Packing for college. And so it begins...

As the two of you know, 18 will be off to college soon. We are leaving the 21st to be exact and so we have limited time to complete his winter wardrobe. To that end I suggested that he bring out the winter clothes, pile it on the coffee table so that we could review it while packing and make note of what if needed so that we may spend fun filled weekends running around Miami in the dead of summer scouring the stores for winter clothes on a budget.

Well , I was pleasantly surprised at the amount of clothes he brought out. I didn't realize we had bought that much and that he was SO ready to go. I great calm and sense of relief came over me. As he brought things out, I was taking them off the hangers and folding them in piles. Then I start realizing some of this stuff is old. I don't mean hand me down old, I don't mean out of style old. I mean I bought this for our 2 days of cold in Miami, I don't even remember when. When he plopped himself back on the sofa, I asked "Does this fit?" "Ahhh, no." he answers nonchalantly. "And this?" "nope", "What about this?" "Nah". Do you see a pattern here? A good third of all that clothes he brought out to pack was too small on him! Now, I realize everyone has their own packing style but I presume we all pack clothes that you know - FITS!.

So, I take a deep breath or 32 and calmly ask him to go through the clothes so we can figure out what we still need to buy. "Now?", he asks incredulously. "Yes, right now." "But why now? I'm not leaving yet." I take another deep breath. "Because there aren't enough last minutes to get everything done at the last minute. So you choose. If you want me to be a part of the clothes buying and packing then now. If you want me out of the process, then whenever." At his point it would be beneficial for you to know that I haven't packed for either of my children since they were old enough to drag a rolling bag, which is quite young. I would tell them what they needed (3 underwear & socks, 3 shorts & t-shirts, pajamas, bathing suit etc), they would pull it out, pack it in their own bags that they were responsible for during the trip. Children can do this from very young if you are not particular about the matching aspects of their ensembles; which I wasn't. So, 18 bolted to an upright position and declared "You're going to pack for me?" "If you want me to and you go through the clothes now, I will." "Hell yeah!" he cheered as he popped off the sofa and sorted the clothes. 16 and hubby laughed and he says "After all these years of telling them to do it, now you are going to pack for him?"
I matter-of-factly explain, I was teaching them to think, to plan, to organize and to be responsible. He already knows how to do that, now I can do it for him. They all laughed but 18 sorted the clothes and has one bag packed and ready to go by his mama.

White space

There is very little white space on my calendar for like the next 3 weeks. It seems there's something to do every day and the days that there isn't I have to do something to get ready for one of the upcoming things.

This week last night was the empty night which I spent cutting up graduation pictures to hand out at the family brunch I am having. Designing and printing the invitations and addressing the graduation announcements. I also reviewed some college forms for my son for the housing and class selection that need to be mailed out and made hotel reservations for our trip up in August AND for Family Weekend in October because some of the hotels were already sold out!
I bagged some of the boys old clothes to give to SIL when I see her on Mother's Day for her boys and cleared out my emails that I hadn't read in a few days.

But in the nest 3 weeks we have: State Track Meet (of course in another city, thereby requiring travel), awards dinner, prom, graduation mass, graduation & grad lunch, family brunch, Mother's Day, MILs birthday, plus all the regular every day life stuff! Tonight it's coffee night. I can't wait to see my girlfriends, they always help recharge me.

Weekend planning

So, as you know it's off to Sebastian, FL tomorrow for the Track Meet. I bought some crochet thread in a seafoam green to crochet a border for the baby blanket. Well, it's not a blanket I think it may be called a Receiving Blanket in English. It's made of diaper cloth. Anyway they didn't have the diaper cloth at my craft store. I will try to go after work to another one that's sort of on the way home. If not then I will embroider a design on a bib. I have a yellow bib at home a gajillions of pattern and thread. So between that and the book I need to finish I am good for the trip.

Tonight I am making Carne con Papa to leave done for tomorrow's dinner. That way we have food ready to eat when we get home for dinner. Tonight I am making fish for me and dad and Shrimp Alfredo for the runner because he needs the carbs. Plus I will do a little scrapping after I get everything ready for tomorrow.

Sunday, I want to sew. I have some pillow forms and a pink fluffy material that I bought a while back to make pillows for my niece. I am also going to dinner with my girlfriends. We are going to try a vegetarian Indian restaurant. I also need to update my agenda with dates for other track meets and a few other things the kids have told me about. Plus I have some Thank you cards to send out.

If I actually do these things then I will have actually done like all my favorite things in one weekend! It sounds like an aggressive list to me. Let's see how it turns out.

