A New England Family + a few college tips for my little brother
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As I’ve been home for the past week in New Hampshire, the two people we are really missing are Caleb and Ben. Ben I get to see in a few days, but Caleb is half way across the world going to college in Hawaii (yeah, we get jealous on the regular too). Sibling time is just not the same with the only boy around, right?
Caleb and I grew up bitter enemies. The real miracle is that my mother survived her first ten years of motherhood because between the biting and the hitting and the arguing, I’m convinced his ultimate goal in life was to make mine miserable. Luckily, by high school we were best friends and while his pictures of paradise are gorgeous, I wish Hawaii weren’t so dang far away. Thank goodness for smart phones right?
Because he took two years off between his freshman and sophomore years in college to serve a mission for our church, Caleb is just starting his junior year and has plenty of college months ahead of him.
Caleb, I know that my BYU tucked into Utah’s mountains is quite different than your BYU right along the Laie coast, but here are a few words of sisterly wisdom:
- Having fun is always more fun when the homework has already been done (sorry if I sound like Mom, but it’s true).
- Professors are your friends (and when you find one you love, take as many classes from them as possible).
- Roommates of the awesome variety can make your college experience. Remember how great mine were? Yeah, me too.
- Don’t let yourself be defined by who you were freshman year (remember these embarrassing pictures?).
- Deodorant does not take the place of a shower or laundry.
- But please, do use deodorant.
- Hydrogen peroxide (mixed with a bit of dish soap – which I hope you have) works really well on grass stains. On that note, chalk also works great on grease stains (so does baby powder, but you don’t need any of that quite yet).
Speaking of laundry, aren’t you glad Mom had us doing our own long before we left for college? And don’t you long for the time when there’s a washer and dryer inside your apartment (this was my favorite thing about my new apartment in Ohio…I felt like a queen). Also speaking of laundry, use Tide. One of our friends in Ohio worked on the development of formula and after a long chat over lunch a few months ago, we don’t buy anything else (they also give you some when you start working for P&G which is awesome…but I digress). Even if it’s more expensive, use a little less of it on each load and it’s still worth it.
Also a small tip: If you use individually packaged laundry soaps like Tide’s Pods, you don’t have to haul the whole thing of detergent with you to wherever you’re doing laundry (because let’s be serious, you’ll also be hauling 95% of your wardrobe…all of which will be in desperate need of a wash).
And because we’re missing Caleb this week, here’s a few shots of the last time we were all together. I can’t wait to add a little baby to this fun mix š
^the beauty of self timers that take a million shots is that when the pictures deteriorate into fits of laughter, the camera captures some of my favorites
^it’s hard to believe that this little guy is now a junior in college…I still think he’s supposed to look like this (an awesome set of brother/sister pictures)
^Sorry for the picture overload (well, not really)! I also wanted to tell you a bit more about Tide & a fun new shopping feature:
**I gave Caleb the tip about Tide Pods, but really the Tide, Downy, & Bounce Laundry Care Bundle Pack is great for any college student. Throw in a few new clothes and the gift is fun but also completely practical (all the people they sit by in classes will thank you, along with the roommate who will probably borrow their stuff). You can actually sign up for a subscription to the Laundry Care Bundle Pack if you never want your student to run out of detergent ever again (and you save 5%). You can also save $1 on all P&G products from Amazon tomorrow during the Amazon Wishlist Twitter party!
Have you heard of Amazon Wish List (I confess, I had not – but it’s awesome)? It’s an easy way for anyone to keep a running list of they want or need (because let’s be serious, Amazon carries just about everything). And the great part is that with Amazon, you can have the items delivered right to your/their door. Sometimes the biggest struggle in school was needing something and not being able to find someone to drive me to the store. The coolest feature (in my opinion) of the Amazon Wish List is that if someone tweets about a product you’d love, you can reply to the tweet using #AmazonWishList and it will be automatically added to your wish list!
Tomorrow, Wednesday, is the first #AmazongWishList Social Shopping Party. From 11-12pm EST Amazon will have special promotions for featured products purchasing using the #AmazonWishList feature. They’ll also be giving away 10 Kindles as prizes during the party so stop in, check out the hype, and maybe send some love to a college student (or anyone who loves packages, which means everyone).
I’m back to enjoying my last few days with this wonderful group of people and the gorgeous fall leaves! Have you been to New England in the fall? I highly recommend it š
I hadn't thought of how great the Tide pods would be for college students, but that's such a great idea! I think I'm going to try these for our next vacation as well and pack a little lighter! #client