So both kids survived Finals/Midterm week. Scott was so happy to have finished all his midterms and turned in all his assignments. He came away with a very good report card-all A's and B's.  He celebrated by having a sleep over at a friend's house with several other boys. They enjoyed spending the night watching movies and playing video games. He was also happy to have gotten through all the test days without a snow day or 1/2 day so he did not have to drag out the studying. However, I had to drive through a blizzard to drop him off on Friday night when he went over to his friend's house. I was just happy to have survived the drive up the steep uphill climb and the single lane bridge to his friend's house in the olde Ellicott city area.  Besides enjoying his study free weekend, Scott spent some time working with the Robotics team and attending his Catechism class on Sunday night for Confirmation prep.

Allison finished off her final exam in Accounting and was able to drive home for the weekend before the bad weather rolled in. At least this time she did not have to move in or out of a dorm room. She spent the short week completing a project and studying/taking tests. She was much happier with her B that she earned in Accounting this winter term. We only enjoyed Allison's company for the weekend. She headed back to school on Sunday to start her new Spring semester. She is going to be busy with Accounting II, Art, English and Geography classes. On Saturday she stocked up on school supplies(along with quite a few other college students all heading back to school). Allison said the stores were packed. Sunday morning she headed out early to avoid even more snow/ice.

I stayed busy this weekend volunteering with the Girl Scout's Rollerblade/skate weekend event. I was asked to fill in as a First Aider, but my certification is not up to date. Instead I was 2nd in charge, supervising and assisting all the other volunteers. I really do not look forward to this event because the GS leaders and parents can be so rude and obnoxious. Believe it or not. The woman in charge of the event is a stickler for rules and paperwork, so if a form is not filled out, she does not let anyone in the group into the rink. It makes quite a few people angry. Oh well. So the check -in is usually crazy. Saturday was rough, but we worked out most of the kinks by Sunday. And some of the GS leaders helped some of the new leaders with the check in process. I was especially happy that we did not have many injuries. We have had broken bones and trips to the hospital at previous events(usually that is for the adults!). Anyhow, it was a two hour event on Saturday and a 3 hour event on Sunday. Allison used to work as a skate guard here, so I dropped off a job application for Scott at the rink while I was there. He would like to follow in his sister's footsteps. I was just sorry to see that the facility decided to change its image and they fired Allison's old management team. I will certainly miss the two ladies, Barb and Julie. I can already see a decline in the operation. They were short staffed for our event on Saturday night. And the manager was not even present either night. And we usually have about 300 people attending each night. Now my van is overloaded with buckets of donated cleaning supplies from the event for Habitat for Humanity. I usually volunteer to drop off the donations collected at our event. I can't wait to drop off the supplies and get my van back. At least it smells good!

I also spent Friday with my parents. I took them both to a cardiology appointment in the morning. Dad's blood pressure has been running low, so they are discontinuing his BP medication for now. He has been extra tired lately, so they are trying to see if it is due to his medications. After the doctor visit, we had to drop into their broker's office to sign some papers. Then it was lunch at the mall, a stop at the pharmacy and shopping at Walmart. Dad was pretty well done by that time. Mom and I dragged him through the store, and then got him home for a nap. They did get out to the Sr Center on Thursday. But they had quite an adventure on Sunday when they got into the wrong car heading to a different church!They ended up at a Methodist service run by a woman minister. I guess any church service will do. The Neighbor Ride people were very apologetic(I thought we would have to put out a Silver alert for lost adults!). They said that never happened before. Their driver had been sick, and another resident was waiting for his ride to the Methodist church when Mom and dad got into his car. The driver's are supposed to introduce themselves and check that they are picking up the correct riders. Guess they will be more careful in the future! So now I have my kids to worry about, along with the parents!

Congrats goes out to Tom for winning an Engineer of the Year award at Northrop. He had to go in special on Friday to receive his reward.

Wish us luck with the upcoming snow storms! Kathleen

Last week saw both kids busy studying.Scott was preparing for midterms. He took a break by attending Boy Scouts, video club, a workout at the Y and his Robotics team. The Robotics team is busy building their robot for competition in March and April. Their team is already 3 weeks ahead of schedule!

