These parents are way ahead of me: Gypsynester.com

I don’t know who said they can’t wait until their kids start college and move out, so they can get their lives back. This empty-nest stuff stinks! But there is a real-life family who truly enjoys it: 'Gypsynesters'.  It is worth checking out, they write extremely well and know what they're doing. I admire David and Veronica, but I am nowhere near that point in life as they are.They are veterans with the third kid in college, I have an only, and everything is the first time for me. I am trying, though.

I work full time, write, take classes at the community college, walk her dog, and still find time to miss her. Roy feels the same way. It’s like we live from weekend to weekend, when she’s home. We better get over this soon.

Well, tomorrow our daughter is going back to campus, for her second year. She had all four of her wisdom teeth pulled, survived hurricane Irene, and the earthquake on Tuesday. With all this going on, moving her back to school was shoved to the backburner for awhile, but now we are fully aware that she is leaving us again. This time with her car. I pray to God that she is safe.

This is a little conversation we had at the beginning of the summer. She was offered to work at my job for four weeks, then at her usual summer camp for an additional five weeks.

Alexandra: "I am not getting up at 6:30 AM for the next 9 weeks. No way, I'm not doing it. Absolutely not." (Very grouchy tone of voice)

Me: "Heck, nine weeks sounds good. So far I did this for 30 years, with 20 more on the horizon."

She worked the full nine weeks, got up every morning, did a good job, and now has money in the bank for the next semester.

The car is packed, the husband and I are mentally prepared, (Alex is psyched to go back, a good sign).

The first year of college blog posts have now come to an end, but I promise I will post important events throughout the next three years. There is just too much to pass on and help other parents find answers to inumerable questions. May God be with us, and of course, with you.

Sincerely,

Heather, your parents' point-of-view ally.

Finals for both

Thu, 5 May 2011: How are your finals going? I have mine tonight.

Love, Mom

I'm done with mine

How are you done? What about today and Monday?

I had 2 on tuesday and 2 on wed nd that's all 4 classes

Bin Laden is dead!

Mon, 2 May 2011:

Hey, Bin Laden is dead!!

When did you find out, where were you at the time, was there any celebrating going on at your school?

Mom

I was watching a walk to remember in bess' room nd her roomates bf txted her about it nd then we saw it on everyone’s fb statuses nd we flipped out.

Birthday at Appleby's

Thu, 25 Apr 2011: 8:30AM

Hey Alexandra, Happy birthday!!!

Grandma called this morning to tell you happy birthday.

Judy emailed yesterday to say that she and Beth are trying to think of a present for you. Would you like to go to the city soon (probably after I come back) and pick something there? (Sephora's on Time Square, just an idea).

When are you getting your pin?

What did you do last night? Did you go to Appleby's, who all went?

Pick you up tomorrow around four?

Talk to me, Mom

Hey thank u :) yeah deff need more make up!! (For real I do) the pin should be coming soon idk when exactly. I went to applebees with j, m, t, s, s and a it was fun :) and yeah pick me up the usual time on friday :) Sent from my Verizon Wireless BlackBerry

did you get any birthday wishes yet, other than mine and grandma's?

yeahhhhhh tons already =]

That early in the morning?

It started at midnight lol

She came home that weekend to pick up our birthday presents for her (a windbreaker with her sorority’s letters, a beach bag, and money, of course) and she told us that she has gotten over 250 birthday wishes on her facebook and phone. She was sad that the semester is almost over; she’s had so much fun this time around. She went back to campus early, to hang out with her friends. Her grades are amazing, mostly A’s, she has grown so much emotionally and intellectually, she really matured in this short year (half) away from home. She watched kids getting arrested, busted, thrown out, and saw firsthand the consequences of bad choices.

Do they like care packages or is it exaggerated?

Wednesday, April 13, 2011: Al,

Thanks for the picture last night, I saw it this morning.  So you have your letters and your shirt, when is the pin supposed to arrive?

How was it last evening, what kind of rituals and celebrating did you do?

Congratulation on your accomplishment, now please go back to prepare for your classes and finals coming up. You’ll be done in less than a month, wow.

Also, please decide what places you want to apply to for a job.

When shall I get you on Friday? Mom

shirt and letters are the same thing...my big got me to sets of letters and a bag with the letters on them as well =]
the rituals are secretive but it was really nice and very professional then we took a ton of pictures and got gifts
i'm doing a campus clean up in the morning so i guess u can get me at like 2 on friday?

okiess =]

Her sorority got awarded highest GPA!

