It turned cold and rainy this weekend. We started off wearing shorts on Saturday morning and switched to sweatshirts and sweatpants by Saturday afternoon as the cold front came through.

Tom and Scott spent the weekend camping. They enjoyed a Boy Scout 100th anniversary camping weekend that brought out about 10,000. There were only 4 boys from Scott's troop and 3 adults, but the place was packed with cub scouts and boy scouts. They had to be bussed into the camping area, so Tom brought our big tent to put all the boys in together. Tom slept in a small hiking tent(but didn't actually sleep much). He said it was too noisy-coughing, snoring and crying.  And that was just the adults.  But it sounds like they had a great time with their activity packed day on Saturday. Scott had the opportunity to horseback ride, mountain bike, play games, make and shoot off a rocket, watch  police dogs in action as well as police robots, meet a race car driver, listen to stories about indians, look at a display about the Hubble telescope, play with Lego Robots, practice leatherworking and participate in a bridge ropes course. All in one day. And they finished the evening with a Battle of the Bands concert, fireworks and Laser light show. Even Tom spent his day trying out of few activities including bridge building out of paper and cardboard to support a human. Tom said by the evening, most of the boys were falling asleep and freezing cold, so they watched the fireworks and laser light show from the tent. And Scott finished off his last 1st class requirement on Friday night-telling direction at night by looking for the north star.

Tom and Scott had to rush off after work on school on Friday, so Tom had the car packed up on Friday morning. I had to run and get SCott's scout pants from the dry cleaners on Friday morning so he would have some long pants to keep him warm. I am glad I did. It sure got cold. I also managed to get to my swim aerobics class on Friday morning and cut the lawn. I would have enjoyed watching all of Allison's field hockey game on Friday afternoon, but I had to leave at the half time to pick up Scott so he would be dressed and ready  when Tom got home to go camping. I managed to watch the first half of Allison's game and it was very exciting. They played a tough school and managed to win!

When Allison got home, we both went out for Mexican food and then just passed out on the couch watching Harry Potter. (AFter I walked the dog and had Allison try to sell a few more boxes of Girl Scout cookies). Our pre sales ended this weekend. We are saving up for a trip to Michigan next summer(with a stop over at Cedar Point)!

Allison's team lost their Field Hockey game to a fairly easy team on Monday, so they were happy to get a win on Friday. Just 4 more games left in the season! 

Scott is busy with his school's Lego club which now meets twice a week, as well as choir which meets in the morning before school. He also had a boy scout meeting on Tuesday to attend. Allison and I were busy with the start of our Girl SCout choir season. We attended our first practice this Sunday afternoon. I have also been keeping Allison busy with filling out college applications. I just wish all the schools asked for the same essay. At least Allison has been working on essay writing in her English class. So far we have all her paperwork/computerwork filled out, money sent for transcripts and SAT scores and teacher/counselor recommendations requested. Now she just has to fill out essays. And thank goodness her applications are not all due on the same day! Her time is limited as well, especially now. She put in a two session shift at the skate center, working from noon until 1030pm on Saturday. (More spending money for Europe next summer).

Before she left for work, she had a piano lesson. And we both took Cookie up to church for the Blessing of the Animals on the Feast of St Francis. It was fun seeing how all the dogs interacted during the prayer service. And I was even recruited to complete a reading and the responsorial psalm.

I had high hopes of getting a ton of activities done over the weekend, but spent most of my time at the hair salon trying to get some new highlights put in(getting ready for Florida!). So I had to hurry up the rest of my chores including some shrub trimming, grocery shopping, banking for girl scouts and tried to get my appraisal letter for my new ring(the jeweler never sent it). I tried to even get Cookie a trim, but the dog salon was all filled. So I broke down and trimmed Cookie's nails and fur around her eyes so she can see! I also started the work week off by attending my Girl Scout Leader meeting.

Now we are getting ready for our trip to Florida. I don't like pulling Scott out of school, but he is only missing 4 days. Allison is staying home on her own. She is just too busy to miss anything. We also decided to switch SCott's math teacher. We do not like when the school pushes the kids so far ahead. If Scott stays on this track, he would finish Algebra 1 and Geometry before high school. We prefer he just finish Algebra 1 by 8th grade. So he is going into Allison's old math class when we get back from Florida. What a relief that will be.

 Here is a shot of cookie getting blessed by Fr Warren!

 

This certainly has been a nice first full week of fall. And the leaves on the trees have started turning. I am not ready.  Saturday was the Mt Hebron High School Homecoming. I started the morning with the kids at the neighborhood parade. It actually starts up at Scott's school, so we love going to the beginning. Especially since the kids on the floats love to throw candy! And since there are not a whole lot of kids at the start of the parade, SCott usually makes out quite well. It is better than Halloween! And he has started a tradition of following the parade up to the high school on his bike so he can still collect the goodies.  He came home with a small backpack full of candy! He was in heaven.
Then he was off studying for his math test.

