The Girl Scout Law
I will do my best to be
honest and fair,
friendly and helpful,
considerate and caring,
courageous and strong, and
responsible for what I say and do,
and to
respect myself and others,
respect authority,
use resources wisely,
make the world a better place, and
be a sister to every Girl Scout.
So...
Last night my wife attended the Girl Scout Troop meeting without my daughter for a parent meeting. In it, she was pretty much blamed for the troop being a mess and was asked summarily to stop being the troop leader as of May 15th. Yeah, they knew that she was going to leave at the end of the year anyway to start a new troop that didn't have all the baggage that this one has. They are starting the new year planning then and don't think that having Trina in a position of leadership will help their cause.
They are also planning on changing the troop number because it is a "new troop". Here is where my problem is. We, as parents, want to teach our girls how to be respectful. We want them to respect authority, have integrity, have character, know what is right and wrong, and be a sister to all other Girl Scouts world wide. Let me give some people a clue -- if you want your kids to have these qualities, you better start having them yourself.
This troop's biggest problem is not Trina. It's not a bad administration before her. It's not that they have too much money. It's not that they lost all their paperwork when my car was stolen. It's that there are too many parents in this troop who have no integrity, who will step on all the rest of the girls in the troop to make sure that their child gets her fair share and more, curse the rest and laugh. These parents have no integrity.
I posted on facebook a while back about a parent who took her granddaughter out to another council area and started selling cookies out there before that council was allowed to sell cookies, a gross violation of the rules that could have resulted in the entire troop losing all cookie sales and she knew better. But it was ok because she was getting her sales no matter what else happened to anyone else.
Last week, there was an Easter egg hunt at the troop with one egg having a "Golden Ticket" to get an Easter basket instead of the just the candy in the egg. Well, there were more eggs than kids at the meeting so a couple of the parents had to go out and pick up 7 eggs to make it that everyone got 5 eggs each. One of the parents accidentally picked up the golden ticket egg, so she put it back down and picked up another one. When the girls start to come out, she makes sure to tell her daughter, "Go pick up that green one." Integrity. If I would have found the egg during a random pick up, I close it up and toss it to the middle of the field, none the wiser of what I found and wish every girl the best in finding it. But this parent thought that their daughter deserved the basket more than any of the other girls and had to cheat.
So, when my wife is no longer the troop leader of this troop come May 15th, outside I will sympathize with her and console her. Inside, I will be rejoicing because she gets the opportunity to start her own troop and not have to deal with a group of ungrateful, lying, selfish, ingrate parents who are teaching their girls to be the same. If you want your child to be honest and fair, friendly and helpful, and a sister to every Girl Scout, how about trying it yourself.
The Family
The extended family
Friday, April 29, 2011
Tuesday, April 12, 2011
The more I think about it, the more I'm bothered
So, in case you don't follow me on facebook, let me set out the entire situation as it occurred.
Thursday night is Girl Scout night around our house. Trina, being a girl scout troop leader, has a box full of paperwork for the Girl Scouts, including contact information, permission slips, money, etc. So, getting home Thursday night, she was suffering from MS fatigue and asked me to make sure I bring in her box. Not a problem, I thought. She made sure to lock it. I went out later to get something for her in the van. I double-checked to make sure it was locked. It was 10 pm.
As I was getting the kids ready to go to school, we walked out of the house to get into my car. It was in the driveway. But then, it wasn't. I walked back into the house, "Where's my car?" It wasn't there. It wasn't parked on the street. It wasn't down the street. It was gone. So the kids have to go to school. We jump in the van real quick and I take them. Meanwhile, my wife calls the sheriff department to report the stolen car.
I get back and decide that I can't go to work that day because we were going to have to take care of a lot of stuff. Sheriff shows up and begins to interview us. The car was in my wife's name so they asked her for her license. It was at this point that we realized that her wallet was in the car still.
So, while the sheriff interviewed my wife, I began calling banks to cancel her card. I call GEICO to report the theft. Of course, we didn't have comprehensive on a 15 year old car bought for $1600 as the cost/benefit analysis proved that was a gamble worth taking (we lost) so they can't help at all. My home insurance couldn't cover anything because we have $1000 deductible there and we didn't lose $1000 worth of stuff.
