Mom, I wish you could see this:

76039 COMS 215 M01 ARGUMENT ANALY & ADVOCACY 4.0 A 16.0000

58902 COMS 304 OO1 INTERVIEWING 4.0 A 16.0000

58904 COMS 421 OO1 INSTRUCT TRNG & DVLP COMM 4.0 A 16.0000

76045 CTCH 125 M02 INTRODUCTION TO COMPUTERS 4.0 A 16.0000

Hours Hours Grade
Attempted Earned Points GPA
Term Undergraduate..........: 16.0 16.0 64.0000 4.000
Accumulative Undergraduate..: 32.0 176.0 122.6800 3.833

Congratulations! You have made the Dean's list for this quarter.

I still miss you.

Happy Thanksgiving 2007

Yeah, I know, I'm a little early. I had to celebrate with the boys tonight because they will be with their Dad from Wednesday evening to Sunday evening.
I wasn't really planning on cooking a "Thanksgiving" meal, because I knew they were going to have a big deal with their Dad and Grandparents on Thursday. Last night ds #1 says "When are we having Thanksgiving with you, Mom?" I guess I needed to cook some turkey after all.

So, today, after working till 2 and taking a final from 3-5, ds #2 and I flew through the grocery store and this is what we came up with:



We had turkey, mashed potatoes and gravy, homemade stuffing, crescent rolls and those sweet potatoes that Syd couldn't even get the animals to eat at her house, lol. DS #1 loves-em and he even makes them, so they are on the menu at our house. Yep- it was a regular carb-fest, I sat down at the table before I realized I had forgotten the green beans.
Here are two of my favorite people in the whole world, and two that make me very thankful:



We topped it off (the boys did, I was waaay too full) with oreo cream pie and apple pie with cool whip. They loved our "Thanksgiving Feast". Thankfully for me they aren't too particular, although I have to say that shopping to eating start to finish in 2 1/2 hours isnt too bad!

I thought I was smart-

Then I checked S's blog....

I have said all along she's my better half. I'm not smarter, but I'm smart enough to know she's the best thing that ever happend to me!

Big fish in little ponds

I attend a branch campus of a major state university. Well, not even a branch actually, more like a twig! Two buildings in a suburban office complex and shared faculty with a larger branch campus about thirty miles away. Anyway, the administrator in charge of this campus is very aware of her authority, and wants everyone else to be too. She taught a course this quarter in the classroom next to my Monday night class. Anytime we made any noise, if we laughed or anything, she'd come over and stand in the doorway and scowl.
I was on campus yesterday taking a final and when I was done I was sitting in the office talking to a classmate who works there. This administrator comes in and says "This doesn't sound like a work related conversation" I felt like saying, yeah that's cause it's NOT. I don't work there, thank God, because I can see how that woman could suck out your will to live really quick. Heaven forbid you might actually ENJOY coming to work. I've only been there two nights a week for two quarters and even I have figured out that this woman is a total Be-yotch. I feel for the people that actually have to work with her.

Live it up!

Here's how I've spent my million so far:

My Sweetheart came to see me....

We had the best weekend! So good in fact, that when it was time to go home yesterday, S decided to stay another night!

She got here Saturday morning. The kids and I drove about an hour to pick her up at the airport. DD #1 was her usual cheery self. The boys were fine. We stopped and ate breakfast on the way home and then just ran the big kids around to their weekend activities. DD #1 managed to stay gone most of the weekend, as has been her habit lately when she is supposed to be with me.

Sunday afternoon, DD#1 made herself scarce. S & I took the boys to see the Lady Buckeyes basketball game. My boss gave me two tickets, so we just had to pay for the boys. We had great seats and the boys got to shoot a couple layups on the court after the game. They thought that was great.

Monday evening we went to my daughters marching band concert. We sat on the bleachers right in front of where she stood in formation and if looks could kill I'd definately be dead right now. She is so hateful and cold to me. I know it's coming but it still hurts.

This was such a wonderful trip. We had a great time together and we got to have the kids around, which is something we haven't been able to do in a long, long time. The boys seemed to like having S around and had fun with her. P even wrote about S in his "weekend update" at school. He wrote "my friend from GA came to visit for the weekend". God, I love that boy.

C-R-A-Z-Y week

It sure has been hectic around here.

