Who's that kid?

Today I had a big "Mommy Moment". About 3 months ago my beautiful baby girl (8 years old) decided she wanted her hair cut short. NOOOOOOOOO!!!!! I vetoed that immediately! Although it is a battle most mornings with brushing, her hair is beautiful! It's like spun gold and is almost down to her behind. I started telling her that I would cry like a baby and her PaPa (my Dad) would constantly call her a boy and generally tried to discourage her at all costs. After about a month of getting over myself and coming to grips with the fact that it is "HER" hair after all, I gave in. So, we talked about it and decided that if she was going to do it, it should be for a good reason so she decided to donate her hair to make wigs for kids who lost their hair due to cancer. It took about 6 weeks to get the extra inch that she needed to make the 10" required for donation but the day finally came. So here she is, before, during and after. And... I was a big girl and didn't even cry!

Now that's allot of cookies

Thanks to many generous cookie eaters, Sierra sold 120 boxes of Girl Scout cookies in 2 weeks! On Wednesday, her Grampa Allen, G.G.(Granny Grissom),(who are visiting from Texas) and I, schlepped & sorted a trailer load of cookies for her entire troop before bringing home her cookies to sort, bag & write thank you notes for. What a day!! Now we get to deliver them and collect the money.

There's nothing more precious than a sleeping baby

The puppies are doing really well. Their names are now inked as "Charger" (Boy/white) and "Mystic" (Girl/tan) They slept outside all night for the 1st time last night and don't seem to be mentally scared by it. Now maybe Harv and I will be able to get caught up on some sleep that we've lost taking them out every 2-3 hours every night.

Typical Saturday at Castle Dearing

I just wanted to show everyone one of the things that we do on a typical Saturday.
That's Deven stacking wood in the woodshed behind the splitter and Tina cutting wood to be split. I am not real sure where Sierra is but that was true for most of the time.
And to think, I was happy not to have a yard that I had to mow. :-D

IT'S A BOY!! ( Boy Scout, that is)

Last night was a huge night for Deven. He was promoted at the Blue and Gold banquet where he was one of 2 boys (the 3rd was home with the chicken pox) who crossed over the bridge from Cub Scout to become a full fledged Boy Scout.
He was presented with an award for outstanding leadership as well as 18 academic pins and 23 belt loops for learning about many things such as computers, music, geology, heritages, astronomy, geography, maps, compasses, art, different languages and cultures, as well as about 9 different sports. He got so many belt loops that he can't fit them all on his belt! In fact, he and one other boy received an award for excellence because they earned ALL of the possible awards in those categories while a Cub Scout. And last, but far from least... he received his Arrow of Light which is the highest award a Cub Scout can receive.

Oh, and by the way, the Dearing family was presented with a patch and each member of the family received a pin for the BSA Family Award. It is for accomplishing all of the steps to become a Boy Scout together as a family.
When Deven works on a merit badge, the whole family works on a merit badge!