<p>@staceyneil – I agree with you that true card stock invites have a much better feel to them. You will have to let us know how Wal-Mart on-line works out. The Wal-Mart nearest us is ancient with a difficult parking lot so I avoid setting foot in the store unless absolutely necessary. </p>
<p>More than five weeks until graduation here. I had better do something soon!</p>
<p>@mathmomvt You are correct. It was the appendix. A friend of mine said something similar about hers always texting her before going to the doctor. </p>
<p>My S recovered really quickly from his appendectomy. He was back at school on Monday after a Thursday appendectomy, and was back to all activity (including fencing!) a week later. Hope your D’s recovery is equally quick and uneventful!</p>
<p>@crowlady, where did you order the mugs from (and the banners). I ordered one from Amazon and it was all scratched up. Have to return it. My DD college is not local so I can’t pick it up from any stores around here. </p>
<p>Thanks. Me, too, but district track (only chance to qualify for state in my state) is on Thursday, 4 days after surgery. She can run if she feels up to it, but dr. says she’ll still have some discomfort and doubts she’ll be back up to full speed. The relay team would be going for a time spot since they are in a really competitive district. Even if she runs, I doubt they’ll make it.</p>
<p>D fences, too, but that’s on Mondays and 1 day after surgery? Probably not. I let her stay home from school today and sleep. </p>
<p>There are a handful of teachers who have really gone above and beyond and made a significant difference in the lives of my kids. Since S14 is the youngest, I’m thinking of getting them gift cards and hand writing a thank you note- from me- in appreciation of their dedication. I’m really going to miss some of those people. </p>
<p>@yellowgranite56 Our college campus store is a Barnes and Noble and I went directly to their web page to order the gifts to be shipped to me. Someone else suggested t-shirts which I might have gone for but sizes and styles were too complicated. </p>
<p>@ordinarylives Wow! In that case, emergency room was absolutely essential. Having been extremely healthy so far I expect that my S probably would have to be doubled over in pain before seeking medical advice. @mathmomvt glad your S had a good experience, and I would be pleased if I got texted to help out. Now I’m thinking we should visit the health center on campus during orientation to make sure he’s comfortable going there if necessary. This is a kid who is shy about going to a cash register at an unfamiliar store.</p>
<p>@crowlady at DS11’s school they can sign up for a non-urgent appointment online – this made is much easier for my phone-shy kid to set up an appointment when necessary. I don’t think you’d ever be walking into health services unexpected, and being expected makes it easier for my S to go up to the counter and say who he is etc. I think more than visiting in advance, you’d want to make sure he would be comfortable calling the nurse triage line if needed. In some cases I basically gave him a “script” of what to say when he called at first.</p>
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<p>This is so true!
@ordinarylives, Hope your D is doing better now. I may have dragged my D to ER a few times when she was little only to wait an hour or longer because it wasn’t really a bad situation. I have learnt from it and I think she did too, so she may be one of those who will avoid medical emergency at any cost. </p>
<p>Seems I’m going from one emergency situation to another. I went to visit my mom this weekend, I ended up having to take her to the hospital where she got admitted and still is now. Now we’re in the awful situation of needing to find her a new place asap. D’s graduation is coming up, I don’t even know how or when to plan a party when at any second I may have to go to mom. </p>
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<p>Took the words right out of my mouth, eyemamom! Just got back from the ER with S – I’m tired of people calling me from the game saying “S took a line drive to the (fill in the blank).” This time, his nose. It’s broken; bad cut needed stitches.</p>
<p>The bright spot? His sweet girlfriend (and prom date) stayed with him the whole time. I got a sense of how happy moms are when their sons meet great girls – another person in this world who loves him like I do.</p>
<p>@Eyemamom @classof2015 @ordinarylives So sorry for these troubles! Sending you positive thoughts…</p>
<p>So sorry to all who has some medical issues lately. Hang in there, only few more weeks of HS for our 2014s.</p>
<p>@ordinarylives - Glad your D is recovering nicely. And what a good thing this happened now while she’s still at home.
@Eyemamom - I feel for you. Taking care of aging parents is stressful, especially on top of all of the year end festivities.
