The More Things Change...

As the year wraps up, I wanted to take a moment to update you all on what has happened:

Daniel:
He had a scare this year when he got an urgent call from his sister saying his father was in a hospital in Mexico near death. Once things were sorted out it appeared the reports were highly overstated. At last word, his father is doing well. Dan still works as a technical analyst and continues to deal with pain daily. We have yet to determine the best course of action for this.

Karen:
She just finished an eleven month internship with a CPA firm in Albuquerque where she got hands on experience with tax, bookkeeping, litigation support, and fraud investigation. She has also completed her Bachelor's degree and passed two of four sections of the CPA exam. She is currently looking at her options in regards to career path, but has yet to make any final decisions.

Gabriel:
He's excelling in math and reading in school and has passed his preliminary gifted program evaluation. Half-way through his 2nd grade year, he has earned high marks from his teacher. His interests outside of school continue to tend towards video games, but he finds enjoyment in trying out sports and music.

Valerie:
She's transitioned this year from Pre-K to Kindergarten where she has made many friends with both students and teachers. Her talents in art and drawing earned her the distinction of presenting a letter written to Mrs. Obama, that she'd written and illustrated, to the NM Public Education Department before it was sent separately to Washington, D.C.

My University Daruma... Revisited

If you're wondering what this is, here are two links to help you remember:

My University Daruma
Yushima Tenjin



Or in a nutshell, a daruma is a doll that gains it's eyes as you complete a task you set out to do. Notice this one has two eyes?

That's right... 3 years and 4 months later... as of Saturday, May 12th... I'm done.

Rename?

I was just looking at my blog and realized that I hadn't posted anything for over a year. I wonder if this means I should rename the blog since weekly doesn't seem to cut it. To give you all a quick update:

Dan: still working for Thomson Reuters (though it's been getting more stressful) and still having back pain.

Karen: finishing up her last semester at UNM (as an undergrad), working tax season for Baca & Redwine (a local CPA firm), and trying to stay sane....

Gabriel: excelling in school (on 2nd grade math and reading in the 1st grade) but not so much in manners, obedience, and respecting others (I know, I know... he's a 6 year-old boy)

Valerie: loving her artistic side that includes everything from making up her own songs and stories to illustrating them (and visa versa). She's also taking a page from her brother's book on obedience and respect.

That's us in a nutshell. More later... hopefully before next year :)

Spring 2011 - New Year and New Experiences

It's interesting that as I look forward to the coming semester I'm feeling nervous more about my Aerobic Dance class than I am about International Management or Cost Accounting. I'm taking the class because I'm not motivated enough to regulate my own exercising and I have a major need to try and keep in shape. However, I sit here worried that I'll get into the class and find a lot of kids just out of high school and I'll be the only frumpy middle aged mother. I don't know yet if I'm worried about what others are thinking or if I'm just worried that I won't have anything in common with anyone else. I guess I'll just have to wait and see.

Gabriel is back in school and seems to be enjoying himself. Unfortunately we're already starting to see the effects of peer pressure. Recently we've been hearing new words (most are harmless, but Dan came down really hard on "Crud" for some reason), seeing new behaviors (play fighting and burping randomly throughout the day), and feeling new emotions (he's heartbroken over the smallest thing that he thinks his friends might be experiencing that he isn't and learning that mom and dad are the meanest people in the world). When asked about the new behaviors and words we frequently hear "But (insert name here) does it..." What floors the both of us is the recent excalation of temper tantrums when we say "no". Based on his reaction you'd think he's never heard it before! This word is nothing new in our household and I'd like to think that we don't use it all the time. In fact, it seems to get a worse reaction when it happens after we say "yes" to something else. Listening to the radio the other day someone called Dr. Brown and asked about temper tantrums in her 9-year-old and the advice was to ignore it because giving in just reenforced the idea that it works. We don't give in, yet the behavior continues.... On the positive, I've been hearing "Yes, mama" a lot more when I ask him to do something. Maybe I'm just blowing things out of proportion.

