Parents of the Class of 2019

DD played her first varsity soccer game last night! She was happy. She played the middle part of each half, got to kick the ball some. We were cold- it was 50 but cloudy and breezy. Today there is a little snow on the ground :(

This weekend is quiet, just a speech banquet. Next weekend is vocal solo/ensemble plus a college visit to another state. Weekend after that is prom! Grandma got the dress hemmed and padded, but DD is a little dismayed that the top half is just too long on her short body. We didn't really notice on the first try-on. With all the beading there's nothing we can do so she will have to try to stand tall, shoulders up :)

I am anxious to do the out-of-state college visit. Right now DD loves everything about it including the distance (my child with wanderlust). I love the price, but not the distance. DH thinks going 600 miles is outrageous. When I ask if he will kick in more money to stay local, or if he can find something more affordable, his suggestion is community college. DD19 is at cc now and it's working wonderfully for her, I have nothing against cc. But they are different kids, and if DD16 can go to the same university all 4 years for the same annual cost as a cc or less, it might be worth the distance. Hoping the visit will clarify whether it's an option to keep on the table. (PS. DH went to trade school a 12 hour drive from his home :upsidedow)
 
Hi all! You may recall I mentioned that my DD applied for 5 very selective summer programs. So...I’ve got some fantastic news. Perhaps you felt a rumble and lots of noise coming from the Dallas Texas direction. That was ME jumping up and down and screaming with excitement because my daughter was selected for the UT Southwestern Medical School STARS Summer Research program. The selected high school Juniors are matched with a research professor, and spend 40 hours per week for 8 weeks working in that professor’s lab on the research the professor is doing. They get paid a stipend of $2800. The STARS kids also have group activities. Plus the opportunity to be fully involved in graduate level research as a high school junior. Also, it is only 4 miles from my job, so that is tremendously helpful with us only having one car. She is meeting with her matches professor next week in his lab to get acquainted with the research. She thinks she wants to do research in some area of biomedical sciences/engineering, so this will help her know if she’s really cut out for it. I am so excited for her!!!!!
 
Hi all! You may recall I mentioned that my DD applied for 5 very selective summer programs. So...I’ve got some fantastic news. Perhaps you felt a rumble and lots of noise coming from the Dallas Texas direction. That was ME jumping up and down and screaming with excitement because my daughter was selected for the UT Southwestern Medical School STARS Summer Research program. The selected high school Juniors are matched with a research professor, and spend 40 hours per week for 8 weeks working in that professor’s lab on the research the professor is doing. They get paid a stipend of $2800. The STARS kids also have group activities. Plus the opportunity to be fully involved in graduate level research as a high school junior. Also, it is only 4 miles from my job, so that is tremendously helpful with us only having one car. She is meeting with her matches professor next week in his lab to get acquainted with the research. She thinks she wants to do research in some area of biomedical sciences/engineering, so this will help her know if she’s really cut out for it. I am so excited for her!!!!!
Congrats to your DD! That's awesome!
 


Not much going on here. Can't seem to motivate her to spend quality time prepping for next week's ACT. But she has been out looking at more prom dresses. I have the feeling my wallet will get asked to go shopping soon!

School ends here just before Memorial Day. So lots of serious school work going on.

Our drive to Wisconsin ended with driving through an ugly snow/sleet storm on Sunday. Saw the Madison campus, even went to the book store and bought a sweatshirt. But it wasn't a college visit. It was a kid visit. We'll be planning some college visits in the next few weeks.
 
Hi all! You may recall I mentioned that my DD applied for 5 very selective summer programs. So...I’ve got some fantastic news. Perhaps you felt a rumble and lots of noise coming from the Dallas Texas direction. That was ME jumping up and down and screaming with excitement because my daughter was selected for the UT Southwestern Medical School STARS Summer Research program. The selected high school Juniors are matched with a research professor, and spend 40 hours per week for 8 weeks working in that professor’s lab on the research the professor is doing. They get paid a stipend of $2800. The STARS kids also have group activities. Plus the opportunity to be fully involved in graduate level research as a high school junior. Also, it is only 4 miles from my job, so that is tremendously helpful with us only having one car. She is meeting with her matches professor next week in his lab to get acquainted with the research. She thinks she wants to do research in some area of biomedical sciences/engineering, so this will help her know if she’s really cut out for it. I am so excited for her!!!!!
pixiedust:
YAY!
 
Dd came in second in her first 400 m of track season - dd15 beat her by a millisecond. They won their 4 x 4, I’m not sure about her 200. Picked up her formal gown from the tailor today, I thought it looked fine before, but she needed to get her dance solo dress altered again anyway. It does look better. Apparently all of her friends are getting spray tans, this is nuts. She toured Villanova with a bunch of friends, it’s now her #1 so far. She’s been driving a lot since getting her license a month ago, I’m been drinking dunkin a lot since she keeps going there.
 


