Another few busy weeks! Tom has been off to California for two weeks. Looks like we both had the same weather-rainy and cold. Even some snow. We've also had a few tstorms here in Baltimore. And then it also shot up to about 75-80 degrees! All the daffodils and cherry blossoms have been busy blooming(much to Allison's distress). She has been dealing with her allergies. No fun. Definitely spring in Baltimore.

I heard from the orthopedic MD concerning my knee MRI. Fortunately nothing was torn, but I explained to her that my knee is still swollen and sore(not as much as it was thank goodness). She recommended I take some Naprosin(strong Aleve) and if I need to they can drain my knee! I had that done when I was in high school and injured my knee playing basketball. That really hurt! Don't think I would like that done again if I don't have to-but my question was not really answered about what to do. Guess when I have a chance I will have to keep doing my own PT at work and maybe get back to pool aerobics. I haven't been able to go to my low impact aerobic classes since my knee is too tweaky. At least I have been able to get out and walk Cookie.

Then again, it has been so busy at work I haven't had time to go to an exercise class. We are still down one OT who is out with a broken foot. I have been working most Fridays, at least 1/2 day. I did skip going to work on one Friday. Tom wasn't around to help out and I scheduled Cookie and myself for our summer shearing. They practically kept Cookie the whole day at the groomers-she was there from 9-3pm. I couldn't really do all my errands since I needed to be around to pick her up. On top of everything, I sent SCott off on his first Boy Scout camping trip so I had to help pack him up and drop him off early. We were not planning on him going since Tom was out of town and I had to run Allison to work over the weekend. However, Scott signed himself up to go during his weekly meeting. I actually had to ask one of the other moms to take him to his scout meeting since Allison and I had a GS board meeting at the same time. The two other boys from Scotts school were going camping with their moms so they offered to take Scott. I couldn't turn down the offer! Scott wasn't too excited since he wanted to stay home and pick up his new video game. Tom told him if he got an A in math and science on his last report card that he could upgrade his current game system when the new 3D DS game came out(midnight on Saturday). I told Scott his Dad would be happy to get it for him since he made the grades and that he needed to go camping with the boys(and work on some badges). Unfortunately, it turned out to be a freezing cold weekend, down in the 20s. And even snowed a bit on Sunday. They were up in the foothills of Pennsylvania at a boy scout camp. I got a few phone calls that weekend from a very unhappy Scott. Tired, cold and arguing with another new camper. They did not get much sleep on Friday night since they arrived late and then someone showed up at 3am and woke them up with their headlights and banging car doors. The moms managed to bundle the boys up on Saturday night and they all got a better night's rest, complete with foot and hand warmers. I said they deserved to earn their winter scouting requirement and the scoutmaster agreed-anything below freezing is considered winter camping. Scott also had a chance to shoot a 22, throw an axe and he earned his right to carry his pocket knife. So that kinda made up for his misery. Don't think he enjoyed KP duty though(washing dishes in freezing cold weather). Oh the joys of scouting. At least Scott got back home in time to take a shower, get his homework done and go see Shrek the Musical with all of us.

And at least Tom got home in time to see the musical too. He was just going to stay in California and fly down from San Jose to LA, but since we had purchased the tickets at Christmas, he decided to join us. It was fun, but Scott had a hard time staying awake.

The kids had their yearly dental check ups and this time we found a few small cavities in their back molars. Dentistry has certainly changed over the years. Besides filling their small cavities next visit, the dentist wants to buff down the big grooves in their teeth and seal them to keep further cavities from sneaking in the nooks and crannies. Amazing. I am certain Allison is not going to enjoy this since this will be her first real cavity with a shot of novacaine. I hope she doesn't kick the dentist. She is such a sweet girl. (The dentist, not Allison!). We found out that our previous woman dentist was no longer at the clinic as she shipped out to Afghanistan. Guess they need dentists too!

We enjoyed an Art Fair at Scott's school-he had several pieces of his art work on display. He really does have quite an artistic talent. He surely gets that from my Uncle Joe. I am surprised he can sit still long enough to draw and paint. And Speaking of art class, Allison finished her last 3 art classes over the last 3 weeks and really enjoyed the whole experience. Her favorite was chalk and watercolors. We even framed a few of her pieces for Tom's office and she gave them to him as birthday presents.

