School's Out Forever!!!

That's right, ladies and gents. I am OFFICIALLY a college graduate.

B.A. in Business Management, betches.

It wouldn't be spring in the Front Range without insane weather patterns

Friday: sunny and 78 degrees.

Saturday: sunny and 75 degrees.

Sunday: snowing and 22 degrees….

Welcome to spring in the High Plains?

The Husband and I took our new travel trailer for a test run this weekend, and went camping down at Cherry Creek State Park just south of Aurora, Colo. (Or, more accurately, the campground is actually nestled within the city, which was… a new experience for us. Our campground back in Washington was 30 miles north of nowhere!)

There's snow in them there clouds...

It was a lovely, albeit quick, trip, and we made many, many camping and road trip plans for the coming spring and summer months! We did, however, get snowed out on Sunday, so our weekend was cut short. Thank goodness we left when we did, because we hit a perfect break in the weather that made it (at least slightly) less hairy getting back to Cheyenne.

And I have to say, I felt sorry for the poor saps in their tents… been there, done that, it sucks when the weather turns on you and all that is between you and Mother Nature's fury is a thin wall of polyurethane-coated fabric!

My day thus far has consisted of massive loads of laundry; getting the trailer linens and dishes cleaned and squared away; paying bills; and other general housewifery items.

I had planned on making a grocery run as well, but yesterday's stupid snow fall and subsequent deep freeze put a damper on that, on account of the ice rinks we call roads. I'll get to it tomorrow, since it'll be the only nice day this week!

I also need to attend to that whole pesky school thing. Spring quarter starts today.

Blergh.

BUT!!!!! FINAL QUARTER!!!!!

I've thus far managed to avoid any and all school work today. Because what better way to kick off my last quarter than through intense procrastination, amiright?!?

Lucky it's a super light week. (And one of my only light weeks all quarter… le sigh…)

I'll get it done. I always do. I just have to put my house back together first. Because as it turns out, while RV camping is in many ways much easier and more convenient than tent camping, there's one thing they don't tell you. Your house still ends up looking like a bomb went off in it when you get back!

Is there anything better than a campfire?

Spring Break in Wyo: shooting ranges, Governors, and the threat of snow

What up blogosphere?!? I know my posts have been a little light as of late, but things have been insanely busy.

See? This guy gets it.

The last couple of weeks have been an utter whirlwind! Mostly in a good way, mind you. But still very whirly and windy.

First, I finished Winter Quarter. I don't feel like I finished as strong as I should have… but that's probably because I totally didn't finish as strong as I should have. My brain was done. I had all but completely checked out. I did what needed to be done, but in all honesty, not much more than that! I walked away with a 4.0 in psychology (I'm still trying to figure out how that happened), a 4.0 in sociology, and a measly 3.7 in Econ (and that's mostly because I totally crapped out on the last assignment, and I own that) (seriously, why make us do graphs for the first time in the final assignment?!?).

Next quarter I'm taking Intro to Communications (my final elective; I hope that's kinda like underwater basket weaving, minus the risk of drowning) and Management Strategy (the fancy name for my capstone, otherwise known has proving the culmination of your educational worth so they give you the degree). I'm not gonna lie, I'm a little nervous about that one. But only because there's like 18 different 10-page case study assignments to complete in a 10 week period… and I'm only mildly exaggerating. But I survived an over-full-time course load, I can handle a capstone right?…. Right?… RIGHT?!?!?

Sigh.

Anyway, while I was trying somewhat earnestly to finish my classes, I also complicated things for myself by flying back to Seattle to surprise my mom. My sister and I had been plotting for a few months to have me fly up for the Northwest Women's Show, which is something my mom and I (and occasionally my sister, when it didn't coincide with Comic Con) have attended every year for, oh, 13 years or so?

Suffice it to say, my mom was totally shocked and pleased with our diabolical little scheme, and we had a blast at the women's show!

The next day I had been planning on surprising my grandparents with a quick visit before jetting back out of town, but I decided to be responsible and finish my final Econ assignment instead. Call it kismet or luck or what have you, but had I decided to go up to Darrington, I would have been on Highway 530 the morning of the mudslide… that realization made me a bit queasy.

(For the latest on the mudslide, click here and here)

(And to donate to the Snohomish County Red Cross, click here)

Aside from my cancelled visit to my beloved grandpeople, I also had made lunch plans with my Soul Sista Kym. Unfortunately, her youngest daughter (otherwise known as BabyBaby) came down ill, so we had to cancel our lunch date.

So I didn't end up seeing anyone else besides my immediate family before I had to fly back, but it was still a great trip. And The Husband and I have a family road trip up there planned for this summer, so we'll get to see everyone then.

The Husband's perspective

My perspective

When I flew back to Wyo, I was joined by my sister (!!!) who took a week off of work to come down, visit for a bit, and see where the hell we left Western Washington for.

And I don't think she was… impressed with Cheyenne!

She's a bit of a hipster, so the non-ironic cowboy vibe of Southeastern Wyoming wasn't really her thing. But it was fun to have her here for a bit; we all miss her terribly!

One fun and random thing that happened while Katie was here was that my youngest wanted to take her to the Capitol Building. He's mildly obsessed with it; he thinks it is the single coolest building he's ever seen, and as such, he asks to go to it nearly every day. Having his Auntie Tatie here gave him a valid excuse for us to go!

As soon as we entered the main doorway, he took her hand and brought her to the President Lincoln memorial statue in the East Wing of the building. As we passed the main staircase and entered the East hallway, we walked past a very large man in a dark suit, and I noticed he had one of those coiled ear-pieces you see in the movies. I put two and two together, and I whispered to my sister that the Governor was probably in the building, since I'd never seen secret service-type dudes there before.

(And for the record, those dudes are pretty intimidating!)

