<p>Actually, the tennis this is a blessing in disguise. One less thing to take the focus away from graduating from high school and moving on to college! Thank you, Mr. Tennis Coach!</p>
<p>you guys are the best</p>
<p>yes I was kinda sorta thanking Mr Tennis Coach - but it still is not right</p>
<p>my āsolutionā falls apart when I have absolutely no clue about the assignment. Then that takes me googling to find some sort of relavant questions to ask in my outline. Did I mention dishes, laundry, exercisimg me (and it is a BEAUTIFUL spring), riding my horse or exercising my dogs has all gone out the window. Shopping? Uh, kid if you want to eat you have to get this next paper done (no kidding I DID say that).
My painting class is my only reprieve and even then I end up spending most of my time trying to figure out what it is I wanted to do again. BUT this too shall pass. SOMEthing will happen and a plan will be made (yes I am feeling more positive with #TSās application of attention to this āproblemā) It might be short-lived - but I will bask in it for the moment.</p>
<p>So whatās the next topic?</p>
<p>tmāseems your support is doing it, bask all you want. I imagine your son will always remember how you were there for him. thatās a priceless āgraduation gift.ā</p>
<p>Next topic?</p>
<p>Well, son will find out before he graduates his dorm assignment (had to pick 1-4) and roommates. His first three choices were triples because they have private baths. I wouldnāt have thought that would be an issue for him, but I guess it was. Of course, 3 boys, 1 bath, responsible for cleaning itā¦yuck.</p>
<p>Marquette doesnāt do roommate surveys, so with my S being an extremely messy night owl, THAT will be interestingā¦</p>
<p>hmmm Next topic - how will you spend the summer -what little there is of it - enjoying your S or D and letting him/her relax while you prepare to send them off.</p>
<p>I like the roommate topic too
No idea here yet</p>
<h1>theorymom so glad to hear that S is moving forward. Way to go!</h1>
<p>I had a big ālastā tonight. Last Boy Scout meeting for me! </p>
<p>This was end of year court of honor and S was awarded Silver Palm ā an award for Eagle Scouts who earn additional merit badges. H and I were called up to the front for the ceremony and big room full of Scouts and parents gave S a standing O. Very touching.</p>
<p>Seeing all those 11 year olds getting their first merit badges and talking about first summer camp ā I thought I would be sad, but instead I felt a huge sense of relief! No more parent meetings! No cupcakes from me! No popcorn sales! </p>
<p>Ooops. Got a little carried away thereā¦ obviously, I was not cut out to be a scout mom.</p>
<p>I hated being a Cub Scout mom for the two months S was involved - the troup leader was a wuss and I had to be the tough one to corral a bunch of rowdy 7 year olds.</p>
<p>This summer? S hoped to get a job, but itās a little difficult when you donāt look. Heāll hang out, be bored, get ready for college. Weāll head to Preview for two days in June, but no vacation plans.</p>
<p>The next couple of weeks here are going to be ridiculous. I can barely get through the calendar let alone plan ahead. While I have finished invite for grad party, I have no real guest list as of yet and will need to get these out in the mail by the beginning of next week if I want Emily Postās blessing!</p>
<p>We have heard nothing from sonās college except from the coach. Apparently dorms are determined by whatever freshman seminar you take (and they donāt give any kind of correlation). Since the professor will also be their advisor for the first year at least, I am thinking itās best to go by professor over the class since itās my belief that great teachers can make even the most boring material great. Have no idea yet how that trickles down to the room mate situation. But seriously? Son is an only boy. Was pretty much born with a small pedestal under his butt and has even had his own bathroom since older D moved out and younger D took over her room/bath. Heās reasonably neat, but he is not very good at sharing his space. I realize we allowed and may have even contributed to his āuniqueā personality, but he is not the most flexible or laid back kind of person. I have no idea what kind of roommate would be a good fit.</p>
<p>And ohā¦ Can I just say I am glad Dancing with the Stars is over, but am so glad Shawn Johnson won. She may have been an olympic gymnast, but she certainly didnāt have the fluidity or grace of a dancer at the beginning. When she said that she didnt want to add a lot of tricks to her finale dance but instead wanted to show what she had truly learned about dancing, I thoughtā¦ this is the kind of character that wins gold medals!! </p>
