I received an email this morning stating that I’ve qualified for the national powerlifting championship.
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Woohoo 
Congrats!
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Good luck!
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I thought of your daughter as I was watching last night and wondered if she had some part in the designs.
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She did, and now she’s resting up! 
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I have some good news to share on my volunteer college counseling efforts. Notable acceptances to date from my students include:
- Cornell (x2)
- Johns Hopkins
- Stanford
- Yale (likely letter)
- Case-Western ($40K annual scholarship)
Of these, I am actually most proud of helping the student going to Johns Hopkins and one of the students going to Cornell. One of them is a very low-income student receiving full financial aid, and the other will receive considerable financial aid.
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Just to follow up, I wasn’t surprised when he sent me that message, because those words describe him perfectly. But I was truly surprised, and a little shocked, when he called me after being told the amount of his annual bonus.
Wow, just wow.
It’s great that he’s landed where he belongs.
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Our son let us know a couple of weeks ago that he has received an appointment to research and teach at the Cyber Research Center at West Point after earning his PhD over the next three years. He graduates with his master’s in computer science (Georgia Tech) this May (with a 4.0) and was selected by West Point for continuing on for his doctorate in either computer science/engineering or artificial intelligence. He doesn’t know yet where he will be earning the degree as he won’t start applications until this summer. So, it looks like he will be running out his Army career at West Point and staying on as faculty until he earns that pension and can start a second career before 40 (he turns 28 this month). Unless the Army has other plans for him…again.
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I just want to thank you for providing this service. I was a poor kid, and had nobody to help figure out the system. I did fine, but many do not.
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Weird double brag …
Ds2 is a creative and contract worker. He has high-deductible insurance off the exchange. He found out a couple of weeks ago that he has to have a surgery this month that will no doubt mean that he will meet his hefty out-of-pocket expenses. He has the money saved but admits there is heartburn associated with spending that kind of money. I am proud of him for having saved the money that enables him to cover this unexpected, large expense despite not having a regular full-time job for four years.
The second brag is on me for not jumping in to try to save the day and say that I’ll pay when my first motherly instinct is to be codependent and try to solve a problem he never asked me to “solve.”
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My kids are doing well! Older boy got offered a great summer internship, doing something he’s really excited about with good pay and potential for a full time job after college. Younger boy heard tonight that he got offered a pretty big scholarship to one of the colleges he’s applied to.
Neither of these are amazing things, they are, in fact, things that many of the kids on here are doing every day. But I’ve had such a challenging last few weeks, that I really needed something to celebrate today. So Woo Hoo we’re celebrating!
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“WhoBoy?” answered my text messages… finally.
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Finally home from 2+ weeks of international travel. My brag is that I managed to sleep for 4 hours in my own bed and had at least one member of the family thrilled to see me. Jet lag kills me.
Don’t ever underestimate how comforting it is to enter a shower from a cold bathroom, fully confident that you know how to operate it😀
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I can so get the shower issue. In December in Munich we had a lovely hotel room with the worst shower ever. No overhead showerhead, only a handheld spray. A half wall of glass, way to short so the water flooded the rest of the bathroom. The drain was just a small slit at the top of the shower (where the water came out instead of at the foot or in the middle). The controls were hard to understand, so I struggled everyday to get the pressure and temperature I liked. No hand rails and the floor in the shower was the same as the rest of the bathroom floor. We had to use all our bath towels every night just to soak up the flood in the non-shower part of the bathroom!
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LEO son recently received awards from his agency for the following events:
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For dedication and effort in responding to a horrific multiple casualty event: LEOs initially responded to this incident and heroically provided critical casualty care while there was still an active fire, and unknown danger, under extremely difficult and heartbreaking circumstances.
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For the quick response to life threatening gunshot wound and hemorrhaging: LEOs provided immediate and effective first aid in a stressful situation and were commended by medical professionals for saving the person’s life.
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For a combined response to a shooting and barricaded suspect: LEOs responded to a shooting with the armed suspect still barricaded on site. They searched the surrounding area under immediate danger, located the victim, controlled the scene, provided emergency casualty care and rescued the person by carrying them 300 yards to the road, ultimately saving their life.
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Congratulations! What great achievements!
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D23 got accepted to a prestigious top research internship for the summer, her #1 choice. It has a generous stipend, housing is free, they fly her out there, she gets to work on rare equipment, and chance for publication is high! The backup was summer research funding she is guaranteed through UPenn Viper, so she decided to aim high and try for some very difficult lab internships --success!
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We are clearly having a good week…D21 (Duke’25)got accepted to grad school at an ivy, with funding! It has been a tough few weeks of disappointment due to record applications plus funding/position cuts all the way up to and including top schools. Very excited; no final decision yet as other answers are still pending.
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Fingers crossed for the best outcome for her!
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A small kinda brag…
I’ve always used the expression “give yourself grace” with my kids – meaning be patient with yourself and is OK to not be perfect (unlike my upbringing where perfection was barely good enough).
Anyway, I had (successful) surgery Monday and complained to my D (a new mom herself) that I feel frustrated and limited as I recover. Then I hear her words, "Mom, you just had surgery, give yourself grace.’ Not sure why, but it brought a tear to my eyes to hear that from her.
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