<p>Amandak, trust me, your posts are never annoying.</p>
<p>Entertaining? Laugh-out-loud funny? Heart-touching? Freakishly easy to relate to? Yes, yes, yes, and yes.</p>
<p>But annoying? No. The only thing that would annoy me would be if you stopped posting. Post away, as much as you want about your mom, too. That loss will be with you for a long time, it’s a huge one, and when it hits you in the gut from time to time, we’re here and we get it. :)</p>
<p>cgpm: I’m looking forward to seeing the pictures. An Alaskan cruise is on my wish list!</p>
<p>I envy those of you who have passed through to the other side and your kids have graduated. With classes over for D, each day she comes up with something new she needs to buy or have done: earrings. Manicure. Pedicure. Hair appointment (half up, half down). Facial. I said no, and she flipped out. My new name for her: Grad-Zilla</p>
<p>Owm, OUCH!!! Sorry about that dog-bite, and for your worried night. Hope your s has a quick recovery (and is still friends with dogs in general). :)</p>
<p>Sb and I are also struggling to figure out the 3 meal plan options and which would be best for her. I wish they had a recommendation like, “If this sounds like you…plan A would be best.” If this sounds like you…plan B would be best, etc. I’m not sure how to juggle the more-meals-in cafeteria vs. more-food-bucks equations.</p>
<p>She’s a light eater, prefers healthy foods and snacks, will probably need the periodic yogurt-and-a-bagel on the run between class and rehearsal, etc. But she does like civilized sit-down meals, too…not a person who enjoys eating on the run too often (though heaven knows, we’ve had to do a ton of Panera salads in the car during HS).</p>
<p>She also plans to come home 1-2 weekends per month, at least the first few months. So that’s a fair number of Friday dinner through Sunday dinner meals that I don’t need to pay for.</p>
<p>Sigh…any thoughts? Those of you with older kids…if we really aren’t sure, which side is it better to err on?</p>
<p>Pepper, huge congrats to your son AND TO YOU!!!</p>
<p>…and kinderny still hates that school.</p>
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<p>Too funny, Classof2015!</p>
<p>Do you think we’ll have any Frosh-zillas in a few months???</p>
<p>Emmy Bet, when I met ShawWife’s parents, well before we were married, they had four children ranging from one in HS to one in grad school in biology, one in art school, and one married to a medical student. Her father informed each kid that he’d rented a condo in Maui for three weeks over Christmas vacation and gave each kid a ticket. He said, “Bring a friend, boy/girlfriend, spouse. I won’t worry about sleeping arrangements. They just have to pay their way and I’ll cover all on the ground expenses.” Instead of staying in a tenement in RI or going up to a family vacation house, ShawWife invited me and we had wonderful time. The next year, they did the same with a bike trip in China. What happened was that in the years that the kids would likely have spent vacations on their own, the parents’ exotic trips brought them all together. Ingenious, as far as I was concerned. And I decided to replicate it. [Of course, I had to get married and have kids first, but I plan ahead].</p>
<p>We decided to take our kids on interesting trips each year rather than buy an expensive vacation house. The kids love to travel and love to travel with us. When I said, we’re taking a spring break trip to Greece, both kids dropped other plans to go with us. They say some of their best times are traveling and their looking forward to whatever trip I pull out of the hat for next year. [Trips have included England, Scotland, France, Italy (more than once), Japan, Hong Kong, Bali, Australia (more than once), western Canada for skiing and hiking (many times), Costa Rica, Nicaragua, Mexico (many times) and with one kid Austria, Hungary, Finland, Russia, … .] I’m hoping to continue this with them as they become adults and have kids [ShawWife’s parents bought a house a block from the beach in a beautiful area of Florida just when their kids were having kids. Perfect as well]. </p>
<p>So far, it is working well. The kids love to travel and love to travel with us. They feel very grateful for the opportunity. They get along very well with each other and I’m glad they want to go with us.</p>
<p>Pepper - so happy your son is done</p>
<p>MOSB - your eating plan sounds like way more fun than mine. I really miss pasta. Warm, buttery bread too.</p>
<p>Shawdad - do you want to adopt me? Pleez.</p>
<p>DS’s tutoring business is starting to get busy. He is also applying fora job in a local Office Depot. They have 5 openings! Hope he get it.</p>
<p>If any of your kids are going to be flying a lot on JetBlue, you might want to check out the JetBlue Amex card. We just got one.</p>
<p>FlMathMom, sure. I have a number of honorary adoptees in Class of 2013 thread as well.</p>
<p>MOSB: I would recommend choosing the plan with the fewest meals and most dining dollars. That will give your D the most flexibility. At most schools, you lose the meals left at the end of the semester, but you can always use the dollars to buy extra meals if you need them. Those dining hall meals get pretty boring after a while. </p>
<p>Flmathmom: Congrats to your son on his success finding tutoring clients. Can he send some of his drive my D’s way?</p>
<p>Strawbridge: We’ve made family travel a priority also, but on a smaller scale. Your trips sound wonderful. I have found that my daughters are still happy to travel with us as long as we plan interesting trips. They both also love our annual week at the beach with my sister’s family.</p>
