#iPPP a la Girl Scouts

Back for #iPPP and it hasn't even been a whole year since my last visit!  Say what?  Only two weeks?  Call Guinness!

Life's been busy, busy, but last weekend, busy also meant tasty.  My sweet girl was working on her Snacks badge for Brownies (Girl Scouts) and got crackin' in the kitchen, creating a sweet treat and a smoothie.

Saturday night, for dessert, she made yogurt strawberry parfaits, layering greek yogurt mixed with a li'l honey, sliced strawberries, and granola.

And while the first set of parfaits were made gluten free, using Udi's vanilla granola, she needed to go one step further for her brother, who can't have dairy,  to join in the sweet treat fun and swapped out the greek yogurt for almond yogurt creating a GFCF parfait delight.  Looks nearly the same, eh?

Can I share the most random and yet helpful thing I learned over the weekend?  Thanks to friend Jenn visiting, I finally learned how to spell dessert and not get it mixed up with desert!  Dessert is spelled with two 's's because you want more and desert with only one 's' because you supposedly want less (since I'm not a fan of the heat, this totally works for me).  Told ya it was random...but, it will save me when spell check isn't nearby!

On Sunday, she blended up a smoothie, using frozen organic blueberries, frozen strawberries, frozen mangoes, fresh ripe banana, fresh baby spinach leaves, and coconut water.  We slurped up smoothie and then poured the left over mix into popsicle molds for desert this week.  Delish.

Coming back for an #iPPP visit with

G*Funk*ified & Jumping With My Fingers Crossed & Angela Amman

100 Years of Girl Scouts

I'm celebrating today!  Why?  Girl Scouts is celebrating their 100th Birthday!

I was a Girl Scout from Brownies, all the way up to my early adult years.  I was in Girl Scouts on both the East & West coasts, in two states, and three towns.

With my troops, I've crafted, sang more songs that I can count, hiked, participated in community and environmental service projects, learned new skills, and camped.  Camping was a blast and definitely a staple to punctuate every year of Girl Scouting. I've slept on mountains, in tents, on hills, in cabins, in more tents, and even in a big barn.

It was in my last two troops that I took on the camp name Gizmo and still respond to that name today.  Quite honestly, I think my best friend, who was also a Girl Scout, calls me Giz or Gizie more than she calls me Karen!

And I've met some of the most wonderful girls, now women, in my life through Girl Scouts, including my Four Musketeers.  In Gravity, or Instinct, I Just Knew, I shared my first meeting with Snoopy...at her first Girl Scout meeting.  And I'm grateful that thanks to emails & Facebook, I'm able to continue to keep in contact with so many of the women to this day, twenty years later!

So what are Girl Scouts up to today?  Check out http://www.togetherthere.org/ to find out!

Happy 100th Birthday,
Girl Scouts!!!

Song

Time can be marked by the songs that beat in my heart.  And while there are oodles of Christmas songs that pass my lips throughout the year, as well as at the most obvious time and music that used to play on vinyl or cassette tape, now on CD or through a digital device, the songs that have etched themselves upon my soul, making them unforgettable, are Girl Scout songs.

The Brownie Smile Song will always remind me that “I’ve got something in my pocket” that’s a whole lot better than lint, lip balm, my cell, or a couple of coins.  It’s a smile “that belongs across my face.”

Gackgoom Went the Little Green Frog (some people call it Barrump), transports me back to a camping trip with my troop in upstate New York, where we all nearly froze at night until we layered on every single piece of clothing in our packs and put two girls to a sleeping bag.

Make New Friends travelled with me, across the country to the three different troops I was lucky enough to belong to.  Troop 667 was my final destination, where we went by camp names; I was Gizmo!  I sang more songs than I can count with this treasured troop.

Rise Up O’ Flame, Piece of Tin, Alice the Camel, send me soaring back…standing on a wooden stage, deeply inhaling campfire smoke, singing with my Senior troop, leading the Juniors in song.

Little Bunny Fu-Fu was great at campfire and it also made for wonderful animated fun with Fishey during the lunch hour at school.  It was funny how free a silly little Girl Scout song sung in school can make you feel;  aware that you are completely enjoying yourselves without a care as to how ‘cool’ or ‘uncool’ you look.

It’s important to sing Perty Daisy with a real strong twang, “It’s just a tattoo of a flower, so I look neat when I’m taking a shower.  It’s on the second toe of my left foot, stem and flower, but there’s no root (‘cause that wouldn’t look good)…” Perty Daisy is a favorite of both Fishey and I, though she has the tattoo to prove it.  Me?  I sang it till my voice was almost gone while potty training a kidlet a few years back!

