It's a sad day...

I've been wanting to post all week about my class reunion last weekend and I thought that I would get that accomplished today but I am just too sad. My friend Mark has lost his step-father very unexpectedly and I am in total shock. Mark held a cookout for a few of us the night before our reunion at his Mom's house and it is just surreal that Carl is no longer with us! Please pray for Mark and his family. Carl was a good man and this just doesn't make sense to any of us.

It's Over......

The fair is finally over and I'm still tired! Overall it was a good year for the kids but we did have some snags along the way.


A few months before the fair one of our pigs got sick and ended up dying. Luckily we had a few extra so Keri wasn't left short an animal to be able to show. Then the day that we take the cows to the fair Keri's cow gets sick. The state vet took a look at him and decided that he needed to be removed from the fairgrounds because he could be contagious! You can imagine the tears.


So I spent the better part of the day searching for someone that had an extra cow that they didn't bring that I could buy from them and run through the auction at the end of the fair. Several hours later Stacy & Christi Hostetler said that they had a small Jersey cow that we could buy from them! I was ecstatic but Keri was still skeptical because she wanted HER COW. My aunt took Keri to have a chat over some Dippin' Dots and when they got back Keri had decided that she would give the Jersey cow a chance.


So we switched from a 450 pound Holstein to a 243 pound Jersey! Not looking too good for auction money but she had a cow to show! The cow had already been named Bambi (can you tell why?) so we, of course, had to change all our decorating to reflect the new cow's name and not the Holstein's. (which was Dasher)

Once we made it through that drama we were on our way to a good week! The girls both did really well in their showmanship with the cows and the pigs! This was Keri's first year so we weren't expecting much from her but she did really well. Katie's calf placed third in it's class which was the best that she's ever done and she made it through the first round of showmanship. I was really happy for her.

The pigs did well this year too. Katie was once again the only person to have a Tamworth so she easily won Champion with that pig and she was penned 4th with her Crossbred. Keri didn't place on Wednesday with either of her pigs so she was very disappointed. I told her that the judge on Thursday would be different and that she still had a chance to do well.

Sure enough, Thursday her Hereford won Champion! She was so excited I thought she was going to burst!

Katie with her Champion.


Keri with her Champion.

Friday ended with tears from Keri because she didn't want to get rid of her animals but she was really happy when she started figuring up the money that she made for her efforts in 4-H! So another year is over and hopefully by the time this rolls around next year I will have forgotten all the drama and grief that I went through in getting to this point!

Bring on the fair!!!

Bring it on!

Tom Thumb donuts, elephant ears, funnel cakes, sirloin tips, corn dogs, pretzels, pizza, Nelson's, pork burgers, taco salad, swiss & rye on a stick, tenderloins, ice cream, fried rice & egg rolls.....

What's on your list?

Tears of Joy...

Katie just got back from church camp last night and she had a great time. She was talking non-stop all the way home about all the things that they did and about her counselor and the girls in her cabin. I always loved church camp so I was really excited and happy for her that she had such a great experience.

This morning I got on the middle school website and was browsing through all the pictures that they posted from camp. I came across this picture and it brought tears to my eyes. I see my daughter holding on to her friend and rejoicing in the moment, raising her hands to God and it was completely overwhelming for me. This is what it's about. I'm so thankful that she has friends that she can express her faith with. I don't remember having this when I was her age and looking at these kids and how open and vulnerable they become when they are together like this is just amazing.

God was at work here and I'm glad that my daughter was a part of it!!!

Getting ready...

The fair is almost here! I'm counting down the days to no more whining about washing animals, feeding animals, cleaning pens, walking animals, etc.... For the last 2-3 months I've been asking myself over and over again why I continue to do this to myself. I was always in 4-H when I was growing up and I thought that it would be a great experience for my kids. Don was not a 4-H kid so when I proposed this idea to him he told me up front that he would not be a part of it. Why did I think that I could take this on myself?

