<p>thanks moda. my only sadness is that I didn’t reach this point sooner when the girls were still at home. but I’m looking forward…</p>
<p>shawbridge - that is fabulous news! congrats to you and shawS. I agree and would tell my kids the same thing - making it to the final 4 is huge. they’ve done their best and the final decision is in someone else’s hands. (although I’m secretly still pulling for shawS ;))</p>
<p>Good news Shawbridge. Top four is great! </p>
<p>PRJ, so nicely said. Our priorities and sense of time shifted with H’s life threatening condition. Maybe shifted is an understatement. Life is so short, so fragile. Sometimes that value to one another and family overrides all. Thank you for sharing.</p>
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<p>Okay, I hate meetings that don’t have a purposeful agenda. But I LOVE spreadsheets, fancy formatting, PowerPoint, Word, and mail-merge. I also love creating and updating websites, and creating logos.</p>
<p>My H would make a spreadsheet to go the grocery store. Seriously, he loves a spread sheet. Me? Not so much. :)</p>
<p>Have noticed the uptick in the general parent forum of parental panic that their kids are crashing and burning, probations, and flunking out. Happens every year, doesn’t it? I totally get the feelings there, but I have to say, the further away I get from our own personal experience and the more I hear about other kids etc… I see it as so much more “perfectly within the range of normal behavior”</p>
<p>Congrats to ShawS - such an interesting trajectory he is on. Pretty exciting stuff.</p>
<p>Apparently S might go to special student status because he really has only two classes he needs to take. He’s got some other stuff with professors going on, but I have to say that the thought of getting a nearly 15k refund sounds appealing. He has to petition etc, and I will confess I let H handle the conversation/detail of this one. But if it’s what S wants to do and he’ll graduate and it doesn’t change his plan at all going forward… I really don’t care. We’ll have to pay rent for him, but even at the high end of what that might cost, it would still be a very nice chunk of change coming back.</p>
<p>C_Q – Maybe we should marry?</p>
<p>Moda – hope the special status works – a verrrry nice chunk o’ change there. </p>
<p>Plantmom – So true.</p>
<p>My narcissistic mother has now fired 40 caretakers since April. She informed me that she has never fired anyone, has only said she did not like them. Long story short Brother and his wife (who mom blames for everything) and the other guardian (3 in all) have arranged for her to move to a 1,000 beautiful assisted living center apartment with her own private caretakers for a grand total of $230,000 a year. She has been out of bed, by her own choice, maybe 10 days this calander year. She is so friggen happy right now. She screamed at me for a solid 20 minutes and when I would not call my brother to change his mind she hung up on me. She is alive again and, while afraid of change, loves a good fight.
Have a really bratty sister who may swoop in to take mom away and also take the estate away. B says he will have her arrested (he is a guardian and a lawyer).
I am very close to him and thought he should have done this 8 years ago. He will find out his legal rights (Nevada) next week and go from there.
Thanks for just giving me a place to unload>
congrat to your S Shaw.
Returning to the volunteer talk-- I have wanted and need to find a situation where it is concrete and evidence based. Maybe the Food Bank or feed the animals at the Zoo.
Maybe bake cakes for the homeless. Just something that I can say, DONE! which is never true in a therapy situation (which can be very rewarding but is never completely finished and often the therapist does not know the long term outcome). Tell me to bake 20 cakes and I will know if I have or have not accomplished the task. Hey, maybe I should just start baking cakes for the homeless–oops, I hate to bake, another idea by the wayside.</p>
<p>On another note–I bought G’son his 1 year old birthday gift today. Evidently, according to both S and his wife I have given the best gifts ever to him and they would never have known about them. So that was a nice thing today. I think I am finally accepting that S is gone. D has been in and out for years. The most moving moment for me so far has been when S and DIL asked for his birth certificate and medical records. WHAT! I am his mother and so the owner… this more than g’son or any other moment was difficult. As for S–he is happier and more productive than he has ever ever been. I knew when he about 5 that he would be happier as an adult and never so much as a kid.</p>
<p>oregon101, sorry for the woes with your mother’s care.</p>
<p>When I was in graduate school many moons ago, the Dean of Students had a hobby of baking bread. He found it soothing, and he said he had so many projects and tasks that were never “done” that he needed to have SOMETHING that he could do that was finished. Made a lot of sense. Plus he would bring in freshly baked bread for everyone to enjoy. I once worked with an attorney who’s soothing hobby was decorating cakes. It was always a treat to walk into our break room and find a beautiful tiered wedding cake. So if you can combine volunteering with something you enjoy doing/is therapy, I think that’s a great combination.</p>
<p>I ran into a former HS classmate of S yesterday at the university. It was an interesting experience to hear about my S’s classes and college experience from her! He evidently is really enjoying his Japanese History class!</p>
<p>Kudos to ShawS! </p>
<p>oregon- no advice on your mom, but sending hugs to you. And a hug for your grandson (I can’t believe he’s a year old already!). </p>
<p>When I was the volunteer coordinator for the swim team, I loved making the lists/schedules of volunteers. I actually created a manual with all of the information about the job (which was huge) as well as all of the various volunteer positions and loved doing that. I wrote about that experience in detail when I had to provide a writing sample when applying for the job I currently have. OTOH, I can not make phone calls so I created a volunteer job for that.</p>
<p>It snowed this AM and we actually have about 1/2 inch on the ground. The schools her were open and on time which shocked me. I felt like I was back in No. Illinois.</p>
<p>Congrats to Shawson!
Oregon sorry for your troubles with your mother. I will get there soon as my parents are in their late 80’s.
