So I am currently sitting on the floor in my living room, feeling rather like a poor college student in their first apartment.  You know that feeling - when you have no furniture whatsoever.  All of the furniture for the living room has been moved into the kitchen and the study because the carpet guy is FINALLY supposed to come today, and all of the furniture had to be moved out of the living room for him to fix the carpet.

Josh and I want to get life insurance.  To get the preferred rate, I must weigh less than a certain amount.  I weigh 2 pounds more than that certain amount.  I figured it would be easy to drop those two pounds and a few more, but NO.  I've been eating less.  I've been exercising.  Every day Daniel and I go for at least one walk, which is 3/4 of a mile; usually we go twice.  Now, if eating less and walking 1 1/2 miles a day doesn't make me lose two measly little pounds, what will?  Advice, anyone?  (Current mood:  defeated and cranky.)

I was asked to give my view on waiting for the hubby to come home at the end of the day.  For one, it's hard!  I got so used to seeing Josh all through the day that it's very strange to be separated from him for so long.  To be honest, I'm very lonely most of the time.  I love Daniel, but let's face it - sometimes, I want the company of someone who A) can speak and B) won't spit on me with alarming frequency.  Most of my friends have graduated and with very few exceptions, the people that are still here, I'm not very close to.  I have little to nothing in common with any of them, and thus, I am very lonely.  Having Josh home certainly kept that from happening, so this has been an adjustment.  Hopefully this fall I can get involved in the group my church is starting for mothers with young children.  I've digressed.  Back to Josh - I'm very proud of him and I love it when he gets home.  It makes me feel all cared for that he goes to work and works hard all day.  It's hard though, because he tells me about his day and I don't understand much of what he's talking about and telling him about my day takes all of 2 minutes because nothing of real interest happens here.  To sum it up:  I'm happy Josh is working because I know he enjoys the mental stimulation, the company, and doing something for his family.  I'm also sad because I miss spending so much time with him and I'm rather lonely here.  It's a mixed bag, but I know that I need to get used to it as he'll be working most of the next 45 years and this is a great opportunity for him.  I hope that answered your question.  

"My little baby's all grown up and saving China!"

Okay, so he's not quite THAT big yet.  I just got home from picking up Daniel from his first day at Mother's Day Out.  He's taking a nap now - the little tike's exhausted!  He apparently had a great day and played the entire time and had a lot of fun.  He did not cry when I left him, although I did.  (I was done by the time I made it to the grocery store.)  Shopping was certainly A LOT easier without him, I got lots of oh so fun chores done, and it was amazingly quiet at my house.  (By the way, I still hate mopping floors more than any other chore.  It is, however, easier to clean floors without a little one about.)  I even got all of the prep work for dinner done.  All I have to do is toss it all into a pan together and boil some noodles.  The baby had fun, and I actually accomplished things.  All in all, I'd say Mother's Day Out was a smashing success today.   Here's hoping it will go so well every week.

There is a church right before my street.  On their sign it says, "School is out, God is in.  God says GET R DONE"  Ah, life in the rural south.

In news unrelated to Hickville, USA, the baby is still remarkably cute.

Why is it that in the 45 mph zone, we hardly ever break 35, but in the 30 mph zone when I'm going 30, I always get tailgated.  I don't want to speed, I just want to go the speed limit.

Daniel and I went back by the Mother's Day Out to drop off his paperwork today.  Once again, he had a great time.  He was SO smiley.  They seemed to love him.  He starts next Thursday.  We've decided to have him go on Thursdays, since I'll probably be more likely to need a break after 3 days, rather than after 1.  I'm excited, because I think he's going to have such a great time.  YAY!

Things with the insurance are moving along nicely.  There was some confusion with the insurance as to whether the accident should go on my parents' or mine, as Dad and Mom still had coverage on it, but since it had replaced one of my vehicles, it was also covered on mine.  The company decided that it should go on mine and they will be issuing a check for the repairs minus the deductible this week.  Hopefully they'll manage to get the deductible out of the other insurance company so I can have it back. 

