Posted on Monday, November 23rd, 2009 at 8:10 am
Posted under The Daily Grind 881 words in this post

Happy Monday and happy Thanksgiving week. This is Dan’s last week off before he starts his new full time job. His official first day is Tuesday, December 1^st and the past few weeks were supposed to be vacation, but he’s been doing his adjunct gig full time this whole time. Another adjunct left and someone had to pick up the slack. Anyway, it will be good to get into our new routine and as much as I enjoy having Dan home, I think it will be good for us to spend a little time apart. I find it difficult to do much of anything when he is home and that includes bible study and quiet time. When he goes back to work I’d like to get into the habit of spending time with the Lord every morning.

I am all set to start my graduate classes on Monday, too. I found all my books on half.com and paid less for all three than I would have paid for one of the books brand new. I cannot believe how much textbooks cost! They should have gold embosses in the pages for what they charge. I’m sorry, but I think $200 for one book is a bit on the ridiculous side, don’t you? Anyway, I got all three of my books for around $180. I can probably turn around and sell them for what I paid for them, too.

On the home front, the house is finally coming together. I got all my boxes emptied out last week and most of the stuff put away. We still need to hang pictures but we can do that over time. I got my Christmas tree up last Thursday and finally finished decorating it last night. I wasn’t sure what I wanted to do with regards to garland. I’ve had the same garland for at least ten years–probably longer, and as you can imagine, it was starting to show its age. I bought a new prelit tree last year and it looked so elegant that I couldn’t bear to put the old garland on it, so I just put ornaments on it last year. This year I found some clip-on poinsettia ornaments at Wal-Mart for $1 a piece so I bought 14 and randomly stuck them on the tree. It worked out perfectly! So last night April and I put the ornaments on and it turned out beautiful (if I do say so myself, LOL). I might pick up a few more of the poinsettias next time I’m at Wal-Mart. It never hurts to have a few extras lying around.

Today I may make a trip up to the courthouse to see about getting my new license plates. Things have not always been easy to switch over here. Dan and I were able to get our driver’s licenses after we made our trip to the SSA, but things aren’t going to be as easy for April and Ben since they are school age. Alabama requires a form to be signed by a school official stating that the child is in school and this form is required until the person turns 19. What irritates me is that the compulsory school age is only 17! So legally, Ben doesn’t even need to be in school any longer but they still require this form for him to get his license. Also, they don’t have a home school statute here. My only options are to A) hire a tutor or B) come under the ‘umbrella’ of a church school. So last week I contacted a church school to find out that it’s basically a sham. I will be required to pay $200 ‘tuition’ to this ‘church school’ that isn’t really a school at all–it is just a school in name. For my $200 I get to send in Ben’s attendance and grades every nine weeks so that they can ‘keep an eye on me and keep me accountable’ to the state. Also, if I want to send them in electronically I get to pay an additional $10. So no one is going to check Ben’s work or even make sure he is really doing school on the days I say he is, but if I do this Ben will be able to get his driver’s license and MAYBE even go to the community college here. Which leads me to my next issue.

April has been taking classes the the community college in Missouri since her senior year of high school. She has taken four classes and has a perfect 4.0 GPA, but the community college down here requires her to have an ACT or SAT score or a GED. A GED is a 10^th grade equivalency test! I’m thinking that transferring in a 4.0 GPA would be much more desirable than a GED! So Dan is going to try to argue that point with them today and convince them to allow April to enroll in spring classes. Only when she is enrolled in school will she be able to get her driver’s license unless she waits until she is 19. It’s just crazy!

Despite these little bumps in the road, things are going well and God is in control. Everything will work out one way or another. Have a great week and a blessed Thanksgiving!