My Final Class Posting. :)

        To be perfectly frank when the semester began and I read the requirement to write two blog posts a week for this class, I was to put it mildly an unhappy camper. But I will openly admit that as the semester has gone on I have enjoyed having this blog as an outlet to vent, to solicit opinions and just to share information that I’ve found interesting in other forums. I also saw this blog going in as a major eater of my time, which any of you who have read my posts this semester know is extremely limited. Once again I was surprised; to be honest most weeks it took me longer to pick a topic and find articles for my linked blog post than it did to write both of my posts. My linked one tended to just flow and be five hundred words before I knew it and my personal one tended to be well above that before I realized it, not only the weeks I ranted, but also the weeks I talked about thing I love, for example camp.

        I’ll do my best to kind of give some closure on some of my topics I’ve talked about in my personal posts this semester. To begin: it looks like I’ll end this semester with 3-A’s and 1-C, I struggled very hard with Pathophysiology (maybe wasn’t the best plan to take it online) and have managed to salvage what was a less than spectacular grade to one that while it doesn’t make me happy, at least keeps me on track with the nursing program, which is the larger goal in life. Secondly: I’m moving to Carl Junction this summer. Officially I’ll be moving the first part of August, but due to my being enrolled in a traditional Government class this summer I’ll be spending the majority of June and July in the area. My daughter is working to find a part time job and is coming down too, plus I’ve gotten my son enrolled in a summer soccer league, so yes, he’s coming for the summer too. Guess it’ll be quiet up at our old place this summer. I’m trying to convince my soon to be ex-husband to start getting it ready to go on the market, or start working on financing to ‘buy’ it from me as I have no desire to keep it after we’re divorced, I’m starting a new life and that house has no part of it. Third: as I mentioned with my grades I’m on track for the RN-BSN program in the fall. I’m excited and am going to spend part of the time between the spring and summer sessions getting all of my paperwork in order for it. Lastly: As I’ve stated before both publicly and privately, this semester has brought a lot of changes to my world. It has in no way been an easy one, but nothing worth doing tends to be as I have noticed many times in my life so far. I look forward to where this journey is taking me, I know it’s nowhere near over and look forward to seeing where I go. I wish all of you the best and hope your dreams come true as I believe mine someday will. No they’re not the dreams I had at the beginning of the year, but I think they’re pretty amazing ones. J Signing off for the last time (for class at least) Night Owl aka. Missy

Holy Moly... How Much School Stuff Can One Week Hold???

          Okay, random thoughts that I’m sure many college students are having, but what’s up with this week???? It’s like every class is seeing how much work can be jammed into one week without making all of us quit; which would seem counterproductive this late in the semester.

          For example, let me share what all I found on my calendar for this week when I sat down with it a couple of days ago. As you all know for English we have paper #4 which is the longest one, to finish the rough draft, dredge through our tired brains to workshop three papers written by classmates and then revise ours and turn them in. On top of that we have our two blog posts & comments to write. As much as I hate to admit it, I kind of enjoy writing my blog posts and might, maybe miss it when class is over. It remains to be seen if I’ll miss it enough to continue, only time will tell. For my Economics class there are two chapters due by Friday (normally we only have 1 a week) plus a test that has to be taken no later than next Monday. For Pathophysiology there is a three chapter unit due Wednesday, plus our fourth lecture test by Saturday and the second lab test is early next week. And then my final class, Lifetime Wellness, the instructor opened up the assignments for the rest of the semester… yes, we have until the 9^th to finish them, but we have four weeks of assignments that were made available late last week. Sigh… I’ll get them done, I have most of a plan in place to make it happen, I’m just feeling a bit overloaded with all of this, plus work, plus family life weighing down on me currently.

          As any of you that have read my blog know this has been a really bad semester in my personal life. That hasn’t changed at all, in fact things tend to get worse as time goes on. I just need to make it a bit longer and will be making changes that will make my personal life better in the end. It’s still going to be rough for quite some time, but it’s going to start taking tiny steps toward getting better. I know it.

