<p>Flmathmom - happy anniversary! Sounds like a reality tv thing, having dinner with exwife on anniversary. </p>
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great idea! Also, join the local collegetown Groupon. I have already purchased 2 restaurant Groupons for H & S to use the days before orientation and one for delivery of 24 cupcakes. </p>
<p>My goal is to get everything except clothes packed tonight. We will be away this weekend so we need to have everything ready to go by midmorning Friday for Monday’s flight.</p>
<p>Good morning all,
Coffee and croissants are ready and complimentary (fogfog’s dh) :D</p>
<p>FLMAthmom~Happy Anniversary 
Sounds as if your trip as already been fun.
Note to self look into an ipad :p</p>
<p>Wishing today’s launchers safe travels, patience and a sense of humor.</p>
<p>Our guestroom is a college packing zone.The two mountains are still standing unpacked! DH is in charge on loading the car, I am strategically removing myself from this.</p>
<p>Blu~Thinking of you and your generosity of heart, just make sure Bluejr does not miss out on all the planned events.We did helped out the international roomie last year, but it did not interfere with our student or our activities…just saying 
BB&B can wait until the Sunday or the next week :)</p>
<p>Waving to all 
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<p>Happy Anniversary to Yalemom, Flmathmom and Gsmomma. Ours is on Sunday. It looks like August weddings were popular in the 80s. </p>
<p>Flmathmom: I’m glad to hear that you’re enjoying the road trip. Wave to me when you drive up 95 north of DC.</p>
<p>Best of luck to this week’s launchers. I’m really glad that we still have almost 2 weeks. My D is feeling better, so we can get back to college mode today.</p>
<p>Happy Anniversary to Yalemom, Flmathmom, Gsmomma, and momjr! Our 20th is D’s move in day next week. She leaves today for pre-o.
After a week of watching her socialize, sleep over at friends resulting in exhaustion, see absolutely everyone for a goodbye all the while doing close to nothing (except shopping) to get ready and being very snarky, D got it all together yesterday. She is ready to go. I am so relieved and happy. So, never fear fellow parents, these kids can do it!<br>
She flies solo with a connection today and gets collected at airport by student leaders before embarking on a week of hiking/canoeing. I am praying she has fun and connects with some good kids.
I have to go to work after the airport; had hoped to take the day off to chill/recover, but I cannot. Today should be fine. Next week, when we move D into dorm is going to be harder I expect.<br>
Good luck to everyone doing the move ins this week. Please share your stories with us!</p>
<p>Tomorrow is the big move in for DD. I’ve been envisioning today as the big packing get it all ready day…but it’s pretty much all done. Some last minute stuff will need to be packed up tomorrow morning but the only thing I guess she needs to do today is get her car vacuumed out.</p>
<p>I have to take my son for schedule pickup/orientation for 10th grade tomorrow morning from 9-11am then we’ll come home, have lunch and on the road by noon. DD will only be 1 1/2 hours away and her move in time is not until 3pm. So we’ll head down, pick up her books from the bookstore and then move her in. We’ll have to take her to dinner too as the cafeteria doesn’t open until Friday morning. But I’m looking forward to that dinner. We’re hoping that perhaps the roomies and parents might come along too and we can all get to know each other a bit. We’ll see how that works out.</p>
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<p>Could not help laughing out loud even though I was at work. Nice strategy, I may have to employ it when all of the peripherals have been lovingly chosen and set out (but nothing packed) in two weeks. Love the kid on the couch, indeed! And no fair- AK and BI get to do this together? No fair at all!!! Sorry no other cc parents are going to be at D’s parent orientation. I am SOOO not looking forward to it but will wave the flag/show up at D’s request.</p>
<p>D has to have two months of PT for her ankle injury (and to add insult to the injury cannot wear heels even 1 inch high. Hee hee. I TOLD her they were bad for her. 
