<p>Shawbridge - Congratulations!!! Excellent news…</p>
<p>Hugs to everyone that is feeling blue…</p>
<p>My favorite place to buy jeans is Ann Taylor Loft. They cater to old moms. Since I happen to be shorter than most, I don’t have the issue with the length.</p>
<p>Congrats to Shaw D! I hope she loves where she will be going.</p>
<p>congrats to ShawD – what a whirlwind but it sounds exciting!</p>
<p>AvonHSDad: Good to hear that AvonMom has been enjoying her sister’s visit!</p>
<p>Shawbridge: Wow! Congrats to your daughter! I hope she loves her new school!</p>
<p>fog- your volunteer work sounds like it was an enjoyable time. It is always nice to know what you are doing is appreciated. I am with you on the jeans. I like Talbot’s jeans and thank fully they have an outlet near me. </p>
<p>emilybee- glad your head is gone and you have a great new haircut. Congrats on boychilds intership.</p>
<p>Avon- glad Avon Mom is doing well. When you figure out how to get insurance to pay for retail therapy, let me know. My 11yo has a serious addiction.</p>
<p>VAMom - congrats to DS2 for doing well on test. </p>
<p>Kinder - how nice of you to step in and help your D’s friend. You won’t regret it, that girl will always remember your kindness. </p>
<p>Congrats to SHaw D! Hope she loves her new school. </p>
<p>aris- Same here with my S, all his free time spent with friends. Returning Monday. Been home alomst 4 weeks, ate dinner 4 times with us, stayed home maybe 3 nights and hasn’t made any of 11yo D’s bball games. I am insisting he make her game Sunday. If he wants to ignore H & I that is one thing, but he needs to let lil sis he is intersted in her. In his favor he has picked up my Father several times which has saved me several hours of driving. </p>
<p>MM- Sounds like your D is off to a great start!</p>
<p>Congrats to ShawD!</p>
<p>Sounds like everyone’s starting 2012 with purpose and a positive outlook, good job!</p>
<p>Regarding jeans, here’s one more tip: When you DO find some that work for you (and you will, eventually) buy two or three pair. With any luck you won’t have to go through the brain damage of jeans shopping for many years to come! Anytime I find a pair of casual pants that fit great and look good, I automatically buy two pair and stick one up in my closet, I have a nice stash up there now! :)</p>
<p>^speaking of jeans, we are off with S’14 to New Haven to see the British museum and eat at Mory’s. Good thing I checked their website – no jeans. So much for what I was going to wear…</p>
<p>Congrats to ShawD for the superquick transfer app process to the nursing program. My older D went back after graduation and 5 years in retail and enrolled in a post graduate nursing program. She now wishes she had made the decision years ago. Your D will be very happy with her decision and all of the options available to her in her nursing career.</p>
<p>In looking back, I wish we could have condensed the entire college app process into one week just to get it over with!</p>
<p>vegetarian chili is in the crockpot, oyster crackers on the counter, lemonade in the fridge, come on over and help yourself!</p>
<p>D leaves tomorrow to go back to school. It will be nice to get back to our new normal.</p>
<p>Congrats to ShawD for nursing school acceptance. I think it is really good that she decided so early to change. It makes it much easier than a later change.</p>
<p>Morning all! I hope you are all enjoying a 3-day weekend, as I am!</p>
<p>We had a nice surprise on Friday night; older DD and her BF were driving through Columbus (on their way back from a grad school interview up north). They had planned to drive through and go back to school but the roads were bad and the drivers were worse! They decided to stay the night here so we had a nice opportunity to catch up on a lot of topics… grad school decisions (for her), law school admissions (for him), how their classes are going this quarter, etc. It was great to get some details - we are both so busy that we tend to communicate in very short texts these days.</p>
<p>Today is closet-cleaning day for me - going to tackle my walk-in and fill up a few bags to donate. I’ve been working my way through the house ,cleaning out closets and cabinets and this will be the last big one. Now that my girls are gone and I really control the level of clutter in the house, I find that my tolerance for it is significantly diminished!</p>
<p>It has been tough keeping up with all of your lives this week. How do you working people do it? I took an AARP tax class this week so I can volunteer doing tax returns this season. I’m still recuperating. My inbox and to do list overflows. Sounds like most families had a good vacation with their kids and most of their kids are back at school. Mine is home for another eight days. Summer job search and spring break activity are this week’s activity plus a haircut. Me - rest.</p>
<p>Haven’t heard from S2 since he hit campus on Monday. He has a full bank account since I deposited money for books, so I don’t expect I’ll hear from him for awhile. With weekly requests for deposits last semester I received a lot more extra information. I really hope he’s going to do well this semester.</p>
<p>Dropped S1 at the airport last night for his UK transfer. Discovered he didn’t file taxes in 2010, lost his Amex card a few weeks ago & finds the mail offensive, so he really doesn’t pick it up all that often. He’s got so many issues so don’t know where to start. He said his New Year’s resolution was to actually respond to email. He’s not doing too well with that. His mail will start coming to XH’s which he wasn’t happy about, but he had to forward it somewhere. His dad will then help him to clean up some of the mess. We were all for letting him grow up & figure it out, but it doesn’t seem to be working that well. His has always had serious EF issues but not sure what you do about that for an adult. He already takes adderral, social anxiety meds & probably should be on something for depression.
