So we returned  from Florida and were back on our busy schedules. Scott was back to school and running the scout meetings. He also was back to his robotics team meetings to start designing and building their new robot for the upcoming competition in March. He was also back to work at the roller blade rink on the weekend. School was busy wrapping up the 2nd semester, so he had some tests and assignments to keep him busy. And we parents were asked to attend a meeting at the high school to discuss the kid's classes for next year! The administration wants to make sure we are pushing our kids to take higher level courses in order to improve their chances on getting into the colleges of their choice. Scott will be busy with extra engineering courses next year, so he is thinking of trying his hand at guitar as an elective(can't talk him into staying with choir). He will also be busy with Chemistry, Calculus, World History and English. Right now we just need to get through 10th grade!

Allison meanwhile was back at school figuring out her online course. She discovered that it was strictly online and that she did not have to meet with fellow class members at all. She was busy running around getting all her books the first few days and then busy reading them. Her first assignment was a debate. She was assigned to a group and they had to present their side of an argument. Most of the topics involved business practices, simply put, big business should provide a portion of their profit to charities, or executives should/should not be paid big salaries.  Allison was not too thrilled with her group's level of participation, but she did not get to choose her classmates. The group pulled out a B+ on their first debate. Fortunately things only got better as the class progressed. But Allison discovered that she did not need to be stuck at school to take her class. One of her roommates returned from home, but Allison felt she could not get as much work done with her friend around. And so Allison asked to come home to finish her class. Since we had dropped her off at school she did not have her car. So on Saturday afternoon, Tom drove out and picked her up to bring her home.

I spent our first weekend back at home busy running errands and getting my car worked on. I had hit 100,000 miles on my van so I needed an overhaul. Fortunately there was not alot that needed to be done, and Tom planned on doing some of the work himself(like changing my brake pads). He dropped the car off for me in the morning and then picked it up after driving to Salisbury to get Allison. Then the two of them headed up to Hershey to catch a hockey game. Scott and I were at home so I could get him to work. I did not have much time to get things done on the weekend since I had to work on Friday. One of our staff members injured her back and was out on workman's comp. So I went in to help out the staff. That left me with Saturday to catch up on my errands. On Sunday, Tom was headed out to Denver for a business trip. I took my mom in for a hair appointment and got Scott to work. He had a busy weekend preparing for his upcoming midterms.

Our weather was fairly mild here in Maryland over the Christmas holiday. The first weekend back home we had a rain storm and the first double rainbow I have ever seen while picking up Mom B from her apt on Sunday afternoon. Amazing!