Wilton Girl Scout Icing Kit

I first found this patch program on a Girl Scout Facebook page. I thought for sure that this was something that my girls would love to do. And then when I asked them for input on their year and they said baking and science, I got giddy thinking about it. 

I ordered the kits last week, it took under 7 days for us to receive them. They cost 5.99 plus shipping. If you have a tax exempt number and order so many, you will get a discount on the kits. I tried to order them on line and had trouble so I had to call the 800 number. I explained what I wanted and what was wrong and I kid you not, I got transferred 4 times before someone was able to help me. When I finally got someone who could help me, the process was painless and quick. 

Wilton Girl Scout Icing Kit

I made a 8x8 inch cake for each girl. The weather here has been so cold that they are having delays in the morning. I let my daughter come with me to the store and pick out the cake that each girl would get. She wanted Blue Velvet for herself, picked out Pink Velvet, Marble and yellow for the other girls. We then went around to pick up the ingredients for icing. I debated on if I should get icing in a can or make my own. I thought with the sheer amount that I was going to need, it would be best to make my own. The recipe that came with the instructions seemed simple enough and with my big stand mixer, I figured it wouldn't take much time. 

It turned out to take most of my day. I ended up making 5 cakes and over 8 batches of icing. I quickly iced the tops of the cakes white, so the girls could just decorate them once they had practiced their skills. 

I went to color the icing and realized, I only had blue in the house. I texted a mom in the troop who is my new assistant leader and asked her if she had any color besides blue. Unfortunately her daughter was sick and would not be at the meeting that night. NO!!!!! I already made the cakes. 

I tried to think of a way that she could participate in the meeting with out actually being there. I thought we could skype the meeting. I knew that she had tried Skype when her father was in the hospital. I ran the cake and kit over for her to do.

When I got there, she asked me if I had the time to just show her how to do it. Well I can not say no to a scout. It took us about an hour to do it and she had a blast. She is going to save her cake decorating till she gets the all clear from the doctor, this way her family can eat it too. I felt so bad for her because her fever kept her hands so hot she was melting the icing. 

I got home from teaching Piper and did the finishing touches on the rest of it for the troop meeting. I got everything loaded into my car and headed over to the church. Unfortunately two weeks ago, my co-leader stepped back and decided that she needed a break and in the two weeks that followed, the doors to the meeting place have been locked when I got there. This week I was able to call the Pastor before any girl got there and I got my own key to the building. Now I will not be locked out again. Yay!! I think that moment when you know your meeting place is secure for the girls is a great moment for any leader.

One of the girl's mom works for a baker in town and agreed to help us with the kit. The girls were super excited to get started and get to work. They did so well, I was proud of them. 

This was a lot of fun and the girls really enjoyed themselves. I would recommend this patch program for any troop Junior and higher. 

Junior Aid part 3/ Lego movie

We were back to full capacity, yay! I am so glad that she got better quickly.

This meeting, our plan was to get some props made and for them to start filming the first part of the Journey video.

Well.... nothing ever goes according to plan.

My daughter started on finishing up her lego movie. We had done these at home, so she knew what needed to be done. And then I set the other girl up to finish her movie. I knew she was having trouble with the camera the whole time, and now I could actually see her problems. Nothing was in focus but since this was 2 weeks ago, I can not even begin to know what went wrong. I want to give her a chance to redo the video, just not sure when we would have the time. Maybe we can work on it at camp in January.

The girls were all give printed out "scripts" of the journey. We went over it really quickly with them, so that they can focus on what else was actually needed to get filming started. We needed flowers, backgrounds, a birds nest and a caterpillar. And they set off working.

If there is a theme with my troop it would be horrible time management because before we knew it, the meeting was just about over and we were not even close to being ready to film. I just do not think that we allotted enough time in our yearly plan for this project.

I decided to try to just film the introduction of the Journey and give the girls a chance to look over everything during the week.

This did not go so well. I was telling them that it is only an introduction and to be natural, but point a video camera at them and all of a sudden, I have 10 minutes of "bloopers". In the end, I asked the girls to know the introduction for next week so we can film it with out them reading from a paper. Hopefully we will be able to get the introduction and first part of the journey filmed next week.

