Then and now

When dh and I went to Idaho, we visited Ricks College where we met over 30 years ago in an English class.  Since that time, the college has transformed itself from a two year college to a four year university and been renamed Brigham Young University-Idaho.

We noticed the place we're standing has two little footpaths, so we're guessing we're not the first folks to hail a passerby and have our picture taken.

Then dh and I went around and found the apartments in which we used to live. This is where dh lived:

Next we went to the dormitories and found my old front door:

It was a really fun trip down memory lane for both of us!

A visitor

Ds1 came yesterday. That might not seem too exciting, but it is! I haven't seen him since April 2009. He's here for a week to look for a job and check out the local commumity college as he is kind of planning to move here next month. I hope he does. He's nice to have around. Dh is sure hoping he moves in because dh is very outnumbered in our household. One guy, five gals. At least then it would be two guys, five gals. :-)

A lot has changed since I last saw ds. We moved from one state to another. The girls are two years older which means a lot of changes in them over that time. There have been serious health and family changes during that time. It's one of those situation where if you could have looked forward two years in April 2009 you would have been sure the crystal ball was showing you someone else's future, not yours. I'll look at the positive side and just say there has been a lot of personal growth on the part of almost everyone in the family.

So all that aside, this week ds is going to put in applications and already has four leads. He's going to contact the community college to see if they have regularly-scheduled tours, private tours, or self-guided tours of the campus. He's going to get his tax information so he can file his taxes and at the same time fill out the Federal Application for tuition aid (you need tax information to fill it out). We're going to visit the zoo, a cactus national park, a natural zoo, and who knows what else. There are a number of things to do in our city. I hope he likes it here.

College tour

Another rite of passage happened today. Kevin is headed back to his father's house this week to start his Senior year of high school and I wanted him to take a look at the local U. Over the weekend I made a reservation for five--Kevin, the three little girls, and me--to take a guided tour of the campus.

We arrived at 10 am and enjoyed a spirited introduction to the U. Then the large group was divided into thirds and each group had an enthusiastic guide to take us around. It was really hot, but the tour went in and out of buildings that were well-cooled, and each of us had been handed a bottle of water as we left the gathering room, so it was fine. Each of the teens was given a packet of information and included was a coupon to buy a school T-shirt for $5. I'm not stupid. I bought Kevin a shirt.

He liked the school a lot. He's also looking at BYU Provo/Idaho, as well as a college in his father's city. He has the grades, classes, and extracurricular activities to get into any of them, in my opinion. I can't wait to see where he chooses.