Sooo the conclusion of another month approaches and I look back in retrospect to see whether I have accomplished anything.. Some internship hours, some work, some cooking, some gaming, and some freaking out. Yup.
We had planned on heading out to my mom's for Thanksgiving Break, but Jed only got the day of Thanksgiving off and was hopeful for better commission sales on Black Friday. I thought that I would be able to get shifts Thanksgiving day/weekend, but I didn't volunteer early enough so I had Wednesday through Monday off of internship, work, or anything else. I guess it's nice, but kinda sucks when I'm stressed out over getting my internship hours and when we could use the money.
Though we did finally get our Pell Grants 10 weeks into a 14 week semester. And of course the school said that it wouldn't make a difference for FAFSA if I added another credit to be at 6 instead of 5. I knew I should have just done it because I could have gotten an additional $700 free moneys. Granted, I'm gonna graduate with 160 credits and they start kicking people out at 120. I don't even know if petitioning will allow you to take classes outside your major/minor after 120 so I might not have been able to get that extra class anyway. Whatever BYU-I, whatever.
I'm trying to force myself to study for my licensure exam (which I finally signed up for Dec 19, eeps!) during any down time, but also worked on getting my WOW character to the maximum level of 85 this weekend (success!), lol. To show how good I've been about not playing too much, an avid gamer could easily level his character to 85 in a matter of a few months and this character has taken me 11 months. So there. :P
yea, i'm that secure in my nerdiness that i'll post a screen shot of my character
(though i just took it so the lighting is poor as it's night time)
We also will not be going to Virginia as planned for Christmas. It's been in the plans for a year now that we, along with Jed's parents, go out to stay with Jed's sister and bro-in-law as they have 1.5 children to deal with (not so good for traveling). We were excited to visit the East Coast, as neither of us had been, and seeing the sites and maybe a few friends (*cough* Rou-Jia and Juliana *cough*). But as we got closer we realized that we had no money (like nooooo money until our Pell Grants came through) and that Jed wouldn't be able to get enough time off work to make it worth it anyway. So we're staying home and getting a mini tree and starting our own traditions. I'm also working Christmas Eve morning and Christmas Day night, leaving the traditional celebration time open for us. Now if I only got paid time and a half for holidays...
We will not be moving to a new apartment at the end of the semester as planned. The owner let us know that the previous tenants will not be moving out til mid-January and that is too complicated for us to coordinate. So we will be staying here at least until the end of next semester (April) and then hopefully moving into a more spacious, better lit, better heated/cooled, newer, nicer apartment. And by then we'll hopefully be able to buy some furniture too, lol.
So my internship is kinda lame. I chose it because the other options weren't as feasible for various reasons and I needed something to switch into from my precious as quickly as possible. I also had been offered a job doing PSR with children, so I figured that it would be good to work with kids since I don't have a ton of experience with littler ones. Unfortunately, I haven't been able to work with a social worker or counselor at all, only a paraprofessional, and haven't done much in the line of social work, just mostly teacher's aid kind of stuff. Don't get me wrong, the para that I work with is great at what she does and she's a good woman, but I'm going to be a social worker next month and this isn't really preparing me to be that. I'm trying to just push through and get the rest of my hours regardless of whether I'm learning jack just so I can graduate and move on and learn stuff in the real world of hands on social work.
i did several days of cutting letters in the plethora of downtime i get at my internship....
this is how we teach conflict management to small kids .. yes, i made this puppet myself!
I am so incredibly stressed about the next three weeks. If I don't get 70 more hours at my internship, I don't graduate. I also need to turn in my portfolio that I'm perfectionisting all over. And then there's my licensure exam. I have to study hardcore. If I fail, we loose $230 to take it, $60 registration fee, and then gas money to drive to Ogden and the hotel costs to stay the night before so I'm rested for it. Besides money and a huge hit to my pride, I wouldn't be able to retake it for 3 months and wouldn't be able to get a job. Failure, therefore, is not an option. High stress? Oh yes. Very much so.
Jed is at his wit's end at work. It's just getting just terrible to work there. Far too stressful and then affects his school work too. I don't want to say too much, but some changes might be coming up soon...
I finished training at 5-C in the 6 prescribed weeks, though weeks ahead of my cohort. I was the first to take a Unlicensed Assistive Personnel certification course too, which allows me to pass meds. I can take real shifts now, but I'm only a reserve staff, meaning I am on call or fill in for full timer's vacations, etc. Hence, I haven't had too many shifts lately.
Thanksgiving dinner was fun. We made bell pepper stuffed with pine nut couscous, sauteed onion and mushroom, and crumbled tofu; mashed potato from yukon golds; whole cranberry sauce from fresh cranberries; sauteed mushroom; corn on the con; rolls; sparkling cider; and blackberry pie for dessert. It was 100% vegan if you exclude the gravy and 100% delicious! Jed had the option of turkey and didn't bother, so it's not like I was forcing him into vegan food. Trust me, he's not vegan, lol. :P
We skipped Black Friday other than online shopping (now that is the way to go), but went to IF Saturday. It was so nice to be out with Jed all day and we got a bunch of Christmas decorations for our little apartment including an awesome wreath and a 6' $20 fake tree. We're not putting up the tree quite yet; it's still November! We Chebuhar's never put the tree up til several days before Christmas, but I suppose it'll go up a couple weeks ahead at the Parker's Jr this year. We'll see when we get around to it. :P
We had a little gathering of our nearest and dearest (in Rexburg that is) Sunday for the company and to show off our from-scratch cider recipe. It was way fun and we loved having everyone over.
yes, we need more seating..
Additional pictures/occurrences:
a little something Jed left on my bedside table: man holding a heart :D
it's since melted off again, but this was the true first snow fall
ironic little area in a neighboring town
Jed finally got some winter boots as Converse just don't do it in our weather
also got some at-cost awesome new monitors that he's been drooling over for months
and a brand new PS3 for $120! it's basically a glorified dvd player :P
aww I was gearing up to ask you guys what your christmas plans were :( it's too bad you won't make it out here but I'm glad you guys will get a chance to have some quiet chill time with each other :)
ReplyDeletesorry to hear work has been stressful for you both :( tell jed (the same thing I always tell him and you now!): you can do it!!! he's never really had the best luck with a nice work environment...*hugs* for you both.