Scott-Spring Break-no work at RSPS, Busch Gardens, High School photo shoot. Allison returned to school=spring semester. Easter. Shopping for Tom's bday. (end of Lent) Pi day. Dad Seitz bday

So we come to the end of March and the beginning of April. Lots of activities scheduled this weekend. Easter arrived on April 1st(no April Fools!). All four of us celebrated in Williamsburg with a trip to Busch Gardens. Allison worked extra hard to get her homework done so she could have a few days off to join us. We actually prefer to pick her up in Salisbury and drive down to Virginia along the eastern shore(less traffic). And along our ride we watched a rocket as it was blasting off from the Wallops NASA  base! Very cool. We left on Saturday morning after dropping Cookie off to our friends house. We got to Busch Gardens around 3pm so we spent some time on the rides and visiting the shops. That evening we decided to catch a movie and dinner and watched "Ready Player One". The kids were not excited about seeing the film, but surprisingly enjoyed it!  Especially all the video game references and characters. On Sunday we headed to church-there is a beautiful Catholic church with an amazing choir which we visited before-just don't like trying to get out of the parking lot! Afterwards we enjoyed opening our Easter baskets(yeah I can have dessert again!). I was pretty good this year, but I did cheat on Pi Day with a slice of Key Lime Mango Pie. And some birthday cake for our friend Beth's celebration.  We headed back to the park and still had time to do some shopping in Old Town Williamsburg before meeting up with our neighbors for a Chinese buffet dinner. They had decided to drive down to Busch Gardens for the long weekend as well. They invited us back to their hotel suite for drinks while the kids headed back to our hotel room. We enjoyed gin and tonics while watching the live version of Jesus Christ Superstar on tv.

On Monday we all had off, except Allison had class in the evening. So we did some outlet shopping and then drove back to Salisbury. Allison was happy to buy some new clothes for her Northrop job and used her $50 gift card from the Indy car show. We picked up Gift cards from the Ford dealership after signing up for test drives. Funny thing is in Maryland you don't actually have to test drive the car to get the gift card!

Scott was officially on Spring Break starting on Friday. I started his holiday off with a visit to the doctor to get an immunization shot and a physical. Then on Friday I dragged him off to  the mall to visit the photo studio to get his graduation pictures  at the JCPenny studio(I had a gift card) and to do some birthday shopping for Tom's birthday and go out to lunch. We had a great time and got alot done, although Scott was not too excited about the photo shoot. I met him at the mall after stopping into my mom's new apartment complex to pick up the keys, visit the room  and sign the lease. Scott was mostly happy that he had the day off school and did not have to work.  I say a few days because they took away 3 of the students vacation days to make up for snow days. So he was back to school on Weds. Many of the kids were not at school since parents had already made vacation plans months ago. Scott did mind going back to school since he was able to get ahead in a few classes, especially Physics. He even had a quiz that week! All the other kids would have to make up the work. As it is, the classes are all behind because of all the days off due to bad weather.

Allison was just busy with classes and projects with an occasional frisbee practice break. So she really appreciated the break from studying and group projects.

Happy Birthday to Dad Seitz who celebrated his big day on March 29th!

Almost caught up! So Allison was home for the week to enjoy her Spring break in March. She was just happy not to have to worry about homework or schedules. We were also celebrating the First Day of Spring!  Last year Spring came early in February as the weather warmed and lots of flowers and trees were blooming by then. This year it has been chilly, and we actually had a big snow storm on the first day of Spring!

So once again the schools were all closed for several days. We did not just have snow, but lots of ice too. And lots of car accidents. I was supposed to go with the kids for a preliminary oral surgery appointment to have their wisdom teeth removed. I left work early in the snow/ice storm on Tuesday, but when I got home, the clinic had already called to cancel appointments for the rest of the day. Even Scott got out of school early. Scott and Tom were planning on traveling to Kalamazoo for an orientation day for Scott at Western over the upcoming weekend. In order to get a non stop flight up to Grand Rapids they had to leave the day before Orientation at noon. Since the weather had turned, we did not know if their flight was going to be cancelled. Fortunately that did not happen. Their flight was right on scheduled on Thursday. They flew up to Grand Rapids, about a 1 hour flight. They rented a car and drove down to Kzoo, about another hour of travel. They had time to shop at the University bookstore and then attend a Freshman mixer in the evening that I signed them both up for at a local Bowling Alley(similar to a Dave and Busters called the Revel and Roll). They had snacks and coney dogs and did some bowling. They also got some insider tips on planning their Orientation Day on Friday. And one of the girls working the event wouldn't leave Scott alone! Tom finally invited her to bowl with them. And she actually gave them the good tips on getting through the system.

