Moving Boxes, Backpacks, and a New Semester

It's that time of year again...

 #2 Smithling loaded her car and hit the road back to Pepperdine.

Big Brother made the road trip with Liesey Lou to help get her new apartment set up. 

Architectural style used for apartment buildings in 1959 may be kind of plain Jane, but the location is fantastic! This place is ideally situated in Santa Monica, blocks away from the beach, restaurants, and shopping at the Third Street Promenade.

The college girl still needs to hang a few more things on the walls, but she is pretty much settled into her new digs. She shares a two-bedroom unit with one of her roomies from last year. 

The kitchen is newly remodeled (complete with granite countertops and stainless steel appliances), and the hardwood floors are original equipment. This place has a lot of character.

I'm sure that there will be a lot of hours spent right here hitting the books.

It was o'dark-fifteen when this girl left for her cosmetology program. Millie's alarm went off at 5 AM. (Yawn!) She has a 20-25 minute commute to get to the technology center, and thankfully, traffic is not an issue when she's making her morning drive. She will have time to come home each morning before going to her high school for regular classes: History, English, Physics, Art, and Algebra 2. This year, the high school adopted a block schedule, so her afternoons consist of three classes.

We had to do a traditional "by the front door" back-to-school shot when my high schooler got home from school.

On a recent trip to the mall, I made my teenager pose for this picture. Nearby, there were mothers with small children who gave me questioning (but not disapproving) looks. 
See. She fits perfectly!
No, I did not load the slots with quarters, but I was tempted.

Last, but certainly not least, this guy got started on his next-to-the-last semester at UTA. That diploma is in sight... Yes, he willingly agreed to my taking this picture. He is a good boy. He is my favorite son.

Amazon boxes filled with textbooks are starting to arrive at the front door. 

Hopefully, fall weather will be arriving soon, too. I placed my order weeks ago, but there was some nonsense about 70º temperatures being backordered. This 100º stuff is getting old.

Four Threes

In a recent survey, four out of five car owners in the Smith family prefer to drive a BMW 3 Series. I'm the oddball Audi owner, so they made me stay outta the picture. Ha ha!

All four cars were clean at the same time, so it was declared picture day.

Starting from the the left, the fleet looks like this:

2003 330i "Blue" -- 190,000 miles

2001 325Ci "Blonde Millie's Wheels" -- 98,000 miles

2000 325i "Blackie" -- 215,000 miles

1995 325is "The Beaker" -- 197,000 miles

Mr. Smith & Son are considering opening their own repair shop since they do all of the oil changes and other maintenance on these driving machines. These four cars are just getting broken in, so it's going to be fun to see just how many miles we can rack up.

Oh! The four cars have acquired the nicknames Eeny, Meeny, Miney, and Moe.

Left to right: Miney, Eeny, Moe, and Meeny! 

The Bimmers are named in order of acquisition, not by the age of the vehicle, so that makes things a little harder to keep the right name with the right car.