Yankees?

Well, we visited two schools last week: University of Louisville and Ohio Northern University. While UofL is a Tier 1 school (rank #98), we would have to pay out-of-state tuition the entire time he is there and he hasn't been offered any scholarships yet. Ohio Northern was really great. We both liked the school and the area tremendously. Here's a recap of the trip, in photos :)

This is crossing a river in AL. I love water shots!

This is us eating at Jack in the Box...our first time there too!

The trip went okay until it started raining on Thursday, as pictured above.




We finally arrive in Ohio!!!


This is our hip to the cool rental...we put some miles on this thing!



We did get a little surprise on our trip...SNOW!!! We checked the weather on Thursday night and it said snow! We figured it would just be light snow, not that much. Well, we were pretty surprised to wake up to 1 1/2 inches and freezing temps! There was so much ice on the sidewalks that it was hard to walk and not slip!


The above picture was taken from our hotel window :)

My sweetie almost froze his hands off to write this on our hood!





In spite of the snow, we did eventually make it to the school. We had very DELUXE accomadations, provided by the school :)This is the law school building. We really liked the campus because it was small like JSU.



This is us in the car on the way home. I think we look so happy here :)
And the final one, us stepping foot in Indiana! We just crossed the bridge in Kentucky, so we didn't go very far into IN, but at least we can say we've been there!

All in all, it was a great trip! The rain on Thursday got us a little down, but the snow more than made up for that! The weather was also great on Friday and Saturday. The best part to me though was just spending so much time with Alan. He is so awesome! I'm so proud of him for working so hard to get into law school and the fact that he's been offered so many scholarships is just incredible!

So what's the update on where we're going? Well, we really liked ONU, but we still haven't seen a lot of the other schools. We are going to visit the ones in AL sometime in the next few weeks, and visit Wyoming in April. Can't wait! This will only be my second time flying so I'm a little nervous :|

A Prayer Request

I am asking everyone who knows us and anyone who reads this blog to please pray for us! We have a lot of big decisions coming up over the next few weeks. I've blogged about this before, but these decisions are proving to be very difficult and costly.

Alan has been accepted into 6 schools (so far--still waiting to hear from 6 more):
1. Faulkner University
This school is affiliated with the Lord's church, and that is a big selling point for this school. Alan was also offered a very generous scholarship. While we like all these things, neither of us is particularly fond of Montgomery. We are going to visit in the next few weeks and see if they can change our minds. Also, they have a large seat deposit due on April 15th and June 15th, as well as a scholarship deposit that is by no means a small amount. Any seat deposits to all schools are non-refundable, but the money goes toward your tuition if you attend that school.

2. Michigan State University
This school offered Alan no scholarships, which was a little shocking because they aren't really a 'off-the-charts' kind of school. Given that and the high cost of tuition, we have decided they are off the table.

3. Ohio Northern University
Neither of us has ever been to this area, so we want to visit the school before we make any big decisions. Unfortunately, their two seat deposits are due on April 1st and April 15th. Seeing as the amount is rather large (especially on our shoestring budget), we want to be fairly certain before we put any money down. Alan also received a very generous scholarship from them. This school is in a very rural area, so we have to keep in mind that it may be difficult for me to find employment in this area. We will be visiting the campus this weekend to learn more about the school and area.

4. University of Wyoming
We both really like this school and, even though I've never been here, Alan has told me that this part of the country is absolutely beautiful. Alan was offered a very generous scholarship (not as much as the others, but UW's tuition is much lower than the others, so it evens out). Also, there is a job that was posted the day before he found out about the scholarship and the position is only going to be posted for two weeks, which narrows the number of applicants (hopefully). The pay for that position is a good deal more than my current one and it's also there at the school, so we wouldn't have to be as concerned with our home location. We've talked a lot about this particular school and have agreed that, unless he gets a reasonable scholarship from Samford or if he gets in to UA, if I am offered the job here, this will be our school.

5. University of Louisville
This school is ranked #98 of the Top 100 law schools, so it is a very good school. Other than that, we don't really know too much about the area. While it is one of the lesser expensive schools, we really just need to know more about them before we make any decisions. Hopefully, we will be able to visit their campus soon as well. One benefit about UL is that the first deposit is refundable before June 1, so we could make the deposit and decide later.

6. Samford University
While this school is very close to our current location and I do have a job here, my pay is not enough for us to live on alone and tuition is extremely expensive here. Also, if he receives no scholarships here, we would end up owing more here than any other school except MSU. We really like this school, but the expense (we would owe about $45,000 to $80,000 more after graduation) is just too great right now.

We have a lot to think about over the next few weeks, as all of the schools have seat deposits due either April 1st or April 15th. With prayer and guidance, we hope to make the right decision. Thanks for listening!

Organization and boxes...oh, my!

Well, I've been really looking forward to having some extra time on my hands to get some household projects completed. Last week, I had most of Friday off and all day Saturday, so Alan and I used a lot of that time to catch up on some housework. Now that we are caught up on all of that, I have time to tackle some more time-consuming tasks. I really want to get our second room cleared out and organized so that I have a crafting space and so that guests can also stay in there instead of having to sleep in the living room. This is going to be a very long project to tackle because we still have a lot in boxes from the move because we simply don't have space to put some things, so it's just easier to keep it in the boxes.

We've decided that, even if we stay in this area, we are going to move apartments when our lease is up. There are just too many things that we were told would be fixed that nothing has ever been done about and we also just want something different. When we moved here, we saw six apartments and had to make a decision that day...then we packed up and moved 5 days later. Needless to say, if we had had more time/money, we might not have selected this apartment. We are planning ahead so that our next move is not as crazy as the last one. Things that I know we won't need again until after the move (like winter-wear) will soon be boxed up so that it is ready to go and out of my way. We're also going to try to find a place that has a washer and dryer in the unit or purchase new ones when we move since ours are so old (the dryer is definitely older than both of us!), so if anyone knows someone who is looking for either, let us know! We are probably going to sell the set for dirt cheap (~$100).

So, where might we be moving??? That's a great question. There are a lot of possibilities that hinge on a lot of "unknowns." I had an interview earlier this week that would result in a 50% pay raise. If I get that job, we will almost definitely stay in this area. If not, the door is a little more wide open.

Hear are the possible locales:
-Faulkner University (Montgomery, AL) 75% scholarship...I'm so proud of my hubby!
-University of Louisville (Louisville, KY)
-University of Wyoming (Laramie, WY)
-Michigan State University (East Lansing, MI)
-Ohio Northern University (Ada, OH)
-Samford University (Birmingham, AL)

While the easy choice is Samford due to proximity to our current location, that would also be our most expensive choice of all the schools he has applied to.

There are also some schools that we are waiting to hear back from:
-University of Alabama
-Indiana University-Bloomington
-University of Colorado
-University of Mississippi
-University of Wisconsin
-University of Minnesota

Unfortunately, the schools we haven't heard from yet are the Tier 1 schools (ranked in the Top 100 nationally). Hopefully we will start hearing from them soon. We did hear back from University of Tennessee today and he was not accepted there. I know that this has him down about whether or not he will get into some of the others, but I am so proud of him and I know that he is going to excel no matter where we are!

Pray for us and keep us in your thoughts. These next few months are going to be very difficult for us!