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A continuation of my original blog, "Surviving Motherhood". |
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Welcome to my world of middle school, high school, and motherhood. The life of a mom is never easy, especially as children grow, and especially when you have a special needs child. ** Images For Use By Upgraded+ Only ** |
| So my blog says it's been about a month since I blogged. Well what do you know, it has. Things have been whirlwind around here. It's currently cookie season, and Thinking Day is tomorrow, so you can gander a guess that I'm knee deep in Girl Scout business yet again. For some reason, this seems to be relatively easier and less stressful this time around. Perhaps because we've been doing it so long, and we're just in a groove with it, I don't know. I'm way less stressed out and fazed by hitches now. I don't know if it's because I realize it's just not worth being worked up over, or if it's because things are coming at me a million miles an hour, but I've found if I just keep moving, things will progress organically. Troop dynamics are becoming interesting lately, and we may need to sit down and have a big pow wow about that soon. Girls are pulling me left and right. I didn't expect that to happen...truth be told, I've never dealt with this many girls this age going through puberty at the same time. It's definitely mind boggling and also intense. My thoughts of becoming a teacher and working with 20 kids this age has flown out the window. I'm barely containing 12 girls at this time. It's almost times like this that I wished I really did have a co-leader. Things might get a little hairy. We're going to have to try and work through it as best as possible. I just hope the girls and the parents and myself are understanding and patient. That's the biggest barrier of all. Things have been going with the flow as of late. Like I said, I'm way less stressed about things right now than I ever have been before. I'm not entirely sure what the cause of it is, but I appreciate it all the same. I've always been quite high strung, ever since I was a kid, so to get a reprieve from being stressed all the time is a golden opportunity for me. I have purchased airline tickets to go visit my very best friend in Minnesota at the end of May. I've decided that Journey will be coming with me. This will be her first time on a plane since she was almost 2 years old. I'm quite interested to see how she handles. I hope well. We'll be spending 5 days there with my friend, and I hope that we lavish in that time. I've been away from her for years now. Last time I saw her in person was at her wedding. Ryan had just turned 4, and Journey was 11 months old. almost 9 years later. I'll be so happy to see her again! The school year is starting to wind down once again. I've signed up the kids for their annual pictures at JC Penney studios now, because Target studios closed. I'm so upset by that, as we had so many things going on there. We had projects, and now they're gone. I dunno what to do at this time now. I'll do what I can to fix it, but I don't think there's a way. Ryan is attempting to apply for an academy at one of the high schools within the county, called the Academy of Visual and Performing Arts, or AVPA. It's being held at a different location than the home location he would be going to if he doesn't make it into the AVPA, and there would have to be different busing, but I think he can make it in, and I know he's good enough at the clarinet to do so. He needs a teacher recommendation, and he needs to show them his performing portfolio, which is quite filled. I can't believe soon I'll have a middle schooler and a high schooler. It feels like just yesterday I started this blog as a pregnant mom of a precocious 2 year old. |
| Cookie season is upon us, and that means I have more than enough work to keep me occupied! I feel like I did a poor job setting up TCM training back in December; I guess I just didn't realize how in depth we'd go into each topic, and how many questions there would be. We didn't even talk about ordering from the cookie cupboard, how to put a pending order in the system, and how to do inter-troop transfers. I've decided next year that I'm going to put in for a longer meeting, and try to expect more questions and going over more things. Gotta hand it to my TCMs, when they're curious, they ask! I'm glad to know that they're willing to turn to me and find out rather than just try to figure it out themselves. Granted, a lot of information is in the manual, and for the most part, they find that and do what they need to, but there are some things that aren't, and they have asked about them, and brought them to my attention. I'm writing them down to put into the TCM training for next year. So far though, things seem to be going smoothly. Hope I don't jinx it. So I've got all the paperwork for both my troop, and the SU taken care of. I've prepared the bubble sheets, wrote out the initial order pick up forms, created bags for each troop to put their initial rewards and another inter-troop transfer