(Blog Update from 9/18-9/25) I don't think last week could have been any busier! Tom was off to San Francisco on Sunday so I was on my own. As a matter of fact, Tom's boss sent me flowers to apologize for keeping him away every week, and for the next few weeks ahead too! Sunday was the day Allison and I went to the Rennaissance Festival.

The kids schedule was crazy busy of course during the week, and the weather still has not been cooperating. Allison had a field hockey game cancelled on Friday due to record breaking rain falls and flooding. That game was pushed off to Monday. We did manage to squeeze in our Parent Daughter Field Hockey game. Usually Tom takes over this role, but since he was not in town, it was up to me to not only bring food for the tailgate picnic afterwards, but to play field hockey too! I certainly have a greater appreciation for this game. I just stood in front of the goal and played defense. The sticks are a whole lot shorter than hockey sticks so I kept missing the ball. At least I did not mess up the field like one poor Dad who left huge divots all over trying to whack the ball. I just put my stick into the mob of people that came running down the field to try and stop the ball. I didn't feel too comfortable playing without any kind of protection like gloves or shinguards, but that is how the girls play! They did add goggles this year. I was only on the field for 15 minutes of a 30 min game and I was sweating like a pig! Mainly because it was so humid with storms rolling in from the south. Afterwards we sat on the field and ate a picnic dinner while discussing fund raising events(the real reason we have this event). Next year will be our last game. We did not play last year because Allison was not feeling well about this time of the school year. This time she played a field position and really enjoyed it. I also had to reschedule the kids dentist appointment so I could get to the game, but it turns out they rescheduled due to interfering Sr. Crab Feast(Allison can't wait until next year!).

I also had to get Allison to a Pasta Party for Field Hockey on Monday night(they usually try to carb up and have dinner together the night before a game). We were supposed to log onto the girl scout webinar Monday night as well for Allison's National Convention training since it was too early in the day. She will just have to catch up on another day during a rebroadcast. And since it rained so bad on Friday(more flooding), Tom was rerouted from his San Francisco flight to San Diego and then Austin, Tx. so he was later getting home. Allison had her Field Hockey game rescheduled to Monday due to the rain, and she changed her work schedule so she did not have to go in. Instead we had to drive to work to pick up her October schedule while Scott was at gymnastics.

I spent my Friday driving through torrential rain to pick up Tom's California wine shipment from UPS(we can ship wine directly to our homes here in Maryland now which was just a new law that was passed but it requires a signature). Usually we are not home during the day, so I had to go to the UPS warehouse to sign for it. I also had a Physical Therapy appointment for my neck that I had to reschedule to Friday so I could play Field Hockey Thursday night.

Scott on the other hand had gymnastics but he missed his boy scout meeting. He had way too many tests and homework assignments to work on , so I kept him home. He is still busy with choir and the Lego Club at school too.

We decided to celebrate our very long, hard week going out to see The Lion King in 3D Friday night. Allison and I were happy, SCott was not so impressed. I told the kids the last time the movie was in the theater they were not even born! We did think Disney did a great job with the 3D effects.

We also ended a long week as a family with a trip up to Hershey Park. We had purchased discount tickets from our neighbor DAn back in May, and had no free time to use them all summer! This was the last weekend for the summer session, although the water park was closed. Scott asked his friend Sammy along and we also packed up Cookie. She spent the day at the dog kennel at the park known as The Barking Lot. And we ended up getting a free ticket for Sammy when someone in line passed us an extra pass from their work picnic. Often companies in the area will schedule a day at the park for their employees. A good deal for Sammy considering the tickets are $55.00! We all had a lot of fun, but Tom and I were exhausted from walking around the park all day and hitting rides with the kids(it is a very hilly park and does not connect well). Not to mention standing in lines waiting for rides! All in all a very fun day and Cookie seemed to enjoy her walk around the stadium listening to the football high school bands competing in the evening. We took a dinner break and went out of the park for Chinese too. Tom and Allison would have loved to have stayed for a hockey game, but the Hershey Bears season starts next week. (too bad).

We had Sammy sleep over since we got home so late. Fortunately Allison did not have to work Sunday either since the private party she was covering there was cancelled. Good for her since she had a lot of homework to do. And Scott spent the morning hanging out with Sammy before his parents picked him up.

I hope I don't have too many more weeks like this scheduled!

I didn't even get a chance to drop Mom Bozyk's Birthday card off in the mail that week. A Big Happy Birthday Mom B on Sept 19th.

