Year one and STEPS program done and dusted!

Hello and happy Tuesday to you,

Can you believe it?

Year one done and dusted!

WOW

How happy am I!!!!

I cannot believe how fast this year has gone and if I hadn't enrolled in STEPS I would still be sitting here doing all the things I used to do and would still be bored and feeling uninspired.

 

But here I am instead feeling so proud and totally inspired to keep going. I have an excitement inside that is a great feeling.

I finished up all of my responsibilities with STEPS yesterday, completing my exit survey and evaluations and to tell you the truth - I am a little sad - everyone has been so happy and helpful throughout the whole STEPS program - it has been so amazing. I cannot thank everyone enough for all the help that I received and I would certainly recommend the program to anyone wanting to start University studies.

 

So - what now?

Well I have until the 25th Feb before I start my undergrad program and in that time I have to complete my orientation online. Which by the look of it - will all be kinda easy because it is alot of what I covered in  the STEPS prep course.

But otherwise I am planning nothing other than relaxing, mothering, house working, a spot of crafting and some more relaxing. (ohhh guess I should add doing some wifey duties as well - but thought you might think I was being rude - but really I just mean going that extra bit to give Hubby the attention that all men seem to need) Sounds super good to me and just what I need to recover from Maths (hehehehe - it really wasn't that bad - but it just doesn't come naturally to me). So if you are looking for me - more than likely you will find me over at my crafty blog

Franjopani cards 

where I will be crafting up a storm hehehehe I wish anyway!

 

Well you enjoy what ever it is you are doing

we will talk again soon

x joy



AAAAAAAAAAAAHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHH

It's over!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

Oh my goodness - do I feel relieved!!!!!!

I have sat my three hour maths test today and I can finally breath again hehehe.

I have to admit that I have allowed myself to get stressed about this test. And rightfully so - it was bloody hard!!!!!!! hehehehe probably not that hard but when you are stressing everything always looks harder than it really is.

Hmmmmm so now I just have to wait for results - which will be all in before term 1 (2013) starts so I am just relaxing now. And how did I think I went hahahahaha - I don't think I went that well actually - I think I will be lucky to scrape through with 70%. I worked slowly through the first half - plodding away then when I looked at the clock - eeeeeekkkkkkk I was running out of time. So I rushed the second half and panicked a bit - so the brain just didn't want to work properly.

And I ended up getting messy - I hate getting messy - I like to work slowly and neatly.

Anyway I can relax for a few weeks now (on the study front) and catch up on the housework and Mother and Wife duties that have been neglected.

The maths books will be packed away and all my new study material will come out to play, ready for term 1 to begin.

 

Ok so I am off to go do some unwinding!

It is going to be a feet up doing absolutely nothing 'until the boys come home' afternoon.

(that will be interesting cause I usually can't do nothing - it's impossible - I always have to be doing something).

I will begin with a spot of lunch in front of the tellie.

Ok have a great day.

talk soon

x joy

I got an offer!!!!

Hello and happy Saturday to you

Just a little update to let you know that I got an offer to study Psychology at CQU.

I am super happy and have almost completed my acceptance process (just have to finish choosing my first electives). I am a very happy girl!

But I cannot take my eye off what is happening at the moment - I am in the home stretch of Maths and my hair is turning grey hehehehe my brain is whirling with functions, quadratics, permutations and the rest. I am feeling a little over whelmed and feel like nothing I am learning is sinking in. I am reviewing each night and last night I felt like I was looking at stuff that I had never even seen before let alone actually studied it and worked through it's exercises.

Anyway I think that may be stress so I will take it a little easier in the next few days and just work through it all slowly. I will watch all of the videos again as well in the next week as I find that helps to reinforce what I am reading.

 

ok well I had better go and get the house vacuumed and mopped - the boys are all out which is a rare occurrence and I am going to jump in and clean while they aren't walking around all over my clean floors. That way I can sit and enjoy it clean for a few brief moments before we return to chaos again hehehehe.

