A Catchall Catch Up

It has been far too long since I have posted. This morning, I took my PPR exam. I think I drove myself nuts on several of the questions, pretty much overthinking them until I was ready to just click on an answer already so I could go home. I finished the 90-question test in about an hour, but made myself mark questions to be reviewed if I had even the slightest doubt as to the correct answer. Then I went back and reviewed the marked questions and made sure I had read each question carefully and selected the best possible answer, sometimes rereading the question four or five times. Generally, this is not how I take tests, but I also sometimes make careless mistakes this way. As there is a lot riding on my score on this test, I felt I owed it to myself and to Jamie to do my best, ergo I took more care.(For those of you not in the know, if I don't get a passing score on the PPR exam, my teaching contract gets revoked. My replacement at my current job has already been hired, so I wouldn't have that job to fall back on, either. Can we say, "Screwedsville?") Oh, and the state won't allow me to retake the test until 60 days have passed - well after the school year has started. Again, big fat mess if it doesn't go well. Do you see why I took more care than usual?

School starts back in session down here Aug. 22. I start in-service training Aug. 9 (provided.... see above). I have already begun getting up at 5:30 every morning in anticipation of my school schedule. Jamie is forced out of bed at 6:30. We follow this schedule on weekends also. The main reason for this is because my neurologist has stated that people who get migraines need to have a schedule and stick to it regardless of holidays or weekends. Since Jamie gets migraines, too, he is being put on a strict schedule, as well. My last day in the school year will be May 26, 2012 (I think), Jamie's last day of school will be after Memorial Day - a fact that has left him none too pleased but tickles me mightily. :-)

We continue to make progress in organizing the house and purging it of outgrown/broken/unneeded stuff. It's amazing how much crap we've accumulated over the years. Of course, we aren't progressing nearly as quickly as I would like us to, but still I guess some progress is better than no progress.

Bombs Away!

This is a picture of Jamie I stole from Jamie's youth group leader's facebook page. Jamie is jumping off a ledge one story in the air and getting ready to land on a huge inflatable "blob". This "blob" will launch the person on the end of it into the air and out into a lake once Jamie lands on it.  Jamie will then make his way onto the end of the "blob" where he will be launched by the next person in line.

This picture actually mirrors a lot of what I'm feeling/experiencing as I get ready for my first year in my new teaching career.  My schooling has been that long climb up the structure to get to the top of the platform, where I searched diligently for a teaching internship. I finally got one, so now it's my turn to take that jump to the new career. Let me tell you, it's a long fall from up here! But once I take the plunge on my first day, I know my training, the support staff at the school where I'll be teaching and all my many educator family members and friends will be ready to catch me. And by taking my jump, I'll be launching someone else's career to come work in my old profession as a secretary.

Yeah, I know this post was pretty hokey. Originally, I was just going to post this pic of Jamie at camp. But the more I looked at it, the more I drew parallels to my career change.

Incidentally, with Jamie away at camp, the house has been waaaaaay too quiet. I'm so glad I get to go pick him up tomorrow. I miss the little (well, relatively speaking) booger so much!

Changes and Adjustments

I'm going to apologize in advance because some of this post is whining, while some is humor and some is all out excitement. Please forgive the emotional roller coaster you are about to read. Jamie is at camp this week (thank you, Jesus, for scholarships and wonderful youth group leaders!), so I'm just that much more emotional due to missing him.

I am very excited about my new job - but I'm also kind of nervous, scared, anxious, etc. This new position will mean a lot of adjustments for me, both big and small.  Also, it doesn't help that I still don't know what grade level I'll be teaching. And the fact that they are requiring me to take the PPR exam before the school year starts and there's only one Saturday exam available at the end of July, which means if I don't pass it I won't have another opportunity to take it before school starts (which means potentially they'll revoke my contract) and that I don't have the $120 registration fee for the test anyway (at least, not if I want to buy groceries and put gas in my car).

And then there's the $59 I need to pay for the fingerprinting and background check plus the $50-some odd dollars I'll need to pay for my probationary certification. All before I can start teaching. Which means I don't have it to spare. And we won't even get into how much I despise the fact that my life's focus has been on money so much for the last few years. Every thought, every deed, every action I take centers around the thought "But how much will it cost, and do I have enough money to cover that?" This job would certainly help with that. I'll make a couple of hundred bucks more a month than I do currently. Which would certainly make life a little easier for us because it would almost cover how much back child support I'm not receiving because they can't find the jerk. But that's another blog post. But, in order to breathe a little easier and get that extra money a month, I need to pony up cash I don't have. It is such a vicious cycle.

