So.lucky for all of you I am off my soapbox about my new van. Instead you all just get to hear how busy we have been again this past week.
Right now Allison is off on the Church Confirmation Retreat. She has really been looking forward to this weekend, and she has really worked hard all summer to prepare. She was doing a presentation on the subject of Love with a Sr High School student(boy). We all thought a Jeopardy game would be a fun icebreaker for the group of 76 confirmation students(I will let you know how it turned out). Everyone got involved in this project including Gma and Gpa Bozyk-they took Allison to the library in Michigan so she could work on the project online this summer with her partner and offered some advice on the questions. Tom provided the technical set up on the computer. I provided the idea and the red twizzler candy to pass out when the game is over(I wanted to give out kisses, but chocolate was banned). Allison also included a story from her Book of Virtues about a King and his hawk and the great love the hawk had for its King that it died to save him. The confirmation coordinator thought it was the best presentation she ever had for a retreat. I just hope it all worked out for them. Allison was also responsible for an icebreaker activity on Friday, and I wouldn't be surprised if they asked her to altar serve again for their mass.
I had to pick her up early on Friday from field hockey practice-she would have liked to have missed the two mile run. The girls have not yet won a game so the coach is getting a bit tough on them. On the other hand, we got to watch Allison in goal on Thursday night and she did a great job-she didn't let in any goals, and even made a spectacular play and dove for the ball. She told us later that she actually fell-but it looked good and the coach told her whatever she was doing, just keep doing it! Our Michigan neighbor, Phil stopped by to catch her game too since his 7th grade daughter plays Field Hockey and La Crosse and he is hoping Hannah will make the team when she attends Mt Hebron. He wanted to check out their strategy. At this point it would probably just be to make a goal! Allison actually had two games last week, one on Tuesday that was an away game so I had to grab her as she was getting off the bus and quickly drive her up to church for the last organization meeting before the Confirmation weekend. She also had to present their program to the coordinator after the meeting, so it was a long night. Besides catching up with homework and studying for tests, she also managed to get in a few more GS cookie sales at school and in the neighborhood(competition is fierce around here-lots of girl scouts in our neighborhood).
Speaking of Girl Scouts, they sponsored this weekend at Six Flags. Unfortunately, Allison could not go since she is off on retreat, but Tom and Scott took advantage of the great discount to spend a beautiful day at the park today riding all the crazy rollercoasters. They probably would not have made it either since they were supposed to go off and camp with the Cub Scouts in Pennsylvania and explore the Laurel caverns near Pittsburgh. Instead the trip was postponed to May as it looked like tstorms were forcast for the entire weekend. Turns out the weather was absolutely gorgeous. But maybe this was for the best because now the whole family can attend. There are a few more Cub Scout camping trips scheduled this fall, but Scott and I opted to skip one event and attend the bike rodeo instead in early October.
Tom managed to find me a hitch for the van and install it this weekend so I will be ready to hook up my bike rack and load our bikes on for the family ride around the park.
Scott also had an after school meeting with his Environmental club. The group assembled a large dove out of chicken wire and white bed sheets to take down to the Baltimore harbor near the Catholic Charities building this Sunday morning to support and celebrate World Peace Day(Scott and Tom opted to celebrate at Six Flags). This time Tom planned on pinning his car key to his pants(last year he lost the keys on a roller coaster ride and we were stuck at the park after it closed for several hours until they located them).
Since we didn't go camping, we also were able to attend our neighbors Welcome Home party for their son, Cpl Connor Lyon just returning from Iraq on Saturday night. It also gave the homeowners a chance to show off their newly remodeled kitchen and deck. And it gave me the chance to make up a few more appetizers using up my last tomatoes from the garden. It must be getting a bit too cool at night since I noticed a few of them looked frostbitten.
We also managed to celebrate the last weekend of summer at our neighbors across the street on Friday night. We had talked about heading up to Resurrection St Paul School for a parents tailgate party, and ended up having our own tailgate party next door. Unfortunately, all our celebrating did not seem to help MSU against Notre Dame on Saturday afternoon. Yes, Yes, Uof M is doing well of course(so far).
And since Tom was off this past Friday, we both managed to squeeze in a movie date in the morning after I went to my aerobics class. We wanted to catch the Brad Pitt/Quentin Tarantino movie about Nazi germany, the Ingloriuous Basterds. Not exactly a family movie-very much a violent Quentin Tarantino movie but Tom and I seem to enjoy his dark humor.

In other news though, Resurrection St Paul school was awarded the National Blue Ribbon Award for school excellence this past week. The school had one of the highest scores for national assessments out of 314 other schools in the nation(both public and private). Allison's graduating 8th grade class would have been mostly responsible for that award. The school made the local news(Scott says he was on camera but I didn't catch the story) and it was posted in the Catholic Review. The principal will accept a trophy and large banner in a ceremony in Washington DC in November. Looks like all our hard work paid off. Several other schools in Maryland also received the award.
