Big Congratulations goes out to Allison this past week. First she was chosen to be a Girl Scout Delegate to travel to Houston Tx in Nov to attend the Girl Scout National Convention celebrating our 100th anniversary. All expenses paid! Sadly, I did not get picked, but I should plan on traveling with her as a chaperone. So looks like I will be celebrating my birthday in Nov. in Texas. We travel from Nov 9th-13th. We are already looking forward to seeing my brothers, sister in laws and the cousins!

Secondly, Allison was officially hired at the skating rink as a rink guard. She spent the weekend filling out paperwork and participating in an interview. They said it takes about one month to process all the paperwork, but in the meantime she can take CPR certification and attend a Columbia Association orientation. The neighborhood next to ours, Columbia, has a lot of nice programs and facilities. However, if you live in Columbia, you have to pay extra for all those programs and facilities through the association. As a Columbia Association employee, Allison will have free membership to all the gyms and pools, both indoor and out and discounts to programs such as the horsebackriding center and tennis lessons, mini golf or whatever. She will probably start working weekends in April.

She also had an interview at school for next year's mentorship program. She is hoping to be selected as a teacher's aide at her elementary school-Resurrection St Paul where Scott is in 5th grade. Since Allison is interested in teaching this would be a great opportunity.

She was supposed to interview on Tuesday but ended up with a snow day. Spring sure is trying to move in! We were snowed in on Tuesday and by Friday we had a thunderstorm complete with hail and 70 mile/hr winds. A big pine tree tipped over on one of our old buildings at work during the day. I went out to my car to find it covered in tree limbs-no damage at least.

I was already home on Tuesday. I had planned on staying home with Scott who had the day off for a teacher's inservice. And I stayed home with the kids on Presidents Day on Monday too. I had planned on taking them skiing, but the weather actually warmed up on Monday with rain. So it was hard to believe we ended up with snow the next day. Instead of skiing on MOnday, I had taken them tubing on Sunday. We invited Scott's friend and ex neighbor SAmmy to join us. We kept him for an overnight with Scott, but first we stopped into Cici's pizza buffet for dinner after tubing. I opted out of the sport since my right knee is still swollen and sore. I really wish I could have gone skiing with them. I guess there is still time.

On Monday SCott had a laser birthday party to go to in the afternoon. Sammy's Dad came and picked him up and I dropped off Scott to the party. Meanwhile, one of Allison's old classmates and fellow girl scout was with her mom dropping off their daughter for the birthday party too. I asked Becky if she wouldn't like to join Allison at the mall to do some dress shopping. Allison was looking for a dress for her school interview. She also wanted to see the new movie "I am Number 4". I decided I could get more done if I let the girls do a little mall shopping together and catch the movie while I checked out the sales at Kohls and picked up SCott when the party ended. I loaded up Allison with her gift cards and dropped off the two girls. They both had a great time and Allison loved the movie(apparently it is a perfect teenage movie about an alien teenager trying not to get killed by more aliens). We did a little more shopping and got dinner after the movie let out and I had picked up SCott. Allison and I still had some studying to do that evening, but it turned out she had an extra day with the snow storm.

ON Tuesday I spent the morning shoveling the driveway while Scott had a snowball fight. By the way ,Tom had left for Chicago on Sunday afternoon and worked Presidents day before jumping on another plane and heading to LA Monday night. By the time the snow was cleared from the streets in the afternoon I was able to run up to the post office to drop off Allison's Girl Scout camp Program Aide application. She wants to help with the archery program at Girl SCout Day CAmp again this summer. I also took SCott with me for a much needed haircut, and then off to the Boy Scout store to buy his uniform. He needed a new shirt with new patches and pants along with his Scout book. We had our first boy scout meeting that night. (I thought Tom was taking over now?!). I filled out registration forms and wrote checks while Scott showed off his square knot tying skills.

I ended up working the rest of the week. My fellow OT coworker is still off work with a stress fracture in her foot and is not supposed to walk for another 2 weeks. They would love for me to work every Friday. Every SAturday too. I was happy they had enough weekend help though and did not need me SAturday. Instead I spent the morning with Scott passing out food donation bags house to house with the cub scouts. Afterwards we headed to the grocery store with the boy scouts to ask for food donations. The boys were handed a lot of cash donations, so we all took turns shopping in the store with the scouts for great bargains.

On SAturday night Allison had a babysitting job at Sammy's house, so we left her at their house and brought Sammy back to our house for a sleep over with SCott. Allison got home late, but she wanted to sleep in her own bed rather than sleeping over too. On Sunday morning we celebrated Scout Mass at the noon mass. Allison and Scott altar served for the mass. I was sorry not to see more girl scouts, but they used to have the mass earlier in the morning, and now it was switched to noon. So I don't think as many troops could make it. They also pass out religious medals that the boy scouts have earned during the mass.

Since Tom had left that day to head to Chicago, he had to pass on his coaching job to our neighbor Phil who took Allison to her indoor field hockey game.

A very busy and productive week! A huge Happy Birthday to Susan Seitz who celebrated on the 26th of February!

