This week Tom was off to Charlottesville, VA. At least he did not have to leave until Monday night. He managed to squeeze in half a football game with his "Monday night Football night out with the neighborhood boys" before he drove down to VA. He was able to catch Allison's rescheduled Field Hockey game too on Monday(and she played). He was not home however to take Scott to his Boy Scout meeting on Tuesday.

I was hoping he would have had time to connect with the Boy Scout troop since he was assisting with a big campout this past weekend. The boys put on a day of activities for cub scouts to teach them important boy scout skills like lighting fires and tying knots. Mostly they are trying to recruit new scouts. The boys spend the night on Friday which gives them a chance to work on some advancement skills, and then they are up and ready early in the morning to run their stations. Tom didn't have all the details since he had been out of town for several weeks. I didn't even have a chance to attend Scott's meeting either since his school asked me to come in as a guest speaker at the same time. I was asked to speak to the 5th grade class concerning the week long Outdoor Education Camping Trip that SCott and I attended last year. I let them know that it was a whole lot of fun and that the kids learned quite a bit that week(and had fun doing it). So did the parents.

It was also very helpful to have Tom home(at least for one day during the week) since he also had to take Allison to a Girl SCout meeting for the National Convention after her field hockey game on Monday evening. Allison had to attend further training and info seminar for our trip to Houston with girl scouts. I was supposed to go but I did not get off work in time. I picked up Allison instead and just got a brief overview when I arrived. She still has another meeting in October and another webinar to listen in on.

The kids had Thursday off for a jewish holiday but it just gave them more time to do homework. I always think it is funny that a catholic school gives the kids a day off for a jewish holiday. I know they are just trying to follow the public school schedule though since they use the same bus system.

On Friday Tom had returned from VA and he was busy packing for the boy scout camping trip. I was busy dropping off kid's stuff to our local consignment store, and then I had to do some grocery shopping for a dinner I was donating to a family that night. I signed up to bring dinner to a Resurrection family whose son had brain surgery due to a sinus infection. The boy is a twin and his brother is really missing him. Luke, the one who had surgery has been in the hospital since August. He is now going through rehab and had to learn to walk again and use his hand since the left side of his body was paralyzed after the surgery. I decided to pick up a few roasted chickens from Sams Club since they are not expensive and they are huge and taste great. But when I went to pick them up, they had burned a whole oven's worth of chicken and were still trying to sell them. After several of us complained to the supervisor, they pulled them off the shelf, only to have another employee come by and restock the shelf with the same burnt chickens! It took a while, but we all finally got some decent chicken and I was on my way. Not until I threw out my back though lifting two huge pumpkins into my cart and a case of iced tea. I think I also did myself in when I was carrying boxes out to the car to take to the consignment shop. Thank goodness for Thermacare hot packs and heavy duty Motrin. I survived the rest of the weekend on drugs.

I am also trying to recuperate from trying to start the lawn mower a week ago when it froze up on me. I really pulled my shoulder then. Tom had to add more oil to the mower and give the blades a turn to get it going again. This mower has been almost dead for the past several years, so it now needs frequent oil refills(now Tom tells me). But it keeps going(just like me!) I don't think edging the lawn without power tools helps the matter either. We have quite a lot of curb and sidewalk around our lot.

I was just not too pleased that Allison and I had planned a trip to New York on Saturday! We have been wanting to see the Broadway play Wicked for a long time, but Allison only wanted to see it in New York at the Gershwin theater. Our YMCA set up a bus trip so I bought two tickets. At least I just had to sit for 3.5 hours there and back and for 3 hours during the play, so not too much walking. I did manage to tour Allison around Times Square(we spotted the New Year's Ball!), bought some New York souvenirs. I got my New York Starbucks cup and Allison got some tshirts from Aeropostale. We had italian food for lunch and mexican food for dinner, free chocolotes and took a brief walk through the edge of Central Park. New York is huge. We have only been there one other time to see the Rockettes Christmas Show at Radio City. That was a lot of fun too. I want to go back to do a bus trip around the city and hit some of the museums as well as Ellis Island. I will put it on our bucket list. Anyway, the play was phenomenal but Tom told me my credit card number was stolen when I bought Allison a Wicked tshirt at the theater. Oh bother. Now I need to replace my card.

Before our trip on Saturday, I was still planning on dropping off dinner to our school family. First I had some prep work to do. Tom was busy in the kitchen making chili for dinner on Friday for the boy scout camping trip. Good thing he did since a whole lot more boys showed up than expected and they would not have had enough food if Tom hadn't brought chili. Before we could do all of our planned weekend activities though, Allison had another Field Hockey game Friday afternoon.

Her team played a very tough team-number one in the county and held them until the last 15 minutes or so when the other team scored. It was a rough game, lots of tripping and balls flying, and then a ball hit one of our girls in the back of the head and down she went. She had a busted head and concussion. They picked her up in the ambulance and took her off for stitches and a head CAT scan. These poor girls play this rough game with barely any protection. At least this girl took a hit in the back of her head, I would have hated to see what she looked like if she had been hit directly in the face! So there was a delay in the game, which meant Allison was a bit late getting done, which meant she was a bit late getting dinner and changed so I could take her to work! She managed to get there before her shift, but the manager was worried. So after I dropped her off I had to go drop off the dinner and then head back and pick up Allison after work.

Tom and Scott's camping trip turned out well. They had a big crowd and the boys did a wonderful job demonstrating their scout skills. Scott spent his time demonstrating fire building. And he got some of his camping requirements done working towards his next scout level.

Sunday was a busy homework day. Allison had to work during the day, so we missed Girl Scout choir practice. In between homework and rollerblade work, she had some last minute sales to complete for Girl SCout cookies, Prom ticket and Field Hockey fundraisers.

A very long week and weekend! Enjoy our photos of New York-Central Park, Wicked at the Gershwin, Times Square and Broadway. See the New Year BAll! That is about as close as I will get to the New Year's BAll. Tom hates crowds! Allison and I also enjoyed seeing ourselves on a large screen monitor billboard in Times Square(so did a lot of other people that were standing around us!).