All our Love, The Seitz Family

We are just settling down to an evening of homework after spending the day at the Maryland Renaissance Festival. Tom and Allison actually went Saturday, and Allison and I went today. Allison had a short day yesterday, so she got a two day pass so she could spend more time there today. She mainly wanted to go this weekend because of friend of hers at school sings in a Madrigal choir and they were performing there SAturday and Sunday. I skipped Saturday to stay home with SCott. He helped me run my garage sale in the morning, and then I had to take Allison to the girl scout council office to go over a few more details concerning her Gold Award application. Since she did not get approval for rebuilding her horse ramp, she had to iron out a few more details. Now she has to type it up and resubmit to council. I hope it passes the second time! Hard to do volunteer service work huh?

On Sunday I took Allison to the Renaissance festival since Scott was pretty worn out from a birthday party sleep over the night before. He did not get much sleep, and was up early with Allison to serve the 9am mass. This was also Allison's last mass as she is hanging up her robe. She hung in there for one more year to help get SCott started, but she decided to pursue other areas of the church. We actually spoke to one of the church youth group leaders who makes jewelry with beads purchased and made from women in Africa. Then they sell the jewelry to raise money for their summer work groups where they volunteer around the country to help people in need-like working in New Orleans after the hurricane. Allison used to help with this group and is thinking of joining again to help out at church and earn volunteer hours for the National Honor Society.

So Sunday Tom had to leave and is spending the week in San Francisco. Scott spent his day doing homework. Allison and I enjoyed eating food items on sticks and watching several shows, including a juggling/balancing/magic comedy by a man who is married to a physical therapist that I used to work with at St Agnes hospital. We have seen her husband perform before, but that was at a First Night New Years Eve show in Annapolis many years ago. I did not know he also performs yearly(25 years now) at the Festival. I asked him to say hi to his wife after the show. And we enjoyed the Madrigal singers and spoke to Allison's friend briefly between shows.

Tom had just arrived home from a quick visit to Chicago the week before. He couldn't locate any Gino's deep dish pizza to bring home, but he did get me a Starbucks Chicago mug. I have started a new collection. Starbucks has made mugs with city landmarks on them. So far I have London and Detroit. Now Chicago. I am on a mission to collect mugs from all the places I have visited(or Tom visits). I made need another cabinet in the kitchen! Good thing we drink coffee!

Tom did get home in time on Friday for us to have lunch together right after our doctor and dentist appointments. Tom had to meet with the oral surgeon and schedule time to have his wisdom teeth pulled(it's about time). I had my own appointment to go to and then we both watched Allison's Field Hockey game. This was exciting because Allison got to play two periods. And her team won by a lot. ON Tuesday Tom got off work early since he was traveling to Chicago, and he watched her team play their first official game. This team won Nationals last year and it was a tough game. I caught the last 10 mins of the game-it looked like a Lacrosse match! Lots of checking and sticks flying, girls tripping. And the ref. kept calling penalties and even kicked girls off the field for 5 minute penalties. A nail biting game and Allison's team won by one point! Very exciting. Allison also had a pasta party after practice on Monday night, before the game. So we were busy making pans of brownies Sunday night. Turns out we had lots of brownies left since half of the team didn't make the party-seems the flu season has started. And another girl is out with a broken foot. That appears to be a big issue this year. At least they are back on their own field practicing-most of the big rain has held out, except for the end of one practice session when the coach sent all the girls home early due to rain showers. I don't think standing out in the cold rain helps with their health either. Not to mention how cold it got here this weekend(thanks Canada). They even had a tornado in Ocean City when the cold front blew in. A water spout came on shore and damaged buildings and cars. I don't think the National WEather SErvice believed it was a tornado since they say one hasn't hit there in over 100 years.

But we had extra brownies available for Monday Night Football. Tom hosted the first Boys Night Out to watch Monday night football. Tom and I were all running around the house cleaning up and we made munchies to go along with the beer. When the boys arrived, the kids were home doing homework. We had a full house of football fans and sadly, some of them would not go home! The kids were waiting up for Tom to help them with their homework but we couldn't get the stragglers out of the house. Most of the group usually leave at half time. Glad we are not hosting for awhile. Of course, Tom is going to miss quite a few games too since he has more traveling to do.

