Time to flex my brain muscles.

This one's going to be a big one, folks. I promise I will try to not let it just be one huge run-on sentence. I've got a bunch of nonsense to say and I'll be damned if I'm letting the opportunity slip away from me in the INSANITY that is going to ensue very shortly.

No, not the normal insanity. Like QUADRUPLE that. And throw in some fire ants.

I considered going through and basically trying to fill you in on all the wonderful, amazing things I've done in the past 4-5 months in which we were not on speaking terms, but that would take forever and most of my readers are friends with me on facebook, which means that you pretty much already know. However, in case you have forgotten how adorable my kids are, here are a few pictures to start us off on the right foot:

Riley at the Baltimore Harbor. People say he looks just like me and I'll take that with thanks.

He's a photogenic lad.

Too cool for me.

I got this one via text message while at work and coffee came from my nose.

Love this picture.

Now let's move on.

The next couple of years are slotted to be very busy for me. Tomorrow I start school again and I am apparently trying to prove something to myself or to you or to random strangers that I may consider assaulting on the street by taking a full course load- well, slightly less now, but I'll get into my stupidity in a moment. This means I will be working 40 hours a week, commuting nearly 15 hours a week and according to the syllabus, spending anywhere from "12-18 hours a week" studying. PER CLASS. Ha! I am taking five classes this semester. So that means in order to be a successful distance learning student, I should quit my job, give up my kids, showers, food, evacuating my bowels, etc. etc.
But I imagine that's a conservative estimate. People have done this before and will do it again. I want this and I'm going to do it. If the first semester seems too huge a burden to bear, I'll just take less credits in the semesters that follow and delay my graduation date- hell, I've waited this long, what's another 6 months? I've already had to extend my plan another semester anyway to accommodate the idiocy that I've hinted at a few times. You ready for this?

I took math and English placement tests yesterday to determine which classes I should be in. Actually, let me elaborate and set the scene for you, here, so you can taste my frustration. I took these same placement tests the year after I graduated high school and nearly aced both of them. I then proceeded to NOT go to college. Those test results expired after five years. So I lugged myself the 45 minutes to the closest campus to take the tests again yesterday. I had straightened my hair and looked awesome, but the campus is under construction and I had to walk some god-awful long path around buildings in the rain to get to where I needed to go. I looked like a poodle with smudged mascara. After taking my English test, as I waited for them to set up my computer for the math portion, it occurred to me that I had parked in student parking without a permit. Alas, my computer was now ready and I sat down to take the math portion, quietly hoping my car would not be towed.

English scores- 98% Reading, 99% Writing- Honors English qualified. I don't really give myself too big a pat on the back as far as that's concerned. The amount of reading and writing I do means that I should be scoring that high or else I don't know myself at all.

Math? I don't know a percentage. What I do know is that out of 9 units, I only passed 0, 1, 2 and 3 and I am not qualified for the math course (yes, only one math course) required in my degree plan. At first, I was pissed. Mostly I was pissed because where I KNOW my definite weakness is graphing and that I likely got every last graphing-related question wrong, I thought I was kicking the ass of the rest of it. Apparently I was wrong, or the weight of the graphing questions was much higher than I thought it would be. In any case, I took my papers and gathered my things and walked the long path of shame through the rain and back to my car. My car was present and un-ticketed, so I was very fortunate there. I texted Russell with the admission that obviously I was not fit to even lick the boots of a normal person with basic arithmetic skills and decided to go to a nearby restaurant to treat myself to a greasy plate of cheese fries while I brooded.

Said restaurant had been shut down since the last time I had been in the area. I accidentally went out-of-turn through a 4-way stop in my frustration and pissed a bunch of people off. I ended up in some random parking lot behind a complex of doctor's offices, trying to figure out how to get back to the highway.

I will give it a rest, but that's basically how the day progressed. By evening, I think my give-a-shit had thankfully broken and I felt a bit better. I know I'm not stupid. I'd done well on the test before. The problem is that I am now 30 years old and the last time I did most of those things was...... probably the last time I took the math placement test, in 2001. So maybe I need to brush up a little more? Big deal. At least it lightened my load for this semester a little bit! I will try to retake the test before next semester and see if I can't do a little better. If not, then I will have someone smarter than me pose as me and take the test in my place.

Other things coming up! I will try to write about each of these as they happen, but in case I am too CRAZY busy:

1) My 7th wedding anniversary to my husband (May 21st)
2) My one-year anniversary of being independently mobile (May 23rd)
3) Visiting two very very special babies (early June) and simultaneously doing a solo halfway-across-the-country road trip!
4) Meeting some ladies I've been friends with for years but have never gotten to meet before (June)
5) My 11th anniversary of having started dating my husband (July)

Also dentist appointments, a couple weeks of camp for Riley, a 5K in which I'll be chased by zombies- you know, the usual.

I hope all you mothers had a spectacular mother's day!