By the way, I was reading in one of the Parenting magazines that Mommy Blogs are huge. Some moms actually go out and tour and lecture about the perils of being a mom(don't think I can squeeze that in my busy schedule!)

Talk to you all soon!

Well VAlentine's Day has come and gone. And poor Scott missed it. He was home sick on Valentine's Day. We had spent last weekend making Valentine chocolate lollipops with small candy canes and he constructed a monster valentine box to collect his own goodies. On Sunday night he was feeling sick and had a fever so I had to keep him home. I did run his Valentine treats up to school however. He was shooting for a prize for the best Valentine box(his box won).
I treated Tom to his favorite coffee(Peets coffee) and poppy seed scones for Valentine's day breakfast with a dozen red roses and a card at dinner time. Tom put together a coffee mug for me with family photos that he ordered from snapfish online photos.

Speaking of photos DAd Seitz. Tom sent our photos that you requested off to be printed by snapfish-hopefully they have arrived by now. I was trying to photocopy our wedding photo and the kids christmas print at Staples but since there are copyright issues with professional photos, they could not make the copies for me. They offered to allow me to make the colored copies myself but their copier was down. So was the colored copier at Target. Plus I don't think they would let me make the copies anyway. I have had that problem in the past. I just wasn't sure about the quality of the photos if Tom scanned them first on his computer. Guess you can let us know.

We have been busy taking photos lately. Scott had his Blue and Gold Cub Scout banquet on Saturday at which he bridged to Boy SCouts. He and Tom chose a troop and they were there to welcome him and give him his new kerchief. Scott is very excited. He also enjoyed making another winning cake! The theme was Football and tailgating food. Scott took on a football stadium cake and won for Scouts Choice. He actually won two prizes again, but could only take home one medal. He also won Scouts Choice for best cake last year as well! We are looking forward to his first Boy Scout meeting this coming week. Of course, it looks like I will be taking him since Tom is out of town. At least he did not have to worry about getting coverage for Allison's field hockey since it wasn't scheduled on the holiday weekend.

On Sunday afternoon Tom headed to Chicago and then he is off to LA for the rest of the week. I taken off Monday and Tuesday to spend time with the kids who are off for Presidents Day and parent teacher conferences. I had planned on taking the kids skiing, but my knee is still swollen and sore and I did not want to reinjure myself on the slopes and not be able to drive home from PA. I also did not feel comfortable leaving the kids on the slopes by themselves. Instead, I felt more comfortable letting them snow tube while I sat in the lodge and read my book(sound familiar Laura!). I invited a buddy for Scott-our previous neighbor's son Sammy. The kids enjoyed themselves but Scott was a bit saddened. He did not realize that tubing was another name for sledding! He couldn't understand why he couldn't ski with a perfectly good hill right next to the tubing slope! Maybe next month. I did bring Sammy back to our house for a sleepover since Scott was off school on Monday. Allison even had a sleepover on the weekend with Sammy's sister at their house. Allison had a day off on Friday but had to stay home with Tom while he waited(once again) for the appliance repairman. Finally he had all the necessary parts and it looks like my dishwasher control panel is up and running again(finally!) and no beeping! I would have been home but ended up making up a day of work since Scott was home on Monday. Too bad I didn't miss out on the yearly clinic survey and staff meeting where they look over our clinic and double check our paperwork with a fine toothed comb. So far everything looks pretty good, but we were under an audit from Medicare so we have to be careful with our documentation and treatments. I ended up working late on Friday night trying to help the staff get caught up with paperwork. I met SCott and Tom and Cookie afterwards for Yappy Hour at our favorite wine store owned by the MSU grad. We enjoy the wine tastings and checking out all the different dogs that visit with their owners. A portion of the proceeds from wine sales for the evening go to animal shelters. We are always amazed at the different types of dogs. Especially the great dane that was as tall as most people there(and he was standing on all 4 paws!).

It also looks like we are not quite done with winter. We had a few warmer days last week and most of our snow melted. But more snow is on the way!

A very Happy Birthday shout out to cousins Caroline and Clayton Bozyk who both turned 15 on Sunday! Happy Birthday you two! I was happy to see some photos on your facebook pages that Allison pulled up. She even got in touch with cousin Sarah on her facebook this week(Allison is enjoying my newly won laptop).

Looking forward to another busy week. Kathleen

Happy Early Valentine's Day! We mostly celebrated over the weekend. Tom and I had the opportunity to have a late lunch together on Friday afternoon. I volunteered to work 4 hours in the morning(from 8-12) since the dishwasher repair man was supposed to come in the afternoon. Finally. Instead, Tom called me at work to let me know the repairman showed up in the morning. So Tom ended up staying home from work. He was due for a day off since he spent the previous Friday presenting the science fair info to Scott's school. Here I thought our dishwasher problem would finally be taken care of since it has been over a month waiting for the new motherboard for the dishwasher. Tom said the repairman started the diagnostic all over again(turning off the power, pushing buttons). Tom reminded him that he did that over a month ago and nothing had changed. Then the guy changed the part and discovered that he needed more parts and was going to have to order them. Thank goodness we are not paying for all of this, but I told Tom we may want to call Bosch and ask them for a whole new dishwasher! The repair guy thought we may need to go back to Best Buy. Guess we should have known the whole deal was going to go bad for us from the start when they couldn't even pull up the order on their computer system. I did check for other Bosch dishwashers at Sears and did not see much of a selection. Again, at least it is washing dishes. The only thing I asked Tom to make sure was that the guy reset the washer by turning off the annoying beeping sound when the dishwasher is done(that is what got us into this mess in the first place). Did they remember? No. And I can't get it to stop. Gotta love technology.

