Just sending along my backed up blogs! Can you guess we have been busy!
Happy Palm Sunday. It was a bit chilly this weekend, but sunny. I managed to talk Tom into going into DC for the annual kite flying festival on Saturday. We have gone quite a few times and almost always enjoy it. Although one year we took Mom and Dad Bozyk and the kids and it was so cold and windy we could not stand to be outside. We spent most of our time in the Smithsonian museums that year. But this Saturday it was sunny and breezy and we actually got our kites up in the air(for a few brief moments) next to the Washington monument. The wind just wasn't blowing consistently enough to keep all the kites up in the air and they'd all come crashing down to the ground with the strings getting tangled. Kinda took some of the fun out of it. But it was a beautiful day to go for a walk and look at all the blooming cherry trees-all 3000 around the tidal basin. We managed to stroll over to the Jefferson memorial, and then back to peek at the spring gardens behind the Smithsonian castle. Tom couldn't handle the building crowds, so we skipped a walk through the museums and just strolled into the Asian arts building. (Lot less crowds and better bathrooms!). I wanted to visit the National Geographic museum and see the Chinese clay soldiers(like Scott did on his school trip), but the event was already sold out until the end of March when the show was completed. Tom just couldn't bring himself to go anywhere near the extra crowds anyhow. As it is, it takes longer to get on and off the subway trains and longer lines to get into buildings after you go through the security check. We still had a great day and topped it off with dinner in china town.
We had a busy week scheduled since Allison had plenty of tests to study for, but Scott spent his week taking standardized tests. He was happy since he didn't have any homework. I did go into his class on Friday to help with a Social Studies project. The class was working on maps of Maryland with clay to demonstrate the different regions. A few of us mom's showed up to supervise the production. Allison did this project when she was in 4th grade. Scott's teacher is new to 4th grade so she asked all us parents to send in shirt cardboard to build the maps on, however, I mentioned that Allison's class made the project in small pizza boxes. I recommended she see if she can get pizza boxes donated. Turns out a new pizza restaurant, Vocellis, that provides the school's pizza for lunch was happy to donate the boxes for her. And the teacher was so excited to speak to the owner since they both discovered their teenage boys attend the same catholic high school. Glad to help. And it was fun to visit the kid's classroom. Looks like Tom will have a chance to help out too as Scott's teacher asked him to come in at the end of April to teach a science class. For the last 2 years Tom has run a voluntary Science Fair for the school and we have asked the school to take over the project. They still have not committed and Tom said he would prefer to teach the kids science class rather than run the Science Fair. Other public and private schools in the area have mandatory science fairs. Scott is disappointed. He loves working on the projects and experiments. Maybe one day the school will get its act together. They spent the last few years updating the math program which was very helpful for Allison since she is ahead of the game for high school. Scott recently received his report card and did very well. The school treated all the kids with good grades to a special breakfast this week. Last week Tom enjoyed Donuts with Dads at school with Scott. The school has an open house for Dads and treats them to donut holes(an early celebration for Father's Day too).
The following week after Palm Sunday we were busy getting ready to go away for our trip. We also celebrated Dad Seitzs birthday! Great excuse to eat cake.
Allison had a full week since they added make up snow days to the public school schedule. Scott had a short week and not much in the way of studying.
I was busy trying to pack and organize our trip. I also had to squeeze in Tom's birthday and Easter on top of traveling. I still had lots of shopping to do for all three events, along with housecleaning and laundry. Our neighbor's asked us over for dinner on Sunday night to celebrate Tom's birthday together. They even picked him up a great tool kit. I decided we should celebrate Tom's birthday on the Friday before we left for LA so he could open his remaining gifts and so that I didn't have to pack them. I decided to get him an invisible dog fence(family gift) so Cookie could spend more time with us in the bigger front yard without us having to worry about her running into the street. I also picked up one of his favorite cakes-German chocolate. And Allison decided we all needed to go see "How to Train Your Dragon". Tom was not too excited to see the movie, but admits he surprisingly enjoyed it. We also took the kids to see the remake of Clash of the Titans. It wasn't great but a simple way to keep exposing the kids to Greek mythology. It pops up in their books and cartoons so they are aware of some of the legends. Except now everyone keeps yelling "Release the Kracken!" One of Scott and Tom's favorite rides at Busch Gardens.
Besides trying to get all my activities done, I have been extra busy at work. A few of the therapists have been sick lately so we have all been trying to cover for them. Not just colds or flu, but crazy stuff. One young therapist in her early 20s had an episode of shingles(chicken pox for older people) along with Bell's Palsy(1/2 your face becomes paralyzed). I asked if the doctor knew the cause, and she said stress. Ha! She doesn't know the meaning of the word. Yes she is 20 something and engaged and planning a summer wedding, (but just wait til she's married with kids!). I wish her the best. And another therapist had an inner ear infection she was dizzy all the time and couldn't stand up without falling over. She still has symptoms, and they are not exactly sure of the cause. Not an easy life in the health field. But definitely busy. Work keeps asking me to come in extra hours, and I have a hard time saying no. I ended up working a few hours the Friday afternoon before we left for LA. It was a tight schedule since I still had to pack and we celebrated Tom's birthday that night. Tom had to take off some extra work time to hang with Scott since he was out of school several days before the Easter weekend.
Anyhow, we made it out to LA and had a fabulous time!