I know that I am crazy, but I am hoping for the second part as well.

Lexy's movie

Junior Aid Part 2

This week one of our little ones was sick. And when you only have 4 girls attending troop meetings and one gets sick, it is kind of hard to continue as planned. When there is 10 girls and one misses, it will sound mean, but you don't really miss her presence. As in things can still get done. With a quarter of your troop is gone, it comes to a stand still.

The girls worked on their flower puppets and the script for the first part of the video. The plan was to have it all done so that we can work on filming the next week. The girls got right down to business and Miss B and I got right down to the business of cleaning out the supply closet.

I can not even begin to tell you how this closet bothered me. We would just chuck things in there at the end of the meeting, in order to get out on time. And it was a mess! Plus we had no clue what was actually in there, so I would be buying multiples of things. It took us 2 hours in total but when we were done it was beautiful! I loved it.

Now lets hope that it stays that way!

Since one of the girls who was sick was one of the ones who needed to finish their lego movie, we just pushed that off until the next week.

The Digital Photography Sleepover

While at camp this summer, I was talking with another leader and we had come up with the idea of having a sleepover for the girls in order to accomplish this badge. We had thought that it would be a great way for the groups to get together and we would be able to do it at once instead of packing up back drops and lighting equipment several times to get it done in the 1 hour meeting times. See in my other life, I am a photographer. I was looking forward to this badge and showing the girls what I do in real life.

We let the one of the girls pick the date for the sleepover and thankfully our host church was more than happy to let us stay over.

We got to the church around 6pm and the girls put all of their stuff in the nursery, where we would be staying the night.

And then the amazing thing, that is my troop happened. The girls just started to play and giggle with each other. These are girls that spend almost all day together. Two sets of best friends, that swap "besties" like normal people change underwear. They love like sisters, but fight like sisters. There are times where I worry about how things will go with them as a group, and then nights like this one happen. They clumped together and started playing with the baby kitchen. Giggling over a private joke that me and Miss B were not privilege to know.

We had a time line of 6 pm drop off, watch the high school marching band parade to the play off game, make dinner and then start work. We planned a 10pm bed time.

Well the moms chatted till 6:45, we missed the parade and didn't even start dinner till after 7. But that is the way with our troop. I like having a plan, in fact I am totally anal that I have to go into an event with a plan, but I am also extremely flexible with in my plan. I have no problem throwing out the plan and having the girls dictate the pace. I wonder what that says about me? (Other that I am crazy, lol )

I had picked up raw pizza dough and I figured that each girl can make her own pizza. Which went over great. They were loud with out being obnoxious and they laughed the whole time. They had flour every where. They called the corn meal chicken food and then dared each other to eat it.

After dinner we went upstairs to start our night. They decided that they wanted to do a photo shoot in their pj's, and that they really wanted to work on their lego movies right away. So they got started on their backgrounds and then started to take pictures.

I thought I had enough camera's for all of the girls. I had my two older point and shoots, which kept going through batteries like they were water. I had my Canon 50d and my Big camera, my 5d Mark 2 (which I was only going to let my daughter use). Well I forgot to put a memory card in my 50d, so we were down to only 3 cameras for 4 girls. The one with out a camera did not have to wait long as they were pretty quick taking pictures with the point and shoots. But then everything started to fall apart.

We ran out of batteries, the cameras wouldn't focus. and it was getting very frustrating to be going back and forth between the computer and making the movies, to the girls who were having problems with the cameras. It just seemed like what ever could go wrong, did go wrong. And it was getting late, and they were getting tired.

We got 2 lego movies done, one completely photographed and one that needed to be finished in the morning.

We did not even set up the back drops or lights.

The girls got into their pj's and sleeping bags. There was a tv in the nursery, so we put on Fantasia 2000 for them to go to sleep to. And it worked, there was no late night giggling and trouble making like there is at camp. The girls went right to sleep.

