{men in black}

The last couple of days I have been in Minnesota for a hearing aid convention/conference and my fellow audiology classmates (who I’ve recently found out read my blog, here’s a shout out to you, hehe!) will appreciate the sentiment of the title of my blog! Haha! Thankfully, it looks like I haven’t been scarred for life due to the men in black!

On Thursday morning, my classmates Katie and Bria, and myself started our journey to Minnesota. Katie was awesome enough to drive and Bria and I did our best at being co-pilots. We only took one ‘detour’ and that was my fault, but we didn’t have to turn around, nor did we end up really going out of our way. We all joked that we needed to see some more tractors so the detour was much needed, haha! The plan was to do some shopping at Ikea before checking into the hotel. I had never been to Ikea before and was excited.

About an hour outside of our destination Katie had the bright idea of going wedding dress shopping. We didn’t know if it would be possible because normally you need an appointment to go try on wedding dresses, but we were hopeful. I looked up bridal salons near our final destination and found one with a name that sounded promising. It didn’t have any reviews, but it was called Bridal Accent Couture and anything with the name Couture (spelling?!) has to have good dresses, right?! I had only tried on dresses at one other place and none of those were promising and the same had happened with Katie. We called them up and they were able to fit us both in! We joked that Bria was engaged too so she could try on dresses, but when we got there she didn’t feel comfortable trying them on so she just gave her excellent opinion to Katie and myself.

We definitely lucked out and the place had some awesome dresses (and many that were WAY out of my budget). Katie and I got right into it trying on different dresses. We have totally different tastes in mind and we both had some great dresses to try on… and… we both think we found our wedding dresses. Well, Katie is pretty certain and she definitely had that ‘look’ on her face when she came out in the dress. Her wedding dress budget is definitely higher than what I would like to spend on my dress and so she was totally okay with the price of the dress she had decided upon. ‘My’ dress wasn’t super expensive, but I’ve always been pretty budget conscious and don’t know if I could spend that much on a dress I’ll only be wearing once. My cousin told me that when I found my dress I would just know. Because this was the first place that I have visited that actually had dresses that I liked I’m hesitant to say yes that I found my dress. I can tell you that with the dress on and looking in the mirror and I was already at my wedding. I was envisioning walking down the isle to Jay and the party afterwards. It just worked!

Below are some pictures of the dress that I liked the most. Because I haven’t fully ‘committed’ to the dress, I don’t mind posting pictures of it for others to see. If and when I find the dress and it happens to be this one, no one will remember by the time the wedding rolls around anyways. The dress comes with a removable wrap. I tried it on without the wrap and if I were to get the dress, I would probably only wear the wrap for a few pictures. It is an A-line style dress; however, the consultant at the bridal salon said that it could be tailored in a little tighter on me so it wasn’t so ‘fluffy’ and the way she contoured it to my body was awesome! (I’d had pictures of me in the dress, but I left my camera in the car because I didn’t know if they would allow that as some places don’t.) What really made the dress me was the belt that she added to it which you can see in one of the pictures below too. It totally fit the feel I am going for for the wedding. Overall, I’ve found out that I am not a frilly super big fluffy wedding dress person who doesn’t want a huge long train or a lot of poof.

Only time will tell if this is the dress for me, right?! It definitely was a lot of fun though!

After some wedding dress ‘shopping’ we finished making our way to the hotel and relaxed for a little while before heading out for supper and the welcome reception for the convention we would be at for the next two days. I have to say, I was excited about the hotel stay because it looks pretty nice on the website and even in person. The rooms; however, left much to be desired. First off, Bria found a pair of underwear and socks in one of the drawers in her room. Ick! That earned her and her roommate some free coffee and access to the top floor of the hotel for a night. Secondly, there was no fan in the bathroom, they charged you for internet access and bottles of water in the room, there was no refrigerator and crap for TV channels, and the deadbolt lock on our room broke! The beds were comfy though and had nice comforters on them though, so that kind of made up for it. We got free water for our broken lock and they offered to switch us to a different room, but the other lock on our door worked and we didn’t really care. It was mediocre for a Marriott. The pool and hot tub were nice though… couldn’t complain about those.

The welcome reception/supper was good. We were definitely never hungry! Thursday night was our introduction to the men (and women) in black suits. Because there was maybe 50 students that were invited there was definitely a lot more one on one interactions with the people from the hearing aid manufacturer and at times (okay, more than just at times) it was uncomfortable and exhausting trying to keep up a façade of happiness when all we wanted to do as students was not talk hearing aids. Some of the people sort of held that air of superiority and it was annoying.

