Unsatisfactory

That's right, that is my grade in my 100s speed class as of our midterms. Lovely. It is due to my inconsistent and inadequate amount of practice time in order to be successful. A giant JOG ON to you teacher! Teacher who wastes an hour of my could-be-practice-time a week to give me dictations at 60 and 80 words per minute. To sit there and trivia quiz me on the meaning of words that will probably never come up in court, or come up very rarely. For that, I have a dictionary. Teacher who doesn't even know how to properly correct a symbol in CaseCatalyst.

Now, that is out of my system, yes, I could probably practice a little bit more. If I was able to wake up at 4 a.m. and squeeze in that extra hour. However, I am tired at 4 a.m. from not being able to sleep because my zombie foot is ailing me so badly, and my 18 month old is waking up at all hours from having a cold and teething. Not to mention, that I am staying up extra late to practice at night, as that is the only time I have been able to find.
"Your grade is determined on your passing tests, so there is still time to turn it around..." Six weeks. I need to pass 6 tests (two in each category, Jury Charge, Literary, and QA). Unless I am blessed with a TimeTurner (HP I want you to be real), that ain't gonna happen.

I will give it an honest-to-goodness go in the next six weeks, if I don't pass any tests, I may have to evaluate discontinuing the program. I need more time, I don't really have it, I need to be on ground with teachers that are there to really help you, I can't put my girls in daycare. I want so badly to go back to school for speed classes. To be where there is encouragement and healthy competition, where the teachers know what they are doing and actually dictate to you at your speed and higher.

"Do You REALLY want it?" asked the Universe.

I was once told by a fairly wise person, that the Universe always throws you challenges when you begin achieveing a new goal, as if to see how badly you are willing to fight to make it. Well, honestly I am just about to throw in the towel. I was doing so well in court reporting school, acing all of my classes and getting through my speeds at half of the time required. Then I had to start staying home because of lack of child care for our girls. Okay. Fine. I love being with them more. There was no realistic time to get my school work done. I was still hanging on and doing well in my academics, but slacking in my speed building.

Then I got a schedule worked out around all the craziness here, and think I am doing fairly well getting back on track. "HA HA", laughs the Universe. Go sprain your ankle and foot, and see how well you feel to get school work done and take care of your house and children. Oh, and you will have to call in to work after having to use all of your savings to pay bills and medical costs... MU WAH HA HA...

Here I am bitterly sitting with my zombie looking foot that is slowly swelling to the size of a very large squash, writing on my Steno machine... YES I want it, Mr. Universe!

Falling In It...

So, this weekend has probably been the most unproductive weekend of the quarter. I fell in a hole while carrying my 18 month old in the Ergo carrier, and walking two adorable and rambunctious dogs. I was attempting to house sit for a friend of mine and ended up in urgent care for most of Friday evening. My left foot is badly sprained, along with the ankle.

I will regale you with the fascinating story...

There I am, about 5:30 p.m. in a very nice neighborhood getting two small dogs leashed up while my daughter is giggling because they are licking her face. She loves dogs, and all animals. I thought about taking my cell phone in the pocket of the Ergo carrier she was riding in. If you are not familiar with this carrier, it is a multi-functional back saving baby carrier. Amelie was riding in the front position. I decided, nah, who needs a cell phone to take a quick walk. Mistake number one. I grabbed the house keys so I could lock the door, and off we went.

The dogs were excited to go and were pulling a bit, but not too hard. We crossed the street and went down a couple of blocks. There was a big grassy field, and I thought that the dogs had not done their business yet, so maybe a stroll in the grass would put them in the mood. I was not paying attention to where I was walking. Mistake number two. I was sporting my mary jane Crocs. Mistake number three.

I fell into a hole that upon reflection, was quite well hidden in the grass. I went down so fast that I did not have time to catch myself properly. I only had time to make sure that Amelie did not hit the ground as I did. I felt my entire ankle flop to the side in a grotesque and unnatural way. I did not try to stand as I knew that it would be fruitless. My foot began to swell...

There were two little kids a block away riding their bicycles in circles around their house. I started yelling for them and they took a while to figure out that I was not some weird child snathcher trying to lure them over. They grabbed their mom and grandfather and they all made their way over to me. They turned out to be a very nice family and got me in a chair and brought me water. They held Amelie and played with the dogs until my Mom was able to get there and help me out. My foot began to swell even more...

By the time I got done with urgent care, I had a disc of x-rays, and fancy new boot like something out of a steampunk comic. In fact, I may go home and spray paint it brass and put gears on it...

