There is proof...

...that my honey still does 'romantic' things every now and THEN, hehe! We are not all up on that holiday stuff at our house, or anniversary stuff, etc... More often than not we find something before the actual day and say it is for the upcoming 'event'. For example... Father's Day. Jay bought a welder probably two months before Father's Day and justified the purchase by saying it could be for Father's Day. Well, that pretty much stuck because other than a little drawing/card that Ayden did for Jay, we didn't celebrate the day very well. We went to the parade and such, but that was about it. That is just kind of the way we are I guess, and for the most part it doesn't bother me.

On occasion we do surprise each other with little items. I'll bring him back his favorite candy bar from the grocery store, he'll bring me donuts home after work, he'll surprise me with potatoes on the grill... nothing that costs a lot or is super big, but its the small stuff that really matters. That, and we don't really have the money to do big things for each other.

But... last night I was in the bedroom reading my book and Jay came in and told me that he forgot to tell me about something that he bought. Now, we don't require in our household to tell the other person about EVERY little thing they buy, however when it comes to larger items, we kind of like to discuss it first. Like I said, we aren't made out of money (but then again, who is? Okay, I know their are rich people out there, but I think you know what I meant.) and thus we make a decision as a couple on whether or not to buy something. So, when he said he bought something that he didn't tell me about, I was a little hesitant to find out what it was and what it ended up costing. He told me it was tickets to go see a concert at the Resch center for us. At first he wasn't going to tell me and just let it be a surprise, but then he reasoned that if I really wanted to know that I could just look it up because he told me that it was at the Resch center. Personally, I was just going to go along with the surprise and see who it was going to be when we got there, but he ended up telling me. He got us tickets to see Sugarland next Wendesday!

How exciting is that?! It has been a while since Jay and I have had any 'us' time or went out for a 'date night' so I am super excited about this upcoming concert. That... and the only other 'concert' that I have been to has been the Trans Siberian Orchestra and well they aren't superstars per say... although I'd go see them again in a heart beat because I am in love with their music as well! And, lets be honest here, I am a country girl at heart when it comes to music. I never really listened to it before dating Jay, but he converted me and I've liked it ever since and Sugarland is one of my favorite bands! I'd really enjoy going to Country USA, Summerfest, Fudfest, (any of those huge countryfests around the state) but they are big 'drunk fests' and I really don't want to be around those kind of people. I am sure that there are people who go to listen to the music and not drink, but I'm going with the fact that the majority don't just do that. I'd like to go with a group of people who don't drink and just have a good time. I'd love to see Taylor Swift, Carrie Underwood, Rascal Flatts, Dierks Bentley, Kenny Chesney, Brad Paisely, etc etc etc in concert someday! But for now I will settle for Sugarland (oh and Billy Currington, who is opening up for them!)

Jay already lined up a babysitter for Ayden (his parents) and its all good. It will be a long night and early morning since we decided we are just going to spend the night at his parent's house and leave in the morning for work/school, otherwise we wouldn't be getting back to Point until probably 2 or 3 in the morning.

All in all... EXCITED!!!

We got a lot of work done last night in the garage... organizing it and putting things away. We have a bit to do yet, but shouldn't take too long. Oh, and we are FINALLY all done with our old apartment. Just waiting for the security desposit back! Yeah!

However, our efforts in cleaning the garage last night were not without its rewards drawbacks. I park my car in the garage every night, I mean we have one, why not, lol! Well, we put a lot of things up on shelves and one of the things that Jay put on a higher shelf/rafter thing last night was Ayden's stroller. It looked like it was up there pretty secure, but apparently not. Jay was leaving for work this morning and found 1- that our garage was left open all of last night (*note to self, if Ayden says the garage door shut, make sure you check and see that it really is, thankfully nothing was taken, but I like to think we live in a relatively safe part of town) and 2- the stroller that we both thought was pretty secure, had fallen down and hit my car. I was thinking bad damage, I mean it is a bigger stroller, my car is small, and it fell from a higher distance... thankfully though just my passengar side mirror was broken off. It was a clean break, but now I am only left with one. I am hoping it will be a cheap fix, but who knows. It's okay for now though, I guess... since I only drive around town to begin with.

CIAO! LOVE ME!

