The first week in April we celebrated Tom's Birthday(again). We had taken him to a Hershey Bear Hockey game with a stop over at the Chocolate Factory. It was fun checking out all the new Easter candy at Hershey. Allison was back at school having ended her Spring Break with a stopover at Busch Gardens in Williamsburg, VA, So Scott and I took Tom out to dinner after getting off work and school. We took Tom out to Maggiones-his favorite Italian restaurant where he celebrated his big day with chicken parm and a slice of tiramisu for dessert. Afterwards he opened his gifts at home. Besides a few Star Wars and Dr Who tshirts as well as a Green Bay Packer shirt for our upcoming summer trip to Wisconsin, Tom bought himself another smart smoke alarm for the house. We also invested in a new vacuum, but we could not decide on which one, so now we have two Shark vacuums. One for upstairs and one for downstairs. Scott picked him up a video game to keep Tom busy in between class assignments and Allison sent him a wine glass printed with the chemical symbol for alcohol.  I also signed us up for a Distillery tour on the eastern shore, right near the Bay Bridge. After the tour you receive a bottle of their vodka. I thought we would take our neighbors for a day out on the eastern shore. The distillery is in a very cute, Victorian town and afterwards we thought we would drive down the coast and visit a few other historic cities like St Michaels. That area is known for their wineries and historical towns. Should be an interesting and fun excursion. Just need time to schedule the trip!

Sandra Bozyk also celebrated her birthday this first week in April. Happy Birthday Sandra!  Dad Bozyk would also have celebrated his birthday on Saturday, April 8th.

On Saturday we were dropping Scott off in the morning to take the ACT college entrance exam. He is also scheduled to take the SAT, but the midwest states,  like Western Michigan,  prefer the ACT. We also heard from Western Michigan concerning their out of state tuition. In order to increase their admission numbers, they have dropped the out of state tuition by 50%! A big incentive for us. Scott is interested in the Western Michigan Manufacturing Engineering program and they are one of the very few Universities that offers that program in the US. Also, if Scott finishes one year of school there, then he will be considered an in state student and the price drops even more!  So he started his Spring Break by taking an exam. Unfortunately for him, we had no travel plans during his time off the following week. But he was happy that his school semester ended before Spring Break, so no real homework. Except he planned on spending his Spring Break wrapping up his Eagle Scout project report.

I had a few activities scheduled during the week myself after I got off work. I had signed up for a Writing Class. I have wanted to write a few books and need some guidance in how to get started. This class offered by our Parks and Rec program looked perfect. Unfortunately, not enough people signed up and they cancelled the course. Maybe it was for the better since I really did not have much time to squeeze in another project right now. And the class was supposed to start Tuesday night and run for the whole month, so it would have delayed Tom's Bday celebration on the first night. On Thursday night I made my way over to north Baltimore after work, in the pouring down rain, to visit with a new accountant for my mom.

Over the past year and a half I have been struggling with my parent's previous accountant from West Bloomfield to finish up the 2015 taxes so I could send in the 2016 taxes. Mom and Dad used the same accountant for many years when Dad started having trouble organizing all his information(and was actually starting to show signs of his dementia). So Gary Morof had been doing their taxes for several years before I moved Mom and Dad here to Maryland. When I was in Michigan organizing the move, I sat down with Gary and the financial advisor I had hired to go over Mom and Dad's finances which was incredibly helpful. So when they moved out of state, Gary was fine with me sending all their paperwork and completing their taxes from out of state. It appears that there was a hiccup in the paperwork when my father died and Gary just could not get it together. I never received the 2015 tax return(still have not received anything from Gary). Even though I spoke with him multiple times on the phone and he swore the taxes were done. Just seemed to have difficulty sending me anything. Just promises. So Tom found an accountant here in Maryland that came highly recommended from some of his co workers at Northrop. I was instantly pleased with the outcome after our first phone call. I had gathered up 3 years worth of paperwork(I made lots of copies), and during our face to face meeting he was able to figure out what was going on and completed the 2016 tax return in 1 week, right before the deadline! Now he has to go back and figure out what went wrong with Gary's 2015 return and fix it. I still don't know if Gary actually finished the taxes, but I have never seen any paperwork or received a bill. So I would say No. And still, I have not heard back from Gary. So if you are looking for a tax accountant and you are in Michigan, DO NOT HIRE GARY MOROF from West Bloomfield. Complete lack of professionalism.

On Saturday, after picking Scott up from his ACT test, we stopped in and picked up Mom Bozyk. She needed a hair appointment since the facility hairdresser was out on medical leave, and Mom kept missing the substitute hair dresser. The substitute was coming on Thursday only and Mom is usually out at the Sr Center that day. So I got her an appointment at our Hair Cuttery after we had lunch and did some grocery shopping while she was there. Her appointment ran late, and we had an Eagle ceremony to attend. One of Scott's fellow patrol members had completed all his requirements and was receiving his Eagle rank. The scouts run the ceremony pretty much the same way and Scott's Eagle coach recommended that he attend  one to be prepared for his own. Plus this was one of Scott's patrol members, so we wanted to be there to support him. The ceremony ran late and so did Mom's hair appointment, so afterwards I  picked up mom and dropped her back off to her place.

I needed to pack up a few things since we decided to travel to Salisbury on Palm Sunday to visit Allison for the day. Tom had her new car registration tags to put on the license plate and we thought it would be a good driving practice run for Scott. It is a 2 1/2 hr drive and includes a long drive over the Bay bridge. I also wanted to drop off an Easter basket to Allison and her roommates. I usually include some extra snacks for when they are on the road playing Frisbee. The girls were at school this weekend to attend the Frisbee Team Alumni Party on Saturday night. So on Sunday after mass we packed up the car and headed to Salisbury. The girls loved their Easter baskets and it was such a nice day, we decided to go for a walk through the Canal Park and the Salisbury zoo after lunch. We brought Cookie, and she was not allowed in the zoo, so we took shifts watching her in the park. Cookie was fascinated with the geese, all busy guarding their nests. We left Cookie at the girl's condo with the roommates while we went to lunch and they quickly fell in love when she snuggled on their laps. Too bad the condo does not allow pets. We did not stay long since Allison had studying to do, and we wanted to stop into the outlet stores on the way home. Scott needed some more pants for scout outings and he really likes the Columbia sport pants that turn into shorts. Just like scout pants(only cheaper!)