Hey guys-Thought I would give you an update on Mom B. I just had her over to our house for chili dinner with cornbread muffins. I made some turkey chili with limited spice and put it over spaghetti noodles so it was not so rough on her stomach. Tom and Scott on the other hand dumped in lots of hot sauce and chili peppers and burned off their tongues!

I chatted via email to Mike a few times lately as there seemed to be a change in mom's behavior. Not for the better. Lately she has been saying that "Her Dad is coming to get her, that she spoke to him and she needs to go to Michigan. Her Mother is sick and she needs to go back to Michigan to help him out". Unfortunately people with dementia often speak of their Mom and Dad. Mainly because they lose the concept of time and often think they are younger and still have their parents. However, sometimes I am not sure if Mom B is actually talking about her Dad or her Husband. Hard to say. Anyway, she seemed more flustered lately, asking me to take her out of that "Rat Hole". She even walked to the front door one evening when I stopped in to visit after work, wanting to leave with me.

She got mad that I would not take her home to our house. But she calmed down pretty quickly. Anyway, Mike and I have been chatting about this newish behavior. (She was pretty upset when she lived at Regent St with Dad, demanding to leave). I spoke to the Head Nurse at Sunrise. I thought Mom appeared more anxious than usual. Not necessarily having more memory problems. Mike had inquired about medication for memory loss. There really isn't any cure yet for memory loss. Mom is on a patch for memory, but obviously it is not a quick fix. Instead, the nurse noted that mom has an order for medication for increased anxiety, and we decided to get her back on it. It may take some time to kick in, but I think she can use it. May be that since a year has gone by since Dad has died, she is feeling something is missing.

She has called a few times, and when I spoke to her she said there was something wrong, but she just couldn't figure out what it was, or why she felt afraid. So anxiety as a medical diagnosis can do that to a person. Make them more upset, agitated and frustrated and it is worse with dementia. I hope the medication helps.

In the meantime, I stopped in last Monday as I had to switch my days off. I joined mom at Sunrise for a painting event. We had a good time. We painted a Georgia OKeefe fall landscape. I did not know Georgia O did landscapes. Apparently in her earlier years. I also found out that Mom had gone to the local Pumpkin patch with the residents on an outing the week before, besides her weekly trip to the Sr Center. I think it is good to keep her busy and keep her mind off things she can't control.

Allison was in the middle of her midterms last week and requested a trip to Busch Gardens. She also wanted to enjoy the HallowScream Event-lots of spooky mazes to walk through at night.  She couldn't talk any of her friends into joining her(not fans of spooky stuff).  She was also looking for some pumpkin cheesecake. Tom, Scott and I had attended the opening weekend in September and had a great time. We were up for another visit. We drove to Salisbury last Saturday morning. Tom had gotten in late Friday night/early Saturday morning from a business trip to Chicago. His plane was delayed, so we got off a little later Saturday. But in time for a quick lunch with Allison in Salisbury. I also dropped off some Halloween treats for her and her roommates.

We arrived at Busch Gardens about an hour before all the Halloween events opened. Tom even let Scott get in some driving experience down the eastern shore. Scott also discovered the wonders of traffic jams. We sat outside Busch Gardens at the gate waiting to get in, but Allison heard through social media that the event was already sold out and the park was filled to capacity. We have season tickets, so we were not out any money, but we were out of opportunity.  We had to regroup. Allison found a substitute goalie for her Sunday afternoon Field Hockey games. We were going to drive back and watch her play. Instead, we headed to dinner Saturday night at our favorite chinese buffet and then the hotel for a pay for view movie. Tom was pretty much done for the night. The kids and I scared ourselves with The Conjuring 2 from Netflix. We decided to head back to Busch Gardens on Sunday morning. Even though the HallowScream mazes were closed, we figured we could get our fill of rides, decorations and Halloween shows(and pumpkin cheesecake for Allison). We had a great time running around the park with limited crowds. And we decided to try something new. They set up Escape Rooms in which you have to solve a brain puzzle to get out. We had 30 mins to solve the puzzle. I joined the kids for the challenge. Our theme involved assembling a puppet. We had a live actor in the room with us(crazy dollmaker) giving us verbal cues. We quickly figured out that we had to assemble a puppet, but there were lots of pieces all over the room. We kept assembling dolls and the actor kept taking away the pieces-until we found the pieces with clues attached. Ahha! We actually managed to locate all the pieces-body, legs, head and arms, but could not figure out the last clue-how to get out-when we ran our of time. We needed to place the puppet into his trunk(your'e kidding). We kept placing the puppet on the stage as the last clue described participating in the Final Show. Oh well. I thought we did a pretty good job considering you had to turn wheels to open hidden drawers revealing clues and doll parts, and we even found doll parts in the curtains and behind picture frames placed in the wall. The team reports it is 50/50 on who solves it and who does not. No matter, it was a fun experience to enjoy with the kids.

