<p>My favorite Cosby line. One of the girls brings a new boyfriend over for dinner. Cliff asks the boy if he is in college. The boys says, “No, I’ve taken two years off to find myself.” Cliff says: “You should have been able to find yourself and at least 10 other people in that amount of time.”</p>
<p>another zits fan here
you all are making me miss The Cosby Show
First semester finally ended here. Just in time (second mini meltdown of the season last night). I am grateful that D stayed healthy this year so far (a sick day or two might have tipped her over)! First semester senior year was rough - next semester is so much easier in terms of course work, ECs, and college stuff.
Two more alum interviews scheduled and some remaining scholarship apps (and that Presidential thing). Local visit next week and plane trip visit in mid Feb.(the safety and solid match - her early admits). Hoping D loves both places so that “the crapshoot that is April 1” will be less stressful.
Hope everyone is feeling better, the snow is manageable, parents are healing, and kids are feeling proud of their accomplishments. Belated, but heartfelt hugs to MOSB and SB.</p>
<p>Adding my welcome to ahappymom. Also an invitation to any of the many lurkers here to introduce yourselves. :)</p>
<p>Add me to the list of Zits-aholics. S1 looks a lot like Jeremy (down the the clothes and hair) and we joke that the cartoonist has wired our home for ideas.</p>
<p>S2 has some more good news–today he received a letter offering him an amazingly large scholarship to the second of his EA schools. He is really happy–but notices this school is under a ton of snow. Hmm. I might mention that here in SoCal it was 79 degrees and sunny today. He wore shorts to school. Hmm.</p>
<p>And S1 (in Florence) got an email from Syracuse Abroad awarding him a study abroad merit scholarship. Who knew?? </p>
<p>So I guess I went from doldrums to celebrating?</p>
<p>Great news, madbean! S2 should feel great about the good news.</p>
<p>S does not look like Jeremy, but his bedroom greatly resembles Jeremy’s room!</p>
<p>madbean: S1 must have above a 3.7 GPA; SU offers automatic merit for study abroad for that GPA and above…didn’t know it applied to kids from other schools though!!..congrats!!</p>
<p>madbean, I’m also in SoCal and am joining you in trying not to gloat about the 79 degrees! We’ll probably get a massive earthquake any minute to even the score.</p>
<p>Those of you dealing with the joys of adolescence should consider picking up the new book The Blessing of a B-Minus by Wendy Mogel. Her book The Blessing of a Skinned Knee is fabulous for the younger-kid years, and this one is even better for raising teenagers. Her hook is using Jewish teachings, but it’s in a very broad sense, and as a lapsed Catholic/practicing agnostic, I found it a great read. Hugely reassuring when you’re dealing with kids who, for instance, get a B-minus. Or get in trouble. Or sigh and roll their eyes. Not that any of us would know anything about that! :)</p>
<p>D2 seems so happy with the new semester. It’s going to be a lot of work, with 3 AP classes, but the college pressures are fading, the seniors get privileges, and she gets to go to Coachella for her 18th birthday. She’ll be starting play rehearsals next week, and I foresee many nights with not enough sleep, but that’s the way these kids roll.</p>
<p>Good luck to all you snow-bound folks.</p>
<p>Nice article about the Wendy Mogel book here:
[Retract</a> your mom claws | Cover Story | Jewish Journal](<a href=“http://www.jewishjournal.com/cover_story/article/retract_your_mom_claws_20110126/]Retract”>http://www.jewishjournal.com/cover_story/article/retract_your_mom_claws_20110126/)</p>
<p>Thanks, Slithey, that’s a great piece. She’s a hero of mine.</p>
<p>Big Wendy Mogel fan. It was required reading for all teachers at son’s Day school (where he went K-8). Haven’t read the new book yet. </p>
<p>Time to get undressed…take off my shorts…oops…are some of you wearing sweats to bed?</p>
<p>^^everyone is a comedian…</p>
<p>Sweats are so 80s, it’s full-on polarplus head to toe and polarplus sheets to boot. Wish I could show you a pic of the picture perfect backyard, dh had to again plow a loop for the dogs to go outside because the snow is above their heads. I had to shovel the front walk in layers because it was too deep to do in one scoop. I am just so done with this. Tommorow is supposed to be a few inches and then next Tuesday is another something something.</p>
<p>Enjoyed the link. We forget sometimes that our kids’ biggest job right now isn’t getting all As, pleasing us or crafting the perfect essay or list of extracurriculars - it’s finding their identity. It’s such a complicated process and along the path they also have to train their parents. It takes a long time to train a parent, at least this one! With our late bloomer I also try to keep in mind the old Chinese saying: “when the student is ready, the teacher will appear.”
