I was reading Mark Seitz's blog and how he was talking about waking up so early last Sunday morning. I think Allison and I had him beat as we never went to bed last Saturday night! Instead, we spent the night participating in the annual Columbia Mall Sleep In for girl scouts where nobody actually sleeps(or sadly, gets to shop). Instead, the older girls put on activities for the younger girl scouts-badges, arts and crafts, games, karaoke and dancing. I signed my girls up for a Sports badge-I figured each one had tried some sport in their life, and it would keep them active and awake. Allison taught Field Hockey, and another girl had a swimming game and explained the swim strokes. We had volunteer parents helping out with the First Aid station, and another Troop that ran our cheerleading section(funny, none of the girls wanted to run that station, but the buddy troop did a fabulous job all night long). We then had a station to learn warm up and cool down exercises, along with a table where we set up a Women in Sports quiz(the younger girls did pretty well with this-I did not recognize some of the names or photos myself, but the young girls studied them in school, or so they told me). But my biggest pet peeve was the requirement for girls to look through the Sports sections of newspapers and compare the number of men's sports articles with women's sports articles. To make things move more smoothly, I had my troop highlight the men's articles in blue and the women's in pink. I am not sure how many of you study the sports pages, but I don't think I will read many more of them. I discovered that many articles are written about men and women, and that most of the time, I cannot tell if the article or sport is for men or women mainly because I can't tell from the names of the players whether they are male or female! Certainly we found more articles focusing on men in sports. But I also found that some of the articles really had nothing to do with sports at all. Like the whole article on Tiger Woods apology! Was that an article about a man, many women, both? And it didn't even discuss sports! I found sometimes the sports page was more like a gossip column. I had an argument(imagine that!) with the GS council in charge of this event as I did not wish to include this requirement. I thought it was a bit outdated and sexist. I did not see how it taught the girls anything, although part of the requirement was to write a letter to the newspaper either thanking them for the women's articles or complaining that we wanted to see more. Frankly I thought the papers did a great job covering the womens sports if it existed. But more often I see articles mixed about women and men in sports. Unless of course they are talking about a Men's Hockey League or a Women's Basketball team, etc. I wanted to replace the newspaper coverage with my quiz, but I was not allowed to mess with the powers that be. Instead we added our quiz on with a question concerning the type of sport most women play. Oh well. It is not easy to fight city hall or grumpy old girl scout leaders. They thought the best part would be the cheerleading! Noone wanted that station! But my girls did a great job, and I covered for Allison while she went off to eat chinese food at 3am in the food court. I also helped out with a Careers badge table-conflict resolution. I think they put me at the wrong table!
I also spent the morning with the scouts-the boys. We went off to pick up food left by mailboxes throughout the neighborhood for Harvest for Hungry. Our boys picked up 830lbs of food! The food will be donated to our local food bank. Great service project and lots of exercise for the boys.
They spent last Sunday morning passing out the bags for the food collection. (Right after Allison altar served the 9am mass.) I spent that afternoon pooped out in the recliner chair. I guess I had a little bug or something. Tom wanted to invite Matt and Di over for Sunday night dinner, but I told him I wasn't cooking or cleaning. He was on his own. He had just returned from LA on Friday. So he made dinner and cleaned the house, but we never heard from Matt and Di. So instead he invited our neighbors over since we hadn't chatted in a while. I fell asleep watching the US/Canada Olympic men's hockey game. It was a bit sad to see the US lose, but at least the guys took home Silver. And overall the US did much better in this year's Winter games. No more staying up late though to watch the games live.
I was back on my own again this past week, but just half a week this time. Tom stayed long enough to go on our belated Valentine's Day date. I had purchased two tickets for a Wine tasting class at our favorite MSU owned wine store in olde Ellicott City. We finally met the owner that night. We had already met his sister and parents that help run the store. The class was called Weird Science -Wine Pairings and we got to try some new wines with different snacks-cheeses, crackers, veggies, chocolate. Everything from champagne to port. Afterwards Tom and I went out to dinner at the Mexican restaurant across the street. It is so nice to be able to leave the kids home alone and not have to hire a babysitter when Allison is around.
So again I was on my own helping with the kids homework, chaperoning to field hockey and piano. But this week Scott decided to get sick. He started feeling poorly on Weds, and he tried to make it to school Thursday since I had a very busy work day, but he only got to lunch and they called me to pick him up. He looked pretty miserable. We have a stomach bug going around Maryland. At work we have had to quarantine our nursing home and rehab unit-no residents in or out due to stomach flu. I also had one girl scout cancel Saturday night due to flu bug. Tom wasn't feeling that great either last week, but he survived his trip to New Orleans. He did think the place was a bit sleazy and dirty. Funny, that is how I remember it when my parents took us kids there once in passing.