I also heard recently that Ellicott City was named the top 7th city in the US to own a dog(good news for Cookie).
Well I need to get to work before the kids all get home and start their homework and projects. I have been slowly pulling out the fall decorations (Halloween seems just around the corner-and on a weekend night too). Scott already had me order him a Yoshi costume(turtle character from Nintendo's Mario games). He has been looking for this outfit for several years but we never could find one).
The neighbors are already planning on coming over for an Octoberfest.
My work has been slow-we are breaking in a new manager. So far she has spent most of her time getting oriented to all the computer reports she needs to generate. What fun. This usually means more computer work for all of us. But at least we have time to get it finished.
Tom is starting to get busy again. He has been asked to do a presentation again this year in Boston at MIT in October so he has some typing to do.
A very Happy Birthday to Mom Bozyk! Both Mom and Dad Bozyk have been enjoying an Indian Summer in Charlevoix. Sounds like Mom and Dad Seitz are getting ready to fly south for the winter very soon.
Tom is looking forward to a Daddy Daughter Field Hockey game after practice this Monday night. I just have to make a side dish for the pot luck that will follow. Last week we had to put together a Buddy bag(gift full of treats) for one of Allison's team mates. I like that they do some team building activities outside of playing Field Hockey. It gives the girls a chance to get to know each other a little better.
Hope everyone has a fantastic week and Happy Fall! Kathleen and Family

Hope you all had a wonderful Labor Day Weekend. We are just happy to see the sun lately. We had a tropical depression come through and it seems as is if has been raining all week, starting last Sunday. We did manage to fit in a quick two day trip to Busch Gardens/Williamsburg. We took Scott out of school after lunch(Allison had Friday off) and drove down to Williamsburg. Traffic can be horrendous south of DC all the way to Richmond, but it was moving fairly well. It still took us several hours to get to Busch Gardens and the park closed at 7pm. Fortunately for us, most of the big day crowd had already left, and Tom and Scott did a great job getting on all the big rollercoaster rides before they shut down. They even took a few extra last rides on the Big Bad Wolf which is closing down. The ride just celebrated 25 years and I guess they decided it was time to retire the wolf. Allison and I enjoyed a few hours of shopping and a couple of rides. They are getting ready for the Halloween nights. We stayed overnight and had time that evening to do some back to school shopping at the outlets for Allison. Thank goodness for the GAP outlet-we finally found a couple pair of jeans for her to wear to school that are actually comfortable and fit well! We even had dinner at our favorite Chinese buffet. On Saturday we spent the day at the water park. Labor Day weekend was a little later this year, so it was a bit chillier I think to spend the day in the pools. But it wasn't terribly crowded and we got our fill in of tubes and wave pool and our favorite "Hubba Hubba Highway Lazy river" . We got home at a decent time. Our neighbors watched Cookie overnight and she acted like we'd been gone for years.
We still had the long weekend at home which gave us plenty of time to finish up housework and yardwork, and surprisingly we spent Sunday afternoon purchasing our new minivan. So on Monday we scheduled a hike near the river at Patapsco Park with Matt and Di Wagner. After an hour or so of hiking we got caught in another monsoon. We all decided to head over to our house for dinner and then sat down to introduce Matt and Di and their son Nick to a game of Apples to Apples. We had a fun time but the work week was coming up fast.
Tuesday it was back to school and work, as well as Back to School Parent night at both of the kids' school that night. Tom took the high school teachers and I visited with Scott's teachers. Tom and I both had lots of comparing to do when we got home.
Weds I ended up on a different campus north of Baltimore for work since things have been a bit slow in our nursing home/rehab center. Tom was able to pick up Allison for me since she had a Field Hockey Team pre game carb dinner at one of the players house. She enjoyed the dinner with the girls, and the zip line they had in their backyard! The girls plan on decorating tshirts next dinner.
The girls had their first official Field Hockey game on Thursday night. The weather turned chilly and the Varsity Team went into overtime(they play first) so we were running behind by 1/2 hour. Allison did not get a chance to play-they have another goalie who suited up first, but they only have one goalie outfit. They are waiting to replace an outfit that fell apart on their first wear. And sadly the girls lost 1-0. But it was one of the toughest teams in the league, and the girls looked pretty good for mostly new players. This week Allison has two games scheduled. I hope she gets some game time.
We had to rush home Thursday night though since I had the Girl Scouts over for a pre cookie sale rally. Yes it is that time again! Think cookies. We no longer have the sugar free chocolate chip as it was replaced with a Berry Munch-cranberry/white chocolate chip cookie. And of course the old favorites-thin mint, tagalongs, samoas, do si dos, Lemon chalet, and shortbread Trefoils. And again we are collecting donations for boxes of cookies to hand out to the soldiers returning from overseas at the Baltimore Washington Airport. Think cookies!
