Phew.

First of all, if you've heard about the shooting at the Mall in Portland (just down the street from my office), don't worry, I am a-okay, and so far so is everyone else I know.  Scary stuff.  All the folks affected by this tragedy are in my prayers--thank you, God, that it wasn't so, so much worse (as it easily could have been).

I was actually nowhere near the mall at that time because I was headed to the other side of the city to take my last final.  This whole final debacle has confirmed that I loathe my stats professor (seriously.  He's horrible), but no matter what, now it's over.  Not gonna lie, it was hard.  I'm not holding my breath for keeping that A (that would be a Christmas miracle), but hopefully I can pull out a B.  I guess we shall see.  But IT'S OVER.  Thank God.  Hopefully he'll grade it and post my grade soon so I can breathe that sigh of relief for real.

I definitely rocked that A in Human Development, so I guess all was not lost this term.  :)

I have BIG exciting news to tell you guys soon.  Probably tomorrow.  Stand by for more info soon.

Happy December!

Crazy is Winding Down. A Little.

Since I'm sitting in the airport waiting for my delayed flight to Phoenix, this seemed like a good time to write a quick update before I get down to the business of working on my stats homework.

I have officially submitted applications to:

• University of Southern Maine (in Maine, obviously)
• SUNY-Binghamton University (in upstate New York, about 1 1/2 hrs from NYC)
• Virginia Commonwealth University (in Richmond, VA)
• Duke University (in Durham, North Carolina)

I'm still looking at a couple more schools, but looks like my next deadline is not until February, so I think I can breathe for a minute.  Phew!  This has been CRAZY.

I am FINISHED with my Human Development class!!  Yay!!!  I think I only missed 8 points in the entire class and I did 20 extra credit points, so pretty sure I will solidly pull off an A in there with no problem.  I actually really enjoyed that class (and probably would have enjoyed it even more had I not been also taking stats).  

I have another 2 weeks left in Statistics (ugh).  I seriously HATE this class.  My teacher is horrible (he honestly hasn't taught me anything, I've taught myself the whole thing, which I realize is one of the dangers of an online class, but sheesh).  Also, he made us do a GROUP PROJECT.  In an ONLINE MATH CLASS.  Are you kidding me?  Have you ever heard of anything so dumb?  Don't worry, it gets better.  We got the info for the project on October 1st, and it was due the Sunday before Thanksgiving.  The WEEK BEFORE it was due, he emailed us and was like, "Oh, by the way, 2 of your 5 group members have dropped the class."  Seriously?  Freaking ridiculous, especially since the drop deadline had been weeks before, so obviously he'd known this well before he told us.  Ugh.  He had told us to set it up in such a way that at least two people completed each section of the project so we could check our answers, and with two people gone, that was no longer an option.  So we finally got our stuff done (we couldn't finish until the week before it was due because we hadn't learned the material yet) and then we had to compile it.  We made arrangements to get together in person to put the project together, then on the day we were supposed to meet, one of the women bailed.  The other woman and I got together and worked on compiling it for SIX hours (in the meantime the third woman said, "Oh, I thought you'd be done by now so I just went home because I was going to be late" after we'd only been working on it for ONE hour...laaaaaaaame).  

So, long story short, we finally got it all finished and compiled and finalized and submitted it.  Then, the night before Thanksgiving I checked my grade he had just posted and it said we got 90/150.  I was FREAKING OUT.  That's only 60% and I was literally CLINGING to an A.  This dropped my grade to barely hanging onto a B.  And did I mention not one of the points we lost was from the sections of the project I completed?  I was SOOOOOO frustrated.  I even called my folks in tears at like midnight because I was so upset.  So the next day (Thanksgiving), at about 12:45 PM, he posted an announcement that basically said, "Oops, um, I accidently posted your percentage instead of your points.  So, uhhhh, it's fixed now."  That's right folks, we got 90%, not 90 pts.  135/150.  ARE YOU KIDDING ME?!?  I hate this guy.  Seriously, who requires a group project in a math class, or in an online class, let alone an ONLINE MATH CLASS.  SO dumb.  I am still somehow clinging to that A, so hopefully I'll be able to pull of these last two homework assignments and the gigantic comprehensive final.  I am more than a little stressed out about this.  Can it please be December 15th already?

