GOOD Things are Happening in December

Fall 2011: LONG and STRESSFUL.

But I have terrific news to share... I am a December 2011 candidate for Georgia Southern University's College of Education Masters of Education in Instructional Technology, Library Media degree.

I completed my lengthy practicum in 2 HoCo schools and 1 Bibb school -- all the while building and finishing my portfolio which can be viewed here: http://lauralanelee.weebly.com/ (if you're really bored). I presented the portfolio last Thursday evening which went very well.

December looks to be a great month. These are my next four weekends: celebrate my birthday, graduate "in absentia," Christmas, New Year's Eve. Good stuff. :)

For Thanksgiving my parents, Kansas the Beagle and I drove to SE Georgia to see my Dad's side of the family (about 30 miles outside Savannah). My cousin Wendy and her husband were thrilled to move into their new house just weeks before Turkey Day. Our family had our first Thanksgiving feast together in their beautiful dream house.

That weekend I met Josh in Atlanta, and we went to Stone Mountain Christmas, my ideal way to get into the Christmas spirit. This is the first time the temps were perfect -- not too cold with the perfect amount of chill in the air.

The next weekend we celebrated my mom's 60th birthday with the family. I used my Cricut machine to make some cute "Sweet 60" decorations. I decorated plastic tumblers for party favors with the date. I baked a rum cake and cookies cut out in the shape of shoes (She loves shoes.). I think she really appreciated all of it.

Happy December!

Josh and I had so much fun at the 2011 Stone Mountain Christmas outside Atlanta. Here we paused for a pic in front of the massive Coca-Cola Christmas Tree.

At the end of our night, the Snow Fairy made it "snow" real, crunchy icey bits and I appreciated catching the snow drops (though you can only faintly see it in the photo... those dandruff-y flakes on my navy coat!)

If you know me, you know I am becoming a frozen yogurt connoisseur -- so much so that I asked Santa for the Cuisinart frozen yogurt and sorbet maker. My "hurry up and take the pic so I can dig into my dessert" face. (Yogurberry in Atlanta.)

My first trip to Macy's Pink Pig in Atlanta. Josh had never been either. I was impressed that he was so willing to ride a a hot pink pig ride around the roof of Lenox Square.

Finally, I am mostly settled into the new place. I do not plan to move again anytime in the near future. That was enough work and chaos, piled on top of everything else going on in my life, to hold me for quite some time.

Most people are probably thinking, "Oh, you're just one person with a handful of odds and ends. What's the big deal?" Not even.

I have my great grandmother Eva's bedroom suit that borders on antique, an oversized microsuede sofa (in spa blue that is my favorite piece of furniture), a leather chair with matching ottoman (a great LL Bean hand-me-down from my Aunt Linda), an antique secretary (another hand-me-down from my dad's side of the family), a faux leather armchair (a steal from Target online), a coffee table that's been floating around in the family since I was a little tyke, a fabulous end table that was granny's, a fabric tufted bench that conveniently stores all of my arts and crafts paraphernalia, a massive TV and TV/DVD hutch (compliments of the brother when he upgraded to an overpriced, flat screen last year), a giant bookcase (that was also granny's), a smaller wooden bookcase (an exact Pottery Barn replica from Target about 6 years ago), a small wrought iron bar cart that's about to be on the receiving end of a makeover, a square dark-wood pub table with 4 tall chairs (scored the entire set for $99 which will hold me til I can utilize my broke-down Duncan Phfye table again one day - which I had also been storing in the guest bedroom for the last 6 months and had to be relocated to storage - but that's another story) ... along with the furnishings I have plenty of kitchen items, linens, clothing/shoes, pictures, mirrors, lamps, decorating accessories and all of the odds and ends accumulated over the years. I did pair down these items substantially and participated in a group yard sale at the end of July down there - yet I still had lots of stuff to get a handle on.

Additionally, we had to move my brother's washing machine. Santa brought him a set of fancy front loaders in fire engine red last December that he requested and picked out - go figure since he hates doing laundry but that is what he wanted for Christmas. Fortunately, my parents had the vision to keep his perfectly good washer in storage. His other dryer was discarded as it had died in the Fall and was the catalyst for his Christmas present request. They purchased a new dryer which my dad installed Saturday as a housewarming, early birthday gift. :)

But back to moving: Let's just say that I envy folks who move and their employers provide all of the arrangements for the packing and heavy lifting and transportation and unloading and unpacking, all the while picking up the tab at the end (which seems to be 1/2 the people I know). I guess the one trade-off is burning a bunch of calories in the process. Being a single head of household makes it even more taxing, but it is always a great thing to have family and friends who volunteer to just pitch in and help you make it happen. For them, I am extremely grateful and appreciative. And at least, they got a good story to tell about renting a U-haul moving truck from the guy who invented the internet in the 1970s at a very dysfunctional storage center in Effingham County! Though It was not in the least bit amusing at the time!