 Have a great day!

talk soon

x joy



MIA - Missing in Action

Oh my goodness,

where is this time going to?

Can you believe it is day 1 of week 10 term 3 tomorrow?

I cannot believe I have almost completed my year of the STEPS program.

The time has just flown by - particularly this last month!!!!

 I feel like I have just turned around once and the month is over already.

Last time I spoke I was running around like a chook with it's head cut off getting prepared for Christmas while studying away.

And here we are one month later with Christmas and New year over and now we are well and truly back to the grind stone of end of term preparations.

Firstly I hope everyone had as lovely a Christmas and New year as me. It was packed with all of my favourite things including family, food and festivities.

I got totally spoilt from my biggest boy who surprised me with a beautiful charm bracelet and a gorgeous ruby and diamond ring - BIG TIME NICE!!!!

 

It is always my favourite time of the year - although I did find it all a bit rushed with studying at the same time. I have been spoilt for so many years where I have just been lucky enough to just indulge myself in the festive spirit. SO this was a learning curve of how to do both, and I think I achieved it. I still managed to meet all deadlines while enjoying myself.

 

Then the last few weeks have also been a little rushed with two trips away to Emerald within 2 weeks. That equates to  5 days away within 14 days, while trying to complete 2 modules within this time. But I have nothing planned now in the next few weeks so I am just going to concentrate on my studies. Which is just as well as I have my progress test B and end of course test coming up in the next few weeks.

 

I have received my Progress Test A results - 95% which I am pleased with. Although I lost that 5% through silly basic math mistakes. So I need to pay attention to detail, work slowly and double check that I am rewriting details correctly.

 

The last two days have seen me complete my second of the additional modules VRAP - variation, ratio and proportion - I liked it - it was refreshingly easy after last weeks SEQR (Sequences and Series) which tested my grey matter a couple of times.

 

Anyway - I am gunna share a funny story with you.

I have had a headache for the last couple of days (hormonal - I get a beauty of a headache for several days at the same time each month) anyway I went and lay down for half an hour today to try and relieve it for a little while. And I was awoken by a rather loud noise - for those of you that know me know that we own a lovely old Queenslander and are slowly doing it up. Well I awoke to discover that my darling hubby had decided to start cleaning, stripping, sanding one of the lounge rooms ready for painting. He had pulled the lounge apart and moved one corner of the furniture into the middle of the room and started sanding away - NNNNNNNNOOOOOOOOOOOO!!!!!!!

 

Had he covered anything up or put anything out of the way so as not to get covered in the ultra fine paint dust - NO HE HAD NOT!!!!! He is a boy and boys don't usually think of that do they!!!! There was paint dust everywhere - and I mean everywhere OMG - what was he thinking (oh I forgot sometimes that male breed of human beings don't think do they?)

 

GRRRRRRRRR I could of killed him and then to top it off he got called into work (he's a paramedic) to help out on a job - so guess who had to clean up the mess he made - YES me - MEN!!!!!!! 

And now he has just got home and is wondering why I haven't got dinner ready and on the table - hmmmmmmmm did he even notice that I have cleaned everything or did he think the cleaning fairy appeared? Gotto love him cause if I didn't I would kill him hehehehehe. I am about to remind him what a wonderful wife I am hehehehehe before I get a salad happening for dinner.
I think I just earned that ruby and diamond ring - hehehehehehe!!!!

This is our gorgeous old house - I love it to bits!!!!! (except when it is covered in paint dust inside - hehehehe)

 

Oh and I forgot to mention - we are having a massive heat wave here. It reached 50 degrees here on Tuesday and is about to hit the same tomorrow. I have been hibernating in the airconditioning. I cannot bear the heat (more headaches) so the aircons have been going 24/7.

 

Ok well better go do my perfect wife duties and get that salad rustled up.

OK stay safe

talk soon

x joy

 

 

 

 

  



A quick note to let you know where I am

Hello and a happy Sunday to you,

actually with that said, I must say I had to truly stop and think exactly what day it is!!

I am just not with it at the moment.

