The Princess Begins College

Yesterday the family moved The Princess into her dorm room at North Idaho College, about 40 miles away in Coeur d'Alene. With the anticipation of this event, I posed this sibling assignment:

Here she is, opening the door to her dorm room.

"Since The Princess will be moving into her dorm room at NIC on Sunday, August 24th, let's post some advice, memories, information that could help her as she begins her first semester of college."

You will find Inland Empire Girl's top ten list here and Raymond Pert's advice on flipping things around here.

Princess, here are some random thoughts and advice from your mother. I hope they help!!

Mom is feeling mixed emotions...is she sad...excited....oh, I think a bit of both!!

Don’t wait for the action to come to you…you need to plan fun things and invite people to come with you.

Balance things. Meet people, have fun. But remember why you are there…to study and learn.

Try new experiences. Here is The Princess eating her first meal in her room.

Don’t ever not ask a question because you think it will make you look stupid. So what? There are probably other people who want to know the same answer.

There is more to life than watching “Buffy the Vampire Slayer” on your computer.Her sisters are going to miss her....goodbye Princess!!!

Be organized and plan ahead a bit. Then you won’t be frantic because you can’t find something, and you will be on time for things.

Figure out ways to do things for others…everyone is a little nervous…how can you help encourage others to make their time a little easier?

Take advantage of tutoring. It really can help you.

Don’t do assignments the night before or the last minute. Take your time to do it right.

Don’t sell yourself short. You know what your strengths are, and you’ll probably discover even more. You can do more than you can imagine or think.Okay, I'm moved in...now what do I do?

Attend classes. You can always nap later.

Read your Bible every day. God’s word will strengthen you. And it will give you the wisdom you need to help others.

Open and up and let people get to know you. You are a beautiful person, and you have a lot to share and a lot of ways to help others.

It is okay to make mistakes. It doesn’t make you a failure. It is how you handle the mistakes that shows your true character.

Yikes, am I really ready to start classes tomorrow?

Take advantage of being at a college, and a town with a beautiful beach, good restaurants, and shopping.

Don’t stay in your room. Go to the SUB. Go to the beach. Get out and experience life!!

Start a journal. Write about your triumphs and tragedies. It is fun to look back on your experiences during college and see how you have grown.

Take risks.

Eat three meals a day!!

Goodbye Daddy....your Princess is going to be all right....I THINK!!!

Know that, no matter what happens, we love you.

Prom Night

Tonight was Prom Night for The Princess.

Our house was abuzz today with preparations for the "Big Night". Despite a few meltdowns, which, after talking to some other moms, apparently is rather common, she was dressed and ready to go when her date arrived.

The Princess

TW and The Princess getting some energy for the night.

Some crazy posing out in the front yard.

The Princess with her two best buddies, LC and TW.

Here is the group The Princess went to dinner with, and the prom.

They dress up pretty good, I'd say.

Here is the group in front of their white stretch limo that took them to Coeur d'Alene, where they were going to have dinner at Bonsai Bistro. One of the kid's parents was very generous and rented the limo for them to travel to Coeur d'Alene for dinner.

Here is The Princess and TW in the limo.

I can't wait until she gets home to hear how everything went.

Hangin' Out at State Drama Festival

Tonight I am in Coeur d'Alene spending the night, and helping chaperone the KHS drama students who made it to state competition. My husband, PKR, is the Drama Coach, and our daughter The Princess, made it to state drama as part of a Humorous Ensemble.





They are doing a montage from "Monty Python and the Holy Grail." It was fun watching their performance this evening, at Lake City High School, where the competition is taking place. The Princess makes a great King Arthur!!

The ensemble did some unique and clever things with their performance, and I am proud of all of them. They have done 2 rounds, and do another one bright and early at 8 am tomorrow morning. Then after the 3 rounds, they find out if they make it to the semi-finals.

I arrived in Coeur d'Alene with the mission of getting some Christmas shopping done. First I went to Best Buy, and being in there drove me nuts!! There was just too much stimulus in that store, assaulting all five of my senses, with loud music, projections TV's, brights lights....it was just a little much. I did find a few things to purchase, though.

Then it was off to Target and Fred Meyer. I made a really great purchase at Fred Meyer, so I was happy about that!! There will be some more shopping done tomorrow.

I did have a rare moment for dinner. I went to Wendy's and got my food, and sat at a table all by myself and read some more of "Eat, Pray, Love". I have finally made it to Indonesia.

I got a call during dinner from The Princess saying PKR needed some pain relievers, so I went to Safeway to get some, and also some snacks. Well, Safeway was having a bit of a crisis when I want to check out. All of there check out stations had frozen up. They apparently attributed it to the Hagadone Corporation and Dave Smith, because they apparently purchased a large amount of gift cards, and they were processing them, and it froze up the system. One lady had no cash or checks, so had to leave her groceries. Fortunately, the rebooted the system, and they were back on track.

In the meantime, I'm standing in line to check out my groceries, and The Princess calls wondering what I was doing. I told her I was stuck in the line at Safeway. Their second round was beginning soon, and I was hoping I wouldn't miss it. I did get there a little late, but I could go into the room after the first performance was done, so I didn't miss it.

So, now I am at the Shilo Inn, watching some interesting show on PBS with lots of violin players dressed in country costumes. It is pretty cool. Apparently I am watching Barrage: Vagabond Tales, which is described like this:

Barrage's fast-paced violin music is set to a story of impossible love between Luna of the Moon People and Sol from the people beneath the sun.

We don't have cable television at home, which means the only things we watch on TV are what my mother has taped for us, or we have on VHS or DVD. But I do miss PBS programming. Right now Barrage is singing "Birdland", and there are about five or six performers playing violin, with one main woman doing a scat solo, with the violins accompanying her. A very interesting performance. To find out more about them, go here.

Well, I'll return tomorrow with the results from the Idaho State Drama Festival, here in Beautiful Coeur d'Alene, Idaho.