<p>Well, northminn and historymom - I am duly impressed!!</p>
<p>Sorry Cardinal Fang, it is so quiet isn’t it? - it is the absence of sound that gets me…</p>
<p>Can’t get S to buy boots either</p>
<p>Boots - that’s what S wanted for Christmas above all else. Actually, he had on his list a ski coat and winter boots, but I got him the coat and attached to his birthday.</p>
<p>He’s back at school and said it’s really beautiful and a lot warmer than here. I think it has a lot to do with the wind personally. The upside of MN however is how sunny it can typically be here… it’s the gray that leaves me cold.</p>
<p>Anyway… quieter house for sure (definitely less bickering) but am also really looking forward to D going back to school tomorrow as well.</p>
<h1>theorymom–funny 
I did get my HS son boots for Christmas. He’ll only wear them if we have a snow day, but I was thinking about the future. If he outgrows them before college they will fit his father.</h1>
<p>Cardinal–I keep wondering if the readjustment to D returning to school will be easier than the adjustment. Will I wonder what she’s doing 24/7 as I did back in September? I was kind of getting over that.</p>
<p>Happy New Years…I managed to write the last 3 cards today. S has two friends over–one in a CC and the other at Notre Dame. I so want to hear their convesation but they are just playing video games. Of course, I decided to make a simple but so totally time consuming pasta recipe when I should have ordered pizza.
NOW I want to win the “wierdest Holiday story contest” that I am starting just now. My submission:
Had a NYears Day Soup Party with D’s friends and invited the parents of one. The Mom drank a few and then picked our dog up to lick the spilled cream off of the counter.
OK–PLEASE TOP THIS. and My D is so hoping we will become best friends. I do understand maybe having a little too much but…the dog?</p>
<p>The dog was definitely weird. I’ll give ya that.</p>
<p>I think rrah posts a good question in the readjustment vein. It’s funny, but S’s first trip home was at Thanksgiving and I think once he managed the getting back and forth on that trip and then his return this trip (BOTH necessitating delays and detours), I think it’s a little easier for me to think he can handle things overall. Second semester doesn’t begin until Feb, but throughout Jan he’ll take one class. It’s either a good transition or a set up for over partying. While I wont be worried per say, his intensity wasn’t what I would call his typical when he went home. The whole time through high school, there’s the goal of getting into college. In itself it is a huge motivator. Not sure what his motivators are - if he’s being genuine or saying things H&I hope to hear. We know he is very very capable, and just hope he wants to prove that to himself as well.</p>
<p>Oregon, LOLOL!! THAT threw me, I have to admit… How did you do in our wacky snowstorm? </p>
<p>S1 leaves for Spain semester Tuesday, so we’ll be in a full sprint tomorrow. We actually have S2 home for Winter term (whole month of Jan) He’s doing independent music study and playing in the pit of premiere of a new musical here in town. Very cool… seems to be a new girl around, so he’s been happy too. Now, if we could perk up S3, things would be good. he has SUCH soph. male TUDE!!!</p>
<p>wellllll…
for me, I will be wondering MORE. I had let go a bit and was just beginning to enjoy that. Now, gah, I feel like I will be so in limbo</p>
<p>Me too, #t. I’m pretty worried about how Fang Jr will make it through the next semester.</p>
<p>Cardinal Fang, my husband will drop off our son this morning at the airport. It will be a little quieter, but he’s a pretty quiet kid so we probably won’t notice the difference. I do, however, expect a drop in the grocery bill.</p>
<p>Ooh, I’m glad we have Son for another week. This morning I will be on the phone with the school, setting up appointments with whoever we can to figure out a strategy for approaching the semester.</p>
<p>Moda, that’s an interesting comment on the motivation issue. Our younger son didn’t set his sites on a competitive college so his grades in high school didn’t matter to him. However, he has bought into the concept that he needs to maintain above a 3.0 GPA in college to get a good job. And, make no mistake a job is his ultimate motivation, not to get a good education. At least in engineering that 3.0 GPA cut-off is clearly stated on a lot of the internship and entry-level job application descriptions. So that established his baseline goal and for him requires plenty of effort. IF he keeps it up, and for him just keeping the 3.0 is a big IF, we will be thrilled. I have noted to him that the oil companies will hire down to a 2.5 GPA for their oil rigs, so if biometric systems seems too hard he might want to try petroleum engineering. (I actually thought this was a good suggestion since S2 is a big strong guy–lineman on his football team in high school–but S2 seemed to think I was kidding.) I play chess, so thinking ahead to what if scenarios is what I do. The seed has been planted, if needed.</p>
