Farmfresh
City Biddy
Have fun and stay dry! 
Hen23's Journal~Goodbye
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Henrietta23
Yard Farmer
Thank you! We've had 2 inches of rain since last night and it's not expected to let up until this afternoon. We will probably have rain every night we are there and the only day in the forecast without a chance of rain/thunderstorms is Friday, the day we come home. Oh joy!Farmfresh said:Have fun and stay dry!
I'm nervous because they put our group in the campsite with handicap access. Our tents are on cement pads rather than up on wooden platforms. with this much rain I bet it's running right over those floors!! I hate wet feet. Hate them!! I just put 5 extra pairs of socks in with my stuff! I am leaving my car at camp so I will also have some extra towels etc. in the car. And DH is on call for anything I can't live without.....
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Henrietta23
Yard Farmer
Back. Exhausted. Lots of catching up to do!
Annual church picnic today. Great way to relax after an busy week. DS and I are both exhausted but it was a great week!
Annual church picnic today. Great way to relax after an busy week. DS and I are both exhausted but it was a great week!
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- #4,014
Henrietta23
Yard Farmer
I don't intend to go overboard with stories from the Cub Scout camping week, since they're not SS, but it was really cool to watch a bunch of 9 and 10 year olds grow and become just a little more responsible out there in the "woods". They got to shoot BB guns and bows. They went bouldering, boating, swimming.... I did get to shoot at the archery range which I loved. I taught at a YMCA day camp when I was in college but haven't done anything with it since. 4 of us leaders got a chance to shoot at our three visits. One of the guys was really good. I outshot the other two! Our leader for the week is extremely competitive and I could see it really bothered him that I did better than he did so I didn't even get to brag much...
We had some fun nights around the campfire after the boys went to bed. We had one mom who stayed with us each night but was pretty quiet. By the second night, after 2 years of being a Den Leader with this Pack , I finally became one of the guys. We were planning our skit for the final night's bonfire and these guys are all fiercely competitve about this stuff. Each day our campsite got inspected and they made sure the kids knew what they had to do to get a perfect score. So we did, every day, the only Pack that did. Anyway, typically at our Pack committee meetings I just sit there, ask the occasional question and that's about it. They haven't been much for actually asking for my input or taking my ideas seriously. Then we got to skit planning. Most Packs use a skit they've found on line or in a leader book. They have their Scouts rehearse it and the kids have a great time. But most of us have seen these skits about two dozen times and they're stale. But not the leaders of our pack. We had to come up with something original. We took the theme of the week (Who Done It), used staff members as characters in our own mini mystery, using a camp song everyone knew. We were all sitting around the fire chatting and they were tossing ideas around and all of a sudden I had an idea to use this particular song and I just blurted out my idea. Dead silence. Wow, that had never happened before... They actually liked MY idea and used it as the premise for the whole skit. So we started fleshing it out and they shut up and listened to me for the first time ever. We tossed around a few ideas and called it a night. Two days later we got the boys together after lunch and filled them in on what we were thinking and they ran with it and came up with some great ideas on their own. The next two nights the adults tossed around more ideas and shared with the kids during the day. We ended up with a phenomenal skit that brought down the house.
All week long we worked really hard at making camp the most positive experience we could. We had long days and early mornings. All the boys got up everyday at 6 am for the Polar Bear swim in the pond. And the leaders were all right there with them. At the end of the campfire and all the skits last night, the camp director presented his version of the Stanley cup (his middle name) to the Pack that best demonstrated the Spirit of Scouting. Because of our enthusiasm, perfect score for inspections, our spirit, our Pack got the cup for the first time ever. It was a great feeling for all of us. We had our rough moments throughout the week. We had some kids that had a tough time being independent (one of the ones whose mom WAS there was a particular problem). We had really high expectations for them. But I think these smiles say it all:
We had some fun nights around the campfire after the boys went to bed. We had one mom who stayed with us each night but was pretty quiet. By the second night, after 2 years of being a Den Leader with this Pack , I finally became one of the guys. We were planning our skit for the final night's bonfire and these guys are all fiercely competitve about this stuff. Each day our campsite got inspected and they made sure the kids knew what they had to do to get a perfect score. So we did, every day, the only Pack that did. Anyway, typically at our Pack committee meetings I just sit there, ask the occasional question and that's about it. They haven't been much for actually asking for my input or taking my ideas seriously. Then we got to skit planning. Most Packs use a skit they've found on line or in a leader book. They have their Scouts rehearse it and the kids have a great time. But most of us have seen these skits about two dozen times and they're stale. But not the leaders of our pack. We had to come up with something original. We took the theme of the week (Who Done It), used staff members as characters in our own mini mystery, using a camp song everyone knew. We were all sitting around the fire chatting and they were tossing ideas around and all of a sudden I had an idea to use this particular song and I just blurted out my idea. Dead silence. Wow, that had never happened before... They actually liked MY idea and used it as the premise for the whole skit. So we started fleshing it out and they shut up and listened to me for the first time ever. We tossed around a few ideas and called it a night. Two days later we got the boys together after lunch and filled them in on what we were thinking and they ran with it and came up with some great ideas on their own. The next two nights the adults tossed around more ideas and shared with the kids during the day. We ended up with a phenomenal skit that brought down the house.