Tom, Allison and I decided to watch the Homecoming football game. Allison has not yet seen a football game at her school and we all thought she should see at least one before she graduates next year. I realized I had never seen a high school football game either. I was always too busy playing basketball in high school and the seasons overlap. So we headed up to the school in the afternoon and enjoyed Chick Fil A sandwiches and a very exciting game. Mt Hebron usually has a losing team in football, but this seems to be their year. So far the boys are undefeated, and they played an exciting game on Saturday, winning 29 -0. And Allison was happy to hear that the Seniors came in first for Spirit Week. She had fun dressing up each day last week for a different theme -costume day, Spirit day, wacky tacky day. She even missed her internship so she could attend the pep rally on Friday afternoon. She also finished selling pizzas for her Field Hockey fund raiser. Now back to cookie sales.

And she had her own games to worry about. Her Field Hockey team played twice last week. The girls won both games, but more excitedly they beat the number one rated County team on Friday! And Tom was off work so he was able to go see the game.   She also received her official letter approving her Girl Scout Gold Award program! More work for her. At least she had some time to celebrate by attending the Homecoming dance. We had picked up a great dress last year and she still did not have a chance to wear it. So she was looking forward to going to the dance, but could not find anyone to go with her. Most of her friends were going as couples. I checked with our neighbor's daughter and Allison ended up tagging along with that group of sophomore girls. She said she ran into a group of seniors while she was there though and had a lot of fun dancing with all of them.

She also had Weds. off school(more jewish holidays). So she spent the morning at her internship, and I took her to the University of Maryland for a college tour in the afternoon. I don't know who had more fun-Allison or myself. Uof MD reminds me of MSU in a way. Both schools started out as agricultural schools and have been around for over 100 years. The campus is huge and surprisingly hilly. Lots of trees and squirrels. We had a 2 hour walking tour of the campus and even caught a flash mob dance on the main green. We visited a dorm room, the athletic fields and stadium and most of the main buildings that house the different programs. And we had to rub the mascot's nose for good luck. Yes it is a turtle or Terrapin(Maryland native turtle) and he is good luck for all the students. We also paid homage to a few graduates including Jim Henson of the Muppets, the UnderArmour president and the CEO of the Washington Redskins. Not sure if Allison would be as interested in such a large, competitive school. Of course the business school is very popular and has limited enrollment. But we are working on an application. And we did enjoy milkshakes at the school dairy which reminded me of State.

While Allison was off dancing Saturday night, Tom and I headed over to our favorite wine store in Old Ellicott City to watch one of our favorite college movies-Monty Python and the Holy Grail -the last outdoor movie of the season. We picked up Boston Market and a bottle of wine and enjoyed a cool night out repeating all the favorite movie lines. We are definitely getting old-Tom fell asleep at the end of the movie. He had spent all his free time on Saturday spraying the siding on the whole house with an anti moss/algae/mold spray. We get enough rain and heat here to grow plants on the side of the house! So he basically powerwashed the entire house with lots of moving and climbing our big ladders as the siding is in difficult to reach places. While he was cleaning, I was busy trimming the shrubs and raking leaves(that time of year again). We never did get to cutting the lawn until Sunday, and we still have shrubs to trim.   I broke down and put up a few outside Halloween decorations but I am certainly not  the first in the neighborhood. And by the time I got around to trimming shrubs on Sunday, it had started to rain/tstorm.

Since I took Allison on the college tour on Weds I had to work a half day on Friday. I would have just taken the whole day off on Weds, but I had to teach a class on low vision at work to the residents in the morning. I did get to my swim class again on Friday morning though, and still had time to go out to lunch with TOm since it was his day off. We like to try new places when we get a chance, so we headed to a small diner near my place of work. We decided it was ok, a bit pricey for the amount of food that you get though so don't think we will be rushing back.

(Here are a few shots of the Homecoming parade-Scott and his friend Jack are busy collecting candy. Also University of Maryland Terrapins-good luck turtle and Jim Henson and frog(notice the connection? Also a shot of the college green-not exactly the Red Cedar river, but a pretty good substitute. As Allison says, at least the fountain isn't shut down in the summer due to high pollution levels. )  (Allison enjoys a milkshake at Uof MD and off to the homecoming dance)






The kids had a busy week with extra programs to fit in. Scott started his Lego club in school. Tom would like to help coach, but can't get to the meetings at 3:30-right after school. Last year he took the kids to the competition since the teacher in charge was out with a broken foot. Scott also had altar serving yearly training. And Scott has been working hard at earning his next level in boy scouts to achieve 1st class rank. He just has one more requirement to go-telling directions at night using the stars. But every night they meet has been cloudy, so he has not been able to get to that requirement. But he did memorize what he needed for a safe boat trip. He also spent the weekend baking a loaf of bread from scratch. His school had the ingredients donated to provide a loaf of bread to the homeless-one loaf per family. So he baked a loaf of bread and also treated us to cinnamon rolls.

