Perspective

On Wednesday afternoon I noticed a knocking sound in the van.  It sounded like I had my own percussionist putting on a performance for me.  I determined to find the cause on my own. After some internet cruising, I determined that it might be a belt or a loose screw.  I lifted the head, and sure enough, the belt was frayed.  Andy determined it to be the serpentine belt, and another internet search revealed the price to run around $200.

Just two weeks ago, you might recall, I had $820 in repairs done on the van.  I was upset about this additional repair, but it felt better knowing the price prior to seeing the mechanic.  So I went after work on Thursday to have the belt replaced.  While there I learned that we needed new gasket covers and that it could not wait, another $491.  We decided not to take care of that repair that day as there wasn't time.  Before I left they discovered another $200 in necessary work.  I was so frustrated.  The grand total landed somewhere around $1700 in two weeks.  Every attempt I make at getting an emergency fund going is met with some kind of emergency that blows the fund and the deposits for months and sometimes years into the future.

So I came home and gathered the younger kids and Andy to attend the middle school family picnic, but I can't say I left in a jolly mood ready for fun.  I did, however, calm down once I ran into several friends at the picnic.  It was nice to hang out and just enjoy their company.

Then I came home and heard about the Oregon shootings, and you know $1700 in van repairs seems really insignificant when several families prepare to bury their children or parents over a totally senseless  crime: not to mention the number of people traumatized by witnessing the crime or those left fighting for their lives and facing long recoveries from the injuries.

Out of the mouths of babes

A day or two ago, Julia expressed this sentiment:

I hope that boys don't like me when I get older.  They seem like such a hassle.

Like any good mom would, I confirmed that her theory is correct.

I know.  I know.  We will barely blink before she changes that tune.

Moving Forward

Savannah spent three weeks this summer on a college campus, and we celebrated that experience with a reunion this weekend.  I learned so much.  The weekend offered us a time of reflection as they continually tweak this program to make it the best possible experience for students.  Students and parents spent time evaluating the program.

During that time of reflection, I realized how much Savannah grew over the summer.  She's gained a maturity and confidence that I did not even realize she lacked.  Savannah is a content and quiet leader.  She treasures time with her friends and needs healthy doses of it, but she also needs quiet time alone.  She started senior year ready to move forward.  Savannah has spent 12+ years with many of her peers, and she's ready for new friends, experiences, and campus life.

such a short but sweet reunion

Over the summer Andy packed Zach up and moved him to the basement.  He bought Savannah new bedroom furniture and planted her in Zach's room.  I was not sold on this plan as I don't think our basement is suitable living space, but Andy said it's time she had her own room.  He wanted to do this for her because she's earned it and because he's convinced that she will fly next year.  Savannah will likely spend her year on a college campus, return home for breaks and probably leave the state when she graduates.  How do we hold on to this year and make time stand still?

I learned so much about the scholarship and application process for college.  I work in education, and I know lots, but there is always so much more to learn.  I left there wishing I could retire and work in an admission's office with new students excited to take on new adventures.  This university rolled out their automatic scholarships this week.  As long as Savannah enters their honors college, she has full tuition covered along with a $1500 stipend - that's just based on her ACT score combined with her GPA.  Because she attended the summer program, Savannah also gets a $2000 housing allowance to live on campus. In addition she has money from the state and has applied for another scholarship.  Savannah can still apply for the competitive scholarship that would cover everything.  The beauty of this is that this is her first choice for college.  The down side is that she wants to pursue a doctorate in pharmacy, so this may not be the best choice when we have a school closer to home that ranks in the top five pharmacy schools in the nation.  Savannah will apply for their full scholarship too, and while we want her college experience to be awesome and to meet her desires, if she gets the other scholarship, she knows that is the best option.  

She was beautiful this weekend, and I really did not get a good picture.  However, I should be getting an email with a picture of Savvy with the Dean of the summer program and president of the university.