On a funny note, I read the staff handbook last night. 90% of what I currently wear to work as a secretary in a pretty casual office is not suitable for my new position. No sandals or open toed shoes (dude, once the temperatures reach about 80 degrees in March through about the middle of October, all I wear is sandals and open toe shoes!). No capri pants (again, those are just about all I wear because it's so durn hot!). No heels. No jeans.  This of course means I'll either have to wear long pants (too durn hot!) or skirts. I am not a skirt person, most of the time. However, I was able a week or so ago to get a bunch of nice things for the new job. Most of them were skirts. So I've been freaking everyone out at work by wearing skirts several times a week. I figure I better get used to them.

Speaking of getting used to things. I'll have to be at work each morning at 7:30 a.m. (ugh!). I am NOT a morning person. It takes around 12 minutes to get to the school. This means I need to leave the house at 7:15. Jamie's bus does not come until 7:45-ish. The school at which I will be teaching is in the opposite direction of Jamie's school. Jamie is going to have to wait for the bus at his friend's house to make sure he gets to the bus stop in time to catch it. I'm shuddering at the thought of how early I'll have to get up to get ready for school in time.

Another thing I'll have to get used to is not treating all the kids like they are my own, as I do with Jamie's friends. I can't tease and rib these kids like I would Jamie and his friends. Of course, I don't mean teasing in a bad way. But I will need to monitor myself a little more. I hardly think the parents would appreciate it if I stopped in the middle of what I was saying, sang out "Punch buggy!" and tapped the student closest to me. I don't really think that would be professional behavior, do you?

Well, I guess I'm done. I just wanted to let you all know how things are going. I'm kind of a nervous wreck, but I'm glad I'll have almost two whole weeks of training before school starts to help me become accustomed to the way things are done at my new school. I'll also be assigned a mentor teacher to help me with lesson planning, learning the best ways to manage the classroom, grading scales, and all those other things you hear about in school but can't really practice until you are in your own classroom. For everyone who sent up prayers, positive thoughts, good energy or whatever to help me get this position, I thank you very much from the bottom of my heart!

I Better Get Used to Being Called "Ms. H___________"...

…because I got the teaching internship I’ve been wanting. This means I will begin teaching in August and will be the teacher of record for the entire year. This means I will get paid a teacher’s salary, rather than doing a free student teaching assignment. This means, in short, I can continue to feed the ravenous monster that is my son!

:-D

Update on Internship Search

For those of you not on facebook, I just wanted to post a quick update. I heard today from "Charter School B". I did not get the position. But really, I'm okay with that. I don't think I would do well as a first year teacher in such an unstructured environment. Besides, I do have a job now, so it isn't as though I will die right now if I don't get an internship. I'm also still pending with "Charter School A" and "local ISD", so there is still a possibility I'll get an internship, just not at School B.

Tomorrow

Tomorrow I'm teaching a fourth grade reading class as part of my interview process for a teaching job at unnamed charter school. It would be an understatement to say I'm extremely nervous. I'm thinking of doing a lesson on poetry/reading comprehension, which will involve group work, some question and answer time, taking apart a famous "poem" (a currently popular song that most of the kids should know), taking apart a not-so-famous (to them) poem, and writing a classroom "text message poem" on a centralized theme. I am SOOOOO nervous. Both because this is the first time I've formally taught in a school classroom, and because so much is riding on my performance tomorrow.

Please think of me tomorrow. Pray, if you are so inclined, or send positive thoughts, or good kharma, whatever you feel like doing. Whatever it is, I'll appreciate it! I'll be in a class from 1:00 - 1:30 Central Time.

Misc.

