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!