{time stands still}

Time stands still... but only when I am in class on Mondays and Wednesdays and when I am having a slow day at clinic. This week has seemed to drag on forever! Another slow morning at clinic today, but mostly because my supevisor is gone and I came in to see some cochlear implant appointments, but I don't think that the appointments are until the afternoon and my supervisor neglected to let the other audiologists on staff know that I was coming in and so they weren't expecting me and now I sit here until this afternoon with my thumb up my patootie with nothing to do because the appointments I want to see aren't until then. My tablet only has half power left, although it should last me until the afternoon. My phone gets no reception in the building so I can't make any phone calls unless I go outside and I didn't bring any homework along to work on. What a joyous world, eh?

Well, actually, I did bring a little bit of homework along. I finished that already (twice)! Twice because I had written in once on my tablet and then switched applications without saving (I know, naughty me, but I was on my tablet and I had done it before and it worked) and then when I was done with whatever application I had switched to, I hit the 'kill all active apps' button and it 'killed' the app that I had up that I was typing my assignment on and I lost it! Thankfully it wasn't a very long assignment, but I was almost done with it and so I was pretty upset that I had to retype it. I think the retyped version actually is better than the first, but still, that is twenty minutes that I won't get back. I guess I need to be more on top of saving things on my tablet as well. Oops! Life goes on though!

I happened upon a blog yesterday through some other blog that I was on (I was blog hopping) and something that the person had written struck a nerve with the inner photographer in me. The writer of the blog was pregnant and had her sister take some maternity pictures for her. No biggie. But she wrote that her sister had a nice camera and so she didn't want to have to pay someone else to take the pictures if her sister could just do it. She said that anyone with a nice camera can take good pictures and make them look professional. Okay, so I know that she didn't mean anything bad by that and it was just a simple statement, but it is SO far from the truth! Really! Just because you have an expensive camera, it does not mean that your pictures will be great. Yes, the expensive SLR camera have the ability to do things that your compact point and shoots do not, but you have to know what you are doing with the camera to get those effects. And even I still don't know how to work everything on my camera to get all of the looks I want. I am still learning. I am a hobby/amateur photographer. I will not and do not put myself into the professional photography category by ANY means! I can manipulate some stuff on my camera to get what I want, but I still don't go full manual very often (if at all). So, it just bugs me when people think they can go buy an expensive camera one day and turn 'professional' the next. One good picture out of 50 doesn't mean anything! And it really gets me when people see a picture and say wow, you must have a really great camera. Um, hello, how about the person behind the camera?! Doesn't my talent count for anything?! My vent for the day... still with me?

I officially have two interviews set up for externship placements. One in person at the clinic in Green Bay and one on the phone with a clinic in Sheboygan. Exciting (and nerve wracking at the same time)! Keep your fingrs crossed for me!

I have been eating WAY too much junk food lately and not working out as diligently as I should be. I am kicking myself for it right now. Last night after I got home from class (at 7pm) I had supper and then I literally went back and forth in my head for the next half hour about whether or not I should work out. One minute I was like, yeah, I will get up off of the comfy warm couch and get at it, the next I was like, it isn't going to hurt me to sit another night on the couch and not work out (the night before was my day off for the week). It went back and forth like that for a good half hour. Ultimately, I decided against working out. I was warm on the couch and didn't want to. LAME excuse. I know. I feel horrible about it. It sucks. And then to make matters worse, yesterday I had brownie bites, two bite size candy bars (the smallest ones, not the two bite funsize), a large hershey's chocolate peanut bar, a handful of chocolate chips, and then two chocolate chip cookies! PIG out, OMG! WAY too many sweets yesterday! I couldn't believe myself, but I also could't help myself, I was craving it, even though I wasn't too hungry for it. This morning I weighed in at 115.4 lbs... that is 2.4 lbs more than I was on Tuesday morning. Ugh! However, despite the fact that I did enjoy seeing 113.0 lbs on the scale Tuesday morning, 115.4 lbs really isn't bad either. It is still less than what I started and I should still be proud of myself for getting this far. Just right now I am not very proud of my motivation or willpower.

