Life is just a bit busy these days...

I keep wanting to get on more often and saying I will but I never do. I work on a computer 5 days a week, 8 hours a day and when I'm done working I rarely get on for pleasure anymore. When I'm not working I'm either spending time with my granddaughter or getting things done around the house. I remember some years ago I would post every single day and sometimes multiple times a day and now I might find the time every 2 years. It's crazy! I miss my blogging days with all my friends but I don't even know how many of my old friends still blog with all the social media out there nowadays. Oh well, that is the way life goes I guess....things and habits always changing. Until next time....

2 1/2 years since my last post but I'm still here...

I can't believe that it has been two and a half years since I lasted posted here. I can honestly say my life has been extremely busy since my last post. I'm still working as a commercial medical coder at the same company that hired me not long after I graduated from college.

My grand daughter is now 1 year and 10 months old. Not because she's my granddaughter, but she is the smartest child I have ever met. She knows her ABC's, she's starting to sound out her words, she can count to 20 by herself and she's learning how to count things, she can count to 6 in Spanish by herself, she knows every farm animal and the sounds they make and she sings all the time. She knows full songs and sings them to the top of her beautiful little lungs. Aside from animals, her favorite thing is books which really makes me happy since I am book lover as well. She can work and iPad better than any of us but only for her learner videos.

My oldest daughter, Chesney moved out over a year ago and lives only 5 doors down from us. She's a nurse for one of the local dermatologists. Bethany and the baby live with us right now because it's easier that way with her job. My youngest and only son, Ty, will be 20 tomorrow. He's enlisting in the Army come the spring. Ty still lives with us and probably will until he goes into the Army. He works with my husband Shawn full-time and has since January of 2016. In April of 2016 my husband broke his right leg playing softball and if not for Ty the business would have had to shut down during Shawn's recovery time. Ty stepped in and ran the business like he had been running it for years hahaha.

Life is finally starting to slow down a little for the first time in some years and I have to say I'm enjoying it.Hopefully I will be back soon. As I go I will leave a pic of my beautiful granddaughter. This was taken a couple of weeks ago as we stopped for breakfast on our way to the beach.

as usual, it's been a while

I've been meaning to get on here but I've been so busy applying for jobs and getting my house in order that I have not had the chance. A lot has taken place since I posted two days after graduation. First of all I have been dealing with some frustration and throwing my own personal pity parties of late. In my desperate moments I told myself I wasted three years of my life going to school because no one is hiring me. As I've been throwing these pity parties I've continued to apply for any and all medical administrative positions open and finally my time spent applying paid off. I have a wishlist with 10 local medical hospitals/companies that I would love to work for and last Monday my #2 on the list called me in for an interview. We scheduled the interview for Friday March 13. On Thursday before my interview I received another from the same company, different department, wanting an interview for a position I applied for in January. I ended up only interviewing for the position I applied for in January and I should start April 6th. I can only call the new job a blessing from God because it is more than I could have dreamed of coming straight out of school. The pay will be great but more importantly, to me anyway, are the benefits that come with the job.

On the heels of that good news came some shocking, yet good, news. As I was pulling out of my driveway to go to my interview last Friday, my phone alerted with a text. It was my youngest daughter and the text read
"You're going to be a grandma (smiley face). Please focus on your interview and not on me. I love you and good luck."
Not only did I have an interview that day, but we were also celebrating my husband's 43rd birthday and let me tell you he was very pleased with his present of becoming a grandfather. My husband is Irish so he's very superstitious; however, I have to say it was the best Friday the 13th we've ever had!

Other than that, and very unusual for East Tennessee, a month ago we were dealing with winter storm after winter storm. We had 5 winter storms to hit within a 10 day period and it pretty much just about walloped our area and those surrounding us. The first storm started with ice and then we kept getting ice and snow on top of that. For those of you in the North this may not sound too bad, but here in the South we don't usually see weather like that. Our temperatures were below freezing for about two weeks and the power companies had a terrible time getting power restored to the outage areas. I am a lover of snow, but I have no love for ice and needless to say, I'm ready for Spring and the warmth and regrowth it will bring.

graduation...

