I'm tired

Between three kids being sick over the past week, trying to keep up in Algebra, cooking, cleaning, and general day to day stuff, I'm tired. Thank goodness all the kids are well again, Hunter missed three days of school last week and Shelby missed two. Maggie was sick from the previous week, through the weekend, and she went to the doctor on Tuesday. It was mostly viral, with a touch of bronchitis. But now I feel like I am getting a cold again. :/

Algebra is actually a lot better these days, although I know there are still a lot of classes left, and they aren't going to get easier. I carry my book around with me everywhere, and I've already filled up almost half of my notebook just from working the example problems in the different sections and doing my homework. I go through every section and work every example, even though they are already worked out in the example (heh), then I go and do random odd problems at the end of the section. Our homework is based online, so we don't actually use the end sections for homework. The online place has problems exactly like what we do in class, though. I'm thinking our professor picks exactly which ones she wants us to do.

Anyway! I did three homework sections today, and took one quiz. I made not one, not two, but THREE 100s on the homework sections. And one of them was word problems!!!! I about fainted. I have always, always had issues with word problems, and I couldn't believe I was able to make equations that made sense and then work them out. On the quiz, I made a 90, but it was only 5 questions. It told me I got 4 right and was given partial credit for 1, but it didn't show me what I missed.

Tonight, I have to handle the Girl Scout meeting alone! L, the troop leader, called last night and has some sort of banquet to go to for her son's boy scout troop. I think she said she would probably get to the meeting before it was over, but for the most part, I'm handling everything alone. I'm kind of nervous. Me, against 20 rowdy, loud girls? Wowza! I've got things planned, though, so maybe I can keep them busy.

And? There are issues with my mom and younger sister cropping up. It's a long, convoluted, and probably boring story, plus I don't have time to go into it. Just suffice it to say that Mom is trying to bail S out again, to her own detriment. I have already said S cannot come stay here, so I imagine Mom is going to start looking for her a place so S can move in with her. Which is a huge mistake. She's staying with us so she can get some past bills paid off, and she's going to be doing very badly financially if she moves now. But she's an adult, and this is her baby we're talking about. *gag*

School daze

I started back to school on Monday. It was a very overwhelming day. I think I'm going to like Sociology, I got to Spanish and realized I had forgotten a lot of the vocabulary from last semester, and then I got to Algebra and I wanted to run screaming from the room. And in the midst of all of that I still had no idea what I was supposed to do for my Speech class (online).

So, when I finally found the speech class and what all it entailed, I dropped it. Immediately. It's just not the type of class that I think I can do online. Plus, I was going to have to tape myself giving all of my speeches and I don't have any type of video recorder, except on my camera, and they don't accept digital copies. I'm actually pretty relieved.

I'm having to study my ass off just to refresh myself in Intermediate Algebra concepts. I'm very askeered of the Algebra. It took me an hour today to do a homework set consisting of 14 questions. I suck at math in general, and it's been 7 years since I've taken any type of math course. The book we're using has several review chapters in the beginning, so I've been going over them. Some of it is coming back to me, but I don't ever remember learning how to complete the square or the quadratic equation formula. Maybe I did, but I sure don't remember it.

So anyway, that's what I've been doing this week. It's been a busy week, and I haven't had a lot of time to get online, and I probably won't have much time for the rest of this semester. I should have a good handle on algebra by the end of it, though! :D

Update at the zoo

Mackenzie woke me up this morning and told me that she was vomiting. Ugh. She threw up probably 5 or 6 times this morning and was white as a sheet. Around noon I sent her to bed and she took a nap for a couple of hours. I had her sipping on a bottle of water, too. When she got up she said she felt better and ate some crackers. I hope that's the end of it, and that none of the other kids get sick. I start school Monday, and I don't need to miss the first day!

In other news, Maggie is almost completely potty trained! We started at Christmas, and had a lot of accidents in that first week. We had ran out of diapers on Christmas day, so I decided it was as good a time as any to get started. I wanted to have her trained during the break, anyway. She's done really well during the past two weeks, although she will still go in her underwear if she doesn't feel like going to the bathroom. And? Last week, Darrell was doing some straightening up in our bedroom, and found a half bag of Pampers. Ha! I guess they fell behind the shelf and he thought we were out. But I'm not going to go back to them, of course! I'll just give them to one of my friends that still has a kid in diapers.