Happy Spring! Wow, what a difference a few weeks makes. This weekend the temps were in the low 70s. Needless to say, most of the snow is gone, although you can still find a few small piles here and there in the shade. But that didn't stop the peeper frogs from peeping all night and all the daffodils and crocuses from blooming. As well as the flowering trees. That means next weekend, the cherry blossoms should be looking pretty good for the start of the cherry blossom festival in DC. I am still trying to convince Tom that we should go so we can enjoy the kite festival, along with the cherry blossoms and possibly a trip to the National Geographic museum to see the chinese clay statues before they go back to china.
Anyhow, we also did a little celebrating for St Patty's Day this past week. Scott was happy to get out of wearing his uniform and put on his St Patty's Day tshirt we bought last year. Allison wore her new St Patty's day tshirt, but noone in the family would eat corn beef and cabbage! I had to have mine at work for lunch. And I really couldn't get them to eat lamb. So we settled for Irish Soda Bread(I found a good one this year at Safeway). And I took green bagels into work-much to everyone's amazement. They were very green! Tom simply enjoyed his irish whiskey with the neighborhood big boys -It looks like Cookie had a taste for Irish Whiskey too! (note: photo inspiration from a favorite Rambo-the-dog picture) We really did not have much time to celebrate anyhow-Scott was filled to the brim last week with tests at school. They had to push a lot of info on the kids since they are spending the upcoming week completing standardized testing. So no time for new lessons. Plus I think they are still a bit behind from the snow days. Scott just finished his marking period so he brought home a very nice report card. We are proud of him and all his hard work, even though it usually comes with a bit of whining! And that includes we parents! Allison's marking period is off track-they extended theirs to catch up with the SAT schedules. She will be taking the PSATs next year, so we don't have to worry so much about that. But then there is the quarterly state testing, on top of testing for high school graduation. Fortunately she already tested out of math since she is ahead of schedule and took Algebra I in 8th grade. Less stress to worry about. We will be signing her up for a PSAT orientation class this summer-much to her disappointment.
And she just finished her indoor field hockey sessions, with two make up games due to snow. They did not have very many players left for the two make up games as Spring sports began, and many of the girls play lacrosse too. Allison will go on in May to play outdoor field hockey on a rec. team. I was glad I had a chance to chat with her JV coach during the last game though. It gave me an idea of summer camps to sign up for-we opted out of the very expensive trip to New England for World camp. We would like to stay a bit closer to home as well as a leaner summer camp budget. So far she is enjoying her goalie position. And Scott is still enjoying his gymnastics.
So this weekend I didn't have to sleep over anyplace except my own bed-thank goodness! It took me all week to catch up on my sleep, not to mention that the one hour spring ahead time change really messes me up! And we have all been fighting colds/allergies these past few weeks so everyone has been taking something different for stuffed heads. Sleep is always nice. However, Allison decided to have a sleepover(which usually means no sleep) after staying up past midnite at a release party at Borders book store for the newest New Moon video release on Friday night. Fortunately Tom took her and her girlfriend and waited until midnite. I don't think I could have stayed awake. Then Allison joined her friend for a sleepover at her friend's house after their Dad picked them up. Her friends family even took them to breakfast and brought her home which was a nice touch on Saturday morning. The girls loved watching the movie again and getting all the free giveaways, playing New Moon trivial pursuit, along with purchasing a few trinkets at the store. While Tom was entertaining himself at the books store with the girls, I was off with Scott at a Scout Pack meeting, racing wooden rocket ships! They have a Space Derby race where the boys assemble and design wooden rocket ships and they race them down a wire track, complete with rubber band power. The whole event takes a while since there are lots of rockets, one for each boy from 1st grade to 4th grade, and each rocket needs wound about 150 times before releasing it to pop a balloon at the end of the track. Needless to say, it can get a bit noisy and crazy. This event was just for fun though-no trophies or awards. But Tom opted for the crazy screams of the Twilight girls over the screams of a pack of cub scouts. Either way, we both made some type of sacrifice Friday night. At least Friday morning Tom had the day off and we both enjoyed a movie and lunch together early. I wanted to see Shutter Island since I was in the mood for a spooky movie-I know Mark Seitz did not enjoy it much, but Tom and I found it interesting enough to stay awake. A bit of a psychological thriller-reminded me of A Beautiful Mind in a way. And on Saturday, Scott was invited for a play date to go see Diary of a Wimpy Kid. He has read all the stories, and I think he liked the books better. But a nice play date. Tom tried to join him, but the afternoon movie was sold out. Lots of people out shopping at the mall and stores this weekend-Spring Fever I guess. I know I was busy running errands and trying to get ready for our trip to LA at Easter. New shoes, new bathing suits, new short sleeve shirts-the kids won't stop growing! We also had to pick out a doggy day care for Cookie since we didn't have anyone available to take her in this time. Or else she would be stuck in her cage all day. I found a place that lets the dogs out all day-they can go in and outside of their pen with all the other dogs during the day, and then they have their own kennels for sleeping at night. So Cookie needed to spend a day getting acclimated to the day care at no charge, so I dropped her off on Friday. It really did feel just like dropping off the kids when they were little at PreSchool! It's a good thing she is such a friendly pup. I think the whole experience wore her out though-there certainly were alot of dogs there! At least she is in with the dogs her size. Even another cavachon. We also started intermediate dog training class yesterday at Pet Smart. She was the smallest dog in her class, and everyone said she was already so well behaved than their dogs! They wanted to know why we were there. I think she was just a bit overwhelmed by their sizes and energy level. She knew when to stay out of the way from the big dog play. We got to work on "Wait and Stay" and ignoring distractions. We really need to work on "come" after she has run down the street to play with the neighborhood kids! One nice touch at the day care is that when we drop her off, we will be able to watch her on video on the internet. So we will be able to see how she is doing while we are on vacation. We also asked our neighbors to stop in and check on our house and the cat and gerbils while we are gone. They will be out of town a few days over Easter weekend in Williamsburg, so they really couldn't have kept Cookie. Sadly, we will miss seeing The Phantom of the Opera while we are traveling. Tom got the tickets in the fall, and did not check the dates carefully for spring break. I tried to trade the tickets, but since he bought a package, they would not let me. So it looks like that will be our payment to our neighbors for watching the house. They also invited us over for dinner Sunday night-to our surprise, it was to celebrate Tom's birthday early. Tom went birthday shopping this weekend for himself as well. He was up at Home Depot picking up some supplies to continue repairing and patching our walls, and he found himself a Weber grill close out sale. We have a really big grill we bought a few years ago from Sams Club, but it had too many hot spots. We really missed our old Weber grill. So I drove up to Home Depot with the van to pick up Tom and his new grill. We broke it in with some wonderful steaks on Saturday night. It is a lot smaller than our old grill, but cooks great and takes up less space on the deck. Unfortunately, when Tom was moving the old grill, one of the neighbors decided to help him out and ended up crushing Tom's big toe. He had quite a difficult time walking after that. He did manage to give away the old grill though-turns out a fellow Michigander took it. I am just glad I did not have to go out and pick out a new grill for Tom.
