Just call me Leighton 4.0

AHHHH Grades have posted and I some how managed to get to graduation with my 4.0 intact. I have never been a huge fan of school, well the homework aspect of it in particular. So next Saturday when I graduate it will be Summa Cum Laude with my 4.0. I am a bit in shock honestly. I am not sure it has sunk in I am actually done with classes.

My sister was kind enough to let me know I am sick fo getting a 4.0. but you know seeign as she is a crminal it is hard to take her seriously. (Long story on the criminal story, pretty funny actually.)

So next Saturday is graduation, so that means I got to spend a good portion of this weekend doing yard work and house work. a portion of that included 7 loads of laundry. Still LOTS to do before the family gets here next weekend. I think I need a house cleaner.. Still feeling Bummed that my aunt Lois and cousin Jamie with baby Ellie are not coming now but we skyped today and got to see sweet little Ellie. We will Skype next weekend for sure.

So this week will be pretty busy with getting ready for family next weekend. Then I am determined to do some major purging of stuff that I have been collecting. Time to get rid of stuff. I feel like I have a ton of tings to get caught back up on now that I am done with school.

Thanks to everyone that was so supportive and encouraging while I finished up my degree!!

Yes I still have a job

I have had a few people ask if I was still employed after reading things like the following article about layoffs where I work.

Employee Layoffs

I was not one of the many that were let go on Tuesday, and for now I am still employed and happy about that fact. It has been a rough couple of weeks knowing that the layoffs would be coming and not sure exactly when. It caused me a whole new kind of anxiety, as if I needed anymore. Now that it is over there is still a lot to deal with as we figure out who is gone and how it impacts those of us that remain.

And for those wondering what is up with school for me, well I have 2 classes left to complete and I gradute this coming May. One class I am in now and the other will start up in a few weeks. Yes I am happy that I am almost done.

One more down 5 to go

For those following my educational journey another class can be checked off the list. I wrapped up a class last night and that leaves me with 5 till graduation. I will have 3 this fall and the final 2 in the spring. I can finally see the light at the end of the tunnel.

Another Semester has begun

Well Today marks the start of the spring semester for me. This week will be all online classes and next week we meet in class for the first time. So far I have only seen the syllabus for one class and there is a lot of reading in store for me for that class, not sure what the other class will bring. Just hope I can keep up with everything. You never know what to fully expect till you meet in class for the first time, and you meet the teachers for the first time.

Seems we dodged the snow bullet here again. Last night they were calling for snow but we only got more rain. My dad however is going to get another foot of snow to add to what they have already had this year. At least they had some warmer weather last week which let at least some of the snow melt. All the snow they have been getting is one reason I do not ever see myself living in Maine year round.

My Cousins Ryan, Jamie and her husband Jeff, along with my Aunt Lois are coming into town this weekend for my cousin Brad's wedding. I am excited to see the family. It is always fun when we are all together. I am sure I will have something to blog about after the weekend. Speaking of weddings I just found out my cousin Joel is getting married in April, in Maui. Guess I will have to miss that one.

Another reason to celebrate

Its the holiday season and there is lots to celebrating, for a myriad of reasons. Near the top of my list this year is completing yet another semster of school. 7 Classes(22credits) in total have been completed since staring over the summer. I am 1/3 of the way done with the classes I need to take for graduation. Just have to make it through without completly buring out.

So yes I am happy another semester has come to a close. My last class for the year was on a Monday night and I am ready for the break. For some reason this last class was a struggle for me to get through. Of course I have registered for spring classes and i have another monday night class... Oh well hopefully this one will be easier to get through.

November already?????

Oh my word, where has the time gone. I can’t believe it is November already. The last couple of months have really flown by. School has kept me busy and I am glad I only have 1 class for the second half of the semester instead of two classes like the first half. Still we have lots of reading and homework to do for the class so 1 is keeping me plenty busy. We will also have a big group project we will be working on. Most of the class is a carry over from one of my classes last semester. So we already know each other a little bit. It is my 4th class with Hannah which is cool. We are also in the same group for the project which I am happy about. She is easy to work with and get along with.

Halloween this year was a non-event. I didn’t even hand out candy this year because I end up eating too much of it myself. I went to our ward Trunk or treat party. I am now part of the activities committee so I was there to help out. The next big event we will be planning is the upcoming Christmas party. We will meet this coming Sunday to discuss what we are going to do for the party. We will also be trying to plan some of next year’s activities or at the very least getting them on the calendar so we know when we will be having the various activities. I am really pushing for an 80’s dance/party. I think it would be a lot of fun and I already have the music aspect covered along with a bunch of ideas for decorations and activities for the evening. I probably have more ideas then we could possibly use for one event, and I know others will come up with things I had not ever thought of so we can all chose the best of the best.

