It’s a small thing, but I’m enjoying taking over the treasurer’s duties of our engineering association. To my shock and dismay, for the past ten years, the “accounting records” consisted of a handwritten check register. All checks were recorded, but no deposits. I asked the previous treasurer if he reconciled the account each month, and he said, “No, we have so much money in the account there wasn’t a reason to…” OK… And then, lo and behold, when I looked at the online banking site, I noticed an overdraft fee of $27 from a year ago!! The guy hadn’t transferred PayPal funds to the checking account in a timely manner, so it was overdrawn!
It just boggles my mind that ENGINEERS haven’t been doing a good job of bookkeeping! So I will whip everything in shape and feel good. Now my challenge will be explaining the changes I’m making without making the previous guy look bad. I still have to interact with him on a regular basis.
S19 just found out he could leave for the Thanksgiving holiday. On a lark I checked flights, and there is actually a flight available with good times and a reasonablish price. So he is coming home for a few days next week. That ticket cost less than the one I bought a month ago for Christmas.
He’s been adjusting really well, He always had a tight friend group, but now he is surrounded by people more like him than he had growing up. So I think for the first time in his life he really found his tribe.
But he also is really fried with athletics and academics, and just wants to get away for a few days. I’m happy it worked out.
I can’t remember if I shared that a couple of months ago, the state denied my son the supportive services he’d been receiving. Aides came in twice a week and helped him with chores around the house. They also took him for hikes in cool places around southern Maine. DS was losing weight and doing so well. One of the aides had been a distance runner like DS, and they had a wonderful rapport.
So we appealed the decision with no luck. I contacted my state representative and my state senator. The senator responded quickly and asked me for a complete timeline of DS’s history, state services, etc. (a reasonable request). I told him I would do that next week since I’m swamped right now. The representative took longer to respond - he sent me a short note, saying he had called DHHS and they would be contacting me directly. I didn’t have much hope that anything would happen. But I got a message from the service provider yesterday that the state has decided to re-institute his services! It’s so huge! And the state will save money in the long run, if this keeps DS out of the hospital at $1,000+/day.
Recently, my Congresswoman’s office helped me with SSA’s screwed up mess. The lesson is that our political representatives really can help us! I am pleasantly shocked.
H, D, BIL and I went to Hamilton in SF last night. We all loved it and thought the traveling cast, including understudies were amazing and loved the performance!
Seems like meal planning was the first thing I let go of when we became empty nesters. Then DS decided to come home for Thanksgiving for a full week and his sister rearranged her travel to arrive 5 days earlier too. I planned a full week of their favorite foods . Very gratifying when I mentioned making dinner and he said he had been getting by on oatmeal and yogurt to clean out his fridge before coming home!
On the tails of last week being disappointed that a grant submission for my program only awarded at 25% of the proposal amount, I received notification today of two other local grants awarded for over $31K - HUGE win!!! SO thankful!
HS senior D got two photographs accepted into a local art show/competition. (Only 15% of entries were accepted, so pretty good for one student to have two entries.) Also, her quiz bowl team won their first match of the season–making a big comeback at the end of the match!
Leaving tomorrow AM for Thanksgiving at S1 and DIL1’s house, with our nine-month-old granddaughter, and S2 is coming too. Sadly, DIL2 can’t join us, but we’re still going to have a great time.
D21 got an offer for an internship at a very good (Fortune Most Admired list) global company with facilities about 30 minutes from home. After striking out last year, spending the summer cutting grass for our Parks department, this is huge news. It’s a big burden off her shoulders during the always-challenging Junior year of an Engineering major.
She also was accepted last week into a study-abroad program headed to Tokyo to study FEA for Engineering Structures and visit Toyota and Mitsubishi next Spring.
Great to get good news after at least six summer internship interviews in September didn’t result in anything, on top of last year.
On Thursday, our family will get what we’ve been waiting for for years but thought might never come - my 5 month old grandniece (had to look that one up) will join my niece, sister, mother and grandmother in a 5 generation photo spanning 102 years of age.
@RichInPitt, great for your daughter. Is FEA Finite Element Analysis? That was one of my favorite classes. Hmm, maybe because that’s where I met DH and we did a computer project together? I hope she has a wonderful time in Japan.
It’s a very small thing compared to some of the amazing posts above, but you take your wins where you find them & I am pretty sure that after 10 years of going on these things, yesterday I went on my last college tour with the last collegekid. Predictably, it was a cold, blustery day and both the info session & tour were entirely forgettable- but she’s done & I am done…
I mailed all the packages and boxes I HAVE to get mailed prior to Christmas. There’s one more I may mail—if the guy ever sends me the address he’d like me to mail it too! I even sent care packages to three friends who are going through tough times.
Plus, bought myself a full size iPad for under $300 at Costco. It is much better for browsing the web and especially CConfidential and writing email replies. It will also be better for viewing movies in flights.
out of my 4 kids, I have one I’ve worried about. she had a rough college transfer process; and health issues. But today - 4 semesters in to her new school - I realized I haven’t worried about her for months! she sounded so happy, talking about a party she was having, grad school opps, internships, etc. etc.
and very coincidentally – we got our Christmas tree today in a rural area; talked to the farm owner, and the farm owner’s daughter is my daughter’s well-liked Studio Professor at her architecture school. Everything was just warm and fuzzy today. So thankful.
I totally get warm and fuzzy! My S1 turned 35 yesterday and everything is coming up roses for him. He and his wife have a beautiful healthy 10-month-old little girl; S1 is enjoying his current job and can envision staying there for years; DIL was just offered a much more pleasant job than the one she currently has; and they’re about to sign papers to get a house built for them.
It’s all due to me, of course. I credit myself with raising him right.
Now my challenge will be explaining the changes I’m making without making the previous guy look bad. I still have to interact with him on a regular basis.
I hope she has a wonderful time in Japan.