<p>oregon, I hope the tests today go well and show something that can be easily treated. Let us know how it goes; Lindz, congrats on the study abroad acceptance in London in a great sounding program; cwoodside, welcome to the thread. Gingerbread sounds good to me. I may put that on the menu for next week when S2 is home. He will happily eat anything. Missypie, I hope your S is feeling OK about fnishing up the semester and didn’t dread going back too much.</p>
<p>I finally got a communication from S2. He has two exams and a major project this week, so is stressing. His birthday is tomorrow and he comes home on Friday for spring break so he will probably be feeling fine in about 48-hours (assuming he converts that stress into actual studying and does well).</p>
<p>Gingerbread is definitely one of my weaknesses- although I am prone to buying it at Whole Foods. Unfortunately, our labrador also enjoys it and it is one of the few items he will aggressively seek to obtain from the kitchen counter. </p>
<p>Analyst, S2’s break seems awfully late- when does he finish up for the term? I am pushing D on the job front as well- seems she has missed many deadlines for campus employment (back in February) so we’ll just have to see what she’s able to come up with. Anything will help at this point. She’ll be home for Easter weekend which will be nice. They’re in the midst of a semester long project but their team seems to be making good progress. Hopefully the rest of the classes are going well- I admit to more nagging and questioning this term than last.</p>
<p>Hi Everyone -
Welcome cwoodside! Hey lindz, great news aboout S! Is he going spring or fall semester? And yes, it’s almost a year for this thread, can you believe it? I’ve been lurking on the '10 thread, selfishly I’m so glad that whole thing is OVER.
D came home form Montreal last night with her 3 amigos. They’re going into NYC today hopefully getting something at tkts. Like moda said, perfectly chraming and polite - I too smell trouble… All the bedroom doors were closed this AM and I thought I heard a distinctly male voice when I made a wake-up call to her just now, hmmm.
Older S is realizing that he really doesn’t want to haul garbage all summer and Wall St is not exactly knocking at his door. He applied for another slew of internships over the past few days. PLease send positive thoughts this way! Even if there is no $$ to be made, I think he needs something a bit more substantial on his resume going into senior year.</p>
<p>welcome cwoodside! hi downtoearth! - it’s always nice to hear from you :)</p>
<p>CF - thank you for that last post. I have learned so much about Aspergers from you and missypie.</p>
<p>Given the recent conversation, I’m feeling very fortunate that D has her summer camp job for the 3rd year - it doesn’t pay that well and she is gone all summer, but at least she has a job.</p>
<p>lindz, here you go. enjoy ;)</p>
<p>Chocolate Toffee Matzah
1/2 box matzah (approx 7 pieces)
1 c butter
1 cup firmly packed brown sugar
1 12-oz bag of choc chips
1 c crumbled toffee candy (NOT chocolate covered - I use Heath brand Bits O Brickle)</p>
<p>Preheat oven to 450.
Line 2 jelly roll pans (or cookie sheets with rim) with alum foil. Completely cover each pan with single layer of matzah, leaving no space in between.
Melt butter and sugar together and boil until mixture coats back of spoon (3-5 mins).
Pour over mattzah and spread evenly. Bake for 4 mins until bubbly. Remove from oven and sprinkle choc chips all over. Return to oven for 1-2 mins. Spread softened chocolate as evenly as possible and sprinkle toffee bits all over. Refregerate. Cool completely (overnight is best). Break into uneven pieces (like peanut brittle) and store in covered container in refrigerator.</p>
<p>The London School of Economics, lindz126 - how exciting!!!</p>
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<p>I’m a bit sympathetic, too. If I may speak for CardinalFang, I think that *we *both thought that the articulate students living in our homes would be able to manage the academic part of college, just as they had managed the academic part of high school. There are parents who went before us who thought the same thing and there are parents of high school students posting on CC now who think that *their *Aspie student will have no difficulty functioning in college.</p>
<p>I don’t think Son is miserable at school. He’s chummy with his suitemates and enjoys choir.</p>
<p>When Son first came home, he was listing the “few people” who would care if he didn’t come back to college. I think he rattled off seven names, including one English prof and the choir director. I told him that at that point in my freshman year (at the giant state U that I attended), I couldn’t have named seven names and that not a single prof knew I was alive. So the year has not been without some successes.</p>
<p>But I’ve got to think of something for him to do over the summer to build self esteem. He’s always been one of the smart ones - it’s part of his identity - so to not be doing well in school has been quite a blow.</p>
<p>sabarary, S2 has finals the week of May 2 and starts summer school the week of May 17. He needs to be home for S1’s graduation May 22/23. He seems confident he can get a job in food service this summer, which he has experience doing. He needs to work around his summer school schedule for geology and chemistry (which has a lab), so can’t do anything too time consuming. We will be all pushing him to get a substantive job for next summer. </p>
<p>woody, sending positive thoughts to your S in his internship quest. The lack of an internship is hurting the post graduation job prospects for the S of at least one poster in the college senior’s thread. Employers also look for “leadership” on resumes. Neither of my boys has much in that category so I have been telling S2 to look for opportunities there.</p>
<p>D unfortunately has no experience with paid work to date. She’s also taking a course this summer so I’m hoping she can pick up some retail work at this point. Cross our fingers.</p>
<p>“I think he rattled off seven names, including one English prof and the choir director.”