So Scott stayed home with me the rest of the week recuperating. I did not mind though since I kept him busy memorizing all the US states and their capitals. He had his big test on Friday, but did not have much time to study since all the kids tests were squeezed in to make the cut off for the marking semester. They had to learn about 25 states and capitals in less than two weeks time. Even though I wasn't happy Scott was feeling sick, I was glad he had extra time to memorize the states. We even studied during Allison's field hockey games. She ended up playing goalie for an hour straight since most of the girls did not show up last week. They already started Spring Sports tryouts and several of the girls on the team were at Lacrosse tryouts that night. More game time for Allison!
And our snow is slowly melting. You can just barely walk down the sidewalks, although there are still large piles of snow along the roadside. Scott and I took Cookie up to our local park last Sunday afternoon and the two of them had fun running in the field and getting all muddy and wet. Both of them needed quite the bath when we got home. Cookie pretty much needs a bath every time we go out for a walk now since she steps in all the mud and puddles.
I am also slowly assessing all the damage to our lawn and shrubs. My poor shrubs have all been squashed with broken branches. We will probably have to cut down one very large shrub next to the house as the weight of the snow completely tipped it over on its side, pulling its root system right out of the ground! And my small , metal flag banner stand was completely bent in half by the weight of all the snow. At least it looks like all the plants will live. We'll definitely have to reseed some parts of the lawn where they scraped up the dirt with the front loaders. At least our mailbox survived! Everyone else has been busy picking up broken tree limbs and cutting up large branches that broke off during the storm. I am glad we never planted any White Pines-what a mess they make. There were even a few trees that fell over at work-one directly over a parked car!
Happy Early Spring-we also have daffodils and crocuses popping up. Kathleen

Ready For Spring!

So I survived two weeks non stop on my own without Tom support. But it won't last long. He just returned from LA, and he is off to speak at a conference in New Orleans next week. I was just glad he was able to get back home since we were spared the big nasty snow storm. We did have hurricane level wind and flurries, and they did cancel flights in the morning in and out of BWI because of the high wind. He was scheduled for an evening return, so the weather calmed down by then. Of course, he was not too worried about being trapped in LA. Much better weather than here on the East Coast! And he visited with my brother Mike and had a chance to go out to dinner with him a couple of times. Plus a trip to wine country near Santa Barbara over the weekend.
While he was sipping merlot last Saturday, Allison and I were singing with the GS choir at International Day.

This week I had my girl scouts over for a planning meeting for an up all night event next weekend-Columbia Mall Sleep In(which is a misnomer since nobody sleeps). We girl scouts take over the entire mall and put on programs for Junior girl scouts. My troop is presenting a Sports Sampler badge. We also invited another Troop to assist, so their leader was able to drop by and get an orientation to the program following our meeting on Friday night. We also managed to get Allison to her piano lesson earlier Friday night so it made for a shorter day. Thank goodness. I was a bit wore out from volunteering to go into work in the morning, as well as attending a baby shower in the afternoon(also at work), then running lots of errands, picking up Scott from school, dropping in to the school fair before rushing home to set up and clean up for the girl scout meeting! I had to pick up Scott's scout shirt from the dry cleaner(they sewed on all his new patches) and I was searching for the best bargain for frosting for his cub scout cake.

Speaking of cake contests, Scott once again came home with a prize for his cake! This year's theme was the 100th Birthday celebration of scouting. Scott was shooting for the "tallest cake" category, and we planned out a mutli layered birthday cake. We decorated the cake in blue and gold frosting and added chocolate candies that we made in a Boy Scout emblem mold that I bought at the scout store. We even found a cookie cutter in the shape of an eagle and added cookies to the cake decorations. After we set up his cake at the award ceremony, we knew immediately that he had won for the tallest cake. One other boy attempted the tall cake category, but his toppled before getting to the event. Rather than the tallest cake award, Scott ended up taking the "Scout's Choice Award". The boy scouts voted for their favorite cake, and it was Scott's! So since he could only win one award, they found another cake almost as tall. I thought for sure Scott was guaranteed a win, at least for "Most Frosting". I actually think they came up with that category from one of Scott's cakes two years ago! Anyhow, he was very excited with himself. So can you guess how we spent our evenings last week! Good thing cake mix was on sale last weekend. And Tom and Allison did a great job passing out lots of cake so we did not have to bring much home. And now Scott is officially a Webelos I. Next year he will be a Webelos II, and then on to Boy Scouts.

