Happy Birthday Caroline and Clayton Bozyk! The twins celebrated their 20th Birthday on Saturday, Feb 20th!  Hope you both enjoyed your special day(but not too much!).

Happy President's Day! Scott had the day off school last Monday. Instead he was scheduled to work(school's out session). We woke to a snow/ice storm. I still had to go to work. So did Tom. So did Scott! I had to leave work to pick him up and drive him to the roller rink. As soon as we arrived, they decided to close the facility as the weather was getting worse. Thanks. I had to take Scott back home and go back to work. By the time I left in the evening, everything was a pure sheet of ice. I had to scrape off the windows on my van and drive home very slowly. It was so bad that night, the Scoutmaster even cancelled their leadership meeting! He never does that! Naturally, the weather got worse and school was closed the next day-Tuesday.

Scott was happy to have the extra time off school and  work to complete his homework and prepare for his upcoming boy scout meeting and camping trip. He had a busy week running the scout meeting and attending his first official guitar lesson. And then he was off on Friday night to camp out at the Maryland Boy Scout camp north of Baltimore. Tom and Scott took off Friday evening. Traffic is pretty bad on the beltway, especially on Friday nights. It took a few hours to arrive, especially with a few accidents along the way. Sounds like Scott had a very productive and fun weekend. He has been working on his last Eagle badge-Personal Management. He made some good headway on the badge. He also managed to complete a badge on Mining. And he spent some time working on his Inventing merit badge, coming up with a little gadget-a cup with a propeller inside. It is supposed to pull up fluids or snacks from the bottom of the cup for easy consumption. Very cute. He had to submit a drawing and make a working model. He managed to put together a work in progress while at the Robotics shop at school Sunday afternoon when he returned from the camping trip. Fortunately the weather was mild this past weekend for camping outside, especially since last weekend we had single digit temps. The boys even had a chance to play outside a bit in the leftover snow-snow boarding down a small slope on some wooden planks they found!

The boys spent most of Saturday indoors working on badges though. They also enjoyed acting out a play in the evening-a court case which completes the Law badge. Kinda like playing the Clue game. Scott always enjoys taking on a part in the play. And Scott participated in the Dutch Oven cooking contest that evening too. The patrols cook dessert in a big cast iron Dutch Oven pot that goes into the firepit. I found Scott a recipe for S'mores and  premixed the batter so he would not have to pack all the separate ingredients. It basically involved  a graham cracker base, covered with Hershey Bars and marshmallow whip. No surprise, it was the big winner of the night! Tom picked him up on Sunday morning and let Scott get in some driving practice on the way home. Then Scott had the afternoon to unpack his gear, take a shower, and go help out with his robotics team plus work on his invention. He was pretty worn out by the end of the night! And fighting a cold the whole time. Poor guy.

And I knew I would be in trouble when I signed up as a scout merit badge counselor. Scott asked me to do a presentation on Weds night. I had Scott put together a small video clip on Veterinary Medicine and packed up Cookie and headed out. I needed all the help I could get! Fortunately I was not the only guest speaker that evening. The scoutmaster did a presentation on photography.  I only had to do about a 20 min presentation. Cookie of course was the big hit of the evening. The boys as well as the adults loved petting and playing with her!  On Friday I took her in for her 7yr check up. She got half of her yearly shots this Friday but we have to go back next week for the rest. I also spent the weekend visiting with Mom B. She joined me at church again on Sat evening and then came over for dinner. It was so nice we decided to grill hamburgers outside and then enjoyed watching TomorrowLand with Mom. I also managed to put together a 2016 photo calendar for her online with family photos at Walgreens. It is taking me some time to get caught up!  Tom and I also spent some time over the weekend helping Allison send out some resumes for summer business internships. We were counting on an internship at Northrop, however, they recently reorganized staff and all of Tom's previous connections have been relocated. So now Allison goes in the big pool just like everyone else. So we decided to send out a few extra requests just in case. If you know of any summer intern openings in business management, let us know!

