What a busy weekend! We started off on Saturday morning with some drizzle and rain, but not until after the Mt Hebron Homecoming parade. Scott was in the parade with his Robotics team. Once again they outfitted their robot to throw candy into the crowds along the parade route. I showed up with him at the start of the parade with Cookie in tow. We were both sporting our Viking helmets and braids! Cookie loves all the attention and activity from the kids at the start of the parade. And this year she got a special treat because they were throwing out dog treats along with candy! She sure got her fill of dog bones that morning!  Scott decided to ride his hover board along the parade route through our neighborhood rather than walking. It was a big hit. I usually follow behind the parade in the car to pick up Scott at the end of the parade. This year I ended up in the parade! Cookie sat on my lap with her head hanging out the window. We drove behind the police and fire truck, waving to the crowds. Then I just had to pull into the High School and pick up Scott. We were in a bit of a hurry since he had to get to work right after the parade, and he still needed to change his clothes and get some lunch.

We also spent our very busy weekend completing Scott's Eagle Scout Project at my work place. Scott and Tom were busy this past summer designing and building wheelchair accessible planters. This Sunday was their big debut. Tom dropped off the 3 mobile planters at my facility on Friday morning. When Scott got home from school Friday afternoon, we stopped into a local nursery that provides Boy Scouts with a $30 gift card. We picked out pansies and potting soil. On Sunday morning, we packed up our cars and headed over to spend the day working outside. Tom and Scott dropped into Home Depot and asked for immediate donation of mums and tulip bulbs and they gave it to them! Scott has dropped into Home Depot multiple times requesting donations and has been promised gift cards to be mailed to the house. But we never received any donations and he started asking back in the spring. Same thing with Lowes. So now they received some plants that were placed in multiple flower beds in the front of the facility. We have 6 flower beds dug into the side of a hill overlooking the building that were overgrown with weeds. Scott invited the troop to come out and help with cleaning out the beds and planting flowers Sunday morning. After several hours of weeding, we took a break to have pizza lunch which I prepared in our rehab kitchen. In the afternoon, more boys showed up and we took the portable planters inside the facility to plant flowers with a few residents. They also sanded the planters and prepared them for planting with dirt and stone for drainage. They also cleaned out the old planters from the outside patio that were falling apart. We had a pretty good turnout from the Troop, including Scott's Eagle coach. It was a very busy scout weekend with a camp out scheduled, as well as training for the upcoming summer jamboree. So not as many boys assisting, but that was probably a good thing. It makes it tougher to keep track of a lot of volunteers.  So now Scott is feeling a big sigh of relief! He still needs to write up his project report and attend a Board of Review to receive his Eagle rank. That will be exciting!  Currently he has been appointed Patrol Leader (again) so he needs to drop into the weekly meetings as well as adding the monthly patrol meetings to his schedule. The scouts will be putting on a Training Camp Out weekend for Cub Scouts at the end of the month, but I think Scott is going to pass on that event. We are also wrapping up the end of our popcorn sales. Unfortunately Scott's weekends have been so busy he has not had time to help out with any more Popcorn Booth sales. And he was running back to school in the evenings to work on the robot for the upcoming parade. Besides doing homework! There are just not enough days in the week!

Fortunately we also missed Hurricane Matthew that ran up the east coast. It veered off of North Carolina, so our eastern shore caught a bit of the rain and wind. On the other hand, we had some rain on Saturday and a windy Sunday but our storm came from the North. I don't think our area needs any more rain. On Friday night we decided to stop into Yappy Hour at our favorite Wine Bin store in olde Ellicott City. You can bring your dog to the wine tasting evening(inside and out) and a portion of the proceeds of the wine sales goes to the local animal shelter. They just reopened the main road through downtown after the flood in July in Ellicott City. Most of the shops and restaurants are still boarded up. We walked Cookie up and down the sidewalk, but noticed the musty, moldy smell coming from the boarded up shops. Apparently it cost 12 million just to get the street and sidewalks back in shape. Most of the buildings down by the river were the most damaged as everything-water and cars-came crashing through and rushed down the street to the river. So sad since the town has been losing so much money. Their ghost tours usually keep the place hopping this time of year. I think you could still host the ghost walks-it was even more eerie.

