March 10

So I was busy packing my suitcase for an upcoming trip to Florida. Tom was busy writing a paper for school and preparing for his presentation at the upcoming NASA conference. He wrote up a topic and he was  accepted as  one of many speakers for the conference, although he was not expecting many participants in his break out group. I also spent the week stocking up food items for Scott. He was going to spend the week on his own while Tom and I headed to Florida! This will be Scott's first time on his own, so I wanted to make things smooth for him. Including a calendar, phone numbers of neighbors and a food list! Even though Scott was disappointed that he was not going to travel to Florida with us, he was also a bit excited about getting to spend the week at home by himself. His spring break is not scheduled until April.  The biggest challenge for him turns out was taking care of Cookie and Pika!

He only had a half day of school on Friday(mid semester)so I signed him up for his yearly physical. He needs a physical especially for Boy Scout Summer camp. Not the way he wanted to spend his 1/2 day of school, but it is hard to get him in to the office during the work week. At least we found out that his Tech Honor Society meets during school while he is in Engineering, so he doesn't have to worry about staying late. We also enjoyed his Boy Scout Court of Honor ceremony on Weds night. He recently completed another Leadership position as the Patrol Leader. During the ceremony, he helped with the call out of

new recruits for the Order of the Arrow(Boy Scout Honor Patrol).  On Saturday morning, Tom and I were headed out the airport. One of the other Scout moms picked him up to collect all the food set out in the neighborhood by the mailboxes for the Scouting for Food event. (Still don't have Scott's driver's license).

So I had alot to do on Friday since we were going to be gone for a week. I also had to drop Cookie off for grooming. We decided to trim her hair before her scheduled surgery when we return. SCott and I also dropped in to visit my Mom after his physical in order to let her and the staff know that I would be gone during the week.

At least the weather was nice. Too nice. Our flowers started blooming in February!  And we did not officially roll over into Spring yet!  We actually had a few snow flakes fall. Still looking forward to a very warm visit to Florida! Or so I thought.

Where did March go? Here's what we have been doing this past month.

We kicked off the month of March by celebrating the beginning of Lent and Pazcki Day! AKA Fat Tuesday. I did not get to eat one of the fabulous Pazcki donuts from Hamtramck, MI, but I had the closest thing from our local grocery store to celebrate. And our family all swore off desserts and chocolate for the Lenten season, as well as soda(Scott). Plus we all vowed to work on the exercise program more. And there is always Fish Friday!


Congratulations goes out to  Scott! He received news that he was accepted into the National Technology Honor Society!  Wonderful job. And more meetings. Oh well. Looks good on his resume. Which he is busy working on during English class. At the end of this semester, the Juniors practice interviews in order to prepare for college admissions as well as the real world. It includes writing a resume. Guess they are getting an early start. He is also busy reading "The Great Gatsby" in English class which he likes. He wanted to see the movie, so I had him watch the Robert Redford version. I think it is a bit closer to the book. He also enjoyed the movie and thought it explained the book a bit more which is helpful for quizzes.

He actually had a very good week with his school work. Lots of tests and he did well on all of them. First time getting an A/100% on music theory in guitar! I can read music notes for piano, but the guitar music is a bit more confusing to me. He has to do both. Translate musical notes to the guitar Strings and Frets. I am glad he understands it! And he is busy learning to play a few more Beatles songs. I think his teacher is a big Beatles fan. Although the class doesn't actually  play the most popular tunes(signs of a true artiste!). But Scott did just learn "Margaritaville". Now that we can use! Not sure if Scott will continue to study guitar, but for now it is a nice break in between his other classes. And we finally dropped by the Music school to drop off his gift to the owner thanking her for her time for the interview Scott had to do for History class. We were not expecting her to be there, but she was working late in the office, meeting with prospective music school families. So we gave her a quick thank you in person and dropped off the hand painted wooden bell from Ukraine I picked up at the German Christmas village in Baltimore last December. We also spent Saturday morning dropping off bags around the neighborhood for the upcoming Scouting for Food event. The Boy and Girl scouts travel around the neighborhood collecting food for our local County Food bank.