I'm finally getting over my hellacious cold from a couple of weeks ago. I was feeling awful and taking cold meds like clockwork, which I usually never do. It was just really getting me down with the congestion and general blah feeling. I still have a lingering cough, which has finally gotten productive, so I hope to be over that here soon.

3:10 to Yumama

This morning I was listening to the radio while I was driving the kids to school. The station I listen to has a trivia contest every morning, called Gender Wars. They have a woman and a man contestant, and they ask each one questions that are typically something that the other gender would know. So, this morning they asked the woman what western movie starred Russell Crowe and Christian Bale, 3:10 to ______.

She decided to use the screw, where the other person has to answer the question, so the man had to answer it. He said 'Yumama?' (pronounced you-mama) OMG, the DJs were cracking up, and I was laughing so hard I could barely drive. I know the poor guy was embarrassed, but damn it was hilarious. I still start laughing when I think about it.

I had something to blog about....

But I forgot what it was. Don't you hate when that happens? :D

The Guest from HELL!!

So, Christmas is over, and I'm slowly getting my house back into pre-holiday shape. Today, we all slept in and then I spent most of the afternoon sitting in the chair, watching a Project Runway marathon and thinking how I really needed to clean the house. Finally, around 6 PM, I got off my ass and started putting away all of my Christmas decorations and taking down the tree. Then I cleaned another room. Then I cleaned another. Then I sorted the mountain of laundry (7 people in the house + no laundry done for 3 days = mountains). I still have a bunch of stuff to do, but I at least got some of it accomplished tonight.

My youngest sister is in town this week. Originally, she was supposed to come down and stay the day of Christmas Eve. She waited until she was here, with all of her stuff packed in the car, to "ask" me if she could stay here until Friday. Let me just say that I don't mind her staying here, but she's a lousy houseguest. Not to mention she pretty much invited herself to stay at my home. We already have my mom staying here for a little while, so we are kind of full anyway.

The biggest thing that bugs me about her staying here is that she doesn't want to help out in the house at all, pick up after herself or help clean. Keep in mind, of course, that if she was an invited guest I wouldn't expect her to clean, but that's not the case, now is it? On the evening of Christmas Eve, my mom, Darrell, Shelby, Maggie, and I were all in the kitchen baking pies, making cookies, etc. I asked S if she'd help us out. She actually had the nerve to tell me that she has to cook supper and wash dishes everyday, so she wasn't doing anything. I asked her if she thought we only ate on Christmas. Miss "cooks for two adults and one baby", wah wah wah. Hello! We have 7 people in this house to cook for and clean up after. I have my mom here to help me now, but that's still 3.5 people apiece. Heh.

Luckily (for her), she went to stay with my older sister tonight and tomorrow night. She'll just be coming back down here Friday when her boyfriend comes to pick them up to get the rest of her things that she left here, and to say goodbye.

So anyway, enough of my bitching and moaning. Overall, our Christmas was a good one. The kids loved all of their presents. We got up super early (thanks, Mackenzie!) and opened gifts. Then Darrell started falling asleep on the loveseat, I dozed in the recliner, and my mom slept on the couch while the kids enjoyed their new toys. We ended up sleeping until noon, so our typical Christmas lunch turned out to be Christmas dinner. It was just a great lazy day. The kids were great, no arguing, and the adults sat around and watched tv. I cooked the dinner and my mom cleaned up.

I hope everyone else had a good day, and now it's on to the New Year! My sister and her clan are coming over for NYE, and I plan to get shitfaced. I'm going to buy some vodka this week sometime and get completely smashed that night. I haven't done that in forever, and I'll have at least 3 other adults in the house that won't be drinking, so I won't have to worry about the kids. :D

Merry Christmas to all!

This will probably be my last blog entry before Christmas, so I wanted to wish you all a wonderful holiday, if you celebrate. :) I know I don't have many readers, but that's okay. I enjoy keeping this blog (finally!), so I'm fine with having only a few readers. :)

Yesterday, we did the Christmas party I mentioned in another post. I had a really good time. I got to see all of my aunts and uncles and cousins that I don't see regularly. There was some good food, too! Tonight, we took the kids and drove around for a while looking at Christmas lights. I planned it for after supper and baths, and since Maggie hadn't napped all day, she was asleep by the time we got home. Yes, the plan worked!

