Not much going on

There really is nothing exciting to report around here. School, school, and more school.

Since school has started, I haven't had the chance to make any new recipes, my house is slightly falling out of order, and I have so much to do.  But I did find out today, that I have 10 classes to go, after this semester, to get my double bachelors. It made me so happy.  I am so close.  After everything that I have done, been through, and all the tears that have shed, I am almost there.

The boys are doing what the boys love to do best and that is play video games.  I think that is all they want to do, but they are good about doing other things.  Nathan goes outside everyday for several hours, does his homework.  Right now he is sitting here watching tv with me.  During the week it is so hard to let them play outside all night.  

My dad is taking the boys fishing this weekend.  Mom called me last night and asked if they wanted to go fishing and of course the answer was yes.  Then mom says, "Dad will be there at around 4:30 am." I answer back with, "Then I think they should spend the night!" lol.  Which now they are.

My weekend over the holiday didn't go as planned.  Both the boys got sick and couldn't go anywhere.  But it was still a good weekend.  I love my boys to death and I am always happy to have them around, but sometimes it is nice to send them away for a few hours to have some peace and quiet.

EQ2:

I did accomplish some things here.  Got my 8th toon up to level 91 with 309 AA's.  She is a templar and I am so used to playing my defiler, that I have tended to have a few issues, but nothing too bad.  She is fun to play.

The next expansion for EQ2 has been announced.  Chains of Eternity.  The release date is slated for November.

The adventure, tradeskill, and guild levels are being increased to 95, with new prestige points, plus some new tradeskill prestige points.  There will be two overland zones and 9 instances.  And that is pretty much it at the moment.

I am having mixed emotions concerning this expansion at the moment.  At the point the expansion comes out, all eight toons should be max in everything.  Considering I have one level, 11 aa's, 22 tradeskill levels on one toon, and one full tradeskill to do on another, I should get there.  The guild goal is level 90 by November, lets see how that happens.  I may have to go back to organizing PR runs once a week.  Guild status and platinum.  Plus we all have enough toons that we can run it 3-4 times.

That is it for now.  As more details come out, I am sure that I will have opinions on them. :)

I am tired

Wow! I am very tired, but this past week has been very busy.  Trying to get this new school schedule down, it has been crazy.  There is a lot of work to do with 5 classes, but it will be worth it.  And then, I applied for an internship today.  I know that it might be a bit much, but it will open so many doors for me.

I found out yesterday, that when this semester is done, I am pretty much done with the Math portion of my degree.  Now to fully focus on my Computer Science degree.  I am very excited.  For the first time in a really long time I feel like everything is the way it needs to be.  Even though I feel like I am running in circles and there is so much stuff going on, and money is tight, and I haven't been sleeping, I feel good and happy.  It is nice and weird.

The boys are doing good.  They are going away to their grandmothers for the weekend.  While I will miss them, I am half ass excited about having the house to myself for several hours.  I mean no one.  Scott has to work tomorrow night, so I will be by myself from 4pm, until I go to bed.  Weeeee!  So if I want to stay up until 3am and sleep until 11, I can and it will feel good.

Now if I could sleep during the week, life really would be divine!

EQ2:  Starting tonight at 2am, it is double xp weekend.  I have two toons left to work on.  My coercer's is a level 70 tailor.  I need to get that to 92.  At that point I will have 7 toons that are level 92 in adventure and tradeskill and have 320 AA's.  The other toon I just made last weekend.  She is an inquisitor, and she is currently level 81.  I wanted her to be 90 by this weekend, so I could work strictly on AA's.  I don't think I will get 9 levels tonight, but who knows.

I went a different route with this toon.  Lantia (was watching SG-Atlantis when I named her), is being leveled up first, and then I will work on her AA's. I was curious if this would be faster than the other way.  And I actually think it may be.  We will see.  Although I have to say, that just by leveling in dungeons, I already have 100 AA's at level 81. So those of you who level to 90 and bitch that you have less than 100 AA's, what the hell are you doing?  I got all mine by accidently bumping into things, so I have no clue how you got so few.  Crazy.

Well, off to kick the boys off my computer so I can do some level grindage.  

o.O I just looked outside and the sky looks amazing.  It is mostly cloudy and the sun is setting, so you have this beautiful red shining in between the cloud layers, and of course this turns the clouds slight purple.  Gorgeous.

