Volunteering

For David's Speech class, he has to volunteer at a non-profit organization and then do a speech about his experience. Being the out-going people-person that he is (do you hear the sarcasm?), he chose to volunteer at the Friends Of Gypsy Feral Cat Rescue.

So far, he has volunteered eight of his required ten hours over the past three Sundays. He thought his work would consist of helping to socialize the cats, but instead he has been doing a lot of cleaning and grounds keeping as they prepared for an Open House held yesterday. And only in spare moments has he been able to really interact with any of the cats. Even so, he has enjoyed working there and it sounds like he intends to continue his volunteering even after his class commitment is fulfilled. Good for him!

I only had one caveat for David when he told me about the group and I looked over their website. I did not want him telling me about any cats that might need homes! There's a couple of really cute cats (is there any other kind?) on their website that are up for adoption, but we do not need more animals right now. Two pets in our apartment are just the right number.

This is Penny. A lot of people wonder what breed she is and we tell them she's a white shepherd mixed with who knows what! She's a good dog, even if she is afraid of her own shadow.

And this is Copper. She's a little over a year old and has adjusted very well to being an indoors cat.

So you can see, we really do not need any more animals in our apartment. So I won't be volunteering with David!

End of July Update

Can you believe it is time to wrap up July? Here are some brief thoughts, pics that didn't get posted, and updates on various items mentioned earlier this month.

While Kat and Miss Munchkin were here two weekends ago, we visited the beach. I did not think to check for beach advisories before we left, so we were rather disappointed to discover one when we got there. That meant no swimming. It was hot and sticky and there was no breeze and it was not much fun if you couldn't get into the water. Miss Munchkin played some with her sand and shovel and chased some birds, but we did not stay very long. Next time Grandma will remember to check online for advisories.

I keep telling her Mommy that she needs a haircut!

Penny Update - I took Penny back to the vet on the 23rd for a follow-up. She was doing better and then she wasn't, so the vet decided to do an x-ray to see if she had any kidney stones. Good news: no stones. (Bad news: wasted money on an x-ray!) The vet decided that she likely has a leakage problem that is fairly common with spayed females of her age and size. So she is now on a twice-daily dose of something to prevent bladder leakage. It does seem to be working, which is good news for my carpets! Now to retrieve my rug cleaner when I go back to Alabama next month.

We had a lot of rain yesterday, maybe close to two inches. The pond in the apartment complex is much higher this morning and Mr. Alligator is having fun cruising around. He seems to be enjoying the higher water level. And I notice this morning that the bird that has been fishing around the pond the last week was now staying out of the water, just fishing from the stone bank. Maybe Mr. Bird is more concerned about Mr. Alligator now that Mr. Alligator is getting around the pond more quickly? I don't know what the bird is, maybe a heron or egret. I will try to get a pic tomorrow.

The boys signed up for Kenpo Karate last week. Now they just need to get into a routine again, hopefully one that will not involve me doing all the driving! With David as a driver now, it would seem like I should be able to stay at home when they go.

I have been working on updating my Alabama Church School listings the past several days. Each summer I contact every church school listed (and many, many that are not listed) in my attempt to have the most up-to-date listing of church schools online for Alabama homeschoolers. It is a lot of work, but necessary. There are just so many lists online that are not up-to-date, with inaccurate URL's, e-mail addresses that no longer work, and church schools mentioned that no longer exist.

David's Freshman English class ends next week. It appears that he is doing well in it, perhaps even a B average. That would be great, compared to how he did last year at Evansville. We are keeping our fingers crossed.

And I think that is it for the updates! Tomorrow is August 1st. That is my Grammy's birthday, or would have been if she were still alive. I should make molasses cookies in her memory; she always made the most delicious molasses cookies! I wonder if I have her recipe with me or if it is packed away back in Alabama?

CTCL - Colleges That Change Lives

They are making the rounds again, those Colleges That Change Lives guys. I received an e-mail today announcing their fall tour schedule.

If you have a child planning college in the near (or not so near) future, you need to read the book that this tour is based upon and you really should make plans to attend one of their information sessions / college fairs. What book, you ask? Colleges That Change Lives, 40 Schools you should know bout even if you're not a straight-A student, by Loren Pope. Pope's book has been very informative and useful the last several years as our children have considered and/or planned for college. Read my review of Colleges That Change Lives and you will begin to understand why I like this book so much.

I do suggest that you and your college-planning child read the book before attending an information session. Most of the forty colleges will have a table and at least one representative at the college fair, oftentimes more than one representative. If you have not read the book, you really won't know which college table to visit and what questions to ask. So finish that Harry Potter book and grab a copy of Loren Pope's Colleges That Change Lives!

Driver's Edge and stuff

David and Bill just left for Atlanta. David is signed up to participate in the Driver's Edge program tomorrow afternoon. They will spend the night near Macon and be back late tomorrow night. For those of you not familiar with Driver's Edge, it is a youth driver's education program founded and developed by a professional race car driver. Here's a quote from their website:

Young drivers are placed through this half day, four hour program at no cost, making the program accessible to young drivers from all economic backgrounds. With professional driving instructors at their side, the students … participate in customized behind the wheel driving exercises developed to address the most common driving situations that can lead to collision.

I'll post next week to let you know how it went and whether David found it to be worthwhile.

