I? Who cares...

I'll start with the most recent- I had my first therapy session today! And I survived! But boy were we in for a surprise! Three little guys with lots of energy, that's for sure!!! My activities didn't pan out as expected, which was okay. We ended up just matching the things for bingo and playing with the little people animals for most of it. The kids were getting kind of antsy and couldn't sit still for the other things that I had planned. We might try them at a different point. I was kind of sad because we didn't get to use the There Was an Old Lady Who Swallowed a Fly poster and animals that I spent time making. But I guess that is what you get coming into something that hasn't been done in the last ten years with children that you haven't met before. But overall, I think it went well. At least that is what our supervisor told us. Actually, I felt like we didn't get anywhere. Not that we are supposed to make giant strides during the first session, but it was hard to focus on them individually with three of them and two of us. I guess it will be something that gets discussed with our supervisor at our weekly meeting on Friday. I need to write a reflection for today's and then get started on next Monday's lesson plan. My partner has to write the lesson plan for Wednesday's session. But in all honesty, it wasn't as bad as I thought it would be. Only, I was late (like one minute) getting to my next class because one of the parents was late picking up her child. No biggie, just hope it isn't a weekly thing.

Tomorrow is Ayden's turn to bring a treat to daycare for snack time. I am thinking something like goldfish crackers or whatever. I'm all for baking some awesome snack, but the thing is, they eat it at 9am and I don't think they need cookies/brownies/cupcakes at that time of the morning and also because of children's allergies, I don't want to make something and have child not be able to eat it because the teacher doesn't know what is in it. So I thought I'd go halfway nutritious and nothing homemade. Good idea? I don't know...

Jay was very cuddly last night which was good. Lately I haven't really felt all that close to him. We haven't been fighting or anything, on the contrary, getting along pretty fabulous. But that's about it, just getting along... cohabitating and parenting. Not really doing anything together or setting time aside for each other. Kind of bumming if you think about it, but honestly with school starting to pile up on me all I want some nights after Ayden goes to bed is some alone time to watch TV. Now I wouldn't mind watching TV and cuddling with Jay... the only problem is that he hardly ever likes what I watch (and constantly complains about my channel surfing abilities, which I admit, I HATE COMMERCIALS!!!) and with football and baseball on... I hardly like what he wants to watch. And to then when we both find something we can compromise on, niether of us really want to be watching it in the first place. IE: tonight is Monday which for me equals: Prison Break and a taped episode of John and Kate plus 8, but for Jay equals: Monday Night Football! He has stated he would watch Prison Break with me in the event that football isn't on, but when will that be, in Februray after the Super Bowl? Lol... I hate watching sports on TV. Actually I'm not a sports watcher at all, unless I personally know someone playing. IE again: I could watch high school football when Jay was playing and high school wrestling when Jay was wrestling. Heck, I was a manager for both teams for three years... I pretty much had to like it. And I did, but after high school, not my forte anymore.

Speaking of Prison Break... YEAH I GET MY WEEKLY DOSE! I'm always excited for Mondays. Not that you aren't sick of me oogling and googling over Wentworth. Sorry then, you'll survive.

My cousin's bridal shower is this weekend! The plan was just to come home for the day, but now Jay is saying that he might be coming home as well (which means bringing Ayden) because his grandparents want their peir out and he usually helps with that. I don't, I sit and watch. Doesn't look like any fun. So, I was thinking that I probably wasn't going to be bringing Ayden to the shower, and probably still won't, but it's more up in the air now. Not that she would care anyways because I'm sure her nieces will be there, or at the very least, the eldest. She's what you call a laid back bride. The best there can be... go with the flow. Well, that is not to say she doesn't have her hands full and isn't really stressing to the max, don't really know, and if that is the case, she hides it well. Bravo Amy! (And I totally know you-and Amanda- are reading this so... super excited for Saturday!) Can't believe how fast the days are going by. I remember when she asked me and thinking, yeah, that's a long time away, but it sure does creep up on you fast!

