A Girl Named Bunny (1 of 3 days)

My weekend started off a little rocky due to a surprise resignation of a fellow employee. His departure left a series of waves crashing in our office but all worked out for the best. I think.

Friday after work I left to pick up Oldest Daughter. She invited an out of state friend to stay the weekend with us but this friend's friend was leaving unexpectedly. Mmm another surprise departure. Anyway Oldest Daughter invited another friend, Bunny, at the last minute. This particular friend annoys the heck out of me. She is not a bad girl nor does she get in to trouble or anything. It is just her complete lack of maturity that sucks the life out of me.

When I say it is ok to invite another teenager over to our house I am expecting a teenager...not a toddler. This young lady is 16 years old but acts like a tempermental toddler. She may think it is totally cute. I want to bang my head against the wall when she is around.

She is Oldest Daughter's friend and it is only the weekend so I agree to let her come over for another visit. Yes, she has visited once before.

During our drive home Bunny is very quite unlike last time where she rarely stopped talking long enough to gasp for breath. This time she was plugged into a DS game and totally oblivious to what was going on around her. I welcomed the change from not stop chattering. I think Oldest Daughter had a little chat with her friend after I mentioned how much Bunny chattered on before.

On her last visit Bunny sat next to me and talked NON-STOP through a 2 hr movie. She kept saying "What just happened? What did I miss?" My response was always "you already explained what was going to happen and that is what was going on while you were talking."

Since I had already seen the movie before I gave up watching and picked up my cross stitch. I was hoping to watch it with Oldest Daughter and get her take on the movie. She also gave up watching the movie due to the chatter and went to bed...leaving me to indure the not stop chattering for remainder of the movie with Bunny. At one point I almost said "Shut up! I need to count the spaces inbetween stitches!" but I sat silent. Saying to myself "You only have to deal with her for two days...just two days. She is Oldest Daughter's friend. Be nice. Smile."

After Bunny's first visit I chalked her insessive chatter to nervousness coming out but Oldest Daughter said she is always that talkative.

Anyway, the lack of filling all space with Bunny's words this weekend gave Oldest Daughter and I a chance to catch up, listen to a few CDs we liked and just shoot the breeze giggling here and there. Snow White even had a chance to join in on the conversation without the constant interuptions.

Instead of heading directly home we had to make a stop at the grocery store. We had just ran out of cat food and needed to replenish the food stock. It was a weekend and teenagers are normally in an abundance at our house on the weekends.

Have you ever been in a grocery store with a tired, cranky 3 year old? I have but it has been a long time so I was a little out of practice and did not have a 3 year old with me.

It is after 9 pm when we reach the grocery store. While making my way throught the produce section Oldest Daughter asked for a few items. I sent her on her way to gather them. No matter what age your children are they still ask for special things in the grocery store. They just ask nicer and understand why if you do not agree with their choice.

I was taken aback when Bunny very perkily says "What's for din-din?" I am puzzled as to why she has not had dinner. Does she really expect me to cook up a huge dinner at this time of the night? I motion towards the lunch meat in our cart and politely say "You can make sandwiches when we get to the house."

"Sandwiches?! Sandwiches?! I HATE sandwiches!" She crosses her arms, puts on the best pouting face I have ever seen on a 3 year old and even stomps her foot! Um, I don't know how to react or what to say. Even little Snow White is puzzled by this behavior. When I stopped stairing at Bunny I decided to move on down the grocery isle.

Oldest Daughter returned with her requested items and asked if she could also get a sub. Thank goodness she came at that time. I agreed to the sub and said "Why don't the two of you pick out something you might like to eat when we get home."

Oldest Daughter comes back with a sub but Bunny comes back empty handed. We walk through the isles and I pick up this and that. Eventually we make it to the frozen food section. Bunny still has not picked out anything. I pick up 4 pepperoni pizzas thinking Teenagers are always willing to eat pizza.

Out of the corner of my eye I can see Oldest Daughter making granduous hand jesters towards the cart while making a head jerking motion signally Bunny to "look". Sort of a "See, Mom is getting those for you." Then it comes..."I HATE Pepperoni! I hate it, hate it!"

