Memorial Day Weekend May 25-June 3


So Allison came home from school on Thursday after graduation in time for a dentist appointment. On Friday we were busy packing for our weekend Memorial trip, dropping off Cookie at the dog kennel, cutting the lawn and visiting with my mom. I took her out for a hair appointment before the long weekend. Tom had to work so we did not get to leave for our Busch Gardens weekend until Saturday morning. The weekend before I had my van at the car dealership, checking on the brakes. They kept slipping and clunking and I was getting really annoyed(and a little nervous). My front rotars needed replaced mostly and new pads for the back wheels. So much better!  I know Tom wanted to keep working on the car to save some money with online parts, but brakes are a bit important and I really wanted to make sure the car was safe for any upcoming road trips. And now I am ready.

Our neighbors Dan and Gloria stopped by during the week to let us know that they had decided to head down to Busch Gardens as well to enjoy the opening of the Food and Wine Festival over Memorial Weekend. They both needed a break since Gloria decided to quit her current nursing manager position. The position was too stressful and she had had enough. She decided she is going to look into a floor position working with psychiatric patients and give up the manager spots for now. I am not sure that that is any less stressful, but it is a change. She'd actually enjoy retiring however their youngest son just got accepted into Grad school for Political Science/Environmental sciences and they can use the income and to plan for retirement. They also could use some furniture for his dorm room in Delaware. Unfortunately they asked us for Allison's condo furniture a bit too late. Allison already promised most of the large furniture to a fellow frisbee teammate. We need to travel back to Salisbury in July to unload the rest of the condo furniture.

So Dan and Gloria left on Friday before the Holiday weekend and got stuck in horrible traffic. We left early Saturday morning and faired better with lighter traffic. We all decided to head to the water park on Saturday afternoon. The weather was predicted to be warmer with no rain on Saturday. We had a lot of fun on the rides and lounging around Hubba Hubba Highway-the lazy river.  And no tstorms. Afterwards we all headed out to dinner at our favorite Chinese buffet.  The rain moved in during the evening hours, but we still enjoyed a fireworks show at Busch Gardens that evening looking out our window of our hotel room.

On Sunday we were headed to Busch Gardens to enjoy some rides and lots of nibbling at all the food booths and sipping some spirits. It was incredibly hot and we got through the park and lots of munching and drinking late in the afternoon. We decided to take a shopping break at the outlet stores looking for work clothes for Allison and then headed to the Movie Tavern for dinner and the new Star Wars Solo movie(which we really enjoyed). Back at the hotel we noticed our phones buzzing non stop with news of Ellicott City and severe floods. Again.  While we were enjoying our blazing hot,  sunny weekend in Virginia, Maryland was getting blasted with 10 inches of rain in one hour. Once again Olde Ellicott City was turned into a raging river as cars were washed away, buildings were destroyed and lives were at risk. A National Guard volunteer was killed trying to assist a resident as she tried to escape the flood waters with her cat. The same flooding destroyed the town in 2016 and before any improvements could be initiated on managing the flood waters, the town was hit again with worse damage. It appeared that a perfect storm came through-a tropical depression Alberto from the south and a rain storm from the north and they met over Ellicott City. Even our own neighborhood suffered areas of flooding with lots of stranded drivers in their cars as they stalled out on flooded streets. Dan and Gloria's son assisted several stranded neighbors as their cars stalled out in the flood waters in front of their house. A young couple had a close call as their pick up truck was washed off the road into our drainage stream and the young girl was sucked out of the vehicle trying to escape. She was sucked through the drainage pipe in the flood waters under the road and pulled out on the other side by a passerby. Thank goodness. Fortunately no flooding or damage to our house.

Ironically, our neighborhood just had a meeting with county officials to continue the discussion(and our fight)against further development in our neighborhood. There is a strong belief that with all the extra building in our area, it allows the flood waters to just come crashing through the neighborhoods with nothing in the way to slow down or collect the extra water. Not so surprisingly, the rest of the scheduled meetings to discuss further building in our neighborhood have been postponed. We are hoping some good will come out of the flooding with better land management ideas and less over building. And now the County and residents are struggling with a decision to rebuild Olde Ellicott City(again) or to condemn the city completely. For now, the fund raisers to help out the shop owners and employees of Olde Ellicott City have begun(again).

