CostcoWarrior

#37 Get a Master’s Degree 1 July 2010

602 days…

20 months…

1.65 years…

96 credit hours…

32 courses…

1239 + discussion participation assignments…

countless homework assignments, book chapters, midterms, projects, papers, late nights, finals…

an 80 page final degree capstone project…

the pregnancy/labor/delivery and first 8 months of our daughter’s existence…

All of this and TW and I have completed our master’s degrees.  One MBA each.  Done.  Check this one off the Bucket List. On a bragging note, despite our stiff competition on grades, we both completed with cumulative GPAs of 3.985.  We got one A-.  But we still count that as a personal A, since after the course we (and the rest of the class) got that instructor fired for being such an *@$%*!^.  Don’t even get us started about that class, we aren’t fully past it yet…

In type-face, it sums up so succinctly.  I Completed my Master’s Degree.  And yet there’s so much tied up in such a short phrase: Relief.  Exhaustion.  Happiness.  Humility.  Accomplishment.  Gratitude.  Emotion.

I’ve had this dream since I was a senior in high school.  It was my dad’s wish.  His vision that became mine.  And now it is his pride.  And my mother’s joy.  A gift I willingly share with them: I am the first person in all the known history of my father’s and mother’s families to receive a graduate degree.

Wrapped up in all of the good feelings, I must admit, there is a bit of wistfulness.  We’re done with school.  We have no further plans for formal education.  Call me crazy, but I will miss it.  There’s a little bit of my heart that feels sad, almost weepy.  There’s even a bit of emptiness.  We’ve worked so hard and carried this load, an overwhelming one at times, for so long that it’s hard to imagine “real life” without it.

What do people DO if they aren’t busy with homework or reading or tests or papers?  Not that we aren’t busy now.  We have nearly 2 years of “stuff” we’ve been putting off.  Like updating the ipod.  Or replacing our car brakes.  And tackling small household projects like trimming the bottom of our bedroom door and actually gluing the kitchen window sill in place.  You know, difficult tasks that are just not a priority when you have schoolwork to do … or you just want to spend 30 minutes together just chatting … or you have 15 minutes to play with your adorable baby before she goes to bed.

Is this how “real life” works?

Stuff like this?

Huh.

We’re still adjusting.

To will or not to will… 8 June 2010

In my MBA class this week we are discussing the Last Will and Testament as well as the Living Will.

Do you have a will?

We made one shortly after we were married in 2007. When we had our daughter the end of 2009 we began discussing who we would like to name as her guardian. And when we settled on a guardian we sat them down and really really had a sincere talk with them about the responsibility of taking our daughter. We have yet to make things official in writing, though, since we are still discussing some of the financial details included in a will.

Two other good suggestions I’ve researched on choosing guardians for you child are:

(1) designate a “backup” guardian in case your first choice can’t or won’t take up the responsibility.

Also (2) include with your will a letter to your child’s guardian detailing important things to you as a parent that you want them to strive for as they raise your child. I had not thought of this initially, but as my husband and I discussed it, we found there were A LOT of specific things that were very important to us in how we would want our daughter cared for should we both pass away. For instance, we want her to be STRONGLY encouraged to receive a college education. As in FORCE HER TO EDUCATE HER  BRAIN.    We want her to have extended visits at least twice per year with my parents and family, seeing as how we’ve chosen a guardian from my husband’s family. We also want our daughter to travel Europe and to some additional places that are really special to me and my husband. There are some religious ties we want established for our daughter while she’s young. And so on…

The letter isn’t meant to spell out exactly how to raise our daughter, but it is a place to put a lot of our hopes and dreams and wishes for her life that her guardians may not know about without the letter. We also think it would be a good idea to include a letter specifically addressed to our daughter telling her about us and about how much we love her; how she changed our lives, how we wish so much happiness for her., and how we will be together again someday.

In my research on wills, it is fascinating how much preparation can improve a tragic situation. While we haven’t fully completed the process, my husband and I are working on it and realize how important it is to leave our affairs in good order for our daughter and for our families.

How many is too many? 6 June 2010

Yesterday while cruising around on my motorcycle I was stopped at a red-light. I saw a young boy run up to the crosswalk button and start pressing, and pressing, and pressing… until the light turned green. Inside my helmet I was laughing. As soon as the light turned green I wanted to yell out a big thanks, because surely every one of his tens of button presses shaved valuable seconds off of everyone’s wait.

Even better: this experience reminded me of a time when WW and I were out for a walk and she had to make sure she pressed the button 30 times…just for fun.

This post is for all of us that just can’t push the crosswalk button once!

A Mother’s Skill 4 February 2010

So I got this email forward today:

One day my mother was out, and my dad was in charge of me.  I was maybe 2 1/2 years old. Someone had given me a little ‘tea set’ as a gift, and it was one of my favorite toys.  Daddy was in the living room engrossed in the evening news when I brought Daddy a little cup of ‘tea’, which was just water. After several cups of tea and lots of praise for such yummy tea, my Mom came home. My Dad made her wait in the living room to watch me bring him a cup of tea, because it was ‘just the cutest thing!’ My Mom waited, and sure enough, here I came down the hall with a cup of tea for Daddy; and she watched him drink it up. Then she said, “Did it ever occur to you that the only place she can reach to get water is the toilet?”

Now, I don’t really know if it’s a true story, and since it’s an “internet forward” it’s probably not.  But I realized something very true as I read it:

Pretty much, being a mother means you’re suddenly a super duper ANALYST.

Every situation.  Analyze, Analyze, Analyze.  You’re watching and continuously asking WHAT? and  WHERE?  and HOW?  Analyze, Analyze, Analyze.

Hot? Cold? High? Low? Sturdy? Tight? Wet? Dry? Smelly? Snotty? Reachable? Breakable? Salvageable? Loud?  Quiet?  Healthy?  Sugary?  Messy? Fun? Lame?  Cute?  NOT cute?  Time?  Not time?  Sleepy? Hungry?  Clean?  Dirty?  Washable?  Sick? Hurt? Poopy?  Bored?

GAH!  It’s never-ending!  All you do ALL day is Analyze and attempt to Problem Solve.   No wonder my brain is fried each night.

Next time someone asks me what I do, I’m going to skip the “stay at home mom” title that gets just a vague nod.  Instead I’m going to say “I’m a Domestic Analyst.”

not so candid camera 30 January 2010

For Christmas WarriorWife and I got a new webcam from “memaw & bapaw”, WW’s parents.  It was given so that we could occasionally do video chat with Skype.  Today I was playing with the webcam… how could I resist it said it did HD video and I HAD to try it out.  We were just looking at the video on my monitor, but we weren’t recording.  Then I found the RECORD button and just had to try it, realize of course that WW had NO idea that I had started recording.  She was on her phone and on hold, so she was just being herself… I just wanted to share a bit of the WarriorWife with you.

Its because of times like this that I KNOW I married the woman for me.  enjoy!

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Note: I told her that I was recording at about the 25 second mark.