<p>momofsongbird – You never crossed the line into ‘obnoxious mom’ so don’t worry. Have you considered changing out frozen M&Ms for frozen Reese’s Cups? I don’t like them right out of the bag but when they are frozen…the Gods line up for them! They also don’t freeze quite as hard and the ‘bite area’ is spread out for less stress on the teeth. </p>
<p>OhioMom – Congratulations to your son! Nice to have a bright spot. Hope your folks recover quickly and completely…and that you take a few minutes for yourself if only to breathe.</p>
<p>mosb: definitely not crossed the line. if anything, you’ve been low-key about what an amazing young woman you live with. I think all of us here are understandably proud of our kids, for the big accomplishments and the everyday moments of decency. We share both and also the anxieties of raising kids. It’s all good.</p>
<p>owm: I’m sorry to hear about your parents. good luck with everything.</p>
<p>Novelisto and college4, thanks for the reassurance. I LOVE hearing about everybody else’s kids victories…and I empathize with their setbacks, too. On this forum, I really feel like we have truly AMAZING children, and that we’re all rooting for each others’ as much as for our own.</p>
<p>Thanks for the M&M replacement suggestions, but songbird is severely allergic to peanuts, so we can’t have those in the house and I can’t eat them. Ever. EmmyBet, for some reason the room-temp M&Ms just aren’t the same. There’s something I love(d) about crunching down on that frozen coating.</p>
<p>It’s probably just as well I break this habit. Before the holidays, I was steadily losing weight, and though I held steady over Christmas/New Year’s, I want to lose more before spring. So bye-bye candy, hello treadmill. (Join me for a chorus of "Yuck!)</p>
<p>(Just to clarify: It’s ohiomom’s parents, not mine, who have been hospitalized, not mine. Best wishes to her. My mom and my husband’s parents, all in their 80s, are as good as can be expected right now.) </p>
<p>Just completed the second trip to the airport to pick up our Afghan student. This time we actually brought him home. He was detained in immigration in Houston for five years and missed his connecting flight. After five hours, the immigration folks realized he wasn’t from an Arab country and they had put him in the wrong waiting line. So, after an extra night in Qatar and an extra night in Houston, he arrived this morning. He’s not loving our 9 inches of snow and single-digit temperatures but is glad to be back on campus.</p>
<p>mosb - no, no, no. You definitely didn’t cross the line. I enjoy reading about everybody’s good news here. Healthy bragging is what this thread is for.</p>
<p>Congrats to ohiomom and LofP on the merit $$$.</p>
<p>And ohiomom - sorry to hear about your parents. It’s tough being the sandwich generation. I hope they get better soon. I don’t know where in Ohio you live, but I know it might be no fun at all to drive 3 hours there in the winter. Best wishes to your family.</p>
<p>To all of you - please keep reporting the great news. I, for one, look forward to them every day. I feel like your kids are my nieces & nephews. Ohiomom and LoP - hurrah for both of your families.</p>
<p>Ohiomom - Fortunately my parents are a few hours closer, but it is a tough situation.</p>
<p>OhioMOm= sorry to hear about your parents and your long drives. That is so particularly hard in the winter.</p>
<p>Over here, I underwent minor surgery yesterday that went very well. The hard part is remembering all the different things I need to do concerning my thromboplilia. Which days do I take coumadin, which days the shots, when do I get the blood test, etc. Now it is full court press for my two daugthers’s first tournament that starts early tomorrow. As soon as I type this, I have to go into the kitchen and start making cookies for the judge hospitality room. Fortunately we didn’t get much snow so driving will be fine. On the other hand, one of the two colleges that d applied to that has a Jan. 15th deadline has been closed for three days due to weather and the site says for her to call admissions when we went to check if they had received all materials. This was after more than two weeks of we have received you materials but haven’t checked them yet. I don’t know if this is just because their campus is closed due to weather or something more serious. I hope it is something I can remedy after 9pm or 10 pm the following night since I am at this tournament from early morning to night. I hope to impress on them that if anything is missing, their negligence for the last few weeks (she mailed in the application before Christmas) and then weather closure for days has made any remedying before Saturday almost impossible. I don’t even know if they will be open tomorrow.</p>
<p>Thanks for the good wishes for my parents. We live in northern Ohio where the snow flies at this time of the year. It was a nasty drive home last night and I have to say I’m glad that I didn’t make the trip again today as the weather is no better. It’s too early to tell what the long-term ramifications will be – right now we’re concerned about my Dad’s survival. My mom has suffered a series of mini-strokes over the past 5 years that have left her with compromised mobility and some dementia. My dad has been her primary caregiver. Thankfully, they moved to a retirement community 2 years ago that has all levels of care available. Unfortunately, it’s 3 hours from their nearest child (Me!). Again, thanks for your kind thoughts.</p>
<p>MilMom, talk about bouncing back! I don’t care how “minor” it was, I’m impressed that you’re up and about and taking care of all the baking, etc. Take care!</p>
<p>I’ve heard that many schools in the snow impacted areas are going the extra mile to make sure kids don’t miss deadlines or get penalized because of closings, e-outages, etc. I think you’ll find them very willing to work with you. My d got an email from a school she hasn’t even applied to, telling her what to do if she’s been unable to access their website or submit her app in recent days because of weather.</p>
<p>I asked this on a thread over on Financial Aid a few days ago, but no answer. Any Texas parents know?</p>