Missing the fun not the humidity.

Well, the weekend is upon us again. This Saturday is my 5 year wedding anniversary. I am looking forward to some time with my love, just the two of us.

We are both missing Texas and all the fun we had there last weekend. It has been quite some time since we have taken a vacation that we did not really want to come home from. We all had so much fun and it was great to see the girls get to just have simple kid fun.

I have miraculously been able to get most of my homework done for my classes this week. However, still lacking in the practice on my Steno machine. I actually just got a friendly reminder from my speed teacher that I really need to be practicing every day.

This summer has been lacking in motivation to do anything adult and responsible. All I can think about is swimming, bike riding (on a dream cruiser), roller skating, and having lots of fun.

We got really lucky on the Fourth of July this year and landed primo spots for firework watching at a little church on a hill. The pic above is my little one and I tired, as we had just flown in from Texas that evening.

Now, I have to be off to finish up a quiz for English and probably get in some much needed practice time on that Steno machine. Nothing like a scolding e-mail from your teacher to get you motivated...

The First Week Online

The first week of taking classes online is almost over. Let me tell you, it has been difficult. I wake up, turn on the computer, make the girls breakfast and eat my breakfast while doing classwork. Then I clean up the kitchen and the girls and sit down to more school work while they play together. I usually only get to read about two sentences at a time until I am interrupted by questions or being asked to make a doll talk. After a while of this I just play with the girls for a bit, which I love that I get to do that more. Then I put a short film in for thirty minutes so that I can finish more school work. The day pretty much keeps going that way all day long. I am either on the computer, into a book, or doing something for or with the girls.

I have had absolutely no time to practice on my machine. This is going to be a problem. The online requirements are even more difficult to achieve. I have to have 10 hours minimum on my machine logged by Sunday evening. We are trying to figure out how to make this work better. The only option right now is possibly quitting work. However, we rather need the money and if I continue working we will be able to pay our debt off a little faster. We don't have much debt left, but it would be nice to be debt free so that we can work on getting a place of our own.

Well, back to trying to finish up my course work. Just finished making chocolate pancakes too!

Transferring

I am resigned to completing my education online. Unfortunately, I will no longer have child care for my girls and I will have to switch to taking all of my classes online in order to complete my degree. This is going to be a huge hurtle for me to overcome. I will have to really work on my time management. I am taking four classes next quarter. I will be taking English III, Intro To Micro Computing, and Law/Legal Terminology. I barely had enough time to get my English homework and steno practice in last quarter. I am just not sure how it is all going to work out. However, I know that I will make it work. I can do it without anyone's help. I have done more than this before by myself.

The only thing is that I will have to do my work split up throughout the day. It looks like the best times will be really early in the morning, during nap time in the afternoon, and then again really late at night. My love works from 5 a.m. to 2 p.m. at the coffee shop and then again from 5 p.m. to about 10 or 11 p.m. So I am with the girls for all of that time.

This will work, it must. I need a real job for my family, for myself, and for our futures.

The Last Week

So begins the last week of my summer quarter at court reporting school. And no, I did not get my hours of practice done again. It was a very busy three-day weekend. We had family in town and I had to work so there was really no time to do anything else but the activities and sleep. I am really looking forward to the break that is coming up. I am going into it with a cup half-full outlook. This means that I am planning on reviewing my theory, practicing on my steno machine, and getting all of my briefs and phrases organized, updating and backing up my dictionary, donating all the clutter in our house, decorating the girls room; all this before we go to Texas on July 1st.

Very optimistic of me to plan all of that; right?

The reality of it is probably more like; I will get the basic up-keep cleaning done, a little practice, and the rest of the time will be hanging out with my girls and trying to keep them educationally entertained.

Wish me luck.

Mutants, Pirates, Fairies, Knights...

This weekend was extremely busy! My love and I went to see X Men: First Class. Let me just say, it was freaking amazing. Well, the director was Matthew Vaughn who did such other amazing films as Layer Cake, and Neil Gaiman's Stardust. I have always been a huge fan of James McAvoy who did an excellent job of portraying Professor X. However, I have to say, Michael Fassbender was superb as Magneto. I think he will probably be the new tough-guy heart-throb following the footsteps of Hugh Jackman. Speaking of Wolverine, his cameo in First Class was so perfect!

We also got down to the Renaissance Festival in Larkspur. It was a really good time as it is every year. I do wish that there was a bit more variety from year to year. Our girls had a really good time.

