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....