Tom was back out to CAlifornia for his second week but that was in LA. At least he had a chance to see my brother Mike and they went out to dinner. Tom picked a bad week to be out of town. I signed him up for a river rafting camping trip with the boy scouts in May. I took SCott to his scout meeting and they wanted a check that night.

We also had SCott's Science FAir that week which Tom helped organize. I dropped off the box of ribbons at the school and took in Scott's science fair poster. We spent a few hours at the fair in the evening and SCott had to explain his memory experiment to 3 different judges. This year it was decided to just pick 3 overall winners, and it was a bit more complicated since there were several projects done by classes and several projects done by several students together. Needless to say, SCott did not win. Tom had planned on providing each grade with 3 place winners, but I think they did not have enough participants for each grade, or groups of grades like 1st-3rd. So even though Tom had lots of ribbons, they only passed out 3. And the science teacher decided to give out gift cards which made losing even more depressing. The science teacher felt bad for all the other kids and gave them books, but Scott's book was a little on the preschool level so he was even more disappointed. I bought him ice cream with a gift card he earned at school. I told Tom he had to be present at next years science fair. I also think the kids should get extra science credit for participating. Maybe next year.

The kids had a half day on Friday so I didn't work again. I was getting ready for Tom's birthday, and Allison and I had a girl scout overnight event planned on that Saturday night. So I had lots of errands to run. I managed to get Allison her Columbia Association membership card and we stopped into the MVA to pick up a book so she can start studying for her drivers permit exam. I mostly had Tom's birthday gift shopping done-I just had a lot of wrapping to do.

On SAturday I took Allison to a CPR class for her new job. She had a great time and said the instructor gave out candy when they got the right answers. That evening, I took Allison and a girlfriend to an Up All Night Girl Scout Sports Event at the Lifetime Fitness Exercise facility. The girls spent the evening trying out raquetball, swimming, watching movies and attending a stress reduction class. I just worked on staying up. I was very upset that we moms were not allowed in the hot tub. I had to work a two hour shift and was so looking forward to a soak-especially for my knee. But it was shut down. I was sure to mention my disappointment on the evaluation sheet. We also were not allowed to use the exercise equipment-another disappointment. But the girls had fun and Allison earned a badge and we slept most of Sunday.

Sunday evening I invited the neighbors over for dinner to celebrate his birthday. Tom made his own low carb cheesecake but everyone else ate cheesecake from the Cheesecake FActory. We also had tbone steaks and lots of salads. Tom quit the nutrisystem program and almost ate up all the tbone steaks before his party day. We enjoyed our evening with the neighbors and opened Tom's gifts afterwards. I picked him up some camping supplies-a big hat and camp stove. I also picked him up a RAvens polo shirt, some dress shirts and signed him up for a CAlifornia Wine Club since Maryland just passed a new law allowing wine to be shipped directly to homes. All these years you could not order wine to be shipped directly to your house(we have been living in the dark ages!). I also signed Tom and myself up for a Teach Your Teen to Drive Class. A present from Allison. We are supposed to spend 60 hours letting Allison drive after she gets her permit. I want to avoid parental yelling during the experience.

So a Big Happy Birthday to Tom and his DAd who both celebrated Birthdays this Spring!

I sent a photo of Scott's science fair project.

More to come! Baltimore Blog.

Here is my blog from last Sunday.

Today was a nice, calm First Day of Spring after another busy week. Tom actually had to get up early this Sunday morning and fly out to Calf. today-to San Jose near San Francisco. He was considering staying for two weeks straight, but thought he'd return next weekend to join us to see Shrek at the Hippodrome. We bought tickets for a Christmas present for the family and he didn't want to miss it. More airline mileage for him and us!

So since he was leaving today, I had him spend Saturday helping Scott prepare for a science test and math test on Monday. The boys also organized all of Scott's data for his science fair project in two weeks. I picked up a poster and put it together with Scott today. If you recall, Scott was looking to see if playing video games would help his memory skills at all. The data showed that playing problem solving type games increased his memory skills, while random shooting games did not. I also found an article in the BAltimore Child magazine that did talk about research being done with video games and how it has been shown to help with visual spatial skills and increases socialization skills. Of course, rehab has always welcomed the use of video and computer games, including the recent phase of WiiHab. I would love to add that to our facility's out patient program. It goes so well with my recreational therapy background.

