Mulberry Farm Collages

Here are some pictures from last weekend at Mulberry Lane Farm with my mom and sister! We had such a great time despite the colder weather, probably the best time we’ve had so far! Lots of great pictures and many good memories!

I love this last picture of my mom, sister, and Ayden (even though Ayden isn’t looking)! My sister may always have a real smile, but many times my mom’s smile for the camera looks fake (sorry mom if you’re reading this, hehe)! and so those spur of the moment shots are the best because you get the real smile, the genuine happiness of the moment! The same goes for the picture of my mom holding the chicken with Ayden. Maybe its a family thing since my grandpa has that ‘pained’ smile in many of his pictures and my brother has it now too, haha! Who knows!

Ayden wanted a silly face smile with the picture! Are we silly looking enough?!

The top one is a picture of Ayden on the tractor from this year and the bottom one is a picture of him on the tractor from last year. They are different tractors, but last year was a lot warmer… notice no hat or coat, both are cute though!

And I really love this picture of Ayden and myself, even if he has that look of ‘let go of me mom’ on his face! It was one of those cute things and because most of the time I am behind the camera, it was totally awesome of my sister to actually get me in some pictures and I know she had a good time playing with the camera too! If you’re reading this Emily… thanks for taking some pictures for me, even though it is not as if I had to beg you or anything! :)

CIAO! LOVE ME!

Changes...

...are on the horizon, well possibly! Today was my fifth week of clinic (sixth week of school technically, but we didn't have clinic the first week) and of those five clinic days, I've 'observed' with my mentor twice. And of those two times, both were UMOS where we weren't really doing anything in the first place and like two hearing aid checks. The third week he was sick, last week he switched clinic days with someone, and this week he is having some personal issues. Nothing I'm entirely sure on or would feel comfortable talking about on here. I mean, after all, its not my life and what I do know or think I know, really has nothing to do with me whatsoever. So its not up to me to talk about it, comment on it, etc... except only to say that I feel like I'm getting screwed when it comes to this whole mentoring thing!

As it goes, my other two classmates have had five weeks of successive mentoring from their second years and even though they might not know all that much more than me, I feel like I'm not getting all that I can from this mentoring program. With that said, I talked to my supervisor about it today and what needs to happen if things don't improve. I know I've stated before that during the times I did work with Dustin, he was very professional and helpful, however I would like some sort of consistency and with it being half way through the semester almost and us first years doing clinic on our own next semester, I would like to feel more prepared than I already am at this point. I have to say that the two times that I worked with Chad, another second year, I've learned stuff as well. That and I 'observed' under Chad last spring so I sort of know how he works things.

So, hopefully within the next week or so things get sorted out and become a little more consistent for my sake so the money that I am paying for this 'education' (haha!) isn't going to waste!

But overall, today was another good clinic day! We had a hearing aid consult with someone who's hearing aids were being returned from repair and a new hearing aid fit with someone. The second appointment ran a little long, but that was okay as well. We had some computer technology problems, love 'em, right?! And Chad and I (well mostly him) got both of our reports written up all before I had to head to work so that was good too. And when I left there were no hearing aid repairs in and hopefully it will stay that way since poor Chad got screwed with them last Thursday.

Anywhoo... I accomplished a whole lot of nothing last night. I revised my paper for my test that is now due on Monday instead of tomorrow and got that done and out of the way with. I have probably two of the four questions on the test completed with two more that I know some what of an answer, but not the whole thing. Instead, my friend told me about the sweatshirt sale that was going on right down the road from campus and well couldn't pass that up. We usually hit up the one in Wausau, but Point had one this year and last year and I decided to hit up this one instead. We headed over there and I found myself two sweatshirts and two tank tops and three sweatshirts and two t-shirts for Jay. All for a GREAT price! We stoked up last year on sweatshirts so I really didn't NEED anymore, but I'm a hoodie lover at heart and Jay needed some more for work because apparently he didn't have any, but then I found two in his work clothes pile when I got home. Oh well, he said he liked one of them too much to make it a work sweatshirt and wanted to keep it is a good one. Whatever floats his boat I guess.

So I didn't get home until about 6pm and then sorted through all the laundry I had laying around and did another load. I now have probably four baskets of laundry to fold and put away (all crammed into three baskets) which probably won't get done until this weekend. Our hall closet is empty of towels which NEVER happens, but because we have been swimming more lately, we use towels for that.

By the time I was done cleaning and what not I really didn’t feel like doing anything else and was in bed by 9pm…

I will be in bed much earlier tonight, it is only 7:20pm and I am already thinking about calling it a night, however Grey’s is on so it would be nice to cuddle up in bed and watch that and then fall asleep, not to mention that tomorrow is my day to sleep in. I actually get to sleep in more tomorrow than I do on Saturday morning. I can’t wait for Sunday morning though because Jay and Ayden won’t be home and I will get to sleep in for as long as I want and then get up and lay on the couch and do nothing all day long if I feel like it and after this week I just might feel like it, ha!