It's definitely been motivating to see my clothes get looser and looser, but the thing is now... NOTHING FITS! Today I have a pair of Maurice dress pants on, size 7/8 and they literally slide right off my hips! I've pinned them tighter so I can wear them! Did you see that, I have to PIN my pants so they will stay on! But, I know I have said it before, Maurice pants sizes must run big because even the size 3/4 ones that I have are a little big on me too. My shirts definitely fit better than they were; however, some of the ones that I actually liked how they fit are now too big and baggy and make me look bigger than I actually am when I wear them. Yes, I am complaining about my clothes not fitting because I'm too skinny. Deal with it. I don't have the money to go buy a whole new wardrobe. And besides, its my blog, I'll write what I want. You don't like it, don't read it. Just like how I did't have to keep reading that one blog of the lady who irked me with her camera comment. If you want to, go ahead and bitch about me on your blog. I don't care. Well, I do. So those of you who I actually know in real life that read, you can bitch, just please do it behind my back. I'd rather not have to find out online. Those of you who I don't know and just happened upon my blog (if there are any of you out there), go right ahead. Haha!

I got to see some pretty neat cochlear implant stuff so far today. The first appointment was with a patient who used sign language as her primary mode of communication and so she had an interpreter with her. I LOVED, just LOVED watching them communicate! So much so that it has made me think about finding a sign language class to take. I did take one class as an undergraduate in college, but I do not remember very much of it. I would love to learn more and become more fluent with it. I think that it would be so neat! I also got to see a patient for the second time with his implant and he is continuing to improve with it which is AWESOME!!!

Are you tired of reading yet?! Ha!

CIAO! LOVE ME!

{introducing}

I’ve We’ve been pretty busy around here lately… what with cub scouts two weeks in a row, trying to find a new vehicle for Jay, and not getting home until later at night. Add on top of that homework that I don’t want to do, turning in a research proposal draft, and asking for recommendation letters from old supervisors, and then editing four (almost five) photography sessions. It’s all kept me from wanting to blog lately.

It has been a slow day at clinic for me today (where I happen to be right now), but that is okay. I have needed a slow day at clinic for a while now and it gives me some time to get other things done.
We had a good weekend. Jay has a new truck now and he loves it. Ayden and I have nicknamed it 'The Beast' and Jay doesn't like that name. He's going to have to deal with it though because it stuck!

I had a photo-shoot on both Saturday and Sunday. Both went really well. I have one of them already edited and ready for the client. The other one shouldn't take me too long to edit. I have two more shoots this Saturday. A maternity one for my cousin and a couple's one for the photographer who takes our family pictures. I am excited about those as well, although I will admit that I am a little nervous to take pictures for another photographer. I hope that I can impress her!

Classes continue to go well. I'm ready for the end of the semester already, but I don't want to wish away the weeks too fast. There is essentially only a month and a half left. I've had one test so far and I did really well on it. We have weekly quizzes in another class and the last two quizzes have not gone well for me. On last week's quiz I got an 80% and on this weeks quiz I only got a 60%. Oops! But in my defense, it doesn't take much to get a 60% when there are only 10 questions on the quiz, haha! It was hard though because a lot of the information wasn't on the PowerPoint slides we had (well I suppose that it doesn't help that I have a hard time paying attention in class as well). Hoping this weeks quiz is a little easier!

The externship hunt is moving forward at a snails pace. I've asked for letters of recommendation and have three of them so far, plus a glowing recommendation from another professor that I essentially didn't have to ask for. I did ask one other previous supervisor; however, I have not heard back from her yet. She did say that when I was with her that she would give me a recommendation if I ever needed one so we will see. According to my classmate, Katie, who is with her right now, she is pretty busy with some personal issues right now. I'll just be happy to know where I will be going for my externship and where we will be living by like January or February. Hoping sooner rather than later and I know with the coming holiday months that time will essentially fly by me without me even realizing it.

