Friday, September 2, 2011

Its only happened 2 times in the past 20 years

Thursday proved to be an interesting day at school. It started off as a typical day trying to adjust to yet another new schedule. Our teacher had to leave at 11, so she left, and we tried to figure out lunch times for us adults. We then sat around and discussed the new rotation thing we were doing and why it was so confusing and then I left for lunch. I get back from lunch around 12:15, and while in the hallway near the cafeteria, I hear a huge boom. I shrug it off as though someone has dropped something in the kitchen. Been known to happen. About 5 minutes later, our principal comes on the announcements and says we are going to a code yellow. I know this means go to the classroom, make sure doors are locked, and be on the lookout. Trying to get kids who aren't done eating into the classroom is difficult!

5 minutes after this she comes on the announcements again and says that if we have an outside facing door, to open it. This is when I start to get panicky. This same day Stewart's Creek had gone into a code red mode, because someone was spotted near the school with a gun. I knew then we weren't dealing with an intruder, but something was up.

Another 5 minutes pass, and she gets on the PA system and says we need to evacuate. Now, our kids. We are right in the middle of their nap time. Its around 12:40ish at this point. Not to mention its getting to be around 95 or hotter outside! Oh my. Thank goodness our student teacher said grab our purses because if she hadn't there is no way we would have gotten home or anything!

We end up waiting outside what seems like an eternity, only 45 mins or so probably. We walk out to our normal place and then are told to get further away from the building and pushed to the field way in the back. I also have the radio and hear communication between the officials, and that's when I hear its a gas leak, and we are relocating to another school. The fire department showed up, ambulances, and police cars. They started blocking off driveways left and right. We are able to get transported to another school, just down the road, and everything turns out fine.

It was an eventful Thursday. I'm glad the kids behaved so well, well as well as can be expected for autistic kids in 95 degree heat, during nap time! Things were safe to go back into today, but I was really hoping for a 4 day weekend, and a me day! :) Somethings don't happen that way.

Onto personal news: Kenneth and I have passed the application process for the apartment, and are signing the lease on Wednesday. Things are getting packed up, but as of tonight, I'm going to start putting everything into the guest bedroom, since it will be empty. Move in date is set for 3 weeks from today. I don't know if I mentioned this before, but moving into this apartment will help us save more than 200$ extra dollars a month. So we should be racking in major savings in the next few months. Which will be great, so we can get a house when I get out of nursing school or physical therapy school.

That brings me to my next topic. I've decided that I'm going to apply to 3 colleges for nursing school, and another 3 to become a physical therapy assistant or occupational therapy assistant. I decided I didn't want to become a Radiologic Technology Program because I was scared for radiation issues, that I didn't want to know I might have caused. I looked at an ultrasound tech, but I'm sorry, those pictures just confuse me! Medical transcriptionist might be fun, but I can't sit behind a computer all day and type up notes! Maybe when I'm 70, sure, but not now! :) So that leaves me with those options. Physical therapy assistant is pretty appealing because I've got all the prereq's, I just would have one year to complete, but it requires a ton of volunteer hours, and I'm not sure how I would squeeze that into my already busy life. Occupational would be fun, because there are so many things that you can work with them on. Squeezing things, holding pencils, all fun stuff. So yea, those are my thoughts with my schooling as of now.

Saturday, August 27, 2011

Count Down!

In 27 days we will move from our place where we live now to a 1 bedroom! It has a garden tub, a SUPER small kitchen, but the living room is HUGE! I was hoping to get vaulted ceilings on the 3rd floor, but Kenneth wouldn't let us sign till this weekend, so we had only 1 option! :( I'm interested in how it will all work. We will be living here. I'm excited about it, and hoping I can find storage for everything we have. Kenneth gets NFL Red Zone ticket or something like that, and I might be able to finally stop working two jobs with how much we will be saving! So that's a plus!

In 36 days Kenneth and I will celebrate being married for 1 year. I can't believe how fast its coming up. I probably will be making a post documenting our 1 year. Its been a tough one. Between me working two jobs and all the adjustments that are had during the first year. I'm thankful for the patience of my husband. I'm just looking forward to being moved out of our first place and into what we will call home for the next 11 to 12 months. And maybe eating at the Melting Pot :)

In 49 days Kenneth hits the downhill slide to 30 :) I'm being so mean to him. It's just so fun to say haha, you will be 26 here soon!

So thats the countdown for the next few weeks. I like to hit things fast! The next few weekends are going to be spent packing. I'm also working on cleaning up the pantry and all my stockpiling goodies.