I still can't believe that I can now say I am a college graduate. Saturday night was so surreal for me because I knew it was happening but it all felt like a wonderful dream. All of the graduates lined up in the back of the arena in designated areas due to the degree we had earned. When it was time to walk out in front of the audience, the entire faculty and staff lined up on each side of us to make a walkway. They clapped and congratulated us as we walked by and though my eyes were misty, the tears didn't fall until I heard Dr. B, my coding professor, yelling mine and my sisters names and cheering us on.  (I don't know if I have mentioned this before, but my sister and I entered college at the same time and we majored in the same field so each semester we created our schedules to match so we could take our classes together). I could hear the audience begin to cheer as the first of the line of graduates entered the seating area in the arena. Being among the shortest of graduates, I couldn't find my family in the audience.  My sister was behind me and with her being almost 6 feet tall with about a two inch heeled shoe on, she found our family. I cannot put into words the joy and pride I felt walking across that stage to shake the college president's hand. After the ceremony our entire family went out dinner together. All in all, it was one of the best nights of my life.

Now that graduation is over, I'm having some feelings that I didn't expect. I am so happy I graduated but at the same time I feel a little sad and lost. Sad because I loved college, or to be more specific I loved learning. Lost because even though I'm going to be working a good job with good pay and great benefits, I already miss school. Right now I'm thinking some of this will wear off. First, I still have all kinds of emotion running through me from achieving my goal of earning a degree, and second because sometimes it takes me a little while to adapt to change. Well, adapt really isn't the word to use because I can adapt quickly. It's more that my mind needs a while to analyze and get through the acceptance of the adaption. Either way I will be fine! If I can't get over the feeling of being lost without school then the answer is clear to me, go for a bachelor's. It's not like I can't ever go back to school.

Dreams do come true....

Well, the last time I stopped in I was a little over half way through my semester and now I am four days from graduating. I honestly cannot believe this moment has finally came. After finishing my accounting final exam this morning it seems all I can think about is the past 35 months of school and the experience of it all. This train of thought lead me to think about several things Randy Pausch said in his lecture The Last Lecture: Achieving your childhood dreams. First of all he talks about how we always run into brick walls (obstacles) and then he goes on to give a great explanation to why those brick walls are there. He says, "the brick walls are there for a reason. The brick walls are not there to keep us out. The brick walls are there to give us a chance to show how badly we want something. Because the brick walls are there to stop the people who don’t want it badly enough. They’re there to stop the other people.” Being a non-traditional student, I certainly understood exactly what he was meaning.  I look back and think of all the younger students I came in contact with along my way and 99.5 % of them were there because it was expected of them or because they were made to come. These students float by and sometimes they only do enough to pass the class and earn the credits. It still breaks my heart today and brings out the "mom friend" in me when I see a student who is only there to please someone else. I want to encourage them to realize what a precious gift they have by getting to attend school and by doing it at such a young age. There are kids and adults all over the world who would give almost anything to have the chance to further their education. I guess it matters to me so much because I have been on the other end of the spectrum of thinking I didn't have a chance to further my education.

One of my favorite things Randy Pausch said was, "Experience is what you get when you didn't get what you wanted. And experience is often the most valuable thing you have to offer." That is the truth if I have ever heard it! It's not always about achieving your dreams, but the experience you get along the way and what an experience I have had. Before going to school I thought when one goes to college they go to become an expert in a certain career field; however, I quickly learned that it's about learning how to really think and analyze everything, solving problems on your own, and being an educated person in an ever growing society, educationally speaking.

If you have never listened to Mr. Pausch's lecture I advise you to. Grab some kleenex and be prepared to cry your eyes out. The thing about Mr. Pausch is that he didn't want to do this lecture at all because he didn't want to take away time remaining for him. Time was a precious item to him because shortly before being approached about this lecture he was told by his doctors that his pancreatic cancer was now terminal and he only had 3-6 months to live. It is a great lecture.

