<p>arisamp – Try Edy’s Double-Churned. Lower in fat, tastes really good! I like ‘Fudge Tracks’ with the little peanut butter cups…</p>
<p>fogfog - I sent ours by the post office express mail - guaranteed next day delivery. I’ve been using the post office for my (unfortunately!) multiple financial aid mailings and corrections since I found out that they charge $18.75 per express mail small envelope, and FedEx wants something in the $30’s. Middlebury has been the only addressee which requires two days.</p>
<p>Amanda - Sorry to hear your bad news. I’m bracing myself for the next few week’s mail & email deliveries. I’m trying so hard to push them to the back of my mind. Fortunately son appears OK but who knows.</p>
<p>Rom - congrats on UVa news.</p>
<p>Just checked IDOC status. I mailed it express last Tuesday. Still not processed. Hmmm.</p>
<p>FLMathMom - thanks for the reminder to check IDOC status. I mailed mine on 2/25, they received it 2/28 and it says that the info was available for the schools to download today 3/7. Maybe that will give you an idea of when to expect it.</p>
<p>Wow, what a stressful time. I completely agree with the previous post (i think it was on this thread) about almost needing to quarantine oneself from our kiddo so they don’t pick up on our stress.</p>
<p>UCLA engineering school sent our likely letters this weekend. Being the ever observant cc parent, I was fully aware that they came out from my frequent perusal of the UCLA forum. But, drat, my D was sleeping in, so I had to wait until she awoke, and then so casually suggested to her that she check her emails. “Why?” she wanted to know. “Well”, I said, “you should check your email every day this time of year.” “I do”, she said. “Well”, I said, “then check it twice a day this time of year!” It took her FOREVER to check her email account, but finally she reported that there was something from UCLA. The likely letter!</p>
<p>I can’t tell you what a relief it was (probably more for me than for her) to get that letter. Now, D has an acceptance from a college that she could get excited about attending. </p>
<p>…and it is close to home. DD may not need to leave CA for college!</p>
<p>So can I stop stressing now?</p>
<p>Just checking in since yesterday, and there’s so much news here.</p>
<p>First, OWM, I hope your grandson’s condition is vastly improved today. Kudos to his parents for following their instincts and quickly getting him the attention he needed. My best wishes to you and yours.</p>
<p>FlMM, congrats on the newest addition to your family!</p>
<p>AmandaK: Gosh, I was sorry to hear your news about the honors college. Like others have said, many if not most of us with RD kids will (or already have) experience(d) disappointments. I really liked the analogy to the playgroup mishaps. I remember those days well and hope I can follow through with that sort of support now. I agree w/ many of you who feel that is so hard to see our kids hurt. It’s painful, really, but I also know from the disappointments we’ve already experienced this fall, thankfully, it quickly passes.</p>
<p>Thanks so much AvonHSDad for the daily countdown. Graphically seeing the days left diminish somehow helps. I’m feeling more emotional these days too. I think so many things are running through my head – I wish I knew where in the country my son will be in September; I’m already feeling nostalgic and these days I easily slip into a reverie for years gone by with him – a chunk of our lives together now completed. Unless you haven’t noticed: I stink at transitions and I’m terribly sentimental (hopefully not cloyingly).</p>
<p>One thing that has brought some joy in the last few days is seeing the CC class of 2011 albums posted on Shutterfly. It’s been a lot of fun to finally get a peek at these talented, wonderful kids and I hope more of you join us.</p>
<p>P.S. after reading above post:
And yes, I should quarantine myself b/c I think my whole family is picking up on my stress. Thank God I have this forum to express myself or I’d go mad or drive my family insane.</p>
<p>rom & camathmom- Congratulations! </p>
<p>holliesue- I hope you don’t mind but I’m afraid my whole family had a much needed good laugh at your expense. At dinner D was letting out some of the stress I know she must be internalizing and admitted she was cranky waiting for college news. I told her the moms here were stressing about it too and that one mom was extra upset because her mailbox had been knocked over by a snowplow. D was highly amused and it lightened her mood. So thanks for sharing that. I hope its repaired and your stress is over and it brings some consolation to know your story helped a stressed college Senior.</p>
<p>Leftofpisa- haha!!! That makes me smile! 