Off to get Ayden ready for bed since he was pretty tired after school as well… long day!

CIAO! LOVE ME!

Morning at the park!

First ever 'photo shoot'!

...and quite possibly only ever 'photo shoot', lol! Or maybe not. Like I said before, I even hesitate to call it that, but oh well. I had fun clicking away with my camera and took almost 150 shots, even though I probably deleted like 50 of them. Here are a few of my favorites (editted of course) that I printed off for my friend. I didn't do any 'posed' shots and sort of just took them on the go, but I still think that I got a lot of super cute ones, despite the crappy cloudy colder weather we had.

I love hanging out with my friend and couldn't believe how big her little guy had gotten since the last time I had seen him... which was probably just over a year ago. I can deal with Ayden get bigger (sometimes), but when I see other people's children getting so big it blows my mind!

Enjoy!

CIAO! LOVE ME!

Super duber weekend!

WARNING... LONG POST AHEAD! HEHE!!!

Is it bad if all I want is a day to myself where I don't have to worry about doing anything school related, don't have to worry about any dead lines, due dates, work, nothing at all... all I want is a day to rest my head on a pillow, curl up in a warm and toasty blanket, and not worry about the short amount of hours until my alarm clock goes off! I'm running on a lackage of sleep right now with so much to do and so little time, and really people, I'm not even THAT busy! Sometimes I don't get how I can complain so much when there are people out there who are seventeen billion more times busy than myself and don't complain. Okay, I'm a complainer, get over it... for me... it's called venting. Its called getting it out so I can feel a bit better. Some people say complaining doesn't help any, well for me it does, ha! Lol! Okay, so that made me smile!

Maybe I'll talk about my (for the most part) GREAT weekend! Let me tell you folks... it was one of the best weekends that I've had in a long time and it wasn't even that we did these over the top fun things! In fact, Friday night I pretty much vegged on the couch with Ayden watching TV. I was so tired and he seemed pretty out of it too. He was so good and we cuddled together. It was a good night... until I almost had to go back to campus Saturday morning to print something off.

We got our first take home test for my one class, might have mentioned this before, and it is RIDICULOUS! Seriously... this test is only four questions and a two page paper and I've only figured out one and a half of the questions. Ugh! Anyways, I had to print an article off for it and just decided to do it at home versus on campus. I brought it up on campus just fine so didn't think I would have any problems at home. Turns out when I opened the file on my computer it wouldn't let me print it. It wouldn't even let me save the file to my computer so I could manipulate it myself. It was crazy and I was getting really upset because the last thing I wanted to do was head to campus at 7:30am on a SATURDAY to print some stupid article! I mean... seriously?! When all else failed on my computer I turned to Jay's and thankfully I was able to get it to print off there. I don't know why my computer was being so stupid, but apparently mine wasn't the only one because my classmate Amy's computer did the same thing and I heard today that some of the Madison students were unable to print their article as well.

After getting the article to print and realizing I understood just about nothing on it... I went to bed... and I slept like a baby... too bad it wasn't long enough! Saturday morning was soccer and I was happy Ayden's game wasn't until 9:30 so we were able to sleep in somewhat and I didn't have to rush around getting things all packed up. We both woke up around 7am and I checked to see if soccer was cancelled or not because it was supposed to be rainy weather. Soccer wasn't cancelled, even though part of me kind of wished it was because I wasn't really in the mood to go. But alas, we got everything packed up and headed off to soccer and even got there a little early. This time Ayden ended up playing on the correct team and they did pretty well. I thought Ayden could have gotten in there a little more to kick the ball, but I didn't push him or anything. And besides, after a morning of whining about not wanting to go, he played like a champ and was even really happy that we decided to go! I was happy about that as well!

After soccer we headed off to 'home' to meet my mom and sister at a local farm for a tour like thing sponsored by my mom's work. This was our third or fourth year doing it, I can't remember, but it was still fun... even despite the cold weather! And it was cold! I had my winter coat, hat, scarf, and mittens on! Just enough to keep me from shivering! We all had a great time! The rain held off, minus a light mist here and there, and Ayden was such a great boy! He really didn't whine at all and I was so happy about that. We chased and caught both chickens and ducks! We hugged sheep and fed goats! We almost milked a cow and cuddled kittens! We saw a HUGE pig! We went on a tractor ride and picked some awesome pumpkins! It was a great three hours! And after that fun we headed off to a corn maze! And this was one twisty turny corn maze! I'd recommend it to anyone! At first we didn't think it was going to be very good since about five minutes into it we found three of the six numbers we were looking for and thought we'd be out in another five minutes... well when you find number eight three times... you are lost! We spent the better part of 45 minutes walking through this maze trying to find our way out and we only 'cheated' once and really, that didn't even help us! The only down side to the maze was our shoes getting caked in mud and Ayden getting tired towards the end, but I don't blame the kid. He has short legs, ran for an hour for soccer, and then walked for three hours at the farm before hand. Overall though, he did great!

