Time for a Fresh Start

With school, the kids, and life, priorities get shifted, and while I love to blog, home and happiness comes first. Unfortunately, this means my online life can be put on the back burner for a while.

So, I know the last time I blogged was back in March, and I need to get some things off my chest.

Since then, I have finished my first semester of school, started my second semester, and finished my second semester. I start my third semester in 2 weeks. Right now, I am holding on to a 4.0!! Yeah!! Hopefully I can keep it up!

Back in August, my sister moved, and we found some of my Mom's knitting and crocheting things. Since I am the only one in my family interested in that kind of thing, I got them all. So, I searched How to Knit and How to Crochet online, and taught myself to knit. I am still trying to get the hang of crochet. Many people that I have talked to have said that crochet is easier, but I disagree. So far I have made hats for both the kids, a scarf for Emma, and I am working on a ducky toy, a tooth fairy pillow for Emma, and I am trying to work up the nerve to start on a pair of socks. I joined Ravelry, and a few knitting groups on Facebook and Cafemom.

When I went back to school, my photography teacher surprised me with an enlarger, camera, and some darkroom equipment that he found over the summer. I reimbursed him, of course, but it was really cool that he thought of me when he found them. Now, I have my own darkroom. Well, I have a master bathroom that I can make into a darkroom when I need to. I also have most of the equipment I need-enough that I finished most of my assignments at home over the semester.

I also took another keyboarding class, and am planning to blog often so that I can keep working on my typing skills.

We moved, since my last post, got a horse, and have had some changes in our dog family.

Well, I think that is it for now, and I promise that I will be on here more, and I might even post some pics every now and then.

So it's been a while

I just seems so redundant. I did get my roll of film developed, and I went into the darkroom on Monday to get some prints developed. AMAZING, If I do say so myself... Even the aide said they were good. There's one that I got of a moth, I chased this silly moth around the park for almost a half hour before I could get the perfect picture. Anyways, the aide said it looked like a digital rendering, it's that good!
I've been writing fake business letters and memos for my keyboarding class, makes me want to work in an office again. Is it really that horrible that I've been a stay-at-home-mom for the past 2 1/2 years? No one wants to hire me! Maybe that's because I need to focus on my schoolwork and not worry about a job.
Our lease is up at the end of May, but our landlady is willing to let us out of it mid-April, so we've been looking for a new rental place-maybe even a rent-to-own. We found one we really liked, but someone bought it out from under us, so our next option is a month-to-month rental for 500 smackers less than what we're paying now.
We're just waiting for the people to call us back and let us know if our application was accepted. It's kinda in the other direction from where we want to be, but it's a monthly basis, so if we find a new place, we only have to give 30 days notice. Good, I think. And the kids will be on the bus less, so that's good, I think...
Time to finish my English Homework... yeah!!

Motivation

My motivation to update this blog has been overridden by the research project my English class is requireing.
Along with the fact that it seems like it's the same thing every day, over and over, and I really have NO idea what I am doing with this project.
Good news, though. I developed my first roll of film last night. I did all of my assignments on the one roll, and now all that is left is to print out the ones I want, and turn them in.
I was thinking of putting together a photography project. I just need to brainstorm some ideas and go for it. Make a book of Something of the White Mountains. Parks, small businesses, lakes, dogs, churches, statues (not very many of those up here...), etc, etc. Would anyone want to look at things like that?

In a Rut

Not much going on. Get work done by Wednesday morning, Girl Scouts in the afternoon, turn in work, go to Photography, go home, sleep, wake up, go to English, try to understand what's going on and repeat the cycle.

I did get some good pictures of the kids yesterday, and I'll be all done with my first roll of film for Photog by Sunday.
Time to make Mac & Cheese... Yummy!

Testing

The census bureau is hiring for the 2010 census, so I went today to their testing. Twenty-eight questions to be answered in 30 minutes. And here I thought I didn't have to worry about tests until May...
And now I have to wait and see if they even need an extra worker in my area. They are hiring from now to May of 2010, so there is a good chance that I won't get a call until after Christmas of next year. Let's hope it was worth it.

I love taking pictures!!

I took a photography class back in high school ( have I mentioned that before?) Anyways, I had a roll of film that never got developed. Since it was professional hand rolled film, I couldn't take it to Walgreens and have them develop it, so I sat on it (figuratively) for the last 6 years. Well, Wednesday, I finally got to work with it.
Here's the twist. I thought it was film from my visit to my brothers house- I took pictures of my nephews. So I got all excited because Friday was my SIL birthday, and I wanted to send her pictures of my nephews. I got the film developed, and went in the darkroom, and it was pictures from the way home from their house. Basically pictures of my Hubby and the local scenery.
Crap.
I mean, it's great to see the pretty mountains and cute pics of my love, but I was expecting pictures of the boys. I know that there's another roll out there. Now I have to dig through boxes and find the right roll.

