So we were back to our usual schedule-work and camp.  First of all, my Dad was scheduled for his prostate surgery this past Thursday. It appears that everything went well and he is back home today(Sunday). We hope and pray he continues to heal and stays healthy! And that they do not have to take any more trips to the ER!

Tom and I headed back to work. Allison was busy preparing for the start of her Field Hockey season which officially began on Saturday morning with a 2.5hr work out(whew!). We discovered she needed to have her concussion testing updated, but she had all the other paperwork in on time to start practice. I even joined her and all the other moms and girls for a pre season meeting on Friday morning to discuss scheduling for the year. Allison has discovered that she is a bit of a Mother Duck to all the freshman girls trying out this year. They all look to her for guidance and support. Practice and try outs officially begin on Monday morning. In the meantime, Allison has been out running each day.

Scott headed off to another camp at our local Community College. I had originally been concerned about signing him up for an advanced lego robotics class with hopes of further strengthening his skills for his Lego Club at school. He actually enjoyed the second class I put him in-special effects sci fi class where he learned to do fun and crazy things on the computer with producing videos(like making himself disappear-or just parts of himself in his videos). I was glad he had such a good time. Next two weeks he will be in the YMCA camps and he did not enjoy most of the boys in the group at the beginning of the summer. Hopefully he will have a good time as they are traveling to some fun places.

On Saturday we both went to our local park for the rescheduled Fishing Tournament. Scott ended up winning a ribbon for most fish caught for his Troop(he was the only one fishing for his troop!).  Unfortunately he did not win a trophy for the top ten biggest fish caught that day. But he had a lot of fun pulling in a bunch of small fish-sunfish and baby bass. And he got good at taking the fish off the hooks(but not putting the worms on the hooks!). After catching fish all morning, I had to run over to the Nature Center with Allison to look over her Girl SCout Gold Award project proposal for her Educational Bird Trail with the center staff. Allison still needs to submit the request to Girl SCout council for their approval before starting the project. But she did spend some time last week doing research on the types of the birds they want highlighted for the program. The staff seemed very pleased. Now to just please the council!

We then headed home for dinner at our house with our MSU friend Matt. He is still trying to settle his divorce with Diana and is still really struggling with poor health and limited work capacity.  We tried to cheer him up by cooking dinner and going to the BAtman movie. I just spent the entire evening keeping an eye on  the security staff checking the exit door and stairwells every 15 minutes. And the movie was good too-especially the last 5 minutes. And Matt  had another trip to the ER with chest pains the next day. What a year for the ER!

I was busy at work all week and even went in for a half day at the nursing home on Sunday morning. That was about the only time I had available. Allison and I helped out the Girl SCout choir by recording a few more songs for our practice CD on Sunday afternoon. And then we had our neighbors over for dinner on Sunday night. It was nice to sit out on our deck and grill out. Especially since it has been so hot and then we had big rain on Saturday. We wanted to thank our neighbors for watching our house and cutting our grass for two weeks while we were on our trip. And we had picked up a few gift items to share with them too.

So Tom is heading off to Chicago next week.  I started back to my paddling practice on Tuesday nights. I will be relying on Allison to help me out with picking up SCott from camp and getting him to Boy Scouts.

Scott has been busy typing up his school summer book report. Allison is busy working on her summer math packet. Only two more weeks until school starts! Where did the summer go?

More trip photos-Yellowstone National Park and Old Faithful, Mount Rushmore, Grand Tetons and Jackson, Wyoming(Jackson Hole ski resort), and the Badlands(Big Horn Sheep) in South Dakota. 

Glad to hear Mark S. is doing well in his recuperation from his recent surgery.

Looks like another busy week for me in Maryland!

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