What a weekend.... wow!

I was hoping to have pictures of the float for you -- I DO have them, I just haven't had the time to get them from my camera to the blog. It's been a LONG (and very fun ) weekend. It started last Week with Friday setting up the float.

I did tell you I was in charge of the whole shebang right? Well I was.

But, with some help from the other parents, and some artistic thoughts from the kids (that's a HOOT.... you had to be there to here & see what it is THEY wanted) we got the float ready for the parade. It only took three+ hours. Luckily, this year, the weather has been kind & it wasn't 100 degrees at 8:00pm.

Saturday, we got out of the house at 8:15AM to get ready for a 10:00 parade start time. Our float was number 55. I got to walk the whole parade route with a couple of the older boys & we threw out candy and waved.

I thought it went over rather well.

We got home around 1:00PM. Then it was time for a tiny rest, and I got to go out and sell fireworks for a couple of hours.

After that, it was a quick dinner and fireworks of our own. Maybe next year we'll go see one of the Fireworks shows put on by the city, but for this year, it was small, NOT noisy fireworks with a bit of flash. The best (according to sons number one & two) were Pop-its and sparklers (with an occasional ground bloom thrown in for good measure).

Sunday, it was fix it day with Uncle Lance (and cleaning day, and shopping day and generally trying to get control of everything that had gone one the previous week).

Today was day one of a week long baseball camp for both boys & their friend. Afterwards, they came over here for the rest of the day. For the rest of the week, see the previous sentence, rinse and repeat.

Hopefully NEXT week I'll be able to get some real work done. I'd like to get back to data entry, show some pictures and maybe go book hunting.

We'll see.

This summertime thing with kids on vacation from school... man, it's tiring!

Goofy Scout photos... and more

So why is it that young-ish boys when asked to pose for a photo HAVE to stick their tongues out? And this particular goofy boy always finds an even weirder way than normal to stick out that appendage...

Son number 2 was a bit ambivalent about going to Scout camp this time and his attitude went up and down a bit (down especially when hungry... and he's growing, so that's ALWAYS...). But in the end, he really did enjoy himself. I hear snippets of things he's learned in his discussions with friends and with his dad, so I know some things stuck in his brain.

This year's theme for Scout Camp was Native Americans, so we had Indian Lore, fun Indian crafts and lots of feathers (thanks to a GREAT leader for our den... I was an assistant leader for it last year & we sure could have used some extra stuff like this for our group).

As always, there was B-B Gun shooting and Archery lessons which we all enjoyed. Son number 2 earned at least three Webelos pins and a handful of beltloops and academic pins -- in three days time -- they stuffed him full of work and fun and it Exhausted our brains!



Here's goofy tongue photo number two. I left out others. And the ones showing his backside to the camera for obvious reasons.



Here's me -- I actually got son number two to take a decent picture of me and my bull's eye --

One of the shots hit the X, the other landed in the 10 point area. GO MOM!

I didn't get to shoot the B-B gun though. Not this time. Maybe next year.

We have one & a half years of Webelos before son number 2 joins his brother in BOY scouts. I'm looking forward to all of it.

Enjoy!

Quick Break....

Yesterday it was three baseball games and an end of season pool party (and I sunburned the back of my neck & face AGAIN...). It's been cool this season, relatively speaking (IE: No games played in 110 degree weather, but even these overcast days like yesterday are days I SHOULD be wearing sunscreen (well, the boys too, but...) and I KEEP FORGETTING to put it on my neck & face.

Bah.

Today we leave for Boy Scout camp. So I'll be taking a quick break.

Hopefully I'll be back on Thursday.

We'll see how long it takes me to catch up on real work first. I will try to remember to take pictures for you.

Have a great week & wish us good weather!
(For the first time in over five years, we're not expecting 95 - 115 degree weather at camp. In fact, in checking this morning, it was 45 degrees at 6:00 and supposed to go to 75-ish). For us, that's nearly winter weather...

:)

Enjoy!

Scouts doing good things...

First off -- I was talked into having a Facebook page which you can find here: Stephanie Howlett-West. Join if interested. I'm still not sure what good I'll get from it, but that's ok too. Now if I could just figure out some of the ways to use it....!

This picture is of son number one -- this last Saturday, he and I joined in an Eagle Project (for those of you not in the know, Eagle Scout is the highest rank a Boy Scout can receive, and the last thing that has to be done is an Eagle Project -- the boy has to find a project, to organize it, to supervise it and get other scouts (and parents) to help. We have a few years to go before son number one is able to put together his own Eagle Project, but we helped out with one for another troop member (and earned service hours in the process).
Since Memorial Day is upcoming, this project is helping out the American Legion (I think) -- with sanding, repainting and generally fixing up crosses that will go out in the cemetery for Memorial Weekend. We started at 8:00AM with the sanding --- and by the time we left for baseball practice we had sanded off 400 crosses and the boys were starting the painting portion.

I have no fingertips left.
I also got a nail in my thumb, but luckily, I've had my tetanus shot so I'm good to go.
Son number one helped with the painting too -- now we have to buy new pants (AGAIN!!!)

It's good work. Definitely worth the time.

Four days in a row? Wow!

See -- when I started this blog I expected that I could post a new blog entry every day without pulling too much of a sweat. Well, for the most part, that went by the wayside quickly. The first thing to go was the weekends (kid stuff gets in the way -- and now it's baseball season, so evenings are gone too).

Darn -- I just thought of a picture I SHOULD have taken & posted. Son number one is now deep into Boy Scouts (as compared to Cub Scouts like his brother). He officially started work on his Gardening merit badge yesterday (with a bit of help from me) -- he and several other troop members got a chance to PULL WEEDS! Yup, the beginning of the gardening is to prep the ground and they got to use real live tools (and watch men use power toys --oops tools-- as well.
I should be taking blow by blow pictures. Next week, when we go back for more ground prep and planting, I'll remember to do the picture taking thing then. It was 96 degrees (Fahrenheit) outside as we were working (at 5:30pm) and NO shade to be found... we were all red and sweaty.


SO -- back to the blog thing. This week, I've posted four times in a row, AND with photos!

I'm so proud of myself.

Of course, once I post this, something will happen so I can't post for three more weeks... life

Here's another:



These are two of the five books I've gotten added to my database & uploaded today. I would LIKE to try for more books per day, but so far, it's not to be.

If you'd ever like more information about any of the books pictured here, please email me.

Enjoy!