Kathleen's Journal

Stress City - No More (See 2/11/03)

I am so stressed with C&M college process. For those of you whose kids' college days are behind you, color me envious. Maybe it's just the way I'm choosing to deal with it, but I can tell you it is not well. I am facing submitting the FAFSA form for financial aid and the CSS for Vanderbilt's financial aid and they want to know everything....GGGRRRRRR. Anyway, I can't wait until all of this is behind me, and I know John will be happy too! Of course, as always, he is being 1000% supportive...I couldn't ask for better. And I'm glad I have this Blog avenue to air my frustrations....better than a shrink and it's free.

On another note, I have committed John and me to participate in the MS150 April 12 & 13...riding our road bikes from Houston to Austin. Dale, although he cannot be an "official" member of my company's team (For budget reasons, they have to limit it to employees and immediate family members.), is welcome to "ride" with our group, we will transport his sleeping bag and stuff in the truck, and can probably eat dinner with us and find a spot in our tent to rest his sleepy little head after the Saturday 100-mile ride to the campsite in LaGrange. The nice part of this is that we start out together and spread out after a while. Dale should be able to find a group of like-level riders and meet some nice people to boot.

February 10, 2003

Well, there's nothing quite like progress. The FAFSA forms have been filed, the tax returns (CDS/MBS trust & 1040 and JJL/KKL 1040) have been completed, signed, and all mailed except JJL/KKL 1040. We do owe some money, so we will mail April 1. I just needed a signed copy to submit with the CSS (financial aid form for Vanderbilt) for Matthew. The ONLY THING that remains is to write a cover letter to Vanderbilt explaining why Barry cannot complete the non-custodial parent information.

For those of you who did not know, Matthew's school competed against Dallas Jesuit January 31st, and John & I traveled to D to watch the game, and spent the night with the Gavins. It was a delightful time and we stayed up quite late talking. Conversation turned to family and family dynamics. Tim was sharing some tidbits about his siblings and happened to comment how lucky "The Karls" are because we seem so close, and really enjoy getting together with one another....thought I'd share this nice thought from an outside observer.

The next day, John & I stopped by Rita's on the way out of town. Had a wonderfully fun visit. When we first got there, I asked her for some Advil. Before she got the Advil, she removed her M&M candy dispenser from the mantle and brought it to the kitchen counter for me to see how much candy had been eaten since Christmas. While I was waiting for her to bring the Advil, I was helping myself to a few M&M's. I had one M&M remaining in my hand when she handed me the Advil and some water. We were talking, M&M's & Advil are approximate in size, so I just popped that Advil in my mouth and starting chewing. Because of the residual chocolate from the prior M&M, although it was a little crunchy, it was still chocolate, so it took a few chews for the chalky taste to break through the chocolate taste. Yuck! Enough said.