working out for Disney

[Sans Souci]

Hello-

Checking in with two workouts; one yesterday and the other today. We got back yesterday. We went to the National Archives and then American History Museum. We always try to go when they open because the tour groups arrive later on in the day. It's pretty amazing to see the Bill of Rights, the Constitution and the Declaration of Independence. In the American History Museum, they have an exhibit called "Entertainment Nation." They have things like Dorothy's ruby slippers, the dress Cyndi Lauper wore on the cover of She's So Unusual and Archie and Edith Bunker's chairs. It's a fun little exhibit. But they have other exhibits about immigration and democracy that are interesting. I got "people'd out" there, so we just spent the rest of the afternoon walking around the Mall, since the weather was mild. We had reservations for dinner, but with the holidays, I was so tired of eating. We went out for tapas the night before and I honestly didn't feel like getting ready to go out. So we just had Chinese food delivered. I was able to get something on the lighter side and I wasn't eating for the sake of eating.

 

[Sans Souci]

Good morning-

I typically don't workout on Sundays, other than a walk, but I felt like doing something today. I did a 15 min hiit workout, then I did a 15 min stretching workout. I really like the mood boost I get from the higher intensity/impact workouts, but I worry about my joints. So far I have had no issues, but I feel like I am on borrowed time. lol

My son is making Indian food for dinner tonight. He actually started yesterday. He fried up pounds, literal pounds of onions yesterday and when I went out, I could smell the onions in my hair and on my clothes. Today will be worse, because he is going to complete the dish. The last time he made a big Indian meal you could smell the curry outside of the house and the house smelled like curry for a week. No amount of Bath and Body Works candles can abolish the curry smell. I love Indian food, but this is one reason why eat it in a restaurant or I get carry outs. Nonetheless, he puts a lot of time and effort into making these meals as authentic as possible, so I don't complain about it in front of him. I think it's great that he does this.

I hope everyone has a safe and fun NYE and I will "see" you new next year!

 

[Sans Souci]

Happy 2024!

Checking in with a 15 min HIIT w/o and a 15 min stretching routine. The holiday foods and beverages are in the rear view mirror. I had a healthy breakfast and I am making a Cuban-style pork tenderloin for dinner.

The dinner my son made last night was really good. It was chicken biryani and it was a baked dish, so the house doesn't smell like curry so strongly. It was such a massive dish that could feed an army. lol

My goals this year are: to master the pistol squat, use my language app for 15 min/day and to learn crochet.

 

[Lilofan]

Good morning-

I typically don't workout on Sundays, other than a walk, but I felt like doing something today. I did a 15 min hiit workout, then I did a 15 min stretching workout. I really like the mood boost I get from the higher intensity/impact workouts, but I worry about my joints. So far I have had no issues, but I feel like I am on borrowed time. lol

My son is making Indian food for dinner tonight. He actually started yesterday. He fried up pounds, literal pounds of onions yesterday and when I went out, I could smell the onions in my hair and on my clothes. Today will be worse, because he is going to complete the dish. The last time he made a big Indian meal you could smell the curry outside of the house and the house smelled like curry for a week. No amount of Bath and Body Works candles can abolish the curry smell. I love Indian food, but this is one reason why eat it in a restaurant or I get carry outs. Nonetheless, he puts a lot of time and effort into making these meals as authentic as possible, so I don't complain about it in front of him. I think it's great that he does this.

I hope everyone has a safe and fun NYE and I will "see" you new next year!

If you buy an ozone machine, this will remove smells. Just leave it on and leave the room while the machine runs. When I visited my aunt who lives in a NYC high rise apt one could smell the food smells in the hallways.

 

[Songbird76]

So a whole camping trip got cancelled because of this woman? And she was still angry that you made alternate plans that didn't use troop money because you didn't invite her daughter? Ugh. She sounds frustrating to deal with.

I know you were raising to see a movie and have Pizza Hut. I have nothing against fund raising and kids working for a goal or extra money, I've done it for band field trips and even selling Girl Scout cookies. This seems like it has the potential to be abused, like you could have someone do something you'd probably should hire a professional do. And maybe I am a Nervous Nelly, but I would not want my son in the house of someone I didn't know or know very well. This goes double for girls.

Oh it wasn't for strangers. It was just people in our church congregation, and in a small town, it wasn't a huge congregation, so it wasn't dangerous. But yes, the one woman had wanted me to shampoo her carpet, but then couldn't rent a shampoo machine for that day, so I ended up cleaning her house instead.