Scott practicing guitar

Happy Valentine's Day! Happy Lent!(Seems like both of those Greetings should go together! Nothing worse than giving up desserts during the Lenten season when Valentine's Day falls in that time frame. Maybe we can make an exception? It is a religious holiday celebrating St Valentine, isn't it?  That is what Allison thought when she and her roommates opened up their goody boxes this past week. I thought the girls needed something to kick off their Spring semester and celebrate surviving Winter term.  Sunday evening I treated Tom to a modern jazz concert. There was a jazz group from the Monterey Jazz Festival performing during the Columbia Winter Arts festival that I thought he would enjoy. And it was closer and cheaper than traveling to California. The musicians were all excellent, even though I am not a huge modern jazz fan. And the concert was sold out. Afterwards we headed over to Tom's favorite italian restaurant, Maggiones. I had a gift card of course and we enjoyed a Valentine dinner for two complete with wine, appetizer, main meal, dessert and chocolates to take home! Overall, a wonderful dinner and good deal too. Especially since they were running a bit late and we had an extra glass of wine on the house.

Congrats to Allison for making the Dean's list again in the fall. Scott also brought home a very good report card. Although Spanish seems to be his downfall. Therefore, no plans for a foreign language next year. Even though his Spanish teacher recommended he take German next year(yeah, no). Just because he has the German name, and his Spanish teacher primarily teaches German. Not going there. Looks like guitar class will be taking its place. Even Tom gets a major congratulations for being first in his online class! He was given a $5000 scholarship for making top honors! (or at least Northrop will get the money).

And so Scott started his first guitar class last week. We just signed up for a half hour class. He really does have a very busy schedule. And he agreed that the classes really make a difference. So something else added to his weekly activities. Last week was shorter as school was closed on Monday for the teachers to wrap up report cards. Then we had another small snow storm that first delayed and then cancelled school for the day. Fortunately Tom was able to flay back from Denver on Tuesday-the airport did not get as much snow as out west. And he missed all the crazy in Downtown Denver with the Bronco's Celebration parade.

 The high school kids also had to meet with their counselors last week to verify next year's classes and make sure they are on the right path for college. (sounds like they are already in college!). Scott also put together another very successful boy scout meeting on Weds. complete with a guest speaker who is in charge of the Hopkins Robotic Lab. He brought in a very cool little robot(and very expensive) to the meeting. Tom and I both attended as well for the yearly Merit badge counselor training. I was finally able to sign up as an official merit badge counselor. Oh no. Scott got a little bit of time off after school as his  Video Club mentor called out sick, so they had to cancel their session. And he has another 3 day weekend with school closed for President's Day coming up!  Hard to believe they can get anything done. At least he had some extra time to spend with the Robotics Team on Saturday before going to work.

I decided to peak in on their progress(along with Cookie) when I picked Scott up Sat. afternoon. When else can your dog visit the classroom? The kids and adults thought it was awesome! Cookie was running around all the computer labs.  It got some of the adults thinking that they may bring their  own dogs to their work sessions in the future. Cookie of course had to run around and say hello to every kid. We just had to watch that she did not step in any of the metal shavings from robot building. The girls on the team were especially excited to see her. And Cookie was especially excited to beg for the pizza! One of the boys said "She is making me feel guilty!"(for not feeding her). She has those eyes! Works on Grandma too!  I was amazed to see that the kids have already assembled the robot's base(even though they are a bit behind schedule with the school closings). Looks like Grandma's scooter base without the seat and handle. The adult leader's told me it was sturdy enough to go up stairs! Scott was excited to see that the team decided to use some of his design ideas to make the robot's arm used for picking things up. And he was busy working on the tshirt design for the team that day.

