Life's Been Busy....

Sorry I haven't posted anything in so long....but as this post title states, it's been a little nutso around here! My new job is going well, I didn't run across one 'evil step-mother' floor like I feared. Everyone was really nice and made sure that I had plenty of opportunities to reinforce old skills and learn plenty of new ones! I have decided that I will stick it out for my 3 months, and at the EARLIEST opportunity, I will ask to be cross trained into Maternity and then transfer into the Women's Float Pool from there. I have worked a variety of different floors already, and none of them have really grabbed my interest as somewhere I would want to stay. I really like the float pool and can't really see any reason as to why I would ever want to be on a fixed unit.

I have gone and enrolled myself at SLCC and signed up for a Chemistry lecture and lab, and I am now wondering if I really want to get into this. My lecture is online, which is cool, because I don't have to be anywhere at any fixed time, but I am already a week behind and have not yet been able to get the book...this will not bode well for me. My lab is Weds. evenings...that's tomorrow..so we will see if I have a snowball's chance of making this work!

I cannot believe how expensive community colleges have gotten! I thought that maybe things were up around $50 a unit...guess I live in the stone age...try $100 a unit! Here I was, blithely signing up for my Chemistry class, absolutely thrilled that there were openings...5 units..no big deal..I can make this work...until I looked at my account and saw the total *faint* $649.50!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! At least they were nice enough to break it down for me....$25 lab fee, $135.50 Student fees (since I'll just be the life of the campus activities..NOT!), and 499.00 for the classes.....DAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAANG! I immediately turned around and filled out the FAFSA, with some hope that I will get some financial something before the end of the semester, so far the process seems to be moving faster than I was told it would, but I am not getting my hopes up too high in that department!

My kiddos have returned to school! Brenna is in 5th grade, Jaron in 3rd, and Cade in 2nd. They have been in one full week already. Brenna has been placed in Advanced Spelling and Math, and is running for Student Council. I don't know where she gets it from. I was fairly bright in the language arts and was a basically good student, never the top of the class, but somewhere in the upper ranks. I most definitely was not EVER interested in school politics...in fact, I would run as hard and fast as I could (and I don't run) away from those types of opportunities. As far as I know, Rob was never involved with student leadership either. Now, she did mention something about treats, and I have a sneaking suspicion that that is a strong motivating factor, but she does seem really interested and excited - so I will let her have at it. It will really look good on her record if she is chosen and I am sure it will be an awesome learning opportunity for her. Jaron is plugging along and seems to be doing really well so far. He reads like a champ and is able to do most of his homework independently...YAY! I am assuming that Cade is having the same success...I haven't gotten any notes home to tell me otherwise. He is in a class that has no assigned homework..which has been the bane of his existence...I see all sorts of COMPLETED worksheets arriving home daily in his backpack with almost everything correct. He still doesn't like to read or tie his shoes...doesn't mean he can't..he just won't. "I'm just a seven year old! I can't know that yet!" or my all time favorite when I tell him he needs to make better choices and control himself..."Mom, I told you! I'm trying, but my brain won't let me!" Sometimes...I wish I could just pop the top off and do some re-wiring......he is the one kid that just isn't affected by anything...my little behavioral mystery, that one.

Quentin has been stepping up the antics lately. I had just finished a puppet show when my phone rang. It was Rob on the other end. I have told far too many stories that have started in this fashion...so y'all know it can't be good! Sure enough, Mr. Q had decided to make himself some chocolate milk with the brand new bottle of chocolate syrup I had just bought. I came home to a smallish pond of chocolate on my table, and a near lake of the stuff on my kitchen floor. Thank goodness he stuck to the kitchen and also that Rob came upon him within minutes of him starting this. He is an awfully quick little fellow, and within just a couple of minutes time, he made the said pools on the floor AND covered his entire front side with the stuff. He had a cup and everything all ready (it was covered too), he knew what he was doing, he just lacked the particular fine muscle control to have it work for him. He even recognized that he made a HUGE mess, and attempted to clean it up with one of my good kitchen towels, all the while saying, "Uh oh, MESS!" This time I didn't take pictures of it, I have enough of those..thank you very much (or little?) Plus, I just wanted to go to bed, I had just finished an 11p to 7 a.m shift followed by a puppet show at 9 a.m. - I was in no mood for nostalgic documentation.

So...that has been my life of late...busy, busy, busy. And goodness knows it's only going to get worse (or better????(seriously, folks)????) But, that's another post for another bat-time on another bat-channel...TTFN!!!