Tuesday, February 26, 2013

Where Am I?

So what happened to February?  I feel like it left my head spinning, and I am doing a terrible job at blogging more frequently. 

Classes are going fine. Semester is almost half over already…doesn’t seem possible.  I am getting really frustrated with the scheduling between my school and the kids school.  If it wasn’t for my wonderful mom and dad, I’d have missed quite a few classes because of weird school cancellations and teacher workdays. Today was the first day that one of the goofy delays was on a day that didn’t interfere with my classes. The temperature was hanging right around freezing, and it was raining pretty good all morning, but the roads were fine.  It didn’t seem worth a three hour delay, but neither did the last few.  I think they need to separate the county into high elevation and low elevation zones so that we won’t get penalized every time high elevation gets snow or ice. It’s frustrating, but thank goodness my parents keep coming to my rescue.  They’re awesome like that. 

I’ve been sick this past week, sinus and head cold stuff…I keep thinking I’m shaking it off and then my head hurts again.  Grr…could always be worse though, so I’m not going to complain about it. 

The hospice patient I visited for over a year passed away last week. I haven’t visited for a month or so because she was released from hospice due to improvement and I wasn’t her volunteer anymore.  I was going to call and check in on her anyway but then I found out she had taken a sudden decline, was put back in hospice, and then was gone a few days later.  Sad.  I haven’t taken any new patient assignments yet, but I may, once I find some free time again. 

I have a droid tablet now…a hand me down from the hubby.  I’ve been playing like a little kid in the evenings after I put the actual kids to bed. LOL.  I am loving having my English book on a tablet that is big enough to read easily.  Haha. 

Thirty is just around the corner.  EEEEK.  KC talked me into a 30th party, but I really don’t love being the center of attention so I’m trying to keep it small. He was all like Karaoke, party games, large crowd, a DJ….and I’m like…oh my stars NO!  Too much.  I’m trying to keep the guest list small which is really difficult since I’d love to invite everybody. #firstworldproblem but hopefully everyone will understand.  *sigh*  On the bright side, I’m getting a dr pepper cake.  =)  I was going to make it, but KC refused to let me make my own cake. LOL.

Speaking of making, it’s time to make supper, so I should hop off.  Later.

Wednesday, February 20, 2013

Happy Dance

Yes, it’s been a week—again.  *SIGH*  It’s just been another week of the same ol’ stuff.  Reading books, homework assignments, class, errands, all that jazz.  And of course, just not feeling up to blogging. 

But…had to come do the happy dance for just a moment.  I got my first essay for class back today, and….YAY for the homeschool girl!!! 

99, baby! 

The instructor told us ages ago that he NEVER gives 100 on essays because there’s always “something” that could be done better.  So, a 99 is like, almost perfect. 

WOOT! 

Of course, I did enlist help after I wrote it, to edit it and make it better, but hey…whatever it takes.  =) 

On a not so happy note, I’ve got a scratchy throat and general achy junk going on tonight and I’m going to bed in hopes that a long sleep will fix whatever the echinacea, vitamin C, and Advil Cold and Sinus didn’t take care of already. 

Also, parodies annoy me.  Hubby is watching one now, and he keeps cracking up, but I don’t think it’s that funny.  (insert confused face)

And Aldi had Reese’s Peanut Butter Cup minis (unwrapped mini cups) right in that danger zone at the register today.  I was shopping at lunchtime.  I had not previously eaten.  I caved in about .035 seconds, and I can feel my thighs enlarging as I type.  OOPS.  Maybe when I feel better I’ll do a couple of crunches or something.  LOL Or maybe I’ll just make 100 on my next essay and happy dance all the way to the last essay.  That’s sort of exercise, right?

Thursday, February 14, 2013

Happy Valentine’s Day!

For the first day in ages, I had nothing on my schedule and was able to come back home after taking the kids to school.  Thinking I would take advantage of the opportunity, I threw a load of clothes in the washing machine (don’t want to be a complete slacker, you know), and then put myself back to bed.  Wouldn’t you know my brain was wide open and I never fell asleep!  Ugh.  And I was so tired when I woke up this morning, too…I could have totally used the extra sleep. 

ANYWAY.  Happy Valentine’s Day.  This year, both kids were able to do a lot more of the valentine work themselves.  It was tough for me to let them cut crooked lines and write not-so-neatly, but I managed.  LOL.  I helped with the more complicated stuff (obviously Photoshop is out of Munchkin’s league, and curly mustaches are out of K-man’s cutting skill range) but they did a lot of it.  =) 

Munchkin’s were bookmarks, and K-man’s were mustache blow pops.  The tags I printed and he cut out: “I ‘mustache’ you to be my valentine.”  He thought that was SO funny.  I saw the idea for the mustaches on a sucker on Pinterest…it was so cute, and he has a thing for mustaches, so it was totally perfect.  And Munchkin is a bookworm, so hers was an appropriate theme for her, as well. 

I know it’s been a week since I blogged, I can’t say I haven’t had time to blog, because there’s been time even though I’ve been busy.  I’ve got a lot of stuff on my mind, and while that “should” make it easier to blog, it just feels scattered and somewhat difficult to talk about, leaving me in the place to just keep postponing the blog. I know, I could just get on and post random scattered thoughts…after all, that is my normal modus operandi, but English class is killing me.  Not literally killing me, but now it’s taking me tons longer to write anything because I’m back in the habit of wording and rewording my sentences to be, at least slightly, more grammatically correct.  Ugh. 

