June 25-June 30, 2018  Catching up with the Summer Months!

So Tom was off in Salt Lake City for the week and Allison was off to GS camp.  Scott and I were holding down the fort.

I spent Monday morning dropping Cookie off at the vet. I had taken her in the week before because she had an ear infection since March that would not clear up. The vet decided he should put Cookie under to clear out her ear and make sure she did not have anything down there causing an infection. So I had to drop Cookie off in the morning for her procedure for the day before work.  Poor puppy.  Turns out, there was nothing abnormal in Cookie's ear, just lots of fluff, but seems that she benefitted from having the ear wash. Will do two more weeks of ear drops just in case. And also use of Benadryl for allergies.  Fortunately Cookie has no problem taking pills hidden in a snack!

I spent my Friday off work getting a physical for the contract company, just in case I decide to stay. Or even if I decide to take a part time job with them.  Or anyone else for that matter since they were paying for it. I also had a TB test done at work(twice per requirement) which comes in handy for other jobs.  Just keeping my options open. However, looks like I can take some time making a decision as I received big news. At the end of the week, the owners announced that they would be staying one more month. I was happy!  This meant that I still had dental insurance for the kids surgery, as well as a paid Holiday-upcoming 4th of July! And my vacation at the end of the month would be covered! However, the rest of our department had already taken other jobs. Our OT assistant decided to stay on for the month part time.  There was only myself and my friend Anne, a PT assistant that were still hanging in there. Anne however was a bit frustrated because she was promised a chance for the supervisor position. I was really hoping she would have been given the position since we work so well together. Instead, the new contract company pushed ahead and put someone else in the spot. And they offered Anne a lot less income for the same position. So she was busy job hunting elsewhere.

I also started job hunting elsewhere to see if there were better options out there. I started with a phone interview for a part time Home Health position in our area. I also have my resume posted on several job websites. And of course I am getting lots of calls and emails. Trying to keep all my options open. I would like a flexible work schedule since I spend time with my mom, and now that Scott is going away to school, we will probably be traveling up to Michigan more often. And maybe I can tag along with Tom on some of his work trips sometime!

A whole new world out there!  Meanwhile, Allison had returned from GS Theater camp.  She did not think she was going to like it since she is not into theater, but turns out the girls were absolutely wonderful. Also, they took a trip in the middle of the week to a Dinner/Theater restaurant to see The Wizard of Oz. Allison said the food was wonderful and so was the play.  Afterwards the cast took photos and met with the girls.  Unfortunately, the weather was incredibly hot-in the upper 90s/low 100s. The girls appreciated time away from camp in an air conditioned dinner theater. However, it did not seem to be enough for Allison. She returned from camp over the weekend feeling drained and ill again. Something about being outdoors for a week at GS camp really wears out Allison and does not help her anemia.

Over the weekend, Tom returned from Salt Lake City.  We tried talking Allison into staying home from GS camp for the rest of the summer in preparation for her upcoming "real" job at the end of July. However, the upcoming Holiday week at camp was only a short one because the 4th landed on WEds and Allison felt she could handle a short camp stay. So on Sunday she was off again.  I spent the day with my mom. The summer county theater group was putting on the musical "Annie". They did a fabulous job, but the show was in a local high school theater and there was no padding on the seats! Wooden seats are a little hard on the tush for 2 hrs. At least it was air conditioned which felt great from our scorching temps. And Mom was a trooper-she sat and enjoyed the whole play for 2 hrs(but also complained that the seats were not comfortable!). Afterwards I had her over for dinner with Scott and I on our patio as the temperatures started to cool a bit in the evening.

During the week, Tom and I celebrated our 31st Wedding Anniversary on June 27th! Just like our first year of marriage, we celebrated  in separate states! Tom sent me a beautiful bouquet of flowers to mark the big day!  (I owe him a dinner!)

June 18-June 24

Happy 1st Day of Summer-June 21st! (Catching up with summer blogs!)

