Its official

It's official!  I passed my algebra class, I hope I never have to do that ever again.  I am now moving on to my statistics class, should be interesting.  It's just 8 weeks, and then I get to take my vacation down to Utah to be with my family for Christmas, it will be the first time we have all been together for a long time, and I am so excited.  It will be an awesome break.

Had an awesome weekend with the ward party in Friday night, temple day on Saturday, after lunch with Steven, and then the primary childrens program in Church this morning followed by Choir and the farewell open house for the Cramers.  Awesome, someday Bob and I hope to be able to do the same thing together.  All in all a pretty good week, and only 18 days until Michael comes home.  YEAH!!!!

Bob had a dream he was going to die while Michael was on his mission, so I am really relived that we are coming to the end and he is still with me, obviously it was not an inspired dream, but sometimes it's hard to tell the difference. 

I am looking forward to starting my new class tomorrow, and to get back in to running regularly, I did run on Saturday, after spending hours looking up motivational quotes to get myself out the door. 

I am a runner, and I want to remain a runner, so I need to do what runners do and run!  It would really help if I had a race coming up sooner than next summer, a little extra motivation to prepare for. I need to do a little searching. 

We are also looking for a new car,  not my favorite task, but I love it when it is completed!

I do believe I passed!

I do believe I passed my Algebra class, I don't want to celebrate prematurely, because I don't have instructor confirmation yet, but YES!!!  I have never been so glad to get a B in my whole life (they don't allow C's, it is B or fail).  I still need to conquer my Economics final, but I have a good feeling about that one too. It was nice to come home to that news, cause today turned out to be a pretty crummy day, it actually wasn't terrible until I sat in traffic for an hour and a half thinking about it.  By the time I got home I had a serious headache and a serious case of self doubt.  Bob took me to Applebees for dinner, which was awesome, because they have the 550 calorie dinners, so I didn't totally blow my calorie intake out of the water like I did last  night.  Looks like tomorrow is a run day though, because I missed it tonight.  I turned in my application to the ANCC for the volunteer position, any prayers sent my way would be appreciated.  It would be an awesome experience to participate in something like that that is at the national level. Even if I don't get the position I now have a great CV ready for when that perfect position becomes available.  You know, the one where I don't have to work Sunday's anymore.  I am really beat, gonna head to bed.

PS.  Happy Birthday to Michael on the 10th, Kevin on the 15th, and Steven on the 19th!

I see the light at the end of the tunnel!

I see the  light at the end of the tunnel and it doesn't look like a train.  Yipee!  I passed the quiz and test for the final chapter today, now all I have is my final tomorrow and I will be done with Algebra.....a sweet victory, however short lived because I am on to statistics in 2 weeks.  I just have my final left in Economics too, it will be a relief to have school off my mind, even if it is just for a few days. 

I am preparing to apply for a volunteer position with ANCC and I thought I had everything ready to submit but the essay,  but when I went to pull up the application I couldn't find it, so now I need to do that part all over again.  Guess I have to add it to the list for tomorrow, since the deadline is the 15th.  I don't know why I want to do this so badly, it just sounds like a lot of fun to me.  I don't think they would accept that sentence as my essay saying why I think I should be the one they hire. 

Time seems to be creeping slowly right now, I think it is because I am so looking forward to Michael coming home.  I think I worry about his safety than I did Kevin's, because even if it wasn't always the best in the baltics, he was reasonably safe.  Nicaragua can be a different story, so when I have him back in my arms again it will be a big sigh of relief. 

Kellie and Marks visit this weekend was great, I love that they can come visit randomly, it's awesome.

I bummed out on visiting teaching tonight to go to relief society, and then my lecture went late, so I didn't make it to that either, dang.  My goal is to be more invovled in the relief society activities, and  let's just say I am not currently meeting my goal, although I did go to part of super saturday. 

