Day 230 of 365 Days of Being Thankful

         Off she goes!! Today I am thankful that Dan and I took Olya back to college and she is happy and settled in!  Olya took a carload last weekend and then we took the rest of her stuff yesterday.

Olya is a quiet young woman but she is always chatty in the car! Her apartment is fabulous. The apartment is so spacious!  It is the nicest apartment that any of my 5 kids ever had at college.  She is right next to the campus so it is a very short walk for her.  Her roommate Elise also went and set up a carload last weekend.  We took Olya to Giant food market to shop and when we got back Elise was there! Olya spent over $200. We gave her $50/week for food and she has to learn to manage that.  We gave her six weeks in advance because we knew the first food shopping would have to cover essentials like mayo, Pam cooking spray,salt and pepper, etc.  There was a dollar store in the same shopping center so I went over and got her 10 disposable aluminum cooking trays! She said they didn't have an oven roasting/cooking pan so I'll give her one next time we see her. I have two new ones.  When Elise saw all of the food, she said..."I don't think we'll be starving any time soon!"  Elise brought a toaster oven and a sunbeam counter top mixer.  These girls are not suffering in any way! I'd love to be a tenant in that apartment.  It is almost brand new, has beautiful hardwood floors and granite counter tops in the kitchen!  The bathroom is huge and new and sparkly!
         On the way to Olya's college, we stopped at two Goodwill stores because it was their 50% off day!  Olya got beautiful brand new glass bowls.  They were still wrapped in brown paper in the box with the tags on it.  I got about 8 new Christmas plates for Priscilla and my Christmas pizzelles activity! I didn't look around long because I don't want to buy much because I am purging.  I met a woman in a Goodwill store who had noticed my empty cart. She said...."it's awful to have these fabulous prices and not need one thing!!!" I agreed but I didn't buy anything in that store!
         We stopped at a mall to eat.  Dan had found an Arby's on his Garmin so we followed the directions to the mall.  Olya kept telling him that there wasn't an Arby's in the mall because she checked on her phone.  She was correct! But we just ate in the food court.  My sciatica is still really painful so I had trouble getting up from the seat when we were finished eating! Dan was holding onto my right hand and pulling and all of a sudden, this elderly woman came up and asked if I needed a hand! She reached for my left hand and helped pull me up!  She had to be at least 15-20 ears older than me! Man oh man, did she have a strong arm!! I am thankful for her kindness.