Happy Fourth of July! Well I survived the week, but just barely. Tom took off last Sunday for San Francisco and returned late Friday night. In the meantime, Scott was off to cub scout camp for the week. He had a great time shooting BB guns and archery, and this year tackled the wood burning task. The boys decorated their own hiking sticks. Not to mention, half of them ended up with a burned finger(Scott included). As Dad Seitz says, the project is not done until you bleed on it. I car pooled with our neighbors whose son was also in cub scouts which worked out great. The Dad volunteered for a few days(I got a bit panicky when the camp called to say Scott was not signed in however). Scott had run off to his Den and the DAd did not know which group he was in. I was just glad he wasn't lost. I hadn't seen him for a whole day since I dropped him off the morning before and he spent the night at their house while Allison had her Twilight party. I spent all day Friday with him and the boys on my volunteer day. It was a very long day. I am impressed with how many activities the boys participate in-Shooting range, Field games, leather crafts, science projects and scout skills. We parents even got to play capture the flag too. And on Weds night we had our own special parent's night complete with BB gun shooting, archery and cooking our own dinner over the fire. I think we had our fill of camp skills last week.
Of course, I had a break in between the cub scout week with Allison's Twilight party. I rushed home on Tuesday night with pizza and balloons. The girls had already started arriving. Allison kept them busy with the Wii trivia game for Twilight and her Bella Bingo game. They all ate and we packed them up and off to the movie theater.We were there about an hour early, so the girls had their picture taken with an Edward(vampire) cut out and went in to see the end of the last movie, New Moon. The newest movie Eclipse started at midnite. Altogether we had 12 in our party including girls and adults. Everyone enjoyed their movie night and the girls stayed up until 7am. They had to crawl out of the basement though in the morning since a few parents had errands to run and had to pick up before 10am. The others stayed a little longer and enjoyed breakfast.
I had to clean up before lunch though since I took the cat to her yearly check up. Tom was even a bit worried about her since she looks like she has lost a bit of weight. Turns out she is fine, maybe a bit hyperthyroid. But they are running more tests to see if she needs to be medicated. Pika is 10 yrs old. They said she looks great, just about 1lb lighter. She just never was a big cat. I even tried to feed her extra canned food, but she is not used to it and turned up her nose.
I had to run home again in time to meet the air conditioner repair man. So far he has been out 3 times and it is still not working. It is completely fried. We are trying to decide on a new unit vs trying to patch this one back together. It is not a good time for the air conditioner to be out. Maryland is having a record heat wave. The kids and I did not sleep at all last Sunday night, it was just too hot and humid. Even in the basement. It has been about 100 degrees almost every day. I bought more fans to blow the hot air around and that helped a bit. Last Sunday I took them to cool off in a local lake called CAscade lake. The kids usually go there with the YMCA camp and have been asking to go back. They have rafts to swim to and a jumping platform as well as water slides in the lake. We had a great time floating in the lake and helping sink the rafts for about 3 hours on Sunday. It was a great way to cool off.
Scott and Allison also spent some time last week swimming at our neighbors house during the evening. Thank goodness for friends and pools. We even spent the evening at our neighbor's house cooling off after dinner last Sunday. They invited Tom and I over for Anniversary drinks, but Tom was already out in California. I enjoyed the drinks, as well as the air conditioning!
Besides putting on her Twilight birthday party, Allison arranged to meet with a few girls this past week to write up their presentations for next year's Confirmation class. Allison enjoyed volunteering last year and signed up again this year. The girls did a great job and turned in both outlines that are due next week. Allison also finished summer piano lesson number 2.
Tom made it home late Friday night and the kids waited to take him to see the Airbender movie on Saturday morning. The kids love the cartoon, and thought the movie was not as good as the series. Tom had a hard time staying awake(I think his long travel day had something to do with it). Plus I hit him with all our issues-dead air conditioner. Not to mention all our electronics were screwed up due to a power surge this past week. Looks like I need a new laptop-the screen on this one keeps flickering now. And Tom had to rebuild our TiVo recorder. And all this with the house surge protector in place.
Meanwhile, other sad news. Tom's mom called to say that Uncle Peter passed away on Monday after his fight with lung cancer. The funeral was Thursday in Virginia. We were very sad to hear about his passing, and our thoughts and prayers go out to Aunt Mary.
