Wow I have not posted on here at all this year! I have been busy since school started. I am only taking 3 classes this semester but it seems like all I do is read and do homework. I have been crocheting a lot and hope to be able to sell some of the beanies I am making soon.
We did go to Big Bear in January for a vacation. We were hoping that it would snow while we were there but we had sunshine the whole time. The village was still decorated with Christmas lights.
Going back to school at my age is difficult. Finding the money to pay for it is even harder. I finally discovered why I never heard back about my student loans. It turns out you have to submit the form in person. So today I hobbled over to the school paid my $2.00 to park, parked the car and hiked my way to the financial aid office. Luckily there was only 2 people in front of me in line. I turned in my paperwork and should hear back in about 3 weeks. I have no clue why it takes so long to process the paperwork but it does. If I am approved I will get half the money now and the other half next semester. Hopefully I am approved otherwise I have to figure something else out. After I was done I had to hike back to the car and by the time I got back my leg and foot were throbbing. Since I was taking Todd for a driving lesson I have him the keys and made him drive me to coffee bean and tea leaf so I could spoil myself with a nice blended coffee. I only drank half of it and then put it in the freezer so I can have the rest tomorrow. I know when I go there, which is a rare treat for me, I always get a large one because I can get 2 days of coffee out of it. Plus I like their blended drinks better than other places because you cannot taste the coffee.
I have been teaching Todd how to drive. Today he scared me by trying to run over tumbleweeds that flew in front of the car. Even though they were very big he claims that he did not see them. He does not look over his shoulder when changing lanes even though he has been lectured about this every time we drive. He feels that he can see everything through the rear view mirror, which he forgets to look in when changing lanes. He gets really nervous and will start to freak out and has gone into the lanes of the oncoming traffic a few times now. I think it is time for him to look into professional drivers training because obviously he is not remembering what we are teaching him. He is no where near ready to drive faster than 35 mph and sometimes I think he shouldn't be driving at all. This is the same kid who for years swore that he knew how to drive because he saw people do it. Yeah it is a completely different thing when you Are actually behind the wheel!
Tomorrow I need to call the specialist about my foot. I was hoping that it was getting better but after walking at school today I now realize that it is not better yet. I am hoping that they can place me on disability while we figure out what is wrong but the problem could be that I have not worked in over a year so I am not sure if I will be approved for that. We just need to get whatever the problem is taken care of. I get so annoyed when just going to the grocery store is an issue because I can only make it around a part of the store before my foot hurts.
I have been crocheting a lot lately. It helps me relax at night after doing homework all day. I found that the yarn at hobby lobby is relatively cheap and seems to be pretty good quality yarn. I have been working on a blanket for a while now and hope to finish it soon.i have also been attempting to make some scarfs. It seems to be a very relaxing hobby for me.
I just saw something odd on Facebook. There is a guy who is going back to school but is asking people for donations to fund him. Is that tacky? I just don't know how to feel about that.
So I have been back in school for a year now. This semester I am only taking 3 classes, however it is 9 units which is considered part time. I seem to always be busy with schoolwork and never seem to be able to catch up on all the reading and homework. I am still waiting to find out if I am approved for a federal student loan. I need to call the financial aid office tomorrow because it had been over 2 weeks since I submitted my application. I really hope I am approved. If not then I really need to find some kind of a job but with all the foot issues I keep having Jeremy is very adamant about me not working right now and just concentrating on school and getting my foot taken care of. Of course since I do not have health insurance right now I cannot afford to have an MRI done on my foot. I also need to go to the school and take the math and English placement test so I can start getting all of my general education courses done. I really want to continue with school and become a teacher but I am worried that it is going to take me longer than I planned on.
I really should update my blog more. I have a lot of pictures to share. The twin nephews where here a few weeks ago so I got a few cute pictures of them at the beach. I cannot believe that they are going to be 9 years old in December. Since I don't get to see them much I still think of them as little babies. Maybe this weekend I can finally take a break from schoolwork and do a post with pictures. We went to big bear in may and I took over 300 pictures. Some were good and some not so good but that is the fun of a digital camera, you can delete the pictures that are really bad!
Well that's all from me for now. I must get to bed so I can get up early and try and read an entire history chapter tomorrow!
Lets see if I can blog more this year. I need to learn how to do it from my phone so I can post some of the pictures I take with it.
We had an exciting evening of bowling with the kids tonight. We went to the family bowling party and were home by 9. Yep we are that exciting! Jeremy has to work in the morning so it worked out nicely. I somehow have managed to stay up past midnight even though I am exhausted. Tomorrow or day actually I believe that I will be taking down the Christmas tree, which is very dead thanks to all the hot weather we have had, and hopefully get some things cleaned up.