Later tonight- I got my first therapy review done now. Not a whole lot of work for it and I should be working on some other homework, but I thought I would finish up here first. I have this Chapter to ready for my Speech Science class and then have four questions to answer about it. Sounds like fun, eh? Maybe one of you should do it for me. Now is one of those times where I wish I could just come home from school and leave everything at school. School is worse than a full time job, because it comes home with you. Okay, so people often bring home their work as well, but can't I complain a little. I'd rather my only full time job be is being a mom.

Ayden and I rode our bikes this afternoon for a while. We also went through some letters. He still doesn't know all of them, but I am not going to pressure him to learn them. Some kids know them way earlier and some don't. I want Ayden to be smart, but I won't push him to the point where he doesn't want to do it yet. He'll know them all by kindergarten and be able to write his name and much more I'm sure. There's no rubric he has to follow to get into school. Okay, well there is stuff they 'test' him for during screening (I think) but I am in no way worried right now. We have a whole year to learn that stuff. A nice progression into I think. Funny to think that he will be starting kindergarten when I am starting grad school. How crazy is that? My little guy in kindergarten!!! Enough with the dramatics Ashley, that is a year away yet.

A grocery trip to Walmart tonight stocked us up on groceries once again. This one was actually one of our big shopping trips. We haven't done one of those in a long time. The past couple of months it's usually been just the basics and what not. We don't always go all out when we eat. If I haven't stated it already, I don't really care to cook and when I am the one doing most of it, we LOVE hamburger helper around here. Lol!

Okay, enough babbling for now... just might try and read that chapter I spoke (actually wrote of, haha) before... CIAO! LOVE ME!

Weekend?

Jack, it's supposed to be the weekend, but it really doesn't feel like it. Maybe it is because it is going by so fast. Can't we just freeze time for a little while so I can get all my 'homework' done and still get a little relaxation time in? Okay, if we can't do that, then can I at least just be able to sit and watch an hour of TV? Probably not that either... but what I'd really like to do is get lost in a good book...

Soccer was cancelled this week due to the rainy weather yesterday. Even if it wasn't cancelled I don't think I would have taken Ayden. Maybe it's okay for older kids to play in the drizzly weather, but I wasn't going to put Ayden in a situation where he was able to get sick easier. We were both kind of disappointed because he was really looking forward to it this week and so was I. Jay was already at home so he probably could have cared less either way. But because soccer was cancelled that left an extra hour of our morning free and it only pushed up the time that Ayden wanted to go to McDonalds. Didn't really want to eat lunch at 10:30am so we played around the house until 11:30 and then headed off to Mickey D's. Boy were there a ton of people there and even more kids. We didn't sit in by the play area because there was no seating in there. I told Ayden that if he ate really good then he could play. Well, he ate really good, but he decided that he didn't want to play and off to Alexis's house we were.

The drive was okay... rainy the whole way (complete side note... I am on Jay's computer at the moment and the litter box is right below it and it STINKS HORRIBLY- mostly because Diesel just went into it and let all the stink out through the door and is probably going to stink it up more and I refuse to clean it). Anywhoo, we made it to Alexis's house a little after 2pm even though the party wasn't supposed to start until 3ish. Not that my dad cared anyways. Ayden and Alexis had fun playing together before everyone else got there. Actually most everyone on my dad's side of the family came. I was surprised, but it was lots of fun. Tons of good food and lots of dessert. I had a brownie, dirt cake, and a piece of birthday cake. The cake was from Walmart and it was super moist and good, but the frosting was a little too sweet. Definitely not a Grandma Hoerth cake by any means, lol.

We decided to leave around 7:30pm, which would put us home around 9pm. But then Jay and Ayden decided that they were going to stay the night at Jay's parents (I had brought extra clothes for Ayden... you know, the emergency clothes) and so Ayden had clothes to wear today and Jay didn't really care about wearing the same clothes the next day. He would have an extra chance to go hunting. My drive home was okay. It started to rain pretty hard before I got to Appleton and thought I was in for a rough drive. It was one of those hard rains where you can barely see and I don't do good driving at night and in the rain. However, by the time I got to Waverly it has slowed down and I was okay and made it home precisely by 9pm. I pretty much crashed right away and slept really good. It was nice to sleep in until around 9am this morning. I could have lounged in bed for another hour or so, but made myself get up so I would be able to get some decent sleep tonight. That and I had some stuff to get ready for clinic yet.

