Allison camping...in October

Now, how many of you thought that you would ever see Allison out camping, let alone with November almost here? How about if I told you that it was her idea for us to go and she said she wanted to go along (not just send the rest of us)?

So, this weekend was the Cub Scout Halloween camp out. Last year I guess there were over 800 scouts on the camp out. This year they thankfully broke it up into two weekends, and last weekend was the crowded one :) The kids had a blast. Brian's favorite was the climbing wall and "rifle" (known to the rest of the world as BB gun) shooting. He did amazing on the climbing wall. It was one of the horizontal walls that you can climb all the way around (at least theoretically). So picture scouts hanging on this wall everywhere all trying to climb around. Amazingly they all went the same direction, but at quite different speeds. So traffic jams abound, in which the kids are all trying to hang on and (unsuccessfully sometimes) not step on each others feet (or hands). Yet, Bri made it all the way around w/o falling. Kel wasn't as successful, not from lack of trying. But she was quite happy with her balloon painting and cat tattoo...although she did not enjoy when the scouts scared each other in the maze. Result: one crying Kelly and one Scout apologizing to her the rest of the weekend. Of course, the trick or treating was a good time for all.

So, how did Allison do? Well, aside from freezing last night (it does get cold down here at night even though it is still decently warm during the day). As camping goes, it was pretty nice. They had a gator to haul our gear to the campsite. Pretty nice bathrooms (adult only ones as well) and even the camp food at the dining hall wasn't too bad (I've had much worse in Brody). So all around it was a good time. They even had a nice service this morning, since we missed church, one of the camp leaders gave a great message to the kids about overcoming fear and trusting God.

In other parent bragging news. Bri had just got his report card Friday and was very proud to show us that he received all A's :)

Quick Update

So good news. Allison is feeling much better today, her poison ivy is fading, as is the soreness from her injection. She has concluded that the pills might have been a better (although slower) idea than the painful injection.
As for me, I had a trip to the doctor today to check out my finger. There is some bone and ligament damage, but each was just under being severe enough that it would need surgery. It will take awhile to fully heal, but I'll take that any day over surgery.

Some interesting ups and downs

Well, we've had some pretty good tings in these past weeks. In answer to Allie's prayer, we have some other packs helping us out with our excess popcorn. A little has left our house, so we now have a little more room to walk around :) Alright, it wasn't that bad, but there were a ton of boxes. In other scouting news we have a number of new recruits into our pack and, praise God, some other adults helping out a little bit. Now, if we can just encourage a little more from them without scaring them away. A big highlight to check off our list was the annual Cuboree this weekend. Six scouts and their parents (up from 2 last year and no parents) came this year from our pack. The kids have a blast. There were about 100 scouts there total, running around to stations teaching orienteering and astronomy to archery and bb-guns (any guesses on what was the big hit?) But, it was quite well run and not nearly as chaotic as it might sound. The kids had a blast, including Kelly who got about 5 hours of playing on the playground.

Brian has also started up soccer. At nine years old it is getting a little more organized, but still quite hilarious to watch the mash of kids chasing the ball around the field. Yet, they have managed to win one and tie one so far, so the kids are quite excited to be "undefeated".

On the flip side, I think Allison and I are both trying to kill ourselves. She somehow managed to get poison ivy yet again, although we have no idea where she managed to touch it as she has worked hard to avoid it. I have never seen someone who gets it so easy or on who it spreads so much. It came up Friday and she tried to make it through the weekend, but took a trip to urgent care tonight. One shot later and she should be feeling much better tomorrow, as long as she's not limping too much from being sore from the shot.

As for me, somehow I manage to hurt my finger in...of all things...flag football. Got it caught on someone's loose shirt when I was trying to grab their flag. Let it go for a little more than a week, but I still couldn't straighten it, so went in to get it checked. Sure enough it is broke, but they think the reason I couldn't straighten it is because something might be torn (appointment tomorrow to find out more)...come on, how does that happen in flag football. The good news is that I finished the game (threw for a touchdown and caught one other) and I am getting pretty good at typing with a splint on.

Alright, that's it for now I guess.