School and house .... stuff.

Wow... is it just me or is it October? How did that happen??

Well... with it being October, the month of Halloween, mid-terms, my second son's birthday, and the closing date for buying our new house... wow. Crazy.

Anyway, school is going pretty good. I am enjoying most, if not all, of my classes. Which actually surprised me. English 2010 I wasn't so sure about as it is Persuasive Writing... but I am actually enjoying it. Who knew? The only class that I actually find kind of boring sometimes is the one that I was most excited about. Intro to Folklore. Weird.

But yeah, I am doing pretty good in all the classes. There have been a few slip ups, a few assignments that I forgot or whatnot, but in almost all the things I have turned in and done, I have been getting pretty good grades. (and don't worry Mom... the assignment that I forgot about was in a class that will drop the two worst scores.) I actually scraped a 97% score in the only test I have had, which kind of shocked me. All in all, things are moving along great in school.

I have heard that I'm crazy to try to buy a house during school. I'm starting to wonder if it is true. Nevertheless, we are still going through it, and intend to move this month. Things have been... ok... for the most part. There have been ups and downs which I'm sure are common with buying a house. For the most part though, any stress I have had from buying the house was mainly caused by my mind running wild, spiraling downward in negativity. I tend to do that... But things are moving along fine no matter what my mind imagines up. I'll try to post more regularly, but don't count on it. I admit that once school started I totally forgot that I even had a blog. I'll try to not have my mind forget as easily.

Oreos up!

The day before...

So. The day has come for school to start. It is remarkable how things worked out. I was able to get a full Pell grant even though I applied so late. Not to mention that I was able to get into all the classes that I needed to be in. In pretty much everything that I touch regarding school things happen the way they need to. It is remarkable to me to see everything work out so well. One of my classes is apparently so popular that only the seniors who are able to register for classes sooner than everyone else can get into it. And yet I was able to get into it. If things continue to work out well then I can graduate in 4 semesters or so.

The kids are doing great. They spent the week with their grandma so I could go to Marching Band camp. I'm not sore anymore... but it was a pretty tiring week. We are still looking for a house. Rocket Scientist is still trying to get a higher paying job (I think). I'm actually not sure on the status of that.

All in all things are going well. It still seems very odd to me that I am going to school to learn more about writing so I can make money by publishing books. Maybe someday I will get over that. I guess though that mainly it is weird to me because the idea of novelists amaze me. That people are able to write such wonderful and powerful books just from things in their head. Sure I have written a book, but it isn't published... novelists just amaze me.

So yeah. I am really excited though. I'll also be taking an astronomy class that I'm really excited about. Things are happening well. We'll keep you posted on things as they come.

Thanks for reading.

Extra, Extra! Read all about it!

So, though I don't want every post to start, "Sorry I haven't posted in a while..." well... that is truly how I feel. I know I have a lot of readers out there, though why some of you read my blog is beyond me. In any case I do feel sorry and I hope to do better.

All that said, I feel like life has been mighty crazy around here. Plans are changing, life is happening, and where we thought we would be by now is different than what we decided mere months before.

Have any of you felt like that before?

In any case, despite all the craziness I still don't feel like I have much to write about. I'm going back to school to earn a degree in Creative Writing, something much more out of my league (at least as far as I feel) than the music degree I was going for before. My decision to go back to school was a rather sudden one, but it feels right and we, overall, feel sound in this decision. Not to mention that everything with me going back to school has worked perfectly. Most of the classes were closed, but of the four classes that I got on a waiting list for, two of them have opened up (one of which opened while I was writing this post) and I can now register for them, and the other two, I am number 3 and 8 in the waiting lists. Pretty encouraging. I also got a grant which quite shocked me, I'll be honest with you. To give you a bit of an idea of how late I registered, it was a mere month before school would start. Yeah. Pretty amazing if you ask me.

With the prospect of spending around two more years in this charming town we live, we are looking for a house to move into. After over 5 years of renting, I am SO ready to get out of apartments. We found some charming houses that we visited today (one of which had two sleeping men in them that didn't know we were there and WE expected it to be vacant... quite a shock...) Putting offers in hopefully today or tomorrow to a few of them. Some of them we couldn't get for canceling or whatnot. Silly agents not telling the owners that we were coming. Only one out of five houses we didn't walk in on people.