I also scheduled a girl scout meeting on Thursday night to see what the girls would like to do this year-their last year as scouts. I decided to just have a bonfire and make s'mores since we had lots of marshmallows and chocolate left over from the boy scout camping weekend and we had some extra wood that needed to be burned. However, it was very warm and 100% humidity so I was sweating around the fire. And then we had a thunderstorm. At least our meeting turned out well. I still think it is funny that the girls drive themselves to the meetings now rather than having their parents drop them off. 

Thanks for all of the family members and friends that participated in our Walk Around the World contest at my work. I will turn in our miles this coming week. 

Well, thank goodness last week was not quite so crazy while Tom was away. At least no one broke anything!

Tom had to fly out to LA last Sunday. Sounds like he had a very nice week. He got done a day early so he spent some time visiting Solvang for pastries and wine tasting. He even had some extra time to take my brother Mike out for a birthday dinner at Cheesecake factory and stopped into his condo to recaulk his bathtub. Tom returned home Friday night after catching the landing of the space shuttle in LA while he was sitting on the runway in his plane. He sent me a photo shot of the shuttle landing from out of his plane window.

Meanwhile, I was getting a yearly check up at the doctor's office on Friday. I was trying to hurry to catch Allison's field hockey game. She usually has two a week. They lost their first game that week, but won the game on Friday afternoon and I got to watch Allison play. I also had time on Friday to get back to my exercise classes. The YMCA finally opened up the swim classes for drop in rather than preregister, so now I can just attend the class when I want. So I loved getting back in the pool, but the chlorine did not do much for my breathing while I finish up my antibiotics for my sinus infection.  Scott was also off of school on Friday, so I kept him busy with homework. He would have preferred to travel to Busch Gardens with Tom, but sadly Tom got home too late. Allison was off of school on Monday(love those Jewish holidays), but she had to go into work. Good thing she can drive herself!

Instead of visiting Busch Gardens, we decided had to use our tickets to Hershey Park so off we went on Sunday and we all had a great time. SCott rode every coaster, including two new coaster rides. He completely wore himself out. We even took Cookie and she waited for us in the dog kennel during the day at the park. We had a great time eating chocolate(we are all set for Halloween). And a very nice addition-Allison and I heard a concert from Megan Hilty-the star of the tv show SMASH and she plays Glinda in Wicked on Broadway. She sang with her piano player who was excellent and he also sang a duet with her too. And we even caught a tap show and thought of Stacey! It was a wonderful way to spend the first full day of Fall.

I also was kept busy last week with Allison's Back to School Night. I got a chance to meet all her teachers-they are all very nice and involved. I also had to run off to pick up some items for Allison's Pasta Party and a work party for me. On Thursday we had a goodbye luncheon for one of our staff members that took another job. I picked up lunch for our out patient staff as well as a gift card(Starbucks of course to collect more city mugs). Allison just needed cookies for her Field Hockey team dinner. Thank goodness for Sam's club. I just got there with 15 mins. to spare. And the gas station was surrounded by cops. Don't know what happened, but I figured that was the safest time to get gas! I also took in a pan of Tom's ziti to work and the staff gobbled it down. And early in the week we had a staff team building meeting. Our boss bought us all chinese food and we spent a few hours getting to know a few new staff members and playing team building games like Taboo and Jenga. It turned out to be a lot of fun. And it was nice to spend time with the whole staff since our boss is stepping down next week.

I had plenty of time to work off all those goodies while doing lots of yardwork on Saturday when it was nice and sunny. I even got Tom to finally top my Rose of Sharon bush which has turned into a tree. He even got busy trimming our neighbors cherry tree too which turned into a neighborhood project while I was cutting the grass.   

Sending out a Big Happy Birthday to Mom Bozyk. She said she enjoyed a good, fried chicken dinner as a birthday treat.

Here is Allison in goal during last week's Field Hockey game. Also a few shots(from you guessed it)Hershey Park. The kids love the swing ride.  And we enjoyed Megan's(Glinda's) concert. 

Welcome back to Mark and Linda Seitz who enjoyed what looks like a fabulous trip to Hawaii(but I am sure I would not have been brave enough to get on that helicopter for a tour!).
 
 See you next week! Kathleen

Naturally I cannot have one relaxing week with Tom gone. I was still feeling sick-dizzy and nauseous so I finally decided to make a doctor appointment on Friday when I was off from work. I ended up having to make two appointments since Scott managed to break his cast while pushing up from a table and I needed to get him in for an xray and to determine if he needed the cast put back on or if it could be removed permanently.

So there we both were on Friday afternoon in our separate exam rooms. Turns out I had a sinus infection so I am on a nice, safe antibiotic(No Cipro!). Just Amoxicillin. And boy do I feel so much better. Scott turns out healed up in 4 weeks so they did not have to put his cast back on. But his arm has been pretty sore. He was just so excited to get the cast off!

