<p>Saw that Jamzmom has already repainted and redecorated son's bedroom! Braver than I - what do do with all the trophies and valued souveniers? Curious as to what others have done or intend to do? Box it - donate?</p>
<p>Despite room inspections at school, DS's room always looks like a bomb has gone off 10 minutes after he comes home.</p>
<p>She's just getting ready to rent it out.</p>
<p>I think she is getting ready to just sell the plantation and head into Yankee territory to be closer to Jamz! ;)</p>
<p>I hear she has her eye on a Penthouse on the Upper East Side</p>
<p>Wow this is get on JM day! Ha! We're tryin' to smoke her out...if she does move to NYC LFWB will get her ringside season tickets to the WWE and KP wrestling...along with a huge gift certificate to The Palm.</p>
<p>You can't get good grits in Manhattan. I see JM as more a South Jersey type.</p>
<p>My parents left my room alone for my time at Kings Point. It was nice to feel like I had my old place back when I went home for breaks. Now once I had graduated it was a different story. My room is now an office, but it does have a pull out love seat for me when I come home for the holidays. </p>
<p>If you need the room I say go for it and change it, but if you really don't need the room I say leave it until they graduate. If your child is at an Academy there's not much worry that they will be moving back home after graduation so you don't need to change it up to "send a message."</p>
<p>My wife has been talking about painting our daughters room and doing some redecorating. I've been telling her to leave my future office alone, but so far she hasn't gotten the message.</p>
<p>We have a four bedroom home, with two kids still at home, but our guest room has been taken over by an exchange student the last 2 years. Who knows, in a few years we might have his and hers offices and a guest room.</p>
<p>We'll keep it as his bedroom, but my gosh, is there a lot of stuff and clothes that he'll never wear again and must go. Anybody have any suggestions on what to do with old trophies? Even if you keep the "best 3."</p>
<p>Old Trophies: mom gave me one of those plastic storage boxes. Said I could keep one box, trashed the rest. Thought it was a good deal.</p>
<p>I'll never leave the plantation! Are ya'll nuts! Ya'll don't have sweet tea & shrimp & grits up there. Plus I live a genteel lifestyle and wouldn't survive up there. Ya'll's yankee-ness is rubbing off on my son though. Last he was home he said, "Get in the ca". I stopped and said, "Where have your r's gone boy!" I could almost get a second home in little Italy. The cannoli made my eyes roll back in my head. Maybe not, I have to stay here so I'll have plenty of room to keep my goat that Bill is trying to get. The goat keeps the back 40 clear.</p>
<p>And before ya get your panties in a wad over the Jamz' room, all I did was up date abit. Its now the KP room complete with Merchant Marine & KP flags and photos of his new academy. All of the awards are now in a photo album and the medals in a box. Whoops! Gotta go eat.</p>
<p>For trophies, we kept any that were first place, or state or national level trophies. Other than that everything was thrown out. As precious as they were at the time, they just became clutter. And I admit to taking naps in her room.</p>
<p>Just this past Christmas break we MADE my son, a KP 1st classman, clean his room. He threw a lot out and kept about 3 file boxes, already packed to go to wherever he will live. Threw a lot in the trash and took several bags of clothes to the Goodwill. He now has neat dresser drawers and a sparse closet. We hadn't touched his room since he went to school and felt it was time to get rid of that high school stuff. We'll be painting the room and setting it up as a guest room before spring, so he'll still have a place to stay, but he said he's not going to live home anymore so we'll take him at his word!</p>
<p>I just need to re-hang some pictures & it will be completely done! Its SO clean in there! LOL Didn't throw away anything. Did take a bag of clothes to Goodwill though. The daybed & smaller dresser might be a shock but I kept the antique globe, swords, ect. Just no more high school left-overs. Replaced those with KP things. He won't freak too badly I think. I left him in the same room because it has a water view & he fought long & hard with a brother to get it years ago. It is kinda sad cause you realize your kid isn't in it. I warn you not to do it if you've a weak heart. I sniffled a few times boxing up some medals. We're like Cougar with the four bedrooms... But we've got nobody in them.... It really was sad. You'll paint over a mark on the wall that you recall it was made by a shoe that was poorly aimed at a friends head in fun. A gouge out of the sheetrock where he'd moved a desk too fast. And the tape on the back of the door where a Boys State award once hung. Ooooo. I really advise not to do it until you're ready! LOL It was harder on me than it will be on him.....</p>
<p>What do you do with all the trophies? My son and I agreed to save the engraved name/award/year plates from the ones we could. I will place them on any scrapbook pages (that I plan to complete).</p>
<p>Good question. Ya got me. My son shot precision rifle all through high school and competed on a national level. He got medals but the trophies are at the high school. I'm kinda of glad they didn't end up here cause the medals are easy & all went into a large shoe box and got put into the top of his closet. I dunno. You have a cool idea to save all the plates for an album. Hows about taking a group photo of all of the trophies to put with it? Really is a great idea momof3. </p>
<p>I did a high school scrapbook and put all of the paper awards in it after taking them out of frames. There were a ton of those & I just couldn't part with any them. Some are signed by Senators & others from the Dept. of the Navy. Three were certificates of acceptance to other colleges. They'll make great keepsakes. I've started a new academy scrapbook from the day we dropped him up until the All Academies Ball. I find it easier to do it now & add as I go than to wait until I've got a boat load of photos. He enjoyed seeing it when he was home last. He laughed when he saw his acceptance letter in it where he used a big black magic marker to check the "yes, I accept my appointment" box. LOL It was really a keepie! Good luck with the projects people! Its all good!</p>
<p>The All Academy Ball -- Oh, that is where he went instead of wrestling practice!</p>
<p>Girls in swanky dresses doing the cha cha with him won out over grappling with another sweaty, stinky guy! LOL</p>
<p>My son's senior writing class assignments included working on their own scrapbook. Every six weeks, they had to turn in four layouts. Some parents felt it was corny and should not be part of a class grade. The student was graded on their "journal writing". I myself had a ball with the design layout (parent help was permitted). It was great to go though ALL his photos. It also was nice to spend time retelling stories.</p>
<p>The parents of graduating seniors are given a scrapbook to fill with awards and photos. This book is then presented to the senior at the end of season banquet. This will then be on display at his graduation party. </p>
<p>Another comment on trophies..... After a while, they are just collect dust along with silk flowers and fake trees. I have a few of those as well.</p>
<p>Trophies: Check with your municipal recreation department or local boys/girls club - just found out that they may take thenm. Take off the specific engraved plate or label. They may be able to use your swimmer/soccer/wrestler body, but they are more likely to use the base and get different little bodies for the top. I wouldn't mind throwing out a couple, but I figure we could outfit a team or two between DS & DD trophy collections.
Jamzmom: you'll appreciate that one classy team used mint julep & jefferson cups for awards - we'll be keeping those!</p>