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!

God Bless Us, Everyone! Thank You!

Thanks to all of our wonderful family members we had an amazing Christmas! The food was good. The company was good. And the gifts were great. I ate approximately an entire pound and a half of Chex Muddy Buddies. We were all very sick and are still not too much better, but it was wonderful having two days of uninterrupted family time.
I have an entire week off of school. Then, I begin Theory II, which is supposed to be a kick in the kiester. Everyone in the higher speed classes has told me that Theory II is much more difficult because you learn a lot of rules in Theory I and then Theory II tells you they only apply if X is X. Sheesh. Well, I am still looking forward to the challenge.