Today I took the kids to the local waterfowl reserve (I can't really call it a reserve, because they allow hunting in the marsh). I got some great shots, 3 of the 5 requirements for my photo class. Hopefully the pictures come out. I want to go back without the kids, because they were pretty good at scaring the ducks and geese away. Most of the birds were too far away to get a good shot of them, but I took some good ones of the kids and the scenery.

Research Project and Data Storage

First and Foremost:::
Thank you, thank you, thank you, thank you, my BFF! After all the drama with the stupid floppy disks, I am supremely grateful not to have to worry about it anymore.

Ok, so onto the research paper. We spent 45 minutes in the school library today learning about the different resources we have available to us for our research needs. There's a lot of cool stuff I wish I had been able to use back in High School... Databases, reference catalogs, websites, video, etc, etc.
There were quite a few topics I was debating using, and in our peer group time today, my 'peers' chose my motherhood topic. So my research report is on the thesis: How did the feminist movement affect modern motherhood?

Any thoughts?

Skipping school

So I haven't been going to my Tuesday classes because it's just easier to be here when the kids get home, instead of trying to find a sitter that (1) I trust and (2) is reliable.
The instructor doesn't care, as long as I turn the work in.
I just have to get the work done...

What I really need is someone willing to trade room/board/and meals for watching the kids when I need someone. Like that's going to happen. I was thinking putting some fliers up at school, but I haven't been able to find a bulletin board that is for students, and not just school stuff. I'll just have to look harder, I guess.
Maybe I'll put a classified in the local free paper. Not that many people read that one, I don't think though. I just don't know what to do...
Oh well.

Behind, behind, behind

Trying to get caught up in Basic Keyboarding. Its amazing how nice having 4 hours a week for just keyboarding helps...
I'm all done with my Intro to Windows class. Since it was all just the basics, and I've been using computers since High school, that class was pretty simple.
I have decided that, besides photography, my MS Office class is my favorite. I get to create, edit, change, etc all sorts of documents and I get to pretend I'm some important executive. I feel almost glamorous typing spreadsheets and letters to ficticious people who will never get them...

We have an eight to fifteen page research essay due at the end of the semester for my Compositon class. This time, we get to pick our topic. Any topic in the whole wide world. I almost wish for a list of topics to chose from, then I wouldn't have so many options to pick from... Right now it's between motherhood, and the afterlife... see where I'm going with that???
Those choices are so I can use a very important tape that my family cherishes- well, at least I cherish it. When my sister was in college, she interviewed my Mom. I want to use that interview. Very badly, I want to use that interview... we'll see what happens.

Photographs!!!

I have a camera, I have film, I have the desire to take pictures. Tomorrow after the kids go to school, I will go have my Italian cream soda at my coffee shop, get some homework done, and go shoot some pictures. I CANNOT WAIT!!!!

Time to work on keyboarding, again!

Valentines Day

Don't worry, despite the title, this is a school related post... Just not my school.

We spent yesterday -snow day- writing Valentines card for the kid's classes. Do you know how hard it is to make my son write a card for every kid? That one's mean, this one is too small, that kid isn't nice to me, this kid isn't nice to everyone, etc, etc, etc. If he had his way, there would be one card for his 'special girl friend' (I'm too little to have a 'girlfriend', he tells us,) and one for the kid who's nice to him, and that would be it.

My daughter, on the other hand, wants to send a card to every child in her school. ONLY the kids in your class, daughter!

And, to top it all off, on this most romantic of weekends, we have parent-teacher conferences this Thursday and Friday. Nothing gets me in the mood more than a teacher telling me what my kid is doing wrong. (note the sarcasm!?!)

Picture Blog...

Got some pics back from Walgreens. Some good ones, some horrible (thanks to a stupid camera.) Since we have a crappy scanner, they aren't showing up on the computer very well. The new plan is to use the software at my photography class and scan the negatives. I think that might work better. We'll see.

