Girl Scout Cookies

Girl Scout Cookies...it's that time of the year already.

Now, I know that no one needs a reason to use up their Thin Mint cookies, but I do have one for you.

Thin Mint Brownies

1/2 box of thin mint cookies, crushed
1 box brownie mix
2 eggs
1/4 cup water
1/2 cup oil

Crush the cookies to medium sized chunks. Mix all ingredients in a bowl by hand, NO mixer. Spread into a greased 13X9 pan evenly. Bake at 350 for 30-35 minutes. Let cool and enjoy!

Now the reason I share this today, is that Cookie Booths open tonight. Our Troop has a booth tomorrow, and the girls will be out in force selling cookies.

Please remember that every box of Girl Scout cookies you buy goes to support the local Girl Scout unit and the individual Troop you buy from. So if you buy cookies from us, some money goes to our council to support events for the whole council of girls. Other money come directly to our Troop, and that is the money we use to go on trips, camping, earning out badges, anything and everything we do come from that money, unless we get other donations.

That being said...I encourage everyone to get out and support your local Girl Scouts, still after all these years helping girls navigate through the uncertainites of life to become strong, independent and productive women.

Summer Theatre

One Step Above Dance Studio Dasting Call for Summer!!

All students insterested in theatre should plan to participate in the 2011 OSA Summer Theatre Production.

Students will receive vocal, acting and dance training.

We will be offering two different musicals!

K-3rd Grade Students

We will be learing 101 Dalmations Kids. This 30 minute musical will be a great start to your child's musical experience.

Class: will be 2 hours 2x a week

Cost: $125 Summer Fee

***Boys are 1/2 tuition!!***

Costume Rental: $25.00

Audition Dates: May 11th, 4-9pm and May 14th, 10:30-1pm

Rehearsals: Begin the week of may 30th through August

Once you register, you will get your audition material and sign up for an audition time.

4th Grade and Up

Will be learing a 60 minute version of High School Musical Jr.

Class: Will be 3 hours a week 2x a week

Cost: $150 Summer Fee

****Boys are 1/2 tuition!!***

Costume rental: $25.00

Audition Dates: may 11th, 4-9pm and May 14th 10:30-1pm

Rehearsals: Begin the week of may 30th through August

Once you register, you will get your audition material and sign up for an audition time.

Dragon's Breath by E.D. Baker

Dragon's Breath by E.D. Baker

My rating: 5 of 5 stars
Dragon's Breath is the second book in the Frog Princess Series. The story continues right where the Frog Princess ended.

Again we are treated to Emma and Eadric, both as humans, although Emma is having a little magic problem, everytime she sneezes, she turns herself and Eadric back into frogs. It seems to happen at the most inconvient times too!

We revisit Grassina and Haywood, who is still an otter and their quest to reverse her mothers spell and turn Haywood back into a man, which turns out to be quite difficult and the results are not what anyone expected!

I read this book, with and to my children, and they laughed so much throughout the book. The loved the story and had such a good time listening. Each night it was, please just one more chapter, just one more. I would have been reading all night if I hadn't put a limit on the number of chapters per night.

I started out reading it with my daughters, and they loved it. They love Emma and they enjoy listening to what is going on and how things are resolved. Last night my son joined in on the story and it took us longer to read because we had to keep going back and explaining things to him, but he loved it as well. He liked Eadric more and laughed at him and enjoyed the story.

This is such a well written book, it is perfect for young girls, but there are enough Dragons, and swords and such to keep young boys interested as well. Book three in the series has already been requested for tonights reading.


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Weekends

Weekends are an animal of a whole different color around here. During the week, I get the kids off to school and then have a little time to myself before I start my morning rountine to write and blog. On the weekends, well, that is a whole new story.

With the kids home the whole time, I never get to write, or blog unless I wait until after they go to bed, or sneak some time during the day, and then it is not as fun and rewarding to do it if I have to sneak. For the most part, I just let me writing slide on the weekends, because computer time is almost non-exsistant for mom on the weekends, unless the kids are gone.

This weekend was no different, the kids had me busy, and no time to write, but I did get computer time, and that was only because as a group, the kids and I were playing a real-time game called Virtual Villagers.

Virtual Villagers was created by Last Day of Work, and they are a fantastic company and the game is great. We found them awhile back and the kids love to play, but it usually means, that Mom sits at the computer with the kids climbing around me sitting and we all decided what to do and when and what order and all that stuff. It is fun really. When else do I get to sit with the kids, all together, and we make choices and talk about things together without any fighting. I cherish those times!

Well, the last day of December, the company came out with their newest version of Virtual villagers, called Virtual Villagers 5: The New Believers. Each time they have came out with a new version it has changed the storyline and local a little, with the same basic premise underneath. The kids love this new one, and so we worked all weekend on it, and had a blast. We are almost ready to finish the game with the first tribe we created, but at the same time, we have thought of news ways we wanted to start and are looking forward to playing it again and again with new and different tribes.

