Conference, Cooking & Charlie Brown

I spent all weekend at a conference for Girl Guide leaders where I did all my favourite things. I carried my camera in my bag all weekend and didn't take it out once. The only photos I have are from my Saturday morning on outdoor cooking that I took with my iPhone. At least I took my camera? I always feel so awkward whipping out my DSLR in these kind of situations because people tend to ask questions and then I feel self-conscious anyway that's a whole different post for another day. 

We spent the entire morning cooking potatoes, apple dessert, egg in a hole, breakfast sandwiches,  and sandwiches with a box oven and buddy burners and finished off by making ice cream. In-between we made "Giggle Juice" which was basically extreme Kool-Aid and "Russian Tea" which involved mixed iced tea and apple juice and making a sort of hot cider. It was weird, but I'm pretty confident kids would be all over it.

I also did sessions about incorporating the Promise & Law (that one was kind of disappointing) and another great session about our twinning country. Where I drank more sugary punch, this time using a recipe from the Caribbean, and was given all kinds of great resources to use with my group. The next couple of meetings are busy with Remembrance Day, an active living challenge from The Heart & Stroke Foundation and our usual program work. Apparently I'm a lot more on top of the planning than I thought. 

Sunday everything was over by 11 so I was home by early afternoon. J. and I have started a bit of a tradition that when I've been away for the weekend we plan Sunday dates. Usually this also involves me showering and looking presentable for the outside world but the conference was at a hotel so I skipped this step. We had lunch/supper (what do call a meal you eat at 3:00 p.m.?) at one of our favourite restaurants followed by a Sunday drive and The Peanuts Movie. 

Now, I am a huge Peanuts fan. I love Snoopy & Woodstock (especially when they go camping) and Charlie Brown is my spirit animal. The movie was good, I loved some of the ways they incorporated the classic Peanuts drawings along the way but I'm on the fence about whether Charles Schulz would have approved of the whole thing. We didn't see it in 3D mostly because the 2D start time worked better for us. And also because I stand by my statement that the only movie I've watched in 3D that was worth the extra money was Cloudy With A Chance of Meatballs. 

I then picked up my car and happily discovered that J. had cleaned it while it sat in his driveway all weekend. Which is super sweet and very much appreciated. My personal favourite was that cleaning my car involved gathering all the rogue crayons and putting them into the box in the backseat where they live. And also that he didn't question why I have a shoebox full of crayons in my car, which is good because to be honest I don't have an answer. They just sort of arrived there and I decided it's not a bad idea to have a box of emergency crayons. 

Now that the weekend is over I have a pile of laundry that needs washing and I need to put the final touches on plans for tonight's Spark meeting (i.e. I need to make some play dough). 

Sharing my weekend here.

Fall Camp Weekend

Friday afternoon I packed my bags and set off to Girl Guide camp for the weekend. First I stopped to appreciate the hilarious contrast of my camp gear and my Michael Kors purse. I am nothing if not a well rounded individual. 

There was a little hiccup  major problem Friday when we got to camp only to discover that the fly wasn't with our tent. Normally I would never go camping (especially with girls) without checking and double checking all the gear before hand. This weekend though I was just filling in with a group whose leaders couldn't go to camp. Luckily another group had an extra tent and saved us. Shortly after getting our site all set up it started to rain. And then it poured. And then there was some thunder and lightning. It was good times but the tents didn't leak and the girls did awesome. None of them were the least bit bothered by the who ordeal and continued on giggling in their tent, I'm not sure at which age girls realize that tents aren't soundproof but I do know it doesn't happen between the ages of nine and twelve. As a result of this I am now well versed in all the latest teeny bopper news. I also found myself saying, "Girls, please stop doing gymnastics in the tent. You're going to knock it down."

Thankfully the weather cleared and Saturday was a nearly perfect fall day. Sunny, bright and as long as you dressed properly being outdoors was wonderful. This camp was a little bit of learn to camp type camp. The girls learned how to choose gear,  properly pack a backpack, practiced putting up and taking down tents and a bunch of other useful and essential stuff. Added bonus, I picked up a new Ice Breaker game (that's basically equivalent to gold in my life) and not one but two super, duper awesome packing tips. 

I haven't done a whole lot of fall camping but I've determined it might just be my favourite tenting weather. The days are nice enough that you can be outside and sleeping in a tent is perfectly comfortable as long as you dress appropriately and have a sturdy enough sleeping bag. Plus, the scenery is pretty awesome. The leaves were pretty spectacular and the rainbow of dish bags also made me smile on a regular basis. 