<p>We have the original Texas pre-paid guaranteed tuition plan – covers tuition for any four-year public university in Texas. If you go private school or out-of-state, you get the equivalent “state school” amount per credit hour. For 2010-2011, the plan is paying $241 per hour (for the particular plan that we purchased). The 2011-12 rates won’t be set until July.</p>
<p>My understanding is that this goes under parents’ assets for FAFSA. Should I use the $241/hour rate since the 2011 rate won’t be set until the summer? (From 2009 to 2010, it went up about $15, so it won’t go up by a huge amount.)</p>
<p>Or do I use the final amount that we PAID for the plan? If I recall, it was $15,000 and some change.</p>
<p>ohiomom24 I sympathize with you-it is so hard trying to care for our parents and BE parents, especially when both generations have so many needs. I hope things improve-at least they are in a place where there is care-I know that has been so helpful to us all these long months. </p>
<p>MOSB I didn’t detect any line crossing. I feel so happy when people post the good things that happen to them-and sad when things don’t go their way. I really consider on here we are among friends-and friends rejoice in success and comfort in times of struggle. </p>
<p>You know, there are many students whose parents post here who are I am sure applying to the same schools. Some are going to get into these schools-some won’t. There will be joy, there will be disappointment. No one knows what the outcomes will be but I hope when we (me and the boy) take our lumps we can still rejoice in others joy. I think we can-well I know he can because he has no idea how much I share about us here and wonder how he would feel about it! </p>
<p>I am counting on those front row tickets to Carnegie Hall you know! I will also be getting my tickets from all the other talented young ladies and gentlemen I read about here-right? :)</p>
<p>amanda I have been thinking about your boy. My S didn’t make All-State Band last year and it really knocked him for a loop for a while. S is also just now getting into the big-time girl stuff and I am just waiting for when I am going through with him what you are going through with your son. Hope he is feeling better.</p>
<p>@cgpm59, we have a FL Prepaid Plan that works as you described. I asked an accountant about it, who admitted was NOT well versed in financial aid, and was told to report the value of the plan if it were cashed out as a parent asset. Reasoning was that it did not have a different value until it was actually used. I am not too sure that is the right answer and plan to call and get a better answer before I submit the fafsa.</p>
<p>Ohiomom: I’m sorry to hear about your parent’s struggles. I hope things improve soon. Congratulations on your son’s acceptance and scholarship!</p>
<p>LOP: Congrats on your daughter’s acceptance.</p>
<p>I love hearing about all of your kid’s accomplishments. It’s great sharing in their triumphs. Keep the good news coming, but don’t be afraid to share the tough stuff either.</p>
<p>ohiomom: You, your mom and your dad are in my prayers. My mother has also had a series of mini-strokes and has worsening dimentia although she denies it. She is still living independently. We live 5 hours away so the brunt of her care has fallen on my brother who lives near her. </p>
<p>Weird dilemma here for me: The essays for our state flagship’s top scholarship (they only give 10–minimum 33 ACT to apply) are due today. Our son finished his Sunday night. I proofed them and suggested some changes. He submitted them on Monday. His best friend also qualifies. He also finished his Sunday night and planned to have their IB Language Arts teacher review them. But we have not had school for three days. So rather than send them by e-mail to the teacher on the snow day, he sent them to me. I had to walk a fine line to help him, rather than do it for him as if he were a paying client. (I have a freelance writing/editing business). And in the back of my mind, honestly, I was thinking, if I help him make this really good, he might have a better shot than my own son. An interesting ethical dilemma.</p>
<p>Thank you, Pepper; my sentiments, too, and you put it so well.</p>
<p>OWM, I’ve had a similar dilemma. I too write professionally, and when a friend of my D’s asked me to edit an essay for a scholarship they were both up for, I had to decline. I told her that, try as I might to be impartial, I did have a conflict of interest, and it wouldn’t be fair to her for me to do this.</p>
<p>Happily, this brought us to a really great conversation about ethics, and we both came away from it feeling great. She got help from another source, and I didn’t feel put on the spot to help somebody decrease my own d’s odds. Tricky, but a good outcome.</p>
<p>So sorry to hear of your father’s condition Ohiomom. I went to college at Oberlin, so I remember those lovely winters. My parents live about 2 miles from us so we are there often, tonight it was for chicken soup and shovelling snow and then getting boxes out of the attic to take Christmas things down (which will also be my job over the next few days).<br>
Militarymom - Hope you are healing well, coumadin is such a PIA! My mom has been on it 2 yrs, and geez, if I hear one more time how she can’t eat the salad that comes with dinner because of the K in it (and she forgets that I KNOW!!!)
Trying to keep momentum on scholarship apps amidst the big breakup. Can’t wait til this HS is behind him, he will see a big big world with lots of opportunities for a sweet heart like his.</p>
<p>Ohio Mom - sorry to hear about your parents. It would be tough on you in the best of times but, to be dealing with this during such a busy time in your own life must be particularly challenging. I’ll keep them and you in my prayers.</p>
<p>I, for one, am already tired of snow and dark, dreary days. I guess it makes us appreciate the spring all the more, when it comes.</p>
<p>Anyone else still have their Christmas tree up? I’m beginning to think that we will leave it up all year and simply change the decorations as we progress through the year.</p>
<p>Amanda, I hear you. How come my parents tell me the same piece of information 50 or 60 times, and then forget to tell me something pretty important at all? (“Oh, didn’t we tell you that? It must’ve been your sister.”)</p>
<p>I asked d if I do that, and without missing a beat she said, “Not yet.”</p>