Done!

I took my test! Oh what a relief to be done. Although I won't find out officially for 4 - 5 weeks I feel alright about it too. This, for the record, does not mean I'll get credit for the class... with only 1 week of studying my standards may be a little low for this test. I'm just not really sure. Regardless, I am so thankful that my father in law postponed the tree job he'd hired Walter for so that he could drive me to my test. I used the time to study some more and learned (short term, I'm sure) a whole HEAP of info that was directly on the test. Praise God!

After stopping by Costco, Lowes, and Chic-fil-A (for a great salad) we headed home. I vowed not to celebrate with food (the salad doesn't count... even if I didn't make it myself) but instead to go swimming. This was my first real time in the pool (all in) this summer and it was SO wonderful. The last time I peaked my toes in the water was frigid. This time: bath water (as a note, bathwater is cooler than air so it is absolutely perfect). I even did a few decent dives and one or two really bad ones. I have to re-learn every year but gradually it is sticking.

Once we got home and had dinner I had the sneaking suspicion that there was something I definitely should be doing. How irresponsible was it for me to sit around leafing through pattern books, dreaming about which one should be done when. Then it hit me that I didn't HAVE to do anything that night. No responsibilities. How wonderful!

So I fixed a curtain. I got out my sewing machine and made a reinforcement for the area the dogs keep dislodging when they squeeze thru for a better view of the neighbor kids. Walter helped me install my masterpiece and TADA a working window cover yet again. :) I bought three sewing books just before I found out about this test. So once amazon delivered them I only allowed myself a glancing look before hiding them away to study. Now I get to pull them out in earnest and begin tinkering with my new sewing machine. It is a beauty!

I have other good news too. We're getting a camera! It should come in the mail tomorrow or the next day. Soon my posts won't be quite so bland looking. Won't that be the day? ;)

and wait

Was it really March last time I checked this? It's hard to believe it's almost July! We've moved on from Spring Break (in Nashville... storms pummeled the gulf coast and what good is beach if you're stuck inside the motel? the hotel in nashville, for the record, was delightful.) to Summer Vacation where, until last week, we'd settled into a nice quiet rhythm.

I've been getting up early to give the dogs the walks they need, making a good breakfast and then eating it back in bed with Wally. After breakfast we'd go our separate ways: Wally grinding out tree stumps or installing cabinets or welding giant pieces of metal or whatever job came his way that day, and I'd either go to the Haps to help out my mother-in-law with whatever needed to be done there or to the Wilsons to babysit the kids. We'd come home, work out, eat dinner, and hang out for a few hours before bed and doing it all over again. It's been really pleasant.

Then last week I got the news that the Psychology class I'd planned on testing out of... in the fall... had to be tested out of by July 1st (oh my.). So scratch me going anywhere and working with anyone. Now I get up, walk the dogs, eat my breakfast, and study... small break to water the flowers... and I study... small break to turn off the soaker hose and empty the dishwasher... and I study... break for lunch... study... sweep the floor... study... prep supper (yay for crockpots!)... and study... work out with Wally, get really stinky, take a shower... and SUPPER... then study some more before calling it quits. I have one week to learn this entire class. It's just a little crazy. Not too bad really. I look forward to our workout and to dinner.

Walter and I have starting doing P90X. It's an intense 3 month workout program and we've just finished week 3. Woo! I'm not sure I've ever looked fwd to a workout before. Doing this, I have so much more energy and my body just feels better. I'm absolutely loving it. I'm embarassed to admit it but it may be the highlight of my day (oh my), and that's not to say I'm miserable the rest of the day either (tho' I know my description sounded riveting... hehe). It really is very satisfying.

So that's life right now, working outside in the heat (yard work and heavy lifting for both of us), spending some time with family before they move (the Wilsons to Chatanooga soon), studying for nursing tests, working out, reading Desiring God with our community group, and filling up the weekend with cookouts (Friday a goodbye/birthday party for the Wilsons/Chris, Saturday a bbq with church celebrating that we have a building to move into in August) and meeting up with ppl (a "playdate" for Phoebe with a prospective new family on Saturday and catching up with an out of town friend Sunday) between bouts of studying (now this does make me a little nervous).

I wish I had pictures to make this post a little bit more engaging but we're camera-less. It was sent thru the washer in Walt's pants pocket. We hoped it would dry out and revive but alas... It was not to be. I want to show you the tile we've chosen for our kitchen backsplash and the kitchen counters now that they're in place and the new chair for the living room and the craftroom that's soon to be... but they will have to wait... until I find, borrow, or purchase a new camera. Until then you'll just have to be patient... and wait.

A&P

I've been studying Anatomy & Physiology (A&P) and writing up flashcards like mad. (with my final only two weeks away- what else is there to do?) Fairly often I find myself distracted watching myself write or thinking about breathing or any number of mostly unconscious actions my body usually keeps up with. It's while I'm writing about how my brain sends signals to my muscles to contract that I think, 'wow, my brain just did that.' Then I find myself trying to make unconscious actions conscious... and my body gets very confused. Am I thinking 'move!' or am I sending the signal 'move!'? Today I was writing a flashcard about saddle joints and got distracted by my thumb holding the pen. 'Look, a saddle joint... doing it's thing... holding my pen.' (oh my)

Does anyone else get distracted like this? Or am I the only insane one?