Turns out that it was a good thing Dan and Sheila did not come visit over the weekend. I had planned on taking them out to dinner in Olde Ellicott City on the day of the huge storm and flood. They had to fly back to Houston to help their kids move back home from their Universities. And sadly, Scott had been looking forward to celebrating his graduation with dinner at the local mexican restaurant. Looks like we will have to wait on that.

We headed back home on Monday, Memorial Day. We were disappointed that we missed our friend's 60th Birthday party on Sunday, but I am not sure how well their pool party turned out since it was scheduled on the day of the flood. We seemed to do well in our choice to go out of town!  We still had time in the evening to unpack the car, throw some chicken on the new grill rotisserie and pick up Mom for dinner and Cookie from the dog kennel.

On Tuesday I took off work to attend Scott's high school graduation ceremony in the morning. I brought Allison and Scott to the ceremony at our local outdoor theater and Tom met us after putting in a few hours of work in the morning. We enjoyed a wonderful ceremony and lunch out together at BJs Tavern before heading home.

Scott was done with school having finished his finals the week before. He picked up an all A's report card along with his diploma. He is so excited to be done with high school and on the road to college. And both kids were very excited for our upcoming trip to London!  Tom sat down Tuesday night to organize all our paperwork for our international visit, including organizing our passports. We obtained passports for the kids several years ago since it was recommended that everyone have a passport after 9-11. Tom and I both had passports prior since Tom did quite a bit of traveling for work and at times I would join him. So we figured we were all set and proud of ourselves for thinking ahead. Turns out that when Scott had his 18th Birthday last November, his passport became null and void even though it wasn't expired. Apparently there are kids passports and adult passports and you need one after turning 18. So we had 5 days to get him a new passport!  First things first-I ran him up to the Walgreen's to get a passport photo Tuesday night, 1 hour before they closed. I also gathered up all his personal paperwork while Tom went online to figure out how to obtain a passport as soon as possible. There is a service that can walk your paperwork through for a fee, but they thought we would have better luck taking our forms right down to the immigration office in DC. So guess what Tom and Scott did on Weds! They got up very early and took a train down to the office in DC. They were the first ones in the door and able to drop off their paperwork which was a miracle since most everyone has a scheduled appointment. The office rarely can handle walk ins, but since they arrived first thing in the morning, they had an open slot. However, the passport would not be ready until Thursday afternoon, so they spent some time exploring the area and headed home.

On Thursday, Tom needed to head back to work so Allison headed down to DC with Scott to pick up the finished passport. It would not be ready until after 2pm, so they headed down early to visit some of the museums and monuments. They had a great time exploring DC and stopping into a few Smithsonian museums before picking up his passport. Yeah! Our trip was still on! That was a close one.

On Friday we were all busy packing, cleaning and doing laundry. I also took Cookie in to get a hair cut before dropping her off to our friends house for the week. We dropped her off on Saturday so we would have more time to pack and leave for the airport on Sunday. The weekend was basically spent getting ready for our big trip and cleaning up the house, doing yard work. I also picked up Mom B for a hair appointment and dinner at our house on Saturday since it was going to be awhile before we would

see her again. 

As soon as we get back from London we will be heading to Michigan for Scott's college orientation at Western!

Cheers!

May 14-May 25

So I was still not feeling well come Monday morning and I decided to take a sick day and go to the doctor. We had a lot of activities planned in the coming months and I did not want to be sick. Plus several people I work with all had strep throat and this was looking mighty suspicious.

I also did not feel bad about taking a sick day since I am trying to use up some of my paid time off at work. Unfortunately(or fortunately), my nursing home was bought out by a company out of Ohio. Everyone in the building has a guaranteed job, with no changes in benefits or their accrued time off. Except for rehab. Our department is going to be run by a contract company. I have always tried to avoid contract companies since they can ask you to go anywhere they want and the facility can always dump the contract company(it happened to me once while working at St Agnes). So I decided since I can keep the same work hours and pay that I would go ahead and apply for the job. However, I lose my benefits and all my paid time off. So all of us are trying to use some up since it will not all be paid out.

Unfortunately it was really busy at work but I could not get an appointment until late in the afternoon. I was happy sitting on the couch filling out Scott's graduation announcements. And after my appointment, I started on the 10 day antibiotics. So now I feel great, but everyone else in the family is fighting allergies this spring. And they have been pretty bad. At least I was feeling better by Weds evening. I was scheduled to sing with the GS choir at the annual GS Board Meeting. We usually start the program off with a few GS songs and the flag ceremony. This year our director asked me and another mom to sing a duet, leading the congregation along in our song(several hundred people!). No pressure. I was just happy my voice did not crack from the strep throat!

