Nov 12-Nov 18th.

Happy Birthday to Me!  This is my Birthday week and I spent my special day, Nov 13th,  working at my new job. I treated the rehab staff to brownies. My supervisor reports that in India, it is tradition for the person having a birthday to give other people gifts. She lived/worked in India for a few years. I enjoy giving gifts, but I also enjoy getting gifts!  My big gift this year was a new set of tires for the van. I had the last set for 5 years with lots of mileage. I had taken the van in to Costco before Halloween and they told me to come back in November when my tires were on sale, as well as 1 cent installation per tire. So I had to order my tires and then come in to have them installed while I waited. So I spent some time shopping until they were done(its already that time of year to start Christmas shopping!). Then on Tuesday, I celebrated my birthday with Tom and Allison in the evening with dinner at Shake Shack before seeing the Bohemian Rhapsody movie at the AMC $5 movie theater. They have discounts on Tuesday nights. I had wanted to see this Queen movie and was waiting for Tom and Allison to join me. Turns out we really enjoyed the film!  It helps that I am a major Queen fan. And I think Allison is a new fan. Plus it was a better deal than the early preview of Fantastic Beasts. They were showing the movie on IMAX to AMC members for $21!  But you got a pin and a little poster. Yippee. We will wait until we see it on $5 night. Plus I think only Allison and I want to see that one- its the Harry Potter series before Harry Potter was born.

After our movie we headed home for cake and more presents!  Thank goodness I did not have to wrap my tires. Tom picked me up a new raincoat and also felt compelled to get me a new phone. Huzzah. I am not a big fan of new technology. I loved the beautiful green stone heart pendant he bought in Scotland, Zombie soda from Comic Con and the wonderful chocolates from Kilwins in Grand Rapids, MI. Allison found me a little Peter Rabbit flag-too cute to hang outside. I will have to add it to my Peter Rabbit collection indoors. And Scott made me an adorable Buster Bronco Christmas ornament since the school does not sell any. He also picked up a little WMU sled ornament.  Most importantly, I got another Mary Englebreit wall calendar. I am already filling up dates for 2019. Overall, a very enjoyable birthday!  Thanks family. And Thank you Mom and Dad Seitz for the Birthday money! I spent it on my yearly Hallmark Christmas Rocking Horse ornament, as well as an Anniversary Rocking Horse ornament. I think the Christmas tree is going to fall over!  Mom B paid for a wall tapestry for Christmas and one for Halloween that I picked up at the Renaissance fair. Great stuff and a Great Celebration!

I was going to continue my celebration with Mom B at a Sr Thanksgiving Luncheon put on by the Howard County Senior Center. They rent a large hall and provide a wonderful luncheon with entertainment and small gifts for Seniors living in the Howard County area. Mom has gone every year since she has been here in Maryland, as well as my Dad while he was living. I thought it would be fun to take mom this year, so I signed up to join her. Unfortunately, Maryland had a snow/ice/sleet storm that day, and everything was closed and canceled. So sadly we missed the event this year-no reschedule. I feel bad for the organizers that prepared all the food. They did not call it off until that morning. The weather was getting worse as the day went on, and they really did not want all those seniors slipping and falling on the ice and breaking something. So maybe next year! Instead I stayed home and worked on my online classes for my on call jobs. I added a second facility to my list and have even more paperwork to complete!

Scott has also been enjoying the snow up in Michigan. Looks like it is here to stay!  Good thing we sent him another hat!

Our snow quickly melted and turned into rain. I worked two other days this week and was glad not to have to go out in the lousy snow/ice storm(poor Allison and Tom). The roads were not in good shape-a firetruck flipped over on I-70 near Frederick. Traffic was backed up for hours at a stand still. Glad it did not interfere with Allison's commute. Our neighbor Dan braved the nasty weather to walk over to our house and enjoy Thursday night football with Tom. Tom is enjoying his time off school right now but should start up again after Thanksgiving. He is also using some available time to patch walls and paint. He was not too excited to repaint our family room ceiling. Seems like the house continues to settle and leave small cracks especially in our kitchen and upstairs master bedroom. At least it looks like this year we are done cutting the grass. We rarely get snow before Thanksgiving in Maryland. I did not even get a chance to get all my winter flowers planted. I had to run out when it warmed up a bit to plant the last of the petunias and decorative cabbages. They last all winter and look great in the flower pots. I also continue to attempt to rake and bag leaves when it is not too windy or snowing! I still had a long list of outdoor projects that I would have liked to finish including washing the windows,  a bit more edging, repotting indoor plants and trimming outdoor bushes. Guess it will have to wait until next summer!  I have also been busy putting away the Halloween decorations in the attic and soon will be bringing down the Christmas decorations!