Before we even finished decorating Scott's cake on Saturday afternoon, Allison and I joined our neighbors for a fund raising event for the people of Haiti. Participants all met at our local park to attempt to join hands all around the lake. They estimated needing 4000 people to wrap around the whole lake, however, they managed to bring in about 1000 people, so we didn't quite make it all the way around, but most people were happy to provide donations. I was a bit hesitant to attend as I did not wish to get stuck waiting in long lines for a shuttle bus back to our local school parking lots. Turns out it was very smooth moving and well organized. They had free school bus shuttles bringing people in and out of the park, right on schedule. And when we arrived, we located our neighbors and their group quite easily. After joining hands and a quick song on bagpipes, we all went home. Allison even managed to get her photo and name in the local paper for the event! The sponsoring group turned out to be the Ellicott City Rotary Club along with a kids summer camp organization called Kids for Peace. All the money raised will be sent to the Sarasota Florida Rotary Club to ship off supplies to Haiti. It really was a well organized and crafted event(too bad girl scouts can't run as smoothly). And the weather was surprisingly sunny although a bit chilly. We were worried that we would be snowed under again this week, but the big storm stayed along the shoreline and hit PA, New Jersey and New York with 20 inches of snow! We still have everyone beat with 80 inches of snow so far this winter! Rather than the snow storm we had a snow hurricane come through. Once again I was grateful that the power stayed on.

The kids were hoping for another snow day. They are a bit overwhelmed with the tight school schedule they have been under lately. Since they missed over a week of school, the teachers have been playing catch up by squeezing in lots of tests and papers and projects in a shorter time span. I have never felt so disorganized. Fortunately, they decided to make up the missed days by having the kids attend school the whole day rather than 1/2 days for teacher development days. And they will go a whole day right before Easter break. They have also extended the school year to June 23rd. At least we will not be losing our Easter break(there was a threat). And they actually waived a few days-not an easy task. We are all holding our breath that the weather stays decent so as not to extend the school year into the 2010-11 school year!
We also returned to indoor field hockey since the building was repaired. Allison should be done, but they rescheduled the missed games. She got some extra playing time last week as a few other teams asked her to fill in as their goalie. I would have loved to send Allison to a free goalie clinic this coming weekend at Towson University, but Allison and I will be busy sleeping that day. Next weekend is our up all night girl scout event, which means sleep all the next day. I am sure other opportunities will present themselves in the future. She would like to attend a field hockey summer camp, and I have not yet checked out the county spring schedule. Scott just informed me that he wants to try baseball. He thinks because he can play the Wii sports that he can play in real life. I think he is in for an eye opener. That is why I sign the kids up at the YMCA-they actually give the kids instruction on how to play(and it is cheaper!).
So a Big Happy Birthday to Susan Seitz. She celebrated her birthday by getting a new dog! Sadly her dog Fred was put down a week ago, and she and her husband John were feeling rather lonely, so they replaced Fred with Gus-a ridgeback/hound mix. He should be a good running companion for John and walking partner for Sue. I know how nice it is to take a walk with the dog in tow, although sometimes that is all I am doing(towing Cookie down the road since she gets so interested in trying to chase birds and squirrels and blowing leaves!).

Well, I guess you could say things are finally getting back to normal. All though it has been a bit painful. The kids were off on Monday for President's Day, and they closed school again on Tuesday. When they finally did get back to school, it was after a 2 hour delay in the morning. The counties were just having too much trouble moving all the snow. And schools were still not cleared, especially sidewalks. We actually have quite a few kids that walk to school, and it was just too dangerous to walk in the roads. For some reason, Maryland didn't build shoulders alongside the roads. So there really was no place to put all the snow. They had to bring in dump trucks in downtown Baltimore, scoop up the snow and dump it in the bay! It looked like a very big slushy! And the temperature is rising slowly, which is probably a good thing for us since the snow is melting slowly. If it melted all at once, we'd have to break out the life jackets and the Ark!
Our average snowfall in Maryland is apparently 18 inches for the entire Winter. This year we are around 73 inches and we haven't hit Spring yet! Needless to say, we surpassed a few old records. And we also discovered that the guys that measure the snowfall at the airport play a big role in the economy and how federal funding is determined. Looks like here in Baltimore, they opted to use one of their own technicians to measure snowfall rather than a meteorologist. Turns out both groups measure snowfall differently. Weather guys measure snow hourly, which has a lot to do with how compact the snow gets and how long it sits. The technicians at the airport just care about how much snow affects the operation of the airport. The government has set standards in determining how much snow equals how many federal dollars used to help clean up the snow. So there is a discrepancy between our airport people and our weather people. Looks like we hit around 63 inches all said and done over the last two weeks. Now the FAA and weather people are questioning the measurements dating all the way back to the early 1900s. Crazy stuff. We just know it was a ton of snow in a short period of time and that the roadbergs are going to be around until April it seems.
I was laughing at an article in the paper, an editorial discussing the joys of snow days. Including the mad rush to the stores to buy meat, milk and toilet paper. Then the need to cook huge chunks of meat which find their way into soups(mine end up in pot pies!) as well as lots of cookies. And the fun of picking up the excessive clutter in the house which occurs when children stay home from school for more than one day. Including all the wet mittens, hats, boots, snow pants and coats that are strewn from the garage all the way to the fireplace in the family room! And the shear excitement of watching front loaders push snow up out of the roads onto the neighbor's front yards. I actually took a video of the front loader cleaning up the extra snow on our street at night. Too bad we couldn't have sold some of this extra stuff to Vancouver. Baltimore actually had to buy more road salt from Mexico since the whole east coast ran out(or they were hoarding their supplies). And driving on our roads has been very interesting lately. I took the neighbor ladies and girls out to see Percy Jackson The Lightning Thief and as I was dropping everyone off, I drove up to about a dozen deer coming right at me down our road! They decided to jump over the 4ft snow bank and attempted to cross the neighbor's yard. The ladies were afraid they would get stuck in the snow and made me slow down to look!