Friday and Saturday were both full days of classes and more men in suits. There were a few hands on labs and I have to say that that was the highlight of both days. I loved getting hands on experience with new things. Overall, I have to say that it was definitely an eye opening experience. Best part by far was ‘bonding’ with my classmates. We don’t get to see the Madison students in person very often and so it was nice to be able to spend some time with them outside of class and to be able to catch up. The same goes for my fellow on campus classmates. We see each other less and less each semester because of our schedules so getting to catch up with them was fun as well. I don’t know how much they all enjoyed it, we I had a good time venting about different things with them and hearing how their lives are going.

Katie, Bria, and I didn’t attend either social event on Friday or Saturday night. The group went bowling on Friday night and we went out to eat at Olive Garden and then spent an hour walking around Ikea. I didn’t realize that Ikea was so close to the Mall of America and would have liked to go there, but I know that we will be visiting in the summer so it didn’t bother me too much. Saturday after we got back to the hotel to change for the social event, we packed up and left to come home. Each of us had had enough of it and wanted to go see our significant others and sleep in our own beds. Little did I know that Jay had decided to go ‘home’ and I was headed back to an empty house. I was bummed a bit at first, but was okay because I got home and went to bed pretty quickly. (It was a LONG drive back!)

I have to say that the GPS on my phone didn’t let us down and Katie handled driving in the bigger cities AWESOMELY! I could never have done that, especially on the way home because my GPS led us through downtown Minneapolis and it got a little more crazy than I would have liked. Okay, a lot more crazy! I don’t do driving in big cities AT ALL! But we made it home just fine! Kudos to Katie!

I was definitely exhausted because I went to bed around 11pm and didn’t get up until 10am! Today has definitely been a lazy day for me, especially since my boys aren’t home yet. I got up and moved from my bed to the couch where I watched (don’t judge) Justin Beiber Never Say Never on Netflix. I have to say it was pretty good. I don’t really like or dislike Justin. I don’t really listen to music as country is my genre. I do have to say that around Christmas time I was listening to a song on the radio and thought the girl who was singing it sounded good and then found out it was Justin Beiber, haha! It was funny! Anyways, I enjoyed watching the movie and it made him seem so much more real and down to earth. And, I had to watch it while Jay wasn’t home because I knew he would give me a hard time! He probably still will! It was noon before I showered and got ‘dressed’ in sweats and a sweatshirt sans makeup and doing my hair. It is definitely a stay at home day!

While I was gone, my portfolio type photo book came in the mail. I have to say, I am SO in LOVE with how it turned out. I put a few pictures from each photo session in the last year in it that I really liked. When I ordered it I was worried that it would be too small, but I didn’t want to pay an arm and a leg for it either. I ordered it from Blurb.com because I LOVED how my last photo book from them turned out and this one didn’t let me down either. The size is perfect for what I wanted it for and it just turned out amazing! If you are looking for a very nice photo book at reasonable prices, check out Blurb.com (btw, I am in no way being compensated for my review of them, they don’t even know I exist), you will NOT be disappointed. My 7x7 book with 40 back to back pages (80 pages with pictures on) only cost $40 (sans shipping because I found a coupon code that made that free). Maybe I will post some pictures of it at a later date.

Okay, my boys are home, time to go!

CIAO! LOVE ME!

{story time}

Ayden and I (well Ayden actually), successfully read through the book of Curious George stories that we have and he did a stupendous job! I couldn’t be more proud of him!!! No, he doesn’t have to hold the book that close to read it, I made him hold it like that for my picture of the day.

Ayden has been very loving lately. Lots of melt my heart moments where he will just stop whatever he is doing and come give me a hug. Can he stay like this forever please?! Today while we were reading he stopped in the middle of a sentence and leaned over and gave me a hug and said you are the best mommy ever. Tears anyone?! Then later after we had finished reading and he was in his room, I called into him and told him how great of a job he has been doing and he thanked me for helping him read so well. More tears anyone?! I should find a way to bottle this up because I know he won’t be like this forever! Mommy’s little boy, that’s for sure! I’ll eat it up while I can!

There hasn’t many other super exciting things going on this week that I feel compelled to write about right now… classes have started and it should be a pretty decent semester (minus the capstone and praxis stuff).

CIAO! LOVE ME!

