Welcoming Back a Social Life

Yes, I have been away the online and social life for a while, for a few good reasons. I been raising my children, working full time, and going to school. I have been beyond swamped! I like it that way though. I like to be busy, to be constantly doing things that I enjoy. I thrive on learning. I love every minute I spend with my family. I enjoy working in higher education.

Who has time for a social life with all that? Well, truthfully, I have on and off. I have always tried to make time for those who are important to me. This would mean visiting family when I have the time and money to do so, having a girls' night out with friends locally, and visiting with friends in Topeka after Logan's Saturday football games during the fall. My sister Betsy also got to visit us for a very inspiring weekend at a women's conference and for Shane's birthday dinner.

I believe I have learned to defy the limits of time. I have made time to enjoy life while doing everything that I need to for my children and completing my education, both of which are very important to me.

Now I am done with school. YAY! I completed a Master's of Science in Negotiation and Dispute Resolution from Creighton University School of Law in December 2011. You would think this would give me some "extra" time. Not really. Actually, not at all.

You see, after graduation came the holidays which meant parties and a short vacation to Texas to see my mom and Lester and my grandparents. My grandparents sold their home so we helped them decide what they would be taking with them to move... to our house! Yep! This past couple months we have been preparing for my grandparents to move in, helped them move in, and are trying to help them settle into our crazy lives. We are all enjoying each others' company. The boys and Shaun love having them there. I especially love having them there. I have not had family living in the same state as me, besides Shaun's parents who are our neighbors, in about 14 years. It was hard for me to have my family so far away. It still is but now I have my grandparents, who are absolutely wonderful. I still hold on to the idea that more of my family will move back to the state or at least within half a day's drive so we can visit each other more often.

Over the past couple months I have regained a bit of social life. I have had game parties at my house, had friends and family (Shaun's) over for dinner, had time to have lunch with friends, been able to read for fun, helped throw a last minute bridal shower, attended a baby shower, and had time to chat with friends over the phone or internet. There have also been a few baked goods appearing in my house; my sons reminded me how much I love to bake. I have stayed just as busy as before but in different ways.

A social life, to many people, includes online interaction, such as blogs, Facebook, Google+, and other similar sites. For me it has included Skyping with my sisters. I rarely get online to Facebook. This is the first blog entry I have done in a year. I figure if there is anything important happening in the lives my friends or family my husband, other family members, or friends will tell me directly. It is not that I am avoiding Facebook or Google+. I simply do not "need" them to help me live my life. I have enjoyed the freedom of not checking friends' statuses regularly. Yes, I like to know what people are up to, what excites them or upsets them, but I am not going to take time to browse Facebook for lengths of time like many people do. If I am on Facebook it is usually just long enough to respond to a message or check up on my son's activities online. While there I may "like" or "share" something someone has said or occasionally share something happening in my family's life.

I am now spending time enjoying life. I enjoy the quiet moments I have to play a card game with my grandparents, read a book, bake bread, shuttle my sons to their various activities, or simply clean a room in my house. While I am busy I am pacing myself so that I enjoy these moments more.

Social life? Sure, when I make the time to do something with a friend, or have dinner alone with my husband at a nice restaurant. To me having a meal with a friend means more than reading their status online. Having time to enjoy my grandparents, Shaun, and my sons at home means more than anything to me. I plan to spend this weekend at home. Most likely I will be found cleaning, organizing, baking, playing a game, or reading. (Oh, and hunting for a couple more baby items to send to my sister Golda!)

This is how I am welcoming back the life I have had to arrange around school for the past few years. Now I have time to relish in the time spent being me, not being a student, but being a mother, a wife, a granddaughter, a friend. This is what keeps me busy these days. I LOVE IT!

Take time to spend with those whom you love now. You may not have the time to do so later.

Graduation and EXTRA Time

YAY!!!! WAHOO!!!! I've done it. I've finally completed my Bachelors of Science in Family Studies and Human Services (with an 'emphasis' in Coflict Resolution).

