<p>Can we say Type A TOWC? ;)</p>
<p>HI Mom, my brother lives on the big island for four months of the year. Six months in Valdiz--and has done so for the past twenty years. He loves it. My DH is a USC alum--so we have all kinds of things in common, LOL.</p>
<p>
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His only comment was, "I hope I never again get beaten by someone with an IPOD."
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LOL! I hope he's feeling better now, MOWC.</p>
<p>Yea, folks in this household rarely carry their inhalers either, tho they're grateful to use mine when they're feeling "tight." Oh well, I guess SOMEDAY maybe they'll learn? Or not!</p>
<p>Anyway, my S had a nice thanksgiving dinner with family friends--they picked him up & returned him to campus. He's just headed out again around midnight to catch some sales with friends at Staples. He is now standing in line, so he just called me. Yippee! He's very happy.</p>
<p>Fortunately, my S's health has been quite good. Our family is not "native" to Hawaii in the racial or ethnic sense, but my paternal grandmother was born in HI but the rest of my grandparents immigrated to HI.</p>
<p>I love Maui too, but haven't spent much time there. The traffic is getting worse & worse throughout the state, but it's still a wonderful state to live in. :)</p>
<p>Glad everyone's OK after that exciting race, MOWC. Your family has a LOT more energy than ours. </p>
<p>We had my extended family at our home. The cleaning up before the party was the though part (we are NOT cleaners). The house is MUCH cleaner than it's been in a LOOONGGGGG time! There were about 25 for dinner at our home--three were off at college or we'd have had more. I wanted to invite a few folks, but my D vetoed the idea, saying our house is just too small (it's smaller than the others--1350 square feet for us & >3000 sq. ft. under roof for each of their homes, with brother having > 4500 sq. ft.)</p>
<p>Anyway, we had a nice gathering. I'm glad USC is sensible & sensitive to student needs. It was another point in their favor when we were comparing Us.</p>
<p>Himom... If it makes you feel any better... traffic in NY is no better! My sister (who lives 45 mins away) spent 2 hours in her car to get here yesterday. Ok, it was a holiday... but still. When we came back from visiting S at GW for parents' weekend in October, the 4 1/2 hour drive took 8 1/2 hours!!!</p>
<p>Our Thanksgiving day was good... hectic.... its not the cooking that gets me, its the shopping, organizing, shlepping... up & down from the garage....</p>
<p>The "little ones" were here... my nephews (2, 5, 7, 10) & my niece (12 -- clearly in the throes of pre-adolescent snottiness)... and of course, my boys (16 & 18). I've kept just enough toys in the house to keep the little boys happy... (the 2 youngest are my sister's kids, they're here all the time... the others are my husband's sister's, and live in Mass. -- only visit once or twice a year) but oh! the mess of all the little pieces! puzzles, Mr. Potatoe Head, checkers! stacking cubes, a Thomas Train... Playmobil! OK, it's kind of fun to see all this stuff out again... makes me treasure those memories.... nothing is more adorable than a 2 year old offering you a taste of his chocolate cake!</p>
<p>But today its back to reality.... work, cleaning, LEFTOVERS. Our HS football team is playing to the state championship, my 16 yo is going with a friend's family overnight to watch the game tomorrow... at least he'll be occupied & out of the house. The rest of the weekend... a family wedding tomorrow & Broadway tix on Sunday.</p>
<p>Then S1 leaves back to school after the show. Yeah, I miss him already.</p>
<p>Enjoy the leftovers everyone!</p>
<p>We just have all the kiddos play with wooden blocks that my kids have loved since they were very little & refuse to part with. I suppose if they stayed in our home for days, we'd break out more of the other games & toys, but they like the hammock & those wooden blocks ages pre-school thru U, so we do pretty well. They also like playing computer & electronic games sometimes, but yesterday all were pretty content with the blocks. (They probably never play with wooden blocks anywhere else.)</p>
<p>Our home is just about 8-10 miles from their school & it generally takes 30-45+ minutes to get there in the morning with medium traffic. Picking up, I can generally get there in about 15 minutes because traffic is much better. A friend said it took him over 4.5 hours to get home on the express bus -- his home is maybe 30-40 miles from his workplace (without traffic in a car you should be able to get there in about 40 minutes). Yes, we have traiffic too, tho we're a very small state & island.</p>