And yes, the Karen was angry that I still got to go with the girl scout trip from Minnesota. A couple of years before, we had taken a trip to Mount Rushmore and while we were there, there was another troop of girl scouts there at the same time. We chatted briefly and found out they were from Buffalo Minnesota, and a good friend of my mom's from her high school days happened to live in Buffalo Minnesota, so she asked her friend to find out who the troop leader was and set up a pen pal system with that troop. So for the entire year, we wrote letters to our penpals and they were raising money for a trip to Yellowstone. So their leader and my mom worked out a plan... My mom had been to Yellowstone quite a few times and their leader had never been and was nervous, not knowing her way around. She asked my mom for advice and they thought it would be fun to do a joint trip with both trips. So they would drive out to our town, we would host them for a few days, take them on tours of one of the coal mines, and of the Durham bison ranch just outside town, and then we'd go to Yellowstone all together. We'd been planning it for a whole year. Our troop had two leaders... My mom and the mom of two other girls in the troop. I had worked so hard selling cookies that year, and I had sold over 500 boxes. The next best seller didn't even break 100. And in a town of only 1200 people, selling 500 boxes of cookies is a huge accomplishment. So really, probably about 75% or more of the money raised for that trip was raised by me. So anyway, plans were underway, we had the itinerary, etc, and then this mom from our church threw an absolute fit that there would be a boy on a girl scout trip, staying overnight with her angel and on girl scout money that her daughter earned... Nevermind the fact that her daughter hadn't even sold 25 boxes of cookies and hadn't sold a single one of her calendars. We took over her calendars and sold them all. So her daughter hadn't really raised any money for the trip. But they threw a hissy fit and demanded that my brother be removed from the trip. My mom was a single,divorced mom and my father was emotionally abusive and not really involved in our lives. She couldn't leave my brother with him, so she was stuck, and she tried to explain that she would be paying his way herself, and that they would have a separate cabin from the girls, so he WASN'T using girl scout money, nor would he be sharing a cabin with any of the girls. But the mom was very judgemental about my mom being divorced and us being poor... She felt that divorce was a sin, bla bla. And I think she just wanted to cause problems for my mom. Her kids regularly made comments about how we didn't have a "real family" because our dad didn't live with us, etc. Anyway, she wouldn't relent, and she got a couple other parents riled up about my brother going on GS money and about him staying in a cabin with the girls, even though my mom had explained it. And so my mom said they didn't HAVE to let their daughters go if they weren't comfortable with the arrangements. We'd just go without them. Then they all got mad that the OTHER girls would still get to go, and it wasn't fair that some got to go and some didn't, even though it was their own choice. So they ended up just saying either everyone goes or no one goes, and since some refused to let their girls go if my brother was included, that meant that no one got to go. So the Minnesota troop still came to visit and do the tours, but their troop leader had been depending on my mom to help guide them to and around Yellowstone, so she asked if my mom was still willing to do that. And none of them had any problems with my brother going along since he wouldn't be sharing their cabins and my mom would pay his way. My mom agreed. It was just no longer associated with our girl scouts... It was the Minnesota troop's trip and they would basically be paying my mom to be a tour guide. So it was a job, not affiliated with our troop in any way. But the fact that we still went to Yellowstone with our pen pals when the other girls didn't get to go made the other parents livid. It was their own fault. In the end, my brother went to church camp in Nebraska at the same time, so he didn't even go on the trip, but the damage was done. The other parents had already pulled their girls and refused to let them go. They made that choice themselves when if they hadn't been so unreasonable, the trip could have been salvaged. The girls were incredibly jealous that I still got to go and they blamed me... I mean these were 11 year old girls... They were poisoned by their parents into believing that we were taking the girl scout money for ourselves. They cheated their girls out of an amazing experience because the Karen mom looked down on us because my parents were divorced. Years later, my mom worked at the grocery store with the daughter, and the daughter went to my mom and apologized for the way she had treated me in school. She got married right out of high school and I got the impression that her marriage wasn't a happy one and her parents wouldn't support a divorce, obviously, and I think she realized that they had made our lives miserable and she felt bad. Her mom was just an absolutely horrible person and her daughter paid a big price for it. Not just the canceled trip, but she had been raised a spoiled, entitled princess who wasn't used to being told no or not getting her way. She hadn't been taught to think for herself or to have good judgment and she made some big mistakes that she never could overcome. I feel bad for her. Her little brother had turned into a decent person by high school despite his parents... I don't know where he ended up, but I hope he escaped. I think he had already realized his parents were jerks and didn't care whether they agreed with his life decisions or not, so he may have been able to find some happiness, but the girl was so fixated on living the way her parents wanted her to, I doubt she's very happy. But yeah, Karen mom was a piece of work, and I think most of the time, it was her way of punishing us for our "sins".

