School, the IRS, and the Austin Marathon

Hello everyone, a lot has happened in a relatively short amount of time. School continues as always. I've found that I always end up having to read a large amount of pages in a short amount of time, no matter how long I've known about the assignment...is that my fault? I guess it is. I guess I've just gotten used to doing it like that, so when I do get some extra time before a class, I want to spend it doing something else, like watching TV or making cookies (or both). Sometimes I wish I could just be a housewife and stay at home, cooking, baking, cleaning, shopping and watching TV. Is that so wrong, I ask? Is it?

Well, moving on, I prepared our taxes on the awesome program known as Turbo Tax. We will be getting a nice little refund in a week or two. It pays to be living on a combined salary of less than $40,000 a year, be paying off school loans AND going to grad school, as well as give to your church. They have a program feature this year where you can use some of your refund money to purchase gift cards--right there when you finish your taxes! I really really really wanted to do it, but Derek said no. :-( I'm such a sucker for gift cards!

Finally, this past weekend, Derek and I (and his family) traveled to Austin for the Freescale Austin Marathon. For those of you who do not know, a marathon is 26.2 miles. Derek did an excellent job, finishing at a personal best time of 2:46. If you do the math, that's an average of a little over 6 minutes FOR EVERY SINGLE MILE!!! Yeah, my husband's a stud--hands off, ladies! I was very proud of him, and he's actually not even that sore this week. He came back the next day to teach classes and hold track practice at his university--what a trooper!

Until next time everyone!

The old swing of things

Wow. Reading three FAT books a week is a lot. I don't even read all of them! I feel like I am slacking off, but hey, I work, I have a husband, I have other responsibilities like paying the bills and doing our taxes. How do these people manage school with life? What did I do before grad school? Why am I asking so many questions???

Whew, glad I got that out of my system. But yes, I am pretty busy with school now. I've already done one presentation for a class, and next week I have another one! Yipe! At least I'm getting them out of the way. I got an A on my one last week--yea! I'm going to make Derek take me out to celebrate that one.

And speaking of going out, we all know what day next Tuesday is--Valentine's Day! Yea! I even took off from work that day. Guess what I'll be doing??? Reading my booty off and preparing for a presentation in class that I have to give THAT NIGHT. Yeah--does that elicit any sympathy from you guys? Hmm? Any takers? Ah, well. I will say that we'll probably go out this weekend to replace that sorry night.

I'm trying to think of some other things to mention...went to Abilene last weekend to see Mark in "West Side Story." He did such a good job--he had a couple of monologues and everything (he was the mean detective)! Won't see the fam again until Spring Break, when they come to visit us...going to the San Antonio rodeo this weekend...kind of excited about that one...kind of upset too because of the amount of reading I have to do...

Well, I'll wrap this up. I could go on and on, but quittin' time is upon me at work and I have a follow-up eye doctor appointment at 1:00 that I just don't want to be late for! Until next time, faithful readers.