Scott had a busy week with schoolwork, his first choir practice, gymnastics and altar server training. Allison was busy with piano lessons, Field Hockey and school work. I missed my rescheduled Girl SCout Leader Meeting (rescheduled due to the previous weeks flooding). Instead I went to Allison's Back to SChool Night. I met most of her teachers-the pre Calc teacher did not make it. And none of the parents like the Spanish teacher. Most of the kids failed their first spanish test. Allison did not do too bad, but of course the teacher did not count the first test. Tom was just happy to hear that the Dept of Transportation was going to reconfigure the morning drop off since the traffic backs up with our new parking lot.

Enjoy the photos of Allison at the RenCen Festival and her friend's Madrigal singing group performing. Also Allison's last time as an altar server(she has been an altar server since 5th grade!).

Kathleen

Well we survived the disaster of the week! Earthquakes, Hurricanes and now Floods! We already had the locusts in the form of stink bugs! We enjoyed Tropical Storm Lee-sorry Texas. We would have loved to have sent the rain your way.

Tuesday the kids were back to school, I was off to work and Tom was flying out to California. And the rain had already started on Monday. At least it held off during most of the Labor Day Weekend. Which was a good thing for Baltimore since we hosted our very first Baltimore Grand Prix-racing the NASCAR circuit around the inner harbor. They say it was a successful event, but most of the people that live and work in Baltimore didn't think so since most of the roads were closed for the race track making their commute miserable.

Besides working on Labor Day, I also helped SCott set up his new 10 gallon tank for his turtle. I bought a small tv stand to use for his turtle tank and the tank with the hermit crabs. Just a little reminder of our summer vacation.

Tuesday night I dropped SCott off at his Boy SCout meeting after work. They were having a ceremony to acknowledge all the badges the boys earned during the year, and anyone who moved up in rank. All our new boys earned the Tenderfoot rank as well as Boy Scout rank just since February. And SCott received his 3 badges he earned this summer. We were supposed to have a picnic on Sunday for the ceremony, but we were rained out. I couldn't stay for SCott's ceremony and party, and Tom was out of town so I headed over to SCott's Back to SChool Night instead.

I think he is going to have a very good year as he has a great group of experienced teachers. And he is excited about his first year of Middle SChool too. He already turned in two summer book reports and did quite well-so hopefully he is off to a good start. Even though they did not actually start on the first day because of the power outages from the hurricane.

Allison on the other hand was not having much luck at school. Her field hockey practices and a scrimmage were rained out. The worst was on Weds, the heaviest amount of rain for the week. That was when all the local roads started flooding, including several in our neighborhood. We have some small creeks running through the neighborhood that turned into rivers. I thought I saw the deer floating by on inner tubes with margaritas in their hooves! And I think everyone saw our olde Ellicott City under water. They haven't had a flood that bad since Hurricane Agnes in 1972. My girl scout leader meeting was cancelled that evening due to downed trees and flooded streets. At least the power stayed on! Allison's school had a fire alarm go off during the day and they herded the entire school outside in a thunderstorm. Turns out water leaked into a smoke alarm and set it off in one of the trailers, and all the kids got soaked. I don't know if it would have been worse to get caught in a fire or hit by lightening! The kids strolled back into school sopping wet, the hallways were wet, classrooms leaking and their courtyard flooded into the newly remodeled administration offices. So glad they decided not to rebuild. They told all the kids that walk home to get a ride from their parents. Allison ended up catching a ride home with the sports trainer since practice was cancelled again. The teams usually try and practice inside, but they only have one gym and the second gym is being remodeled. And there are just too many sports teams to practice inside.

ON Thursday the field hockey coach moved their practice to the local county parks that have turf fields. They were not flooded like the school fields. HOwever, I was not able to get off work at 230 to drive Allison to practice, so she caught a ride from one of the senior girls. I picked her and another teammate up after traveling to 3 other parks! (All with the same name). Then I had to go to my PT session for my neck after feeding the kids, and then to Allison's piano lesson. Long day.

Friday I got the kids off to school and finally went back for my first aerobics class. Since I am winding down on my PT sessions, I thought I would try to transition back to class. Seems like I survived-everything hurt of course, but in the right places. When I got home I thought I would take Cookie for a walk in between the rain showers(wrong!). It drizzled the whole time we were out and we were soaked. After a warm shower, I spent the rest of the afternoon sorting through toys and clothes for the garage sale next weekend. Allison had an indoor practice and SCott had his first INtermediate gymnastics class that evening.

