<p>S started working Monday for 2 weeks before he goes back to school on the 16th. Same place he worked last summer. He is in the maintenance dept at a large apt complex. Today he was helping to break up and get rid of a concrete pad, yesterday he was digging dead bushes out of the ground in the cold. He is exhausted when he comes home but still insists on going out with friends. Friends who aren’t working FT and get to sleep late in the morning. H has allowed S to stay out til 1 weeknights. I wasn’t happy with the late curfew but H is the one waiting up for him. Last night H went to bed before S came home. At 1:06am we got a call from S on the landline. Cordless phone is dead and husband is flying about like a madman trying to find a working phone. He was nervous something had happened. Ends up S “forgot” to get gas before he went over friends and was now having a hard time at 1:00am finding an open gas station and he wanted H to know he would be late. I was furious, because H was really stressed before he finally got to the phone. S should have known gas stations would be few and far between at 1am. In addition, S is fighting a bad cold. So tonight, I told S regardless of what H says I was changing his curfew to 11pm weeknights, weekends were up to H and him to negotiate. He was not happy. Although the phone call set it off, I told him the last thing we needed was for him to be sick, stay out late every night til school starts, do manual labor 40 hours a week and then go back to school exhausted. He did so well last semester, lets start this one off with a bang by being sick and exhausted. </p>
<p>He hasn’t talked/emailed/anything with his advisor about his crummy grades last semester. I think he feels if he doesn’t say anything, no one will notice. I expect him to have to retake at least one course, at least one. I decided to not get books for next semester yet. Even if I can find a bargain. If they don’t let him take some classes because of crap grades in the prereq, I may get stuck with the book if they move onto a newer edition in the fall. He will just have to buy from the bookstore when he gets back sees what he can take. My pocketbook will take a big hit. </p>
<p>No winter inter-session at S’s school. He gets 4 weeks off. If he wasn’t working, it would be about 2 weeks too long. He spends too much money when he has free time. If he stayed home once in a while I wouldn’t mind too much, but he is out pretty much every night with friends. </p>
<p>
ooh, so not fair. In the teens when I left for work this morning. </p>
<p>Shaw - Mexico so not fair! haha. Sounds like you and family are having a lovely time. </p>
<p>Idinct- Hope your H feels better.</p>
<p>HH- I would suggest you get out an walk, but brrrr, it is so cold. Was your D excited to go back?</p>
<p>This is funny, all the things I tell my S not to do: ride in back of pickup, climb on a roof, stick metal in toaster, and last don’t ever let anyone see your room/apt if it is messy!
[College</a> Guys Take Off Shirts & Take On Katy Perry’s Firework - YouTube](<a href=“- YouTube”>- YouTube)</p>
<p>I met with the 5 young ladies from my former Girl Scout troop for dinner tonight. It was so nice to see all of them and to hear stories about college and room mates and life. They had extra money left over from years of selling cookies, and they had to decide what to do with it. They decided to donate half to a troop where all most of the girls live in a residential home/school for emotionally troubled kids and most are wards of the state with no parents. </p>
<p>The other half is going to a ‘brick’ at one of the GS camps that we went to every year as a fundraising effort for the GS council. They had fun trying to figure out what to put on the brick. Ever since they were very little, I used to tell them “If you get hurt doing something stupid, I am not taking you to the hospital.” It was one of the things that they will never forget, and have passed it along to younger troops. They even made me a quilt when they graduated, and the phrase was on the quilt. Due to the size limit of the text on the brick, the whole saying wouldn’t fit. They came up with
“Troop #### Town XYZ
I am not taking you
to the hospital.”</p>
<p>They figured that it may not be PC to put ‘stupid’ on a brick at a Girl Scout camp.</p>
<p>gsmomma, it sounds like you had a fun evening with your girl scouts!</p>
<p>My d has found her self as a sort of a mentor to a young 5 yo girl at church who joined Daisy’s this year. The girl insists on sitting by my d at all church functions and D told me that all of the cookies we buy this year have to be from this young girl.</p>
<p>I am glad my D is sort of paying forward what she received from scouting all the years she was in and helping future generations be and stay interested.</p>
<p>Will be back later. Wanted to say–someone hacked by FB acct this am–from a mobile device in GA. So went through the password changing.