School starts up again on Monday so I have a few more days of winter break. Once school starts I really need to find a job. I have put in tons of applications but nobody wants to hire me. It's actually very frustrating.
I am proud to say that I passed both of my classes. I ended up with a B in each one. I am now enjoying the winter break before I start 4 new classes. I think it's going to be more difficult this time since I must find a job. Jeremy wants me to only work part time so I can concentrate on school but I am worried about keeping the bills paid. I am hoping I can find a part time job that will pay me enough to only work part time.
Saturday was our 11 year anniversary. We didn't do much durning the day except go fight the crowds at kohls so I could exchange some boots I bought for the correct size. We did go to bandits for dinner and both felt it was a waste of money. They have changed a lot of their food and it sure wasn't worth the new expensive prices! Next year we will just stick with going to Dominick's for dinner.
In other news it is my last week of school for this semester. I have 2 English tests and a final in economics to take this week. After that I have 3 weeks off before starting up again. Next semester I am taking 4 classes. I hope I will be able to stay on top of my homework!
I thought High School was hard, College classes are pretty hard especially when you haven't taken any classes in 20 years! I got a B on my first economics mid term and have a second one in 2 weeks. The English class is a little easier, but I am having to study extra for the tests I have for that class because I tend to forget things easily.
I have not had any luck finding a job and am feeling a bit discouraged. I need to find something really soon otherwise we aren't going to be able to keep the bills paid much longer. I would really like to be able to go to school full time for a while but we cant afford for that to happen right now. I am trying to find grants to apply for but I am not having much luck. I am tempted to go apply for a student loan through Ventura College but I am afraid that their interest rate might be really high. Maybe I should buy some lottery tickets and hope that we can win enough money to pay the bills for a while so I can concentrate only on school.
School started on Monday even though I only have 2 classes I feel like I have a lot to do. I have been reading chapter one of the Economics book today and plan on getting through that this week. I have a test on the first 2 chapters on the 4th. I also have homework due on the 5th for my English class. I need to make myself a calendar for the month so I don't forget when things are due. Maybe I will do that tonight before I go to bed. I had to take a quiz on the syllabus for the English class and I only missed one question!
With school starting Monday I can't help but be a little worried. I am really hoping that I can pass both classes I am taking. I really wanted to take America history but it was full. I ended up taking business English and principles of macroeconomics. I am worried about the English class since I hated English in high school. I ordered my books for that class yesterday and just today found out what book I need for the economy class. With not having been in school in 20 years (yes it's really been that long) I am hoping that I can get used to studying and doing homework pretty quickly. I really wish that we could win the lottery so I could just go to school full time and get it over with.
Hello Redbox. We have decided to cancel our blockbuster membership. I was getting tired of paying $20 a month and never getting the movies we wanted. We rented 3 movies from redbox and only paid $3.87! Blockbuster rentals are $3.99 at the store, plus we only have one blockbuster in Ventura. The online blockbuster was great when we had 3 stores. We could take the ones we got in the mail directly to the store and get another movie for free. Now that we only have one store they never have any movies in stock.
I am on a mini vacation. I drove up to Vacaville on Monday to see Jeremy's mom and brother in law and sister in law and nephews. The rest of the family came up on Saturday but I had stuff to do Monday morning and couldn't come up until then. It is super hot up here. Today was supposed to be 110 but it didn't feel that hot considering we spent part of the day in the pool. Jeremy couldn't come up with me since he has to work. We did have Todd come over and stay with my dog while Jeremy is at work. She is on a pretty tight potty schedule and Jeremy works a double on wednesday so someone has to be there to let her out.
I took a few pictures of the kids swimming today and need to take some more in the next few days. I will be driving back home on Friday and I can't wait to feel my cold ocean air.
Now that I am unemployed once again I should update this more often. I have been out of work for almost a week and so far I haven't done much. I decided to take a week to relax and get some much needed cleaning done in the house. Well I have relaxed and cleaned a little but not very much got done.
I have been working on getting funding so I can go back to school. On Monday I need to call the financial aid office at Ventura college and figure out what other paperwork I need to fill out with them. I am also trying to figure out what classes to take in the fall and what day registration is. Yep I have been having tons of fun.
We finally got a winco grocery store in town. We tend to shop there more than vons now. They have some great prices and we love the bulk section. I grabbed some peach gummi bears when we were there last time and they are really good.
