Day 7

Church in Chevy Chase, Maryland.  We attended the DC 3rd ward, but yes, there is a Chevy Chase Ward.  I wish I'd taken a picture of their bulletin board with their name prominently displayed on there.  I think if Hugh Hefner ever had a city named for him, and we had a church unit there, the church would probably try to name it anything but the Hugh Hefner ward.  But Chevy Chase Ward is only medium-irreverent, I suppose.

We visited the DC Temple.  When I was a child, this was the only temple east of the Mississippi, so I saw it when my parents were ordinance workers there.  I was impressed by the decorative discs adorning the gates, and I had it in my head a long time that these were the gold plates.  

We also visited the Washington Monument, Lincoln Memorial, and Vietnam Memorial at night.  Pretty cool, but not as cool as the DC Temple.

Vacation2010Videos! 009.MTS

The worst food ever can be found at the Atrium Cafe at the Smithsonian Museum of Natural History. Unfortunately, it is coupled with being the most expensive food in D.C.

Day the Fifth

Tours of the Capitol and the Kennedy Center today.  Both excellent.  But the highlight of the day came when the children discovered subway venting fans, which make them all buff. (They don't stink as much here as they do in New York).

On Hotels and Bad Drivers

Hotels can be expensive.  They can be cheap.  They can even be free.  We've had a mixture of the two on this trip.

With a family our size, cheap hotels might not be worth it.  We used miles that Aaron and I had earned with Delta to get our hotels on the way to and from D.C.  My objective was to spend very little on the hotels on the way to and from D.C. and Virginia, so that we could enjoy ourselves while in D.C. and Virginia.  So, I made the miles stretch a bit.  Our first stop was the LaQuinta in Hoffman Estates, IL.  I drove the first leg of the trip.

When I checked in for our first night's stay, I found that they hadn't gotten us adjoining rooms, although our booking had specified that in the notes.  They claim not to have gotten the notes.  I will ask Delta about this, as our second hotel said the same thing.  But more about that later.  The LaQuinta didn't have two double rooms available for us that were adjoining.  They had two options for us.  One was a King room with an adjoining two doubles.  The other was two doubles, but not adjoining.  Aaron and I wanted to be able to supervise our children without splitting up for the night, so we chose the adjoining rooms, after they consented to putting a rollaway in each room.  This sounded like a pretty good deal.

When we arrived in the room, we discovered that their idea of a King bed is something much larger than the double beds, but slightly smaller than a Queen.  The double beds were quite small, as well.  The boys all volunteered to take a rollaway, rather than have to sleep with their siblings.  We gave Tristin and Brandon the rollaways, as they are the largest, and had Will and Ben share a bed.  We tried putting Dallin, Aidan and Katie sideways on the remaining bed, but Aidan and Katie were too wired for that to work.  Katie ended up sleeping with Aaron and me, and Aidan slept in a very small chair.  We aren't sure why he chose to sit upright in a chair to sleep, but that's where we found him in the morning.  Dallin ended up having a double bed to himself.  Aaron and I ended up getting very little sleep.

The nice thing about the LaQuinta was the heated outdoor pool.  We enjoyed it, but as it was only 79 degrees and windy, it was a little cool in the air when wet.  The pool was too deep for Aidan and Katie to stand up in it, so that meant whoever had them had to deal with a little bit of a chill.  Most of the time that person was me.

The breakfast was nice.  They had the standard free continental breakfast with a waffle maker, yogurt, fruit, muffins, cereal, toast, bagels, etc.  After loading up the van at 6:15am, we ate a quick breakfast and were on our way by 6:50am.

The approximately four to six frequently interrupted hours of sleep I got were perhaps slightly inadequate for driving in Chicago rush hour traffic.  It amazes me how people there weave and drive 15mph over the speed limit and somehow there are no accidents on the roads.  However, I made it through the white-knuckle portion of the trip, and had a relatively uneventful drive to Pittsburgh, PA.  Of course, once we reached Pittsburgh, I discovered I liked driving there even less than in Chicago.

Pittsburgh is a winding mess of hilly roads.  They have all been recently renamed, so even though I just updated the TomTom, we had to rely on where we figured the picture on the TomTom was taking us, rather than the road names.  Plus, if you aren't driving 15-20mph over the speed limit at all times, drivers get mad at you - even if you aren't in the left lane!  It is utterly ridiculous.

