Catching up...

Well, after my last real post, Murphy passed away. Since I had been doing the Paws For Thought pet advice column, I just couldn't face my blog for a bit. It hurt too much to log in as it brought back the pain of Murphy's death. So I figured I would take a short break and collect myself before I continued. However, I got busy with school, and then around the end of June/beginning of July, I wasn't feeling very good. I found out why I was feeling sick on my birthday, when I got a positive pregnancy test.

Now that was a helluva birthday present. Best birthday ever at the time. The funny part is, all my life I had said if I didn't have a child or was pregnant by my 35th birthday, then I wouldn't ever have children. So, in my opinion, that positive test being on my 35th birthday exactly, made me the QUEEN of procrastination. With the morning sickness and excitement of my pregnancy, I am sorry to say that my blog was the farthest thing from my mind.

Maybe that was a good thing for you though, LOL, I don't think my complaints and details of my pregnancy would have been much fun to read. So that was probably a good thing that I didn't blog through it.

Anyway, Audrey Nicole was born at 1:16 am on Feb. 13th, 2009. She was 6 pounds, 8 ounces and 19 inches long.

I will spare you all the details of my labor...unless of course you want to hear it. *Grins*

Well, that caught you up to February. I will summarize the remaining 6 months in my next post.

Take A Breath

Graduation went very well. I got there in plenty of time, got signed in and then spent an hour waiting for things to start. Once the audince was seated and everything was ready, all of us who were graduating that day were allowed to go out and sit down in our section. Then we sat through a bunch of speeches and finally the big moment. We all went up onto the stage, one at a time, and got our handshake from the dean while our name was announced as a new graduate.

I was so worried about tripping and falling off the stage, but lucky for me they had ramps to go up and get down off the stage so no stairs to trip on. Yay! After everyone had gone across the stage, the faculty and graduates were allowed to leave, and then all the family and friends that came were allowed to join us. They were serving cake in the main room, but I was exhausted, so Ducky and I just headed home.

Standing around for an hour and sitting in that chair for so long killed my back, so I was hurting for the next few days. Got a couple of nice pictures though, and I will be ordering copies soon to send out to friends and family. My grandparents sent me a very nice graduation gift, and my friend in VP gave me loads of congrats.

Thank you Grandma and Grandpa, the card was great and the gift is much appreciated. Thanks to all my friends who were there to cheer for me after, your support and best wishes mean so much to me.

Now, I am working to my Bachelor's degree and I have a doctor's appointment tomorrow, so hopefully things will continue to progress and improve.

Week In A Whirlwind

Wow, what a busy week. I have spent hours on the phone, filled out a stack of paperwork, sent e-mails and faxes. And that was just to complete my graduation paperwork and enrollment process. It doesn't count the time I had to spent building a web site for my Web Design class, nor the writing I had to do for Composition.

I am glad that week is over. I am due to graduate on the 26th, my robes have been ordered, all the paperwork for that is done. Classes are done for both the term and my first degree.

I can't believe I managed to graduate with a perfect 4.0 GPA. Two whole years of college with perfect grades. I wouldn't have ever thought I could do that.

The new term and the first part of my second degree starts tomorrow, but thankfully I am done with writing classes. *Dances* Yay, no more essays to write.

Everything else is on track, I have appointments on the 23rd, and Feb 4th for my medical and my back. I am excited about graduating and looking forward to the next set of classes.

As for my blog, now that all the paperwork is done, I will be posting daily or close to that again. I apologize for the week without posts, but I had no time to write for you all with all the stuff I was trying to keep track of.

Making Money At Home

As I have said in other posts here in my blog, I am disabled and can't work. No job means I have no income. But I have found some good ways to make some extra cash. It is not enough to live on, nor will it ever make me rich. It does, however, earn some spending cash. These opportunities have allowed me to buy Ducky a nice christmas present.

Most of the 'make money at home' things you see on the internet are scams. Or even illegal. Most of them require you to pay for a kit or other information. These so-called programs simply take your money and send you some information that is worthless or that you could have easily have found for free in a google search.