I freeze not because she is displeased but she is just being down right rude. If she were really 3 years old I might expect her response but come on! She is 16 years old. Instead of repremanding her I simply reach for the cheese pizzas and she smiles. Then I say "If you wanted cheese pizza all you had to do was ask. There is no need to yell."

Bunny smiled, batted her eyes then linked arms with Oldest Daughter and attempted to skip down the isle with her. Oldest Daughter is not use to making a spectical of herself in public so she detangled their arms and left Bunny to skip through the isle on her own. Oldest Daughter, Snow White and myself stood a the back of the isle just watching Bunny skip up the isle as if she was skipping down the yellow brick road linked arm and arm with the Scarcrow and the Tin Man from the Wizard of Oz. We looked at her then each other and slowly made our way up the isle behind us. I think Oldest Daughter was keeping her distance so maybe no one would notice Bunny was with us.

We finish our shopping and head home. The girls and ManSon are all so wonderfully helpful unloading the bazzillion grocery bags from the van. I tuck Snow White into bed and the girls watch TV all night in the family room.

Yeah Brownies!

Last week it dawned on me that Snow White never signed up for Girls Scouts. I was a Girl Scout and Oldest Daughter was a Girls Scout for two years.

The internet lead me to a site that says the closest troop is an hour away. Trying to keep everything local thoughts of "Yikes! I might have to become a Troop Leader!" I wanted us to be part of the Scouts but not incharge.

While surfing the net I checked out the uniforms. Uh, there are no uniforms any more. T-shirts and maybe some pants that look like PJs but a lot more comfortable than the old uniform.




Well, two days into the school year a flyer came home and they are starting local Troop sign ups September 4th. Yeah! I am saved! I wont have to start a Troop on my own and I wont have to be the Troop Leader!

Last week I came home, Snow White ate dinner while I changed and put on the make up I had not time for this morning. I found the Girl Scout flyer and called the number since I could not figure out the sign up location. It did say the name of the church but I still could not find it. I called the number and a man answered saying his wife, Troop Leader, had just left for a meeting. "Girl Scout meeting?" He gave me the best directions he could...without street names. Why could he not tell me the street names? He lives here! He does not need to know the names of the streets to figure out where he needs to turn. I was the same way in our old state.

Well, Snow White and I drove up and down a main street about 5 times before I found the church. It was not visible from the main road but it was off of the main road. After arriving at our destination I could see how the directions we were given actually made sense to someone who has lived here all their lives.

Anyway we were first to arrive. The front door swung open and a really nice lady with short blonde hair was holding the door open for us. Apparently she is one of the Troop Leaders. Yes, there is more than one Troop in this location. Actually, there are 4 Brownie Troops and 4 Junior Troops. They all meet in the same place but on two different evenings.

While registering Snow White they asked if I would also like to register. I explained that I was nationally registered and the eye balls bulged and their ears purked. "National...registered...among us...really...truly?" Um, Yes, really and truly.

The leaders were all Girl Scouts before so I was really surprised to find out no one else registered nationally. So here I was happy to not be the Troop Leader. They were thrilled to have a nationally registered Mom who loves crafts and has a Mini Van! Yeah for transportation and weekly support!

When I handed in Snow White's registration form they looked at me in surprise. "I don't have change yet. It is only $10 to register and we do accept checks." I explained the extra money was a donation and pointed out the check mark on the registration form. They giggled with glee.

Snow White had a few apprehensions about joining the Browines....

"I do not want to be a Girl Scout. Do you know they have to make ALL THOSE COOKIES!" Apparently up until now she thought the Girl Scouts was child labor for cookie making. (I almost peed my pants from laughing!)

"I would be ok with camp so long as we could make smores and there were no bears or wolves." The Troop leader laughed and when she finally caught her breath she said "We try to avoid bears and wolves at all costs."

Were you a Girl Scout? Camp Fire Girl? Brownie? Dasiy? Any stories to share?