On Saturday I had the day off so I took advantage of the time to get my Thanksgiving dinner shopping done as well as some Christmas shopping. I usually try to get my errands run during the week, but since I was working I did not have any time available. And I was not shopping on the snow day!  Instead I headed out early on Saturday morning. Good thing because by lunch time the stores and parking lots were packed! Especially at Sams Club since they had The Taste of Holidays where they pass out lots of free food samples. Crazy!  I did not have much time to shop(or eat) since I was scheduled to sing with the Girl Scout choir at the opening of the German Christmas village at the Baltimore Harbor. We were scheduled to sing at their Christmas tree lighting ceremony before and after the Mayor's speech. I talked Allison into joining me. We have fun walking around the shops at the German village, eating bratwurst and drinking warm German wine. Our GS choir sang before the tree lighting ceremony, and were followed by a few girls singing from a city youth center before the mayor, Catherine Pugh showed up. I don't think she actually heard our girls sing, and then everyone mobbed the stage after the lighting ceremony. But we were supposed to sing again. Everyone wanted a photo op with the mayor. We had to wait for her and her entourage to leave before finishing our holiday concert(but most of our audience had left with the mayor to check out the Christmas village). Oh well, good practice for our choir and it was a beautiful night to walk around the harbor. We have several more events scheduled in the coming month.

Allison was also asked to become one of the GS Gold Award Committee member. Her meeting was postponed however since it was scheduled on the day of our nasty snow storm. She also attended a Distinguished Women's reception for past Shadow Girls. A good place to network and meet up with her previous supervisor from the Maryland Chemical company.

November 5-November 11, 2018

Happy Veteran's Day!  Happy Voting Day!  So glad we voted early. I tried to have Scott request an absentee ballot, but he was a little preoccupied with classes. Not that it mattered here in Maryland. Our county dropped all of our long standing Republican Reps and Senators and went Democratic. So now Maryland is mostly Democratic, although it always has leaned toward that party. And the rest are Independents. But the state decided to keep our Republican Governor, Larry Hogan. He really has been doing a good job, even with a cancer diagnosis during his first term. It looks like people in our county are fed up with the seemingly limited action occurring with all the flooding issues over the past few years and lots of excess building. Guess they wanted to try something new. Especially since they were/are talking/planning on knocking down half of the buildings in old Ellicott City. They still may, but we will have to see what the new government officials have in mind.

Instead of voting, I spent my election day at a Mental Health class. The Sr Center/Office of Aging put on a few free classes on cognition and mental health. I can always use free continuing credit for my OT license, so I signed up for the once a month classes. Their is just a few of us, but the class is very good(and it comes with snacks)! And all free!  And when I am not at work, I am busy trying to get through the online education classes. I have 3 left out of 18. They are a bit time consuming and each comes with an exam at the end that you have to pass, so you actually have to pay attention!