Speaking of technology-the girls in my office informed me that I had won a raffle at work! The company was pushing for everyone to get a flu shot so they had monthly raffles starting in October. Normally I don't do well with raffles, but this was the last one and I had won! A new laptop! I could barely contain my enthusiasm! Me of all people to win a computer system. Allison is currently very grateful for my prize-a $450.00 value- Gateway laptop. I had to pay taxes on the thing. I think I would have preferred the day off with pay. Anyhow, Tom says it is a nice laptop. Just my luck.

And speaking of more great luck, since I have been trying to help out more at work I have been running around campus dragging my work laptop everywhere I go(mostly uphill). And I blew my right knee out in the process. I have been wrapping it up in an ace bandage everyday. That really helps keep the pain and swelling down. Just when I thought it felt better I took Cookie for a walk without the bandage(big mistake). If I had time at work I would treat it, but I am usually too busy. We are having a survey this coming week and they want all our "paperwork" up to date and the clinic looking good. Now that I am helping in 3 different clinics I have 3xs the work.
I guess I can't complain about having too much work-it certainly pays well, especially after I put in my 4 days. I just read an article where OT was named one of the top 50 professions by US World and News until 2018 at least. Great, only 7 more years of work!(Yeah, right).

ONe of the bonuses at work is our quarterly flea market. When a resident moves in or out they often donate their items to the sale. The money made pays for continuiing care for residents and Christmas bonuses for staff and scholarships for the students working in the dining rooms. I enjoy picking up a few items here and there-books for the kids, dishes, holiday items, storage containers, gloves and scarves, umbrellas, everything and anything. I even got a coffee pot for work. And I usually don't spend more than 20 bucks. It is all for a good cause. I tried to buy a desk that matches Allison's bedroom set, but it sold first thing. The sale is also a great place to get caught up with other staff and former patients. I enjoy chatting with them, but not so much when I would rather be shopping! Especially when it is on my lunch hour!

Besides work there is scouts of course. I had a few of my girls over on Friday to work on a badge fundraiser that we are (hopefully) going to hold for Junior SCouts in March. WE also practiced making lanyards since they are monitoring that station at the Up all Night at the Mall program the first weekend in March.
I also took Scott to another boy scout meeting this past week. There was another Open house going on and SCott was in the mood to attend a meeting. I would have preferred that Tom would have gone, but he was working late(liquid meeting). I certainly enjoyed the troop and everyone's enthusiasm. They reported having "graduated" 24 Eagle scouts in 6 years. Pretty impressive. It was a rather small troop of 25 boys compared to some troops with over 100. But Tom and SCott have made their choice on a troop already and a representative from his new troop will be there next SAturday when SCott bridges to boy scout.

So it is that time of year again! The Blue and Gold banquet and that means cake contest! This year's theme is football and tailgating and Scott wants to make a stadium cake. We will see how it goes. WE both spent time this past week shopping for cake mix, brownie mix and frosting(good deals at the dollar store!), along with extras for decoration. Everything on the cake must be edible.

He wanted to start baking this weekend, but I did not want it to go stale. Besides, we were busy making Valentine treats. I saw a lollipop recipe in my FAmily Fun magazine a few months back and decided to give it a try. YOu first make a heart out of two small candycanes. I had picked up some tiny candy canes just after Christmas for this project. You were supposed to heat them a bit in the oven on a low temp and then pinch them onto the lollipop stick but it did not work. Instead they started to break. So the next step is to melt white chocolate and add it to the center. Tom thought the melted chocolate would hold it all together and by george it did! So I poured in the chocolate(we had colored chocolate including white and red). SCott did the decorating with sprinkles, M&Ms and his favorite, red hots. We then wrapped them in lollipop bags that came with the sticks and SCott attached all his VAlentine cards. And then he ate one and said it was delicious. He also spent a lot of time designing a monster eating Valentine box! (They are having a contest of course).

