{first few days}

Life right now is a bit overwhelming and I’m finally sitting down trying to reflect on it all. We are officially all moved into our new house; however, that doesn’t mean we are anywhere near being unpacked. Actually, I am pretty sure that we still have some boxes at Jay’s parents house (although I am inclined to believe that those are mostly rummage sale boxes).

Our house is slowly beginning to look like a home and I know deep down that it will not be my version of ‘perfect’ for a couple of weeks yet, but on the surface it is hard for me to let it take that long. I can’t stand clutter and things not where they belong so it is very hard for me to live like this right now. Both Jay and I have been go go go pretty much every waking moment since we got here Friday night. (Minus the afternoon today when we went to Jay’s cousin’s birthday party and just relaxed for awhile.)

There is actually walking space in our house now… but there are still boxes on the edges. I think what bugs me the most is that we have boxes and boxes of stuff that we want to sell in a rummage sale and that stuff can’t just be put away. Oh well though. It all will get done when it gets done. I just need to keep reminding myself that over and over and over and over, haha!

I have to say that it has been pretty great to spend so much time together as a family though, even though I haven’t been sleeping super great yet. I am looking forward to getting into more of a routine though in the coming weeks with clinic and what not. Get this next year of my life started and get into a routine with it.

I want to take pictures and share with everyone, but I don’t want to take the pictures until we have everything settled in and pictures on the walls and it looking like I want it to, hehe! For now, if you are my friend on Facebook, you can live vicariously through the sneak peaks that I have been putting up.

I feel like there is so much that I want to do with the house, especially outside and I feel like the summer is going to be over before we are able to get any of it done. I know that summer hasn’t even really started, but there is really only three or four good months of warm(ish) weather and I am hoping that this summer is a lot warmer than it was last summer.

I haven’t worked out yet this weekend and I won’t be as it is almost midnight Sunday night already. I was going to yesterday; however, I was just beat after lifting and moving things all day yesterday. I was on my feet all day long. Then today, I know that I could have, but I just couldn’t tear myself away from moving stuff and putting things away for even an hour. Dreadful excuse, I know, haha! And my eating habits this weekend has been pretty horrible as well. But, on a brighter note, Jay has this pull-up thing for exercising and he hung it on one of our doors this afternoon and told me to do a pull-up and guess what?! I was able to do one! I have NEVER in my life been able to do a pull-up and today I rocked it! I was so surprised! Go me! Haha!

I think Ayden is having a bit of a hard time adjusting to the new house. He has been sort of aimlessly wandering around the last two days and saying he is bored. I kid you not, this kid played with ONLY legos for the last week while we were in Point and didn’t say he was bored once and now while we are at our new house with ALL of his toys, he is suddenly bored. Um, I think he’s just overwhelmed by it all kind of. It will take him a bit to get used to.

I have to say that I already miss the bigger stores in Stevens Point. We went to Walmart in town yesterday to look for a few things that I knew the Walmart in Point had, but I couldn’t even find one of it in Chilton. The perks of living in a small town, right?!

Despite that let down, something good did happen while we were at Walmart. As we were walking into the store, Jay had asked me how many people he thought we would run into that we knew. I told him that I better not see anyone I know and wouldn’t you know, not even ten seconds into the store I run into someone I know. That someone just happened to be my old daycare teacher! It was SO great to see her again and catch up for a bit, REALLY great actually! I told Jay that if I had to run into someone I knew, she was someone I wouldn’t mind. We also had to run to Walmart for a few things today and saw someone else we knew (didn’t actually talk to them though). I said that maybe I need to keep track of the number of times I go to Walmart and don’t run into anyone I know because that will probably be the fewer of the two, haha! Whereas if I were to go to the store in Point, I probably would see someone I knew 1 out of 20 visits. Ah, the perks of a small town… I will get used to it, I will get used to it, I will get used to it, haha!

In all honesty though, I think we are settling into the house quite nicely and it will be a good place for us to live for at least the next year, maybe longer. Will deal, that’s for sure!

And now since it is almost 11:30pm, I shall go crawl into bed…

CIAO! LOVE ME!

