Wow-I actually have the house all to myself(unless you count the dog, cat, gerbils and fish). Scott is actually out playing with the neighbor boy. And I just sent Tom and Allison off to a Daddy/daughter rollerblading and/or dancing session with the girl scouts. I usually go rollerblading on the Girls Night Out with Allison in the Winter. So it is nice for Tom to have a chance to do something special with just the two of them. Of course, Tom skips the dancing part and both just enjoy the rollerblading part.
Scott has been trying to get in all the playing that he can with our neighbor's son since they will be moving soon-about 15 minutes west of our neighborhood. They just put their house on the market Friday and it has been crazy across the street from us all weekend with potential buyers. We are hoping for a family with kids at least Scott's age. Allison wouldn't mind more babysitting business. This is the family she babysits for every week since the mom teaches piano out of the house. Not sure Allison will be able to do the same next year unless the neighbor picks Allison up after school. Allison won't be driving for a couple of years yet on her own. The neighbor's will definitely miss the convenience of having Allison around anytime they need her(Allison even watches their cat for them when they are away). And I think they will certainly miss Tom and I as we have both been very good neighbors, helping out in anyway. Tom usually gets stuck with the manual labor and I watching kids. But they are moving out to the Estate section of Howard County(maybe we will still be invited over?!).
The weekend really flew by. Tom and I were actually both at work on Saturday. Our schedule was a bit off this past week since Scott was sick(fever and headache). Tom and I each took turns staying home with him for a day, so I swapped my day off for Saturday. I could not go in on Friday since I went to a shoulder/neck class(boy was I sore after a day of poking and prodding tight muscles). I even missed my morning with him for mom's day(muffins for mom). Oh well, at least Tom made Donuts for Dads. He is usually traveling and misses his day. It is an early morning open house for parents. They also have a Mass for Mary on Mom's Day and the kids that made their 1st Communion dress up again and receive communion with the rest of the school for the 1st time. I usually don't have time to stay for the mass, but I missed it all together this year. So instead we spent our days off with Scott trying to catch up on his missed classwork and homework.
He recuperated enough to go back to school on Thursday and participate in Sports Day. And then he was off on Friday. It was Tom's day off so they hung out together. Allison was supposed to be off, but she was making up a snow day. She said a lot of kids played hookie that day.
We were also supposed to go camping this weekend with the Boy Scouts in PA, but they cancelled the trip again. Too many other activities going on and the boys are actually ahead of their requirements, so they will try again in the fall. I was also going to take the kids to a nearby golf course for the Hot Air Balloon festival in celebration of the Preakness Horse Race at Pimlico. This is the second race following the Kentucky Derby. We did not get there since we had a bunch of tstorms roll through and that usually cancels hot air balloon activities. I also did not feel like getting up on Saturday morning for the predawn lighting of the hot air balloons.
Tom could have cared less about the Preakness and horse racing, he still has hockey fever. So off again we went to Hershey Park to see the Hershey Hockey Team play in their Caldor Cup finals on Saturday night. Tom needed someone to cheer on in hockey since Detroit is out of the Stanley cup finals. Sadly I had already farmed Allison off to babysit that night before Tom bought the tickets, so we invited our friend John Dutton to come along. Allison missed a very exciting game(I just didn't like seeing someone in the stands get hit with a puck). And we were pretty close to the ice ourselves. But we survived and the Bears won. And Scott picked up some candy in the Hershey Park store. Tom is ready for more hockey.
Sunday morning Allison was back altar serving the 9am mass covering for someone. She always gets such nice compliments from the lay people on how great a job she does. Since most of the kids are younger, they can use some guidance in their altar serving duties. And Allison was serving with our new Monsignor Dietzenbacher. And he is very picky. She did a fabulous job. Afterwards we helped sort books for the upcoming book sale at church. We love to dig through the piles for 1st choice on any books we would like to buy. Mostly cartoon books for us this year. We worked for over an hour and they still had not emptied all the boxes of donations. And I still needed to get Allison home so she could finish her homework before going off with Tom to rollerblade.
So the next few weeks will be a bit hectic as we work towards the end of the school year, so don't be surprised when I am behind in my blogging! Kathleen And keep up the good work in your Physical Therapy Laura. I loved seeing the picture of your xray-you will definitely set off alarms at the airport with all that hardware!
