Spring Break!

WAHOOOO!!!  I made it to spring break.  Hopefully taking this week off from school will give me just the mental break I need to be able to jump back into things on monday and finish the semester, without a mental breakdown....well, I mean...another one.  :)   This semester has been tough - for everyone, and supposedly it is maybe the hardest semester of our entire program, so that is both daunting, and comforting at the same time.  Number one - that means if we make it though this then maybe the rest won't be so bad.  It is also awkwardly comforting to know that all my classmates are having synchronized mental breakdowns.  For those of you wondering what makes this semester so hard - I don't have that many more credits, it is that I have my first 6 credit hour class, which is a core class in the program, and as you can imagine is very time consuming.  And while I learn a lot in this class, so I don't mind putting in the time to do well in it...there is this little thing called....ALL THE OTHER CLASSES!!   So while you are focusing on one class you get behind in another class, and it is this viscous circle - of always feeling behind and like there are not enough hours in the day.   Thankfully, I have found a groove which has allowed me to carry on, I am not Acing everything, but have been able to do a better job of studying enough to get B's on most tests...while keeping my sanity in tact - and this I consider a win! :) 

Ok - so on to the updating of everything that has happened since Christmas.  I decided to start with the most current and work backwards. 

To start off, and this seems to be a tradition of mine on every break I get from school - is to ponder life and all my hopes, and dreams - what is it that I really want in life, what really makes me happy.  I also would think that based on the amount of time that I spend thinking about this stuff....that I would have figured everything out by now.  After moving around to so many places, I do have the urge to settle down, and live the settled life...but I don't know where it is that I want to settle.  We will probably be here in Colorado for about another year...but after that--where to?  no idea really.  I miss living by family ...but there are things about Phoenix that made it not my ideal city, but all the other cities we have lived in had things about them that kept us from being able to visualize ourselves there long term either.    I also know that I have different needs and interests based on the time in our life, when Rachel was a baby there were certain things that made me happy about where I lived, (neighborhood parks, good playgroups, ...), as she got older I like having afterschool sports activities for her (gymnastics, guitar lessons, soccer...)  so I try to think about when what our life will be like in a few years from now,  Rachel will be going into junior high  -GASP!!!  What is it that I will be looking for in a dream city at that point?....again, no idea.   What about when she is in high school?? ugh.    What about when I start working - is it wierd to admit that while I enjoy school and dreaming about this future career....that I freak out when I think about actually working?! Last summer when I had an internship where I worked for just two weeks  - it was harder than I thought to get Rachel taken care of and then get off to work and then get home, and have both of us tired from being gone all day and neither of us wanting to make dinner.  My dream is to work part-time - so which city will give me a better chance at getting a part-time job?  Or maybe what I need is access to lots of good take out food?  Seriously...during this first day where I hoped to be giving my brain a break - this is everything on my mind.

And as for a sneak peak into how I spent my first day of spring break - that includes
Watched some tv
took a nice long shower,
blow dried and flat ironed my hair
put on make up
drove to Sam's work and took him out for lunch
called a few friends to catch-up
then drove around to find a peaceful place where I could channel some epiphanies. 

no luck with any epiphanies - but took these pretty pictures. of the view about 5 minutes from my house.
Feels nice to have nothing to do - and have time to enjoy the scenery  :)