Musings of a Midwest Mommy

Another Lovely Day...

2011-03-16T14:36:00.000-05:00

Gorgeous day today! Upper 50's, lots of sunshine, and a very slight breeze. Love it! Our temps are supposed to be on a slow rise through next week, possibly upper 60's by some point. BUT (always, right?). Along with the slowly rising temps is forecasted rain. And then possibly some snow showers next weekend.
I'm fine with rain, but to make it great, lets make it a good (or bad, depending) thunderstorm. Wind, thunder, lightening please. Just like snow makes the grey cold ick worth it, booming thunder and lightening flashes make rain worth it.

Ah well. I dyed my hair last night. I'm gradually going lighter til I finally find that caramel\honey color I've been wanting for years.

Downloaded the free trials of Adobe InDesign and Illustrator so I can work on my class projects at home. I hope I can scrounge up enough money to be able to upgrade to the full versions at some point. I love those programs.

Applied for a couple part time jobs yesterday and there is a career fair at school tomorrow, luckily right before my evening class so I'll be able to check it out. Got some math homework to do for tomorrow. We're starting on decimals and I loathe decimals. Ugh.

Ok so this is the lamest blog post ever, but there's really nothing going on.

Not unusual for March...

2011-03-07T11:41:00.000-06:00

...all this snow. =\
Friday was an absolutely gorgeous day. It started off chilly, by mid-morning it was in the upper 50's, and by mid-afternoon it was in the low 60's. I had every single window open. There was just enough of a breeze to feel like the house was airing out. My house smelled amazing, thanks to Glade's new Sparkle of Spring fragrance. I am big on citrus scents on their own, but the lime mixed with vanilla and ginger....heaven :)

And then that night the rains came. And the temps dropped about 30 degrees, in about an hour of course. And overnight the snow came. And it snowed most of Saturday, but a very light snow. As cold as it was yesterday, the sun was out long enough to melt a good part of the snow. Now it just looks yucky out. I wish we got the snow that the east coast did. Seriously. I like winter as long as there is good snow on the ground. Makes the cold and grey worth it.

We did put a great dent in the cleaning that needs to be done around here. I need to go through room by room and put some serious thought into organization. When you step into this house, one would honestly think we were hoarders. I swear. But we aren't. We just live in a tiny house with no place to put everything. I give away\sell\donate a LOT but the piles never seem to go down. With my luck, by the time I get everything organized perfectly, we'll move to a bigger house.
Ah well...

Ho Hum...

2011-03-01T14:21:00.000-06:00

Whole lotta nothing going on these days. Working hard in my classes, midterms this week, spring break next. It would be really nice if we actually got spring-like weather in these parts soon. I would love nothing more than to open up every window in the house with some new air fresheners going. Can't wait!

I am loving my publication layout and design class. I love the creativeness needed for all the projects we are doing. Right now, I'm finishing up a brochure for the school's english dept. Since my teacher is the head of the department, he said he is going to choose the best one and actually make them up to distribute. I think that would be so awesome. I'm not really looking to get into any kind of publication design but you never know when you need to make a brochure, postcard, booket, etc for whichever company you work for, so it would be cool to have a small portfolio of things that had actually been 'published'.
Loving my ethics and law class too. Basically all we do is read case studies in the text and discuss\debate them in class. I hate when you try to have an intelligent conversation\debate with someone and all they do is make you feel stupid, regardless of your opinion. The class is not like that at all. In fact, my professor is a very intelligent man, who was a former police officer and lawyer, who manages to make everyone feel like their opinion is important, is constantly praising good points brought up, and doesn't talk down to us. Teachers\professors in higher education drive me crazy when you assume that they deserve respect because of their position. That may fly in middle and high school, but when I am an adult, just as you are, you need to earn a good part of the respect.

Anyway. Awesome news. My car is paid off! Woohoo! Its such a freeing feeling knowing that something that you use everyday is outrightly yours. Hopefully this is just the beginning of good things to come this year :)
I am looking into applying for an integrated marketing internship. Here's hoping it opens up doors!

Thousandaires...

2011-02-23T13:50:00.000-06:00

Almost. By next weekend hopefully. The only financial upside to being unemployed and not collecting anything is an awesome tax refund. Yay! Despite the debt that we are working our way out of, we do give ourselves a little bit of play money. I am ordering myself 2 or 3 new cricut cartridges and I get to go underwear shopping. (I have one pair that is not hanging by a thread. One.). We also have to be smart and put money away for our summer.