{last first day}

I'm pretty lucky and shouldn't complain about school (yet) this semester. It was the first day back to school and my one and only class runs from 1pm-2:15pm... that's harsh, right?! Ayden doesn't start school until 9am, which means the earliest I need to get out of bed in order to be ready to take him to school is 8am. That is totally doable, and yet I'm complaining about being back at school, ha! Likewise, when I start clinic next week, I probably won't need to be there until 8am and from my calculations, it should only take 45 minutes at the most, which means leaving my house at 7:15am and getting up by 6:30. Now, 6:30am is a little early, but I think I can manage it two days a week since when I start my externship, I'll probably be getting up at 5:30-6am EVERY day of the week. That will definitely take some getting used to. I haven't had to get up at 5:30am EVERY day of the week in who knows how man years! I can and will do it though, no choice.

Today was my last first day of school (on campus) and I couldn't be more excited! I can't say that it was my last first day of school ever because unfortunately I will have an online class each semester throughout my externship and from some comments I've read from current fourth year students, that one class might end up being more work than my two on campus classes. So not looking forward to that, but on the flip side, they are 'working' full time and then have a class on top of it. Right now I have two classes and I am not even working part time. However, I know I can pull it off because I worked three days a week when Ayden was a baby and still did two or three online classes on top of that at a time. Totally doable because I am super woman! Haha!

My class today went well. I am excited that the classes we have this semester are shorter in time than last semesters. Two plus hours of one class gets to be LONG. This semester one is an hour and fifteen minutes and then my other one is only 50 minutes. And with both teachers on the Point campus this semester it will make it much easier to pay attention, especially with one of the professors (for at least the first five weeks of the class) is my favorite professor and makes the learning that much easier. For the second five weeks of one class we have a speech professor and although we've had her before in undergraduate classes, I have heard that she is a much harder graduate school teacher and she is going to be teaching us speech perception and I've never really enjoyed that subject. Formants and such... just not my thing. I'm looking forward to getting into the groove of the semester and getting through it. Just one step closer to moving!

We've gotten quite a bit of snow lately and Jay has been working a lot more. He enjoys having something more to do and we definitely enjoy a little extra money in the winter months. It will be nice when he is working full time all year round at a job that he enjoys and we can start paying back his student loans. That is not a topic that I want to think about right now though since it is so depressing, so lets move onto something better...

My cousin, Amanda, crocheted me a hat and I cannot wait to get it in the mail. She posted a picture of it and I love how it turned out! She taught me how to crochet back around Thanksgiving and I'm bummed to say that I've only 'mastered' the single hook or loop or whatever you call it. I could make a scarf, but that's it. It was my goal to learn how to make myself a hat, but I guess that I just wasn't blessed in that area so I asked Amanda if she could make me one because she totally excells at it and she willingly obliged. I think I will stick to photography, hehe!

As I sit here on the couch typing this, Ayden is cuddling up next to me and reading the previous paragraphs that I have written. It is honestly too cute that he is reading it. I guess I have to watch what I am writing since he's getting better at reading. We have been working through a big book of Curious George stories lately and are almost done. He is doing so great and I smile each time we finish with a page. He is also excelling on his speech goals too. And even though he didn't have school today (lucky kid), we worked on his normal routine of homework when I got home and he didn't even complain. Yippie. Not that we get too much complaining these days. For the most part Ayden is pretty well behaved. He does have some outbursts at times, but they are typical of his age and he doesn't get away with them. They are pretty infrequent though, so I'm thinking we are doing something right, haha! We try! We are not perfect parents, but we try!

CIAO! LOVE ME!

{if]

I'm 'borrowing' a post from a few other bloggers. Fill in the blanks...

If I were to get pregnant again... right now?! I'd be thrilled and scared at the same time. It is no secret how much I want more kids right now, but it also isn't a secret that I have a year and a half left of school and being able to afford another baby right now would be hard. If I were to get pregnant right after getting married I would be over the moon! We'll just see what God has in store for our family!

If I could have any job in the world... I'm actually really looking forward to my future career as an audiologist. I love going to my clinical rotations and experiencing the different stuff that might some day encompass what I will be doing full time. If I had to pick any other sort of job it would probably be something that helps people. Maybe a counselor of some sort.

If I had a day to myself... I would meet up with some friends and chat the day away! I am not able to get together with my friends as often as I would like and so a whole day with them would definitely not go to waste!

If I could get married all over again... I'm not married yet so I don't have any 'do overs' for my wedding day, although I'm definitely excited to start some planning for things and have learned from people I know and weddings that I have been to. Bring it on!

If I could live anywhere in the US... it would be somewhere that was warm all year round. Snow on Christmas or a cold winter are WAY overrated if you ask me. But it would suck living so far away from my family so my guess is that we won't be moving to any place warm all year round any time soon! Oh well, a girl can dream, right?!

If Ayden were a girl he would have been named... I don't actually remember if we had any girl names picked out before finding out if he was a boy or a girl. I do have a running list of baby names for any future children, but who knows if we will end up using any of those either. Just names that I like and I thought why not start a list.

