A Bad Economy Does Not Halt Girl Scout Cookie Buyers!

Well 10 days later, we still have stomach flu here. After this is all said and done I plan on calling contractors. Here's an equation for ya.

7 in a family + 1 bad stomach bug+ 1 bathroom= A Huge Flippin' Nightmare.

So during all this craziness around here and also being a Girl Scout leader, I was running our cookie sale. I just turned in my order today. 1500 boxes on our inital order but we'll sell more after they come in. Last year total we sold 1728. This is a picture of PART of my garage last year. It was insane!!This is great news for our girls! I have some exciting ideas and hopefully they will agree. I have to plan before telling though. You can not tell a bunch of kids something and not follow through, but since they don't read here..... here's one thing that I'd like to do with them. :) Horseback riding. :) I did open my mouth when Alex was around when I was talking to Daddy about this and she had a smile going from ear to ear. I know the other girls would love this and I've got a place to take them however here's the issue. Dave went there to do a job once, when he arrived and was talking to the owner's wife (most likely) she was talking about "your kind" (meaning Mexican) even referring that they all look the same. Did not fly well with him and well since he is Mexican and Italian. I guess you could say she sounded a little racist. This happened a few years back but anyways he'd rather not do business with this place. What would you suggest in this situation??

I gave them paper at our last meeting and asked them to write things they thought would be fun to do with their friends with their cookie money but they listed things we've done before. Skating, swimming, cooking, oh and their favorite thing last year I did with them....taking them to the mall shopping for Webkinz. Oh they want to do that one again soooo badly. lol So imagine if you were a Daisy, Brownie, Junior Girl Scout leader what would you do with a troop of 15 sweet little girls? Also would you do business at the ranch even though hubby says no way?

Mrs. BetterthanU is Back and Better Than Ever!

Never heard of her? Well read by clicking her name in the labels part of this post.

Last night I had a Brownie meeting but it was also a parent meeting since I was introducing the mom's to the 1st fundraiser our troop does. It started out well, everyone was pretty attentive and listening. I got half way through my speech and starting talking about how we set super small goals for the girls and tell them to pick something they would like to do as a troop for around that amount of money. I guess this was the PERFECT opportunity for Mrs. BetterthanU to speak up infront of ALL the parents. The conversation went like this.

Mrs. BetterthanU: "Are they actually going to DO things this year with their money?"

Me: (A bit shocked and speechless) "what? What do you mean?"

Mrs. BetterthanU: "Well they didn't DO anything at all last year. You were going to take them swimming but it was too cold that day."

Me: "It was in the 60's that day. And they did alot last year. We had that skating party." That's the only thing I could think of since I was like shocked that she was putting me on the spot. I wasn't being a smart ass or anything and as cheery as I could be."

Mrs. BetterthanU: "Well I didn't know about that."

Her daughter: "yeah mom, remember we missed it because you forgot." (HEE HEE!)

Another girl: "Yeah we did that and we all got Webkinz and went shopping at Claire's too." (PS: that trip cost $470!!!!)

We've done TONS of craft projects which cost money, decorated 2 parade floats, etc. We did quite a bit last year. It kinda dropped off there and I kept talking about the fundraiser to everyone. I have learned just to let crap just slide but you know what? This is bull crap. This lady has it out for me, I know she does. She's always made snide remarks about crap to me, stupid things like features her van had that my old one didn't. Or her man is a REAL man because he's a Marine in the reserves. UGH! Call me stuck on myself but I know she's jealous of the fact that I'm pregnant and that I'm leading the troop. She was SUPPOSED to be my co-leader last year, came to 3 meetings and then just stopped coming because another mom was helping too. She's told me personally that she wanted more kids but had to have a hysterectomy after her 3rd. When I became pregnant with this one I hid it from her until she overheard me and another mom talking one day at a meeting and said, "you're pregnant again??!?!" I said, "yup!" and I said it happily! lol

If she's trying to say I can't lead a troop and do things with the girls because I'm pregnant she's dead wrong. I think I've done a great job this year (being pregnant since Jan. 11th!) infact my sister said her daughter's troop didn't do ANYTHING last year at all and she wished Madison would be able to join our's if it wasn't for the drive to another town. I attended all the trainings even a 3 hour one last month. I just don't understand why people have to be so vicious, especially one that goes to a sister Southern Baptist church!! Good thing is everyone knows this is typical Mrs. BetterthanU and I'm sure they will all have things to say about it to me when she's not around. 2 already did last night after she left.