Besides school work, we were trying to look at his weekly schedule in order to give him time to attend some training sessions for work, as well as to download some online training classes that he has to complete. All before the end of April and in time for his yearly work review. I have had to look ahead through summer to put in for Scott's time off work already. He has some events we needed to schedule including upcoming boy scout camping trips, Robotics tournaments, the scheduled ACT and SAT college admissions tests and working Cub Scout Summer camp. This will be Scott's last year in boy scouts as he turns 18 in the Fall. Then if he wants to stay in the Troop to attend camping trips and outings, he can join the Venture scouts. They are enrolled up to 21 yrs old. They just don't worry about badges or earning Eagle. And still the paperwork is an ongoing process! We are currently rechecking dates of when Scott earned all his Eagle required badges as well as an extra 10 badges needed for Eagle, and the dates of his rank advancements. The paperwork just never ends.

Speaking of paperwork, I  spent my Sunday afternoon working on my mom's taxes. I keep contacting the previous accountant from West Bloomfield MI because he has not given me the 2015 tax return yet! Not sure what is going on, but I am still waiting. He just keeps telling me it is done, but I haven't seen any results. I really want to move ahead to get Mom's taxes in for 2016. This time with a local accountant. Even our broker has not been able to make any headway with this guy. Just more stress for me!

We did enjoy a visit from Allison over the weekend. She did not have any frisbee games scheduled and was all caught up with her homework, so she decided to pay us a visit. Yeah! She came home on Friday afternoon in time for her to go with me to take Cookie to the vet. Cookie needed a few more vaccinations, and an assessment from the vet who is cleaning her teeth and will be removing a few fatty lumps off her back. Don't want them to turn out to be cancerous. Figured we would remove them while she is under for the dental work. She also helped Scott pass out his Scouting for Food bags. In the evening, Allison and Scott enjoyed their newest obsession in video gaming, the Nintendo switch. They have rediscovered  the Zelda video game and they are having a blast. However, Allison got a head start over Scott since he had to work Friday night. And I talked Tom into taking me to see the new Logan movie after dropping Scott off. The theatre was packed and we all seemed to enjoy the film(even though it is a lot more violent than the previous Xmen flicks). I guess that is why there was a cop at the entrance to the theatre checking our tickets. The best part of the movie though was the short Dead Pool film right before. Very funny.

On Saturday night, Allison  invited her boyfriend Tyler over for a gaming session with the new system. We decided to turn it into a dinner party, so I stopped into Costco on Saturday afternoon to pick up ribs after dropping Scott off at work. I also picked up my Mom and brought her over to share dinner with us. Unfortunately, Tyler got stuck on a computer work project that night and never made it over. And Allison had to travel back to school on Sunday, so she missed visiting with him(but she did not miss out on her time spent playing the new video game!). Scott was off to work again Sunday afternoon. Tom and I were busy filling Allison's car up with extra food supplies. I even put together a few St Patrick Day goodies for Allison and her roommates on Friday morning, so we packed those up too.

I also spent Sunday afternoon packing for an upcoming trip to Florida! More on that later.

Sending out another Big Happy Birthday to John Potts!(Susan Seitz husband).  See you soon!

Looks like Spring/Summer has come ratherearly to the Mid Atlantic. Our weather has been crazy warm, followed by a few cold days. Typical spring. Just enough sun to get all the flowers and trees blooming. And then hope they don't freeze! Looks like the  trees for the DC Cherry Blossom Festival will be a month ahead of schedule. We really did not get much snow this year. I did not even sign Scotty and I up for a Scout skiing weekend this year. Some of our local ski slopes even had to close early for the season. Since the weather has been so nice, I have had some time to get out and start yardwork. Mostly cleaning up the flower beds and of course, raking leaves. Tom has also been between online semesters and work projects, so he has been able to get some projects done around the house as well, like repainting the front door,  repairing our outside landscape lights and unplugging the kitchen sink. Never a dull moment! He did take some time out for himself and went to see "The Wall" movie. I opted to stay home and get some work done around the house(putting away the snowmen!) as well as some of my paperwork. Cookie is also loving the warmer weather since she gets more walks in!

