Ryan’s Arrow of Light Ceremony ~ April 21, 2011

Thursday, April 21, was Ryan’s Arrow of Light Ceremony. For those of you not in scouting, or who have been away for a while, the Arrow of Light is the highest possible award in Cub Scouts. It’s like the Eagle Scout of Cub Scouting. Similar to the Eagle, a relatively small percentage of Cub Scouts earn the Arrow of Light. We are SO proud of Ryan for his accomplishment!

For the most part, the Arrow of Light Ceremony completely focuses on the scout who has earned it. I set up a display with Ryan’s belt loop display (more about this later), the Cub Scout scrapbook that Ryan and I put together, and some of his swimming awards.

We had a great program. The Pack had a brief period of time at the beginning where they awarded the other scouts their awards, and then they turned the rest of the time over to us for Ryan’s program. Rara and Papa told the story of Akela, and the legend of the Arrow of Light. Rara used Grandpa Jensen’s bow when she talked about the shooting of the arrow. This is our pack’s first Arrow of Light in about 1 ½ years, so many of the scouts have not seen a ceremony, and are not familiar with the story, or even the award itself!

There are seven character points of the Arrow of Light. I asked several people who are close to Ryan to speak about one of the character points, and then give examples of how Ryan has developed each of those traits. Rara talked about Wisdom, and Papa talked about Courage. Ryan turned on each of the lights or points as each person talked about them.

Chris Flanagan, the Young Men’s President and a good friend, talked about Self Control.

Greg Mortensen, Ryan’s Primary teacher, talked about Justice.

Bishop Paul Schmutz talked about Faith.

Donna Hiatt, Ryan’s Webelos leader, talked about Hope. She awarded Ryan his Arrow of Light Patch. (I’m sorry the picture is a blurry. I handed my camera to someone else while I went up front.)Natasha Boren, the Cub Committee Chair, talked about Love. She presented Ryan with the leather hanging she made with many of his awards.

Usually all of the scout’s awards go on the hanging, but Ryan has so many that we had to do a couple of other things. We left all of his monthly patches and his camp patches on his bandelo. I also purchased a display for Ryan’s belt loops. It holds 40 belt loops, so Ryan’s goal was to fill it. He ended up with 42 belt loops!

I also received my Arrow of Light Mother’s Pin. We really did have a lot of fun earning his Cub Scout awards together. I was his Wolf den leader, and then in Cub Scouts for almost the rest of his time in Cub Scouts. We also had a lot of fun working on the belt loops together. We did a lot of them for our Family Home Evening activities.

After the Arrow of Light was awarded, Ryan crossed the scouting bridge from Cub Scouts and Donna Hiatt to scouting with Steve Cohen. Steve welcomed Ryan and presented him with his scout neckerchief and our troop’s special neckerchief slide.

After the program, we had a wonderful cake that Natasha Boren had ordered. We loved it!

A special thank you to Rara & Papa for the wonderful program, and to all of our special guests who took time out of their busy schedules to join us and support Ryan…

The Flanagan family and Geri Turley (the Cubmaster through much of Ryan’s Cub Scout time)…

Scott Johnson and Jeff Novak (our home teachers) and Merilee Novak…

It was a great evening, and a lot of fun honoring Ryan for his commitment and hard work in Cub Scouts.

Pack Meeting ~ February 17, 2011

February’s pack meeting was a lot of fun. The leaders drew names to pair the boys up, and then gave them a bag of recyclable materials that they could use to make an invention. Ryan was paired up with his friend, Nic. They made a really fun ball game.

The Webelos also taught everyone “The Grand Old Duke of York” song. We had fun going up and down with all of the words.

For Christmas, I gave Ryan a belt loop holder with 40 slots. He had 37 belt loops at that time. His goal was to finish 13 more by the time he graduates in April. He has almost done it! He was awarded belt loops #38 and #39 at February’s pack meeting.

It’s hard to believe that he only has a couple more months as a cub scout! It wasn’t that long ago that I welcomed him in to my Wolf den as his den leader! He has had a lot of fun, and has been a great example of a hard working, dedicated, enthusiastic cub scout.

Cub Scout Pinewood Derby ~ January 28, 2011

Those of you who have known us for a while (or have followed our blog) will remember that I was a Cub Scout den leader for a couple of years before Ryan was officially in Cub Scouts. He attended all of the monthly pack meetings, but was not an official participant. About a month before he entered cub scouts, we had our Pinewood Derby. Since he was not yet a cub scout, he did not make a car. However, the younger brothers and sisters of cub scouts, as well as other non-scout family members, were invited to participate by racing a car they brought. Ryan borrowed one of Marc’s old Pinewood Derby cars, and had fun racing it.

Our pack rotates “race” activities every year. This was, once again, the year for the Pinewood Derby. Ryan had SO MUCH FUN using all kinds of tools to create his car!

He decided not to do a car at all, but to do a Wii remote.He wasn’t the fastest, but he also wasn’t the slowest. He was pretty consistently in the middle of every heat.However, he was one of the crowd favorites! Every race he was in, the kids would chant, “Wii re-mote! Wii re-mote!”He won the award for the “Most Controlled” car.He also earned his Webelos rank!

New Job(s)!

