I logged on just to tell you I am stealing this idea. Thank you. I have now discovered a new way to confuse my kids when they’re not home one day. Can’t wait!
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This year I knew he wasn’t coming home for Thanksgiving, so in the package that went around them I included a small stuffed animal turkey… that makes turkey gobbling noises.
His freshman year I wanted to send a package that I knew would arrive around valentine’s day - he doesn’t eat candy so I sent snacks that seemed like a nice treat… and threw in what I thought was a small stuffed animal with a heart on it. It turned out to be a two foot tall squishmallow that looked like a green dragon holding a heart. He was with a friend when he opened it and he told me that he laughed so hard at how absurd it was that he cried.
I’ve added packages of his favorite seltzer (which he appreciated, but not a great choice because annoying to carry from the mail room); a random throw blanket that looked fuzzy; slippers; fancy beard grooming products; weird Dr. Squatch soap etc.
He’s also the recipient of every food oriented fund raiser for my neices and cousin’s kids. Someone’s selling girl scout cookies or popcorn or nuts and dried fruit packs? He’s getting it. That part gets me goodwill from all the family - I’m the cousin that supports everybody’s kids in their fundraising efforts. 
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time to move on! Thank you!
I laughed reading your mice story! I can relate. We have a rat problem in our house- our cat catches them and leaves them all around the house at night, sometimes on the bed- dead. I’m at my wits end!
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Thankfully, we’ve never had mice in our house. We do have them in the shed though.
D25 is heading into the last week of 1st semester. It’s the last week she’ll have one of her favorite teachers ever. Bitter sweet for sure.
As far as college decisions go, she’s at the point where she’s wishing she could go to both of her top 2. She’s nervous about making the wrong choice. i think we know where she’s going to end up and I think she knows too but really likes the other school too and doesn’t want to disappoint her admission counselor.
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MouseWatch 2025 update - we’ve caught two. Most years there’s only two - we catch them, there’s no further sign of anything, we figure they were the scouts and no one followed them. Hopefully that’s the situation this year.
If it weren’t always my kitchen this wouldn’t annoy me so much. The kitchen is the oldest part of the house, with the crawl space underneath and there’s an addition added to the back so that was once an external door to the patio is now an open door way to the TV room. The addition itself was put on in the early 80’s we think (the house was built mid 1940’s) and I suspect that there is some kind of access to the outside where the formerly external wall, that is now the internal wall of my kitchen, is located. Because they always clearly come in from the same space behind the refrigerator/cabinet/stove.
And to make matters worse, that spot where they come in is a super small area of cabinets/countertop between the stove and the refrigerator, one cabinet wide. And the countertop there is where the coffee pot is located. So when I come down first in the morning, half asleep and just desperate for coffee, I have to walk straight towards the mousetrap and (1) pray there isn’t anything in it that I have to deal with and (2) try to not accidentally hit it with my toes while I make the coffee.
Anyhoo, enough about that.
On the academic front, this week S25 MUST do his research for his science fair project. It has to be done in the chem lab with the teacher - either during lunch or before school. Today’s “assignment” that I gave S25 was to talk with the Chem teacher to schedule a time that will work for him to get the research done. Lets hope that actually happens.
I had a good talk with S25 last night about academics and expectations and the rest of the year. And by “talk” I mean i talked and he nodded his head. So that wasn’t ideal, but I needed to get some things said and I think he heard them.
I told him that once the semester ends - which is in two weeks - that I wouldn’t be watching his assignments and reminding him to do work and nagging him about homework. That if he wants me to help him stay on track I’d do that, but that he needs to ask. I’m going to step out, and he can work on managing his time himself. I told him that I don’t expect perfect grades, but i do expect that he makes an effort. We make commitments and keep them, and he’s made a commitment to school and he needs to not blow it off.
He’s got his last IEP meeting right before the end of the semester. Since he’s 18 now, he has to go (generally he’s not that interested and whether he’s attended in the past has been hit or miss) and he has to formally invite me so that i can attend. I plan to share this plan of mine to back off at the IEP meeting. I’m hoping that we’ll be able to use the last two quarters to see how he does, and see what supports - other than me - he needs or would be willing to use. Sort of a soft entry into adulting on his own. We’ll see how it goes. And realistically, stakes are pretty low. Once he gets this science fair project dealt with, none of his classes have huge make or break assignments in the third quarter and the end of the third and start of the fourth is basically prepping for AP exams and then smooth sailing once he gets there. So I’m hoping this will be a good learning experience for him. Fingers crossed.
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I deliberated for too long of a time trying to figure out which quick emoji to use for your post. None of the auto-options worked, but these are the closest from the regular emojis.
In reality, this is what I’d be doing.
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When I lived in Brooklyn right after college I had a cat who would catch mice and drop them in our laps! And they were never quite dead. These days we occasionally get one near the vent under our stove, I think there is hole under there because it is also cold in the winter. We catch one about every other year. That said, there’s one in our garage that we’ve just kind of learned to live with. He seems to be a bachelor and as long as he stays that way he’s ok.