I have the two photo-shoots this weekend, two next weekend, and then one more scheduled. I am thinking about adding in clause for my clients that states they will have to pay extra if they are late. I have had three people be late in the last two weeks and it drives me nuts! Is my time not important to them? I am habitually on time or early and it drives me nuts when we are running late (which is hardly ever) and so it drives me even more nuts when I have to wait on other people. Really, I don't care if you have no kids, one kid, or six kids, plan your time wisely and budget for things to take longer and you WILL be on time. Really, how hard can it be?! Now, five or ten minutes late doesn't usually bother me, but after that it gets a little long, especially when it is an important event. Oh well, there is my gripe about that.

I took some initiative at home with Ayden's school work. He doesn't typically come home with any homework, except for a packet of math sheets on Wednesday nights. We are supposed to read with him for 20 minutes a night and for a while there we were pretty good about reading with him, but it wasn't for 20 minutes. Yesterday I got home from work a little early and had a bit before I had to pick Ayden up from school so I cleaned out his homework box that I had made him awhile ago and filled it up with some stuff. I have decided that we are going to set the timer for 20 minutes each night and read a chapter book. I read a page, he reads a page. For the most part, he is reading the majority of the 20 minutes because the time it takes me to read a page is significantly shorter than the time it takes him. We are also going to work on his handwriting and math skills. I have a check off sheet for him to do each night and it includes: emptying out his school folder, mom or dad signing his planner, reading 20 minutes, writing the book name down in his reading folder, going through his vocabulary words, math worksheet and hand writing worksheet. All in all, this shouldn't take more than an hour and I think that that is even long. But with the check off sheet I think it will hold Jay and myself more accountable for our actions because last week I noticed that it was too easy for us to sit back on the couch and watch TV as a family than to pick up a book and read as a family. And at this point, reading is WAY more important than watching TV. Both Ayden and Jay know that his check off list needs to be completed before the TV goes on for the night. Keep your fingers crossed and wish us good luck with this. We are entering a whole new phase of parenting as Ayden continues to get older and although he is more able to be independent on things, it is a whole different level of help and responsibility that we need to give as parents.

And since there are a whole lot of pictures that I want to share yet and don’t really feel like continuing to write, enjoy! CIAO! LOVE ME!

{what it's all about}

Despite the fact that last week was not the greatest week in history for me (I can't mark it as even close to one of the worst either), I had a pretty darn good weekend!

I'll start out with some of the bummer news and work my way into the good news. Bummer news is that Jay's truck can be fixed (wait that's not bummer news... ha, wait for it)... for a price. Price being upwards of $3000+. What's wrong with the truck... what isn't wrong, ha! Actually, if I remember correctly, I believe it is something to do with the torque converter and the transmission. Wait, I think the torque converter is in the transmission. Who knows?! But what I do know is that to fix it at the auto repair shop, it will cost more than the truck is worth. That means, new truck. That means spending money. That means sad Ashley! And a headache in trying to find a new truck. Good news about this whole situation is that Jay's grandparents are rock stars and are letting us borrow their extra vehicle for the time being. Hopefully time being isn't too long. LOVE them!

Our weekend started off okay Friday night. We headed home after Jay got home from work and I got to drive in the wicked wind from the west (that mind you, still hasn't let up)! Horrible driving in the wind! But we made it safe and sound! Jay went to the football game Friday night with his dad, while Ayden and I stayed at home and relaxed on the couch, played games, and watched a movie.

Saturday was a busy day for me. I had two photo shoots and they both went great! I am in love with the pictures that I got! If you haven't already, head on over to Frozen Moments Photography and take a look at the sneak peaks I put up. I still need to upload some pictures from previous sessions that I've had as well, but I just haven't gotten that far yet. I photographed my lovely friend Kristi and her family and then my friend Rosie and her family! Both beautiful families!

After my photo shoots were over, I headed over to my mom's house for the rest of the day. I got over there around 2:30pmish and Ayden and I were there until probably close to 8pm. It was a great afternoon! My sister showed up and my brother came over and we had a nice family dinner and then went to the corn maze. It's days like that that make me realize how much I miss my family by living so far away and not getting to see them very often. I don't remember the last time that my mom, sister, brother, and I were all sitting in the kitchen as supper was cooking and joking around. It was a good time. And then not to mention the fact that we ALL even ate around the table for supper!

