Archery & Pink Tents

Yesterday my daughter K & I went to Camp Marapai in Prescott to teach archery.  We left the house at 6:10 am and got home at 7:30 pm.  The day started out very cold - had to break out the hats, gloves & heavy coats to stay warm.  When  we got almost to the camp, we were stopped by a car in front of us that had stopped in the road.  Off to the left was a herd of deer, just standing there watching us.  We tried to get a picture, but the deer blended in with the bush too much. 

A few weeks ago I was on the Girl Scouts, AZ Cactus Pine Council's website and I saw a like to request pink tents.  I was able to secure 5 hot pink tents from the Susan Koman 3 day walk for the cure.  For that past couple of years the race has donated the tents the walkers used to sleep in to the Girl Scouts.  I tried a once before and didn't get them.  The tents are 7' x 7' and will sleep 2 adults or 3 girls.

Here is a shot of 3 of them in my back yard.

Archery and a Bat

Yesterday, my oldest daughter Y and I headed to Camp Willow Springs in Prescott, AZ at 5:30 am to teach archery for a Girl Scout Encampment. We got up there around 7:30 or so and the first group of girls came over at 8:00. The archery range has two nets behind where the targets are. One is permeability hung up high and then there one was bunched in two at each side of the targets.  When we took off the bungee cords and stretched out the net, we found a little critter - a bat. It was sleeping at the bottom of the net and started to climb up after we stretched out the net.  Y & I told the girls they could look but no touching the bat.

Isn't it cute:

It finally got to the top of the net and flew away.

Whenever we have a group of girls who have shot before, we put balloons on the targets. We had a group of girls who had come with their dads. One of the dads yells out to his daughter "$50 if you hit the balloon".  I don't think he expected her to do it, but within 10 - 15 minutes "Pop" she nails the balloon. After a while in the session, we let the dads shoot and they were telling the girls, the girls would need to pay them $50 if they hit the balloons.  It was very amusing to watch the competition among the dads to pop all the balloons.

We had a break from noon to 2:30, so rather then eating in camp with the girls, we chose to drive the 5 miles into Prescott and get lunch.  We found a nice little Italian restaurant - Genovese's Restaurant.  It was very nice.  

We got back to camp and Y took a nap for about 1/2 hour in the van and went behind the targets looking for stay arrows.

The group that we had at 2:30 was a troop that had their own bow. This was nice because it told us they had all shot before, so we just had to talk about pausing on the draw in order to aim.  We waited about 1/2 hour for our last group to show up before we started to clean up.  We I checked out with the leader in charge, I found out that they we still on the high ropes challenge course.   Oh well, we are both really tired and ready to head home.

Bit by a dog

Yesterday after work, I stopped by a Girl Scout leader's house to pick up fliers for 2 of the schools I have girls from.  She has a couple of big dogs and I figured they were okay since she has her troop meeting at her house.  I was petting the big lab, Shepperd mix and his head and all of a sudden he growled and bit my right hand.  OMG, it happened in just a second, chomp chomp and a puncture wound on the top of my right hand in the middle and on the palm of my hand.  

Deb told me he had never, ever done anything like this before. Dog is current with all his shots so that is good. She has girls & adults in and out of there house all the time and the girls are all over the dog.  I don't know what to say, but he didn't like where I had my hand.  She kept apologizing over and over.  I assured her I has fine, just needed to sit for a while with a damp towel to stop the bleeding and an ice pack on top to keep it from bruising too much.

When I got home, I had my oldest daughter help me with bandages - since it is on my right hand & I am right handed.  Because we bandaged the top & palm of my hand she wrapped in that stick to it self, but not your skin tape stuff. So, it looked way worse than it was.  I does hurt to bend my middle two fingers down, so I can't grab things.

When K got home from school, she & I drove up to my mom's cabin for the long weekend.  My husband is off to the Flagstaff area to scout for elk; he has an archery elk hunt starting on 9/12. My older kids stayed in the valley to take care of the animals.

Outstanding Leader Award

This weekend our Girl Scout Neighborhood had an adult recognitions celebration at a local Mexican Restaurant.  We gave out two awards to outstanding leader and two to outstanding volunteers.  I was awarded one of the outstanding leader awards.  I knew I was getting it because I am on the service team, but I am still honored that all the other leader in our area thought I was an outstanding leader.

I have been a leader since my youngest daughter was in the 5th grade and now she is in the 10th grade.  I started out as a co leader of a Junior troop.  The 2nd year the leader wanted to step back into the co leader position, so I stepped up.  Also that year the person who was the service until finance manager stepped down.  Because I had been the treasurer of a small church & my son's gymnastics team, I volunteered.  The third year I was a leader, I became archery certified and was willing to go to almost any encampment that they needed an archery teacher.  I also became a leader of a Brownie troop because the woman who was suppose to become the leader never showed up. 

Last year, I helped put on two encampments and an archery day.  I also had 3 troops I was involved in; a Brownie troop, a Junior troop (I was the support person and co leader), and a Cadette/Senior troop.

For the 2010/2011 Girl Scout year, I will have girls from the 2nd grade through the 10th grade and can't wait to see what this year brings.

Back To Work

Today I am back at work. I was nice to have a week off and it is kind of hard to get back into the swing of things. Oh well, I do get 4 weeks off a year so I can take more time in a couple of months for my daughter’s spring break.
Walking in to the office today, I was faced with voice mail and the regular type of mail you get after being gone for a week. I am never faced with loads of email that need my attention, because I check my email all the time from home. It is so much easier to check everyday and not have to come back to work with hundreds of email messages demanding my attention.

Also demanding my attention was to get the people in my building to buy Girl Scout Cookies from my daughter K. This year I have chosen to not walk the neighborhood taking pre-orders. We live in a part of town that has horse property so it is a lot of walking for not too many orders. Once we have our cookies in hand I am going to take a couple of the girls with a wagon door to door.

Getting Work Done

I am on vacation. Ten days without going to work, five days of youngest daughter being in school and two weekends to get work done around my house.

I am very involved with Girl Scouts and have (call me crazy) three troops. I have a co-leader who is doing the planning for one of the troops, but it is still mine. I had two events that I ran in November and December and my house looked like Girl Scout stuff was caught in a hurricane. Yesterday, I spent several hours cleaning the kitchen and vacuuming and mopping the entire white tile in the main area of the house. I hate white tile!

Six Thirty came around and my house looked pretty good. Eight girls out of 11 Cadette/Seniors showed up for the meeting. We discussed what they want to do with their cookie profits depending on how our sales go this year. They don't seem too interested in tent camping. My co leader brought her small video camera and we had the girls make cookie commercials. One group really did a commercial and the other was very silly - theirs looked more like a cookie mugging.