We had an early morning the next day. The girls had to be up and ready to go to the local food pantry to hand out bags. The bags were going to include the holiday turkey or chicken and I know the pantry was looking forward to them being there.

Surprisingly the girls got up with out a struggle, cleaned up and carried items out to the car. It was a pretty chilly morning and they did not even complain once. We got the last few shots in of the last lego movie and I told them that we could continue to work on it on Tuesday at our regular meeting.

I am so glad that we did this. It was a good way to get the girls together to work on a bigger badge. Sure we did not get everything accomplished, but it was fun. The first time you try something is always the worst outcome. We learn from each time we try something.

Next time I will charge my parents 5$ per girl to cover the food. It cost 30$ just in food and if everyone paid 5$, it would have been covered. I will also try to plan it when we have more time the next day. With the food pantry in the morning and I had to go into work, we did not really have enough time to get everything accomplished.

There is always next time! These are the two completed video's. Next week I will post the other two. I hope you enjoy them.

Piper's video
Olivia's video

Junior Aid- part 1

This is our next big thing. I think that it is going to take about a month to complete. The girls have decided that they are going to bring a journey to a Daisy Troop. The idea of doing a Journey was not exciting to the girls at first but then we came up with an idea that they were more than happy to work on.

They are going to transform the book into a video. They are going to make back drops and they are going to make the flower characters and the animals.Then they will act out the story.

All of a sudden the girls were supper excited to get started. They sat down with the book, 3 Cheers for Animals, and they came up with the first skit. Next week we will be making the back drops and hopefully film the first part.

In the end, they would like to publish it to Youtube and have it as a resource for Juliette girls.

Staying Fit

This is a badge that I was not looking forward too. More so than scribe. I don't know why, but it just seems like something that is a buzz word badge. I am all for the girls learning to be healthy, but we just did all of this during the council's Healthy Promise campaign. I feel like I am beating a dead horse. And I think that the girls have turned me off and I sound like the Charlie Brown teacher to them.

So how do we take a badge that no one wants to do and make it fun?

I purchased a few different foods; pop tarts, apples with yogurt dip, pineapple and a few different candies. I also brought in a bag of sugar and my digital scale. We looked at the amount of sugar that was in each of these products. We compared natural sugar vs processed sugars. The girls seemed really interested in it, and I think seeing the sugar in real life made an impact on them.

We then did some yoga and stretching. I came up with the idea of having the girls do some double dutch jump roping. Wow, did I not think this through. I bought 2 jump ropes, 7 foot long each and I thought that this would be big enough. I was trying to remember from my childhood. But this was clearly the case of things looking so much bigger when you were a child than when you are an adult. 7 ft long jump ropes is not big enough for double dutch. In the end we tied it together and the girls gave it a shot. The girls giggled but they could not figure it out. Unfortunately we were right at the end of the meeting and we planned on picking it up the next time.

*** Update on our Halloween Parades. The girl participated in 3 parades and they won Judges Choice at one parade and 3rd place in the groups category in another parade. The judges said that they were touched by how the girls were able to take a somber subject like breast cancer and bring awareness to it by having a fun presentation. The girls won money at both parades that we are going to use to help lower the cost of our winter camp.

Scribe badge 3

This took forever to get done. I think because the girls, or some of them, are doing something similar in school. Last night, we sat down and they wrote up their articles. This morning I typed them into Word under a news letter template and sent it out to our Service Unit. I can not wait to have feedback from the other troops. I debated on posting what the girls wrote on here, but there is too much information on them. Not sure if other troops want that out in the great big cyber world.

So what is next for our troop. Right now we are in the middle of our fall product sale. This sale is important to me, more so than cookies. But I have to admit that I was a little bit disappointed when I asked how the girls were doing and no one really answered. I hate to tell them that they really have to sell, or they will be paying a lot more for winter camp than they would like. My daughter is nearing the half way mark for her sales, but we haven't sold any magazines yet. I really want her to sell 100 pieces so that she gets the 90$ in product money to use toward camp. I don't understand why councils do not change up this program to get it a better rap. This is such a good opportunity for troops to earn start up cash, but no one wants to do it. We make more than we do for cookies, if people just tried. End of vent.

