So happy! Photos for Melanie~

And I am a graduate!!!! The ceremony was wonderful and I am so glad that I did it, although I will tell you that I plan on wearing much more comfortable shoes for my next graduation!!! Heels make for a very long day, especially when one is not used to them and they slipped every once in a while because of the stockings! I was so relieved that I didn’t fall on my face in front of everyone…Oh and my grades are posted: three A’s and my ending undergraduate gpa is ………can I have a drumroll please?

3.857!!!! Not bad for a mom of 11 with all of the craziness that has gone on and the long commute to UA…….

I have to post photos of the day for Melanie since she is one of the few people I know who is not on Facebook! So the rest of you can just page on down past the repeat of my graduation. 

This one is my favorite of my daughter’s and myself….it would have been perfect if Jasmine had been here but I’ll take what I can get……

The family pic~ it was hard to get the Princess in since she is so short and she certainly wasn’t ready for this, but the rest of us look good!

The inside of EJ Thomas Hall

The Honors Medal for graduating Summa Cum Laude

Tommy and I~ you can’t see it but his shirt matches the purple in my dress~

The very beautiful dress that Renee bought me for my graduation at Express~ we had a great time trying it one and me trying to decide if I would wear something so not conservative~ I am glad that I did! I love this dress! 

This is my dearest friend Diane, who is Godmother to all 11 of my children! I’m so happy that she was there, I think she was more excited than I was and that was a good thing, since I was a nervous wreck!

My Mother’s Day present from Michelle~ I love it and it is filled with delicious Malley’s chocolate!!!

My necklace from Ivette (aka Renee, she loves her middle name of Ivette, better so I am trying to call her that, dratted independent  females in my family!!!) We had stopped at Roger’s jeweler’s a year ago, asking her friend Cedric if they had a Tree of Life necklace and they didn’t so imagine my surprise when I opened the box and there it was……

Please ignore how very tired I look, I am not sleeping well and having been up sick at night for the last 5 nights…..

Ivette picked up this cake~ Red Velvet with Cream Cheese frosting~ it was very good!

My flowers~ the pink ones are from Ivette and the red ones are from Michelle~

My presents~ the pink clay piece was from Jasmine~ she had made this many years ago and I recently found it, so I have it for a center piece on my table……she couldn’t be here but I know she was with me in spirit

I made lasagne rolls for lunch, this was going to be my Nailed It or Failed It pinterest project but, it makes better sense to put it here.

I had bought a groupon deal for getting my hair done at an organic salon and it was so much fun to do! I also got contacts for the first time ever! I really did not want to wear glasses and needed to be able to see. I am surprised that I like them so much. I can see so much better than when I wear my glasses. Probably because they don’t slide or move around as much! It is an amazing feeling to be able to see again! They are monovision contacts and since I took Biopsychology in the fall I actually knew what that meant before the Dr. explained it.

It was funny today, when I went back for my one week check up for my contacts and the ladies there were so surprised that I had never worn contacts before! I told them why I got them and they were impressed by all the exciting things going on in my life! I have to admit that I am getting excited about all these new changes as well! I am almost ready to go walking around John Carroll’s campus now and figure out where everything is.

Well, I think I have rambled enough for today’s post! 

So…….

My life as usual is incredibly busy and changing. Two weeks from tomorrow (Saturday), I will graduate with my Bachelors! I am so excited, Four of my daughters will be there as will Tommy and my close friend Diane. I pick up the tickets May 01 and can’t wait!!!

I got an email today that I may be able to have an Associate’s degree retroactively from the community college I went to. I will drop off that form and see what happens, but I think it would be cool to get it. 

I also found out that if I pass the test and get licensed as a counselor here in Ohio, that I will be able to just fill out the form for Georgia and then have Ohio send down my licensure stuff and I will be legal to practice there!!! 

I know that you have no idea what I’m talking about but you see, my daughter Renee is moving to GA in May and after I am done with school, I am so moving to a warmer state!!! I lived in GA when my oldest Michelle was a baby! I love GA!!! It will put us much closer to Jasmine in Sarasota and it is not so far that I couldn’t come back for a visit although that would only be in the summer! not traveling up here in the winter!!!

Tommy has even agreed that he would be happy to move there!!! That is a first, as he has not wanted to move to any other place I’ve suggested before. 

I have seen my advisor at John Carroll and filled out an academic plan for my time there. He has already gotten me registered for the fall semester! Orientation is Sept. 03, the first night of classes! So I have almost 4 months to get myself together before then! I have quite a few things to get done this summer but that is good!

I am thanking God tonight for my many blessings! I should go do something productive though with my time……

Just for Nicole, a writing memory!

Hello you have reached Rose’s Insane Asylum.

We give succor to all who are suffering with life issues. Our forte is children but all are welcome.

