~my new schedule~

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~I'm savoring my last few days @ home with Ethan. It's such a hard thing to let go of, yet I know that I will get used to my new schedule. Why couldn't I be an heiress or something...you know, then I could stay @ home w/him all the time w/no worries. Ha!

~Looks like I'll start my GA position next Tuesday 1/6.

~My first day (night, actually) of classes will be Monday 1/12.

~Yay for MLK Holiday on 1/19...an extra day @ home with Ethan.

~Thank goodness it's only 3 days/wk because Mondays & Tuesdays will be VERY long days: 12.5 hrs on Monday and 13 on Tuesdays. Makes me tired just thinking about it.

~I don't have classes on Wednesdays so it'll just be a GA work day: 8am-5pm.
~It is going to be important for me to NOT procrastinate on any papers/projects this semester as I won't have the freedom to study at all hours like I had pre-Ethan. Discipline will be key in getting me through this.

~Last day of classes will be 4/21.

~Bummed that we won't be able to do play group anymore as it is held on Tuesdays.

~We will still go to Mother Goose though. It is every other Thursday.

~No plans for New Years Eve...I'll probably be asleep at 12am, just like last year (and that's just fine with me).

~Christmas Loot~

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Just thought I'd post my Christmas loot...while I am thankful for what I received, Ethan truly 'raked it in'....which is what I expected anyway. :)

My gifts included:
~GC to SBUX (umm, already used)
~GC to BB&B (for new cutting board)
~GC to Home Depot
~GC to Lowes (to get paint for kitchen)
~GC to Movies
~2 new cookie sheets
~2 new frying pans (desperately needed)
~new kitchen towels (color scheme to match newly painted kitchen)
~2 books (from Michele)

For a crappy economy, I think I did pretty darn well. Not sure what I'll use the HD gift card for yet, but hopefully we'll go to Lowe's and get the kitchen paint on Sunday. My mom and her hubs said they'd help me paint it so hopefully we can get it done before I start school on Jan 12th.

Oh yeah, and I got the offer for the Graduate Assistantship and will likely have to start there on Jan 6th. I'm hoping to line up child care w/an Hispanic woman (yay for Spanish) who is the mother of a guy that O works with. Hopefully she'll come to the house on Mon, Tues & Wed. I will be off on Thurs & Fri, which will be awesome for studying and Ethan-time.

Hope you had a very Merry Christmas.

-10 things: the letter M-

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OK - I'm playing along with Dawn (and others) on the "letter" list...she assigned me the letter "M" so here goes...

1) Mom-my mom and I have a great relationship and I am thankful for that. Back in high school, all my friends wished their mom was as cool as mine. She made a wonderful childhood for me. I'd go back in a second.

2) Michigan! They may have terrible winter weather but I grew up there and it will forever me HOME to me. Michigan has SO many things that I haven't found in all the other places that I've lived. I especially miss going ice skating twice a week...what a fantastic workout that is also loads of fun.

3) Movies! I don't go very often these days but I sure used to enjoy catching a flick or two-even by myself.

4) Margaritaville - the restaurant AND the song.

5) Milo - my crazy boy cat...I have to say though that I love Hula too, even though her name doesn't start with an "M".

6) Magazines - I don't have much time for them these days but I've always enjoyed reading Glamour, People and the scrapbooking magazines. Right now I receive American Baby and Parenting and I at least try to make time for those two!

7) Money - not in the 'all-encompassing' way, but I do love money in a way that allows you to adequately support a household and have a little left over for saving and maybe a vacation in there. The opposite end of this spectrum is not a nice place to be...been there too long now and I'm tired of it.

8) Milk Chocolate - I do love chocolate and yes, I had to add "milk" in there just to be able to use it here, although I don't care for Dark chocolate so I guess it's best to clarify. LOL. I even had to take this one from a suggestion on Facebook, I'm just having a hard time coming up with 10 things!!!

9) MAIL!! - how could I have forgotten this one?!?! I absolutely love getting surprises in the mail - well, not surprise bills though. I also love e-mail too of course.

10) Monitor (as in 'baby monitor) - I love it because it allows me to be in another room and attempt to get things done while E sleeps, yet still be there the minute he wakes up...yeah, so I couldn't come up with a better #10.