Some good news is that our friend John from Northrop managed to get a job with a company here in Baltimore that he previously worked for briefly when he first relocated to Maryland. At the time it was a small, new company and John thought he would give it a try, but opted to stay with Northrop for security(who knew). We are just so happy to hear he is employed and they have lots of work for him. Now we are cheering for Mike Bozyk to find a new librarian position in LA.
We are spending the 4th of July evening at our neighbors-swimming and grilling, and maybe lighting up a few sparklers. Last night we all headed out to hear the Baltimore Symphony Orchestra play their holiday concert and shoot off fireworks. I couldn't believe how many people I ran into from work and school. We even took John with us for the night to celebrate his new job.
So keep your fingers crossed that we get air conditioning soon! I may have to work some extra hours after all!
Happy 4th of July! Kathleen
This is a shorter week since Monday is a holiday. The kids just have 4 days of camp, but Allison is looking forward to archery at Girl Scout camp, and Scott is so excited to be going to his classes at the Community College, including a legos robotics class and pets and vets. He can't wait to bring Cookie to school! We just got back from a neighborhood kids and dog parade in our neighborhood park. Scott ate his weight in cookies and popsicles.
Happy Fourth of July! Kathleen

(June 21-June 27)Well, we survived finals week! Allison had two tests every day from Monday to WEds. She also had some projects to turn in-test review packets that the teachers ask the kids to do to help study. My favorite was when Tom tried to mentor her in Geometry over the phone and computer late Tuesday night from Charlottesville, VA. Allison ran into a few complicated problems and needed his help, but he was having dinner with the coworkers early in the evening. She had to wait until he got back to his hotel around 930pm. They were at it until 11 and then she just had to call it quits! I got her through a Spanish and Health review, as well as History over the weekend. We ran out of time to study together for her second piano test and the Science test. She ended up getting some pointers from her geometry teacher before the exam. But all her hard work paid off again this year and she brought home all As. I can't believe she just finished her freshman year in high school. This is sure going fast!
We also finished with her Spring Field Hockey league. Her team played a college freshman group and the high school Varsity and JV Coach came to watch and give pointers. Allison worked very hard at goalie, and did a great job, but those college girls were pretty good. Still, it gave Allison some one on one exposure for the goalie experience and in front of the Varsity and JV coach too. They had a team meeting after school to talk about next year's season(which starts August 14th). Right around the corner! We decided Allison could use some extra training so she will be attending a Field Hockey Camp for goalies in July before we head to Michigan. I think it will be a lot of hard work, but a very good experience. Plus it is right here in Baltimore. Many of her teammates are heading to Massachusetts for World Camp this summer(maybe next year). I really didn't have time to plan that trip out!(and it is rather expensive). I think she will benefit just as well here at home.
Now she is just happy to plan and prepare for our upcoming Twilight Movie Night. The Girl Scouts were sponsoring a premiere release of the new Twilight Movie, Eclipse. We decided to combine the outing with a sleepover Birthday party for Allison since the movie is at midnite. (Tom picked the right week to travel to California). Allison has been busy putting together goody bags and making up a Twilight Bingo Game. We even found a Twilight Video Game for the Wii for the girls to play before we go to the movie. They are actually showing all 3 movies that night, but we opted for staying home and eating pizza and red velvet cake! And I took the next day off of work! I am sure I will need it!
She also started her summer piano lessons-a lot less stressful though. Only 8 lessons all summer.
I ended up putting in a half day of work on Friday to help out the Home Health Therapist who was on vacation. She wasn't expecting much work, but it turned out to be a very busy week. They even bribed me to come in on Saturday, but I had too much scheduled already. I was supposed to go to training for Cub Scout DAy Camp next week but the time was changed and myself and several other parents who showed up at 2pm missed out. They had changed the training to 9 that morning. We parents just didn't get the message. Oh well, we tried. We decided they could fire us if they had to-I am just signed up to help with Scott's Den for one day on Friday. This will be his last year of Cub Scout camp. Again we are going to car pool with our neighbors whose younger son is also in scouts. And thankfully they are letting Scott sleep over during Allison's Twilight Night party.
