Assignments

No, not assignments from school, that would be easy. Instead, Chris and I are trying to come up with a plan to keep the house clean. Yes, it has been clean before. But alas, Chris and I are major slobs therefore the vaccumed floor and sparkling sink soon turn into clutter and mess. It is really hard for us. We are not neat freaks. I have never been one and I suspect Chris is the same. But I am tired of people who visit expecting the mess or are never surprised by it. I am tired of doing major cleaning and it taking all day long. I want to only spot clean...pick up where it is needed.

So, we are going to get as much done this weekend as possible...wiping the slate clean as Chris deemed it. Then, we are going to make a list to hang on the fridge where it will tell us what needs to be done by the end of the week and we can check it off as the week progresses. I don't know if this is a good plan or not. The thing is Chris doesn't do well with actual assignments, he hates "having to do something", required to do it. With the list idea, the goal is that all the chores are shared and no one is designated to a specific task. We want to have a nice clean house so we are willing to give almost anything that works a try. If anyone has any suggestions, please feel free to leave a comment. Please.

School is going well. We are almost done with the semester. Yay! This makes me really excited because if I finish this class (and with an A which is where I am right now) then this will be my first completed class since 2002! (Pathetic, I know) But this is a major milestone for me!

On a similar note, Chris is thinking about going to grad school, which I am really excited for him about. He is thinking about going to teach in a college setting. Personally, that is where I envisioned him all along. But in order to go back to school, I am going to put my school plans on hold or at least not be a full time student.
You see, this upcoming fall, I was going to drop my hours down at work and go to school full time. This would be impossible if Chris was not teaching and in school full time himself. So, instead I will continue to take a class or two until he can support me while I go to school.
You are probably thinking, why put off your goals Michelle? Well, we discussed the possibility of concentrating on my school and graduating. But the thing is, I still don't know for sure what I want to do yet. I am only toying with the idea of horticulture at the moment. That could change after I volunteer for a while at the Wildflower Center or take a couple of botany classes. Chris, however, knows what he wants to do. So, it will take him less time to do it instead of me dallying around. So you see, Chris can go to school for about 2 years and get his Masters degree, possibly get a job teaching at a community college while working on his doctoral degree while I take a couple of classes, get my GPA up and decide what I want to do and what program I want to go into. Then, after he graduates and we are making some money so I can cut back at work, I can go to school for about another year, graduate, work a couple of years and then maybe we can think about having a baby.

Of course, I have it all planned out and it won't go anywhere near according to plan. It never does. But at least we have an outline, a goal for the future. Chris won't be going to grad school until the fall of 2006 (they only start master programs in the fall and the deadline has already passed for this fall) and until that time, we can start saving, paying off what we can, and get ready for being really really poor instead of just kind of poor.

So yeah...that is all for now. I think. We did our taxes last night, that is a major relief.

On that note, ci vediamo ragazzi.

Michelle