Camping and the Importance of Taking Notes

I went along as a chaperone and driver for The Eldest's Older Girl Girl Scout Camporee this weekend and we had a great time. The weather cooperated, the activities were fun, and the girls all got along beautifully. I even managed to talk to the other adults without hogging the conversation so there was progress on a personal note. (I felt myself going there a couple of times but managed to stop and turn it around by asking some good questions.)

It's such a different experience to camp with the big girls. They are fairly low maintenance since most of them are experienced campers so it's just a matter of watching the clock and making sure they get where they need to be for their scheduled activities. During the main outdoor time the troop leader (I'm a co-leader) was helping with one of the activities while I was the escort so she had more to do than I did; I took a picnic mat and read while the girls were in their rotations. I was able to watch and learn a lot from the other leaders during the weekend; I learn new things every time I go camping with more experienced leaders. I helped with cleaning up the dining hall and learned the procedures particular to that, then I watched one of the leaders teach the girls how to clean the bathroom at our camp site prior to check out. (After the girls wiped the showers, sinks, and toilets with bleach, she took a hose in and taught them to spray everything down since there's a drain in the floor; that makes it much easier.) I paid attention when the troop leader scheduled the last morning’s check out activities so I won’t mess up on that again like I did when I took The Middle Child’s troop to their camporee. I also paid attention to the structure of the weekend.

This is the third camporee I’ve been to along with one other troop camping trip and they have all been structured roughly the same way. I’m starting to think I might run one for The Middle Child’s service unit, but I want one more year under my belt first. I also want to run a family camping trip for The Middle Child’s troop next fall and see how that goes. I can structure it similarly to the Camporees I’ve attended for practice. I’ve got great moms in The Middle Child’s troop but they aren’t campers yet. Three of my nine girls weren’t allowed to go because their moms just weren’t comfortable with the idea of camping; I have to get them over that! If we can take a family trip, where the dads and little brothers can go too, then I think I can get them more comfortable with it. They can see the camp, get a feel for what we do there, go through packing and pre-camp preparations for themselves so they will better know what to do to prepare their girls when they send them by themselves, and so forth. (And believe me, having a girl there without the proper equipment or with more gear than she can manage herself is a pain in the neck, for her and the leaders.)

Speaking of equipment, I did better this time with my personal gear. (I have over-packing issues.) Well, it wasn’t cold like the last time, so that cuts down on lots of stuff right there, but I was able to get everything out of the cabin and packed in my car in two trips! Since I have to take my own cot and bedding (I have sleep problems related to the fibromyalgia so the horrible cots they provide don’t work for me) that’s an accomplishment. I also had a cooler and food in the unit house and that was one additional trip. I didn’t have anything in the way of troop supplies so that helped, too. I took firewood up but they burned that so I didn’t have to pack it to take home. (I would’ve left it anyway; they have a place to put extra wood at each camp site.) I’m happy I’ve streamlined. I used almost everything I took and didn’t need anything else. I didn’t use some cold weather items like warm PJs, a long sleeved T-shirt, and a warm scarf (it was supposed to be chilly at night but it wasn’t; in fact the first night was hot) but that was it.

So there’s a chunk of my de-briefing, which is something I do after every trip I take. I’ve also made additional notes for myself about how I would run a Camporee, tweaks for my packing list, (even though it was almost perfect there are always things to tweak), and other ideas. The notes I’ve taken over the years are invaluable to me; that’s something I highly recommend to everyone.

Whether you travel a lot or not, if you plan on ever traveling again take notes. Make a packing list before you go then tweak it for the next time as soon as you get back while you still remember what worked and what didn’t. (For instance, I now have an over door hook in my toiletry bag which I wind up using on every trip. Who would think of that if they didn’t have the experience of having something to hang up on a trip, like a toiletry bag, with no where to hang it?)

If you participate in activities that require planning, like camporees or parties or field trips with kids or any type of planned event that you will do again, de-brief and take notes. I even have hurricane notes since there’s a good possibility we’ll go through one of those again some day.

