<p>ST - I love your holiday. Cheers on a very successful and profitable first annual take money from your kids day!!! :)</p>
<p>Hello, everyone! It’s been weeks since I’ve been able to check in due to some goings-on here. I’ve thought about you all and hoped that you and your kids have all made the transition seamlessly and (somewhat) painlessly. Now that I have some time to call my own, I’m going to go back and read all of your posts so I can catch up.</p>
<p>DD2 has been home twice since mid-August and now we won’t see her until she comes home for Christmas. It’s been rough for me but even rougher for her dad, I think. I can tell that he really misses her and he copes with that by sending her the silliest emails. She, of course, gets a big kick out of them and shares them with all of her new friends.</p>
<p>Just to chime in on the hair topic, my hair is thick and wavy with a tendency to frizz. It takes me a couple of hours to wash, blow dry and then flat iron it so I tend to avoid the gym (bad idea). I’ve been thinking seriously about chopping it off and going with something that is easier to deal with but haven’t mustered the courage yet.</p>
<p>Take Money from Your Kids Day is easier with electronic transfer - no teller to give you weird looks! Our savings and checking accounts are all linked and within my control!</p>
<p>You should have seen our Christmas pictures growing up in the 60’s and 70’s - all my siblings are girls, and we all had long straight hair. I did get a few perms through the years; now I am happy to just wash it and let it air dry. I’m too cheap and lazy to color it, plus I refuse to accept the idea that there is something wrong with looking my age.</p>
<p>I skipped parent’s weekend, but a friend whose S is at the same school gave me a good report on my S. He has apparently turned from a kid who spent his high school free time playing video games to one who is never in his room. He has joined a club, plays intramural sports, more humans vs zombies, gone to watch the school’s hockey team, all things he didn’t do before.</p>
<p>Welcome back, Proudmom. Thanks for the update.</p>
<p>Glad to hear that your son’s getting so involved, Mamabear.</p>
<p>Add me to the group with frizzy, wavy hair. I was alway jealous of you girls with long, straight hair.</p>
<p>I think hair changes with age – mine used to be frizz free, now it’s a constant battle. D’s is straight, no frizz. Her secret for diminishing frizz – wash it at night, then DON’T TOUCH IT!!! She said it just like that. So I’d be on the couch at night, watching TV, with wet hair falling in my eyes. I’d reach out to push it back and I’d hear her scream MOM! H and S had no idea what was upsetting her so much.</p>
<p>I have straight, thick(ish) hair which was great in the 70’s, not so great in the 80’s (I did perm for a very short time) and now that it has fined down a bit has some natural wave/body. I wear it in a long bob- just wash and go, unless it is a fancy occasion. I do know I am blessed.</p>
<p>We are all just putting along. D has been talking to H (instead of calling me) which makes him feel less left out. Nothing big going on, but she drops little snippets here and there which encourage me in thinking that she has found her niche and is doing a bit of socializing with various friends/acquaintances. She is muddling through one class that is proving to be very difficult for her (American Bluegrass which is part writing intensive/part arts/ part culture/ part music). The writing (usually the most difficult) is okay, the culture she likes, but the teacher says the bluegrass tradition does not use sheet music so D is finding it very difficult to keep up with the music part. She has never played by ear and has only played the violin for a year. She actually wonders if the same processing issue for her dysgraphia is affecting her ability to follow/remember and play without the music in front of her. The teacher only required a rudimentary ability to get in the class, but her expectations are much higher, especially for the fiddle players. (Other instruments like the guitars and dulcimers are more “fill” I guess). The good part is the D is hanging in there and not getting discouraged. This is one class where we are all glad that there are evaluations rather than a straight grade. Her musical ability would not get her a “high score” in a traditionally graded class, but we are hoping her effort and increasing skill will be recognized. It is great that she got to experiment with a class that she might not do terribly well in, without having too much worry it would hurt her for grad school.</p>
