<p>YDS, MLB tickets? That is so sweet! Have a wonderful time! It’s priceless!</p>
<p>Good morning Monday all!</p>
<p>YDS: I LOVE the MLB tickets! A day at the ballpark with your S and Dad, in your favorite spot, with your favorite team…who could ask for a better July 4th?!</p>
<p>Mommusic: YAY for buying that laptop!</p>
<p>donnagal: Hope you find the white board you want for DsS.</p>
<p>RobD and acm: I love shopping to “stimulate the economy.” I have to remember that to share with H. ;)</p>
<p>Hope all the celebrations this weekend were awesome!</p>
<p>T_c: Enjoy your last day! :)</p>
<p>For my D’s last day today, it’s “Honk for Seniors!” A tradition for the first and last day of Senior year…The seniors (well, mostly all the girls) line the entrance to the hs and cheer and beg parents dropping off kids to HONK! 
My D was up extra early with her signs ready to go. I will ask a couple of friends for pics since I’ll be at work. I’m sure they’ll have a blast.</p>
<p>Have a great one everybody…</p>
<p>:cool: 
</p>
<p>YDS - Enjoy the baseball game!! I am sure you are going to have a great time!</p>
<p>ks - Sending a virtual honk to your wonderful D on senior honk day!!</p>
<p>Woo hoo for shopping! Glad to hear the CCers are doing our part for economic stimulus!</p>
<p>Hope everyone has a great day :)</p>
<p>Good Morning, everyone! Already at work after dropping S1 at the airport for his last-minute summer job in San Francisco. Still no definite place to live, but he’s excited and I’m even excited for him. I have to remind myself that when I was (much) younger I took a number of trips to Europe without definite plans…at least he’s in a place where he speaks the language and he’s an experienced traveler.</p>
<p>S2 is quietly steamed tho, that his older brother has abandoned him this last summer and will be missing graduation and a party and their last summer vacation on Cape Cod, etc etc etc. DH and I will have to help make it up to him.</p>
<p>Well, one last week of school here before finals. Not much excitement in that department other than the lax banquet on Thursday. S2’s laptop (provided by the college) is supposed to ship today, so he’s looking forward to that.</p>
<p>Can’t wait to hear about everyone’s parties and celebrations this past weekend. The weather was lousy here in CT, but I hope you all had great times wherever you were!</p>
<p>KS and austimmtnmom, I am nothing if not patriotic! At least that is what I tell H when he notices a new pair of shoes!</p>
<p>Great posts, all!</p>
<p>Happy Monday…I just watched S drive off to his first day as a computer camp counselor in H’s car. First time he’s driven the “newer” car but the oldest one is being used by his brother this summer and this newer one would have been parked at the airport all week as H is out of town…yikes. He’ll be fine, he’ll be fine, the car will be fine…</p>
<p>:eek:</p>
<p>Good morning, all. :)We were away for the weekend and I see I have a lot of reading to do if I want to keep up with the thread. </p>
<p>We were out of town for H’s first Ironman triathlon. He finished! Hurray! He trained so hard and we are very proud of him. (1.2 mile swim, 56 mile bike, half marathon). </p>
<p>I think I’m going to suggest that Son do his dorm shopping this week. He can take GF to BB&B or Target with him. It might be fun for her since she won’t need to do her own dorm shopping. </p>
<p>(AFA cadets have all supplies furnished to them. She has a foot xray today. We’re crossing fingers for good news.)</p>
<p>Don’t have time to read back through all I’ve missed (S’16 leaves for Boy Scout camp today and we’ve been busy packing) but I did want to say</p>
<p>Congrats and wow! to DB’s husband on the triathalon and keeping both sets of fingers crossed for the GF.</p>
<p>Happy Monday everyone!</p>
<p>DB, congrats to your dh and good luck to the gf!</p>
<p>I’ll have plenty to keep me distracted in the run-up to ds1 leaving, I think. Just signed ds2 up for driver’s ed in August. YIKES.</p>
<p>Happy Monday from here.</p>
<p>Although yesterday was gray and chilly with threatening skies, the rain held off for the barbecue during the 5 - 9 pm time slot, so we were saved from having to implement Plan B (which really didn’t exist) and have the entire sports team in our living room. They don’t seem to mind the gray and cold. Jackief - I’m guessing you were hoping for sun and warmth, as opposed to simple absence of downpours - but I hope your party went well too.</p>
