Just trying to catch up on the end of 2017.

December is flying by and we just keep getting busier and busier! A Big Shout out and Happy Birthday to Linda Seitz who celebrated her Birthday on Dec. 12th with a Holiday concert. How fun. Cookie also celebrated her 8th Birthday on Dec 13th!   We planned on taking my mom down to Busch Gardens for Christmas Town in Williamsburg, VA before Christmas. We figured we were going to be out of town for the holiday season and that it would be nice to spend some time celebrating with Mom B before we leave.

Allison was home and done with her finals. She did a fabulous job with her classes this semester and is currently a 4.0 student. She is really looking forward to having a break though. I continue to keep her busy with chores around the house, but also trying to get some of her medical appointments done before the new year. She scheduled a dentist appointment and another lab test for her blood work. But she was also looking forward to the trip to Busch Gardens. Last time she went, she was so ill she really did not enjoy herself. I was also happy to have her help put up some Christmas decorations. And Cookie is getting spoiled with a daily walk.

I also needed Allison's help to get my van to the tire center at Costco before our weekend trip.

On Weds my flat tire alarm went off. Tom wanted me to take the van into a local tire store because he thought it was a faulty sensor. Turns out I really did have a nail stuck in my tire, and the sensor needed replaced since it was corroded. Costco did both repairs and no charge since I bought the tires there! So Thursday morning Allison drove her car over so I could drop off the van, and then she drove me back home so I could get the Echo to drive to work. Then in the evening I had Tom and Allison pick it up since I was enjoying the Holiday Party at my mom's place. I had to get it fixed before the weekend since we were traveling with my mom and her scooter and it only fits on the back of my van. I also enjoyed the evening with my mom and munching on lots of turkey and ham. The facility always does such a nice job hosting parties. My visit also gave me the opportunity to pack Mom's suitcase. I have also been pacing myself on bringing her Christmas gifts. I picked up a few Christmas shirts and sweaters for her, along with some Holiday earrings and necklaces. She was definitely festive!

I was so glad I got my van fixed too. We really needed it for the weekend trip. I had a feeling I might have picked up a nail or other sharp object in my tires since I had been doing quite a bit of driving in the city recently with our GS performances. And my van tires get punctured quite easily. On Weds night I headed over to another Nursing Home near the GS headquarters to put on another Christmas concert for the residents after getting off work. I am glad I went since only 4 adults and 2 girls showed up. I think most parents were busy and could not get their kids there during the school week, not to mention more snow was on the way. Before I got home that night, I was driving through a blizzard!

I was just glad Tom and Allison made it home safely that night. They had traveled up to Hershey PA to watch a Hershey Bear Hockey Game and had a wonderful time. They thought it was especially funny when the Kiss Camera flashed on them both!  Tom gave Allison a quick peck on the top of her head!

On Friday we had another snow storm in the afternoon. We waited for Scott to get out of school and for the snow storm to stop before heading south. Turns out Scott got out of school a few hours early since it was a freezing rain/snow storm and the school district did not want to chance any accidents with the kids getting home from school.  Scott had already planned to take off work, but school was shut down anyway.

We picked up my mom around 7pm and headed down the road. The snow had stopped and the roads were fairly clear. We had all eaten dinner before the trip, and I had dropped Cookie off at our friends house early in the morning. We decided it was just easier traveling without Cookie for such a quick trip. We got to the hotel around 11pm and were all tucked in bed by midnite. I noticed however that my mom did not seem to be feeling too well. She had an upset stomach and a runny nose. I was able to give her some medication to keep her going over the weekend though and she seemed to do pretty well.

On Saturday morning she woke up very late. Around 10 am. Tom and the kids brought up breakfast, but everyone was anxious to get going for the day. The weather in Williamsburg was sunny and warmer, but not exactly Florida(as my mom pointed out!). The amusement park did not open until 2pm, so we decided to have lunch and catch the new Star Wars movie. What a disaster that turned out to be! We headed to the Movie Tavern in Williamsburg and got great seats for a great price. Everyone ordered their meals and settled in with a fun crowd to catch the newest movie in the Star Wars series. The movie started playing, but there was no sound! The management apologized and stated they would reboot the film. After another 20 mins, again a picture without sound. Now they were bringing out free popcorn and movie passes and calling the IT people. Still nothing. They were able to place 65 people in another theater, but we were out of luck. After waiting 2 hrs, with no movie to show for it, we left with a refund and no movie and an expensive lunch along with free movie passes and some free popcorn.  We did get a few photos of some Star Wars characters that were there for the opening.