Friday brought the 8th anniversary of Sept 11th. I made the mistake of turning on the History channel while working on GS paperwork and spent the rest of the day crying. They had some terrific stories both pre and post 9-11 as well as on that terrible day. It still amazes me that it even happened. I finally got out of the house, reluctantly in the rain, to run some errands. I had a handful of Birthday cards to send out-mostly late. Again, Happy Birthday to the twins, Dan and Dave, as well as Mike Bozyk and Grandma Bozyk. Sept is a very busy month for the Bozyk family for Birthdays. I had just enough time to run home and take Scott to his Cub Scout meeting while Tom ran Allison to her piano lesson. She didn't have practice on Friday night since it was pouring but they did get their two mile run in. Allison gave me a call early to come pick up her soggy self.
Saturday the rain continued which gave me time to get out and get a haircut in between housework. I would have been busy packing up camping gear for this coming weekend for Tom and Scott, but due to tstorms scheduled for the weekend, their camping trip has been postponed. Hopefully to the spring so we can all go as a family. The cub scouts are planning a camping trip to a state park in Pennsylvania in caves near Pittsburgh. Sounds like a great trip. Allison wasn't available as she is volunteering for the Confirmation Retreat this coming weekend. She has a presentation planned with another high school student.
Sunday the sunshine finally returned which gave us time to do some yardwork, replant some trees and of course(do housework). I did manage to get the kids out to the mall after church so Scott could get a haircut for school pictures this coming week. We also stopped into a Health Fair at church and I finally got to meet one of the arthritis doctors, Dr Yap, that I have been referring patients to for 12 years. I felt like I knew him through my patients, but I never actually met him before. I even asked how his wife was doing since I heard she had suffered a terrible stroke last year. Fortunately better. He was convinced he knew me or had met me before, but probably only on paper reports.
So back to school tests and homework for both kids. And I have a new boss at work-we haven't seen much of her-they keep her locked up in an office running computer reports.
And now time for the editorial portion of my blog. Sorry to do this to all of you, but it has come to our attention that only one of the hierarchy in the family is very upset over our purchase of the Toyota minivan. It seems we have been labeled traitors for our purchase of a foreign vehicle. Tom and I have been married for 22 years and we have always purchased a Ford or GM product. Let me assure you that the purchase of a Toyoya minivan was not a decision made lightly. If anyone actually reads my blog, they will know that Tom and I have been searching for a replacement vehicle for the past year for my Buick Terraza minivan. If you recall, I actually purchased an Acadia SUV type vehicle(out of desperation) on Super Bowl Sunday back in February. After having my Terrazza in to 4 different dealerships since October 2008 to repair the heating system with poor results, we decided the van wasn't going to get any better. My tires needed replaced and the brake system was dying. Parts started breaking as it neared its 100,000 mile mark. The extended warranty was up. If you also recall I spent about 3 hours in the Sears Service station just getting the $200 battery changed since the repairman had to practically remove the engine to get down to the battery. The Acadia I tried to purchase in February was not on the lot and needed to be shipped to the dealer. It was supposed to arrive Monday morning. On Monday night at 9pm, the dealership called to tell me the vehicle had already been sold and would I settle for something else. Mind you, this is a $45,000 vehicle. GM had a limited rebate offer which expired that Sunday and was no longer valid. The dealer only offered $5000 trade in value on my Terrazza(back in February). All we really had left was our GM family savings plan to work with but no matter-they did not even have a car to sell us! And we never heard back from the dealership-guess they didn't need my sale.
In the good old days, the company would have offered to build us a car to our specifications-no longer. You get what is on the lot-which was not a lot! I really only wanted to swap my old minivan in for a new minivan-Ford or GM. We do a lot of traveling with the kids and find the minivan works well for the whole family, not to mention my Girl Scout Troop and upcoming Boy Scout Troop. I have been searching desperately for a replacement. Ford stopped building minvans several years ago. GM just stopped building minivans. It would appear that one of the family members would prefer I purchase a GM or Ford vehicle to support the company as well as our country. I would gladly purchase a vehicle from either company if they actually made and sold the car I wanted and needed. I suppose I could have bought myself a Pontiac Vibe or Saturn convertible Sky -has anyone ever packed 6 girl scouts and 2 adult leaders, 8 sleeping bags, pillows, backpacks/suitcases, cooking gear, lanterns or tents into a Saturn Sky? Would it have been better to buy a pickup truck and toss the girls (or boys) in the back with a tarp overhead? Or perhaps another expensive SUV that guzzles gas so I can't afford to actually drive the girls to the campsite-perhaps we could use all our cookie money on the cost of gasoline to fill up an SUV. Does anyone remember me driving 250 bagged lunches to the homeless shelter in Downtown Baltimore? How many lunches would have fit in the convertible? Or 300 boxes of cookies to the US soldiers at the Baltimore Airport along with my coleader and the girl scouts?