Came here to change this password as well…
and
CC is having database issues–and I can’t get my password changed.
Can’t access my control panel nor do it though my profile.</p>
<p>Really?
Someone’s life must realy be boring if mine is more interesting…haha</p>
<p>DS is now home a little more than two weeks and has almost three weeks to go. Other than socializing with friends (which we are honestly thrilled with), nothing ‘productive’ is getting done. I have a hole in my tongue from biting it. I am getting ready to blow! I was hoping if I left him to handle it himself, he would. Very disappointing.</p>
<p>I just caught up on the postings for the past week and wanted to wish you all a belated Happy New Year. We decided to take advantage of both girl’s long breaks and took a wonderful family beach vacation. It was great to have family time away from the usual distractions. </p>
<p>It’s funny hearing about all the kids who spend most of the day in pj’s. I know that it’s frustrating to see your kids wasting time, but I do think that some kids really need a chance to recharge between semesters.</p>
<p>FLMathMom- What productive things do you want your son to be doing? Maybe after his friends go back to school (assuming they go back sooner than your son), he will have more motivation? </p>
<p>This week, my D started on her 'list of things to do before you go back to school" which included- scholarship applications, thank you notes for gifts, doctor’s appointments- both going and making appointments for Spring break, etc.</p>
<p>I agree that many of the kids need to just relax and recharge. My D has been home for 2 weeks, and goes back next week. This is the longest she has been home since she graduated in June. I admit, I am in no rush to bring her back to school.</p>
<p>Taking DS back to school on Sunday; taking him to his favorite restaurant for dinner Saturday night to say farewell.</p>
<p>He decided to drop one of his winter term classes (Intro to Physics). It looks like a <em>very</em> introductory course, and he contacted the professor and confirmed that it probably would be a repeat of quite a lot of material that he already learned in his HS honors physics class. He’ll have three classes instead of four, and they will be relatively heavy (for him, at least) on the writing side, so it’s probably a good decision. He told DH that he felt that he would not find the class very interesting, and that, as a result, he didn’t think he’d do well in it, and that he wants to take classes that will teach him something he doesn’t already know. I like that! I can see that he’s a little bit uncomfortable with the idea of making the decision, but I’m glad that he took the initiative to do it.</p>
<p>ldinct – love those gloves – I saw a girl on the train wearing them, texting away.</p>
<p>mamom – I actually posted my question on D’s college forum here about challenging/changing a grade, and got some good responses. Apparently, it’s not set in stone – one student got a grade changed 4 months after. The “how” is the question – I would think its some combo of politely presenting info to prof in a respectful manner; asking if they can redo some of the worst assignments; asking how the course was graded/curved. I mean, it can’t hurt. </p>
<p>Yes, it’s freezing here – 12-13 degrees in the am. D will be very glad to be back South. She leaves Tuesday. Went by fast.</p>
<p>Thanks, mamom. I am all better now. It was just the one day of transition. I am mostly in accord with those who are glad to see their students returning to school. It was great to have D home, but for better or worse she ‘cocooned’ (although she did get dressed, unlike my HS S!) and did not get out to see friends much. That meant I was the activities director, and had to navigate between letting her sit around getting frustrated and dragging her out to do things. She said she wanted a break from being an adult for a while, but of course, she only wanted to give up responsibilities, not freedoms. At the same time, she will only be here for 2 days over spring break, so I was happy to have time with her. I had just forgotten how restful it is to have fewer personalities in the house.</p>
<p>So…like many of you I have been frustrated by my DS who has been doing next to nothing since he returned home. No pj issues b/c he sleeps in a t-shirt and shorts - pulls on a pair of jeans and he’s dressed for the day. No, he does not change the shirt. Sigh.