Nothing earth-shattering to report. Life is just cruising on by, which I guess is a good thing. In no particular order, here's what's going on in our world:

• Jamie is settling into the groove of school. He's excited about some of his classes (Forensic Science, Robotics, Computer Programming, Science, Orchestra) and in despair over others (PE), but overall he seems pretty happy with things as they are. Of course, as moody as he is here lately (ah, don't you just love puberty!?!) he could change his mind any second. Then change it back again.
• He has finally grown enough to start playing a full-sized violin, so we went to the violin shop last week and traded in his 3/4 size rental for a higher-quality 4/4 size rental. Its name is Alfred (he named the last one Vio, as in VIO-lin). The good thing about this shop is that 100% of the monthly rental fee is applied to the cost of the violin. Jamie seems to want to stick with it, so I may purchase it outright in the spring. I've paid off so many other bills right now that I can't swing it until spring. But at least bills are getting paid off. YAY!
• I'm scheduled to take my English 4-8 content exam Oct. 16. I could have taken it sooner, but the only other Saturday test date was this coming weekend - Labor Day weekend. I just wasn't willing to give up part of my holiday weekend (and spending some quality time with Jamie) to go sit in a room and take a three-hour or whatever test. (I may have already told you this. If I did, sorry for repeating myself.)
• I had a moment of panic over the weekend. I was looking at the course schedule for one of my classes and thought I had homework due today. Turns out, I read it wrong and it's due NEXT Monday. Whew!
• Jamie was a little disappointed over the weekend. He and his BB were supposed to go to Austin Saturday and explore the UT-Austin campus and do a lot of walking around. Unfortunately, it was an air quality alert day over much of Texas, so he wasn't supposed to be outside. They compromised and went to see a movie instead.
• I got the half of the study that houses the computer and our school supplies cleaned up and organized (somewhat). The room isn't perfect (don't ask what the other half of the room looks like!!!), but at least we can get to the computer and do some work without tripping over a bunch of stuff or rolling over it with the chair.
• Eight months after I graduated, I finally hung my degree up. It hangs on the wall over my computer monitor. This way, when I start feeling stressed or discouraged about the grad school workload, I can look at it and remind myself that I was stressed and discouraged about my undergrad program, but I stuck to it and finished it!

Well, that's about all I have to report from the Lone Star State. I hope it continues to be quiet and uneventful!

Grad School and Career Path

Grad school begins on Monday. Supplies-wise, I'm ready. One of my books is ordered from Amazon, the other two books have been downloaded as e-books (much cheaper!). I have paper, pens and printer ink. I've even signed up (and paid for) my content certification exam. I'll be taking it October 16.

Yes, I've got all my supplies and I've got all my paperwork done. But, I'm nervous. This is the first year I've been nervous about school. I think a lot of it has to do with the strict requirements. I HAVE to maintain a "B" or above in all classes, I HAVE to get a certain percentile or above on my content and PPR exams, I HAVE to have this many hours of observation, I HAVE to pass a portfolio review. Even though I got my bachelor's degree with very high marks, I didn't HAVE to get those marks to graduate. But now that I'm being told what I HAVE to do to pass the exams, I'm nervous. Silly, yes?

Also, the whole "going to be a teacher" thing is making me a bit queasy. Not because I don't want to do it. But because it's a change from what I've been doing for so long. I never intended to be a secretary. That was never my chosen career (not that there's anything wrong with it, it just wasn't what I wanted). I did it at first because I had a little mouth to feed and this was something I knew how to do. And the more experience I got at it, the more comfortable I was with it - even though I was mostly dissatisfied personally doing it. Now, I'm taking the steps to be a teacher, something I've thought off and on about since high school. That's 15 years ago, people! It was always a thought (dream?) at the back of my mind, but I never pursued it because I was a secretary, and it was kind of scary contemplating making a change. And now I'm taking the steps, and it's still scary contemplating this change. In fact, I'm shaking in my boots!

This is a big and frightening step. Not only because of the marks I have to make, but the fact that in a few semesters I won't be able to work while I'm in school because I will have to do student teaching. It's frightening because it's a change from being a secretary, and there's the fear that I will fail at it. The last time I tried to go to school and not work, I lost my house and had to quit school to go back to work. But I'll never know if I don't try. So, fear or not, I'm going for it. I'll be sure to keep you up to date on how I'm doing - even if I fall on my face. I just hope I'm brave enough to pick myself up off the ground and keep on going.

On The Brighter Side

The good thing about being such a moody wench is the fact that, eventually, my dark despair turns into sunny optimism. Well, for a while at least. So, I'm taking advantage of a break in the gloom around here to post about the things that are giving me hope here lately.