unloading some thoughts

I have a huge moment coming up really quickly and now that it is approaching my mind seems to be running constantly, even when I should be sleeping. On December 13, 2014 at Thompson Boling Arena in Knoxville, Tennessee, I will be fulfilling a dream that I have been chasing for the last two years, eleven months, and one day. I will be graduating from college! As I've mentioned previously, going to college has always been a dream of mine; however,  I lacked the confidence I needed to go until caring for my cancer ridden mother-in-law and watching her body and brain being ate away by such a nasty disease. After her death, I spent the next almost eleven months in deep depression and questioning the purpose of life. One morning in early December of 2011 I woke with one thought going through my mind..."I do not want to find myself on my deathbed looking back through my life and wondering why I never attempted at least one of my dreams." So later that morning I applied to my local community college and within a couple days I received my acceptance letter and the rest is history. Now I am five weeks and three days away from fulfilling that dream and I have to be honest and say that I'm pretty emotional about it all. I have made nothing below a mid B throughout my time in college and I'm very proud of that. Next week I will complete the last sixteen hours of my internship and the rest is pretty much done other than an accounting test and one more speech. I've already had a job offer that I will start right after graduation and it is in the area of my career field that I was hoping to go. Everything is falling into place so nicely and I'm overwhelmed by it all. I've gained so much experience through my internship and I feel so blessed that I was the one they offered the internship to. My mind just cannot wrap around the fact that it's almost over. I'm really excited about no more homework assignments, due dates, huge papers to write, and all of the research involved but I know for a certainty that I will miss it all when it's over. This last semester I am simply trying to relax and enjoy the experience, my classmates, and my instructors. I have made some life long connections during my time in college and I really can't wait to see what the future holds. I have been thinking about going for a Bachelor's, but I will have to take some time off first and get energized again if I choose to go forth with that thought.

With all of that being said.....look out world...I'm almost ready to come back to you a changed woman! 

from sunshine to snow flurries

What a difference a couple of days can make. Sunday we had a high of 82 and today we didn't even reach 41. I have to cover my tender lilies tonight with a sheet or blanket lest I want the frost to get them. It's kind of funny that I have been able to have real plants that have not only bloomed but flourished the last two summers. Up until two years ago I was basically the grim reaper of plants. No matter how much I loved and nurtured them they shriveled up, turned black, and bit the dust on me. Two years ago my sister gave me some lilies to have a go at and they, unbelievably,  survived me. I also received a fuschia plant last year for mother's day which kept blooming until the seasons end. Now that I can grow plants I would love to give a small herb garden a try. I also want to learn how to can vegetables but I will be purchasing the veggies from my local farmer's market since I did not have the time to put my own garden out this year. Oh well, anyway.....I hope you all have a great day!

out of the blue....

...and just like that, here I am again.

Life is the same as it has been the last few times I have been here. I'm chugging along in school and will graduate in December; however, I am counting down the days (17 to be exact) until summer break. My summer break consists of four long glorious months of no assignments, projects, classes, or due dates..yay! Next semester should be pretty easy with only taking accounting, public speaking, and completing my internship. I'm ready to be done with it!

Hope all of you all are doing okay (not that anyone reads this anymore, not that I blame you)!

reality....

I feel like talking and I do not want to express my thoughts to my family since I would probably bore them to near death, so here I am.

As I have stated previously, this is my fourth semester in college. Each day that I attend class I am full-filling a dream I had for many years to further my education. Here's just a bit of history on how I came to be in college in the first place. Years ago in my senior year of high school there were some very personal issues going on in my life that no 17 year old should have to deal with. Between being a mom to my 6 month old baby girl, trying to finish high school, and working full-time I had no spare time to begin with. On top of that I was being prepped to testify in court against not just two, but three people that I had witnessed commit two different crimes. During this time I decided that something had to give and I decided it was going to be school. My parents were not happy but they couldn't stop me because at that time you could quit school at 17. The day I quit school I was 6 weeks into my senior year and even though I was making a stupid decision, I also made a smart one. Before I left school that day I signed up to start classes a week later to earn my GED. I have regretted quitting school many times, but I do not regret earning my GED because I learned more in those few months of class than I had ever learned in my regular schooling. I graduated with honors and brought home many awards for my accomplishments. I earned my GED before my senior class graduated. I did not know at the time, but I could have walked across the stage and graduated with my senior class due to my high GED score.

