Whew! I have been so busy, as I said in my last post, but I won’t re-hash all the details. We’re all good. I’ve been using most of my time to do schoolwork. I gave my speech in speech class Monday night. It was okay. I wasn’t really nervous, and I think I did a good job. I think she’s going to grade us on it, and give us our grade next week. I took my first algebra test today. I made a 97 on it, so I was happy. I was really, really relieved to do well on that test. I’m just doing really simple stuff right now, but the way the book phrases things and does things are a little different than how I learned them in school. So, that makes it a little more difficult for me, since math is not my subject, anyway. This test was not open book, so I am a little more proud of myself. lol I have a little while till the next algebra test, so I can breathe a little. I wrote my food paper for Comp, and had to email it to my instructor today. He emailed me back and said that it was good, but he suggested a few changes. Hopefully, when I turn it in tomorrow night in class, it will be an A paper.
Speaking of tomorrow, we are supposed to get some snow. Normally, I am not a fan of snow. We’re supposed to get a few inches in the morning. On one hand, I really don’t want it to do much, because I don’t want my class to get cancelled or for the roads to be scary when I go. On the other hand, the kids have never played in snow before, so that would be fun. We’ve got very little snow here in East Tennessee since Kyra was born, so she’s never played in it. When we did get an inch or so on a couple of occasions, she was too little to go out and play in it. So, if we do get a couple inches, I know they would LOVE to go out and sled down the hill. We don’t have a sled, but I’m sure we could improvise. So, best case scenario for me would be a couple of inches of snow in the morning for the kids to play in, and then it all melt away by the evening so I can get safely to and from my class. I really don’t want to have my class postponed. I have so enjoyed them.
I’ll be sure to post some pictures if we get snow!

Well, I missed a few days, I know, but man has it been busy. Chris and I are both wrapped up in school work. I went to my Comp I class Thursday, and it was really fun. With all of the boring stuff out of the way from the first week, we got right into it. I got my leaf paper back. The instructor had took all of our papers to mark them up, but he didn’t grade us on them. So, the first thirty minutes or so of class was dedicated to letting everyone make all of the corrections to their papers. I, on the other hand, just sat around, twiddling my thumbs, and smugly looking around the room with an air of superiority. Why? Well, because I had no corrections to make. The only things he wrote on my paper were “good”, “good”, “good”, and “Good work, Rachel. I liked your descriptiveness and your close attention to detail. More detail about shape could have strengthened your paper.” So, I had no corrections. lol Okay, so I wasn’t really that full of myself, but I was very much relieved and happy. Relieved, because of the recent bru-ha-ha I have experienced over the comma. (I don’t think I blogged about how realizing that comma usage is somewhat relative had rocked my world from it’s very foundation, but…it did.) My instructor seemed to think my comma usage was just fine. Also, I was a little worried about the fact that I was not used to the traditional school environment, but, it’s all working out just fine. Our new assignment is to pick a food that is ate in America, and write a paper describing it to people in some foreign country that have never heard of it. We are supposed to write it like a newspaper article. I think I’ve decided to write mine on a kiwifruit. It seems like it would be a lot easier to describe than some things. This paper will be graded. Oh, and Kilt-guy was wearing a kilt again, so it seems it is his standard uniform. I’ve also gathered that he is married, a fire-fighter, works with computers, and aspires to a career after retirement from the fire station as a college professor. He is an enigma. I find myself much more interested in Kilt-guy than in any other person in the class.

For anyone who was wondering, Elijah’s head is fine. He has added a companion bruise on his forehead, and blacked the corner of the eye closest to the bruise, though. Him and his giant head can’t seem to quit colliding with things and other people. We are contemplating a helmet. And a harness. Mike Meyers on SNL tethered to the jungle gym, anyone?

Owen has got two little teeth coming in. He’s a drooly, biting, little man these days.

I took my first test for one of my classes on Friday night. It was for my Music Appreciation class. It wasn’t too hard, and it was open-book. I got my grade this morning. I got all of the questions right. Oh, yeah. The open-book part takes away some of my swagger, though. lol

Well, I need to get going. Academically, I am going strong, but I think I deserve about a D-minus in the housekeeping department. I’m not superwoman, ya know. Shhh, don’t tell anyone.

What a day I had yesterday. It started early, as Kyra had school. I had not been home long at all from taking her, when the phone rang, and my mom told me that my Papaw J had been admitted to the hospital. She said that my mamaw had called and told her that they called her and said that his blood pressure got to high for them to do the knee surgery he had went to have and that he had a stroke. I immediately took the boys to Chris’ mom’s, and rushed to the hospital. I was the first one there, since I live in the same town as the hospital. I found Papaw’s room, and found him lying in bed watching t.v. I asked how he was, and he told me he was fine. He said that his blood pressure just got too high for them to operate. Come to find out, they didn’t say that he had a stroke, but that his blood pressure was so dangerously high that it could cause a stroke if it didn’t come down. Oh, what a relief.

