<p>Missypie - let me be another to add to the chorus, please don’t hold back. As much time/energy as I have invested in this college process, this is not my biggest worry. Life is the good, the bad and ugly, and friends are not afraid to hear it all.</p>
<p>Pepper - I can always use a FFL, I’m in.</p>
<p>Glad all the travelers have arrived safely. </p>
<p>Psychmama - the RDU area had horrible weather yesterday but it looks clear from here on out. I hope the visit goes well.</p>
<p>Glad to hear about all the safe arrivals, both actual arrivals and decisions made about next year. Two weeks from today just about all of us will know where our children are going to college next year. There will be a few changes over the summer as wait lists turn into dreams fulfilled. As we get closer to this next step, it is starting to feel more real. I have very mixed feelings of excitement for my child and sadness that this chapter of parenthood will soon be over.</p>
<p>D was just debriefing me on her Costa Rican trip. She had a wonderful time. Beaches, volcanos, hot springs, shopping, sightseeing, visiting with her Costa Rican friends… As expected given that the drinking age is 18 there, D had her first experiences with alcohol. I am glad she did it where it was legal( she is a rule follower and won’t drink here because it is against the law!). She admitted that she got drunk one time and told me that she hopes to never experience that again…I can remember feeling that too! Other than that she drank very responsibly. I glad that she shared it with me and honestly I am glad she had the experience. When I was her age the drinking age was 18. I remember everyone ordering drinks when we went out to dinner before the prom ! (except for me, I was 17). She is a very responsible kid and really learned from this experience that she doesn’t want to be drunk again. And also as I stated earlier, other than driving a little over the speed limit at times, my D is a huge rule follower and won’t drink in the US until she is 21!!</p>
<p>Hi all! What a lot of news again!!
Congratulations to all of those coming into port!
Like so many, we just picked S up from the airport on what may turn out to be his last visit. He liked the school and got off the plane wearing the sweatshirt - I think he’s trying to tell us something! But over the next few days I’ll be getting more info about how the scholarships and fin. aid works there and comparing with his other choice. Hopefully we will disembark sometime next week :)</p>
<p>To encourage others with not-so-great life happenings right now, I’ll ask you to keep your fingers crossed for my job - not the college decision! Our school system is intending to lay-off 600+ staff, and eliminate some entire programs. Of course, I won’t know my job status until AFTER May 1st, so I have to ask alot of “what if” questions at the financial aid offices.
And yesterday our car died. SO - this week will be three drivers, three jobs and schedules, no bus service, and one car. Wish us luck!!
On the bright side, S was notified of winning a local scholarship - 4k - yay!</p>
<p>Lastly - I know I"m late, but I want to especially congratulate Military Mom - I’ve been thinking about your family and move so often and sending you kind thoughts. I’m just thrilled that you’ve got just the move that works best for you. Love it!!</p>
<p>Missypie~Please feel free to stop by anytime…we are always here for you. Pepper could have not express our feelings better. :D</p>
<p>Pepper~Thanks for tracking down Renmom I was thinking of her and figured she was in the mist of decisions 
Computer crash no fun :(</p>
<p>Puma12~Good Luck with your job and Hurray on the 4K for S.</p>
<p>Good Luck to all traveling 
</p>
<p>I just got home with S2 who was applying for his US Passport at a local library. There is a blank to write the name of one’s school (if one put down “student” in the occupation spot), but S2 left it blank. (We didn’t think it was appropriate to write in SS Indecision.) The adorable, smart, elderly librarian who handles the passport applicants looked at the empty blank, noticed S2’s age and asked–don’t you know which college you’re going to attend next year yet?</p>
<p>LOL! Even kindly strangers in the outside world are demanding his choice. And when he told her his current top 3, she asked his major, thought it over quickly and then announced which school he should attend. I love librarians!! </p>
<p>We’ll see if she was S2’s Yoda!</p>
<p>great story madbean!</p>
<p>Second the story greatness! Sometimes it seems like everybody has an opinion about what our kids should do 
I just tell myself they mostly mean well.</p>
<p>Madbean- love it! Maybe all of us asea should make a visit to our local branch and get an opinion. Couldn’t hurt?</p>
<p>H just got back from visiting our 20 y.o. son who is studying abroad in New Zealand. He has a two week spring break, so H went to visit him for half of the break. They had a great time! I’m so envious - wish I could have gone too. It sounds fabulous!</p>
<p>Glad to see traveling taking place, decisions being made, and stories of birthday parties and proms. Missypie, don’t ever think you need to only post good news on this forum. We’re here for the good, the bad, and the ugly!</p>
<p>Speaking of ugly, I really need to get on my graduation diet. Ugh. H brought home a bunch of candy from NZ. Fortunately for me, some of it contains gluten so I can’t eat it; however, some of it does not… so I have.</p>
<p>D has senioritis. But she’s finishing up a big senior project for school, and that’s going well. AFAIK she’s not studying for APs or much of anything else, but managing all As except for the dreaded AP Calc. Spends every free moment with her BF. Oh well, I’m just glad she’s happy.</p>
