Dear Family and Friends-Hope everyone had a chance to spend some special time with their special someone this past Valentine's Day! Tom and I had a wonderful evening out-first to the Broadway show "Grease"-Tom got me tickets for Christmas. And afterwards a wonderful Valentine dinner at an irish restaurant next to the theatre, complete with a bottle of champagne! We even had the added bonus of having Allison stay with Scott(as well as our fearless watch puppy)! Allison earned her new "Twilight" tshirt that night in exchange for Scottsitting.
Yes we survived (and so did the puppy) our first week as new dog parents and dog kids. Cookie cried at night in her crate, but loved sleeping on a blanket in the basement with the kids during their "sleepover". She spends the day in her crate and is happy to get out and play a bit before falling asleep on a coat or hat that someone left on the floor. She gained a whole pound this week-she is now 9weeks old and weighs 3lbs. We can't go anywhere with her without her and us getting lots of attention. We can barely get out of the house and all the "dog" people in our neighborhood come to say hello. She had her first vet visit and we are happy to know she is a very healthy puppy. She had two more vaccinations, and more to come. She really is a cutey-we even used her picture as a Valentine card for Scott's class. I made up his cards and put candy kisses on each one. Scott had a party in school on Friday afternoon. Allison had 4 tests! Ugh!
I also spent my day off last week taking my girl scouts to Legislative Day in our capital, Annapolis. I signed up my whole troop-7 girls and my coleader and ended up with myself and 3 girls. I lost most of my girls to bronchitis, the flu, strep throat and even one to a burst appendix! Not fun! We managed to find the right buildings though and started our day at 730 am. We visited with Legilslators-Senators and Reps and passed out GS cookies. Our council is trying to raise money to build a large main activity center for all Maryland girl scouts to have a place to come together and work on projects, take classes and participate in nature programs. Most programs now are held in churches, schools or at the local camps. It would be nice to have a centeral meeting place. We also had a tour of the state house-we learned that Annapolis was the capital of the US for awhile after the Revolutionary War, and Gen Washington turned in his sword right there giving up his command. The patriots wanted to crown him king, but he turned down the offer stating that is what they were fighting against. They have a plaque on the floor where he stood to surrender his leadership as well as his sword and the document stating he was withdrawing his position. Afterwards, the girls and I enjoyed a visit at the NASA exhibit celebrating Goddard space Center's 50th anniversary. They had lots of free stuff and interesting exhibits about robotics and satellites and the Hubble telescope. Not to mention great food-the jars and jars of free candy were enough to win me over! It was an exciting day but very long and all of us were tired. Scott had to go in early and stay late at school since Tom was out of town. He had a trip to Boston and when he returned he was off to Michigan visiting Ann Arbor(UofM)of all places! We did not get much sleep the night before since we had a big rain storm with hurricane winds the day after. The power kept going on and off, setting off all sorts of lights and noisy appliances that kept us awake. We even had some damage to our siding.
Tom had hoped our Homeowner's insurance would cover the repair since we had it fixed 8yrs ago during a hail storm. Traveler's reports they cannot help unless we locate the claim number for them. They have no records of who they hired to complete ther work, or exactly what was done and what was covered. Unless we locate the claim number(unbelievable). so I will dig through the records-although Tom usually throws everything away(and I try to keep it all). We'd like to get the siding fixed and replace our old rotting wood trim with vinyl soffits. But we would like someone else to do the work and pay for the damaged siding too!Wish us luck!
On Sunday we visited with some old neighbors that currently live north of Baltimore. They invited us up for dinner and to meet our new puppy. We had a great visit and wonderful dinner and it looks as if they may be moving back to our area during the year. We would love for them to be closer! They would love to hire Allison to babysit their two boys!
On Friday night, after Allison's piano, and picking her up from volunteering to assist the brownies with face painting(glad I wasn't there), I ducked out to go to a girl's jewelry party at a friend's house around the corner. It was fun meeting some new women neighbors and catching up with the old ones. Tom had Scott for karate and a laser tag birthday party. They had a great time with the new laser guns and obstacle course. I also finally got Scott to the barber since he was looking as shaggy as our new puppy. I also went shoe shopping, but all the winter shoes are being cleared out for spring/summer line and most of the shoes in my size were already sold out. Figures. Scott keeps wearing through his shoes but I didn't feel like paying $20-30 bucks for play shoes. I'll keep looking I guess.
This week I also signed Allison and Scott up for summer Kids on Campus classes. Each summer they have taken classes at our local Jr college and they love it. Allison is taking a transition to High School class, along with a photoshop class and art class. Scott will have a week of robotics and engineering and a science class-ooey, gooey and stinky too!
I am sitting at home today, Presiden'ts day, since I changed my day off to stay with the kids. It turns out though Tom got the same day off, so he is spending his time building on to our fence in the backyard to keep Cookie enclosed. He is busy working on the gate portion. It looks really nice. We used to have the backyard enclosed before our remodel, but left it opened with the new garage. I think I like having it back again. We figure we can always put in a pet door to the garage through our back access door so she can come and go as she pleases.
Well, I am going to go make another appt for the puppy at the vets-she is due for more shots in a month. And I still have a whole week to go with lots more activities! Allison is testing this coming weekend for advanced green belt, and I just got a call from our GS Service Leader asking for help with Thinking Day this Friday-an International celebration.
Never a dull moment-but it is nice to snuggle with the puppy! Kathleen