Boogers Anyone?

Since my son started Cub Scouts last year I have taken an active role in his Packs and have been the leader for each of his dens as well as a Pack Committee Member.  We started scouting at the same time and I have been learning right alongside of him as he has completed the requirements of the program.  In the past two years we have been camping, to district events, to pinewood derbies, a raingutter regatta, on hikes and to what seems like tons of meetings.

Last week I had the pleasure of letting one of the other parents host a meeting and plan the activities (and being a school teacher she did an awesome job BTW) and I got to enjoy the meeting just doing the activities with my son.  I really, really enjoyed the break and the help and Aiden enjoyed the meeting, though he said he preferred it when I run things... and I will take that as a compliment..LoL!

We have been working on our "Germs Alive" belt loop and one of the activities we tried to complete was requirement #4 to conduct the mucus demonstration and let me say that Ms. Cindy did try this at home and though I forgot to tell her the recipe in the book was wrong she still figured out how to make it work when she did it at home. But, when it came time to make it at the meeting it just wasn't working... So we tried again this week and "ta-da" we have boogers in a bag!

To make this you need 4 simple ingredients: Food Coloring, Warm Water, Borax and White Glue and two containers for mixing in (we used a quart size bag and a plastic cup).  ((It is very important for the water to be warm or this does not work!))  First we took 1/2 cup of white glue and 1/2 cup warm water and we mixed them together in a Quart bag.  Second we put 1 tablespoon Borax in a 1/2 cup of warm water and stirred that until the Borax dissolved. Third we poured the cup of Borax Water into the bag and added a few drops of food coloring.  Last we took turns squeezing the bag and feeling the mixture thicken as we mixed it.

The kids took turns blowing glitter across their mucus to show how it catches germs and then they played with it some more and saw how the germs then got on their hands.  Some of the kids thought it felt neat and some of them didn't like the texture at all. All of the parents were super excited that they got to take it home too...well okay, maybe not... LoL!

After learning a little more about germs and boogers we changed direction and started "Digging in the Past" and learning about fossils and dinosaurs. We made our own fossil cast with Dollar Store play-doh and mini dinosaurs, a "Dino Dig" to dig into at our next meeting and edible fossil layers.  The kids all said they had fun and can't wait to come back next week to see what fun we can find next!

American Airlines gets a big fat thumbs down!!!

On January 8 I set out on a trip with my husband, 7 year old son and twin 4 year old daughters to go From VA to MI for my Grandma's funeral.  Since this was a last minute type of trip we choose unassigned seats per the suggestion of on of the airlines representatives and we were assured that they would not seat our children separate from us on any of our flights, but that we would also have to wait until we checked in to get our seat assignments. 

When we checked in for our initial flight we were provided with tickets for the first two legs of our trip and were told that we would have to get the final seat assignments in Chicago.  I was okay with that especially with things going so smoothly in VA.  We were scheduled to fly out of Charlottesville, VA to Charlotte, NC, then Charlotte, NC to Chicago, IL and finally from Chicago, IL to Kalamazoo, MI.  Everything was going well, until we landed in Chicago.  We managed to get all of us off our second plane of the day in terminal H and then we had to walk 1/2 a mile almost to the very end of terminal G, dragging the kids and all of our carry on luggage, where I found an American Airlines Attendant to ask for our next set of tickets.  The attendant that issued the tickets seemed irritated that we were unassigned and then like I was asking for the world to be assigned to seats that would keep my family of 5 together on the plane.  He was rude in the tone that he used when speaking with me and generally unpleasant to deal with.

Once I had my tickets in hand I settled into the waiting area for our 3 hour layover.  In hindsight, it would have been nice to know about the play area one terminal over during that first layover, let alone during the 11 hour layover that ensued once we tried to get home.   After about 2 hours of waiting American Airlines decided to change the gate from G19 to G1.  So we gathered all our things and moved it all yet again before we could get on that final plane. Luckily our checked bag followed us all the way from home and our trip to get to MI took about 8 hours like we had anticipated. Overall I would say our trip to MI was much less stressful than our trip home.

In MI we visited with family, went to Grandma's funeral, did a little more visiting and then got ready to come home.  It was a pretty cut and dry trip, with a clear purpose and itinerary.  We were ready to leave for the airport at 8:30 am on January 10th and anticipated being back home by 6 pm.  When we arrived at the airport in Kalamazoo, MI and went to check in the attendant was ready and waiting with the tickets we would need to get home.   So far, so good.

We got through security, settled everyone into a waiting area and got ready to head home from our big weekend.  The first flight was delayed by about an hour, but we were supposed to have had a four hour layover in Chicago, so no big deal. Then we made it to Chicago... 

....and that is where our trip took a nose dive..... we listened to announcements delaying our flight and assuring us that our pilot was just running late, that eventually turned in to a flight cancellation... Now I was the first one in line to have my flight changed and fixed to get me home, so I got to deal with the attendant at the airport.... yay me!..... NOT!.....I would have been so much better off calling the Flight Rescheduling # that everyone behind me was given, but no I got to deal with the locals... They were not willing to check with their "sister" companies and fly us with a different airline, they did not offer to put us on standby for the next flight leaving 3 hours later, they offered us two choices 1.) Wait it out for two days in Chicago and they would fly us home on Tuesday or 2.) Wait for six more hours for a flight to Richmond, VA (2.5hrs from our car) and we have to figure out how to get back to our car from there.  We took option #2 and then found out all of the rental car desks would be closing about 30 minutes prior to us landing.... SMH.... at this point we just wanted to be home so we started making phone calls to see if there were any friends that could come rescue us and eventually we were tipped off that Hertz was going to stay open late in Richmond, just for our flight! 

Now... we were given our choices, we took the one that got us home (or at least closer) the fastest and we were left with an additional 6 hour wait.  American Airlines did give us two meal vouchers, one of which I used to feed the kids and get a couple of drinks (my husband and I were too frustrated to eat at that point) and the other I gave away.  Otherwise we waited and waited and waited..... About an hour before we were supposed to leave someone finally told me about a play area that the kids probably would have enjoyed hours earlier in the day, but alas it was too late and we were all too tired to care.  We finally boarded a plane for Richmond at 9 pm and we were all happy to leave Chicago and not look back however when we landed in Richmond we found that our checked bag had not followed us home and I filed a claim for it while my husband went to rent us a car to get back to our car in Charlottesville.  Once we were all tucked into the rental we then had to drive 2 hours to our car before we could start the 2.5 hour trip home from the airport we started at. 

Our 8 hour trip home turned into a miserable 23 hour trip and has turned me off to American Airlines indefinitely.  

The savings we got from booking with American Airlines in no way made up for the frustrations, the rude attendants and the $300+ rental car to get back to our car so we could finally head home!  I will not be flying American Airlines in the future and I urge everyone else to think twice before they decide to take that risk as well!