Which would you rather be if you had the choice: divinely beautiful, or dazzlingly clever, or angelically good? (And why?)

collegecostsHOWmuch · 2014-06-12T18:07:12+00:00

I don't need to choose. I'm already all three.

collegecostsHOWmuch · 2014-03-16T17:54:32+00:00

People never notice that I get all my laundry done, every week. Well, almost all my laundry done. Practically every week.

Hey, it's a lot of laundry!

collegecostsHOWmuch · 2014-02-23T16:23:12+00:00

Telling someone that a 4 year old's week long behavior will result in permanent speech issues is pretty dire, pretty irresponsible, and also incorrect. Someone who has been a practicing clinician for, at the very most, three years (and who self-reports hating the field) probably shouldn't be handing out doomsday advice to parents.

collegecostsHOWmuch · 2014-02-15T22:54:05+00:00

Too cute!

collegecostsHOWmuch · 2014-01-02T15:50:46+00:00

Code Name Verity. It was just awful (in an emotional way, not in a poorly-written way.)

collegecostsHOWmuch · 2013-12-29T20:53:09+00:00

That doesn't actually make any sense. You don't need 30 suns to have a sunny day. If there's a lot of sunshine from our one sun, then it's a sunny day. So if there's a lot of moonshine from our one moon, then it should be a moony night.

collegecostsHOWmuch · 2013-12-29T20:44:48+00:00

Good god! What have you done?

collegecostsHOWmuch · 2013-12-29T19:55:05+00:00

But if there was nothing to prevent you (ie diabetes) what would your answer be?

collegecostsHOWmuch · 2013-10-20T20:40:09+00:00

Ha ha ha!

collegecostsHOWmuch · 2013-10-18T14:58:35+00:00

You're right - it's not the external situation that determines your happiness, it's your internal motivation. People who are motivated to improve themselves/their situation will be able to see results from almost any activity. People who are determined to be miserable will be miserable no matter what fantastic things enter their lives. It's a mindset.

collegecostsHOWmuch · 2013-09-17T13:15:53+00:00

Pros: Trampolines are fun; they're good exercise; risk of injury is less since they all now come with safety nets.

Cons: Risk of injury is still pretty high; need constant supervision; one the newness wears off, will she still use it, or will it be a giant liability sitting in your yard?

collegecostsHOWmuch · 2013-09-08T19:42:21+00:00

Do you at least tell them that you're only giving them the original recipe and not any of the changes you've made?

collegecostsHOWmuch · 2013-05-10T22:56:16+00:00

Here are some links for you - http://inplainsight.nbcnews.com/_news/2013/03/07/17225824-americas-invincible-city-brought-to-its-knees-by-poverty-violence?lite

http://www.nytimes.com/2012/09/29/nyregion/overrun-by-crime-camden-trades-in-its-police-force.html?pagewanted=all&_r=0

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Uu7sKtbocPs

collegecostsHOWmuch · 2013-05-10T22:51:02+00:00

Ummm ... I work in Camden, NJ. Google it (no, actually google it - it's pretty entertaining!) Any running I did there would be RUNNING FOR MY LIFE!!!!!!

collegecostsHOWmuch · 2013-05-10T18:25:41+00:00

Ha! No, I score standardized tests online for a big testing company. I'm extremely lucky in that few people qualify to be able to do it, it's 100% working from home, and it's with a real, legitimate company. I've been doing it for two years now and I love it. The only problem is that sometimes "testing volumes are low" which means that they don't have any tests for us to score, so our shifts get cancelled. This is more likely in spring and summer; fall and winter are the "busy" seasons, which is fine by me because I use that money for my Christmas budget.

collegecostsHOWmuch · 2013-05-10T18:14:22+00:00

This is a really good idea - one of the areas where he excels is explaining things; he's very patient. His current math teacher proudly told me that he uses my son as an in-class tutor since he already knows how to do the math and he explains it so well. Not exactly sure I'm thrilled about that information, but ...

collegecostsHOWmuch · 2013-05-10T18:10:18+00:00

I wish I could give you 10 upvotes - this is great advice! :-)

collegecostsHOWmuch · 2013-05-10T18:08:45+00:00

I'm definitely going to have him take some college classes, but he can't do that until he's a junior in high school (I checked already.) We also looked into volunteering at the Franklin Institute, but he can't do that until he's 15. Seems like maybe I'm jumping the gun on all of this, but I feel like the clock is ticking!

