Kat has flown the coop

This has been a weekend of big changes for all the kids.

Elisabeth and CJ are moving into this cute little (ha!) abode for four months of house-sitting.  Peter moved from his own off-campus apartment in Pullman to a house full of friends that’s just a block from the Washington State campus.  Aleks “only”  moved rooms in his fraternity.

But for Kat, everything changed this weekend!  Last year she lived in an apartment near the University of Washington but attended the local community college.  She moved home last summer and stayed through the fall while she applied to UW for a third time, hoping that sheer persistence would pay off.  (I still don’t see why she didn’t get in the first two times… she had a 3.8 GPA in high school, along with quite a few AP classes and lots of community service – but we’ll let bygones be bygones.)

In late November, Kat was accepted to UW for Winter quarter, which would begin in five short weeks! 

Her persistence, it seems, had finally paid off.

Fortunately Kat was already somewhat enmeshed in the UW culture, especially the Greek culture, since her brother and some friends from high school were already in fraternities and sororities.  Within a week of being accepted to UW she was invited to join the Delta Delta Delta (“Tri-Delts”) sorority… and today she moved in!

As you can imagine, I was requested NOT to follow her around with the camera asking her to pose for pictures, so I was only able to sneak one of her and Elisabeth carrying a box inside.

The house itself is beautiful both inside and out (fraternities are often beautiful outside, but look like Animal House inside…) and the girls seem to be really nice. 

Kat only knows a few of the girls so far, but I have a feeling she’ll have 97 new friends within a few days.

Oh, and she’ll also have a full load of new university classes in a new major, Environmental Studies (which, coincidentally, was Tom’s major and is also Peter’s major).

So now Aleks and Kat are both at UW, just as they hoped to be way back in 2006 when we visited the campus and I took these pictures:

So now, with all FOUR children in college, Tom and I are back to empty nesting.  (Yes, it is indeed the financial craziness you’re imagining!!)  I’m sure they’ll be home often – fortunately doing laundry at school gets expensive – but most evenings will be pretty quiet around here.  With me consistently online in the evenings with co-workers in Mumbai, poor Tom will have to become addicted to bad TV… or a good book.