{against my better judgement}

This week has been all about relaxation and enjoying the sunshine (and maybe a little apartment cleaning) so far and I highly intend on keeping it the same for the rest of the week.
Against my better judgement, I have not done a work out since last Friday (my run), although I'm sure I worked out enough on Saturday and Sunday during the move and I do not intend on doing another work out until this coming Saturday. Reason being, I am enjoying my relaxation and sunshine WAY too much. This will most likely be my last week off in a LONG time and I want to fully soak in no stress of school, no stress of clinic, no stress whatsoever! And it has been great! (Minus the fact that getting lost in a good book in the sunshine has left me with some painful thighs from sunburn, haha.) It helps that when I put on a pair of jean shorts this morning in a size 9, they almost fell off! Makes me feel good that they are so loose! It was the first pair of jean shorts that I had tried on so far this summer!

Furthermore, against my better judgement, I have started reading the Fifty Shades of Grey trilogy. I had heard many different things about this series and the reviews I read about it on Amazon were SO back and forth. I didn't really think the books would be for me from what I had read (although I thought the same thing about the Twilight books before I read them, and then I ended up rereading the third and fourth books multiple times). Let me tell you... Fifty Shades of Grey is total SMUT and I have been thoroughly sucked in. Haha! Seriously, its really too bad Jay is living in Chilton right now. Lol, sorry, TMI!

My days this week have been all the same. Go to work in the morning for a few hours, go home, sit outside in the sun and get sucked into the world of Anastasia Steele and Christian Grey for a few hours, clean the house a bit, pick up Ayden and chill with him at night while trying to sneak in some more Ana and Christian before going to bed and repeating it all over again in the morning. Honestly, I couldn't have asked for any better weather this week for sitting outside and reading. I do have a feeling that getting sucked into these books has made the week go faster. I have to say that I have watched little to no TV, I haven't turned on my laptop. In fact, the only time I am actually on the computer is when I am at work. I get my fill of Facebook through my phone, and even that has been minimal during the day. People, I am addicted to this trilogy! I just might cry when it is over, haha!

I am about 3/4 of the way through the second book and plan on finishing that today and possibly starting the third one too, but I have told myself that after I finish the second book today that I will finish my cleaning. I have the shower, toliet, vanity top, one window, kitchen floor, kitchen counter tops, and living room floor to clean yet. It may sound like a lot, but we have minimal counter tops, so washing them will take less than five minutes. Our vanity is small, so same. The living room floor just needs to be vacuumed tomorrow morning... five minutes or less. Our kitchen floor is small enough, so I'm thinking mopping that will take less than a half hour. The window, small... 10 minutes... It is the toliet and shower that will take longer... thinking an hour or less for both. So it is maybe about two hours worth of cleaning. Let me tell you though, if I never smell Pinesol again, it will be too soon, haha!

I am mostly just craving to sleep on my own bed again, haha! Okay, so I am more than ready to have my family put back together! After 60 days of living apart, we are ready to be whole again. I had no idea how I was going to make it through the end of the semester being a single parent for two months, but Ayden and I banded together and we made it. I managed straight 'A's this semester which is awesome! The stress has lifted for the time being.

I know that in one of my last posts I had a mini mental breakdown about how scared I was about moving away from Stevens Point. Over the course of this week and after moving everything into our new house, I am not as scared anymore. Yes, it will be different and new, but it will also be great and wonderful. We have so many family members that are excited for us to be closer and it warms my heart. We have so many old and new friends waiting for us as well. Despite the fact that I said I would never move back to Chilton, I can feel the love and welcoming arms open and waiting for us to return 'home'. Returning to ones home town is not in the cards for everyone, but I know and feel in my heart that it is right for us at this point in our lives. I will still miss Stevens Point A LOT, but I am feeling so much more at peace about the whole thing.

I look at my post count since January and have realized that I tend to follow a pattern... at the beginning of the year, I tend to post a lot more during the month. My guess is that it is because in January I am not in class for the majority of the time and have more free time. Then as the semester starts up again, my free time diminishes and I do not blog as much. Now it is almost the end of May and I have blogged half as much as I did in January and it makes me sad. I LOVE blogging. I love reading blogs and I love writing my blog.

