@milgymfam my heart goes out to your daughter
@milgymfam Sorry she is having a hard time. Maybe itās better that she is experiencing it while still home with you rather than away at college.
S19 has had some of the same friends since 2nd grade, which I have always considered a blessing since my family moved a lot when I was growing up. But now that he is graduating, I often wonder how hard it might be for him to adjust to all new friends in a completely new place.
I hope your daughter feels better soon!
@milgymfam sorry, thatās hard. Big hugs to you and your daughter.
Thanks guys! I wasnāt trying to put a bummer on the group- sorry about that! She really is excited that Haverford is so supportive, and no one was more excited at their college acceptance than she was. Sheās got the prom in less than a month and then graduation, state championships, regional championships, and her last awards banquet. We are spending tons of time together (one of the times Iām most grateful for homeschooling) watching movies and wandering random stores, and we are all just enjoying the rest of the school year together. My girls are already making plans for my younger D to come and visit next fall. 
Hi everyone! Congrats to all who received acceptances recently. Hugs and encouragement to those who did not get what they hoped for (yet).
We just got back from a 9 day trip to visit our S16 who is studying abroad in Switzerland. It was an amazing trip! Best part was seeing the Matterhorn at the Glacier Paradise. Exceeded my expectations!
But my favorite day while away was when my D19 found out she was accepted into the Womenās Leadership Program at Bentley. It is a 4 year program that is very sought after with limited acceptances. It is in addition to her major and will provide her with numerous opportunities to meet and learn from women in business (in the Boston area). She really wanted to be a part of this program ever since she learned about it 2 years ago. I am so happy for her!
I am also thrilled that she will be able to attend their reception & dinner for the recipients. It is on Friday night before Admitted Studentās day on Saturday (which she can not attend because she has a regatta in Worcester at the same time). BUT on the evening before, she is free to attend the dinner and with Worcester only being 1 hour from Bentley, we can spend Friday night near Bentley and then get up and meet the team in Worcester on Saturday morning.
@Stuffedquahog Congratulations to your daughter! That sounds like an amazing opportunity!
@professionaldad congrats on Val!!! Very exciting! He might want to check in on housing if he has any strong preferences.
@elena13 sounds like prom was a great night! Good weather was lucky!
@BorgityBorg the WL decisions are tough, sounds like she has lots of good options.
@bjscheel great that sheās enjoying meeting future classmates! D18ās first request from college was to send the threadbare blankie she was nervous to take. lol
@liska21 is he feeling ok about leaving
@brentwoodmom exciting to be in the final decision stage!
@jjulesjenks ha, we did that too! Then we had to get another young dog because the puppy needed a wrestling buddy. Did you get the same breed? What did you name the puppy?
@pn24601 congrats on getting to that point! 6 weeks, Yikes, things are really flying now! Enjoy the last weeks and fun activities.
@milgymfam congrats, it sounds like she picked a great school and hope she enjoys the visit. It is a very hard time for the kids in some ways and thank you for sharing that. S is getting more sentimental too. Transitions arenāt easy! Enjoy your times together.
@Stuffedquahog congrats!!! Sounds like an amazing trip and such an honor for your D!!!
We are still waiting for 2 decisions this week. This is just painful!
@drewsmom17 We have a mini schnauzer and we are getting a mini schnoodle. Supposedly the annoying traits of a schnauzer (barking and territorial, etc) are replaced by more desirable traits of the poodle. We shall see! We have not come to a consensus on a name yet. We spent over an hour with all 5 of us tonight making lists and debating.
We love everything about our standard poodles except for the barking. I donāt think you avoid barking with the poodle traits as they are known as barkers, unfortunately.
Our cockapoo is a barker. Unfortunately, his bark is also very random. He doesnāt bark to alert us to people on the property or at the door - which I would like. But he does bark at all kinds of invisible things that only he can see or sense.
@milgymfam Aww, sorry your D had a rough day last week! I think my D is still a little nervous, for some reason she will not let me pay the deposit at Tulane even though she knows she is going there. Every time I ask her she says not yet and why am I in such a rush? I just want to get it checked off my list!
@professionaldad Congrats on Val - so great!!
@Stuffedquahog Glad the schedule worked out and congrats on the leadership program. I remember going up in vans form my school to watch our crew team at the Worcester Regatta. Had a fun memory there - while wandering around the banks of the river we saw James Taylor just sitting peacefully on a rock with nobody bothering him. We heard one of his kids was on a boat out there somewhere. We all loved him but he looked so peaceful that nobody went over to bug him.
