<p>**50 days to Thanksgiving break **</p>
<p>(Based on kids touching down at home on the Wednesday before TG. Some kids may get the full week and will land at home sooner.)</p>
<p>Flmathmom - Glad you made it home safe and sound! And blue’s right, just be glad those crying babies weren’t coming home with you!!</p>
<p>Thanks everyone for the encouragement and hugs. Ds is apparently getting his act together (cross your fingers) and is getting a bit of a chilly reception with the 'rents right now - he texted me last night and I think got about 10 words out of me and that’s it. I’d rather not see him for a good long while actually. Thanksgiving seems kind of too soon for me!! And then these “first” holidays without my mom like yesterday’s anniversary are hitting me and my dad. I really just need to get through a few more of these and things will get easier. Add to that stupid teen hijinks…and I have the patience of a gnat.</p>
<p>But today is new day, it might actually stop raining for a whole week which would be absolutely fantastic.</p>
<p>Sending more hugs Amanda (and Pepper’s frying pan :eek: ) ! I think it’s totally fair to let your kids know where they stand when they fall short. Unconditional love =/= unconditional smiling faces. I am a ‘tell me how you really feel’ kinda mom! 
My oldest has heard many a time “I love you, but I sure don’t like you right now and I need space”. There are consequences to actions, both good and bad.</p>
<p>The rain finally stopped here as well. I actually get to do an outdoor shoot today for Sr. portraits for a young lady I am oh, so very fond of. She is streamlining high school to graduate early and move on to CC. For her it is completely the right decision academically and socially. As a technical Jr she hadn’t even thought of Sr. portraits until I asked. I didn’t want her to miss out on all the rites of passage that Sr.'s go through since she’s leaving early. Can’t wait. :)</p>
<p>A little bump in the road for my son. He and his GF of three years broke up over the weekend. She wanted some space. Intellectually I am very happy about that as I think it will make for a better four years for both of them, but my heart is sad for my son. (I toyed with borrowing Pepper’s frying pan for a stealthy smack for said GF) She’s been an intricate part of his life for a long time and they seemed to understand each other very well. He seemed to be okay with it, and as expected, didn’t want to talk about any details. </p>
<p>Thanks for the link to the microsoft intern FLMathMom. As you may remember, my son’s dream is to intern with Microsoft and he now has that Windows 8 version to try out.</p>
<p>Kathie^ In the long run he will be happier to not be “attached”.
If they are meant to be together–then after a few years of growing, exploring, study, meeting different people etc… they will be better selves…
Hugs to you and your ds…hopefully the sting won’t last long.</p>
<p>hahah
</p>
<p>Not me, thats Missypie’s student…</p>
<p>We are an anti-ink/anti-piercing clan in this house…</p>
<p>Had such a laugh about the" thong" vs thing too—because no one here would wear them and even on beaches don’t like that look…
The words “pole dancer” come to mind… though if I had a choice of having a teen choose a thong vs a tatt…I’d be happy with the thong because when they got over it…it wouldn’t be a permanent reminder…</p>
<p>Texted w our student and seems mid-terms this week have gone well–better than one taken at the end of last week. Busy busy and texted “found my groove” with the work load and demands.</p>
<p>Oh, I’m so sorry Kathie! I understand the feelings…both of them. Motherhood is a strange beast. The most gentle-spirited of women can become a homicidal maniac when someone messes with her kids. I can ignore a lot of things, but seriously… Dont. Mess. With. My. Kids. I hope your son adjusts quickly. More difficult then not having her as a GF will be having her as a friend, or at least redefining that friendship. After three years, more then likely she is one of, if not his BF.</p>
<p>Kathie, it was bound to happen and better now than in two years or so. When the break up comes later in their college careers there are regrets over the years wasted when the could have been seeing someone (or several) at their college. </p>
<p>Welcome home, FLMM!</p>
<p>Rain is back after a one day reprieve. 
