Another few busy weeks! Tom has been off to California for two weeks. Looks like we both had the same weather-rainy and cold. Even some snow. We've also had a few tstorms here in Baltimore. And then it also shot up to about 75-80 degrees! All the daffodils and cherry blossoms have been busy blooming(much to Allison's distress). She has been dealing with her allergies. No fun. Definitely spring in Baltimore.

I heard from the orthopedic MD concerning my knee MRI. Fortunately nothing was torn, but I explained to her that my knee is still swollen and sore(not as much as it was thank goodness). She recommended I take some Naprosin(strong Aleve) and if I need to they can drain my knee! I had that done when I was in high school and injured my knee playing basketball. That really hurt! Don't think I would like that done again if I don't have to-but my question was not really answered about what to do. Guess when I have a chance I will have to keep doing my own PT at work and maybe get back to pool aerobics. I haven't been able to go to my low impact aerobic classes since my knee is too tweaky. At least I have been able to get out and walk Cookie.

Then again, it has been so busy at work I haven't had time to go to an exercise class. We are still down one OT who is out with a broken foot. I have been working most Fridays, at least 1/2 day. I did skip going to work on one Friday. Tom wasn't around to help out and I scheduled Cookie and myself for our summer shearing. They practically kept Cookie the whole day at the groomers-she was there from 9-3pm. I couldn't really do all my errands since I needed to be around to pick her up. On top of everything, I sent SCott off on his first Boy Scout camping trip so I had to help pack him up and drop him off early. We were not planning on him going since Tom was out of town and I had to run Allison to work over the weekend. However, Scott signed himself up to go during his weekly meeting. I actually had to ask one of the other moms to take him to his scout meeting since Allison and I had a GS board meeting at the same time. The two other boys from Scotts school were going camping with their moms so they offered to take Scott. I couldn't turn down the offer! Scott wasn't too excited since he wanted to stay home and pick up his new video game. Tom told him if he got an A in math and science on his last report card that he could upgrade his current game system when the new 3D DS game came out(midnight on Saturday). I told Scott his Dad would be happy to get it for him since he made the grades and that he needed to go camping with the boys(and work on some badges). Unfortunately, it turned out to be a freezing cold weekend, down in the 20s. And even snowed a bit on Sunday. They were up in the foothills of Pennsylvania at a boy scout camp. I got a few phone calls that weekend from a very unhappy Scott. Tired, cold and arguing with another new camper. They did not get much sleep on Friday night since they arrived late and then someone showed up at 3am and woke them up with their headlights and banging car doors. The moms managed to bundle the boys up on Saturday night and they all got a better night's rest, complete with foot and hand warmers. I said they deserved to earn their winter scouting requirement and the scoutmaster agreed-anything below freezing is considered winter camping. Scott also had a chance to shoot a 22, throw an axe and he earned his right to carry his pocket knife. So that kinda made up for his misery. Don't think he enjoyed KP duty though(washing dishes in freezing cold weather). Oh the joys of scouting. At least Scott got back home in time to take a shower, get his homework done and go see Shrek the Musical with all of us.

And at least Tom got home in time to see the musical too. He was just going to stay in California and fly down from San Jose to LA, but since we had purchased the tickets at Christmas, he decided to join us. It was fun, but Scott had a hard time staying awake.

The kids had their yearly dental check ups and this time we found a few small cavities in their back molars. Dentistry has certainly changed over the years. Besides filling their small cavities next visit, the dentist wants to buff down the big grooves in their teeth and seal them to keep further cavities from sneaking in the nooks and crannies. Amazing. I am certain Allison is not going to enjoy this since this will be her first real cavity with a shot of novacaine. I hope she doesn't kick the dentist. She is such a sweet girl. (The dentist, not Allison!). We found out that our previous woman dentist was no longer at the clinic as she shipped out to Afghanistan. Guess they need dentists too!

We enjoyed an Art Fair at Scott's school-he had several pieces of his art work on display. He really does have quite an artistic talent. He surely gets that from my Uncle Joe. I am surprised he can sit still long enough to draw and paint. And Speaking of art class, Allison finished her last 3 art classes over the last 3 weeks and really enjoyed the whole experience. Her favorite was chalk and watercolors. We even framed a few of her pieces for Tom's office and she gave them to him as birthday presents.

