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Don’t get me wrong, I love being here though it might take me a while to get the hang of the peace and quiet of being home alone. Anyhow it’ll only be for a few weeks.

What’s exciting is Steev coming home with stories about college. I can’t believe we’re still charting those ‘firsts’ even now that he’s in college! He’s grown up so much since we got here a week ago. Things like doing a budget, writing checks, worrying about me when I take the bus alone. I’m watching these transformation happening right before my eyes.

And my girls, I miss them. I’m talking to them back home every single day, eager not to miss a beat. Looks like they’ve got things pretty much under control especially in the cooking department. Yup, my girls have taken over my kitchen and are cooking up a storm, wow! Who knows, I may have to retire as family chef sooner than I thought and  thumb through healthcare job listings to find a new “job” .

Life for Steev right now is as close as being a celebrity right now. In anticipation of his leaving for college soon, he’s being invited to dinner practically every night by different groups of friends.

Throughout the day, family and friends have been dropping by our house with gifts for him. He’s hoping someone would give him a gold bar that he can cash in for extra pocket money since we have warned him to be careful with his expenses while he’s away.

Well, for one thing, money doesn’t grow on trees, and for another, he’s there to get an education, he’s not a celebrity yet by a long mile .

Raine graduates high school at the end of this year. But we’ve not been to any education fairs. We missed the ones they had at the end of last year. Somehow I feel like with these education fairs, you see one and you’re pretty much seen them all.

Steev and I did the runs of education fairs a year before he finished high school. With Raine, we haven’t been to any but I’ve asked her to start thinking about what she wants to be when she grows up. She’s still thinking…

Is it me or are high school proms a rip-off these days? In my day, there were no high school proms so my folks got off lucky . These days, they have a graduation ceremony where we have pay like $50 for our teen to receive a bunch of flowers and scroll on stage.

Then there’s the formal high school prom held at a hotel, no less! Mind you, my kids are not even in private schools. During Steev’s time 3 years ago, we paid $75 for the prom held at a somewhat obscure hotel.

These days, it’s not just high school any more, we’re also leading the high life! The school has ‘moved us up’ to a posh 5-star hotel where we have to fork out $180 for the dinner and dance. Remember we haven’t factored in the cost of that evening gown, purse, shoes, accessories and hairdo yet !!

Not to say that I’m a Scrooge or anything when it comes to one-time events like these. But is it really necessary to have an event this posh for teens who, by the way, aren’t making their own money yet and still have a long ways to go before they should even think to spend half that amount for a night out?

I think they’re doing just fine without being given the impression that they need to live beyond their means to have a good time! The organizers, of all people, should know better! What are they thinking?

So guess what? I’ve decided to go along with Steev to set him up in his new environment. To be honest, it wasn’t an easy decision and if there were a way for a mom to be in two places at one time, I would’ve signed up for it right away.

My girls need me here. I’m their taxi driver and master chef. But sometimes there are other priorities and a mom just has to do what a mom has to do even if it means some of us may have to do without her for a few weeks. I’ll miss my girls, of course and they’ll miss me too but they’ve been very understanding in this respect. They know I’d do the same for them.

Hip2bDad and I would feel much better knowing Steev’s nicely settled into his new place and new schedule. We’re the sort of parents who just need to know where our kids are at and how they’re doing. Besides it’ll be a nice little break for me too from my taxi runs and school lunch deliveries. So yeah, California, here I come!

Sorry for the slow posts. It’s been crazy around here.

We’re at an important family milestone and my head is swirling with mixed emotions. Until now, I’ve only heard other parents talk about their kids leaving home for college. It’s often left me wondering how they could be so brave, so indifferent too, some of them, to watch their kids leave the nest and fly off to faraway lands.

Well, now it’s my turn. Steev, my eldest, is getting ready to leave for California soon. I have no experience dealing with this whole idea of my baby living out there, on his own, for the first time, without us. There is no manual that tells me how I’m supposed to feel. This is all new. Yes, I know, he’s 19. He’s a college sophomore. So I should be okay with that?!

But I’m not! I won’t be there to cook his meals. I won’t be there to pick him up from class every day. I’ll miss our long mother-son chats in the car on the way home. I won’t be there to text and remind him to eat, stay out of the rain, mind his wallet… I won’t even be within driving distance *sobs*.

He’ll be there on his own, living with a bunch of kids his age, all probably away from home for the first time too. A scary thought. While there’s a part of me that’s confident he’ll do just fine, it’s going to take time for him, and us, to adjust to this new arrangement.

So what’s a mom to do? To be continued…

I’ve just finished baking a batch of my infamous cheese-crusted melt-in-the-mouth shepherd’s pie and they’re sitting in my oven waiting to be delivered to my two princesses at school.

Wednesdays and Thursdays, I have one finishing school at 4:00pm and the other at 5:30pm. My poor teens are up from dawn and at school from 7:00am with a measly 20-minute recess. That’s 10 hours straight, yes, even longer than working at an office. And of course, they’re most generously allowed a lunch break at 2:00pm.

That’s when I’ll be standing outside the prison school gate with a bunch of other parents waiting to sneak them lunch over the school fence!! I feel so sorry for my poor girls I just have to make them an extra special lunch to brighten up their day.

I pack their school lunches with a bottle of ice-cold water each and sunblock as they’ll be out in the blazing 95 degree sun all afternoon. Sometimes I throw in a couple of candies just for treats. These school hours are a real drag and frankly I can’t wait till they finish high school! Oops, look at the time, I’m off to grace the prison gates !

So I was in a good mood today and decided to let Steev drive. He drives his dad’s car more than he drives mine. I probably should let him practise more often but a part of me is saying, let him practise on a stick shift saloon first before he tackles an automatic 7-seater.

He’s driven my minivan around the neighborhood a couple of times. This afternoon, as we turned the corner onto a 3-lane road, some jerk in a big black pickup truck decided to tailgate us, causing him to edge to the side, almost hitting the tail of a car that was just turning into the McD’s drive-thru. Gave me a heart attack!

The rest of the drive was pretty smooth. He handled the highway very well, I have to give him that. He didn’t speed. He didn’t do any of the things I’ve seen other new drivers do. He just cussed a little. He probably got that from me . We live in B.A.D (Bad Attitude Drivers) City where cussing is a necessary stress reliever!

And you know what? It’ll be a while before I’m comfortable having Steev drive alone. I know, I know, more and more parents are allowing their high school kids to drive themselves to school, and Steev’s already a college sophomore. So why am I such a scaredy cat?

Every day, I see those teens climb into their cars outside the girls’ school and it never fails to horrify me the way they slam on the accelerator and veer out onto oncoming traffic and other kids walking out the school gate, without so much as turning their heads . A car is a lethal weapon, not some harmless vga cable with audio!

Steev’s not a bad driver. He just needs to chalk up more experience on handling emergency situations like cars emerging from out of nowhere, cars trying to run you off the road, cars driven by people who don’t give a damn.

It’s not him I’m worried about. It’s those other drivers out there who don’t know if they’re coming or going, and simply don’t care!