~a great BIG Thank You~

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Michele is the best!! She is an amazing, generous and thoughtful person. I got the best surprise in the mail today...she sent me two books from my wishlist and I am so excited to sit down and read them!!

I am so grateful and honestly, she made not only my DAY, but my Christmas a WHOLE lot brighter. Her gift will likely be the best one I get this year...it certainly beats out the cookie sheets I asked for. LOL!!

I think what makes her gift SO very very special is the element of surprise. I certainly did not expect it and what a pleasant treat when I opened the box today. I cannot explain to you how happy it made me. Thank you so VERY VERY much!!

A great 'pick-me-up' at a time when I really needed one.

Thanks Michele! You rock!!!

~bah humbug!~

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~It's SO not Christmas-y in this house...no tree, no lights, no decor...if I can't get any help, then it's not getting done. I'm sad cuz I would like to put the tree up, but I'm no dummy and once the box comes in from the garage, the remaining 99% of the job will be left for me...while juggling taking care of a 10 month old...so again, it's not happening. (In case you can't tell, I'm not getting much help around here and am feeling QUITE bitter about it right now...must be nice to have 3-4 hrs of UNINTERRUPTED time to watch TV @ night...I don't know the last time I had that opportunity but it was definitely more than 10 months ago).

~O had this bright idea today to go out and buy all the gifts/giftcards that we needed, charge them and then pay them when he gets his Christmas bonus. I was on-board w/this idea as it saves me from the chaos of doing everything in the last 4-5 shopping days. So, we are done shopping and I've wrapped about 1/2 of the gifts. It wasn't even remotely fun. It felt more like a burden than anything to be completely honest.

~I'm not looking forward to going to the post office either - I will probably have to alot 2 hrs for that task. Today we stopped there just to get stamps and there were @ least 30 people in line.

~I wasn't going to bother with Christmas cards this year, strictly for the cost savings, but since we had a family pic taken w/Ethan's 9 month picture session, I figured 'what the heck' - we got those picture cards made and printed w/our names so all I had to do was the envelopes (on my computer printer - mail merge...ick!!!), stuff them and stamp them. All done in one day! Hooray. I sent out 48, let's see how many I get in return...we have 2 so far.

~I'm such a scrooge this year that I don't even care what I get. I really didn't even ask for anything exciting. I was pretty much forced to ask for 'necessities' vs 'wants'...our cookie sheets are totally nasty and need replacing, so I asked for 2 of them. The pillows on the bed are nearly flat, so I asked for a couple of those...yeah, like I said, NOT very exciting. My aunt left her gifts for us here when she came for Thanksgiving and the child in me came out for a brief moment and opened up a gift early - LOL - yay for a SBUX giftcard...I have .65 left on it already. Shhhh, don't tell her.
~Talbots is desperate for help this week. I guess they must be having another big sale. A friend of mine offered to watch E for me and so she will have him Mon, Wed and Thur and my mom will watch him on Tues while I go take clothing orders from rich people all day. (Cuz I need yet something else to depress me these days). I am working 8 hr shifts everyday. I am also working 10-6pm on Sunday (tomorrow).
~I was so excited to do a December Daily album this year, to document the countdown to Ethan's 1st Christmas. Sadly, I made it only 7 days, Dec 1-7 to be exact. Turns out my life just isn't exciting enough to take pictures every day and document something. Now with working this coming week, well, even less chance of anything 'fun' to do...sad but true...

~I got approved for the student loans, now I just wish they would let me know about the GA position.

~I'm an idiot..I should have done it months ago and I did try a couple times but the phone line was always busy...I finally got thru on Thursday and filed for unemployment. I don't know if it will be approved yet, (since technically I quit) won't know for 2 wks. The lady said though that they will consider the entire situation w/the job offer/retraction etc. If it is approved though, then I just lost out on getting $275/week for the past 6 months! With my luck, it will be approved and then they won't pay me for this week (cuz I'll have worked @ Talbots for less money) and then I'll get the GA position and that will dis-qualify me from further unemployment. Could my life suck anymore? I really don't know. I didn't think I could get any lower, but it seems that I haven't quite reached the bottom yet.