Tom was back out to CAlifornia for his second week but that was in LA. At least he had a chance to see my brother Mike and they went out to dinner. Tom picked a bad week to be out of town. I signed him up for a river rafting camping trip with the boy scouts in May. I took SCott to his scout meeting and they wanted a check that night.

We also had SCott's Science FAir that week which Tom helped organize. I dropped off the box of ribbons at the school and took in Scott's science fair poster. We spent a few hours at the fair in the evening and SCott had to explain his memory experiment to 3 different judges. This year it was decided to just pick 3 overall winners, and it was a bit more complicated since there were several projects done by classes and several projects done by several students together. Needless to say, SCott did not win. Tom had planned on providing each grade with 3 place winners, but I think they did not have enough participants for each grade, or groups of grades like 1st-3rd. So even though Tom had lots of ribbons, they only passed out 3. And the science teacher decided to give out gift cards which made losing even more depressing. The science teacher felt bad for all the other kids and gave them books, but Scott's book was a little on the preschool level so he was even more disappointed. I bought him ice cream with a gift card he earned at school. I told Tom he had to be present at next years science fair. I also think the kids should get extra science credit for participating. Maybe next year.

The kids had a half day on Friday so I didn't work again. I was getting ready for Tom's birthday, and Allison and I had a girl scout overnight event planned on that Saturday night. So I had lots of errands to run. I managed to get Allison her Columbia Association membership card and we stopped into the MVA to pick up a book so she can start studying for her drivers permit exam. I mostly had Tom's birthday gift shopping done-I just had a lot of wrapping to do.

On SAturday I took Allison to a CPR class for her new job. She had a great time and said the instructor gave out candy when they got the right answers. That evening, I took Allison and a girlfriend to an Up All Night Girl Scout Sports Event at the Lifetime Fitness Exercise facility. The girls spent the evening trying out raquetball, swimming, watching movies and attending a stress reduction class. I just worked on staying up. I was very upset that we moms were not allowed in the hot tub. I had to work a two hour shift and was so looking forward to a soak-especially for my knee. But it was shut down. I was sure to mention my disappointment on the evaluation sheet. We also were not allowed to use the exercise equipment-another disappointment. But the girls had fun and Allison earned a badge and we slept most of Sunday.

Sunday evening I invited the neighbors over for dinner to celebrate his birthday. Tom made his own low carb cheesecake but everyone else ate cheesecake from the Cheesecake FActory. We also had tbone steaks and lots of salads. Tom quit the nutrisystem program and almost ate up all the tbone steaks before his party day. We enjoyed our evening with the neighbors and opened Tom's gifts afterwards. I picked him up some camping supplies-a big hat and camp stove. I also picked him up a RAvens polo shirt, some dress shirts and signed him up for a CAlifornia Wine Club since Maryland just passed a new law allowing wine to be shipped directly to homes. All these years you could not order wine to be shipped directly to your house(we have been living in the dark ages!). I also signed Tom and myself up for a Teach Your Teen to Drive Class. A present from Allison. We are supposed to spend 60 hours letting Allison drive after she gets her permit. I want to avoid parental yelling during the experience.

So a Big Happy Birthday to Tom and his DAd who both celebrated Birthdays this Spring!

I sent a photo of Scott's science fair project.

More to come! Baltimore Blog.

Here is my blog from last Sunday.

Today was a nice, calm First Day of Spring after another busy week. Tom actually had to get up early this Sunday morning and fly out to Calf. today-to San Jose near San Francisco. He was considering staying for two weeks straight, but thought he'd return next weekend to join us to see Shrek at the Hippodrome. We bought tickets for a Christmas present for the family and he didn't want to miss it. More airline mileage for him and us!

So since he was leaving today, I had him spend Saturday helping Scott prepare for a science test and math test on Monday. The boys also organized all of Scott's data for his science fair project in two weeks. I picked up a poster and put it together with Scott today. If you recall, Scott was looking to see if playing video games would help his memory skills at all. The data showed that playing problem solving type games increased his memory skills, while random shooting games did not. I also found an article in the BAltimore Child magazine that did talk about research being done with video games and how it has been shown to help with visual spatial skills and increases socialization skills. Of course, rehab has always welcomed the use of video and computer games, including the recent phase of WiiHab. I would love to add that to our facility's out patient program. It goes so well with my recreational therapy background.