We were finally back at home from our Michigan trip and back to work. However, the owners of my Nursing Home had quite a surprise for the entire staff. Our building had been sold, and not to the current company. The owners of Transition Nursing Home were leasing the building, and the facility owners decided to sell the business. That meant all of us could either stay with the new company, or we were out of jobs. And unfortunately for the Rehab Dept, we were going to be taken over by a contract company. Which meant our team had to apply for new jobs. I decided to stay since I could work my same schedule for the same salary. However, the benefits were not as good and I was going to lose all my vacation and sick time. I would get it paid out, but I had a few upcoming trips already scheduled, and the new company could not guarantee my future time off. So I would have to wait and see if they could get coverage.

The rest of our team decided to take other jobs as they were not offered equitable pay. So it looked like we would only be working together for one more month-to the end of June. How sad. Our team has been together for the past 5 years, and we all work very well together. Not to mention we were all very experienced therapists. Meanwhile the facility staff began dropping out and moving on to other places as well. Our Human Resources Dept started filling in missing rehab staff with contract therapists including a rehab director and speech therapists.  Our previous rehab manager became ill and was no longer able to return to work. What a crazy situation.

Tom was also busy packing for a two week work trip to Salt Lake City. He was glad he did not take any summer PhD classes this year since we have been so busy. He will start up again in the fall however.

At the beginning of the week,  both kids had appointments at the oral surgeon's office to discuss their upcoming surgery to remove their wisdom teeth. We have been putting this off for a few years and decided it was finally time. Allison was going to start her new job and not have much time off. Scott was going off to school for 4-5 years and figured now that we had the time, we should take care of this as recommended by the dentist and the surgeon. Both kids had wisdom teeth that were growing in under their molars, or impacted, and needed to come out. Both kids would be sedated and decided to schedule their surgeries on the same day in July!  I took them to a new oral surgeon recommended by our dentist. Allison had a tooth pulled when she was younger by our previous dentist and surgeon and she did not enjoy the experience(actually hated it so much she would not go back to him!)  They both really liked the new oral surgeon, Dr Richardson, and he took both of our dental insurances, so we would be covered even when my job was discontinued.

So that was taken care of (for now). Allison does not have much time before she starts her Northrop Grumman job. However, she decided to spend the few weeks before her start date working at the Girl Scout summer camp since this would be her last opportunity. She really wanted to spend some time with her old friends and was also hoping to have her camp name, Dragon, retired after working so many years. So she was busy packing her camping gear for the upcoming week. The kids in the state of Maryland were just now finishing school. We had several snow and ice days this past school year, so they extended classes until mid June. So camp would not be starting until next week. Allison asked to work at camp rather than the travel camp this year since she was so sick last year. She did not want to take any chances. She left on Sunday morning and was assigned to the Theater Camp.

Scott was done with his job at After Care at Resurrection school. He decided to put in an application for work at Home Depot for the summer. He really did not have a lot of time left for a summer job until classes start at Western. He also decided he had had enough time spent working with kids at the After Care program during the school year and really could not handle 2 more months of Summer Camps as a counselor. I did not blame him. We also looked into having him take a summer college class. Unfortunately, he kept missing all the summer college class start times with our scheduled vacations and trips. We even looked into having him take an engineering class in Scotland for incoming freshman students, but it was going to be too expensive, so it looks like he will have a pretty laid back couple of months!

We did attend a small Art Reception that week put on by his High School teacher. The woodland carving Scott completed was highlighted with multiple students art work from his high school at our local Nature Center. His art work was also highlighted in a county wide Art Show at our local mall in the spring.  We had a private viewing at the Nature Center with hors d'oevres and punch. Very nice. 

So we were back home, but not for long! I switched my work day to Monday since we got back earlier than expected. We had thought the flight was supposed to get in early Monday morning and I had taken the day off. I really needed to get on the road with Scott for his orientation trip to Western Michigan.