With all of the activities this weekend, I did not get all of my practice time in again. I am having a really hard time pushing myself to practice or increase speed. I think it is a mix of being so tired all of the time from my under-active thyroid and a bit of summer fever setting in. All I want is to have fun with my family and friends after school.

Is there a cure for summer fever?

Stuck in the wheel.

The past week has been a little rough. I have just been stuck in the middle of a very bad case of doldrums. I have been completely unmotivated toward anything related to school. It is very discouraging to have to clock in 6 hours on a repetitive exercise each week. I feel like my writing will not improve unless I have time to do a variety of work. I need to be able to review my theory, work on learning briefs, and building speed from dictation. Unfortunately, my requirements in the 100 speed class are strictly practicing to the dictations online. UGH!

I am getting really excited for our summer break!

Summer is beginning...

It is finally getting hot here. So I suppose Colorado has decided to jump into summer. We still have yet to plant flowers in the front garden that is currently a bed of dirt.

This is the last week of "practice" in my 100 speed class. I really need to buckle down and start passing following this week.

I did not practice at all over the long weekend as I was busy with wedding events and our work schedules were completely rearranged to accommodate those events. I am really wishing I would have done a lot more work on my speed building. I fear I may have set myself back a bit. Meh, I will just have to work harder this week.

Wedding Bells:

An acquaintance of mine from work is having me as a bride's maid in her wedding and Aria is a flower girl. Aria looks so super cute in her little dress. It is pastel purple, green, and pink stripe. I look like a giant purple Easter egg in my frock. But, its not about me, its about the bride. We are going to the rehearsal and dinner tonight and then tomorrow is the wedding. Weird to get married at two o'clock on a Thursday, right.

I am way behind on homework for the week because we have all been sick, exhausted, and going, going, going.

Still trying to write well enough at 100 to pass a test. However, this is only week two, so I'm not too worried. One of my classmates has already started in the 140 class! So jealous. But happy for her too.

Well, off to transcribe yet another jury charge...

Novus Folium and weekend fun.

This last Friday we went to see our friend's band, Novus Folium, play in the final competition for Best Of The West. And... They won! We are so happy for them. They are an amazing band. If you have not heard of them yet please check them out at Novus Folium.

I am starting my second week in 100s speed class. It is taking me a while to adjust. So, no tests passed thus far. I also have to miss a day this week as I am a bridesmaid in my acquaintance's wedding. We are required to log six hours a week on this internet dictation program that we have through our school. If we do not get the six hours, then the following week none of our tests passed count. It sounds easy to just do at least one hour of practice a day with Sundays off right? Yeah. No. Not when life starts getting in the way. I was only able to get about 4.5 hours in this week. We all got sick this week, AGAIN!

I cannot imagine how difficult next quarter is going to be when it comes to time management. I will be taking English III, Intro to micro-comp, and Law/Legal Terminology, plus my speed class. Yikes.

Artist: Tina Tarnoff did the above art and you should check her out on Etsy. She is the inspiration for my new tattoo!

Not Quite Hell, Maybe Purgatory:

Lo and behold! I passed one of my needed two QA tests! I only need one more QA and I will be in the 100s class officially! Yes, there are a lot of exclamation marks because I am so excited and amazed. I set the deadline for getting out of my 80 speed class for six weeks and I just about nailed it. I figure after two weeks of practicing and testing at 100-140 wpm, I should nail that last QA the first Monday of 80 speed QA week and be done!

On an even happier note, my loving husband bought me the coolest STEAMPUNK shirt. Oh yeah, it rocks. It is light gray with... A BUSSEL!!!!! See, many more exclamation marks. I just got it in the mail, and yes, I am wearing it as I am writing this. It is so awesome.

Passing With Flying Colors!

Yes. I have passed both of my Jury Charge and Literary required tests to move up into the 100 speed class. This coming week is going to be hell week. It is QA week. I am terrible at QA in general, so I will really have to work hard to pass my 80 speed QAs. Fingers Crossed!

English is challenging this quarter because we are learning all of the punctuation rules for basic writing as well as transcription requirements. However, I am improving in my English class.

So, things are looking up.

FINALLY!

I have passed my first 80 speed test! It was my literary test! I am so relieved. Now, I only have to pass one more literary test and I can move up to the 100 class in literary.

Thanks for everyone who has been so supportive and encouraging, that sure helped a lot!

I have three more tests (opportunities) to pass this week. So fingers crossed.

Week Three:

Hello world! Well, it is QA week at school. I am sorry to report that I did not pass any of my Literary or Jury Charge tests. I came closer to passing my first QA test today. So, I suppose that is a plus. Just busy practicing whenever I can, which seems to be so late. I just finished my homework for the evening and it is currently 1 a.m. So, off to bed. I will update more later.

