<p>whenwhen- How thoughtful of you. Ditto all of the previous suggestions. Your parents will appreciate any item that you choose.</p>
<p>Congratulations, BarnardMom! </p>
<p>Update: D finishes exams Friday. Looking forward to having her home for break.</p>
<p>Only one more day and 3 more finals until S flies home. </p>
<p>He’s very excited to see the snow that we’ve been getting. I’m really looking forward to having him home. Its hard to get excited about preparing for Christmas without kids around. We finally got our Christmas tree last night and might get it decorated before he arrives. </p>
<p>Good luck on finals and safe travels to the class of 2016!</p>
<p>Glad to hear it Lakemom! S feels the same way. </p>
<p>Creekland - I love that you add an ornament every year that symbolizes something big/good that happened that year! I think I’ll ask my guys to get an ornament at the bookstore to give H (seems a little classier than directly asking them to get it for me!)</p>
<p>@whenwhen - wearing sweatpants from DD’s college as I type this. Love gifts from the college bookstore.</p>
<p>D1 arrived home at midnight last night. My nocturnal college student thought nothing of starting the drive home late at night. I did manage to stay awake until she drove in. D2 is stuck at school for another week yet. </p>
<p>Congratulations Barnardsmom on the new job. I am contemplating going back to the corporate side after years of consulting from home. It might be just the right change for the empty nest.</p>
<p>Lakemom - glad your guy loves it there. Mine feels the same way.</p>
<p>PN - we started the ornament thing when hubby and I got married. Each year we get to reminisce all sorts of things - buying a house, travels, having the boys, etc. Sometimes we even sit in front of the tree in our nostalgic world. I love it.</p>
<p>Speaking of new things to come… I really think I’m going to move on when youngest starts college. I’m not quite sure what I’ll be moving on to specifically, but the thought in general intrigues me. We’ll see how the economy goes and other such “details.”</p>
<p>Creekland, sounds like you should join this forum then in Parent Cafe.</p>
<p><a href=“http://talk.collegeconfidential.com/parent-cafe/1378788-buying-next-house.html[/url]”>http://talk.collegeconfidential.com/parent-cafe/1378788-buying-next-house.html</a></p>
<p>They were talking about dishwashers so I joined in though we are not moving again anytime soon.</p>
<p>I’ll have to look at that thread. I honestly don’t get to the Cafe often due to time constraints. At the moment, I’m “covering” a Health class in school… (no sub for the regular teacher). Fortunately, they are just doing a test, so there’s very little for me to do aside from monitoring - hence - checking out some forums. However, in 20 minutes or so, I should actually get back to work… ;)</p>
<p>ETA: House flipping? I don’t think that’s for us. We’re thinking more along the lines of heading overseas and putting hubby’s Civil Engineering to work on water projects in un or underdeveloped countries. I’d just have to figure out where I fit in - perhaps teaching in local schools? (Language might be a barrier.) We’re also not sure if we can finance that or would need to stay stateside for a bit while the boys are in college, then, perhaps, med school for middle. If we stay stateside - we might travel in a small RV… while working. Again, he can do this easily (internet), but I’d need to come up with something… Internet tutoring might work or ??? I have a year and a half to ponder - then the real estate market needs to return enough to sell our farm for what it’s worth.</p>
<p>Congrats Barnardmom! Creekland…Ihave similar thoughts.</p>
<p>Picking up S at school in just over an hour :D</p>
<p>good morning everyone! It has literally been months since I’ve posted on this thread, but I have finally caught up. I have read it all, just took me a while to get to the end.</p>
<p>D had her first final yesterday, and her last one will be on Monday, coming home Tuesday. She had a paper also and one final she did not have to take. I think the semester went well, but I am very much looking forward to having her home and talking with her, we haven’t seen her since we dropped her off mid-August!</p>
<p>Glad to hear of others finishing up finals and making it home. Safe travels to all.</p>
<p>(ps feel free to rep me if you are looking for something to do with your rep. I have been repping the low squared people as I’ve read through the thread. Even though I think it is silly)</p>
