Master's Degree

Well, I got accepted into the graduate program at UCA! I wasn’t sure if I would because I had applied to go as a part time student and the program I applied for usually doesn’t take part time students. The program is pretty competitive too. They only take on 6-8 new students per year. The group I interviewed in had 8 applicants in it, but they only take a few in the spring and then they take on a few more students during the summer enrollment. Which means I was one of only three or four who were accepted out of this first group.

Of course now I need a background check since the program is School Psychology. It doesn’t seem to matter that I had one last year for my job or that I still have my government Secret Clearance. $50 down the drain.

I’m excited to start in the fall. I am thinking of this summer with my baby as maternity leave and then I’ll have to get back to work (or school in my case). The problem is I’ll just be spending money on tuition and a nanny rather than bringing any money in. Wish me luck that I’ll be able to handle it all.

In over my head

Currently I am 38 ½ weeks pregnant, preparing for labor and our new baby, getting ready to start Grad school, taking care of my hubby (which is a full time job, and if you don’t believe that just talk to me after you’ve been married for 7 years and tell me how dependent on you your husband is for even the simplest things), searching for a house to buy and applying for a loan, still learning about this new area we’ve moved too, and now organizing and running a spouse association for the company my hubby works for.  What exactly am I thinking??  I could have stopped at new baby and still had my hands full.

Mountain View, AR

We went to Mountain View, AR this weekend for Hubby's bday. It is right next to the Ozark National Forest. Actually, it is as close to the national forest you can get without camping. It is about a hour and 45 min drive from where we live. We took this insane mountain road, crazy twists and turns and ups and downs. There were just a few towns we went through to get there. The first town we drove through, literally just outside of our city, was called Pickles Gap. Yes, Pickles Gap. There is a place called Pickles Gap Village. I want to go. Further along, on the crazy mountain road is a town of 300 people. I am still trying to figure out how a town of 300 people, in the middle of nowhere with only one crazy mountain road in and out of it, can sustain itself.

So we checked into our hotel (no B&B b/c they wouldn't take the dog, Jerks.) and went to tour the caverns. They were very cool and beautiful. We were 22 stories beneath the earth's crust. I was sure that was the place I would go into labor just b/c it was so inconvient. Did you know that there is a disease killing off bats all across the US? very sad.

Next we needed to find somewhere to eat dinner. We had seen a sign for a seafood restaurant on the river and thought that had sounded promising. We went to check it out. It was a restaurant/convinent store/ old motel from 1941/ mini golf/ tackle and bait store/ gas station all in one. I definitely think it was the gas station and bait store parts that sealed our decision to not eat there. We ended up at a Mexican restaurant in town. Making me wonder, what exactly possessed a Mexican family to settle in Mountain View, AR a very hillbilly, capital of Folk, town?

The next day we went for a hike through the Ozarks. It was really beautiful. We started off on a trail, but I'm pretty sure it stopped well before we did. Chad insisted that it was still there. I think that when you are in the woods you can pretty much "see" a trail anywhere you want if you are really looking. We hiked for over an hour through trees, weeds, stumps, leaves and along the river on this so called trail. I think it needed a good weedwacking.

Weight

Hubby informed me today that he has "finally lost weight". Finally? I didn't even know he was trying to lose weight. Has he been exercising? No. Has he been cutting calories? No. Has he been eating diet meals? No. Does he still eat frozen pizza? Yes. Does he still eat ice cream? Yes. Does he eat chips everyday with his lunch? Yes. So he is now back down to his ideal thin weight without even doing anything. I hate him. I am now 38 weeks pregnant and have all the lovely baby weight that comes with that. I now only weigh 20 + pounds less than him. I hate him. I want to sit on him, crushing him with my giant pregnant boobs, and force feed him cake and cookies and heavy cream and all the fried food I can find. I hate him. We went to breakfast this morning. He ate a country fried steak with country gravy all over it, grits flooded in butter, biscuts with more gravy and I'm sure some other nasty fat food that would cause my heart to stop and add 5 lbs to my frame. I on the other hand, had yogurt and granola, some eggs and apples, and a muffin (ok the muffin is loaded with butter and sugar and not good for me) and I probably gained weight while he "finally" lost some. I hate him. Luckily for him it is his birthday and so I just went on loving him.

74 is the magic number

Spring has arrived! I am loving the sunshine and not being freezing on my walks with the dog. I’m not having that much of a problem with the heat during the day. The problem comes in the evening when we have to close the back door so bugs don’t come in and the air flow through the house
decreases. We bought screens for the windows so we could keep them open. (We had to buy some b/c like everything else in this rental house the screens were neglected and full of huge holes.) Even with the windows open though the house gets stuffy. Being pregnant, I not only get hot but feel as if I’m overheated, my skin is on fire, my body suddenly feels twice as big, and I feel as if I’m dying of heat exhaustion.

74 degrees is my threshold. It is like that scene in Mission Impossible where Tom Cruise is breaking into that temperature controlled room, he has a thermostat counting the degrees to make sure it doesn’t get too hot. I feel the same way, 73.8; 73.9; 74.0; then 74.1 is reached and the alarm goes
off! I start feeling sticky, overheated, I want to shave my head and soak myself in ice water. Last night I wouldn’t even let Hubby use a blanket over his legs and feet while he was sitting on the couch b/c just looking at it made me hot.

House Hunting

We went looking at 5 houses the other day. A realtor took us around. She was very Southern, she talked incessantly about anything except real estate or the properties we were looking at.

We need to decide if we want to stay in the city limits or move out-a-ways to have more property. The problem with the houses in the city limit are that most of them are in new subdivisions. The houses are all cookie cutter cutouts of each other, they are built practically right on top of each
other, and there are no trees. The good part is that they are new, some are more affordable, and they come with privacy fenced in yards (which we need for the dog b/c she could easily clear a wire fence if she wanted).  The problem with the houses out of the city limits are that they are out of the city limits. That means longer commutes to get anywhere and paying higher prices for utilities. The good things are that we could afford more property, our neighbors wouldn’t be right on top of our
house, and the views are lovely.

Our top choice is a house on 1.4 acres right next to the lake. It is built up on a hill and looks down over the lake. Absolutely beautiful. There were only 2 or 3 other houses on the hill and nowhere else to build right there so we wouldn’t have to worry about it turning into a subdivision. It is just outside the city limits and actually wouldn’t be a long commute for Hubby to get to work but it would still cost more in utilities. It is three bedrooms but we would end up using one of those as a computer/guest/den room, so it is a little smaller than I want. We would need to fence it in and the property is largely sloped down the hill so we wouldn’t have much of a traditional backyard. Oh and did I mention the neighbors owned a goat?