I decided to start my midlife crisis early this year. I was let go from my OT job at the retirement community. It would appear that our new administration and myself came to irreconcilable differences. Which is fine with me since they were pushing me to go to a 5 day+ work week, stopped paying me for holidays, overtime and took away the monthly volunteer paid time off(without really telling anyone). I usually found out afterwards on my time card. So it actually seems to have been a good thing.

I had the chance to look into other job openings and found a new position with a health care contract company in a nearby nursing home, working the hours I want with a raise and paid everything(holidays, overtime). And I only have to work 32 hours to be considered a full time employee with full time benefits(not available at my last job). So I start orientation in May and we move into the nursing home facility on June 1st.  I am looking forward to a lot less stress and the excitement of starting with a new company that actually seems to care about their staff.

So I had an interview last Friday and was hired the following Saturday. To celebrate with my extra time off, I decided to make an appointment with an endodontist. I had been waiting to see someone about my previous root canal that was still bothering me. After 3.5 hours in the dentist chair, the endodontist decided she was not quite sure what was up, but noticed that my roots pretty much run up into my skull! So she is trying to treat my tooth with some type of medication/steroid for the roots that were missed, and I go back in a month. It actually already feels better. It was my poor jaw that suffered the most after being pried open for over 3 hours!And the best thing is, she did not crack my crown.(yet).

So much fun! But life goes on. Tom was out of town the first week, so I was busy running around with the kids(boy scouts mostly). I had to help Tom and Scott pack up for their Bike/Hike weekend. And Scott decided to cook for his Cooking merit badge, so we needed to make up a menu and buy supplies. We also had to pick up all the scout gear(tents/tables and cooking supplies). I actually missed my girl scout leader meeting so I could attend Scott's boy scout meeting and pick up camping gear. Tom returned home from LA on Thursday night, so he had plenty of time to shop for supplies and  pack the van before heading off to Western Maryland on Friday afternoon. I also had to pick out a bike for Scott since he outgrew his last bike. He ended up riding my bike! Tom opted for the hike. They strolled/rode up and down the C and O canal with Scott's group biking 20 miles and they had a very nice weekend. (Scott's butt is still sore from his ride though).

As soon as they returned home on Sunday, they were both busy assembling SCott's Science Fair project. Tom was organizing the Science Fair at Scott's school again(one more year to go). This year they added an engineering challenge including building a light weight bridge that was strong enough to withstand added weight. Scott's foam design took 1st place in his grade level and 1st place overall in the science fair(out of 30 projects submitted). He got a nice trophy, certificate and $50 gift card(thanks to Tom). Which he quickly spent on a new video game.

The science fair was on a Weds night(boy scout night), so I had to stand in for both Scott and Tom at Boy Scouts since the troop was participating in a food drive and Scott is the Patrol Leader and Tom was the Patrol Adviser. On Weds night I took out 5 boys and we passed out bags to the nearby neighborhood. On Saturday morning, Tom and Scott picked up the bags full of food. Right before I ran SCott up to his golf lesson. He wants to pick up some type of sport(swimming is a huge commitment) and he really enjoys golf. But he hasn't had lessons since 2nd grade, so we decided to have him brush up on his skills. He had a great time and is looking forward to his upcoming lessons and actually getting out on the course. But he will probably continue with his swimming lessons at the Y as well since he really enjoys that too!

While Tom and Scott were off camping, Allison and I were busy picking up her Prom accessories. Her big day is next weekend. She needed some jewelry, shoes and undergarments so we hit the mall. Right after working on her Girl Scout project at the nature center. We walked the trail and marked her bird locations. Now she just needs the staff approval before mounting the bird models(probably with Tom's help if he can stay home long enough!).  We also had our own Girl SCout activities that weekend. Allison worked a Girl Scout Up All Night event at the roller blade rink, getting off work around 2am. The next day we were off singing with the choir at our local GS camp for a yearly Outdoor Earth Day event. And Allison has started her orientation for GS summer camp. She is volunteering again this year on the archery range.

Tom is off to San Francisco this week. Before he left though we celebrated his 50th birthday with neighbors on Saturday. I had set up a Food Tour in Baltimore as one of his Birthday gifts. I wanted a special birthday party without having to do all the work. Our group met in Little Italy in downtown Baltimore. Our hostess gave us some insight into the history of the area and we were off to several restaurants to sample their specialties. We actually started out at a jewish deli opened in 1915 on the edge of Little Italy(and the corned beef was lean!). Next to a very italian restaurant owned by Anthony Gambino for meatballs and wine. Afterwards to a wine bar for wine tasting and antipasto. But the last stop was the best as it included a large plate of Borghanese pasta, an enormous cappuccino and our favorite, Tiramisu for dessert. (Supposedly the birthplace of Tiramisu). And as if we did not have enough to eat and drink, everyone came over to our house for drinks, snacks and a few more desserts(which was eaten mostly by the kids). Tom even took home a few gifts including a very large RAvens beer tankard, a restaurant gift card and his own whiskey making kit(complete with barrels!). A nice way to end our weekend together.