That is where it all started, my dream of going to college. I am not sure if it was being a mother to my then fourteen month old daughter, Chesney, and/or the fact that Shawn and I had just got married. Either way I was looking the world, my responsibility, in the face the night I walked across the stage and received my diploma and awards. I had never in my life thought of anything other than being a wife and a mother some day, even before I was a wife and mother. Throughout the years, I kept telling myself that college just wasn't in the cards for me because I was doing what I had always wanted to do, caring for my own family. Besides I wasn't smart enough for college. I was working full-time, caring for my three small children, supporting and helping my husband build a hardwood flooring business that would become very successful, and doing everything else mothers do. As the years kept rolling by my desire to go back to school grew and I would talk to Shawn about it when we were alone. He would encourage me to go for it, but I continued to think that I was not smart enough. In the late 1990's, the internet started becoming more popular and I started connecting with new people through chat rooms then blogging and I was addicted to their intelligence.

Then in June of 2010 our world stopped when Shawn's mother told us she had lung cancer. Two weeks later as we were preparing to leave for our summer vacation, she informed us the cancer was not just in her lungs but it was everywhere, especially her brain. Even though we were devastated, she would not allow us to cancel vacation so the next morning we reluctantly left for the beach. We spent one miserable, worrisome week being away from her. Within weeks she began her radiation treatments and it didn't take too long to realize that the radiation was making her worse. She kept telling us what she was going through was normal, but we had our doubts. She wouldn't allow us to talk with her doctor or take her to appointments, only her sister was allowed that chore. Finally the radiation treatments were finished, but she continued to be very sick. So much so that the doctors had to get her better to start chemotherapy treatments. Her doctor was a wonderful man who does not hand out time limits and continues to do what he can throughout the process of cancer no matter what stage it is in when they discover it. In November we found out that she had known from the beginning that her cancer was stage 4. We didn't give up hope nor did we kid ourselves about facing reality. In November I quit my job and we moved her in with us so that I could care for her when Hospice wasn't here. In early January during a small snow and ice storm she passed away. For months after she passed away we were all depressed and in shock. I finally went back to work and we tried to get back into a normal routine of life, but we all came home each day and cried and held each other. For the first time in my life, I could not understand what the point of life was. At that time, to me, the definition of life was a long drawn out miserable time of pain and loss and I was over it. I do not mean that I was suicidal, not at all, but I wanted answers. Then one morning in early December of 2011, I woke up and the only thought that kept running through my head that day was that I did not want to arrive at my death bed and have to look back at my life and wonder why I wasted the time I had been blessed with because of fear. The next day I called my sister to talk to her and I told her that I wanted to go to college for medical administration and unbelievably she told me that she had registered at our local community college and she would be starting in January for the same path I wanted to go. That day I contacted the college and within two days I was registered. I started college on January 12, 2012 and I haven't looked back since. I have loved every minute of the experience, though hard it has been. I have kept really great grades and remain in the top three of most of my classes. The greatest thing, my sister has been right there beside me the entire time. We create our schedules together to have the same classes and that has been awesome because not only are we bettering our futures together, but we are creating a closer relationship between us and that is what matters most.

Today I registered for classes for next semester and it hit me that I am almost finished with college. To be exact, I will graduate in December of 2014. I almost cried when I had it all lying before me in paper because it made that graduation date real. This semester has been very hard and I have worked my booty off to make the high grades. Now that I am closer to full-filling my dream of having a college degree, I am so glad that I woke up that morning almost two years ago in December and realized that I wanted to step out of depression and do something with my life. Without going through the experience of cancer and loosing a loved one, I don't think I would be where I am today. Every day we miss my mother-in-law but we know that she would not want us to mope around, she would want us to get out and get on with life.

Fall already?

I am in absolute amazement at how quickly this year is flying by and as unbelievable as it sounds, Christmas is only 60 days away. I am looking forward to Halloween night because I do not have to attend my social media class due to so many classmates having small children. My kids are too old to trick-or-treat so we will be staying at home and enjoying a nice bonfire. The night after Halloween I am hosting my second annual Fright Night event here at my home. That night is basically an excuse to spend some much needed girl time with my two daughters, my sister, my two best friends, my best friends daughters, and my daughters best friends. We call it a night to watch scary movies without men around, but we mostly talk while the movie is playing. I was not sure I would be able to have the scary movie night this year because of the amount of homework I have, but I somehow managed to get a bit ahead a couple of weeks ago.

