Stuff and Such and GOOD NEWS!

I figured since I used 'this n that' last time. So much for posting more often. So far this year has really flown by.

Snickerdoodle has received her admission forms, etc for Berea College in Kentucky with a full ride! http://www.berea.edu/. As she had to sit out a year due to finances, she did more investigating of financial stuff. Turns out Elmhurst actually limits the amount or percentage of your tuition that you can get grants, scholarships, etc for...and if you cannot get a loan...then you are SOL! If you can get into Berea, then you are guaranteed tuition for all four years. Talk about a huge blessing. Hopefully the BF can get relocated to somewhere in KY after he finished his training and they'll be closer. Not sure what Snickerdoodle is more excited about...getting into Berea or being closer to BF.

Let's see...where were we? The BF just left after another 3 week visit. He's got leave time that he has to use up by the end of May, so he'll be back again in a couple of weeks. We like him a lot. He had a 'precursor' to The Talk with Cabinet Man to lay out plans and priorities. He's moving over to Army Reserves, so he's going back to school for EMT training and seems quite excited about it. He and Snickerdoodle are both resolute on getting their educations so that is a Very Good Thing (as Martha would say).

Sunshine is working on her first big essay for school. It is based on a political cartoon from the Civil War. Very interesting. 500 words (5th grade), but she'll have about 8 weeks to work on it before it is due....she's got 4 weeks left. Glad that Snickerdoodle is still home to help her on it, how to organize it, etc. The school does expect big things from the kids and they really step up...but this one has been a struggle. She has sort of goofed off last quarter, or rather, didn't apply herself so...but she's going to work hard on it and we're not going to make her go to summer school so....but ONLY if she does really well.

College Dude is doing well. Going to school, working, playing Warhammer with his friends...having Mom proofread his papers when the only thing I can do for them is spelling, grammar/punctuation and sentence structure....'cause I have NOT idea what the papers are about subject-wise...Cellular biology. Really? Over my head. FAR over my head.

Specialist is now Sargeant! As of the end of February....very proud of him. He's still loving the Army so that's good. He's there for the long haul so liking it is good.

Cabinet Man is doing little projects around where we can find them. This administration is going after our target clientele and, as a result of the attacks, they are holding onto their money until they see how it shakes out. But until something happens, we'll keep on! I'm still working two part time jobs, and am looking again for something longer term with more money. Things are moving a little bit now so maybe that will result in something! I'm really enjoying the students and do have my favorites...it's so close to the end of the year now that the seniors are getting antsy and stressed. They have started presenting their theses, so we can tell at a look the ones who are presenting in that week. They all have circles under their eyes and shaky hands from all the caffeine. Attended one last week that was really good. Rock solid and he defended it really well. He is a good friend of Snickerdoodle and was at the house several days over the last week to get her to help him polish it.

The weather is warming up (sorta) so I have started planning this summer's projects. I have the coffee table I picked up at GW to get done, finally get our headboard painted so I can get our master bedroom painted and the room fixed up a bit. I'm really so tired of not having it complete that I want it DONE! Our lovely neighbors gave us an electric fireplace so I have to figure out a place to put that. Would love it in the family room, but the way the TV has to sit in there makes it tough to arrange that room. If the lottery falls into my lap (the only way I'll win since I don't play it), then I'd splurge on an LED television, move the fireplace in there and mount it over the fireplace. But no matter where it is, I have another surface to decorate AND someplace to hang stockings at Christmas!

That's all for now lovelies...I have to make about a jillion phone calls this afternoon.

Many hugs your way!

Susan

This n that...mostly that

It's been a busy week here at Casa de Colorado. Specialist and his friend, aka, Snickerdoodle's boyfriend (hereafter known as The BF), rolled into town on a week ago Sunday. We've not seen Specialist in a year and none of us had ever met BF (not even Snickerdoodle). He's a good guy. Guess I need to roll back a bit.

Specialist met BF up at Ft. Lewis. Specialist is in mental health and BF is a medic. Their areas overlap. Specialist talks about his family and Snickerdoodle...they are very close. So BF had seen snapshots and family pics. Liked the stories that Specialist told him about her. Then he saw more pics and some of her portfolio shots. Unbeknownst to us...Specialist has a habit of staying logged into his FB account. BF would sneak into his room and 'stalk' Snickerdoodle via his FB account! This confession just came this week. So he FB stalked her for a few weeks, while working up nerve to ask Specialist if he could contact her (confused yet?)He finally did and they have been texting/talking/IMing/Facebooking/emailing for months now...since sometime this past summer. It's been a great way for them to get to know each other and frankly, isn't that one of the ways that our grandmothers and great grandmothers got to know their "beaus"? Well, they finally had leave at the same time so they came down together. We have almost 2 weeks of them! BF and Snickerdoodle are staying up til all hours, talking and watching movies and talking and going out and talking. I'm surprised they are both not hoarse by this time. All the kids have grown up on stories of how Cabinet Man and I used to stay up til all hours talking and looks like the tradition is being carried on.

We did allow her to go outside and greet the guys first when they got here..and waited patiently. Specialist came around and snuck in the back door and scared College Dude out of a year's growth, which was good for a laugh all around. Then Snickerdoodle came in with BF and introduced him...he'd brought her flowers ;D

So things are going well...except for the part where they watch movies til all hours and leave a mess downstairs and in the kitchen. Snickerdoodle turned 20 on Monday and they went to Old Town and hung out for a while, then brought some of her friends home with them for cake. One kid had 7 pieces of cake, another one had a piece of cake and a cup of chili, another one had 2 pieces of cake and 2 bowls of chili....so much for leftovers :D

Specialist turns 25 today. Hard to imagine that he's that old when I'm only 26...the age I was when he was born. But I guess that is the way it goes.

It's been so very good to see him. It is his pre-deployment leave so we won't see him again for over a year. We're having Christmas for Specialist and BF tomorrow (ham or chickens and all the fixin's), and a few gifts for them. Then I get to start on NEXT year's Christmas for him as I'll have to get it in the mail to him by October (I think). And all my hard work around here has definitely paid off...Specialist not only noticed the work, but complimented me on it...it MUST looks tons better if a young adult male noticed it ;D

Well, time to work on laundry (Specialist, I'm guessing that the black trash bag dropped in the front room contains laundry that needs to be washed, but I'm not sure that I need to wash the stuff that is folded in there...communication son!

I'll bid adieu until next time.

Oh yeah, check out this VERY cool blog that I found! http://thesteampunkhome.blogspot.com/ I am finding myself more and more drawn to steampunk and trying to figure out a way to integrate it into the cottage style that I love so much. I mostly like it for the techy stuff and jewelry...the jewelry is amazing and might get me to venture into jewelry making. And I would LOVE a computer in the style--don't you LURVE the monitor and keyboard???? http://thesteampunkhome.blogspot.com/

Sorry for the weird linkage...blogger hates me today when I tried to insert the links!