Sneaked a portal peek this morning. Dd doesn't know it yet but she has been accepted at Clark University. Now to keep quiet until she looks. Which is a challenge for me. I am the worst secret keeper.

I love looking at the places people converted to homes. Some of the spaces are absolutely gorgeous. I couldn't live in a converted religious building. I couldn't even go to the limelight, which was a club in an old church. It just seems wrong for no rational reason. And I am not even Christian.

Pictures are a wonderful thing. Way back in the day before cell phones existed when I was in high school I was hit by a school bus. The bus driver figured I was a kid and started by saying it was my fault. I had my camera in the car and started taking pictures. Suddenly, it was I have to call the bus company.

You can have my Oxford comma when you pry it from my cold, dead, and lifeless hands. Critiquing my use of the Oxford comma would make the job of cards my husband's.

I used a consultant with both my kids. He was expensive but worth it for us. It changed my role from nag to support. Question-go ask consultant. Don't like the deadline-take it up with consultant. He was a great help with the essay and helping my kids understand what they were looking for. That said, we did not utilize him for scholarships or financial aid information. That was not his area of expertise. Here is the most valuable piece of information I learned about state school versus private school. Many private schools have money to give in the form of merit aid and needs based grants. Depending on what you qualify for it can bring the cost way down. In some cases it can cost less than or at least equal the state school. We had our kids apply to private schools with the understanding that they would not be able to attend without the financial aid. My average sat score son got in to excellent schools and received generous aid from most of them.

We steered our kids towards schools with strong liberal arts programs because neither seem particularly passionate about any subject of study. This way they would be free to discover their passion. Ds is in his sophomore year and has decided to change from Occupational Therapy to Sociology. After my initial thought of "what are you going to do with that?" I reminded myself that this is his life and as easy as it is for me to say what he should do I am not living his life.

I do know people who love secret santa and white elephant gift exchanges. I detest them. I have enough stuff. I don't want anymore. I certainly don't want a gag gift.

One more portal notification of acceptance for DD-McDaniel College. Waiting for the letter but I am assuming there will be some merit aid since this is where her brother attends and their grades and test scores were similar. If nothing else there is a sibling discount.

To answer your question, there are a surprising number of people who have no idea how taxes work. You are left shaking your head and wanting to say " That's not how this works. That's not how any of this works." We are in the midst of an overpopulation issue in the town I live in. The comments that have arisen during discussions for various solutions have been outrageous. I don't love that my taxes will be going up to pay for construction on the middle schools to expand. I recognize that it needs to be done and will pull on my girl underpants and deal with it. I will also attend meetings to learn where there is bloat and inefficient spending and try to effect change. I do pay high taxes. I happen to get some great services for my taxes. Sure, I would like more, but I don't want to pay more taxes so I manage to survive without them.

Our town is not known for it's large lots. Ours is actually pretty large for the town we live in at 60' x 110'.

A sweater is a knit item (preferably made with love by grandma). A sweatshirt is fleece. They are not the same thing.

I would probably want to do option 3. In reality I would be running myself ragged. Hang on, this too shall pass.

I definitely lean towards teetotaler. Alcohol was present while I was growing up but my parents only served alcohol at parties and holiday gatherings. It wasn't that they were anti-drinking, alcohol culture just wasn't a big part of our family. We have modeled mostly the same in our home. My dh is more apt to have a beer during a family meal once in awhile. And his family is immersed in alcohol culture. To the point where a few of them are functional alcoholics. When my dh became chronically ill and put on medications where you shouldn't drink he changed his habits to match mine. And once he was truly removed from how his family drinks it was eye opening for him. How did our alcohol use play out with our teens. Let's just say they have both made their share of poor choices. They don't drink and drive.

Acceptance to Rider University arrived today! With merit aid.

One more acceptance for dd came yesterday via a phone call. Albright College. Won't know about merit aid until the envelope arrives. That leaves 4 more we are waiting on. Should have everything by the end of this month. The waiting is killing me.

Absolutely. We all switched to buying grandma sweets and flowers when she was around 85. She already had more nightgowns then she will ever use. She had already given us most of her jewelry so she could see us enjoying it. What was left? She is 105 now and she still loves receiving her favorite donuts.

I love being able to blame my stupid acts on Mercury being in retrograde. Takes the pressure off me for the incredibly tactless friendship ending thing I did the other day. I no longer have to be racked with guilt for my behavior or feel bad that my attempt at making amends was shot down. Now I can grieve for the loss of the friendship without feeling bad for how it was all my fault. Mercury in retrograde is the bomb.

I read the Anne of Green Gables series until my books fell apart. I share your dream. We don't qualify to immigrate to Canada. Which made me sad.

Whistling is an outside activity.

I love my vitaclay. Before I made the investment in the vitaclay I was very happy with my aroma rice cooker.

And yet there are people who deny it even happened.

I got hit with an increase that I found a bit disproportionate but it is what it is. My premiums have only gone one way since I entered the workforce some 30+ years ago. Sometimes by a little and sometimes by a lot. Nothing new here.

Job hunting is the worst. Stressful and time consuming because it is the most important thing you are doing and not necessarily the same level of importance to the hiring company. Good luck with your search. It sounds like you have some excellent leads. I will mention another mom on here put VIPKid on my radar. I just got hired by them this month and it has been great. I work from home early in the morning and am done by 9am.

My 19 year old is still waiting for his beard to come in. He still looks mostly like shaggy from Scooby Doo. He shaves 2x per week. One of his friends was sporting full facial hair by 15.

Another vote for www.budgetbytes.com I also like www.glutenfreeonashoestring.com