I think the kids are getting too comfortable having me around the house. They were very excited that I spent some time baking last week. Of course it was not just for them. I had forgotten to pick up a dessert for our last GS Leader's meeting, so I whipped up some chocolate chip banana muffins. Naturally there were some leftovers for the kids. Then I made Lemon Pie bars for donation to the school for a Vera Bradley Bingo night for volunteer hours. And naturally there were leftovers. I hope they don't get too comfortable with this situation.

So Happy Post Cinco De Mayo. And apparently Saturday was Star WArs day(May the 4th Be with You). HaHa. That is only if you understand the lisp. And I just wanted to make sure I wished Dad Bozyk a Happy Birthday(which I believe I missed in my blog in April-too many April Birthdays!).

We are well on our way to Spring. Lots of rain and warmer weather and lots of sneezing and grass cutting. Tom had to cut the front lawn twice this past weekend-long and wet. Scott and I worked on the backyard-I kept having to restart the mower for SCott since it kept stalling out in the thick grass(I like to cut it a bit shorter than Tom). I also spent the dry days last week raking and bagging leaves out of our flower beds. And I put in a few new plants and of course tomatoes. So lots of digging and raking. I was pretty sore. But I am a glutton for punishment. On Saturday morning I went to drop Scott off to participate in a Boy Scout conservation project. The troop planted over 400 trees at our local landfill. Next thing I know, I am helping to dig those 400 holes(I am a sucker for helping out). It may not have been so bad except Maryland is known for our lovely clay interspersed with rocks and roots (and a bit of trash at the land fill) which did not make digging holes quite so easy. I was just grateful I could walk on Sunday! We started at 9am and Scott and I had to leave around noon. They still had about 1/4 left to plant and the troop was dwindling. At least we got pizza and donuts out of the deal! And SCott completed a conservation project for his camping merit badge.

I did not join him at his last boy scout meeting during the week though. He and the troop were practicing working with a hot air balloon in a field across from the church where they meet. Scott and I signed up to volunteer for the Hot Air Balloon festival coming up for the Preakness(second horse race after The Kentucky Derby). Which we watched over at Dan and Gloria's house. That is a whole lot of prep time for just a few minutes race. Guess the whole day party factor works for those attending. Our balloon festival is in honor of the horse race, but is held just down the street from our house at the local golf resort. I have always wanted to go see all the balloons at night when the light them up, but I have been either too busy or the weather was bad and it was cancelled. Hopefully SCott and I will get a chance to see them and help the ground crew.

So while Scott was in balloon training, I attended what I thought was going to be my last GS meeting. I even had to make a little speech about how wonderful the girls are, and how they've grown, and how happy Allison will be not to have me bugging her about extra activities and dragging her all over! But it seems I managed to volunteer for a Juliette Coordinator position-I will be an online GS Leader for single girls that want to be in scouts but don't have a troop. I figure I can handle activity coordination via email since I do it all the time! 

After digging holes and planting trees on Saturday morning, I had to run Scott over to golf after he took a shower. Then his friend Sammy invited him to go see Iron Man. Tom and I were also invited to dinner and the movie, but we had plans on eating with our neighbors in honor of Gloria's birthday. INstead, Allison caught up with the group after she got off work. She was hoping to spend time with Sammy's older sister, but she had to go see a cartoon with her little 5 yr old brother(mom thought Iron Man was a bit too much for him). Instead, Allison enjoyed her company during dinner out. Scott was looking forward to Mexican, but the restaurant was packed and they ended up with pizza(again).

Speaking of packed, Tom still wanted to see Iron Man and made plans to go see it Sunday morning with our neighbors. Little did he know how complicated planning an outing can be. He first picked an early morning movie, but the neighbors were at church, the next movie was 3D and none of the neighbors wanted to see it. Now we were getting into the afternoon, but by the time we arrived, the movie was sold out! Looks like the neighbors made it in though. We did not buy tickets online since we already had passes(not sure we could have used them anyway). And Tom did not want to spend all afternoon at the movies since he wanted to cut the grass again. Oh well, maybe next week. Instead we ran some errands at the mall.

He had just arrived home from LA early Saturday morning where he spent all week busy working. Sorry he did not have any free time to visit with you Mike on this trip. Maybe some other time. He never knows how busy his schedule is going to be. He left again on this past Monday for Salt Lake City.  That is pretty much his schedule for the next month.

So it is a good thing I am so available to run the kids around. Scott started up his swim lessons again. Allison has been busy wrapping up her senior school year with lots of projects and tests. She just completed a spanish video commercial at Starbucks with some friends and is working on what looks like a Mouse Trap game for physics. She also had to compile her research on testing methods for the kids at school and put together a poster presentation for the upcoming Research Fair where she will present her findings. By the way, no big difference in testing kids with paper /pencil vs electronically. So I spent one evening gluing down all her charts and graphs and photos while she typed up her research paper. She was also very busy at work this past weekend-lots of birthday parties at the roller rink. She is really looking forward to being done at work and school.

I was also enjoying the extra time and flexible schedule by attending the weekday masses. Turns out I picked the morning of the Feast of St Joseph. The Homily talked about our work life. Looks like I'm on the right path with my upcoming job. I just got all my blood work back for the new work place. Orientation to follow. I also was getting back to my pool exercise class but caught a terrible cold from the kids which slowed me down. At least I did not have to take sick days!

Here are the Boy Scout photos from our tree planting session. I am in the blue sweatshirt; Scott is standing in front of the wheelbarrow with our shovel. Also some shots from their hot air balloon session.

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