So it is Fall, but it sure feels like winter here! Hard to believe we were sitting in Matt and Di's pool and hot tub just last Sunday. The leaves here are really only just starting to turn. We had 2 Nor'easters come through over the long weekend, which basically means it rained(alot!). And in a few places it snowed! Including Pennsylvania, just north of us and western Maryland, even our western Howard County as well as New Jersey. No matter, we still went on with most of our weekend plans, including a trip down to Williamsburg on Friday for Howl o Scream at Busch gardens. The kids were out of school for Parent Teacher conferences. It was drizzly and rained a bit, but we got in some rides and spooky shows, and 1 or 2 haunted mazes-although I am amazed at how terrified the kids still get over the spooky characters. Scott's hands were sweating all through the Pompeii ghost maze, and they didn't even have any dressed up characters hiding! Just plastic skulls and plastic snakes! I guess he didn't believe us when we said it was the family tour! They do a nice job with the costumes and shows, but it certainly looks like they are clearing out the Anheiser-Busch support since the company was bought out last year. They were selling out all of their Budweiser merchandise. We are not sure if they will continue with the animals either, like the Clydesdales, since they were all part of the Budweiser foundation. Looks like we may not necessarily renew our two year membership next year since the park seems to be losing all of its special charms and services and the price just keeps going up. That includes Seaworld too. We really did enjoy having the pass here in Maryland and when we travel to Florida(and maybe even out in California next year).

The soggy weekend did cancel some of our plans-I wanted to take the kids out to the apple orchard and pumpkin patch but because of all the rain and mud, the farms cancelled their picking and hay rides for the weekend. Unfortunately, Allison and I still had to drive an hour through the pouring rain on Saturday to the Girl Scout camp to sing at the Fall Festival. I was surprised they did not cancel, but I guess it was a bigger hassle to try and reschedule or give everyone their money back. And some brave little girl scouts attended. Fortunately, our choir was able to sing inside the mansion that is on the grounds so we stayed nice and dry. We spent a little time eating apples and hot dogs and checking out the games set up inside the house. The Girl Scout council has been slowly revamping the old victorian mansion on the property which will be used for Girl Scout events. It is a huge house-3 stories with a basement, all wood floors and marble fireplaces. It is definitely a fixer upper previously owned by the Bell family(phone company).

I also passed on my company's Gala this weekend. Noone in our department seemed to be going-most of our dept is new. It really has been a wonderful event in the past. They usually have a different theme and in the past they have had wine tasting and martini bars. Now they always have gambling. And the food is wonderful. Plus dancing to a live band and one year they had a great jazz band playing. But my heart was just not into it this year(either was our wallet). Tickets are discounted for staff at $75.00 per person. (I do love their banana's foster!)
Maybe next year.

The wet weather also cancelled Allison's field hockey practice and a game last week. Now she is scheduled to play a game Monday and Tuesday night and then her season is over. All in all the girls did pretty well and seem to be getting better as the season progressed. Tom caught one of Allison's games last week and he should be able to see her Monday night game. He even bought a very special hat to wear to cheer on the Viking team. We were very excited to find a viking hat complete with fur and horns at Busch Gardens. Of course, Allison is mortified! And he hasn't even worn the hat yet! By the way, she made the Spitfire winter field hockey team however, after careful consideration, Tom and I decided we did not feel like investing over $700 for a 2month season. Instead I think we will sign her up for the $100 developmental indoor field hockey team which will play in Jan and Feb. Way more affordable and driveable as the other team was a traveling team. This way she can keep up with her goalie skills, get some exercise and have fun on an affordable budget. She enjoyed one more after practice pasta party at one of the captain's house along with making a tie dye shirt.

Speaking of sports, Scott finally got into his gymnastics class! And he is very happy to be doing flips on the bars and pull ups on the rings. And I am very happy that he is expending so much energy for an hour/week.

The kids also had a few outings scheduled this week through school and scouts. Allison's entire High School Freshmen class went down to DC for a tour of the holocaust museum. The whole class read the book "Night" about a young boy's survival in Auschwitz. We have not yet ventured into the holocaust museum since it is supposed to be extremely depressing(if you can imagine). We did walk in the front door a few summers ago with friends from out of state only to discover that you need a reservation to enter and they were getting ready to close. Unfortunately for Allison's class, the bus drivers got lost and Allison said they only had one hour to spend there-20 mins in a presentation and about 5 mins to run through the entire museum. The rest of the time was spent loading and unloading the buses. I told Allison she should have driven since we spend so much time in DC, she probably could have gotten them all there. I am just disappointed that the kids didn't seem to get their money's worth since we paid $15 bucks each kid for the trip.
Scott seemed to have a better trip with his cub scout den to Annapolis to visit the state house. The den leader and some parents took all the boys down on their half day of school on Thursday for a private tour with a State Senator and Congressman. Noone is in session at this time, so they had the run of the place. Scott loved their desks with all the control buttons for voting, as well as the microphone! He wants his very own desk(lots of buttons!). I think the coolest room is the one George Washington hung out in(Annapolis served as the US capitol temporarily and George was chosen to be president in our own state building. They have the original room where he gave up his position as military leader and was sworn in as president. I had taken my girl scouts down for Legislative Day back in February, and we had a good time, so I figured Scott would enjoy the tour also. And he did!

While he was busy touring the Capitol, I was busy meeting with his 4th grade teacher. His teacher has been teaching Kindergarten for the past 12 years, and I am afraid Tom and I do not agree with some of her "rules". Such as having the kids write all lessons, including spanish, in cursive. And I was quite surprised that she does not believe in extra credit since most all of Allison's teachers provided extra credit in their classes(extra projects) or on the tests. She just seems to be a bit rigid-Tom spotted an error in grading on Scott's last science test and Tom is still waiting to hear back from her. I think the biggest hurdle for her is that not only has she not taught 4th grade in 12 years, but she is also attending the master's program in school administration on the weekends. She has admitted herself that she is just too busy. Sorry, but we are paying extra for Scott's education and I don't need to hear that she is just too busy!
Allison is doing well so far, especially since she has put in extra time with her field hockey practice and games. She seems to have a good mix of general and advanced classes. And she is doing way better in in Geometry than I ever did! And I have been struggling with Tom gone most of the time lately trying to help the kids study and get their homework and get them to their extracurricular activities.

Tom fortunately only had to travel out of town for one overnight trip last week. He managed to do some studying with the kids and catch the Monday night football game with the boys in the neighborhood before he headed out to Charlottesville, VA. Next week however he is heading to Boston to present at the MIT conference. I thought we might have been traveling to Stockholm last week since I heard on the news that Thomas A. Steitz(very similar to Thomas A Seitz) had just won the nobel prize in Chemistry. I could not believe I was seeing that name on television(I figured they misspelled our last name, and that Tom must have been moonlighting in chemistry). However, when I pulled up the guys picture on the internet, I could clearly see it was not our Thomas A Seitz. Instead it looked like Santa Claus. Oh well, maybe next time.

Sorry this is late getting out-I have been busy with the kids! Big surprise! Kathleen and family