Sunday, May 16, 2010
Tuesday, May 11, 2010
Happy Mother's Day! We started off our day with church-Allison served mass. Tom and the kids decided I needed a new bike. We went off after a great lunch to search for a new bike, but to me bike shopping is like looking for shoes. (I actually hate shoe shopping). You have to find the right fit, and most of the standard bikes in the sporting good stores and large box shops fit people over 5'2". I just happen to be a bit shorter than that. Needless to say, we didn't have much success. I may have to check in at the specialty shops. Guess for now I will keep my old bike(which I don't think ever fit well either, and I got that at a fancy bike store!). Allison had hoped we could spend the afternoon on a family bike ride, but it had turned quite cold and windy. I did manage to get outside late in the evening to clean up some leaves in my garden. I want to plant a few tomatoes, but I was still waiting until all possibilities of freeze warnings were over. It got so warm here earlier in the spring, everything popped up and open before I could rake out the beds. While I was busy trimming bushes and raking leaves, Tom invited the neighbors over for drinks since we had such a late lunch. We had to stay indoors since it was so chilly outside, but it was a nice break from yardwork. I had already cut the grass on Friday, and Tom finished up the back on Saturday morning. We were trying to beat the rain.
I actually spent most of Saturday outside with Scott on a nature hike with his environmental club. We were supposed to go on a guided canoe trip in the wetlands around the bay, but again, the winds were so strong and storms were passing through so the program coordinator axed our water trip. Instead, the storms all blew over and she took us on a hike through the forest and along the water's edge. We visited Jug Bay Wetlands Sanctuary about 1 hour south from our house. Scott and I had a lot of fun spotting lizards and snakes, Eagles and Osprey, cranes, beavers, turtles, fish and then scooping up all sorts of creatures out of the pond. I did not realize that salamanders are born in the water and then move to dry land. We caught a bunch of those, along with frogs and bugs. And in Maryland besides the usual turtles that live in the ponds, we have box turtles that live in the forest(like little tortoises). They had a lot of spots marked where the turtles have laid eggs. Scott had such a great time, he even stayed after the group left so he could catch more frogs in the stream. We really enjoyed our day and took a picnic lunch break before heading back home.
We met Tom and Allison at the pet store to finish up Cookie's last training lessons. We had some classes to make up since we were in LA. Tom and Allison came early to make up a class, and then stayed for graduation and testing. They played some games and the dogs had to follow all the commands. Of course, Cookie did the best. Afterwards, Scott and I stayed for one more make up class. We worked on Stay. The dogs are placed on mats in the back of the store and we tell them to "stay" while we walk around the store. Cookie is a bit farther along in her training than the other dogs, and all the other owners were totally amazed at how Cookie just stayed on her mat until we came back to get her while their dogs kept sneaking away. Of course we still have to keep working on these things. In the meantime, we are trying to get Cookie used to our electric fence in the front yard. She is now so scared of the fence, she doesn't even want to walk on the grass or go out the front door. If you take her out the front, she sneaks along the house with her tail between her legs and sits at the garage door until someone lets her back in. And to really make her crazy, Tom found a magnetic doggy door that only she can go through with her attachment on the collar. (The cat had figured out the other door, and she is an indoor cat). Cookie likes to let herself out, but the new magnetic door makes so much noise, it scares her every time she goes near it. She is slowly getting used to it though.
And on Saturday morning while Scott and I were off hiking, Allison was busy with an orientation course for the upcoming Fall Confirmation class. She enjoyed her confirmation retreat so much, she volunteered to help out with the following class, and wants to do it again this coming Fall. The kids start planning in the spring and work on and off all summer. She is looking forward to another fun year. She is also busy squeezing in her last semester of school work. We have been reading Shakespeare together-Midsummer Nights Dream. She also had to memorize a 20 line sonnet and present this week. I wasn't sure she could do it, but she worked at it all last week and was able to memorize all the lines, as well as explain its meaning. Not sure I could have done as well. Scott's school is busy cramming in a bunch of work as they wind down the school year at the end of the month.
I finished up my last Girl Scout Leadership meeting of the year. We are already filling out registration forms for next year-lucky me, the forms are usually preprinted and parents just sign them, but mine came back blank. Lovely, more work for me. I also went to a GS International Travel club meeting-the first of its kind. I was hoping to join up with other scout troops and work together on fund raising to make some money to travel overseas with the girls after HS graduation. I would love to take the girls to England and stay at our GS headquarters. They do a nice tour of London and a day in Paris too while you stay at the GS lodge. Unfortunately, this group is only looking for 2 parents to take about 18 girls. I really don't want to be responsible for someone else's daughter, and my coleader would prefer to travel with us as well. So we'll see. Last year we went to Williamsburg and had a great time. The London trip sounds wonderful, but we could end up somewhere else(or nowhere at all!).
Friday Tom took off a few hours from work around lunch time so we could go see Iron Man 2. We liked it since we had seen IM 1. I also had to run over to school to drop off a plate of brownies for their Vera Bradley Bingo fundraiser(we get volunteer hours for baking!)
The usual busy week. A Big Happy Birthday to Mark Seitz. And we hope Stacey Seitz hurries up and recovers from her arthroscopic knee surgery, especially since she has to walk down the aisle for her wedding on June 12th. Good Luck also with the Nursing Boards Stacey! You certainly have packed a lot of activities into the next few months as well! Congrats again on the new house and Graduating from Nursing School and your job offer! (Sounds like my schedule!).