Allison came home over the weekend. She had to again move out of her current dorm room so that she could move back into her own room next week. The campus is getting ready for Spring Term starting next week. She moved all her belongings out of the dorm and drove home on Friday. Allison was busy studying as she ends her accounting class. She took time off too though with Tom to attend a Hershey Bear Hockey game Saturday night with our friend John. They enjoyed a Hershey Bear win in overtime.


That seems to be the only teams winning so far. Our football teams did not fair well this past weekend. We invited Grandma and Grandpa Bozyk over for dinner and football Sunday night. We were not very excited with the outcomes. We really would have enjoyed watching Green Bay or the Colts play in the Super Bowl.

I also spent the weekend running errands and getting in my workout at the Y. I continue to take care of my parent's business affairs which usually means lots of phone calls. Thank goodness for Fridays off. Tom and I were also able to take advantage of the good weather on Saturday to start taking down the Christmas lights and cleaning out our cars. Tom had been off to work in Vermont all week(even colder). We have had a few delayed school days because of the weather. The worst was on Sunday morning when I took Scott up to church to serve mass. The roads were pure ice. I slid all the way to church. I did not realize that a terrible accident occurred just up the road-30 cars slid into each other on a hill on route 40 near the state park going downhill. I guess they had to shut down the road in the morning. It has been so cold that the soda bottles have been freezing and even exploding in our garage. Fortunately the weather cleared enough during the day so that I could assist with a Girl Scout choir workshop. We spent two hours teaching the younger troops and their leaders some classic GS songs.

On MLK day, Scott was off studying. Tom and I had to work and Allison headed back to school. She spent most of her afternoon trying to find someone on campus to let her move back into her old dorm. She was ready to check into a hotel as the campus appeared deserted. But she located a security officer who was able to let her back in. So now she is busy studying for her last week of her winter class. Scott is off taking midterms this week(serious studying going on here!).

Front living room. Front door to the left. Fishing lures hanging over the front window. 

 Turn around to face the back of the house. Kitchen on left, dining area, back porch facing canal

 Turn around and face the kitchen(R), family room(L) looking over the table

 Standing in kitchen, looking out over back porch and out to canal.

 Turn around in the kitchen(small space). Walk through to front living room

 Main bathroom(shower on L)

 Master bedroom

 Front room looking towards garage door, kitchen on right

 Back porch(runs the length of the house)

 kitchen on right, dining area to left looking towards front of the house

 2nd bathroom, tub on R

 Back of house

 Canal and dock

 Boat lift on canal

 Large bush on canal

 View from back of house

 Side of house

 Back/side of house-master bedroom on R

 Other side of house(garage side)-cut down palm tree

 Side of house(garage side)

 garage

 2nd bedroom(son's room)-computer system on right, guy makes swords.

There is a 3rd small bedroom up front(no photo). The kitchen needs remodeling and probably expanded. Both the bathrooms and kitchen have had problems with leaks and plant roots growing into the plumbing. Not sure if the AC works or the water softener. Needs city water hook up. No city sewer yet. Dad Seitz thinks it could use a new roof. Needs new flooring. Both tenants are smokers but did not smell as bad as we thought it would(no carpet and limited furniture may help). Mr Irons did cover up the cement block walls with drywall. He also put in a new dock that is even with the top of the canal wall. But he said in the future it will be difficult to rebuild a dock due to Environmental restrictions(ie dropping in new pylons or expanding the dock. Sorry, did not take a new photo of the front of the house. Overall it is more space than I remember. Great view. Either complete remodel or tear down/rebuild. Value 475,000-555,000 currently.

So we were back to our usual schedule(or were we?). Last Sunday Allison repacked her car and headed back to school. She decided to drop one of her accounting classes and retake it in the Winter term. She was not doing well with her previous instructor, so decided to try again with another professor. And she is so glad she did. She had a wonderful 1st week. The class meets every day. Her professor is wonderful and does a terrific job explaining everything. And Allison gets it!

Tom drove to school with Allison to assist her in moving into a new dorm room. She borrowed her roommate's fridge and they picked up a microwave so she could do meals on her own. They also dropped off her scholarship check and signed up for parking as well as checking out an apt/condo for housing next fall. A very productive start to the New Year. Allison had a very successful week and headed home for the weekend. We love having her home.