For those wondering about my eyes they have improved quite a bit and are probably as good as they are going to get but I am still not sure if I am happy with it or not since it isn’t as good as I was hoping for. Reading is still difficult and distances still pose a challenge.

The weather here has gotten considerably cooler over the last week but you would not know it here at work. For some reason it is an oven on our floor. We have had doors and windows open for the last few days trying to cool things down in the afternoon. I hope in the dead of winter when it is really cold out that it is still warm inside.

Tonight I will be shooting a corporate event and last weekend I shot a wedding reception. I will probably also being doing family portraits for a few freinds over the next few weeks as the holidays approach. It is nice to be able to use my camera at least a little again. Hopefully when I am done with school in a little over 1 1/2 years I will be able to do more with my photography. Of course oif either of the other business ventures I am working on take off I still might be too busy... Only time will tell. Oh and for those wondering we decided on "The ChellGar Group" as our company name.

Where has the time gone

I have not been bloggin much lately since my eyes have been in the healing stage but now that they are slowly getting clearer each week I hope to start blogging more for my dedicated fans. LOL


Well it has been 4 ½ weeks since my PRK laser eye surgery and there has been a vast improvement from before surgery but I am still having trouble with my vision and at my appointment this morning they said it will be at least another 4 weeks. Apparently my close-up vision will be the last to stabilize. That has made reading for school and working a bit more of a challenge but hopefully it will get better soon.

This is my last week for the 2 classes I am currently enrolled in. So that will be another 6 credits completed and 46 more to go before graduation. (then I need to decide about going for a MBA or some other graduate degree but I am guessing I will pass on that since I will be pretty burned out by then.) Then next Monday I start my new class which is class #3 for the fall semester. I have things basically mapped out now through graduation with about 6 credits that I don’t know what I am taking yet to fulfill but have a good idea of which semester I will try to get them completed in. The toughest challenge is spacing things out so that work pays for most of what I am taking. Anything over 2 classes a semester comes out of my pocket and I am trying to not have too many classes that I do that with since it is expensive and I really don’t have it budgeted. So as of right now I have one 2 credit class this fall I am paying for and one 4 credit class I will pay for in the spring and possibly another 2 credit class next fall. The killer will be the one this Spring. The 2 credit ones are a little easier to absorb into the budget.

I took my framed photos down for the art show display here at work this morning. They will be up for 84 days. Thanks to everyone who let me know which ones they liked best. Speaking of photography I have not been doing as much with it since my eye surgery since I just can’t see things as clearly as I would like. Thank goodness for auto focus. I will be shooting a wedding reception in 1 ½ weeks and the following weekend I will be doing the Awards banquet for McNeil. I am looking forward to both.

I am in the process of helping my uncle get his business up online. It is kind of slow going since he is super busy as am I and my father who is also helping him. Plus add in the fact that they both live in Maine and I am in PA and the logistics are not the most ideal but as my uncle funnels information to me I will get things rolling. In the mean time my dad and I are moving forward with our plans to start a business which although slow going is definitely progressing in the right direction and we really are just trying to get everything situated so that we can really run with it come the new year. We are both very busy with our full time jobs and church callings and me with school so we do what we can when we have time and energy. Plus neither of us want to jump into anything without a good solid plan in place. I am hoping this will go well so that I have something that I can set aside for retirement I addition to my other investments. If the people that owe me money would pay me back I would have most of what I need to get things up and running but I am not counting on having that money and am trying to save what I need on the side.

An update on the eyes and other things

So I thought today would be a good day for a Blog update. It has been 10 days since my PRK laser eye surgery and I just got back from the eye doctor. Apparently there are 2 kinds of patients when it comes to PRK. The type that completely heal in 7-10 days, also known as the ones I despise and want to kick and the ones like me that can take 6-8 weeks to heal up. So that means another 4-6 weeks of not so great vision for me. I was assured though it will get better, good thing since right now my vision isn’t good enough to be considered legal to drive at night. It has been a bit frustrating but I have to tell you after talking to Dr. Grey today I felt a little better about the fact that things are still fuzzy and hazy. She had the same surgery that I did and it took her about 6 weeks to heal completely. Still it is a bit frustrating and it makes doing homework, and working a bit more of a challenge and the headaches are not all that fun. So for anyone reading this considering getting PRK done make sure you know there is a chance you could fall into the group that takes weeks if not months to completely heal. There will be good days and bad days. The last 2 days have been good ones for me, as far as the fact that I am seeing the best I have since the surgery but for some reason on Sunday it was one of the worst days I had, so it will fluxuate.