sheet in, as well as some grocery sacks to put the drawstring bags the girls and volunteers are getting as an initial reward. All I'm waiting on now is the initial rewards to place in the bags, and then all I have to do is gather the paperwork in the envelope, grab the bag with all the initial rewards bags in it, grab my troop's transaction record sheets, and the papers I made to split up each girl's order, and head out the door. Chances are very likely that something out of our control is going to happen, and shove our pick up times down farther (been going on the last 5 years I've done this. Just once, I'd love to see an initial delivery that DIDN'T go south.), but, I have a great mom who is picking up our cookies while I dole out the rest of the SU's, and we're able to use her garage to split the cookies for each girl's order. I pray for good weather that day. It's a hard enough day as it is! My girls did some excellent sales this year, and I am super proud of them! I have us signed up for 11 booths this year; that's 3 more booths than we pulled last year. So far, participation looks good-we have at least 2 girls and 2 parents at each booth, and we have all hands on deck for Walmart, which will be the first time we're selling at such a highly populated location. I really hope we do well! We have our winter camping trip coming up on the 3rd and 4th, and the girls are looking forward to that! We're up to 11 girls so far! I was kind of hoping that the mom of girl 12 would get back to me, but so far, no response. Either way, I think we'll have a great time! The girls begged to make most of the floor a giant air mattress, and although it's not exactly camping (more like glamping!), they are super excited. We're going to be putting on a badge during camping as well, called Simple Meals. The sweet thing about staying in a lodge is that it comes complete with an indoor bathroom and a kitchen, so I thought we could put this badge on while we're there, knock out all the requirements. We're going to have lots of fun! Thinking Day is also coming up fast (the second week of booths actually!), and this year we're hosting Argentina. This is the first year I've been so on top of things, and I'm planning them accordingly so that we'll have enough time to do all we're planning to do. This has been a pretty good year so far for our troop! |
| Speaking on trend of myself... My license is set to expire on my birthday this year. Like a good little Jamie, I did my diligence, saved up the money to pay for it, and walked into the MVA (AKA Maryland DMV) to get it. Funny thing though, they didn't tell me that EVERY time I have to make an in person appearance to renew my license, I need to have paperwork with me from my optometrist showing that yes, I am blind in my left eye, but I am quite capable of maneuvering a vehicle. I went on Friday, and was told this by the nice lady that tried to set up my license renewal. She then told me to come back as soon as possible with the paperwork in order for my license not to expire and thus I would have to take the driving test once more, which, of course, costs extra. Pressed for time and money, I called in a favor for some up front birthday cash, and scheduled the next available appointment the optometrist had. Luckily, he had an opening yesterday. Good news abound as well; my eyes are fit as a fiddle, and my prescription only changed slightly from what it already was. I am quite happy with this information, and the good doctor set about to filling out the paperwork, so that I could take it with me in a rush to get to the MVA before it closed at 4:30 pm. When I got there, the place was dead; I was worried that they had closed it for the inclement weather we've just been hit with. Luckily, it was open. I turned everything in, and good to say that #1-I will have my license once again, #2-I was given a temporary paper to act as my license until my license comes in, and #3-my eyes are doing quite well! The kids had a snow day off yesterday. We got hit with a storm that dropped about 7 inches. The snow itself doesn't bother me much, but the ice does. There's ice ALL OVER the sidewalks and the roads, and it's horrible. Journey and I attempted to make rounds in the neighborhood to sell cookies (yes, on the coldest day of the year so far! I wasn't sure when the next time we could do this would be, so I thought it would be best to hit then. She was a trooper; we hit 35 apartments until she needed to come in from the cold to thaw her hands and feet, and then we hit another 20 before we took a break at a good friend's house and thawed out a bit more. We hit the last 15 after that, and we came home to more warmth. I am super proud of this girl, she works her tail off every year for this!), and pleasantly to say, we did quite well! Sold 40 boxes just in the neighborhood alone, and Journey is now only 4 boxes away from her 150 goal. Granted, we haven't purchased yet, and I know that when we do, it will take her over the top of that, but I wanted to see if we could hit the total first from other people purchasing, and then us. I still have 2 friends offering to buy, Ryan is going to hit his school, Journey is going to ask two more teachers at school, and Don has two more people to ask at work. Hopefully we'll get quite a bit from there! I am attempting to schedule some booths for the troop. It's kind of hard, because I'm not sure what parents are going to have their girls work where. I know that I may schedule some that just Journey and her friend Morgan can work, as they're used to multiple booths throughout the season. I will talk to her mom about it and see. |
