Mommy and Me Date

Ayden and I had a ‘mommy and me date’ last night! We went to go see the movie How to Train your Dragon in 3D! It was a fun night! We left as soon as Ayden got off the bus because the theater that was playing it in 3D was about a half hour away. I originally wasn’t going to go see it in 3D, but two of my friends said that it was really good in 3D and that we HAD to go see it like that. I figured since the theater wasn’t THAT far away, it just might be worth it.

And it SO was!

I splurged and got the ‘fixings’, lol! Well… it was going to be our supper! Actually, I originally just got a popcorn, nachos, and soda and had declined Ayden’s request for an icee… but then… I just couldn’t resist making it extra special and got him one just because. We shared everything and… get this… had the ENTIRE theater to ourselves! How cool was that?! It was so nice because then I didn’t have to keep shushing Ayden when he would talk throughout some parts.

The movie itself was definitely cute. Not something I’d go see on my own, of course, but it kept my attention throughout the whole thing and I wasn’t bored out of my mind wondering why I just spent $10 on a movie ticket for some crap! And the whole 3D aspect was definitely pretty cool! I’d never seen a movie in 3D before and it was pretty top notch. There were a few points where I could feel a headache coming on, but it wasn’t as bad as I'd heard from my boss about some people’s experience seeing Avatar in 3D. (Speaking of which, we have at home in non 3D and have yet to watch.)

Anyways, it was a good night out for just me and Ayden. Jay worked late, but I don’t think he really would have wanted to come along anyways or enjoyed the movie… mommy and me date it was! And I know that Ayden enjoyed it because he walked out of the movie talking about how it was the best he’s ever seen and wondering when the second and third one were going to come out, lol! And then he was drawing dragons left and right after we got home. Now that’s some dedication, hehe!

I felt that we needed some quality time together since the next two weeks are going to be pretty hectic getting my exams and practicals done… well now its down to about a week and a half. I even brought some of my lab work home tonight to answer some of the questions which would be all fine and dandy… if I knew what I was looking at on the lab sheets, oh ugh! Damn lab!

On the bright side (since I’ve been feeling pretty cruddy lately, but that’s a whole ‘nother post), today was my last day of clinic for the next month and a half. And of course something ‘crazy’ had to go on. My last appointment was supposed to be at 10:30 and wasn’t supposed to take very long. Unfortunately the patient didn’t show up until 11:30! And the appointment took twice as long as it should have! Sometimes I get so frustrated, but I know I shouldn’t. I can’t control everything, well much less anything, and just  need to deal with it. In any case, despite the appointment taking longer than it should have and starting an hour late, it went well and I did my second impression (on an actual patient) of the semester. I’ve done lots of students, but only one other one on a patient.

And now I’m off to ‘pout’ because I don’t understand my lab assignment and really am not in the mood to scour the textbook to try and find out if I could understand it. And just because I’ve been feeling pretty cruddy, but like I said, a whole ‘nother post.

CIAO! LOVE ME!

Madison Mini Conference

Thursday and Friday was spent in Madison at the ‘mini conference’ that my hearing science professor set up for us first year grad students. The Point students had to travel to Madison for Thursday and Friday. We were put up in a nice hotel and spent the majority of the day Thursday and Friday on the Madison campus touring different labs.

We got lots of free food and got to bond with our Madison counterparts. We (and by all of the ‘we’s’ I mean, us Point students) had only gotten to meet the Madison students one previous time at the beginning of the school year for orientation. Well, Katie got to hang with them a few weeks ago at a Special Olympics thing, but Amy and I couldn’t go. In any case, it was a great time! We all got to hang out after the lab tours and get to know each other better. We all get along pretty well and with there being only ten of us, its definitely not too bad! I’ll definitely say everyone has their own unique quality, but I’m sure everyone there is saying the same about us three Point students, so oh well.

We got to tour eight different labs on the Madison campus. I hadn’t been to that campus since the beginning of my senior year in high school when I toured it trying to decide where I would end up. I got accepted to Madison for my undergraduate degree, however chose to go to Point instead because it was smaller (and then got accepted to Madison again for my doctorate degree- because Point and Madison have the joint AuD program). Anyways, I totally forgot how big the campus is! It is really nice, but definitely NOT for me! I like Point, the ‘smallness’ of it… it’s big enough for me, and yet small enough for me to remain mostly anonymous.

