<p>acm, I’m going to have to try your line on my middle son. He’s being such a twerp lately. He’s got this little gesture with his hands that indicates, “What’s your problem, Mom?” He’s been playing games on the computer way too much. I put a lock on it so that when the computer goes to sleep for a few minutes, the only way he can get back on again is if I enter a password. Now he’s figured out that if he leaves one particular game on, the screen stays active and the computer stays “awake.” Arghh. I’ll never win the technology game with my kids. I think it’s time to pull out the big guns - the threat of toilet bowl cleaning!! Mwahaha.</p>
<p>^^^Lol ACM… I must use that line on my own D!
Hello everyone…I have been trying to catch up on 3 days of this thread and it has taken me ALL DAY!! </p>
<p>ACM…I read “Girls from Ames” and then passed it around to all of my friends…we all wrote a short note in the book expressing how important our friendships were to each other and then passed it along to the next friend… I have no idea who has the book now but I LOVED it…it truly made me laugh and cry! I highly recommend it!</p>
<p>We move D to college in 3 weeks from tomorrow…sometimes it cannot come soon enough…Zoosermom…I feel your pain…and sometimes I get teary thinking about it…</p>
<p>Well, some good news here. I called Orbitz, and they talked to American Airlines and cancelled our flights with a full refund. Even H, who is a bargain-hunter and will always take the cheapest fare no matter what, AND who flys into Laguardia when going on business to NYC, said, “Change planes at Laguardia? No way, that’s a guaranteed delay.”</p>
<p>And the half.com seller who sent us the illegal copy of the Psych textbook says we can mail it back to him for a full refund plus a refund of our return mailing charge. :D</p>
<p>Now I just have to monitor the credit cards to be sure these credits really DO happen.</p>
<p>My teenager-rant for today is that when D’s home, she watches nails-on-a-chalkboard reality shows on MTV nonstop on the TV in the family room. Today’s nauseating feature: a My Super Sweet 16 marathon. Our family room opens to the kitchen, so I can’t get away from these OBNOXIOUS shows.</p>
<p>zoosermom - hugs. Sorry your D has been difficult to deal with - mine tends to go back and forth. </p>
<p>SWTCAT - same here - sometimes I can’t wait for the big day, and other times I wish I could stop time.</p>
<p>Lafalum - glad you’ll be able to get your money refunded on both the plane tickets and the textbook.</p>
<p>shillyshally - sorry about work making you crazy, but glad your kids are all behaving. :)</p>
<p>Just found out why American rebooked us thru LGA for the Family Weekend flight…
[American</a> Airlines to end RDU-Boston service - Triangle Business Journal](<a href=“http://www.bizjournals.com/triangle/stories/2010/07/26/daily21.html?ana=from_rss&utm_source=feedburner&utm_medium=feed&utm_campaign=Feed%3A+industry_12+(Industry+Travel+Industry)&utm_content=My+Yahoo]American”>http://www.bizjournals.com/triangle/stories/2010/07/26/daily21.html?ana=from_rss&utm_source=feedburner&utm_medium=feed&utm_campaign=Feed%3A+industry_12+(Industry+Travel+Industry)&utm_content=My+Yahoo)</p>
<p>So I just called them and cancelled D’s Fall break flight too, since it won’t be non-stop either. </p>
<p>On the plus side, now I won’t have to worry about the American Airlines strike!</p>
<p>Hi everyone! I totally lost track as the Real World took over with an intensity for a week and a half. I have no idea what page I was on so I only went back a few pages to catch up. Everything is super 
at our house - my partner and D are getting along famously (which I am trying hard not to act shocked about) and they are even getting along with my mom. It is hard to be the only person in the house working, though…kind of a drag. Work has sucked hard lately, too. Ah, well. At least I have a job…</p>
<p>Everything seems to be in order for college, the bill is paid, the paperwork is turned in. 5 weeks from tomorrow is move in day. It seems so far away, but will go by in a flash. :D</p>
<p>^^Ditto to LIMOM on all counts! :)</p>
<p>missemily: Sounds great (except for the working part. 
