The Day I Got In

I'm almost there.  One class left.  A half of a class to be exact.  Then I'll finally be done.  After two years of sweat, blood, tears, and nearly losing my mind, I'll finally have my Masters in Social Work and be free.

It was about this time two years ago that I got my acceptance letter to KU.  I remember the evening distinctly.  It was a Friday evening and I was just getting home from work.  I opened my mailbox and saw it.  A large white envelope.  My heart jumped.  I knew what it probably was, I had been coming home everyday for a couple of weeks looking for it.  I carefully pulled it out and then saw the logo.  This was it.  

I had wanted it so bad.  I hadn't told anyone how bad I had wanted it.  Not even my family.  But I wanted to go to KU badly.  I heard so many great things about their program and met lots of social workers who went there.  To top it all off my mom had gotten her MSW from KU and her BSW from K-State, like I had.  I wanted to keep following in my mom's foot steps and go to KU.  But, I also knew the stats weren't in my favor.  KU had turned down some good social workers, really good, and a mentor had already given me the "don't take it personally if you don't get in" speech.

Now it was time for the main event.  I tore open the envelope, yanked out the contents, and started skimming until I saw it.  The word.  The one word that would satisfy.  My heart leapt.  It said, "congratulations."

Changing Plans.

I've finally come to accept that I'm not super woman.

So I've decided to swallow my very large pride and graduate in May instead of December. It turns out that subjecting myself to torture to finish doesn't actually have any advantages.

Now I just need to figure out how to unapply for graduation in December. By the way, my compromise with myself was that when I graduate in May I'm having a stupidly huge graduation party to celebrate...and most of all to say thanks to everyone who stuck by while I made it to the finish line. Officially, consider yourself invited. It'll most likely be the Sunday evening of KU's graduation in May, whatever date that is. Location is TBD in Kansas City.

Coping Capacity

There's been some growing happening over the last few months.  A lot of it.  I had reached the place of being pretty certain I couldn't handle anymore several times this summer, then God would always surprise me with the ability to make it through the next thing.  It's like when you lift weights, if you lift the same weight everytime, you'll only grow to be able to handle this amount of weight.  However, if you increase the weight, your muscles will grow to be able to handle more and more weight.  I think of the tv ads I see for the P 90X system, when they talk about how they get you to see results with the science of muscle confusion.  For those of you who don't know what I'm talking about, I've included a video for you...



This summer has been fairly similar to this process of "muscle confusion" only instead of muscles, it's been emotion and my coping capacity.  Though recapping the summer growing times seems like a lot of fun, I'll go ahead and pass.  I think my time would probably be better spent finishing my papers for class, that I pray that I'm able to finish on time.

Sweet Camera Awesomeness.

So I just downloaded a new camera app a few days ago that makes artsy photos on the fly. Most apps like this really suck or are to complicated/basic for the everyday user. Camera 360 knows whats going on...simple enough that I can use it without a manual but artsy enough that I feel like I'm actually getting some that would take me forever to figure out on my own.

By the way in case you haven't already met him, this is my little man, Sawyer.  I love how his paw came out so big and distinct.  Totally couldn't have done this one on my own.

In other news, school is in full swing for the summer. It makes me want to puke...someone should have shot me when I thought working full-time and going to school part-time was a good idea.  Oh well, only a few more months and papers until I never have to do school again.  No words can describe the joy I have toward finishing school...again.  Only 160ish days.

The 26th Year

Ah, another year, another number.  When I got up this morning I decided this years birthday theme would be hoedown, which may have been influenced by the WAY cute wild west cowboy party my friend had for her son's first birthday.  It also happened to work out well since I had requested barbeque for my birthday dinner :).  So naturally, I wore my cowgirl shirt to work to celebrate and then partied hoedown style with my family.  I love my family...they're great at rolling with the punches! (because by the way, I informed them of the theme of my birthday dinner an hour before it...whoops).  Oh, and sadly I forgot to take pictures...I was having too much fun or sick from too much cookie cake and bbq.

On a totally different topic, I love these colors!  I think this is my new favorite color pallet.

Here's the back story on how I found this arrangement (because I know everyone was wondering): On the way home from my parents, I bought myself flowers as a birthday gift and to have something pretty to look at all night as I typed my last paper for classes this semester (wahoo!).  So I get home, put the roses in a vase, make them look pretty, and set them next to my computer.  Next thing I know I have a cat zooming across the table and devouring the beautiful arrangement.  Luckily, he responds really well to "NO" and not much damage was done.  One thing led to another and as I researching whether roses were poisonous for cats, I found a website (ASPCA Animal Poison Control Center) that created a pet-friendly collection of flower arrangements through one of those big flower companies, with a bonus of 20% of the proceeds going to their organization.  Who knew someone would ever think to create a pet-friendly collection so you could rest easy knowing the flowers you sent won't kill your friends beloved pets?  Crazy world out there.

And now, back to the paper.  :)

Not Jury Duty

According to this very official letter I received yesterday, I am not being called for jury duty...yet.  Rather it's my qualification survey. So it looks like there could a jury duty summons in my future.  I suppose one of the bonuses to living in Jackson County is that I have a better chance of getting something interesting...silver lining.

