It's 11pm...do you know where your scout master is?

I do, that would be sitting in my living room, having a "committee" meeting. Which means Tori and Rob and DH and I.
We (meaning mostly T&R but DH&I jumped on the bandwagon as soon as it was pulling out of the docking bay) started an all girl venturing crew this summer. We have a parent committee but so far it's mostly been DH helping them and me doing some scut work. Which is okay. I would like to see more parents get involved at a higher level, and i think that will happen. Since we're new it's harder to know what needs to be done.
Meanwhile the girls are having a great time and making great plans and getting a lot done, thanks almost entirely to Tori's efforts. Thank you. I really feel like this is a great activity for them.
Our neighbors across the street have teens who appear to be involved in nothing. They spend their time loitering in the street, shooting off firecrackers, skate boarding, throwing stuff. They are aimless and I think this is really dangerous. I think that parents need to make sure that their children are busy in worthwhile pursuits. Of course with school, seminary, after school jobs, homework, mutual, music lessons, sports and all the other things that come up it is easy to do that and a balance needs to be struck so that you are not too busy, family time needs to be guarded and worked in, as well as down time. So there is too busy, not busy enough and something in the middle...piece of cake :) This venturing is a great activity. It is outdoorsy and exciting, which draws the girls in. And it's with friends. At the same time it is building valuable skills and gives opportunity to foster confidence, leadership and appreciation for a bigger world than the halls of their own HS.
I wish our young men's program would really embrace this and that the boys would take advantage of being fulling engaged in scouting as well. It seems to me, an outsider looking in, that it could be a powerful tool for helping the boys have fun, stay strong in the faith and have really great experiences. We lose a lot of boys...sadly.

anyway, I digress ...one of the things that came from our meeting is our fund raiser, which is a great one! The girls are selling beautiful, fresh, Christmas wreaths. I think they will make a lot of money, which they need, and they are offering a great product. I need to go to the scout shop and drop $100 on shirts for S and J so they can be outfitted and ready to sell. It's always a $100. Why is that? I guess I need to put my money where my soap box is so... off we'll go.

Today is crazy hat day in Kindergarten:

option A: brought back from a TDY in England a couple years ago
option B: DH has the companion "Big Guy" version
option C: ski bum meets spidey
option D: just cause she looks cute :)

I think I am losing my brain. Last night I had to drive to Hurst to get my recommend signed. On the way, in the car, by myself, I had the AC on and the radio. I was a little too cold so I reached out and turned down the radio. Why??? Then I was embarrassed and felt ridiculous and turned down the AC as well...I often do stuff like that, random, small, retarded things that make me question if I really am operating at full capacity or not.

On the way home I stopped at Barnes and Noble and got a great book called Owl Puke that the kids are so anxious to read.

Last random thought: I think that the Berenstain Bear books are being written by someone new. The style of writing in the new books is really different from the older ones.
For example, here is the first page from the Trick or Treat book that has been around for a long time and that we love, a true BB classic:

The sights and sounds of autumn were all around as Mama Bear pushed her shopping cart along the path that led to the Bear family's tree house.

The trees and shrubs were ablaze with color. Farmer Ben's pumpkins stood bright orange in the October sun. The crows cawed noisily as they searched the stubble for bits of corn. Wild geese in great V-formations honked high in the sky as they flew south.

Now from the new Halloween book, first page:

Papa bear always loved Halloween.

He loved going trick or treating when he was a cub.

He also loved going on haunted hay rides when he was a teen.

He loved giving out treats to trick or treaters who came to the tree house.