So I was spending my days on the computer during the week. Tom was looking at traveling to Wisconsin this week  for work, but the project was put on hold. Instead, he traveled up to Michigan to spent the weekend with Scott!  Grand Rapids was hosting a comic con event and Tom was taking Scott. They were hoping to meet the character Chekov from Star Trek, and maybe John Rathsenburger from Cheers and the voices of several Pixar characters including the Cars movie. Tom's flight was scheduled for Friday night, but again we had a lot of rain and fog and flights were a bit delayed. Better than the last weekend when it was determined that we had two small tornadoes touch down. One flattened a farm and tore up rooftops of buildings west of us, and another actually took down a huge wall of the Amazon Distribution Center in Baltimore, killing two people. Very sad. Meanwhile in Michigan, Scott was getting his first snowfall in Kalamazoo!  We hear that the Western Michigan University is the 8th snowiest campus in the US!  Michigan Tech in the UP is number one!   Glad we did not send Scott that far north!  Usually in Detroit we didn't see snow until at least Thanksgiving. Poor Scott lost his Raven's hat on the bus, so we sent him another one with Tom. So Tom managed to arrive in the evening in Grand Rapids and Scott was able to pick him up. The roads were slippery but his Jeep seemed to manage, even though the guys report other cars were sliding off the freeway between Kzoo and Grand Rapids on their drive back to school. Tom decided to make use of the extra bed and single room that Scott has rather than paying for a hotel room. The next morning the guys headed out to ComicCon. They decided not to visit with the special guests since they were asking for an extra $80 for a photo op and autograph with the panel discussion admission. But they got a glimpse of him from afar and Tom was amazed he was still breathing!  He said he looked pretty frail, and freezing as he was bundled up in lots of coats!  So the guys spent a few hours wandering around the vendor booths, looking for bundled comic books, but Tom could still not find the one he wanted. So he opted to buy one at the bookstore!  And since the guys had some extra time on their hands in the late afternoon, they decided to go see a movie and have dinner. They enjoyed the OverLord movie (of all things). They said it was wonderful! Who knew. On Sunday, Tom's flight was scheduled for late afternoon, so the guys had breakfast and worked on Scott's research paper.  I think they both really enjoyed the quick visit and trip to Comic Con, but Scott is anxious to finish up this term. He has about a month to go, but will be returning home for Thanksgiving break. 

Allison kept herself busy on Saturday volunteering at GS camp for the day. I think she ran all the stations! And she spent the whole day outside. Although it was chilly and windy, it was not snowing or raining. Allison especially enjoyed making a bonfire with the girls in the evening and enjoying a cookout before heading home. On Sunday, we had Mom B over for dinner after taking her for a perm at the hair dresser. I am looking forward to attending a Thanksgiving luncheon with mom in the coming week. As well as my Birthday!

October 29-November 4

Finally here's the update on the week of Halloween!

the week of Halloween!  The holiday fell on a Weds night. Right in the middle of the school week. Fortunately the weather was beautiful. Scott had been a great help putting up Halloween decorations when he visited over his Fall break. However, I still had a few more decorations to add to the outside and inside. Allison was a great help running up and down the attic steps to bring down decorations. I had to buy some more spider webs, orange lights and candles, but we have lots of great blow up characters, a huge spider web and spiders and scary characters to put out around the front yard . Allison also had a great time carving a pumpkin. She could not wait for Halloween. She really missed it all those years at college. She also really wanted a bonfire, so we made one in the driveway in our fire pit and roasted hot dogs. It was a beautiful evening to sit out with a beer, poke the fire and cook and eat hot dogs and fries while passing out candy. I was well prepared with several large Costco sized bags of small candy bars, a few boxes of large candy bars(on sale) and one bag of skittles and star burst. Apparently skittles were voted the #1 Halloween candy. Allison did not agree-she votes for Kit Kat. I think Skittles does well since it is a non peanut allergy food item.

Allison and I had a wonderful, fun time eating our dinner by the fire and passing out candy to all the very cute kids while listening to scary music. We did not seem to have as many kids as we have had in the past, but I think it was because of the timing in the middle of the week. Kids had to get up early the next day for school, and I think there were a lot of Halloween activities going on over the weekend. So they may have been all candied out! But there were lots of mobile, large groups of parents and kids between 6 and 9pm. We even had kids knocking on the door after we'd gone in for the night!  This was the first time that we were able to sit out in the driveway with our bonfire. We had to keep redirecting the kids away from our front door to the driveway to get the candy!  We did get a lot of compliments on our decorations. A few of the little ones were a bit terrified to come up to the house!  And everyone agreed that we had the best decorations in the neighborhood! What fun! Plus Allison, Cookie and I were all dressed up for the event. Looking forward to next year!

I decided to leave most of the decorations up since we were expecting guests over the weekend. My brother Dan and wife Sheila finally had time to drive down from Pittsburgh to visit for the weekend. This was their first trip to Baltimore to visit our house and to see Mom B. in her new apartment. The week before I was busy getting the house organized for their visit. I even pulled out 12 tall kitchen trash bags of boys and girl's clothes to donate to a family in our neighborhood. There was a request on our local webpage for clothing for a few orphan children being fostered by a local family visiting from Latvia. I still had lots of Allison's teen age years clothing since most consignments stores are not interested in bigger girl clothes. Apparently girls are more picky than the boys when it comes to used clothing. Imagine that. So I had lots of extra pants, shirts, coats and dresses to donate as well as a few bags of boy's coats and sweatshirts, all in the right sizes!  And it turns out the family is very involved in Scouts, so I gave their daughter a few of Allison's outgrown GS sweatshirts. A win win for all of us!