On the college front, we’re hoping to hear from Furman today or tomorrow, and U of Richmond is at the end of next week. Then there’s this long break until he hears from his big reach schools, Wake, W&L, and Notre Dame. Lehigh is in there somewhere too. I think right now S25 is leaning towards SMU. But he loved Furman when we visited so who know what next week will bring. We’re going to the Trinity U scholarship day too in a few weeks. If I had another kid I wouldn’t encourage this many applications!
Are your kids all on ZeeMee? S25 seems to be enjoying reading it.
ETA: Also I’m just exhausted. D23 left for the airport at 3am this morning and I never went back to sleep, so if this doesn’t make sense that’s why!
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D had her honors band performance and they were amazing. The conductor is the music director for a large flagship university and she was surprised by the playing level of these high school students. She had to switch up the music to more advanced pieces. I’m eternally grateful my D got to be so supported with her school music and arts programs. Tonight is rehearsal for a different honors band and this weekend is her audition for All State. Even after performing she came home and rehearsed for the All State audition. Luckily her academics this term is fairly easy because she didn’t touch any of it!
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We once had rats, in a different house. It was awful. We sealed up absolutely every entry crevice we could find at rat height - then we learned they were a type of rat that can climb (can’t recall the name - but this type has a tail longer than its body). It turned out they were scaling a vine on the side of the house and had found an entry point under the eaves. Gah. But once that vine came down our rat problem was solved. Thank goodness. No matter how you hide them, rat traps are scary to have around when you have a toddler!
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Many houses in our town have rodent issues. We don’t. We do have cats … (with occasional evidence that they’ve taken any potential rodent invaders on).
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So I guess I don’t mind these little field mice so much, giant wall climbing rats would be terrifying!
One of my neighbors left a window (unscreened) open and came back a few hours later to find a squirrel had gotten in and was just running all over the place.
Usually it’s just my yard - all my neighbors have dogs and we don’t so my backyard seems to be where random wildlife decides to bed down.
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Fellow NYC resident and my daughter started on public transportation with friends in middle school, too. We were lucky that she could take a select bus that dropped her off a couple of blocks from school so she started in 6th grade. For high school, she took the subway. I was less worried about public transportation than I was about her walking to school from the train and getting hit by a car on a dark morning.
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That is a perfect representation of our house many mornings. Luckily I think our cat has thinned out the rat population in the neighborhood, or they’ve just decided to pack it up and move somewhere else. They’ve had enough of her. We’ve only had a couple lately. The one on top of my bed put me over the edge though. The cat was dangerously close to being put up for adoption.
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In our old house we had a few mice too - one ate into the dishwasher drain line and it wasn’t pretty 
. Thankfully we also had a cat, and our house weirdly had crawlspace access from the boiler room. So, we released the kraken, err, cat, into the boiler room/crawlspace. Problem solved. And we got a few nice “gifts” from that cat as proof! Ick.
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So, just to share a story. My father worked nightwork and slept during the day. One day, he heard glass break and went to the basement to discover a deer has busted through the window and was running all over the basement stumping on stuff. He eventually covered it with a blanket and got it out the front door. The worst part…the insurance company would not cover the damage, claiming they do not cover damage by a domestic animal. They immediately changed insurance companies.
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Here’s a mystery for everyone.
S25 just received an email from an admissions officer at a reputable LAC thanking him for his completed application and saying that they were thrilled to hear of his interest in music, outlining opportunities to participate at school. It was a very nice personalized email with links and references to his participation in band etc. She offered to set up a virtual meeting to discuss.
Few things to note:
S25 did write his common app essay about music.
S25 is in concert band and a band with friends.
S25 DID NOT apply to this school 
I check his commonapp and Naviance to see if maybe he decided to apply and didn’t tell me…NOPE. No idea what’s going on.
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I mean, if they’re offering a scholarship to go along with the note…
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That’s what I said!
The only thing that we can think of is that S25 did do a program through this LAC in 9th grade and they did visit his high school last year. He thought he would apply but decided not to in the end, he didn’t add the school to his common app or Naviance at any point.
So maybe he showed up in their files and maybe he mentioned music when he attended the visit at his school and maybe someone put a note somewhere about it.
It’s all very weird.
S25 just got into Indiana. It was the last decision he was waiting for. So we’re all done other than trying to finagle a little more money out of Rose-Hulman. Oh, and I’ve been put on notice that I need to refrain from anymore purchases from the Rose-Hulman bookstore per my husband…
And, accountability peeps, I have not checked S25’s grade or assignment portal since I posted about it last week. Is he getting his work done? Who knows?!? But I’m committed to going the quarter without checking (or with minimal checking). Baby steps!
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Back when we were talking about buying loot from the bookstore I ended up folding also and got some stuff when they had their 40% off sale. I’m SO glad I did because she did get in(Hillsdale) and is leaning towards going there. In fact I wish I would have bought more.
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