So what have I been up to this week? Mostly playing with Miss Munchkin. I drove up to Albany Wednesday morning and brought Kat and Miss Munchkin here for a few days. They were getting housebound. Not sure yet when I'll take them home: possibly either tomorrow (Saturday) or Monday. I could do it Sunday, but Sunday is race day and the four-hour round trip would cut into my race watching!

It appears like David is ready for Orientation on Tuesday at Tallahassee Community College He's spent quite a bit of time online and on the phone and visiting the college, trying to get all the needed paperwork submitted. He plans to take an English Composition class this summer and then begin full-time classes in the fall. We are hoping that this works out better than Evansville did last year.

Oh, and I found a great natural foods place yesterday. New Leaf Market.It has a deli, organic and local produce, and best of all, it's a co-op! I'll be joining after we get next month's paycheck!

There are also three different farmer's markets in the area, on Monday, Wednesday and Saturday. The one on Monday is less than a mile from me! I hope to get there next week. Last Saturday we visited the one downtown and bought loads of fresh produce and some cut zinnias. It's so nice to have fresh flowers!

Spring Break Over

Tomorrow we take David back to college, which means another long day of traveling. It is really an easy trip, with the only really heavy traffic going through Nashville. And even then, we are usually making the trek on either a Saturday or Sunday, so the traffic is not all that bad. But it is still a long drive. And with tomorrow being the beginning of Daylight Savings Time, that means we will lose an hour's sleep tonight. I love Daylight Savings Time and am very happy that it is starting earlier this year and lasting longer, but I hate losing that hour's sleep!

I spent most of today working on creating a list of all the math and science books that I sorted off the shelves on Thursday. All day, but I have only about 1/4 of them on the list. That means a lot more work next week before I am ready to post the list to any group. After I get the list made, then I have to go back through the list, looking up comparable books on e-bay and/or Amazon and see what the used price should be for each one.

This evening we met Kat and Miss Munchkin in Cullman for dinner. Steak! Yummy! Miss Munchkin ate a fair share of my green beans, along with some french fries and a small bit of cheesecake. She definitely prefers to feed herself now, although with only two teeth, you have to really watch what she tries to eat.

It was a nice dinner out, with all three of our children there. But every time the past few months that we have been able to all be together, I cannot help but wonder how long it will be before we are all able to be together again. Life is changing. David in college. Kat with a family. Us looking to move further south. So many changes. And no way of being able to look ahead to know whether they will be good changes or not. No guarantees in this life! Just sight your course and hope for smooth waters and good times ahead.

Time for bed … I am going to have to arise much too early for a Sunday morning!

Fish update

Well, Mr. Algae-Eater is not looking very well. Sunday he has what appeared to be open sores on his skin. I bought some stuff to put in the water that is supposed to help. Maybe it is; I don't know. The sores do not look as red, but today his tail does not stick out behind him like normal. It curls and definitely looks shorter, like he has lost some of it. But this afternoon he did scoot around quickly into the weeds when I turned the light on, which was the fastest I had seen him move in several days. Maybe there's hope?

Kat says that Miss Munchkin walked across the kitchen on her own this afternoon and then stood there longer squealing about it. I need to take some more pictures. I haven't taken any since early November and they are still on the camera. Tomorrow she will be 9 months! I'll have to remember to take the camera with us dancing Friday night and get some pictures of Miss Munchkin and I doing Cotton-Eyed Joe.

I talked with David for a short bit today. Today was a "reading / studying" day in preparations for exams, which begin tomorrow. Next Wednesday he will be ready to come home for semester break.

I continue to declutter, cleaning out more books and videos. Some I am selling; many more are just being given away to the public library or being Freecycled (new verb there, like Googling!). I do not want to have to box all these up and move them with me! The more I get rid of now, the less I have to move.

Speaking of moving, it sounds likely that we will have to soon take a trip to Tallahassee, scout the area. Kat & Shawn announced Sunday that it is 90% likely they will be moving to Pensacola by the first of March and that Shawn will be manager of a store there. We had already been looking in that direction, in addition to the Nashville area, but now being further south takes on new meaning. Plus, after the cold weather this week, Bill and I are both looking at each other and saying "and we want to move to Nashville? Further north?"

Weather changes

Looks like November is going to go out with a roar … and December come in with a brrr! We've been enjoying some lovely warm days this past week or more; 70s in the day, 50s at night, lots of sunshine and gentle breezes. But from the weather forecast, that is all going to end tomorrow. Lots of wind and rain, possibly some thunder and lightning (but hopefully no tornadoes) going through tomorrow afternoon and evening. And then turning much colder on Friday, with temps down in the 30s and 20s at night and not much warmer during the day. So far no forecast for any of that white stuff, at least not this far south, and let's hope it stays that way!

Thanksgiving was a nice quiet day. And then on Friday Kat and Miss Munchkin and Shawn came to spend a few days, going home on Monday. It is nice to have them all here, but nice when they leave also! The house seems to much bigger after they leave!

Miss Munchkin is trying to walk. She actually took a couple of steps on her own while she was here. She will be nine months in another week. Nine months! That's too young to be walking!!

Bill and I took David back to college on Sunday. We had a nice visit, but I think he was ready to go back. We have to pick him back up on December 13. On our way to Evansville Sunday we spent some time driving around Nashville, getting the lay of the land, scouting out some possible areas for housing, just in case that is the area we end up moving to.