I feel kind of guilty that I was wrapped up with S2 for the last couple of years.</p>
<p>ldinct ~ don’t feel guilty! We all have areas of weakness and EF is your son’s. He (with support from other adults in his life) will need to come up with a system to deal with it. If the current system is not working, then go on to plan B.</p>
<p>I saw something on facebook several weeks ago, it goes something like “When plan A doesn’t work is when I remember that another 25 letters were made for a reason.” Maybe your son will need 26 plans before he finds one that works and that is OK. Maybe he needs a secretary or a buddy to help him out and he can help them out in something he is strong in and they are weaker in. A neutral party, like a counselor or doctor, may be able to suggest things a parent/family member can’t.</p>
<p>Good luck with it and keep us posted as you are able.</p>
<p>Idinct - I agree with bajamm. Although my S is only a freshman, he already started in on his own pile of troubles. He is on academic probation which he wouldn’t believe til he got the official letter from his school yesterday. He has troubles with money, etc. He isn’t an axe killer though 
and we still love him. Hit one issue at a time and maybe weekly skyping sessions will help him stay on top of everything. Use part of of the time like you would a meeting a work: budget, other deliverables, etc. Then move onto fun stuff. Seeing as he is going to be overseas maybe this isn’t a good time to try and find a therapist who can help him on a regular basis with the EFD? </p>
<p>FLMathMom- How nice of you to volunteer and help out with seniors tax returns. Our accountant moved to FL a few years ago but still does out taxes. We originally hired her when H owned a business, and could probably do our own, but it iss one less stressfull thing for H & I to do together. </p>
<p>proudmom - glad you had a nice night reconnecting with D.</p>
<p>I don’t want anyone to take this as a personal criticism but I often wonder if trying to “correct” or “manage” behavioral issues, like EF just to mention one, is really in the best interest of a child/adult? I liken it to forcing a square peg into a round hole and I wonder if by doing that something inherent in a person’s personality may be lost and that something might actually be the one thing that separates that person from the pack and makes them special. Some of the most brilliant people I know, who have gone on to do amazing things in their careers and life, couldn’t find their way out of a paper bag. </p>
<p>Tomorrow I’ll be starting to polyurethane the woodwork in the basement. We had it finished when boychild was in 7th grade but never got around to taking care of the woodwork. DH is going to fill holes with wood filler while watching the Giants game this afternoon so it will be ready for me tomorrow. I can stain and watch the Oz Open at the same time.</p>
<p>Thanks for the words of encouragement. My heart breaks for him, which is pretty much been the situation for most of his life. Although it took him forever to get, he has been at the same job since he graduated & has been promoted a couple of times. They have told him he isn’t “management material” though which kind of upsets him. I can’t imagine what it has been like to be his work manager, but perhaps they have several genius IQ/real world below average people in their analysis groups so they know how to handle it.</p>
<p>He will be living in a hotel for awhile, so at least someone will be cleaning up after him and he can have his laundry/dry cleaning done if he can remember to leave it for the housekeeper. So we are hopeful it will go well. I think he has to come back to the US once per month or so for tax reasons??? so we will lobby to pick him up at the airport a few times.</p>
<p>One of the big problems is he won’t skype, won’t call, & mostly won’t return emails. So our ability to help him is infrequent. We have talked about getting him some kind of personal assistant/financial mgr. I understand you can hire them online for like $5 per hour, but I would be reluctant to give anyone control of his accounts.</p>
<p>Ah well, onward & upward.</p>
<p>Hugs IDinCT. My younger kiddo has EF challenges and right now hs is a challenge. I wonder what plan/options kiddo2 needs to be successful. This is a kid who loves technology AND will put off “unpreferred” tasks to the night before they are due–often slopping together something that garners a poor grade. IDK what to do. I see challenges like you are describing in our future.</p>
<p>Kiddo1 skyped from the U. First time we got much info in about 10 days. Happy with classes except the language class is too large so another section will be opened. That will likely be the only change.
Kiddo emailed the prof about the final exam from last term This was the class in which the mid terms were routinely graded incorrectly and on avg kiddo got 10 pts added back. So kiddo wants to see the exam. Still waiting to hear from prof. I pray that the prof is responsive.
Books are in route. Kiddo has a big problem set due this week and yet the book has not arrived. Hopefully can track down a copy of the book to get the P set done in time. I think the librarey should have it…
Team things are going well. A Big surprise was that one athlete didn’t come back because of academic problems. </p>
<p>The weather is COLD. Glad we bought kiddo some nice smartwool socks etc.</p>
<p>What is EF?</p>
<p>EF=executive function, like using a calendar/planner, organizing and paying attention to mail/email, daily living and working organizational stuff.</p>