<p>T-shirt quilts are easy to make. Call your local quilt shop - they can help you do it yourself, or they’d know if there are “quilters for hire” in your community.</p>
<p>I won’t go into the details of what’s happening over here (talked too much already about it today!) but my kids had a day off of school today because so many teachers were absent due to protests. Try explaining something like this to your Japanese exchange student! I can’t even explain it to myself.</p>
<p>But it meant D got a day of rest, which she really did need. This week she did some streamlining - I’m glad she’s being careful of her energy and general well-being. She dropped an EC that was weighing on her, and feels much better.</p>
<p>Not sure what our end-of-year celebrations will be yet. D’s birthday is in July, so maybe that will be a bigger landmark? Ask me in March; too much going on right now! Once I can think about it, I know it will be fun planning.</p>
<p>FlMathMom - I have the same K-1 problem. I’m a student, not a parent, so it wasn’t as big of a deal for me to not have that ready, but I still submitted a note about that with my IDOC packet.</p>
<p>There’s a woman here who does this, and I had always planned to use all songbird’s musical theatre shirts (since 2nd grade!) and have a quilt made for her. Fortunately, another mom told me to check with her first…and it turns out she doesn’t want the shirts cut up. She still wears them…at least the ones from about 6th grade on. She tended to buy them bigger then, and she’s pretty petite now, so it works. Glad I asked before chopping them up! I still think it’s a neat idea, though.</p>
<p>I do like the collage idea and they are pretty simple to create at Walgreen’s. I would love to make the t-shirt quilt but my D still wears all of hers. She must have 40 or 50 cheer shirts from competitions and different squads over the years but they are all broken-in and soft so she loves wearing them.</p>
<p>Flmathmom - $5 gift cards to Chipotle? That’s the only thing that comes to mind and those are popular here, no matter what the amount is.</p>
<p>I had a t-shirt quilt made for my daughter. She had t-shirts from Girl Scouts, Soccer, plays and musicals, camps and family reunions. It came out really well. The lady that did it left one square blank and we wrote a little message with a fabric marker. It’s an oversize throw size, so she can cuddle with it. I’m not sure if my son will want one, I knew my older son wouldn’t so didn’t do one for him.</p>
<p>How about a collage of the tee shirts. Take pics of them, on or off your child, and make a collage OR take a picture of the collage or the tee shirts and put it on a throw (blanket). My son ONLY wears blue. There is NO writing on his shirts other than Math Team shirts. His quilt would look like a multi-blue comforter just like the one on his bed. FYI - His first choice school’s color…BLUE.</p>
<p>momofsongbird - I started talking to and beating on my accountant back in September regarding all of the deadline dates that we were facing early this year. We needed the 2010 figures because 2009 was a very good year due to a couple of one time income hits in the business and 2010 was much more normal and lower. He was able to get the corpoorate business returns done by late January and we were able to file the 1040’s and state returns on February 12th. His position was that if there are significant changes by IRS in their forms or calculations, we will file amended returns later this spring.</p>
<p>I also filed the CSS that week and a couple of DS’s schools have already posted receipt of the CSS profile. Funny thing is that FAFSA went in earlier but no one has posted receipt. I think they weren’t releasing FAFSA to any schools until 2/15.</p>
<p>olderwisermom - I mailed IDOC their package via priority with delivery confirmation on 2/10 and they received it at their PO Box on the 12th. Obviously, nothing is showing on any of the school applicant web sites regarding IDOC receipts yet.</p>
<p>Grad parties are fairly big in our area and we are planning a backyard BBQ for the Friday evening following graduation on the previous Sunday. We will rent a tent, tables and chairs, and most likely use a caterer for the main food items. We need something that is quick and easy to cleanup as we are supposed to leave on a graduation cruise in Europe three days later. We won’t send graduation announcements other than the party invitations.</p>