Along with that, Rocket Scientist is trying to get a promotion, or rather just a new, higher paying job at his current place of employment. We'll see how that goes. We hope to move, we hope that Rocket Scientist can get a higher paying job. In fact, one of them that he has applied for he feels like "[he] would be perfectly fine with it as a career instead of just a 'job'." Though he hasn't gotten a bachelor's, if he can land this job, who knows what will happen? He has gotten an associates in Drafting, so I feel like, as long as he is happy with his job, why not settle?

All in all, things are going pretty well. Though plans have changed, I feel more sound with this plan than our previous one. I'm pretty nervous in being an English major. There was once a time when I thought someone would have to be out of their mind to be an English major. Well, maybe I'm out of my mind. Then again, I would have never thought that I would enjoy writing novels like I do. Adding on the fact that I can be a novelist and earn money and all that while being a mom. Any job I can get as a music major would pretty much have to be away from home-type work.

The kids are doing well. Goof Ball has just gotten over chicken pox, we are watching Bug to see if he picks up on them. Goof Ball had had his first immunization for it, but still got it from somewhere. Who knows if Bug will catch it or not? Though he has been immunized, so was Goof Ball.

So yeah. Things are going well, life is moving on, and we are getting over it. ^_^

I'll try to write more often, though like I said, I'm not sure that I have much to tell.

So the Cat says...

...that I need to update my blog.

Here you go, Cat. Hope you are happy.

And in case you are wondering, no we do not own a cat, and probably never will. I'd like to use the excuse that Rocket Scientist is allergic to them, but honestly, I just really hate cats. There you go. The Cat I'm referring to up there *points at top of post* is a friend of mine, and I think she is the only kind of Cat that I would ever like. ~_^

Anyway... that was all random and irrelevant. To the point of this post...

I really do feel kinda bad for not posting earlier. I have been thinking about it for a bit, but whenever I don't know what to do next, blogging never comes to mind. I just kept forgetting. Not that there hasn't been anything to post about, far from it actually. We have had birthday parties, anniversaries, and family reunions. With all that being said, I don't honestly think that I have been so busy that I couldn't find time to post. I just kept forgetting. When it is all said and done, I never thought of blogging.

Last month stared three events. Baby's (who shall now be known as Goofball) first birthday (has it REALLY been that long??), my birthday, and our wedding anniversary. Here's to five wonderful years with my amazing hubby and three adorably cute kids. And let me tell you... having three kids in well... four years has finally caught up with my body. In fact, Rocket Scientist wants me to get more in shape before we have another one... *sigh... time to unpack the Wii Fit and start working on it again.

We had two family reunions this month. Both on the same week. My family always goes up in the mountains and camps for a week, so at the beginning of the week (two weeks ago) we camped with them, then on Wednesday drove to visit Rocket Scientist's family and finish off the week with them. It was a fun filled week with thunderstorms, throw up, and other such things that come from driving two kids under 5 to visit family that live 10 hours away. Well, needless to say I was glad when I got to sleep in my own bed, and be in the comfort of my own home.

And that pretty much sums up the last month. If I'll ever remember to put the pics on my computer, I will post them on here.

As for a general update about the kids...

Bug is getting cuter and smarter every day. It is amazing to see his progress with things like communicating and social skills and all that. I can't actually think of any examples off the top of my head, but it is truly amazing to watch him grow. I can't believe he will be going to school in a year... wow. Crazy.

Goofball's new name is given for a reason. One, he is quickly outgrowing the name of "Baby", but also, he has recently acquired his goofiness. He makes the craziest expressions, and sometimes you can tell that he is being a goofball, he knows he's being a goofball, and he enjoys it. There are even times when he crawls up to me, pulls to standing, looks up at me with an expression that clearly states, "I'm being a goofball, and teasing you just 'cause I can" and he says, "Dada!" Then I look back at him and say, "No, I'm the Mama." His smile gets bigger, and his teasing expression grows, "Dada!"

Yeah, that is part of his goofiness. Hence his new name of Goofball.

As for me, I have some amazingly wonderful news that I didn't even think of posting on here. I posted them on fb, but forgot to do so here. Prepare yourself to be amazed!

One, I am being published. It isn't anything that will make me money, just a short story within a magazine, but when I was notified that they would use my story that I sent them, my joy overflowed. I was so amazed and shocked and just darn right happy. So happy in fact, that I couldn't tell Rocket Scientist what was going on for probably a full five minutes. Check out the magazine: Seeing the Everyday Make a subscription. Read my story. The issue I am in is issue 10, and the story is Hiking with Dad. ^_^

Also... more big news... I finished writing my book! WOO! That was an amazing accomplishment. There will more than likely be editing still happening nothing though that will really change the plot, mainly grammatical errors, so suffice it to say that it is finished, and I was totally excited about that. It is certainly not a stand alone book, and needs more stories or books behind it, but I was way happy when I finished that. No idea if it will even be published, but at least I finished it.