not repaired yet… Hopefully before tomorrows mail!!! Afraid to bug my dh about it as he spent 6 hours digging us out and then had to go to work.</p>
<p>rom & camathmom – it’s wonderful to hear your good news – hope there’s lots of happy dancing going on!</p>
<p>congrats to those who have received good news and condolences to those whose news has not been so wonderful… and to those who have received NO news due to mailbox malfunction.</p>
<p>Not much new to report here. Waiting for final FA package but there will probably be no surprises there. We’ve already received notice of merit aid and we are amongst the many whose EFC seems to have been calculated by someone with a sense of humor (so, probably no more aid should be expected).</p>
<p>amanda: so sorry for the disappointment. I always want to “fix” decisions that have hurt my children. It’s so painful.</p>
<p>So, good news on the grandson. He was released just before dinner when his oxygen levels had been at good levels for six hours and through some good naps. Of course, this was about three hours after I had gone to their house to get clothes, etc., for another night’s stay.</p>
<p>I also rescued their dogs (a 4-year-old Welsh Corgi and a brand new lab/mutt puppy they got the baby for his birthday. Yes, I know, not a wise decision. They are young and foolish!) My daughter-in-law’s sister was supposed to take the dogs to her house last night but did not. You can imagine what the house looked like after an over-night-stay of an untrained puppy. Before I went to the hospital, I brought the dogs to our house where they could stay in our fenced yard with access to the laundry room. It was raining here today. My house has not smelled like wet, muddy dog for almost two years!</p>
<p>So everyone is home; I am in bed after having mopped the laundry room floor. I will go over to their house tomorrow to help either with baby, laundry, cleaning, cooking or all of the above.</p>
<p>My senior son has been sitting next to me in bed and we have just read the MIT blog about the date and time of the decision.
[MIT</a> Admissions | Blog Entry: “Decision Date 2011”](<a href=“http://www.mitadmissions.org/topics/apply/the_selection_process_application_reading_committee_and_decisions/decision_date_2011.shtml]MIT”>http://www.mitadmissions.org/topics/apply/the_selection_process_application_reading_committee_and_decisions/decision_date_2011.shtml)</p>
<p>The humor in this blog post is exactly why our son loves MIT. If you read it, you will see a double rainbow reference. Our son used a double rainbow reference in one of his MIT essays! He about went nuts when he read it.</p>
<p>Thanks to you all for your prayers and good thoughts. Everyone needs rest and sleep and clean laundry! But it’s good to be home. What a story they will have to tell him about the week he turned one!</p>
<p>OWM – So good to hear about the baby’s recovery. Yea!</p>
<p>On a totally different note . . . you all seem so wise and knowledgeable about so many things . . . anybody speak “Texas long-form birth certificate”??</p>
<p>DH and I have passports from 5 1/2 years ago, which we got prior to our first cruise. We submitted our official Texas birth certificates from our state health department – they are about the size of half an 8 1/2 by 11 piece of paper, with blue border and blue and red coloring, with the seal embossed. </p>
<p>Now, we are planning a cruise in June and need to get passports for DS, ages 18 and 9. I had their official birth certs – same ones DH and I have with the red and blue. Got their photos made, went to the post office (had to make an appointment, by the way, and it took two weeks to get one!!), turned in the originals of the birth certs, wrote checks for I don’t even remember how much money for the passports and the post office “processing” fee. </p>
<p>Several days ago, the 9-year-old’s passport arrived, but the 18-year-old’s didn’t. No big deal, I thought. Since the 18-year-old is an “adult,” it may take longer. Then today, we get a large envelope returning the 9-year-old’s original birth certificate. We also got a separate business-size envelope with a letter concerning the 18-year-old. It says: “You submitted a Texas Birth Card or a Texas Birth Abstract, which only provides limited birth information. We need additional information provided only on a long-form birth certificate. Please submit a certified copy of the long-form birth certificate.”</p>
<p>What is up with this?? We submitted exactly the same original birth certificates for all four of us. Three of us got our passports just fine, but oldest son didn’t.</p>
<p>Of course, I’ll be trotting over to the health department this week to find out about the long-form birth certificate; luckily, we live right outside of Austin, so I can go in person. But in the meantime, anybody have any ideas on this? Other than just maybe a government goof??</p>
<p>AmandaK, Did your son already get accepted to the college, but you just found out he didn’t get into the Honors part of it? I’m sorry but it’s hard to keep everyone’s choices straight. If that’s the case, is there a chance he can get in the honors part after freshman year? Sorry for the disappointment. </p>
<p>We got good news a little early today, son was accepted to one of his favorites. It was pretty much a match/safety but because he liked it so much, it was not fun waiting for the acceptance. Now if he can afford for to attend it, that’s the tricky part!</p>
<p>OWM, glad that grandbaby is home and feeling better by now. Kudos to his young parents for recognizing a serious problem and dealing with it so well. Your engineer husband on a mission to find the breast pump and attachments sure adds a comedic element, but my favorite part of this whole story remains you waltzing through it. 1-2-3, 1-2-3, smile-2-3…</p>