After spending most of the day doing yardwork at my work facility on Sunday with the boy scouts, it was time to attend to our own yard. We had so much rain the weekend before, we did not get to cut the grass. However my helpers were all busy when we got home. Tom was  packing Sunday evening for a flight out and a week long trip to Chicago on business. Scott had tons of homework to do since he worked Friday and Saturday, participated in the Homecoming parade and he went over to his friends for a party on Saturday night rather than attend the Homecoming dance. He also had to work the Monday before since school was closed for the jewish holiday. I had to leave work to pick him up from work at home, get him lunch and drop him off and go back to work. Tom did pick up. Very annoying since he does not yet have his drivers license.

Allison had a frustrating weekend with her Field Hockey team. There was a mix up on the location of her games on Sunday. The team was supposed to travel to George Washington U and George Mason U-both schools in the DC area. They girls were headed to the wrong school for their first game, and showed up late at the scheduled game. The other team actually started playing before Allison could get her goalie gear on and get out on the field. So they scored and had a head start on the game. And the girls completely missed the other game. So Allison had a long drive for a 20 min play. It was so messed up, one of the new freshman goalies decided she was not going to play anymore. So it is back to Allison as the main goalie.

 I spent Sunday evening mowing the lawn and trimming shrubs. It was an action packed weekend! I did not even get a chance to stop in and visit with  mom.  I had spent most of Friday picking up food items for Sunday's event and running errands after my swim class. I am just glad to have my van back. It has been at the dealership for about a month getting the back taillight repaired and the back door repainted following the fender bender this past summer. They had to repaint it 4 times since they kept screwing it up and doing a sloppy job. They finally got it right and it looks better than brand new!

Tom and I did attempt to go see a movie on Saturday night while Scott was at his party. They recently transformed a local theater into lounge chair seating and we wanted to catch The Magnificent 7 or the new Oil Rig movie. Unfortunately it was a cold, rainy night and everyone in our county decided to go see movies too! Everything was sold out. So we headed home to watch tv. and do laundry. Bummer.

So it was raining for several days into last weekend. It just wouldn't stop raining. It rained so much that Allison's University flooded. They actually had to delay classes due to the amount of water on campus. The eastern shore is quite flat with some rivers and bays in the area that also overflow. Turns out the local zoo lost a few Alpacas from the flooding as their pen was near the small river running through the park. How sad. Allison made it to all her classes since they were at night and most of the water had started to recede. Their Field Hockey games were cancelled on the weekend though since the playing field was still too flooded.

I was happy to have some rain for my new grass seed. It came up very nicely. But we could not finish the yardwork. Tom managed to mow the backyard in between rain showers, but that was about it. I needed to start planting the fall flowers. Our neighbor managed to schedule the tree cutting crew to come in and top one of the Tulip trees in our backyard before all the rain. It actually looks pretty good. He also cut off a bunch of low branches on his white pine trees bordering our lot. It looks weird to have our backyard opened up so much with the missing branches.  I probably should have spent more time putting up the Halloween decorations. Scott got a head start and placed a zombie in our cherry tree out front. He also put our skeleton in the front window, and Tom ordered a projector for the upstairs window. It flashes images of ghosts and hands on a white screen placed in the window. . Very cool. The neighbors are already asking when are the decorations going up.

I did manage to get the laundry and dishes done. But Scott and I took some time out on Saturday morning to visit the Fall Festival at our church. They used to run a festival and it has been years since they repeated the event. So this was the 2nd go around. They had a lot of fun activities, but had to move the whole thing inside because of the rain. We stopped into the enormous yard sale in the school gym. I picked up some items for work, as well as a few craft items for the holidays. One of Scott's classmates had her own booth and sells homemade bars of soap.  They had craft and food booths, kids games and scarecrow making, pumpkin painting, a silent raffle and basket raffles, entertainment and lots of food. Scott and I brought home some bratwurst with all the fixins. It was a lot of fun. I then spent the afternoon running errands until it was time to take Scott to work.

Scott spent most of his weekend at work including Friday night, Sat night and Sunday afternoon. The rink is back on it's busy schedule. We did spend some time Friday evening running over to a local nursery to inquire about donations for his upcoming Eagle project. We were pleasantly surprised to hear the manager tell us the nursery owner supports Boy Scouts and he gave Scott $30 in donations and 20% off anything else we needed. Awesome!  Scott has been so busy with classwork as well as his Video Game Club, Video Club and now Robotics. They had a parent's meeting and plan on participating in the upcoming Homecoming parade. So Scott and I both attended the meeting.  Scott was busy working with his teammates on redesigning last year's robot to allow it to toss candy into the crowds along the parade route. We had to skip his Boy Scout Court of Honor, but we just can't do everything. (although we do try!).