No matter, we can catch it later. Instead we headed to the park. We all had a wonderful time  on a beautiful sunny day, strolling through the park, catching all the terrific musical shows like Scrooge and Gloria-Christmas carols and dancing. And when night rolled around we loved seeing all the lights throughout the park. Later in the evening, we stopped for dinner in Italy and an outdoor Accopella show and then decided to call it quits. It was getting incredibly crowded and a bit cold. And it looked like my mom had had enough. I think we all had enough, but we decided to try to get into the Star Wars movie one more time!

Tom stopped back at the movie tavern and I tried to use our free movie passes for the seats. However, they would not take movie passes for the new Star Wars movie. Unbelievable! Instead I asked Tom to drop my mom and I back at the hotel. She wasn't feeling so well, and I thought we'd had enough of a busy day. Tom and the kids however decided to chance it and went back to see the new Pixar movie, Coco. We had thought my mom would like it, but the kids said it was too sad and depressing and did not like it. Tom took a nap! Mom and I got tucked into bed and fell asleep watching The Peanuts Christmas shows.

So Sunday we needed to get up, dressed, eat breakfast and head out by 9am. I had to get back to Mom's place by 1 since our GS choir was performing there. We had no problem arriving before 1, so mom and I sat and ate lunch in her dining room before the girl scouts started to show up. Meanwhile Tom and the kids picked up Cookie and unloaded the van at home. Scott had a ton of homework to get caught up on, and Tom wanted to catch some football before we headed out for another Christmas concert in the late afternoon. Since we missed our Army Jazz Christmas concert, I ordered tickets for the Army Holiday Concert at the Lyric theater in downtown Baltimore.

We finished up our GS choir performance for my mom's place which turned out to be fantastic. However, when I checked my tickets for the evening concert-a free performance by the US Army band in downtown Baltimore, I discovered that I had overbooked my schedule! Their concert was exactly at the same time as our GS performance. So we missed the Holiday US Army band, but no matter, everyone was pretty worn out anyway. Instead, Allison came to pick me up and helped me do some shopping for Scott's adopted family. The NHS students at school all signed up to adopt  families for Christmas including buying gifts for the kids and collecting food items. Since Scott was so incredibly busy with his school work, Allison and I volunteered to do the shopping and the wrapping for him that evening. Everything had to be turned in the next day.  We had fun shopping for 3 little girls and wrapping all the gifts. It also made for a very long day(and weekend).

And as I was lying on the couch that night watching "The Sound of Music" I discovered that I was not feeling very well. 

Last weekend we had our very first snow fall of the season. What a wonderful way to welcome December! Snow can be fun, but it never seems to come at the right time! And this was not just snow, but ice and rain mixed in. It started on Saturday morning, so all events scheduled at the local schools were cancelled. The kids were bummed since they did not get their first snow day. But I was disappointed since I had tickets for the family and my mom to go hear the US Army Jazz Band play their Holiday concert at the local High School. They always do such an incredible job, and they play a 2 hr concert for free! Can't beat the price. So unfortunately, because they were scheduled to play at the school, and the schools were closed, the concert was cancelled. Oh well, it gave me more time to work on my Christmas cards.

And to get ready for the upcoming neighborhood Christmas party that night. We were to bring appetizers and side dishes, so I had some cooking to do. I also made a batch of Holiday Wassail-warm Christmas wine-in the crock pot which turned out to be a big hit on a cold night. Especially with the oranges, cranberries and cinnamon sticks.  We had a wonderful time visiting with all our neighbors, but the roads were slick getting home. I had hoped to take my Mom to the concert as well as the party, but did not want to risk Mom walking up frozen driveways or me skidding on the roads trying to pick her up and drop her off(especially after sampling the Christmas Wassail!).

The bad weather also kept Scott and I home baking cookies for his Cookie Exchange party with his elementary/high school friends. One of the girls has hosted a party for the past 4 years. I am always invited, although I usually have to run off to some GS choir event. So Scott and I made chocolate covered popcorn, cocoa spoons and oreo cookies and packaged them all up. Yum!  On Sunday afternoon we headed over for the party. I always enjoy catching up with the moms from the old school, as well as their kids future plans. We even exchanged contact info to see if the kids could get summer internships. Plus the moms are all so nice and exchange gifts! I can't keep up!And then I did have to leave for another GS choir event!

