No more fun in college....

This 5 week course is driving me bonkers. I began this semester knowing that it was going to be tough, but now I feel like either a complete idiot or a freakin' genius. Why would I sign up for this?

Here is how the schedule is going....

Mondays- lab from 7:30am to 11:00am. Lab test every Monday over whatever we did on Wednesday. Lecture from 11:00-1. SI lab from 1:30 to 2:30, and SI lecture from 2:45 to 3:45. I pick up the kids and play with them for a bit and then by 6pm, I am in my room studying for the lab test the next day until bedtime!

Tuesdays-same schedule as above with another lab test over what we did the day before. 

Wednesdays-same schedule as above with another lab test over what we did the day before.

Thursday- no classes so that we can study for the test on Friday.

Friday- Lecture exam from 10:00am to 12:00pm. 

Saturday and Sunday I study for the test on Monday. 4 days a week...tests. I am stressed and tired. 

I would much rather be out with my kids at the beach, hanging at the museum, or even school shopping. I have taken off from Facebook, I rarely speak to any of my friends during the week, and yesterday, I took a break to go get a pedicure and do a quick round of shopping at Maurices with my friend, Carmela. It was so helpful to take a quick break, although in my heart, I felt so guilty for not studying every single waking moment I had. 

Oh let it go, think positive thoughts, and move on. Let's hope I got an A on my test Friday. Finding out tomorrow! Fingers crossed!!!!

Fun with college...

On my mission to get A's in all my upper level science classes, I am prepared to take tons of pictures. When I signed up for this class for summer school, I was fully aware it would be very fast paced and hectic. This is VERY fast paced and super HECTIC!

We have had 4 lectures and 3 labs and basically, we are 4 weeks into a semester in this amount of time. So this week, I learned to take blood pressures and preformed surgery on a cow heart. 

I haven't had time to eat lunch much less do anything so, today, after my first lecture exam, I eat lunch, relax, and browse the internet. 

No more of this...

or this....

or this....

for at least 2 more days!

Summer School

My summer is officially over! I started back to school yesterday to get Anatomy and Physiology II out of the way in 5 weeks. Crazy? Yes! But Why would I want to go to this class for 13 weeks, when I can finish it in 5 weeks?

This class is going to be super fast paced, pretty difficult, and will take up a HUGE portion of my time. Everyone I have talked to says that an A is possible if you don't have a life. Well, I have a life. It's not a busy as a lot of people's lives, but it is a life. 

I will be in class Monday-Thursday from 8am to 4 pm and then on Fridays from 9-11. We have lab tests Monday, Tuesday, and Wednesday, along with a full 3 hour lab each of those days. After the lab comes the lecture, and after the lecture comes 2 Supplemental Instruction classes for both the lab and the lecture. 

My parents will be keeping my kids during the week THANKFULLY!!! During the summer, they are not in school so I have to have someone watch them. If they were in school, I wouldn't have to worry about it. Now I don't mind being in school all day...that is like having a full time job. The problem is coming home and doing my mom-job with the laundry, dinners, cleaning, fun with the family, and still finding time to study. When you have a new chapter and concept presented to you one day, and have a test over it the next day....you HAVE to study at home as well. 

Oh well, I just keep telling myself that I can do anything for 5 weeks. It can't be that bad, right? Must get an A. I am going to do my best to not complain, to plan my days ahead of time to reduce stress, to get my chores done and still spend time with the kiddos and my husband. Oh and study. I can't forget to study!

DIY Texans sign

I LOVE FOOTBALL!

I LOVE THE TEXANS!

I LOVE FOOTBALL!!

Oh, football season is right around the corner. My husband and I are huge Texans fans...so when I went to Hobby Lobby the other day to grab some stickers, I saw this cute little sign in the 60% section with all of the Americana stuff. 

I knew I wanted to paint on it and create a sign for our front door. It was super cute already. 

So I grabbed some paint pens and got to work. 

YAY! 

Hang that puppy up next to the wreath I made a couple years ago...and the porch is definitely getting Football-ified. I need to find something to go on that little table under the sign though. I will have to brainstorm about that one. 

Let's go Houston Texans Football!!!! BULLS ON PARADE!

Sneaky way to get a child to exercise....

Remember a few weeks ago? Remember I talked about my youngest child, Jansen, who is obsessed with food and is super lazy? 

Well, we have been working on teaching him about food, cooking, and secretly finding ways to get his body moving since he is completely uninterested in doing much movement. Thankfully we have been swimming a lot!

Today, Jansen and I came up with a great game that we could do together using this...

Dice!!!

Jansen and I took turns making up activities that the two of us had to complete. The number on the dice was the number of reps we had to do or the number of seconds we had to do it in. Activities ranged from push ups, sit ups, lunges, squats, leg lifts, bicycles, jumping jacks, sprints etc. He loved it!

He had to come up with the ideas, he got to roll the dice, he got to complete the task, and he didn't even realize that he was getting some exercise in. 

There are so many variations to this activity! Jansen is already coming up with ideas for tomorrow's dice game :)

San Antonio Weekend

My family went with my friend's family on a weekend trip to San Antonio, compliments of our children, who made the Reading Team at school and got a free ticket to Fiesta Texas. 

I don't have a lot of time this summer since I will be starting summer school in a few days, so we made a quick trip up there to enjoy some family time. 

In the first 10 minutes of the drive, Jansen fell asleep leaning on his pool noodle light saber. 

We arrived at the Holiday Inn Northwest San Antonio, unpacked and got ready to explore the town. Our first stop was Monster Mini Golf. 

This place was really fun...all black lights, really great music, arcade games etc. The kids had fun and I know the parents did as well! Oh how I wish we had a place like this in our town. We really need activities!

We headed back to our hotel to do a little night swimming and the pool was packed. But what can you expect from a hotel that is 5 minutes away from Fiesta Texas and it is a holiday weekend?! The kids were out in less than 5 minutes...

and then my husband raided all their golf winning candy...

Saturday morning we woke up, ate our free breakfast at the hotel and boarded the shuttle van to Six Flags Fiesta Texas. We were prepared with sunscreen, portable fans, towels, etc. A little tip: Rent a locker! It was so worth it to be able to drop off all of our extras and just have the kids' cinch sacks as needed. 

Also a tip: take children that are not scared to ride rides like mine. There were many more rides that I, as an adult, would have liked to go on, but we were there for our kids, so we did what they wanted. We rode the train...

we rode the log ride...

we rode some baby cars...

my friend and her daughter rode the swings...

we rode the Gullywasher...

we saw a show....

we got unlimited refill drink cups which I highly recommend...

we met some characters....

we went to the water park....it was hot. It was blistering hot, but we loaded up on sunscreen and stayed hydrated. I think it was extra packed because we went on a Saturday during a holiday weekend. Had we gone on a Tuesday, I am sure it would have been much less crowded. 

After we lugged all of our stuff back to the hotel, we showered and headed out to Sumo, a Japanese restaurant. 

There was a lady making balloon animals, which seemed to be the highlight of our kids' trip. 

The next morning we all slept in, took our time getting dressed and packing up and headed into town to eat at Lulu's...home of the 3 pound cinnamon roll. 

This was Jansen's idea. He loved it. The food is extra huge and extra delicious. Somehow, my friend's husband ordered the largest steak and ate the whole thing!!! I was incredibly amazed!!!!

It was a quick, fun filled, heat filled, friend filled, chaos filled, laughter filled, yelling filled, anxiety filled, bliss filled weekend, and I wouldn't have it any other way!