<p>I love my virtual friends. I’ve been very, very fortunate to have had a relatively easy life and my good fortune continues - the added blessing of supportive friends on CC who rejoice and weep with the rest.</p>
<p>mythmom - I am quite confident your superb writing will take you places you never imagined. Amazing places.</p>
<p>…raises cup of tea to toast all you wonderful cc posters who are sage and good hearted!!!</p>
<p>Cheers!</p>
<p>Howdy all-
Just picked up DS’s Graduation/18th Birthday cake. What does he want to do today now that he is 18? Buy a lottery ticket!</p>
<p>Happy birthday to you
Happy birthday to you
Happy birthday to jymson
Happy birthday to you.</p>
<p>Send him birthday wishes from all of us! When the kids here turn 18 they head to the casino.</p>
<p>And Happy Birthday to YOU, jym626. It was your birth-giving day!!</p>
<p>Eeeeeck, jym! Happy Birthday to your S, and Happy Birth Day to you! My S turns 18 next week, and my D turns 21 the week after. I can’t wait to see what they come up with! Fortunately, my D doesn’t drink so she won’t be trying that “21 drinks on your 21st birthday” thing.</p>
<p>It’s a gorgeous day here in suburban Chicago, and our American plum trees are in full, white-flowered glory. My S will take his Euro AP today and says he is going to “have fun” with the essays, since he can’t get college credit for it. </p>
<p>Oh, and he got invited to ANOTHER luncheon as a local scholarship finalist, and he has to speak at this one too! I get to go free to this one – nice surprise – but I’ll be nervous about his little speech, too. He graduates on May 27, and not a moment too soon to suit me.</p>
<p>LIMOM, your D will do fine on the AP Euro today, too! Injury and all!!! My D had a partial seizure during her ACT and still got a high score. I will always wonder though, if she would have scored higher had it not happened.</p>
<p>NorthMinn, you have so much to be proud of with her D! Conquering an illness is tough for a child, but one thing I learned is that it’s part of who they are in how they learn to adapt and overcome their unique challenges. Anyone meeting my D, would never guess that she’s been through what she has. Sounds like yours is the same. </p>
<p>Harriet, oh what your poor D has been through with her knee!!! I would have passed out, too!!! Your D is definitely strong and amazing to keep going like that. Good for her!!! But I would suggest you carry some smelling salts to the sporting events (remember those? my great grandma always had them in her purse)</p>
<p>mountains, that’s good new about the Colby sweatshirt. I ordered U Michigan T-shirts for my D the past weekend…just got the email that they’ve been shipped. We just heard of 2 more kids from her Mommy & Me group (now all at different high schools) that are going to U Michigan…isn’t that a hoot! Total of 3 Mommy & Me’s and 1 Middle School. But that WL school is still awfully hard to move on from…::nervously tapping fingers::</p>
<p>mythmom, I’ve been a fan of yours on CC since I first went on the Barnard threads for my older D. You really know how to tell a story and create such vivid imagery. I agree, I find the support on here very strong and though we are all in different parts of the country, we and our kids have much in common.</p>
<p>jym, Happy Birthday! Here’s a slice of Godiva Chocolate with rasberry filling just for you! Here, the kids all go to one of the Hookah places. None of them are smokers, they just have fun there.</p>
<p>Jym, happy 18th to your son and let me add my happy Birth Day to you. </p>
<p>2forcollege, what is a Hookah place? Den of iniquity?</p>
<p>jym, one day my middle daughter was at the office with me, and I saw her flipping through my calendar. Months later, when I flipped to November, I saw she had written on the square for her older sisters birthday "Kay turns 18 - YAY - cigarettes and Porn!!'. I cracked up.</p>
<p>Now the middle daughter is turning 18 next month, and she swears she’s buying ‘chew and porn’. Excellent!</p>
<p>Thanks mythmom, NorthMinnesota and je<em>ne</em>sais_quoi!
Funny you should mention the birth-giving part, JNSQ- DS and I were just talking about that last night. I wondered why he gets to do the celebrating. He reminded me that my day will come… Sunday.</p>
<p>My boy’s birthdays are early May (well, obviously, since its today) and mid June. One always hits either around Mothers day or Fathers day. And DH’s bday is on xmas. Always seem to get to celebrate combined events, which is actually kinda fun (except DH’s–we do the traditional “movie and Chinese restaurant” xmas day activity!)</p>
<p>Jude, that’s too cute. Yes, here the rally cry for the 18th is “cigarettes, porn, and lottery tickets!”</p>
<p>jym, happy 18th to your S, and happy birth day to you. </p>
<p>gladmom, how good to know that somebody has nice weather today. Enjoy it for the east coasters, and best of luck to your S with the speech/lunches. I’m glad that you get to go to one (even though if you’re like me, you’ll be wringing your napkin under the table). </p>
<p>2for college, smelling salts, just like Grandma! 
