{to do list}

Time is becoming a limited commodity at our house, more specifically my time. And the to do list just keeps getting longer and longer. And all I want to do at the end of the day is crawl into bed, watch some TV, and go to sleep. Life sucks. Okay, so life doesn't really suck, but like almost everyone else I know, I wish there were more hours in the day or that I could function properly on fewer hours of sleep. I like my sleep and like to get at least eight or nine hours of sleep a night. I know, that doesn't always happen, but when it does, I am in a much better mood. For me to get nine hours of sleep a night, I would need to be in bed and sleeping by 9:00pm... that is just not very reasonable right now. I am usually in bed by 9pm (most nights), but I like to watch an hour of TV to just calm and and then fall asleep.

Yesterday, I left clinic at 4:00pm to go to an eye doctor appointment. I stopped at ShopKo and Piggly Wiggly on my way to the appointment to pick up a few things and by the time I was done at the eye doctor and got home, it was already 6:00pm. I picked up a little bit, put a few things away and then sat down at my computer to get some homework done. I was at my computer doing homework until probably 7:30pm at which point I made myself stop to get a few other things done. I put a few more things away and told myself that I was going to be in bed by 8:00pm because I hadn't gotten much sleep the night before and I was up at 5:00am yesterday morning for boot camp. I think I turned the television off by 9:30pm and was fast asleep after that.

On the agenda for tonight (I'm writing this during my lunch break at clinic), is to finish editing a photo session from two weekends ago. I give myself two weeks to get the pictures done. I think that that is an okay amount of time, especially given the fact that I am now working full time. I would also like to upload some pictures to Facebook from camping and boating and need to organize a few things in the house for my Lia Sophia party on Thursday night. On top of that, there is more homework that I need to do (boo on that), clothes that should be folded and put away, a table runner that I want to sew before Thursday, and a workout that needs to be done. And... I probably won't get home until 5:30pm or later tonight... ugh. I know, I know, I need to stop complaining about how 'rough' my life is. But remember, my blog, hehe! Sometimes it just helps to get it out of my head.

Ayden and I are going to Bay Beach tomorrow with Jay's aunts and their children. I am excited, but there goes a full day where I could be productive at home doing stuff. In all actuality, the chances of me getting a ton of stuff done at home tomorrow is slim to none. Of course there is stuff that I would have gotten done, but I probably wouldn't have gone above and beyond.

Oh, and to add to the list of things that I want to do... make Ayden's birthday invitations, print off new pictures to put in some of our picture frames, get Jay to hang some more pictures on our walls, finish painting the deck table and chairs. It is never ending!

And nothing irritates me more when I get home and there is stuff laying all over the place. Stuff that I shouldn't have to be the one to put away. It is just so annoying! Why am I the only one who picks things up and puts them where they belong? Seriously! I asked Jay to pay some bills last night. What does he do... he writes the checks out for them and then leaves them on the counter. Really... how hard is it to put stamps on the envelopes and put them in the mailbox? How much longer would it have taken you to get that done? And how many nights in a row do I have to ask you to clean the litter box before it gets done? And is it so much for me to expect supper when I get home at 6:00pm at night and you have been home since 3:00pm (OR EARLIER)? I'm not talking supper every night, but just once in a while it would be nice to walk in the door to something to eat! It's not like we are getting home at the same time! Am I expecting too much?! I mean, even though I hate cooking, when we lived in Point and I was home most of the day during the summer and Jay didn't get home until 5:00pmish, I usually at least knew what we were going to be having and might already have had it started.

Maybe I'm just ultra irritable this week...

CIAO! LOVE ME!

{poem}

Here is a poem I found recently that describes a friendship, or what I thought was a friendship in perfect words.

Quiet Emotions

by Judy Burnette

I always wanted more from you
than you were willing to give;
So now we've gone our separate ways
each with different lives to live.

The bond will always be there
the friendship always intact;
But the time for us has come and gone
and the pages of time, you can't turn back.

I will always be a friend to you
and wonder how you are;
The smiles and laughter I will remember
and our fights have become painless scars.

Sometimes on those busy days
when you've a thousand things to do;
Please let me glide slowly through your mind
and spend some time with you.

In that quiet moment
when you're surprised to find me there;
Just remember even with the distance between us
I am still someone who cares.

It is hard to turn back the hands of time, especially when such mean and hateful things are said. I’ve tried to forgive and forget, but I just don’t know if I have it in me this time. I’ll keep trying though, it just might be worth it!

CIAO! LOVE ME!

{camp camp camping}

This past weekend was spent in relaxation at a campground with my honey, little man, and Jay's parents and it was a lot of fun. Jay's brother decided not to come with us at the last minute and he missed out on a good time because fun was had by all. We swam, played mini golf, went fishing, rode our bikes, ate WAY too much, and all around just had a great time.

