<p>The backpack one does look good. Thanks Singersmom. I’ll show my son the links to both styles suggested so far. If anyone else has found something that worked well for their kids, I’d love to check out more links.</p>
<p>All 3 of mine used the pop-up hampers with the backpack straps. I must say that the boys used their as a repository for dirty AND clean clothes! They would take the laundry down to the laundry room, do the laundry, return to their rooms with the clean clothes and proceed to live out of the hamper until it was empty. Oy!!</p>
<p>2blue…no that’s not it. It is a pop up. I’ll look and see if I can find it.</p>
<p>edit: ohhh…it’s just like the spiral pop up on the BB&B link posted above except it has a lid that velcroes on top. She LOVES it!</p>
<p>Sorry to interrupt the hamper discussion, but for those following Waldo on his travels…HE’S BAAACK!!! 9+ weeks after he left for Uzbekistan my wandering son returned home in one piece (mostly…he got his ear cartilage pierced in Jerusalem!). From Uzbekistan to Israel to Greece, then Slovakia, Hungary, Czech Republic, and Austria, then on to Germany and Amsterdam he wandered, slept, drank and absorbed all there was to see and feel. His stories are incredible and his experiences priceless. If any of your children have the opportunity to go outside of YOUR comfort zone, I highly encourage the experience. Watching his face as he describes the Uzbek people, the landscapes, the people he met across borders I just smile knowing that he will remember this for the rest of his life. Was I nervous…you bet. Ex-Soviet republics are not my idea of a tourist destination, but hearing how he learned to distinguish between “just dirt” and “important, 1,000 year old dirt” made all my sleepless nights worthwhile. </p>
<p>Thanks so much to those who followed along the journey. And now back to our regularly scheduled vigil for those fast approaching move-in days!</p>
<p>Yeah! I’m glad he’s back safe and sound, having had the adventure of a lifetime. Thank you for sharing his travels with us.</p>
<p>Well, his destination isn’t exotic countries, but my son’s plane ticket has been bought. I was surprised it wasn’t nearly as expensive as I’d anticipated. Then I finally realized it was because this is a one-way ticket! The round trip at Christmastime will hurt.</p>
<p>How exciting his trip sounds! Glad he’s back runnersmom! I am one who suffers from wanderlust so I love to hear stories of travel. Thanks for sharing!</p>
<p>Rmom, thanks for the update! Keeping my eye out for important ancient dirt!</p>
<p>Runnersmom - Yay to having your S back! Thanks so much for the update - loved hearing about his travels! I don’t think my kids will be quite that adventurous, so it’s nice to hear stories like that from others.</p>
<p>Runnersmom,
So glad you son had such wonderful adventures! Both of my daughters are thinking about a summer of backpacking through Europe next year…I think I’ll need tranquilizers or just to go follow them around myself.</p>
<p>We just returned from Israel (we joined our girls after their Birthright trip)…it was amazing!</p>
<p>Now I have to catch-up on everything! >laundry: my D ended up liking the backpack type better than the pop-up.</p>
<p>When it’s this hot I put wet glasses in the freezer and use them later for ice tea. Anyone like to try some? Or are you ready for ice cream?</p>
<p>I’m ready for wet glasses filled with a margarita-- but I have to wait for Friday. My rules. So I guess it will be ice cream tonight, iced tea tomorrow.</p>
<p>My S is on his first “road trip” with buddies to a music festival. Is giving me a taste of what life will be like come September when he moves to college. He did call, though, to say they arrived at their first destination safe and sound.</p>
<p>Nothing exotic like runnersomom’s son, but I think this is just the beginning of some future wanderlust for my S.</p>
<p>Acme, my S started with music festivals…first to All Good in West Virginia (we’re in NY) and then to Bonnaroo in Tennessee. Maybe it’ll be, say Kahzakstan or maybe Tajikistan for your S!! (Just kidding!!)</p>
<p>I haven’t heard of All Good which is surprising-- he’s tried to get to Bonnaroo, SXSW, etc., I thought I had heard of all of them. I keep telling him once he’s in college he’ll find plenty of ways to get himself places like that, and all he’ll need is the means.</p>
<p>12 days until I take my S far away to college, and no return for him until mid-Dec after finals. Wow!! Wish me luck.</p>
<p>good luck! As previous years’ posts have shown, you may want to make some up-front “suggestions” on how frequently you’d like him to make contact with you (emails, txt, phone calls, a LETTER). Parents of boys seem to outnumber the parents of girls when it comes to issues about how little their kids communicate about what is happening, and how things are going. Ha, ha…there was an interview with Michael Jordan several months ago, and someone asked him how his son was doing in his 1st year of school. He said that he’d had to make a “2 week” rule…his son understood that he had better contact Dad at least every 2 weeks, or there would be dire con$equence$!!!</p>
<p>university1-- we are down to 14 days but our S isn’t going so far away. However, he has made it clear we are not to visit unless expressly invited by him (I think because his college is closer to home than he wanted, he fears we will be showing up “just for fun”-- as if!</p>
<p>Which extras to pack?</p>
<p>I’ve been on the bed/bedding checklist group but what I’m wondering about is other “indispensibles” that we might be forgetting. Someone mentioned an extra battery pack. Looking for brilliant “why didn’t I think of that” ideas-- and I will be glad to pass them along to others in the next few years as well.
Thanks for any suggestions.</p>
<p>acme, I’m including some stamped envelopes addressed to me, so as my son purchases textbooks or incurs medical expenses he can just tuck in the receipts and send them home. We’ll need them for tax purposes.</p>
<p>acme…I just posted on another thread that we have really used the sticky backed velcro a lot. It hangs things on walls and can then be peeled off at the end of the year. D1 moved her dresser when rearranging the room( room divider) so we covered the back with fabric attached by the velcro. She uses a body pillow on her loft so she doesn’t roll into the wall. She also hangs the over the door hooks on the end of her loft to hang things like winter coats or bulky sweatshirts, etc.</p>
<p>I woke up today and started to cry: S is going out of town for five days, then will have two days back at home before we leave. His departure has felt real to me for a long time, but now the emotions are right on the surface. I guess this is just the way it will be for a while. The big bear hug I got from him was comforting.</p>
<p>Re packing: He is genuinely pleased with the Ziploc bag of medicine/first aid essentials that I put together, so he really is tuned in to packing!</p>