All week long we worked really hard at making camp the most positive experience we could. We had long days and early mornings. All the boys got up everyday at 6 am for the Polar Bear swim in the pond. And the leaders were all right there with them. At the end of the campfire and all the skits last night, the camp director presented his version of the Stanley cup (his middle name) to the Pack that best demonstrated the Spirit of Scouting. Because of our enthusiasm, perfect score for inspections, our spirit, our Pack got the cup for the first time ever. It was a great feeling for all of us. We had our rough moments throughout the week. We had some kids that had a tough time being independent (one of the ones whose mom WAS there was a particular problem). We had really high expectations for them. But I think these smiles say it all:
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- #4,015
Henrietta23
Yard Farmer
Ouch! I had a lot of problems with my feet and my left ankle last week with all that walking. Lots of uneven ground was really too much for my flat feet and weak ankles. I'm paying the price now....
Tomorrow brings a family visit to NY. After that we begin painting the living room. After we pick a paint color. Sigh.
Back to school shopping will be easy. We ordered new uniform pants for DS, he has new black sneakers. Old shirts still fit. He needed a gym uniform and we ordered that as well. He'll need new socks and undies as well as a new lunch box. We'll need to get the classroom supplies required soon but it's not a long list. I'm just hitting the point where I'm not so sad that summer is winding down. I'll be ready to go back by the time it's here.
Tomorrow brings a family visit to NY. After that we begin painting the living room. After we pick a paint color. Sigh.
Back to school shopping will be easy. We ordered new uniform pants for DS, he has new black sneakers. Old shirts still fit. He needed a gym uniform and we ordered that as well. He'll need new socks and undies as well as a new lunch box. We'll need to get the classroom supplies required soon but it's not a long list. I'm just hitting the point where I'm not so sad that summer is winding down. I'll be ready to go back by the time it's here.
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Henrietta23
Yard Farmer
back!
Quail_Antwerp
Cold is on the Right, Hot is on The Left
I'm ready for school to start here, too! I figure with 4 of the five "occupied" for several hours out of the day, it gives me some time to do some extra deep cleaning around the house before baby girl gets here - and not having the posse following behind and messing it up 5 minutes after I clean!
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- #4,019
Henrietta23
Yard Farmer
Eeeeep! I just came dangerously close to counting how many days I have left of my summer break.... I do know that we have 16 days until DH's first paycheck of the year. I am starting to get into the mode of getting ready for school mentally but don't feel like we got much done around here this summer. Aside from enjoy each other's company!
Yesterday we travelled to NY to visit with DH's aunt and cousin, the family of his uncle who passed away while he was at his 2 week training course. After that we visited his parents briefly. His mom just had cataract surgery and had a bad reaction to the anesthesia. She lost almost 15 pounds after days of vomiting and was skin and bones to begin with. It was hard for him to see her looking so much older and frailer. She will not eat properly and thinks gagging down half an Ensure once or twice a day is going to help her rally. Sigh. There is no arguing with the 2 of them about food. They know ALL. Butter is evil, bacon is worse. They'd rather eat margarine and soy bacon and think that because they are thin and I am not there is no way I could possibly be right about anything to do with food. It's sad and frustrating.
I have an appointment with my naturopath in a few hours. I completely forgot to get my bloodwork done before heading off to camp. Grrr....
I'm in a weird mood, really wanting to ramp up the purging and simplifying of our household. I even imagined life without livestock while driving home last night. I don't intend to get rid of any of our animals but I doubt we'll be adding any either. I'm tired. We are having a tag sale the last Saturday in August. Hoping to get college kids on their way back to school.
Don't know if I'm just bored or what..... after a week of non-stop action at camp you'd think I'd be glad for it. Not that there isn't always something to do.....
Yesterday we travelled to NY to visit with DH's aunt and cousin, the family of his uncle who passed away while he was at his 2 week training course. After that we visited his parents briefly. His mom just had cataract surgery and had a bad reaction to the anesthesia. She lost almost 15 pounds after days of vomiting and was skin and bones to begin with. It was hard for him to see her looking so much older and frailer. She will not eat properly and thinks gagging down half an Ensure once or twice a day is going to help her rally. Sigh. There is no arguing with the 2 of them about food. They know ALL. Butter is evil, bacon is worse. They'd rather eat margarine and soy bacon and think that because they are thin and I am not there is no way I could possibly be right about anything to do with food. It's sad and frustrating.
I have an appointment with my naturopath in a few hours. I completely forgot to get my bloodwork done before heading off to camp. Grrr....
I'm in a weird mood, really wanting to ramp up the purging and simplifying of our household. I even imagined life without livestock while driving home last night. I don't intend to get rid of any of our animals but I doubt we'll be adding any either. I'm tired. We are having a tag sale the last Saturday in August. Hoping to get college kids on their way back to school.
Don't know if I'm just bored or what..... after a week of non-stop action at camp you'd think I'd be glad for it. Not that there isn't always something to do.....
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