Reading

As you might have noticed from the last couple of blog posts, I love to read! And I am not a snob about what I read either, I will even pick up a kids book and read it, especially since I have three kids. I have tried to instill a love of reading in my children by example, and I have to admit that at this point, the oldest two now love to read, although that was not always the case.

My oldest struggled to read in school. He is still behind his grade level in reading, but I could really care less about that, I don't care how fast he can read, only that he reads and understands what he is reading, and I know that he is doing that, so I am happy. The school taught phoncis, and he struggled to understand it and still sounds words out in a "strange" way, or at least to me is seems that way. Once he got older and learned other techniques to read he did better, and in the last year, he has went from a child who refused to read when asked to a child who can't but a book down!

My middle child has always been a reader, and she is ahead of her grade level, but I sometimes have to caution her to slow down and listen to what she is reading a little more. She loves to read and picks some really nice books to read, and sometimes some off the wall things, but we have fun and I love watching her read and hearing her or my son want to talk about the books they have read.

My youngest is in first grade and is way above her grade level in reading, but she is at this rebellion point where every book we present her with is "boring" and she refuses to read! The school year started with her picking books to read that were so below her reading level, and us encouraging her to pick beginning chapter books, only to have her respond that no one in her class could read chapter books so she couldn't read them. After a talk with the teacher and more encouragement, she started picking chapter books and found she could read them and enjoyed them. Now we are at this "boring" thing, and not sure what to do about it. We still read to all the kids at bedtime, and they love that, so I know she is hearing the written word and soaking it in, so I can only hope that the books are boring phase is short lived!

The other thing about reading that I love to do, is tied to my love of writing, and that is to tell others about what I read! Yep! I love to write about the books I have read and share them with everyone. I used to write reviews of the books on this blog, or my other business blog, but then I found www.goodreads.com and I write my reviews there, then they can be diretcly posted to my blog from there, so I only have to write them once, but two different crowds of people get to read them!

So far my writing of my reviews have been very basic and mostly I try to tell what I thought and felt without devulging too much of the story or plot. I am working on my writing of them and making them sound better to other people, but also giving you enough information to want to read the book without giving away the book itself. I find it fun to challenge myself to give more details in my writing, while maintaining the idea of not revealling the ending. It is fun and I enjoy it. More than anything, I love being able to combine two of my favorite things in the world together, reading and writing!

Cam Jansen and the Mystery of the Stolen Diamonds by David Adler

Cam Jansen and the Mystery of the Stolen Diamonds by David A. Adler

My rating: 4 of 5 stars


My youngest daughter is 6 years old an in 1st grade, but her reading level is more on the line of a 4th grader, which makes finding books difficult. I need to find things interesting and difficult enough to engage her, but yet she is still a 1st grader and as such not mature enough for some books.


Last night, she and I sat down to read this book. Now, having been a Literacy Assistant (basically a teachers aide that taught reading) in our local school for the past two years, I knew that Cam Jansen would be a pretty good fit. I had taught a number of the Cam Jansen books in my 1st grade high ability reading groups. So I picked out the first book in the series, always best to start in the beginning I always say.


Although she was not as interested as I wished she had been, she is rebeling against reading at the moment, which hurts her father and I to no end, as we both are big readers. But at the same time, I know it is a phase and shall pass, as it has with the other kids. We ended up reading the whole book.


It was a cute story. Loved the main character Cam, or Jennifer Jansen. Thought it was well done to encourage memory in shildren, they talked about playing the memory game to build your memory. Her best friend is Eric, a boy, and it was great to see a boy-girl friendship that was exactly that. Too many times on these supposed preschool and young kids tv shows and books based on the tv shows, they are more about dating, and who wants their 6 year old thinking about dating!


It's great book for the 1st or 2nd grader in your life.

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Minion by L.A. Banks

Minion by L.A. Banks

My rating: 5 of 5 stars


Minion was the first book by L.A. Banks that I ever read. I bought it a couple of years ago, and then life got in the way of my having the time to read it and it got shelved away.

After a visit with my sister-in-law, where she loaned me her collection of Sookie Stackhouse novels to read while we were there and o nthe drive home, I knew I wanted to read more in this type of genere. This being said, I am NOT a Twillight fan, couldn't stand the first book and never watched the movies, but I find some books to be better at this type of story.



So walking through the house, I rediscovered my copy of Minion and read it! I loved it! It was so hard to put down. I loved the references to good and evil, the backplots and the characters. It was such a good read.



I am looking forward to reading the next book in the series, although it was out at the library the day I went, and so I got started on L.A. Banks other series, a Crimson Moon, the first book being Bad Blood. Now I think I am going to have to finish this one before going back to the other.



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Barbie's Dream Townhouse

I was never much of a Barbie girl growing up. I mean I had a few, but I never really played with them like they advertised on tv, and I never had the Dream House, or the Camper or the Car or any of that stuff. Fastforward 30 some years and I now have two daughters of my own, and I am learning Barbie all over again.

My girls play Barbie like I never did. Maybe it is because there are two of them, and they can play together, nicely, for hours with the Barbies. I mean they love them, they have elabrate lives for these dolls and works and school and it is just amazing to listen to them.