I am literally sitting in Jay's parent's truck waiting for Jay's dad to finish dumping the waste at the dump station... can't say that I've ever written a blog post in this kind of situation before. The reason that I am waiting in Jay's parent's truck is because my honey unfortunately had to work this morning so he left us last night and little man and I are riding home with Jay's parents.

When we got here on Friday the weather was pretty tortoreous yet... still super hot and humid! Icky! Thankfully, Jay's parents have air conditioning in their camper and sleeping on Friday night was definitely the most enjoyable it has been all week, at least temperature wise. But before we all crashed Friday night... we had to hit up the swimming pond. This particular camp ground actually had an indoor pool, but we didn't even bother going to check it out as I thought we might when I first found out about it. The swimming pond was pretty awesome. The temperature was GREAT... like bath water warm! I definitely didn't mind swimming in that at all! I have to admit, I was slightly apprehensive about swimming in the pond to begin with because I normally don't really care for that type of swimming. Give me a pool and I'll take it, a pond or lake with seaweed, um, no thanks! But this pond was virtually free of seaweed and actually it got pretty deep pretty fast so for the majority, I couldn't even feel the bottom (thank goodness for that)!

The best part was all of the inflatable toys they had for people to play on. I have to say that it was pretty busy for the majority of the time that we were swimming, but it wasn't overly crowded which was nice. Ayden just loved it and with his life jacket on, he had no fear whatsoever. Definitely not good that he is relying so much on the life jacket, but he is starting up swimming lessons again this week. He could probably jump in the deep water and doggie paddle himself over to the edge, but he definitely doesn't know how to swim very well yet... hence the swimming lessons. He will be taking those for years to come yet. Sorry buddy! Mommy had to and you'll have to. At least he loves the water.

He wasn't even scared to go down the huge water slide. He saw it, swam right over to it, climbed up and went down without ever looking back. I was afraid he would be nervous, but he was a little daredevil the whole weekend! On Friday night he ended up slicig his big toe open as we were coming out of the pond and although it wasn't a serious cut, I thought it might hamper him the rest of the weekend. Nope, he was right back in the pond later that night with Jay! His toe is looking much better by the way.

I ate my hearts desire out this weekend and I am probably going to pay for it when I step on the scale tomorrow. Oops! But tomorrow is a new day and it is back to eating healtier again. I needed this weekend to pig out and it felt oh so good. I cannot remember if I mentioned on here that I bought a new workout program. I started that on Thursday night and even worked out on Friday before we left for camping and used yesterday as my day off. I still plan on working out tonight. I didn't think I was going to be sore after just two workouts, but boy was I ever! Add that on top of the sunburn I got from the beach on Thursday and this weekend sucked for me pain wise. We were only at the beach for just about two hours on Thursday and I didn't put any sun screen on and I didn't think I would get burned too bad. I had really bad tan lines on my legs that I wanted to get rid of. Well, when we left the beach I didn't think I looked red at all. In the shower that night I realized just how much of a lobster I really was. It didn't really hurt too bad until Friday midday. My only reasoning for it hurting so bad was that those areas on me don't get sun like EVER! It made for climbing up on the swim toys pretty painful, but I survived. It doesn't hurt as bad today and I am not quite as sore muscle wise. I just moved a little slower this weekend than everyone else, haha! Not to mention my 'friend' decided to make her monthly visit begin on Thursday night. Camping with her is definitely no fun, haha! But I made due. Not that you were asking, lol!

It is back to the grind of my externship this week. I am actually looking forward to it. I had a very unproductive week with the hot weather and overall it just made me crabby and then I missed Stevens Point. I am still going through withdrawals. I'm wondering if they will ever go away.

I am having a Lia Sophia jewelry party this week and my classmate and friend, Katie, is planning on coming. I am excited to see her. We've talked and emailed a few times since we saw each other last, but we are both going through withdrawls. I could never imagine how close we would become when we were in undergraduate classes together and she was just another classmate. Without her support and craziness, there is NO way I would have ever made it though these last three years! We have definitely kept each other sane and going when times got hard! I hope that we continue to stay close even after we graduate.

And now that I am getting all sappy, I am going to end this before it becomes even more sappy!

I'll try and post some pictures from camping later this week!

CIAO! LOVE ME!

{h.o.t.}

Hot does not begin to describe what I am feeling right now. I am trying SO hard not to complain about the heat because I know that things could be MUCH MUCH worse in my life and heat should be the least of my worries, but really, its been in the upper 90s this whole week with super high humidity and we do not have air conditioning in most of our house. Thankfully, we do have two window units to put in the bedrooms to keep those cooler at night time to sleep better. I could not imagine trying to sleep without those. So, like I said, things could be much much worse.