Anyway, that's my story.  I am waiting at the airport to go visit my college bestie, Debi, who is there with her hubby and new baby, visiting from France and staying with her parents.  I cannot wait to see her!  And Southwest has been SOOOO impressive today.  Having a delayed flight is frustrating, but their gate agents have been AMAZING.  They have gone out of their way to reschedule folks who needed to make connections, and they have been incredibly accommodating and friendly and polite.  They even put out pop and snacks for us while we're waiting, and when they changed our gate, they packed up the goodies and moved them over to our new gate for us.  Seriously, what other airline does this?  Yet another reason to always fly Southwest.  They're amazing.

Cheers to December and the start of the Christmas season!

Yep, DEFINITELY Crazy.

So, here's the update for a few people who have asked:

As of today, November 2nd, I have officially applied to the Accelerated Bachelor of Science in Nursing programs at the University of Southern Maine and Virginia Commonwealth University.

Applications are in progress for Binghamton University (in Upstate New York) and Duke University (in North Carolina).

I will likely also apply to Georgetown University in Washington, D.C. (but that one isn't due for a few months, so it's much lower on my radar).  I'm looking for at least one more school to apply to (I feel like six-ish gives me a decent chance at getting in somewhere).

So far, so good with my classes.  I am ROCKING Human Development.  My professor said about my latest discussion post, "Another graduate-school level discussion post, Jennifer.  Save it for a research paper start.  It is that good."  :)  Haha, this made me laugh super hard, seeing as how I do have a masters degree and I certainly should be able to write a high level discussion post for a 200-level class.  :)  But a nice compliment and a nice assessment of my skills from my professor.  Glad to know I can still write like a grad student, even though I hang around with 12 year olds all day.

Still clinging to that "A" in Stats, although I will admit it is a harder fought battle for sure.  Not so sure I will make it out with an "A," but so far I have about a 93-94% in the class, so all is not lost yet.

Handling working full-time and half-time school would be A LOT easier if I didn't have all these applications on top of it, but I'm getting through it.  I need an academic reference for a few of these programs, and I was really stressing out about finding a professor to write one (since my professors now probably won't actually even meet me, and my Gonzaga professors haven't known or worked with me for quite awhile now).  In a moment of bravery, on Halloween evening I wrote a few old professors a "Hey, I don't know if you remember me, but on the off-chance you do, will you be a reference for me?" email.  A former Biology professor (who I took three classes from) wrote me back first thing the next morning and said, "Sure I remember you!" and told me if I send him the criteria they're looking for he will happily tailor a letter for me to any programs I want.  SO AWESOME!!!!!!  And a HUGE relief.  So at least my academic reference is squared away now for any programs I apply to, and it is a bonus that he is the current chair of the biology department at Gonzaga, so that looks pretty great, too.  YAY!  So things are going well on that front at least.

Anyway, that's where I'm at.  I pretty much spend all my time either working or studying, so I hope you all are doing amazing things so I can live vicariously through you until Christmastime.  If you've got a few prayers to spare, I would REALLY appreciate them.  Please pray that I make it through these next few weeks with my classes, and please pray that I get into (at least) one of these programs.  And you are all in my prayers, too!

Roasted Butternut Squash and Bacon Pasta

I decided I really wanted to try using butternut squash in a recipe.  I love squash, but I'm not a huge fan of the "roast it with butter, brown sugar, and cinnamon" plan (although that is super delish if you like sweet stuff).  I went on a mission for a savory recipe, and holy moly, this one is sooooooooo good!!!  It took me about an hour to make it (I cut the squash up and cooked everything else while the squash was cooking).  It was a little labor intensive, but so, so worth it.  And it's from Cooking Light magazine, so it's actually pretty healthy.  And soooo, soooo good.  So, if you want something different and autumn-y for dinner, make this.  You won't be sad.  Even kids would like it.  Seriously.

