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There are floor plans, but depending on what dorm he gets, he could have a wardrobe or a closet. I hadn’t thought of looking on FB. </p>
<p>He will get his housing assignment around August 1. At that time he will know his roommate, the dorm and can see the floor plan and maybe get some more information.</p>
<p>Just got an unexpected call from Eggdad. </p>
<p>He and Eggson are supposed to be wilderness backpacking for a week with no cell access. No, he was calling from Holiday Inn. Seems that they burned out the transmission in the truck somewhere along the way 30 miles up a dirt road and have found a tiny garage that will fix it and have rented a car. Details sketchy, but they have managed to hike plenty before transmission failure and have seen 2 bears (!) already. More hiking tomorrow and they plan to be home this weekend.</p>
<p>I am glad they are safe, but apparently a transmission costs about $1500. Ha! No new towels for anybody at Casa Egg.</p>
<p>OUCH! Eggmom. I really have to come to loathe the unexpected expenses, especially car or house related. I swear, I’d say when does it end? but I think it ends when it actually ends. And this is where one has to be careful for what you wish for. :)</p>
<p>I, however, gave myself some well-deserved pre-vacation primping. Got a hair cut (jury is actually still out as to whether it’s too short or just right), and a manipedi. Now if I could lose 20 pounds before Saturday, we’d be golden.</p>
<p>Just closed on our mortgage refinancing - yay for an interest rate below 5%! DH and I were reminiscing about our first mortgage in 1984 - 13%.</p>
<p>Must direct my attention now to sheets.</p>
<p>Ouch! eggmom! We put it off for a year, but this spring we had our roof replaced. I don’t know when I’m going to get my partial kitchen remodel (new flooring and new countertops are the minimum remodeling needed) now!</p>
<p>Modalunn, it takes me a few weeks to decide that a new haircut is really okay. That’s how long it takes for me to get used to it. Did you drastically alter your hair’s length?</p>
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Oh yeah, the good old days. We paid a little more than that in '81 for a VA loan.</p>
<p>eggmom-That hurts. Especially when college costs are looming. Am glad to hear your guys are safe,though.</p>
<p>Still haven’t started shopping. D is leaving for a week at the beach on Sat. with her BFF and family, after she returns, she, S and I will be going to Dance Nationals at a different beach location (does D have a good life or what?). Shopping will happen after that. Just hope everything isn’t picked over.</p>
<p>Must be going around. My dishwasher broke the other day after 10 or so years. No sense paying a repairman (DH tried himself). OUCH!</p>
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<p>Move to Texas…the homeowners insurance rates are sky high but I can guarantee that you won’t ever have to pay to replace your roof yourself…every decade or so you’ll get huge hail and then the whole neighborhood gets new roofs.</p>
<p>My house is “vintage 1986”…my kids are driving my bathroom remodels (the remodel money went for cars).</p>
<p>Fallgirl, whose nationals are you doing? Last year D did Showstopper on Myrtle Beach but that was last week. Our nationals is this coming weekend - just local.</p>
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<p>Ha! My kids are being educated on pretty much any and all remodels and/or new cars! Good lives, as Fallgirl puts it, is an understatement. Although this past spring we did update the kitchen with new counters and appliances. Update is a dubious term however, the other appliances were original to the house when we built it in 1993, but the oven temp was totally off and I swear for the last year the dishes came out of the dishwasher dirtier than when they went in! We ended up buying a bosch, but as far as stainless goes, it was their most basic model. I have to admit though, that it is the quietest dishwasher I have ever not heard!!</p>
<p>Hair: Always been on the shorter side since D2 came along. But sometimes they hack me more than others. Bangs are definitely short and a little less whispy than they should be. In fact, I woke up this morning feeling like I was about four years old with the way they were straight down on my forehead!!</p>
<p>S is bouncing off the walls will joy now. Just got the Email from Berkeley that he got a dorm room. Since he was a spring admit was not a sure thing. And, if I am reading this right, he has the sophmore year guaranteed because he is a spring admit, so two years on campus.</p>
<p>Off to BB&B for outfitting as soon as I get back from my D’s college tour up her in the PNW. BTW all you parents from Oregon, it strikes me as not being fair that you have all these great colleges, and Voodoo Donuts as well.</p>
<p>Still waiting on replacement computer and getting no communication from Dell (quite annoyed at them at this point).</p>
<p>Told D yesterday that I wasn’t doing anything more for her shopping/packing/organizing until she took ownership of the project and told me what it was that she needed/wanted. Just got annoyed that she seemed to think that on her 2 days off each week she could do nothing and somehow miraculously she would be ready to move. Suspect she thinks it’s not fair but she needs to grow up and own this.</p>
<p>Told her she had to spend at least an hour a week cleaning up her stuff so she spent exactly 1 hour last week.</p>
<p>Monday she gets wisdom teeth out and I’m betting that will be next week’s excuse. Oh well.</p>
<p>On a more positive note, we got her first semester tuition bill and with all the scholarships it was really really small.</p>
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<p>Many congrats to you! We’ll get Son’s in about a week.</p>
<p>Just finalized hotel plans for family weekend. Still holding out on buying the Thanksgiving flights home for her a month later, then coming home for break 3 weeks after that!</p>
<p>Sharon that is fabulous news re the little tuition :)</p>
<p>JSM how are you holding up?</p>
