FAF What?

This afternoon, I completed B's FAFSA form - it's an acronym for Free Application for Federal Student Aid. It took about two hours. Required tax returns, a calculator and patience. Thankfully, it was all online - and we were able to set up the 'secret code' numbers for us to sign the application on line and submit. I remember doing this during my college days - thankfully, the paperless version is far easier, though still time consuming. Since we haven't filed our taxes yet, I had to estimate our 2008 information and will have to go in and correct it when we file. Estimating is hard to do...especially when we don't have all our 1099-INT, etc. But I did what I could.

We don't qualify for any aid - I'm sure of that. But you still have to fill it out to be eligible to receive Stafford non-subsidized loans - and every little bit of loans we can get 'automatically' will be less we have to apply for ourselves - so we did it. The formula indicates the Feds expect us to contribute HALF - a full 50% - of our monthly take home towards B's expenses. That's ridiculous! I mean, we're doing fine and managing to stay afloat and still save - but there is absolutely no frickin' way we can pitch in HALF of our monthly take home. Wait - scratch that. We could if we didn't eat; started making our mortgage every other month instead of every month. I don't know how they calculate the 'available monthly funds' parents should reasonably consider contribution - but Holy Cow! I was stunned. I submitted the form and we'll see what loans are available. I absolutely refuse to stop contributing to J's 401K...and I don't have any choice regarding pitching in for the State retirement fund. ...so I really have no idea what else we could lower...but I guess we'll be figuring that out as we go.

H. has had multiple opportunities to take his permit test - and has declined. We're not sure if it's a 'fear of failing' kind of thing or a 'I don't want to give up free time to study' kind of thing....or what. But he (so far) has absolutely no interest in getting his permit. We're in no hurry - the longer he waits to get his permit, the longer we have with only one teenage driver on our policy. No hurry to increase that expense.

I've been a home-bug all weekend - the only time I left the house was to go to dinner last night and a quick trip to the bank and gas station this afternoon. OH, and I did go for walks with Chloe - Friday, J. and I took her for a walk and today, while J. was watching the Super Bowl, she and I headed out for a brisk walk around the neighborhood. Weather was crisp and clear and chilly - still winter in the air but warm enough (for a few days, anyway) to just wear a sweatshirt. She starts each walk whining - as soon as we put her harness on, she starts to 'worry' - like she's going to the groomer or the vet, which she doesn't like - so when we go out the back door and head for the back gate, she realizes 'yippee! this is a walk, NOT a trip in the car' and she takes off walking away from the house as fast as she can. If I'd broken out in a run, she would have, too. I had a hard time keeping up with her. I'll try to walk with her again tomorrow when I get home and/or take a brisk walk around the block at work on a break tomorrow. My joints are getting so stiff and I'm realizing that they aren't as sore if I move more - so that's what I'm trying to do. It's hard - I'm sore from start to finish - but I am in less pain than I have been so I think it's helping a bit.

I also took time this weekend to load some more music on my iPod. Santa brought me a really cool docking station and it's in my office (at work). I LOVE IT! It has a remote control and I am so enjoying playing all my 'favorite' music all day long. This weekend, I put all my 'This is Alice Music' cd's onto my computer and then loaded them onto my iPod. Also downloaded other albums. Now have over 400 songs on it and still many to load! I'm hinting that I'd really like a touch iPod for my birthday - though that will be in the summer when the trip to Mexico is looming and I know I probably won't want to spend the money...but I'm going to try to save for it.

Why are weekends always so short?