Now what do I do? Well, since I've been asked this question numerous times over the past couple days, and even weeks, I'm going to tell you. I plan to continue my education. I'm sure this is not new news. I've blogged about my dreams of continuing my education a few times in the past. I'm hoping to do so online via Creighton's Masters in Negotiation and Dispute Resolution program. See recent news about the application process here. I will find out more soon, and then find out if I have been accepted in August. I am very much a planner so waiting that long may be excruiating. I'll deal with it by staying busy, as usual.

Second question answered: Will this mean that I receive a raise or a promotion? NOPE. Not happening. My job doesn't work that way. This was just a stepping stone for me to get to the point that I could start my masters. Once I have a masters I plan to change jobs, hopefully. I love my job and my boss but I hope to work more directly with conflict resolution on campus. Right now I envision myself, someday, working in the School of Family Studies and Human Services as an instructor and somehow helping to assistant/associate direct/coordinate the conflict resolution program. However, there are a few different options for working in higher education conflict resolution so if other opportunities present themselves I may consider them.

Ok, so on to the next question I have been answsering non-stop. What will I do with all the extra time that I will have now that I have graduated? SERIOUSLY? What extra time? I never had time to take classes in the first place! I MADE the time to work my butt off after my children were asleep at night, on weekends, and any other time (lunches/slow evenings) that I had. I worked HARD to make time. It was never easy. So now, now that I have all this "free time," I plan to return to normal life. I plan to spend even more time with my husband and children, who really haven't missed out on time with me anyway because of my excellent time management skills, and spend a bit more time keeping the house clean. Yes, alas, I must do better at keeping my house cleaner. It annoys me that I haven't been making time to do that. Oh well, it's waited. Also, this summer we will have a LOT of time spent at baseball practices and games. Then, if all goes well, I will start the online masters program. See? NO EXTRA TIME!

Now to cook dinner (oh yeah, I'm cooking more again, too) and get Shane to his first baseball practice of the summer. I think I will take time to read while he practices and Logan plays with AJ nearby.

A Few Recent Thoughts

...that I wish I had more time to explain.

Life, well, has been life. I'm loving it. We're staying ubber busy and I just haven't had the time to post anything that we've been doing. So here are a few updates and thoughts that I've wanted to post about. Forget the pictures, they may never make their internet debut.

Please, people...learn to park. I'm tired of people parking too close to me and having to send the carseat through the wrong side of the car to be buckled in. It's happened a couple times recently and is very annoying. Also, stop dinging my car because you've parked too close and can't get out! This seems to happen quite regularly. I park in the middle. It just makes sense.

AJ's firsts: Giggled for the first time on the evening of Saturday, Narch 20th, the day we left my grandparents' house. I was wishing they were there to hear it. Baby giggles are HEAVEN! Rolled over for the first time early yesterday morning- Shane was the only one to see it happen. He's been sooo close for so long. He rolled from his back to his belly. Go figure. He had to try the hard way first. We thought he would have rolled during spring break but he waited a couple more weeks. Ate food- baby oatmeal in breast milk to be exact. He ate several bites and really seemed to enjoy it. It was enough to take place of a regular meal- nursing. Later he got to play in his brand-new exersaucer (walker type thingy with lots of toys). He LOVED the toys and the fact that he was standing up. He loves to stand. When I took him out of that thing to feed him he finally realized that he was tired and hungry so he got fussy. Then he slept fitfully as usual. I'm working on that, can you tell? Eating food and lots of playing should make him tired enough to sleep for more than three hours in a row, right? If I remember correctly (it's been too long) I'm pretty sure the other two boys were sleeping through the night be now. In fact I know they were. I remember other people telling me how "lucky" I was. It wasn't luck- they were just very good babies. AJ is too. I just need more sleep!

