Roasted Rabbit

In Cub Scouts last week we had an Easter Egg hunt followed by toasting marshmallows over a fire. What do you think, too morbid to roast Peeps? The boys didn't think so.
("Cool! I melted his ear off!")

Slam Dunk

Last year our school raised money to build a school in Kenya, and now that we have made that connection I imagine we will continue to fundraise for education in that area of the world. At Christmas we raised funds for desks for the school, and this week we raised money to build a separate kindergarten because the wild elephant herd nearby was making it dangerous and difficult for the small ones to walk to school.

Part of the fundraiser was a dunk tank, which I was sure would be very popular, particularly when the junior high teachers took a turn in the tank. Then a notice came home that students in grades 6-9 could enter a raffle to have their own turn in the dunk tank (yet another way to collect money). I wasn't surprised when Carmen asked if as long as it was her own money, could she buy some tickets for a chance in the dunk tank?

(Funny story: she didn't just enter her own name, she also entered the name of a friend who was very surprised to be selected to sit in the dunk tank, but was a good sport and afterwards told her mom she was 'so grateful Carmen entered me!')

Carmen is a lucky kind of kid, so she also was selected for a turn in the dunk tank:

Ken questioned me allowing this, especially with snow on the ground. Carmen said, "Dad, we're Canadian. We don't wait another day for better weather." Ha!

A couple of boys from Carmen's class took a shot (she had to sit in the dunk tank for 5 minutes and however many dunks that involved). Then Chloe got a turn - she missed, but Mr. M obligingly hit the button for Chloe.

Carmen says you don't have time to feel the fall, just suddenly you're in the water.

The water was heated, so the real cold didn't set in till after she got out. Still happy, though!

(Uncle Kevin recently suggested there may not be any limits to what Carmen would be willing to do for a good cause.)

The Secret Life of B.

I'm totally converting to Lush products. I got *Big* shampoo for a gift, and I have since added the conditioner, facial scrub, cleansing cream, astringent, and moisturizer. This is a far cry from the hand soap and Vaseline Intensive Care hand lotion I've been using for the past 20 years on my face. Going high maintenance? Throwing pennies in the fountain of youth? Not really my goal - it just smells really good.

We're nearly finished finishing the basement. Ken developed the basement himself in our first house, and it's taken awhile to bite the bullet and pay someone to do the basement for us this time. After we signed the papers Ken told me he felt like a failure not doing it himself. I suggested maybe he should feel like a success that he can afford to pay! 

A-ke-la! We'll do our best! I've been aspiring to Cub Akela for 10 years, and it's finally happened. I sorted through the materials from the previous Akela yesterday and found these photo corners, clearly included in the craft supplies because they look like wolf silhouettes (almost as cute as my actual wolf cubs).

Football: the year-round sport. Ninth grade is the beginning of the best 3 years: fall and spring football! In the high school years community football runs in the spring so as not to interfere with school football in the fall. And then Drills and Skills run all winter, and Steven may possibly (hopefully) help coach Pee-Wee football in the summer for 10-12 year olds. Not that we're obsessed or anything - Steven was still capable of making the choice to miss practise on Monday in order to study for a science exam.

I need to dress better on Fridays. Monday through Thursday Ken goes to work in dress clothes and comes home and changes into grungy clothes. But on Friday Ken wears business casual (nice jeans, nice shoes, sharp shirt) and then if we go out on Friday night he looks great, whereas for me, especially if it is a 'spontaneous' outing, not so much. I need to get out of my mom-i-form on Fridays. (Though Ken was a little over-dressed for our Costco date last night.)

I've been practising yoga for awhile now, maybe that's been a secret, but not on purpose. I just don't know what to say about it. Sometimes it's totally invigorating, sometimes it's defeating. I'm always glad I did it. Marie asked me: Isn't it boring? (Not when you're old like me.) Besides, it gives me practical skills I can use like when I'm putting on my second dress boot crouched on one foot of the first high heeled boot and don't fall over in my in-laws front entrance after a Sunday dinner. Plus I'm totally bought in: I'm chanting along at the beginning of class, I feel the earth supporting me, I'm all about allignment and side-body-long and leading with my heart and opening to grace. I've go it bad. (And better muscle tone than anything else I've done.)