Our GS choir was invited to sing at a lighting ceremony in Mt Washington at the Johns Hopkins University. They actually light up an historical building-a multi story house in the shape of an octagon. I will have to check out its history. I really did not have time to talk to any of the staff. The building is attached to a conference center/hotel. Very nice, but very empty on a Sunday night. The staff did put out a Starbucks Hot Cocoa bar and cookies for the community, but it went fast. They said this was the most people they have ever had at their event. And they enjoyed our GS choir leading everyone in caroling.

I was also busy running around during the week. It was time to pick up our Christmas Photo cards at JC Penney. I invited Tom and Scott to join me for dinner. I had a gift card for Maggiones Italian Restaurant-Tom's favorite. We had a very nice dinner and got there just before all the big Holiday groups starting pouring in.  On  Friday I was running errands and spent the whole day Christmas shopping! What fun! Even Cookie got dropped off for a Christmas hair cut(which she needed badly). And Scott and I could not help picking her up a new bed for Christmas at the pet store(since it was on sale!). She's absolutely lost in the big, fluffy pillow!

We were also looking forward to having Allison come home. She finished a big final presentation on Tuesday night in Management and was busy studying over the weekend for her final in Finance(going to be a tough one!) the following week. Then she will be packing up and heading home for the Holidays!.

We started off last week celebrating Scott's 18th Birthday! We had eaten dinner together to celebrate Scott's Birthday on Sunday night at La Palapa Mexican restaurant. (Scott's choice). He enjoyed his Key Lime Pie slice with a candle after a big burrito dinner. We had opened his presents earlier in the afternoon-several accessories for his new car, a new video game, clothes and a Dr Who tv remote control in the shape of the sonic screwdriver. He just waves it at the tv to change channels and volume! But mostly he was hoping to get his car back  from the dealership. They have had it for several weeks working on all the repairs and waiting for parts.

On Monday, Scott's official Birthday,  we decided to go out for 1/2 off burgers at Glory Days. We also enjoyed cheesecake to celebrate his big day(his choice). And while we were at the restaurant, we looked into the possibility of setting up Scott's Eagle ceremony perhaps in January. Scott was also busy during the week working on a few big projects. He and his friends spent the weekend videotaping an educational commercial for his television class. They decided to do a short encouraging kids to quit smoking/don't start smoking. The principal really liked the video and may be using it for classroom education in the county. So their television teacher is encouraging their group to make another film. Now they are thinking about a short on parking skills!  And Scott was busy starting his physics project. Building a bridge out of toothpicks. He was following Allison's previous design as she was the big winner in her class for most structurally sound bridge design. After the kids build the bridge, they hook up weights to see which bridge is the strongest. Allison's design was the best in her physics class. So Scott is trying to follow in her footsteps.

On Friday I spent the whole day with my Mom. In the morning we both attended a Christmas party at her Senior Center. The staff put on a very nice party which included music/singing/entertainment and a very nice lunch. We even picked out a few ceramic art pieces from the Art with a Purpose class. Afterwards, Mom and I stopped into her storage unit and picked up her Christmas decorations. We headed back to the apartment and got busy decorating. I ended up leaving around 5pm. I was pooped!

On Saturday I opted out of going to sing with the GS choir at the German Village in Baltimore. Instead, Tom and I decided to drive to Salisbury to spend the day with Allison. She was stuck at school studying for her finals. She had a final group project on Tuesday night and a Finance final the following week. So she decided to stay so she could meet with her group to prepare for the presentation. We thought it would be fun to go out to dinner, do some shopping and drop off her St Nick's Day gift. We arrived in the afternoon and even took Cookie along for the ride. Cookie loved going for a walk on campus and dropping into Starbucks for a coffee to warm up.  We then let Allison open up her St Nick's Day gifts . And I couldn't help myself and I brought along her little dorm sized Christmas tree for her to decorate. We also visited Allison's repaired bathroom and replaced dryer. Yeah! Afterwards, we left Cookie in the condo since Allison's roommates were all gone for the weekend and we went shopping. We had a great time walking around the mall and I even picked up some new clothes for the holidays for myself. But we especially enjoyed picking up a set of antlers and a red nose for Scott's new car(when we ever get it back!) for his St Nick's Day stocking.