He was enjoying his time but had to leave after a few hours to go see the Deadpool Movie with Tom. I really don't need to run out and see it-a rather violent movie based on the Marvel comic book about an anti hero renegade. But Tom and the kids were excited to catch the new movie since they all enjoy the video game based on the character. Allison even had a Valentine movie date with her boyfriend Tyler to catch the new release. Nothing says Love on Valentine's Day Weekend like a crazy, violent movie!  Except Tom and Scott did not get to see the movie on Saturday afternoon. It was sold out! Must have been the frigid, cold weather and really bored people! Instead they had to settle for Kung Foo Panda! Tom got in a good nap and woke up in time to catch the ending. Both boys agreed it was actually better than they thought it would be. Afterwards, Tom had to drop Scott off to work after getting some dinner. Instead, Tom and Scott caught the Deadpool movie on Sunday morning before Scott headed to work. And even that movie was packed! And so was the skating rink. Scott was worn out!

Meanwhile, I was doing something constructive. I picked up my mom for church Saturday afternoon after dropping off her laundry and Valentine's Day gift. Afterwards she joined me for dinner at home. I made a big pot of chili(good for those really cold days) and we enjoyed chili dogs and fries as well some apple crisp(had to finish off the last of our frozen apples we picked in the fall). Fruit does not count as a dessert by the way! Plus I was trying to make up for Fat Tuesday. I really did not do it justice this year. I really miss those polish Paczkis!  The incredibly delicious jelly and cream filled donuts that Laura H. got me hooked on during our OT school days in Detroit. Laura, I see they even have a Paczki Day Parade in Detroit? Is that so? Is it similar to the Mardi Gras Parade in New Orleans? I would not mind someone throwing donuts at me during the parade rather than beads! Instead, they celebrate Pancake Day here in Maryland. Not as exciting to me.

Anyway, I kept mom entertained watching Avatar(the blue people movie). She had never seen it and we needed to fill some time until dropping off mom and picking up Scott from work. They are both in the same area. I enjoy having mom come visit on the weekends. She would like to spend the night if able. I just don't have a space to put her in at this time! We gave our guest bed to Allison for school. And you can't even get into the guest bedroom-Scott cleaned out his room last week by dumping everything he didn't want into that room. Maybe one day I will get it cleaned out and make room for mom(maybe when Scott goes away to college!)

For now I stayed busy this weekend reorganizing the Christmas and Halloween decorations up in the attic(it is way too hot to do this in the summer). Although a bit chilly in the winter. Still better. I also had to pick up more medication for the cat's pancreatitis and do some shopping and make some returns. I also have been spending quite a bit of time on the computer, especially working on Scott's summer schedule! Yes, summer camps. I have already signed Scott up for Boy Scout camp and a week long SAT study class. They have changed the SAT and Scott's class will be one of the first to take the new exam next year. Turns out one of my neighborhood friends is teaching the math portion in Scott's summer class. She said she just got a huge, new training manual that she has to learn. She thinks the new test will be a lot more grounded and make more sense. A bit more like the ACT.  Which Scott will probably also take next year. Scott is also trying to  get signed up to join his friends on a week long Church Work Camp in PA where they help rebuild homes. They usually take up to 50 kids each summer. This year there were so many kids signed up, they had to open up a second week-100 kids volunteering! Looks like we still have some good high school kids in our county, huh? Scott is currently on the waiting list. He'd rather try this out then repeat working at Cub Scout camp which he did last summer for his high school volunteer hours.  And then we may squeeze in a guitar music camp.

By the way,  a Big Happy Birthday to Eric Seitz!(didn't I tell you I was running behind!). I am guessing he got a few presents that involved household projects as Sarah and Eric are busy working on their newly purchased house. Eric I never did find out what finally happened with the new fridge hook up! And I am jealous of Susan and Tom who just enjoyed the first oranges off their very own Florida tree. That brings back memories of the Bozyk family as kids enjoying fresh OJ while on vacation at my Grandparent's Florida house from their very own orange trees.

So no new photos this week. Scott would not let me take a photo of him at his guitar lesson(yet).

Sorry my blogs have been so late. I am still trying to get used to the new format on my updated computer, along with the new camera. Just when I get used to a system, it changes. Tom also had to update a new computer. His computer died too, so he spent an entire weekend piecing a new system together.