There may be people out there who can handle life without notes, low maintenance types or the super organized or something, but I’m not one of them. (For the record, I am very high maintenance about certain things. I don’t wear make up, floof my hair for three hours every day or wear designer anything, but I like my creature comforts.) For the rest of us, notes can be a life saver!

Camping

I'm taking the Brownies camping this weekend. That's 5 nine year old girls. By myself. (Well, it's a Camporee so there will be other troops there, and one mom from the troop and her daughter will be coming up for the day on Saturday, but still. Trying to generate some sympathy here; sheese.) The weather is forecast to be absolutely gorgeous during the day but we will be freezing our buns off at night; brrrrr. The theme, appropriately enough considering the cold, is "Survivor". I've got my new rated-to-30-degrees sleeping bag, flannel jammies, mittens, a heavy hooded sweat shirt, and various other items to keep me warm so I'm hoping I won't be too miserable.

OK, here's where the sympathy really comes in. The girls chose "The Pink Llamas" as their "tribe" name (part of the Survivor theme) so we're going to learn the Llama Llama Duck song on the way up in the car. They'll be singing it over and over and over and over and over...

Pity me!!!

Wear Pearls on Halloween

I am proud to be a part of Girl Scouts as a leader for The Middle Child's Brownie troop. I've been more involved in the past taking on other volunteer positions that involved a lot more work, but I've scaled back this year to focus on homeschooling. I'm still a big believer in Girl Scouts, however, and what they stand for and have the greatest admiration for Juliette Gordon Low, the woman who brought Girl Scouts to the United States back in 1912. She was a Halloween baby and so that day is a special holiday for Girl Scouts of the USA. I just read an article on-line about Girl Scouts who wear pearls on October 31st to honor her memory. Why pearls? Because at one point as she was trying to get Girl Scouts off the ground, Juliette sold her valuable pearls to fund the movement. It is representative of her sacrifice and tireless work on behalf of girls everywhere. I plan to wear my pearls, OK, my faux pearls, on Saturday, even over my Halloween T-shirt!

Girl Scout Activities

The whole family went to a Girl Scout Halloween event tonight. The Eldest went with her troop and volunteered at the event; the rest of us went with The Middle Child's troop. We had a lot of fun but spent a LOT of time waiting in lines. We got to go on a hay ride and put "wish boats" in the lake, although the wind kept blowing out the candles on the little bark boats before the girls could get them anywhere near the water. I made a wish that The Middle Child's troop will stay together until the girls graduate from high school!

As a leader, I'm so happy with The Middle Child's troop; I think of this as my "reward troop". I've led troops in the past that just didn't gel for one reason or another, like the moms didn't want to pitch in to help out, or they pushed for the troop to do too much when I was at a time in my life when I was limited by my two younger children, (couldn't go on overnight trips when I was nursing, for instance), or the moms didn't want to do any activities at all outside of meetings, or the girls were, umm, challenging to manage, or whatever the problems were. Not this troop, though! The moms are all great, they help out, they follow through on what they say they'll do for the girls, we all like each other, and the girls! The girls are all absolute sweethearts, every last one of them. I couldn't have put together a better troop if I'd hand picked every one of them, but I didn't. The girls all came to The Middle Child's troop from different sources. We recruited one girl through The Middle Child's pre-school program, a couple of the girls are the younger sisters of girls in a friend's troop, I recruited one girl and her mom at a grocery store when we were selling cookies and then they brought in a couple of friends, one came to us through Round Up, and one was referred to us through our council. I only knew one of the girls before she joined the troop, come to think of it. Wow; this has really worked out well for us! Here's hoping the girls stick with it through thick and thin, all the way to 12th grade. :)

Of Book Clubs and Brownies

Today was a busy day, what with a book club meeting this morning and a Brownie meeting this afternoon. This was the second book club meeting I've been to; our book was The Help by Kathyrn Stockett. I'm excited to be part of a book club; it's something I've wanted to do for quite some time. I tried to start a Mother/Daughter book club when The Eldest was The Only but it fizzled after 2 meetings, which is one of the things that made me realize I'm not great at organizing groups. (Girl Scout troops being the exception.) I based my Mother/Daughter book club on the book titled, oddly enough, The Mother/Daughter Book Club. We read Because of Winn Dixie and had a party at my house complete with food from the book, including a very large jar of pickles, and Harriet the Spy, and that was the end of it. I was sad it died out since I thought the two meetings were really great, but die it did.

