My interview for Kaplan yesterday went really well. The center manager just asked about 5-6 pretty general interview questions. The training class should start in the next month or two. He said right now he just has me and one other person, so he has to wait for a few more people before he can open a class. I'm fine with waiting because this wasn't really something I was looking for in the first place.

I also have two other "projects" that I want to get started on that I think have great potential! One is writing an e-book and the other is building a website and possibly a blog to go along with it. I'm hoping that I can get them started this year and then "give" them to Donald and let him work on them. I already have too many projects!

We're not doing too much this weekend for Memorial Day. Dad said something about a cookout in Hattiesburg on Monday with one of the girls he works with, but we'll see. Anyone have anything fun planned?

I passed my audition for Kaplan, yay! I'm going in tomorrow evening for an interview and if I pass that then I go on to the teacher training course. They never did call me, so I ended up calling them yesterday. I hate it when places don't get back to me when they're supposed to.

We got the laptop working last night so now we wireless internet. That makes me happy. Having the laptop is going to make doing my school work so much easier. Speaking of, my new term starts in a week and I'm not ready to start again! Oh, well...just three classes to go before student teaching (!!).

I wish my house would stay clean for more than 15 minutes. I no sooner get done cleaning one room and it is trashed again in 30 minutes. Having my dad here doesn't help matters because this place is so small and cluttered as it is, when another person's junk is added to the pile, it just becomes worse. Plus I swear neither one of the men in this house know how to pick up after themselves. How hard is it to put a dirty dish IN the dishwasher rather than leaving it in the sink? MEN!!

I guess it's been just a few days since I've updated. We've been busy around here!

Dad got in Thursday afternoon so we spent the rest of the day re-organizing his room and closet. Friday we did lots of running around which included trips to Walgreens, the dry cleaners, the DMV (or whatever it's called here), Big Lots, Marshall's, Mazio's (gotta eat), and a furniture store. That was exhausting. Lauren was a really good sport about all of it, too. We spent Saturday trying to get more than one computer hooked up to the internet, but failed. Sunday a friend of dad's came over to work on it and failed too. I called Comcast about the situation today and apparently we need some sort of disk for the other computers. Will pick that up tomorrow. Today Lauren and I went to Walgreens and Wal-Mart for various things. Tomorrow we have playgroup. I also need to go grocery shopping one of these days!

Dad bought a new laptop so he gave us his "old" one. The old one is a Dell and is not even a year old, but it is a piece of crap. The wireless card isn't working for some reason, so we'll have to get that fixed. I don't know what the deal with it is, but once we get it fixed it will be great to have around! Then we'll have 3 computers...just what we need!

In kid news, Lauren is walking really well now. She even tries to run, but that doesn't work out so well. She's also talking up a storm. Some of her new words are kitty, toes, moon, daddy, ears, eyes, book, ball, and baby. She knows most of her body parts (head, ears, eyes, mouth, chin, tummy, knees, and toes) and lots of animal noises (cow says moo, dog says woof, kitty says meow, sheep says baa, horse says neigh, snake says sssss, and monkey says ooo ooo).

She's driving me nuts with the tantrums, though. If I take something away, all hell breaks loose. She's started biting, too. I think she does it to try to be funny, but it hurts! Darn kid. On the up side, she's sleeping VERY well now. I put her to bed at nine and she doesn't wake up until I come in around 1 or 2. I bet if our bed wasn't so creaky she'd sleep till morning.

Speaking of the bed situation, when my dad leaves this time we're putting her in her own twin. I'm just not getting much sleep with her kicking me all night. We'll keep her bed in our room for a while though, until we're sure that she's okay with it. I have to get her sleeping on her own by January when I start working. Bleh.

Okay, guess that's it for now. I have to start working on my Philosophy of Teaching. Fun times.

Lauren's doctor appointment went well today. We went to a new doctor here in Ridgeland and it was really nice! It is a brand new office and it is just adorable. Anyway, she now weighs 21 pounds, 8 ounces, which is in the 9th percentile. She's 32.5 inches tall, which is in the 95th percentile. All those numbers make for a tall, skinny baby! I don't really think she's that skinny - she's got some yummy baby chubbies for sure! Anyway, she's healthy as a horse and didn't even cry when she got her finger stuck for the hemocrit screen :o) We still have to go to the health dept. to get her shots, though, because this doctor doesn't have the insurance deal worked out for immunizations yet, I guess. Kind of a pain, but whatever. Hopefully they have it worked out soon!