Scott was also back to school, however he did not quite make a full week. School was closed last Tuesday with a quick snow storm that hit during the morning commute. Tom and I made it to work, but the roads were terrible. Most other days saw school delays. Scott enjoys the shortened school days. But he still has quite a bit of work to squeeze in as they inch closer to midterms. He also managed to spend extra hours with the Robotics team. The group will be competing soon, so they have to decide on a robot design and build it. And they just have two months. Multiple teams come together with their robot designs and build to complete a specific task. So their team has access to the school lab on multiple days/evenings/weekends. They started off with design planning last  weekend however in a board room at one of the coaches  Defense contractor's office. Scott enjoyed eating chips, drinking coffee and planning their design. He is very excited about the whole project.

Tom spent the rest of the week moving back into his newly renovated work office following the fire last month. I was back to work attempting to avoid catching a cold or flu from my patients. I did not do too well as I came away with the start of a cold at the end of the week. I tried to spend some time resting, but I also had some catch up to do after being gone all Christmas break. Allison was happy to share her laundry. I also had some of my parent's laundry to get caught up on. And I needed to drop off their Christmas decorations to their storage unit. Nothing can go smoothly though. I found out their credit card had a hold and an outstanding payment due. I spent some time on the phone trying to straighten things out with the bank and get back into their storage unit. As I mentioned, I have mostly dedicated Fridays to running errands for my parents and taking care of their business. It was business as usual. Fortunately Allison was able to take Scott to the gym for me on Friday night. She also caught a work out for herself. She has been nursing her sore ankle-she fell during ultimate frisbee practice in November and is still recuperating. We had to send her for an xray during Christmas break as the doctor thought her foot could have been broken.  Fortunately no break, but still sore.

I also managed to get a work out in on Friday morning as I returned to my pool exercise class. Then I spent the rest of the day off grocery shopping. Lately it has been all about the football! With the Ravens in the playoffs, we were caught up in Purple Fever. We were invited over to our friends' house for the Saturday night game. So I had some grocery items to pick up for the dinner party. Dinner was great. The game was exciting. But Ravens lost. How sad. Congrats to the Indy Colts and Green Bay Packers. Looking forward to the SuperBowl and Katy Perry! At least we can celebrate the Cotton Bowl win by MSU on New Years Day! And we enjoyed watching Cookie play with our friend's puppy, Ripley. Or at least Ripley play with Cookie during the game.

On Sunday it was time for Allison to head back to school. We packed her up with clean clothes and lots of food. Scott was off to robotics after a full weekend of homework. Tom flew out to Vermont for a work week up north. And I took my parents to church and out to dinner. I am keeping a close eye on my Dad as they try changing his medications since he had been so sleepy lately.

So as I said, back to business as usual.
Baltimore Blog

PS This was not on my grocery shopping list for the Football game

Seitz Family Vacation

So we packed up the van on Friday morning, the day after Christmas,  and headed down the road to Florida. We stopped overnight in South Carolina. On Saturday, we swung into St Augustine for lunch at a local fish restaurant. Tom is not a fan of beach towns(too many people). It was certainly crowded with tourists. Imagine that!

We arrived in Orlando in the late afternoon and headed to Sea World. They are celebrating their 50th anniversary. We have season tickets, so we usually stop in for the shows and a few rides. I had fun feeding the sting rays. We also enjoyed the Holiday Shamu show, although we are slowly losing our perks as Platinum members. No premium seating anymore. It is no longer a Busch property and the new management is definitely all about making money. We especially miss the free beer! But we enjoyed our stop over.