<p>For our older son, many of his friends wanted to get into selective majors that were only available on a competitive basis after your sophomore year to those with high GPA’s. So maintaining that GPA was critical from day one. Other kids need the GPA for med school or some other planned graduate school program. Some of the management training programs for entry level jobs want those with a 3.5 GPA, minimum. I know, because H wanted S1 to apply to those programs and I had to tell H that S1 is NOT eligible for those programs. </p>
<p>The bottom line is that there is a route to success no matter what your GPA, which college you attended, or what your major, but the higher the GPA the greater the array of options. Once your son starts looking ahead to jobs and internships, he may be reminded of that and find his motivation enhanced.</p>
<p>We have ShawbridgeSon for another 2 to 3 weeks as his school has an option winter term with fun stuff, courses that professors just want to teach, and things that students request but that the school doesn’t offer for credit (such as accounting). He’s decided to stay home, regain energy (he was awfully exhausted), and try to finish his novel with his co-author. </p>
<p>We had a great New Year’s Eve Party with a mediator and a business/public policy professor and families over. ShawbridgeSon was annoyed at having to attend, but ended up having a fabulous discussion about Roe v. Wade and its weak constitutional underpinnings with the mediator (who, unbeknownst to ShawbridgeSon, had taught constitutional law for 10 years). It was sweet to watch him turn into his law professor self and go into Socratic mode – he had a smile on his face as he was jousted with ShawbridgeSon. Afterwards, he told me that ShawbridgeSon’s grasp of the concepts of constitutional law matched the high end of his law school students. ShawbridgeDaughter was in heaven because the mediator’s daughter is her best friend; they have been essentially inseparable since the friend got back from a semester away. (I’m sleeping over at XX’s house again tonight).</p>
<p>We had a few other really interesting gatherings, but last night had over a family whose son is friends with mine and whose daughter is friends with mine. They are from another town and the girl has been in school with ShawbridgeDaughter since 6th grade. The mother and I would meet at parties and say that we should get our sons together as they are both brilliant, a little nerdy (well maybe more than a little, though in different ways), and are extremely good at board games like chess (their son was state champion one year) and Diplomacy (my son would later go 23-0 with a group including her son and regularly wins money at poker). They ended up meeting another way and became friends. The boy stayed and invited others over after dinner. We’ve had two days of powdery snowfall. At midnight, a group of boys who go to Princeton, Amherst, Columbia, Tufts, and St. Michaels went out to play tackle football in the snow. Does this seem like a sign of high IQ?</p>
<p>No snow here, but the low last night was in the 30s and very windy. Eggson and Eggdad are out on a hiking/camping trip. (I’m betting they come home early as more cold rain coming.)</p>
<p>So, last night around 10, I heard a strange thumping sound from outdoors. Alone in the house, I let myself get spooked and peered cautiously out the blinds. There was a whole driveway full of college and high school boys playing basketball next door! It was freezing and they were mostly in shorts, so I won’t speculate on IQs.</p>
<p>What is it about boys and shorts? I know I’m in Texas, but it is still winter. Yesterday it was about 30 in the morning, but there were still boys at church in shorts.</p>
<p>^^^ and girls in flip flops!!! Crazy to wear them all winter long in Minnesota weather! Definitely a trend I don’t understand.</p>
<p>Happy New Year (and new Nest) to everyone.
Oregon, not sure I can “top” the “lap dog” story, but was amused to awaken NY Day to find an unusually lovely snow angel in my back yard. McSon had had a small party and all guests were required to stay over even though the majority of s’s friends do not drink (just in case). One of the guests had turned up quite late and inebriated (from another party). Over a rousing breakfast, I learned that after a dip in the hot tub, said guest laid in the snow (with nothing more than shorts on) to make said snow angel, essentially melting down through a foot of snow.
Apparently, that sobered him up a great deal.
I missed the fun, since I was sound asleep at 5 a.m. when all this went down : )
Ah, I will miss the McSon… Mostly ; )</p>
<p>Eighth grade D went to school dressed in colonial attire. The GT 8th graders reinact the Constitutional Convention every year. Did any of your kids do that?</p>
<p>Fang Jr had a New Years Eve overnight with his friends. Somewhere around two or three in the morning, they went down to the school down the street to bash each other with the foam swords.</p>
<p>Son was home with us on NYE. (His GF had to work.) I tried not to dwell on how pathetic that was.</p>