Tom returned from California and I think was relieved to hear that our weekend plans were cancelled(due to rain-imagine!). Again! This weekend we were supposed to camp at Chincoteague Island with the boy scouts. I was so looking forward to this trip also. Allison went camping there a few summers ago with the girl scouts and had a great time. This is the island with the wild ponies that wander around the campground and beach area. It is a National Park. Because Hurricane Katia was offshore, the beach had rip tide warnings posted and the scout troop leaders did not feel comfortable taking the boys to the beach. In some ways I was relieved since I would have had to pack up the van with the camping gear myself and Tom would have had a 3 hour drive after getting off the plane from LA Friday night. The scouts were scheduled to complete a service project on the beach with the Park Rangers early Saturday morning, so Tom and SCott were going to leave on Friday. We were all planning on leaving Friday, but Allison had a Field Hockey tournament on Saturday. I thought it was just one morning game, but it was another all day affair.

So instead, on Saturday morning the family enjoyed watching Allison's team play. Saturday night we all headed over to our neighbor's house to catch up with news of the week and eat dinner out on the patio. In between rain showers. I am starting to feel like I live in the Rain Forest. We also celebrated Allison being inducted into the National Honor Society! Way to go Allison! All that ridiculous paperwork we filled out last May paid off. Although now she has to do more volunteer work to stay a member. She was surprised with the news as were the other students at the end of the day on Friday. The students were herded into the media center with a big celebration and flowers. They will have a family celebration in October.

Sunday we enjoyed watching the Ravens football team spank the Steelers. Oh Yeah! We also enjoyed watching the game at our old neighbor's new house. These were neighbors that lived 2 doors down from us and moved to be closer to York PA where the husband was working. He used to work at the Pentagon, and now he was transferred to the Naval ShipYard near the pentagon, so they decided to move back to our area. They had a custom house built which looks very much like their last house. And it backs up to our local large park so it will be a great place for the kids to hang out. So we had a terrific day(and it rained). And we had thought about going to Hershey Park that day to use our summer tickets we bought on discount. Turns out the park was closed all weekend due to weather. Guess we are glad we did not drive all the way up there for nothing!

I need to send out a few very big Happy Birthdays! Happy Birthday to Brother Mike who celebrated(we hope) this past weekend, and a double Happy Birthday to my brother's Dan and Dave who celebrated their birthdays on Labor Day Weekend. Hope you all had time to enjoy yourselves!

That's Allison in goal on Field Hockey tournament day and Scott looking extra excited to go to school and have his picture taken at 8am!

Kathleen

HOW I SPENT MY LABOR DAY WEEKEND.

I didn't. Well, not the way I had planned anyway. Our family was planning on a trip to Busch Gardens for Labor DAy Weekend. It is usually our last blast for summer vacation. I especially enjoy a day at the water park. However, this year Allison was scheduled to go to school on Friday. In the past, the kids had a 4 day weekend. It changes every year. Scott though managed to get the day off. I found out later it was a mistake. The school officials thought the public school was going to be off and they were trying to keep the schedules the same. Oh well, it worked out for Scott. Since Tom and Scott had the day off, they both headed down to Williamsburg for the weekend with our neighbors.

Allison and I however stayed home. Allison had school and Field Hockey practice afterwards. Then she went out to dinner with the team. On Saturday Allison had an all day Field Hockey tournament. We had to be on the field early in the morning and help set up for a concession stand. I was bringing a big table and donated chip bags as well as working the booth and cleaning up at the end of the day. No sooner did we set up and start our first games that a thunderstorm popped up! The girls were herded into the school and we had to repack all our food items into vans and wait it out. We were delayed by about an hour, but surprisingly we did not get much rain. So before lunch we were back on, just with shortened game times to get all the playing in before 530 pm. And Allison was in the game. I took a break from the concession stand to go watch her play-the game ended 0-0 and Allison stopped 3 plays as goalie. Our team was hosting 3 other schools, so we had a very long break in between our matches. After feeding Allison, I headed home to do some housework and pick up Cookie to catch the last games of the day. We lucked out and did not have any more rain for the day. Allison did not play the last game but Cookie and I had a good time cleaning up the concession stand. Cookie made sure she picked up all the munchie crumbs left behind and loved visiting with the kids. I enjoyed visiting with all the parents too. I was amazed to run into several parents of Resurrection kids just starting high school and playing Field Hockey. I even ran into a mom whose son is a Sr at the high school and now has a freshman daughter who plays field hockey that I haven't seen in at least 10 years. She is the sister of a therapist I used to work with, and Allison and her high school son were in preschool together. We had a lot of fun catching up with family activities.