Scott spent his first week home at the Y camp. Since school was still in session for the county, they had to move the camp to our Girl Scout property. The weather hit 100 degrees the first two days of camp, and the kids stay outside all day. It proved to be too much for Scott. He had a bad headache on Day 1, and only made it to about 2pm Day 2. I got a call from the camp and the counselors told me he fell asleep in the air conditioned nurses office. I left work early to pick him up. At least I made up my work hours on Friday. The rest of the week went pretty smoothly and at least the temperature dropped into the 80s.
I did spend some time off on Friday morning seeing a movie with Tom and Allison. We all went to see the new Tom Cruise movie, Knight and Day. Allison and I laughed the entire time. Tom managed to get home early from his trip to Charlottesville. I was glad he returned a day earlier since that area had a big storm and their power was knocked out over the entire city. He had to leave on Father's Day last Sunday. And on the 27th of June, he had to travel to California which just so happens our Anniversary. Since he was traveling that day too, we decided to celebrate our 23rd year of marriage on Saturday night. We had a gift certificate for a steak restaurant in Baltimore called Flemings that we needed to use so it made for a good choice for dinner. The place was very similar in menu to Mortons or Ruth Chris Steak house so we opted for the 3 course dinner special. Although the restaurant was a bit loud, we still enjoyed our complimentary photo and box of chocolate truffles. We also enjoyed our wine tasting, salad and key lime pie for dessert. Surprisingly, we were not impressed with our steaks, although it may be due to the fact that they were cooked in a puff pastry. Anyhow, it was fun to try out a new place, and we also got to see a newer section of Baltimore that we hadn't explored yet.
Tom was just happy to be taking a break. He had spent the day shoveling mulch since I was finally able to get an order delivered and we were home long enough to start spreading it. Although we first had to trim all our shrubs. With the wet spring we had a massive growth spurt in all our plants and lawn. However, now that we are in the 90s with a lot less rain, everything has turned brown-especially the lawn. Tom didn't get too far in the mulch process however since our air conditioner apparently died and he was talking with a repair man in the morning. Looks like we are getting an air conditioner for our anniversary(or at least a repaired one we hope). Tom also decided to take me cell phone shopping since my old phone was dying. We spend a lot of time texting each other and my key board was wearing out. We upgraded my old phone and even picked up a new one for Allison for her upcoming birthday. Tom even met with our friend John who was recently laid off from Northorp to have lunch and to look at other possible options at the company. Before we knew it, the day was over and Tom was packing for San Francisco! Once again I'm on my own for the week. I will let you know how it goes. Kathleen

Hope everyone had a Happy Father's Day(for all those Dad's out there). Allison and Scott took Tom to see Toy Story 3(me too!). We had a choice of 3D or IMAX 3D. The IMAX was sold out, so we watched it in 3D which was fine. We all loved the movie. Afterwards the kids took Tom to lunch. He did not have much time to spend with all of us on Sunday as Tom had to head out to Charlottesville VA. for work.
He and Scott had just returned from Indiana on Friday. They had a fun week visiting with the Seitz family. They even enjoyed a trip down to Kentucky to tour Mammoth cave with nephew Eric, a day at the Indy Children's Museum and a stopover at Kings Island Amusement Park in Cincinnati on the way home. They kept Cookie with them and sounds like she enjoyed visiting with her doggie cousins. Especially Mark and Linda's dog Rambo since it sounds like they are very similar.
Meanwhile, Allison and I were home trying to get Allison through her last full week of school and homework, not to mention squeezing in a few field hockey games. I could not believe how much work the teachers assigned at the end of the school year. Allison had to write a paper on the history of the piano and present a power point presentation on her favorite musician for music class, along with her piano recital and a test, she had to perform a scene from Midsummers Night Dream for English, complete an extensive math packet(Algebra II to prepare for next year), not to mention a few County Assessments, and even complete half of her final exam in Spanish. My favorite was when her English teacher had to take off due to a death in his family, (sadly Allison believes it was his mother). Unfortunately, their English final was scheduled for Friday, and by WEds the class had not yet received a study guide. Since they only meet every other day, there were no more classes scheduled before the final exam. They hadn't even taken their English County Assessment which was originally scheduled two weeks earlier. Allison sent her teacher an email and by 10pm Weds night, the teacher emailed a study guide back to the class. He requested the kids fill out a worksheet with 50 vocabulary words to define and complete a two page essay. Turns out that it was a take home final. I was happy that Allison was able to get it done. The kids were given the English County Assessment only during class and that was all the time they had on Friday. What a week that was! And she still had Finals to study for over the weekend! It all seemed to pay off though when she brought home Student of the Month!