 

[Songbird76]

Hello-

Checking in with two workouts; one yesterday and the other today. We got back yesterday. We went to the National Archives and then American History Museum. We always try to go when they open because the tour groups arrive later on in the day. It's pretty amazing to see the Bill of Rights, the Constitution and the Declaration of Independence. In the American History Museum, they have an exhibit called "Entertainment Nation." They have things like Dorothy's ruby slippers, the dress Cyndi Lauper wore on the cover of She's So Unusual and Archie and Edith Bunker's chairs. It's a fun little exhibit. But they have other exhibits about immigration and democracy that are interesting. I got "people'd out" there, so we just spent the rest of the afternoon walking around the Mall, since the weather was mild. We had reservations for dinner, but with the holidays, I was so tired of eating. We went out for tapas the night before and I honestly didn't feel like getting ready to go out. So we just had Chinese food delivered. I was able to get something on the lighter side and I wasn't eating for the sake of eating.

Is that in Philly? I'm not sure which museum, but Mt dad told me that my g-g-g-g- grandfather was a drummer boy in the revolutionary war and his drums are in a museum there. Not sure how much truth there is to that. There were three boys with the same name, all born within a year or two of each other in that area, and there's no real way to tell which one was my ancestor, because records weren't always accurate. Not everyone could write, or new their exact birth date, and census records didn't record names of wives and children at that time. Only how many children they had and whether or not they were married. So it's hard to tell which one was whom.

 

[Songbird76]

Good morning-

I typically don't workout on Sundays, other than a walk, but I felt like doing something today. I did a 15 min hiit workout, then I did a 15 min stretching workout. I really like the mood boost I get from the higher intensity/impact workouts, but I worry about my joints. So far I have had no issues, but I feel like I am on borrowed time. lol

My son is making Indian food for dinner tonight. He actually started yesterday. He fried up pounds, literal pounds of onions yesterday and when I went out, I could smell the onions in my hair and on my clothes. Today will be worse, because he is going to complete the dish. The last time he made a big Indian meal you could smell the curry outside of the house and the house smelled like curry for a week. No amount of Bath and Body Works candles can abolish the curry smell. I love Indian food, but this is one reason why eat it in a restaurant or I get carry outs. Nonetheless, he puts a lot of time and effort into making these meals as authentic as possible, so I don't complain about it in front of him. I think it's great that he does this.

I hope everyone has a safe and fun NYE and I will "see" you new next year!

I love Indian food. My husband was going to make an Indian Japanese fusion dish tonight. Chicken katsu curry. It's sooooo good. But he got called this morning to go to his parents' house and his dad was admitted to the hospital this afternoon and he's staying there. Stores are all closed today, so we're just going to have to eat junk food and stuff today instead. This holiday season has been disappointing.

I hope everyone else is having a better new years than we are!

 

[HouCuseChickie]

Sorry it's been so long since I've been on. That illness I was feeling in early December really took hold and just did not want to let go. I had tested negative for Covid and wasn't running a high fever (99.7 was the highest), so I knew it wasn't the flu. I probably should have gotten tested for RSV. I ended up doing albuterol treatments (had some around) on the nebulizer for a couple of weeks, got aggressive with my allergy meds and expectorants, and just did my best to keep it all in check. I also added in OTC pain meds for the burning sensation it created in my chest. I'm down to just a little bit of congestion when I first wake up, so I think I'm past the worst of it. So now I can start getting back into working out.

I hope everyone had a wonderful holiday season. K had madrigal choir performances right up until the very end of school, the kids both had way too many secret Santa's, then I had a busy work week since we're always skeleton crew during the holidays. The second my break started, K and I drove up to Kansas (in dense fog) to see University of Kansas. Well, we actually drove to Tulsa, OK night 1 and then to Lawrence, KS and Kansas City, MO for the day before heading back to Tulsa for another night. We hit the road early morning on Christmas Eve and drove back to Houston in flooding rains. We at least made it in time and got in all of our traditions. We spent Christmas Day at my MIL's and then my parents flew in the following day and visited until just before New Year's. I expect January to be busy, with the start of school ball for Sam and Kendall should hopefully be hearing from the remaining four schools during this month. I'll try and give updates as I get back into the swing of things.

 

[HouCuseChickie]

@HouCuseChickie ,congrats to K on making the choir and on the college acceptances! That's great! It must be stressful waiting to hear from your top choices, etc. I'm so glad it works differently here and we don't have to go through the application and acceptance process.

