So.lucky for all of you I am off my soapbox about my new van. Instead you all just get to hear how busy we have been again this past week.
Right now Allison is off on the Church Confirmation Retreat. She has really been looking forward to this weekend, and she has really worked hard all summer to prepare. She was doing a presentation on the subject of Love with a Sr High School student(boy). We all thought a Jeopardy game would be a fun icebreaker for the group of 76 confirmation students(I will let you know how it turned out). Everyone got involved in this project including Gma and Gpa Bozyk-they took Allison to the library in Michigan so she could work on the project online this summer with her partner and offered some advice on the questions. Tom provided the technical set up on the computer. I provided the idea and the red twizzler candy to pass out when the game is over(I wanted to give out kisses, but chocolate was banned). Allison also included a story from her Book of Virtues about a King and his hawk and the great love the hawk had for its King that it died to save him. The confirmation coordinator thought it was the best presentation she ever had for a retreat. I just hope it all worked out for them. Allison was also responsible for an icebreaker activity on Friday, and I wouldn't be surprised if they asked her to altar serve again for their mass.
I had to pick her up early on Friday from field hockey practice-she would have liked to have missed the two mile run. The girls have not yet won a game so the coach is getting a bit tough on them. On the other hand, we got to watch Allison in goal on Thursday night and she did a great job-she didn't let in any goals, and even made a spectacular play and dove for the ball. She told us later that she actually fell-but it looked good and the coach told her whatever she was doing, just keep doing it! Our Michigan neighbor, Phil stopped by to catch her game too since his 7th grade daughter plays Field Hockey and La Crosse and he is hoping Hannah will make the team when she attends Mt Hebron. He wanted to check out their strategy. At this point it would probably just be to make a goal! Allison actually had two games last week, one on Tuesday that was an away game so I had to grab her as she was getting off the bus and quickly drive her up to church for the last organization meeting before the Confirmation weekend. She also had to present their program to the coordinator after the meeting, so it was a long night. Besides catching up with homework and studying for tests, she also managed to get in a few more GS cookie sales at school and in the neighborhood(competition is fierce around here-lots of girl scouts in our neighborhood).
Speaking of Girl Scouts, they sponsored this weekend at Six Flags. Unfortunately, Allison could not go since she is off on retreat, but Tom and Scott took advantage of the great discount to spend a beautiful day at the park today riding all the crazy rollercoasters. They probably would not have made it either since they were supposed to go off and camp with the Cub Scouts in Pennsylvania and explore the Laurel caverns near Pittsburgh. Instead the trip was postponed to May as it looked like tstorms were forcast for the entire weekend. Turns out the weather was absolutely gorgeous. But maybe this was for the best because now the whole family can attend. There are a few more Cub Scout camping trips scheduled this fall, but Scott and I opted to skip one event and attend the bike rodeo instead in early October.
Tom managed to find me a hitch for the van and install it this weekend so I will be ready to hook up my bike rack and load our bikes on for the family ride around the park.
Scott also had an after school meeting with his Environmental club. The group assembled a large dove out of chicken wire and white bed sheets to take down to the Baltimore harbor near the Catholic Charities building this Sunday morning to support and celebrate World Peace Day(Scott and Tom opted to celebrate at Six Flags). This time Tom planned on pinning his car key to his pants(last year he lost the keys on a roller coaster ride and we were stuck at the park after it closed for several hours until they located them).
Since we didn't go camping, we also were able to attend our neighbors Welcome Home party for their son, Cpl Connor Lyon just returning from Iraq on Saturday night. It also gave the homeowners a chance to show off their newly remodeled kitchen and deck. And it gave me the chance to make up a few more appetizers using up my last tomatoes from the garden. It must be getting a bit too cool at night since I noticed a few of them looked frostbitten.
We also managed to celebrate the last weekend of summer at our neighbors across the street on Friday night. We had talked about heading up to Resurrection St Paul School for a parents tailgate party, and ended up having our own tailgate party next door. Unfortunately, all our celebrating did not seem to help MSU against Notre Dame on Saturday afternoon. Yes, Yes, Uof M is doing well of course(so far).
And since Tom was off this past Friday, we both managed to squeeze in a movie date in the morning after I went to my aerobics class. We wanted to catch the Brad Pitt/Quentin Tarantino movie about Nazi germany, the Ingloriuous Basterds. Not exactly a family movie-very much a violent Quentin Tarantino movie but Tom and I seem to enjoy his dark humor.

In other news though, Resurrection St Paul school was awarded the National Blue Ribbon Award for school excellence this past week. The school had one of the highest scores for national assessments out of 314 other schools in the nation(both public and private). Allison's graduating 8th grade class would have been mostly responsible for that award. The school made the local news(Scott says he was on camera but I didn't catch the story) and it was posted in the Catholic Review. The principal will accept a trophy and large banner in a ceremony in Washington DC in November. Looks like all our hard work paid off. Several other schools in Maryland also received the award.
I also heard recently that Ellicott City was named the top 7th city in the US to own a dog(good news for Cookie).
Well I need to get to work before the kids all get home and start their homework and projects. I have been slowly pulling out the fall decorations (Halloween seems just around the corner-and on a weekend night too). Scott already had me order him a Yoshi costume(turtle character from Nintendo's Mario games). He has been looking for this outfit for several years but we never could find one).
The neighbors are already planning on coming over for an Octoberfest.
My work has been slow-we are breaking in a new manager. So far she has spent most of her time getting oriented to all the computer reports she needs to generate. What fun. This usually means more computer work for all of us. But at least we have time to get it finished.
Tom is starting to get busy again. He has been asked to do a presentation again this year in Boston at MIT in October so he has some typing to do.
A very Happy Birthday to Mom Bozyk! Both Mom and Dad Bozyk have been enjoying an Indian Summer in Charlevoix. Sounds like Mom and Dad Seitz are getting ready to fly south for the winter very soon.
Tom is looking forward to a Daddy Daughter Field Hockey game after practice this Monday night. I just have to make a side dish for the pot luck that will follow. Last week we had to put together a Buddy bag(gift full of treats) for one of Allison's team mates. I like that they do some team building activities outside of playing Field Hockey. It gives the girls a chance to get to know each other a little better.
Hope everyone has a fantastic week and Happy Fall! Kathleen and Family