<p>I think someone has already suggested this. I just applied for a credit card that gives me points on Southwest Airlines, which is the airline D is most likely to use to go to and from her school. We charge everything we can and pay it off every month. Might as well start earning some free flights.</p>
<p>missypie, we keep getting that card offer, but I’ll be darned if I’m going to pay an annual fee for a credit card. I should call them up and see if they’ll waive the fee.</p>
<p>Missypie, we’re doing the same thing with the Southwest card. Southwest is great for college students, because you can rebook flights without a penalty. You get a credit that’s good for a year. I find that my D1’s plans have a tendency to change…</p>
<p>FlMM, Yeah, I think I like my plan better than yours, too. :)</p>
<p>But I have to say…the bread may be warm but it’s definitely not buttery, and it’s definitely not refined…we’re enjoying wonderful multi-grain/seed breads. I just love pasta/bread too much to give them up. We are really into the healthier varieties of pasta, too (whole grain, spinach, etc). They have a more distinctive flavor and really increase the deliciousness of these “concoctions” I make with the chicken and vegetables.</p>
<p>Momjr, thanks so much for the input. Dumb question: can you actually use the dining bucks in the cafeteria, or only at the campus “grills,” coffee-shops, whatever? Also…can you use cash at the cafeteria and/or other places…in case you went with the “lesser” plan and find you run out of meals/bucks before the end of semester? (I’m assuming they don’t let you starve?) :)</p>
<p>Slithey, I’ve been saying “No” to Amex since they first began courting me in 1979 (and they are a most persistent suitor). I just won’t pay a fee for a card. Ever. Period.</p>
<p>My other cards give me great deals, point-earning, flexibility, etc.</p>
<p>Let me know if they waive the fee. (I promise I won’t say you told me.) :)</p>
<p>MOSB: The dining policies vary by school. You can probably find the dining bucks policy on your D’s school’s website. You may be able to add meals, or change plans during the semester. I have found that most girls use all their dining dollars, but usually have meals left over at the end of the semester. </p>
<p>We refuse to pay for credit cards also.</p>
<p>I just saw a segment on some financial show about those airline credit cards. “They” said it was worth the annual fee if you travel a few times each year and can easily offset the fee with the free checked bags perk.</p>
<p>Bags fly free on Southwest. So you’re not offsetting the annual fee with the baggage fee savings.</p>
<p>
pick me, pick me!!! I never whine and I promise I won’t ever ask “are we there yet?”</p>
<p>I may look into the airline credit card thing, only a few airlines going from Boston to Milwaukee, it may be worth it for the 5 trips S makes a year. Poor S is 6’3"
and watching that poor kid trying to squeeze into a seat was painful. I plan to tell H we need to get him an exit row seat every time even if it cost extra.
'</p>
<p>Flmathmom- good for your S!! I am in my 50’s and have trouble charging for tutoring, etc. Tell your S mamom is proud of him.</p>
<p>The JetBlue Amex card seems like a good deal. I usually don’t pay for a cc (this one is $40) and only use the cash back ones. I couldn’t resist the deal. If you sign up on the phone you get 20,000 points pretty much right away (10,000 if you sign-up online). This will pay for DS’s Thanksgiving flight (>$600) plus one more one-way ticket. You get lots of points pretty easily and bonus points, blah blah. I’ll try it for a year and see. Amex won’t give DS a card as a primary b/c he has too little income; however, he gets a free supplementary card with his own number. Amex starts building a credit file on him since he is over 18. I can also put a spend limit on his card.</p>
<p>FiMathMom - thanks for the Jet Blue Card info - I have been thinking about getting one because we fly JetBlue whenever possible. </p>
<p>D1 got her housing assignment yesterday and got exactly what she wanted in terms of LLC and dorm. I hope that this is a good sign…she had met/selected her roomate about a month ago on Facebook so she knows that her roomate has similar ideas about cleanliness, studying, partying, and guests. Her roomate is also in a very demanding major so at a minimum they will both have to study like crazy and have that in common.</p>
<p>We are leaving on vacation tomorrow for a week - I can’t wait to unwind. DH is unable to go with us because he recently started a new job and couldn’t get the time off. So it will be just me and two teen girls. It feels strange to go without him but I think it will be nice to have an all girls vacation. I think he secretly relieved to have a week without any crazy hormones in the house. He is off on two golf weekends while we are gone - one to the US Open and one locally with friends so I am not feeling too bad for him.</p>
<p>We are going to NYC for the weekend and then we are off on a cruise to Bermuda. We have been to NYC a few times over the past several years so we have done all the touristy stuff. I asked each girl to put together a list of what they wanted to do in NYC and the number 1 thing on their list was to go see the 5 floor Forever 21 in Times Square that is open until 2:00AM! Followed by a visit to Dillons, the candy store owned by Ralph Lauren’s daughter. And then a visit to the Met. So, I am very excited to take a break. We were originally were going to drive but I found cheap Jet Blue tickets and it is going to end up costing less to fly than drive! Love Jet Blue.</p>
<p>BTW - if anyone is looking for a vacation deal, there are plenty of last minute really good cruise deals right now.</p>