At The Peak

I can almost see it
That dream I am dreaming
But there's a voice inside my head saying
"You'll never reach it"

The struggles I'm facing
The chances I'm taking
Sometimes might knock me down
But no, I'm not breaking

I may not know it
But these are the moments that
I'm gonna remember most, yeah
Just gotta keep going

And I, I got to be strong
Just keep pushing on 
Excerpts from "The Climb" by Miley Cyrus


Another week has gone by and I've spent the time in my same routine. Work, homework, squeeze in some friend time, and finally scratch out a little me time. I'm working away diligently at passing my time until Eric comes home and trying to keep myself busy. Karma has decided to help me out with this task and even out the playing field some after my last bit of good news.

I began my most recent class on Tuesday the 24th. The class is Advanced Financial Accounting and is a level 440 course. It is still only five weeks long and it is still online, but the difficulty factor has just quadrupled. The workload seems fairly similar to those prior classes I've taken but the reading.... wow.

I've printed off all of my chapters for the course and put them in a nice 2" binder. I even color coded the sections by chapter and assigned week of reading. Just look at me go!

Until of course I realize just how much reading is going to be needed during this class. 2 cm stack of computer printed pages (double sided) all need to be read by no later than 02/27/2012.

/sigh

Apparently I will be putting my glasses to good use this class.

But like a good little girl I set out my notebook and my pencil, my highlighter and my sticky notes, and got down to reading my chapters for the week.


After three hours I've read approximately 12 pages. I'm pretty sure I read the same section four times at one point...






But every time I get discouraged and feel like I'll never be out of school I just have to look at this page and realize I'm so much closer than I have ever been.

I am only 8 classes until my graduation date. 9 months to go and I will have a $45,000 piece of paper hanging on my wall. And 6 months after that I'll be broke trying to repay that $45K.

This screen doesn't hurt either. More than 3/4 of the way done with my degree program isn't such a bad thing.

Also knowing that I've brought my GPA up a solid 1.66 points is very gratifying to my ego.

*gasp* Yes, for those who didn't know I was not doing so well at UMFK. Maybe I'll tell that story one day.


But for now I need to keep my head held high and know that there is always going to be another mountain to climb. I just need to remember that I'm at the top of this one and on my way down. I can worry about the next one later.

Celebrate!

There's a party goin' on right here
A celebration to last throughout the years
So bring your good times
And your laughter too
We gonna celebrate your party with you
Kool & The Gang - Celebrate

Today is a fabulous, wonderful, fantastic, all around good day! Why? Pull up a computer chair and let me tell you...

Lately things have been heading on a downward spiral and I was starting to wonder how I would be able to stick to my philosophy about keeping a positive attitude no matter what. Today, all that has been turned around a complete 180 degrees.

Two weeks ago I sent an e-mail to my financial advisor at school after I noticed that my account had a $3,000 credit balance. I wanted to cancel the payment plan I was making ($200 every two weeks) since I obviously didn't need to anymore. A few days later I heard back from my academic advisor to inform me that Carol had been moved off my advisement team and that I would have a new financial counselor. This was met with some dismay as I have had 5 different sets of counselors and I was just getting a good repertoire with this current set. I didn't want to have to start all over again.

Since there was nothing I could do about it I decided to just move on and send the same letter to my new counselor about the payment plan and such. At the same time I was browsing the web and an ad appeared on the side of the screen saying "University of Phoenix offers military tuition rates for active duty military personnel and their families." Being that Eric joined in October, I included this concern in my e-mail. That day at work I got a phone call from the school but we were busy so I let it go to voicemail and I checked it on my way home. I couldn't make out the extension they were saying so I called the main office and asked to speak to my counselor. Turns out both my counselors were moved off my team and I didn't know why.

Skip ahead two days and I sent a third e-mail to all four of the counselors (2 old, 2 new) explaining my unhappiness with the situation and my confusion on why it happened. But again seeing as I could do nothing about it, I felt I needed to be friendly and introduce myself to the new counselors. I listed out all my concerns and what I was hoping could be taken care of.

Fast forward to today. I first get a conference phone call from the two old counselors explaining that I was moved to a new team because the military division is separate from normal academics. You get a special team of people who are up to speed on what is required and how the program works. Sad to see them go, but this is okay because it means I'll be going to school for less money. 20 minutes later I get a call from Julian who is my new financial counselor. And that's when things got good.

I currently pay $1,175 per 3-credit course. The military tuition rate is $750. Yes, do the math. It's $425 in savings, per class. That brought a smile to my face. But wait, it gets better. A couple months ago I applied for a private student loan to cover the costs that my financial aid wouldn't cover. It was disbursed on 01/13/12 and there is now an $8,000 credit balance on my account. With the discount of my tuition, plus the money I had paid in, I will be getting quite a refund from the school in a week or so!

I will be able to pay off the bills I would have had paid off already had I not had to pay out of pocket for classes in addition to taking the extra financial aid money and using it to pay down the balances on my higher interest rate loans that I have from when I attended the University of Maine in Fort Kent. Double bonus!

And here is the best part, because I am getting back all the money that I paid in and paying off those bills with it, I'll be saving about $400/month in expenses which I can use to buy a new car since mine is on it's last legs!!

I am SO glad things finally worked out for the best and that I don't have to worry about making ends meet when Eric comes home and goes back to his old salary. This will also help to be able to buy him a vehicle when he comes home. Hooray!

So lift your glass in a silent toast and join me for a celebration dance!!

Hello 2012! Bring on the zombies!!

So another year has come and gone and we are once again faced with the task of setting goals for ourselves that most of us will abandon before too long. I myself am already slacking on my goals out of sheer lack of interest. I made myself some New Year's resolutions and have yet to fulfill any part of them.

1. Clean my house top to bottom and keep it spic-and-span the entire year. I've yet to fully clean it. In fact, I haven't even washed the dishes that have been in my sink since my husband came home! I know, completely gross and I really need to get on top of that.
2. Drop 30 lbs by March 8th. I have been watching what I eat and drinking a lot more water than I did last year, but I still haven't made it to the gym even once. I always seem to run out of time when I get home in the evenings and I can't make myself get out of bed early enough to go before work.
3. Get money put away in the bank for a house down payment. I got as far as doing my FAFSA for the next school year, but haven't made my new budget or anything yet. Our tax return will go a long way toward getting some bills paid off which in turn will save us money each month. My student loan will also help with this.*

*A little note: I do not advocate getting a student loan in order to use the money to live on. My situation is that I took out the loan for school expenses I am currently being made to pay out of pocket for. The disbursement date for my loan is after the last payment date that I will be making, so I am using the same amount of money out of my loan for other bills that I would have had I not had to pay $100/week to the University.

So for now I receive an F in New Years Resolutions, but I plan on bringing that up to a minimum of a C by the time the year is over. =)  

In the end, we're all going to be eaten by zombies on 12/21/12 so why bother?