Outdoor woman again!

Matthew is officially a Tiger Cub Scout. Yay! He is also now selling popcorn if anyone wants any??? 

I am (of course!) leading his den. I also have a nifty shirt to wear. I thought leading two girl scout troops was not enough so I wanted to lead Matthew's den. Yikes! Also I planned on leading his troop the way I lead my girls troops - with crafts and coloring. Something tells me that might not work as well with 6 and 7 year old boys. 

Matthew as a cub scout

 This weekend I went on my Women in the Outdoors weekend with NWTF. It was a blast! I went with Michelle and we had a fantastic time. It was in a new location - Pleasant Hill Camp. I just love the variety of classes at this camp. This particular camp is very gun/hunting focused whereas camps in the past were more watercraft focused. This camp even had a field to freezer class where they actually took a deer and cut it up. I did not take that class.

Camp selfie

The cabin we slept in

 The classes I took were:

1. Defensive knife - This class really made me think about the usefulness of carrying a knife. They are handy in many situations. So I bought one. 
2. Shotgun - I like shooting clay pigeons. Out of 18 shots I hit 4. This is not a spectacular percentage but better than last time.
3. Kayak - Yes! I love kayaking but we only were on the water an hour. I would have liked a longer kayak trip. It was still nice though.
4. Archery - boooyah! This is my favorite. I have picked archery every single time we have done WITO. I love it. Please note - I put a bow and arrow on my amazon wish list.
5. Automotive maintenance - this class was ok. I thought we were going to take apart cars. Instead they just talked about how to change a tire, oil, etc. I like hands on better. 

Michelle shooting

Me shooting

Hilarious spatula

The group

 This weekend is always a great getaway weekend for me.The new location is nice however there were only 8 showers for 105 women. Not enough. We had to ration our shower time. However the food was really good for a camp. There was a taco bar for lunch - yum! And french toast casserole with pure maple syrup they made there for breakfast. YESSSSS! I love going and want to go next year too!

I got back Sunday afternoon and we went over to Matt's surprise birthday party. It was at my new friend Megan's house. She is my secret twin. When I went to her house I saw she had the same bread machine and bread cookbook as me. SAY WHAT? Yes - she truly is my secret twin. Then she tripled her bread dough recipe in her bread machine. I told her she was out of her mind but she did it anyway. Yikes! It turned out great though. She and I have read almost all of the same books. I brought my cookies too and one of her sons said "I knew these cookies would be good because you are my mom's twin so you must be a good cook."

Wow that's a lot of ingredients

Megan and the bread machine

In other news:

• I finished Monster Hunter International by Larry Correia. This is just a silly book and I loved it! I'll be starting on the second book after I finish my new round of books.
• The newest book in the Throne of Glass series came out and it is at the library waiting for me. So I'm going to pick it up ASAP. Rumor is that it isn't as good as the 5th book. Bummer!
• Instead of sleeping while I was at the Women in the Outdoors weekend I read Legend by Marie Lu. It was a great book! I got the second book in the series on kindle as well.
• Our Cooper book club is reading Joel's latest book about Spaceman Steve. This book is FANTASTIC! Seriously! It is his best book and very well written. He could do a series on Spaceman Steve and I would read every book. 
• I'm preparing for the classes I'm teaching next session. It should be a fun session with Advanced Visual Basic.

New School Year

This is the year I have been waiting for. This is it! The year that all my kids are in school full time. Last year Matthew's kindergarten schedule was Monday/Thursday every other Wednesday. Somehow we figured it out. This year in first grade Matthew goes to school every day. It has been somewhat of an adjustment but he is doing well. Jenna is in 7th grade, Sarah in 4th with Mrs. Sheehan and Matthew in first with Mrs. Shaw. Jenna doesn't have just one teacher. She has many teachers and is all over the school with her schedule. It's been a good start of the year.

Jenna's first day

Matthew and Sarah's first day

Matthew and Mrs. Shaw

Sarah and Mrs. Sheehan

 We've been walking to school quite a bit which has been good. I walk to and from school at 0.8 miles each way. 0.8 *4 = 3.2 miles a day. Nice! Although I'm also back in my workout routine so I'm going to the Y every morning and taking all types of classes (bootcamp, body pump, spinning, zumba, etc). It's great since I've missed the Bible study at the Y. We have a 45 minute workout and then a 15 minute Bible study (which is actually always longer than 15 minutes!). Then after that one of my friends and I work on our pull ups. My goal is 2 pull ups and her goal is 1. I love the women in this workout Bible study.

The eclipse was August 21 and I went to a party at one of my friend's houses. She has a huge telescope and is a big nerd (like me!). She is also level 40 in pokemon go (the highest level). Both women on either side of me are level 40. We go on raids together even though I'm only level 32. They still take me along! I love these women too!

My pokemon buds

 I know I recently posted about my favorite oreo flavors and now there are two more at the grocery store to try. However these will most definitely not make the top 10. The Jelly donut oreo would be in the bottom 3 in fact. It is not good. However, this will not deter me from my mission to try all the oreos.

 I have been searching for a soup kitchen that will allow kids. Most you have to be 14 years old. We found one called the Bridge which works with refugees and has a soup kitchen on Tuesday evenings. We took the kids and they were really helpful. They served everyone there with a smile and even helped clean up. I'm planning on more trips like this in the future. One of the people we were serving said to the kids "thank you for doing this, you could be out riding your bikes and here you are serving us." That was awesome!

Jenna may also do her silver award project here. She has to do 50 service hours but they can't just be service hours. She has to include education and sustainability. She thought about fixing up their playground (shown in the picture).

Playground at the Bridge

In other news:

1. Our book club just finished All our Wrong Todays by Elan Mastai. It was fantastic. It was a book about time travel and the main character had many faults but it wrapped up so nicely. 
2. I am reading Monster Hunter International and love it! This is a humorous fantasy book that I would call brain candy. It's just silly and a fun read.
3. Yesterday we went to the Renaissance Festival. I didn't get any pictures but we had a great time. It was hot so we bought 8 bottles of water to cool us down. I think Erik drank 4 out of the 8 bottles. Labor day weekend is the best weekend to go since it is kids get in free. Kids are $10 apiece and adult tickets are $22.50. The shows are so much fun and we always have a great time. 
4. Tomorrow is our 20 year anniversary. We got married 9/6/97. SO long ago! We are going to the Cheesecake Factory to celebrate. Grandma is going to feed the kids dinner. Their dinner will not be as good as ours ;). 
5. Jenna's saxophone teacher moved to Tennessee. This is very sad since we LOVED her! Hopefully Jenna will like her new saxophone teacher. She is a really good player so we want to continue her lessons. 
6. I am not teaching this session but I have quite a bit lined up. I'm presenting at the Frontiers in Education conference, have a couple of trips lined up including Women in the Outdoors and am selling my jam at a craft show. So it will be a busy session. Not to mention in January I'm teaching 2 new classes. They are graduate classes so they will be wonderful. I LOVE teaching graduate classes. All the students work hard and turn in their assignments. Yay!