I can tell you all that Tom had to drag me out to the auto dealerships over the past year. I was too depressed to even go look at what our American auto industry has been offering the American public. On a recent report from NPR news, they announced that Ford motor Company was currently doing better in sales than GM since the American people are upset over the fact that GM filed for bankruptcy and had to look for the government for financial support to stay in business. Many Americans feel that GM should have been left to close on their own accord. I guess my tax dollars helped keep them in business for now. NPR also announced that GM will probably stay in business but will no longer make big vehicles and will scale down all their operations, as will Ford. I am truly saddened by the future of our American Auto Industry but I strongly feel that they got themselves into this mess. Each company had the chance to start turning themselves around during the gas crisis of the 70s(remembering standing in line to fill your tank?). Instead they chose to build expensive, gas guzzling SUVs which they forced on the American people by limiting the choices and they let the foreign auto industries infiltrate our economy for decades.
The number one Cash for Clunkers vehicle turned in was the Ford Explorer. The number one purchased auto was a Toyota.
I did not choose to buy a Toyota minivan-the Auto Industry forced me into the decision by not providing the vehicle that I asked for(and no my husband won't let me get a trailer for my camping gear which I recommended because he won't park a trailer in the driveway or backyard).
At least our Toyota is built by Americans in America-Indiana to be exact. So American workers are gaining from employment(can Detroit say the same?). And at least Toyota purchases American parts to build their cars. I also received a $6000 trade in for my Terrazza even after I added another 10,000 miles on it. And it cost $28,000 with all the bells and whistles-not $45,000. And I can safely and comfortably transport my Girl Scouts and the Cub Scouts in my minivan, not to mention a portion of the Field Hockey Team. And as an added bonus, our salesman was from East Lansing and an MSU grad. So we were helping out a fellow Michigander. He was also driving the Toyota minvan to transport his 3 greyhounds and his wife and new baby.
And I don't have to spend my whole paycheck filling up my gas tank. I still get good gas mileage. Remember when gas was almost $4/gallon? I could barely afford to drive to work even in my minvan which I thought got good gas mileage. Tom almost had a heart attack everytime we filled up-he swore there was a hole in the tank. I told him, do the math, 25 gallon tank and 4bucks per gallon. But it still got decent gas mileage. And no I could not talk Tom into settling for a Dodge Caravan.
So sorry for all the soapbox lecturing. I just wanted to say that the minivan is mine and that I was very upset not to have had the choice to purchase a car from an American Car Company. Tom was getting very upset with me since he has been dragging me out to car dealerships for a year and I was not interested since noone had anything I wanted. I was happy with my Buick, but with it starting to fall apart as it neared the 100,000 mile mark(remember me needing a jump at the GS camping weekend in August?) I knew I couldn't wait much longer. And there really wasn't anything to wait for-GM and Ford no longer build minivans-period.
Rather then send angry and upsetting emails to the family, perhaps our time would be better spent sending emails to the current administration of GM and Ford. Todays auto companies are not the companies of the past that put food on our table, provided us with housing, clothing and an education as was mentioned in a recent email. They are currently companies struggling to survive over their poor decisions and lack of insight of consumer needs. Sounds more like good old American greed got the best of both companies.
Enough said-I hope this matter can be rectified in our family. And there is still hope-I will happily purchase the first minivan that comes off the GM or Ford line. If not, we still have two future drivers in the family and I will gladly take my children to the Ford or GM dealership when it is their time to purchase a car(and not a Toyota Camry-new or used).
Kathleen

Well that was a busy week! Allison started High School-she and Tom headed off at 7am for drop off before the crazy traffic hit. We live too close to school for the bus to stop down our street, so it is easier for us to take her right to the school. She has been walking home after Field Hockey practice. She only had a 4 day week, but she was busy getting oriented to all her classes, and we already had a few quizzes and tests to study for over this holiday weekend. Scott made it through his first full week of school with his first test of the year. The kids had summer reading and not only had to write up a book report, but were tested on it this first week back to school. And with back to school comes back to meetings.
Scott had his first Cub Scout meeting on Monday evening. We started on our way through the Webelos program. Tom and Scott are signed up for a camping trip to PA to visit some caves and earn some badges in geology and spelunking(cave exploration). Tuesday night we headed to High School for a sports orientation night. Weds night I was off to my Girl Scout Leader meeting and brought my girls along with me to assist with babysitting services. Thursday night I attended an Environmental club orientation meeting that Scott joined at school. This is a group run in conjuction with an environmental group established by Jane Goodall(remember her chimps!) called Roots and Shoots. The kids started last year with a few projects-tree plantings, cleaning the rivers. They have added some more projects this year. It actually works out very nicely with the scout program and doing service to the community. School has kicked up the service projects this year with a monthly lunch donation to the homeless as well as the kids picking a service project to complete at home. Scott is on yard clean up for Cookie.
I also tried to sign him up for a gymnastics class so we ran over to the gym after the E club meeting, and missed the sign up by one person in front of us. The class was full and now we are on a waiting list. I decided to try to get Scott into inline hockey while we wait, and they cancelled that program due to lack of participants. Just can't win. I may try the advanced beginners class since he already had a trial beginners class. He definitely needs something to curb all that energy.