Anyway, we got down to the Lincoln statue, and Monkey is telling his Auntie about how it's really cool because it's a big head, and it's gold, so it must be a superhero (natural assumption), when we hear a voice behind us say hello…

And then this happened…

We met Governor Mead!!!

Now, granted, I disagree with probably a good 80% of the man's politics… but it was still pretty awesome to meet him. I am able to separate different opinions on policy with a respect for the office itself; plus I'm a politics geek in general, so it made my day.

My older kids were super jealous that they missed out on account of that whole being-in-school thing, so I managed to arrange with (or possibly annoy!) Gov. Mead's staff for the kids to have a meeting with him later this week. I am having each of them prepare a question to ask him; they're both excited and I think a little nervous. I am somewhat of a politics wonk, so my children have grown to understand that this is a pretty cool opportunity for them. I'm sure there are more pictures to come!

Besides that, we explored the area a bit with my sister. We went up to Laramie one of the days; there is nothing in Laramie! We accidentally discovered Highway 287 from Laramie to Fort Collins, which was an absolutely beautiful drive… made all the better by jamming to kitschy '90s tunes (I told you, she's a hipster). We then spent the rest of that day dinking around Fort Collins, which I realized I actually really like (when I'm not stuck in a crappy apartment waiting for my house to be built!). Less cowboy, more hippie. My kind of place! Depending on where Hubs' career takes him, maybe we'll end up back down in that area at some point.

Some of the views along 287.
Red rocks, rolling hills, and jagged mountains
all in one 40 minute drive.

Katie flew home right as the kids' Spring Break started. We tried to pack in as much vacation revelry as one week (and Hubs' pesky work obligations) would allow. We went and saw the Lego Movie, which was ridiculously cute. We went out to eat a few times. We had the obligatory Harry Potter movie marathon, because it's just what we do. We went down to the Rocky Mountain Archery range in Fort Collins, where the kids (and us) learned how to shoot with a bow and arrow; it was very fun, but a little stressful trying to keep the 3-year-old from running out onto the shooting range when people were, you know, shooting very, very sharp arrows.

And we bought a travel trailer!!!

Jayco White Hawk

That's right, no more tent camping for me, bitches!

I'm actually totally cool with tent camping, but in this neck of the woods, there are many places that don't allow tents, either because of wind hazards, or because of, you know, the risk of being mauled by a bear. And weirdly enough, I prefer not being mauled by a bear. Crazy, huh?

But I digress. The whole buying a trailer thing happened sort of randomly. We've been looking for a little over a month, just trying to gauge amenities, prices, etc, but we weren't planning on actually purchasing one until next year. We figured since we just bought a house, a bank wouldn't then turn around and give us a loan on a trailer too. But then Hubs was at our bank running errands, he and the teller were making small talk, and Hubs asked if they did auto or RV loans (it's a credit union, and not all credit unions do that). He explained how we were planning on getting one next year, the teller explained how they had really good interest rates right now, one thing led to another, and bada bing, bada boom, we own a trailer!

We don't actually pick it up until Thursday, because the dealership is de-winterizing it, installing the equalizer, and doing their inspections and whatnot (they threw a bunch of technical jargon at us, Hubs understood it, I… just nodded). Then first thing Thursday morning, we are bringing our Suburban in to get the trailer brakes installed, and then we're good to go!

And yes, we are so going camping this weekend!

(I just hope they change Sunday's forecast, since right now it is calling for snow…)

Sigh. Welcome to Wyoming...

Duhn-nun… Dunh-nun, dunh-nun, duhn-nun… Ay Ay Ay...

It's safe to say it's been a pretty hectic couple of weeks for this Emerald City girl. Between school, kids, family, and random life stuff, I feel like I've been going 8 miles a minute lately.

(Yes, that's a Bob Seger reference)

(And yes, it's okay to combine Ozzy and Bob Seger references… I encourage it, actually)

Winter quarter is winding down in a few weeks, which means that everything is due all at once and none of the instructors seem cognizant of the fact that we have more than one class. So that's fun.

On top of that, this happened:

This was her first night here. She wouldn't leave the door mat!
Now she's my shadow.

Meet Luna!

She's an 8-month old German Shepherd mix that we adopted from the Cheyenne Animal Shelter. She's the sweetest pup ever. Now, I'm not really a dog person, but the kids have been dying for one for a couple of years now. We were waiting until our little guy was big enough (and potty trained enough), and began keeping an eye out for dogs in the last couple of months. Then, through some sort of kismet, we met Luna.

Her first few days with us she was very quiet and timid, but she has warmed up really quickly to us, and in some sort of ironic twist, I have become her favorite. She's adorable, and we're buds, and she's already super protective of all of us.

Maybe I can be a dog person after all…

Then this happened:

New couches!!!

Leather. Reclining. Need I say more?

Finally, this happened:

Yep. I got braces. My top teeth have been crooked my whole life, and I had sort of resigned myself to it. I felt like it would be ridiculous to get braces as an adult. I felt like I'd lived with my teeth the way they were for this long, I might as well just let it go. (Or try, at least)

Then I changed my mind. I think part of it had to do with turning 30, and deciding to take charge of things that I had the power to change. Like working out regularly again. Pursuing writing more. Getting more involved politically.

And getting straight teeth.

I be jammin'

Some people spent yesterday watching the absolutely EPIC playoffs (where both of my teams won!)

I spent it doing this...

Canning jam! Raspberry, and blackberry-raspberry, to be precise.

And yeah, I made up the last one. From scratch. And it was delicious.

Domesticity for the win, baby!

I love canning. There's something soothing and comforting about it. It's almost Zen-like for me.

Plus, you end up with beautiful jars of homemade food!

(Next up, salsa. Well, soon, anyway.)

And now, if you'll excuse me, I have school work to tend to. Because the soul-crushing stress is beginning to get to me…

Something wicked this way comes...