Allison was busy getting through her finals. Mostly projects and papers, but a few written exams as well. Fortunately, in the class that they had the horrible failure with the presentation that apparently offended everyone on the planet, they were able to turn it around and get an A on the second go round. Allison was so relieved. Turned out she managed to earn two more As in the other two classes and ended up graduating from the MBA program with a perfect 4.0! She was ecstatic! And so were we!

On May 23rd, Weds,  I was  off work so we could drive to Salisbury to attend Allison's MBA graduation ceremony. I decided to work on Sunday to take off Weds. I wish I had known our company was sold before then. I would have taken off another day. Of course I had to squeeze in several more activities in the morning before heading out to Salisbury. I scheduled a Care Plan meeting for my mom in the morning. The team only meets on Weds mornings, so the timing was good. I sat and chatted with the nursing staff for 1 hr to cover some basic needs for mom. So far we are very happy with her living situation and she seems to enjoy it too. Lots of activities. If I could just get her on a regular schedule for hair appointments. Their salon is too busy, so I have been trying to take mom out to get her hair done each week which can be tricky with the timing and my busy schedule. I also requested for transportation from the facility to take mom to the Sr Center program again on Thursdays. And it is FREE!

Besides meeting with the staff for mom, I had to drop Cookie off at the doggy day care for a play date! We decided to go down to Busch Gardens for the Memorial Day Weekend at the last minute since we were all going to be available and home. We had planned on staying home and having visitors for the holiday. My brother Dan and his wife Sheila were going to visit from Pittsburgh. Dan has relocated for work and both are living in an apartment in Pittsburgh for the next few years. However, they had a change of plans as Dan needed to help his two kids move out of college. His daughter Caroline graduated this Spring as well with a Psychology degree from Oklahoma. Congrats Caroline! Her brother Clayton still has another semester at Texas A and M in Mechanical Engineering. Caroline is now off to Scotland for international classes. We actually looked into Scott taking a freshman engineering class in Scotland this summer as well, but the cost was a bit much on top of regular tuition. And Tom is so happy to have finally finished his recent online class. This one kept him very busy every night writing papers and having online discussions. But he plans on taking the summer off of school since we will be traveling quite a bit.

And speaking of travel, we planned on heading to  Busch Gardens for Memorial Day weekend to enjoy the opening of the Food and Wine festival. We did not want to bother our neighbors with puppy sitting since Cookie will be with them for a few weeks while we travel this summer, so Tom thought we should drop her off at Camp Bow Wow dog kennel. However, she has not been there in awhile, so I had to send in all her veterinary paperwork and bring her in for a play date to get reacquainted with the place and the staff. So I dropped her off Weds morning, went to Mom's care plan with a quick visit and then back to pick up Cookie before going home and changing, getting lunch and heading to Salisbury for Allison's graduation. Scott decided to stay home since he was finishing up his high school finals and had mandatory graduation practice. He was also spending some extra time with his friends with lunch and dinner outings as they neared the end of their high school careers!

We arrived in Salisbury late in the afternoon and took Allison shopping at the bookstore and onto campus for some graduation photos. Then we headed over to their local arena for the early evening Masters and PhD graduation ceremony. It was a very nice ceremony(and air conditioned!). We enjoyed watching them place their Master's stole over their heads when they were called onto stage. Since there are a bit less people at this ceremony than the undergrad program, we finished in 1.5 hrs as opposed to 2.5 hrs and went out to dinner afterwards at Longhorn Steakhouse. Then we headed back to Allison's condo to load up the van with some of her things. She had been bringing back lots of clothes on trips home, but now we were moving kitchen items and furniture. Turns out her roommate Helena from Venezuala was hosting a graduation party of her own at the condo. Her family was in town and her father insisted that everyone have champagne! He bought a bottle for Allison, shook it up and made her open it! Fortunately outside on the deck. We had a wonderful time visiting with Helena's family and all their friends, but really needed to get going since it was after 10pm and we had about a 2.5 hr drive home. Plus Tom and I were working the next day. Allison stayed and they kept her at the party until 1am and then she crashed. She had to get up early the next morning and pack up some more items in her car and get home for a dentist appointment! 

