Just When You are Having Fun-Life serves up Lemons!

Yep, these last few weeks have been exciting, fun, exhilarating and down right stressful.

Let's just replay all the great fun and hiccups life threw us these last few weeks.

Daddy and girls went to Disney for a 1st every dad and daughter trip (they missed me).

Then my daughter was in a hit and run. She's physically fine and mentally adjusted to it after she went to the police station to file a report. My son was at a stop sign when he got hit. I was parked in the parking lot when a car hit my car. Lastly, my hubs was in back of a utility truck who's debris flew off the truck and hit our truck.

We had 4 hit and runs on both cars! Yep 4 count them! in 4 weeks. Over $7000 in damage on 1 car and $2800 on another. We ran down and had 2 of them stop. So their insurance is paying it. Ours has to cover the other two.

We took those in stride however, and were glad that no one got hurt.

Well crap rolls downhill. With the new president's Freeze on government jobs, contractors or companies that support the government are suffering cut programs, non payment from the government (since the budget hasn't passed). And...My husband got laid off, my daughter who was supposed to transition to her new job also was told the job would be on hold indefinitely.

THANK GOD...I am working too.  My daughter, luckily, is still at her current job and haven't given noticed. My son is still working and happy at his job.


Despite all of the bad, here was more good. The street market this weekend was a great way to unwind. My son and his sister did martial arts in the streets. Then he went breakdancing. It was fun to watch and experience.

And Drama class. Where Speed racer looks a bit bored. He's hardly this calm most of the time.

What does all this BAD and GOOD mean to me?

Well like my Grandma used to say, "with all the bad, the devil must be mad, because I have a blessing coming on!"

How My Daughter Finished 2 degrees in 3 years

There is More Than One Way to Save Money On College
My daughter graduated at age 19

My daughter was a motivated student, had great study skills, and was flexible. She wanted to finish college with LOW COST and in a SHORT TIME.

This is how we did it for her and are doing it for my other kids.

1) Only selected Community Colleges and Universities that accepted a large number of transfer credits from several sources including other colleges, CLEP test, DSST test and AP test

2) We utilized CLEPs, DSST test and tested well on college Accuplacer.
In addition, with my younger son, we plan on using Excelsier, Straighterline, ACE, and some online Community colleges for credit to transfer to University of Maryland, University College (UMUC.edu)

3) My daughter overloaded on credits per semester. At her college she was able to take up to 21 credit hours a semester. She started at the Community College, then transferred all of those classes to her University (Towson State University).

My younger daughter and son are going to go to University of Maryland, University College since my youngest daughter prefers their 8 week online classes and like being able to take up to 18 credits a semester. They also have full course loads offered even through the summer.

4) My daughter went to classes year around. She took Fall, Winter, Spring, and either the 1st session of Summer classes or the last.

5) My daughter enrolled in two Community Colleges at the same time, after she was positive that both locations accepted transfer credit from the others (as well as the 4 year university she planned on transferring to accepted the courses).

Total Cost of college - $28,000 for Associates and Bachelors degrees (with living on campus for 1 semester) Scholarships Totals $10,000 for both Community College and University

Additional Experiences: 
Study Abroad with Community College $2800 for airfare & accommodations
Internship with IDTech Camp and private Data Analytics Company


Time: 3 years

Her road to finishing her Masters in Data Science in 20 months

1) There was no easy way with this one. She had to select schools that were online and required the LEAST amount of classes.

2) Allowed her to take classes all year long.

3) Had accelerated programs.

The two colleges she reviewed were: Western Governer's College and University Of Maryland, University College. She decided to go with UMUC.edu because of the cost and she was guaranteed to finish in 20 months provided she passed all of her classes.

Total Cost of College - $13,000 since her employer pays for 1/2 of her degree
Time: 20 months