July 11 2016

Generation Gaps & Leadership Outcomes

National Operations, Opinions    6 Comments    , , , , , , , ,

Again??
Again??

As I mentioned in my Tradition post, I recently finished reading Tough Cookies by Kathy Cloninger, the CEO of Girl Scouts from 2003 to 2011.  I won’t rehash my first impression or caveats since I already did that in the first blog post about this book.  Also, if you’re curious as to what my background is as a Girl Scout and volunteer, you can read about it here (4th paragraph down) to see where my perspective lies.  With all of that out of the way, I’ll move on to another commentary about what I see affecting us today based on the philosophies shared in Tough Cookies.  Continue reading

July 6 2016

BIG NEWS is Coming on Wednesday!

Random Things That Don't Fit Anywhere Else Kinda Like Me    2 Comments    , ,

BIG NEWS

So tonight at 9:30pm, GSUSA announced on Facebook that BIG NEWS is coming tomorrow (Wednesday)!  This set the GS Facebook world abuzz with everyone wondering what it could be?  My cynical side says it’ll probably be some commercial partnership, but then my crazy side gets all excited like it’s Christmas Eve thinking of all of the possibilities!  Oh GSUSA, you big tease!  Continue reading

June 27 2016

Additions to WaBak Posts

Traditional Stuff    No Comments    , , , , , , ,

Oh those crazy kids!
Oh those crazy Camp Northstar kids!

This past weekend my youngest daughter and I attended the Girls Weekend Out/Me & My Gal session at Camp WaBak.  It’s a one night/one day sampler type session to give the parents and girls a brief taste of camp life.  I’ve gone two years with each daughter making this the 4th time I’ve gone (and the last time).  I did it hoping that my girls would want to go to camp and as a way to ease them into it.  I hope it will work with my youngest (we’ll find out next year!) but it didn’t really sink in with my oldest.  I guess every kid is different.  When I was growing up, I always dreamed about going to a resident camp and even being a counselor, but we couldn’t afford it, so I stuck with the summer day camps my council put on.  They were fun, but it wasn’t the same as being able to get away from home for an extended period.  There definitely would have been some wacky hijinks at Camp Northstar if I had been there.  Instead, I lived vicariously through the 80s run of camp movies.  Continue reading

June 22 2016

Paris Mountain Hike

Hikes & Outdoors    No Comments    , , , , ,

parismountainsignIt’s summer in the South, which means I don’t get to go hiking because it’s so frickin’ humid and hot.  (But my husband and I are going to go on July 4th, so we’ll see how that goes!)  So instead, I’m going to look back at the hike at Paris Mountain State Park that Becky and I went on in late March.  Spring was just about to kick in so it was warm in the sun, but when the wind started blowing, it got pretty chilly.  I must have taken my second layer on and off about four times. Continue reading

June 7 2016

Girl Scout Leaders and Snoring

Experiences as a Leader    7 Comments    , , , ,

Note:  This post is meant to be tongue-in-cheek and certainly shouldn’t be taken seriously. See the meme on the About Me page for more insight. 

If you read the post from April about our service unit’s Encampment this past year, you’ll know that our troop was assigned the Treehouse units at Camp Pisgah during a cold snap.  A very cold snap.  It dropped down to 32° Friday night and forecasted to drop to 26º Saturday.  I made the executive decision to move us to the Lodge where there was heat.  Unfortunately, there were also snorers.  LOUD ones.  Continue reading

June 5 2016

R.I.P. Athena

Random Things That Don't Fit Anywhere Else Kinda Like Me    2 Comments   

athena 4x4
Athena

Back in September, I wrote about the passing of my big white cat named Orion, aka “Big Boy.”  This past Friday, we said goodbye to our other cat Athena.  She was 16.  Since I wrote a post about Big Boy, I think it’s only fair that I write one about Athena as well.

Athena came along before Big Boy as a stray and just a few months after my husband and I had gotten married.  I had stopped at the front of our neighborhood in the parking lot of a gas station trying to woo a kitten.  Turns out the cat was feral, but while I was out there, the attendant came out for a smoke and noticed what I was doing.  She asked if I wanted a kitten, and I said yes.  Her boyfriend had found one in the parking lot of an auto parts store, and she already had six cats of her own and couldn’t afford another one.  I met her at 11pm after she finished her shift, and she handed her over to me. Continue reading