Happy Friday! Last weekend, Andrew went to a college friend's house to hang out with other college friends who were in town, and then they headed down to our house to spend a night. My brother who owns a beautiful boat, happened to offer some fun boat time if anyone was free on Sunday, so Andrew, Eamon and his friends jumped on that! My niece, her boyfriend, and my nephew also went to spend an afternoon out in Buzzards Bay:
I guess there's an ice cream boat that goes around and sells ice cream - how cool! My brother bought some for everyone.
They returned home, showered and we had dinner for them. We last-minute invited three friends (two are Franciscan alums) to come meet the boys and it was a really fun night with rowdy games that went way too late. Everybody left on Monday and we miss them already - such nice and fun guys!
On Tuesday our movie theater offers half-off tickets so Phil and I had an early (4:45 showing) date night and saw Superman. It was pretty good, though it's hard for a movie to impress me and I'm not sure why that is. I brought a blanket and we snuggled up and hope to make it a more regular Tuesday night thing.
On Wednesday, the Redskins Commanders had a joint practice with the Patriots, so Phil, Andrew, and Eamon went to see if they could get some autographs and see their favorite players (they are all Washington fans to my chagrin). I guess it was so busy that this is the closest they got to the practice field. However! They are going to the preseason game tonight!
Eamon has been making the most of his remaining days at home before college by hanging out with his buddies, and almost getting caught by the police on a night beach swim:
Xander's amazing orthodontist (if you are anywhere in the area, we can't recommend him enough...we actually drove about 45 minutes each way to go to this office) sent this in the mail:
Xander only had braces on for two years but look at how he went from baby to man during that time!?!? Also what a great job they did with his severe overbite, it changed his whole face.
On Wednesday night, I went out to dinner with some friends which was a nice treat that I need to make myself plan more often. I don't know why I dread social situations but then have fun, what is wrong with me? Actually don't answer that.
The littles had their last week of camp this week, where they played sports and had water games and a visit from the Ice Cream truck and swam at the beach each day...and said it was their least favorite camp. OK, crossing that one off of next year's list. Honestly, it seems like they don't mind it but are tired out at this point and want to stay home and I don't blame them.
Phil has started tackling his classroom, a new one to him after the Spanish teacher wanted to switch rooms so they could both be closer to their departments which made sense. Maggie is very invested on what photos he has in there since he will be her Senior Theology teacher. Can't wait to see those teacher comments on her report card :)
Speaking of school, have I ever complained to you guys about the textbook situation that was implemented last year?
Get ready to get mad with me.
Because my kids go to a Catholic high school, we have to buy their textbooks each year. As you can imagine with us having so many high schoolers in such close succession (four in five years) we bought some books for JP that Eamon could still use, bought books for Andrew that Maggie needed, etc. We were able to shop on our own, buy used, borrow from friends for the year, loan out to friends in return, and got by for pretty cheap on the textbook gig.
Last year the high school decided that instead of having everyone purchase books on their lists, they were going to charge a $400 book fee and everyone's books would show up in the mail. We balked at the price because we had two kids in high school last year so it was a new $800 fee. The school explained that a lot of students did not show up to the start of school with all their books purchased, making it hard for teachers to teach. OK that's fine but one of the reasons they didn't buy books was because they couldn't afford them so not sure how they were going to afford this new book fee either.
We paid the $800 and got a few books in the mail for Eamon and Maggie. Most books were used and some were e-books. We literally already had ALL of the books they would have needed last year (passed down from JP and Andrew) so now we had two sets of everything. I listed our old ones on Amazon to sell and thankfully made some money back that way.
At the end of the year, we get an email explaining that the books were all RENTALS (except for any workbooks that were to be written in) and had to be RETURNED or we would be charged a $400 fee. We were never told this upfront. So now we had to ship back their books so as not to incur a fee, and we were literally shipping back Eamon's books in June that Maggie needed for August. They are a year apart and take the same classes. We just got charged another $800 for Maggie and Xander's books for this year. So we just keep paying an insane amount of money to rent books, mail them back, and rent them the next year on repeat until they change this stupid program.
OK deep breath.
I did send my very first email of complaint to the high school (where I worked as Business Manager for 10 years and Phil has been employed for over 20 years) to let them know how I felt about the book fees. They defended their decision and didn't acknowledge any of my valid points about how terrible the system was for families with multiple kids. They said they got positive parent feedback after the first year and decided to keep using the same system, even though every parent I had talked to about it hated it just as much as me. It turns out the school had signed a three year contract, so it wasn't about positive feedback at all.
Urgh.
I'm really hoping they do not renew this contract after the term is up.
Sorry to end on a whiny note, but I hope you all have a wonderful weekend!
First, I am the same about social situations. I often dread them, but then have a great time. I think part of it is knowing that as an introvert I will eventually "pay a price." I'll have a great time, but then it's almost like I have a social hangover and I have to recuperate from it.
ReplyDeleteSecond, that book situation is positively maddening. I would be furious. How wasteful! Think of all those shipping costs. And you're so right. This is only going to make it harder for people to afford the books since they can't borrow or buy them used on their own. Argh. I am incensed on your behalf and hope this gets sorted quickly.
They need an Administration and/or Business Manager that have kids and understand the parent's point of view. None of them have high schoolers and I feel like they just don't get it. So frustrating.
DeleteOh, the textbook thing would have me up in arms. I would refuse to pay and suffer the consequences esp. if I had copies of the books already! Is someobe on the school staff married to the book rental place? Really, for $400 you could buy every book and then some.
ReplyDeleteAt the college I teach at, they did the same thing one year- a fee and all the books would be ready for the student in the fall. The students hated it. They can get used books, they can share books, they don't need shiny new books! And for the students should didn't buy their book in a timely fashion, they need to borrow or work with anyone. The student can deal with real world consequences! It's the bookstore way of trying to recoup revenue now that there are so many avenues to get books. Now, we have a service where the student can go see the class list if books and it compares used and new prices across vendors. I think they'll like this!
[And they didn't tell you were rentals- what were they thinking? Infuriating!!]
Great smile, Xander! My kids never have had orthodontic work. It makes up for our rotten eyes!
Enjoy the last week's of summer!
They literally just charge our account that they already have on file, there's no stopping it, it's awful. I wrote emails and gave a bad review on a survey they sent out, as did other parents but they signed a 3 year contract so it doesn't matter what we say :(
DeleteAnd Xander looks more like Andrew in that second picture!
ReplyDeleteOH I hate the books too - Catholic High School as well! We have 2 kids that are 2 grades apart - but the return timeframe is BEFORE the new required book lists come out - so we have to guess if the books are going to be the same or not and decide if I try and sell them or wait to see if they are needed.
ReplyDeleteThat is such an annoying turnaround time! Isn't it the worst when they change the textbooks in between your kid's years? I always hated that, like can we not use the same uniforms and books for ten years minimum? Ha!
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