Dear Family and Friends-Hope everyone had a Happy Mother's Day! Tom and the kids got me a gift card to LL Bean-now I can get some shoes. I could really use a new wheelbarrow to dump all those leaves. I know Mom Bozyk and Mom Seitz got their chocolate covered fruit gift boxes. Sounds good to me! Hope you both enjoyed them. (It sure beats flowers.) I had to send Mom Bozyk her gift a little earlier since they were headed to norther Michigan. I have to call more often since their computer system died and now they don't have any email unless they travel to the library. Mom and Dad Seitz are planning on traveling back to Indy after this week-I am sure Dad Seitz can't wait to get back to cutting the grass.
I crazily invited two other families over for dinner Sunday night to celebrate Mom's Day. I thought it was a bit sad that we were all sitting home that night while the Dads and kids attempted to think of what to cook and then have to clean up their mess anyway. I thought it would be much more fun to all get together after I do all the cooking and then I clean up the mess for a whole bunch of people! I didn't really mind having all those people over though since it got my house cleaned up by the kids, and we had more than enough food which should last all week. I know I spent enough time at the grocery store. I tossed some ribs into the crock pot and the big baking potatoes into the oven, so at least I didn't have to slave over the stove all day. Tom and Allison took on the challenge of baking chocolate bread pudding-we have enough left over to feed the rest of the neighborhood. I think Tom cut up three large loaves of french bread. I trialed making a dipping olive oil appetizer with the rest of the leftover bread crusts(direct recipe from Carrabas Italian restaurant). The guests couldn't get enough of that-and we all shared the food responsibilities. Someone brought corn and mac and cheese, and the other family brought salad and wine. So all in all it was alot of fun-but of course as I mentioned someone has to get hurt at our get togethers. This time Scott got smacked in the back of the head with a swing from the same boy who had his nose bit by our gerbil during our last party. Guess he had payback in mind. And then we were too busy to catch the Red Wings game or the Trump Apprentice grand finale. I guess Joan Rivers won. Good for her. I was passed out in bed by the time the show was ending. And Red Wings won-yeah.
Last week I had to stay home since my right eye swelled up like someone punched me. I was sent to an eye specialist since all three medical clinics we go to were packed with sick people all thinking they had swine flu. Turns out I had a bacterial infection and had to put a steroidal cream on my eye for a week. I may have picked up something doing all the yard work last weekend. Of course, that didn't stop me from getting out in the yard again this past weekend. After 11 days the rain finally stopped long enough for me to cut the grass and start raking leaves again! I should be done by the fall when I can start again. This weekend I decided to clean out my flower and veggie garden. Then I spent most of the weekend picking out flowers and veggies at Home Depot. I planted flowers in all my patio pots and brought home some tomatoe and zuchinni plants. I am so excited that I can plant veggies in the backyard now that we have the fence. It should keep the deer out and let us enjoy some tomatoes this time. I just wish I could have enjoyed my lilacs a little longer-the rain knocked all the blossoms off. Now I am waiting for the peonies and azalaes to bloom. I also had to trim more bushes and clean up so Tom could spread the mulch in the beds. He is convinced that the nursery shorted him a couple of yards. He doesn't think we have enough to cover all our flower beds. In between yard work, we managed to get out and have some fun.
Tom and I caught the opening of the new Star Trek movie on Friday-we really enjoyed it. And on Saturday we had the last of my theatre tickets that Tom got me for Christmas. We went to see the Billy Joel musical, Movin Out which we decided was terrible. We enjoyed the music of course, but there was no speaking on the part of the cast-just badly performed ballet! And afterwards when we headed across for a late dinner at a local irish restaurant, the whole cast showed up and sat next to us. We couldn't even make fun of their show during dinner! But we did like the music and the drinks.
Tom also spent the weekend helping Scott complete his science experiment-exploding soda with mentos candy. We were the hit of the neighborhood since we did all the experiments out in the street in front of our house. Everyone had to stop and take a look. Next week Allison has to finish her experiment. She was busy finishing up her last Confirmation training class. She was paired with a high school boy and they have to present a 45 min discussion on Love(oh great). I told her she should make up a Jeopardy game for the kids to play with the Love theme(besides the prayers and movie clips). Should be good. They have all summer to work on the project, and then she will be attending the 8th graders retreat in the fall and acting as a peer. She really has been enjoying the experience, and it will help her keep in touch with classmates when she goes off to high school. We are still busy with piano lessons and karate lessons too. Allison has a piano recital at the end of the month and hopes to play the graduation march for her class on June 1st. Speaking of graduations, I see some MSU friends of ours have a daughter graduating from Eastern Michigan -I can't believe they have a college grad. We just have an elementary school grad. How about you Sarah Bozyk? Prom? Graduation? Mark and Linda Seitz know a few college grads as well. Time flies. And we celebrated a few birthdays this past weekend, including Mark Seitz(Happy Bday again Mark) and our next door neighbor celebrated her bday the same day as Mark. Busy day.
I also had my last girl scout Leader meeting on Weds and my girls provided the babysitting service that night. I had a little trauma when I discovered that I may have to cancel my end of the year GS trip to Williamsburg/Busch Gardens. The public school extended their school year by a week due to snow days-right on top of my already scheduled trip with the girls. My Resurrection girls will be done with school by then, but the two public school girls would be missing 1/2 days. Apparently girl scouts frowns upon scheduling trips when school is in session. Of course, when I scheduled school was not in session. And most of the girls will be done. I had one parent complain and that is all it took, but she decided she may just pull her daughter for one day and join us. Boy was that a relief. It is a scheduling nightmare! Now I am trying to get the girls to finish up their paperwork for the Silver Award ceremony next week. And this week we are heading to the airport to pass out our GS cookies to the returning service men and women.
Hope you all had a great Mom's Day! Talk to you all next week!Kathleen and family