| There's a recent song out that is kind of resonating with me. It's called "It's not Easy", and some of the lyrics are "We were two dumb kids, full of hopes and fears..." and of course, the chorus "It's not easy breaking your heart". The reason this song is resonating with me so much right now is because it somewhat mirrors mine and Don's lives since we got together. When we got together, we were two dumb kids. Two idealistic kids, who loved each other so much, and were stubborn and determined to make this all work. We were headstrong, and made a lot of heavy decisions. We made mistakes along the way. A baby got thrown into the mix. We both had a LOT of growing up to do. The first three years of our face to face relationship and marriage were hard and rocky. The difference between the song and our lives is, we didn't call it quits. We didn't "know it would end from the start". We love each other so much, and no matter what, I would choose Don every time. We grew up together. We learned from our past mistakes. We took more time. We thought things through. We realized that the only two people we needed to make happy were ourselves. We are in a very good place right now. I'm quite proud of where we are. We have been through some serious shit in the 13 years we've been married, but we've come out the better for it. The fact that we were so young and dumb was kind of a silver lining-we didn't know any better, and we didn't know what it was all supposed to look like. we made it our own. and i'm quite proud of it. we're still growing up together, day after day. I love him more now than I've ever loved him before, but it's different now somehow. I've come to the realization that I've been a very selfish person these last 11 years. The good news is, on the outside of these walls, that's not how I acted at all. The bad news is, I took it out on Don and the kids for so long. I realize and regret that now. And this is where the chorus comes into play. I never thought about, for one second, how hard it was for him to make the choices he made. He didn't want to break my heart. He didn't want to make the choices he had to make. He was forced into those decisions; we all were. None of it was ideal. I spent so much time harboring resentment for not having my perfect dream, that I dragged everyone down with me. As you can see, I needed to grow up a lot more than I thought I did. In the end, we did the best we could with what we had. I no longer regret the decision I made to move here, and now, I want to make the most of it. I've spent far too much time wallowing in pain and taking it out on everyone. It's time to let go of the past and start moving forward. No more blaming people and time and circumstances and letting them dictate my feelings, thoughts and moods. My perspective is not the only perspective out there, and the attitude I have doesn't only affect me. I'm not saying I need to make my life centered around other people, but at the same time, I don't need to take it out on other people for something that hurt me. Life is too short to harbor hurt and resentment. It's time I let it go. from here on out, my new understanding is, nothing is or ever will be perfect. The trick is to find all the good things and hang onto them. Hard times will come, but they come full of opportunity and growth for EVERYONE, as no one is immune. It's time for me to start looking up again, and reaching out. |
| 2017 has finally arrived, and with it have come extremely clear realizations. I've finally gotten to the root of my depression, and things make clear sense again. I've also come to the realization that I do indeed need a new therapist. One that I can bare my soul with. I know this sounds awful, but I need someone to hear me when life has me down, and I can't make sense of anything. I need someone to let me vent and be selfish, to allow my problems to mean something and give me the satisfaction of being heard, validated, and finding reason and solution within that time. Everyone tells me to lean on them in times of trouble, but I have a hard time doing that when #1-it involves the people I'm having issues with (the reason for this is because, I need to work things out on what to say to make amends with these situations. Don and I had the hash out to end all hash outs a couple of nights ago, and that's when the painful realization came to me. He's the one that shaped that time, so I wanted to lay blame on him for what happened, but when I did, it hurt and upset him. He didn't want to be told he hurt me, and that hurt him in the process. If I could've hashed this out with a therapist first, I