Archive for the 'Prescott College' Category

June 3, 2010 | "Whoa whoa I gotta go...back to schoooool...again",3rd Semester,Adv Children's Lit,Life in General,Prescott College,School Daze,Summer 2010,The 4-1-1 on Me

One of 3 classes I’m taking this summer is Adv Children’s Lit. We were directed to a suggested book list but are encouraged to come up with our own. This is a reading-intensive course and I don’t know how many books we’re required to read–yet–but I want to have plenty to choose from.

My favorite children’s book is Where the Sidewalk Ends by Shel Silverstein. My parents gave this book to me when I was young and I still have it. Love the quirky, funny poems. I’ll be reading more of Shel’s works during this course, but I’m needing your help in coming up with a great list of board, picture, and chapter books. So

What’s your favorite children’s book? What are you reading to your kids right now?

Put your answer in the Comments section. If you’re an author, feel free to mention your own book as well. Thanks for your help.

Technorati Tags: Where the Sidewalk Ends, Shel Silverstein

June 1, 2010 | "Whoa whoa I gotta go...back to schoooool...again",3rd Semester,Life in General,Prescott College,Sunday Scribblings,The 4-1-1 on Me

Today’s word of the day is brought to you by Sunday Scribblings: Mantra

To be honest, I’ve never had a mantra.

However, right now it’s:

One week at a time and remember to breathe.

I went back to school. After 17-18 yrs of not being in school. I started in the Fall of 2009 and it was a HUMONGO adjustment for me. I was only taking two classes at the time and about a month into it, I was feeling the pressure. I had a little breakdown, was emailing my core faculty (aka advisor) on a weekly basis…it was crazy.

I couldn’t figure out why it was so hard. After I graduated from high school, I did the community college thing for 2 yrs, then the 4-year university thing (ASU) for about a year. Possibly less. I don’t remember it being that hard before. And then my hubby put it into perspective for me:

“You weren’t working full time back then.”

Ah. The light bulb finally clicked on.

I’m working full time now. Some of my courses are online, others will be face to face/phone call convos with my mentors. During the first semester, I made the mistake of looking ahead at the syllabi (both of my courses were online). And got immediately overwhelmed.

I had to have pep talks with my core faculty, with my husband, with another co-worker also in school before this one phrase started to sink in.

“Just take it one week at a time. Don’t look at the weeks in advance, just what’s due the following week.”

I think it’s starting to work. I’ll be starting my 3rd semester in two days. This time, I’ll be taking 3 classes (and will continue to do so if I want to graduate in Dec 2011). I’m feeling both excited and anxious. I’m hoping I’ll be able to handle 3 classes and working full time.

I just have to remember my mantra.

Technorati Tags: Sunday Scribblings

June 1, 2010 | "Whoa whoa I gotta go...back to schoooool...again",3rd Semester,Financial Mgmt,Life in General,Mentors,Movie Queue,Prescott College,Summer 2010,The 4-1-1 on Me,Weekend Wrap-Up

Hope you all had a great Memorial Day holiday. 3-day weekends always seem to be so short. And is it just me or does TV suck on week-day holidays? There was nothing good on last night.

Saturday – My intention was to go to Phoenix Comic-Con. John Shneider (I’m a DUKES OF HAZZARD fan) and James Marsters (Spike from BUFFY THE VAMPIRE SLAYER)—among other celebs—made an appearance and I’d wanted to get my picture taken with them. But I didn’t want to wait nearly all day to do it. I guess I could’ve gone and just gotten pictures of them. But I didn’t want to deal with paying for parking. Or parking and walking. Because, really, it’s starting to get hotter than a witch’s tittie here, and if I had gotten my pic taken with them, I would’ve been all sweaty and stinky. From the parking and walking, that is. So I skipped it, went to eat at our Usual Place, then went shopping while Babendude hung out with his BF.

I ended up buying a bathing suit.

For $161.

That’s what I get for shopping in Scottsdale. I’d gone to Scottsdale Fashion Square to hit up a particular store: Roxy. But they didn’t have the kind of bathing suits I was looking for: tankinis. I ended up going to Everything But Water and paying $95 for the top and $66 for the little skirted bottom. I, then, of course, end up at Old Navy later (I’m really diggin’ their 2 for $5 flip flops. I’ve not a nice little rainbow of colors. Got a cute sundress, too) and notice their tankinis.

For $12. I think the bottoms were, like $16.50. Or something like that.

I know what you’re saying. “You should’ve waited. DOOFUS!” I know, I know. Needless to say, I’m having buyer’s remorse. Babendude and I went to the same mall yesterday and I should’ve returned it. The tags were cut off, but I still had the receipt.

Anyhoo, to soothe the guilt, I went to see SEX AND THE CITY 2.

Liked the outfits. Almost made me wish I was fashion conscious.

Loved Abudabi. Fabulously beautiful country, but would never want to visit for fear of being kidnapped into a harem or something.

Didn’t like Liza Minelli singing “Single Ladies.” Really could’ve done without hearing/seeing that. Bad enough I get tired of hearing Beyonce sing it, but I really wanted to fast forward this part of the film.

And SJP really isn’t attractive. At all. She’s got man hands. Just sayin’.

Later that night, I watched the saddest. Movie. Ever. Well, maybe not ever, but it was close: MY SISTER’S KEEPER. It’s based off a YA novel by Jodi Piccoult and Lordy, it was a tearjerker. There was nothing happy about this movie. It put you in a constant state of sadness and pissiness (there were a couple of times I wanted to slap Cameron Diaz upside the head). Pass the Kleenex, please.