So fast forward to now, and when a friend of mine invited me to her book club I was thrilled! These ladies have been getting together for years now and I'm so honored to be a part of their group. I've enjoyed the first two meetings immensely and I'm looking forward to more of them in the future, and next month's meeting covers a book I haven't read yet. I read both books for the meetings I've been to months ago so they weren't as fresh in my mind as I would like for a discussion; for our November meeting I'll be up to date. We're reading Shanghai Girls: a Novel by Lisa See. It's on the New York Times best seller list, so I'm hopeful that it will be a good read.

Then there was the Brownie meeting. I think it went over well, although not all of the girls were able to make it. (This isn't our regular meeting day.) We worked on several messy science activities and welcomed a new girl into our troop so there was a lot going on. DH and the kids helped with the prep work yesterday- cleaning the house, (the troop meets in my home), stopping by the craft store with me to buy supplies, drilling holes in baby jar lids, and so forth. I knew I wouldn't have a chance for any last minute prep today due to the book club so it had to be done yesterday, and it was, so it's all good.

Photo Shoot

The kids and I had a unique afternoon yesterday. We went to a photo shoot for Girl Scouts (yes, even The Youngest, my son) at their local camp. Our council is entering a photo contest that carries a hefty cash prize hoping a win will let them use the money to revitalize our camps. I had to reshuffle our schedule to clear the way but I'm glad I did since we all had a lot of fun. One of the Girl Scout employees brought her dog, a Yorkie named Latte, to participate and the kids fell in love. Another family brought a Bearded Dragon named Zippy, also a big thrill, but ultimately not as interesting as the dog. (Lizards don't do much.) There were a couple of boys there about the same age as The Youngest, and just as rough and tumble as he is, so he was in heaven. Lots of room to run around, other boys, a campfire, all the marshmallows he could eat, a Bearded Dragon, AND a dog; it was about as good as it gets for him.

The girls enjoyed themselves, too. There were other girls there for them to hang out with and, like The Youngest, they loved playing with the dog. Every now and again all three of them would be called over for pictures, but that was a minor disruption to the fun. ;) I got to be a pyro-maniac for the afternoon; I was the only camp trained person there so it was up to me to get the campfire started. Luckily a fireman arrived later (one of the dads) with all of his gear. He took one look at the pathetic excuse of a fire I'd started (with the help of one of the other dads) and said well, we can fix that, and pulled on his fire gloves. He got in there and shifted some of the logs around and had a gorgeous roaring fire going in about a millisecond. He said if you need a good fire, call a fireman!

He got geared up to get into the pictures, too. The Eldest got to catch a marshmallow on fire and he put it out with his extinguisher; it was foggy and stinky, but very cool to look at. I think that picture is going to be really cute.

We were there for about three hours all told. The kids had so much fun but I'm wiped out! I tried to help out as much as I could with the fire and clean up and so forth, which meant lots of walking from the camp house to the area where they were taking pictures, plus it was hotter than blue blazes. It's a good kind of tired, though since it came from a day well spent.

The Middle Child

We had a lovely afternoon with The Middle Child and her Girl Scout troop yesterday. We went to a local attraction and toured that for about an hour then went to a nearby park for her end of the year ceremony. It's been raining non-stop for a month or so now but it held off for us, thank goodness, although we did hear the lightening detectors a few times; yipes! The girls were able to participate more in the ceremony this time; it wasn't all me standing in front of everyone gabbing. The less I do and the more they do the better! :) I made "hobo bags" out of bandannas and dowels, which we call s'more sticks in Girl Scouts, to hold the patches they earned throughout the year. They were cute as a button and the girls got a kick out of them. This was a family event so all three kids and DH were there. (The Niece is home with her parents for a few weeks.) The families were all supposed to take a dessert to share with everyone; we took a watermelon. DH cut it up on the spot and was amazed that the kids all went for the melon over the sweets, doughnuts, cookies, and brownies, that the other families brought. Oh, they went for the sweets too, but the watermelon was a definite hit.

