Eagle Scout Ceremony

Tonight we went to an Eagle Scout ceremony, two of my former Webelos scouts earned their Eagle Scout tonight! Husband was given the mentor pin by one of them, what a great thing.

 After the ceremony, I had to take a pic with the two of them, look how giant they are!

I remember when these jokers were shorter than me! What a great thing. I was so happy to be a part of this night, after being their leader so so long ago.

Every Vote Counts!

Happy Voting Day! Hopefully everyone that has the ability to vote will do so. I did, of course, walked myself over to the voting booths, placed my vote, and wore my “I Voted!” sticker proudly. And then tonight, I of course had my scout pack meeting, and again, we decided to have mock elections. The treats this time were all healthy, I had chosen carrot sticks, another chose bananas, and the last was apples and peanut butter. My poster was fabulous as always:

The gal who was first on the agenda is an older lady, and she was really concerned that we would be lying in our campaigns. We told her there was no need to lie, but there’s no problem if we do – lying happens in real elections all the time. So after all her worrying that I would lie, she gets up to do her speech, and she full on lied! She had a power point presentation with rock climbers, skateboarders, the whole nine yards of what boys are into. She sits down, and when I get up, I basically repeat what’s on the poster, claim that her treat (Which she called Bomb Dip) was likely to explode in your mouth when eating it, and then I sat down, and held my poster up. The last leader got up and did her campaign, and then the kids voted.

And surprise! I won! I was so jazzed! We ate the carrot sticks, and I danced my way home with my victory.

Pinewood Derby

Today was the pinewood derby for my scouts. Even though I’ve been in scouts for 2-3 years now, this is my first time ever going to the derby, and there’s a good reason for that. See, they usually have it in March, right around my anniversary, so I miss it, since we’re out of town. But this year, it’s in April, and I got to go! I sort of volunteered to make treats/was volunteered, so it worked out pretty well. I made some awesome treats:

Traffic Light brownies

Rice Krispy cars:

And then I just did some miscellaneous treats, and they were exciting. Finally, tonight, I went over to the church, and set everything up:

I liked it! I thought it looked really good, and I like the signs I ended up making. I was pretty proud of all the stuff I did, and everyone seemed to enjoy them too, so it was a good deal all around!

Already 2 Years

I went to scouts tonight, and after our activity (which was a service project, we washed all the toys in the nursery) they were handing out the awards to the kids, of pins they’ve earned during the last month or so. They then handed out some pins to the adults, the pins of how long they’ve been in. Imagine my surprise when they called my name – apparently I’ve been in there 2 years! I don’t even remember when I got called in, and while I’m sure I could go back and figure it out, I’m just too lazy. So now, I have my 2 year pin.

And I’m supposed to affix it to my scout shirt, but I really don’t like my scout shirt, so I’ve been just keeping them on my desk, and hoping I don’t lose them.

Progressive Scout Dinner

Tonight for scouts, we were working on our Traveler badge. For this one, we’re supposed to plan a trip, figure the miles, and how much it costs with gas, and then, if we can, take this trip. So for this one, we decided to plan a trip to a few fast food places, and get a small treat at each place. We started at McDonalds, and shared a few cheeseburgers. We made our way over to Wendy’s, and took advantage of the awesome drink machine there. We then went to In&Out for the fries (one of the kids, his favorite fries are there. I’m convinced he’s never had other fries, because the fries there are awful. We finished up at Iceberg, sharing a couple of shakes.

It was a lot of fun, going from place to place, and talking about traveling, and eating small treats. It’s a good idea to do with the kids, they seem to listen better when food is involved. It’s really hard to come up with fun activities to do every week, especially with the really boring badges come along. I don’t understand why some of these are even badges you have to earn, or what the point of it is. But I think that’s why I’m only an assistant leader, and not in charge of things.

Scouts Awards

For scouts tonight, we had our Blue and Gold banquet. I don’t know what the point of it is, except to have a dinner for the scouts. I don’t know. I was in charge of the invitations for the event, like I have blogged about before. I showed up the dinner, and after a meal of walking tacos, we had an awards ceremony, like we do every pack meeting. Because the awards are for the boys, I never listen, I just clap when other people clap, and pay a little bit of attention if it’s one of my scouts. (I will admit freely, this part of the activity fully bores me)

This evening, I was just sitting there, sifting through a cup of pretzels to get the M&M’s out, and all of a sudden, I heard a whole room of kids and adults say my name, and I snapped my head up, and apparently, they had been calling my name for a little bit, so I ran up, and got what they were calling me for. Our entire pack earned an award, a Journey to Excellence award, and every person in our ward/pack got one. I also earned some Junior Mints for my service to my Webelos, and that’s fun for me.