Kathleen
I actually spent most of Saturday outside with Scott on a nature hike with his environmental club. We were supposed to go on a guided canoe trip in the wetlands around the bay, but again, the winds were so strong and storms were passing through so the program coordinator axed our water trip. Instead, the storms all blew over and she took us on a hike through the forest and along the water's edge. We visited Jug Bay Wetlands Sanctuary about 1 hour south from our house. Scott and I had a lot of fun spotting lizards and snakes, Eagles and Osprey, cranes, beavers, turtles, fish and then scooping up all sorts of creatures out of the pond. I did not realize that salamanders are born in the water and then move to dry land. We caught a bunch of those, along with frogs and bugs. And in Maryland besides the usual turtles that live in the ponds, we have box turtles that live in the forest(like little tortoises). They had a lot of spots marked where the turtles have laid eggs. Scott had such a great time, he even stayed after the group left so he could catch more frogs in the stream. We really enjoyed our day and took a picnic lunch break before heading back home.
We met Tom and Allison at the pet store to finish up Cookie's last training lessons. We had some classes to make up since we were in LA. Tom and Allison came early to make up a class, and then stayed for graduation and testing. They played some games and the dogs had to follow all the commands. Of course, Cookie did the best. Afterwards, Scott and I stayed for one more make up class. We worked on Stay. The dogs are placed on mats in the back of the store and we tell them to "stay" while we walk around the store. Cookie is a bit farther along in her training than the other dogs, and all the other owners were totally amazed at how Cookie just stayed on her mat until we came back to get her while their dogs kept sneaking away. Of course we still have to keep working on these things. In the meantime, we are trying to get Cookie used to our electric fence in the front yard. She is now so scared of the fence, she doesn't even want to walk on the grass or go out the front door. If you take her out the front, she sneaks along the house with her tail between her legs and sits at the garage door until someone lets her back in. And to really make her crazy, Tom found a magnetic doggy door that only she can go through with her attachment on the collar. (The cat had figured out the other door, and she is an indoor cat). Cookie likes to let herself out, but the new magnetic door makes so much noise, it scares her every time she goes near it. She is slowly getting used to it though.
And on Saturday morning while Scott and I were off hiking, Allison was busy with an orientation course for the upcoming Fall Confirmation class. She enjoyed her confirmation retreat so much, she volunteered to help out with the following class, and wants to do it again this coming Fall. The kids start planning in the spring and work on and off all summer. She is looking forward to another fun year. She is also busy squeezing in her last semester of school work. We have been reading Shakespeare together-Midsummer Nights Dream. She also had to memorize a 20 line sonnet and present this week. I wasn't sure she could do it, but she worked at it all last week and was able to memorize all the lines, as well as explain its meaning. Not sure I could have done as well. Scott's school is busy cramming in a bunch of work as they wind down the school year at the end of the month.
I finished up my last Girl Scout Leadership meeting of the year. We are already filling out registration forms for next year-lucky me, the forms are usually preprinted and parents just sign them, but mine came back blank. Lovely, more work for me. I also went to a GS International Travel club meeting-the first of its kind. I was hoping to join up with other scout troops and work together on fund raising to make some money to travel overseas with the girls after HS graduation. I would love to take the girls to England and stay at our GS headquarters. They do a nice tour of London and a day in Paris too while you stay at the GS lodge. Unfortunately, this group is only looking for 2 parents to take about 18 girls. I really don't want to be responsible for someone else's daughter, and my coleader would prefer to travel with us as well. So we'll see. Last year we went to Williamsburg and had a great time. The London trip sounds wonderful, but we could end up somewhere else(or nowhere at all!).
Friday Tom took off a few hours from work around lunch time so we could go see Iron Man 2. We liked it since we had seen IM 1. I also had to run over to school to drop off a plate of brownies for their Vera Bradley Bingo fundraiser(we get volunteer hours for baking!)
The usual busy week. A Big Happy Birthday to Mark Seitz. And we hope Stacey Seitz hurries up and recovers from her arthroscopic knee surgery, especially since she has to walk down the aisle for her wedding on June 12th. Good Luck also with the Nursing Boards Stacey! You certainly have packed a lot of activities into the next few months as well! Congrats again on the new house and Graduating from Nursing School and your job offer! (Sounds like my schedule!).
