Photo frenzy

I'm playing catch up with my photos before things really start getting hectic around here. Why, you ask. Because I'm going to grad school, people. (See the cute pens and notebooks? I LOVE school supplies!) I decided I didn't have enough on my plate with a full-time job, a toddler and a husband, who happens to have cancer...

Seriously though, I'm taking a full graduate course load in elementary education at the University of Central Florida. Two of them are online, so I only have to go to campus once a week. And man, on the first day of class, being surrounded by all those young co-eds sure made me feel like a granny.

I had to rearrange my work schedule a bit, and give up my Sundays off -- my only day off with my family -- to make it work. That is going to kill me, I know. But hopefully at the end of the semester, I can switch back. I was hoping to cut my hours at work, but it doesn't look like that is going to happen.

But this is something I really have to do. I've been miserable in my job for the past four years. It's starting to get to the point where I don't even recognize myself anymore. I kick myself for letting it go on so long, but sometimes, life is just happening all around you and there's no time to stop and think about it. It's not that I don't still love journalism, it's that I don't like the environment I'm in right now, and I especially don't like working nights, weekends and holidays. It's really hard to do that and be a mom.

So I decided to stop complaining and start doing. And here we are. Hopefully, I can wrap up my degree in two or two-and-a-half years, so that when I can be on the same schedule as Julia when she goes off to school. Wish us luck!