I managed to survive through the week even though I wasn't feeling well. Scott actually did not feel well either and asked to stay home on Tuesday(after I had already dropped him off at school). I just turned around and took him home and called to let school know he wasn't going to make it. AT least he did not miss much since they had Back to School Night and no homework. He did miss laser tag with the boy scouts that night though which he was a bit disappointed about, but he ended up sleeping all day. Guess he needed a break.

Allison however had to attend the BAck to School night for the Kindergarten class for her internship on Tuesday night. She has been traveling to Scott's school for 2 hours every day to work with the kids. She finds them very fascinating, but she drew the line when one of the boys asked her to wipe his bottom after going to the bathroom! Scott happened to be nearby that day and she tried bribing him, but he wasn't going to go there either! Allison keeps thinking she would prefer teaching high school students. Or perhaps the Business program is looking more promising. We spent some time together filling out college applications this weekend after I attended the College Night program at her high school. They encourage the parents to look over the admissions process and applications to see if the kids missed anything. It is getting quite difficult to get into schools these days. The University of Maryland takes in  around 20,000 applicants a year and only accepts around 10,000. They also have to delay start of school from the fall to the spring since there are so many students.  So right now Allison is working on her biography for her teachers as she has to have two recommendations from them and a letter from her counselor for each school she wants to apply to. She is also working on her college essay(as well as keeping up with her homework, working at the skating rink  and playing Field Hockey).  The team had two games last week. They won their Friday game but lost due to a penalty shot on their Tuesday game. She also enjoyed a Crab Dinner and Dance for the Seniors at the high school on Weds night. She had her fill of crabs, crab cakes, roast beef and corn on the cob. I don't think she will want to graduate!

Tom and I were sorry we missed her games. But I was at the doctor's office with Scott on Friday and Tom was off cooking for the Boy Scouts for their camping weekend. I did enjoy playing Field Hockey on Thursday night as the parents usually have a tailgate party and Parent vs Kids Field Hockey scrimmage at the start of each year. I had fun playing defense(just wish I had been feeling better). I also had to buy food for the tailgate party, and drinks for a luncheon we had at work in which we hosted our medical staff. Our doctors had never been to our out patient rehab clinic(in the past 25 years or so). We decided it was about time they showed up so we bribed them with food and it worked.

Scott and Tom had a Boy Scout camp out on Friday night and the troop hosted a few Cub Scout troops. On Saturday they ran a few stations for the cub scouts-teaching them some skills including fire starting and knot tying. Tom made way too much food on Friday and we both had to haul food and camping supplies to the campground Friday evening after the doctor appointments. Allison was busy working at the skating rink that night. So I ended up staying for dinner with the boy scouts and took all the leftovers home. I have 4 huge bags of ziti in the freezer and an extra pan in the fridge, plus lasagne, lots of veggies and salad. Should come in handy at work for pot lucks.

Tom had just returned from Dallas on Thursday night, so we kept him busy on Friday and Saturday. Besides the camping trip, Tom set up an orienteering course for Scott so he could finish one of his requirements for 1st class rank. (which he did). He also made a useful tool only using  lashing to hold it together which was another requirement.  When the boys got home, Tom was busy working on Allison's car. She needed new speakers since hers were damaged by her goalie bag in the trunk. And she needed new floor mats, windshield wipers and they had already replaced her tires. Then Tom discovered that his computer monitor is dead. That is another issue.  I also had him working with Scott on his math homework since Tom was flying out again on Sunday. This time to LA.

Sunday I kept both kids busy with homework. I also kept Allison busy selling Girl Scout Cookies! Our last year. Let me know if anyone feels the urge to buy a box or two. Or make a donation to our US troops. We went selling one last time down our street. I was surprised to see that no other girl scouts had come down the road yet on Saturday evening. On Sunday the little girls were out in full force, but I think we managed to get most of the neighbors. I am not very helpful when I go out with Allison since I usually spend all our time chatting with the neighbors. I even sat down and had a beer on the deck with a family whose son is heading off to work on ships in Alaska this Friday. They were celebrating him getting a real job. But Allison managed to get through a few more houses on Sunday. After I took her clothes shopping. She discovered that she cannot just wear jeans and tshirts to her internship, so we had to pick up a few more dress pants and shoes.

Now I hope to survive another week with Tom gone. 

I almost missed my brothers' birthdays this month. A very Happy Birthday wish to Dan and DAve who celebrated their 50 something birthday on September 2nd, and another Happy Birthday wish to Mike Bozyk who keeps getting closer to 50 on Sept 10th! 

Sorry, no photos this week. I was too busy to take pictures!