I am always feeling stressed with trying to make sure that we have enough money to pay the bills and eat. I am been extra stressed the past few weeks with the weird hours Jeremy is working. He has about 37 hours a week right now starting this week and while the pay is crappy at least he is bringing home a paycheck. But now we are spending more money on gas and since he is working overnights he gets hungry and stops to buy junk food. 2 nights a week he is doing a double shift. 5 hours in Oxnard and then 6 hours in Thousand Oaks with only an hour in between for him to get to the next position.
We finally were able to move all the rocks from the flower bed in front of the house and lay down new weed paper. Of course doing something like that always costs more than you planned. We decided not to put the rocks back and went to Lowes to look at what options there were. He really liked the black bark. I honestly didnt care what he picked as long as it was cheap. The bark ended up being $4.97 a bag so we got 2 to see how many we will need. As it turnsout we need at least 5 or 6 more....now we are going to wait to buy more so I can buy a few bags at a time. Maybe in 3 months it will be done.
I had big plans on Saturday to go to the LA Zoo. We checked the weather and there was only 30% chance of rain and if it was going to rain in la it would be in the afternoon. I was rudely awakened at 6am by rain....not a good sign. Still figured that it would not rain at the zoom until the afternoon, boy was I wrong. It poured on the drive there. We got to the parking lot before the zoo opened and figured we would wait a bit to see if it let up. We waited about 15 minutes and the rain was getting stronger. I decided that we should go to Griffith Park Observatory since it was about 5 minutes away and it is free to get it. We got there and we're able to get a good parking spot, they have very limited parking and you must get there before or right after they open. We did pay the $7 to watch the show in the planetarium. It was very fun. We explored around and saw all the new expanded stuff. I went outside to take some pictures of the view and found that my camera wasn't working. I was a little freaked out since I charged the battery the night before. As it turns out I must have left the camera on somehow and the battery was dead. I am very glad we didn't go to the zoo because I would not have been able to take any pictures and I saved the money to get into the zoo. We will plan another trip to the zoo in January. I do like to go during the winter when more animals seem to be out since it is not so hot.
Hostess annouced this morning that they are closing. NO MORE TWINKIES!!! What is this world coming to? I don't eat twinkies very often but sometimes you just crave a twinkies, with the yellow cake and that creamy filling. What are future generations going to do without twinkies and ding dongs and those yummy little chocolate dounuts?? I may have to buy a lifetime supply of twinkes, only problem is dont they expire??
Well in other news I got to watch my oldest nephew Travis play the cello for the first time last night. He did really good and looked really scared. I will post some pictures of that this weekend while I am locked away in the house enjoying the rain. I had to laugh though, the cello is almost as big as he is.
How is it possible that Thanksgiving is next week?? I don't remember it even being November yet. Maybe I have just been to busy to see that the year is flying by.
In October we lost our little inside kitty, Bella. One night she just went to sleep and didn't wake up. We still arent sure of what happened to her. It could be that she was just sick. Now my old mean cat has decided that the dog is his best friend and he wants to be inside all of the time. Which is fine except for the fact that he wants to get up and be feed at 6 am! My alarm is not set for that early. If I am not up he climbs on me and headbutts me and then rubs his cold nose all over my face. At least he hasnt started to bite me to wake me up. If it wasnt so cold outside he would be sleeping outside again. I cant close the bedroom door because he stands on the other side of it and crys. Damn annoying cat. He doesnt want to sit next to you either, he wants to sit on you. Dont know why in his old age he has decided to be nice.
Anyway one day I will download my camera and post some Halloween pictures. I just seem to forget to do that too.
That answer would be no!! Yesterday I was burning hot, and sneezing and coughing quite a bit so last night I took some cold medicine and went to bed. Woke up this morning expecting to feel better but no I feel worse. Now i have all that and a scratchy throat. I don't have time to be sick right now. Was going to bring emergency c to work today but I forgot it at home. Good thing I work in a place where there is plenty if Vitamin C!!
I guess I should update this more often. Not much is new around here. Jeremy had gotten a job with DIal security and they laid him off after 7 days because the supervisor didn't feel like it was going to work out. I am beyond frustrated with the job market here. We filled out applications for Vons and Albertsons on Friday night, yesterday I had him call Vons to check on it and found out that they do open interviews on Mondays, would have been nice to know that when I filled out the application. I am now wondering if each vons store does that and maybe the each do it on a different day. I am still working and I am still part time but at least I am bringing in some money. I am about out of ideas on where to find Jeremy a job. Keep your fingers crossed that he can get a job at a grocery store, maybe we will get discounted groceries.