Daniel and I toured the Mother's Day Out at our church yesterday.  He LOVED it.  He had a great time with all the new toys and with the other baby.  I think he's going to start in a couple weeks on Tuesdays or Thursdays.  It will be nice to have a free day each week to do the grocery shopping and run errands, maybe even do laundry.

Since Daniel was born, I've been extremely careful when I've been driving.  I don't speed, I don't take risks, I brake early and slowly.  So, of course, I got rear-ended while sitting in traffic.  Last Friday, I was sitting at a red light, telling Daniel we'd see Grandpa in just a minute when a car slammed into my rear bumper at 25-30 mph.  Daniel started screaming like a banshee and I, of course, panicked.  Luckily, a nice British gentleman pulled over and "rang the police" for us and I called my Dad, who got there entirely too quickly.  (THANKS DAD!)  Out of the four people in the car that hit me, none spoke English.  We had some doubts as to whether or not they are here legally, as when asked by the police where they lived, none of the four seemed to remember.  The driver, however, was, I'm assuming, since his insurance was completely legitimate.  My insurance company is dealing with them now.  The rear bumper has to be fixed, as does the muffler, and a small scratch on the lift gate.  All in all, over $1400 worth of damage, but it's all fixable, and what is money for, if not to use it when you need it?  Daniel and I were not hurt at all, and aside from the muffler, the damage was cosmetic.  We were VERY lucky!  Aside from that, the week at my parents' was very low-key.  I cooked at their house most nights, which was fun. 

On a different note, the Today show is doing a segment on teaching your children to be healthy eaters.  They say that the number one vegetable for children under 2 is french fries and half of children under 2 have candy every day.  Most of you know my opinion of feeding your children that kind of nonsense.  If you want to see a walking advertisement for reasons to eat healthy foods, walk into Wal-Mart and see how many massively overweight children there are.  ARGH.

Obviously, it's been a while since I last posted.  Currently, of course, Josh is off in Colorado, careening down a raging river of death.  I suppose it's all right, so long as he doesn't have to kiss a llama.

Since Josh is on the other side of the country, I'm spending the week with my parents.  I've been here since Friday, and it's been relatively uneventful.  Daniel is having a great time - he loves all the attention!  His second tooth on the top finally cut through yesterday afternoon, to much relief from both of us.  He has been a bit crabby the past couple of days, I'm guessing due to the sharp jabby thing doggedly pushing its way through his tender gum.  Hopefully, the crabbiness is in the past now for at least a little while.

In some ways, it's a lot noisier and yet also a lot quieter here.  There are two additional people, which makes it much more vivacious, but my parents like quiet a lot more than Josh does.  It's very peaceful here, especially when Daniel goes down for a nap.  (At least if the TV is off - Dad does love the war history shows and anything where they are rebuilding some type of vehicle.)  I doubt that I'll have too much of interest to report over the next few days, but we'll see.

As you know, the semester is over.  My husband and I both remain victorious, having earned 4.0s this semester.  It was not exactly a fun semester, but there have been worse ones.  Next semester will be a bit easier, as Daniel will be in daycare.

The Tennessee Tech daycare is supposed to be a wonderful daycare.  It better be since we've been on a waiting list for a spot since January, 2005.  That's right - we've been on the waiting list since 8 months before Daniel was born.  We are FINALLY number one on the waiting list.  The beginning of this August, children from the preschool class will move to kindergarten, children from the toddler class will move to the preschool class, and children from the infant class will move to the toddler class.  There will finally be a spot for our little boy, just in time for the beginning of the semester.  FINALLY.

Jeana and Randy are coming to visit today.  Randy is teaching a motorcycle class this weekend, so Jeana will be spending her time playing with Daniel here.  I know she's really not looking forward to it.  She doesn't even like that baby.  ;) 

In case you haven't heard, my tiny, helpless little boy is now a gargantuan, speed-crawling, property-destroying, adorable chunk of doom.  He weighs 19 1/2 pounds, he's eating us out of house and home, and the kitty lives in fear.  Like my sister Sarah did, Daniel will spot the kitty, giggle in a menacing and slightly maniacal  way, and then crawl after him at speeds that would astonish you.  Zeus has been remarkably patient, which is good.  I love Zeus, but if he claws the baby, Zeus is the one who gets the boot.  I know it will be in self-defense as the baby determinedly attempts to eat Zeus's ear, but still, Zeus will be the one sitting on the front porch.  Poor kitty.  At least his arch-nemesis is still cute.

