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!