It was a long two days, but fun! We also gave our presentations and after thinking I did okay on mine, okay enough to get at least an A-, maybe a B+ at the lowest and was really surprised and happy to find out I got a 98/100! Score! And extra credit for turning in some notes from the other presentations so that definitely will help with the grade (at least a little bit), although I’m not too overly concerned about it.

Thursday night the students got to go out to eat (courtesy of the campus) and chill. It was really nice getting to sit down with each other and get to know everyone a little better! Great time! And then Katie and I hit up the hotel pool and hot tub after we got back to the hotel… that was pretty nice too, lol!

Of the eight labs that we got to see… my favorite one was the mouse lab. It was about the cochlear nucleus, which was pretty cool because that was what my presentation was about. Anyways, one cool part was being able to ‘inject’ some current into a single cochlear nucleus cell! OMG, that was so cool! Even though we didn’t really do anything other than push the mouse button, lol! The lab tech had everything set up for us by the time we got there. But the best part was getting to see an actual cochlear nucleus, cochlea, and the semicircular canals of the mouse brain! Talk about tiny! But SO cool! And then the best part was when the lab tech took a live mouse and dissected the brain out. Okay, so the actual killing of the mouse (it was a tiny baby one who was super cute) was sad. None of us watched that part, but it was nice to hear that the lab tech was kind of spiritual about it and said goodbye to the mouse and what not before killing it.

I had to keep telling myself that it was just a mouse and that if it were in my home I’d have no problem setting a trap to kill it and get it out. But they were so cute, lol! Okay, so we just tried to ignore the fact that when the lab tech was cutting into the mouse brain that it was alive just seconds before. It was pretty easy. Does that make me morbid? Lol! But watching her find everything and show us was SO cool!

We got home at a decent time last night… managed to get some cleaning done which was good. I had a whole list of things that I wanted to get done this weekend… still have a few things on that list, but the majority of it is done!

Mostly caught up with laundry too… seems to be my nemesis these days!

Today was Ayden’s second soccer game. I thought it was going to get cancelled because it was raining this morning, but they kept it going. It had stopped raining for the most part by the time it was his turn, and then rained for just a bit during the actual game. He is on a pretty decent team this year… he is probably the most timid one on the team. Their team won again which was good because Ayden was proud. He had a few good kicks during the game, but I had to apologize to Jay during the game because as of now it looks like Ayden has gotten my athleticism, lol! We’ll see though! I hate playing most sports… I’m not very good at them and don’t really care for the uber competitiveness that comes from some people. But that’s just me…

After that headed to the bank and to run some errands and came home. I headed to Kohls this afternoon because I’m wanting a new dress for a wedding Jay and I are attending this summer, a new dress for Jay’s graduation party, and maybe a new dress for my brother’s graduation party… and alas I haven’t found one that I liked, lol! But I did have a 15% off coupon burning a whole in my wallet and couldn’t pass up the following cute shoes!I don’t think of myself as a uber shoe collector, but I do have to say that I have quite a few pairs, lol! But I wanted a cute pair of tennis shoe like shoes that I didn’t have to tie! I hate wearing shoes in the first place, but hate having to tie shoes even more and so these ones are perfect! And they were on sale, doesn’t that count?!I also got some new eye shadows… they were on sale for $6… and couldn’t pass them up. I don’t wear a ton of makeup, but having something to choose from other than like a grey and brown is going to be exciting, lol! I’m definitely not a makeup expert, but try to look halfway decent everyday. Doesn’t help that my face is super oily! Hate my skin!

On the agenda for tomorrow… more relaxing and procrastinating on studying, you know finals are fast approaching! Only TWO more weeks of class… OMG! Really?! Can’t wait!

CIAO! LOVE ME!

Life Continues

It’s Tuesday, and Tuesdays are my clinic days (clinic mornings to be exact), and this morning was shaping up to be a busy clinic morning. No problems, I was ready for it, didn’t seem like there was going to be anything too major going on. But, you know, when you have everything planned out to a ‘T’, things are bound to go haywire, right?