So last month, I called Cingular and cancelled the 7PM-7AM Nights/Weekends shared minutes feature that allowed us to use night and weekend minutes starting at 7PM.  The woman I spoke with informed me that on my May bill, there would be a credit for part of the cost.  I was looking at the bill due on the fourth of May, and it not only does not have a credit for the service, it also still has a charge for it.  After spending a while on hold and speaking with a customer service representative (Hello, my name is __________.  Thank you for calling Cingular.  How may I make you miserable and cheat you today?), she informed me that we pay a month in advance for our services, so the credit will show up on the next bill.

I will therefore pay this month in advance for a service that I will not use nor have access to because I've already cancelled it.  I hate you, Cingular.  In fact, I hate you, all wireless companies.

At least the baby is still cute.

So I was puttering about Eagle Online today, looking at my unofficial transcript, when I noticed something was wrong.  According to my unofficial transcript, my program was changed to drop my Education degree.  Now, as I'm finishing a semester of only education classes for credit, 7 out of my 10 hours next semester are education classes, AND I most certainly did not fill out paperwork to change my program, I was a little concerned.  I called the records department and the woman asked me, "Aren't you getting your education degree this semester?"  Confused, I responded, "Well, I'm working on it."  She responded by telling me that the graduation office believed that I was graduating and receiving my Education degree this Saturday.  As much as I would love for that to be true, I'm a few hours short.  You know, just a few... 33.  It's all straightened out now, but that's a heck of a mistake there.

But in happy news, the baby is still cute.

So, upon receipt of our cable bill this month, I proceeded to turn red in the face and sputter in anger.  $100 for cable internet and 70 channels!  HIGHWAY ROBBERY!  Josh and I immediately started thinking about changing our service to another company, perhaps satellite TV and DSL.  Upon inspection, each of those plans would also cost us $100 or more all together, so I muttered and glared at Charter's website to find a cheaper alternative.

There it was... a shining beacon of happiness and value:  Digital Cable (260 channels) on the main TV, plus better, faster, stronger internet for a measly $70/month.  One tier of our choice is included, such as the Movie tier.  (Too bad they don't have a "You're addicted to the History and National Geographic Channels, so here are 20 more like them" tier.)  Not only that, but unlike the satellite TV where we would have to pay an additional fee for each additional TV, we can still have extended cable service on the other TVs for no additional charge.  I called Charter to ask them if we were eligible and what the rate after the introductory period would be.  The angel on the line informed me that, yes, indeed, we are eligible and after the first six months, it will be $72/month.  Josh and I were quite confused as to how this incredibly better package would cost us less per month.  The operator calmly informed me that it was not, in fact, a miracle sent from Heaven, but it was "the reward you get for doing your homework."  Apparently, they frequently have good deals listed on their website which they will also give you if you call them, but they just won't tell you.  You have to ask for it. 

So, on Friday a lovely person will come and install the digital cable box and make me smile.  I love the taste of a better deal in the afternoon.

So yesterday in my READ class (you know, the one I super hate!) our professor "reminded" us that our final exam is not next Tuesday like it says on the schedule, but in fact this Thursday.  THIS Thursday.  I hyperventilated briefly, then remembered that I've only lost about 10 points the entire semester.  I was comforted even more when Dr. Alfred told us what would be on the exam.  According to the syllabus, by this point, we should have covered chapters 6-8 and 13 in one text and chapters 3-6 or something like that in another text.  That's a lot to study on short notice.  It won't be so bad, though, since we've only covered chapter 5 since the midterm.  Yeah, that's right.  Half of a semester = 1 chapter.

Don't worry - the baby is still cute.

I hate that incompetent people can use groupwork to succeed in school and go on to get jobs, be incompetent, and get promotions based on other people's work.  For once, it's not my group that's making me cranky, but Josh's school work.