Sunday morning we packed up and headed home. I went to J.'s and made myself presentable before we went out to eat. I should note that I showed up at J.'s in my finest camp attire sporting long johns, camp pants, tank top, long sleeved t-shirt, my high school grad hoodie and my bright red rubber boots. Accessorized with my camp toque and hair that hadn't truly been brushed since Friday afternoon. Once I looked more presentable for the world we went and ate. I happily ate a bacon cheeseburger and french fries that had some kind of magic delicious spice on them. And then drank some coffee because it was only 4 o'clock and I was ready for bed. I rallied and kept my eyes open until 9:30 but then I was more than ready to climb into bed.

Today I'm off to vote, pick up a package at the post office, get some groceries, drop off a cheque for Sparks and cross everything off of my to do list! 

Linking up with B Loved Boston

Planning & Preparedness

I'm going camping this weekend, so you can imagine my delight when I checked the weather this morning and saw this:

At least it's not snow? 

I'm not sure why this week felt so chaotic and disorganized. My Type A personality loves the process of packing, making a list (okay, multiple lists) checking each item off the list, it's a good process. Except that last night when the district finance meeting was over at 9:00 I found myself in the little boys' section of Wal-Mart searching for splash pants. And at 9:15 I found myself in the frozen pizza aisle because I didn't have time to eat supper before I left for the meeting in the first place. When I got home I realized I had forgotten to pick up hair elastics, luckily I found a package hidden in the back of a drawer so the crisis was adverted. I still have to track dig my winter jacket out of the closet (and probably shed some tears in the process) but other than that I have managed to check everything off my packing list. My master to-do list still needs some work, but I'll deal with that after coffee.

I learned this week that my love of Girl Guides might come from an unexpected place...

I spent a lot of time this week working on Sparks meeting plans and came to the realization that my Type A personality really influences my love of Guiding, especially when it comes to badges. If I got a badge or a crest every time I followed a set of rules/instructions I would be a happy camper all the time. My little Sparkies are working on their "Being A Spark" badge but we're almost ready to move on to some more advanced program work. And by advanced I mean I've been fielding a lot of requests to "make a volcano", so stay tuned for that disaster adventure.

I've finished my coffee so that means it's time to tackle the to do list. And then reward myself with more coffee because that's just the kind of week it's been. 

In-Tents!

I made it 17 days into the Blog Every Day in May Challenge! 18, if you want to count today even though I'm not blogging about the assigned topic.  However, tomorrow morning I leave for camp and I can guarantee I won't be able to blog everyday. I'm not entirely sure what blogging will look like over the summer, I'm going to keep up with it as much as is possible when basically working 24/7 and having a very undependable internet connection!

 

I spent yesterday at and this morning at an annual Girl Guide & Scout Camp for our area. It's one of my favourite Guiding events and I look forward to it all year. I'm leaving bright and early tomorrow morning for the camp I actually work at so this year I just went out yesterday to help set up and left today around noon. It was pretty cold weather for camping last night (-2 at the lowest temp!) so when I got home I enjoyed a warm shower and had a nap in a cozy bed. 

When I got up from my nap I got ready and met up with one of my best friends for our trademark Iced Coffee & Wal-Mart dates. It was good to catchup with him. I was thankful I was able to see him before I left. We went to different universities and then when I moved home he moved away to work on his master's degree so it's been almost six years since we lived in the same province! When we're both away it's not often are schedules match up where we're in the same place at the same time.

On that note I am off to bed! I'm hoping for a really good nights sleep so that I feel awake and refreshed for the long drive tomorrow (7 hours!)

10 Words

Today's Challenge is to sell yourself in 10 words (or less):

• passionate
• creative
• thoughtful
• caring
• stubborn/determined
• faithful
• compassionate
• quirky

My Saturday morning stared off in my favourite way: Coffee, Everything Bagel wtih Herb & Garlic Cream Cheese and catching up on blogs. In an hour I'm leaving to go sell Girl Guide cookies with my Brownies for a couple of hours and then go through camping gear before taking a group of Girl Guides camping next weekend. Our last Brownie meeting is Monday night so we're having a pizza & ice cream sundae party which means I also need to make a trip to the grocery store. And finishing crafting end of the year gifts for the girls, and find some cute 'Thank-You' gifts for my two co-leaders. And have I mentioned I leave for camp a week from tomorrow?  Which means a whole lot of packing needs to be done, plus finish planning sessions for Staff Training...I feel like my to-do list is multiplying by the second. It will all get done All of the important stuff will get done and if a few things don't get crossed off the list then it's not the end of the world!