<p>S set his alarm for 5:20 this morning, and asked me to check up on him to make sure he actually got up. He did. I looked in on him at 5:22 and he was putting on clothes. Timed his bike ride yesterday so he knew it would take 12 minutes to get there, had his bag packed with a note to remember to take is lunch out of the frig and put it in the bag, and off he went. Not sure if the organization was his or H’s, but it wasn’t mine, so that’s progress!</p>
<p>I can’t wait to hear more about his job this evening. And we also have the elementary school reunion. Hope the weather clears for that.</p>
<p>I just got through all the updates on the thread. </p>
<p>aliceinw- glad your party was good, sorry laf’s was rainy but sounds like the kids had fun.</p>
<p>Our grad on Sat was indoors there was a receiving line with a light drizzle not too bad. I had to leave right after grad for D2 to meet the family going taking her to NC for a week. acm- they will be staying in a home on the beach in Corolla. </p>
<p>We didn’t take a chance on the weather, where the rain did hold off, and had the food for the party inside. The weather was a little chilly for the older relatives stayed inside, and others were in and out. The canopies I borrowed weren’t really used. The crowd was smaller than I expected, maybe with weather related and other conflicts.</p>
<p>I did read other people’s updates, don’t remember them all, want to say hope YDS’s family enjoys the ball game.</p>
<p>:cool: </p>
<p>Congrats to kindredspirit’s D on her last day of classes! Hope that the “Honk Fest” went well! 
(Aside to ks-we’re headed to the Stadium tomorrow to see Sabathia v. Halladay-I have been very lucky with the games I’ve picked so far this year.)</p>
<p>aliceinw and jackief-sorry that the weather was less than cooperative for your soirees (insert the accent mentally, please) but hope they were lots of fun!</p>
<p>DB-congrats to your Ironman! Wow!</p>
<p>YDS-excellent choice by your DS to score those MLB tix! :)</p>
<p>Got back a bit after 11 last night after driving DS#2 up to Cambridge and moving him into his summer internship housing. DS#2 has a tiny black cloud over his head, so he got his room key stuck in the door and needed security to help him come remove it, there’s no remote control in the lounge so TV can’t be watched (told him to contact the R.A. on the floor) and this morning when he got to security at the hospital to get his ID card, they did not have any paperwork for him (told him to call HR which he did and they faxed the paperwork over to security.) He also realized that he forgot to bring a dress belt with him and he needs to dress for work every day, so he took the best cloth belt that he had and used that for today. I am busy researching online what stores are in his vicinity so that he can pick up a new belt on the way home from work today.</p>
<p>Other than that, it was a relatively uneventful move-in. He has a single room in a dorm and not a lot of guys have moved in yet so it seems like it will be quiet for a while, which DS likes since he has to get up for work around 7 a.m. </p>
<p>Have a great Monday, everyone!</p>
<p> 
Congratulations! Class of 2010 - Celebrate!</p>
<p>Hi all! It’s been a long, long week. I am just going back over your posts for the last week. Thank you, kindredspirit and all for your great recaps. I’d be lost without you. I’m wishing all with graduations, parties, proms, ceremonies, new jobs, and special days all the best. I’m sending 
and {HUGS} to everyone needing a little TLC this week.</p>
<p>Thanks for all the wonderful and kind wishes for our son. His graduation day was great. Unfortunately, because of threatening storms, the graduation was held indoors. I arrived two hours early to get good seats for my family. Mission accomplished. It was a nice ceremony. I did have tears of joy when BlessedSon received his diploma, but held it together quite nicely until a young man’s name was called a few minutes later. This young man, a casual acquaintance of our son, is going directly to the Marine Corps. When his name was announced, his little sister and cousins held up the flag while his family clapped. When others saw the flag they clapped also. It was a most touching moment. </p>
<p>After the ceremony our family went out to dinner to a restaurant chosen by our son because he wanted fajitas and Mountain Dew… (It was his day.) Then our son and I headed out to the all night party. It was at a great place and the kids had a lot to do. I was a security person (with a walkie-talkie, ear piece, etc.) and it was an EASY job. I actually served soda to the kids as they were bowling, and didn’t have to discipline one kid. 