<p>kumitedad that’s great. I haven’t read you Lilnfield or Willamette experiences yet. Curious what your D thought. I’ll be hauling my son up to Oregon in a couple of years for college touring I am sure. </p>
<p>I haven’t been here much, I don’t know I guess I felt like after the intensity of the last few weeks of school I needed some down time away from college related discussion but now I am having CC-DTs and hope you all will welcome me back ;)</p>
<p>Our news is that both of the history girls have landed jobs as day care assistants and are enjoying it far more than fast food work or grocery bagging which is what they would have been doing if this hadn’t come through. Her first day twinK was asked; “why did you mommy drop you off at this day care?” and was told in no uncertian terms that the plural of wolf is “Wolfus”</p>
<p>I have missed updates but have been wondering about #theoryson? Anyone care to catch me up?</p>
<p>What was she asked?</p>
<p>Son’s summer job is working out terribly. He’s only in town about 5 more weeks, so there’s no use looking for another one, but he’ll have to do something different next year. He’s been getting close to zero hours. It doesn’t just happen to Son…other kids go whole weeks or two without being scheduled at all. Yet the store keep hiring new employees. We’ve heard that after the part time employees have been there a year they try to get rid of them so they always keep folks at minimum wage…don’t know if that’s happening, but soon minimum wage will go up and exceed what Son is making anyway. Ah, this is why we send our kids to college!</p>
<p>Admittedly, I am addicted to CC and to the posters here. I truly dont think I’d share as much with my “real life” friends as I do with those on here. The internet is truly amazing; we’ve come a long way, this is certain.</p>
<p>We got tuition bill last week. It was addressed to son. We knew what it was, but put it in his pile so he could see it. For some reason, we never really shared the exact numbers with any of the kids in HS. Perhaps that was because their attendance was strictly our choice. College, on the other hand, was theirs. Yes, we gave them cart blanche on wherever they were accepted, but in the end, it was Son’s choice in applying and putting high on his list, those schools where aid came only in the form of need and not merit. So the bill comes. And it’s big. </p>
<p>Son sheepishly brought the bill into his dad’s office and said, “I think this is for you.” H says, “… but your name is on it” with a slight smile. While I am not sure of the exact conversation that follows, it was the perfect segue for the “talk” about expectations, honor and integrity - and love. We are investing hugely in this kids potential. This was not to put pressure on him so much as it was for him to recognize not only the huge opportunity set before him but also the responsibility. Yes, we want him to have the best four years of his life, but we also want him to pursue his love of learning to the best of his ability. I am so excited for what lies ahead for him, and I am so sad I won’t be able to share it with him except through a filtered lens that is his to determine. </p>
<p>Can i just say for the record however that I do not write that check. My husband does. We are not well invested to help cover most of it. On the one hand, we probably would be in a similar boat had we invested all along based on the current market! Still, with companies to build and careers to finance, we had a great many lean years where we still somehow managed to live on a shoestring while still sending our kids to a better school. Now, some may say that wasn’t prudent, but having gone through the public school with the oldest, it was just too big of a gamble. It would have been insane, expecting different results doing the same thing in a system that was crying even more cuts as the years went by. In any event, I am so glad to be able to be in a position to do this for our kids, but it’s not like it’s a slam dunk either – refer back to no big trips, travel abroad, remodels or cars. I don’t want a thank you from kids as much as I want them to really go as far as life can possibly take them. Gosh, I am going to miss him.</p>
<p>HOWEVER… currently I am ready to kill him. His room is a disaster, he is never home, we’re leaving tomorrow for two weeks and he already has plans to hit up a concert with friends the night we arrive! Don’t ya love the ying and yang of parenthood? And the thing is, they will never truly get it until the day they have one of their own. Never.</p>
<p>missy - The dance nationals D is doing is Starpower in Ocean City MD. She did Showstoppers Regionals in May. Hopefully we like it, we usually go to Starquest in VA Beach.
Sorry to hear about your S’s job. Sounds very much like my neighbor’s experience, the place her 2 S’s work has hired too many they get so few hours. Not good.</p>
<p>moda- loved your post. We gave D her choice of colleges and the bill is coming next week. </p>
<p>Should be OK if no major appliances melt down.</p>
<p>Thanks to some persistence, S got a second job today, doing overnight stocking at Kohl’s. (His background check has to come back first.) It’s sporadic work. The store gets 2-5 shipments in/week, and when a shipment comes in they work 10 p.m. - 6 a.m. He can still do his telemarketing job (if that lasts; making the quote for leads is tough), too. The telemarketing job pays $9/hr; the Kohl’s job pays $8.25/hr. I don’t like the irregular overnight hours, but he’s young and can adjust, right? And it will get him used to college overnighters. : - /</p>
<p>Both jobs are within a couple of miles of our house. Since the gf moved out of state after graduation last month, he has a lot of time on his hands…</p>
<p>Nice post, Moda. </p>
<p>missypie, sorry the job hours aren’t panning out for your S. It does seem to be more and more the norm in those retail positions these days, but it stinks for the kids. </p>
<p>Deja, good for your son. Sometimes that time on their hands does lead to something productive.</p>
<p>My big challenge these days is paying attention to the many small pleasures that go with having S1 still around. (Well, I mean, on the days when I don’t want to strangle him.) I looked at the calendar and realized that we’re down to six weeks and a handful of days. ::gak::</p>