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Written by Rowonna McNeely – I love being outsmarted by my child. It is such a confidence booster. Saturday, Kiera and I were eating lunch together at a local business. As I went to scoot into the booth by her, she said, “Don’t scoot over there.”

“Where baby?” I asked, hesitating in mid squat.

“Right there.” She pointed to a window ledge that was against our booth. “There’s a bee.”

I glanced to see where she was pointing. ‘Oh. You are right. But, he is dead so he won’t bother us.” I reassured her as I sat down.

Content with that information, she began to eat her chicken. We laughed and giggled about our day and then suddenly, she said, “I know how to spell bee.”

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Wanting to make certain we were talking about the same bee word, I asked, “Which one baby? The one that flies or…” I paused trying to think of a way to use the word ‘be.’

Before I could finish, she exclaimed, “The one that flies. It is B-E.”

“Close.” I said smiling. “It has two e’s. It is B-E-E.”

“B-E-E?” She questioned.

Now, this is where I was pretty proud of my response.

“Yes, ma’am. B-E-E.” I replied. “Think of it as he needs the extra ‘e’ to fly.”

Pretty smart, huh? I was proud of my extra ‘e’ explanation. That is until…

“Not now. He’s just a B-E.” She stated while waving in the direction of the dead bee. “’Cause he’s not flying.”

I blinked as she took another bite of chicken and wondered how I managed to lose my ground so quickly. I opened my mouth to reply and then decided against it.  I’ll take the loss and go over the spelling of black and yellow flying insects when there’s not a dead one in sight.

On another note, cookie season is officially over for the Girl Scouts. What a wild and crazy time. When we started, Kiera set her own goal to sell 600 boxes of cookies. We found out Sunday night that she sold 868 boxes! Thank you to every one that bought cookies from her or from any Girl Scout.

Kiera has learned a lot in the last six weeks selling cookies with her Girl Scout troop. Her troop leaders have been wonderful. They were constantly encouraging her or giving her helpful tips on how to speak up and be more confident.

I’m pretty proud of Kiera. Sometimes, it was hard for her as a 6 year old to stand at a booth for an hour, especially if we weren’t busy.  But, we did it and she has learned a lot from it.

Speaking from a parent perspective of a Girl Scout, I want to say thank you to everyone who helped us out this year.

Thanks to the parents at the booths who helped entertain Girl Scouts during the slow times, thanks for standing with them and encouraging them. Thank you to the troop leaders that have had their homes invaded by thousands of cases of cookies for over six weeks. Thank you to the businesses that let us sit outside your stores and sell cookies. And thank you to all our loyal Girl Scout cookie customers!

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Rowonna McNeely works with her husband, Aaron, at Willie’s T’s in the Art Department, regularly volunteers in the community, and has her hands full with her daughter, Kiera, along with two dogs and one cat.

Rowonna is a graduate of May High School (Go Tigers!) and grew up on a dairy farm. She enjoys reading, creating, swimming, and planning events. She’s also a bit of a klutz.

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