Life is good....

....just sayin'.

Happies

Being called darling, three times by the cashier at Zupas the other day.

Seeing a young dad teach his son how to ride a bike driving back from work.

A wonderful late night and waking up in a good mood despite the lack of sleep.

Turning in a paper that I actually had time to prepare for.

Finally having a washer/dryer at home and doing laundry at home.

The neighborhood cat that likes me the most for some inexplicable reason - especially considering I can't touch her due to allergies.

My adorable, almost three year old, niece dressed up as a ladybug for her first ever ballet recital.

Not feeling stressed and overwhelmed about school.

Practiced our song for Sunday and we sound pretty good (now just need to write a talk).

The flowers I planted in pots outside my backdoor are not only still alive, but thriving.

Highland Games on Saturday - real men wear kilts, or at least they'd like you to think so.

Check, check..1..2...is this thing on?

It's reality check in the Buie household...hard core reality check time. I've been in school a mere three weeks and oh my heavens, it is kicking my butt. I am still loving everything about it, well almost everything, but it's so much harder than anything I've ever had to do before. To kind of put things in perspective, in order to be considered a full time student at the graduate level one must take 9 credit hours. Full time for my particular program is 18 or 19 credits - almost double. I am taking 9 this term and I'll be taking the same number next term in addition to field placements in actual classrooms to be followed by student teaching shortly thereafter. I was planing to do all of this while still working full time. I mean, who really needs sleep these days? Well, apparently I do. I also would like to have some semblance of a social life and try to maintain my sanity. I didn't think this was too much to ask. Again, apparently it was.

So lets rewind a week, shall we? After a wonderful and deliciously relaxing Memorial Day weekend, I went to class rejuvenated and excited to get back to work then Wednesday rolls around...I got my first paper back on Wednesday. Umm...... Not so bueno. Turns out grad school is hard, really hard. From there the week turned into a downward spiral of stress, extreme anti social behavior and on several occasions almost breaking down into tears. So what am I going to do about it, you may ask? After doing the research and thinking and praying about it all, I do have a solution. One that I am not going to talk about right now for logistical reasons. However, if all goes according to plan, and you're all good little children, I may be able to tell you all by the end of the week.

In other news, I had another pretty fantastic weekend. I woke up early on Saturday and played tennis with Lisa. Hey! I play tennis! Or at least, I try to play tennis. I took lessons when I was a wee young thing and haven't played in over a decade but it's still fun. Showered, ran some errands with the mum, came home worked on my paper and had a few hours to kill. I then went on a picnic up Big Cottonwood Canyon. Now, when I first proposed a picnic I was envisioning a park or something and playing Frisbee and what not. I, accordingly, wore shorts, a tshirt and flip flops. Did you know there is still snow on the ground up at Brighton in June? Well there is. We still had fun, though. I should probably learn to pack a spare pair of shoes and socks and a sweater..possibly gloves and a hat....and maybe snow boots. But really it was a fun night.

Next week Lisa, Shannon and I are all speaking and singing in church. We haven't been in the ward a month yet and they've already put us to work. The ward is pretty small, probably 40 or 50 that come regularly, so it's no surprise there. They wanted us to speak over Memorial Day but thankfully Lisa and Shannon were out of town. So between writing another paper this week and field placements and class, I get to write a talk...without being given a topic. I've got a couple ideas mulling around in my head but nothing too concrete so I'm open to suggestions!

Update of Sorts

May has been a busy month for me. Moving, school, work, guys...it's been busy but good. I still love my classes and school but I am finding it increasingly difficult to stay on top of everything. I had to ask my dad to change the oil in my car because I didn't have time to do it between class and work. I'm barely keeping up on my reading but I love the discussions we are having in class and the do enjoy the readings. It's just sad that I don't have the time to devote to it that I would usually like. I also need to register for the Praxis 41 English Content Exam. I shouldn't need to spent too much time studying for it but I should at least brush up on some of the content. I don't know how the students going full time fit it all in. I guess most of them aren't working but it is still a fairly intense program.

I've had a pretty fantastic weekend. I went to the Outlet Mall in Park City and did some shopping on Friday night with Lisa. Saturday I finally got some flowers planted out back. I opted for some flower pots instead of planting something in the ground out back. I just don't have the time to maintain it and the more I thought about it I didn't really want to spend all this time improving someonelse's property. So we now have three cute flower pots on our back porch. Saturday afternoon I went to a Bee's game with a great guy and had a lot of fun. Of course I had today off and spent the morning at the zoo with the fam and then a picnic in the park. I also got a cute pair of Converse and a book I've been wanting for a while. All in all a pretty fantastic weekend!

