February Happenings...

Bronchitis and some sort of super head cold has struck our house.  It all started with my husband.  Nearly a week into the New Year, he started coughing and learned early on that he had developed bronchitis.  A week later, I had a scratchy sore throat with head congestion.  Each day the symptoms of my head cold became more pronounced--achy eyes, throbbing head, raw nose (from blowing too much), and sheer exhaustion.  Today, six weeks later, I'm still suffering with a less acute version of it.  My husband is still coughing, and now, it appears, it's Little Lewie's turn.  Yesterday he started coughing, and today he's feeling tired.  Oh no!!!

This super cold has made it so that we're not doing very much at all.  We trek back and forth between home, school, and work.  We've managed to fit in a few swim lessons and Cub Scout meets (that is, in-between napping and lying on the couch with a box of tissues).  And finally, last week, I had enough energy to put away all my Christmas decorations and replace them with my Valentine's Day stuff.  Yes, when we're not feeling well, I can only celebrate the little stuff.  There's simply not enough energy to do anything more.

Here is a list of our February happenings, especially those that are planned (fingers crossed).

Scout Sunday
Today we celebrated Scout Sunday.  Each year, our Cub Scouts and Boy Scouts attend a special mass that is dedicated to recognizing the contributions of young people and adults in scouting (usually the second Sunday in February in our community).  There's not too much pomp and circumstance (Thank goodness!); instead, the scouts and leaders wear their uniforms and process in and out of mass with the alter servers, lector, and priest.  We sit at mass together, have a few nice things said about us, and then go home with our respective families.  Three of our boys brought up the flags this year, and Little Lewie and Dorian brought up the gifts.  Thankfully, we all had enough energy to participate and go out for breakfast before we returned home to sleep.  (Okay, I suppose I'm the only one that went back to bed.  I'm still yawning.)

Random Acts of Kindness (RAK) Day
Random Acts of Kindness Day lands on a Sunday, February 17th this year.  In the past, I've celebrated the day/week by baking cookies with Lewie and putting together treat bags for some of my closest friends.  Little Lewie would then help me deliver them.  This year I may change things up a little.  If I'm still not over my cold, baking cookies might not be such a great idea, but I'll find another way to surprise my friends and the important people in my life.  In fact, I started a little early this year.  I've already sent a few care packages to my friends that live the furthest--Alma in Spain and Mary Ann in New Jersey.  It's a long story, but let's just say that I met both of them while I was in college--Alma during my first study abroad trip and Mary Ann in our college marching band.  I adore both of them!

This was Little Lewie helping me bake Valentine's Day cookies during our first RAK celebration.

Webelos Crossover Ceremony
On February 22, we will be watching our oldest Webelos cross over.  During the ceremony, the Cub Scouts cross over a ceremonial "bridge" and choose one of two paths.  They either choose to go on to Boy Scouts (the troop waits for them at the end of the bridge), or they choose to end their Scout adventure, in which case, their parent/s receive them at the end of the bridge. 

This particular Webelos ceremony will be bittersweet for me.  Thankfully, Lewie is not old enough to cross over to Boy Scouts yet.  He still has one more full year, and I've already made a pact with myself that I will do my best to make it the best year ever.  However, it will be sad to watch our current Cub Master and our Pack Committe Chair leave with their den of eight boys.  We started our Cub Scout journey with them, and they've been the ones to do and teach us everything.  Without their encouragement, I would have never envisioned myself to be a leader, and I most certainly wouldn't see myself in the position to become the new Pack Committee Chair.  Their dedication has been amazing, and they are the reason the Pack still exists in our town.  Lewie will miss having pack meetings with those eight boys--only two of them will be going on to Boy Scouts.  It is the end of an era.

We have one more year of Cub Scouts!!