But I have found some legitimate programs that cost you nothing, and you make money on them. Like I said, not loads of money, just some spending cash. Most of the ones I work on I can earn anywhere from $20 to $100 or so each month. Nope, I won't get rich. But I do make enough to purchase that gift for someone special, or to treat myself to a nice dinner out, or a new outfit.

Over the next few weeks I will provide information for each program. I will give tips on how to get the most out of them and I will let you know when and how much they have paid me. I will also provide other resources so you can find others of the same type. There are many of them out there. Yes, some are scams. But I will let you know which ones really pay, and exactly what you need to do to earn money.

All these programs will ever cost you is some time. You will not have to spend a dime to earn money. So bookmark or subscribe to my blog, and stay tuned. Easy money can be yours too.

Procrastination Works!

I hear people say we shouldn't procrastinate. That we should get thing done as soon as we can and not wait until the last minute. For some things I guess that is true. But for me, I perform better under pressure sometimes.

I had a major paper to write for my Composition class. I knew about it and was supposed to be working on it for over a month. But I just kept putting it off. Every time I would go to write or to think about what i wanted to say, my mind would wander and my thoughts would be chaotic. Sitting there looking at the blank sheet of paper, I just couldn't think of anything to write.

So I put it off, there was always tomorrow, or next week to get it done. Until I woke up Saturday, the paper due that night, over 1200 words needed, and I hadn't done anything. Ah, I thought, I still have hours yet, I will do it later today. Finally it came down to the wire. It was due in just a couple of hours. I needed to get it done. Miraculously, the blank paper didn't faze me. I knew what I wanted to say and how I wanted to say it. I churned out over 1600 words in less than an hour.

The paper was turned in less than an hour before the deadline. I wasn't sure if it was any good, but at least it was done. Just a few minutes ago, I checked into class. The paper had been graded and commented on by my Professor. I received an A, 100 points of 100 available. The Professor said I did well and had a good grasp of the assignment.

I have always put off critical things like that until the last minute, and almost invariably, I have done much better work under that pressure than I have done if I completed early. So, regardless of how much people say procrastination is bad, I would have to say, it works for me.

Maybe There Is Hope

Sorry for not posting yesterday. I had a very early morning appointment with Health Services and then spent pretty much the rest of the day in bed. As you may have read in my Trip To The DMV post, I tend to get freaked out before important events. So I was pretty nervous yesterday morning on the way to the appointment. But of course, as always, the reality was much easier than I would have figured on.

We got there right on time and were called back. Answered a few questions, I signed about 2 million papers and left with a medical card. This is great news as now I can hopefully get a diagnosis and see if my back can be fixed.

The funny part was once I got done signing everything I was told I was required to watch a 20 minute orientation video. But when we got called back to watch it, the instructor stated it was a nine minute video. That was pretty nice as we were able to leave much sooner than we were expecting.

I still have a ton of paperwork to fill out for my medical assistance and for my next degree in college. But as it stands now, I can see maybe there is hope yet.

Sign Here, and Here and There

So it starts. I am just a few weeks away from the end of this term and this degree. Now I get the joys of all the paperwork. I have to fill out papers for Financial Department to graduate as well as to re-enroll. I have to fill out papers for enrollment, more papers to choose classes and on and on.

E-mails and faxes are flying back and forth to get every detail taken care of. This one needs my signature, fill out that form, you have a choice between these classes and you must take this one. This is a required class but you can take it now or later.

The decisions I make during this month will set the path for the next two years of my life. So many details to cover, so many choices. I wonder at times, can I handle this?

I worry I will miss a critical detail and mess up the whole process. I think about 2 more years of classes and homework. It is a big decision to make, to commit 2 years to something.

But I know I can do it... I know I will succeed at this. So I will sign on all the dotted lines. I will e-mail, call or fax whatever is need to to whoever needs it. It will all be worth it.

By this time next year, I will be sitting here, knowing that I am almost done. And when I stand there at the end, with my Bachelor's degree in my hand and my Associate's on my wall, I will be happy and proud that I made it through. That day will be here sooner than it seems.

It is a wonderful feeling to be doing something that I never thought was possible for me.