Thursday, August 18, 2011

Sorry I've been MIA for a little while. School started up, then add house hunting, working at Kroger, and weekend trips to Memphis, life has lost it!

We are about to end our 2nd week of school. The kindergarteners start tomorrow, so that will be an interesting twist. We have 5 kids right now, and are adding 4 or 5 tomorrow. We have a runner, 2 that have seizures, and a special one all in one group. So life should get fun tomorrow! But we also have gained 2 behavior EAs! And we'll be getting a student teacher when college starts up. So maybe things will calm down for us and we will be able to take a break and a 30 minute lunch without kids!

We headed to Memphis this past weekend. Kenneth wanted to play golf with his dad, and his brother in law, Ben has learned how to play golf, so they did a golf outing while, me, Laura, and his mom ran errands, ate lunch, saw a movie, and got a pedicure. It was so much fun!! It was a good way to end the first week of school! :)

I'm still working at kroger, but there has been some management switching and I'm not to sure how I feel about it. I love that the money I earn puts extra towards a house, but at the same time, I'm tired of looking around my apartment and being like oh my! Its a mess! I have 2 nights a week to make grocery lists, do laundry, prepare meals, vacuum, clean the bathrooms. Saturday is my day that I do nothing except grocery shop. That doesn't leave much time to do other things.

We go to look at the townhome we really want to rent on Saturday. If its not as nice as the pics say, then we will move into an apartment a few miles down the road. I'm hoping we get the townhome. Its got a huge kitchen. I just don't know if it has a washer and dryer.. kinda deal breakers. Time will tell on Saturday.

Anyway this ended up being super long, so I'm getting off here, eating my Buffalo Wild Wings, watching Psych, and then crashing! I am reading your posts, just barely having time to comment :(

Wednesday, July 27, 2011

Whats been happening!

Well I'm still not sure what I'm going to do. But I do know this: Nothing is going to happen this year!

I do know this. School starts next week!! Ekk! I'm going to miss my free time and being able to lay by the pool. But it's a good thing, because I will be able to pack up the house! So that's a plus right?

Kenneth and I have gotten into a routine this summer and I'm hoping it will last. We pick out meals on Saturday, and then we grocery shop. I have all the staple items we need, so its mainly produce and things on sale that I can get cheap or free with my coupons. Meat comes from Food Lion or Sams Club so its frozen in the freezer just waiting to be thawed out. We normally plan 3 meals, of course this week we planned on 3 and made only 2. We ended up with so much left over! I like this routine, and HOPE we can keep it up when school starts back!

We will be moving in about 6 to 8 weeks, so I'm in the process of packing up some items, and limiting what I'm purchasing! That's the harder task. Our rent at this apartment has gone up to over the $900 mark, and we could make things work and pay that amount, but we are choosing to downsize and save up more for schooling and to put more into savings for our house. So just hope we can find an apartment we both like that is reasonable!! :)

It looks like for all the schools that might accept me, I have to take one more PSY class, so I will probably end up taking that online next spring. Then fingers crossed we will hear something by mid-year 2012. A lot longer than I wanted to wait, but sometimes things are out of your control. But I'm thankful, I get to go back to the wonderful group of kids we have at school! And what this year holds. The kids I started working with last year will graduate this year, so maybe its good how things work out!

I went shopping at Publix today. The sales they were having I wasn't that impressed with but they have a coupon for $1.00 kids deli meal, and that will be good for my lunches, and I can print as many as I want off and it doesn't expire until Sept 30!! :) But they also had pop-tarts on sale (BOGO from $1.99). My Publix allows competitor from Target, so I bought 6, used 2 - $2.00 off 3 and then 2 - $1.00 target coupons and ended up paying only TAX! I gave 3 to mommy and Kenneth and I are going to keep 3. Not a bad deal on pop tarts! I'm glad I didn't spend them a few weeks ago at Target when I wanted to!

Anyway, just wanted to give a very quick run down on whats happening. I'm going to run to Target to see what I can find, then to pick up a few things before the weekend, when Laura and Ben come down!

Tuesday, July 12, 2011

Nursing or Teaching..

That's my question on my mind.

I have been trying to get back into nursing school since I graduated from college. This means failed attempts at getting into Motlow, talking to people at Cumberland, Tennessee State, and here recently Memphis. I got everything ready for Memphis as of last Feb, but missed the TEAS test they require you to take by just a few points in science. So I planned on working on getting that score up and applying for the Spring semester. I finally managed to pass this test last Tuesday. I get a call on Wed. They say since I've been academically disqualified, I'm not allowed to be a candidate for the program. I start screaming at her! No where on the application does it state that. I write up a very nice email and send it to the dean. That's a no go. So now I'm back a square one.

