Congrats to our list scholars!!! Great news. We were very pleased (it is evidence that I have been around my teens 24/7 that I want to say “v pleased”) with D16’s grades. S13 left a few days ago for a trip with his choir, and D16 leaves on the 10th for a trip with her sports team. Classes begin on the 23rd. I am trying to focus on the fact that they have these great opportunities rather than the fact that they’re leaving early… :x > =((
Happy Holidays to all! sorry I haven’t checked in for a while. I decided to take a break as I was spending too much time here and on social media.
Hope you all had Happy Holidays and your kids are doing well at their respective schools.
My daughter’s been very happy so far At Ball State, all As and Bs, and she’s decided to declare her major for History now, instead of Anthropology.
She has a short break, three weeks, and goes back on Jan. 8. She’s out with friends tonight, but we’re happy to have her home, even if briefly.
Can’t believe it’s the middle of freshman year already!
DS goes back on 1/9 and classes begin 1/11. He needs to get his books ordered and plans to have them delivered directly to campus. He just returned Tuesday from a visit to a college friend’s house several hours away. 4 of them met there and stayed for a couple of days. There is already talk of the group gathering here next year so I may have 4-6 sleeping in my basement for a couple of nights next year over break. I would love that.
Best news of break though is DS has lined up a full time summer job! It is within his chosen field, close to home AND he can take a week off to go on a family vacation!! Life is good. 
=D>
I don’t head back until 1/15 and classes start 1/17. Yay on the job @Cheeringsection We are pretty much lying low here- my sister got her wisdom teeth out yesterday. I hoped to hang out with friends at some point this break but they are all busy. Oh well.
DS classes don’t start until 1/23, so he’s home until 1/18 or 1/19. Happy to have him around as long as he likes :">
He a a friend here for a few days, and will head there for a couple of days next weekend. Other than that it’s been the usual rounds of visiting family, trying to see old friends and sleep. Lots of sleep…
My D is heading back on Monday. Classes start on Wednesday. She was only home for a little over two weeks. It’s way too short.
While the Christmas break is pretty short, I like that D has a week off in March and gets home at the end of April.
I think our DS might have the latest return…classes start back up Jan. 30 and he’s been home since the 15th! We’ve loved having him back, especially DD18 because she missed him. He did well in his classes, and has met up over break with a few friends from college. He even found a part-time job with a HS friend to keep him busy some of the time. I have to say he doesn’t seem much different from when he left in August, except that he has a closer bond with his sister, and is up until all hours of the night
Next break my daughter, her friends and their parents should work out before hand who is going to host her for which breakfast, daytime activity and evening out. We hope she’ll visit with us, and be with us, before 2020.
Came in to say hello to everyone, and I hope your evening is wonderful. Early Happy New Year to all.
Here’s hoping that you get more time with your DD soon @Waiting2exhale. It is hard to be the plan only when others have not been made. Hugs to you in this new year!
I hope each and everyone of you have a happy new year…
I still read this thread, and although I only comment sporadically I continue to enjoy reading updates and hearing about all of your kids adventures during their first quarter or semester at school. Thanks to all of you for that!
My S16 had to spend the early part of his break getting his wisdom teeth out, so the last few days have been a painful and hazy (due to pain meds!) recovery process…but he is finally on the mend. Yeah!
We did have a wee little glitch yesterday. S16 commented “mom, you did do the FAFSA, right? It is due on January 1st”. Well, guess what…I did NOT know it was due 1/1/17. So, after some terse words that I am not very proud of…we managed to scramble and get the FAFSA done yesterday. Yikes…I thought I was done being blindsided with deadlines, etc.
After our FAFSA saga yesterday…I am wondering if anyone else had such an early deadline? My D14 has a deadline for FAFSA of 5/15/17…so I “assumed” it would be similar for S16 and therefore never checked. Why is there such a difference in due dates between schools?
Happy New Year to each and every one of you! 2016 was a crazy, stressful, eventful and life changing year…and I am hoping for a quieter, calmer, less eventful 2017 for EVERYONE!
@4kids2graduate I know mine is due mid February.
The FAFSA priority deadline for my D’s school is March 1.
The first year we did it in February right after doing our taxes and we got the financial aid award letter in April.
The second year we did FAFSA around the same time and she could access her financial aid award in her student portal in June I believe.
This year the FAFSA for next school year became availiable in October already, so we did it one weekend in Oct when D was home. All we had to do was link our tax returns from 2015 (already completed) to the FAFSA, enter our current bank balances, and what we as parents contributed to the 401k in 2015.
It did not take very long.
The more federal or state aid you qualify for, the earlier you would want to do the FAFSA., because some aid can be first come first served.
Our FAFSA isn’t due for awhile yet, but we should just get it out of the way. Happy New Yer everyone! D is just about done packing for heading back to school tomorrow…she found that those wonderful Tote a Ton bags are great when Dad is along to lift them, but not so much when SHE is the one lugging them around. We just got back from Goodwill where we picked up a 25" spinner bag for her to bring back her winter clothes in along with the rolling bag she already has. It’s surprisingly cold in Nashville right now so she need some bulky sweaters and her winter coat.
The break has been good for all of us, save for one day where things all seemed to go wrong at once and D had a bit of a meltdown, but all in all we have a nice time. She’s got a friend from HS visiting with her right now, and met up with several for dinner or here at the house. She picked up a good chunk of change working for the county, and was offered a summer position. She’s got another offer more aligned to her plans to teach, though, as well as applying to a couple of summer teaching internships. So not sure what she’ll end up doing yet.
This break has been interesting-D has her old HS and church friends to visit-but things are different now for all of them in one way or another. Her college friends are spread out around the country, but they all kept in touch through text and Skype or Facetime. They too were finding that the old HS bonds with friends are changing.
The most interesting development was D’s long (long, did I mention LONG) conversations with a boy from college. Looks like a formal date is on the horizon once they return. He seems like a good match for now-ambitious, bright, respectful, and from a big city like herself, though there us quite a bit of sports rivalry there. I don’t recall if any of you remember my mentioning the crazy socks D collects and another student who does the same? Well, it turns out that this is the other crazy sock lover!
Good luck to all your kiddos for Spring semester!
Kind of sounds like our trips to India where we barely spend anytime with family in between being invited to breakfast, lunch and dinner by relatives and friends.
Happy new year everyone!
I was quite surprised to figure out D will have a very long summer break from May 12th to September 5th. Older one only had it between June 20th and September 20th normally.
I don’t know when FAFSA deadline for D16’s school is/was. We did get it completed for both girls last week. Now on to the CSS profile.
@sseamom The bonds with high school friends are changing here too . It’s a fact of life I suppose. But how exciting your D is going on a date with this young man!
Happy New Year! S16 got back to school yesterday afternoon. Although he seemed happy to be home for the last 2 weeks, I think he was also happy to get back to school.
D’s roommate’s family picked her up at the airport yesterday, took the girls shopping for supplies and food, and took them out to dinner. The girls were thrilled to be back together again. So happy she and her roommate get along so well and that the family like her so much.
Today she had only one class-in her major-and the teacher is allowing her to do a conflicting class online so that she can be one of the first students in another brand-new class, but more importantly, she is on the radar of both the profs and the department head who want to help her get certified as a sub for next year. They will work around her subbing to let her do independent studies for credit because they think she’d be a good representative of her college. However, she will have to wait until she’s 18-and that won’t be until next October, otherwise they’d be working on the subbing right now. All in all, a good opening to her second semester. We’ll see how tomorrow goes with I believe 5 classes in one day.