You guys have been so busy today! @HappyFace2018 glad your D is ok and that she’ll be home for Thanksgiving!
@cardinal2020mom hope your D feels better soon. My sister had surgery for a deviated septum after decades of problems and is thrilled with the result.
H and I enjoyed another “unscripted” day. It’s so strange having weekends free! Today we drove up to an honest to goodness flea market and poked around, then planned dinner involving our smoker-we decided to try smoking sausages. They’re out on the smoker right now.
D kept us up to date with short text bursts-a photo of the vision board she made last night (there was a vision board part in her dorm), talking about going to a party and deciding against it, telling us that her roommate’s mom told them to dress up and go someplace nice and that she would treat. In between was homework and then more tomorrow, but outside the hours of the Seahawks game. Her dad turned her into such a football fan that she has a fantasy football team!
I feel like I should buy the tickets for her Christmas break right now at $239 round trip from Reagan National to Indiana. There’s a 10 day span from the last day of classes 12/12 to the last day of exams 12/22. Gotta figure this one out…
@HappyFace2018 those are cheap tickets. Thanksgiving is a problem for us. Plane tickets right now are running close to $700 which is ridiculous for such a short flight. Our current plan is for D to take the school sponsored bus to Scranton where I will pick her up and drive her home. It’s lots of driving but I’m not paying those prices. Because thanksgiving prices were so high, I already bought Christmas tickets and paid about $350 for those. She still doesn’t have a time for her last final but we found a master schedule and decided to go off that (–and no it’s not on the syllabus). I hope it doesn’t change too much but I really didn’t want to wait given what happened to the Thanksgiving prices. The funny thing is that last spring when she was deciding where to go to school, I priced out air tickets to Pittsburgh and every single date I tried was under $100 each way so I just assumed travel was going to be easy.
@readingclaygirl No she doesn’t know the dates of her final exams. She only knows the dates of her mid-terms at this point. We discussed it and she doesn’t mind staying at school longer. One of her roomies lives about 30 minutes from campus and we have family in Annapolis. She has five roomies so some of them may be staying as well. Also, her circle of friends has widened so much that I’m sure she won’t be the only student in a building of 1400 freshmen to be staying until 12/22. My hubby and I were going to fly in for parents weekend in October and the tickets were $225 round drip a month ago. We changed our minds and decided to drive because we actually love the drive. When we checked the tickets again yesterday the tickets are now just under $500! We got her Thanksgiving to tickets for $410 and Christmas tickets for $239.
@oneundecided Thank you so very very much Looks like we made the right decision in getting the tickets now. Her last final exam is 12/20 and she’ll fly out on 12/23 at 8:00a.m. [-O< =D>
I bought my son’s Thanksgiving tickets about 2 weeks ago. They were surprisingly inexpensive considering he is flying out of Ithaca airport into our small airport. He has a layover/ plane change in Newark so I booked his sister (Princeton senior) in the seat next to him for the rest of the flight home and for the flight back to Newark. She usually rides Amtrak but her flight was about the same cost (more than his) as Thanksgiving Amtrak tickets.
I’m watching for Christmas tickets for him but she will most likely ride Amtrak home. Neither of their exam schedules are posted yet.
@me29034 We delayed pulling the trigger on the Thanksgiving flight home by 2 days and it ended up costing us $100+ more because the flight we wanted was sold out. For such a short break, I didn’t want him spending a big chunk of it on the bus, but I’m hoping he’ll be ok taking the bus for the Christmas break.
We got the Thanksgiving tickets a few weeks back and got a decent price. We’re lucky that they get a whole week off/ When my older kids were going back and forth to their dad’s, they never had a whole week off in school so when it was “my year” it always seemed crazy expensive for flights. We’re keeping an eye on Christmas prices, but D finishes the semester so early, they don’t seem to be climbing yet. Her last day for finals is Dec. 7. We’ll probably use Alaska unless it jumps in cost, since H gets mileage points for every dollar he spends on the Alaska card and we get one free checked bag for every flight. For both TDay and Christmas flights, that gives D a chance to pare down her dorm room stuff using those Tote a Ton bags.
Ugh Technology! Our online platform thing (Moodle) was being a pain and wouldn’t let me submit an assignment that’s due tomorrow. So I freaked out, emailed the professor and then was able to submit to her via email. Then the online math program kept not responding so it took me way longer than it should have to do the homework
We’ve had a great day today. We live down the street from Crooked Stick, the site of the BMW Golf Championship. No rain delays so it’s packed. 9/11 still in the back of my mind as a dear friend lost his twin brother in the WTC, my BFF and her hubby are flying home today and my sweet girl is in DC. [-O<
That girl who was in the hospital had came home Thursday but had more medical issues today that involved calling public safety and the ambulance coming. She’s good now, resting in her room, but it was definitely scary. I was involved and yeah one of those things you call your mom after.
@me29034
Pitt was my d’s 1st choice (full tuition scholarship offered) until MSU offered her full-ride+. I priced out flights to and from Pitt to Indiana and they were pricey. Her father bought her a car and I saw taking a car to Pitt as something of an issue. We drove out there for a visit and I have to say I did not feel comfortable with the thought of d driving herself home because the of the mountains and also because Pitt has some uniquely designed streets as a result of the hilly terrain. So, when MSU offered her the scholarship I was somewhat relieved because it is closer to us and a flat, easy drive. Pitt is a great school though and I could totally see her there. When I was looking at travel alternatives to and from Pitt, a travel search engine I used pulled up private charter planes… I was wondering if some students could get together to share the charter- shared cost might make it reasonable.
Excellent article! Thanks for sharing it. We have been fairly open but I still don’t think my kids quite understand since they have not yet really worked themselves.
My sweet girl and I just had a conversation which was reassuring for me but I could hear the disbelief and stress in her text messages. She can not believe how some kids can do such stupid things while their parents are paying in upwards of $70,000 to attend this college. There were a few kids at her private high school who just didn’t appreciate the cost being paid for them to attend the school but what she’s seeing now is just on another level. Her room, her roommates and a small group of friends are an oasis of peace (thank God).
She is so nurturing that it’s in her nature to mother others…to care about others. I had to remind her that while caring about the well being of others…she can not mother others who are making adult choices. I reminded her of how she made it through the IB program with such a hectic schedule…her ability to pray for peace and calm and compartmentalize things led to her success.
She said “momma, I just would never want to do anything to hurt you and daddy like something really stupid!” She’s seen kids drink before but not to the point of being sprawled out passed out. I said to her what I’ve always said “what is done in the dark will come to light”.
Looks like we made the right decision in getting the tickets now. Her last final exam is 12/20 and she’ll fly out on 12/23 at 8:00a.m. [-O< =D>