We took a little break at the Dog Fest with Cookie on Saturday. Scott was off to a birthday party so Allison and I braved the heat with our little puppy at the Fairgrounds. Unfortunately the festival was on the infield of the racetrack so it was pretty toasty. Cookie decided she really liked lying down in the kiddie pools to cool off. She also did a wonderful job trying out the agility course where dogs run through tubes and climb ramps. We even put her in the costume contest in her hot dog outfit. We didn't win, but I think it was mainly due to the fact that the Governor's wife was judging. It's not likely that a democratic judge would choose a republican candidate! Cookie just enjoyed visiting with all the gabillion different types of dogs and eating her doggie snow cone and cooling off in the pool. Allison and I enjoyed all the freebie stuff.
We also enjoyed a brief piano presentation from Allison on Saturday as she finished her yearly private lessons. She missed the year end recital with her school as we were in Indy that weekend for the wedding, so her teacher asked her to come play for one of the younger classes. Now it's time for summer camp piano lessons! And Scott will be starting summer camps as well. He is looking forward to a busy summer of play! He is feeling very sad now that his best friend moved from across the street. They had him over to their new house briefly to check it out last weekend, but they are currently away on a two week vacation to Ireland with their entire family. So my hope is Scott will be completely worn out at camp and won't miss him too much.
Allison and I also spent Friday night helping out with our previous volunteer program for The American Cancer Society. In February, our entire family made luminary bags for the Relay for Life all night cancer walk/run. The luminary bags were dedicated to those fighting cancer or those that passed away from cancer. We had punched star shapes in all the bags, and then the names of those with cancer are placed on the bags along with colored ribbons representing their type of cancer. Our family prepared several hundred bags back in February and Allison and I assisted with the sale of more bags on Friday night. We spent 4 hours at the event, from 4-8pm when she had to leave for her piano lesson. We were very busy helping sell out all the bags, including bags for Cats and Dogs with cancer! They ran out of room on the track for all the bags, and they had to double up the rows. Sadly we missed the lighting of all the bags at 930 that night(Allison and I were just too tired to go back). We did enjoy the opening ceremony when they released a flock of doves. And we took a stroll around the track to admire all our hard work. Allison and I were surprised to spot a bag decorated in memory for Allison's 3rd grade art teacher from Resurrection St Paul. And we made a bag in honor of Tom's Uncle Peter who is currently fighting lung cancer. We all have certainly been touched by someone who has had cancer. The sale of bags and the fund raiser I was told raised over $127,000 for the Cancer Society, up by $30,000 from last year. Last count we sold over 2000 bags for the event. The coordinator for the luminary bags was so impressed with Allison and myself she is hoping we come back next year. (Sounds like a great program for the Scouts!)
Wish us luck getting through finals this upcoming week!

Once again, Allison and I just returned from a trip-this time to Indiana for Stacey Seitz's wedding to Matt Draper. Stacey is the daughter of Tom's brother Mark and his wife Linda. Stacey just graduated from nursing school at Purdue University in Indy. Her brother Eric is still attending school there as well. Now she is off on her honeymoon to Hawaii and then back to their new house and off to her new job!
We had a wonderful, quick visit to the Seitz family out in Indy. The wedding was beautiful and the reception was a lot of fun. We drove half way to Indy from Baltimore on Thursday night. Allison had to miss school on Friday, but Scott was done for the year. We also decided to take Cookie on this trip. She is a great car rider, but not so great in hotels we discovered. She gets a little excited if she hears a noise and started barking! Tom had to sleep next to her to keep her quiet through the night. So we did not get much sleep on Thursday, and then we finished our drive on Friday(with a quick shopping stopover at the JC Penney outlet in Columbus). We always manage to find something we can use there.