Even in homeschooling families we still have our end of the school year events to participate in. We follow a lot of the same rhythms everyone else follows, it seems. The Youngest's soccer party, The Middle Child's Girl Scout ceremony, then next week The Eldest has her Girl Scout ceremony, which are all start of summer markers for us. We slow down a bit and the kids wind up in the pool more. It's nice; I look forward to the change in our routine.

Camping

I survived the weekend!!! I went camping with The Eldest and three other girls from her Girl Scout troop, along with roughly 70 other girls from various other troops, at the camp our local Girl Scout council owns a few hours away from here. It was actually a lot of fun except for the not sleeping thing. The weather was mostly GORGEOUS although for the last night it got down to a chilly 59 degrees in the wee hours; brrrrr. As I’ve mentioned in previous posts, it was a Camporee for older girls so they were all middle and high schoolers; that made things a lot easier on the leaders! They are so independent compared to the Brownies and elementary age girls. I didn’t have much to do other than just be there for them, with some minimal supervision. Here’s how minimal I got- the other leaders were all official and talking to their troops after our arrival, giving them the rules and going over the schedule and so forth, so I felt like, as the leader representative, I should be doing those things too. I called my four girls over and said “I’m supposed to be telling you things now, so what should I be saying?” As the veteran campers they are, they proceeded to outline the rules for me and came up with a few I wasn’t aware of! ;) As for the schedule, I got it at check in when we first arrived at the camp gate and they had already reviewed it thoroughly by the time we got to our site. I helped out with a few other things the “Chick in Charge” (as she refers to herself, which I get a kick out of) assigned me to over the course of the weekend. She had things so well planned that everything unfolded seamlessly. They completed an Interest Project Patch (IPP) called Uncovering the Evidence. They went canoeing and hung out by the camp pool and then had a big chunk of free time to hang out and enjoy being together. We all went to Founder's Hall for dinner Saturday night and entertained ourselves the way mankind has for millenia before electricity with skits and silliness. The Eldest wrote up the skit her troop presented based on a story one of the other girls has been telling for years about how the camp is haunted! I think it was the best skit of the night and it got a big applause. They exchanged the SWAPS they made before heading back to our site. After dark Saturday night they played “Manhunt” where the “its” were zombies, vampires, and werewolves to fit the “Horror” theme of the Camporee. I know you were wondering if there were s’mores, a campfire, and camp songs and of course there were. The Chick in Charge led us through several camp songs but my favorite was Boom Chicka Boom that went on for about a dozen different variations, including an operatic version that was hilarious and a valley girl version that just about stumped the song leader. (She pointed to various girls to choose the “style” for each verse.) The food was catered too so we didn’t have to cook, which was wonderful. (Wonderful in that we didn’t have the work of cooking; not so wonderful on the quality of the food. I’d say slightly better than school cafeteria level.) :-P




Top Photo: The fire pit where we actually used a grill since there was a fire ban due to the dry conditions. (We weren't allowed to have a fire on the ground.)
Bottom Photo: The cabin I stayed in

