The cheapest would be to check the larger town for consignment shops that either have or specialize in formal wear. I've found reasonable things at JCP and Belk. It's the right season because they only have very much right before prom/wedding season and right before the holidays, but it does vary by location. Both of those stores have LOTS of coupon deals, so look online for coupons before you head out. If you are willing, signing up for a store card will often give you a large discount on that day's purchase. If you lucky, you might have a high end outlet in town, like Nordstrom Rack. As to what to wear: I always struggle with this. I rarely wear anything but tennis shoes and casual clothes, so every time a formal thing pops up I'm completely unprepared (and have always changed sizes so previous choices will not work!) I try to find something comfortable, because I'm already uncomfortable enough at these things. And I try for understated, but elegant, hoping no one will notice me :blushing:

If you put a recommender on the Common App with no e-mail address, it will assume that that recommendation will come by mail. The college will know to look for it in the mail. You'll need to look up or ask for the address that each college wants paper documentation mailed to. Then your recommender can send the letter without getting a common app account. Common App does provide the pdf of a form that the recommender is supposed to fill out when it comes by mail. We had one recommender that didn't want to bother with that. He just put ds's common app id and birthdate on the letter and mailed it. The college has it as received on their status page. I don't yet know if it will make a difference that it doesn't have the form.

Looks like a great place to film the next apocalyptic hit. Maybe some crazy actor/producer will buy it up. They have the money to bring trucks of water in each day for filming :) I think I understand why he never told anyone. It's like that joke,"If you believe that, I've got some land..." He was probably hoping it would just revert to the county when he died and no one would ever know. And, sorry for your loss, I know the holidays make it hard. Buy yourselves a cheese platter to celebrate his life.

There were lots of other videos on the right that show what to do when you don't have a stapler. It seems interesting to me that we now live in a world where when students don't have a stapler, they search YouTube for videos of solutions! Does anyone remember how resourceful we had to be: wander down the dorm hall asking for a stapler, drop by an office and ask to use the stapler, or if the department had a challenging secretary, sneak a quick staple while she was filing...

The option to submit the essay did come up on the last submit screen, right before you proofread the pdf and pay. He never got an option to add a recommender so will have to call the college next week.

Georgia State University http://admissions.gsu.edu/how-do-i-apply/common-application/ I'm looking at the Holistic Review section. The Common App lists it as a no essay school. Now I'm wondering if the check box I am looking for will show up at the end when he submits. He is working on the college specific sections of the application now, so we can't play with the submit section yet. On the FERPA page, there is no box for letters of recommendation like the other colleges, but maybe that will show up at the end, too. If no one has experience, I'll post back when we figure it out!

So one of the colleges ds is applying to does not require the essay, but recommends it for scholarships and the honors program. It says the same for the letter of recommendation. But the letter of recommendation section doesn't show up and we can't find a place to choose to submit the optional essay. It seems like there should just be a check box, but I'm not seeing it. Has anyone else opted to send the essay when it was optional? Any chance you remember how you did it?

So sad, I've been following a bit skimming the news, but am trying to hold together because there is so much on our family's plate today. Trying to keep it a mental box. Then I went to order something quickly on amazon and hit their home page and somehow it made it 9/11 real :(

:grouphug: I'm so sorry. There is just so much to proofread on these things, there is no way to get it all perfect. Our eyes just glaze over on the umpteenth proofread. This is a grueling process :banghead:

You've gotten lots of great advice. I have one more suggestion. Look at his posture for potty time. There is more and more evidence for the biomechanical advantages of squatting to poop. Sitting with his legs hanging down like kids are apt to could make things worse. Some of it is explained here: http://www.squattypotty.com/5-problems-with-sitting-on-your-toilet/ though you don't really need to buy something to switch positioning. Fair warning: If you search the site, the unicorn video is only for those who have been told they have a questionable (warped?) sense of humor 😀

That is a great list from Lori. I didn't read through all of the responses, but I wanted to mention one thing that caught me off guard: Most of the state schools required us to apply early action to be eligible for merit aid. One EA deadline was Oct 15! Others were Nov 1, Nov 15 & Dec 1. It's turned out OK, but would have better if I had seen it coming in August.

We went from a 15 to a 30 when we moved because we were moving my parents in with us. To get a house with a big enough in-law apartment we couldn't afford the 15 year. We have refinanced since and might have been able to swing a 15, but it would have been really tight, and with frequent lay-offs in dh's industry through those years, we felt best to leave it as-is. I do pay extra each month; though that is hard at the rate taxes and insurance are increasing, whenever I up the payment the escrow rises to match me!