could've found a better way to present it to him, thus not causing a rift between the two of us.), and #2-everyone's got bigger fish to fry in their own lives. I don't like being a burden on my loved ones or friends, so I tend to bottle it up, and end up making things worse in the end. A therapist gets paid to listen to me try to work things out, and gets paid to be an ear and help me through things. They're doing their job when they listen to me and help me work through things. It's not Don's or anyone else's obligation to do that. Journaling only helps so much, and considering that my hand can't seem to handle a long handwriting session anymore, and I don't feel comfortable talking about my actual problems online anywhere, I'm at a loss. Finding a good therapist can help unload this burden that I carry with me all the time. My life is not always sunshine and rainbows, and frankly, that's all Pat wanted to hear from me. If I have to hide my dark side and who I am and what makes me tick just to appease my therapist, then that's not the right therapist for me. Sometimes I don't want to hear the myriad of solutions, or being told "Grow up","Stop throwing pity parties" or, "I told you so". Sometimes, I just want to vent, and someone to say "You know, it sounds like you're having a hard time in your life right now, and I'm sorry to hear that. It's okay to feel this way. If you want help finding solutions, I'm here for you." That's what a TRUE therapist would do. At least, I hope so. I'm going to look into finding someone that can help me more this coming year. Because I live by the school calendar right now, to me, this is the middle of the year, in the year that encompasses 2016-2017. A lot of great things were accomplished at the beginning of the school year for my kids and my girls, and I couldn't be more proud. I hope that the 2017 portion of the year holds just as many accomplishments and good things as the portion of 2016 did. Break has been interesting to say the least. I don't know what exact mood I'm in these days, but there were a couple of days where I just wanted my day to myself, with no one but me and the cat...who usually ignores me. I found it quite odd, as usually I'm game for having everyone home with me. I'm not entirely sure where these feelings are taking me, but hopefully I can find a happy medium solution that benefits all involved. We've arranged a winter camping trip for our troop in February, which my girls are very excited for. I know they loved it when we went in September, so I'm hoping this time around, they'll love it just as much. Speaking of camp, Journey has decided that she would like to attend sleep away Girl Scout camp again this summer. I think her reasoning for not wanting to go at the beginning is because of just how sweltering hot it was, and how it was the middle of summer and she missed us terribly. She's decided that she'd rather go mid-August, right before her birthday, and just a couple of weeks before school starts. I hope she enjoys it. We're hoping to maybe get a friend in scouts to go with her this year, but I think even if no one does (no one did last year), she'll be okay. Things around here are changing every day. At this point, I'm somewhat nihilistic, so I just go with what's going on. I've lost the will to fight whatever changes come, so although I don't embrace them, I let them come, and try to figure out what to do to make it through. That's really all any of us, can do, right? |
| Christmas is quickly approaching around the corner, and I am quite ready for it. Don had the day off from work yesterday, as we needed to go run some errands, and he wrapped most of the gifts that are from us. I'm so grateful that he helps now, whereas he used to sit there and watch me do all the work.Now that I know he knows how to wrap better than I do, I'm depending on him to help. He's not thrilled with this idea, but he's just as involved. I feel if I shop for it and find boxes for it to fit in, he should at least be nice enough to wrap it. Just my thoughts though. Journey has been catching her eye on my computer screen constantly, and I *think* the jig about Santa is up because of this, but I could be wrong. Perhaps she wasn't observing what I had on the screen...but the fact that she keeps coming over constantly has me thinking differently. Well, if this is the year she finds out, so be it. I need a break from the role from here on out anyway. We were going to break it to her next year once she's in middle school anyway, so if she ends up finding out this year, then that's one less conversation we have to have next year. No worries, I'll break it to her as gently as possible, and I know that Don and Ryan will be there to help. I just wonder if this is going to be another "No Easter Bunny/How did Tokie get here" conversation. We shall soon find out. This will be the first year the kids are actually at school the day before break starts. Usually break starts the day after Don's company Christmas party, but the schools have decided that break will not start until December 23rd, and that school will resume January 3rd. I know, it's