<p>Happy Birthday wishes to AK and OWMS. Hoping for a successful interview, Idinct. Exciting news, Happy64 - I say “go!”- what a unique opportunity; you can always come back! Glad OWM is safe.<br>
Congrats to our new grads, award recipients, and athletic and musical performers!<br>
D got her co-val last night and will get a recognition at Target Field tonight. S has big conference meet this afternoon - let’s hope all the kids are FAST so he and I can get to the recognition in time!
My special wish today is for safe, easy travels for all the “older generation” traveling this graduation season to see their beloved grandchildren.</p>
<p>Idinct – Sending good karma your way.</p>
<p>Owm – Glad to hear you are OK. And Happy 21st BDay to your DS1! </p>
<p>AmandaK – Happy Birthday!</p>
<p>Happy64 – Congratulations to you DH on the new job. It sounds like a great opportunity for him and your family. FWIW, It’s a lot easier to uproot an 8th grader than a high school freshman. </p>
<p>We have the Senior Awards night today. I am not sure what to expect, but since our S only took 3 classes in HS, I don’t have high expectations. I actually don’t mind when a departmental award goes not to the top student, but to someone who showed the most improvement or who put the most effort or enthusiasm into the subject. I also like to see as many kids as possible to be recognized for the hard work they do. It’s the awards that are called “top awards”, but designed to reward an “average student” that rub me the wrong way. Thankfully, our school “does the awards right”. We’ll see if I feel the same way tomorrow.</p>
<p>Our graduation is 6/2, so updating the list: </p>
<p>graduation day:
5/13-15:emilybee
5/20-22: MaryOC, olderwisermom, FLMathmom, MaMom
5/26: GaMomof3
5/27-29: cgpm59, momofsongbird, Shawbridge, Novelisto, snoozn
5/31: momjr
6/1: researching4emb
6/2: keylimepie
6/3: Militarymom
6/4-5: EmmyBet; 2education; missypie D, arisamp’s D, happy 64’s D, AvonHSDad’s S, Proudmomof2’s D, Ohiomom24’s S
6/9: Mommylaw’s D, HighHead’s D, dandemom’s D, ldinCT’s S2
6/10-12: blueiguana, rom828, oregonianmom’s D, seattle_mom’s D, collegemaw’s D, rodney’s D, madbean’s S2, phbmom’s D2
6/14: Pepper03
6/17-19: kinderny’s D, kathieP’s Son; Classof2015’s D
6/21 : VaMom2015’s S
6/23: SlitheyTove’s D
6/24-26: Holliesue’s D
6/27: aria2000’s S</p>
<p>Happy Birthday amandak and OWMS!!</p>
<p>happy64–wow, and I thought it was challenging when DH had to work about as far away from home as you can get in the US much of last year (but not as challenging as when THAT job also ended unexpectedly sooner than expected–thank goodness due to D1 being a HS senior and other issues we had decided that we would not all move until later…)</p>
<p>mnmom–love your good wishes for the older grandparents/relatives travels</p>
<p>OWM, glad to hear you and your family are far away from devastation. </p>
<p>Indinct, fingers crossed. </p>
<p>Emmybet, Congrats to D1 on her graduation! </p>
<p>Kinderny, must be incredibly stressful for you having to deal with this so late in the school year. Hang in there. </p>
<p>LacrosseMom, Wow!!! And to think I was so excited when boychild won the TV. </p>
<p>Happy B’day Amanda and OWM’s son on his 21st!</p>
<p>Happy, I think moving to Denmark sounds so exciting! No advice but I moved right after 7th grade and everything was fine. My sister, OTOH, who was entering 10th grade was initially very upset but quickly made friends and that was that. </p>
<p>Can I mention how wonderful I felt all last week having everything behind me?</p>
<p>ak, Happy Birthday! How sweet of your mom.</p>
<p>owm, glad you’re OK.</p>
<p>ldinct, I completely agree about the ratcheted-up year-end celebrations. D’s class also had a sleepover for their prank, and big planned activities for senior skip day. (Appropriately, she skipped those.) Plus there are the over-the-top plans for the all night part after graduation. And everyone goes along because the kids expect it. Good luck on your interview!</p>
<p>happy64, oh boy! That’s a big change. It also sounds like a wonderful opportunity for all of you. It may be hard to uproot S, but I am sure he will get a lot out of the experience.</p>
<p>The 2nd grade teacher story reminded me that S’s first grade teacher had them all make time capsules for graduation. I actually know where it is (I think). Hope I still do in three years! He’s class of '14.</p>
<p>I unexpectedly have more net surfing time due to my new housework disability. I spent yesterday scrubbing walls and threw my back out. I am resting and REALLY hoping I can get back to productivity soon. I have too much to do!</p>
