IU has an awesome music program. (Actually, pretty much all midwestern "University of" Flagships seem to have great music schools...)

British Cadbury Chocolate. About once a year when I get to go to World Market. Fancy olives-one of the grocery stores farther away has an olive bar. Out of season berries Good cheese.

I discovered that Eclipse glasses and my progressive, need them to see my hand in front of my face glasses are NOT compatible. Getting a major headache is not a life changing experience in a positive way :(.

At least for us, it's also that we got out of the habit of going out as a splurge/extra, and, honestly, take out/delivery just wasn't better than making food at home. At this point, it's not COVID-it's simply no longer part of our regular lives. But I'll probably never go back to buying packaged baked goods vs going to the bakery-I'll give up baked goods first. The other difference I see-over half the college/just out of college kids I know personally are vegetarian or vegan. So their grocery carts will contain things that I would consider a splurge (more nuts, Almond milk, Ramen from the imported foods aisle because the cheap ones contain meat products, and they're more likely to buy things like portobello mushrooms or whole heads of raw cauliflower to turn into "steak") but they're NOT buying meat, eggs, cheese, etc.

I think L got some opportunities to apply early in June/July, and did most of the apps before school started. But that was also 2020/2021, so there wasn't much else TO do!! In comparison, M finally hit "submit" on Jan 31....

Memphis is FULL. We were downtown for a Broadway tour show lasr night, and I'm not used to there being this many people even during Memphis in May, Elvis Week, or the Liberty Bowl! Lots and lots of out of state plates. I hope they're all able to make it up to the region of totality. My guess is that they booked rooms here because it was as close as they could get, but the interstate is going to be a mess, especially with the I-55 bridge still down for repairs.

Be aware that brands that are normally nice, spacious suites and have suite in the name are much less so at least in Manhattan. The Embassy Suites we booked near Central Park was OK...but it was seriously the size of a typical non-suite hotel room, except they'd dropped a half wall into it!

I'm considering making a sticker album for my adult student as her end of semester "award"-the woman probably has almost as many music trinkets as I do at this point :). I have a laminator and a binding machine.... Wonder if anyone has scanned graphics from the 1980's ones?

1-9 and 11 🙂

Maybe? It might be a cooked fondant. The texture is about like fudge.

When I was growing up, one of the local church youth groups made candy easter eggs dipped in chocolate in various flavors, and sold them in front of grocery stores and via pre-order to fund summer mission trips, etc. My mom wasn't much for store bought candy (if I wanted peeps or jelly beans, I had to buy them myself), but would buy those eggs. They were SO good.... I asked on FB if anyone local (to me now) knew of anyone who made them, thinking that maybe one of the bakeries or home bakers did. One of my high school band friends mailed me a box with 4 of them, made by a church youth group in a small town not far from where I grew up. They got a bit battered and bruised, but the one I just ate tasted like coconut flavored home :).

Given the labeling, it looks like a teacher's classroom library-most of them are marked with grade level and AR points.

We made a run out to Walmart and picked up a dorm fridge we can stick some things in until we can get someone out to look at it. M will need one next fall anyway.

And....just discovered that it's 40 degrees in our freezer abs 59 in the refrigerator....sigh...

I put more books and hid the first round of eggs for the morning in and around my mom's library. I'm having a really hard time getting into the mood and feeling it this year. Grief seems to be hitting harder this year than last year, and I sorely miss having little kids.

I think baked goods depend everywhere on whether they are baked on site. We have one Walmart neighborhood market which has awesome baked goods-because they're the bakery for the region. Everywhere else gets them at least a day later and they're not nearly as good.

They also have really good custom sheet cakes, although I don't know how often the average person NEEDS a costco-sized sheet cake!

You can also get a lot of stuff online. I often get tech there (things like a new printer or iPad) because their price is no more than anywhere else, and their in-house warranty can't be beat. If you go to restaurants or areplanning a big trip, check Costco for gift cards. The savings can add up, especially for something like Disney or Universal. Their optical center and pharmacy are also good. Now, having said that, it's a 15 minute drive for me, and in a place I'm at pretty often.

That was kind of the reaction that my students had. More like "oh, yeah, a sticker, can I get a Minecraft one for my water bottle instead?" But my adult student was so happy to see them, and I can't wait to see her reaction to seeing the exact ones we talked about :). I think I've seen the scented markers at a teaching store. I may buy a set just for me. I've realized that I'm a lot closer in age to most of my students' grandparents than their parents.

I'm technically a 70's kid as well, by birthdate, but given that I entered K in 1977, I definitely feel more connection to the 1980's 🙂

I got them from my PT, OT and ST in elementary school and it was SUCH a big deal to have them to trade, etc. I realized years later that they probably bought the high demand stickers in part to enable that trading and social interaction.

Over winter break, L was going to the teaching store to laminate some stuff and asked if I needed anything, and I mentioned animal stickers for my preschoolers. L brought back a pack of scratch and sniff stickers, and while my students were OK with them, my 51 yr old piano student was in heaven, and we reminisced about our favorite stickers growing up (honestly, I sometimes feel guilty that she pays me because we've had so many common experiences that it's more like hanging out with a friend). Look what I found!!! And yes, I ordered all of our mutual favorites. https://www.trendenterprises.com/collections/scratch-n-sniff-stinky-stickers®-1?page=1&grid_list=grid-view

Oh, I hope not-it's one of my specific examples in my gifted homeschooling workshops on tying a child's interests into learning!