My journey to finding a babysitter.

Last week I needed a baby sitter for the first time since Evey was born. Besides once or twice being left with immediate family, she has never been left with anyone. I wasn't looking forward to it, and even with a few weeks notice I was still unsure how to go about it.Paul came home from work with  bad news, shortly after I gave him my school schedule, telling him the nights I needed him home, he found out he was going to be gone for an entire work week. Not that big of a deal, I can miss two days of school. Wait.... Nope.,... Midterm that week. If I miss it, it can seriously negatively impact my grade.

Panic set in. What am I supposed to do? I need to go to class? First I asked my teacher if I could bring my daughter to class with me. HA HA HA! Yes I'm crazy. I can barely even get homework done with her around, let alone focus on a midterm. My Professor (obviously) said no. I was very concerned. I don't have many contacts here in California. I knew my parents were coming to visit the weekend before, but I didn't want them to delay and screw up their vacation by asking them to stay an extra 4 days.

So I turned to Facebook I know how crazy that sounds, and I didn't post in an open forum "hey what stranger wants to watch my kid". I have a group of ladies I really trust, we have similar parenting styles, and they are local. So I asked for recommendations. Right away I had a girl recommended to me. She is a Marine Wife, she previously worked in child care, and she was really close, like I could walk there close. Also she has her own baby, so Evey would have someone to play with. 

I had her come over for an interview, I let her play with Evey and she told me about herself. It actually worked out perfect, she showed up just as my washing machine started to vomit foam, so I was able to see her occupy Evey so I could handle the disaster in my laundry room. Okay, maybe that's not perfect. But it worked out anyway. I really like her, and I could even see us being friends, because we both have similar parenting styles. So I scheduled her in. 

The week of babysitting was stressful, not only did I have a heavy workload for school, and a midterm, but Paul was gone from Monday morning to Friday night. But despite all of the stress and anxiety, Evey's first (and second) babysitter experiences went off perfectly. Neither of us cried. I really didn't expect her to, but I was pretty sure I would, if I hand't been so distracted by school I probably would have. And I am going to schedule Evey for a few more days, during the day, for weeks I have papers due, so I can focus without her getting into shit and distracting me. We are also probably going to have a play date so Evey doesn't think every time we go the sitters house she is being left there. Only time will tell, but I may have gotten a friend out of the deal too!

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Random thoughts from college student.

Taking two history classes isn't a big deal. Taking two history classes, which are both set in different formats (two schools, two different online programs) can get a little confusing. Especially when the assignments start to mirror each other. This last two weeks both classes have been focusing on sources. Where you find your history, and I keep mixing up the assignments. Or forgetting which class I am currently working on. The classes are totally different too, one is World history and the other is Historical Methods, so learning how to be a historian and analyze the information history gives you. The historical methods class is reaallllyy boring. It's also a condensed 8 week course, so it's roughly double time. Twice the boring work in half the time. Lots of boring articles to read.

One class the teacher does not want discussion submissions to contain attachments, in the other class the teacher encourages them. One class One teacher wants sources done in one way, and another teacher wants them another way, and the methods teacher says that all history papers (ever) should be sourced her way (and I remember another history teacher telling us this too, so she is right, I think). One class wants submissions on discussions and assignments all turned in my Sunday night (the end of the "online class week") the other wants initial discussions in by Saturday and further discussion with other students until Tuesday. I know I am going to drop the ball on a deadline and have no one to blame but myself. 



On top of all this silliness I am trying to keep up in Japanese, and doing quite well I must say. And trying to maintain a household and happy child. Who is causing me to be a little extra sleep deprived this week, Mini Me has taken to waking up about 3-4 AM and trying to stay awake, and it takes quite a bit of work to get her back to sleep only to have her wake up at 7am totally wide awake and ready to conquer the world. And I have been up studying past 1am every night this week.I'm a bit overwhelmed at the moment, that's why the blog is particularly sparse. I'm still here, holding on.

Google image search overwhelmed, this guy doesn't look as overwhelmed. as he looks like he just found nude pics of someone he didn't want to see nude. 

Baked Avocado egg

I have seen this all over pinterest and a couple facebook friends have made it, so I thought I would give it a try. Avocado and Eggs, two of my favorite foods, what could possibly go wrong? 

I read these two recipes for my inspiration: All Recipes Baked Avocado Egg and Fit Sugar Baked Egg Avocado. They were the first two hits on google, and really I was mostly looking for baking temp and time. 

So I prepped my avocado, put in my egg, and popped it in the oven. 425* for 15 min (my egg actually took about 18m to set) 

topped it with Mortons seasoning salt, pepper and sriracha

Meh. 

It wasn't good. I think my problem was the warm avocado. That was kind of gross actually. I tried all the hot sauce in the world and I still struggled to choke down the warm avocado. 

I think I'll stick to For The Love Of Cooking's tried and true Mini Frittatas when I want baked eggs.

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My thoughts on college as a 30 something

I have been in and out of school as an adult for about 7 years now. Since we left Okinawa in 2010 it's been strictly online. This year I decided to complete some lower level classes at a local community college, to save money and to get a face to face learning experience. Especially with languages, I need someone talking to me, no way can I do that online.

So this semester I walked into a classroom, at a community college, as a 30 something. My first thought was that I was the oldest person there, even older than the teacher. "OMG I am older than the teacher" I think is was the text I sent my sister after I took my seat. Although this ended up not being true, she is the same age as me, and there is also one student older than both of us, at 35. Still I feel very old sitting in a classroom full of 19 and 20 year olds. I also found myself looking at some of the students and just shaking my head, "who would wear that", or "gosh you are so immature" are some of the thoughts I have frequently.

My class, Japanese 101, is mostly full of first year college students, who don't quite know how to behave in a classroom, but my teacher has to shhh! the class numerous times a day. Also they frequently interrupt the teacher or speak out of turn. Many students have a basic idea of Japanese culture from anime, and lots of students make anime references in class. I try to not sound pretentious, but there is so much more to Japanese culture than anime. I usually keep to myself in class because I don't want to stick out as the older student that thinks she knows everything.

So far things have been going well, I have my first of 4 exams tonight, which I should be studying for, but instead I am writing about. At least I have my oral portion memorized:

Hajimamashte Alana desu. 

_school name omitted_ diagaku no gakuse desu.

san nensi desu. senku wa rekishi desu. 

sanjuni sai desu. Yoroshiku onegoshimas.

can you read that? I introduce myself, state I am a college student at _university_, I am a third year student, and my major is history, then my age and nice to meet you. At least that's what it's supposed to say. I hope that's right.

My other two classes are online, both history classes, one is world history since 1400 and the other is historical methods, learning about why history is important and such. The methods class starts Monday and has it's first paper due Friday. The other one has a paper due this Sunday, and I haven't even started thinking about it. This is going to be a long weekend. Plus I need to find a back up sitter for when Paul has to work and can't be home when I need to go to school.

School takes up a lot of time, I didn't realize this until I recently, trying to do homework and study with a very active almost two year old, climbing all over me. Who is now waking up from her nap and I still haven't studied, or finished my homework. So I guess I shall sign off for today, I need to try to get her back to sleep and at least finish my homework. Tell me about your experiences going back to school as an adult. I'd love to hear about how you handle time management, especially with a toddler.