I was spretty overwhelmed for the first couple weeks following the physical move. I worked a few weeks, moved over the weekend, worked the whole week, spent the next weekend having a yard sale and cleaning the old place from top to bottom, worked the whole week...and finally had a couple weekends to focus on making sense of my new home.

I felt like I was doing nothing but sleeping in my bed and digging through boxes and bags to find stuff every day. There were many things I wanted to tackle but could not because I was either out the door to work or had a queue of assignments (papers, projects, exams, etc.) screaming at me from an 8 week online summer class (condensed down from the norm of 16 weeks). I hate to say it, but I really did not learn much of anything in the class! I was simply trying to keep my head above water by reading and researching the minimum to accomplish each of the assigned tasks.

Luckily my mom hadn't yet started back teaching, so she spent an entire Saturday helping me and got the ball rolling for the whole "settling in" process. I've spent the last couple weeks working on a few projects to spruce up some of my accessory items that had become old and tired to me. It's been fun making things fresh again. For instance, I had a plain, carved wooden lamp that was stained a chocolate color. I used a really shiny, high gloss red spray paint to give it a new look and found some inexpensive rope ribbon to tie around the shade which gives it a nautical look. I want to have a coastal theme in my living room and it is gradually coming together the way I envisioned it. Maybe I will be able to post some pics down the road.

This week's goal is to secure cable. It's been nothing but a huge fiasco filled with technical difficulties that I won't even go into on here. I'll spare everyone the details but if it isn't resolved by this week, I will be moving on to another provider. No HGTV, TLC or baseball games is making me insanely cranky!

Here's to a Relaxing Memorial Day Weekend!

I have a bittersweet update: This morning I submitted my resignation and two week notice in my current position of 2 1/2 years. I will miss my co-workers and all of our science and technology advisees. But I will be starting in a similar position at the end of June at a college where I previously worked for 5 years. I am very much looking forward to this new change and being a part of the GMC family again.

This move also works well in allowing me to complete the considerable amount of hours to meet my practicum requirements this Fall. After my online summer course ends, I will have 1 online class, several extensive video projects, my portfolio and any other requirements with my practicum class to satisfy the M.Ed. objectives and graduate from Georgia Southern University in December 2011 (the weekend of my birthday to be exact). I just received my graduation clearance so it looks like everything is on track on this front too.

Hittin' the books again...

I am taking a quick moment to update this afternoon before I head out the door and start the weekend, if you can call it a weekend. I am downloading Photostory as I type, so that it will be ready to go tonight and tomorrow.

I spent last Friday night and all day Saturday on a 25-page paper -- as in I got up Saturday about 10:00 AM, ate something, took a shower and planted myself on the sofa from Noon to Midnight. But at 12:15 I made myself save my work, shut off my laptop and get some sleep. It can feel very isolating, because I cannot work well with the TV or any other distractions. I have to get in my quiet place and focus.

This weekend I have my second big assignment due in my other class. (I'm taking two Spring semester. I will only have two remaining and a practicum. It's a good feeling to see the light at the end of the tunnel.) This assignment is not a paper but a collaborative media project where I am having to integrate 30 photos with text and audio in a video-like format. My finished project will play like a video and take viewers on a virtual tour of the Sonny Carter Media Center (or library for those who are confused). I actually will pay a visit to my parents this weekend, so that my mom can assist me in making sure I correctly identify everything in the pictures (i.e. the nonfiction, fiction sections). She had to take the photos for me, because my working hours clash with the school day hours. She did a very good job playing photographer since she so rarely touches a camera.

Unfortunately no creative projects for decorating the house or for eating are on the books right now...just focusing on the text books at the moment and going to work everyday. It's quite the fun cycle...not!

I've also been learning how "to coupon," with the help of www.southernsavers.com. But that is a whole other post in itself.

I do have one adventure coming up though. My friend Sarah (the Hilton Head Island bride) and I signed up for the Disney Princess 5K at Disney World. We will be going to Orlando the last weekend of the month for it. She can run rings around me. She also signed up for the Half-Marathon, so she will be conquering two races in one weekend.