) She thought the best option was for us to buy her a car so she could drive to the PT place that is on our insurance, one town over. I am thinking that we will surely investigate other, less drastic options first.</p>
<p>So all is well in kinderland, all things considered. Hurray for all the August anniversaries- who knew it was such a popular month to get married. Cheers to all!</p>
<p>Good luck to all who are launching their students today!! </p>
<p>AK: Got a good laugh thinking of you breathing in your paper bag. </p>
<p>Sheesh! I keep telling S2 that he needs to get moving on the packing. Yesterday he was using the computer and I asked what he was doing – he was supposed to be cleaning out his soccer and tennis bags and packing up the sports equipment that he wanted to take with him. He told me that he was taking a “cognitive test online”. I asked if it was for the school and when he had to have it done. Oh no, this was just for fun. I wanted to scream, but I walked away repeating to myself…I will not nag, I will not nag, I will not nag. I’m not sure how much longer I’m going to be able to hold myself back.</p>
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Oh I’m sorry Kinder…I have to backtrack and explain. Back in July AK and I were both at orientation at the same time. We were posting about being at the ‘parent mixer’ and how it was so much better knowing someone from our group somewhere was experiencing the same personal misery. So, we were together, but not ‘together in the same place’. When I saw AKson’s move-in date was three day’s after Bluejr’s it was poetic that we’d be going through it together again.</p>
<p>I should have been more clear. I have a terrible habit of thinking everyone simply understands my internal though process and is following along.</p>
<p>@ 2education - I had forgotten that you had helped the roommate from overseas last year! Yes, if dorm meetings have already started then Bluejr understands he needs to go on and do that and the roommate will go with us to get his stuff and they’ll meet up as soon as we get him situated. I was able to call BB&B yesterday and they said that they really don’t check ID’s because the chance of someone coming in and paying for your stuff and taking it is nill. I’d forgotten it wasn’t paid for first. So if the roommate wants to prepay and leave our information BB&B will try to accommodate a pick-up. We left it up to what the roommate and his parents are comfortable with. After all, they don’t know us. It will all work out.</p>
<p>Bluedad is getting anxious about what’s being taken…number of hoodies, etc. Really, back off mister, this is MY arena. I sweetly asked him if it was all going to get in the SUV. He nodded…fine, move on, nothing to see here. I can’t argue with him and Bluejr at the same time. Bluejr is just moving sooo slow. Good thing we have three more days!</p>
<p>Mathmomvt ~ Thanks! I forgot about that completely! Actually, we had something similar in the car we rented for vacation recently. Hope we get something like that again. The plan now, is to bring only the keyboard wrapped in bubble paper (keeping fingers crossed), and have the case delivered to the college later.</p>
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^ Smart you, 2education!</p>
<p>Happy Anniversary, yalemom15, FlMathMom, Gsmomma, momjr & mnmomof2!</p>
<p>I have a silly question that I should post on the "move in day tips’ thread, but I’ll ask it here first.</p>
<p>Do you unpackage all of the new items that you bought prior to moving in- such as the iron, tea kettle, packages of goodness knows what else we bought, or do you do the unwrapping in the dorm room?</p>
<p>gsmomma - I’m on two minds on unpacking stuff. I think if you are for sure going to keep it, and the packing material is just in the way and not essential to keeping the item from breaking, I would unpack it. However, if it’s something that you are not sure will fit in the room and may return to the store, then you would want to keep it in it’s original packaging. For instance, I got son a duvet and a duvet cover. I put both together and then put them in the bag the duvet came in. </p>
<p>Don’t forget to have heavy scissors at the ready if you will be unpacking new items in their impenetrable packaging! I also loved the idea (think this was on the move-in day thread) about a small cooler with beverages and light snacks.</p>
<p>gsmomma, I’d personally probably do it at home so that there was less trash to deal with at the dorm. Unless it packed a whole lot easier in the original boxes.</p>
<p>gsmomma: Agree with Kathiep. The only thing I’d add is that if you want to wash it before you take it, you’ll need to take it out of the packaging. For us, the Brita pitcher may have been easier to transport in its little box, but I wanted to make sure it was washed before it was used, so I unpacked it.</p>
<p>aria, if you are renting a car, call the local branch and let them know that you need a car that will accommodate an item with such and such dimensions, possibly by folding down part of the back seat. They are often willing to be helpful in such requests, and even if they won’t do anything in advance, when you get there, if your stuff doesn’t fit, ask them if they have another vehicle that will accommodate it better.</p>
<p>Thanks everybody for the congratulations, and 2education, thank you for that awesome message, I need to learn how to do all that fancy stuff on CC!! Also Happy Anniversary right back at all of you who had one yesterday or are coming up!</p>
<p>With anniversary and wisdom teeth out of the way all focus is on the big move. I’m so envious of all the drivers out there. We flyers are saving all the pain for when we get there, yuck! This weekend we will be mobilizing- hopefully swelling is down and friends are off to school. These days feel very tension filled but without resolution, the way you feel when you know a balloon is about to pop but you don’t know when…</p>
<p>So, my DH is picking up my DS from camp this evening. We have 36 hours to do a mountain of laundry and get everything that needs to go to school re-packed. Then we leave Friday morning for a 2pm move-in. </p>
<p>And… I’ve pinched a nerve in my back and am in a lot of pain! I hoped it would be better after sleeping last night, but it’s no better. I have a call in to my friend the massage therapist, who I hope can fit me in today! (preferably before DH takes off with our only car!) And it hope it helps, or I’m probably not only not helping DS get ready to go, but quite possibly not going! :-(</p>
<p>We followed this advise as well, taking most everything out of packaging, washing, repacking things together. It seems to have saved a lot of space and hopefully will make for less ‘junk’ when unpacking at the dorm. Perhaps that’s Bluedad’s problem…he didn’t think I was going to be able to condense so much stuff into our mid-sized SUV and is now worried it will fit in the dorm. The kicker are those three drawer units I got to go under his lifted bed (2ft). Those are making all the difference. They are working out GREAT for all his clothes…at least here in my library. I hope in practice they are as awesome. :o</p>
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<p>Ok then. I must admit I was wracking (sp?) my brain wondering how I didn’t know both were going to the same school at the same time. UVA is a ways away from Pitt, so I feel better.</p>
<p>Good luck mathmomvt!! That is really a sprint as opposed to a marathon. I’m sending you extra special good wishes for recovery on your back. Mine goes out now and again at the worst times and you literally can’t move. I hope the therapist can work wonders. Have you ever tried the ThermaCare wraps? They really help me.</p>
<p>d seems to think that ALL of her clothes can fit in the tiny closet that the school provides (and under her bed in storage bins). This should be an interesting move-in when reality sinks in… I have gotten out the measuring tape and shown her how small the space is, but she is still literally packing everything!! ha ha!!</p>