Another busy week. Our family enjoyed a visit from St Nick last week, especially since he brought us all stockings full of great stuff! Including our yearly ornaments. Where would Tom be without his Star Trek collectables. They just put out their 25th Anniversary ornament! Yee Gads! We are getting old! More on that later. And Tom's lottery scratcher card won 20 bucks! So he donated the money to Allison and her National Honor society as they are collecting money to buy food and holiday gifts for our homeless shelter. Each student is expected to collect 40 bucks so she is halfway there.
And Scott and I had a terrific scouting overnight experience Friday night on board the US Coast Guard ship The Taney. I did not realize that the Coast Guard is commissioned by the Navy in time of war and the TAney is the last surviving CG ship of WII. It was stationed in Hawaii and fought in Pearl Harbor. It was docked on Pier 6 next to a power plant in Hawaii and defended the power plant supplying the whole base. Now it is moored near the old Baltimore power plant on Pier 6! And we got to visit on the anniversary of Pearl Harbor. We headed down with the troop on Friday night and had a pizza dinner made in the galley. Pretty good. Then we had a tour of the ship and played a scavenger hunt game as well as learned about how the ship operated and the difference between American and Japanese fighter planes(don't want to shoot down the wrong one!). It was lights out at 10pm after a quick run to our battle stations. Scott had the bridge(funny, not the engine room!). Then we crawled into our 3 bed high bunks. Myself and one other mom showed up with two Boy Scout troops of about 50 boys and men. So we had the officer's bathrooms and a space all to ourselves. The boys were all cozy in the center of the ship. The only thing that woke us up at night was the noisy heating system as the pipes would bang clear throughout the ship. Then it was on deck at 6am after eggs and bacon breakfast. We learned about the engine room and the big guns that shot down Japanese planes. The ammo weighs 55lbs each. And the boys were assigned to Weapons and Damage control, so they had to learn how to shore up a hole if the ship took a hit. They had to work together to figure out how to use 5 pieces of wood to block off a "leaking" hatch. One team managed to figure it out before we all drowned! All in all, a spacious but tight ship. I don't think I will be signing up for the Coast Guard. I especially don't think I can get used to the whistle call! We were done by 9am Saturday morning after hoisting the flag, and then headed to Starbucks. Both Scott and I had a really great time. Don't think Tom would have liked sleeping in the 6ft long bunks with a 3ft clearance. I really felt bad for one of the Dads who was 6'5". Not sure how he did it. But there were a few adults that were creaking and moaning over their breakfast after crawling out of their sleeping bags.
We then had plenty of time to get some homework done during the day while Allison went off to work on Saturday afternoon. When she got home, we all headed out to dinner with our neighbors and then to our very favorite(and free) Army Jazz Band Christmas Concert at a local high school. They always put on such a terrific show.
Sunday morning was wet and rainy, and Tom had to get up early and fly out to LA. Hopefully he will be able to see Mike this week. I spent the day working with Scott on a map of the US study guide. He has to know all the states and their capitals for an upcoming test by memory. Yuck. Allison had to work in the evening, and then run over for her first Indoor Field Hockey game. She could not make the first game of the night, so she had a sub. So I dropped off her goalie gear at the gym. It was certainly a nasty night to be out driving. Allison was miserable by the time she got home(does not like driving in yucky weather).
And their team lost both games so not a good start to her season.
Allison has been so busy with school work, we had to miss the GS choir concerts at the local nursing homes during the week. It is just too hard to drive the beltway too after work and get to the nursing homes on time to sing. So we are saving up our time for the weekend events.
I did have a GS Leader meeting on Weds though and I had to drop off our Troops gift boxes for the Homeless shelter. I also brought a few goodies to share, so I had to heat up some horsdoevres before running off to the meeting. (right after work). And I had to miss the Mom's Ornament Exchange party. I never can seem to get to that party.
But I did manage to get to the Mother's Tea on Friday morning(opted out of aquatics class). I always enjoy this event. One of the school's families owns this restaurant where they host the Mother's Holiday Tea. Also happens to be our new favorite night time dinner restaurant. We ate there on Saturday night-quick service, good food, low cost. What more can you ask for. And I always enjoy a cup of coffee and some pastries at the Mother's Tea. And I just happened to win a door prize too! Plus we always get a little ornament. A nice way to start the day. I also had the opportunity to chat it up with the new Vice Principal(who loves Scott by the way and Disney and sadly just lost her husband to cancer). She was very sweet and we could have talked Disney all day. Especially since the new Test Track ride opened that day at Epcot and not to mention the new Fantasy Land at DisneyWorld. Just have to schedule another trip!
But I had to get going to my Foot doctor appointment(getting old stuff). Seems I developed plantar fasciitis this summer-too much hiking in sandals and my heel has been hurting since. Looks like I am getting fallen arches(getting old). So now I have to do the exercises and look for even more expensive shoes than my LLBeans. (no arch support). Or buy the expensive support and stick it in my expensive shoes. Getting old is expensive! And I so want to be done with sinus problems.
So we all survived another week. Allison is busy putting on presentations to classes on her current research project at the school and her Kindergartners are getting ready for the Holidays. Allison had to read them "The Night Before Christmas". They had it memorized. They really love having her in the class. Scott loves her giving him a ride home after school. Allison is also building a toothpick bridge for a physics project. Tom loved it since he is the master of toothpick bridge building-Allison is sick of bridges. She is also busy playing Christmas piano music for us (on a half working electric keyboard).
Scott's Lego group is wrapping up the details and will have their robotic tournament next week.
So we are winding down the year. Back to my Christmas cards. Look for them in the mail(just don't watch our Ravens anymore). Kathleen
No comments:
Post a Comment