Decoration Day

In an event similar to ones involving countless Scout groups across the country this past weekend, many of our local Boy Scouts met at the Fort Sam Houston Cemetery for the annual Flags at Fort Sam in honor of Memorial Day.



The Memorial Day holiday takes place on the last Monday of May. This holiday commemorates United States service men and women who died in military service for their country. The holiday, originally called Decoration Day, is traditionally marked by parades, memorial speeches and ceremonies, and the decoration of graves with flowers and flags, hence the original name.



Boy Scouts were invited to participate with the placement of flags on the gravesites of veterans and their dependents. For Mr. Smarty Pants and 5 others from his Cub Scout Pack it was their first opportunity to participate and they all seemed to really enjoy it, even though it was very VERY hot that day!



I was surprised at how much they wanted to learn about the veterans; reading about where they were from, what conflict(s) they had been in, etc. A few of the cubs(brothers) had a great grandfather buried in the cemetery as well.



I'm so proud of Mr. Smarty Pants! :o)

Updates on Life

This has been a busier week than normal, which is the reason for the lack of blogging, so I thought I would update on some things that some of you may be wondering about.

Sugar's Strabismus:
Someone asked how Sugar's eye appt went. She had an appt a few weeks back and we found out that her "wall-eye" is due to farsightedness so she's getting glasses! Last week we went and tried on some frames(cute little pink ones) and we've been waiting on the lenses to come in so that we can pick them up. They were supposed to come in towards the end of this week. I have NO idea how I'm going to get her to keep them on. Anyone have any suggestions?? I thought about e-mailing Kate from Jon and Kate + 8 to see how she got Aaden to wear his. :o) Has anyone else ever e-mailed either Jon or Kate? Did they respond?

The Puppies:
Well what can I say, they're getting bigger...and our backyard is not fit for human beings anymore. LOL! We're gonna work on that hopefully this weekend. I'm thinking about seperating a part of the yard and putting a fence around it...for the kids! That way they can have a sandbox, toys and poop free grass to play in. :oP Mr. Smarty Pants is playing with them alot more. Also the "boys" take them for walks. They really are sweet, but I'd like my backyard back now that spring is here. :o)

My Jewelry:
Yes I know this is supposed to be my biz blog. *sigh* Seems I can make lots of jewelry in my free time but can't get any pictures of them so no listings in my store. :o( After being sick, busy, etc etc, I finally had time to try taking decent pics again and of course the weather will not cooperate. Soooo after doing some research I am going to make my own light box this weekend so I can take pics whenever my little heart desires! I also need to do some reading up on my camera settings as I can't seem to get the closeups I used to. My spring collection is soooo late but will hopefully debut soon. Again, wish me luck on that.

Cub Scouts:
Lots happening with Mr. Smarty Pants Cub Scout pack. I got to take him to his first hockey game a few weeks ago. Our local hockey team had a Scout Night. Since I grew up watching hockey in LA(go Kings) I thought it only appropriate that I get to take him instead of Honey(who I introduced to Hockey when we lived in Dallas-go Stars). He seemed to enjoy it though he wished they had scored more. It was a low scoring game and a little boring at times so I'm glad it still held his attention. We've also been working on his Pinewood Derby car. The Derby is next week and is the 1st one for his pack. He just earned his Bobcat Patch and Tiger Cub Recognition Emblem plus 5 beads a couple nights ago and I'm also working on the packs website. Busy busy busy!

Fabulous Finds Friday:
Yes I am going to post part 3 of Fabulous Fabric Finds tomorrow. And yes, sadly, I missed posting about the Ginger Blossom launches on both ETSY and eBay the past couple of weeks. (I even bid and won some cute outfits for the girls!) You can still find listings on eBay and tons of listings on ETSY by searching for keyword "gingerblossom".

And since blog posts aren't nearly as much fun without pics, here ya go!



If I forgot anything I needed to update on just comment and let me know. ;o)

Our Little Tiger Cub

It's official, Mr. Smarty Pants is now a Cub Scout!
Actually I signed him up a few weeks ago but I just got his uniform yesterday. Before that he was wearing his Tiger Cub t-shirt to the meetings. He's been to two meetings so far and he gets more and more excited about it every day. I was worried he would lose interest but this seems to be a real winner. Go mom!