Sadly I also learned of one of Scott's classmates, a twin boy who was in the hospital recovering from brain surgery. The boy apparently had a sinus infection that became abscessed and they had to do surgery to remove the infection as antibiotics could not clear it up. He had just been taken off the ventilator but was not moving the left side of his body. Sounds like just recently he was moving his arm a bit. We are all praying for the family and Luke's recovery. I signed up to provide the family with a meal and then forwarded the info to the boy's scout troop. I recently heard the troop sent Luke a bunch of get well cards, and were buying restaurant gift cards for take out for the family. I was just so shocked and still am by how quickly things can change. Scott just went to boy scout summer camp with the twins at the end of July. Who knew in a month or so Luke would be having brain surgery. Just makes us appreciate every little thing even more.

Allison and I had to get home from the games so she could clean up and have dinner before heading over to her first Behind the Wheel Driving Instruction. Tom and I were not feeling very comfortable on taking her to another level in our own cars, so off she went for 2 hours SAturday night with Gregs Driving School. This is actually part of her summer classes. Her instructor must have been about 8ft tall and very nice. I don't know how he fit into those tiny cars they use. But Allison reports she did well and visited every high school in Howard County along with many, many traffic circles. Oh yes, and merging too!

On Sunday I had to drop Allison off at work from noon to 4. She was still busy helping with the cleaning of the Sports Club for opening day the following week. Sunday she was on skate cleaning duty. After work I picked her up and we headed over to Matt and Di's house for the last pool party of the year. Matt cooked two roast lambs and everyone brought dessert and side salads to share. Diana belongs to a running group, so mostly she invites a lot of very friendly women. Allison and I enjoyed the pool and hot tub and I brought Cookie along since it had been so hot and humid, I did not want her to spend most of the day and night locked in the house. She enjoyed visiting with all the people and lying under my deck chair(or sitting on my lap). Matt and Di have a dog as well, a Vizsla (kinda like a hound dog), named Winston who loves to swim and thinks Cookie is a chew toy, so I had to keep a close eye on her. We did not stay too late though since we both had to work Labor Day.

Allison also had a lot of homework over the weekend including a few take home tests in math and spanish, and a paper to write in English.

Meanwhile, Scott and Tom were having a wonderful sunny weekend down in Williamsburg. They spent Friday at Busch Gardens and tried out the new Swing Drop ride(Scott and Tom report it was boring). ON Saturday they were at the Water Park all day, and then in the evening headed over to Busch Gardens for a Neil Sedaka concert(CAlendar Girl, Breaking Up is Hard to Do-you remember?). Tom never would have gone, and could not even think of one song he sang, but our neighbors loved it and asked him to join them. Scott went off with their son Alex and rode more rides. Tom (I think) actually enjoyed the concert but could not believe how crazy the women acted(mature women that is). He thought any minute panties were going to fly onto the stage!
Sunday they did some outlet shopping and hit a few more rides in the park before heading back home that night.

ON Labor day Allison was scheduled to work but turns out they did not need her. I decided to work Labor Day since I figured Allison was working, I wasn't going to Busch Gardens, the money is good and it was supposed to rain all day(and it did). The start of a very wet and flooded week.

Looks like I am sending the last of my summer photos. I included a few shots from our ghost tour in Savannah(Tom, Scott, Eric and Allison Seitz) and one of the live oaks growing in the town squares. Joe Namath's house(at one time) as well as a funeral home. Just one of the Haunted Houses on the tour. And the kids with Grandma and Grandpa Bozyk at the Detroit Zoo-of course in front of their famous fountain.

Well we survived another disaster. We knew the hurricane was coming last weekend, so we had time to put away all items from our yard that could go flying, fill up the gas tanks in the cars, stock up on water, buy more propane and most importantly, do all the dishes and laundry before the power went out! Not to mention buying toilet paper and milk(a Baltimoron thing).

I kept Scott home from camp on his last day, Friday, since he was not feeling well. It gave us some time to finish reading his last summer assigned reading book. I opted to read Dr Ben Carson's book, Gifted Hands to Scott since it was on the 7th grade summer reading list and I figured he would not get the surgery discussions or finish reading it in time. I was very happy we both heard the story-the black boy from Detroit who grew up poor with his mom and brother and became a world famous pediatric neurosurgeon still practicing right here in Baltimore at Johns Hopkins. It was fun reading about all the places he'd been in Detroit, the different companies he worked for while going to Uof M for his undergrad. He ended up here in BAltimore at Johns Hopkins University for Medicine and still practices here today. Scott and I spent Saturday morning of the hurricane weekend typing and editing his book reports. He also made a diorama of his first book (the scene in the shoebox). Fortunately I had plenty of supplies left over from his last diorama.