80 Speed Class -- FAIL:

That's right. FAIL. I am in my first week of my 80 speed class and have failed each of my tests each day. I am simply not fast enough. I am trying to practice more, but unfortunately have quite a lot on my daily plate. I am also just having the worst test anxiety. I am writing fine during our warm up and then, BOOM! the test begins and I freeze.

So, literary test week has gone by and I have not passed any tests. Therefore, I will have to wait three weeks until I can try for my literary test.

My grumpy cloud is following me again...

A Little Break and A Lot of Food

I have spent the day cooking amazing food for my family. I cannot wait to eat! I made a very successful Guinness stew, in the crock-pot all day, corned beef and cabbage, colcannon, and my specialty; Bailey's cream pie. It is nap time around here. So I actually have a few minutes for a break from everything.
I don't have to work at all this weekend and am really looking forward to that. Amelie and Kyle's birthdays are Saturday and Sunday. What a busy weekend. I also have to find time to squeeze in my English final exam.
Unfortunately, I did not do as well as I hoped on my Theory final. However, I still have an A in the course. I am nervous about the 80 wpm speed class next quarter.
Oh, Mr. Tax Fairy, where are you? I really need you to come...
Well, Happy St. Patrick's Day to you all! Hope you will be eating and drinking as good of fare as we will be! Enjoy the day! And if you want a little funny from the Irish check out this video:

Give Up Yer Aul Sins

You Did All That Work For Nothing!

So my quarter is almost finished at school. That means it is time for final exams! I just received a post for my English class that says my teacher won't be requiring us to turn in the final draft of our group project because she wants us to have plenty of time to review for our final. So all of that extra time I spent at the library, studying and all of the stress I felt because of the lack of communication between my other group members, all was for naught. On one hand, it is a relief that I don't have to do any further work on what was quickly becoming a big pain the the keister. I can't help but think that it is a little crappy to have put in all that work for nothing.
I have my final test in Theory tomorrow. And then... No school on Thursday. That's right. St. Patrick's day really should be a national holiday. So I will be playing hooky from school to drink and fill my stomach with all the potato filled fare I can.
Yeah, it's bigger than Christmas. I know everyone looks forward to my Bailey's Cream Pie. Especially me.

Find the humortunities and reduce stress!

That's right, your humortunities! We had a guest speaker, Karyn Ruth who is a motivational comic, give a very entertaining presentation on reducing stress. As I walked into the assembly room I noticed neon pink pieces of paper on each seat. Sitting down, I scanned over the page that had tips on living and laughing with less stress. Toward the bottom of the page there was the phrase, "Look for humortunities." I knew that the speaker was supposed to be some sort of motivational speaker, and prepared myself for a great big cheese fest about how we needed to breathe, meditate, empower, consider the other person's feelings in our moment of frustration, etc.
However, Karyn Ruth was no such motivational speaker. She was amazing! I literally laughed for an hour straight. She was not cheesy or overly sentimental, but she was motivational. She talked about finding humor in stressful moments, evaluating situations and how to stop beating ourselves up for being human. She advised us to ask three things when we find ourselves in a most "human" moment, i.e. locking our keys in the car, while it is running. Those three things were: What can I learn from this, what do I want to create from this moment forward, and would this be funny if it were happening to someone else?
She also advised us to find our humortunities. To focus on the humorous and interesting things around us. For example, the next time you're going through a revolving door and someone is waiting to go through next, just keep going. Wave and smile at them each time you pass.

Hello World!

Well, it has been a while since I have written anything new. Sorry for the dry well. Things are getting more and more complicated in Theory. We are learning to unlearn previous rules and having to apply a lot of memorization to how certain words should be written. I am finding that I hear and pronounce words quite differently from other classmates. Has anyone else noticed that I talk funny?

English has been crazy! A huge amalgamation of frustration! (Say that five times fast!) We are half way through our group project and I do not remain hopeful about the end result. I think I will be lucky to pull through with a grade of B. For yeah, you were able to Bullshit your way through this Bunch of Bull.

Steampunk! I love everything and anything related to steampunk. I want to steampunk my Steno machine!

If you want an amazing fantasy/sci-fi/steampunk/adventure book to read please pick up The Court Of The Air, by Stephen Hunt. And while you're at it the rest of the books in his Jackals series for me too. I accept personal delivery, Fed-X, UPS, USPS...

Sunny Days!