They showed up early for Orientation and walked right in and got to all the stations before the big crowds arrived. Thanks orientation girl!  Primarily Scott was able to get his college photo  ID and make sure he is scheduled for his 2 day orientation  in June. Then he will actually sign up for his classes and get his dorm room assignment. Scott and Tom then  spent the afternoon visiting the Engineering building and met with one of the advisors to talk about the Manufacturing Engineering program and the classes Scott will be taking. They visited the engineer dorm and enjoyed lunch in the new Valley dining hall nearby. Tom was especially impressed with the food choices(not like when we went to school!). Apparently it has an even bigger Food Court set up than Salisbury and lots of terrific menu choices. They also had time to tour a bit of Kalamazoo and have dinner at one of the downtown taverns. And they  spent more time shopping at the bookstore since they were given coupons to buy more Western souvenirs. Overall they both had a wonderful visit and were very productive. They finished up their evening with a movie-Tomb Raider.  So Scott ended up missing only one day of school and work on Friday since everything was closed on Thursday because of the weather.  They flew home on Saturday afternoon after visiting the zoo in Grand Rapids. And Tom took Cookie back to the groomers to take "a little more off the top". She was still looking a bit shaggy. I just couldn't convince him to get her picture with the Easter Bunny at PetSmart(Cookie, like the kids, hates mascots dressed in crazy suits!).

I was expecting to spend the weekend home alone since Allison was scheduled to attend a Frisbee tournament in York PA. Unfortunately for her, they had to cancel the tournament because of all the snow! So instead she was home with me. We enjoyed my water aerobics class in the morning, and did some shopping. We also had to drop off Cookie for her spring trim and pick her up and then we headed over to my mom's apartment to pack up some items.  We then took mom over for her assessment for the new facility. I was hoping to also sign the lease, but unfortunately we could only meet with the nurse. They needed to determine how much assistance Mom is going to need and decided she should move to their 3rd floor medical unit. This floor is not locked, however, Mom will have to wear a bracelet to keep her from accessing the elevators on her own and attempting to leave the building. I think it will be better for her to have more freedom and a bigger, cozier apartment than she currently has on the locked unit in her Sunrise building. And I think we will also enjoy visiting her there. Most of the other residents on that floor have medical conditions and are confined to wheelchairs or using walkers and need more physical assistance. Fortunately Mom does not need as much physical help. The facility is not as fancy-it has been around much longer. But they seem to have quite an extensive amount of activities since it is a much bigger place. I actually think she could easily get lost in the building, so it is probably better that she remain on one floor. So next week I am supposed to meet with the business office to sign the lease and get the paperwork completed. Also Mom needs a chest xray or TB test before moving into the facility.

So on Saturday afternoon I picked Mom up after a wonderful Spring brunch at Sunrise and we went to see the High School's musical together. I had already seen Joseph and the Amazing Technicolor Dreamcoat with Allison and her friend Jen and their family, and I thought Mom would really enjoy it too. Plus they had added more shows since the snow days cancelled their evening shows during the week. We had great seats in the auditorium for the matinee show, it wasn't too crowded(the price is always right) and Mom really seemed to enjoy it!  When we returned to her current apt, I discovered that an xray technician was waiting for us to complete Mom's chest xray! So I got her settled in her room, got the xray and she decided to stay in bed and take a nap before dinner! I really wore her out!

On Sunday, Allison and I had a GS planning meeting to attend. We will be working at an upcoming GS Spring Jamboree camping weekend the first of May, so the team has been meeting to plan activities and food. I was glad Allison was at home to attend the meeting with me. She will be supervising archery and I am helping out with arts and crafts. But on Monday Allison had to head back to school.

On a sad note, I wanted to mention that my best friend, Laura H., lost her mother to heart failure. Rita Cerankowski, 88, was a wonderful woman and mother. Laura's father passed away many years ago, so her mom was living with Laura's brother in their Detroit home. She even tried moving in with Laura and her family when her health began declining, but missed being back in her own place and moved back! We always enjoyed visiting with her and the family when we were in Michigan and traveling through the Detroit area. She was such an active person-loved the Detroit Tigers and the Red Wings and often attended games. She was a Wayne State Grad and had worked as a Lab Technician. And very involved in her church and with the Polish Dance Group, sewing costumes and teaching/managing. I was excited to hear that Laura had taken over the management of their Polish dance group several years ago after teaching and dancing with them herself. I am sure her mom was very proud! We will all miss her Laura and Hejza family!

