One of those days

You know when you have one of those days - a day replete with frustration? It started out good. I just got a new laptop (WHICH I LOVE) and we were spending the day in Whittier. Regan was taking the Language Arts and Math standardized tests today, so I thought I'd take my laptop and Chandler and her schoolwork and we'd hang out in Starbucks. Since she finished school in record time, we also hit McDonalds, Target, Payless, and Panera Bread just because it was there. So far so good. The day went great up until an hour before I was supposed to pick up Regan.

Let me back up... This is the first STAR test she has taken since we began to homeschool. She didn't do that well in second grade, and for the last three years I have been looking forward to a chance to see how (or if) she has progressed during these years of homeschooling. This was my first chance to do an "apples to apples" comparison. So I bought a practice test booklet and we worked on it an hour a day for a month. We both worked so hard to get to a point where she could at least have some familiarity with everything on the test. Hopefully, between knowledge and skill and good test-taking skills, I was confident we would see a big gain in her score. I know these things do not matter, but this one mattered to me.

So, I get a phone call an hour before the test was supposed to be over. It's Regan saying she was done. Fortunately, I was very close by, so I told her I was surprised she was done an hour early, but that I would be right there. When I picked her up, she said she didn't know she still had an hour on her time. She saw a few other kids finishing up and even though she wasn't even halfway through, she decided to hurry and just guessed the answers for the rest of the test.

I was in shock. Here was the day I have been waiting for for three years, and she blew it. These scores and this day as well as the month of hard work were a complete waste. I can't describe how disappointed I am.

Frustration number two: Since I do have a new laptop, I assumed I would spend DAYS getting it up to speed, but actually the transfer of programs and information has gone smoothly. I've been able to work from it almost out of the box. One small glitch, however, is the home network. The printers were attached to my old computer, and it is no more. So I had to move them to the girls' computer - no problem, but then I had to get everything all networked together again. Big Problem. Let's just say after four hours, it still doesn't work. My dad is taking pity on me and has offered to come over tomorrow to get it going. He thinks my BRAND NEW wireless router, that was working, died. It better be dead, because if it's not, I will kill it myself. So here are some photos to commemorate my day:

Old computer and the plethora of cables and miscellaneous stuff that went with it.
Boxes everything came in that are taking up valuable space in my already overcrowded office, but I cannot get rid of them because I do not yet know what is going back.

Picture of the screen on the girls computer - the one I am trying to network to. Notice the blank windows.??? What the heck? I have no idea what is going on here. Perhaps I should ping the TC/TCP or something like that with an I.P. address I just happen to have in my head. Or I could re-enter the network code which is 26 random characters long - another snappy little piece of information taking up space in my brain.

Here is the beautiful part. My laptop, hooked up to my beautiful desktop monitor, working perfectly. All my peripherials are attached and running wonderfully. This gives me hope. I might have it networked before it becomes extinct.

UPDATE:

The Power of God and a Good Cry

After I finished my blog post, I notice the Network window still open on my desktop. Miracle of Miracles, I saw the icon for the girls' computer. I added the printers, no problem. I printed test pages, they worked!!!!!!! Then I unplugged my laptop from the router and it's still connected... WIRELESSLY!!!!!!! Yea!!!! It appears everything is working that wasn't working when I last touched my computer.

I credit God.