Hopefully you like long, rambling posts wherein I complain, mostly.

- I have a love/hate relationship with school.  I truly enjoy learning, especially when it's something I find interesting (physiology! microbiology! anatomy! english, kind of!), but even when it's not (math.), I still value the learning experience.  It's so great!  It makes me feel like I'm making myself a better person.  When it's a really challenging class, like any in my last 3 semesters, the rush of conquering is heady.  It gives me the sense that, if I really work hard and do my very best, I can do anything.

But.

I am so sick (!!!!!!!!!!!!!) of forfeiting the whole of my evenings to school's greedy hands.  I feel like my entire life is spent keeping Olivia alive and happy, then once she's in bed, I'm poring over textbooks and notes, writing papers, making flashcards, and drilling concepts into my head.  To put myself to sleep at night, I mentally recite all the things I'm learning.  I'm not sure if it's the sleep deprivation from late nights spent studying or just the nature of the material, but this has been the most effective sleep-finding tactic I've ever employed.

- It's not just my evenings, really.  Each of Olivia's baths, during her shows, and while she plays with Play-Doh, I will likely be found clutching some sort of school paraphernalia (that word is hard to spell!).  As a result, Olivia is constantly asking about what I'm reading.  We've had lots of interesting discussions about cells, bacteria, various organs, skeletal structure, and basically any picture she can see on the page I'm currently studying. Today she put her hands on her stomach and said, "My stomach doesn't have bones like my chest does!  What's inside there?"  So we talked about her stomach and intestines (the word 'intestines' makes everything sound gross).  She saw my Micro textbook with its cover picture of green bacteria and asked, "Ohhh, are those green cells?"  And don't make fun of me, but it's kind of fun to have someone to talk to about all the stuff I'm learning.  Even if she's only four.

- I'm excited for the Hunger Games movie to come out.  I wonder if there'll be a midnight showing?  Want to come with me if there is?

- I have plenty of clothing options to choose from in my closet, but somehow all I want to wear lately falls under the categories of: Big, Baggy, and preferably Flannel.  I probably ought to earnestly start running again.

-  I'm experiencing a drought of healthy, tasty recipes lately.  I need some new meals to make our lives more exciting!  But also ones that keep me from committing to elastic waistbands for the rest of my life (I am this close, as it is, if only for their stretchy comfortability!).  Have you made something spectacular lately?  You ought to tell me about it!  I will report back to you and everything.  You could email me, if you wanted, at jenivive86 at hotmail dot com.  I created that email address when I was 16, by the way.  One day I'll make a grown up one, probably.

- Oh, fine.  I will stop talking your ears off (writing your eyes off?) and show you some pictures.

Catching snow!

Catching snow again but in a different way!

Here I am holding a textbook to show you that I was studying while Olivia was creating what she told me were tickets (?) out of Play-Doh.

Olivia told me she wanted to write a journal about her experience in the orange groves at her Nana's house.  She came up with the words on her own (and drew accompanying pictures, but they didn't fit in this collage), then I told her how to spell them.  Four year old handwriting is my favorite.