On  Sunday we headed into DisneyWorld. We especially wanted to ride the new Snow White Mine Ride. We picked up a few Fast Passes via a cell phone app. We knew it was going to be a busy day since our Fast Passes weren't available until 11pm! And we did not get a Fast Pass for the Mine Ride. We stood in line about 1.5 hrs for that ride. But it was fun and we enjoyed it together. And it was new. Other new things we tried-A Park Hopper Ticket. We had never done this before. There is plenty to do in one park, but Tom really wanted to stop into Epcot Center to try the new Test Track ride and have dinner in Germany. We also wanted to see the Christmas Candlelight concert hosted by Steven Chapman Curtis(a religious pop singer that Allison especially enjoyed). So we spent a few hours at Disney, then hopped the monorail to the parking lot, the monorail to Epcot's parking lot, and enjoyed a few rides before attending the concert. The new Test Track ride sponsored by Chevrolet has some new concept cars(look like Segways with covers). Also, before the ride, you design your own car on touch screen computers. Allison came up with a high performance vehicle, Scott went for power with a plasma engine. Our test car hit 68mph on the outdoor track. Very wild in a small, open car!  Then we enjoyed the beautiful rendition of the Nativity with the Disney Orchestra and choir, along with guest High School choirs from all over the US. They sang lots of church songs like "O Little Town of Bethlehem" with Steven narrating the birth of Christ. Very well done. I guess Walt Disney always had a Candlelight procession in his park at Christmas time, so we caught another Disney tradition. Meanwhile, the restuarants were all packed, so we settled on Chinese rice bowls since we were so hungry. But we did get a taste of German Holiday with Gingerbread cookies. And Tom was excited to see Starbucks has partnered with Disney and has a huge coffee shop in each of its parks. We could have used a Fast Pass there too!  We then headed back to The Magic Kingdom to ride all our favorites-Pirates, Haunted House, and use our Fast Passes. Our timing was off though and Allison and I missed the Christmas parade and Electrical parade. I had enough walking, standing and riding by midnite! While Tom and the kids rode Space Mountain, I watched the incredible laser light Disney cartoon show displayed on the castle. We all met up and headed out of the park around 1230am. It was open until 1am, but we did not want to get caught up in the crowds leaving the park. We had stayed at a Hampton Inn hotel south of the park, so no Disney bus ride back. I noticed the park stayed open until 2am on New Year's Eve. I think Disney should go 24hrs!

On Sunday, we headed down to the Gulf coast and Venice. We stopped into Downtown Disney first for some Ghiradelli hot chocolate and souvenir shopping. Disney has decided to revamp that area and are busy building new housing, shops and restaurants. We parked in a recently opened parking garage. The place looks like Las Vegas! Unfortunately, Disney downsized their souvenir shops, so we did not have as much to look at this time. The kids were busy trying to spend their Disney gift cards and found some cute tshirts, hats and pins for Allison's collection. Plus she swapped a Disney pin with a salesperson(the thing to do with pins). We arrived in the afternoon in Venice in time for dinner with Tom's parents and a walk around their park to look at the Christmas lights.

On Tuesday I had an appointment to visit my parent's house in nearby Nokomis. I brought along a realtor to get an idea of the value of the lot and house. I met with the property manager, and the current renter and his son. Very interesting. The house needs a lot of work, but was bigger than I remembered. We have not been in the house in about 30 yrs. As it was getting quite warm, I then took the kids down to the Nokomis beach while Tom and his Dad made a trip to Costco. This was the first time I have seen it so foggy at the beach. You could barely see the ocean. But it felt much cooler to be down near the water. A break from the muggy heat. We enjoyed looking for sharks teeth and shells, taking a quick dip in the waves(a bit chilly), and  playing frisbee.   We then met back at the Seitz house for chinese food.

On Weds, New Year's Eve, we awoke to mist and rain. We had lunch with Susan and John, Tom's sister and her husband at their house around the corner from Tom's parents. They have been busy working on remodeling all year. The house is beautiful and lunch was terrific with the addition of chocolate cheesecake baked by Susan using Mom Seitz's recipe. We had hoped to take a bike ride on the newly opened bike trail along the old train tracks across the several bays in the area, but the weather was not cooperating. Instead we all took Susan and John's dog, Gus, to the dog beach. Always an interesting experience. The kids also enjoyed playing with their new cat.

That evening, we all enjoyed dinner out at Rib City. Wonderful BBQ. Thanks Dad!  Afterwards, Tom and I joined Tom's parents, along with Allison to attend the community's New Year's Eve dance. Allison was not quite as interested in the old songs(lots of Elvis, ballroom dancing). Grandma and I did get her out on the floor for one dance with Tom, and she did join me for a few line dances. We enjoyed the New Year's moment back at the house with Scott. He was busy finishing up some homework he had over break-a book report and spanish. Plus trying out a few of his new video games. Happy New Year!

We spent New Year's day at Busch Gardens in Tampa. It was much warmer this year than last year and the park was a lot less crowded. We had a great day looking at all the animals in the park, and riding the coasters. We also enjoyed their Christmas show and a new animal act. We spent the night in Tampa at the Embassy suites. Fortunately Tom saves up all his travel points during the year to cover our hotel stays during the trip.

