So we were back to our usual schedule-work and camp.  First of all, my Dad was scheduled for his prostate surgery this past Thursday. It appears that everything went well and he is back home today(Sunday). We hope and pray he continues to heal and stays healthy! And that they do not have to take any more trips to the ER!

Tom and I headed back to work. Allison was busy preparing for the start of her Field Hockey season which officially began on Saturday morning with a 2.5hr work out(whew!). We discovered she needed to have her concussion testing updated, but she had all the other paperwork in on time to start practice. I even joined her and all the other moms and girls for a pre season meeting on Friday morning to discuss scheduling for the year. Allison has discovered that she is a bit of a Mother Duck to all the freshman girls trying out this year. They all look to her for guidance and support. Practice and try outs officially begin on Monday morning. In the meantime, Allison has been out running each day.

Scott headed off to another camp at our local Community College. I had originally been concerned about signing him up for an advanced lego robotics class with hopes of further strengthening his skills for his Lego Club at school. He actually enjoyed the second class I put him in-special effects sci fi class where he learned to do fun and crazy things on the computer with producing videos(like making himself disappear-or just parts of himself in his videos). I was glad he had such a good time. Next two weeks he will be in the YMCA camps and he did not enjoy most of the boys in the group at the beginning of the summer. Hopefully he will have a good time as they are traveling to some fun places.

On Saturday we both went to our local park for the rescheduled Fishing Tournament. Scott ended up winning a ribbon for most fish caught for his Troop(he was the only one fishing for his troop!).  Unfortunately he did not win a trophy for the top ten biggest fish caught that day. But he had a lot of fun pulling in a bunch of small fish-sunfish and baby bass. And he got good at taking the fish off the hooks(but not putting the worms on the hooks!). After catching fish all morning, I had to run over to the Nature Center with Allison to look over her Girl SCout Gold Award project proposal for her Educational Bird Trail with the center staff. Allison still needs to submit the request to Girl SCout council for their approval before starting the project. But she did spend some time last week doing research on the types of the birds they want highlighted for the program. The staff seemed very pleased. Now to just please the council!

We then headed home for dinner at our house with our MSU friend Matt. He is still trying to settle his divorce with Diana and is still really struggling with poor health and limited work capacity.  We tried to cheer him up by cooking dinner and going to the BAtman movie. I just spent the entire evening keeping an eye on  the security staff checking the exit door and stairwells every 15 minutes. And the movie was good too-especially the last 5 minutes. And Matt  had another trip to the ER with chest pains the next day. What a year for the ER!

I was busy at work all week and even went in for a half day at the nursing home on Sunday morning. That was about the only time I had available. Allison and I helped out the Girl SCout choir by recording a few more songs for our practice CD on Sunday afternoon. And then we had our neighbors over for dinner on Sunday night. It was nice to sit out on our deck and grill out. Especially since it has been so hot and then we had big rain on Saturday. We wanted to thank our neighbors for watching our house and cutting our grass for two weeks while we were on our trip. And we had picked up a few gift items to share with them too.

So Tom is heading off to Chicago next week.  I started back to my paddling practice on Tuesday nights. I will be relying on Allison to help me out with picking up SCott from camp and getting him to Boy Scouts.

Scott has been busy typing up his school summer book report. Allison is busy working on her summer math packet. Only two more weeks until school starts! Where did the summer go?

More trip photos-Yellowstone National Park and Old Faithful, Mount Rushmore, Grand Tetons and Jackson, Wyoming(Jackson Hole ski resort), and the Badlands(Big Horn Sheep) in South Dakota. 

Glad to hear Mark S. is doing well in his recuperation from his recent surgery.

Looks like another busy week for me in Maryland!