We decided to spend a few days down in Williamsburg over the Labor Day weekend. We left on Friday afternoon and had a few hours at Busch Gardens-just enough time for Scott and Tom to hit the big roller coaster rides, and their last ride on the Big Bad Wolf coaster as it is being shut down after 25 years. Saturday we spent the day at the Water Park. We also spent some time shopping at the outlet mall-thank goodness we found Allison some jeans. And we also tried out Cheeburger Cheeburger-81 different milk shakes! We found a new favorite-it reminds us of an upscale Steak and Shake. Good burgers!
We topped off the holiday weekend with a trip to the car dealerships. We have been struggling with the need to replace our minivan before we hit our 100,000 mile mark. Tom wanted to get something back from the trade in and didn't want to worry about me having more and more possible engine problems(my brakes were acting funny and I was going to need new tires in 20,000 miles). Not to mention that parts were beginning to break off-Tom had to fix my handle to recline the back seat and the plastic drawers were beginning to break. So once again we headed off to look at mini vans, but the pickings have been slim. There aren't too many minivan choices left-noone seems to want to build them anymore. Most of the Toyota car dealerships were closed on Sunday in our area, or we just didn't see much on the lots. Noone even came out to help us at the Honda lot. Guess business is good for them. We ended up at the Car Max/ Toyota dealership due to our neighbors recommendation. The next thing we knew, we had bought a new Toyota Sienna min van. It really looks similar to my Buick-same color, just more bells and whistles(sunroof, power recliner seats in the back that fold down into the floor for more space, power back door, hands free cell phone/blue tooth connection and the kids love that their windows roll down). I would have liked more seating since I am still hauling the Girl Scouts around, but I am happy to have another minivan.
So today we will drive our new minivan over to a park for a hike with Matt and Di and their kids(and drag Cookie along). And then probably a last swim in their pool(although it is a bit overcast today). Plus Allison has some more studying to do. I am just glad we got our yardwork in.
So Happy Labor Day! And a Big Happy 51 Birthday to the twins, Dan and Dave Bozyk! You both made it over the halfway mark!
On another note my Uncle Joe(Mom Bozyk's younger brother) discovered that he is going to need the same heart surgery that my Mom had last year(heart valve replacement and artery repair). He will be scheduling his surgery the beginning of Jan 2010 so he can travel to Spain this fall with his wife to drop off their son for a college program. Our prayers are with him to stay safe until his surgery. Kathleen and Family

Scott started school on August 27th-the week before public school went back. He is now in 4th grade and they moved all the Resurrection teachers around to different grades this year. He actually has Mrs Oltmanns who has been the head Kindergarten teacher for about the past 25 years. She is a real sweety and says believe it or not, the 4th graders don't talk as much as the Kindergartners! Scott thinks he is missing out with the other 4th grade teacher, Mrs Clar who Allison had for 6th grade classes. The other 4th grade has some fuzzy animal, and unfortunately, Mrs Oltmanns is allergic to furry creatures. She told Scott maybe they could get a fish! He was just excited to get back to school and see his friends again and have his very first locker. Not to mention that his class is now located on the second floor(big kid stuff).
Allison waits a few more days before starting her career as a high school student! She has been busy with Field Hockey practice twice a day and a scrimmage too. She even went off on the school bus for an away game(neither team scored!). Apparently they are trying to get her some new hockey equipment-the last set fell apart(and it was brand new!). Allison said it melted in the heat and all the straps unraveled. Friday Aug 28th we headed over to her school for a long day of orientation and Field Hockey practice. The Freshman class and the parents all crammed into the newly half refinished gym(floor and bleachers). Unfortunately no air conditioning or even vents! Yuck. The Mt Hebron 45 y.o. middle school turned high school is undergoing renovations that should be done by the time Allison is a Sr. The community has been fighting for years for a rebuild, but the county budget opted for remodeling. They sure could use it-they still have old chalkboards on the walls, overhead projectors in the classrooms and tiled walls in the hallways. At this time, they are rebuilding the Auditorium and the music rooms as well as the English dept. classrooms. Allison has a few classes out in back in portables. While the parents sat through an orientation last Friday from the school principal, Scott Ruehl(a post Mt Hebron HS grad), the kids rotated through their class schedule in hopes that come Monday they would be able to find their classes in the maze of construction. We also enjoyed a taste of the marching band's program. One of Allison's Resurrection classmates has joined the HS Marching Band and is looking forward to a trip to Disneyland in the spring. Allison is going to be busy with English, Earth Science, Geometry, Piano, Spanish and US History. She is also going to be in shock when she has to start school at 725am. Gone are those days of roll out of bed at 8am and school starts at 9am like Scott.