Today I better buy some treats for Super Bowl Sunday. (Not that we need them).
Understand from news that more beer is consumed on Super Sunday than any other day of year. 
</p>
<p>Oh, oregon, your mom is a piece of work! </p>
<p>Happy birthday to oregongrandson! </p>
<p>We had a retired partner who made bread. He had retired before I started work,so I was never the beneficiary, but he would call various lawyers and say “meet me at the curb” and he would drive up to the curb in front of the building and give them a loaf of fresh bread. My FIL made bread for a while after retirement. Psychological pattern?</p>
<p>With a child still in HS, I still have my fill of booster club volunteer work to do, but I don’t know what will happen after D graduates. I always say that I will do volunteer legal work if a month ever goes by where some staff member or attorney doesn’t ask me for free advice with his or her home purchase, rental property, kid’s college apartment (had one of those yesterday), etc.</p>
<p>Good luck to ShawSon.</p>
<p>Good news everyone! My sister’s 30 year old son is moving up to live with her! He claims to hate Texas and had been thinking about moving up north for a while, but then he got involved with Hot Stripper Clothes Girl. My sister posted on Facebook this morning that he had packed up the car and was almost to her city. My mother is so relieved. My nephew will look for a job, and he and my sister will find an apartment together. Not ideal, but so much better than my mother being pressured to continue to support my sister. (And in the future, it will become a game when looking at the family pictures, to try to remember the name of Hot Stripper Clothes Girl and why she was at the memorial service.)</p>
<p>Just lost a big post…</p>
<p>oregon… Thinking of you and hoping your mom finds some peace and comfort with her life situation. Happy Birthday to your grandson! Time flies when they are so little!</p>
<p>I am not doing any volunteer work at the moment. It has been a big change since being in charge of each Ds’ three sports Booster clubs where I planned banquets, made driving schedules, published yearbooks, organized and hosted pasta dinners, spearheaded fundraisers, etc. I am enjoying having time to work on my own projects, read, travel and relax on my own schedule. </p>
<p>shaw…Congrats to shawson! How exciting and rewarding for him! Expecting great things from him!</p>
<p>D2 returns to school on Sunday and she has nothing ready. Piles of laundry to be washed and packed. She will be hard pressed to have it done by Sunday. She needs to pack, grocery shop and move back in to her apartment. However…she made plans to visit another campus to attend a basketball game Sunday afternoon so won’t be back to move in until after that. Ugh…drives me crazy!
Today is her last day of “full time” work at her job. She will return to part time as classes start on Monday and then she will resign and quit working in May. Big change for her!</p>
<p>Good news missypie! So funny, too! ;)</p>
<p>Today is the 10th anniversary of the space shuttle Columbia disaster. We heard the sonic booms…of course, what we didn’t realize at the time is that it was very bad that there were multiple sonic booms…pop pop pop pop pop…it was already in pieces by the time it went over our house…I guess folks who thought about it would have known something was wrong before the media did. All day that day the big highway signs said “watch for shuttle debris” but of course, the debris was east of Dallas.</p>
<p>oregon - A year old already? Wow! Happy birthday!!
MP -What a relief!!</p>
<p>OOPS-- G’son B day is not until March 4th. I just happened to be near the best toy store in town. But thanks and I am sure the good wishes will hold.
My mother will be moved next Friday. B and SIL are trying to figure out how she will be moved without anyone accidently hurting her. She is sure to be over the top. Thanks for your support.
I really like the idea of finding a volunteer gig that involves something that I like to do. Years ago there was a group of woman who catered events and gave all of the profits to a charity. I hunted for them but they are no longer around. It was great food too.
D’d car is shuddering and goes to the shop today. I am on watch with the history of repairs. Fingers crossed that it is a cheap fix. We passed it to her last summer. It is a 1995 but has been doing fine lately.</p>
<p>In my firm, the lawyers - esp the partners - are expected to hold board positions at non-profits, and of course, once you do that, it’s all about donating money and raising money…in most cases, LOTS of money. I get so cynical when I realize that what many of the nonprofits value is a check, as opposed to actually working on the ground. I know it is realistic and that the groups need money, but I would much rather do actual work with people than try to raise money.</p>
<p>I am right there with NMN in that with kid’s teams it became a sort of full time job, especially when S was in HS. Seems the boys teams, however, always required a little more involvement than the girls. Then again, they were seemingly better organized because the boys themselves were glad to not do the detail. But with S playing three sports and D playing two, it could be a little overwhelming. Our school, not being public, also had a lot of stuff. I am kinda proud of the fact that some of the things I started as a “new” way of doing it are now the habit like the lower school book fair, the all school on-line auction for the annual fund and a few more. Last year acting as a communications director for D’s team was fun in that I made the schedule and stuff into a brochure. Hoping they continue that layout because it was so much more succinct than a lot of loose leaf pages. I also, a long time ago, made the middle school spreadsheets for all the kid’s teams that are easily passed on as they get older AND is a good format to keep track of kids to make sure they’re included in the off season clinics, email blasts etc. Not sure how they do it now, but back then it was when the school was switching from paper to electronic communications in general.</p>
<p>Anywho… D2 must be far happier (or at least I am hoping) because I have not heard from her but my sister has. No news is good news?</p>
<p>Cannot believe the baby is closing in on being a year old already! But I have to say, I don’t even think my oldest has asked for her actual birth certificate (even though she has two!) Wen my husband adopted her at the age of five, his name was put on the birth certificate and my ex-s removed. Seemed so odd to see her place of birth etc all the same but with H’s name when I didn’t even know he existed at that point.</p>