It's mine so hush...

I just completed the first week of school. It's hard to believe that the end of my first year of grad school is in sight. I am really looking forward to my course work for this term. I have been to all my classes and I really enjoy the instructors. The workload doesn't seem unbearable, yet. But it never does the first week of classes. We are still giddy about being back together and the possibility of what is to come. These are my goals for this term. 1) I want to get all A's. Doesn't have to be a 4.0, but all in the A range. 2) I want to get my reading and homework done on time. 3) I want to get my papers done early as to not be scrambling the night before. 4) I want to enjoy what I am learning and the company that I am learning with. I figure if I start the term off with some tangible goals, it will give me something to work towards. Hopefully it will also help keep me on track. Wish me luck!

had a lovely day at the beach yesterday. it was blustery and cold, but it was the beach! enjoyed some good face time with the laydees in my life. nice to get out of town, even if just for a few minutes. continuing the trend with the fam tonight. heading down to eugene, then to Hills Creek to scout out our camping location for Opening Day of Fishing Season. also doing a little geocashing along the way!

I am soooo excited! Today I am heading to the beach with the girls!! Kelly, Lisa and I are going to head out to Seaside to check out Kelly's favorite candy store, then down the coast to Tillamook to visit the cheese factory and back home again. It should be a fun day. I got the Rav an oil change, gassed up and cleaned out for our adventures! It's supposed to be raining and cold, but I don't care. I am just excited to get out of town with the girls for the day. So look out beach, here we come!

I found some great deals today at the Woodburn Company Stores! First, I got my boys some sweet kicks. They both had been wanting new Vans, so I got Gage some great purple and black checker board slippons. Then I got Alan some gray, black, white and splash of red half cabs. I hope they both like them! From the Vans store it was off to Lane Bryant! I scored the cutest new dress, a little black shrug, a black jacket to go with my slacks, and two gorgeous shirt. One is turquoise and lacy and the other is light gray with a pretty embroidered design. All my purchases for the day for under $200! I did some good shopping...

Just got my grades for Winter Term. I did alright, but am a little bummed. I got an A- in my Research class. I am ok with that. The main portion of the grade was a group project, which was a total pain. Now that it's all said and done, I am pleased with the grade. In both Micro Theory and Generalist I got B's. The frustrating thing about these classes was that going into finals, I had no idea what my grade for either class was. In Generalist, it was because I had to turn in my paper late due to switching internships mid-year. In Micro Theory, it was because the majority of the class grade was based on a final paper (due the last day of class) and a take home final (due the last week of class). I hate when grading is set up this way. I feel like it doesn't give you the opportunity to work towards a good grade. You can be thinking the whole time that you "get it." But by then, you have just spent thousands of dollars and 10 weeks of your life to find

I thought I would be a much more exciting blogger. Ok, I thought I would be better about updating daily because it's attached to my gmail account. Either way, I haven't been the best blogger. It's ok though. It must just mean I haven't had a lot to say the last few days. I have been really tired. I was starting to come down with something right after finals, but I think I was able to fend it off with vitamins and sleep. Now I am just catching up on sleep missed during the term. I am really excited about next term. I am so glad to not be in class three nights a week. It will be nice, especially as the days get longer to come home and hang out with my hubby, and hopefully some night with my kiddo. Speaking of kiddo, we had such a great weekend. We spent the whole day together on Saturday, just him and I. After he finished up his chores, we headed out to the Tidal Wave bookstore sale. He got two Calvin and Hobbes books and a couple of manga books all for $4.

I, with a deeper instinct, choose a man who compels my strength, who makes enormous demands on me, who does not doubt my courage or my toughness, who does not believe me naïve or innocent, who has the courage to treat me like a woman. - anais nin

i am really looking forward to this weekend. it has been a busy couple of months and i feel like it's been a minute since i was able to chill out and not have to worry about a reading that needs to be done or a paper that should be written. although, my boys have been super supportive. both of them give me time to work and sometimes we are all working together in the living room on our respective homework assignments. we dub the living room the library, so everyone has to be respectful of each other. i hope it sets a good example for the youngster. he seems to get into it too. he's such a little bookworm. he'd be happy as a clam reading for hours if we let him. guess there could be worse things to be addicted to! anyway, this weekend is about fun! alan has to play in a dodgeball tourney this weekend, so the kiddo and i are hangin out together. i think we are going to hit up the book sale at Tidal Wave and then go check out a movie . at 3pm there is a pick-up ki

our tech guy just arrived. only an hour and fifteen minutes late and without calling. then his opening line, instead of "sorry, i'm late," was "hey there girl, did you try to call me?" he's a pleasant enough fellow, but it drives me crazy that he's always late and calls me "girl" all the time. he can't be but a handful of years older than me. it wouldn't bother me if he were an old man, but some random guy? bleh. it continued all morning. he called me "kiddo" to which i replied that i was not comfortable with that. he tried to make light of it. then when his two cronies showed up later he tried to make me feel guilty or embarrassed by announcing to them that they couldn't call me kiddo. it was ridiculous. they would have never done that to janine (who is in her 50's) or another man. gotta love the sexism is alive and well in the workplace!

i actually teared up a bit listening to his resignation speech.

the day started out so lovely. i wore my sunglasses in on the way to internship. all the flowers and trees are blooming. then about an hour ago it started to pour! ugh. silly me for walking out of the house without my raincoat. i should know better seeing as i am a born and raised oregonian. mother nature seems to be reminding me that it's not spring yet!

i turned in my last paper yesterday. it felt sooooo good to be done with it. i actually stayed for the lecture as well. there were only 5 of us out of 30. so we moved into one of the fancy Phd conference rooms with an amazing view of portland. so nice! it was a great lecture on working with the aging population. i now have a list of books i need to read. the good and bad of grad school is i could probably take classes for another 10 years and still find things i am interested in learning. i really do love school, just hate the homework. ;)

i am so excited. i have all my school work done for this term, so i don't have to do ANYTHING i don't want to. that is the love. i am going to go check out a few sales at Lloyd Center, then hit up Target, the grocery store and home in time to watch Precious with the hubs and bestie. what a great day it is!

i just closed my livejournal account after 5+ years. i am kinda ok with it. that was my life then. i like my life now. so here i am. not sure what i'll do with this space, but it's here if i need/want it.