I've been working hard on my website and it is beginning to pay off! I've also been trying to clean up some of the piles of books around here. Putting more on auction at e-bay rather than on my e-bay store. And either they sell or I donate them to the library. Too many piles, too many bookshelves. If we are going to move … no, when we move I do not want to have to move all these books!!

Needless to say, from the word count showing here on my blog, I will not be completing my NaNoWriMo Novel this month. I did get over the hump I was in last week and had a great writing day on Thanksgiving. But with all the additional company and taking David home on Sunday and everything else, I have not had the time to write. Today I have gotten a little bit done. But I am going to continue working on this novel, as I like the premise and I love the main character. So maybe by this time next year I will have two completed novels - the one I am working on now and one for next year's NaNoWriMo.

David's Home!

Guess who brought home every piece of clothing he owns, dirty!!! LOL!

David's last class was out by noon on Tuesday, so Bill picked him up after noon and they were home by about 9:30 last night. He is in dire need of a hair cut, his last one being in August before he left for college! And he made the statement that he had to do some laundry before he went to bed, as he had nothing clean left to wear. He brought home a huge laundry bag of dirty clothes and his backpack full of books. No pillows, nothing else. Good thing I have some extra blankets and pillows around.

I'm sorry I missed out on the trip, as Bill said that David talked non-stop for about the first three hours of the trip home, so I missed out on all the good stuff! Maybe he'll repeat some of it today.

We have two invites out for Thanksgiving Dinner, but David wants to stay home, so it looks like I need to buy a turkey today! Although David did say he'd just as soon have Bar-B-Que Potatoes from Big Bob Gibson's in Decatur. Wonder if they are open tomorrow?

Charles plans to "double-dip" tomorrow for Thanksgiving. He's been invited to go with his girl friend to both of her grandparent's houses for two Thanksgiving Dinners! And Kat is having her in-laws to her place, so it looks like we'll be a quiet threesome tomorrow. Suits me fine!

Vacation Trip - Part Three

We planned to spend Thursday night with a friend who lives just south of Youngstown, Ohio. Thursday morning we were still debating just what route to take to get there, until I heard the weather report on the radio! Lake-effect snow flurries were forecasted for Wyoming County, New York. The snow wasn't supposed to stick, just flurries. A flurry was more than I wanted to see, so we headed south on 15 into Pennsylvania, taking 220 west and picking up I-80 across to Youngstown. The area around Lock Haven and further west as you join onto I-80 was real pretty. I've often thought Pennsylvania was a pretty place to visit, in the summertime or early fall, but not somewhere I'd like to live. As we got closer to Youngstown, we ran into some brief snow flurries. Ack!

As for the "non-sticking lake-effect snow" in western New York? Seven days later they are still talking about it on the national news, reporting that there are still large populations without power. My aunt said that the Thruway was closed for over 24 hours on Thursday / Friday. It seems some places west of Leroy received up to 24 inches. That's a lot of snow for early October and a lot of sticking!

Our stay with our friend's in Youngstown was very pleasant. She has a beautiful house and certainly pleased Charles with her mashed potatoes and gravy! We met several members of her family and just had a nice visit. Friday morning we were on our way bright and early (7:30 a.m. Central), as we had a long day of traveling ahead of us if we were to get all the way to Evansville, Indiana, by nightfall. By two in the afternoon it seemed like we were making good time, so we decided to take the scenic route across Indiana rather than staying on the Interstates. Wrong decision. Lovely countryside, but a bit longer trip than necessary, especially when we hit a traffic jam the first few miles and only drove about 10 miles in 45 minutes! It was 7:30 p.m. (Central) when we rolled into Evansville, meaning we spent twelve hours on the road.

Poor Miss Munchkin, she was getting so tired of her car seat (as were we all!). After darkness fell, she really began to fuss. She would only be quiet if Kat learned over and stroked her or talked to her. Finally the kids turned on the DVD player and she quieted down. We don't think it was the DVD, just the light from it enabling her to see people around her again. She did the same thing Saturday night after it got dark, fussing until Kat turned on one of the inside back lights. Then Miss Munchkin seemed happier.

Friday night we picked up David and his friend Ashley and all went out to supper. It was nice to visit with David, although I think he was more interested in food than seeing us! Miss Munchkin seemed to remember him, even though it had been about two months since she'd seen him. At least she didn't fuss any when David held her.

Saturday morning David gave Kat (and the rest of us) a tour of the campus. He needs a bit more practice with that! "Here's a building. I think they do art classes in here. I never come to this building, so I don't really know." Very informative! After lunch and winter coat shopping for David, we loaded up and headed for home. We dropped Kat off at the mall so she could ride home with Shawn when he got off from work. Then we dropped Charles off at karate so he could be a part of the last bit of graduation. And we got home about 8 p.m., in time to watch the last half of the Nextel race and see Gordon suffer another late race DNF.

Nine days of vacation, six of them on the road, traveling 2370 miles. Are we crazy or what? Everyone did really well until Friday. By then we'd had enough togetherness. It's a good thing Charles was able to sleep at David's dorm Friday night. Another night of sharing a motel room with Charles and there's no telling what Kat might have done to him with the TV remote as he channel surfed!

End of September

Catching up on odds and ends …

We visited David at Evansville last weekend, Family Weekend. What a rainy Saturday it was! We didn't join in on any of the college activities but instead visited the Evansville Museum of Arts, History and Science. http://www.emuseum.org/.

