Trails for Two

Lots of interesting little conversations going on here...tough to follow any of them!

Anyway Hi to you and the family.  Hope Alec has settled back into school and stays on track the rest of the year.  

Has Alita been able to join you on any of your walks or are you doing most of them during lunch?  Probably not the best time of year to start back into serious training after a fairly extended break.

Hope life is treating you well...

nkrichards wrote:Lots of interesting little conversations going on here...tough to follow any of them!

Anyway Hi to you and the family.  Hope Alec has settled back into school and stays on track the rest of the year.  

Has Alita been able to join you on any of your walks or are you doing most of them during lunch?  Probably not the best time of year to start back into serious training after a fairly extended break.

Hope life is treating you well...

Hi Nancy! Nice to have you back.

We're trying to get Alec on a track to self-sufficiency. Getting up, making his own breakfast and lunch, etc. He's not entirely thrilled with the change.

We can't get together for a lunchtime walk. We work apart, and her lunch is at 10:40 a.m. We're kind of looking forward to the end of the school year and start of college to where we don't have other distractions and might actually be able to get back to it seriously. At least then it won't be so dang cold.

Funny thing on the snow. Every system has missed us, or at best grazed us. We had snow in the air most of the day Wednesday, with ZERO accumulation. It was like fluffy rain. So weird. (I know I can't complain. I suspect you're still digging out.)

Mark B wrote:

nkrichards wrote:Lots of interesting little conversations going on here...tough to follow any of them!

Anyway Hi to you and the family.  Hope Alec has settled back into school and stays on track the rest of the year.  

Has Alita been able to join you on any of your walks or are you doing most of them during lunch?  Probably not the best time of year to start back into serious training after a fairly extended break.

Hope life is treating you well...

Hi Nancy! Nice to have you back.

We're trying to get Alec on a track to self-sufficiency. Getting up, making his own breakfast and lunch, etc. He's not entirely thrilled with the change.

We can't get together for a lunchtime walk. We work apart, and her lunch is at 10:40 a.m. We're kind of looking forward to the end of the school year and start of college to where we don't have other distractions and might actually be able to get back to it seriously. At least then it won't be so dang cold.

Funny thing on the snow. Every system has missed us, or at best grazed us. We had snow in the air most of the day Wednesday, with ZERO accumulation. It was like fluffy rain. So weird. (I know I can't complain. I suspect you're still digging out.)

I fondly remember those days. I did not want to depend on the cafeteria for breakfast because I'd have to get up earlier for the privilege of waiting in line.  I probably had the same thing for breakfast in a school week for probably 10 years.  Backup was cereal.  Plus, I didn't want to chew through the meal allowance because my folks were doing all they could just to pay for tuition, dorm and books.  I ate lunch in the cafeteria probably 50% of the time.  Dinner - 75%.

I had a blender, waist-high frig ($125), and a skillet.  The frig lasted until 2003 and I still use the skillet, today.  The blender also came in handy for blending adult beverages.

I'll stop there.

There will be fresh distractions for young Mr. Bowder that you won't know about.  You just have to trust all the things y'all have beat into him have stuck.  Make those hotel reservations now for Parent's Weekend (or AirBNB).

Choices have consequences.  Freedom has consequences.

ounce wrote:

Mark B wrote:

nkrichards wrote:Lots of interesting little conversations going on here...tough to follow any of them!

Anyway Hi to you and the family.  Hope Alec has settled back into school and stays on track the rest of the year.  

Has Alita been able to join you on any of your walks or are you doing most of them during lunch?  Probably not the best time of year to start back into serious training after a fairly extended break.

Hope life is treating you well...

Hi Nancy! Nice to have you back.

We're trying to get Alec on a track to self-sufficiency. Getting up, making his own breakfast and lunch, etc. He's not entirely thrilled with the change.