Next week we are working on the staying fit badge. This should be fun since I am anything but fit. lol

Skill Builder/ Scribe 2/ Halloween prep

I can not believe that it is almost Halloween time! Around here there is a huge high school football game happening on Halloween so everyone has moved up their parades and activities a week, which means I am running out of time!

This year the girls wanted to be super heros, but we just couldn't get a good idea beyond that. Then I was looking over my finances and the calendar and I haven't even done my kids costumes yet, let alone make a second costume.

What could be do??? Well it is Breast Cancer Awareness month. JGL did die from breast cancer. What if we did a pink out?

The girls went nuts! They love pink! Plus it is something they all have in their drawers.

Ok so we are going to all wear pink....What if we are Breast Cancer Awareness super heros? We can make pink capes!

I thought that we could purchase either pink felt or pink fleece relatively cheaply. Boy was I wrong. Felt was 3$ a yard and fleece was 6$! But before I turned down the fabric aisle, I saw fleece blankets for 3$. There would be enough fabric to do 4 capes. 

They all have a basic fleece (no sewing) cape that they have to decorate this week.

A mom asked at the hospital for some of those paper ribbon cards. The ones they ask you for a dollar for at the grocery store and then you right someone's name on it. I split them up and handed them out to the girls. They all have different ideas on that they want to do with them. I just told them that it needs to be done by Tuesday.

I can not wait to see what they come up with.

They have a little skit planned out and they are going to recite the promise this year. Think that voice in the old school super hero comic shows. "Meanwhile back at the Hall of Justice". They are going to do it all powerful like that.

SCRIBE BADGE- PART 2

After we got Halloween out of the way, we worked on our scribe badge. The girls had interviewed 3 troops but they did not get a chance to do our troop. Four girls, Four Troops, perfect. Our one girl who was not able to ask the interview questions at the nut rally interviewed our troop. And let me tell you, 4 girls means 4 different ideas and opinions. It took longer than I thought for them to get everything down and we are going to have to finish up the newsletter next week. I gave them the option of finishing up at home or at the meeting and they chose the meeting.

Nut Rally

It is that time of the year again, Fall Product sale. As the service unit product lead, I feel like it is my duty to make sure that everyone is informed and that the girls do a good job. I also feel like so much focus is on cookies, that people forget about nuts or they just don't want to do it. But the truth of the matter is, that the troops make more money with nuts than we do with cookies. I ask my troop to really focus on this. If they sold 100 nut products (which I know is a lot) not only does the troop get 100$ but they can also earn 90$ in product gift cards from council which can be used for camp! I will tell you, knocking 90$ off of camp can make it affordable.

This is my second year running a nut rally. This year we had 3 troops participate and about 25 girls attend. Which is a really nice number. It keeps the volume down and it makes sure that each group gets to do things. Sure I would love to have a huge nut rally, but I am happy with what we get.

Planning this started after my training, at least some part. I knew the stations that I wanted to have, but I did not know how to exicute them. I also knew how much time I wanted to spend at each activity.

What I figured out was that we would have a hour and a half for the event. 6 stations at 10 minutes each, and that would leave 15 minutes in the beginning and 15 at the end for announcements and a little over view of the sale.

My stations were-
An Activity called Jump in/Jump out which is in the rally handbook
Pictionary with words from the handbook
Scribe badge interview station
Lip Gloss making
Paper bag otter puppets from the handbook
Puzzle from the handbook

Plus I had a snack table with the new orange almonds, pretzels, cheese curls, apple juice and water.

We got off to a slow start, as we waited for people to arrive but then I did my little talk. I tend to goof around and I probably talked to long for the girls liking. I split the girls up by troops and split my troop up in those troops. This way when it got time to get to the scribe station, someone in my troop could interview them.