So I also stayed pretty busy at work last week too-I managed to get my CPR recertification squeezed in. I was scheduled to take the class in February, but it was cancelled from the snow storm. I also volunteered to go into work for a few hours on Friday afternoon(always a mistake since I end up working more hours than I want to!). I was helping out with a Home Health patient who got sick on me-not a fun afternoon. Tom had a busy schedule too since he was teaching a class for a few days. We can both use a vacation! But I know we will be busy then too! My brother Dan and wife Sheila and their two kids just finished visiting with my brother Mike in LA. Hope they left a few things for us to do out there!
And my girlfriend Laura in Michigan with the broken shoulder just started her own therapy. Take it easy Laura-don't overdo!
Way to go MSU mens basketball team now in the Sweet Sixteen! We could barely watch the game-they have all been so close!
Enjoy the better weather! Kathleen and Family(Tom added the photo by the way-I consider that dog abuse).

Well, I just survived another scout overnighter. This one was with Scott's Webelos scout troop at the Maryland Science Center. I took my girls many, many years ago for the girl scout sleepover. We had so many girls signed up, we took up 3 floors of the science center! This group of boys all fit on one floor. And we actually get to sleep on these type of activities. Or at least lay down and close our eyes! I knew my girls had such a wonderful time that I asked our troop leader if the boys wouldn't be interested in participating. Everyone thought it sounded great. Most of the boys are not as familiar with the programs that are offered for scouts. I spend most of my free time searching out scout programs, so I certainly was aware that this program existed for 4th and 5th graders. The boys really seemed to enjoy it, along with the parents that came. The theme was for myth busters, and if you have ever seen that show, two crazy guys try to prove or disprove certain myths, legends or basically old wive's tales. Our program was broken up into 3 different types of experiments-home experiments with everyday objects, laws of physics and nature, and some adventurous experiments revolving around pirates. We spent Friday night rotating from class to class as well as a planetarium show and then to bed at 11pm. I was so excited to be sleeping on our second floor as it is much darker and quieter, and has the outer space display. The boys also enjoyed down time since they got to explore the hands-on section of the museum, and tour the dinosaurs. I made life easy for all of us too by preordering pizza at the science center cafe for dinner on Friday. On Saturday morning after a light breakfast, we all enjoyed an IMAX movie about the human body and sports/dance/and rock climbing. It looks like everyone had a great time, but we all decided we could use a nap Saturday afternoon!
Scott definitely got over his bug from last week and went back to school better prepared for his states test. If they did not have to mark where the capital is located within the states, he would have done very well. However, he lost points for that and not remembering to capitalize all the states or their capitals, not to mention he switched one or two capitals . He just finished his marking period at school and I spoke briefly to his teacher. She let me know he is doing quite well. We like to keep track of the kids grades online, but the Catholic Diocese has been having problems with their computer program not reporting the data correctly. They are having other problems here in Baltimore that forced them to close about 13 catholic schools in the city. They said the 50s and the 60s were the heyday of catholic education. Lots of families living in the cities and lots of nuns(free, cheap labor) teaching the schools together with big catholic families. But that is not the case anymore, and most of the buildings are in disrepair, have very limited enrollment and the majority of the city kids attending are not even catholic. Most people here in Baltimore are very upset about the decision to close schools, but it makes sense. Less families can afford catholic private schools these days and most people feel pressed in covering their own families education, let alone subsidizing schooling for children who are not even catholic. Even though the church supports sharing the catholic/christian faith. They will need to find another way to pay for it! The Baltimore Catholic Diocese also spent a bit of their income on the child abuse law suits and remodeling the Baltimore Basilica. So you could see why catholics who now have to search out a new school might be a bit upset. Our school is pretty well at capacity. We have 2 classrooms per grade, and added preschool this year. Each grade has 25-30 kids and parents don't want larger classrooms. We had a school board meeting last tuesday night and many parents voiced their concerns that our school class numbers would increase with the school closures as many struggle to find a new school to attend next year. We are quite a bit out of the city, so it does not look as if we will get many transfers. And Forbes magazine once again rated Howard County, our county, top 10 in the nation for income, behind Fairfax and MontgomeryVA/MD county. Boy I would like to see some of that money!
