Move almost FINISHED!

I wish I could say the hard part is over, but it is not quite yet. We still have the garage from our old place to move to our new place, however we cannot do that until we empty the garage at our new place of the boxes and stuff we moved on Saturday that we couldn't put in the house yet. So instead of doing it the hard way... bring each box in seperately... I told Jay to bring the dolley (sp?) from work and we could stack the boxes and move lots at once. Because after two LONG days of moving, the last thing I want to do is spend another night getting more boxes into my house. By the way... since when did we EVER have this much stuff?! You wouldn't notice it if the house was put together, but moving it all, it was like WOAH! And then in a week or so, we need to get back and clean the old place. Actually, we could theoretically wait until the end of June, but I just want done with that place.

Jay's parents and brother came to help us move the rest of our stuff yesterday which was such a blessing. It made things a lot better and we definitely did not have to take as many trips, I was estatic about that!

Today was our first day without the normal channels that we usually get and unfortunately we are not able to get the local channels either... big BUMMER! At least then Ayden would have been able to watch PBS. So far we are surviving and I managed to find a 'free' internet to log into for the time being. Can't wait until Friday though, lol!

So far I have the kitchen pretty much organized and half of the closet. Our closet at the new place is MUCH smaller than at our old place so I have had to become creative with our clothing situation, lol. I used to hang almost all of my clothes and Jay's, however now I've been forced to put a lot more into the dressers and get hangy storage device things to maximize closet space. I've also got the bathroom functioning pretty well, but that is about it. At least we have the beds set up and food accessible. Oh and Jay hooked up the washer and dryer last night, although I haven't tried them out yet. Maybe I will do a load tonight. Oh oh oh and one of the best things... we have a clothes line in the back yard! I can hang my clothes out! I know that means more work, but it saves energy and I love the smell of them when they are dried like that!

Jay has mega plans for the back yard landscaping and honestly I think it will look really nice when he is done. I think he wants to get started on it a lot faster than I would like him too because I would rather get the house in order first, but oh well. At least it will be free with the materials from work. We will just need to buy some plants and/or get some from his green thumb of a mother and all will be set. His parents are the best.

I'm sure at some point this week or next week we will get the stuff from the garage over to the new place, but there really isn't any hurry since we already have the bikes and that was the big thing that I wanted over by us. Ayden and I found a park about a block away from our new place and it is pretty nifty. It is definitely not as big as the 'big blue park' but the short bike ride makes up for it. Ayden's major goal this week is to help mommy and daddy put the house in order and his reward at the end of it will be a new Transformer, since we went to Walmart last night and saw that they have a ton of new ones out because of the movie. So far he has been really good. I definitely kind of feel for him this week though because I will want to try and organize things so we have room to play and he wants to play and there is no TV to watch and so he ends up playing by himself a lot. He was so good this morning, but it made me stop what I was doing and suggest we go to the park. I think I need more moments like that because the big picture isn't a clean and organized house, it's fun with your children!

Our cat, Diesel, seemed to take the move pretty well. He was pretty scared at first yesterday and both Jay and I showed him where his litter box had taken up its new home multiple times. I'm still a little worried that he might not be using it, but I did see him go up and down the stairs a few times and didn't spot/smell anything this morning (although I know there are a lot of places that he could have gone that I would not find until WAY later). We let him sleep with us last night (something I do not like doing because I inevitably get woken up a dozen or more times during the night), but I didn't sleep very well to begin with so it was really no bother. And... he was in a new place and we didn't want him to feel left out of anything. He seemed his normal self this morning, eating, wandering around, etc...

We also had to leave Ayden's bedroom door open because it is literally a pain in the butt to get open and closed. Reason... it rubs against the carpet. We are having it fixed of course (I wonder why the previous tenants did not because the same carpet was there when they lived there) because it poses more than just a fire risk if Ayden were in there alone. He can barely get the door opened and closed by himself. Not something I am going to put up with. The landlords were nice about it. Our toliet also squeals kind of when it is refilling itself, Jay said he could do something about that. The place is older, not new new like the place we moved out of, but that is okay with me. Jay said he was excited because it felt more like a house than an apartment. Well, duh! That is why I wanted to rent it, lol!