Tom was off to Chicago for a few days last week as well. I spent an evening at the dentist office. They had a wine/cheese presentation on dental implants with free consults. I thought I would take advantage of the program to see if our insurance would cover the procedure, as well as getting the dentist to look at my chipped crown since I could not get into our other dentist office(Tom and I have different dental plans from work, so we use both). Still waiting for the price quote. I think I was the youngest one there and the last one out the door-guess my mouth was not as exciting.

On Sunday morning I was up early for our annual Brain Injury 5K run/walk at a local college campus. Our rehab department got involved in the Brain Injury Association of Maryland when we started taking in brain injured patients from our large, local rehab hospital. The patients usually need an extended amount of time to recuperate(if at all), and there are not many facilities that can manage their care. So I spent the morning out for a walk around UMBC and then headed home to take Cookie for a walk(she was banned from the walk 2 yrs ago). Guess they were worried dogs would get in the way, especially with some post brain injury participants struggling along the route. So when I got home I took Cookie for a walk. When we returned, we headed into the garage, but Cookie took off as we went through the door. I saw her jump on some animal right in our garage. I figured it was a neighborhood cat, but it was a fox! I pulled Cookie away and ran to the front door. Our neighborhood has a large number of fox, and we often see them out during the day. It has been all the talk of our neighborhood website this year(Foxnado)! And with more construction, they have less places to go. People worry about them having rabies, including me. I did not want Cookie or myself to get bit. Scott let us in the house and we poked our noses into the garage to see if he had gone. Of course Cookie snuck out between our legs and started running around the garage and the driveway looking for that sneaky fox. I don't mind seeing the foxes running around the neighborhood, but not my garage! That was an exciting morning!  We spent the evening having Mom B over for dinner. I put a roast in the oven and after picking up Mom from her apt, we picked up Scott from work. I have been busy spending my free time going through all of Mom and Dad's recent paperwork looking for any further information for their 2015 taxes. Their accountant in Michigan has not yet finished their taxes, and recently asked me to put together further info including medical expenses and Soc. Security income. A tedious job but I managed to collect all the necessary paperwork and send it off. Next year I think I am switching mom to a local accountant here in Maryland. I was also busy taking an online test for Boy Scouts for reinstatement as a merit badge counselor and volunteer(it just never quits!).

Happy First Week of Fall!  We decided to celebrate by visiting HallowScream at Busch Gardens. The first weekend of their Halloween event opened Sept 23rd. Our family had planned on going to the Eastern Shore on a camping/canoeing/kayaking trip with Scott's Boy Scout Troop. I wanted to bring along my kayak, and I thought Allison could join us. I was also hoping to catch a few of her Field Hockey games. However, the plans just fell through. Allison's games were out of town at Penn U. Parents could not go paddling unless they had a full medical exam before hand as well as participate in the Boy Scout swim test. And turns out, Scott would have been the only member of his patrol going. So we decided since Scott was already off work for the weekend, that we would go to Busch Gardens.

Tom was busy working on his schoolwork for the weekend on Friday. We did take some time off for a lunch date at a local deli. Afterwards I dropped Cookie off for grooming and then I went in for my own trim!  When we were both done, I stopped into my mom's apt to pick her up and let Cookie visit with all the residents. I was picking up my lanterns that I dropped off during the week when the facility lost its power. Seems their underground wiring system corroded and they lost all power to the building for 2 days. The generator was working so there was power in the lobby and hallways, but not in the rooms. They handed out small flashlights to the residents and placed small lanterns in the bathrooms, but I thought Mom could use a bit more light. So I dropped off a few lanterns after work during the week. Friday night I brought mom home for dinner after dropping Cookie off at our friend's house for the weekend. Scott grilled us some burgers for dinner and we were able to sit out on the deck again and listen to the crickets chirping and watch the bats fly overhead.