 We will provide you with sleeping arrangements and access to a tv, vcr and possible nintendo.

 We provide three meals a day and more snacks then even we can count along with drinks. Please don’t spill the drinks the Administrator (aka Rose) cannot abide dirty, sticky floors. Perhaps she might put you to work cleaning them.

You must be able to eat whatever we put if front of you and not complain. As this is not a restuarant and we don’t cater to people’s desires only needs.

 You will be read to at night and allowed to sleep in safety.

 We do not administer drugs with the notable exception of homeopathic remedies.

 If the weather is nice and the administrator is feeling benevolent you may play outside until dark. As long as you stay away from the hill and try not to fall over the edge as any major injuries are frowned upon.

 I hope you enjoy your stay here. I’m sure that if you follow the rules and do not engage in fighting , name calling or any other unsavory activity you will be happy here.

The Administrator

 

Note~ I wrote this when I was pregnant with the Princess~ 11 years ago this summer and the house we lived in Cleveland, overlooked the Zoo with a deep hill and we had no fence, so I was always afraid to let the younger ones outside.

The Graduate School Decision~

I am horribly tired of doing my schoolwork tonight so I decided to write about my decision and how it came about. if you remember I was trying to decide between a Master’s in Public Health Policy or a Master’s in Mental Health Counseling, you can read about it here. For quite a few weeks, I was leaning towards PHP, and thinking about moving closer to the school. With that in mind the husband, littles and I drove down to look at the outside of a house that we had seen on the internet and to get a feel for the city close to the school. The drive was perfect, we didn’t get lost and it was pretty short considering. The closer we got to the house though, the more uncomfortable I became with the city. The best way to describe it is as something out of a redneck horror story. I fully accept the fact that I am a city girl but that city was creepy! We found the house and it did not look much like the house in the 14 photos at all! The garage was not a real garage, but a shed made of out cinder blocks that were so old they were mud brown with discoloration and I envisioned a dirt floor with dead bodies buried underneath it. Ok, so my imagination is vivid I am after all a bibliophile, what do you expect? the husband bravely got out of the van and walked around the house, while I stayed safe with the littles inside the van. He said it needed tons of work and it smelled like old rotting wood……ewwwww!!! 

So we left and I told him there was no way that I would sell our house we have now for a house in worse condition even if it meant my continued commute! We also talked about how creepy the neighborhood was and how unhappy we would be. I was a bit freaked out by the experience and started wondering just what I should do, after all I was leaning towards this program but worried about the commute, being gone from my kids like now. Over the last few weeks, I have come to realize that in spite of how hard it is to homeschool while I am in college that I know that I am doing what is best for my children! I also realized that I couldn’t stop and send them to school, and that means that whatever program I decided on hinged upon my being able to continue to home school my children until the Peanut graduates from high school and goes off to college! Another 10 years worth of homeschooling!!!! I cannot put into words the deepness of commitment I feel towards my children and how necessary I feel it is to do what is best for them. 

After we returned home, I was a bit stressed and went back to the school’s website about the MPH program and the first thing I see is a child receiving a vaccine. I had seen it before but somehow I kept it out of my mind but that night, it hit home to my brain that in a MPH field I could be writing up protocols for all the things that the medical profession stands for that I have spent the last 27 years of my life actively avoiding to the point of being involved in grassroots organization to change policies. Yet another hard hitting reality for me! The next few days revolved in my going back and forth and researching programs/times etc. 

Finally after a great deal of soul searching I finally decided to go with getting my Master’s in Clinical Mental Health Counseling.  I only have to take 9 credits a semester, which translates to 3 nights a week from 6-8:40pm!!! and the nights are Tues, Weds, and Thursday!!! Summer classes are not mandatory but I hope to take at least one class every summer so that I can graduate in three years! This particular program is 60 credits and will qualify me to take  both levels of state boards, the initial one for licensing as a counselor and then after 3000 of supervision, I can take the PCC exam allowing me to work independently!!! Giving me a chance to fulfill my dream of having my own office one day! The best things is that I should have the opportunity to work afternoons/evenings allowing me to continue to homeschool the children and work. 

I have made a tentative appointment to see my assigned advisor for next Monday at 4pm to register for classes and I will stop by financial aid while I am there to make sure they have my FAFSA and that I get everything in order for the fall. John Carroll is a great school and one of the best for counseling! In that regards, I am very happy. I can’t tell if I will have the opportunity to get an Ed.D yet but the fact that I could work independently one day may just suffice for me. One other very nice thing about JC is that it is close!!!! My commute will be so much shorter, less time away form my kids, more time for schooling them and getting my work done without so much stress about how to find the time for it all. 