So, now the list of stuff in the car in order of importance:
1) My wife's wallet and purse
2) All the Girl Scout's information
3) My umpire gear
4) My favorite shirt
5) About $50 in tools
6) My umpire uniforms and hats
7) My Denver Bronco sticker
8) My razor
9) A plug/car charger converter
10) My license plate frame that says, "I'd rather be behind home."
11) About 4 years worth of collecting HeroClix
12) About $2.50 in change
13) Some Axe Deodorant
Well, after going to the DMV to get a new license, cancelling all the bank cards, taking care of what we could, spending $280 to sign the entire family up for LifeLock immediately (since all the kids' social security cards were in my wife's wallet.)
So Friday night we have no idea where the car is. Of course, driving down the street I'm looking at every car driving the other way to see if it was my car. No luck (of course.)
Saturday morning, I take Micah out to his baseball game. Right before it starts, I get a call from the police department saying they found the car. Great! Oh there's bad news. It was burned. I don't know how bad. They give me the phone number for the tow truck company that has the car. I'm able to call them and they would send someone out to look at the car but I couldn't go look unless I wanted to pay the $100 to open the gate or wait until Monday to see it for free (plus all the fees.) We'll wait for Monday.
Sunday is our day to go look at cars. We go to CarMax and figure out that the number we're looking to pay is not going to be possible. So we figure out that we are going to need to go up a little and figure out a way to come up with more funds (anyone need a part-time secretary/child care specialist/warehouse guy/umpire?) We ended up with a 2006 PT Cruiser for $318 a month. That's going to be hard but God has provided before and He's been pretty faithful.
Monday finally comes. I'm going to show up late for work that day to take care of all the car stuff. We went to the police department for the release. Then we go down to tow yard, pay $365 ($235 for towing fees and a ton for storage fees of a dead car) and go take a look at the car. List of stuff in the car that we were able to identify:
1) The Girl Scout Information burned so it wasn't taken
2) All the car parts were in tact, including radio.
3) A couple of Umpire shirts that were in the back. We've washed them a couple times and they still stink pretty good.
4) My license plate frame is fully functional! It goes on the PT!
5) The Bronco Sticker, rolled up and burned to a crisp.
That's about it. I wasn't able to recognize anything else.
So, from talking to others about it, someone probably stole it, went and robbed a liquor store or something, parked the car out in Loma Linda (behind the Del Taco on Waterman and Barton,) burned it to hide any evidence and used my umpire bag and wife's girl scout tote to fill with the loot. I went to where the car was found and it looked like the trash truck came that morning (Monday) to empty the dumpster so I wasn't able to find anything.
So I was ok with everything. Then I start to think about how the tools my wife and I use to volunteer for things we care for were all stolen. Then I start thinking about what kind of jerks would do that, take stuff that ultimately is going to hurt kids, not just our 4 but all the kids we work with. What kind of jerks would steal a car to rob a place and try to get it to point back to us if the car was seen driving away? Why did this happen to our family!? Getting more and more upset.
I have to change my perspective though. They didn't steal my car, my umpiring gear, my razor, my wife's stuff. These are all ministries that God has given us outside of the church to work with the lost and be a positive influence, showing God's love in everyday life. They stole God's stuff. But that's the great thing. God has a lot more stuff than they can ever steal -- stuff they couldn't steal if they wanted to -- because God wants to give it away. Maybe one day I'll find some of my umpiring stuff hiding in a pawn shop. Maybe I'll inadvertently run into these guys who did this, not knowing it was them. I hope that they will feel the love that God has given me all these years through me despite what they did. God loves them. I may not be happy with them but my anger and hurt isn't going to hurt them. I won't get even by holding a grudge. In the end, God is good. All of the time.
Thursday night is Girl Scout night around our house. Trina, being a girl scout troop leader, has a box full of paperwork for the Girl Scouts, including contact information, permission slips, money, etc. So, getting home Thursday night, she was suffering from MS fatigue and asked me to make sure I bring in her box. Not a problem, I thought. She made sure to lock it. I went out later to get something for her in the van. I double-checked to make sure it was locked. It was 10 pm.
As I was getting the kids ready to go to school, we walked out of the house to get into my car. It was in the driveway. But then, it wasn't. I walked back into the house, "Where's my car?" It wasn't there. It wasn't parked on the street. It wasn't down the street. It was gone. So the kids have to go to school. We jump in the van real quick and I take them. Meanwhile, my wife calls the sheriff department to report the stolen car.