So Tom won't be in town for the Science Fair next week, but I think I can handle Scott and his presentation. He is his own man.

And it means a lot more running around for me this week. But we both managed to get through last week together. Scott's ear seemed to heal up so no more trips to the doctors office for him. Both of us seem to have gotten over our colds too. Thank goodness. I also finally scheduled my doctor appt for an MRI of my knee on Friday morning. I had an MRI of my left knee about 9 yrs ago but I did not remember it being that loud. They also tucked me in a lot closer I think than when I had the other knee done. Fortunately it was quick and I was able to pick up a copy of the kids immunizations from medical records too so I could fill out summer camp and boy scout forms. Cookie's ear infection cleared up too. I had to take her in to the vet for one more vaccination and had her ears checked.

Tom was hoping I could join him for a movie since he was off on Friday. Instead I volunteered to work half a day since we are still down one OT. I don't mind working 4 hours since I get paid for 8. Works for me. Since Tom had time, he sat down at the computer and bought Allison a prepaid college fund with his work bonus that he received this week! We have been discussing the prepaid college funds since Allison was born! But Tom was not happy with the Maryland program except he reports they have made enough improvements for him to buy into it.

He also spent part of the morning at Scott's school celebrating Father's Day with Donuts for Dad. The kids showed off some of their work and made cards for the Dads. He also got SCott to his Boy Scout meeting and gymnastics class last week.

I ran Allison over to her art class early in the week. She got to try watercolors this past week and decided it was not her favorite. Next week she tries pastels.

At work I volunteered to help out with a Girl Scout birthday program put on by a local girl scout troop. Their leaders(ladies at the podium) both have parents that live at my retirement community and for the past several years they have put on this reunion for residents that either belonged to scouts or were leaders themselves. I helped out with the singalong. It was a lot of fun.I added photos of the program. They passed out arts and crafts activities to the residents to complete at the end.

On St Patrick's Day Tom invited our neighbors over for a shot of irish whiskey in our coffee drinks. We just finished our first week on the nutrisystem diet so we did not have anyone over for dinner this time. I did make traditional corned beef, although Scott and I are the only ones that really love it. And I wasn't eating it-just the cabbage!

Gotta go-long week ahead!

Well last week was packed with activities! So much so I did not get around to my blog! I started off last week staying home on Monday with SCott. He finished his semester and had the day off. Poor kid spent his day with me at the doctor's office. I decided I should try and get in to see someone since my knee has still been swollen. I was amazed that I could get a same day appointment with an orthopedic doctor at a walk in clinic. They gave me a brace and an xray just to see what else was going on. My knee looks very pretty(the bones anyway). Now I am scheduled for an MRI-that is not a walk in appointment. I bribed Scott into going with me to the doctor with a trip to 5 guys burgers afterwards. They just opened the restaurant near the doctor office. He loves the fresh peanuts to eat while waiting for your burgers. I see Eric Seitz has just discovered this burger place in Indy.

After my doctor appointment, I talked Scott into stopping off at Sams Club to return an item and got stuck talking to a previous fellow therapist I used to work with at St Agnes hospital about 10 yrs ago. She recognized me and she wouldn't let me go. Scott and I still had some shopping to do and I had to get in the really long gas line afterwards. I had more errands to run, but it was getting late and I had to get dinner to Allison since she had her second art class that night. I also felt bad for Scott having to spend his day off just with me so I arranged for a play date with his friend SAmmy in the evening. Meanwhile, Allison was at her art class. She tried charcoal drawing that week and loved it. She did a great job too!

On Tuesday morning I had signed up to help with a Career day at Scott's school. Unfortunately, they had a medical theme but could not get enough parent speakers to come in so they switched the program. I don't need anymore volunteer hours, but work pays for 4 hours of volunteer time a month so since I was already scheduled off, I decided to go in. The school had 3 men from the National Guard that talked about drugs and bullying. Afterwards they put on "beer goggles" for the kids to get an idea of what it feels like to drink too much. The goggles mess up their vision and then coordination. Then they had the kids try to shoot baskets, throw a football and walk a straight line. You can imagine the kids did not do well. It took about an hour to walk all the classes through each of the activities. We spent the whole morning in the assembly and then the teachers took over and I went to work. That night, Scott had his scout meeting. I ended up taking him to scouts since Tom was asked at the last minute to teach a class at Hopkins business school. He was not planning on the task but Northrop laid off about 500 employees last Monday, and the woman that was teaching the class originally was let go! So Tom thought it was a good idea to take her place!