Last Friday evening Allison was invited to a swim birthday party at a local pool club. Scott and I were invited too, so after eating dinner at the girl's house here in the neighborhood, we all headed over to the pool. Scott is friends with the girl's younger brother, so Scott came along to visit and play video games until we went swimming. The water was a bit cold since it was 8pm and not a heated pool. It didn't slow Scott down though-he had a great time on the slide and the diving board. I splashed around a bit, but by 9pm I was frozen. The club house staff was also busy putting away all the pool chairs since they were getting ready for the storm too. I drove a van full of girls back to the party house for a bonfire and s'mores. Then I had to try and stay awake to pick up Allison after the party was over at midnite. She was just disappointed that she missed the Field Hockey swim party at lunch. After her morning practice, she had to work. So only one party for her!

By Saturday night our power was out. We didn't get a good night's sleep with the wind howling and the power going on and off. Cookie wasn't too thrilled either and couldn't settle down to sleep, even in the basement where it was very dark and very quiet. At dawn the wind seemed to slow down a bit. Tom went out looking for any place that was selling coffee. Power was pretty much out everywhere, including the traffic lights. Starbucks got power and opened at 10am. We decided it was a good quest for a hike so we grabbed Cookie and the family went out on a coffee mission. We then had to stand in a long line for coffee after the police helped us cross the street. After we got our coffee, I asked if the family didn't mind walking to the library to return SCott's book. It wasn't like we could do a whole lot at home, and we were pretty much trapped all weekend. Church was still going on, just without power. That afternoon, the sun finally came out. Tom went looking for a place to get Scott's hair cut and buy an extra pair of tennis shoes for school, but the power was out all around Maryland. Trees were down and it made driving difficult. We had free tickets for the State Fair that day, but it had shut down too.

We had also planned on a weekend trip to Busch Gardens in Virginia. Tom and I were so looking forward to seeing Pat Benatar there in concert. Naturally it was cancelled and Busch Gardens was shut down for the weekend. Looks like the Seitz family has not had much luck with concerts this summer. Mark and Linda Seitz ran into weather problems with their Sugarland concert at the Indiana State Fair a few weeks ago. You all probably saw the news, how the stage blew over. Mark and Linda had been attending that concert but left before the storm hit. They were heading to their car, walking through a tunnel to the parking lot when the wind kicked up. Linda saw the stage blow over when they came up out of the tunnel. They were able to get out of the fairgrounds before everything was closed and the emergency trucks were arriving. Not a good year for outdoor concerts!

I also spent most of the weekend doing spring cleaning since we were really stuck at home. I had the kids getting rid of clothes that didn't fit anymore and old school papers(just to make room for more!). I even decided to take advantage of the nice sunny afternoon on Sunday after the storm passed and taught Allison how to cut the lawn with the push mower. She took a 4-H safety class back when she was 13, but I never pushed the issue since she has such a hard time breathing with her hay fever. I figured the hurricane had probably blown everything away and just had her cut our backyard. She did very well but discovered that the tough part is starting the mower!

Monday was the first day of school-but not in Baltimore. Neither was Tuesday(for Scott). His school was out of power, and half of our county was still out of power, but they decided to start sending some of the kids off to school anyhow. Guess the other kids don't have to make it up since we were under a State of Emergency.

Allison was a bit overwhelmed by her class load. I was most concerned about her fulfilling her internship requirements. She brought home a syllabus that explained the kids need to get in 30 hours of placement by Nov 3rd. Since Allison is now playing Field Hockey, she has to be at practice by 230. She doesn't get out of class until 115 and she would have to walk all the way to Scott's school for her internship and then back again by 230 for field hockey practice. She would probably be spending all her time walking, if not biking back and forth, so we decided it would be better to do the internship next year when she can drive and have more class time. She was also the only Junior in the program. She talked to her instructor and they agreed to look at completing the program next year. Instead she is taking Piano 2 in its place. I am sure she will keep busy with Pre Calc, World History, American Lit, Chemistry and Spanish along with her Child Development class for the teaching program. Not to mention Field Hockey, Piano lessons, and work(and oh yes, driving practice).