No one appreciates the nice weather more I think than Allison and her Ultimate Frisbee group. Last weekend they had their first tournament of the season at Towson University. We were very happy to see her come home on Friday a few weekends ago. I dragged her around on my errands as soon as she got home. Cookie had a vet check up. She is 8 yrs old now and doing well, but she needs a good dental cleaning. They have to put dogs under for that treatment, so I scheduled her for an appointment when we get back from Florida. (More later on Florida trip). We also dropped Scott off to work that evening and picked up some dinner beforehand. Then Allison asked if I would take her to see the Lego Batman Movie. I actually saw it the weekend before. Scott, Tom and I took my Mom and we all really enjoyed the movie, so I did not mind seeing it again. There is so much happening, you can sit through it again in case you missed something the first time around. Even my Mom mentioned that she enjoyed the movie the week after we saw it!  It is that memorable!

Allison was up early in the morning to head to Towson for her Frisbee games. They played 4 games on Saturday and Sunday. The girls won 2 out of 8 games and had a lot of fun doing so(except when they played mean girls!). Allison spent the night at a friend's house in Towson. She did not want the long drive to the games on Sunday morning from our house since they start at 8am. Also, the girls usually enjoy dinner out after the games on Saturday, and on Sunday she had to drive another girl back to school after the long day of playing frisbee. Plus she got to see boyfriend Tyler and her roommate Jen who came to cheer her on. Since Jen graduated, she can no longer play in the tournaments. Too bad. This may be Allison's last year for sports as well as she looks to Grad school next Fall at Salisbury in the business school.

Allison will be graduating this May, Magna Cum Laude.  We have already made hotel reservations. The place gets very crowded, very quickly. In the meantime, she is busy with her school projects. This last semester does not seem to have as many exams. Scott is incredibly busy as well with Scouts,  Robotics, Video Game Club, school work and working the weekends at the roller rink. He was even scheduled to work his two days off on President's Day weekend. Thank goodness Tom was home and able to get him to/from work. Scott ended up taking one of the days off so he could get some things done around the house too, like cleaning out the turtle aquarium! And of course, homework.  And then I am busy running him around. At least we both had time to stop in and get our hair cut! Just in time for the warmer weather.

Also running my Mom around. We had a make up dentist appointment. She missed her last appointment since she needs antibiotics before the exam and the pharmacy missed the delivery to her apt. Instead I had to reschedule the week after and missed half of my work day. Mom was in the dentist chair for over 2 hours getting some much needed work done on her teeth. I also squeezed in a moment to ask our dentist to adjust my bridge so I can wear it over my implant until I get a real tooth. A Twofer! I also dragged Mom out to the post office and on a Costco shopping trip. All during a huge thunderstorm. But when we were done, we were rewarded with a beautiful rainbow. Worth the outing.  I had some paperwork of Mom's to get out and I had to undecorate her Valentine's Day Door. I also bought her a miniature rose bush that I replanted in a bigger pot when the weather was warm.

So I need to get out a few Happy Birthday Wishes!  Happy Birthday to Caroline and Clayton Bozyk with their 20th Birthday celebration on President's Day, Feb 20th!

And a Big Happy Birthday to Susan (Seitz) Potts who celebrated with family in Venice Florida on February 26th!

Here's what has been going on this February!

We started if off with a crazy Super Bowl game!  Naturally we invited our neighbors over for a Super Bowl party(any excuse to clean the house, cook lots of great food and enjoy an evening with our friends). The crowd was small-we opted not to invite the entire neighborhood like we usually do. Only 10 guests this time(including a visiting dog!). I spent the weekend grocery shopping and preparing food. I decided to make a big ham so everyone could have sandwiches if they preferred, along with cheesy potato casserole and broccoli/cauliflower salad. Of course we had lots of chips and dip. And Tom could not go without Buffalo Chicken Dip. On top of all that, the neighbors brought lots of extra appetizers like shrimp and fancy hors d'eovres that I had no idea what I was eating, but it was very good! And you can't have a football game without brownies and chocolate chip cookies(plus I threw in a few chocolate covered Oreo cookies). I think we had it covered on food. Most everyone left early since it looked like the Falcons had the game. But a few doubting Thomases stayed(mine included) with faith that Tom Brady would pull out a win for the Patriots in 8 mins. And it happened. Crazy. I was rooting for the Falcons since they never had a win and Patriots already had 4 Super Bowl wins under their belts. Rather than wear my Patriots shirt(we celebrated a Patriots Super Bowl win when we lived in Boston), I donned my Packers tshirt. Wishful thinking. I was in mourning. We had my Mom over for the game too. We just had to keep an eye on her to make sure she did not give the dogs too many treats!