We arrived in time on Friday to unpack the car, change and head over to the rehearsal dinner. It was quite a large group and we all enjoyed the food(especially the cheesecake!) at a family style Italian restaurant. Saturday was the wedding scheduled at 230 pm. Stacey was beautiful, and so were all her bridesmaids in bright, hot pink. The men looked terrific in their tuxes. The wedding was very nice-the rain was even timed during the ceremony so we did not get drenched when we came out. After some quick family photos(for us anyway), we stopped back at Mom and Dad Seitzs house for quick hors d'ouvres and to chat with extended family members(that I invited over to share our wine!). It was fun to see everyone again since we figured we haven't been out to Indy since Thanksgiving 2008. That was the time that Scott's birthday fell directly on Thanksgiving Day and we went off and did a Turkey Trot Thanksgiving morning with Mark Seitz and family. We were also hunting for a dog at the local pounds that trip.
Anyhow, we then headed out to the Wedding reception for the evening at a local museum, Conner Prairie. Dinner was wonderful and we especially enjoyed the cupcakes afterwards(a new wedding trend rather than big wedding cake). Notice a trend on appreciation for the desserts! Yum. The reception was fun, Allison caught the bouquet(she loved it) and we got a few dances in until the power went out! There were a few big storms moving through the area and the wind apparently knocked down some power lines. It actually made for quite a romantic mood since the candles on all the tables were still lit. But it did not last(and either did the air conditioning it seemed!). Our little ones had had enough, so we headed back to the Seitz house. We shared the house with Linda's sister, husband and their daughter Allyson visiting from Michigan. Their Allyson just finished the dietitian program at MSU. They could not stay long since they had to head back to Michigan and ferry their son off to an orientation program on Monday at Ferris State.
My Allison and I were in the same predicament. We had to fly back on Sunday so Allison could go to school. She had some studying and homework to keep her busy over the weekend, but at least she did not have to study for finals! Not yet anyhow. We took off late Sunday evening so we could spend some time on Sunday visiting with family. We got to meet Gus, Tom's sister Susan's new dog-a ridgeback that is as big as a small horse! I think Cookie was a bit intimidated, but they very nicely shared chewing on a bone.
So after dinner, Tom and Scott dropped us off at the airport. You're right Dad Seitz, the Indy airport is very nice. It did not take Allison and I very long to check in and the extra time in the airport gave Allison time to work on her math review packet. Unfortunately a large storm was coming and Southwest airlines decided to out race it(much to my and Allison's disappointment!). We are not one for bumpy flights and I was not sure how this was going to turn out. The storm had already hit when we taxied out to the runway with rain crashing down sideways! The crew got us up and out of the storm pretty quick though and it was beautiful blue skies and pink clouds all the rest of the way to Baltimore. We flew in over the Baltimore Harbor at night and made a turn over the Francis Scott Key bridge. It was fun looking at the places we had just sailed by the weekend before. So we managed to get back home a bit early which was better since Allison had a full week of classes. Tom and Scott are staying in Indy to visit with Tom's family since Scott is off school and summer camps don't start until the 21st of June.
Scott enjoyed his last week of school. On the very last day the class all went to a pool party in the afternoon. Sadly it was the one day it was cold and rainy, but they all still managed to have a good time. And a very nice parent took Scott and dropped him off at home with Allison so Tom and I did not have to miss work. We also enjoyed the last Cub Scout Pack meeting of the year complete with campfire and awards and patches. Tom was off to Allison's field hockey game that night. I missed cub scout training session though. Instead, Allison and I were enjoying a mother daughter evening getting a manicure and pedicure for the wedding. Allison especially enjoyed having her toes decorated with sparkles and flowers painted on the big toes! (Her first pedicure!) I still need volunteer training though since I am helping out this summer at Cub Scout camp. This will be Scott's last cub scout year as next year he will bumping up to an official scout.