More specifically for July. It it jam-packed. 3 of it's 5 weekends are planned for. And nothing local either.
Weekend of the 4th, my close cousin graduates from HS. We'll most likely spend 4, maybe even 5, days because its my mom's hometown so a lot of family is still there. Plus the town always has a big 4th to-do at the lake. That's a 6 hour trip, one way.
14th-17th. Maternal grandma's side of the family reunion. My mom has been doing a LOT in the way of family tree research and found quite a few distant relatives, so we're all getting together in my grandparent's hometown. We are dying to tent-camp at the beach there, but with it being in the middle of July, the weather may change those plans. We have two routes for getting there, so it'll be between a 9-11 hour trip, one way. Although if we go the 11 hour route, we are stopping approx. halfway.
The next weekend, 22nd-24th. Husband's Mamaw turns 80, my MIL and her sisters are planning a surprise party. I'm excited for it because I love visiting them. If we can't find a nice reasonably priced cabin around there, we'll be staying at a hotel. That's a 8-9 hour one way drive.

With the first trip we really need to just worry about gas and trip snacks. We've got plenty of free lodging options and will defiantly have free meal options :) With the second, we are toying with the idea of renting a mini-van. One to give us a chance to try one out, I do want one. And two to give us more space during a long and unfamiliar trip. Hopefully by then we are more financially stable to be able to rent a van and not break the bank.

Le Sigh...

2011-02-09T11:46:00.000-06:00

Well. I have resigned myself to the fact that I will not be graduating next spring (2012) like I was planning.
And not because of the whole end of the world thing either.
I dropped my science class. I still need a semester's worth of electives to finish. And there is no way I can do that at my current school without taking the intro courses for every major offered. No thank you. I would totally take those classes if they would in anyway help future career goals. But they won't. At one point I even seriously considered withdrawing at the end of the semester and enrolling in the local state school where they have almost the same program I'm in and about a thousand more class options. I had the application filled out, a scholarship application filled out, and transcript request forms filled out. Then I realized I was just angry with that science teacher and the lack of extra classes at that school. Exploring my options, I found out that I can continue where I am but also enroll at the state school as a 'transient' student, just taking the classes I need to finish up at my current school. And that's what I'm going to do. That and continue to look for my missing math book. I am beyond words when it comes to how I feel about that. I have a small house. Where could it have gone?!

I'm planning the Valentine's party for Lea's class. I'm going to decorate cookies on Sunday and maybe do pretzels too. I haven't decided that yet. I'm trying to come up with a craft for the kids to do because I want to split them into stations. The past two parties made me realize that kindergartners are still too immature to be able to focus all together on a project at the same time. I've got a quick game planned for one station, another will be a group passing out their own valentines, and I would like a craft or some other project for the third. My Halloween craft was a little too disorganized (on my part) so it turned into a bit of a mess.

I started back up with my scrapbooking. Kinda. I've been making valentine's\love cards. I think they are cute. If I am really ambitious, I would like to make card sets, maybe sets of 5 or 10, for different occasions, to sell when Husband does craft shows.

Off to search for the missing math book...

Nose to the Grindstone...

2011-01-13T20:15:00.000-06:00

Things have started off all right. Just by cutting out pop and scaling down my portions some, my jeans fit better. They are not loose by any means, I just don't have to lay down and suck it in to zip em up. high five!

Although, I feel tired all the time. I'm sure its the weather and the fact that I have had to force myself awake at the ass-crack of dawn (5:45-6am) for the past week because Lea decided she wanted to take the early bus. I know its good for me, especially since I have an 8:30 class next semester. Ugh.
And it's Math.

Ugh and Puke.

Husband and I both start our spring semesters next week. Luckily I've talked him into taking only one class so things aren't as insane around here. As a last hurrah for me for the next couple months, we are planning on getting rid of the kids and having a date night. As much as I'd love a night on the town, our bank account says it's make your own pizza and a movie at home instead. But hey, a pizza the way *I* want it. An non-children's movie with no interruptions. I'm down for it.

On the school front, I had made the dean's list the past two semesters. Looking back at my GPA from all 4 semesters so far, it has only gone up a couple tenths each time. If I keep working the way I have been, I don't see why I can't be at or very close to a 4.0 by graduation. While it would be sweet, I'm not going to kill myself trying to attain it. I usually feel like the walking dead near midterms anyway...

