Crunch time

Well tomorrow morning I am off to Fargo to sit for the CRC exam. (certified Rehabilitation Counselor) I am very nervous about the exam. I don't do well with tests and the panic is already setting in. I have studied non-stop for the last 2.5 months and figure I have a good understanding on everything. The funny thing is there are two ladies that are in my university classes and the one admitted last night she studied for the first time for the test for .5 hour. OMG .5 hour of studying??? I have studied at least 1 to 2 hours most days for this dang test. I wish I really had her self-confidence about passing. I don't want to be negative, but I am prepared to take it again in the fall if I absolutely have to. I just feel like I have not worked in the field directly like others have and while everything I have learned has been mostly book learning along with the little bit of time I have spent in my practicum and internship, it doesn't make up for the hands on knowledge of someone that has held a rehabilitation counselor job for several years before taking the test.

Grrrrr I am so nervous and scared about the test. I leave tomorrow, get to Fargo, figure out where the test is given at than find a hotel. I am going to be studying all evening. Than when I get home on Sundy, I turn around and leave for Helena for trainings at work till Wednesday night. I do have to say the pressure of knowing that this test will be totally off my shoulders for the next couple months till I find out if I pass or not will feel so great!! I just don't know what I am going to do with all my time, I have been in college non-stop for the last three years. I have a list a mile long of things that need to be done, starting with my house. It has had the very basics in cleaning the last three years that it is screaming for a deep cleaning and paint job.

Well I am off, I will post again when I get back from Helena.

Holy Cow it has been awhile

Wow it has been awhile since my last post. I have been one busy person this spring. I can see the light at the end of the tunnel and I am planning to break through the end of this month. I am finishing up my Master's degree this semester. I thought this would be an easy semster because I just had to work on my internship and one Psychology class I am taking for my counselors license in Montana. Low and behold, I didn't realize how much time I would spend studying for my exams. I take my comprehensive exam for the college next week on Friday the 13th. That exam I am not so worried about as I am the CRC (certified Rehabilitation Counselor) exam I travel to Fargo, ND and take on the 28th of this month. That exam I am worried about because of several reasons. One being that it is 300 questions, and you must get at least an 80% to pass and get your license, and two because if I don't pass it, I will have to fork out another $385 and take it again next fall in November. I am spending ever spare moement studying right now.

Boy do I have plans once I am done with everything at the end of this month. I plan on really cleaning and painting my house. The last three years have been so hard on my poor house. My family has really picked up the slack and done some major cleaning, but not the deep cleaning it really needs. I am also planning to spend a lot of my free time scrapbooking and working on some projects. I will be teaching a 20 layouts in a day class on May 12 and need to be working on that. I am looking forward to having so much free time. Okay back to the books for now.

 
Just another one from today showing Amanda (my now 20 year old wearing her floating arm bands around the house wondering when she can go swimming.

 

Just 2!!!

 

Jsut 2 layouts a day. That is my goal. Here is one from yesterday. I figure I should be taking the time to scan and post them.

 

 

I amm taking a class at Big Picture Scrapbooking from Heidi Swapp. We had to come up with a goal. This year I have several goals. To finish school (graduate in May), pass my CRC exam in April (hummm maybe that means I need to study, (Certified Rehabilitation Counselor exam)), and my biggest goal is to scrapbook 2 layouts a day. This has been an eye opening experience for me because I thought I would be down in my room for hours each night working on it. This goal has actually set me free from so much. I use to spend hours finding paper, embellishments, pictures, basically everything I needed to do the layout, than I would spend even more hours trying to figure it out to get it just right. God forbid I attach anything till I was 100% sure that was how I wanted the layout. I am free now. I am not even really thinking about it. I am grabbing paper (even using up tons of those scraps in the pile) and embellishments and attaching them. I just started building on the layout as I go instead of moving it all around. I figure once it is down, I will have to make it work. Layouts seriously use to take me 2 to 3 hours to get done. Now I might spend 1/2 an hour on one max. I am getting 3 to 4 done in the evenings now. I am loving it. At this rate I will be done with all 40 years of pictures I have sitting in boxes by the end of the year. It just feels so good to know that I have already done a full album this year and starting a new one. Here are my two from yesterday, I figured to stick to my goal maybe I should be scanning and posting them.

 
Just trying to empty out some old photo albums. I really want to get some of these old photos scrapped and journaled about. Here is a really oldie. The girls playing in the balls at McDonalds in December 1991. These pictures crack me up because Ashly now has a son this age, and Amanda is going to be 20 soon. Ohhh I feel so old.

Mini Album #1

Tuesday night I am teaching make and takes at a local LSS in my area. Every week it is hard to come up with ideas for new things to teach. This month I am focusing on a different mini album each week. At the make and take they just get to assemble the basic album, not decorate it. They are sent a list of supplies and can bring them to stay and decorate their albums. This is the one I am doing this week. I love spending time with the different people that come on Tuesday nights.

My goals for the coming year!

Do you make resolutions? I heard today on the news that only 14% of people are sticking with their resolutions after only 3 weeks. Wow!! I decided I don't need to make a resolution, that odds are I am not going to be sticing with in 3 weeks. I did decide that I am going to list my goals that I hope to accomplish this year.

School related:
1. Graduate in May!!
2. Study and pass my CRC exam on April 28. (This one scares me to death.)

Family:
Take a summer vacation, school has been a bugger the last couple years and we have put off major family trips. Okay gas prices didn't help either.

Spend more time, just enjoying them. Taking walks, riding bike doing whatever, just enjoying the time I have left with each of them. (Heck Megs will be a senior next year and Jerad right behind her as a Sophmore.)

Craft Related: (this will be long)
Get ORGANIZED, I really need to do this in my scrapbooking and quilting areas. Figure out what I have and get it all organized.

Do Mike's WWII scrapbook. I already sorted the pictures, but really want to get the entire album done documenting that time in history.

Scrapbook all my old photos. Get them all put into albums and done so that I can scrapbook in a proactive way rather than reactive way. I sorted all the photos into groups the last couple days, and now I just need to get tons of pages done.

Quilting, I want to get Megan's quilt done (started it last week), do a quilt for Jerad and one for Sam and I.

Those are my basic goals. Oppss forgot the most important one.......ME!!! I want to really work on becoming healtier, I am not going to say loose weight because I think by becoming healthier that will be part of it. I really want to just enjoy life more and become healthier. I really worry about Sam's health and so maybe by the two of us working together we can do it.

Okay they kind of sound like resolutions, but they really are my goals for the year.

Merry Christmas to all!!

Hope everyone is having a great Christmas. Ours is very mellow, just the way we like it around here. We do most of the cooking on Christmas Eve, so we can spend today just munching and hanging out together. We splept in, opened all our presents and are just hanging out playing with them. The kids are playing with the new ipods, and Jerad is jamming to his Guitar hero PS2 game.

Sam is watching football, I am scrapbooking and just trying to go through some old pictures. I am working on a heritage album from the Marman/Geiger history. Here are two layouts I have done today.