On Sunday morning I whisked Allison off for her Senior portraits. They turned out great! Afterwards we ran home to pick up a few girl scouts to attend a high school musical starring one of my girl scouts. She was the lead in Legally Blonde at her catholic all girls high school. We enjoyed the show, even though it was about 3 hours long! Guess we got our money's worth. And now Allison can say she attended a high school musical(even though it wasn't her high school!).

And then there was the whole Boston bombing last week. It was eerie waking up to hear all the craziness on the news that went on at MIT and Cambridge, Harvard and Watertown. That was our backyard for several years when we lived in Belmont, MA while Tom was going to school. And to even have had the experience to enjoy the Boston Marathon first hand when Tom's brother Mark ran in it on Patriots Day. We were just grateful that all our friends up there are doing OK.
 
So I am sure I will be busy doing Spring Cleaning with my spare time until I am back to work(which I already started by cleaning out the clothes that the kids have outgrown and taking them over to the resale shop).

So wish me luck on my life do over! Kathleen

Here are my girl scouts at the play.   Our Saturday night dinner tour stopping by the Flag House in Baltimore. Mary Pickett actually sewed the huge flag in this house and in the street(it was too big for the house)that flew over Ft McHenry in Baltimore. You can see (or have seen) that flag in the Smithsonian which inspired our nation's Star Spangled Banner National Anthem. And snuggling up to the bar at Ciao Bella's restaurant owned by the Gambino family. 

So now it finally feels like Spring. The cherry blossoms in DC are two weeks behind their peak bloom as calculated ahead of time by the National Park Service. So the Cherry Blossom festival came and went without cherry blossoms. We have still been too busy to go into DC to enjoy it all. The kids were off of school on Spring Break all week, but Tom and I were back to work. I even went in for a half day on Saturday to help out(I need all the brownie points I can get).

Tom did take an extra day off on Tuesday to work with Scott on his Science Fair project which is fast approaching. Scott designed a bridge out of foam to pass a weight test(similar to Allison's toothpick bridge project in physics). Allison was happy not to have homework since she just finished a semester. SCott just started a new semester. I still can't figure out how Allison is supposed to squeeze in any significant learning/testing in two months time. But that is how it is for Seniors. I wish she could have worked more on her GS project. She needs to mark the placement for her birds on the nature trail, but we could use a few more leaves on the trees. They are just starting to peak out with the flowers. Mainly Allison spent the week working at the roller rink, almost every day. They open up when the kids are off school. She did take Scott to the Y to work out after a make up piano lesson on her one day off.  And SCott wants to repaint his room so he has been busy picking out paint with Tom and now needs to strip his old wallpaper.  He also studied some math and social studies because it is going to be a very busy two months until school gets out.

I took Scott to his Boy Scout meeting on WEds night since Tom was busy working on a presentation for his trip out west today. Tom got up early and headed out to the airport for a trip to LA. for the week. He almost didn't get to the airport when a large herd of deer ran across the freeway. Good thing he took the new car(better brakes!).

Scott is going on a Bike/Hike trip this coming weekend with the troop and Tom in tow. So we had a lecture about bike care at his meeting. They will be riding along the C and O canal. Scott however has outgrown his bike. We picked up a used mountain bike from our neighbor, but it needs some work. If Tom doesn't have time to mess with it, SCott may be riding my bike this weekend. He may even be cooking for his patrol since he needs to work on his cooking merit badge. It is going to be an Eagle scout required badge next year. Fortunately Tom is supposed to get back on Thursday, so they can spend Friday getting ready for the trip. Scott and I wrote up the last of his Communications badge so he can review it with the badge counselor(another eagle scout required badge).

We also had a busy week celebrating Tom's 50th Birthday! We all went out to dinner on Thursday night at Don Pablos Mexican restaurant. Tom wouldn't wear the sombrero or let them sing Happy Birthday/Felize Cumpleanos, but he did take the free dessert! And he enjoyed his gifts(all of them a surprise). One of the gifts included tickets to a Hershey Bear Hockey Game on Saturday night. Tom has been going through hockey withdrawal since the NHL started out the season on strike, and then all the local Hershey Bear's games were sold out. I managed to get 5 tickets on Scout Night and we took along our friend John Dutton. Of course we had to stop into the Hershey store to pick up chocolate on sale after EAster. The kids(and Tom) enjoyed finding their baskets in the hotel room(not too difficult) on Easter Sunday. But they did not get a whole lot of candy. Scott enjoyed his Lego kit(even assembled it in the hotel room before we left). Allison liked her new shirts and Thin Mint GS Bear from Build A Bear. Although she was most happy with her gasoline gift card. 