<p>And speaking of medalsā¦ we head into sections for lacrosse this week. Daughterās team will probably go very far and sonāsā¦ well, they have a very young team this year and it shows. Still, I cannot believe that one of these days very very soon will be the last time I will see him play in the HS stadium. I have no idea what I will do when I canāt root for him on the sidelines of his lifeā¦ and I guess that applies to everything and actually has very little to do with sports. <sniff></sniff></p>
<p>Great #theorymom!!! reminds me of the little train that couldā¦</p>
<p>On a little different noteāI had an amazingly difficult time last week trying to make S a dental appt. It became a soft shoe comedy as I KNOW HIPPA and this appt. person gave me an appt. for S and when I asked if that was with a hygenist and a dentist she suddenly could not talk because of āHIPPAā. Then when I said I would just cancel the entire appt. and remake it a different way (I know the system) she said she could not cancel the very appt. she had made for my S through me 30 seconds earlier. Well, I did by pass her (after I did say, "after all this is not a gyn appt!!!) and got all taken care of but my point to bring up is thisāDH and I are filling out the necessary papers for both D(25) and S(19 tomorrow!) to be able to access our dental and medical info in the future. We imagine(!) we might actually go on a trip and if there were to be an emergency then they would be next in line. Neither would be the least bit interested in our medical info otherwise and if they were we would not care. Just thought I would pass this on to some of you who, like us, have over 18 year olds now.</p>
<p>Yahoo
another paper done (same my outline scenario) and he will get to go on the physics fun field trip ( wearing his WPI physics shirt)</p>
<p>Hmmm
maybe we are on to something
Doubtful it will help in the future, but it will get us over this particular hurdle</p>
<p>Sorry hate to be gleeful while some of you are sniffing into your hankies. Iāll (hopefully) be there soon.</p>
<p>Tomorrow I have the entire day to come up with the next outline (oh joy) since S will be gone from 5 am until 10 pm - hmmm need to go read up on Things Fall Apart and Heart of Africa so I can ask appropriate questions. This is exhausting</p>
<p>We watched Glee and Idol tonight (being that we are all into voice around here) Good stuff.</p>
<p>ya know theory, I was thinking about theorysonās shirt you had told us about, and hoped heād get to wear it again soon. what a perfect reward for getting couple of his papers doneā¦</p>
<p>oregonāfellow nite owl, (I do realize it isnāt too late for you just yet) we really do think alikeāthe little engine that could :)</p>
<p>I was just writing to a friend I havenāt seen in years, sending congrats to their twinsā¦our kids were babies togetherā¦sigh</p>
<p>my d (whose summer has already started) is out and about with bf and/or friends every nightāher respite before starting a job. she got home 12:45, I decided to cook a bit to pass the timeā¦(too hot to cook here other than late at night) guess I can go to bed nowā¦</p>
<p>YEAH #theorymom and S!!! so glad he gets to go on his trip and hope you can take a little hour off while he is gone.</p>
<p>O101, that is an interesting idea. We are having our son sign an affidavit saying that we have access to his medical records (Iāll add dental) but also another one authorizing his school to release grades or other information to us. Otherwise, a child could have a serious medical or mental health problem and the school would not be able to talk with us about it. But, I think the reverse is a terrific idea.</p>
<h1>theorymom, congrats on the progress with papers and good luck with your outline today.</h1>
<p>On dorms, our son insisted on the communal baths so he wouldnāt have to clean. He went fishing yesterday afternoon, in a canoe with friends on a nearby lake and caught a big fish. I think summer has begun for him.</p>
<p>I am still breaking in a new computer and it is driving me crazy. Yesterday, I found 30 emails that had gone straight to a hidden spam folder. I get zero spam or junk mail and hate these automatic filters. Anyway, filter is now off and I just have to put up with annoying messages that my computer is not protected. Undoing the damage of missing those emails caused major work problems but I spent the day making apologies and trying to move on.</p>
<p>I got a chuckle out of the boy scout comments. I volunteer with the girl scouts even though I donāt have any girls because I love the program. However, neither of my boys did more than a year in boy scouts as it was not their cup of tea.</p>
<h1>TM, feeling very empathetic. Iāve been there. Good luck. It sounds like youāll make it.</h1>
