Boy Scout

My boy joined the good ole' boy scouts of america last fall when he turned 8.  It took me nearly 4 months to get him a shirt.  I'm on the ball like that.  It took the looming pinewood derby to motivate me to finally act.  He still needs patches.  Might be another 4 months before he has those.  Or maybe I'll just wait for one of those banquet thing-a-mabobers.  

As you can tell, I don't know a whole lot about the scouting world.  It was not too long ago that I sat down to actually read the manual.  I'm trying to stay caught up with his home assignments. Sometimes that works and sometimes it doesn't.  It all depends on how much nagging is required to get him to complete the activity.

But he loves being in scouts.  He has to work hard not to smile or laugh (heaven forbid!) when those rowdy boys say silly things like how 'responsible' means that you don't smash the tv.  He loves learning about tools and doing little projects.  

He seriously loved the big project of making a pinewood derby car with his dad.  He spent hours designing, sanding and painting it with painstaking detail.

He dubbed it the green machine.  And it became his best bud for a while, getting carried with him all through the house and even outside for an adventure or two.

(He's hiding his car behind his back.  Don't ask me why.)

Isn't this just the sweetest little expression?

Right.  Maybe not.  But he sure seems to enjoy making faces. 

I ditched out on my Young Women duties to go watch him race.  He had fun.  Even won a race or two.  And didn't flip out when he lost.  Good boy.

They had a brand spanking new track this year, with an elaborately designed timer/finish line.  It was quite the nice set up.  All except for that one spot on the right track that made the cars bounce up and slow down.  Ah, well, what fun would church competitions be if there was nothing to complain about? 

He wasn't actually mad, or sad in this picture.  Just making faces.  And protesting me taking his picture in front of other people.

I think Shaggy was just as excited as J about this pinewood derby.  Which is the way all good scout dads are.

J was quite happy about his participation medal.  But again, not happy about his mom taking his picture in public.

I'm not worried in the least about J keeping up with scouts.  I'm worried about me keeping up with scouts.  From what I hear, that eagle scout project paperwork is a *nightmare*.  But since that's a few years down the road, I guess we'll cross that bridge when we come to it.