I started the month of February off with oral surgery. I have been thinking about getting a tooth implant for over 10 years now. The surgery was not covered by Dental insurance and the procedure can cost between $4000 to $9000. I really did not want to spend that much on one tooth! Instead I have been wearing a small bridge that only cost $300. But currently my dental insurance pays for half of the procedure, so I thought it was time. So at the beginning of the month I went in and got started. Currently I just have the post in place(a small screw in my jaw). In 3 months I will go back and get a tooth made and no more bridge! I just had to take antibiotics for a week. And I took the day off work since my face was numb for the whole day. I was not the only one at the dentist this month. Mom Bozyk needs a bit of work done so she got started with a root canal. I tried to get her back to her follow up appointment, but she did not get her antibiotics in time for the treatment. So instead Mom and I enjoyed a lunch outing(on Valentine's Day no less). It was a nice break from work during the day. I also had a chance to drop off her Valentine gift.

Tom spent Valentine's week in Dallas. He is working on a project and actually had to travel out to Dallas the week before to get set up. Instead we celebrated Valentine's Day over the weekend with dinner out to BJs Tavern and a movie. Not sure the John Wicke 2 movie is exactly a Love Story, but it kept our attention(and there was a lot of red). Plus we needed to catch up with Keeanu Reaves since we saw John Wickes 1. And we invested in a new Roomba to clean the floors. The old one wore out its wheel and just spun in circles. We also spent the weekend turning in Mom's cable box. She really doesn't spend time in her apartment watching tv, so we decided to save her $150 bucks a month. I would rather she spent the money going out to lunch or attending the programs at the Senior Center. Plus she usually watches tv in the main living room with the other residents. More fun with a group!

Before the weekend got started, we packed Scott up for a Winter Boy Scout camping trip on Friday afternoon. We let Scott practice freeway driving-1.5 hr drive to Scout camp. He did great and we stopped into Ruby Tuesday's for dinner before dropping him off.  The scouts spend the weekend in tents but covered under a pavilion. Fortunately we have had a rather mild winter this year. Not much to talk about with snow. More rain and some ice, plus some very cold temperatures. But no snow days to speak of! Scott did have a delay in school for ice, but that is it so far. And it rained on his camping trip on Sunday morning, but the tents stayed dry under the pavilion. Mostly the boys spent the day inside working on badges. Scott had to do some online computer safety retraining to complete his Programming merit badge, but he also had some fun earning the Chess badge. And he participated in a Dutch Oven cook off. His dessert was not a hit with the adults, but the kids loved it-layers of chocolate cake, canned cherries and Hostess Ding Dongs covered in marshmallows. A whole lot of chocolate! It all goes in a big Dutch Oven pot and cooks surrounded by coals. He would have liked it to cook longer, but her ran out of time (and Dutch ovens). It was still a bit soupy. We picked him up on Sunday afternoon. Just in time for him to get home, unpack, shower and head over to his Robotics team meeting.

The Robotics team has just successfully completed their practice bot and tournament bot and will be running trials this weekend. Scott has been working on the CAD/CAM portion of the project and really enjoying the challenge. He successfully wrapped up another semester and was awarded "Math Student of the Month" for Honors Trig. Congrats Scott! Looks like the Math tutor idea paid off.










 Scott has really been working hard at his classes, and spending time working ahead with the math tutor. And he joined his World History Class last week in presenting his Historical Video Interview he completed with our Music teacher. The class presented their work at school last week in the evening. Mostly parents attended and some of the interviewees. Scott interviewed Ms Olenka from Ukraine when she fled to the US for political reasons at age 26. She settled here in Maryland with her family and opened her own Music school. She was professionally trained in piano in Ukraine. Scott did a lot of research on Russia and Ukraine, Reagan and Gorbachov. The teacher loved his video. Especially since most of the kids just did Power Point presentations and Poster boards. The presentations were very interesting-everything from WWII, Vietnam, The Cold War to 9/11 and even our recent Ellicott City flood. I think Scott is just happy to be done with the big project although we had hoped Ms Olenka would have visited. We even have a small gift for her that was made in Ukraine that I picked up during the German Christmas village.

