Dropout averted

After a call with my professor and my mentor, I was talked down from the dropout ledge (after many tears, expletives, and eyes that were swollen for almost 2 days). I may have even earned myself some sympathy points towards my grade. However, I will still be EXTREMELY pleased to see December come. I want this project behind me. On a brighter note, I sent off my final project for another class today. I start another class on Oct. 9, leaving about 10 days to focus on my capstone project without other classwork looming.

In other news, Jer and I survived a few days with Big J on the road. This time we were pinkeye free!

I'm sure there's more but it's Sunday night, the premieres of my favorite dramas are over and it's time for me to curl up with my hubby.

As Jer would say, nigh-nigh!

Ready to be done

I'm ready to be done being a student, with or without a degree. A major set-back on my capstone project today has made me question the sacrifices that I am making for this degree.

I'm considering saying that I'm done and knowing that I have the benefits that I've received until now and spend more time on my marriage and parenting.

Not happy with the arrangement

I'm finding myself somewhat uneasy and unhappy about recent evening activities in my house. It's mostly a case of doing what we need to in order to get by. With our work and school loads (that's right I said our school loads - J is taking a project management course for certification) we have recently found ourselves in separate rooms on separate computers, after the little man goes to bed. I despise this disconnection caused by the connectivity in today's society. Unfortunately, it's just the reality for us right now, but I think we'll have to be diligent about getting back to spending quality time together in the evenings and on weekends to ensure this bad habit doesn't extend beyond our school loads.

The irony is that I once thought it was somewhat strange that my in-laws watched TV in separate rooms. This was no longer the case when I started to learn to watch TV in their home. If you wanted to watch what you wanted to watch, you went to a different room. How quickly I've found myself in a similar situation, except I'm in front of a different type of screen.

Murphy's Law of a Working Mom

Jeremiah woke up this morning with pink eye in the other eye. That's right - we spent two full days of the weekend when it would have been perfectly OK to have been quarantined, but when I need to get back to work, that nasty conjunctivitis rears its ugly goobers!

At least if I got it myself, I could work all day long.

Better put my out of office message on my e-mail. I guess work will wait.

Thankful Thursday Returns

Although I've been remiss in doing my Thankful Thursday posts for a while. It is a necessity today!

After the past two days, I couldn't be more thankful to have an amazing partner in my life. Yes, I missed him and, yes, I would have survived if he had to be gone longer (I better get ready for October) but John being gone made me really think about all the little things that I love about sharing my life with him.

What I really wanted and needed yesterday morning was for someone else to look at Jeremiah's eye, but there wasn't anyone else. What I really wanted after he was diagnosed was to call John and tell him, but I knew he was busy with work and possibly unreachable. What I really wanted was to have my partner in life to share the basic aspects of the past few days with more than a short conversation on the phone. And, tonight I will. He's on a plane as I type.

With that, I want to say, especially today, that I am so grateful to all the family's that sacrifice their "wants" to serve this nation. To all the miliatary, firefighters, police, EMTs who make our lives safer, thank you to you and your families! I know that you often don't even get that short phone call. No, I don't understand what your life is like, but I do appreciate you.

1:30 p.m.

It is 1:30 p.m. and I am ready for one of two things - a stiff drink or some chocolate.

J is out of town for a few days on business, which I'm cool with, but apparently that's a signal for things to get a bit hairy! I just spoke to him very briefly last night and it sounded like his trip was already not going so smoothly. At that time we both agreed that we could adjust to whatever needed to happen regarding this schedule. So, I'm not really sure when he is coming home now.

When Jeremiah woke up this morning, he had gunk in his eye. I should have known then what it was but after I cleaned him up, his eye didn't look too bad. Several hours later, I've made a trip to Convenient Care and have eye drops to treat his pink eye, which is contagious for 24 hours. Joy! He's napping now but I feel so bad for him because he looks rough. He was a real trooper while I put the drops in his eyes before nap.

I'm really tempted to chalk up the whole day to sick time and take a nap, but I know that I will also need 4 hours of sick time tomorrow because he really isn't supposed to go back to daycare until tomorrow afternoon. argh.

1:47 - I have now polished off some left-over M&Ms from my cousin's wedding treats. I will need to take a long brisk walk with Jer later to work those off, especially since they were on the heals of McDonald's for lunch. I hate stress eating!

I better do some work.

On a bright note - my mom, God BLESS her, has offered to drive down if I need help if John doesn't make it home when he was originally scheduled! I don't think I will need that but I LOVE that she offered.

The forbidden contextual info

There are just some conversations that are dependent on contextual information to really make sense. However, there are also times when sharing that contextual information is a bit taboo. Maybe it's info about your sex life, religious beliefs or other personal happenings. The most obvious that comes to mind is money.

We sometimes find ourselves not asking friends to do something because it might not be in their budget and we're not sure they would say that if it were the case. Rather than have the "elephant" in the room, we just avoid the subject. Vise versa, it can be difficult to have a conversations about life decisions (major purchases, stay-at-home parenting, vacations, retirement contributions) that are affected by money when people really have no idea what we make. I hate to leave people to assumptions but I also would not want to ask someone else this personal information.

I'm not advocating that I want to announce to the world what I make, but just noting that it is hard to have some conversations without all the information.

I'm willing to share alot for the sake of personal conversations but I do draw some lines.

That's all...and I have no idea if this post made any sense.

Before and After

This weekend we performed a bit of long overdue landscaping in our yard. We took 2 overgrown evergreens out 2-3 years ago and FINALLY did something else with the space. Here are the before and after shots. I'm excited to cross this goal (which may have been a New Year's resolution) off the list. There are 3 boxwoods but you can't see the third because there is a random pot, that probably won't stay there, in the way. I'm planning to add season items, such as mums this fall, and I think our rock from Stef looks great there. I found it some other rock friends!

Not the only one

I was listening to my favorite ladies on the radio yesterday and I overheard a caller explain how until she heard another caller's comments, she thought she was the only one in the world dealing with something.

Isn't that how we often feel? When dealing with challenges, stress and frustration, I find myself thinking I'm the only one feeling the way I do. The truth is we are never the only one! After talking to some of the most wonderful women in my life in the past week, I've realized this even more. Perhaps I just need to reach out and share and I'll find that others around me are dealing with very similar frustrations and it's helpful to lean on each other. We just might be able to solve our own dilemmas when we are trying to solve others or share a Bible verse that could be the answer that we were all looking to find.

Here's an extra shout out and thank you for the phone calls and great walks in the last week! My girlfriends are truly amazing!!