A New Year, A New Hope?

2011-01-02T12:54:00.000-06:00

Apparently me + a blog in 2010 = fail.

I really want to try again this year. There are so many things that I want to have happen this year it would be nice to have some sort of written record of them happening or my wish for them to happen. I mean really. I can't lose this ginormous desktop computer so I can't say I lost my list or something.

1. This blog. This is for me to keep track of...well...me. My diary if you will. While it would be awesome if I had some readers (I LOVE feedback of all kinds, I thrive on it), I'm not going to curl up into a withering ball of tears if no one reads my rambling.

2. My weight. I NEED to do something about it. I'm miserable. At this point, my one goal is to not have to buy bigger clothes anymore. Yes, I need to desperately lose weight, but first things first, lets not GAIN anymore. Yesterday was a crap day, but in my defense, it was our last Christmas celebration for the season. This morning I had a small portion of leftover mostaccioli. It wasn't the best thing I could have had, but it wasn't the worst. I had a small portion and I was eating in the morning, something I rarely if ever do. Husband and I got new bikes for Christmas (yay!) and can't wait to get out and use it. Both the kids have bikes so there will be no excuse as to why we can't go for a bike ride. The only issue I could see is the fact that Husband and I have far more stamina than the kids so we'd want to go for longer. And at a slightly faster pace. Time to start pricing those 2-wheeled seat things that attach to the back of the bike. Plus, with one of those behind the bike things, I could ride to the grocery store that's less than 2 miles via a walking\bike path.

I am starting the year by only looking at the positives....

Future Plans

2010-09-14T22:49:00.000-05:00

Provided I get accepted, I have chosen the school I would like to go to for an education degree. I will finish my communications bachelor next spring (I still have a hard time wrapping my head around that) and would like to start the education degree the following fall. If necessary, I am willing to wait til the following spring semester, but I do not want any more than a year go by before starting.
Since I will most likely not need to complete the year or so of general education classes, I am figuring an education degree should take me 2-3 years. So in all, I think I'm looking at 4-5 more years in school.
Side topic, but still related, I want at least 2 more kids. And I want to be done having them BEFORE I start looking for a teaching job. I really don't want to have kids past 30. Once I find a job, I don't want to have to take time off to have a baby.
Is that too much to ask? Am I being selfish?

I survived....

2010-08-25T22:32:00.001-05:00

....my baby's first day of school. Best part is that she had a blast. She made it through her first day, loved it, and her teacher said she did very well :) There was a bad debacle with the busses this morning. We learned that the district changed their bus schedule and didn't tell anyone. We drove her, walked her in, Topher threw a fit because he couldn't stay at school. Husband was having a hard time leaving her there..haha. Because of the bus mess up, I told her teacher that I would pick her up. Topher and I went in a little early to get her to get there before the crowds. I thought it was cute that two kids in her class couldn't make it a full day of school, they were knocked out cold napping on a rug :)

TEAR

2010-08-24T23:50:00.000-05:00

My baby starts kindergarten tomorrow morning. Her backpack is ready, her lunch is packed and in the fridge (except a juice box, mommy spaced on that one, Husband is stopping on his way home from work), and her clothes are laid out. Oh, and my camera is charged and ready to go...lol. I am excited because I have signed up for PTA and Lea is signed up for girl scouts. I can't wait!

Lea got a new bed, headboard, and dresser today. The dresser and headboard are *almost* put together. The instructions are very VERY effed up. I got quite frustrated and gave up before I broke anything..lol By the time Lea gets home from school tomorrow, her new bedroom set will be set up.

As far as me, I changed my semester schedule around so that I can be home at night with the kids more. I go Mondays 12-3:30 and Wednesdays 12-10. There will only be one night that I don't put the kids to bed. Luckily, it'll be my mom putting them to bed in their own beds, so I'm happy with that. I am still really excited about becoming a teacher (at some point) so that is a good sign. From the 9 schools I initially found, I knocked one off my list. The one that is the farthest away. I was reading over their program requirements and I don't feel that I would be capable of devoting that much time to that particular program. You need to devote 2-3 hours 3 days a week to observe a local elementary class. With it being an hour drive (one way), I can't see being gone for that long. I feel I can do it more locally. I really want to do this, but I don't want to spend half my day in the car driving here there and every where else.