Chaos

Things have been so busy and hectic, and I was stuck in limbo for a while, but things have *kinda* slowed down.
So I was all excited about being hired by hubby's company. It seemed a done deal, they interviewed me, told me to come in for training, then they decide to go with a girl who used to work there that is already trained. WTH??
They still want me to train in the next few weeks so I can cover when the new girl is out or something, but I totally rearranged my school schedule and arranged for a sitter because I thought I was going to be working. So, I spent this morning looking in the classifieds.
Being as we live in a small town, there's not a lot of options available, but I did send out 4 copies of my resume, and I'm going to fill out an application after my class today.
Hubby and I aren't pissed or anything. I can understand their want of someone already trained. And the work is good for him. I just think they weren't very professional in not telling me they were talking to someone else. Oh well, I guess I wasn't meant to work for them just yet.
I think this means I'll get a job with benefits, so I can get myself and the kids a check-up.

Looks like...

Looks like the part time position is now full time.
Looks like what was ok to have kids in the office is now no kids in the office.
Looks like what was babysitter no longer needed is now babysitter needed daily.
Looks like English is getting easier.

Lets hope that nothing else changes....

English sucks

Have I forgotten what classes were like in high school? Did I gloss over in my mind what I went through with homework and tests?
I think I was cheated in HS. One thing I do remember is getting easy A's in my math classes. One, because the teacher was sympathetic to the working students, and did not expect or necessarily want the homework returned to her, as long as we did the classwork right.
My sophomore math class was weird, because the teacher passed away in the first quarter, and we had substitutes the rest of the year, none of whom gave a crap, and one who cared too much, and failed us all (resulting in everyone getting passing grades, the administration could not comprehend an entire class failing, and blamed the sub (hahahaha)).
I did skate through my Jr and Sr years. 4 classes each year, 2 of which were electives. Of which I will say, photography was my favorite. Just as it is now, how appropriate.
Not that I have to worry about math- not right now anyways, but English is another story. My 9th grade teacher went to college with my sister- thus insuring me a decent grade. The teacher my sophomore year was a fat slob (I have nothing against chubby people, but I would probably call her a skinny slob if she had been down 200 lbs) who was WAY too emotional. I think I almost failed that class.
Junior year for me was the 2nd-and last-year for my teacher. She had decided that teaching hormonal teenagers was not the job for her, and became very lazy at the end. I did get my "Late Night with Kermit Letterfrog" poster from her, so that's one good thing, I guess. My senior English teacher knew my other sister (and even after 16 years, I still got compared to her) and decided to teach her students manners and etiquette just before prom- no one paid any attention- but we still got graded on it.
I will admit that meeting my husband my junior year, starting my first job, and getting pregnant senior year did not help my studies, but I still graduated with a 3-point-something GPA.
So, I got a JOKE of an education in high school, and am getting paid back for it now. I have absolutely no idea what I am doing in this English class, but I will NOT give up.
One thing I have learned from this is that I will do all I can to get my kids in college right after high school instead of waiting like I did. This class might have been easier if I had taken it 6 years ago instead of waiting.

A wrench in the gears

The company my lovely hubby works for is in need of an office worker. They want me. Am I destined to never finish school?
At this point, they just need someone part time. Luckily, three of my classes are computer labs, and I can do most of the work at home.
In fact, I need to log off and finish some work....

No sitters...

For today, my only lecture class, and I can't be there... Stuck here with Robbie. I keep thinking today is Friday- but it isn't.
I'm going to the school around the time class is over to turn in my homework and get the assignment for next week. Hopefully that's ok with the instructor. I tried to get ahold of him last night, but wasn't able to reach him-or his voicemail- in any way.

And, there's a Pep Rally for the Superbowl today in the lobby of the building where my class is. Free pizza!! On that note, I'm outta here...

Headaches, Assemblies, and Losing your Mother....

So last Thursday, right... I get out of class at 10:45 am, and there was an assembly at my daughters school that started at 10:45. The sitter's daughter is in Emma's class, so she just brought my son with her, and we met at the Primary school. After my daughters class presented their spiel on 'Responsibility' we went to find the girls.
As soon as Emma saw me she started bawling. All she wanted was me. I tried every bribe in the book, and some I made up on the spot, but no cigar. She wanted to go home. So we tracked down here teacher and got her bag and jacket.
Her teacher was out the week before, her Mom had passed away. So after I told her we were going home, I offered my condolences and we talked about it for a while. I don't really know very many people that I talk to on a regular basis that have lost their mom, so it's kind of nice to know that I have someone who went through a similar thing. Only, her teacher is in her late 40's, early 50's so she's quite a bit older than me... but we can-and do-talk.

My classes today were crappy... I used the backspace too much in my keyboarding class, so now that I'm getting to the tests- where there is NO backspace- I'm screwed. In fact, it's time to go practice...

