Issue 43

Cookie Booths

How could you not buy cookies from these adorable faces! I really underestimated the power of the girl scout cookie when I ordered our booth cookies. We signed up for nine booth times outside of Smith's and Wal-mart, hoping that would be enough to unload over 700 boxes of cookies. Turns out we sold out in 2 1/2 booths, much to Janey's disappointment. She sold for 7 hours and was begging for more. She is a natural born sales girl. She was literally doing cheers, using empty cases for pom-poms, to draw in more customers. And she always remembered to say, "Thank you for your order!" Next year I'm going to triple our booth cookies so Janey can sell to her hearts content.

Wear'n 'O the Green

Our monthly family get together on Steve's side fell near St. Patty's day. We celebrated Irish style wearing green and eating potatoes (drown in chili) and Grandma's homemade bread dyed green. The cousins had a treasure hunt for cash and then we flew kites on a wonderfully warm March Saturday. Thanks for hosting Bec and Dave!

Mock Trials

Our Statesman Club participated in the Utah Law Related Education Mock Trials. We competed against other schools in the State, arguing both Prosecution and Defense in different competitions. Steve L. was an attorney and they were coached by yours truly. What an amazing experience! We competed in real courtrooms with real attorneys for our judges. I know I've learned so much about the legal system during this process, and these kids get this experience at age 12 and 13! Our team was mostly sixth graders competing against ninth graders and they really held their own. Very impressive. Steve L. said of the experience, “It’s not easy being an attorney. It was hard, but fun!”

Court of Honor

Steve L. brought in another merit badge haul this court of honor. Were so proud of how hard he worked earning all of these badges and he learned some really cool stuff.

Space Exploration

Public Speaking

Music

First Aid

Finger Printing

Computers

Chemistry

Citizenship in the Nation

and Law!

Happy Birthday Dad!

Steve requested peacan sticky buns for his birthday. I got his grandmother's recipe from my sister-in-law and served them hot out of the oven. So hot, in fact, they melted the candles right down to the wicks. Happy Birthday!

Issue 42

Robot by Ellie age 4

Ellie handed me this picture and said, "Here mommy, put this on your blog." It's been a full week of cookie deliveries, mock trial practices and finishing merit badges. So, I am grateful for Ellie's generous offer, as it is the sole offering to our newsletter from a busy week. Tune in next week to see the fruits of our labours.

Issue 41

Bald Eagles by Whitney

Last week we went to the Salt Lake Bird Reserve. It was a lot of fun, but really cold. The highlight was that we where able to see Bald Eagles! The park is on their migratory route
and they where on a stop-over and where chilling on a huge dead tree. We also saw a HUGE flock of whistler swans on one of the lakes, there where thousands of them! We also saw pelicans, ducks, hawks, breeding great blue herons, doves, water birds and tons more. It was awesome, everyone had binoculars and we also had a telescope. I can’t wait to go back!

A list of birds we saw:

Great Blue Herons
Herrier Hawks
Bald Eagles
Red Wing Black Birds
Canadian Geese
Coots
Pelicans
Northern Shoveler Ducks
Whistler Swans
American Kestrals
Mourning Doves
Sparrows
Seagulls

Ski Utah!

A couple weeks ago Steve took the boys downhill skiing at Brighton. Steve L. started working on his Snow Sports merit badge and Daniel earned his Snow Sports belt loop, but mostly they just had fun.

Last week Steve took Whitney cross-country skiing on his favorite trail. It was a new experience for her, and as a nature lover, one she is excited to repeat.

Space Exploration by Steve L.

On Saturday for my Space Exploration merit badge we went out into a big open field with our rockets and launched them. These weren’t the wimpy little ones that run off Alka-Seltzer and water pressure. These were the ones with full working parachute systems, electric launch pads and engines that went up in flames (and I mean UP!) The rockets went up 200 ft to 1000 ft depending on the engines. For the merit badge we had to launch it with an objective in mind. I didn’t have anything on hand but my lunch, so I tested the effects on string cheese in outer space. It was really fun.

Cookie Diehard

Tuesday was the big event that has been counted down at our house for the last month. Cookie delivery day! Denise and I drove to a warehouse with our two empty Suburbans and picked up our troop's order. This is what 2004 boxes of girl scout cookies looks like. For me, pure nostalgia. My mom was my girl scout leader, and cookie manager for our troop. Cookie boxes piled high in the front room is one of my favorite and most satisfying childhood memories. Being a co-leader with my best friend Denise for our same age daughters is such a treat. And a sugar-free treat at that. We had to laugh at the irony of standing amongst so many cookies, since due to health concerns, neither of us can even eat one.

Janey has been a die hard cookie seller. She has been tenacious and had so much fun. Tuesday morning, (cookie delivery day) she gave me quite a scare. The heart stopping, gut wrenching, totally helpless feeling, kind of scare that every mother dreads. She was swinging from her chin-up bar in her door way when she fell, hard. She stood up and started screaming that her back hurt. I reached the top of the stairs one nanosecond later and caught her just as passed out. I laid her down, screamed myself, for someone to get the phone in case we needed to call 911, and at her to wake up and start breathing. Her lips were turning blue and I realized how rusty my CPR training from 25 years ago really was. NOT a good realization. I blew in her mouth and luckily she started breathing, short, labored, welcome breaths. She'd had the wind knocked out her and I immediately had her wiggling her toes to make sure she could still feel them. As she lay on the floor, gasping for breath, the first words out of her mouth were, "But Mom, I have to deliver my cookies!"

After two hours of doctor's appointments and a full battery of x-rays she was cleared of any spinal injury and did, in fact, start delivering her cookies that evening.

Butterfly by Ellie age 4

Beautiful Bride

Congratulations Tricia! It's so wonderful to see you so happy.



What a perfect excuse for 6 best friends to spend the day together. Well, make that five, since one of us was a little preoccupied. Serendipitously, Jennifer was in town from California and it was so wonderful to get caught up in person, although her blog is always a joy to read. Below is a remake of a dance photo we had taken, while our dates looked on, our senior year. (We missed you Katie!) Eighteen years later we're even closer friends.