Official college student!

First off, Happy B-day, Liz Ann & Wesley!

Okay, so we've had to make some major decisions lately. When our family moved to Las Vegas, we were plummeted into an economy that was intensely more costly than the good 'ole state of SC. We found that housing in Vegas is extremely outrageous and down right unaffordable on one income. Unless one is priviledged to have moved here BEFORE the great shift in price, stay-at-home moms is definitely a commodity reserved for the faint few. Unfortunately, we were not in the lucky numbers. Consequently, we have had to adjust our life style to make it work.

Upon arrival we set out to get jobs. Our Air Force pay wasn't near enough to survive. I started to work at Payless, conveniently located a mile from our house, and Frankie initially got a job working part-time at Fox's Pizza. He later switched to Dominos. And, he now, most fortunately, limo drives down town on the weekends. This coveted job has supplemented our family quite well.

Another fortunate event was when I was promoted to Assistant Manager and put into position to become a manager of one of the Payless stores. This process would take me about a year to complete. However, even though I have the means to be Manager, which makes a nice salary, I have decided to enroll in school to become a dental hygienist instead. I feel that this will pay off greater dividends for our family in the future. Frankie's limo job should provide well enough for us so that I can adjust my schedule to concentrate on progressing and furthering my education. I will start out just trying to work Friday and Saturday, but if it gets to be too much, I will just quit completely.

I officially registered for classes today and I start my courses on June 9th. I'm a little nervous, considering I haven't been to school in soooo long. (I graduated from high school in 1990 and have only taken four credited college classes since then.) I'm hoping that I will be a good student and set an awesome example for my kids. I'm taking two four-week classes at the same time, and then another four-week class after that. I could take one more class this summer to make it a full load, but the ones I wanted were full. I'm going to check back and possibly add a class before I start.

Furthermore, since the classes are so fast paced, I'm concerned about not having enough time to study sufficiently to ensure all of the information is absorbed. This will definitely be a challenge for me because I hate having to memorize things. We'll see how it goes...