Easy Peasy Lemon Squeezy

My Monday class is a one credit course called Intro to Windows. It's scheduled as a 9 week course, last Monday was a holiday. So I've been in the classroom a total of 6 hours, and I'm already almost finished with the textbook that goes with it. One more week and I'll be completely done with the course.
The bummer is, even when I'm all done with the classwork and assignments, I still have to show up at class. Three absences automatically drop you from the course. If I had the money, I could add another course to my semester and cross one more requirement off my list. Unfortunately I spent all my Pell grant money on my current classes and textbooks.
So I get to spend 6-10 more weeks hanging out in a classroom doing nothing, or doing course work for no credits. I think I can talk to my instructor and either just go in for a few minutes every Wednesday, or call in or something- anything to not waste my time. We'll have to see what happens.

School of a different Kind

I have been experimenting with churches in our area. I got spoiled at my home church down in Phoenix, and haven't been able to find one up here that I like. There is a church literally right across the street from our house. I'd been to nervous to check it out for the longest time, but finally went for it a few weeks ago.
At first, I was really into it. They played great music and seemed very Christ-centered. And there was no real sermon-just a conversation on the Bible verses being discussed.
Which brings me to the school part of it. There's a handout and an outline that goes along with the Bible verses at this church.
I'm not sure how I feel about this. If I wanted an outline on points in the Bible, I'd go to Theology class. But then one of the reasons you go to church is to learn about the Bible.
I have already decided that this church is not the one for me. It may be for others, but not for me or my family. Hopefully one of these days, I'll find another home church.

Cameras, Headaches, Assemblies, and Losing your Mother

Last nights photo class was about all the different cameras. Starting back in the 1800's. Our instructor has a bunch of different ones, that we can check out and use. Frickin' AWESOME!!







This one is a 4x5, so named because of the size of the film you use to take pictures (http://www.kenrockwell.com/tech/4x5.htm)





This one is a pinhole camera. Simple construction, easy to use, easy to carry. ( http://www.kodak.com/global/en/consumer/education/lessonPlans/pinholeCamera/pinholeCanBox.shtml)





This one is my favorite... This one uses 120 film. I think I like it so much because it's one used in the movie A Will of Thier Own, one of my favorite movies. (http://www.keaggy.com/cameras/)


So after he showed us all the different cameras, he took a look at the cameras I have. One is my in-laws that got left behind when they split. The other was my parents that they bought in Germany years ago. Both of them need to be cleaned. The downside of living in a small town is that if you need something special done, such as a sewing machine repaired, or a camera repaired, you have to drive 200 miles to anywhere that has someone who has the skills to do something like that. And pay for it too.

While I was looking forward to using my own cameras to take the photographs I am required to develop for the class, it looks like I'll be borrowing more than just the 'special' ones.

BTW, I went to my English class today, and have to write an essay in the next week comparing either 2 photos or 2 poems.
Yeah homework!!



PS, see the Jan 27th post (to come) for the headache, assembly, and Losing your Mother part.. sorry, I forgot about that part.

My instructor is cool... Keyboarding is hard...

The kids get on the bus at 8am, my class starts at 8am. The instructor is cool with letting me come in 10 minutes or so late, so I can get the kids on the bus. And I still get done with all my work before our allotted time is up.

Keyboarding was OK last week, besides the whole carpel tunnel thing, but adding the shift button into the mix confuses the hell outta me. My wpm went down a bunch after starting to use the shift keys.

The diversity of community college is astounding. To my left I have a 56 year old grandma who is just now learning about computers. To my right is a high school senior taking accelerated classes who has been on myspace since she could read. And there's me, in the middle of the two, used to all this, taking a course as a refresher and requirement for my degree.

There are people there for their 4th associates, people there for just one class- usually for work, high schoolers there for accelerated learning classes, students who are ready to transfer to a university, parents whose kids have grown up, and people ready to start a new career or business.

If you ever want to talk to a diverse group of people, hit your local community college.

Not School Related at all

THE CARDINALS ARE GOING TO THE SUPERBOWL!!!!!!!!!!!!!
Has hell froze over?

Yesterday's class- English

Actually Composition 101. My teacher is awesome! He's been teaching for 50 years, and he started teaching when he was 28 (do the math, people, he's 78!) It's my only lecture class, and my biggest one -about 20 students. Probably because it's a general requirement.
This is his first year either teaching at my school, or teaching this class at my school, not really sure which. The syllabus he was using was given to him by the head of the English department, and apparently, my instructor hadn't had time to look through it, because he kept telling us to scratch things out, ignore things, add things etc.
Well, I don't have classes today, this is my day at the coffee shop- now I can do homework there instead of just reading the paper. And there's even a big table I can spread out at and no one bothers me. Still trying to get other mom's to join me, and maybe I'll leave the homework at home, but for now it's nice.