Tomorrow, I'm going to finish cleaning the house, bake a bunch of pies and cookies, and get ready for Christmas. I'm planning cinnamon rolls for Christmas morning, then we're having ham and turkey breast for dinner. I have a couple of gifts to wrap yet, but I guess that will wait until tomorrow night. And of course, we have to drag out all of the gifts from Santa and the stocking stuffers. Mackenzie is getting a bunch of bath stuff, make-up, and perfume with a locking case; Hunter is getting a PSP and game, and Shelby and Maggie are getting a combined Santa gift this year. It's a bunch of doll furniture, a few dolls, diapers, toys, bottles/cups, & clothes. We did so well this year, we only spent around $300 for all of the kids' presents. We found a few awesome deals, so I'm glad about that!

I hope everyone reading this has a most wonderful, joyous, and peaceful holiday. I'm glad to have all of you to vent to, commiserate and share my joy with, and lucky to consider some of you my very good friends. Merry Christmas!

I passed!

Yay! I got a B in the dreaded Art class. It looks like she didn't take any points off for my absence. I got As in both Spanish and Lit, which I was pretty sure of. Here's the proof:

Undergraduate Course work

CRN	Subject	Course	Section	Course Title	Campus	Final Grade	Attempted	Earned	GPA Hours	Quality Points
80001	ART	1030	A	Intro to Visual Arts	Main Campus	B	3.000	3.000	3.000	9.000
80234	ENGL	2010	I	Intro to Literary Genres	Main Campus	A	3.000	3.000	3.000	12.000
80035	SPAN	1010	B	Beginning Spanish I	Main Campus	A	3.000	3.000	3.000	12.000

I knew y'all didn't believe me. :p I wish there was a way to know what I made on my finals, they should put that on the website, too.

Now, to rest up over the next 2 weeks before I start back, with one more class than I had this semester. Hopefully, without the Professor from Hell, it won't be as stressful. I'm not looking forward to 4 months of Algebra, though.

We are officially selling cookies now. Well, technically not for 9 more days, but I have the order forms. They do that in such a weird way. We don't have GS meetings while school is on break, so we have to hand out the order forms at the last meeting before the holidays. But the girls aren't allowed to start selling until the 29th. They should either let us start selling as soon as we get the forms, or have us wait until we all come back in January. The holidays are a prime time to sell, too, so you'd think they'd want us to start selling as soon as possible. Oh, well. Not much they do makes sense, so I shouldn't be surprised.

We have our family Christmas party Saturday afternoon. It should be fun. I like getting together with my extended family, it's always a good time. And that's not sarcasm, people! Heh.

Radio City Christmas Spectacular

Last night, Mackenzie's girl scout troop went to see the Radio City Christmas Spectacular in Nashville. We went last year too, and it was so much fun. I took Shelby with us this year and she absolutely loved it. I was so glad I took her, it was fun just to watch her reactions to the different shows. All of the girls had a great time. Next year, we're going to try to go see the Nashville Ballet. I can't wait for that!

This year, the troop decided to sponsor a local family and buy them some gifts for Christmas instead of having a party. So last week, we wrapped all of the gifts we got them. The family has three kids, and we got each kid two outfits apiece, and one toy type of gift. I also had them make Christmas cards from construction paper last week. Monday, the troop leader and I are going to deliver the presents to the family, and then on Tuesday, the girls are going to deliver the cards they made to the nursing home and maybe sing some carols. After that, we're done with meetings until after the new year.

Cookie sales start December 31! If anyone reading this is interested in buying some cookies from Mackenzie, let me know! We have a cookie meeting Monday for the leaders, and I've been told there are two new cookie flavors this year. A chocolate chip (sugar free), and a lemon sandwich cookie. We'll get to taste them, so I can tell you how they are. :) The troop leader, L, asked me if I'd handle all the meetings during cookie season, so I've got to start getting some plans together while I'm off school, so I won't have to worry about planning when I get back to school.

We had our leader Christmas party tonight. It was at L's house, and we had a great time. The kids all played together, and we visited and ate for a while. We just got home about an hour ago, actually. Tomorrow I've got to clean the house and, well, that's about it! The kids have school Monday, and then Tuesday is an abbreviated day. They go back on January 4th, and I start back on the 8th. I get my grades from this semester on the 21st of December, so I'll let y'all know how I did! :)

Finals? Are Ovah!

Halle-freaking-lujah!

I think I did well on all three of my finals. If my calculations are correct, I'll have an 84 average in Art. I hope like hell that she doesn't take off the 5 points for my absence so I can be clear of that class. If she does, it'll drop me to a 79, which will have me retaking the class. Not with her, though, that's for damn sure!