I am really looking forward to the end of the semester.  As you may know, there is only one more week of classes, then a week of exams, and the semester is done.  Josh and I will visit his family, see his brother graduate and visit with his dad and stepmom.  Then Josh shall skip off to Colorado to have fun and games and leave me with the baby for a week.  I want Josh to have lots of fun, but I have to say that I'm not too pleased with having the baby on my own for a week.  So, I shall spirit myself off to Hendersonville to stay with my parents for a few days.  Hopefully Jeana and Randy will let us keep Zeus at their house for a little while, but if not, we'll have to find a vet to board him at.  (Our old vet displeases us.  We want a new one that won't make my cat smell like smoke and look like he played in ashes.)

I am very excited about the summer.  It will be nice to play with the baby more frequently.  There are some days where I feel like I hardly see him at all, so I'm looking forward to spending more time with him.  Josh will be working all summer, which means I'll have the baby all the time on week days, which is also a little bit of a bad thing.  and unfortunately, I'll have no excuse to continue putting off cleaning the house.  Alas.

As I mentioned, I got a poor grade on half of the presentation, because the professor was talking to other students and not listening to us talk.  (This is the same professor who walked out of the room and came back 2 or 3 minutes later during someone else's presentation.)  She told me that if I wanted to improve my grade, I could write a paper with the other girl in my group who got a poor grade.  I told her I'd love to do a paper on my own, but if I had to work with her again, could I just keep my 80?

So I wrote the paper on my own, turned it in last week, and expected maybe 5 additional points.  I got the paper back yesterday.  My presentation grade is now a 100.  (Yeah, that'd be higher than my groupmates who didn't have to write a paper.)  Needless to say, I am quite please.

In case you were curious, yes, Daniel's still cute.

Once again, the husband is out late working on his Thermal Design project.  I vaguely remember what he looks like.

The project for the education class isn't terrible.  The assignment is to make a small number of a variety of test questions, which is exactly what we've been doing all semester in another of my classes.  In fact, it took less than 10 minutes to finish my portion of the task.  It's not the work that I mind; I just hate group projects. 

I'm a little bit of a control freak, and I like things to be done a certain way.  When it comes to my education class, I will, however, settle for any way that is competent and correct.  Unfortunately, I believe that might be asking too much.  I HATE relying on other people for part of my grade.  Because Joe-Shmo happens to be lazy and care little for his grade, my grade can suffer?  Not cool.  (Or should I say it's not money?  I'm told that's what the kids say these days...)  The group work has to be done in the same group as the last project.  Now, I don't dislike all of them, but even with the ones I like, we have very different work ethics and styles.  Did I mention that I loathe group work?

On a happy note, the baby is still cute.

Today in the education class that causes me so much irritation, the professor assigned yet another group project.  With only 1 1/2 weeks left, she assigned a group project worth TWO LETTER GRADES.  Needless to say, I am quite displeased.

In other news, the baby is still cute.

Josh and I are attempting to kill the dandelions.  I don't think we're winning.  We'll let you know.  Josh insisted that we get flowers to plant in our front flowerbed.  Now, I agree that they'd be lovely, but let's be honest.  Do I seem like the outdoorsy, yard work-loving, yay-I-like-dirt-under-my-fingernails type?  No me gusta.

For those of you who are blind or silly, our baby is the most beautiful thing in the world.  Of course, you probably read at Josh's that Daniel can pull himself to standing now.  It's the most amazing thing.  Our little boy went from a helpless little thing that did little more than lie about like a pooping sack of flour to a wide-eyed, bright little boy.  I read a blog that another woman writes, which is mainly about her son.  Today she talked about how easy it is to mention all the bad things the baby does, such vomit everywhere, poop on everything, cry unceasingly, etc, but it somehow manages to slip your mind to mention all the wonderful things about him, like his smile, his laugh, his wide eyes when he sees something new, or the surprise on his face when he feels grass under his toes.  Despite my lamentations, I love that little boy, and I would not trade him for anything in the world.

On a less serious note, I've been told that I'm too neurotic because I make people wash their hands before touching the baby.  Now, I don't think it's a bad idea at all, but lest you think that I am too neurotic, know this: I let the baby play in the grass not even just once, but twice now!  He was so fascinated!  I drew the line at letting him eat the grass, though.  Plenty of time for that and mud pies later.