Now I have a little more storage space in the guest room, but still not set up for anyone to sleep in the extra room!  We no longer have a bed for that room(left it at Salisbury when Allison moved out). Fortunately, Dan and Sheila stayed at the local Marriott with their dog Zoey.

They arrived on Friday night. We had big plans to travel to Annapolis for a crab pot dinner. Unfortunately, it was raining very hard, and very dark and a bit late when they arrived. Instead, we decided to go out for chinese food at one of our local, favorite restaurants, Paper Lantern. Tom opted out of the visit. He had been in California all week and returned home with a terrible cold. He did not want to share. So he hid in the basement. Allison and I on the other hand had a great dinner with Dan and Sheila and a great visit with them and Zoey before they headed back to their hotel. We had a busy day scheduled Saturday. Turns out MSU football team was in town playing U of Maryland. Allison's friend and ex roomy Jen from Salisbury is currently a librarian grad student at Maryland and the girls were planning on attending the game. I had also wanted to go with them, and Jen was able to get me a ticket, along with two more for Dan and Sheila. We were worried that it was supposed to rain all day Saturday, but it was done on Friday. However, it was a bit chilly so we wrapped up in our MSU finery! Except for Jen who was rooting for her Maryland Terrapins. Naturally, Dan and Sheila opted out of wearing the green and white, but they restrained themselves from putting on blue and gold!  Jen bought a parking pass, so we drove right onto campus and parked next to the stadium. We did not bring tailgate goodies, so we headed into the stadium where it was a bit warmer and to scope out the seating. We had general seating in the lower level. Turns out, Uof Maryland was in an uproar over a recent decision to continue employing the football head coach after an athlete died last spring during practice from heat stroke. The school board changed their minds overnight and fired the coach but students still planned a protest. We arrived early in case there was any difficulty getting on the campus or into the stadium, but everything was pretty quiet. Actually, very quiet. Turns out some students decided to protest by not attending the game. Which really did not seem fair to the players, but it made for a very enjoyable game for us!  It was not too crowded, we had lots of great, available seating and we had some great food and even beer which they sell at the stadium now!  Turns out MSU won! Sorry Jen. And Jen and Allison got to enjoy their first Uof Md football game, as well as Dan and Sheila!  We headed home late in the afternoon and I dropped Dan and Sheila off to take Zoey out at their hotel and freshen up before dropping off Jen.

Meanwhile, back at the ranch, Tom graciously threw a wonderful filet mignon roast in the oven for dinner. He wanted to put it on the grill, but it was just too windy and it kept blowing out. So I picked up some groceries for side dishes, got dinner on the table and had Dan and Sheila come over to our house. I was going to pick up mom after the game and bring her over, but I did not want her catching Tom's bad cold. He did manage to enjoy the meal with us and we sat and watched a few more college football games including Uof M game while chatting. And they brought Zoey over too. She is 13 and not as energetic as Cookie, but then again, Cookie is not that energetic either. So they got along quite well-two old girls cozying up for snuggles.

On Sunday morning, Dan and Sheila wanted to head out before noon back to Pittsburgh. We stopped in to visit briefly with mom and for them to see her new apartment. Afterwards I took Mom out to Subway for lunch. Still staying away from our house to avoid her catching Tom's cold. And I still had some projects to get done before the weekend was over. We had daylight savings time take effect Saturday night by setting the clocks back one hour and now it is dark by 5pm. I still had to cut the grass and rake up some leaves, as well as put away Halloween decorations. I had some help in that area from Allison as well as putting up a few more Fall decorations(soon to be Christmas decorations!).  I was also glad that Tom had some time to finish patching and painting our kitchen walls and ceiling before Dan and Sheila's visit. It has been many years since we last painted the walls and ceiling, so he had to try his best to match our paint colors for the patch work. So far looks pretty good. We really did not have the time to repaint the entire kitchen and family room!