          Saturday night, a night that actually factored into my plan to get homework done, get some sleep and be able to function at work later this week found me hanging out with a bunch of people at my house. Yes, I will admit it was relaxing in a way, I just wish it hadn’t all been people I formerly considered my friends, but have found over the past year I’m not able to trust, so therefore feel on edge and guarded around them. I always enjoy sitting near a fire, so that part at least was pleasant, and since my husband planned it all & decided not to tell anyone what to bring beyond what they wanted to drink I got to have a few grins at how much he wound up spending at the grocery store to fund this evening. I know from being the one that typically plans this kind of thing that when you’re talking about seven adults and eight kids (mostly teenagers) that the only way to survive is to delegate food out to all the families. Learning experience for him, especially since he likes to buy name brand foods. Darn. J I bet he learned his lesson for next time.

          Signing off for tonight. Catch you all next week!

Creative Punishments

            Today’s topic is brought to you courtesy of me feeling the need to stay with a theme in my writing. I wrote paper #4 on school start times for teenagers and in staying with the teenager theme of the night I ran across a news article on creative punishments for teenagers and ran with it.

            We’re all familiar with the “standard” punishments, ie. extra chores, loss of privileges, so on and so forth; but what about when those things get you nowhere but frustrated. I don’t know how many times between my kids and the many other teenagers I’ve interacted with over time I’ve seen eyes rolled, the “I don’t care” line, or the “I know she won’t actually enforce this” act.  I’ve found two big schools of thought on the internet as I’ve looked tonight, both seem reasonable in their own right.

            One involves being constructive instead of yelling, lecturing or criticizing. I can see where this might be effective, although the negative versions can be temporarily stress relieving, they do sometimes lead to feelings of guilt and punishments that are too steep or radical and likely to be overturned rapidly. This article suggests using the lines, “we’ve got a problem here; let’s find asolution” and “you will figure it out and I will help you.” Now I can say as Mom to two teenagers that the first time you use these lines you’ll be met with shock, but I can see the potential benefit for using this method. The article goes on to suggest encouragement of open dialogue in a calm and non-judgmental environment. It fosters learning for both you and your teen. This article also suggests that rather than grounding your teen from something, ground them to do a chore with you. For example pulling weeds, apparently this rather than fostering resentment will put things in perspective for both of you. And also recommends keeping incidents in perspective overall, a minor mishap does not a major catastrophe make. These are all solid and decent tips in my book.

            Now onto the article that grabbed my interest. Apparently Quandria Bryant a North Carolina ninth-grader had been making choices that made her a real life “mean girl” that felt life was all about her, which included her being suspended for being disrespectful to her teachers. So her father came up with a creative punishment that involved her being embarrassed but unharmed, he gave her a sign to carry as she walked up and down a busy Highway near her school. On one side it read “I have a bad attitude I disrespect people who try to help me” and on the other it said “I do what I want, when I want, how I want it.” She apparently declined to talk to the reported but has reportedly decided to change her ways. Her dad isn’t the first parent to go this route. I also foundTrenton’s story, at 15 Trenton’s grades were well below what his parents expected and knew he was capable of, so after trying traditional punishments and being met with a brick wall as well as making sure there weren’t any physical or mental problems causing his refusal to bring up his grades Trenton’s parents had him stand on a street corner for two hours holding a sign that said he was failing algebra and English, on the other side it said “my future = shaky.” His parents stated that they wanted an out of the box punishment to grab his attention, and failing that it would be practice for the “will work for food” sign he’d be holding in a few years.

