WHY?

Why am I going back to school?  Why am I doing this to myself?  Why am I doing homework at 9:45 p.m. on a Saturday? 

WHY?  WHY?  WHY?

Ok, if you haven't guessed, this is going to be a whiny post, and since I'm pretty much writing to an audience of one, a.k.a. myself, I get to be as whiny as I want.

I AM going back to school for a very good reason, even if that reason escapes me.  But honestly, that reason is so that I will be eligible to bid for my own government contracts, instead of having to subcontract through my father.  WHY is this a big deal?  If I can get my own contracts, I can set my own rates. If my father decides to truly retire, then I don't have to make sure that my Dad has a contract that I can work from.  And to be eligible to bid on my own contracts, I need to have experience (which I have) and accounting classes (which I don't have.) 

Hard to believe that after 11 1/2 years of corporate credit experience, that I have never - and I'm pretty sure that includes High School - I have never had a single accounting class.

So, obtaining my Accounting Assistant certificate, and possibly my Associate's Degree in Accounting, from the local Tech College does have a very realistic end purpose.

Why am I complaining then?

Well, you see, even thought I already have a Bachelor's Degree, the local TC has their own requirements.  This involved having to take bullsh.. reading and math placement tests - oh yeah, passed those with flying colors and higher than they had seen recently.  The benefit of passing these classes is that the Accounting Assistant certificate at 30 credits dropped to about 16 credits.  Unfortunately, 3 of my credits STILL had to be Microsoft Office 2010 Word 1, MS Office 2010 Excel 1, and MS Office 2010 Excel 2.  Technically, I could have tested out of these classes.  However, since no place I have ever worked was technologically advanced to be on the latest version of Microsoft Office and I had no experience with any of it, that wouldn't have been pretty.

So, that is why at 9:45 on a Saturday night, I am working on homework.  The kids have gone to sleep. The husband is in the kitchen watching a movie on his computer, that might have been a side benefit - not sure if he went in there to avoid me or annoy me.  Not going to question, because I could work on a 50-page lesson.

All three of this semester's classes are self-paced.  This means that I have to motivate myself to do these stupid assignments before the deadlines.  And to throw another wrench in the works, I won't be able to go in to the testing centers on any Saturdays, since I start teaching CCD next week.  So, the only day I can go to turn in my homework and take the stupid tests, are now Monday nights.

I need to finish 3 more lessons to be able to take the final in Word 1.  That still means I have to finish Excel 1 and Excel 2 by December 10th and take the finals in those classes by December 15th.

I didn't do squat on these lessons until the beginning of October, even though school started August 15th.  WHY did I procrastinate?

It wasn't even procrastinating, ok, some of it was, but I was still working for Dad during August and September.  Most of my work was in Excel 93-97.  I didn't want to install the new Office software on my computer and it change my formatting on my work documents - that would have been a nightmare.

It is now 10 o'clock and I think I'm done whining.

Quick Takes - the Sunday Version

For blog writing ideas, there is a group that does "Quick Takes," which is 7 quick thoughts of what has been going on in life or what they are thinking about.  I'm too lazy to find it right now, but it's done on Fridays.  So, you can see what life has been like, when I'm doing one, my way, on a Sunday morning.

So, here goes:

1. Had a campfire with the neighbors last night.  It was the perfect night for it, even if it was a little too warm to enjoy the fire.  So, we hauled the chairs back a little and braved the heat to make campfire food.  We made pizza pudgy pies with the great homemade Italian turkey sausage they made. We made reuben pies with my Mom's homemade sauerkraut, their sausage, and thousand island dressing. Then, we made cherry cheesecake ones for dessert with some of the smores chocolate in there - cherry pie filling, a slather of cream cheese, and chocolate.  Might have had a few too many drinks, but just enough to feel good, and it was in our back yard.  Took a shower last night, but still have the campfire scratchy throat and stuffed up head this morning.

2. I've made the decision to take some classes at the local technical college. However, it's amazing how many hoops they make you jump through, even with a college degree.  Ok, most of it is me not deciding to do this until last week, when fall classes start on August 16.  But really? I have to get my high school to send them a copy of my transcript and have to go in for placement tests.  The program I want is either all online or self-paced, where I would only have to go in to the local center a couple of times.

3. Gack, I'm rethinking the program when I looked at how much books cost.  For this semester, courses for the 15 credits cost $2400, the darn books would cost $1006.  Seriously, that's how much books cost!  I realize that most people wouldn't even think twice about that, but I was lucky enough to attend college for my bachelor's degree at a school that rented us our textbooks for $100 total a semester, and you could buy them at the end of the semester, if you wanted to.  So, I was suffering some serious sticker shock.  And it would figure that the only books I could find online at Chegg.com to rent, are the ones that say I need them for future classes, so I would need to buy them.

4. Why, oh why, have I decided to do this, after 15 years of being out of school?  Well, I really love working for my Dad doing the farm audits.  However, to get my own contracts with the government, I have to have an accounting background.  It helps that I've done credit for 13 years and that I've been working with Dad doing the actual work for two years, but to get my own contracts, I need the classes.  I thought about University of Phoenix, but they irritated me.  I just wanted to go for the Accounting Certificate program, and they kept pushing me towards the Masters in Accounting.  That might be something I consider in the future, IF I like the Accounting classes.  So, the local Tech college it is.

5.  I've been reading The Hobbit aloud to the kids all summer.  We will probably finish it this week.  We haven't read it every night and sometimes it is only a couple of pages.  All three girls (usually) stop to listen to what happens to Bilgo Baggins and the dwarves.  I've read it before, but reading it to them is like reading it for the first time, since they just experiencing the magic.

6. December 14th, for Bob's birthday, we ARE going to opening day of the movie THE HOBBIT.  I even have been putting it in people's brains as an idea that they are going to babysit the girls that night.  I don't care that it's a Wednesday.  As soon as tickets are available, I will be online to get them.  We went to opening day for each installment of The Lord of The Rings, and we will do it for this movie.  Ditto for the 2nd half that opens December 13, 2013, right on Bob's 39th birthday.

7.  It's going to be a busy week for farm appointments.  Right now, I have one on Tuesday, one on Wednesday, and three on Thursday.  After supper tonight, I will try and call for at least one for Monday and one more for Tuesday.

There, I've been crazy busy and it's not going to slow down.