Kathleen

How we did Not Spend Labor Day Weekend:

     We did not go to Busch Gardens this year, even though we had a 4 day weekend(almost). Allison still had school on Friday, but Scott was off. And Allison did not have to work. Last year she had to help clean up the Sports Center over the Labor Day Weekend, but this year they had everything done ahead of time. Allison also did not have any Field Hockey games or practice, so we could have gone away without missing a thing.
  What was missing was Scott's ability to ride anything at Busch Gardens. And they did not schedule a big, end of the season concert like they have in the past.
    We tried to reschedule activities since everyone was free and available, but then the weather did not cooperate. We had remnants of Hurricane Isaac for the past week which included extremely hot temperatures, scattered rain and thunderstorms and 500% humidity. Not much fun.
   We wanted to go to Hershey Park on Sunday, but instead we had scattered tstorms. Sadly, they would have allowed SCott on their rides, even with the cast. We decided to try to attend the Renaissance Festival which sadly was not as enjoyable since the weather was so miserable. It was not terribly comfortable sitting outside watching shows in the drizzle and humidity with no breeze. But we did manage to enjoy eating a few items on sticks(everything tastes better on a stick). Including chocolate covered frozen cheesecake. And Allison shot a few arrows, Scott threw a few hatchets and I found a lovely tapestry to hang in the foyer. Tom managed to get himself into a comedy show without even trying.

We decided we needed to have some fun over the weekend since I went to work on Saturday. In the morning we took the kids to the library to get them passports. Finally.

On Monday Tom wanted me to visit the one and only Sony store in nearby Virginia to pick out a replacement television for the one we gave my parents. With football season here he wanted to have every opportunity to keep up with the games. He tried a Samsung but we did not like the picture. Instead we settled for a Sony the same size as our current tv. He needed me to pick out the set with the best color. So far everyone that has seen the new tv loves the picture. Including Tom.

The Sony store was in the Tysons Corner Mall which is gigantic. We had to drive around in the parking structure to pick up our tv, but they brought it out to us so it was easier than it looked. I am just glad we did not have to carry the big box around while we shopped and had dinner out!  Tom really wanted to take advantage of the tv specials through Northrop so we saved some money on the set and got a free Play Station to boot. Like we need another gaming system. Anyway, now we can enjoy that bright Purple Raven color. And that is how we spent Labor DAy Weekend(besides cutting the grass in between storms and rain showers, cleaning out gutters and trimming tree branches).

We are also enjoying watching the bright Orange Orioles color as our baseball team is just under one game from the NY Yankees in the Eastern division.  Boy were there a lot of New Yorkers in town this weekend for a 3 day game fest.

Baltimore has been crazy lately with the sports legends. Ravens are off to a pretty good start. Orioles are ending their season on a high note. Michael Phelps and a few other Marylander Olympians were visiting Baltimore today(monday). I wondered if Michael was up to the challenge of swimming across our bay or harbor. SAdly they had a also had a viewing at our Football stadium this past Saturday for Art Modell who gave Baltimore a football team when he moved the Cleveland Browns here and renamed the team the Ravens. They had Art's casket out under a tent on the football field so everyone who wanted to could come by and say bye. Crazy.  And it was deathly hot out on Saturday.

I should know since I spent the entire day, from 6am until a giant storm rolled in around 4pm paddling a Dragon Boat across the harbor(8 times in 4 different races). We have to paddle down across the harbor and then race back. Our team did pretty well this year. We made it through 4 races out of 6. The best we have every done. And this was my 5th race held every two years. I started back in 1998 with St Agnes. I missed a few years in between with our move to Boston and before I started working for Erickson. We did not win a Division, but we did take 3rd place for the Hat Decorating Contest.
Hey, it was something. I can't wait until 2104! I just hope I can survive that long.  On Saturday I was burnt to a crisp and my foot was killing me. We were invited to our neighbors for dinner. I made it through appetizers and dinner and then took myself home and went to bed with a cold cloth on my head and a hot pack on my foot. Plus I think now Scott and I have the same flu/allergy symptoms that we just can't seem to shake.

My family was not able to join me on Saturday for the races since Allison had a field hockey tournament instead. And it was terrific that they won the entire tournament(and the games count towards their season). And they were tough teams to beat. Tom and SCott stayed during the day to help out with the concession stand.

And on Sunday we headed out to the Comic Convention in downtown Baltimore. SCott made himself a costume from a character in his computer game. It looks like a big, green PEZ dispenser. He did an awesome job but was sad he did not win the costume contest which we stood around for several hours waiting for him to strut his stuff. He entered the contest with his friend Sammy who was also dressed very much like a robot. All the kids loved their costumes and asked for photos. Just like last year with his Zombie Mario. I think Scott would have had a better chance at winning if he had entered by himself instead of in a group with his friend SAmmy as they only had two winners for that category. But the boys wanted to stay together. Oh well, everyone enjoyed the amazing costumes and picking out comic books.

So the kids were back to school and a busy schedule. I enjoyed Scott's Back to School Night last week and chatting with all the moms. Scott has an incredibly busy schedule. He also managed to work on another requirement with Tom at his Boy SCout meeting(demonstrating  lashes). Once again, we missed the camping weekend to Assateague Island. One day I will get there and see the ponies on the beach. I hope the boys survived the big storms on Saturday night. Looks like DC was hit worse.