Yes, it sounds like a lower/no stress approach over there. What's funny is that she took a lower stress route than many American seniors. Still, the uncertainty is no fun no matter what approach you take. We'll hopefully be able to make a decision by the end of the month.

 

[Songbird76]

Yes, it sounds like a lower/no stress approach over there. What's funny is that she took a lower stress route than many American seniors. Still, the uncertainty is no fun no matter what approach you take. We'll hopefully be able to make a decision by the end of the month.

Good luck with it! Does she have a favorite?
E did all the open houses last year to check out campuses and there was one she really liked in the beginning, but the major she wanted was a numerus fixus. They do that with really popular majors here. There aren't that many universities here, and they don't all have every major. But if you choose one that a lot of kids want to do, they will limit it and either do a lottery system or they will have a competitive element. She'd be fine if they did a competitive thing. Some schools make them do a test in the subject matter they want to study and the top scorers get selected. And some schools will look at their grades in that subject in high school. Either way she'd be fine. She was looking at biomedical technology I think? She's at the top of her class and biology is one of her best subjects. Most kids here don't worry too much about actual grades because schools don't look at transcripts in general. As long as you passed, you get in. UNLESS they do a numerus fixus. Consequently, most kids are only worried about passing, which is 5.5 on a 10 point scale. But E is a perfectionist and usually gets at least a 9. As far as we know, she's the only kid in her class who has a chance at graduating -laude, meaning nothing under a 7 and having an overall average of 8 I think? We think she's the only one who's never gotten an insufficient grade. So she's fine academically, but this school did it by lottery I think and a lot of kids who don't get into the medical school then try for the biomedical technology to start and switch to medicine the next year.

Then she went to another university and they have two similar majors, neither of which are numerous fixus, and she liked that campus better. So that's where she'll go, either studying molecular life sciences or um... Maybe that's the one with bio technology? She wants to work in a lab, but not with patients. And she wants to do something that involves both Biology and Chemistry. She'd enjoy Physics, too, but not as much as Bio and Chem. She did a trial lesson in nuclear physics and really liked it, but she didn't like the school where it was offered, and she really loved the bio ones she did later, so that decided her.

Also, she can live at home if she goes to this school. It's only like an hour and a half by train, and that's a huge deal. There's a huge shortage I'd student housing and it's expensive, so being able to live at home is a huge plus.

 

[HouCuseChickie]

Good luck with it! Does she have a favorite?
E did all the open houses last year to check out campuses and there was one she really liked in the beginning, but the major she wanted was a numerus fixus. They do that with really popular majors here. There aren't that many universities here, and they don't all have every major. But if you choose one that a lot of kids want to do, they will limit it and either do a lottery system or they will have a competitive element. She'd be fine if they did a competitive thing. Some schools make them do a test in the subject matter they want to study and the top scorers get selected. And some schools will look at their grades in that subject in high school. Either way she'd be fine. She was looking at biomedical technology I think? She's at the top of her class and biology is one of her best subjects. Most kids here don't worry too much about actual grades because schools don't look at transcripts in general. As long as you passed, you get in. UNLESS they do a numerus fixus. Consequently, most kids are only worried about passing, which is 5.5 on a 10 point scale. But E is a perfectionist and usually gets at least a 9. As far as we know, she's the only kid in her class who has a chance at graduating -laude, meaning nothing under a 7 and having an overall average of 8 I think? We think she's the only one who's never gotten an insufficient grade. So she's fine academically, but this school did it by lottery I think and a lot of kids who don't get into the medical school then try for the biomedical technology to start and switch to medicine the next year.

Then she went to another university and they have two similar majors, neither of which are numerous fixus, and she liked that campus better. So that's where she'll go, either studying molecular life sciences or um... Maybe that's the one with bio technology? She wants to work in a lab, but not with patients. And she wants to do something that involves both Biology and Chemistry. She'd enjoy Physics, too, but not as much as Bio and Chem. She did a trial lesson in nuclear physics and really liked it, but she didn't like the school where it was offered, and she really loved the bio ones she did later, so that decided her.

Also, she can live at home if she goes to this school. It's only like an hour and a half by train, and that's a huge deal. There's a huge shortage I'd student housing and it's expensive, so being able to live at home is a huge plus.

