It's Always Something...: Failed.

So, I unequivocally FAILED at my super awesome plan of writing every day for a year. It has been almost TWO WHOLE MONTHS since I have written a post! Wow! At least when I fail I go for the gold. But, I do still want to keep up blogging because when I do and when we can all look back and read the things we were doing, it is freaking awesome.

So, fair warning, I am about the make a bunch of excuses:

I really WANTED to write every day, but I missed one day and then that turned into the whole weekend, and suddenly it was a week and the thought of catching up on a week's worth of blogs sounded so daunting.... well, alas it has been two months.

BUT, Stuie is going to graduate in 2 (!!!) weeks! I can't believe it is finally here for him, and it sure has been a difficult couple of months getting here. We have been busier than we have ever been, which sounds improbably, but I assure you, we somehow managed to fit even more into our lives.

Couple that with some seriously fucked up mold and bathroom tile contractor issues, (which I am not going to discuss now because it both makes me sick, exhausted, and decidedly cynical about the whole of society, AND because there is likely a lawsuit in our future), my trying to finish up my biggest project of the year for work, and trying to finish classes and prepare for finals, and I have had it up to here (insert hand gesture).

I feel like all things considered, I have been handling everything that is going on pretty decently. I'm no saint, but geez, how much can one person be expected to handle at once? So I have been literally counting down the day until this is all over.

Also, there are two very positive things that have come out of this. First, my bullshit capacity has been reduced to nearly zero (this is the cynicism). I do not care, nor WANT to care about any level of bullshit, and my detector is in prime shape. As a result, I am more efficient, more rational, and worry about much less. These are all good things. Second, and this is my favorite: Because I had to take one class this coming Fall (my waiver that I get from the university for discounted class fees maintains that I cannot take more than one class during "work hours," regardless of how much time I am willing to make up early in the morning or late at night. So, this summer, both of the final two classes I needed to graduate were offered during the day (and during different sessions, I might add), and as a result, I had to pick one or the other and not both. The other classes I was registered for were at night, so they were moot and unaffected.

BUT, because I couldn't graduate until December, I had to switch my catalog year, which expires this coming August. Switching to a new catalog is tricky because it can change the requirements you need, and can results in suddenly having to take more classes to graduate. So I switched to the newest year, which did waive some of the new requirements (foundations classes) automatically, but the math I took didn't count on the new year because it is no longer even offered anymore. Crap. So, I worked with my awesome Department Chair (not my adviser, lol. He always sends me to the chair) to get an academic adjustment, which is where the dean of the college I am graduating under says, “sure, we’ll accept that as an approved class” and I don’t have to retake math.

All of this means that I have 8 fewer required classes on this catalog than my old one, so I got to drop two whole classes this coming summer! Woot woot! So, I will have one measly little class (senior seminar, which is not a measly class and is condensed into half the time normal people take it) this summer, one one-credit weekend class (a single weekend, on the Isreali-Palestinian conflict and movies), and then I will take ONLY Statistics this fall and I will be done!!! Oh my goodness, ten years in the making, I cannot believe I am but two classes and a weekend away from that piece of paper. So stoked.

But before that, we do need to get Stuie all graduated, so there have recently been a lot of late nights for him, and just generally a lot of stress in the house in general. I talked to Kaden’s teacher on the phone last night for an HOUR, chatting about everything that is and has been going on, and actually giving her some advice about her own son, and it is nice to be reminded that my kids ARE little and they will have few if any memories of this stressful time. For now, I am encouraging my super awesome and ever supportive family to take one or two kids with them when they do fun things, just to give the kids a break and have a good time. This weekend, I am pretty sure Marcia and Mimi and going to take the boys to the dinosaur exhibit at the Expo. They will LOVE that, and I can work on my final presentation for Research Methods, and Stu can finish up the 3 (!!!) huge papers he’s working on.

Then it is all up-hill from there, but I will save that for a second post. :)

Here's some pics of the babes. :)

I showed Jackson how to blow a dandelion and he thought it was SO COOL. (I will probably regret this decision when my whole yard is yellow, but it was worth it at the time. :))