Speaking of my social media class....
I really like my professor in this class, but sometimes I feel like the class is a waste of time and money. The class would be great for someone who is not very familiar or comfortable with a computer, but for those of us who are APT and business majors, the class can be a bit of a bore. Due to the class, I now have accounts on more sites than I want to have, most of those being sites that I will never use. There is one social media tool that I learned of a year ago that I use faithfully since I have to carry a portable storage device (flash-drive) every where I go and that is Dropbox. Dropbox is portable storage that is free that you can get on any device (computer, tablet, phone) so that you always have your files, pictures, videos, and presentations. As long as you have an internet connection, you have Dropbox. I am not a forgetful person so I have never had to pull a file I needed for school off of dropbox, but many of my classmates have. Nonetheless, I continue to back all of my files up on dropbox. Evernote is another social media tool that I love. I am bad for writing out a grocery list then forgetting it at home, but as long as I have my phone with me then I have Evernote which contains my grocery list. This will be a very useful tool for my Christmas shopping list this year. Evernote is also free.

Okay, that's enough gabbing for now, I have some medical coding to get back to. See ya next time!

Every time I think I will make more time to come here and disperse my thoughts my life goes crazy and my time is consumed.

Anyway...
Since last I was here...my middle child, Bethany, graduated high school on May 20th. Chesney, my oldest child started classes today at the same school I attend, she is in pre-nursing. Bethany was suppose to start classes today but admissions messed up some forms of hers and she cannot start until next week so she opted to wait until January. Ty, my son, is now a sophomore in high school and surprisingly he is favoring his french class. This is surprising because my son is as country as they come. He comes home from school speaking new words he has learned that day. He will also be going to Italy, Monaco, France, and Spain in May 2014. Both my husband and I want to go with him, but I am not sure that I will be finished with my semester before the departure date.

My classes start tomorrow and this semester is going to be a trying one. Three of the four classes I am taking this semester are basically the core of my career path and I can go no farther on this path until I have taken all three. These three classes are only offered in the fall and they are in high demand, so much so that I went to my adviser early on the first day of registration and still ended up having to take these classes at night. I am just thankful that I am one of the fortunate ones who doesn't have to wait until fall 2014 to take them. I have each class once per week, three hours per class and I have to take them at the main campus which is in Knoxville because they are not offered at the campus closest to me. Driving Pellissippi Parkway during evening rush hour traffic is the only thing I am concerned about so far. Once tomorrow kicks off, my Tuesdays and Thursdays will be full from 6 in the morning until I get home from class around 10pm.

Other than that life is pretty much the same. I hope all of you are doing well.

Chugging right along

It has been over a month since I have been here and I promised myself that I was not going to be absent for long periods of time anymore. Oh well, it couldn't be helped because I've had more pressing matters going on. Anyway...

At this time, I only have 3 weeks left of this semester...yay! That four month break can't come quick enough for me, I am beyond ready for a break. My Bethany will be graduating high school on May 20th and I have known this was coming (obviously), but my goodness it has arrived so quickly. We are currently shopping for prom dresses and that has been fun. Bethany is finally in to pink! Pink is my favorite color and I have told her for years that she looks so pretty in pink and she is just now starting to see it. To be precise, she wants a prom dress in coral which is also beautiful on her.

I am working on my last paper in English. I was given two speeches to choose from. We are writing a rhetorical analysis on the speech we choose. Our two choices are The Inaugural Address of Governor George Wallace of Alabama..."The Segregation Now, Segregation Forever" speech from January 1963 and a speech that was done in 2005 for the Kenyon College graduating class by David Foster Wallace. I have chosen the college commencement speech because it is very different from the normal commencement speech given at college graduations. It is a little depressing and down but Mr. Wallace wraps it up nicely. I don't think I could write a good paper on the Governors speech because during a time of integration his speech was all about segregation and I didn't like his hateful, racial delivery. It is amazing to me how politicians can do speeches about bad topics and make them sound so good because they know how to incorporate ethos, pathos, and logos in just the right way to appeal to the audience. So in order to keep from stressing and getting mad, I have chosen the commencement speech.

Anyway, I hope everyone in blogland is doing well and I will be back as soon as I have time. 

gearing up for Spring break.....

