To School!

The busy season is winding down, thankfully, although my semester is nearly over so I have many projects to finish, most involving statistics and math. Statistics I get, math, meh.

But! Nathan and Evan are now both in school. Evan goes to the Gloucester High School's daycare on Tuesday and Thursday, my school days. He seems to be having a fun time, there's some other cute babies there, and it's a small little group of babies with a good ratio of caretakers to kids. One day I picked him up at the end of the day and he was wailing because he was tired and his nose was running and WIPING HIS NOSE IS AKIN TO TORTURE AND THIS STRANGE LADY DID IT - so I'm pretty sure I just lowered the future Gloucester teen birth rate by a good amount. DOIN' MY PART.

Nathan is going to Head Start preschool in the mornings. Nothin' like bein' so poor you qualify for free preschool, but honestly it's wonderful. His first day was Thursday, I totally forgot to mention to his teacher that he was wearing underpants and not a diaper (most kids are diapered still) and...

He peed on the slide. Kid's first day, and he peed on the playground slide. I'm a terrible mom.

He seemed no worse for the wear, as 2 year olds don't really yet understand the social non-acceptance of peeing one's pants, and his next day of school he had pizza and a field trip and he was so excited to be back. He's warming up just fine, and I love getting to the classroom to pick him up and seeing him mouth "that's my mommy!" when he sees me through the window.

Speaking of cutest goddamn thing EVER, Nathan started skating - the Cape Ann Skating Club takes kids starting at 2.5, and Mike had previously found toddler skates at Savers for $6.99. He LOVES IT. His first lesson he just fell all over the place, but now he's actually able to move his little feet across the ice and even reach down and pick up items off the ice by himself.



I missed today's lesson because I am super sick, but he was a huge fan of the Zamboni and kept asking to see Zambonis at home. We told him he had to wait until tonight when the Bruins game is on. He also has a tiny hot wheels Zamboni he spent the afternoon cleaning the coffee table with.

And that's why we don't eat our young. Because yes, he's two and terrible and whines about everything and NEEDS CANDY NOW MOM and pushes his brother but holy crap, he's just so CUTE and he learns something every day and he's so earnest and so helpful and sweet. I couldn't be more proud of the kid, honestly.

I Made It Myself!

Right, so I'm broke, but I did get a new netbook on super sale at Target for $199.99. My mom's giving me the money for it since I pay for school myself, so word.

I needed a sleeve for it, since it's main duty will be going back and forth to school with me so I don't have to lug a full size laptop and bag with me. But I'm also cheap, so I decided to make one myself.

It was actually a lot easier than I thought, it only took maybe an hour and a half, and I did most of it while watching TV. I found an old pair of pajama pants and cut the bottoms of the legs off into workable pieces of fabric. I also had some thin foam that had been lying around the house used to protect glassware we sold at the yard sale.



I should have taken more pictures of the process, but alas. I didn't.

So it was two layers of very worn pajama pants material with the insides facing each other, and in the middle was a double layer of the thin foam. I sewed the whole thing up pretty easily, and it works well! I still have to sew velcro across the top, though. Ugh, I'm LAZY.



The bonus part is that it looks so ridiculous that people probably have no idea what it is, and it's less likely to be stolen when I'm looking the other way.

One more class.

I'm enrolled in community college. I've been in community college for three years now. It will be four when I graduate.

But I will be graduating. At the end of the summer. I am taking one math class now, and will be taking a Biology class over the summer.

Most of my friends have bachelors degrees, and many have advanced degrees as well. Most make a lot more than me at really great jobs. I skipped college and worked because I hated high school so much. When I finally wanted to go back to school, I was working 45 hours a week an hour away from home. I still pulled off 2-3 classes per semester and earned a GPA high enough to be in the honor society. I'm by no means brilliant or anything, but it's not really brilliance that I'm excited about, it's all the hard work and late nights I put into this. Sure, I took a whole year off with Nathan because I wanted a child more than my education at that point, but I didn't give up and never planned to.

The next part of my journey is up in the air. I very much want to continue on, and I'm automatically eligible for entry into any state school at a reduced price, as well as getting constant emails from private colleges I could never have pulled off in high school. Salem State is close by, and has a Hospitality & Tourism Management major that would pretty much work with most of my future options (go back to my old job field, work in food service, or open a restaurant). The issue is money, but I am going to look into scholarships and try my hand at at least doing it part-time.

So I know I don't have much to be proud about, but I am proud.