As I said we started VAlentine's day over the weekend. Allison took advantage of the love birds going on date nights and had a babysitting job for the new neighbors across the street. She really likes their kids. And SCott wanted to attend a night at the gymnastics center where he takes classes with his friend Sammy who used to live across the street. SAmmy's parents were off for a fun weekend in New York City and had left Grandma to watch their 3 kids. Grandma was happy to pass one of the kids onto us, and we kept Sammy for a sleepover. Meanwhile, Tom and I had a choice between dinner or a movie SAturday night while everyone was busy, but we did not have time for both. We opted for a movie since most of the restaurants here in our area fill up on SAturday nights anyway, unless you can make reservations. And we had not thought that far in advance. So we finally got to see the Green Hornet. Unfortunately it was in 3D and it was the only movie short enough that we could see and pick up the boys on time. But it was fun. I laughed a lot, but I thought it was a bit too violent for kids. And there were kids in the audience. Tom mostly enjoyed the fact that he and our kids had watched the Myth Busters Green Hornet segment where they try to prove or disprove certain myths or beliefs. They tried to reproduce the special effects from the Green Hornet movie(we knew how things should have turned out). Like the exploding front loader should have disintegrated rather than fly through the air and squash the bad guy in his car. Anyhow, it was fun and I got my free popcorn refill.

I am sending a photo of SCott's cub scout troop at the Klondike Derby. The weather has been getting warmer so the snow and ice has been busy melting. There are lots of broken tree branches and trees everywhere. All you hear is the sound of wood chippers and chain saws. I just have a lot of birch branches to pick up. I only hope my Michigan cedar trees will stand up tall again! They were bent over from the weight of the snow and ice and still have not recovered. Big difference this year from last year's snow at this time! Kathleen

Here is my blog from last week. Trying to catch up!

Well we certainly enjoyed the Superbowl on Sunday. Too bad it wasn't the Ravens playing. They came pretty close but we were embarassed to see them lose to the Steelers in their last game. Everyone here on the east coast said we should cheer for the Steelers in the superbowl since they are in our league, but it is hard to support such a dirty team. And since Tom's side of the family has a strong love for the Packers having lived in Wisconsin we just couldn't resist. Of course we served brats at our little party. And I don't think Christina A. should get off so lightly by messing up the National Anthem. Everyone, including Tom said she was nervous and it can happen. I mentioned that Allison and I sang the National Anthem with the girl scout choir at the Orioles baseball stadium and we did not screw up! We actually take the time to practice and we have to memorize songs all the time and sing in front of large crowds too(OK, maybe not as big as the superbowl crowd). But come on.

We almost had our own football faux pas. Tom had invited most all of the neighbors for a Superbowl football party last month but then he heard he was going to be traveling to LA that night. He had to go around and tell people that the party was cancelled. Except he didn't get to everyone. Then, amazingly at the last minute the meeting was cancelled! Something apparently had come up. Gee, can't imagine that one of the guys actually looked at the calendar and noticed that the Superbowl was scheduled for the very same night as their meeting. Anyway, there were still people that had not gotten the word that our party was cancelled and were planning on coming over. Tom did not feel like watching the big game with a bunch of kids running around our house, so he continued to uninvite the neighbors(at times with my email address!). I don't mind if the kids want to blame mom for something, but it is not ok when the husband does it! Anyway, we decided to just invite our neighbors Dan and Gloria and their two older kids as well as our friend John over for dinner and football. It made for a nice relaxing evening(except for the yelling). I hope we didn't disappoint anyone. We had tons of food since I overbought supplies just in case Tom missed someone and they came over anyway. Less grocery shopping for me during the week!

Not only was Tom's trip cancelled, but so was Allison's field hockey. They played last Sunday but were off this week. They even cancelled the 515 Sunday night mass(I bet if women were priests the mass would not have been cancelled!)

Speaking of mass, I was glad I rechecked the kids altar server schedule since they had to serve Sunday morning. Did you know that the word salary came from the word salt? In Jesus's time, salt was used as payment since it was very valuable. Hence the word salary. You just never know what you are going to learn in church!

We also had another busy scout weekend. Scott had his last cub scout meeting and we had a guest Scoutmaster come in and talk about the scouting program-the last requirement to advance to boy scouts. Afterwards we all went over to Shadowland for a few games of laser tag. I left Tom home to clean and I played with the parents against the kids. We are really terrible. We parents scored 2000 points total to the kids 22000! At least I did not suck the worst! I was 17th and then 11th out of 25. We had a lot of fun! Tom stayed home and decided to rearrange our play room. We can't agree on where the furniture should go. We needed someplace to move our wall unit. If you recall Tom bought a huge flatscreen tv that did not fit in the existing wall unit in our family room at Christmas. So we had to buy a new cabinet to set the tv on, which meant the old wall unit had to go. It is chock full of family photos, records and memorabilia, so I don't really want to get rid of the furniture. We just could not agree on where it should go. Tom thinks it blocks his corner fireplace on the large wall in the playroom just around the corner, so he pulled apart the kitchen cabinets and countertop he got from Matt and Di that was holding his first large screen tv. Instead he disassembled the cabinets and tried to fit the other wall unit in its space. But the wall unit is too long and did not fit so he had it spread around the room in pieces. It looked terrible and there was a jumble of cabinets, countertop and large screen tv with no place to go in the middle of the room. So then he moved the wall unit to the opposite wall, put the cabinets and countertop back in its original space and then had no place for his pinball machine. Now he has decided to sell the pinball machine and give away one of the tvs to our neighbor. I tried to convince him to allow me to have a design consultant come in and make recommendations on where to put the furniture. We have two neighbors with their own interior design consultants. Tom said he wouldn't listen to them either. This coming from the guy who painted my laundry room 'spongebob yellow'. And he decided the pinball machine is too high maintenance anyway. So I guess we are at a standstill for now since I can't rearrange the furniture myself(it is too heavy). He also cut down the cabinets and countertop and is using a wooden box that we had in college to stack the xbox and games on. I wanted to know if I should get out the milk crates too. At least it is just the playroom.

