I think we need a revised map showing @felicita 's son starting in CA moving to CT and then back to CA. Congrats to you for maintaining your sanity. Epic week for your family.
@critter, I’m an east coaster who lived with so much rain over the course of my life that I thought I’d always hate it. Now, having lived on the west coast through this drought, I found myself smiling as I hiked through the hills in some rare May rain. I do appreciate it! I still say that those years from 94-97 were brutal. I remember well the mudslides and floods and impassable roads. No one was running around in shorts during those winters. 
@ That’s hilarious! Then we could have the map’s sub level where all of the options our kids ended up with would be shown! I think just a map of the schools my d consider, applied to, auditioned at, got accepted to, etc would be a handful to set up. 
So has anyone started dorm shopping? I did a lot through overstock with S1, but I’m thinking that Bed, Bath and Beyond might be the thing to do this time around because we can just pick it up when S gets to school. Has anyone used that service??
Hey, folks probably already have their party announcements well in hand, but if you’re as cheap as I am and also like things easy, you can make up nice announcements at snapfish. At the very bottom of their pages under “print at home” you can click a link for cards, and there you’ll find quite a few very nice templates for graduation cards. I pop in DS’s photo and the pertinent information, save it as a pdf, then convert to the size I want as a jpeg and print them at my usual photo place for 13 cents apiece. Not heavy cardstock but my teeny-tiny budget’s very happy .
Felicita, haven’t tried the BBB thing but a lot of cc posters rec it.
Also, BBB will take their coupons even pas the date.
@Felicita, Wow! Wonderful to hear how understanding the admissions offices were. “…just calming down and thinking about what you are gaining and not what you are losing when considering two incredible options really helped”. That rings true here too. D had a very hard time making a decision, not because she didn’t like her pick but because of the schools she had to say no to. And sometimes it is hard to find that calm in the midst of the April craziness. She has really tried to focus on all the good things about her pick since the 1st and I think that is a very mature attitude. One I could learn from!
@Helimom74, my older D did that too and we really enjoyed it. I hope it is a good memory for her too! Younger D’s school is much farther away but she is closer to my parents so maybe they will get to entertain some kids. As I think about I suspect we will meet my daughter there for shorter breaks which we will all really enjoy.
@Felicita, we used the BB&B option to buy “here” and pick up “there”. It worked really well. They gave you a chance at the pick-up to put aside anything you didn’t want and, of course, you could always grab a few things you had forgotten about. We got most of her bedding and a comfy lounge folding chair there. We also took d '13 to a local Target or something to pick up a few other items. We hauled our whole family on a mini-vacation en route to her school visiting relatives along the way (at her request). There was no way we would have been able to take half of what she needed in her dorm. For winter stuff, we made some purchases online and had them shipped in time for the arrival of the cold weather. I am super prepared for d’15’s shopping and packing. I obsessed over the college packing lists from just about everywhere 2 years ago and complied our version of the final list from those. The key thing is to make sure your kid knows exactly what they have so they don’t go buy 3 of what you already provided 4 of. 
I think my daughter came back last year with more of some toiletries that she could have needed for the school year.
@scholarme I have a ziploc bag full of their coupons. Another good reason to check it out!
About dorm shopping - I know we need XL Twin sheets, but do we need to get XL comforter too? Is there that much of a difference in length?
No. Does such a thing even exist?
edit: Apparently it does, but no, it is not necessary.
Sure it does, @Skieurope. It’s called a boyfriend or girlfriend 
:))
I buy a queen comforter and then the long sides go down to the floor to cover all the junk that is stored under the bed.
JOSTENS. Stop sending me emails. We’ve purchased the graduation shebang. We are finished with you for this year.
LOL about Jostens, my son wanted a yearbook and finally got one, and the same thing - they keep pummeling him and us with emails to get one, and get more.
One thing that bugged me is that they had “special cap and gown packages” but my son said that previous year graduates said the “special” stuff didn’t have their HS name on it even, just “Class of 2014” or whatever. Huge profit for something you could have gotten in a party store for 5 bucks.
I have one word…UNSUBSCRIBE (Thank goodness our school doesn’t use Jostens anymore!)
DS brought home cap and gown today and I took husband for a bone marrow biopsy. I was not prepared for either.
@Mom24boys My supportive thoughts and prayers are with your family. It must be surreal.
I hope all goes as best as it can mom24boys.
@mom24boys… prayers to all of you. I am sure it feels like you are walking around in a fog.