On Sunday, I was off again on a beautiful, sunny day with my Mom to the Baltimore and Ohio Railroad museum, singing with my Girl Scout choir. I brought along a camp chair and a packed lunch for Mom and placed her directly in front of our group to enjoy an hour long performance. We had over 30 girls performing, and everyone did a nice job. And I watched Mom singing along with our group! It wasn't very crowded this year-we were the first group to perform that day. So most of our crowd were parents, but they seemed to really enjoy the music. Afterwards, Mom and I walked around looking at the small train sets with the little villages. We headed back to her apartment and spent the rest of the afternoon filling out her Christmas cards. We had a fun filled weekend!

Happy Thanksgiving! What a busy Holiday weekend. Allison came home on Weds. She finished her mid terms and did very well. She had extra time so she worked on her upcoming class projects and is 2 weeks ahead of schedule! So she had a nice, relaxing weekend to catch up on video games with Scott. Plus she was able to help out around the house. Including taking Cookie for a daily walk.

I got all the Thanksgiving dinner shopping done over the previous weekend. I also picked up some Birthday gifts for Scott for his upcoming 18th Birthday. Tom does all of his shopping online. I tried to get my hair done on Sunday, but the place was packed. Instead I dropped in on Tuesday evening. Just in time for our upcoming family photo. I wanted to join Allison at the hair salon last Friday, but I had to work.

One of Scott's Birthday presents included his new car. Unfortunately, we are still waiting for the repairs on his Jeep Renegade. It passed inspection and they were able to fix the check engine problem with a replacement of the exhaust manifold. But now we are waiting on some electronic parts that were causing the buzzing sound in the speaker. And they are not in stock. Sounds like it may have a whole new engine by the time they are done! Surprisingly it passed the state inspection and we are also waiting on the license plates.

We ended up celebrating Scott's birthday on Sunday night. He wanted Mexican for his Birthday dinner, so we passed on taking Grandma out with us(not her favorite food). We were also out all day getting our family Christmas photo. I have signed us up for our family photo at the Target studio for the past 21 years. They always do a wonderful job and it is very quick and easy to order our photos right after the photo shoot(although it is usually very crowded at the holidays and we have to wait longer than our scheduled time). But they suddenly closed all their studios! I was so sad. Instead the website directed me to JCPenny. We have gone to Penny's before for a family photo when we first got Cookie. We wanted her in our Christmas photo 8 years ago and there was only one Penny's studio in Annapolis that you could bring your dog to on one night of the week. We did not need Cookie this time, but I signed us up for a photo shoot on Sunday morning anyway. We still had to wait about 30 mins. But the photo shoot turned out well anyways. I just thought it was funny(or a bit flattering) when the photographer told Tom and I to lay down on the floor! I told her that was the kids job! If I lay down on the floor, there is no going back! Instead we sat on a low footstool and the kids were able to lie down in front of us. Turns out that photo worked the best! Afterwards we usually sit down with a representative to try some different photo combinations for Christmas cards and family photos. I don't think Penny's was ready for the influx of customers. They left us alone with the computer. Allison and I ended up making our own Christmas cards and photos! I think we did a great job! And our photos were the same price that I paid at Target, and will be done in the same amount of time. So overall, a fun experience. Guess we will be going back for Scott's graduation photos! And maybe more Allison graduation photos!

Afterwards we had lunch and did some Christmas shopping in the mall. Do you know how hard it is to shop for Christmas gifts for the family when all of the family is with you! So everyone knows about some of their gifts, but it was a lot of fun to shop for presents in a mall together. And the kids were most impressed to see Tom shopping in a mall at Christmas time no less!

On Thanksgiving Day we were all busy together cooking and cleaning. Tom put our 20lb turkey on the rotissierrie on the grill outside. Scott and Allison got up early with me to make Loaded Baked Potatoes, stuffing and crab dip. I had already bought Pumpkin pie and a Pumpkin cheesecake for Allison. We had my Mom and our friend John over for dinner around 4pm. I tried to invite other friends over for dinner, however everyone seemed to have invited someone else over for dinner. No matter. We all enjoyed our dinner together and a few football games. In the morning we caught up on our Macy's Thanksgiving Day Parade and the National Dog Show in between cooking. We passed on the Turkey Trot since we were all busy cooking. Instead the kids took Cookie for a very long walk around the lake in our local park-about 3 miles or a 5K. It was such a beautiful day out for a walk. In the evening, I got my Mom started on her Christmas cards. We should be done by the 25th!

