Last friday night Cooper got his Arrow of Light.
He also got his 20's Patch, which is pretty awesome. There are 20 different activity badges possible in Webelos, but only half of those are required to get your Arrow of light. Cooper went above and beyond. I am so proud of him.
Caden got his Religious Knot. As part of this he had to write down his testimony, and when I read it I felt all goose bumpy. There is something about a nine year old testifying in their own words about the Savior and the scriptures. I love being a mom.
It all sound so nice, which it was, but it was also all a little crazy. Jody had been gone out of town all week. (enough said) Then Colton got sick. I decided to leave Braelyn home with Colton while we went to the Blue and Gold. Then Brookie got sick. And Conner had an ear infection and possibly strep throat. So he and Brooke stayed home as well. I was responsible for bringing potato salad and a pie. There was a pie contest for all homemade pies. At one time in my life I would have loved the challenge and spent all day striving for pie perfection. Oh how life teaches us. I don't even feel the slightest bit guilty that my contribution was going to be a Marie Calendars Turtle Pie. And let's just admit it, it was way probably yummier than anything I would have concocted. I also had to go to the scout store that morning to buy Cooper his neckerchief and slide which he lost, and would never wear again, but needed for the ceremony. Add that in to an already crazy day and I was feeling a little overwhelmed. Then of course, because I am so fabulous at procrastinating, I had to sew the last six months worth of badges onto Coop and Cade's shirts. Amazingly enough, the four boys and I loaded ourselves and the potato salad into the car and set off down the road on time! No sooner had I rounded the corner than I realized we had a stowaway. Brooklyn was hiding in the way back of the car, determined not to be left behind. I quickly turned around and pulled back into the driveway. By this time Braelyn was outside searching for Brooklyn. Caden yanked open the car door to deposit her into Braelyn's waiting arms and SPLAT went the potato salad. All over the driveway. This started the blaming, exclaiming, ranting and raving. I jumped out of the car and looked over to see a realtor trying to talk to a man who was looking at the house next door. I'm pretty sure it only took him ten seconds to realize that we would NOT be ideal neighbors! I ran in the house with what was left of the potato salad to transfer it to another container, then screeched out of the driveway, arriving just after the opening prayer. Not too bad, right? About ten minutes into the program I realize that I had forgotten to pin back on Cooper's Webelos activity badge thing, which I had taken off to wash the shirt. With my life lessons in learning not too sweat the small stuff, I would have brushed it off...except... they make a big deal in the Arrow of Light ceremony of removing it. So I left the four boys (with a few good threats thrown in just to be sure they behaved) and ran home for the pin. I arrived back at Blue and Gold, only to realize I had left the pie in the fridge. At this point I decided who the heck cared. It was actually going to work out pretty good, because once I got home, got everyone to bed, rocked a sick baby, and picked up Jody from the airport, a turtle pie was going to be just the ticket. And I was right. It was delicious...every bite.
Apparently when they were trying to clean the shower they realized they couldn't reach the top. So they found every piece of clothing they could-clean, dirty, whatever-and stacked it up in the shower. It made for some extra laundry the next day, but it was worth the laugh!