Jim Gaffigan
There's not much to do when you're feeling tired and sickly.  On those days/weekends where it takes every ounce of energy to peel ourselves off the couch, we've decided to laugh our way back to health.  My husband and I started to look up our favorite comedians on Netflix and Amazon, and we got hooked.  In fact, Little Lewie (now ten) has been able to join the fun, and he's become a huge fan of stand-up comedy.  Admittedly, some jokes go over his head, but there are lots of "clean" comedians out there that are very family friendly.  Our all-time favorite is Jim Gaffigan, but we also like Brian Regan, Demetri Martin, and Kevin James, to name a few.

After our Jim Gaffigan binge (we watched every video out there known to man), my husband saw that he's coming to Connecticut the weekend of February 22nd!  I decided our Valentine's Day present to ourselves will be to see him on stage live and in-person for his "Quality Time Tour."  (I love the name!!)

This is courtesy of Google Images 

So, to come back full circle, I suppose if we didn't get sick, we wouldn't have spent as much time watching TV, which is to say, we wouldn't have gotten reconnected with Jim Gaffigan, which means we wouldn't have been looking for tickets to see him.  So, as much as I don't like being tired and having a pounding headache, it was meant for me/us to get sick.  I just hope I'll be feeling better for the actual show.  I'm stocked up on my Vitamin C, zinc, and echinacea tea.

Cub Scout Trip to Battleship Cove

This weekend, we went to Battleship Cove Maritime Museum in Fall River, Mass. and slept over on the USS Massachusetts, a World War II battleship.  I really wanted to enjoy the stay, but I do have to admit that I found the sleepover a bit unnerving.  For one, there were only twenty-five of us from our pack, and we had the entire run of the ship--dark corners, steep stairways, and all.  It was EASY to get lost--so easy, that my husband actually did get separated from our group and gave up trying to look for us.  Even with my cell phone, I couldn't explain to him what stairs to take to find us!

On Sunday night, a young employee welcomed us to the ship, brought us to our bunks, and then played a short documentary about the battleship.  Afterward, an eighty year-old gentleman, provided more facts about the ship.  We learned that it survived 45 battles and was nicknamed "the lucky ship" because not a single one of its 2,000+ men ever died in combat.  The ship took an enormous amount of fuel (I wish I could remember the statistic), and every time a fuel tanker came to fill it up, it would bring food, mail, and supplies to the men.  Some men stayed aboard the ship for two years straight!

After the presentation, we had pizza and were free to take self-guided tours all the way until 11 p.m.  They played The Lego Movie for any families that wanted other entertainment at 9 p.m.  (My husband and son were the only ones in the group that watched the movie in its entirety.)  The self-guided tours were a little spooky.  We saw the brig, an actual U.S. prison aboard the ship, which was often used for military members that disobeyed rules.  (You could be thrown into the brig for being tardy!)  We also saw the ship's tailor shop (where uniforms were sewed/repaired), laundry room, post office, kitchen, cafeteria, machine shop, barber shop, soda fountain, and separate bunks for all the naval officers.  Some of our pack even went to the lower part of the ship where the bombs and naval artillery were stored.  (We passed on the opportunity.)

The brig.  Funny story: The boys all crammed into one jail cell, and then one of them farted. 
The smell was so bad, they left the cell in a hurry.

The tailor shop

The barber shop

A Boy Scout uniform from the 1940's.

The soda fountian

The kitchen.  They had to prepare 7,000+ meals a day for all the marines.

Our bunks.  Funny story:  I was supposed to sleep on the second bed between Lew and Lewie, but I couldn't pull myself up and lie parallel that quickly.  I ended up taking the very bottom bunk an inch away from the floor.

There were many World War II items and memorabilia encased in glass throughout the ship, and one area played a looped recording of someone (maybe a naval officer) speaking at the time.  When the lights went out in our bunk room at 11 p.m., the lights in the rest of the ship remained on and that looped recording still played.  It was creepy.  There were also a few mannequins on our floor that would repeatedly catch me by surprise.  The bathrooms were outside of the bunk room, so we did need to leave the room and listen to the recording, etc. if we had to use the facilities.

