Well another beautiful Labor Day has drawn to a close and for the first time in a few years, we didn’t do much but clean the house and enjoy some quiet time together as a family. With gas prices as they are, I’m sure we weren’t the only family to spend the holiday at home instead of taking a trip somewhere.

Besides, the closer it gets to baby time, the more miserable Tabitha becomes. I’d hate to try to drag her out somewhere at a time like this. She’s reached the point where she’s ready to have it over with, and it could very well be soon, seeing as Kristopher came about 4 weeks early. We even joked a bit about going into labor on Labor Day.

As for me, I’m only a week and a half into classes, and already I was welcoming the three-day weekend. As my last post so accurately predicted, this semester will indeed be an exercise in time management. For the curious, here’s a quick rundown of my classes this semester:

• CSC 232 (Programming in Visual Basic) – A programming class! I’ve wanted to learn VB for a while. Now I get to learn it for credit! For the record, I have never messed up a semester during which I took a programming class.
• CSC 301 (Foundations of Computer Science I) – This basically boils down to being another math class (discrete math, to be exact), but at least it’s more directly relevant to programming than calculus.
• CSC 405 (Computer Architecture) – This course actually couples quite well with my CSC 301 class, but it’s run with the assumption that its students have already completed CSC 301. Thankfully, the same professor teaches both classes this semester, and I’m not the only one taking both. This course comes with a lab where we get to design and build electrical circuits based on binary logic.
• PSY 180 (General Psychology) – A relentlessly boring lecture class. I’ve taken it before, now I’m taking it again. We’ll see if I make it to the end of the semester this time.

Almost every day of the week, I have a two- to three-hour gap between two of my classes. I’ve already found that these gaps are great for finishing most of my homework, leaving very little work to take time doing at home. I hope this trend continues after our little girl is born, because I doubt I’ll be able to concentrate on things as well with a newborn in the house. Besides, who would want to work on homework when there’s a new baby to hold?

It’s been stressful trying to settle into this new routine, but hopefully soon I’ll find my rhythm. All I know is that I’m am not planning on letting this semester slip away from me like so many before. Making the Dean’s List last semester certainly helped boost my confidence in myself that I can do this stuff and do it well. I should have graduated years ago, and kick myself every time I think of all the time I squandered. At least I seem to be back on track now.

Wow, things got really crazy really quickly! This post has actually been a long time coming, however it was delayed since I made the decision a couple of weeks ago to switch our main computer from Windows 2000 to Windows XP. After fighting XP for a week and a half, Tabitha and I realized it just wasn’t working out for us. Kunshin is now back on Win2k and running reliably again, with the exception of a nasty problem with the modem, which causes the system to freeze two minutes after being disconnected from the internet. The only way to recover from it is to restart the machine, which is becoming a big pain, to say the least. I hope I can correct this problem soon without being forced to purchase new hardware.

June 1st was the first day of my summer Humanities class. All I know to say is, “Wow, this is going to be a ride.” That’s not meant to be negative, either. The professor who is teaching the class is thoroughly engrossed in philosophy — the science that focuses not on finding the answers, but asking the questions. Instead of standing in front and “spoon feeding” the knowledge to his students, he facilitates in-class discussion by having us all arrange our desks in a circle and discover our own interpretations of selected literary works. This has led to some very interesting class discussions and in my opinion provides much more insight into the human condition than what I’ve gained from my previous Humanities classes.

Speaking of matters related to Murray State, I received my financial aid award letter in the mail a few days ago. I qualified for the Pell Grant and the Cap Grant, which together will pay for my next two semesters of classes with a generous amount left over to help cover books and other expenses incurred during my time in school. I don’t know why I was so afraid that I wouldn’t receive aid, but knowing that I will have my tuition fully paid for has certainly brightened my spirits this week.

Tabitha’s dad and aunt came down for a visit last weekend and brought with them a new (to us) dresser for Kristopher’s room. Kristopher’s dresser situation has actually been an arduous saga over the past year. Up until last week, we had been using a pressboard dresser that Tabitha bought for herself when she was still living in the dormitory at Murray State. She gave it up for use in Kristopher’s room where it remained until he became mobile, and started making a game of opening all the drawers he could reach and pulling out all the folded clothes within. After a few nights of refolding clothes and an unsuccessful attempt at implementing some sort of locking mechanism, we decided we’d had enough and relocated his dresser into his closet. Since closet space in our home is a valuable commodity, we knew this solution wouldn’t fly for long. Fortunately Tabitha’s dad decided to give us two twin-size beds (one of which Kristopher sleeps in, detailed in the previous post) and the matching dresser. The new dresser is made of much heavier wood, so the drawers require more effort to open. This is a good thing, because it discourages mischievous little hands from getting into places they shouldn’t be.

They also took us to dinner at the locally renown Patti’s restaurant. Since they had never been there before, and neither Tabitha nor I had been there with the exception of two Captain D’s Christmas gatherings, it was a new experience for us all, which turned out to be quite pleasant. It’s much different without the frigid weather.

On a more solemn note, my grandmother passed away around 11:45am on June 3rd, 2004 due to complications arisen from kidney failure. She had just celebrated her 86th birthday last month. She lived a long, full, Christian life that touched all those who knew her. She raised six children and was heavily involved in raising most of her grandchildren and even great-grandchildren.

Now that she’s no longer with us, I regret not spending more time with my grandmother these last few years. I know it’s cliché to say so, but the passing of a loved one certainly helps bring into focus the fact that our time on this earth is limited, and that we should value every second of it. It’s so easy to get caught up in the busyness of life that we forget about the things that really matter, and take for granted all the blessings and miracles that are bestowed upon us daily.

I’ve made it my personal goal to better appreciate the things I have. It’s been a struggle thus far — I’ve never been any good at it. But I’m trying, nonetheless. Now more than ever I know that nothing in this world should ever be taken for granted.