So this was a short week, however it sure seemed long. Mainly because we crammed so much activity into one short week. It was hard to go back to work and school on Tuesday after returning home from our trip to Williamsburg on Monday evening. Scott on the other hand was heavy into his Spring Break.

He didn't have any special plans, so we left him home to play computer games and build Lego Star WArs models. Fortunately he only had 3 days by himself. On Thursday he spent the night with his best buddy and visited all day Friday. He also had time by himself during the week to write up his design for a garden box. His school is participating in a contest so he wanted his design completed and turned in on Monday along with a model of his garden box. He just needed Tom's help putting it together and gathering up the supplies.

So on Sunday afternoon the two of them joined forces in the garage to assemble a very cute garden box and I picked up some herbs for him to plant. He brought it into school on Monday morning much to the excitement of our librarian who is heading up a gardening project at the school. She is also a big fan of the Science Fair and invited a woman engineer to school to have lunch with all the Science FAir participants before break. So Scott got to sit down with a free luncheon and chatting with the engineer. The librarian was quite amazed by how Scott's mind operates after listening to his comments and questions to the engineer. (ACtually a little scary sometimes).

We also had Scott push to get through his rank requirements for Boy SCouts this past week. He just has one more requirement to achieve the next level. He also spent Saturday morning asking for food donations for our yearly Harvest for the Hungry Food Drive. Next weekend the boys will be out in front of the store again, as well as picking up bags of food from homes where they dropped off newsletters asking for donations.  He also had his boy scout meeting last Tuesday and was disappointed that he had to go since he was on break, but it was nice since he got a lot accomplished that night. He was hoping to really get a break from everything, but he still had swimming on Saturday and gymnastics on Friday. He finished his last Shark swim class and I was able to sign him up for the last level-the Porpoise Club(a pre swim team training class). It would be nice to get him involved in his own sport, especially for high school.

Allison was back in school and had a busy weekend working at the rink. But since she did not have to work on Sunday afternoon, she volunteered for a Nature DAy at the Girl SCout camp on the archery range. I figured it would be good to get back into practice for summer camp. She agreed it was a good reorientation and she enjoyed teaching the girls(and a few boys too). I dropped in with Scott in the morning since the fee was not that high. He enjoyed mining for gems and breaking open a geode. He also shot a few arrows at the archery range and checked out all the turtles, snakes, lizards and frogs, honey bees and owls and hawks at all the displays and our nature center at the Girl SCout camp. Allison got to do everything for free and earned a patch, bag and tshirt for volunteering.  Scott also got some extra ideas for his planter from the University of Maryland Master Gardener booth. It certainly was a beautiful day to get outside. I even broke down and did a little container planting but not too much yet. We still had a few nights down in the 30s but mostly it has been warm and extremely dry.  While the rest of the country is having tornadoes and lots of rain, we are having a drought.

Tom certainly had his hands full this past week too. He repaired the basement wall and was ready to paint. After the first coat of the textured paint he was quite disappointed. It looked like someone threw dirt on the walls and left streaks on top of that. Fortunately things smoothed out with a second coat. Just in time for our new couch to arrive on Friday. And it took all day Friday to disassemble the unit and reassemble it in the basement. Tom says it is well built and very comfortable(amazing for a pull out couch). Fortunately Tom was home to supervise the event. Which he says took 4 hours!  Sadly the dishwasher repairman stopped in as well but after he replaced one part he found it was still not working. Now he is ordering another part and I guess I am washing dishes by hand until at least next Friday. It wouldn't have been so bad except Tom invited Matt WAgner over for dinner on Saturday and Matt invited his kids over as well, along with a girl friend. So Tom was busy cooking up a storm of steaks and crab cakes, grilled asparagus and coleslaw(and I am still washing the dishes). Matt wanted to come over for EAster, but since we were gone, Tom invited him this past weekend. He is still depressed and angry and used his visit to catch up with their oldest son, Jacob. Jacob will be 21 in a few months and has failed at college classes for the past several years and unable to keep a job(any job). He is currently interviewing at a Starbucks. Meanwhile the youngest, Nick is failing out of high school, has ADHD and has started drinking. He would not come over on Saturday night. Fine with me. We already had enough drama with Matt. And as usual Matt passed out on our couch after dinner, but this time Diana was not there to drive him home. He had to leave early though on Sunday morning since MOnday was the tax deadline and he was extremely busy working being an accountant and all. Not sure if he will be able to keep his business though as he apparently had a falling out with his partner on SAturday.  Tom and I agree he is not moving in with us.

I was also busy with a Girl SCout Leadership meeting on Weds night. We have a lot of activities coming up this year in honor of the 100th Anniversary of Girl SCouting. I can hardly keep up. I also fussed to our Service Leader about Allison's rejection for her gold award project on rebuilding the therapeutic horseback riding ramp. WE put in a formal complaint to the Girl SCout council but I am not sure that they will change their minds. Therefore, Allison will have to start all over(yuck). 

Another special April Birthday. A Big Happy Birthday goes out to SArah Bozyk who celebrated on Friday the 13th!

I also started taking a ONe A Day Vitamin with extra Magnesium. I did some more research on my cipro allergic reaction and the only thing they recommend  is to take Magnesium to help my heart. I found I still can't walk around campus without getting winded and my heart racing. I am not sure I will be able to participate in the Dragon Boat races this year. According to the research, it can take 1-2years to recuperate. Oh joy. I am hoping the vitamins and minerals help. As the research states-there is no magic antidote.

Check out our photos of the Girl Scout Outdoor Event-Scott at the archery range with Allison, mining for gems and his geode treasure. Also a shot of Scott with his planter box at school on display in the main lobby along with his report. And our new suede pull out queen sized couch and textured painted wall.

More adventures to come. Kathleen