not a lot of break time to be honest, and neither is their spring break as well. I don't know why that is, but, it is what it is. Next year they won't have very many break days either, because a bill just went into effect for all of the state that schools will now start after Labor Day, and end no later than June 15th. Our school system in our county loves to give random days off for no real reason, and then cut breaks short, and drag school out anywhere from the late mid of August to the end of August, all the way to the mid of June. Honestly, the kids don't get much summer break either. I understand that school needs to be in session for 180 days, but dragging it out like this is hard on everyone. And cutting breaks like winter break and spring break don't help anyone. how are people supposed to have vacations without interrupting the school year if they only give us 5 school days off? It is what it is I suppose. But getting back to what I was saying, this will be the first year the kids attend school on the last day of break. They'll be participating in the school singalongs and whatnot. Journey's quite excited about it. I hope she gets to sit with her friends and do the singalong. Today they're having a fiesta for the 5th grade. Journey brought in two bags of tortilla chips. We...well, I decided to spoil Dixon for Christmas. Everything of his is in his stocking, but he's going to love all of it. I'm so excited for him to open it, I can't wait to get pictures! I can't wait to take pictures of the kids either! Ryan has an inkling of what he's getting because he told me straight out what he wants. Journey wrote a Santa list, but I tweaked it a little bit. She is going to flip her lid when she sees 2 of the Pokemon things we got her. I cannot wait to see her face. 4 more days.... |
| On Saturday, we held our Bronze Award ceremony for the girls that earned their Bronze. I am so very proud of them and all that they accomplished. They did a fantastic job, and I'm thrilled with all they did. For the most part, it was a pretty easy deal; the project was good, the timing was good, all the pieces came together easily. It went very smoothly, and I'm glad for that. They now have a beautiful award to show off for all their hard work. Almost all the troop also attended a winter workshop event that an older troop always puts on. It's always a wild and crazy time when all my girls get together; they're so familiar and comfortable with each other, they like to act goofy and have fun. They might have been a little TOO crazy yesterday, but hopefully nothing too terrible. I love how my girls love being together. I love it that they're all so close and good friends. They've grown up together, so they know each other well. This is what scouting should be. Sisters for years, together. I love it. This week is going to be a pretty busy week. Ryan has signed up to play Christmas carols at the local Chick-Fil-A on Wednesday, which is also around the same time when my December SU meeting is. Don decided to take the day off so we could run some errands, get things taken care of, and get Ryan dropped off and me dropped off. It will be quite a busy night! Friday is Don's company Christmas party, which might just be the last that we partake in. I hope the kids enjoy it, and have a good time. This is the last year for Santa for Journey, so I want her to make the most of it. Also that night on the 16th is our troop holiday party. The girls asked to do Secret Santa again this year, so they're very excited to give each other presents. I have purchased all of them an ornament to commemorate our 2nd year of Juniors, as I always give them ornaments every year. (1st year Brownies broke though!  ) I also gave the Bronze girls each an ornament to commemorate the year they earned the Bronze, so they'll always remember it. I'm so proud of all my girls! I love them so much!Christmas is quickly approaching. Journey wanted to make a countdown chain, but seeing as we're already 13 days to the day, it's probably not going to happen. I need to buy some cookie mix and eggnog to make sure "Santa" is taken care of. We even spoiled Dixon and bought him a slew of Christmas gifts! Granted, they weren't very expensive, but they're things he wants and needs, so that's what's most important. I always love this season. It makes my heart so full to be able to give! |
