Three Degrees.... How It Happened

As many of you know, I am a self proclaimed professional student. I am soon to be the proud owner of THREE very expensive college degrees. Yes, you read that right. And no, I do not plan to stop there. I definitely plan to pursue at least one masters with hesitant plans for a second and potential for a PhD. I just love Academia. I mean what's not to love. I know people say they hate school, but I think they say that because they just haven't found their niche. I truly think if you give it a shot, there is something there for everyone. There is an aspect of college that can appeal to every personality and every culture in every person. It is the most amazing and beautiful place. It offers the most unique opportunities to learn and grow and expand your horizons while giving you the ability and potential to make more money and more growth potential within your career and various other arenas. It's just great.
With my schooling, I wanted the first degree with a passion. I went after it aggressively. I hit a few road blocks along the way and one day I might tell you about a few of them. But I wanted it and I wanted it in hand before I got married, so I had it in hand May 2008 and had the ring on my finger September 2008. Felt weird to be out of school so started back literally the week after the honeymoon and couldn't really decide what I wanted. Floated back and forth for a while and ultimately decided to apply to graduate school got accepted in to several. Got a couple of scholarship offers, a couple of pretty BIG ones..... then I got a very LARGE surprise.... we ultimately named her Elizabeth Jean. I really didn't think being pregnant and going to graduate school really fit together so while I was pregnant I just kept going with that second bachelors. Work paid for it, so why not, right?! It worked out well. Just kept plugging along.
Had Elizabeth, survived that (barely), recovered, got the hang of being a parent, got back to work, fell in to normal, and reapplied to graduate school. Unfortunately, lost out on those scholarships and things, but hey, she is worth it. I got reaccepted to some of the programs, found some new ones, found some new hobbies, applied to some new schools, started pursuing some new interests and hit some new road blocks........ we eventually named her Annaliece Michaela. At this point, I am being strongly encouraged to STOP applying to graduate schools. We are starting to think that graduate studies are not in my future and that I should just be content with three undergraduate degrees. I mean, together I can still be a force to be reckoned with! LOL! I know some doctors who tell me frequently they would never like to meet me in a darkened alley or a court room. (I really hope that is not true!)
So there is my educational story on how I managed to accomplish three degrees. It wasn't necessarily intentional although birth control isn't always reliable I guess. "It just sort of happened." I didn't want to stop my learning opportunities, but I didn't ever think that graduate school and pregnancy went together. For the record, I have reapplied for graduate school. I have been accepted and I am slated to begin this Fall. However, I am not sure I am ready to begin. I have a few loose ends I would like to tie up first. Also, I think we do have one or two more bright stars we would like to add to our family, but certainly not this fall. Sadly, we do not seem to have much support from our extended families and colleagues in that arena, but I think that comes more from fear of the unknown and not because they don't want us to welcome any more babies. We all know my pregnancies are just so much fun! But that is another story for another day.