So the Bears lost and played terrible, but it was fun watching them fight and we had center ice seats to see it all. The place is not huge, but it holds 11,000 and it was sold out(as usual). I am also taking Tom on a Charm City Food Tour through Little Italy in a few weeks with several couples to celebrate his big day. I had to wait until my neighbor's wife returned home for a visit from her traveling nursing job in Oklahoma. Should be fun and a great way to learn more about the history and restaurants of downtown Baltimore. The tour takes us to  visit several restaurants and sample different dishes and wines, including tiramisu for dessert which is supposed to be its birthplace here in Baltimore.

The kids also had fun shopping(mostly Allison) since we found her dresses. But she also picked up a few books from Barnes and Noble with previous gift cards and spent part of her week just reading for fun.  We also picked up some new tennis shoes for Scott(he won't stop growing!). And Tom needed a whole new wardrobe last weekend since he managed to pack his suitcase and leave it in the bedroom! Fortunately he doesn't require much.

And his sister Susan and John very nicely sent a gift package full of different types of meats from Omaha Steaks which made cooking dinner last week a breeze! Thanks so much you two! We especially enjoyed the little cheesecakes since Lent is over!  Even Tom's fellow employees baked him a low carb cheesecake(since he is back on that diet). Right after they reminded him it was time for a colonoscopy. What fun it is getting older!

Now I am going through withdrawal since no more Walking Dead on Sunday night until October. I will just have to enjoy The Apprentice.

Have a great week! Here is our visit to Hershey Park on Saturday night for the hockey game.

Happy Easter! Happy Spring? We recently returned from an extended weekend trip to the eastern shore and Williamsburg/Busch Gardens.

We took off last Friday and returned Monday night. Our primary plan was to visit Allison's Salisbury University for a college tour. Allison actually had an official tour last summer went she went to government camp. But we had a lot of questions and wanted to spend more time checking out the campus since she plans on going there. We had a tour scheduled in the afternoon, so I had time to drop Cookie off at the kennel before heading out for the 2.5hr drive. We stopped outside the campus and had a terrific seafood lunch at a local restaurant and major hangout, Brew River(Good Friday). Afterwards we headed over to the 30 min presentation and then toured the campus for an hour and a half. Allison was surprised to see so many of her high school classmates at the orientation. I even ran into one of my fellow girl scout leaders and her daughter on the tour. All the parents and high school students were taking advantage of Spring Break to visit college campuses.

We were primarily interested in the Perdue business school(Perdue Chicken). The several million dollar building was opened in the fall of 2011 and it is chock full of high tech stuff to keep track of the national and international business world. Salisbury is known for its business school, as well as Teaching/Education program(they also have a brand new building) and nursing/physical therapy. Students may request placement in one dorm all together. So all the business students can live together on one floor in the dorm. They even offer some of their classes right in the dorms. I think I was even more impressed with the dining services-the main dining hall looks like a food court in the mall! And outside guests are allowed to eat in the dining hall for a small fee. We tried to talk Allison into trying out Make Your Own Pizza night, but we found ourselves in a movie during dinner time.  Even the laundry service in the dorms was impressive. First of all it is free. The washing machines all have prefilled detergent, and you can set the machine to text you when your laundry is done! I don't know-it takes all the thinking out of the process. Guess the students are supposed to spend more time studying. The campus is not huge but not tiny either. We thought the town of Salisbury was mostly farmland, but it is more city than we thought. We managed to find the large mall and movie theater. And the campus is only 30 minutes from Ocean City. They even run a shuttle bus down to the beach. Class sizes average 17-25 students. Allison will have to return in June to sign up for classes and will be assigned to a dorm in July. The dorm rooms hold two students per room with an adjoining bathroom/showers. You can rent a fridge and microwave so you don't have to haul one back and forth to school. Some of the students had flat screen tvs in their rooms and computers of course.  They also offer summer camps and international learning on Winter break or over the summer. Tom wants to study business in Argentina with Allison. So we all enjoyed the campus and the school and we think Allison will be spoiled and will love it. And Tom wants Allison to become an RA in the future.One step at a time.