We can't get together for a lunchtime walk. We work apart, and her lunch is at 10:40 a.m. We're kind of looking forward to the end of the school year and start of college to where we don't have other distractions and might actually be able to get back to it seriously. At least then it won't be so dang cold.

Funny thing on the snow. Every system has missed us, or at best grazed us. We had snow in the air most of the day Wednesday, with ZERO accumulation. It was like fluffy rain. So weird. (I know I can't complain. I suspect you're still digging out.)

I fondly remember those days. I did not want to depend on the cafeteria for breakfast because I'd have to get up earlier for the privilege of waiting in line.  I probably had the same thing for breakfast in a school week for probably 10 years.  Backup was cereal.  Plus, I didn't want to chew through the meal allowance because my folks were doing all they could just to pay for tuition, dorm and books.  I ate lunch in the cafeteria probably 50% of the time.  Dinner - 75%.

I had a blender, waist-high frig ($125), and a skillet.  The frig lasted until 2003 and I still use the skillet, today.  The blender also came in handy for blending adult beverages.

I'll stop there.

There will be fresh distractions for young Mr. Bowder that you won't know about.  You just have to trust all the things y'all have beat into him have stuck.  Make those hotel reservations now for Parent's Weekend (or AirBNB).

Choices have consequences.  Freedom has consequences.

 Don't scare Mark anymore than he already is!  Alec will do fine.  I'm not saying he won't have a few bumps in the road as most of us did but he's got a good base to fall back on.

So...the snow...we had a total of over 18" but probably less than 24".  It melted and settled a bit.  It warmed up enough last week to get the main roads clear and dry but the side roads and parking lots were still a mess and it was still over a foot deep on the flats.  Fortunately it warmed up enough for most of the snow to slide off roofs...at least the metal roofs...on Thursday.  (Several sheds have collapsed)  I was lucky that my car was outside when it came off the garage as I was in charge of picking up the girls from school and it blocked my garage door!  AND THEN...it was snowing when we went to bed last night but they didn't predict it to last long.  We woke up early to 8" of new snow at at 10:00 it's still snowing!!!  This is getting ridiculous.  It's nearly Spring.  Marty is convinced that when we change the clocks tonight and have an extra hour of daylight it will warm up and melt! lol 

Mom said they had an inch of snow overnight in Sandy so it sounds like you were probably right on the fringe again Mark.

Tough to get motivated to get out there and walk or run in these conditions although I'd rather be out in the snow/cold than your rain.  Here's to Spring weather...

My, my.  

It's supposed to get up to 81, today.  Presently, it's 79.  Although in a week, we're supposed to be back in the 50's.  Seasonal is 71.

It was a balmy 40 degrees this morning, and raining, which means more snow up at higher elevations. Sorry, Nancy!

We're not overly worried about Alec being away at college, other than the whole being able to get up and get to class and study sort of thing. But that's normal. I do wish that college wasn't so expensive, because it puts the air of "EVERYTHING IS IMPORTANT" over, well, everything. It limits the imagination and limits the sense of exploration that is so important, because, money. It makes higher education just another thing to get over with as soon as possible at the lowest possible cost to avoid ruinous debt.

Mark B wrote:It was a balmy 40 degrees this morning, and raining, which means more snow up at higher elevations. Sorry, Nancy!

We're not overly worried about Alec being away at college, other than the whole being able to get up and get to class and study sort of thing. But that's normal. I do wish that college wasn't so expensive, because it puts the air of "EVERYTHING IS IMPORTANT" over, well, everything. It limits the imagination and limits the sense of exploration that is so important, because, money. It makes higher education just another thing to get over with as soon as possible at the lowest possible cost to avoid ruinous debt.

Yeah, I figure he'll do well.  I hope his eventual degree choice is marketable enough to get y'all out from under him.  Or at least to get some help on paying for a Masters.

Last you said, it's a Science degree related, like anthropology or environmental science and I could be way off in my remembrance.  