We made it to the hotel at about 5:30pm, just in time to settle in a little before leaving for the Pirates game.  That was a long day of driving.  I let Aaron drive for the evening.  I had suffered through enough during the long day.

As I mentioned before, we ran into problems again at check-in at the Ramada in Pittsburgh.  As the LaQuinta claimed to have not gotten our notes, I had Aaron call up the Ramada at 10am and confirm the adjoining room notes.  They said they did not have the notes in their system, but added them at that time.  That meant very little, because when we checked in, we were told they had no adjoining rooms available.

The beds were tiny double beds, just like the ones at the LaQuinta.  Unfortunately, we didn't have rollaways this time.  We juggled around who was to be in each room for a while.  I thought that having older boys share beds with younger boys would make a more comfortable night, but in the end we had the older four in one room, and the others with us.  Tristin and Brandon got their own beds, William slept on a cushioned bench, and Ben chose to sleep on the floor.  In our room, Aidan started out on the bench, but moved to the floor.  Dallin and Katie shared one bed, and Aaron and I slept in the other.  Katie really put up a fuss about not sleeping with us, but as this bed barely fit the two of us, we held firm.

We slept in at the Ramada, if you count the time change. Tristin didn't really appreciate my wake-up call at 7:30am ET.  We even had to wake up Aidan and Katie, who normally pop up after we make the slightest noise. I only had about 5 hours to drive to get to D.C., so we weren't in too much of a rush, but we were hoping to arrive at the Hyatt Regency at 3pm.  We ate at the paltry continental breakfast, and headed out at about 9am.  We made plenty of stops on our way.  I have to say, I was extremely glad to get out of Pennsylvania and arrive in Maryland.  The roads were better, and the drivers were more considerate. We almost ran out of cash for tolls at the last toll booth. We tried getting cash at an ATM along the way, but it was out of order.  We had no idea how much they were going to end up charging us, but we managed to scrape by with a couple of dollars remaining.  We had no idea how much tolls would be going into this trip.  It was around $30-$40.

We were extremely ready to get into our nice hotel when we arrived at 3:30pm.  Unfortunately, our nice hotel wasn't ready for us.  I made the reservation on the phone and had a confirmation that said we would be arriving at around 3pm, but our rooms were not clean yet.  So, we piled our stuff onto a bellman's cart, and piled back into the van.  We figured we could park the van at Union Station and take a nice walk back while we waited for our phone call saying our rooms were ready.  We didn't anticipate the heavens to open up and pour rain for the next hour.  We got the call within 20 minutes, but after waiting for the rain to let up enough to walk the 5 blocks back to the hotel without getting too wet, we didn't arrive back at the hotel until about 4:30pm.

All in all, it was worth the wait.  Paying for a nice hotel makes a difference.  We have an executive suite with a second adjoining bedroom.  I found a great family package where we got the second room for half price, so we made the splurge for the king suite.  It has a separate bedroom for us, a living room with a pull-out bed, and an adjoining room with two double beds.  Yes, it appears that a double bed is tiny no matter where you go.  But, there are so many large comfy chairs that we pushed two sets together and got two extra beds for Aidan and Dallin.  Katie slept on the couch cushions on the floor.  Tristin and Brandon got their own beds, and William and Ben slept on the pull-out couch.  It was quite comfortable, and we got a good 8.5 hours of sleep.  I had a great night.

Breakfast here was fabulous.  They have a real buffet, with a made-to-order omelette bar.  It was wonderful. Aaron showed you the picture of us in our own dining room.  The breakfast came as part of the room package.  I guess it wasn't supposed to for more than 4 of our children (plus Katie for free for being under 3), but I remember asking the guy when I made the reservation, and he said it was free for all of us, so the lady at check-in wrote out some extra vouchers for us.  We appreciated this immensely.

We look forward to our next four days here.  We won't even mind moving on to VA, though, as we will be at  Comfort Suites.  They happen to have two double beds in one room, one King bed in one room, plus a sofa bed in each room.  As long as they don't miss the adjoining room request, we should be good.

Day 4:Air & Space, and the Pentagon

One of my favorite memories of a DC trip as a child was visiting the Aaron Space Museum. It was nice of them to name it after me.  (My parents also used to 'run Aarons' fairly often, which meant every thing from grocery shopping to post office trips, until my sister insisted they start 'running Nancys' instead.)  So of course I first had to bring the children to my namesake.  I'm thinking about renaming it the 'William Aaron Space Museum', in order to appropriately pass on the legacy.