I was glad Scott was feeling better since his class went on a Field Trip last week to DC. They were scheduled to attend the showing of the Chinese clay statues at the National Geographic museum. This was the display from china of the clay statues recently dug up by farmers several years ago near an emperors grave. Life size clay statues of soldiers were buried with the emperor, including horses and wagons to guard the emperor in the afterlife. The kids had tickets for the event, but also added a tour of the White House! One of Scott's classmate's Dad works at the White House and set up a tour for the kids. Sadly I did not get picked to chaperone. The kids really enjoyed their trip through the White House-Scott has never been. Of course it took them about an hour to get through security! Guess they just can't trust those 4th graders! And Scott had Weds off for end of the marking period so I ended up staying home with him. It worked out well since Allison had her last orthodontist appt. that afternoon. I also picked out a new dentist for the kids and took them in on Monday. I decided I was not too crazy about Tom's dental plan Cigna, so I picked up Met Life from my work(more dentists to choose from and the same monthly fee). So far they both look pretty good teeth wise. Soon it will be our turn for dentist appts. And Cookie had her last series of shots at the vet. They give them over several weeks time since it is a pretty big dose. The rabies shots now last 3 yrs though. But after her first appt, she was so sore, she was limping and crying when anyone tried to touch her for a few days. I asked about baby aspirin since I remember Mom Bozyk giving some to our dog, Buttons. Apparently it is still a good idea-Cookie seemed to feel a lot better after I crushed up a pill and mixed it in with peanut butter, but her stomach did not seem to like it too much! I had to make sure her shots are up to date as it looks like we need to find a boarding facility for her while we travel to LA in the spring. We were wondering if Matt and Di would be able to watch her again, but they now have a dog and they were concerned about the how the two would get along hanging out together. So this weekend Allison and I are off to search out doggy day cares.
Fortunately we did not have to march in this years St Patrick's Day parade. We usually sing in the parade with the girl scout choir each year, but they cancelled the parade due to bad weather. We have had several days of non stop rain. I wasn't too sad since I would have had to run home from the museum sleepover, change and run back downtown to the parade to sing The Rattlin Bog and Tura Lura Lura and march for about an hour.
Instead, I got to take a nice nap before Tom and I headed out to dinner and a concert Saturday night. We were supposed to go with our neighbors the Zarlengas, but Dan ended up visiting his mom in Ohio over the weekend. So Tom and I enjoyed a nice evening out together. And it looks like it will take all day today to recover from the Spring Ahead time change. I certainly prefer Fall Back!
So I hope you all have a great St Patty's Day! Laura hope you are doing well recovering from that broken arm! When do you start rehab?
Congrats to Stacey and Matt on their house purchase. We have quite a few homes for sale in our neighborhood but they seem to be selling. Tom has been busy patching drywall cracks in our place over the last few weeks-we had a few water damage spots and some settling from our kitchen addition over the years. At least it seems the leaks are all fixed, but we would still like to replace our skylight. We still have not heard back from the two builders that came out over the winter to inspect it. We had price quotes but I know the weather has not been cooperative to do any actual work. However, you would think someone would call giving us a tentative work date or let us know they are still thinking of us. Guess work must be pretty good if they don't need our business?
Happy St Patrick's Day! Think Green! Kathleen

I was reading Mark Seitz's blog and how he was talking about waking up so early last Sunday morning. I think Allison and I had him beat as we never went to bed last Saturday night! Instead, we spent the night participating in the annual Columbia Mall Sleep In for girl scouts where nobody actually sleeps(or sadly, gets to shop). Instead, the older girls put on activities for the younger girl scouts-badges, arts and crafts, games, karaoke and dancing. I signed my girls up for a Sports badge-I figured each one had tried some sport in their life, and it would keep them active and awake. Allison taught Field Hockey, and another girl had a swimming game and explained the swim strokes. We had volunteer parents helping out with the First Aid station, and another Troop that ran our cheerleading section(funny, none of the girls wanted to run that station, but the buddy troop did a fabulous job all night long). We then had a station to learn warm up and cool down exercises, along with a table where we set up a Women in Sports quiz(the younger girls did pretty well with this-I did not recognize some of the names or photos myself, but the young girls studied them in school, or so they told me). But my biggest pet peeve was the requirement for girls to look through the Sports sections of newspapers and compare the number of men's sports articles with women's sports articles. To make things move more smoothly, I had my troop highlight the men's articles in blue and the women's in pink. I am not sure how many of you study the sports pages, but I don't think I will read many more of them. I discovered that many articles are written about men and women, and that most of the time, I cannot tell if the article or sport is for men or women mainly because I can't tell from the names of the players whether they are male or female! Certainly we found more articles focusing on men in sports. But I also found that some of the articles really had nothing to do with sports at all. Like the whole article on Tiger Woods apology! Was that an article about a man, many women, both? And it didn't even discuss sports! I found sometimes the sports page was more like a gossip column. I had an argument(imagine that!) with the GS council in charge of this event as I did not wish to include this requirement. I thought it was a bit outdated and sexist. I did not see how it taught the girls anything, although part of the requirement was to write a letter to the newspaper either thanking them for the women's articles or complaining that we wanted to see more. Frankly I thought the papers did a great job covering the womens sports if it existed. But more often I see articles mixed about women and men in sports. Unless of course they are talking about a Men's Hockey League or a Women's Basketball team, etc. I wanted to replace the newspaper coverage with my quiz, but I was not allowed to mess with the powers that be. Instead we added our quiz on with a question concerning the type of sport most women play. Oh well. It is not easy to fight city hall or grumpy old girl scout leaders. They thought the best part would be the cheerleading! Noone wanted that station! But my girls did a great job, and I covered for Allison while she went off to eat chinese food at 3am in the food court. I also helped out with a Careers badge table-conflict resolution. I think they put me at the wrong table!
