HOORAY! He made it!!

 

Frankie is officially an Eagle Scout.

Ok, I know that having gotten this far, it wasn't likely that he WOULDN'T make Eagle.

However, it isn't over until it's over. What if there was a glitch that I hadn't noticed, that kept him from making Eagle????

I was having palpitations all day.

Tonight, Chris came over after scouts... he's really one of the family anyway. I gotta tell you, I love that kid like he's one of my own sons. Plus, he has the added bonus of having gone through this all before, because Chris is already an Eagle Scout. He was just as excited as I was.

Frankie called at some point and just said, "Yeah, I made it." I didn't have any details. But Chris and Nicky ran out and got a cake from Carvel. And I had a bottle of champagne in the fridge.

So we celebrated...!!!!! YAYAYAYAY!!!! :D

It's Official!

 

And this is the badge!
OK, he won't get his OWN badge until after his Court of Honor, and that's in May. But he's earned it as of today.
This is actually Chris's badge... he made Eagle in December.

Off he goes

 

We took this right before he left for the Board of Review.

My heart's been pounding hard all afternoon!

Eagle Scout???

Tonight's the big night... Frankie's Board of Review for Eagle.
Tonight's the night that he has to be interviewed by several members of the District Committee, to see if he is truly qualified to become an Eagle Scout.

There have been SO MANY steps along the way to get to this point.
He's learned all of his skills - camping skills, knot tying skills, compass skills, first aid skills.
He's earned all of his ranks, from the basic "Scout" through "Life."
He's done countless hours of volunteer work.
He's had leadership positions to help run the troop.
He's earned 34 badges, ranging from easy - Basket Weaving - to complicated - Personal Management - to really challenging - Cycling. His favorite may have been Nuclear Energy, or Engineering, or Architecture.
He's completed a complex service project, proving that he has the skills to organize and direct a huge undertaking. His project was the Toy Drive for Goryeb Children's Hospital.

Tonight is the final step -- his interview.

Keep your fingers crossed!!!

 

Here's Nick.

 

I didn't want to leave out Nick. Sometimes it seems like I mention Frankie way too often.

Nick doesn't want to be an Eagle Scout. He just wants to be in scouting. He is in both the troop and in the Venturing Crew. He's actually Vice President of the Crew.

Just because Nick doesn't have the "over-achiever" gene doesn't mean that he isn't just as great.

In fact, Nick is just super-cool.

I went camping this weekend.

 

It wasn't Merrill Park, but it was just like that, only in Woodbridge.
Not at all wilderness, but a nice setting anyway. And anything we forgot, we sent someone back to go get. So it was an EASY trip.

We had a campfire on Friday Night. The campfire was associated with a little more drama than I usually like. I already lectured everyone involved, though, and said I'd drop the subject, so I'll say no more about THAT.

Home Sweet Home

 

This is me (at least my foot) in my tent... I got a new light pink tent, which is perfect for when I'm camping with the Boy Scouts.

Demonstrations

 

Saturday during the day, activities were planned.
There was a Karate demonstration, an Environmental demonstration, and a fire safety demonstration. Because the weekend had originally been planned for September and been rained out, we had less demonstators and less campers than we had hoped.

Football and Dogs

 was an important part of the weekend. Everyone was looking forward to the annual Football game. This is a pretty good shot because you can see the campsite -- not our side, but the other troop's side. We also got free hotdogs, thanks to Town Hall and Wegmans... I've decided to shop in Wegmans from now on!

The Mayor stopped by

  and gave a presentation for Citizenship in the Community, which is a merit badge that every scout must earn in order to get Eagle Scout.

After the Mayor's speech, the boys had time to run around and do whatever they wanted for a little while. Basically, they played a little catch and then ate every bit of food we had left, including the Ramen noodles.

Then we packed them up into our cars, and headed out.

Topped off by a concert

 
This is Runway Orange (I think. Or maybe Runaway Orange.) They were one of the four bands that played at Casey's Eagle Scout Project. They were really very good. Casey did a benefit concert for the foodbank at St. James Church. It was a very successful project. I was more than a little stressed, but the project was great. I kept imagining all of the things that could go wrong... but they didn't.