I mean school, of course.

Winter quarter is officially upon me. Like an elephant sitting on my chest.

It's gonna be hell, ladies and and gents. Utter hell!

My sociology class should be fine. It's the same instructor I had for last quarter's sociology class (who was awesome), only this is a much lower level class. So easy peasy there.

My econ class I'm still unsure of, because we don't have any papers this quarter (hallelujah), but we have "homework assignments" every other week. Now, in classes past, such "homework assignments" ranged anywhere from "no biggie" to pulling my hair out "are you kidding me?!?", depending on the class. So that's the big unknown. But I've tended to like econ classes in the past, so fingers crossed!

My psychology class?

Oh. Dear. God.

My instructor is already an utter nightmare, and the class has barely even started yet. Her instructions for how she wants us to do the discussion questions and class responses? So unbelievably specific. Like, word count, exact time frame, number of sources cited, etc.

Her introduction to the class was like 10 paragraphs long. Most teachers'? Two or three. At most.

The typical class requires you to have submitted your discussion question answers by Wednesday at midnight, then responded to the specified number of other students' answers by Sunday at midnight. You can respond to other students at any point during the week as long as you fulfill the set requirements.

Not so in this class. We are NOT ALLOWED to respond to other students before Wednesday afternoon, but we have to have our initial three responses done by Thursday at noon. Then, and only then, can we proceed with "further discussion". And we are not allowed to end a conversation. Out of things to say? Too bad! Keep it going! And we have to respond to any question she opens up to the class in another student's discussion thread. And we have to include sources to support all of our opinions. And on and on and on.

Suffice it to say, I regret taking psychology already. I thought it would be an interesting class. Not a tedious OCD-fest.

I keep reminding myself that this is only temporary. That it's a means to an end- my degree. That I only have two quarters left before I am done with school forever.

Like my grandma always says, "This, too, shall pass".

I just don't know yet if my sanity will pass with it!

So just a heads up, my blogging may dry up in the coming ten weeks as I try to keep up with my insane school demands.

And that sound you hear?

That's just me having a mental and emotional breakdown along the way.

Pay no attention to the crazy lady sitting in the corner rocking back and forth, muttering to herself and weeping silently. She's just the fool who decided to take on an extra course load!

Fracking winter quarter

I've decided that someone needs to invent a caffeine drip. Something convenient and non-invasive, for the gal on the go!

Because oy vey.

Winter quarter hasn't even started for me and I'm already exhausted.

Whoever thought taking three classes was a good idea needs to be kicked.

Oh wait, that was me?… Well my comment still stands.

So it worked out that none of my classes got cancelled, which was good, because it saved me from having to scramble and find two new electives and get the books ordered in under a week. However, because I held off ordering my books until I had confirmation on my classes, I still won't have any of my texts in time for Monday. The psych book is still backordered, and who knows how long that will take, and the other two said they shipped yesterday, but the tracking number was "undetected". Whatever that means.

Le sigh.

Almost done. That's what I keep telling myself whenever I start getting all bajiggety. Almost done with my degree. The end is nigh.

(Whether that "end" is my degree or my sanity, I'm still unsure)

Besides that, life is good. Well, mostly. We just recently found out that an oil company may be looking to drill on the lot across from us (nestled between three other occupied lots, mind you).

Clearly, I'm unimpressed with this.

Back in November, shortly after we had moved in, our contractor mentioned that they'd stopped building on the lot across from us. A "landman" representing EOG Resources (you know, Enron) showed up on sight, check in hand, and bought the forty acres.

Then nothing happened…

Turns out, they're in the process of going through the necessary channels to gain approval to drill out here.

And there's pretty much nothing we can do about it, 1) because they're not wanting to drill on our actual land, and 2) because we don't own any mineral rights anyway, so we have no say.

Wyoming (and I'm sure a few other states as well) have what is called "split estates". This means you buy a house, but you don't necessarily buy the ground underneath it. You only own the surface unless you negotiate a separate deal to purchase the mineral rights from whoever owns them, and ownership of those rights could go back as far as the 1860s!

If you own mineral rights, you have much more bargaining power, because the oil companies have to lease the minerals from you. Without mineral rights, landowners only have surface use agreements in their favor. But again, they're not drilling on our forty acres, so we basically have no recourse until they poison our well.

We're basically just along for the ride.

Granted, nothing has happened yet. Our HOA president is fighting tooth and nail with what (limited) power he has. I guess the mineral rights to this entire area are owned 51% by Burlington Northern, and 49% by one individual. And ironically, the railroad is actually the easier of the two to deal with!

So we'll see. And they may not end up drilling there at all (they're looking at a 30-square-mile area in total, so they could pick another spot). But if they do, you can bet we are going to be proactive about protecting and monitoring our water supply. And I will sue their pants off if they contaminate it.

And if they decide to frack instead of straight drilling? Oh you better believe they will become very familiar with my face over at the Capitol building!!! Time for this hippie mama to get her activism on!

Amen sista

Somewhere over the rainbow...

I'm having a stressful and irritating day, so I thought I'd share one of my favorite songs.

He makes my soul happy...


Over the Rainbow - Israel "IZ" Kamakawiwo'ole OFFICIAL VIDEO from Mountain Apple Company on Vimeo.

Never work with animals or children

So this week has been… hectic.

And we're only half way through.

HUMP DAY!!! Woot woot!

I love that commercial. It never fails to make me giggle hysterically.

Anyhoodle, as I've mentioned before, I'm severely lacking in the motivation department with regards to school. Half way through week 2, and it's not getting much better.

Part of it stems from the fact that we are supposed to hear back from the underwriter today on whether or not our docs are approved. While she said that everything should be fine, and despite the fact that our credit is really good and we have a substantial down payment and we've given them every single piece of OCD-level documentation they've asked for (I'm almost expecting a request for organ tissue samples at this point), I'm still nervous. Because you never know.

