Switching Gears

I've switched the Berry Patch over to pumpkins for autumn.  I know they're not berries, but it's the patch idea I like most. :)

We had such a busy summer!  Busy month, especially.  The Berrykin turned a year old, started talking, started walking - not in that order.  His first words were (this time in order): "hi," "Dada," "doggie," and "Mama."  He has since stopped using Mama and doggie, but consistently says hi and Dada, especially when suggested.  He's also started using cell phones.  You know, sort of.  If we hand him an open phone, he puts the top half up to his mouth and says a sentence.  I'm not sure what he's saying, but it's the same sentence every time.  Occasionally after that first babble, he'll move it away, put it back and say "Haaaaa," which is how he says "hi." :)  He also climbs.  Watching him haul his little self onto our tall, overstuffed couch is wonderfully funny.  And he sneaks up on people.  If I'm sitting on the floor watching tv (which I usually do, since I still don't have new glasses and can't see the tv well enough if I sit more than a couple feet away), he'll crawl up behind me and stand up.  Then he puts his hand on my back or shoulder and leans way around so that when I turn my head, we're nose to nose.  If I'm not paying enough attention to look at him in a timely fashion, he leans over more to put himself in my field of vision.  Either way, he then proceeds to grin like the adorable little man he is.  He still has never slept through the night, still wakes up at 11:15 and either 1:15 or 4:30, sometimes both.  He went through major separation anxiety, and calmed down for about a week and a half.  Ever since then, he screams the second it looks like I might leave the room.

My sister got married a week after his birthday.  A lot of time and energy went into that, and it was a beautiful, beautiful day!  The Andypillar moved away to college last week.  My mom is moving to California with my middle brother sometime in the next three weeks.  Oh!  And the Jeremelon got a promotion!  Unlike the last time he moved from supervisor to manager, he got more than a 75-cent raise. Hooray!!

I know I said I was done with school, but because I haven't been able to find a job despite seriously strenuous looking, I decided to go back for one last semester.  I intended to finish my correspondence class last month so that I could officially graduate then, but I chose not to.  This way, I have until December to find a job before our funds are gone, and I can squeeze in not only a better GPA (in case I ever want to go to grad school), but classes that might assist in getting me a job.  I'm taking a field school!  Woohoo!  Pretty much 99.5% of all archaeology jobs now require a field school, which wasn't the case back when I was planning things out.  A field school is essentially being free diggers, but it gives participants the hands-on experience necessary to knowing what one is doing on-site.  We meet every Saturday for the semester, all day, and we dig.  And we sift.  And, hopefully, we discover. :)  It's a new site this semester, a rock shelter out on the plains.  Score!!  I'm also taking Geographic Info Systems, which involves the computer mapping/CAD systems used by those involved in earth science, including archaeologists.  And Comp Sci, because I want to know if I actually want to go into programming or if it's not something my brain wants to do all day.  Aaaaand...two others, that would potentially enable me to go in a totally different direction career-wise, but it's top secret.  I need to sort out how I feel about it before I spread the word around. :)

And that is life in the Berry Patch.
Hopefully I'll have more time/fun stuff to post this fall, so it's more frequent than every other month!