I need to nap now. :D

Final Exam Hell

I have two more classes (next Tuesday and Thursday) before my final exams and the end of the semester. Yahoo! I am so glad to be finished with this semester. On the other hand, of course, that means I have to study for final exams. Of which, two are going to be hard. In the current Spanish lesson, we're learning about a billion verbs that have stem changes. For example, querer. It means 'to want'. It's an e:ie stem change, but two of the forms when conjugating them don't have the stem change. So conjugating that verb looks like this: quiero, quieres, quiere, queremos, queréis, and quieren. There are also verbs that have an o:ue stem change, e:i stem change, and there is one that has a u:ue stem change. So, I have to memorize the meanings of all the verbs, what their particular stem change is, and still remember the conjugation rules for the different endings: -ar, -ir, and -er. Spanish has come easy to me this entire semester, but this is by far the hardest lesson, and I'm feeling very anxious about this test.

I don't think Lit will be too awfully hard. The final in that class is over poetry (tone, word order, word choice, alliteration, assonance, etc.), A Midsummer Night's Dream, and A Farewell to Arms. We had the test over A Farewell to Arms yesterday. I didn't know we were having the test since I wasn't there Tuesday, and I hadn't read the entire book at that point. Hopefully I didn't bomb that test. Luckily for me, that teacher does her grading on an 800 point scale, instead of averaging all the grades, so it shouldn't kill me. Plus, all my other grades in that class are As.

Art is an entirely different story. We have to do things like trace the development of the human form in Art History, talk about Pagan prototypes in Christianity, and list a shitload of information on different monuments when we are shown the picture of each monument on a slide. For each monument, we have to memorize the name of it, the place from where it came, it's time period, the approximate dates it is thought to have been made, and it's current location. In a few cases, we have to know the names of the architects that designed the work. I am working my ass off in that class, and only pulling a C. This teacher is impossible to please, and I MUST make a C in this class, or I'll have to retake it. Hopefully I made a decent grade on my paper, but she hasn't graded them all yet, so I don't know when I'll find that out. I can say one thing, though. If I do end up having to retake the class, it will NOT be with this teacher. No freaking way.

So, anyway, my stress level is pretty high right now. I have a ton of studying to do over the next week - week and a half. If I disappear for a while, that is probably why. If I'm not back by December 14, come looking for me. ;)

I'm a dork

I spent much of Saturday getting all my research in order and starting to organize my Art paper. Today I began typing it all up. I had almost four pages of notebook paper handwritten. I started typing and got towards the end, and realized it was only about two pages long in Word. I told my mom that it didn't appear to be as long as I had thought, when she said "Are you supposed to double space?" Duh! This paper has me so rattled that I forgot to double space! Once I did that? Voila! Now I have 4 1/2 pages to my paper. I shall finish it up tomorrow to be ready to turn in Tuesday.

Yes, I am a dork.

It's the most wonderful time of the year. . .

I hope everyone had a wonderful Thanksgiving. Those that celebrate it, anyway. :) These past few weeks have been extremely stressful for me, with Shelby having some troubles at school. It's still not completely cleared up, but hopefully it will be soon.

We had a great Thanksgiving. I cooked dinner and it was delicious, if I do say so myself. We went down to my grandparents' house to visit after we ate, as we always do. We missed most of the family though. Apparently they ate and ran. My psycho ex-neighbor ended up being down there. Gag. She didn't say a single word to me, and I just acted like she wasn't there. Crazy bitch!

That night, we watched Home Alone, as is our annual Thanksgiving night tradition. It kind of kick starts the holiday season or something. On Friday, we set up the Christmas tree and decorated the house. Hunter put up all the outside lights, so we are all decorated up. It's finally feeling like the holiday season to me. Thanksgiving sneaked up on me so fast!

Mackenzie's girl scout troop is going to be in the Christmas parade this year (Dec. 6th), and this year it's a whole family affair! Darrell is going to pull the trailer with his truck, which he is more than happy to do so he doesn't have to stand out in the cold. Shelby and Maggie are going to ride with him and throw candy. They'll probably sit in the back and eat the majority of it. Heh. My mom has been pulling out decorations and fabric to help get the girls costumes and the trailer ready for decorating. Me, I'll be walking alongside the float during the parade, which I am not happy about! Hopefully, it'll be warmer than last year's parade, though. It was all of 7 degrees or so last year at the parade. I'll get my mom to take pictures, if she doesn't ride with Darrell, and put them up after the parade.

