Okay, so I know I totally promised to write here at least once a week.

It was my bad planning which set up that time frame during one of the busiest months of my year.

The week after the Fourth of July was Cub Scout Day Camp. This is quite the family affair, if I’ve not mentioned it before. My mom has been the Director for our District’s Day Camp for a long long time. So, naturally, my sister and I have always been around to help her out.

This year, my sister was suckered asked to be the Program Director. Her job required her to find 24 different activities for these Cub Scouts to do, and make sure all the supplies were available before camp began.

I helped my sister pull things together months before camp started. But, the month before July 6th (our first day of camp) was spent living and breathing preparation.

What did she end up scheduling, you ask? Lets see if I can remember them all:

1. Wooden candy dispenser for gumballs
2. Leather working / stamping
3. Water bottle rocket launcher
4. BB guns
5. Bucking Bronco
6. Archery
7. Nature Trail
8. Obstacle Course
9. Trading Post / Team working
10. Solar Cookers
11. Lava Lamps
12. Marbles
13. Pet Rocks
14. Sling Shots
15. Earth ball soccer
16. Human Checkers
17. Constellation Projectors
18. Fishing
19. Wheel of Misfortune (First Aid)
20. Monkey Bridge
21. Parachute games
22. water ball ‘Lacrosse’
23. tin rubbing
24. soap carving

I think that’s the jist of it all.

Sound like a fun time to you?

I will see about getting back around this place sooner than the last time. If you super miss me, find me on twitter or facebook. If you don’t super miss me… well, uhm, why wouldn’t you super miss me?!

For the longest time now, my mom has volunteered to help run our district’s Cub Scout Day Camp.  Its quite the family event for us, involving my sister and myself.  We’ve literally done this for nearly 25 years.

The day camp consists of approximately 450 cub scouts (aged 5 – 9 years old) that come to be entertained and educated in the outdoors for a whole week.  Again, it is a day camp.  The boys go home every night and come back every morning for a week. They are accompanied by their leaders and parents each day who are there to assist them with their activities and whatnot.

Each day is broken up into 5 activities, with lunch in the middle of the day.  There are approximately 20 to 25 boys in each activity at a time.  We do crafts and games and some range activites, like Archery or BB guns.  We do fishing and a wood project.  The boys run an obstacle course and go on a nature hike.

We try our hardest to work in educational qualities into our crafts or games, like sneaking in team work or maybe sliding in some science, while the kids have fun.

I’m tell you this because, this year, my sister has been designated to come up with all the activities for the boys to participate in.  And, we’re looking for some ideas.

Remembering that we have to fill about a 50 minute time span, and have to keep 20 to 25 boys occupied during that time frame, do you have any ideas for an educational craft / activity / game that maybe my sister could use for our Cub Scout Day Camp?

We try to use minimal costs while accomplishing these goals.  After we figure out what we’re doing for our activities, we attempt to get the community to help donate items to alievate cost as well.

Now, imagine yourself filling an hour with 25 youngster boys around in the hot outdoors, with minimal water and no constant source of electricity…

Ideas?

I really do feel bad for not posting with any form of regularity.  I even feel worse knowing that I do sit at my computer every day and surf the ‘net, and still don’t post.  I’ve gone so far as to open my blog’s dashboard nearly every other day and stare at the blank screen, hoping something will pop out of my little head that is worth writing about.

Alas (yes, I really just said ‘alas’) I’ve got nothing but a hodge podge of stuffs.

Wanna hear about it?

Okie dokie.

- I have cleaned my desk from top to bottom.  And, I mean cleaned.  Like, everything was taken out, dusted off, gone through and redistributed in a neat fashion.  I bought shelves for all the collectibles that have been…. uh, collected… to help space out the clutter which was the top of my desk.  Its all very surreal.  Having an organized desk is something so rare in my life, so when it happens, its almost as satisfying as buying a new car or something.  Do you understand what I mean?

- My younger cat has taken to hissing and swiping at my older cat here recently.  Its not consistent.  But, it is mainly unprovoked.  I don’t understand what the deal is… nothing has changed otherwise (to the best of my knowledge).  They’re both indoor cats, and have been all their lives, and they’ve been raised together since they were old enough to leave their mothers.  We’ve had them for 6 years or so?  I’ve taken to calling the younger, moodier one a ‘crotchety old man’.  Cuz, apparently its the truth now.

- I got two inches cut off my hair yesterday.  Its the first time in a long long time that I’ve kept my short hair cut after chopping off enough to donate to Locks of Love.  I almost feel guilty for keeping it short this time.  Yet, I’m sure I’ll let it grow back out again, and start the rotation over again.