Kathleen
Sunday, May 2, 2010
Happy May! I hope I did not wear all of you out catching up on my blogs. I wore myself out just typing(and trying to input photos). As we end the month of April, we wrap up the monthly celebration of OT month. That's right, we Occupational Therapists have an entire month dedicated to our profession. This usually means more work for us OTs trying to explain to everyone what we actually do. So I made a fun poster describing adaptive equipment that we recommend for everyday life with lots of photos - Allison was my model. I set up a demo table during the lunch hour at work at the Retirement community and raffled off some goody bags I put together. My new boss wanted to extend the experience, so she took over my table during the dinner hour(I was busy treating patients-we have a very early dinner hour). So it seemed to be a great success. Even Mom's have homework. Happy OT month Laura! Hope your therapy is going well!
The kids are back to a busy school week too! Tom even helped out with Scott's science class this week by presenting a lesson in Simple Machines to the entire 4th grade class(in two shifts). The kids were absolutely amazed when Tom set up a lever system and two kids were able able to lift him up. The power of the lever! Scott also made a great assistant. The teacher thought it was great and really appreciated the extra support to her lessons. Plus we needed to add to our 30 hour required volunteer time we need to put in at Scott's school. The past several years Tom has been organizing and running a Science Fair for the school. He was hoping the teachers or administrators would take over the responsibility and add it to their classwork. No such luck. So this year he decided to just help out Scott's class. Also, he usually signs up for an outreach program with Northrop that donates funds to the school if the guys come in and put on some type of presentation in science and engineering. Tom missed the sign up this year as he was busy traveling, so he didn't feel as obligated to put on a big program this year. It just frustrates us when we try to talk to the powers that be at the school about expanding the science program and we are told "We are too busy". Sadly it is the kids that lose out. Usually in high school they are required to participate in the science fair. Allison and Scott are certainly prepared. And it makes no sense to me since the Archdiocese of Baltimore is planning on establishing a STEM(Science, Technology, Engineering and Math program) at several catholic elementary schools for middle school kids. I am so hoping they would pick Resurrection since I know Scott would absolutely love it.
I already have him signed up for an Elementary Engineering class at summer camp. He would have loved the robotics class too, but it was already full back in February. He gets to balance it out with Pets n Vets. I spent part of Friday filling out summer camp referrals. Allison will be taking a PSAT prep class, and helping with GS camp. We are headed to another orientation class tonite. She is going to be assisting with archery and the instructors hope to certify the girls as Instructors themselves. That would be a great addition to Allison's list of skills(and just like her Daddy since Tom was an archery instructor himself).
We also spent a few hours at a school fund raiser at Barnes and Noble bookstore in the evening listening to Scott and the school choir sing. They had a busy week as they sang during the school mass with a special guest, John Angotti, a christian musician that writes his own music. The kids even sang one of his songs, "Feed My Lambs" and he was very impressed. They still have a few more concerts before the end of the school year.
We also spent our weekend on a Cub Scout field trip to a Baltimore candy factory. The Moore Candy shop is actually located in the basement of a 100 yr old house in Baltimore. They were voted one of the Top 5 CAndy stores in the US from Food Network. The owners were and are very involved in Scouting , and they used to sell the candy as a fund raiser for camping. We had our own little tour, and even got to make our own candy. Yum.
And if you were not aware, last Saturday was free comic book day! Just so happens as I was driving down the street from the candy factory, I spotted some balloons and guys on the street dressed in super hero costumes. Hmm. What could that mean? Anyway, I located a comic book store and the kids and I stopped in to pick out our free comic books while Allison shopped for Teen Titans books and Scott found himself a Nintendo Mario and Yoshi character. Too bad Tom opted not to join us that morning.
That Afternoon, I took Cookie to two dog training classes(she had a scheduled class and a makeup class). We are working on stay and heel. She is doing very well.
And since the weekend weather was so hot and gorgeous, we decided to join Matt and Di and their boys at their house to celebrate all the April birthdays and break in the swimming pool. I couldn't believe we were already in the pool at the beginning of May! Although I mostly stayed in the hot tub!
Overall it was a very busy and fun week. More later! Kathleen and Family
I also looked at our summer vacation schedule. Looks like we will be heading to Michigan the week of July 19-23 so if anyone else has any plans for summer vacation in Michigan, we will be hanging out at the Bozyk's summer house in Charlevoix. We will probably leave Allison there again for a few weeks, and pick her up in August so she can be home for Field Hockey which starts August 14th.
The kids are back to a busy school week too! Tom even helped out with Scott's science class this week by presenting a lesson in Simple Machines to the entire 4th grade class(in two shifts). The kids were absolutely amazed when Tom set up a lever system and two kids were able able to lift him up. The power of the lever! Scott also made a great assistant. The teacher thought it was great and really appreciated the extra support to her lessons. Plus we needed to add to our 30 hour required volunteer time we need to put in at Scott's school. The past several years Tom has been organizing and running a Science Fair for the school. He was hoping the teachers or administrators would take over the responsibility and add it to their classwork. No such luck. So this year he decided to just help out Scott's class. Also, he usually signs up for an outreach program with Northrop that donates funds to the school if the guys come in and put on some type of presentation in science and engineering. Tom missed the sign up this year as he was busy traveling, so he didn't feel as obligated to put on a big program this year. It just frustrates us when we try to talk to the powers that be at the school about expanding the science program and we are told "We are too busy". Sadly it is the kids that lose out. Usually in high school they are required to participate in the science fair. Allison and Scott are certainly prepared. And it makes no sense to me since the Archdiocese of Baltimore is planning on establishing a STEM(Science, Technology, Engineering and Math program) at several catholic elementary schools for middle school kids. I am so hoping they would pick Resurrection since I know Scott would absolutely love it.
