Legos on Steroids

One of the Bears Cub Scout requirements was to go and see a model that is on display somewhere.
And.....it just so happened that The LEGO Americana Roadshow was at one of the malls in Salt Lake!!!

Field Trip Time!

9 Yr. Old Boys + Legos = Heaven! 

{White House}

There were giant replicas of our nation's landmarks made completely out of Legos! 

{Statue of Liberty}

{The Capitol Building}

Each Lego model had a sign by it that told how many "Lego Master Builders" it took to build it (ranging from 2-7), and how many hours it took to complete (ranged from 260 - 1440 hours)!

It also told the specs - height & length of the model, and how that compared to the real landmark

 It. was. incredible.

{Liberty Bell}

And I just HAD to take my favorite LEGO fan on the field trip with me, 

even though he's been out of Bears for 6 years! 

Because, did you know that Legos can still be heaven for big boys, too? 

I'm glad I had Kyle with me because my cub scouts had to go to the restroom TWICE during our

[40 minute] visit to the mall....and they're probably a little too old to come into the women's restroom with me....which I would've made them do (we WERE no longer in Mayberry anymore, after all) if I hadn't had Kyle for their escort!  ;)

Brace Yourself: My Sewing Machine was Put to Use Twice in a Week

The first time was last weekend.

And THEN I used it again just now!  (I know!  Amazing!)

To sew THESE all on:

{Interesting note about that chair the sash is on.....in the store, the chair looked just about the same color as that scout sash.  And then we got it home, and it was NOT.
You can see how much of a difference the colors are in that picture.}

BACK TO MY SEWING.....
In the exhibit above, if you'll count, you'll discover that there are 21 merit badges......

Which means what?

I'll tell you.

It just so happens to be the [minimum] amount one needs to earn the Eagle rank.

And if you look closer, you'll notice (or not if you're non-scout oriented) amongst those 21, includes all 12 of the "required" ones to become an Eagle Scout, too.

{When I first bought this sash way back when, it was so long that I had to fold, tuck, and pin it to fit the boy....

now we've had to let it all down.  He done went and growed up!}

Which means what?

I GUESS HE FINALLY WANTED TO BE ABLE TO DRIVE!?!?! 

{We set forth a rule.  A driver's license comes after you get your Eagle.}

How else will we know our children are responsible enough?  Mature enough?  Accountable enough? to get behind the wheel of a car.  (We decided this is one way to know.)

So then, this was the scene in our Living Room during the month of October....

.....while he was doing his Eagle PROJECT.  

Since we don't even have any furniture in there, yet, there was plenty of room for boxes, bags, & Bambi to take over the room!  ;)

For his project, he collected new & gently used DVDs for a Children' Hospital.
He got the brilliant idea from yours truly....who had heard something similar in the past from a friend.... 
But, on Haylee & I's most recent visit to the hospital, it was brought to my remembrance how much it is needed!  Haylee, at age 11, was finally to the point where she did very well during that particular visit, but as I watched all the other toddler-aged children (and their parents) around me struggling, my own past "nightmare" hospital/Dr. appts episodes came back to me.....I knew then that the hospital experience wouldn't work without all the various donations they receive (from dolls, to markers, to books, to crafts, to DVDs.)

So, the DVD drive was born.

THANK YOU to everyone who donated!

 The day came when he was able to deliver them to the hospital.  He ended up with over 240 DVDs to donate!

He felt pretty darn good about it that day.  I don't know if it had more to do with the good, warm, fuzzy feeling you get from helping/serving others OR if he was just SO GLAD/RELIEVED/EXCITED he was finally done!  (Got-the-monkey-off-his-back type thing.)

Congratulations, Ryan!

You were a part of history in the making!  You gave me a reason to get my sewing machine out...TWICE in the same week! 

******
But, can I just say it was a royal pain in the butt to STICK TO OUR GUNS of not letting him have his driver's license until he got his Eagle.  Because it was sooo inconvenient for me to drive him everywhere!  So, then I stopped doing that after a "grace period."  And then it was just plain inconvenient for me not to have an extra driver to help me out!
I don't know if he even learned anything from the consequence of not having a driver's license until age 17 1/2.......except that I AM SERIOUS.  I am a [wo]man of my word!

Hopefully, Kyle has watched & learned!

hopefully.

Happy Harvest!

I tried my hand at a REAL garden this year for the first time.  Definition of "REAL?" As in a rectangle-shaped one with multiple rows of plants.  