<p>Idinct: Sending you good vibes today!</p>
<p>Amanda - I am so happy that you are going to have your mother’s rings…you will think of her everytime you wear them.</p>
<p>Happy64 - What a great adventure! I am excited for you. The transition will be challenging but once your 8th grader settles in then it will be fun. Take advantage of allthe travel opportunities!</p>
<p>Congratulations to all of the grads and award winners…</p>
<p>We have been very busy with D1’s softball…they started the season as “the bad news bears” but are coming on strong…they are now in 1st place in their conference and will probably make the state tourney…exciting but it will interfer with senior week…sigh.</p>
<p>keylimepie ~ Hope the senior awards night goes well tonight. :)</p>
<p>Congratulations to all the graduates! We have a couple of weeks left. D is finishing her independent project this week, then a week of random meetings at school (but seniors have been told they ARE NOT allowed in the building unless they have something scheduled because they might disrupt exams. This in a school which always schedules Field Day for the little ones right outside the exam rooms in the middle of finals! Go figure.)</p>
<p>Idinct: good luck with the interview!</p>
<p>Happy64: Denmark! Wow! My recollection of living in Europe is that the school year starts later there, so you might be able to get your D settled in college and still start your 8th grader at the beginning of the year.</p>
<p>Another HH - Inter’l watcher here. I don’t care if I never see another ‘we want a fancy beach house’ episode but the glimpse at how the rest of the world actually lives is fascinating!</p>
<p>Happy64 – How very cool to have a chance to live in another part of the world! That would be a tremendous opportunity for your S to learn another language, share friendships, and maybe you wouldn’t hear ‘I’m bored’ for, oh, a couple of weeks? Speaking as someone who moved around a lot when I was young – not military, just a dad with itchy feet – it is easier to move in between school years rather than during. </p>
<p>AK – Awww…Happy Birthday. Sorry about ‘drum major-gate’…don’t you hate it when something that is supposed to work on merit is fouled by politics? </p>
<p>OWM – Stay safe. This has been a terrible tornado season so far and I’m afraid it isn’t over yet. That goes for everyone in the heart of the country. </p>
<p>Idinct – Thinking of you today. Hope it went well.</p>
<p>Not much time - but wanted to sneak in here and wish all our recent graduates!</p>
<p>★★★Congratulations to MaryOC’s S, OWM’s S, FLMathMom’s S and MaMom’s S!!! Class of 2011! ★★★</p>
<p>OWM - glad you are ok. Happy birthday to your S and good luck getting your mil home.</p>
<p>ldinct - good luck on your interview.</p>
<p>happy64 - Denmark! Wow. H spent over a year in Chicago and it was tough, dealing with stuff long distance. Didn’t want to uproot the kids - so treated his job in Chicago as a temporary deal. Now, he’s back home and has a job in Boston - but this one is supposed to be a lot of traveling. I just can’t win 
Good luck with your decision - no matter what, it will be a tough one to make. I’d love to visit Denmark though - it’s been on my list of places to go for a looong time.</p>
<p>Last day of school here for D. She left wearing a sundress - apparently another unwritten tradition. This is a girl who lived most of her life in sweatpants or athletic shorts! Bittersweet watching her go - so determined that I was not going to be emotional, that I forgot to take a picture! Dang!</p>
<p>★★★Happy Birthday AmanadaKayak!! ★★★</p>
<p>I’ve loved reading the updates, and now have only a few minutes to post.</p>
<p>Happy64–My husband was transferred overseas several years ago, we decided to keep the family together, and I learned a lot through the experience. If living conditions and the school are acceptable in Denmark, I would plan to take your 8th-grader and move to Denmark when your husband does, making the transition plan part of the negotiations with your husband’s new company. Allow yourself enough time to pack, sell your house here if you choose, and be there slightly before school starts. If the company will pay to ship your belongings, take your child’s bedroom furniture and other belongings for a sense of familiarity for your child. In my experience, it was great for me to have school-age children because the support through the international school they attended was so great! PM me with questions if you’d like.</p>
<p>Happy birthday, Amanda Kayak! What a busy time for you!</p>