We did not stay in the park too late since we had a long drive back. It takes about 5.5 hrs from home to Busch Gardens via Salisbury. So we dropped Allison back off at school after going out to lunch, and then drove back home. We got back early enough for Scott and Tom to work on their homework. Tom is busy working on his online class. Scott is always just busy. His Video Game Club is up and running this semester. He is on a short break from Robotics before they get building for next year's competition. He did have another jewish holiday off from school, but was scheduled to work instead. And since Tom was in Chicago, it was up to me to leave work and get him to and from work. Fortunately it had been a slow week at work, so I was able to go home after picking up Scott after his shift.  And we are still busy with Boy Scouts each week. Scott is currently his Patrol Leader, so he just has to keep his group informed on any upcoming events that they want to participate in but it is getting harder for the high school aged boys to balance all their activities.  And for us parents to try and keep up!

Enjoying Halloween at Busch Gardens!

 We attempted to put in a garden this year, but it was mostly eaten by the rabbits and deer and squirrels! Last year we tried to grow watermelons and 1 rouge plant came up and gave us this tasty treat this year!

What a busy weekend! We started off on Saturday morning with some drizzle and rain, but not until after the Mt Hebron Homecoming parade. Scott was in the parade with his Robotics team. Once again they outfitted their robot to throw candy into the crowds along the parade route. I showed up with him at the start of the parade with Cookie in tow. We were both sporting our Viking helmets and braids! Cookie loves all the attention and activity from the kids at the start of the parade. And this year she got a special treat because they were throwing out dog treats along with candy! She sure got her fill of dog bones that morning!  Scott decided to ride his hover board along the parade route through our neighborhood rather than walking. It was a big hit. I usually follow behind the parade in the car to pick up Scott at the end of the parade. This year I ended up in the parade! Cookie sat on my lap with her head hanging out the window. We drove behind the police and fire truck, waving to the crowds. Then I just had to pull into the High School and pick up Scott. We were in a bit of a hurry since he had to get to work right after the parade, and he still needed to change his clothes and get some lunch.

We also spent our very busy weekend completing Scott's Eagle Scout Project at my work place. Scott and Tom were busy this past summer designing and building wheelchair accessible planters. This Sunday was their big debut. Tom dropped off the 3 mobile planters at my facility on Friday morning. When Scott got home from school Friday afternoon, we stopped into a local nursery that provides Boy Scouts with a $30 gift card. We picked out pansies and potting soil. On Sunday morning, we packed up our cars and headed over to spend the day working outside. Tom and Scott dropped into Home Depot and asked for immediate donation of mums and tulip bulbs and they gave it to them! Scott has dropped into Home Depot multiple times requesting donations and has been promised gift cards to be mailed to the house. But we never received any donations and he started asking back in the spring. Same thing with Lowes. So now they received some plants that were placed in multiple flower beds in the front of the facility. We have 6 flower beds dug into the side of a hill overlooking the building that were overgrown with weeds. Scott invited the troop to come out and help with cleaning out the beds and planting flowers Sunday morning. After several hours of weeding, we took a break to have pizza lunch which I prepared in our rehab kitchen. In the afternoon, more boys showed up and we took the portable planters inside the facility to plant flowers with a few residents. They also sanded the planters and prepared them for planting with dirt and stone for drainage. They also cleaned out the old planters from the outside patio that were falling apart. We had a pretty good turnout from the Troop, including Scott's Eagle coach. It was a very busy scout weekend with a camp out scheduled, as well as training for the upcoming summer jamboree. So not as many boys assisting, but that was probably a good thing. It makes it tougher to keep track of a lot of volunteers.  So now Scott is feeling a big sigh of relief! He still needs to write up his project report and attend a Board of Review to receive his Eagle rank. That will be exciting!  Currently he has been appointed Patrol Leader (again) so he needs to drop into the weekly meetings as well as adding the monthly patrol meetings to his schedule. The scouts will be putting on a Training Camp Out weekend for Cub Scouts at the end of the month, but I think Scott is going to pass on that event. We are also wrapping up the end of our popcorn sales. Unfortunately Scott's weekends have been so busy he has not had time to help out with any more Popcorn Booth sales. And he was running back to school in the evenings to work on the robot for the upcoming parade. Besides doing homework! There are just not enough days in the week!

