Solvang
Biking on the Beach
Santa Barbara Mission

So Hockey season is winding down with all the playoffs. We enjoyed the drama of the College Basketball Tournaments-of course since MSU played. We even wore our MSU sweatshirts out to LA. And we pulled up at a stoplight next to a guy who had a Uof M sticker on his car. I made sure he saw my MSU sweatshirt! He laughed and gave us a thumbs up. I even got a honking from another driver here in MD for my MSU bumper sticker. I did not recognize the driver, but when he went by I saw he had a Michigan license plate. Us Michiganders stick together!
Tom has had hockey fever so bad lately he couldn't stand watching another game on tv. He had to go watch a game in person. So off we went last Sunday night to Hershey Park in PA to watch the IHL team, the Hershey bears play in their playoff series. We had very nice box level seats-lots of great food and comfy seats. Scott especially enjoyed the ice cream sundae bar! And it was a very exciting game(lots of rough housing-ie fights). And the bears won which made it even more exciting. I almost didn't mind when the lady behind me jumped up and spilled her bottle of water all over me! And then we got to drive home in a massive thunderstorm-complete with hail. And Allison and I had already put in a busy day by driving north of Baltimore to sing with the GS choir for the Gold Award banquet. The Gold Award is equivalent to the BS Eagle award. My girls were working on their award prerequisites at the overnight. There were about 49 girls that earned their Gold Award this year in Central MD. This is a project primarily for High School girls. Allison and I enjoyed looking over the booklet at all the different types of projects before getting up to sing.
On Saturday morning I was busy with my garage sale-time to clean out all the kids closets. While I was busy selling stuff, Tom was busy trying to train Cookie on our newly installed electric fence. Poor Cookie was caught off guard and stuck over the electrified wire so I had to run and save her. I have never seen a dog jump straight up in the air. All her fur was sticking straight out. Needless to say the kids weren't too excited about the incident. But Tom and I told them it would be better than having Cookie squashed in the street. As a matter of fact, she was trying to follow one of my customers to their car when she got zapped. And after all that we dragged her off to doggy school. We are working on wait and stay while we stroll around the store. She actually did very good with this. She still gets distracted, but she is the best behaved dog in her class.
After our garage sale we were busy cleaning and cooking to have the neighbors over for dinner. We wanted to thank our neighbors for watching our house while we were gone, and we also invited some friends over that we keep missing since they live far away. But all that is going to change since they are moving back to our neighborhood. They used to live just two doors down. We are happy they will be much closer.
Friday night I was busy with Scott at the Cub Scout pack meeting-they put on a mini olympics. Tom got Allison to piano.
Thursday I had to take the day off to stay with Scott. Both kids originally had the day off, but Allison was making up for a snow day. So Scott needed company. And it was Take your Kids to Work Day, so Northrop had several fun activities and food available for all the employees that brought their kids. While the boys played and Tom taught a class, I headed to the dentist. I also had to get Scott to gymanstics that night, and Allison to an orientation meeting for GS summer camp. She is going to be volunteering at GS Day Camp and helping with the archery. She is pretty excited. I am just happy she found a ride home.
On Weds night I was rushing the kids off to the Resurrection 8th grade vs Faculty basketball game. Allison played last year, but I took the kids so Scott could sing with the school choir. They did the National Anthem and Michael Jackson's Man in the Mirror at half time. Allison just wanted to visit with her old teachers and old class mates that were there cheering on their siblings. I think my ears are still ringing from that night. And a few teachers did not do too well physically-there were twisted ankles and torn finger tendons. The adults are getting older and kids are getting younger! Glad I didn't have to play!
Allison finished her third quarter in High School and did fantastic. Now the race is on for the last quarter and she is getting slammed. They have a lot to squeeze in between now and the end of the school year. Same for Scott. Which means we will be busy too! What a surprise.

So we made it back to our usual schedule(you can just imagine). Kids were busy with tests and papers, and we were all very tired.
I switched my work day to Friday since we were traveling on Monday. It made for a long week since I had a girl scout outing over the weekend. My girl scouts are in High School now and looking at completing their Gold Award-equivalent to the Boy Scout Eagle Award. I took 4 girls to an overnight program where they completed most of their prerequisites to earning the Gold Award. They already finished their Silver Award which counts towards their prerequisites. This program was very overwhelming considering the amount of info they covered, but very interesting.
So interesting, they turned it into an overnight. We spent time working on an environmental/health badge, Roots and Shoots, and the girls now have to plan a project. They decided they will probably run a health class for Junior girl scouts next year(some badge), and probably charge for it to make some money for a future trip. We are looking into joining a GS International group that just started and will help organize Girl Scout trips overseas(like London!) The girl scouts have lodges around the world including England, Mexico, Switzerland and India. England sounds good.
The girls also earned a Parks badge, a finance badge called Capital Currency. That was very interesting since the girls spent time learning about banking, checking, stocks and financial aid for College funding. The girls also got to speak to a Senior college student about classes and college life as well as a tour of a local Community college and a peak into the dorm rooms as well as other buildings.
While I was off with the girls, Tom was spending time at home with Scott. He was busy cutting the grass(for the 3rd time in two weeks). He had to cut it before we left for LA and our neighbor cut it while we were gone. Sadly, he also ran over one of my Michigan baby cedar trees with the mower. Oh well. We've had lots of warm weather and rain so lots of flowers and pollen. The rest of the family isn't too happy about the allergies. Even in LA we couldn't believe how green everything was as well as all the beautiful flowers(not a good sign for the fall though-when it all dries up it means more chances for fires). But it sure was beautiful now!

