<p>Good morning. Coffee is ready. </p>
<p>Two bits of news for today:<br>
1 - We are 6 months from Christmas
2 - First round interviews where I want to work should finish today. Cross your fingers. I might hear something as early as tomorrow. </p>
<p>Have a great Tuesday.</p>
<p>Thanks for the coffee DB. Fingers crossed.</p>
<p>Good morning! I am back online after traveling for over two weeks. </p>
<p>Here’s some “Turkish” coffee, Dutch chocolate, and gouda cheese for breakfast.</p>
<p>We had such a great time eating and hiking our way across Amsterdam and Israel. And seeing the grandchild, who is as good a hiker as we are! :D</p>
<p>But I am glad to be back at home, where the shower is not a mystery every morning. (Honestly, those Europeans are so creative when it comes to shower controls!)</p>
<p>And in college boy news, he kept the house and yard in good order while we were gone. The kitchen even smelled nice. :)</p>
<p>EDIT: I liked g#'s comment on tx5’s similar post. It’s gratifying to see him so responsible but a little weird.</p>
<p>good morning all…thanks for the coffee!</p>
<p>fingers crossed DB!!</p>
<p>agree scualum…the move over here was not a good thing imo…when it was on the parent page, i would go to our page and browse around at the new posts… with the slow down in volume, some days i dont even come here…but almost never go to the main page except to link over to here.</p>
<p>I go to the main pages, but often forget to check here. Partly because this summer my kid isn’t even at home. I get calls for advice about cooking and periodic email links to either why Arabic is not really one language and/or the situation in Syria. This one was actually pretty interesting: [Arabic:</a> A language with too many armies and navies? | The Economist](<a href=“A language with too many armies and navies?”>A language with too many armies and navies?)</p>
<p>p56 - I agree. Since they moved us here I don’t visit often and rarely look at the main page.</p>
<p>DB - keeping my fingers crossed for you!</p>
<p>My college graduate D starts her summer camp job in NYC in 2 days. She has finished all of her training and has a couple of interviews today and tomorrow for nanny jobs for the fall. She is a lead counselor for kids going into 5th grade at the camp and they spend 2-3 days a week doing things out of the city. I think she said they are going go carting in New Jersey on Friday for their first field trip.</p>
<p>I will post something sort of college related, but really just a big brag.</p>
<p>The language program D is doing this summer is for intermediate and above levels. You were supposed to have had 2 years of the language as a prereq. She has technically only had 1 2/3 years of study as she was away in the spring.</p>
<p>Anyway, they took a language placement test when they arrived. There are 6 levels. She placed into the top level, only 6? of the 50 students in the program are there, and since it is the top there are people with a lot more skill than she has, including some grad students. But it isn’t overwhelming and she’ll learn a lot and likely be able to skip a year of the lang when she returns to school in the fall.</p>
<p>Not sure if this says the language program at her school is especially strong, or she is just awesome, or both.</p>
<p>In other news we are still gathering the doc for the insurance claim. The lack of a police report I hope is not problematic, CSI says we can get a letter from the SA people. Since we were leaving the country at the time of the theft we weren’t able to go to the police station. Wish us PVCs on getting the claim processed.</p>
<p>The cool dudes are definitely needed these days
</p>
<p>Checking in.</p>
<p>D1 is looking for a teaching position, and had an interview with a principal yesterday that went really well. So our fingers and toes are crossed.</p>
<p>S2, after initially helping out and cleaning up after himself has returned to his sloth-like behavior. Yesterday he spent the day in his boxers watching sports on TV. Tomorrow he is going up to school to move some things from one apartment to the other and he is working all weekend. He leaves for Greece on July 8th, so any hints on international travel are welcome. </p>
<p>S3, my sailing instructor kid, had the first day with kids yesterday. It went well and he had some funny stories about the swim test (which is done with life jackets on, so I can’t imagine it is that hard).</p>
<p>checking in also, it’s been a while. DD is home and working at her internship at Brookhaven National Labs here on Long Island, her days are long and as a bonus she is working with radiation (yikes) and plants. At least I get to see her more even if she glows in the dark lol. I can’t believe senior yr is around the corner. My DS is living up his final free summer before joining the real world at his job on Sept 9th. He is in Vegas as I write, what a life. </p>
<p>I hope all have a wonderful summer and that we can keep our little dwindling thread alive till graduation 2014</p>
<p>Checking in too. S stayed in his apartment for the summer so I’m missing having long walks/talks with him as in past summers. He is keeping his usual school job and has an internship he is excited about.
D did come home and has been trying to turn my remaining handful of dark hair white with her shenanigans. (You know, 19 year olds are “adults” and thus can do anything they want !) She is struggling with house rules after total freedom at school freshman year.
S2 has been spending his summer playing tennis and riding bikes with neighborhood kids - something I’m thrilled about since the older two never had friends within walking distance.
To add to the fun, my mom moved in with us very unexpectedly 2 months ago. Let me say, I never thought anything could be harder than having a kid leave - but I was wrong! lol.
We are having a fun family reunionish weekend soon so I’m looking forward to that.