). Glad things are going well for all in your house.</p>
<p>We’re off to a “Welcome Reception” for UPenn students and their parents. D is looking forward to it.</p>
<p>Wishing all a great night. :)</p>
<p>Just got off work and am catching up…</p>
<p>zoosermom: I’ll trade you one surly, disrespectful, lazy, ‘you’re not the boss of me’ son for your daughter 
. I’m glad no one told me the last few weeks before college was going to be this hard - I would have shipped him off to summer school. Believe it or not, I had visions of making cookies (he wants to learn how so he can impress the girls in his dorm) and bonding over trips to BB&B. Instead, I get this demon who has invaded my child’s body and can only say ‘I’m going off to college in three weeks, so I don’t need a curfew’ over and over again.</p>
<p>Takes a sip of the first glass of wine for the evening…</p>
<p>Hi, everyone! Sorry to all those dealing with unpleasantries.</p>
<p>I haven’t been around too much the past couple of days because one of my dogs got bit in the park, so we took him to the vet to get stitches. Turns out the bite was way deeper and more serious than we thought, and they ended up operating on him yesterday. He has to have that stupid cone on now, he can’t go running or swimming for three weeks, and we’re going on a hiking trip next week. Boo. He just looks so sad. He’s the rescue, and I know he’s been through a lot worse, but it still feels so bad to have my baby hurting and be unable to do anything about it. We keep taking turns lying on the floor with him, singing and speaking to him soothingly and rubbing him. Poor baby.</p>
<p>P.S. - your kids have curfews? I still have a bedtime. 11:30 this summer - later than ever before.</p>
<p>lol momlive… last night i was feeling sorry for myself… oldest married, this one off on a trip and not home for those last weeks of “bonding”, youngest…well he is 15 so i dont have to say anymore…but reading everyone today… maybe it was good that son went away for 3 weeks!!!</p>
<p>hope your puppy is better soon tc… son doesnt have curfew, but must let me know where he is… even though bs had rules and curfews, and lights out etc… i have been fairly lenient with his time to come home, when home… has been known to wake me up to say he is going to waffle house at midnight… but so far he has been quite responsible with calling so unless he screws up he is good to decide for himself</p>
<p>Hey, everyone! ACM… I’d LOVE a frozen margarita, please! Well, we’re back from our orientation/vacation in VA – 9 days away is simply too long. A couple of years ago we took a vacation to Italy and spent a month. I swore I’d never be gone that long again. Now I’m thinking no more than a week away. We all missed our little foo-foo, 4 lb dog so much that we all got up at 6:30 the morning after arriving at 10:30 pm so that we could be at the kennel as soon as they opened the doors. She was so elated to be back home and insists on being held by one of us every moment. ACM…I haven’t gotten to your point yet with the retriever where I’m nudging her away. </p>
<p>Lafalum…I hear you on the stupid tv shows running in the house 24/7. D watches lots of that kind of mind-numbing mush. Want to scream, “Have you heard of a book?” :rolleyes: One of the worst shows IMO on tv right now is that show The Secret Life if the American Teenager. Thank goodness my D hates it. Everyone in the entire hs having sex? Sure, why not! Teenage girls getting pregnant? Sure, it’ll all work out in the end! Parents eager to put their daughters on birth control? Of course, that way at least they’re safe. Dads who encourage their 15 year old sons to marry teenage moms when they’re not even the baby’s father? Heck yeah because we all know teenage marraiges always last, right? I mean geez!!! It’s revolting.</p>
<p>Zoosermom…I feel your distress. D’s been nice “lately”; however, she has her moments. They all do at times. </p>
<p>I stayed up quite late last night making valance and curtain panels for daughter’s dorm room. I used to sew a lot before I went back to work around 7 years ago. I always found it relaxing. It dawned on me how much our kid’s generation has changed. At least 1/2 of the girls from my generation know how to sew and 1/2 + of the boys are handy with tools and cars. Have you noticed how most of our kids don’t know these skills? I have 2 BAs and an MA and was always taking accelerated classes so I never had time to take home ec in school, but my mom taught me. It was just something girls were expected to know how to do.</p>
<p>kindredspirit-hope that you and your D enjoyed Penn’s welcome reception! Details, if possible, please. ;)</p>
<p>t_c- So sorry to hear about your pup! 