- We’re having a party in a couple of weeks.  I think we’re going officially call it an annual event to have a party at our house every year in the beginning of Autumn.  We’ve pretty much done it every year since Tom’s gotten hurt anyhow, might as well just stick with it.  You know, if it ain’t broke…

- My sister might be putting in a bid on a house today.  She’s been wanting to buy a house for two years now.  And, she’s actually found one that meets most of her criteria.  I went to see it yesterday and I think its definitely worth the paperwork.  I hope she gets it, if its really the one she wants.

- I bought the paint to change the color of the trim on my house, finally.  It was a rosey pink color, which never really appealed to me.  It wasn’t horrible, hence the reason I waited so long to actually purchase the new paint.  Now its a beautiful forresty green color, which I love.  Of course, forresty green is my favorite color, in case you didn’t know.

Meh, I think I’m over attempting to post something for now.  I’ve been distracted with my dwindling supply of Diet Coke and how to go about fixing this delimma without leaving my house.  Anyone have any suggestions?

When my sister suggested that I purchase Guitar Hero, I kind of blew her off at first.

Don’t get me wrong, its a fun game and everything.  But, I’m so not a video game player.

And, uh, c’mon…  I mean, for those who aren’t following along here, Tom is a C-5 quadriplegic.

Tom hadn’t been a big ‘gamer’ before he got hurt.  He was actually just starting to find the entertainment in racing cars and blowing things up with our PlayStation2.  Tom and his son enjoyed teaming up to run faster through the levels of whichever game they were playing at the time.  But, obviously, the PS2 was set aside after the accident since fine motor skills were not likely to return.

Guitar Hero?

Must I remind everyone that Tom was a guitar player before the accident.

(Uh.  By the way, Tom was a guitar player before the accident.)

(And a damned good one.)

(And I’m not just saying that.)

So, my sister suggested the game, thinking that it would combine two things that Tom enjoyed together, and perhaps sneak in some exercise at the same time.

Aaaaah, a clever one, she is!  (I love speaking like Yoda, just so you know.)

I thought about it for a while after she brought it up.  I really didn’t want to bring this game home and sit it in front of him so he could stare at it and be upset.  I wanted him to be able to play.

I went over to my sister’s house to play Guitar Hero once more before making my decision about purchasing it.  Yes, yes… it was hands-on research.  And, of course it was fun.

But, more importantly, I came to the conclusion that this purchase would not be completely pointless.  My sister is right.  I could see how Tom may be able to play the game after some figuring and situating…

So, I bought it.  And, I brought it home.

And Tom looked at me like I was crazy.

Then I put the guitar in his hands and told him that I just wanted him to try, and to have fun.

And, he did.

I really think he might enjoy the game.

Of course, after trying to play one song, Tom’s arm muscles were already burning from their intense workout.  And the next day we didn’t even turn the game on, since his arms had not recovered completely yet.

Guitar Hero is one hell of a physical therapy session.

I think we’ll start with one song once a week for a while.  He’ll work his way up, hopefully.

Of course, in the mean time, I’m working on becoming a kick butt ROCKST*R!!!

My maternal grandparents lived at a lake all of my life… and all of my mother’s life, come to think of it.

That’s really neither here nor there.

The fact that they lived at a lake is important, here… not how long.

… ramble, ramble …

Anyway!! Pretty much every weekend that the water was warm enough my older brother, my little sister and I were in the water. Safely, mind you. We always wore life jackets until we were old enough to stand (if needed) on the bottom of the lake near the end of the dock. Then we graduated to life belts. It was one of the most important rules given to us by our parents while at the lake.

more…

My sister’s Christmas present is on backorder.

Thanks for that, Angie.

Okay, not that its your fault by any means.

I wonder how long it’ll be on backorder…

Geez.  What a pain in the butt.

For not leaving the house today, we had a really full day.

Tom’s mom and sister came over this evening to bring us dinner. They hung around for a while so we could all hug and love and fuss over the baby, who is 6 weeks old!! Holy geez. Tom’s sister looks amazing. You’d never know she had a child, dropping nearly all her baby weight already! And, of course, the little princess is absolutely adorable, cooing and wiggling all over the place. She loves listening to Uncle Tom’s voice…

They barely left when Angie and Steve came over. Steve is on his month leave from being stationed in Japan, trying to fit in a whole bunch of visits with friends and family in a very limited amount of time.

Angie and Steve hung out with me in the living room while our neighbor down the road spent some time with Tom and Paul.

Then, before Angie and Steve left, Elizabeth and Tony made their way over also. We all talked for about an hour before poor Angie looked like she was going to fall asleep on my couch. I made Steve take her home. Okay, not like you can make a Marine do anything they don’t want to do… but, I told him!

Elizabeth and Tony stayed for about another hour before heading out also.

A good night. I love visitors.

And now I’m exhausted. Sleepy time, I think.