<p>We had a great weekend with graduation parties, including my D’s. Unfortunately the only time it made sense to hold her party was right after her friend’s party, which was during my younger son’s tennis championships. I made all the food in advance, made a long list for my husband and daughter of all the food and where it was, and got to the championships in time to see my son’s team win! They won quickly enough that I still made it to most of my daughter’s party. Yesterday was our recovery day.</p>
<p>arisamp: I did the same thing!! On my son’s last day of school, I was trying to be all cool and unemotional and completely forgot the picture! He has graduation practice one day next week so I might “pretend” that it’s the last day so that I can get a picture then.</p>
<p>After posting once or twice early on in this thread, I have remained an avid but silent reader. At one point I wrote a longish post saying how much I appreciated all the wisdom/advice/companionship/humour available here appreciated even by someone who has rarely posted. So I am very sorry to resurface now on a somewhat negative note, or at least a note of caution Happy64, please look very carefully at the schools in Copenhagen. The expats we know there have moved their kids to boarding school after a certain point. No problem apparently with primary age children but options narrow for older students. I am in the middle of advising one Anglo-US family in Copenhagen currently looking at boarding schools here in England. Other families we know have declined job offers after checking out the school situation. Maybe the school issues were specific to those families and wont affect you - I certainly hope so!</p>
<p>^^ Ohiomon24, thats a good idea. I forgot to take a pic last week for kiddo’s last day. I was trying to be cool and non-emotional because the Srs were all wearing their new college t-shirts…</p>
<p>So ready for some humor…
I am picking up a few items for dinner, and a few things for the grad party later in the week etc…
so a university student from the local U comes and asks me to do an interview/survery for a $5off this shopping trip.
OK. So fine…imagine how I trying saying “yes” we know how to choose healthy foods, and read labels…and we watch our sugar and salt intake…
and then as I leave to go pay…
I realize that everything in my cart is processed stuff (chips, soda, ice cream, even marshmellow fluff!!) except for one bag of arugula for salad tonight!! and I am standing in front of the champagne aisle to choose a few bottles…</p>
<p>Can you imagine this girl probably thinks I am delusional. :rolleyes:</p>
<p>Will catch up later tonight, but just need one of you to go grab me a grande mocha vodka valium latte STAT.</p>
<p>Get one for yourself, if necessary; it’s on me. And please make mine a double. Thanks.</p>
<p>LOL, fogfog. You were probably targeted for that survey based on the contents of your cart.</p>
<p>momofsongbird~you and I GF :eek:</p>
<p>I’ve waited to post until 1) my MIL was in the air on her way home and 2) a severe thunderstorm passed through. We are a little nervous about every cell that develops here in Missouri. No damage here, and as I posted earlier, Joplin is about 180 miles from us, but still the weather is scary right now.</p>
<p>Yesterday will be a chapter in a future book. Got home from the all-night party at 5:15 a.m. Stayed up until 5:45 to debrief with the graduate. At 10 a.m., I heard my grandson running through the house. Kids had come to say goodbye to the grandparents–and DS1’s best friend from his one year in college had driven from Michigan to Missouri as a birthday surprise.</p>
<p>I checked my work e-mail to see that one member of our sorority chapter at Missouri Southern State University in Joplin was not yet accounted for. Checked-in (on a vacation day) with my bosses to see if we were going to issue a news release about the chapter as we had done for Alabama just a few weeks ago. Got the word at 11 that she was located in a hospital a few towns away with some cracked vertebrae but should be fine. Wrote and posted the release and took a shower.</p>
<p>Then my brother texted me from St. Louis to say that he will not pick up my mom when she arrives because a tree fell through his roof and he is sending my niece as a replacement. Mom was visually shook up because of the tree and because her comfort level is with my brother picking her up.</p>