Valerie started preschool this past week and seems to be enjoying it. I'm a little concerned about her "active imagination" when she gets in the car and tells me that the other kids are hitting and teasing her but that I shouldn't ask the teacher (a sure sign that she doesn't want me to verify the information that she knows is false). I just hope that being around other kids and other responsible adults will give her a reason to share truthfully with others. I can't help but think that if this continues it might be a repeat of "Confessions of a Teenage Drama Queen" where the girl tells lie after lie to try and impress people. She's doing well with the potty training and I would even say that she's finished at this point. The occasional accident still happens, but she's waking up with dry underwear every morning, unlike her brother who still has problems in that area.

All around, we're still here and we're still moving on. I guess it just goes to show that the more things change the more they stay the same.

"How do you do it?"

Without a doubt my second least favorite question (the first being "How are you (doing)?")

Why?

It's simple. I can't answer it (either one) honestly or easily. But I get the question quite often. I don't know why. Usually it has to do with Dan and for this reason he gets the question just as much as I do. "How do you deal with it?" "It," of course, being the fact that he spends 95% of his work day in a wheelchair so that he can spend 95% of the rest of his day out of it. "It" being the fact that the pain keeps him from sleeping well at night making him suseptible to illness, bad temper, and stress in a nasty cycle. "It" being the fact that he can never tell from one minute to the next what he'll have to endure or how to cope with it. This sounds like a lot and when I put it down in words it sounds like too much. I can see how people ask me (and him) the dreaded question. The only answer I can give is.... "I just do." I don't think about all of this and what it means. I take things day to day or minute to minute. I (try to) do what I can to make things that much easier for Dan and accept the rest. In a way this answer isn't honest, because in truth the answer should be, "I don't." I'll get to that in a minute.

Lately I've been getting it in another context. I have many responsibilities. I have two young children. I go to school full-time. I work part-time. I have callings (assignments for those of you who are unfamiliar with the word) in the Church. Many of these are fairly time consuming. And so people look at this and ask me the dreaded question. "How do you do it?" Again the answer I usually give is.... "I just do." For many of the reasons I list above I shrug it off and go on with life. But again the honest answer (and one I'm starting to give to others) is, "I don't." There are many things in my life that I should do that don't get done or get done less than perfectly (which is almost worse if you know anything about my personality). There are many things in my life that I should do that others do for me. For this I am deeply and eternally grateful to friends and family who support me. And lastly, there are many things in my life that I couldn't possibly do without faith and trust in my Heavenly Father who I know won't give me anything I can't handle without His help. I have received promises that I know He will keep as long as I hold up my end of the bargain. These covenants are another piece (the whole piece if you consider that the other pieces are only possible because of Him) of the answer to second hardest question for me to answer, "How do you do it?"

Fall Term 2010 or How I've Been Driving Myself Nuts For 3 Months

First, to catch you up, Thursday (the 12th) marked the last day of Summer term. The last two classes I needed to complete my Pre-Management associate's degree from CNM are finished. Grades haven't posted yet, but I'll be shocked if I didn't get A's in both. I've also been accepted at Anderson School of Management at UNM. Needless to say I'm registered and ready to go, though I'll only have a week off before I start on the 23rd. This will be my first official term as a full-time student (I took one term with four classes before, but one was only one credit hour so I only had ten credit hours instead of twelve). I've been working out child care (Gabe starts kindergarten this year so I'm mostly worrying about Val) and pricing books and I was simply amazed at what I discovered even though I've been doing this for a few terms now.

My first term back at school I spent around $300 for two textbooks. Seems like an awful lot of money, right? A few terms ago, Dan spotted an ad for a textbook rental site: Chegg.com. I priced my textbooks that term and found a pretty good savings. I honestly can't remember how much though which is why I'm sending this out now. So you can know, as I know, exactly how much.

My textbook options this term are as follows:

1. $747.25 new
2. $560.75 used (assuming I can find them)
3. $217.99 rented from Chegg

What choice to you think I should choose?

