I should have figured this would happen...

I go and start a new blog. Do really good for about a week and then BLAMMO! I fall off the face of the blogger world for almost a month! YIKES. Not that I like to make excuses for things, but I'm figuring I haven't been posting because the semester was over for the students and I didn't have a reason to post to the OTHER blogs that I keep for my job. Lame, I know. You'd think if I wasn't doing stuff to related to work, I could at least post to my own self initiated blog.

Well all that let out... I come back to my blog with my world rife with change. The babysitter for Scianna has gone back to school. I have decided (probably not in the best judgement) to avoid getting a new sitter for her. Instead, I've decided that I'm going to change my hours at the library to accomodate her being home. This means that my schedule will be most crazy and weekends will be worked a lot, or all the time. I'm not quite sure what I will do once the summer comes because the library hours change. My boss insists that she doesn't mind if I bring Scianna in--My 'office' is in the back where she can play and be non-disruptive for the most part. It seems that several people enjoy her presence... but, I'm not sure that it would be tolerated for a whole summer. I'm hoping that the babysitter will decide to watch kids during the summer, but I remain in uncertainty until then.

If that weren't enough, I've started course work at the ischool for Drexel. Not really knowing better I signed up for a class that may be better taken after at least one quarter was completed. This course has consumed many hours of my life in the past week. I'm trusting that the other course won't be as tedious for me. But I have yet to get into that information. I'm hoping that the courses and things will go well. If it becomes easier...I may consider going full time to finish up early.

I finally got my schedule set, and one of my students decided that she couldn't come on Monday evenings anymore. This means that my schedule must change once again. My new schedule starts this week. We'll see how well it goes! For those of you who know me, I apologize, but I might be a total walking zombie!

So.. now.. to the updates. I don't know that I can remember a lot of what's happened over the past few weeks, but I will try. Scianna did get better before Christmas. I was thankful for that. I was quite worried actually, that she'd be unhappy during the Christmas holiday and my week off. During the week I 'took off' during Thanksgiving week, Scianna was very very cranky and miserable. Now though she's been pleasant and amusing and funny as all get out!

Christmas was good. It was wonderful to see the family members that I don't see very frequently. My sister was home from Idaho for the Holiday. We frosted cookies on Christmas even and she stayed with up with me all night while I feverishly tried to finish a Christmas stocking for Scianna. I didn't really finish it all properly (ran out of time), but here it is (with all the others). You can just make out the nna on it. It's the bright one that hasn't been through so many years of use! I'm hoping to make another one next year the proper way. My sis even took a nap on the couch before we opened gifts.

Not long after that my Grandmother arrived (being up from South Carolina), and we dug into the presents. It took forever, and Scianna has to open each present to the 'playing' stage until she can move on to the next one. After all the work on the stocking, she didn't really care too much. Santa probably could have left a plastic grocery bag and she would have been happy (after eating a bajillion m&m's). Eventually all the presents were open and I felt like I was going to fall over with lack of sleep. By the time presents were finished, it was time to get started with dinner. Dad made spanish rice (very very very very yummy), and we had Steak!--Also very yummy. After dinner, we hung around at the kitchen table and chatted a bit. After that I took Scianna up to the mother-in-law apartment at my Dad's and crashed. That was about it.

One of the best things was going out for sushi at the Fuji Grill on Christmas Eve. We all piled into the car and drove down there. We ordered a ton of sushi and seaweed salad and miso soup and had a bit of a sushi party! My sister is very cute with Scianna. She swears she never wants kids, but Scianna seems to like her a lot. I'm always shocked when Scianna is good at restaurants and things like that. A couple days after Christmas I took her to Panera's after our first playgroup meet. She sat there and ate her sandwhich like a big girl--she even sat in a regular chair! She always surprises me.

New Years was pretty uneventful. I even went to bed before the ball dropped, I must have been tired! Then.. back to work... and then a week later school.

Right now, I'm in Philadelphia. The trip down was agonizing. I neglected to see a split and drove on the wrong highway for probably 45 minutes. After turning around, I ended up being late for my college orientation. Late enough to miss it entirely. Then.. we got lost in downtown Philly trying to find our way to the hotel. When we got to the hotel, the hotel people said they need to have the ID of the director of the library --which I didn't have! WHOOPS! So.. They had to put a hold--I was so afraid that they were going to turn us away! On the bright side, I got to eat more sushi, and some yummy mango chicken. The conference turned out to be really fun. After the driving incident the night before Lindsey and I walked to the conference building and then took the trolley back tot he hotel. After much confusion and indecision, we finally arrived at the liberty bell. We also saw City Hall and Reading Market (which I so badly want to pronounce Reading instead of redding). Instead of going to the swanky fondue restaurant, we settled for Chili's.

I don't know that I could live in a city day in and day out. I'd miss the quiet and the fresh air of the suburban areas. Plus, I get overwhelmed by tall buildings and excesses of people. I'll be glad to get home.

Thanks to my friend CIndy, I've become a Trader Joe's nut. So, when we were walking to the conference this morning I nearly did cartwheels when I noticed that there was a trader Joes on our route! It was considerably smaller than the one in Pittsburgh and Ohio.. but still nice to go into!

The internet is acting up at the hotel---time for me to take leave for now!