In other happenings, KC’s grandma moved to an eternal address last week.  KC had this strong impression that he should go up and see her two weekends ago, so he did.  She wasn’t in the best of health, and she was almost 93, but she seem to be still holding steady. Then, four days after he got back, we got a call that she was gone.  So I’m really glad he had one last chance to go up and see her. From all the stories I’ve heard from her family, in addition to my own experience from the times I was around her…well, it’s hard to know what to say.  I guess I could say she had a wicked sense of humor, never passed up a confrontation, embraced her age as a medal of honor, and was a master storyteller.  I think those things are safely truthful without speaking ill of the dead.  I loved her because she was KC’s grandma, but I wasn’t terribly fond of the way I saw her treat her family. Nevertheless, without her, my darling, sweet, handsome hubby wouldn’t exist, and for that, I’ll be eternally grateful.  

KC’s mom had open heart surgery on Friday to repair her mitral valve, and she’s already home, which really shocked me, but is awesome.  Hopefully it’s an omen of a speedy recovery to follow. 

That’s about it for today.  It’s lunchtime, the laundry needs attention, and the dogs could use a bath, so it’s going to be a full afternoon and I need to get started.

Have a lovely (less wet-dog-smell-y) afternoon…and if perhaps you want to share my pain: find a dog, spritz it with water, then bury your face in it’s fur for a good whiff of my world. Winking smile

Friday, February 08, 2013

How It Goes

I’m ahead.  I quit. 

That was my facebook status but on the blog, I just have to elaborate a little more.  I took my “farther than a first draft” essay in to class today and the instructor went over it and said it’s well on it’s way to being great.  So I came home, pulled it up on my computer, and made some changes.  Then I left it up on my computer for the next five hours and walked by it every few minutes and stopped and typed something every once in a while and pondered and got up and cleaned the kitchen and sat and chatted…and typed a little more. 

And erased.  And pondered. 

And now….you know what?  I’m already ahead of the game, And you know the rule….quit while you’re ahead. 

So…I quit. 

But don’t worry…it will get finished before the deadline in a week and a half. =) 

Wednesday, February 06, 2013

Unofficial Bucket List Item

So I don’t really have a formal bucket list, but I do have a mental scattering of ideas that I’d like to accomplish or try at least once at some point of my life.  One of those ideas was ice skating, and a couple of my friends and I went up to the mountains for a ladies-only day this past Saturday and I got to check that one off my mental list. 

It was an absolutely fabulous day.  My mom and dad were wonderful and kept the kids for me, we went to a “Quarter Sale” at a local thrift shop and I found two bags full of sweet deals for only a quarter each (spent a grand total of $5.87…yay!), there was snow up in the mountains, grown-up girl time (in which we acted like children and strapped on instruments of torture to our feet and spent an hour and a half concentrating on not falling or breaking any bones), lunch at a nice restaurant with a killer view, hot donuts….it couldn’t have been more perfect! 

It was cold, but not miserable, and we were successful in not falling (even though there were a couple of close calls), so we were pretty proud of ourselves. 

I think I’d rather go rollerblading when it comes down to it, it’s just a lot smoother and I get better traction, but I’m really glad to have gotten the chance to try it.  Maybe it was the rental skates that made it more difficult, but we walked away in awe of the professional ice skaters because that is some slick stuff, I kid you not.  LOL

So…ice skating = CHECK.

Next item on my unofficial bucket list: college degree.  That one will take awhile, but at least I’m working on it.  =) 

Speaking of working on it, I’m ahead of my homework and I’m feeling really good about not procrastinating.  I’m also feeling really good about my second class (Art Appreciation) which just started today, because part of the grade is an art journal.  I thought this would just be a class observing and analyzing other people’s art, but getting to do some hands on stuff is exciting.  Sweeet!  

Tuesday, February 05, 2013

After All That Work

We finally have a completed project.  Yeah!  Now it’s time to sell it. =) 

Friday, February 01, 2013

Bits And Pieces

Goodness.  It’s been a crazy sort of week, but in the midst of all the crazy, it’s hard not to see just how very blessed I am. 

Had class this morning and then left from there to go to a funeral (but more of a going away party) for a very loved and special sixteen year old.  It was beautiful and sad at the same time.  My heart is sad for the family but so happy for “Brother” because I know where he is now and that he has the complete healing that he didn’t have on earth.  I can just imagine him running and talking up there, two things that he was never able to do here, and I’m sure that his smile is more radiant now than ever. 

So I’m not one for tears very often, but today was very touching and I’m pretty sure I used up my annual allotment of eye raindrops. 

The instructor in class this morning said our homework tonight is to start on our first draft for the first essay….and we should start by just free-writing all our ideas. 

Mental vomit, he called it.  ROFL!  I almost laughed out loud in class.  I think I did actually snicker.  I should be really good at this….after all, it’s what I do in EVERY blog post. 

It’s what I’m doing now…(only about all the floating particles of happenings that are in my brain at the moment, NOT about the topic of my first essay). 

Speaking of happenings, KC is almost home from work, so I better go get changed.  We’ll probably have to go get some food since I, for sure, am not in the mood to cook at the moment.  Is there such a thing as mental ADD?