Here is my catch up for the past two weeks!It is certainly hard to get back to the regular work and school week after vacation. We all had a hard time getting up in the morning after those late Michigan mornings. The sun did not get up until 8am there!
But we had to get back to studying and meetings. Except for Tom. Northrop decided to give everyone an extra day off on Monday! Lucky him. He took himself out to the movies since he had wanted to see the new "True Grit" movie all holiday week and he couldn't get anyone to go with him. He also had to stay home an extra day when our furnace blew up! The motor died one night and Tom said it made a huge noise! Scott heard it too. I was completely out of it and sleeping like a a baby and never heard a thing. Anyway, once again we were supporting the economy with our aging appliances. We had to have the motor replaced for $700. We were happy that we were under a contract with the furnace/AC company. We signed up when the air conditioner died last summer. We were due for a bi- yearly check up so they were able to come out the same day Tom called. Thank goodness and thank goodness they also had the part! Not only did the furnace need attention, but our new dishwasher decided to fail as well. Tom was trying to reset the controls to turn off the annoying beeping that it makes when the cycle is done. Next thing we knew, the control panel wasn't working at all. I had to have a repair guy come out on Friday, but he did not have the new mother board. So we are busy waiting for the part! At least the dishwasher still works so I can do the dishes.
Besides sitting around waiting for repairmen, I was busy attending meetings. I had a PTA meeting at Allison's high school on Tuesday night. I am on the Honor roll committee and we had certificates printed up for all the kids that made honor roll. They didn't have any recognition last year(the school is a bit preoccupied with remodeling). They used to have a small ceremony with cookies and punch for the honor roll students, but they have changed the grade points now and there are so many different levels, with so many more kids they just can't afford to host that big event with our small budget. We decided all kids would get certificates and the ones that make 4.0s for three quarters would get car magnets. And there went our budget. But we thought the kids should get something for all their hard work.
On Weds night I had a Girl Scout leader meeting. I signed up a few girls for a swim weekend at Splashdown. I spent two hours swimming laps in the pool while my 15 yr old girls hung on me(just like when they were little). We all took a few turns tubing down the indoor slide too. I was surprised that more moms were not in the pool with their girls. Only one other leader got in. I always try to participate in the events with the girls(no matter how big they are or how old I am!). I am also planning for our troop to assist with a rollerblading event coming up in a few weekends. And Allison and I were busy working on paperwork and forms for a few upcoming Girl Scout events that we had to apply for-one being a trip to Houston in Nov to the National Convention. Girl Scouts are celebrating their 100th anniversary this year. Another event involves high school students shadowing a female CEO for a day and then providing a presentation at our Distinguished Women's Award dinner.
Scott was busy writing an essay for a college scholarship on "What I want to be When I Grow Up". There were 17 entrants from Grade 4-8 at his school and they could only pick one. The principal went with an 8th grader. But Scott's essay on "I want to be an Engineer When I Grow Up" was very good. He did earn himself some free ice cream though for participating.
He also found out that he will be graduating to the next level in his gymnastics program. Finally.
And the kids got out of school early and had a late start the next day when a few inches of snow fell. Tom was able to do the pick up and drop off(this time).
We also spent our first full weekend at home undecorating our Christmas tree. The kids took down the decorations and Tom took down the lights and angel and hauled it out to the curb. I was surprised there did not seem to be too many live trees in our neighborhood this year. Tom figured we were very late in taking down our tree-I told him we were actually the first! I saw a few more go out on the curbs when I was taking Cookie for a walk. I did not think most people took down their trees the day after Christmas. there are actually still some trees up and lit in people's windows(artificial I'm sure).
We spent last weekend visiting with Matt and Di(our MSU buddies) while cheering on the Ravens football team to victory over the Kansas City Chiefs. We hadn't seen Matt and Di since last summer so we had some catching up to do. Diana has started running and has participated in a few races already. She is really enjoying it. We also found out that they spent Christmas in Michigan too in Canton visiting Di's sister. I don't think we would have had time to visit them there either since we were so busy.
I was wondering why we hadn't heard from Tom's brother Mark concerning the Raven's win. Especially since their team, the Indianapolis Colts lost last weekend. Turns out Mark and Linda were down in Orlando where Mark was busy running the Disney Marathon. Way to go Mark!
And a very Happy Birthday goes out to Grandma Seitz who celebrated on Jan. 6th.