Baltimore Blog

.........Saturday morning in LA and Allison and I were headed to Torrance to the Marriot. We had purchased Allison tickets at Christmas time for her to attend a comic convention. It just happened to correspond with our trip out to LA. What timing. Allison enjoys the Nickelodeon comic "Invader Zim", but it has been cancelled and a large fan group is trying to revive the show. The voice actors were all at the convention for two full days of signing autographs and answering questions about the show. They also read scripts from shows that were not produced. Allison was in heaven. I enjoyed a break at the nearby mall shopping for Sees candy and my Starbuck mugs. (I was on a quest to find as many City Starbuck mugs as I could. I actually was able to locate one for Indianapolis, St Louis, Las Vegas and Los Angeles. I was thrilled).  Anyway, while we were busy at the convention all day and night, Tom and Scott and Mike had a fabulous time at Universal Studios. They all agreed that the new King Kong display on the Tram tour was phenomenal. It is 4D and has King Kong fighting dinosaurs and your tram is right in the middle of it all.

On Sunday Allison decided she wanted one more full day of Invader Zim. So Allison was back again, this time with Tom. I opted to go to California Adventure with Mike and Scott. We loved the new Cars ride the most. They even built an exact replica of the town of Radiator Springs from the Disney Pixar cartoon. It was a lot of fun.

On Monday we were back on the road. Thanks so much for your hospitality Mike!  We stopped into Vegas one more time. We visited old Downtown Vegas on Fremont Street. The kids weren't too excited with the old casinos, but they did enjoy our stop into the Pawn Stars store(as seen on tv). We could not believe there was a line to get in, but we had to stop and see all they had since we watch the show. Sadly we did not get to meet the family but we enjoyed looking at all the treasures. We also visited some of the new casinos like New York New York.

We then headed up to Jackson Wyoming and Jackson Hole the ski lodge. Tom loved all the moose stuff. The next day we headed into Yellowstone. There are two large loops you can drive through in Yellowstone, each about a 3 hour drive. We did them both. Plus we got out to look at anything that was steaming or spitting or bubbling or smelled bad(sulphur pits really do smell like rotten eggs). We caught a few buffalo herds but not many. I also spotted a few elk. Thank goodness no bears. Tom really wanted to see a moose. Our favorite was stopping for lunch on the upper deck of the Yellowstone Lodge while watching old Faithful explode right on cue. Everyone especially enjoyed the bubbling mud pots.

The next day we were exhausted and on our way to South Dakota to see Mount Rushmore and WAll Drug and the Badlands. I had wanted to see more buffalo at Custer State Park, but I had to settle for a Big Horn Sheep at the Badlands. And we actually loved our visit at the worlds first Wal Mart(WAll Drug). We made sure to buy lots of souvenirs, including Black Hills gold and donuts.

ON our trip home we took a side stop at the Corn Palace(as seen on Food Network). The outside of the building is decorated in different murals each year and is made entirely out of corn husks and hay and other various plants. As Tom said it is the Rose Bowl Parade of the Midwest. And naturally we had to have some popcorn.

We coasted into Indiana on Saturday and stopped in to visit with Mark and Linda and Eric who was home for the weekend from working at the summer camp. Mark had gotten bored with recovering from surgery and started back to work that week. On Sunday we stopped into Susan and John's place to pick up Cookie. Thanks again you two. We know she had a lot better time at your house than in the kennel! We then made it home late at night on Sunday and it was back to work and camp the next day!

And my Dad finally got a surgery date so he will be going in to the hospital on Thursday August 9th.

Here are some shots of The Hoover Dam/Lake Mead in  Nevada, Las Vegas(old and new), and The Grand Canyon(it really is Grand!) with our California Condor showing off. And Cadillac Ranch outside Amarillo TX off Route 66(my family was busy tagging the cars with their names from leftover spray cans).  More photos to come.

Baltimore Blog

Wow. We just returned home from our two week cross country trip and it was absolutely amazing!  Now we are back to our "normal" schedule.

Two weeks ago we headed out west after a very busy week, especially for the kids. Scott had just returned from a week of boy scout camp in Pennsylvania. Thank goodness he was able to get a ride home a day early and we did not have to drive up and get him. Allison had finished her week up with a Field Hockey camp at Hopkins University in downtown Baltimore. She also finished up her summer piano lessons and even squeezed in a night at work before our trip.