Actually the whole weekend was beautiful. So much so that we spent most of the weekend outside putting away all the Thanksgiving/Fall decorations and putting up Christmas decorations, including our outdoor lights. Tom even bought a new extension ladder for the event, however, he decided it was too heavy and he returned it. After he got the lights up of course! The kids were a great help putting the Fall decorations up in the attic and bringing down a few snowmen. I spent the entire weekend doing my usual activity-raking leaves!  I did manage to get out and do some Black Friday in store shopping!  That was alot of fun. Plus I got some online shopping done too! I especially wanted to get our St Nick's Day shopping done since that arrives on Dec 6th. That is when we exchange Christmas stockings!

I am still surprised how much sooner the Christmas decorations are popping up. We had decorations up around the neighborhood and stores before Halloween!  And some of he Christmas lights went on before the end of October. I just want to get through Thanksgiving before worrying about Christmas!

On Friday morning the kids and I were busy with a trip to the Festival of Christmas Trees fundraiser for the Children's Hospital. My Girl Scout choir was singing on stage-the first act of the morning. I had to be there at 9:30 but I was running a bit late. I took Allison and Scott along to enjoy the decorations. They patiently waited for our group to sing for 1 hr, and then we went off to look at all the trees and gingerbread houses. The place was packed. After several hours of listening to Christmas music and looking at Christmas decorations, we were so done with Christmas! And once again, hard to Christmas shop for someone when they are with you! Guess the kids will know which gifts they are getting this year. And again I wanted to take my mom but we had to be there so early in the morning. And it was incredibly crowded. Instead we brought Scott for his first time.I think he enjoyed the experience and hanging out with his big sister!

I celebrated my Birthday on a Monday. My coworkers treated me to a homemade pumpkin cheesecake-delicious!  Tom, Scott and I went out to dinner on Monday night for half price burgers at Glory Days. I was not going to cook on my Birthday! Afterwards I opened presents and ate leftover chocolate birthday cake! I must say my presents were very eclectic-gifts shared by the whole family! Tom thought it was time for a new crock pot-so guess what I got! He wanted one that had more heating options including a timer and a Low/Medium/High setting. We tried it out  with a rib dinner last Sunday since Allison was home. I also brought my mom over for dinner. Tom was pleased with his purchase and the tasty results. He also ordered a one year subscription to Netflix. So far the kids and Tom have been enjoying my Birthday request the most. I have a big list of shows I would like to see, just not enough time to catch any! Thank goodness it is good for 1 year! And Scott ended up with a Western U Football jersey since Tom picked one up for me, but it basically looked like I was wearing a dress in an XL! I am  looking forward to spending my Kohls gift card, and am enjoying my new earrings. I got some new cookie sheets too-just in time for Holiday baking! Tom also picked up a new radio receiver for my car so I can continue to listen to Sirius XM. The radio in my minivan is slowly wearing out, but just too expensive to swap out(also the GPS, back up camera and DVD player as well as the radio in one unit). So Tom got a portable receiver to pick up the XM radio, and I can take it in to work(but now I need a portable player with speakers to operate the portable receiver out of the car). Lucky me. Tom just did not want to spend several thousand on a replacement unit. He would rather buy a whole new vehicle-I am just not ready for a new car.

I still like my minivan. It came in handy when we moved some furniture last weekend. I bought myself a Bday present-an antique corner hutch from one of our neighbors. She was selling an entire dining room set and Tom agreed to look at it with me-a dining room table, hutch and corner cabinet from the 1940s. All Mahogany made in North Carolina. Very pretty.Tom and I stopped in on Tuesday night to take a peek. Turns out the owner is a recently retired Northrop Grumman Manufacturing employee. She immediately recognized Tom and they have mutual coworker friends(but Tom had no idea who she was). She was very sweet and was even selling her ceramic chandelier, all her beautiful china and glasses, and a lot of end tables. We decided the dining room chairs, although very pretty, were just too small for Tom and nicely embroidered seats that the cat would ruin(unless covered in plastic-lovely). Also the table was permanently sealed in its extended position-they sealed the leaf inserts so it is difficult to move since the table does not close. The hutch was also very beautiful, but smaller than my current hutch and not lit. So we decided to take the corner hutch since it matched our current set and was a bit bigger than my current pine corner hutch. And I really don't need another dining room set since eventually we will be downsizing, but Allison or Scott may one day want a set. As it is, Allison has started to collect our leftover appliances(like the old crock pot and our previous blender that Tom fixed since it needed a replacement part). She also has our old kitchen table and couches and a bedroom set. And Alexa. So she will be ready for the big world after she graduates!