This weekend Shane will be camping with scouts for the first time without Shaun in about a year. Tonight we will be having dinner with my friend, and mentor, Terrie. We're bringing her to HuHot Mongolian BBQ because she hasn't been there before and would have joined us a few weeks ago but had a class to teach that evening so we're getting to it now. She likes that type of place and of course we eat there almost weekly. Terrie and I are celebrating her receiving a teaching award, which she will be presented at my graduation. That will be a special day for both of us. Mark your calendars--- May 15th!

Tomorrow Shaun will be taking his insurance test in Topeka. We'll leaving here between 8 and 9, drive to Topeka, scope out the place he'll be testing at, go to Heather and Jeff's house to hang out, and Shaun will go back to town to take the test. He hasn't taken ANY tests since high school so he's been studying every day/evening for about a month or more now and he's been doing great at the online practice tests. According to his friends who have taken it if he's doing as well as he is on the practice exams he SHOULD easily pass. If he doesn't I'm going to blame it on his nerves. He's extremely nervous about this. He's done everything else perfectly: all the studying, training sessions, and practice tests. After his test we'll probably hang out a little longer, maybe go out to dinner, and then hit Sam's Club for our monthly/quarterly shopping. We've been there more recently this time so we don't need as much which is nice.

We had pictures taken in Texas at a JCPenny's. We weren't very happy with their service and the photos didn't turn out the best. In fact they even lost several photos of AJ due to a hardware malfunction. We weren't willing to wait another hour for photos to be taken again so we ordered a couple things and left. They arrived here a couple days ago and look better than I'd remembered. I wish I could take my own family photos! Too much work to be both in front and behind the camera... I'll post a link, if I remember to get around to it, sometime soon. I've been meaning to show those to everyone since mid-March.

I'm ALMOST into graduate school! I still need to take the Miller Analogy Test (MAT) and get a better score than the one practice test I've taken. I hope to do that later this month. I have to really. It's the only thing my admission's rep is needing from me now. After this month I won't be able to take the MAT but would have to take the GRE or some other horrible test. No thanks! I'll do the analogies test and hope for the best. My vocabulary is not as great as I thought it was... I will be studying the test-taking skills and some other materials for the next couple weeks. I still need to schedule the test too. That will help me organize my studies since I will have a set deadline.

Ok, that's already too much for today. You now have my permission to get back to whatever important things you should be doing. Thanks for reading! :) If I remember the other little items to post I will. But in shorter posts.

Tidbits of Today's Thoughts

It has been a while since I blogged. Oops! Life took over as usual. It's been a crazy month. Here are a few of my recent thoughts:

1. People who get lost in K-State's new parking garage make me laugh. Seriously people? It's not that big! I'm still trying to decide if the price is worth parking there. We'll see.

2. I'm pregnant, not broken. I'm pregnant, not dumb. YES this pregnancy was planned. NO I'm not regretting it. YES my children's ages are very spread out. YES I am cute with this protruding belly; I don't mind saying so and I don't mind hearing it. WHY do I feel like I have to complain when I am asked how I'm doing knowing full well that random people I don't know that well ask me and are referring only to my pregnancy. I'm a person too you know! My life contains many aspects, pregnancy just being the most obvious at this point. Overall I am doing wonderful and loving it! YES I have some discomfort from pregnancy and YES my back aches. NO I'm not bloated, yet.

3. My boss is great! Today she decided we needed to have an ice cream social so that I could show off my 3D baby pics to some friends working down the hall. She announced this to me as she was walking out the door to a meeting. I had the small ice cream social while she was gone. :) I guess that was her plan. It was fun. She had provided the ice cream. I provided the pictures to look at. It was me and three others. What a nice late afternoon break!

4. YES, the 3D sono pics and perhaps the video (if I can upload it) will be online, probably tonight since I'm procrastinating on watching an online lecture!

5. My kids are aggravating me a lot lately. Probably because I'm always tired and therefore moody. They seem to be very loud. Logan fusses too much and doesn't think he has an "indoor voice." Shane isn't applying himself, anywhere, at times. Otherwise they are wonderful boys who just want to hug and cuddle with me A LOT. Yes, that annoys me at times but I deal with it. I love their hugs and cuddles too much to let it annoy me for very long. I'm very blessed!

