End-of-Semester Stressors

Yep, it's December. Which means I didn't hold up my end of the bargain and update again before November ended. Thanksgiving was great with Nana and Papa Hetrick here. We got some awesome Black Friday deals without waking up super early or staying up super late. I feel like the rest of the time has been spent on school; It's crunch time now, and I have just over a week left until class is over. It's a bittersweet feeling right now. I have really enjoyed this class, not only for all of the things I've learned/become more aware of as far as the environment is concerned, but I've met some wonderful people that I hope to keep in my life long after class is over.

I've been pretty stressed out lately. Understatement. I had to take a trip to the doctor right before Thanksgiving as all the stress took a toll on my body. No worries, everything is fine now- just a reminder that getting a better grip on stress is something I should take more seriously! Most of my stress was due to all of the things that were happening yesterday in class- I had to take a test, which I probably didn't do so hot on since my attention was diverted to the oral presentation and 5+ page paper my group and I had to give. Our schedules never seemed to match up, so every time we would agree to meet, it never worked out that we could all be in the same place at the same time. On Sunday night, my friend and lab partner Aaron came over (same Aaron that provided the epic pre-birthday celebration with Lindsey) and we spent over 8 hours making our presentation. Our third groupmate, Emily, got called in to work and could not join us. We finally got finished with the presentation on Sunday evening around 11, and then went to school early yesterday to practice. We weren't even able to get all the way through it once before we had to present it, which was extremely nerve-wracking... not to mention the fact that I HATE public speaking in general, so I am fairly certain I shaved years off my life preparing and stressing over it. BUT, it turned out really well based on the feedback we have gotten so far. After our presentation, our classmate Mike told us a that he is glad we went later in the semester because we would have set the bar too high for everyone else. I should mention that the majority of my class doesn't give a shhhhh about doing anything- they don't read, don't take the quizzes, don't study for tests, play on Facebook the entire time, and I have as sneaking suspicion about 3-4 of them come in stoned half the time. This made giving the presentation a tiny bit less intimidating since I figured no one was really listening anyway. Nonetheless, I was still nervous to speak in front of everyone, so I got tripped up here and there and ended up reading most of the notes directly from the presentation instead of making it conversational (something Aaron excelled in, and I'm pretty sure he carried Emily and I because he made everything much more personable and interesting). Anyway, it's over now, so after doing a few finishing touches on our paper, we will be D-O-N-E. [Sigh of relief]. Now it's time to look into next semester and see what's in store for me. It looks like I have all photography classes from this point forward! Woo hooooo!!

So that's that. As for other aspects of life, Casey is tying up loose ends at work in order to start his new position (same building, different group/title/job level) in January. Keaton is running around everywhere, talking about everything, and keeping me very, very busy. In a good way, of course. He now sings the majority of Row, Row, Row Your Boat (too cute, I need to videotape it ASAP!). He screams whenever I have to get him dressed, and has started pulling his shirt up and flashing people regularly. I told him I didn't have any Mardi Gras beads for him so he's gotta stop. He is very motivated by M&Ms and "pops" (that's my kid, future sugar addict... oh boy) and he has been a bit more cooperative on the potty-training front. Very slow process, and I'm definitely not trying to rush it. He loves this video and song so much right now, I feel like I play it 300 times a day. While watching it yesterday, I asked him if the hamsters and robots were dancing, and he said, "They shufflin." He absolutely kills me!! He goes out of his way to make you laugh, which I love. He also will correct you if you call our new IKEA couch a "couch"... it's "sofa". Get it right, Mom. We finally got rid of the old, tired, ugly yellow couch (much to the dismay of several friends and family who thought it was so comfortable). They never had to break a sweat putting on the huge slipcover to hide the ugly underneath! I don't miss it at all! We gave it to our new neighbors down the street. :) Keaton is kind of obsessed with the IKEA couch sofa now and loves laying on the chaise. I do, too.. it's been great when I have to read for Biology- I can just stretch out and relax. (Wait, did I just say relax? Nevermind. Maybe someday!!) I promise to post pictures sometime soon, too- Casey took some of Keaton's first haircut over a month ago and asked me to help teach him how to edit, and we haven't gotten to sit down to edit them yet because we've both been too busy. I can say that I hope this month doesn't go the way November did, but I know it will, especially with the holidays. I promise to try and update again very soon!

-Ash

Oh!! One more cute Keaton moment and I'll leave you: Whenever we play the video above, or whenever Keaton sees the hourglass or circles that come up when something is processing, he says, "It's thinking". So the other day I asked him what he was doing, and he said, "I thinking." I asked him what he was thinking about, and he said, "I thinking... Mommy!" and now he says, "I thinking Daddy!" which is adorable. I tried to get it on video this morning, but he always clams up when I record him. I'll try to get that and the other fun things he's doing on video very soon! I'm such a slacker!!!!