Meanwhile, Tom spent the week working out in LA. again. I will be glad when he is not travelling-I can sure use some help especially next week with our new school schedule-especially that 7am drop off!
Besides finishing up the last minute school supply shopping and clothes shopping for Allison, I had to run into old Ellicott City and pick up my repaired stained glass window panel. I made a matching set of stained glass window panels a few years ago and Tom hung them next to the front door with a matching window panel. One of my panels took a tumble out of our front window this summer when we were on vacation. Our neighbor's daughter was coming in and out the front door to check on the cat and the gerbils, and it fell out when the door was slammed shut(thanks to heat and humidity the door swells). Tom vows to put in more brackets and seal it this time. I could have taken another class and made a whole new panel for the cost of the repair! I also spent the day doing yardwork-soon we will be raking leaves! The Halloween decorations and even Christmas stuff is already showing up in the stores!
We enjoyed our last summer weekend with a pool party at our neighbors house. I managed to mix up some great salsa using the fresh tomatoes from my garden for the event. We had plenty to eat and drink, and the kids had a great time in the pool(a bit too chilly for me). The evening was cut short around 8pm when a tstorm rolled in. We had a few hurricanes floating by off the Atlantic coast that set off some rain storms but nothing serious(no tornado warnings this time!).
On Sunday we decided to enjoy my discount tickets from the Girl Scouts for volunteer service to attend the State Fair. The kids really enjoy visiting and petting all the animals, checking out the 4H projects, riding a few rides and playing a few games, not to mention eating the corn dogs and deep fried oreo cookies! But I also introducted them to Horse Racing! I have been a bit fascinated with Maryland's horse racing history lately since I read Seabiscuit(finally) and I really wanted to catch a live race. The Timonium race track is right on the grounds of the State Fair. We actually caught our first race on the back stretch in the parking lot. You can practically reach out and touch the horses. We headed for the grandstand in the afternoon and 5 mins before post time, Tom put down a few dollars on two horses that the kids picked out. They walk the horses out in front before loading them in the gates and number 8 and 9 were their two choices. Who knew they would both take 1st and 2nd place! I guess our kids can pick em! Too bad we didn't know ahead of time, we might have wagered more than a few dollars! Overall it was a fun experience to see the beautiful horses run so close. Almost as exciting as the pig races!
So off to school on Monday for Allison our new High School freshman and back to school for Scott our 4th grader. He already has a summer book report due and test scheduled for Thursday. And he tells me he wants to sign up for the Environmental club and gymnastics. Not to mention my Girl Scout Troop(think cookies!) and Scott's Cub Scouts.
I think I am the only parent that doesn't look forward to the start of school! It usually means more work for me! Kathleen

Wow what a busy week this turned out to be! Allison returned home and got busy with Field Hockey try outs. We weren't getting our hopes up too high since they had 60 girls try out for about 40 positions between the JV and Varsity teams. There would have to be some cuts, and Allison just picked up the sport. There were girls that had been playing for many years, but Allison seemed to enjoy the sport and was working hard. And it seems her hard work paid off! Allison is the new JV Field Hockey goalie! She shares the position with one other girl. We are so proud of her for taking a chance and joining the high school team. This should be a fun start to the 9th grade!
Scott was busy finishing up his summer at the YMCA camp. He participated in a Mad Science camp and made lots of great concoctions. He also had a field trip to the bowling alley and enjoyed the day duck pin bowling(was very popular here in MD-small bowling balls about the size of big softballs that the kids roll 3 times and then knock down smaller pins). He really enjoys that activity!
Allison was wrapping up her summer with a swim birthday party with a Twilight theme. She had a great time, but was getting a bit worn out! I also had to drag her off to the doctor for her yearly physical and have her pack for a weekend Girl Scout camping trip.
On top of all this, Tom had to head out to California for the week, return home for one night and then head back out to LA. I took off on Friday night with my Girl Scouts for an end of summer weekend camping trip. I had 3 of my girls for the older girl camping weekend. Tom sent Scotty off to stay with our neighbors and Scott had to babysit Cookie on Saturday morning.
Our camping weekend turned out well except I could have done without the tornado warning on Friday night! We huddled in the bathrooms in our cabins(thank goodness for cabins!) Usually we would be tenting, but this trip has several indoor buildings that we use to run the badge work, so they are able to run the camp rain or shine. The girls did a great job earning a Fitness to Fashion badge and a Games for Life badge. They also enjoyed an aerobics class, swimming and watching "The Devil Wears Prada" while I made tye dye shirts all weekend. I even made Allison a few gold and black tye dye shirts for school spirit wear. We managed to have a pretty nice weekend even thought it rained most of Friday and Saturday. My weekend got a bit more hectic when I discovered my car battery had died over the weekend. Fortunately the girl scouts were well prepared and gave me a jump start but I ended up spending the rest of Sunday afternoon waiting to get a new battery at the Sears auto repair. And my Buick Terrazza is not too simple to maintain-the battery is all the way to the bottom of the engine and the mechanic had to pull most of the engine out to get to it and then replace it and put everything back where it belonged. A 2 1/2hr job! At least we had a chance to get some shopping in while the car was repaired.
