Full-time school?  Half-time school?  I’ve been back and forth on this for a few days now.  If I go full-time school, we’re talking major sacrifices at home and the little girl.  If I go half-time, my heart will break.  How do you choose?  When I started all this school stuff, it was under the condition that my girl comes first and everything else second.  Now, however, my focus has shifted and it saddens me.  Do I put myself first this time?  Or continue putting my girl first?  What’s a happy medium?  That when she’s in first grade, I’ll have the whole day to continue with school but in the meantime, I can only do half-time?

I know.. there are bigger problems in the world right now.  Trivial or not, I foresee some really good wrinkle cream in my future.

Yep, Erynne and I.  As well as the husband.  Yep, we’re all students once again.  The only difference is that E goes to night school.  He’s now looking at a degree in the medical field.  Quite a shift from his original degree in Engineering, isn’t it?  Well, with the way life is these days, there’s only one thing we can be at this point:  1) flexible and 2) open to change.  So here we are.  These changes will take a few hurdles but something I’m positive the three of us can overcome.  The husband did contemplate an online degree so that his evenings wouldn’t be sacrificed but in the end, he decided he’d go the other route — a real school setting.  Besides, the degree he wants isn’t being offered online.  If he was seeking an online teaching degree, it would have been perfect.  With the times as difficult as they are now and with unemployment rates rising as I type this, check out Western Governor’s University if you or someone you know someone is looking to change or further their careers.  They have a wide range of courses and degrees available for everyone — never leave home!

I’m in the middle of finishing my last final exam (it was a take-home exam that was decided last minute by the professor, woohoo!) but here I am, getting distracted by not only plasma mounts but surfing for other things that I really shouldn’t be doing right now.  Had a final this morning and had every intention of buckling down someplace quiet to make sure my evening would be free to work on another paper, but my head started pounding right after I took my final.  Change of plans ~ ended up at home, in bed.  Information overload, you think?

Lovely how I wait last minute on things when I could have easily done this last final last week (when it was distributed).  Old habits are indeed hard to break.  Christmas shopping?  Who?  Are you kidding me–not one person.  I plan to do all that when I get to Vegas as I’ll have less than a week to go before our Christmas party.  3 more days and we’re outta hea!

It is so brrrrr outside.  Bet it would be great to have heated mattress pads.  Especially since it seems my body is having a hard time trying to shake off this bug that wants to invade my system.  My voice isn’t quite back to normal yet and I have this constant itchy throat.  Been drinking ginger/lemon/honey tea for the past week and religiously downing my vitamins but this bug just doesn’t want to take a hint.  Getting sick right now is the last thing I need.  I think whatever I have all started when I was drowning in stress over some writing assignments that I procrastinated on last minute (I had since the beginning of the semester to complete my work but instead, I waited til last minute — gee, so typical of me).  It also doesn’t help that it is just so flippin’ cold.

Looking forward to heading to Vegas for a holiday break.  But before that happens, I have a major paper to write, some chapters to reread in time for my final essay exam and more studying.  Still luckier than most because I’m only taking 2 classes this semester.  Christmas shopping will have to take a backseat for now.  Keeping house and being mommy and wifey on top of school is enough for me to handle right now.

Fingers crossed my body doesn’t shut down.  Afterall, us mommies don’t have a call-in-sick option.

No school today.  No kid.  No hubby.  Just silence.  Well, except for the pork that’s boiling for sinigang.  It’s sooo cold out there, there’s nothing like hot and sour soup to rescue the day.  Heh, funny how I’m talking about how cold it is — I’m in California, for crying out loud.

Anyways.

Since I had some time on my hand, thought I’d research this online university called Western Governors University (WGU).  It was founded by the governors of 19 U.S. States and offers nationally and regionally accredited online bachelor’s and master’s degrees for busy adults like you and me.  I love the flexibility of an online education but wonder if my lack of discipline would hurt me in the end.  I guess I won’t know ’til I try, eh?  Graduate school is definitely a part of my plans — just not sure which direction I’d like to go, whether that’s to stick with education (I want to follow my kid around, see *lol*) or pursue an online mba.

Don’t worry,  WGU is nationally, regionally, NCATE, and CCNE accredited.  Tuition is very affordable — they don’t charge you per course or per credit, only a flat rate every term.  Need financial aid?  Not to worry, the Department of Education has approved WGU in offering financial aid assistance to its students.  That’s music to my ears — I’ve got bad enough loans from my undergrad work as it is!