I also spent the morning with the scouts-the boys. We went off to pick up food left by mailboxes throughout the neighborhood for Harvest for Hungry. Our boys picked up 830lbs of food! The food will be donated to our local food bank. Great service project and lots of exercise for the boys.
They spent last Sunday morning passing out the bags for the food collection. (Right after Allison altar served the 9am mass.) I spent that afternoon pooped out in the recliner chair. I guess I had a little bug or something. Tom wanted to invite Matt and Di over for Sunday night dinner, but I told him I wasn't cooking or cleaning. He was on his own. He had just returned from LA on Friday. So he made dinner and cleaned the house, but we never heard from Matt and Di. So instead he invited our neighbors over since we hadn't chatted in a while. I fell asleep watching the US/Canada Olympic men's hockey game. It was a bit sad to see the US lose, but at least the guys took home Silver. And overall the US did much better in this year's Winter games. No more staying up late though to watch the games live.
I was back on my own again this past week, but just half a week this time. Tom stayed long enough to go on our belated Valentine's Day date. I had purchased two tickets for a Wine tasting class at our favorite MSU owned wine store in olde Ellicott City. We finally met the owner that night. We had already met his sister and parents that help run the store. The class was called Weird Science -Wine Pairings and we got to try some new wines with different snacks-cheeses, crackers, veggies, chocolate. Everything from champagne to port. Afterwards Tom and I went out to dinner at the Mexican restaurant across the street. It is so nice to be able to leave the kids home alone and not have to hire a babysitter when Allison is around.
So again I was on my own helping with the kids homework, chaperoning to field hockey and piano. But this week Scott decided to get sick. He started feeling poorly on Weds, and he tried to make it to school Thursday since I had a very busy work day, but he only got to lunch and they called me to pick him up. He looked pretty miserable. We have a stomach bug going around Maryland. At work we have had to quarantine our nursing home and rehab unit-no residents in or out due to stomach flu. I also had one girl scout cancel Saturday night due to flu bug. Tom wasn't feeling that great either last week, but he survived his trip to New Orleans. He did think the place was a bit sleazy and dirty. Funny, that is how I remember it when my parents took us kids there once in passing.
So Scott stayed home with me the rest of the week recuperating. I did not mind though since I kept him busy memorizing all the US states and their capitals. He had his big test on Friday, but did not have much time to study since all the kids tests were squeezed in to make the cut off for the marking semester. They had to learn about 25 states and capitals in less than two weeks time. Even though I wasn't happy Scott was feeling sick, I was glad he had extra time to memorize the states. We even studied during Allison's field hockey games. She ended up playing goalie for an hour straight since most of the girls did not show up last week. They already started Spring Sports tryouts and several of the girls on the team were at Lacrosse tryouts that night. More game time for Allison!
And our snow is slowly melting. You can just barely walk down the sidewalks, although there are still large piles of snow along the roadside. Scott and I took Cookie up to our local park last Sunday afternoon and the two of them had fun running in the field and getting all muddy and wet. Both of them needed quite the bath when we got home. Cookie pretty much needs a bath every time we go out for a walk now since she steps in all the mud and puddles.
I am also slowly assessing all the damage to our lawn and shrubs. My poor shrubs have all been squashed with broken branches. We will probably have to cut down one very large shrub next to the house as the weight of the snow completely tipped it over on its side, pulling its root system right out of the ground! And my small , metal flag banner stand was completely bent in half by the weight of all the snow. At least it looks like all the plants will live. We'll definitely have to reseed some parts of the lawn where they scraped up the dirt with the front loaders. At least our mailbox survived! Everyone else has been busy picking up broken tree limbs and cutting up large branches that broke off during the storm. I am glad we never planted any White Pines-what a mess they make. There were even a few trees that fell over at work-one directly over a parked car!
Happy Early Spring-we also have daffodils and crocuses popping up. Kathleen

Ready For Spring!

So I survived two weeks non stop on my own without Tom support. But it won't last long. He just returned from LA, and he is off to speak at a conference in New Orleans next week. I was just glad he was able to get back home since we were spared the big nasty snow storm. We did have hurricane level wind and flurries, and they did cancel flights in the morning in and out of BWI because of the high wind. He was scheduled for an evening return, so the weather calmed down by then. Of course, he was not too worried about being trapped in LA. Much better weather than here on the East Coast! And he visited with my brother Mike and had a chance to go out to dinner with him a couple of times. Plus a trip to wine country near Santa Barbara over the weekend.
While he was sipping merlot last Saturday, Allison and I were singing with the GS choir at International Day.

This week I had my girl scouts over for a planning meeting for an up all night event next weekend-Columbia Mall Sleep In(which is a misnomer since nobody sleeps). We girl scouts take over the entire mall and put on programs for Junior girl scouts. My troop is presenting a Sports Sampler badge. We also invited another Troop to assist, so their leader was able to drop by and get an orientation to the program following our meeting on Friday night. We also managed to get Allison to her piano lesson earlier Friday night so it made for a shorter day. Thank goodness. I was a bit wore out from volunteering to go into work in the morning, as well as attending a baby shower in the afternoon(also at work), then running lots of errands, picking up Scott from school, dropping in to the school fair before rushing home to set up and clean up for the girl scout meeting! I had to pick up Scott's scout shirt from the dry cleaner(they sewed on all his new patches) and I was searching for the best bargain for frosting for his cub scout cake.

