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Katelyn Cole Blog

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Archive for the ‘my life’ Category

Scholarships are the lifeblood of higher education

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Scholarships are becoming more and more important as a source of financing a college education. Every year the colleges raise their tuition rates, making it more difficult for the working class families to be able to afford to send their children to college. I would like to see a time when every state university provided enough grants and scholarships to their students so that every student that wanted to attend college would be able to attend.

I can remember when I was a high school senior and I applied to go to Virginia Tech. I was accepted to go there, but I did not qualify for enough grants and scholarships to be able to attend – even though I had taken college preparation courses in high school and had received all A’s and B’s on my report cards. My parents were already sending my older brother to college and they said that they could not afford to help me to attend college as well. So, I could not go to college. My life’s dream of becoming a veterinarian would never come to pass. If I had been able to attend college right out of high school, I would have led a much much better life, and the lives of my children would have been much better as well. College is the foundation on which financial stability is built. Our children need and deserve the chance to improve their lives with a good education.

Facebook frenzy

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One of the things that frequently amazes me is how sometimes one of our younger family members will post a something on Facebook that the older family members will feel is somehow detrimental to the one that posted it. The older member, meaning only good and positive things for everyone in the family will make a suggestion that the original post should be modified. Sometimes it is a photograph, sometimes it is an expression of attitude, or sometimes even a bragging of having done something illegal.

When that happens, all of the friends of the original poster jump on the case of the older, wiser family member and call that older person a “hater.” Sometimes friends of the older family member will interject a post that is an attempt to calm the waters, but instead it turns into a feeding frenzy of the younger people becoming argumentative and the older people not being heard. That is so sad. Makes me want to stop reading the posts on Facebook.

Custom made suits

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When my son told me that he was thinking about buying a couple of custom made suits to wear to work I was quite surprised. Here was a guy who refused to even wear a shirt with a collar up until a couple of years ago and now he’s thinking about spending hundreds of dollar of custom made suits!

Don’t get me wrong; I’m thrilled that he has finally decided to go to work dressed like a serious businessman. I’m just wondering what in the world changed his mind about how to dress for success! For years now he was perfectly happy to wear cargo pants and T-shirts, but now he spends hours picking out the best looking tie to wear with his gray pin stripe suit.

Spice racks

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One of the things that I don’t like about my kitchen is that there is no room in it for the wall spice rack that I bought many years ago and love so much. The reason that I love that spice rack is that it is made out of wood, the jars had copper tops, and it has a traditional “country” look to it. Since I have a small collection of copper accented things around the house, and a few copper decorative furnishings in the kitchen, I really liked this one spice rack better than all of the under-counter and inside-cupboard spice racks that I’ve ever been able to find.

I do have a nice kitchen pantry closet that I keep my spices in, but there are several different spice rack set-ups in there. One of them is a double-decked lazy susan. Another one is a newer kind that I cannot remember what it is called but it is ingenious in the design – it has four shelves that flip and twist and slide around. To be honest, I’d like something like that on a larger scale because this particular one only holds small cans and bottles, and many of the cans, jars and bottles that spices are sold in just do not fit. That is the most aggravating part of storing spices, don’t you agree?

Salt lamps

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A couple of months ago I bought some Himalayan salt lamps for Christmas presents to give to some family members. They are supposed to absorb moisture and deodorize. In addition they are supposed to have some health benefits, relating to mood improvement. Knowing some family members would really enjoy having them, partly because they are pretty, and partly because of their holistic approach to better health, I went ahead and bought a couple of them to tuck away and give them as presents at a later time.

Much to my surprise, a couple of weeks later one of the intended recipients told me that she was thinking about buying one of those Himalayan salt lamps online. She showed me the picture of what she wanted, and it was exactly the same one that I had already bought for her! I told her that I had bought one for her for her Christmas present, and not to buy one herself. She asked me to give it to her now because she wanted to start “enjoying the benefits” immediately. Well, I agreed and I gave it to her. She was happy and took it home with her.

Less than a week later she told me that her daughter told her that she hated it, that it made her feel depressed instead of happy, and she gave the lamp back to me and asked me to give her something different for Christmas. I agreed to do that, and now I am using it in one of my bathrooms. I like how it deodorizes and helps to dehumidify the room. As for the original recipient, well, I ended up giving her a gift card to Wal-Mart. I know she buys things there, and I think that maybe I’ll just keep giving her gift cards in the future.