My Art paper is finally due Tuesday. Shelby is starting counseling that day, so I have to drive to Columbia just to turn my paper in that morning and then come back home for her appointment. School is quickly drawing to a close. I have only 4 more classes until final exams. Wow. I don't think I actually realized that. I was able to register for my classes almost two weeks ago. While I didn't get the ones I really wanted, I got a pretty decent schedule. I'll be taking Monday/Wednesday classes in the Spring, and I'm taking Spanish II, Sociology, & College Algebra. I'm also taking Speech as an online course; I'm pretty curious as to how that works.

Okay, this was pretty boring. ;p

I am about to lose my mind

I swear to god that I cannot take one.more.fucking.thing. I am so fed up. I need a vacation.

Migraine Hell

I woke up this morning feeling good. My mom had got up with the kids, let me and Darrell sleep in, and started cleaning the house. Woot! Shortly after I got up, I started getting the telltale aura in my eyes. It lasted about ten minutes and then the headache started. It wasn't very bad at first, but the more I sat there, the worse it got. I was trying to do research on my paper, so that probably didn't help, either.

Eventually, I started getting sick to my stomach and finally went to lay down in my room. I fell asleep and slept for about 3 hours. So I pretty much wasted my day. I got up around 5 this evening, and my head felt much better. Since then, I've had just a small headache. It hurts, but it's manageable. I made homemade chicken noodle soup for supper, and homemade biscuits. It was yummy, and everyone ate some; even Hunter, who is my pickiest eater. It was full of those gross veggies, you know. ;)

Tomorrow, Mackenzie is going to be in the Veterans' Day Parade with her Girl Scout troop. Since I'm the coleader, I'll be up there walking with them. There is school tomorrow, so we have to get all the girls back to their classes after the parade. I have to try to work on my paper some more, and do a review for Spanish class Tuesday. I have my Art paper and a Lit paper due the Tuesday after Thanksgiving, and I really don't want to be working on them over the holiday. So, can I really completely write two papers in just over a week, especially when one has to be 5-10 pages long? Stay tuned!

I'm pissed off!

I am in a bad fucking mood, lately. I don't know what it is, but I am more confrontational than I have ever been, and just about everything is pissing me off. My kids' teachers, my husband's boss (which also happens to be his father), my husband's brother (who thinks he is the boss), my college, random people on the internet. Heh.

Spring registration for currently enrolled students starts Monday. They have the schedule up now, so you can view it and pick your classes. I can't get any.thing. to match up. The classes that I had planned to take are not available on the same days, the times don't work out, and it's all pissing me off. I think I've got it figured out now, thank goodness. Speech as an internet course (although I'm not sure how that works), Essentials of American Government and Politics, Spanish II, and College Algebra. I had only planned to take two of those courses, but the other two aren't available in the times/days I need them to be. I was planning to take an 8:00 AM class, so I could get home earlier, but I can't because they are wanting to change Darrell's hours at work to start at 7 AM, and he couldn't be able to drive the kids to school. I would have to leave by 7:15 at the very latest to make an 8 o'clock class.

Darrell's brother suggested today that they start working Saturdays. Every Saturday. And working 7-5 everyday. That is 60 fucking hours a week. Even if he got a raise with this shit, it still wouldn't work out to be very much per hour, compared to the current hours and pay. IF he got the raise he wanted, he'd still be making $3.75 less per hour than he is now, and be working 20 more hours per week. He's salaried, so increasing his hours doesn't increase his pay necessarily. It's a ridiculous notion, and it would take me all night to explain the history with his family, and the reason we are so pissed about this. Nevermind the fact that he has a wife and small children that he likes to spend time with, nevermind that he has things he likes to do on the weekend, nevermind the fact that his back is getting worse all the time and he needs the weekend to at least somewhat recuperate from the workweek and let his back rest. They just want to get the work out faster so they can make more money.

Then his brother has the nerve to tell him that sometimes we have to "make sacrifices". What the FUCK does he know about sacrificing anything? He's always been taken care of by their dad, while Darrell gets the shitty end of the stick. He's always gotten extra money, back when they worked on commission. If he didn't make at least $700 each week, their dad would give him more money to go on. There were weeks, when Hunter and Mackenzie were little, that Darrell would barely clear $100, but that was just fine. But we didn't need any help. I think we've made plenty of damn sacrifices in our marriage. We don't have new vehicles, we don't have a nice new house, we don't go and drop hundreds of dollars on things just because we want them, their dad didn't go and finance a home for us in his name. I'm in awe of the kind of nerve it takes for HIM to tell US that sometimes you have to sacrifice.