Personal Challenges

I had my personal challenges to overcome. ;) I knew there was spotty cell phone service at the camp (although the AT&T people had full coverage every where they went, but of course I have Sprint) but I still forgot to pack a travel clock or watch. (I use my cell as my time piece.) I had it on my list and looked at my travel clock several times as I was packing but it just never made it into the luggage. :-P We were late to breakfast the first day, of course, but that afternoon I was able to leave camp during free time to go to Wal Mart and pick up a new travel clock. I am delighted with it, too! It is super slim so it won’t add any bulk to my luggage and it even tells the temperature, which is how I knew it was 59 degrees out when we woke up! (Lousy reviews on Amazon, though.) I also bought a cheap watch for good measure. Then there was the sleeping issue. OK, I’m a light sleeper. I wasn’t always a light sleeper, it’s an age thing, which stinks big time, but there you go. I also have fibromyalgia so I need sleep in order to function without resorting to Lyrica or other prescription medications. The sleeping conditions at camp are less than ideal, however. The cot springs are noisy and sag something fierce, all of the leaders in the cabin (the adults slept separately from the girls) and even the girls make noise all through the night (potty runs, “Leader So and So, one of the girls is sick can you come help”, rolling over on the noisy springs, snoring, etc.), the VERY LOUD birds get going at the crack of dawn, and you never know for sure what the temperature will be. Oh and bugs. There are all sorts of them in the cabins, although thankfully mosquitoes weren’t a big problem since it was cool this weekend. I’ve been to this camp once before so I knew what to expect and I went prepared with a couple of options. The first night I tried an air mattress with a foam egg crate pad, a sleeping bag air mat, and a sleeping bag piled on top of the cot and cot mattress. That didn’t work; it didn’t help the sagging issue and both the cot and the air mattress squeaked LOUDLY every time I moved so I couldn’t get comfortable since I didn’t want the noise to keep the other leaders up all night. (Which I did anyway; one of the other leaders commented about the noisy air mattress in the morning- sorry!) The second night I ditched the cot and put two of the camp mattresses directly on the floor topped with the (now deflated but I was too lazy to take it off) air mattress, the foam pad, the sleeping bag air mat, and the sleeping bag. Ah; the winning combination. I was able to get comfortable and actually slept a couple of hours before the girls started coming in. One of the girls in another troop got sick and there was a lot of fetching of the first aid person (who was sleeping in the bed next to mine) and slamming of creaky cabin doors and so forth. (That whole troop wound up leaving early to get the girl home, poor kid.) One additional thing helped me get the little sleep I managed to sneak in- my MP3 player. I loaded it up with my Transitions II CD which is womb sounds combined with soothing music designed to help babies sleep better. We played it for all of our kids when they were infants so I know I can sleep to it. I put in my ear buds, cranked the volume, and most of the snores and squeaks and rustles faded into the background. I was a little sad that the crickets and forest sounds also faded into the background, but you can’t have it all.

I guess one of the things I enjoy about camping is the challenge of finding a way to maximize my creature comforts in a rustic setting, so since I was able to do that, and the girls had such a great time, I consider this camping experience a huge success!

Additional Thoughts

One other aspect of the trip was the chance to spend time with The Eldest and her friends. She’s 15 going on 16 so I’m very aware of the short time we have left with her. She’s on the brink of adulthood and moving on to live her own life so I treasure every second I can spend with her now. I was waffling about going/not going this weekend when I asked her if she would like me to go; she very firmly told me “YES”, which made up my mind. In going with her I passed up a Girl Scout activity with The Middle Child and a soccer game with The Youngest, but for all too long I’ve passed up activities with her because the younger two were just too young for me to leave them. As a former La Leche League mom I’ve always believed in nursing my babies and staying with them to bond so I wouldn’t go on any over night trips with The Eldest while they were little. Now they are older so I’m taking these opportunities to go and do and spend time with her as much as possible. Yes, I felt a fleeting sense of guilt for missing the tea party and the soccer game, but as one of the other leaders pointed out they are so young they won’t remember; The Eldest will remember this camping trip, though. So will I, and I’ll remember the extraordinary young woman she is, and the wonderful young women her friends are. It was my privilege and honor to chaperone them this weekend.

SWAPS Photo

Here's a picture of the SWAPS The Eldest's troop came up with for their Camporee! I just love it.

Gorgeous Day

We had a lovely day yesterday. The Eldest and 3 other girls from her Girl Scout troop met at the local craft store to pick out items for SWAPS they wanted to make and I was in charge of chaperoning the meeting, which, as a not very active co-leader, is not usually a job that falls to me. (There was one other mom with us too.) I got such a kick out of hanging out with the girls! I helped them brainstorm to figure out what they wanted to make, made a few suggestions, reminded them to factor in the cost per item, and then hauled them all back to my house after they made their purchases to get started making the SWAPS. They are for an upcoming Camporee with their service unit and the theme is "HORROR". (It's for older girls so they won't be scaring any Brownies!) They bought little tiny ziploc baggies and filled them with items for a "Supernatural Survival Kit". They put in little water drop stickers for "Holy Water" (you'd be amazed at the stickers they have out now), a clove of garlic, half a toothpick for a "Wooden Stake", a silver bead for a "Silver Bullet", and a beadish thing shaped like a canine tooth- they threw that in for a "Werewolf Fang", just for fun. They also included a little description card printed on cardstock and splattered with red dye/inky stuff to look like blood and finished it all off with a large safety pin. They worked outside on our patio picnic table and the weather was very accommodating.