Savannah was very disappointed last year when she did not get accepted into a well-known state program for the summer.  I learned over the course of this weekend that instead she landed in a program with harder requirements and much more rigor expected of the students.  That's wonderful, but the difference is that she applied straight to the university for this, and they made the decisions.  She competed with students from at least five states to get a spot.  For the other program, the local school district gets a set number of spots, and they decide which applicants can apply.  That local piece makes the other program recognizable and well known for colleges and universities in our state.  When we mentioned the program at MSU to the scholarship office at a university we visited, they had never heard of it.  This program may have prepared her more, but she will also have to work to sell it more when competing for scholarships.  Even so, I walked away ready to share this program with every junior and junior parent I know.  It is truly an amazing and wonderful experience.  The students get up to 12 hours of college credit, and they learn so much about working with people and applying for college.  Really incredible! Great staff! Great friendships!

Savannah returned home pumped and started working on the common application.  She plans to cast her net far and wide in order to compete.  Yale has been courting her. They take 6% of their applicants, so it's a long shot, but I think she's going for it.  She may not attend Yale, but really how cool would it be to say she was accepted?  It is such an exciting time for her, and she has worked so hard and continues to do so. We are so happy for her.

Part of the fun included seeing a football game, and I found a restaurant that will be my guilty pleasure when visiting Savannah if she lands on this campus.  

My mind has been swimming in all the information gathered this weekend. I wish I'd known so much of this when Zach applied for school, but I am so glad to know it for Savannah, Wyatt and Julia.

Celebrate Good Times, oh yeah!

So the timing's not that great.  I just had an expensive van repair, got the invoice on Savannah's class fees, and am sitting on a few hundred dollars in medical bills.  I just got an estimate on a window that needs to be replaced -$690. You get the picture.  Things are pretty bleak on the financial front, and we really won't touch much in the way of recovery before Christmas hits. OUCH! OUCH! OUCH!

Wyatt stopped participating in jeans days this school year.  What?  He was quite faithful to the uniform breaks last year, so what's up with this?  When questioned, he expressed that he does not like jeans as they are just too uncomfortable.  hmm

Too tight? Yes.  So I had him put on a pair of his jeans so that I could loosen the elastic.  There was some definite John Travolta Saturday Nigh Fever happening in those jeans, and no loosening of elastic was going to fix that, Y'all!  So, I ordered three pairs of jeans in the next size up, and there is always a bit of happy dancing when our slow growing Wyatt moves up a size.  His pediatrician says that boys who are slow to grow tend to be taller.  I hope he's right because Wyatt's got quite a bit of catching up to do.  Fortunately, he's cute and charming enough to make up for his lack of stature.  Julia's friends apparently tell her frequently just how cute he is :)

On the Road Again...soon

Andy was out of town for work this week - really out of town, across the country in fact.  For the most part, the week went well.  Savannah used his car, so she was able to get Wyatt to school for his early morning Robotics meetings - that was not exactly met without some complaints from the driver. She even picked Julia up from cheer practice on Monday so that I could get in my Monday Jazzercise class.

Thursday, however, put a wrench in everything.  I had to make a trip across town to handle a banking matter and ended up not being able to do it on that day.  As soon as I got home, I started dinner.  Savannah had to work, so I instructed Wyatt to open the oven and turn it off when the timer went off. I was so glad I did that as you will soon see.  My plan was to pick up Julia and then bite the bullet and stop to get no contract phones for her and Wyatt.  Today is one of those days where we are going in four directions at the same time, and I think everything would be easier if we could reach Wyatt and Julia and they could reach us.  However, I worked out another plan before I picked Julia up and decided against the phones, but I still planned to make the stop and explore the options.