I would have never imagined that Evansville was a major shipyard in the 1940s, building LSTs (Landing Ship, Tanks) for the war effort. Even the boys found it interesting!

David seems to be doing very well. After a bit of poking and prodding we got to hear tidbits about his classes, his teachers, and what he is learning. He could even speak some Japanese already! But he's definitely not homesick and by Sunday afternoon was more than ready for us all to leave. I guess that's a good thing?

My poor fern … first Copper decides it's THE place to sleep. Then the Fluffies discovered it and now it seems like the bed of preferences for several cats and kittens. I'm not sure it's going to survive. It was so dry and hot this summer that it didn't grow as much as usual and was just catching a second breath in September. Soon it will be cold enough that I will have to move it inside, but it really doesn't get enough sunshine when inside, so I hate to move it in any earlier than necessary. But somehow I've got to keep the kitties out!

Here's a new pic of Miss Munchkin, taken two weeks ago. A drooling baby, cutting who knows how many teeth! Today Kat says that Miss Munchkin is "cruising," which is a term for standing up, holding on to things, and walking around those things. You learn something new every day, Miss Munchkin how to cruise and Grandma what it means! It's only a matter of time before she takes those first steps and walks on her own!

David update

It sounds like David has settled in well at Evansville. I called him last night and then passed the phone around so everyone (Bill, Charles, Kat) could talk to him. He told me about the robot he has in Computer Science class and a bit about the Japanese alphabet (or it's three alphabets). And also said I should see the movie "Accepted" because it was funny and had a very unschooling slant to it). He told his dad that everyone seems to gather in his room and he's not sure why. It did sound a little bit like there was more than one or two people in there! But definitely it sounds like he is having a good time and not terribly homesick.

We're still trying to decide whether we'll go up for Family Weekend later in September or combine visiting David with a possible trip to New York in October. I guess the first decision to be made is whether we're going to New York or maybe the decision to be made is who is going to New York. It's my aunt and uncle's 50th wedding anniversary celebration, so I definitely want to go!

Sunday my dad had a get together at his house and my brother Eric drove over from Atlanta with his family. Daniel spent Saturday night here playing X-Box with Charles and Shawn. I took lots of pics, so maybe later this week I'll get one posted up here of Eric with Miss Munchkin. She was frightened of Eric when she first saw him Saturday night, but my Sunday afternoon she was having great fun with his beard.

Oh, and it looks like my kittens have all found homes! I just need to decide if I want to keep one of them or not. We've been talking of possibly moving in the semi-near future and it is going to be difficult to find a place where I could have my six cats roam freely outside, let alone adding another one to that number. Do we really need to keep any?

David called

Well, he's alive and knows how to use the phone! David called yesterday and he was doing great! And he sounded like it was going great. It seems that his FlexPlan Menu card allows him to get food at the sub shop where they sell pizza and root beer. And it's just a short walk from his dorm. His Internet speed is about 100 times faster than our dial-up connection. And he and five other guys (one being his roommate) all went bowling, which David has always enjoyed. So life is good!

Classes began yesterday (Wednesday) and David was calling because he needed to buy some additional books. And so he needed to check his bank account online, which he didn't set up before he left home, even though mom had advised him to! Not only that, but he did not have his bank account number with him nor the pin number he needed to access his account online. Nice to have a mom who keeps things like that on file and knows where they are.

It was nice to hear, though, that he was doing so well and enjoying himself. Of course, his dad is worried that he'll enjoy himself too much! We shall see!

And yesterday while Charles was at karate, I went to visit Kat and play with Miss Munchkin. Took some pictures, which I have yet to look at. Watched her scoot around in her walker and crawl. She certainly is mobile! Tomorrow I will write more about Miss Munchkin.

The first day

Well, we survived D-Day! It was a long, long day Saturday.

We left home before noon on Friday, so we were in Evansville by 6 p.m. That gave us time to swim a bit, go eat supper and get a good night's sleep. Saturday we got to the college at 9 a.m., which was the earliest you could begin moving in. There were lots of fraternity guys there helping with the unloading, so I didn't have to carry anything, which was good because David's room is on the 4th floor. But there was some delay in the bed lofts arriving ... an outside company handles those and they were not very organized. We waited for bed parts from 10 till 2, with bits and pieces of it arriving throughout that time. So you had to wait in line to get your first pieces and then keep checking back to see if more had arrived. It certainly frazzled a lot of parents. So it was 3:30 before we finally left Evansville. And 9:30 by the time we got home.

David called Sunday noon ... I had told him to call me Sunday night. He was in line for lunch, so he couldn't talk long. But he sounded okay and said everything was going fine.

And so far I only see one thing he forgot to take ... the summer reading book he was assigned when he went to orientation in June. That was sitting in the chair next to him computer, hiding under a magazine. So I will have to ship that to him today.

It did seem a little weird yesterday without David around, but I am sure we will adjust. David was definitely ready to leave home, ready to be at Evansville, ready for us to leave him there. It made it a lot easier for me knowing that he wants to be there and that it seems like a good place for him. And it's only four weeks until the Parent Weekend!

David at Evansville under the "lazy tree." He's moved in and ready for Mom and Dad to leave!

Charles being lazy on the "lazy tree." He really liked this tree. It's called the lazy tree because so many of it's lower limbs are on the ground.