School has started!

School has started.  For everyone! Yay!

Nathan was not very happy when he got his teacher assignment.  He wanted the popular and fun teacher, but he ended up with a different teacher, who I am sure is just as fun and nice.  He said that he likes his class and that his best friend is in there with him.  

Trenton was very nervous about starting middle school. We had been up there a couple of times to make sure he could open his locker and we walked his schedule.  He had a really hard time sleeping on Tuesday night, but woke up on Wednesday morning, bright eyed and bushy tailed and ready to go.  He does not have any classes with his best friend, but he said he really liked the school and he does seem genuinely happy about being there.  I had no issues getting up him this morning either.

For me.  Well all my classes are done around noon, so that is nice, but I am going to have a ton of homework in two of my classes.  Rhetoric and Problem Solving.  I think I hang out at the college to get more homework done versus coming home and being interrupted all the time.  I did try to do some reading there today, but the area I picked was why too quiet and I think I need to borrow Nathan's Ipod shuffle so that I have some music.

EQ2:

I got all seven characters to level 92, 6 of them to level 92 tradeskilling and working on the 7th one now.  Nothing exciting there.  We need more zones!

Getting Ready

We have been trying to get into a bedtime and sleep routine for school.  How horrible it is, lol.  I have been going to bed so late and sleeping until 10 or 10:30, so getting up at 8:30 (which isn't even close to school wake up time) has been awful.  I think it is just going to have to be a get up and deal with it come the first day of school.

As much as Trenton doesn't want to admit it, I think he is really excited to start middle school.  We got the chance to visit the school, try out his locker, walk his schedule.  I think that he is really ready, and I hope that this year goes very well for him.  There are eight elementary schools feeding into this one middle school, so I also hope that there are no issues with the new people and I hope that Trenton stays with the right crowd.

Other than that, there is nothing much going on.  We are running around getting ready for school and my pampered chef party.  

EQ2:

I have gotten Attalyne to level 91.  When I started her, I hated playing her.  I only kept her because she was a carpenter and had the faction for certain things that I didn't feel like working on again. But, now that I have her to upper level I have found that she is really fun to play.  This will be my seventh toon to level over 90.

My goals over the next weeks to get everyone that is over 90 to 92 and to get all my tradeskillers to 92 and do the tradeskill quests in Withered Lands.  Not too much I think. =)

A week from Monday

School starts.  I am very excited.  Although I am still three books short.  But that will be remedied very soon.

So we tried the orange chicken Thursday.  I am not going to link the recipe as I really was not that impressed with it.  Trenton didn't like it, Nathan and Scott liked it, I was meh about it.  It was not what I was looking for.  I made the menu for this week, and we are trying two new recipes and then a bunch of appetizer type stuff next Friday, as I am hosting a Pampered Chef party.  I will let you know how that turns out, and of course post links if the recipes turn out well.

Yesterday, my dad took the boys down to Savannah Illinois for the teen (??) Bassmasters tournament weigh-in.  They had a good time, and Nathan has decided that he wants to fish tournaments when he turns old enough in two years.  Guess I need to get back into fishing next year.

Scott's week of working everyday got screwed up because of a seat shortage.  But on the other hand, he has been working 12 hours the past couple of days, so maybe that will make up for the 2 days lost at work.  This is the one thing that scared me about quitting my job, if something were to go wrong with Scott's job, or they were to cut hours back, his paycheck would be short.  Guess we need to cross that bridge as we get to it.

Nathan just came inside from playing, and apparently he decided to roll around on some wooden planks and now he has about 15 little slivers in his leg.  I am not happy about having to try to remove these things.  For now, I have cleaned it, put some neosporin on it, and covered it.  I will give it some time and hope that they start to work their way out on their own.

EQ2:

The video I posted the other day is really grainy.  Suppose I should have looked at it first.  I need to look into FRAPS and see if that is any better.  Although if I recall, you could do 30 second bit videos with FRAPS if you didn't pay for it.

Nothing much going on in EQ2 at the moment.  Again, been working on my troubadour and she is almost done with the ER quest.  Basically just need level 85 so I can do Cella.  Almost there, about 20% through 84.  I also need to work on making all her expert spells.  OMG Troubs get a ton of spells/combat arts.  It is crazy.

