Fall Is In The Air and School Is Around The Corner

Fall has now unofficially/officially begun!  I know that technically the first day of fall is what, Saturday or something like that but for me it starts with the first Pumpkin Spice Latte!  To top it all off, it was my free drink!  Can you say "Hello Venti Pumpkin Spice Latte with an extra shot!  Do I want whip cream...why yes I do!!!"

Now every other day that I actually have to pay for my coffee I am pretty cheap and boring.  As the air gets cool and crisp, I tend to go with my staple of a Grande Skinny Vanilla Latte extra hot.  It's cheap and VERY low on calories!  If you have never tried the Pike Roast at Starbucks (hi, I'm from Seattle and Starbucks is pretty much the ONLY place I will get coffee from) then you are missing out!

Sometimes I switch it up and get the Blonde Roast.  Either way, leave a little room for "cream" but I use non-fat milk and a little bit of sugar...not nearly enough as I would normally so I could actually taste it but enough that it takes the slight bitter taste away from black coffee.

During the summer, I am all about the Trenta Black Tea Lemonade.  I am so thankful for the Trenta and can totally understand why it is only available for iced/non-coffee drinks...that would be a whole mess of caffeine that no one person should every consume in one beverage.

After every 12th drink and I see that I have that free drink, you better believe I am not caring about calories or anything and I am getting the most expensive drink that I never get otherwise and that is usually a Venti (are you seeing the "free" trend here...) White Chocolate Raspberry Mocha with an extra shot and whip cream.  Now if only they carried Cherry syrup...then it would be a Cherry Mocha...but they don't.

With the start of fall comes the start of the new school year.  My oldest nephew started kindergarten this year (lord have mercy where HAS the time gone).  My youngest sister started on her Master's program.  I have wanted to get back into taking classes but I just can't afford it and then I found Ashford University.  There are so many perks there being prior service that made it impossible to turn down.  I have been talking with a counselor who is totally awesome and yesterday he walked me through the application process and I applied.  Should have my official acceptance tomorrow and then he is going to help me fill out all of my financial paperwork and help me apply for the Pell Grant.

I start my first class on October 1st and I can't wait!  Each class is 5 weeks long and you only take one class at a time.  The best part is that no money has to come out of my pocket!  Tuition is deferred for 60 days while the VA plays catch up to get everyone their money and he is even going to help me figure out how to do all the VA stuff!  It's all so different from my previous school but I have a really good feeling about this program.  PLUS when I graduate, I will have a Bachelor's degree in the original field that I wanted anyway!  I will have a BA in Applied Behavioral Science.  I can't wait!

With all that has happened in the last few days, I have also decided to take the crazy woman who owns the dance studio that I used to teach at who owes me money to collections!  I will hopefully be able to set up a meeting either today or tomorrow with them to get this going because even with them taking their 20%, it would leave me with well over what she originally owed me and saves me from having to drive back down to the court house and turning my case into a civil suit.

Well I guess that is everything for now!  Until next time!

Back To School Everyone!

With September literally around the corner...like Saturday...that means Labor Day and school starting...at least in the Pacific Northwest.  I know most of the country has already started school.  Okay so I am even more excited about this Fall/Back-to-School season because after almost two years I am starting classes again!  I mainly had to start because I was going to be dis-enrolled if I did not register by a specific date but I feel like even though my world is still crashing down around me and I have control of NO aspect of my life, I want to throw myself into my school work and hopefully get my degree finished in the next couple of years.

I had a phone conference with one of my student advisers several weeks ago and decided to update my degree plan.  My original degree plan was BA in Psychology with Concentration in Child Psychology.  My current degree plan is BA in Psychology (shocker...no change there).

Now there are a couple of differences.  First is the obvious drop of the concentration.  There is no longer a concentration offered in psychology and I am okay with that to be honest.  Second is that while under my previous plan I had completed my General Requirements and had started on my Core Requirements but the new plan has added a few classes and changed the classes for the Social Science requirements (my Intro to Psych and Intro to Social Psych are now part of my Core classes and no longer satisfy the General).  Third, and MOST important, Statistics was required under my previous plan and is NOT REQUIRED under the current plan!  Hallelujah!!!  The moment that my adviser said that it is not a required class, I had made up my mind to switch to the current plan ASAP!!!

I had, however, already signed up for Statistics so I found my last 16-week course and dropped Stats for my one and only Lit class...English Lit: Beowulf to 18th Century.  I am really excited to start and class starts Monday!  With my knee injury I see my work schedule becoming lighter until it gets better and plan to it into high gear!  As soon as I see my syllabus Monday, I will figure out if I will be enrolling in my next course during my lit class or after.

That is the beauty of a strictly online school.  Classes start the first Monday of every month.  It does not matter if there is a holiday or not.  We do not have your typical semester or trimester like normal schools.  You sign up for classes when you want them and when you do not want to take a class you do not have to.  Now I will have to take a look at the required classes now and figure out my schedule but I am definitely going to continue to take my classes through June.  Keep my school year September through June and have July and August as my summer vacation.  That is what I love about my school.  Depending on how many classes I have left I hope to be done in the next two years.  Fingers crossed...

Now it is 11pm and I am going to try and crash and get a little bit of sleep.  I have to work at 9am but only until Noon and then I have my MRI for my knee tomorrow evening at 5:30pm.  If I cannot find a carpool buddy I might be driving alone and sitting in rush hour traffic by myself.  So good night y'all!

Until next time!