            Interesting reading on net tonight for sure, also food for thought next time I need a creative punishment for one of my teenagers. J

Finbrooke... :)

          Last week I wrote a post on Leader’s Weekend. I have realized that I really need a post on the place I grew up that led me to spend as much time volunteering and working with the Girl Scouts as an organization, and truly shaped a lot of who I am today, and who I will be in the future. This place is Camp Finbrooke (currently known as Finbrooke Program Center). I started spending time at Finbrooke back in 1983 (sorry for showing my age here) it all started with day trips to camp and rapidly progressed to overnight trips and then to spending entire weeks out there during the summer at the Resident Camp programs. Side note: when you’re 8 years old, the staff at camp seems so grown up & mature… now as an adult that has worked out there off & on for more years than I can count, I realize that when you’re that little the 18-23 year old crowd does seem old and it does take a special breed of young woman to take on that role as role model and caretaker for young girls.

          I was never satisfied with one week at camp either, I wanted to be out there anytime the gates were open for kids my age, I would literally spend Fall, Winter and Spring finding ways to make and save money to pay for camp as well as peddling cookies like no one’s business to be able to use my “cookie credit” to pay for more time at camp. I was focused. I was even willing to give up time with my horses I had to go to camp for as long as possible every summer. I loved spending time out there. Eating in the old rustic lodge (it burned in 1993, and was replaced with a modern one), putting mail in the mailbox, swimming in the pool and the river, changing in the shower house that had no roof (replaced with a fancy new one since then) hiking everywhere, crafts, singing, cooking over a campfire, canoeing, all of the fun, plus getting to be dirty all summer long too J This is how I grew up, no air conditioning in the summer, staying up late, singing, hanging out with tons of other girls and giggling late into the night. I wouldn’t have had it any other way. Oh and the joy when I was finally old enough to sign up for the Counselor In Training (CIT) program, that meant I was almost old enough to do the ultimate, work at camp!!! So exciting, never realized how exhausting it was to be a camp counselor, or how much work it was, but the one summer I did it then I LOVED it.

Time and things happened and I spent a few years away from camp. My daughter was about to start school so I went to the office and signed up to be a leader for a Daisy troop in our town. My first training as an adult was out at Finbrooke, it was like I’d never left (to a point) it still felt like home. The same camp ranger was working there, the trainer for my class was actually an adult I’d played mud volleyball with at camp as a kid. It was home. As time went on I managed to spend parts of my summers at camp (which gave my daughter more weeks to be at camp too, she was not unhappy about that at all) and then landed a school nurse job. That was the ultimate, it gave me the chance to apply to be the Camp Nurse and spend the entire summer out there, which I did for more than a few years. Way too cool, not much sleep, but so much fun, almost can’t believe I’m moving on, but the time has come to embrace my new opportunities and put my summers of camp behind me. J/L

I've added a few pictures, believe me choosing just these was a major challenge. At last check I have over 1,000 camp pictures available to me, not to mention the many I can get off of other counselor's Facebook pages :)

 Above is Jake's House, the original structure on camp, we can't use the house anymore, but it is currently still standing and one of my favorite places to visit at camp.

 A view of the Finley River, we have access at two points to it for canoeing, kayaking and swimming.

 The Spring House, down by Jake's House, nice cool place to visit in the heat of the summer.

 This is a platform tent, sorry it's not a great picture for this purpose, I took it for a project at camp last year, The oldest kids get the chance to sleep in these, when I was a kid we pretty much all slept in them... now we have permatents, I added a picture of one of those too.

This is the 40 foot side of our climbing tower, it was added a few years ago & is pretty fun. That's me climbing it at Leader's Weekend last year.

 The old lodge that burned in 1993, the ranger still has the hand carved Dogwood Lodge sign and is looking for the appropriate place for it to live and be enjoyed.

 Our new more modern lodge built up on the hill. It's nice, but I miss the old one some days, lots of memories in that old building.

 The bell in the middle of main camp. Lots of memories with it too.