Fortunately we also missed Hurricane Matthew that ran up the east coast. It veered off of North Carolina, so our eastern shore caught a bit of the rain and wind. On the other hand, we had some rain on Saturday and a windy Sunday but our storm came from the North. I don't think our area needs any more rain. On Friday night we decided to stop into Yappy Hour at our favorite Wine Bin store in olde Ellicott City. You can bring your dog to the wine tasting evening(inside and out) and a portion of the proceeds of the wine sales goes to the local animal shelter. They just reopened the main road through downtown after the flood in July in Ellicott City. Most of the shops and restaurants are still boarded up. We walked Cookie up and down the sidewalk, but noticed the musty, moldy smell coming from the boarded up shops. Apparently it cost 12 million just to get the street and sidewalks back in shape. Most of the buildings down by the river were the most damaged as everything-water and cars-came crashing through and rushed down the street to the river. So sad since the town has been losing so much money. Their ghost tours usually keep the place hopping this time of year. I think you could still host the ghost walks-it was even more eerie.

After spending most of the day doing yardwork at my work facility on Sunday with the boy scouts, it was time to attend to our own yard. We had so much rain the weekend before, we did not get to cut the grass. However my helpers were all busy when we got home. Tom was  packing Sunday evening for a flight out and a week long trip to Chicago on business. Scott had tons of homework to do since he worked Friday and Saturday, participated in the Homecoming parade and he went over to his friends for a party on Saturday night rather than attend the Homecoming dance. He also had to work the Monday before since school was closed for the jewish holiday. I had to leave work to pick him up from work at home, get him lunch and drop him off and go back to work. Tom did pick up. Very annoying since he does not yet have his drivers license.

Allison had a frustrating weekend with her Field Hockey team. There was a mix up on the location of her games on Sunday. The team was supposed to travel to George Washington U and George Mason U-both schools in the DC area. They girls were headed to the wrong school for their first game, and showed up late at the scheduled game. The other team actually started playing before Allison could get her goalie gear on and get out on the field. So they scored and had a head start on the game. And the girls completely missed the other game. So Allison had a long drive for a 20 min play. It was so messed up, one of the new freshman goalies decided she was not going to play anymore. So it is back to Allison as the main goalie.

 I spent Sunday evening mowing the lawn and trimming shrubs. It was an action packed weekend! I did not even get a chance to stop in and visit with  mom.  I had spent most of Friday picking up food items for Sunday's event and running errands after my swim class. I am just glad to have my van back. It has been at the dealership for about a month getting the back taillight repaired and the back door repainted following the fender bender this past summer. They had to repaint it 4 times since they kept screwing it up and doing a sloppy job. They finally got it right and it looks better than brand new!

Tom and I did attempt to go see a movie on Saturday night while Scott was at his party. They recently transformed a local theater into lounge chair seating and we wanted to catch The Magnificent 7 or the new Oil Rig movie. Unfortunately it was a cold, rainy night and everyone in our county decided to go see movies too! Everything was sold out. So we headed home to watch tv. and do laundry. Bummer.

So it was raining for several days into last weekend. It just wouldn't stop raining. It rained so much that Allison's University flooded. They actually had to delay classes due to the amount of water on campus. The eastern shore is quite flat with some rivers and bays in the area that also overflow. Turns out the local zoo lost a few Alpacas from the flooding as their pen was near the small river running through the park. How sad. Allison made it to all her classes since they were at night and most of the water had started to recede. Their Field Hockey games were cancelled on the weekend though since the playing field was still too flooded.

