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 . . .

Fall 2011 - Week 6 - Baby Boy and Mom #1

I have survived long enough to see the 6 week point.

I endured a test in chemistry with another looming next week, a super brutal first exam in Japanese, and another visit into the bowels of the ever-so-dry-and-boring textbook of psychology.

On the positive note, I have made a few new friends, am finally getting a firm grip on my Japanese, and am currently (and PERMANENTLY) passing all of my classes.  Maybe not with flying colors, but steadily gliding colors, which is acceptable enough for now.

Well… until next time!



Well I'm feeling FANTASTIC right now.

I had a tough week because I had major exams in both my stats and Spanish classes. 

The stats test was brutal, plus I ran out of time towards the end and I had to rush.  But I know I nailed the independent groups t-test, which took 3 pages of scratch paper, but I checked and double-checked my answer and I KNOW it's right.  As far as I'm concerned, that's success.  The fact is, I studied my bum off, I'm in class and at review sessions at every available opportunity, and I did the best I could.  I left blood, sweat, and tears in the classroom.  I'm at home now and my family is as happy to see me as I am to see them.  Let the grades fall where they may.

My Spanish test wasn't that hard, except that I don't speak Spanish, which consistently causes me trouble in that class. ;-)   

Mom #2 was ever-so-generous as to make us a delicious meal of fried red fish, hand cut fries, and jalapeno hush dogs.  That's how you finish off a rough week.  I love her so!

I do have another astronomy test next week, but I'm not quite prepared to start stressing about that yet.  I did receive approval to do a special project to help balance the C I got on the last test.  I'm going to investigate seasonal affective disorder and if people in the international space stations suffer from it and if (possible) life on other planets would suffer from it.  I think it'll be interesting, but it will be time consuming.  You know, because I have nothing but tons of free time, LOL.

Oh, and let me pass on a little free entertainment I got at school this week.  I know I've mentioned how intimate and entertaining my bus rides can be.  Well, this week, it reached an all time high.  I was sitting right in front of a guy wearing not one, but two masks.  I was a little freaked out because I thought he was going to try to rob us, but then I thought about that fact that it was a university shuttle and we're all dirt-poor students, and just took his picture while he wasn't looking.  Here's a visual.  

How hilarious is that?  

I think that's a pretty fitting way to wrap up the week.  

Until next time . . .

Week C - I mean Week 5 - Family Style

Week 5 ends on a bit of a sour note as the heat in my classes is turned up dramatically.   

My psychology class has finally become manageable for me, and hopefully my Japanese class will follow.  The difficulty is only increasing, but I, along with my study-buddies, are slowly but surely starting to understand the material and cope with the onslaught of new information coming at us.   

As for chemistry. . .  well that’s a different story.  I was recently put squarely in my place by a surprising C level grade on my first exam.  Why this happened is still somewhat of a mystery to me; however, I am now stepping up my studying tenfold to ensure that this is permanently a ONE-TIME DEAL!!!  

Fortunately, I was able to re-test.  The new grade is yet to be determined . . . One can only hope!   

Until next time. . .

Well, I don't have any good news, so I'll just start with the bad news. 

I had a majorly dramatic bit of a breakdown this week.  I spent the majority of if wailing and crying solemnly reflecting on my brain's apparent saturation level.  I'm sure I've reached it.  It started with me getting a %$$@#$%% darn C on my astronomy test (didn't I mention how much I hate tests), and just kept rolling downhill from there.  Fortunately, my professor does drop one test grade and even allows an extra credit project to help pump up grades, but I have to admit, that C was a huge blow to my confidence.  I mean, if I can't do any better than a C in conceptional astronomy for non-science majors . . . then seriously . . . what am I even doing there?

I'm taking today off.  The end.  I'll take positive energy, if you have any. 

Oh, last week Wendy asked for an update on Mom #2, who was oh-so-gracious as to sit still for a minute and give you all a personal update:

Hello Mom #2 here, the last time I wrote on this blog I had hacked in ;) 

I just wanted to stop by and give an update on what I've been up to.

Mostly I've been working.  I wish I could also say gardening, but when the temperature is over 105 degrees every day, it's hard to keep the plants alive. Aside from that, I've been daydreaming about a vacation but not exactly sure where to go. So if anyone knows of a great weekend getaway in Texas please let me know.

Oh yeah also if you could convince Mom #1 to be a home school Mom again (minus the kid of course) that would be GREAT!!!!!!!  ;)

Happy Autumnal Equinox! 

(I learned about that in astronomy, LOL)

Until next time . . .