Hmmm. There were three or four other thoughts that I'd tried to share however blogger has been giving me problems. Here's the short version of those:

6. Shaun has been great, most of the time. :) He's been spoiling me with meals in bed once in while and has been very understanding when I am tired and grouchy. He knows when to avoid me. He has also helped me to complete a couple photography assignments for an online class. I have a hard time being inspired for this class just because I am tired and don't want to do things by deadlines. He helps me to meet the deadlines though and has been having fun learning along side of me.

7. I have started the application process for graduate school. I am still planning to go to Creighton, in Omaha but mostly online, for Dispute Resolution and Negotiation with an emphasis on educational institutions. I tried to link this earlier but that was what started my half hour of blogging problems so I'm not going to do it again! Shaun "mentally clapped" his hands for me Monday when I called to inform him that I have decided to go ahead with the August enrollment for my application. The admissions rep assigned to me suggested that since this is a very competitive application process and only 15 people are allowed into each class that I should apply for May or June instead of waiting for the August class due to the number of students who apply for the more traditional start dates. I was told that my GPA and career goals will be a great fit for them and that I should have no problem with being accepted so I decided that I, and my family, deserve a few months break before I continue my college career. Summers are hectic enough around here and I really want to have a short time without coursework. Adding a baby to our summer baseball schedule will be enough to handle! I decided if I am not accepted in the August class then I will apply for a later class whenever offered, most likely the following January, May, or June. As long as I get in eventually I will be fine.

8. I use contractions too often so I'm cutting back.

9. There was something else... Oh well! I'll do another post if I remember and deem it important or random enough.


These were just a few "thinks" I thought I would share. :)

The End.

1/8th Inch

You know, it seems crazy that something so very tiny can make such a HUGE difference in your life. Now it's about 1/4", or the size of a tic tac. IT being my baby, or if you'd prefer, an embryo which will soon be a fetus and then my baby. No matter which way you say it it's my baby. YES: I'M PREGNANT! The past few weeks have been quite a roller coaster for me. Did you know they now make morning sickness medicine? Seriously! What a miracle drug, when I remember to take it (FTAN= First Trimester Anti-Nausea medication). I have somehow gained at least six pounds when with each of my other two pregnancies I lost weight during the first trimester. It doesn't help that I'm starting this one about 40 lbs over weight. I was within my "ideal" weight when I started with each of the boys.

Besides being overly tired, cranky, impatient, nauseous, constantly lightheaded, and feeling like I'll pass out at any moment, I've been doing very well. Being sick is the best predictor that I know of for a healthy early pregnancy. So, sick I am. I'll deal with it. I'll get through it. I just hope this time it subsides and doesn't last all the way through the pregnancy. I can wish!

I decided to go ahead and break the news because even if something does happen and I miscarriage I'll be ok. I would rather have people know why I'm upset and missing work, church, or other activities if I do have a miscarriage rather than keeping it a secret. I'm not that type of person. I also can't keep my own secrets very long (although I'm great at keeping my friends' secrets). IF something happened I would want the loving support of my friends and family. This is what led me to this decision. I'm not the type to keep quiet about something so amazing and important to me in my life. So, I plan to have a great pregnancy and to have lots of fun with it. Why not? It may not happen again. I loved being pregnant with my boys (minus the yucky side effects of morning sickness, feeling like a whale or baby machine, the heartburn, and the whole labor/birthing process). Most of all I loved feeling the baby within myself. I loved the kicks, the hiccups (if that's what they really were) and body parts pushing at my insides. It truly is amazing and the most awesome miracle I could ever ask for.