If I could have any talent in the world... it would be to be to better my photography skills. I continue to work at it and enjoy learning new things. I am my own worst critic.

If you met me in real life you would probably say... I was shy and reserved, although working with patients and photography clients has definitely opened me up some. I never thought I would be in a job that required working with people every day, but I am and I love it! And I'm not shy ALL of the time, just when you are getting to know me.

If I could go back to school and get a different degree... ha, I'm still in school! One degree wasn't enough... bachelor's degree, ha... I needed the doctorate, lol!

If money were not an object... Jay and I would be married already, we'd have a house, more kids, no student loans, and more feul efficient vehicles (well at least his, mine is okay), we would travel all over and just have fun. Remember, money is no object, right?! Jay would start his own lawn care business and I would only work part time. I would need to work, I'm not cut out to be a stay at home mommy, but it wouldn't be full time, just part time.

If I could meet one celebrity... I don't know who I'd meet. I'm not 'obsessed' with any celebrity so... um... can't even think of one, maybe a band that I like... Sugarland or Lady A!

If I could only shop at one store for the rest of my life it'd be... shopping just for me? Then it'd definitely be Maurices! Shopping for the whole family... Kohls maybe?!

If we get another pet I would want a... dog! We cannot have any more pets where we live now, but I'd love to get a dog. I know they are a lot of work, but I miss having a dog around from when we lived at my mom's house. I know that Jay really wants one too and Ayden would love growing up with a dog as well! What kid doesn't love dogs?!

If I could go on a trip, RIGHT NOW, I'd want to go to... Hawaii! Warm, beautiful, warm, warm, warm!!! I couldn't imagine the pictures that I could get!

If I had to chose between a house cleaner and a personal chef, I'd pick the... personal chef! I HATE cooking! I could clean my house all day long and even though I'd get sick of it, I could do it. I can't stand cooking!

If I had the option of plastic surgery I'd get... a b00b job and/or nose job. I haven't been blessed 'up stairs' and I had my profile picture because my nose just sticks out there! Maybe having some more kids can take care of my 'up stairs' haha! Only the future will tell!

That's all for now...

CIAO! LOVE ME!

{catching up}

I feel like I am mostly caught up with the stuff that I got 'behind' on when my computer was out of commission. There are still a few things that I would like to get done, but nothing too pressing. I've been keeping myself pretty busy this week getting stuff done and not lounging around and watching too much TV. I surprised myself the other night when I got up and started entering some more capstone data for my surveys and found out that I only had twenty more surveys to enter when I thought I had at least half of them to go yet. It didn't take too long and now I can start to analyze the data and see what the respondents overall view were on my hypothesis. Should be interesting.

I have a list of things I would like to get mostly done by the end of the week and that includes: mailing a wedding present, working on 'up cycling' a frame, finishing a photo book online and getting that ordered, starting another photo book, start and finish editing last weeks engagement session, and do some more capstone work. I don't know that I will get all of that accomplished, but I should get a good start on it. The only one that I would really like to get done is the photo editing. The rest isn't mandatory, but you know me... I'm a perfectionist when it comes to getting things done.

We had an appraiser come to the house yesterday morning to appraise the value of it for our landlords because I think they said they were going to refinance. Anyways, I know it was just some person coming to look at the bones of the house and not at our stuff, but believe me, it was clean! Okay, so not clean clean, like the kitchen floor could have been scrubbed instead of just swept, and the bathroom could have used a deep cleaning instead of just a little cleaning (done by little man of his own free volition, amazing what a kid won't do when you give them free reign with a spray bottle filled with water and a wash cloth), and the windows could have been sprayed down, but everything was picked up and orderly, just like I like my house, haha! Well, most of the time I just look past the disarray that Ayden's toys are in down in the basement. I mean, everything is picked up, but nothing is in the correct bin and sometimes most of the time that bothers me. But not enough to go through everything and put it in the right bin. That won't happen until we are going through everything to move.

The wonders of Facebook have allowed me to find out this week that three people I know are pregnant. As much as I am excited for them… I am secretly totally bumming that I cannot be among them at this time. My friend and I were just talking about this the other day… we both are sick with baby fever! But we have a plan… a year and a half from now, us besties are going to be preggers together, haha! Shh, don’t tell the hubbies (well soon to be hubby on my part)! Oh, wait, maybe I shouldn’t have spilled the beans, lol! We both have a year and a half of school left and the end cannot come soon enough for either of us!

And because a post wouldn’t be any good without a few pictures… here are a few from the last couple of weeks that I’ve wanted to share!CIAO! LOVE ME!