Dd came in second in her first 400 m of track season - dd15 beat her by a millisecond. They won their 4 x 4, I’m not sure about her 200. Picked up her formal gown from the tailor today, I thought it looked fine before, but she needed to get her dance solo dress altered again anyway. It does look better. Apparently all of her friends are getting spray tans, this is nuts. She toured Villanova with a bunch of friends, it’s now her #1 so far. She’s been driving a lot since getting her license a month ago, I’m been drinking dunkin a lot since she keeps going there.
That's funny. My DD goes to Dunkin a lot too. But she goes for the donuts!
 
That's funny. My DD goes to Dunkin a lot too. But she goes for the donuts!
Mine never get donuts, dd17 gets an iced tea, dd15 iced coffee and hash browns (celiac), ds15 hot chocolate. We have 3 in our 3 mile town the closest one is 1/2 mile away. Starbucks is closer, but too much money.
 
Pretty quiet around here as well - 3rd Q grades came out today and they were really good, but Q1 grades were good as well and slipped some in the 2nd Q - semester grades are the only ones that count, so hopefully, he'll keep the work up and get a small bump in his overall GPA before applications need to start going out.

It's nearly 100% certain at this point that he's not going out for soccer for his senior year. :( I still think he's going to regret it at some point, but it's his decision and we have to accept that. :o

Looks like we're going to add a couple east coast schools to the tour list - we're working with a friend who consults with students on college admissions for a living and she gave us a couple recommendations for engineering schools, so we might be looking at a couple of them, like Bucknell, Lehigh and (not east coast) Virginia Tech. We have relatives in the DC area, so we are looking to visit them at their lake house while we're in VA, so we'll make a bigger trip out of it.

Also, one nice update from a social standpoint (considering my son is Mr. Anti-social ;) ) - he's having a party at our house tomorrow. :scared: No real idea of who and how many - sounds like maybe upwards of 15 teens in our basement, which should be interesting. o_O
 
Well, tonight is prom here, it's early in the year, but this is when it's scheduled. We ended up getting DD's dream dress, and I altered it to add wider straps. Prom is at a club down in Larkspur, which is about 35 - 40 minutes from us, which I kind of hate, but DD isn't driving, and the kids she is going with aren't partiers.

Here's the picture! DD is in the front in the blue dress...
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Pretty quiet around here as well - 3rd Q grades came out today and they were really good, but Q1 grades were good as well and slipped some in the 2nd Q - semester grades are the only ones that count, so hopefully, he'll keep the work up and get a small bump in his overall GPA before applications need to start going out.

It's nearly 100% certain at this point that he's not going out for soccer for his senior year. :( I still think he's going to regret it at some point, but it's his decision and we have to accept that. :o

Looks like we're going to add a couple east coast schools to the tour list - we're working with a friend who consults with students on college admissions for a living and she gave us a couple recommendations for engineering schools, so we might be looking at a couple of them, like Bucknell, Lehigh and (not east coast) Virginia Tech. We have relatives in the DC area, so we are looking to visit them at their lake house while we're in VA, so we'll make a bigger trip out of it.

Also, one nice update from a social standpoint (considering my son is Mr. Anti-social ;) ) - he's having a party at our house tomorrow. :scared: No real idea of who and how many - sounds like maybe upwards of 15 teens in our basement, which should be interesting. o_O
Courage! I hope they have a great time.

Thanks so much for sharing the photo. What a great looking group. Her dress is gorgeous. Great job adding the wider straps. I hope they have a great time tonight!
 
Welp, with two weeks to spare my daughter ended up with a date for prom after all... She'd been spending quite a bit of time chatting with a boy she dated when they were freshmen, and somewhere along the line they've decided to go out again. So they're going together. He's a sweet kid and she's excited. We spent most of yesterday and today at a robotics competition so she could hang out with him between matches.

Her dress arrived on Thursday and it fits beautifully. She was going to ask me to add straps because she isn't comfortable in strapless, and when I took a look at the inside to see how it was constructed and how best to do it, I noticed that it came with clear straps in a baggie attached to the tag. So I don't have to do anything to it at all. :D We found the dress on Wish.com for next to nothing, so I'm probably going to end up spending more on accessories than I did on the dress itself. But it is going to be fun - she's taking the 20s theme seriously, and has already ordered a really cute headband that looks like the one Daisy wore in The Great Gatsby. And I'm so glad we have it settled before softball games start eating up all her free time. Opening day this year is Friday the 13th; I hope that's not an omen!

And we're off next weekend for an impromptu visit to Xavier. DD was interested in them early on but hadn't said anything in a while, but when she got an invite to an open house event next weekend she asked if we could go. So we're heading down on Saturday, hitting the zoo, and getting a room with a pool to make a mini-getaway out of it.
 
CoDieney-she looks beautiful and the straps look like they were made for that dress.

Prom was last night for us too. DS decided not to go but went to Post Prom which is a huge party at school, run by parents with tons of activities. He is hoping to ask a date next year.