Scott was also invited to join the National Technology Honor Society, so he has been filling out the application and running around school getting signatures on his forms. He has to fill it out before the end of February. Congrats again Scott!

He has also been  working at the Roller Rink on weekends. This is the busy time of year with lots of Birthday parties and Group Events. Scott mostly spends his time repairing skates. And recently he had to attend a yearly training session-helpful that Tom was able to give him a ride since it was right after school on a Monday. Unfortunately his job is not very student friendly.

Allison has also been busy with her new class schedule. Lots of projects. And she is making plans for graduation this semester. She was even asked to be a guest speaker at graduation! But I think she is going to pass-not enough drama in her life to make her speech interesting.

A Big Happy February Birthday to Eric Seitz who celebrated on Super Bowl Sunday!

Thought I would wrap up the month of January in one big blog.

Looks like our winter is mostly a rainy, cold one. Very different from last year with scattered, big snowstorms. Although we're not out of the woods yet. We spent another wet weekend  inside doing housework and  homework. However, it was warm enough for Tom  to set up my new squirrel proof bird feeder mounted on a pole that I got for Christmas.  The old bird feeder was too small(we have very hungry birds!) And when I hang it off a tree or a shepherds hook, the squirrels get into it. We'll see how this works.

  On Sunday, Tom and Allison took time out and headed to Pennsylvania to catch a Hershey Bear Hockey game. Tom owed her one since he went with Matt W the previous weekend. They had a great time stopping into the candy factory before the game.  And Scott and I enjoyed the goodies they brought back!  Meanwhile, Scott had to work at the roller rink. He also had to finish writing a paper for the end of the semester.  I decided to have Mom B over for dinner on Sunday. We also sent out some cards-a Sympathy card for the loss of Mom's cousin which we just discovered passed away last Spring. Also a Birthday card to celebrate Gerry Dugan's Birthday, mom's best friend back in Michigan. Plus we caught the Packers football game-sadly it looks like we won't have any of our favorite teams to cheer for on Super Bowl Sunday.

I also spent Thursday evening with Mom B, at the dentist. She needs quite a bit of work done, so we are getting an early start at the beginning of the year. She needed a root canal-what a way to start the year!  She was a trooper though, and we joined the entire family afterwards for dinner at the Outback steakhouse.

Allison has certainly been enjoying her Winter break. This is her first year where she had the whole month off. In the past she has taken classes. She has had lots of time to schedule medical appointments, work on her resume for summer internships and her application for Grad School. But she has taken some time out for fun including visiting with boyfriend Tyler and spending time with Scott. Cookie has certainly enjoyed her time at home since she gets a walk everyday. She has also been staying active by attending my pool aerobics class with me every week and working out on our treadmill at home. Soon she will be back into her Ultimate Frisbee season.

Tom has also been very busy with his recent online class. He is enjoying this class the most, but it also seems to be the most challenging. Lots of papers, exams and group projects. All online. On top of going to work. I even finished up an online test as a follow up for a Training program in Dementia Care I attended in the Fall. Since I passed the exam with flying colors, I can add a new title to my resume, Dementia Care Specialist.

Lots of studying going on around here. Scott spent a very busy week readying for midterms. He had Martin Luther King Day off, but still had to work. I put Allison to good use to give him a ride. And then when he got home he was busy writing up his last English paper on the Literary Merit of "The Lord of the Flies". He did take a break with Allison and they both went to see the Monster Truck movie over the weekend. They had a great time. He also had a Boy Scout Patrol meeting to attend, robotics meetings and his Video club-all on top of recovering from a cold that he got on his camping weekend in the cold rain.

