Busy, Busy, Busy...

These past few months have most definitely been a whirlwind!

Granted, I may have overloaded my plate for this year, but I secretly enjoy staying busy.

While I wish that I could say I am staying busy with my social life, let's be honest...that is just downright laughable! Ha, ha!

Since the Summer has ended, and Fall is now upon us, Emma has started THIRD GRADE! 

Seriously, though...WHOA.

Haylee has turned THREE YEARS OLD!

Again...WHOA.

We had to get Em ready for school, since third grade is apparently a huge leap from second grade!

That is no joke by the way. 

She has much more homework, their curriculum is much tougher, and everything seems to be a lot more intense. She was placed in the co-teaching class, with two teachers and 50 students, which I was very unsure about once I found out. But it has actually been very good for her! 

She has an extra set of eyes, and hands to help her, and she is benefitting from having two ways to have a topic explained to her. Two similar, yet different, approaches to each subject. 

Overall, we are loving her teachers and their communication with the parents!

Then we had Haylee's Dinosaur Birthday at the bouncy house place. 

Yup, our girl loves her some Dinos and bouncing! 

We also had a numerous amount of friends' kids birthday parties to attend, so that took up a lot of time during September.

So besides the girls and their overall busy-ness, I have taken over Em's Girl Scout troop as the main leader, and added five extra girls! That brings our troop to a total of 14 GIRLS!

Yup, 14. That makes us an official 'Super Troop', haha! 

Which means that we will get to earn extra money during Cookie Season, so that's cool!

Then there is the all consuming, never-ending task that I took on for Emma's school as their Box Tops Coordinator. Yup, you read that right...Box. Tops. Coordinator.

It is a lot of work. 

Including: advertising at the school, setting up contests, collecting from the school as often as I can, clipping, counting, sorting, mailing, and on and on!

HOWEVER, like I said before, I secretly enjoy it!

It definitely keeps me busy and always thinking.

In fact, I have come up with two new ideas that the school has never done before, so it will be kind of exciting to see how it all goes this year!

In case you were wondering, each Box Tops brings in .10 cents, which adds up pretty damn quick!

Also, with helping out the school as much as I can, I hope to be able to find some sort of para-educating role once Haylee starts Kindergarten...

So with all the school stuff, and Girl Scout stuff, and toddler stuff, and house stuff, I have been kind of M.I.A. the last month or so!

But once everything falls into it's place soon, hopefully I'll be around more!

The funniest part about all of this, is that everything I end up doing, brings in zero income!

It's all volunteer-based work, which is something I can honestly say that I would never have seen myself doing nine years ago!

But again, I enjoy doing it.

And I enjoy helping out where, and when, I can!

Girl Scouts, Thirty-One and BoxTops! Oh My!

I think that this has been the longest stretch of time that I have not posted!

The last couple of months have been pretty busy, but mostly I just haven't had much to say...

Not too exciting of an excuse, huh? Well sometimes honesty is boring!

So what have I been up to? Well mostly, Girl Scouts and Thirty-One. I have been working my business a lot more lately, and from doing so I was able to treat myself to a brand new iPhone 6! 

I didn't realize that by volunteering to become a Girl Scout Troop Leader, that I would be devoting so much time, energy and brain power! But it's fun, and more fulfilling than I thought it would be. 

We have taken the girls out on two day-trip outings, tried new snacks, planned our Taking Action Project, and have signed up for our communities Fire Engine Food Drive next month! We will also be  putting together a Food Drive ourselves sometime in the Spring, after cookie season. Which is coming upon us quickly! In fact, official 'Cookie Training' begins in early December. I can say this much about volunteering: it has been keeping me busy, and thinking outside of the box. 

And for that, I am Thankful!

Girl Scouts Mission

I have also been helping out Em's school with their BoxTops program. I volunteered to help sort and count the entire 4th grade! It has honestly been a lot easier than I expected, which is a bonus! The hardest part for me is figuring out the logistics of taking Haylee to the school to collect them...not the easiest task with her in tow!

Emma has started second grade and gymnastics! Which she is in love with! She takes to it so naturally, that I really do think she has found what she loves to do! I would like to see her climb the perverbial ladder to maybe someday compete. She has mentioned it in passing, but I don't think she quit understands the demands of that yet. Any why should she? She is only seven years old, after all!

Haylee turned TWO in September! Two years old! Where did that time go?! She is no longer  our baby, but now a toddler! And boy oh boy, does she do her job well! She keeps us on our toes, and keeps me busy all. day. long! But damn, is she cute!

On another note, I cannot believe that Thanksgiving is this week! Where did the Fall go?! But then again, bring on the Christmas tunes and the bright shinny lights! It just goes by so dang fast, I don't feel like I can catch up! 

I guess I didn't realize that trying to summarize the past four months would be so difficult! I suppose that just means that I need to step up and start writing more often!

I truly hope that you and yours have a very Blessed and Plentiful Thanksgiving! 

Cookies!

OK, so it was a busy week...

 

This is Emma's first year as a Girl Scout Daisy, and cookie season is in full swing!

We have spent the entire past week delivering her cookie pre sale orders, and collecting money. Phew, that was a lot of cookies! She reached her goal of 200 boxes, surpassing it by one, ha! She sold 201 boxes during the pre sale! 

 

 

And this last weekend was the troops very first cookie booth sales!

Half of the troop did one store on Saturday, then the other half {including us} did a store yesterday. Over all, for it being their first time doing this, they did amazing! Not to mention that it was pretty much the cutest thing I had seen in quit awhile! Between the two booths, they sold about 111 boxes, and had some donations for Operation Cookie Drop!

 

 

Considering where we live is absolutely overflowing with Girl Scouts, this is quit the accomplishment! We have 2 weeks left of booth sales, so wish us luck {although these little ladies don't need luck, they are just that good}!