We also toured the Pentagon today.  Click here for photos. (Try all day to click if you want, but there's no link.  Its a security thing. Also, they don't allow you to take pictures). My favorite part was the courtyard; there's a little building right in the middle of it, and during the Cold War the Soviets saw so many people coming and going from it in their satellite photos, that they assumed it held nuclear weapons and so they trained most of their own Nuclear Weapons on it.  It was, as it turns out, the most dangerous hot dog stand in the world.

Yesterday we finished our drive to DC and did nothing.  Most pleasant.

Here we are at breakfast this morning. The Hyatt folks were kind enough to give us our own dining room, and the children were kind enough to not dismantle it.

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Day 2: PNC Park

I've told people we drove all the way to Pittsburgh to see a game because it has to be a really bad team in order for my family to afford tickets... of course, the fact that PNC stadium is a really cool outdoor stadium, downtown on the river, with a lot of history, adds to it.  I had a good time.  And the kids got their fill of junk food (pop, peanuts, cracker jack, cotton candy, hot dogs, and pop corn). That kept them busy, and I didn't bother distracting them by pointing out the game because, well, there really wasn't one.  The Pirates showed their true colors, losing 0-6 against the Marlins in an unremarkable show down.  The only people who showed up ready to fight were two girls down front who had a hair-pulling contest and got ejected by security.  

 

I should also mention our excellent dinner in Chicago last night: The family was introduced to Gino's East, one of my favorite pizza places in the whole world. (The other two are Sven & Ole's in Grand Marais, MN, and Beau Jo's in Idaho Springs, Colorado.  Try all three before you die.)

 

It was a hit.

 

 

 

 

We're on our way

Summer vacation -

a rest without real resting - 

begins in green grass.

Stefany has kindly given permission to Aaron to use her blog to journal our trip to our Nation's Capitol.  Here the boys are forming the traditional Pratt Pyramid, crowned by Katherine. This is taken at a rest stop in Wisconsin.  Why? Because no family vacation is officially begun until the words "I have to go to the bathroom" have been uttered.

The first part of the morning in the car was spent working on Music Merit Badge - which is where Dad gets to make the boys listen to 'his' music and his explanations of their meaning.  We started with Classical Opera, a little bit of Italian and German, It included learning some of the words of "La Donna e Mobile", from Verdi's Rigoletto, and "Der Holle Racht" from Mozart's Marriage of Figaro.  I'm sure everyone enjoyed it as much as Dad did.

We're in the Paper

Read the article about the melodrama we're in, featuring our family, in the Waconia Patriot.

New Callings

In case you haven't heard, Aaron was sustained as 2nd counselor in the bishopric today.  We will never get to sit together in church now, but we should see him a lot more on Sundays, as he won't be traveling around the west metro all day anymore.  I guess that is an okay compromise.

In other news, I was sustained as the Relief Society chorister last week.  The bishop assures me that he's not putting me out to pasture, but that he will probably be adding to that sometime soon.  I am glad to be serving in the Relief Society.  I have been getting so much out of attending meetings since being released from Primary.  There are so many wonderful women in there to learn from.  I really do feel that I need this right now.

The funny thing about both of the callings is that we guessed them before they were extended.  I told Aaron the night before I was called that I was sure that was it, and with Tim Lanier's travel load increasing, Aaron figured that he was probably headed to replace him.  He is a little disappointed that he won't get to complete his missionary goals on the high council, but I think he'll be glad to be back in the ward.

Aaron and I had what we call "Elijah" parties tonight and last Sunday night.  Currently, our stake president has issued a goal for every youth and adult in the stake to find a relative whose temple work isn't complete, submit their name, and do their temple ordinances by next conference.  Aaron noticed through his assignment on the high council that people who are of pioneer stock typically don't think there is any work for them to do.  As he is of pioneer stock, and I found names for him to do, he knows this isn't the case.  There are also some people who just need a little help with learning the web application in order to do it.  So, we have been inviting families over to work on their family history, getting them registered on http://new.familysearch.org, and helping them find ancestors to do the work for.

Sometimes it is as easy as looking back a few generations until we come to someone whose temple work isn't done, but more often than not it entails coming back down a couple of generations from the direct line ancestors and looking up some information on family members whose information is sparse via http://ancestry.com.  We have found at least one ancestor for each person who has come whose work could be completed.