1. I finally sucked it up and e-mailed the head of the Master's of Arts in Teaching (M.A.T.) program at TWU. This is the program that will give me a Master's Degree with initial teacher certification at TWU, my alma mater. To my utmost relief, the teachers are willing and eager to work around the whole "face-to-face"' meeting requirement for distance learning students. They have done so in the past and, the director ensures me, will continue to do so in the future. So, there's hope I can still participate in that program. All my documents are turned in, my file is complete, and all I'm awaiting is departmental review of my grades and recommendations. I hope to know something in the next week or two.
2. I finally decided that, although a Master's in Women's Studies interests me, there are more advantages to me teaching in the public schools than in academia. I was interested in teaching anyway, whether in K-12 or college. Due to the government programs to recruit qualified K-12 teachers, it makes more financial sense in the long run for me to pursue teaching K-12. I'd make a higher salary in higher education, but I'd still have a bunch of debt to pay off and would have to go further into debt to get there. By pursuing K-12 teaching, the government will give me free grants to pursue this degree, forgive $17.000 of my existing student loans, and forget about any outstanding debt after 10 years. Plus, there are more employment opportunities in K-12 than there are in higher ed.
3. My file is also complete at one of the schools here in town that is only about a 15 minute drive from my house. I went over Friday on my lunch break and turned in all the final paperwork to the financial aid department. This is a private university, but it also offers a Master's Degree program with initial teacher certification. My file is under review and I have a student ID number with which to check my application status. I should know something there in the next week or two, as well.
4. The other school here in San Antonio doesn't look as promising. Of all the things I've turned in and know, from checking my application status, that they have received, they've already lost two of them. I've received several phone calls from them about missing items that have already been logged in. I'm not stressing it, though, because this was my last choice school. They require the GRE (which is very expensive) and their program is still very new. It obviously has quite a few kinks to be worked out. I'm not worried about this one because I know from the other two schools I'm virtually guaranteed acceptance because of my GPA. It's merely a matter of who will give me the most financial aid.

So, that's life right now. Jamie's cruising through the final weeks of school, I'm cruising through work, and things are okay. My house is still a complete mess, but I'm not stressing about it too much right now. I'm keeping busy with music at church, going to services and other sundry churchly activities. I'm just taking a deep breath and trying to take things as they come. It seems to be working - for now. Ask me again in a week or two, and it might be a different story. :-)

Apologies and Thanks

I've done this to you twice now. I get all down and discouraged, write a down in the dumps/I'm so insecure post, then trot off to continue my real-life angst and leave you all staring at a really depressing post. My apologies. I think the stress of impending grad school has driven me insane. I do want to sincerely thank you all for the words of encouragement and support. They are very much appreciated!

In an attempt to bring you up to date with what's going on, I offer the following items regarding my quest to enter grad school this fall:

1. Trying to get ready for grad school applications is a major stress. I had forgotten how expensive just applying can be, not to mention the fees to take the required tests. Grad school may have to wait another year just to raise the money for the dang tests and applications!
2. TWU doesn't require a GRE, but did require an application fee. Which I paid first, seeing as how they already have all my transcripts. BUT - it looks like I can't do that program, after all. Their supposedly "on-line" education classes require monthly meetings. In person. In Denton. Which is about a 5-6 hour drive from here. [sigh] So I wasted $50 in application fees for nothing.
3. All the other programs down here, except two, require the GRE. It costs $160. I qualify for a fee reduction waiver, but that can only be used on one test, and still makes the cost $80.
4. Most of the programs down here don't offer the certification(s) I want. Seems like there's a shortage of programs for Science 4-8 and Technology Applications EC-12. Only a couple of places offer those particular certifications with Master's Degree in Education.
5. Of the two places that do offer what I want and don't require the GRE (but only because of how high my GPA is), only one offers a Master's program. The other is a post-baccalaureate program only. If I'm going to do this, I want a Master's degree to go with it so I don't have to go back to school later to get one (as most school districts require in X number of years).
6. If I go to grad school, I'm going to have to not work (or only part-time) while in school due to observation requirements and student teaching. But the program that has the nice living stipend is one of the ones that doesn't offer the certifications I want.

So, that's what has contributed to my stress and my funk here lately. But, I'm in a much better mood overall than I was.

In other news, tonight I'm singing a Shaun Groves song, "Kingdom Coming", for our Nat'l Day of Prayer service at church. I first heard the song on Friday. I've learned it, but last night the super talented musician who is helping me suggested I sing it up a key, because the key it's written in is just a tad low. So, he e-mailed me a mp3 of the song in a higher key, and I'm working on that. And singing it tonight. I hope I don't make the congregations' ears bleed. :-)

Jamie is doing well and excited that he only has 19 days of school left in the year. He's also excited at the prospect of my going back to school to be a teacher. He thinks it's cool. He also likes the idea of me being home when he is.