On Saturday morning we headed out early to beat some of the DC traffic on our way down to Busch Gardens. Tom had Scott practice a bit of freeway driving as we neared the Richmond turn off. We lucked out with the weather-warm and sunny. A sharp contrast to the weather back in Ellicott City and at Penn U where Allison was playing Field Hockey. She was freezing-we were melting in the hot, humid weather. Amazing what a difference the weather can be like from just a few states away. We caught up with our friends, Dan and Gloria who also traveled down to Busch for the Halloween event. The scary mazes don't open until 6pm, so we caught a few spooky themed music and dance shows, had lunch, rode a few rides, had dinner and then got in line for the events. We made it through 5 out of 6 Haunted mazes before calling it quits at 10pm when the park closes. We were exhausted from running around the park all night to the different mazes but we had a great time. The park is not quite as amazing as it used to be when Busch Beer owned it. The new company is a bit cheap-decorations not quite as stunning, food is more expensive and smaller portions. The park used to hire staff from overseas in accordance with their European theme(Germans, French, British, etc). Now they just have anyone they can hire wearing Burger King looking uniforms from the '70s-orange and brown. But we have season passes and its a great deal so we keep going. We try to get our money's worth out of the place.

Last weekend Allison drove down to the park with her two roommates to enjoy the last day of Oktobeerfest. Her roommates had a great time on the roller coasters, and they all enjoyed German pretzels, beer cheese and Hard Cider. They would have liked to try the different beer tastings since they spent the night in a local hotel, but Allison needed to stay sharp to drive and she had her Field Hockey games on Sunday. It was just a nice break, and the girls got in on a discount with our Season Pass. We would have liked to join them too, but figured we were traveling down for HallowScream and that was enough.

I think we will try to go back one more night as Allison really enjoys the HallowScream and she would like to visit with us. She did have a  Sunday visit from her boyfriend Tyler this past weekend. They had planned on visiting the beach, but there was a big festival going on and they did not feel like fighting the crowds. Instead they enjoyed playing video games, going out to dinner and touring the new library building on campus. This past weekend Allison also traveled to Penn U on Saturday to play Field Hockey. She played goalie in one game and they won!  She is currently swapping out with another freshman goalie. This will probably be her last year to play Field Hockey. Next she will be playing Ultimate Frisbee.

September is a big Birthday month in the Bozyk family. Mom Bozyk celebrated her 81st Birthday on Sept. 19th. We decided to help her celebrate the weekend before her big day by taking her to dinner and bringing her flowers, balloons and gifts. Tom, Scott and I took Mom B out to dinner at a historical train station near my work. We enjoyed dinner Sunday night on the platform overlooking the train tracks and the river. The trains still run, but we did not have any coming through that night. Usually I can hear the train whistles all the way to our house, about a 25 min drive. It was a beautiful evening and after dinner we stopped into our house for cheesecake and presents. I picked out some warm clothes and socks for mom as Bday gifts, along with another watch(she keeps hiding them and it takes too long to look for the ones we already gave her). I figure the more she has, the better chance we have of finding one! I also picked up a few more Fall decorations for her room.

Tom was worn out as he spent the entire week before teaching a Black Belt Management class on his own. He wasn't feeling too well and went to bed after dinner. I was worn out from spending the entire day doing yard work! Our neighbor Dan is trying to convince Tom to cut down the trees along our road that are blocking the sun from getting to our lawn and killing the grass.  I am not crazy about that idea since they are not officially our trees. They were planted by the county. And I like the trees.  I suggested Tom continue to trim more branches. But in the meantime I decided to seed the area around the trees since we couldn't agree on the lawn care project and time is slipping away. I bought many bags of dirt and shade/sun seed patch with Scott's help and spent the day raking up dead grass and spreading dirt and seed. I was pretty much covered with dirt and seed myself when I was all done! Then it was time for a shower and Birthday dinner with Mom. Tom and Scott were pretty busy with schoolwork. Tom usually has a paper or big assignment due every week with his new class.

On Saturday night we thought we'd invite our neighbors, Dan and Gloria over for dinner to catch up with their activities over the summer. Gloria's mom recently had a stroke, so their family is also dealing with the new concept of Assisted Living Facilities in Ohio. They tried to talk her mom into moving here to Baltimore, but she has friends back in Ohio and other family members and decided to stay put. And since we had the house clean and extra food, we also invited our friend John D. from California over for steak dinner on the deck and some football. We were all celebrating John's new job with Honeywell. A bit more secure position than he had with the last independent company he worked for after leaving Northrop.