Since my graduation from Brigham Young University, I have considered a position at BYU to be my “dream job.” I receive the weekly email list of job postings, but nothing has fit my preferences and qualifications…until a couple of months ago. The position of “Director of Independent Study” was posted. I looked at the qualifications, and I seemed to be on the low end (i.e. I had all of the minimum “required” qualifications, but not many of the “preferred” qualifications). The salary was twice what I make now! I thought, “Oh, that would be a fun job sometime in the future.” I happened to mention it to the fam, and (after several discussions), Frances convinced me to apply. I thought there was NO WAY that I would even hear anything back, other than a “thanks but no thanks” letter. I submitted my application about two hours before the job closed.

Much to my surprise, I was called for an interview! I interviewed the week of Thanksgiving (the same day I went to the doctor and was diagnosed with strep). Since it was a director position, the people I interviewed with were a vice president and two associate vice presidents. Can you believe it? I couldn’t even comprehend that I was even being considered for the position enough to be interviewed! The interview went well, and I was pleased with how I did, even feeling horrible.

The vice president called me a few weeks later, letting me know that they had chosen someone else to fill the director position. Not a surprise. But he told me that they were impressed with me, and invited (encouraged, really) me to apply for any open position in his area in the future.

I can’t be too disappointed, because I did start a new job this past Monday! Just after I applied for the BYU position, I was invited to apply for a supervisory position with Western Governors University. I have been a faculty mentor with WGU for over six years. My former boss and a former co-worker and good friend have moved to a new department, and encouraged me to apply for an open position. I actually interviewed for this job the Friday before Thanksgiving, the same weekend as the BYU interview! Once I went through both interviews, it was clear that the WGU job would be the best fit for me at this point in my life. My new title is Performance Evaluation Facilitator for Teacher Education in the Assessment Department. I will be supervising 24 adjunct faculty members (for now…will likely grow) in the Foundations of Teaching area (Schools & Society, Human Growth and Development, Diversity and Inclusion, Classroom Management, and Testing). I am excited about my new position and the challenges it will bring.

Lastly, I have a new church calling. I was released as the Cubmaster after being a cub scout leader for almost six years. This year is going to be crazy as I (hopefully!) finish my PhD, so I was hoping for a low-pressure church calling, and had actually requested that. I am now the bulletin board coordinator. (I’ll give you a minute to laugh.) I’ve had a few people ask me how I got that great job. I’m tempted to say, “Earn your PhD as a single mom, while also working full time.” However, my response has generally been, “Inspiration.” Those who know me and my situation know that means, “If I add one more thing to my plate, I’m likely to spend the rest of the year in a padded room, and the people that need to know that, know that.” For those who don’t know my situation, it is a quick way to shut down any more snide comments and questions. I’m actually pretty excited about it. It will be like creating a big scrapbook page!

Swimming, Mining, and Parading

On Friday, July 23, we had a busy but fun day! As with the rest of the summer, we had swim team at 7:00 in the morning. Then we had the opportunity to go to the Kennecott Copper Mine with Ryan’s Webelos (Cub Scout) den. The den currently consists of Ryan and one other boy, so the two boys, their den leader and I went. Here are some interesting facts about the Kennecott Copper Mine:
•Kennecott's Bingham Canyon Mine has produced more copper than any mine in history - about 18.1 million tons.
•The mine is 2-3/4 miles across at the top and 3/4 of a mile deep. You could stack two Sears Towers (now known as the Willis Building) on top of each other and still not reach the top of the mine.
•The mine is so big, it can be seen by the space shuttle astronauts as they pass over the United States.
•By 2015, the mine will be at least 500 feet deeper than it is now.
•If you stretched out all the roads in the open pit mine, you'd have 500 miles of roadway - enough to reach from Salt Lake City to Denver.
•The giant electric shovels in the mine can scoop up as much as 98 tons in a single bite -- about the weight of 50 cars.
•The newest electric shovels each cost more than $20 million and weigh 3.2 million pounds.
•The trucks that haul the ore are larger than many houses and weigh more than a jumbo jet. They stand over 23 feet tall and can carry from 255 to 360 tons of rock.
•The truck driver rides about 18 feet above the ground -- nearly two stories high.
•Each tire on these big trucks costs from $18,000 to $26,000 and lasts just 9 months.
•The crusher in the pit takes in about 140,000 tons of ore every day and grinds it into chunks smaller than the size of a basketball.
•At 1,215 feet tall, the Kennecott smokestack is the highest structure in Utah.

We enjoyed admiring the huge tires from the dump trucks, as well as some of the old mining equipment.We had lunch at a drive-in by the mine, and then drove home. We relaxed (Ryan relaxed, I worked) for a couple of hours, and then we (Rara, Papa & I) took Ryan to his meeting spot for the parade. The Tsunami swim team walked in the parade. Their meeting spot was right by 5-Points park, so it was nice to sit in the shade while waiting. Ryan played a bit with his teammates.
When the coaches were all there, we left Ryan in their hands, went to Rumbi Island Grill for dinner, and then found a spot on Main Street to watch the parade. It was extremely long this year, with several corporate sponsors passing things out as they went by. By the time the Tsunami team went by (entry 112), we were ready to go!

The parade officially ended on 4th North and about 100 West, but every group was assigned to end at a different spot to ease congestion. The Tsunami team turned back south on 100 West, and then ended at a church at 200 West and 200 North. We took more pictures as they passed us on 100 West, and then walked with them to the church.We took Ryan to Wendy’s for dinner, and then drove up to Bountiful Boulevard to watch the fireworks.We had a fun day, but were thrilled to crash into bed when it was all over!