An Invite to Scouts

Today, I finally finished an invite that I have been working on for a while. I had to make some invitations to my scout pack’s Blue & Gold banquet dinner. It took me a while to decide what it should look like, and then, to make 30 cards…that took a while. But it ended up looking really good, I think.

It’s a camping theme this time, and I think I got it going pretty good. Now that they’re done, I can finally pass them out, and get them out of my hair.

A Snowy Kind of Evening

Last night for scouts, we had a pack meeting, and it was decided many months ago that this pack meeting would be our caroling one – we’d all get to visit the elderly ladies in the ward, and sing some songs, and we all thought it sounded like fun. Then, as everyone noticed, the skies opened up, and snow just DUMPED all over everyone. Of course, we scouts are tough. About half of the kids showed up last night, I’m guessing parents just didn’t want to brave the elements. After handing out all the awards, and two of my favorite Webelos moving onto 11 year old scouts, and they both had their Arrow of Light ceremonies, it was time to go.

It was still snowing when we were out, which made things just cold. I was wearing a long sleeve shirt, my scout shirt, a fleece jacket, my winter coat, gloves, and a hat. But still, I was chilly. My feet were cold, my legs were cold. We went to about 7 houses, singing the same 5 songs, until finally we were finished. We all reconvened back at the church for some hot chocolate and donuts. We had lost about half of the scouts from the meeting to the singing, and that’s fine. It was cold, and if I was a kid, I would have just left. But hopefully we got to bring a little sunshine to some people’s hearts.

I’m a Survivor…Bracelet

Today, for scouts, we had the boys make rescue bracelets. I don’t know if you’ve seen these, I’ve seen them at various sports stores, and they’re pretty cool. They look like this:

And the theory behind them is that if you’re hiking or something and you get into a pickle, you can unravel the bracelet, and it turns into a rope that you can use to get yourself out of your predicament. I didn’t know we were making these until I got to scouts! So I get there, and we all cut our ropes, 8 feet of every rope. These were tricky to make. After you cut the rope, you need to measure it to your wrist, and then tie a note at the place where you want the bracelet to be, size-wise. After you tie the knot, then you follow this weird guide for how to braid it. It’s not quite a braid, but it was really tricky to follow it, and remember which one you had just done, and keep going. We worked for the whole hour on the bracelets, and even went over about 10 minutes. But finally, the braiding was finished, and for the final step, we had to burn the ends that were still over. That was the boy’s favorite part, I think. After we let it cool down, I tried mine on again, and...it didn’t fit. Shoot! After all that work and I can’t even wear it! But that’s ok. Here’s my final product:

I want to make another one, to have it actually fit, but it was so much work, I just don’t know if I want to start that again. But if anyone needs a survival bracelet, I think I can help you out.

Rock the Vote

For Pack Meeting for scouts this month, we’re teaching the boys about voting and being a citizen. So for our activity, we decided to hold mock elections, and have the boys vote. 3 leaders were selected to be the nominees, but instead of selling ourselves, we were selling a food. We had to pick a food (I picked Twinkies) but we weren’t allowed to call it by the real name. So I chose ‘Creamy Dreamy’ for my food, and the other leaders chose apples and M&M’s. I wish I could remember what they’re names were, but it’s escaping me. I think the apples were something with deliciousness and the M&M’s were balls of goodness? It doesn’t matter. So on Monday night, I made my campaign poster, and I think it ended up pretty good.

So armed with my poster, and a cocky attitude (We had been trash talking each other all day, we three scout leaders) I went to scouts tonight. I asked to go last, because to be honest, I didn’t really plan a speech, I was just going to go off of what they said in their speeches. So they get up, and give their speeches, and they’re not bad, the first girl (M&M’s) gets up and talks about how hers are the best (also, we’re not allowed to say what our stuff contains) and they have chocolate and awesomeness, and then the next girl gets up (apples) and her pitch is that my creamy dreamy sounds like it could be toothpaste and balls of goodness could be bouncy balls, for all we know, and then she’s done, and I get up. At this point, keep in mind that I have no idea what to do, so I stand up, and get my poster, and stand in front of everyone, and after a long pause, I say in a loud voice

“You have heard a lot of lies tonight!”

