I miss being a Den Leader...

My Oldest son's old Cub Scout pack had their monthly Pack Mtg. last night, which I attended since I'm the Advancement Chair, and where I had an epiphany...I miss being a Cub Scout Leader! My Oldest has moved up into a Boy Scout Troop in the last year and although I help out sometimes, it is not the same as being a full time Den Leader. Handing out awards last night, I realized I miss the excitement that I used to see on the faces of "my boys" (those that were in my den), when I handed them their awards. I know I am not being fair...all the boys in the Pack should be "my boys" and to some extent they are, but it's not the same and I miss it. I still have another full year and a half before my Youngest becomes a Tiger and I can step back into the roll as Den Leader. I'm really looking forward to it.

Back to Normal...

Well everything is finally getting back to normal! The routines are kicking back in with school, scouts and sports. Last weekend the boys didn't have school for 4 days due to Martin Luther King day and a Teacher work day...so I stayed home with my Youngest and we just hung out while my Husband and Oldest went off to a Trapper's Rendezvous camp out in Kansas for the weekend.

School is going good for both boys. My Youngest knows his ABC's, most of the sounds associated with the letters and now he's working on letter recognition. My Oldest is doing good in school, although not really applying himself. He's one of those children that is smart enough to slide by with A's and B's (just like his Mom), but just think what he could do if he really applied himself!

Me, I have a birthday coming up next Friday. Another year older...I finally broke down and had my husband take a picture of me...this one is the best of the lot. Oh well.

Gymnastics mini-meet

My Youngest son has been in gymnastics at a local gym for the last year-and-a-half and right before Christmas they had a mini-meet, at which time all the kid's in the gym can compete on the various apparatus and show off to Mom and Dad...and siblings, and grand-parents, and aunts and uncles (there were a lot of people there!). This session was for the young kids 5-7 yrs old boys and girls and everyone received a trophy at the end.
He's the boy in the "Conner's cubbies" shirt next to the boy in the blue.

It is surprising how good these boys are on this equipment. Here they're doing their routines on the rings. My sons a monkey so he loves doing the rings.

Parallel bars...not his favorite, but he was having fun.

His most favorite...the high bar! He's been practicing on his metal bunk beds since he was 2...that's why I put him into gymnastics.

My son and his 1st trophy! He wouldn't stay on the stand for me to photograph him, so I posed him on the mat.

He loves attending gymnastics, and it is good exercise for a very energetic 5 year old.

Christmas Eve Blizzard '09

We had an interesting Christmas Eve this year in my part of the woods...we're calling it the Christmas Eve Blizzard of '09! I live in a state that has only had about a dozen white Christmas' in the last 100 years so this was exciting for us! It did mess up travel plans so many people did not get out to church or family on Christmas Eve but elected to remain home safe and sound. My part of the state averaged 6-12 inches of snow, which here is a HUGE amount of snow! We might only get 1 or 2 snow storms a year with an average of 1-2 inches of snow for the total year, so it was extremely unusual, but Fun!

Here's hubby digging out the sidewalk on Christmas day so we could walk to the car, although we didn't venture out all weekend.
Sent my youngest out to roll around in the snow and make snow angels. He got cold pretty quick though (I did not have good snow shoes for him to wear out there!), but he had fun while it lasted.

These are some of the drifts that pooled up between our house and garage. Not only did we have 6+ inches of snow, but the wind was blowing 60+ mph while it was snowing...that's why we don't have accurate counts of the snow.

I ran outside for all of 5 minutes with the camera to get the pictures and then I ran back inside since I am the only sane one in my family! I love snow, but it isn't as exciting to me since I was born and raised in North Dakota until I was 8. I remember those blizzards!

It was fun...now it's just cold!

I can't believe it's a new year and a new decade...

I can't believe it's a new year and a new decade...where did the last year go? It seems like just yesterday we were welcoming in a new decade and now 2010 is here! I had an okay 2009, neither bad nor great...but I am hoping that this year is better than last year...smooth sailing would be welcome!

I am glad the holiday season is over and we will be getting back on our routines tomorrow. Since Christmas day we haven't had much to do out in the world and we've spent more days in our pajamas then dressed and interacting with the world. School starts tomorrow, and Scout meetings, and MOMs club meetings, and just basic grocery shopping days, visiting Grandma days, and carpooling here and there. Yeah for routine.

Christmas decorations are up in the attic, the living room has been re-arranged and scrubbed from ceiling to baseboards and we are ready to live in the new year. Still need to clean and de-clutter and scrub the kitchen and dining room, but that's for another week. I have a lot of pictures to post and I should be able to get those off the camera and on to a blog post this week or next, so Yeah!

I hope everyone had a wonderful holiday seasoning, and your New Year has been a good one so far...blog at you later!