We dropped Scott's new car off at the car dealership on Monday morning. I heard a buzzing in the back speaker and we needed to figure out why the check engine light came on. Plus we needed the state inspection. Sadly they kept the car all week and still need parts. Scott is waiting patiently.

Veteran's Day fell on Saturday the 11th. When Tom and I were waiting for our flight on Southwest to Orlanda, our plane came in from Ohio full of WWII and Korean vets. There was a large group of vets headed to DC to tour the monuments and lots of flights coming in at the same time. In the airport they had a welcoming party which we joined. There were Navy personnel, Boy Scouts as well as Northrop employees lined up cheering the vets as they came off the planes. Even an announcer calling out their names and rank, ringing a bell and dressed in Colonial garb.  Very cool.

Allison stayed at school last weekend for her frisbee tournament, as well as studying for her midterms. Another semester flying by. And she is doing very well with her Finance and Management classes. She came home during the week on Weds for her last iron infusion. She has been feeling so much better, with only an occasional upset stomach(may be from the extra iron pills). Again we were so happy to have Allison home. I sent the kids out to rake some more leaves. I was hoping the big wind and rain storm would blow everything away, but no such luck. And it seems like the leaves are taking forever to fall off the trees this year! At least I think we are done with cutting the grass since we have had a few hard frosts. Looks like I missed the last of my winter flower planting opportunities. The ground was so frozen I could not even pull out the old flowers! Besides keeping the kids busy with chores around the house, we took a fun break and went to see The Justice League movie on Saturday night. Scott skipped the movie to play video games since he heard the movie was not very good. Allison almost skipped it too, but joined us instead(the lure of movie popcorn was just too great!). And she ended up enjoying the movie as much as Tom and I did.

I enjoyed the break. I have been busy at work. We took in quite a few patients, although not the best rehab candidates as some are homeless with drug and alcohol, psychiatric issues and chronic problems getting worse. But we still provide the therapy services. I attended my first online class at work with my rehab director. We listened to a class on feeding skills taught by a Wayne State U OT grad.  It was live from Austin TX, so it screwed up our work schedule since it was an hour earlier in Texas. The website told us to start at 8am, but it was 9am our time. Then it went to 5pm, and we had an hour long quiz afterwards! Plus we had some technical difficulties linking the website with a computer that had built in speakers so we could listen to the class. But we finally figured it all out. Then we had to deal with interruptions from other staff members coming into the office asking questions all day. Even though I really liked the course, I am not so sure I enjoy online learning (at work anyway). Last week I spent a few hours with my Rehab Director presenting at a local hospital. We were orienting their Rehab staff about our services at the Nursing Home. Our Administration team came along, but Nyla and I did all the talking. And I just had to wing it since Nyla handed me her scripted speech in the lobby that morning and asked if I could present half. Fortunately I am familiar with what we do-I just did not realize we were talking to a team of 25!  And I was promised lunch-Ha. Little did the Administration know that when you buy lunch for therapists, there are no leftovers!  So Nyla and I stopped to have lunch in the hospital cafeteria afterwards. We just did not feel like running around town looking for a place to eat since it was pouring rain. And then I had to come into work last Friday to renew my CPR certification. I figured if I was going in for a class, I might as well see a few patients. So not much free time for me.

On Friday night I celebrated by spending my Birthday money. Thank you so much Mom and Dad Seitz!  I put my birthday money to good use playing BINGO at the Mt Hebron High School fund raiser. This year I took Allison along, as well as my neighbor Gloria and her daughter Kelsey. Gloria was celebrating having a new Nursing job at a local out patient clinic. I was celebrating making it one more year! I took Allison along since she is my good luck charm! They always have such great BINGO prizes. And Allison did get a BINGO-however, so did 3 other women and Allison lost in overtime. Bummer. She would have had $150 worth of shoes at DSW.

I usually sign up Scott for volunteering at the BINGO event for his NHS hours. But the slots filled up fast this year. Instead he was busy practicing his baking skills on Sunday to donate to a local church for Thanksgiving dinner for the community in need. He managed to make 1 pretty pumpkin pie and some pumpkin bars. The rest we donated in Girl Scout cookies. He will drop off his goodies to the church in the coming week. And he gets lots of volunteer hours for his work.

I also had to squeeze in the Thanksgiving food shopping over the weekend! That was crazy. I usually get my errands done on Friday-a little less crazy during the day. But I worked this past Friday, so that left the busier shopping days. And besides food shopping, I was also busy shopping for Scott's upcoming 18th Birthday and St Nick's Day when we share our Christmas stockings. But someone has to do it!

