this week

I will be glad when this week is over. I'm already beat.
The two fosters should go home tomorrow or Friday. We spent the evening packing their belongings. They are excited. I just wish I had an exact date. I know that social workers are busy, but IF mom has a place, and you are doing your walk thru today to make sure it is appropriate, and mom has an appointment to sign paperwork, then I should have a date. I doubt he will help with transportation either. He hasn't come to my house. At all. By the way, in Washington the social workers are SUPPOSE to come to my house once a month to check up on the kids. And people wonder why kids fall thru the cracks.
This weekend my boys' boy scout troop has what they call "amazing race". One of the kids patrol are sleeping here Friday. Need to make sure I am stocked up on milk...
Saturday is also the Christmas Rush. Andrew has done this race for 4 years. He loves it. Ryan will also do it. He is hoping to be able to jog it. It is a 5k. Ryan has bronchitis, I took him to the doctor yesterday. I am hoping that he gets better by Saturday. He also has basketball practice that begins on Tuesday. He is on the same team as his friend Nelson. Ryan's basketball playing skills should have improved with wearing his glasses. We shall see.
I have been up since 1 am, Ryan's coughing woke me up. I have all the laundry done. I am trying to get motivated to vacuum. I hope to take a nap later.
The cub scouts will be making gingerbread houses today. I am hoping to remember my camera this time :) I didn't get any pictures last year. This one is from 2011.

I am making the frosting. Its super easy. I bought this powdered meringue powder made by Wilton at Walmart ( its cheaper there than at JoAnnes). Mix a couple tablespoons with powdered sugar, add some water and voile- you have "royal frosting". This will be the 4th year we have done this. The cubs have a lot of fun with this. I bring my standing mixer to make the frosting. We put it in ziplock bags with a corner cut off. Each scout gets one. The ziplock brand bags work better than the generic. The generic just don't hold up with all the sqeezing.
Hope everyone has a great week!

Cub Scout Den flags..

I created something similar to this several years ago for our daycamp.
Every year the boys would have to chose, who gets the den flag.
One day it came to me to give each boy a piece of fabric, and join them together to create a flag. The idea was at the end of camp, each scout could take their part of the flag home.
It was a huge hit, with the boys and with parents.
A couple months ago, I was asked to help create den flags for each of our dens. I used a similar idea as with daycamp, except I made a generic flag for the dens to each pin their piece to. In our pack, the boys move up on their birthday, so the kids are always moving in or out of dens.
The scout store sells big patches of the wolf, bear and webelos ( they also have the tiger rank as well).

I then cut the fabric ( made a front and back), and used fusible interfacing to give them a stiff appearance. I used twill as the fabric, since it is kinda stiff..

I joined the sides and tops together on the wolf flag. On the bear and webelos flag, I just used the interfacing to join the sides. I trimmed the sides with my pinking shears to prevent raveling. It was easier than sewing the sides. I used the interfacing to hold the badges, and then sewed around those edges.

 I then cut pieces of some ivory twill. The scouts will use felt pens to decorate the pieces.

 

The only thing left is to get the doweling for the flags, and then to make a holder ( #10 can with some pvc to hold them and cement )
These only took me a couple hours, and that was with interuptions (trick or treaters, making snacks for the boys to eat).

Pictures

I finally got around to downloading my pictures..

Here is a picture of the Arrow Of Light I made for one of the scouts in our pack

 

The tip was hard to adhere to the start of the arrow shaft. This shaft is 31" long. This boy earned a lot of stuff!

 I did add some leather stripping with feathers and beads attached. I didn't get pictures of that though.

 

Didn't do a whole lot more today. The boys and I went to the dump. We went out to Red Robin for dinner. I really wanted a low key day today. The kids played basketball and soccer outside. It was foggy and cold most of today ( yuck). Days like today make me think of moving to Arizona or Nevada. At lease there is SUN..

These pictures were taken 3 weeks ago at Denny Creek. The trees there are huge.

I loved how there was some snow on the very top of the mountain. The creek was running cold and fast..

 

 

 

End of School

I enjoy the kids being home and not having to go to school.
Yesterday was the last day for our school district.  The kids played outside until late, it was great to see them hang out with their friends.

I have been working on Cub Scout day camp program write ups- camp is only 3 weeks away, I cant believe its come around so quickly.

Jason plans on beginning the pantry this weekend. I am excited to see how that turns out. I am definately going to take before and after pictures. I think I am excited to have more cabinet/counter space; especially this fall for canning.

March 2012

I'm ready for spring. For the warmer weather, the ability to set up my garden, hang clothes out on the line, air out my house, the list goes on and on. Andrew turns 11 this month, and I look at him and wonder where the time has gone. He will be moving up to boy scouts; he is ready and looks forward to it. He definately had the drive that he others do not have.

February 2012

Alot has happened since my last post. We got licensed for foster parenting. We currently have an 8 year old boy. Some days with him are better than others. Andrew is preparing to cross over into Boy Scouts. He is already asking me about working on merit badges- he's definately my go getter. Jason has been appling to different universities, so we'll see if he gets into an engineering program. I know he will do well, if he can just get in. He was accepted to BYU Idaho, we have to wait for the paperwork to see if the engineering program will accept him. All I can do is put it in Heavenly Father's plan. Matthew is working on driving, so hopefully he can get his license by next month. Jonathon is doing well, just needs to focus more and Thomas is still Thomas; what can I say.