Life is just full on at the moment and  keeping me running around like a chook with it's head cut off (which I am sure is not a pretty site)

Although today is the day that I am taking off the auto pilot and getting everything in control again!!!!

 

You see on the 15th of November I got a phone call to say my Mum had been rushed to hospital by ambulance with a suspected internal bleed. Oh my goodness! With being 1000kms from Brisbane - it was very worrying. So I booked a flight that day to travel to Brisbane on the next day's flight.

 

Mum spent 8 days in hospital with no reason for the bleed to be found. Although at this stage it appears the bleed has stopped on it's own accord (fingers, toes and everything else crossed).

Then while I was away I managed to catch one of the million fluey things going around in a big town.

It has knocked me for 6, with terrible sore throat, yukko nose and massive headaches complete with 2 days of not being able to lift my head off of the pillow when I flew back home.

 

 And hey presto - my studying has been thrown into chaos!!!!!!!

 

I have managed to get through my QUAD module and pass the end of module test (100% - yippee)and am now into the LOGS module with only the last component to do but I am still behind (hopefully I will get up to date on Monday - so I will then only be 3 days behind)

 

Then this weekend has been chaos with family activities to do as well. Bearing in mind I am still having these headaches and my head is all wishy washy with sinusy stuff (I know - some may say I am wishy washy all the time but more than normal hehe). Friday night we had a school function on.

Then on Saturday I had committed to doing some markets over in Tambo  - which I did and I ended up having a lovely day - although with the temperature soaring the way it did - I ended up with an even yukkyer headache - crikey its a real poor me blog post today isn't it!!!!

 

Then last night hubby and I had double booked us - hehehehehe (just like us).

He had accepted a birthday party invitation and I had committed Benji to preform a circus act at a town fete. OOhhh crikey we do get ourselves in bothers sometimes. Anyway a quicker than normal visit to both was the solution - then home to comfort my pounding head.

Today I have committed to markets in town this afternoon followed by our favourite thing to do at this time of the year - the local Christmas tree festival. I get to sing Christmas carols - yippee - I love Christmas carols!!!!!! 

 

And what a timely reminder - CHRISTMAS - oh my goodness again - it is just around the corner - eeeeekkkkkkkkk.

 

And for those of you that know me - know that I just LOVE Christmas and like to go all out and decorate the intire house inside and out. SO this is where the getting organised comes into action. I have got a priority list in action. This morning is going to be spent cleaning the house (somewhere in all this - the house work got forgotten) then I will clear all of my knick knacks from all around the house(that's a huge job in itself). Then I will drag all of the Christmas decorations out, put all of the knicky knacky stuff away and then slowly this week I will begin to decorate the house (in between study of course). OOOOHHHHH how exciting!!!!!

 

Last year I had 7 Christmas trees (some big, some small) and I have brought some new ones so I will let you know how many I have now.

 

 I just love Christmas.

 

So the plan is to get super organised so I can enjoy it as much this year as I do every year - wish me luck in the organisation part hehehehe it may be a bit hard to get the three boys (one big and two small) to get into the swing with me. But here I go . . . . . . . .  .

talk soon (when I have everything tickerty boo)

x joy

 

p.s. hahaha you should see how many words spell check highlights when I click on it in this post.

Obviously Mr Spell Checker doesn't speak Joy language with all my hehe and ooohhhh and the rest.
 

Monday morning note:
Ahhhhh who was I kidding - I thought I was only 3 days behind
haha that's how muddled my head is!!!
I am actually 1 week and 3 days behind - URGH
Anyway onward and upward - I am getting there - nearly finished logarithms, just have the sample and end of module test left to do
so will get ontop of that tonight or tomorrow morning. Then on to functions - luckily this is a non teaching week this week!!!!!!
high ho high ho
it's off to work I go
 . . . . . . . . . . . .

Week 3

WOW

already it is week 3 - where is this time going.

The days are going so quickly - it is hard to keep track of it.

Anyway thought I would just share a little something with you.

