<p>Thanks everyone. D’s problem is that one leg is MUCH shorter than the other. Now why did it take this long to figure that out? She has a bunion on one foot that we’ve had looked at numerous times and now they are saying that the leg shortness may have been part of the bunion – hello she’s had it forever why just now are we figuring this out? She has PFPS – basically over developed hamstring - under developed quad and not much flexibility. Theory is that with exercise and special stretches they can make it better and she will actually run better once this is over and she’s able to build back up. What is it with athletes though? They complain when they can do the sport and they complain when they can’t. I know alot of her problem right now is that she wants to be in shape to start with the team and knows that that probably won’t happen. She’s also nervous I think to be starting something else. She also does not like change and this is a big one. Oh well. This too shall pass.</p>
<p>One of my legs is quite a bit shorter than the other…of course, beiong absolutely unathletic, the only problem it causes is with pants hems. </p>
<p>Hard for her to add worry about her sport along with everything else she’s (you’re) going through.</p>
<p>I am so sorry to hear about all the knee problems. D is so unathletic and really can’t do sports because of a genetic illness that I never realized how difficult it can be as a parent of an athlete.</p>
<p>As an aside, I found out the hard way that people have legs of different lengths when making costumes back in high school. I kept measuring only one leg of a pair of pants that i was making and every time the hems came out wrong. Took forever for that light bulb to go off and measure both legs.</p>
<p>Missypie, glad to hear your networking issue is fixed. I still have some household networking stuff that could use fixing but decided not to waste the time (folks can just copy the files they need from one computer to the other on a flash drive) and I do have the networked printing working for the color printer at least.</p>
<p>D was so lucky to get all the classes she wanted. She gets to register before all her classmates and two of her four classes were prequalified.</p>
<p>I will say that I was happy that she didn’t have something much worse. This problem although a blow to her isn’t long term (in the long run). Several weeks/months of rehab and she should be fine. I have RA although it doesn’t bother me at all really. Started running again this year after a few years off and still managing although I run really slow. I was worried that they were going to diagnose her with some sort of arthritis. That would have been really bad at her age. Guess I know now how my mother felt since I was diagnosed at 16.</p>
<p>I laid down on the couch tonight to read, but my college-bound D came and snuggled up with me. We didn’t talk for a while, but then I said, “How’d you get all grown up?” </p>
<p>She said something to the effect that time just caught up with her, cut off her floaties, and told her to start swimming. Then she hid her face. I think she was fighting back the tears.</p>
<p>I don’t want her to leave … and I think she’s feeling wistful about it too. Ah me.</p>
<p>Oh, Zetesis. That’s another one to hold onto. </p>
<p>We’re off on what we’re all trying not to call our last family vacation (for one thing, we haven’t had D along on family vacations for a while). So far, so good. There’s no calendar in this house, which helps.</p>
<p>Oh gosh. If you all keep posting things like Zetesis’ story I’m going to have to stop coming to CC. 
I’m a weepy mess lately. It didn’t help that DD pointed out on her facebook yesterday that she leaves in a month.</p>
<p>Oh Zetesis. Maybe the fact that my D is away for the summer is a good thing after all - I am spared moments like that. Just kidding - I would give anything to cuddle with her. Sigh.</p>
<p>Oh my, what a touching moment, Zetesis. It is certainly much more imminent and real. </p>
<p>We’ve hardly seen D this summer between work and friends so we’re getting used to our smaller family of three. We are taking a low-key family vacation this week, so hopefully we’ll have some nice time together before all of the goodbye parties begin. </p>
<p>D is not a shopper, so I started the shopping for her dorm room by picking up towels and sheets. I’m hoping to get her out clothes shopping at least once, so she can have a nice outfit or two. I think she is getting a bit wistful about the upcoming changes, she is being nicer to us and more appreciative of our efforts. </p>
<p>S is not seeming too concerned, though I imagine it will hit him once she is gone. I can feel the emotions reappearing as we start to prepare for her leaving. I’m trying to schedule fun activities for the fall, so we have something to look forward to after her departure.</p>
<p>Such great stories lately. My D is still prickly. She’s spending a lot of time with her friends. I think that is good. She is one of the last to leave buy a couple of weeks so I’ll have some time with her then. </p>
<p>Shopping is almost done. I think the remaining is all online stuff and stuff that my H is supposed to take care of. D likes to shop so there is no problem there. I’m jsut gald that it’s almost done.</p>
<p>So Dell hell unfortunately returned. Last night D and I officially gave up on the new laptop. So at 4am when I couldn’t sleep because I was so stressed and so annoyed, I was up hunting for a new laptop. Hopefully tomorrow I can get a firm ship date from Toshiba and a returned number from Dell and I’ll have to have a chat with American Express as well. D has not been taking this well at all. I’m just happy to find the problems now and hopefully get them resolved before she leaves.</p>