Thanks for the welcomes - it emboldened me to post again!</p>
<p>Another lurker who decided to sign up and come out of the shadows! This has been a great thread to follow over recent months, and I’ve been taking advantage of all your insight and support. My D was deferred from an ED application and is now waiting on (way too many!) RD applications. Should be a fun ride over the next few months!</p>
<p>Watch out, ahappymom, posting becomes addictive.</p>
<p>Welcome, OneGirlsMom! Belated Aw, shoot! about the ED. </p>
<p>Rodney, thanks for the explanation! </p>
<p>researching–I am trying to keep the gloating down to a minimum and admire your restraint.</p>
<p>Thanks for the aw shucks, MadBean, but I’m pretty sure the ED deferral was for the best. It was a “dream school” and it might still work out, but now we’re really thinking that having choices in the spring will be a good thing. I’ve empathized on this thread with OregonionMom - disappointment in mid-December, tons of work getting all those RD apps out later in the month, but hopefully some exciting times figuring out options in April … AND, D is already accepted in for a great honors program at the state flagship, so she’s got a fall back position!</p>
<p>Welcome, OneGirlsMom and ahappymom!</p>
<p>D’s fall semester is OVER and done! Yeah! Too bad about losing her 4.0, but I’m sure that will feel like ancient history before too long. She said she didn’t really want to give a speech at graduation, anyway. And, BTW, if I understand it correctly, her school chooses the Val based on unweighted GPA - partly because they offer very few AP classes. It’s a small school. And they don’t consider any classes different than others when selecting the Valedictorian. It’s based on unweighted GPA only, doesn’t matter if one kid took physics and another took basket weaving. My D has taken the hardest curriculum possible, whereas the girl who will likely be Val has not. Oh well.</p>
<p>I feel for all of you facing tons of snow! It’s been mild here. Today was actually sunny and around 50. We’re heading to SoCal next week for a couple of days. Can’t wait for that!</p>
<p>Laughing out loud at the Cosby references. DH and I used to absolutely love that show!</p>
<p>Just adding my thanks for the Wendy Mogel link. I’d never heard of her - unlike Amy Chua, I don’t think she’s crossed the Atlantic yet . TigerLady, on the other hand, has made the cover of the international edition of Time Magazine. I’m off to see if amazon uk carries the Mogel books.</p>
<p>Good morning all – another lurker here. Not just a lurker, but a 2012 lurker! :eek: I just wanted to pop on to say “thank you” to all the regular posters for sharing your journeys. I know that I (and hundreds? thousands? of others) will hopefully be able to avoid a number of college-related pitfalls, thanks to the generousity of the posters on this thread.</p>
<p>Best of luck to all your S’s and D’s, and stay warm!</p>
<p>Hi everyone. I’ve been very quiet on the thread as not much is going on. We are in waiting mode until we get all the financial awards back from the schools sometime in late Feb or March I presume.
D ordered her dress for the prom this week. She is far from a frilly girl, so HATED all the prom dresses out there. We ended up ordering her a bridesmaid dress in her favorite color-black. It actually looks very nice on her, simple and tasteful…much more HER than the prom dresses that are the usual. If anyone else wants to go the bridesmaid dress route you need to order soon as it takes a few months for them to come in (D’s prom is mid June, they said the dress would arrive in May, but then will need to be altered).
Can’t believe she is starting her last semester of HS on Monday!!!</p>
<p>Dear cyber-friends. Bluejr could use any positive thoughts sent his way. He has lost a friend and teammember. He and I will attend services today. A close bond forms between students that work long hours and travel together. He was an amazing young man.
Thanks for your friendship and support.</p>