<p>**33 days to Thanksgiving break **</p>
<p>Almost down to just one month!</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>Proudmom–great to hear from you!</p>
<p>Kinder–for requiring only basic music knowleddge, it seems that professor is asking a lot for people to play by ear. I don’t think that is a skill that everyone has–probably more acquired as you play music over the years? I’m not musical so I couldn’t imagine having basic training and be expected to play without music! :eek:</p>
<p>I have the stick-straight very fine hair. Great in the 70’s, permed in the 80’s. Never could get my hair to stay in a ponytail long–it slides right out.</p>
<p>I’m sitting at the airport waiting for a flight to Phoenix! I’m heading “home” to visit my Dad for his 85th birthday. I grew up there, but have only visited since I graduated college. It still feels like home in a lot of ways, even though I’ve lived elsewhere more years than I lived there. I think family/friends/memories make it a great place to visit.</p>
<p>DS took his first midterm in his favorite class and he said it made him feel so competent to be able to do so well on his first midterm. Glad it was first. Hopefully the test high will continue to his other ones next week. I get back on Wednesday and he should be home for fall break by Saturday! Good times for me!</p>
<p>DS2 finally cracked the code on taking his history tests. He has ld issues and tests are the bane of his existance! First two he did poorly on, but this last one he did well. He was so excited. He tries so hard and studies more than most and still doesn’t get the grades to reflect his work sometimes. I’m glad he’s doing better. HS has been an adjustment, but I think he’s finally settling in!</p>
<p>Have a great day!</p>
<p>Proudmom - Welcome back and thanks for the update! Sounds like your DD is doing well! :)</p>
<p>Kinder - I agree, that’s a lot to ask in her music class. So glad she’s enjoying it. It truly makes all the difference!!</p>
<p>VAMom - That’s awesome that DS1 did so well on his midterm! What a great feeling. I would agree that having one you do well on first is always good karma! I am thrilled to hear about DS2. Persistence paid off for him. It is so hard to see our kids struggle when they are working so hard, often harder then other kids. To see that hard work validated for them in a good grade is amazing! Way to go VASon2!!! :D</p>
<p>Catching up on too many pages here to make anything but general comments. Welcome and welcome back to some new or newly returned posters. Love hearing about everyone’s ebb and flo of adjusting to college and for those with younger kids, to new classes or schools. I love this group.</p>
<p>I had waist length straight, slightly frizzy hair til college. I set it every night in huge rollers. How did I sleep? Each year of college it got shorter and shorter until it could get no shorter. Other than a short stint perming it, I’ve had the same short haircut for almost forty years. It is wash and wear, with a once a month cut and quarterly color and highlight. Repeat after me…FlMM has beautiful blond highlights with no gray peeping out!!</p>
<p>VAMom2015 Happy Birthday to your Dad enjoy the trip home!
EmilyBee your mom sounds like a hoot!
Kinderny, What a great idea I bet people are still scratching their heads "Wow, Bob really changed…I would invite you too come with me to my next reunion but I would be jealous of your hair…LOL
Highhead, short hair looks great on everyone but me. When I was a kid, my mom unable to deal with the curls gave me a Pixie cut and I felt like a boy, not to mention that people would often mistake my brother and I as twins which led me to assume they thought I was a boy…
Whew didn’t realize there were so many of us curlygirls out there!
Proudmomof 2- A couple of hours!!! Free yourself and embrace your curly hair! I would spend the money and go to a person who specializes in curly hair and go for it. I did it years ago and except for the occasional hairdresser flattening it have never gone back!