Scott had a few work shifts this past week. The season really hasn't kicked into high gear at the Roller Rink. Summer is pretty slow with just a few camps scheduled on Fridays. They do open the facility though when school is off, which happened on Monday the 12th. Since school was out, Scott was scheduled to work. And since he does not have his permanent drivers license yet, he needs a ride. So I had to leave work(twice)to drop him off and pick him up. I don't mind, but it takes about 1 hr both trips. Tom was stuck in his class so couldn't help out this time. Probably not worth the trip financially, but it gives Scott a few hours to keep him on the books. They keep trying to recruit him for more jobs at the Sports Center, but this job works for our schedule right now. So besides a few work hours, Scott has also been very busy with school work. And he started up his Video Game Club meetings again. He had a big kick off complete with Doritos and Mello Yello soda. He also started attending his friend's new club which involves producing Utube type Videos. They get to use all the equipment at the school for filming(except the big, expensive cameras). And Boy Scout popcorn sales started up again. We headed over to our favorite sales spot-Lowes on a Sunday afternoon. To our surprise, a large group of Cub Scouts had taken over our spot. Looks like one of our Troop Leaders signed up for the sale with Lowes back in March and they lost that calendar. So no popcorn sales for us that day which is a shame since Scott made a decent income at that booth sale. We use all his popcorn profits towards summer camp. Not sure we can squeeze in another booth sale with his upcoming busy schedule.

Allison is also staying busy at school with her coursework and her weekend Field Hockey games along with weekly practice. The team finally picked up more players and an extra goalie. Allison can always use some help since they play two games on the weekends and sometimes back to back. This weekend the Salisbury girls tied both games! Yeah!

Looks like I am a few weeks behind. Here is what we have been doing since Labor Day Weekend.

  Tom and I have been talking about reseeding our lawn for many years now. We finally agree that Fall is the best time for us to seed rather than Spring. Our neighbor Dan was renting a thatching machine from Home Depot and asked if we'd like to use it as well to treat the lawn. Tom, Scott  and I have been spending a few weekends trimming bushes and tree limbs to open up the lawn to more sunlight to allow the grass to grow. But it was just too hot as Temps have hit 100 degrees as we come to the end of summer! And of course our air conditioner died. It has been running all summer and just could not make it one more hot day.

    Tom waited around on Friday while working on his class homework for an air conditioner repairman who came out before it got any hotter. He discovered that mice had chewed through wires in the outdoor unit. So a quick fix(thank goodness) and just a service charge. Tom was so impressed with the service, he wrote a very nice review on Angie's List and the Air Conditioner company sent us a $25 refund! Even better.

  Tom was busy writing a paper for his newest class. I decided to interrupt his work with a plan to visit Allison on Saturday, Sept 10th and spend the night to catch her Field Hockey game on Sunday the 11th. I also wanted to visit the beach to cool off. So Tom spent Friday working away on his paper to finish up early. Meanwhile, I spent  Friday busy running my mom around. She had a cardiac appointment and left with a good report. Don't have to go back until next year. To celebrate, we went to lunch at Cheesecake Factory and I took her to the hair salon for a wash and set. I was also on the phone trying to get some more tax information together for her 2015 tax return as well as my Dad's. I had a 60 min wait on the phone with Social Security only to find out that I had to put my request for their info in writing and mail it in.  Then it was time to drop Mom back off to her apt. after picking up some of her Fall decorations at her storage unit. On Thursday night I joined her for a Fashion Show Fundraiser for Alzheimers put on by the staff at her facility. The girls dressed in traditional clothes from their countries-mostly African countries, Haiti and Mexico. They also had traditional food, beer, wine and hor's douvres. It turned out well and the staff wants to run another show next year.

  Meanwhile, Tom took Scott out to dinner to celebrate his acceptance into the National Honor Society! Way to Go Scott!

  On Saturday morning I joined Mom at her apt for an Alzheimer's Fund Raiser Yard Sale. We had fun picking through all the goodies, but could not spend too much time shopping as the heat was getting to us out in the parking lot. I then picked up breakfast for my guys and Tom and I packed the car and headed out to the Eastern Shore. Scott stayed behind to take care of the pets and do homework. Plus he planned on spending Sunday with his friend Tori on a climbing outing. He was just happy not to have the work the weekend. He and Tori spent the day at a Tree Obstacle course and completed the Black Diamond Trail. Scott reported pain in every muscle of his body after the difficult climb and was just glad he did not fall!  I spent Saturday afternoon with Allison and her roommate Jen at Ocean City. It was much cooler at the beach. Just nice to sit on the beach with the great ocean breeze and cool off with our toes in the water. And eat Boardwalk French Fries while beating off hungry seagulls! They chased Allison and Jen all the way down the beach after our goodies! We took a little time to walk the Boardwalk while the girls played Pokemon Go and did some souvenir shopping.  In the evening we met Tom back in Salisbury for beer, fried pickles and pizza. He stayed behind to wrap up his classwork at the University's new library center. He was quite impressed with the massive new building, complete with study areas, tech rooms, meeting areas, a restaurant and cafe, roof top garden and yes, books.