<p>Woke up the graduate to shower and go with me to the airport. We headed out at 2:30. My mom had a 4:40 flight on Southwest; my MIL a 5:15 flight on American–in different terminals, which means different parking lots at KCI. Dropped MIL and DS2 off at one terminal to get checked in and drove to the other terminal to get mom checked in.</p>
<p>At the SWA ticketing area, I alerted the lady with the walkie-talkie that we are here for the wheel chair assist that I requested when I checked Mom in online. As she called for the wheel chair, DS called on my cell phone to say his other grandmother’s flight was cancelled. I could hear her in the background having a "dispute” with an American employee. DS says he will call the 800 number they have been given to get things figured out–and will try to get his GMa calmed down.</p>
<p>Back to my mom. I checked her bag and got her boarding pass and my escort pass. Still no wheelchair. I looked at the security line and it was 100 people long and two people wide. No way could she handle standing that long in line to get screened. Nice SWA lady calls again for wheel chair. 5 more minutes. No chair. She says: follow me. She walked us to the head of the security line and into security. Good thing Mom looks 85 and fragile so people didn’t get angry.</p>
<p>I requested the full body scan for my mom so the titanium ball in her shoulder wouldn’t set off the metal detector and require a pat-down. More shuffling to the gate. Found a gate agent who looked friendly and explained my escorting and the absence of a wheelchair–and the MIL stranded in another terminal with no flight! He went down the jetway to get a wheel chair and positioned my mom where he could see her and promised me he would get her on the plane.</p>
<p>Checked my phone to see 7 missed calls and two texts from my son from the other terminal. He said the American 800 number was constantly busy and MIL was arguing with the airline people. I ran back to my car, paid $3 to get out of the garage and circled back to the other terminal. Found my son and MIL pacing in front of American ticketing area. Son was at least now on hold with AA to get a new ticket. He handed the phone to me, relieved that this was now my problem. After 30 minutes on hold, I got an agent who said the earliest they could get her home on American was Wednesday. I said that was not acceptable because my FIL has an appointment with a pulmonary specialist on Wednesday and she needed to be there. So, I held for another 20 minutes while the agent checked with other airlines and finally got a reservation for this morning on Delta. </p>
<p>We got back in the car and as we were driving the 38 miles back home, my husband called to ask what my “plans” were for dinner. Since his mother was in the car with me, I bit my tongue. I suggested that since she was still here, we could go out and celebrate DS1’s birthday and that they could figure out when and where while we were driving home. </p>
<p>So, after dinner at our favorite Cajun restaurant, I put on my PJs at 8:30 and settled in to watch the news coverage in Joplin for the first time since the tornado had struck. I was home in clean PJs in a comfy bed with a roof over my head. I had just spent an exhausting, but amazing weekend with family and friends and those people in Joplin had no clothes, no homes and were looking for their family and friends. </p>
<p>And that really put the bad airport day and the extra night of house guests in perspective.</p>
<p>Wishing all of you a much calmer, but equally as wonderful, graduation experience.</p>
<p>Owm: First of all, I’m relieved that you and your family are okay. It sounds like an absolutely miserable day at the aiport yesterday, which must have been even harder after a night of little sleep. But as you said, when you think of the families in Joplin who have lost everything, what’s a little aggravation? Congratulations again on your son’s graduation. I hope you get a chance to relax this week.</p>
<p>AK- Happy Birthday. Your Mom’s rings will always remind you of her and what she means to you.</p>
<p>OWM–Happy B-day for Ds1 and sorry for all the craziness of yesterday. Hope all went well today and everyone is home where they belong. And glad the tornados didn’t come your way!</p>
<p>Good news here–DS has a Prom date. He was excited and she was too! Glad that hurdle is jumped, now on to finding out just what they plan to do for eating/transportation, etc. They better get plans soon!</p>
<p>I got graduation invitations in the mail today, so I’m a happy camper. Graduation is 21 June, so I’m doing well! I had to address around 60 of them! Arghhh–being a military family we keep up with each other thru announcements and holiday cards. Glad that’s done!</p>