Emilybee, Roseanne Rosannadanna hair is tough. My freshman D has very thick, curly hair, with ropes of curls but its so thick it tends to tent. I literally go in with those shedding scissors and thin her hair. Its much better than before, I had to do it because hairdressers are afraid to touch it, we would go in and spend 50 bucks only to come home crying and me going in and cutting out the thickness. As for flattening her hair they tried once at the hairdressers took 2 1/2 hours and was still thick and frizzy…</p>
<p>So on to other topics, last night our county had a marching band expo with all area High Schools performing. My D’s band did really well and played lots of today music, Kanye West, Lady Gaga, Party Rock Anthem etc. Parents in the stands were commenting in the stands about how fun it was and how good they were and what a surprise that was. Her High School (and my Alma mater) is very diverse and in the past has had a bad reputation. It is improving a lot and now is a magnet school for IB. People are putting their kids in from Private Schools now, it still has problems but it has excellent teachers and faculty and it was nice to see them get a bit of praise rather than the normal. OMG, you send your kid there??? The thing is my area is really weird in that we have a lot of haves but also have a population of have nots. The trend in the past 20 years has been for the haves (especially those not originally from the area) to send their kids to private school thus causing a lot of the problems in the school that happened in the past. My friends and I were commenting that because of the improvements more and more people have been sending their kids back here and its gotten better and we were saying that if all the people who sent their kids to private school would just send their kids to our public one we would have one hell of a school. (This is not a comment about sending your kid to public vs. Private just a comment on the dynamics of my particular community) By the way in our county our school’s nickname is Yale or Jail…enough said 
Enjoy the weekend. Tonite is night one of Hubby’s college reunion! </p>
<p>Oh yeah, FLMM has beautiful blond highlights with no grey peeping out!</p>
<p>EAO - You could be describing the IB hs in our county. The hs get’s listed in USNews because of the IB program. However, it is certainly a case of the have’s and have not’s. We have lots of specialty hs’s in the county so it is not terribly extreme, but it is noticeable who has sent their kids for the IB program. The upside is the scores are up so funding is as well…all students benefit so ultimately that is a very good thing! Like your area, the reputation is not as extreme as it used to be. This has been softened I believe by zoning as well. Ten years ago I may have hesitated to send my kids there for the IB program. Now if that’s what they wanted to pursue I wouldn’t have a problem. This could have just as much to do with being an older, more laid back, mother however and realizing that reputations can be overblown, kwim?</p>
<p>Blue Iguana. Our school was also listed in USNews last year in top 200 schools…hmmmm I wonder!
After already sending 3 kids to college I am definitely a more laid back older wiser mom!</p>
<p>My D registered for next quarter’s classes yesterday. She got three of the four classes she wanted. She designed her schedule around the Calc II teacher who is supposed to be the best. She called once and texted once for advice…wanted to know what time to take a certain class. I was glad she asked. One option had her returning from the Loop campus at 4: 45 pm. Even though they are in the same time zone, in January, sunset is at 4:45 pm in Chicago and 5:45 pm in Dallas.</p>
<p>Good morning! Love all the hair stories…still waiting for AvonHSdad to chime in…frizzy or straight in high school? :D, (thanks for being an obviously good sport during these discussions!)</p>
<p>VAmom, have a great trip visiting your dad. I just got back from a 5 day visit to my folks (dad is 84, mom in her late 70’s). It was nice having an extended stay with them (usually I’m just popping in for a weekend). There’s something to be said for a few unstructured days with them to see what their world really consists of. I am worried that my dad is not getting enough ‘talking’ time with people. My mom is pretty social and sees friends for lunch and coffee, etc. But my dad has fewer social contacts and would prefer to read or do solo ‘projects’ like fixing something. I noticed when we were chatting that words are coming less fluidly for him. I think it’s like a muscle he hasn’t been exercising enough, so now I’m brainstorming about what he can do. Obviously I need to chat with him on the phone more often, that’s one thing I can do :).</p>
<p>Anybody else feeling like they’re at crossroads? Just when I’ve launched my kids it feels like I might be needed more by my parents. I guess this is common for people at this point in life.</p>
<p>(fogfog, it sounds like you’re already dealing with this with your mom’s cancer and you still have one at home. Godspeed for her recovery)</p>
<p>Have fun at DH’s reunion EAO!</p>
<p>EAO & BI - DS’s HS has similar dynamic. 20% IB with a very small group coming from private. The IB kids were a mix of many cultures. Since the school is located in a multicultural, mixed raced, lower income, working class neighborhood, the rest of the school mirrored that. Many families from outside the area are afraid to send their kids to this great school b/c they see a sea of unfamiliar races at Open House. Very sad. DS learned so much outside the classroom from his friends, all of whom were different from him.</p>