Is the 'sticker price' for tuition at Coug-ville the price you're paying or is it based on income?  I guess room 'n board, fees, and books are sticker price.  

It'll all be worth it.

ounce wrote:

Mark B wrote:It was a balmy 40 degrees this morning, and raining, which means more snow up at higher elevations. Sorry, Nancy!

We're not overly worried about Alec being away at college, other than the whole being able to get up and get to class and study sort of thing. But that's normal. I do wish that college wasn't so expensive, because it puts the air of "EVERYTHING IS IMPORTANT" over, well, everything. It limits the imagination and limits the sense of exploration that is so important, because, money. It makes higher education just another thing to get over with as soon as possible at the lowest possible cost to avoid ruinous debt.

Yeah, I figure he'll do well.  I hope his eventual degree choice is marketable enough to get y'all out from under him.  Or at least to get some help on paying for a Masters.

Last you said, it's a Science degree related, like anthropology or environmental science and I could be way off in my remembrance.  

Is the 'sticker price' for tuition at Coug-ville the price you're paying or is it based on income?  I guess room 'n board, fees, and books are sticker price.  

It'll all be worth it.

It's a state school, and he's paying in-state tuition, so it could be worse. Still, the total cost, including room and board for the first year, is about 27 grand. We have some scholarship money already, but he's likely to lose one of those due to slipping grades. We are waiting on a bunch of other scholarship applications, so we're crossing our fingers and hoping for the best.

He's interested in anthropology/archaeology, and there are some jobs out there associated with that speciality, though I could also imagine him gravitating toward teaching history or something like it eventually. It'll be interesting to see how it all plays out.

Mark B wrote:

ounce wrote:

Mark B wrote:It was a balmy 40 degrees this morning, and raining, which means more snow up at higher elevations. Sorry, Nancy!

We're not overly worried about Alec being away at college, other than the whole being able to get up and get to class and study sort of thing. But that's normal. I do wish that college wasn't so expensive, because it puts the air of "EVERYTHING IS IMPORTANT" over, well, everything. It limits the imagination and limits the sense of exploration that is so important, because, money. It makes higher education just another thing to get over with as soon as possible at the lowest possible cost to avoid ruinous debt.

Yeah, I figure he'll do well.  I hope his eventual degree choice is marketable enough to get y'all out from under him.  Or at least to get some help on paying for a Masters.

Last you said, it's a Science degree related, like anthropology or environmental science and I could be way off in my remembrance.  

Is the 'sticker price' for tuition at Coug-ville the price you're paying or is it based on income?  I guess room 'n board, fees, and books are sticker price.  

It'll all be worth it.

It's a state school, and he's paying in-state tuition, so it could be worse. Still, the total cost, including room and board for the first year, is about 27 grand. We have some scholarship money already, but he's likely to lose one of those due to slipping grades. We are waiting on a bunch of other scholarship applications, so we're crossing our fingers and hoping for the best.

He's interested in anthropology/archaeology, and there are some jobs out there associated with that speciality, though I could also imagine him gravitating toward teaching history or something like it eventually. It'll be interesting to see how it all plays out.

Our contribution to our children's college education was making sure they qualified for financial aid.  At that point in our lives they all qualified for free school lunches so that opened up need based scholarships.

It is fun to see where they go in their lives:

• Gary spent 7 years at Oregon State University and left with a scuba diving instructor certificate and a future wife.  He eventually started his own electrical contractor business and is quite successful.
  
• Katie went as far from home as she could and studied aerospace engineering at Florida Tech.  She had some awesome intern experiences at the Kennedy Space Center working in/around the shuttles.  She realized that she did not want to work for the government or a government contractor and missed family events so she returned to Oregon and switched to Computer Engineering.  She sputtered a bit then worked for Intel for 10+ years, sputtered a bit more and is now back in the Portland area working in the computer field again.
  
