New Blog Look

Btw… as you can tell… or at least I hope so… I recently changed the look on my blog (yet again)! Please please please drop me a comment if something isn’t showing up right for you layout wise and it did before.

Everything looks good from my end, but I can never tell from my ‘reader’ experience since one time I changed it and it looked good when I previewed it, but my sister told me that whenever she viewed it things were all wacky and I want what readers I do have to be able to enjoy my blog without any hassel!

Thanks!

CIAO! LOVE ME!

Girl Gossip

I got a letter in the mail the other day from one of my best friends stating that she was going to be all alone this weekend with nothing to do. Her son is with his dad this weekend and the guy that she is seeing is gone with is buddies. She isn’t the type of person who has a ton of friends to hang out with, but rather like me keeps a small close knit circle of friends.

Well it just so happens that I found myself alone this weekend with nothing to do either. It didn’t start out that way though. Originally I was supposed to go up north with my boys, but decided that I needed a calm weekend at home otherwise I’d probably go bonkers. Maybe not completely bonkers, but you know, just insane enough where they might admit me back to the mental ward. Ah, home… if only it were that easy. Okay, before I have everyone who doesn’t actually know me think that I was once in a mental ward… you should know enough about my sense of humor by now that I’m totally just kidding, haha! Or maybe that is just what I want you to think!

Anyways, back to my story…

So, both my friend and I are doing nothing for the weekend. What does that mean? Some totally called for girl time! We hadn’t seen each other in over a year so it was definitely time for it and in the past year we just recently started writing again on a regular basis. Yes, we both take the blame for being bad at keeping correspondence going. We are definitely great friends, but the kind of great friends that both would rather write then spend hours on the phone. We are both weird like that.

Since she lives nearer my home town I thought it would be better to meet like half way in the middle. It would save both of us from driving the whole way and then back to someone’s house. We decided on Appleton since it was pretty much in the middle, maybe a little closer for her, but fine with me and it has enough to do. I wanted to stop at Barnes and Noble anyways.

Total side note! I thought I was going to be all cool this year and print my own planner again like last spring, only I did and turns out I don’t like it. Then I went to Target to see if I could find a planner I liked (I’m pretty picky about that sort of thing) and found one I could live with. I got home and Jay says I should have picked up one for him as well. I then decide that I’d go out and look for one that I liked a little better and give Jay the one I originally bought. I then went to Staples, Walmart, and Shopko and found nothing that I liked. Not that they had a whole lot to choose from though. Walmart had some nice ones, but they started in January 2010… I need it for now! So I thought being in Appleton would give me the opportunity to stop at Barnes and Noble and check their selection and I found one that I think I am really going to like and for a really good price as well… since I saw some planners at Staples for $50 and there was NO way I was paying that much for a planner… no way EVER!

After that quick pit stop, we decided to go to lunch. Because you know, that was the whole purpose of the get together and since we were in Appleton… we went to… can you guess? It really isn’t that hard! HU HOT! It was between there and Fudruckers. My friend hadn’t been to either and was in the mood for Mongolian (no need to ask me twice) and so Hu Hot it was! And I think I may have found another addict, haha! She really enjoyed it! And me… do you even need to ask?!

Instead of sitting in the restaurant for hours chatting it up, we went for a walk down some side roads and then found a nice pavilion with picnic tables set up in to sit and talk. It was too nice out today to sit inside anyways. We chatted it up for over four hours and then called it a day. It was so great to just sit and chill and catch up! I miss being able to do that and vowed to not let us keep in touch as badly as we have been. We are too close for that. It was a great afternoon and I’m glad that I thought of it to get out of the house and have some fun, but not overwhelming whole weekend kind of fun, you know?

Yesterday I didn’t do a whole lot. I did some laundry, organized some of my school stuff some more, ran some errands that took almost two hours, cleaned the kitchen and our bedroom, and watched some movies on tv.

Jay and Ayden left yesterday morning had a great day up north. They got home tonight around 8pm and Ayden went to bed shortly there after. Jay got a call from his mom a little while ago and told me that they had been in an accident after he got off the phone. I would have been more scared, but I heard the end of the conversation he was having while on the phone and it was light hearted so I knew it wasn’t bad. They were driving home from up north as well (they have a longer drive than us) and ended up hitting a bear! A bear! Yes, you read that right… they hit a bear!

So I know there are bears in Wisconsin, my mom’s friend lives up north a ways and talks about seeing bears in her back yard quite frequently, but I just don’t really think about it. It’s like you know it’s true, but if you don’t have to actually deal with it, you don’t worry about it. That’d be one of the last things I would have worried about hitting. A deer maybe… bear… definitely not!