<p>Funny you mention the wooden blocks... we still have those too.... I pulled them out this summer for my 5 year old nephew and he was so excited about them, he asked me to buy them for his birthday (which of course, I did). He said he didn't know PEOPLE could have these ... he thought they only were in SCHOOLS! Sometimes, the best toys are the simplest ones. My personal kid favorite? Mr. Potatoe Head! I've really given away almost all the kid stuff... I've kept the Playmobil & Brio Trains packed away.... we even have a deluxe set of Playmobil Electric Trains.... but I keep some books and puzzles handy for when they visit. And of course, board games & video games. Last year, my younger son (then 15) had 2 friends sleep here, and we lost power from a snowstorm. They were up all night playing Monopoly, Chess & Sorry. They had actually forgotten the rules to Monopoly! It's such a tech-age....</p>
<p>Our kids refuse to let us get rid of the wooden blocks--we have enough for a preschool! We also have about 4 Costco sets of wooden trains, with some Brio thrown in for good measure. Our kids still love all wooden things, but are real tech geeks too. During the 18-hour power outage, my D was not sure what to do with herself!</p>
<p>NY mom- Yes, it's the same kid, going away didn't magically transform him, he still has some growing up to do. I thought the piles on the floor were logical so my son wouldn't forget to take things back, but he said that's how he does it at school (when we saw his room in early Sept. I thought he just hadn't gotten around to putting things in the empty cubbies and bookshelf, I'm not allowed in (by him) to cringe now). Son had actually, for the first time, called just to talk last Friday and sounded so pleasant and more mature. I think being at home caused him to fall into old behaviors, not because of the way parents are treating him. BTW, don't ever think your child can help with the drive home- it wouldn't be safe, not because they haven't driven in a while , but because they might fall asleep behind the wheel! Son's running a Sunday morning 5K with a bunch of CC buddies, he's no fan of ipods while running either. We had a second microwave oven we let go to college, never used much in the past, but now we miss it because H and I microwave leftovers and single serving foods a lot more now. This was a visit, child-as-guest, I'm wondering about/dreading the winter break son at home. He's no longer part of our routines; since he won't have school I'm already deciding he can get up to shovel any morning snow and then go back to bed so H can get the car out...</p>
<p>I let S drive when he got home, Tues. just locally... small errands in town. He, too, hadn't driven since the end of August. But Wed. night he & his brother went to the movies (S2 is almost 16, not driving yet)... and I gave him very specific reminders about parkway driving, especially at night, etc. And I made him call when they got there, and wake me when they got home. I guess I've reached a comfort level ... or... sheer laziness... because today I'm letting him take the parkways to get the dog at the kennel. </p>
<p>we've fallen into our old patterns. While he's been pretty pleasant, the short temper has definiately surfaced on occassion. The younger one is away overnight today, so again, just one at home till late tomorrow. Still the piles on the floor... I don't know how he finds anything. I asked him now to just please separate the clean from the dirty, so at least we can do the laundry. I know what winter break will bring.... he'll sleep all day, stay up all night. Unfortunately, he really doesn't have a social network at home, so this is pure down time for him. Oh well... its only for 3 weeks. How bad can it be?</p>
<p>S is 19 & has still never gotten his driver's license (tho he has a learner's permit). D is 17 & also doesn't have a license OR permit. Both are happy to be driven where they need to go, but someday S does plan to get his license, just not a priority. D does expect to drive someday too.</p>
<p>HiMom, How have you kept them at bay? what's the licensing regs in your state? Here you can get a permit at 16, a Jr. license at 16/half, and a senior license at 17 (if you've have driver's ed). S2 is counting down the minutes. My question is, how will they share a car next summer?</p>
<p>nymom2sons
I had to laugh when I read your post about your son not putting things away. When I visited my DS for parents' day this fall I got to see his room for the first time. He has a huge desk and it was covered with stuff. I asked if he could find room for some of the things in the drawers. He laughed & told me that he'd filled the drawers..he then proceeded to open 5 drawers - they were all filled with packing peanuts from the various packages I'd sent him just since September (I had to send his printer and a few other things that didn't make it down on move in day so he'd gotten several big boxes)! And there was a box on the floor that had packing peanuts and he was trying to figure out if he could move his underwear to another spot in his room so that drawer could be filled with packing peanuts too. I guess maybe all I need to get him for the holidays is more packing peanuts? Oh, yes, and this weekend, he has been home since Wednesday night and his suitcase has not been moved from where he parked it by the front door.</p>
