Dec 10-Dec 16 2018.

So Tom was glad to be home, but still had lots of work to do including quite a few summary reports to complete from his trip. He also sat down to check out his next online class and decided there was too much busy work in this class to take around the holidays, especially since we will be traveling, so he is putting it off until next semester.

We had a busy Holiday weekend!  Scott returned home on Friday night via Southwest airlines! He finished his finals on Weds, closed up his room and took an Uber to the airport on Friday for an evening flight. Thank goodness he beat all our rain. It rained the entire weekend, non stop. We have had quite a bit of rain this year, as you can imagine if you saw any of the stories about another major flood in Ellicott City. Most of those buildings are still closed or condemned.  Our Girl Scout choir was asked to sing at the beginning of a boat parade in Annapolis, but the event was rained out and postponed for the following weekend. Our choir had other obligations and could not reschedule, but Allison ended up attending the event with a few of her college friends. The interns from Northrop had planned to go on the weekend it was rained out. So instead, Allison talked her friends into attending and they had a wonderful time! I think I may have had a little influence on Allison's enjoyment of boat parades since I usually dragged the family off to any type of parade, including the holiday with lights parades! And I know Mom and Dad Seitz usually enjoy a Christmas light parade in their community each year in Florida, but I am sure their weather is quite a bit nicer for the event. No worries, Allison was bundled up with lots of layers, and quite prepared with snacks and folding chairs. I trained her well!

 The dreary weather this past weekend did not put a stop to our Holiday White Elephant Party. I thought it would be nice to get all the neighbors together for some fun and socializing. We had a great group of 12 guests and a very interesting round of White Elephant gift swapping, followed by a very competitive Christmas trivia game. I made a big ham, mac n cheese and a veggie lasagna as well as baked bean casserole. Desserts from walmart and costco, as well as the mac n cheese and lasagna. Neighbors brought extra desserts and appetizers as well as a salad. I really did not have a lot of time to cook or bake. I am busy getting ready for our big trip as well as Christmas. Looks like we will be celebrating a bit earlier this year before our trip. Do not feel like dragging a bunch of Christmas gifts along  this year. Plus I am still sending out my Christmas cards, along with my mom's Christmas cards. I printed up some photos for her and she finished filling out her batch of cards this past week. We were so busy on Saturday preparing for the party, that we decided to skip the US Army Field Band Christmas concert in downtown Baltimore. We also missed their local concert at a nearby high school since I was singing with the choir. I was rather disappointed, but the concert was being held downtown, and the weather was pretty crappy, so Tom and I decided to pass this year. Plus we could not talk anyone else into attending. It seems that everyone was busy preparing for Christmas!

I also had to take Mom in for her second ortho appointment for a knee injection. This time she did not seem to mind the shot as much, and she even remembered going the week before! Oh darn. I spent the afternoon with her having McDonalds for lunch in her apartment(again) while she filled out her cards. Then I joined her for a day at her Sr program for a Christmas Holiday party. We had a great time exercising, playing trivia games, and enjoying a visit from Fireman Santa and his dog Sparky, as well as a Christmas Ukulele and Guitar concert. Plus we had lunch and some very tasty desserts. Besides hot apple cobbler, they served a raspberry/lemon cake baked by one of the center's regular volunteers. And everyone received a bag of cookies to take home. Yum.

On Sunday, I was visiting Mom again at her facility as our GS choir came to sing at her new facility for the first time. We sang for the residents in the lobby, and then again upstairs on their 3rd floor for those that have a difficult time attending as they are all in wheelchairs or have limited mobility. The residents, family members and staff all seemed to enjoy our performance.  Afterwards, I brought Mom home for a mini Christmas celebration. We had a wonderful standing rib roast dinner that Tom had prepared and mom opened her Christmas presents. That way I can pack her suitcase with some of the gifts she received, like clothing. 

Our GS choir also sang at a local nursing home on Weds night. We love to sing at this facility located next door to the GS Headquarters. We sing in the building's chapel and it has incredible acoustics. Even a small group of us sound wonderful. I did not realize that the facility used to be a seminary. Makes sense. It looks like an old castle.

During the week, Allison and I had another GS Jamboree planning meeting. We decided on the menu and made sure all the activities had a volunteer to run the stations. I will be helping with Fire Building and Safety and Allison has Archery and Rock Wall climbing. And possibly sling shots! She also had the second follow up meeting for the GS Gold Award approvals.

I also managed to squeeze in a day at work!