| Thanksgiving has come and gone. Today is the last day of break, and then everything goes back to normal again, until December 23rd. I thoroughly enjoyed having Don and the kids home, as I always do. Dixon also enjoyed it, and will be a very sad kitty boy when tomorrow dawns and Rowel, Marl and Rolul will be out in the real world, and he'll be stuck with good ol' Meowlel. Sometimes his disdain doe me is piercing, but not much I can do about it. I'm sure absence would make his little furry heart grow fonder, but I really have no way to give that to him. Today we'll hopefully be putting up the tree, which I've been itching to do for awhile now. Now that we have the pre-lit, it's so much easier to put it up. It's also a lot easier to take it down. I still enjoy it a lot though. Hopefully the kids will be into decorating it this year, like they've done for the last few years. I've decided that this is the last year Santa will be making his presence in our household. I've been playing Santa for the last 14 years, and really, I've grown quite tired of it. It was fun while the kids were small, but now that they're older, I've found it's quite the task to keep up. I've worked very hard over the years to keep up the elaborate rouse, and now, I feel it's time to put it to bed. This will be the last time Santa enters our house. Next year, Journey will finally know the truth. I hope she handles it well. I hope she's not mad at us. I hope it doesn't break her heart. We will find out in a few months' time though. All my friends with smaller children lament how sad it all is, that there will no longer be Santa in our house. Truth be told, I'm pretty relieved about it. One day, when their kids are 11, 12 years old, and they've been playing Santa for quite some time, they'll understand where I'm coming from and why they'll grow tired of playing Santa all the time. As kids get older, things become staler. It's time to give up the jig, and go on having Christmases that just include us. I feel it will make it much easier. I've gotten everything in for the Bronze Award ceremony, so I'm pretty excited about that right now. We'll be holding the Bronze ceremony on December 10th at a local pizza place (where we've held Ryan's birthday for the last two years actually), with hope that the girls enjoy it all. I've gotten them quite a few gifts, and I feel they've worked very hard to earn them. I'm looking forward to the ceremony. |
| Sometimes, the simplest things can set off waves of emotion, you didn't even realize you had some for that realization. Journey decided that it was time for her to use deodorant on gym days. While personally I don't believe she actually sweats from her underarms right now, I know that this is simply a passing of ages, and I won't discourage her from doing so. Too soon, she will grow into a teenager, and I will no longer have babies anymore. Now, I've blogged that I don't look back in a wave of nostalgia and wish for the old days. I still don't. But, I'd be a liar if I didn't say I just cried for a good 6 minutes about how my kids are growing. It really struck me just now, how my son will be in high school in a matter of months, and how my daughter will be in middle school at the same time. No more elementary school, ever again. We will never be a part of LES anymore. Tears just streamed down my face for the loss and the change. It feels like things have been moving so fast, yet they haven't been at all. So many friends and relatives have fuzzy memories of how old my kids actually are, and are quite surprised when I tell them that Ryan is 13, and Journey is 10. They can remember the days when Journey was a newborn, and Ryan was a precocious 3 year old. To me, it's less of a shock, because I witness them growing and changing every day; small steps at a time. For those that haven't seen them in a long time, it's an utter shock to see just how much they've grown and changed. Ryan is the size of an adult now. Journey hasn't shot up yet, but I won't be surprised at all if she's taller by the end of the year and starts looking more the part of a 6th grader. In other news, my 9 Bronze girls have earned their award. We will be holding a ceremony on the 10th of December for them, and I cannot wait to give them everything they've earned and deserve. I bought them some Junior Girl Scout fabric wristlets, as well as Bronze Christmas ornaments to commemorate the year of earning it. I am so super proud of them and everything they've accomplished. I cannot wait to put this ceremony together for them. They deserve it. Journey has already come up with her Silver Award, and has asked Grace to join her in it, which Grace has accepted the offer. They can start making things now over the summer and for the first year of Cadettes while we earn our journey, and then 7th grade, they can roll it out, and earn that Silver. Ryan had his school band concert last Thursday, and it was quite enjoyable. I was really impressed about how 7th grade and 8th grade band sounded together. 7th grade has some strengths where 8th grade has some deficits, and vice versa. 7th grade's trumpets are better than 8th grade's, but 8th grade's clarinets are superior. All in all, I was quite proud. Ryan has an All County Honor Band concert on Friday night, which he has earned 1st chair to play. In case you're not sure, 1st chair is highly coveted, and means you're the cream of the crop. I asked Ryan to continue to keep trying to earn everything he can with his clarinet as he gets older, and how he was given such an amazing gift. I did let him know though that when it stops bringing him joy, he can step down from it at any time. When the youth orchestra here denied him because he didn't take private lessons, I was highly upset and affronted at first. Now, I look at it as their loss. He was the only 7th grader in his entire school last year that made Tri-County Honor