The Long Week (aka...the week that I think NEVER ends)

This week was long. Maybe it's just because I'm getting older....maybe the fair doesn't hold as much excitement for me anymore...I don't know, but the past 9 days felt like a month!

It started with the parade we were all in last Sunday, which was great, we won 1st place in our category (TOTALLY a surprise!), and then wristband day, show day...

Open show...


the auction yesterday....which was good except that Evan got a migraine yesterday morning from just being run down, and threw up all morning....so Grace had to stand in for him. (couldn't believe it...his first auction. Hope this won't be a trend)

Evan's was sold to the New Paris Benton 4H boosters, and Grace's was bought by a family friend. They were both pleased.

Then it was time to say goodbye. Probably the hardest for Grace.

You can't help but get a little attached. You work with them and feed them everyday and they get to be tame. They know their names, and want to sniff and eat your shoes all the time.

Lastly, Grace wanted to see the Rodeo. While Ev and Brent were home sleeping off the sickness, Grace and I went to the Rodeo.

I've never seen so many plaid shirts in the same place before. I think for this one night event each year, every girl in Elkhart County and the surrounding areas, finds her plaid shirt, cowboy hat, and boots, and comes to the rodeo. WE were not part of the plaid crowd...

Today we're working in the Pork Producers Building serving food. We did it last year, and actually had a great time, so we're helping out again.

Really....will this fair never end?

Rides Rides Everywhere!

Early yesterday the kids and I went out to the fair to clean out our pen and wash the pigs again.


This is a grueling job and the weather here in glorious (ha ha) Indiana has been somewhat hot and humid (NOT my favorite weather believe me!) So, we went very early in the morning to take care of this chore before we had to be at another 4-h building to do our job as "supervisors" for an hour.

The kids had saved up half the money for wristbands this year, so we went back out in the HEAT to ride ALL afternoon. (part of me wishes they were both older so they could do this with their friends, but part of me enjoys the fact I can still take pictures of them and they are not embarrassed to be with me!)




(Grace, our daredevil)




(I'm scared to think what Evan will be like on the road once he gets his license. He is a VERY EVIL bumper car driver)



funhouses...



ferris wheels...

and patiently waiting on Grace when a ride was too scary...

Now today...more pressing matters like these babies...

Ah corn...you picked the WORST time to be ready!

Next...back out to the fair tonight to wash pigs, clean out our pen, and get ready for show day tomorrow!

THE FAIR!

It seems like it's been a long road since April to get ready for the fair.

The pigs were so cute to begin with. So easy to take care of.


Then they grew. They could do more....We could walk them around the yard. They got to know the new pigs we threw in with them...(our friends are keeping theirs at our house this year.)

But they rushed us when it was eating time. I guess they ARE PIGS after all!

They all started to have personalities. Sonic (the spot) is a little cranky and demanding. Each time we walked them, he was the first to circle back to the pen like we were totally torturing him by getting him out to exercise. He has a high level of drama.

Rockney (Duroc...red) is the most laid back. Last to eat (no, really, let the others go first, I can wait...) and easiest to walk. Then there was Mason (named after Evan's best friend) who grew to be the biggest of the group. (271 pounds when weighed at the fair today) He was also pretty laid back with a wild streak every now and then. Taz (after the Tasmanian devil) was aptly named. Always first to start a ruckus, and always first to flop in the mud hole after we were done walking them. Lastly, Pablo. A little odd, a little rambunctious, the one staying home from the fair because he was the smallest.

We had a good time, and now it's time for a full week at the fair. Going in early, staying late. The life of a 4-H er. I'll admit, growing up, being in swine club was the highlight of my summers. I got to see all my friends from different schools, and I made money! What could be better than that.
This is Grace's 2nd year, and Evan's first. They've already met and become friends with the children of my old friends from 4-H. Pretty cool. They learn a lot of valuable lessons being in a 4-H club, and I'm glad they have the opportunity (oh, and PLUS, it gets our whole family in free to the fair! Always a plus!)

Well. I'd better go. We must go in and wash these piggies up!

Decorating...after 3 cups of java

I got a spell of decorating ADD today. The kind you get after a long night of perusing decorating books, followed by a rude EARLY awakening (since Brent had to be to work early), and then 3 cups of coffee to combat that early awakening.

I had made a to-do list last night which went something like this:

1. Take the bench from the foyer and move it to the Living Room, and take the wooden crates from the Living Room and move some to the foyer and the rest other places.

2. Move baskets all around

3. Take the old suitcases that were in the Dining Room with kids books in them to the Living Room and put movies in them instead.

4. Move some pictures around

5. Move the Living Room furniture a little

Things like that...and so on and so on... (things only a sleep deprived mind would understand.)

So, here is the Foyer BEFORE:


and AFTER:

Here is one part of the Living Room BEFORE:


and AFTER:

(not much change, just a chair moved, and the brown chair and couch moved over more to the right.)

Another part of the Living Room BEFORE:

and AFTER:

CD player moved from across the room, and scrapbooks moved out of entertainment center to wooden boxes beside it. Old suitcases moved from Dining Room to Living Room, and movies put inside them.

Still more of the Living Room BEFORE:

and AFTER:

Pictures moved from other parts of the house to this wall, bench from the foyer moved to the Living Room and pillows added, movie cabinet moved from another part of the Living Room to here, and a small bookcase from upstairs moved and the chair from the opposite side of the Living Room put beside it. (Whew)

And Lastly....I could kick myself because I don't have any before pictures, but I moved the office around a little.

I like the office arrangement a lot more.

I'm not sure why I always get like this on the eve of something really big. We start our fair tomorrow. Our equipment goes out tomorrow and the pigs go out on Sat. morn. I'm frazzled, and I'm packing for that and getting all the little things around and yet, I'm rearranging my house! Seriously!

I know they were not HUGE changes, but changes none the less, so now some of the things I've had forever look different in different places. I like that.

Next on my to-do list....cooking and freezing some things for when I start back at school. Oh, but before that....endless days and nights at the fair for the next 7 days.

Our Day

I've always wanted to capture a day in pictures like I've seen other bloggers do, but I've just never done it.

Our day was pretty ordinary, save for the spontaneous trip to Mishawaka (about a 30 min. trip away....but with the best stores, and a BARNES AND NOBLE of course.)


I cut some flowers from my garden



and put them in a $.50 vase from a church garage sale a couple years ago.


They are so pretty, these cosmos flowers I plant by seed every year. I could be happy with these flowers all year round.

Grace found this project in one of her American Girl books.

They've been all over the living room floor for 2 days now!

Oreo finds the weirdest places to lay during the day.

(maybe they are praying together about Oreos naughtiness?)

My grandma and grandpa have a picture just like this hanging above their couch. It has been there since I was little, and probably longer than that. I found a miniature version at a garage sale a couple years ago, and knew it had to be mine. Just for memories sake.

The new chickens we added to our flock are not getting along with the others...or I should say the "queen bee" chickens are not getting along with the newbies. These two were getting seriously pecked at the other day, hence the cage. (this separation is getting old...can't we all just be friends?)

We went over to Mishawaka like I said earlier, and Grace spotted this outfit in one of the stores. She LOVED it. I freaked a little....can we say flash back to the eighties?

Evan did a little "hard wishing" at the fountain outside the mall. He's been waiting 2 1/2 weeks for the new Lego catalog to come in the mail, and every day when he runs out to the mailbox, he's a little disappointed.

Grace spent some hard earned allowance money on a polly pocket speedboat, and promptly jumped in the pool with it when we got home.

Supper....straight from the garden.