My Case is Closed!!!!

Today is a good day. A very very very very very very good day. Why?

MY CASE IS CLOSED!!!!

So all of the ongoing drama that has been, the hell that has been my life is over. Not so much over, at least the legal nonsensical part of it all is. The next chapter is soon to begin.

The girls are doing quite well. Towards the end of this post I will include a new picture of them or so. We have been in process of majorly cleaning the house and I have been working on getting the Christmas decorations up. The tree will go up right before Christmas, I have heard horror stories from everyone else I know of and with my zoo of animalia I am hesitant. I also do not know where most of my decorations are. That is the goal for this weekend. I spent my day off last weekend deep carpet cleaning my stupid dining room (my new dining table seems to be much heavier when I move it by myself....).

I have been working a ton lately. Which is good because money is always nice. But the work never ends around the house and so everything gets backed up until I get my random day or two in a row off. I had a 9 day straight work stretch last week and I also worked 2-3 work shifts every single day last week. Which was nothing more but wonderful. :) That might also help to explain why I have been so lax in updating this blog. No time for anything sometimes.

But all is well, I am picking up hours in the tutoring lab, which is exciting, because that is more lucrative than my other part time job, which I will still keep. I am excited about my classes next term because this month (today even perhaps?) marks my one year anniversary as a college professor! But I have the materials and presentations down for my one class and my other class just needs some tweaking. I am also redoing my class websites (again) because each term I try out something new and it doesn't seem to last or work very well. This term was a horrible term for me time wise and technologically speaking because of the move and then getting my Internet up and running and then redoing my entire computer. And then the time. I had no time. Tomorrow is the last day of the term and then I am off on sweet sweet vacation for the next month. Of course, I still have my other job to go to work to, but I like it there and everything just keeps on rolling in :)

Now that my case is officially closed, since I am not going to appeal on a legal route, I am going to take matters into my own hands. That in and of itself is a long and arduous process but I am prepared and persistant! This weekend will serve me with much needed work and writing time and I hope to have some hefty mail going out by the end of next week.

And then my book. Which I have already begun to compile research for. I believe it will take me possibly the next two years to complete, working on it part time. This is my goal.

I applied to a semi-local graduate school for their program in non-profit administration and I anticipate being accepted (why wouldn't they accept me?). This will also be a focus of mine over the next few years. I am really excited about this new school for a large number of reasons, but it will be a better and similar experience to my undergraduate studies. I am also craving to be back in the classroom and even though I have been making efforts to learn new things (like a new language and such) my brain feels like it is getting soft and mushy again and I need to hop to it. Plus, I really miss being a student in a classroom environment where I can be the pain-in-the-ass asking a million and fifty questions to thoroughly grasp the materials. And I really want to learn all about grant writing and ethics and management. Ethics and management are my thing! (WTG Non profits!)

The puppy is well. I did buckle down and purchase a crate and that seems to be helping with things. She is a good dog though, but she is getting bigger than I thought already. What do you get when you mix a 90 pound dog with a 15 pound dog? Mystery Morticia is what. I will endlessly love her no matter what her size, but she is fond of taking over my spot in the bed as soon as I get up, and if she continues to grow I will struggle as much as I do moving around my children when they overtake my section. Which they all do. She loves riding in the car with us and going everywhere. She is also fond of chewing up my iPhone cord and today was the 3rd one I have obtained in 5 days. I will be eating her for dinner if this trend continues.

Also, also! We has piano!!!!

I found a littler spinet piano on the Craigslist that I purchased and with the help of my fine moving friends I got it about 2 weeks ago. Marilyn's piano lessons will begin soon. Hopefully next week. We just wrapped up her ballet class last night, which was absolutely adorable. We are going to take a break from ballet until the spring and then I want to find a class they can both be enrolled in, since Mallory is quite upset that she cannot be in ballet because she is not 3 and not fully potty trained. (The topic of Mallory's age and potty training status has been the fuel for numerous arguments between my children and a subject of jealousy as Mallory is not able to do some of the fun things that Marilyn gets to do, such as Vacation Bible School [Panda Preschool] and ballet.) I have been working on various songs on the piano as well as I can play and read music to some extent. Mostly I just work on Disney songs and am working on perfecting a song from Pete's Dragon right now. For those of you on the Facebook, I did post a video of 'A Dream is a Wish Your Heart Makes' to show off my skillz. And Christmas songs. I would like to also work on some Wutang Clan for entertainment purposes. :D The girls like to play around on the piano and Marilyn makes up her own songs when she plays. I think that is an excellent start. Mallory only wants to play on it when I play and she always, at some point or another, insists on playing the piano with her feet. Pianos are not meant to played with toes and so that is usually a subject of debate.

My sweet children. Ah. Mallory displays the most obstinate persistence with what she wants but only with me. Marilyn is more compliant but has shown her lack of listening skills and ignores more than half of what I tell her. Or she finds some justification and rationale behind NOT listening to what I tell her. I am not surprised though as they are children and I myself as a child acted in the same ways. But I marvel always at how much they are like but not like me in many ways that are unexpected. But seriously, Mallory is super stubborn.

While going through the videos on my phone just now (yes, of course I am multitasking) I found this funny car video I took when Marilyn was dictating to me who is on the good list and who is not on the good list. She does not like a girl she goes to school with named Katelyn. Apparently in the past Katelyn has made Marilyn feel insecure in a number of ways, once by telling her that she was little (to which I had to explain that she is not little, she is petite, and that just means she won't be fat like Katelyn when she grows up) and another time she told her that she was not smart (to which she was going to tell Katelyn in rebuttal that Katelyn was of 'average intelligence'). Anyhow, in this video Marilyn is literally dictating a letter to me (which is also something she has been fond of doing lately) to Katelyn which outlines how Katelyn is a bad girl and is NOT on the nice list and how Katelyn is NOT invited to Marilyn's party.

And now for the Santa time. The college at which I teach had a cookie party with Santa last week and I took full advantage (there was a debate on the way there that Santa is only at the mall, to which I had to explain how Santa travels different places to see children and does not just go to the mall...). Anyhow, Mallory was more than overjoyed to see him and sat on his lap right away and told him she wanted candy canes. Lots and lots of candy canes. (Score for me!) Marilyn was so scared of him, she hid under my skirt and took quite a while to warm up to him. However, she was willing to dictate a letter to me for him which we did give to him and later on she was willing to sit on his lap and take a picture.

Now, before I reveal, here is last year's picture with Santa:

Note how only one of my children is in the picture, and that said child (Mallory) is by no means absolutely thrilled by the prospect of receiving Christmas presents from the man in red. My other child was screaming  and clenching to both of my legs while also hiding behind them in complete terror of Santa Clause.

This years photo:

Both of my children look happy. They have both submitted their Christmas wish lists and they both were willing to sit on Santa's lap.

So with that I will move on to do other necessary work while I have the time to do so on my day off. What to do first? Methinks I have some job applications I should hop to.

Until again, which will we be soon(er)!