<p>Don’t know if it’s really a BRAG, but am delighted our kids will be spending about a week with us over the 4th of July and it is all coming out of S’s miles & pocketbook, not ours. :)</p>
<p>Well that’s wonderful @HImom :)</p>
<p>I took my daughter out for dinner on her birthday last week, and the cook/owner of the diner came over and thanked her for saving his life. She’d sent him out for some medical tests on a hunch, and they found a cancer that otherwise might have gone undetected for a long time. Someone else came over and said she’d detected a heart murmur that the cardiologist later missed, but an echo cardiogram confirmed a treatable problem.</p>
<p>OK, so finally have time to write my brag 
DD2 graduated from HS May 23, attended college orientation shortly after, studied 5 days (with DD1’s help) and passed Intro Psych CLEP test, a day before flying to AK to intern with a top 20 best places to work civil eng firm (they have one other female intern, and one female civil eng professional). DD1 is studying in Zurich with a short course, visiting Switzerland and Italy before returning for junior year nursing courses in Aug. DD1 applying to Navy Nursing in the fall. Fortunate to have family both in AK and Switzerland, and DD has a friend in Italy (native, has apt) to show her the country Both girls are scholarship students at college. So happy their hard work is paying rewards now.</p>
<p>I finally finished my state HIV Test Counselor certification last Thursday and by Friday was out in the field for National HIV Testing Day. I tested and counseled about a dozen people and am quite happy to be back out in the field working with people. Nice break from being a data manager where I’m working with near-100 year old records </p>
<p>D has been at her first post-college job for a month now, and she loves it. She has a humanities-type degree from a liberal arts college, so we were all kind of wondering where she would end up, and yet where she ended up makes perfect sense. Although it’s not directly related to art, which was her major, or English, which was her minor, she uses both of those skills extensively in her job. And she’s working every day on a cause she fervently believes in.</p>
<p>She wrote to me today “I LOVE this industry, and this is an AWESOME place to work. I feel like I’m making a real, tangible impact. I am seriously very blessed to have found this job.”</p>
<p>When she was in high school, someone asked me what I thought she might end up doing someday. I said that I thought she would be doing something that she felt was socially meaningful, but that all I cared about was she’d be happy in her work. Bullseye on both! :)</p>
<p>On a side note, she also told me today that she’d sold her car and bought a bike. She lives in an urban area, close to her work, so it makes perfect sense. (Her boyfriend has a car for his work, so they have 4 wheels when they need them.) Like most in her generation, she’s very serious about environmental issues, and was quite proud of the fact that she’d gotten herself a refurbished bike (“So I’m keeping stuff out of landfills!”)</p>
<p>I am one proud mama tonight!</p>
<p>What a great week for my sons! </p>
<p>S1 had his dissertation defense and it went very well. He invited us to attend, and we were quite impressed with his poise, confidence, command of his material, and ability to handle questions. He got lots of good feedback from his committee. We didn’t understand his scientifically technical research, but it sounded impressive. He’s now interviewing for post-docs (the head of his research team won’t let students start interviewing til they defend).</p>
<p>We talked to S2 last night and it was our usual short, uninformative conversation, until we were about to end the conversation when I asked him if he had anything else to tell us. That’s when he told us that he got a promotion and a sizable raise. “Why didn’t you tell us this before?” “I forgot since it happened last week.” This is the kid who’s always minimized his abilities and accomplishments. Fortunately, he has a boss who’s more impressed with his work than S2 is.</p>
<p>Fabulous, shellfell!!!</p>
<p>I got some good news too - S1 is going to be hired by the television station where he is interning right now. His job title will be associate producer but he will be doing a little bit of everthing, and hopefully some sports reporting (his heart’s desire.) It’s also in our hometown so he can live with us for a while and get a jump on his student loans. A lot of prayers answered!</p>
<p>D. was accepted to National conference with her poster presentation. Intimidating at first but overall great experience. </p>
<p>Congrats to bestfriensgirl’s S. S2 was an intern in his office before he graduated and has progressed well there as an employee since they were familiar with what he was capable of doing.</p>
<p>MiamiDAP, S1started with poster presentations at conferences too. It was a good experience.</p>
<p>D is assistant director in a full length movie that started filming this week. Her brother is in LA for the 3rd time in 3 weeks and going to get together with her and their cousins while he’s in town. </p>
<p>Congrats to everything. So glad all our kids are doing so nicely!</p>
<p>My kid is tearing it up at his music camps this summer. I alway thought he really had that special something and now I know it wasn’t all just the mom goggles. I’m so proud of my baby boy! =D> </p>
<p>Happy for all. And happy D1 just got her job offer. So much for humanities being useless. Or her ‘why in heck would someone study classics?’ major. The job is for a local high tech co, though her role starts small.</p>
<p>^^^That’s especially good news for STEM haters like me! The liberal arts and humanities forever!</p>
<p>Why the hate? How is it ok for you to say you hate STEM and not the other way around? </p>
<p>Don’t take it so seriously. Some of us have fatigue from all the STEM mania and the certainty humanities is dead end and indulgent. You know the Monty Python Spam song? Sometimes, I insert “STEM.” (And I worked in a high tech field.)</p>
<p>I should clarify - I hate STEM for me, not in general. Those who like it and are good at it - more power to them. They’re probably better off. As I said on one of those “Girls in STEM” threads, you couldn’t pay me enough money to do anything related to science, technology, engineering or math. </p>
<p>Back to bragging, my D is thriving in her grad program. Plus, it was record cool temps and rainy in TX. Money in the bank!</p>
<p>15 year old DS went to a camp in New York City. On the last night they wanted kids to talk about themselves and say what they learned at camp. DS is not the kind of kid who talks about himself… When my DH came to come pick DS up a bunch of kids came up to DH and said that what DS said really made a positive impact on them.
I’m not sure exactly what he said but I guess it was memorable. </p>