I know that part of the reason that I haven't blogged much this month is due to the fact that the majority of it has been the same. Who wants to read the same thing over and over every day? I would probably lose the few readers I do have if I wrote 'I woke up, went to school, came home, went to bed' over and over every day. Although, I know I shouldn't be worried about the number of readers I have since I mostly write this blog for myself as an outlet. But, truth be told, it does make me feel good when I know at least a few people happened upon my blog during the day and continue to read.

What is funny is that I have a whole list of blogs that I read on a daily basis... most of them I 'lurk' on, which means I am not a normal commentor... I have been reading these blogs for a few years now and to be honest, I feel like I know these people on some level. For some reason I happened upon their blog, got hooked, and continue to read. Call my crazy, but I love the world of blogging and don't plan on stopping any time soon!

CIAO! LOVE ME!

{phase one: complete}

We had a super busy and productive weekend and I am exhausted! And, Ayden and I have officially made our last drive INTO Point (for at least awhile) tonight and it was a bitter sweet feeling.

I am currently sitting on a blow up bed that is in our living room with a table lamp as my only light and the TV set up on a box of legos. Good living, right? (Okay, so I was sitting like that last night and then got caught up in a TV show that was on and didn't finish blogging, oops!)

Oh wait, I didn't mention that there is a lawn chair set up and a make shift table for Ayden to use. Haha! We are definitely living the high life this week, that is for sure! Ayden is currently sleeping on his own blow up mattress in a room that has a bag full of clothes and a few toys. Our basement is empty, except for a mop and bucket, my bedroom is empty except for the vaccum cleaner, the kitchen is empty except for a small selection of food and a few eating utensils, and the garage is empty except for our bikes. The cat isn't even at our house any longer.

Our wonderful family helped us move everything else to the new place today (yesterday). There is no way Jay and I would have been able to move everything ourselves in such a short time. NO WAY! I cannot thank our family enough for all of their help! My mom came up to to help pack and clean twice and then one more trip to help move more of the big stuff. Jay's parents came up twice this weekend with a trailer to help move. The help iteslf means a lot, but with the price of gas and these people driving gas hog trucks and hauling trailers, it means even more! Despite all of the hard work everyone put in this weekend, it was pretty stress free and overall I had a very good weekend. Am I glad that the majority of the heavy lifting and moving boxes from one house to another is over. Now comes the unpacking part which can be both fun and exhausting in itself.

I have stared to go through some stuff and put things in the places that I think I want them. It will take a good month or so to get everything where it belongs and to feel really settled in, but life is usually like that when you move. It is fun and exciting trying to decide where to put everything. It will come. And it seems like Diesel, our cat, has made the transition pretty easily as well. He was very skittish at first with everyone in and out of the house and so many boxes and the new surroundings, but I expected him to be as much. Later in the day after everyone had left and it settled down, he came out more to explore and check things out. I even saw him use his litter box which was my biggest concern.

I think my younger sister Alexis is in love with us living right down the street. My dad and her came over both Saturday and Sunday and Alexis ended up staying later and playing with Ayden. I think those two are going to get into a lot of trouble together this summer, hehe! But that is totally okay with me. I think she was sad that Ayden and I had to come back to Point for another week because she didn't want to go home quite yet when we left last night. I told her she could maybe sleep over this Friday once we are there for good. It really helped to have her there to keep Ayden company while everyone was moving boxes in and out. They kept each other busy and Ayden was outside the majority of the day instead of inside watching TV.

Ayden and I have a semi busy week ahead of us as well. Tonight, I think we are going to ride our bikes to the beach for one last time. Tomorrow is his Spring concert at school and then tomorrow night is looking for baby fawns with Cub Scouts and grilling out with them. I would like to get together with one of my friends on Wednesday or Thursday before we leave Point and then Thursday night is going out to eat at Golden Corral. Then... Friday... it's heading to our new home!

Can't believe my externship starts next week! Gah!

CIAO! LOVE ME!