I know I want to pick a major that I love. Public Health was literally something I picked one day flipping through the catalog. So I'm thinking go to school and become a teacher, or keep trying to do nursing. There is a college I can go to that my credits "expire" after 5 years, but we are talking 2013.. thats when we had planned on Kenneth starting law school. I could become a teacher. I would be happy with that. But all the pressure that is put on teachers I'm not sure I would enjoy that aspect of it. This is just a post about me rambling. Maybe I will have a clearer picture in the next few weeks.

Wednesday, June 22, 2011

Six Flags ATL

Kenneth and I love coasters! I mean we went to Disney World/Universal on our honeymoon, Busch Gardens for my spring break, and now for our summer break we decided to go to Six Flags. I have been to Six Flags before, but that was a long time ago. It was a lot of fun, and a much needed get away, it was just super crowded! Each ride had at least a 45 to an hour long wait, which means you got to ride about 5 to 6 rides in a day. Not like Disney or Universal! We could have paid more for a Fast Pass, but I didn't see the point in wasting 20 dollars on it for just one! Even though we didn't have to pay for parking (thanks to me for finding an awesome hotel within walking distance). It also decided to rain most days around 5 and the day that we were actually at the park, it was hailing and storming and the power actually went out!

We drove down Friday after my shift. Saturday we spent at the theme park. We rode the Georgia Scorcher, Batman, Superman (my favorite), a water ride (Thunder River), Great American Scream Machine (we got air on this ride!). Then on Sunday we did the water park (White Water). Kenneth has been bugging me forever to do a water park with him, so this was a great opportunity for us to do that! We were able to do a few more rides on this one, but we did have to leave early to go visit Mr. Coke, his uncle who is the VP for the coke division in the south. It was nice to visit with his family, I feel bad for forgetting that they lived in ATL but we are planning on going back, so we will stay with them next time! Then on Monday we went to IKEA, got some cinnamon rolls and just toured the place! I got a bamboo serving bowl and spoons, and a cheese grater. We plan on going back at the beginning of next year, when we are trying to furnish our new place. And that was our trip to ATL. Very short, but a good get-a-way.

Kenneth and I want to go back. We will probably do a city pass, now that I've heard about them again (thanks Powers!). There are many things on there now that I'm thinking about it, that I would like to do. The World of Coke sounds good, the Zoo since they have the baby pandas :), and the aquarium, since its the largest in the US. Would all be fun to do. But I'm really not sure when the next time we will be able to do any type of vacation.

Other than that life is unique. Its hard to believe that in a few days.. well 3ish weeks, Kenneth's sister will have been married a year, and we will have lived in this apartment for a year. In about 100 days we will be celebrating our one year, and probably moving out of here. The next 6 months are all going to be about some change, but its going to be an exciting few months.

Thursday, June 2, 2011

Summer!!

Summer has officially begun! Well it did about a week ago, and boy is it great!! I'm sleeping in till 8:40. I set my alarm, so I don't sleep the day away. Kenneth gets up and makes me breakfast, he does his P90X and I take a shower (if I have Kroger work early), if I don't I head down to the pool to spend it with my sister and mom. Yesterday we had one of my sisters friends over and her baby. I got to take the baby (3 month old) up to the apartment and let him nap. It was so much fun! One more reason for us to get our schooling in order!

I just got 3 more swim suits for a grand total of $70! So I'm hoping they all fit me when they come in. There are some cute ones! This one from Victoria Secret in both colors and then another one at Target. The one at Target ended up costing me next to nothing thanks to coupons and sales! Originally 17.99, I got it for 4.58, used a 3.00 off, and got it for 1.58!! Now I'm just trying to find bottoms to match, but I do have black bottoms I can always wear, along with white ones, so we shall see! If you go to target, be on the look out for Clover colored swim suit bottoms. I would like the solid, but am not picky at this point. We are going to try super target on our way out of town and also the Memphis one.

We decided to scrap the Biltmore trip and go with a trip to Six Flags instead. So we are visiting the park along with the water park in 2 weeks!

Other than that, I'm just living life and trying to budget. We are officially down to one income for the next few months, and I'm not sure if we can afford it :) I might need to cut back on grocery shopping, which I could do, if we plan our meals by the month, and not by the week. All my Kroger paychecks go into our savings account, for school expenses, baby expenses, car expenses, things of that like.

Other than that I will try to get on here and blog more than I have. I've done really good about blogging with my savings blog, but this one, I just haven't had much to say. Hopefully summer and all the trips will come in with some interesting topics! And for now I'm signing off and studying. To Memphis we go tomorrow!