I did NOT take this photo, but mine looks pretty much like that,
and it tastes awesome!  :)

• Roasted Butternut Squash and Bacon Pasta
• 
  
• 3/4 teaspoon salt, divided
• 1/2 teaspoon dried rosemary
• 1/4 teaspoon freshly ground black pepper 
• 3 cups (1-inch) cubed peeled butternut squash 
• Cooking spray 
• 6 sweet hickory-smoked bacon slices (raw) 
• 1 cup thinly sliced shallots
• 8 ounces uncooked mini penne (tube-shaped pasta)
• 1/4 cup all-purpose flour 
• 2 cups 2% reduced-fat milk 
• 3/4 cup (3 ounces) shredded sharp provolone cheese
• 1/3 cup (1 1/2 ounces) grated fresh Parmesan cheese

1. Preheat oven to 425°.
2. Combine 1/4 teaspoon salt, rosemary, and pepper. Place squash on a foil-lined baking sheet coated with cooking spray; sprinkle with salt mixture. Bake at 425° for 45 minutes or until tender and lightly browned. Increase oven temperature to 450°.
3. Cook the bacon in a large nonstick skillet over medium heat until crisp. Remove bacon from pan, reserving 1 1/2 teaspoons drippings in pan; crumble bacon. Increase heat to medium-high. Add shallots to pan; sauté 8 minutes or until tender. Combine squash mixture, bacon, and shallots; set aside.
4. Cook pasta according to the package directions, omitting salt and fat. Drain well.
5. Combine flour and 1/2 teaspoon salt in a Dutch oven over medium-high heat. Gradually add milk, stirring constantly with a whisk; bring to a boil. Cook 1 minute or until slightly thick, stirring constantly. Remove from heat. Add provolone, stirring until cheese melts. Add pasta to cheese mixture, tossing well to combine. Spoon pasta mixture into an 11 x 7-inch baking dish lightly coated with cooking spray; top with squash mixture. Sprinkle evenly with Parmesan cheese. Bake at 450° for 10 minutes or until cheese melts and begins to brown.

Karen Levin, Cooking Light
MARCH 2004

Pretty Sure I'm Crazy.

So, I'm a student again.

I know, right?

Because a Master's degree isn't enough?

Apparently.

I have decided to go to nursing school (fingers crossed I get in, that is).  I have always been interested in the health field, I am ready for something with more stability, and I'm tired of being poor.  Among many other reasons, of course.  So nursing school it is.  I'm in the process of applying for Accelerated Nursing Programs, which basically means (if everything goes according to plan) I will start school sometime in the next 9 months or so and be done 12-18 months after that.  Holy moly.  Thankfully my biology degree has me well on the way, at least by way of prereqs.

There are a couple classes I'm lacking, though, so as I said before, I am officially a student again.

And forgive me if I totally forgot how freaking busy it is!!

I'm taking 9 credits (2 classes) online--Statistics and Human Development.  I've taken online classes before, but these ones require me to straight up teach myself, and on a huge time crunch, too.  Someone should have reminded me that working full-time and taking 9 credits is crazy-making!  But I'm almost halfway through (week 4 out of 10!), and so far so good.  We'll see what I say after my first exam next week in stats.  Eeek!

Anyway, that's the plan.  Wish me luck.

I'm pretty sure I'm losing my mind.

My Spontaneous End-of-Summer Vacation.

Summer is over (sad story), even if we ARE having a spectacularly beautiful fall so far.  I didn't manage to take any sort of summer vacation, but I did manage to take a last minute trip to Las Vegas to hang out with my beautiful best friend and her adorable children and sweet husband.  She needed help, I had time off, and we found cheap tickets with 1 week's notice, so it was a go!

