Into the Space Age

This two cow town has moved into the space age!!

Yes, we finally have high speed internet!

And for those who don't remember what dial-up was like, let me tell you that I feel like I'm cruising down the open road at 120 mph!

Not only do we now have high speed, but I can actually be on the internet and on the phone at the same time! We could only do that before if we had two separate phone lines. We also have TV service with a kajillion channels! Most of which we'll probably never watch, but it's fun to go through them! We only had 20 channels or so before, so this is lots of fun!

Zoom zoom ZOOM!

14,000 miles

I'm determined to walk more this year, and hopefully in the process do two things: lose weight and make my knee feel better! It still hurts as much as it did 2 years after the 1st surgery!!

So, I bought myself a pedometer, and I joined this awesome group of ladies who are tracking the miles they walk, bike, run, etc. We're trying to "walk" to Iraq & back because one of the ladies in the group has a husband who's going over there for a year. It was her idea and we've just all joined her in her efforts to get there! Check out our blog 14,000 miles. That's where we're going to keep track of our progress. Or you can click on that little blinkie below on my side-bar.

I'll be trying to post here from time to time about my progress. My personal goal is to "walk" to Washington DC because Megan & I are going there over spring break this year! I hope to "be there" by the end of this year. I estimate it's about 3000 miles.

I need encouragement...so please, cheer me on by leaving me a note!!

Scholarship Anxiety

This is the season for scholarship applications...a time we go into hyperdrive looking for and applying for college scholarships. Let me tell you...it's NUTS! And a bit aggravating.

Cory's had this one particular scholarship in his hands since November. If selected, he could win $60,000 ($15,000/year for 4 years). Then there are incremental awards down to $1000/year for 4 years. ANY of those would be a HUGE help to us! So what's he been doing with this application since NOVEMBER? Not a thing. Ok, he's dinked around a little bit on the essay, but has he collected all the necessary attachements? Copies of awards. Letters of recommendation. Transcripts. Nope. When is it due? NEXT WEEK!

*sigh*

I've been trying real hard to let him make his own decisions, his own choices, not to nag him about stuff...but DANGIT...this should've been his first priority. $60,000 is nothing to sneeze at. And yet, he's been ho-hum about it all.

I told him this morning that as of now...THIS was his first priority. There was nothing else more important that finishing up all the scholarship applications he's applying for (because most of them are due mid-January!).

SO THERE! Mom steps in once again to make his life miserable. But how else is that kid going to get through college? He is BRILLIANT, but doesn't have a lick of common sense!

My Poor Neglected Blog

I really need to do better about posting here because I do have a few loyal "fans" that check in. *waving at my mom & dad*

The best update in the last month & a half is that Cory has been accepted to college! We got his first acceptance letter a couple of weeks ago! SO EXCITED. His response (typical teenage boy response) was "Yeah mom, I'm excited. But I expected it." While I was trying to hold back the tears. I know deep down he's just as excited as we are! Now comes the hard part. Figuring out how to pay for it all. He's going out of state, and we were lucky enough to get a $7500/year grant from the school based on his academics! Now we just have to figure out how to get grants, scholarships & loans for the rest of it.

Wrestling season started about a month ago. Cory has finally come into his own. We were beginning to see signs of it at the end of last season, but wow...he's really doing well! He's confident, strong and knows what he's doing. His first tournament, he got 5th place, then 3rd place and last weekend he got 2nd place! He didn't wrestle well today (didn't place at all). He was upset, but I think he understands that he just has to chalk this one up to experience and the fact that you can't win them all.

I know I talk alot about Cory, and you know that he's not an only child. Megan's doing spectacularly as well. She's just not involved in as many activities as Cory is. She's more of a stay at home & chat with your friends kind of girl. She did perform a featured solo in the winter jazz band concert and did a fabulous job! I was so impressed. She plays the piano beautifully. I just wish she would practice more. She'd rather play SIMS or talk to her friends more!

Coming into the technological age!

This two cow town is coming into the technological age! At last! The City has requested Verizon (phone company) and Charter (cable TV company), many times to provide us with high speed speed internet. Both companies told us in no uncertain terms that it wasn't cost effective for them to light the fiber optic cable that was already running through the center of town. Finally, this year, a small company called Comspan has agreed to bring us high speed internet. I'm SO excited.

Right now we can only connect here at home at 28.8 kbps (at work I can connect at 56.6). With this new service we'll get 2 Mbps!! Lightening speed compared to what we have now! WOW! We'll also get TWO phone lines (one with unlimited long distance) and 170 digital TV channels! whoohooo! We're dumping Verizon & Charter and I hope they feel it!

Senior Night

This seems to be a year of "last times" for us. Cory's last year of high school, thursday was his last football practice, last night was his last football game. I cried. Especially when he told me that he handed over his lineman gloves to one of his teammates after the game. I know it's also a time of "first times" for us as well...Cory's applying to college, so we have his first application and will be looking forward to his first acceptance letter. But for now, it's a poignant time for us as we watch him finish one chapter of his life and begin another.


Here's Cory & two of his teammates. Cory's the smallest kid on the team and played left guard!

Family

I just wanted to post a couple of pics.


Here's one of my new kitty...Gracie. She's a cute little thing. Weighs about 4 pounds now. She follows me everywhere and swats at my feet to get my attention when she thinks I've been ignoring her. The little purple house behind her collapses, and she loves to pounce on the house and flatten it, only to have it spring right back up when she gets off of it. We laugh so hard watching her antics.

Here's one of the kids.

We went to the Redwoods a couple of weekends ago. The last time we were there, Cory was about 7 and Megan 5. It was a beautiful day, and we took several short hikes through the some of the hugest trees in the world. The Redwoods are just amazing, and I could've stayed there forever.