Good morning and Happy Friday! Happy Mothers Day to all! I will have 2 of 3 home. The plan is to play tennis with my mother (77), who still plays 5 days a week, and then dinner.
S3 is finishing up Dead Week and DH will pick him up next Saturday after his finals. I am a little worried that they will kill each other during the move-out, but I am not going to stress too much about it. It is a 7 hour drive each way and DH likes to do it all in one day, which is why I am passing. Also my goal is to go through life without ever stepping foot inside a fraternity house. S3 will have a few weeks off and then will return to his sailing instructor gig. NEXT YEAR he plans on getting an internship. That was the plan for this year too, but he never got around to filling out the applications.
This is what my 26 year old has in his kitchen: A box of Life, a gallon of milk, a carton of lemonade, a box of bagel bites in the freezer. (The bagel bites are new the first time we visited him he didn’t even have that.) Younger son took a whole set of kitchen supplies to college so he could make pie whenever he wanted.
My 35 year old friend David one day came to my house wanted to share some frozen dumplings with me, I was happy to receive them until he opened his car trunk full of dumplings! Apparently he went to a wholesale place to buy 100 bags of 50 each! And he has been living on those ever since he left college! Ugh…
Helped S buy a new car yesterday. Not as bad as having a root canal, but close. rolleyes Anyway, he got as good a deal as he was likely to get, the car is blinged up with Bluetooth and synced to his phone, and I can tell he’s happy to have accomplished something truly adult. (At our house, kids do NOT get a car when they turn 16!)
B-)
PS. Oh yes, he & roommate will eat at the company cafeteria. But still–you have to eat on weekends and fast food gets old after a while. Besides, you can impress female guests when you have at least a few culinary skills.
Mommusic/annoyed … we have a plan to go car shopping with our DS next weekend. Going to Sacramento where used car prices seem to be $500 -$1000 cheaper. Think he is going with a dealer and hope the warrantee (if any) will transfer to the local shop. He is looking forward to not having to ask to “borrow” the car to get groceries or to go dancing. He is working this summer and will need it in YIKES about a month and a half. Wow, where did this first year of his grad school go???
edit to add, DS has a complete kitchen set and can cook. He also makes cookies and awesome pies. Usually he lives on Life cereal, milk and doesn’t seem like much else. … not that we see his kitchen very often.
No Alice, it’s not Friday yet. You still have another day to go.
I’m posting a little early this week as I am heading home early to spend the weekend hiking around Skyline Drive with DW. Hopefully we won’t be eaten by a wayward bear or roughed up by a band of miscreant squirrels. Monticello was temporarily on the itinerary until I checked and found that this is UVA’s graduation weekend, so we want to stay as far away from Charlottesville as possible! The goal is to be at least a little off the grid, so I’ll post today instead for sending CC smoke signals tomorrow.
I guess that everyone is stuffed from their kids putting their culinary skills to work for Mother’s Day. As best as I can tell, Life cereal, bagel bites, and the promise of about a gross of dumplings of questionable repute figured prominently in the menu.
Tx5 – Here’s hoping that at the end of the weekend, you still have both a DH and S3.
Momannoyed – Congrats to your S on the new car! I hope that it is as “impressive” as his culinary skills.
Esobay – Best of luck on the car shopping. Maybe you could get a deeper discount by offering a pie?
Speaking of cars, DW took her youngest baby out for Mother’s Day to visit D1 and sent me a pix of the baby’s odometer turning to 999 (yes, 1000-1) miles after 7 months. At least she took it out. At this rate, it will need an oil change in just 1 more year. And if you are keeping track (I know I’m not ), the official floor mats are still is the plastic and she has put cheaper daily use ones in, ugh!
Not much post-college news here other than D2 continues to prep for her first business trip to the UK with tacked on vacation time.
DS is the proud owner of a low-milage 2012 Honda Civic. Fierce negotiations (and his natural stubbornness) got him a pretty fair deal. Signed, registered and insured. All on him. And we got it close to home after all! Took ALLLL DAY long though. DH was also exhausted (I stayed in the car and read once negotiations started).
edit to add: this feels like another one of those life milestones that is such a part of growing up!
g# hope you have a very nice fire for the smoke signals and peace and quiet! Did your D2 get a lot of new wardrobe for the business trip? our DD is going to get $$ for “grown up clothes” for her birthday.