Speaking of cake contests, Scott once again came home with a prize for his cake! This year's theme was the 100th Birthday celebration of scouting. Scott was shooting for the "tallest cake" category, and we planned out a mutli layered birthday cake. We decorated the cake in blue and gold frosting and added chocolate candies that we made in a Boy Scout emblem mold that I bought at the scout store. We even found a cookie cutter in the shape of an eagle and added cookies to the cake decorations. After we set up his cake at the award ceremony, we knew immediately that he had won for the tallest cake. One other boy attempted the tall cake category, but his toppled before getting to the event. Rather than the tallest cake award, Scott ended up taking the "Scout's Choice Award". The boy scouts voted for their favorite cake, and it was Scott's! So since he could only win one award, they found another cake almost as tall. I thought for sure Scott was guaranteed a win, at least for "Most Frosting". I actually think they came up with that category from one of Scott's cakes two years ago! Anyhow, he was very excited with himself. So can you guess how we spent our evenings last week! Good thing cake mix was on sale last weekend. And Tom and Allison did a great job passing out lots of cake so we did not have to bring much home. And now Scott is officially a Webelos I. Next year he will be a Webelos II, and then on to Boy Scouts.

Before we even finished decorating Scott's cake on Saturday afternoon, Allison and I joined our neighbors for a fund raising event for the people of Haiti. Participants all met at our local park to attempt to join hands all around the lake. They estimated needing 4000 people to wrap around the whole lake, however, they managed to bring in about 1000 people, so we didn't quite make it all the way around, but most people were happy to provide donations. I was a bit hesitant to attend as I did not wish to get stuck waiting in long lines for a shuttle bus back to our local school parking lots. Turns out it was very smooth moving and well organized. They had free school bus shuttles bringing people in and out of the park, right on schedule. And when we arrived, we located our neighbors and their group quite easily. After joining hands and a quick song on bagpipes, we all went home. Allison even managed to get her photo and name in the local paper for the event! The sponsoring group turned out to be the Ellicott City Rotary Club along with a kids summer camp organization called Kids for Peace. All the money raised will be sent to the Sarasota Florida Rotary Club to ship off supplies to Haiti. It really was a well organized and crafted event(too bad girl scouts can't run as smoothly). And the weather was surprisingly sunny although a bit chilly. We were worried that we would be snowed under again this week, but the big storm stayed along the shoreline and hit PA, New Jersey and New York with 20 inches of snow! We still have everyone beat with 80 inches of snow so far this winter! Rather than the snow storm we had a snow hurricane come through. Once again I was grateful that the power stayed on.

The kids were hoping for another snow day. They are a bit overwhelmed with the tight school schedule they have been under lately. Since they missed over a week of school, the teachers have been playing catch up by squeezing in lots of tests and papers and projects in a shorter time span. I have never felt so disorganized. Fortunately, they decided to make up the missed days by having the kids attend school the whole day rather than 1/2 days for teacher development days. And they will go a whole day right before Easter break. They have also extended the school year to June 23rd. At least we will not be losing our Easter break(there was a threat). And they actually waived a few days-not an easy task. We are all holding our breath that the weather stays decent so as not to extend the school year into the 2010-11 school year!
We also returned to indoor field hockey since the building was repaired. Allison should be done, but they rescheduled the missed games. She got some extra playing time last week as a few other teams asked her to fill in as their goalie. I would have loved to send Allison to a free goalie clinic this coming weekend at Towson University, but Allison and I will be busy sleeping that day. Next weekend is our up all night girl scout event, which means sleep all the next day. I am sure other opportunities will present themselves in the future. She would like to attend a field hockey summer camp, and I have not yet checked out the county spring schedule. Scott just informed me that he wants to try baseball. He thinks because he can play the Wii sports that he can play in real life. I think he is in for an eye opener. That is why I sign the kids up at the YMCA-they actually give the kids instruction on how to play(and it is cheaper!).
So a Big Happy Birthday to Susan Seitz. She celebrated her birthday by getting a new dog! Sadly her dog Fred was put down a week ago, and she and her husband John were feeling rather lonely, so they replaced Fred with Gus-a ridgeback/hound mix. He should be a good running companion for John and walking partner for Sue. I know how nice it is to take a walk with the dog in tow, although sometimes that is all I am doing(towing Cookie down the road since she gets so interested in trying to chase birds and squirrels and blowing leaves!).

Well, I guess you could say things are finally getting back to normal. All though it has been a bit painful. The kids were off on Monday for President's Day, and they closed school again on Tuesday. When they finally did get back to school, it was after a 2 hour delay in the morning. The counties were just having too much trouble moving all the snow. And schools were still not cleared, especially sidewalks. We actually have quite a few kids that walk to school, and it was just too dangerous to walk in the roads. For some reason, Maryland didn't build shoulders alongside the roads. So there really was no place to put all the snow. They had to bring in dump trucks in downtown Baltimore, scoop up the snow and dump it in the bay! It looked like a very big slushy! And the temperature is rising slowly, which is probably a good thing for us since the snow is melting slowly. If it melted all at once, we'd have to break out the life jackets and the Ark!