I will let you know how Allison and I survive her last week of school! Kathleen

Allison and I just got home from a 2 day sailing trip on the Chesapeake Bay with the Girl Scouts! It was put on by an organization called Living Classrooms. The crew sailed the boats, cooked the food and provided educational programs for all the girls. We spent 6 hrs on the Bay Saturday sailing down to our GS campground, spent the night and then sailed back home. We had to hurry since each day we were under tstorm watches and warnings which turned into tornado watches on Sunday. Fortunately they timed the sailing and we arrived back in Baltimore before a big tstorm blew by. Our sailboat was the smaller of the two, a skipjack which was originally used for harvesting oysters in the bay. The boat is over 100 yrs old. We had 23 girls and 7 adults and 4 crew members on our boat, The Sigsbee. The other boat, The Lady Maryland had at least double that amount. We did lose about 15 girls Saturday night when they decided to call their parents and ask to be picked up. The camp had a bit too many bugs-primarily ticks-which some of the girls there have already had lyme disease and did not want to chance getting it again. That is actually why most of my girls did not join Allison and myself. But Allison was able to work with the other girls-all ages from 10-16. They learned about all the creatures that live around the bay and even caught a few in a trolling net, they talked about navigation and how to sail a large boat, looked at creatures under the microscope and checked for ph levels and salinity levels since the bay is brackish(half salt, half fresh). So we saw quite a variety of creatures, everything from crabs to sting rays. I just can't believe how hot it was this past weekend. We hit 80 degrees by 8am! We had a strong south wind blowing, but the storms were coming in from the north west. All the storms that produced tornadoes through Ohio and southern Michigan. Glad to hear Indiana beat the storms since Stacey and her friend Alex from Germany went to an outdoor concert. I was also happy we beat the storms-I don't think I would enjoy a tstorm sitting on a sailboat, not to mention a water spout. A few years ago a surprise storm hit the harbor and flipped over one of the pontoon taxi boats that ferry people around the Baltimore harbor. Several people died as they were trapped under the canopy of the boat. I was glad we did not have to deal with any quick moving storms. So we survived and Allison said we don't have to do that again. She wants the next sailing trip to focus more on the sailing.
I also had to cancel my horsebackriding for the girl scouts once again since the tstorms were around all weekend. I will get them out riding some day. Last year at this time we were camping with a large service unit from a nearby town at the Boy Scout campground. Of course it rained then too and I almost got my van stuck in the mud roads! And Allison was almost eaten alive by ants that had crawled into her sleeping bag. The joys of camping. The girls are actually looking forward to an upcoming GS premiere of Twilight. We get to see the movie at midnite one whole day earlier than the rest of the country. They are working on getting the first two movies and turn it into a Twilight marathon. They will also have giveaways and raffles-and Allison is turning it into her birthday party so the girls will be spending the night. Lucky Tom will be out of town that week in San Fran.
As a matter of fact he was out of town last week in Chicago this time. I was glad he beat the storms home too although he said flying was pretty bumpy.
I spent the week trying to get packed up and ready for our sailing trip and our trip to Indy next weekend for Stacey's wedding. Allison has been busy finishing up projects for school. She will have High School Assessments and Finals in the next several weeks. We even had to ask for formal permission for her to take off a day to to travel to Indy for the wedding so she doesn't miss any of her deadlines. Scott is heading to the end of his school days. He had a full week, but not much in the way of homework. Thank goodness.
Allison also is playing Field Hockey on Monday and WEds nights-in between the rain drops. Scott is finishing up his gymnastics class for the year. He enjoyed it so much, he asked to take one week of summer camp there too. Of course, they are also spending a day at the bounce house and playing laser tag, so what is not to love?
I will send some photos of our sailing trip when I get Tom to download them in my computer!
Kathleen

Happy Memorial Day! Here I am at the computer all alone again! Amazing! Tom just got on a plane headed for Chicago for the week. He was off to Texas last week. He decided Texas needed more trees. Scott is over swimming at a neighbors and having dinner, and Allison is eating dinner with the girl across the street(who is moving soon). So here I am. I just got home from work-putting in extra hours for holiday pay(double time!). Tom was home with the kids today. He managed to finish cutting the lawn and spreading weed killer. I had started on Friday, but it was just too rainy to finish. I was supposed to be off getting my hair done, but the girl I usually see did not come in. Doesn't she know how badly that screwed up my schedule? Now I have to sneak over this coming Friday in between all the activities I have planned. I was also supposed to take my girl scouts horseback riding but it rained and stormed so it was canceled. Probably better since Allison stayed home sick on Friday with a very bad head cold(which she shared with me!). She did manage to get to her piano lesson. And I was able to register her for lessons next year. I really didn't feel like I got anything accomplished on Friday. I even sent Scott off by himself with the cub scouts for an after school meeting and then he went with the Troop to the Veterans cemetery to help place flags at each gravestone. We all usually go as a family to help out, but Tom was off in Texas and Allison was sick and she had to get to her piano lesson. I was very grateful that the cub scout leader was able to take Scott and drop him off after getting him some dinner. I was also busy washing clothes and packing for our weekend trip to Williamsburg/ Busch Gardens.
