Whatever is cool with me.

The daughter of a doctor that Sarah works for has an astrocytoma which is a slow growing brain tumor. She is currently having quite a few complications and the family would appreciate your prayers.

Having a brain tumor would be a difficult thing to cope with for any person, what makes this situation even more delicate is the girl is 5 years old. From what I’ve read from their blog posts the entire family has been incredibly strong throughout the whole ordeal. Mikayla has been especially strong after she’s gone through 70 weeks of chemotherapy according to her blog.

Sarah and I would like to convey our best wishes and all of our prayers to the family. I’d like to ask that anyone reading my site do the same. The links to the blog and the caring bridge website are below and they’ll also be tacked to the sidebar.

Caring Bridge- http://www.caringbridge.org/visit/mikaylafrazier

Update on Mikayla Blogspot- http://updateonmikayla.blogspot.com/

So glad you asked. My holiday was wonderful. No, seriously. I enjoyed my holiday and I’m not really sure why. It’s not that I don’t enjoy other holidays or anything like that it just seems that I enjoyed this past holiday more than usual. I keep searching for something that really stood out about about it but nothing really jumps out at me and maybe that’s just it. There was nothing that stood out, no particular unexpectedness just things going the way they should. What more could you ask for?

We had our first major snow storm of the year over the weekend. It figures that the first one of the year would be 16 inches. The last two years we’ve had a problem with snow drifting into the yard from the fields behind the house, so we did the sensible thing and put up a snow fence. Nature, knowing that we have a snow fence, decided to make the snow drift from the opposite direction this time. After two hours outside with the snowblower, the snowblower broke. Someone left the dog leash outside and while clearing a path that I’m not sure I’ve ever seen someone use, the leash wrapped itself around the auger and caused it to dislocate. Good thing for me the driveway was nearly done anyway. There was only a 30 x 15 foot patch that needed to be shoveled.

Fixing the snowblower was remarkably easy. I just had to remove a few bolts, move the collar back around the end of the axle, and tap it all back into place then tighten up the bolts again. When we started up the snowblower we notice half of the blades weren’t spinning. It became obvious that the axle was one piece and the blades were on an assembly that fit over the axle. The blades should have been locked on the axle by two pins which had been mysteriously sheared off. The pins are now replaced and the snowblower works again. It’s a good thing too because it would be a real pain in the ass to have to shovel our whole driveway.

Ok. So everything went great on Friday at school. I turned in all my paperwork, registered for school and started the credit transfer process. That could take 10 days (but it probably won’t). I got my acceptance letter in my e-mail today so everything is officially done on that front. I have to take half a day off on Wednesday to meet with the IT program chair to discuss testing out of some classes. Considering my current and past work experience it shouldn’t be an issue. The only things really nagging at me are waiting until my credits transfer from SSC to Ivy Tech. Well, that and waiting til I’m done on Wednesday so I can map out my course schedule.

Yep. That’s right. I’m going back to college. After we moved I didn’t have a job and money was really tight so school wasn’t an option. After all this time I think everything is in a state that will allow me to finally finish my degree. I’ve gotten my transcripts and all the other stuff I need from SSC and I’ve made an appointment with and admissions person at a school out here. I meet with admissions at the new school on Friday and I’m really excited.

I hope all my credits transfer, that would make things so much easier for me. I have no idea why they wouldn’t transfer but the way things go you never know what will happen. Since I’m finishing a degree in the field I currently work in I’m going to see if they’ll credit me for some of the lower level classes based on my experience.  No matter what though, I’ll be going back. I plan to start their Spring semesters with some online classes if possible but their Summer semester starts a few months later and by then the weather will be cleared up and I won’t have a problem making it to school for some actual classroom sessions. There were a few classes at SSC that I was taking in the summer that were like 3 hours long and finished up sooner than normal classes so that might work out better for me with work and travel time and even the time the classes are scheduled.  Ultimately the goal is to finish as soon as possible.