This, That, and the Other Thing

I did not intend to completely abandon the blog, but my computer and photobucket are not getting along lately and I have not been able to upload pictures. But until that is resolved, how about a boring blah, blah, blah update....

I can't believe it is the end of summer. What a bust! I was in school and training at work until the end of July, then we went on a 3 week road trip and now we are home and going back to school. We only went to the lake once, Six Flags twice and not much else. I feel like I failed my children by being too busy to be fun this year. The only consolation comes from the fact that it was cold and rainy all summer anyway so even if we'd had the time, we may not have had the adventures anyway. Oh well!

I officially finished the Pathway program at the end of July. I finally gave up on trying to please my English teacher and wrote my final paper in 20 minutes. There was one paragraph I did not like so I deleted it and cut and pasted a different one from an old blog post because I didn't feel like rewriting it. I did not change anything after peer reviews and I did not send it to the writing lab. All I needed was 50% to maintain an A in the class so I decided to quit jumping through hoops for nothing. It was my worst paper, for sure. It came back more marked up than any past paper and yet, she gave me 100% on it. Hmm...? Makes me wonder if her plan was to give a 96 twice, a 98 twice and then 100 so it looked like she had succeeded as a teacher. She lost all credibility in my book, but it is over and done with and so I will take my A and move on. I am signed up for 4 classes in the fall. That may be too many? I will have to wait and see, but I really, really want to be done. I am listed as a senior because I have 95 credits but in order to meet the demands of my major I still need 50 more and I hope to be done when I am 40, so I have two years to get this done!

Along with school, I am now working part time. I only work 8-10 hours a week but it cuts in to my schedule more than I expected it to. I like it though. It is fun to just get out and be productive and I work alone and on my own time, so that is a bonus.

I was also chosen to be one of the two team moms for Alyssa's synchro team. I did not see that coming. I was sure they would choose someone who had done this crazy synchro thing before. We have to help  with team fundraising and travel with the team and chaperone them at competitions, as well as hang with them in the locker room and at the hotel. We will also help with hair and make-up which I am learning is  a whole new animal. USFS does not allow any pins or barrettes on the ice so their hair has to be put in a bun and sewed, yes sewed, to the bun maker. Any accessories also have to be sewed in so I am pretty sure I will suck at that. But...Alyssa is loving this new adventure so far.

And one last new adventure awaits me in the 2014-15 school year. I was called to teach early morning seminary. That is 5 days a week at 6:00 AM. My mom, dad, and Seth all told me it was terrible timing and to say no, but I have never said no to a calling and I love working with the youth. I also hate when people tell me I can't do something. Of course, everyone meant well. I really do have a lot going on and I am a perfectionist so they all know how much pressure I will put on myself every day to have a good lesson ready and a clean house before I let anyone in. But when people tell me I can't do something I go in to oh yeah, watch me mode. Case in point: the dog. But I really wanted to make sure that this was the right thing to do and not just something I was doing because I wanted to be right. I went back and forth for a month and didn't decide for sure until 5 minutes before I walked in to the parents meeting on Sunday. I decided that I would regret it if I didn't at least try but I gave Seth carte blanche to pull the plug at any time and I agreed that I will willingly walk away if it hurts my family or my health in any way. Now I am so nervous that I can't sleep at night, but I am also excited and hopeful so wish me luck.

And that is about all that is going on with me right now. I realize that kid updates are more exciting to read and to look at, so I will assign Seth to figure out how to make my computer be nice to me so I can throw a whole summer at you in one or two posts.