So we all haven't been home very much this weekend. We drove down to Williamsburg on Saturday morning and spent the rest of the day at Busch Gardens amusement park. They put on a wonderful fireworks tribute to the US soldiers in the evening. On Sunday we headed to the water park-it was packed. We spent most of our time floating around the rapid river since the lines were so long for the water rides. Tom mostly caught up on his sleep. We all were a bit worn out from colds too. So when the sky looked a bit threatening with afternoon tstorms, we headed over to the movie theatre and caught the new Shrek movie. It was fun. After our favorite chinese food buffet, we headed home. A lot to do in a short period of time. We did miss out on two invitations to pool parties and cook outs on Sunday, but at least this way we did not have to decide which house to visit!
I was still worn out over the weekend from my week alone with the kids. Both had projects and tests to work on so homework kept us busy. Allison had two field hockey games and I had to rush home from work after picking Scott up at school and get her over to the fields(all very far away). And it was very hot last week-up in the 90s. With all the passing tstorms it is impossible to keep the windows open so it was back to the AC for us. I also got Scott to his gymnastics class-he is winding down for the year. He and another boy were the only ones at class, so the instructor worked on backwards and forward flips. Scott loved it.
I also had some errands to run like picking up the kids medical reports for summer camp and dropping off forms for summer camp and returning clothes and shoes that didn't fit at the stores and picking up clothes and shoes that did fit(for the upcoming wedding).
And now both Allison and I are still in need of haircuts and of course I have already filled our upcoming weekend. Allison and I are going on a sailing and camping trip(after I take the girl scouts horseback riding!) And once again I will be home all by myself! I just hope Allison did not miss too much at school on Friday since it was such a long holiday weekend. With finals coming up, I would hate for her to blow her hard work all semester. She did get some of her projects worked on over the holiday weekend besides getting some rest and having a little fun. She even did a little more clothes shopping when Tom picked up his and Scott's suit. And she visited with a classmate and made really terrific chocolate chip cookies(which we all shared!)
So I will let you know how this week works out(more tstorms on the way).
By the way Mark S, you mentioned participating in the Relay for Life CAncer run at night with the luminary candles lit all around the track there in Indy. The volunteer work that our family completed and earned free tickets to Disney was making all those luminary bags that are placed around the track-one for each person stricken with cancer. We helped prepare several hundred bags in one morning's time. OUr race has not been held yet here in Howard County.
Also, Scott's and Tom's favorite cartoon is also Phineas and Ferb. Scott even has a few tshirts(we love the platypus spy!)
Hope you all had a wonderful Holiday weekend.

So this past weekend was the shopping weekend(from you know where!). We were all off shopping for new wedding clothes for our nieces wedding in June. None of the kids had dressy clothes that fit them anymore-I had picked up 3 spring/summer dresses for Allison last season on sale and she's completely outgrown them. And Scott hasn't had a suit since his 1st Communion in 2nd grade. So we all had a lot of items to hunt for. Most of us did quite well. Tom and Scott both got new suits and fitted as well! Allison got a new dress and shoes and I managed to pick up a new dress and shoes, but nothing new for the wedding. Oh well, guess I will just have to rely on what I already have. I was so looking forward to an excuse for a new dress! We all spent about two days shopping last weekend. Now comes the hair cuts! Scott and Tom had their cuts, and even Cookie got a shorter summer clip. Allison and I are next.
Tom also had to get new tires for his car since one actually exploded while sitting in the driveway! Tom was out cutting the grass and he heard a loud explosion-they guy at Sam's Club said the tire had dry rot?! I was just glad he wasn't driving at the time. Must be chinese tires!
Besides spending all last weekend shopping, we also decided to host a pre Memorial Day dinner party. We have been invited to several upcoming pool and patio parties, but we just won't be in town for any of them. So since our neighbors across the street are getting ready to move, we thought we'd have them over with several other families last Sunday for dinner. Naturally, that means lots of grocery shopping, cooking and housecleaning(in between the kid's homework assignments). Our neighbor's actually had a offer on their house from one of Tom's coworkers, but they underbid by $20,000. Too low for our neighbors. We are still hoping for a new family with kids.