Much love and affection to you all, and thanks for the encouragement!

House Progress

UPDATE:
I didn't cry when they called Jamie up to get his graduation certificate; nor did I cry when they called him up for certificates for Safety Patrols and Strings. However, when they showed a slideshow of pictures from the entire year, with him looking so little at the beginning of the year, and pictures from the end of the year where he looks so much more like a young man, I had to look up at the ceiling and chant under my breath "do not cry. do not cry. do not cry." I managed to hold it together through the ceremony and the meet-and-greet afterwards. But when I got to my car, I put my head down on my steering wheel, and had a little cry. Seems like just yesterday (literally!) I dropped him off for his first day of Kindergarten, and today he's graduating to go on up to middle school! Sniffle, sniffle, sigh.

Well, here we have episode # 511 of how the new place is coming along. I now have a permanent crick in my neck from standing on a step stool and taping the walls right next to the ceiling. All the tops of the walls are taped, so ceiling painting can finally commence tonight. I know, I know, it sure did take me long enough. I put Jamie to work taping off the molding at the foot of the walls so that will be one less thing we have to do before we can start priming the walls. He actually did a fantastic job. He got mad at me last night because I ran out of tape before I ran out of wall to tape off, so I went to where he had been taping and stole some of his tape. Then when I said I was going to let him paint a few stripes on the ceiling, he got over being mad. We have to go get more tape at Home Depot so that Jamie can continue taping what he can reach while I get started on the ceilings. Someone is supposed to come over tonight at 7 to look at some furniture. Honestly, I'm not holding my breath on that one. I've had waaaay too many people tell me they're coming at such and such time and they never show up, don't respond to e-mails I send or phone calls. I have found that the people who are the worst about it are under the age of 27; the older people who I have talked to show up when they say they will, and if they cannot show up or don't need it anymore, they call or e-mail me to let me know. I have noticed a definite generational difference in how courteous people are! Anyway, I'm off to finish my coffee then get ready for Jamie's graduation. Jamie already informed me that if I cry, he'll be "mortified" (his word). At least I know he's got a great vocabulary.

Oh, and BTW, he still has straight A's. I'm so proud!

Postponed

I have very heavy living room furniture. The loveseat is a dual recliner, the couch is a sleeper sofa. This means that one grown woman and two tween boys cannot move them alone. One of the techs at work had said he would help us move, but I had forgotten he was going to be out of town this weekend and couldn't help us until next weekend... S0, the move is postponed a week. But this actually works out better for me, as it gives me longer to pack and longer to paint. Last night was spent in taping around the tops of the walls. I haven't gotten to actually touch paint to ceilings or walls yet. Part of the reason for that is the fact that people keep scheduling times in the late evening to come look at furniture, then they don't even bother to show up. If I hadn't had to come back here last night so early, I could have started on the ceilings. But, neither person who had scheduled to be here showed up. Grr! Inconsiderate people really hack me off! If you make a stinkin' appointment, KEEP IT. Especially when the person selling the furniture tells the prospective buyer that she will drop everything she's doing at the new house to come back to the old house to show the furniture. If they had called to say they weren't coming, at least then I could have stayed and painted. But no... didn't even have the decency to call. Twerps!

Anyway, I have to tape off the bedrooms and bathroom still tonight, but they are small rooms, so I fully expect to at least get the ceiling painted tonight. While I'm painting the ceiling, I'm going to have Jamie tape off the trim. That way, tomorrow night, when the ceilings are dry, all I'll have to do is tape off the ceilings and I can start priming the walls. Hope to have the whole house painted by Sunday, so then we can spend the rest of the week packing. Friday night, the tech will come over for us to load the truck of all but the air mattress and cot, then Saturday early we'll throw the last little bit in the car and truck and head out.

I'll be glad when this is all over with!

ETA:

FYI - tomorrow is Jamie's 5th grade graduation. I'll be sure to post pics tomorrow if I get a chance. If I don't have time tomorrow, I promise to post them soon.

Moving!?!?

