<p>Room, board, tuition, books, three summers of summer classes/summer programs:</p>
<p>attended four years at the same school living in dorms; w/ financial aid (no loans):</p>
<p>$23,200 or so (my cost for four years)</p>
<p>(This does not include clothing, medical, transportation.)</p>
<pre><code> I confess that I am in a state of shock that I won’t be a parent of a student! Happy that child found a major we never would have guessed when entering college and happy that it was very affordable; there is a bit of money left in college fund. Overall, though, it is very bittersweet. Also wrote in pillowcase with a Sharpie when moving into dorms!!
</code></pre>
<p>When my mom was in a nursing home with Alzheimer’s she would repeat her stories over and over again also. Some I had never heard before so I found them interesting and found it easier to remember them since I heard them 5 or 6 times in a 2 hour visit. Since I had nothing much to say myself I found it convenient to have a few stories that I just repeated over and over again since she forgot them shortly after I told them. I have my list, told each one by one, and when I got to the bottom of the list, I started over again.</p>
<p>It’s a difficult thing to sit through, but it’s nicest to just listen and pretend it’s the first time you’ve heard it. RochesterMom - that’s not nasty at all, it keeps you appearing that you’re interested in the story, whatever it takes!</p>
<p>My D’s have been educated privately all their lives so I hate to think about the cost. college is about 120K for each. and that is with good scholarships.
My Mil has alzheimers. she not only repeats but asks when D2 is graduating form HS (she was there) and what she is majoring in. she asks this all the time. cant remember what she did the day before. it is scary from a safety point of view too.
Oh yes and that is just tuition not books, travel either</p>
<p>NM, do you watch Modern Family? Cam and Claire are doing a “flip” together. Whenever Cam wants to do something with which Claire disagrees, she bombards him with numbers. He caught her when she quoted a number like “leventy seven”.</p>
<p>I don’t add stuff up as we go along but do a lot of planning up front. So far, no big surprises except for ShawSon spending way less than one might have expected. He was home for Passover and left a bunch of clothes at home (he was intending to wash them but didn’t). He has so many clothes at home that ShawWife is scared to think about what he is wearing.</p>
<p>Hi Northminn—how are your daughters? not a long time poster, but an old time poster. Hi all. Love to read about all of the accomplishments and opportunities all of your great '13s are racking up. Shaw, congrats to your s, and DTE sounds like your daughters are both doing well. I read all of your posts, but since I haven’t posted in a bit, it’s hard to comment on everyone’s updates, but I love to read Missy’s, KMC, and oregon, etc. So cool how you guys are dedicated to continue posting regularly.</p>
<p>my updates, my 13 d completed her honor’s thesis and is “baccing” this Friday. She’s confident and proud of herself, which honestly was my real hope for her, as she struggled in high school, so that makes me very happy, have only great things to say about her CTCL college. She’s interviewing for positions and has a couple that seem promising, and a summer program lined up that she’d love to do in New Orleans. Like her older bro she wants to work a year or two before starting grad school. I just returned from a Northeast tour of colleges for my third, hard to believe it’s his turn.</p>
<p>I have such fond memories of all of us sharing our '13s high school proms, along with their college app processes, and of course those first few days of college, first parent weekends etc. and here we are preparing for college graduations. Honestly, it feels like yesterday that my '12 s graduated, and he’s happily launched in the research triangle in NC loves his research position and his 20 something life. Hope to hear of wonderful jobs and grad school acceptances for your kids over the next few weeks and months!</p>
<p>Hi lindz–good to see you here! congrats to your D! My D will be in NOLA for a month this summer doing reseach–small world!</p>
<p>I have been so sick! I think I may be turning the corner. Just a head cold turned sinus infection but painful. I usually dislike pain meds but they have given such relief today.
My mother had my sis send out the jewelry she has chosen for us. LOL LOL. I get her HS class ring. Happy Days! (sic) Sis probably gets her 1.5 K diamond. Funniest is that nearly all of everything was given to me (not the diamond) by mom about 4 years ago and then she asked for it back. I really don’t want her jewelry–not my taste at all. But she certainly does keep adding to the stories. Poor H’s mom had surgery today for an obstructed bowel and did well. H was worried and he even said, “and your mom just keeps on going! this is not fair!” (only half joking)</p>
<p>Thanks for stopping by, Lindz! Great to hear all is well.</p>
<p>Oregon, is the jewelry re-distribution perhaps a move designed to garner attention? Maybe you should get to know the social worker at the home she’s in, and just call her up whenever your mom is up to shenanigans to have he pay a little “lets examine why you’re doing x” visit. I have a hunch your mom would hate that. It would be something of a chess move to my mind…but perhaps I’m just evil (I don’t respond we’ll to passive-aggressiveness or indirect plots, as you might gather!)</p>
<p>Speaking of plots, am feeling quite old/unhip/cranky at the moment. I was on a reading ramble that led me (belatedly) to David foster Wallace’s infinite jest. Well, it’s infinite alright.
