Drumroll please...

I've been dangling the bait for my fall plans on what I will do with myself once all my children go to school full-time. What will I do with all that free time? I will join them.



Meet Cristtin, soon to be 30 year old Sophomore at Austin Peay State University. I start school the day after my birthday. If all goes according to plan and it must, I will be in the class of 2011, only eleven years behind my original class. These next two semesters are beyond crazy, I have to complete all my general work by the summer because that is when my major's program starts. The course work is set in stone for the next two years after that. I must start it next summer or I have to wait another year before I can. I am taking 16 credits this semester and technically 24 credits next semester but breaking some of it up in 8 week courses so it's not all at the same time. It has to go perfect or I might not be able to graduate here, it will be time to move on and the next place might not have my major.

My major - Radiologic Technology, also known as Rad Tech. And no, I did not just choose it for it's awesome abbreviation. When I am done with school, I will be a qualified lab technician for a Radiology department.

A quick note on my school, Austin Peay. It is not pronounced Pay, like almost all outsiders assume. It is pronounced pea, like the veggie. It still makes me giggle every time. And once again no, I did not choose the college based off of it's funny name or chant, Let's Go Peay. I am serious, that is the school chant. It's on everything, T-shirts, bummer stickers, mugs, license plates. They even made us do it at orientation today, over and over again, Let's Go Peay, Let's Go Peay! We even played a game called Peay in the Blood. To find out who amongst the transfer students had the most family members who had gone to AP. I think I am going to like my school.

I am already nervous, though. Some of my classes are going to be tough. Like I had to dive right into Pre-calculus this semester, even though I know I would be much more comfortable doing a lower level refresher course. But I don't have time. That math class is a pre-requisite for the physics class I need next semester. So the logic goes, I don't take it now, I don't get into the program next summer, I don't graduate. Ah, the stress of graduation three years in advance. Once I am in the program, though, the load is a lot lighter.

On a lighter side, the kids finished up Y Camp. I think they might have had as much fun as I did. Every morning taking them, they were all energy talking about what they were going to do that day and taking them home it was all stories about what they had done.

The past two days they have been going to a park with a creek they could hike to and try and catch critters and get all dirty. They have been in kid paradise. I asked them yesterday if they would like to do this again next summer and they all screamed yes and DD said, "Of course we are going to do it next year." Punx asked how many times they could do it next year.

DD told a funny story about something they saw at the creek. They are calling them crawdads? She, and her brothers concur, says that they have pinchers. First of all, what?! What are these things? Something in a stream with pinchers. To me, pinchers belong in the ocean on lobsters and crabs, after that I am out on my knowledge on what comes with pinchers. So back to DD, she told me all about the crawdads and informed me that, "If a crawdad pinches you it will hold on to you for the rest of it's puny life." At least she learned something at camp.

Also yesterday after camp we came home and the kids were bushed. They were dirty, cranky, tired, and hungry. I get dinner done and am waiting for it to cool off before I call up the kids when Bug comes up to tell me he is hungry. I tell him it will be just a minute and then put on my most serious face and say, "Come here," and hold out my arms. He has learned that this means I am going to make him snuggle me. He assumes snuggle position and the negotiation begins. He tries to get in as little time as possible and I try to get as much time. I tell him we will snuggle for three hours, "Mom, I don't think we will survive." I start lowering it by the hour but he still thinks he will die from hunger so I up the ante and say five hours, "I will totally be dead." So, I let him out and fed the boy.



Here they are after camp yesterday all dirty and camp-happy.

By the way, I did get to the movies. Saw the Dark Knight. If you saw Batman Begins and liked it you should like this one. It was really good. It was a lot darker. A lot. Very tense. The Joker stole the show. Makes it kind of creepy to think about, though.