So Scott was finally on his Spring Break in the middle of April. He still had to go to work, but we did not sign him up for any sessions during the middle of the week. Tom and I still had to go to work, and he did not have a ride. Scott did have to start his training classes on Tuesday night.  But then he worked his regular weekend schedule.

Actually, if he had to go to work, Tom would have been able to drive him. Turns out, Tom has not been very busy at work since the new year began, so he has been spending a lot more time at home. His team has been reorganized, so he has not had many projects to keep him busy. Instead, he has been focusing most of his time and energy on his schoolwork. Which is good for his schoolwork. But he also has spent time working on projects around the house. Not so good for me as it usually means more cleaning on my end.

Like he cleaned out the pantry, cabinets and the freezer. Which made it tough to locate items I was searching for(I have my own system for organizing which makes it worse since I am usually the one who spends the most time in both places!). Then he decided to trim more branches off the maple trees along our street. He managed to get two trees trimmed and after he cut up all the tree branches, he left a huge pile of logs and twigs that ran the entire length of our house! And that was only 2 trees! Naturally, the county won't pick up plant debris unless it is packed up in recycle bags. So it took several weeks to sweep and bag tree limbs and branches, and Tom finally had to pack up the big logs and take them to the recycle dump. Plus I am still raking up leaves from under the bushes from last fall! I wish Tom felt compelled to spread the rest of the mulch sitting in our driveway from last year. We had way too much. He did decide to take on all the lawn care himself this year including spreading fertilizer and crabgrass killer. And since it has been so much warmer this spring and so much earlier, he has started to cut the grass since it is growing out of control. Then he decided to change out our front door screen. He put in a new storm door that has just a half screen up top. It looks OK. Mainly Tom was worried about the full length door screen that we already had getting pushed in/out by the pets and visitors. At least I put him to good use getting my flat tire repaired on my van.

Since he was interested in transferring to another department,  he interviewed with a previous work group and  is waiting to hear back. He just needs the manager to agree to continue to pay for his PhD. I hope he hears from the group soon! I really don't need any more new projects to clean up after!  As it was, I put in extra hours at work. One of our OT's was feeling ill, so I ended up working for her on Friday. On Saturday we were planning on traveling to Williamsburg after Scott got off work, so after I dropped him off, I stopped in to visit with my mom. I wanted to drop off her Easter basket since we were going to be out of town on the holiday. She loved her new shirts, Easter sweet treats and the Disney bracelet we picked up for her during our Florida visit. I also dropped off some hyacinth bulbs in full bloom. I couldn't stay long since I needed to get back home and pack the van. I also had to drop Cookie off to our friends for the weekend.

We felt bad that Scott didn't really seem to have much of a Spring Break. So we decided to take him to Busch Gardens on Easter Sunday. Allison wanted to join us, so she met us in Williamsburg Saturday night. After Scott got off work we headed down to Williamsburg  Saturday night and all stayed overnight at a local hotel. It was fun spending the night together, and we decided to check out our Easter baskets that evening since we wanted to get an early start at Busch Gardens the next day. I teased the kids and told them I hid their Easter baskets somewhere in the hotel(yes, Allison got another Easter basket). I couldn't help myself. I had packed a few extra treats from my trip to Philly that I included in everyone's basket like chocolate covered pretzels for Allison and Old City Coffee for Tom. For Scott it was coconut covered chocolate "bunny tails". I treated myself to a few Beatrix Potter's Peter Rabbit figurines that I bought from one of our neighbors the week before. I had a Royal Doulton collection started when I was young, and was excited to see someone in our neighborhood parting with a few statues that I hadn't seen before. Plus they are sugar free!

We had a wonderful day at the Amusement Park. The kids were most excited to try out the new wooden roller coaster and the day was absolutely gorgeous. 90 degrees but not too hot or humid. Although a bit too warm for this time of the year. It was amazing how green the trees were in Virginia. It is only 3 hours away, but it seems like a completely different world. We topped off our end of Lent celebration with ice cream sundaes. Sadly, it was time to get back home, so we parted ways with Allison. She had driven herself down the eastern shore and wanted to head back to school before it got too late. She had a 3 hr drive and our ride home took about 5 hours because of traffic. Fortunately, Tom and Scott did not have to worry about getting up early the next day since Tom still did not have much work and Scott had Easter Monday off. Lucky guys. I was back to work.

At least Scott was able to move forward on his paperwork for his Eagle project during his time off. He finished all the paperwork for his Eagle notebook during his Spring Break. Then he was able to have his notebook reviewed by his Eagle coach and the Scoutmaster during the scout meeting while he was off from school. Next step is to have a Scoutmaster conference. This is the time when the scoutmaster quizzes the boys on all the knowledge they have learned since they started scouts, including such  info on first aid, knot tying, emergency procedures and the history of boy scouting. Pretty much involves memorizing the boy scout handbook. Looks like he won't have time for that until after school gets out in June.