Sunday – Ate breakfast at the Usual Place, saw PRINCE OF PERSIA (And wow, a buffed-out Jake Gyllenhaal. Wow), bought some Capri pants for work at TJ Maxx, had some ice cream at Baskin Robbins. We used to have one of those near our house and it closed down and was replaced with Thrifty ice cream! *nastyassgenericicecream*. Oh, the horror!

Monday – Breakfast at our Usual Place. I know! Three days in a row. When Ron, the owner, saw us, he laughed and shook his head. He came over and said to me, “Don’t you cook?” “Yes, but we like your breakfast better,” I told him. LOL. Which is why we’re there every weekend. LOL. We walked around the mall and Babendude bought me a couple of pairs of sandals at Shiekh. Buy one get one free. And they gave us the more expensive ones for free. Sweet!

I also got a little head start on homework. The summer session starts in two days and I’ve already got an assignment due on Friday. Ugh! I just ordered books for my Financial Mgmt course last week. LOL. Yeah. My name is Celise, but you can call me Mrs. Procrastination. *sigh* I wasn’t sure if one of the books was going to arrive before the assignment was due, but thank God my mentor, Chantal, was able to loan it to me. I’m used to buying books at BN. I forgot that when you order books on Amazon, you’re sometimes at the mercy of others. *double sigh*.

That’s it for me. How was your weekend? I’m looking forward to the short work week and celebrating my birthday at the water park this weekend (hence the bathing suit purchase). Whoo-hoo! Pics will be posted.

Technorati Tags: Phoenix Comic-Con., John Shneider, DUKES OF HAZZARD, James Marsters, BUFFY THE VAMPIRE SLAYER, Scottsdale Fashion Square, Roxy, Everything But Water, Old Navy, SEX AND THE CITY 2., Abudabi, Liza Minelli, Single Ladies, Beyonce, MY SISTER’S KEEPER, Jodi Piccoult, Cameron Diaz, PRINCE OF PERSIA, Jake Gyllenhaal, TJ Maxx, Baskin Robbins, Shiekh, Amazon

April 30, 2010 | "Whoa whoa I gotta go...back to schoooool...again",2nd Semester,3rd Semester,A Whole Latte Trouble,Adv Children's Lit,Book Stuff,Book Two,Creative Writing II,Draven Atreides,Draven Atreides, Teenage Informant Series,Financial Mgmt,Life in General,Mentors,Nonprofit Explorations,Prescott College,School Daze,Spring 2010,Summer 2010,The 4-1-1 on Me

Today officially ends the Spring semester.

I made it through another semester without having a little breakdown.

This is good.

Kristi Edwards, North-Central Region advancement officer for the Arizona Community Foundation, and the Director of the Yavapai County Community Foundation, was my mentor for my Nonprofit Explorations course. The only mentored course I had this semester. Being a newbie in the NP world, she gave me a great overview of the NP sector in general, so now I have a better foundation–no pun intended–for the other courses in my degree plan. She was a wonderful mentor and I look forward to working with her again in the Fall for my Fundraising course.

I turned in my mentor evals and now I’m waiting for them to be signed. I get a whole month off before the Summer session starts. And, unlike my first two semesters, it’s going to be balls-to-the-wall 3 classes up until graduation in Dec next year.

No more whining about feeling overwhelmed.

I’m just going to have to suck it up and remember to breathe.

This summer, I’ll be taking:

~ Creative Writing II: Revising Your Novel mentored by the wonderful Georgia McBride, founder of YALITCHAT. I’m so looking forward to this class because I’ll be working on revising the first 100 pages of DA Book 2. A novel that I finished a while back, and started to edit, and then…stopped. So, it’ll be nice to revisit that story.

~ Advanced Children’s Lit: an online Moodle course through Prescott College

~ Sustainable Financial Mgmt mentored by Chantal Sheehan, COO of local nonprofit New Global Citizens. I met with her this evening and got a really good vibe from her. I think it’s another good mentor/mentee match. This organization is doing wonderful things with youth, so I’m very much looking forward to gleaning all I can from her.

Can’t wait to get started.

Technorati Tags: Kristi Edwards, Arizona Community Foundation, Yavapai County Community Foundation, Georgia McBride, YALITCHAT, Chantal Sheehan, New Global Citizens

April 27, 2010 | "Whoa whoa I gotta go...back to schoooool...again",3rd Semester,A Whole Latte Trouble,Book Two,Creative Writing II,Draven Atreides,Draven Atreides, Teenage Informant Series,Life in General,Prescott College,School Daze,Summer 2010,The 4-1-1 on Me

I’m going to enjoy the summer session more.

Possibly.

Okay, I’ll enjoy it more-ish.

Because I’ll be taking Creative Writing II: Revising Your Novel

This is one of the many courses I created and had to find a mentor. And it’s one of two I created that will satisfy the Humanities portion of my degree.

The creative writing course will give me a chance to revise the first 100 pages of DA Book 2 and I’ll have the wonderful Georgia McBride, founder of YALITCHAT, as my mentor. Whoo-hoo!

We’ve already created a Study Contract (not a real contract, more like a course contract: what the class is about, what I’ll be learning, what I’ll be doing, etc) and we’re going to work on a syllabus next.

Did I mention that I was looking forward to this course?

Can’t wait to get started.

Technorati Tags: Georgia McBride, , YALITCHAT