My lease is up July 31. I've been panicking about what I should do, because it's a bit early to start looking for a new rental, but if I wait until closer to when the lease is up, there will be NO. HOUSES. AVAILABLE. That's when EVERYONE and their Aunt Patricia moves, so every house will be taken.

Before you ask, "Why don't you just stay in your current house?" The answer is, it's too big for two people and two dogs, I'm throwing away money in many ways by renting this house: heating/air conditioning such a large space (even with vents closed in the rooms we don't use), paying rent for 1600 sq. ft. of house when we'll do just fine with about half that, the unused rooms, the huge task of cleaning so much space... you get the idea. It's wasted money. Sure, it's great to have an extra bedroom and bed when you have company come, but - barring tragic family circumstances and the sorting out of boucoup crap due to said family tragedy - we typically don't need two extra bedrooms. We have a couch that folds out into a double bed, and we also now have an air mattress, so we should be able to keep company fairly comfy with less than four bedrooms.

Anyway, a house came up for rent down the street from Jamie's elementary school (which also happens to be really close to 95% of his friends). And the rent is $225 cheaper a month than I'm currently paying. But, there's all kinds of people with appointments to go look at the house on Saturday and Sunday. So, I scootched to the head of the line by asking to see it today, right after work. The lady brought the application with her, and after looking over the house top to bottom and making notes of many many things that need some TLC and attention... I filled out the application.

It is almost half the size of the house we currently rent - 3 BR, 1 BA, 1 car garage, 894 sq. feet. The rooms are tiny, the previous tenants scribbled all over the doors with Sharpies, punched holes in the doors, took doors off hinges, and for some unknown reason painted the living room chocolate brown. It looks like somebody poured old Hershey's syrup all over the walls and let it dry there. I love chocolate, but not chocolate-looking walls. The fence needs repairing in several sections, the carpet is trashed in part of the house, the closets have those awful metal bifolding doors with the funky slats on them, the yard has barely any grass, they left DEER ANTLERS in the back yard, for goodness sakes! This house was darn near pitiful.

But. BUT! It has potential. Yes, it's small. But that means that the insulated curtains will work better at keeping out the heat, and the a/c and heating will be less expensive. The rent is MUCH less expensive. A new coat of paint, steam cleaned carpeting, and some new tile in the kitchen will go a long way to make the house cute. Plus, the owner has agreed to consider a 2 year lease, which means she can't jack the rent up on me next year, and it's near 95% of Jamie's friends, still less than 5 minutes from my work, and is just down the street from a public park with basketball goals and a baseball diamond on one side, and his elementary school on the other. True, he won't be actually attending this elementary school next year, but he can still go up there and play on the playground and the soccer field. And the street dead-ends at the park, so there is very little traffic. And, it has some really large, nice shade trees in the front and back, where my current house does not have any shade in the front, and weirdly placed shade in the back.

One big drawback about moving now is that I'll be (temporarily) paying rent on TWO houses, because I can't break my lease. They are way more strict about it down here than they are in back home. But, my current rental company will waive the remaining two months on my lease if someone else rents the house before my rental term is up. If I've already paid that month's rent, they'll give me a prorated rebate. And, by moving during summer, it increases the chances that someone else WILL rent the house before my term is up at the end of July.

So, I went ahead and gave my current company notice that I am not renewing the lease and will be vacating the property before the term is up. I also told them that the house will be ready to show to prospective renters by June 15. This presents a bit of a problem, though, as the house is a. freaking. mess. This semester kicked my butt, so the house looks like crap. I need to do some major trash hauling, and some series going over what I have. See, if we're moving to a house half the size of this one, I have a lot of stuff to get rid of. I'm thinking garage sale, a LARGE garage sale!

Graduation Plans

I've been thinking a lot about graduation (obviously, otherwise why would I have put a graduation day countdown calendar on my blog?). My original plans for graduation weekend was that Jamie and I would drive or fly up, spend Friday night in a hotel, go to graduation Saturday morning, go out to eat to celebrate, then go home. But then I got thinking. Jamie can't stay with me when it's time to line up. He can't sit with me with the graduates. He'd have to sit in the stands and wait for me. From everything I've read on the school's website, the stands are pretty large. I don't know anybody there, and I don't want Jamie sitting by himself.

