Update

So Brittanie has been struggling with her PT and unless she passes the PT test, she can't get her scholarship money. If she doesn't pass it by December 10th, they could rescind her scholarship offer altogether. Her biggest problem is that she is too heavy and needs to drop weight and then she will be able to run faster and she will have less weight to push up and pull up with sit-ups. One of my friends told me she lost 49 pounds in 7 weeks at Metabolic Weight Loss Center. It is a physician monitored program. I told Brittanie about it and she wanted to try it. She has been on it a week today and she has lost 7 pounds. The first week is just drinking protein shakes and water. They tell you not to exercise. She did it anyway last Friday and was dizzy the rest of the day. So she had to tell her ROTC instructors that she couldn't do PT until after her appointment today. They weren't happy that she was doing this diet. Her instructor is a toothpick so he wouldn't understand and was basically a butt about it. Her Battalion Commander, who also teaches the advanced PT class she is in, is a fitness expert so he understands the struggle and told her he preferred that she stop this diet and do Weight Watchers and she could lose 2 to 3 pounds a week. She told him she needed to lose it all by November and that Weight Watchers wasn't fast enough. He asked why she needed it by November and the instructor told him it was because she is trying to contract. He told her since she has put forth so much effort and money into doing this diet and coming to all of the PT classes, which shows him she really wants it and is willing to do whatever it takes to accomplish it, he will throw her a bone. He will pass her if she makes 50% on her PT test and let her contract. But that offer is for this year ONLY. When she become a sophomore, she has to pass it with at least 70% like everyone else. One of the conditions of this is that when she loses the weight she wants to lose, she has to switch to Weight Watchers to maintain the weight loss. She took the deal. So she feels much much better now. She is positive she will pass by December 10th....if not before. I'm proud of her because this diet isn't for wimps. Her grades are great and she is working out and dieting. She is transferring to Columbia for spring semester. She is doing outstanding!!

On the apartment front, they had a roommate meeting Sunday and Brittanie did her take control/officer thing and told them that they are going to get a calendar style wipe off board and when a roommate wants to have friends over they put that on the calendar and if a roommate has a night that they need there to not be people in the house (like Brittanie can't have people over on Sunday night, Tuesday night, and Thursday nights, because she has PT in the morning), then they put that on the calendar in a different color. They will have a separate wipe off board for cleaning chores. Brittanie established the rules. Like if you have friends over, the apartment is to be cleaned BEFORE you go to bed that night. If you dirty a dish, either wash it or put it in the dishwasher. She set up a trash schedule. Brittanie will take the trash out on Monday, Wednesday, and Friday. Courtney will take the trash out on Tuesday and Thursday. And Reisha will take the trash out on Saturday and Sunday. She is a natural at taking charge and people naturally follow her because she just commands authority. She is better with Katie than I am. When I tell Katie to do something, her first instinct is not to do it. When Brittanie tells her something, if she doesn't move immediately, Brittanie says "MARCH! 5 - 4 - 3." She never has to get to 2 because Katie is running by 3. I tried that. She doesn't respond when I do it!

Katie has started piano lessons at school. She LOVES it. Tom took 7 years of piano and Brittanie took 3 years of piano. Tomorrow is Grandparents Day. Tom's parents are coming down from Spartanburg to attend and they are going to take her back with them and bring her back to us when they come on Saturday to celebrate Tom's little brother's 30th birthday at our house. She is hoping they will take her to the state fair after school tomorrow before going to Spartanburg, like they did last year. I guess we will see. She has been dying to go to their house since the summer. So she is excited to finally be able to go!

We have been shopping around for new insurance. Well while talking to the Traveler's guy about our car insurance, we decided to check on the house insurance, since our house insurance seems pricy as well and is also with Allstate. Well Traveler's won't cover our house because we have a dog that is classed as a vicious dog because a Chow and a German Shepherd are both considered "vicious dogs." I had to laugh. Anyone who has ever been near our dog knows she is anything but vicious. She is the sweetest dog you will ever encounter. Through the years, Katie has tried to ride her, pull her whiskers, hug her so tight she chokes her, etc. and not even a growl! I have given her a ham bone before and reached over and took it right back out of her mouth and she just let me do it. Katie has taken bones out of her mouth before. She is just a sweetheart. She rarely barks even. But they won't cover us because of our vicious dog. That was hilarious. But we aren't getting rid of her to save money. It isn't worth it. She is part of the family.