I feel so relieved about having finally made a decision and feel like this one is the best for everyone in my family, not just for me. I doubt that I would be happy if I had made a decision that negatively impacted my children even if the end result was a better paying job. I have never really wanted to be rich, just comfortable enough to travel a bit and not have to worry about how to pay for living expenses! I was also very worried about feeling as if I had compromised all of my beliefs in alternative medicine and my natural way of life. Sometime over the weekend I realized that a career means nothing if I have compromised all of my morals, beliefs and ethics. So I will do the career that allows me to maintain my standards and be happy with that. 

So if you made it thus far, you are a trooper! I hope this all makes sense to you, right now I’m getting very tired and not sure of my coherence at this point! 

Avocado’s anyone?

ok, since I eat a lot of avocado’s I decided that we should at least attempt to grow a plant out of the seeds! I mean we are just tossing them in the trash anyway so why not!!! I found a site on pinterest that led me to a blog post that led me to another link that was able to tell just how to do it the right way * at least I hope so!!! 

I took the time this morning since I’ve let the kids have spring break this week to start it ! We will see if it grows, we are already at the negative though as I eat California avocados and they are harder to grow! Stay tuned to see if we succeed!

Holy Friday in our house~

Last night the Princess made her First Communion, it was a beautiful service and included a foot-washing from the Pastor. 

The crafts the kids made, I help teach this portion of the class

The children singing “I want Jesus to Walk with Me” (sorry this is fuzzy, couldn’t get closer and I am still wanting a $500 18-275 mm lens for my Pentax)

Kendra actually hopped over 3 rows to get this photo for me

The children take communion up on the alter with each other and then take it again with their families.

Afterwards we had cake and pastries in the fellowship hall! It all turned out very nice! PS~ the kids baked the communion bread for their first communion also. 

I let the Princess and Peanut sleep in as we were all exhausted after last night and gave them the day off of schoolwork! We listened to Adventures in Odyssey: Imagination Station I & II: Appreciating God’s Word and The Death and Resurrection of Christ. Both are very powerful even for adults! I am hoping to make it to Family Christian Bookstores today and get the Passion, in spite of the gruesome beating, I like that movie and it reminds me how much Jesus went through for my sins.

Random Thoughts~ it is sunny, I am tired, my break went by too quickly and the older I get the more Jesus sacrifice makes me weep with humbleness and reaffirms how much he loves me.

Trying to decide on curriculum for next year

 Math~ Ok, so since I am slightly hugely panicked about MUS switching to the common core, I went to their website today and ordered $300 worth of textbooks for the kids to get the younger ones through 7th grade! Although I did forget to order 3 Zeta’s, so will have to order yet one more in the next week or so. I have ordered the Ark’s geometry for next year as well. I think I will start trying to order replacement texts whenever possible and stock up on them before they start changing the higher math to align it with the Common Core. On the brighter side, at least the littles will not need math texts for a few years. 

Grammar~I have already bought Ace the growing with grammar text as we had the TM from the Ark, and it is a great review of grammar for that age. The Ark will be moving on to Rod n Staff’s grammar this fall and we will use it for next fall as well then for his senior year, I am going to use the college english text that I have and once he turns 18 in October of that year, I will have him start taking college classes at the community college, at least for that last semester of high school. The Princess is going to write this year, while the Peanut does something writing or grammar related.

Latin~ The Peanut will stick with Song School Latin finishing up 1 and then moving into the new 2 level, The Princess is moving to LFC-A, Ace will be continue on until he gets through LFC-C and that will be awhile at his rate. I am currently researching Latin programs for the Ark, my Latin professor has been really helpful with that and I have a copy of Latin for the New Millennium to review and I like it! It is so much better than Ecce Romani! so I will probably sell our off at Amazon asap. 

History~We are going to use Notgrass Exploring government for the Ark this fall, he is not ready to delve back into world history yet, since we have spent so much time there previously. I think that Ace is going to use The World Today, it is not Christian but it seems as if it is not overly biased and delves to issues behind the scenes well. I think the littles will do Galloping the Globe this year, I have it and it is easy and then next year we will all be back to Ancient History! I prefer to keep us all on the same subject as much as possible.

Science~ The Ark will move to Chemistry and I finally just caved and am buying Apologia and will struggle through it with him as I can’t find anything I like and would rather just push on, as long as I buy the audio cd, he seems to do ok with it! Ace is going to move to General Science and the littles are doing Astronomy since I have that and it is easy.

Readers~ The Ark will read: Three Cups of Tea: One School At A Time, The Best Short Stories of O’Henry, A Tree Grows in Brooklyn, The Godless Constitution: A Moral Defense of a Secular State, Tools of Dominion: The Case Laws of Exodus, Walden and Civil Disobedience. I have no idea what the rest will read but its not like we lack for books.

Ok, I feel much better having a plan now and I did not spend as much as I did last year and I like this years plan much better.