Another busy week. The kids are back to lots of homework, and Allison is readying for her midterms next week.

We took a brief break this weekend for some fun. Scott wanted to try out the Youth Ministry dance on Friday night rather than gymnastics class. Sadly, he is not into dancing but he was enjoying the youth ministry recreation room. He was having a great time with the pool table, fooseball and air hockey tables. However, they had to close it up when the crowd picked up. He ended up calling Tom to pick him up around 9pm.  I know since I volunteered to chaperone. I thought I should pick up a few hours so we won't be short at the end of the school year with our required 30 volunteer hours. Although I think we will be good since Tom appears to have his hands full with the upcoming science fair and his unexpected time spent with the Lego team.

On Saturday night, Tom and I went to a jazz concert with our neighbors. Before the concert, Tom and I decided to try out a new pizza place for dinner. They cook their pizzas in a wood burning oven over coals. I thought it was pretty good, but Tom was not so impressed. Of course, we both really miss deep dish pizza from Ginos in Chicago and the italian pizza from Downey California. Anyhow,  during intermission at the concert, everyone was busy checking football scores. What a weekend for sports! Baltimore has been busy getting the fans pumped by turning all the city buildings purple for Sunday's game. And now it looks like we will be playing next weekend too! Sorry Houston! Guess I will have to rehang the purple lights outside.

I was busy this weekend getting back to my morning aerobics class. Except now my Friday class is an hour and a half. I figured I can sure use the workout since I usually only get to the YMCA once a week. Afterwards though I took Cookie for a walk. Although the weather turned cold and windy, we still haven't had any real snow(thank goodness) so it is a lot easier to get outside for dog walks. It is just hard during the week when it is so dark by the time we get home(and even colder!). Hard to believe it actually got up to 65 last weekend!  I was out in the yard(raking leaves again of course) and putting away the last of our outdoor Christmas decorations. This week we have been working on taking down all the Christmas trees. We finally got our live tree out to the curb for pick up on Friday. It still smelled so fresh. I just dread hauling everything up into the attic(my hips and knees don't appreciate the small steps). So it takes awhile. Especially when I ask for help. Then I can't find anything once I get up to the attic!

On Friday, besides running errands, I was back to the doctors office. This time I needed to stop into the lab for my yearly blood work in the morning(you have to fast for 12 hours). In the afternoon it was Scott's turn for a physical and  few shots-he also got a hepatitis A vaccine(guess that's the norm now) and his flu shot. His poor arms haven't been too happy. But he did manage to survive his swim lesson on Saturday morning. He is in the pre swim team class this time at the Y. He really liked the class and the remodeling they did at this Y branch. I had to sign him up for another facility since our local Y swim classes fill up so quickly. He missed last week since he was at Lego club. Unfortunately, he will miss a few more since we have a lot of Scout outings planned. But he definitely can use the exercise and he enjoys it.

Tom took him to class on Saturday and I was driving Allison around for work. Her management group puts on a 6 week customer training program and she started classes this past Saturday morning. After her first class,  I had to pick her up, get her lunch and get her to work for the afternoon shift. She also had to work  Sunday afternoon. Scott and I dropped her off and then ran and did some errands before heading over to our neighbors for lunch and to watch the football game. We had some books to drop off at the library, so I decided to run in and check out our new library that opened in December. It is very nice and very modern. Even the book return scans the books as you drop them off and then prints a receipt if you need one. We did not have much time to explore, but I am sure we will be back. After watching most of the game, it was time for me to pick up Allison and then head to GS choir practice. Our choir was videotaping a few of our songs to apply to sing in DC this coming June at the Rock the Mall GS Event. Girl Scouts from all over the US and the world come together at the mall in DC for a huge songfest. We are trying for a spot onstage. And it looks like we will be singing the National Anthem at the Orioles stadium again this summer on June 24th during GS day! That was an amazing experience(and we get to do it again!).

So right now Allison and Tom are off to an indoor Field HOckey game and I am going to give Scott a spelling test. (Too sad to watch the Packers anymore). Looks like Allison had a rough 1st game-they haven't played in a few weeks or practiced. But I hear she was awesome in game 2!

The Baltimore Blog