recap of the past week

hey all! Wow, what week I had! As you know last Monday we started VBS at our church. It was so much fun! I was the music director and I also done the opening ceremonies, the kids were all so well behaved during the week. Monday night Mr. B and I got the biggest surprise. We have been praying for our son Ty to get saved for a while and Monday night he went to the alter and got saved..praise GOD! My son wasn't the only one either, there were three others that night then on Tuesday night there was a 12 yr old girl that got saved then Thursday night there was a 9yr old boy that got saved.

I am sure that most of you know how crazy busy VBS week can be especially if you participate in it but to me it is so worth it. I was in charge of the opening ceremonies which means that each night I welcomed everyone in, ask our Pastor up for opening prayer, lead the pledges, introduced the kids doing skits, sung two songs, then I dismissed them to class. Once the kids were in class I would go help the ladies in the Fellowship Hall who were preparing snacks or I would help the director do things.

Monday night it stormed before and during Bible school, I walked out of the church to go to the F.H. and there was two beautiful, huge rainbows in the sky then on Friday it stormed something awful before Bible school and later that evening there two more rainbows that appeared in the exact same spot as the first two on Monday, all of the kids got a kick out of the rainbows.

Last night my son was baptized at church, that was another blessing! I have to say that right now my cup of blessings is over flowing! I am so tired that I can't sleep but I need to sleep because I haven't had much sleep at all this week , even with that I am happier than I can explain.

Last night we had our VBS Commencement and we had a big crowd. I was so nervous because my allergies chose to really bother me yesterday and my voice was just about gone so when it came time to sing our two songs for opening ceremonies I asked the kids to stand up and help me sing because my throat wasn't doing so good. Those kids sung so beautifully and it was a good thing because my voice went out on the third verse of our last song. I really love working with children and the more I work with them, the more I want to work with them.

As I said earlier in this post, I have not had much sleep this week. I actually haven't been sleeping well for the past couple of weeks but last week was so much worse. I averaged between an hour to three hours a night then on Saturday night I slept for about thirty minutes, woke up and couldn't go back to sleep so after church I came home and took a much needed two hour nap.

Wednesday morning I have to get up at 4 AM and get Bethany ready to go to Niagra Falls, Canada. Her Girl Scouts troop is leaving at 5AM that morning and won't be back until late Sunday night. I am going to miss her so bad but this is a trip that most 11 yr olds do not get the privilege of taking.

So how has everyone been for the past week? I am hoping to have some time this week to go back and read over posts that I missed. I will get around to all of you before this week is out, I promise!

Okay, I am going to sign off now! Y'all have a great day, be safe and take care!

the ceremony...

I hope I don't bore all of you all with this but I am just so proud of my daughter for what she has accomplished. Earlier this evening we attended the Awards/Bridging Ceremony. The ceremony started off with Bethany being the "Caller" for the Color Guards, we then saluted the flag and said the Pledge of Allegiance. Here is my daughter calling the guards. She knows the drill by heart but she gets nervous in front of other people so she has to have a card with the words on it or she will forget them.














Their troop leader, Ms. D, lit the middle candle then as tradition goes, the oldest bridging girls in the troop get to light a candle off of the middle candle. This pic is of Beth lighting her candle.














This is Ms. D pinning the Bronze on Beth, I have to admit that I was starting to tear up at this point.














Ms. D wanted to do something special for the girls since they had worked so hard on their Bronze and even though she will be their troop leader in Cadettes, she wrote them a letter that she read out loud, it was very sweet and heart warming. While Ms. D was reading the letter I was trying to take pics and find tissues, yep I was crying! I can't help it, I am so proud of my daughter and she has worked so very hard to get to this point. Ms D wanted the younger girls of the troop to do something nice for the Bronze winners so that they would always remember this day of not only bridging from Juniors to Cadettes but also receiving the Bronze. Anyways, the younger girls found this flower idea somewhere in the Girl Scouts ceremonial archives.














Here is a better look at the flowers my daughter received from her Junior troop tonight. Each flower stands for something different and the girls made a card to each one of our girls bridging.The card reads exactly like this:

Bethany,

This is for you to remember your Bridging Ceremony in Girl Scouts from Juniors to Cadettes on May 22, 2007.

Silver-stands for the morning, the beginning of a new day, when each day presents a new challenge.
Yellow-stands for Daisy, the founder of Girl Scouting.
Pink-stand for all the girls in Girl Scouting.
White-stands for the purity in every Girl Scouts heart.
Gold-stand for the Trefoil pin which reminds us of our Girl Scout Promise.
Purple-stands for horizon, the future toward which we look.
Turquoise-stands for the water which sustains life in addition to giving us pleasure.
Brown-stands for the earth on which we live.
Green-stands for all plant life that beautifies our earth.
Red-stands for fire which glows for warmth and friendship.
Blue-stands for the sky, under which we are united by our ideals.
Orange-stands for a sunset, which signifies the close of a new day.

May colors here, stand for the colors of your life.
All of the members of Junior Girl Scout Troop 905.

Here are the flowers, the vase represents the silver. Please excuse my mess that needs to go to the post office in the background and my glass of iced tea.














Here is a pic of the Bronze Award patch that she got, however, it will be displayed on her new Cadette vest.














On the right of the numbers is the Bronze pin. See the badge with the red rose? Bethany's troop (which at the time consisted of 12 girls) designed that during their first year of Juniors in 2004. Pretty cool huh?














School is out as of today so I am going to sleep late in the morning so I will catch y'all when I get up, which will probably be about 8am bceause if I sleep till 8 it feels like noon to me. Have a good day, be safe and take care!

proud mama.....

Saturday from 10am-2pm my daughter, Bethany, and four other girls in her Girl Scout troop, held a food drive for the hungry outside one of our local grocery stores. When the drive was over the girls boxed up all of the non-perishable food items, helped load it into vehicles then dropped it off at our county's food pantry. The drive was a huge success, it took three vans to haul all the food to the pantry. Immediately after this the troop leader informed all of the girls that they all had completed the requirements and had officially earned the Bronze Award which is the highest honor a Junior Girl Scout can earn.

The girls had to create a project from beginning to end all by themselves. It had to show that they had learned leadership, commitment to their community, and that they were living what they have learned the past three years, which is the Girl Scout Promise and Law. I have to give it to the girls, they done a great job creating this service project. Their main idea in this project was not only to help feed the hungry but to educate the community on the difference between "the poor" and "the hungry". They wanted the community to know that it isn't just the poor that is hungry and I thought they had a good point there, they have even taught me a thing or two in the past few months. One woman bought and gave $150 worth of non-perishable food items to the girls. It was truly amazing! The girls made a list of items they needed then made 200 copies to hand out as people walked into the grocery store. Of course there were some people that were very rude and unfriendly about it, this type always have to show up.

Another thing about the Bronze Award is that you can complete the requirements only as a Junior Girl Scout but you can't receive the actual award until you have bridged to a Cadette. My daughter will bridge tomorrow evening and I can't wait!

Y'all have a good day, be safe and take care!