The following week he was busy with  midterms at school.  He had tests for 4 days in a row. Tests were scheduled for 2 a day with Friday off, so he was very busy studying and squeezing in a boy scout meeting and robotics. He capped off his week with lots of work hours at the roller rink. I decided he needed a break and took both Scott and Allison to the World of Pets Expo on Friday morning. Cookie has been getting spoiled with walks from Allison every day. Since the weather had been extra rainy and cold, we decided to take her to the Pet Expo to get in her walk while checking out free tasty dog treats(Cookie, not us). Cookie was especially fascinated with the non dog pets-ducks, llamas, sheep, a baby baboon, and her absolute favorite, loud, squaky Love Birds. On Thursday night, Allison and Scott joined their friends for an evening of Laser Tag. And on Saturday morning, our family headed out to see the movie,  A Dog's Purpose. Definitely a kleenex film. I was going to scream if they killed off one more dog! But we thought it would be fun to all do something together before Allison left for school. We stopped to have lunch and then headed home to help Allison load her car. In the meantime, Scott headed to his robotics meeting.

Scott has developed a new role on the Robotics team. The freshmen help build the robot chassis, the Seniors take over the design(also their Dad is the coach). But Scott has taken over the CAD system-measuring the robot and putting the design on the computer which he discovered he is very good at and he likes doing it. Also, the adult in charge of that activity is too busy to finish, so Scott has stepped into that role.

And he was not the only one to spend most of his weekend at the roller rink. I volunteered again to help out with the Girl Scout roller rink event this past weekend on Saturday and Sunday night. Since I am the only trained ex leader in this event, the coordinator loves to have me help run the evening activity while she monitors the check in -out process. I am a sucker for difficult projects. Usually we have no issues with the girls-but the parents on the other hand can be miserable. It is a fund raiser event, so everyone that comes in has to pay whether they skate or not. That seems to cause quite a commotion even though the Troops have been fore warned. Also no boys allowed. There always seems to be one family that brings all the siblings. Oh well. I get to practice my poker face and look like I don't care when they start complaining. It is worth the abuse though when I get a few compliments, hugs and thank yous from the previous scout leaders that recognize me and appreciate my time. Then I get to load my entire van up with donated cleaning supplies we've collected at the event to go to Habitat for Humanity programs. This year I counted 42 large buckets of supplies! Boy did my car smell good.

So last weekend we started packing up the indoor Christmas decorations and putting them up in the attic. We had a perfect day to get it done too. Saturday we had another ice storm. Fortunately it was not quite as bad as the last storm. A great day to stay indoors and do paperwork, housecleaning and watch movies.

But not for Scott. He actually headed out on Friday night for a weekend camping trip with the Scouts at the Naval Academy in Annapolis. Allison and I dropped him off on Friday evening after he got home from school, finished his homework and ate dinner. The weather was actually rather mild on Friday night. He didn't have anything scheduled at camp, so he spent some time on his computer working on an upcoming school paper.  On Saturday the Troop was up early and off to Merit Badge classes. This program was set up as a STEM event-Science/Technology/Engineering and Math. Scott signed up for two computer Merit Badges. He was fascinated by the Naval Academy's Engineering program, but most importantly he enjoyed their lunch! Unfortunately since the weather turned he was quite miserable since he had to sleep in his tent in the freezing rain. He bundled up with multiple hand warmers and managed to survive but came home Sunday with a horrible cold. After a hot shower he got busy on his paper.

Tom spent Sunday at a Hershey Hockey Game with our college friend Matt Wagner. Matt has fallen on hard times and struggles with recovery from his drug and alcohol abuse. He retired from his business -a partner in an Accounting Firm since his health has deteriorated. He is divorced from our friend Diana. She still lives in their house with their two boys. The boys both work in local restaurants. Tom was happy to have had time to catch up with Matt, give him some moral support as he attempts to recover and enjoy the hockey game. We wish him the best.

Since Tom and Allison were gone on Sunday afternoon, I decided to have Mom B over for dinner with Scott and myself. Afterwards we gave Mom's best friend, Jerry Dugan from Michigan, a phone call to wish her Happy Birthday. It was wonderful catching up with her and their family and letting Mom say hello. Mom is usually out of her apartment so she often misses phone calls. We were looking through some Bozyk family photo albums as well since we recently learned that mom's younger cousin in law on my Dad's side passed away last year. It can be hard to keep up with all the extended family members when everyone is spread throughout the country. I try to update the Family Tree on the computer as much as I can.