We also managed to get our early voting done, and yet there were still lines. Guessing it was better than on the official voting day coming up. And Allison also got her flu shot as well as a yearly physical. Her iron levels remain within normal levels, but her MD wants to check for stomach ulcers just in case. However, she told Allison to stop taking the iron pills. Allison still has some complaints of stomach pain at times, so the MD just wants to rule everything out. Also may have been caused by the iron pills. We'll see. Stomach problems do run in the Bozyk family.

And speaking of doctors, I had mom B out all day on Thursday. She had a dentist appointment  for a cleaning in the morning, then we had lunch back at our house before going to the orthopedic MD. I am looking at getting mom a new injection recommended by the ortho MD that provides a bit of a coating between joints for her knee since her cartilage is all gone. She had a left knee replacement many years ago, but opted out of the surgery for her right knee. Now it is a bit too late. This may help with ongoing pain/discomfort in her knee besides a new pain shot/cortisone injection that is extended release so less injections required. I was hoping to start the treatment but we need to wait for insurance approval from her BCBS. Wonderful. So instead we visited the hair salon and then had dinner at our house before I dropped her back to her apartment. A very busy day!

And on top of all this, I managed to start working with patients at my new facility. I was called in for 2 days, but missed a 3rd on Thursday since I was with mom all day. That is how it goes with on call work. In the meantime, I have started all the online training that is required(very time consuming) but I do get some paid time for it all. So that is a plus!

October 22-October 28, 2018

We are getting closer to Halloween!  Allison and I decided to attend the Night of the Living Dead at the National Zoo this year. I have always wanted to go-a Halloween party for adults, 21 and over, at the zoo in DC. I just could not schedule it since they always seemed to have it on a weekday, starting around 6pm and it is just too hard to get there at that time with all the DC traffic. But this year they scheduled it on a Friday night at 730pm. Perfect!  Tom was not interested in going, but again, he was out of town during the week. Back to Scotland this go round for him! Sadly he brought a bad cold home with him too.

Allison and I had already planned out our costumes when we attended the Baltimore Comicon. We were going as Pikachu and a Pokemon Trainer. I picked up Pikachu ears and a tail for myself at Comicon. Allison had a Pikachu hat and a few Pokemon keepsakes to add to her costume, but we picked up a jacket vest at the Goodwill to top it off.  We were very excited to attend, however, the weather was not so cooperative. 100% rain all night, starting when we arrived. So before heading out the door, I picked up some clear, 97 cent ponchos and some small umbrellas. It was also supposed to be very cold. I bought a big, yellow sweater and we put on the layers. Turns out it was not as cold, but definitely rainy. Allison and I arrived just before the event opened. We got a great parking spot right in the zoo, and we each received two tickets for drinks with our admission. The lines were low, so we nabbed a couple glasses of wine while we started through the displays and animal encounters. They opened up their buildings for the night, mostly small mammal and reptile house. The gorillas were smart and went to bed, even with the lights on! The keepers were just putting out some treats for the small mammals. Very entertaining watching them tear open decorated paper bags for treats, and munch on jack o lanterns. Especially an adorable little desert fox who kept himself very busy digging into his cardboard boxes trying to find the meal worms. And the lemurs would not leave the zookeeper alone as she placed small bags around the enclosure. Too bad the weather was so wet. Most of the entertainers were hiding under small tents including a fire eater, jugglers, violinist and several DJs and an incredible jazz band. But it was not so fun standing in the rain watching or listening to them perform. A few brave souls were out dancing, but the VIP tent had the most action since their entire party space was under tents. Maybe next year. Although Allison said she preferred our venue, and I think it was not as crowded because of the rain. They also had food trucks, but we ate dinner before attending. Plus there really was not a dry spot to sit down and eat. Besides checking out the animals/reptiles, it was fun seeing all the creative costumes and the zoo decorations. Even though it poured all evening, we had a great time and the event wrapped up at 10pm. Time for the critters to go to bed!

Earlier that morning I had enjoyed an outing with my mom to Bob Evans with her Sr group. We enjoyed lunch and a craft project together with members of her weekly Sr plus group. I also plan on attending the Sr Thanksgiving luncheon with her in November. It is nice to have the extra time and flexibility in my schedule to visit with mom.