I was happy to have some rain for my new grass seed. It came up very nicely. But we could not finish the yardwork. Tom managed to mow the backyard in between rain showers, but that was about it. I needed to start planting the fall flowers. Our neighbor managed to schedule the tree cutting crew to come in and top one of the Tulip trees in our backyard before all the rain. It actually looks pretty good. He also cut off a bunch of low branches on his white pine trees bordering our lot. It looks weird to have our backyard opened up so much with the missing branches.  I probably should have spent more time putting up the Halloween decorations. Scott got a head start and placed a zombie in our cherry tree out front. He also put our skeleton in the front window, and Tom ordered a projector for the upstairs window. It flashes images of ghosts and hands on a white screen placed in the window. . Very cool. The neighbors are already asking when are the decorations going up.

I did manage to get the laundry and dishes done. But Scott and I took some time out on Saturday morning to visit the Fall Festival at our church. They used to run a festival and it has been years since they repeated the event. So this was the 2nd go around. They had a lot of fun activities, but had to move the whole thing inside because of the rain. We stopped into the enormous yard sale in the school gym. I picked up some items for work, as well as a few craft items for the holidays. One of Scott's classmates had her own booth and sells homemade bars of soap.  They had craft and food booths, kids games and scarecrow making, pumpkin painting, a silent raffle and basket raffles, entertainment and lots of food. Scott and I brought home some bratwurst with all the fixins. It was a lot of fun. I then spent the afternoon running errands until it was time to take Scott to work.

Scott spent most of his weekend at work including Friday night, Sat night and Sunday afternoon. The rink is back on it's busy schedule. We did spend some time Friday evening running over to a local nursery to inquire about donations for his upcoming Eagle project. We were pleasantly surprised to hear the manager tell us the nursery owner supports Boy Scouts and he gave Scott $30 in donations and 20% off anything else we needed. Awesome!  Scott has been so busy with classwork as well as his Video Game Club, Video Club and now Robotics. They had a parent's meeting and plan on participating in the upcoming Homecoming parade. So Scott and I both attended the meeting.  Scott was busy working with his teammates on redesigning last year's robot to allow it to toss candy into the crowds along the parade route. We had to skip his Boy Scout Court of Honor, but we just can't do everything. (although we do try!).

Tom was off to Chicago for a few days last week as well. I spent an evening at the dentist office. They had a wine/cheese presentation on dental implants with free consults. I thought I would take advantage of the program to see if our insurance would cover the procedure, as well as getting the dentist to look at my chipped crown since I could not get into our other dentist office(Tom and I have different dental plans from work, so we use both). Still waiting for the price quote. I think I was the youngest one there and the last one out the door-guess my mouth was not as exciting.

On Sunday morning I was up early for our annual Brain Injury 5K run/walk at a local college campus. Our rehab department got involved in the Brain Injury Association of Maryland when we started taking in brain injured patients from our large, local rehab hospital. The patients usually need an extended amount of time to recuperate(if at all), and there are not many facilities that can manage their care. So I spent the morning out for a walk around UMBC and then headed home to take Cookie for a walk(she was banned from the walk 2 yrs ago). Guess they were worried dogs would get in the way, especially with some post brain injury participants struggling along the route. So when I got home I took Cookie for a walk. When we returned, we headed into the garage, but Cookie took off as we went through the door. I saw her jump on some animal right in our garage. I figured it was a neighborhood cat, but it was a fox! I pulled Cookie away and ran to the front door. Our neighborhood has a large number of fox, and we often see them out during the day. It has been all the talk of our neighborhood website this year(Foxnado)! And with more construction, they have less places to go. People worry about them having rabies, including me. I did not want Cookie or myself to get bit. Scott let us in the house and we poked our noses into the garage to see if he had gone. Of course Cookie snuck out between our legs and started running around the garage and the driveway looking for that sneaky fox. I don't mind seeing the foxes running around the neighborhood, but not my garage! That was an exciting morning!  We spent the evening having Mom B over for dinner. I put a roast in the oven and after picking up Mom from her apt, we picked up Scott from work. I have been busy spending my free time going through all of Mom and Dad's recent paperwork looking for any further information for their 2015 taxes. Their accountant in Michigan has not yet finished their taxes, and recently asked me to put together further info including medical expenses and Soc. Security income. A tedious job but I managed to collect all the necessary paperwork and send it off. Next year I think I am switching mom to a local accountant here in Maryland. I was also busy taking an online test for Boy Scouts for reinstatement as a merit badge counselor and volunteer(it just never quits!).