Venice Dog Beach with Susan, John and Gus the dog

 The beach has gone to the dogs!

 Happy New Year! Allison and Tom

Happy New Year! Mom and Dad Seitz

 Christmas at Disney

 Christmas at SeaWorld

 Christmas in Disney

 Epcot Center

 Candlelight concert

 Christmas in Busch Gardens

On Friday we headed back to Maryland. We arrived home on Saturday evening. Just in time to pick up Cookie from our friends, and for Allison to do her laundry and repack. She was heading back to school on Sunday to take a class during Winter term.

Happy New Year! We recently returned from our road trip to Florida. It was certainly much warmer than our trip last year, but a bit overcast and so foggy. Since both kids were off school, we decided to take a vacation after Christmas. The week before Christmas was busy with last minute preparations for the holiday.

Since Tom had been sick the weekend before and we cancelled the neighborhood party, we had some extra food to share.  We invited our good friends, The Plunketts, to dinner on Monday night. Tom and Allison were home, so they were able to cook and clean, although the house was already in order since we had planned on having a party that previous Saturday night. I was busy working and Scott was still in school. We enjoyed a wonderful visit, dinner and sharing gifts. We felt we owed them a bit extra attention since they graciously offered to take Cookie in over the Holiday break. All the dog kennels were full already. I also put Allison to work baking more cookies to eat! I had planned on having several desserts for our party, including cookies. Instead I wrapped it all up and gave it to my coworkers who were very appreciative. So was I since I did not have time to bake!

SCott really only had 1 day of school before Christmas. ON Tuesday, rather than attending class,  he joined 150 other students from the student government passing out food and gifts to needy families in our county. He had been spending time after school the weeks prior assisting with food collections. He was just happy to be done with school. Unfortunately for him, he was not done with schoolwork as he had a book report assigned over break, along with studying for a spanish test.

ON Tuesday there were lots of preparations for our upcoming trip and Christmas day! Lots of gift wrapping and clothes packing. Everyone was out getting haircuts, including the dog. ON Christmas eve, we decided to attend mass at the chapel on the grounds of the Charlestown Retirement community. After work I picked up my parents and we all met at church for the 7pm mass. It seems to have been a bit too much for my Dad as he dozed off halfway through mass. Even with all of those loud horns and the pipe organ playing great music. Being a retirement community, the staff is well prepared for any situation. They escorted Dad to my mini van in a wheelchair since he was so out of it. We drove him home and put him to bed. Afterwards, our family enjoyed a new kid's tradition of eating out at a Chinese food restaurant(they passed on our german sausage and potatoes tradition a few years ago). There was a very nice Chinese restaurant next to my parent's apt complex and we had it all to ourselves at 9pm. We ended up closing the place. Sadly, our Chinese Buffet restaurant closed last year. But dinner was great, and we had time to open up a few small gifts before going to bed(waiting for Santa!).

On Christmas Day we started our morning with lots of gift exchanges. The kids and Tom

enjoyed new clothes and shoes, as well as updating their technology and gaming systems. After cleaning up the post Christmas wrapping paper and chatting with family on the phone, Allison and I headed out to pick up my parents for dinner and more presents. They enjoyed some appetizers and speaking to my brother Dan via Skype. The day was quickly coming to a close, so we sat down to dinner. Unfortunately, SCott had developed Tom's bad cold and fever, so he spent the rest of the day in bed. Dad was still groggy as well and slept through dinner.

Cookie and Ripley all decked out for Christmas! Cookie had bells on her feet and collar and was afraid to take a step since she jingled. Ripley is sporting a new scarf. She could not stop eating the pom poms on the end.

Cookie woke Dad B up with a big doggy kiss which gave us time to open their gifts. Then I had to pack them up along with Cookie to drop everyone off. First I took my parents back to their apt and helped them get all their gifts up to their apt. Then it was off to our friends The Plunketts to drop off Cookie for doggy sitting.  They  have a new Cavachon puppy who adores Cookie(Cookie tolerates all the attention from the puppy). We were just happy to have a great place for her to stay while we were gone.

I will save our vacation update for the next blog! Kathleen