First week of May!  Tom finally heard from work and was offered a new position! He is so happy. He had to go in for an interview, and now has to let his current work group know that he is leaving. He is thrilled about the switch, but knows the current work group is going to miss him. But he will get a lot more done and enjoy his new position so much more. So he really does not have a lot to do until June when he officially switches over. Good for him since he can spend time finishing up his current online class.

I continue to stay busy with Girl Scout choir. After work last Weds, I participated in the introductory program for the yearly GS Delegate meeting. We sang 3 songs on stage prior to their meeting and right after the dinner. However, they were running late and we ended up singing about 30 mins after our scheduled time. No matter. We had time to practice. And while I was on stage, I spotted Allison's previous mentor, Jeannette Partlow from the Chemical company. Too bad the meeting had just started, I would have loved visiting with her.   We just exchanged smiles and waves. Looks like the next performance will be the end of the year meeting and nursing home performance. And probably at least 1 baseball game National Anthem performance this summer.

On Friday I was busy taking Cookie into the vet. She had been scheduled for dental work and to have some lumps taken off her back. The clinic had to reschedule since they had problems with their equipment. So this was the big day. I took Cookie in around 8am and she did not return home until after 5pm. The clinic was very busy-lots of surgeries. She did very well and came home with stitches in her back and missing two bad front teeth. Fortunately you cannot see the missing teeth, and the scars should heal up nicely. So I spent the day waiting for her to be done. Afterwards we were asked to keep her calm and feed her soft food along with antibiotics. Not as easy as it sounds. Fortunately she is really good about eating and no problem taking the pills hidden in cheese. But it was hard to keep her from jumping up on the couch, or even going down the steps outside to go to the bathroom. So we had to pick her up quite a bit and try to keep her from running around. And that was not easy since she weighs a good 25lbs. Very solid puppy.

On Saturday night, Tom was able to purchase a few tickets to attend the Hershey Bear Hockey game. He was able to get seats right on the glass next to the Hershey Bear team. He has been in the mood to catch an NHL/IHL Stanley Cup/Caldor Cup game live. We have been following the Washington Capitals, and their IHL team, The Hershey Bears, have been staying in the playoffs as well. We picked up Scott after work and our friend, John and headed up to Hershey. Unfortunately the game did not go well. The Bears lost 3 to 1, but it was a fun game and interesting to watch so close to the ice. But surprisingly, not comfortable.  We decided we need to stick with the Club seats from now on. The space was very crowded and the seats were small and cramped. Not good on our knees. Plus you really had to get up every time someone in the row wanted out(and there was a very large woman at the end of our row who kept getting up and down). Pretty much cleared out the entire row to let her through! And it made it hard to watch the game! But it was still fun.

Scott had to work all weekend, but that was not his only activity. He also took the SAT on Saturday morning. We thought it would be good to get a few tests out of the way his Junior year so he has time during his Senior year to retake them if he wants to/needs to bump up his scores. He missed the Boy Scout Appalachian Trail camping trip though. He would have enjoyed going if he had time, and if the boys weren't preparing for the 2018 Philmont High Adventure Trip. They have to practice hiking and carrying heavy backpacks. Instead, he is looking forward to the White Water Rafting trip and a Memorial Day weekend overnight camping trip at the fairgrounds.

 He has 1.5 more months of school left and he can't wait to be done. He is busy reading "Of Mice and Men" in English, and currently has a substitute teacher for chemistry as his regular teacher is off on maternity leave. And the Seniors will be leaving soon. So they are getting ready for finals. Which messes up Scott's class schedule since he has Seniors in many of his courses.

We have also been busy with our yardwork. I have been trying to clean up leaves from the plant beds, and Tom started cutting the grass and applying fertilizer. I had to transplant a few stray bushes, so lots of digging. It has been a crazy spring with freezing cold temperatures and temps in the 90s like mid summer. So the plants have had quite a change in their normal schedule. My magnolia tree did not blossom at all this year. All of the blossoms fell off in a freeze. But the cherry trees did very well and the neighborhood was beautiful with all the blooming pink and white blossoms, along with the dogwoods. This year was the best bloom I have ever seen on my lilac bushes, and the iris are going strong as well as my pink clematis flowering vine. The forsynthia did not do well this year(the yellow flowered bushes) and not as many daffodils. A lot of plants started blooming early in February with a warm up, but it got colder in March with the snow storm, so it was too harsh on the early bloomers. DC sneaked out a Cherry Blossom festival this year, but we did not have time to go down there. We even missed the annual kite festival in April. Just too busy.  And the critters are all busy-momma bunny is back in our yard. I am sure she has a family under our shed as usual. And most exciting, I have baby bluebirds again in my nesting box. And we are enjoying all the different types of birds attracted to our feeder including gold finch, cardinals, blue jays, doves and chickadees to name a few. I think the one thing everyone could skip this spring is the pollen and the allergy symptoms!