So don't you wish you could all share in this fabulous experience? I got yelled at from my boss for having to adjust my work schedule because when the kids finally went back to school they had a two hour delay, and I had to drop them off before going into work. Tom finally ended up in California for his business trip. He needed to stay and work 2 weeks, so he decided it would be better to stay over the weekend rather than try to get home, only to go back to the airport and spend another day traveling. That worked fine for me since he mostly catches up on his sleep when he gets back from a trip. And I had a very busy weekend with the kids.
As I mentioned, all the activities that we planned several weekends ago were bumped to future weekends. Allison and I participated in a Girl Scout International Day on Saturday(that was already scheduled and ran on time). We were singing in the opening ceremony with the GS choir. The event was held at a local catholic high school this year, so Allison got a sneak peak into one our catholic schools(rather old and run down). She enjoyed listening to the speaker from the Peace Corps, and tasting a rice cake from the phillipines(more like a sweet cupcake with ground meat on the bottom). We also picked up some great handouts for her Health teacher on nutrition and exercise. In the meantime, I paid to have Scott stay with a babysitter at our neighbor's house since this was an all girl event. He certainly enjoyed his play date with the neighbor's son. On Sunday, after church in the morning and some intense homework and studying, we all joined Scott's school for an afternoon of bowling. The event had been scheduled several weeks earlier, but was canceled due to the snow. They had several kids cancel so I asked if Allison could come along. They asked if she could chaperone a lane of kids next to the lane I was watching, plus they let her bowl and eat pizza too. Worked for us. We all had a lot of fun and even saw our next door neighbor there celebrating their daughter's birthday. The place was packed. After bowling, I thought I could get the kids their haircuts that they desperately needed. However, when we arrived at the salon in the mall there was a 2hour wait, and the mall was closing before that! I guess everyone is still behind on their schedules! It was bad enough trying to find a parking place, so we just bought dinner at the Food Court and headed home to finish up our homework/studying.
My biggest challenge when Tom is out of town is getting the kids where they need to be. I managed to get Scott to gymnastics and Allison to piano, but her indoor Field Hockey is on hold due to damage to the building's roof from the snow. Not sure when it will be fixed.
I do try to get most of my errands run on Fridays. I discovered the Boy Scout store near the airport and was busy spending the afternoon buying Scott his new patches for his khaki shirt. This weekend he will celebrate his advancement from a cub scout to a Webelo Scout and switches from his blue shirt to his khaki shirt. So I had to get all new patches sewn on(but first I had to buy them!). I also picked up some supplies for cake decorating as he usually participates in the cake making contest for the blue and gold dinner. Boy Scouts is celebrating their 100th year so we will make the biggest birthday cake we can assemble(without tipping over!). There is a "tallest cake" category. Everything must be edible too. He also has a vest full of patches that I asked one of my girl scouts to sew on for him so he can wear it to the banquet. I also found the kids a new dentist office and scheduled them an appt in a few weeks. I signed up for a new insurance from my job since Tom's dental program has been sorely lacking. Limited choices and many dentists keep dropping the insurance(Cigna). So it will be interesting to see how the new dentist turns out(a woman who has an office right around the corner from us). I was impressed with the fact that when I stopped into the office, they were closed, but the receptionist opened the door and let me in to talk to me and make appointments. It is pretty hard to find decent service like that nowadays.
Other sad news, Linda Seitz lost her grandmother last week-she passed away at 101! She was still living in her own house in Michigan. I will really miss hearing Flossie stories!
My best (OT) friend Laura fell over some bowling ball bags while attending a fund raiser activity and broke her arm(shoulder area-neck of the humerus). She was busy celebrating her raffle win and ended up on the floor with a broken arm. She thought she would get away with a sling for 6 wks, and then lots of therapy, but the orthopedic MDs decided she required surgery. So in she went for surgery. On top of all that, her sister in law passed away. Our sympathy goes out to Dan and Laura. She had to decide between surgery or a funeral. Not a great choice. Hope you are taking it easy Laura and recuperating.
This has been quite a year so far. I will let you know how we survive all the snow and the threat of more to come! Kathleen and family

Happy Valentine's Day! Our Maryland governor extended our Valentine's Day until Feb 21st to allow people to spend more money on flowers, cards, jewelry and other love gifts, as well as going out to eat since we have all been snowed in for over a week. Our family decided to have our usual toned down Valentine's Day celebration at home anyway. Tom made us all a great salmon dinner and we enjoyed GS Thin Mint ice cream for dessert. Tom bought me a gold necklace with a family charm, and I bought us both a wine tasting class. Plus I treated myself to a haircut! (finally).