We had planned on making it another family vacation leaving on Weds. Turns out Tom had an inservice rescheduled during that week in which he was running a program for Northrop's HR department and couldn't get out of it. So we were on our own. And I am not a long distance driver, so I had to break up the trip into 2 days of driving. The kids and I jumped in Allison's car and headed out Tuesday morning. Turns out Allison did all of the driving for me. My  right hip was killing me from all of the stair climbing and  walking in London and I did not think it would manage a 10 hr car trip. So we drove up to Ohio on Tuesday and stopped for the night. Scott was scheduled for a 2 day orientation at Western on Thursday and Friday.  They had a family program along with his, so I dragged Allison to the presentations with me. We arrived a day early at Western on Weds and did a drive by of the campus. Although we had a stop over for a Minute Clinic visit in Ohio in the morning for Scott who was still fighting a cold and an eye infection from our trip to London. We got some medicated eye drops and were on our way. We had to check Scott into the dorms for an overnight by 8am on Thursday.  I noticed all the other parents and kids bringing in linen and pillows, blankets and fans. However, we did not get an email ahead of time and was not sure what to bring. I did call to make sure Scott was still signed up for orientation, as well as to find out about a parking pass. But the girl never mentioned needing to bring your own linen for the sleepover. Scott dropped off his backpack with a change of clothes to his dorm room. I offered to run back to the hotel to pick up a few supplies, like a pillow and blanket, but he figured he would survive overnight with the dorm sheets and an open window. He also took some measurements of the room since it is the same layout as the room he signed up for in the engineering dorm to help him plan what to pack. Then we headed over to a group wide, morning orientation session with a light breakfast. At lunch, Allison and I stayed in the meeting room with hundreds of parents and had a wonderful lunch followed by even more parental orientation on life in college while the students went off for their own lunch and orientation. The kids participated in group programs, campus tours and were treated to a play by the theater students giving them a taste of life in college. Scott could have skipped the team building sessions, but enjoyed the meals in the new dining hall and even the play. Looks like he had a dorm room all to himself that night, but he worried that someone would show up late. That did not seem to be the case however, and he was up very early the next day for breakfast and a bus trip over to the Engineering campus. He had the opportunity to speak to a counselor and sign up for his fall classes all before we parents were done with our morning orientation program. Looks like Scott will be taking pre calc., chemistry and lab and a few engineering graphics classes. He did not have to take any pre placement testing to determine class schedules-the school goes by the ACT/SAT scores. The following day we were also treated to the same play that the kids had seen the day before. An hour and a half production on Life in College with question and answer period following for parents. It was actually very good and very funny and they even threw in music and dance. The night before Allison and I were treated to hors d'oevres while we strolled through multiple booths set up for us to learn about the different services provided on campus for the students, everything from educational programs to tutoring, job opportunities and medical care, scholarships and sporting events.  Afterwards, Allison and I were too pooped to go out to dinner, but we did take a quick run over to Meijers for some local shopping and then picked up dinner to take back to the hotel. In the morning we did not have to arrive quite so early, but we met up with Scott after the play. We were all supposed to have lunch and a reception at the Engineering building, but those engineers were so efficient, they finished their program way before our play ended.  So we drove back to the Engineering building to enjoy our free hot dog lunch in their dining hall, took a quick tour of the engineering building, rescued a baby bird at the front entrance,  and chatted with a Chemical Engineering student about classes and life on campus then headed out to South Haven.

I wanted to spend the day on the Lake Michigan beach at South Haven, but the kids weren't exactly prepared for swimming and it was very hot. They did not feel like dragging out their suits and changing in the bathroom, I did not bring enough beach chairs or the umbrella, so they opted for walking along the shore with their feet in Lake Michigan and stopping into Kilwins for ice cream in town. There was also a Dragon Boat festival setting up for races on Saturday morning  so we checked out their Arts and Crafts booths before heading back to the hotel and carry out dinner.

On Saturday we hit the road and stopped near Pittsburgh. My brother Dan had recently relocated to the Pittsburgh area for work, so we had a chance to stop in and visit. His wife Sheila was back in Houston for now watching both their dog and son Clayton's dog for the summer. Dan had the cat. It was nice to catch up in person and he took us out to a great restaurant for dinner. Thanks Dan!
We also thought it was ironic that our hotel was right next to the Pittsburgh Penguins Ice Arena. They have their Stanley Cup Banners hanging outside the facility. We just enjoyed our local Washington Capitals Stanley Cup win for the first time. Unfortunately we were in London during the end of the series and missed the winning game. We enjoyed catching up on the games when we returned home and watched the recordings as well as the celebration parade in DC that took place the week we were gone to Michigan.

On Sunday we were back in Baltimore. Tom's inservice turned out to be a great success and we filled him in on all the info he missed at parent orientation.

Day 6, Saturday,  in London-our last full day of vacation. We decided to spend the day visiting all the big museums. They all have free admission, which was good since we used up our London Pass. Most of the museums are located near Buckingham palace, so we thought we'd swing by and watch the changing of the guards before visiting the Natural History Museum.