She does have a favorite, but we're still waiting to hear from them. The good news is that she hasn't been rejected yet (we know some who have). While I know nearly all US colleges look at class rankings, I hate that our state ties it into admissions requirements. This whole letting in the top 6-10%, regardless of high school rating/quality, was supposed to give rural and inner-city kids a chance at a better education, but the stats show that more often than not it lets in a lot of unprepared kids who can't even make it beyond the weed-out classes. It's also created other issues with more privileged kids gaming the system. I never would have played the "switch her to a bad high school to get a top rank" game, but I would have had her in summer dual enrollment classes since 8th grade if I had known it's used to artificially inflate class rank. This is why so many colleges now insist on seeing unweighted GPAs and why I'm truly hoping her top school recognizes that she took five of their weed out classes in high school and passed with flying colors. So, we're still in a holding pattern...waiting on word from four more schools. We should have a formal decision by the end of this month.

While I don't think any of the US schools use the Dutch numerus fixus term, it's a common approach for high demand programs here as well. I saw it at my university with our communications school and you hear about it a lot with engineering programs. You see a lot of kids willing to start on a liberal arts path if they can make it under general admission and prove that they deserve to be in that more selective degree program. With E's rating on the numeric scale, it sounds like she should have a decent chance at all of these programs that are numerus fixus. I can relate to the whole not liking the school aspect as well. I know I went through it and I see it with K. She's gotten into some good schools with well ranked programs and some have been really generous with their offers, but it's tough when she doesn't love the schools as much as others.

K has one acceptance where she could commute from home, but she wants the traditional US university experience and would prefer to be a distance from home. Housing is also a concern. Her top choice is such an issue that they suggest you pay to enter a housing lottery even if you have yet to be accepted. The school currently sitting in #2 on her list makes freshman live on campus in university housing, so she'd be guaranteed a dorm room at that school.

 

[Songbird76]

She does have a favorite, but we're still waiting to hear from them. The good news is that she hasn't been rejected yet (we know some who have). While I know nearly all US colleges look at class rankings, I hate that our state ties it into admissions requirements. This whole letting in the top 6-10%, regardless of high school rating/quality, was supposed to give rural and inner-city kids a chance at a better education, but the stats show that more often than not it lets in a lot of unprepared kids who can't even make it beyond the weed-out classes. It's also created other issues with more privileged kids gaming the system. I never would have played the "switch her to a bad high school to get a top rank" game, but I would have had her in summer dual enrollment classes since 8th grade if I had known it's used to artificially inflate class rank. This is why so many colleges now insist on seeing unweighted GPAs and why I'm truly hoping her top school recognizes that she took five of their weed out classes in high school and passed with flying colors. So, we're still in a holding pattern...waiting on word from four more schools. We should have a formal decision by the end of this month.

While I don't think any of the US schools use the Dutch numerus fixus term, it's a common approach for high demand programs here as well. I saw it at my university with our communications school and you hear about it a lot with engineering programs. You see a lot of kids willing to start on a liberal arts path if they can make it under general admission and prove that they deserve to be in that more selective degree program. With E's rating on the numeric scale, it sounds like she should have a decent chance at all of these programs that are numerus fixus. I can relate to the whole not liking the school aspect as well. I know I went through it and I see it with K. She's gotten into some good schools with well ranked programs and some have been really generous with their offers, but it's tough when she doesn't love the schools as much as others.

K has one acceptance where she could commute from home, but she wants the traditional US university experience and would prefer to be a distance from home. Housing is also a concern. Her top choice is such an issue that they suggest you pay to enter a housing lottery even if you have yet to be accepted. The school currently sitting in #2 on her list makes freshman live on campus in university housing, so she'd be guaranteed a dorm room at that school.

Yeah we don't have GPA or class ranking here at all. We're pretty sure E would be valedictorian if we had that here because she knows other people's grades and she knows how people just expect that she will have the highest grade. But universities can't turn you down if you graduated from her level of high school. There's no application and acceptance /rejection process here at all. She just signs up for the school and program she wants to do, and unless it's a numerus fixus, she's in. We also don't have general classes that everyone has to take. Everything is geared toward their major. E won't have to take any literature or social studies, or humanities, classes. If she has a writing course, it will be strictly for learning how to write papers on her research, etc.

