<p>DH and I plan to drop S2 off (in two weeks) and then head to the beach for a few days.</p>
<p>We have a new parent reception with the dean of the business school until 6:30, then we get to hit LA traffic so we can both be back at work the next morning. (Hiway 5, here we come!) Our post-dropoff trip to Italy won’t be until October, unfortunately.</p>
<p>Well, since D’s move-in day is also the first day of school for the two younger kids, H will be taking her and I will be staying home. Our normal life will follow - nothing special, except moving younger d into the vacated larger room of her sister!</p>
<p>Immediate plans after dropping daughter off: head over to the college President’s house for a cocktail party being thrown for parents of first years. So, I guess we’ll be drinking albeit not heavily. We’ll save that, perhaps, for an evening on Cape Cod the following week. We promised daughter #2 we’d go over to the Cape for a few days. We have usually rented a place for a week or so the second half of August but we had to change plans this year with D #2 heading off for college during the middle of what usually would be our vacation.</p>
<p>Will be driving S2 cross country with all his gear. I dread the drive home, but we have to do the 14+ hour drive leaving at 5 p.m. one day and returning the rental van by the end of the next day so as to miss only one day of classes. No time for a vacation, but I’m thinking of increasing our every other week ballroom dance lessons to every week for a while and wonder if I can talk H into a sibling for our golden retriever.</p>
<p>After we drop freshman D at her school (flying there) we spend one night at home before driving sophomore S to his school (7 hour drive). We stay overnight at hotel and drive back home so professor husband can teach his first class of the semester! It’s hard having 3 family members on differing academic calendars. A couple of weeks later I’ll fly east to visit family for a few days–still looking for reasonable airfare, though.</p>
<p>Well, after dropping off D1 halfway across the country I fly home and drive D2 several hours to her school. THEN I can break out that new case I purchased for July 4th!</p>
<p>Drive home, hopefully a nice dinner with H before HE gets on a plane (he travels constantly), and back to work the next day.
Younger D begins her hs year Aug. 13th so she will not be with us for drop-off. Can anyone top that early date?</p>
<p>Drive 500 miles home and prepare for the next meeting with my attorney regarding my divorce. I never dreamed how empty my nest would be.</p>
<p>We were planning to drop him off on Thursday, attend the family welcome event, and fly home on Friday. But H wants to attend the home (meaning the college, which is FAR from our home) football game on Saturday, so it looks like we won’t be flying home until Sunday. The question is, will S want to hang out with us on Friday and Saturday? I kind of want him to jump feet-first into school and pretend we’re not around.</p>
<p>After that? Get D ready for her sophomore year of high school, which starts the following Tuesday!</p>
<p>My son never came home for the summer, so there is no returning him to school because he never left NYC. My first back to school season in 14 years with NO shopping being done by me. I will be sending a care package once he’s settled into his fall dorm room. He can take the Staples gift card and buy his own stuff. Haven’t used any of my 26 vacations days yet, still have 30 hours of comp time to use too. Lots of time, little money to do much (going on a frugal cruise paid for by my bf’s bonus check in October)</p>
<p>My D just got her dorm and roommate assignment today so she is very excited. Every step makes it more and more real. I love that she can’t wait to get in touch with her roommate tomorrow. Brings back lots of good memories for me. I’d go back and do it all tomorrow.</p>
<p>Hoverdad, after we take our second and last child to begin her freshman year, DH and I are spending the weekend in DC to visit with her brother and then spend time in the Shenandoah Valley, ending up in the NC mountains for Labor Day.</p>
<p>DH and I have never done a driving trip --although we have driven to many vacation destinations–so this will be a new thing–but that minivan is going to be awfully empty.</p>
<p>dg - Sounds like you’re going to be spending some time on I81 from Va to NC - that’s the area I’ll be in since D will be going to James Madison. The Staunton Music Festival might be going on while you’re in the Shenandoah area.</p>
<p>I remember when I went off to college in the late 70’s. I was the last of 5 children to leave home, and I just knew that mom would be terribly lonely and wouldn’t know what to do with herself while I was gone. Only, when I came home after only a month or two, she had redecorated much of the house, and had bought herself some new clothes. Understand, these were not her normal nerdy old lady clothes. She was really put together and in fashion (for a lady of her advanced age of 48). Ha Ha Ha! That was old? Now that I’m there it certainly doesn’t seem the same at all. She went to college, earned a degree, volunteered a little bit of everywhere, and still does 30 years later. The time she gave to herself after her brood was gone, is was I look forward to giving myself in another 5 years.</p>
<p>BTW, we eventually ended up at the same college when I was 21 and even in some of the same foreign language classes. We had the best time and I saw a side of my mom I never had before. I believe my mom was the favorite student among all of the other students of my age. Maybe a ‘substitute’ mom for them? I don’t know, but we had really fun times in those days.</p>
<p>Cleaning up the place.</p>
<p>We are taking our vacation before move-in day. H, S and I are visiting relatives in California and going on a 15-day hike on the John Muir Trail in the Sierras. We come back home, then 2 weeks later we leave for California again and drop off S. In the last 11 years I have only flown twice, so this is a big deal for me.</p>
<p>After the many activities of move-in day, we will part company at around 6 pm, and H & I will go to “dinner with the provost.” Then we will fly the red-eye home; my eyes may be red for more than one reason. H goes to work the next day, and I may get called for my substitute teaching job.</p>
<p>It will be my first experience in 21 years with no kid around during the week. My older D comes home most weekends, so my nest won’t be entirely empty. I am too busy right now with last minute preparations for our vacation to think about just how quiet our house will be in mid-September.</p>
<p>S and I have iChat on our macs, so I will get some “face-to-face” time, which will be good, since he won’t come home until winter break. Well, it’s back to packing since we leave tomorrow.</p>
<p>S will be going far away for freshman year; D will be a high school junior. We’ve decided to lead a “pink” life since it’ll just be us girls. She even bought a pink mixer yesterday to make cookies. So while S wont be playing the piano 24/7 (a sound I love and D hates), she’ll focus on school and I’ll focus on work, and we’ll create our pink world.</p>
<p>erisamom – I love it!</p>
<p>erisamom, ooh, wish I thought of that. Great bonding.</p>