And speaking of playing, on Sunday afternoon I dropped Scott off to an afternoon of bowling with his entire school. This was the first year I did not volunteer! Boy did that feel good! I think we have plenty of volunteer hours. Tom spent all day Friday covering the info for the school science fair and I volunteered to help out at the teacher's luncheon by making dessert. We were celebrating catholic schools week. And our school was chosen to be a STEM school-a school that excels in the Science, Technology, Engineering and Math programs for elementary kids. It was one of 7 Baltimore catholic schools chosen. I think it means more work for Tom!

Speaking of work, I survived my yearly review. No mention of snow and kids, although our new boss has been on a roll lately telling everyone their families are second place and get in the way of work. Especially the kids. (she has her own serious issues with kids by the way-they are just older). I was just happy to see a decent review. And as if I don't get enough of work, one of our coworkers just found out she has a broken foot(stress fracture) and will be off for two weeks so they were asking me to come in and help on Friday. I had a doctor appointment in the morning, so I went into work in the afternoon.

Of course while I was driving to work I got a call from the appliance repair office that my motherboard for my dishwasher had just arrived. It has taken over a month to get the part! So now I am scheduled for a repair next week. And I am sure they will ask me to come into work. But I like the extra hours since now that I am salaried for 32 hours, I get paid double time for any work over 32 hours(and I only have to work 4 hours!). Sweet!

The extra funds will come in handy if anything else decides to stop working around the house! And for Easter break. We just sat down and finalized our travel plans. Tom had a few free tickets from Southwest and if he doesn't use them he will lose them. We looked at returning to LA and traveling to Florida. We decided Florida had the best travel times. They block out many days when you cannot use the free tickets(of course). Since it usually takes about 2 1/2 days to drive down to Florida, we decided it would be better to spend our time flying and get more vacation time. It is only about a two hour flight to Tampa. And this way we can spend Easter Sunday with Tom's parents. See you both soon!

ON a sad note we lost one of our gerbils this weekend. Allison's gerbil Gwen finally went after a few weeks of struggling. Scott still has a very sweet gerbil named Yoshi. They were brother and sister.

And on a happier note, Happy 21st Birthday to Eric! What a nice way to spend your birthday weekend, watching the Packers win the superbowl. They have a lot of cool Superbowl merchandise to buy. And I sure hope that groundhog was right about spring being just around the corner.

Here is our update from last week.

Another weekend filled with scouting activities. EAch year the cub scouts attend a Klondike Derby event where they visit different stations at a local park and work on scout skills. Each year the skills get more difficult and longer. Some years the event has been cancelled due to interfering snow storms or even rain storms(too much snow to keep the roads open or too muddy to hike through the parks). Tom and SCott have signed up for every year for the past 4 years, so this year was my turn. Since we had a big snow storm with a foot of snow, it certainly made for the feeling of hiking the Alaskan Klondike. The boys were pretty exhausted hiking through the snow since they had to push a wheeled sled along with them and the trails were blocked by a lot of downed trees due to the snow/ice storm and a foot of snow and mostly uphill. But we made it(I think their favorite stations involved lighting fires and eating chicken soup). I just can't believe how exhausted I was when I got home. We were gone from 830-3pm.

We certainly had a rough week getting to school and work. On Weds another big snow and ice storm blew in around 5 pm. It actually snowed a bit in the morning, so schools were closed. Then it rained all day-we even had a thunder snow storm in the evening, until it switched to a blizzard. Of course I left work right when it started at 5pm. I barely made it home-lots of cars sliding off the road or just stopping in their lanes. We had a white out and you really could not see the streets anymore, so people just stopped. Most of us kept going single file, even down the freeway. Before I left work, our boss told us if we did not come to work the next day due to snow we would be written up. This is the caring health field. They did offer to let us stay the night in the nursing home, but no one had come prepared with a change of clothes or even a toothbrush. Instead we all took our chances. Our boss is still upset that she had to spend several nights at the facility last year in the monster 2 foot and blizzard snow storm. When you spend the night you work during the day doing therapy, and usually are asked to assist at night as a nurses aid. Not much rest, and no extra pay. They did buy them lunch! Or last year someone offered to come pick you up and bring you into work in their SUVs, but not necessarily take you home again! I opted to take a chance on getting home. When I did arrive home, I noticed Tom had not yet made it home. It took me over an hour and usually only takes about 25 mins tops. I called Tom and he was still working. I warned him not to come home so he thought he would do some more work and then travel across the street to the Embassy suites hotel for the night. Instead, he worked until 1130 that night and thought the roads should be clear enough by then to drive home. He checked the road conditions on the computer and of course it said everything was "green"(that was because there were no moving or running cars on the freeway. Considering there were 50+ jacknifed trucks on the I-70 and over 800 cars stranded on the beltway, I would say the roads were not better. He found that out when he took about 2 hours to drive home and then had to snow plow a trail on the road in front of our house to park in the driveway. The next morning he complained about how poor the handling was of his little car. When I went out to shovel the massive snow pile at the end of the driveway in order to get my car out to go to work, I noticed he had a flat. Apparently he drove over a large piece of metal. I was just happy that Allison had shoveled the driveway and that I shoveled the driveway when I got home even though it was coming down faster than I could shovel. At least it wasn't quite as deep in the morning. I tried to start the snow blower but Tom did not tell me that you have to plug it in to use the electric start. I was trying to pull start it(Tom tells me that doesn't work). It is still a lot of work moving snow even with a snow blower!

