December 14th, 2006 by Atomictumor
I was starting to mention this in the comments, and I kinda did.
The princess bag is an heirloom, of sorts, started last year. Normally, it’d float among my extended family, like the rubber chicken of yore did, but this year its going to be the bag that holds the one Christmas present that BJ picked out.
She bought it when we were shopping for Spotz’s birthday present, originally for Pigpen. It was back in like October, or whenever the kids birthday is (when is it, Eaves?), and BJ and I were tickled that we were starting Christmas shopping early enough to be able to afford it.
I’m giving it to both the boys, now, as the gift that their Mom got.
—
Didn’t intend to write any more to this post, because I just got home, took longer than I figured dropping the kids off, work is busy, haven’t eaten or drunk anything yet today, haven’t taken a shower, haven’t taken shoes off, haven’t done sit ups, but here I am.
I don’t have much to distract me today. Without the distractions, I feel sad.
Last week, and the week before that, the idea of changing (new cars, new house, etc) was tantalizing. Today, tho, the ideas still seem good, I just don’t really care. Sure, I need a new car. The van and the volvo combo don’t work too well.
The move thing is good, but only if combined with the school full time thing, and I still don’t see how I can pay for housing, food, insurance, all that stuff without working. If any of you know how (and I’ve heard from some that’ve done it), toss some resources my way.
I’d love to start school in the winter, because I’d hate to go on with things the way they are until next fall, but I don’t think that’ll happen. Besides, I think that if I change things, I’ll just find another distraction.
Damned distractions.
Off for breakfast/situps/shower/etc.
December 14th, 2006 at 10:09 am
Do you know what College you want to attend? If so, go online, or call, go by college and speak with the financial aid office. They can offer you good advice. A lot of loans you do NOT have to pay back. Also, have you thought about online courses (offered through your college), that way if you had to work part time or full time you could still take classes and recieve financial aid. Okay, heres a crazy idea, of course I have no idea about your feelings on this BUT….joining the National Guard, they will pay for your college, if you go full-time, they have excellent benefits! (my husband is in the National Guard and goes to college. We are 35yrs old with two kids). You only have to give up one weekend a month and two weeks a year.(and get paid) Anyway, if you know what college you want to attend…post it…and I will see what info I can find out. I’m in nursing school here in Nashville, so I’m familiar with ways to get finacial aid if needed. *sorry long post* :-)
December 14th, 2006 at 10:46 am
i wasn’t going to mention the princess bag. i have a son who feels quite a pull to disney princesses himself so no q’s asked.
i’m home … come hang out and fold laundry if you are sad. it always cheers me up, folding laundry … total lie but, yeah …. you can still come by whenever so i can talk you out of moving again.
December 14th, 2006 at 11:47 am
My daughter, Isabella, LOVES all the Disney princesses. I have grown to kind of hate them because I see them so often.
December 14th, 2006 at 12:54 pm
Who put the beard on Snow White?
It’s a nice touch.
December 14th, 2006 at 12:57 pm
I’m going to Austin Peay next semester. Doing it all online, in their CompSci program, and will keep on working full time. Boss lady said is cool for me to study and stuff between calls, and when/if I get hired on with the Co., they will reimburse school costs (I’m with one of the contractors right now).
But! With two dependents, the Fed .gov is going to pay for most, if not all school costs with the Pell grant, then I am also going to get student loans to pay for some living expenses, and other stuff, like pay off the car and some other bills. My aid package is due to be presented tomorrow or Monday, and I will know more then of what they can offer. There’s also a boatload of scholarships available, especially for “non-traditional” (aka older) students, single parents, etc. Oh, and a lady at the credit union told me that Suntrust Bank has the best interest rates on student loans right now … something like 1.7% deferred.
December 14th, 2006 at 1:46 pm
Welcome back. (And, since I’m a few days late, maybe I’m just talking to myself. Nothing new there…)
Last year, I was at home full-time with the kids and my husband was a full-time student. Give the school’s financial aid office a call, find out what’s out there. What was out there, for us, was a lot of loans - but debt is a pretty comfortable place for us to be, so we were willing to risk it, and the interest rates are good. (There are lots of grants out there, we just never tried hard enough to find them and didn’t qualify for the ones we did find.)
We put the kids on Medicaid and signed them up for WIC… everything helped.
December 14th, 2006 at 1:59 pm
Kate, did you have insurance for yourselves, or did you wing it?
December 14th, 2006 at 7:05 pm
I did school after I dumped out of my full time career job. I went in full time. It was hard but there are some things that you might consider — lots of schools are offering evening and distance learning as a full time option. Most are web based. UT has a pretty good program. Phenox and Austin are others. The insurance issue — while this was not an issue with us — seeing as the wife brought the bread home, there are ways . . . for instance you could hop on a student insurance plan that would cover your dependents. Housing is not a problem, most schools have family housing — not great, but do able. If you got to do student loans don’t feel bad — take out the max if you got to. Seeing as you are a single parent now, you will qualify for map awards and pell grants. We all know it is a damn piece of paper in the end but it will open some doors. You could still do it at home in the comfort of the bed — you could also do a two year thing distance though fountain head — they have one of the only NSA certified computer programs in the state. With that and the help of family and friends it can happen. It may take some time, but it can happen. We did it with no family and some good friends.
December 14th, 2006 at 7:27 pm
Yup! And I remembered you mentioned TennCare or something like that. That’s what my kids and I had while I was finishing my undergrad degree, just in Wisconsin. So it was called something else. Truly, people WANT you to go to school and they will help you find a way. Just call them. I ga-ron-tee there’s a way.
For real.
December 14th, 2006 at 8:42 pm
See, my concern, tho, is if I do classes, and work, and parenting all at the same time, I’ll fail at one of them, because I don’t think theres that much ME to go around…