In my Monday night class my group gave our 90 minute presentation. We used a "Fear Factor" theme and had a couple fun games, a couple of fun clips to demonstrate
"Communication Apprehension", which was our topic. We just tried to have fun with it. I didn't feel as prepared as I wanted to be for the PowerPoint presentation, but we all got through it and the other students seemed to have fun with it for the most part.

Tuesday, I spent the evening preparing for my Wednesday project, which was a debate on whether or not Casino gambling should be legal in Ohio. I had the negative side, so I had to argue against it. I hadn't had a whole lot of time to get ready so I stayed up until about 1AM.

Just as I was ready to go to bed, I realized that I LEFT MY JUMP DRIVE in the computer in my classroom at school on Monday night. YIKES- it only has all my pictures, all my coursework for the past two years, and all my divorce stuff on it. I was stressed out about it, but figured someone probably turned it in to the office. I waited until about 7AM and called a classmate who also works at the center. After several phone calls and emails and lots of freaking out, she found it on the podium in the classroom. What a relief! Not only did it have all my personal stuff on there, it also had an assignment for my Monday night class that I was going to have to do completely over if that thing didn't turn up. Thankfully it did!

On the way to the debate class this afternoon my friend Meekster called. She sounded like death on a cracker. She was SOOOO sick! She wanted to let me know becuase her son babysits P after school. She said he could still come, but I didn't want P to get sick and I figured she didn't need two 8 year olds running around when she didn't feel good. I called my good friend D and she saved the day, drove to P's school and signed him out. Both her sons and mine are close in age so D went and got N (ds#1) and took him back to her house, too.

Being so preoccupied with finding my jump drive didn't give me a lot of time this morning to prepare myself for the debate this afternoon I did manage to go over my notes and pull off a reasonable showing. I feel like it went well, but I always think of better things to say AFTER I'm done. I hate that.

I left that class on one campus and drove to my next class at the small "center" campus close to my house. My friend handed over my Jump drive and I was so happy to have it back in my hot little hands! Class was short (the Professor was not feeling well) and I was able to print off my assignment from the jump drive and get that turned in.

I was home by 9:30, pretty good for a school night. The boys were tired from playing with their friends, so they went to bed and settled down pretty quickly. I got to read a few blogs and post this GIANT post! S is working on some of her schoolwork, so I'll probably do the same before turning in. It's the end of the quarter, but with my training presentation and my debate finished, I feel like a lot of the hard part is over. I still have 1 project to turn in and then finals. I will be so glad to have a break when this quarter is done!

Motrin is not dope

Talking to S on her way to work this morning:

S: my back hurts

J: Did you take any motrin?

S: I can't take that stuff everyday. Why do you want to keep me doped up all the time?

S will never be an addict, lol, as long as she is worried about the addictive effects of ibuprofen!

"Passing" for straight

I feel like such an idiot.

I was at school working on a group project with my classmates. Our project is about communication apprehension. We were discussing questions to ask in the initial part of our presentation to make people feel apprehensive and understand what that's like.
One of the kids in the group said why don't we ask "Do you think homosexuality is wrong?" That was followed by a discussion of who in the class might be gay. I was extremely uncomfortable, as I am not out at school (other than to 1, maybe two professors). I felt awful for not speaking up. I am at a small branch campus, these are all students in my major whom I will have to work with and be in class with for the next year. From their conversations, I have determined that at least two of the three are from a fundamentalist background. Even if the college experience has opened their minds somewhat, I don't know how they would've reacted to me disclosing my sexuality to them.

One part of me says, it's none of their business, and I shouldn't feel bad for keeping my business private. The other part feels like I'm denying myself and hurting others for not showing my classmates that gay people are around them all the time and they don't even know it.


One of my professors, Dr. K, refers to our part of the country as "The Mississippi of the north" for it lack of tolerance and the pervasive influcence of the fundamentalist churches. I can't say she is wrong in her assessment. Having been a fundie myself, I know their ways. They do exert a powerful influence in the everyday culture here.

I just want to go to school and be able to be myself. I guess I still have more to learn about my own communication apprehension.

I think I brought up my average

P & I carved our first pumpkin. It was so much fun! I'm sure his teacher had fun helping a whole class of third graders clean out pumpkins. He brought it home and he got so excited when I suggested we carve it. He thinks I'm a rock star now!