Turns out, the Second Saturday in June is set aside to celebrate the Queen's Birthday. We did not know what to expect at the palace, but we thought we'd get an early start. After our train and subway ride, we arrived near Westminster Abbey. We thought we'd run in for a quick visit since none of us has seen the inside of the beautiful church. Still have not seen the inside-it was closed for a private event planned for the Royals.

So we made our way to the front of Buckingham palace. We discovered quite a crowd had gathered, along with tv cameras and reporters. We did not realize that the Royal family takes a carriage ride down the Mall to the Wellington Barracks, a nearby armory where the Queen inspects the Troops, AKA Trooping the Colours, and then heads back to the palace. So we were caught up in the parade crowds. Scott tried climbing on a fence pole to see over the people, but a Bobbie quickly asked him to get down. So we had to watch the parade from the back of the crowd and just glimpsed the top of the Royal family heads-mostly of the Queen's hat. Afterwards, as the crowd dispersed, we walked over to the History museum.

It is an incredibly beautiful and massive building with lots of incredibly old artifacts including dinosaurs, stuffed animals and birds, some brought back by Charles Darwin himself. We then planned on visiting the Science museum, however, after checking out my tour book, Tom thought the British museum would be a bit more fascinating. Turns out he was right! The British Museum was full of amazing mummies and artifacts. And when we left the Science museum, we were treated to an aerial display over London in honor of the Queen's Birthday! Guess we missed the entire family on the balcony of Buckingham Palace, but we really could not have seen much of anything with all the crowds. Instead we enjoyed watching the festivities on the BBC tv broadcast that evening when we got back to the hotel.

We stopped into another pub for a late lunch, and on our way back to the hotel, we slipped into the National Portrait Gallery to catch some of the paintings of quite a number of very famous Brits like Shakespeare, Handel, Queen Victoria, Beatrix Potter, Prince Harry and Prince William, Queen Elizabeth and  celebs like Amy Winehouse as well as  our very own George Washington. We really enjoyed our day of touring the museums, but it makes for a rough visit since none of the buildings are air conditioned and they are quite large and full of lots of stairs.

We found our way back to our vacation starting point at Trafalgar Square, but we did not stay long. A very large crowd of demonstrators was gathering-some to protest eating meat and others for the release of some political prisoner. And the crowd was getting ugly as they took over one of the double decker tour buses. That was our cue to head back to the hotel. And also watch the protest on tv.  We did take one last walk through Kingston along the river to say goodbye to the swans before stopping in a local restaurant for a late dinner. We considered heading to the movie theater to catch the opening in London of Jurassic World, but we were all a bit to worn out from our long day of hiking through the museums.

On Sunday it was time to pack up and head home. Tom decided we would take the train to Heathrow airport(not again), but he chose a different route based on some phone app. This time we were headed all the way to Paddington station, quite a bit north of Heathrow. It did not make a whole lot of sense to me-I was navigating as the crow flies-a more direct path on trains and subways just like our arrival route. But we packed up and headed to

Paddington station, running for our train. We boarded an incredibly fancy train, not like the basic commuter trains we were used to riding and discovered that our Oyster pass did not work on this train. This was a special airport commuter train. You had to buy separate tickets for this train and each ran around 40.00 American dollars-one way, per ticket. Tom's app showed him the fastest way to the airport, but not the cheapest. We quickly grabbed our suitcases and hopped off. Tom broke down and decided to call for an Uber ride. We located our ride in about 20 mins outside the train station and had quite an enjoyable, if not exciting ride through the streets of London to Heathrow airport. And a whole lot cheaper for all 4 of us. We managed to get to the airport with plenty of time to spare before our flight, so we opted for lunch at Gordon Ramsey's restaurant inside the terminal as well as spending some time souvenir shopping.

We had another wonderful flight home and since this was during the day, we spent a lot more time watching movies and playing video games. I managed to catch up with 3 oscar winning/nominated films. And again, British airways fed us way too much food.

So we arrived back in Baltimore early in the evening and we even had time to pick up Cookie from our neighbors before heading to bed. We all agreed that our trip to London was quite a highlight for our family vacations and we would all love to go back!