<p>Congrats to your son, VH. As the mother of someone who just got his doctorate, I remember the calls 6 years ago about how he wasn’t sure he was cut out for grad school. Your son’s classmates are probably more the norm, so he’s certainly a step ahead.</p>
<p>Hallelujah! Finally. Finally after so many years, tonight I taught myself to rip an audiobook CD and sync it with an mp3 player using Windows Media Player so that I can be delivered from the extreme boredom of exercise. I’ll now have a book to listen to! Next, maybe I’ll go figure out how to download an audiobook from our public library! Ooo. The riches! 
</p>
<p>My girls surprised me with tickets for the three of us to an Eagles concert. Sweet. </p>
<p>My husband fixed the garage door opener. For weeks we thought something more serious. One day he was home and decided to read the instruction again and took a crack at it.</p>
<p>Good things are happening. </p>
<p>After a year and a half unemployed, my husband was hired at a job that he loves. It doesn’t pay well but it has great benefits and he finds his work very rewarding (working with people with intellectual disabilities). He comes home from work happy and his entire demeanor has changed for the better. He has been cooking a lot, too! </p>
<p>Also, I finished drafting my Master’s thesis yesterday! It should just need minor revisions after my faculty mentor looks it over, and then I’ll be scheduling my defense. </p>
<p>Honestly, I was getting to a point where I felt like something had to give. Things could not keep on being so awful. But now things are really, really looking up, at long last. </p>
<p>Yay, Julie!</p>
<p>This weekend D2 was very stressed about her off campus housing for next year. She didn’t want to live in the apartment her 2 roommates have picked out, but was also afraid to say anything for fear of offending them.</p>
<p>D1, very calmly, told D2 to have a say about where she wanted to live. D1 said as long as D2 was upfront about it, even if the roommates should get upset, they would get over it at some point. The worst thing would be not to say anything and be resentful and unhappy for a whole year.</p>
<p>D2 took her older sister’s advice and had an open dialogue with her future roommates. They weren’t happy at first, but they decided to keep D2 as a roommate and continue to look for another apartment closer to campus.</p>
<p>I was very proud of D1 for giving her sister very sound advice, and I feel good that they have each other for support. In the last few months I have been dealing with my own issues and not being as good of parent as I could be.</p>
<p>Cannot brag too much IRL, but I am REALLY happy both my kids are in grad school, at a school close to home. And it is a good school. Both are on enough stipends so that they are completely self-supporting! And they are nice people despite my best efforts to turn them into spoiled brats. </p>
<p>I haven’t posted in quite a while, but S1 is working on his PhD and lecturing an upper-level undergrad glass (he graduated from undergrad on the 7 year plan), D is in the 2nd year of her residency at a great hospital and S2 is on his 1st post-graduation (from a Service Academy) posting doing, wait for it, more hard-core studying. In other words, all are doing well and will all be in town for a family wedding this weekend. S2 missed the last 4 family weddings due to SA obligations.</p>
<p>UMDAD, congratulations on having three productive adult children!</p>
<p>I love this thread!!! </p>
<p>So do I, but haven’t added a post to it in years (this one doesn’t count, not a brag).</p>
<p>Was on two radio shows and one TV interview in the past 36 hours! Was also on two one-hour radio shows in the past month. </p>
<p>How did I not see this thread before?</p>
<p>My oldest wanted to do graduate school on her own dime, which I respect but at times was tough to watch. She has had a number of jobs that paid less than she deserved, but some of which she liked a lot (being an adjunct prof was rewarding, but paid almost nothing). </p>
<p>Yesterday she got the good news that she got the job she really really wanted (we’ve had our fingers crossed for weeks); she starts October 1. I didn’t ask what her salary is, but she said that it was more than she had ever made and that they, knowing she would have accepted less, started her near the top of the salary band because that’s what they felt her experience deserved. </p>
<p>My HS sophomore D continues to be an inspiration to those around her. She decided that her school needed a black student union and did the necessary work to get one started, and they’ve only been back to school for a week.She applied for and was chosen for a brand-new after school engineering class and continues with her speech team. I can barely keep up with her and I’m the one driving her everywhere. She never walked as a baby-she ran everywhere. Now I see why.</p>
<p>That’s awesome, sseamom. She sounds like a very motivated achiever, and for everyone to just stand back and get out of her way!</p>
<p>I just now see this thread. lol. I will come back and brag in about 4-5 years when my D gets into Med school or a PhD program.</p>
<p>Fingers crossed. :)</p>
<p>Congratulations to everyone else. </p>
<p>@LanaHere, it’s a bit daunting when you come here and find 158 pages of brags. I’ve read only a few pages, but it’s been fun to see the brags of posters who have for the most part controlled their bragging elsewhere and to have them rounded out as people. </p>
<p>I’m sure that your D will do fine, but I don’t think med school or PhD is a requirement for bragging. </p>
<p>Thanks @IxnayBob . :)</p>
<p>Bob is right, even the little things make the rest of us smile. </p>