So Tom won't be in town for the Science Fair next week, but I think I can handle Scott and his presentation. He is his own man.

And it means a lot more running around for me this week. But we both managed to get through last week together. Scott's ear seemed to heal up so no more trips to the doctors office for him. Both of us seem to have gotten over our colds too. Thank goodness. I also finally scheduled my doctor appt for an MRI of my knee on Friday morning. I had an MRI of my left knee about 9 yrs ago but I did not remember it being that loud. They also tucked me in a lot closer I think than when I had the other knee done. Fortunately it was quick and I was able to pick up a copy of the kids immunizations from medical records too so I could fill out summer camp and boy scout forms. Cookie's ear infection cleared up too. I had to take her in to the vet for one more vaccination and had her ears checked.

Tom was hoping I could join him for a movie since he was off on Friday. Instead I volunteered to work half a day since we are still down one OT. I don't mind working 4 hours since I get paid for 8. Works for me. Since Tom had time, he sat down at the computer and bought Allison a prepaid college fund with his work bonus that he received this week! We have been discussing the prepaid college funds since Allison was born! But Tom was not happy with the Maryland program except he reports they have made enough improvements for him to buy into it.

He also spent part of the morning at Scott's school celebrating Father's Day with Donuts for Dad. The kids showed off some of their work and made cards for the Dads. He also got SCott to his Boy Scout meeting and gymnastics class last week.

I ran Allison over to her art class early in the week. She got to try watercolors this past week and decided it was not her favorite. Next week she tries pastels.

At work I volunteered to help out with a Girl Scout birthday program put on by a local girl scout troop. Their leaders(ladies at the podium) both have parents that live at my retirement community and for the past several years they have put on this reunion for residents that either belonged to scouts or were leaders themselves. I helped out with the singalong. It was a lot of fun.I added photos of the program. They passed out arts and crafts activities to the residents to complete at the end.

On St Patrick's Day Tom invited our neighbors over for a shot of irish whiskey in our coffee drinks. We just finished our first week on the nutrisystem diet so we did not have anyone over for dinner this time. I did make traditional corned beef, although Scott and I are the only ones that really love it. And I wasn't eating it-just the cabbage!

Gotta go-long week ahead!

Well last week was packed with activities! So much so I did not get around to my blog! I started off last week staying home on Monday with SCott. He finished his semester and had the day off. Poor kid spent his day with me at the doctor's office. I decided I should try and get in to see someone since my knee has still been swollen. I was amazed that I could get a same day appointment with an orthopedic doctor at a walk in clinic. They gave me a brace and an xray just to see what else was going on. My knee looks very pretty(the bones anyway). Now I am scheduled for an MRI-that is not a walk in appointment. I bribed Scott into going with me to the doctor with a trip to 5 guys burgers afterwards. They just opened the restaurant near the doctor office. He loves the fresh peanuts to eat while waiting for your burgers. I see Eric Seitz has just discovered this burger place in Indy.

After my doctor appointment, I talked Scott into stopping off at Sams Club to return an item and got stuck talking to a previous fellow therapist I used to work with at St Agnes hospital about 10 yrs ago. She recognized me and she wouldn't let me go. Scott and I still had some shopping to do and I had to get in the really long gas line afterwards. I had more errands to run, but it was getting late and I had to get dinner to Allison since she had her second art class that night. I also felt bad for Scott having to spend his day off just with me so I arranged for a play date with his friend SAmmy in the evening. Meanwhile, Allison was at her art class. She tried charcoal drawing that week and loved it. She did a great job too!

On Tuesday morning I had signed up to help with a Career day at Scott's school. Unfortunately, they had a medical theme but could not get enough parent speakers to come in so they switched the program. I don't need anymore volunteer hours, but work pays for 4 hours of volunteer time a month so since I was already scheduled off, I decided to go in. The school had 3 men from the National Guard that talked about drugs and bullying. Afterwards they put on "beer goggles" for the kids to get an idea of what it feels like to drink too much. The goggles mess up their vision and then coordination. Then they had the kids try to shoot baskets, throw a football and walk a straight line. You can imagine the kids did not do well. It took about an hour to walk all the classes through each of the activities. We spent the whole morning in the assembly and then the teachers took over and I went to work. That night, Scott had his scout meeting. I ended up taking him to scouts since Tom was asked at the last minute to teach a class at Hopkins business school. He was not planning on the task but Northrop laid off about 500 employees last Monday, and the woman that was teaching the class originally was let go! So Tom thought it was a good idea to take her place!