Trying to catch up with the month of March.  I was trying to adapt to the new time change, just like the rest of us that still change our clocks! I really like that it is light out now when I leave work in the evening, but I am not fond of getting up in the dark.

 I needed some restful sleep-I had a very busy weekend scheduled!  Allison was finishing up two finals and a midterm  before heading home for her Spring Break mid March. She was very nervous about two of her finals, Finance and Information Systems. At least she was starting to feel better after recuperating from a cold. She made it through her Monday Info final and felt confident in at least a B for the class. On Tuesday she participated in a group presentation for a Midterm grade. Her Team is researching an off brand of Perdue chicken-organic, gluten free meats. They have struggled with the project from day one-not a very good group mix. They have not been able to contact the Perdue rep all semester, and she showed up for the presentation 10 mins before going on!  Looks like the group was doing well, until they discussed some of the issues they felt the company had going for it. Turns out their prof did not want them to discuss possible product problems, but issues the team had working together. On Weds Allison called in a panic. The prof was afraid they had offended the Perdue rep and wanted to kick Allison and her team out of the MBA program!Allison was devastated. After multiple phone calls to me and some of her friends, she was calm enough to get through her Finance exam that evening and then meet with the Prof and the Dean of the Business school along with her classmates. They had also contacted the Perdue Rep who reported she was not offended by the presentation, and it was decided that the students would be given a second chance in the Spring semester. Fortunately this class extends into the next semester as this was considered the midterm. Next semester however the Prof will be working very closely with the team to make sure they are on track. Allison is grateful for the assistance-she has worked too hard and has too much to look forward to without worrying about failing! The crazy thing is her Prof said if they had just left that piece out of their presentation he would have given them 100%. Allison feels confident that she and her teammates can only succeed from this point on. And she was ecstatic to learn that she got A's in both of the other classes!(and those were the hardest that she worried most about!). So she only has two new classes left to complete her MBA and finish up this Marketing class. She will be so happy and relieved to be done!

Scotty is also counting the days until graduation!  He stopped into his NHS meeting for the month of March even though he is done with his required hours. He is still quite busy with his Physics and English classes as the teachers are trying to still catch up from this winter's snow days. He finished reading Hamlet in English class and now they are on a tragic story called The Kite Runner(story line sounds horrible). No wonder these poor kids are so depressed in high school-they are always reading sad, tragic stories in English class about someone dying or being assaulted. I think they have enough drama in their own lives!  Scott is however looking forward to his upcoming trip to Kalamazoo and a day long orientation at Western Michigan with Tom towards the end of March. He will actually have to take off 2 days of school, but we had no other choice in dates as there were no scheduled events at Western during his Spring Break. This was the closest date he could get.

 I had an extremely busy weekend planned with Allison.  She came home on Thursday. We decided to kick off her Spring Break with a trip to DC along with her old roommate, Jen. Jen is studying to become a librarian and I have always wanted to visit The National Library of Congress. Jen has never visited the National Library and I just never seem to get the chance to visit with our family, so it seemed our duty to go on the field trip. Our Parks and Rec Dept for Howard County had a trip planned that day with a bus ride down to DC. Unfortunately the trip sold out very quickly. I was put on a waiting list and inquired about them getting a second bus. Which they did so we could go! And it was so much easier taking the chartered bus than trying to drive down and look for parking or catch the train and walk from Union Station.  And I am glad we saved our walking for the Library! The building is gorgeous inside, but full of 4 flights of marble steps, very steep. We were exhausted at the end of our visit from running up and down and all around. Plus it was very cold and windy that day outside which would have made it even more stressful for walking around town.  The Library sits behind the Capital building. It was built when the government was just getting set up in DC. They used to store library books in the basement of the Capital building and heat the buildings with fireplaces. But after several fires sparked by ashes burned up all the books collected for government research,Thomas Jefferson  sold his private collection of books to the Library to restock the shelves. Unfortunately his books were not safe either. Another fire took most of his collection, but many still remain onsite in the Jefferson room. And they are trying to replace copies of some of the books he owned and had sold to the Library. The inside of the foyer/grand hall of the Library was hand decorated(carvings and paintings) by Italian immigrants. They were only given room and board for their work, and the art supplies were included. It is like visiting one of the many cathedrals or palaces in Europe. You can get a Library card, but you cannot check out any books unless you are the President or a member of Congress. However, you can read any books you want there. Also,