<p>As far as a grad gift, we are leaning towards either a new smart phone or a new laptop based on the school’s requirements. We got through the 18th birthday in January with new sunglasses, baseball bat (he plays varsity and they are not cheap - even online), and an Apple gift card he can put towards an iPad or something else at the Apple store.</p>
<p>No calls on the OSU Presidential scholarships interviews this week so it appears those are off the table. It is a backup school and he even admitted that he didn’t go all out on the essays on the application. Oh well, its just money … (in his mind). At least he is still interested and active with other outside scholarship efforts. He hasn’t completely shut down yet. Just got to keep him going and get the A in AP calc this semester so he can finish HS career with all A’s and his 4.0 plus intact.</p>
<p>As I posted this morning and now several pages ago -6 weeks to go until March 31st announcement day. It seems this will be one of the longest and slowest 6 weeks ever.</p>
<p>Thanks for the countdown AvonHSDad. My husband sighed tonight as he thought about how long that still is. </p>
<p>Willing to reveal what your high school graduation gift was? My parents had purchased a typewriter for me at the start of senior year, so my grad gift was the dress I wore to the ceremony - a Gunne Sax, which at the time probably seemed like a great deal of money to my parents for a dress.</p>
<p>Here is my family status:
DD: Interview done. Planned to go out with friends this weekend.
Me:
Tax returns accepted by IRS today after 4 days pending
IDOC - delivered
FAFSA - updated
Tax returns to schools not using IDOC - all faxed after several retrial times because of busy line.</p>
<p>Nothing else we can do. I am ready for spring time. Good luck to everyone with the waiting!</p>
<p>typewriters. Gosh I remember trying (and try is the word) to type papers and get to the bottom and make a mistake, again and again and again. Tping the paper was as much work as writing it. </p>
<p>I got a watch for HS graduation which I lost 2 months later. ;-( </p>
<p>I have to spend some time this weekend looking at all the FAFSA and profile stuff. I really feel like I missed something. Will send stuff to accountant this weekend and hopefully get 2010 taxes done quickly.</p>
<p>Same story here with the typewriters. One of my first jobs included completing forms that were really long and were multi-part. I can remember getting to the bottom and being so stressed about possibly making a mistake that I WOULD make a mistake and then having to pull the form out and start over. </p>
<p>My parents gave me the title to my car for graduation. Of course, it was 10+ years old at that time but I was happy to get it. Made me feel like a real adult!</p>
<p>I got a calculator for HS graduation (1978) when they were expensive (at least for my family)! I had already planned on having a teeshirt quilt made for D’s graduation. she has a smart phone, laptop (bought used, but she loves it and doesn’t want to replace it), used car …really much, much more than I could ever have dreamed of at her age…and we will be sending her to a private school…so I think a sentimental token is in order.</p>
Yeah, I hear you, Avondad. My bad. Coulda, woulda, shoulda.</p>
<p>I think we’ll be ok, but it’s rush-rush-rush for my accountant now, and it will be rush-rush-rush for me next weekend. Don’t know why I did this to myself, except that we all have an Achilles’ heel, and this seems to be mine.</p>
<p>To make amends, I have begun harranguing my sister on an almost daily basis (niece is hs class of 2012) … NOT to do what I did. I figure a year from now, she either will be sitting pretty with FAFSA/Profile, or not speaking to me! :)</p>
<p>avondad: For some of us, the countdown is less than six weeks. It’s Pi Day. 3.14. For the past two years, that has been the day that MIT has announced its decisions. We keep repeating the mantra: 9% change you get in, 2% chance we can afford it. And he’s at least outwardly fine with that. His best friend is researching dorm options in Honors College living groups at our state flagship for the two of them. (BF is not expecting a “yes” from Vanderbilt.)</p>
<p>Last home basketball game here for our boys team. Last home game for the girls was Wednesday. Son has friends on both teams so it’s been a “we can’t believe it’s over” kind of week.</p>
<p>And his latest tweet: “Just figured out I only need to pass two more tests to graduate!” I believe that’s a reference to American Government–his last required class.</p>
