Same boat. Mine arrives late tomorrow evening and has to fly back Friday midday for a game Saturday morning. Wish it were longer.
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A little bittersweet. D24s team lost Saturday in the Sweet Sixteen (on penalty kicks). But now we get her home for the whole Thanksgiving break.
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Itās not all turkey and shopping for fun when they come home early! 
D24 is sitting in her room taking her psych exam. This is a stats-heavy class, so the exam is no breeze. We arenāt making any noise out here, because weāre terrified that something will set off the ācheatingā sensors on the proctoring software!
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D24 came in Wednesday evening and has a return flight for Sunday, but with the storm coming, she may stay until Monday. It is so lovely to have her home. She and big brother S21 are best friends. It warms my heart to see them spending time together, as happened for most of today. Both claim they managed to get studying done, but I heard a lot of laughing from that side of the house, so I suspect tomorrow they will both need to play catch up to meet their deadlines.
At the moment, sheās on her way out the door to meet up with some friends and heās about to do some grading.
Still in the middle of Thanksgiving visit, but already looking forward to more family time over winter break!
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It was nice having D24 here for a few days. Sheās been working on getting back for the past 20 hours. Canceled flight, more delays, etc. Sheās had a lot of experiences in the past day!
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D24 flew back to college early this morning. Sheāll be back home in 2 weeks after final exams. It was a great week and she hung out with a high school friend a bit, too.
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We had a pretty abbreviated visit with D24 (home Tuesday, left first thing Saturday morning). It was great to see her, but will be so much better at winter break when it wonāt feel so rushed.
We did have a pretty big scare yesterday. I knew that D24 arrived back at school on Saturday, but when I checked her location yesterday morning (helicoptery, I know, but I generally do like to check in the a.m. to make sure my Dās have arrived homeāor some other familiar locationāafter a night out), it had stopped updating Saturday night around 10pm from somewhere downtown. I first assumed her phone had died and she would come back online when she woke up. I was busy most of the day and didnāt give it much thought until late afternoon, when I checked again. Still no location update, no response to my texts, calls went right to voicemail.
Thatās the point where I realized I didnāt have any real contact info for anyone in her life up there 
I started combing through her insta and reaching out to the familiar namesā¦getting no response from anyone. At this point, my H is seriously considering getting in the car and driving up there, we are really freaking out. I called the county sheriffās department up there and got a phone tree, basically telling me to call 911 if it was an emergency. It didnāt yet feel like an emergency, but I didnāt know what else to do. So I called 911 but when I tried to explain to the dispatcher what the situation was (that I needed a non-emergency number for that area to get a wellness check), she was not any help (ended up giving me a number that went to the voicemail of the county fire marshall). WTH?!?!?
Meanwhile, weāre combing through public info to try to find contact info for her BFās parents (who are local up there). They have a pretty common last name, so it took a while. I finally got in touch with his father, who confirmed they were together (he must have texted his son because D24 called me within a minute). D24 was very apologeticā¦her phone had died and she left her charger back here in NJ, so she figured sheād just go phone-free for a day or two until she got a new oneā¦not thinking about the fact that her phone and location are our only method of reaching her.
As soon as I heard her voice, my knees started shaking, thatās how anxious I was. In general, I am not an anxious person and I donāt catastrophize too easily. My D20ās roommate passed away suddenly and tragically a few years ago, and the circumstances were similar (she was on vacation with boyfriend, mother could see location hadnāt moved in a day, didnāt know how to get in touch with her or any of her friends, ended up finding me on social media to get in contact with my D20ā¦.)ā¦letās just say that yesterday felt very, very triggering for all of us.
The good news (aside from the fact that D24 is fine!) is that eventually her friends started responding to my Insta messages (after I knew all was well), and it is heartwarming to know she is surrounded by a great group who care about her and her wellbeing. I have now collected a binder full of contacts should something like this ever happen again. 
I think D24 learned her lesson (she knows why this was so triggering for us), so I donāt think it will.
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My S24ās flights were also super delayed. He got back to his dorm at 5:30am! I said he needs to fly back to school on the Saturday after Thanksgiving after this. Itās just too much during exams. He has a huge project due at 4 today that he had not finished yetā¦ lessons learned!
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I am glad he made it back! That makes for a hard day though.
She left Saturday night for that reason. She got in about noon Sunday. She made it to a hotel for the night using an airline voucher and back for the rescheduled flight, which was then still delayed!
Craziness!
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D24 has 2 finals down, 1 to go. Will be home at the end of next week.
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S24 still has a (short) reading period and then finals, and has a final on the last day. Oh well.
Weāre visiting a couple more boarding schools with D30 this weekādid one today and another will be Monday. I actually chatted with the admissions officer today about how much this reminded me of visiting colleges with S24, a process I really enjoyed for multiple reasons, not least really getting to know him better as he worked through figuring out what really mattered most to him.