It’s Friday night and I’m waiting for E to come out of our room so we can get started on a movie (The Taking of Pelham 123, have you seen it?) .  The little girl still sleeps in our room and isn’t used to sleeping on her own yet — I should have known leaving her by herself wasn’t going to work.  Daddy to the rescue… and it’s been more than 30 minutes already.

It is unbelievably quiet right now as I speak type.  So not used to it, it’s almost scary.   Just glanced at my lovely moleskin and whatdayaknow.  I have essays due the night before our trip to DC and an exam before our flight.  Niiice.  And then sometime when we return, I have a research paper due shortly thereafter.  Which reminds me, I’d better contact my Mary Kay lady and see what she has for acne treatments — bet I’ll need it!

I hear footsteps.  Finally.  Popcorn, anyone?

My sister and I were catching up the other night and she disclosed that she is thinking about heading back to school to get her Masters in Nursing.   She’s had this plan even before she graduated from Nursing school but I didn’t realize it would be so soon.  Her only concern, however, is that she can’t afford to give up her job (what with that beautiful mortgage of hers and just recently, her new car).  So knowing what I know about Masters degrees online, I suggested she take a look at Gonzaga University’s online programs for Masters in Nursing.  She didn’t believe such a private and respectable school would even offer such a program so she looked it up herself and realized I wasn’t lying (Annie Lenox, where you at?!).  I know it’s surprising to even fathom the idea of Gonzaga University handing out online degrees but I think it’s awesome.  Did you know they are ranked as one of the nation’s best university by the the Princeton Review and Forbes magazine?  Not only that, they are also ranked number 3 in the West by US News and World Report.  Naturally, all this excited my sister — she can consider getting her Masters while still maintaining her day job.  How much more perfect can it get?

Tomorrow night, I will be taking my final exam for my summer class.  I was originally enrolled for 2 classes this summer but ended up dropping one of them so as to get a feel for how things would go when I combined my duties and responsibilities at home with that of school.  Seems I am a lot better at multi-tasking than I thought.  Fall semester starts next week – I’ll be enrolled in 2 (possibly 3) classes and hope that things will go just as well as it did this semester.  I’ve had to schedule my classes based on the little girl which doesn’t give me much room to move, but I won’t complain too much.  Things are going way too well.

That said, I’ve really enjoyed being back in (night) school.  It’s been great ‘me-time,’ I just can’t express.  Going to class is such a sweet escape because I’m doing something where my brain actually has to work again – and I love it.  Back when I was still a kid in college (sounds so ancient, doesn’t it?), I hated taking evening classes because I was always too afraid that I would miss out on happenings with my friends.  That’s the kind of student I was back then – there for the social aspects of college and the good times that come with it.  Now, though, being back in school has taken on new meaning and I’m actually respectful of my work, my deadlines, the instructor – I never missed a class the whole summer save for that day that I walked out after the teacher lectured that night’s topic and all the important stuff, I was able to jot down.  My whole attitude towards school has changed so much even I am amazed at my own maturity.  But I guess this is how it had to happen – everyone’s journey will never be the same.  Sure it might have taken me years to buckle down but that’s alright.  I’ll have had the best time getting to where I need to be.  In fact, the idea of looking into Masters degrees online isn’t foreign to me.  But I don’t want it to be just from any online university.  I’m thinking more along the lines of Gonzaga University, one of the nation’s best universities by The Princeton Review and Forbes Magazine.  I’ve just come to find out they offer online programs – yes, a school that is ranked top 3 in the West!  (Friends and I had the privilege of attending a week long volleyball camp at GU back in high school.  We got to live in the dorms, play on their campus and pretend we were college students living the life — it was an honor itself to be on the campus!).  The possibilities are endless from here on out.

I haven’t blogged about it but I’ve enrolled back into school and have been taking an evening class a few days a week since the end of June.  Things are going well (got an A- on my first midterm, yayy!)  and if all turns out well (read: I ace the class!), I think I’m finally going to reward myself with that netbook I was talking about a few weeks ago.  My class ends in a few weeks.  I think I’ve decided on an HP netbook and hope that there will be one on sale by the time I’m ready to buy *fingers crossed*.  At least I have something to look forward to because God knows it was such a sacrifice to give up most of my summer to take an evening class.  Let’s see what happens.