But with housing, there are no dorms anywhere. There are some apartments that are designated for students and they have waiting lists. They recommend you get on the waiting list anywhere you are considering because some of the waiting lists are 5 years long. E would prefer to not have to commute, but she may not have a choice, so it's good that she chose a school where she CAN live at home. When I went to college, I was so glad there was no university close to home. I did NOT want to live at home. My mom was so strict and unreasonable and I wanted to have a life. I wanted to be able to go out with my friends and wear clothes that were in style, etc...
My brother went to the same college as me, so when I graduated high school, my brother was already there and my mom announced that she was going to move there so I could live with her. I told her she could move there, but I wouldn't be living with her. I told her I wanted the full college experience of living in the dorms with the other kids and having the whole dorm life with community activities, etc. Mom was livid and told people I wouldn't "let her move." But the real reason was I wanted my independence and knew I wouldn't have it if I lived with her. I could just imagine my friends saying "let's go see a movie!" and having to say, "I can't. My curfew is dark." I didn't want that embarrassment at 19 years old. My mom did not deal well with me becoming independent. I was 19, paying for college on my own without a penny from my parents, getting straight A's and I didn't drink or smoke or do anything I shouldn't have been doing, but she wrote me a 14 page letter telling me how much of a disappointment I was because I was "rebelling" and not obedient and why did I wait until I was 19 to rebel. I had to write back reminding her that it wasn't rebelling when I was a legal adult... It was called being independent. She didn't have authority over me anymore and had to trust that she did a good enough job raising me that I could handle myself and make good choices. So for me, moving away from home was essential. For E, we know we're both going to miss each other terribly when she eventually moves out. We're very close. So if she can't get student housing and HAS to live at home, it will be less convenient, but she won't be miserable. But college is a completely different experience here than it is in the US. If we were in the US, she'd probably going somewhere far away and she'd have a substantial scholarship to pay for school. If you're familiar with Gilmore Girls, Rory going off to college and calling her mom to come back immediately because she missed her, and Lorelai staying the night there, that would be me and E, minus the howling.

 

[ajrwdwgirl]

Yeah we don't have GPA or class ranking here at all. We're pretty sure E would be valedictorian if we had that here because she knows other people's grades and she knows how people just expect that she will have the highest grade. But universities can't turn you down if you graduated from her level of high school. There's no application and acceptance /rejection process here at all. She just signs up for the school and program she wants to do, and unless it's a numerus fixus, she's in. We also don't have general classes that everyone has to take. Everything is geared toward their major. E won't have to take any literature or social studies, or humanities, classes. If she has a writing course, it will be strictly for learning how to write papers on her research, etc.

But with housing, there are no dorms anywhere. There are some apartments that are designated for students and they have waiting lists. They recommend you get on the waiting list anywhere you are considering because some of the waiting lists are 5 years long. E would prefer to not have to commute, but she may not have a choice, so it's good that she chose a school where she CAN live at home. When I went to college, I was so glad there was no university close to home. I did NOT want to live at home. My mom was so strict and unreasonable and I wanted to have a life. I wanted to be able to go out with my friends and wear clothes that were in style, etc...
My brother went to the same college as me, so when I graduated high school, my brother was already there and my mom announced that she was going to move there so I could live with her. I told her she could move there, but I wouldn't be living with her. I told her I wanted the full college experience of living in the dorms with the other kids and having the whole dorm life with community activities, etc. Mom was livid and told people I wouldn't "let her move." But the real reason was I wanted my independence and knew I wouldn't have it if I lived with her. I could just imagine my friends saying "let's go see a movie!" and having to say, "I can't. My curfew is dark." I didn't want that embarrassment at 19 years old. My mom did not deal well with me becoming independent. I was 19, paying for college on my own without a penny from my parents, getting straight A's and I didn't drink or smoke or do anything I shouldn't have been doing, but she wrote me a 14 page letter telling me how much of a disappointment I was because I was "rebelling" and not obedient and why did I wait until I was 19 to rebel. I had to write back reminding her that it wasn't rebelling when I was a legal adult... It was called being independent. She didn't have authority over me anymore and had to trust that she did a good enough job raising me that I could handle myself and make good choices. So for me, moving away from home was essential. For E, we know we're both going to miss each other terribly when she eventually moves out. We're very close. So if she can't get student housing and HAS to live at home, it will be less convenient, but she won't be miserable. But college is a completely different experience here than it is in the US. If we were in the US, she'd probably going somewhere far away and she'd have a substantial scholarship to pay for school. If you're familiar with Gilmore Girls, Rory going off to college and calling her mom to come back immediately because she missed her, and Lorelai staying the night there, that would be me and E, minus the howling.

Has she ever thought about going to university in the states? Maybe she could do the Disney college program then.

 

[Sans Souci]

I love Indian food. My husband was going to make an Indian Japanese fusion dish tonight. Chicken katsu curry. It's sooooo good. But he got called this morning to go to his parents' house and his dad was admitted to the hospital this afternoon and he's staying there. Stores are all closed today, so we're just going to have to eat junk food and stuff today instead. This holiday season has been disappointing.

I hope everyone else is having a better new years than we are!

