Move in day at Rowan University

 

We got up WAY too early, after a late night of partying. And then we headed down to Frankie's new school, Rowan University.

Move in day was pretty well organized. I didn't have to sit in traffic at the school - only on the Turnpike, and Rowan had nothing to do with that. There were plenty of people around to direct us to where we had to go. We backed in to a spot, unloaded, and had all of the kids carry stuff up to the room. And there is a LOT of "stuff."

We had a lot of helpers...

 

A lot of Frankie's friends came down for the ride. About 2 hours one way, with traffic. It was very nice of them, and I know it meant a lot to Frankie.

And it was a good thing they came, because there really weren't that many people around offering to help. We did get there a little later, so that may be why.

So you could say we actually had THREE cars, because we had my car full of "stuff," and no room for anyone else; Thor drove the Thor-mobile with Nicky and Steven, my nephew; and Booth drove Frankie and the other kids. Then, Armand and his parents drove in a separate car. It was a little bit like ... a parade? A wagon train heading west? I don't know.

The Steam Room

 

No, actually, it's the dorm room. Tiny. And with a bunch of sweaty bodies carrying in tons of "stuff", it got so steamy in there that my camera lens actually fogged over.

And you can probably see how tiny the room is, too. This is the angle with the beds -- most of the room.

After the kids left -- I threw them out and told them to roam around the campus for a twenty minutes or so -- we started trying to organize. But, in the end, we did little more than put the sheets and blankets on the beds. Most of the organizing will be done by the roomies while they are hanging out tonight, I guess.

 

We had a (nice?) lunch together

 

Well, the food was quite tasty. I just expected more choices -- they have so many stations and varieties of food to choose from in the cafeteria -- but it seemed like none of them were open. The choices were limited, and unusual -- no regular fries, only sweet potato fries? stuff like that.

Make yourself Comfy.

 

Plenty of activities were set up in the "pit", which I didn't really notice. This is a blow up chair, the friends all sat down together for a quick picture before they said goodbye.

The brothers hug goodbye.

 

<3.

My hug goodbye

 

What kind of a unnatural mommy am I? Not only didn't I cry, but I took a quick picture as he walked over to give me a hug, so I could blog about it later!


I did call him about an hour after we left, though. Just to be sure everything was still OK. And I haven't been texting him... at least, not much. Only once.



After we left the college, we went to our friend's house, and took the boat out. It was Nicky's maiden voyage on the "Broken Drum." (Ya can't beat it.) I'll post those pictures tomorrow... so come back and visit!

The Going Away party

We had a little going away party for Frankie, on the night before we took him to school. I took maybe 100 photos... here are just a couple... then later today, I plan on posting the pictures of College. Check back again tonight or tomorrow, ok?

 

The party started out being just a way to keep Frankie home the night before he left for college. I knew that his friends would want to see him off, so I told him to invite a few of them over -- not every single kid he knew, just a few -- and we would have a campfire.

But since I was having the kids, I figured I'd have the family too. And it grew to 30 ish people... and I wanted to keep it small.

William got here early with Gram and Pop. RJ stopped by early, but had to leave because he had to work on the ambulance squad.

The girls were here...

 

 Puff was here...

 
His roomie came by for a while...

 
There were plenty of other people, too... I didn't get great photos of everyone... but you get the idea.
People were hanging from the rafters!

Everyone was milling around at 10:00 PM

 

Chaos in the Toy Room

 

Kids were EVERYWHERE :D which actually makes me happy.
It makes Nick pretty happy, too.
No one was injured in the making of this photo. Alexander was tossed around a little, but he didn't seem to mind much.

Soda Pong

 

The kids took over the family room for beer pong. NO, I don't let the kids drink beer. They had to play for soda, but they enjoyed the game anyway. And they were all sugared out and highly caffeinated.

I am so NOT posting this picture on facebook.

The Grandparents were here, of course!

 

Feeling left out in the rain...

 

No campfire, because it was a nasty weather night. But BBQ was on the menu, so I had the boys set up a little tent for over the grill, so Thor didn't get rained on while he cooked.
And since the kids took over the family room, the adults were left standing outside in the rain.
(But really, I don't think anyone minded... we all had fun.)

Getting Ready to Launch

Frankie's been packing for college. This is just SOME of what he'll be bringing. (yikes.)

 

Frankie is the reason I started blogging in the first place. It was years ago, already. Amazing how quickly time flies. For those of you just tuning in, Frankie, my oldest son, has Crohns, and had serious problems that landed him in the hospital. At the time, the doctors would not make any promises -- they wouldn't say they could fix it, they wouldn't say he'd be OK.

So I started blogging to "keep in touch" with the family and friends who wanted to know what was happening -- which changed day to day -- and to keep myself busy, I guess, and because whenever I have a problem the only thing that helps me is to talk about it obsessively, and I really didn't have anyone to talk to like that. So I wrote it all out and put it on the blog, and that's the "Frankie Report" blog on my sidebar.

When Frankie got better, I handed over that blog to him, and told him HE should blog. But he's not really interested in writing. He's an engineer like his dad. But the blog is still there, with all the old posts, if you are interested. His last post was a list of everything he wanted to bring to college.

He's off to college to learn engineering. He's feeling great. He's had probably the best summer of his life. He is all optimism and expectation, and ready to jump out of the nest.

I'm not sad that he's going. I know I'm going to miss him, and I get moments of sadness thinking that by this time next week, he won't be here any more. But I'm not sad, because I'm happy that he's getting this chance.

When he was in the hospital, and also before that when he was so sick for all of those years, I didn't really think the day would ever come when he would be ABLE to leave home. I watched him sit on the couch in pain for quite a few years. And with the time passing, and the Crohn's going into remission, and with his life ahead of him, and his future so bright, I'm just THRILLED that he's leaving.

I think our relationship has always been close. Sometimes it's been too close, because he was very dependent on me when he was sick. And I know that his leaving won't hurt that relationship. He'll have a chance to miss me, and appreciate the good things about me, and I'll miss him. If he stuck around, though, we would be rubbing on each other's nerves. It's been happening a lot lately. And if he was home he'd be going out, and doing homework, and texting his friends, and on his computer. He wouldn't be spending his time with us anyway.

And besides. He'll be home for the weekend in three weeks. Sheesh. I'll barely have time to miss him.

Let the shopping begin!

Frankie's going away to college in a few weeks. And he has a list a mile long of things he is supposed to bring.

I've gotten that list started, but I still have things to get. So, today begins the serious shopping and packing to finish it off.

And he's already started marking the calendar -- "Mom, will you pick me up on the weekend of the 19th, and bring me back Sunday Night at Midnight? And then two weeks after that... and then three weeks after that..."


I think I'll be getting a lot of mileage on my car in the very near future.

If your friends said they were going to jump off a bridge, would you?

 

If you jumped off a bridge, would your friends jump too?

If your friends all let their kids jump off a bridge, would you let your kids jump off a bridge?

What if it was really fun?

The Journey

 

This was the first time we hiked this section, although we did a different trail and not the Appalachian trail, we had a beautiful view looking back down to the Delaware River...