Filed under: Scouting
Last night, we had a meeting for the Boy Scouts who were selected for our council’s contingency to the National Jamboree in 2010. Buster sat there leaning his head on my shoulder for the whole meeting. The Scoutmaster talked about the all of the walking they would be doing and the activities available. Buster leaned on my shoulder some more. I kept wondering what the Scoutmaster must be thinking about this little 10 year old leaning on his mom’s shoulder. How would this little boy be able to handle 2 weeks away from his family, sitting on a bus for a good day coming and going, camping out for 9 nights/10 days? Is he really ready. I was thinking that anyway. Afterall, Buster is only 10 and will barely be 12, the minimum age to go, when they head off to Fort A.P. Hill in July of 2010. Will he mature enough in that year and a half? Will the campouts with his soon to be Boy Scout troop, along with the camping done as Jamboree training prepare him enough? Will he learn to love camping, because he certainly doesn’t like it much right now. Will I be able to wave him goodbye when he gets on that bus? I know he will grow a lot before the time comes and I do hope he will be ready to go because I don’t want him to go if he won’t enjoy the experience and come back with great memories. He’s looking forward to all the patch trading though.
Filed under: family
I was having the usual Christmas day phone conversation with my brother the other day when I heard him ask his wife if she wanted to tell me. Just hearing those few words made me hopeful that there was some good news coming from them. After all, when they were married a year and a half ago, my sister-in-law, Allison, talked about having a baby sooner rather than later given the advanced age of my brother. He was 37 afterall. So we waited and waited for the good news. Apparently they have decided it’s time to change their lives in ways they can’t even imagine. The baby should be born sometime in August. I think the 13th would be a very good day to have a baby. Boxman and I have just been snickering about the whole thing, just as we did when his sister was expecting. Having been there, done that, it’s just so funny thinking about all the changes they are going to experience and how clueless one is about it beforehand. Bwhahahaha.
I can’t wait to hold that sweet baby in my arms.
Filed under: family
This is a question that has been discussed a lot at our house over the past month. I was told more than once by Buster that he knows Boxman and I are Santa. I even confirmed it multiple times. We looked up the “Dear Virginia” letter on the internet and talked about how we all are Santa. But somehow, he wasn’t really ready to give up on the jolly old fat man in a red suit. We were tracking Santa on the Norad Santa Tracker and he panicked when Santa was in Mississippi, yelling that we all had to get to bed immediately so that Santa would come. He was quite panicked at the thought of not being asleep before Santa hit Louisiana. I have never seen him get to bed so fast in my life. So, I don’t quite know where we stand with Santa right now, but we all did have a great Christmas. I got a new laptop since my old one is less than dependable. Boxman got some expensive tools that he bought himself, along with some goodies the kids and I picked out for him. Doodles and Buster continue to be spoiled rotten – I’m sure you can smell them from there.
I hope y’all had a very merry Christmas too.
Filed under: Vacation
I started this post back in November, right before I found out about my uncle, and just rediscovered it today. I thought perhaps I should go ahead and finish it and post it. Maybe I’ll eventually get back to the rest of our trip.
We got checked into our hotel, the Beach Club, on our first full day at Disney World. We were impressed with the level of service – the man at the gate who lets you in to park notified the doorman at the hotel and when we walked in, he greeted us by name (the best you can with our last name) and walked us to the check-in counter. We felt special. Little did we know that Disney does a great job at making you feel special during your entire stay. As we were checking in, the man made a comment about us going on a cruise after our stay. Yikes, we hadn’t told the kids yet as it was a surprise. Boxman gave him a little look and he quickly backed his way out of it without even super observant Doodles figuring it out. I was impressed once again. Then they found out that it was our first trip so we all got a “1st Visit” pin and Doodles got a birthday pin.
And then we were off to meet my brother and sister-in-law, Eric and Allison, at Animal Kingdom. The first stop there was to see Terk, who we came across on our way to the African Safari.
We saw lots of cool animals on the safari and Buster really enjoyed walking through the areas where there were birds. They supplied you with a sheet showing pictures of the birds along with some information about them so that you could identify them.
Ross’s favorite ride at Animal Kingdom was the Expedition Everest rollercoaster.
