<p>BI: Congratulations to your son on his semester and mid-term grades. This was the last thing under his control, and it’s great that he put in his best effort. Now he can relax a bit.</p>
<p>My daughter brought home a great report card yesterday. I’m really proud of the way she has continued working hard despite her ED acceptance in December. It’s great to see how the desire to do her best has really become ingrained.</p>
<p>Happy Chinese New Year to all my cc’ers. My house is dirty but I can’t sweep, my hair is long but I can’t get a haircut…god forbid, I do anything to hinder prosperity in this house.</p>
<p>amanda - So very good to hear from you! You have been on my mind. Please take time off. The house will get cleaned later, your hair will wait. Rest, rest, rest. You have been taking care of guests and their needs for days and days. It’s time to simply ‘be’. The dust-bunnies will be there when you (or someone else) decides to collect them.</p>
<p>And at this beginning of the year of the rabbit, your hare should be long! Take care of yourself, and give yourself time to heal …</p>
<p>Is that why I don’t feel like cutting my hair? How about a color change is that OK? I need something to get me out of this funk. Hair cut was at the top of my list. Next was trading in that junk of a broken used car that hasn’t started for 2 months in the driveway. I have been stranded at home so many days this month. With all this snow we would like some kind of mini suv, but there are so many and they are expensive. With college transporting on the horizon, we could use some kind of space.</p>
<p>To keep prosperity in your house, you cannot cut your hair (need to wait until a wk or so after new yrs), you cannot sweep since that could sweep good fortune away, yadayadayada. All the cleaning is supposed to be done in anticipation of the New Year’s - which as luck would have it, I did do since my brother and family were coming to stay with me. Dh had to call his elderly father in China to give him the news and didn’t realize it was New Years until he called so we didn’t tell him, bad luck and all. My dh came here in '88 after we married and has no family in the US so basically, my parents have been his so he is taking this hard too. Kids are coming around, enjoyed being with cousins. I have to tell everyone, my ds read at the service, big broad drum major voice reading the scripture reading and kept it until near the end. Never ever been so proud of my little boy, truly blest with my kids, they have been nothing short of phenomenal to me and my father. I know there was a thread about snarky teens back a few pages, and I had to think that I have been lucky to see my kids rise to the occasion.</p>
<p>Idinct - Depending on your needs, how much you drive, etc., a good used SUV may fit the bill. Gas prices are inching up so they are not as in demand right now. A couple of years ago when gas was sky-rocketing (and everyone was dumping gas-guzzeling SUVs like hotcakes) we bought a good used SUV to replace a mini-van I’d driven into the ground. I don’t drive much so for us it was perfect. If I was putting more mileage on it and worried more about the price of gas it wouldn’t have been a good option. I was glad to get out of the mini-van stage but with kids still at home it’s nice to have the extra space in the back when I need to haul something.</p>
<p>amanda - What beautiful words about your family. I was actually one who was talking about ‘snarky seniors’ (guilty as charged…). It’s amazing to see your children, on the edge of being young adults, show grace and maturity. I’m so glad yours were able to show this wonderful trait in the face of difficult emotions they were facing. You are indeed blessed.</p>
<p>Midyear reports mailed. Now to have d finish up the final two honors applications. WE also can’t get the taxes done and the FAFSA corrected until h gets the corrected forms. He went to the personnel office this week and they apologised for the error and then found out that they had also neglected to give him some payment for 200. AS long as that counts for this year even though it should have been paid last year, I don’t think my corrections will be anything except minor. </p>
<p>Amandakayak= sounds like a moving and beautiful ceremony.</p>
<p>BlueIguana= it may not be so tough. It really depends on individual circumstances. WHen I did it with my oldest, we were living overseas, having to convert money, also having a home we were renting at a loss each month. That was complicated. I was pleasantly surprised how much easier this year was even with the wrinkle of excluding part of my h’s income (combat zone pay).</p>
<p>Amanda: It was really nice to hear about how your children rose to the occasion and brought you and your Dad comfort. I hope you’re getting a chance to rest and take care of yourself this weekend.</p>
<p>For those of you thinking about new cars, just remember that kids (especially girls) haul a lot of stuff back and forth to college. My older daughter has never travelled lightly. It usually takes 2 trips in our mini van to move her stuff. I am really tired of driving a mini van now that I’m usually the only one in the car. We’re planning to trade it in for a medium sized SUV after we do the college drop offs next fall.</p>
<p>With bluejr. in the fold are we all safely over the river to second semester? Nice over here, huh?</p>
<p>amanda that is beautiful…what a blessing indeed when we get glimpses, even in sad times, that our children are on the right path. </p>
<p>Idinct sounds like on top of everything else you are dealing with a case of winter blues-it’s been a long, hard, and for some, very painful one dealing with illness and losses.</p>
<p>S has been accepted to one small LAC but I don’t think it is a good option since he is completely undecided. I don’t worry about that too much right now-if he is still this up in the air next year I may be. I think though he needs to factor that into the kind of school he attends-he needs multiple options including the engineering one just in case-and if he wants that one he can’t wait very long-he will probably have to go to summer school anyway to catch up if that’s his choice. He already has some good choices but the ones he really wants are still undecided. </p>
