Senior Moments :: Committing

Today's senior moment is brought to you by the letter P.

P as in Platteville. P as in Pioneers. P as in Pete the mascot. P as in Parents turned Empty Nesters!

Yup, Carter has now committed to going to University of Wisconsin-Platteville this fall! We're all pretty excited! We liked the school. We liked the size. And we liked its stellar reputation for its engineering programs.

And I love ORANGE! (But don't let that influence your opinion.)

In case you didn't know where Platteville is located. It's almost to Iowa and Illinois. It's a bit of a hike, but less than 3 hours so a shorter drive than heading Up North to see my family. For Carter's benefit, it is just far enough away Mom and Dad can't just "drop in" unannounced to see him. (As far as he knows.)

So as of this evening, he is enrolled, has housing reserved, has his college placement exams (for math, English and German) scheduled, and is set to register for fall classes on June 13!

Somewhere between now and then he'll be graduating from high school, too. And then there's the other P word: PARTY!

As they say at UW-P, "It's a good day to be a Pioneer." But as we say at home, "It's a great day to be a Royal... and our baby!"

Pass the Puffs tissues, Please.

Getting Back on the Wagon

I'm looking for balance in my life. Does this count?

When I had my 6-8 weeks of cough, cold and sinus infection fun in November and December, the least of my concerns was getting to kickboxing class. Even on the "easier" days when we just did strength and resistance training. Just wasn't up to it.

Since I recovered my health, I've discovered that once you fall off the wagon, it is really hard to get back on the wagon, especially when you have extra weight to hoist up.

But I made it to a few classes last week and when I showed up on Wednesday night as the only person at class, I got a personalized beating, aka hell session, aka this is what happens when you skip class too long.

Honestly, it is crazy how quickly you can fall out of shape when you fall out of rhythm. Especially the older we get. Not that I am feeling a day over 47 1/2. So I promised my Drill Sergeant I would make it back to class. Every. Stinkin'. Day.

So even though we were home late from hoops last night, I still got up for 5:40 a.m. class today. Then, feeling like I should really take the plunge on everything, I went in early to work to attend a Weight Watchers meeting. Do I get points for good intentions? Because when I got there, I found out the meetings are on Wednesdays, not Fridays, so I have already missed the first 2 sessions of the 128-week program. Or maybe it's 15 weeks? I can't recall.

Does this mean I have a free pass to ride on or off or beside the wagon until next Wednesday?

Since Carter just finished his engineering class, I have assigned him his first project...

Desperate times call for desperate measures! Of course when I asked him to "engineer" it, his response?

"I don't work for free... but sure."

Oh, this wagon train is one long ride already.

UW-Minnesota

I get so used to the University of Wisconsin schools that I often catch myself saying UW-Minnesota when referring to the Gopher's homeland. Good thing I did not screw up today. Maybe because it was all so "Minnesota nice."

If you can believe it, for the first time in 2015, Carter actually got up and showered before I even got out of bed. And this was at 6:20 a.m.! Either he got to sleep early last night or he was a little excited for our day on campus.

David and Sara were such wonderful LOCAL hosts. They took us to Al's Breakfast Diner so we could start off the day in Dinkytown like the cool kids.

This 65-year-old diner is literally as wide as this picture. There is no extra awning to the right. May 10 feet wide tops.

See what I mean? 14 stools and they fill up fast. We got there at 7 a.m. and by the time we left, there was a line of folks standing behind our stools on the end to the door. The rules are: No saving seats. You eat. No loitering. You go. Sure the food was fine, but the experience was cool. Carter said he has got to take some friends there.

David had to work today but Sara took us on a bit of a campus tour before we had our official meetings and tours, starting at 10:45 a.m. This cool light-up spiral thing is in one of the new buildings on campus that focuses on "green energy," state-of-the-art classrooms and, of course, funky stuff.

After our group introductory meeting, we had an official tour with a guy named Joe, who transplanted from Eau Claire and, similar to me and other Northwest Wisconsin folks, is a Twins, Vikings and Wild fan. He pointed out a view of the new Vikings stadium in progress along the skyline. Sweet! He emphasized that everyone is "Minnesota nice" and is very helpful – even to non-Viking fans. Ha.

We had a break for lunch so Carter and I headed back over to Dinkytown, since we know our way around so well now. Went to Five Guys Burgers and Fries. Highly recommend it. (I think there's one over by Appleton or Green Bay.) Very good burger and Amazing with a capital A french fries.

After lunch we had a session targeted to prospective engineering students. Good stuff. They have a great program and so does UW-Platteville. The U could probably fit 6 Platteville campuses in it. Huge. Not sure I'm a fan of that, but I think the 17-year-old was in awe.

Naturally, everything is going to sound great and frankly, it looked great, too. But a Big Ten school should be. I imagine when we visit the Madison campus after Carter returns from Germany, we will experience the same "ooohs" and "ahhhs."

But Carter looks so natural hanging around with Goldy, doesn't he?

Time will tell if this is one of our UW choices!

UW-Peek

This has been quite the year for adjustment for this momma. I am used to – and appreciate – Carter driving everywhere on his own. Still worry a bit, but it is sooo convenient. Am adjusting to the fact that Junior Prom is coming up and, well, he's a junior so this is the work / decorate year. I had a tough time when I signed him up for his upcoming ACT test, knowing that is the first step toward college.

Today, though, was the "mother" of them all for me. His first official college visit.

We both struggled to get up and on the road by 6 a.m., but we did it. Between fog and lots of rain, we basically hydro-planed our way down to UW-Platteville.... located in the far southwest corner of the state, close to Texas and Mexico, I think.

It did take us just a hair under 3 hours so that wasn't bad. And we got there just in time for the start of the EMS (Engineering, Math & Science) Expo. Staged in two of the academic buildings, it was an open-house style of event with a ton of student demonstrations and hands-on activities for wanna-be engineers.

I didn't realize that there would be all ages groups there, including students that were probably treating it more as a field trip than a college fact-finding mission. Still, that worked out fine for us. When the kids would leave the room, Carter and I would talk to the presenters about their specific area of engineering, how they liked the school, where they came from, why they chose Platteville for engineering over some of the bigger schools that we plan to visit yet (Madison and Minnesota), and more. I dusted off my reporting skills, ha, but then sort of forced Carter into doing the talking / asking. He did fine and felt really good about the visit.

We were both glad that you can enter the college as an engineering major but don't have to define that to a specific area until you are a junior. Meanwhile, all your engineering-related classes will apply to any specific major in that department. He can gets exposure to all 8 or 10 categories before choosing.

I imagine we'll hear similar stories at the other two schools but this was a good starting point. A good first UW-PEEK! The campus is small in comparison and he can decide if that's a good point or bad point for him. Class sizes (student/teacher ration) are small, too, which he considers a good point. The tuition there would be less than the other two, and he probably isn't concerned about that point!

We'll take it one step, one visit, at a time.

Even though I had my internal maternal struggle about setting this ball in motion, it was exciting, too. And, of course, we both feel blessed our son has a good head on his shoulders – even if it was slumped over in sleep while I white-knuckled us back home in the deluge.

The things we do for love.