I must say that I love this app on my phone (Blogaway) that lets me write blogs on the go...or from my bed on days off work. :)  I should probably stop sleeping in and get up.  I took the day off work to write my paper as I didn't have any other free time to do it.  So maybe I'll get on that.

Church

This was my perspective today at church (Jacobs Well).  I've always liked the character in the structure of the church.

In other news, after a too eventful for my own liking past few weeks, I seem to have resurfaced for a few days.  My last day of class this semester is May 1st...so hopefully I'll be around a bit more after that!

For Your Viewing Pleasure...

So I'm waiting at the office for traffic to clear up, so I can head to Kansas Sampler to grab a new K-State t-shirt.  It seems like the perfect time (and excuse) to get a new shirt.  Especially since I want to have an awesome one to wear to my class at KU (Edwards Campus) tomorrow.  The level of pride the boys in purple have brought out in me recently has almost reached the level of graduation day.  I can't ever think of time when I was more proud to be a Wildcat then that...so this whole basketball thing is pretty awesome.

On that note, last weekend I was a little disappointed at the selection of K-State graphics when I did a google image search, in particular, the very few old school willie's available.  So I took it upon myself to play with my new insanely enhanced photo editing software on my phone and create a few more options (color, texture, size, etc).  I then uploaded them to my Picasa web ablum.  So for your viewing pleasure, here are a few of the ones that have proven to be the most popular (from their view count atleast):

  

Aldi's love and the beginning of school.

Love Aldi's...I did a brief trip to get the last few things on my grocery list today...and BAM there it was! Another thing they BLEW my mind on how cheap they could sell it for. The item? Blueberries - $1.49. WHAT??? I know! I mean I get they are in season and all right now, but the cheapest I've seen them is at Whole Foods for $2.50. What else did I get you ask? A bag of apples, a few pears, a pack of mini sweet peppers, and last but least vinegar so I could keep killing my drain flies with my vinegar/baking soda explosion.

Speaking of killing drain flies, I've been cleaning like crazy...well, not so much crazy but rather just cleaning in general, because I start classes tomorrow and I'm guessing I'm not going to have a lot of spare time.

Here's my schedule for my summer classes...(so you can know why I'm not calling/texting/emailing/or facebooking you back)

The schedule ish:
Mon/Tues - Practice class 9a-4p
Wed/Thur - work
Fri/Sat - DSM class 9a-4p
Sun - day of rest :)
Mon - Practice class 9a-4p
Tues/Wed/Thur - work
Fri/Sat - DSM class 9a-4p
Sun - day of rest!
Mon - Practice class
Tues/Wed/Thur/Fri - work (4 - 10 hr days)
Sat - probably spending most of it writing a paper
Sun - much needed day of rest
Mon/Tues - Practice class 9a-4p
work work work, write write write...until some time in early/mid July that I have my last set of Fri/Sat full day DSM classes.

That's it ladies and gentlemen...now you know...also, this wasn't to show you how busy I will be, but rather because everyone keeps asking when my classes are and well, as you can see it's hard to explain.

In other news, I just went to Lowes and I had the most wonderful lady help me in the garden department! You could really see how much she loves her job...it was so infectious. Made my evening so much better!

Alright, well I need to finish cleaning the apartment so it won't be too bad when I neglect it for a month :) Then to bed...

Passive Voice?

I finally learned what "passive voice" meant! I just hit ignore on grammar check all through college, because I had no idea what it was talking about. Who knew it helped make my ideas more clear? I can now be even more anal when writing papers. :)

Sorry to all those grammatical experts out there that twinge every time they read improper English, but I plan on being as passive as I like on here...being unpassive would require waaaay too much thinking...and this is about free flowing thoughts.

Otherwise, good day. Had breakfast with an old mentor, did laundry, worked on my super secret book - to get me in the mood for working on my essay, hung out with awesome cats, and now working on my essay. It amazes me something so short can consume so much of my time.

Eating beans and weenies drinking dr. pepper...and writing

So I'm trying to write an essay for a grad school application...it's suppose to be a narrative. I haven't got my spark...which is killing me. I hate writing without a spark on things like this...because it just turns out manufactured. It's so much more real when I do it when I have a spark. And for some reason that spark makes it go from simply okay, to INCREDIBLE. And since I would really like to get into this particular grad school, I'm shooting for the incredible. That being said, I can only recall a handful (or once) when I've written with the mindset that I truly wanted something incredible...but it wasn't a paper paper. So, alas this trying to write an incredible paper is new territory. I don't normally care. Now I care. And I'm a bit scared because of it.

I've been trying to listen to songs that make me want to change the world to get my spark. I've been trying to think of all the great times I've had with clients. I've tried drawing pictures to help. Drinking caffeine to get me a bit more hyper (and passionate). I'm thinking that I just need to go to bed and try again tomorrow evening. I'm tired. Arg. Now I can feel my adderall kicking in...getting too tired to write, but not capable of sleeping. This ought to be interesting.