<p>HS starts at 7:55 am but some kids jigger their schedule to get a “free” first period, so they can sleep in. For some reason, that didn’t work out for S’14. </p>
<p>I wake him up at 7:12 (mom = human alarm clock), he is vertical by 7:15, jumps in the shower (and on the way, he calls out his breakfast order), downstairs and dressed, eating French toast and turkey bacon at 7:35. Some light grooming, then in the car with H for the 3 minute drive to school. It’s like a delicately balanced house of cards.</p>
<p>I used to be up as there was always yelling with four boys up at 5, but now with only Bluedad and Bluejrjr it’s quiet for the most part. I’m enjoying sleeping in again until 7 or so. Like fogson I see it as decadence whereas it used to be an ungodly hour! Perspective is everything in life. That and coffee with spellcheck…oh and good friends, food,… (blueiguana trails off with her list of essentials…)</p>
<p>I always hit consignment shops and vintage shops for evening attire - you can find wonderful designer stuff that you would never even consider buying new, and the shops are full of black dresses. I love those women out there who won’t wear something twice in case someone at a party might have seen it on them before! My favorites are the vintage shops, but it takes a certain attitude to wear some of the clothes. My daughter went to her senior prom this year in a circa 1930 black silk Alencon lace and silk netting evening gown I found thirty years ago or more in a Virginia shop and have worn myself a number of times - she was stunning in it.</p>
<p>Good morning! I decided to finish my coffee before starting to type! Our school district went through great upheaval last spring and pushed through a later start time for the high schools in the area (instead of 7:30 they now start around 8:30-8:45). Everybody was thrilled that the teens would have that extra hour of sleep they need in the morning (S2 who graduated in June called the whole thing patently unfair, haha!). </p>
<p>One interesting side bar though is that despite the later start time, traffic in our metro area is significantly heavier during the later drive time, which means that school buses, teens driving to school and parents driving their kids are all having to leave 20 minutes earlier than they would have to if they were on the road at the earlier time, so the extra sleep time is getting eaten into a bit. Just an interesting unexpected consequence!</p>
<p>owm-what a great story! One of my good friends is still active in her Zeta chapter so I forwarded it her. Do you work for the Capital Journal?</p>
<p>emmybet- Alaska?! That would be very exciting if it worked out, and a beautiful place to do any kind of work!</p>
<p>Blue, I was impressed with that timetable , too! I was going to ask for advice on how to teach my son to travel in negative time so he could get more sleep. Right now, he gets up at 7am (if we’re lucky) to be out of the house at 7:05 (don’t worry, he showers after sports at night) with H, who works near the train station so can drive him there. Otherwise, he would have to be up earlier to walk to the subway and connect to the train to school. I get up at 6:45 to shake people and make the coffee. Some mornings, like today, I want to go back to bed after they leave, but the early morning rushing about always leaves me wide awake.</p>
<p>Hmmm - didn’t think about impact on traffic. Since most elementary school kids go to neighborhood schools and a significant percentage of HS kids go to magnet or special programs in non-neighborhood, there would a significant increase in traffic during rush hour both in the AM and PM for kids staying late. Not good.</p>
<p>Our HS starts a bit after 7 but bus comes around 6:35 which dd2 catches but dd1 doesn’t make more often than not. She is a heavy sleeper - and she’s like a bear in that if you shake her, she’s apt to punch you. What I don’t get is how difficult it is to wake these two - I really think the teen issues (real physical) hit around jr. yr when it’s most critical. They have much more homework so they are up later but then they become these sleep craving zombies that don’t function at 7 am. Maybe it’s by the kid but she’s got it bad.</p>
<p>Dd2 sleep-talks/walks and had an “episode” last night around 12 (and I am very asleep by then). It is kind of funny in hindsight but at the time, she’s carrying on a conversation with you as if it was the middle of the day and you can’t quite figure out whether she’s making sense, maybe she just stayed up late? She was telling me (while walking around her room and gesturing wildly) about how “on tv they had that thing and you know, oh what do you call it? well you know that thing we were looking for and I saw it and thought wow, when is that going to be…” It doesn’t happen that often but then she has no recollection in the morning. </p>
<p>Glad to see you are all up and chipper! OWM - that’s a sweet article you posted.</p>
<p>Had a long chat with ds last night. Finally got his thanksgiving plans squared away but we have to go to Allentown, PA to pick him up. Don’t understand why NJ has no megabus stop. Should have investigated all this before!</p>
<p>I LOVE being able to sleep in now that we’re freebirds! I work afternoons and evenings two days a week (only work 3 days anyway) so if I can manage to sleep through my husbands noisy morning departures, I can sleep as late as I want!</p>
<p>kathie - Try delegating another bath in the house for your DH to get ready. I finally had to do this with Bluedad at one point for his 5am showers when I was ill. It stuck. He now showers downstairs unless it’s a holiday or weekend. It is MUCH quieter in the mornings. No reason on earth for him to wake me up that early.</p>
<p>One other thought for dresses is ebay. You can be amazingly specific about style, color, and so forth. The prices are often so incredibly cheap that you can safely buy several items, and if only one works out you are still ahead of the game. </p>
<p>Realized last week that D1 doesn’t really have a good carry-on, and her T-day flight charges for checked bags. That’d be $50 right there for luggage, so I gave her the go-ahead to buy a bag. I even checked allowable carry-on dimensions for her, and wouldn’t you know it, United only allows 22" bags. :mad: So ironic that airlines like Southwest and JetBlue, which don’t charge for checking baggage, accomodate 24" carry-ons.</p>