And now for school.  Let me begin by saying that I have had some phenomenal teachers.  I also know some education students who are intelligent, dedicated people whom I believe will one day make wonderful teachers.  And then there are the rest of them.  So many people at Tech choose education as a major because it's easy.  They can't succeed at engineering? They go to education.  Business classes too hard?  Switch to education.  Math major too difficult?  Teach math instead.  It's disheartening.  It doesn't help that in my group for one of my education classes, there is a girl who fits the ditzy sorority girl education major stereotype to a T.  Now, I am by no means a genius at grammar, but I can recognize the parts of speech.  So why is it that this girl, let's call her Katie, can't tell the difference between an adverb and an adjective?  That's not so bad, you say.  Well, it might not be if she weren't planning to teach high school English classes.  Even better, she was wearing a t-shirt with her sorority's Greek letters on it, and when questioned about the meaning of "Kappa," she did not know that it was a letter of the Greek alphabet!  If you're going to join an organization and plaster their name across your clothing, shouldn't you have some idea what the name of the organization stands for? 

Today, in the aforementioned education class, we were having presentations, done in groups based on our majors.  (I'm in a group with English teachers, because English and French are "close enough.")  A History group presented on the Civil War, gave us a list of important names and locations, and asked us to make a "creative" graphic organizer.  The terms were things like "President Lincoln," "President Jefferson Davis," "Confederacy," "Union," "General U.S. Grant," and "General Robert E. Lee," so they weren't very hard terms.  I was grudgingly drawing away when "Katie" asked the other girl in our group whose side Lincoln was on.  As if that were not bad enough, the response she received was, "I think he was somewhere in the middle."  It was not isolated.  So many people were asking which side was which and which president went with which side.  As with grammar, I'm no history genius, but I do have a basic grasp of it, thanks to the American History requirement in both high school AND college.  The only people who don't have to take American History are engineers, so this bunch has no excuse.  It just strikes me as very ignorant.  Even if you don't know who Jefferson Davis is, if there are only two presidents, I think you can safely surmise that Lincoln was on the winning side, given the penny and his monument.  Some people's kids...

I love spring.  I love the sunny days.  I love the flowers blooming.  I love the warm weather.  But it's not all pretty flowers and sunshine.  With the breaking of spring also comes a most dreadful and horrible thing... the miniskirt.

Now, personally, I don't like miniskirts, but I understand that some girls believe that since their legs are beautiful, they should show them.  That does not, however, explain why girls that are, shall we say, not properly built for mini-skirts insist upon wearing them.  Do they own mirrors?  If so, what do they see when they look in them?  Because it most certainly is NOT what I see.

Some people will say that these girls are simply comfortable in their own skins and that's why they dress this way.  Well, that would be more believable if miniskirts weren't ridiculously uncomfortable.  Now, it may just be me, but I like being able to walk up stairs or sit down without worrying about having an underwear revelation.  Besides, simply because you're comfortable with your body doesn't mean that you need to show it off.  There are parts of my body that I really like, but that doesn't mean that I dress those parts up in hussy gear.

One of the worst parts is that some of these girls are really very pretty and have several good attributes.  Unfortunately, the wide expanse of not-as-attractive leg distracts from their beatiful face or their nice arms and shoulders.  Why do they choose to accent parts of themselves that aren't so nice, and thus distract the eye from the lovely parts of themselves they should be accenting?

Perhaps someone out there can shed some light on this for me.  As for me, I'm off to start an anti-miniskirt picket line. 

I finished the paper.  Randy, you were right.  All I had to do was go back and elaborate on things I'd already mentioned.  Strategic re-wording, if you will.  :) 

Now I just have to do the "Chapter Objectives."  There are 5-7 questions per chapter for 13 chapters.  The answers must be 1-2 paragraphs.  This is going to take quite a while as well.  (Yet it will still take less time than Josh's horrible Thermal Design project!)

9 1/4 pages down.

A mind-bogglingly difficult 3/4 of a page to go.

I really hate it when you get close to the end of a paper and can think of NOTHING to say.  (I know... you're shocked at the idea that I would ever run out of things to say.)