On Saturday we headed out to Indiana to drop Cookie off at Tom's sister's house. Sue and her husband John graciously agreed to watch Cookie for the two weeks we were traveling along with their big Ridgeback dog Gus. The two pups seemed to settle in nicely  per Susan's reports after Gus stopped treating Cookie as his girlfriend.  I think they all wore Cookie out with lots of walks and runs around their fenced in neighborhood school. Cookie was especially happy to have nice laps to curl up on at the end of the day rather than spend all her time in the kennel. Thanks again Sue and John!

On Sunday we drove through Missouri with a stop in St Louis for the Busch Brewery tour. We especially enjoyed our free beer. On our way to Springfield Missouri we dropped into the Meramec caverns for a cave tour.

On Monday we drove through Oklahoma City and stopped in for a steak at the historic Cattleman Restaurant in the Stockyards outside the city. President Bush has eaten here.  I was not as excited about the steaks as Allison and Tom. I would have rather visited the downtown area, but we were on the move.  We were trying to follow Route 66 when able. We pulled into a place I saw on the Food channel-Pops. It is a combination gas station, diner and soda fountain. They sell over 640 different types of soda. The walls  of the building are all glass with glass shelves full of soda bottles. We quickly picked up several 6 packs of various sodas including Butterscotch Root Beer and Brain Wash with hot pepper oil.
And outside Amarillo Texas we pulled over to spray paint our names on the old cars at the Cadillac Ranch. 6 cadillacs are buried halfway sticking up into the air and people stop in to help decorate the cars.

We were then on to Albuquerque, New Mexico. We stopped into Old Town for lunch-an area that is Tex-Mex. I thought New Mexico was beautiful with their large red rock formations. Our next stop was Flagstaff Arizona which really surprised me as it was quite mountainous and wooded with large pine trees. I would have thought all of Arizona was more of a desert climate like Phoenix. Flagstaff is another favorite new city.

The next morning we drove into the Grand Canyon National Park early in the morning. We planned to take a ranger guided tour which started promptly at 9am. We had a bit of a drive into the park to the visitor center, and then had to take a shuttle bus out to our tour route. We had a wonderful 2hr guided tour along the southern rim of the canyon before heading out on our own down the Hermit's Rest Trail. Our biggest highlight of the hike was spotting two California Condors up close. These birds are 4ft tall and have an 8foot wing span. The two were nesting on some rocks just below our path and checking us out! We were in awe of the whole place and especially enjoyed learning some new facts about the Grand Canyon including the fact that up until recently uranium has been mined in the canyon for nuclear power.  WE attempted to hike the full 8 miles of our trail, but after 4 hours we opted to grab the shuttle to the end. A stone house was built at the end of the trail with a large fireplace and long front porch and the place overlooks the canyon with large flocks of Ravens greeting the visitors. We felt right at home! The only problem we had with hiking along the edge of the canyon was the altitude sickness. We were not aware that this could be a problem, but you get a horrible headache and stomachache or nausea. Scott got it first and then Tom and I felt the symptoms over the next few days. There does not seem to be enough oxygen up there at 8000 feet, so it can be difficult to get out and hike. I had hopes of hiking down into the canyon, but figured I would have to be air lifted up by helicopter! So I think hiking the rim will have to be enough for me!

WE then traveled over to Las Vegas for the night. We checked into the Mirage hotel, the old hangout of Siegfried and Roy. They don't have the white tigers on display for free anymore, and we opted out of paying for the dolphin, tiger show. Instead we managed to catch the free volcano and fountain show out front. We also saw part of the Bellagio huge fountain show. And of course we ate way too much food at the buffets. WE had a special deal for 4 buffet meals for about $10 per person/per meal. Can't beat that! We had dinner at  Planet Hollywood  and called it quits. In the morning we headed out to take in the Hoover Dam tour. Very amazing and very hot standing on all that cement. In the afternoon we had lunch at the Flamingo and caught a family Vegas show-part comedy/part magic show. It was a lot of fun. Dinner was after a dip in the Mirage pool at the Imperial Palace. We then headed down the street to catch the pirate ship show outside Treasure Island(they actually sink a full sized pirate ship in the fountain in front of the hotel). Tom and I were a bit disappointed in the new and improved Vegas-they did away with the tokens and buckets of change. Now you gamble with credit cards and obtain a receipt to turn in for your winnings. Yawn. We loved the old sound of the clinking coins and pulling the handles on the slot machines. Not pushing buttons. Oh well. We saved lots of cash by not gambling.