<p>Glad everyones’ travels ended up well despite weather, delays, etc. And hope no one is in the path of those awful tornadoes – very scary!</p>
<p>Hollie, glad your daughter’s alcohol experience didn’t go too badly. My daughter is a rule follower too and loved it when she spent two weeks in France with her friend (friend’s dad lived there). They drank wine with dinner every evening and she still finds ways to casually drop her wine-drinking experience into conversation.</p>
<p>puma, will keep my fingers crossed for your job situation. I have a friend who is a music teacher in the public school system and is facing similar uncertainty.</p>
<p>madbean, I like the librarian - Yoda connection! “School X attend you must!”</p>
<p>oregonianm, I’m jealous of the New Zealand trip! I’ve always wanted to go there.</p>
<p>missyp, I’ll join the chorus of saying share as much as you like. My nephew had some big issues, dropped out of high school at 17, joined the army, two years in Iraq, series of misfortunes when he returned. He’s now about to graduate from William and Mary (a few years older than his fellow graduates!) and has been accepted to grad school at U of Md. And I know plenty of folks who never did go to college and are still doing fine. Some paths have more steep and rocky parts than others!</p>
<p>Also if you (or anyone) wants some advice on gluten free diets, pm me. I live with 3 celiacs and I am not the best cook, but still manage.</p>
<p>Nothing new to report here. Sailing along calmly on the SS Indecision.</p>
<p>A quick update: Just spoke to H and he and S are now at the college and all seems to be going well. My S even ran into someone he knows who’s a student there and may have someone to informally host him overnight! So happy for him and cannot wait to hear how the visit goes.</p>
<p>Thanks to all for the well wishes.</p>
<p>Madbean~Great story :)</p>
<p>Amanda~Are you in Morris county ?</p>
<p>Psych~Great news !!</p>
<p>Folks we are off the SS Indecision… S2 will be Duke Class of 2015. </p>
<p>We officially accepted the offer, but no deposit are required at this time :D</p>
<p>It feels good to be done 
after 3 years of research, 2 years of college apps, great results, happy kids…priceless…hum almost :eek:</p>
<p>Thank you to all for the support on this thread or via PM …the saying no was not easy but in the end he is confident he made the right choice for him:)</p>
<p>Survivor mom of '10 & '11 officially passing the baton to the '12 &'13</p>
<p>2ED - congrats on your future Blue Devil and to being done with this crazy process!</p>
<p>Madbean - The librarian - that’s better than flipping a coin!</p>
<p>We returned from our last visit late last night. We drove back from Washington through MD, PA and OH and encountered a lot of bad weather and heavy rain but nothing like what the more southern states received. Just glad to hear that eveyone had safe travels.</p>
<p>Congrats to those who disembarked this weekend. S came back from Monday’s visit about 95% ready to jump ship and onto the bandwagon. He had already signed up for this weekend and felt he should go although he told us that it was probably a waste of his time as last Monday’s school had pretty well set the table for him.</p>
<p>Now Mr. Cynic is doing some real soul searching as this weekend turned out to be even better than expected and better than last week’s first visit. I will give him credit for being thorough and trying to keep an open mind. He is now doing a detailed comparison and indicated that he will make a decision announcement tonight or tomorrow.</p>
<p>So, it is quite possible that we may be disembarking soon! :)</p>
<p>2ed- congrats! How exciting to be done!</p>
<p>There is some progress in our household. Several weeks ago, when I knew which schools son would be choosing between (Rice, GA Tech & WPI), I prepared a folder filled with info on each school. There was marketing info from visits, pages from websites, lots of pages from CC, and a summary page on each which included info such as core curriculum, handling of AP/B credits, pass/fail rules, dual majors, etc. I think I was fairly objective b/c I have no clear favorite. Well…tonite the three files moved from my desk to his room. That is PROGRESS!!</p>
<p>2ed-congrats on disembarking!!</p>
<p>and it sounds like lots of progress being made by others!!</p>
<p>Nothing like a librarian!</p>
<p>2ed that’s great! Avon better now to do this than have buyer’s remorse later-good for him!</p>
<p>Good luck puma-it’s so tough out there-fingers crossed.</p>
<p>hollie my son tells me they are going to try Sangria on this trip when they go to their flamenco event-I certainly hope that is an approved part of this trip-I’ll have to get to the bottom of it when he returns.</p>
<p>I told my 92 year old father that he was in Malaga today-I started to tell him where that was and he stopped me and told me exactly where it was! I was stunned-and when I went through the itinerary he knew exactly were everything was and the Spanish meanings. When we were kids if we asked what a word meant he would repeat it, spell it, give the root of it, use it in a sentence and spell it again! He is still the most brilliant man I have ever met-and I think we have a few people here going to Brown-Dad is Class of 1940! Just think what your kids will be like! :)</p>
<p>Speaking of which-Renaissance Mom sends best wishes and tells me she is suffering from CC withdrawal and can’t wait to catch up on all the news. Looks like the HD may be shot on her Apple-I guess she’ll know tomorrow.</p>
<p>FlMath yay-that IS progress. :)</p>
<p>Pepper03- your dad sounds terrific!! hope your son is having a great time on his adventure.</p>