All juniors took the ACT last week so we’re really curious to see how it compares to his Dec. score. Unless he wants to try again, he will probably be done.

He is busy working on a spreadsheet of his college choices. Several are within a few hours of my brother in Philly. Unless he adds any closer, he’ll be several hours away from us but DB would be thrilled to have him nearby.
 
We toured Duke last week and he wasn’t crazy about it for many reasons, including the distance (4-5 hrs away). It would have been a reach anyway because they said about 90% of applicants are qualified to go there but their acceptance rate is only 8.5%. So, we’re going to concentrate on closer schools, which is what we were mostly doing anyway. We live in the DC metro area so are going to see if we can do tours of a couple schools in DC on a weekday before school ends. DS’ll get it excused and we can take a day off. He wants to find a job for the summer so we don’t want to have too many days where he needs to tell them he can’t work, and he already has a few of those. This week, he’s got the state SkillsUSA competition and then he’ll know if he’s going back to Kentucky in late June for Nationals. He went last year and loved it even though he didn’t place, and is just assuming he’s going again,lol. But that will be another week he can’t work. We are not concerned about either of our kids (we also have DS15) making a ton of money this summer, but they both want to work and as such, need to be available. DS17 already took the ACT and SAT but I think he’s going to sign up for the June 2 date for subject tests. One school he’s looking at strongly recommends them.
 
Well, tonight is prom here, it's early in the year, but this is when it's scheduled. We ended up getting DD's dream dress, and I altered it to add wider straps. Prom is at a club down in Larkspur, which is about 35 - 40 minutes from us, which I kind of hate, but DD isn't driving, and the kids she is going with aren't partiers.

That dress looks perfect on her!

I am awfully proud of myself today. I posted above that DD's dress is too long from collar to bust, but due to the beading neither Grandma nor I wanted to mess with it. DD was pretty upset about the fit, I told her it would be fine. Last night was the Speech banquet and while talking to another mom about the dress, I got a little courage and went to sleep thinking about it. We got it out today and opened up the seams between the collar and bodice, cut off as much material as we could without affecting beads and stuck the bodice, beading and all, as far into the collar as possible. Then stitched it shut, just working around the beading. I didn't want to remove any beading for fear it would all come off in one fell swoop! We raised it about an inch but the difference it makes is incredible, it does look so much better on her and isn't gapping or drooping. She almost cried in happiness. Now everything is set, as long as the weather cooperates. (It's freezing rain right now, but we have two weeks to warm up and it's looking promising in the 10 day!)
 
That dress looks perfect on her!

I am awfully proud of myself today. I posted above that DD's dress is too long from collar to bust, but due to the beading neither Grandma nor I wanted to mess with it. DD was pretty upset about the fit, I told her it would be fine. Last night was the Speech banquet and while talking to another mom about the dress, I got a little courage and went to sleep thinking about it. We got it out today and opened up the seams between the collar and bodice, cut off as much material as we could without affecting beads and stuck the bodice, beading and all, as far into the collar as possible. Then stitched it shut, just working around the beading. I didn't want to remove any beading for fear it would all come off in one fell swoop! We raised it about an inch but the difference it makes is incredible, it does look so much better on her and isn't gapping or drooping. She almost cried in happiness. Now everything is set, as long as the weather cooperates. (It's freezing rain right now, but we have two weeks to warm up and it's looking promising in the 10 day!)

That's awesome! I was really glad that the shoes that DD found made her tall enough that the dress just barely dragged on the ground. Because the organza had a wide border at the bottom, I wouldn't have been able to hem it at the bottom, and would have had to take it apart at the waist and bring it up there. The idea just made me cringe. She had a great time at prom, and at after-prom, didn't win any raffles, but looks forward to being able to put in tickets for the Sr. raffles next year!

The most amazing thing to me is that she even danced!
 
That's awesome! I was really glad that the shoes that DD found made her tall enough that the dress just barely dragged on the ground. Because the organza had a wide border at the bottom, I wouldn't have been able to hem it at the bottom, and would have had to take it apart at the waist and bring it up there. The idea just made me cringe. She had a great time at prom, and at after-prom, didn't win any raffles, but looks forward to being able to put in tickets for the Sr. raffles next year!

The most amazing thing to me is that she even danced!

I've seen those layered organza skirts with the wide borders and like them, but with a DD 5'1" we have to really consider hem-ability. She is wearing very high heels, which will come off during the dance, so I'm hoping she doesn't wreck the bottom of the dress when her shoes are off and it's dragging a bit. Although I feel like her dresses aren't very resellable anyway, after all the alterations we make to them!
 
We're visiting Purdue in a couple weeks, our first college visit for DD. She got her ACT score back and is satisfied with it. Prom isn't until May 5th, so still a few weeks away. We got her dress back in November and picked it up last weekend after it was hemmed.
Welcome back to the thread.
 

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