On Friday afternoon we drove over to LA to visit with my brother Michael. Of course we had to stop for McDonalds in the Barstow train station. In LA we had time to watch the opening of the Olympics.

Back in Michigan my Dad was still waiting for a surgery date and Mark Seitz was home recuperating from his surgery. 

Here is a small selection of photos from our trip-In Missouri-the Arch, Busch Brewery Tour, Meramec Caverns, In Oklahoma-Lunch at the CAttleman in Stockyard City,  In New Mexico, Old Town Albequerque and Pops for soda off Route 66.

Just a quick blog as we are heading out the door. We are headed out west and back via mini van. Tom and I thought it would be a great way to spend our 25th anniversary(although I enjoy my new ring too!).

We will be stopping out in LA for a few days to visit with Mike Bozyk. We hope to visit the Grand Canyon, Hoover Dam, Vegas, and Yellowstone just for the highlights. Tom's sister Susan and her husband John will be watching Cookie for us for which we are very grateful.

Speaking of Tom's family, Mark Seitz had a successful surgery for a twisted intestine last Sunday and he was sent home today from the hospital. Happy Healing Mark!

Meanwhile, my parents are still trying to figure out when my Dad will be scheduled for his prostate surgery. Hopefully they will get a date next week.

My brother Mike is still trying to figure out what is going on in his arm. he's had a painful right arm for many months which seems to be getting worse. He had an MRI of his shoulder but nothing unusual and next week is a nerve conduction study to determine if it is carpal tunnel syndrome. The doctor also wants to make sure he doesn't have a pinched nerve in his neck. I hope he finds out soon, but unfortunately he won't be cured soon enough before our visit.

This week seemed to fly by quickly as both kids were gone. Allison was off to her Field Hockey camp at Hopkins University in downtown Baltimore. She asked to spend the night this time. She said she did quite well and learned a lot. But it was unbelievably hot. WE hit a record 103 during her camp session. They passed out frozen towels and lots of gatorade especially to the goalies. She finished camp on Weds afternoon and Tom picked her up. He took the day off work to get her and then head to the dentist. He decided he really likes our new dentist. And found out that he is related to one of his fellow employees(brother in law). Actually our new dentists are husband and wife. Tom met the husband. He just couldn't believe how friendly they all are in the office.

Scott on the other hand got a ride home early on Friday from Boy SCout camp in PA. Sounds like he had a very good time. He actually called us during a pizza party on Thursday night and sounded very wound up! And he managed to earn himself 6 badges, including two that are EAgle requirements. He got his First Aid and Environmental Science badges, both required. And then he had Fishing, Electricity, REptiles and Amphibians and Basketry. He made himself a few baskets and a nice stool. He especially enjoyed the REptile badge. We are very proud of all his hard work. He even had to pass some tests for the badges.

Tom and I just stayed home and were busy at work. We are losing another therapist in my clinic so there was a bit of panic when my vacation time came up. They even wanted me to work on Friday, but I was too busy packing for our trip. Tom spent the week finishing up a paper that he is presenting in Orlando in the fall. So no rest for the weary. We did take some time to have our neighbors over for dinner Thursday night to catch up with the last two weeks of activity. And we also wanted to catch up with our vacation schedule as they will be watching the house.

Take care and we will talk to you all when we return in a few weeks!

Baltimore Blog

So I arrived home from Michigan last Sunday afternoon. I had plenty to do around the house-noone figured out how to do the laundry. Allison was out of running shorts as she was busy trying to get into shape for Field Hockey. She has already had two meetings with her coach and team to discuss next season's strategy. I also had to unpack my car for work the next day and get Scott's paperwork ready for the Y camp.