Ayden didn’t have school today… it was kindergarten screening so only the kindergarteners had off, and you know what, because it wasn’t on the school calendar, Ayden didn’t get signed up to go to the Y for today (actually I don’t even think they had it as an option since only the kindergarteners were off) and that left Jay and myself with no babysitter for him while we had school.

Unfortunately, Jay had to miss his one class this morning because I had clinic and well missing clinic in anything but an emergency is not a good thing. Can I use no babysitter as an excuse?! Lol! Anyways, Jay only had a review in his class so he said it wasn’t anything major, but I still felt bad that he had to miss his class. I’m sure he was totally fine with it though.

My morning started off good. I had to hearing evaluations and it was a husband and wife couple. I got done an hour before my next (and last) appointment of the morning because the couple ended up with good results and didn’t need the consult they had also scheduled. This was good, it meant that my reports would be short and I could get them written before my next appointment.

The plan was that Jay would bring Ayden into school by me when I was done with clinic for the morning and he would spend the afternoon on campus with me while Jay went off to work. Normally I get done with clinic at noon (or am supposed to) and I told Jay that he shouldn’t leave the house any earlier than 12:10-12:15 so he would get to campus just before 12:30… just in case my last appointment ran long… you know…

I wasn’t planning on my last appointment running long, it wasn’t supposed to take maybe 15 minutes. I had to run a quick test on the patient’s hearing aids and we could give them back and/or send them in if need be. Well… said patient was running late and then I had to work with hearing aids that I haven’t before and a program I haven’t before and had no idea what to do and my supervisor wasn’t really helping me any (oh I know, the whole spread your wings thing and learn, but seriously, I just wanted her to tell me what buttons to push so we could get this appointment over with).

Turns out we have to send both hearing aids in because they are not up to manufacturers specifications, but are only going to send one in at time. And then it just seemed like my supervisor was dragging out the appointment and the patient didn’t really want to hurry out and it’s already almost 12:45… 45 minutes AFTER I am supposed to be done! And then I STILL have to get this hearing aid boxed up and write the summary and fill out some forms and Jay and Ayden are waiting patiently at my desk for me, you know, after I said I would totally be done by the time they got there.

I ‘grabbed’ Ayden from Jay so he could leave for work and had Ayden follow me around while I tried to finish up some of the stuff that I needed to before the afternoon clinic slot started and I couldn’t access the lab until 3pm… unfortunately that didn’t happen so Ayden and I went off to work for a little bit so I could finish up some things there. Ayden was an angel while I was doing some work. He drew some pictures for me and didn’t complain at all. After that, it was back to the clinic where I finished up my summary (of which I sort of just slopped together- definitely not my best one to date), called the hearing aid company regarding a few things, and hopefully filled out everything correctly on the hearing aid repair form that I sent in. And then Ayden and I left for the afternoon and I kept my fingers crossed that I wouldn’t get called back in for a hearing aid repair since it was my day for hearing aid duty and we left just after 3pm and it goes until 4:30pm. Thankfully we were not called back and by we, I mean, Ayden would have had to come back with me since it is almost 7pm and Jay is still not home from work. Making up hours that he won’t be able to work late on Thursday or Friday night because I will be gone.

After that we went to JCPenney’s because it is going out of business here in Point and I wanted to see if they had anything cute on sale. Oh, they have sales all right, but I really didn’t find anything that I wanted that bad, especially since they didn’t have the mega sales going on just yet. Then it was off to Maurice’s because they had a really cute dress on their website that I found last night that I wanted to get for a wedding Jay and I will be going to in a few weeks. Unfortunately, they didn’t have any in my size left, but they were having some good sales too and I left with two cute shirts. Shirts that are dressy enough for clinic and chic enough to wear with a pair of dressier jeans too… love ‘em and will be wearing both of them later this week!