<p>FlMM, congratulations on your new granddaughter! How exciting! There’s no better news I can think of!</p>
<p>Novelisto, I’ll be thinking of your D tomorrow, and hoping for an excellent outcome from her surgery.</p>
<p>Arisamp, I had a crying jag recently too, and I didn’t even have the excuse of a sad part in a book. Just walked around the house crying for a few minutes. Part of me said, good grief, woman, get a grip. Another part of me replied something I can’t repeat in polite company. This is a stressful time for all of us, no doubt about it. </p>
<p>Slithey, what’s chocolate alligator? Sounds like something I probably shouldn’t be told, but you’ve got me wondering.</p>
<p>
Are you kidding me??? At the home of a senior on March 7??? That’s downright cruel. </p>
<p>Amanda, so very sorry! What a bummer. I hope your kiddo is taking it ok. Let us know. You’ve had too much bad news lately; I’m really sorry.</p>
<p>Congrats to camathdaughter!</p>
<p>
RenMom, I think we may be twins, separated at birth. </p>
<p>Kathiep, glad to hear your son’s good news! Hope the financial part works out!</p>
<p>Hang on, friends, we’re almost there.</p>
<p>OWM - so happy to hear grandson is on the road to recovery</p>
<p>kathiep - congrats on son’s latest YES</p>
<p>Cute story - Yesterday my DH saw an ad for the book “Crazy U” which is a new book about the college process. When showing me the ad he said, “You could have written this book. For sure you know as much or more than the author.” When he told this to DS today, DS’s comment was, “The first line should say if you are reading this book, you should have started the college process a year ago.”</p>
<p>proudmomof2 – I believe the EFC’s are calculated by monks who live high on a mountain and subsist on a daily three grains of rice and the rain water than drips off a single blade of grass…they each own one robe and a pair of sandals and share a communal razor. They believe that everyone in the world lives that way so there should be no difficulty in coughing up multiple thousands of dollars to send a kid to college and still live a ‘normal’ life on what’s left. </p>
<p>::Sigh:: We can’t expect FA either. </p>
<p>OWM - Glad Grandbaby is okay…sorry 'bout the puppy poo. </p>
<p>D can’t eat or drink after this evening and her appt isn’t until 12:00. She will turn from a charming young lady into Super Cranky-Boots at about 9 am. Strong men will quail, mighty oaks turn into toothpicks at her touch, and the earth will tremble beneath the power of her evil boots. The only mortal brave enough to face her down? Super Silly Mom! Hopefully, Anesthesia Nurse will fly into help at about 12:15.</p>
<p>FlMM --love what your DS said about what the first line of the book SHOULD say</p>
<p>AK–argh! so so hard to get through things that cause our kids pain</p>
<p>I think it was ProudMom who said something about their EFC designation being done by someone with quite the sense of humor…sooo agreeing with that</p>
<p>Having to continue to send in verification and special circumstance papers so not holding our breath for “final” finaid pkgs coming in for a while which is frustrating…it will be nice to eventually make the “final 2 or 3” list with $$ info combined w/D1’s opinions and hopefully a couple final overnight/class visits to help IF we have much of a choice.</p>
<p>Novelisto–I think the Edy’s Double Churned must be very similar to our Dreyers Slow Churned ice cream over here on the west coast–soooooo good and thank goodness it’s low fat because we <em>lurve</em> our ice cream</p>
<p>D1 has a scholarship interview this Wednesday, quite the big deal as she has never done ANY interview anywhere. Been doing many scholarship apps and I usually try to proofread/look over quickly before she turns them in but this one I don’t remember even peeking at.</p>
<p>OWM–you’ve had quite the stories to tell lately, glad things are improving and the little guy getting better</p>
<p>AK - sorry to hear about the bad news.</p>
<p>S got an email this evening from Vanderbilt’s Scholarship office which said we regret to inform you that you were not selected for the Cornelius Vanderbilt or the Chancellor’s scholarship. They selected less than 200 out of more than 3000 scholarship apps. They also said he is still elgible for their other scholarship programs and their need based aid. Any awards will be included for those who will receive acceptance letters later this month. So the big $$ at Vandy are off the table and the wait goes on. Looks like the $ will take this one off of the list.</p>
<p>I hope this is just a one off email and the rest of the emails to come are more positive!</p>
<p>AvonHSDad, we got the same email tonight. 
Vandy financial aid is usually pretty good though, so don’t give up hope! Scholarship competitions were brutal this year. I feel so bad having made my son write all those extra essays after applying to 14 schools.</p>
<p>Amanda, AvonHSDad, and momdoc - Sorry to hear about the bad news today. I know it’s very disappointing to find that what you’ve been hoping for is not going to happen. :(</p>
<p>Rom, camathmom, and kathiep - Congrats and woo hoo!</p>
<p>OWM - So glad to hear your grandson is on the mend.</p>
<p>Novelisto - I do believe Edy’s and Dreyer’s are one and the same. Dreyer’s is distributed west of the Rockies. That’s what we usually buy!</p>
<p>We’re going to visit a college tomorrow. This visit might very well change the mood in our house. Cross your fingers! I’ll report back!</p>