Both of the kids could use a haircut, but I haven't been able to get to the mall, and when the streets cleared up a bit, I didn't want to go anywhere near the mall since I figured it would be filled with tons of kids bored out of their minds. Plus limited parking due to all the snow.
As you may have heard, Maryland and most of the east coast was slammed with an incredible amount of snow-2 feet over the Super Bowl weekend, and another two feet just a few days later. Our entire state has been busy digging out paths that we call "roads". The snow began falling the friday night of Super Bowl weekend, and it feels like it hasn't stopped. Our road was not plowed for 4 days, and it took Tom and I two days to finish our driveway and front walk, plus a pathway out the back door on the deck to the yard to allow the dog a place to go potty. The snow was so deep, the snow blower couldn't blow the snow high enough, and it was getting difficult to lift the snow up over your head. This was especially difficult for me since most of the snow piles were definitely over my head! I finally wore out my shoulder after a week of lifting heavy snow and chiseling out the ice. I have been on heavy duty motrin all week so I could get in a few days of work. We can't let the dog outside in the backyard by herself to go to the bathroom because the snow is so high it is over the 3 ft fence. Cookie just runs over the fence from the backyard to the front door. The only problem is, sometimes she prefers to run down to the neighbors for a visit, and she can also run on top of the snow which doesn't help when you are trying to catch her!
Basically all of our activities we had planned for Super Bowl weekend were cancelled. We were supposed to go complete our volunteer work for our Disney tickets-rescheduled. A wine tasting gala was cancelled. Scott's bowling party for the entire school was rescheduled. No piano lessons. But we did manage to squeeze in the Super Bowl party at our house. Most people made it down the street on little paths everyone made while out walking their dogs. Our one main road through the neighborhood was cleared, but only one car width. It made walking and driving quite hazardous. And lots of tree branches down, power outages. We were nice and comfy in our house and enjoyed cheering on the Colts for the Super Bowl. Sadly it did not help. We did have a few Saints fans present. We were all quite surprised by the outcome of the game-it was very exciting at least. And the food was great(not to mention the beer supply). And the kids loved playing with each other(and my house got cleaned and dirtied all in one weekend!). Some neighbors were just happy to have a warm place to sit, warm food and internet service since they had been out of power for several days. Even the pet turtle went into hibernation until they got him in some warmer water!
And so they actually closed school for the entire week following the big storms. We may have been able to plow out from under after the first big storm on Super Bowl weekend, but along came another 2 feet of snow in the middle of the week,and on top of that, blizzard conditions! I made it to work 2 out of 4 days, Tom spent some time working from home, and managed to get into the office about 3 days out of the week. It reminded me of Winter Break in Boston. They automatically build in a week off school in the winter for a break, as well as Spring break. And school ran until the end of June in Boston. And so it seems for us as well. We are now set to end on June 23rd. And they took away a few teacher inservice days. But at least they did not take away our Easter break. They were threatening. We would not be too happy since we already bought plane tickets to LA.
So instead we stayed pretty much at home for a whole week-from the 8th to the 12th. Tom's trip to LA was cancelled(thank goodness). The airports were a mess. Fortunately the kids already had a few days scheduled off for Parent Teacher conferences. And the teachers still managed to send home some projects and extra homework for the kids via email(isn't technology wonderful!). So besides a very early start to Spring cleaning, Tom and I worked with the kids on their homework assignments and stayed warm, in between plowing.
And by the following weekend, we were busy trying to catch up with all the activities that were cancelled the weekend before. We started with our Volunteer work for Disney. We volunteered to assemble luminary bags for a Relay for Life Cancer Fund. The Relay will be held in June, and they light luminary bags for cancer survivors. Between our family and one other, we assembled 400 bags. And we earned free admission passes to Disneyland or Disneyworld for a day. Since we are visiting California this spring, we decided to use our tickets there. Sadly, since we had to change our schedule, Scott missed out on a laser tag birthday, so Tom took him in the evening to play while Allison babysat for the neighbors. She definitely managed to get quite a bit of extra babysitting done since school was closed but most of the neighbors had to get to work on days when the roads were partially cleared.
So I took lots of snow pictures and Tom thankfully put a few on my blog so you can all see how much snow we have been shoveling and snow blowing. Hope spring comes soon!
Kathleen and Family

Wow. You could say we got a little bit of snow. How about nearly 3 inches here in Howard County. Most everyone else had 2 inches. Most of the snow fell Friday night into Saturday afternoon. The sun actually came out in the early evening. Between Tom and myself, we managed to make a pathway to the street down the driveway, a pathway to our front door and Tom cleaned out a space in front of the garage doors. Allison made a small path out on our deck so Cookie could get out for a potty break. We also managed to clean out around 3 sides of my van parked in the driveway, but even if our driveway was cleared, we couldn't go anywhere since our street has not yet been cleared. It was amazing to watch the news reports and see the whole state come to a standstill.