I planned on speaking to the head counselor and so Monday morning we had a chat. I let her know the boys in Scott's group have been harrassing him. She said she did not know(Scott did not want to say anything). I let her know I was concerned about him heading to the lakes all week and swimming when the boys were treating him so bad. She said she understood-she was an excop and her son had been bullied in school. She also said the group was quite large and ran from 11-17 years old. Scott had made a friend, but he was not at the camp at this time. SCott did manage to hang out with one girl who was friendly to him. The counselor told me they were going to split up the boys and keep a closer eye on Scott. I also told her I would love to get my $20 back since they found out who was stealing things out of kids backpacks(a younger kid). He was booted from the camp. They told me they would look into it but I am not holding my breath.

So Scott's week was not too bad. Monday was pretty slow but Tuesday the camp headed to Cascade Lake. Scott enjoys jumping off the raft and the high dive in the center of the lake. I let him play hooky on Weds since a school friend invited him to a local pool for the day and then the boys headed to our house for an afternoon of video games. His friend stayed so long I invited him to dinner. Boy that kid could put away the ribs I made. On Thursday Scott headed to Harpers Ferry for a day of tubing. He was not too thrilled with the trip however since the river was so slow it was a lot of extra paddling. He preferred the trip he took last year with our Parks and Rec Dept. Guess I will plan on signing up for that program next year. He did manage to make it to his swim lesson, even after all that paddling on Thursday. Friday I kept him home to work on packing for boy scout camp. I wanted to take him to the Boy SCout store and get him a bigger shirt, but I just didn't have time and I would not have gotten all his patches sewn on either before he left on Sunday. I also went into work Friday morning after a doctor appointment. They asked me to see some new patients, however, it turns out they did not have as many patients as they expected. So I just worked a half day which was good since it was Allison's birthday on Friday. She turned 17! I had to take her in for a physical for Field Hockey season. We also took her out to dinner and to see the Spiderman movie. The kids loved it but Tom and I thought it was a bit slow. She had a lot of nice birthday surprises including a new phone and Vera Bradley wristlet to put it in. Tom also got her a Kindle. I also had to stock her up on Field Hockey shorts and sports bras for camp this weekend as well as for her preseason which starts in August. I have also been putting her new driving freedom to work by having her run to the grocery store for me and taking herself to piano lesson while I took Scott to his swim lesson.

I was pooped out by Saturday morning, but I had to get up early in a rain storm and pack up the van for our Boy SCout Fishing Derby. I also picked up our neighbor's son. Unfortunately, since we woke up to a tstorm they cancelled the derby. But we were all prepared to fish, and I needed photo proof that Scott could indeed catch something, so we stayed while he pulled in a few small sunfish. Most of them fell off the line into the water, but I managed to get one photo. We even took home a sunfish that didn't make it so Scott could practice cleaning a fish as one of the prerequisites. He did very well for his first time.

I also had to run over to a local brand new Nature Center with Allison in the afternoon. She is still searching for a Girl SCout Gold Award project and was interested in some type of nature program. She was inquiring about installing blue bird houses, but most parks seem chock full of them. Instead, one of the new centers asked Allison if she would design a Bird Trail with some wood carvings they have so they can take kids out on the trail and teach them about Maryland wildlife. Sounds good to me. Of course she still needs preapproval from Girl SCout council. Maybe they won't be quite so hard on her this time. We had lots of volunteer paperwork to sign and then we headed out on the trails around the new Nature Center to check out the grounds and take photos.

Afterwards we headed to our new grocery store to pick up a picnic dinner for our outdoor Baltimore Symphony Orchestra concert. Tom thought we might be rained out, but the evening was beautiful, although a big muggy and humid. We even got a fireworks show after listening to theme songs from Star Wars, Batman and Pirates of the Carribbean. I always manage to run into someone I know there and Saturday night was no exception. ONe of the PT's I work with was there with her husband and son and friends and stopped by to say hello and meet my family.