Allison also had a birthday party to attend on Saturday night so there was a lot of running around this weekend.
I decided Sunday would work out best to have everyone over for dinner since the weather was supposed to be rainy/stormy and we'd all be stuck inside anyhow. It actually turned out to be sunny so I kicked all the kids out of the house. We certainly have had a crazy spring-chilly, rainy and then hot! It has played havoc with those prone to allergies. And it makes it tricky to get the yard work in. I did get some flowers planted in my big pots by the garage and a few tomato and zucchini plants. Now I am slowly working my way around to the flower pots on the deck. And we have yet to order mulch. Our neighbors have been busy mulching and one family even discovered a very large turtle laying eggs out in their mulch pile on the driveway! The turtle ended up at an animal rescue facility and we'll have to see what happens to the eggs! Probably a snapping turtle. They actually live in the stream behind the neighbor's house. So we all had a very nice dinner and I think I finally mastered the art of Mom Bozyk's potato salad!
And Friday night Tom and I even managed to squeeze in a date as we headed off to Yappy Hour with Cookie at our favorite wine store in Olde Ellicott City! The owner of the store is an MSU horticulture grad and he usually hosts fund raisers/wine tasting events(nothing fancy). He usually donates 10% of the sales for the night to a special organization, and once a month he donates to the Animal Shelters. So he invites everyone to bring their dog and sample some wine. I discovered that it is not easy to drink wine and hold onto a dog while they are busy wrapping you up in their leashes trying to sniff one another! I never saw so many different types of dogs-it was like an AKC show! I think Cookie had fun-they had a few tables set up for wine tasting, a big bucket of water for all the dogs, free doggy treats from the Petco table, and my favorite, handmade chocolate candy tasting. I especially enjoyed the dark chocolate chipolte pepper truffles! And Tom enjoyed restocking our wine rack! Next time we will have to take the kids. Allison wasn't feeling well and stayed home with Scott so we ran out to dinner after dropping the dog back home.
Monday night we all headed over to Scott's school for a band/choir concert. I think we could have done with a little more singing and less of the band, especially the beginners. But we enjoyed hearing their winning pieces. Most of the schools in the area compete against each other at Hershey Park, and the Resurrection kids usually win every year.
Allison recuperated enough to start her Field Hockey Spring/Summer outdoor session. Her Monday night game was canceled due to rain so she joined us for Scott's concert. She was happy to run into a few of her old classmates. She did go off and play again on WEds night too. She is the team's only goalie so she plays the whole hour, and ended up covering for another team so she did not get home until late and she was worn out. She has been wrapping up the school semester requirements-she finished her last test on Midsummer's Night Dream. And now she has to put on the play with her classmates! Not to mention all the finals coming up in the next few weeks. She did not have to take any HS Assessment tests this year so she has had a fairly light schedule in her classes. She is also busy with end of the semester projects. She finished a big poster for spanish-labeling parts of a house all in spanish. She's also working on a cereal box for History with an American Hero figure featured. We all thought Neil Armstrong was a good character, but I can't convince Allison to call her cereal 'Moonies"! So she has been working on all these projects in between her regular assignments. She also has been going through training sessions to help with Confirmation Retreat again in the Fall. And Scott is just about done with tests and assignments too. We are trying to get some extra credit work done on top of his regular assignments too. He also had his last meeting of his Environmental Club at school. We missed out on our hike due to the possibility of rain-they canceled again on Saturday. And we were all supposed to meet for a bonfire at the Teacher in Charge's family farm, but instead they had a small bonfire for the kids at school with s'mores at their last meeting. Like I said, crazy weather. But that is what Spring is all about.
By the Way, A Big Happy Birthday to Stacey Seitz! And A Big Happy Birthday to Christopher Bozyk!
I am not looking forward to the week ahead as Tom will be out of town in Texas(at the very bottom) in the town of McAllen in the Rio Grande Valley. I will be trying to stay sane while keeping up with my schedule and the kids schedule too(all on my own)! Wish me luck! I will let you know how it goes. Kathleen