I Almost Have a Life Again

So I have been a negligent blogger. I have no excuse except that I am terrible at multi-tasking. But my life should be getting simpler soon---only one more week of classes, a couple of exams, and I will be done with school forever (as a student at least)! Of course, hopefully I will get some teaching jobs after that to make my life more complicated again, but at least I will be getting paid for being busy for once. I am so excited.

I'm planning on applying at some of the schools Jascia teaches at (U. of Phoenix, DeVry, Axia) and also at Ivy Tech, even though I hear they are kind of crappy to their adjunt faculty. I don't care---I just want experience and a paycheck.

We're almost finished fixing up our house. We are putting it on the market soon. Yes, we are moving again. We just can't stay in one place for long. It's been nice to be closer to town, but we've decided that we want to be back in the country again. I like peace and quiet, and strangers who ALWAYS wave when you drive by, and Amish people, and letting dogs run free, and most of all, privacy. Our yard now backs up to 4 other yards and I really dislike that. We have an accepted offer on some land in Switzerland County (haven't told my mom yet---SHH! It's a secret). It is 20 acres that is secluded; surrounded by horse pastures and farmland. There is a farm next to the driveway and the goats get out and run around. There is a pond and lots of trees. No house yet. We'd build a pole barn and put an apartment in it until we have time and money to build a proper house. I don't think I want anything too big this time. We had so much wasted space in our last house that we never used, and I can't justify heating and cooling space that we don't need. Jamie wants to build a very environmentally-conscious house, and I said OK as long as it looks cool. LOL. And I want a big water heater. I really hate running out of hot water. Hopefully, it won't take too long to sell this place so we can get moving.

Mia is moving in the right direction! She's really getting stronger, and that helps her fine motor skills. She's starting to try to talk more, and we (her therapists) figure she's up to 12months-16 months in her skills (except verbal-she's not that far). She'll be 20 months soon, so she's still behind, but she's finally catching up. Yay! She has her developmental analysis appointment at Children's on June 1st (took 6 months to get in!). I'm kind of ambivalent about it. She is what she is, so I'm not sure what the point of making her take a bunch of tests is. Anyone know what I mean? We're already doing all we can to help her achieve to her fullest potential, so I'm not sure what the purpose is. But whatever. She's so much fun. She's a big smiler, and she thinks everything is hilarious, especially my horrible dancing. I hope I'm not permanently marring her perception of dance with my uncoordinated and dorky example. I try to supplement my dancing with plenty of videos to show her how it's really done. Beyonce's "Single Ladies" is her current favorite.

Well, I don't write often but when I do, it's a book!

Haircut

I cut Mia's hair today. It has been growing unevenly and she sort of had a mullet with long sideburns. So I chopped off the back and the sides and it looks better now. This is not her first haircut. I trimmed her bangs and sides a few months ago and she looked like Liza Minelli. So cute! I hope it all grows out a little more evenly now.

Festival of Lights

Mia and I decided to go to the Festival of Lights tonight. We tried to go with the rest of the family last week, but it was so crowded that we ended up going to the mall instead, but tonight was less busy. Don't get me wrong, it was still REALLY busy, but not as crazy as last Saturday night. After getting lost on the way to the zoo (despite thet fact that 1-I go there about once a month and 2-I was using the navigation on my cell phone), we finally got there around 6PM. It was a little chilly, but not bad at all. I must admit, I was a little disappointed. There were a lot of lights, but they were pretty much all white ones. It was kind of boring, but Mia loved it. She was fascinated with the lights and mostly all of the crazy, screaming children.


Mia at the zoo


Mia doing something weird
on the bench b/c apparently,
she is too cool to just sit like a
normal person.

Here is another pic from a few days ago. Mia was reading with Jamie and she was having a great time. She loves books:

She also likes Barney...a LOT!

Video of Mia laughing

This is a link to a video I took of Mia laughing. Dad was showing her a pop-up spinning top and she loved it. Sorry for the poor quality, but I only had my phone cam at the time. You can still hear her laugh, at least:
http://s56.photobucket.com/albums/g191/mariredwine/?action=view&current=bd3982b4.flv

Homework finally DONE!

This has been a killer semester. I'm took 4 graduate English classes that were very reading and writing intensive. This is by far the hardest semester I have ever had. The end of the term was the hardest, since all of the classes had multiple, big assignments due. I am happy to announce that I finished my last paper at midnight (the due date cutoff) and I am now free for a month until the next term starts. And that is the last one---yippee! I am now relaxing and baking some cookies for Tricia's big party tomorrow. It will be great to have some fun instead of studying until my brain gets mushy.

It's a crazy week. Mia's been sick and grumpy, that kind of sick where she only wants to be held for hours and hours. That is SOOOO not me. I get too fidgety. Thankfully, Mom and Dad came over today and they took care of her for several hours. She was totally Grandpa's girl, and she slept for a long time in his arms. He has the calm demeanor that Mom and I lack. But she is sleeping a little better tonight, so I am hoping she is on the mend. I am also hoping for more than 5 hours of sleep.

I went to the ski slopes today to get my paperwork ready for this year and they are already making snow! Yay! I am looking forward to getting away from the house sometimes and hanging out with adults. It's always fun there.

The next few weeks are going to be very busy for me. Here is my list of final projects for my classes: 15 page lit. crit. paper, 12-15 page Restoration lit. paper, 20 poem portfolio including analysis, and fiction portfolio containing at least 40 pages of my own fiction. And so far all I have done is...nothing. Ack! Anyone who reads this who would like to volunteer to do my homework will be welcomed with open arms. :) I've already registered for next semester and I only have 3 classes, so it will be easier. Plus it is my last semester ever. Jamie says that he's heard that before, but it is true. There is no way I'd want to spend all of that time and money on a phD.

Well, off to bed, hopefully for more than a few hours.

Vacation

We had a great time on our surprise vacation last week. Jamie and I had been kicking around the idea of going somewhere, but we were worried about being stressed out if we went somewhere far away with a baby in tow. Thankfully my old boss offered us the use of his house on Marco Island, FL. It was great! It is a lot easier to take care of Mia with a stock of toys and some room for her to move around. And since there was a van there we could also use, all we had to do was pay for airfare. I figured there was no way we could drive 19 hours with a young child. She did very well on her first flight. She was wiggly, but managed to stay in a good mood the whole 2.5 hours.

The house had a pool, so we spent every evening before dinner swimming. She was so worn out that she slept all night, every night we were there, which is unusal. The house had a boat and jet skis for our use, so we went out on the gulf one sunny afternoon. Poor Jamie was kind of stressed out driving the boat, but Mia fell asleep and I had the chance to kick back on the prow and relax.

We brought her to the Residents' Beach one day and she saw the ocean for the first time. She didn't seem to care too much. Jamie said she probably thought of it as a giant sound machine (she sleeps with her sound machine on ocean sounds every night). She tried to eat some sand which freaked me out (I think sand is gross), but she did like all of the seagulls that were flying around us. We also went to the Naples Zoo and Mia made friends with a leopard. Well, actually, I'm pretty sure the leopard was trying to figure out to eat her, but whatever.

The flights home were good. We connected in ATL and on both legs we had a middle seat free to put her in. That made it a lot easier. Overall, it was a great time. The only way it could have had a better time was if I didn't have so much stupid homework to do all week, but even that was OK in the warm Florida sun!