Tom and I spent the night at the local hotel, and met Allison for breakfast early Sunday morning in the hotel lobby. Then we were off to her 1st Field Hockey game of the season in northern Delaware. We headed to Newark, Delaware and the University of Delaware(alma mater of our Raven's Qback, Joe Flacco). We decided to drive Allison since it was a 3 hr trip straight up the entire state. Their Club team had only one practice before the season started and they had not yet had try outs for any new players. So there were not alot of girls playing this day, and Allison was the only goalie. They played two games, 1 hr each, back to back. They played University of Delaware as well as Towson University. Both teams were very good and our girls lost both games, 4-0. But Allison played a fantastic game(she could have used some help from the other players. They only had a few shots on goal). They could sure use some practice and more players!

Since they did not get a break, we decided to take Allison out to lunch near the University. We figured most University's have interesting food choices. This U had a very nice small town and lots of restaurants. We stopped into Diablo Burrito-somewhat like Chipotle's Mexican chain where you order your meal piece by piece until you make a burrito or nachos or a burrito bowl. It was very good and very filling. Afterwards we stopped into Costco for some shopping(as well as a visit to their cheap liquor store(no taxes in Delaware). The we dropped Allison off at home and headed back to Ellicott City. The view was beautiful as we traveled across the Bay Bridge into the setting sun.

A Big Happy Birthday to Mike Bozyk who celebrated his Special Day on Sept 10th!

Happy Labor Day!  We were happy to have Allison come home for the weekend. She was still a little shook up from the car accident last weekend, so she drove extra slow and carefully. Fortunately, I think there was less traffic out on the roads, especially on the Eastern shore as Hurricane Hermine blew over. Apparently it ruined the beach goers Labor Day weekend, but it turned out to be better than they thought. They closed Ocean City on Saturday. The boardwalk was flooded from the high tides and storm surge. Looks like the beaches reopened Sunday, but no swimming allowed. The waves were just too strong and it continues today. Looks like it was a good idea for Allison and her friends to hit the beach last weekend(minus the car accident).

We decided to stay home this Labor Day weekend, but it doesn't mean we were bored. On Friday I spent the day running errands. I had to pick up my van from the car dealership. Tom took it in to have the back door repainted and the taillight replaced. Unfortunately I discovered a new rattle in the back door so I will have to take it back. I ran out of time on Friday after attending my swim class and doing some shopping. I met up with Allison in the afternoon and we packed a picnic basket and headed out to a local winery with one of my coworkers. Ann had the week off from work and was celebrating her birthday, so we joined her at Black Ankle Vineyards for wine tasting, a concert and picnic dinner. It was a beautiful evening and we enjoyed the sunset while sipping our wine and eating our Mexican casserole. It's fun having a 21 year old in the house too!

On Saturday our family attended the annual Comic Con at the Baltimore Convention Center. The event is usually held later in the month. Glad I was watching the news or we would have missed it. This event is like Halloween for adults. People dress up in amazing costumes from all types of comic book characters. Super Heroes, Robots, Sci Fi characters-everything! We decided to go on Saturday after donning our favorite tshirts. I was decked out in my Walking Dead apparel, the kids and Tom were sporting Video game tshirts but upgraded to a favorite cartoon, Steven's Universe with new shirts which they bought at the convention. We all came home with a pile of comic book collections too. That evening we dropped into our neighbor's house to pick up their dog. We were puppy sitting Ripley for the rest of the weekend. Our friend's son, Barry, headed off to Penn University a few weeks earlier, so Mom and Dad wanted to visit and take him out to dinner. It is about a two hour drive each way, so they did not want to leave their dog in the house all day. Plus we enjoy having Ripley as a house guest. And we also stayed for dinner! Not too late though since they had an early morning the next day.