After our tour of the school, we spent the night in a very nice Hampton Inn and decided to spend the next day getting to know more of Salisbury. We decided to tour the campus on our own. We found out that the University does not give out sports scholarships, so it is probably not to Allison's advantage to try out for the Field Hockey team. But if she wants to keep playing, they have travel teams and IM teams on campus(so play for fun instead of the school). And Allison already has a school scholarship for her academics. But we checked out the sports fields anyhow. And we decided to walk around the free zoo in Salisbury. Small but a few very interesting animals. And a whole lot of geese sitting on nests and being very grumpy! We considered a drive up to Delaware for the tax free outlet stores, but it would have taken us out of our way by several hours.

Instead we headed to Williamsburg VA via the eastern shore. There is a whole lot of nothing there, and when you get to the end you take an incredibly long bridge/tunnel to cross the opening of the Chesapeake Bay which takes you into Norfolk and Newport News VA(navy town). The bridge/tunnel is one of the great wonders of modern engineering. It's designed so the huge navy ships so could travel up the bay without stopping traffic with a drawbridge system. We arrived at Busch Gardens early in the afternoon. It was busy and cool outside, but not overly crowded. Tom and Scott just wanted to ride the new rollercoaster that was broke down last Easter when we visited. So they enjoyed their ride and most of the others.

Easter Sunday we headed to mass at the local catholic church. We really enjoyed the priest and the whole ceremony, but came out to pouring rain. We had to change clothes after mass at the hotel, and thought the day was a bust. The outlet store was not open so early, so we had lunch at Buffalo Wild Wings and considered a movie. We had seen Oz on Friday night and the family was disappointed in the primary special effects of the movie. Tom was hoping for more of a real story and less special effects. I assured him Disney just wanted to make something cheap and quick which they did. Instead of a movie, we ended up checking out a few stores that had opened at the outlet mall. We were primarily interested in finding Allison her two dresses-a white dress for graduation and a prom dress. We managed to find a white dress at the White and Black Shop(naturally). And for a great price. And since the rain had stopped, we decided to try our chances back at Busch GArdens. It turned out well since there were not many people at the park and Scott and Tom were able to get on all their favorite rides. Of course Allison and I hit all the shows and then we met up with our neighbor and his kids as they were also visiting the park. Our neighbors wife was still working out in Oklahoma though. We finally decided to stop into Golden Corral for a huge Easter buffet. Steak, shrimp but most importantly, a chocolate fountain!

Overall a great weekend and a lazy drive home(or so we thought). The traffic was terrible. We thought we could pop into Busch gardens for one more run around the park but it was overly crowded. Guess the rain had kept so many people away that they all came Monday instead. Traffic was so bad on the freeway and there was a bad accident, so Tom tried the surface road(just as horrible). But we decided to stop off at the mall along the way to stretch our legs. Turned out well since we found a great, reasonable formal dress shop and bought Allison's prom dress! So a very successful weekend!

A Big Happy Birthday to Dad Seitz! Sorry it landed on Good Friday. I had been trying to get to confession at church since they added sessions on WEds night for the lenten season. Finally Allison and I were free to attend while Tom and SCott were at a BS meeting. When we arrived at the small chapel, they only had two priests and the line was out the door. The gentleman behind me figured we would be in line for about 1.5 hrs if everyone standing in front of us spent 5 minutes with the priest.  We finally all squashed into the foyer of the building just to keep warm. We had just had a big snow storm the Monday before and the kids were out of school that day so it was still chilly. Turns out someone in line knew another priest and gave him a call from a local university. He showed up, set up and I just happened to be standing right in front of the door to the room he set up in. I was the first one in his chair, and Allison right after me! God works in mysterious ways!  EVeryone in line was shocked! I told them "All good things come to those who wait and patience is a virtue" All those cliches came in handy and we were out the door before Tom and Scott got home! Next year I am not waiting until the last session before EAster!

I think I needed it since work continues to drive me crazy with the new management. Fortunately they fired one of the new assistant managers after less than 5 months. Thank goodness(God works in mysterious ways). Now we have to continue to work with the management we have in place(God help us all!). Sadly our new manager is a good administrator, but not a good clinical manager. She is completely unfamiliar with our computer programs and staffing/scheduling/billing. Not good for business.

We'll see how long this lasts.

Here are some shots from Busch Gardens and the new rollercoaster. The grumpy geese at the Salisbury zoo on their nests and shots from Salisbury University(yes they are the fighting Seagulls!). Have you been to the beach? Seagulls can be nasty! And Allison at the Perdue Business School.  (Notice we are surrounded by birds?). Even Allison's GS project has to do with birds. Interesting.

A special Happy Easter to my parents who spent their holiday snowed in Up North in Charlevoix. Stay warm!

Kathleen