Also at the corn maze they had a few other things to check out so we did and then went back to my mom's house for some yummy supper and to relax because it was a long day! Ayden and I were both in bed before 9:30, which for a weekend I think is early. Well, a little late for Ayden, but we were visiting family so I didn't care.

Sunday was a little more laid back for Ayden, but I went out and did my first 'photo shoot' and I put that in quotes because it really wasn't a photo shoot. I just offered to take some pictures for my friend, mostly because I wanted to take some pictures of someone other than Ayden and she has the cutest little guy and it gave us some time to spend together as well since we don't get to see each other very often. I'll do a seperate post about that and put some pictures up. I definitely wouldn't call it professional by any means, but I think I got some cute shots!

Ayden and I also went ice skating with Jay's aunt in the afternoon before heading back home. We met at one of Appleton's ice rink and found a nice park close by! Ayden and I got there a little early so we went and played at the park for a little while. Ice skating was fun, but Ayden didn't want to skate as much as I thought he would which was kind of a bummer because I paid $10 for less than an hour of skating. But this rink had these helper things for kids learning to skate to push along that would help hold them up. Ayden was using one and did pretty good with it. That's not to say that he didn't have his fair share of falls along the way, but it was fun none the less. I'm glad that we decided to go because the more he practices, the better he will get. That is what I keep telling him anyways. After that it was time to get back to Point so I could meet with my classmates and have a study session. If only it were that easy! Ha!

Ayden and I made it safely to a gas station right outside of Appleton where I stopped to top off my tank. I then pulled out of the pump area and into a regular parking stall and shut off the car and Ayden and I went inside to get some food. Back outside and all strapped in the car and ready to go and wait, what... how come when I put the key in and turn... NOTHING HAPPENS!!! Not a damn thing! No radio, no beeping, NOTHING NOTHING NOTHING!!! And it gets better... Jay is in Kansas so I can't really call him and get him to come. So I call my mom's husband (since she's at work) and unfortunately he is waiting for someone to come to the house for something or another, so then I called my dad to see if he was around. Thankfully he was available and made the drive to Appleton to come help me out. Isn’t that what dads are for?! Ayden was SO patient in the car during the wait which was about 45 minutes, but it definitely didn’t seem like it was taking that long. He sat and ate his food and looked at his Pokémon cards that he got from Uncle Casey. So the time went fast which was good.

My dad showed up and figured out right after I popped the hood that it was a loose battery wire. THANK GOODNESS! During the wait I was imagining a huge towing bill and an even bigger repair bill since nothing was working when I tried turning the key. I was freaking out about not being able to get back to Point that night and wondering when my car was going to work again. Apparently one of the battery wires had worked itself loose. I just got a new battery about a month ago and when Jay reattached the wires, one of them didn’t get on tight enough. Well, it was pretty tight, but somehow bounced off. So, a quick tightening of that and Ayden and I were on our way back to Point. Oh how thankful I was that my dad was able to fix it! My hero of the weekend! And we even made it back in time for my friends to come over for our study session, not that we were able to accomplish a whole lot because the three of us were totally confused, hehe!

We are meeting with a professor tomorrow to hopefully get some insight into what we are doing and/or should be doing and aren’t doing. Hopefully we will come out of it less confused than going in… keep word, hopefully!

CIAO! LOVE ME!

Thursday and Friday

(Thursday) The week is just flying by... and you won't see me standing around complaining! As good as yesterday was, today was quite the opposite. Okay, maybe not quite that dramatic. Actually today was a relatively good day and it did go fast for it being a clinic day and all... you know when things tend to go slower than you'd like. In any case, it was a full day of moving around and doing stuff and not having enough time in the day to do what I'd like to do, or maybe not enough time that before Ayden gets done with school. Ha, before I was complaining that I didn't know what to do while Ayden was in school because I had so much free time and now I'm saying that I don't have enough time. Actually, Thursdays are probably the only days that I don't have enough time, or don't feel like I have enough time, not with all the report writing and having to get together with my second year mentor and fitting that in. It doesn't seem like enough time. Or maybe it was just today and the fact that we had three reports to write and I haven't written one before and I don't know when they need to be completed by and our meeting ran long and all sorts of other stuff...