Haha! Now that I look back at my babbling I've noticed that I haven't given you much of a clue as to how far along I am. Until this past Tuesday we truly didn't know. Since I have had irregular cycles for the past nine months we were guessing I was anywhere between a month along and two-three months along. In actuallity I am currently, as of today, at seven weeks. (I know, I'm breaking my silence very early!) My due date is December 17, 2009. This happens to fall just after Fall finals here at K-State so I should be able to get at least most of the way through the semester. I'm determined to have this baby at least a week early, if all is healthy and well and the baby is ready. I don't want to get too close to my due date because if I had with my boys they each would have been over nine pounds. No thank you! I had them each early, without assistance of induction. We'll see if I can talk my body into doing it again.

On Tuesday we went in for a sonogram that literally took maybe five mintues. It was just long enough to see where the baby was, verify there is only one, and see the little heart beating. It was such a relief to see it! Since I was on Clomid last month but had had a very light period and low hormonal levels and then spotted early this month (they told me I hadn't even ovulated- ha! I proved them wrong) we wondered if possibly I'd gotten pregnant in late January or February. I hadn't had a pregnancy test in a while so we really didn't know. Clomid also slightly increases the likelyhood of multiples. One baby was good news, although we would have welcomed more if that's what we'd been given. Another reason we thought maybe I was further along- my clothes don't fit! I have somehow gone from being a bit overweight to being pregnant and actually looking it! I can not hide the fact that my belly appeared almost overnight. Seriously! It's like it remembered what it was supposed to look like at four months and decided to make me look that way. ARG! I'm not even that far yet! I'm not looking forward to seeing how big I grow this time...

Overall we are happy and a bit overwhelmed. Even though this pregnancy was completely planned we weren't really ready to go through it all again! (Are you ever?) Now we're getting used to the idea of having a baby to care for and love. We're planning for room rearrangements at home and I'm trying to figure out how I'm going to get through my last two semesters of my undergrad: one while very pregnant and the next with an infant. We'll manage as we always do and I'm sure this child will be a blessing to our family. This is the addition I've prayed and patiently awaited for. So there you go! You know now. Soon everyone that sees me regularly will know simply because my belly is not hiding very well. Happy days!

Happiness

YAY!!! I just got a notice from Amazon that my books have shipped: Three Cups of Tea: One Man... $8.25
1 Breaking Dawn (The Twiligh... $12.64 1 $12.64
1 The Host: A Novel $15.59 1 $15.59


I'm soooo excited! I probably won't get Breaking Dawn until Monday (ARGHHHHHH!) but then I'll have two weeks to read before the semester starts (I have one class to finish but only have studying and one final after this upcoming Monday and I'll have two entire weeks to study, then I have one week with no classes whatsoever). I really wish I had time to read during my semesters, but that just doesn't happen. Not if I want to get good grades and be part of my family. :)

On another note, due to all the stress in my life recently... We've decided to bring the kids out tonight to "Time Out Corner." We've been there once and had lots of fun. It's been open a few months now and I know the kids would like to go. So tonight's plan is to eat dinner (most likely at home) and then head out to have fun for a couple hours playing games in the arcade and playing miniature golf on the black-light lit neon course. Tomorrow we plan to go to Sam's in Topeka and will be bringing the kids there too. What could possibly be more fun than Sam's??? Maybe we'll find something fun to do in Topeka too, but at least we'll be together. That's my goal for the weekend, ignore chores and have fun with my boys.

Have a fantastically fun weekend!

Blogs to Share

I wanted to share two blogs with you. The first is Mandi's, one of my middle/high school best friends. She's a wonderful writer and will hopefully continue to share her talent with us online. The top post is just precious, and really describes how I feel about my education, in relation to my children. The second blog is that of a friend from church. I recently took pictures of a group of five families and some individual family and portrait photos. They were lots of fun and we did it all within an hour and a half. The sun didn't cooperate, but they were still pleased with the pictures. Have fun reading these!

Mandi's Blog: http://birdwellgirl.blogspot.com/

Amy's Blog: http://brooksbymeetsmanhattan.blogspot.com/

Enjoy!

Next, we go to Omaha. I'm sure I'll have fun taking pictures of the boys at the zoo with their Aunt Betsy and Granddaddy.