And to continue to participate in GS events. On Tuesday night I attended the monthly staff planning meeting for the Spring GS Jamboree. Allison missed it since she was off to frisbee that night. The group chose our activities for Survival Weekend, and rather than put on an Escape Room, we decided to incorporate solving a puzzle at the end of the day with a clue from each station. And the solution will be the 7 Leave No Trace Principles. This way we will be able to get all our events in that we want to schedule, plus add a bit of problem solving and education into the mix. Sounds good. Allison of course will be doing archery!  And on Sunday I was back at GS choir practice. We have quite a few Holiday events already on our calendar, including an afternoon at my mom's new facility.

And it is hockey season again!  Tom was home from his trip and itching to watch hockey. Tom, Allison and our friend John headed up to Hershey PA for a Hershey Bears game on Saturday night. They had a great time and the Bears won in an overtime shootout!  I opted to stay home after getting my flu shot and begin to work on my online orientation and training programs for my new on call job. Yeah! I finally was called into the Lorien facility for my orientation during the week

. Now I have a lot more work to do at home online-20 different classes to complete! I decided to opt out of the hockey game and work on my classes(plus I get paid for doing them!).

Sunday evening, after returning home from choir practice, Tom and I met up with our friends to check out the new Guinness bar and restaurant near the Northrop airport office. Allison has actually already visited the bar as an intern afterwork get together. She went in the summer months when it was warm and they could all sit outside on the huge patio. When we arrived it was dark and chilly and no one was outside. The place is huge. The main building has 3 floors with a brewery on the 1st floor, a bar on the second and restaurant on the 3rd. Tom and I arrived before our friends, so we grabbed a beer at the bar and checked on the expensive merchandise in the store. We then headed to dinner at the restaurant with our friends. Allison had warned us that the food was really expensive, but we were hungry, so we opted for the cheapest item on the menu-burgers and fries. Which turned out to be very good, but we don't think we will be returning too often. Just a cool experience since it is the only brewery outside of Ireland that makes the Guinness beer. And we really enjoyed our evening out with our friends!

October 15-October 21, 2018

Wow! Halfway through October already!  This week Scott was on his Mid Term Fall Break. This was WMU's first ever Fall Break. Looks like some people liked it and others did not. Scott says the professors did not like it. Guess it throws off the class schedules. The break officially started on Weds afternoon, Oct 17 and continued until Sunday, Oct 21. Most of the professors decided to cancel the Weds morning classes. Scott only had one class scheduled in the morning, and that was cancelled. There is only one non stop flight to Baltimore from Grand Rapids which is not until 5pm, so Scott had a lot of down time.  He got his homework done before leaving for the airport late in the afternoon.

This was also Scott's first time traveling by himself by plane. He had to locate the airport long term parking lot and drive up by himself to Grand Rapids, about an hour drive. He then managed to find the lot and take the shuttle to the airport on his own, but then attempted to check in for his Southwest flight at the Delta desk.  Good thing the Grand Rapids airport is small. They redirected him to the correct desk and he had a great 1.5 hr flight home to BWI, arriving at 6:30pm.

Turns out, Tom was also flying into BWI after traveling to Scotland the week before. Tom had to fly through New York, and was not sure if he was going to get there at the same time Scott arrived since there was high wind advisory in NY. However, he had a window of opportunity to take off, and the two arrived at the airport about the same time. So Tom was able to bring Scott home. I was not available since I was attending a free class at the Sr Center on "Mindfulness"-how to avoid extra stress in your life. Allison was available as back up as needed for a ride home.

But the schedule turned out well. Scott was very excited to be home for a long weekend, but we were not hanging around very long!  On Thursday, Scott visited with his high school friend during the day. They went out to lunch, played video games and Matt helped Scott decorate the outdoors for Halloween. That evening, when Allison arrived home after work, we packed her car and Allison, Scott and myself headed out to Williamsburg, VA and HallowScream at Busch Gardens!  Tom decided to stay home since he had been traveling overseas for two weeks and was feeling a bit wiped out!  Also, we decided he should probably stay home and puppy sit, both Cookie and our friend's dog, Ripley. We had volunteered to watch Ripley for an extended weekend while our friends traveled out west to Washington state for a brief vacation to celebrate their anniversary.