Singing Girl Scout songs continued on with my kidlets from the moment they came home with us from the hospital.  On My Honor, sang over and over to calm or send a kidlet off to dreamland with.  And Little Birds sang with exuberance to elicit a giggle in the morning, while getting a wriggling munchkin dressed.

It didn’t matter if I was singing these songs to my son or my daughter.  The songs had become a piece of me to share and give to two beautiful pieces of my heart.

The songs are my past, my present, and still friends with many from Girl Scout troop days, will hopefully continue to be my future.

The Red Dress Club prompted us to write about what we know by heart from childhood.

I immediately thought of Girl Scout songs. While I tried flirting with other memories, those songs just kept singing louder and louder, until I gave in to them.

With a 500 words limit, I came in just under the wire with 499!

I'll Bet You're on My List!

List mentors, dead or alive, you wish you could have access to.

Hmmmm...not sure I've used the word "mentors" before.  Most people who know me, know that I'm a pretty independent gal who does and thinks her own thing.

However, with that said, there have been many people, dead and alive, from the past and present who have shaped me, guided me, led me when I needed to be led, followed me when I needed to be followed, and overall, made me a better person.  I'm grateful for them all!  (And as I wrote this, I realized there are a few overlaps from my first Saturday Seven post, so I've intentionally left the obvious Family off this list to help with that!)

Listed in no particular order:

* From the 'Dead, but Oh So Impactful' List:  Susan B. Anthony

* From my teen years and into adulthood:  The Four Musketeers

* Speaking of those teen years, my time with my #667 Girl Scout troop, where I met so many wonderful girls, now women, made lasting friendships, and continue to have contact with so many today.

* Having gone to three elementary schools, two junior highs, and one high school in three states, on two coasts, I've had quite a few wonderful teachers that shaped me, inspired me, and not only taught me reading, writing, and arithmetic, but about who I am and who I can be.

* And from the 'Oh What a Wondrous Surprise' List:  YOU! All of You who stop in and visit with me, all of You who take time from Your day to leave comments, all of You who are blogging Your hearts out, all of You who are sharing Your stories, all of You who ooze with so much creativity that we are fortunate you've elected to spill just some of it onto and into your blogs and websites, all of You who are humorous and snarky and laugh-out-loud worthy, all of You who inspire me have made my world a better place, made me want to stretch my creativity from paper and ink to paint and canvas to camera lens and click to words and wit and I THANK YOU for All of it!! :>

* * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * *

Writing along with Lizz of Am I a Funny Girl? for this Saturday Seven (albeit late into the day....it's been dark and rainy and a very pleasant cozy day with my family and yes, I'm indulging in all of it and running late! :>).

And once again, I'm such a rule breaker (LOL!) and have listed five...er, um...well, if you really added up all the people within those five bullets, there are hundreds (wait...that means I'm still breaking the Seven rule)!  Okay, so nobody said math was a strict requirement of blogging and writing, right?! ;>

Who has shaped you into who you are today?

Gravity or Instinct, I Just Knew

Tuesday’s dinner was done and it was time to head out for a favorite weekly destination.  I still didn’t have my license, so I climbed into Mom’s black Integra and she drove me to the local elementary school for my Girl Scout meeting in the library.

The glowing sun was still up, but lowering in the sky, casting long light shadows across the campus.  I always felt peaceful walking towards the library from the parking lot.  Having moved many times, this was my third troop in two states and full of great girls. 

While I only joined this particular Cadette troop in the eighth grade, they had been together for several years already.  And most of us had bridged up to Seniors, when we graduated from junior high to high school.

It wasn’t like another gathering of school friends, later in the day.  Several of the girls, did go to the public high school with me, but there were also girls from the private Catholic school’s all girl campus in a neighboring town, girls from the other public high school in town, and more girls who attended the boarding school at the base of the mountain nearby as local day students.  We were quite a mix and yet, schools didn’t separate us, rather our Girl Scout troop united us.

This particular Tuesday evening, one of the girls from one of those other schools brought her best friend to a meeting, just to show and share what Girl Scouts was all about.  I couldn’t tell you what she was wearing or what she was doing, other than smiling while her eyes darted around as she took all of us in, when this new girl walked into her first Girl Scout meeting.  But I can tell you this, I knew we would be friends. 

