Dear Family and Friends-Happy Spring and Happy post Easter. Hope you all had a wonderful holiday. I guess we missed you and your family Laura at the BWI airport? Where were you headed? We left town on Holy Thursday, driving south to Florida. We had dropped our puppy off at friends on Weds night, and had a neighbor watching the house and cat and gerbils too. We stopped in Orlando on Friday and flew through Seaworld. On Saturday we drove down to Tom's parents in Venice. We stopped in at a manatee viewing area near Tampa, but the water was so warm, the manatee were headed out to sea. We had plenty of time to watch the sun set on Saturday night in Venice, and then woke up to hunt for baskets Easter Sunday. Mass was at the local church in Venice and was televised with the local Bishop saying mass. We even had the bells choir for the service. By the way, gorgeous weather. Sunday afternoon the kids swam in Gma and Gpa's (heated ) pool and then visited the beach. We went in search of sharks teeth and swam a lot. The ocean wasn't heated, but it sure was nice. We then enjoyed a wonderful Easter Sunday dinner courtesy of Mom Seitz. Monday was a bike ride down to Casperson beach. We love riding the bike path along the intercostal there in Venice as it winds through a nature area. We love to see the gopher tortoises that dig holes and live in the sandy woods along the intercostal and this year we spotted a very hungry baby. Scott loved feeding the little guy lots of clover and flowers. He also enjoyed taking on the big waves down at Casperson. After 2 full days in the sun and surf we were all a bit burned and needed a sun break. On Tuesday a T storm moved through the area so we headed south to Ft Meyers to visit the Thomas Edison and Henry Ford museum and summer homes. We all loved walking through the gardens on the river and viewing the homes and Edison labs. It looked like someone put Greenfield Village in Florida. We had a great do it yourself tour and missed the big rain during our visit. When we returned though we had a big rain so it was out to dinner that night(all you can eat shrimp, yum!). Weds we packed up and headed north to Busch Gardens Tampa Bay. We have season passes, but the park is just not the same since they were bought out. No more free beer! How sad is that. We still managed to enjoy ourselves and Allison even tried her first upside roller coaster! And loved it at that! That night we traveled to Orlando so we would be up early to visit Disneyland on Thursday. It was packed at the Magic Kingdom but we still managed to get on all our favorite rides. And once again Allison surprised us with her first ride on Space Mountain. She loved it so much she went again! Good thing too since it will be closed for remodeling until Oct this year. We pretty much spent every last second enjoying Disney and left at midnight when the park closed. On Friday we spent a few hours at the water park owned by Seaworld-Aquatica. The kids and I were thankful for the heated water. Tom rested in the sun while we paddled around the lazy river. Then it was time to head back to Maryland. Too bad we got stuck in lousy traffic or the trip would have been a breeze. We arrived back in MD to pick up Cookie from our friends late Sat night. We arrived just in time for dinner. Sunday was time to unpack and wash clothes as well as complete school projects. Scott had a book report to complete along with a shoebox diarama. He did a marvelous job(according to his teacher) too! Of course we had to take it in to school on Monday in an absolute downpour. The teacher almost called us all to tell us to bring in the projects on Tuesday! It survived under the glad garbage bag though. And Sunday Allison and I took Cookie to her last puppy school-she is now a graduate. We'll give her(and us) a break and work on the basics until we sign her up for the next level. She also just got the last of her shots. Next project will probably be spading.
So it was back to school and work. Everyone was crazy busy. Scott had several tests, and then Allison had several tests. We also enjoyed the school tradition Weds night of having the 8th graders play the faculty in a game of basketball. I never yelled so much at Allison in my live. Didn't matter though. The students lost by one point. It was a lot of fun though. And most of the teachers made it in to school the next day.
On Friday I took my Girl Scouts horsebackriding. They are working on a badge and need to know safety in the ring and equipment as well as demonstrate some riding skills. They have another session and then will spend time volunteering for a Therapeutic Horsebackriding program. I met with them to discuss careers in Horses. I also had to run Allison over to her piano lesson. Tom and Scott ran off with John Dutton to Hershey PA to catch a Hershey Bears hockey finals game(which they all loved, and Hershey Bears won).