A few things, with only 3 groups switching, I only needed 3 volunteers. One leader asked me in August what could she do to help, which was so nice! And never happens. I gave her the lip gloss station and she did a great job with the girls at that one. The jump in station was a hit. My CO took care of that area and I heard lots of giggling so I knew she was rocking it. I bounced between the stations, depending on where the troops were going next. Pictionary was lots of fun and the time went really quickly there. The otter puppets were cute but I do not think the Juniors really liked doing them. I think that would have been great for Daisy's but I only had 1 of them there. The puzzle making was a bust. They did not like that at all. The scribe badge was fine depending on which troop was there and who was asking the questions. No adult over saw that one, because it was badge work, the girls had to do the questions on their own. Some troops just answered and then it was silent and some had so much to say that the 10 minutes was not enough time.

We ended up running out of time, even with a timer running and switching pretty efficiently. I just don't think you can ever schedule them where it runs perfectly, time wise. At the end, the girls were able to have a snack.

Surprisingly the nut samples were a huge hit! The girls loved it and so did the parents. I was really surprised by that. And I did not buy enough cheese curls. I never buy enough cheese curls. lol

The cost of the rally was under 30$. I charged 1$ per girl, which was to cover the cost of the patch and pay for a bit of the rally. Turns out that they raised the price of the patch from 0.50$  to 0.75$. Which means my troop ate a lot more of the cost than I wanted to. The snacks can really add up. the only craft that I had to purchase items for was the lip gloss. We bought small closable containers, Vaseline, cocoa, mint extract, and koolaid.

I will do it again next year, if I am the Fall Product person again. I had a good time.
And I have no pictures, because I forgot to take them. :( You just get busy and forget. lol

Agents of Change- TAP

I was a little nervous about starting this meeting. I thought for sure someone would forget their homework or items for their Jared box and then my whole plan would be out the window.

But my girls remembered everything. I had posted a reminder mid-week on our parent troop Facebook page on what the girls needed to do. I am just glad that they can prepared!

We stuffed the boxes and the girls drew pictures on the top of the plastic shoe boxes. As we worked on them we talked about the questions that they wanted to ask the rescue agencies. There were not that many repeats.

Some things that they asked were:
Do we have to give them a bath?
What time of the year is best for an adoption fair?
Who cleans the poop?
What questions do you ask the person who wants to adopt the pet?

All good starting points. Unfortunately out of the 5 agencies that I emailed, only 3 responded. Out of those 3, we got 2 no's. The other one asked that we call and not email the person who would be in charge of setting up an adoption fair.

So it looks like we may be going back to the drawing board.

After they finished the lids on the Jared Boxes, I had a bit of a science project for them to do. It is something that I came across in my many hours of Pinning. It was making plastic from milk. I thought this would go great with our other explanations of teams, community and polymers.

Two girls were done first and I took them in to do the project while the other two continued to work on their lids.

The directions were simple-

To a bowl add:

1.5 cups of skim milk
4 teaspoons of vinegar

Place bowl into a microwave for 1 minute.

Stir the mixture until it forms a ball.

Strain the liquid off.

Mold the curds to a shape.

Original explanation and picture tutorial can be found here

A few things, the girls found this gross. Maybe because it was milk?? It had the same consistency of the bouncy balls, but there was a lot more complaining about this. The girls thought it smelled. I did not notice a smell, but they did. I also don't know if it is because one girl said it smelled so the rest of them did. Who knows, they are 9. And it was very crumbly once they got beyond a certain point. If you are going to do this with the girls, do not let them over work the milk.

Agents of Change- Power of Community- Bronze Meeting

In the beginning of the year, I asked the girls what they liked to do and they told me science and baking. We had done science the week before with bouncy balls and polymers and this week I decided to bake something.

But how do you turn a baking project into a conversation about community?

At first I thought that we could just talk while they baked. Then I thought that I could compare the ingredients to people and how they can come together, combine ideas and be a part of something great. I think my girls know I am a bit artsy fartsy so they give me a bit of lea way. The concept worked for them. They made banana nut and chocolate chip muffins. I was brave enough to try one. Brave because I have done the hand washing/black light experiment with these girls and it will change your opinion of them! Ewww!!!

