<p>so sorry to hear of Pepper’s loss :(</p>
<p>Hey Pepper so sorry to hear about your father. Dads are such special people in our lives so it is hard. Sending prayers.</p>
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<p>AK - Thanks for the heads up regarding Pepper’s father. Our thoughts and prayers are with her and her family in this time of loss. May she have many happy memories to relive in the coming days, weeks, months and years.</p>
<p>Pepper, so sorry for your loss. I hope you have the comfort of friends and family to help you through this time.</p>
<p>Sorry to hear about your father Pepper. Sending warm thoughts your way during this difficult time.</p>
<p>I came on this thread to say my S finally got a follow-up interview for his required summer job. Of course they are going to fly him to the west coast the first week of classes so he will miss 3 days. He’s been home all January, couldn’t they have done it sooner? At least he should be able to catch up since it is the first week. He needs to find a co-op job for the fall also in order to graduate, but if he get it together he will be able to graduate in December. Right now the focus in on summer. I am hoping if they are going through the trouble of flying him out there they are seriously interested.</p>
<p>Pepper - so sorry for your loss. AK - thanks for mentioning it here.</p>
<p>Pepper, so very sorry for your loss. Hugs.</p>
<p>DS returns to school tomorrow after a rather hectic vacation since we moved from AZ to NC. Move had been planned for later in the winter but a good offer was too hard to pass by. DS says he doesn’t care where we live but we “ruined” some of his (six week!) vacation by moving. I get it. </p>
<p>All that said, he has been struggling with a decision to remain at his intellectually rich but spiritually challenging school or to transfer. After a great deal of though he decided to hedge his bets by applying to a couple of schools that might suit him better without burning any bridges where he is. Was impressed by his mature approach. Hard to see the struggle though; the experience at this school has eroded his self-confidence. He is looking forward to returning though as he finally is taking only what he wants. We’ll see what the next few months bring. Always something :)</p>
<p>Pepper–so sorry for your loss. </p>
<p>Arisamp–I only have DS’s but as far as I can tell they don’t keep in touch anywhere as much as DD’s seem to. I’m lucky to hear from college DS once a week. </p>
<p>Siemom–good luck to your DS on his difficult decision. I hope he lands somewhere where he can regain his self-confidence.</p>
<p>DD’11 just started at The Teachers College at Columbia University. She is living in a dorm built in 1901 and is excited to live in NYC at least for a little while. She will be getting a master’s in Secondary Math Education. For undergrad she was 3.5 hours away from home, but now she is less than an hour driving. She already plans to come back to get more stuff.</p>
<p>Pepper - so sorry for your loss. Sending hugs and support to you and your family.</p>
<p>Mamabear - I hope your son’s interview goes well.</p>
<p>Siemom - Good luck to your son with his return to school and transfer decision.</p>
<p>My D is studying abroad in New Zealand this semester. She was very happy to trade a Boston winter for NZ summer.</p>
<p>momjr, she picked a good winter to be gone!</p>
<p>Pepper - I am so sorry to hear about your loss. Sending healing prayers your way.</p>
<p>Momjr - NZ sounds great right now - the temp here is 5 degrees!</p>
<p>Good luck to Siemom’s son…Avondad - don’t you have a senior this year? Any updates?</p>
<p>D1 is in Rome for the semester loving life. D2 is in the thick of her housing drama for her second year…may the housing god be with her!</p>
<p>I came here to catch up and I was very confused how you knew about my father. Thank you AK. Thank you all for your kind words.</p>
<p>Anyone showing up after all the changes to the board. CC needs to do some work to make this “new” look a “good” look. I hope they are listening to the suggestions, comments, and complaints in the threads on the new format!</p>
<p>Pepper–good to hear from you. Hang in there.</p>
<p>On the HS class of 2014 board, a lot of us are changing our avatars to be our screen name or some symbol representing it. That mitigates the fact that the name is less prominent in the posts now, and saves us from having to look at the CC icon on every post 
So… what can you all come up with? :-/ </p>
<p>Does anyone know how you can view only the posts made on a thread after your last visit? With the old style, there used to be a small arrow next to the thread name that you could click on…</p>
<p>@arisamp
A new box is listed in the thread title that indicates the number of new posts. If you click on the thread title you are taken to the first unread post- I like this feature!</p>
<p>Pepper- so sorry to hear of your loss. I am getting to the age when many of my friends are dealing with aging parents. Sending you a virtual hug and best wishes.</p>
<p>D1 had sticker shock when she saw her electricity bill for January. She has moved to a house that she shares with 2 friends. Almost double than her apartment winter bill! I told her to turn down the hear a degree and to make sure they are not heating an empty house when they are all out. Next month is just going to be as bad!</p>
<p>Ha, I was a grad student when I had that electric bill sticker shock – I actually called the electric company saying I thought something must be wrong with our meter! (It didn’t help that the property manager outright lied to us about what to expect the average monthly electric bill to be, not taking into account the electric heat all winter at all!)</p>
<p>Hi all. My first visit to the board since the makeover - very different! We are experiencing sub-zero temps in the Chicago area, and I get to add to the fun by driving to Minnesota tomorrow morning to pick up D, who has to move out of her dorm room. She will be home for a couple of days before flying out to Costa Rica early Saturday morning for her spring semester abroad. She is quite excited about it, including the added bonus of not having to deal with the rest of the Minnesota winter! The roads will not be great for the 6 plus hour drive each way but unfortunately, there are really no other options than my driving there and back. Her semester will be a total Spanish immersion, living with a host family (or two, depending on where she winds up doing her field research, which may be different from where she starts out). Strange to think that she won’t be home until late May, but the only time I’d see her before than if she didn’t go out of the country would be spring break, and I know it’s not unusual for kids to not come home then. Just still getting used to this!</p>
<p>So some familiar “faces” still here. Nice to see you.</p>
<p>Lo those many months ago when she was preparing to go off to college, D said if we didn’t hear from her every 2 days or so, to call 911 as she was laying in a ditch some where. I took it with a grain of salt, but it was as she forecast. D has maintained many close ties to our community and her long time EC/hobby even though she attends college 90 miles away. She has done well at college and is just finishing up her Div II (her self designed second and third year course of study) in order to do a field study/internship this semester that combines her current interests/studies and her intended grad school program (MSIS/MLIS). We actually might experience that phenomenon known as empty nest after all (not a bad thing!). It is hard to believe that 3 years have gone so fast. (And for those of you that remember, her h.s. that we still hate with all its frustrations/broken promises/failed expectations, developed in her a focus and ability to navigate red tape that has stood her in good stead. ) </p>
<p>Hope your students are doing well and satisfied with that they have made of their college experiences.</p>