And then, from there, I just attacked their campaigns. I had nothing to say about mine, because I didn’t know how to do it, so I just said that we have no idea what’s in the other people’s foods. Is it good? Is it healthy? We just don’t know! So after I finished up with my, oh, I’m going to say 45 seconds of speech, I just turn my poster around, so they can read it (I had the back to them the whole time) and I shout “Vote for Creamy Dreamy 2013!” and sit down. For some reason, the scouts dug my speech, (I think it’s because I’ve been known to give the kids candy when they come over) and they started a chant of “Creamy Dreamy, Creamy Dreamy” and I was laughing so hard. So we then all voted, and tallied the votes and ... CREAMY DREAM WON! I was so surprised; I really didn’t think that would happen. After a victory dance, we all helped clean up, and then we ate our victory Twinkies. And yes, I know most people think Twinkies are gross, but I love them, and I will eat them. I will fight for your vote to do so.

Duct Tape Wallet

For scouts right now, the kids are working on their artist badge. For tonight’s activity, we made a duct tape wallet. I have never made one before, but I watched a YouTube video to learn, and felt confident I could do it. So, finally, 15 minutes after the activity starts, one boy comes, just one. I was almost about to call off the whole thing but then he came over, so we did the wallet. We watched the video as we made the wallet, with pauses where we had to catch up. My wallet didn’t end up being the length it needed to be, I did it too short, but you get the gist. I put a dollar in there, to see if it fit, and it did, the only thing I couldn’t get to work was the spaces for the credit cards – the wallet just wasn’t long enough. But it looks ok. Passable, I’d say. I don’t know that I’ll use it, but at least I know how to make one.

Scouts Build a Fire

For scouts this week, we were finishing up our Outdoorsman badge, so we decided to take the boys up into the canyon, have them (with adult supervision, of course) start a fire, and enjoy some delicious campfire food. So we finally get up there, and get them set up, and finally, they get a fire going. After they all stood around,

Finally, the fire got going. We all cooked ourselves a hot dog, and after those, we made some delicious s ’mores. This is mine, a picture of perfection.

Then one of the boys decided to try and fit three burning marshmallows in his mouth at one time. It didn’t go that well.

But all in all, it was a fun activity, and luckily for all of us, no one got burned, or fell into the river, so I’ll consider it a super success.

Scout Camp 2013

Today was, once again, scout camp. We decided to go against the norm, and go on a Saturday, instead of a weekday. We all gathered together, and off we went.

We almost had all of our boys show up, the only one that didn’t is a newish boy, who I’ve only met once. After arrival, I registered the boys, then we did the opening flag ceremony, and then split into the groups that they’d put us in. First we did some rockets:

Which were fun, but as a leader, it is so boring to just sit there for 40 minutes, doing nothing but watch the kids do stuff. Then we went to the geology booth which was SO BORING so I was just counting the minutes until it was over. We moved onto archery, where it began to rain pretty heavily. The other leader and I took refuge under a tree to stay dry. Luckily, it stopped raining right as we were finishing up. After a lunch/dinner, we went into the boats, and this year, they let us leaders get into the boats, there weren’t enough kids.

I didn’t care for the boats, everyone was splashing each other, and I hate to get wet, so I was irritated by it all. After we did the boats, it was time for BB guns, and again, we leaders got to participate. I am going to say I shot well, even though in real life, I only hit the target like, 5 times, out of probably 6 million BBs. Finally, the day was over, and after the final flag ceremony, we were off.

All in all, a better camp than last year, and at least this time, we had a group of boys instead of just a couple that showed up that were tiny jerks. Ok, maybe they weren’t jerks, but I didn’t care for their attitudes. Anyway, the camp is over, and unless I lose my calling, I have a whole year until I’m back!

Miscellaneous Monday

Yesterday, I skipped my regular church, and went to my parents’ ward. They were both speaking in their ward, and did fabulous jobs, of course. My mom brought her German Book of Mormon, instead of an English one, so at some point, when she started reading from it, and I couldn’t understand her I was like, am I the only one who can’t get this? But then we learned why. Whenever my dad speaks, I give him 3 sentences that I want to work into his speech. This time, I gave him “honor the allegiance”, “like a fox in a henhouse” and “burdened with a glorious purpose”. Every time he said one, I giggled like crazy, which I know isn’t very churchlike, but you gotta lighten the mood somehow.

The other day, my scouts finished their Athlete badge, which required us all to be outside for the (VERY HOT) evening. They did pull ups, pushups, sit ups, had a foot race, a bike race, and a vertical jump. After one boy did 2 pull ups, his nose started to gush blood, and by the end of the activity, they were all soaking with sweat, and exhausted. On one hand I felt bad for making them do it in the heat, and on the other, I was glad that we at least got to be outside. So many of the scout badges are indoor boring activities, and this was a good one to get us all outdoors and moving around, even though it was a million degrees.