The picturesque main entrance.

David, taken the day before he left for Evansville (August 17, 2006). Also the day he passed his road test and received his driver's license!

Counting Down

Twelve days until D-Day. Delivery Day. Deliver David to College Day. And I don't feel like I'm coping very well. Bill says I've been micromanaging everything this summer and haven't let David do enough of the preparations. He's probably right. It's been easier to focus on the preparations, keeping busy with the minutiae, rather than dealing with the knowledge that life is going to change.

It is going to be a huge adjustment not having David around on a daily basis. Of our three children, David is the one most like me in disposition and attitude. I'm going to miss having that even keel, come-what-may-we-can-cope attitude around. Heck, I'm just going to miss having a live body here during the day. Even though Charles is still home, he spends so much time at karate that some days it's like he's not here at all.

It was a full year before I really adjusted to Kat's being gone when she moved out, but at least she did so with no warning. I didn't have time to obsess about it before hand. And the six months before she moved out she was gone a great deal of the time anyway, having a car and license. So I was more used to her absence. David has neither car nor license (although he is going to take his driver's test this week). This past year, especially, we've spent so much time together commuting to his college classes.

But I know David's ready to experience new things, ready for new challenges. I'm pretty sure that Evansville is going to be a good experience for him and he is excited about going. It's the anticipation, the waiting that is so hard for me to deal with. I always handle a fait accompli much better than the lead-up time to anything. There shouldn't be so much time between being accepted to college and actually going to college!

Book list(s)

Last night David downloaded the book list for his fall freshman semester at the University of Evansville. His World Cultures class does not have a list. I assume this is because they are reading several books over the semester (actually the whole year, since it's a full year requirement for all freshmen) and the teacher only wants them reading one book at a time. So he'll likely have to get those directly from the college bookstore. And it appears as though his Computer Science 101 class does not have a text. Wouldn't it be a novel idea for a computer science class to be all computerized? No textbook needed?

So, he has to purchase books for three classes: Japanese, Calculus and Chemistry. The full list price at the bookstore for all three classes totals $433.10. If he buys used from the bookstore (assuming they are still available used), it would cost $292. After spending an hour on E-bay and Amazon this morning, I can get several for less, although surprisingly the Japanese books are cheapest at the campus bookstore. If I buy some online and the Japanese at the campus bookstore, the total could be around $260, and most of those online were brand new. So that's a fair savings.

I would love to see the list of books that David will be using for his World Cultures class. He brought home from Orientation the first book for that class, The World is Flat by Thomas L. Friedman. I have had that book on my "too read" list for over a year. I've already read one of his books to the boys and have another here on my shelf to read next. I'm willing to bet that David's World Cultures class will be a very interesting one.

This morning someone posted on one of the high school homeschool e-mail lists a request for "the" book that we think each high school student should read. And also which book we read as a high school student had the most lasting impact. She wants to create a "must read" book list for her high school student.

If I had to name one book that made the most impact upon me as a high school student, it would have to be The Gulag Archipelago by Alexander Solzhenitsyn. But if I had to name one author, it would be Leon Uris. I think his books did more for my understanding of history, especially history over the past 100-150 years, than any history class I ever took, and I did enjoy all my history classes.

As an adult, there is one book that I think all adults should read before they have children of their own or work with children in any capacity. Ender's Game by Orson Scott Card. Maybe adults would view children differently, treat them differently, if this was required reading.

I've always thought book lists were fun. A list of books someone has read can tell you a lot about that person. So can the books they own. The first thing I do upon visiting someone is look over their bookshelves (hopefully they have some!). I think the books there, or the absence thereof, tells you a lot about the household.

Getting Ready for College

I would have never imagined it would take this much time, effort, and money to prepare a child for his first year of college. Well, I sort of suspected the money part, although there sure are a lot of additional costs besides the tuition and room/board. The paperwork, though, did surprise me. And the sheer amount of stuff necessary to equip a dorm room and the child moving into it! Here's just a portion of what has consumed my July:

A Health Form to be filled out by David, myself, and then his doctor, which meant an appointment with said doctor. This took two trips to the doctor's office, one for the physical and one for the follow-up on the TB test that the college required. It also took two phone calls to the college to find out for sure that a medical waiver was possible for the required tetanus shot.

Medical Waiver stating David did not need health insurance from the college, that he was covered by our medical insurance policy.

The paperwork to set up the automatic payment plan for David's tuition.

Checking with BlueCross to make sure David will be still covered by our health insurance plan while he is in college.

Getting the final transcript sent in to UE.

Checking to see if our homeowner's insurance will cover David's dorm room items in case of fire or theft.

Making a list of all the items he needs for his room and then finding all those items. These include things like trash cans, desk lamp, laundry detergent, clothes basket (he has to wash his own clothes!), and any food items he might want for snacking purposes.

Ditto for clothes. Most of his are a bit threadbare out, so it's practically a complete new wardrobe for him, down to swimming trunks and sneakers!

New sheets, blankets, pillows, and bath towels.

Rental of the Bedloft, which will free up some floor space in his small dorm room.

Rental of the MicroFridge that seems to be an essential part of dorm life these days.

Make sure his computer is ready to go.

Got the battery for the laptop.

Still need to find a printer/scanner/copier for his room, although he does have access to printers in the computer lab and is allotted 200 printed pages each semester.