This weekend the weather actually feels warmer here in Baltimore than it was in Florida! I started Sat morning off with a community yard sale, then left Allison in charge while I went off to a doctor appt. When I got back the business had picked up a bit, but the neighborhood is very busy these days. We had to quit around noon to attend a First Communion party. Tom was just getting back from karate with Scott. And we have another First Communion party tomorrow. I had to make sure I picked up gifts for both boys on Friday.
And Tom finally got the lawn cut. He went out and bought a new mower since it looked like our old one was dead, but a neighbor got it running again. So now we have his and her mowers! Tom has had to cut the grass twice now, and is ordering the mulch for the flower beds. I put in a few grape tomato plants, but I am holding off a few weeks on the flowers. Most of our cherry blossoms and daffodils are done-now its the Dogwoods and tulips and azaleas. All so pretty(unless you have allergies!)
Next Weekend plan is to attend a Cub Scout Family camping trip. We plan on taking Cookie and our kayaks. Should be fun! Oh yeah! GO RED WINGS!

Dear Family and Friends-Happy Spring and Happy post Easter. Hope you all had a wonderful holiday. I guess we missed you and your family Laura at the BWI airport? Where were you headed? We left town on Holy Thursday, driving south to Florida. We had dropped our puppy off at friends on Weds night, and had a neighbor watching the house and cat and gerbils too. We stopped in Orlando on Friday and flew through Seaworld. On Saturday we drove down to Tom's parents in Venice. We stopped in at a manatee viewing area near Tampa, but the water was so warm, the manatee were headed out to sea. We had plenty of time to watch the sun set on Saturday night in Venice, and then woke up to hunt for baskets Easter Sunday. Mass was at the local church in Venice and was televised with the local Bishop saying mass. We even had the bells choir for the service. By the way, gorgeous weather. Sunday afternoon the kids swam in Gma and Gpa's (heated ) pool and then visited the beach. We went in search of sharks teeth and swam alot. The ocean wasn't heated, but it sure was nice. We then enjoyed a wonderful Easter Sunday dinner courtesy of Mom Seitz. Monday was a bike ride down to Casperson beach. We love riding the bike path along the intercostal there in Venice as it winds through a nature area. We love to see the gopher tortoises that dig holes and live in the sandy woods along the intercostal and this year we spotted a very hungry baby. Scott loved feeding the little guy lots of clover and flowers. He also enjoyed taking on the big waves down at Casperson. After 2 full days in the sun and surf we were all a bit burned and needed a sun break. On Tuesday a Tstorm moved through the area so we headed south to Ft Meyers to visit the Thomas Edison and Henry Ford museum and summer homes. We all loved walking through the gardens on the river and viewing the homes and Edison labs. It looked like someone put Greenfield Village in Florida. We had a great do it yourself tour and missed the big rain during our visit. When we returned though we had a big rain so it was out to dinner that night(all you can eat shrimp, yum!). Weds we packed up and headed north to Busch Gardens Tampa Bay. We have season passes, but the park is just not the same since they were bought out. No more free beer! How sad is that. We still managed to enjoy ourselves and Allison even tried her first upside rollercoaster! And loved it at that! That night we traveled to Orlando so we would be up early to visit Disneyland on Thursday. It was packed at the Magic Kindgom but we still managed to get on all our favorite rides. And once again Allison surprised us with her first ride on Space Mountain. She loved it so much she went again! Good thing too since it will be closed for remodeling until Oct this year. We pretty much spent every last second enjoying Disney and left at midnite when the park closed. On friday we spent a few hours at the water park owned by Seaworld-Aquatica. The kids and I were thankful for the heated water. Tom rested in the sun while we paddled around the lazy river. Then it was time to head back to Maryland. Too bad we got stuck in lousy traffic or the trip would have been a breeze. We arrived back in MD to pick up Cookie from our friends late Sat nite. We arrived just in time for dinner. Sunday was time to unpack and wash clothes as well as complete school projects. Scott had a book report to complete along with a shoebox diarama. He did a marvelous job(according to his teacher) too! Of course we had to take it in to school on Monday in an absolute downpour. The teacher almost called us all to tell us to bring in the projects on Tuesday! It survived under the glad garbage bag though. And Sunday Allison and I took Cookie to her last puppy school-she is now a graduate. We'll give her(and us) a break and work on the basics until we sign her up for the next level. She also just got the last of her shots. Next project will probably be spading.