Then, last night after church, Elijah was running around, playing with his little friend, Destiny, when he ran smack into the corner of a wall. He was running full-force, hit the wall with his head, and it knocked him on his butt. He was immediately squalling. Elijah doesn’t cry much when he gets hurt. He is tough as nails. He fell on a drinking glass the other day, and busted it. I asked him if he was hurt, and he said no. I started cleaning up the glass when he said he was okay, and looked up after a minute to see blood running down his leg. He had cut his knee in four places. The worst of which bled for at least two or three minutes before I could get it to stop. He repeatedly insisted that he wasn’t hurt. Kyra shut his hand in the door of the van one time….completely shut and latched it….and he cried half-heartedly for about thirty seconds. Do you see my point? This kid is tough Back to my story…he stood up, immediately crying hard, and, as I was rushing to the front of the church, he turned around with a big blue spot on his forehead. I picked him up, and took him back to our pew. I sat down with him in my lap, and looked at it. It had started to turn purple, and was swelling up. Someone went out to the school to get some ice for it, and I touched it. It wasn’t a hard bump, but it was soft and mushy under it. That worried me. I had no experience with that, and didn’t know if it was bad thing or a good thing. Elijah physically fought us over the ice, and we eventually gave up. Everyone seemed to think that I should take him to the ER to get checked out, just to be on the safe side. Mom took the kids home for me, and I took Elijah straight to the ER. He wouldn’t talk to me on the way, and told me that he felt sick. Once we got there, he still wouldn’t talk, and just kind of stared into space for about thirty minutes. He even let them weigh him and take his temperature and pulse without any trouble. That is weird. He usually starts all out crying when I take him to the doctor, and refuses to let them do any of those things. Chris showed up after a while, and, once he was there, Elijah started to perk up a little bit. By the time we got seen by the NP, Elijah was his normal self again. She told us that he didn’t seem like he had a concussion, but, after she consulted with the doctor, he wanted him to have a CAT scan, since he is so young, just to be sure he was okay. Elijah was not a willing participant in that process. I had tried to talk it up beforehand, telling him that it was a Superman machine that had x-ray vision and could look inside his head, just like Superman does. He was pretty chill until it got down to it, and then he screamed and cried and fought us for all he was worth. Chris had to hold down his upper body, while I held down his legs. It didn’t last long, but Elijah said it was very scary. That came back fine. They said he had an acute cranial hematoma, which basically meant he had blood pooled under his skin, but that his brain and skull were fine. So, after an extremely long time at the ER, we came home, watched American Idol, and went to bed.

Click here to see the statement Elijah wished to release to his loving fans.

I have been trying to decide about which concerts to attend and write reports on for my Music Appreciation class. I had narrowed it down to La Boheme, which is an opera being performed by the Knoxville Opera at the Tennessee Theater, or Rhythms and Dreams performed by the Knoxville Symphony Orchestra for the first concert, and the KSO’s Man and Superman. My friend, Olivia, told me she could send me links to the Carson Newman performances, though, and they are kind of attractive, whatever they are, because they are free. The KSO and opera are both kind of pricey. Chris says free is definitely better, but I think I would really like to go to the opera. Now, I have never thought of myself as a fan of opera music, but, then again, I’ve never actually been to an opera. I think it would be a very interesting experience, even if I left saying that I still wasn’t a fan of opera music.

I am trying hard lately to expand my cultural horizons. For the last couple of years, I have been reading classic literature, and very much enjoying it. Growing up in the part of the country that I have, while I love both the place and the people, I find the attitude of glorifying ignorance downright…stupid. You know what I mean…the “I’m just a good ‘ole redneck, I like to get dirty and shoot stuff, and watch the Blue Collar Comedy Tour. Anything more than that is a waste of time.” It’s the looking down upon education that I find so infuriating. I totally get that not everyone enjoys academic things, and that is fine. It used to be, though, that having an education was a good thing. This “Larry the Cable Guy culture” is dumb. Most of the guys that I grew up with had it in their heads that they would finish high school, get a good paying blue collar job, and that was the manly thing to do. They made fun of any guy that was leaning towards furthering his education. I think that is so stupid. It’s not the choosing not to read…or go to college…or listen to anything other than country music…etc. that makes me mad, it’s the looking down on it. So many young people that I know are selling themselves short by not having an ambition that matches their potential.

I have had this underlying feeling that people thought that I am something that I don’t think is true to who I really am. I felt like they were automatically categorizing me as one thing because I married very young, didn’t go straight to college, and had kids before anything else. I kind of felt like I needed to defend my intelligence or something. I did very well in school, and I intended to go to college. Things changed, though. I fell in love, got married, and started a family. I am glad that I did that. I don’t think that I was in the right place…emotionally, spiritually, etc… to go the straight to college route. I am a much different person than I was when I graduated high school, nearly seven years ago. I feel like I’m ready now to further my education, and I’m really excited about it.

People keep asking me why I’m going to college. I can’t give them a pat “because I want to be a…” answer. I am majoring in psychology. I may or may not ever have a job in that field. I plan to stay home with the kids until they are grown. I am going to be married to an Army chaplain, and I don’t really know what all that entails yet. I think that I may be interested in counseling, but I just don’t know yet. The real reason that I’m going to college is to grow as a person (as cliche as that might sound), to learn about things, and to prepare myself for whatever the future holds. I don’t know what opportunities might present themselves down the road, but I want to be ready for them.

So, while I may have took the scenic route, I’ve finally gotten here, and the horizon looks broad and terribly exciting.

The Colts are going to the Superbowl! That is a very.good.thing! Believe me, you wouldn’t have wanted to live with Chris had they lost, either. Way to go, Peyton Manning, and way to go, Colts!