It was a very long day, but the weekend was not over. Early Sunday morning Tom dropped Scott off for his boy scout camping week. The troop is carpooling up to PA, north of Reading to Hawk Mountain. As soon as he dropped SCott off it was time to drop Allison off at Hopkins University in downtown Baltimore for Field Hockey camp. We got her settled into her dorm room since she is sleeping overnight and then took her out to lunch before saying goodbye. She had a few games on Sunday afternoon but had to quit when a t-storm rolled in. She says she is having a good time. I also dropped Cookie off at the pet store to get another summer haircut. It has been so incredibly hot this summer and she will be visiting with Susan and John in Indy while we are on vacation so we thought she could use another trim. She certainly looks a lot happier.

And we were busy catching up with the status of Tom's brother Mark. He ended up in the hospital on Friday with severe stomach pains. He went in for surgery Sunday morning and they discovered he had a twisted bowel. He is certainly doing much better now. Get better soon Mark!

I left my parent's house on Saturday and my brother's Dan and Dave and Dave's two boys, Nick and Chris arrived on Monday. They drove up from Texas and only had a few days to visit. They were able to get mom and dad to another urology appointment as well as do some work in the basement moving out some old wood and Dad's floor saw. They even had a chance to visit with my Uncle Joe and also drove over to one of the local lakes for a swim. And they brought Dad with them for a break. Dan was also able to set up an installation from AT and T for cable and internet. Dan picked up a laptop to connect but we will have to see if my parents can figure out how to use it. The boys only got to stay for a few days before heading back to Texas. Dave  was starting a new job on Monday and he had to get back home. 

So never a dull moment. My Dad goes back for a urology appointment in 3 weeks-hopefully to discuss the surgery. Nothing is ever simple.

Also want to say thanks to Dan and Jack Hejza for stopping by my parents house for measurements and to figure out a price quote for work that needs to be done.

Here is SCott fishing on SAturday at our local lake and cleaning his first fish. And I cannot believe how big our turtle got in one year. He was just a quarter sized bright green turtle when we brought him from Hilton Head last summer. Look at him now! He needs to move into a bigger tank. And there is Allison at our new Nature Center. 

Baltimore Blog

I have certainly had an interesting two weeks. During my first week(and last week of June) I was on my own with the kids. Tom flew to Chicago for work. Fortunately it wasn't too hectic as Allison was off to GS camp teaching archery. She had a ride every day from our neighbor who was volunteering and had her two little girls enrolled in the day camp. Allison of course had a wonderful time. She even had a job offer teaching archery to girl scouts for a day, but it is scheduled when we will be on vacation.

Scott on the other hand needed dropped off and picked up at his favorite camp-classes at the local university. He took a lego class and a science experiment class. He loved the lego class, but thought the science experiments were rather lame(except for making ice cream!).  And of course there were summer piano lessons for Allison and Scott had swim class to get to as well as trying out a new Boy Scout troop.

We have been very frustrated with Scott's troop and thought it would be fun to try a new troop. I wanted Tom to take him, but he wasn't home. Scott's troop was not meeting that week, so he and I checked out a newer troop. Of course I really liked the parents and leaders, but Scott was not crazy about the boys. It is a small troop and mostly young kids and very old teenage boys that weren't at the meeting because they were packing for Philmont-the High Adventure camp out west for boy scouts. So guess we will keep looking as needed. I also had SCott work on some projects for Boy Scout camp. He is going to work on his fishing badge so he needs to show that he can catch and cook a fish. (Not necessarily in that order).  I had him cook some Tilapia for dinner one night. We will be going fishing in a few weeks for the boy scout fishing derby which will fulfill his prerequisite for catching a fish(if we do indeed catch one!).   Scott is going to work on his Fishing badge, Basketry, Electricity, First Aid, Environmental Science, and Reptiles and Amphibians badge. So he had some work to do before going to camp. He had some research to do and a few reports to write up. I was just excited that he paid for most of his camp by selling popcorn and picking up trash after the 4th of July fireworks last year.