Starting to get used to this

I am finally starting to get used to this not working thing.  Getting into a type of routine.  I have to say, with Scott awake this morning, I realized this.  He threw a wrench into my new routine.

We rearranged the bedroom yesterday.  I really like the way it turned out and it did help a ton with me going to sleep while Scott was still awake and playing on the computer and watching tv.  

So now my house has been completely cleaned from top to bottom. And I have to say that I really like it, and if the boys (and Scott) think that they are just going to let things go undone, or just leave things where they please, they are all sorely mistaken. :)

Last night I made this pork tenderloin recipe:  Pork Goodness.  It was one of the best dinners we have had in a long time.  I didn't do much for sides as we were still working on the bedroom, but I think next time we are going to having smashed red potato's (boil red potatoes, put on cookie sheet, smash with a fork to break open, sprinkle with salt, pepper, olive oil and bake until golden and delicious) and some asparagus.  

Tonight we are trying orange chicken.  Keep your fingers crossed for this one.

EQ2:

This was in Lyceum, running a guild group, I wanted to mess around and see how the video came out.  I am really liking this feature and expect to see a lot more of this.  I believe here in the next few days, I am going to do posts and my characters and some stuff around Norrath.

Not how I wanted

To spend my night.  Both boys had friends over, but Nathan's little friend just drives me crazy.  They didn't go to sleep until midnight and then they were up at 6am, ugh.  Trenton and his friend, still asleep, but they went to sleep sometime after 2 am.

We have determined that Nathan is not ready for anyone to sleep over here anymore.  We already knew that he could not make it at another persons house, but apparently he has issues with people here as well.  He was in tears last night as he didn't want his friend in his room when it was time to go to sleep.  He just wanted it quiet, dark, and to be alone so that he could close his eyes and go to sleep.  As I think about it, he has always been that way.  When he was a baby, if you were holding him, he would not sleep.  But the minute you put him down, out he went.

Today is the day to finish the final room in the house.  My room.  My room doubles as a bedroom and computer room.  And it is painfully hard to not go in there to use my computer when Scott is sleeping and the same for Scott when I am sleeping.  So we are going to rearrange it and see if that helps so we can use our computers when we want too (I am currently on the laptop in the living room).

And while I like the laptop, there are several things that I can't do on it.  I cannot play EQ2 on my laptop :(.  I cannot play doubledown casino on facebook.  I can surf the web, right a paper, and watch videos (for a short time).

Amazon cancelled one of my book orders, as they were out of stock.  Getting so close to school time, and I still have two books left to get.  I hope that they arrive here in time.

EQ2:

Well I finished up my troubadours epic quest last night.  And I went and took a few videos of houses that I have decorated.

Krys's Teneberous Island home was the first house I decorated, and the first time I ever used the layout editor.  It did make the housing leaderboards on Unrest.

This is Becuza's Everfrost Home.  I don't have access to one of these, so I borrowed his, lol.  I think it turned out well.  You can tell I am getting a little better with the editor. 

And this is the second house I started.  This is Krys's Gorowyn home.  Here I am still trying to figure out the layout editor, and it does not help that this home is not on a n/s/e/w layout.  But I really like the kitchen (needs some stuff on the counters) and the bar is a little empty, but I have one room that is still empty, and the living room needs work.  I do have the idea of a huge fish tank in the living room, although, the one oval room would be cool with a really big fish tank, hmmm.  And of course the patio.  I was thinking of a little party going on out there.

As much as I don't want to say this

I really want school to start.  I am getting bored, lol.

There is only so much stuff you can do, especially since the kids are older.  You can only play so many computer games, video games, clean.  My house is very nice looking right now.

I need a book to read. Or errands to run.  

This morning we tried this IHOP copy cat recipe.  OMG so good.  Pancakes.
The boys and I loved them.  I did add about 1/2 teaspoon of vanilla to them.  We spiced them up a bit as well.  Trenton had raspberries in his, Nathan has chocolate chips, and I had walnuts in mine.  So yummy.  This is now our go-to pancake recipe.

Nothing more exciting going on.  Tomorrow we are trying a new pork loin recipe.  If it is good, I will definitely share it.  If not, I will tell you to run far, far away. :)

On the EQ2 front, there is not much going on.  Been working on my troubadour.  Just started her epic, and it requires way too much running around compared to others.  I have also been decorating houses.  I will get some pics taken and upload here.  Maybe later, dedicated a post to what I have so far.  Could use some ideas and suggestions as well.

