The World According to Leslie

  It's move-in day! I can now say that (well, write that) without tears.  Over the past couple of weeks, I have cried a lot because my baby was leaving for college. Today, we officially moved her in.  Her room is beautiful. Her roommate seems nice; we only got to talk to her for a little while as we moved Chasity in and set her stuff up.  She has already started EmBark Orientation to get used to campus and get ready for the semester!  We drove up to Asheville last night. Our van was a little  packed when we left home.  It took us two hotel carts to get all her stuff up to her room. She's on the 7th floor and has an amazing view of the mountains!  Naturally, we had to make a trip to Wal-Mart for things we forgot. We still forgot masks, even though they have been on the lists the past 3 weeks. Who would have guessed that we'd forget that!  She has her room all set up. She has 4 pillows and 3 blankets (not counting her comforter). One of the bla...

Since the year The Princess was in third or fourth grade, every year, about this time, I start looking at options for school for her. I have friends and family who homeschool. I always peruse that as an option. I have gone online and figured out what subjects we would need, where we would get them from, and (unfortunately!) the costs. There are some places I can get things online (like secondhand) but I won't start looking in earnest until we make a decision. Homeschooling (probably) gives us the most flexibility with subjects and schedules. When she is listed as a Junior, she can start taking Dual Enrollment classes at the local Community College for high school and college credit (for FREE!!)!!!!  Her fifth grade year, she was at a local Charter school. It didn't work out so well. (We went through 3 teachers and 2 principals in one year.)  I guess we could always look at going back there (now that they have been open and running for a few years) as an option. It's n...

As you all know, I have a 13 year old daughter. Sometimes, she's a handful. Sometimes she seems to have everything together. Her grades are awesome. She has everything when she needs it, where she needs it. Sometimes, she seems like she would lose her head if it wasn't attached. That has been our house the last couple of weeks. Last week, she forgot her Spanish notebook. Luckily for me, she remembered it (and yelled, "I don't have my Spanish notebook" and scared me to death) as we were pulling in to the school parking lot for drop off. Then there was the lunchbox that we had to turn around to get. She remembered it before we got too far down the street. Yesterday, it was her flashdrive, her pencil bag (one of those zipper bags that holds pens, pencils, markers...everything), and flash cards for Social Studies. So, I came home from dropping her off and rounded up all of her stuff and took it to school before I went to work at the daycare. Today, well, tod...

I spent four years as an Undergraduate student.  I attended three different 4-year universities.  I also attended a community college.  I spent 4 1/2 years as a Graduate student.  As you can probably guess, I have more Student Loan debt than I care to admit!  However, I won't try to get someone else to pay it (unless one of you just wants to write me a check to cover it!)!!  I won't try to get out of paying it.  I will pay my debt.  One day, when I have finished paying it off, I will be so excited!  Unfortunately, I think I might pay off my house and my student loans around the same year! :(  Was it worth it?  Yes....every penny!  Would I do it again?!  Yes...every second of it! Would I do anything differently?  Maybe.... but I think my life is pretty good, okie dokie, okay right now! :)  I'll just keep making my little payments until I can make BIG payments to get a chunk out of the loans! :)...

So... I have two classes left (if I survive the current ones) before I am licensed to teach High School English. So.... what did I hear on the news yesterday? Our wonderfully stupid NC Governor (for whom I did NOT vote) is cutting teacher salaries. To be fair, she's cutting all state employee salaries by something like 5%. So...does that mean SHE is getting a pay cut too????? (Doubt it!) Anyways... I'm just a little aggrivated that NC teachers don't get paid anything close to what they are worth and now the stupid Governor (for whom I did NOT vote) is cutting more money out. Let's just say that I'm looking into other states as an option when I finish my Masters' degree!!! Until next time........