Our average snowfall in Maryland is apparently 18 inches for the entire Winter. This year we are around 73 inches and we haven't hit Spring yet! Needless to say, we surpassed a few old records. And we also discovered that the guys that measure the snowfall at the airport play a big role in the economy and how federal funding is determined. Looks like here in Baltimore, they opted to use one of their own technicians to measure snowfall rather than a meteorologist. Turns out both groups measure snowfall differently. Weather guys measure snow hourly, which has a lot to do with how compact the snow gets and how long it sits. The technicians at the airport just care about how much snow affects the operation of the airport. The government has set standards in determining how much snow equals how many federal dollars used to help clean up the snow. So there is a discrepancy between our airport people and our weather people. Looks like we hit around 63 inches all said and done over the last two weeks. Now the FAA and weather people are questioning the measurements dating all the way back to the early 1900s. Crazy stuff. We just know it was a ton of snow in a short period of time and that the roadbergs are going to be around until April it seems.
I was laughing at an article in the paper, an editorial discussing the joys of snow days. Including the mad rush to the stores to buy meat, milk and toilet paper. Then the need to cook huge chunks of meat which find their way into soups(mine end up in pot pies!) as well as lots of cookies. And the fun of picking up the excessive clutter in the house which occurs when children stay home from school for more than one day. Including all the wet mittens, hats, boots, snow pants and coats that are strewn from the garage all the way to the fireplace in the family room! And the shear excitement of watching front loaders push snow up out of the roads onto the neighbor's front yards. I actually took a video of the front loader cleaning up the extra snow on our street at night. Too bad we couldn't have sold some of this extra stuff to Vancouver. Baltimore actually had to buy more road salt from Mexico since the whole east coast ran out(or they were hoarding their supplies). And driving on our roads has been very interesting lately. I took the neighbor ladies and girls out to see Percy Jackson The Lightning Thief and as I was dropping everyone off, I drove up to about a dozen deer coming right at me down our road! They decided to jump over the 4ft snow bank and attempted to cross the neighbor's yard. The ladies were afraid they would get stuck in the snow and made me slow down to look!
So don't you wish you could all share in this fabulous experience? I got yelled at from my boss for having to adjust my work schedule because when the kids finally went back to school they had a two hour delay, and I had to drop them off before going into work. Tom finally ended up in California for his business trip. He needed to stay and work 2 weeks, so he decided it would be better to stay over the weekend rather than try to get home, only to go back to the airport and spend another day traveling. That worked fine for me since he mostly catches up on his sleep when he gets back from a trip. And I had a very busy weekend with the kids.
As I mentioned, all the activities that we planned several weekends ago were bumped to future weekends. Allison and I participated in a Girl Scout International Day on Saturday(that was already scheduled and ran on time). We were singing in the opening ceremony with the GS choir. The event was held at a local catholic high school this year, so Allison got a sneak peak into one our catholic schools(rather old and run down). She enjoyed listening to the speaker from the Peace Corps, and tasting a rice cake from the phillipines(more like a sweet cupcake with ground meat on the bottom). We also picked up some great handouts for her Health teacher on nutrition and exercise. In the meantime, I paid to have Scott stay with a babysitter at our neighbor's house since this was an all girl event. He certainly enjoyed his play date with the neighbor's son. On Sunday, after church in the morning and some intense homework and studying, we all joined Scott's school for an afternoon of bowling. The event had been scheduled several weeks earlier, but was canceled due to the snow. They had several kids cancel so I asked if Allison could come along. They asked if she could chaperone a lane of kids next to the lane I was watching, plus they let her bowl and eat pizza too. Worked for us. We all had a lot of fun and even saw our next door neighbor there celebrating their daughter's birthday. The place was packed. After bowling, I thought I could get the kids their haircuts that they desperately needed. However, when we arrived at the salon in the mall there was a 2hour wait, and the mall was closing before that! I guess everyone is still behind on their schedules! It was bad enough trying to find a parking place, so we just bought dinner at the Food Court and headed home to finish up our homework/studying.
My biggest challenge when Tom is out of town is getting the kids where they need to be. I managed to get Scott to gymnastics and Allison to piano, but her indoor Field Hockey is on hold due to damage to the building's roof from the snow. Not sure when it will be fixed.
I do try to get most of my errands run on Fridays. I discovered the Boy Scout store near the airport and was busy spending the afternoon buying Scott his new patches for his khaki shirt. This weekend he will celebrate his advancement from a cub scout to a Webelo Scout and switches from his blue shirt to his khaki shirt. So I had to get all new patches sewn on(but first I had to buy them!). I also picked up some supplies for cake decorating as he usually participates in the cake making contest for the blue and gold dinner. Boy Scouts is celebrating their 100th year so we will make the biggest birthday cake we can assemble(without tipping over!). There is a "tallest cake" category. Everything must be edible too. He also has a vest full of patches that I asked one of my girl scouts to sew on for him so he can wear it to the banquet. I also found the kids a new dentist office and scheduled them an appt in a few weeks. I signed up for a new insurance from my job since Tom's dental program has been sorely lacking. Limited choices and many dentists keep dropping the insurance(Cigna). So it will be interesting to see how the new dentist turns out(a woman who has an office right around the corner from us). I was impressed with the fact that when I stopped into the office, they were closed, but the receptionist opened the door and let me in to talk to me and make appointments. It is pretty hard to find decent service like that nowadays.