<p>We bought D’s second course worth of books. She is taking an integrated science class which is worth half her semester credits but covers 5 subjects so the books could have been a real problem. The professors however worked together to find older editions of the books that they were happy with and the total outlay was under $100 with the most expensive book being $30. Very happy about that. I think this leaves only 1 subject that we don’t have books for yet.</p>
<p>D & I did some more shopping yesterday…were supposed to ‘just look’ and ended up buying stuff! As a result I’ve heard at least 10x how excited she is about college and how she can’t wait to move into her dorm to decorate…I’m glad but I really don’t want to continue to hear it for the next 2 months!</p>
<p>She and her roommate have been fb’ing trying to figure out a time to meet since we live pretty close we finally told her why not give her your PHONE number and ask her to CALL you (what a concept - talking person to person rather than FB, IM, text…) and managed to set up a time to meet with she and her parents last night. Ended up having dinner with them. They seem like a good match and I think they will end up being friends as well as roommates. It was quite funny to H & I though, to hear roommate’s parents discribe our D as outgoing…we’ve never really considered her particularly outgoing but I guess everything depends on perpective! It’ll be interesting to hear what her friends roommates are like. D only has one year of guaranteed on campus housing…will most of your kids stay on campus after freshman year or will they be moving off campus? Is it mostly private schools that students live on campus all four years?</p>
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<p>I’m feeling really dumb here, but how do you know what books to buy? D has her class schedule already and I would like to buy the books from amazon as I have heard it’s much less expensive.</p>
<p>Sorry for just jumping in here like this. I was away without my laptop (could have taken it but didn’t want the hassle) and am trying to get things back together.</p>
<p>In my D’s case, there is a booklist posted on the “bookstore” home page of her college; for older daughter, this was accessible off of the Registrar’s page. Typically you get the title, edition number, and ISBN (so you can order elsewhere if you want). D2 has ordered her chemistry book; we saved $100 over the new edition, and about $50 over the used.</p>
<p>Often there is very little change between editions, and it can be worth finding out from the prof whether s/he knows whether a previous edition will do. These are often available much more cheaply.</p>
<p>Thanks, Zetesis!</p>
<p>D also found out what books she will need on the website of the college bookstore. Someone here, I think it was sharonohio, mentioned a 10% discount at Barnes and Noble for AAA motor club members. After comparing the prices at a few places we ended up using that same service. We also used a couple of coupons for B and N. The coupons don’t work for regular textbooks, but did work for others she needed for liberal arts courses. The new versions of several of the books ended up being less than the used copies with the discount and coupons.</p>
<p>In D’s case, the science class professors actually posted all the textbook info on facebook so that’s where she grabbed it from. rrah, glad you liked the barnes and noble discount and with free shipping for the most part it can be a good deal.</p>
<p>The bookstore doesn’t have the other reading listed yet – in fact they don’t have the fall term up yet at all.</p>
<p>I think two of D’s courses had texts posted; obviously, not everyone has their book lists turned in yet. She was very pleased to order her chemistry book and look through it once it arrived. Although the site we ordered from called it in “very good” condition, it looks brand new. Nice savings.</p>
<p>This morning Son and I were talking and we realized that both of us are dreading the coming of August - that’s next Sunday! - because that’s the month that he goes away from home. I told him that *I *had a reason to be sad, because it is an ending for me, but it is just the beginning for him so he should be so excited…I don’t think I was very convincing - it probably sounded like a memorized speech. It’s so hard to be the responsible adult - I bet that if I tried, I could convince him to stay home and go to community college and live with me for years and years…but I know that wouldn’t be for the best.</p>
<p>Here’s an odd situation: Son’s roommate has bought a dorm-sized fridge, so we were going to buy a small microwave. Now the roommate is saying that he assumes Son will bring a fridge, too, since the fridge is so small. I really don’t know how to handle it - is the kid going to be super-protective of his stuff/his food? Dorm fridges don’t cost all that much - it’s just that their room is very very small…I hardly know where they will keep one fridge, much less two…could they be stacked? </p>
<p>I don’t plan to bring a second fridge and hope it works out…if the roomie really won’t give him fridge access, he can buy one later.</p>
<p>oh missypie - that does sound a bit off-putting. Do you think it’s really coming from the guy - and not the parental unit??
My son ended up putting his on his desk - worked out pretty well actually and it was MUCH bigger than the dorm -sized cube fridge.</p>
<p>BTW - S came home from his ~ 2.5 months in China. Very happy to be altogether for the last few weeks!</p>