{some people}

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

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

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

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

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

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

CIAO! LOVE ME!

{jinxed}

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

CIAO! LOVE ME!

{relieved}

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

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

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

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

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

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

Story of my life...

CIAO! LOVE ME!

{this thing called boot camp}

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

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

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

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

CIAO! LOVE ME!

{in transition}

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

CIAO! LOVE ME!