Thank you all so much for the encouraging words. My son seems pretty excited about the new plan. He really wants to work part-time and avoid debt. The CC has been very helpful already and we are registering for classes tomorrow. It softens the blow to see him happy and relaxed with moving forward. Lori, I really appreciate the time you took to share your son's journey. You have given me plenty to be positive about. Thank you so much. K

Thinking of you today.

Oldest DS was accepted to a state school last December under early admission. We were excited for him and we're able to gather enough funds to pay his tuition. He wanted to live on campus, so he had to take on a small loan and do work study. It all seemed to be going well. Graduation announcements went out mentioning his plans, dorm supplies were procured, and deposits were paid. Fast forward to orientation (last week). DS didn't seem over enthused and I just attributed it to nerves. He's not one to buy college wear or learn the college song, ykwim? However, I thought he'd warm up sooner or later. Anyway, He called me during lunch to report that he may not be able to take any of his Comp Sci courses if he didn't place into Calc right away. I know I should have been on top of this. He fell into a state of dispair. I was at my mom's co do nearby, so I picked him up and researched the school's online site and found a sample schedule for students that are behind in math. He seemed relieved. He went back to orientation the next day and then we went home. On Wednesday, we went back to campus (it's 50 minutes in good traffic), and he took the math placement. Missed getting into the class by one question. I told him he could retake it in a week and not to panic. On the way out of the building, he turns to me and says, " Can I just go to community college and transfer?" So, today he applied at the local community college. Fortunately, they have transfer agreement with the college he was accepted to. It will probably add another year to his plans. Monday we will go to the college and see the registrar and formally withdrawl. I am so disappointed. I know some of it is about me, I never had the opportunity to go to a four year school and I was pretty pumped about him going. I'm trying to let it go and remind myself that this is just a bump in the road on his journey. I know there are other moms here struggling with so much more, I feel like a whiner. I just needed to vent somewhere safe.

Sending hugs your way.

Don't buy a frosty. Preserve that memory. I purchased a frosty last spring and it wasn't even COLD!! 😠I doubt it had any real ingredients. I kept waiting for it to melt and it never really did. Gross!

The urologist that put John Bobbitt back together did my dh's vasectomy 17 years ago. 😊 Dh has some residual pain now and then in the incision area, a rare side-effect.

I dislike Outback, Olive Garden, Applebees, Chilis. The only chain sit-down places I like are Panerai and Bonefish. Dh and I tend to dine out at locally-owned restaurants, we have plenty of them where I live. We avoid fast food. If we take a road trip, we get subs from Wawa and keep them in a cooler.

Check your student's account. The public college my son is attending this fall automatically adds the health insurance fees to his bill. He has to waive it by Sept 15. It's $2600/year!

Hugs.

Same here. We lived in the flight path of Dulles. The silent sky was very weird. The snipers terrorizing our area also made a significant impact on our lives, the hyper awareness of our vulnerability.

Thinking of you and hoping that the situation turned out much better/less traumatic than you expected.

We are with you in spirit, MrsP.

Will be sending good vibes straight to you tomorrow at 10am. What time zone are you in?

Get a lawyer. IMMEDIATELY copy all financial statements you can get your hands on. Back up any Quicken data to a thumb drive and give the info to a trusted person for safekeeping. I would also take your jointly-held credit cards and go buy gift cards for your grocery store and/or Walmart and gas in case you no longer have access to money.

We re-fied at a much lower rate than original mortgage. We took some equity out and finished our basement,invested some and funded some 529s. Our house payment remained the same and our house increased in value, so we felt it was worth the extra time/interest on our mortgage. We like having liquid assets and we are not in any hurry to pay it off though so ymmv.

Do people really ask their guests if they are carrying? I have never had that happen to me. The only person that asked me if I was carrying was a state trooper that had pulled me over. When he ran my tag, he saw that I was a ccw permit holder. When he approached my car,he asked if I had my weapon with me (I didn't). I told him no and he told me to slow down and let me off with a warning. He told me to have a nice day! The person that encouraged me to get a ccw was a LEO. His wife had one and carried often. She traveled alone across the state to visit relatives.

I think you should probably consider using a holster rather than leaving your pistol in a purse that could be accessed by a child or teen. There are some extremely comfortable holsters on the market. Checkout IWB Crossbreed holsters.

Some people conceal carry all day, everyday. There personal protection is not dependent on wheye they are going, with the exception of your typical prohibited places (schools, federal buildings and parks).

My step-father gave me a 1974 Pinto station wagon, complete with faux wood trim. I recall that it had a leaky radiator. I sold it for $50 or so when my then boyfriend talked me into buying a 1969 Karman Ghirardelli (with bad heater boxes and failing transmission). My first reliable car was my 79 Honda Civic.. ETA: Karman Ghia.....auto correct is so funny.

Which Christ-like characteristic are you exhibiting with this post? Please educate this atheist.

I'm so sorry.

IIRC, dh and I had to get a marriage license from my local city government and have the Reverend design it and submitted back to the city before we were considered legally married. So this is all ready the case in some areas.

There is one near Fredericksburg, Virginia. I haven't been to it yet, but may have to go soon. Thanks for the review.

I would cook it to extra crispy and eat it.

My husband runs Quicken99 on a Windows7 machine. He runs it in XP mode. I think this link addresses how to run older softwar in Win 8 : http://windows.microsoft.com/en-us/windows-8/older-programs-compatible-version-windows