Allison's first week of school consisted of classes, Field Hockey practice and work every night. Her sports clubhouse shuts down at the end of the summer for a massive cleaning, and Allison had to go in every night to help scrub yoga mats and throw away trash. And their cleaning schedule was behind schedule since they were without power for a few days too.

Scott on the other hand just had two days of school and loves his teachers and is looking forward to an interesting year including mummifying a chicken!

Next blog-How I Spent my Labor Day Weekend. Enjoy more photos from Hilton Head. I sent some outdoor shots-kayaking, biking on the beach and of course, our favorite-beer and food out on the restaurant decks. I would also like to thank Matt D for catching the mackerel. Allison and I enjoyed it for dinner when we got back to Baltimore. We threw it on the grill with lots of butter and onions. Very tasty and no annoying fish bones!

Kathleen

Welcome to Hurriquake week on the East Coast(or as we like to call it, the Right Coast).

My last weekend before school started kept me busy camping with Allison and another girl from my scout troop. We packed up and headed out on Friday evening after Tom took my van in to get a small crack repaired on the windshield. Of course I caught a small rock from a truck to the front windshield while driving back from Detroit.

Friday was overcast and a bit chilly so most of the girl's evening activities were indoors. Parents staying for the weekend are assigned different jobs and have an orientation to attend as well. This year I had attendance. In the past I have helped monitor the swimming pool, did archery and made tie dye shirts all day long. Last year Allison had field hockey games all day SAturday so she could not attend. Instead, I drove up to camp myself and taught a class on the use of crafts and the OT profession. This year the girls earned 3 badges-All About Birds, Graphic Communications and another Archery badge for Allison. The bird badge I thought was interesting-I did not know there was a cage of raptors on site at the camp. They had owls, hawks, an eagle and young turkey vulture-all injured at some point. With the graphic communications badge the girls learned all about advertising and using computer programs to make displays. They also had to cut out and design their own prints. And Allison just enjoyed another chance to shoot archery. She had planned on doing some tie dye, so she packed a few pieces including a cami and a scarf. Since she ran out of time to tie dye, I did it for her. I even volunteered to help rinse out the shirts Sunday morning, but the volunteers already had left early for a local laundramat(something the instructor swore she would never do again). So the pieces were already washed and dried for all the girls to take home when I arrived. I thought my pieces came out pretty good too!

We got home Sunday morning with plenty of time to attend the Comic Con that Scott and Tom were looking forward to attending. Even Allison thought it would be interesting, but she swore none of her books/comics would be available. She did not think her comic interests ranked with such comics as Spiderman or Thor. Scott mostly looks forward to dressing up. Last year he and his friend Sammy dressed as Mario and Luigi and they got a lot of attention(and photos). This year SCott asked Tom if he could go as a Mario Zombie. They found the costume on line and Tom put one together for him. Scott had outgrown his overalls which Mario wears, so Tom had to cut them and tuck them into a pair of jeans. The hat and mustache finished it off along with a zombie face painting. I had to ask Tom to wrap SCott in a blanket so he wouldn't get fake blood all over my new van seats. Again, Scott was a hit-everyone wanted his photo. And there were lots of adults dressed up as well. Captain America was very popular this year along with the Green Hornet-just wait until Halloween. Scott carried around a skull with a mustache and green hat-all that was left of his partner Luigi. The guys especially thought that was hysterical. And Allison even enjoyed finding some of her favorite comic books as well as a new author who autographed the book she bought from him and even drew in a cartoon on the back of the front cover. We were just happy to have made it downtown in one piece since a huge thunderstorm hit just as we were leaving the house. The Baltimore Convention Center where it was held had a few leaks in the roof, and we could barely see the buildings downtown through the rainy haze when we were driving in. It was also extremely crowded since Stan Lee, creator of Spiderman and Marvel Comic Books was the guest lecturer. Tickets for his program were sold out at $125.00 per person! Baltimore does love to read!

During the week, Allison was busy each day with 1 or 2 field hockey practice sessions in the morning and afternoon with the Varsity team. She was surprised that several girls from her previous JV team were cut, but competition is always pretty tight.

Scott was busy spending his last week before school starts at the YMCA. No special events, but he got to swim and try to stay dry during on and off t -storms and rain.