We all headed to the corn maze just as dark was approaching. As we started the corn maze we didn't really need the help of our glow sticks that we were given, but we weren't too far in before they were helping us find our way through. It was a TON of fun, even if I was tripping over corn roots and rocks every five seconds and we went in ten million circles just to find our way to the bridge and out. Ayden really enjoyed himself and got to lead us on a lot of the ways. We all thought our way was probably the right way, but really when you are in the dark of night going through a corn maze with paths every which way and only have a glow stick to see, do you ever really know where you are or where you have or haven't gone before?! I think not! Ha! Eventually we found our way out! There were two mazes and it only took us a little over and hour to get out of both of them. I thought that that was pretty good, considering it took about an hour and 20 minutes for Ayden, my friend Niki, and myself to find our way through a corn maze a few weeks ago in the DAYLIGHT!

I had another photo shoot on Sunday for a senior and that one went really well too. I am excited to get all of the photos edited and sent out to everyone. That is my goal for the week because I have another three photo shoots coming up this weekend. I've been booking photo shoots right and left lately and I love it! Although, I do know that I need to slow down a little bit before this starts to feel like a job and I no longer enjoy it. But, I have to admit that the extra cash is a little nice!

CIAO! LOVE ME!

{ebbing instead of flowing}

Remember a while ago when I wrote that life has it ebbs and flows and that during that time I was flowing right along?! Well, now I’m ebbing… not having a very good week this week. Feeling out of control (although are we ever in total control?) and things are just not going the way I had anticipated them. I am having one of those weeks.

I feel like my clinical supervisor thinks that I know nothing because she likes to ask me all of these complicated questions and I have to say that I don’t know the answer over and over. Ugh, make me feel bad numero uno for the week.

Last night I received an email from my advisor regarding my research project. Apparently she received an email from the daughter of one of the patients I had sent a survey too stating that she noticed a few spelling errors in my informed consent. (Disclaimer: these spelling errors were not glaring errors because I missed them, my advisor missed them, and the department chair missed them.) But really, you had to go and email someone about some stupid typos when you were probably only 1 of 3 people out of the almost 300 surveys that I sent out that caught the error. Really?!?! Way to make me feel like a huge idiot! Ugh, make me feel bad numero dos for the week.

And finally, I found out that my number one choice for my externship will be a no go and that there are even fewer and fewer options than I had originally thought. But seriously, I told my advisor that I would be willing to go pretty much anywhere in Eastern Wisconsin, it shouldn’t be that hard to find a placement for me. I mean, there are only two students you need to find externships for. Ugh, make me feel bad numero tres for the week.

It is literally just not my week. I cannot wait for the weekend!

CIAO! LOVE ME!

{right frame of mind}

It’s been a couple of days since I have blogged (again), but I’m sure you didn’t miss me all that much!

Life has been continuing to roll on around me. Some days I feel like it is flying at warp speed and I am just watching it all go on around me and am not really in it. If that makes any sense. And other days I feel like it is dragging on FOREVER! I can’t believe though that at the end of this week we will already be half way through October. Where has the time gone, really?!?!

Last Friday was like Christmas at my house for me. A bunch of stuff that I had ordered came in. My Thirty-One party stuff came in… LOVE it all! My Lia Sophia jewelry came in… LOVE it all also! And, I finally decided on a new workout program and that came in too!

As I had previously written in a different blog post, I was getting into a rut with working out. I was getting bored with the workouts that I was doing and it was making me not want to work out at all. In fact, I took almost all of last week off. Then, it was like super right timing because as I was thinking about what I wanted to try next with working out, my cousin Amanda (who is currently a coach for Beachbody and doing her own Turbo Fire workout) offered a discount to individuals for the program. She was letting people order the program with HER discount and honestly, I really couldn’t pass it up! And… I had been thinking about it anyways, just didn’t know if I was fully committed. This was totally a sign for me! So, I let Amanda know that I wanted to order it and it came literally like two days later!

I said ‘screw it’ to not working out for the rest of the week and got started with the Turbo Fire program. Something must be wrong with me… giving up two more days of not working out just so I could start a new program?! What can I say? I was really excited!