I have been meaning to blog a little more than I am (I am always meaning to blog a little more than I currently am), but the heat has left me with little to no ambition this week. I have had the majority of the week off from my clinical rotation. My supervisor took the week off and with no supervisor and no patients scheduled... that doesn't leave me anything to do. The small perk of being at a small private practice. Although, I do know that I will have to make up for those lost hours (not to worried about that).

However, with the heat, I haven't been motivated to do much. I was all set to post a lot of pictures with this post, but I accidently updated my computer and shut it off as I was trying to do something on it and then I didn't want to restart it because I had been on it doing homework for a while already. So, I grabbed my tablet and here I am... on the couch, in the heat, blogging without any pictures.

I did have clinic on Monday. On Tuesday, Ayden and I didn't do too much around the house. My bestie, Victoria, and her son, Parker, came over for a few hours in the afternoon and the boys played together while Victoria and I caught up. It is really nice to live in town with her again and to be able to do that on the spur of the moment. I've definitely missed her! After they left, we went out to my grandma and grandpa's for a fish fry supper that turned into a bon fire. We were out there until almost 10pm and would have been longer, except that I was being eaten alive by mosquitoes.

Ayden slept over at my dad's house Tuesday night and was there until after supper on Wednesday so that left me with the whole day free. Unfortunately, it was mega hot and humid yesterday so I wasn't in the best mood and ended up laying around, eating too much, and just flipping through the tv channels. Finally, before supper I thought I might be useful and ended up making my sister her Kindle cover and it turned out pretty awesome. I have to say that the sewing machine was much nicer to me this time around than it was when I was making mine. I like how it turned out and I hope that my sister does as well!

Today, I told Jay that after he got home from work that we were going to the beach. I was not going to be stuck in the house again all day long being hot and crabby. We headed out just before noon to the Point Beach State Forest on Lake Michigan and spent a few hours at the beach. It was SO beautiful there, not only picturesque wise, but weather wise. It was a full 20 degrees cooler by the lake than it was back at our house. I got a little sun burned, but it was worth a few comfortable hours on the beach. We didn't do much swimming because the lake was so cold, but it was definitely refreshing! And now we are back at the hot house, haha!

Last week I decided to order a new workout program. I love Turbo Fire a ton, but I wanted something that would give me more muscles and make me more lean, so I looked into Chalean Extreme. I loved Chalean so much in Turbo Fire that I just couldn't leave her. Well, my package arrived today and I couldn't not try it out already. So, in 100 degree heat, I busted out a 40 minute workout. Thankfully the workout was mainly lifting and not cardio. Either way though, I was literally dripping in sweat when I was done. Like, dripping more than I have ever been from a workout. The workout did not leave me huffing and puffing, but I do not think I was using heavy enough weights. The heat in our house definitely contributed to my dripping in sweat, but it felt good to workout again. Lately, the scale hasn't been too nice to me, but I know that it is my own fault for not watching what I am eating more closely and definitely not working out like I used to, so I am hoping with a combo of Chalean Extreme and Turbo Fire, I can get into better shape. It isn't about the scale anymore (even though I still look at the numbers WAY more than I ought to), it is about how I look and feel to myself in my clothes. I KNOW I am 'skinny' enough, I don't need people to tell me that. Even skinny people can be out of shape. And I KNOW, I'll probably never been a size 0 or 2, or probably even a 4... my child bearing hips can only get so small, so it isn't even about a number on the clothes. It is just about being healthy for my family.

And because I am starting to feel the sweat rise to my skin... I am going to end this now and retreat to the comfort of my bedroom with hopes of getting a post in tomorrow with some pictures!

CIAO! LOVE ME!

{my life lately via instragram}

Here is a picture dump from my phone! (If you are friends with me on Facebook, you probably seen all of these pictures already because they are all from Instagram.)

Ayden and myself out on the boat for the second time this year and this time we actually were able to stay on the boat instead of having to come back in right away because of stormy weather!My love reeling in a fish with his super awesome farmer’s tan! This picture makes it look WAY worse than it actually is!Ayden and his Uncle Steven trying to bring in a fish!Lookie here, this was what was on the end of the line! Not a super big one, but a keeper none the less!Captain Ayden! He loved driving the boat!Nothing like some toes in the water while out on the lake! The water felt really nice!Pretty sky!Just chilling at the front of the pontoon boat. Don’t worry, he wasn’t left alone there by himself too long, hehe! We are very conscious of boat safety and Ayden knows his limits while we are on the boat.Even prettier sky as we were heading off of the lake!Self portrait on a day before going to clinic one day, lookin’ good?! I think so!Ayden and Alexis getting their fill of some water via water gun on a super hot day a few weeks ago!Fun on the trampoline at Grandma and Grandpa’s house!I am continuing to make progress on repainting my table and chairs on the deck! Hoping to maybe get them done by the end of this month, lol!Pretty sunset!Obsessed much with mirror pictures?!And last but not least, my pride and joy!CIAO! LOVE ME!