Growing, Growing, Why???

I do not know what bug this is going around but it is a bad, bad bug. My poor Big T has had it twice, and now the hubbs and I have it.  I have almost rubbed the finish off of my door knobs with Lysol wipes,  and oh the laundry I have done.  Laundry, laundry everywhere. . .  nothing clean to wear.   I am trying to keep Sprat from getting sick due to his severe allergies to antibiotics.  I am trying to keep Big T from getting sick a third time.
Big T was invited to attend a new school in the Fall, it is a STEM program and it will give him an opportunity to try some new things.  Big T is a different kid and marches to his on music, we are going to give this a chance and see where it takes him.  He will still be able to play sports with the high school so he is thrilled with that.  He looks forward to playing lacrosse on the same team as his brother.
It is hard to believe that Big T is finishing his 8th grade year and Sprat is finishing his junior year in high school and in just a few short months I will have a senior and a freshman in high school.  Am I really old enough to have  two high school students, I guess I am, these days I could have two college students.  It just makes me feel really old to think of my babies, one in his last year of high school and one in his first year of high school, to me they are still my precious babies.

This chubby little fella will be a Senior in just a few short months.

This very cute little guy will be a Freshman in those same short months.

College Tours and What I Have Learned. . .

Sprat had said on numerous occasions that he did not want to go to a big school.  I thought it was important for him to visit a large campus and a small campus so that he would be sure that is what he wanted.  I picked a small campus that was close to us for our first visit.  Sprat fell in love with it, the most appealing thing was the 10 minute walk from dorm to class.  The draw back of smaller schools is that they may not have the major that your student is looking for.   This first campus tour set the level that all other tours would have to meet or exceed to be on his list of prospects.   This first tour was awesome because we actually met the Vice President of the University, he came in a sat with Sprat and I while we waited for our tour.  He was genuinely interested in what Sprat was going to major in and where he might go to school.  The one thing that stood out from this visit with the Vice President, he told us to pay attention to how the different schools treat you as a prospective student.  Do they care about the student's success or do they just care about the money.  That has gone with me and with Sprat to each visit.  We have paid attention to how they treated us as prospective students.  Our next visit was to a larger campus, here we were treated like a number and shuttled through just like one of the herd.  Sprat was not impressed with this University and there was no attempt to impress us with what they had to offer.  I knew going in that Sprat was not interested here but they did not know that.  Our third tour was another smaller campus, not as small as the first campus but smaller than the large Universities.   We were treated like dignitaries visiting another country here.  We received the red carpet treatment, we were driven around in a golf cart to visit the instructional buildings, dorm rooms, and the campus.  We had our interview first with an admissions counselor who wanted to make sure Sprat knew about every opportunity they had for him.  They also talked about scholarships he might be eligible for  and also told us about other places to look for scholarships.  In my eyes this University cares about their students and wants them to succeed, because if the student succeeds then the University succeeds.   They also gave us the contact information for the admissions counselor and told us to contact them if we had any questions or concerns.  That is the first time any of our tours gave us this type of information.   

The last tour I did not get to go on.  It was Sprat and the Hubbs alone.  That is kind of scary.  I sent my questions and all the things I wanted to know and just hoped that the hubbs would ask those questions.  This was another smaller University, it is a little closer than the others.   Even though this was a smaller University they behaved just like the "big boys."  The hubbs said all they talked about was how much money was required and when you had to pay it.  They do not offer the scholarship opportunities the previous University did.  Sprat was not impressed with any part of this University and neither was my hubby.  He said they were treated like a herd of cattle and there was not red carpet feel at this one.  The other thing that troubled me was that only 20% of the students were in state students and I am sorry I have a problem with Universities that only take a very small portion of students from their own home state.  

I do not need to be treated like a queen but I do want to be treated special since we are considering paying a great deal of money for a top notch education.   We do not have any other tours on the calendar right now because Sprat is pretty serious about school number three.   We will wait and see how the summer goes with his online class at our community college.  I think he will apply to school number one and school number three.  

We will have to wait and see though, you know how teenagers are and how they change their minds.

Stay tuned for the college search and application process. 

Anniversary and UNC in the Title Game. . .

I am married to the very best man on the planet with the exception of my daddy and father in law.  I had not forgotten our anniversary but I did not have anything for my very sweet hubby today and he had not forgotten and even had gifts for me this morning.   I am one lucky lady.  He got me a new rosemary plant that I have been wanting since mine died a couple years ago and chocolate.   He also gave me a very sweet card, he took great pride in the fact that he had something planned and I did not.  Usually it is the other way around.
These twenty four years have flown by, it seems like yesterday we were preparing to go on our honeymoon.   We spent a week in Ft. Lauderdale with a day trip to Key West.  We had a blast eating fresh seafood and enjoying all the sites.  The drive to Key West was awesome and oh how I loved the conch fritters.  We went to the Mel Fisher museum in Key West that has some of the treasure on display from the Atochia that Mel Fisher discovered off the coast in 1984.  My mom and dad were there when they were bringing it all ashore  that day in 1984. It was really neat being able to see some of the treasure from his discovery.  Another win for the hubbs, he gave me a silver coin from the Atochia for my wedding gift and arranged the day trip to Key West to visit the museum.
I laugh and tell people we had to get married when we did, we had to plan our wedding around the NCAA tournament.  My mom and dad went to every tournament NCAA and ACC for as long as I can remember up till the last fifteen years.  My dad is a State grad and  they are big State fans still. My lease was up at the end of March and we had a very short window between my lease ending and the start of the tournament.  Not only would my mom and dad not be there but my hubby would not have any groomsmen either.  The groomsmen were all huge UNC fans. While we were in Florida the final game was played and it just so happens we were out to eat at a local bar and grill and of course they had the game on over the bar.  The hubbs and I did not care about the game, we are not Carolina fans.   We ended up sitting at the bar to eat and you will never guess but another Carolinian end up at the bar and he was a Carolina fan.  The bar tender assumed we were also Carolina fans and I proceeded to tell him that not everyone that lives in North Carolina is a fan of UNC.  North Carolina does have a couple other really good colleges.   Hence my title for this post.