We had decided to do Jared Boxes for our TAP. I was excited to see that there was a hospital locally that would accept them. Miss B's mom works for the one hospital and we are in the process of seeing if the girls can stop by themselves and drop them off or if they would just go with her. I am hoping the girls can take them in. The hospital is not that far from us and would be a short trip. The girls decided on a budget, what they were willing to work for from their parents, and they decided what each would bring for the box.

While we munched on muffins, we started to talk about our Bronze award. The girls want to hold a pet adoption fair in the town park. A day where they can have a bunch of different rescues come to the area and people who are looking to adopt can come and see them. Great idea..... I have no idea where to guide them to start it.

They left the meeting with shopping lists and homework. They need to come up with 5-8 questions to ask a rescue agency.

How many chances do you get?

Or an alternative title would be, "as long as council gets their money, they don't give a hoot about the girls or the community."

I get so frustrated with our council. Nothing like having them reinforce time and time again, that all they care about is the money.

That leader who I have complained about before. The one who broke the rules at the Halloween parade and whose float ran over a parents foot, the one who broke the rules of cookie sales and there was photographic proof of what she was doing wrong, the one who did not turn in her financial report till September, and the one who did not give her girls badges they earned and lied about camp requirements so she did not take them on a trip? (I just found that out, but I don't think I wrote about it. Her assistant leader is now getting a troop of her own and sharing all kinds of details about what went on)

Yeah they are letting her keep her troop and take on new girls.

So there are no consequences when you break the rules.

There are no repercussions for failing the girls you are supposed to be leading.

As long as you bring in that cookie profit, you can keep doing what you are doing.

AAAAAAAAAAAAAAHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHH!!!!!

Agents of Change- The Power of Team

Second meeting, and the girls jumped right back into it. I think I am going to love having 4 girls this year. Sure a bigger troop means that you can get better group discounts and there is more chance of mixing up the group. But I like the intimate-ness of this small group. I know when I am getting through and when they have stopped listening.

Before the meeting even started there was some heated discussing going on between the four of them and when a mom and I asked what was going on, boy did we hear an earful. The long and the short was that one girl was made to stand along the wall for five minutes* for having a minus in the class room dojo, (goofy app thing that the teachers use), the other girls wanted to know what she did wrong. Thing was the girl had no idea. Someone just told her the teacher wanted her to stand on the wall. Two of the troop girls were so mad because they thought the one who told her was lying and that she didn't really have to stand on the wall. Forth grade girls can be so mean.

Now that seems totally off topic, but it isn't really. These girls are a tight group. They came together for a friend that they feel was wronged so that she did not feel alone. They worked together to come up with a solution so that would never happen to one of them again. All this on their own, with out a leader to say, let's figure this out.

Why does that make me happy?

Because it means that Girl Scouts is WORKING!! Especially for those who it is designed to help. Regardless of what goes on in the "community" or lack of answers/help from council, the GIRLS are getting what we are teaching. They are the reason I come back week after week and year after year. Because it is making an impact on them.

Once the meeting started, we went over last week and I showed them the print outs. They loved them and wanted to make one up for this week. I think they want to cover the whole inside of our craft closet with them. This week when I asked if these words reflected who they were, they were eager to say yes.

We then moved on to talking about team work and what it takes to be a strong team. We have seen so many times before that these girls work well together. It was interesting to see how they see themselves in the group dynamic. One girl was definitely the leader, one I would call the encourager, one is a follower- amazing at carrying out the plan, and the other one is the outside of the box thinker.  Unlike the power words, these girls know their roles in the team and they know how the others work. It makes the team work stuff very easy. I can not believe that they know their roles so well already. I mean they are only in 4th grade. Imagine what they will accomplish because they do not have the power struggles many have in a team.

Finally it was time to get to the fun bits. The girls love science and crafts and I was so proud that I thought I found something to combine the two with our team work talk. We were going to make bouncy balls!

