When the Going Gets Tough . . . The Tough Get The Heck Out of Dodge! :)

Pardon our absence last week.

Both Baby Boy and I were feeling too stressed to post.  In fact, Mom #2 felt so bad for both of us that we resorted to an old Homeschooling trick . . . we set off for an impromptu vacation right in the middle of the semester. Road Trip!!!

Mom #2 dusted off the old Rand McNally and we started driving north until we ended up in the deserted hills of New Mexico.  We'd never been there before so we spent a lot of time enjoying nature walks with Baby Doggy trying to catch all the road runners and jack rabbits.   We also enjoyed looking at the beautiful night sky full of stars that are usually washed out by the light pollution in larger cities.  Wow!  We didn't know what we'd been missing.  

We did enjoy some touristy things as well, like the Carlsbad Caverns.   It was pretty amazing seeing a whole entire world 800 feet below the surface we look at every day.  We spent an entire day meandering up and down the caverns and really enjoying the cool 56 degree weather since the sun was scorching hot on the outside, LOL. 

Baby Boy thought he was King of the World.

Never to be outdone, I had to be Queen.

Mom #2 was content to keep her feet firmly on the ground. 

A nice stranger tried to take our photo in the caverns, but it was a little dark.  

The photo doesn't do it justice, but it was so incredible. 

Of course, when we got home there were mountains of laundry to do, a backlog of homework to clear out, and more junk mail to shred then ever before . . . but we did it all . . . with a song in our hearts.  The spur-of-the-moment-family-breakout made it all worth it.  We had a great time.

Now we're relaxed, refreshed, and ready to tackle the second half of the semester!

What do you do to de-stress?

Until next time . . .

Baby Boy's Halftime Report

I've officially reached the halfway point of the semester, and week #8 ends on a long awaited positive note.  

It was no easy task getting here; I was forced to endure 3 tests in one day and maintaining  the energy to push through two more tedious lectures. . .   

On the positive side, I feel pretty good about my grades that I may EARNED, and I have nothing but freedom for the weekend ahead for working on my artwork.  

In spite of all of this, I think next week will be a different story. . . We'll see.

Week 7 Observations, Baggage of Sorts

The week after the 6 week point goes without a hitch.  The quiz in Japanese goes ever so smoothly, just as the test did, in which I passed with a pretty darn good grade.  

 It is, however coming around to exam time in psychology, and the heat is starting to reach a fever pitch.  Will it be tough?  Most likely.  Will I crumble under the pressure?  NEVER!   

It is time to march into class armed and ready to beat down exam#2.   

Until next time. . .

After I had a tiny breakdown last week and a not-so-tiny breakdown earlier this week, Mom #2 sat me down and had a really long and thorough talking with me.  It felt good to kind of get all of my emotions about not homeschooling anymore; having an adult son (!); and interacting all day long with young, skinny co-eds.  I think I may have been keeping too much locked up inside.

Whatever it was, I feel MUCH better now, and I'm refocused on being successful in my studies, which is a good thing, because they aren't getting any easier. I think that's all I'm going to say about that this week.:) 

My main observation this week is all of the STUFF I've noticed around campus.  Why do college students have so much stuff?  Myself included. 

I leave the house on school days with the following baggage

The big one is the backpack, which holds textbooks, binders, pens, pencils, paper, and other. . . ahem . . . necessities.  The smaller one is my lunch and, most importantly, extra water since it's hotter than Hades here.  I still don't understand why I'm not skinny yet; I walk miles and miles (it seems) every day with hundreds of pounds on my back, but I digress.

Today as I waited for my bus, which was running late, as usual, I noticed that I'm not the only one who likes to keep all of their stuff with them at all times.  Take a look.

 This lady has one large bag on her arm and one medium bag cross-body.

 This lady has a ginormous backpack, but that isn't enough, she still has the big red bag that looks like a bunch of kittens are trying to break out of it. 

This lady is trying to deceive everyone into thinking she's packing light, but look closely and you can see the great big bag she sat down on the bench.  I saw her set it there, so I know for sure it's hers. 

And the grand prize winner of the Overburdened In Academia Award is this lady who has a great big overstuffed backpack, and not one but TWO additional bags.  One over each shoulder.  I mean seriously, did she leave anything in her dorm room? 

 

I think we've all turned into a society of mobile hoarders.  Our houses are squeaky clean, but we still don't have the heart to throw anything away.  We just shove it in a bag, and bring it with us wherever we go. ;-)

Well those are my observations for the week.  I promised my Mom I'd go to a church-lady luncheon with her today, so I need to practice not being a Heathen for a couple hours so nothing sacrilegious comes flying out of my mouth in front of everyone, LOL. 

Have a fantastic weekend, Everyone

Until next time . . .