It's Crunch Time

Okay kids,

I think it's time we had a grown-up conversation:

We are still missing several forms from a handful of explorers. If you are one of the individuals missing forms, Tiffany has sent you an email letting you know what you must do in order to go to complete said forms. Unfortunately, for those who do not fill out all of the forms necessary, the BSA won't allow you to go to Guatemala with us.

Please, please, please make it a priority to get all forms completed and turned in to Tiffany (as they say in my profession) STAT! I'm afraid I've started liking most of you and I would hate not having you there—especially when I've almost finished knitting individual, Guatemala sweater vests for everyone.

Give Tiffany a call if you have any questions.

Twenty Four

The number of hours in a day.

How many sides a Icositetakaiddecagon has.

A number often seen running around with Seven.

How many hours Walmart is open every day.

The atomic number of Chromium.

A really popular TV show that ran for eight seasons.

Two Dozen.

The name of Emily's gym.

How many carats it takes to have pure gold.

The digits found on Kobe Bryant's jersey.

HOW MANY MORE DAYS WE HAVE UNTIL GUATEMALA!!!

We Saw a Bear

After a very scientific evaluation and several public polls, I have decided that the retreat last weekend was a resounding success. In a word: AWESOME!

Let's recap:

We read that weird book that I brought, All of My Friends Are Dead (I say weird, you say amazing.).

We played A to A and Reckless Abandon Uno (let me know if you want a list of the rules to share with your extended family).

We ate delicious food—how bout that seven-layer dip, huh?

We saw a bear.

We played Four Men People on a Couch. Can I get a "What, what" for the leaders and the boys?!

We talked for roughly twelve hours about all of the logistical, boring stuff. As a leader, I love this stuff. I know, I'm embarrassed to admit, I'm getting old.

We completely altered our lesson plans so we could teach people our own age and older!

We all sat down on our laps in a circle.

We witnessed feats of strength from the boys.

We had s'mores.

We learned the Duck Dance.

We played Signs and I've Never until the big hours of the night.

If you weren't there, live vicariously through these exciting photos provided by Lisa:

The bear!

Musculoskeletal group

The Five Senses group

Manliness

Garage Sale

I feel like a proud parent over here. I didn't think we could do it, looking at the tiny pile of donations we had the day before, but we did—and we did it in a big way.

I think this might just be the first year the Explorer Post has raised this many funds to donate to others. It feels good to work hard so that someone else can live a better life, doesn't it?

I've included a couple of the photos below. There will be more to follow.

T-Shirts and A Cool Song

Okay, I am in the process of designing, get this, T-shirts for our trip! Did you ever imagine getting a super, bad-awesome keepsake/article of clothing/symbol of a turning point in your life before?

Basically, I'm trying to come up with something that is cool, comfortable and has the potential to get you dates when you get back and wear it to a party. What kind of ideas do you have about color, graphics, overall messaging and feel? Please let me know. I would love some feedback—because let's all be honest, if it were entirely up to me, I would have us all in argyle sweater vests and bucket hats. If that's not incentive to post a comment, I don't know what is.

I would also like to draw your attention to the embedded video box below. This little musical morsel dropped like manna from heaven into our laps last weekend while we were cruising along the PCH on Memorial Day. In a word (or two): Sweet serendipity.

Here's the deal. It's not the best constructed song. I would have loved to have heard another verse or two and maybe a nice counterpoint of chorus and verse at the end in a frenzy of voice and instrument, but I didn't write the song, Newton Faulkner did. So, without further ado, here he is singing it:



Seriously though, don't you love the lyrics?

"I'm gonna master all kinds of kung fu. I'm gonna live inside a tiny zoo."

"I'm gonna grow myself a giant afro (incredible) when the alarm goes off I just won't know."