I already have him signed up for an Elementary Engineering class at summer camp. He would have loved the robotics class too, but it was already full back in February. He gets to balance it out with Pets n Vets. I spent part of Friday filling out summer camp referrals. Allison will be taking a PSAT prep class, and helping with GS camp. We are headed to another orientation class tonite. She is going to be assisting with archery and the instructors hope to certify the girls as Instructors themselves. That would be a great addition to Allison's list of skills(and just like her Daddy since Tom was an archery instructor himself).
We also spent a few hours at a school fund raiser at Barnes and Noble bookstore in the evening listening to Scott and the school choir sing. They had a busy week as they sang during the school mass with a special guest, John Angotti, a christian musician that writes his own music. The kids even sang one of his songs, "Feed My Lambs" and he was very impressed. They still have a few more concerts before the end of the school year.
We also spent our weekend on a Cub Scout field trip to a Baltimore candy factory. The Moore Candy shop is actually located in the basement of a 100 yr old house in Baltimore. They were voted one of the Top 5 CAndy stores in the US from Food Network. The owners were and are very involved in Scouting , and they used to sell the candy as a fund raiser for camping. We had our own little tour, and even got to make our own candy. Yum.
And if you were not aware, last Saturday was free comic book day! Just so happens as I was driving down the street from the candy factory, I spotted some balloons and guys on the street dressed in super hero costumes. Hmm. What could that mean? Anyway, I located a comic book store and the kids and I stopped in to pick out our free comic books while Allison shopped for Teen Titans books and Scott found himself a Nintendo Mario and Yoshi character. Too bad Tom opted not to join us that morning.
That Afternoon, I took Cookie to two dog training classes(she had a scheduled class and a makeup class). We are working on stay and heel. She is doing very well.
And since the weekend weather was so hot and gorgeous, we decided to join Matt and Di and their boys at their house to celebrate all the April birthdays and break in the swimming pool. I couldn't believe we were already in the pool at the beginning of May! Although I mostly stayed in the hot tub!
Overall it was a very busy and fun week. More later! Kathleen and Family
I also looked at our summer vacation schedule. Looks like we will be heading to Michigan the week of July 19-23 so if anyone else has any plans for summer vacation in Michigan, we will be hanging out at the Bozyk's summer house in Charlevoix. We will probably leave Allison there again for a few weeks, and pick her up in August so she can be home for Field Hockey which starts August 14th.
Friday, April 30, 2010
Thursday, April 29, 2010
So Hockey season is winding down with all the playoffs. We enjoyed the drama of the College Basketball Tournaments-of course since MSU played. We even wore our MSU sweatshirts out to LA. And we pulled up at a stoplight next to a guy who had a Uof M sticker on his car. I made sure he saw my MSU sweatshirt! He laughed and gave us a thumbs up. I even got a honking from another driver here in MD for my MSU bumper sticker. I did not recognize the driver, but when he went by I saw he had a Michigan license plate. Us Michiganders stick together!
Tom has had hockey fever so bad lately he couldn't stand watching another game on tv. He had to go watch a game in person. So off we went last Sunday night to Hershey Park in PA to watch the IHL team, the Hershey bears play in their playoff series. We had very nice box level seats-lots of great food and comfy seats. Scott especially enjoyed the ice cream sundae bar! And it was a very exciting game(lots of rough housing-ie fights). And the bears won which made it even more exciting. I almost didn't mind when the lady behind me jumped up and spilled her bottle of water all over me! And then we got to drive home in a massive thunderstorm-complete with hail. And Allison and I had already put in a busy day by driving north of Baltimore to sing with the GS choir for the Gold Award banquet. The Gold Award is equivalent to the BS Eagle award. My girls were working on their award prerequisites at the overnight. There were about 49 girls that earned their Gold Award this year in Central MD. This is a project primarily for High School girls. Allison and I enjoyed looking over the booklet at all the different types of projects before getting up to sing.