Allison had hoped to join Tom at the hockey game Sunday afternoon. Instead she spent her evening visiting with Tyler since Tom went with Matt. Allison

has been enjoying her time off work, visiting with friends and helping her roommate celebrate her 22nd BDay.  But also she has been productive in updating her resume and sending it out for some possible job internships this summer. She even registered for the GRE exam which she has to take as part of the admission process for the Masters Business Program which she is applying to starting next Fall. She is looking to get accepted into the MBA program at Salisbury after graduating with a BS in Business Management this coming May. I have been busy registering Scott for his upcoming SAT exam for college. We have also started to review his classes for his Senior year in High School. Hard to believe we have to start thinking about next year already.

Scott has started  squeezing in a few hours with his Robotics Team. The group has been busy designing their robot and working on a model. Final competition is in March. We also helped out at his Boy Scout meeting  with an Open House. Not a lot of Cub Scouts attended, but it gave Tom some free time to sit in on an Eagle review board meeting. That way we will know the types of questions that Scott has to answer when he is ready for his review board meeting with the council. I mostly enjoyed catching up with the other scout moms while checking in any visiting cub scouts. Scott mostly enjoys visiting with his friends while teaching younger scouts how to tie knots.

So we were back into our usual routine at the start of a New Year last week. I did not realize that for most of the world, the 1st Monday of January was a Holiday. Not for Scott and I. Scott had to go to school as our county was  the only one  in the state that did not give the kids the day off and I went to work. Tom and Allison enjoyed their day off.  Now we have Allison at home on Winter Break which is a treat!  It is so nice to have someone around helping with dinner, dishes, running errands, picking up Scott from school and most importantly, keeping Cookie company during the day and taking her for walks! I even took Allison to my swim aerobics class on Friday morning. She is trying to keep up her with her fitness program in preparation for Spring Ultimate Frisbee. And with that, she has scheduled multiple medical exams to make sure she is on top of things. So she has spent her time off running around to different medical offices. However, we decided this past weekend would be a good time to meet her boyfriend's family. We invited Tyler and his parents, along with his college age sister over to the house for dinner on Saturday night.

I dragged Allison off to the store to shop for groceries on Friday, and Saturday was cleaning and prep day. Tom had already taken down our Christmas lights outside the house, but I asked him to leave the holiday decorations up inside the house one more weekend for our company. Although it was quite chilly outside, with 1-2 inches of snow that morning, we still decided to grill steaks. Dinner turned out well and we really enjoyed chatting with Tyler's family. His parents live near Towson, north of Baltimore and are originally from Maryland. His Dad works in Hydraulics and his Mom is the East Coast Rep. for Scholastic Book Sales in the school systems. Tyler's sister is attending college in Pennsylvania for Business school studying Finance. His older brother lives in Phoenix. We had a wonderful evening and I think they especially enjoyed Cookie and Pika since they are pet people too. Just wish I could have had Cookie's grooming done before the visit. She was looking a bit shaggy, but I dropped her off on Sunday for a Mid Winter trim. She looks so much better now.  Tyler also just moved two large twin black cats into his apartment and his family has a dog and cat also. They are music people too-Tyler originally was a music major and plays guitar and used to sing in the choir in high school.  His sister plays piano and sings in an Acopella group at her college.  They often travel up to Pennsylvania to hear her sing. It was nice to have them all over. Tyler is busy working, so Allison doesn't get to spend too much time visiting(or vice versa) on her Winter Break.

Allison and I did take some time off to go see the new movie "Hidden Figures". Allison was actually interested in seeing the movie and I was coming along for the popcorn. Turns out we both really loved the movie. It involves the black women working for NASA during the start of the space program in the 1960s as Computers. They were the ones(called Computers) that assisted with all the computations by hand for the space flights until the IBMs were set up. And it turns out one of the ladies ended up running the computers. So the history was interesting and the story line was great, especially since it takes place at NASA in Langley, VA.  Meanwhile, Scott was back to his Boy Scout meetings, work schedule with new training sessions and his Robotics Team. Tom is also busy with his new online class and is actually enjoying this term. There is a lot more interaction with the professor and classmates.

Besides taking Cookie to the groomer, I spent Sunday afternoon visiting with Mom. We were busy going through all her jewelry and putting away some summer clothes at her apt to make room for all her new winter clothes.

We also start the New Year with a Happy Birthday to Mom Seitz!