<p>Oaklandmom: I sympathize... my son's room on Parent's weekend was a disaster. You must have missed my posts on that. I stood at the door for 5 minutes, just saying, "oh my god" over and over again. Then my husband spent 2 hours cleaning it... or should I say fumigating it? I couldn't. I was too naseaous. There were boxes & stuff where we had left them 6 weeks earlier on move in. There were bowls of left over fried rice. Who knows how old? His room here... well, I have some more control.... I just go in and remove things.</p>
<p>My kids have no desire to get their licenses. We have a car insured & sitting in the driveway for whenever either of them becomes licensed & wants to start driving, but no takers. The only reason S got his permit was because I insisted it would be a good form of ID for college; D will probably get hers for similar reasons. There is LOTS of traffic in HI & it really isn't all that fun to drive in--not even much fun to sit in as a passenger. It's OK with us that I chauffer them around & works well for them too.</p>
<p>My S generally keeps his room pretty neat, at home & I suspect in college. He insisted on shelf paper for his dorm room (never had any in HI, but we were happy to comply). He does let things pile up a bit (yep, another piler) & then cleans like a fiend & everything looks immaculate. Generally, he can find things & never leaves food around to attract bugs (tons of bugs already in HI without any encouragement); OK, we'll count our blessings.</p>
<p>S has already come and gone. Most of his time here was spent out with friends from high sch. They were a very tight group and still are even though they are all sophs. now.<br>
When he arrived on Tues. night, he turned his bag upside down and dumped entire contents on the floor in his room. It stayed there just like that until he got ready to pack up to leave last night. He has always been terrible about misplacing stuff but has yet to make the connection with that and his pile dumping style. Less than 10 minutes after pulling out of the driveway last night, he was back. Seems he had left all his toiletries and contact lens on the bathroom counter.</p>
<p>Teens here can get a learner's permit at 15 and driver's license after holding the permit for 1 year. My S's were both at the DMV on their birthdays...had been counting the minutes. Both have always loved to drive as have their guy friends. I have friends whose D's don't have any real interest in driving and just ride everywhere with friends who have their license.</p>
<p>I enjoyed my S since Wednesday; he didn’t want to go anywhere without us, he “forced” us to play video games with him, and he took us to the movies (the new Bond movie). He is going back to school tomorrow, and just thinking in driving him to the airport makes me sad, but at least this time his absence will be only for 23 days.
I think I would need the “cheer up pill” that you all give me in the past once he leaves.</p>
<p>It's very nice that your kiddo wanted to play video games with you & go to the movies with you. Our kiddos get exasperated with us on computer/video games because we're so BAD & they beat us with no effort. The last movie we all saw together that I can remember was "Troy" or part of Lord of the Rings trilogy (whichever was more recent). D likes to see movies with her friends & S doesn't really enjoy attending movies.
Still have not heard back from S about what he managed to purchase (if anything) from his waiting in line at Staples for the store to open on Friday. He wanted some $5 hard drives.</p>
<p>It's fun to read of all your T-giving experiences. Our S came home a more mellow and patient version of his former self. Still wonderfully funny in a bone-dry kind of way. He left yesterday, and I have a small a hole in my heart today. I love having him here, but wouldn't for the world want to keep him here, of course. Sigh.</p>
<p>Aren't I cheery? sorry!</p>
<p>Beautiful D got home Wednesday afternoon. Long-term (since 10th grade) boyfriend occupied guest room from late Thanksgiving night on (remarried mom out of town, little brothers with dad who lives in another city). They left at noon today. He'll deliver her to Rice then take himself back to College Station. The past few days have been much like HS and reminded me why I miss them both SO much. Although my head knows they'll both be back in less than a month, it seems like an eternity to my heart. </p>
<p>Everyone tells me it will get easier to leave her/watch her leave, but I always have to ask "when?".</p>
<p>D and her boyfrirend leave tonight to go back to Houston. WildChild has a very early flight back to Phila in the morning. Does anyone think it would be bad to dump him at the airport tonight instead of getting up at 4am? It was nice to see him. Can he leave now?</p>