D24 had to work this evening. Got home from her shift and raved about how stoked she was that she was put on drive-thru the whole time, so she didn’t have to work the front counter. She feels bad for the people who are put on front counter all the time because they have to always clean the lobby. She also gushed about this older retired lady named Flo who works the front counter…the lady is like everybody’s grandma, always has a positive attitude, super friendly. D24 said that everybody loves Flo and everybody, even the customers, know her.
My MIL was over yesterday for dinner and we told her about this past week’s summer camp & how D24 has decided to NOT become an MD, but how she definitely DOES want to become a PA. MIL (who’s soon to be 77 in about a month) said, “That’s great! You know, she could become an EMT.” MIL thinks that EMTs make a lot of money. Neither D24 or I had it in us to explain to MIL that EMTs don’t make a whole lot (around here, it’s ~$19/hr, and McD’s is paying $15/hr, although I do know that D24 would find the EMT work a lot more interesting than fast food). MIL is a little out of touch with regards to wages and how things operate in the work place these days. 
So we did the “smile and nod.”
D24 & I came up with a schedule that should have her done w/the Modern States courses by the end of the month for Calculus & French, so she can then get her CLEP vouchers from them and can sign up through our local community college to take the exams. The Modern States class for 2nd semester US History will take a little longer to finish…she’ll be done w/that by about mid-July.
D24 has an orthodontist appt this week which I need to reschedule. Hoping that she’ll get her braces off before school begins. D24 also needs her wisdom teeth taken out, but that requires the braces to come off first. D24 is worried about missing a lot of school from the wisdom teeth removal. If it can’t happen before school starts, maybe we can schedule it so it coordinates with Fall Break in early October?
D24 also said the other day that most of her friends spend part or all of their summers overseas visiting relatives in other countries. Only 1 of her BFFs is actually here in town for this summer. D26’s BFF is also out of the country all summer, spending the summer visiting relatives in Nepal.
D24 also declared again that she really loves living in AZ and wants to stay in AZ after college. DH is totally thrilled with this.
Another older relative (DH’s uncle, will refer to him as UIL) thinks that D24 should still pursue med school because his BIL went to med school and got his tuition paid for by signing up for the military about 20 yr ago…oh, also because “you can make a lot of money in medicine.” Overall, that was another ‘smile and nod’ sort of conversation once I realized that explaining to UIL that D24 wants to get married and start having kids before she’s 35…and UIL (who’s going to be 81 in a couple of weeks) thinks that the US military scholarships for med school will pay $400,000 of grad school student loans (they’ll pay about $250k, but it’s competitive to get in…AND you have to be physically eligible to enlist AND you have to go to boot camp AND…a bunch of reasons why D24 doesn’t want to go that route).
Smile and nod, people. Smile and nod. 
She thought that was pretty great. Making more progress on finishing the Calculus, French, and US History II materials on Modern States so she can take the CLEP exams before school starts again in Aug.
That’s fine. Let’s do it right now, kiddo…you think out loud and I’ll just dictate. So we did that. And in about 5 min, had a whole page written out. There’s a few things in that 1-pager that she’ll be able to use for college app essays, I think.
S24 slept until 1PM today and woke up achy and miserable. Temp of 102. He called and made himself an appointment and just texted me that it’s strep. The only good thing is it will be better quickly rather than days of fever and viral illness. But man, what a bummy way to start summer break.
We found out my youngest had it after almost a week of feeling under the weather when he broke out with a scarlet fever rash. We had everyone else in the house tested and four out of six of us had strep, with only a mild sore throat that we attributed to allergies and no fever for anyone.