In my frantic dig to find my ACT scores today, I unearthed all my old high school stuff. Yikes! I meant to keep some of the pictures out so I could scan them up, but I forgot when I started cramming stuff back in the closet. Of course my scores were in the box that was way in the back of the closet, on the bottom, so now everything is a mess. Oh well.

I think I did okay at my Kaplan audition. I'll know by Friday if I made it. If I did, I still have to do an interview and a 20 hour training class before I can teach. Oh, and re-take the ACT because my scores are over 5 years old. That part kinda scares me. I knew all that math crap in high school, but now I don't think I could do a trig problem now if my life depended on it! You have to have a 27 or higher to be able to teach, so we'll see. I probably won't be able to score that high again.

Donald got home Friday afternoon - we were very happy to see him! We had a nice weekend. Last night we went to Kelli's house and Lauren had a great time playing with her daughter, Maddie. Maddie's four, but Lauren didn't care - she still had fun. Today we went grocery shopping (ICK!!) and had to make a quick Wal-Mart trip. That was a nightmare. I had 8 coupons for $2 off two 2-liters of Coke that I thought expired today and I wanted to use them. Turns out they expired yesterday, and the cashier at WM wouldn't let us use them, so then we didn't want all that soda. The cashier was not happy about having to take the soda off our order, but oh well - that's her job. Then she told us to go put the 2-liters in a cart over by customer service, and the guy at customer service about had a cow. After we finally got out of the store and to the car, Donald realized that the cashier never gave us back our gift card, so I had to go back in to get it. Did I mention how much I hate Wal-Mart? Donald was fit to be tied by the time we were done, and then we still had to go to Kroger.

Anyway. We have a busy week this week. Tomorrow night we are heading to Vicksburg to use our free play and free hotel room. We're coming back Tuesday morning before Donald goes to work. Wednesday I have my audition/interview for Kaplan and I haven't gotten my presentation together yet, so I'd better do that. Thursday Lauren has a doctor appointment with her new doctor, and my dad comes home. I also have Lauren's winter clothes that I need to list on eBay and my student teaching application to finish up. Bleh.

Hope everyone has a great week!

This is what I found when I got out of the shower this morning. That's dental floss, all unravelled.

Obviously she liked the taste of it because she drug it around for quite a while like this.

Off to better things. Notice my purse, contents emptied all over the floor. Again.

I thought about trying to salvage some of it, but I gave up. In a ball it went, right into the garbage :o(

I'm starting to think about student teaching and getting NERVOUS!!! I start in January, which is coming up faster than I thought. I have to have my application completed by the end of the month, which includes an autobiography, philosophy of teaching, resume, and various other things. I know it sounds bad, but I've always been good at most things I try, and I'm really scared that I won't be "good" at teaching. I know that no teacher is perfect, but darn it I want to be a good teacher! Hopefully I don't screw up too much :o)

In other news, we've definately entered the realm of "toddler" around here. Everything is a crisis to Lauren. She had 4 tantrums today - and today was a good day. Some of the problem is that we haven't babyproofed well enough, and she is into everything, which results in me taking lots of things away from her. The kid can seriously reach everything in the house. Tonight I was drinking a can of soda and I wouldn't give her any and she did NOT like that one bit. She flung herself on the ground and just wailed. It's going to be a long two years.

Donald gets home tomorrow night - yippie!! I'm going crazy around here. He's my entertainment :o)

She's stealing my money already....

We took Lauren to the park the other night and there was a couple playing tennis. She looked right at them and exclaimed, "Ball!". Here we are trying to get her to say it again.

I had a nice birthday yesterday. Donald got up at 5 AM, went to Wal-Mart for supplies, and then came home and made me breakfast in bed. Yummy!

Lauren and I are doing fine all alone. We went swimming last night for a bit and came home and watched a movie. I must say it is nice being able to watch whatever I want on TV! Donald is sort of a TV hog. Hahaha. Lauren helped me make stuffed shells last night, which I've been dying to do but kept putting off because Donald won't eat cream cheese. So we made and ate them without him.

Tomorrow we are meeting up with a brand new playgroup at the park, so hopefully we can both meet some new friends. We have a shop on Wednesday, but other than that, we have nothing planned for the rest of the week.