I don’t know if everyone else’s oven mitts get like this, but all throughout my life, my oven mitts always start out so clean, but then after a little, while they start to look gross. Like this:

These are what my mitts looked like, and finally I was like, ok, I need to get new ones. So I went to the store, perused all the options, and bought…the exact same ones, just in a different color. I’m such a rebel! But I’m excited to use new ones that won’t be gross and make me hate them a little. Until these new ones get to be like that…shoot.

Miscellaneous Monday

I found yesterday that I am rich. I know, I know, you guys must be as surprised as I am, but its been nice to know this. I found this out as I was walking home from church. As we all know, my former scouts visit me every Wednesday, on the way home from their scouts, and I give them candy. One of the boys’ mom stopped me, and let me know that she knew her son was stopping at my house, but he didn’t know she knew which house it was. As far as she was supposed to know, he stops at a secret house every week. And then she told me what he told her: “They’re so rich, they only finish half of their candy!” Now, we all know, this isn’t necessarily true. What is true, is that with only 2 people in the house, and the obscene amount of candy we buy, we just can’t finish it quickly enough. But I’ll let him think that’s why, and his mom will keep pretending she doesn’t know. It’s a nice arrangement for us all.

The basement is still flooded. Well, maybe not flooded, per se, but the carpet is still soaking wet, and it doesn’t seem to be getting any better. We’ve had the fans on all night, we threw in some space heaters to try to keep it warm, so hopefully, that gets better. Tonight, as I was down there tending to things, all of a sudden, the light turned off. Of course, I immediately was like, oh I guess the lightbulb is bad, but then I realized, half of the fans were off, and all of the lights weren’t working. I decided to just give up on things, so I took a breather. A bit later, I returned, flipped the breaker, and it all turned back on again. Hopefully things will dry up now!

Yesterday, after I got home from church, I started to make dinner. I was making CrockPot Enchiladas, and I was pretty excited to try them. When we were halfway through making them, Husband took over things, because my visiting teachers came over, so he finished making the dinner. By the time my teachers left, the crockpot was on, and cooking my dinner…or so I thought. About 4 hours later, as I was gearing up to go to my scout meeting, Husband was checking on dinner. After he poked around a minute, he realized that while yes, he did turn the crockpot ON, he didn’t actually plug it IN. So our dinner had just sat there…for hours…doing nothing. We turned it on, switched it to high, and then I had to go to my meeting. An hour and a half later, I returned, and dinner was done. And while we did eat later than anticipated, I still thought it was delicious, and really, that’s all that matters.

Miscellaneous Monday

At the race this past weekend, security was strong. Like...an intense amount of cops were there. And obviously, after the horrifying events at Boston, I can see why they would have extra security, in case some wackjob tries the same thing at our race. But to me, having the bomb squad trucks there, and the helicopters, and the motorcycle cops weaving up and down our race course didn't make me feel any safer. It made me infinitely more aware of how dangerous our world has become. I hate that these bombers have taken a safe place - a race, and turned it into something that we aren't sure we feel safe at anymore. Even though, in my heart, I knew that the race was fine, and we'd have no problems, and nothing would happen, there was also that nagging voice in the back of my head that asked "But what if it does? What if we get to the finish line, and someone decides to bomb it?" I hope that this one-time awful thing doesn't ruin races forever. One of the greatest things is to be able to line up with your fellow runners, and just leave it all behind as you run your heart and legs out.

Tomorrow is, heaven willing, my last trip to the dentist. I'm all done at the oral surgeon, and tomorrow is the day I finally get my teeth put in. What a weird concept to think about. Two weeks ago, I went in and had my mouth fitted for the new teeth, and that hurt considerably more than I thought. When I had the other side done, it was easy-peasy, no probs, but this one was awful, it bled, it was all around a bad experience. Hopefully tomorrow goes smoothly. And speaking of the dentist, today when I got home, I checked the mailbox, and had an envelope from the oral surgeon. Immediately, I thought it was a bill, and I was so mad - I know we paid EVERY CENT they've ever asked us to! So I get inside, and practically rip it open, only to find that while it is a statement from them of everything I've ever done, and the cost thereof, there was also a check in there, of us having over-paid something. Huzzah! Of course, it's Husband's money, since he's paid the bulk of my teeth, but still, it feels nice to be able to get some money from the dentist, instead of forking it all over.

