<p>Congrats to all the graduates!!! As mom of two sophomores (college & HS) I am very jealous.</p>
<p>My boys (almost 4 years apart) are on a road trip/concert event right now. I love that they enjoy being together. I think attending the same college and being together there for one year (different dorms), gave them a common ground upon which to build memories.</p>
<p>I just opened and read this thread for the first time. Wow - it goes from very funny to hysterically funny (paper towels down the ski slope!), to poignant, to proud. Great stuff.</p>
<p>My brag is that my grandfather and my cousin both were awarded MBEās. Iām very proud of them.</p>
<p>Iāve done some stuff in my life, but nothing as great as some of you folks, or your kids. Incredible!</p>
<p>I did do something Iām proud of, though. I saw a little 3 year old girl screaming and drowning off a pier in the ocean, and no one else had seen her. I ran off down the pier and went in for her, and saved her life. Anyone would have done that. What Iām proud of, is that I didnāt chicken out because I canāt swim!</p>
<p>Countdown in progressā¦starting with 10!!! 10 more days of work.</p>
<p>Hayden, thatās terrific what you did. thumper yay!!</p>
<p>My countdown to leaving for Spain for eight weeks is down to 4 days, counting today. Sās wedding is 7/29, but we have lots to do before then. The happy couple is living in Madrid, but getting married and moving to Valencia. One big adventure!
H and D come in early July.</p>
<p>Cleaned out the pantry.</p>
<p>There was stuff in there with expiration dates in 2006.</p>
<p>Not sure if this is something to brag about, now that I think about it.</p>
<p>Cleaning out the pantry <em>IS</em> bragworthy. We could always start a contest to see whose pantry has the oldest expiration dateā¦</p>
<p>Thumper,
Iām so jealous ;)</p>
<p>Speaking of expiration dates, I have a family story to share. When I was little, the lady who watched me after school had fish for dinner every Friday. I loved fish and it was treat for me to eat with them. My mother was allergic to fish, so we never ate fish at home. When I was old enough to stay home after school, I missed my fish dinners and begged my mom to make me fish. One day, when I was about 10, she came home from the grocery store and announced that she had bought me fish. She took it out of the bag and handed me a box. It was a whole fish, head, eyeballs and all! Needless to say, that was not what I had in mind. It got put in the freezer, where it remained for, I kid you not, 25 years! Every time we visited my mom, we checked to see if the fish was still in the freezer. I am convinced it would still be in there if they hadnāt moved!</p>
<p>And now for my brag, my daughter received a very nice scholarship from a local organization. She had to speak at a dinner and she did a nice job. She spent the evening mingling and talking to various members of the organization, while the other recipient sat in the corner with her parents. The next day, I got a call from the president of the organization telling me how impressed they were with my daughter. She also said that the board members wanted the opportunity to get to know her better and invited us to a dinner later in the month. We were very proud of our daughter, who is usually a bit shy around people she doesnāt know.</p>
<p>congratulations, fishymom on both your dās scholarship and the poise she showed! </p>
<p>is your momās frozen fish the origin of Billy Bass the singing fish?</p>
<p>This is a happy thread! My brag is that my newly graduated artist daughter got accepted to a show at a New York Gallery! We are very proud of her!</p>
<p>Our DS spent the first 2 1/2 years after graduation trying to be a freelance writer, with long stints writing horoscopes for Wiccan websites. We had some specific family needs, so his āflexibilityā was put to good use. He returned to grad school, in a field in which people are actually employed, in January and then, last month, got a full time job that he had applied for 6 months earlier (in a job directly related to his grad school degree), so now he is doing grad school at night. This is not so much a ābragā as it is a hopeful reminder that, even after 2+ years of doing not a heck of a lot, they can (surprisingly quickly) get back on trackā¦and launch. I should add that the younger DS has been more linear- 2 years of work, law school in the fall- in keeping with his personality. The DD is in boarding school and all is right with the world since she will go to college exactly where she is meant to go and we are celebrating her much more important reconnection with her healthy and talented self!</p>
<p>My nephewās wife just had her first show at an art gallery. I am so proud of her! Her jewelry was beautiful, and she even sold some pieces!</p>
<p>My son will be working at an LAC that perhaps some of your kids are attending but I am moot at this point. It is just such a wonderful feeling when they launch! Congratulations to all in similar situations.</p>
<p>My son graduated last month and will also be working at a university at a job with full benefits. Itās not directly related to his degree but itās a paying job, which a lot of his fellow grads donāt have yet. He even gets reduced tuition if he decides to take some grad courses there. Weāre happy for him!</p>
<p>My brag is D started training for Mississippi Teacher Corps less than a week after graduation. Program includes (in addition to salary) fully paid masters degree in instruction and curriculum, a new Macbook, relocation expenses, pay for summer training, and all the love and joy associated with teaching in a poor rural school.</p>
<p>I will really be bragging if she completes training this summer without any whining about the long hours and Saturday obligations. So far, so good.</p>
<p>My son wrote the copy for the features on this website: [Friends</a> With Benefits | Official Site | In Theaters July 22](<a href=āhttp://www.fwb-movie.com/site/]Friendsā>http://www.fwb-movie.com/site/)</p>
<p>Joan52 #611</p>
<p>You have every reason to be very gratified. In our focus on academic achievement (look at the name of the site!) is is easy to lose sight of other types of achievement.</p>
<p>My d2 is finishing her second year as an elementary school teacher in the DC metro area with Teach for America. She just learned that her class of 28 first graders was assessed as gaining an average of 1.98 years in reading over the past year! She is beyond thrilled. None of the kids gained less than a year, and some gained significantly more than two. She feels itās a solid assessment because the kids are tested individually on unfamiliar material by teachers who donāt know them. This has been a tough year for her - 28 is a lot of little kids in any classroom, only 3 grew up in homes where English is the native language, and she had several boys with behavior issues. Iām so proud of her.</p>
<p>And a belated congrats to all the proud parents/friends/relatives/spouses/individuals on this thread!</p>
<p>Frazzled,
As a DC area pediatric nurse, let me offer my admiration and thanks to your daughter.
Enthusiastic young teachers can make such a difference in the lives of these children.</p>