I should probably go do my marketing.</p>
<p>It’s getting cold up here in the NE. Counting down the 50 days until Thanksgiving. Wish all the kids could be home. DD is only coming for Christmas, too far from SF.</p>
<p>Parents Weekend was kind of a letdown, too soon after school started I think. And we flew down Sat returning Monday- S was too busy Sun too really spend any time& and all the parent events were over. He’s pledging and trying to balance all the time commitments of which there are many? Any other S’s pledging?</p>
<p>“stop raining”- We need that rain here!!! I heard the prediction of drought for the next 9 years in Texas. I have been turning on the soaker hoses (in addition to the sprinkler system) everyday for the last week and half because we have put in some new grass. There are still many yellow spots in our lawn.</p>
<p>Sunny–Wish we could send the rain your way. I’ve lived in AZ and TX and know how dry it can get. We are waterlogged here in VA and I’m with BI in reveling in the sunshine today. Maybe the yard will dry out a bit. We’ve been slogging through it instead of the driveway because we got a new driveway and couldn’t walk on it for several days. Still not driving on it, but at least we can walk on it now and stay out of the mud. </p>
<p>Hugs to all who need it. I think we are headed to the doldrums (“Master & Commander” anyone) now that the newness of college is wearing off and the work is setting in for our kids. Hopefully they will hang in there and come home for Turkey day (or Christmas/Winter break) and relax and recharge.</p>
<p>Oh, oh, oh, VAMOM!! I think it’s here…that big yellow thing!! Do you see it? Is it? Could it possibly be? The mythical sun our friends from the west and south speak of? It’s blinding!! Oh how I have missed you yellow friend…</p>
<p>For those of you who have to go through all of this again, I wanted to let you know about an online class I saw in the Sunday NYT that they are offering from October 10-November 16 entitled “Inside the College Admissions Process” with their national education correspondent.</p>
<p>Amanda - hugs. I know this gloomy rainy weather doesn’t help the moods either!
Blue - that mythical yellow thing did make a brief appearance yesterday afternoon - it’s gone again now. This weather makes me long for a day off, laze around in bed with a good book. Aaah…</p>
<p>D texted me that she got into a frat that she rushed for. Don’t completely understand it - it’s not a typical frat, but a medical frat and they hold lots of seminars and help in finding internships. Sounded good to me 
She needs to pay the dues - so now, she’s wondering about ATMs and how much it costs to use one of them !! Ugh - I told her a long time ago to go try and figure all this out, before she actually needed to use one. But of course, I am only the “mom”! She’s writing for the school newspaper and apparently is also going to be blogging online. I said I was concerned she was taking on too many different things and her response was that she was fine, not overwhelmed. Writing helps her de-stress. We’ll see how this holds out…</p>
<p>SunnDayFun…</p>
<p>I have heard that in some parts of the country, people have to water the foundation of hte house to keep it from shifting…Thats something they did back in the 70s…
Does that happen in TX?</p>
<p>Lots of folks here who don’t water their foundations end up with problems.</p>
<p>fogfog-Yep! That’s what we have to do here. Lay the soaker hoses on the sides of house where the bricks and ground meet and water that area for about one hour. Foundation shift can happen when the grounds are dry and the cost of foundation repairs is so huge that homeowner insurance does not even cover it. We can tell if our house is shifted or not. Cracks on interior drywall and exterior bricks and doors that no longer can be closed, etc are all signs for problem foundations.</p>
<p>We now have water restrictions since Aug that we are only allowed to water the lawn at certain time of day (early morning hours) and two days a week. My H said using soaker hoses does not count and I hope he is right.</p>
<p>Hope sun will shine for the ones who need it and send your rain our way.</p>
<p>Sunnyday - Our biggest concern here are everyone’s septic fields are saturated beyond belief meaning…ahem, it smells like we all have cattle and pigs and all sorts of poo.</p>
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<p>All of us here have already been within the belly of the beast…and lived to tell the tale! :D</p>
<p>^ True that!</p>
<p>We have had water restictions, and dead lawns etc. Lawn services say that because of expenses to replace it, we can water. Frankly with high water bills, I just try to ignore the lawn that no longer exists…should I call it a sand/dirt pit instead?</p>
<p>Reading that they expect draught conditions for Tx and elsewhere for years to come. That will take its toll in so many ways.</p>
<p>I recall a friend telling em about her “swamp” thing on her house–some kind of cooling system with a misting system and fan…I think they lived in Utah and it was in place of an AC system. Cool to hear about how different regions do things…</p>
<p>sunny & fogfog – I think if I lived somewhere like TX I’d be looking into alternatives to grass (xeriscaping). It does seem absurd to keep watering a lawn in those conditions.</p>
<p>SlitheyTove – I agree. I can’t imagine learning anything from a course like that at this point that I haven’t already learned or couldn’t learn here much more easily!</p>
<p>Blue – I did get a glimpse of that mythical yellow thing yesterday. It’s gone again now. </p>
<p>Kathie – so sorry to hear about the breakup, though I agree that in the long run it’s probably a good thing for them</p>
<p>amanda – hope things are on an upswing with your son – I think a lot of kids “need” to mess up a bit at the start when they are on their own, but sounds like he will get it under control before it becomes a big problem</p>