I got home around 2 AM and got a few hours of sleep before our son got home and wanted to tell me all about the party. </p>
<p>The rest of the week, the last week for my students, was busy and fun. I finished the memory books for each student complete with pictures from special events at school, special art projects, and their final writing projects. I was able to get them collated and bound a day early, but didn’t hand them out until the last day of school. We had a talent show that was really fun – the kids loved it. We also had an indoor picnic (darn rain) with about sixty people eating lunch on the classroom floor. I had a few tears as we read Mrs. Spitzer’s Garden and said good-bye for the summer.</p>
<p>Our dear daughter finished studying and took her boards on Friday. She is off to Europe for a few weeks before she returns for her rotations. Lucky kid!</p>
<p>I want to send special congratulations to MaineLonghorn and CheckersMidwest and their Eagle Scouts. 
</p>
<p>About the yearbooks – they still sign at our son’s school. I read a few of the notes and they were actually quite sweet. </p>
<p>
Funny thing… our son just received his summer reading from Vanderbilt. It’s called Three Cups of Tea: One Man’s Mission to Promote Peace . . . One School at a Time and it looks very interesting. </p>
<p>Sending a special shout out to austinmtmom. I enjoyed the Tony Awards and imagined how special it was for your talented daughter to be there. Lucky girl!</p>
<p>Whew! I think I’m caught up now, but if I’ve missed anyone, I’ll send an extra BIG CONGRATULATIONS!</p>
<p>Have a great day!</p>
<p>ETA:
I’ll be honking in honor of your daughter, kindredspirit.<br>
Wishing your son all the best, momof3sons. </p>
<p>:cool: </p>
<p>BlessedTwice,
S2’s IB program read Three Cups of Tea for their Theory of Knowledge Class junior year. He liked it a lot, which prompted me to read it after he was done with the book!</p>
<p>Was perusing the Father’s Day sales and realizing that there is much stuff on sale this week that S2 could use for school. Two birds with one stone…</p>
<p>S1 flies to CA today for orientation for his summer job. Poor thing! (NOT)</p>
<p>Congrats as our kids continue the march towards graduation and transition into summer jobs, beach week, etc. Have fun, be safe and be 
!</p>
<p>Blessedtwice, thank you as always!! I feel caught up now. Congratulations to you on your wonderful son and so cool about the walkie-talkie!!</p>
<p>Can we talk about computers for college? What is the price rang we should expect? Also, does the student need bluetooth? Does anyone know what mobile broadband is?</p>
<p>Three Cups of Tea was a pretty good book. I’d recommend it.</p>
<p>Mobile broadband is whne you use a cell carrier to connect to the internet (air cards before now included with the computer). In my opinion, not a good idea, usually limited to one carrier (you may be able to choose), expensive, and not needed in college, most colleges will have wireless access on campus. Used a lot for business when sales people need to connect to their companies to place orders or stuff.
Wireless (802.11 g or n) is needed for college and it will give them access at any “hot spot”. Most computers will have is and n is better than g</p>
<p>Zm, bluetooth is not really needed. Unless your kid is an engineering/math type major, you can get a pretty decent laptop for about $750. Consider accidental protectio plan though</p>
<p>How much computer you need is somewhat dependent on what you use it for. My kids (one a computer nerd the other interested in being able to play certain games) both got laptops in the $1400 range. I think you could pay less with a smaller screen and less fancy graphics cards. I don’t think you need bluetooth or broadband, but wireless capability is a must.</p>
<p>And sorry about the typos, i am using my phone to post this and the mobile site does not let me edit my posts</p>