Tom was busy finishing up his last class for the year and turning in his end of semester paper. He plans on taking a break until January so he does not have to worry about studying over the holidays.
Looking forward to a wonderful Thanksgiving Day!

So Halloween was over. Scott and Allison celebrated with a trip to Zoo Boo (in costume) the weekend before. But they did not get any candy! Instead, Allison played Pokemon Go. Everyone at my clinic was expecting left over Halloween candy, but we don't have any more trick or treaters in the house! And we did not have any leftover candy.  Instead, I picked up some Halloween candy on sale the day after-and fell in love with a package of multi flavored Snickers bars! And so did everyone else at work! (Regular, Peanut Butter, Krispy and Almond Snickers)

Allison was back at school and did not plan on coming home over the weekend. Her frisbee team was hosting the last tournament of the season at Salisbury on Saturday. The girls were excited as the school has not hosted games in over 10 years.  And they had a great day, winning all their games. Allison even ran into one of our neighbors and her daughter who plays for UMBC. They wanted to know why we weren't there cheering them on. Tom and I tried to watch Frisbee games, but they go on forever! There is no time limit to the games-it is the first team to score 13 points, although they try not to let the games go past 1 hr. And we usually prefer not to sit out in the cold watching frisbee football.  But we are thrilled that Allison has been feeling well with her iron infusions(1 more to go), enough so that she can play frisbee all day(and score!). And that she has enough energy to get through her classes, and that she is doing very well with her grades!  And getting along with her new roommates, although she is missing her previous roommate Helena who is currently studying in Paris. She will be back next year and the temporary roommate will move out(Allison can't wait). But she wishes she had time to visit her friend in Paris. Allison will be back home next weekend. And she can always visit with her previous roommate, Jen who is getting her Masters in Library Science at Uof Md and lives in our neighborhood.

In the meantime, it was my Birthday weekend! I prefer to celebrate the entire month of November, although my actual birthday was Monday Nov 13th. We decided to go out to dinner on Sunday with my Mom to celebrate. We found a new restaurant(new to us), the City Centre Grill nearby. It turned out to be very good, complete with a little live jazz band and everyone enjoyed their meals. Including Tom who had the Prime Rib special for $22. Afterwards we came home for my favorite Costco chocolate cake. Tom decided to hold off present opening on Monday, but Scott gave me a new Walking Dead tshirt(all ready for Halloween next year!). I also celebrated my birthday with our neighbors at their house for dinner on Saturday night. So nice not to cook! And to catch up with friends. I also gave myself an early Christmas present when I stopped into the Hallmark store to meet the artist Jim Shore. He designs all the wooden angels with carvings on their gowns, as well as Santas. Plus he has the rights to Disney characters and Snoopy. He was very nice, taking time to chat with each patron with photo ops. He was only supposed to stay for 2 hours, but waited an extra hour to make sure he met with everyone. So I picked up a snowman for myself and had it autographed. Very cool. Even the Hallmark store owner made sure we were all somewhat comfortable waiting in line and passed out bottles of water.

On Friday I had a million errands to run. Work has been picking up and I had to go in on Friday the week before. I was looking forward to getting some of my phone calls and bill paying done after my swim class. Instead, Tom asked me to drive out to Virginia with him to test drive a car for Scott. Tom, Scott and Allison have been test driving multiple cars for Scott. The Toyota Echo is slowly falling apart, and SCott could use a car up at school next year. He may need one sooner as winter is coming on. Not sure his current car will make it safely around the block!  So Tom and Scott narrowed it down to a Jeep, even though they knew it did not have a very good track record for engine wear and tear. All the cars they tested had the check engine lights turn on! Including some Subarus. And Scott did not like the drive of the Subaru. They were trying to balance safety with 4WD for snow, and a comfortable drive. Tom found a 2016 Jeep, used with all the features and more for under $20K. We drove out past Harpers Ferry(past the town where Blair Witch was supposed to be located too), about 2.5 hrs west and south in Virginia. We test drove the car and Tom thought it was perfect. He bought it and drove it home while I returned home via Hagerstown with a Papa Murphy pizza pick up. I needed to get home before 7pm since I had an extended Girl SCout choir practice that night for the upcoming Holiday concerts. Never a dull moment.

Scott enjoyed his half day on Friday(teachers getting ready for report cards which come out next week at the end of the semester). In the morning he had his Senior Portrait taken at school for the yearbook. I took him in for a hair cut on WEds night for the big day!  I like how they fit the boys with a fake tux. At least I don't have to buy the tux or the yearbook photo!