Aside from that I came out of my house this morning to find my car had been vandalized and robbed. Not a great way to start the day. If I wasn’t going to be out of town this weekend I would be cleaning out my side of the garage to get my car in it. Hopefully mom will at least get started on it so the following weekend we can finish it up.

I did manage to get ½ of my homework for this week completed which is a good thing. Now I just need to get the rest finished up by Thursday. This semester is not going as smoothly as my first two this summer but I am not overly concerned at this point. I will just do my best to get things completed on time. I will have to take some work with me when I go to Maine this weekend but I don’t want to fall behind so it is a necessary evil.

I hope I am able to see well enough to take all the picture I want to take while I am in Maine this coming weekend. Thank goodness for auto focus cause there is no way I could manually focus a camera with my eyes like this. Hmm that reminds me I need to get my submission for the art show sent in. I will post the ones I end up submitting in a blog later this week.

Update on school and some other little things

Well the second Summer semester at ursinus has come to a close. Another 2 classes checked off the list. So now I have 12 credits finished and 52 more to go. (Man that makes it sound like I am nnever going to finish...) I took 2 classes that are pass/fail and 2 that were graded. I received an "A" in both of my graded classes. I had the same teaher for 3 of my 4 classes this summer. Joe Vesey. Excellent teacher, My other teacher was Ron Bywaters who was also a great teacher. I have a class with him this fall, and another one with Joe.

Well Fall semster starts up next week. Guess I better get my book and my parking permit for the year...

For those wondering about what I decided to do about my laser eye surgery well it is still up in the air. I want to get it but I do not know yet if I qualify or not. I go back on 9/5 to find out one way or the other.

I am still working on my digital protfolio but it is slow going since I have so much else going on.

Not much else to report.....

decisions decisions

So this week I finished my 3rd class since going back to school, and in 3 weeks I will finish my 4th class. I will have 12 credits down and at least 52 more to go. UGH!!! It seems like so much but I keep hearing the time will fly by. I sure hope that holds true. I am now looking at a dual major which is really going to make things crazy for me this fall not to mention expensive. Instead of taking just 8 or maybe 10 credits I am going to be taking possibly 16. 8 of which I will most likely not get reimbursed for from work since they only cover to a semester. I am looking into it though since I would only be taking 2 classes at a time since a lot of my classes do not follow the normal semster rules. I am waiting to hear back from the benefits department on how they are going to handle assistance now that more and more schools are doing accelerated programs with classes lasting 7-8 weeks instead of the traditional 15. The Fall was going to seem easier than this summer but not it might be that much tougher. I have a week or so to decide so any input from my readers would be greatly appreciated.

Going this summer has been tough with everything else going on. But I have stuck it out and given it my all despite wanting to throw in the towel more than once. Now I just need to decide if I am going to do the dual major and bulk up on classes this fall or stick with the single major and bulk up in other places for classes.

Not much new here this week....

Ahh time for another blog. This one will probably be on the shorter side since there is not much new to report here. I am busy with my second semester at school, and all the reading is kicking my butt. So I will not be reading the new Harry Potter book as soon as it comes out. I will have to wait till August when I am back do only having class once a week….

So I have gotten a couple of questions about the digital back I am thinking about buying for my camera, It is not available in the US yet but here is a link to what it is.
http://www.mamiya.com/cameras.asp?id=1&id2=2127


Also for those of you trying to guess which other friend of mine I think would like the school I mentioned wanting to go to it is Paul…. He is currently in Iraq working but still gets a chance to take some pictures from time to time… Check out the website he has been building.. It is still a work in progress so check back from time to time…. http://www.cprambo.com/ He has some real talent and enjoys photography….

Well that’s all for now. If you haven't done so already don't forget to Vote on my poll....

My Dream

What is your dream? What would you be doing right now if you could do anything? For me I would be doing photography full time, and instead of going to school part time for business I would be going here full time http://hallmark.edu/ I have wanted to go to this school for over a decade now and not a year goes by that I do not still think about it. It is a 10 month program in which you are doing something photography related all the time. It is an intense program but you are immersed in photography and the business of photography. Yep sounds like a perfect 10 months to me. I have one friend looking into going there and another I really think should give it some serious consideration.

But alas the dream remains on hold a little longer for me, and that is okay. Maybe one day I will throw caution to the wind and just go for it.

So I would love to hear what your dreams are, what would you be doing right now if you could be doing anything? Or are you lucky enough to be doing exactly what you want to? If so what is it????