Piggin’ Out means Workin’ Out

I’ve been home alone all day long and I miss my boss already! I always enjoy some ‘me time’ when I can get it, but today I’ve just been kind of bored. Bored… I thought I was looking forward to the weekend alone? Well, I was and it has been relaxing, but I still miss my boys! They left around 6:30pm last night and I haven’t done a whole lot since then, haha!

I did get my hair cut this morning and totally love it! I posted pictures in the post before this one, let me know what you think? I have been wearing my hair up for the majority of the last month, in fact I’ve worn it up for the last two weeks straight! I both wanted/needed something a little shorter for the summer. I mean what fun is long hair if I am never going to wear it down… plus I just really haven’t been all that motivated to do anything ‘glamorous’ with my hair lately. In any case, now all I have to do is throw some mousse in and blow dry quickly and all set to go. Shouldn’t take much longer than combing through the longer hair and pulling it up, plus it is a ‘fresh’ new look for the summer. I love my hairstylist!

As for the rest of the day… I pretty much sat/laid down and watched TV/read/napped. I took two short naps today… hoping I can sleep yet tonight. And I pigged out on junk food! I should not be left alone in the house with chocolate, lol! And because I felt bad for doing nothing all day and eating so much, I finally made myself get up and decided to put on my rollerblades and hit up that trail next to our house. I rollerbladed about 3 miles in a little over a half hour and got home just as the rain started to really come down. I was lucky that I went right when I did because I was pretty much soaked by the time I got home and I was probably only in the rain for a minute (apparently it was really coming down, hehe)… but I did feel great after my blading and hope to do it more often, and maybe make it longer!

After a quick shower, I decided to give my blog a face lift. I haven’t done one in a while and what a better night than tonight when I am all alone with nothing better to do. I know that when I updated my look a while ago my sister said the format looked really weird on her computer when she would read my blog, so PLEASE let me know if it is not showing up properly (ie: all weird and crazy like) and I’ll see what I can try to do to fix that. It looks how I want it to on my screen, but every one’s computer is a little different and I’d hate it if it looks weird or screwy on other’s computers and not know about it.

Yesterday Ayden and I went to a new water park about a half hour away from our house. My friend had mentioned it at the park on Thursday and I thought it might be fun to try some place new. I googled it and found the directions and decided since it was supposed to be hot and sunny on Friday that we would go. The weather was great and we made it to the water park just fine! It was okay… LOTS of people so it was kind of crowed. Had a little melt down with Ayden because he wanted to go down the slide, but was too short. This one had a height requirement and so I thought that that would make him less upset when he saw that he was too short, however I think it just made things worse. Then he kept saying that he wanted to grow up faster so he could go down the slide. I talked with him and told him that if he was not going to swim and have fun that we would leave and that changed his attitude right around. We had a great time! We were there for about two hours. They even had a concessions stand and I had just enough cash left over to get both of us a bowl of ice cream and we got PLENTY for our money! I thought that that was the best part! I mean for a $1.50 we got a LOT of ice cream! We enjoyed the ice cream and then headed on home!

At one point Ayden complained of a stomach ache so we took a break on our towels and I took some pictures. His stomach felt better after a short time and we were back in the pool. With all of the people there I was too chicken to take my camera any closer to the water!

Catching some sun!!! (Too bad he’s all lotioned up and really didn’t catch any color… me on the other hand… burned the back and legs just a bit!)

Ayden and Mommy enjoying the beautiful day!

So, I was at Best Buy the other day because I needed to pick up some new ink and paper for my picture printer and just so happened to find that Canon offers the Photo Album 3”x3” Pocket Size and had to get it! MckMama had mentioned something like this a while ago, but I think it was through a different company. Since then I had wanted to get my hands on something like that, but didn’t know about their prices and so forth, plus it required ordering it from the net. (Not that I don’t like ordering stuff online… it just takes more time than I prefer) But when I saw these in the store, I had to try it! It comes with enough ‘stuff’ to make two photo books and costs $15. Personally I think that that is a little pricey, but I wanted to see how good it really was.