<p>No hankies yet for us, but ShawbridgeSon is pushing very hard with his co-author to complete a submittable draft of their novel by the end of June, when they have some publisher commitments to read it. He was to go to France with us for a bike trip and then stay over to travel with friends. Weāve had to cancel our trip because my wife was asked at the relatively last minute to have a one person show at a high-end NY gallery so sheās dropped everything for that. He was going to meet three friends in Europe to travel. One was always a little flaky on meeting commitments, the second was solid on commitments but his mother, who is also terrific, always used to find reasons why he couldnāt do stuff. Both have dropped out ā the second boyās mother found a health problem (it is real though I doubt her diagnosis) and has declared that he canāt travel after their familyās trip to Greece because he needs to get healthy. </p>
<p>The third is a very sweet girl (who clearly likes him but I donāt think heās either picked up on it or chosen to reciprocate even though they talk on the phone and email a lot ā for him anyway). Sheās French and is going to spend part of the summer with her grandparents who live in France. Sheās invited him to visit for a few days. But, I donāt know if she has the time/funds to travel and it could be a little awkward to do so.</p>
<p>After the 16 school college app process, which including SATs, ACTs, SAT IIs that he took for the first time this fall followed by his grueling surgery and the hard work now to finish his book, Iād really like him to do something fun for July. Any thoughts?</p>
<p>D actually found a job yesterday! She pounded the pavement at the mall and said that there were multiple signs up. One of the places wanted to interview her on the spot and hired her to start tomorrow. </p>
<p>I think she really gets that she either works now or has to take out loans. She has always been frugal so I think she is planning on keeping her spending to a minimum. </p>
<p>My emotions are definitely on a roller coaster. I was shopping at a big box store yesterday with lots of things for storage and home and started feeling emotions coming to the surface when I thought of D and what she would need for her dorm room. Poor D, I can tell I will be sniffling at all kinds of occasions over the next few weeks. We had a service at church which included a nice ceremony for the graduating seniors and there were many of us parents who were choking up while trying to recite our lines. Iāve got to remember to keep kleenex in my pocket ;)</p>
<p>Hooray #theoryS and mom!!! Sounds like you all are on a roll! Will continue to send positive thoughts and energy your way! </p>
<p>Continue to plug away at small tasks around here to get ready for graduation/prom. Painters were here yesterday working on the deck, picked up more flowers and hanging baskets, got outside lights and chandelier(sp) in foyer replaced, more little repairs to follow. Prom pictures for twenty couples here on Saturday. I am so tired but it is helping me sleep! No insomnia lately! :)</p>
<h1>TM your sonās progress is fabulous. Keep your chin up and hopefully he can finish this all up whatever it takes.</h1>
<p>We had our awards night last night where D was honored as valedictorian along with a few other things. She wasnāt particularly impressed with some of the other selections. I found it interesting that all her friends are graduating with honors and most as either Summa (GPA > 4.0) or Magna cum laude (3.76 - 3.99). They had a slide show up and with a very few exceptions the kids are all staying in OH with most going to The Ohio State University or Miami U of OH. I told D I could understand why she didnāt want to go there. Sheās just not one to do what everyone else is doing.</p>
<p>She presented one of her projects yesterday and has the remaining three due on Friday but she says theyāll get done. Sheās stopped griping about it so Iām sure she has them under control.</p>
<p>This weekend she starts her job at the zoo (all three days). Sheās really thrilled because as a volunteer she could only help in the touch pool/aquarium area and with the manatees giving speeches about conservation and answering questions. She now gets to learn about the keeper lab which handles all the reptiles and handle demonstrations on her own. </p>
<p>Graduation is June 30 at 11am. Next week D has no school just some senior activities.</p>
<p>In June weāre going to London along with my son and his girlfriend for a week. DH, DD and I are really looking forward to it. DS is a bit overwhelmed right now with his new job (still not officially on the payroll but maybe today) but he should be signing a lease today for move in somewhere around June 1. As he says on his instant message, āI have a job and a place to live, how did that happen?ā The week off should actually give him a chance to breathe and start to enjoy himself again.</p>