So it was back to school and work. Everyone was crazy busy. Scott had several tests, and then Allison had several tests. We also enjoyed the school tradition Weds night of having the 8th graders play the faculty in a game of basketball. I never yelled so much at Allison in my live. Didn't matter though. The students lost by one point. It was a lot of fun though. And most of the teachers made it in to school the next day.
On Friday I took my Girl Scouts horsebackriding. They are working on a badge and need to know safety in the ring and equipment as well as demonstrate some riding skills. They have another session and then will spend time volunteering for a Therapeutic Horsebackriding program. I met with them to discuss careers in Horses. I also had to run allison over to her piano lesson. Tom and Scott ran off with John Dutton to Hershey PA to catch a Hershey Bears hockey finals game(which they all loved, and Hershey Bears won).
This weekend the weather actually feels warmer here in Baltimore than it was in Florida! I started Sat morning off with a community yard sale, then left Allison in charge while I went off to a doctor appt. When I got back the business had picked up a bit, but the neighborhood is very busy these days. We had to quit around noon to attend a First Communion party. Tom was just getting back from karate with Scott. And we have another First Communion party tomorrow. I had to make sure I picked up gifts for both boys on Friday.
And Tom finally got the lawn cut. He went out and bought a new mower since it looked like our old one was dead, but a neighbor got it running again. So now we have his and her mowers! Tom has had to cut the grass twice now, and is ordering the mulch for the flower beds. I put in a few grape tomato plants, but I am holding off a few weeks on the flowers. Most of our cherry blossoms and daffodils are done-now its the Dogwoods and tulips and azalaes. All so pretty(unless you have allergies!)
Next Weekend plan is to attend a Cub Scout Family camping trip. We plan on taking Cookie and our kayaks. Should be fun! Oh yeah! GO RED WINGS!

Happy Birthday to Tom! Saturday night we celebrated Tom's birthday with most of our neighbors. We decided we were going to have a wine tasting party with hors d'oevres, but as usual I ended up buying too much food and it became a dinner/hors d'eovre party! I just couldn't pass up the spiral cut ham on sale. We were going to invite all of Tom's work people and the neighbors but decided it would be too crazy to try and keep up with everyone. And it is never easy to keep an eye on all the kids. As it turned out, we cannot host a party without someone bleeding. This time it was one of the neighbor boys. He and Scott decided to play with our gerbil. Unfortunately, he decided to hold the gerbil up to his nose and the gerbil decided to bite him! Of course there was lots of blood but just a tiny bite on the tip of his nose. With a house full of medical personnel(OT, nurse and pediatrician we had the situation quickly under control) So we have now added-do not hold the gerbils up to your nose on the list of How to Handle Gerbils for our housesitter/petsitter. We head out to Florida on Thursday. We will stay with Mom and Dad Seitz over the Easter weekend, and then spend some time playing in Orlando. Our neighbor Jane is manning our house while keeping an eye on the killer gerbils and Pika the cat. Cookie will be heading over to Matt and Di's house for the week.