I was also struggling with the decision to head to Michigan to help out my mom and dad. My dad has been recuperating in the rehab center, and on June 30th he was discharged home. I decided to ask for the week of the 4th of July holiday off from work since I figured our out patient clinic would at least be closed one day. They were able to find a substitute to see my patients, so I planned on heading out on Saturday. I am not a long distance driver so I split my trip into two days. The Friday before I left however we had a very big storm. It made all the headlines. It was a solid line of storms from Baltimore to Richmond VA with winds at 80 mph called a Derecho. It hit around 11pm, just after Tom brought Allison home from work. Our power went out, so I couldn't get any more laundry done. At least after the storm rolled through we got our power back on, but much of Maryland and our neighborhood was without power. And lots of trees down.

It felt eerie to drive down our main street with no traffic lights and tree branches hanging off the power lines on Saturday morning. I had a very nice trip and even took myself to see the movie Dark Shadows with Johnny Depp at a cheap movie theatre I found in Ohio.  I got to my parents house early on Sunday afternoon, just in time to drive us all over to my Uncle Joe's house. We had dinner and Mom and Dad took a nap while my Uncle Joe, Aunt Kathy and I swam in the pool. It was a very nice afternoon. Unfortunately, I can't say the rest of the week went as well. My dad had a urology appointment on Tuesday and a dentist appointment before that. I took both of them to the appointments and learned that my dad is going to have to be hospitalized for surgery to his prostate at some point. MOm and I also had to run him to the Hospital ER Thursday morning since they put in a smaller catheter at the urology office and it clogged and needed replaced. Besides doctor appointments, I was helping make sure my Dad got the right medication, as well his helping out with his general care and we even stopped into his barber shop for a hair cut.

Michigan also had incredibly hot weather like the mid atlantic and a few strong storms that took out the power in the Detroit area. I watched a branch hit the power lines early Thursday morning and sparks went flying. Fortunately my parents did not lose power, but I did notice their new air conditioner was not working. I had to call in the service company to have the unit switched on. At least no service fee. And finally some much needed AC. I did get some yardwork done and cut the grass. Dad was able to cut the back lawn with the tractor.  I was also trying to help get the house a bit organized as it appears it will need to be fixed up and sold. I had some friends come in and do an overall assessment of some of the projects that needs to be done. They also helped me set up a large tv that I brought from our house and cable will be installed thanks to the very helpful guy at Best Buy, my great friends the Hejza's and my brothers who visited the week after I left. I couldn't get as much organizing done as I would have liked to as Dad is not quite ready for a change in plans. Due to his decline in his status, it looks like it would be best for the two of them to relocate to their Florida house. My dad was not quite ready to hear that. But he is not supposed to drive or handle the finances alone so it would just be too difficult to travel back and forth to Charlevoix as well as to be quite so isolated in Northern Mich. So big change in plans that was not expected at this time. Life has a way of doing that to us.

It was a pretty stressful week for all of us, but I did enjoy spending time at home. I also was grateful to spend time with my very dear friends the Hejzas. Again, thanks for everything that you all do and did. You all are dear family to us. I loved visiting the Hejza house on the 4th. We had so much fun swimming in the pool, eating way too much great food, talking and even a quick game of scrabble for me before I had to head back to my parents. And I was able to break away to have dinner out with Laura. What fun to have a girls night out. I don't even really get to do that at home much.

Back on the homefront, the kids were melting in the heat and entertaining the neighbors that did not have electricity. They really did not do anything special for the 4th. Tom sent them out on the back porch with  poppers at night. Lame. I am taking us to a Baltimore Symphony Orchestra outdoor concert with fireworks next weekend since we missed out. Scott was miserable at the Y camp. The boys have been harassing him and he missed his field trip to Philly to see the liberty bell and Independence hall. Tom and Scott missed the early morning bus. At least he has been there before. Scott did enjoy one good day swimming at Beaver Dam and swinging on the ropes over the lake. But he came home with a black eye. Mostly he just stayed home from camp with Allison. However, on Friday Allison had her big moment when she passed her driving test!  Now she is a full blown licensed driver. Wow. And she didn't have to work the weekend before because the rink lost power. Now the rink is on their summer schedule so only open on Fridays. And Allison will be able to drive herself to work. Wow again. Mixed feelings about her driving-it is a blessing and a curse.