We are slowly figuring out this Scout Troops program and finishing up the bridging requirements to go from Webelos to Scout(mostly lots of paperwork).

By Thursday, Scott and I had developed a good little cold including an ear infection for Scott. Not only did Scott get an ear infection, but the dog did too! Fortunately I had ear drops for Cookie left over from her last ear infection, but Tom had to take off work on Thursday and take Scott into the doctor office. He was only given ear drops, not antibiotics which annoyed me since if he had gotten any worse, we would have had to take him back to the doctor again. Doctors are not terribly excited about giving out antibiotics, but I am not excited about worrying if my son is going to lose his hearing because the ear infection got worse and then taking off more time at work for another appointment when I have to pay another copay and then wait at the pharmacy again for the meds. Fortunately, he seemed to clear up.

This was also the first week of Lent. Tom and I celebrated Fat Tuesday on Saturday night at the school gala. Scott's school had a fundraiser gala that had a different theme this year. Usually it is very dressy and has a silent auction. This year it was very casual with a basketball theme in honor of March Madness. We dressed in our favorite school colors-MSU of course. I even had my S earrings on. Our friends wanted to know if the S stood for Seitz. Sure I said. For entertainment, they had a basketball shoot out, silent auction and a game show host. The game show host put on lots of different tv games with the audience like FAmily Feud and Are you smarter than a 5th grader. Tom wanted me to play, but I had one too many martinis. They had lots of good and fun food like sliders and quesadillas, crab cakes and nachos. But my favorite were the pomagranit martinis! And for dessert brownie ice cream sundaes. Yum! Tom and I even got a silent auction gift but we are still questioning it since they advertised the package as a Date Night and it only came with one ticket to a dinner and show?! Not much of a date we'd say.

For Lent Tom and I are fasting with the Nutrisystem diet. Tom had a promotional at work and got 1 month free food for both of us to try. So far we figure eating the card board box it came in would be healthier, but it is actually not too bad. And seems to be working. Especially when you only take in about 1000 calories per day. It actually reminds me of the Weight Watchers program in that it pushes the veggies and now fruit. Scott is in heaven too since we usually don't have quite so many fruits and veggies in the house to choose from. He is my fruit and veggie boy!
While we were off to the gala, Allison was in charge of the whole crew of kids. I had talked our old neighbors into coming and Scott was happy to have his play date with SAmmy while Allison chatted with their daughter Sophia and watched Dominic, the 3 yr old. She was already wore out as was I from a very busy Saturday afternoon.

My girl scouts had been busy preparing to run a Junior Girl Scout badge on Food, Fun and Fitness. They had 55 girls attend and I had just enough girl scouts running the badge-5 total. I also had my co leader attend as our nurse, and one other mom who is also a leader helped me out as well with registration and organization. Allison was busy running a relay race, Becky had the warm up and cool down, Kelly was running two activities which included checking the fit of your shoes and coming up with a list of fun activities to include in your day to add exercise without even trying(like bike riding). We also had a poster with ideas on how to end world hunger and a food collection. My van is still full of two large plastic containers of food that I need to drop off to the food bank. We also ran two other stations on the new food pyramid and reading food labels with Emily and Sarika. Allison had Friday off since she is at her midterms and she spent most of the day making up bags of popcorn for our snack. (She loves my old college air popper). We also made up bags of snack mix with pretzels, chocolate cheerios and goldfish crackers. The girls were completing this project as part of their gold award requirement and it was a great fundraiser. All the moms stayed for the badge and loved it. The girls worked really hard for 2 hours straight and did a fabulous job(I knew they would). And no it was not at our house. I had signed up to use the local girl scout campsite since they have a large building with all the (free) available supplies like tables, chairs and even a kitchen.