But told us today that he is staying at school for spring break so now I’m sad b/c we won’t see him from Jan until May and he’ll be away most of the summer as well. Another sigh…</p>
<p>Ha ha!! My college graduate is doing that for us right now. My HS graduate … not too likely.</p>
<p>I do agree that my new college kid can really use the rest. She really taxed herself mentally, physically and emotionally last semester. I think she understands what our expectations are, including planning for this summer. She told someone today that she’s realizing that not having anything to do makes her do even less … she’ll learn how to balance her life eventually.</p>
<p>Making dinner would be good Mine does the dishes upon request, so I can’t complain too much. </p>
<p>I have been gently prodding my DS about getting his resume written and starting on the summer job search. That was his plan for the break, but so far I don’t believe it has been begun.</p>
<p>This week while in Mexico, ShawSon did cook dinner for us (once), wrote a proposal for an interdisciplinary major in behavioral economics, revised his resume slightly, applied for a seminar on business leadership that takes place at the end of intersession, and read a book to get ideas for an independent study paper. He still has to work on summer job search. He slept and visited friends the week before.</p>
<p>ShawD didn’t cook but made margaritas for us (a couple of times). She also slept and visited friends the week before. She has needed a bit of prodding but after listening to me call a few nursing schools to find out how she should apply given her situation (is she a first year student or a transfer, is she a US or international, would it make a difference if she stays through the year-end or withdraws and if so how). Some will make it hard for her and others easy. One, which we’ve been told is a good one and is in the Boston area, told her when she called that if she got her application in right away, they would consider her starting in the spring semester. So, she wrote a first draft common app essay tonight (drawing on a couple of things she’d written earlier). Now she probably has to write a supplemental essay explaining why she’s switching. I’m going help her hustle to get it all done and in this week.</p>
<p>We went snorkeling this afternoon in an extraordinary area, a national park on Baja California. Just beautiful. Three or four families total on a vast expanse of beach. [It was a 1+ hour drive from where we are staying and the last 10 km were on a bone-jarring dirt road, which might explain the low population density]</p>
<p>Good Morning all, Loved reading that a lot of your kids have been hanging out in their jammies all day. I was beginning to feel guilty as that has been what my kids have been doing pretty much the whole break-reading books, watching movies and relaxing. They say that is all they want to do. They have been making me take them to the gym everyday which does get us out of the house and they have all had their teeth cleaned etc, but other than that. </p>
<p>Biggest issue with us is that NONE of my kids has a driver’s license. We lived in Europe for 10 years where the age is 18 and very expensive so they did not get one before they left for college we are all in the process of practicing driving…Its a bit tricky as our state requires a 9 month learners permit regardless of age so the kids all got learners in the states they go to school in (Mass and CT) but this means I will need to drive up so that they can take the driver’s test if they ever get ready! Makes it hard for them as we have always lived in an urban area overseas with amazing public transportation. Now we are back here with lousy public transportation and they are dependent upon me to take them anywhere. They also don’t know any kids their age in the area as we just moved here in September. They don’t seemed to bothered by this but it makes me a bit bummed as seeing old friends was always a highlight for me when I came back from college.</p>
<p>So sad D3 leaves on the train Sunday, she says she is not ready to go back yet but she ended up doing great last semester and is excited about the classes she is planning on taking this semester. Think once she gets back into the swing of things she will be fine.</p>
<p>S&H are leaving for NOLA in the am. S hasn’t packed at all, I guess he will have a busy day. Maybe I can work at home in the aft, as he of course is going out tonite.
H needs to get some sleep & not his usual pack all night & get work stuff organized. He is feeling better but not 100% & they have 20 hours of driving ahead.
That said S didn’t bring too much stuff home, so it packing shouldn’t be too bad. I can clean up the debris left in his wake later.</p>
<p>I am heading down to S1’s tomorrow in NJ to help him clean out his apt for his transfer abroad next week. It looks like something out of hoarders, from what I saw over the holidays, serious EF issues. I already told XH that he would be in charge of getting in someone to clean & giving the landlord the keys at the end of the month. I would say the security deposit isn’t getting refunded, I just don’t want him to get sued. The place looks kind of dumpy, but 4 years without any maintenance it’s not going to look great.</p>
Mine does the dishes upon request, so I can’t complain too much. </p>