Not so on Friday. Before the snow began, everyone was visiting the grocery stores and gas stations. Our station down the street actually ran out of gas by Friday morning. I stopped in to fill our tank for the snowblower and had to visit another station down the road. Fortunately I had already finished my big grocery shopping early in the week in preparation for the Super Bowl game. We had already planned on hosting the neighborhood football party. I was glad I had already picked up most of the food, although I did make one more party food pitstop on Friday morning(chips and soda). I also managed to get Cookie to her vet appointment Friday morning, and visited with Allison's english teacher before classes started. I wanted to get an idea of how the county assessments worked, and the tests are not allowed home so I had to preview it with the teacher. He was on a tight scheduled however since they decided to let the kids out 3 hours early on Friday in anticipation of the big snow. So Allison was home by 1130 and Scott needed picked up at 1230.
Tom on the other hand was supposed to fly into Baltimore Friday night. I had contacted him Thursday night and asked if he couldn't get an earlier flight home since the airport was already talking about closing, and flights were already cancelled. Tom was put on a standby flight Friday morning, but he thought if he missed the morning flight, he would be arriving on Saturday instead. I warned him that he probably would not get home until Sunday at best. Turns out, our neighbor flew to San Diego this weekend and was supposed to arrive Friday night. Instead, they are talking about a Monday arrival now. Tom was down in Huntsville Alabama and he said the weather really wasn't too bad where he was-just a light rain. But up here obviously it turned into a blizzard with an incredible amount of snow! Thankfully, he made the Friday morning flight and arrived before the snowstorm.
Not surprisingly, everything on our calendar this weekend was cancelled. Allison had planned on attending a party at the library for the opening of the Lightning Thief movie. She read the series, along with our neighbor's daughter, and the library was planning a free night of games and dinner and snacks. Fortunately, that activity was rescheduled for next Friday. Not surprising, her piano lessons were cancelled, along with our plans to complete our volunteer work for our free Disney tickets. That activity was rescheduled as well for next weekend. Not rescheduled was the wine tasting gala that Tom and I were invited to with our old neighbors. Their school puts on a fund raiser every other year which involves a whole lot of food and wine tasting. We had a wonderful time 2 years ago, and we were really looking forward to another great event. Oh well, we just have to be patient for another 2 years.
My guess is that Scott's school will cancel the school bowling event scheduled for tomorrow afternoon. Our neighbors wanted to know if we were cancelling our super bowl party too! Fortunately for us, our power has stayed on. But neighbors around the corner were left in the dark. They are bunking down on our street. Some of our neighbors don't feel like attempting the walk over to our house(older neighbors), and some traveled out of town this weekend and won't be returning any time soon! So it looks like we will be having a smaller gathering Sunday evening, which is fine for me.
And since we really couldn't go anywhere this weekend, it gave me lots of time to cook and clean and help the kids with their homework.
Sounds just like my week with the kids as Tom was out of town since last Sunday. I had a lot of running around to do during the week, including a few medical appts for Scott and myself. And we had a few inches of snow earlier in the week that kept schools from opening on time, so I had to drop the kids off in the morning before heading to work myself. Allison did manage to get her field hockey games in as well as Scott's gymnastics class. Looks like I just needed one more doctor visit since I ended up with pink eye at the end of the week.
I'm pretty sure it has something to do with the vast amounts of mold that were uncovered in our basement rehab gym this past week. Our new supervisor was busy reorganizing and located a large patch of mold growing behind a wallpapered section of the clinic. They thought a little paint would fix up everything until they peeled the wallpaper off the wall. Yuck. In less than one hour our clinic looked like a scene from ET complete with lots of plastic wrap and concerned looking administrators. However, I don't think it was fast enough since I have a lovely red eye. At least Tom and I have had our share of pink eye in the past, so I had some eye drops in the medicine cabinet, but I wouldn't mind getting checked out before heading back to work this week since pink eye is very catchy. It's bad enough that some nasty stomach bug is going around work. We have had to close several floors/buildings on campus to quarantine the residents with stomach flu. I just hope I can get the car out of the driveway sometime this week!
We are worried about our snow days. We only have 2 left, and the school system is threatening to take away the kids spring break. Of course Tom and I plan on taking the kids to California that week!

So I survived rollerblading last weekend. 3 hours is a long time. At least Allison's new rollerblades fit well-no blisters. And I took the girls out to dinner afterwards for italian food. Plus Allison and I slept in on Monday. I decided to switch my day off and go into work on Friday instead so we could spend some time together.
