<p>ooVoo Video Features</p>
<p>Up to 6 participants in a call
Import your contacts from IM, social network, email and more
Record and send video messages
Change your view to Full Screen mode
Record and store audio and video calls
Text chat and share files</p>
<p>You can find it at oovoo dot com</p>
<p>Bluedad suggested we set up oovoo over skype because he prefers the security. It’s what they use at his job.</p>
<p>Staples is worth checking out again this week. I found white out for .50, set of 2 sharpies for .25, a stapler for $5 (reg $10), and a rolling cart with 5 drawers to keep next to a desk for $14.99 (reg $30). I also got a really tiny flash drive by HP 8GB for $14.99 (reg $25) to keep on a keychain. You can find 8GB for less but this was super small.</p>
<p>Hi all. D and I checked in this morning about college prep stuff (what is left to buy, was the transcript sent, AP credit processed, books, etc.). Good stuff. I did, however, have a sticker shock moment when I booked her Thanksgiving flight home. It was twice the cost of our tickets for move-in. If you need to book a flight for November, my advice is to do it NOW. It was quite sad to do the roundtrip originating there and realizing that in 3 weeks, “home” is over 1000 miles away. FYI, the “Move In Day Tips” thread in this forum is very good. I recommend a visit.</p>
<p>BI - got most of the same stuff at Staples today. Also do not miss the pens that are free after rebate :)</p>
<p>Yes, I forgot to mention the Z-grip $4 pens then free with $4 rebate. I got those too! :)</p>
<p>Hi All</p>
<p>Well I asked dear kiddo2 to put some stuffed animals and beanie babies into a kitchen trash bag for the attic–only to find kiddo2 very sentimental about all of the time kiddo1 and kiddo 2 spent together playing… 
It is starting to hit kiddo2 that kiddo1 (gone all summer) is only coming home to wash clothes and repack for college. It was sad when yesterday I looked at tickets RT from college to home for Thanksgiving. While we cant book it yet, just realizing that this won’t be “home” anymore for kiddo1 is sad.</p>
<p>If you have highschoolers, you might enjoy this link
[Inside</a> the high schooler’s brain - The high schooler’s brain | GreatSchools](<a href=“Inside the high schooler's brain | Parenting”>Inside the high schooler's brain | Parenting)</p>
<p>My kiddo1 is pretty good at laundrey–Being gone all summer for the last several years, Kiddo has been sorting/doing laundrey; clothes, towels and sheets every week all summer. Even complained last year that those Purex all in one sheets did not do well and everything had to be re-washed with a liquid detergent. Kiddo is also a really good “folder”–worked out to re-fold anything I fold since then kiddo can get more shirts into drawers if they are folded a certain way… ;)</p>
<p>VAmom- I may end up doing the same thing. Do you have a good fridge recommendation?</p>
<p>I have not even thought about cleaning out my son’s room before he leaves. I don’t think I could handle it!</p>
<p>fogfog - DS has two big boxes of beanie babies he is saving for his children. I hope they aren’t moldy by then. When I suggested he bring them to a hospital as a comm serv project, I was met with daggers of horror.</p>
<p>TV brands - there are many 19" TVs with build-in DVD players. Ours might be a Toshiba; I’d have to look. But it was bought 4 years ago, so not really relevant. We’ve seen them running below $200 lately, at Best Buy, Target, Walmart, etc.</p>
<p>I’m not sure if this is helpful or depressing, but I’ve got to say that anymore just because a child is going off to college, it doesn’t mean that they won’t come back to live. In this economy, it’s no longer the norm for kids to have job offers after graduation and internships and jobs may not materialize over the summer. They may get jobs, but they may not be able to afford their own place. Or they may not be interested in living in a dump like some of us did just so we didn’t have to live with our parents.</p>
<p>My '07 College grad worked in China for the year after she graduated college but then moved back in with us for a year. My older son (the one I want to ship off), graduated from College last May and moved back home in June. Many of both of my kids friends, all college grads, are living with their parents even if they are employed. I don’t really mind having adult “children” living here, but I surely didn’t expect it. When my husband and I graduated from HS and started college, we never planned to move back home.</p>
<p>Speaking of beanie babies, I stupidly collected many of those 20 years ago and am ready to get rid of them. I recently found out that there is a program where they send them to troops stationed in the Middle East and the soldiers give them to children there. I’m thinking of donating the bulk of mine to them. [url=<a href=“Beanis - Business World News”>http://www.beaniesforbaghdad.com/]BeaniesForBaghdad.com[/url</a>] I’ll keep a dozen for some future grandchildren, but I can’t imagine I need 50 of them.</p>
<p>^ I have beanie babies in ziploc baggies safely sealed in rubbermade boxes in the basement. These are not to be confused with the duplicate beanie babies which were played with. They are in another box and periodically get gifted to the dog. I also have the McDonald’s tiny beanie babies tucked away (never opened). It’s pretty funny because I am not a saver of much and gutted our last house before we moved. Very little made the cut. I realized not too long ago that I have a vintage Blue Iguana beanie baby :)</p>
<p>I hear you KathyP. </p>
<p>I am not trying to kick kiddo1 out, however the drawers and drawers of event tshirts, piles of college brochures (found some today) etc need sorting. I don’t want kiddo to throw out the collectibles/memories and just want the desk/drawers/closets organized. Sadly right now the only thing in the closet here are empty hangers and some shoeboxes…all of the clothes are with kiddo. It was sad to see that empty closet and empty dresser drawers today.</p>
<p>The game closet has been cleaned out more than once and I suspect some more will go. </p>
<p>I just found a large rubbermaid bin - about 5 ’ long and 3’ wide filled with VHS tapes. The kids haven’t played those tapes in years. </p>
<p>Kiddo2 was in search of the old Buzz and old Woody. I dont think they have been thrown out…I think they were packed away when we moved at one point…kiddo2 is very concerned to find them…</p>