First we explained a team with paper clips. How each person is strong but when we link together the paper clips, it makes a stronger chain. Then we took loom bands and attached them to the paperclip chains to make a sort of net of clips. I compared the bands to the bonds that bring together the team. Finally we turned it to science and explained polymers to the girls.

We went into the kitchen and made bouncy balls. I found a recipe online, which I can not find the link to any more. This is not my recipe-

Supplies-
1/2 cup of warm water
1tbs Borax

1 tbs corn starch
2tbs of school glue (washable glue makes softer balls and non-washable school glue makes firmer ones)

1. Combine the water and borax in a cup and stir. You want enough room in the cup to place your next combination.

2. In a seperate container, combine the corn starch and glue until it is well incorporated. It may take more than a few stirs.

3. Pour the glue mixture into the borax solution. Wait about ten seconds. The mixture will get hard. Take it out a squeeze it, then place it back in the solution for another 10 seconds. Take it out and start to squeeze the air out and work it into a ball shape. Once the ball is round, have the girls give it a go at bouncing it. They are not super bouncy, but they do bounce and the girls will love it!!

My girls had a blast. They loved making the balls and the look on their faces when it all came together is priceless!

Next week we are working on our Community TAP and that will be the end of the journey. We will start talking about the bronze award and the girls will plan their next badge. Another successful Junior meeting!!!

* And what is wrong with the teachers??? 5 minutes of standing along the wall while your peers are playing or staring at you. How is this right??? Public humiliation is not an acceptable form of punishment. 

Safety award/brownie first aid

This badge we did the first year but I wanted the girls to earn their safety awards. Good thing my #2 has a mom who is a nurse. Nurse Linda, as the girls called her, agreed to come in and talk to us about camp safety.

I was so happy about that because not only are we doing our troop came at Echo Trail this year but some girls will be camping every month till October! She went over some basic first aid but more importantly poisonous plants.

Now I grew up in the woods. My sister and I made playhouses in the trees. I spent my summers equally outside or in my room. I made it 33 years without getting poison ivy. The first time I got it I was at a festival and it clearly had posted to be aware of the poison ivy. Sat in a field listening to music and the next month was itchy as all heck. I swore I would never do that again.

Next year, I went to the same festival but avoided the ivy field. Still got it! This time it was worse and took a long time to heal.

I am going to the festival again this year, but hopefully my little brownie will be able to point out the plants before I get itchy!

The girls listened intently to her and asked a crazy amount of questions. Then we made small first aid kits for each girl to take to camp.

The Meeting that Wasn't

I don't know if it is just my council or if it is a common problem, but reps just don't make meetings!

Yesterday my co-leader was supposed to meet with our council rep for her adult training. She gets to McDonalds at 5:15 because she had her daughter and figures that they would get dinner. She was supposed to meet the rep at 5:30.

5:45 I get a text saying that the rep is not here yet, WTH!

I know that the rep knows that she is supposed to be there because I sent her an email earlier in the day with a troop roster and to let her know the Miss B is going to have a new girl registration and check. She acknowledged that she would see B there.

And I know that Miss B is getting angrier with every passing minute.

5:55 she sends me a text saying she is leaving, and quiet frankly, I don't blame her.

Ten minutes later my phone is ringing.

Our rep called her and asked if she was running late. Miss B said she had sat there for 45 minutes before she left and that she was not coming back.

And really you can not expect a child to sit for 45 minutes and then go back and sit longer. Even the best kid will have trouble with that.

Turns out that the Rep was sitting there the whole time. Unfortunately Miss B had never met the rep before. And I guess the rep didn't know what she looked like either. 

Miss B offers to do it again next week and is told that it would be the 24th before the rep can come back and do the training.

BUT this is not the first time that this has happened!

Once with a different rep, my co-leader of the time and I sat for an hour waiting for a rep to meet with us. We called her several times, sent text messages and did not hear anything from her until the next day when she said that she had forgotten about us.

It is absolutely frustrating. These are supposed to be the PAID people who are there to help you and they can't be bothered to make a meeting or a phone call or even get up from her seat and walk around looking for someone.

As is becoming my mantra, "Thank god the girls are awesome!"