Encouraging Scouting

Our nephew Sammy went from a Tiger cub to a Wolf Scout last night and we got to be a part of the celebration! Since Mike and I both feel that our lives were influenced (for the better) from many years of Scouting, we do what we can to encourage ANY youth to stay on the Scouting course! :) (Even digging out those old uniforms!) :)

The night (& a short discussion with two 5th grade Junior Girl Scouts) got me reminiscing about my own fabulous opportunities made possible by Girl Scouts -- both as a girl and a leader. Growing up it was Girl Scouts that taught me how to work towards a badge/goal, prepare meals over a campfire, grocery shop, do a flag ceremony, sail, plan trips (& fundraise) to Jeff City (6th grade)/Chicago (8th grade)/FL (10th grade)/Cancun (12th grade), shadow the Chesterfield city manager, backpack, sing LOTS and LOTS of silly songs, do my very first "interview" (which resulted in a two-week canoe trip in MN with 28 girls from all over the nation), go for my Bronze & Silver Congressional medals, leave every place better than I found it, clean a smelly latrine, receive my Silver & Gold Awards (the GS equivalent to an "Eagle Scout"), go biking in the snow, put on make-up, ride a horse, sell cookies and calendars (had to put that in!), do a Ropes course, scrub grafitti off an A-frame tent, dye eggs with 1st graders (ha, that was a joke), make sit-upons with 1st graders (ha, that one too!), give a speech to Gold Awardees, be the one saying "Girls, it's time to go to sleep--everyone in the whole camp can hear you!", make up skits to put on, watch a flag retirement ceremony, lose a kid (more than once--ugh!), boil an omelette, improvise (be resourceful), recognize Girl Scouts all over the world, serenade cookie moms, and probably most importantly--make friends (and REALLY good friends), with girls and women who are different from me, but share that common bond of Girl Scouting!!

The trend is for girls to drop out of scouting when they get into Middle School...ironically, that is when (I think) Girl Scout opportunities become even better. Even I knew that it wasn't really thought of as "cool" to be in Girl Scouts in Jr. & Sr. High (why else did we tell people we were a ski team when we went to Chicago?)!! However, that is when the responsibility switches even more from leader to girl...so leadership opportunities arise, the trips get planned, and the memories are made!! Many thanks to my Girl Scouting friends in my past and present who help demonstrate the Girl Scout mission: "building girls of courage, confidence, and character, who make the world a better place." I would not be the same without you!

So, to wrap it up, here is Sammy with my two future Boy Scouts! :)

P.S. Fun to know that 4 of the members from my old troop (& the only ones still in St. Louis) continue to get together for monthly dinners!
P.P.S. I need to formally thank my mom on here for the leader and example she was for me and so many girls through like 60 (?) years of Girl Scouting (even "training" leaders after her girls were done), and for encouraging me to stay the course. Also, thanks to my sisters who showed me at a young age the opportunities they had because of girl scouting.

New Cabinets & a Puppy

It all started when I was looking for a "china cabinet" on Craig's List. The china cabinet we had been using (to actually store our china), was made out of particle board & had gone through the flood we had in Italy. I was worried that it might fall apart and all our china inside would break. So I found this "deal" on Craig's List--and not only one but TWO cabinets. We could actually use one in the basement for our "stereo" stuff! This is one of the before pictures:

So in the last few weeks, I had fun "refinishing the cabinets. I was originally going to stain them "darker" to match our dining room furniture, but it didn't work so well...so I went white.

The day came this past weekend to move them into the house. The one for the dining room went smoothly. The only issue was that the top and bottom doors, which I had intended to swap (and put glass on the top doors), are not actually the same size. (We'll call this Strike 1.) So I'm not sure what to do now. I could replace the brown fabric (see left) with glass anyway and then put some yellow-ish/white-ish fabric there...or I could modify the doors to fit and put glass on the top as originally planned.

The "bonus" cabinet that was painted and intended for the basement, didn't fit in the stairwell. (Strike 2--see picture) I thought it was "so close" so after some consultation with my parents over the phone, we decided to cut off about 3 inches at the bottom of the cabinet. (Strike 3--still didn't fit.) So my very handy husband got to cut the thing in half, and we barely got half of it around the bend and into the basement!! :)


Once we got it down there, we put the top on and it BARELY clears the ceiling! We may have had to cut off those bottom three inches anyway!!

In summary, we have two nice cabinets, that are still going to require a little work (we need to patch the top/bottom together of the downstairs cabinet), but all of our "stuff" is going to be nicely hidden away!

After pic of downstairs cabinet.

And on a completely separate note, here is my sister with her new puppy, CocoaBella.

February goes by...

Well, it's been a while! I guess it was hard to top our California trip!!! :) February came and went...with not too much to report except for a very fun visit with our friends, the Georges, in St. Louis! Here is a picture of their son, Jason, "hugging" Andrew. :)

The rest of the month was pretty routine. We did enjoy Science City for the first time here with some of Henry's playmates, which is where the helicopter picture was taken.

Henry now has a new obsession with Veggie Tales. It seems like he's gone from Wiggles, to Cars, to Thomas the Train, to Dr. Seuss, and now Veggie Tales. I must say that we enjoy them almost as much, and we love the lessons, so we're o.k. with this new era. One of the Veggie Tales songs is "The Pirates who don't do anything." Henry bought this pirate outfit at the Dollar Store (thanks Nonna & Grandpa for the $2 in the Valentine card!!) and does a nice rendition of the song we think. :)

March so far has been pretty routine as well! I worked on a "cabinet project" which we (kind of) finished today...before/after pictures to come. This past week we welcomed a new niece/cousin into the family -- Cocobella -- my sister's new cutie dog. Pictures to come of that too! We have witnessed GORGEOUS weather in the last few days, and had hoped top go camping with friends this weekend, but Andrew is getting over some pink eye and Henry & I are coughing like crazy--so we finished the cabinets instead! :)