And then as much as I wanted to just not go to work because I was working on reports and could have stayed in the clinic for probably another hour doing that and what with possible hearing aid duty and so on and so forth... I like work so much and appreciated everyone there that I felt obligated to go and make sure that there wasn't anything that needed to be completed even though a quick email to my bosses would have sufficed and they wouldn't necessarily have cared. They always hype that my education and family come first and as long as I let them know what is going on they are okay with that. But, although it would have just been easier to stay on campus and hit out those reports, I took off from there and went to work for a little while and did get some stuff done that needed to be completed... even if it wasn't super important.

As I writing this... later this afternoon my friend, Kristi, and I are going to go to the Y for our first workout session. Then Ayden and I will come home and eat supper and play for a little while and then quite possibly venture back to the Y for swimming. I might be able to convince him to stay home tonight from the pool (not quite sure if I will want to go back or not) by saying we can go tomorrow night, but who knows. He remembers quite a bit of stuff that I tell him.

I got new tires on my car today! And apparently it was about time! Jay and I have both known that my car needed new tires, before winter FOR SURE, but we hadn't decided when or if they needed it THAT bad. Jay obviously knows more about that stuff than I do and I pretty much just took his word for it. The last time my car got new tires was over four years ago when I was still living at home with my mom... possibly closer to five years ago. So yeah, they needed to be changed. It wasn't until a week or so ago when I was taking Ayden to the dentist and it had rained out pretty good that I realized just how bad they needed it. I was at a stop light going up hill and when the light turned green, I stepped on the gas to go. Well you know, not step on it in the sense that I wanted to go fast, but just how anyone else would. And I didn't go... the wheels started to spin and couldn't get any traction. Thankfully I didn't spin out of control or anything and was able to get the car moving in the forward direction, but it was enough to scare me.

(Friday) So I didn't get this posted like I wanted to last night. We just got busy and then I got into something and didn't have the time to blog because it was almost 10:30 by the time I crawled into bed and normally I would be going to sleep by then. In any case, Ayden and I went to the Y yesterday afternoon and I worked out with my friend for the first time. It went good and we did about 45 minutes of working out. Dead tired though! So out of shape! Need to build myself up, but I wasn't sore this morning so that was good.

Then Ayden and I went back later at night to go swimming because the water slide was open and I said that we could. We might even go tonight if I feel ambitious enough. I want to go work out again tonight, even though the dreary weather is making me want to stay in the house and not work out... I want to stay positive about it and then Ayden and I can go swimming again. It is fun and the water is actually pretty warm at the Y... about 84 degrees... I think that is pretty warm. It is a little cold at first, but tell me, what pool water isn't... you don't want it hot tub warm when you are swimming anyways. And we both had fun last night swimming as well. Ayden went down the water slide a handful of times and I was doing some water aerobics as he was swimming. He was becoming a little daredevil though in the deeper water. He can just barely touch okay in 3'6" water (on his tip toes since he is 3'8", or was at his well child exam in August) and he is jumping in with a noodle to try and catch a ring he throws in. It is fine and dandy when I'm watching, but the times he through the ring out too far and I went to go get it, he would climb out and then jump in all alone. He was fine each time, but it was making me nervous because he cannot touch the best there. Little boys, haha!

Jay left after class today for Kansas... I could tell he was excited! At the point that I am writing this (2:30pm) he is most likely three to four hours into a ten to twelve hour drive! I don't know if he came home after class or left straight from campus and how far west he had to drive to meet JT before starting towards Kansas... hope they have fun though!

My day has flown by so far. I 'slept in' until 7am, which really didn't count because I didn't go to bed until midnight. I had some caffeine last night at 8:30 and after working out later, I just wasn't tired when it came time to crawl into bed. That and I had quite a deep conversation with a friend that lasted a while as well. I just wasn't ready for the day to end, haha! Then I had a lab from 9-11am this morning and was able to get part of it done so far. I have more to do, but it isn't too hard. After our lab, my classmates and I were going to work on another lab that is due on Wednesday, however some hearing aid stuff came in and I hadn't gotten to watch any of that yet so I opted to do that instead since we can work on the lab at a different time yet. The hearing aid stuff was pretty cool to do since I haven't really seen any of that yet and I also got 15 minutes towards my hours and some stuff checked off on my hearing aid list. Then it was to work for a little while and then off to the library to return some books.

They are doing Book IT at Ayden's school. It is still through Pizza Hut and both Jay and I did it during elementary school as well. I remember thinking my own little pizza was the coolest thing! Ayden needs 300 minutes during the month of October to earn his pizza and at the kindergarten level it is being read to, not reading yourself. Oh how I hope Ayden grows up with the same love of reading that I have. Today is the rainy kind of curl up on the couch with a good book and warm blanket kind of day!

Long day finally ends…

CIAO! LOVE ME!