So this year for Christmas, my youngest wanted the Barbie 3-story Dream Townhouse. I really was not in the mood to buy something like that, but she really wanted it, but when I went to look for it, it was sold out everywhere. Now she ended up getting new dolls and clothes and she was happy, but she really wanted that house. She also got money for Christmas, and she decided to buy the house herself. So I placed the order online at walMart and it arrived at the store last night, so I am off to pick it up today.

We did have a deal about this house, if she got this, then she would get rid of all the other little house things she had, like the old Dora playhouse that they never use. She was all for that, so before I heard to the store to pick up the house, all the old things are going out.

I have to say, one good thing about my girls loving their Barbies, is that when they think of something they want for them, their first thought is "Mom, can you make....." and that makes me feel good. I crocheted backpacks, that you could actually put stuff in, for the Barbies a couple of weeks ago, and two coats last week. I have made rugs and blankets, pillows and such in the past. I've done a dress and a hooded cape, so it makes me feel good to have the girls ask me to make stuff, and it feels good to think and design something on the fly that will work.

I think I am enjoying the Barbies more now than I did as a kid, but for a whole different reason now. I love being asked to help, to make things for them, and I love watching the girls play with the things I have made them. It makes me feel good as a person and as a mom. Maybe having girls isn't all that bad.

Quality Time

When you are dating or first married, you spend lots of time talking with the other person, you are together all the time, then the kids start coming, and more bills and life has a habit of getting in the way, and if you aren't careful all the sudden you realize you don't even know who you are married to anymore!

Long ago in our marriage we were advised to make time each day, even if it was only 5 minutes, and talk to each other. See what each others days held and what was going on and what each other was feeling. Those simple 5 minutes could be the difference in a marriage surving or failing.

Over the years we have tried to make sure we are doing that, but three kids and work and a house, a dog and a cat, dance, theater, school, all those things that seem to intrude, have done so, but one thing I can say for sure is that we always seem to remember that advice. Everytime we get to busy for it, and we get away from it, something will happen that will cause a disagreement between us, and it will become emotional, and one of us will mention the five minutes. Sometimes I say, we need to get back to our 5 minutes and other times it is my husband, but we both seem to realize that the disagreements came out of us neglecting that time together.

Right now the kids get on the bus at 8am and my hubby will stay home and not leave for work until 8:30, so that we can have our talk time. Now this will change once summer comes, but you know for now I am happy. I notice that I feel better about myself when we are talking, I can tell him what I want to get done in the day, how I am feeling about something and know that he is listening, and the same goes for him. This is time when there are no kids to pull us away, we can focus on each other and talk. There is a small part of me that knows that we should probably make sure the kids see us talking and know that this is a big part of marriage, but for now, I will take this time when I can get it.

We've been married almost 18 years now, and I won't say they have all been rosy, there have been many ups and downs, but I can say this much for sure, had we not been given the advice to talk to each other each day, we might not have made it this long. It is too easy in this world to give up and give in, and no one really teaches you what it really takes to make a marriage work anymore. I just know that for us, we need that time to talk and connect to each other.

If you're newly married or old timers, try it. Set aside some time when you can just talk, no accusations, no hurtful words, just talk and encourage each other. In only 5 minutes a day, you will see a big change in the way you relate to each other. You will begin to understand each other better and maybe even fall more in love with each other!

Missing In Action

WOW! Has it really been 8 months since I have been on this blog?! How can that be?

I have to say that life has been hectic! I am getting into a daily routine, but then Maeve auditioned for Narnia: The Musical and got cast, so we had practices in November and december, with opening night December 31st, and it ran through January 9th. It was a wonderful show, but the week before opening night, I did nothing but sew costumes, find props and work on the show, from 10am to 10pm, everyday, and then on show days, I was there early fixing costumes, or props or whatever else, and it felt like I had no life but that theater. Oh the things we do for our children! I loved it, in the respect that I was there with her, this is something she loves and I got to see her in her element.

Things have slowed down a little, but Maeve is still looking for summer theater to audition for, she has Dear Edwina coming up April 30th and May 1st, two shows both days at the Buskirk-Chumley Theater in Bloomington, and then competition dance season starts next month! WOW! That leaves little time for anything else.

Add to that, Maeve and Molly are both in Girl Scouts, Maeve in the troop that I am leading, and Molly in a Dasiy Troop, and there are outings and events coming up with those, along with cookies. The orders are placed, in fact I am picking up 110 cases of cookies this afternoon, but cookie booths are still to be had, so alot of time involved there.

And for me....i just want to write! I feel more alive, more me when I write and when I take that little bit of time for myself. So I am figuring out how to schedule the time, between laundry, dishes, dance, girl scouts, church, homework and everything else, to have a little time to write. I had to face the fact that when I don't write, I get depressed and my moods get unbalanced. It's just a fact of life, I am a writer at heart, and I need to write, even if it is just a imple daily journal, I need to write each day or I am not as good of a wife, mother, or woman as I could be, or am when I am writing.