No food in YOUR tent!

I was doing a bit of reminiscing and thought about my son's first year at summer camp.

Two things happened that I want to remember.  God willing, he will continue along the trail to become an Eagle and these stories will be invaluable then. 

The morning of parent's night, my son called me.  I don't remember what he needed now, but he wanted me to bring something that he wanted from home.  It should be pointed out here that our troop has a strict "no electronics" policy on camp outs.  I assumed that my son was using one of the adult's phones at the time of this call.  When I arrived on site, the first person I saw was the scoutmaster. I said hello and then mentioned that my son had called and needed this or that.  Mr. G looked quite surprised, but having this information was about all he needed.  He later asked my son how he called home and my son, not thinking about implicating someone, just honestly answered that he used T's phone.  Mr. G found this boy and had him text other scouts.  A whole bunch of phones were confiscated that night.  The moral is, if you are going to bring your phone to camp, chances are you will get caught. ;)


My son became slightly addicted to Slurpies while at that camp.  The first real time away from home with some spending money and he was spending it on Slurpies!  On family night, he asked for a Slurpie and we headed down to the trading post to get one.  We headed back to the campsite and after a bit of relaxation, it was time to head to closing ceremonies.  My son took his slurpie and set it inside of the tent.  His scoutmaster gently reminded him that "food shouldn't be put in your tent because it will attract animals." My son happily replied, "OK! I know! That's N's tent!"
(My son is a little TOO literal)

February 28, 2012 Chardon, Ohio

From a Parents Perspective.

I logged onto facebook this morning and one of the status updates that I read said: "Oh dear God, not Chardon High!!!!"
My heart sunk, because although my son attends a different school, many of the young men from his scout troop
go to that school.  I turned on the tv and replied to my friend's update asking what was going on. She of course responded with
the news of the shooting.  I texted our scout master and started dialing the parents of the scouts.  I coundn't get a hold of anyone.
I decided that I couldn't sit at home any longer, so I headed up to the school. 

Once there, I parked at St, Mary Chardon. It is my parish away from home since it is where the scout troop is based.  I ran across
the street to the middle school where parents had been told to pick up their students.  People were standing around, just waiting.
Over and over, I heard people say, "This is Chardon. This is the country. I moved here so this wouldn't happen."  I saw a few of the
parents that I knew and was glad to give hugs and offer words of support.  By now, another parent had made contact with most
of the troop and we knew that "our boys" were all safe. We also have a parent who teaches in the school, and he was safe as well.

At some point, parents were then instructed to go over to Maple Elementary.  They allowed us to walk through the Chardon High School
field to cross over to the elementary school.  While parents were waiting, there was some normal chatter.  I glanced back at the high school
and students started filing out.  They were instructed to get in a line and file into Maple.  The parents were moved to another line.
The students were chatting and it seemed almost surreal.. as if nothing had happened. Kids were laughing and on their phones and
parents were waving and obviously relieved to see their child.  It took about 20 minutes, when silence sort of fell over the crowd.  Then
for a while, it was strangely calm and quiet.  As parents were reunited with students, and started exiting the elementary school, that's when
the reality might have begun to set in.  There were hugs and tears and lots of emotion.

At this point was when some of the rumors really started to fly.  I heard things about twitter. I heard things about the shooter being bullied.
I heard things about fights being rampant at the school lately. I heard things about drugs.  And it hit me.
It. doesn't. matter.
None of it.

What matters most is how to move forward from this. It is going to take a long time. Some kids are going to be angry, some are going to be scared,
some scared and some are going to be ok.  Even students from other schools are going to experience feelings.  We as adults are going to have to
be caretakers AND remember to take care of ourselves.  We are allowed to be afraid and sad too.  3 young men have lost their lives. More than 3
families have been ripped apart in what we feel is senseless violence.

We need to give it time.... it will stay with us for a long time. I am blessed to be able to work with a group of great young men. We will get by. We will survive.

Klondike again

Just when I think I am ready for something, things change.

It was hard enough last year to let my young son head off to Klondike. You may remember that I was worried about having my child returned to me with all of his fingers and toes.  I prepared him the best I could.  I bought gear that kept him warm and happy. I made sure that he packed it all and sent him off.  He returned happy and full of adventure. And he had all of his digits.  I was secure that as the years wore on, this would just be old hat for me. I could just buy the bigger sizes of what I had previously purchased and all would be good.