Oh, wow. I hope your FIL is doing better. Not a great thing to worry about at any time of the year.

I love Japanese curry, too. There's a place down the street that does all sorts of ramen dishes with tonkatsu and chicken katsu, etc. if you want. It's really good. I might lobby to get that for dinner tomorrow, instead of our usual Indian.

 

[Sans Souci]

Sorry it's been so long since I've been on. That illness I was feeling in early December really took hold and just did not want to let go. I had tested negative for Covid and wasn't running a high fever (99.7 was the highest), so I knew it wasn't the flu. I probably should have gotten tested for RSV. I ended up doing albuterol treatments (had some around) on the nebulizer for a couple of weeks, got aggressive with my allergy meds and expectorants, and just did my best to keep it all in check. I also added in OTC pain meds for the burning sensation it created in my chest. I'm down to just a little bit of congestion when I first wake up, so I think I'm past the worst of it. So now I can start getting back into working out.

I hope everyone had a wonderful holiday season. K had madrigal choir performances right up until the very end of school, the kids both had way too many secret Santa's, then I had a busy work week since we're always skeleton crew during the holidays. The second my break started, K and I drove up to Kansas (in dense fog) to see University of Kansas. Well, we actually drove to Tulsa, OK night 1 and then to Lawrence, KS and Kansas City, MO for the day before heading back to Tulsa for another night. We hit the road early morning on Christmas Eve and drove back to Houston in flooding rains. We at least made it in time and got in all of our traditions. We spent Christmas Day at my MIL's and then my parents flew in the following day and visited until just before New Year's. I expect January to be busy, with the start of school ball for Sam and Kendall should hopefully be hearing from the remaining four schools during this month. I'll try and give updates as I get back into the swing of things.

I wonder if you had RSV, too, especially with you needing a nebulizer treatment. My husband had some upper respiratory thing a week or so before Christmas and he still has this sharp, dry cough from it. He's fine otherwise, it's just this annoying cough that won't go way. He says a lot of people in his office have had it, too. But he wasn't as unwell as you were. He sounded much worse than he felt.

You must have a million or so miles on your car! lol I can't imagine doing all of that driving and then making it home for Christmas Eve. I hope you didn't have to do too much cooking or anything after all of that driving. I really hope you were able to have even a small break for yourself.

 

[Sans Souci]

Is that in Philly? I'm not sure which museum, but Mt dad told me that my g-g-g-g- grandfather was a drummer boy in the revolutionary war and his drums are in a museum there. Not sure how much truth there is to that. There were three boys with the same name, all born within a year or two of each other in that area, and there's no real way to tell which one was my ancestor, because records weren't always accurate. Not everyone could write, or new their exact birth date, and census records didn't record names of wives and children at that time. Only how many children they had and whether or not they were married. So it's hard to tell which one was whom.

No, this was in Washington, DC. I think the museum you might be thinking about is the Museum of the American Revolution. That's in Philly. It only opened maybe 5-6 years ago. That is very cool that you can trace your family back to the Revolution.

 

[Sans Souci]

Good morning.

I've just been doing circuit training for now. The workouts are low weight/high reps which gets the heart up without jumping. There is some jumping in these workouts, but it's not excessive.

I found this genre of videos on YouTube. It's Korean camping. It's like next level camping. They have these massive, inflatable tents and they recreate a home inside. They have beds and inflatable couches. They cook inside on gas rings and some even have wood burning stoves with a hole on top of the tent for the flue. It's crazy in a fun and good way. They put down carpets , bring a TV screen and everything. It's relaxing and fun to watch. It looks like a lot of work for a weekend, but it looks very cozy. I am addicted to these videos, there is usually no talking and they have text on the screen in English.

 

[Songbird76]

Has she ever thought about going to university in the states? Maybe she could do the Disney college program then.

She used to want to do that. Now she says no way! She could probably do the college program through the UK, but I'm not sure she wants to do that anymore. I think she just kind of wants to get through school now.

 

[HouCuseChickie]

I wonder if you had RSV, too, especially with you needing a nebulizer treatment. My husband had some upper respiratory thing a week or so before Christmas and he still has this sharp, dry cough from it. He's fine otherwise, it's just this annoying cough that won't go way. He says a lot of people in his office have had it, too. But he wasn't as unwell as you were. He sounded much worse than he felt.

You must have a million or so miles on your car! lol I can't imagine doing all of that driving and then making it home for Christmas Eve. I hope you didn't have to do too much cooking or anything after all of that driving. I really hope you were able to have even a small break for yourself.

