Awwwww moment

It has been a long time since I blogged, so forgive me! This semester at school was just overwhelming! I just could not let the day pass without writing about the awww moment I had this morning. So, today was an early day for my son, which means that he starts school at the same time as my daughter. We missed the bus at the bus stop (by like one minute), so I drove them all the way to school. As I dropped them off, I gave them the usually last minute instructions, go to this bus stop, have a good day, blah, blah, blah. So as I watch them walk towards the entrance of the school together, they put their arms around each other. It was the most prescious thing. If I had had a camera, I would have taken a picture. It really warms my heart that my children love and care for each other enough that they would walk side by side embracing each other into school, where kids can be so critical of gestures of affection such as this.

Seriously sore . . . and a harrowing experience

Wow! I am so sore today! I spent the weekend in LA taking the certification courses for AFAA (Aerobic and Fitness Association of America) and holey moley - I am sore! I did completed the kickboxing certification on Saturday (9am-5:30 pm) pretty much moving all day! It was great fun and I learned a lot about proper alignment and movement in a group exercise setting. The teacher was awesome - energetic and informative. I want to be a teacher just like her! Sunday was certification for primary group exercise instructor (9am -7:30 pm)!!! This class seemed to drag on forever. Part of the problem was that there was a lot of repetition from the day before - which helped me, but made it somewhat boring. Another problem was that there were over 100 people being certified, so there was a lot of confusion. The teachers were both nice, but their style was less engaging that the instructor from kickboxing. All in all, I think it went well. We had to demonstrate proper technique and teaching ability to the examiners and also take a written test for each class, but I feel that they both went well and I am confident I will receive my certifications. I have to wait 4-6 weeks before I will know for sure.

All in all it was a fun weekend. The driving was the gnarliest part. We left late on Friday and it was raining pretty much the whole drive down. Luckily my husband is the best driver on the planet. Seriously, the man is a machine behind the wheel! It is a good thing too, because on the way down - at about 1:30 am - an SUV passed us and the driver lost control of the vehicle. She hydroplaned into the center divide, ricocheted off and continued hydroplaning kind of sideways & backwards literally 100 yards in front of us, then went off into the ditch where her car flipped over and landed wheels up. It was by far and away one of the scariest things I have ever seen in my life. Needless to say, we stopped, called 911 and proceeded to help the girl - who was thankfully unharmed - out of her vehicle. We left once the police came, but I don't think the image of her vehicle sliding along the road in front of us and flipping over will ever leave my head. I swear, I will never speed in the rain again! Luckily, the drive back was uneventful and we eventually got home at 2:30 this morning. For that reason - an the fact that my body feels like it was run over by the defensive line of a football team - I am playing hooky today!

Okay, so I am feeling rather frustrated right now, so if you are not up to reading major venting, stop now!!!

So here's the deal, I have worked for a non-profit rehab center for nearly 3 years now. I started out full time, but when I went back to school, I started working part time. Mostly for the last year and a half I have worked only Saturdays. Saturday shift tends to be very mellow, just monitoring the clients to make sure that they complete chores, monitoring the phones, and doing some minor paperwork like charting and filing. Mostly I sit and for this whole time I have been able to get some homework done. I never hid the fact that I do homework there, in fact, I explicitly stated that I needed to be able to do homework or I would not be able to maintain the job. Especially now that I am in class or clinicals five days a week and then at that job one day, I have only one day left to be with my family. I really don't want to spend the bulk of that day doing homework, and effectively ignore my children all week.
All has been well with the job, even if I have felt a little burn out, I was working through it. We had a rough group of clients for a while there (which happens) and I was feeling stressed. But then this last week my boss (who has been my friend since she started working with me, but has become distant since she became "the boss") called me and chewed me out. She basically told me that I could not do my school work while at work because everyone needs to be doing more work. When I asked her what specific tasks she needed me to complete, she could not give me any other than that I need to be walking around the building. While I understand her point that they don't want to pay me to do my homework, I would have appreciated a different approach, especially since it represents a change from the original agreement. The bottom line is that unless I can do homework there on Saturdays, I cannot maintain that job. I frankly need that time for my schoolwork and I am not willing to sacrifice my family or my success at school for a job.

So, as much as it pains me to do it, I think I am going to have to quit. It makes me really angry because I feel that things ran smoothly on Saturdays. Some days were better than others and I admit my own responsibility in becoming too lenient with the women, but damn it I get tired of being a glorified babysitter for grown women who should be able to follow directions, but obviously can't. (See - there goes my burn out!!!) Regardless, the few women I have been able to connect with and maybe make a difference made it all worth it.

Damn, I hate conflicting emotions, so I will end for now.

Life at this time

Well, vacation is officially over. Classes started in earnest today. I am really excited to be back. I will be back at El Camino Hospital, though not on the Oncology floor. I will find out next week where and get my groove on regardless of where I am! Again, I am on the bus (hurrah for WiFi!) It feels weird to think that at the end of this semester I will have completed half of my nursing school courses! It looks like this semester is going to be a lot of work again, but I feel more than up to the task. I have a new computer to keep me up to date and on task. I ended up purchasing a Lenovo (IBM) which is working out fantastically. I didn't get any of my projects completed over winter, but hopefully I can get on them now that I have the computer.

The kids are happy to be back in school. My daughter just completed a project for school where she had to take fifty hypothetical dollars and create a menu for a day (breakfast, lunch, & dinner). She could not go over the $50.00. She had to do a poster with pictures, description of the meals, shopping lists, and all math calculations. It was fabulous! And, of course, her menu choices were healthy! Breakfast was bean & soy cheese omelet with berry salad (blueberry, blackberry, & raspberry), lunch was tofurkey sandwich on whole wheat with lettuce and peas, corn, and orange slices, dinner was tofu vegetable stir fry. What a girl! In addition she had to ask four people what their dream was for the new year and also express what her dream for the year is. Her dream is that all gay/lesbian people be allowed to marry because she says that people are equal and should be able to be with the person they love.

My son, on the other hand, just gets funnier by the day. I introduced him to the Karate Kid movies and he just loves them! He goes around imitating Mr. Miyagi and Daniel! It is so cute. When he tries to do the crane, he stands on one foot and hops!!! He was sad when basketball season ended a few weeks ago, but his team remained undefeated for the season!!! He played defense really well. He seems to have a natural ability for athletics just like his father and most of my family (myself excluded). He wants to start Karate as soon as he turns 6 this summer - they don't accept 5 year olds. Other than that, both kids are swimming four days a week and coming along beautifully. They really enjoy being in the water.

Well, that is about all for now! Hopefully I will have time to update, but I won't bet on it!!!