In addition to it being my birthday and Mother's day this week also marked a much awaited date in my life. I have finished another semester in my Master's program. Another down, two left (if all goes well). This semester was multicultural and career advising. Summer is students with disabilities and fall will be administration and college students and college environments. I'm hoping to complete my capstone project in the summer.
Anyway, my wife is wonderful. In a brief Mother's day tribute I present how lucky I am. In addition to Angel being beautiful, smart, and witty, she is also very patient with me. Saturday I had one final project due for my multicultural class - a personal portfolio that was designed to demonstrate my multicultural competencies that I had gained from the course. Because of a variety of things including: another final paper, my birthday, being ill, and really, really not wanting to do it - I found myself tackling the project the morning it was due. With 13 hours in which to do it, Angel kept our daughter, Kanga (because she mothers her brother and tends to hop all over) and our son, Tigger (for obvious reasons) occupied and let me lock myself in the bedroom to finish it. See, my wife is very patient and a very special woman.
It took me about 5 hours in all to write the 13 pages with sources. I was pleased with it when it was over. This is not the first time I've had to do this for my Master's program. Just the second. I did it once in my first semester when both the kids were younger. My undergrad had a few of these kinds of day, but not as many as some would think. I think I maybe had one a year. The most memorable one was an assignment to write a paper critiquing the Kyoto Protocol that the USA signed back in 2004 (I think). It had to be 4-6 pages with 5 sources and include a 15 minute presentation. It took me 16 hours straight and I finished it between 2 and 4 am. Clearly I was not thinking and so I can't remember the exact time - just that it was early! The professor gave me 93/100 and wrote "surprisingly good" at the top. When I asked him about it, he said that the first paper and presentation was usually the worst, but that my was, "surprisingly good." I told him I was a history major and writing papers, "is what I did."
In my defense, I try not to procrastinate papers and generally do a very good job of not. I can write a paper long into the night, if need be, as the thought process that engages when I write keeps me awake better than anything else.
I am glad that this week is over and very glad to be able to celebrate Mother's day with my wife, her mother, and my mother. I don't know how I got so lucky to be surrounded by wonderful women, but whatever I did to warrant such a blessing must have been huge. Each of these women have taught me valuable lessons. More importantly, none of them have "bumped me off." Heaven knows I've deserved it on occasion. Alright... I'll concede the point. I've deserved it most of the time. In addition to their much appreciated patience with me, they are all very intelligent, love their families, and are very strong in many ways. I can't even begin to describe them each in detail because it would take forever - and also because words don't even come close to describing my wife.
I hope that all of you women enjoyed Mother's day. This week we have Tigger's birthday. He's turning 3. I sincerely hope he makes it to 4. With the speed that he can pitch a fit and the violence of said fit you would expect him to be in professional baseball. We love him anyway. He enjoys anything with wheels so we thought that we might take him to Promontory Point, the location of the transcontinental railroad meeting. I'm going to try to figure out how to make a train cake.....
Update (May 23/2013): I got 99 out of 100 on the project.
Anyway, my wife is wonderful. In a brief Mother's day tribute I present how lucky I am. In addition to Angel being beautiful, smart, and witty, she is also very patient with me. Saturday I had one final project due for my multicultural class - a personal portfolio that was designed to demonstrate my multicultural competencies that I had gained from the course. Because of a variety of things including: another final paper, my birthday, being ill, and really, really not wanting to do it - I found myself tackling the project the morning it was due. With 13 hours in which to do it, Angel kept our daughter, Kanga (because she mothers her brother and tends to hop all over) and our son, Tigger (for obvious reasons) occupied and let me lock myself in the bedroom to finish it. See, my wife is very patient and a very special woman.
It took me about 5 hours in all to write the 13 pages with sources. I was pleased with it when it was over. This is not the first time I've had to do this for my Master's program. Just the second. I did it once in my first semester when both the kids were younger. My undergrad had a few of these kinds of day, but not as many as some would think. I think I maybe had one a year. The most memorable one was an assignment to write a paper critiquing the Kyoto Protocol that the USA signed back in 2004 (I think). It had to be 4-6 pages with 5 sources and include a 15 minute presentation. It took me 16 hours straight and I finished it between 2 and 4 am. Clearly I was not thinking and so I can't remember the exact time - just that it was early! The professor gave me 93/100 and wrote "surprisingly good" at the top. When I asked him about it, he said that the first paper and presentation was usually the worst, but that my was, "surprisingly good." I told him I was a history major and writing papers, "is what I did."
In my defense, I try not to procrastinate papers and generally do a very good job of not. I can write a paper long into the night, if need be, as the thought process that engages when I write keeps me awake better than anything else.
I am glad that this week is over and very glad to be able to celebrate Mother's day with my wife, her mother, and my mother. I don't know how I got so lucky to be surrounded by wonderful women, but whatever I did to warrant such a blessing must have been huge. Each of these women have taught me valuable lessons. More importantly, none of them have "bumped me off." Heaven knows I've deserved it on occasion. Alright... I'll concede the point. I've deserved it most of the time. In addition to their much appreciated patience with me, they are all very intelligent, love their families, and are very strong in many ways. I can't even begin to describe them each in detail because it would take forever - and also because words don't even come close to describing my wife.
I hope that all of you women enjoyed Mother's day. This week we have Tigger's birthday. He's turning 3. I sincerely hope he makes it to 4. With the speed that he can pitch a fit and the violence of said fit you would expect him to be in professional baseball. We love him anyway. He enjoys anything with wheels so we thought that we might take him to Promontory Point, the location of the transcontinental railroad meeting. I'm going to try to figure out how to make a train cake.....
Update (May 23/2013): I got 99 out of 100 on the project.
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