Wow, that’s very impressive, missypie. I’m really happy for him to be able to feel that way.</p>
<p>Missy, CF, and others with Aspies – A pal from my former HS PTA parents a fabulous and talented aspie gal and also happens to head the local gifted and talented group. Even though my nephew is autistic and I’d read about aspergers in depth when McSon was younger (and displaying some aspie-like traits) I have to admit that even I was (internally) a bit of an idiot last year when said pal explained to me that her D was going to have the best chance for success at a local (regionally rigorous, just not nationally acclaimed) university. I really thought (to myself) the kid had done such an amazing job managing herself that she’d have been fine just about anywhere and that her genius-level-math aptitude made her a natural for nationally ranked programs.
Today, said awesome aspie is thriving at the local university, has a long-term bf, great social life and clearly is feeling good about herself. So I am pretty convinced the trick is just making sure that “ramp” is available in terms of external and immediate support, and that the issue is that no university LD department can hold a candle to the intuitive or the deliberate support from parents and loved ones. Which is not to say going away is too risky, in that we just can’t know until we try ;)</p>
<p>That’s why it’s been such an interesting ride. My fear was that college would be an academic success but a social fiasco. Who’d a thunk it would be the other way around? (I’m not saying that he’s a social butterfly, but he’s done better than I expected.)</p>
<p>Lindz - Congrats on London. I call it… Boat trip to visit Lindz’s son!!</p>
<p>Missy - Re: Being smart and self-esteem. Please read mindsets. Or better yet, you read it and then make it mandatory early summer reading for S. I honestly think there are ways to look at things that just might change his life. My sister was a coach for over 25 years and one of her favorite quotes was “It’s what you do next that counts.” </p>
<p>H&D16 ended up at a Howard Johnson’s last night due to road closures in the only part of the country that had “weather” last night. He is, however, really glad to have taken my suv rather than his sedan. His reasonings were more for space, but 4-wheel drive is turning out to be a good thing. I want him to hurry up and get there so I can get a report on s and friends. </p>
<p>So the insurance guy called yesterday about insuring younger D and I explained we would be getting her a car. But then he told me something interesting: We took S off of insurance when he went to school or rather suspended it or changed it to make him an occasional driver. To be honest, I am not really sure what we did. In any event, I mentioned that whatever car we got D16 to drive, S and she would be sharing it over the summer. And he said we can’t do that. Four drivers, three cars and we can’t pick which car he’s on? What’s with that???</p>
<p>Moda, we are a two-car four driver family; when D started driving we had to have her insured on one vehicle and S on the other. Something to do with the fact that one car couldn’t be the primary vehicle for both of them, I think.</p>
<p>That was my question as well - why would I put him on my car or his Dad’s when he is likely to not even be driving it? I don’t recall the answer exactly, but apparently, he is covered as member of the house, but I really do need to do more research on this. Basically, we just want him on the least expensive car to insure. Of course, this guy is suggesting we get a beater and my point was, I’d rather pay a little more in Insurance than to a mechanic.</p>
<p>Modadunn – Ask your insurance agent to help you figure out which is the best arrangement – it might be to put your D (since girls are usually cheaper to insure) on one of your cars, and your son on the one your D is now insured on, or some other combo. It isn’t always (ever?) obvious. In our state, you’re insured on all of the cars if you’re insured on any of the cars UNLESS there is a specific exclusion for you on a certain car. (A woman I know has her husband specifically excluded from her car’s insurance because he had a DUI and as a result his insurance is sky-high. He’s insured on his own car at the sky high rates, but by keeping him explicitly off her policy her rate is still very low.)</p>
<p>Just talked with D2. Thought it interesting that she knows she only has 37 days of classes left before finals and she can come home. Actually I’m thinking it is kind of sad. She wants to leave this school behind her and move on. It depresses me that she doesn’t see anything positive from the experience there.</p>
<p>NM, she HAS gotten positive things from the experience. 1) She wants to be with more serious students. 2) She went out and found schools she wanted to attend. 3) IIRC, she got herself scholarship money at her first choice (non-trivial for a transfer student!). 4) She stood up for her beliefs when she didn’t want the school to use her as a poster child for a successful student-athlete.</p>
<p>Sounds like she grew up quite a bit this year. Agree, she may not appreciate it for a while, but it’s there!</p>
<p>A friend of mine just texted. Her freshman pre-med student who attends a small LAC in Iowa was just hired to do research with a prof for the summer. Great for resume and great stipend! What an opportunity!</p>
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