Well, Brandon and Tristin will be getting up at 2am to get ready to leave for scout camp.  I should go to sleep now so I am not a complete grouch tomorrow after having an interrupted night.

Yay, Katie!

I've been putting Katie on the toilet for the past 6 months or so.  She has never had a problem with sitting on it, but has never actually "gone." But, this morning, she took the initiative of taking off her own diaper and sitting on it without me even prompting her.  She then peed in it!   Yay, Katie!

HELP

Aaron and I just got the script for the preview performance of Love on the Prairie.  We're understudying the leads for the second preview performance, as the leading man can't be there (they are having us do it as a couple, although the lead girl could have been there).

Anyway, the script is an hour long.  My part is not too bad, but Aaron has about double the lines that I have.  He's a bit nervous.  The leads have been working on these lines for a few weeks already, and now we're getting this with less than two weeks to go.  We only have one song to learn, but I'd rather learn songs than lines.  This is going to be an interesting next two weeks.

Birthday Fun and Random Updates

On Saturday, the Kukachka clan came over for our annual "cousins party."  This is where we celebrate all of the kids' birthdays at once, so we don't have to all try to get together for each birthday, as that was getting really complicated, with so many kids.

This year, it was held on Connie's birthday.  She turned 29 again this year. ;-)  She said that Luke (her youngest) wished her a "Happy Father's Day" instead of a "Happy Birthday."  I hope she enjoyed the day.  It occurred to me afterward that we should have sung to her.  We normally sing to everyone when we do cake, but this year we did s'mores instead, and I totally spaced the singing part.

During the party, some of the younger kids noticed a chirping sound coming from the storm sewer in the back of our yard.  They checked it out, and it turned out there was a robin stuck down there.   I laid out some thin pieces of wood for it to climb up on, but they were too steep.  On the third try (and once the robin realized I was trying to help, not poke it), when it got on the wood, I thought to use leverage to slowly lift the bird up to the top of the grate.  When it got to the top, it hopped across the grate, then sang to me for a minute or so before leaving for the next yard.  I felt very well-thanked.  I noticed then that it had a fuzzy head, and wasn't fully grown yet.  It hopped a few feet away, and then a momma bird came out from behind a tree and hopped over to it, gave it a few pecks, and led it back over to the tree.  What a fun experience!

Today, William threw up in church.  I'm hoping it was just a reaction to so much junk food yesterday.  I really can't afford a sick family this week, as it is going to be a busy one.  We have rehearsal Mon., Tues. and Thurs. nights.  Wednesday afternoon I have my advising and registration session at Normandale.  Wednesday night Aaron, Kelly Ammott and I will be rehearsing our song for Sacrament Meeting next Sunday.  After that, the Ammotts are going to help me de-bone 10 rotisserie chickens for the zone conference luncheon I'm putting on for 75 missionaries on Thursday.  I will also be doing most of the shopping for the luncheon tomorrow or Tuesday, depending on whether I get my couponing done early enough to get out tomorrow.  And that's just my schedule.  There's plenty more going on for the kids, too.  I'm in for a busy week, but I'm up for busy this week - provided we don't have a whole wave of stomach flu.

Disturbed

This morning at 2:45am in Eagan, a 3-year-old child was found walking along Highway 55.  At 5:30am, his parents discovered he was missing and called the police.  They said he got out by using an electric garage door opener.  The child is being held by social services for the next 72 hours while they investigate the parents.

This doesn't seem fair to me.  In fact, it outright disturbs me.  I thought that there must be something the article didn't say, like the parents looked like they were stoned or something when they came to get their child.  So, I called Dakota County social services to find out.  They told me that they don't just do this, that the police have to tell them to take the child into custody and do an investigation.  They suggested I talk to the police.  So I called them.  They said that when they can't find the parents, they place the child with social services, and have no control over when the child is released.  "That's funny," I said. "Social services just told me it was the other way around."

This could happen to you or me.  In fact, I am awfully lucky it hasn't happened to me.  I have had three-year-olds escape the house by going into the garage (the door of which they figured out how to open, despite the child safety doorknob), finding a car door unlocked, and opening the garage with the opener on the visor, just as they have seen me do.  I have had a three-year-old sneak out after dusk, when I thought he was asleep, only to have a neighbor call and tell me that my child is two blocks entertaining a crowd of people, including the sheriff.