We are slowly figuring out this Scout Troops program and finishing up the bridging requirements to go from Webelos to Scout(mostly lots of paperwork).

By Thursday, Scott and I had developed a good little cold including an ear infection for Scott. Not only did Scott get an ear infection, but the dog did too! Fortunately I had ear drops for Cookie left over from her last ear infection, but Tom had to take off work on Thursday and take Scott into the doctor office. He was only given ear drops, not antibiotics which annoyed me since if he had gotten any worse, we would have had to take him back to the doctor again. Doctors are not terribly excited about giving out antibiotics, but I am not excited about worrying if my son is going to lose his hearing because the ear infection got worse and then taking off more time at work for another appointment when I have to pay another copay and then wait at the pharmacy again for the meds. Fortunately, he seemed to clear up.

This was also the first week of Lent. Tom and I celebrated Fat Tuesday on Saturday night at the school gala. Scott's school had a fundraiser gala that had a different theme this year. Usually it is very dressy and has a silent auction. This year it was very casual with a basketball theme in honor of March Madness. We dressed in our favorite school colors-MSU of course. I even had my S earrings on. Our friends wanted to know if the S stood for Seitz. Sure I said. For entertainment, they had a basketball shoot out, silent auction and a game show host. The game show host put on lots of different tv games with the audience like FAmily Feud and Are you smarter than a 5th grader. Tom wanted me to play, but I had one too many martinis. They had lots of good and fun food like sliders and quesadillas, crab cakes and nachos. But my favorite were the pomagranit martinis! And for dessert brownie ice cream sundaes. Yum! Tom and I even got a silent auction gift but we are still questioning it since they advertised the package as a Date Night and it only came with one ticket to a dinner and show?! Not much of a date we'd say.

For Lent Tom and I are fasting with the Nutrisystem diet. Tom had a promotional at work and got 1 month free food for both of us to try. So far we figure eating the card board box it came in would be healthier, but it is actually not too bad. And seems to be working. Especially when you only take in about 1000 calories per day. It actually reminds me of the Weight Watchers program in that it pushes the veggies and now fruit. Scott is in heaven too since we usually don't have quite so many fruits and veggies in the house to choose from. He is my fruit and veggie boy!
While we were off to the gala, Allison was in charge of the whole crew of kids. I had talked our old neighbors into coming and Scott was happy to have his play date with SAmmy while Allison chatted with their daughter Sophia and watched Dominic, the 3 yr old. She was already wore out as was I from a very busy Saturday afternoon.

My girl scouts had been busy preparing to run a Junior Girl Scout badge on Food, Fun and Fitness. They had 55 girls attend and I had just enough girl scouts running the badge-5 total. I also had my co leader attend as our nurse, and one other mom who is also a leader helped me out as well with registration and organization. Allison was busy running a relay race, Becky had the warm up and cool down, Kelly was running two activities which included checking the fit of your shoes and coming up with a list of fun activities to include in your day to add exercise without even trying(like bike riding). We also had a poster with ideas on how to end world hunger and a food collection. My van is still full of two large plastic containers of food that I need to drop off to the food bank. We also ran two other stations on the new food pyramid and reading food labels with Emily and Sarika. Allison had Friday off since she is at her midterms and she spent most of the day making up bags of popcorn for our snack. (She loves my old college air popper). We also made up bags of snack mix with pretzels, chocolate cheerios and goldfish crackers. The girls were completing this project as part of their gold award requirement and it was a great fundraiser. All the moms stayed for the badge and loved it. The girls worked really hard for 2 hours straight and did a fabulous job(I knew they would). And no it was not at our house. I had signed up to use the local girl scout campsite since they have a large building with all the (free) available supplies like tables, chairs and even a kitchen.

