I am your mother...

And I make things happen!  I’m still giddy over this and couldn’t put off sharing it any longer.  Like I mentioned in the last post, James joined Cub Scouts at the end of 1^st grade.  My big contribution during his first full year was heading up the Blue and Gold banquet.  If you’re not familiar with Scouting, this is the big to-do celebration held every year.  I also can’t stress enough how fortunate we are as a pack to have the support we do from American Legion, Post 194.  Every year we get the use of their facilities and that alone takes our banquet to the next level. 

Our theme for this year, as chosen by the Cubmaster via a bug placed in his ear by one of his 9 year old triplets, was “All Things Space”.  Now, it’s no secret that this family ranks pretty high on the geek scale so I had to restrain myself just a bit in how far I took the theme.  I could have gone campy.  I could have gone hard-core sci-fi.  Campy, hard-core sci-fi was also an option but it’s no fun when nobody gets the references.  I decided to go classy as though I too were a young boy between the age of 6 and 11, or a grown man who had to be sworn to secrecy. 

May I introduce to you, the 501^st Old Line Garrison…

Oh yes, that’s Darth Vader, or “Big Guy” as Cailin calls him.  She loves him and she is still mad that she didn’t give him a hug.  The first Saturday in May is going to be so fun. 

This group drove from surrounding areas of White Marsh, Baltimore, Glen Burnie, and I believe even close to Washington to be at our banquet.  I can’t even begin to tell you how amazing it was to be there for this.  These guys do this on their own time and dollar.  The only thing asked of us was to do something charitable or make a donation in their name.  Take some time to read about everything the 501^st do as a group across the country and I’m sure you’ll agree that’s a small price to pay. 

Fast Forward

We'll say by about 5 years, sound good? Here's the quick catch up, since the last entry James has turned 8 and his sister has turned 2. Yes, his sister Cailin. The one that was never mentioned in the handful of entries that were posted. Getting her was probably the main reason there was a hiatus in entries. It happens. It also happens that she is going to be part of the reason that entries will continue being sparse. Not much else has changed to be honest. We haven't moved, we still own dirt. Eventually we'll get to live on that dirt, we just don't know when.

There was a genuine reason for stirring up this particular blog that has gone unloved for so long. Actually, two if you wanted to be technical.

James hit the first grade and begged for Cub Scouts. We resisted. I was still pregnant, then just had a baby and we were still getting in the swing of things. Towards the end of the school year we learned that resistance was futile. We went to a pack meeting and were quickly assimilated. We left that evening under the impression that Brian was becoming an Assistant Den Leader and I would later be in charge of the annual Blue and Gold banquet. The idea of Cub Scouts being a father/son activity is great but a total myth. The reality of it is that now, two years later, Brian is the Committee Chair in addition to the Assistant Den Leader, I am the Treasurer and just finished with the Blue and Gold for 2012. Being that Cailin is now a 2 year old girl, it's a little hard to say where she fits in the Cub Scout scheme of things. She is of the opinion that she too is a "Bub Scout" and frankly, we don't have the energy to argue with her. She's really opinionated.

The above being the primary reason for blog revival, the secondary is Pinterest. I think for the most part, everybody knows what it is and how it works. Those of us that worked on the Blue and Gold came up with some great ideas, did a lot of work and put our own spin on the great ideas of others. What I found when searching Pinterest was that there wasn't much specifically Scout related and I'm fairly certain that we're in this Scouting thing for the long haul.

Eventually, maybe, hopefully, I'll be able to get back to the original intent of the blog, sharing the house building experience, but for now I think it'll be just as fun to share everything that we're doing with the kids.