I also had my first Girl SCout Leader meeting this past week. It's Cookie Time! 

So we will keep on packing our schedule with lots of activities and schoolwork.

Tom is off to Dallas TX this week(I hope I make it without collapsing or breaking someone again!).

And much thanks to the angels that are now working on some repairs at my parent's house. They got started on assessing the damage to their sunroom this past weekend.

Enjoy the photos of the RenCen festival-snacking on turkey legs and crab cake pretzels, archery and axe throwing. Down at the Harbor for the Dragon Boat races and our winning hat(Michale Phelps against the Dragon)! Scott and Sammy as MineCraft characters. Scott's eyes lit up and he made a hissing noise. Plus he walked around the whole hall with his arms tucked inside. He was pretty worn out.

We certainly had a crazy week here in Ellicott City last week. Some of you may have seen our town on the National news. Unfortunately, there was a train derailment on the bridge in Old Ellicott City which dumped its load of coal onto two college freshmen girls killing them both instantly. The two girls were enjoying their last days of summer sitting on the bridge and texting friends with photos of their feet dangling over the edge when a train came around and derailed, dumping the coal onto both of them. Crazy. The two were graduates from Allison's high school, so Allison's school was on tv quite a bit too, along with the principal. Sadly, the teenagers enjoy sitting and partying on the bridge overlooking the river and the old downtown even though it is a restricted area. Guess we know why. Apparently there were a lot of parents that took their kids over for a look and lecture on the dangers of sitting next to the railroad tracks afterwards.  They still aren't sure why the train derailed. The train didn't actually hit the girls.  The funerals were last weekend which had an impact on Allison's field hockey schedule since some of the girls on the team were friends of the families. The team was supposed to have a pool party last Friday but just ended up going out to lunch. They did not want everyone to miss out since several members were at the funeral.  And it took a week to clean up all the coal and the train cars in a narrow space. They just reopened the road this week.

On a better note, Ellicott City was once again rated the top 10 places to live in the US by US News and World Report(just don't sit by the railroad tracks). However, we did drop from #2. And we were pleasantly surprised to see Carmel, IN was the #1 place to live in the country! Home of Mom and Dad Seitz and near home of Mark, Eric and Linda Seitz, somewhat near home of Stacey and Matt Draper and in the same state as Sue and John Potts. Why then did Mom and Dad Seitz move away from Carmel to Venice,Florida? Guess they will have to work on that town next.

We also attempted to enjoy our last week of summer vacation. Tom took last Friday off to take Scott to Busch Gardens to finally ride the new rollercoaster, VerBolten. They drove all the way to Willimasburg. The park was not crowded as there was a bit of drizzly rain, but everything was running. However, the park would not allow Scott on any rides with his cast except the Sky Buckets and Dark Kastle which is a 3D ride. And the water park was not terribly cooperative either. We did not have this problem many years ago when our neighbor's son broke his arm also right before Labor Day Weekend. We were all headed there together and we felt horrible because we had walked the kids up to the park the week before and their son fell off the monkey bars on our watch, breaking his elbow. But he still made it to both parks and swam and rode on the rides with his cast. Busch Gardens has a new ownership and it is just not as fun as it used to be-especially after they did away with the free beer! We still plan on going down for HallowSCream right after SCott's cast comes off. And we will probably visit Busch Gardens in Tampa in October when we head down there for one of Tom's conferences. But after that we think we will cancel our membership. Scott did enjoy one fun day of camp last week as they visited DAve and Busters, the restaurant/video arcade/bowling and pool hall. At least he could still play video games! But he really missed the outings to the water parks and lakes(no rope swings or high dives with a cast).

Instead it looks like Scott can ride the coasters at Hershey Park, so we plan on visiting this coming Labor Day weekend. We usually try to go to Busch Gardens over Labor Day Weekend as they have always scheduled a terrific end of the summer concert, but not this year. And wouldn't you know, we had lots of extra time this holiday weekend since Allison only had a half day of school, work was cancelled for her Friday night, and no Field Hockey games or practices.  Scott had the day off of school on Friday and Tom had the day off of work Friday too.

Well, I am sure we will still keep busy. I signed up to work this SAturday for a half day, and we need to stop into the library and get passports for the kids. I finally signed Allison and I up for an International Trip next summer with the Girl Scouts to travel to London, Paris, and Florence and Rome Italy. Looks like an amazing trip. So I can use the extra spending money and the passports!