So we had our share of nasty weather. The kids had two snow days after that storm, and Scott got a third since the power went out at school. All of the trees and power lines were heavy with snow and ice, and tree branches and whole trees were down everywhere so a lot of homes and businesses were out of power in MD and VA. I guess DC was really a mess(more than usual).

Allison had last MOnday off so teachers could grade midterms and fill out report cards. We also heard back from one of her applications for girl scouts for a shadow day. She tried to schedule a day where she would follow around a woman CEO/principal/senator, etc for a day at work and then give a speech at a dinner in April. She was not chosen for the shadow day program, but was asked to fill in at the banquet as a hostess. Tom and I also got tickets for the dinner that evening. It is a very nice banquet at an old country club just outside Baltimore. Allison and I have sang there with the GS choir for many of those events but never were invited to eat dinner. Finally we get to eat the dinner! It should be nice. It is right after EAster.

So I managed to get to work and did not get written up(this week). How lovely. And we did not lose power or any trees. All good things.

While I was busy playing in the snow with Scott at the klondike derby on Saturday morning, Tom was off getting his tire repaired. When he had it fixed, he and Allison and our friend John headed to Hershey PA to watch a hockey game. I pretty much slept the rest of the day when I got home.

On Sunday I took the kids out to the Pet Expo along with Cookie. It was incredibly crowded and some lady stepped on poor Cookies tail. Boy did she cry. We enjoyed seeing all the reptiles, exotic animals and parrots, plenty of dogs and cats too. We also enjoyed watching the dog agility courses(we would love to have Cookie try that). And we also enjoyed listening to a dog handler from Texas. He was very funny, and he taught us a new trick to work on with Cookie walking between our legs. Just like at the Seaworld pet shows.

So we will see what the rest of the winter season has in store! I sent a photo of the last snow storm. Many of the tree branches were actually touching the ground as they were so heavy from the ice and snow. Kathleen

As you can see, my blog is a few weeks late. My husband felt that I needed a new computer. He upgraded me from a laptop to a desktop. So he spent the weekend downloading everything from the laptop to the desktop. That's great for the extra memory. He was concerned that I might lose my photos and files and it seemed my laptop was straining. The only issue I have is that he bought me a 20 inch computer screen for a 10 inch sized desk. I practically need to sit half way across the family room to type a note because it is so big and hard to read! I compromised by shrinking everything in half. He also neglected to transfer my blog so when I sat down to type I couldn't locate the program. But I am back on line now and readjusting(kinda). This computer actually has the touch screen but I am not as excited about it as the rest of the family.

Anyhow, we have certainly had a few busy weeks and weekends(of course). As you may recall, Tom went out of town to LA two weeks agoe but he did not get a chance to see my brother Mike. I was on my own with the kids. Not a problem on the holiday(MLK day) as the kids were out of school. I was happy to go to work since I get paid double time for working a holiday. On that Tuesday we had an ice/snow storm so the kids again were out of school-this time for a snow day. No problem-they stayed home together. On that Weds though the kids had a 2 hour delay. I was the only one available to drop off. And now that my company has decided I am a salaried worker, I had to figure out how to balance my work hours to get paid for the most productive amount of work time. After a few phone calls to Human Resources and my boss it was decided that I could work 4 hours Weds and 4 hours Friday. I can't wait to see my yearly review. I was told that as a professional, it was my responsibility to make arrangements for these events. I told them that my arrangement was in LA. They don't care. My boss and the HR girl said so. As my boss said, the reason I was switched to salaried is mainly so they can ask me to work late without paying me extra if needed. How special. So I made it through work that week. I even got out a bit early to take SCott to gymnastics on Thursday night.