~Oh, how I miss you~

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Remembering my grandma.

She passed 14 years ago today.

I remember it like it happened yesterday.

I would do anything for one more day with her.

~Is it 2009 yet?~

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~So on Saturday I caved and went to Best Buy and got myself than darn iTouch...I decided that I had waited long enough and w/no interest payments - how could I go wrong. Oh yeah, and then Oscar said he'd pay for it when the bill came - can't forget that part. I also picked up an iPod nano for his youngest daughter...who by the way, is coming for Christmas.

~Her aunt bought her a plane ticket to TN for her birthday - what her aunt failed to do was use her effin' brain when she booked the ticket -she has her flying into Nashville, which is a 3 hour drive. Her response "Southwest doesn't fly to Knoxville" - well, heck with that kind of answer why didn't you just fly her to Chicago then, we'll pick her up there (I'm joking). Yes, irritated...but then again this has been a pretty crap year so why should it get better now. On the bright side, I'm not going on the roadtrips to pick her up or drop her off.

~Last night while nursing Ethan to sleep (this is when I do my deep thinking), I started a list of things I want in my next house (not than a new house is even close in my future, but just in case, you know)...(1) a laundry room big enough to accomodate the cat box, (2) a place for a Christmas tree (there is NO room for one right now -it's gonna look funny wherever we put it) and (3) in a much quieter area...as cars w/o mufflers, noisy trucks & dirt bikes sounded like they were in my backyard as I was laying in bed.

~That's all I have to report for now. Back to playing "Everest" on my iTouch.

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~it was a hard day of teething~

~update~

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~NEWSFLASH!! The lawsuit has been filed! My meeting that was supposed to take place today was cancelled though. To be honest, I'm still not sure why it was even scheduled. His secretary called to cancel it on Monday afternoon and said that the lawyer would call me Tuesday (today)...guess what....he NEVER called. What a surprise! Anyway, the companies have until 12/26 to respond to the summons. We'll see what happens now.

~I'm registered for 2 graduate classes for the Spring term so far and will be adding one more as soon as I get over there and get an ADD slip -the course is full, but the prof said she would add me. As it stands right now, I will be taking (1) Substance Abuse (2) Cross Cultural Counseling and (3) Death, Dying & Bereavement. I am REALLY looking forward to these courses too.

~The downside of the school stuff is that I'm stressed about not having an income for quite a while longer. Hopefully the school loans come thru and that won't be a problem, but ya' never know. While I know the right thing to do is to finish this degree, it really freaks me out that I will not be able to work FT for at least 1.5 yrs. Hopefully I can get a PAID internship, which will help, when I get to that point.

~One thing that might make things a bit easier...I am interviewing for a Graduate Assistantship position. Normally there aren't any available in the Spring term, but it turns out that the person they currently have is dropping out (she's a new mom too-gulp!) because it's too much for her. I sure hope I don't end up feeling the same way. I have a 2nd interview on Thursday @ 3:30pm. If I get this position, I will get FREE Tuition and will only have to pay for fees and books. I will have to work 20 hrs/wk and will also get FREE health insurance (SCORE!) and a whopping $850/month stipend.

~If I get the GA position, I hope I can work Mon-Tues-Wed and have the other days off for Ethan and studying. It would work great because my classes are Monday night, Tuesday morning and Tuesday night. It would be perfect to only have to be on campus for 3 days.

~A couple of job opps have also come up over the past couple wks...one has already faded - due to budget/economy I guess. I found out they cancelled their Christmas party and aren't giving raises, so surely they aren't hiring either. The jury is still out on the other job, which is a Staffing Asst Mgr position. I figured I would pursue both work and school in case one didn't work out but the more I think about things, I really need to just do this school thing. I don't want to look back 5 yrs from now and be without work again and wish I had finished my Masters degree.

~I need to keep repeating to myself "job stability" "job stability" - there is MUCH more of it in Mental Health than there is in Corporate America and I don't want to be struggling for a job when Ethan is 5-6-7-8 years old. I want to be able to support him and myself w/o having to worry about making ends meet. I don't want to have to rely on anyone else.

~Tell me I'm doing the right thing....