<p>No, I work for ZTA. We are thrilled with the attention that this story is getting. It’s been picked up by over 150 newspapers across the country. It may get a little more attention soon, but that’s still in the works. I will let you know next week.</p>
<p>D got her dresses for a cappella at that Black/White store and online at Bluefly. None were cheap, but they should last the four years. </p>
<p>S’15 bus at 6:52, first class at 7:30. The high school entrance is CRAZY if one arrives after about 7:05, so they try to get the buses through before then. He has the regular alarm followed by the mom alarm at 6:05.</p>
<p>All this talk about ZTAs is interesting as that is the sorority my D has joined!</p>
<p>This weekend is parents weekend and while we have opted not to actually participate in parents weekend, we are driving down on Sunday morning at my daughter’s request, for the Sorority Brunch being put on for the parents. It’s at a country club near the school and sounds pretty swanky. Doesn’t come cheap either. We’re leaving our S’14 home and bringing my mother in law instead as she has never seen the school and hasn’t seen my daughter in months. I wonder if they will “speak” at the brunch and fill us in on things to come or if it will simply be a meal. Anyone have any info on this?</p>
<p>One of my favorite things about being an empty nester is not having to wake up at 6:30 to make sure my D’s are up and moving. D2 was pretty pleasant in the morning, but D1 was a bear. Our HS starts at 7:25. Fortunately, we live nearby or the mornings would have been even worse. Both of my D’s love not having early classes in college.</p>
<p>Ooh, more ideas! I’m afraid of eBay, since it’s clear that my judgement is not reliable, but Black Market/White House looks great as does Bluefly! Thanks!! I’ll pass these on.</p>
<p>Sounds like pretty much everybody has an early High School schedule. I was talking with my best friend from High School/Junior High today and she said that’s when we started. Don’t remember it being that early but since we have moved back home and my D4 now attends my old High School I guess it must have been. I survived it (and don’t even remember it so I must not have been too badly scarred) so will she.</p>
<p>The Alarm clock thing really is a tough call. I used to wake my kids up but they generally would roll over and go back to sleep etc. I bought them all real loud obnoxious alarms and put them on the other side of the room so they would actually have to get out of bed to turn them off. Worked like a charm, they didn’t like it but it got them out of bed!</p>
<p>Never heard of BlueFly going to check that out. I need to get something for my husband’s 25 college reunion going on this weekend. A bit late to buy something online but I may get some ideas.</p>
<p>I am a bad mom…I am highly amused that my D is in a little “love triangle”. She has been hanging out with mostly a group of guys since she got to campus in August. She got semi involved with one of them. I think she was frustrated that he insisted they were “just friends” (who would occasionally make out a bit!!). She found herself “falling” for another one of the boys. So she has ended the extracurricular stuff with boy 1 and is now working on a relationship with boy 2 (who apparently is more willing to be public with the relationship, likes to snuggle etc). This is amusing to me because in HS my daughter had one boyfriend for a couple of months senior year and a couple week summer romance at the camp she worked at between junior and senior years.
She told me that she is learning alot about what she wants out of a relationship. She thought she would be okay with a guy who was basically a friend (who she would kiss occasionally), but has found she wants a more “traditional” relationship. Of course the three of them, and others, still hang out, so she is having to work through a lot of awkwardness, because of course boy #1 is beginning to see that he really blew it by being unwilling to commit! It is interesting to watch from the sidelines!</p>
<p>ShawD called today, proud to tell me she got a 100 on the first biology quiz. She’s got a Chem mid-term tonight and then a bio lab due tomorrow, but first good step which I reinforced. [Fantastic. I know that when plan and study, you can nail these tests]. I am proud of my girl, though I know she’s quite bright and capable if she does the requisite work.</p>
<p>I did talk with several more people about nursing. One doctor/acupuncturist who has been on the faculty at one of the Harvard teaching hospitals and strikes me as a very thoughtful astute guy, said, “Great idea. Even if you get a PhD in biology, you then have a long post-doc and then have to hustle every year for research money.” He didn’t think being a hospital nurse (on the ward) was a fulfilling career. But, he thought that “nurses are going to be in increasing demand. With graduate training it could be a great career move.”</p>
<p>I should have asked her about where to get black dresses – she is someone other girls ask to help pick clothes.</p>
<p>Our HS starts at 9:00, elementary starts at 7:45 and middle start at 8:30. Marching band kids have to be at school at 7:00 for practice during season.</p>
<p>S has allergy and has gotten worse especially on Sunday nights after he played paintball all day despite the Zyrtec and bedtime Benadryl. He made an appointment today to see a doctor at health center. I was at all day meeting and got a text from him. I should not be surprised because I know my son. The text said I need your date of birth for the medical form. Good grief!!!</p>
<p>Anyway he got a nasal steroid spray prescription and hope it will help to relieve the symptoms. The doctor told him to continue the Zyrtec and stop the Benadryl. He also suggested applying Vaseline in his nostrils to catch the pollen. Learn something new.</p>
<p>Glad to hear all the parents weekend visits went well. Ours is this week. I am getting requested items together: folding chair, extra crate and pillow, xbox controller Have made reservation for Esthers Follies on Friday night. As many times as weve been to Austin we have never seen it and I am looking forward to it.</p>