I agree, much harder than I thought, between DE and applications, ds is wiped out, and we haven't even entered the flying off for interviews yet. Congrats to your dd! I hope we get the opportunity, too. Are anyone else's holidays impacted? Ds finished the apps due 11/1 just before dark on Halloween night, we proofread them all, turned off the lights, and decided the neighborhood kids would have to get candy somewhere else! I'm at the point of telling the extended family that I just can't do Thanksgiving this year. Ds has 3 applications and two projects for college classes due 12/1. I can't possible make the holiday happen without his help (it's very funny that I thought he would be off all that week and we'd have a real holiday!) On the upside: I'm packing up the car and we are leaving town after his last final. School doesn't start back until Jan. 11 and most of the scholarship apps don't seem to be due until Jan. 15. (I haven't made reservations anywhere yet, just in case he has to go for an interview that week, but I'm thinking Disney World!) Good Luck to your DD!

Know what you mean about humidity. I'm finding it funny to imagine that leaving the bed open would actually let things dry. Towels never get dry before the next bath. Nothing gets dry by this "hanging-up magic" that other people have ;-) I have allergy covers and wash the sheets once a week and never make the bed (but just because I'm lazy, not because I thought it was good for me!)

I would have done the same thing. Drowning happens too fast and with people and a place you don't really know, I would be very uncomfortable. I don't actually like to go to the pool with a group of kids, because I can't NOT watch them. I spend the whole time counting heads over and over, because I don't ever feel like anyone else is watching their kids closely enough.

This is a small suggestion but it might help. An open bag or box seems to work better than a backpack. The extra work of opening the backpack seems to be a deterrent to "just putting it where it goes the first time." I love LLBean totes, because they are large and sit open: 1-IMG_4545.JPG and can be grabbed quickly as you walk out, but anything like that works. The new rule is that ANYTHING important to go gets thrown in the bag. The bag is always in the same place. Then ten minutes before leave time, the stuff can be sorted and put in the pack or on the body or in the car. I won't call it a lazy factor, but there is something about the ease of just tossing the thing in the bag that makes it easier to stick to than zipping it up in the correct compartment or carrying it to the car. So at time to go the bag may contain a calculator, a homework to hand in, gloves, the "proper" pants to wear (for a quick change as walking out), etc. If you are running late, the bag just gets grabbed and everything is sorted out in the car.

I have no idea but am following for suggestions. Ds didn't get anything for his 18th birthday. He didn't know what he wanted. We figured we'd go shopping with him for something, but with dual enrollment and college applications, there isn't time for anything. I'm thinking we'll do something bigger for Christmas.

Are they using headphones with cords? We bit the bullet and bought bluetooth headphones for ds a couple of years back. They still work great. It was the cords that were always going bad. Won't help if they listen on devices that don't have bluetooth, though.

Third one down here...ds is working on essay for #4, due the 15th. There are 10 total on the list, but if there is a good offer early action, he may not bother with some of the regular decision apps. (He also took the SAT Math 2 this morning, so that is done!)

I would agree to send your dh as often as she needs, and when he goes, send a card from you (or you and the kids) letting her know you are thinking of her. You could send a small treat each time if you can find things you know they like (amazon.com is your friend for special diet treats.) Maybe things will warm between you, and you can help more over time. The people that became incredible allies in helping me heal after dd's death were not the ones that I would have necessarily guessed...others just disappeared, probably because they didn't know what to say. My suggestion on what to say: "I'm so, so sorry. I can't imagine what you are going through. Let me know if there is anything I can do to help. You are in our thoughts (and prayers, if appropriate)" Repeat in various forms throughout the next year. Hugs to you and your dh. It's hard to be on the outside, too.

The way it is set up, you have to answer both questions. I answered for both dh and myself, but you may want to change it, in case someone doesn't have a handy male or female to ask to complete the poll.

That's what I keep thinking about. I know it happens from looking at statistics. I'll be a bit nervous until January. In hindsight, do you have any guess as to why it happened?

We have the same situation with a 50% school. I really don't know what to think. I'm trying to keep focus on the others. We're supposed to know EA acceptances in January.

Mine was about 1 paragraph over a page. I need to make a shorter version, because another non-Common App school asks for one that is limited to one page in length.

:hurray: :hurray: Finished EA application #2 last night! It's due today, so we are pretty much taking the day off (ignoring the fact that ds has two tests next week and the SAT IIs on Saturday.) We finished the basic Common App on October 15th for an early EA deadline, but there wasn't a celebration thread yet then. There are five more on the list: 3 Common App with additional writing and 2 others with three essays each. We hope to be completely done by Thanksgiving. These are the EA ones; there are a couple that don't have EA that he liked. If he's not happy with EA offers, he may choose to do one or two of those RD. (It's lots, but with a potential move, safety-state-schools are a longer list.)