<p>MizzBee-hope you’ll get a chuckle out of this----took my '14 S to college fair
with W@b@sh represented and found myself wanting to go ask the rep if he
knew your son. (Thought about asking if any student had asked them about
“traction” issues…) Can’t believe I’m thinking ahead this far for S after JUST
getting D launched. Oh well.</p>
<p>17 hours and counting until our plane takes off! D is all packed and out having a farewel lunch with her best girlfriends. She seems to be excited and in good spirits, so so far, so good! All of her girlfriends seem pretty wound up now that one of them (our D) is officially on her way. Two of the other girls launch next week, and another leaves in mid-September. Such exciting times…</p>
<p>D managed to fill two boxes with her clothes, shoes, boots, purses, etc. and each box is just a few pounds under the airline’s 50 lb. max – according to our home digital scale. Sure hope our home scale is accurate! Otherwise, we’ll all be donning D’s boots, coats, etc for the plane ride…</p>
<p>Enjoy so much hearing everyone’s experiences, especially those who are en route or already back!</p>
<p>Nellie, I’d call the emergency number. I’m sure it’s an answering service and they will relay your concerns. Honestly there’s not much excuse for having no one call you to cancel! It’s infuriating!</p>
<p>Oh bother. Hotel lost our parking reservation, and has no room for our car. They gave us a map.of local-ish lots and told us “happy hunting.” :p</p>
<p>Oh so sorry Mihcal. We’re done packing and will be on the road tomorrow morning at 8:00 am. We also just went to dinner at our favorite local eatery. Hopefully we all get a good nights sleep - but that may be asking alot. :)</p>
<p>Bummer mihcal! Nice to get the ONE snafu out of the way early though! :)</p>
<p>Oh, deck61, you should have! The admission department is pretty small. If you are looking for a great school, you really should check it out!</p>
<p>Somehow it’s such a relief to read about other procrastinating offspring. Things finally got moving here after I, too did the “put the suitcases in a conspicuous place” thing. But I can tell that there’s going to be a mad rush at the last minute with a stressed out kid running all over the house trying to pull together the loose ends she has been procrastinating for sooooo long.</p>
<p>I think I may have to go outside for a walk or two when things really heat up.</p>
<p>Lilmom, I loved your comment about dorm mountain being more of a volcano that spits out rejects. I’m laughing at myself now because somehow I had this image that things would be left looking nice, and just a bit emptier, after launch. Not likely, I see now!</p>
<p>Congratulations to all those who have already made it to the other side!</p>
<p>My son just told me today that the school sent out an email a “couple weeks ago” saying that parents were supposed to stay overnight and listen to some presentation the next day after move-in for his Living-Learning community.</p>
<p>Ah well, I guess we just won’t do it. I’m sure he will be fine.</p>
<p>Also, we have been on vacation the past week, and on Wednesday Son realized he had forgotten to buy a Dirt Devil Vacuum… So off to Walmart we went! First time I’ve even set foot in a Walmart (None anywhere near where we live, though there was a controversial plan back home for one to be built in the next couple years), it was giant, but much better then I thought. Better organized and laid out then I had heard. Got in and out with the vacuum (At a pretty good price!) plus some other doodads. After all of this, I think we can officially say we have everything and are set for move in Next Wednesday!</p>
<p>D moved in to her dorm on Thursday, after spending Wednesday night in the hotel saying over and over “I’m not going.” I may have the only child on CC who has decided within the past 3 weeks that she doesn’t want to leave home. :{ (even though I know she really does.)</p>
<p>Anyway, Thursday morning came, she got up and ready and we arrived within our designated window of time at 8am. The move in was phenomenal! This was a well oiled machine. Each car was given a number, the kid, parents and school volunteers would unload on the curb, then the parent would move the car to designated parking. When the kid’s number was called 10 helpers swarmed and loaded everything into the designated elevator for that kid. Yes! We had our OWN ELEVATOR!!! For as long as we needed it! We filled it to the brim and took one quick ride to D’s floor, then had help unloading it all to her hallway outside of her room. </p>
<p>Seriously, this took 15 minutes. </p>
<p>(Did I mention that I attended this school years ago and move in took about 3 hours - not to unpack, just to haul all the stuff up the elevators to high floors as people crowded into the elevators one armload at a time.)</p>
<p>D was sweet and friendly to her roommate (they’ve texted about 3 times for 3 sentences previously- D didn’t want to ruin the “new” experience by talking beforehand). The beds had been both lofted to accommodate all the extra stuff roomie brought so we made D’s bed, unloaded her stuff, and took a few pictures of the room. Roomie left for a little while and D continued with the “I’m not staying” bit. Honestly, this girl is exhausting sometimes. :)</p>
<p>We said our goodbyes very quickly and left for the rest of the day to do the parent stuff. We stayed over and this morning found a few additional things D had wanted. She let us bring them, was happy with them and then did another very quick hug goodbye.</p>
<p>Then she texted for the next two hours after we left about her roomie and other new friends. Last one was “yeah, so I think it’s good. We’re chillin’.”</p>
<p>Back home now and 2 sons are still here. College junior leaves in 4 or 5 weeks, then our high school freshman will be smothered and hovered over by his momma.</p>
<p>Glad to hear the good move in stories. I like the packing in garbage bags - makes sense to me! Hubby thinks packing clothes the day before is fine so I’ll just roll with it.</p>
<p>We have a Thursday afternoon move in. We’re leaving Wed at noon-ish to make the 7 - 8 hr drive. We’ll pick up our bed bath and beyond stuff in the morning. We get our car unloaded for us so I should probably make sure to label his stuff.</p>
<p>I’d call the emergency number for the retainer. It’s not that big of a deal to call, they just page the person on call. </p>
<p>Also - called usaa about insuring his laptop, guitar, etc. He’s covered under our homeowners, they just suggested photographing it and itemizing things. It covers being stolen, broken, etc. </p>
<p>H and I talked about how frequently to call. He actually wanted to call to check in more often than me!</p>
<p>Love the “moving trash to college” story, deck! :p</p>
<p>We had a nice family day yesterday. S1 turned the corner on the wisdom tooth recovery and is feeling much better. S2 and I went shopping for 3-4 hours (which probably totals the amount of time I’ve shopped in the last 6 months - not my thing!) and got all kinds of goodies - 2 new pairs of shoes, socks & underwear, door stopper, new belt, etc. We had lunch just the two of us - fun. 