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D24 has a conference presentation (AGU), a final exam, and three final projects to go. Sheās been almost radio silent during the reading period. She flies home Dec 20. Sheās planning a less stressful courseload for the spring semester.
S21 will be home Dec 19. He was in a CS 4+1 program and will finish up MS grad requirements for both AI and Cybersecurity tracks in May. He has arranged to stay another year to take additional courses while building up his portfolio either for industry career or to pursue a PhD. His serious illness/surgeries prevented him from an internship and extracurriculars until very recently. His only experience has been as a grader this semester.
So glad the two will be spending some more relaxing time together soon (and with us!). Weāre all in need of a break!
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DD24 is studying for her two finals (which are at the end of this week). She has also officially applied for the upper division nursing program (sheās in the honors college so has automatic entry as long as she maintained her grades - but still has to apply). She has asked for a summer start but weāve heard that they assign cohorts (summer or fall start) pretty randomly. Itāll be tight financially if she gets summer start (no chance to earn $ this summer and I donāt think she will qualify for any loans for the summer since we took out the full amount for this school year), but weāll make it work.
My DD20 got accepted to the ABSN program at UNC-Chapel Hill so she is excited about that - it starts in May and sheāll complete it in August ā27. We are waiting to hear more details and sheās still working full time as a CNA at the hospital and picking up shifts at a local restaurant to try and earn as much money to reduce loans as much as possible. She is hoping to take off two weeks in April to see her friends from undergrad who live throughout Asia, so planning a whirlwind trip through China, Malaysia, Japan, and Korea with a possible stop in Vietnam. When she was talking with one of her friends in Malaysia who plans to join her for part of the trip, they were laughing that they only needed to spend a day or two in China as their only goals were to see friends from Duke and to eat at Haidilao (a hotpot chain throughout China). I hope that trip works out for her as you are only young once (and I wish I had traveled more before kids and responsibilities hit).
I also need to buy a car before my youngest starts clinicals (so either May or August deadline). She is encouraging me to buy now so that she can take my current car (a 2014 Honda CR-V) back next semester. I know I want a hybrid and Iāve narrowed it down to a Honda CR-V, a Subaru Forester, a Mazda CX-50 or possibly (I still need to test drive) a Subaru Crosstrek. The Honda CR-V feels very familiar (just like my current CR-V) but I like the Eyesight in the Subarus. Any thoughts from anyone who owns one of these?
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When D24 needed a car, we looked at several different models.
She tested Mazda but the models we looked at had some sight blockage from the A pillar. Not great for new drivers so we crossed it off but they were zippy and fun to drive. May not be an issue for experienced drivers.
Subrau Crosstrek was just painfully underpowered. IMO, not the best if you need quick acceleration or live in a hilly area. Many people in the Northeast like Subarus because they have AWD and are known for reliability.
Ultimately, we decided to buy her a Volvo XC40. She loves the car. Personally, I think the brakes are somewhat soft and arent as good as the Toyota/Hondas.
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I love my Forester. Favorite car ever. I had a CR-V and didnāt care for it but had bought it used and it may have just been a lemon.
We have a newish CRV hybrid and I love it - I was a former Subaru fan, but I had two duds in a row in terms of very costly service repairs so never again
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AWD are plentiful. Right now Nissan Rogue is your Best Buy and has an AWD - but studies are based on composites. Everyone sees things differently. And some prefer features that other donāt.
Nissan is like Hyundai b4 its heyday it was forgotten so they are focused on quality and it shows. They are trying to establish the brand after falling off a cliff - it worked for Hyundai, maybe the quality focus will help them. Consumer Reports loves the used ones too.
My Nephew in Minnesota just bought a Camry Hybrid AWD. Bought new. Loves it Traded in a Subaru. Theyāre great but the boxer engine is expensive to repair.
Weāve recently been buying lightly used EVs and PHEVs. We hadnāt done a car refresh since 2012/13, and installed a Level 2 charger at home.
The PHEVs we got were not at all what I expected, but depreciation is funny. Let me know if such PHEVs would be of interest.
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I thought about it but I do not have a garage and so any charger will be open to the elements (which I know can be done, but still makes me a little uncomfortable). When I move (once the last child is out of school and on her own), I plan to go to either a EV or PHEV ā assuming I move to a location that requires a vehicle.
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D24 takes her last final (Italian) on Wednesday night, and will come home the next day. I canāt wait to have her home again. Sheās doing well, it seems, although she has the nerves everyone gets at test time. Iām hoping for the best over the holidays with our aging parental unit who insists on walking around (he gets dizzy and falls) and not taking pain medicine! :)
You just have to let it go and do the best when stuff happens, Iāve found (especially when there are two aging parents, so there is technically another person monitoring the fractious one). Iām excited that the sun is supposed to come out tomorrow for a bit, after days of gray. Little Orphan Annie, here, all the way!
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