The other part of my distraction stems from the fact that it is uncomfortable for me to type, properly hold a text book, or basically function like a regular human being on account of the vicious assault I suffered Monday night.

Yes, it hurt. And yes, I have a forearm tattoo. It's Anglo-Saxon and Norse runes. It translates into "Fate is wholly inexorable". 

Yeah. Courtesy of my cat. Little bastard.

So, I mentioned before about how he is a Long-Haired Asian, and so without regular trimmings, he can sometimes get poop on himself if he doesn't position himself properly in the litter box. It's gross, but it's something I just know will occasionally happen.

Well, it happened again Monday night. He just got a little bit on himself; better than usual, no biggie right? 

Wrong.

So wrong.

I'm right in the middle of making dinner when this happens, so of course it was super awesome timing.

So I stop what I'm doing, carry him to the bathroom, and clean his bum fir with baby wipes. I then discover he had also gotten some on his tummy as well, probably while attempting to clean the first mess. It becomes clear that he just needs a bath; baby wipes won't be enough in this situation.

We confine him to the bathroom while we eat, and then I start gathering the supplies for bath time. 

Well my daughter accidentally let the cat out of the bathroom at this point, and seeing as how he was already stressed about me cleaning him and pissed that I locked him in the bathroom when there was food smells he desperately needed to investigate, he bolted into the bedroom and tried to hide under my daughter's bed. I grabbed him and gingerly carried him back out, trying not to touch the still-stinky parts of his tummy.

And this is when he flipped the eff out and ripped my arm open*.

Let me tell you, it hurt. A lot.

And it bled. A lot.

To the point that I had to bust out the family pack of paper towels because the first-aid kit was too far away.

So I clean my arm and wrap it in gauze, and The Husband taped me up, and we proceeded to trim the cat's excessive fur and give him a good bath.

It didn't go well.

Lots of growling and angry mewing and escape attempts.

And of course, being that I was newly injured, I was only slightly helpful in the whole process. And a little jumpy about more potential attacks.

But we got him clean, we got him somewhat trimmed, and I kept my distance from him for the rest of the night.

All I can say is he's lucky I am morally opposed to de-clawing and find it utterly cruel; and he's lucky that I understand he was stressed and pissed about being cleaned; and he's lucky I understand that he hates being in the confined space of an apartment. He never used to act like this in our old house, so once we're in the new house (knock on wood) I'm hoping his attitude gets better.

Post-bath look of shame… or hatred...

Cute, fluffy, evil bastard.

*You know my priorities are a little screwy when my first thought was not "oh crap I'm bleeding profusely", it was "oh no my tattoo!"

Lazy Monday should be a thing

So I'm officially one week into fall quarter. My last fall quarter ever.

And I couldn't have less motivation if I tried.

Oy vey, this isn't a great sign!

I think most of it has to do with being preoccupied with the house and moving soon and everything that goes with that. Like oppressive amounts of stress.

I'm not sleeping super well, and I've just sort of been perpetually tired lately, and thus we have the lack of motivation to do school work.

Le sigh.

This first week was interesting though. I think I'm going to like my classes- the subject matter is interesting, and not overly complicated for my obviously struggling brain right now.

I also have already gotten into somewhat of a tiff with a fellow classmate, so it should be an interesting 10 weeks dealing with him.

See, we were discussing how racial and gender issues influence modern American families, and a gal and I were specifically discussing the integration of post-slavery African Americans into American society and the impacts that had on their family structures.

A guy in my class who hadn't been involved in the conversation to begin with decided to jump in then, and basically ripped me a new one. He was apparently trying to point out what he felt was a flaw in my comment, but decided to reference something incredibly violent and disturbing in order to do so. Not only did it not make any sense at all, but it was highly inappropriate for a class discussion.

Several other students jumped in and defended me, pointing out his non sequitur and the inappropriateness of his comments.

He then went on to attack me in other post threads that also did not involve him and did not apply to anything I said.

Basically, he's an icky troll who appears to hate women who have opinions. He was completely cordial to the men in the class, and kind of a wank to the women. Why someone with such an angry and bitter outlook would take a Sociology of the Family class is beyond me, but cheers to what looks to be an unexpectedly exciting quarter!

Beyond that, I have had AWOLNATION's Sail stuck in my head for a few days now. I was working on a Yahoo! article discussing movie releases, and after watching the trailer for The Counselor several times, that song is sufficiently lodged in my brain.

Which has made me miss 107.7 The End...

I think I'm going to go drink some tea... and maybe crack open a textbook... maybe...

Creep

So the last few days have left me with a sort of perpetual headache. And no amount of caffeine or Advil or fruitless attempts at sleep have helped.

I think I've hit a wall.

You know, that point when your brain just decides that you've put it through too much and it peaces out in a blaze of glory?

Yeah.

I swear, I actually heard something break in there.

So first of all, the house is coming along beautifully. It is getting closer and closer to being done; our docs are in underwriting right now; I have moving boxes stacked against the wall ready to be packed.

My soon-to-be entryway!!!

In theory, this should all be super exciting, right?

Except for some reason it has me losing my mind.

I think because we're so close to being done and ready to move in that I'm more worried than ever about something- anything- going wrong.

I haven't slept well in several days. Probably has something to do with the headache.

On top of that, fall quarter officially starts on Monday. The portal opened today, and in theory I can start working on my readings and whatnot and get a jump on things.

Except that I got an e-mail from my advisor on Wednesday informing me that one of my classes had been cancelled.

You know, a class that I registered for a month and a half ago. A class for which I've had the book sitting on my coffee table for a month. A class that started in five days. And they freaking cancelled it!

Needless to say, that put me in a bit of a tailspin.

I had to find a new class immediately- a lower level elective that wasn't already full- or risk throwing off my graduation schedule. Not an easy feat FIVE DAYS BEFORE THE QUARTER STARTS.