This past Thursday, I didn't have my co-leader for scouts. Of course, that just meant I roped Husband into being the second in command, since we're not allowed to only have one leader, so it wasn't that bad. We earned the ReadyMan badge, which is first aid. With how these boys seem to retain the info taught them, though, I don't know if I trust them to help in an emergency. I think the only things they took away from the activity is that burns are bad, don't throw up poison, and don't try to catch a snake if it bites you. Hopefully, they'll pick up more stuff, and probably from other people, as they grow up, so they won't be totally useless in an emergency.

I've created small monsters

A week ago, as I was alone in the house with Husband being gone on yet another business trip, I was cleaning the kitchen. The doorbell rang, and of course, I'm like, people don't visit me, so I was immediately on my guard. I go to answer it, and as I open it, there is NOBODY on my doorstep. I heard some laughing, and yelled to the black nothingness (Since it was like, 7) "You guys are the WORST doorbell ditchers ever!" to which I heard back, "We're not ditching!" Out of the darkness emerged 3 boys - former scouts of mine, and to be honest, my favorites that I've had so far. I asked why they had come to visit me, and when they had no answer, they were just on their way home from scouts. I told them they must have come over for my candy. We have accumulated a lot of candy since Christmas. For Christmas, we were given 3 boxes of chocolates that we hadn't even opened yet. I was actually cleaning out the pantry when they had rang the doorbell, trying to figure out how to get rid of the chocolates. Luckily, they all showed up with my answer! I gave them the boxes of chocolates, and sent them on their ways, telling them to tell their moms not to hate me for giving them chocolates.

Cut to tonight, and I had just gotten home when the doorbell rang. I thought it was my brother, since I had just seen his wife wandering around the neighborhood. Husband got the door as I was upstairs, and I heard a faint kid ask "Is your wife home?" I came downstairs and see the same 3 boys, all smiling at the door. Of course, the first thing I ask them is if they came over for more candy, and they say yes. Luckily for them, we seem to collect candy in this house. It's given to us, I buy it to try it, and don't like it, but don't have the heart to throw it away, so I just keep it. Now, I believe I've found my chance to get rid of all of it. Of course, there will come a time when we'll probably run out of candy, but to be honest, I'd probably just go buy some more to give to them. I know I probably shouldn't encourage them to come over, but to be honest, I really like these boys, they're great kids. And having them stop by makes me feel like I'm doing an ok job as a scout leader, so for now, I'll just keep going with it, and hopefully, that doesn't make me a bad leader/person.

A Puppet Show

For scouts, we’re working on our Showman badge right now. We had the boys make puppets out of paper bags, and then put on a show for us. As we were working on the bags, I decided to make a bag for myself. He looked like this:

I think he looks quite distinguished with his tie. Then the boys finished, and this is what their stuff looked like:

Their puppet show for us involved them singing “Gangham Style” while using a Justin Bieber cutout. I nearly died laughing. Then we had them sing a song indoors and outdoors, to see the differences. It took a LOT of coaxing to get them to sing, but finally they did. Next time we’ll finish up the badge with me trying to teach them about William Shakespeare…wish me luck!

Foto Friday

For scouts this week, one of the boys had to finish his Artist badge, so we just played with clay. I’m not very artistic, so usually, my clay work involves rolling things into balls, and it works well. For example, here is my project:

Yup, grapes, I made tiny grapes. I should have put something next to those so you can really see how small they are. Oh well.

One of the boys in my group is pretty artistic. After much working, he finally showed us his project which was:

In case you can’t tell, that’s a wave with a tiny surfer in there on a surfboard, and a shark fin lurking. Holy cow, I never would have been able to do that! But kudos to him, and now we’ll move onto our next badge!

Resourceful!

Last night was my scout pack meeting, when all the boys of all ages get together. This month, the theme is Resourcefulness, so our activity was that we had a whole bunch of recyclable things, and we gave them to the boys with some tape, and told them to build something. As I was helping one of my scouts build a robot, Husband got to work on something behind me. When I turned to him, I saw what he was making:

A mini soccer field, made out of a box lid, some wirey things, two water bottles, and a ball made of duct tape. I laughed when I saw it, and we played a few rounds. Husband was proud of his creation.

After we’d been playing for a bit, we found some more wire things, and made little players to use instead of the water bottles:

If you can tell, the long things, with a curl at the end are the kickers, and the little people-looking things are the goalies. So now you can employ both hands, and have a full team. We showed off the field that we (Husband) had made, and felt pretty good about it. And all the scouts made awesome things, they are creative individuals. Good work, boys.