At one time, it was important to me for Jamie to see me graduate. It was important for him to see all my hard work pay off. It still is important, but Jamie's safety is more important. So now I think we aren't going to attend the graduation ceremony. We can take the money we would have used for gas, food and hotel, and instead do something together to celebrate that weekend. I'm still hoping we can go to Disney World to celebrate - I just don't know what to do about the dogs. The main problem is not Ziggy, but Buddy. I'll think on this more, and get back to you.

School

My OFFICIAL graduation date is December 19, 2009! Yippeeeee!

Just a quick note to let you know recent developments. Only ~4 more weeks of school left. Currently, I'm borderline between A's and B's in the grades department in all my classes. These should go up once I turn in my papers and such that are due in the next few weeks. Also, I recently got official word that my requirement that 30 of the last 36 hours be at TWU has been waived. This means I can take two required classes at San Antonio College this summer, and four this fall at TWU, then I'm DONE! Woo hoo! Now the only question is what the hell to DO with my degree in the current job market, and how long I should wait before starting up my Master's degree. I guess before I do that, though, I should decide what graduate degree program I'm interested in! Decisions, decisions!

In Jamie's school news, he has about two months of school left, and is trucking right along. We turned in his class choice slips for the media magnet school today. Since we haven't heard from the rocket science magnet school, we're assuming he didn't get in. That's okay, though; he can always reapply next year. No big deal. Both magnet schools are housed in the same campus (and even share some of the required pre-requisite classes), so it won't be difficult to transfer later. Jamie took his math standardized test last week, and is confident he did well. He has only one standardized test left; he'll be taking his science test at the end of this month.

Brief Update

Once again, I'm in a hurry and don't really have time for an in-depth post, but I want to bring my loyal readers (all 10 of you) up to speed on what's going on in S.A. So here goes:

1. Becca, Tom and Christopher arrived late Saturday night/early Sunday morning after a long drive and a few mishaps along the way. I'm SOOOOO excited to see Becca! It's been something like 13 years since we last saw each other!
2. Jamie and Christopher are getting along great, and got to have a premature Easter egg hunt in the back yard on Sunday. This allowed the kids to have fun and the adults that had been driving for two days to unwind.
3. My degree plan at TWU now officially states that I am 12 credits shy of graduating. WOO HOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOO!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
4. I've been pushing really hard, trying to earn high enough marks in my classes to graduate cum laude, but I don't think it will happen. I think I may be a few points shy, but really close. However, I'm trying not to be disappointed; I think the fact that a single mother working full-time and going to school is graduating at all is cause to celebrate. But there's still this little tiny bit of me that is sad that I won't be able to claim graduation with honors.
5. Jamie got accepted into an interactive media magnet middle school! He had applied to two (both on the same campus) - one dealing mainly with computers and media (graphic design, web page design, student news broadcasts, etc.) and one dealing with science (building and launching rockets, chemistry, aerospace design, etc.). He's really excited, but is eagerly awaiting word from the science magnet school before making a decision. I'm VERY proud of him!
6. Jamie's report card came out this week, and he brought all of his grades back up to his normal range (in one case, this involved raising a grade more than 30 points!) He is more like his old self, and seems to be working through the issues he had with Papaw's death, and the trauma of everything. Did I mention I'm proud of my boy? I did? Well, I'll say it again - I'm proud of my boy!
7. I've scheduled Jamie's appointment to get his braces on for this June. Dad's house is sold, and I have the money now to pay for it all at once (you get a discount). To keep me from spending it, and to allow it to make some money (a very little) in the mean time, I put it into a risk-free CD at my bank to allow it to earn some interest between now and June. Once he gets them on, I'll be sure to post a picture so you guys can see him in all his metal glory. :-)

Okay, it's after midnight and I have to be at work early tomorrow so I can get off work early. I must say good night now!

Lazy Bones

I'll admit right now that I have been ULTRA lazy this week, and it carried over into the weekend. I had grand plans to take down the Christmas tree, take out the stinky furniture to the curb, clean the house and do a whole bunch of cooking for the next week. Instead, I've read - spy thrillers, cheesy romance novels, cheesy spy thriller romance novels, and generally anything I could get my hands on that I hadn't read yet and interested me even the slightest bit. I also took my spiffy new bike for a long ride with Jamie and a few of his friends yesterday. Best thing about the bike was it was the last one they had, and it was dented in several spots and scratched minorly in others, but still fully functional, so I persuaded a manager to take $20 off the price!

