Happy Easter! Spring has finally arrived in Maryland. Thank goodness. The flowers are starting to bloom and the trees are getting their leaves. For those with allergies, this is not a good time. And with Spring comes Spring cleaning! Tom and I started working on projects all over the house including putting away winter holiday decorations. This weekend, Tom put up a bluebird house for me in hopes that a pair of birds hanging around our yard will move in. He also put down crab grass killer and fertilizer on the lawn.

Easter puppy brings treats

Last week he stayed home a day as we had roofers out to the house repairing areas around our chimney and vents as well as replacing our skylight. We would like to have the whole roof replaced and repaired, but it is a bit pricey. For now, we just wanted to keep the rain from leaking into our family room.

We are also getting ready for a house full of girls this coming weekend. Allison and her frisbee team will be bunking down in our house for a tournament over the weekend. All 20 of them! For now I was just getting ready for EAster and the April birthdays.

Saturday was Tom's birthday. Allison came home for the weekend to help us celebrate. We took him out for dinner at Maggiones Italian restaurant. He tried to eat there with Allison a week ago and there was a 2hr wait. So we made reservations and had a wonderful late evening dinner. We wanted to go out to the movies, but the timing was not good. So we came home and enjoyed a variety of cupcakes that Allison picked up at a local bakery and opened gifts. Tom wanted to update his Kindle. And we picked up a new camp chair(in Salisbury colors) to sit and watch Allison play Field Hockey or Ultimate frisbee. I also put together a wine package complete with a gift card that I won in an auction at the high school Viking fest. And a Capitals hockey shirt to top things off. I am also trying to get Tom to look into picking up a Hershey bear tickets package. Plus I picked up a new garden hose rewinder. Just to keep things interesting!

We also were enjoying our MSU in the Final Four basketball tournament. I made sure to put out our school flag, but sadly they did not make it to the end. I knew something was wrong when Cookie's MSU dog collar broke.

On Easter morning, the kids hunted for their Easter baskets before church. They loved all their treats and a few extra gifts including clothes and even an egg cooker for Scott! (He loves to make deviled eggs). We decided to go to Charlestown Retirement Community center for the morning mass at the cathedral on the grounds. We really enjoy the pastor, Fr Leo and his homilies. He always preaches a positive message. Afterwards we had an early Easter dinner since Allison had to head back to school.

My parents have been staying indoors most of the week. Their whole building is closed down for respiratory illnesses-bronchitis, pneumonia and colds/coughs/fevers. Dad seems to have caught a bad chest cold. I had to take both mom and dad to the dentist on Weds. and we spent a few hours there while they got a cleaning and xrays. Mom could not get the whole cleaning done since she was supposed to have antibiotics before her appointment and they missed giving her the medication at the right time at the facility. So she has to go back. Dad needs more work and will have to seen an endodontist and oral surgeon. Afterwards we picked up Boston Market and stopped at our house for dinner. But Dad had had enough, and was ready for bed.  So Mom and I packed him up and got him back to the facility.

So they have been mostly staying in the apt with meals brought up to all the residents. I did stop in on Friday for a meeting with the nursing staff and dropped in on mom and dad. On Saturday I took mom over to get her hair washed and set and then on Easter Sunday I dropped off their Easter baskets and Easter dinner. It was so beautiful outside, I had to take them out for a little walk around a local lake. Mom sat in the van since she has a sore knee, but Dad and I went for a short stroll with Cookie tagging along. When they got back, they enjoyed the meal I brought them. So mostly they have been stuck inside. They missed mass and even their swimming pool trip again. Maybe next week they can get out to the Sr Center.

Scott was busy enjoying his week off from school, although he stayed at home. He still had homework assignments to complete. And he spent 3 full days participating in a Mt Hebron HS Robotics competition at Uof Maryland campus. The team was gone from 7am to 7pm each day. He did get out a bit early on Friday and asked me to pick him up. Yuck. Traffic on 1-95 on Friday night on a Holiday weekend is not fun. But I went to get him. It just took a couple of hours. And his team did well, but not well enough to get into the Finals. They came in 17 out of 58. There were teams from all over the world including Brazil and Israel, as well as local high school teams competing. Scott primarily enjoyed checking out all the vendor booths including a Microsoft booth and their free stuff. He was not really needed since he was on maintenance, and the robot was running well. He was not interested in driving the robot as it is a big pressure position and you need a lot of practice. The robot was designed to complete a particular task. They had to pick up and stack containers. Scott was disappointed that the team did not go with a different design that he voted on since other teams seemed to do better. Maybe next year. I also tried to get him to a dermatology appt, but we were running late in the rain and traffic so they had to reschedule. He did catch a boy scout meeting too. And he could not let April Fools Day go by without abusing me. Including adding hot sauce to my water bottle! (too much time on his hands!).  So his break was quickly over and he will be going  back to school this coming week.

So Happy Birthday again Tom!