"The New Adult"

Cellphone:  $15 per month

Good used car with insurance:  $10,000

One year of college at a private university:  $28,000

The look on her face when she realizes she's not truly independent:  PRICELESS!

Her constant lament now is that she's ready for her life to begin.  She says she doesn't feel a full adult because she still lives at home and doesn't enjoy all the perks of being an adult.  To her, these perks include her own apartment, the car of her dreams and performing on Broadway.  To my husband and I, the perks include taxes, college tuition and a way to pay for all the perks.  I love this age!  She can lament all she wants as long as she gets her degree.  So back to school she goes.

When you have to pay $225 for one textbook, it's hard to think about finding the perfect car.  But there is a website, www.cash4books.net, which buys used books, a lot of them textbooks.  You go to the site, put in the ISBN number, and they'll let you know if they're buying the particular title.  They will even pay the shipping.  You  might want to also look at www.bigwords.com,  www.bookbyte.com  or www.valorebooks.com.  If you don't want to buy, but rent your textbooks, check out sites like www.chegg.com.  In this economy, every cent saved helps.

    "The Petulant Teenager"

She's a junior this year and sooner or later we were going to have to discuss colleges.  Just like her sister, she's looking for the dream lifestyle during her collegiate years.  Her sister wants to land on the eastern seaboard and she wants the west; California.  Now, this is the child who has never flown and told me she would never get on a plane.  I guess she's changed her mind.

The university of her dreams will be dictated by her grades (which will be high) and her money (which will be lower).  And just as I told her sister, it's not our job to provide her dream lifestyle while she's in college.  It's our job to provide a college education so she can get the dream lifestyle she wants.

I still love her, anyway.

    "The First Grader"

She's only six, but she already has the vocabulary of a ten-year-old. Maybe that's because Krispy Kreme gives out free doughnuts for every 'A' or 'B' she gets on her report card.  The joy of getting good grades has been trumped by the sugar rush of a deliciously sweet pastry.  But that's okay. That sugar in her veins is nothing compared to the raw energy that wakes her every morning and has her on the move until she collapses into sleep at night.  Since she's become a gymnast, she's constantly on the move; cartwheeling, tumbling, stretching, handstanding, headstanding, and a few other moves I can't even describe.  With any luck, her grades or her tumbling will mean a great college scholarship.  I wonder where her dream situation will be?