The last few weeks have been very busy for me at school. I am getting ready for break next week and I do not want to be doing school assignments during my break, studying I don't mind. It seems like in each class I am taking the material just vamped up all of a sudden. In Excel we are doing Excel tables, Pivot Tables, Subtotals, and all kinds of interesting/confusing things. In Medical Terminology I just finished the Musculoskeletal System and whew was that hard due to all of the information packed in the chapter (the biggest yet). Now I am studying the Skin and I am doing surprisingly well with this one. In Music Appreciation I just finished the Baroque period and I really enjoyed it even though that to was a huge chapter. The chapter included some Bach, Handel, Purcell, and Vivaldi...some very interesting men to say the least and their music is so very beautiful. I especially enjoyed listening to Vivaldi's La Primavera (Spring), from The Four Seasons because it gives me hope that Spring will soon arrive here. Now I am studying The Classical Period which is also a very nice chapter because it includes Mozart and Beethoven.

As far as life outside of school...
I have wanted to repaint the master bedroom and bathroom for over two years now and finally last weekend we did just that. I love the new colors..for the bedroom I chose a color called Caramelized Onions and in the bathroom Timber Line. Both colors are what I call earth colors and I am loving them. Later that night after we painted, my son woke up horribly sick at 2:30 in the morning and after seeing that he didn't have just some regular stomach flu we called the dr. He had Norovirus and oh my dear was it terrible. He is all better now but at the time he lost 6lbs from Sunday to Tuesday and he is still not eating like he did before the virus plus he has dropped some more pounds. Thankfully my son inherited my love of clean hands and he washes his hands thoroughly after touching anything, therefore, no one else in the house contracted the virus. Other than that everybody else is doing pretty much the same things. Bethany is still touring college campuses and deciding if culinary is what she really wants to do when she grows up. Chesney is working and enjoying a semester off from school, she is however registered and set to go for the Fall semester. Shawn is just working as usual and praying for Spring/ Summer to arrive so that we can get out of the house more. It has been a very rainy year here so we all experienced cabin fever. This coming weekend is supposed to be beautiful with spring-like temps and we plan to enjoy every second that we can get.

Miracles are still happening!

I don't think I have posted this many times in the period of two weeks in the last two or three years. I do believe I will really enjoy getting back into the habit of coming here and typing all my thoughts out. Anyway..on to it...

I seem to be moving right along on my school work and getting into a regular routine that allows me to complete my assignments for each class a few days early. As I have mentioned previously, last semester was the first online class that I have ever had and the instructor didn't communicate with us at all and now this semester I am taking three classes online and all of my instructors are in constant communication. Even though a lot of people assume that online classes are easier and on your own time, I have found that you actually spend more time studying because you are not sitting and hearing lectures so you have to study harder. Either way, I like the routine I have set up for myself because my evenings are pretty much free and if I work harder during the week then my weekends are clear as well.

Before beginning last semester I talked to students who had already taken Medical Terminology I to get an idea of what to expect because I had heard nothing but horror stories over this one class. Once the semester began I found that I not only enjoyed the class but was very good at it. In the class we started out with word roots, prefixes, suffixes, and combining forms and the words are basically sentences. For example....achondroplasia (a form of dwarfism where the arms and legs are short yet the rest of the body is normal).
a- = no, not, without, lack of
chondr/o = cartilage
-plasia = development, growth, formation
so it reads like this....lack of cartilage growth. The definition in my textbook explains it as a defect in cartilage growth.

Anyway...I am  currently studying the blood system and wow, who knew there was so much about the blood to know. For some odd reason, the respiratory system really clicked with me and now the blood system is doing the same and I am thankful for it. So far, the two hardest systems I have studied are the urinary system and cardiovascular system. I found the urinary system to be hard only when it came to the laboratory tests and clinical procedures simply because most of those tests and procedures are recognized by initials instead of full names and with all of the initials, it gets confusing.

I now need to sign off and head out for groceries. You all have a great Monday and be safe out there!

proud moments and a little weeping

I can't remember exactly all I have posted on here in the past couple of years concerning my offspring so I am going to hit the high points.

