GWF - Day 1

Day One!!!

Girls World Forum - Wednesday, July 11th, 2012

It's here! It's here! It's here! That is what hundreds of girls across the United States and around the world were saying this morning in anticipation of the Girls World Forum. The girls planning team has spent about a year planning this lovely event and now all the delegates are slowly trickling in to the great city of Chicago. My journey started at about 5:30 this morning. The girls that I were chaperoning for the week were down in Central Illinois, so I boarded the 7:57 train from Chicago to go meet them and escort them back up to Chi-Town. It made the day long for me travel wise, but it's alright because we got some great bonding time on the train! On my train ride down to Central Illinois, I pretty much slept. I was EXHAUSTED! I had a few hours once I got there before I met my girls and we made the trek back up to Chicago. I warned my girls before we got on the train that I LOVE to take photos, and that they would probably get sick of me taking tons of pictures by the end of the week, but not to worry because these are memories in the making. That was our motto for the week, "Wait! One more photo! These are memories in the making!" Well, at least that was my motto... :)

Us waiting for our train to arrive! 

The train ride was very smooth. We only stopped a few times to wait for cows to cross the tracks. Ha! I'm only kidding. We did stop, but not for cows. It just sounded more interesting if we were stopping for cows instead of dumb construction. Our train finally reached Chicago a few hours later and we were greeted by some green shirt greeters who welcomed us to the city with big smiles! They then took us in a rather fancy SUV to our hotel. Upon arriving at the hotel, we went through the check in process, making sure we hit all the rooms and getting bags and bags of free goodies. It was getting more and more real with every minute that passed. Once we got our name lanyard it hit me, we are here and we are going to have a BLAST this week! Our hotel room wasn't ready yet so we stored our luggage in this holding room. According to my girls, the hotel bus boy was really creepy. He was having a lot of fun organizing all the luggage. Maybe he just wanted someone to talk to? I guess we will never know. 

Anna Marie Chavez & I

Next on our list was dinner! It was at dinner where we started meeting girls from all over the world! Mostly everyone was wearing their casual Guiding uniform, which was really cool to see. During dinner there were many people doing announcements and giving speeches. Connie Lindsey, who is the National President of the Girl Scouts of USA, was one of the women that spoke to us during dinner. She is a fabulous woman, great leader and wonderful role model! I have gotten the chance to know her over the past few years and it was great to see her interact with everyone at the Forum. Anna Marie Chavez also spoke to us. She is the CEO of the Girl Scouts of USA. She is truly a remarkable woman with the passion and drive to change the world by empowering girls across America. It was my first time hearing her speak and I feel so blessed to have had the chance to get to talk to her also. 

My delegates & I with the CEO of GSUSA. 

After dinner we mingled with everyone and traded SWAPS. If you do not know what SWAPS are, please let me explain. It stands for Special Whatchamacallits Affectionately Pinned Somewhere. Its a popular thing for Scouts to make and take part in. So you basically make a small little trinket that can be pinned on someone else. Over the course of the week everyone trades their SWAPS for ones from other people. It's really cool to see what others come up with and how they represent their country, state or region. 

We eventually got our hotel rooms and got settled in. The three of us didn't take much time to sit and relax because we wanted to go see the firework show at Navy Pier. There was a large group of us that went to go see the fireworks on the Pier. We had the delegates from Ireland, Georgia and Ohio along with us. After the fireworks were over we walked around the Pier a little bit. It was quite late, so we didn't stay for too long.

Enjoying the fireworks with delegates from Illinois, Ireland, Georgia and Ohio! 

When I got back into my hotel room I found that my roommate had arrived! I was super excited! Each American delegate was being paired up with an International delegate for the week. My roommate was from Bangladesh. She was the same age as me and we found that we had quite a few things in common. It was so interesting to hear about her culture and what her country was like. She wasn't used to the time change yet so she was very energetic until the wee hours of the morning. I, on the other hand, was super tired, so I went night-night.

My roommate & I. :)

Girls World Forum!

Girls World Forum

Chicago, Illinois

T-minus 2 days! 