Since I’m the grandma-age-mom for S2, that might be entirely appropriate. </p>
<p>NorthMinnesota, what a lovely toast! Hear, hear, for the sage and good-hearted.</p>
<p>Oh, I love you all too!</p>
<p>So, jym, what kind of birthday/graduation cake did you buy? Come on, you all wanted to know - this is the Vigil Lounge, after all.</p>
<p>So, did S buy his lottery ticket? Was it the instant kind, and if so, did he win anything? Just thought I’d ask. Again, Happy Birthday/Happy Graduation to you and your sons!</p>
<p>NMinn - I didn’t even know they had casinos in Minnesota! There’s so much I don’t know…lol. That must be a fun way for 18 year olds to spend their birthdays.</p>
<p>Gladmom - Happy Birthday in advance to both of your kids - 2 big celebrations - 18 & 21! Nice that you don’t have to worry about your D drinking. Oh, and Good Luck to your son - I hope his scholarship luncheon speech is a success. A little extra scholarship money is never a bad thing.</p>
<p>Ha-- they changed the cigarette age here to 19-- kids are foiled again.
My s also wanted to buy a lottery ticket when he turned 18!</p>
<p>Whoa-- I started my post, and got interrupted by DH who WANTED TO EAT CAKE so we did the birthday photo singing event. Returned to find all these additional well wishes! Thanks gladmom, 2forcollege, acme, jude!</p>
<p>2forcollege- HOW DID YOU KNOW I LOVE chocolate and raspberry. Holy cow. Deee-lish!!</p>
<p>gladmom- Happy birthdays to your kiddos, and congrats on all the awards! Thats wonerful!</p>
<p>jude_36!! LOL!! Your kids are a hoot! Actually DS did mention that he wanted to buy a pack of cigarettes “just because”. He knows I hate cigarettes. I just let that one go right on by.</p>
<p>I have to catch up on the past thread posts to see whats up with these injuries and braces and such. Best wishes to whiever is limping along. I’ll catch up and get with the program. Just a tad distracted.</p>
<p>Thanks 2forcollege - I’m sure D will do well on her exam too - it starts in 15 minutes! Really, D’s injury is much less serious than the problems everyone else’s kids have had - it’s just that it happened at the worst time - right before the AP and her audition. Godiva chocolate with raspberry filling - that sounds positively decadent! I don’t think we have any Hookah places around here - at least I’ve never heard about any in the area.</p>
<p>jude - that’s too funny! I really don’t know what new 18 year olds do around here to celebrate. D’s BF and many of their friends are all turning 18, but I haven’t heard about anything specific that they all do.</p>
<p>Gosh you guys type fast!! </p>
<p>Thanks to Harriet (are you the one limping?? I haven’t yet caught up).
So sorry to neglect to disclose the yummy cake. It is a marble cake with chocolate buttercream icing. Our local Publix actually has a wonderful bakery. They were advertising a cute Graduation cake with a graduate standing under what looks like … dont know what its called-- small roof held up my 2 colums-- anyone know what its called? Anyway that thing is made of SOLID ICING and its about 3-4 inches thick!! The initials of the school are written on the “roof” thing. I’d ordered the cake over the phone, and the person I spoke to apparently wrote “makeit like the one in the picture” as her instructions. So, whoever made the cake took this literally, and wrote the initials of the ad’s HS instead onf my s’s school on the roof!! LOL. They fixed it, but it was funny. BTW, cake-- seriously yummy. Pleas everyone- its a quarter sheet cake and there are jsut 2 of use here right now. Eat up! ::cutting big pieces with lots of icing and putting on plates to pass around::: :: also putting on a pot of Sumatra dark roast coffee:::::</p>
<p>Whoa, whoa, whoa, LIMOMOF2-
Can you give me the cliffnotes version wof what happened to DD?? Its probably faster than searching htough the thread!</p>
<p>LIMOMOF2: Nothing too formulaic here on ole LI. What I imagine is jello shots on the beach. </p>
<p>DS turned 18 at college. Very sedate entry party thrown by dorm mates. They watched season premiere of House.</p>
<p>I imagine some drinking was involved, but not for DS who abhors the smell of alcohol.</p>
<p>jym, the cake sounds just wonderful! And tastes great. 
Thanks for sharing and congratulations along with the H B. I’m not limping, fortunately. It was my D, three + years ago. It was sympathy for the other athletic Ds with various injuries/challenges that prompted me to tell her story.</p>
<p>mythmom, yeah, D turned 18 at school too. On a bus, with the team, to heck-and-gone for a tournament she probably wouldn’t have played in anyway, but the uncertainty was removed by the fact that she was in between having BROKEN HER NOSE (injury from sport #3) the week before, and the surgery to re-set it the week to come. Wait a second. I seem to be hijacking the thread to bore you all with more of D’s Life as a Sports Medicine Training Case. Sorry! On topic, S1 will also turn 18 at school - assuming he gets in somewhere. Also: House = yay.</p>
<p>LIMOM - fingers crossed! Sending clear, calm thinking to your D and the other afternoon testers.</p>