I got home and almost immediately set forth making my first album. I got the cover printed and then was going to print the pages. Here is where I ran into some trouble. My printer would not take the photo paper. It is kind of thick and after about five or so tries of getting the paper to feed correctly/all the way into the printer, I got fed up for the night and said screw it. I was pretty bummed thinking I wouldn’t be able to make the albums and it would be a waste of money. Well… I tried over on Friday night and somehow managed to get the paper to feed all the way into the printer, however I am anticipating the same problems when I decide to print the next album. In any case, the pictures turned out great (for the quality of my printer which is over four years old) and I was happy! I think the book is too cute and can’t wait to show it off to people!

I want to do a family photo shoot outside once the weather is a little cooler (maybe this week?) and make that the next album!

  

And now I am off to read some more!

CIAO! LOVE ME!

Haircut!

Before…

After…

What do you think? I’m in LOVE!!! It gets shorter in the back… you know one of those ‘inverted bob’ type haircuts!

CIAO! LOVE ME!

Minnesota Trip

I am trying to plan a family trip to Minnesota for later this summer! Key word... trying... We will see how it all goes, but I would really like to make it happen. Jay and I talk all the time about how we want to do something during the summer as a family, but nothing ever really pans out. Most of the time it is just us not following through with our plans... things getting too busy and so on and so forth! This time I am a little more adamant about wanting to go. I'd like to have enough money to fly somewhere super fun or whatever, but that just isn't feasible at this point in time. At first I thought we might go to Chicago and do the Shed Aquarium and the huge Children's Museum down there, but I'm a little leery about driving in Chicago.

I then heard someone talking about the Underwater Adventure at the Mall of America and thought maybe we could go there instead. It's maybe a little closer to us than Chicago, but probably not a significant distance closer, and it is cheaper! I also found the Minnesota Zoo and thought we could do that too, seeing it is only about 10 minutes from the Mall. And we are talking Mall of America here... LOTS of other stuff to do as well! Plus going through Minnesota.. Jay is going to find some excuse to stop in Red Wing to see JT. I think that he would really like to go golfing with him, but I'm at a loss of what Ayden and I might do during that time. Maybe us two will tag along... Ayden loves golfing with Daddy and JT (and hasn't gotten to in a LONG time) and I could just bring a book along to read.

We are thinking about doing a Sunday thru Tuesday sort of trip because then hopefully the places won't be overly packed because it isn't a weekend. Nothing long or super fancy, but a family trip and something besides going home for a weekend like most of our summer ends up being.

Keep your fingers crossed that it all works out because I am excited about it!

CIAO! LOVE ME!

Weekend Full of Fun!

It was another uber busy weekend for us here at the homestead, although we were not home for much of it… well actually any of it. We left Friday later afternoon, but not before Jay added seven pails of sand to Ayden’s sand box. Seven more tonight and it will be full (and we made the whole thing for FREE)! Can’t wait to get outside tomorrow and play with it because it is supposed to be a hot ‘n humid day in good ‘ole Wisconsin. Maybe we’ll hunker down in the basement where it is cool. Tomorrow it is supposed to be a high of 90-95 degrees with super high humidity! Lots of fluids to keep us cool and hydrated is in store! Actually, I think a trip to the pool is probably in order, it is almost June... I mean July, I wish it were almost June, that'd mean my summer isn't flying me by, and we haven't been to the pool yet. Although, we haven't had super warm weather like we are having now either.

So we head off on Friday to Hu Hot (have I ever mentioned how much I absolutely LOVE LOVE LOVE that place)? I wish I could make it at home. The one attempt that I tried turned out okay, but not as well as I would have liked it. Oh well... We met up with Jay's aunt and uncle there and had a great time eating together! They love Hu Hot as well and just so happened, didn't have anything going on that night. We were also able to get a free dessert courtesy of my sister and facebook... sweetness!!! Yummy s'mores made at the table, how delicious!

Saturday morning we (and by that I mean Ayden and Jay's brother, Steven) went swimming in the lake. I am not a big lake swimmer and the water wasn't exactly warm either so just those two went. They had lots of fun for the amount of time that they were swimming and Ayden even jumped off the pier a few times as well. I was so proud of him. He didn't really care for the mouth full of lake water he ended up with at one point though. He told everyone that it was pretty disgusting! Lol! But we did spend most of the day Saturday outside and it left Ayden pretty drained. Because after the fun lake swimming we went to my cousin's graduation party and had lots of fun! We spent the better part of the day there... probably from 3pmish to 11pmish... LONG day in the sun, but Ayden had a blast. My dad showed up and brought Alexis. I was surprised to see them there, but then again probably shouldn't have been because even though he is technically not part of that family anymore, everyone still treats him like it. It was definitely nice to have Alexis there because Ayden and her just went off and played a lot together. Ayden also hung on my brother for a lot of the night... cool dudes they were together!