So we made it to LA on the Saturday before Easter for our spring break and had a fabulous time! Good thing Allison and Scott had the same week off. Won't happen again I am told.
We flew into LAX after a stop over in Nashville. Tom saved up his airline points with all his traveling so we could all fly out to LA on Southwest(nearly free). If you don't use those points by a certain time, they expire and you have to pay a small amount to keep the tickets. Anyhow, it was a lot cheaper! The kids were pretty excited about flying since neither one remembered their previous trips. And that is a long flight. Tom had us all set up with inflight entertainment-movies and games on Ipods, etc.
We picked up our rental car at LAX and headed to Mike Bozyk's place north of LA. Traffic actually was terrific for us all week-we couldn't believe it. We got to Mike's early enough for a quick tour and to get the kids to bed before the Easter bunny arrived!
Easter Sunday the kids were up early looking for their Easter baskets(and they managed to find them!). We were up and dressed and on the road down to Disneyland in Anaheim. We had put in volunteer hours and earned free tickets to Disney. Mike had a California discount and got a free return ticket to Disney or California Adventure. We had an incredible time at Disney, even enjoyed Tom's official birthday since it fell on Easter Sunday. He had his "It's My Birthday" button on at Disney and got lots of good wishes and a free dessert when we stopped for lunch at the Bayou in the Pirates ride. Our day was interrupted though by a 7.2 earthquake which occurred in Mexico in Baja, south of San Diego. I had told Allison it would be a one in a billion chance that she would experience an earthquake while visiting LA. Both kids have been studying earthquakes in science class, so they were very fascinated(and concerned) about being in one. And since lots of earthquakes have been occurring lately around the globe, there was a slight possibility. And we caught it! But surprisingly, the only one of our group that felt it was Allison. I said since everything at Disney shakes you and rocks you on the rides, who could tell the difference! Unfortunately for us, they shut down the rides for several hours for safety checks, so we stopped for a snack and to walk around the park, check out the castle. I did not realize that the castle in Disneyland belongs to Sleeping Beauty, Aurora, and the castle in Disneyworld in Florida belongs to Cinderella. Who knew? The Disneyland castle is a whole lot smaller too. I was just disappointed that they didn't have the Fantasia show running-that was pretty spectacular when Tom and I saw it 15 years ago! By the way, I had not been back to LA for ten years. Tom did a drive by of our old home, Downey to show Allison and Scott our townhouse(Allison was there for a year). We thought it was amazing that the Downey high school had a viking mascot just like Allison's high school here in Maryland. We spent the whole day at Disney until we could walk no further, and the rain started about 11pm.
Monday we promised the kids a trip to La Brea tar pits. They studied it in school and wanted to see for themselves. Tom and I had visited many eons ago, and I even showed the kids photos before we left. It pretty much looked exactly the same-lots of gooey tar coming up from the ground(bubbling ooze). And smack dab in the Hollywood area. They got to see the Hollywood sign from the top of the parking structure at the new shopping mecca, The Grove. Mike took us there and we enjoyed lunch at the Farmer's Market. We also visited Mann's Chinese theatre and the Ripley's museum and read lots of Hollywood stars on the Walk of Fame(the kids really don't know too many movie stars, but they recognized the star wars and Harry Potter characters.
Tuesday we headed down to San Diego and visited Sea World(we have season passes). No more swimming with those killer whales by the way! Weds was a full day at the San Diego zoo. We saw cute baby Koalas!
Thursday we were back at Mike's place and headed to Universal Studios. Mike got a CA discount and received a free pass to Universal for the rest of the year. The kids were not very familiar with too many old movies or movie stars, but they were fascinated with all the movie magic and the shows, as well as the rides. We actually ran into several filming sets around LA that week, including a few CSI sets and a movie premier, The Perfect Game(kids baseball movie with Cheech Marin). I had wanted to stay at the Barnes and Noble bookstore to see Gene Wilder at the Grove shopping center as he was selling his new book.
Friday we spent the day at the beach. We took a 25 mile bike ride up and down the coast from Rehobeth to Marina Del Rey and stopped for lunch on the pier. We were excited to see sea lions swimming around the piers! The kids ran up and down the beach for an hour before heading home.
Saturday we drove up the coast to Santa Barbara and Solvang. We toured the Santa Barbara mission(very cool). We stopped for lunch and a tour at the Firestone winery(one of our favorites) and had dinner at a Seafood restaurant on the pier. While waiting for our table, we enjoyed searching for starfish, crabs, sea lions and manta rays around the breakwater.
Sunday we ended our trip with a visit to Disney's newest park, California Adventure. How fun. Mike had a free pass, so we thought we'd try it out. It was a combo park of Epcot, Disney's MGM studios and amusement park. Again we had a wonderful time, and the kids got to spend their Disney dollars that they found in their Easter baskets. Scott found a Club penguin for the computer game(Disney owned) and Allison is now a Disney pin collector. She was busy searching for Disney's dragons. The disney workers wear pins around their neck, and you can swap pins with them if there is something you would like. Most people pick up cheap packets of pins to trade for the better ones.
So on Monday we flew back to Baltimore through Houston. Our flight was terrific, our trip was terrific! I would have loved to visit my old hospital, Rancho as well as some LA friends, but I am not sure where we would have squeezed that in!We thank Mike Bozyk for being such a wonderful host.
The kids missed one day back to school and had to make up a lot of homework, but it was worth the trip.
Another Happy Birthday out to Dad Bozyk, Sandra Bozyk and Sarah Bozyk! What a busy month. And Sarah hit the big 18 this year! The kids are growing too fast!

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