The biggest problem with the school schedule was that we were right in the middle of Allison's midterms. School had to do a lot of reconfiguring the schedule in able to get all the tests in. On the day the kids went in late they had them stay through lunch. Normally the kids are home before lunch. They didn't bother to tell the kids if they were going to feed them though! I sent an email to school and a school wide revised schedule was sent out including a new lunch schedule. Of course, the kids would not have known since they sent it out after they had already gone to school! Allison said it was a zoo, squeezing the entire school into 5 separate 1/2hr lunch breaks. Somehow they managed to feed the kids tacos and chicken nuggets. I wonder if they sent out to Taco bell and Chick Fil A? The kids still did not get all their midterms in-Allison had to take a 2 hour spanish midterm the following week! Thank goodness she is only taking regular Spanish 2! I don't think they spend this much time teaching the kids English! Tom wants to know when Allison will have to know the spanish word for "jumpsuit"(it was on the test). I guess at an Elvis Presley convention in Tijuana or maybe in LA or Las Vegas. I think the spanish teacher takes her class a bit too seriously.

Anyhow, Allison managed to get another semester of all A's. And we are busy with the next quarter. We were also very busy with scouts that week. I was going to take Scott to a boy scout meeting but he really needs to go with his DAd. Scott will be bridging from cub scouts to boy scouts in Feb and they need to visit a scout meeting. I am letting Tom and Scott decide which troop they want to join since they will be the ones spending the most time at them. We missed a few meetings and a few were rescheduled. Scott had too much homework and tests to study for and wasn't feeling too well on the night of the meeting. There will be other chances. Instead, at the end of the week, Tom and Scott were busy making the final adjustments to the Pinewood Derby car for the races held on Saturday. Scott was not interested in winning a trophy for speed this year-instead he was going for the "Cool Car" trophy. He designed and built a lego racecar that Tom attached to the wheel base after they painted it red. Unfortunately, SCott's design was too heavy so Tom had a lot of readjustments to do before race day. He got home from LA Thursday night and spent all day Friday working on the right weight and dimensions(it also has a length and width requirement). They were one of the first races on SAturday morning, so they both rushed up to the school for the weigh in since they missed Friday nights schedule. I arrived shortly before the race to help out. Sure enough, Scott only took 5th place for speed. We had to wait all day until after the last race for the judging on coolest car, most scariest, most original design, and most colorful. Sure enough, Scott won for "coolest car". He also won for most original design and had many votes for all the other categories too! However, he could only take home one trophy so he opted for Coolest. Congrats SCott! And many thanks Dad! I heard about Scott's car all day-all the way to my Girl Scout rollerblading/rollerskating event held the same weekend. I volunteered my Troop to run the event(we skated for free) and to get some experience in case we run an event for the boy scouts. We have this skating event every year on SAturday and Sunday evening. We registered 300 girls on Saturday and 175 girls on Sunday. I had extra help from a freshman HS troop and a lead scout who took care of the registration. All in all I think it went well.

And on top of that, Allison was offered a job at the roller rink as a rink guard! WE spent Sunday filling out her application. She is only 15 and can't work more than 4 hours or past 7pm, but I think if she actually gets hired that she will enjoy the job. It pays minimum wage-no taxes and she gets a free membership to the Columbia Association which means free access to all the gyms and pools and discount prices for bday parties, etc. Sounds great! Now we just have to wait for them to call her and get her a work permit.

We also spent the weekend filling out more applications-one specifically for school. Allison had to make out her class list for next year(Junior already!). She would like to do an internship at her old elementary school as one of her classes, so she had to fill out a lengthy application which included a resume, current class list, two teacher recommendations and answering 6 essay questions of why she wants to do this. She is really hoping to get accepted. They usually don't choose juniors but wait until the kids are seniors. She may actually want to do it for two years in a row if she could.

And Tom had to pick Allison up early from skating on Sunday night for their field hockey games. ONce again Allison was recruited to play on a traveling team, but Tom did not feel like driving to Delaware!

Plus on Friday since I had to go into work I decided to take Cookie in for a yearly check up when I got home. Her appointment involved a lot of shots. Boy did she cry. The vet said she was quite the drama queen! And she cried all week when someone touched her. At least she is a healthy girl -all of 2 years now. Not so sure about one of our gerbils. Gwen wasn't looking too well. The gerbils are about 3 yrs old, but they don't last too long(Tom says that is good news). He considers them to be just like the two mice we caught in the attic(rats!).

A very special Happy Birthday to Grandpa Joe Borg(my mom's dad) who turned 98 on Friday January 21st. I hope we got his longevity genes!

I included a picture of Scott's car and his Lego pit stop he made to go along with it for the judging.
Kathleen