Both kids started school this past Monday. Allison is driving herself to school. She is quite busy with two school based internships and 5 classes. She started her internship on Monday afternoon in the Kindergarten class at Scott's school. Last week she went in for a few hours during the Kindergarten Open House. She was busy making name tags for the desks and pulled out an old box that had SCott's name tag as an example(only 8 years ago!). She seems to be enjoying the kids-she says they are cute. I am sure they enjoy having her, and I know the teacher can sure use extra help. She was Allison's Kindergarten teacher many moons ago. Allison also started piano lessons again and has had a busy Field Hockey week. Her team had a full day of tournament games last Saturday. We just got rained on once. I helped man the fund raising concession stand all day, along with donating supplies. And Allison got to play an entire game in goal herself. The girls won a game, tied a game and Allison's game was held at 0-0. I just wish I had felt better last week-I actually think I had the flu which has lasted into this week. As long as it is not the West Nile Virus! We just lost a Marylander who died from that flu.

We tried to squeeze in a few more activities last weekend before the kids went back to school. I finally got the oil changed on the van(only several hours at the dealership), bought the rest of the kid's school supplies, got Cookie to the vet for her kennel cough injection and made pasta salad for dinner at our neighbor's house Saturday night. On Sunday, Scott got a substitute for altar serving(they don't want him dropping anything with his cast). So we headed out early for the Maryland State Fair. We had free tickets for my volunteer work with the Girl Scouts. We enjoyed seeing the animals-Scott was watching the chickens hatch and milked a cow with one hand, Allison had her jumbo corn dog and red velvet funnel cake, I saw one horse race and Tom talked to a gutter guard salesperson. We also enjoyed watching Allison try her best at driving and texting on a new computerized simulator. She made it home(eventually) without an accident. Scott hit a sign with his casted left arm getting in the way. Before he could try a carnival game, they were shutting down the fair due to tornado warnings. Guess they learned their lesson from INdy last year when th concert stage collapsed. So we got rained out-we actually thought Hurricane Isaac had taken a wrong turn. And afterwards we were supposed to have a family end of summer boy scout picnic and awards ceremony which was also rained out(torrential rains).

Instead, Scott got all his badges he earned this summer on Tuesday night. I missed the picnic, and so did Allison, but I stopped in to see the award ceremony after my Dragon Boat race practice. Just one more week until race day!

Enjoy the photos of Allison in goal(Field Hockey), Sweet treats from the fair-corn dogs and a peppermint stick in a lemon, Scott milking a cow, First Day of School and Court of Honor Boy Scout Award ceremony.

I'll be sure to let you know how Labor Day Weekend turns out!  Hope everyone enjoys some time off. Glad to hear niece Sarah Bozyk got home safely from LSU to Houston until the hurricane blew past Louisiana.

Baltimore Blog

So Tom was off to Chicago this week for work. I had my whole week planned out while he was gone. It included having Allison pick up Scott for the first time after he finished camp. I wasn't able to get him on Tuesday evening because I am on the Dragon Boat team for Catholic Charities and we practice our paddling on Tuesday nights right after work. Allison was going to pick him up after he got back from the lake with the YMCA camp. Then she was going to get them both dinner, and take him to his Boy SCout meeting. Sounded simple enough. But when I called from the docks to see if she had picked him up, she let me know that he was in pain after falling while running up the stairs at the Y. I never got a phone call from the facility. Scott said they gave him ice for his left arm, but it was really hurting. And he had banged his head. But I was climbing into a boat, so I told Allison to get him some dinner and Advil, put ice on his arm and send him to scouts. I was going to pick up a wrist splint for him after my practice.

We finished  around 730 that night and I stopped into the pharmacy to pick up a splint for Scott. I was actually surprised we got our practice in since it was a stormy night. The rain hit as I was driving home and I swung by to pick up Scott from his meeting. He was waiting at the front door and was anxious to go home. I took one look at his arm and decided he would definitely need an xray since it was quite swollen and he had a hard time moving. He couldn't even tolerate wearing the splint. Last summer Allison fell on her right arm and sprained her wrist badly, but this looked worse than a sprain.

So I took Weds off work so I could take Scott to the doctor. Sure enough he had a fracture, but fortunately it was not at his growth plate and not bad enough to require surgery. The doctor said it was a buckle fracture in the radius, and he could get away with a splint. But boys being what they are, they usually recommend a cast to make sure it heals properly. So on Friday we headed back to the the orthopedic office to get a bright red cast. We even got a water proof cast so if Scott ends up in any water parks or swimming pools he won't have to be extremely careful.

I was rather disappointed in the timing since I had just signed up SCott for a swim test for the Y swim team on Friday afternoon. Scott has been talking about joining a swim team for the past year, and we had a chance to try out for the new season. Now we will just have to wait as the coach agreed to let him try out when the cast comes off. As it is they have a wait list since there are over 200 kids on their swim team!

And wouldn't you know Scott was just starting to enjoy his time at the Y camp. There was a new batch of kids, and he had even made a friend. He was looking forward to the trip to the water park and the zip lines and low ropes course at the adventure park on Thursday. This coming week he was supposed to go back to a few of his favorite lakes, but I really don't want him tempted by the rope swings and floating logs. He is not supposed to be running or playing any sports per the ortho MD. She does not want him risking another fall and possibly a worse fracture. He even has a note that excuses him from gym class when he goes back to school. So he needs to become good friends with the cast for 5 weeks.