I sent an email off to my STEPS distance coordinator this morning to share with her some lovely news and upon reflecting I am feeling a tad pleased with myself - so thought that I would share it with you.

 

Last night was my son's school presentation night here in Blackall. I love these nights - what a great way to reward hard work and inspire others. Anyway every year up until this year I have got myself all teary eyed and sad when it comes time for the year twelve awards and speeches. I have been so inspired by these young people who achieve success and finish year 12. I have always regretted not doing year 12 or any higher education, so every year at presentation night I am envious. Proud of all their achievements but still envious because I wanted to do it.

 

Well this year was different - this year I was still proud for all these young people but I also had  a huge welled up feeling of pride for myself (with no tears or sadness to be seen) - proud that I am achieving my dream! How good did it feel - I have never felt anything like it in my life before. And I must say that after everyone here in Smithville had gone to bed and I was having a little quiet moment to myself - I had a little smile on my face - a smile of satisfaction.

 

Now don't get me wrong - I don't want to come across as cocky or clever. Because I am neither. But it is a great feeling to be putting in the hard work to achieve something that is something that I have quietly wanted all of my adult life. And this just goes to show you that if I can achieve this for myself then absolutely anything is possible. If you have a dream - reach out and grab it with two hands and take it for yourself. It may involve some hurdles to climb or obstacles to overcome - but it is possible. If I can do it - anyone can do it.

 

I have kept this quote up on my desk in front of me everyday since term one. If I remember correctly it was my distance coordinator who sent it out in an email way back then. It helps keep my motivated and focused on my journey ahead.

 

 

Anyway that's all for me today.

I hope your day has been as good as mine.

 

Life really is wonderful - sometimes you just have to find the wonderful.

But it is always there, somewhere.

 

 

talk soon

x joy 

Week one term 3

Hello and welcome to term 3

WOW can you believe it is term 3 already - where has all these weeks gone.

And to add insult to injury it is nearly the end of week one already!!!!

Life here in Smithville has been a little hectic to say the least and I have to admit I haven't started the term in an organised mode. But as of today that is about to change. You see we went over to Rocky on Tuesday morning for a week of dentist and orthodontist appointments for Ashley who needs braces. It has been sooooo busy. He had dentist appointments everyday with a huge day on Friday having four teeth pulled out (two at 8.30am, one at 12pm and another at 2pm) and then all the wires  fitted at 2.30pm. It was very full on and he doesn't cope very well with pain - he gets cranky and won't just sit and relax he seems to need to move around trying to get rid of the pain. No matter what we say he just doesn't cope. So fun fun fun was had by all. Hahaha.

Anyway I went and saw my lecturer for last term Maths to see where I went wrong with my end of course test. So I could do some revision before this term maths. And I got a wonderful surprise - originally I had received 91% for the test but when we started going through it we discovered that I had actually gotten 94%. So I was a happy girl indeed. Still doesn't affect my HD but 3 points is 3 points. Anyway I am just pleased that I now know where I went wrong - EXPONENTS - those little rascals, they trick me all the time hehehehe. But I am going to get cracking with the revision and get them down pat. The other thing is I have to remember to include negatives - I have a habit of forgetting them when I write out my answer. It is soooo good to go back and look over where you went wrong - gives you something to focus on for next time.

Anyway I am now behind in this term Maths as I didn't get as much study done while we where away. It is nearly impossible to study with two boys in a motel room. And I forgot to take a ruler and it is a little hard to study linear equations without a ruler hahahaha you should of seen some of my hand drawn cartesian plains. So for next time I need to remember a ruler and  I have thought that if I ever find myself in the same situation - I could always pop over to the uni and study in the library or in their lovely gardens. It is so peaceful there and I could study in peace and quiet.

 

So today is get back on track day. I am ignoring the house work, even though the house looks like a tornado has swept through. It doesn't matter, I can catch up when I have caught up on Maths.

This is one of those times when you have to prioritise, so that is what I am doing.

So off I go to get into it!

talk soon

x joy