Wednesdays are fun

My class doesn't start until after I am done with my girl scout troop, so I get to stay home today. No weird bus schedules, no running around- at least not until tonight.
Here I am thinking, "I got all day to get my homework done, I just want to get it done now so I don't have to worry about it." Yeah, right.
After about 10 minutes of reading, and trying to find answers in this stupid 625 page plus book, I have to walk away. I'm going cross eyed, and I still have to figure out what I am doing with the Girl Scouts tonight.
So, I am going to goodsearch Girl scout activities and then walk away from this stupid computer. Hopefully I find something soon.

Basic Keyboarding, ouchie

A little background first. When I was pregnant with my first child, I was working at a daycare. Every day at nap time, I would have to walk around the room, slooooowly lower myself to the ground and start patting backs.

Carpel tunnel is very common in pregnant women, and I got it. From patting kids backs. So I bought the wrist brace, and went to the chiropractor. Seeing as I don't pat backs anymore, and I don't really type all that much on the computer, I haven't thought about it in the past few years. Every once in a while my wrist starts hurting, but not that often.

Let me tell you, 3 hours of asdfjkl; aaa sss ddd fff jjj kkk lll ;;; can really kill the joint that connects your arm to your hand. Time to dig out the wrist brace- and get off this computer....

The woes of childcare

Daycare is too expensive. Anything more than free is expensive.
So I worked out a childcare swapping system with another mom. She takes my kids when I need her to, I take hers when she needs me to. But I forgot one important thing. Plan B.
Here I am getting ready to start my day, and Mr. Babysitter calls. The mom was so sick, she couldn't get out of bed. "Death warmed over" was his phrase. Freak out time!
I took a few deep breaths, pulled out my address book and started calling SAHM's I know. Finally I find one with no plans, and work out something with her so I can go to my ONE class for 4 hours.
Which turns out to be 2 hours. Just the orientation and syllabus overview. Then I discover that my course is only one credit, 9 weeks, and if I want to 'accellerate' the work, I could do most of it at home and get done in as little as 3 weeks. That's pretty cool. For a full time student schedule, I don't feel like I'm doing that much work. Four days a week, possibly 3 days a week, with an average of 4 hours a day does not feel like full time. But it's 13 credit hours and 12 is considered a full schedule.
Next year, both the kids will be in school full time. I'll be able to take more classes than that. And now I know to apply for scholarships and grants to cover everything. Yeah!
Now if only I could find a part time job and a really cool sitter, my world would be looking oh-so-sweet!

Textbooks

Are expensive. Like, almost as much as tuition itself. And of course the day I decide to go get my books, I decide to walk. Not that big of a deal, it's only about a mile away. Except I forgot that I would have to walk back home with my books.
Luckily, three of my classes are computer classes, and I didn't know what format I needed for the software that is required. So I walked home with 3 books instead of 6. Now, I have to hope that the bookstore is open tomorrow before my first class and get the rest of the stuff I need.
One of the books I got was an intro to photography text written by an instructor from the school back in 1980- something. It cost me 5 dollars. How come they can't all be that cheap?
*Sigh* I guess that I'll write about my first day of class tomorrow.

The beginning/ getting my FAFSA

I'd applied years ago, but with young children school seems to come second in a mom's life. There are diapers to pay for, baby food to buy, and if you do go to school, childcare to worry about. This year, both my children are in school. Granted, the boy is only there for 3 hours a day, but it's better than both of them being home.
When I decided to attend college this year, I had roommates at home that would have been willing to get the kids on and off the bus, so I figured I might as well go for it. So I dug out my pin for the FAFSA website, updated my info and applied. I figured I'd have to apply for a bunch of scholarships, but I got lucky. A few weeks later, I heard from the college, I'd been approved for a PELL grant.
Now, I'd just have to wait for November 15th, when Spring registration began.
That morning, I got the kids on the bus, and headed out the door. Since I have no idea what I am doing, my first stop was an advisor. After waiting 2 hours, I got to talk to an advisor who must have been having a bad day. I'm sorry if I seem dense, but I really have no concept of the classes I need.
Finally, we'd gotten my schedule all worked out, and I headed over to the school office. A few minutes in line there, and I was done. Despite the wait for the advisor, and the advisor herself, it was remarkably easy.
The hard part is waiting for January 12th.