We just started back to school yesterday after spring break - so hard to get back to the early morning schedule for all of us! D has joined the FB page for incoming students but has not put up a profile yet. She did let me look through the page with her though and she picked out a few people she would message so that is good. There was one guy who we joked she had to meet so our whole family could be friends with him - he was funny, liked the same music we all do, he plays guitar like DH and my Dās, he lives in Maine (where we vacation in summer) and he worked on a lobster boat (with DH just thinks is super cool.) She looked him up on Instagram and it turns out he knows her BFF - they went to the same school in Maine - haha!!
Also wanted to add that for those who have kids who do not want to join Facebook it is not as bad as it sounds (unless they are adverse to all types of social media.) D did not want to join either, she uses Instagram and Snapchat though. She finally joined and tons of the kids on there have said things like, āI only signed up on FB to join this groupā or āHi Iām Susie, I donāt use FB so find me on Instagramā¦ā
I guess this still doesnāt help for kids who donāt want to be on any of those sites but if it is just FB they are trying to avoid they could always go on just to post their Instagram and Snapchat names.
My D19 joined FB last year only because her speech and debate team was using it for a private group. But she keeps her privacy settings pretty tight and wonāt let herself be tagged (including by me). She says: āI donāt trust the Zuck.ā
@Corinthian - smart girl!
My son set up a FB account and joined the schoolās FB group, looked at it and never opened FB again as far as I know. Heās not a big social media guy. I would say group text messaging is still big in his circle. And snapchat. He thinks facebook is for old people, lol.
The kids he knows primarily use snapchat at their social media platform, but apparently Iām too old to figure that out now. I just use twitter for the most part to follow things Iām interested in. I donāt post tweets or anything, itās just a news outlet for me mostly.
@drewsmom17 S19 is very keen to get out, see the world and get far away from home. So no, heās not stressed about leaving. Rather heās stressed about HS soccer and a bit exhausted from that. Heās captain this year and center back (a stressful defense position). So I think the losses weigh on him this year more due to that. Our senior goalkeeper was taken out 5min into the first game with a concussion. That was a bit alarming. Thankfully heās able to go to school, but may be out for most of the season. The backup keeper is a sophomore and rather small (comparatively), but heās really stepped it up to fill in some big shoes. The rest of the back line is also young (freshman and sophomores) so S19 is having to be a good teacher and leader for them. Thatās a bit of a new role for him.
H and I received a nice looong email from S19ās incoming parent rep outlining all the upcoming deadlines and events. Itās been so quiet from Jan-Mar (nice!), but things are about to get busy starting in April.
Hi parents! Now that college application season is almost over, what are your major takeaways? What would have made it less stressful for you and your child?
My takeaway is that I wish my son had had more exposure to personal storytelling. He has been exposed to all sorts of writing. Fiction, expository, poetry, but not personal non-fiction storytelling. Heās a good writer, but each type of writing is different and calls upon different skills. This was a major pain point when it came time to write his personal statement. The summer after junior year, I offered to put him in a college essay writing bootcamp, but he refused. 
@momzilla2D , @drewsmom17 , @momtogkc - Thanks!
@gallentjill We have a 13 year old cockapoo! He has turned into somewhat of a barker as he aged. He barks the most when we all come home - heās very happy to see us.
@momtogkc Love your James Taylor crew story. My son had similar experience. Heās a junior in college now, but when he was a senior in HS his crew boat was practicing on the Mystic River and they rowed by Eric Clapton who was kayaking. They knew it was him because Eric Clapton had just docked his boat (yacht!), Blue Guitar, at the Mystic Seaport (which is where the team rows out of). Not many kids knew it was him (or should I say āwho he wasā) but my son did because he was (and still is) an avid guitar player. They did not talk to him out of respect for his privacy. It was definitely him - even the coach (in the chase boat) was in awe.
Waitlisted at Vandy. Not taking the spot although they did take 243 kids off the waitlist last year. We never visited and S19 doesnāt want to do any waitlists. Moving on to his last decision tomorrow and then itās time for him to start narrowing things down and visiting some schools. 
Lehigh sent out an email to RD applicants that decisions are on the portal today. My daughterās reaction (as texted to me) is peak her: A screenshot of the email, along with
[quote]
I forget how to log in to the portal, so maybe Iāll never know if I got inā¦?/quote