Follow Your Instincts...

2010-08-19T21:03:00.000-05:00

I mentioned the whole getting an education degree and all that. I am going to do it. That thought\idea had been rattling around in my head for months now, but I kept pushing it back. And pushing it back. So last night, when I finally brought that idea to light. I researched schools. I mentioned it to my mom. I talked about it to a few teacher friends.

And you know what? Last night was the best night's sleep I had had in MONTHS.

That right there sealed the deal for me. Getting a communications degree has had me bouncing around career ideas like a fricken pinball machine. Looking back, I was freaked out subconsciously. I didn't know what I wanted to do and that scared me. I left St. Joe because I didn't know what I wanted to do, I felt like I was wasting time and money there. With a teaching degree, there's really no leeway. Its a definitive end to all the work.
I'm finishing the communications degree because I started it. Plain and simple. Plus with the fairly concrete time schedule I'm giving myself, the economy and job situations should (hopefully) be getting way better. And Chris should be close to done with his degree, giving us way more options as far as where we can look for work.
So in about 2 (hopefully less) years, I will be jumping in with both feet :)

Perhaps this will work...

2010-08-18T17:12:00.001-05:00

I've been thinking a lot lately about teaching. I'll finish my communications bachelors, but use up my remaining electives taking classes that will go towards an education degree. I loved my social studies and history classes through middle school and high school. I think I would prefer middle school social studies\history. I do want to do it, but I really don't know if it is for me. I definitely need to talk to someone about it. And no family. No one close to me has anything good or bad to say. Husband just says 'I'm behind you, whatever makes you happy'. While I totally appreciate it, it does my decision making process no good. I need someone to discuss the good and the bad with me, that I can seriously debate this with. This is something that will eat up another 4 years (maybe less, if all my general ed courses transfer) and I need to come to the conclusion that this will be good for me and my family.
With the little research I've done, I've come up with 9 schools. The closest being about a mile away, the farthest being 50 miles away. All a do-able driving distance. Although the 50 mile-away campus would be a stretch if I had to go more than 2 or 3 days a week.
Do I have any readers (at all..lol) who can help me in any way?

Where's My Motivation...

2010-08-16T23:52:00.000-05:00

...Seriously. I have none. I'm embarrassed and disgusted by how my house looks, but that doesn't push me to do anything about it. I have no interest in doing anything productive. The most I do is a load of laundry but most of the time I end up having to wash the same load at least one more time because I leave the load in the washing machine for too long. Lea starts school on Aug. 25th, Husband starts Aug. 30th, and I go back Sept. 7th. I have two sitters, one that I know of will be coming to my house to sit. I would LOVE to have my house pristine or darn near close, but even knowing this I STILL have no desire to clean. And I hate that.

I love cooking and baking, but I don't do it often because I don't like the clean-up afterwards. I don't want the kids doing projects because of the clean-up. Things are only going to go downhill when I go back to school because then next to nothing will be done.

To top it all off, my mom and I are having a yard sale next weekend, at my house. I have tons of stuff for it, but I need to start to go through it all and start pricing. I'm hoping we do well, we could use the money, if only do to some major grocery shopping.
Fingers crossed that I can get a lot done this coming week....

How Time Flies...

2010-08-14T15:37:00.000-05:00

Lea turned 5 today. My first born. It's so hard to believe that she is 5 and will be in kindergarten in a week and a half. I woke her up this morning and presented her with a new outfit (all purple of course), a birthday tiara, birthday girl sash, and button that says 'birthday princess'. Again, all purple :) She had gotten quite a cash-haul during the week and wanted to go to Target. So we went yesterday. She got a Hello Kitty purse, whimzy animal, and the wedding Barbie set (barbie, ken, skipper, kelly).
Today we went bowling with MIL, FIL, and two gals from their church that sit for my kids from time to time. We all had a blast! Believe it or not, my 2 year old and 5 year old BOTH beat me in bowling. None of us broke 100 (except husband), but we had so much fun and that is really all that matters.
Afterwards, just the four of us went to Applebee's for her birthday lunch. It was really nice. In addition to the gifts she bought with her birthday money, she got a 3 pack of Hello Kitty socks, 3 barbie dresses, a minivan that goes with a dollhouse she has, an outfit for school, a really cute lunch bag for school, and a princess dress.
We are going to my parents this evening to celebrate, swim, and spend the night. Tomorrow at the butt-crack of dawn we are getting up to head to the Illinois Railway Museum to do the Day Out With Thomas with my brother and his kids. I'm just hoping the rain holds off. It's looking pretty ominous out there.

