Summer 2008

Where does the time go? Especially when you are enjoying a wonderful North Dakota summer on beautiful Lake Elsie!!

The National CoP Meeting in Louisville was a great experience for the Financial Security for All team. Most of the leadership group were able to attend, and we received great information and had time to network.

Galaxy in September was a huge occasion for eXtension, lots of booths and opportunities to showcase our work with over 2400 Extension staff!

Nearly 30 NDSU Extension staff attended, and a great time was had by all!

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More Graduation

Graduation http://picasaweb.google.com/dfougie/Graduation

Senioritis from a Mother's Perspective

Well, we finally did it! Emily graduated from high school, and let me tell you this has been a very stressful year of parenting.

From overseeing scholarship applications, college applications, senior pictures, and the big graduation open house, I am pretty much as overjoyed as is my daughter.

Emily graduated on May 25, 2008 from Hankinson High School, as valedictorian. Which means she gave one of the speeches. She did a take off on Dr. Suess's "Oh, the Places You'll Go" which all the experts say to avoid. But it was great, she spoke clearly and slowly, and added some fun stuff. Plus we gave all the class their own copy of the book (Helps the pocketbook when there are only 23 graduating Seniors).

We celebrated the night before graduation with an open house at our Lake Cabin (which does double duty as our home). Our closet estimate is 150 folks who joined us, and a nice time was had by all.

Emily will got to school at NDSU (Imagine That?) and major in Nursing, but also taking her pre-med courses should she decide to go on to Medical School (pediatric oncology rolls off her lips when asked about her future plans) in the future.

I guess you can say I am a pretty proud, pretty relieved, pretty exhausted Mom about now.

Have a great summer, and if ever in the area, swing on by Lake Elsie, would love to have some company on a pontoon ride around the lake.

The Cheapskates Do Paris

Emily, Mara and I are back from Paris. We were there March 5 (arrived on the 6th) to March 12. Airfares, hotels much cheaper this time of the year! We stayed at the Hotel Gotty in the Opera (9th) District, so were about 20 minutes (walking) north of the Louvre, for example. We walked 6-10 miles every day.

We saw the Louvre, the Champs Elysees, the Arc de Triomphe, and the Eiffel Tower one day. Another day we saw the Musee d'Orsay,

Notre Dame, Sacre Coeur and the Conciergerie (where Marie Antoinette was help awaiting her beheading).

One day Mara stayed in "bed" while Emily and I saw the Picasso Museum and the Holocaust Museum.

Another day, we walked around Montmarte (where many artists lived and painted) but it was so cold, rainy, windy, we ended up basically shopping!

I used a Paris Museum pass, and the girls got in everything Free (under 19)!

The last day we were there, we took a train to Versailles. It was amazing.

The things the girls liked best: Nutella, the Mona Lisa, Versailles, pizza from the "Italian Guys" down the street from the hotel.

The things the girls liked the least: missing their friends (and phone calls home not easy), no one spoke English, and all the walking.

Mom probably enjoyed it the most, love to travel, love to see history!

Paris was very expensive! For example, the hamburgers and fries (Delicious!) you see the girls enjoying were at the Hard Rock Cafe and cost over $20 each!

The Mother of a High School Senior - Financial Challenges

Applying for college, the dorm (this was relatively straight-forward, since Emily has planned to go to NDSU ever since she could say "Bison" - Very Big Grin), finding and applying for scholarships...

And planning for graduation (it is like a practice wedding reception in these parts, far removed from the cake, coffee and 15 relatives back in the 1900's when I graduated!!

And now there is Prom.....Not only Emily, but also her 16 year old sister Mara will be going this year....Mom's philosophy regarding prom is that is a planned expense to be budgeted for...

My "budget" for each of my two younger daughters is $300 for prom...Period...No matter how many years they choose to go, no matter how many proms a year they attend. So Far, So Good!

Emily wore a sister's bridesmaid dress her Freshman year, a used dress her sophomore year, bought a dress last year, and has $50 left to come from good old Mom. Emily is a workaholic, works as a nurse's aide during the school year at the convent nursing home in town (loves it!) and also at the local Drive In during the summer. She is literally rolling in dough.

Mara, will go this year for her first prom. She knows the $300 from Mom rule. But wants a "Princess Dress"....Do you know how much those frilly, poufy things cost? We are checking eBay, used dresses, etc trying to spend less than half her "budget" this year (hopefully Mara will someday "get a job"!!).

There is also the Family Tradition in the Hendrickson-Pankows--a Senior Trip with Mom. Nathan and I went to Amsterdam for 8 days when he graduated, it was totally a great experience. Angie got a little cheated, she tagged along with me to a National Meeting in Los Angeles, but my sister and her son Todd (also a Senior) were along, and we had the best time (Jay Leno, Hollywood Tours, Universal Studies, they even stood in line to be on "The Price is Right", my sister was chosen for the second taping but they had to leave to meet me to get to Jay Leno, so it never happened).

Mom did some European travel as a College Junior, 2 1/2 months, so saw several countries. France included, but not Paris. So Mom put the bug in Emily's ear that her Senior Trip would be to Paris.

Well, Mom, Mara and Emily will take on Paris March 6-12 (leave March 5, the day after the Regional Science Fair that Emily has participated in for the last 6 years). We will come back the day before the Boys State B Basketball Tourney begins (and our team is ranked #1 in our district and should be a contender).

And did I mention that the girls are also ranked #1 in their District for girls basketball? They will be going to Regionals (exact rank not yet determined, we are in the middle of District Tournaments right now). If they make it to state, that would be the end of Feb/March 1!

A busy time ahead, and lots of Money to make it happen!