Well it took a whole week to dig us out from all the snow. And it did not go very smoothly. Since plows mostly left streets with single lanes, they had to go back and continue to clear snow. Except it got cold and we had freezing rain. So the snow started to freeze. You had to take a chisel to break up the snow banks. The road crews were slowly pushing piles of snow back with front loaders. The kids were slowly getting back to school and their normal schedule.

And just when they got back on track, they had a long weekend off for pre planned teacher/parent conference days. Scott continued to utilize his time off wisely. He finished all his homework, completely reorganized his room,(even peeled off the choo choo train wallpaper border!) and took up guitar! Since Scott had to pick his high school classes for next year, he decided to sign up for music instead of choir(darn). And the guitar was his music class of choice. I decided to get him a head start and signed him up for guitar lessons at Allison's previous music school. Meanwhile, he was getting the feel for playing by following along with lessons online. Naturally, Tom taught him a few chords of "Smoke on the Water"-a must for all budding guitar players!  Scott also stayed busy with his robotics team, video club and scouts. And he was back to work last weekend.

Scott and I also took time off to volunteer to assist with a fellow Boy Scout's Eagle project. Last year we spent a night on the Liberty War Ship in the Baltimore harbor. Last Saturday morning we traveled back to the ship to help sand and repaint tables in the galley. The ship will then be heading down to Norfolk to be docked for the summer and returns in the fall. We could only help for a few hours as Scott had to get to work. And I picked up Mom B to spend an afternoon shopping before picking up Scott, cooking steak dinner for all of us(we christened the new table!) and taking Mom in to get her hair done. I also spent a few hours on Friday waiting to get Scott in for a quick physical at the CVS. Spring Track is starting soon and he needs all his paperwork to try out. He wants to do the shot put event again this year. Plus we try to let Scott get in some driving practice whenever possible. We certainly have had some interesting driving conditions with snow, ice, huge snow banks and freezing rain. Fortunately we had a bit of a warm up and an all day rain which knocked down a few feet, but there are still some tricky spots where the snow banks are blocking the road.

New Kitchen Table

Liberty Ship

 Refurbishing Galley Tables
Eagle Project

 Staying warm

 Cats really do like boxes! Keeps their paws warm!

On Super Bowl Sunday, Tom hopped a plane to Denver for work(he said they went crazy in that town!). Meanwhile, I dropped Scott off to work and then got busy cooking Buffalo Chicken Dip for the Super Bowl Party we attended at friends that evening. Even Cookie was invited to visit with her little Cavachon buddy, Ripley. It is so funny to watch those two together. Ripley drives Cookie crazy, trying to get her attention to play and both of them running around the house, fighting over toys. Plus we enjoyed watching the game, eating lots of good food and visiting with great friends. Even though both myself and our next door neighbor Dan were spouseless as his wife, Gloria had to take a traveling nursing job in San Fran! So Gloria was even closer to the Super Bowl than any of us! Sadly I did not win the work pool betting on the Super Bowl.  However, I was the big winner at my Friday night Bunco game! I came away with the most wins! And $25 bucks! Plus I really enjoy catching up with the neighborhood girls. Even Allison tried her hand at making her first Buffalo Chicken Dip. (I think hers turned out better than mine!). Unfortunately, she could not coax any of her frisbee girl's team to join her for the game. Looks like they headed over to the boys Frisbee team to watch the game. Oh well, more Chicken Dip for Allison and her roommates!

Scott kept himself busy and productive during his extra time off. The school board and school principal even sent emails home requesting kids find something to do rather than playing video games. Sadly, that was not the case for a few obnoxious high school teens. Apparently during the long snow break, a few Senior boys from Scott's High School posted a video tape of themselves making racist remarks concerning the Black Lives Matter campaign following our Baltimore and the Missouri riots. Not only did the video go viral, The Washington Post wrote up an article. Great. One of the boys was on the Lacrosse Team. I guess he can kiss his college scholarships goodbye. People don't think about the consequences when they start posting things on social media. Not even sure if these kids knew they were being recorded, but it looks like it. Scott said one of the boys was talking directly to the camera. And drinking. Lovely. When the kids did get back to the high school, there was a walk out demonstration from about 300 kids stating they were not a bunch of racists. They even managed to get the media/local news stations out covering their demonstration complete with helicopter. We recommended Scott keep his head low and concentrate on his classes. Meanwhile, the School Board is now busy setting up Diversity programs for all to attend. And if that wasn't bad enough, it got worse for our area. Two previous Howard County High School students(a guy and girl) attending Engineering school at Virginia Tech were charged in the murder of a 13 yo girl. More great publicity. And amazingly, Howard County was recently named one of the top 10 counties in the country overall for great schools, living conditions, medical care, etc. Nothing's ever perfect it seems.