• Kevin started out at Oregon State University studying agriculture because that's where the scholarships were.  He gradually switched to Economics with a Math minor.  He did his graduate work at Georgetown in Economics and Public Policy.  He interned with Bush's Council of Economic Advisors.  His first job was traveling the world (Vietnam, Pakistan...) working on economic development projects funded by the World Bank.  Then he got a serious girlfriend and settled into life in DC working for the American Farm Bureau on public policy issues.  He was a registered lobbyist for a while.    When he decided to start a family he asked about the possibility of moving home to the farm.  Not what we expected.
  

Sorry for all the detail.  I guess what I'm saying is you never know where they'll end up but it all seems to work out in the end.  Alec will do fine I'm sure.

nkrichards wrote:

Mark B wrote:

ounce wrote:

Mark B wrote:It was a balmy 40 degrees this morning, and raining, which means more snow up at higher elevations. Sorry, Nancy!

We're not overly worried about Alec being away at college, other than the whole being able to get up and get to class and study sort of thing. But that's normal. I do wish that college wasn't so expensive, because it puts the air of "EVERYTHING IS IMPORTANT" over, well, everything. It limits the imagination and limits the sense of exploration that is so important, because, money. It makes higher education just another thing to get over with as soon as possible at the lowest possible cost to avoid ruinous debt.

Yeah, I figure he'll do well.  I hope his eventual degree choice is marketable enough to get y'all out from under him.  Or at least to get some help on paying for a Masters.

Last you said, it's a Science degree related, like anthropology or environmental science and I could be way off in my remembrance.  

Is the 'sticker price' for tuition at Coug-ville the price you're paying or is it based on income?  I guess room 'n board, fees, and books are sticker price.  

It'll all be worth it.

It's a state school, and he's paying in-state tuition, so it could be worse. Still, the total cost, including room and board for the first year, is about 27 grand. We have some scholarship money already, but he's likely to lose one of those due to slipping grades. We are waiting on a bunch of other scholarship applications, so we're crossing our fingers and hoping for the best.

He's interested in anthropology/archaeology, and there are some jobs out there associated with that speciality, though I could also imagine him gravitating toward teaching history or something like it eventually. It'll be interesting to see how it all plays out.

Our contribution to our children's college education was making sure they qualified for financial aid.  At that point in our lives they all qualified for free school lunches so that opened up need based scholarships.

It is fun to see where they go in their lives:

• Gary spent 7 years at Oregon State University and left with a scuba diving instructor certificate and a future wife.  He eventually started his own electrical contractor business and is quite successful.
  
• Katie went as far from home as she could and studied aerospace engineering at Florida Tech.  She had some awesome intern experiences at the Kennedy Space Center working in/around the shuttles.  She realized that she did not want to work for the government or a government contractor and missed family events so she returned to Oregon and switched to Computer Engineering.  She sputtered a bit then worked for Intel for 10+ years, sputtered a bit more and is now back in the Portland area working in the computer field again.
  
• Kevin started out at Oregon State University studying agriculture because that's where the scholarships were.  He gradually switched to Economics with a Math minor.  He did his graduate work at Georgetown in Economics and Public Policy.  He interned with Bush's Council of Economic Advisors.  His first job was traveling the world (Vietnam, Pakistan...) working on economic development projects funded by the World Bank.  Then he got a serious girlfriend and settled into life in DC working for the American Farm Bureau on public policy issues.  He was a registered lobbyist for a while.    When he decided to start a family he asked about the possibility of moving home to the farm.  Not what we expected.
  

Sorry for all the detail.  I guess what I'm saying is you never know where they'll end up but it all seems to work out in the end.  Alec will do fine I'm sure.

No need to apologize. What a story! Life's path has many turns. I'm sure things will work out great for Alec.

As far as college finances go, maybe I should have been a farmer! We make enough to *not* qualify for need-based grants, but not enough to actually, you know, afford it. We'll figure it out.

Does the school district offer dual-credit courses transferable to college?  