(Previously, I have planted 1-2 zucchini plants in a flower bed on the edge of our old yard - which I considered not a REAL garden.)

Ryan organized our family - for his Family Life merit badge - back during Spring Break to first, prepare a plot of land in our yard for a garden.  This took half a day, leveling, and getting out the rocks and weeds, and making a "box" around the outer edges with all the leftover boards that were still hanging around our property from the builders 8 months prior.  We really know how to "Live it Up" for Spring Break, don't we?!?  ;)  haha.  Unfortunately, I don't have any photos of that day.

Gradually, I planted the various vegetables & fruits (green onions, onions, tomatoes, cantaloupe, watermelon, pumpkins, zucchini, and corn) over the next 6 weeks based on when the seed packet suggested.  (Again, I'm a rookie, so I wasn't ever sure I was doing things exactly right....and I might have been tardy on some of my planting times.)
I don't have any photos of the planting process, either.

And since we didn't have a landscaped yard in, yet, we also didn't have any sprinklers, but our kind back door neighbors (the experienced gardners) let us hook a hose up to their garden spout, so we could at least hand water it.

We divided the garden rows up between us, and each person was in charge of weeding their row.  Like Mom was corn, Dad was onions & tomatoes, Kyle was green onions, Katelyn was zucchini, etc.  Let's just say that some rows stayed better weeded than others!  (like the corn!)

I periodically took pictures through the rest of the season.

JUNE 

AUGUST

We picked our first batch of corn and had it for dinner one night!

(Katelyn's face doesn't look so sure!  :)  That's because OUR corn was not a "pretty" as the corn she was used to getting from the farmer's corn field that used to occupy the land where our home now sits.  Again, I'm a rookie.)

SEPTEMBER

I guess the seed packet was NOT kidding when it suggested putting 3-4 feet in between each row of the vine-like plants (canteloupe/watermelon/pumpkins)......well, I didn't have that kind of space, so I didn't.....and the vines all tangled together and cross-germinated, and produced hybrids, maybe?  Rookie mistake, right?!?

Watermelon

Zucchini

Usually people around here have zucchini growing out their ears, but I can count on my hands how many I got, so maybe I did something wrong?  (Again, I'm a rookie!)

Cantaloupe

Pumpkins

In the end, our onions, green onions, and tomatoes never did come up....they just disappeared into thin air!   (Rookie!) Our [experienced gardner] neighbors actually gave us an "extra" tomato plant she had in a pot and helped my girls plant it in our empty tomato row -- but I think it was a little too late in the season - we never got any ripe tomatoes before we lost our warm weather, they just progressed to the green tomato point....maybe I should just say that we were TRYING to grow green tomatoes - ya know, for Fried Green Tomatoes? - and then I won't look so non-professional!
We also transplanted Miss B's sunflower seed she had planted in a cup at preschool - it grew pretty good out there.

LATER

We picked and ate them!

Another sign of a rookie:

Here's the inside of a couple of our watermelons.....I THINK something is wrong!?!  (Rookie!)

OCTOBER

Our "pumpkin patch" experience was really slick this year.....

We just went out to our back yard and got 'em!

And we carved our very own hone-grown pumpkins into Jack-o-Lanterns with our friends/neighbors one evening.....they all got ripped off by the pumpkin patch prices!  SUCKERS!  ;)

But, as beginner's luck would have it.....there were a couple of our pumpkins in the garden that never did turn ORANGE.....they were STILL green towards the middle of October.  (Again, rookie?)

So, instead, with some Pinspiration, I gave them a little "face lift" - just painted them up, so NO ONE would ever know!

{Except all who read this!}

NOVEMBER

And we displayed them on our porch with some of the pulled-up corn stalks from our garden, too!

 Then we yanked everything all out = end of the season.

Due to the way our landscaping [surprisingly and contrary to our plans] turned out, we're doubling the size of our garden next year!

Is that good or bad?!!?

{We'll hopefully get better at this.}

Good Thing I'm Not a Betting [Wo]Man

ONLY BECAUSE OF my and my husband's impending absence next week due to [hopefully] being on a Mexican Riviera cruise, we decided to let our 2 1/2-weeks-away-from-being-17-yrs.-old son get his Driver's License -- TEMPORARILY -- even though he has not obtained his Eagle Scout yet, (the prerequisite in this family) so he could be the chauffeur to and from all the places he and his siblings need to go in an average week - and it would not drive their caretakers absolutely INSANE with their crazy schedule that they aren't used to at all!