He collected two canned items per person for admission.

And then, the troop went back to the campsite.

Weird weekend.

Lalala

Everyone's out, and I have the house to myself for the first time in weeks...

Lalala

I have a glass of wine and some coffeehouse music on Sirius...LALALALA

It feels like it oughta be Saturday.........

OOH LALALA OOOOH LALALA

I don't have much to say, just thought I'd say hi
and OOOOOH LALALALA OHHLALALA

(Only one glass of wine.)

Maybe I'll post later.

Camping in the 'burbs/urbs

This is a great weekend to camp. It's going to be warm and sunny.

Every urban area has, or at least should have, an area where all you can see are trees. Even though those trees will be a very narrow strip, with hundreds of apartments right behind them.

That's where we'll be camping.

It actually may be a little scarier than camping in the woods...

Talk to ya later!

Wordless Wednesday

 

Frankie's 18th Birthday

 

I missed his actual birthday this year. Thinking back, I probably missed Nicky's birthday last year. He's a December baby, and December is CRAZY.

But here (belatedly) is a birthday party picture for Frankie. This year, we went to Bertucci's with a few of his friends and family. 18 is a big year.

Why is 18 a big year???

For one thing, when I called the insurance company to question one of his medical bills, they told me that they could only speak to him. Because he's 18. A legal adult.

They also said that if we don't PAY his doctor bills, it goes on HIS credit rating. (WOO HOO!) (JK)

18 year olds in New Jersey can buy lottery tickets, but they can't gamble in Atlantic City because they serve liquor.

I hear that 18 year olds can go to strip clubs -- the real nude ones -- because those kinds of strip clubs serve juice, not liquor. The other kind of strip bars, where the girls don't get completely nude, serve liquor, so you must be 21.

18 year olds can get a tattoo. They can join the military.

Today, he went to the Division of Motor Vehicles. He updated his license, so it is no longer a provisional license. He no longer has a curfew or a limit to the number of passengers in his vehicle. (He still has a curfew according to his mother.)

Walkathon for Make A Wish today.

 

Today was the Make a Wish Walkathon. It was held in Liberty State Park, which is exit 14B off the NJ Turnpike. I've never been to this state park before. I've never been to the Statue of Liberty or Ellis Island. Isn't that sad? I guess it's harder to make the time to sightsee around your own area. I've see a lot of sights in Washington DC, and Chicago, and even in Hollywood. I've been to Philadelphia and Boston. And I've been to NYC, of course, but I've never really seen ALL the sights. So this is the closest I've ever gotten to the Statue of Liberty. Well, no, actually I was on a boat tour once or maybe twice that went around the statue. But, anyway, you get the idea.

It was a good day for a walkathon, because it was cool and not raining, but not cold. Of course, it might have been nice to sleep in today after Alyssa's party last night... but we did it anyway.

I didn't earn a whole lot of money to donate, but it's a start. I plan on volunteering more for Make a Wish in the future.

What a view!

 

There was plenty to see while we waited to begin. Here is a New York City Water Taxi, and a kayaker, in the Hudson River between us and New York City.

Many walkers walk for wishes!

 
What wonderful walkers! We were among many, many walkers, walking for wishes. What were we wearing? We wore what we wanted. We were wondering whether we would wear wish shirts.... well, one of us wore a wish shirt. (Me.) Many more made team shirts. I had made team shirts for the last walkathon, but I didn't this time.

"Frank's Xtreme Team"

 
Here we are, the whole team. I didn't really push hard to get people to sign up; we just did the CCFA walkathon, not too long ago, and it's hard to ask people to donate more. I did get Frank and Frank's parents to walk. (Nicky had a soccer game - I'll post more about soccer another time - and Frank had gotten up early for the SAT's the day before, and I find that he needs at least one day to sleep in. I think it's important for his health. So I didn't push him.)

Ellis Island

 

Thor took this photo as we waited for the walk to begin. You can see Ellis Island in the foreground and the Statue of Liberty is right past that.