Enter this year. The strangest winter I can remember in the Cleveland area. Snow? We don't need no stinkin' snow. Cold... not as much. What is going on??
It is RAINING in January and the temps are hovering right around 40 during the day and not even dipping to freezing at night.  So when it does snow, it is that wet, horrible, slushy, heavy stuff.
You know, the stuff that is just perfect to camp in. UGH!  I don't even know if he is prepared this weekend for all the wet, damp, cold and mud.

It takes every ounce of self control not to turn into a raving lunatic of a mother, insisting that he stay home and sit by the fire with some hot cocoa and watch NCIS or House with us all night.  I know that in my heart of hearts, this is good for him. I don't need to hover. He will learn from all of this. He will have fun. He is making great memories of his childhood. So, I drive him and hang out in the parking lot while he largely ignores me. He is doing important stuff, like loading the trailer and talking to his friends. One quick hug before they leave and I get in my car and head home.

It's quiet here. And I am worried about fingers and toes again. SIGH!

Creatures of habit

Strangely enough, my son is home sick with a sore throat and Klondike is coming up this weekend.
It is amazing to me that we were in this same place last year too.

THE SOUP!??

I was just reading through last year's post about Klondike and was reminded that JD's favorite part was the soup. I never did revisit this and may have left my readers wondering what kind of soup it was.

At Klondike, there is an entrance fee along with a can of soup that shouldn't be cream based. Here I thought that it was part of a collection to give to a homeless shelter or some other facility.

At the meeting after Klondike, I told one of the adult men that went on the trip about JD's great affinity for the soup and asked him what kind it was.
He laughed and told me that I could never recreate it and that it might not even be as good next year!

I was puzzled until he explained that all the cans of soup that the boys bring with them are dumped into a huge pot and stirred up and heated. Each boy is given his empty can back and throughout the weekend, as they travel from activity to activity, they can have some soup ladled into their can to keep warm and happy!

Boys and their simplicity make me happy!

Winter Camping time again

I am really not good at keeping up with this blog.

Here we are again, one year later from the last time I posted. My son is headed to his Klondike again in a week and I can say that this year is much easier. This time though, it seems like it might be a mud bath! Oh, clean up will be joyous!

JD has made 2nd class with his troop and has earned a handful of merit badges. Over all he is having a good time. Most recently, he has started patch trading. He found someone in Australia to trade patches with and this is pretty exciting. It is a hobby that comes with a whole new set of rules, but can be very rewarding. He is also considering the possibility of a World Jamboree next year in West Virginia. This is something else that I would have to worry about and help him prepare to do. I feel like just when I become comfortable, he throws something else in there that I need to learn about.

Any tips out there on preparing for a World Jamboree?

Boy Scout Klondike Trip

I think I will start using this blog for tracking my son's boy scout activities and my reactions to them all. His first summer camp was interesting.... I will get back to that later.

For now, here we sit on the Friday of his Klondike trip. This is when the scouts go camping in the winter. In the snow. This doesn't even sound remotely fun to me, but to some of the boys it is like pure gold.

It started out with my son going on the Thanksgiving trip and declaring it was too cold and that he wanted no part of the Klondike. I thought to myself, "Good, then I don't have to deal with trying to figure out what to purchase to keep him warm and safe."

Fast forward to 2 weeks before the trip, when after the meeting, my dear child hops in the car and says, "OK, I am going!" "Going? Going where?" I ponder. "Klondike! I am the littlest guy and I will get to drive the sled!" I am immediately ticked off because I know that it is my responsiblity to go to the store and make sure that he has all the proper equipment so he comes home with all of his fingers and toes.

I head to the store and find that most of the stuff was on sale. Thank goodness. I got him liner socks, wool socks, thermal underwear both tops and bottoms. I even got the thermals in 2 sizes because the price was so low... that way next year I won't be caught off guard. I got some hand warmers too. My husband was a scout and is an avid hiker, so he had a great sleeping bag for JD to use. Of course, JD had his snowpants, boots and gloves at home. He was set to go.

JD came down with quite a cold on the Tuesday before and I wasn't sure I should let him go. It got so bad, my mom ran him to the doctor for me on the day he stayed home with a fever. The doctor told her to tell me to let him go. I still wasn't convinced and so the compromise I struck was that JD could go for one night. On Friday night, the scouts get to camp and set up tents and hit the sack. I thought that it was a fair compromise. George woke up early Saturday morning and got JD to camp before the festivities began.

When JD came home, we asked him if he had fun and he said it was a blast. When I asked him what his favorite part was, he said, "THE SOUP!"
Seriously? all that planning and shopping and it was the soup. Brother.