Well that was a busy week! Allison started High School-she and Tom headed off at 7am for drop off before the crazy traffic hit. We live too close to school for the bus to stop down our street, so it is easier for us to take her right to the school. She has been walking home after Field Hockey practice. She only had a 4 day week, but she was busy getting oriented to all her classes, and we already had a few quizzes and tests to study for over this holiday weekend. Scott made it through his first full week of school with his first test of the year. The kids had summer reading and not only had to write up a book report, but were tested on it this first week back to school. And with back to school comes back to meetings.
Scott had his first Cub Scout meeting on Monday evening. We started on our way through the Webelos program. Tom and Scott are signed up for a camping trip to PA to visit some caves and earn some badges in geology and spelunking(cave exploration). Tuesday night we headed to High School for a sports orientation night. Weds night I was off to my Girl Scout Leader meeting and brought my girls along with me to assist with babysitting services. Thursday night I attended an Environmental club orientation meeting that Scott joined at school. This is a group run in conjuction with an environmental group established by Jane Goodall(remember her chimps!) called Roots and Shoots. The kids started last year with a few projects-tree plantings, cleaning the rivers. They have added some more projects this year. It actually works out very nicely with the scout program and doing service to the community. School has kicked up the service projects this year with a monthly lunch donation to the homeless as well as the kids picking a service project to complete at home. Scott is on yard clean up for Cookie.
I also tried to sign him up for a gymnastics class so we ran over to the gym after the E club meeting, and missed the sign up by one person in front of us. The class was full and now we are on a waiting list. I decided to try to get Scott into inline hockey while we wait, and they cancelled that program due to lack of participants. Just can't win. I may try the advanced beginners class since he already had a trial beginners class. He definitely needs something to curb all that energy.
We decided to spend a few days down in Williamsburg over the Labor Day weekend. We left on Friday afternoon and had a few hours at Busch Gardens-just enough time for Scott and Tom to hit the big roller coaster rides, and their last ride on the Big Bad Wolf coaster as it is being shut down after 25 years. Saturday we spent the day at the Water Park. We also spent some time shopping at the outlet mall-thank goodness we found Allison some jeans. And we also tried out Cheeburger Cheeburger-81 different milk shakes! We found a new favorite-it reminds us of an upscale Steak and Shake. Good burgers!
We topped off the holiday weekend with a trip to the car dealerships. We have been struggling with the need to replace our minivan before we hit our 100,000 mile mark. Tom wanted to get something back from the trade in and didn't want to worry about me having more and more possible engine problems(my brakes were acting funny and I was going to need new tires in 20,000 miles). Not to mention that parts were beginning to break off-Tom had to fix my handle to recline the back seat and the plastic drawers were beginning to break. So once again we headed off to look at mini vans, but the pickings have been slim. There aren't too many minivan choices left-noone seems to want to build them anymore. Most of the Toyota car dealerships were closed on Sunday in our area, or we just didn't see much on the lots. Noone even came out to help us at the Honda lot. Guess business is good for them. We ended up at the Car Max/ Toyota dealership due to our neighbors recommendation. The next thing we knew, we had bought a new Toyota Sienna min van. It really looks similar to my Buick-same color, just more bells and whistles(sunroof, power recliner seats in the back that fold down into the floor for more space, power back door, hands free cell phone/blue tooth connection and the kids love that their windows roll down). I would have liked more seating since I am still hauling the Girl Scouts around, but I am happy to have another minivan.
So today we will drive our new minivan over to a park for a hike with Matt and Di and their kids(and drag Cookie along). And then probably a last swim in their pool(although it is a bit overcast today). Plus Allison has some more studying to do. I am just glad we got our yardwork in.
So Happy Labor Day! And a Big Happy 51 Birthday to the twins, Dan and Dave Bozyk! You both made it over the halfway mark!
On another note my Uncle Joe(Mom Bozyk's younger brother) discovered that he is going to need the same heart surgery that my Mom had last year(heart valve replacement and artery repair). He will be scheduling his surgery the beginning of Jan 2010 so he can travel to Spain this fall with his wife to drop off their son for a college program. Our prayers are with him to stay safe until his surgery. Kathleen and Family