Bye bye Philosophy, hello International Studies...

Then I had to track down the book for said new class. And, of course, it was backordered through the bookstore.

Cue the breaking sound in my brain.

So after a bit of a mental collapse, and a few Gilmore Girls episodes and some tea to soothe myself, I finally found the required textbook through Amazon. And for even cheaper than the school's bookstore!

God bless Amazon!

It should theoretically be here Tuesday, so I'll only be a little behind in that class.

I also got the other textbook shipped back to the bookstore for my refund, just under the cutoff date.

Le sigh.

Then today I went into the portal to start getting myself situated- assignment schedules and syllabi and whatnot- and my required reading schedule for my Sociology class? Has two textbooks.

I only have one.

The course resource guide only has the one listed. Three days before classes even start and I'm already confused, stressed, and slightly overwhelmed. Great.

Needless to say, I've been listening to a lot of Nirvana lately, and I've had Radiohead's "Creep" stuck in my head for days.

Apparently stressed Sarah relies on Alt Rock for sanity.

What's not soothing about that?

Head colds and rocking chairs

I'm sick again.

I don't know what the deal is, but I've just been walloped the last few weeks with one illness after another. I assume my current levels of stress and lack of sleep probably have something to do with it. But if this is the way cold and flu season is stacking up, I'm totally screwed!

Clearly the next logical option...

Fall quarter is just around the corner for me, and I'm experiencing this weird combination of being excited and nauseatingly stressed about it. On the one hand, I'm the nerd that likes school and learning and challenging myself academically. On the other hand, I have enough going on right now that adding one more thing makes my brain hurt.

But I just need to keep plugging away at it. So close to being done, can't crap out now.

On the plus side, potty training has been going well. Monkey is managing to stay dry most of the time, and likes the reward of getting to pick out what color M&M he wants after a successful "go". Poops are still a solely-in-the-diaper thing, but I figure I'll address one battle at a time.

The end of the diaper era is nigh!

We went up to see the house this weekend. Seeing as how we live so far away right now, I'm not up in Cheyenne very often, and therefore hadn't seen the house in person in probably three weeks or so. It was very cool! The drywall is up, and most of the mudding and taping was done. The siding had also been started too. It looks so much more like an actual house now, rather than just some generic construction site, it was hard not to get all giddy about it. We're a month (ish) away from realizing our dream!

My favorite part of the house so far? As random as it sounds, it's the front porch.

It's huge! And it's just so pretty. And the way it is situated, it's almost totally blocked from the wind, so we'll actually be able to sit out there and enjoy it.

I'm very much looking forward to sitting on my giant porch in my cute little rocking chair with a cup o' tea and a good book. Because clearly I'm almost-30 going on almost-70...

Exactly

So I'm trying a new recipe tonight, and I'm a little concerned. It's the first meal that has sounded good to me in a few days. And that's the issue. See, when I'm sick, my tastes are usually pretty out of whack, so the fact that this recipe sounds really yummy to me makes me worried that it will actually taste like the feet of 18 dead frogs. (Nice visual, eh?)

We'll see. If it's yummy, I'll share it on here. If not, we'll just pretend we never had this conversation.

TGIF and other nonsense

It's Friday!

The weekend is officially here, and I am officially stoked.

I love weekends. I live for weekends.

Especially right now, when life is incredibly busy and going to get even more so in the coming weeks.

First, with our insane commuting schedule living so far away from Cheyenne. It's inconvenient, to say the least. Needless to say, we're all looking forward to the house being done and our lives resuming some semblance of a normal schedule.

Second, I start school in a couple of weeks, so once again I will be plunged into the chaos of earning a degree whilst running a household and raising three children and all that brouhaha. But only three quarters left, so I just need to buckle down for...9 more months...

It's depressing when I put it that way...

And third, we're moving soon. Again. Moving is one of the most stressful events in a person's life. And we will have done it twice in four months. Just thinking about that makes my eye twitch.

But we did get good news on the house! I think I mentioned before about how our builders had a very different timeframe than us when it came to the house being done. They had been planning on the end of November. Our purchase contract states our closing date is at the end of October. Slightly big difference, yes?

Well, once this came to light there was a flurry of *slightly intense* conversations between us, our real estate agent, and the builders. The builders came back with a promise that we'd be in no later than the middle of November. Considering our lease ends November 15, that was cutting it a little close, but what can we do?

But then we got a text yesterday from the builder saying that the carpet order came in, so now all the materials are in and ready to go. She said it looks like we're on track for the end of October after all!

Granted, given all the hiccups and headaches we've had so far, I'm not holding my breath on that.

But still. Having that be feasible?

Totally cool with me!

So yes, right now weekends are my solace, my peace, my zen. It's the only time of the week for the foreseeable future that I can do what I want, and according to the schedule that works for me.

TGIF baby!

Good luck not having this song stuck in your
 head all weekend now!

Sociology of Marvin the Martian

My textbooks came today.

*dunh dunh dunh*

Yep. Fall quarter is officially just around the corner. Slightly over three weeks away.

I can feel it lurking, staring at me, daring me to once again maintain my 3.9 GPA and my sanity simultaneously.

It's not an easy feat, and thus far I've done... well, not too bad overall. Oceanography nearly killed me, but that was awhile ago, and the scars are finally beginning to fade.

Too dramatic, you say?

I assure you, it's not. That class was brutal. I swear it left me with a limp.

Anyway, this is my LAST fall quarter ever! Well, unless I go to grad school. But right now the thought makes me gag slightly, so I'll put a pin in it until... indefinitely...

So yes, Last Fall Quarter.

This is quite possibly my last "not scary" quarter. Winter will be when I laughingly try to juggle an extra course load, and Spring is when I'll be doing my utterly terrifying degree capstone.