So the three of us headed out around 7pm. When traffic is light, you can arrive in Williamsburg within 3 hours time. Usually we get stuck in the DC traffic, but this night I opted to take the new EZPass lane. The only risk with this is that they change the fees based on time and traffic flow, and it can run quite high. Driving down the prices were not so ridiculous, and in taking the EZ pass route, we arrived in a timely 3 hrs with an hour to spare and visit Busch Gardens that night. They added hours and days of the event, so we took advantage of 1 more hour of spooky haunted house mazes before closing that night. The only downfall was that it was so cold!  Especially for Allison. We threw on lots of winter coats, hats and mittens and headed in. Fortunately, the more we walked around the park, the warmer we got and were able to visit 2 Haunted Mazes. And the crowds were down as most people were leaving when we were arriving.

We then headed to our hotel, which Tom had a hard time finding since most of the area was sold out. So we stayed about 25 mins away from the park, which turned out fine. The next morning we had time to go to breakfast, visit Starbucks for a pumpkin spice coffee and the last pumpkin scone(much to the sadness of the customer behind us!) and fill up at the gas station before heading into the park when it opened at noon. The weather was beautiful and a bit warmer. We had a great time walking around the park, shopping and catching the Halloween shows and eating lunch before the Haunted Mazes opened at 6pm.  We were first in line at the most popular Haunted Maze-a blend of the last 20 years of HallowScream events. So fun! The kids and I were pleasantly scared and finished up the event around 8pm. We picked up some pumpkin cheesecake to go, and stopped into Express Panda for chinese take out food at the hotel.  We had an incredible dinner and dessert to go while watching scary movies before heading to bed.

On Saturday morning we headed back home after breakfast in the hotel. We decided to take advantage of getting home earlier by stopping into the Larriland farm to pick apples!   I usually take Scott, and my mom, out to the farm to pick apples in the fall and visit the produce barn. It had been rainy and the field was a bit wet, muddy and chilly, so I was not planning on taking my mom. But Allison had not been back to the apple farm since heading to school 5 years ago! She was excited to visit, and the place was packed on the weekends with lots of families and kids. They have a small haunted barn and maze for children, food trucks, hay rides and even showcased a fencing class that day. We stopped for lunch from the food trucks before heading to the fields. Apple picking season runs from September to November. Some of my favorite apples are ready in October, so the timing was great. We picked two large bags of Enterprise and Gala apples-for snacking and pies. I really wanted to try my hand at picking fresh broccoli too. The farm staff give you a knife to cut sprouts off the tops of the plants. There were lots of customers in line with beautiful looking broccoli, in their bags, but we decided we just did not have the time to spare. Scott wanted to get home to spend some time working on a research paper with Tom's input. So when we returned home, I got busy with laundry(still a good deal for college students!), and I made a very tasty apple crisp for dinner. I think we overdid the activities and food items for Scott's homecoming weekend-I also bought him a pecan pie and pumpkin pie. We had more desserts than days to eat it!  And Scott also has been missing grilling out, so we let him cook up some thick pork chops for dinner. Yum!  Allison and Scott finished off their evening with video games. A wonderful visit!

On Sunday, Scott had an early flight back to Grand Rapids so Tom and I dropped him off at the airport. I then spent the afternoon doing yardwork and housework since we had been gone for several

days and I had to catch up!    Allison and I also visited the pet store with Cookie and Ripley Sunday afternoon for their Halloween event. They were passing out doggie Halloween goodie bags and coupons as well as taking photos with pets in costume. So Allison and I dressed Cookie and Ripley as a pumpkin and bat and stopped in. Ripley seemed to have an especially wonderful time checking out the fish close up and shopping in the frozen food section!  Cookie loves visiting with the birds and sniffing all the bone bins.

Scott reports a terrific flight home, easy drive back to the dorm and was settling in for the evening working on his research paper. We actually packed Allison's extra school printer in a large suitcase for Scott since he discovered he had limited, free access to printers in the dorm. He was able to set up the printer and got it running that day. Thankfully it survived the flight!
And Tom enjoyed his weekend home alone with the dogs, although they were a bit of a handful for him!  He did manage to get started on a house project-patching a few walls. Looks like our house has been settling a bit with all the rain. We had a few cracks in the kitchen and upstairs bedroom on the walls where we bumped out the house during our renovations many years ago.

All in all, it was a wonderful weekend!  Sending out a Happy Birthday wish to Matt Draper for his Oct 18th celebration!