The Next Phase of My Life

It's official. I am going back to college this fall. Although I could have graduated twelve years ago, my degree was not officially awarded even though I walked across the stage with the rest of my class and had all the requirements met, because there was a one-credit non-required class I took for the honors program that had a grade of incomplete entered at the time of graduation. I was supposed to re-write a literature review or a proposal for a project for a senior thesis in Communicative Disorders, but they asked me to withdraw from the honors program because after I got married and got goats they didn't think that I was focused enough or something. Besides that, it was winter quarter and my grades were dropping a little (down to a 3.5 GPA). My grades were always lower in winter quarter. It seems pretty obvious now that it was directly related to seasonal affective disorder, but even though I was aware of the pattern then I didn't put a name to it until just this year. Anyway, after being kicked out of the honors program I never did find the motivation to finish that paper I was supposed to write and it kept my degree from being awarded. I could have reapplied for graduation at any time, but didn't for two reasons. (1) A bachelor's degree in communicative disorders or psychology (I majored in both of those) is not a qualification for employment. It is really only a qualification for further education. Since I was also turned down for graduate school in Speech Pathology, and was not in a position to re-locate in order to apply to other schools, there just didn't seem to be any point in it. (2) They were recommending that I go back for a bachelor's degree in something else. Once a bachelor's degree is conferred, you can no longer get federal grant money for further education, so it seemed to be to my greater advantage not to have a degree.

It turns out that I was right at least on point number 2 above. I have applied for re-admission and for financial aid and I will be getting it. Since I have been out of school and not working in a related field for 12 years, I don't have any current references for a graduate school application. That's the main reason why I will be taking classes this fall - to get back into it and establish new academic contacts. I think it is going to work out just fine.

However, something has to give. I'm not going to have the time or money to run an ever-growing farm (which has not yet managed to start meeting its own expenses) and be a full-time student and mother to three kids all at the same time. We have been consuming hay at an alarming rate and just aren't able to keep up with it. Therefore a drastic reduction in farming activities is in order. All of the sheep and all but just a few goats are for sale. I want most of all for them to have good homes - I hate the idea of just taking them to the auction. If anyone would like to get into farming, this is your opportunity! Tell me what you want and make me an offer. I'll probably accept it if you can give my babies a loving home. At this point we are planning to keep Dolly - the llama, the two angora goats that have not been sold, and one dairy goat. A year from now I don't know where I will be (hopefully starting graduate school) and may not be able to keep even those few, but we'll make decisions then when we know what is going to happen. I could easily be in school for 5-6 years, but afterwards I do hope to be in a better position to have animals again.

This weekend (tomorrow and Saturday) we are going to a goat show. It's been three years since I have shown goats, but the show is here in Vernal so we just had to do it. It will be my last for a long time. We're only taking two goats to the show - that's all I had the energy to get clipped and groomed in the proper style. Wish us luck! Maybe we'll meet up with somebody who needs a few more goats to take home with them.

A Couple More Vacation Pictures

(I told you they would be trickling in for a while.)



This is another tree. What kinds of creatures can you make out of all those gnarls? We had fun with bubbles too. This kind are extra strong and they just don't pop. Maybe we are easily amused.



We went back and found another beach, this time with the rest of my family. My other two sisters, Jennifer and Kimberly, are sitting by Jonathan, who doesn't seem to mind being buried. You already know Joe and Andrei - they made it into quite a lot of my pictures. I don't see any reason to just take pictures of scenery, since I could just pull those off the net somewhere. If you are going to take vacation pictures, there may as well be people in them. Since Joe agreed with that philosophy, he got used to being asked to stand next to something to make it worth taking a picture. I could have used my kids for that purpose, but they are a little bit harder to catch, unless they get buried up to their necks in sand of course.