First Monday

It is my first Monday not working.  Two weeks until school starts for me and two weeks and 2 days until school starts for the boys.


I am taking 5 classes this semester.  This will be the first time I will be full time and I am very excited.  2 Comp Sci classes, 2 Math classes and one stinking English (rhetoric) class.  Have all but one book ordered from Amazon and am eagerly waiting the start. :)


The boys on the other hand have zero desire to go back to school, lol.  Nathan will be in the fourth grade, and is hoping that Mr. Cleveland is his teacher.  Let's keep our fingers crossed please.  He is an awesome teacher.  Trenton is entering the seventh grade.  I cannot believe that he is old enough to be in middle school.  He will have seven classes. His first and last class are his best classes, so lets hope that it will help with all the in between classes.


With me not working (that doesn't sound right), Scott has decided that he needs to pick up extra hours if they are ever offered.  Well, he got them this week.  His normal schedule is Wed-Sat from 6pm - 4:30am.  This week he will be working from Mon-Sat, possibly 6pm-6am.  That will definitely make up for my paycheck.


Now, I need help finding some good food blogs as I want to start trying all sorts of new things.  I have one blog that I follow at the moment and, of course, Pinterest.  The only problem with Pinterest is that a very good chunk of the recipes on there are desserts.  I want main meals, side dishes.  Easy ones and harder ones. I want to try all kinds of things.  And now that I have more time, this is the time to do this.  I want to have this cooking thing down before I graduate college and have to re-enter the work force.


I know this whole post sounds so disjointed, and they probably will for a little bit.  It has been a while since I have been blogging and I am just trying to get some of my jumbled thoughts down.  Pretty soon it should start flowing a little bit better. :)


Now, on the EQ2 front.

Well, I have 4 at level 92, 2 at 90, 1 at 81 and two other little alts.  I will soon dedicate a post to EQ2.  Although I am really disappointed in Skyshrine.


We will have 4 zones to run until the next expansion.  Reminds me of Kunark. I hate so little options. And you know we could go back and run all the DoV v1.0 stuff, but it seems not worth it anymore.  There are only a couple pieces of gear that worth the trip.  The Drunder neck and the EoW legs, for the time being, anyways.


I will update my character list at the side with links to EQ2U, the most awesome new site.  And will delve a little bit into each one later.


For now, I need to kick the boys outside and do a little bit of cleaning.


Be safe!


P.S. I have no idea why blogger is putting 2 spaces between paragraphs, as I am only typing one. 

Time

Time.  It is what I did not have a lot of up until this past week.  I haven't posted at all, because when I did have down time, I would rather play video games and zone out versus having to actually think.  The past four years, between school, work, the boys.....has been very busy.  It got extremely busy in April.


Scott was re-hired out at Chrysler.  On nights.  This made for tons of fun (/sarcasm) with having to do homework, work crazy hours to get my 40, take Nathan to one of 4000 practices, games and tournaments.  I was very tired and cranky.  I broke down several times. A decision had to be made.  One thing had to stop and my choices were either school or work.


I didn't make a lot of money, but we survived on my income.  Scott (with the new "rules" of Chrysler) doesn't make much more than me, but in the end, we decided that a couple more years of living on the slim side, would be worth it in end.  So, as of August 2, I am no longer employed and am embarking on a new quest to finish my degrees.


Yes that says degrees.  When I transferred to Rockford College, I took a lot of credits with me.  I only need approximately 30 credits to get my BS in Math, but I needed 30 more credits so that I could actually get my degree.  So I had to come up with more classes to fill my time.  I decided that I would step it up a notch and double major.  So when I finally graduate college, I will end up with a BS in Math and a BS in Computer Science. 


I have to say that my decision to quit work and focus solely on school has me scared. And excited.  Is it the right decision to make?  Will it be worth it?  How the hell could I quit my job in an economy like this?  The answers will come soon enough I am sure.


Can you believe that Trenton turned 12 yesterday? Ya, neither can I.  He is very excited to now be a pre-teen or tween.  Nathan is 9 now.  He has graduated from speech therapy and is doing really well.  Baseball and Hockey are his life (and mine, or so it seems at times).


For now, that is it.  I will be back with updates from school, kids, life without a job, and EQ2 (have to update that one, and my links to my toons).