I told the person at the Eagan police department that I thought that it was unfair to keep a 3-year-old from his parents for three days for escaping home without another reason.  She told me that there are unexpensive things a person can do to keep their child from escaping the house.  I told her that nothing is ever foolproof, and that this just isn't right.  She told me that she had gotten my voice mail, and that she really didn't need to further the conversation.  As I hadn't called her previously, I told her that this was my first call, and this just shows that other people are concerned with this, as well.

I got off the phone feeling like this isn't really the free country we think it is.  I cried.

I am afraid for the day when Katie figures out how to use a child safety doorknob.

William's Arrow of Light

William earned his arrow of light at our last pack meeting. We are so proud of him! He still has the rest of the summer to earn some more compass points, and then he will join the 11-year-old scouts program in September. Congratulations, Will!

New Blog - Need Name Ideas!

I want to start a public blog with coupon and sale specials for the Waconia area.  Does anyone have a great idea for a name?

A Little Good News

Aaron and I auditioned for CVFT's melodrama, "Love on the Prairie," on Monday.  I found out tonight that we both got parts as townspeople.  Aaron has some lines, and I have some solos.  Very exciting!

The director called to ask if our kids could be in it, too.  We were hoping they would ask!  The younger five will all be participating, although Katie and Aidan will be starting out on a trial basis to see if they can handle it.  William and Dallin are extremely excited about it.  Ben wasn't so sure he wanted to be in it, but when I explained what a melodrama is, he changed his mind.  Tristin and Brandon won't be involved, as they have scout camp the 2nd week of the run, and they preferred that to being in a musical.  Maybe someday they'll change their minds, like after seeing this melodrama.  ;-)

Rehearsals will be Mondays, Tuesdays and Thursdays for six weeks, starting next week.  The show runs July 30, 31, and August 5, 6, 7, 8.

Did I mention I'm excited?  It is so great that so many of the kids will be able to participate with us!

Show Choir

As I may have mentioned, Tristin made it into The Current, which is Waconia High School's JV show choir. They are having an awesome fundraiser for people who shop at Kwik Trip. The school was able to purchase gift cards at a 10% discount. You pay full price for the gift card, and use the entire face value of your purchase. Tristin gets 10% of your purchase deposited into his choir account. For example, you buy a $100 gift card for $100. You get to spend $100. Tristin gets $10 in his choir account. You lose nothing, and Tristin gains $10. As show choir will cost $675, this is a great deal for us, especially since we already buy gas, milk, eggs, bread and bananas at Kwik Trip.

If you would like to purchase a gift card, let me know what denomination you would like. I believe they come in $25, 50 and $100.

What I did with coupons today...

Aaron, Tristin and Brandon took off with Reo (Aaron's Dad) for the Boundary Waters this afternoon. As always happens when Aaron strands me with young children, I got fidgety and needed something to spend my mental strength on. As I was browsing through the Freebies 2 Deals website, I noticed a bunch of Walgreens deals that I could make some money on.

Don't I mean save money on?

No, I really do mean make money on.

Offer #1: The Schick Hydro 3 Blade Razor System has a $4 Register Rewards offer on it. Plus, I printed out a rebate form for a free Schick Hydro 3 Blade Razor System here: http://www.schickhydro.com/freehydro/. You'll need to send in the UPC and the original receipt with the rebate form.

So, I got a free Razor, and will get $4 toward my next purchase at Walgreens.

Offer #2: Like Grape Nuts, Shredded Wheat or Raisin Bran? It is on sale for $1.99 right now. If you go to http://www.postnatural.com/ you can get a coupon for $2 off a box of one of these cereals.

I came out with a free box of cereal and $.01.

Offer #3: Listerine Whitening Mouthwash is $5.49 at my store right now. There is a $1 off manufacturer's coupon here: http://print.coupons.com/couponweb/Offers.aspx?pid=14997&zid=iq55&nid=10&bid=alk061620065630f57109e7015. You'll have to scroll through a few pages to get to it. There are some other goodies on the way, so check-mark anything else off that you'd like to print out. They'll all print on the same page. Also, pick up a Walgreens in-store ad when you walk in, or if you don't want to trust that there will be one, you can print off a $3 off Listerine store coupon at http://www.walgreens.com/default.jsp. Just click on the Weekly Ad tab on the upper right of the screen, and look through the pages until you find it. Once you have done all of that printing, there's one more thing. Ring this through on a separate transaction than the razor. You will need the receipt. Mail the receipt, along with your name and address, to Dare to Wear Gift, P.O. Box 4938, NY, NY 10185. This rebate offer was in a magazine, and no rebate form was required. They will send you a $10 Visa gift card.

