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.