<p>My task this week is to get this AP test figured out. He can take AP Calc and AP Spanish, but I think based on his chats with his teacher he would do fine on AP Chemistry as well. His English teacher also thinks he could take AP Lit. Other than AP Spanish none of them are pure AP classes-they are offered under an EEP program but many school don’t recognize the credits. However, it seems like they are for all intents and purposes the same classes-Calc has one topic not covered that the teacher will go over with him and he said it’s only a matter of several hours, and the only difference in Chem is less lab time-so I figure why not try those tests. I just don’t understand the logistics of it but I can’t imagine it’s too complicated, right? But my last factor is I read on CC it might be better for him to take Calc and Chem in college anyway if that will be important parts of his major-which of course who knows since we don’t have one. </p>
<p>Thoughts?</p>
<p>Pepper - If your son is planning to take one or more AP exams, you need to ask the GC about procedures. In our school if a student takes an AP class, the school orders and pays for the exam w/out asking the student. </p>
<p>If the student self-studies or takes an Honors class but wants to take the AP exam, he/she needs to sign up and pay for the test which the school administers. Go to the CB website for the AP schedule. Everyone takes the test at the same time so your son and my son would take Spanish at the same time.</p>
<p>Thanks for the info. :)</p>
<p>Pepper - Probably worth taking the AP exams, especially as you don’t know where S could wind up. Could be helpful for placement, even if he’s retaking the classes. </p>
<p>D is taking 5 AP exams this year (4 last year, 1 sophomore year) and they’ve been helpful in pulling together content and getting a feel for what she’ll be encountering in college. We had to have payment in for the exams a week or two ago (our public school doesn’t pay) but I think the College Board deadline is still a bit in the future. Check on the schedule for the exams as it’s all standardized in terms of times. I hear that taking two in one day is really tough - I’m happy that D hasn’t encountered that in the past and won’t this year, either.</p>
<p>Again, just trying to catch up on here…glad to see the good news and sad to see the bad…and misery loves company with the FAFSA/ waiting on RD news</p>
<p>I will say that very glad none of D1’s schools require the Profile–sounds horrific, we will see what happens in 4 years with D2</p>
<p>Amanda, Happy Chinese New Year to you! I’ve been thinking of you. I hope you’re able to rest and take good care of yourself (despite no haircut or swept house in the immediate future). You’ve been through a lot! Rest and take comfort in your wonderful children. You’re a great mom.</p>
<p>Songbird had a triumph today. Had a very tough audition weekend…faculty interviews and essay writing yesterday, then vocal audition today. She was coming down with something…sore, scratchy throat, headache, exhausted, pale, still grieving and dealing with unexpected waves of tears that sometimes come over her at inopportune times.</p>
<p>Unlike her last audition which felt so victorious…when she was strong, well-rested, in terrific voice and firing on all cylinders…this one was one of those times when you have to claw your way up by your fingernails, fighting every step of the way.</p>
<p>This morning, in our hotel, I didn’t think she was going to make it. I had lain awake part of the night listening to her wheeze and cough. But she showered, put on some makeup and the beautiful dress, shoes, etc, and I thought maybe she’d pull it off.</p>
<p>Then, in her practice room, 45 mins before her call, her warm up didn’t sound too good. Her voice broke twice, she looked awful, and was silently fighting tears. She stopped singing and didn’t say a word. </p>
<p>I told her, "This is really, really hard, but you’re a professional and you’ve trained all your life for this kind of situation. What you have to do right now is set aside everything you’re feeling and thinking, just for a very short time. In less than an hour, you can totally fall apart and I’ll catch you. You can get back in your jammies, cry, sleep, whatever. But right now you have to call on all the strength that’s deep inside you, and all the training that’s ingrained in you, and all the composure and confidence that are part of you. You have to play the part of the “best you,” and give this the very best shot you can. </p>
<p>At that moment the knock came on the door, and they said, “you’re up.” She stood up, ramrod straight, took 2 sips of water, sprayed her throat a final time, and headed toward the door. Just before she disappeared from view, she turned, smiled with tears in her eyes, and gave me the thumbs up.</p>
<p>You wanna talk tears? Thank God I was alone in a practice room or I really would’ve embarrassed myself.</p>
<p>Then all was silent until I heard, down the hall, through the closed concert hall doors, the opening piano strains of her first piece. And then her voice. Bold, vibrant, commanding, the Italian so crisp it just cut through the air. I couldn’t believe it. (She told me later that as she walked down the hall, and then down the long center aisle of the concert hall to the stage, with each step she could practically feel adrenaline shooting into her veins and oxygen clearing her mind.) </p>
<p>Then her second piece, equally strong…she feels maybe even stronger. All I know is I was fighting back tears the whole time. Just so grateful for the blessing of this daughter, this reserved, quiet, sensitive girl with the voice of an angel, and, apparently, a will of iron.</p>
<p>I don’t care if she gets this scholarship, I don’t even know if she’ll end up at this school. But neither of us will ever forget this audition. It means more to me than almost any other accomplishment I can think of in her 17 years. </p>
<p>Tomorrow, she will leap several tall buildings in a single bound. Just kidding. 
</p>
<p>But I did tell her on the way home, “Always remember this day because this is who you are and this is what you’re made of. You can call on this person inside you again when you’re in trouble, and she’ll be there.”</p>
<p>She just smiled, and 5 minutes later was asleep. Slept all the way home, and is sleeping now. I feel more content than I have in weeks.</p>
<p>MOMSB-Wow! Your daughter is amazing. That was a terrific story.</p>
<p>mosb,
that was inspirational–how your DD behaved, and your words</p>
<p>MOSB: Wow. You and your daughter make an amazing team. I love what you told her on the way home: “Always remember this day because this is who you are and this is what you’re made of. You can call on this person inside you again when you’re in trouble, and she’ll be there.”</p>
<p>MOSB: Your words are as beautiful as I imagine your daughter’s voice to be.</p>