On Saturday morning I was busy with my garage sale-time to clean out all the kids closets. While I was busy selling stuff, Tom was busy trying to train Cookie on our newly installed electric fence. Poor Cookie was caught off guard and stuck over the electrified wire so I had to run and save her. I have never seen a dog jump straight up in the air. All her fur was sticking straight out. Needless to say the kids weren't too excited about the incident. But Tom and I told them it would be better than having Cookie squashed in the street. As a matter of fact, she was trying to follow one of my customers to their car when she got zapped. And after all that we dragged her off to doggy school. We are working on wait and stay while we stroll around the store. She actually did very good with this. She still gets distracted, but she is the best behaved dog in her class.
After our garage sale we were busy cleaning and cooking to have the neighbors over for dinner. We wanted to thank our neighbors for watching our house while we were gone, and we also invited some friends over that we keep missing since they live far away. But all that is going to change since they are moving back to our neighborhood. They used to live just two doors down. We are happy they will be much closer.
Friday night I was busy with Scott at the Cub Scout pack meeting-they put on a mini olympics. Tom got Allison to piano.
Thursday I had to take the day off to stay with Scott. Both kids originally had the day off, but Allison was making up for a snow day. So Scott needed company. And it was Take your Kids to Work Day, so Northrop had several fun activities and food available for all the employees that brought their kids. While the boys played and Tom taught a class, I headed to the dentist. I also had to get Scott to gymanstics that night, and Allison to an orientation meeting for GS summer camp. She is going to be volunteering at GS Day Camp and helping with the archery. She is pretty excited. I am just happy she found a ride home.
On Weds night I was rushing the kids off to the Resurrection 8th grade vs Faculty basketball game. Allison played last year, but I took the kids so Scott could sing with the school choir. They did the National Anthem and Michael Jackson's Man in the Mirror at half time. Allison just wanted to visit with her old teachers and old class mates that were there cheering on their siblings. I think my ears are still ringing from that night. And a few teachers did not do too well physically-there were twisted ankles and torn finger tendons. The adults are getting older and kids are getting younger! Glad I didn't have to play!
Allison finished her third quarter in High School and did fantastic. Now the race is on for the last quarter and she is getting slammed. They have a lot to squeeze in between now and the end of the school year. Same for Scott. Which means we will be busy too! What a surprise.
Tom has had hockey fever so bad lately he couldn't stand watching another game on tv. He had to go watch a game in person. So off we went last Sunday night to Hershey Park in PA to watch the IHL team, the Hershey bears play in their playoff series. We had very nice box level seats-lots of great food and comfy seats. Scott especially enjoyed the ice cream sundae bar! And it was a very exciting game(lots of rough housing-ie fights). And the bears won which made it even more exciting. I almost didn't mind when the lady behind me jumped up and spilled her bottle of water all over me! And then we got to drive home in a massive thunderstorm-complete with hail. And Allison and I had already put in a busy day by driving north of Baltimore to sing with the GS choir for the Gold Award banquet. The Gold Award is equivalent to the BS Eagle award. My girls were working on their award prerequisites at the overnight. There were about 49 girls that earned their Gold Award this year in Central MD. This is a project primarily for High School girls. Allison and I enjoyed looking over the booklet at all the different types of projects before getting up to sing.
On Saturday morning I was busy with my garage sale-time to clean out all the kids closets. While I was busy selling stuff, Tom was busy trying to train Cookie on our newly installed electric fence. Poor Cookie was caught off guard and stuck over the electrified wire so I had to run and save her. I have never seen a dog jump straight up in the air. All her fur was sticking straight out. Needless to say the kids weren't too excited about the incident. But Tom and I told them it would be better than having Cookie squashed in the street. As a matter of fact, she was trying to follow one of my customers to their car when she got zapped. And after all that we dragged her off to doggy school. We are working on wait and stay while we stroll around the store. She actually did very good with this. She still gets distracted, but she is the best behaved dog in her class.
After our garage sale we were busy cleaning and cooking to have the neighbors over for dinner. We wanted to thank our neighbors for watching our house while we were gone, and we also invited some friends over that we keep missing since they live far away. But all that is going to change since they are moving back to our neighborhood. They used to live just two doors down. We are happy they will be much closer.
Friday night I was busy with Scott at the Cub Scout pack meeting-they put on a mini olympics. Tom got Allison to piano.
Thursday I had to take the day off to stay with Scott. Both kids originally had the day off, but Allison was making up for a snow day. So Scott needed company. And it was Take your Kids to Work Day, so Northrop had several fun activities and food available for all the employees that brought their kids. While the boys played and Tom taught a class, I headed to the dentist. I also had to get Scott to gymanstics that night, and Allison to an orientation meeting for GS summer camp. She is going to be volunteering at GS Day Camp and helping with the archery. She is pretty excited. I am just happy she found a ride home.