Then home to grill out dinner with the family and play a couple board games. </p>
<p>S flies out tomorrow morning, early. I’m kind of worried this time around, because I’m really not teary yet and haven’t actually thought about it much yet. Makes me think I’ll get home, see the empty bedroom, it’ll hit me, and I’ll start running around his room looking for diapers, size 1-year-old clothes, and lactating. OK, maybe I’m exaggerating. Right? In the meantime, I’ll just enjoy being angst-free for now…</p>
<p>“Makes me think I’ll get home, see the empty bedroom, it’ll hit me, and I’ll start running around his room looking for diapers, size 1-year-old clothes, and lactating.”</p>
<p>LOL!</p>
<p>Best of luck on the move-in PN!</p>
<p>It could also be the jan brady syndrome - the middle child thing. You know he’s ready, you know his brother is there, you know you still have another one at home. Or at least you can think that now.</p>
<p>Until of course you get home. </p>
<p>I’m trying to make sure that I’m telling S how proud and excited we are for him. He had his last guitar lesson Thursday and he was sadder about that than anything I’ve seen. He and his teacher really clicked and he’s had him for years. It got me thinking how hard it must be for teachers, kids always grow up, and I imagine some years you lose the kids you’ve really gotten attached to. </p>
<p>This next graduating class 2013 has always been horrible at my kids old school (and new school). His class had great kids. It took me awhile to catch on when teachers used to say they’d like to just move up to the next grade with them.</p>
<p>Best wishes to you all, 2016 parents and students. What an exciting time for the young. I still remember my own days of this time decades ago.</p>
<p>Enjoy your time, kids. Enjoy!</p>
<p>Happy launch day, annasdad, MizzBee, Rushedmom, soh2000, bubmom, TNVandymom, ENsMom!</p>
<p>Today’s launch group is a big one! Good luck to all of you!</p>
<p>As for me, still here for a few days because we also decided to make it a family vacation. But to tell you the truth, it also feels like we’re peeling the bandaid off very slooowly.</p>
<p>Thanks to all who chimed in on my dilemma (retainer). After weighing the options and getting some great advice, I have decided not to call the emergency number. If I do not hear from them on Monday, I will call it then. I luckily live close enough to S’s school that we can work it out. There may be some accomodating to be done on both ends to get this retainer in his mouth. They can do the retention records when he goes back in 3 months.</p>
<p>Just finished up the short note I wrote for him. It will sink in better than if I say everything in it-sometimes things go in one ear-blah, blah, blah. Plus-I got him a gift card to one of his favorite food places that happens to be right off campus. That will be his prize for reading all of the wise words I have to offer! (The note was actually a bit longer than originally intended). :-)</p>
<p>Good luck to all of you launching today! Can’t believe we are on deck for tomorrow…really-tomorrow?? Already???</p>
<p>MemphisGuy - your post made me chuckle. Been there, done that with oldest. We have two more sons… this one might contact us more… youngest we’ll never hear from again once his chain (from the nest) is unlocked. Ok, maybe 3 minute phone calls when he’ll need something…</p>
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<p>Yup, my birthday is the 23rd. I first suggested we celebrate a week early, but that got moved when they had a “last hurrah” with their youth group friends. Then I insisted on Friday. It was wonderful last night… pizza, bought a mini-fridge, some Mexican Train games (dominoes), coconut cake, a longer Mission Impossible (old one) show, and a couple of Big Bang Theories. All minor stuff, I suppose, but the things memories are made of.</p>
<p>We have an afternoon move in time, but are taking the morning time to get the ID & bank account and whatever else pops up as suggested on the UR forum. We’re fortunate that we have free lodging nearby, so the extra night was already planned.</p>
<p>I’m thinking he’s only going to take some of his stuff and we might bring more (esp winter stuff) Meliora weekend.</p>
<p>I moved all three out in 5 days-one five hours away one direction and the other two 5 hrs the other. The toughest was for D1 for graduate school in a major city apartment-getting anything done is a job with the traffic and parking. Easiest was the last: a freshman S in a beautiful dorm room with lots of room and a huge bay window looking into the trees!</p>
<p>I would like to thank BBB, Walmart, Target, Staples and Lowes for their products, parking and easy return policies. Right now I feel like I know every school, dorm room, apartment product out there!</p>
<p>I would have written this yesterday, but I was too tired to even turn on the computer. I woke to a quiet house that felt like the morning after a major party, when all the family was still sleeping and I went downstairs to clean up the mess. I worked for a while with a head that felt like I had a moderate hangover, sat down on the bed to look for a nonexistent text from S, and fell asleep for 2.5 hours midday-something I never do!</p>
<p>Today I woke feeling refreshed and eager to go!</p>
<p>My elderly parents have finally agreed to move from their home to a condo close to where I live. Packing starts on Monday. Life is like a vending machine-you get one job done and the next one falls into place! </p>
<p>No complaining as all seem very happy! Life is Good.</p>