Donald is leaving for Birmingham this afternoon for a week for work. It's going to suck big time not having him here, but I imagine we'll survive.

We got a new camera yesterday. I couldn't survive without one any longer. We ended up buying a Canon PowerShot A550. We'd previously had two Kodaks, and thought we'd try something new since both of those ended up not working. The last camera we bought was back in 2003 - the Kodak 5.0 MP. I was/am amazed at how reasonably priced digital cameras are now! We paid over $600 for the last Kodak four years ago, and now you can get nearly anything you'd ever want for less than $300! So, we ended up spending much less than I thought we would!

Well, I guess I'd better get to bed. I haven't been up past midnight in weeks!!

I donated blood last night and today I feel icky tired. It was my first time doing it, and they talked me into doing a double red cell donation. It took about 45 minutes and didn't feel that great, but I think some of that was because the needle thing was in funny. My arm is a little sore, but that's okay. I don't have to do it again until August. Because I'm tired, I was planning on napping with Lauren today, but don't you know the day I'm tired she decides to only sleep for 30 minutes instead of her usual 2 hours. Bleh.

Ugh, I just ate so many strawberries that now I have a stomache ache. But they are so delicious!

We went to storytime today but had to leave halfway through because the kid took a monstrous dump right in the middle of it. I went out to the car to get a new diaper, but discovered that when Donald cleaned out the car, he really cleaned out the car. So, we had to go home because she was super stinky.

I passed my test last night. It is so different studying to pass than studying to get a good grade. WGU doesn't give grades, just pass or not pass, so the numbers don't matter. I got an 82 on my test, which is just fine since 70 is passing. I'm sure I could have done better if I'd have actually studied, but why study when the numbers don't matter anyway? Maybe I'm just lazy.

I've been entertaining the idea that maybe I went back to school for the wrong thing. It's probably just the indecisive side coming out, so I'm trying to ignore it for now. I mean, I really want to do something with education (I would love, love, love to open a small, progressive private school someday), but I am really NOT sure I want to teach in a public K12 school. Plus being a teacher is going to keep me poor for the rest of my life. Maybe I should have went the medical route after all. Can you go to school for two things at once? HAHAH...then I'd really be crazy. Imagine working on a teaching and nursing degree at the same time. I'd be better off locking myself in an asylum right now.

Oh Donald would kill me if he even knew I was thinking about more school after this. As if $60,000+ in student loans isn't enough. Why did I turn down that full scholarship to Milsaps again? Oh, how hindsight is 20/20.

Wow okay that's enough rambling for today. This is what happens when I have too much time on my hands!

Annoying Toddler Tricks

Donald taught Lauren two new "tricks" while we were on vacation. First, he taught her how to say "no" and now she is saying it every two seconds!

"Lauren, what does the kitty say?"

"Noooooooo".

"Where's the balloon?"

"Noooooooooooooooooooo".

At first it was cute, but now it's getting annoying really fast.

The second "trick" is "bleeehhh". As in when something is yucky, it's bleeeehhh.

Everything at dinner tonight was bleeehhh, except of course dessert (ice cream).

This toddlerhood thing is going to be a long, long journey - I can already tell.

We made it home safely and had a great time! The only crappy thing was that my camera broke on our second day, so we don't have many pictures :o( We did take some with dad's camera, but he's back in California, so it'll be a few weeks until he comes home and I can get them from him. I can't even get the pictures we did take off of the memory card right now, so no pictures at all for a few weeks. Sorry!

Other than the camera situation, we did a have a wonderful trip. The wedding in Key West was beautiful. We had a great time at the beach in Cozumel and we ended up doing a wildlife adventure thing in Belize. I would love to spend more time in Belize without the kiddo someday - lots of fun grownup things to do there!

I loved the actual cruise part of the vacation. Lauren was very well-behaved, even at dinner. All of the crew loved her. Dad entered the belly flop contest and got third place. That was a sight to see, and it was probably the highlight of the trip! We weren't sure if we were going to like cruising, but it really is a worry-free vacation with lots to do for anyone. We will definately do it again!

Well, now were home and the house is a mess already. I've been trying to work on laundry today, and am almost finished. Not much else going on this week, except for my big test on Wednesday. Dad will be home again in two weeks so I have to get the house and spare room ready for that in the next few weeks.