I get back and decide that I can't go to work that day because we were going to have to take care of a lot of stuff. Sheriff shows up and begins to interview us. The car was in my wife's name so they asked her for her license. It was at this point that we realized that her wallet was in the car still.
So, while the sheriff interviewed my wife, I began calling banks to cancel her card. I call GEICO to report the theft. Of course, we didn't have comprehensive on a 15 year old car bought for $1600 as the cost/benefit analysis proved that was a gamble worth taking (we lost) so they can't help at all. My home insurance couldn't cover anything because we have $1000 deductible there and we didn't lose $1000 worth of stuff.
So, now the list of stuff in the car in order of importance:
1) My wife's wallet and purse
2) All the Girl Scout's information
3) My umpire gear
4) My favorite shirt
5) About $50 in tools
6) My umpire uniforms and hats
7) My Denver Bronco sticker
8) My razor
9) A plug/car charger converter
10) My license plate frame that says, "I'd rather be behind home."
11) About 4 years worth of collecting HeroClix
12) About $2.50 in change
13) Some Axe Deodorant
Well, after going to the DMV to get a new license, cancelling all the bank cards, taking care of what we could, spending $280 to sign the entire family up for LifeLock immediately (since all the kids' social security cards were in my wife's wallet.)
So Friday night we have no idea where the car is. Of course, driving down the street I'm looking at every car driving the other way to see if it was my car. No luck (of course.)
Saturday morning, I take Micah out to his baseball game. Right before it starts, I get a call from the police department saying they found the car. Great! Oh there's bad news. It was burned. I don't know how bad. They give me the phone number for the tow truck company that has the car. I'm able to call them and they would send someone out to look at the car but I couldn't go look unless I wanted to pay the $100 to open the gate or wait until Monday to see it for free (plus all the fees.) We'll wait for Monday.
Sunday is our day to go look at cars. We go to CarMax and figure out that the number we're looking to pay is not going to be possible. So we figure out that we are going to need to go up a little and figure out a way to come up with more funds (anyone need a part-time secretary/child care specialist/warehouse guy/umpire?) We ended up with a 2006 PT Cruiser for $318 a month. That's going to be hard but God has provided before and He's been pretty faithful.
Monday finally comes. I'm going to show up late for work that day to take care of all the car stuff. We went to the police department for the release. Then we go down to tow yard, pay $365 ($235 for towing fees and a ton for storage fees of a dead car) and go take a look at the car. List of stuff in the car that we were able to identify:
1) The Girl Scout Information burned so it wasn't taken
2) All the car parts were in tact, including radio.
3) A couple of Umpire shirts that were in the back. We've washed them a couple times and they still stink pretty good.
4) My license plate frame is fully functional! It goes on the PT!
5) The Bronco Sticker, rolled up and burned to a crisp.
That's about it. I wasn't able to recognize anything else.
So, from talking to others about it, someone probably stole it, went and robbed a liquor store or something, parked the car out in Loma Linda (behind the Del Taco on Waterman and Barton,) burned it to hide any evidence and used my umpire bag and wife's girl scout tote to fill with the loot. I went to where the car was found and it looked like the trash truck came that morning (Monday) to empty the dumpster so I wasn't able to find anything.
So I was ok with everything. Then I start to think about how the tools my wife and I use to volunteer for things we care for were all stolen. Then I start thinking about what kind of jerks would do that, take stuff that ultimately is going to hurt kids, not just our 4 but all the kids we work with. What kind of jerks would steal a car to rob a place and try to get it to point back to us if the car was seen driving away? Why did this happen to our family!? Getting more and more upset.
I have to change my perspective though. They didn't steal my car, my umpiring gear, my razor, my wife's stuff. These are all ministries that God has given us outside of the church to work with the lost and be a positive influence, showing God's love in everyday life. They stole God's stuff. But that's the great thing. God has a lot more stuff than they can ever steal -- stuff they couldn't steal if they wanted to -- because God wants to give it away. Maybe one day I'll find some of my umpiring stuff hiding in a pawn shop. Maybe I'll inadvertently run into these guys who did this, not knowing it was them. I hope that they will feel the love that God has given me all these years through me despite what they did. God loves them. I may not be happy with them but my anger and hurt isn't going to hurt them. I won't get even by holding a grudge. In the end, God is good. All of the time.
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