The County Fair and Child Torture

Of course, I have a camera full of pictures to show you from our lovely* weekend at the Fair.

(*using this term loosely)

However, Alyson (now 18 and ruling the world, by the way), "borrowed" my card reader and "just knows she put it back on the table where she got it" and a few months ago, Brenna (11 years old and also ruling the world - is there a theme here?) "borrowed" my camera cord and "has no idea why it doesn't work now, it worked fine for her".

So, here I am with all kinds of pictures and no way to download them.

As an aside, does anyone else feel like they wish they had a lock box to store all their things? Or possibly a room of their own with a lock on the door for say, your clothes, your bobby pins, your ipod charger, your ipod headphones, your socks, your card reader/camera cord and even your tampons?? Or maybe it's just me with this house full of teenage girls.

Okay, where was I? Oh yeah, the Fair. Well, it was fantastic weather - I'll say that much. Usually the Fair rolls into town and the mercury immediately goes off the charts - but this year - the weather couldn't have been better.

Brenna's sheep performed fairy well, although when we first unloaded her from the trailer and into her pen, it became glaringly obvious that we love our animals by feeding them. She was....well, let's say.....loved. This is probably the reason she got last place in the Conformation of the Animal class. Awww, she was so cute though with her round little belly. She did make up for it, or better yet, Brenna made up for it, in the Showmanship class, which is how well Brenna shows/handles her sheep. Since Casey is basically like a dog and follows Brenna around (hoping for food:)), this was pretty easy. Out of a class with 15 kids, Brenna got 5th - so she was happy.

Lucky for us, Brenna truly does not get upset about where she places. She just is happy if Casey behaves herself and doesn't take off running out of the ring. Unlike our middle child, Maddie, who MUST win every single thing she attempts or the world stops spinning and we all fall off.

After the sheep shows were done, we spent the rest of the time watching all our friends' kids show their animals - everything from cows, pigs, chickens, goats to rabbits. This is my favorite part of the Fair.

Brenna also got 4 blue ribbons on her photography projects, a blue for her vegetable box and a red for her wood project. The wood project that she and her father started two days before the Fair, so what do you expect, right? Procrastination seems to not only be my problem around here.

It took me two days to recover, not only from the endless drain of the Fair, but from my mother's visit. That woman makes me nuts. It's strange, sometimes when she visits, it goes very smoothly and other times? Not so much. This was one of those times.

Now, on to August and from the look of the calendar, it will be non-stop as much as July. Three of the four weekends already have something planned and we are trying to squeeze in a short family vacation with Alyson before she takes off for college on the 31st. Which is a whole other post in itself.

There are two things I want to call attention to before I stop blabbering. First, Mrs. G has brought back the 5K Ass Project and even though I'm into my 4th week of training - I'm jumping on the band wagon - want to give it a try? C'mon, it will be fun! Okay, not fun, but.....you know, fun to be part of the group. Yeah, that's it.

Second, if you live in our general vicinity, or not if you don't mind traveling, Marti is throwing together a little 'upper midwest blogging get-together' that I'm sure will include some very cool people and a little alcohol, possibly. Check it out and leave her a comment if you want to join in!

As soon as I'm finished water-boarding my children until one of them coughs up my card reader, or until I cave and buy a new one, I'll have County Fair pictures.