So we made it back to Baltimore-Scott, Tom and myself last Sunday. Allison stayed behind to enjoy several more weeks with Grandma and Grandpa Bozyk and the lake house.
When we got home, we immediately noticed that someone had "borrowed" the use of our house. Our back sliding door was unlocked with the patio chairs pulled out from the patio table, and food was left on the kitchen counter along with some pans, cheese stick wrappers next to the couch and someone was into the microwave popcorn. Someone had been playing video games and watching movies(we found a movie on the counter and bed pillows on the couch). Our water was turned on and off by a different valve, along with the ice maker, and the air conditioner had been reset. The strangest thing of all was finding the master bed remade along with throw pillows(Tom hates throw pillows). We thought our neighbors must have used our house-we have been having many power outages lately with two tornado warnings while we were gone, or perhaps we thought our neighbors air conditioner went out like ours did as well. But no note and no phone message. We had asked our neighbors, Dan and Gloria, to watch the cat and gerbils for us while we were gone, which they did. We checked in with them and after an entire week of discussions, finally determined that their 16 yr old daughter and her girlfriend had helped themselves to our house after being asked to check on the pets. Our biggest fear was that the girls had also entertained boys in our house. Both sets of the girl's parents assured us that the girls were accounted for at all times and there were no boys involved. Tom and I still don't believe it. Tom changed all the locks on our house. I also took no chances and dragged all of my oversized comforters off to the dry cleaners. We got a limited apology from Kelsey-their daughter-who did not admit to everything, and some things she actually blamed on her girlfriend which then made her friend mad. Kelsey was grounded for two weeks and she no longer is allowed back in our house unless she is supervised by an adult. And her girlfriend was pretty mad at her too. I understand there was lots of crying. Meanwhile, we can't trust her anymore, and we can't leave our key at our our neighbor's house for fear that their daughter will come over to our place again or let her friends come over to our house. Tom did install a keyless entry though so we could give our neighbors a code rather than a key to get in and then change it when we come back. It is just sad that Kelsey decided to lie to us and use us like she did after how good we have been to her and her family. I guess she figured we would not mind, and we probably would not have-at least if they had asked or even cleaned up after themselves. And the whole bed thing is still a mystery. The friend's mom said her daughter probably made up the bed after looking for our cat in our room. Pika tends to sleep on our bed and hide underneath it and Kelsey said her friend went upstairs looking for the cat. Anyhow, it was quite the week of ups and downs. We decided to wind down by all of us adults enjoying an evening out with no kids at a local winery on Saturday night. We packed a picnic dinner after I got back from work and enjoyed wine and live Motown music at a local winery. It was a fun and relaxing evening after a difficult week. Allison was still in Michigan, and Scott went off for an overnight swim/play date with the neighbor's that recently moved. Scott has really been missing his friend Sammy, and his parents invited Scott to spend the weekend at their new house. They had a great time.
Meanwhile, the new neighbors moved in. They have a 7 yr old boy and 5 yr old girl. A bit too young for Scott and Allison(although Allison sees potential babysitting). We tried to chat with the new couple, Steve and Kim, but did not get much info from them. I think they are overwhelmed with the move in. They had lots of family members over moving boxes over the weekend. I am sure once they get settled we'll have some interesting things to chat about since the wife works for Oceaneering on submarines and the husband is a computer software guy. I mostly see the husband watching the kids, so mom must be pretty busy with work.
I was pretty busy at work-I was asked to work on Friday too but I had Scott to watch and Tom was off to Chicago last week. Scott only had a 4 day camp last week, so he was home on Friday. Instead I offered to work on Saturday.
Scott loved his camp last week-sponsored by the Howard County Parks and Rec Dept-Adventures to Go. He spent the week bike riding, playing laser tag, canoeing and kayaking, hiking and his most favorite activity, tubing on the Antietam River all day. We had a big storm one afternoon, and I was glad to know that the kids had an indoor building to go to and play sports in during the storm. Usually the YMCA camp has the kids stand under a pavilion during the storms which is not much fun. I think I would have loved going to the Adventures to Go camp myself.
Allison was busy in Charlevoix at a sailing camp. She went last year and had a good time. The sailing camp is sponsored by the MSU 4H group. She had a fun week, and also enjoyed Mom and Dad Bozyk's house guest's, the Dugans. Pat and Gerry Dugan, their college friends, spent a few days visiting after we all left. They all enjoyed going out to dinner and a boat cruise around Lake Charlevoix. Allison also enjoyed beating all of the adults at board games each night!
I also managed to get in my water sports last week at paddle practice for the upcoming Dragon Boat races in Sept. It was a bit windy so we all got very wet paddling in the harbor and we only had 9 out of 20 paddlers show up for practice, so it was an intense workout.
I also had to stop into the Verizon store on the way home to figure out how to use my new phone. The screen went black after the battery drained and I was having a hard time getting it to turn on again. Guess I just wasn't aggressive enough turning it back on. Not to mention I couldn't figure out all the different buttons. I thought it had died like my computer screen.
On Sunday, Tom and I spent time getting projects done around the house. We both worked in the yard-I was busy trimming bushes and shrubs and Tom was laying down dirt in some bare spots and holes along with a bit of grass seed all around our yard. We'll probably put down quite a bit more seed in the fall. Tom is also attempting to kill some nasty Bermuda grass that is trying to take over our lawn. It is a viney grass that grows into all the flower beds and covers up all the good Fescue grass. Tom can't spray weed killer since it will kill our whole lawn, so he is trying out a new product just for Bermuda grass. It is a very slow process. I am also fighting a continuiing battle of the bugs. My kitchen cabinets were infested with moths brought into the house from the pet store in Cookie's dog food. I had emptied out my baking cabinet, and put all the boxed goods in the garage until I was sure the cabinets and the boxes were bug free. Tom got tired of the bags of food taking up his side of the garage, so he took all the food to the dump. Guess I won't be baking for awhile. I also have to fight off ants that keep finding a different route into our kitchen. The newest batch is hanging out in the kitchen sink. At least I can wash most of them down the drain, along with the ant traps all over the counters. I would like to be done with bugs now. This winter it was an infestation of stink bugs. What a fascinating year.
We also decided to take a break and shop for a kitchen table(still looking after 6 years). We are trying to find a long skinny table to fit our new(6 yr old) kitchen. We found a set at Sam's Club for a terrific price and we loved the chairs but hated the table. So instead Tom took me bike shopping(again). I finally picked out a bike, but it is still on trial since I test drove it twice this past week to the grocery store and my hands are still falling asleep. The bike shop guy said even the pro racer's hands fall asleep when they ride(it isn't much fun). I may be trading with Allison.
So Tom headed off to LA this week. I will let you know how Scott and I manage a week on our own(fighting bugs and washing sheets). Kathleen