Summer

It is still January and already we plan for our summer vacations. Trevor has a football camp I need to get the dates for so we can schedule the annual beach trip around it. My Sister is coming to visit from New York. I want to keep time open for her visit. She wants to do a big family trip somewhere. We may repeat our trip to Lost Lake on Mt. Hood or a beach trip to the coast.

If everyone is like me they have started scheduling and scrambling for dates to figure out where children are supposed to be and when. I am planning to attend my 25th class reunion from college. There, now you can figure out how old I am. I want to take the boys and show them my campus. Of course Tom is cringing, as a state school boy, at the thought of his children even expressing an interest in private school.

I just know that I want the boys to see what options are out there, big or small. We have toured OSU multiple times. Now we are out of state, attending OSU would cost almost as much as a private school. It might be easier to get in to state college as an out of state resident as more state schools look for out of state tuition to boost their bottom line.

Tom freaked out when he heard a close friend was sending his daughter to an in state college at $23,000 a year. He freaked big time. It is one thing to read about the costs of tuition, it is totally another thing to live it. I did read one article that said the advertised price is not what it seems. That the posted price is the worst case scenario. The schools negotiate if they want you. Discounts, scholarships, loans all help ease the pain.

Living off campus is another big savings. I would like the boys to have that freshman on campus experience that both Tom and I had. There really is nothing like it. That feeling of being away from home, away from watchful parents. If the boys can present grades that warrant our assistance, I would love to help them succeed and have a freshman year on campus.

There is also the fourth of July to plan and book. Are we staying in town to blow things up or are we going up north to some one else's house. We are glad to be out of Oregon for the fourth as they do fireworks like we do in our back yard.

Tom found a great Indian reservation where you can buy big beautiful fireworks at incredible prices, exit 84 on I5. He and a group of friends are talking about a big trip to load up for a lovely explosive display.

I want to take my boys to the beach with my girlfriends and their children at some point. We didn't do anything last summer with the house move.I want to do the long weekend thing with bonfires and cookouts. I try to push that to mid July so we can count on some good weather.

Riley's doctor wants to see him back in six months, which would be mid July also. He told us he would be gone the last two weeks in July. Probably doing his own family vacation with his daughters. I might move that appointment as needed since it is now just check ups. We will see where our summer schedules take us.

I am calling to make an appointment for Riley with Drivers Ed today. Tom said to just sign him up. It was time, past time. Since Riley didn't pass the test with just reading the book, we figure he needs some behind the wheel training. The class gives you your permit without taking the test, so you can practice. Let someone else train Riley, someone not stressed and calmer than we would be.
The boys also got their new school schedules yesterday for the new semester. Riley has World Studies instead of a PE class. Trevor's football coach finally got him into weight training and out of swimming by having Trevor be an assistant in weight training since the class was full. The class is called clerical assistant, but I doubt there is much clerical work being done in weight training.

Trevor's computer teacher is going to have me e mail her each week to make sure Trevor stay up on his homework in her class. It is all about typing skills. Trevor types really slowly which puts him behind, but if he doesn't get the work done then he stays behind. I was pleased he got from six words per minute to 16 words per minute. If he had done more of the assignments, he probably would have done even better. He was telling me he was caught up, when he wasn't. So now the teacher is having me do weekly check-ins with her. I told Trevor typing is crucial to success these days. He said he was getting pretty fast at the ten key.

I am dreading the report cards this time. The boys are all over the place grade wise. I think the spread will be from one end of the spectrum to the other, A to F. It all came down to home work, which they didn't get in Oregon, but they are getting it now and it is a new experience.