When I got the uniform yesterday I tried it on him and took a couple of pics. Doesn't he look cute? He didn't want to take it off either! I hadn't added the patches at that point.



I plan on making him a Cub Scout scrap book with pictures, activities, badges/awards earned, etc so I'm going to take pics at all of the cub scout meetings and events. I missed the first meeting since I was down with the flu but Honey was able to take him. He didn't bring the camera though. The second meeting I left my camera on the table so the next day we went outside and took pics of the activities they did.

That meeting was all about hearing. First the scouts learned about Sign Language and what it's like to not be able to hear. Mr. Smarty Pants was a quick study and learned how to sign his name. Take a look!



Next they made "telephones" out of cups and cord. Remember these? They worked very well and the scouts got a real kick out of communicating with each other.



Lastly they talked about what kinds of animals have very good, or in some cases, specialized hearing. The cubs were asked to name some of the animals and of course dogs and bats were thrown out there but then Mr. Smarty Pants chimed in with "Bald Eagle". I nearly fell out of my chair. That's my boy! :oP
After discussing animals they did another craft where they made better "ears" for hearing, but mostly they ended up using them as megaphones. LOL!

I can't wait to find out what we're doing at the meeting tonight. Mr. Smarty Pants got to wear his uniform to school today. He was soooo proud this morning! I should have gotten another pic!

So are you wondering about my enthusiam for scouting? The reason why I've decided to be his partner (most of the time) instead of Honey is that I was very involved in Campfire Girls when I was a kid. I was involved for at least 7 years, including the camp every summer. I started off as a Bluebird. I remember I just LOVED the idea of being a "bluebird".

Sadly, the Campfire Girls do not exist in the same form as I remembered it. There's been a number of changes through the years and the latest was the organization changing their website, name and logo(again). They're now called Camp Fire USA and the logo looks too modern in my opinion.




Here are the older logos that I'm familiar with for comparison:
(they just kept getting more and more modern looking)




When I was in CFG in the 70's to 80's they were just starting to have boys join. I remember very few boys at our summer camp. Did you know that Campfire Girls was created around the same time as Boy Scouts? It was meant to be the "sister" to scouts so to speak. You can read more about that here!

Alas Bluebirds no longer exist either. Now you become a Little Star when you join. I'm a nostalgic sort so even though I know change can be good I really do miss the past. Campfire Girls was such a BIG part of my life growing up. I need to dig up all the old pics I have of me in parades and selling candy....ahhhh the memories! Time to start rummaging through the boxes in the garage. I did come across my patch vest and my hat/beret last week. THAT was fun! Mr. Smarty Pants got a kick out of it too when I showed him the patches and what they were for. I will have to take a pic of my vest, hat and beads to show off. My mom had actually sewn on all of my CFG beads in beautiful patterns on the vest but during my college days I took them off to play with making jewelry. Stupid college kid! Oh well. Atleast I saved the vest and most of the beads.

Btw, if anyone is an alumni of the Campfire Girls from the San Fernando Valley area in CA and/or went to Camp Yallani from about 75' to 82' please give me a shout. Oh and if you were a camp counselor then too I would love to hear from you. I had a favorite counselor my first year at Yallani that used to carve animals out of soap. I think I was about 6. I absolutely adored her! I was extremely sad to leave camp that summer. I couldn't find any info on Camp Yallani when I Googled it and also looked it up in the Camp Fire USA directory to no avail. I'm guessing the camp no longer exists. I would love to know what happened to it. I really do have to dig up all those pics and do a post dedicated to my old Campfire days. Won't that be fun? Oh come on, indulge me.

Anyway if you're interested in getting your kids into any of these "camping/service" type of organizations here's a list of links so you can check them out:

Boy Scouts of America

Girl Scouts of America

Campfire USA

American Heritage Girls


Do you know any other organizations to add? Leave a link in the comments.

WO-HE-LO! :o)