Hope everyone had a good week!

Bye!

Well, we're off! Here's our itinerary if you want to keep track.

Friday: We left our house around 5:30 PM and driving to Pompano Beach, Florida. It is a 14.5 hour drive (yikes!). You can see our route here. We are hoping, praying even, that Lauren sleeps most of the way. We should arrive in Pompano Beach around noon Saturday.

Saturday: We are going to see about checking into the hotel early and hopefully taking a nap. Then we'll just hang out at the beach the rest of the day and then find somewhere to eat.
Our hotel - Beachcomber Resort and Villas

Sunday: We have to pick my dad up at the airport at 5:00 AM. I'm still not sure why he was compelled to book the red-eye flight, but whatever. Another beach day and hopefully we'll get to squeeze in a nap.
New hotel for Sunday - Comfort Inns and Suites, Fort Lauderdale.

Monday: We leave on our cruise! The boat sails at 5:00 PM; I'm hoping on being on-board by noon.
Our cruise: Royal Carribean's Enchantment of the Seas

Tuesday: Key West! My cousin, Trisha, is getting married at a botanical garden in the afternoon, so we won't have much time to explore the area. This is also formal night on the cruise, so we'll be getting all dressed up!
The Key West Tropical Forest and Botanical Garden

Wednesay: Today we're in Cozumel!!! I'm so excited for this day. We are spending the day at Paradise Beach. We are going to rent kayacks and snorkel gear and drink foo-foo drinks on the beach all day! Sounds like a good time to me!
Paradise Beach

Thursday: Belize! We don't have anything planned yet for Belize. We may still book an excursion, depending on how tired we are and how Lauren is acting. All of the "good" excursions are too wild for Lauren, so we may just stay on board and soak up the sun.

Friday: We are at sea all day. We will be spending the day relaxing in the sun with more foo-foo drinks and lots of food!

Saturday: We get back to Fort Lauderdale around 7:00 AM and disembark. Boo hoo. We're staying in Fort Lauderdale at some Best Western (better find the print out for that, LOL).

Sunday: Driving back home. Not looking forward to this AT ALL!!! We may end up leaving late Saturday night, depending on how tired we are.

Monday: Back to reality. Belch.

Hope you all have a good week! I hope we do, too!

Wow. For the first time in months, I have nothing to do. Everything is packed except for a few things that are in the dryer right now.

I even managed to finish my class. Don't ask how because I have no idea. I'm just glad to have it over with so I don't have to worry about it when I get home.

Lauren is sleeping and now I'm bored. It's great to feel bored once in a while!!!

The good, the bad, and the, well, ugly....

Lauren is getting so big! She's looking more like a little girl every day and less like my baby...

Playing on the floor with mama.

Daddy penned her in the living room with her dinosaur thing so I could get some work done. Needless to say, she did NOT like that idea.

Um, yeah...here's Donald trying on the scuba gear. Attractive, no?

We finally got our taxes finished today. Why is it that we get a huge return from Federal but have to pay in to State? I don't get it. Eh, oh well.

We went swimming last night and met a really nice lady who lives in our complex that has offered babysitting! Yippie! She just moved here from North Carolina to take care of her dad who has dementia, and her kids are in college, so I guess she's bored. She seems very nice and she played with Lauren in the pool and Lauren even seemed to like her. So hopefully we can get to know her a little and then she can babysit! It will be a welcome relief.

Hmm...oh yeah, if you have a CVS nearby you can get a free stroller there this week. If you spend $20 on Huggies products, you get the stroller free. I had some coupons, so I got 2 Jumbo packs of diapers, a thing of wipes, plus the stroller for $12 (paid for with Extra bucks, so free really). Not a bad deal if you can use an umbrella stroller. All we had was our big Peg Perego and we've been wanting a smaller one just for quick trips to the park, etc., so that worked out great for us. We're a Pampers family (when we use disposables) and I've never used Huggies before, so hopefully they work out okay...trying to stock up for vacation.

Let's see....what else? Lauren's back to healthy. She had a pretty crazy rash Friday and Saturday that I'm pretty sure was roseola, but she's much better now. Back to her happy self, thank goodness, because I was ready to give her away!

Okay, I guess that's as much as I can think of right now. Better get back to work on this damn paper. Belch.