Hello fellow scouts! My name is Jenny and I am a chaperone from the Central Illinois Girl Scout council. I am SO excited that the Girls World Forum is quickly approaching. With only two days left until I leave, that means I am now running around like a crazy person getting packed and getting last minute things together. 

For those of you reading that might not know what the Girl's World Forum is, let me explain. It is the last of 3 international conventions held by the Girl Scouts & Girl Guides. The Girls World Forum (GWF) is being held in Chicago and is for high school girl delegates and their adult chaperone. During the week we will be talking about 3 of the UN's millennial developmental goals. The 3 that we are talking about are 1). Hunger & Poverty 2). Environmental Sustainability and 3). Gender Equality. These are al issues that are affecting our generation, and that will continue to impact our future unless we do something about it! So throughout the week we will be talking about these three goals and diving deeper into these issues in order to come up with some solutions. We will also be doing some take action projects out in the community. The coolest thing about the Forum is that is completely planned and run by girls! 

I truly look forward to an amazing week. I can't wait to spend it with my international Scouting 'sisters'. 

So my question for you is, if you are reading this and going to the Girls World Forum, where are you from? Comment below. I would love to hear from you! And I can't wait to meet you in a few days! :)

{Peace&Love} Jenny 

#31. Do Sidewalk Chalk Art.

#31. Do sidewalk chalk art.

isn't it cool how chalk comes in ALL sorts of fun colors? Well i think it's pretty awesome! SOme may believe that drawing with chalk on the sidewalk or driveway is only for little kids... Indeed it is for small children, but if you are young at heart, surely you can partake too! For this item on my bucket list, i decided to get help from my neighbor who is 7. She was quite excited to help cross this item off my list.

At first i was at a loss for what to write. It's been a while since i've done this, so i needed to get those creative juices flowing! The most logical thing to write seemed to be, "I Love summer." So that's what I wrote. I didn't tell my neighbor what i was writing, and made her guess as I was writing. After the 'I' and the 'love' were written on the ground, she started listing off things that she loved, in hopes that i would write that. I started making the big bubble letter 'S' and she was confused. Her name starts with an 'O', so she was a bit sad that i wasn't writing that i loved her on her driveway. 

After I completed my masterpiece, i traced a crazy silhouette of her being goofy on the driveway. I would say it was a pretty successful sidewalk chalk drawing adventure! 

{Peace&Love} Jenny 

#20. Go on a road trip.

#20. Go on a road trip.

Pit stop at the Route 66 museum.

Road trips. They are usually filled with long chats about life, blasting of music, random dance parties (while sitting in the car and getting weird looks from other drivers on the road) and of course sleeping. This summer I went on one mini road trip (so far). My Mom & I traveled to Springfield, IL (the capitol of Illinois) for a fun filled weekend! My mom was getting certified to be a Level 2 Archery Instructor in Springfield, so I decided to accompany her on this journey and visit one of my BFFs while I was there! It was a win-win for both of us. 

I GOT TO RUB LINCOLN'S NOSE! 

The first night we stayed in a hotel. It was a nice hotel, until I found tons of little ants having a party in our air conditioning unit. That was totally not okay. I tried to tell them to party somewhere else, but they didn't want to, so we changed rooms. The next morning I spent all day with one of my best friends from school. Her name is Lauren, and she is my other half. She was my tour guide around Springfield for the weekend. She asked me what I wanted to see while I was there, and my immediate answer was, 'I want to rub Lincoln's nose!!' I'm pretty sure she thought I was crazy (which might be a tad bit true) but off we went to go visit Lincoln's tomb and to rub his nose for good luck. 

Our weekend was filled with many other adventures. I got to hang out with Lauren and her crazy family. She is the oldest of 3 girls and one silly boy. Her family welcomed me into their house with open arms and I felt right at home. My mom and I drove home Sunday night and we were extremely tired. She passed her test and is now officially a Level 2 Certified Archer. Super cool, right? 

{Peace&Love}

Jenny 

#12. Dress Up and Go Out to Dinner!

#12. Dress up and go out to dinner.