Tom was gone all week working in Buffalo. He decided to return 1 day early since Buffalo was looking to get snow and a bad storm on Friday. He got home on Thursday evening in time to join our neighbors for football. The weather has been turning chilly and I keep trying to get my yardwork done. Which is not easy since the trees still have not lost all their leaves. Some of the trees are still green.We also had our first hard freeze and I could not even pull out the old flowers from the planters since the ground was completely frozen! I am a little behind in my gardening.

Tom and Scott had a fun time driving the new car around over the weekend though,

until the check engine light came on! Fortunately the car is on extended warranty, so it looks like the next trip will be to the dealership. Oh well. Guess it was too good to be true.

So my flight out of Orlando was early Sunday morning. Tom could not get us two tickets on a flight together Sunday night. He had to stay during the day to finish up his coursework. Instead, he had me flying out early in the morning which actually turned out to be a good thing. I am not crazy about flying as it is and the weather was turning. A Nor'Easter was blowing in on the eastern seaboard and Baltimore was expecting some nasty weather Sunday night. I returned home by 11 am and it was just drizzling and overcast. When Tom got in at 8pm it was raining sideways!  And I had to pick him up at the airport that evening. He said I would not have enjoyed the flight. It got pretty rough as they flew into Baltimore. So for me it actually turned out OK and he made it safely home.

I had taken the kids to lunch Sunday when I got home and spent the rest of the day doing laundry and unpacking. I also brought the kids a few souvenirs from Florida. Allison was still home and did not go back to school until Monday. She had started her new semester and had class Monday and Tuesday nights. She kept Scott company over the weekend. They enjoy spending time together and especially playing video games with each other. We would have spent time Sunday putting up the last of the Halloween decorations, but it was just too rainy.

On Monday, Allison was back at school, and Tom and I were back to work. And very tired. We had a busy week ahead of us. Tom spent most of the week wrapping up homework for school.

Tuesday was Halloween. I dressed in a Busch Gardens Howl O Scream tshirt at work with a spider headband. I also shared some Key Lime candies with the staff that I brought back from Florida. I got off work early Tuesday so I could get home and finish putting up decorations, make dinner and open up a few bags of candy before the Trick or Treaters showed up at 5:30. It was a fairly mild night, so I took a break at passing out candy to take Cookie for a walk. She was dressed up as a piece of sushi and I was a Samurai chef.  Cookie loved being outside with all the kids and visiting with our neighbors. I stopped at a few houses to say hello, especially to some of the neighbors that I don't get to talk to very often. Then we stopped by Dan and Gloria's house for a Halloween treat in the form of a gin and tonic!  I left the bowl of candy with Scott to pass out to the very cute Trick or Treaters. Everyone went in at 8pm which made it very nice. All in all we passed out over 300 candy bars!  That is a lot of kids. And they were so cute-they loved our scary decorations! Tom even found a few laser lights on sale at Home Depot that project skeletons on the house. Very cool. 

Scott also received a special Halloween Treat when he received his acceptance letter from Western Michigan University! Way to Go Scott! Now he can feels a sigh of relief as the pressure is off on the college application process. Although this was the easiest process ever-just fill out the application, have the ACT score and his high school transcripts sent in and pay $40 registration fee. Done. No essay. No letters of reference. His high school counselor was excited to have Scott as the first Senior of the year to get accepted into college. So now he is signed up on their website and will be attending New Student Orientation early in the Summer.   

Allison was stuck in class on Halloween night. No fun. She did come home on Friday though since she wanted to spend time practicing with the Frisbee team at practice on Weds and Thursday. She had a tournament scheduled at a local University, Towson over the weekend. It is nice when the games are so close to home. She left very early on Saturday morning and had a beautiful day to be outside. They even stopped into a fellow teammate's house for lunch.  They played all day-4 games and won all 4!  Sunday was not as successful, however they placed 4th out of 10 for the whole weekend! And we are just happy that Allison is feeling well enough to play-and even score!

On Saturday night when Allison got home from her games we headed out for dinner and a movie. We all wanted to see the new Thor movie and we were pleasantly surprised. I absolutely loved the movie! It was hysterical. One of the most entertaining movies I have seen in a long time-I was laughing out loud!  Maybe a bit too loud, and maybe one too many jokes for the super hero movies, but still very good. Go see it.