My oldest child, Chesney, has been working at a local hospital for two years. She is a CNA and has grabbed some other small certificates during her time there. She is phlebotomy certified and in December she finished college and is studying to take her pharmacy technician certification exam very soon. In the Fall she will go back to school to start on her pre-nursing classes and then she will go on into a nursing program.

My middle child, Bethany, is in her senior year of high school and she has decided that she wants a future in culinary but she was having trouble deciding where to go to school. She has been looking hard at The Art Institute of Tennessee-Nashville and The Art Institute of Atlanta because both are about the same distance from our home. Lately Bethany decided that she wanted to start out at a smaller school so she has decided to get her feet wet by applying to Pellissippi State Community College where I attend. They have a culinary department and I think it will be great for her to get her first college experience and decide if culinary is the true path she wants to take. If she makes the decision to go with culinary all of her credits are transferable and they will also prepare her for a four year school. Basically she can get her prerequisites out of the way at PSCC and the best part is there is a campus located less than ten minutes from our home.

Tonight Bethany and I finished up all of her forms and whatnot and tomorrow she will be applying at PSCC. I am so excited and proud but at the same time I am a little teary eyed because I can't believe that it is time for another one of my children to head to college. These days it seems life is literally speeding by me. Ty, my youngest child, has grown so much in the last year and a half. He went from looking like a younger boy to looking like a young man in a matter of months and on top of that he grew about 8 inches taller in the last year and a half. I have to look up at my son now..hahaha.

This post may seem silly but I needed somewhere to unload a little because of the jittery feelings over my kids growing up. I thank God each and every day for allowing me the blessing of being their mother!

checking in

I just started my third semester of college yesterday and since I have my ENG comp class I thought I would start blogging again to help me loosen up a bit for that class. I had ENG comp last semester, but ended up dropping it the first week to complete my prerequisites for my major and because I had way too much on my plate. This semester I have classes that are less stressful than a couple of classes last semester and I feel that I can focus better on writing. Math is probably my biggest enemy and even though I love numbers, I do not like them in an organized math class. I am very proud of myself because I took Probability & Statistics last semester and I not only passed that class with a B+, but I also over came my math anxiety (thanks to a wonderful instructor). Anyway, you all will be seeing me on here more just to get my brain juice flowing and my fingers ready to write.

Almost that time of year again

I cannot believe it is almost Thanksgiving and then in a few short weeks we will celebrate Christmas. Where does time go? I am glad I could make it back here because it has been a while and who knows when I will come back again. These days my time is too consumed with studying and homework to have the extra time to blog. I post random posts on Facebook when I have time, but that is not a constant either.
Speaking of school.....there were two classes that I was not sure about when I started this semester, Medical Terminology I and Probability & Statistics. I planned my schedule around those two classes and made sure that any other classes I took along with these two would be something I am comfortable with so that my main focus landed on Med. Term and Prob & Stats. Med. Term has been a lot easier than I imagined or had been told and  my current grade in there is 99.6. I absolutely love that class and I find it very interesting. I am also doing very well in Prob & Stats and I give that credit to my instructor. I went from having major math test anxiety to not even sighing hard during my math tests now. The first P&S test we had I could not even complete because my anxiety was growing with every second and so was my frustration. I knew the material and how to work each problem, but my anxiety took over and that was the end of it. I had warned my instructor about the anxiety so he was very understanding and let me re-take the test. A couple of weeks ago we took our third big test and I did not even sigh hard while taking it and I made a 90 it. I think I will frame that test because I never thought I would ever pull in a 90 as a test grade in P&S. Mr. D told me to view the test as just another classroom assignment and if I started feeling anxious to come to him and he would help me move past whatever was ruffling my feathers. I will certainly miss Mr. D once the semester is over.
Next semester will be somewhat different for me because all of my classes are available at the main campus in Knoxville and none are offered at the campus I am currently attending (my current campus is literally 7 minutes from my house). I will be driving to the main campus on Tuesdays and Thursdays for my Excel class, but I have chosen to take the others online to save gas and wear and tear on my car. I am looking forward to being home more even if I am doing my schooling. I will not be working as a writing tutor next semester either because this semester it has been difficult at times to get my study hours in and work.
Well, this post was all over the place and very random. I need to sign off and get to bed. I hope you all have a very blessed Thanksgiving day with your families.