Allison had the day off since they just wrapped up midterms. We were very happy to see her do so well. She even did much better this time around on the county assessments. So to celebrate we both went to see the new Avatar movie. Yes it is about 3hours long. But surprisingly it didn't seem like a long movie. Although the theme was a bit cliche, Allison and I really enjoyed the story. We didn't see it in 3D however since Allison gets motion sickness and we heard stories of people getting sick, even passing out at the 3D IMAX film! Allison wasn't taking any chances. It was nice going during the weekday too since we had no trouble getting in-friends of ours said they went on the weekend, and the movie is still selling out. We also had time to go to the GS office to drop off our final report for the girls' Silver Award. I am happy to report that I just received the girls approval letters, so each one of them will obtain their Silver Awards. The timing was good since last week we all attended an orientation for the Gold Award-this is equivalent to a Boy Scout's Eagle Award. Most girls start working on the prerequisites in high school and then complete their project during their Junior year in High School. Finishing your Silver Award counts towards the prerequisites for the Gold Award, so we are almost there! Or at least we have a good start anyway.
And on Friday night, Allison and I attended a Girl Scout meeting for our Up All Night Junior Girl Scout Event coming up in March where the older girl scouts run stations for the younger girls. This year we are running a Sports Badge. Allison plans on introducing the girls to Field Hockey. We are also hoping to have a sports equipment collection if the council approves of our idea. We also collect food that night for the local shelters so it may be a bit overwhelming. That program is in March, and we stay up all night running the event at our local mall. I am always amazed that I can stay up all night!
And Tom was home this past week which made life a lot easier. He was able to help out with all the carpooling-running Allison to piano, field hockey and Scott to gymnastics. Not to mention studying with Scott for all his tests this past week. He even braved a snowstorm to accompany Scott to his Cub Scout Klondike Derby event on Saturday morning. We started the week off with 60 degree weather, and by Saturday we had a snowstorm with 5 inches of snow! This was the leftover storm that barreled through California and all across the southern portions of the country. Our weathermen only expected a light flurry, maybe 1-2 inches on Saturday, so the Cub Scout Klondike Derby was still on. The boys met at a local state park and worked on scouting skills like fire starting, shelter building, use of an axe, knot tying and most fun of all, they use a sled/rolling cart to get from station to station. They managed to get through several stations before the state park closed due to the snowstorm. Which was a shame, since this was their opportunity to fulfill some of their scouting requirements to advance to their next level. Right now Scott is a Webelo I and at the end of the month, he will advance to WEbelo II-he has already transitioned into his khaki scout shirt from the blue cub scout colors. Now I just need to buy a whole new batch of patches to sew on! Hopefully the Den will be able to reschedule some of the activities. I am also helping to organize some cub scout programs, including a sleepover at our Science museum. I took the girl scouts to a science sleepover, and they had a blast. I am sure the boys will love it too! And as if we didn't have enough scouting activities this weekend, we attended Scout mass on Sunday morning. It was an especially nice service since Scott's den was awarded with the Webelo I Religious medal. We stood up during mass at the altar with our new Monsignor and the boys were awarded with their medals. We have been completing a workbook since the fall, and the boys had to meet one on one with Fr Dietzenbacher for approval. One nice thing about having a new german monsignor, he was able to pronounce our last name when he called Scott up and when he mentioned my name as leader of my girl scout troop!
We all celebrated with an all you can eat pizza buffet at CiCi's pizza. We also stopped into the pet store to pick out a baby gate to keep the dog off the stairs and on the main floor. She keeps eating all the kids books and papers that I place on the steps to go up to their rooms. Or she sneaks upstairs and eats the cat's food(not to mention socks and toys). I also signed her up for the next level of dog training. We need to work on things like how to keep your dog from running down the street to play with the little neighbor girls in the snowstorm! Fortunately, she was easy to find since I was able to follow her trail in the snow!
Besides chasing after the dog on Saturday, I also managed to shovel the first batch of snow and get in an aerobics class and grocery shopping before the roads got too bad. Tom had to clear the driveway a second time before church Sunday morning with the snow blower. The kids are a bit disappointed since this probably means they won't miss any school seeing how the storm hit on a Saturday. We got up to a whopping 34 degrees Sunday so we had a bit of a meltdown. The kids are still hoping for at least a one or two hour delay on Monday.
At least the snow storms didn't interfere with Tom's trip to Alabama Sunday night. He will be there all week, so I am on my own with the kids again. And naturally I have another jam packed schedule. I'll let you know how it goes! Kathleen and family

Well we all survived our very busy week (last week) . Tom spent most of MLK Monday studying science and geometry with Allison while I went to work. Scott just enjoyed playing with the neighbor's son all day.
Tom was off to Orlando bright and early on Tuesday morning, so I had drop off for both kids. Allison had a full day of school on Tuesday, and started taking part of her midterm exams-gym and piano. She is done with her gym class now(which seemed more like health class) and now she actually takes health class next semester. She is happy though because she knows the instructor-Miss Allison! I sent our Allison to a summer camp fitness and fun class about 5 years ago at the local community college, and Allison really enjoyed the class. Especially the pogo sticks! We spent that summer hunting down a pogo stick for her very own and finally found a good one at the Salvation Army store in Michigan! The kids have long since worn out the spring, but now I see they sell them at Toys R Us. So if anyone gets any jumping ideas, we're all set. Anyhow, she is happy to have a class with someone she already knows. Kinda like Linda Seitz running into the kids she used to babysit and from the daycare(wait until you've taught for over 30 years and are retired from teaching for about another 10 yrs like my mom Linda!).
