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