And the weekend did not slow down after that. Allison got her work permit and was called in for her first day on the job at the roller rink! She had her hands full Sunday afternoon with lots of little kids, mostly falling down. She even had to get an ice pack for a little one that hit his head. Things weren't quite as busy there this time of the year though. The weather has been so beautiful that most people have been spending time outside. That makes it good for Allison to get used to her job and work on rollerblading backwards! I think of it as babysitting on blades!
So we did not have much free time last weekend. And we even lost an hour of sleep when we had to spring ahead! I do like having more daylight when we get home from work and school. It makes it a lot nicer to take Cookie on walks without using a flashlight!

We are also glued to the tv on news of the massive earthquake in Japan and Tsunami. Glad to know Mike Bozyk and the rest of our family and friends in California are safe. Along with Northrop people in CA and in Japan. How amazing and horrific all at the same time. I can just imagine how Dave B. must have felt when he heard the news of a nearly 9.0 quake in Japan after having lived and worked there for several years.

I am adding photos of the girls hard at work at their Jr GS badge stations. Kathleen

Allison and I just got woke up at 1pm. We were up all night at a girl scout event at our local mall. These are some photos of my girls busy at work at 1am Sunday morning. This is our 5th year participating in the Columbia Mall Sleep IN where no one actually sleeps. My girls have put on badges and craft tables for approx 1000 4th and 5th grade junior scouts for the past 5 years. The event runs from 10pm on Saturday night to 6am Sunday morning. Last year we put on a Sports Sampler badge which was alot of work. This year the girls opted to run a lanyard keychain craft table. Some of the girls were not as comfortable with the task(not enough girl scout camp experience). I did have the girls over to the house twice before the event to practice. They spent most of their time chatting. I sure wasn't good at it, so I did not really help them last night. I was there to supervise and help clean up our area. The only real downfall was that we were next to the karoake machine last night-I think if we have to hear one more Justin Bieber "BAby, Baby, Baby" song we are going to scream! And my co leader was busy with a nurse's strike at her hospital last night so she did not attend the event. Her hospital wants to pay the weekend and night shift nurses the same pay as the day shift nurses. So they are striking.

I also had the girls over on Friday night to finish up some last preparations for a Junior Fun, Food and Fitness badge that were are putting on as a fund raiser next Saturday. Fortunately I have 5 girls and two adults helping. WE have 50 girls registered for the event! I spent part of Friday out shopping for supplies and ordering the badges.

I decided to work a half day on Friday and take a half day paid time off to make up for the day I missed last week. Plus they can still use the extra help at work since our OT with the stress fracture in her foot is still not supposed to walk and is stuck at home. And our OT assistant's mom had a heart attack last week and was in the hospital so she took off to be with her. We had a student helping out but she just finished her internship on Friday. I am just as busy in our out patient clinic. And my knee still hurts and is swollen making it difficult to run around the campus. I think I need to go see the doctor. I probably need PT for my knee, but who has time! I can't even find time to put heat or ice on my knee while I am at work surrounded by PT's! I really miss working out at the gym.

At least I have been able to go out for walks with Cookie. I even picked up a missed bag of food for the Scout's Harvest for Hungry food bank collection on Saturday. Last weekend Scott and I put out bags for food collection for the cub scouts in the neighborhood, and then went and asked for collections at the grocery store. Tom finally got to a scout meeting last week and then took Scott out to put up reminder signs in the neighborhood after school. We opted out of the cub scout pick up and another weekend of soliciting donations with the boy scouts. We figured we put in our time. And we had a food collection at our girl scout event last night so I dropped off the missed bag of donations for their collection. My troop is also collecting food next weekend as part of our Jr badge event. I am sure a trip to the local food bank will be planned.

While I was busy with the girls at our house on Friday night, Scott was invited to a night out with our neighbor Phil and his two kids at the skating rink where Allison will be working and dinner at Cheeburger Cheeburger. Scott had a great time-I couldn't convince Tom to join them. He chose to stay home and shoot zombies.

Tom also spent some time last week at SCott's school helping out with a question/answer session for the upcoming science fair. The boys decided to run an experiment to see if playing video games can improve your memory using the Simon game and the Xbox. I think it is a little lame-too many interfering factors, but oh well, it is their experiment.