And the weekend did not slow down after that. Allison got her work permit and was called in for her first day on the job at the roller rink! She had her hands full Sunday afternoon with lots of little kids, mostly falling down. She even had to get an ice pack for a little one that hit his head. Things weren't quite as busy there this time of the year though. The weather has been so beautiful that most people have been spending time outside. That makes it good for Allison to get used to her job and work on rollerblading backwards! I think of it as babysitting on blades!
So we did not have much free time last weekend. And we even lost an hour of sleep when we had to spring ahead! I do like having more daylight when we get home from work and school. It makes it a lot nicer to take Cookie on walks without using a flashlight!

We are also glued to the tv on news of the massive earthquake in Japan and Tsunami. Glad to know Mike Bozyk and the rest of our family and friends in California are safe. Along with Northrop people in CA and in Japan. How amazing and horrific all at the same time. I can just imagine how Dave B. must have felt when he heard the news of a nearly 9.0 quake in Japan after having lived and worked there for several years.

I am adding photos of the girls hard at work at their Jr GS badge stations. Kathleen

Allison and I just got woke up at 1pm. We were up all night at a girl scout event at our local mall. These are some photos of my girls busy at work at 1am Sunday morning. This is our 5th year participating in the Columbia Mall Sleep IN where no one actually sleeps. My girls have put on badges and craft tables for approx 1000 4th and 5th grade junior scouts for the past 5 years. The event runs from 10pm on Saturday night to 6am Sunday morning. Last year we put on a Sports Sampler badge which was alot of work. This year the girls opted to run a lanyard keychain craft table. Some of the girls were not as comfortable with the task(not enough girl scout camp experience). I did have the girls over to the house twice before the event to practice. They spent most of their time chatting. I sure wasn't good at it, so I did not really help them last night. I was there to supervise and help clean up our area. The only real downfall was that we were next to the karoake machine last night-I think if we have to hear one more Justin Bieber "BAby, Baby, Baby" song we are going to scream! And my co leader was busy with a nurse's strike at her hospital last night so she did not attend the event. Her hospital wants to pay the weekend and night shift nurses the same pay as the day shift nurses. So they are striking.

I also had the girls over on Friday night to finish up some last preparations for a Junior Fun, Food and Fitness badge that were are putting on as a fund raiser next Saturday. Fortunately I have 5 girls and two adults helping. WE have 50 girls registered for the event! I spent part of Friday out shopping for supplies and ordering the badges.

I decided to work a half day on Friday and take a half day paid time off to make up for the day I missed last week. Plus they can still use the extra help at work since our OT with the stress fracture in her foot is still not supposed to walk and is stuck at home. And our OT assistant's mom had a heart attack last week and was in the hospital so she took off to be with her. We had a student helping out but she just finished her internship on Friday. I am just as busy in our out patient clinic. And my knee still hurts and is swollen making it difficult to run around the campus. I think I need to go see the doctor. I probably need PT for my knee, but who has time! I can't even find time to put heat or ice on my knee while I am at work surrounded by PT's! I really miss working out at the gym.

At least I have been able to go out for walks with Cookie. I even picked up a missed bag of food for the Scout's Harvest for Hungry food bank collection on Saturday. Last weekend Scott and I put out bags for food collection for the cub scouts in the neighborhood, and then went and asked for collections at the grocery store. Tom finally got to a scout meeting last week and then took Scott out to put up reminder signs in the neighborhood after school. We opted out of the cub scout pick up and another weekend of soliciting donations with the boy scouts. We figured we put in our time. And we had a food collection at our girl scout event last night so I dropped off the missed bag of donations for their collection. My troop is also collecting food next weekend as part of our Jr badge event. I am sure a trip to the local food bank will be planned.

While I was busy with the girls at our house on Friday night, Scott was invited to a night out with our neighbor Phil and his two kids at the skating rink where Allison will be working and dinner at Cheeburger Cheeburger. Scott had a great time-I couldn't convince Tom to join them. He chose to stay home and shoot zombies.

Tom also spent some time last week at SCott's school helping out with a question/answer session for the upcoming science fair. The boys decided to run an experiment to see if playing video games can improve your memory using the Simon game and the Xbox. I think it is a little lame-too many interfering factors, but oh well, it is their experiment.