On Weds night I was rushing the kids off to the Resurrection 8th grade vs Faculty basketball game. Allison played last year, but I took the kids so Scott could sing with the school choir. They did the National Anthem and Michael Jackson's Man in the Mirror at half time. Allison just wanted to visit with her old teachers and old class mates that were there cheering on their siblings. I think my ears are still ringing from that night. And a few teachers did not do too well physically-there were twisted ankles and torn finger tendons. The adults are getting older and kids are getting younger! Glad I didn't have to play!
Allison finished her third quarter in High School and did fantastic. Now the race is on for the last quarter and she is getting slammed. They have a lot to squeeze in between now and the end of the school year. Same for Scott. Which means we will be busy too! What a surprise.
Thursday, April 22, 2010
So we made it back to our usual schedule(you can just imagine). Kids were busy with tests and papers, and we were all very tired.
I switched my work day to Friday since we were traveling on Monday. It made for a long week since I had a girl scout outing over the weekend. My girl scouts are in High School now and looking at completing their Gold Award-equivalent to the Boy Scout Eagle Award. I took 4 girls to an overnight program where they completed most of their prerequisites to earning the Gold Award. They already finished their Silver Award which counts towards their prerequisites. This program was very overwhelming considering the amount of info they covered, but very interesting.
So interesting, they turned it into an overnight. We spent time working on an environmental/health badge, Roots and Shoots, and the girls now have to plan a project. They decided they will probably run a health class for Junior girl scouts next year(some badge), and probably charge for it to make some money for a future trip. We are looking into joining a GS International group that just started and will help organize Girl Scout trips overseas(like London!) The girl scouts have lodges around the world including England, Mexico, Switzerland and India. England sounds good.
The girls also earned a Parks badge, a finance badge called Capital Currency. That was very interesting since the girls spent time learning about banking, checking, stocks and financial aid for College funding. The girls also got to speak to a Senior college student about classes and college life as well as a tour of a local Community college and a peak into the dorm rooms as well as other buildings.
While I was off with the girls, Tom was spending time at home with Scott. He was busy cutting the grass(for the 3rd time in two weeks). He had to cut it before we left for LA and our neighbor cut it while we were gone. Sadly, he also ran over one of my Michigan baby cedar trees with the mower. Oh well. We've had lots of warm weather and rain so lots of flowers and pollen. The rest of the family isn't too happy about the allergies. Even in LA we couldn't believe how green everything was as well as all the beautiful flowers(not a good sign for the fall though-when it all dries up it means more chances for fires). But it sure was beautiful now!
I switched my work day to Friday since we were traveling on Monday. It made for a long week since I had a girl scout outing over the weekend. My girl scouts are in High School now and looking at completing their Gold Award-equivalent to the Boy Scout Eagle Award. I took 4 girls to an overnight program where they completed most of their prerequisites to earning the Gold Award. They already finished their Silver Award which counts towards their prerequisites. This program was very overwhelming considering the amount of info they covered, but very interesting.
So interesting, they turned it into an overnight. We spent time working on an environmental/health badge, Roots and Shoots, and the girls now have to plan a project. They decided they will probably run a health class for Junior girl scouts next year(some badge), and probably charge for it to make some money for a future trip. We are looking into joining a GS International group that just started and will help organize Girl Scout trips overseas(like London!) The girl scouts have lodges around the world including England, Mexico, Switzerland and India. England sounds good.
The girls also earned a Parks badge, a finance badge called Capital Currency. That was very interesting since the girls spent time learning about banking, checking, stocks and financial aid for College funding. The girls also got to speak to a Senior college student about classes and college life as well as a tour of a local Community college and a peak into the dorm rooms as well as other buildings.
While I was off with the girls, Tom was spending time at home with Scott. He was busy cutting the grass(for the 3rd time in two weeks). He had to cut it before we left for LA and our neighbor cut it while we were gone. Sadly, he also ran over one of my Michigan baby cedar trees with the mower. Oh well. We've had lots of warm weather and rain so lots of flowers and pollen. The rest of the family isn't too happy about the allergies. Even in LA we couldn't believe how green everything was as well as all the beautiful flowers(not a good sign for the fall though-when it all dries up it means more chances for fires). But it sure was beautiful now!
So we made it to LA on the Saturday before Easter for our spring break and had a fabulous time! Good thing Allison and Scott had the same week off. Won't happen again I am told.
We flew into LAX after a stop over in Nashville. Tom saved up his airline points with all his traveling so we could all fly out to LA on Southwest(nearly free). If you don't use those points by a certain time, they expire and you have to pay a small amount to keep the tickets. Anyhow, it was a lot cheaper! The kids were pretty excited about flying since neither one remembered their previous trips. And that is a long flight. Tom had us all set up with inflight entertainment-movies and games on Ipods, etc.
We picked up our rental car at LAX and headed to Mike Bozyk's place north of LA. Traffic actually was terrific for us all week-we couldn't believe it. We got to Mike's early enough for a quick tour and to get the kids to bed before the Easter bunny arrived!