And so the following week Scott will start school on Thursday. I still have some school supplies to pick up and new clothes for Allison since she is switching from a uniform in private Catholic school to public school. She is a bit excited and a bit scared all at the same time. She is also busy with her piano lessons and finishing up the summer reading program at the library.
And also finishing up her presentation for the Confirmation Retreat that she is helping to run for the 8th graders in mid September. Wish us luck!

I am just sitting down with a glass of wine after enjoying some great steak and corn on the cob that Tom cooked for us tonite. And as an added bonus I had a few slices of one of my tomatoes ripe off the vine in my flower garden. We are waiting to enjoy some dessert with our neighbors out on the patio, but it is still pretty hot out there at 830 pm. This has definitely been the dog days of summer. Speaking of dogs, looks like Cookie is ready for another day at the spa-she is starting to resemble a polar bear again. She goes in for a hair cut on Friday. And our Allison has returned from Grandma and Grandpa Bozyk's. Sounds like she really enjoyed spending a big part of her summer there(4wks total). Last week she was busy sailing. She spent most of her last week swimming and enjoying some fireworks with a campfire on the beach. She also got in her last book reports for the summer library reading club. When she returned home she was able to bid on a Twilight package complete with a Twilight poster and music CD. book and sweetheart candies. She tried for a Twilight purse made out of the bookcover, but lost by 3 points! For those not aware, Twilight was the big vampire hit with the teeny boppers. The first movie came out last Thanksgiving-look for the sequel this holiday season. Anyhow, Allison really enjoyed the whole series. She managed to get in quite a bit of reading this summer and Grandma Bozyk made sure to add some culture to her repetoire(in the form of videos). No cable in the Michigan beach house.
Tom drove up to Mich on Thursday to pick up Allison. He had some videotaping to complete at Uof M so he stopped in on his way to the Bozyk house in West Bloomfield. They arrived a bit late since they stopped at the East Jordan Health Clinic picnic before driving home on Thursday night. Mom and Dad Bozyk will be in WB for about 2 weeks before heading back to Charlevoix. Tom and Allison headed back to Maryland on Friday after a stop over at the CVS pharmacy to get a sports physical for Allison. She would like to try out for the High School Field Hockey Team and they required her to have a sports physical before she even tried out. Thank goodness for minute clinics. She was done in a flash and they got home around 8pm.
Bright and early Saturday morning, I took Allison up to the High School for her first try out. They had the girls run around the school twice in 2 hrs. Apparently it is all about the running. Allison has some pretty good ball handling skills that she picked up at summer camp, but the running is pretty tough-2 miles without stopping. Tom went with her and they both ran around the school tonight-Tom had to stop a few more times than Allison. You go girl! Sadly, they had 27 girls sign up for Field Hockey, but they only take 18, so they have some cuts to make. Not quite as bad as our neighbors whose son is attending a catholic HS and he tried out for the soccer team with 63 other boys. They only need about 20! Keep your fingers crossed for Allison. She has two practices per day all week and then they will decide. We do have a back up plan if she doesn't make this team. Howard County has a team for high school girls as well, so she can always play for them. Mainly she just wants to play.
Tom took a test bike ride up to the school with Allison since she will have to ride herself up to practice this week while we are at work. Tom had to pick up a new bike this morning since it looks like his old bike is out of commission. He had a bent rim on his back tire and 8 broken spokes, and the bike repairman told Tom his bike was too old to fix! They no longer have the tools to repair the bike tire, and they can't get the parts either! Boy do we feel old! It is about 20 yrs old. Tom is going to keep checking bike shops, but for now he opted to buy a replacement. We headed to Costco and got a nice replacement for about $300. The bike repairman said it would cost him around $600 at the most to fix Tom's bike! So Tom had a shiny new bike to ride up to the high school with Allison today. And I am hoping we get a few trips in this Fall(when the weather is a bit cooler!).

Another week of summer flew by and it is getting HOT!!!! Thank goodness Scott spent his week at the Y camp in the pool. He finished a week of aquatics and couldn't get enough swimming.
We spent last weekend away from home in Williamsburg and Virginia Beach, so it was tough getting started back to our busy schedule on Monday. Especially for Tom. He had a 6am flight to Detroit Monday morning. He spent most of his week at Uof M(sadly) working on his Black Belt Management Training Video. At least he made it back home by Weds. And his car battery finally decided it needed replaced. Glad we bought a new one. He had Friday off which gave him time to clean out his car, change the battery and give the car a bath. He also fixed one of my recliner seats in my minivan. Closing in on 100,000 miles and everything is starting to wear out, including my cup holder drawer. Sadly, we are thinking of purchasing a Toyota or Honda minivan since GM and Ford have decided to stop building cars people need or want. I really don't see me squeezing all my Girl Scouts into a mini coup! And we can't afford to fill up the gas tank in an SUV(sorry but crossovers aren't the answer either). Anyhow for now we are trying to keep my minivan in one piece.