So, I got free mouthwash and made $8.51.

Wasn't that fun? Okay, I also had to pay for two postage stamps, two envelopes, and a few pieces of paper and ink, but after all of that I made over $11 in an hour, tax-free. I call that a pretty good run.

Now that it is done, I will go absorb myself in a book until I am so sleepy that I can fall asleep without Aaron next to me.

I just put a Sunday Coupon Preview widget on the bottom of my blog. I'm going to start looking at it and purchasing the Early Sunday edition on Saturday nights, when I think it will be worth it. I could get used to this whole making money at the store thing.

Stake Conference with C. Scott Grow

C. Scott Grow is an excellent teacher. He brings power with him when he speaks. He also likes putting people on the spot. For example, me. With no notice, at the Saturday evening adult session of our stake conference, he called me up to the stand to give a talk on how to be a mother of seven children when your husband is on the high council and travels a lot, and to bear my testimony.

I'm just glad I had an answer for his question. It was to rely on the Lord, and to be consistent in family scriptures and prayers and FHE, even when Dad isn't around. It was to have a husband who is constantly teaching our family, and who interviews the children individually monthly, going over their goals and talking about how things are going.

It was fun. :-) After I returned to my seat, he had the ushers bring microphones down the aisles and asked everyone to discuss the principles I had taught in my talk. He called on about 10 people.

I really enjoyed the night, despite the impromptu talk. When he finished the discussion, he spoke for a few minutes, and then turned the time over for some questions and answers. He gave inspired answers to inspired questions. It was the most spiritual experience I have ever had in a church meeting. I learned a lot from it.

The Other Plan

I have spent the evening stewing after yet another Scout Court of Honor where my children were missing multiple awards. I have been thinking that if I were the bishop, I'd replace the Scoutmaster with someone who could do it right. If it were me (which it couldn't be, seeing as how it is kind of a gender-specific role), I would make sure that all of the boys got their Scoutmaster Conferences in the month before the Court of Honor. I would make sure that all of the records were updated in Troopmaster, and that all of the awards were picked up from the Scout Shop. Then, I wouldn't have to watch Brandon be disappointed for an entire year while his Boy Scout badge was not awarded to him, and also not get the merit badge he earned over the winter. I wouldn't have to watch Tristin be disappointed when he only got two out of three of his completed merit badges.

Wouldn't it be nice if I could just fire everyone and do it the right way myself?

After stewing over it for a few hours, I realized that this situation is similar to another situation, and that this plan is probably the wrong plan. Lucifer thought that forcing everything to go right would make Heavenly Father's children happy. But Heavenly Father knew that everyone needed to be tried and tested in order to progress. Everyone needed opportunities to grow through experiences like these. While I can't excuse the behavior of leaders who can't get their act together, they have to be given the opportunity to succeed or fail. Sometimes, failures affect the innocent. Heavenly Father doesn't shield us from the effects of the mistakes others make, but herein lies a test. How do we react?

I was tempted to go to the bishop and firmly suggest that these leaders get replaced, or my kids will join the other troop in Waconia. They've been screwing up the Boy Scout program nicely for two or three years now, so couldn't they be released? Aaron suggested we just let our feet do the talking. After Brandon checked out the awards on the table, and I confirmed that his was not being awarded tonight with another leader, Aaron asked Brandon if he wanted to sit through another Court of Honor, or go home? He chose going home. He had homework to finish, and he didn't really want to waste his evening. So Aaron took him home.

I suppose that these things will eventually straighten themselves out, and that he will be able to get his awards next time. But in the meantime, we won't be forcing our children to waste their time waiting for other people to get their acts together. If a patrol meeting is worthwhile, they will go to it. If not, they won't be forced to go. We've had enough of going to every single lousy meeting our church puts out just to support the program. We've had enough of supporting mediocrity.

Oh, another funny thing - Brandon had a 10 minute patrol meeting before he left, prior to the Court of Honor. They made him patrol leader. What's funny about that? There isn't another patrol meeting before he turns 12 and moves up a patrol.