Now keep in mind this is base price. I also have a promo code! Those of you who are or know students pass along promo code CC106269 along with the website. And if you find that you'll want to keep the book (which I have with a couple), you can always pay a little more before you have to return the book to buy it.

So.... I think what makes me most nervous about this coming term is that I'm not just changing schools, I'm changing just about everything about this term:

• University instead of community college
• Four 3 credit hour classes instead of two or three
• Monday/Wednesday schedule (with Thursday night at a different campus) instead of Tuesday/Thursday
• Public transportation instead of my own car (parking permits, gas, and wear & tear are costly)
• Scheduling around Gabe's school hours instead of just available child care (Thank you so much Tony & Lucynthia for your help so far and continuing help in this area & thank you to Meri for your help when my parents aren't available)
• Working at least once every 1-2 weeks instead of the occasional day now and then
• Big outside the classroom group projects in addition to the normal personally done homework

As I write this and wonder to myself "Is this something I can do? Will I really make it?" I glance up and see a candy wrapper I saved for just this occasion.... it says, "Believe in yourself!"

Bring it on....

Months pass...

In which:

• I finish my Spring 2010 term. It was a tough term since only one of the classes was among my strong subjects, but I managed to do okay. I got A's in all three classes so my GPA is safe for now.
• I spend 6+ hours of my life in the emergency room. I have come to the conclusion that the reason they have you admit yourself through the emergency room when you deliver your child is so that you know where it is since you'll be back. Gabriel managed to trip, while running through the house, into the coffee table corner and slice open his ear. 3 hours in the ER later it was clean and super-glued. This was about a month ago on a late Sunday afternoon. Last night Valerie some how (we still aren't sure what happened since neither child is talking... helpfully) hurt her arm when we stopped by to visit with Grandma and Grandpa Wilhite (Dan's mother and step-father). At first we thought it was just a mild injury and that resting it would help, but when we got home and she was still crying, craddling her arm, and yelping out loud whenever it was touched or moved we determined it might be more serious. Dan determined the pain to be closer to the elbow joint, but the swelling started near the wrist. It was ER time again. X-rays showed no fracture, but it took another 3 hours to determine that. Wouldn't you know it... it was on a Sunday :P. (Side note: Of the two other ER visits we've had, one was also on a Sunday.... our children are injury prone on Sundays appearantly.)
• We planted a garden. We decided to skip the pumpkins this year since we had such a hard time with squash bugs last year. We also only planted one tomato plant instead of two. Sadly, of the two rows of carrots and two rows of lettuce we planted we had only five sprouts (two lettuce and three carrots) of which one carrot has already wilted. Of the four rows of beans... I think every bean sprouted and I have learned that you plant them with space to spare not just because it allows the plants to get bigger but because it makes it easier to pick them :P.
• Gabe goes to school. Last year when looking for an inexpensive Pre-K program a friend of mine recommended the charter school that her kids attend and that she was PTO president at. Admission is free, but applications are reviewed on a lottery basis. Unfortunately, the lottery had already passed, but I put in an application anyway. School started without a word from the school. At the beginning of this year I put in another application for the Kindergarten program hoping that we'd have better luck. Then at the beginning of April I received a call saying that they had an opening in one of the Pre-K classes and would I still be interested. I jumped on the chance and Gabriel started school with three months left. He's loved it and since he was in the Pre-K program he gets preference in selection for the Kindergarten class (which it turns out he wouldn't have made it into anyway since the double-application resulted in an automatic in and an email saying "Sorry, we're full" :P).
• I began my business. It's official. I've got a State Tax ID number and a business license from the City of Albuquerque. I'm doing part-time bookkeeping for a local electrical contracting business that my sister has been helping out. She's been training me free of charge on the things I don't understand and I've been able to apply things I've learned from her and from my classes. As I get more experience, I'm hoping my client base will expand, but I'm okay with one for now since I'm still in school.