This quarter I'm taking Intro to Philosophy, because I love nothing more than blithering on about metaphysical nonsense, and Sociology of the Family, because it genuinely sounded interesting (and the other sociology class I wanted ended up being canceled for this quarter, so plan B).

My main stress for this quarter (besides the "new class" jitters) is the fact that I will be moving right in the middle of it. Which means that I'll need to arrange internet service before we're even in the house, because I will absolutely not be able to wait two weeks or, god forbid, have to attempt dial-up or DSL! It also means that I'll have to do all of my assignments while also packing, loading, and unpacking my entire life, once again.

Le sigh.

I swear, somewhere inside my brain is a tiny little sadist...

Or just him...

A case of the stressed out blahs

So I'm a bit of a stressball right now. And I can see that it is completely ridiculous on my part to be worrying about things that aren't even on the horizon for several months, but I'm feeling under the weather today, and I guess that has made me more susceptible to stressing out about random nonsense.

The kids brought home a lovely cold-y/flu-y thing from school towards the end of last week, and apparently today is my turn.

I'm just so lucky I could swoon!

No really, my head is really fuzzy and if I stand for too long I start to get a little dizzy and, well, swoon-y.

It's been a fun day so far, let me tell ya! What with the splitting headache that makes me feel like someone is stabbing dull steak knives into my brain. Or the waves of nausea that make me feel like I'm trapped in a skiff on super choppy waters. Or the weak, floppy feeling I have, where just the effort to brush my teeth or blow-dry my hair left me needing to lay down for a bit.

Oh yeah, and the utter lack of an attention span!

(Well, I guess the attention span thing may actually be pretty normal...)

But I digress. So I feel like crap today. And it's an absolutely gorgeous day outside. And I can't go enjoy these last delicious days of summer because of the I-feel-like-death-on-a-stick situation I find myself in.

So the next logical choice?

Well, have an overwhelming desire to bake brownies, for one. And anyone who knows me knows that I hate baking outside of Christmastime, so clearly I'm not well in the head!

And also?

Start worrying about the fact that you have to take three classes winter quarter, instead of the usual two.

Yeah...

You know, because winter quarter doesn't start until the middle of January. As in, 2014. As in, four and a half months away.

Let me explain.

This is my last year of school before I graduate with my degree in business management and get that little piece of paper that says "Yay you, you're smart!"

I officially have three quarters left, and I could not be more excited about it! It's taken me, oh, about a bajillion years (choosing what you want to be when you grow up is difficult, okay?) but I'm finally here. The end is nigh!

But for whatever reason, my classes worked out kind of wonky, so I have seven classes left. Which means that I either extend my timeframe and take my business capstone in the summer, or I buckle down and take three classes at once in order to be done on time.

I'm opting for the three classes option.

It's far from ideal. After all, the two classes that constitute a full-time load are generally difficult enough, the idea of juggling three is certainly daunting. Each class generally requires at least 10-15 hours of work per week. And that's not counting the extra time required for research and writing papers and taking tests and all that. Those 10-15 hours are just for the reading assignments (the average is a minimum of 50 pages per week per class), the discussion question responses, and the peer responses.

The three classes that quarter are all going to be lower-level electives, so I'm going to try and take classes that are a little gentler on my sanity, but you can't really predict how that winds up, because there is so much variation between instructors. It's a total crapshoot.

So why not just bump the capstone back, you say?

Well, for one, because I want to be done as quickly as possible. And for two, because thanks to a little-publicized policy change that our lovely former president George W. Bush instituted, undergrads can only borrow so much for their degree, regardless of school.

So if you attend a community college? You can afford to go to school for probably ten years before you hit your cap.

If you attend a higher quality school? You barely squeeze in under the cut off.

And for those attending, say, an Ivy League school? Fahgettaboutit!

(Then again, aren't all Ivy League-ers rich to begin with? So like they're borrowing for their education, amiright?!?)

Anyhoodle, so yeah, because I'm squarely in the independent middle class, and because I'm attending a higher quality school, my loan limits will be reached spring quarter. Which means I'm squeezing in three classes winter quarter. And I'll still have to pay a bit out of pocket for the third class.

But it's still cheaper than paying for the capstone completely out of pocket.

That course is freaking expensive!!!

Bobbing and weaving

Alright.

So things are getting better.

I mean, they're not at all what I had expected, hoped for, or necessarily wanted.

But I guess life is all about being flexible, right?

So the whole Alaska thing is in the process of being resolved. I already have a folder's worth- yes, a whole file folder!- of documentation in dealing with this nonsense.

We had our appraisal today, which I guess went well? I have no clue. The appraiser said we had a lovely home, so hopefully that translates to it being appraised at a value that does not screw us over on the sales price. It shouldn't, but considering how things have been going the past few days, I'm not believing anything until I see it in writing.

So assuming the appraisal turns out well, then we move toward closing. Our buyers are getting USDA financing, so it's going to take longer than I would like to close, but hey, whatever.

At this point?

I just want to move forward, have a closing date set, and hope for the best. I've given up fighting for things to go exactly my way.

Apparently the universe has decided that me making plans is HILARIOUS!!!

We've all but missed out on the original house we wanted to buy in Cheyenne. I mean, it's still available right now. But by the time we finally close on the sale of this house? Our realtor down there has said it isn't likely the house will still be available.

So Plan B.

We're going to submit an offer on another lot in the same neighborhood. This lot is just in the permit stage, so it'll be approximately four months before we'll get to move in, but it's our next best option.

This of course means we will be stuck renting for a few months once we get down there, but I've accepted that. As long as we have a plan to follow, I'm good. This whole being-in-limbo thing is killing me.

I also realized today that I'm going to be in Cheyenne next week. As in, the last week of Spring Quarter. As in, when all of my major assignments are due!

Fuck.