@classof2015 - Hopefully your H will realize how his behavior is affecting your child and man up and behave!</p>
<p>I am beside myself since DD received an email yesterday from her school saying her financial aid was in jeopardy because they haven’t received our company taxes. My accountant has known since October that all taxes needed to be completed in a timely manner this year. I call, I email but they are still not finished. Aargh!</p>
<p>Grad party announcements have been mailed. One word of advice: pay attention to the size when ordering on line. Spygirl and I both examined the announcements for spelling, proper photo placement, and party details. But neither one of us caught that the card was a 6 x 8, which turns out is fairly large. Thankfully it was still only one stamp to mail. Nothing like sending out a poster sized invite. That’ll get their attention!</p>
<p>May has been busier than all of junior and senior year combined. It just seems like everything is happening at once. On top of all of the year end stuff, DD’s school gave us parents a project with not very little lead time. I’ve been staying up nights and getting up early to finish by the deadline. It’s a surprise for the senior and it has to be kept secret from other siblings. Not an easy task.</p>
<p>Prom was Saturday and by all accounts it was a success. Spygirl’s BF’s mother hosted 18 kids and their parents for dinner and appetizers. We helped with the prep and some cooking, but it was quite the undertaking and it went off beautifully. A special treat for the kids - one their favorite teachers stopped by with a dessert. Even the weather cooperated. </p>
<p>@Agentninetynine argh! about your accountant not getting the taxes done in a timely manner! Good luck dealing with all that. Too funny about the “huge” invitations, but I’m sure they’re great. :)</p>
<p>On top of all the May of senior year stuff we have going on here, my youngest is having his Bar Mitzvah in under 2 weeks. Busy times here! He’s ready except for his speech – we are in many ways not ready. Luckily my S14 has no interest in a graduation party so we will just have a low-key celebration with the extended family – not much planning required. </p>
<p>I haven’t been on much the last couple of days, but my wishes for a speedy recovery to all with health issues! </p>
<p>On one hand it’s a bummer that our school year ends so late, on another it’s nice not to have everything crammed into May. Like everyone else, DS is finishing up APs this week. Next week is the beginning of playoffs, and senior skip day. Luckily it is scheduled on a day without extracurricular events, so that all can participate without jeopardizing eligibility. Week after that is his presentation of his senior research project and PROM!</p>
<p>Prom seems to be coming together from what he tells me. He and DH got his tux last week, he did a cute but low key asking, photo locations at our golf course have been scouted, the group has a private room reserved at a steak house, the party bus has been rented, and after-prom festivities have been arranged.</p>
<p>Graduation is three weeks after prom so I will have time to get organized for that. Even though we will be a small group, I still need to plan a menu, cook, etc. It also happens that both kids will have a swim meet that morning so I only have a small window on the actual day to get stuff done so pre-planning will be key.</p>
<p>Ordered the graduation cake this morning. DS14 told me yesterday he is done (they still have until Friday for classes) but that other than one teacher he’s watching movies. Of course, that one teacher will have him working after school all week to finish a class project that is turning into a senior project for DS. 3 more days!!!</p>
<p>I’ve been keeping up with the reading but not the posting as life has been really busy lately! I’m so sorry to hear about all the end of year health issues and ER visits. Hope everyone is improving quickly. I can’t even imaging running a week after having an appendix removed but I guess the kids are in better shape that I am!</p>
<p>DD’s high school play was two weekends ago. She had the lead and had a wonderful time! It was a role very suited to her looks, personality and voice and she loved every minute of it - especially greeting the little audience members afterwords in her princess dress!</p>
<p>Last weekend was our theatre groups play so it was nice to see and celebrate with friends and not too crazy for me as I was only in charge of ticket sales. DD helped me in the Box Office on Sunday so I got to spend part of Mother’s Day with her. And DS '11 arrived home in time for Mother’s Day dinner out!</p>
<p>I’ve spent much of every “free” moment of the past week and a half trying to get the yard in order for prom pictures next week! The patio we are having put in is almost done and I’m working on the last batch of mulching - yuk!</p>
<p>May is finishing up so quickly! DD had 4 AP exams last week and her last one yesterday. Today was college t-shirt day so she was excited about that. Last week they decorated their uniforms as they wanted and went to school on Friday in some very silly, creative costumes! Her final spring concert is tonight - band and special chorus. Thursday is the last day of classes for seniors!! It’s also Honors Night where she’ll be acknowledged as co-Val. I’m so happy for her as she’s worked so hard for it. The local Rotary Club invited the top 5 students from area high schools to a special luncheon that day but her school’s seniors don’t want to miss their last day and the opportunity to leave the school all together on the last day from their last class (they are dismissed an hour early and apparently it’s quite LOUD as they leave!). So the Rotary representative is coming to the school to do some sort of presentation. I’m really glad their guidance counselor understood the kids didn’t want to miss a major senior year tradition.</p>
<p>They have Friday off, then finals next week (none for her though due to her AP classes). So most of next week is free for her except for graduation practices and Prom Thursday night. Baccalaureate Mass and graduation are the week after Memorial Day along with Senior Memory night. I’m thinking maybe we’ll try to get some college shopping done if the weather isn’t nice enough for them to go to the beach! And she has leads on two babysitting jobs for the summer so hopefully one of them will work out! I really can’t believe it’s all coming to an end so quickly!</p>
<p>@mathmomvt - I cannot imagine dealing with a bat mitzvah and graduation all in the same month. When our friend’s daughter bat mitvahed (is that a word?) she worked long and hard on her torah readings and speech and it was a very big event. A lot to coordinate, especially with an older sibling graduating. </p>
<p>@novamom - Prom was a fun event for DD and us, but I’m glad that’s one festivity we no longer have to plan and deal with. Sounds as if your son if very organized. Senior skip day was yesterday, but we received an email saying it wasn’t sanctioned by the school. DD had AP testing so she wasn’t planning on showing up anyway.</p>
<p>She had AP tests last week and more this week. She doesn’t graduate until June 7th so they’ll have a couple weeks of in class movies, although her physics teacher gave them a project !</p>
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<p>No. Correct terminology would be “became a Bat Mitzvah”. Or more accurately in the case of many kids “celebrated becoming a Bat Mitzvah” – they actually “become” a Bar or Bat Mitzvah just by reaching the requisite age, without any study or ceremony required. The traditional ceremony is a celebration of their “becoming”. But indeed our son has been doing a lot of studying to chant from the Torah, lead much of the service and deliver a speech (which is still being worked on). That’s all on him. On us is arranging the party, feeding out-of-town relatives the night before and the morning after, and so on… And getting his suit altered amidst a sea of prom dresses.</p>