Saturday night we also enjoyed watching MSU's men's basketball team win and now head to the Final Four competition which will be held in Detroit. They can certainly use the income there in Michigan. And while we were drinking wine, eating cake and watching the game on tv, we were also watching our neighbor's daughter model bridal dresses live from a fashion show in New York on the internet. She texted us and told us the whole zipper on the back of her dress ripped so they threw a shawl around her. We actually thought the shawl was the prettiest part of all the dresses being modeled. Strapless dresses seem to be in this year Stacey, but we all agreed they didn't quite work in the church. Overall it was an enjoyable evening(except for the gerbil incident) and Tom enjoyed his presents. His big gift was a new coffee maker(imagine that!). He wanted a new coffee maker with a built in grinder that did not need to be cleaned every morning. I had fun shopping at William Sonoma. My favorite part was when they wrapped it for free(and did a beautiful job). Of course Tom had it ripped open in a few seconds and up and running and making coffee for all our guests. Then this Palm Sunday, he set the timer and we woke to coffee-just in time to let the dog out. How nice. It gave us lots of time to get ready for mass and then Allison and I took off to puppy school. Only one more class left. We are doing pretty well with sit, lay down and working on stay. I then spent the afternoon studying with Allison and packing for our trip to Florida(lots of laundry too). Allison had some make up work to do since she was out sick last week for a few days with a bad headcold. She stayed home on Friday but I did drag her out with me to school so my Girl Scouts could run a Brownie meeting. The girls ran a Safety badge for the brownies and it turned out pretty well-they talked about everything from fire safety, first aid to stranger danger. Then we made emergency cards for each of the girls and I got to try my new laminator out on the projects. The girls really enjoyed doing that part. We had to get home so Allison could get to her piano lesson. I expected Tom to take Scott to a make up gymnastic class and karate class, as well as his Cub Scout pack meeting, but he was feeling pretty crappy too. So the kids sat around full of cold medicine most of Saturday. I spent most of Saturday putting away my snowmen and getting out the spring bunnies. It was such a job! Sadly we missed getting down to DC this spring for the kite festival and the cherry blossom festival. Last weekend they were flying kites, but the weather was pretty rainy so it probably was not as fun. This Saturday was incredibly windy which would have been more fun with the kites, but it was the kick off for the cherry blossoms. The DC mall looked packed today. And it would have been such a beautiful day to walk around DC with the other billion people! I am sure Tom would have loved that!
I was trying to let the kids get a little bit of rest before we head out to Florida on Thursday. I was busy washing clothes and packing today, including the Easter stuff. I didn't want Allison wearing herself out too much since I already took care of that last week. Besides the GS meeting on Friday, Allison and I sang at a wedding reception with the GS choir in the middle of the week. Turns out the groom has cerebral palsy, was in a wheelchair and is an artist. His life was featured in the movie King Gimp-I will have to ask Tom to get it on Netflix. He auctioned off some of his paintings at a movie theatre where they were married. The theater is the oldest in Baltimore, The Senator, and it is going to be sold. They have shown several Hollywood previews there-movies filmed or written in Baltimore like Hairspray and John Travolta's firefighter movie, Station 49. They need to raise money to sell the building as a historical facility to be used as a museum, theatre and for stage shows. The groom donated the money to the Senator after the wedding ceremony there. Then they headed down to our VFW hall for the reception where we sang for an hour. We sang their favorites from broadway musicals and some GS songs too. The wedding theme was all retro, 20s. 30s and 40s. Even the guests came dressed in costume. They also donated $500 to our GS choir. We had a lot of fun, but it made for a late night. We did not get singing until 1hr after our scheduled time. And Allison did not have much time to catch up with anything since she also had a 3hr meeting on Thursday night for her Peer Confirmation program. She is training to help out with the 8th grade Confirmation training and retreats this Fall. It is a big commitment, but she is enjoying the time.
I also had to drag the kids out early Saturday morning for their eye exams. I stopped in too and picked up my glasses. Now I can see teeny tiny stuff again!
So I will wish you all a Happy Easter. We will be busy enjoying the sun and beaches over the next week. Big Birthday greetings to Dad Bozyk and Sarah Bozyk this coming week!
Kathleen and Family(Tom included a video Allison made of all our puppy guests and the kids playing in our backyard the night of Tom's Bday party).