Every neuron in my head, every molecule in my heart knew we would connect.  I could feel the strong tug of an unseen force propelling me towards her, like the ocean’s tide, compelled by the moon’s gravity.  And a split second after our introduction, I put my arm through hers, knowing she must have thought I was a total loon, and started marching her across the institutional carpet, through the small library, introducing her to everyone else.

My response was purely instinctual when I linked my arm through hers.  Twenty years later, she’s like a sister to me.

I am writing along with RemembeRED, from The Red Dress Club for this first time.  We were prompted to:  "Imagine you are meeting someone for the first time. You want to tell them about yourself.  Instead of reciting a laundry list of what you do or where you're from, please give us a scene from your life that best illustrates your true self."

If you are a regular here, you might be able to guess that this girl, now woman, is one of my Four Musketeers, who responds to the camp name, Snoopy!  And don't worry, I didn't steal her from her best friend, who responds to the camp name Woodstock, because she's also a Four Musketeer! :>

A Special Day...Five Years in the Making

Some time ago, at a regularly scheduled Girl Scout meeting.....four teenage girls, bred, born, lived in different cities, states, families, schools and yet, when the four arrived in the same locale, at the same time, the Four Musketeers were born.

Twenty years later, four women are still known by many as the Four Musketeers, who are still the best of friends, Aunties to each others' kidlets, sistersinlaws to the husbands, family to each other, and respond to the Girl Scout camp names Woodstock, Gizmo, Fishey, & Snoopy.

Today is quite a special day...five years in the making. 

The Four Musketeers are all meeting up, together, at the same time, for the first time in almost five years.

One of them lives on the East Coast these days and what was weekly gatherings during their teens years, quarterly visits during the college years, and at least yearly gatherings during the rest of their twenties, has been reduced to gatherings of two or three whenever they were in the same town at the same time...but, not all four women at the same time...until now! 

Post high school, the Four Musketeers have gathered at some choice Southern California universities for sushi, a party, a concert, or some dorm time;  Tahoe for sushi, cozy fires, skiing, or chill time;  Northern California pads for sushi, pool play, BBQ'ing, or chatty time; a Northern California retreat for seafood, sight seeing, cooking,  or game time; and weddings for celebrating, toasting, dancing, brides maid'ing, giggling, chatting, smiling, and pretty sure they managed to work some sushi in there too!

Oh yes, and their favorite locale to gather, where their names are etched into a brick that thousands' feet step upon...the place where every person can feel like a child, no matter what their age...Disneyland.

A favorite tradition Snoopy started was to take a group pic in front of each of the letters of CALIFORNIA...one letter per visit, in order.  Above, the last complete Four Musketeer gathering, late 2005. 

Gizmo (in blue) was pregnant with her last child and so she did her good Mama duties and rode the cement bench while her favorite roller coaster, Space Mountain, whispered fervently in her ear.  And she told the Four Musketeers to live, love, and enjoy that dark, star lit, whirl air whipping past their faces ride.

However, the Four Musketeer never disappoint each other and they went on as many rides as they could, both big and small.  Woodstock & Fishey smile for Snoopy's camera on Heimlich's Chew Chew Train and Gizmo was smiling too because the wee ride in the bugs' big world was one she could climb aboard for.

Gizmo couldn't be too sad though.  With every step down Main Street, through the happiest place on Earth, she remembered so many other fun filled trips to Disneyland when she could ride those roller coasters....like Splash Mountain with Snoopy braving the front of the log with her.  This is the only time Gizmo has ever ridden in the front seat of the Splash's wild log ride.

And of course, there are more letter group moments of the younger years to enjoy.  The letters "I" & "L" have been brought to you by the year 2004.

Its a bit comical that Fishey & Snoopy are on the bottom here, since they are the ones who would usually climb a letter & get their goofy on for a great shot.  But, its the letter L's turn and the Four Musketeers are, as always, Four.

Each Four Musketeer gathering has an abundance of hugs, smiles, laughter, and of course, some sushi.  The girls, technically women...but, on a Friday night, just hours after gathering, with sushi and maybe a cocktail in their bellies, they feel like girls again, chatting and giggling, maybe even laughing until their eyes tear and sides hurt....began as teenage friends who met in a local elementary school library for a Girl Scout meeting, have grown, and weaved lives with many & mighty stories to tell. 

Wonder what threads Snoopy, Woodstock, Gizmo, & Fisheys' looms will weave in the years to come?  More children?  Career highs?  Home successes?  Creative journeys?  Grandchildren?  Gray hair ladies shuffling around Disneyland, living with the joy they have brought each other throughout their years? 

Maybe.  Probably.  Thankfully.