For some reason this hadn't dawned on me until this morning. So now I have to do a mad scramble to finish everything before next Thursday morning. This includes reading 250+ slides on Islam followed by two discussion questions, the last chapter in my Race and Ethnicity book followed by two discussion questions and a quiz, as well as two term papers- one for each class.

...

Oy vey.

Oh yeah, and my son's birthday party is this weekend, so I have to clean my house and move all of our packing stuff... somewhere...

Solid plan

I know you can be overwhelmed, and you can be underwhelmed, but can you ever just be whelmed?

(I think you can in Europe...)

(If you don't get that reference, then we are never going to be friends)

You know those days when you feel like all of this "stuff" is being dumped in your lap and you are supposed to just find some way to fit it into your already full schedule?

Yeah.

That's where I'm at.

In the last two days, every weekend, and I mean literally every weekend, from now until the end of June has been booked. Solid.

Never mind the fact that I also have school, and the kids have school, and The Husband has work, and our gigantic yard needs constant, never ending, unyielding attention...

Sigh.

I'm tired just thinking about it!

This week for my Race and Ethnic Issues class, I have to watch a movie or read a book that addresses the issues of racial or ethnic diversity, and then write a paper on it using other researched sources to substantiate my point.

After much deliberation, I have decided to watch American History X.

Let me be clear... I HATE that movie.

I mean, it's a really good, well done movie. Don't get me wrong. It's amazing.

I also hate it. It breaks my heart. It makes me angry. It makes me cry (and I hate crying).

(I also dislike Edward Furlong. I find him creepy... in everything... always)

So suffice it to say, I'm not looking forward to watching it again. It's been... I'd say a good 14 years or so since I last watched it... This is going to be tough.

But first, I need to finish my World Religion readings on Buddhism and the printout for the Fourteen Mindfulness Trainings in order to do my discussion questions for that class. Then I need to read the two chapters on African American history from slavery to the Civil Rights Movement (a total of about 90 pages...oy vey) for my Race and Ethnic Issues class in order to do my discussion questions and take my quiz.

And I have to find the time to do all of that while also having friends over for a bonfire on Friday, and going down to Le Faux in Seattle for my mom's birthday on Saturday.

Suddenly I have a headache...

Footloose and cancer free

Hey hey!

I'm back and better than ever!

Suffice it to say that Thursday and Friday sucked big time, but I'll get to that.

First of all, the weather in Seattle is Ah-mazing! Holy crap I'm loving it!

The only problem is I have stupid school stuff to do, so even though I wanted to go hiking today, I don't think that's a responsible thing to do. Boo.

Oh well. Summer is almost here. Which means no school! You better believe I will be hiking the crap out of this summer!

Also, my garden is starting to sprout! It's been so freaking cold lately that nothing was happening, but now that the sun made its reappearance and the thermostat is a-rockin', things are beginning to grow! It's supposed to stay nice for the next several days (fingers crossed) so I'll be keeping an eye out for those cute little sprouts curling up and pushing the dirt out of their way.

Okay, so on to Thursday and Friday.

Thursday was "prep day", which is basically a generic medical term for "you will be miserable and hungry all day".

After taking the kids to school, I cleaned my house and slapped on the pretty as quickly as possible, then proceeded to take the four 'starter' pills at exactly 9 am.

For the next few hours I subsisted on tea (lots of tea!), water, and Jell-o. Now, I'm not a huge Jell-o fan to begin with, and when it's the only "food" you are allowed to eat, it makes it all the more depressing. I really came to hate that unnatural, jiggly substance by the end of the day.

The Husband came home from work early, as I was... shall we say... uneasy at the thought of leaving the house and being trapped in a car for 30 minutes to pick up the kids from school. Ahem.

While he headed out to get the kids, I prepped the gallon jug of electrolyte solution that I had to drink.

GAG!!!

The nurse had suggested mixing it with Crystal Light to make it taste better. I can't imagine what it would have tasted like without the Crystal Light, as my flavored concoction still tasted something akin to a homeless man's bathwater.

I will never, I repeat NEVER, drink Crystal Light again.

Blergh!!!

The only way I could get the electrolyte stuff down was with it being ice cold.

Like, ice ice ICE cold.

That was the only way it was tolerable.

This also made me super cold. At this point, I hadn't slept well in several days and hadn't eaten solid food in 18 hours. Because of this, I was under my electric blanket shivering, which made drinking this solution even more miserable.

But I got through it, and my system was, uh, cleaned out sufficiently...

I didn't sleep at all Thursday night. Partly because I was nervous about the procedures on Friday, and partly because I was still dealing with the after effects of the electrolyte stuff.

Friday morning my alarm went off at 5:50 am. Gag. I hit snooze once, but I just stared at the wall. Even though I'd maybe gotten three hours of sleep (at most) and was utterly exhausted, I was wide awake.

This was it. The day of reckoning.

I got up, got ready to go, and once my mom arrived to watch the kids, The Husband and I headed out.

Naturally, it was a bright and sunny day, and since I had to wear my glasses for the procedure (no contacts, safety precaution), I got an instant headache. I just curled up in the front seat, covered my eyes with the sleeves of my sweatshirt, and grumbled begrudgingly.

Hubs and I were both nervous, so there wasn't a lot of talking during the 35 minute drive to the clinic.

I got there, got checked in, and within a few minutes a nurse came to collect me from the waiting room. She had me change into one of those medical gowns that do nothing to hide your modesty and gave me little booties to put over my socks.

She walked me back to the triage area, where I nestled into a reclining chair with several warmed up blankets (at this point, the best part of my morning!).

It took them three tries to thread my IV catheter into a vein, so I have a massive bruise on my right hand from the burst blood vessel. It looks gross. Luckily, they were really good at what they were doing (minus the missing the vein part) so the multiple pokes with a needle didn't hurt.