just an update

Of course I didn't make it back here as I thought I would, but only because since being on summer break from school I am having too much fun doing other things outside instead of being in front of my computer all day. I finished my first semester at school up a lot better than I ever would have thought. I will be working at my school in the fall as a writing tutor and a student mentor and I am all kinds of excited about that. I find it funny that writing was the one class I was a little iffy about in the beginning, but it turned out to be my favorite class. Our last essay was an argumentative essay and I wrote mine on teen pregnancy and how the media influences our teens to be sexually active which can ultimately lead them to become  pregnant. I had less revisions on that essay than I did on any of my others so I guess my mother has always been right, I know how to argue! hahaha. Not only did we have to write the essay, but we also had to stand in front of the class and have a visual presentation and argue our point and we only had five minutes to do that in. Only five of us done the presentation and argument and I am proud to say that I aced the entire assignment.

Anyway, I have really been enjoying my time off from school because when I go back in the fall I will have a busy schedule with five classes and two paying positions, but I am so ready for the challenge. I feel like I am finally finding myself after years of not remembering who the real me is. That may sound silly, but it is very true.

Well that about sums up the update for now. I hope all of you are doing well and I will be back, but I don't know when. Take care!

gotta love a good challenge

My writing class is working on a Cause and Effect essay which has to be done in MLA format. I know MLA so that doesn't bother me, the hard part comes in on our subject. We had to choose a song and tell either why and how it relates to us (Cause) or why or how it moves us emotionally (Effect). It took me forever to choose a song, but finally I picked it out. I knew this would be hard essay, however, I didn't realize that it would be this hard. I thought I knew exactly what I wanted to write, but now that I have just finished my outline it has been hard work. I began to write my outline and I would get almost done then things would start flying through my head so I would go back over it. This happened time and time again until I finally turned it today (on the due date). Monday my rough draft is due and I am not worried about that part because normally I free write then continue revising until I have my words like I want them. Our next essay will be an argumentative essay and I am all kinds of excited about that one. I will have my fingers wore down to nubs by the time that one is finished, but I am going to have a lot of fun with it. You all take care and I will be back soon!

settling in

I cannot believe that my first semester of school is almost over. Time has flown by so quickly and now I only have five weeks of school left. I have learned so much in such a short amount of time and unlike my high school days, I am really enjoying school. The most surprising thing to me is how much I love my writing class. I am now wishing that I had enough confidence several years ago to go back to school, but I do think that things happen for a reason so I believe I am exactly where I should be.

The weather here in East Tennessee has been beautiful the past couple of weeks. We have had highs in the lower to mid 80's and that can be a good thing or a bad thing. When the temps reach that high in March everybody starts waiting on a huge snowstorm or deep freeze or we try to prepare for a extremely hot summer.

Chesney, my oldest offspring, turned 20 Sunday and I am so proud of her. She will be graduating in November as a pharmacy tech. She has just applied to a nursing program through a great school in Knoxville and she currently works at a local Knoxville hospital as a CNA and has been employed there for over a year. She also has over a year of medical assistant classes under her belt which was the direction she originally planned to go until she decided that she didn't want to go half way, so she is going to be a registered nurse when all is said and done.

Bethany, my middle offspring, is 16 and she is researching some culinary schools. At this point she is preparing to apply to the Art Institute of Atlanta. She is a junior in high school now and doing awesome in school. I cannot believe that we will be getting ready for her high school graduation in a year.

Ty, my youngest offspring and only son, is 14 now and has hit a growth spurt the past year that has shot him up several inches. He use to be this skinny kid that has always been in the 5 percentile in height and weight, however, now he is playing catch up. This time last year he weighed 93 pounds and stood about 4 ft 8, but now he weighs 124 (all muscle) and he is two inches taller than my 5 ft and 1/2 inch, he was so happy last month when his dr. told him he was in the 25 percentile in height and weight. His new love is football and he is getting ready to graduate from eighth grade. He is excited about me going back to school and he likes the fact that my school is literally right over the hill from his. When I leave school on Mondays and Wednesdays it takes me about 2 minutes to get to his school and pick him up.

I probably need to sign off for now because I have a huge math test tomorrow and I need to a little more studying.