Speaking of that, I still haven't heard back from my supervisor about my lesson plan and whether or not it is okay. I went ahead and made what I needed for my last activity. I would have liked to hear from her by now so that I don't have to make any last minute changes tonight. I am all for getting things done ahead of time and so I don't have to rush at the last minute. That, and I would like the second half of my day to be for myself. Just to relax and chill. I just talked to Jay and they won't be leaving for another hour or so, plus the hour and a half that takes them to get hom... so I have at least the next three hours to myself and would thoroughly like to enjoy them.

Jay said that Ayden slept until 9am this morning too. He woke up just as Jay was getting home from hunting which was kind of nice. That way his parents really didn't have to watch Ayden while Jay was gone. Not that they would have minded, they just had to be home. They were at a wedding last night so I don't know what time they got home at and how long they slept for. His parents are usually pretty early risers.

Back to the grind now... well actually I might look for something to make for lunch. Pizza rolls anyone?

LOVE ME!

Tired anyone?!

Jacko- I really hope that Ayden sleeps in tomorrow because I am TIRED! I know I know, get to bed earlier... and why is it that I don't do that, no good reason really. It is precisely 9pm right now and I should get into bed, but what I am doing instead?! Blogging to all my blogger buddies, but that is okay because I was already on my computer before I came here. I was perfecting my lesson plan, hopefully that is. I had a few tweaks to make and some activities to add and sent it off to my supervisor once again. It technically wasn't due until Sunday at 10am, but I'd rather know before then if I need to make any changes. And that way I don't have to be back and forth from my computer all day Sunday. That, and we won't be home most of the day tomorrow so I wouldn't really get anything done then. It's my hope that my supervisor will read it over tomorrow morning and get back to me before we have to leave for soccer and maybe I could even get another revised version back to her before we leave (if need be). I already have to make all these animals things for the story that I am going to be reading. Oh, and we found out today that there will be another little kiddo joining us so it's up to three clients now. Joyous world! And two more were evaluated this week with the potentiality of joining us as well. We will see how it goes. I know we won't be saddled with more than we can handle either.

Jay left to go home tonight. Well actually it was late afternoon and Ayden and I spent the night together. We practiced some soccer, folded about three weeks worth of laundry (yes, I was that far behind on folding it- good thing I wasn't that far behind on washing it otherwise none of us would have had any clean underwear, lol!), had some good mac n cheese for supper and painted some rocks for Alexis for her birthday. Oh and we got her presents wrapped too and I printed off a few things for other classes. Did you know that for a thorough handwashing it is supposed to take almost 2 minutes. That is a long time! Honestly, who has that much time to wash their hands after going to the bathroom, especially if you have one or more children with you. Now, of course I am all for the whole handwashing thing, but 2 minutes! Seriously... but really in all honesty, we do have a humungo amount of germs on our hands. I just chose not to think about them because otherwise I would go crazy washing my hands. Sometimes a few germs are good for us, lol!

Anywhoo, other than barely making it through my classes alive today and probably only paying attention in them for 1/3 of the time, not a whole lot went down. I had a meeting about prepping for grad school and boy was that informational. Info overload... AGAIN! That is seriously what this semester is shaping up to be. Just when I think that I am getting things under control again and will be able to handle everything, we get all this new crap dumped on us and are expected to absorb it within the next 24 hours. Okay, the professors aren't that mean, but sometimes I totally feel like I have no idea what I am doing and that I am expected to. Maybe it's just the fact that I don't like feeling like an idiot or having to ask about things that I think I should probably already know. That whole newbie thing in the clinic, even though we are seniors. Have all the grad students ahead of us. But at least next year we will be sort of less like newbies, only we will be again because we will be at the bottom of the totem pole as far as grad school. Oh ugh, just thinking about it is making me sick.