On Sunday, Tom decided to stay home and do some yard work. Meanwhile, the rest of us decided to attend the Renaissance Fair. Since Allison was at home visiting, she wanted to spend some time with her boyfriend Tyler. And Scott had asked one of his friends to go along. We thought the Fair would be a great place to hang out for the day, especially since the weather turned out so nice(no rain from the hurricane). Unfortunately, Scott's friend Matt was suffering from a concussion when he wiped out on his skateboard without wearing a helmet. He was in such bad shape that weekend, they had to take him to the ER. But his mom said she thought it would be fine for him to go with us(although I was supposed to keep an eye on him and make sure he did not pass out or throw up). Gee thanks.
Fortunately, everyone had a wonderful time and no passing out. We watched shows and ate lots of food items on sticks. Scott's girlfriend Tori showed up with her mom and sister so I hung out with Tori's mom. They were supposed to go to the beach also, but cancelled their plans due to the weather. Scott spent time with Tori and Matt, Allison and Tyler hung out together and I went shopping with Tori's mom. I usually don't spend much time shopping while we are there. No one wants to wait for me to look through all the art and jewelry, but this time I had plenty of time to shop. Not a good thing. I picked up a few flower prints. The artist has her work displayed at the Natural History Museum in Santa Barbara, CA. I also got a neck pillow filled with lavendar(good for high blood pressure and sore necks), along with another tapestry to hang in the foyer and a brass dragonfly for my front porch flower pots. See, too much extra time on my hands!  Of course I also couldn't help sharing my wisdom with Tori's mom on the college hunting process. Tori is their first born and interested in computer programming or engineering. She is looking at applying to Uof Michigan. So naturally I had to share my insight on schools and the application process(on a limited basis). Meanwhile, the kids went off on their own and mostly ate and watched jousting, shot arrows and attempted the maze!  In the evening, we invited Tyler to stay for dinner and enjoyed steaks out on the patio.  The kids topped off their day with an evening of video games.

Today it is back to homework and yardwork. Allison will drive back to school. She started classes last week, but not much homework for the holiday weekend. Scott however was overwhelmed with a number of assignments for the weekend, including a few upcoming quizzes to study for and projects to complete for next week. I was surprised at the amount of work already assigned to the high school kids their first week back. Scott is busy this year with 2 engineering classes, Trigonometry, World History, Chemistry, English and guitar. He also has to meet with the Boy Scout Sr Patrol Leadership on Labor Day to discuss his plans for his upcoming Eagle project.No rest for the weary. He went to his scout meeting on Weds night and they asked him to come in so they can preapprove his plan of taking the last 3 planters over to my nursing home and spending a morning doing some yardwork and planting fall flowers with my residents. I think it will turn out to be a great project.

I also attended the Back to School night on Thursday which gave me a chance to meet all of Scott's teachers and get a feel for his curriculum. He is certainly going to have a busy year.  Plus he will start up his Video Game Club again with a new teacher/mentor, and his friend Matt wants to start a Utube Video production club. And he will be participating in the Robotics Team again as well. And he continues to work at the Roller Blade sports club. He was finally able to get back on his skates this past Friday(with splint in place) when he went off to work. And he was able to get back behind the wheel of a car. He had another  2 hr driving lesson with an instructor from Greg's Driving school and focused on parallel parking and 3 point turns(although the parallel parking assessment has been taken off the official driving test!).

The kids are not the only ones back at school. Tom started up another online course this past week so he spends his extra time doing assignments. Looks like next year the kids will be going back to school after Labor Day. This has been a long time coming, and our Governor announced that the new school year will begin after Labor Day. It worked in Michigan!

A Big Happy Birthday to the twins, Dan and Dave Bozyk who celebrated on Friday!

The kids were enjoying their last week of summer vacation before heading back to school. Allison mostly spent her time doing laundry and packing after returning from Virginia Beach. Classes started for both kids on Monday Aug 29th.   She headed back to Salisbury the weekend before classes started. She wanted to miss the Freshman move in day by heading back on Thursday, but they bumped the date due to the grand opening of their new campus library. The building is huge and also houses study and research areas and takes up a big portion of the campus. Fortunately since Allison lives off campus, she was not terribly affected. She enjoyed meeting up with her friends over the weekend before heading back to class with a trip to Ocean City. Unfortunately, on the way back, their car was involved in an accident. Fortunately everyone is ok, even though the car was considered total. Tom and I were just glad no one was hurt. It gets a bit crazy down near the beach.