So, anyway, that was way more than I intended to type about that particular situation. I'm just stressed with school, and I think it's causing my inner bitch to come out. I'm usually so easy going, but I'm at the point where I want to break bad on somebody's ass here lately. Heh.

My (not so) spooky spooks

The kids had a blast on Halloween. Hunter was dressed as a punk rocker, Shelby was Snow White, and Maggie was a witch. Mackenzie was a devil, but she was very last minute on going, so I don't have any pictures of her. Anyway, we live out of town, so we have to drive into town to trick or treat. We met my sister, her fiance, and her kids in a neighborhood near the park and walked around with them. My younger sister and her baby went with us, too. There were tons of people out this year, way more than I've seen in the past few years. We walked around for about an hour and a half, then picked up supper and came home.

Hunter:

And the closeup:

Shelby & Maggie:

And my niece, Kyra:

Crazy week

I have been so busy this week, it's making my head spin. My mom moved back to town last weekend. She's staying with us temporarily until she can get things in order. My sister and her almost 10 month old daughter were here from last Saturday until this evening, visiting. I've had school and everything I normally have going on. I was up until 1:30 AM the night before my project was due, getting it finished. I think I did a pretty decent job, but then I thought I nearly aced the test we had and I made an 89 on it. Heh.

I only have 9 classes left until the end of the semester. Yay! I can't wait. I get to register for my spring classes on November 12, and I'm going to try to take an easier load next time. I don't think this semester would have been so stressful if I hadn't taken Art under the instructor that I have. At this point, I'm thinking I will be fine as long as I pass the class. I am doing the best I can, but I'm not an Art expert, I'm not even an Art major, and I think she asks too much of her students.

Anyway, my current plans are to take Spanish II, College Math, Intro to Education, & an American Gov./Politics class that I can't remember the exact name of right now. :) Hopefully I'll be able to take those classes. I'm worried about the Intro to Ed. though, since it's a class for my major, and they're still saying I need to take Dev. Reading. But if I can't take that I'll pick something else. I need to go ahead and do my Biology and get it out of the way, but I'm dreading it and putting it off as long as possible. I am totally not a science person. Plus, there are separate labs with science classes. I've got to go to the doctor one day this next week, hopefully, and get my MMR shot so that I can register for more than 3 classes for the spring.

I got to talk to a friend of mine that I haven't talked to in forever tonight. She found me on MySpace the other day, and sent me her phone number. We met online at a parenting forum in 1998, and talked on the phone almost daily for the next two years or so. She and her husband came over and visited us a couple of times, too. We lost touch there for a while, then she looked me up online and found me. It was just like we had never been out of touch. I'm glad she looked me up! :)

I've got to get to bed now. I've got some pain meds in me that are making me sleepy. Well, that, combined with the fact that I've gotten very little sleep this week!

Overwhelmed. Again.

I don't know how I'm going to get through the next 5 semesters of school. This one is kicking my ass. I just had midterms on Thursday and today, so there was lots of studying to be done. (I made a 94 & 89 in Spanish and Art, respectively) My Art project is due a week from Thursday, and I have barely started on it. I'm supposed to go to Nashville Sunday to the Frist Center, and then I have to write that damn paper, which I'll then have three weeks to write and perfect. I'm just feeling very overwhelmed, and I'm not sure how I'm going to do it all. I wish like hell I had not taken Art this semester, it's killing me. Oh, and I have to figure out some time to take the placement test, so I can get out of taking Developmental Reading. AND, next semester I have to take the Praxis I, which is required before I can get into the teaching program at the university I plan to transfer to.

I just want to scream. And now I have to go cook supper and clean up before Mackenzie and I have to be at her Girl Scout meeting (did I mention I signed on to be a co-leader?). Then back home to get kids ready for bed and try to fit some homework in. It's neverending.

Yes, boss

Maggie has started telling me "yes, boss!" If I tell her to do something, she says "yes, boss!" If I tell her to stop doing something, she says "yes, boss!" I have no idea where she got it from. It's cute, but I'm just waiting for someone in public to ask me why I make her call me boss.