I am excited to get the playroom and office set up in the basement, but we are going to clean the carpets first. Apparently the landlords weren't going to have them done, but no problem. We are just borrrowing Jay's parent's carpet cleaner and will do it ourselves. So, no setting up anything until that is done because we would have to move it all again anyways. So far the cupboard space is holding up well. I thought we might not have enough, but we are not putting out all of our cups and getting rid of a lot of tupperware (we had SO much)... so all is good. My one major complaint would be that the shelves are so damn short that I can't fit anything in standing straight up. Oh well, lol! I'll survive!

I hope to post some pictures soon!

CIAO! LOVE ME!

What will I do?

Beginning Sunday night… we will be without the internet and cable until Friday. Ugh, what is a girl to do?! Actually, I lied, we will have both the internet and cable… at our old place. But a lot of good that will do us. I won’t be coming back to our old place with nothing there to watch cable TV or get access to the internet. I do have access to the internet at work, so it won’t be a totally sucky week of no blogging or getting keeping with my favorite blogs. I’ll just stay a little while longer and do it there. And we have movies at home and keep your fingers crossed local channels.

Honestly though, as much as I am probably going to miss it, it will give me the much needed time away from it that I’ve been wanting. I just get sucked in during the later hours at night. Guess it will give me some reading time and time to put things away.

Speaking of our new place, well when wasn’t I, hehe… we got to finally go back today and walk through it ourselves. It was great being able to imagine our furniture in there. The place is older than our current place, but it really did feel GREAT being in there. I am SO excited! After going back today and taking our time to go through each room and check everything out I am feeling even more elated about the decision to move. I mean, both Jay and I thought about it a lot before we actually decided to go through with it and even though I was happy with the decision, I still had reservations and now those reservations are all but gone.

So, if you don’t see me for a few days, don’t worry… I WILL be back at some point hopefully next week and be elated with the fact that I am probably outside riding the new bike trails with the little guy (because the seven day forecast is looking pretty good right now)!

CIAO! LOVE ME!

Weight Plans and Bee Adventures

I've always had a pretty positive self image of myself, in fact (for the most part) I still do. This may be because I have never been overweight and the way that I was raised. However, I have definitely packed on some pounds in the last four years. Most people would probably disagree with me and say that I look fine etc etc etc and really, I do look fine. I am probably at my ideal weight for my height, age, and whatever else they measure/use as a statistic for that. The thing is... I am out of shape! I am SO out of shape. I know that I don't need to lose any weight, but I want to get into better shape. But I'm not kidding anyone if I say that I wouldn't like to lose some weight. Fit into my clothes better and that doesn't mean going out and getting bigger sizes. Or gain muscle mass so my weight stays the same, but the body shrinks, lol!

I want to be more active on a personal level and I want to be more active as a family. Our new house comes equip with a biking/walking trail pretty much right next to it and I want to take full advantage of it as much as we can this summer! I want nightly walks or bike rides as a family. I understand that Jay works hard all day, but he needs to be more active/healthier as well. If I have packed on just a few pounds, he has packed on just that much more and with him it is evident. I don't want to sit here and say that he has gotten fat because he hasn't. As a family (or more so adults) we have gotten less healthy in our eating habits and physical activity. Definitely Ayden keeps us on our toes a lot, but I'll admit it... I am lazy!

Jay was in sports all year round in high school and that kept him in tip top shape. And personally while he was wrestling, he was probably TOO skinny for his body shape. But that is what wrestling is all about... making weight, making weight to the extremes! So after wrestling ended (well sports all together with graduation) and he was able to eat what he wanted when he wanted he did (and still does). He got up to what I would probably consider his ideal weight, but then kept up those eating habits. Without those sports, he doesn't exercise. I don't want to seem him go on some extreme diet to lose weight or exercise 24/7... I just want us to be active together as a family and for FREE, lol! We've talked about getting a membership to the Y, but that costs money and why do that if we can do stuff for free and together? I want us both to get into better shape and just feel healthier about ourselves. And what better time to start that than at the beginning of a month.

Ha, like we need anything else besides moving to keep us busy, right?

So, I have decided that I am going to start myself on Monday the 1st and suggest to Jay that we start being active as a family. I won't suggest anything more than that because I don't want him to feel like I am pressuring him about his weight or anything. I love him as he is (okay maybe it doesn't seem like that with all that I am talking about here), but I hope you get the point about what I mean. And if not, then stop reading...