This past weekend was fairly quiet until Scott decided to invite the neighborhood kids over for a water fight. Sadly, his best buddy across the street got sick and couldn't play, so we were stuck with a bunch of toddlers at the house afraid of squirt guns. And with the toddlers came all the parents. So instead of cutting the grass and planting my new flowering bushes, I was stuck entertaining the neighborhood kids with the sprinkler and chit chatting to all the parents. Not to mention passing out juice boxes and popsicles. By the time I went to cut the grass it was 7pm and my mower ran out of oil. Tom came to my rescue and bought more oil so he could finish up the lawn(while I made dinner-oh what fun). Tom did have enough time to grill my bratwursts though. Scott and Tom got smart during the day and hid in the house with the computer systems while the toddlers took over our yard. Tom was busy putting my parent's computer back together. Fortunately they will be back on line in West Bloomfield. Tom will be traveling to Mich this Thursday to pick up Allison from Camp Grandma and Grandpa. She needs to be back in town by Saturday for Field Hockey try outs. She has been busy running since they want the kids to run 2 miles for try outs. Not an easy feat here especially since the weather has been in the 90s. At least try outs start early on Saturday and Allison has been running up and down Bracey Rd. the past few weeks trying to get ready. She wasn't alone. I actually had time to visit the Y and get in a couple of aerobics classes! Although I also volunteered to go into work for a few hours on Friday afternoon right after I went to my doctor appt. I did manage to have lunch with Tom on our day off together-I actually tried FatBurger for the first time! This hamburger chain was in LA and out west when we lived there and I absolutely refused to eat at anyplace with the name FAT in the title. But I figured since I was going to aerobics class, I could give it a chance! This is the only chain in the east coast area and it is owned by one of our ex Ravens football players. I was pleasantly surprised to see they had veggie burgers and salad wedges(although I couldn't pass up trying the onion rings). Tom thought their hamburgers and onion rings were good, but I wasn' t terribly impressed. At least I can say I tried it. They claim to have the best burgers on the West Coast, but I always enjoyed Jack in the Box and Carl's Burgers or In N Out Burger when we lived in LA. So much for our fine dining. Tom and Scott and I did go out to dinner at the Mexican restaurant Friday night in olde Ellicott City(I gave up cooking for the day). After our Mariachi serenade we stopped into a new wine store across the street just to scope it out. Turns out the owners are from Ludington/Muskegon Michigan. And they went to Michigan State! Tom was wearing a MSU tshirt which tipped them off. The husband studied horticulture and decided to open the wine store after working as head chef at a local historic restaurant, The Elkridge Inn. After they found out we were MSU folk the wine tasting got more extensive! Tom bought a few bottles(nothing over $20) and I read that the owner donates 5% of each sale to charity. He also likes dogs and every third Friday of the month is Yappy Hour. Sample wine and socialize with your dog! His dog usually hangs out there at the store-(they even sell dog bones)- so we will have to introduce them to Cookie. And at the end of the month they have an outdoor movie night scheduled(serving wine of course). This outing motivated us to invite our neighbors over that night to sip wine out on our deck. Sadly they are moving to a mansion in western Howard county after it is built next spring. Scott will be very sad since this is his best buddy. I am sure there will have to be some commuting for play dates.
On Sunday, Tom had to drive up to Lancaster PA to oversee some lab work for his Salt Lake City project. Unfortunately he missed our visit with Matt and Di and Diana's sister Hillary and family visiting from Caton Michigan for the week. Scott and I were pretty happy to use their pool(plenty hot these days) and of course Matt cooked up a BBQ bonanza. Our evening was cut short however when their son, Nick had to take a trip to the Emergency Room. He had some minor surgery the week before and the incision opened up while he was swimming. They needed to get him back in shape since they were planning a white water rafting trip this week and a visit to Ocean City.
Allison meanwhile really enjoyed her sailing lessons this past week on Lake Charlevoix. Mom and Dad Bozyk took her every afternoon into Charlevoix where Allison learned all about wind and the weather, how to tie knots and most of all how to sail. However, I think her favorite part was learning how to fall out of the boat and how to capsize the boat so they can flip it back over. I told her I paid for sailing lessons, not swimming lessons! I saw some great photos of her too on Flicker. There is a photograher that takes pictures of all the kids at each session all summer long and sends them out on the internet. She definitely looked like she was enjoying herself. And on Friday they had a picnic dinner for all the sailors and their families. Mom Bozyk even won a raffle prize-2lbs of Michigan fudge! I am expecting my cut.
3 weeks and counting until school starts-we have already started purchasing Scott's back to school supplies. He is actually looking forward to school starting-I am not. Already I am swamped just in filling out Girl Scout forms! Back to my forms. Kathleen and Family