We are enjoying wonderful sun-filled days this week, at least until it snows this weekend. I was able to take Aria to the park and out for ice cream. It is amazing what a little sunshine can do to brighten your outlook on the world.

Things are going well with school and everything is starting to make sense and come to me easily. I did not pass my 60 wpm speed test, but my accuracy is improving. I believe I did really well on our vocabulary test this week in Theory.

English, UGH! We have a group project that I am NOT looking forward to. We have to do a power point presentation about the changing meaning of words since the World War II era. It may not be so bad, however, the due date is the week of Amelie, and Kyle's birthdays as well as St. Patrick's day.

Bowling with Snowmen

Yesterday we celebrated Aria's 3rd birthday with a bowling party followed by a pizza. We all had a great time. Aria loves snowmen, so after I finished shoveling our icy walks, I made her one in the front yard. Daddy added his special touch, and the picture here is the result.

We are half way through our quarter. School is going by so quickly. I cannot even imagine how much faster the time will fly when I am speed building next quarter.

Looking forward to the tax fairy to pay off some debt and maybe put a little aside for once. Well, after we take care of a few things... Like our neglected vehicles.

Iced In

Well, we don't have a lot of snow, but things are pretty icy as it is only 4 degrees out! School was closed today. It is a day of indoor fun for me and the girls. I made French Toast for the first time today and it came out wonderful. I actually impressed myself with my cooking, which is not something that happens often.
I got my quiz back yesterday and received a 100 percent! That's right, I aced it. Strange to me because I have been struggling so much this quarter. I also passed my 40 and fifty speed tests in the last two weeks. I also attempted to practice at church on Sunday. My pastor speaks at approximately 180-200 wpm, so I got about every third word. Still, practice is good.
English is what it is. I really am not putting too much effort in since we are still working on identifying the different parts in a sentence. Noun, subject, verb, etc. Didn't we do this in 3rd grade?
Looking forward to Aria's birthday next weekend. We are going bowling!

Changing the way I think.

I have been doing a lot of thinking about the small things in life that affect the larger picture. Things like, we complain about being held up in traffic because of an accident, and yet we don't realize that the person(s) injured in that accident is someone's brother, mother, father, etc. Too much of our time is spent thinking and reacting to the fact that others are causing us an inconvenience, rather than how we are all apart of a large community that needs one another to function.
I have a few New Year's resolutions that are similar to the above thought.
1) Complain Less
2) Nag Less ( mostly for my husband's benefit)
3) Let things go a little (i.e. the house doesn't have to be cleaned as soon as I come home)
4) Appreciate other people have their own story and way of doing things that are different from mine, and mine is not always the best way.
5) Become a more informed person ( about the world, what we eat, how we live...)

Those are just some things I have been thinking about recently.

Now, school is becoming much more challenging. We are writing three and four stroke words and it is often difficult for me to hear where the words should be separated. It is taking me about 2 hours to get through a chapter's practice in the evening, where it used to take me about 45 minutes. However, English is easy as cake. We have a quiz on sentence structure this week and have to post a couple of paragraphs on what we are struggling with in the course. That will be hard (insert sarcastic tone).

Time for more ENGRISH!

UG and UD

We are currently learning more complicated two and three stroke words. Eliminating the indistinct "schwa" vowel sounds and adding UD or UG, i.e. timid = TEUM/UD or designate = DEZ/UG/NAEUT. FUN!!
Yesterday, we had a late start day due to the 8 inches of snow we received. I was unaware of this because we were told that we can count on Jefferson County schools as to whether we would have a snow day or not. Having grown up in Jefferson County, and NEVER having snow days, I figured it would be school as usual. However, I walked into an empty classroom and had an hour to practice on my own.
I am still finding that the concepts this quarter are coming quite easily to me. I know that next quarter, when we are working on speed building, is when I will have some difficulty.
Goal: Work on speed building now.

Happy New Quarter!

I have officially begun Theory II! I am supposed to have begun English I as well. However, Stenograph got a few things wrong this quarter, like what classes are supposed to be up online. Hopefully my thus far non-existent English class will be up and running tomorrow. For now, it is review week, and I sure do need it.
I am enjoying the new schedule. Since I have opted to take my English course online, I get to sleep in on Mondays and Wednesdays. I also have the same teacher as Theory I, which makes it easier to not have to adjust to someone's different teaching style. I even sat in the same seat in the same classroom today. Although I really wanted to change it up and sit elsewhere. As I was the first one in class, I wasn't sure if someone would have been upset that I had taken their seat. So I just sat where I always have.
Security in sameness!