TEMPORARILY being the KEY WORD.  He can ONLY drive while we are gone.....when we return, we are taking his Driver's License away until he gets his Eagle Scout - or until we go out of town again - whichever comes first!  :)

So, I called the Driver's License Division to schedule his road test (as per instructions on their website.)  Well, in doing so, we found out that his Driver's Ed Instructor had never entered his results into the database, so they would not let me schedule an appointment until that happened.  I also found out that his Learner's Permit had expired 5 months ago, so he shouldn't have even been driving with us anymore!  (woops!)  But at least his written score was good for one more month and he didn't have to take THAT again (assuming he could pass the road test.)  So, I spent the next little while texting Ryan back & forth telling him to go talk to his teachers.  I, myself, was also calling the school and leaving voice messages on both the teacher of the class and his instructor he did his driving with....because we needed to get him in BEFORE we left town!  I made a few more calls to the DMV and between that all, we got the proof needed entered into the system.  LUCKILY, there was one cancellation this week that they could fit him in before we departed.

Then my son started texting me:
Why do I have to take a road test?

{Duh!!!}  So, they can determine if you're safe/good/smart enough to be out on the roads!!!  (I didn't actually text him that.)

I just told him someone from the State needs to put their "stamp of approval" on his license, if he's going to get one.

Then he told me that NONE OF HIS FRIENDS had to take the test.....that they already did it in Driver's Ed.

Yeah, right!!  (I thought)  These dumb silly teenagers!

I tried to tell him that all those driving hours he did were JUST his driving PRACTICE & EDUCATION, not an actual test.

Are you SURE?  he asked.

Of course!  I'm the Mom.....besides that's just the way it was back in my day when I was 16 (+ 5 weeks!)  I had to take the test.  Your Dad had to take the test.  Everyone has to take the test!

So, I checked him out of school - out of his hardest class, Calculus, no less - for the ONLY available appointment all week to take him to the Driver's License Division.

The whole way there he was complaining about him not thinking this was neccesary, and that no one he knows has taken a road test with some government official.....and that HE'S MISSING CALCULUS!!!
He asked me some form of "Are you sure?" and "Why?" a half a dozen times on the ride there.

In between all his comments, I was coaching him on making sure NOT to speed or drive up into any of the snow banks, or else they would flunk him on the spot.  I also told him he would FOR SURE have to either parallel park or make a 3+ point turn.  AND on top of that, snow had started to lightly fall, so he'd have to be very careful, as well.

I had him clean out the car and put everything into a bag so the "judge" wouldn't get a bad first impression and not pass him right from the beginning.  I also brought a book and other activities for myself and Miss B. to occupy ourselves with during his hour long(?) road test.

We (I) filled out his application (he still doesn't know our new home address) and took it up to the counter......and then I told the receptionist that my son thought he didn't have to take the road test due to having passed Driver's Ed.  Funny boy, isn't he?!?

AND THEN......

.......she checks in her handy dandy computer.....and says, "THAT'S RIGHT.  We've got his "Certificate of Completion" right here!"

WHAT?!?

ALL HE HAD TO DO was get his picture taken and pay $30.00 (well, I did.)  And it turns out he could've done that any dang time of the day -- WITHOUT an appointment -- and especially NOT during Calculus class.  We were in and out of there in less than 30 minutes, with his new D.L. in hand!

What happened to the way things were done "Back in MY day?"  I had to go out alone with some intimidating, uniformed, stranger dude..... and make a U-TURN in our family's big Suburban!  (Apparently, that part IS done as part of Driver's Ed. in the schools these days.  Who knew?  Not me.)


The whole way back to school, my son kept saying, "WE TOTALLY SHOULD'VE BET ON THIS!"

One More Merit Badge - CHECK!

Thank You Scout Leaders!

I always ENJOYED the Mormon commercials growing up - so much! The one where Mom and Son "kidnap" always-too-busy-working Dad one night and take him camping was my all time favorite -- LOVED IT.

For a few weeks at mutual, The Davis Creek 3rd Ward Teacher's Quorum (of which Ryan is a member of for 20 more days) made their own version of an LDS "Homefront" Ad to complete their Cinematography Merit Badge for Boy Scouts.

{Ryan gets his 15 seconds of fame}
What a crack up!



*Did you see a boy flying out the door during the explosion? Watch again - don't blink - it happens fast!*

{I think I need to re-watch all those commercial from the 70's and 80's and take the messages to heart - they're GOOD!}