Lew, Little Lewie, and I all slept at the back of the room.  Lew chose the top bunk; Lewie selected the second bunk to the floor, and I chose the bottom bunk--so close to the floor, I could actually roll right onto the cement.  The men on the ship actually slept this way, but we were told that their bed space was actually much narrower than ours.  (Our bunks had a few feet between them instead of just 18 inches.)  I could only imagine what these bunk rooms must have smelled like with 2,000 sweaty men sleeping in the tropics with no air-conditioning!  With missions out in the Philippines and Japan, the men had to endure very hot and humid climates all day and night long.

In all, the trip made me appreciate what our Navy had to endure during this very dark period in history.  The ship was uncomfortable.  They worked long 11 hour days and had to sleep in hot, humid, cramped quarters at night.  It was an interesting and eye-opening experience.  For me, I couldn't get used to the smell of dirty fuel and metal, and I slept very little.  At one point during the night, one of our younger boys woke up crying because he couldn't remember where he was; another one woke up a few hours later because he fell off his bunk.  Then, of course, were the sounds of bunks squeaking (every time someone turned), people snoring, and the muffled voice recording playing outside the door.  It was an interesting one-time experience.

Lewie told me he wasn't interested in the self-guided tour.  All he wanted to do was stay above ship and watch the sunset.  (He really is my kid!)

We left bright and early the next morning, right after 7 a.m. breakfast.

A Year of Cub Scouts - Bear

In first grade, Little Lewie joined Cub Scouts as a Tiger.  The following year, he became a Wolf, and now he's completing his third year as a Bear.  It's hard for me to believe that in just two short months, Lewie will be crossing over to a Webelo (an acronym for We'll Be Loyal Scouts).

His years in school are certainly going by fast, but for some reason, his years in Cub Scouts seem to go by even quicker.  His year as a Bear flew by, but we managed to accomplish some exciting things--from his first camping trip, to using a pocket knife for the first time, to planning a "carnival," to learning about safety, history, and wildlife.  Unfortunately, I don't remember to take pictures during all our den or pack meetings.  (It's hard to squeeze it in when you're running the show.)  Still, here's some of our few camera worthy moments....

First Camping Trip
Lewie's First Camping Trip was a two-nighter at Matthies Memorial Park in our town.  Since our family is not very good at camping, the location was perfect!  We pitched our tent for one night and still had to drive home twice (five minutes away) to retrieve things we forgot!  My husband refused to poop in the outhouse, so he drove home again for a third or fourth time.

The kids did a nature walk, they fished, they played tag, they made s'mores, they sang campfire songs, and they watched Return of the Jedi on a big inflatable screen.  The most memorable part for me, besides sleeping in our tent, was little Lewie falling asleep on the movie.  This kid rarely falls asleep on movies at home, but a full day outside hiking and fishing was the perfect sleep sedative.

Scouting for Food
For three years now, every Oct./Nov. we collect cans and non-perishable food items from our neighbors for our local food pantry.   When we did this with Lewie as a Tiger (seven years-old), he thought we were collecting food for the pilgrims.  Now, at age nine, Lewie understands we do this to help people in our community who are struggling.  Each year, we donate more of our time, and this year, I'm proud to say that we not only collected the food, but we sifted through 100+ bags to check food labels and helped stock the pantry.

Pinewood Derby
This year's Pinewood Derby was fun!  Lewie did not have the fastest car, but he won the most colorful award.  When he was a Tiger, he held back tears for not winning.  This year, after he lost, he happily cheered on his friends, and in fact, two of his good friends came in first and third place.  My husband, as Assistant Cubmaster, had the joy of handing out all the participation awards and certificates.

The three winners:  Erik (First), Jack (Second), Hunter (Third)

This was a GREAT year for Cub Scouts.  Thankfully, even once Lewie becomes a Webelo, we'll still have two more years left...  I hope to cherish every moment.