During my dd's senior year in college, she lived above a shop. The owner always played Johnny Cash while he was preparing for his business day - she could set her clock by him - if it was 11:00am, he was playing "Ring of Fire."

Were you offered a time that would be convenient to you, or just given that time slot? It wouldn't bother me because I am usually up around then, and then I would be DONE with that and could get on with my day. I hate waiting around for deliveries.

Bennet Cerf's Book of Riddles is probably OOP based on the "new from" price on Amazon. :huh: Check your library.

If the plane has a first class section, it would be easy enough to stow the garment bag in the rack there. My experience has been the flight attendants are overwhelmingly willing to do that. Just don't forget to get it when you deplane :)

Yes but it has to be on the right hand side of the street. Same with backing into a parking space, I do great with going into it from the right side, not so much from the left side.

My first car was a manual transmission, and dh has always had a stick. As mentioned by a pp, they are getting harder and harder to find in the US. But just about every car we rent (hire) in Europe is a manual. When we got our drivers licenses in the UK, in order to be qualified to drive a manual, you had to take the test driving a stick shift.

Only if it will convince her to not visit her MIL.

This is wrong on so many counts. Please do let the office manager know the details of your experience. And I hope you can find a better doctor office for your ds soon! Give him a hug from his WTM aunties 😘

Thank yo so much for posting this! I just listened to it (even though I'm long retired from homeschooling). It just reminded me of the reason(s) we love SWB and WTM at our house!

my rebate arrived in the mail today. I submitted it online on 7/14.

I just wanted to address this part. None of my 3 siblings or I have lived in our hometown for nearly 30 years. My mom lived in an independent living facility, but when it became clear her care was more than she could handle, we moved her to a retirement facility in my current city. My dh and I have made the decision we won't move from here till she passes (his job is such that, while we have moved all over the world with the same company, he is likely to stay put in our current city till he retires). There's nothing that says you have to stay where your parents are. They can come to you, wherever that happens to be.

You reminded me of something, Kareni - during dd's senior year, we had friends from here who happened to be passing through dd's college town (1200 miles away) on Parents Weekend. They took her to dinner one night, they walked around the town the following day - it was perfect for dd, as she didn't feel like an orphan for PW but also didn't feel totally tied up with outside activities and could spent a good chunk of the weekend on her school work.

We went for the first parents' weekend and had an experience similar to regentrude's... except that we also had a 3 hour flight and then a 2 hour drive. And then our return flight was delayed a few hours. And our entire flight (both ways) was other parents, either for dd's college or for one two hours away (same weekend, using same airport). The weekend itself was full of things we had no interest in doing - in fact, we sat in dd's room and read to ourselves (a regular family activity) during the football game. Do yourselves a favor, go visit another weekend. You'll all be glad you did!

I'm worn out just reading all this - what a hassle! But I love your update (and YES, why couldn't he hear about the Facebook page weeks ago) - I hope you can finalize all this tomorrow! Sweet dreams - you deserve them! :grouphug:

I knew it was going to be Country Roads before I saw your link! It's just so singable, isn't it?? My parents are from West Virginia so maybe it's in my blood :D

If I were you, I would go ahead and wash everything to get rid of the icky smell. Do you have banisters or spare counter space where you could let them dry? And yeah, you're right about the heat - maybe let them dry outside. :coolgleamA:

No first hand experience with boys, but my friends with boys say they are happy if they hear from them every four weeks. :mellow: My dd wanted to Skype almost every night her freshman year. Now, in her first year of grad school, we tend to Skype every 2 weeks or so. OP, you might see what your student wants to do. My dd and I are like you, we have never been phone people (and my dd sounds like she's about to cry on the phone, even if she's had the best day of her life). We tried Skype before she left home, so we knew its "weaknesses" - not the best audio OR video but we all agreed it was the closest thing to being right there. And we've never paid a dime for Skype. Several times when my dd did study abroad, she was in Europe, dh was in Asia, and I was in the US - but we could all Skype. For free. Pretty amazing :)

I joined FB when dd did (after her freshman year of college) but killed it about a year later. Someone told me I would miss seeing dd's pictures from her study abroad, but FB isn't the only way to share photos :glare: Now dd doesn't do much with it either. I agree with a PP that FB is being passed over for Instagram, Twitter, and Snapchat - although I know lots of people who have all those and update them all with the same photos/news.

Your middle ds sounds absolutely adorable. Funny, smart, what's not to like?

The description should have anything out of normal wear and tear. I consider a coffee stain outside of normal wear and tear.

I would like to do longish (3-6 months or so) mission trips. We have many in our church who do this (church is based near a translation center).

I started one in November but never invited anybody - I guess that shows how my life went then :crying: I have invited those from this thread who mentioned wanting to join - and a few others - if I missed you, please don't take offense. I have other things happening in my life right now - which means my mom is in a great place :) I will write more probably next week but wanted to get the ball rolling since I saw this. Please if you want to join and I haven't invited you - send me a PM and I'll do it ASAP.

Took the words right out of my mouth! We lived outside London for a few years and I never drove into central London. Dh did it once, but that was on Christmas Day when the taxis weren't running.

Even if you had given your ds's friends 3 weeks notice, there's no guarantee they could come. And you are an AMAZING, fabulous, on-the-ball, with it mom to advocate for your sweet newborn! Hugs to all of you. Tell your ds and your dd all their WTM aunties say happy, happy birthday!!

Hugs to you and your family. We aren't meant to bury our children. I remember your story vividly. I loved reading your blog and I love that you bought houses for your children. I have a warm fuzzy feeling just thinking about them living close to you. And that's amazing that you've had the same tenants for four years.