Wow! The end of June already! This year is just zipping by. I  feel like I should start Christmas shopping....oh yeah, I have!!
Here is an update from the past week or so.....

Caitlin is getting ready for a week of Theater camp this week. Unfortunately due to schedule conflicts at work, I will be unable to see her performance on Friday, it will be the first one I have missed! But, fortunately Grandma Judy is able to go so she will have someone there for her. She should have a fun time. Then the week after is zoo camp and that will of course be a blast for her.

Yesterday we explored a zoo that we had never gone to before. It is called the Wilderness Trails Zoo and is in Birch Run. It is a small zoo with old fashion fenced cages, which I was concerned baout because sometimes those really depress me if the animals look miserable, but it really was neat. I only had one concern about a zebra whose hoof was broken looking, but Caitlin decided that was probably what brought him here so it was alright. We had a great time and plan to go back again. We got to feed swans, fish, turtles, baby cows, goats, the otter, and many more beasts. The animals are really close which is neat and we explored some Silver Award (Girl Scout) ideas for her while there too, that is the highest award a Cadette can get and involves doig something to help society, the planet or animals and should be permanent. It mamd me sad when Caitlin said that I was an awesome Mom and told me that most of her friends don't like to hang out with their Mom's. It makes me wonder if it is the Mom or the child, because Ciatlin seems to love to hang out with me and we always find fun and interesting things to do.

Cait and I have been working on finding exciting new things for the Girl Scouts to do next year now that I am the leader! I have found many things they can think about doing. The Howell Nature Center has overnights that can be incorporated into badges and they have ropes courses and a zipline which will go well with the "Journey" challenge we will be doing next year which focuses on bullying, being yourself, and encouraging others. I have also discovered several other fun places to go that I will throw out there. I want to have a "girl-led" troop this year which means that they get to make most of the decisions and I will just guide them. They will have to take costs, time, location and activities into consideration when voting what to do. Hopefully they will like this more than the old way of having the leader or her daughter deciding most of it. We also have a sister troop that is run by mine and Beth's high school friend Chris Davis. She is running the troop at Muir Middle School this year and we are hoping to do some camping and stuff together.

Jeff has finished up with the testing that he was stressed out about for work and is much more relaxed now, in fact he is at Gary's playing with motorcycles right now. He is going to a motorcycle track day next weekend for his birthday, which gives me pause, but I know he is a safe rider and want to encourage him to do things he loves. It is over by Grand Rapids and he is trying to get Cait and I to go, but we would have to take the dog and camp and then if Cait and I wanted to do anything during the day, it would have to be something Neiko can do too. We will just hang out here instead.

I have two tests left for my last class. I am so frustrated with this class, I just want it done. I managed to drag it out as much as possible, but now have to finish it by July 1st. The professor seems to like himself alot and his 3 page introducation basically said that he has never had a student that met his expectations and that he doesn't give good grades just because we did the work. He gave me one 100 and the rest have all been around 90. I got 87 on the last test and it now has my average at 90. I am so angry considering I was carrying a 3.9 before this class!!!! Argh! But it is the last one for my degree, so I will finish and be glad to be done.

Caitlin is officially a Middle Schooler now!
5th grade graduation was a long drawn out experience. The teachers said something special about EVERY kid (sometimes telling stories to go with it), which took a long time.
When it was Caitlin's turn, Mr Schwaninger said that she was definitely her own person. He said that there is the world's way of doing things, and then there is Caitlin's way of doing things. He said she is not afraid to be herself or be different and he admired that. Then he said "from one weirdo to another, never stop being yourself". Some of the Mom's were upset about this and talked to me afterward. But I wasn't upset and neither was Caitlin, infact, she thought it was pretty awesome that he said that and I thought that he really understood her. They were obviously comfortable enough with each other for him to say that and I appreciate him knowing her that well and being able to convey the message to her in a way she understood, even if the other Mom's didn't. She is very excited about 6th grade, but even more excited for summer at this point.

For the first weekend of summer I told her she could invite a friend and we would do something special since we are not going to have a summer "vacation" this year. She picked her friend Olivia who was on the swim team with her a few years back and then we lost touch with. Well, with the redistricting of schools, she ended up coming to our school this year and will be in Cait's middle school, so they have become good friends! We went to Splash Universe in Dundee, and went to the Toledo Zoo on Sunday. They had a blast! They are so good together, they didn't have any pouty times, or I don't want to be with you times. They even went to sleep between 10 and 10:30 both nights! It was an awesome time, we hope to take Olivia somewhere else with us this summer too, maybe up north to go tubing 

We both signed up for the reading club at the libarary and Caitlin is really into it! She even signed up for some of the programs there. They have a glow party, which she opted to do instead of a camp out with her old girl scout leader. She also signed up for a game night and a book club type afternoon where they discuss a book and have pizza. She is excited that she is in the Teen group now and gets the good prizes and activities instead of the "lame" crafts. She already has 7 1/2 hours on her log since June 1st.  She earned 5 raffle tickets so far and put 4 in for the Nook Color and 1 in for the Campout Goodies. I have 2 books on mine (ours is different, for every 5 books you read, you put your name in a drawing for prizes).

Caitlin and I are signing up for a Girl Scout encampment in July, which is a weekend camporee! The girls are doing Astronomy stuff Friday night (and have the opportunity to design their own badge) and earning two different wildlife badges on Saturday (Cait's are the Trailblazers and Animal Helper badges). The leaders are attending enrichment classes while there. Oh, for those of you who don't know...I am officially the leader for the White Lake Middle School 6th grade Cadette's. Panic time!!!! Caitlin's old leader decided not to continue and said her daughter wasn't going to do scouts in 6th grade because it is not cool! Of course, now that I picked it up, she says her daughter wants to do it. Caitlin is not very excited about that since her daughter is one of the bullies. Unfortunately I can't refuse any girls! Right now I have 4 for sure, 7 possibles, PLUS they said there may be 11 from the other two schools coming in! So I could have anywhere from 4 to 22+! 4 sounds good to me! heehee

Caitlin may decide not to do Little Mermaid at the theater, she is not sure if she wants to give up Saturdays for the next two months. They changed the time to 2-5 instead of 3-6 because some parents were complaining. 2-5 is worse! I suggested 9-12 or 6-9! Not something else in the middle of the day!  Plus, we are a little strapped for cash after the new mattress and new well tank, so it will not bother me if she decided to skip it, that is $155 we can use elsewhere.

Summer is starting and Caitlin is at her first day of camp. Hope you all have a day as great as hers will be!