After this, The Husband was brought back, and we waited for my doctor to come and explain the process to me. After he did, we waited a few more minutes, and then the nurse came to collect me and bring me back to the procedure room.

This is when I got really nervous. Up until this point, I had thought Hubs could be in the room with me, but it turns out he couldn't. Gulp.

I was shaking at this point, and the nurse could tell I was silently freaking out, so she chitchatted with me about my tattoos. Apparently she goes to the same tattoo parlor I do, so we discussed the different artists there and how it's the best one in the area.

Once she got me situated, IV cords and all, on the exam gurney thingy, she injected the Happy Drugs into my IV, and this is where everything gets a little... fuzzy.

I've had to ask Hubs several times since Friday "so is this what happened?", "they said this right?", "I think I remember this...yes?"

It's weird not being able to trust your memory and having whole chunks of time be missing!

Anyway, after we got home I spent the rest of the day either in bed or on the couch. I felt like crap! Anesthesia affects me quite strongly, so it took a long time to fully leave my system, plus after having not eaten for a full 24 hours, those two components combined to make me incredibly weak and nauseous.

BUT!

Once I did start feeling better, Hubs grilled me the most delicious steak and roasted the best potatoes ever, in celebration of the fact that....

... Everything came back normal!!!!

My colon and intestine and stomach are all good to go!

No polyps! No cancer! No gremlins!

I am waiting for the results of the biopsies to test for celiac's, and a couple other things. But regardless of those results, it will all come down to making changes to my diet. Compared to other, more life altering possibilities, I am more than willing to alter what I eat!

So yeah, all good news!

Bye bye gluten...?

So, I'm not gonna lie... I'm having a hard day today.

This is the week of my colonoscopy/endoscopy, and I'm starting to get really nervous.

I have absolutely no appetite. In fact, food is repulsing me. I can't focus on school. My thought processes are disjointed, as if I had a ton of caffeine, only I haven't.

I don't know why I'm so freaked out. I genuinely don't think they're going to find cancer. I don't.

But I think it's the other spectrum of possibilities that is beginning to weigh on me.

On the one end of this spectrum, it could be absolutely nothing and they could send me home saying "You're fine, we don't know why you feel like crap all the time, too bad, good luck". And I'll have had a somewhat invasive procedure done for nothing.

On the other end (minus the cancer option, of course), they could find a ton of polyps, or precancerous lesions, or, I don't know, gremlins. I could have celiac's, or an ulcer, which would be perfectly deal-with-able if not slightly inconvenient. I don't know what other options are for what they'll find, and quite frankly, I'm purposely not looking it up because I don't want to scare myself.

I'm also full-on dreading the prep I have to do for the procedure. Namely drinking a gallon of disgusting laxatives and then... well... you know... dealing with that. *yay me!*

I just don't like the unknown, and this is one big unknown.

Having done a little research into celiac's, it is a fairly decent contender for explaining my symptoms. Apparently, 1 in 133 Americans have celiac's disease, and only something like 5 percent even know it. However, because the definition and diagnosis for celiac's is so narrow, tons of people have all the same symptoms and yet fail to technically have the full blown autoimmune disease. They're still working out the definition and diagnosis for gluten intolerance, or gluten allergy, or gluten sensitivity- whatever it will end up being called. Either way, avoiding gluten makes it all better for both groups of people, and I've been considering doing a trial run of going gluten-free, to see if it helps, even if I don't come back as officially having celiac's.

This of course poses a whole other conundrum of changing out my entire diet. I love me some bread and pasta, I've never been one of those carb-free girls. Carbs be good, dammit! But now I will have to switch things out and start researching foods and recipes...it could be fun! It's also adding to my stress though, because that's just the mental space I am in right now.

My husband's coworker has celiac's, and she's a total foodie and has a million cookbooks and recipes, so I think I'm going to hit her up for info and advice.

And until then... I'm going to try and eat something. An apple and two bites of oatmeal does not suffice!

Inking it up

So we are two days into having Age visit (she's sitting on the other end of the couch right now watching The Client List on her laptop) and so far I've been having fun visiting with her. (Hopefully she is too!)

Yesterday morning I had my GI appointment (that'll be a whole other post). Afterwards, we headed back to my town and roamed around the historical district for awhile, popping into kitschy antique stores and vintage clothing consignments and artsy fartsy co-op shops. There were a few vintage '60s dresses that I was madly in love with, but sadly they were either too big or too expensive, so I had to walk away. I'm obsessed with the style of the '60s and '70s, so I tend to gravitate towards those very distinct styles of clothes. I did come away with a cute flippy hippie skirt and a puffy outdoorsy vest, so that was a score, even if they're not even remotely the decades I was searching for.

Found something similar to this, only in
a mint tweed. Sah cyute!

Afterwards we headed to this cute little cafe that specializes in healthy, all natural, organic, locally sourced food. I love eating there, it makes me happy. They have a great salad bar, yummy homemade soups, and a delicious assortment of sandwiches and smoothies and juice blends. It was gooooood!

Then we headed home so I could get a bit of school work done before heading out again to go to my tattoo appointment.

I got three butterflies on my upper back- one customized for each of my kids. They're really pretty, and later on I'm going to get the background filled in around them, but for now I'm okay leaving them as is, because quite frankly, it hurt like a bitch! This one hurt way worse than my forearm, which surprised me a bit. But I was a big girl and got through it. I couldn't wimp out when Age was with me! I also got my forearm touched up, since there were a few spots that were a little uneven.

My sister went after me, and got her first tattoo- an interpretation of this little green monster drawing my son made when he was probably 6 or so. It's super cute and turned out really well. She's going to add on two other monsters for the other two kids once she has the inspiration for them.

Today, I need to refocus and get more school work done, and I also have to go get supplies for my daughter's birthday party this weekend.

There's no rest for the wicked. Even if their backs hurt from getting fresh ink!