I have decided to try the Special K two week challenge. I've also decided to hop back on my elliptical (which has been collecting dust for the past couple of months in our bedroom) with the new space that we will have for it at the new house and even pop in a workout DVD. I am going to weigh myself at the beginning of the two weeks and then again at the end. However, the number isn't what matters to me, its how the clothes fit that will determine my progress. With no school work to keep me busy, I have plenty of time at night to work out and figured I could get up a little earlier in the morning and do it as well. What is getting up at 7 or 7:30 during the week... totally not bad, right? Anything that doesn't start with a 6 is okay with me, lol!

So, I’m going to try my luck with The FIRM DVD and some small free weights as well as dusting off my elliptical and trying out the Special K challenge. Motivation… I need you more than ever! Actually, I am really motivated right now, just might not be so much after the first day, ha! Stay positive Ashley… stay positive!

I've just been feeling pretty icky about the personal decisions that I have been making during the past two weeks that I have been out of school. I feel like I am already wasting the summer away and don't want to do that. Especially since it will be my last summer 'off' because we have class and clinic during the summer for grad school. And I am definitely a planner... I love to plan things, its just the follow through that I sometimes have issues with (well at least when it comes to getting off my lazy bum). Seriously though, I'd rather read the day away than do pretty much anything active, lol. That is just me though.

I am also hoping to get some scrapbooking done this summer for Ayden's scrapbook. I have been adding to it over the years, but really haven't done anything since his last birthday and all of those pages were all digital. I want to add a bunch from the last year to his book and have them be actual pages. That is my other main goal for the summer. Speaking of scrapbook pages, does anyone know of a good place to get 12x12 prints? I think you can get them from Costco, however we do not have one close to us. I am assuming you might be able to order them online, but they are about $3 a page. Does anyone know of anything cheaper? I have 20+ pages I would like printed.

Ayden and I went to the library this afternoon after his 4K class and got some good books for bedtime reading. We had quite the adventure on our ride home… a ride that should have taken about 10 minutes and ended up taking probably at least 20.

With the nice weather we had this afternoon, I of course was driving around with my windows down. First, keeps the car cooler and secondly, my air conditioning doesn’t work so it was sort of a must, haha. Well, as my luck would have it, about half way home a bee flew into the window. If I haven’t said it before, I’ll say it now… I am seriously afraid of bees/wasps/anything with a stinger. I don’t know why, just am! Ugh, so a bee is flying around in my car! I pull into the nearest parking lot and vacate the car (Ayden too) and manage to kill said bee with my long handled ice scraper. Yeah! Dead bee! Ready to finish our trip home. It was at that point that Ayden suggested we roll up our windows. I told him that we could leave them down because bees don’t usually fly into people’s cars and it wouldn’t happen again. I mean have you ever had a bee fly into your car while you were driving?

So, not even a minute later we are driving along when ANOTHER bee ends up in the car!!! And this one was no ordinary bee… it was one of those HUGE HAIRY BUMBLEBEES!!! The first bee Ayden didn’t really notice and was fine, this one he did and he was FREAKING out! And of course the bee was in the back by him. I could see the terror in his eyes and felt so bad for him. I was praying he would just stay seated and not unbuckle himself and try climbing into the front seat while I was driving. At this point I was on a main road and took the nearest turn I could find, only to get stuck behind another car that was trying to turn. Time was going in slow motion as my little guy was having an anxiety attack! Okay, so I manage to get on a side road and pull over. Both Ayden and I are out of the car in seconds. Did I mention this sucker was monstrous!

Like seriously bigger than this super ugly looking thing! Remember, I’m a bee hater! Gives me the shivers just thinking about it!

 

We are out of the car and I start the hunt to kill the sucker! After about five minutes of poking around in my car with my long handled ice scraper at every spot I could think of that the bee might be, I concluded that either it was hiding very well or it had escaped the wrath of Ashley.

Ayden and I tentatively re-entered the car and closed the windows for the rest of the ride home. We made it home in a sweltering car bee free, however I think I have officially scared Ayden off of EVER riding with open windows again. Ugh, and my car gets super hot in the summer! I’ll have to work on that one.

But seriously… what are the chances that we get bee attacked twice in one day… in one drive at that! We survived! Ayden was not too happy when I told him that we would probably see a lot more bees during the summer because they liked warm weather.

On a brighter note, or maybe just less scary (at least to me) we get the keys to our new place tomorrow! We can start moving our stuff in on Sunday afternoon because the carpets are being cleaned Saturday afternoon. Exciting exciting… pray for good weather!

CIAO! LOVE ME!