So the midterm exam week started off on a good note(no pun intended/piano theory exam), but it got a lot more intense as the week went on. The rest of the week was scheduled on half days with two exams per day. Weds she had History and Piano again-the kids each learned to play a new piece and had to play for each other and the teacher. Thursday was Science and English. Friday she had Geometry and Spanish. It was helpful that she got home by 1130 each day so she could spend time studying. I just had a hard time helping her review-not many hours left in the day by the time I pick up Scott from school and get home and make dinner. And she had so much info to cover. Tom had made her lots of Geometry quizzes to complete on the computer, and I practically downloaded an entire book off the internet for grammar. I think the English midterm was the toughest. The kids had 3 books to review(Night, Raisin in the Sun and To Kill a Mockingbird). They also had grammar and needed to know the rules on writing research papers and how to write an outline. It also gets more complicated since we have State Assessments that the kids have to pass in 11th grade in order to graduate from HS. Is this the same for all of you around the country? The kids have to pass math, science, govt. and english exams before they can graduate. Allison has already placed out of math, so she will just have 3 tests. So each semester they are given county assessments as well in order to prepare for the final tests(kinda like PSATs/SATs). Allison did not do well on her first English county assessment last semester, so I was trying to get her up to speed. However, the teacher changed their schedule and gave the kids the county assessment the week before he said it was scheduled. I was a bit upset since I specifically asked him when the test was scheduled so we could spend extra time preparing. He had assured me it was during midterm week. Then he admitted he made a mistake and gave it to them the week before. It did not give us a chance to trial the study quizzes on the state website he had also given us, but then again, when we tried to log on , the password he gave us was invalid. After that he said he couldn't help us. So glad this is an Honors class. After all of that, it looks like Allison ended up doing very well, and even bumped up her county assessment test to a B this time! Much better than the failing grade she got on the first assessment.
And she is very happy to have survived her first midterm week. Little does she realize how many more midterms and finals she has to go! We are just proud of how hard she has been working and her good grades, as well as babysitting, playing piano and playing field hockey on top of it all. She had two field hockey games Weds night, and then began practicing with our neighbor's team. His daughter is in middle school and they needed a goalie, so Allison is volunteering to practice with them. It is good for her playing skills she practices for 2 hrs Saturday morning. So she gets a long, 3 day weekend with Monday the 25th off. I decided to stay home with her and switched my day off so we can go see Avatar.
Scott wishes he had an extra day off since he is busy with lots of tests too. We did enjoy a trip this Saturday morning with his Environmental club to the Baltimore power plant. We had always thought the huge facility was a recycling plant, but it actually is a huge incinerator that burns trash to produce energy. It is a very clean facility with lots of filters and scrubbers so there is not alot of pollutants being put into the environment. And it produces steam which turns the turbines to make electricity. Our favorite part of the tour was looking down onto the 8,000 tons of trash being scooped up and dumped down the hopper into the furnace. They burn everything and then the ash is spread out over local landfills. Apparently a pretty green running facility built back in the 80s. It runs power for all of Baltimore and 20,000 homes. (Scott also enjoyed wearing the hard hat and safety glasses on the tour).
Tom enjoyed his trip to Orlando and even stopped in to see his Mom and Dad on Thursday night for dinner. He certainly misses the warmer weather they started having, but we have shot up to a balmy 40degrees so it's not too bad. The kids hoped to get off school last Friday as an ice storm was headed our way, but turns out it wasn't cold enough. They already had a half day, and I took Scott to the doctor since he fell off the playground equipment last week and has been complaining of jaw and neck and back pain. He had landed on the side of his head and I was worried about a hairline fracture or a cracked tooth. We have to wait for the xray results now.
When Tom returned from Florida, we had a fun evening planned on Saturday night. We ended up having dinner out an one of the better Italian restaurants in Baltimore. The city sponsors restaurant week with discount 3 course meals. We were able to get reservations for dinner before we went off to see Young Frankenstein at the Hippodrome theater. It was cute-just like Mel Brook's movie(but I missed Gene Wilder and the original cast). Igor was funny and cute of course.
We would have liked to have visited with Tom's cousin Jane and her husband Steve visiting DC from Indy. They were in DC to participate in the March for Life rally on Friday morning. I guess they had a busy short weekend though and couldn't squeeze in a visit. We'll see them though in June when we travel to Indy for Stacey and Matt's wedding.
So today I am off to rollerblade with the girl scouts for 3 hours. Hope my knees hold out!
Kathleen and Family