@vistajay where’s the “love” button; you nailed it.
My D has a bunch of different away trips planned with different family members, so she’s not going to be around much. I’m starting to become grateful for this because her friends are starting to go a little wild and this just avoids a lot of issues. She’s going on a 2 week trip with grandpa, then a 2 week trip with my sister, then a 2 week trip with my ex, and a 3 week trip with me. I think it will be so nice for her to have that separate time with these family members and I think she’s going to make some wonderful memories. I kind of figure this is the last hurrah for goofing off.
We will be traveling until almost the end of June, then D18 heads to a thespian society meeting in July; move in middle of August. Doesn’t leave a lot of time. I will probably give her some jobs around the house to make some extra spending money and she is going to need to take a flamethrower to the pit of a room she has which I am not sure she has cleaned the entirety of this year. Shoveling the junk out of there will probably take the majority of her free time. Oops - that’s right - I am not supposed to call it “junk”. Shoveling out her special treasures…
S will continue his ongoing chores (grass cutting, brother baby sitting, etc.). He also may work at his brother’s summer camp (hasn’t decided yet). But mainly I want him to rest. Even with a flexible homeschool schedule, he’s been pushing himself with online finals and upcoming AP Calculus. I want him to rest and recuperate until he leaves late August.
Since these days kids get accepted by multiple schools, when they do accept the offer of admissions, does a packet follow or anything besides a “glad to hear it” email? I mean I’m not expecting the marching band to arrive at our door, but when does the information come about dorm preference or assignment? :O)
@rhandco I’m taking my two kids and leaving hubby at home to take DD to college. My son is 28 and flying in from the West. Its only a 7 day trip but I am excited - I too used AAA Triptik, along with Google Maps and TripAdvisor.
My DS and I will do all the driving and we both like to drive so thats a win, DD is along for the ride
AAA is great for finding hotels along the way, TripAdvisor is great for Things to see/Do along the way and Google Maps helps me “see” the big picture and plot out the route. I always pick up the AAA maps/guide books as they come in handy when one has to divert due to weather or road closures although, these days with smart phones, the guides are not the travel Bibles they used to be but the things to know section is always fun.
We are going to drive 650 miles day one to get us from Austin to Memphis. That then gives us two days in Memphis and then a quick jaunt into Huntsville. The way home is still TBD as we are contemplating dropping south to New Orleans <:-P as we won’t have DD with us at that point. Not sure, still looking at options.
I am really looking forward to having my kids all to myself for a solid week! Its a rare thing and I am very thankful son was willing and able to come home to go with me.
@meddy DD’s university posted the date housing assignments come out - DD is part of a chat group for the Honors College and the new date to look towards is 5/14 - Housing assignment day!
@meddy different schools handle it totally differently, so you should probably give someone at the school a call. I contacted the registrar at my D’s school and then double checked with another parent here on CC whose kid is going to the same school because after the Dec acceptance it was crickets until the April notification re accepted students weekend. No deposit, no nothing. For my D’s school I was told the bill will go out in July and that’s when they’ll send the roommate questionnaire. This is so different from what I’ve been reading here about what some other schools require.
@Meddy We received an email, with a link to Orientation and to do lists. My older son had a “checklist” in his SIR account that we clicked off. I get it though, everything feels a bit anticlimactic after the flurry of activity over acceptance.
We’re limping across the HS finish line here. D18 has prom Saturday then housing selection at Bama on Tuesday. AP tests scattered over the next two weeks. Music festival later then graduation at the end of May. Whew!
D18 and two friends in UFE/RRSP are trying to finagle the Bama housing so that they all end up in the same 4 bedroom suite. None of them signed up super early for housing so they’re going to be in the third day of choosing. They’re obviously not going to get their first choice location but hopefully they’ll find a good spot.
My son just registered for his student orientation (3 days in July). I was so happy that he got the dates that work best for us, since I already purchased plane tickets and hotel rooms. Although the tickets can be changed/cancelled, it is a relief to have it all set now. Prom in a week, AP tests, graduation, and then we will hit some beaches/jungles on a family vacation!!
We have survived grad bash, prom, programming competition, award night (2 departmental students of the year… woot!), pneumonia (me. Boo!), grad announcements, vaccines, and finally a contract on a home… just to walk into 6 AP exams, a cold (DS), the craziness of getting ready to move and getting our house on the market… and then the most depressing thing happened… I got my invite to configure my Tesla model 3 that I’ve been waiting on for 2 years… but I can’t do it until we get this house purchased and realistically not until we get our current house sold. Who planned this!? So now I have to just sit and watch as I pass model 3s on my way to work and know I could have my order in… but can’t… for at least another month! it’s torture!