And Allison had another wonderful week. She was approved to complete an internship at Scott's school next year as part of her class work. Now we will just have to figure out how to balance it with her field hockey season. If she makes Varsity, they practice right after school so it may be a little tough to run back and forth. Makes you almost wish she was already driving! She will be soon though as she can get her permit this April and is taking Drivers Ed in June when school lets out. Fortunately part of the program begins with several weeks in the classroom so she should be able to get through most of the season(if she makes the team). I am thinking they can always use goalies.

She and Tom are off to her last indoor field hockey game of the season. Tom has been a wonderful coach and we are grateful for our neighbor Phil for stepping in and covering for him last week.

Allison also started her evening art class. She has been wanting to take an art class for several years now and we just couldn't find one that fit her age group, that ran at the right time or fit our budget. I would have liked to have had her take an art class at school but her schedule has just been too full. So I finally found an intro to the arts class through our parks and rec dept and gave the class to her as a Christmas present. She started out with sketching last week. She had to draw an object from different angles to learn about perspective. She opted to draw a bottle. Next week they will try drawing with charcoal. She is already enjoying herself(and she wants to see her movie I am Number 4 again).

Scott and Tom took time out this weekend to catch the new cartoon movie about a lizard cowboy (JohnnyDepp), Rango. They enjoyed it. Tom had wanted to see the new Nicholas CAge movie with me on Friday but I was busy working and shopping before the girls came over for our meeting. On Saturday I was busy trying to get some sleep and squeezing in some housework. At least I get to stay home on Monday with SCott since he is off having just finished his last semester. Looks like he did pretty well with his grades. I spent most of SAturday night catching up with the other school moms on how frustrated we all are with the school's methods of testing and teaching. At least SCott is pulling As and Bs, unlike some of his fellow classmates. We went through alot of the same thing with Allison.

She just finished midterms and had to write a paper last week on Animal Farm and the use of satire. She was busy this weekend with research for her next big paper on satire but she had to choose the book. We all thought Mark Twain was a good choice as most all of his writings were very satirical, as well as funny and enjoyable. I had Allison reading the reader's digest version of The Adventures of Huckleberry Finn. Apparently Mark Twain had a lot to say about our American society during the time of slavery. Now she wants to read Tom Sawyer. Glad I bought the sequel way back when.

I was busy with my own homework assignment writing a newspaper article for OT month this coming April for the Community paper at work. I will also probably put on an Open House and I am thinking of setting up a guest speaker from the Arthritis Foundation to talk about exercise.

Allison finally got her work permit from school, so we had to run it over to the skating rink. If you are under 16, you have to have a work permit. The rink hopes to have her paperwork done and have her employed by the middle of this month! We took some time out on Saturday afternoon to buy some black pants for her uniform. She is going to be wearing a referee shirt and she has a Columbia Association polo shirt. She was too busy to get to an orientation class this past week while she was writing her paper and studying for tests, but there are more classes coming up at the end of the month she can go to --and she gets paid for them too!

So spring is finally here(early I think). We have had lots of rain and the peeper frogs started making noise in the backyard. They are the tree frogs that start singing in the spring. Also my house has been over run by ants, moths and stink bugs! The ants come up from under the house and get into everything, the moths are left over from a bad bag of dog food I got at the pet store last year, and the stink bugs are a gift shipped in from China. I guess the east coast has it the worst and is loaded with stink bugs. They are actually looking into releasing a tiny wasp that lays its eggs on the stink bug's eggs and the wasp larva eat the stink bug eggs and larva when they hatch. This wasp has to be imported from Asia as the US does not have a natural predator for stink bugs, so they are looking carefully into any possible glitches that might occur if they bring in another non native creature. The stink bugs aren't harmful to people(just very stinky), but mainly they eat up all the fruit crops. And they really don't want them spreading all across the country. Winter doesn't seem to bother them either as they just hibernate in your house. And pesticides don't seem to do very much to them either. Another great thing we can thank China for!

So that's it for now. I started putting out my EAster and St Patty's day decorations this week. I had to have Scott climb up and down the attic steps for me and put away the snowy decorations. Hopefully we won't see much of that again since my daffodils are already poking their heads above ground. But that also probably means our ski season is over. Oh poop.

Anyhow, Have a great week and Happy FAt Tuesday(AKA Shrove Tuesday) and Ash WEds early! Happy Paczki Day too! WE are sure missing those great fat polish doughnuts from Hamtramck!

Kathleen

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