Sending out a big Happy Birthday to Linda Seitz who celebrated on Dec 12th. And our very own Cookie celebrated on Dec 13th! (she's 9 years old!). To celebrate we took her to have her photo with Santa at the pet store on Saturday. And Congratulations go out to two graduates this weekend-Stacey (Seitz)Draper graduated from her Masters program as a Nurse Practitioner. Our nephew, Clayton Bozyk graduated from Texas A&M and will be working as a Civil Engineer in Dallas. Way to go Graduates!

Dec 3-Dec 9, 2018

Now I feel like the Holiday Season is in full swing!  Happy St Nick's Day!  I picked up our family Holiday photos last week from the JCPenny Portrait studio. Of course while I was there I just had to do some Christmas shopping! They had some great sales I couldn't resist.

 So I have started filling out my Christmas cards.  I also put up Christmas lights on the outside of the house. Tom attempted the project over the weekend, however, every time he went outside it started to rain. Unfortunately, he headed out to California for work on Monday, so it was left up to me. I pulled out lights and strung them all along the bushes in the front of the house as well as placing new batteries in the candles for the windows. However, I was not going to climb up on huge ladders and hang lights from the eaves. Tom was not going to either since we plan on being gone over the holidays. But we wanted a little something festive outside. I also started bringing down other decorations for around the house. Allison decorated a large tree for our foyer and hung all her Hallmark Kittens, as well as various other cat type decorations. Every year Hallmark comes out with a new Kitten for Christmas ornament. Tom always gets the yearly Star Trek Hallmark ornament(two this year!) and I pick up the Hallmark Pony for Christmas(some type of rocking horse) for myself. Hallmark came out with an anniversary Star Trek Enterprise metal ship this year. They were sold out at the store, but I was able to order one online. I wanted it delivered to the store for free pick up, but they cancelled my order for some reason. They said they could not deliver it to the store, but you can pay to have it delivered to the house.  I filled out a pop up survey and complained and they called and said they were sorry! And they shipped it to our house for free! Guess it pays to fill out surveys sometimes!  We all open our stockings on Dec 6th-St Nick's Day. Our family started that tradition so we could use and enjoy our Holiday items before the holidays were over!  This year, only Allison and I were at home on St Nick's Day. Scott received his stocking over Thanksgiving break. Scott is enjoying his "Mario" and Video Game Control ornaments on his little tree at school. So we waited for Tom to return and celebrated on Sunday morning.

Last year, Hallmark had a sale on their Star Wars ornaments with a connecting power cord that plays out the entire Death Star fight scene between young Luke Skywalker and Darth Vadar. I picked it up for Tom and have been waiting all year to see what it does and if it works! It does and it is amazing! You feel like you are watching an enactment of the movie-of course, Tom helped by playing with all the pieces during the audio. And it lights up with different colors! Too cool. Can't wait to add more pieces!  And Tom needs to set up his own tree again this year for all his "space" ornaments-Star Wars and Star Trek.

Just one more week of classes for Scott. He had a paper due this week in Engineering that involved interviewing an Engineer(gee I wonder who he talked to). He also had a few final tests and lab report to do before settling in this past weekend to study for finals. Fortunately he only has 3 finals to worry about. And when he needed a study break, Allison logged onto the computer so they could try out a new online game and chat. They also enjoy logging onto webpages with online fandom drawing and video game production/cartooning. I guess that is the best way to describe it. Scott has been assisting with designs for an online video game programmer and can't wait for more free time to get back at it.

I did not get called into work this past week, so I had extra time, not only to hang up Christmas lights and start putting up decorations, but also to finish raking up the leaves!  They were wet and mushy, but easier to scoop up into bags. However, that was only the piles in the street. The county even sent out two separate trucks to clean out the sewers in front of our house(probably full of leaves!)  I also had quite a bit of leaves hiding under the bushes. And naturally I could not hang lights when there were piles of leaves hiding underneath!  I was glad I also did not have to work this week since I tweaked my hip climbing up and down the attic steps bringing down decorations and was having enough trouble walking!  I did however have to take my mom into an orthopedic appointment for her knee. She only had one knee replaced many years ago, and really needed to have surgery on the other, but she decided not to have it done.  It's too late now, so she has been getting cortisone injections to help with pain control. Last time she saw the MD, he recommended a new, 3 stage injection which basically puts a coating in between your joints. Like cartilage replacement! So I took Mom for her first injection. She did not seem too happy about the shot! Two more to go! I hope she forgets the experience. After her medical appointment, I took her back to the apartment and put an ice bag on her knee while we enjoyed some Mcdonalds for lunch and worked on her Christmas cards.

