girl heroes and camping

I'm currently leading a group of 4-5th grade girl scouts at a local elementary school, until I can find some volunteers to replace me. Last week we talked about women they see on TV and in movies, and what role or what jobs those women have. I even had them list their favorite women in media. When I asked them what jobs women have in TV and movies they said things like dancer, cashier, waitress, singer, teacher, nurse, and 1 girl said doctor. Their TV heroes were Rihanna, Beyonce, Selena Gomez, some cartoon characters, and one girl said Amelia Earnhardt. I don't know what I expected. I hear all the time that girls have a lack of substantive women to look up to in their world, and this confirmed that. If you can't see it, you can't become it. I realize that girls will grow up and probably expand their knowledge of what women are doing in the world, but I still found it kind of sad what I heard that day from such young girls. I guess I shall try to do what I can to change that. I wonder what would happen if I asked them what the women in their lives do for work, and if that list would be much different. That may be an exercise for another day!

This weekend we went camping at Olive Creek campground. It is slated to close today for the season due to budget issues within the state, which is a major bummer. Olive Creek is an excellent campground because it's so quiet and private. Not many people camp there. And maybe that's why they want to close it, but our group of friends has grown quite fond of it. We had a neighbor at the campground this time who had a pontoon boat, and we took 2 rides on it Saturday night; one at sunset and one in the dark. It was lovely. We also played fireball, which is a very fun game that Jovi invented. At night, there were storms, but Kurt and I stayed warm and cozy in our tent. I was very happy with the tent's performance. We've only camped in it during good weather without the rain fly, so this time we staked all the stakes and properly secured all the flaps and the tent was warm, yet well ventilated and dry. I enjoyed waking up in the night to hear the storms and the rain on the tent. Also a bonus, our air mattress hardly deflated at all. Usually, we wake up with our butt and lower backs hitting the ground, but it was not so this night. It was an excellent night of camping.

puppies & pie

Yesterday was my first time at a Girl Scouts program. I helped my coworker plan it. It was a family field day. We had all kinds of those little games you play as a child, like a ping pong relay and a 3 legged race. It was over 90 degrees outside, but we had a breeze and most of the area was shaded, which helped. By the end of the day, though, I was exhausted.

Kurt's mom made 3 pies yesterday, and then invited us over to eat them! That was a lovely Sunday evening treat. She made peach pie from the peach tree in the backyard, apple pie, and lemon meringue. They were all delicious. Afterwards, we went to Kent & Alisha's house to see their adorable new puppies. They are only 8 weeks old, so they are still clumsy. It was fun. After that we went to Perkins to do the crossword puzzle.

I went to bed at 10:30 and slept until 8:30. I feel pretty rested today. :0)

visit to Omaha

Yesterday I was in Omaha for training for work. I have not been in Omaha as often as I thought I would the past year. The Girl Scout office in Omaha is about a block or 2 from the LFS office. It's right next to an apartment complex where I placed 2 of my clients and by the middle school where I mentored a girl for a year and a half. It was a very, very nostalgic visit. For lunch, I went to the newly opened Bhutanese/Nepali grocery store/restaurant. I ran into a former coworker and an old client of mine came and spoke to me. He very clearly remembered that I helped pay for an electric bill for him before he started working. He thanked me and said he missed me. He says he mentions my name all the time when he goes to LFS now, and that nobody still works there from when he first came to Omaha. That was a little overwhelming in a good way. The food was delicious and the training was interesting. It was a Wednesday, and Wednesdays are my brutal days because I get up at 5:15am for my show on KZUM. I had a few other activities for the night, and I was more than ready for bed at an early hour. It was nice because Kurt was in a better mood, and I was happy and thankful when bedtime rolled around (at an early hour).

4 months

OK. So in 4 months...
I turned 31
My first nephew was born
I went 3 weeks on one tank of gas
I spent a long week in Michigan with my husband
I kayaked on Lake Michigan (not my first time, but always lovely)
I commuted on my bike regularly (my first time)
I recovered from a terrible back injury
I put on weight while healing from that terrible back injury
I left my job at the state
I started a new job at Girl Scouts
I started running again after the terrible back injury
I swept and mopped the entire house (hadn't been done since May)
We bought a new car (for Kurt)
We went to Denver with a big group of friends
I started using a real planner again, the kind with paper
I joined the board of Lincoln Literacy

This past weekend was Labor Day weekend. We didn't do a whole lot. Kurt was on call, and he's bummed about work. We ate out a few times. I played Dominion with Spanky and Becca Sunday and Monday nights, which was a lot of fun. It's such a fun game! I ran 5 miles on Saturday and 5 miles on Sunday. I cleaned for 3 hours on Monday while Kurt went into the office for a little while. I read Lipstick Jihad, which was an incredibly fascinating book about Iran and I would highly recommend it to anyone. Last week was in the 90s and above, and Sunday it finally cooled down. We walked to church on Sunday and biked to Jimmy John's, which has become our default place to do the crossword puzzle each week. It's close to our house, they don't care if we sit for hours, the music is great, and it's cool in the summer and warm in the winter. Sometimes I miss doing the crossword puzzle at Great Wall in Waverly, but it's just a pain to drive out there these days.