A permatent (the structure most kids sleep in at camp currently)

Sad Dog Stories... and Tips to Not Have This be Your Dog

This week’s subject is brought to you by one of my friends via Facebook. J I know, can’t even avoid homework anymore, no matter how hard I try, sigh. All joking aside, one of my friends posted an article about protecting your dog from lawenforcement. Makes you kind of shake your head, doesn’t it? You’d think the officers are there to protect things, not to need to be protected from, right? And to be honest that was the original take I had on this post, but then I started reading more and realized this was a well written article with some good points. The very actions that come naturally to your very well-mannered and sweet dog can very easily be seen as a threat to law enforcement officials, sometimes with deadly consequences.

         

          For example just last weekMichael Paxton was playing Frisbee in his backyard in Austin, Texas with his Australian cattle dog, Cisco when a domestic disturbance call was made down the street. An officer responded to the wrong house and when Paxton walked around his house to get something from his truck he was approached by the officer with his gun drawn and told to put his hands up. Cisco came to the area and like any dog would likely do in the presence of a stranger they perceived to be threatening their person Cisco began to bark. Reportedly despite Paxton assuring the officer that Cisco was not dangerous the officer supposedly took aim and fired, killing Cisco. Sadly even though the officer then realized he was at the wrong house, there’s no way to regain Cisco’s life.

            Another story I found told the story of a dog who ran out into his own back yard and wound up dead. The police were tracking a suspect through residential back yards in Kalamazoo, MI and a resident, not knowing the police were in their backyard, opened the door to let their dog out, the dog, reacting as dogs tend to do, charged and barked to protect their home, a totally normal action, and was shot and killed.

            Then I found the story of Rocco a Doberman who was peacefully in his own backyard in Louisville, KY when police entered the backyard during a foot chase. Rocco, upset as any dog would be in that situation began barking and jumping on the intruders into his space. For reacting as any typical dog would do in that situation, Rocco like the two dogs I’ve mentioned before was shot and killed. Even more tragic, he didn’t die immediately, he crawled into his dog house crying in pain and died there.

            No, I’m not trying to be depressing with this post, I felt the need to show these three stories from different parts of the country that are all dogs reacting as I know my dogs would and wound up being shot by officers that felt threatened by them. Which makes it hard to blame them, since adrenaline is high, in those situations, I just wonder if things couldn’t have been different for at least one of these dogs. The best advice I’ve found is if you know you will be dealing with law enforcement is to make sure your dog is restrained before the officers arrive. Now in the articles I found two of these owners thought their dogs were safe in their own back yard. The article also recommends to alert the officers using your voice “Let me put up my dog, I am putting up my dog!” This way they don’t misconstrue your actions, and hopefully you can prevent a tragedy. It also recommends if you see officers in your neighborhood to bring your dogs inside to help prevent problems and to put signs on your fence to alert officers that dogs are present, so they are aware if they must enter your yard without warning. Hopefully none of us will ever face this tragic situation. 

Leader's Weekend

                This past weekend I went to a Leadership Retreat at Finbrooke Program Center, a property out near Rogersville owned by Girl Scouts of the Missouri Heartland, our local Girl Scout Council. I’ve been attending this event since 2000 and been on the planning committee for it since the 2001 event. Every year this event has a different theme which is suggested by the participants and fleshed out by the committee. Since 2012 is the 100^th anniversary of Girl Scouting the theme this year was 100 years and shining. Some of the workshops/classes at the event relate to the theme and others are on leadership, outdoors and others on crafts. It’s a pretty busy weekend filled with learning, food, hanging out with other leaders and enjoying camp without the kids being around. It really is a pretty fun weekend overall, although I swear I’m more tired after it than I am going into it sometimes with everything that has to run smoothly to make it happen for the participants. For the past few years I’ve been a Unit Leader, which is someone with camp experience that is responsible for taking care of the participants in one unit, answering their questions and keeping it running smoothly as well as making sure it is properly cleaned and closed down at the end of the weekend. This is a pretty stressful job and with everything crazy in my life I decided to not take that on this year and join a group known as the Mafia. This is a group of long time scouts and Leader’s Weekend participants that are the ones you call if you need something dealt with that’s not serious enough for the ranger to be called, or the ones he calls when he is needed in too many areas at once. Everyone in this group has more than 15 years of experience camping at Finbrooke, I personally have 20 and am one of the younger/least experienced members of the group.  We stay in a separate camping unit and are a generally pretty relaxed group. We are also responsible for setting up and running the night hike, which is a hike at 10 PM on Saturday that is typically done with minimal lighting. There are always a few interesting things set up on the trails, such as glowsticks and reflective disks and such, which make for some fun, we even typically have a few helpers in the woods making Naga noises (Nagas are their own blog post, I’ll try to fit them in before the end of the year). The hike ends in one of the camp units where we sit around a campfire and tell legends and stories about camp as well as answer any questions anyone has about camp or camping experiences we have had. It really is a fun time and I’ve helped with it for years, as I started helping set up some of the sights and such back when I was a teenager.