Happy First Week of Fall!  We decided to celebrate by visiting HallowScream at Busch Gardens. The first weekend of their Halloween event opened Sept 23rd. Our family had planned on going to the Eastern Shore on a camping/canoeing/kayaking trip with Scott's Boy Scout Troop. I wanted to bring along my kayak, and I thought Allison could join us. I was also hoping to catch a few of her Field Hockey games. However, the plans just fell through. Allison's games were out of town at Penn U. Parents could not go paddling unless they had a full medical exam before hand as well as participate in the Boy Scout swim test. And turns out, Scott would have been the only member of his patrol going. So we decided since Scott was already off work for the weekend, that we would go to Busch Gardens.

Tom was busy working on his schoolwork for the weekend on Friday. We did take some time off for a lunch date at a local deli. Afterwards I dropped Cookie off for grooming and then I went in for my own trim!  When we were both done, I stopped into my mom's apt to pick her up and let Cookie visit with all the residents. I was picking up my lanterns that I dropped off during the week when the facility lost its power. Seems their underground wiring system corroded and they lost all power to the building for 2 days. The generator was working so there was power in the lobby and hallways, but not in the rooms. They handed out small flashlights to the residents and placed small lanterns in the bathrooms, but I thought Mom could use a bit more light. So I dropped off a few lanterns after work during the week. Friday night I brought mom home for dinner after dropping Cookie off at our friend's house for the weekend. Scott grilled us some burgers for dinner and we were able to sit out on the deck again and listen to the crickets chirping and watch the bats fly overhead.

On Saturday morning we headed out early to beat some of the DC traffic on our way down to Busch Gardens. Tom had Scott practice a bit of freeway driving as we neared the Richmond turn off. We lucked out with the weather-warm and sunny. A sharp contrast to the weather back in Ellicott City and at Penn U where Allison was playing Field Hockey. She was freezing-we were melting in the hot, humid weather. Amazing what a difference the weather can be like from just a few states away. We caught up with our friends, Dan and Gloria who also traveled down to Busch for the Halloween event. The scary mazes don't open until 6pm, so we caught a few spooky themed music and dance shows, had lunch, rode a few rides, had dinner and then got in line for the events. We made it through 5 out of 6 Haunted mazes before calling it quits at 10pm when the park closes. We were exhausted from running around the park all night to the different mazes but we had a great time. The park is not quite as amazing as it used to be when Busch Beer owned it. The new company is a bit cheap-decorations not quite as stunning, food is more expensive and smaller portions. The park used to hire staff from overseas in accordance with their European theme(Germans, French, British, etc). Now they just have anyone they can hire wearing Burger King looking uniforms from the '70s-orange and brown. But we have season passes and its a great deal so we keep going. We try to get our money's worth out of the place.

Last weekend Allison drove down to the park with her two roommates to enjoy the last day of Oktobeerfest. Her roommates had a great time on the roller coasters, and they all enjoyed German pretzels, beer cheese and Hard Cider. They would have liked to try the different beer tastings since they spent the night in a local hotel, but Allison needed to stay sharp to drive and she had her Field Hockey games on Sunday. It was just a nice break, and the girls got in on a discount with our Season Pass. We would have liked to join them too, but figured we were traveling down for HallowScream and that was enough.

I think we will try to go back one more night as Allison really enjoys the HallowScream and she would like to visit with us. She did have a  Sunday visit from her boyfriend Tyler this past weekend. They had planned on visiting the beach, but there was a big festival going on and they did not feel like fighting the crowds. Instead they enjoyed playing video games, going out to dinner and touring the new library building on campus. This past weekend Allison also traveled to Penn U on Saturday to play Field Hockey. She played goalie in one game and they won!  She is currently swapping out with another freshman goalie. This will probably be her last year to play Field Hockey. Next she will be playing Ultimate Frisbee.