#41. Go bowling.

#41. Go bowling!

I chose to go on a bowling adventure with my neighbor, Olivia, who is about 7 or 8. She is very competitive so I was interested to see how this was going to go. We decided that we would not use bumpers because we are big kids! Luckily the correct pound balls were our favorite colors. I was on the bowling team in high school, but I was never any good. It was more for fun and to be with friends. Olivia insisted on bowling for both of us instead of just her own. It was good to have some fun bonding time with her. Neither of us have siblings, so I consider her to be like my younger sister. I ended up winning the game and she was a little bit bitter about that. Ha! 

The results from our game! 

{Peace&Love} Jenny 

#37. Hand wash the car.

#37. Hand wash the car.

Word got out about my bucket list in my family. I come home from babysitting one day and my mom greets me on the driveway right before I pull the car into the garage. As soon as I stepped out of the car my mom was standing there, smiling slyly. The first thing she asked me was, “Hey Jen! Wanna give the car a bath?” I was kind of puzzled to why she would ask me now, right after I got home from a long day and before I was going out to dinner with a friend. She then told me that she saw that it was on my bucket list and because I already have my swimsuit on, I should just wash the car right now. I agreed and pulled out the boom box so I would have tunes to wash by. So I jammed out to my music while making the car look squeaky clean! 

#33. Celebrate the 4th of July

#33. Celebrate the 4^th of July.

The fourth of July marks the independence of he United States of America. It is a spectacular day to step back and think about what it took for our country to be free. Obviously another part of the 4^th of July is the festivities that go on around town. One of my favorite things is the parade! Throughout high school I would sweat and melt in my marching band uniform while playing sweet and wonderful music for the people standing on the street watching us. Now that I am in college, I can enjoy the parade from a different view. This year I went with my dad to our town’s parade. We ended up meeting up with our neighbors at the parade also! My neighbor is about 7 or 8 and is still very much into getting candy from the parade. I teamed up with her and contributed all the candy that I accumulated into her stash. The parade was filled with Veterans continuing to serve their country, politicians trying to get their name out, bands playing groovy music, sports teams chanting their cheers, and others smiling and waving. Later on that night I went to my friend’s block party and ate some very yummy food. We then watched the fireworks from the side of the road. It was a great way to end a super day. J

My dad & I after the parade. :)

{Peace&Love} Jenny 

#21. Go on vacation.

#21. Go on vacation.

My mom & I standing in front of the White House. 

The Washington Monument!

Vacations are probably one of the highlights of summer. The travel bug has definitely bitten me. I love going to new places and seeing how they live and taking in all the sights! This summer my big vacation trip was to Washington DC with my mom. There was a special celebration going on in DC that we were planning on taking part in. Girl Scouts is celebrating their 100^th year this year! So to celebrate, thousands (more like 200,000+ people to be exact) of Girl Scouts gathered on the National Mall in DC for a sing-a-long called Rock the Mall. My mom & I went a week before the actual event so we could go sightseeing around the city! It was my first time visiting the Capitol and I was SO excited! My mom & I were your stereotypical tourists and we were totally okay with that. J Some of the highlights of our travels included going to the Capitol Building, getting a tour of the Bureau of Engraving building, seeing the White House, visiting the different Smithsonian museums and seeing all the amazing monuments. One of my favorite things that we did was the night tour of the city. The night tour took us all around the city to see the different monuments. Our tour guide was amazing and gave us loads of information about the various things around the city. Everything was much cooler at night. The lights really accent the monuments and their marvelous presence. Unfortunately we did not get a tour of the White House. I’m still a little bit bitter about it… Ha! It would have been really cool to meet the President of the United States. Seeing that we are both from Chicago, we would have some things in common. Although we didn’t get a tour there, we did get to tour the Capitol building. One of the coolest things in the Capitol building, besides all the history and stories that it holds, was the ‘Whispering Spot.’ Our tour guide had us stand in one place in this room and he went and stood in another spot. He then whispered something to the person that was standing next to him and we could hear him loud and clear! It was so cool!

Where all the Girl Scouts were from.

When it started to fill up with people. 200,00+ people to be exact.

Celebrating 100 years of Scouting :)

My traveling cow with the Monument. 

 The day of the Rock the Mall event was so hot! We knew that there would be about a billion people there, so we decided to get there early to get good seats. The event didn’t start until 9 o’clock in the morning, but we got there at about 6:45 am. So early! But so worth it because we got seats right in front of the stage! People started flooding in between 7 and 10 am. Soon enough the lawn near the Washington Monument was filled with Girl Scouts, young & old! It was neat to talk to people and see where they were from! Girls came from ALL over the United States! I met people from Florida, Tennessee, Alaska, Pennsylvania and many more! The day was filled with singing from guest artists and step performances from a few Brownie troops. It was really remarkable to hear the voices of thousands of Girl Scouts coming together to sing the same songs. Overall it was a wonderful trip. I loved having some mommy-daughter time and seeing the sights of DC.

A beautiful sunset. I wish I had this view everyday! 

{Peace&Love} Jenny 

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