Y'all will get there and wonder in 4 years how quickly it went by.  Maybe go back to the night shift?

ounce wrote:Does the school district offer dual-credit courses transferable to college?  

Y'all will get there and wonder in 4 years how quickly it went by.  Maybe go back to the night shift?

Alec has been taking a bunch of AP classes since 10th grade. He already has 9 college credits accrued, and if all goes well in this year's AP tests, he'll get 6 more. That will be the credit equivalent of half a school year of classes. So that'll help a lot.

No more night shift for me, though. At least, not at the paper. When you're salary, if you work an extra 20 hours a week, you still get the same salary, so that doesn't help. We'll figure it out. And we're still keeping our fingers crossed for scholarships and other aid.

Mark B wrote:

ounce wrote:Does the school district offer dual-credit courses transferable to college?  

Y'all will get there and wonder in 4 years how quickly it went by.  Maybe go back to the night shift?

Alec has been taking a bunch of AP classes since 10th grade. He already has 9 college credits accrued, and if all goes well in this year's AP tests, he'll get 6 more. That will be the credit equivalent of half a school year of classes. So that'll help a lot.

No more night shift for me, though. At least, not at the paper. When you're salary, if you work an extra 20 hours a week, you still get the same salary, so that doesn't help. We'll figure it out. And we're still keeping our fingers crossed for scholarships and other aid.

Yes, 9-15 hours will be a good help.  

It doesn't look like the UCORE classes or the 1st and 2nd year courses in the degree plan for Anthropology have many that could be transferred in from Clark College or the descriptions doesn't stick out as a match with something at Clark.  That's a shame.

"Dual-credit" courses are college level freshman courses offered at the high school level in Texas.  They're mostly US History, English, and Civics.  If you pass, you get credit in both places.  Then if the AP classes were added, you could almost place out of the freshman year.

Ultreya!

Oh, well.  Maybe you can get him a sign, some water, and a bucket so he can wash cars for $5.  Mud +$15.

ounce wrote:

Mark B wrote:

ounce wrote:Does the school district offer dual-credit courses transferable to college?  

Y'all will get there and wonder in 4 years how quickly it went by.  Maybe go back to the night shift?

Alec has been taking a bunch of AP classes since 10th grade. He already has 9 college credits accrued, and if all goes well in this year's AP tests, he'll get 6 more. That will be the credit equivalent of half a school year of classes. So that'll help a lot.

No more night shift for me, though. At least, not at the paper. When you're salary, if you work an extra 20 hours a week, you still get the same salary, so that doesn't help. We'll figure it out. And we're still keeping our fingers crossed for scholarships and other aid.

Yes, 9-15 hours will be a good help.  

It doesn't look like the UCORE classes or the 1st and 2nd year courses in the degree plan for Anthropology have many that could be transferred in from Clark College or the descriptions doesn't stick out as a match with something at Clark.  That's a shame.

"Dual-credit" courses are college level freshman courses offered at the high school level in Texas.  They're mostly US History, English, and Civics.  If you pass, you get credit in both places.  Then if the AP classes were added, you could almost place out of the freshman year.

Ultreya!

Oh, well.  Maybe you can get him a sign, some water, and a bucket so he can wash cars for $5.  Mud +$15.

We don't have dual credit here, but we do have a program called Running Start that allows high school juniors and seniors to take college classes at Clark College (our local community college), with the potential of graduating from high school with your diploma AND an associate degree, which would put you in a four-year institution like WSU as a junior at no significant cost. Alec wasn't interested in that, and his high school's magnet program actively discouraged students from taking part, saying their SMT program and AP classes were just as good. (Clearly, they were counting on subpar math skills, because you could never get enough AP credit to equal two years of college. Oh well.)

We may be able to get him to do some work this summer at the local Panda Express. They have one in the WSU student union, and he'd kind of like to work there, and getting experience here *might* help him land a job there at some point. At least for the employee discount. I keep thinking about bringing it up with the manager (we're regulars and he's a nice guy), but we need him to concentrate on schoolwork at this point, in the hopes he can save that scholarship.