Thankfully (praise the lord!) it wasn’t bad! The bumper was pushed down and the passenger door dinged up, but no injuries and no other vehicles! They were driving the Tahoe, which for those of who don’t know, is a big SUV, so it could have been much worse. Much much worse since they ended up killing the bear and it looked to be about 250lbs! I’m hoping that his mom takes a picture of it so we can see. It definitely delayed their trip home by at least an hour, if not more!

Tomorrow will be another day of relaxation for the family. The weather looks like it will be nice so we will probably spend some time outside and then Tuesday it is back to the grind! Actually, I don’t have any classes on Tuesday, so work and meeting up with grad mentor… should be fun, haha!

I’m also planning a picnic supper for my ComD girls hopefully sometime this week, minus one since she is going to grad school in Ohio! We haven’t gotten together since mid summer and we need it! I miss them and it is always fun to get together with the kiddos! Time at the park for them, time for the parents to chit chat! Plus I really don’t want to lose contact with them because they are such great friends and helped me get through some rough times in school! We totally leaned on each other so much in the last two years! It was great to have classmates who understood pretty much exactly what you were going through!

CIAO! LOVE ME!

All over the place…

I’m in love with taking pictures (like you didn’t already known that) and I’m in love with sharing them with other people (like you didn’t already know that either)! So, sit back… enjoy a few pictures along with your (hopefully) long weekend! And the good weather, at least we have some here, hope you have some where ever you are from!

Ayden rode the bus for the first time this past week. Jay walked him down the street a little ways to the bus stop in the morning and waited with him. Then Jay and I walked back down there at the end of the school day to wait for Ayden’s bus to drop him off. I knew he made it to school alright since I didn’t get a phone call from them, but what surprised me even more was that Jay actually followed the bus all the way to school! I didn’t think he would do that, in fact I didn’t even tell him to, but he did! Apparently the bus stops at one school first and drops some kids off, gets some other kids on, and then heads off to Ayden’s school! Ayden did great and stayed on at the first school like he was supposed to and got off at the second school!

I was a little apprehensive about waiting for him at the end of the day, but we had no problems! Here is Jay sitting at waiting for Ayden to be dropped off. We didn’t know exactly when the bus would arrive so we were waiting for probably 15 minutes before it came. And of course I had to be the mom with the camera to take a picture of her son getting off the school bus… you know since I didn’t get one of him getting on! Here is my cutie getting off the bus! His bus driver was SO nice! He even knew to call Ayden’s name when they got to the bus stop! I was super surprised that he remembered Ayden’s name… I think it will be a great year of bus riding. Ayden did great and says he wants to do it again… plus it saves Jay and myself from driving to his school and finding him there!

Here is my little ‘hunting’ dude and his cool hat! He wanted to wear his hunting hat for going up north this weekend with Jay and who was I to say no? And of course… I need a picture because well… I don’t have a good reason, I just did!

Here are some of my favorite flowers from our flower beds out back. We have a small rose bush that is about to bloom again! I really hope that it does before the weather gets too cold! It just might this weekend or early next week with the warm weather that we are having. It bloomed once this summer and Jay’s mom told him to cut it off and it might bloom again… and it is!

So… today I went out to get the mail and I had a card from my grandma (my mom’s mom) and in it were some pictures. Pictures she said that she had gotten from my great grandma (her mom) and was sending them back to me. Well, my great grandma moved a little while ago and I know that my grandparents helped her. What I’m curious about is why my grandma is sending me all these pictures back?! Shouldn’t my great grandma still want them? I can’t see why she would want to get rid of them. This should be something that maybe comes back to me when she passes on, but to the best of my knowledge she’s still alive and kicking! I know that I’m not always kept up to date on everything family wise since I live the furthest away, but I’d like to think that my mom keeps me rather up to date on things and I’d like to think that she’d let me know if her grandma was getting worse health wise. So, to me it is just weird that my grandma would send me these pictures. It’s not only pictures from when I was little, but pictures of Ayden as well. So, is this something my grandma thought her mom wanted done? Is this something my great grandma told her daughter to do? I don’t know… but I do plan on calling my mom and seeing if she got an envelope full of pictures back as well? And… cousins who read this… did you get your pictures back too? Am I unloved? Okay, I know I’m not unloved, but I just thought it really odd!

Anyways, I wanted to share two of them with you… The first one is of my mom, dad, and me as a youngin’!

And this second one is a five generation picture of Ayden (his first Christmas… yes he was a chunk at only 4 1/2 months old!), me, my mom, grandma, and great grandma!

Hope you enjoyed!

CIAO! LOVE ME!

From Kindergarten to Grad School!