So what's she do before leaving? Asks if the 2 Avon books of mine belonged to anyone and then took them. Maybe I'll make some money off her next week. She still buys Avon from me usually every few months.

Dave comes home today thank goodness. This has actually been pretty easy since the kids are in school but I've been waking up on a regular basis the past 4 nights. I just lay there forever or get up and look outside for the boogieman. It's a bit hard sleeping without him. I finally came to a conclusion last night. I don't really need him cuddling next to me, I don't need him trying to position me back to my side for the baby's sake, I need his snoring. Is that not weird?! I need to hear his loud nasally snore in order to sleep. It's just too quiet without it. I guess after 13 years of sleeping in the same bed together it's just something I've become accustomed to.

The kids have been counting down the days, they really miss him. Mia chatted on the phone last night with him. She kept giggling saying, "it's dadda!" pointing to the phone. It was cute. He's so ready to get back. I guess this branch they sent him to is doing terrible. The branch manager is there for about 2 hours a day because he just doesn't give a crap and the service manager is trying to do his job but just gives up and leaves for the day as well. He's been doing complaint calls the whole time he's been there. He's doing THEIR dirty work that they have put off for months. He's really enjoying Missouri but better not get any ideas to try to move us there. It sounds like they're probably going to have to clean house and look for new management.

Tonight is Boy Scout/Girl Scout sign up night at all the schools in Kansas. I, along with several of my mom's, will be signing up our girls and new girls for this school year. I went yesterday to Hobby Lobby and bought some items for the girls to make a project at a table while the adults sign their girls up. I wanted parents to see how much fun the girls have together so I made this presentation board and printed off a bunch of pictures for parents to look at. It's neat seeing how much they've changed and I think the girls' parents are going to like it. My goal is to make a disc for all the mom's of the pictures I've taken through the year. Can you tell I have all this new found time now that I have 3 in school?

The Cookie Factory

Last night we sorted through 144 cases of cookies. In boxes that's 1,728. In Dollars that's $6048.00 in Girl Scout Cookies. Please.....NO ONE BREAK INTO MY GARAGE!!

Cards, Cookies, and Lots of Love....

I think one of the best things a young person can do is to take just a few minutes for our older folks. There's something about helping elders that makes you feel good inside. I'd been planning this Brownie activity for about a month. It went great and since one of our mom's works at this retirement home, we may be going back often! You could see the excitement in the residents as they saw this band of little 7-8 year olds waiting for them to sit down for dinner. They started asking the girls questions immediately. After they sat down Michelle introduced the girls to the crowd and they got busy handing out cookies and homemade Valentine's cards they worked so hard on. We had extra cookies so afterwards I let the girls split them outside to take home. I think the best part of the afternoon there was seeing this old man ask all the girls to come talk to him because he's a "lady's man." That was hilarious! And yes he was the only man at his table!! This is him below.

Little Beaver

I had Brownies last night so I got the kids fed before I left except for Mia. I came home and asked Dave what he fed her and he said "the crust of my leftover pizza." What?!?! I asked him if even thought she could possibly choke and why he did it. His response was "she took it, and then started chowing down so I let her and just watched to make sure she didn't choke. She did fine and she ate it all." A 10 month old to eat crust from a Papa Murphy's Stuffed Crust pizza seems pretty impressive to me. I Never feed her anything like that, it's always soft, but then this morning she put my finger in her mouth and I noticed (from the pain involved) that not only has she popped 2 teeth on top, the bottom ones are coming through now too. This is all in about week span! I guess she just needed something to knaw on last night to push them through!

At Brownies, the two mom's that normally help me out, jetted on me and another was sick. Thankfully one of the mom's Lori who is a good friend said she would be happy to help. 14 girls and 2 of us. I had a few of the girls catch up and then they all started signing Christmas Cards. For a November service project they are sending Christmas Cards to Walter Reed Medical Center. Since 3 girls have dad's in the service (Air force Boom Operator, Army Reserve Electrician, and Retired Front line Marine) I figured the parents would be pretty supportive of my idea which they were. I need more service projects though. We're required since we are part of the United Way to do at least one a month. If you have any ideas please drop a line! I'm thinking Christmas Caroles at a Retirement Home for December. Not sure if I can get the parents all to go for it though.

Here they are posing with their October Service Project (food for our local Food Bank)