After they left I didn't want to go in so we all went on a bike ride to a park that's just up the street. The little ones played on the jungle gym and swings, The Eldest wandered around by the lake enjoying the view, and DH and I sat on a bench keeping an eye on things. (The Niece has been away all weekend; she's been spending the night at an apartment at the barn where she works so she can help with a horse show.) You couldn't have ordered a more perfect day; the temperature was mild, the sky was blue, and the kids were getting along well without all the sibling squabbles they fall into from time to time.

We peddled on home then DH and I went out for an additional walk for just the two of us; the day was so clear we could see the contrails from the shuttle launch with the colors from the setting sun reflected on the stream of smoke. We spent part of the walk puzzling over an odd puff of smoke or cloud or emissions from the shuttle or something; we never did quite figure out what it was, but listening to DH talk about it and try to figure it out reminded me once again of one of the things I love about him. He likes to figure things out; he puzzles through and worries with it like a dog with a bone until he comes up with an answer or solution. I'll never forget the first time he took me home to meet his parents. They fixed a meal for us and we were sitting around talking afterward, finishing our drinks and chit chatting. Someone, his brother, I think, asked where the water in a glass of ice water is the coldest, and set off a long debate. Is it around the ice cubes? Does it sink to the bottom? I don't remember what the conclusion was, but I was fascinated by the discussion! His whole family has a level of intellectual curiosity that I absolutely adore. He's also like this with friends. He had a work/study job while he was in college and several of his co-workers were PhDs. They would go out after work to hang out and have these debates that would just blow your mind! I could never get a word in edgewise, which was frustrating, but other than that listening in was incredible. They just didn't talk to each other the way I was used to hearing people converse. They could disagree on a point and argue it to the death, but respectfully, then they would be agreeing on the next point, then back to disagreeing, and I think over the course of the time they were getting together they probably had all of the world's problems solved. They talked about everything, too- current events, politics, physics, math, psychology, trivia, you name it. Ah, the good old dating days!

But I digress, and the day continued. We even got to go out to eat for Date Night, something we've been neglecting lately, followed by a Tivo movie to finish up the evening. I didn't get anything done around the house, but I sure had a great Sunday. :)

PS: If you look at the launch photos, go down to about the 15th one to see the weird cloud.

Girl Scouts at the Mall

Our local Girl Scout council has this activity that is a lock in/sleepover at an area mall. It was this past weekend and ran from 10:00 p.m. to 6:00 a.m. the next morning. We were there, heaven help me! I went along with both of my daughters and my niece. The Eldest was with her troop, The Niece kind of did her own thing, and I stayed with The Middle Child, two girls from her troop, and one other mom. (More girls were supposed to go but they got sick.) It was EXHAUSTING but fun. The introvert in me had a hard time coping and I'm really drained even today, but it was worth it and I'm planning to do it again the next time. ~:-P They didn't keep the whole mall open for us- none of the larger stores and only some of the smaller ones stayed open- but there was enough to keep us all entertained and fed. The most popular stores were Build A Bear and an accessory place. We managed to get checked in with the first group (we got there over an hour early to line up) so we were in way before the crowd, so we went to Build A Bear first thing. That was the first time we were able to go to that store during that event and we were lucky! By the time we left the line was a mile long and moving sllllooowwwwllllyyyyy. They also had non-shopping related activities like a DJ, a band, face painting, bounce houses, hop scotch, a story area, and so forth to get away from the materialistic aspect of having an event at the mall. (Which some of the parents really have an issue with, and I can understand that.) It's such a fun event for the girls, though. The little ones have the fun of hanging out someplace with big girls so there's the "cool" factor for them, and the big girls have fun hanging out with each other. The Eldest had a blast. Her troop is old enough to be able to go around by themselves so they pal around acting silly all night. She got temporary tattoos and had her face painted with flowers down one side. She bought a sword. (!!!) OK, a fake sword. They came home tired but happy.