And that shall be it for now. Need to get ready for the day.

Thanks for reading. ^_^

Lost, lost, lost.

"Lost what?"
"I've lost my marbles."

Name that movie!!

Ok... so I really do feel lost though. Today I have been wandering around, trying to keep myself away from the computer and focused on other things, but nothing seems to draw me to it. Knitting, cross-stitching, writing... even playing computer games has lost it's pull. I have no motivation to do anything yet I know I should be doing something. I'm aimlessly finding some other useless thing to do on the computer, but have no motivation to do so, or even enjoy it really. Playing with kids, all my usual hobbies... nothing can keep my interest.

Does anyone else feel like this sometimes, or have I really lost my marbles??

Metaphor

"Show vs. tell"

If you are a writer you know what that means. How boring would it be to read a story (story, not educational/self help books...) where there is no dialogue, no real character development, always rehashing what has been instead of living in the book with the characters?

Just imagine it...

*falls asleep*

Next metaphor:

Take the song "More Than Words" by Extreme. If you don't know it, you should google it. Good song. Anyway... the jist of the song is saying, don't tell me that you love me, show me. Sure, tell me also. But if your actions don't jive with your words, there is something wrong. What the singer is saying is, "if you constantly show me that you love me, you wouldn't really need to say 'I love you' because I'd already know." I would change that to "already feel".

Sometimes we struggle with this. I know Rocket Scientist loves me. Truly I do. He wouldn't put up with the crap I feel like I'm constantly giving him (self hate time...) if he didn't love me. Maybe that in and of itself is showing me that he loves me. But I need something more concrete. Read a book about love languages? If not, look it up. Mine is gifts. I feel slightly shallow saying that, but it is true. One can show me that they love me more than words can say by giving me something that I always wanted. Note, I say 'wanted' not necessarily 'needed'.

I have always had a hard time trying to explain all this to Rocket Scientist. Don't get me wrong. I love him dearly, and know that he loves me. Though it is hard to know when my feelings may be conflicting. Again, don't get me wrong, Rocket Scientist treats me well. He really does. Frequently though, I feel and wonder if everything I do escapes his notice. That may be so, he is constantly distracted. Due, I believe, to ADD. Nevertheless, I am almost constantly lacking in feeling like I did something of worth.

Next metaphor:

In the scriptures, the Lord and Jesus are frequently calling people hypocrites. What's that saying? "Their words are turned to me, but their hearts are far from me"? Something like that. You can say you love God, but do you really if you aren't studying his every word? Think of a young child sitting at his parents feet, hanging off of every word they say. Following them to the best of their ability. To a little child, their parents word is like doctrine. Heck, I believed for the longest time that salt made things cool down all because my mom said, "Put salt on it" to the complaint, "My spaghetti is too hot."

You can say you love God, but if you aren't doing everything in your power to return to him, and follow his every word... do you really? You are saying, but you aren't showing.

This post isn't made for a hammering on you sort of session. Or really a hammering on me. Or a hammering on... well, anyone. It was just a revelation I had yesterday. After another hard day of being sick and trying to be a mom of two kids who love me so much they tend to fight over me, I felt like I was being accused of being a bad mom/wife when I let Baby scream for minutes on end. I had had enough of the kids and needed to rest to attempt to get better, and someone else could have taken care of Baby. I'm not trying to point fingers. Honestly. But in my emotionally drained state, an innocent comment made me feel like I'm the worst ever.

Back on track... it was a hard day yesterday, and feeling worthless and that everything I do is meaningless, I tried once again to find a way to explain to Rocket Scientist what I need from him. Then this metaphor came to mind. The last one about God. I know how it feels to need someone to show me their love more than tell me. God knows it probably better than anyone. There is only one person who had ever and will ever live on this earth who fulfilled God's every word and followed him when He had no one else. Everyone else has had their bout of hypocrisy every once in a while. That's a lot of people.

Humbling thought isn't it? I am feeling rather ashamed now myself.

Here's to repentance and trying to do better!

*raises glass of milk, Oreos in hand*

Job Search

All my nerves are with Rocket Scientist today. With us planning on moving, he is now currently out looking for a job. I wish him well.

Aaaaaand..... that is about all I can post about now...

*taps desk nervously...