You might ask what is left for the month of August? He still needs to get his driver's license, if we can get that done sometime in the next couple of weeks. And we still need school supplies (notebooks, pencils, printer paper, that sort of thing), along with personal supplies (manicure set, vitamin C, shampoo, etc.). I believe he'll have to find a winter coat up there in Indiana sometime before the snow flies. Oh, and the most important thing for August? Cleaning out David's bedroom!!! He is so looking forward to doing that!

Busy Days

Has it really been a week since I last posted here? Wow! I've been so busy with office duties and running kids here and there. My desk is a lot cleaner! And the bills are all current! So some things have been accomplished! Unfortunately, updating my website was not included in that list of accomplishments. That was July's agenda, but somehow here it is the 25th and I've not even begun. And boy, do I have a lot of updates.

Yesterday Charles met with Dr. Debra Gilliam from Alternative Medicine Associates. She seemed pretty sure she would be able to help Charles and I sure hope so! It was an expensive visit and none of it covered by our medical insurance. He now has several supplements and homeopathic remedies to take over the next 12 weeks, along with some dietary changes to make. And then on October 16 he return to see if all this has helped any. She also suggested that Charles keep a food diary, but I don't see that happening! The most difficult dietary change is no gluten, no wheat. I bought some oat flour and some spelt flour, both of which the naturopath suggested would be better for Charles than wheat.

David has his college physical tomorrow. Which reminds me, I still need to double check with the college that a letter from his doctor will be all that is needed for a medical waiver on the tetanus shot. My mom wrote me last week to tell me that she had suffered from an allergic reaction to a tetanus shot about fifteen years ago and her doctor told her then not to ever have another tetanus shot or it might be fatal. She thought she had told me that before, but mentioned it again after reading my blog entry about Charles' latest "episode." I sure don’t' remember hearing about that before, but I'm glad to know it now. Perhaps it will provide added incentive for the doctor tomorrow to provide that medical waiver.

The kittens are getting cuter every day! Today the one's here in my office finally got brave enough to escape from their box, or at least I discovered one of them out this morning when I came in to check my e-mail. I think it's just about time to move them outside, as I do not want to have a litter box in here. The other kittens in the living room just have their eyes open, but I may have to find another spot for them. The mama kitty seems to be disrupting the wires back there that are hooked to the TV and receiver and our TV reception has been disappearing. Somewhere there's a cord loose!

Well, time to wake up some boys and begin working on the website updates. People are e-mailing me asking me when I'm going to make the changes that they sent me weeks ago!

To sleep, perchance to dream

Another night of interrupted sleep, another day of hiding yawns and thinking of a nap! Normally the cause is the occasional bout of night sweats or the more frequent waking up in the middle of the night and not being able to get back to sleep. But not last night, or rather, early this morning. This morning at 3:45 my cell phone rings and I know instantly that it has to be Charles. Which means that he's having troubles again with his "funny feelings" in his head that preclude full blown episodes of violence. Luckily this time he woke up before it had reached the full-blown stage, so a dose of antihistamine, some talk about how he was feeling, how long he had been awake and how long he had been asleep prior to awakening, and then he went back to sleep. But I didn't! I was wide-awake from then until Bill's alarm went off at 6. And only then did I begin to doze off for a few minutes before I had to get up and made Bill's breakfast.

I had been worried about the possibility of Charles having another episode. Sunday we went over to Kat's and mowed her lawn. Bill got into the kudzu on the edge of the property with the weedeater and had Charles go behind him with the push mower. Unfortunately, Charles found a bee's nest and got stung on his legs several times. He seemed fine yesterday, but still, I wasn't surprised when that phone rang this morning. The episodes seem to hit when his immune system is working hard to overcome illness and so I thought bee stings have the same effect as a fever.

May 26th was the last time Charles needed the antihistamine to ward of an episode, so it's been less than two months. Prior to that he went just about three months. I had hoped that the time between would have lengthened, not shortened. That would have fed my hope that this whole nightmare would just eventually fade away, that his body would recover on his own from the tetanus vaccination. But it doesn't appear as though that is happening. Time to make that appointment with the naturopath, since both his pediatrician and the neurologist he was referred to were not able to find anything wrong. And I'm hoping that the pediatrician will agree with me that David doesn't need a tetanus vaccination for his college physical. The college indicated that they might accept a letter of medical waiver from the doctor. I've got to double check next week when the person in charge at the college's health department is back from vacation. But I am very leery of unnecessarily exposing another child to that vaccination! It certainly has wreaked havoc upon Charles' body.

Oh, for time to crochet!

It must be summer. I've had barely any time to crochet lately. I almost miss having to drive David to his dual enrollment college classes at Calhoun each morning. At least then I had an hour, some days almost two hours, solely devoted to either reading or crocheting. Or maybe I should begin to go sit at karate again in the evenings, waiting for Charles to get finished with classes, instead of just dropping him off and letting Bill pick him on his way home. I got a lot of crocheting done there. But here at home it seems like there's always something else I have to be or should be doing. Dishes, laundry, e-mail, playing with Miss Munchkin, playing Mah-Jong, paying bills, working on webpages, etc., etc., etc. No time for crocheting. And this month the Nextel Cup races are on cable stations, so I can't even plan on a Sunday afternoon of race watching and crocheting.

