You know how it goes: you watch your young child open up a fantastic gift on his birthday (or whenever), and he ends up spending more time and energy on the box it came in rather than the gift itself. It’s been ages since that sort of event has happened in this house, but yesterday I was a witness* to something that was totally reminiscent of those days of long ago. We received a large box from the FedEx delivery man. The older boy, home from college for the week, brought it in the house and I looked at the return address: it was from Harry and David, sent by…
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Always Looking on the Bright Side
I was doing some laundry on Monday when I found a pair of iPod headphones in the dryer (post-cycle). “ARGGGGHH!” I exclaimed/growled/emoted/insert appropriate verb here. Stomping my feet up the stairs to the family room, I called the younger boy downstairs. “Did you leave your headphones in your jeans pocket yesterday?*” “Uh, yeah. Oops.**” I put my hands on my hips and said, “Well, they went through the washer AND the dryer. If they don’t work, I’m not paying to replace them; YOU ARE.” And with that, he (always the comedian) put the headphones up to his nose and said, “At least they smell fresh!” And then I laughed. *Obviously…
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Sending Your Kid To College Is Exactly Like Being Pregnant, But Different.
I never thought I would experience pregnancy more than twice, but I was wrong. No, no, I’m not really pregnant again (bite your tongue!). I am, however, exhibiting many of the same symptoms. When we found out I was pregnant the first time, the wheels started turning immediately. We started wondering about so many things: Were we ready for this change?Were we up for the challenge of raising another human being?Could we actually afford this? Of course, those were only some of the questions. And it was a little late to be asking those questions, anyway. We put lots of time into figuring out our name choices. We did research…
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Personality Plus
The younger boy cracks me up. Usually. During the last couple of many months, he has been acting the part of a very normal teenager: spending lots of time in his room and not so much with us, attached to one of many technology items (sometimes more than one at at time) we have in the house. We’ve had to make major efforts to have actual discussions that delve deeper than: “How was your day?” “Good.” …and it’s not always easy to find that time, what with four of us running in different directions most of the time. When we can pin him down, though–like at the dinner table, for…
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Parenting Phase One? Complete.
To our Older Son: Eighteen years ago today, you were born. It was not only the first day of summer and the longest day of the year in a sunlight-to-moonlight ratio kind of way, but also, as we’ve told you many times while grinning from ear to ear, the longest day of our lives up to that point. You weren’t the easiest baby, either. Of course, we could have had it way worse but you used to cry and cry for seemingly no reason at all. And then there was that issue regarding your not tolerating being held by anybody except for me, for months. That includes your father who,…
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The Shotgun Club
As I am being driven around the massive high school parking lot by my newly-permitted-to-drive son, I keep an eye on the road with him. I make sure both of his hands are holding on to the wheel. I answer questions and give gentle instruction when he needs it. It’s a nice, quiet slice of quality time that we don’t often get, so I focus on the enjoyment of it and not on the messes that await me when we return home. After a little while, my eyes shift to the side and I notice another car on the other side of the parking lot, making large circles and figure…
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Baby, You Can Drive My Car
©2010 Suburban Scrawl
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Driving Miss Melisa
The big news around here isn’t all about high school graduation, believe it or not. The younger boy is having his own sort of commencement this week. Thanks to a permit test passed with flying colors, he is beginning a lifetime of…driving. Acquiring a driver’s license is very different from how it used to be, back in the day. Basically you read the driving rule book, you *might* have taken a driver’s ed class in school if you were able to fit it into your schedule, you took a permit test, and one day, you just went to the department of motor vehicles on your sixteenth birthday and, as long…
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It’s A Miracle!!!
No idea what this is about? Find the back story here. ©2010 Suburban Scrawl
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What Kind of Gift Should I Buy For An Eagle Scout?? (I’ll Tell You!)
By far, the general search topic that brings people to Suburban Scrawl (besides the “Melisa with one S” search, of course) is anything that has to do with “Eagle Scout”. As it turns out, there really isn’t much out there regarding etiquette for Court of Honor speeches and gift-giving. People ask me about the gift-giving thing all the time anyway, so I thought I’d write a post about it as a public service, you know, because I’m all about giving the people what they want. First, for you folks who arrived here because of a search and may not know from being a regular reader what it means to be…