When I read the part about a vacation in @pickledginger 's post, it reminded me of our upcoming summer vacation.
Anyone see that commercial where the Mom walks into her son’s room and he’s painting it solid black, and she says/thinks, “when I said any color I didn’t mean any color!”? Well, after D18 chose the NMF package at Bama, I said something along the lines of, “we’re saving so much college money we can go anywhere for vacation this summer, maybe Asia” (we’ve never been there before). Apparently, D18 jumped on that statement and now we’re going on a whirlwind, two week tour of Thailand, Singapore, and Bali this summer. I distinctly remember saying anywhere, not everywhere!
PS. Actually, I lived in Asia (outside Clark AFB in the Philippines) when I was very young but only for a few years in the late 60s when my father was flying into Vietnam during the war. I only have a handful of visual memories, mostly vague, of that time: water bouncing around in the pool I was swimming in during an earthquake, walking on metal grates in flood waters at school following a typhoon, etc.
Like @droppedit, we have saved significant $$$ as a result of the choice S made, so we have a nice trip planned for July and will stay in a nicer than usual hotel in a few places. Not going out of the country, will save that for when S goes to study abroad next summer. I’ve just about got the itinerary worked out for July though, and it turns out we are going to be passing by a few T30 colleges that were on his list but ended up not applying to. For some odd reason, he has indicated that he has NO interest in going on any more college tours or college visits this summer! I would be happy to see a couple more colleges just for the fun of it. Is it me? Do I need a new hobby?
@droppedit, your upcoming trip to Thailand, Bali, Singapore… sounds awesome. And if your dad is still with us, thank him for his service.
@NamePoster, a close friend is about to get his Tesla and is very excited about it. Just one question- isn’t the new car supposed to be for the graduating senior? :-).
My kids go to a boarding school, which has hindered their ability to look for summer jobs. I’m not sure what they can do now except make the rounds of local businesses once they are home, and I have little hope that anything will be available at this point I would actually be fine with them not working this summer and instead taking care of our neglected house and yard (and learning to drive), but they need the money for college. (The reason the house and yard are particularly neglected this year is that my husband has had a major medical crisis that prevents him from doing anything, my time and abilities are limited, and we don’t have the money to hire others to do the work.) My best hope is that the kids will find part-time work that they can walk to in our little town, so that they will have time to work in house and yard and time to relax and get ready for college.
S18 has job lined up, and trip with school to Europe, and orientation, and move in, and family reunion—he’s good.
What I really need to work on is plans for D24 for the summer! Poor kid
Found out this year HS is having a separate awards ceremony for seniors the same week as f graduation. For scholarships and other awards only pertinent to seniors. A week or two earlier they will still have the other awards ceremony for all grades for subject awards and the like, sans scholarships.
This is probably good for everybody. Too much to cram in and goes too long.
About 2 months ago, I noticed that DD was coming home every day and basically just vegging on the couch. She stopped playing her spring sport because of injury, IB exams had not yet begun, and that senioritis seemed to be kicking in. One day I said in passing, “You know, sitting on the couch all afternoon and night probably isn’t the best use of your time. Maybe you should look for a job.” When we sat down for dinner she casually announced that she had an interview the next day for a job and she started working 2 days after that. Nothing glamorous – just a hostess at a casual eatery but she is earning some extra money and learning that service industry jobs are tough.
We don’t have any big trips for the summer but we typically don’t anyway (we tend to travel over winter and spring breaks). We’ll be in Chicago for a week for an annual thing and also San Francisco for a family deal and that’s probably it. I do have a few free hotel nights I need to burn before the end of July so maybe I’ll keep an eye out for last minute airfare deals somewhere and use the hotel nights in conjunction with that.
At least my 2019 travel plans are looking decent, for at least the first quarter anyway. I just booked a river cruise for me and my mother for late April, am investigating a 10 day trip to Morocco for a post-graduation trip with my son (he’s done in December), and pondering Belize for DD’s spring break next year. Her spring break happens to coincide with DH’s birthday so even if she doesn’t come home DH and I can still go for a birthday trip. The upside of an empty nest!
@droppededit, we’ll be going to Thailand, too! Like many of you, we are thrilled to be paying less than we anticipated for college, so it’s nice to feel like there is “extra” money, and travel is always my go-to way to spend it.