I think it's time for a stiff drink (ha! maybe if I did drink... oh wait there is a bottle of kesslers and doctor's on the top of my fridge, how about some of that) and then to hit the sack. And for those of you who really DO know me know that I don't drink and that liquor was for the purpose of Ayden's party and our guests and well for Jay too because he adds some to his soda every once in a blue moon. CIAO my diligent readers... until next time! LOVE ME!

Baby Mama Drama

Jack...Rain rain go away, come again another day... Ashley wore flip flops to class! Okay, minor brain toot this morning. Watched the news and even took my umbrella to school with me, but did I think twice about wearing flip flops?! NO! So when my 11am class gets over and I see that it is POURING outside and realize that I have to walk all the way across campus to work I get a little glummy. You see, by the time I got to work (even with the roofs of two minor buildings that I escaped into on the way here) my feet were not only soaked, but so was the entire length of my pants almost up to my news, ON BOTH LEGS! It was a good thing that I didn't slip at all because me and flip flops that are wet and/or ground that is wet do not get along very well. But I made it here safe and sound and able to blog about it. Lol, the highlight of my day, I'm sure!

Last night Jay and I got the movie Baby Mama from Walmart. We both wanted to see it and thought it would be good and wanted to add it to our movie collection. It's not too often we buy movies, even less that we rent them, and even less than that that we actually go see them in the theater. We were both looking forward to seeing it and laughing and it being pretty good. Unfortunately, niether of us thought it was anything outstanding. It did have comedy and there were parts that we were both laughing outloud, but it was pretty predictable and lacked in areas where the humor just couldn't make up for it. On my scale from one to ten, I'd give it a 5 maybe. Not that I'm any movie critic or anything. I probably watch more cartoon movies than anything these days. Lucky to say that our Jurassic Park watching has definitely decreased, but there are days where he still askes to watch it.

My cousin is having a purse party tonight, a purse party that I unfortunately will not be attending. :( Not that I need a new purse (have two news from my sister's party) but one can never have enough. Maybe that's just a woman thing?! However, I cannot forsee the gas money it will cost for me to drive the hour and a half there and then home to attend the party. Plus the money that I would inevitably spend while there on purses. Maybe if I didn't have class on Friday's and I could stay for the weekend, but no can do. I actually have clinic meetings on Friday's as well so really no can do. But I hope that everyone has a stellar time and finds some awesome purses!

I'm getting my hair cut this afternoon and I'm still undecided on what I want to do cut wise. I keep going back and forth between just a trim and maybe getting an inch or two off to make a little more of a drastic change, but nothing too short (as I'm trying to grow it out). When it comes to my hair I cannot go long with it being the same. I am surprised that I lasted the last year without getting it cut. But, I'm trying to grow it out, right? So why am I getting it cut tonight? Lol! I can only last with the same hair for a certain amount of time. I'm weird, I know, deal with it...

So my best friend has met a new guy and well that is always a good thing. And this time she has decided to take things slow with him. She's been known to jump into relationships before and that has never seemed to work. Although, with her last serious boyfriend things were looking pretty good for awhile, even I thought that they might get married one day. Little did anyone know, things didn't work out, but that's how life goes. Anyways, I'm excited for my friend and this new guy in her life. She even said that she liked starting out as friends first and seeing where things go. She's thinking it will lead into a relationship which would be great for her (and finally one not long distance, even better). Here's to new beginnings and hopefully happy endings! Or no endings at all...

Lately I've felt kind of distant from my friends at school. It's most likely due to the fact that we only have one class together this semester and don't get to see each other other than that time. Well, at least I don't get to see them. I have no free time this semester so yeah. And we haven't spent any time together outside of school other than Six Flags this summer either. Most likely also due to the busy factor, as we all have kids.

Tonight... back from my hair appointment and I only got a trim. The highlights turned out awesome and I love the change. I'll try to get a picture up sometime tomorrow, maybe...

Got an email back from my supervisor about my lesson plan. She says that I have a great start and thanked me for explaining myself so well. I'm glad that she liked it so far, but saying that I have a great start, but how much more do I need to do for it? I hope not too much because I did put quite a bit of thought into it thus far. We have a meeting in the morning so we will see what needs to be done further. I'm excited though! Therapy should start Monday!

CIAO! LOVE ME!