What comes from a cow? L.A. County Fair Promo

The County Fair

Do you attend your local County Fair?  Well, you should. 

County Fairs all over our country are dying out, lacking the tenacity that they once had 25 years ago.  This week is our local fair, the Washington County Fair.  It has free admission so for all of you that live around here in Washington County, Oregon, you need to go.  You don't have to put your kids on the rides.  Go do what the County Fair was intended for.  Go admire the hard work that the local farmers have done.  Admire the 4-Hers and FFAers with their animals.  Congratulate them on earning a ribbon.  Then go check out the cookies and pies and preserves and see what is possible in that kitchen of yours.  You'll be glad you did.

In honor of County Fairs all over this Nation of ours I will be posting a series of hilarious commercials intended to promote the L.A. County Fair.  Enjoy!

Amazing Race - Reunion Style

Ten minutes into our family reunion Amazing Race Annie comes running towards me with, "Chris fell and sprained his ankle."  I just stared at her. Then, after a couple of seconds I smiled, shrugged my shoulders and said, "again?" I think she thought I was not very sympathetic.  I am though. I did what every good God fearin wife should do and I went and got my husband an ice pack.  And then when they drove him down the hill and placed him in our van I could say, "here is your ice pack." He was impressed with my skills of securing ice packs I think. 

So then Chris and I drove our trio of troopers around to their various Amazing Race destinations.  We would have come in second place except for the fact that we were not given the clue at one of the last stops. Duh, we kind of needed the clue. Oh well. We reminded the girls amidst their very evident disappointment that things sometimes go wrong on the real show too.  Things beyond their control, like cars breaking down.  We could not be held accountable for a cousin only giving us half the clue we needed.  It was a good lesson for them in not winning i suppose.  So this times Amazing Race trophy went to the big shot boys who tried blocking the roadway with their truck.  They thought they were so smart but they underestimated my ruthlessness and ability to maneuver around that tiny truck.

Not sure what we will do next time during the Amazing Race.  Chris and I are turning out to not be fit competitors. We will have to pawn our spawn onto another family I suppose. Maybe Krista will feel like leading them into victory, who knows.

Now that we are home here is a video for ya'!

We had a blast!  Woohoo!  I love a great family vacation.  And for those of you who read about my packing woes, we made it all fit thanks to some friends of ours who let us borrow their car top carrier and bars.  We attached their bars to our rack and were able to put two car top carriers side by side.  It was genius and worked brilliantly.  We still only took four changes of clothes and then did laundry midweek, that plan worked well, less laundry to do when I came home too, which is always nice, huh?

So I have so much to share and where to start?  Not sure, but the thing that pops in my brain the most is our family video.  For one of the evenings at the family reunion we were supposed to share a video of our family that we had created.  I was excited about this because I had just made one on my computer for my cousin and felt confident in my new found abilities.  But when I went to make it the God's of Computer land were working against me.  For some reason it told me that I couldn't use the program I had just used two weeks previously because my video card wasn't good enough.  I know there is nothing wrong with my video card so who knows what is up.  After a couple of times of mentioning it to Chris I decided to go ahead and start with another program on my computer, Adobe Premiere.  I had never worked with it before and at first it seemed fine.  But then as I got to the part where I needed to add music and captions it was not so great.


When we left for the reunion our video was still not done.  Chris and I spent two nights of staying up until 2 a.m. at the reunion to finish it.  It turned out great and now that we know how to use it hopefully it won't be so hard next time.  Here is our video.  Enjoy.

By the light of the moon

I woke up at 4:47 a.m.

I couldn't sleep.  Don't you just hate that?  After lying in bed for about 20 minutes I finally got out of bed and did what everyone does at that time of morning.  Pushed the on button on my laptop to see it whir to life.  Then I looked for quilts for my king size bed. The one I've had my eye on sold out of the king size. darn. I found something else I liked though. I'm waiting for Chris to open his eyes so I can get his approval. He won't love it, I already know that but it's whether he gives me the, "it's okay" or "uh-huh".  Uh-huh means he can live with it.  It's okay means he'd rather not.  That is one thing I have learned about him in 17 years of marriage.

And as I celebrate next week, 17 years of being married, I am reflecting on this post.  It is written by Gary who lost his sweet wife Amy on July 3rd, only 2 1/2 months after she was diagnosed with cancer.

I can't imagine.

He wrote it in the light of the moon.  So it seemed especially appropriate that I was reading it with the same moon shining outside. 

Read it, you will be glad you did.

Packing woes

We are leaving for a family reunion in Idaho on Sunday.  We have six people in our mini van and all the stuff to go with those six people.  Not only do we need to take clothes and other essential items we need to take bedding and airmattresses.  Then the email came that there are no kitchen supplies so we need to bring whatever we need for the kitchen.  This equals to quite a bit since there will be a pie baking contest and all three of my girls want to make a pie.  I am wondering how we are going to fit everything.  But then I think about all the stuff we fit into our van when we went to camp Zarahemla for our family reunion and I think we will manage.  We had seven of us then plus we took the bird.  I remember my mom carried the bird cage on her lap for the entire trip!  This time around Sam is going to the boarders to play with his other bird friends. 

So how do I pack? 

We are only taking four change of clothes and I am going to do laundry on Wednesday at a local laundry mat.  So this means that everyone is packing in a duffel type bag, not too big.  I figure all the sleeping bags and sleeping pads alone will fill the car top carrier. That leaves a cooler, crate and suitcases to fit in all the rest of the space.  That space includes a very tiny back area and under people's feet.  Oh yeah, we have to fit Emma's feis stuff in there too.  At the end of the reunion we are heading west to California to go to the Silicon Valley Feis.  So that means her feis bucket and the dress, oh the dress!  That is going to have to be hung up in the car. 

This should be fun!  I'll take a picture of the end result, it might be comical.

St. Paul Rodeo - All-American 4th of July

I love the 4th of July.

Typically for our family this day is spent in Harrisburg, Or attending the parade.  Then rafting the McKenzie River and then back to Harrisburg for fireworks.  It's a wonderful day!  But this year since the 4th is on Sunday we knew we wouldn't be doing the typical things.  We would be in church and spending time together at home this year on the 4th.  That left Saturday the 3rd to celebrate our country's Independence.  As I thought about it I realized that we had never taken our girls to a Rodeo.  Can this be?  I wondered.  Apparently so since Heidi thought a barrel race was them pushing a barrel in front of them.

I grew up going to Rodeos.  Every year at the Coos County fair we would anxiously await the Rodeo as a time to meet up with boys and try and get them to hold our hand.  My girls asked me if I was ever in a Rodeo.  Well, if you want to count the sheep scramble as part of that then, well, yes.  That is where you take a dozen or so girls and set them loose on about 8 sheep in the arena.  You run as fast as you can and try to grab onto the wool of a sheep and hold on for dear life.  If you can hold on long enough for it to become yours you get to keep it.  I was one of the lucky ones and got one that year.  I wonder what I named it.  Who knows.

The St. Paul Rodeo seemed the perfect place to be this year.  It was the 75th Anniversary of this particular Rodeo and we had a great time.  Lots of cowboys, cowgirls and bucking horses and bulls. And at the end of the evening they had a spectacular fireworks display, what an incredible 4th of July!

Here are some pictures of our day!  Happy 4th to everyone.