Going Blind

I have had bad eyes since I was young… very young! I’ve had glasses since I was THREE! That’s young (at least to me)! So… I’m used to not being able to see. Okay maybe not, because of having glasses I have been able to see. I got contacts in high school and did those for a few years, but after moving to Point, I just sort of gave up on them. They were never my favorite thing and even when I did have them I never wore them religiously. Maybe it was the type that I had or what not. I had astigmatism and there for my contacts were a little heavier/thicker/whatever you want to call it than most. I got special ones, lol! Anyways, I’ve always had a pretty up to date pair of glasses around that I could wear when I needed. And even without my contacts or glasses on I could see pretty well. I may not have had (or currently have) perfect vision, but it was good enough to see what I needed to see and to pass the drivers test without the aid of glasses.

But… during the past year I have noticed that my eyes seem to be getting worse. I spend too much time staring at a computer screen throughout the day and I’m sure its a mix of not consistently wearing some sort of correction and genes. I wear my glasses more often and find that I can no longer read the TV guide channel on the TV when it is dark in the room. My vision gets worse when it is dark out, as I’m sure happens to a lot of people.

So, I’m not going blind, but my eyes are definitely worse. When I got my new prescription about a year and a half ago now (still love my current glasses) the doctor did not mention astigmatism whatsoever so I’m inclined to believe that it is gone. I know that my old eye doctor said that there might come a point when I no longer had it. Given my current lackage of being able to see as well as I would like as of lately, I’ve started to consider getting contacts again. I think that being able to get the regular kind might make them more manageable, as well as being older. I talked to Jay and told him that when we were done moving and settled in and what not, I am thinking about going to the eye doctor for a check up and possibly look into get contacts. I would love to be able to see awesomely ALL of the time and not have to wear my glasses constantly. Although I do love my glasses, a full day of wearing them tends to give me a headache because they sometimes get a little too tight behind the ears. I know that this is something that they could probably fix and they did a little bit when I got them, however when the lady was first fitting my glasses she tried bending them out a bit and broke them in half and I was lucky they had another pair in stock to put the lenses in right away. That is my current contemplation. We’ll see.

I stopped by the library today and picked up a book to read while I have some down time before the big move that might not even be happening this weekend.

CIAO! LOVE ME!

Baby Names

While we were at soccer on Saturday (which by the way... we got rained on for the majority of it) one of the parents was calling out her daughter's name. The name was Katelyn (maybe possibly quite probably spelled differently) and Jay looked at me and said... 'I like that name, maybe we could use it for one of our next kids.' I looked at him and was like, glad you liked that name, but sorry hun its already taken. He was like, by who? I was like, duh Shaun and Amanda's little girl. He was like, oh yeah, darn! So, I don't know if there is some sort of unwritten rule that people aren't supposed to use names twice in a family etc etc, and even if there was, I'm not a natural follower of rules like that. Anyways, although I do like the name Katelyn (Caitlyn for Amanda's little girl), I personally would prefer to pick something different.

But that really surprised me that Jay would bring something up like that. Of course we have talked about having more kids, but naturally both say that it is not the right time. Okay, so it is more me saying that it is not the right time. I KNOW that Jay wants more kids ASAP... weird, right? Thinking it would be me more so than him, but in any case, he does bad! And what do I think? I think it's GREAT! I don't know about other men, husbands, etc... but in my general opinion, isn't it usually the women who are ready first? In any case... he is an amazing father.

So back to the names... after we established that there was already a Katelyn, I told him the names that I liked in the event we had more children together. I really liked the names that I had picked out, however he didn't! I didn't like any of them. Well really I only had three (2 girl names and 1 boy name) and he told me some that I didn't like either. I was all for pushing my names, but he didn't think so hot of that, lol!

Well, this was on Saturday and during the past few days he has sort of been throwing around some more names. Like seriously, he is all for this and I'm loving that he has an opinion on it one way or another. When it came to picking Ayden's name... I sort of did that on my own and he said he liked it. And then of course he got to pick the middle name. Then yesterday while we were in the checkout lane at Walmart he saw a name he liked and suggested it to me and surprisingly enough... I liked it too. Now the reason behind why he likes it is such a GUY reason, but nonetheless, we agree on a name and then last night he offered up a boys name and I liked that as well and I offered up another boys name and he liked it.

If the time comes that we are blessed to have another child/ren we might pull those names out of reserve or we might go delve into the baby name book... either way I'm excited that he's excited about the possiblity of our future! For now... I'll just keep those names in my/our heads and dream about their possibilties. Baby naming... so fun!

CIAO! LOVE ME!