I just finished my last ever Girl Scout meeting a leader and I could not be happier about it. I spent 7 years as a Girl Scout volunteer. I started as a parent volunteer, then co-leader and finally Leader of my own troop.

Girl Scouts, at its core, is an organization that promotes community service, a love of the outdoors & helps build strong female leaders. It was designed as “something for all girls.” I have witnessed first-hand the positive impact this organization can have on young girls. I have also seen how much negativity flows throughout this organization.

Chances are you have most-likely heard of the term “Soccer Moms” or maybe you’ve caught the show Dance Moms. Well, I am sad to say that those moms have nothing on a Girl Scout Mom, especially during cookie season. These “volunteers” are entitled, vicious and sadly, their mean mom ways spill right over to the girls who are looking up to them.

 Besides the mean moms and salty “council” employees, I found that the program itself is lacking. You may have seen the recent push for more outdoor badges. That is a great start but unfortunately, there is much more that needs to be added to the program to bring it both back to basics as well into this century. I found that a lot of the program was really just an extension of school. My scouts were easily bored by the Journeys and a majority of the badge work. It took a lot of time and creativity (thanks Pinterest) for me & the scouts to make what was required both fun and engaging.

 And then there is parent participation or really lack of. Parents just want an activity where they could simply drop their kid off and pick them up an hour or so later. They did not want to read emails, help in meetings and they most certainly did not want anything to do with scouts outside of our regular meeting. We’d plan a fun field trip and only get 3 girls who would actually show up. We were slated to march in a popular holiday parade (part of earning the celebrating community badge). We made our banner (also part of the badge) communicated the date of the parade multiple times and even offered a carpool. The morning of the parade came and only ONE girl showed up and my husband carried our banner down the street.

I wont waste too much time talking about the annual cookie sale. “Council” tries really hard to spin this as opportunity for the scouts to learn 5 important skills; decision making, money management, people skills and business ethics. What it is in reality is an opportunity for the Girl Scout organization to pay salaries (you should see the number of “directors” my local program has), pensions and whatever else it deems it needs and that varies by “council”. Troops by the way only see $.75 for every $4.00 box sold. “Council” sold out by incorporating Girl Scout cookies into ice cream, lip gloss, candy bars and even milk. I am not even sure where that money goes. I could talk about my distaste for this particular fundraising method all day. Bottom line, girls work very hard and only see a fraction of the profit. I’ll just leave this here if you want to read more.

 Don’t get me wrong, I am not a hater of this organization but I strongly believe that Girl Scouts needs to get back to basics, stop the emphasis of cookie sales & embrace the century we live in.

Sisterversary

Today is my Sisterversary! May 5, 2015 is the day that I officially met my sister. Well not in real life but via Facebook of course. I remember spending the entire morning stalking her Facebook page trying to learn as much as I could about this new person.

 It was a Sunday morning in early May when I got a call from my Dad. He asked if I was sitting down as he had something to tell me. Immediately, my heart sank and my mind went racing. Was his cancer back? Was someone else sick? Was it my Grandma? What he told me next, I was not at all expecting. He told me the story of a couple of teenagers, still in high school, who had a baby. That baby, my sister, was put up for adoption shortly after she was born. He cried, I cried. Then he went on. Her name is Sherri. I stopped him there. Her name is Sherri, my name is Kerri. Sherri and Kerri. I thought that was a funny coincidence. She was married and had four kids. Then he told me that one of her daughter’s shared the exact same name as one of mine. That stopped me in my tracks. We named our kids the same thing? This was stuff you hear about on Lifetime or TLC. This was not real life. But it was. It was my real life. I had a sister named Sherri and she was real and wanted to know me. Know us. Know our family.

 A lot has happened since that initial call from my dad and subsequent sister Facebook stalking. I have hugged Sherri and her girls. I have sat in a room with ALL 4 of my siblings (It was awesome and weird all at the same time) and I saw my Dad, complete. The hole in his heart was shrinking and his kids were all together. His secret was out and nobody flinched.

 I still don’t know why Sherri was placed in my path at that exact moment but I am glad she was. Happy Sisterversary to my beautiful, big sister, Sherri.

Koalas at The Phoenix Zoo

The Phoenix Zoo got some new visitors and being members we got a sneak peek. Again Thanks to Grandma & Guy-Guy. We LOVE our Zoo Membership.

This is Sookie she is visiting the valley from on loan from the San Diego Zoo.

Our little Joey's

That's an Iguana

Sno Cones were the best treat for a super hot fall day.


Lily dropped hers.

"What color is ma tongue mama?"

Dancing Girlers

The girlers just started another round of dance classes (Thanks Grandma & Guy-Guy)

This is Lillian's first ever dance class.
She was excited.

Izzy is an old pro!

Ready to get dancing!

Flag Football

Jesse made the school's football team this year.
His Jr. high plays flag football and after breaking his wrist, I don't think Jesse was ready to go back to full contact.

Our game time set-up! We're ready.

There he is #21. He is the starting Tight end.


Izzy and Daddy.

Me & Lily.


Go Oakwood Raiders!!
Right now the teams is 2-1.

Chuck-E-Cheese

Apparently we hadn't had enough of Chuck-E-Cheese and needed to go back. Good thing we had some unused tokens and uncashed tickets.

Battle of the Sisters.
(Izzy won, Lily was close)

Lillian not so sure about the ride.

Isabelle loves it.

Something Lily does like, Cotton Candy!

her sister, too!

Izzy's Lost Teeth!

Isabelle just turned 5 and already she's a changin'!

I picked her up from school to find out she had lost a tooth!
Really? I didn't even know one was lose.
She lost it on the playground and before she could put it into a safe place she lost it.
No worries the tooth fairy did come.. we used a piece of corn as the missing tooth's stand-in!

A week after that.. another tooth made its way out of her mouth.
This one she lost in the car on the way home from school. We didn't lose this one.