<p>fogfog - DS Buzz and Woody are stored away safely along with all his Thomas the Tank engine purchases those many years ago. He tried to get rid of his Pokemon cards but I hid them a while back…paid A LOT of money for those. </p>
<p>DS isn’t a saver…I have to save for him. He sold his Xbox 360 last month…didn’t particularly like playing it. Now his Nintendo 64, that’s a keeper along with his old Gameboy.</p>
<p>Only Beanie Babies here are a Lacrosse brear and an Air Force bear. Those are mine.</p>
<p>DS asked me what we were going to do with his room after he left. We have a 3 bedroom home so I just plan on cleaning it up a little and using as a guestroom. But I am not changing much because of the fact he will be home sometimes and he needs a landing spot…plus as kathiep pointed out…they sometimes come home again.</p>
<p>Not to be a downer (happened 30+ years ago) but my mom passed away when I was 17 and I had to move in with a family friend. Went off into the world knowing I could never go home again…so want my DS to have that home place always.</p>
<p>Two big rubbermaid tubs of “memorabilia” safely tucked away…two tubs of recycling dumped this am…made me find a space for his lego castle creation that has been hiding on the top shelf of his closet…almost clean room save for the clothes he needs to pack. He has a foothigh pile of sheet music to sort through still. </p>
<p>I have such a mix of emotions right now, I can hardly bear it. It is everyone on my last nerve, it is dh being dh, and the girls all being their very different selves. It is such a long summer when you don’t go away with 4 kids in the house demanding attention in some way.</p>
<p>I think girls may tend to ‘collect’ more 'valuable objects" than boys. We have several Rubbermaind totes stored with American Girl dolls and clothes, Beanie Babies, and other things that we could not part with. I try to go through their rooms at least twice a year to filter out clothes, and once a year for 'memorabilia" Since I am also an avid scrap booker, I know that they get the “I really need to save this forever!!” gene from me.</p>
<p>However, I do recall going to my in-laws for Thanksgiving after we were married. We lived in MA, and they lived in PA. Father in law said “We need you to go through a few boxes in the guest room while you are here this weekend” There were boxes and boxes of things from my H’s school years- all the way back to Kindergarten. His Mom saved everything that he ever did. Everytime we visited, or they came to our house, we had more boxes of stuff to sort out. She even saved the original boxes of plastic model kits- along with the little plastic pieces that held the unassembled parts together.</p>
<p>After about 10 years, the boxes had been all sorted through. But, my niece tells me that mother in law keeps giving her things that were gifts from my sister in law to my mother-in-law. The poor kid said she takes it home with her, then puts it in the trash or Goodwill.</p>
<p>Tidbits from today: Did other kindle users know that you can get the New Yorker for $3 a month? I signed up today for a free 14-day trial, just in time for a couple of long plane trips. I’ve always liked the magazine, but it was too expensive a splurge for me; now I can read it and live vicariously through my D while she’s living near NYC.</p>
<p>D had been using an older laptop that’s in fine shape and was happy to take it to college, except its battery is slow to charge/fast to discharge. We looked into replacing the battery today - H thought a new one wasn’t worth it and replaced the laptop completely. Turns out he has someone he’d like to give the old one to (who doesn’t care about battery life), so I understand, beyond the fact that sending him to a computer store is almost always going to result in a new computer for someone. D is very appreciative. It sure is Christmas for these kids right now!</p>
<p>The good news except for arranging for the fridge to be shipped we are done shopping. We’ll pick up a few sundries in the college town is all.</p>
<p>For better or worse, I am not a pack rat other than with financial records (which I am going too start scanning based on an idea mentioned by one of you brilliant people a few pages back re: calc notes I think). Clothes, toys, books only got saved about two years past last use then given to others who could use them. I saved one box of baby clothes, some rattles and the like, favorite books (“Not the Hippopotamus”), etc. I also have about three or four boxes of school projects, cards and other treasures. Every year we cleaned DS’s room after school ended thus we didn’t have a huge task this year. </p>
<p>Since I am redecorating DS’s bedroom and office/hang-out room this winter (hey, he is an only child), I warned him tonite that anything he leaves behind not put in a box marked SAVE is far game for give away or throw away or mommy peeking at. Will be moving extra bed out of my office into his so when our Israeli grandkids are old enuf to visit in the summer, there will be plenty of room for them to sleep. Probably putting in two hi-risers (already have one) that will be usually pushed together to look like a king, but can sleep four when bottom bed moved out. I will then have so much more space for me in my office.</p>
<p>EB - congrats on new computer and being in shopping end zone.</p>
<p>Emmybet: Cograts on your D1’s internship. I’m excited that she’ll be living in my neck of the woods. Let me know if you have any questions when she starts looking for an apartment. Traffic in the DC area is terrible, so she should keep that in mind when she chooses a place to live. </p>
<p>I’ve been feeling a bit sad like the rest of you. I’ll have both of my girls on vacation and at home for the last 3 weeks of August, so I’m looking forward to that. It’s going to be really quiet in this house after we drop off D2. I’m trying to make some fun plans for
the fall. Is anyone else really relieved that football is back? That should be a good distraction this fall.</p>
<p>momjr - I am a big time football widow. My DH watches every day, every game if possible. Fortunately he hates the jibber jabber so the sound is low. After all these years I’m used to it. By Nov, I start getting cuckoo. We still go out with friends but I know his heart is home with his big screen and comfy chair. Could be worse.</p>