I was working on the day of my flight and kept getting texts that my flight, which was already going to get in rather late, was delayed and delayed and delayed.  Then I got a phone call from the airline that if I could make it to the airport earlier, I could get on a flight at 6:00.  This was a serious challenge since I was 45 minutes south of Portland until 4:00 for work, and I still had to go home before I could go to the airport, but I decided to go for it.  So between leaving my training 15 minutes early, racing home, packing in literally less than ten minutes, and a crazy mad dash through the airport, I somehow managed to get the VERY LAST seat on the flight.  

April's husband, Jeff, came to the airport to pick me up, along with their two middle kiddos, Logan and Kelsi.  Holy moly, their kids are adorable.  It was dark when they picked me up, and Logan kept saying, "Dad, what does she look like?  What does she look like, dad?"  Hahaha!  I finally told him he could see me in the light when we got home...and they both promptly fell asleep.  :)

Luke thinks we talk too much...

I was soooooo happy to snuggle their newest little one, and you'd better believe that was one of the first things I did when I got there!  He is SO sweet.  Granted, I'm a sucker for babies, but he is such a good, sweet, cute baby!  Luckily April was more than happy to share.  :)  So I spent four and a half days driving kids around, helping around the house, playing with the big kids and snuggling the little one, getting one million sweet kid hugs, and staying up wayyyyy too late with April (as per usual).  I love this girl so much--it doesn't matter how often we see each other, it's always just like no time has passed at all, and we could seriously talk for days.  We even managed to run away for a little girl time, with pedis and lunch on the menu, and a phone date with one friend and a skype date with another.  It was great.

Kelsi begged to hold Luke...
then promptly fell asleep!
So cute!!

On the last night, before they drove me to the airport, we took a walk down to the park with the whole family.  I was sitting in a swing with baby Luke, watching the big kids play and chatting with April and Jeff and a couple of their friends, and it hit me like a ton of bricks how badly I needed a vacation and how lucky I was to have such amazing friends and to be able to be there.  To be totally honest, I was pretty teary when I had to leave (and the texts from April saying her kids missed me already and have decided I need to live next door didn't help), and I literally walked through the airport with tears streaming down my face.  

It's so crazy to me that I've reached the point in my life that most of my best friends have been my friends for more than half my life--getting almost to the 20 year point.  But I love these girls so much.  Sometimes living in Portland is tough for me.  I love, love, love living near my sister and brother-in-law (best thing ever), but over the last few years many of my Portland friends have moved on, and sometimes it's kind of a lonely place to be.  So remembering that I have truly amazing friends all over the place who really do love me a lot is a pretty awesome feeling.  

I love all April's kids, but I tell you what, I have a soft spot in my heart for that little Logan.
There's just something about that kid that nuzzles his way into your heart.

Thanks for an amazing time, April.  I needed that sooooo much--more than you know.  Love your family, love your kiddos, love you.  SO, SO much.

A Preview...

I am just about to sign off and climb into bed, but I wanted to give you a quick preview of what I've been up to lately, and hopefully there will be big news coming soon.

In August I...

...worked about one million hours.  Or at least twice as many as I should have.

...tried not to melt in the heat and humidity when summer finally decided to show up in Portland during the one week I had to spend every waking hour outside.

...successfully almost single-handedly managed to pull off a summer camp for almost 100 middle school kids (no one died, hardly anyone cried, and I did not quit my job).

...then promptly took two weeks off.

...made some major life decisions and started taking some steps to make them happen (yay!  It's about stinking time).

...and spent four and a half glorious days with my best friend and her beautiful family, snuggling this little guy...

...and yes, newborn babies and my best friend really do make me THAT happy.  :)  Even after working all day, a crazy mad dash to the airport, and two flights.

Details to come soon.