From our text messages on Wednesday, April 27, 2011:

I got ur care package J (Alexandra)

Cool! Is it good? (Mom)

Yeah, it’s delicious! (Al)

Did others get one? (Mom)

Yeah, a lot of ppl got them. (Al)

Her university sent out a letter to parents (every semester) to select a care package for their student for finals. They’re around $25 and there is a lot of stuff in them, so we ordered her one. Obviously it was a good thing to do.

Hell to pay to get in

Thursday, April 07, 2011: okay
i just ordered my pin for xyz...that should be safe right cuz it went through an official website? Anyways it came to exactly $200 BUT it looks really nice and professional so yay! anyways i'll see you next week cuz im not coming home this weekend

Friday, April 8^th 2011: What’s up? What did you do last night and how is everyhing going? Is it doable? Is pledging almost over? I transferred the money. Talk to me, Mom

yeah, pledging is fine its not bad or anything
saturday is the test and we all have get a 100 or we keep going with pledging so we are studying really hard cuz none of us want to pledge anymore cuz it’s like the hardest thing ever cuz everything has to be perfect soo if we dont all cross on saturday and we have to go another week i'm gonna lose it lol

if we dont do good on saturdays test that means we dont cross on tuesday and we go another week so it can be as beautiful as it wants to be outside and ill still hate everything so keep your fingers crossed that we cross!

I sent her a text message in the morning saying that Oma (her grandmother in Germany) lit a blessed candle for her and will keep it on all day. “Cool,” Alexandra texted back. All day Saturday, I was nervous and awaited the test results from her. After my writers’ group meeting in the late afternoon and no word from Alexandra I finally texted her:

?

She answered: What? The test is tonight and into the morning.

I texted back: Into the morning?!

She: Yup its all night u can come visit me at the looney bin cuz that’s where I’m gonna end up after all this is over.

A few hours later: Don’t text me, it has started.

I lit a blessed candle from Lourdes, France, and prayed a double prayer. Then hubby and I watched a movie with Russell Crowe, “The Next Three Days.” We couldn’t really enjoy it, being so nervous about how she and her group would do. At exactly midnight, just as we climbed into bed, my cell phone buzzed.

This is her text message from Sunday, April 10, 12:01 AM: We crossed!!! Don’t call me ill call u tomorrow.

We were so happy for her that we almost jumped up and down on the marital bed; eight long weeks of pledging, and she had reached her goal and survived.

The next day she called at noon. “Okay, I’m going to a birthday party now, I am freaking out with happiness, but this has been the most nerve-wracking experience in my whole life.” I said, “So the rest of college should be a breeze now, right?” and she said, it will.

Here is something that boggles my mind: Alexandra and I each had a goal, a dream, for the last few months. She wanted to receive her bid, pledge, survive the final week of pledging, and get into the sorority she had chosen last summer. My dream was to publish a book before I die. I was working on my sixth manuscript, a Young Adult paranormal novel titled Immortal Link. I felt in my gut that this would be the one that would make it. The writing, proof reading, rewriting, editing, waiting, changing things, querying agents, finally deciding to self-publish, creating the cover (with my daughter’s hand reaching for the indestructible, ghostly handprint of Alexander Campbell in cell #17 of the Old Jail in Jim Thorpe, PA), all these things consumed me since March of last year.

On Saturday, a friend helped me finish the cover on her laptop at our monthly writers’ group meeting, and I submitted the pdf files for the text and cover to CreateSpace which is connected to Amazon.com. The format got accepted a few hours later and I ordered my proof early Sunday morning.

Alexandra and I reached our goals on the very same day…

Beware of Hackers

Mon, 4 Apr 2011: Can you tell me a little about last night? Love, Mom

last night was fun there was a lot of food and they loved my apetizer :)
the alumni were really nice but we were so intimidated by them that my whole class kinda like huddled together cuz we were too nervous to say hi to them but then we finally went up to them
my grand big came so it was nice to see her again
we played some games and that was pretty much it
sooo yeah it was a pretty nice time and today was greek sing which is like every frat and sorority does a skit and we won!
okay so see you next week

Alex, Be careful about emails from Verizon. Someone hacked into accounts and ours is one of it. Don’t open them and never, never give out your account number or information, especially not to people who contact you. If you call or order something, it’s different. But never give it out to someone who calls you! Mom