What could be a bigger difference… I mean kindergarten and grad school, seriously come on people! It’s going into school to making it all the way through… to making the choice to go into again and then graduating and then going into it AGAIN and then trying to make it through the next four years!!!

I mean… can you imagine this little guy graduating from high school and then college?! Because I know that I can’t!!! That sweet little face growing up and becoming a man! NO! I refuse to believe it! I refuse to let him get any bigger than he already is! He better like kindergarten because he will be in it FOREVER!!!

That said… I suppose we should just concentrate on making it through the first week of kindergarten. We almost had one mishap today, but it was a good thing that mom got to school just in time. Ayden was about to take the bus home! AHH!

I sent a note with him on his first day of school noting that he would be getting picked up from school until further notice. Apparently the teacher didn’t get the until further notice part because today he had no note in his folder saying someone would pick him up and assumed that meant he would ride the bus. So, she tells him his bus number (which was correct) and sends him with the rest of the kids to get on that bus. Thankfully, I intercepted them on the way to the bus and took Ayden home myself. Maybe 30 seconds later and I wouldn’t have known where my child was! But you know what that means! Ayden gets to ride the bus tomorrow! He wants to ride it both to and from school! And… I’m okay with that! I’m a bit nervous, I won’t deny it, but I’m still okay with it. It has almost been a full week of school, okay three days so far, but he’s doing great!

His experience with the before and after school care program was great, getting dropped off in the morning… going good… all is well!

He has started complaining that it is too long, but it’s school…

My adventures as a first year grad student have been pretty great as well! I’m excited to say that my first three days have gone well too.

Tuesday was orientation for the Stevens Point grad students… both speech and audiology. It was pretty much a waste of a day. We got fed, which was nice, but didn’t really learn a whole lot. I met a lot of the speech students coming in from other schools, but don’t remember a lot of their names because it was a long day. We did a lot of those ‘ice breaker’ things as well and I’m not really a people person. Anyways, made it through that day…

Yesterday was our first day of actual class and it was long! I have class from 8am thru noon with one ten minute break and one five minute break! Ugh! And three of those hours are through the distance education classroom. That means… I get to learn through a TV screen! It is pretty weird, I will admit and it will take some getting used to, but I think we can make do. It also sucks that there are only three of us in the class because then it really puts the pressure on us. We survived though! And our first lab was cancelled so that was great too!

Today was orientation for the AuD students from Point and Madison and we got to meet in Point which was nice! We got to meet the first, second, and third year students from Madison. There are seven first year students and they all seem pretty nice which is cool! We got fed again and played more ‘ice breaker’ games. I’ve had just about enough of those get to know you games, but it didn’t end there!

Late this afternoon we had the annual grad picnic at one local park. Families and kids were invited so I brought Ayden along. Well kind of had to because Jay was working. Anyways, we got fed again and the food was good and had more get to know you games. I didn’t participate in this one because I was just plain lazy. I had just about enough socializing for one day. I don’t mind hanging with friends and what not, but I’m a naturally shy person so it is a big step out of the box for me to be so social with people I don’t know very well, you know? Well maybe you don’t… maybe you are a social person.

So, Ayden and I chatted for a while, ate, and then played on the playground equipment and then left. We needed to run to Walmart anyways because I needed some more body wash and mousse for my hair and Ayden needed new gym shoes (which I found a super cute pair for really cheap!). By the time we got home it was already 7pm and he needed to finish his birthday thank you notes and shower and then it was off to bed!

Now I’ve settled into the couch, laptop on well where else, my lap, books all around, making sure I have everything saved I want to print (because believe me… when they make me pay an $8 printing fee on campus and then another $20 one in the clinic, I am sure as heck going to print EVERYTHING I can there!), planner being filled out with readings that need to be accomplished, papers that need to be written, and binders that need some organization… it’s all good!

Oh… and I had my first ‘conversation’ with my grad mentor today and definitely doesn’t seem as bad as I thought he might. It didn’t help the other day when I told someone that I was so and so’s mentee that they responded with ‘Now why would they go and give so and so someone to mentor?’ Made me feel really confident. Anyways, I think it will be a good semester. Not one that will fully prepare me for next semester as most of the second years said that first semester isn’t even a taste of the real life, but not to stress to hard.

I have to admit that I’ve fallen in love with the second years, lol! Honestly all five of them are so nice! We had quite the clinic meeting today as well! I haven’t talked to really any of the third years yet, but they seem pretty nice as well! I’m really hoping for a fab semester!

CIAO! LOVE ME!

First (and second) day of school!

Jay took Ayden’s first day of school picture since I had to leave early for an orientation, but since his backpack was already at school I also took some second day of school pictures because with no backpack… well it could just be a regular picture… but both look cute!

  So far… he LOVES it!

CIAO! LOVE ME!