85 days, 22 hours, 30 minutes until graduation and counting....

A countdown clock!  Boy, you Admins get to play with all the tricks.

Good luck on the salvaging of scholarships.

ounce wrote:A countdown clock!  Boy, you Admins get to play with all the tricks.

Good luck on the salvaging of scholarships.

It's amazing what you can do with embed codes. I just hope the "demo" doesn't expire, so it can keep counting down. 

Mark B wrote:

ounce wrote:A countdown clock!  Boy, you Admins get to play with all the tricks.

Good luck on the salvaging of scholarships.

It's amazing what you can do with embed codes. I just hope the "demo" doesn't expire, so it can keep counting down. 

Clock is still ticking...

Have you started planning the party yet?

nkrichards wrote:

Mark B wrote:

ounce wrote:A countdown clock!  Boy, you Admins get to play with all the tricks.

Good luck on the salvaging of scholarships.

It's amazing what you can do with embed codes. I just hope the "demo" doesn't expire, so it can keep counting down. 

Clock is still ticking...

Have you started planning the party yet?

No party planning for us, but he's considering going to the school's grad night party.

Mark B wrote:

nkrichards wrote:

Mark B wrote:

ounce wrote:A countdown clock!  Boy, you Admins get to play with all the tricks.

Good luck on the salvaging of scholarships.

It's amazing what you can do with embed codes. I just hope the "demo" doesn't expire, so it can keep counting down. 

Clock is still ticking...

Have you started planning the party yet?

No party planning for us, but he's considering going to the school's grad night party.

Ah, I remember that night.  It was still legal to drink at 18 and "MADD" was Mad magazine with an extra D.

Good luck to your Ducks, this week.  U of H made it for the first time in 35 years which was the rookie year of U of H grad Clyde Drexler with Portland.  He still lives in Houston.

No worries, Mark - it is what it is.   Shannon took several AP classes in high school and at BU (Boston University) all she got was a "that's nice, you can start at the next highest level if you wish".  I expected that as most of the East Coast schools are that way as is GA Tech and even Georgia.  Now she could have gone to a "lesser" level (i.e. simply smaller and not known outside the state) school and receive about 1.5 semesters of credit, but I didn't want to force her to do that.

Fortunately or unfortunately; however you wish to look at it, we did not qualify for any sort of financial aid and Shannon was not "smart" enough or "talented - special like a sport or singing or...- you get the picture" to obtain that sort of scholarship - so we forked out the entire bill.   $67K per year for 4 yrs.   

Now, she did graduate and get a job immediately as a high school teacher - but she only makes a salary of $45K.  Once she finishes her Masters (1.5 yrs), she will automatically get a $10k raise so she'll be making a salary in the mid-high 50s.  So not what her Engineering friends make, but really not so bad at all.  Many of her friends with degrees from the school of Communications (yes, journalists), have not even found jobs in their fields and while several friends seem to have glamourous jobs with high salaries in NYC - it is NYC and she probably takes home more money as the cost of living here in GA is far less.

So in essence, it is what it is and college should be not just for learning, but should also be 4 very important years of your life.

"It is what it is."

I know that's true, but it's going to be one of the more difficult parts of this transition. You want so much for things to go well, but who can say what is "well" and what the benefits of something not going "well" might ultimately be? What I do know is that we're all looking forward to his move to college next fall -- so much that these last few months of high school feel more like a slog than a victory march, with just enough anxiety thrown in to make the imminent successful completion of 12 years of education feel like the opposite. I just hope he doesn't feel that way.

Enough navel gazing. We will all get through this and be glad to be able to look back at it. Rough patches don't make the journey less worthwhile.

Okay, this is a running blog, so I think I ought to at least let you know what I've been doing lately.