<p>Finals started today at my son’s school. They run until the 19th and of course, he has his last one that afternoon. I am wishing him a quiet “good luck” but will not even try to check in with him until the weekend. I truly cannot handle the pretest stress, even vicariously. The rest of our family is heading north to Orlando tomorrow for my DD2, college graduation from the University of Central Florida. She is graduating with a B.S. in Health Science and is applying to Pharmacy schools (4 years/doctor of pharmacy) for the Fall '13. She is just getting all her final applications done so no word yet and we may not know for sure, since it is rolling admissions and there could be waitlists that do move, until June or July! I am keeping my fingers crossed for her.</p>
<p>Congrats 2016BarnardMom!</p>
<p>Welcome whenhen, I saw you posting over on the Emory board. I saw that you attend Oxford at Emory. What do you think of it? My son is a freshman at Emory.</p>
<p>
</p>
<p>Haha how do I describe love in just a few paragraphs? Well here’s my attempt:</p>
<p>When I toured colleges, I liked both LACs and big state schools, but felt that I would grow out of a LAC in a couple of years (much as my mom did with her small research university), and thought I’d be overwhelmed with the large intro lecture classes of a big school. So when it came time to decide, I realized that Oxford/ Emory solved those two issues, and sent in my deposit.</p>
<p>Personally I love Oxford, because it gives two completely different college experiences without the hassle of transferring and loosing core friend groups. I get to go to a small rural LAC (although it’s only 40 minutes from Atlanta), and then two years later, go to a major research university in one of the largest cities in the South. </p>
<p>Even with only 940 students, Oxford College offers an unexpected amount of opportunities. Though I’ve only been here for less than four months, I’ve helped organize a Channuka party with the Jewish Student Union, become treasurer of one of the oldest clubs in the South, worked as the mascot, and joined the intramural ultimate frisbee club. I could go on and on about its gorgeous location, the fantastic community, and my caring professors, but since I have finals next week, I figure I should stop procrastinating and get back to work.</p>
<p>~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
TL;DR:
I love Oxford</p>
<p>I’m ont he road today, too. On my way to pickup D and bring her home for Christmas. Right now I’m pit-stopped at In-n-Out at Kettleman City. Protein style burger and well-done fries. Wheeee!</p>
<p>Wheee mihcal!!</p>
<p>S is home. We ate lunch then he went out to meet friends, came back home for a bit then headed to work (his summer restaurant job gave him some shifts over break). Things feel different, in a nice way.</p>
<p>I did tell him I’m sure he’s quite used to doing whatever he wants without answering to anyone but I’d appreciate it if he’d let me know if he’ll be staying at the house on any given night or not. I didn’t include a curfew request. We’ll see how this 3 weeks goes…</p>
<p>While I was thrilled to see D get home Tues. night was not prepared for the 6 loads of laundry she brought home with her… 
She said she was just to swamped to do it the last couple of weeks. I get it just was a little surprised. Just finished doing them today as I was out all day yesterday. </p>
<p>I wish safe travels to all those yet to get home… It will be great when all of our 2016 kids are home for the holidays!</p>
<p>rushedmom et al: I had to LOL at your 6 bags of laundry!</p>
<p>Here’s a tip from a parent of 3, including a college freshman - They all bring their laundry home! Itr’s a race to see who gets here first, cuz they get first dibs on washer and drier.
So, that’s a good thing.</p>
<p>Their Mom and me have only talked - so far - about adding the coin slots…</p>
<p>Congrats to all looking forward to seeing the kids that get to go home for the holidays.
We get to pick up ours tomorrow after last final - out at 5:00. Traffic will be bad - but worth it.</p>
<p>Congrats BarnardMOM!! Wonderful news! I am envious of all of you with freshmen already home or arriving this weekend - we have another week to wait :(</p>
<p>The first thing my freshman did upon arriving home was head to In 'N Out at LAX.</p>
<p>@nugraddad… hmm coin slots might be a good idea. I have to say when D came back from visiting friends this afternoon she brought me Starbucks for doing her laundry. A nice surprise… Hope your trip doesn’t take too long.</p>