All About August

August was the busiest month of the summer for me. Lots of changes. The older I get, the more resistant to change I find myself becoming. Especially when the way things used to be were great. Ah well. The month certainly passed quickly, and I'm looking forward to Fall and all it brings - football, changing leaves, cooler temps.

Here's the low-down of my month.

Surgery Recovery. I feel like I've covered this ad naseum in other posts, so I'll keep it brief. I'm feeling good. I still feel pain when I sneeze, laugh, cough, or move in certain ways, but most of the time I forget about my stomach because it feels fine. The tightness isn't quite gone but almost. I put vitamin E on my scars to help them disappear, but I know that it's going to take a long time before they stop being bright red/purple. The one around my belly button looks really good, actually. Yay! I'm very pleased with the results of the tummy tuck, as I've said a million times already. *smile*

Work. Is a mixed bag of treats. I really like everyone I work with and I like the job duties I've been given. I love having my own office and look forward to slowly decorating it and making it my own. However, there are some things that need to change pretty darn quick. There's some office politics going on that don't please me at all, especially because I'm in the middle. There's been a lot of restructuring and I think that's the cause of the problems. I've thought a lot about how I'm going to handle things and am sure that in time, once everyone is used to the new ways, it will all settle down.

School. School started this week. Now that I'm working full-time, I lessened my class load from 3 classes down to 2. I have the last undergrad class, Global and Complex Entities (a mixture of Advanced and International Accounting) on Monday evenings. The professor for the class is also the department chair and upon learning that I'm a Masters student taking the class as a "leveling" class, he suggested that I talk to the Masters program head to see about getting Masters credit for the class as an elective. I asked and received an affirmative response! Yay! That means that I'll have 2 of the 10 classes finished this semester instead of just one! My other class is a Masters class. It is Financial Accounting and Reporting and is held Wednesday evenings. When I registered for the classes in the Spring, I was really bugged that all my classes were going to be in the evenings from here on out. Now that I'm working full-time during the day, it's quite a blessing. It means that I see my hubby 1 hour each of the two days I'm in class, but we'll survive. Somehow. *smile* My Wednesday night class is taught by a professor I had last Fall. He's a really nice, cheerful, funny sort of guy, but his lectures were hard to follow along with, especially in regards to the readings and homework problems. They didn't go with what he was saying. So, it's going to be an interesting class. The best part of being back in school is seeing my friends from last year. Many are in my Global class on Mondays and it was fun catching up with them. So different from last Fall when I didn't know a soul. It wasn't until Spring semester that I really started making friends with people I recognized from previous classes. My Masters class has only one person I know well in it...and I don't like him, though I try not to let it show. He's rude to fellow students and to professors, which is really hard to bear, though he's always very nice to me. It should be a good semester.

Journaling. Sigh. Still didn't happen this month. I really want to write in my journal every day. I just need to move my journal back by my bed so I can write a little bit before going to sleep. Right now it's in the living room. What good is it doing there? I'll never write while watching tv with Steve. I can do this. I know I can.

Exercising. With my new work schedule, I don't walk as long in the mornings as I used to, but I still go on walks with Steve and Sadie in the evenings that I don't have class. Fortunately, the university allows for 3 hours of release time every week to do something wellness-related. I had planned on doing yoga, but it didn't work out (I'll post about it later), so instead I'm going to workout on my own Mondays, Wednesdays, and Fridays at lunch time. I'll walk/jog around the track, sometimes ride the stationary upright bikes, and always take 10-15 minutes to do the weight machines. This will make up for the nights I don't get to walk with Steve and Sadie and will also give me an extra workout on Fridays. I'm very excited about it. The school also pays for certain wellness activities, so after 12 weeks of recording my exercises, I'll get $20. There are various other ways I can earn $20, up to $200 a calendar year! Most of the things I already do, so it's an easy $200. I just have to record what I'm doing. Easy peasy!

Summer To-Do List
With starting to work full-time, I killed my to-do list. Summer was officially over for me. I feel good about all the things I accomplished. It was a good thing to have and kept me from slacking off too much.

Other Stuff
We had planned to go to Cedar City for my SIL Jenny's baby shower and my nephew Scott's birthday party, but Steve ended up in the hospital that Friday, so we stayed home. All is good with him, which is a huge relief. I missed getting to go down and see everyone though. I told him, next time he wants to get out of seeing my family, don't fake a heart condition. *smile*

Tonight, we're going to the first University of Utah home football game. We are going to be terribly late because neither of us can get off work early enough, but we'll still see most of the game. And, it will fun to dress up in my Utah gear and watch football live again. I'm also really looking forward to going to all (or most) of the Weber State home games this year. Yay for football!!

We finally were able to go to farmers markets this month after not really going much this summer. It was great buying and enjoying fresh produce and baked goods (we're in love with this one vendor's banana bread!). We love the one in Ogden because it's close and still has a great selection, but we also went down to Salt Lake once and got to experience the bigger market. AND we stopped to get frites from the Bruges Belgium Waffles and Frites. Mmmmm. What a treat!

August was good. It was busy and went by quickly and had lots of changes, but it was good. I didn't even mind the heat very much - probably because my office is so cold! I can't believe we only have a few months left of 2012. I'm determined to enjoy each one!