I took my second comp exam yesterday and felt pretty good about it. The one on Tuesday was the theory exam and that is not my strong point so I do think I may have to rewrite some of it but I'm so glad it's over with. Yesterday's exam was a methods/statistics which I was much more comfortable with...however, I only studied for it on Wednesday and Thursday morning so if I have to rewrite some sections I won't be too upset since I really didn't put too much time into it. If I pass both, then I'm one up the rest of my cohort and that means I get to relax in December while they cram. I can only hope that happens! :) I won't find out the results for another 4 weeks or so.
Speaking of relaxing, it's a hard thing to do. For the past 3 weeks, my life has revolved around studying for the exams and so I have a very long to-do list of things that I have put off until "after comps". It's a bit overwhelming actually. It mostly deals with catching up with housework, which since Christina moved out of our house that means I get twice the house to clean. I won't say that the house is a wreck but I feel like it is because I know how long it's been since I've dedicated some time to it. I have made a very long to-do list to get the house back in to shape and to the point where I feel like it's clean. I only get a half week break so I have lots to do in a short period of time. Technically, I would have a week long break until the Fall semester starts but I still have some unfinished "new" business to take care of at the Institute- where I was assigned for the summer- so next week is taken up by trainings and the beginning of a project.
Yesterday I was given some news that are actually pretty good. The class I was set to teach in the fall has been cancelled. The class was set for the Daytona campus and although it was only one night/week, it's still a relief to know I won't be driving that far at night. So, instead I'll be a GTA (teaching assistant) again for one of my fav professors and my assignment is to design a gender online course for her to teach in the future. I'm excited about that because it's something that I can use in the future too. So, my schedule for Fall is pretty sweet, I only have classes on Tuesdays from 3-9pm (2 back to back). If I had planned it this way it probably wouldn't have happened. My original schedule was M, T, W, R- 4 days/week and now I'm down to 1...incredible! I'm so happy. :)
In other news, Nick has started collecting the data for his dissertation. He did 2 interviews last week and has 2 more scheduled this upcoming week. This is really good. He needs to get 30 interviews so he figured he needs 2-3/week to stay on track. Nick left this morning for Atlanta for the big national sociology conference. This is where he hopes to network and get the scoop on jobs. He has one official job interview scheduled during the conference with Holy Cross College in Worcester, MA. People keep asking us what is our "first" choice...our first choice is whoever offers a job! :) In an ideal world, first choice=anywhere in Florida, 2nd choice= somewhere in the Southeast (notice I didn't say "anywhere" in SE- I've learned), 3rd choice= if all else fails, then wherever the job takes us. We're not fans of cold weather so that's important for us but really at the end of the day, we have to go where the $ is b/c we can't afford to not have a job. If it turns out to be an awful place, then we see it as a one year stay b/c then I graduate and I go on the job market (actually, if we hate it then we're both back on the job market) and hope for a better location. I never really saw the academic world as having a similar lifestyle to military families but from talking to professors it seems that it might take a few moves before we find the place to settle down. My only wish is that we find somewhere before Gavin starts school because I wouldn't want to remove him from his environment once he's settled in.
So on to Gavin news....where do I begin? He really amazes us everyday. He knows so much, it's unbelievable to me. Even my mom was stunned when he visited last week and could name all the shapes and recognized his crayon colors. We're stunned how we really don't have to "formally" teach him, he just learns from us talking to him. He's getting to the stage where he's repeating the last word of what we say. Last week, I changed his diaper and I said something about wiping his butt and he says "Butt!". We all started laughing so Nick showed him where his butt is and now we ask him where is his butt and he points to his behind and says "butt"- he emphasizes all t sounds now.
He has also started singing on his own. Today in the car he started singing his ABC's. It's so cute b/c he can say A, B, C, and then the rest all sound like "eee" but he keeps the melody going. Another favorite is "row, row, row your boat" except that for Gavin it's more like "row, row, boattt" (again with emphasis on the t). And for any FRIENDS fans out there, he now sings "Morning's Here". I started singing that to him as a newborn and he can now sing it to me....so cute!
There is one slight backwards step. Gavin used to respond with a "yeah" or "si" when he wanted something and now for some reason he says "ca" as his yes. If we correct him, he'll say "yes" but on his own he only says "ca". We cannot figure out why. The only explanation I could come up with Nick thinks it's way too advanced. But I think since it only happened after we taught him the letters A, B, C and now "si" is the same sound as the letter "C", he's confused and came up with a new sound for yes. Who knows but it's been a couple of weeks and we can't seem to correct it.
Gavin goes back to swimming on Monday for his last week and then graduation on Friday. His teacher had a 2 week vacation so she asked us to come back just to make sure he still has the skills. I'm a little nervous b/c I haven't taken him swimming since his playdate with Nathan and so we'll see how he does after this long break.
Alright...gotta go clean now.
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