Selling Girl Scout Cookies

If you don't know anything about Girl Scouts, you probably at least know about their cookies. It's the time of year when girls stand outside stores hawking their delicious cookies.

I wasn't ever a Girl Scout but I was a Campfire Girl. We sold chocolate bars and I hated going door to door to sell them. I'm not a good salesperson even to this day.

When Emily wanted to sign up for Girl Scouts, I knew that selling cookies was going to be part of it. And I knew that I would be selling cookies as well - since Emily is only 7.

This past Sunday was the first cookie booth Emily ever did. It was for three hours outside the Hendersonville Walmart. I wasn't sure how Emily was going to do. I was afraid she was going to get bored and cranky. But she proved me wrong!

It took her a bit to get into the swing, but she yelled 'Cookies for Sale!" with the other Girl Scouts helping man this table. When we got a customer, she would hurry over and explain the prices and kinds of cookies. She would help get the money and hand the change back.

She had a lot of fun and it was a great experience. It helps the girls learn skills they will need - like making change. And we sold a ton of cookies which will help their troop out!

We are signed up for two more cookie booths and I'm sure now that Emily will do a great job. If you see any Girl Scouts selling cookies, consider buying a box or two. If you don't want to eat the cookies, you can always buy a box that will be sent overseas to the troops!

Our Newest Addition!

Our family is growing! Not with kids, one kid is enough for us. But it's been about a week since we adopted our newest cat!

When I was growing up, we always had dogs. I'm not a huge fan of dogs and always wanted a cat. We adopted our first cat, Star, right after we bought our house. Willow was adopted as a kitten after we got married and then we brought Sam home when Emily was about three.

Our Star kitty passed away a couple of years ago and he left a hole in our family. Todd didn't want to get another cat though - he's a dog person. But a few months ago, he decided that he would like to have another cat.

My dear husband tends to research a bunch and starting looking at available cats in the area. We decided to wait until after Christmas to get a new cat because of the tree and because were going to be going out of down for Christmas day. We also decided not to adopt a kitten, but instead an older cat.

The weekend of the big snowstorm, Todd happened upon the profile of a kitty named Sirius Black. He contacted the shelter he was at, and he and Emily went to look at him as soon as they were open again which was last Tuesday. They came home with him, and we couldn't be happier!

Sirius Black is a black kitty who is two years old. He's very affectionate and loves getting pets. Willow was indifferent to our new addition - she tends to ignore everyone unless she wants something. Sam was not happy, but he's mellowed out in regards to Sirius and it's only been a week since he came home.

 Our cats are members of our family. We talk to them and they talk back (especially Willow - she's a big talker). Emily is very happy and Sirius loves her because she protected him from Sam when Sam was trying to display his dominance. 

Our family is complete again!

No Mo Snow

I don't like winter or snow. Growing up in the Land of Snow (ie Michigan), I've had my fill of it to last a lifetime. Thankfully winter is generally a lot shorter in NC than MI, but we generally get a snowstorm or two.

A lot of times, the weather will call for a storm but it will fall apart over the mountains. We were forecasted to have a major storm late last week, so there was a run on milk and bread. Because apparently in the South you need milk and bread to outlast a snow storm.

It started overnight on Thursday and then it snowed all day on Friday. The storms rolling in made me miserable. The pressure changes with a snow storm used to not make my pain levels as high as with a thunderstorm or just rain. But the last few years, it's reversed so I was in a lot of pain.

It didn't snow on Saturday but we had high winds so all the snow kept drifting around. Sunday the sun finally came out and yesterday it was close to 50 degrees out.

Despite the warmer weather, there is still a lot of snow. I had to go out to the post office to mail out a package yesterday. The secondary roads and even the main road that runs from Hendersonville to Asheville was still partly covered. I think for the secondary roads, DOT is just planning on waiting for it to melt which is annoying.

The other annoying thing is that I we haven't gotten mail since Thursday. I can understand no mail on Friday and Saturday but there was no reason they couldn't deliver yesterday. 

Emily is off from school for the 3rd day and we are all going a little stir crazy. I'm hoping that Emily will be back at school tomorrow and that the roads will be clearer. And no more snow for the rest of the season would be great too!!

Time Travel Via Television

Image: www.clipartpanda.com 

I had a nasty fall on Monday night walking back to the car after Girl Scouts with Emily. Nighttime plus a crack in the sidewalk equals a very sore Mandy. I didn't break anything but I've not been feeling great the last few days.