Band, and now he's 1st chair in All County Honor Band. Snubbing him for something so trivial is ridiculous, but like I said, their loss. They're missing out on a sensational talent. The kids' report cards came in yesterday, and I'm quite thrilled with them. For the first time since 5th grade, Ryan procured all A's. Language Arts has always been his toughest subject, so I know he worked extra hard to get that A this quarter. Journey has been struggling a bit in math these days, but she took that D she was scraping by with and turned it into a C, and I couldn't be more proud of her if I tried! The greatest part of their report cards is that they're trying their very best, and that's what I appreciate the most. Whether it equals out to A's or C's, as long as they're giving it their best effort, that's what's most important to me. |
| There is never a day where my kids don't amaze the hell out of me. They are upstanding human beings, and I am so privileged to be their mom and be in their lives. I know I've come on here and gushed and gushed about them ad nauseum, but I cannot help but being a proud and grateful mother. Today's edition is an ode to Journey. For the last 3 weeks, Journey has been borderline obsessed with creating a cat class president campaign. She's created campaign posters, drew up plans on how she's going to alter the school, written down changes she's going to make, who her VP and staff are going to be, made a victory speech, created a new mascot for the school, has attempted to email her principal about setting all of this up, has talked to and received votes (albeit they believed she was just pretending) from her teachers and friends, has held a debate, created vote cards, and has connected with financial backers (her Pokemon) to fiance her campaign. Never in her life have I witnessed her put so much effort into something like this. With all this work, she has singlehandedly earned the "Inside Government" badge from Girl Scouts. The sad part is, pretty much all this planning, developing, and creating is all for naught. Though her teachers are great in supporting her ideas and dreams, the reality of this actually happening is very slim (unless the principal and the assistant principal want to make her day and let it seriously run through the school for a day...I don't see that happening, but, I digress), and Don and I have tried to gently let her know that this may not even come to fruition. She was devastated last night when she told us that cat class president elections and ceremony were supposed to be today, and she hadn't heard back from the principal for permission to overtake the office and change things. I admire her gumption, her spunk and her determination. One day, with the right tools, she'll change the world. Don and I got to talking about her characteristics and her future when she went to bed. Journey is the most driven, dedicated, determined, hard working, persevering, creative, out of the box thinker that I have ever met. When that girl hopes and dreams, she doesn't just leave it at that-she gets to work. She plots, she plans, she spends time on it. She works on it whenever there's free time. Where there's a will, she makes a way. She's a tenacious little thing, and she doesn't take no for an answer. She has all this in spades, and thensome! I have watched her work fervently on this campaign for the last 3 weeks. I wish like hell all her efforts could be put into some special extra credit social studies project, because the detail and the planning that she put into this is top notch. When this girl gets an idea, she runs with it, and nearly nothing will stop her. All of this has me making wishes for her as she becomes an adult. I wish that she can work for a company that has projects all the time. I wish for that company to make her a leader of many of those projects. I wish for that company to adore out of the box, creative ideas and solutions, because she is just chalk full of them. She understands what needs to get done in order to make things happen, like creating a budget, getting the supplies needed, putting in all the work and effort, working on the details, smoothing things out, doing a practice run, looking for kinks and problem solving issues that arise as work continues. She helped do ALL THIS for Girl Scout 101. This is what I've been trying to teach my girls since they were Brownies. Journey already has ample supply of it. She blows me away. If given the right tools and opportunity, Journey is going to be very successful in this world, I have no doubt in my mind. She has the right attitude, the right work ethic, and a boat full of skills to go with it. She's shown this since product sales in Girl Scouts. She shows this in every project we put together in Girl Scouts. Hands down, even though me and the organization (or as I like to now call them, the corporation) don't always see eye to eye, Girl Scouts has done Journey a world of good. I do not regret it for an instant, because I'm seeing things in her now that are going to take her very far in life as she gets older. |
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