One Graduation ceremony down, one to go!  Also sending out a Belated Happy Birthday to Stacey(Seitz)Draper. The Big 3-0! Can't be!

And another Belated Happy Birthday to Christopher Bozyk who celebrated his 21st Bday!

May 7-May 13

Happy Mother's Day!  I had big plans for Mother's Day. Allison was busy getting through her projects as she neared the end of her semester. She worked ahead to clear her schedule so we could plan on visiting her at Salisbury. She purchased tickets to the Salisbury Orchestra performance of Video Game theme music Saturday night. We were all looking forward to visiting with her at school. Unfortunately, I was not feeling very well on Saturday morning. I did stop into Scott's Engineering Expo at school in the morning.. All the kids in the engineering program presented their year long projects. Scott presented his handicap planter. We stopped into Home Depot during the week to pick up some more plants. He had planted veggies which he started from seed, but they did not fair well inside the school for several months. So we picked up some fresh pepper plants and flowers, tomato plants to spruce it up. Early in the morning, one of his classmates helped Scott load the planter on the back of his pick up truck and drive it to the hosting school. All of the projects were voted on and only one was picked as overall winner in design and technical difficulty. Scott's project was not chosen in the top 10, but non of the projects from his school were chosen as winners. It was still a lot of fun to see all the different projects the kids came up with. Afterwards, Scott's classmate helped deliver it back home. When I got home, I took a nap before heading out to Salisbury. We took Allison out to dinner at the Texas Roadhouse(lots of leftovers for her!) and then enjoyed the evening concert on campus. Although Tom and Scott would have preferred to watch the video games while they played the music.

On Sunday I still was not feeling well, but I did not want to spend Mother's Day at the urgent care clinic.  I noticed that I was getting some white stuff on the back of my sore throat and had a bit of a fever. But I muddled through and put together a Mother's Day dinner at our house for my Mom. I dropped her off at the hairdresser while I picked up the groceries. I also put together a photo postcard online with her new address(that I still have to mail out). After dinner, Tom drove my mom home so we could hook up her phone system. I have never been so frustrated with hooking up a phone! Now that Mom B is in a new apartment, the phone bills are separate from rent. Everything was included in her last building.  So when I called to have Verizon installed, they sent me a phone box, just like the cable. I called to hook it up and they asked if I would like to keep Mom's old phone number. I figured that would be easier and was waiting 2 weeks for it to be activated. When nothing happened, I called the service number and they told me they could not transfer the old number without a copy of the previous phone bill. However, I did not have a phone bill from Mom's last facility since the phone was included in the overall charges. So we set up a new number. I had to visit the Verizon store during the week to get it all straightened out. So I just wanted Tom to make sure it was running. Which it now is doing!  I also dropped off some flowers and new shirts for mom for mother's day.

Meanwhile, Tom was so excited about his toaster oven birthday present, he decided to get me an even bigger, digital toaster oven for Mother's Day and put his birthday toaster oven away for Allison. I also got a bracelet from Allison and Solo tshirt from Tom. Now I am set for the upcoming film!  And Scott was busy cutting the grass.

Spring finally rolled in and everything was in bloom. Our cherry and magnolia trees were beautiful, but the blooms did not last too long. Neither did the daffodils. But we enjoyed them while we had them, and the warm weather. Mom really enjoys riding through our neighborhood to see all the blooming trees, flowers and shrubs. Next came the tulips, azaleas and rhodedendrons. And the blue birds moved into my bird house and are busy raising a new family. The bird house and feeder also attracted a few wrens. Since the blue birds chased them away from the bird house, they had to settle on nesting in a flower pot and a small pine tree nearby. Usually the wrens nest in a Tiki bar on our deck, but it was starting to fall apart so Tom hauled it off to the dump. So they had to resettle elsewhere. A very busy nature center in our back yard! And time for allergies and ear infections in dogs. I had Cookie back to the vet for another ear infection. She needed more ear drops and this time we tried antibiotics. Anything to keep her from shaking her head all the time!

Tom has also been eyeing a new Weber grill. I kept telling him to bite the bullet and buy an upgraded version because our current grill was falling apart. He did not believe me until he tried to move it off the deck to make room for his new grill. The bottom fell out, but someone still took it when he dropped it off by the curb. So he upgraded his Weber grill for the new grilling season and both Scott and Tom have become pros trying it out. Or at least feel like pros on the new grill!