What's better than getting ALL dressed up and going out to dinner with friends? Nothing! It's the best! A good friend of mine, named Kara, just earned her Girl Scout Gold Award. For those of you that might not know what the Gold Award is, let me explain. The Gold Award is the highest award that you can earn as a Girl Scout, it is equivalent to the Boy Scout Eagle. To earn this award, you have to jump through some hoops of pre-requirements. After that is all said and done, you pick a project that benefits your community and is sustainable for the future. Mentors help you through your project a little bit, but essentially it's all up to you! The Gold Award is great for helping strengthen leadership skills, communication, and confidence. I personally earned my Gold Award 2 years ago, and I am very proud of it. When I found out my friend Kara, who is a year younger than me, was doing her Gold Award, I knew she was going to do great! For her project she made memory scrapbooks for elderly people with dementia. Her project affected many people and really turned out to be super amazing. 

Her mom threw her a surprise party honoring and congratulating her on achieving such a prestige award. I personally LOVE surprise parties. I think they are so fun! We all met at this cute & little bakery/bistro place. They specialized in yummy treats that make your tummy smile. I loved the chance to get dressed up fancy and spend some quality time with some amazing friends! 

Julie, Annie, Kelly & I. Aren't we pretty? :)

Mother-daughter LOVE. <3 

#69. Cook dinner for my parents.

#69. Cook dinner for my parents.

So another item on my bucket list is to cook dinner for those lovely parents of mine. For all my life they have provided for me not only emotionally and such, but also with good food in my tummy. I thought it would be nice to return the favor every so often. 

My family loves to grill things on our grill, and my favorite thing is burgers! Good 'old American Cheeseburgers! Yeah buddy! So one night I went to Jewel and got all the necessary items for a cook out and brought them all home. I set the table and started the grill up! 

Quick side story. Right by the grill on the side of our house is a gutter that lets all the rain water not flood our house. During the summertime a little bird decides that it's a good idea to make her nest there. While it's away from all the elements that may bother her, it does cause her to get mad at us when we grill. She always will fly away in a huff and puff and chirp at us like crazy! One day I told her that I wouldn't snatch up her babies, but she should be careful because she might end up on our grill if she keeps back talking to us. She still chirped at me, but it's alright. Ha! 

So I continued to prepare dinner and went a little overboard on preparing the fruit for the meal. I love watermelon and love to make those fruit kabob things. So I thought I would become a culinary chef for the night and make a masterpiece! It turned out pretty well until it became a little top heavy and fell over... Oh well! It was good while it lasted! 

My Mom, Dad, Riley & I ready to enjoy our dinner! 

Yum yum yum! Yummy in your tummy! 

I may or may not have gone a little over board with the preparation of the fruit... 

What kinds of yummy things have you made or eaten lately? 

{Peace&Love} Jenny 

#10. Make a Pinterest craft (maybe 2 or 3…)

Item #10 on my bucket list = Make a Pinterest craft (maybe 

2 or 3…)

That is quite easy for me! I love crafts. AND. I love Pinterest! I probably love Pinterest a little bit too much... But that's okay. YOLO? Right? It's not a big deal that I have my wedding planned out on there... Or that I have my dream house picked out with the colors and everything! 


The first craft that I did was for my wonderful Mom for Mother's Day. I am in love with how it turned out and I'm really excited to share it!


So I first went to the dollar store and got a semi flat sided, yet round candle holder. I do realize that last sentence didn't make sense, flat but round? Yeah, I guess it has been a long day... Anyways. The glass is medium sized and can hold a candle very nicely. I then went to the scrapbook store and got vellum paper. Vellum paper is the type of paper that you can print pictures or other things on, so that is very exciting. Next I measured out the space where I wanted the picture to be. I then made sure that my picture was that size when I printed it on the vellum paper. The picture printed very nicely on the paper, so the next step is to cut the picture out to fit the size of the glass. To attach the photo to the glass, I used clear double sided tape. It actually worked out better than I thought it would. Plus, my Mom loved! We now light the candle when we have family dinners. :) Yeah buddy! 

My homemade candle holder! 

More Pinterest crafts will probably come in the near future. Until then, what fun Pinterest crafts have you made?? I would love to hear about them! 

{Peace&Love} Jenny