Should I be worried...

I started grad school on Monday and I after two classes I absolutely love it! I'm still having a hard time wrapping my head around being in class every day for three hours after work and planning my time well enough that I get all my reading done, but the classes themselves are fantastic! We get to talk about learning and education and teaching....all the things that I am passionate about. Now if we could just incorporate shoes somehow, I'd be in heaven. But really, it's amazing. I was worried and anxious I wouldn't be able to hack it but I'm loving it so much that it won't matter if it's hard or not because I'll be enjoying what I'm doing.

My first class I got into a debate with one of the other guys about school funding and governance. We went back and forth for a good ten minutes and it was so invigorating and I had to really think. He challenged me and I challenged him. My dorky, geeky little heart was in absolute heaven. It makes up for the craptastic work week I've been having.

Really, if I knew how great grad school was going to be, I would have done it ages ago!

My Mother

I know that a lot of people think their mom is the best and I'm sure they are wonderful women, but I'm sorry to tell you all that they're wrong. My Mom is the best. For the past 26 years she has always been there for me. She drove me to dance lessons, piano lessons, tennis lessons, swim lessons and school. She's stayed with me when I was scared, frightened and sick. She's cheered me on when I was unsure of myself and talked me down from more than one proverbial ledge. She's a wonderful example to me of what a mother aught to be. I know we weren't always an easy group of kids to deal with, let alone love but she managed to do it with fairly little yelling. So in honor of Mother's day and the worlds best mother, here is my list of reasons why my mom is the best...

1. She let us have a puppy - even when she didn't particularly want one.

2. She'll humor me and go shopping with me when I don't want to go by myself.

3. I can call her on a Saturday afternoon and she'll go run errands with me if I want company.

4. She'll play Christmas carols on Christmas Eve even when I know she would rather be singing.

5. On more than one occasion she has completely unpacked my bedroom and set everything up all homey (senior year of college, multiple moves since).

6. She flew out to California for the day just to be with me when I got some medical test results back even though money was tight.

7. She always believed me when I told her something was wrong (medically) even though all the doctors said it was nothing or they didn't know what was wrong.

8. She can be the scary momma bear - even when her kids are all grown up and gone.

9. She's willing to sew her 25 year old a Halloween costume.

10. I can stop by and she'll feed me.

11. She has always, always always believed that I could do whatever I wanted no matter what obstacles popped up along the way.

I could go on and on and on but I won't bore you. For this and many other reasons my mom is the best.

Love you Mom!!

Huzzah!

What started off as a pretty craptastic day (just ask my mother) ended fairly well. We're going to gloss over this morning because I was in a bad mood, stressed to no end and very nearly on the verge of tears and I don't care to dwell on it. Anyway, I went to my MAT orientation this evening. It was a ton of information and it sort of scared me a little but as I was walking around campus and I saw the young wipper snapper freshman walking around I got a little giddy. We went to the bookstore and picked up our books (included in tuition, sweet, no?) and I decided to actually do the reading - not going to have too much time this weekend and let's be honest, I was excited to crack open my first textbook in FOUR years and mark up the pages. I know, I'm a dork.

I've been nervous and anxious about heading back to school but as I was reading my book tonight I was excited and engaged. I'm still nervous about the time management aspect of it all but I know this is what I'm supposed to be doing right now and I am extremely excited to get started. I promise I won't do this often but I just loved this quote from the reading:

If we are to succeed as a nation both in international trade and in leadership for democracy, we need to use the diverse cultural laboratory of our own country as a training ground for producing citizens who value differences, respect the validity of our own perspectives, understand the independence of people, and who have the interpersonal skills to effectively communicate across all spectra of ethnicity, nationality, language, culture, gender, values, and even political ideology. It is less important for students to learn to appreciate ethnic foods than it is for students to understand equal rights. Yet, much of what we have taught under the rubric of multicultural education has fallen into the trap of "Tacos on Tuesdays". That is, the trap of teaching about cultures and about cultural differences without teaching an understanding of how cultural differences, or gender, class, and other differences, contribute to the unified whole of a democratic nation."