Speaking of car accidents at the beach, Tom dropped my van off over the weekend to make repairs to the taillight and to repaint the rear door hatch which was damaged when we were in Virginia beach. Also, the van had some bubbling paint from a poor touch up they did at the dealership when we bought it, so Tom decided to go ahead and have it repaired. We have tried to get the dealership to make the repairs on their ticket, and we have always been told it is past the warranty or just not their problem.  So I was without a van for a week.

We spent the weekend around the house. I was busy doing my mom's laundry and dropped it off on Sunday afternoon. I brought mom over to our house in the evening for a rib dinner. On Saturday, Tom, Scott and I were busy doing yardwork. We finally had a break in the hot weather and were able to get out to trim some large limbs off the trees in our yard. After Tom cut the grass and edged the walkways and curbs, Scott and I were on clean up duty. We also tackled some large tree limbs that have been overgrowing in our yard and blocking sunlight to the lawn and keeping other trees from growing. Most of the trees are the maples that the county planted along the street, but I have only seen them trim the trees once in the 20 years we have lived here. They could still use some trimming, but the branches are so big we spent most of the day cutting them up into more manageable piles for curbside pick up. Turns out the neighbor next door wants to hire a company to top one of the trees in our backyard as it is blocking his satellite reception. Wonder what that will look like. Another bonus of working outside all day is the chance to get caught up with our neighbors. Unfortunately, we discovered that our good friends, Dan and Gloria had to miss their vacation to Niagra Falls to travel to Ohio as Gloria's mom had a stroke. We also found out that our next door neighbor's little Chihuahua Jasmine passed away at 17, and their son Daryl(our age) is getting divorced from his 3rd wife. Not a good weekend for our neighbors. I have been trying to convince our elderly neighbors who just lost their dog to move to South Carolina to be closer to their daughter and downsize to a condo. Paul had a stroke last year that left him blind in his left eye. And he still drives(just a few minor accidents). Oh boy. His wife Phyllis was just diagnosed with thyroid cancer and underwent successful surgery to have the tumor removed. Now their divorced son wants to move into their house. You never know what you will discover when you spend time outdoors in your neighborhood! On Friday night we enjoyed an outdoor picnic/BBQ with the Boy Scout parents and leaders. It is nice to get together with just the adults and chat about anything and everything. Including an upcoming Star Trek convention that Tom heard about from our Scoutmaster's wife! But really it is mostly a disguise to get parents to sign up as coordinators for upcoming scouting events. It works every time. I signed up for next summer's trip to Six Flags. I put Tom in charge of the cooking for the adults. That will probably be Scott's last scout trip as he will turn 18 next year!

Before heading back to school, Scott enjoyed the annual water gun fight with his Boy Scout troop. He wrapped his cast in a waterproof sleeve and off he went. Prior to that, I am happy to report that he finished his last required Eagle badge, Personal Management!  Now he can just focus on his Eagle project. Besides doing yardwork, he and Tom got out on Sunday to build a second planter. He will build one more portable planter and has scheduled a date to deliver them to my work place and spend the morning with fellow scouts doing fall planting with some of the residents. He is getting closer!
And he was very excited to return to the doctor to have his cast removed! Even though the doctor recommended he wear a brace for the next 3 weeks, Scott is too happy to have his arm back! We dropped into Staples to pick up a few school supplies for him over the weekend along with most of the rest of the county! The lines were long. But it also gave Scott some time to practice driving while we ran errands. He has really missed quite a bit of driving practice with the cast in the way.

I also had a very busy week at work. It was my OT student's last week. I was busy writing up her evaluation. I have also been busy preparing a presentation to my coworkers on Cognition and Standardized testing. In conjunction with my discussion, my OT student was busy preparing examples of activities that can be done with patients with various levels of dementia to implement into our Activity Department's schedule at the facility. I bought several plastic bins and she and I filled them with lots of fun activities, along with a notebook that she prepared with instructions and examples of crafts, games and activities for the staff. Then she did several presentations to the nurses and Activity aids at work. Of course you cannot have a presentation without food! Our rehab department had a pot luck on Thursday during my presentation(I cooked pizza for everyone), and we brought in lots of desserts to bribe the staff at my student's presentation. I worked that Friday on her last day so we could get everything done. What a whirlwind week! Now it is back to reality for me as I pick up my patient treatments again(solo).

Sending out a Get Better Soon to Stacey ! She recently had surgery on her foot.

Also a Big Happy Birthday to Sarah Seitz! Sounds like you did a great job celebrating!