Hi All seems like forever since I last checked in. DD is finishing up her first grad yr and is settle on her prof and lab for the next who knows how many years of research till PHD. Now maybe we can get more into the wedding nitty gritty. Its good to see all the ongoing milestones our progeny are reaching. G#, so funny you mentioned your DW’s barely used new car as I am fast approaching 9000 miles on my 7 month old car and have yet to find time to get its first oil change neglectful car owner that I am lol
Wishing everyone a restful and enjoyable weekend.
S got his graduation photos–or rather the link to view, purchase, and download them. Incredibly expensive so we’re not getting any and are glad we took some nice ones outdoors after the ceremony. BUT they do say “Proof” all over them, so there is that. Nothing like having proof you earned a degree.
Hi everyone! Momannoyed, love the “proof” comment. For me, proof was receiving S’s diploma in the mail last week. I promptly sent him a text asking permission to open it. He decided to stay in his college town and landed his first career job. Before he accepted the offer he asked if he could have a flexible schedule so he could continue as a drum instructor for his college band. Thankfully, his new boss granted his request.
For DH and I, it’s about downsizing. I recently traded in my “soccer mom van” for a small hybrid car and now we’re shopping around for a smaller house. Unfortunately, in this area, it doesn’t necessarily mean downsizing the mortgage.
Just dropping by to say hello on this rainy Tuesday . . .
Hi lilmom - long time no “see” - Congratulations on your S’s graduation (and on getting proof thereof) and on his securing a career job! You should be proud (and perhaps a bit relieved, I know I was).
There seems to be quite a bit of discussion upthread about cooking - well, really about sons learning to cook. Mine is learning slowly, so I think he eats the same few things a lot. But he does cook dinner for himself most nights - doesn’t do restaurants or take out. And he has corralled a decent array of cooking implements, including a rice cooker. I think that’s progress.
He has not, however, engaged in the adult ritual of car purchasing. Instead, he claimed our 2000 CR-V, and has hopes of getting it to 200,000 miles (not too much farther to go).
And yes, G#, I was confused for a moment when I saw your post on Thursday. But then, I am often confused about what day it is these days.
It’s nice to be back! Yup, we’re proud parents and also relieved.
On the subject of cooking…I talked to S about cooking more at home and brown bagging to work. His reply, “The cheapest sushi place is right across the street.”
Helping son pack up his belongings to move out. We’re going out of town for the weekend so I’m making him start on the process before next week. The dorm mountain is slowly turning into the apartment mountain, which is being staged in the living room.
Side benefit–some things from high school are going bye-bye at last. Maybe I’ll get some storage space back in his closet!
Edit: He has discovered 3 (three!) pairs of pants with holes in the knees that have been waiting for me to turn them into shorts. They still fit at the waist so I guess I have to do this.
I can’t believe he’s really going. At age 23, it’s about time, but still…
To complicate things, he & his girlfriend seem to be pretty serious. I know HE has mixed feelings about leaving town! Ah well, time will tell.
TGIF to the iPeeps! Wishing everyone a nice holiday weekend, with a special shout out and thanks to our veterans and those who have served.
Waving at alicew & mathmom.
Momannoyed: congratulations on your DS’s graduation. I loved the proof comment! I’m sure it is bittersweet helping him pack up and move.
lilmom: it’s nice to ‘see’ you again. Congrats to your DS (and you) on the graduation & job!
coskat & esobay: it’s nice to ‘see’ you again and to hear about milestones.
artloversplus: Yikes about all those dumplings! When you finish clearing your garage, would you help me with mine? Bicycles & fishing gear seem to propagate like rabbits.
G#: we missed a G# sighting in the Blue Ridge mountains by a few miles & a day. DH & I drove to Pres. Hoover’s fishing camp, which is not far from Skyline Drive. It took us an hour to drive ~5 miles on a dirt road with rocks so large & ruts so deep that they could swallow a whole car. Alas, the brook trout are smarter than we are - we caught no fish & left empty-handed.