I also attended my last  free evening class on Mindfulness during the week, as well as continued to work on the orientation classes for my new job. Only one more to go! Allison also had some evening activities scheduled. She volunteered to be on the Girl Scout Gold Award board. The committee decides what projects would be approved for Gold Award recipients. They reviewed about 10 projects, and Allison was not too excited about the fact that one of the projects was approved, but did not seem to be worthy of a gold award. She said most of the women on the board have daughters whose projects were declined and they did not want to discourage anyone else. Allison's first project was declined, but she found a second one that was approved. And so could this girl. Allison was a bit frustrated and felt that the women were a bit wimpy. She will have another meeting next week!

She felt better about her volunteer work on Saturday morning at Northrop. The staff requested assistance putting on Breakfast with Santa at her facility. When the kids were little, Tom and I used to take them to Breakfast with Santa every year at his facility. Allison's facility needed extra help manning the arts and craft tables, so I joined her. We were in charge of the cookie decorating table. They even took a photo of us with Santa! The staff was very sweet and grateful for all our help. And they loved the fact that Allison and I dressed in Holiday clothes. We enjoyed donuts in the morning, and Allison was treated to Pizza Hut for lunch after the event. I had to leave early to attend the Girl Scout choir event at the German Village in downtown Baltimore Harbor. This time we sang on stage in the tent. I always enjoy shopping for German Christmas ornaments after the event and treating myself to a bratwurst with sauerkraut! Yum. I must have looked like I worked there because someone asked me where the latrines were. And another family joined me at the table while I was eating. They were visiting from Florida, so I gave them an update on tourist places here in Baltimore and DC. They were in town for their Great Uncles military funeral at Arlington. His body was transferred from a mass grave at Pearl Harbor. Very interesting. I filled them in on some of our history, including our military ships in the Harbor.

When I got home, Tom and I were invited to our neighbors for dinner. He had wanted to attend a Hershey Bears Hockey game(did you see their newsclip on the Teddy Bear toss. Each year, fans bring Teddy Bears to throw on the ice for collection for kids in hospitals. They had a record amount of Teddy Bears this year!). Anyway, he skipped the game to attend our neighbor's party. Turns out Tom and I were the only ones that could make it. We felt bad since they made so much food! Ribs, Salmon, shredded pork, lots of appetizers and we brought dessert-a delicious carrot cake. We had a great meal and visit. On Sunday, I was singing with the Girl Scout choir again at the Baltimore/Ohio Railroad museum. This time I picked up my mom and brought her with me. I have taken her to the event every year. She especially enjoys watching all the kids run around the trains and through the large Christmas tree with the train tunnel cut out. We also enjoyed walking around the train gardens. And the decorations are always amazing. I was able to take my mom's Christmas photo again!

November 26-Dec 2

Scott had returned to school on Sunday afternoon, right before a big snowstorm hit the area. There was a blizzard in Kansas City and Chicago before the snow headed to Kalamazoo. Glad also that Mark and Linda had returned from their visit in Kansas to Indiana before the snow arrived.

Happy Birthday Scott! Scott celebrated his 19th Birthday at school on Tuesday, the 27th. Scott enjoyed a steak dinner to go for his special day with a free meal coupon he and Tom received over the move in weekend. He also received a special treat delivery that I had sent to his dorm. There is a delivery service available in Kalamazoo called Delivertomykid.com  and the owner will hand pick items to deliver anywhere on and off school campus. I had heard about a donut shop called Sweetwater Mill with a reputation for really good donuts. I thought it would be a nice change from cake (or pie) and the right size special treat to celebrate a birthday. So I was able to hand pick the flavors, and they picked up the donuts, added some balloons and delivered it to Scott's dorm on his Bday. Scott was surprised and thought the donuts were very good. And I heard through Facebook that Alton Brown the celebrity chef and even Kevin Costner have requested these donuts in the past! Scott tried the Oreo, Snickers Bar, Reeses Peanut Butter Bar and German Chocolate. Sadly they did not have the Cheesecake or Key Lime Pie available at this time of year. I ordered a few extra donuts thinking Scott might like to share, but he was happy enjoying them all to himself! And Allison, Tom and I made sure to wake him up with a Happy Birthday song in the morning before he headed off to pre calc!

Also wishing Sheila Bozyk a very Happy Birthday on Weds the 28th as she celebrates back in Houston.