After Animal Kingdom closed, we all ventured off to Downtown Disney for dinner and shopping. It was at this point that Boxman totally got sucked into the whole pin trading thing and spent over $60 on lanyards and pins for the kids. That was only the beginning….
Filed under: homeschool
I’m meeting much resistance from the kids. In the past, we have taken off most of the month of December and just enjoyed the holidays. It’s worked well that way. Since we had an unplanned week off from school last month in addition to our trip to Disney, I’m trying really hard to make up some of that this month. So, I made out their usual checklists for the week with high hopes that we could just keep chugging along. Buster actually had a couple of great days staying focused and getting his work done. Then it was Wednesday and it’s been downhill since. Doodles thinks that since her Classical Conversations is done until January that she shouldn’t have to do any work besides her science fair project. As I was typing this, she just asked me if this was our last week of school. Sigh. And here I am trying to get her to do some extra work.
Filed under: Scouting
Last night was the Boy/Cub Scout district dinner. I almost didn’t go due to having tkd and then having to pick Doodles up from dance 15 minutes after the dinner was to start. The idea of not having to cook dinner or eat leftovers won me over though. Boxman and Buster took the apple crisp that I had made earlier in the day, and Doodles and I met them there a little late, but just in time for our table to go through the buffet line. We ate and the kids asked me if we could leave. Doodles had been gone literally the whole day as she was doing dance performances at schools and then had 2 dance classes so I was very sympathetic to her desire to leave early. For some reason, I waited a little bit. And then I looked at the program and realized there were only a couple more things which shouldn’t take long. Maybe the kids could hold on for a little bit longer before ducking out. This is one of those times where afterwards, you are really glad that you stayed for whatever unknown reason because you were supposed to be there even though you didn’t know it. The last award presented was for the district family of the year. My mouth dropped and I truly had a look of surprise on my face when they announced our family. Boxman has been heavily involved in Scouting ever since Buster was old enough to join while I supported him. He is planning on starting up a Venture crew next year when Doodles will be old enough to join. This past year, I did take on an official roll of advancements chair. Apparently this was enough to earn us the honor. I’m still surprised over it.
Filed under: family
When we were in Iowa for my uncle’s funeral, we spent some time with my grandma at the nursing home. The first trip there included Kentucky Fried Chicken for 12. It’s not easy fitting 12 people in a nursing home room for lunch that is equipped with only 3 chairs, including the folding chairs stored in the closet. So, to accomodate us, Grandma told me I could sit on her hand. When I tried to do that, she pinched my butt. I felt compelled to pinch hers back being careful to not grab her bedsores. She told us a few stories from her younger days, including the ever popular one where her younger sister climbed the windmill, got stuck and when she tried to help her down, she got blamed for it and was in trouble for it. Somehow, she got on the topic of going on a date. I teased her about the boy picking her up in a horse and buggy. She quickly corrected me and told me he picked her up in a kiddie car. All of that paled to the next time we visited her. We arrived, along with my sisters and their families, during dinner time, so she was sitting at a table with a couple of other women eating. After a bit, it looked like she was getting uncomfortable in her wheelchair. Boxman and my brother-in-law offered to pull her up a bit and get readjusted. She surprised us all and said, “No, I have a hole in my ass.” We all started laughing so hard. The poor women eating with her were busting up as much as we were and I’m betting they didn’t know that she was referring to her bedsores. The one even looked a bit embarrassed, covering up her face. We couldn’t stop laughing about it all night. My first response was, “So do I.” While my sister remarked, “Well now we know where we got that from.” We left the nursing home to go eat dinner with my mom, dad, brother, and sister-in-law, who knew nothing of the story. In the middle of dinner, Doodles got up, proud to have my permission to say a swear word, and informed everyone that she had a hole in her ass. Those of us who heard those words earlier were busting up laughing once again while the others looked in awe of Doodles wondering why on earth she would be saying such a thing. We shared the story with everyone else and we all laughed some more together. My sister had gone back to visit my grandma again before she left to go home and Grandma told her that she said it to make sure that the kids would remember her. Oh, yeah, that one will go down in the family memories.