She Did It...

2010-08-11T14:59:00.000-05:00

Lea tested into Kindergarten. I know I was a little unsure about her going to kindergarten rather than preschool, especially since she has never been around kids her own age other than family on her own before. But after talking to the principal and hearing what she had to say, I feel confident that kindergarten is the right choice for her. I was a little shocked to see her supplies list. Four 24 packs of crayons, 12 (yes TWELVE) glue sticks, 24 pencils, a 6 pack of dry erase markers? When I was in school we only needed enough supplies for ourselves, not the entire kindergarten. We already live paycheck to paycheck, I can't afford to supply her entire class in crayola and elmers.
Even though I mentioned that I was looking forward to spending my days with just my little man, I can't WAIT to be a room-mom. From kindergarten to 8th grade, my mom volunteered for EVERYTHING in my and my brother's classrooms. I'll never forget that and was so appreciative, I want to do that for my kids. I was lucky enough to have a mom that didn't work outside the home and that she was around to do things like that. Plus as a kindergartner, she can get into Daisies :)

I was unaware....

2010-08-10T22:37:00.000-05:00

When I got Topher ready for bed, I told him that he was my handsome boy and he got upset.
'I not handsome!'
'Yeah you are, you're my handsome boy'
'No! I not handsome. I pretty!'
'.....Noooo, boys are handsome, girls are pretty'
'NO! I PRETTY! EELA (lea) HANDSOME!'

.....ooook....

Side note. We take Lea in tomorrow morning for the should-this-child-be-in-preschool-or-kindergarten test. I am on the fence about this. Kindergarten is 5 days, all day. She's excited and I can't wait for her to get out there and make friends (possibly netting me friends in the process), plus she'd be eligible for Daisies (girl scouts). And I'd love to get to spend time with just Topher. However, I'm not too entirely sure she's ready to be gone all day long. We'll see how it goes.

When I grow up...

2010-08-10T19:31:00.000-05:00

I thought I knew what I wanted to be when I grew up. In fact, I had decided on it a little under a year ago. I wanted to work at colleges\universities with on-campus housing. I wanted to be there for freshman who were away from home, who were scared, lonely, unsure, homesick, etc. I wanted to plan and execute freshman orientation to help them get acclimated to their new environment. And to be there for them throughout their college career. I had a freshman adviser, but he worked in the accounting department for the college. He had no training on dealing with students beyond the activities planned for orientation. He was a nice guy (and gorgeous, btw), but it was clearly an employment requirement.
I found graduate programs for exactly that job. I was given tips from my husband's cousin who happened to be going to school for the same thing. I had narrowed my search down to 2 schools, University of Nebraska Lincoln and Western Michigan. Both would require a move, new job searches, etc. Even husband thought it was a great idea and was pretty much on board. I still have at least 2 years to finish my bachelors so that would be plenty of time to research those areas for homes, jobs, schools for the kids and everything else that goes along with moving to a new city\state.

Then husband got approved to go back to school through his company. While I am beyond happy for him because this is something he's wanted to do for a while now, it was also like a punch to the gut. His company is paying for everything but his books. If he quits (either school or work), we have to pay them back. Because he is working full time, he is only going to school part time. 2, maybe 3, classes a semester and we're looking at 7 or 8 years before he gets his bachelors. Which means we are staying here, or somewhere between work (his) and school (his) for a while now. And that depresses me. This is a crappy area. The economy blows, I have been unemployed and desperately searching for a job for almost 2 years now.
Seriously, despite the 'now hiring' signs, McDonald's and every other fast food place turned me down. Overqualified, they said. I realize that. But don't you think that I *need* the job? Why else would I apply for jobs I am way overqualified for? ugh.

I love my kids more than life itself. But I hate being cooped up in the house because we can't afford to take the kids anywhere. I'd love to get out of the house by myself and have conversations. Adult ones, that don't revolve around the Wiggles or who's bubble bath we're using at bath time tonight. If I could get a job, even a part time one, I wouldn't feel so guilty asking husband to do the dishes or a load of laundry.

One of these days, I'll be a part of the workforce again.....