I love the Holidays...

I love the holidays. All of them really. From New Year's Day to Christmas. I have always tried to decorate for them (I blame the children, but the truth is, I just want them to remember our house as the one place that felt "Christmas-y" or "spooky").

I love the holidays and have always tried to make them memorable. This year, was the first year we've ever celebrated the 4th in spectacular style. Large fireworks, big b-b-q, lots of friends and family around. Of course, it rained, but still - I enjoyed it so much. Our friends brought their kids, we always encourage that, but for the most part, they usually leave the kids at home (we can't - they live here). This time, almost everybody brought their kids and you know what? I think the kids had a good time. I think they enjoyed the fireworks and the food.

Everyone brought something and it just turned out to be - swell. Truly. Some pictures of our events (past and present).

I am feeling a little "Froggy"!

So much behind me, and yet there seems to be such a long road ahead. I, set out on a mission to attain my college degree in the Fall of 2010. Slow at first (two classes), but since then, I have been pushing myself much harder, following that two class semester with a six class semester. I did not know how much it would mean to me to make the Dean's List, until I made the President's List and then I wanted more of that feeling. More of the feeling like I actually accomplished something. I fight, sometimes painfully, for every A. I am 43 years old - scratch that - I am 43 years YOUNG. I want this. I want to finish.

At the beginning of the spring semester, I applied to my dream college (Texas Christian University), and truthfully, did not think that they would accept a 43 year old student transfer. They did. The cost scared me in to one more semester where I am comfortable. The cost also scared me in to applying at Texas Wesleyan, where I found out yesterday, I have also been accepted. Tuition is much less to go there, but I did not get as many scholarships as I did with TCU, and in the end, it will actually cost me more to go there.

With all that being said, I am going to apply to Tarleton State University as well, and weigh my options. I know Tarleton is a good school and much more affordable than the sparkly purple private university I wish to attend. If I go to Tarleton, I will absolutely continue on to get my Master's and am heavily considering law school at the moment.

But I know that inside I am a Horn Frog...and that is all I have ever wanted to be. My intelligent thoughtful brain, however, tells me to go and attain that degree from an institution that I can walk away from with diploma in hand and owing little or even zero dollars. (I mean come on, I am 43-years-YOUNG, but I am still a parent with a mortgage and a senior in 2013 and one in 2015, two more seniors to go after that, and senior years are one of most expensive years of their lives - to date).

But in my heart - my heart - is where my grandmother and mother worked and at the university where both my uncles graduated. My heart is a Horn Frog. My heart says, "darn the cost". I've never been good at following my heart. Nevertheless, I think this time...my heart may win.