Taking a break from the piles of stuff I have after missing 1 day of work. Wow! Stacks and stacks but I'm making progress.

Iowa was lots of fun. Visiting Grinnell was pleasant! Nathanael really likes Grinnell and needs to make a decision within the next few days so he's going to schedule 1 more visit to Miami. Someone- I know Alice is there now- can you take him up to it? Mom? It will be Tuesday, Wed., or Thursday. He would like to see a class.

Advantages to MU: More specific courses. Advantages to Grinnell: More prestigious.

MU: big. Grinnell: Small.
MU: Balanace of liberal and conservative. Grinnell: Afraid of no balance though that seems to be changing within the last couple of years. No university is truly balanced and no one is learning if students are not taught to examine things to arrive at truth, only indoctrinated. I have to take it a step further than most people who say "let's hear all sides," and say: "Let's hear everything and ARRIVE at truth and DISCARD what is not, no matter who or how many or how much money is thrown either way."

One needs to know WHY they know what they know.

MU: close. Grinnell: not as close. This is not a problem for me either way though I will cry because I'm a mom. I will cry when he goes to live somewhere else. Period.

MU and Grinnell: Both areas of the country are home turfs of my family. Going to Grinnell is like going home for me in a way though that area hasn't been home to me since I was a child. It's so close to the former old Troxel farm. I miss the farm! Even though we moved to Ohio and Miami when I was little, we went back a couple of times a year.

Stopped in Davenport and saw Alice and Jerry and their enormous dog, and drove around Davenport and the old house there. The Blaser house is now owned by people with lots of kids because there are toys all over the yard. The back porch is still there. The side porch, too. Whoever lives there has a very little kitchen. The wishing well is gone, though. :( And the trees very much trimmed. I don't think that old nut tree is still there, just all the pines. Those kind of nuts were yummy and we always used to make cookies with them.

The Spencers live near the big park now, do you all remember that, how they had such awesome gardens?

I digress.

Part of Iowa is hilly and part is flat like IN and IL. They have a great prairie studies program at Grinnell and maybe they have studied all the glaciation.

Miami and Grinnell, after going over everything last night, are close to par financially. IT's going to still be a huge payment, either way! Without the scholarships we'd never be able to do it. MU is about 38.5K and Grinnell is 42K. NO, I'm not kidding.