I really enjoyed the nice weather today, went for a run, I figured it will probably be one of the last runs in nice weather for a while.  Oh well, life goes on...

I did it! Now on to the next unit....

I did it!!! after contacting my instructor, who gave me the sage advice to "slow down"???? I contacted the tutor source at Devry and someone named Depak (not sure if it was a person or a computer) helped me figure out enough of what I was doing wrong to pass my quiz, and then my test.  I have one more unit to complete in 2 weeks, followed by the final.  It's going to take a big push to get it done, but it will feel so great when I do.  I asked for a low census the last couple days at work, and the time has really helped.  I actually spent yesterday catching up on my economics class and I was able to turn in my final assignment this morning.  Now pretty much all I have in that class is the final, only 1/3 of the grade:( 

  Day before yesterday Bob and I were able to go to my dads for a BBQ-it was a nice dinner, and the left overs were just as great the next night.  Thanks dad!  I tried to make a pot roast yesterday in the crock pot, but apparently I didn't put it in early enough, because it was no where near ready when it was time to eat, hence the left overs.  I left it in the crock pot over night and it is now awesomely tender and ready for lunch, yum. 

I have added walks to the days when I don't run, to try and increase my endurance, and to help keep my stress level and weight under control.  Something about a nice walk outside, even in nasty weather that clears my brain.  I teach this sunday, so I need my brain nice and clear:)

Kellie and Mark are coming up this weekend...YEAH!!!!  I am looking forward to seeing them, which is another reason I wanted to get my schoolwork done so badly, so I could spend time with them while they are here and not have to be at the computer all day.

I'm off to Shopko to check out their curtains, they have a great sale, and the ones we have are pretty old and getting tattered, dirty and faded, especially against the new paint in some of the rooms.  I will of course have to modify them because we have old extra long windows that they don't sell curtains for anymore....oh yea, and I better pick up the stuff for Super Saturday while I am out....lots to do....ttyl

Not again!

Dang!  I took another math quiz tonight, worked on it for 3 hours, and I did worse than the previous 2 attempts.  I think the longer I think about the questions the more I confuse myself.  Kevin and Steven (2 of my sons that happen to be excellent in math) were both busy so they couldn't help.  My score is going the wrong direction.  I e-mailed the instructor and I am going to contact the tutor center in the morning to see if I can get some help.  The time is winding down in this class, only 3 weeks left out of 8 and I am getting behind. I will not quit, and failure is not an option.   I hope I get low censused at work so I can have some extra time to work on it.  I am thinking I need to get someone that knows math really well to sit down with me while I take the test.  Not to tell me the answers, but to tell me if I got it wrong, so I can work the problem again until I get it right.  How did I cope with the failure?  I went shopping!  Yeah, retail therapy...only problem is all of the stuff I bought was junkfood (candy, cookies, icecream, cheetohs).  I didn't eat it all, but I gave myself permission to if I wanted to.  Just knowing I could somehow made it so I didn't need to eat it all, does that make any sense? 

I got a letter from Michael today (my son on a mission for the Church of Jesus Christ of Latterday Saints in Nicaragua).  He is starting to think about the time he will be released and have to leave the small branch he is currently leading. He wants to donate to them all the money he has to help them out. They are helping a young man prepare for his mission.  Since it is Michaels birthday this week he will be receiving money, and he plans on donating that to them, and we will add some extra.  We also forwarded his message to some of our friends.  His letter didn't just bring tears to my eyes, it made me cry.  It is amazing to see the growth in him during his mission.  Before his mission he never would have dreamed of giving away all his birthday money, let alone asking others to donate.  His mission has changed him, and I am very happy for that.  Not that he wasn't fantastic before, but I am glad he has picked up some selflessness along the way.  It will do him good in life. 

If you are interested in learning more about the Church of Jesus Christ of Latterday Saints please check out  mormon.org (or you can go to lds.org, but that is more geared for people that already know a lot about the church).