And Allison had another wonderful week. She was approved to complete an internship at Scott's school next year as part of her class work. Now we will just have to figure out how to balance it with her field hockey season. If she makes Varsity, they practice right after school so it may be a little tough to run back and forth. Makes you almost wish she was already driving! She will be soon though as she can get her permit this April and is taking Drivers Ed in June when school lets out. Fortunately part of the program begins with several weeks in the classroom so she should be able to get through most of the season(if she makes the team). I am thinking they can always use goalies.

She and Tom are off to her last indoor field hockey game of the season. Tom has been a wonderful coach and we are grateful for our neighbor Phil for stepping in and covering for him last week.

Allison also started her evening art class. She has been wanting to take an art class for several years now and we just couldn't find one that fit her age group, that ran at the right time or fit our budget. I would have liked to have had her take an art class at school but her schedule has just been too full. So I finally found an intro to the arts class through our parks and rec dept and gave the class to her as a Christmas present. She started out with sketching last week. She had to draw an object from different angles to learn about perspective. She opted to draw a bottle. Next week they will try drawing with charcoal. She is already enjoying herself(and she wants to see her movie I am Number 4 again).

Scott and Tom took time out this weekend to catch the new cartoon movie about a lizard cowboy (JohnnyDepp), Rango. They enjoyed it. Tom had wanted to see the new Nicholas CAge movie with me on Friday but I was busy working and shopping before the girls came over for our meeting. On Saturday I was busy trying to get some sleep and squeezing in some housework. At least I get to stay home on Monday with SCott since he is off having just finished his last semester. Looks like he did pretty well with his grades. I spent most of SAturday night catching up with the other school moms on how frustrated we all are with the school's methods of testing and teaching. At least SCott is pulling As and Bs, unlike some of his fellow classmates. We went through alot of the same thing with Allison.

She just finished midterms and had to write a paper last week on Animal Farm and the use of satire. She was busy this weekend with research for her next big paper on satire but she had to choose the book. We all thought Mark Twain was a good choice as most all of his writings were very satirical, as well as funny and enjoyable. I had Allison reading the reader's digest version of The Adventures of Huckleberry Finn. Apparently Mark Twain had a lot to say about our American society during the time of slavery. Now she wants to read Tom Sawyer. Glad I bought the sequel way back when.

I was busy with my own homework assignment writing a newspaper article for OT month this coming April for the Community paper at work. I will also probably put on an Open House and I am thinking of setting up a guest speaker from the Arthritis Foundation to talk about exercise.

Allison finally got her work permit from school, so we had to run it over to the skating rink. If you are under 16, you have to have a work permit. The rink hopes to have her paperwork done and have her employed by the middle of this month! We took some time out on Saturday afternoon to buy some black pants for her uniform. She is going to be wearing a referee shirt and she has a Columbia Association polo shirt. She was too busy to get to an orientation class this past week while she was writing her paper and studying for tests, but there are more classes coming up at the end of the month she can go to --and she gets paid for them too!

So spring is finally here(early I think). We have had lots of rain and the peeper frogs started making noise in the backyard. They are the tree frogs that start singing in the spring. Also my house has been over run by ants, moths and stink bugs! The ants come up from under the house and get into everything, the moths are left over from a bad bag of dog food I got at the pet store last year, and the stink bugs are a gift shipped in from China. I guess the east coast has it the worst and is loaded with stink bugs. They are actually looking into releasing a tiny wasp that lays its eggs on the stink bug's eggs and the wasp larva eat the stink bug eggs and larva when they hatch. This wasp has to be imported from Asia as the US does not have a natural predator for stink bugs, so they are looking carefully into any possible glitches that might occur if they bring in another non native creature. The stink bugs aren't harmful to people(just very stinky), but mainly they eat up all the fruit crops. And they really don't want them spreading all across the country. Winter doesn't seem to bother them either as they just hibernate in your house. And pesticides don't seem to do very much to them either. Another great thing we can thank China for!

So that's it for now. I started putting out my EAster and St Patty's day decorations this week. I had to have Scott climb up and down the attic steps for me and put away the snowy decorations. Hopefully we won't see much of that again since my daffodils are already poking their heads above ground. But that also probably means our ski season is over. Oh poop.

Anyhow, Have a great week and Happy FAt Tuesday(AKA Shrove Tuesday) and Ash WEds early! Happy Paczki Day too! WE are sure missing those great fat polish doughnuts from Hamtramck!

Kathleen