<p>D has a new project: getting her independent PE class finished. She has a couple of health issues that have made regular PE impossible, and we’re grateful she can do this. She has to log a certain number of exercise hours, and parents can only verify half of them. We have a bunch of walks and other sessions on her list from last quarter, but she’s got a long way to go. </p>
<p>We took out a fitness club membership for her, since it’s a good place to exercise (they have lovely yoga classes and she can personalize her activities), and they’ll print out a record of her visits. But she held off on this for several weeks more than I wanted her to - now in order to get the hours in she’s going to have to go 3, 4, sometimes 5 times a week.</p>
<p>I’m a little stressed about it - less so now that she’s finally gotten going - but am realizing that 1) she will have something concrete to get done and mark off the weeks, and 2) she will be healthier because of it! I can’t say that about most of her other stresses and demands lately.</p>
<p>D1 comes home for the 4-day weekend today. She wants to see BF (they split the ticket) and do some job hunting. It will be really nice to see her. It’s really starting to hit me that we have 2 graduations this spring! </p>
<p>I just gave D2 my not-very-old cleaned up laptop, so she’s fine with that, and has a perfectly nice phone. Didn’t get a class ring. Has no money in the bank lately, so she’ll hoard any checks she gets. What she really wants? The new DS. That’s my girl!</p>
<p>I actually think in the mere 4 years since D1 graduated more seniors now 1) already have laptops (which was her present) and 2) might like some kind of “pad” better, for taking to class, etc. D2 might get something like that eventually, as the options increase and prices decrease. How things change!</p>
<p>Grad gift for college D? We might give her the 6-year-old car the kids usually drive, if she needs it, once D2 leaves in the fall.</p>
<p>Grad gift for daughter is an antique watch that once belonged to a beloved cousin of mine. We got the works cleaned but left the face as is because the color had changed/softened over time and looked lovely. Will probably get her some other more practical thing- maybe a regular watch to wear every day…or she wants a white dress for graduation-it’s a tradition at the school we all wished she had been able to graduate from (and may have if the administration had not made some specific choices with which we did not agree).</p>
<p>I got a watch for HS graduation, as well. My paternal grandmother died on the day of my graduation… so that put a bit of a damper on my family’s celebration. I have absolutely NO idea what we will give S1 for a graduation gift… One of my sisters is giving him a Brooks Brothers belt with a monogrammed silver belt buckle. I thought that was a nice idea.</p>
<p>We will follow S1’s lead on whether or not he wants to have a party. If he gives the word, it will likely be a back yard event…BBQ, swmming, volleyball, etc. We live in NH and most of his friends live in MA (30-60 minute’s drive) where he commutes to school… so it might be a hard sell to get them to travel.</p>
<p>If anyone is considering a watch, may I recommend a Citizen’s Eco-Drive? I’ve had one for years, gave one to just about every family member. It’s great because you never need to put a battery in. I have a lot of watches which I don’t wear because it seems I kill the batteries within a couple of months. Do I generate an electrical field? IDK…but my SIL and I once had batteries put in on a shopping trip. Her’s ran for 12 months, mine died in 2. Always happens. But my Eco-Drive keeps on going. I’ve even worn it into pools! </p>
<p>They cost around $200 which is a significant price but they last and are ‘green’. They come in Men’s and Women’s and are widely available.</p>
<p>I remember getting an electric typewriter as a gift as I went off to college way back when (1975) For my D it will probably be a laptop. The times they are a changing.</p>
<p>Harkening back to an earlier post. I cant imagine not visiting a college before having my D attend. She is visiting CLU now, and I took the opportunity to visit the surrounding area. Found a huge mall 4-5 miles away, which probably serves as a student hangout. More importantly though, it has an Apple Store! Great if something realllly goes wrong with her computer.</p>