I studied postmodernism with the best of em so I thought I was equipped to read something that claims to turn form on its ear. However, for the first time in a long time, I feel ready to actually “quit” a book. While there are numerous clever passages and deft mechanics scattered throughout, I just can’t get behind a book that can’t decide its narrative vantage. When whole sections slide deliberately from limited third into first person, well, it’s not only counterproductive to the notion of suspending disbelief, which I advocate as every author’s prime goal, but it also implodes under the weight of its own self-consciousness! </p>
<p>In my early 20s I had occasion to see a therapist with some regularity. One day he caught me reading Bloch in the waiting room. He wagged his finger and said “Russian literature is bad for you.” I thought he was joking, but during our session he went on a bit of a tirade about how depressing certain types of literature were, essentially suggesting one could “catch” madness from a book. At the time, I thought he was an a**. So it’s kind of funny that I’m now thinking that I do not wish to journey intimately down the rabbit hole of Foster Wallace’s worldview since same did not serve the poor man well what a hypocrite I’ve turned out to be!</p>
<p>In other news, I’ve had what struck me as one of the most unusual conversations I thought possible with mcson on the trip back Sunday. He started it with “I need to understand more about how mutual funds and financial stuff works. What should I be doing?”
It was very hard not to quip along the lines of “getting a job” or “graduating from a different degree” or “marrying well.”</p>
<p>But I took it as EDM, and behaved accordingly, mapping out the notion of building the base and agreeing to hook him up with our financial planner. Ah, from the mouths of babes. He’s always been just so “Winnie-the-pooh”-esque there’s something just kind of adorable about him inquiring into the habits of the ole Real World denizens ;)</p>
<p>Hello lindz! So good to hear from you and to get the awesome updates on the kids! Wow!A third go around…wishing you much luck with that. Is it any easier this time? </p>
<p>Many of our 13’s have traded college apps for grad school and job apps. What an interesting journey they have have been on. I have been thinking of what a great network we have established here. I hope we can continue to be there for each other as all of the 13’s are finally launched.</p>
<p>I wonder if Theorymom is graduating this spring? I hope she stops by and fills us in on her progress and also to give us an update on TM son.</p>
<p>missypie…what has been happening with pieson’s school since the fire?</p>
<p>CF…any movement on the job front with Fang Jr??</p>
<p>Is any one in touch with historymom? Wonder how the twins are doing?</p>
<p>I can’t confess to ever having burdened my pretty little head with Russian literature, but I do know that reading Bonfire of the Vanities put me in such a bad mood that I almost broke up with H the day after we got engaged.</p>
<p>kmc, so mature of your son to ask about mutual funds. My own son’s finanial revalation this week was admitting that when they’re married, GF will handle all the finances, because she is able to save money and budget and he isn’t.</p>
<p>oregon, so sorry you’re sick!</p>
<p>So good to hear from you, lindz!</p>
<p>NM, I have been disappointed with the progress the school has made to rebuilding the studio…as in, none. The most immediate problem is in Editing class. They initially didn’t load the main editing software onto the computers they were using because it would take too long. So they’ve spent the whole semester using less sophisticated software. I feel like that could really hold him back in the future.</p>
<p>MIL has really lost her filter, to the extent she ever had one. She really hates their church. It’s gone to a “contemporary worship” format. Those of you in that “world” will know the issue and the rest of you don’t need to. Anyway, she was pretty much saying at dinner last night that she doubts that the people who wear jeans to church on Sunday morning are Christians and that she tells them to their face to wear nicer clothes. My my my. When we suggest that they find a new church, they say that they don’t want to drive any further. My my my.</p>
<p>oregon–I thought I was the only one whose mom gave a piece of jewelry and five years later asked for it back! it was a piece from my grandmother, and I cherished it although it was not something I would wear so she wanted it back claiming after all I never wore it. I mentioned she had it for twenty years and never wore it either. ;)</p>
<p>So, a friend and I were out walking this a.m., and we came across four adorable abandoned puppies; eyes open; just starting to walk. The puppies were clustered together behind some bushes; no mother in sight, and it’s hard to imagine how they could have gotten there unless someone dumped them. We rang local doorbells, but no one knew a thing about them. We took them to a local no-kill shelter where they promised the puppies would be “fostered out” until old enough to be adopted. I hope so.</p>
<p>MP–should your MIL and my M move in together. My mother’s famous words whenever told she had been hurtful “I AM JUST TELLING THE TRUTH!” shaking her 95 lbs body and hands in fists. It would seem something awful had happened to her in her childhood but nothing did. Her mother did not like her but I feel certain that was earned.</p>
<p>km–love the social worker idea. This distribution is no doubt my sister pushing as she wants to get what she wants. She has acquired about 80% of all M’s property at this point. Since I have never liked my M’s stuff and am the point where I would like to pass my stuff on I sure do not want her junk. </p>
<p>You warmed my therapist’s heart with your story of remembering your T’s words years later. I only worry sometimes what a client might remember I said! Hope it sounded wise!</p>
<p>L–love you story about the jewelry. Love your answer!</p>
<p>I clearly have GS’s cold and now feel soooo bad that we kept him out doing errands and such when he must have felt horrid.</p>
<p>Zetesis – SO glad you found the puppies. I really don’t understand people who would do that. Our shelter uses foster homes for puppies until they’re ready to adopt so that they get lots of love and care and don’t grow up “institutionalized”. </p>
<p>Great news – D just called to say that her thesis defense is done, and that everyone on her committee was very, very happy with it and the written thesis too (no more changes!) – and even saying that it was publishable, and one of the best they’ve seen. They were pushing her to go to grad school now, but she wants to work for a while first. (I think that’s good.) She’s over the moon happy, and the ass’t dean in the audience had very complimentary things to say too. She can head off to the Coachella Music Festival with a clear plate this weekend. (Though I’m still mom enough to worry about sunburn.) Yeah!</p>
(I don’t respond we’ll to passive-aggressiveness or indirect plots, as you might gather!)</p>
So good to hear from you and to get the awesome updates on the kids! Wow!A third go around…wishing you much luck with that. Is it any easier this time? </p>