I've had a LONG hiatus from running ever since we finished that super-hot and super-rough 25K back in July. I'd done some walking at lunch, but that fell by the wayside when I got the mother of all bugs that had me on antibiotics twice for sinus infections. Fun! Kind of lost my mojo after that, but I resumed lunchtime walks starting in mid-February. I haven't managed to be consistent yet (weather and work distractions, mostly), but I'm working on it. We are also going for hikes in the woods with Alec every couple of weeks -- to the point to where he now wants to do it with us *every* weekend. That is not a bad thing.

And the best part? I can feel my strength (and maybe even my mojo) starting to come back. Walking is feeling more fluid than it did a month ago, and I'm allowing myself to bound up steps and extend the distance. It feels good.

Mark B wrote:"It is what it is."

I know that's true, but it's going to be one of the more difficult parts of this transition. You want so much for things to go well, but who can say what is "well" and what the benefits of something not going "well" might ultimately be? What I do know is that we're all looking forward to his move to college next fall -- so much that these last few months of high school feel more like a slog than a victory march, with just enough anxiety thrown in to make the imminent successful completion of 12 years of education feel like the opposite. I just hope he doesn't feel that way.

Enough navel gazing. We will all get through this and be glad to be able to look back at it. Rough patches don't make the journey less worthwhile.

Well ( ), you have so much to be thankful for.  What you were probably hoping against when the lad was still in diapers has been accomplished.  Revel in what's been accomplished because it could be so much worse.  Not being critical, but "it's not what it's not."

Mark B wrote:Okay, this is a running blog, so I think I ought to at least let you know what I've been doing lately.

I've had a LONG hiatus from running ever since we finished that super-hot and super-rough 25K back in July. I'd done some walking at lunch, but that fell by the wayside when I got the mother of all bugs that had me on antibiotics twice for sinus infections. Fun! Kind of lost my mojo after that, but I resumed lunchtime walks starting in mid-February. I haven't managed to be consistent yet (weather and work distractions, mostly), but I'm working on it. We are also going for hikes in the woods with Alec every couple of weeks -- to the point to where he now wants to do it with us *every* weekend. That is not a bad thing.

And the best part? I can feel my strength (and maybe even my mojo) starting to come back. Walking is feeling more fluid than it did a month ago, and I'm allowing myself to bound up steps and extend the distance. It feels good.

The paparazzi hounds you on your walks, too?!  That's the main reason why I run in the dark.  Life is SO much easier.

Maybe the hikes will attach to him so much that he'll probably look for trails at Cougville.  Girls just might like hiking, too!

Gratz on getting back out there!

ounce wrote:Well ( ), you have so much to be thankful for.  What you were probably hoping against when the lad was still in diapers has been accomplished.  Revel in what's been accomplished because it could be so much worse.  Not being critical, but "it's not what it's not."

Yes. Things could be so much worse, and unfortunately for too many people, they are. It can break your heart.

Boy, time flies when you're having fun!

Let's see what's happened since I last posted.

- We went to the Oregon Coast for spring vacation. 

- Alita had to have a root canal. 

- Alec finally passed his driver's license exam. 

- Allstate told us how much it'd cost to insure him.

- An independent agent referred by a neighbor found us better coverage for all 3 of us at a screaming deal. 

- I used one of those grocery store blood pressure machines and it showing unusually high blood pressure for me. Weight's up, too. 

- So I started a low-carb ketoish type of eating strategy to see if it'd help. It's been easier than I thought it'd be so far. 

- And a bunch of other stuff. 

So to say that its been a roller coaster ride of ups and downs would be pretty much accurate. Trying to mitigate the stress all these good and not good things are causing, and it's left us all a bit twitchy. We're hoping things start to settle down so we can depressurize a bit. 

I am walking as much as I can, when I can, during my lunch breaks. It feels good, and I can feel my muscles starting to wake up. Our plan is to try to get moving faster soon, though realistically it's probably after school is out. 

And only 49 days to graduation!