<p>Yalemom - my parents have definitely replaced my DS as far as effort and energy focus. My mom (80) was not doing well until her recent pacemaker implant. Now she’s good as new. She has energy, is peppy and less gloomy. I guess that is what new batteries will do! Dad (87) can’t get past feeling sorry for himself. Heck, he’s 87! He is annoyed he can’t walk well, his hands shake, he can’t remember things. I have little patience for his whining. I try to get him to focus on what he has and what he can do. I know I should be moe patient. I’ll try. I’m just grateful my DH and I live close enough to help.</p>
<p>Here is my hair saga; I inherited the “bad hair” from my mother and because she hated hers, she hated mine. She couldn’t handle it when I was a toddler so cut it short, short. I am convinced this ruined it forever as before the cut I had real curls. After that, any time I tried to grow it out it was just a kinky, frizzy, mess which I could never grow below my shoulders. My mom use to drag me to get it straightened - which worked only until I washed my hair myself. I don’t have thick hair (each strand is thin) just a massive amount of it. Blowing it dry just made it straight, kinky and frizzy ala RRD. :(</p>
<p>I tried to embrace my curls, did Ouidad one summer, but in the winter it’s impossible as I have so much hair it never dries and walking around with a damp head all winter is quite unpleasant, not to mention what it looked like after hat head. So I went back to the FI. </p>
<p>Like Proud Mom it takes me at least two hours to do my hair from start to finish. it’s a huge PITA but what I’ve discovered is that it is very bad for curly/frizzy/kinky and dry hair to be washed too frequently (my hair actually looks better the longer I go without washing.) I only wash it once a week now because washing it more than that strips what little bit of oil I have out if it. </p>
<p>EAO - she is a hoot and thankfully healthy as a horse. When she gets annoying I try to remind myself and my sister that compared to what a lot of our friends are going through with their parents, we shouldn’t complain. My father is also healthy but he can be cranky and the things he had a hard time with when he was a younger (he’s gadget challenged) he really can’t do anymore, like answer the phone or turn off TV with remote. But he can do the NY Times crossword puzzle every day, in pen, so until he can’t all is good.</p>
<p>Happy Friday all.</p>
<p>Weather is spectacular here. </p>
<p>Had a good morning–gave a tour to a group of college students. Very pleasant and engaged group.
Has been a varied week as I was in two 1st grade classrooms this week and with a women’s group last night…And I will be helping with a large athletic event tom…
Good to be busy and with variety - not boring.</p>
<p>Sent our kiddo a message via FB to remind kiddo to go get a flu shot…hope that happens today. Have no idea how it is being handled at the school, yet figured kiddo would figure it out at the health center. Being flu season, I should think the U would be all too happy to give flu shots. Lets hope I am correct.</p>
<p>I am excited about the prospect of having kiddo home for the holidays.
Has anyone given thought to anything foods or things you will do especially for your returning freshman? Special menu items etc? Ideas?</p>
<p>@fogfog re: food for returning freshman. Before D came home for fall break, I had her send me a list of food she wanted while she was home - things she couldn’t get at school. She wanted chicken tikki masala, cobb salad, banana pancakes, curried chicken salad, homemade bread - an eclectic list! Also a variety of produce: I got several different types of apples and pears, and ripe bananas (the bananas, not being locally sourced, are not served very often and are snatched up right away). She really appreciated not having to stand in line to get her dinner, having good fruit in the refrigerator to snack on, being served her favorite meals and having someone (me) bring her coffee and tea. I really let her set the tone: both what she wanted to do food-wise (we are a very food-focused family) and how she wanted to spend her time (more alone time - she loved the privacy of her own room for a few days - and more time with friends - than I would have anticipated) rather than overscheduling everything myself. It worked out very well, even though we didn’t spend as much one-on-one time as I’d thought we would. Her time at home really flew by, and I know she went back feeling refreshed.</p>
<p>Happy weekend all.</p>
<p>Re: Flu shots. DS told us last weekend that they are available at the health center and he would “think about” getting over there this week. I told him too much thinking is bad for him and just do it!</p>
<p>Like fogfog (I believe), my DS will not be home until the winter break. At the market today I kept looking at his favorite foods and started to get excited about re-stocking the house even though his return is months away. </p>
<p>I am finding the separation harder as time goes on. We will see him at T-giving b/c we are going to him but only for a couple of days. It’s passing by his empty room or not buying his favorite ice cream that catches me from time to time…I need to remember that he’s happy and thriving and that’s all that counts.</p>