It was too bad that I didn’t find any dresses at Maurice’s, however I got some coupons in the mail for Kohls and they had some pretty cute dresses on their website so I will be off to that store sometime this week to see if I can find anything that I like. I also want to get a dress for Jay’s graduation party… nothing too fancy, but figured something spring/summery like would be cute… maybe?! I’m not a super big dress person, but you never know when you find the right dress. And then maybe I can wear it again for my brother’s graduation party (or get another all together for his, hehe)!

By the time we got home I felt a little more relaxed, but for a moment there this afternoon I felt like I was going to have an anxiety attack because I had so much to do and remember and I felt like I wasn’t getting any of it done.

My first class is cancelled tomorrow and I was all ready to sleep in for the day, however I will be headed in at 8am (even though class doesn’t start until 10:30 because we have a lab that we need to do which is really sort of a bummer, but we thought since we had the time we should really get it done). And… I really need to work on what I am going to be saying for my presentation because well, ugh, I still don’t know. I think I have most of the powerpoint finished… maybe just a few changes here or there, but nothing major. I will be happy to just it done with!

Because let me tell you… once this semester is over with… Ashley will be reading reading reading and reading for the four-five weeks she has off before her summer semester starts. I can’t believe that I am almost done with my first year of graduate school! OMG!

CIAO! LOVE ME!

San Diego Recap!

Before I get started on my trip to San Diego, I have a bit of a side comment to rant about a little bit. Well, maybe not rant, but need to just get out there because… well I want it. So today (and on a few other occasions), I’ve had people tell me what good pictures my camera takes and how awesome it must be to have such a good camera. I’d sure hope that my camera would take good pictures, I forked over a hefty chunk of change for it, but its NOT just my camera, actually, my camera is probably only 1/3 of how my pictures turn out.

It’s hasn’t happened often that people have complimented ONLY my camera… I’ve had plenty of people tell me that they love my pictures and say nothing about the quality of my camera. However, it was brought to my attention today by someone asking me what kind of camera I have because it takes such good pictures. I don’t think she was trying to be mean by saying that, but I don’t think she thought beyond the camera, like, its part of who is behind the camera as to how the picture turns out. You can give the best camera to someone who knows nothing about photography and you won’t get any better pictures than someone with your run of the mill camera because they won’t know anything about it. I’ve read and read about the features on my camera and different things about photography and experiment with things outside of the box and then I edit and edit… that counts for the majority of how my pictures turn out. I delete and delete and delete too! In any case, I just wanted to get out that yes, I like the pictures that I take (at least the ones I post online) and I love my camera, but my camera isn’t ALL that makes my pictures look like they do…

Okay… onto my trip! I had to get up bright and early on Wednesday so we (Amy and myself) could make it to the airport on time. I was super excited, but it still didn’t seem real. It really didn’t seem real until I was on the plane on the way to Chicago! I had no problem with getting air sick, never have. I love flying and this time was no exception, although the flight from Chicago to San Diego was a little long! We landed in San Diego and waited for the other two AuD students from Point that were coming, but who had taken a different flight. They arrived within the hour and we headed off to our hotel.

Unfortunately, we found out that our hotel wasn’t very close to the convention center… about a half mile away which was definitely within walking distance, however there wasn’t really an easy way to get there, as in we didn’t walk home at night in the dark… NOPE!

On Wednesday we headed to the convention center to check in and check a few things out. We didn’t get there in time to attend any sessions on Wednesday, but we attended the SAA reception which had a bunch of free food (actually, I didn’t pay for a meal the entire time we were there, other than a few snacks in the airport) and then Amy and I headed back to the hotel room while Nicole and Janelle went to a baseball game (we got free tickets through the convention), however they didn’t stay for the whole thing.

Thursday morning was another early morning since Amy and I wanted to go to some morning sessions. We went to one on cochlear implants which I thought was really interesting and then had a bit of a break before the afternoon sessions started. During that time we walked around down by the San Diego bay for a little while and went into a few shops.

The afternoon was spent in class… we each went to four other ones and then wandered around the exhibit hall where all of the hearing aid companies were ‘selling’ their stuff. We got a bunch of free pens, and even a free rolling duffel bag, but also found out about some pretty cool products! It was fun to hear everyone say they had the best stuff! And we got lots and lots of free food!