Other sad news, Linda Seitz lost her grandmother last week-she passed away at 101! She was still living in her own house in Michigan. I will really miss hearing Flossie stories!
My best (OT) friend Laura fell over some bowling ball bags while attending a fund raiser activity and broke her arm(shoulder area-neck of the humerus). She was busy celebrating her raffle win and ended up on the floor with a broken arm. She thought she would get away with a sling for 6 wks, and then lots of therapy, but the orthopedic MDs decided she required surgery. So in she went for surgery. On top of all that, her sister in law passed away. Our sympathy goes out to Dan and Laura. She had to decide between surgery or a funeral. Not a great choice. Hope you are taking it easy Laura and recuperating.
This has been quite a year so far. I will let you know how we survive all the snow and the threat of more to come! Kathleen and family

Happy Valentine's Day! Our Maryland governor extended our Valentine's Day until Feb 21st to allow people to spend more money on flowers, cards, jewelry and other love gifts, as well as going out to eat since we have all been snowed in for over a week. Our family decided to have our usual toned down Valentine's Day celebration at home anyway. Tom made us all a great salmon dinner and we enjoyed GS Thin Mint ice cream for dessert. Tom bought me a gold necklace with a family charm, and I bought us both a wine tasting class. Plus I treated myself to a haircut! (finally).
Both of the kids could use a haircut, but I haven't been able to get to the mall, and when the streets cleared up a bit, I didn't want to go anywhere near the mall since I figured it would be filled with tons of kids bored out of their minds. Plus limited parking due to all the snow.
As you may have heard, Maryland and most of the east coast was slammed with an incredible amount of snow-2 feet over the Super Bowl weekend, and another two feet just a few days later. Our entire state has been busy digging out paths that we call "roads". The snow began falling the friday night of Super Bowl weekend, and it feels like it hasn't stopped. Our road was not plowed for 4 days, and it took Tom and I two days to finish our driveway and front walk, plus a pathway out the back door on the deck to the yard to allow the dog a place to go potty. The snow was so deep, the snow blower couldn't blow the snow high enough, and it was getting difficult to lift the snow up over your head. This was especially difficult for me since most of the snow piles were definitely over my head! I finally wore out my shoulder after a week of lifting heavy snow and chiseling out the ice. I have been on heavy duty motrin all week so I could get in a few days of work. We can't let the dog outside in the backyard by herself to go to the bathroom because the snow is so high it is over the 3 ft fence. Cookie just runs over the fence from the backyard to the front door. The only problem is, sometimes she prefers to run down to the neighbors for a visit, and she can also run on top of the snow which doesn't help when you are trying to catch her!
Basically all of our activities we had planned for Super Bowl weekend were cancelled. We were supposed to go complete our volunteer work for our Disney tickets-rescheduled. A wine tasting gala was cancelled. Scott's bowling party for the entire school was rescheduled. No piano lessons. But we did manage to squeeze in the Super Bowl party at our house. Most people made it down the street on little paths everyone made while out walking their dogs. Our one main road through the neighborhood was cleared, but only one car width. It made walking and driving quite hazardous. And lots of tree branches down, power outages. We were nice and comfy in our house and enjoyed cheering on the Colts for the Super Bowl. Sadly it did not help. We did have a few Saints fans present. We were all quite surprised by the outcome of the game-it was very exciting at least. And the food was great(not to mention the beer supply). And the kids loved playing with each other(and my house got cleaned and dirtied all in one weekend!). Some neighbors were just happy to have a warm place to sit, warm food and internet service since they had been out of power for several days. Even the pet turtle went into hibernation until they got him in some warmer water!
And so they actually closed school for the entire week following the big storms. We may have been able to plow out from under after the first big storm on Super Bowl weekend, but along came another 2 feet of snow in the middle of the week,and on top of that, blizzard conditions! I made it to work 2 out of 4 days, Tom spent some time working from home, and managed to get into the office about 3 days out of the week. It reminded me of Winter Break in Boston. They automatically build in a week off school in the winter for a break, as well as Spring break. And school ran until the end of June in Boston. And so it seems for us as well. We are now set to end on June 23rd. And they took away a few teacher inservice days. But at least they did not take away our Easter break. They were threatening. We would not be too happy since we already bought plane tickets to LA.
So instead we stayed pretty much at home for a whole week-from the 8th to the 12th. Tom's trip to LA was cancelled(thank goodness). The airports were a mess. Fortunately the kids already had a few days scheduled off for Parent Teacher conferences. And the teachers still managed to send home some projects and extra homework for the kids via email(isn't technology wonderful!). So besides a very early start to Spring cleaning, Tom and I worked with the kids on their homework assignments and stayed warm, in between plowing.
And by the following weekend, we were busy trying to catch up with all the activities that were cancelled the weekend before. We started with our Volunteer work for Disney. We volunteered to assemble luminary bags for a Relay for Life Cancer Fund. The Relay will be held in June, and they light luminary bags for cancer survivors. Between our family and one other, we assembled 400 bags. And we earned free admission passes to Disneyland or Disneyworld for a day. Since we are visiting California this spring, we decided to use our tickets there. Sadly, since we had to change our schedule, Scott missed out on a laser tag birthday, so Tom took him in the evening to play while Allison babysat for the neighbors. She definitely managed to get quite a bit of extra babysitting done since school was closed but most of the neighbors had to get to work on days when the roads were partially cleared.
So I took lots of snow pictures and Tom thankfully put a few on my blog so you can all see how much snow we have been shoveling and snow blowing. Hope spring comes soon!
Kathleen and Family