My parents had something like that as well. We think we all had the same thing but it just hit each of us a bit differently. Sam and K also were sick at the same time but it was different for each of them.

April will be 3 years and I'm around 53K miles. Once we get our summer ball schedule, we're going to have to figure out driving vs. flying and which vehicle to take on driving trips. I actually baked cookies the night before we drove to Kansas. I couldn't come up with any other time to do it, so that night I made four different kinds of cookie dough and baked until nearly midnight. We didn't have our Christmas dinner at home until the 26th and we opted to do 4th of July at Christmas (a spin on Christmas in July), so it was easier food wise. The bigger issue was cleaning. I offered to pay Sam to do a deep cleaning of the house while I was away since my parents would be coming into town. David told her to push it off. So, I wound up doing a deep cleaning as soon as we got home. I'm just trying to take me time where I can get it, but it is kind of fun to be able to travel one on one with the girls.

 

[HouCuseChickie]

Yeah we don't have GPA or class ranking here at all. We're pretty sure E would be valedictorian if we had that here because she knows other people's grades and she knows how people just expect that she will have the highest grade. But universities can't turn you down if you graduated from her level of high school. There's no application and acceptance /rejection process here at all. She just signs up for the school and program she wants to do, and unless it's a numerus fixus, she's in. We also don't have general classes that everyone has to take. Everything is geared toward their major. E won't have to take any literature or social studies, or humanities, classes. If she has a writing course, it will be strictly for learning how to write papers on her research, etc.

But with housing, there are no dorms anywhere. There are some apartments that are designated for students and they have waiting lists. They recommend you get on the waiting list anywhere you are considering because some of the waiting lists are 5 years long. E would prefer to not have to commute, but she may not have a choice, so it's good that she chose a school where she CAN live at home. When I went to college, I was so glad there was no university close to home. I did NOT want to live at home. My mom was so strict and unreasonable and I wanted to have a life. I wanted to be able to go out with my friends and wear clothes that were in style, etc...
My brother went to the same college as me, so when I graduated high school, my brother was already there and my mom announced that she was going to move there so I could live with her. I told her she could move there, but I wouldn't be living with her. I told her I wanted the full college experience of living in the dorms with the other kids and having the whole dorm life with community activities, etc. Mom was livid and told people I wouldn't "let her move." But the real reason was I wanted my independence and knew I wouldn't have it if I lived with her. I could just imagine my friends saying "let's go see a movie!" and having to say, "I can't. My curfew is dark." I didn't want that embarrassment at 19 years old. My mom did not deal well with me becoming independent. I was 19, paying for college on my own without a penny from my parents, getting straight A's and I didn't drink or smoke or do anything I shouldn't have been doing, but she wrote me a 14 page letter telling me how much of a disappointment I was because I was "rebelling" and not obedient and why did I wait until I was 19 to rebel. I had to write back reminding her that it wasn't rebelling when I was a legal adult... It was called being independent. She didn't have authority over me anymore and had to trust that she did a good enough job raising me that I could handle myself and make good choices. So for me, moving away from home was essential. For E, we know we're both going to miss each other terribly when she eventually moves out. We're very close. So if she can't get student housing and HAS to live at home, it will be less convenient, but she won't be miserable. But college is a completely different experience here than it is in the US. If we were in the US, she'd probably going somewhere far away and she'd have a substantial scholarship to pay for school. If you're familiar with Gilmore Girls, Rory going off to college and calling her mom to come back immediately because she missed her, and Lorelai staying the night there, that would be me and E, minus the howling.

At least it's straightforward for E with who would be tops and who gets in. Things would look very different here if it were strictly grades from high school classes. It's got to take so much of the stress out of this process. The writing approach sounds a bit like how my university did it. I was required to take a certain number of writing credits, but much of it was business and scientific writing. One of them even crossed into advertising and marketing writing, which was a blend of business and creative.

So, would someone put their child on an apartment waiting list when they're like 13 if they've chosen a certain path in school pre-university? It just sounds like that would be the only way to possibly guarantee a new student would have housing. At least E can commute and it's what she wants. From your previous posts, it sounds like it was beneficial that you were able to go away to school and vital that you refused to move in together with your mom while at school. Regardless of what she told people, you did what was the very best for you. Every parent and child goes through the missing each other part when they go away to school or moves out into the adult world, but I think both sides learn a new sort of independence when it occurs. I never watched Gilmore Girls, but K has and I know the Rory school emotions have her wondering how she'll be...regardless of where she goes. At least you know you can make it work for E even if she can't get housing at the start and you've got a strong relationship to help make it work.