Still can’t believe we are headed toward senior year.</p>
<p>Where’s the coffee? It’s getting to be a real snooze around here. It’s a good think we had a few people check in yesterday, or we’d be moving from the suburbs to the boonies!!</p>
<p>My S turns 21 today. Hard to believe, but true. He has also been taking out the trash and mowing the lawn at his summer rental, so I guess he is growing up!</p>
<p>Hey everyone, checking in. The last 12 hours have been super stressful and exciting for those of us who closely follow politics, so I am totally wiped out! Phew. Good thing I get a vacation next week :D</p>
<p>Happy 21st Birthday to alicew’s DS!!</p>
<p>mommusic: welcome back from vacation! It sounds like you had a great trip.</p>
<p>t_c: have a great vacation! </p>
<p>
I’m going to go with the fact that your D1 is totally awesome.
I thought the summer between HS & college was formally known as “The Summer of the Sloth.” 
With crossed fingers & toes, I’m guessing he is a two-toed kind of sloth.</p>
<p>DB: keeping MY fingers & toes crossed for you (I am a three-toed kind of sloth, so wishing you extra good luck). ;)</p>
<p>Waving to all
S also stayed at his apartment this summer in college town. He called today and said he’d be HOME Monday “for awhile”. 
I am thrilled. He was home long enough to go on vacation with us the end of May, but that seems so long ago.</p>
<p>The heat index today is 106. Just a little FYI…</p>
<p>D15 got her driver’s license earlier this month. She really does do a good job. She drover herself to the next town over last Friday to the Chiropractor. How quickly things seem to change…</p>
<p>Do (or did) any of your kids attend a Montessori school? Particularly , a preschool ? I’m considering getting my teacher certification in Montessori. It’ll take about a year. I’m excited about it, but it won’t change my job or pay any. I’m trying to decide if it’s a waste of time, or approach it as furthering my education and being great at what I do. </p>
<p>We’re having a yard sale this Saturday. Every year, I swear I won’t have another. They’re a lot of work. :p</p>
<p>The sheriff was at the neighbors Monday morning (yes…THOSE neighbors - porn & trash in my yard, driving through my yard, etc etc). Turns out, someone has been stealing things from hunting cabins…over $30,000 in fact. They caught them with a game camera (ironically) and one of the 4 teens was our neighbor boy. That $$ amount makes it a felony. Never a dull moment here…</p>
<p>It’s official. I have registered a Europe tour for June 2015. D15 picked Italy/France for her graduation trip destination and since S10 is on the ‘5 year plan’…he graduates at the same time. We’re all going. It’s a group tour, through the same company that we got our exchange student last year. If I get a certain number of people, I can go free. The same company has been used a few times by our school. I’m being very choosey about who goes (don’t want the neighbors to sign up :rolleyes:) and I think I’ve got that number. So much to think about, but very exciting.</p>
<p>Checkers: I went to Montessori school from 18 months to about 4 years old before we moved to Maryland. My parents have always said that one of the reasons I am the way I am is because of the Montessori school. I don’t really have enough to add to whether you should get the certification but I felt that attending Montessori school really helped my development even if I don’t remember much of it. It is definitely a different way of education. If I ever have kids I would send my kids to a Montessori school.</p>
<p>Good morning. Coffee is ready. </p>
<p>Checkers - your trip sounds wonderful. If I were you, I’d have trouble waiting 2 years. </p>
<p>Son texted from his internship last night, “I just interviewed…the mayor.” He works the 3:30 - 11:30 shift. So, I haven’t spoken to him yet. Don’t know all the details. And, the TV station doesn’t have last night’s news segments on the web site yet. The suspense is killing me. </p>
<p>Have a great Thursday.</p>
<p>Good morning!!</p>
<p>Happy Birthday to Alice’s DS!</p>
<p>DB: sounds like your son has a great summer job!</p>
<p>Tonight S3 and I leave for his orientation. </p>
<p>We are babysitting my cousins dog. She is a very cute 8 month old black lab. Henry is exhausted.</p>
<p>Good morning. Thanks for the coffee, DB, and can’t wait for more details about the interview!!</p>
<p>Checkers - I agree your vacation sounds amazing. As for Montessori, one of D’s good friends from COLLEGE was Montessori educated all through, and his father is a devoted Montessori teacher/advocate. But that’s really all I know about it. I can try to put you in touch with the dad, if you like.</p>
<p>~~waving to the rest of the iPeeps visiting here.</p>
<p>Woke up this morning to the news that one of my cousins (actually, cousin’s wife) died last night. She was about my age - her D just graduated from Brown and her S just finished his first year at my alma mater. Very sad. She was a fun loving irrepressible mama bear.</p>
<p>Hey, everyone! I’ve been gone for days and will need to catch up – though it sounds like it won’t take me long. ;)</p>
<p>alice, my ds told me yesterday that it was your ds’s birthday, but I forgot to post a congrats!</p>
<p>Good morning and TGIF. :)</p>
<p>Not much going on here. Pretty quiet, actually. Have a great weekend.</p>