And, ugh to that incredibly annoying “circus clown” collar.</p>
<p>missemily-you sound very much on top of things! See what a week or so away from CC allows you to do. :D</p>
<p>lafalum-you’ve made me very nervous with this talk of an American Air strike. I have been trying to google and learn about the possibility. Of course, we are booked out to DS#3’s Parents Weekend on AA. :rolleyes:</p>
<p>zooser, your post made me laugh, but only because I can SO commiserate. Just change “D” to “S” and you have my story. We drop off S on Aug 22 and I am planning to go out that night and celebrate. Sometimes this summer can’t go by fast enough for my sanity.</p>
<p>t_c , so sorry to hear about your sweet dog. He is lucky to be in such a loving home now. We had a bunny that had to wear a cone for weeks and she was so unhappy. {Hugs to you and your pup}</p>
<p>jc, It’s wonderful that you could make curtains for your D. I used to sew a lot many years ago, but I think the last thing I made was a bunny Halloween costume for D when she was about 3. She’s 21 now. :rolleyes:</p>
<p>zooser et al,
sorry to hear about the difficulties with your soon-to-be-off-to-college offspring. I thank my lucky stars we’re not facing any of that. Just the opposite. D1 has become so sweet and cooperative lately, and genuinely appreciative of how much we’ve done to prepare her for this, how much of a financial sacrifice we’re making to pay for it, etc. It’s as if the scales just fell away from her eyes and she suddenly could see we weren’t the enemy, we weren’t being petty tyrants for asking her to help around the house or setting some boundaries on how late she stays out when she has work in the morning, we hadn’t been unreasonably intrusive all those years when we demanded some accountability on her schoolwork. I don’t know, maybe her doctor prescribed some kind of maturity pill. I’ll ask. Sounds like someone could make a fortune with that. But whatever the cause, having these last few weeks with our loving, appreciative daughter is a real joy, for which we are immensely grateful.</p>
<p>Now if we could only get that maturity pill prescription for D2 . . . .</p>
<p>ZM, I remember how awful senior summer was to get through with my older daughter. I remember a friend telling me about senior summers and thinking that it couldn’t be that bad - it was!
This time around my younger daughter is, fortunately, already on campus for a pre-freshman program. What a difference! She, of course, left her room a mess and many things undone … but at least she is not here driving me crazy while sleeping in and doing nothing!
Good luck to all getting through this summer.</p>
<p>D doesn’t have a curfew per se, but her restricted license means if she’s driving she has to be off the road by 11. She takes that very seriously; I’ve told her a few times not to stress if she thought she might be running late, but she doesn’t want to “break the law.” haha If someone else is driving, she usually has a very specific reason why she’d be out past that time anyway (i.e. midnight premier of Toy Story 3) and we’re fine with that.</p>
<p>Now bedtime keeps creeping later and later. DH & I really can’t go to sleep if anyone else is still up, so we’ve been trying to make sure that the girls are in their rooms during the week by 11 or so. D2 is usually asleep right away, but D1 not so much. </p>
<p>T_C: Hope your pup heals quickly. It’s tough to see our furry babies be uncomfortable.</p>
<p>JC: ah, sewing. I have a sewing table set up & I’ve been working on curtains for the bonus room for almost 2 years now. It’s near the top of my to do list; I’m really hoping they’ll be done by Thanksgiving. They’re not going to take much time. It’s just finding a block of time where no one will interrupt me that’s challenging.</p>
<p>Laf - Are you looking for flights from RDU to Boston? Jet Blue (our favorite airline) sent out a fare sale email today and they have fares from $49 per person each way right now on that route. You have to book by the end of the month but can travel up until mid-December. Good luck!</p>
<p>t_c - Hope your poor puppy gets better soon!</p>
<p>jc - I so wish I could sew. My grandma did her best to teach me but I just never got it. </p>
<p>Sending HUGS to all dealing with teen drama.</p>
<p>thanks for the kind words everyone. It’s good to know I’m not alone. I’m not usually on her receiving end, but I’ve been observing her dealings with everyone else. Big sigh.</p>
<p>TC, let us know about the dog. I hate it when animals have difficulties.</p>