the Library is busy digitizing all their collections so you can access anything they have from your own computer(think modern microfiche). And they don't just house books, but movies and music. They had a small display room with info on Bob Hope(Allison and Jen had not heard of him). I think they liked his political humor. Also a Gershwin display and a privately donated collection of Political comics and drawings done by women as well as a room full of historical maps primarily of North and South America during Columbus days with Mayan artifacts. We took one of the private tours of the Main Library but pooped out after all the walking and  went in search of lunch. The Library is a bit like the Smithsonian with two other buildings full of resources all connected underground by tunnels. We followed one tunnel until we got to a Subway sandwich shop  for lunch and then it was off to the gift shop before heading home on the bus. A wonderful, busy day and I did not have to drive in DC traffic! Plus we got a little taste of the Cherry blossoms as they were starting to bloom in DC on schedule for the Cherry Blossom festival starting March 30th. Too bad the Kite festival wasn't scheduled for that day-they would have had no problem getting the kites up in that wind!

My busy weekend was not over. I was up early on Saturday morning to celebrate St Patricks Day!  Our Girl Scout choir was participating in a St Patrick's Day parade. We had a small group, but big enough to make a difference. We have marched in this parade in the past with all the bag pipers, Irish dancers and dogs dressed in their finest green outfits! But this year the Parade leaders seemed in a big hurry to finish and we felt like we ran for 1 hr, while singing and doing hand gestures to our songs! There were no rest periods! Our poor choir director, Dr Pat was exhausted. She has to walk and sing and carry and play the accordion! We really do need a float! It was also a bit chilly that day, and windy. And we ended our event with a medical issue-one of our mom's slipped off a curb and sprained/strained or broke her ankle at the end of our parade. It swelled horribly in just a few minutes. Fortunately there were lots of police and emergency people around for the event, so she got immediate help. But she was also a ride home for some of  us! We regrouped and car pooled with other family members and I hope she is on the mend.

I did not have much time to spare after the parade. I did a bit of errand running, but then Allison and I were off for dinner and a concert Saturday night at a local church. My co worker Anne heard of a Steven Curtis Chapman concert scheduled near our house at a local Lutheran church in their auditorium. This is one of Allison's favorite christian singers. He plays guitar and sings about Love and Family and God. He is married with 3 kids of his own and several chinese adopted children. All are grown now. Sadly they lost one of their adopted children to a tragic car accident. But he and his wife also raise money to help adopt out children from China and to support their orphanages in China, especially for special needs children. Steven's father was also a musician and still teaches guitar lessons back in Kentucky in his 80s. Steven's first song he learned to play on guitar from his Dad was Fulsom Prison by Johnny Cash(he shared a bit of it with us!). And it was a wonderful concert as he played and sang all by himself for 3 hrs(he also mentioned that he is a bit ADHD). It also gave him a chance to talk about his life and his family and their work in China. And we learned that he attended Anderson,  the same college that our nephew Eric's wife, Sarah graduated from in Indiana! Such an enjoyable concert.

So it made for a very long weekend. But I was not done yet. On Sunday, Allison and I joined Jen and her family to see the high school musical, Andrew Lloyd Weber's Joseph and the Amazing Technicolor Dreamcoat. We had not seen this play before and were pleasantly pleased with the music and performance. Although it was quite different than I expected. This is the story from the bible of Joseph, one of Jacob's 12 sons who is a favorite of his dad, and able to interpret dreams. His brothers become jealous and sell him into slavery in Egypt. He is thrown in prison and while there interprets a few dreams. The pharaoh finds out and has him interpret some of his own dreams and makes Joseph his right hand man. Meanwhile, Joseph's family is struggling to survive with drought and limited food sources. They go to Egypt to beg pharaoh for food and do not realize it is Joseph they are asking for the help they need. Joseph plays a trick on them and accuses them of stealing a gold cup. They beg for mercy and he doesn't have the heart to torture them more and reveals himself. And goes home a hero. The entire play is sung, and each song has a different theme(like country, rock n roll Elvis as the Pharaoh, roaring twenties) with a full choir of elementary school kids in the background. Very fun. I plan to take my Mom next weekend.

We got home too late to catch my mom for dinner from the play. I had stopped in after church while she was eating lunch on Sunday, and I picked up a few more items from her apartment to drop off to storage. We have an appointment for mom for her medical assessment in the upcoming week to look into moving into another facility, Harmony Hall.