Welcome to all of the de-lurkers!
Youād think with my 3rd and youngest S17 going off in the fall that we would be facing an empty nest. My oldest S12 is back in the nest though. Heās finishing his last two classes and in job search mode. We werenāt in a position to pay so he has some loans to repay, we can however provide a room so his earnings can be budgeted for loans and auto insurance.
Another de-lurker here. I have learned from and appreciated so many of you ( @paveyourpath, @payne4ward, @STEM2017, @eandesmom, @itsgettingreal17, @greeny8, @carachel2 @Dolemite, @MichiganGeorgia, @dfbdfb, @srk2017, @not2much --among others) Thank you! Proud of all our kids for their work on the apps. And Congrats to all who have received acceptances. Exciting to hear the good news. My oldest of 2, D17, has submitted several EA apps and one ED app.
@tinrodd welcome and congrats on having several apps in the hopper!
Congratulations to all (proud parents) for those early acceptances. My DS admitted to UTD and Texas A&M (pending engineering review). Awaiting powerball lottery(UT). Not applied to any OOS schools yet.
Welcome @tinrodd!!!
Anyone else out there? lol =))
Thanks for all the congrats. My D can breath a sigh of relief as she officially doesnāt have to attend Drexel and live at home 
Now she has another scholarship app to get done in 2 weeks. Fortunately she can rework 2 out of the 3 essays and only has to write one from scratch. Good thing for her sheās off tomorrow and Friday and the period just ended at school so no benchmarks due for a while.
Everyone vote tomorrow if you havenāt already!
Another welcome to @tinrodd
We are on a roll today!
We will be empty nesters too. Iām kind of looking forward to it. I mean, I miss D15 and will miss S17, but Iām also looking forward to the next chapter.
Peer pressure!
Hopefully this clears up the meaning of āAFā in my username (vs the Urban Dictionary definition) once and for all.
Welcome de-lurkers and congrats on the acceptances and scholarships. These are all signs it is getting real!
Awww @BlueAFMom I love all the profile photos :x :x
@pittsburghscribe At first, I thought it was a grizzly bear on a cliff =))
I thought some of you might be interested in this recent NY Times article about the University of Alabama, how it has changed over the past 10 years and why it wants to attract so many of our kids. I hope the link works. I am new at this.
@ACT2017 We are in the same boat with UT. D17 is under review for Business but we are not optimistic.
@BlueAFMom - Thanks for the clarification. I do hear āAFā in my house - from time to time. (Filthy-mouthed teens.) Iām glad to see the meaning in your ānameā.
Iāll be an empty nester when S goes to college. I donāt see D15 coming back after graduating (with her bachelor degrees). Maybe after her masters or PhD, but thatās a loooong way off. And Iām loving the avatars. Keep it up. It might make me look for a new one, but then I wouldnāt recognize myself!
Welcome to all new āmembersā. My head is spinning with all the new avatars for those who have been posting without them. It is going to take me a while to align names and faces.
Just had to look up AF as I did not know that one.
@tinrodd ā I posted the Alabama NYT article a couple of days ago. I read so much of the NYT online that I feel as though I am reading really old news when I sit down with the paper. But then when I cancelled home delivery, I missed the paper, so it is back. Hard to let go after more than 30 years as a delivery subscriber.
Empty nest
My youngest is S18, so was not expecting to be an empty nester next year. But ever since he started German freshman year he has fallen in love with the country and been wanting to do some kind of exchange program. I found a really cool-sounding program (on CC - where else?) called the Congress Bundestag in which he could do his senior year of hs in Germany and get both a German and American HS diploma. He is absolutely stoked about it and has been doing all the paperwork with his school with zero help from me. His German teacher thinks he has an excellent shot at being accepted even though itās competitive. If he does go, it will be very rough on H and I being empty nesters a year earlier than expected.
Voting
So we have mail-in/drop-off voting. When H, D17, and I were filling out our ballots, I was double/triple/quadruple checking my presidential choice and was so paranoid that I had D check it as well. I hadnāt mentioned this to oldest D who told me today that she and fiance dropped off their ballots. She told me she was so worried about marking the wrong choice she had fiance check it! Wonder who she takes afterā¦
Remember: Vote early and vote often. (kidding, Iām kidding!)
@dfbdfb, in all seriousness I thought your avatar was an anime character. I even considered a couple of times asking the kids if they recognized you! =))
@thshadow, were you surprised how many recognized Tesla? Between the picture and the description I got it too. I loved the movie āThe Prestige.ā Anyone interested in Tesla or magic would enjoy it. Iām also a donor to the oatmealās Tesla museum kickstarter (and got a āTesla > Edisonā bumper sticker for donating). Hereās his funny little bio of Tesla and why he should be more famous than Edison: http://theoatmeal.com/comics/tesla.
@pittsburghscribe, now I know what a hoary marmot looks like ā avatars can be educational!
All the best to those awaiting October ACT scores. First batch results are due tomorrow.
Welcome to the noobs. I have been running around trying to get my āequipmentā ready for tomorrow when D and I take over a church sanctuary to video her (now) 4 piano pieces for an Arts Supplement for one (maybe two) of her schools. Itās due next week. I think it will be cool, just hope we can get it done with a minimum of re-takes. 
She plays tuba/sousaphone at school, but piano is her āpassionā. Sheās not majoring or minoring in music, but itās kind of in her bones. Iām way more nervous about tomorrow than I was when she took her ACT! Iām afraid IāM gonna screw up, I think.
Congrats again the acceptances and scholarships. Gotta admit, Iām jealous of those Pitt scholarships and Chancellorās Invites. Itās one of my favorites! D definitely has it towards the top of her list as well.
My D17 is my oldest, no empty nesting for another 5 years!
Confession: Iām just posting to try out my avatar. Anyone recognize who it is?!