At least one good thing came out of my newly revised schedule. I was going to try and take off a few hours on Weds to run Allison and myself downtown for an awards luncheon. I ended up taking the whole day off so I didn't have to rush. Allison's girl scout mentor invited the two of us to a Business women's award luncheon for women that also provide service to the community or financially fund raise for charities. It turns out that one of the GS board members won the award for the year. So we had a chance to catch up with several of the GS administrators and board members, along with Allison's mentor from the chemical company who also helps fundraise for a local city school. We had a great time at the luncheon at the Four Seasons hotel on the harbor in downtown Baltimore. We also enjoyed our Rock Fish we had for lunch for the first time.

I also enjoyed driving downtown through the barriers as Baltimore gets ready to host the second Grand Prix through the city on Labor Day weekend. Mario Andretti will be hosting and will be joined by many other drivers from around the world.

Since I took off on Weds I ended up working a half day on Friday to catch up. And since it has been so busy at work I offered to come in on Sunday too for a half day. I can use the extra time to make up for my  lost vacation days when I traveled to Michigan to help out my parents.

And speaking of parents, my Dad has been recuperating from his surgery last week. He was sent home on Sunday after they pulled out his catheter and he was able to urinate again. He had a follow up appointment on Thursday(my mom is getting acclimated to the GPS unit as she is doing all the driving and keeps having to take my Dad back to the hospital for appointments).  Looks like he will need another follow up appointment as they are monitoring some residual urine in his bladder and keeping an eye on his kidneys. He also saw his regular doctor and she still does not recommend that he drive since he was still having trouble with his thinking. So Mom has been practicing with the GPS to get them where they need to go. They also signed up for a computer class at the library since my brother Dan got them a laptop and they are not sure what to do with it. Tom got them a computer system at Christmas but Dad took it to Charlevoix. And since they now have cable and internet service it would be nice to get them linked up at least to email. Now if we can only find someone to help them figure out how to operate the remotes to play the DVDs.

So Tom got home on Friday. Just in time to drop Allison off at work. I had been out all afternoon with Scott. After he got his cast, we stopped to cash in some free frozen yogurt coupons he got from camp. Then I took him to the boy scout store to restock his uniform. He has been quickly outgrowing his pants and shirt and it was tax free week on clothing in Maryland. I had to wait for the summer to get him a new scout shirt so he could have all his patches switched over. In the summer months the boys don't have to wear their uniforms to the meetings. But summer is almost over! We also picked up school supplies and finally a pizza for dinner! Long day.

Allison had a busy week with her field hockey tryouts and practices every morning. She made the varsity team again and the coach told her she was their most improved player! She even let her play a whole game by herself on Saturday morning during the pre season tournament sessions. And Allison was looking good. The girls had 3 games and won two and tied 0-0 in the third. Our neighbors daughter was not terribly happy this week as she was hoping to be brought up to the Varsity level as a sophomore. Two other girls made it, but she did not. And she spent most of her summer at Field Hockey camps. She also joined track in the spring to keep up with her running, but it seems it was not to be. We told her they needed good players to stay on the JV team as well.  Her family invited us over Saturday night for a bonfire and s'mores, but we opted to take the kids to our favorite MSU owned wine store.

Every Saturday night The Wine Bin shows movies outside on a big screen in their parking lot. They also have wine tastings and give out free popcorn. Since it was such a nice evening, I thought it would be fun to take the kids to see Bill and Ted's Excellent Adventure(an oldie and a silly). We went to dinner first at our favorite mexican restaurant(we get to eat outside on the patio and the Mariachi band plays every weekend). After dinner I grabbed the chairs, Tom grabbed the wine and we sat down to enjoy the movie. I actually heard the kids giggling during the movie(they are a tough crowd to please these kids today).

On Sunday it was chore day. When I got home from work I decided I had better get the grass cut before it rained again. Of course, as soon as I started the mower it started to rain. I have never had to cut the grass in the rain before, but at least it got done. Along with some weeding and trimming. Tom was busy searching for synthetic oil for my van. He was going to change it himself since I ran out of my free two year or 25K oil changes(,y car is only a year old, but we put 5000 miles on the car driving across the country and I hit 30K). He found out though that if he changes the oil himself, it voids my extended warranty(very clever Toyota). So now I need to set up an appointment for my oil change, tire rotation, etc. He also found out that he could not locate any synthetic oil to buy anyway. Instead, while I cut the grass, he worked with the kids on their summer math packets and then made dinner. I worked with SCott on his summer book report. Allison spent the week typing and writing up her Gold Award proposal for the bird trail for a local nature center for Girl SCouts.  All this and school has not yet started!

Scott was also busy making himself a costume for Comic Con coming up in a few weeks.Here he is sporting his new cast.

So another memorable week for me while Tom was away.