The kids have pigs and dairy feeder calves. Since we live in town there's no way to keep them at our house so we have to go back and forth between my parents and my aunt's place to do the chores. I'm very thankful that they allow us to house our animals there and many, many times they end up doing the chores for us because of my work schedule and the kids sports schedules. What would I do without them?

Still, as we are near the end of another 4-H season I'm thinking that this will be the last because it doesn't get easier year after year it gets harder because the kids keep getting involved in more and more things. Where does the madness end?

See you at the fair!!!

American Girl....

Keri's birthday. I'm a bit behind on my posting so let me catch you up. Keri's birthday was at the end of May but because of our trip to Arizona/Nevada we celebrated her birthday after our vacation. She turned 9.

She reminded me several months ago that when Katie turned 9 that I took her on the train to Chicago and bought her an American Girl doll. She decided that this was what she wanted me to do for her as well.

Train tickets $21.50, brunch at American Girl Cafe $76, American Girl doll $90, the day with my daughter....priceless!!!

If you're a Mom and you've never done this with your daughter you really need to do it sometime. It's a girl's fantasy land! All dolls, all pink, all girl! Even Katie still enjoys going to American Girl and she's getting a little old to be playing with dolls. I seriously saw adult women buying dolls for themselves and having lunch with their doll in the cafe. It's completely crazy! Keri had asked her relatives to give her money for her birthday so she could buy clothes and accessories for her doll and she spent every bit of it at this store.

We rode the South Shore into Chicago in the morning and we walked the 5 or so blocks to the store and spent the entire day shopping and eating. We got back into South Bend from the train around 7pm and we were exhausted!

Happy Birthday Keri! I'm glad that you wanted to spend a day with me doing "girl" things!

Arizona/Nevada

We recently took a trip to Arizona and Nevada to see relatives and just have some fun family vacation time. This was the first time that my daughters had ever flown. They were really excited and nervous about it.



We landed in Phoenix, rented a car and followed our Mapquest directions to Jon & Brandie's apartment. We stayed at Jon & Brandie Yoder's while we were in Arizona. They moved to Scottsdale a year or so ago and we had never been out to see them. They were planning on moving home next spring/summer but Jon was offered a job back in Indiana and he took it so he wasn't even in Arizona when we went. Thankfully Brandie was still there otherwise we would have been looking for a hotel!

We did the normal touristy things while we were in Arizona. We went shopping, drove go karts, rode bumper boats, and played mini golf. The kids were in heaven. I have another cousin, Barry Anglemyer, that lives in Chandler, Arizona so the second day there we went over to his house to visit with him and his family. They have a pool so the kids spent the day swimming and we had a great time just being together and catching up. Barry's kids are so cute and growing so fast! We had a cookout for dinner and then we all went out for ice cream.

We really enjoyed our short stay in Arizona and we would love to go back and spend more time there.

On Memorial Day we made the drive from Arizona to the Grand Canyon and then on to Las Vegas. The drive to the canyon was really scenic. We drove through Sedona to see the Red Rock Mountains and the girls were really impressed by them. Again, if we would have had more time it would have been nice to spend the day there and see the sites!

Once we got to the canyon we were all ready to be out of the car and stretch our legs! The canyon was really spectacular. I honestly didn't think that I would react to it the way that I did. It really amazed me that God had created something so amazing! It was so much more breathtaking than I had imagined it would be. If you haven't seen the canyon in person you need to add it to your list of things to do. (your bucket list)

Onward to Vegas! What an exhausting day of riding in the car! This is something that I would not really want to do again. Although it was beautiful scenery I was getting tired of looking at mountains and the winding roads were making me car sick.

We spent three nights in Vegas (but we didn't get there unti after 9pm the first night) and crammed in as much sightseeing as we could during our two days there. The kids were exhausted, we were exhausted, and by the time we got home we needed a vacation from our vacation! Ever felt like that? Now I'm looking forward to our next adventure with the kids. It really is fun to see their reactions to things.