And just when we thought things couldn't get any crazier, the east coast decided to have an earthquake. I was at work in an older building with windows for a change and couldn't figure out what was shaking the floor and walls. There is a lot of construction going on at campus-they are building new elevators on each of our buildings, remodeling the pool and Fitness center and main entrance as well as our auditorium and completely remodeling an entire building with larger apartments. So I thought maybe a truck was going by but the shaking did not stop. I finally figured out it was an earthquake and mentioned it to both of my patients that I was treating. We turned the radio on after the shaking stopped and learned that we had just had a 5.8 quake near Richmond, VA about 3 hours drive from our house. I felt like I was right back in LA. Allison was home alone and immediately jumped under our high counter with the dog. Cookie was howling and they both ran outside with the neighbors when it was over. Scott was at camp and said their canopy was shaking all over. They both knew it was a quake. Tom was at work and said they emptied his building-twice. No one here really knew what to do. The quake was felt as far north as Canada and down to Georgia in the south. DC took the most damage here in the area. The tall Washington monument has a crack in the top and the National Cathedral lost a few spires. There was also a lot of ceiling plaster that came down in the Capitol and many other older buildings. We checked for damage to the brick and looked for gas leaks but looks like we held up just fine. Tom and I thought it felt like a 5.0 here in Ellicott City.

Because buildings needed to be inspected, evening activities were cancelled at all schools and public buildings. Allison was supposed to attend a drivers training class in order to obtain a parking permit for school any time this school year. She and Tom attended instead on Weds night. Allison had to have a parent with her to sign her off. They got to watch nasty movies on teens dying in cars while drinking and texting. She then had a student sports orientation during the day at school on Weds, and I attended the parents sports orientation meeting on Thursday night and signed up for lots of fund raising activities for Allison's field hockey team. She also started up her piano lessons this week. Isn't back to school time so much fun!

Meanwhile, Scott spent some extra time working with Tom to finish up his first level in Scouts-Tenderfoot. He also turned in his cards to receive his 3 badges he earned this summer. They were planning a ceremony the following weekend, but had to post pone due to the Hurricane.

More fun info on the Hurricane during my next blog. I am including a few photos from our minor league baseball game where Allison and I sang the National Anthem with the girl scout choir. Also Allison's archery skills and Scott's Mario costume at Comic Con. Kathleen

The weekend after returning home from Michigan I was busy again doing laundry, cleaning house and grocery shopping. Allison had attended her first try out for Field Hockey on Saturday morning and we had the neighbors over for dinner on Saturday night.

Sunday afternoon we headed off to a minor league baseball game, Cal Ripkin Jr's Ironbirds team. CAl was a Baltimore Oriole player along with his Dad, Cal Ripkin Sr. When Cal Jr retired, he built his own stadium north of Baltimore that looks like a mini Orioles stadium. OUr Girl Scout choir was singing the National Anthem, so we had to arrive early to get out on the field. We had a lot of fun even though my family are not major fans of baseball. Hot dogs were only a buck, and we even got some free birthday cake and free baseball hats. And the game was exciting, plus our team won. Whats not to love? Tom was hoping we would be rained out.

We had another week of summer camp for SCott. He really enjoyed this Y camp since he spent the morning hours in a Lego robotics class and was able to work on his own robot set. Allison was busy with Field Hockey try outs.

And we are excited to report that Allison made the Varsity Team as a goalie! How exciting. And our schedule just got a lot crazier! She had practice twice a day, and the girls decided to get the morning sessions done early, so she was heading off to school at 730 am. That actually helped her get ready for the early start of school on August 29th. She also got done in time to head to work on Friday as a skate guard. They are still running summer camps on Friday and Allison was overwhelmed with the number of kids that showed up, especially since her coworkers were less than helpful(it appears they hired a nephew that was not keeping up with the busy pace which gave Allison twice as much work to oversee). At least it is just a part time position!

While she was off to work, I was busy packing for our weekend away with the Girl SCouts-our last camping activity of the summer. I managed to locate one other girl to go along with Allison at the grocery store the weekend before. I ran into her and her mother in the store and asked them along. They managed to get the paperwork done and I ran it over to our Service Unit Managers house on the way to the baseball game so she could get her registered. MOre on our camping weekend next blog.

Here are a few fishing photos from our Hilton Head trip. Even Mom Seitz braved the waves! Susan and husband John joined myself as well as Allison and Scott. I caught the sting ray, and Allison and Scott each caught a few baby sharks! I was not going swimming in that bay!

Kathleen