I watched the Getting Started DVD first and then the first workout before trying anything. The workouts all have a new to class option in which the moves are broken down for you. Friday night I got my workout clothes on and got ready to get my Turbo Fire groove on! I’ll admit that I was a little bit nervous to start after having watching it earlier in the day and I’m not going to lie and say that I wasn’t dancing around like a fool during some of it, hehe! At one point about halfway through it I was SO ready to just hit the stop button and say screw it because I wasn’t getting it, but I pushed through and kept going. I kept telling myself that it was only my first time doing the workout and that it was going to take practice before I got the hang of it and really felt comfortable with it. I was so glad that I pushed through it and let me tell you, I was dripping just as much as any other workout too.

I think one of my favorite thing about the program is that it tells me what I should be doing every day and there is no guess work or trying to decide what I should do. And… they give you a day off! Because of when I started the workout, my day ‘off’ ends up on Sundays which is kind of nice, but I know in the coming weekends it will probably end up being some Saturdays because we won’t be home. In any case, I think I am really going to enjoy it. The second workout was one of the HIIT workouts which stands for high intensity interval training and even though it was only 15 minutes long, I was huffing and puffing like none other by the time I was done. Definitely high intensity and I loved it! Short workouts that leave me huffing and puffing are my favorite!

Tonight was the Fire 55 EZ workout and let me tell you, EZ does NOT stand for EASY! This workout kicked my booty and (don’t tell anyone), I didn’t even finish it! I made it through about 40 minutes of it before I almost passed out! I guess that I am going to have to work up to the whole 55 minutes. But if it makes any difference, I had to do the new to class option first and so that meant I was doing the first routine twice. Once again, dripping in sweat though. I am seriously LOVING this workout! It is EXACTLY what I have been looking for. I love the whole tae-bo/kick boxing aspect of it and the high intensity and the fact that the instructor is actually working out with you. In so many of the other DVDs that you get the instructor works out for the first 30 seconds and then spends the rest of the time telling you should you should be doing it. In this one, Chalene is kicking your butt at the same time that she is working her butt off too! Awesome!

It was another busy weekend at our house, well at least for me. On Saturday I was able to get together with two of my besties from my undergraduate course work. The fourth was unable to make it and we were all sad because it is just not the same when someone is missing and all four parts of the whole are not together. We had a scrumptious lunch at Olive Garden and then headed off to get our nails done before doing some shopping. I just got a manicure done, but no fake nails. I cannot stand fake nails, well on me anyways. Did it once, won't be doing that again anytime soon, at least no acrylics. I don't mind the Sally Hansen kind that you can do yourself at home.

After our mani/pedis, we hit up the consignment stores in Appleton. I had never been to Platos Closet before and let me tell you, I WILL be going back! Lots of awesome things for cheap! I will admit that I probably won't be buying a pair of used jeans for $18, even if they are Silver... I just have a hard time paying that much for a pair of used jeans. In any case, not all of their clothes were that highly priced and I have nothing against buying used and saving the difference. This time though, I kept the debit card in the wallet and didn't spend any money.
The same cannot be said when we went into Once Upon a Child though. I did find a nice pair of dress shoes for Ayden for only $3 which I bought, along with a few books. My total there was only $12 so I didn't think that was too bad. And Ayden needed the dress shoes for an upcoming wedding and one can never have enough books.

On Sunday we went to the apple orchard that we found last year. They had a corn maze that we went through and I have to say that it must have been super easy and/or Ayden got really lucky with the paths that he was choosing because I swear that we were only in the maze for a total of 15 minutes. I didn't think it was all that fun. Oh well though, this weekends maze is sure to definitely provide some excitement! We also picked some apples and pumpkins to take home with us. We found two huge pumpkins to carve and I have to say that I am kind of excited because we haven't carved pumpkins at our house in the last couple of years. And these are some massive pumpkins by our standards and they were relatively reasonably priced given that the pumpkin crop was apparently pretty bad this year. I have an ever increasing list of things that I need (and want) to get done this week and about the ambition of a slug to get them done. And now I’m kind of bummed because I received some not so pleasant news from my teacher/advisor. Ugh, maybe I’ll have the ambition to go into it tomorrow. Ugh again!

CIAO! LOVE ME!