I had fun just sitting and relaxing and shooting the breeze with my cousins and sister. We always have a good time when we get together. And since the ones that I am referring to are most likely reading this... we should plan a girls Hu Hot date since we all love it so much! Any takers? Jay spent most of the day talking to other people which I was fine with. Not like he enjoys the girl talk anyways, hehe! But it was a nice time outside and the weather couldn't have been better, even though I/we all got mauled by mosquitoes! Really... I think you are right Amy... she needs to get Bounce next time. None of this cheap dryer sheet stuff, lol!!! We all bug sprayed up after we got feasted on.

Sunday was another semi busy day. We all slept in because we didn't get to bed the night before which was really nice and for not being in my own bed, I slept pretty good! Then it was off to the annual Father's Day Parade that my home town has every year. It is usually pretty long and really not all that exciting, at least that is my perspective. It is exciting for the kids who get to collect candy and Ayden definitely got his fair share! At one point he turned around and said 'I wasn't expecting it to be this long!' I could tell that he was getting tired as well because he kept yawning, but heaven forbid you let any of that candy they are throwing go to waste. We then stayed at Jay's aunt and uncle's house for a little while before heading out to my grandparent's house so I could see my dad and give him his gift. It was good to see him for a little while and he got to give Ayden a nice long four wheeler ride and I think Ayden really enjoyed it! Ayden had lots of fun wrestling with his older cousins. Well actually since they are my first cousins they are like his second cousins? I don't know how that all works, but either way, he was having fun.

I think we were headed off to Point around 5pm which was probably a bad idea because then we all forgot that we didn't have supper until about 9pm that night. I actually gave Ayden a sandwich in bed at 10pm because he was still awake and said he was hungry. Such a nice mom I am to forget about supper, but he hadn't mentioned anything earlier. He slept the whole way home... was asleep about 10 minutes after we got into the car. I love watching him sleep!

Yesterday was Ayden's first day at his summer school program! He had a great first day and wanted to go back the next day which was even better. I'm not so sure I liked how they dismissed the kids. Okay, so it makes perfectly good sense, but they could have informed the parents beforehand how they were going to do it, or at least the ones who have their children in summer school for the first time. I think I have it figured out, after spending 10 minutes trying to find Ayden yesterday. Found him with his teacher and all was well. Will hopefully find him faster today. Keeping my fingers crossed, lol! But his teacher seems really nice and it looks to be like it will end up being a good choice for him.

After summer school and lunch yesterday we hit up the city pool for the first time this summer! It was so nice... and we are going again this afternoon! Today it is SO hot out so I am expecting the pool to be pretty packed, but it will be nice to just get out and enjoy the weather without sweating super bad!

LATER…

This afternoon was pretty great! We went to the pool again like I thought we were going to and as predicted… it was PACKED! We spent just about an hour there and then Ayden wanted to go. I could have stayed longer, but it was really packed and you always had to watch what you were doing for fear of hitting/bumping into some one, so we headed out. Once we got home I set up the kiddie pool and let that warm up for about an hour. Ayden and I had some popsicles and then went outside so he could play in his sand box for the first time. I put the kiddie pool right next to it so Ayden could play in both. I didn’t care what he did with the water and the sand and he had lots of fun while I just rested my feet in the water beside him.

Jay was home from work early because the weather was so hot… they went in an hour early so he did get an extra hour of work in this morning. We went to Shopko tonight and got ourselves a new futon frame since ours broke. We got it on super sale so I was excited about that. We also got some luggage which we don’t have. Well, I take that back, I think I might have a small set that is still at my mom’s house, but I couldn’t pass up the deal that we got. Other than that small set that I think I have… Jay and I each have a duffel bag and that is it. Our new luggage was originally priced at $199.99… we paid $53! It is a NINE piece set! It is seriously wonderful! Oh, and I got a new purse as well which was on sale for $12 (originally $60)! Couldn’t pass it up, lol!

Okay, this is long enough…

CIAO! LOVE ME!