We have a brief S2 sighting! He drove home after work last night & arrived at 2 am following a 3-hour drive in heavy traffic (at midnight?!). Welcome to I-95 summer traffic. He has a “super day” of job interviews, but we’ll get to spend time with him tonight. Both S2 & S1 leave tomorrow: S2 is headed to the beach with his GF, and S1 is headed off on a 3-week vacation/safari in South Africa with a close SA friend. After juggling FT work & grad school at night, he has earned a break. He only has 2 classes remaining in the fall to complete his Master’s degree.
DW dropped me off at the airport on our way back from the mountains last weekend. I sure hope she remembers to come get me tonight.
12rmh18 – I hate that we missed you literally by a couple of miles. If only I had known, I had a 4x4 Jeep. I also hate that the “the big one got away.” We “settled” for brook trout on the menu at the lodge. Glad that S2 made it home safely… I despise the DC/Richmond I-95 corridor. It sounds like S1 should have a great, much-needed vacation!
Hey, look everybody, lilmom’s back and she brought donuts!.. presumably to celebrate the unveiling of the well-deserved diploma and new job for S!
Welcome back to coskat too! Now go get your oil changed so that you can take your DD out to celebrate the end of year 1!
Momannoyed – Aw come on, you gotta spring for the pictures… and a yearbook! Best of luck to him in his next chapter!!!
Aliceinw – It really is Friday. You have my permission to go home now.
Esobay – Congrats to your Civic-minded DS on reaching the automotive milestone! It is one that D2 hopes to never reach as she wants to live where there is good public transportation and no need to drive. She has known that since she was very small and loved South Beach because we could walk everywhere. That would be the vacation on which I unwittingly took the family to a topless beach, so let’s not dredge up that particular memory, OK? As far as new clothes for her business trip, I wouldn’t know. Pretty much any calls that involve fashion, makeup, and / or tears go directly to mom as I am completely non-value added in those departments.
Re: Getting Rid of Stuff – I was cleaning out and almost threw away D2’s prized plastic school bus for which she had save “AR Points” in kindergarten to “buy.” Luckily, DW was there to rescue and wash it!
In post-college news, D2 sent me a text that she was doing the financial research on a guy who is in his early thirties and worth >$1 billion. She does not think that she is going to get there.
Nice to hear from you, lilmom. Congrats to the new grad!
Eso - congrats to your DS on his new auto!
12rmh18 - it sounds like you had a nice time, and yay for S sightings!
GSharp - has your D2 met the guy she’s researching?
I can hardly believe this, but S finished his freshman year and got home last Friday. I’ve barely seen him since then, but it’s nice to know he’s nearby. As for D, I haven’t seen her since the end of December, but she’ll be coming home for a week in June, and then I’m going to visit her for a couple of days in July.
We had a nice Memorial Day inaugurating our not yet screened in porch. S2 invited three high school friends and his girlfriend was also with us for the weekend. They made the burgers and hot dogs and choc chip cookies. I made the salsa and supplied the drinks. They regaled us with tales of their bad teachers and tales of their misbehavior during senior slump time. Who knew that ds spent most of the year with his back to the calculus teacher playing Magic with his friends? No wonder he only got a 3 on the exam! Apparently the only kid who paid attention in that class was the one who became the valedictorian.
DS moved out today for good. He, his gf and DH caravaned in two cars full of his stuff and I hear they’re having a great time buying him a bed and other essentials. Apparently buying a mattress is the Perfect way to end a long day of car travel. (Thoroughly testing them, of course.) They went out to test the local beers afterwards and I am sorry to be missing the fun.
I got used to having him here for the month after graduation so it’s a little harder to let go than I thought. But this afternoon I consoled myself with the remainder of a pint of Ben & Jerry’s, then set to work cleaning up his room (the dorm mountain made it impossible to do this earlier.)
Now it’s all clean when he (or any of the other kids or grandkids) comes to visit.
Nothing like having proof you earned a degree.