Well we just got through watching the Ravens again, but this time we did not get a win. Too sad. And we invited Matt and Di and family over again. This time Tom and Matt had a chili off. Last weekend it was brats and burgers, but this weekend we compared chili recipes. We decided we liked it best when we mixed both chilis together. So the chili was good, but the game was disappointing for us Ravens fans. We did enjoy wearing all our purple colors last week. Guess it is back to hockey games for now on.
I spent Saturday morning at the grocery store, pet store and bank while Tom studied with the kids. Allison has a week full of midterm tests next week, but she actually started with a few exams and essays last week. She wants to get Tom's help with math and science review before he heads off to LA next week. Mike can you visit with Tom for dinner Monday night?
I couldn't get all my errands done on Friday since I was hanging around the house hoping to hear back from the dishwasher repair company. Guess they never got in the new part since they never called me back. I also spent 3 hours at the allergist with Scott. His pediatrician has decided he has allergies and wanted him retested. So once again I let them poke him with all sorts of tree, cat, dog, mold, grass and cockroach venom which all came up negative. Then they had him do a computerized breathing test looking for asthma and decided his breathing was terrific. So after 3 hours we all agreed the poor kid gets post nasal drip and has sinus trouble and it is primarily seasonal and they put him on Flonase and his Qvar inhaler as a preventative. They want us to come back in 3 months to see if there is any improvement. I just wish his pediatrician would just give it a rest. She is bound and determined to diagnose Scott as having allergies. We went through all this testing 3 years ago, but I had to hear how kids change and that they have better tests nowadays(they don't). So far everyone is just trying to avoid getting the flu that is going around.
And we seem to be avoiding the big snowstorms(thank goodness). We had a bit more snow last week and another 2 hour morning delay. Once again Tom was able to drop off the kids. Thank goodness since I have been going round and round with my Human Resources dept at work. They changed my employee status and now wish to pay me a salary rather than pay me hourly. It is great in the sense that no matter how many hours I work a week, I will always be paid for 32 hours. It is bad because if I don't actually treat patients consistently then my productivity goes down, based on the hours I work, and it could have a negative effect on my weekly and yearly reviews. And I am not allowed to use my time off on an hourly basis, only 4 or 8 hour increments. The company actually is offering to pay me more and I am fighting it! After one week of having my say in meetings and emails I have decided to let them pay me more. Because Tom travels so much and the kids have such crazy schedules, or get sick or have snow day delays, it just worked better if I was paid hourly. Apparently corporate knows better than I do(the same company that went bankrupt last year). They certainly don't care about my personal life. I was most excited that I seem to have reclaimed my yearly bonus. They said I should have not received a bonus these past 6 years, and that I would be eligible for a bonus next year. I did not think that was quite fair so I said so. And they seemed to have changed their minds(I will wait until I see the check though). Work was a little crazy with Hollywood this past week too. It seems that Jada Pinkett Smith's grandmother lived at Charlestown and passed away last week. The family had the funeral at Charlestown last week. Jada Pinkett Smith(the actress/singer) is married to Will Smith the actor. We did not get to see any of them though since we hang out in the clinic in the basement. We just lost our parking spots. They had the ceremony and the reception at Charlestown so the dining room wait staff would have had the chance to see them all, and a few choice administrators. Never a dull moment at work.
And speaking of work, Tom will once again be heading out to California on Monday. And I was asked to work since the other 3 OT s all took off the MLK holiday. (See, I am a team player). Of course I don't mind-I get paid double time.
But with Tom gone, that means I am the only one home helping out with the midterm studying next week, not to mention a couple of big tests for Scotty, transportation and meals. Scott has a social studies test that is so big they have to schedule it over two days! That is just crazy. Tom also spent some of his time at Scott's school this week as he has been asked to run the after school Science Fair again this year. Tom has been putting in on for several years on his own through Northrop, but last year he just did not have the time. We have been hoping the school would take over. Instead, they just asked Tom to come back and run it again. He introduced the science fair to the 6th grade this past week, but with his traveling and the kid's school schedule he won't be able to cover all the other classes one week at a time. So the next time he talks to the school, they will put all the rest of the classes together. I am sure that will be fun. They decided to run the science fair before Easter break which seems a bit rushed to me. Oh well-not my project.
Allison and I also spent several hours on Friday meeting with a buddy GS troop to discuss the check in procedures and make posters for next weekends' rollerblading event. We will probably be helping on both Saturday and Sunday. Poor Allison was falling asleep during the meeting. So was I since I had spent the 3 hours at the allergists office and sat through Allison's piano lesson before our meeting. And Allison has not been feeling well(not a good time to get sick).
Plus she and Tom will be back to playing Indoor Field Hockey this Sunday night. At least she can sleep in on Monday.
Tom and Scott also spent most of the day working on Scott's Cub Scout Pinewood derby car. Scott really wanted a lego car, so Tom had Scott build a Lego car and glue it all together today. He had to use some pretty nasty glue, so Tom had him all covered up and kept an eye on him while he worked. On Friday they will attach it to the wheel base and check the weight. Tom doesn't think this car will win for speed, but Scott wanted to go for a "cool car" award. Who knows, it has a great design so they might win for speed!
And can you believe I already started signing the kids up for summer camp? Allison is scheduled for Drivers Ed and a Field Hockey camp in Philly. I put Scott in a few YMCA camps that are hosting the Legos club where they make robots and cars run by computer programs and all made out of Legos. He is also going to attend an Environmental Club at the Y. When you sign up early you get big discounts. Plus your kid actually gets in the camp! Most summer camps fill up right away out here.
I could use a few warm summer days right now. I just spotted a mouse in our attic. I don't know why we have a cat. Pika let the thing walk right by her. Tom is off to get mouse traps tonight. They love to sneak in when it is cold outside.
I'll let you know how I survive the week and how many mice I catch. Kathleen