It was nice having Thanksgiving a little earlier in the month. I felt like I had an extra week to prepare for Christmas. And this year I did not have to start off the first weekend in December volunteering for any Christmas events. Instead, Allison and I had an enjoyable two days. On Saturday we attended a Baby Shower for our neighbor's daughter at their house. This was actually Allison's first Baby Shower. She said she did not know what to expect, but had a good time. This was actually a mixed group of women, men and kids. The Mom to Be, Caitlin arrived with her husband, Louis from New York City where they both live in a one bedroom apartment downtown. We talked about the big difference raising a child in the city vs the suburbs or country. Apparently New Jersey is considered the suburbs of New York for many families and this couple talked about maybe moving there one day. Currently however, Louis is a financial planner and Caitlin had been a professional model. Although she recently obtained her MBA-good for her! And they are expecting a little girl in January. So it was fun shopping for little pink clothes and seeing all the cute baby gifts. Plus it was fun catching up with a few of the neighbor girls. No baby games, but they did put out little cotton bibs for guests to decorate. Allison had fun drawing birds and kittens on a few bibs, and we all put in our guess for the birth date, weight and time of birth. The men finally gave up after the food and found Tom back at home watching football and painting the ceilings to share a few beers. Tom had opted out of attending the shower in the first place! And since it rained all weekend, he was unable to hang outdoor Christmas lights. Instead he continued to tackle the small cracks and nail pops in our kitchen and living room ceiling along with repainting.

On Sunday, Allison and I joined a few of her friends to attend the play "The Lion, The Witch and The Wardrobe" at the high school. The kids did a terrific job and their costumes were amazing. They even made a huge, puppet like lion operated by 3 actors and the White Witch ran around on stilts the entire 2 hours. And she did a terrific job(but she was a little loud and scary-a few young kids left crying!). So we enjoyed our afternoon and the weekend.

Allison also helped Tom record some education videos for work since Tom was getting ready to head out of town for the upcoming week. She's also assisting with a project at his office building to assist with interviews along with  one of Tom's previous interns, Nishay. So Allison spent a few afternoons in Tom's building last week. She also managed to get herself in for a dentist appointment (using her own dental insurance!)

I got called into work one day last week and heard from the facility that they were interested in hiring me as a permanent, full time staff.  I had spoken to the rehab manager about a possible part time position. And then received an email from the HR department inquiring about any interest in a full time position, 30 hours. The facility is looking to expand their out patient services and will need extra staff for the in patient unit in the near future. I mentioned my plan to travel to Florida over the holiday break and they said I could put off the start date until January when we return. Sounds good to me!  With 30 hours I am still eligible for full benefits, but I will have a flexible work week like I used to have at the previous facility. And this place is closer to home. Although I am still finishing the sign on portion for an on call OT position at another facility. On Friday I went to complete a drug test a local clinic. I figure the extra work can't hurt(and it pays well). But I did manage to obtain a raise as well with the upcoming full time job. A win-win overall.

For now I am using my extra time to continue to clean out closets. I bagged up some more clothes for donation, as well as kid's toys. This is a great time of year to find local agencies asking for donations. I have also been using my extra time to continue to complete the online courses for orientation. I had a 5 hour Dementia video to watch with a quiz afterwards. Almost done! One class to go. And when the weather is nice, I am busy pulling Christmas decorations out of the attic and raking up the eternal leaves!   I was also busy collecting Mom B's Christmas items from her storage unit. I decided to pick up a small tree since the apartment is smaller, and to switch to a blue theme to match the walls. So I bought  different items to decorate her apartment with, including a new manger set as her previous set had mismatched statues. I never did find the ceramic manger set that my Grandmother made while packing up the Michigan houses. And Scott was busy decorating his dorm room with the Christmas items from his stocking. He was saddened to find out that he could not hang a wreath on his door(I warned him about the fire hazard rule). So he opted for a flat, paper wreath. Not sure how this is safer. He was told as long as it did not block his room number. Interesting. The kids are also not allowed to hang wipe off boards on their doors. Sad. We used to love to come home and find messages on our doors when we were at MSU. They are sucking all the fun out of college.