{denial}

I think I am in denial. I have been living this week so far as if we are not moving almost EVERYTHING out of our house this weekend. I have yet to pack anything more. I walk past the stack of flat boxes in the living room without giving them a second glance. I sit on the couch or lay in bed and refuse to think about sleeping in a new house. I don't want to move. I don't want to leave Stevens Point. If you asked me this a year ago (or probably even go back and reread some of my posts from a year ago) you would find a completely different person who wanted to move and start over some place new. Time changes people. Put into the position, I know now that I am not ready to uproot my life and start a new. I know that I do not have any other choice at this point in time. I am just scared. I am scared of the unknown and what is to come. I am scared to face reality and start my life without being in school everyday (or every other day). I've been an 'adult' in SO many ways for the last seven and a half years, but not in the one way that matters most, making a living in the working world.

Sure, throw me under the bus and have me have a baby at age 18 and I'll prove to you that, yes, I can do it and I can do it all while still continuing to go to college, graduating, and then going back to school. I can pay my bills (with the help of student loans, haha), work part time, get (almost) straight 'A's, and raise a child. But work 40 hours a week?! Ha! It's time to do the real growing up and I'm just not ready! Okay, so I am MORE than ready to be done with school and class and campus drama, but the whole working 40 hours a week thing is a little scary. I don't think my body is ready for that, haha!

Speaking of my body... my legs, more specifically, my shins, are KILLING me! I started the Couch to 5K training program on Monday and I didn't think that Day 1 was too bad. It comprised of a five minute warm up walk and then eight intervals of 60 second runs and 90 second walks. I made it through and was proud of myself and didn't think that my body was suffer too much. Even that short amount killed my shins. The program that I am following is designed to be ran three days a week. I had thought about trying to run it more than that to build up endurance faster, but now know that I cannot (at least at first) because my shins cannot take it right away. But I'm hoping to make today Day 2 and even though my shins still hurt, I think I am up for the challenge. (I have been eating like crap ALL week so far and I think that that has had some effect on my current mood status as well. Putting bad food into me, making myself feel guilty for putting bad food into me, and then just overall having the bad food make me feel bad.)

*I started this post on Monday and will hopefully finally publish it sometime today. And by the way, I did Day 2 of my C25K program and it went really well. My shins didn't hurt too bad and I took the advice of many and iced them afterwards for quite a while last night and they are feeling almost back to normal this morning. Thinking about doing Day 3 today since I probably won't get any time to this weekend.*

I have not been doing my Turbo Fire workout. I made it through Week 6, which was one week further than I made it the last time, but then I just got bored with it and the weather has gotten nicer and I cannot workout in the dreary basement anymore. Instead I have been biking. I think I mentioned that I biked 15 miles on Saturday morning. Well, after my run/walk on Monday, Ayden and I biked 5.6 miles after he got home from school and then Tuesday afternoon I biked 15.1 miles again. My bike ride on Tuesday was definitely more scenic than my one on Saturday. Saturdays ride was down and back a straight paved path, while Tuesdays ride was all around town on the Green Circle trail. I was up and down some huge hills, but was super proud that I never had to get off my bike and walk up any of them. And some were MASSIVE!

So, before I continued to write more and not post this, I think I'm going to post it right now.

CIAO! LOVE ME!

{picture post}

I haven’t done a picture post in a while and although this won’t be just pictures, it will primarily be pictures… pictures of the last couple of days.

Here are some pretty bleeding hearts that we have in our back yard. They have quickly become one of my favorite flowers. We have some white ones in our front yard at our new house.Little man cuddling on the couch a couple of hours after having his teeth pulled this past week. He was such a brave little guy and didn’t cry at all (until we got home at the numbing medication started to wear off) and he was back to his normal crazy self by the afternoon!Myself and my fellow AuD classmates on capstone presentation day in Madison! We all rocked out presentations!A little sneak peak of our new house! Definitely more pictures to come when we have everything moved in and mostly put away, might be a few weeks yet though! Hehe!My mom, sister, brother, and myself on Mother’s Day this year. There is a whole story behind the shirts that I might tell in a different post. It is a story all it’s own, lol!Me after a 15 MILE bike ride on Saturday morning at 7:30am! I rocked it!Ayden doing some fishing with his cub scout group last week.Reeling in a big one!Ayden and his best buddy with the carp! Ayden wouldn’t hold it, haha! And don’t you love his rolled up pants?!And I just thought this was too cute not to post!CIAO! LOVE ME!