THE STORM OF THE CENTURY!

  So we were stuck in the house last weekend with 3 feet of snow! The Indy Seitz Families enjoyed making fun of our storm drama. But dealing with that much snow in that short of time is a big pain.  Tom and Scott managed to plow out our driveway and the sidewalk(and a small spot for Cookie to get outside in the backyard to go potty) all day Saturday and into Sunday.  I was busy doing laundry, housecleaning, baking and cooking. We invited our neighbor Dan over to watch football in the evening on Sunday. The main road was plowed through our neighborhood, but nothing else. I was just excited that the power did not go out so I could get something done while stuck in the house. Tom was happy to have his computer working in order to complete writing a paper for school. Scott was happy to have the internet to play video games online with his friends.

He was also happy to hear that school was closed the next day. Not only the next day, but the entire week! The kids got an unscheduled winter break. Even Allison had a few days off on the Eastern Shore as campus was shut down. It is mostly a commuter school. Our Bay Bridge had to be closed due to high winds and snow piles. The college students had all arrived on Thursday night to begin their Spring Semester on Monday morning. They had an extra few days to prepare(haha). Allison did not get much of a break since one of her profs. sent homework to them online. She was happy to hear that she received an A in her winter term management class. It was worth the extra effort, and now she has a lighter, but still busy spring course load.

 It was frustrating not knowing if the kids would be going back to school the next day. The school system kept sending out emails encouraging the students to find something constructive to do with their time. Scott kept up his studying. He had missed his last two midterms the week before when school shut down, so he still needed to study. He also kept busy with planning the boy scout camping trip and the upcoming meetings. At least he did not have to try and go into work. The sports club was closed for the weekend. He did still have a Boy Scout meeting that week. They went on as scheduled.  I was the only parent that attended the parent's meeting that Monday night since it was right around the corner from our house.

Our road did not get plowed until Monday morning. Then Scott and Tom had to head out and clear out the end of the driveway. One of our neighbors had foolishly attempted to drive down our road on Saturday night and got stuck in front of our driveway. He was busy trying to dig his car out of the way of the plow. The roads were almost all plowed by Monday, however, most were just one lane wide. It made driving to work Monday rather hazardous. The snow banks were so high you could not see around them to tell if cars were coming. And people were still trying to drive at their normal speeds, so by Monday afternoon there were many accidents on the road. But Tom and I managed to get to work-the entire week. And so the week long clean up and digging out began.

We also were both off on Friday, so I talked Tom into driving over to Sam's Club with me to buy a new kitchen table. We have been searching for a new kitchen table ever since we remodeled our house 12 years ago. It took that long for Tom and I to come to some type of agreement on cost and style. We finally found a table that we could both agree on. Less than $1000 and we both like the style. So we headed off to Sams Club to pick it up(quite an experience since most of the parking lot consisted of snow piles and lots of people out shopping and not knowing how or where to drive). But we got all 4, huge boxes home and Tom had to assemble it. We decided to save some money by picking it up ourselves and putting the table and chairs together. And it weighs a ton! But the chairs are very comfortable with leather seats and it is easier to sit down since it is long and narrow. I still would have liked a table with built in leaves in order to extend the size, but this table has a good length and if we wanted, can seat up to 8. Our old table was oval and just didn't fit into our new kitchen space very well. I spent the rest of the day breaking down the huge cardboard boxes and dragging them out to the street for recycling on Sat. and moving the old table into our play space. (We are running out of play space!).