Because I've been laid up I've been watching a lot of TV. I have been making my way through 7th Heaven as well as mixing it up with episodes of The West Wing as well as the first season of the new Flash.

I'm currently in season five of 7th Heaven, which aired in 2000/2001. I'm in the first season of The West Wing which takes place in 1999/2000. It's hard to believe that it was 15 / 16 years ago that these shows I'm watching aired.

In 7th Heaven, no-one has cell phones. The parents and the kids are constantly using pay phones to try and get a hold of each other. One episode had the mom and the dad playing phone tag all around town trying to get a hold of each other as both find out how much their daughter Mary had been lying to them.

The West Wing, they have cell phones, but they touch on the hot button topics of the day. Like gay marriage (or as we call it in 2016 - marriage). Things have really changed a ton since then.

Of course, in both of these shows, it's before 9/11. I know The West Wing does a special episode about it and I'm guessing 7th Heaven will talk about it too. It's almost strange to remember a time before 9/11 happened. Our world has changed so much since then.

While television isn't reality, it does give us a glimpse of what the world was like back then. So it's like a bit of time travel right from my own bedroom.

Mourning Celebrities

Image: www.fanpop.com 

It's been a rough week for fans of pop culture. Earlier this week, David Bowie passed away after a battle with cancer. I open Facebook this morning and find that Alan Rickman has also died of cancer.

Fuck cancer.

The morning after Bowie had died, my Facebook feed was filled with remembrances and grief for him. I honestly wasn't as sad as some people, though I was sad. I wasn't a big fan of his music but his performance as the Goblin King really had a big impact on young adult me.

Seeing that Alan Rickman died on Facebook this morning was much more of a gut punch. I'm honestly gutted because I loved his work. So many great roles over the years. I'm sure as I write this, my social media feed is filling up with tributes.

My husband thinks it's odd that I get sad when celebrities die. But music, film, television, books can play a huge role in our lives. At least in mine. So it feels like I know celebrities, even though I really don't. And it's a loss either way.

I will continue to mourn my favorite celebrities as they shuffle off this earthly plane. I just hope that the universe gives us a break for a bit and there are no more celebrity deaths this week.

The Comfort of Stuffed Animals

I'm an adult, and most days I can adult ok. I'm a mom and a wife, I have a job and my house isn't a complete disaster. But I do have rough days thanks to having chronic pain. Especially on those rough days, I like snuggling stuffed animals.

When I was a kid, I always preferred stuffed animals to dolls. My favorite was my Pooh Bear that I got when I was only one. He's been snuggled and loved so much that he's nearly flat now. But I still have him and he's still my bear. He's not great for snuggling alone though since he's so flat.

Emily got the stuffed animal loving gene from me and has a lot of stuffies. When I was in the hospital many years ago, she gave me a teddy bear that was named Chronic Pain Bear. After Todd got diagnosed with MS, Chronic Pain Bear became his.

Last year, Emily and Todd got me a pink cat Build-A-Bear named Princess Leia. And then after Dragon Con, I finally bought the Captain America Build-A-Bear that I had been wanting. I named him Steve.

Steve is a comfort to me when my pain levels are bad or when the depression and anxiety kick in. It may not seem very adult to sleep with a stuffed animal, but for me it is. Coping however you can is extremely adult.

Hello 2016

Image: happynew-year.in 

I'm extremely happy that is a new year for a variety of reasons. Mostly because 2015 was one of the hardest years of my life. A lot of the first part of the year was focused on my recovery from the seizures I had had in 2014 as well as playing the ever so fun game of medicine roulette to find meds that work.

The second half of the year was better. I still don't have the stamina I did, but I've been working on getting stronger. Dragon Con was great and I am really happy that Emily is now a Girl Scout.

But I'm trying to focus on being more positive and being healthier. Yesterday, we joined the Y after talking about it for a long time. I'm excited because the Y has a pool so I can swim which is my favorite form of exercise.

I don't really like resolutions, because they tend to become broken quite quickly. My resolution last year was not to go to the hospital, and I ended up in the ER a few weeks after the year began.

My goals for this year are basically to write more. I want to start writing short stories and submitting them to anthologies and whatnot. I want to finish my first novel so I can start querying for an agent as well as writing more novels. I also hope to be blogging here more.

2016 feels happier and brighter already. Hopefully this year will be a good one!