I'm currently working on an afghan for David for college, but at the rate I'm going with it, there is no way I'll have it done by the time he heads of to Evansville. He'll be lucky if he gets it by the time the snow flies up there. And then I've several projects I want to work on. Each day, Annie's Attic has a free pattern on their website:

http://www.anniesattic.com/free_pattern_day/index.html

So now, in addition to the dozens of books and pamphlets I have with crochet patterns, I've been saving many of the patterns from Annie's Attic. I'll never have enough time to crochet them all. It's like books … so many to crochet, so little time!

I do need to begin planning Christmas presents, if I'm going to crochet anything for Christmas. There's a lion I'd love to make for Miss Munchkin. And my niece Chelsea graduates from high school next year, so I need to think of what afghan to make for that present. Oh, and I know of a new baby that'll be making his/her way into the world around the first of the year, so I'll have to make a baby blanket. Lots of projects! Guess I better quit blogging and get to work crocheting!

Crossing Things Off My Lists

The last several days have been busy around here! Bill and the boys built new steps to the entrance off our living room over the July Fourth holiday. We rarely use that entrance and haven't been able to for quite a while now due to the steps having rotted out. But it's good to have it fixed and be able to use it, just in case we have an emergency and need another exit. That project has been on the "to do" list for quite some time now. At one time we had planned to greatly expand that small deck entrance area, turning it into a screened-in covered porch, but whenever funds get set aside for the project, they get diverted for some emergency expense. Probably it'll be one of those things we do just to fix it up around here when we finally get ready to move and sell the place.

I finally finished David's high school transcript over the long weekend and yesterday mailed it to our church school administrator. It was already mostly done, since he had to have one in January for college applications, so all I really had to do was add this last half of his senior year to it and get it in the proper format. But I had to wait for his last grades at Calhoun Community College to get posted, which was done mid-May. By then I had gotten out of the "school" mode and just never quite found the time to sit down and finish the transcript. Now it is done. The last thing I needed to do for David as homeschool mom and teacher. Now I can just be college mom!

And yesterday I set up a brokerage account with E*Trade. We knew we were going to have to cash in some stocks for David's college tuition and the first payment is due August 1. Somehow I didn't think it would be a huge deal to set up an account and get the stocks traded and cash into a money market fund. I also didn't think doing it locally with a broker would be as expensive as it turned out to be when I called for quotes. So instead of going the easy way with lots of hand holding and someone else doing the grunt work, we went the cheaper route and I will get plenty of new learning experiences! Isn't that what you get when you don't get what you wanted? Experience?!

So three things done off my lists . . . and hundreds more to go, or so it seems. Last weekend I had David set up FreeMind on my computer. It's a mindmapping program I discovered last winter and showed to David. He took right to it and uses it all the time. I am not so sure it will be as helpful to me, but I'm willing to try it. One good thing about it is that I am much better organized on my computer than I am on my desk or with my filing cabinets. So instead of many paper lists floating around and never where I remember putting them, I simply have to open FreeMind and there my lists are, ready to be shortened or ignored, whichever the case may be!

Here's the link to FreeMind: http://freemind.sourceforge.net/wiki/index.php/Main_Page

Cooperation

Just when you begin to despair that your children will ever be able to work together, they surprise you! I told David and Charles (our two teenage boys) Monday that the gutters needed cleaning this week and that the weather would be better for it (cooler, less humid) the first part of the week. Amazingly, yesterday afternoon they just got at it and did it without me reminding them a gazillion times. Not only that, but they worked together without much disagreement and got the job done rather quickly. Of course, I did discover last night that there's some clean up that they seemed to have missed, so they'll have to do a bit of cleaning of the deck today. But all in all it was nice to see them working together, getting the job done without me having to do a lot of supervising.

That said, I have given up on having them wash the dishes. For the last several years it has been their job to do the daily dishes and clean up the table, stovetop, counters and sinks. They have done it well at times, so I know they are capable. But I've decided that the stress incurred while having them do this job is not worth it. I get too annoyed knowing that they are saving all the dishes up till 2 in the morning. And then I come out in the morning and see glasses stacked on top of all the other dishes in the drainer. Gravity put to the test each night! It's just too much. I can't take it anymore. I know they can do the job, so it's time to teach them something else, I think! And I'll do the dishes my way, washing a few several times a day, washing the glasses first and the pans last!

So what will they do instead? David will be doing his own laundry this summer so that I am sure he knows how to do it when he goes to college. He has washed things before, on occasion, so I think all he'll need is just a refresher on how to separate the loads and what temperature water to use, etc. Even so, it won't hurt him to do his own all summer and get used to figuring out how often he needs to wash. At Evansville last weekend, the Dean of Student Living told us a story about a freshman (male) who never washed his clothes. It got so bad that, after several weeks, his roommate complained to the RA in the dorm. So the RA talked to the student about the laundry situation and the student agreed to take care of it. So what did he do? Shipped all his dirty laundry to his mom in Colorado via UPS! Can you imagine the look on her face when she opened those packages?! The Dean said that the mom just repacked them up, dirty, and shipped them back to her son at college. I guess he finally got the message that he needed to wash them himself.

Doing your laundry at Evansville would be almost fun. You can go on a website to see how many washers and dryers are being used in your dorm's laundry room and how many minutes before they will be done. Not only that, but when you put a load of wash in the washing machine or the drier, you can set it so that the machine either sends you an e-mail or a text message to your phone to let you know when the load is done! Can you imagine?! For a computer science student, it seems like that would make laundry almost like a game!

