1. I started using Windows Sidebar so that I could always know what the temperature was outside. Coincidentally, the AC went on not long after that. Aside from the weather app, I also found a music app that has lots of different channels-- including alternative (both 90s and current). So now, adding this find to the radio station out of Austin that plays really great alternative, I can listen to my favorite music everywhere I go. I know it's weird to be excited about that, but after I moved to Moorhead in 1999 and they had no alternative music, I sort of lost touch with it. Next was El Paso, where if one was not listening to a mariachi band, their option was heavy metal, and here in Killeen it's mostly urban hip hop. (Not country, and yes I'm surprised too.) Anyway, I'm very much enjoying having "my" music in the house.
2. Graduate School. Almost two months ago, I randomly decided that I was going to go back to school to get my Masters in Library Science. This has always been a dream of mine, but the thought of going back to school has always been accompanied by a thought of "ugh, school". However, it's become very obvious to me that I need to make some changes in my life in order to alleviate the feeling of burnout I've been experiencing this year. Working outside the home would be nice, if I could find a job I really liked, but it's not a very feasible option right now. And I have been doing editing work here and there, but not consistently. What I liked about it (aside from getting paid, of course) was that it was time I was carving out for me to do something grown up, with my brain. It made me think that maybe I am finally ready to take that plunge.
April is not a good time to decide that you're going to graduate school, should you ever take that step for yourself. It would have been much better to decide in January, or last fall. For one thing, many schools' deadlines were already past. For another, I had to study for and take the GRE, plus get an application submitted before the rest of the deadlines. I was on a tight schedule. At first I assumed the GRE would be a piece of cake, since I have always been a rock star when it comes to standardized tests. I don't know why, I just do really freakishly well. Then I actually started studying for it... the verbal was a piece of cake. I don't like writing essays on standardized tests (whereas I love them on real tests) because they ask for "specific examples" while giving you the most generic question possible. However, I am still relatively good at them, and the other verbal sections are pretty much what I was born to do. The math, however... math has never been my strong point. I got as far as trig in high school, then copped out of calc and took statistics. In college I took pre-calc a second time to get out of taking a science class. And that class, in 2000, was the last time I studied math.
Yeah, it showed. I mean, it's basic math on the GRE. Algebra and geometry, with fractions and decimals and other scary things that I haven't done in many years. And I studied and studied some more, and my fractions and decimals did improve. I could do about half of the algebra, and some of the geometry. However, I didn't start with great practice scores, and the more I studied the worse I got. Literally! My scores dropped.
This was not good, because I really needed a stellar score on the GRE to outweigh my not-stellar GPA. I didn't order a copy of my transcript for myself, but I remembered it being like 2.7. The program required 3.0, but sometimes review boards are dazzled by amazing test scores and will let you in anyway... right?
Around this time I decided that the only school I was going to apply to was Texas Women's University, because they were the only all-online program that had what I wanted plus in-state tuition. I called their office to ask about something else and ended up talking about the GRE, and the nice lady there recommended that I look at taking a test called the Miller Analogies Test (MAT) instead. It was also accepted by their program without prejudice, and for some people was easier. I was attracted because it has no math. In fact, it consists of 120 analogy questions to be completed in 60 minutes. It tests on all areas of a liberal arts education, and a lot of things I personally would consider "random trivia", but I saw a better chance for getting a good score on the MAT than the GRE. Part of it tests on what you know, and part just tests on how well you can put together random associations. Anyway, I liked it and enjoyed studying for it. And in the end:
ROCK STAR! So not only did I score better than 98% of people that took that test, but in doing so I inadvertently qualified for Mensa. If you're a member of Mensa, you can get discounts on rental cars and rooms at the Comfort Inn... so I'll think about that.
Anyway, I put together the rest of my application and submitted it. TWU has a webpage where you can monitor your application... and it only took them like two days to deny it. Yep, I was pretty bummed about that. I contacted an advisor and discussed a few things... it turns out that my GPA was 2.44. I was horrified. I had no idea it was that low, and while the rest of my application was totally solid, I know that I will not get in anywhere with a GPA like that. So, I reapplied to TWU as a post-baccalaureate student and will be taking classes to boost it starting this fall. I'm ok with this, because a) it needs to be done b) it will still be doing something where I get to use my grown-up brain and c) it delays getting my Masters, but I'm not really in a huge hurry anyway. I get to take whatever I want, so I look forward to some of those Lit classes I didn't have time for as an undergrad. (I just saw yesterday that my TWU application was accepted. Their standards must be a lot lower, ha).
3. Norah is smart. Not like my other kids are dumb or anything. At the end of Kindergarten, Jacob is reading all of his board books very well. His spelling words are harder than I thought they would be in K (words like "should", "would", and longer compound words). He still has a tendency to make some of his letters backwards, but overall his reading and writing are excellent. He also asks very insightful questions and uses funny words that most 5-year-olds do not even know (wonder where he gets that...) Brynn knows most of her letters, but doesn't read. She can write her name, and several other letters (which I discovered in an unfortunate incident involving a sharpie and my windowsill.)
But Norah... Between 2 and 2 1/2 years old, kids make an amazing jump in language. I remember this. But it seems to me that she has an above-average grasp of language, speaking in complete sentences. It could be just my imagination and that's how all 2 1/2 year olds speak. What's NOT my imagination is that she can correctly identify at least 20 letters. She is very interested in reading and writing, which is something that Brynn is only starting to be interested in now. Of course, it could very well be that she is interested because she has two older siblings and wants to do what they do. But the fact that she is actually able to do these things surprises me. I can't put my finger on what it is, exactly... but that girl has a little extra in the smarts department. I'm not the kind of mom that is good about doing schoolwork with my kids. I'm not terribly patient, and I find it sort of boring. But this next year, with both Brynn and Jacob in school, I need to find the time to encourage this little brain of hers. She looks at books all the time, and I realize I've gotten out of the habit of over-reading to my kids. We used to read books all the time, and now it's not even a given that we read at bedtime. Things have just been so hectic, but I need to take the time to slow down and get back into our old routines.
I do have a few other things to write about-- photography, summer, the Rick James perm, and Wyatt learning to walk... but I'll stop here and see what my children are destroying now. I'm trying to come up with some ideas for painting some of the walls in my house-- I'm tired of the boringness of my walls. Any neat ideas are welcome.
1 comments:
You should look into Leap Frog Software books for Norah. We used them with Abby and she really took off.
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