Lazy Days...

Today might very well be the first day in two years that I have had absolutely no grad school homework, grading, planning, or school stuff to do at all. Whatever will I do with my life now that grad school is over?

Today my plans include.....
~cleaning the house (ick)! I don't think I've thoroughly cleaned the house in a very long time. It never gets too terribly bad, but I probably do some deep spring cleaning.
~organize my grad boxes and get all my books, papers, and stuff put away. I may need it again in the future....if anything, I may loan it to a friend if they go through the program.
~read......yep, lots of reading....
~work out - I took the last four days off and it is time to get back in to my routine. I can't blame being fat on grad school anymore....now it is just laziness and poor choices. Rats!
~play on FB....I tend to do that a lot regardless of my responsibilities. Oh well.
~enjoy life.....it may not be too entertaining today, but I am surely going to enjoy it.

Took my state Praxis yesterday and will find out in about six weeks if I passed or not. To be honest, it was rather easy. There were probably 10 questions out of 120 that I really struggled with....hopefully I did as well as I thought I did and pass it. It is a pretty expensive test and I'd rather not have to re-take it. I'm not planning on looking for a counseling job right now, but since I had already studied for my comps to graduate, I thought I might as well take this test too.

Well, time to get started with enjoying my day.... I should probably do the cleaning and working out first since those aren't the most enjoyable.....we'll see.

Happy Day....

Well, it is finally the weekend. It has been a really long, difficult week. My grandpa died last Friday night and the viewing and funeral were in Iowa this past week. I rarely miss school, but I took 3 personal days to go up and grieve. The funeral was nice and peaceful and it was good to spend time with my mom and grandma and family; I have accepted the fact that he is in a better place and is at peace, but it still sucks.

Once I came back to school, the kids were nuts. They are out of control and being really rude and shitty! I am trying to stay patient, but sometimes I just can't stand their callous behavior. They treat eachother and the teachers like crap just because there aren't any real consequences for them. They don't realize that the behaviors they develop now will follow them through high school and beyond; I hope they are able to mature quite a bit before high school. There are about 20 of the 200 that I will really miss next year....that makes me sad that I won't miss more of them.

On a positive note, I passed my comps for grad school and it looks as if I will in fact be graduating May 1. I am super excited. I have to finish my portfolio, a portfolio paper, my practicum - 3 videos with 3 papers for each of them, and a social/culture paper. I stayed at school until 7:45 tonight with the plan to complete some of this, but I worked on planning instead. My jump drive wouldn't open on my school computer....un-oh.....could that be a major problem?????? I'll be fuming! It will all work out though. I can finish all my menial tasks this weekend, study this week for the Praxis this coming weekned, and graduate May 1.....then I am done for a while....woo hoo!

I guess that is all for now......enough venting and ranting and raving....life is too short, right? I'm sure I'll be back on the graduation note.....maybe I should be doing that now instead of blogging? :) Hmmmmm....

I wonder....

I wonder if life really is better when shared with someone else? My students have made it their mission to set me up with someone.....when they mention parents, my easy out is to say "It's unethical." When they pick other teachers, I respond, "I don't think he's available, plus, I don't have time and I am not interested in dating." My students said if I dated someone I would be happy; so I asked them if I really seemed unhappy. They, of course, said that I was always happy, but that maybe if I was dating someone I would be happier. Have they seen their own juvenile relationship? They are always bickering and name calling and there is so much drama...granted they are middle schoolers....but all the adults I know are faced with the same scenarios. Can't I just be happy and successful without a man in my life? Why does our society see it as a problem if a 32 year old woman is not married, without children, and entirely independent....why is that so bad? I am happy, for God sakes! I am happy! Leave me alone already!

On a brighter note, I spent the weekend at my parents house and saw my nephews. They are so cute..... I was going to skip the trip since I am going to Disney on Ice with them next weekend, but the little on guilted me....he said please and that he wanted to do puzzles. :( So I buckled and went to their house. I didn't get home until 8:30, then a friend called and we talked until after 10:00, so now I am not working out. Guess I will have to do double tomorrow.

Europe is 4 months away! It is time to book the flights and hotels and start figuring it all out. I am super excited! (Now see, if I were in a relationship, would I still be going to Europe with a girlfriend? Hmmm)

Till next time....

It's been awhile....

I never seem to remember about my blog....although sometimes I wish I wrote more. I guess this could be my outlet.

Life has been great lately. I have about two months of grad school left...if I pass my comps, I will graduate May 1. I am very excited about that. This summer I am heading to England, Ireland, France, and Italy with some friends from school. It will be an amazing experience. Other than that, I don't have many other trips planned. I recently paid off my credit card and am hoping to avoid using it....so my vacationing has to come to a hault.

Teaching is going great. When the year first began, I truly missed my kids from last year and didn't feel much of a connection or bond with these students. Now that we have only a few months left, I am aware of the fact that I will miss them greatly as they move on to high school. They truly are an amazing group of kids....obviously some more than others, but I will miss many of them.

I am grateful that grad school is coming to an end. I have come to the realization that adults who are going for their master's degrees are a bunch of whiners. They come up with any excuse to get out of class or to bitch about assignments. It is annoying! I think as adults if we are taking the step to go to school, we should put forth the effort to do well. It is expensive and time consuming and it takes a lot of work; it is nice to be with others who are willing to work hard...and if they are not willing to work hard, it is atleast nice to not have to hear them complain about how awful it is every week. Sheesh! They are worse than my middle school students.

I have also been spending some quality time with my nephews....who are amazing. They are super cute and make me laugh. My sister certainly has her hands full with a 3, 4, and 5 year old, but they rock! Hopefully I will get better at blogging and I can tell some stories about them.

For now, I guess that is all. It is time to head to bed. I am in the middle of Thirteen Reasons Why right now and kind of eager to get on with it. It is a book about teen suicide and with the whole counseling degree and teaching middle school, my hopes are that the books opens my awareness and gives me more tips of clues to watch for.

Till then....

Almost over...

Well, I have two weeks left of school this summer, and because of circumstances, I actually on have class two more times. That is exciting! I am going on a float trip this weekend in Noel, Missouri (thank gosh I'm not driving because I have no idea where Noel is). At the beginning of August, I am going to San Diego for 10 days. Life is good right now.

Classes are much easier this semester. I have 100% in both classes. This makes me curious as to whether or not my work is being graded for content or completion.... I love the A's, but am I really learning what I am supposed to be learning. One would hope. We do a lot of online discussions and I feel like I am learning a lot. It is useful content as well.

Although it is early, I think I would like to go lay in bed and read, so I am off for now.

Until next time... live well, laugh often!

2nd Round

Well, I guess I just got too busy to pay attention to my dandy blog, but I did finish my first month of classes. I miraculously got A's in both classes - yea!!! I have started the second round and they are much easier. I am even enjoying myself with the classes.

I finally got the Internet at home and can email and search the web and play - and hopefully get some school work done too! It should be great! I got cable too - I wonder how much of a distraction that will be.

I recently started reading a book called Twilight. It was amazing. I couldn't put it down. It is a vampire love story - not my typical pick, but it was for my book club. I loved it thoguh. Yesterday I started on the 2nd book in the series, New Moon, and I read about 300 pages of it yesterday. I can't put it down either. I already have book 3, Eclipse, waiting and the 4th book comes out Aug. 2. It's a teen series so most of my students have read it, but I have thoroughly enjoyed reading it. Maybe it will give us something to talk about.

Float trip is in TWO weeks and San Diego is in THREE. Life is currently good!