I haven't looked at anything related to school work, other than to keep checking on my degree requirements to see if a bunch of the papers I'd filed for substitutions and waivers had been accepted. I discovered today that they had, with one minor glitch. There was a minor mistake that should be easy to fix, but once that is fixed, I'll only need FOUR classes to finish my degree and graduate in December: a Spanish class (the "D" in my last Spanish class still counted towards my degree, yay!), a class on crime trends in America, a class on juvenile delinquency, and Intro to Criminal Justice. As per usual, I was ornery and took all the advanced courses before I took the introductory course. So, once this semester wraps up, I'll be 12 hours away from graduating. Woo hoo!

As of 45 Minutes Ago...

I completed my midterm for one class, and the assignments for the other two. So, as of 45 minutes ago, I'm on SPRING BREAK! Tomorrow, I'm taking Jamie to see a double feature of Paul Blart: Mall Cop (if it's still playing) and Race to Witch Mountain. He (and I) was really bummed that I couldn't take any time off work last week on his spring break due to no one being available to cover for me. I'm going to try to make it up to him tomorrow. I'm also planning some surprise activities next week, such as hiking at a park nearby, a trip to the 1/2 price bookstore, and a trip to the railway museum (it even offers train rides).

An odd thing I've noticed, ever since it sank in that - after this semester - I only need five (possibly four, depending on how convincing I can be on the applicability of a prior clss) more classes to complete my major, I've procrastinated even more. I would have thought the opposite would be true and I'd be more motivated, but that has not been the case. I've never denied I'm fairly contrary by nature.

Dropping (Again) and Other News

I admit defeat. I'm dropping a class. Four classes is just waaaay to many at this point. I feel bad about it, but I'm facing reality. I simply cannot go back to getting too few hours of sleep a night. Even when I am awake, I'm too brain dead to concentrate enough to do homework. So, I'm dropping one of my courses. By some stroke of luck, though, it turns out the class I am most behind in, the one that I have absolutely NO idea what I'm doing in, is one I don't need for my major, but thought I did. It seems I got a bit confused and was looking at the requirements for the wrong calendar year. So, I'm going to drop that one.

---

In other news:

1. Jamie is having a blast taking tennis lessons from my boss' daughter, Michal. She won't let me pay her anything for it, but I did insist on regularly giving her some gas money. She picks Jamie up from school on Mondays and some Wednesdays and takes him to practice. How on earth did I wind up with a jock for a son? Oh, well, it keeps him in shape and makes him tired enough to sleep at night.
2. I'm making some progress in getting Dad's affairs in order. Joel was a HUGE help to me when he came down for a week. He boxed up everything that looked like it was usable, so all I have to do this weekend is load my car and lug it home. Yay, Joel!
3. The leftovers that we don't want/need, or is obviously trash have presented a bit of a problem. However, we've made a deal with the man who is buying the place. He and I are going to do a walk through on Saturday and come up with a figure of what it would cost him to take care of the junk, the A/C and replace the carpet. That sum will be deducted from what he said he'd pay for the place. This way, it's not coming directly out of my pocket, and we can hurry up and get the sale done. This would be one less thing I have to worry about, so I'm all for it. Joel agrees.
   

Until Today...

Until today, Jamie thought it was cool to run a few steps, fall to his knees and sliiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiddddddddddddeeeeeeeeee across a hard floor. Regardless of how many times I told him not to do it because 1) it ruins the knees of his pants, 2) he could get hurt, and 3) he could hurt someone else, he has insisted on performing this little trick at every opportunity on every possible hard flooring surface. Until today, he thought it was lots of fun. Until today.

I just got a phone call from Jamie’s school. It seems he performed his little trick in the gym during the after school program. He was going after a ball and decided it would be fun to sliiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiidddddddddddddddddddddeeeeeeeeeeeeeee across the shiny, slick, hardwood floor in pursuit of said ball. He then looked down and away from where he was going, as his body turned until he was going backwards. He wasn’t watching where he was going, so he couldn’t see that he was perilously close to the cinderblock concrete walls of the gym – until he crashed right into said wall and rung his noggin, so to speak. I am told by the afterschool program director that the knot on Jamie's head is quite impressive, as is the monstrous headache Jamie now has. He’s also complaining of dizziness. As Jamie is prone to a touch of histrionics in such situations, I told him I’d see him when I get off work at the usual time and check him out then (it’s only about 30 minutes from now).

Until today, sliding across the floor was great fun. I suspect it is not great fun anymore.