lately.....

I know, I know! It's been forever since I have written; I'm a bad blogger! Truth is, I have been SO BUSY I haven't had time to anything even slightly fun during the week. Every time I come to write in my blog my online classes taunt me and the scattered books across my floor remind me they are not going to read themselves....so here I am, better late than never.

Let me just re-cap the past few weeks and let everyone (ha the 3 maybe 4 people who read my blog!) know why I am slacking on my blogging.

Taylor's car was STOLEN from his apartment two weeks ago. Luckily, he is safe and unharmed, but the valuables in his car are gone along with his yukon. For those who don't know, he drove a 03 black yukon on 20" wheels, so we're assuming it was taken to a chop shop immediately after it was stolen and taken apart to sell pieces individually. Besides the initial shock/sadness/anger we both felt the first day, we should be thankful that this was a tangible item: a very LARGE tangible item, but replaceable none the less. He lives in a nice area in Dallas, but unfortunately the world doesn't care if you're a decent 23 year old recent college graduate who can't afford a new car payment...... So Taylor, his dad and their great car dealer in Longview have come up with affordable payments for his NEW 2009 GMC SIERRA TEXAS EDITION he will be getting on Thursday! We were hoping he wouldn't have to be making car payments at all for a while, but you deal with what God puts on your plate, and here we are!

I am taking 17 hours this semester (one class being a PSYC 485 research project) and taking a clep test within the next month to place out of developmental psychology. My psyc 485 is in educational psychology department and we are assisting current PhD students administer personality tests and WJ-III tests to middle school students. It's a longitudinal study and started approx. 7-8 years ago, depending on the cohort, and is going very well thus far. The training has been extensive and I have put many more hours into this class than I had anticipated, but I am really enjoying it. It makes me realize why I went into psychology in the first place--kids! Since I have decided that I can NOT handle 5 more years of school to obtain my PhD (Ivy is an absolute rock star!!), that maybe I still can work with kids. I am researching getting my alternative teaching certification, teaching for a few years, and then getting my masters in counseling. Even if I decide not to go back to school, I really have spent countless hours researching, discussing, thinking and praying about why God put this teaching idea into my lap. When I started working with kids again this semester, it just clicked again. I was like WOW, this is what I miss from highschool, this is what I truly enjoy doing. I love fashion, it is certainly a "hobby" of mine, but I feel almost useless working with fashion after I graduate. It is certainly not as fulfilling as making a difference in someone's life. So we will see where God leads me...

Needless to say, completing 20 hours of school your last semester of college + figuring out your first job after college is anything but joyous. I have had several breakdowns, but I just remind myself it's just a means to an end, and the end is oh so near. I am graduating in May. May! May! May! Actually, May 15th at 9am to be exact! I'll just keep focusing on the mini goals I set for myself in order to make it to May 15th! two and a half months left!

Well that's what's been going on as of late, but I'm sure I left out something significant. Taylor and I spent Valentine's weekend in Tyler at his brother and sister in law's house visiting the twins, and we had a BLAST. I am absolutely enamored with those precious angels, and am so glad we got to spend a weekend with them. I will post pictures later this week to prove how perfect they are! I'm going to visit Jessie in Austin this weekend, thank goodness. I miss that girl tremendously and can't wait to catch up with my girl.

I'll blog again SOON!