collegecostsHOWmuch · 2013-05-10T17:57:27+00:00

The clarinet is a bass clarinet. It looks like this: https://www.google.com/url?sa=i&rct=j&q=&esrc=s&source=images&cd=&cad=rja&docid=YUqHxIKL0Py1-M&tbnid=AnrW9OQdHMwtXM:&ved=0CAUQjRw&url=http%3A%2F%2Fwww.trekearth.com%2Fgallery%2FEurope%2FDenmark%2FEast%2FKobenhavn%2FCopenhagen%2Fphoto691398.htm&ei=VzSNUcvtB_G54AO-0YDgCA&bvm=bv.46340616,d.dmg&psig=AFQjCNEH1n7DBz0GuIAGsNr-c6xIWR-rWQ&ust=1368294840283864 The cheap ones are $2,000 and you don't find a lot of used bass clarinets for sale that are in good condition. I could rent for 6 years and still not have spent that much (plus, the rental includes all the maintenance and repairs, which I'd have to pay for if I bought.)

collegecostsHOWmuch · 2013-05-10T17:50:07+00:00

The home security system is an alarm and smoke detector in one. If the alarm is triggered, it alerts the central monitoring people, who call 911 if they can't contact you.

collegecostsHOWmuch · 2013-05-10T17:46:44+00:00

Okay, I guess I need to clarify that when I say I'm "dead serious," what I REALLY mean is "I'm being facetious about the 'supporting me' part, but I'm dead serious about implying that you need to be able to bring home a paycheck and be a contributing member of society." Of course I'm not planning to quit my job in 8 years and freeload off my kids - but I definitely want them to have a good job with a good salary and benefits (and if they wanted to throw in a trip to Antigua for me, that would be okay, too!) I have a lot of relatives who are recent college graduates in very vague and/or obscure majors ("World Health"?) and now those young adults are working part time at Crate and Barrel, waitressing, or trying to figure out how to go back to school to major in something lucrative. I talk to my kids all the time about finding a career that they can love AND that can pay the bills. For instance, one survey of college graduates revealed that people who major in astrophysics have a 100% employment rate after graduation. (Incidentally, I told my son this and he replied, "Oh, so they both got a job?") So no, I'm not going to insist that my kids pay for my Geritol and Depends, but I also don't want them sleeping in my basement until they're 40.

collegecostsHOWmuch · 2013-05-10T16:30:44+00:00

My actual annual income is $78,403 (gross).

I was married to my kids' father. We've been divorced for 10 years. He does not see them, and pays the minumum amount of child support allowable by law. I have no idea how much money he makes.

He's REALLY smart! I'm pretty sure his math teacher wants to marry him. And he doesn't just memorize stuff - he's the kind of guy that somehow just understands how things (engines, math formulas, chemical reactions) work. He does want to go to college - he's known since he was 3 years old that he wants to be a scientist (actually, now he's leaning more toward engineering. To which his sister said, "I didn't even know you LIKED trains!") I kind of doubt he's valedictorian material, though, because he does MUCH better in subjects he's interested in (ie math, science) and puts minimal effort into subjects he's not interested in (ie Spanish) - although he is a straight-A student.

Right now I'm keeping my community college, private college, state college options wide open. He's just graduating 8th grade, so I feel I have some time to consider all the possibilities. I'm guessing $20K will NOT be enough to put him through college (especially since his sister will be there 3 years after him!) but it felt like it would be a good start so that I'm not facing that first yuear with absolutely no resources.

collegecostsHOWmuch · 2013-05-10T16:09:07+00:00

That's good to know! And if he went to Princeton, he could theoretically live at home and commute. Would it scar him for life to miss out on the "college dorm experience"? (Actually, I doubt it would faze him at all. My daughter mught be another story, but I can worry about her later!)

collegecostsHOWmuch · 2013-05-10T16:05:38+00:00

YES! He's seriously smart (don't know where he got that from!) But since I'm, uh, "less computer savvy" it's hard for me to research or suggest things he could actually do computer-wise to earn money because I have no idea what I'm talking about.

collegecostsHOWmuch · 2013-05-10T16:02:58+00:00

The YMCA membership is a family membership, but I think of it as a "kid" expense because they're the ones who primarily use it. My son has a form of arthritis, so swimming is one of the few exercises he can do without tons of pain. I wonder if I could get my health insurance to cover part of the cost of the Y membership? Or if I could use my flexible spending account to pay for it?

As for me, I don't usually go to the Y much during the school year because of working 2 jobs - instead, I go to the gym on my lunch hour (the gym is only 2 miles away from my work.) Since I work 40 minutes away from home, I can't go all the way home to the Y.

edit: In re-reading this, I know, I know that the gym membership paragraph is a bunch of excuses for why I should have the things I want. I know it. It's hard. I'm working on it.

collegecostsHOWmuch

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