New School Year / Boot Camp

Zac's teacher finally called just before lunch on Monday.  Kaleb's teacher didn't call until nearly 2 in the afternoon.  This is the first year our school is calling parents instead of posting class lists.  The teacher found out who was in their class on Friday last week.  Some people were called over the weekend, I was not, I hate to wait.

Last night we met the teachers.  Found the classrooms and dropped off supplies.  Friday is the first day of school and I can't wait!

My first day of school is Monday.  I can't wait for that either.

************************************************************

I've been going to boot camp since August 1st.  I go twice a week and then walk 3 days a week with Sophie.  We walk for between an hour and an hour and a half.  The only downside is I have to get up at 4:30 every morning to do this.  I'm still trying to decide if I want to continue with the boot camp after September 1st.  I'd like to but it's a total money issue so we'll see after I complete bills at the end of the month.

Waiting....

So, this year the school district decided not to post class lists on the front of the schools and instead the teachers will call the families of the children in their class.  Sounds ok, right?

Wrong.

The teachers found out on Friday who they had in their class.  Some parents got calls on Saturday.  Some parents got calls on Sunday.  I haven't gotten any calls.

I hate to wait.

I hate surprises.

I don't even like not knowing what is in a wrapped gift for me.

This wait is killing me!

Especially since all my neighbors who have kids the same age as mine got their calls already.

Since we still haven't gotten a call, that narrows the field down to 2 possibilities for Kaleb and 4 for Zac.

Have I mentioned I H.A.T.E. waiting?!?

Back in school...

I'm now enrolled in school. My financial aid is back. I only go to classes on Monday and Wednesday. Unfortunately the last 8 weeks I have to go to a class on M/W from 8:15pm - 9:45pm...that's past my bedtime but my only other choice was M/W from 3pm-5:30pm during the 1st 8 weeks which created a problem of what to do with the boys. This is in addition to the classes I have from 8:30am-12:45pm.
The crazy thing is that 2 of the classes I'm taking I've had in the academy but because Norman PD just put "Norman Police Academy" and a block of hours I can't prove I've taken them.  Oh well, should be easy A's.

Things Happen for a Reason

Anyone who knows me, knows that I am NOT super religious. Never have been. Organized religion never lines up with my beliefs so I do my own thing. Anyway, this post isn't really about that.

2 things in the last week which when going through it I thought "it's got to be happening for a reason but what reason?"

1.  The financial aid fiasco at school. I really want to take sign language but it's just not in the cards right now.  But I NEED to get a Bachelors degree.  So the financial aid stuff sort of forced me in that direction.  I'll find out today if it all works out...fingers crossed!

2.  Dog search.  Tried 2 more local shelters and ended up having to drive, literally across the city.  I kept thinking while driving how much gas we were using getting there. I'm cheap and don't like to waste things, like expensive gas.  We found the perfect dog.  Had someone been at the Mustang shelter or answered the phone at Pets and People we would have looked and maybe gotten a less perfect dog.  Sophie had been at the shelter for over a month, her time was short. I can't believe no one took her home before us. She is so exceptionally well behaved.

I know things happen for a reason, but I'd still like the fast forward  or sneak peak button to see why things are happening a certain way when they aren't working out how I think they should be.

Going Back to School...Probably...

Right after Justin's wedding I decided I wanted to go back to school.  I mean the car ride home from the reception I had this idea.  So I enrolled in the Sign Language Interpreting Associates program at OSU-OKC, applied for financial aid and got my classes all lined up.  A PELL grant was awarded in June, enough to cover books and tuition; awesome!  I went back up to the financial aid office to decline the loans they also approved me for and asked if everything else was taken care of and set for the semester.  They said yes and that I just needed to wait until August 5th to charge books to my account.

This last Wednesday I get an e-mail from the school saying there is a problem with some paperwork and my financial aid may be suspended.  WTF?!?  The next day I get an e-mail that says my grant was in fact suspended and that I have to pay $1,000 for the classes I'm signed up for.

I went to the school today to find out what the heck is going on.  The financial aid office said I have too many hours but I can appeal that.  Fine.  She asked if I already had a degree and I said that yes I have 2 associates degrees.  She said I can't appeal then.  She did say that if I go for a Bachelors Degree I can have the grant money, so I asked if there was a bachelors degree that related to Sign Language Interpreting; Of course not.  The only one they offer is in Emergency Responder Administration.  So I asked if they had scholarships available.  She said I'd have to talk to the Department about that.  Fine.

I drive across campus to the department...the guy literally left for lunch 1 minute before I walked in.  Wonderful.  So I wait for an hour.  While waiting I picked up the degree information for the Bachelors Degree and it actually looked interesting.  I figured with the 2 degrees I have I should be able to get into the program.

The Advisor gets back and I explained to him about the grant being suspended.  I also said that I was interested in the Bachelors degree (he is an advisor for that degree as well).  He looked at my information and said that I needed an AAS in Police Science to get into the program.  Well, shit.  So he continues saying that it was designed for students who had completed the COPS program.  Well I did!  So I told him.  Apparently since I graduated 13 years ago, the COPS program is now an AAS, when I went through in the first class it was an AS.  So he looks at my transcripts and since I'm a certified officer he figured I'd just have to take a couple of classes to satisfy the AAS part and I could start the Bachelors.  As he was going through my AA/AS degrees he realized I'm done with the AAS as well.

So now I will have a 3rd Associates, all three in Police Science, and AA, AS and AAS.  I graduate with the AAS officially in summer 2013, yes, it's already passed.  Then I will enroll in the Bachelors program and be able to use the PELL grant and should start as planned in mid August.

I still really want to take sign language and I will when I'm done with the Bachelors.

1st day of Kindergarten!

Zachary's first day of Kindergarten was on Friday, August 20th. It was actually an orientation day so I had to go with him and he was only there from 9:00-9:30, they also split up his class into groups of about 7 so he wasn't able to meet all the kids until the following Monday. I'm not sure why the school decided to coddle the kids but, whatever. I thought all the schools in our district did this but found out over the weekend our school is the only one. So Zachary's first real day was Monday the 23rd, he was very excited, found his classroom just fine and loved every minute of it and that's what counts!