Scott was back to his work schedule this past weekend. He was also given some online classes to complete from work. Allison took the same classes when she worked there, but in person. He was also scheduled to volunteer with the Cub Scout Klondike Event. However, they had to cancel due to the poor road conditions in the State Park where it is held. It is a Scout activity trail through a local State Park that is run by the older Scouts. Scott and Tom have been involved in the event and volunteered for many years. Due to limited parking and poor driving conditions in the park, they had to postpone it to the end of Feb. So Scott got to sleep in. He was then available to participate more in his Robotics Team. They are busy building their prototype robot for the upcoming competition. They were unable to get back into the school the weekend before as we were under a State of Emergency, but reopened their doors last weekend.  Apparently the county has to make sure that all 40,000 kids in our school district are able to attend school safely. That includes making sure all the buildings are secure(a few buildings had flat roof cave ins). Also that all entry/exit doors were cleared as well as parking lots and sidewalks(we have a lot of kids that walk to school). So they did not get back on track until the following Monday.

My mom skipped her Sr Center trips since they were closed. But we all managed to get out of the house last Sunday. We had to drop Scott off at work(the Sports Club was back on schedule) and we decided to pick up my mom and try out her new Scooter at the Outlet Mall. We returned the rental scooter a few weeks ago and decided to purchase a scooter for her to have when we were out on long trips. Her insurance would not cover the expense since she can walk more than 25ft, but Tom and I really found the scooter useful for her to accompany us on long treks, so we ordered her one of her own. They delivered the scooter with a bigger battery and large, attachable shopping basket on Friday evening. We loaded the scooter on the back of my van on a separate rack and headed out to the mall with mom in tow. Again, limited parking due to large piles of snow, and about a million people all dying to get out of the house! We managed to find parking(most handicapped parking spots were filled with snow piles-great). Mom had a wonderful time driving around the huge mall though, stopping in for a milkshake at Johnny Rockets and doing some window shopping. I needed some new batteries for watches and snow pants at the sporting goods store. We also had a lot of fun in Bed, Bath and Beyond looking at sale items. Then it was off to pick up Scott and drop off mom(along with her laundry).

I also had the opportunity to attend a special event at the Kennedy Center in DC on Saturday night. My neighbor has season tickets and was planning on attending the Sleeping Beauty ballet with her husband, but he had to travel out of state on business. I was welcome to the tickets as long as I drove! I have never driven to the Kennedy Center. You can take the train, but you have to change trains twice and then take a shuttle(makes for a long trip). Especially not good if you are in heels. I still opted to wear my velvet black pants and flats, just in case we got stuck or lost somewhere in DC. Jane opted for the dress and heels since she wasn't driving. We went out to dinner first, and then headed into DC. It was a unique driving experience but I was very proud of myself to have navigated the streets of DC, buried in snow and following the GPS. We parked under the Watergate building(yes, that Watergate which is next to the Kennedy Center). Looks like it has been turned into apartments and business offices from its infamous Nixon hotel history. The Kennedy Center sits on the Potomac River with a wide balcony for outside events. We ran up the front steps  and sat down at precisely 7pm when the ballet began. Jane reports if you are late, you have to stand in the back until intermission. And this was a long, 3 hr ballet with 3 intermissions. And rather uncomfortable seats.


Lots of Snow!

 and why we wear out our shovels!

Kennedy Center Lobby

But an amazing place to visit-people are either very well dressed or more casual like myself. The building is actually made up of  seven different theaters. They have many different types of shows and concerts all going on at the same time with staggered start and stop times. And the ballet was very good-retelling the story only in dance and music.They even threw in a few Fairy Tale characters like Little Red Riding Hood and Cinderella. I don't think Jane was too happy though when I hummed along to some of the music. How do you stop from humming along to a  Disney song? I think our Baltimore Hippodrome Theatre is a little more laid back. Not sure if she will invite me back, but I loved the experience nonetheless(Maybe next time I will get to wear the dress and heels!). More to Come!