So school has started up again for another year and summer vacation is officially over! Scott finished his 1st full week of high school as a sophomore. He has a very busy schedule. I even participated in his Back to School night already to meet his teachers and sign up for computer access to his classes. We parents are always connected! Besides the usual science and math, spanish, english and govt classes, Scott also has his 2nd year of Engineering which he loves and I strongly encouraged him to take choir(aka mom signed me up). I think he is warming up to the idea. The choir will be competing in Chicago in the spring. He is looking forward to the trip. They even have a European tour in the summer if interested. Scott is singing as a Baritone. I am looking forward to their upcoming performances. Our school has an incredible fine arts program(and he needed the credit).

Besides his classes, he has taken on the responsibility of running the schools Video Gaming club. He is the new President. He was busy meeting with the club counselor and making posters to hang for next week's kickoff. And soon the robotics team will be starting up again.

He started off the Boy Scout meeting by having his patrol run the evening's activities. We parents decided the boys needed to take more of an active part in running the meetings. Scott's patrol is getting to be the senior group as most of the older boys start to fade out after earning their Eagle. Scott presented the Animation badge which he earned this summer on the computer and had the boys make their own flip chart cartoons.  They also practiced packing their camping chuck boxes with a relay game. We would like to see our boys run something like this every few months.
 So back to a busy schedule.

Allison was settling into her new townhouse at school. She was busy picking up school books and getting into shape for Field Hockey and Ultimate Frisbee season. She did take a break and come home for 1 night to get in her yearly medical physical. The whole family has been visiting the doctor at this time of the year. Last week I drove Scott down to Rockville Maryland to see a dermatologist to assess a mole on his back. We decided to keep it for now. They don't have a lot of specialists for kids with our health insurance, so I had to do a drive. But Scott and I enjoyed our adventure(especially since I got lost). And on Saturday I had to take Cookie into the vet as she was limping badly on her back leg after puppysitting. I think she had too much play time with the puppy as she apparently suffered a partial tear of her ACL in her back leg(knee). Like mother, like dog. Fortunately she just needs some rest and an anti inflammatory. So no more long walks for now. I also spent an entire day with my mom getting her to a few medical appointments of her own as well as a lunch break at the Cheesecake Factory. I also stopped into our MSU friend Diana Wagner's Audiology office since my mom's appointment was in the same building. I haven't seen Diana for about 2 years now since she divorced her husband and Tom's best friend, Matt. Sadly Matt has been declining in health with his history of drinking, so we haven't seen him for awhile either. But it was great to reconnect with Diana and we hope to get together soon. Plus I passed off her business name to the staff at mom and dad's facility as they are always looking for great medical resources. They even want Diana to come in and do a presentation to the residents and family. Good to reconnect. I also had to stop in to visit Dad and drop off his new glasses which I have been trying to order for several months(difficult to do without a prescription). Dad lost his two pairs of glasses when he moved onto the memory unit. I hope these glasses last longer! I was also spending more time speaking to the nursing staff as Dad is needing more help lately and staff is using a wheelchair to help get him around.

Back to School 2015

And as summer comes to a close, we decided to take a day trip down to Busch Gardens to catch one more swim at the water park and a few coaster rides. We planned on driving down on Saturday, but Tom was busy trying to switch the service for our cell phones. And I had Cookie at the vet. Instead we invited our neighbors over for a cook out. I was hoping to enjoy dinner on the patio, but it has been so hot and humid lately. We are hoping to avoid hurricanes this season. They thanked us by watching Cookie while we were gone on Sunday. Tom, Scott and I headed out early in the morning and spent a few hours in the park before heading over to the water park. Fortunately the parks were not overly crowded. We decided to go the week before Labor Day to skip the crowds, but Allison was sad since she did not get to join us. She was starting school the following day and it is too long of a trip. We thought she could come home Labor Day weekend for a trip to the State Fair or the Renaissance Festival.

So looking forward to the Labor Day Weekend!