Thursday night (since the sessions ended at like 6pm), Amy and I walked around downtown and did some shopping since I had forgotten my id and wasn’t able to get into one of the hearing aid companies parties that we had gotten passes for. I didn’t know about the party before we left for the day and only brought my convention badge for the day since I didn’t anticipate needing my id for anything, however that wasn’t exactly the case and well I wasn’t going all the way back to the hotel for it because it wasn’t a party that I needed to get into anyways. We could hear the music from outside the gates anyways and we had more fun shopping! I picked up some jewelry for myself, a t-shirt for Jay, and a t-shirt and little stuffed animal for Ayden.

Friday I slept in with Nicole and Janelle and Amy headed off to the convention early since she had to volunteer. We got to the convention around 10ish and I walked around taking some pictures since the first class I wanted to attend wasn’t until noon. I went to two and a half classes, since the last one really wasn’t doing it for me information wise. After that, I walked around the poster presentations and then we all headed back to the hotel to get ready for the parties that night. All of the hearing aid companies were hosting parties that we had plans to attend!

We hit up one at the HardRock hotel with super good food and drinks (although I stuck with water) and then headed to another one on a boat with even better food! Anyone ever seen mashed potatoes martinis?! Okay, they weren’t actually martinis, but mashed potatoes in martini glasses and then a whole table of condiments you could add! I though they were SO cute!

And after that we went to the USS Midway for the Beach Boys! More free food and drinks, although by that time I was stuffed and didn’t need anymore food. Beach Boys were awesome and then we got to see some fireworks (actually twice that night since the baseball team won their game and they shot some off just as we were getting back downtown)!

Saturday was another early morning and another long day flying high in the sky! It was nice to get home and have today to relax, although today went really fast. I had every intention of doing some homework today, however that went out the window. I am fairly certain that my first class is cancelled tomorrow which means I will head into campus early and will work on my presentation then instead of tonight. I really just needed today to relax and not worry about anything. Since the weather was nice, I washed all of Ayden’s bedding and hung it outside to dry, but there is about four  loads of laundry still sitting in the basement that need to be washed and who knows if that will happen before the weekend.

This week is another short week class wise since we will be headed to Madison for the mini conference on Thursday and Friday. Means I won’t have double clinic this week which is good, but another two days that Jay needs to be home from work early in order to be able to get Ayden off the bus. Oh well… at least the semester is almost over!!! Can’t wait! So much studying to do, but SO happy that two of my finals are TAKE HOME! Well one is take home and one is online and the last online one I had was pretty easy, so at least I think so. Got an A on the test I took last week so that was good!

Well, I didn’t go into as much detail as I thought I was going to, but I’m really just wanting to sit down and watch some TV since I really haven’t done that at all today… too busy playing with Ayden, cleaning, or editing pictures!

CIAO! LOVE ME!

San Diego Pictures!

Here are a few (or more than a few) pictures of my recent trip to San Diego to tide all those who happen upon my blog over until I have more than just a few minutes to sit down and get a post out on how awesome the trip actually was!!! Enjoy!Just outside of the convention center! Audiology NOW!!! Rocked in San Diego for 2010! Chicago 2011 here we come!Artwork just outside of the convention center, San Diego had some awesome artwork on their streets! I loved it, especially this piece!Palm trees lined the streets! Miss them already! Couldn’t leave without taking some pictures of them!Across from the convention center was a main part of downtown San Diego, I can’t say ‘the main’ part because San Diego is really big and I’m sure there are other parts, but this was definitely a well known part, right next to the baseball stadium! A big ship coming into the bay!Only a SMALL part of the convention with two high rises behind it… apartments I’m assuming? Or office buildings? Don’t really know other than they looked cool in this picture!Picture of San Diego bay!Heading into Seaport Village! Lots of cute little shops in which I was good and didn’t buy anything, although I very well could have! My favorite flower that I saw while we were there… I think its called bird of paradise?!Maritime museum… wanted to go on this boat SO bad, but didn’t have time! Downtown San Diego at night!One of the Beach Boys!!! You’ll have to excuse the fact that I don’t know their names, but we got to see them for free and it was great! More about that later!

CIAO! LOVE ME!