new chapter

Tomorrow starts a new chapter in our lives.  Loren starts college!  David Lipscomb University offers free tuition to veterans.  We intend to take full advantage of that.  Plus, Loren will also get a monthly "paycheck" of sorts from the army.  When a soldier enlists, he gets money for school afterwards.  So he gets both advantages.  He also received a voucher for books so he didn't even have to pay for those either.  It'll be interesting to see him as a student.  He's been out of school for more than 10 years, after all. 

And I really hope he doesn't sabotage himself either.  He has a tendency to mess things up for himself.  He had a couple of opportunities over the summer to get steady work and one thing or another kept him from taking it.  He also screwed himself out of the police academy last fall.  All he had to do was turn in his background information by a certain date and he didn't do it.

So I'm hoping that he really takes this seriously.  It's our lively hood he has in his hands. 

On Tuesdays and Thursdays, he's pretty much gone all day.  His last class ends at 4.  On Monday and Friday he only has two morning classes and he's done by 10.  On Wednesdays he's got those same two classes and a lab from 3-5:30 so we're going to see how things go with me being at home by myself for 3 consecutive days a week.  If it gets to be too much for my pregnant body, he'll just come home in between on Wednesdays. 

Another thing he has to change is his sleep schedule.  He stays up every night until 2 or 3 or sometimes later.  And the past few nights, he's made a full pot of coffee around 10 at night!  I don't get him.  He's playing a video game that takes a lot of his attention.  He'll start when Kaden goes to bed around 7 and play until he goes to bed.  That's almost 8 hours of video game!  And he tells me he can't sleep well.  But he sleeps just fine.  Until almost noon.  Most days he doesn't even see Kaden until after he wakes up from his afternoon nap (around 3pm).  It gets frustrating AND exhausting being the only one pulling the load.  But lately he's made a REAL effort to be a present and active parent.  So that's been very nice.

Sometimes guys just take longer to grow up than the rest of us.  It's funny because he and my brother's days look just about the same...waking up around noon...playing video games all night.  Which is sad because my brother is 10 years younger.  He's still allowed to be a little selfish.  I think being in school will really help though.  And I'm excited for him to get this great education at a wonderful christian school!