On my way home with Julia the abs, brake, and battery lights lit up my dashboard, and the van lost power.  I was in rush hour traffic on a busy road.  I managed to coast the van into a parking lot before it completely died.  Was I surprised?  Not really.  Something major breaks about 90% of the time when Andy is out of town, and nothing broke the last couple of times.  Zach was in class. Savannah was at work.  I spent about 20 minutes on hold for AAA, so I had little hope that help would be coming soon.  Fortunately, it was a nice day, so sitting outside waiting was not miserable.  Unfortunately, every bit of homework Julia had could not be done sitting on a curb.

On a positive note, the timing could not have been better this week.  If the van had broken down before I picked up Julia, there is no way I could have gotten her.  I don't know any of the other cheer parents well enough to ask them to run her home.  It would have truly been a mess.  If it had happened earlier in the week, the stress over borrowing a vehicle and returning it would be greater.

I could not reach Wyatt, so when Zach texted me and said his class was cancelled so he would come get us, I told him to stop by home first to make sure we didn't have a chicken burning up in the oven.  AAA arrived shortly thereafter, and since we still had to wait on Zach, Julia used her youngest child - we are stranded- let's make lemonade charm and convinced me that we should try Comfy Cow ice cream since we were in their parking lot.  Neither of us had ever had it.  The shop was adorable, and who knew it's rated second in the world of ice cream that you must try?  So check that off the bucket list.  Honestly, it was good stuff and while I balked at $3.70 per scoop if I had seen the scoops beforehand, we would have opted for kids' scoops.  The regular scoops were HUGE!

We barely sat down before Zach arrived.  So the evening entailed borrowing a car and driving across town to do so.  By the time I got ready for bed, I was too tired to think.  Friday brought the phone call with the bad news on the van.  It needs a new clamp because it is leaking coolant, changing the clamp requires a coolant flush.  The alternator (as I suspected) needs replacement as does the battery.  I have two filthy filters in need of replacement, yada, yada, yada.  The clincher came when he also told me that I need new wiper blades, but they will throw those in for free.  Really?  I just replaced my wiper blades a few months ago.  They've given me no problems, and the same mechanic just changed the oil on this vehicle Monday. They usually tell me when changing the oil if they think my wiper blades need to be replaced.  So my question is this: Are free wiper blades my consolation prize or a hint that maybe this repair list is not so honest?  Oh the grand total -$820.  Of course the invoice arrived the same day for Savannah's class fees to the tune of $265.  Yeah, it's senior year, and the checkbook is hemorrhaging. Time to use a credit card. UGH!

After pick up note: So they noted that I refused the wiper blades and did not replace them.  I did not refuse them, just questioned them on it. Oh well.

Carpet Shirts

I have dubbed these the carpet shirts because they remind me of those old fringe trimmed rugs that people used to put in their doorways. When the girls wore these for the same event, I had to snap a picture. I knew they would never purposely do this again. Austin chose to participate. He was not forced, so I cannot explain his sullen countenance.  

Just for Fun

Savannah has to have pictures of happy memories from her childhood for one of her classes.  She pulled out the scrapbooks today and scanned these pictures.  I  have also been pulling pictures of her for her senior ad.  I actually have it finished now except that I want to switch out a couple of pictures.  I want a better picture of the four kids together and a better one with her friends.  

I remember this so well.  It was our annual trip to the children's museum, and Savannah was enamored with the the trains.

This is the only picture I know of with Savannah and her paternal grandpa.  Andy's dad died on Savannah's fourth birthday in an accident.  We had celebrated the night before, and she remembers how he tickled her.  I never forgot that I felt prompted all night to take a picture of the two of them together, but Andy's mom couldn't be there, and I decided to wait until we got together over the summer to take that picture.  That is why, to this day, I take pictures of my kids with every guest who attends their birthday parties.

Classic!

New Year's fun.  Aren't they cool?

Okay really, aren't they cool?

Children's museum.  I have another super cute picture of Savannah and Logan together somewhere.

Dinosaurs at the Children's Museum

sleepover with a bounce house

Birthday party

Just look at her now!  Senior photo by Derrick Dixon Photography