This semester I've started a bad habit... caffeine each and every morning. MWF I have to leave my house at 6:30 so it's become kind of a necessity. Today, however, I forgot it. I remembered the entire way in the car. I planned to stop at Starbucks and get a hot Apple Chai Infusion. I decided it didn't matter if I had to be a few minutes late. I was determined. Well, I forgot. Apparently I was too tired to remember to drive one block past my normal turn off and get something to wake myself up. So sad. Class is so much more interesting when I'm awake for it.

There was one moment towards the end that made me chuckle, however. My soft-spoken little Indian professor told us he was "fixing to" get something ready for the test. It was just fun to hear such a southern phrase come out of his mouth. Very cute. :)

The first time I heard fixin' was in Greek class. My professor had just moved from Texas to Ohio and when he told us that _blank_ word meant fixin' (it's horrible but I don't remember anymore) we all just stared at him, faces completely void. It took us a moment to translate "fixin' to" into "going to." This is the same professor who allowed us to write y'all for the second person plural (tho' I'm pretty sure we started that, not him).

Anyway, I should go back to studying... Test tomorrow. Spring break is ALMOST here!

Re-entry

The past two days have thrown me back into academia... or at least seen the majority of my time in a school. Let's see... from admissions to transcript evaluation and then home. Next was a long line of phone calls to and from COD figuring out how to get a 'transcript' from someone who doesn't do unofficial transcripts _at all_. Back to Southwest... transcript evaluation, advisors office, admissions, meeting room c, waiver forms, cashiers' office, and distance learning. By this point it's 3:30 (I got there sometime in the morning) and I decided to eat lunch before buying text books. That's saved for tomorrow. It's my first day of class.

After dinner I started to realize that I should prepare myself for the day. What do I need for classes? I thought about taking a shower tonight (class is at 7:30am!!), picking out my clothes, having a bag ready for supplies... oh wait. supplies. I asked Walter if he had a notebook or something I could write in. No luck. Neither of us have any type of notebook. We do have tons of pencils tho'. And I made sure to have snacks in case I just couldn't make it home after class without succumbing to temptation and pulling over at a Wendy's. I bought so many yummy snacks at whole foods today. But did I think about basic school supplies? Not a chance.

So if school is about navigating red tape and staying mentally alert I think I'm ready for anything. If I actually have to take notes I may be in a bit of trouble. It all just made me realize how far removed from school I've really become. All soon to change, however. Tomorrow I'll go to Statistics and then next week I add Gen Chem and A&P (I and II). I guess I'll have to buy some notebooks. I think it should be fun. :)

registration

Today I drove all the way to Germantown (which I hadn't realized was so far away) to register for A&P. After 3 back tracks, and a lengthy call to Walter involving me telling him exactly which streets I was passing and some quick tracking on google maps, I made it to my meeting. I walked in, said hi, signed a paper, signed a check, and walked out. 5 minutes tops. An hour each way.

a year in review

every year seems to be punctuated by a new move, home, daily life. I don't know yet if this coming year will be any different. But as of yet, (drum roll please) there are no concrete plans to continue the pattern. There are, however, also no plans to live in the delta for the rest (or even a considerable amount of the rest) of our lives. The jobs just don't pan out for either of us. Sad, but true.

So here we are: renovating a house, spending time with family, helping dorothy out with the kids and her cleaning (she's going to a hire a maid, deborah! soon i will only help her with her kids, jk), and living the basic day to day.

Today's church. I love our church! Sundays are wonderful like that. I get to be a part of a vibrant & diverse (something you don't see much of in memphis) congregation and listen to the word of God delved deeply into in a church where the pastor has not forgotten that the point of Scripture is to impact lives. This church doesn't want you to stop at simply hearing the word, learning great systems and doctrines, but knows that you can study the word directly and God has something to show you... right there in that very passage. I feel so blessed to have found a happy medium. It's like I can breath again. No silly proof-texting. No heady intellectualism. For awhile I settled for the latter. At least then we were hearing the Word of God instead of cute stories with a verse thrown in here or there. But praise God for showing us Fellowship (and thank you, mom, for insisting that we try it out). I can't wait to get more involved! The next step is on the 27th when we go to the discovery dinner and learn more about the church personally. We'll see what follows that.

Tomorrow begins the new semester at University of Memphis. It took quite a bit of finagling to get walter squared away for classes but we did it and tomorrow walter starts three undergrad classes that qualify him for grad courses in the fall.
1. mechanics of materials
2. mechanics of fluids (i think...)
3. heat transfer (again, think i'm remembering this correctly)
basically it's the weeding out class from sophomore, junior, and senior years of mechanical engineering... then he's qualified to be a grad student! :) So yeah, it'll be a trying semester but I'm confident that he can do it (now just to convince him ;) ) It only took faxing records from Cedarville & Wheaton, meeting with the head of the engineering department, signing up for undergrad classes as a grad student, getting another MMR shot, and lots of calls to the help desk. All this while sending out resumes to every company that excites walter. It's been a busy couple of days. But it's done! (hooray!)

On Monday we're going to figure out if we (ourselves) will push the wall back into our garage giving us room for a laundry room and a larger kitchen and living room or if a contractor will do it for us within the next few weeks. This all while we wait for the windows to come in... the windows home depot promised us two weeks ago. Alas, the shell for our sun room looks beautiful. I absolutely can't wait for all the light that's going to shine into our home and the plants I'll be able to grow.

I'm sorting through things (both physically and mentally), figuring out the best next move (not to a new state or anything... I know, with us, this statement could be confusing), and honing some skills. More on that to come, I think.

But for now it's time to get on with today. My goals for this year (as of right now) are to develop a daily routine and to stick to it and to do the exercises that my chiropractor's assigned. Should be doable. We'll see how it goes.