                I grew up out at camp, I’m on my third camp ranger and can’t believe that I’m actually not working out there this summer. I’ve been the resident camp nurse and it hit me really hard on Saturday that I won’t be living there this year. Well that’s really all I have to say about this for now, I might come back in and add some camp/LW pictures in the future, or I might write a post next week about Finbrooke in general. We shall see J

Sometimes Rules Should be Broken

So, I had decided that I was going to go online, find some articles about knitting, my favorite hobby/way to de-stress & fill your brains with knitting thoughts. But when I got on yahoo.com tonight I saw a series of articles that changed my mind entirely.

What were these captivating articles on, you ask? Some celebrity happening or mishap, some religious blunder or so called miracle, or cute goo-goo baby stuff? While I saw all kinds of articles along these lines and others the ones that caught my eye were regarding a 17 year old boy in Ohio who in helping to care for his Mom who is battling breast cancer missed more days than his school allows and now will notbe allowed to walk at his graduation. His name is Austin Fisher and he is his mom’s only family. She has been battling breast cancer for the past six years and her diagnosis was upgraded (for lack of better terminology) to stage four which is considered terminal last year. As there is no one else in their household Austin took on working two jobs when she became too sick to work as well as taking time away from school to take her to and from cancer treatments as well as staying home to take care of her when she’s been too sick to get out of bed. All of these sacrifices on his part, made of love have resulted in him missing 16 days of school this year. According to the policies of his district if you miss more than 14 unexcused days of school your senior year. You would think that the school could look at each student’s situation and make exceptions to guidelines when appropriate, but Austin learned in a meeting with his principal that “guidelines are guidelines that won’t be changed, and he can’t walk”.

The other kids at Austin’s school have formed a movement which include a ‘Let Fish Walk’ Facebook page that has over twenty four thousand members and a petition to the board of education on change.org. As of tonight (Monday) there are over eighty-one thousand signatures on the petition.  A fellow senior of Austin’s Damon Anderson was quoted as saying “Everyone backs each other up her in Carrollton. When stuff happens we all know how to handle and help each other out and do what we gotta do to make things right. I love hearing that from a teenager, that just shows the beauty of small supportive towns.

Reportedly Teresa’s (Austin’s mom) cancer is currently in remission, but she knows it will return and one of her big goals in life is to see him graduate. Austin and the rest of the town are trying to help fulfill that goal of hers as her time to meet her life’s goals are likely limited and she won’t be able to see many of the milestones such as college graduation, marriage or her grandchildren that most of us expect to see in our children’s lives.  A longtime family friend Connie Rose Trushel is quoted as saying “He has been a rock for his mom and I truly believe that if he hadn’t been there for her my friend wouldn’t be here today.”

ere’s hI’m hoping the people of this town can make a difference. I know I signed the petition and am going to follow this article and keep my fingers crossed that he is allowed to walk.