Back to work today, the hardest part about coming back to work is getting caught up, reoriented and back in gear. Off the top I want to thank Matt James, Mac Dickson, Andy and whoever else picked my detail while I was away.

The bulk of my time off was spent with my Mom visiting from Halifax, Canada. Too bad the weather was so unpredictable but we had fun. My week off started with a bit of cleaning over the first weekend. On Monday (5/19) we drove down to Ocean Gateway in Portland to meet Mom at the Nova Star. After her arrival we drove back to Auburn following each other and basically just relaxed and recuperated that evening.

Now for a few of the highlights over the past week.

On Tuesday evening at Park Avenue Elementary, Justin's 6th grade class had a geography fair where all of the students made up a country and had to come up with laws, symbols and culture. In regards to Justin, Lynn and I also went to meeting for in coming 7th graders at Auburn Middle School on Thursday evening. It's really rather sad, after eight years we're all but a promotion ceremony away from being done with Park Avenue Elementary School.

Dylan was part of Saturday's Lewiston-Auburn Memorial Day parade playing his trumpet with the are schools' combined 'ROAR' band. Dylan was a sweetheart too as he hosted his siblings while Grandma was visiting and using Vikki's room. All three kids migrated to his room.

Vikki over the past week was just Vikki. Full of life, joy and conversation.

On top of the above mentioned, we went to Freeport where Lynn picked up a pair of LL Bean jeans for $12, Vikki got three pairs of flip-flops for under $10 at Old Navy and my Mom picked up Fiesta brand dishes at the kitchen store by the Downeaster stop and a rain jacket at The North Face. Dylan got a pair of black skinny jeans for the parade and Justin got new Vans sneakers. Me, I just went along for the ride.

On Saturday afternoon after the Memorial Day parade Mom and I drove to Kennebunkport to see where she'll be staying during a future visit in late July for a week with my sister and nephew. No sign of either George while we were there.

Sunday, we played a round of mini golf at Roy's in Turner and went to Hodgman's in New Gloucester for frozen custard.

Aside from the day trips and the kids' functions we did a lot of relaxing mostly because the weather was so iffy.

To sum up my vacation, it was low key and it was nice to have Mom around. Now time to shift gears and head back into reality.

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