Catching up

I know you've missed me... LOL! Here's what's been happening...

* 14 turned 15! He got his Learner's Permit to drive. OMG, I have no little kids anymore. I'm really trying to deal with this.

* 14 (it was before his bday) went to a Beyonce concert. That was his bday present from us. He went with a friend, they had floor seats and had a good time. They said that she was amazing. She looked awesome! I'm glad they had a good time. They had funny stories about the people around them.

* I lost 2 hours and 11 minutes of my life never to be recouped seeing the movie "Knocked Up". Hubby and I saw it killing 3 hours for the concert to be over to pick up the boys. Hubby laughed, I didn't. OK, maybe I did a couple times but checked the time more than I laughed to see if it was almost over. Please don't waste your time.

* Hit the road with Hubby and 17 to go visit colleges. We went to Univ. of Central FL, Univ. of FL and FL State Univ. I was readily impressed with UCF, I think I was expecting a big community college and it surprised me. It's modern looking, bid campus, lots of things going on, the educational programs were impressive too. UF and FSU are all red brick buildings with gorgeous architecture. They look like what I'm used to seeing in a college. They were impressive too. I think he will end up applying to all 3 as well as others.

* We've also been sick in between all of this. That is everyone except 15 (see, I can adjust). Actually, 17 is going for more blood work today because he may have mono. GREAT!

* Finished reading "Men In Chains" by Virgina Reede. If you like romance novels, this is for you! I was about to say historical romance but it's not a true historical because its a fantasy world, I guess you might say Sci Fi historical. Anyway, it's an easy read and very entertaining. The 'romantic' scenes are very tame not over the top at all. I hadn't read one in a while and I thoroughly enjoyed it.

* Also read "Darcy's Story" by I don't remember who. It's Pride and Prejudice from Darcy's point of view. It was lovely, like reading the original again. She stayed true to the story line and just added his thoughts and little pieces that would fill in the blanks and reasonably explain why he behaves the way he does.

* Now I'm reading "The True Darcy Spirit" by Elizabeth Aston. No she didn't write Darcy's Story. This one is about Lady Catherine's granddaughter. Remember she had a sickly daughter Anne who she wanted Darcy to marry. Well, this is about Anne daughter, Cassandra.

* You may think this is a lot of Pride and Prejudice (my favorite book in the world) type reading. Well, I bought them at the same time at the bookstore, they were on sale, I left them in the car and so I read them on the trip.

* Since you are curious about my cleaning and organize (ROTFLMAO), I have cleaned out and organized my Utility closet. It's a closet in the kitchen that houses the Washer and Dryer. It has 2 shelves that with the aid of the shelf organizers I turned into 3 shelves and stored and stacked all kinds of big bulky kitchen stuff that only gets used once in a blue moon and thereby emptied a whole shelf in another cabinet! I don't know what's going in there yet but I'll get to it for sure.

* Next, I am cleaning out games. They kids have some old games they don't want and I have cleared a spot on the top of my closet for the adult games I want to keep. That is the project for this week.

Can't think of anything else right now. Although it feels like I have been busier than that.

Where would you be?

Do you have problems finding things? I realize I am not the most organized person in the world nor is my house the most organized in the world (or Miami, for that matter). There is no place for every thing yadda yadda. But there are general locations for things. I mean there's a junk drawer for writing instruments, coupons, menus, scissors etc. But most of the time when you look for the scissors (we have 3) they aren't there. There are 3 drawers for kitchen utensils of all sorts and one of those counter top tool turnabouts. I look in all 4 places before I have to start the deep breathing to remain calm.

Lately, I find myself asking things out loud to the house and I wait to see if it answers. Like, "If you were a can opener where would you be?" I ask because naturally, it's not were it was supposed to be. Most times there is no answer and I have to keep fishing around and banging until someone asks if I am ok. No, I am not ok, I can't finish doing what I'm doing not because we don't HAVE something but because I can't FIND it! (taking a deep cleansing breath) The other day, after we did the groceries, I couldn't find the brand new bottle of maple syrup I KNOW I bought. So, I asked the house, "If you were a bottle of syrup, where would you be?" Hubby actually answered, "In the fridge!" WOW! I was shocked. SO , I kept it going. I couldn't find a take-out menu we use so often I should have the number memorized but I don't and so I asked, "If you were the XXX Menu, where would you be?" and a child answered, "on the side counter." I almost fell over in shock. Of course, it didn't work, when I asked, "If you were a whisk, where would you be?" What I got in return was, "What's a whisk?" I had to laugh. Gimme patience!