Well...There it is...

Spring semester is over. I took my last final on Monday afternoon. As I drove home from campus, I was still mulling over my test, wondering what I got wrong, and hoping I interpreted the audiogram at the very end of the exam correctly. When I got to my mom's house to pick up my daughter, Mom wasn't home--she'd taken AJ with her to run some errands. I called her, told her she could drop AJ off at our house when she was done, and started putting my things away.

"It" still hadn't hit me yet.

AJ came home about 15 minutes later, ran through the front door and gave me a big hug, thrilled that I was home early. I picked her up, and kissed her sweet little face. I sat down with her, and looked over at the place where my backpack was sitting, realized that I didn't need it anymore and THEN "It" hit me. I'M FREE UNTIL AUGUST!!! No classes, no homework, no studying, nothing but enjoying the awesomeness of my chiddlers.

Oh, and reading. I plan to acquire a nice big stack of books and consume them one by one during any and all of my spare time over the summer. Any suggestions? (Note: I don't like horror/slasher stories. Seriously, they freak me out. I can't go there. Oh, and nothing sad or depressing. I can't handle that either. I get depressed for weeks. I'm still traumatized by the time I read "Jude the Obscure," and that was almost nine years ago. Yes, I realize that I get far too emotionally involved in the fictional world of books, and I'm okay with it. But I'm open to most other options.)

Anyway, this feeling of pure, unadulterated freedom gave me a high that was reminiscent of my high school years. All that was missing this time around was yearbook day. I was practically skipping for the rest of the day--I still get a bit giddy when I think about it.

Now I have to stare down the hideous, fully loaded barrel of my neglected house. Now that my mind is no longer occupied with (obsessing over) the reading and interpretation of audiograms, the anatomy of the ear, and finding formants on a spectrogram, I'm starting to really notice just how bad things are around here. The bathrooms need cleaning (Seriously, scientists could find all kinds of intelligent life in there). Dusting and vacuuming needs to be done (Don't breathe too deeply around here, you'll probably get asthma). I've washed laundry this week, but I haven't folded it yet (It never ends! There will ALWAYS be more dirty laundry!!! Make it stop!) Don't even get me started on the kitchen--(I'm pretty sure a family of trolls has moved into at least one of the cupboards. I can't get one of my saucepans without having to solve a riddle.)

Sigh...Does anyone have a house elf I can borrow? (If you don't get that reference, read Harry Potter immediately. Trust me, it will up your awesomeness by about 1000%. You're welcome.)

Now I will leave you with a picture of some applesauce cookies that I made. Yes, yes they are fabulous.

You should really wipe that drool off your chin. There you go.