Now if I can only recover! (I don't think my sore legs will ever be the same.) ;)

What a DAY!

Ohmygoodness; what a day! The kids, both my kids and the girls in my Brownie troop, were WILD. One of the Brownie moms is a middle school teacher and she said her students were WILD too, so much so they gave her a migraine, poor thing. :( I think it was the weather. Today was absolutely gorgeous but cold and getting colder as the day wore on, and that's about all I can figure as the cause. It was still a good meeting except for the girl who went home crying because a ball hit her in the face. (It was an accident but I know it still hurt.) :( I introduced the girls to the patrol system and had them do the planning for the meeting. They picked out the songs and the games, led the opening and closing ceremonies and the Pledge of Allegiance, and decided on the discussion question for the day. I was very proud of them for taking charge. :)

On another note, my cookie mom is a total saint for not killing me, even though she has just cause. (When I told DH what happened he said he'd hold me down if she changes her mind.) ;) See, it's like this. I try to be all organized and together but I'm really quite scatter-brained, especially when things get hectic. So for the last meeting we met at the cookie mom's house and it was hectic, giving out cookies, going over what the girls were supposed to do at booths, working on our "Cookies Count" Try-It and some other projects, and so forth. During that time the Saintly Cookie Mom hands me an envelope to deposit. I say OK, I go by the bank all the time so I'll get it in there ASAP, I put it in my financial folder for the troop, then promptly forget about it. THEN when we are in the thick of it and running cookie booths she gives me another deposit. I dutifully get this one in the bank (thank heavens) and get the receipt back to her like I'm supposed to, thinking I'm done with the deposits I was supposed to make. Now today she goes to reconcile everything while she's at my house after the meeting. She works on it for a couple of HOURS and it's not reconciling! She's short almost $200.00. We hold "recount after recount" but it still comes up short. I'm kind of at a loss and I'm fooling around with other things, getting a deposit of field trip money ready to go to the bank, etc., when I notice an envelope in my financial folder. Oh, must be money from our Fall Product sale since I know I have some outstanding balances on that. I open it (you totally know where this is going, right?) and I'm still saying "nut money", but then I look at the note lines on the checks which say "COOKIES" very clearly. I'm still thinking this must be a mistake, this is nut money, right, so I look at the dates, which are all from January, and...DING...the light bulb goes off. THIS IS THE MISSING COOKIE MONEY I HAD IT ALL ALONG I'M SO EMBARRASSED AND I'M SORRY I'M SUCH A GOOFBALL AND PLEASE FORGIVE ME!!!!! So she adds it all up and indeed, it is the missing money and everything balances and I THINK she's still my friend...

Cookies!

I am up to my neck in cookies! It's that time of year- Girl Scout cookies, and with 3 girls in Girl Scouts we have a bunch of them floating around the house. At least this year The Youngest isn't just swiping them; he actually paid for a box with his own money! That's progress. :) I went with The Middle Child to sit at a cookie booth in front of a local supermarket for 2 hours and I have several more booths to go before it's all over. The little girls are earning money for a trip to NASA where they get to sleep under rockets! The big girls are earning money for...something. They decide after the fact. They've been to NASA already, a water park, a theme park, and one year when they didn't earn a lot of money they did a "trip" where they house-hopped and went to a bunch of local things like bowling, roller skating, etc. The troop earns a small portion of the price of each box, the bakery gets their share, and our local council gets the rest. The council uses the money to pay for council staff, camps, training, and programs for the girls. We've also started, as of the past couple of years, to collect money to buy cookies to send to the military. That's a good program- support Girl Scouts and the military all at the same time! People actually gave some donations towards that today; it was nice. I just have to get through cookie season without gaining any weight back! ~:-O