Easter Sunday the kids were up early looking for their Easter baskets(and they managed to find them!). We were up and dressed and on the road down to Disneyland in Anaheim. We had put in volunteer hours and earned free tickets to Disney. Mike had a California discount and got a free return ticket to Disney or California Adventure. We had an incredible time at Disney, even enjoyed Tom's official birthday since it fell on Easter Sunday. He had his "It's My Birthday" button on at Disney and got lots of good wishes and a free dessert when we stopped for lunch at the Bayou in the Pirates ride. Our day was interrupted though by a 7.2 earthquake which occurred in Mexico in Baja, south of San Diego. I had told Allison it would be a one in a billion chance that she would experience an earthquake while visiting LA. Both kids have been studying earthquakes in science class, so they were very fascinated(and concerned) about being in one. And since lots of earthquakes have been occurring lately around the globe, there was a slight possibility. And we caught it! But surprisingly, the only one of our group that felt it was Allison. I said since everything at Disney shakes you and rocks you on the rides, who could tell the difference! Unfortunately for us, they shut down the rides for several hours for safety checks, so we stopped for a snack and to walk around the park, check out the castle. I did not realize that the castle in Disneyland belongs to Sleeping Beauty, Aurora, and the castle in Disneyworld in Florida belongs to Cinderella. Who knew? The Disneyland castle is a whole lot smaller too. I was just disappointed that they didn't have the Fantasia show running-that was pretty spectacular when Tom and I saw it 15 years ago! By the way, I had not been back to LA for ten years. Tom did a drive by of our old home, Downey to show Allison and Scott our townhouse(Allison was there for a year). We thought it was amazing that the Downey high school had a viking mascot just like Allison's high school here in Maryland. We spent the whole day at Disney until we could walk no further, and the rain started about 11pm.
Monday we promised the kids a trip to La Brea tar pits. They studied it in school and wanted to see for themselves. Tom and I had visited many eons ago, and I even showed the kids photos before we left. It pretty much looked exactly the same-lots of gooey tar coming up from the ground(bubbling ooze). And smack dab in the Hollywood area. They got to see the Hollywood sign from the top of the parking structure at the new shopping mecca, The Grove. Mike took us there and we enjoyed lunch at the Farmer's Market. We also visited Mann's Chinese theatre and the Ripley's museum and read lots of Hollywood stars on the Walk of Fame(the kids really don't know too many movie stars, but they recognized the star wars and Harry Potter characters.
Tuesday we headed down to San Diego and visited Sea World(we have season passes). No more swimming with those killer whales by the way! Weds was a full day at the San Diego zoo. We saw cute baby Koalas!
Thursday we were back at Mike's place and headed to Universal Studios. Mike got a CA discount and received a free pass to Universal for the rest of the year. The kids were not very familiar with too many old movies or movie stars, but they were fascinated with all the movie magic and the shows, as well as the rides. We actually ran into several filming sets around LA that week, including a few CSI sets and a movie premier, The Perfect Game(kids baseball movie with Cheech Marin). I had wanted to stay at the Barnes and Noble bookstore to see Gene Wilder at the Grove shopping center as he was selling his new book.
Friday we spent the day at the beach. We took a 25 mile bike ride up and down the coast from Rehobeth to Marina Del Rey and stopped for lunch on the pier. We were excited to see sea lions swimming around the piers! The kids ran up and down the beach for an hour before heading home.
Saturday we drove up the coast to Santa Barbara and Solvang. We toured the Santa Barbara mission(very cool). We stopped for lunch and a tour at the Firestone winery(one of our favorites) and had dinner at a Seafood restaurant on the pier. While waiting for our table, we enjoyed searching for starfish, crabs, sea lions and manta rays around the breakwater.
Sunday we ended our trip with a visit to Disney's newest park, California Adventure. How fun. Mike had a free pass, so we thought we'd try it out. It was a combo park of Epcot, Disney's MGM studios and amusement park. Again we had a wonderful time, and the kids got to spend their Disney dollars that they found in their Easter baskets. Scott found a Club penguin for the computer game(Disney owned) and Allison is now a Disney pin collector. She was busy searching for Disney's dragons. The disney workers wear pins around their neck, and you can swap pins with them if there is something you would like. Most people pick up cheap packets of pins to trade for the better ones.
So on Monday we flew back to Baltimore through Houston. Our flight was terrific, our trip was terrific! I would have loved to visit my old hospital, Rancho as well as some LA friends, but I am not sure where we would have squeezed that in!We thank Mike Bozyk for being such a wonderful host.
The kids missed one day back to school and had to make up a lot of homework, but it was worth the trip.
Another Happy Birthday out to Dad Bozyk, Sandra Bozyk and Sarah Bozyk! What a busy month. And Sarah hit the big 18 this year! The kids are growing too fast!
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