Opening A Can Of Worms

Recently I attended a 4 day Cub Scout Leader training called Akela's Trail. Somehow I have found myself a Cub Scout Leader. I heard the gasps and I'm offended. Anywhoooo, I had the most wonderful people in my den (Go Red Den!) and had a great time. Well as great a time as one can have sleeping in a tent during thunderstorms, being eaten alive by mosquitos (Can you say West Nile? They loved my OFF! almost as much as they enjoyed my blood.), and sleep deprivation. It's not that I can't camp. In fact, I'm really pretty good at it. I even love the great outdoors, it's just not the sleepovers that I'm in to that much. It's hard for me to sleep with my head slightly downhill (no matter which direction I sleep in, how is that possible?) and a rock in the small of my back while thinking of my perfectly nice bed at home. Well, I guess I'll stop whining and get to the point. At Akela's Trail we set some goals to improve our dens and packs when we get home. They call them Paw Prints. One of mine was to take care of this catastrophe...

This beautiful disaster is called the Cub Scout Closet at the church. No one dared to open it because it would cause a small avalanche. We would do rock, paper, scissors to see who had to open it to get the flag out for flag ceremony. OK, maybe that's a slight exaggeration but truthfully the den leaders never used any of this stuff because who even knows what's in there. My goal was to find out exactly what was in there, save the useful stuff and get rid of the rest. I also was to make a list of all of the treasures in there for the den leaders to use. So I felt brave a couple of weeks ago and emptied the whole thing....

...turns out there was even a small child in there (I kept him). No really these are my two "helpers" in this endeavor. We found all kinds of things and my "helpers" thought that the Scout closet was a gold mine. They ended up bringing home more "treasures" than I had hoped so I've been secretly throwing those away for the past couple of weeks (you moms know what I'm talking about). We found all kinds of really "great" stuff and some that made us really scratch our heads. Here are two of my personal favorites...

I realize that the picture isn't really clear but what I'm holding in my hand is a bottle of "Sweet Citrus Body Spray". Now I haven't been in Scouts that long but for the life of me I can't figure out what could possibly have happened to land this treasure in the Cub Scout closet. I have imagined some reasons but it is in fact a mystery. And then there is this little number....

Why, pray tell, would this be in the Cub Scout closet? The picture actually makes this thing look more beautiful than it really is in real life (and that's not saying much). It is not in any way attractive nor can I visualize it sitting in the middle of the table at den meeting. I also can't imagine that there is a belt loop, badge or pin in Cub Scouts for floral arranging. Plus, even if there is, I bet our Cubs could really do better than this. Our Cubs rock! Now, I'm not trying to make anyone feel bad but if there is another one of these around and it happens to be in the center of your dining room table...run, do not walk to the nearest trash can immediately. This thing can cause all kinds of unnecessary head spinning and even convulsions. Well, after an entire Saturday of wading through each and every item in that mess and filling the church's dumpster (don't tell anybody, people start to panic when you begin throwing junk away)and one trip to Walmart for bins, this is what I left for the den leaders to find the next Sunday when I showed it to them at our meeting and presented them with their list of items left in there...

There were gasps and comments like, "Hey, I didn't know there was shower curtain pins in there." (I actually didn't know they were called that, thank goodness they were still in the package.) I also made a very nice plea (or threat, whatever you want to call it) that it stay this way for at least a month. They seemed receptive. Now why do I post this transformation on my blog you ask? Well, two reasons, 1) I post my projects here and this was one big project! and 2) and really this is the real reason, I can't seem to get my pictures to load right on my e-mail and I need to share my Paw Print success with the GREATEST den leader EVER! H.S. is the most amazing scout grandma and I feel fortunate to have had the opportunity to be in her den for 4 days. We really did have the best den. Love you guys. And for anyone else who has had to muddle through my Scout Closet story, thanks for humoring me and I'll be back soon with some more cards to share.