Nov 19-25, 2018

Happy Thanksgiving! We had a wonderful holiday weekend!  Scott flew home from Western on Weds evening. His classes were cancelled on Weds, so he had the day to pack, do homework, clean his dorm room and drive up to Grand Rapids for his evening flight home. Tom picked him up at the airport after work. Both Tom and Allison had a long weekend off from work. I was scheduled to work during the week, but turns out they did not need me. Which gave me more time to shop and prepare food ahead of time for dinner on Thursday.
In the morning we enjoyed watching the Macy's Day Parade before I picked up Mom B to spend the day with us. After a light lunch, I had her help peel and cut up apples for a pie. And Scott made a delicious sweet potato casserole. We also invited our friend John over for dinner and Tom cooked a turkey on the rotisserie on the grill. It was delicious! As usual, we had too much delicious food-all the usual dishes including stuffing and loaded baked potato casserole. After dessert, Mom and I cleaned up and I had her fill out a few Christmas cards before heading back to her apartment. It was a busy but relaxing day. We were thankful to have the family together for the holiday weekend. Allison was also thankful to hear that her medical results came back fine for everything! No ulcers and her iron levels were good! And no more iron supplements. But to be on the safe side we always check iron levels on her food items and buy the highest amount we can!
On Friday we were up early but not for shopping. I scheduled our family Christmas photo at JCPenny(I forgot it was Black Friday and the shopping craze had begun at the mall). I just needed to schedule when Scott was home and the studio is of course at the mall. It was not as crazy as it could have been, but we did not hang around very long. After our morning session Allison and I braved the big sale at Bed and Bath Works for the Buy One Get One Free sale. Afterwards we headed over to the movie theater and lunch at Chick Fil A. Scott wanted to see 'Ralph Breaks the Internet' for his birthday, but Tom could not find any interest in that flick. So instead, Scott and Allison went to see 'Ralph' and we saw the 'Robin Hood' movie. I actually would have been happy seeing 'Ralph' but I did not want Tom to have to see a movie by himself. Tom really wanted to see "Robin Hood" with the actor from "The Kingsman". I think the kids still got the better deal. I was not expecting much from 'Robin Hood' remake and it did not give much in return! But it was fun to see a movie. I had planned on celebrating Scott's birthday with dinner and presents on Friday, but Tom wanted to cook a prime rib roast. So we postponed until Saturday. Instead we enjoyed a turkey/stuffing casserole AKA Seitz casserole with all the leftovers for dinner that night(and left over popcorn!).
On Saturday the kids were busy visiting with friends. In the morning, Allison's friend Jen and her boyfriend stopped by to play video games. In the afternoon, Scott and Allison headed to the mall to meet up with friends(it got a whole lot busier on Saturday!) Plus it was really raining all day Saturday, so Tom decided not to grill his roast. Instead, Scott requested chinese food for his birthday dinner and we topped it off with birthday pie(3 different kinds!). Scott is a pie guy like his Uncle Mark!  We went out to our new, favorite chinese restaurant in the pouring rain and while we were there the lights in the restaurant flicked on and off. A few minutes later we heard sirens and watched multiple fire trucks and ambulances drive by. Turns out there was an accident there at the intersection and a car knocked over an electric pole. Not a surprise since it was raining very hard and was very dark. I had to slam on the brakes to miss a few deer on the way home myself. After dinner Scott  opened birthday presents as well as his early St Nick's Day Christmas stocking. I had picked up a bunch of dorm friendly Christmas decorations for Scott to take back to school so I had him open it early. I even had a Western Christmas stocking made with his name embroidered on it through online Etsy. I found one Western stocking custom made from Kennebunkport, Maine! I think Western is really missing the boat on their marketing! So Scott spent the evening packing up his birthday gifts and St Nick day gifts including a new set of headphones for his computer and a ton more socks! Western sweatpants and a Mario winter hat. Plus Tom bought him a new phone when he was visiting in Grand Rapids. Scott has 2 more weeks of classes and then finals week before returning home for Christmas break. Scott also helped put up our artificial Christmas tree Saturday night since we will be traveling this year to Florida while Allison and I put away Thanksgiving decorations.
 On Sunday morning the whole family dropped Scott off at the airport after breakfast at Starbucks. He and his suitcases made it safely back to school and a snow storm that night! He had fun spending the afternoon unpacking and decorating his dorm room before settling down to an evening of studying. Meanwhile, Allison and I had fun shopping on Sunday as well as picking up Mom B's Christmas decorations from her storage unit and putting away her fall decorations.  And then in the evening we attended the "Straight No Chaser" concert with our friend John as part of my birthday present. As usual, we had a great time and were surprised to hear that the group replaced 4 of the original members. It is also hard to believe that they have been performing in Baltimore for the past 8 years. I think we attended at least 7 of those concerts!  The performances usually sell out and they only schedule one performance in our area. Can't wait until next year!