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.

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!!!

Blergh

Yesterday afternoon I had the *brilliant* idea to have one last special hurrah for the winding down of the kids' spring break. I thought it would be fun to surprise them and take them out to dinner and maybe do something fun afterwards. The Husband and I even discussed possibly going to see Jurassic Park in 3D (normally I don't do 3D movies- they make me motion sick- but I love me some Jurassic Park, and it would have been fun for the kids too)

So we packed up, and after a pit stop at the library to pick up some books the kids had on hold, we headed down to the Alderwood Mall. 

Now, I love Alderwood. It has great stores, a great atmosphere, and everything we need during any given mall trip. I've never had a bad experience there. Ever. 

Until yesterday.

(But it wasn't the mall's fault, so it's record still stands)

So we get there, and the first thing we do is head by the movie theater to check on times for Jurassic Park. Strike out. It's not playing there. The Husband looked it up on his phone, and turns out it's playing at the theater up the road, but there are only two times- 15 minutes from then, or 10 o'clock that night. We still hadn't eaten dinner, so going to the movie first wasn't really an option, and there was no way we were taking the kids to a 10:00 movie! So Jurassic Park was out.  *sadface*

So we park and head inside the mall, and then make a rundown of the plan. Eat, REI, Victoria's Secret, and then figure it out from there. Hubs had our REI dividend, and there were a few things he wanted to look at. I had two Victoria's Secret gift coupons to redeem. The kids wanted to hit up the Lego store (because who wouldn't?!?). And there were a couple of things I wanted to get at Nordstrom.

But first, food! Usually at Alderwood we just eat at the food court. We've eaten at Blue C Sushi before, but I'm not really a fan of sushi, so my options are limited there. We've eaten at P.F. Chang's numerous times (so good!). But we decided to branch out this time in honor of doing something special for the kids. 

Blergh.

This is where the evening went wrong.

We decided to try Claim Jumper. We'd heard of it before, and heard it was good, so we figured why not branch out? 

So we went and checked in at Claim Jumper, where we were told it would be 30-40 minutes for a table. The restaurant's atmosphere was nice, and we wanted to try something new, so we gave them our name, took the little buzzer thing, and wandered back into the mall to kill some time. 

I stopped by Starbucks, because I was cold and desperately needed caffeine. Then we headed across the mall to REI really quick to scope things out. Then we wandered back to Claim Jumper where we finished waiting for our table.

Once we were finally seated, we perused the menu, made our selections, and waited.

And waited...

It took awhile for our food to come, and once it did... well, it disappointed. Greatly.

The appetizer we ordered was... alright. Nothing special. Certainly not worth the $23!

Then our meals came.

Blergh.

My food was alright. They forgot my sourdough roll, but other than that everything seemed okay. Not amazing, but edible at least.

My oldest son's meal was burnt. To a crisp.

My youngest son's meal was forgotten and had to be reordered.

My daughter's meal was undercooked.

And The Husband's meal was so gross he couldn't even eat it. 

Talk about striking out!

Our server was lovely, despite all the mishaps, and she really tried to make it right. The Husband's and oldest son's meals were comped, and she threw in free desserts for the kids, and we still tipped her well because none of it was her fault. 

But even with the two free meals, our bill was $90.

$90!!!

For crappy food!!!

Blergh.

Finally our unfortunate dining experience was over, but by now it was 8:30, and the mall closed at 9:00. Suddenly our plans had to go into a condensed overdrive. The boys headed to REI, while us girls ran to Victoria's Secret. I got my free item and picked out a cute purple hoodie for the $10 off coupon, and then we headed back to find the boys. By this time the mall was on the verge of closing. 

So much for the Lego store and aimless roaming!

As we headed across the mall to REI, I suddenly started not feeling so well. It came in a wave, and then passed a few minutes later. We got to REI and were locked out because it was exactly 9:00, so I had to wait and sneak in once another customer left. We found the boys, and I helped The Husband choose between two pairs of those cargo pants that zip off into shorts. He checked out while I headed back through Nordstrom to the parking garage, completely forgetting that I had things to get in Nordstrom! By now I was starting to not feel well again.

We headed home, and within moments of arriving, I was sick.

I think I got mild food poisoning!!!

BLERGH!!!!

Never, ever, ever eating at Claim Jumper again. Ever. What a waste of an evening, and a total bummer on my "fun family evening" plans.

Luckily today our plan is to veg and watch movies with the kids all day, which suits me fine since I still feel kind of yucky.

Blergh.

Stricken

They got me.

I tried to avoid it.

I fought like crazy.

I tried so hard!

But they got me anyway.

It was a three-against-one battle, so the odds weren't in my favor.

But those darn, germy kids got me sick.

So I've been drinking tea like it's going out of style, and tonight I'm making chicken noodle soup for dinner in an attempt to cut this thing as short as possible. I have crap to do, man, and the flu isn't really conducive to reading assignments and case studies and the Teen Mom 2 marathon I have recorded.

(Don't judge)

(Okay, you can judge a little)

(It could be worse, it could be Honey Boo-Boo)

As an aside, I realized with shock and somewhat embarrassment today that I have never made chicken noodle soup from scratch before!

I know!!!

I've made tons of other soups. I love making soup! But for whatever reason I've never made the most iconic soup of all time.

Weird.

BUT! That all changes tonight. I found a recipe that sounds yummy, I got my shopping list ready, and I'm good to go.

Take that, flu virus!