So David will be doing his laundry this summer. And he's already gotten pretty good at vacuuming the floors daily, which we have to do in the summer because Penny (our dog) sheds so much. When he goes off to Evansville, Charles will have to take over that job.

Perhaps the boys should learn to clean their bathroom! That sounds like a good trade off, cleaning the bathroom once a week for washing dishes daily. And, of course, there's always the outside reclamation project with the push mower and weed eater! We didn't have a lawn mower for all of last year and so the woods has tried to work its way back towards our mobile home. It's beginning to look better since we got that push mower last month, but there's still a lot to do. I think a half an hour for each of them several days a week should do the trick.

SOAR Part II

David pretty much got the classes he figured he would, as most were freshman year requirements for computer science majors. He will be taking World Cultures (a Freshman requirement), Chemistry, Calculus, Japanese, and Computer Science 101; 18 credit hours altogether.

When he goes back on August 19, it will be only freshmen on campus for 5 days. Those five days the freshmen are divided into small groups of 20, the members of their World Cultures class, and they do all activities, meals, etc., together. The World Cultures class is required of all freshmen. So by the end of the 5 days, they will know at least those 20 classmates fairly well.

Overall, the weekend was very worthwhile. The only part I didn't like was that, now that we've been there for a couple of days and I saw how well David seemed to fit in, how much he liked the campus and how quickly he made some friends, I'm even more apprehensive about his going. Well, not his going, but his leaving here! It seems so much more real. Two months from now he will be there full time and we won't see him for weeks on end. I'm so used to him sitting at his computer in the living room, always there with ready wit or an acerbic comment about some news item or wanting to share something he discovered on Wikipedia. I am so going to miss him!

SOAR - 2006 Summer Orientation and Academic Registration

What a busy couple of days we spent in Evansville. We left home Thursday around 10:00, which was the game plan. It's a 600-mile round trip. Factoring in a gas stop, a lunch stop, and a rest area stop, it took about 6 hours. Our first stop was on campus to find out where David was bunking. We delivered his gear to his room and then left campus to locate our motel and unload our gear. We all then had supper at Smokey Bones, which was very good and only just a wee bit on the pricey side. After supper it was back to the campus with David, as the evening "mixer" activities were scheduled to start at 7 p.m.

Friday morning we met back up for the first session after breakfast. We had to call David on the cell phone to see where he was. We finally found him and discovered he had not saved any places for us and was sitting with his new friends. His first words were, "Do you mind if I don't go to supper with you?" It seemed that one of his new friends had a car and they had all made plans to go to the mall for supper. So much for any worries that David might not make any friends. Not only that, but his friends were Eric, Ashley, Autumn, Heather and . . . Do you notice a trend there? I think Ashley was definitely the leader of the group, as later on she was the one insisting that David and Eric WERE going to the evening dance.

After the first opening session, we parted ways with David. His schedule sent him to various placement tests (David had to take the math placement test) and then several interest sessions and to the security building to get his student I.D. We parents could chose 3 of 5 different sessions in the morning and then 3 of 5 different sessions in the afternoon. We did meet back up with David once in the afternoon when we attended the Harlaxton College Overseas Exchange Program session. At 3:15 we met up again for the beginning of the Academic Registration session for a short time. Then the students went to meet with their advisors and we parents got to listen to a long session titled "Letting Go" given by the Dean of Students Dana Clayton. After all this, we did get a two-hour break for dinner on our own, then to meet back for another session in the evening. And then the Dessert Reception (loads and loads of ice cream) where we did get to see David again for a brief bit! Then we went to our motel room and David went on to the Student Dance and to play Snooker in the Underground (modeled after a London Pub).

Saturday morning we did meet back up for breakfast on campus and a brief session together again. Then the students went on to receive the results of their placement tests and to register for their fall classes. The Engineering department (of which Computer Science is a part) had given their students all the scheduling info they needed (class numbers, times, etc.) and so David was able to complete the registration process fairly quickly and painlessly. Bill and I finally finished our last sessions about 10:30. We found David outside the registration area and then headed to the Bookstore and Smoothie Shoppe with two of his new friends. By the time we covered all those bases, got back to his dorm, packed up and checked him out, and loaded up the car, it was after noon. The trip home was uneventful, but long, long, long. Everyone was tired. I know we've rested a lot today, just recovering from the previous three days. In fact, I think I'll head for bed and finish this up tomorrow!

Off to Evansville!

I won't be posting much for the next few days. Bill (hubby) and I leave tomorrow morning with David for the University of Evansville. It's SOAR weekend, Summer Orientation and Academic Registration.

Evansville, Indiana, is about a five hour drive for us, so we'll leave mid-morning and arrive sometime late afternoon. David will be staying in a dorm, while Bill and I get to spend two nights alone in a motel room! Oh my!

From the looks of the schedule laid out for both student and parents on Friday and Saturday, we're going to be busy, busy, busy. David gets to meet his advisor, take a math placement test, and register for his fall classes. There's even a student dance Friday night. Bill and I get to go to presentations with such titles as "Letting Go" and "Now For College" and "Parenthood UE Style."

We'll be back home late Saturday night, so maybe I'll have a chance to post an update on Sunday. Wish us well!