Livestock (Cont'd)

Well, you'll be glad to know that I am not sitting in the church nursery writing this post. Unfortunately, I'm sitting at home with two sick kids. Steele came into my room crying this morning with a croupy cough. Both he and Adia seem to have it. They've been doing better as the morning's gone on and after I got some steam going in the bathroom but I still thought it a good idea to stay home so as not to infect everyone else. Thank goodness for my mother who was willing to sub for nursery duty - even though she was a little nervous her pre-colonoscopy meds might kick in.... uhh.... yah. So since Adia's back in bed and Steele's watching Veggie Tales I thought I'd use the opportunity to carry on with my thrilling topic.

Livestock....

You should be glad that I took that little time out. It gave me time to do some research. A lot of kids from our church show animals at the fair. They either own them themselves and prepare them to show or another family lets them borrow animals to show. We arrived to the fair one day just in time to see our friend Jan show his cow. Jan is the oldest of 5 boys from our friends Hans and Colleen. Hans and Colleen own and operate an organic dairy farm of Jersey cows. You'll remember Colleen - we were on a quest together to find a new hair stylist after ours moved to Iowa? Hold on - I need to go put her on my blog roll. She was hassling me about it just the other day. There. Done. (I would put *wink* here but since I can't actually wink in real life I don't think that would be very genuine of me)

Anyway, here's Jan in all his cow showing glory:

Here's Jan watching the judge very carefully. While doing my research, Jan told me that part of what the judge looks for is how well the kids control their cows. They have to watch the judge - go when he motions to go, stop when he motions to stop. When they stop the kids have to get the cow's legs arranged so that their udder is visible.

I liked this picture 'cause he's under the Jersey sign.

Having a little trouble here. Good thing the judge isn't looking. Phew.

To be honest, I can't tell you how Jan did overall. I will tell you, though, that he's a super nice kid - not to mention awfully cute, don'tcha think?

While we're on the subject, Jan's brother Per showed us his cows. He even let Adia sit on one. She wasn't too sure she liked that idea.

Adia: Why I oughtta....

She really wasn't so sure she wanted to sit in the hay. (I actually think it's technically straw)

Steele: Um. Mother? Adia kindly asks that she be removed from this hay pile. It's quite disconcerting to her. (He doesn't know it's actually straw)

Well, that's all I have as far as livestock goes this year. Stay tuned for our next exciting edition of the Fair 2008: Carnival Rides. If nothing else, you're sure to get a good laugh.


While I'm here, I've been meaning to comment specifically to each of you regarding a few things. You're always so nice to comment and I don't generally have time to comment back individually - but please know that it is such great fun to hang together in this bloggy world. You always bring a smile to my face.

So let's see...

Everyone: THANK YOU for all your spot cleaning advice. Time and time again I have heard OxyClean. So I'm going to try that out first and see how it goes. A friend with 5 kids also mentioned to me last night that she uses Zout too so I think I'll try that. She resells her kids' clothes on e-bay (just like Sarah!) and has great success. I'm kind of a natural girl at heart so I also liked Michelle's suggestion of hydrogen peroxide. And I LOVE Elizabeth's line drying tip - it's pretty difficult here in the Northwest though as we have so much rain. I'd have to watch every moment in case it started raining so I could run out and take down my clothes. Not to mention my allergies - Amy calls line drying, "pollen-catching." I'm going to ask Justin to hang up my clothes line again though.

Sarah: HAHAHAHAHAHAHA!! Sorry. That's what I did when you asked if we had air. I couldn't help myself. Pretty much nobody has air conditioning around here. We only need it once or twice a year - and then it's miserable. I definitely should have called Amy yesterday and brought her some food. You know, just to be a good friend and all.

Rebecca - I'm always so thankful whenever you leave a comment. So sorry you were up last night. It's been thundering here in the last couple hours. Weird.

Amy: I'm not sure if you were pregnant or not in that picture. Not that I think you look fat at all. It was when you guys lived up here in the apartment. Did you have Aidan then? I think so. Sadly, it was the night before my Grandpa had his stroke and then died at the end of the week - early January. And you are so right - gotta bring your own food just in case there's nothing else good. Also, I've been meaning to tell you that the reason I haven't commented on your "blog" is because I wanted to respect your non-bloggingness. But I will if you want me to - 'cause you know I always have something to say. Like: I CANNOT BELIEVE YOU ARE DOING FLIPS ON THAT TRAMPOLINE! You're gonna break your neck.

Jodi: Can you please post more pictures of our Gazelle days? Seeing as you have so much spare time lately. It's so funny that you posted that one because I was just about to e-mail and ask if you could send me some. Are you still enjoying your Mrs. Meyers?

Martha: Man, I've missed you! And yes, Adia's hair is coming in slowly but surely. I just had to cut off her mullet the other day. My grandma was so mad at me.

Mom: You crack me up. Hope everything's flowin' ok.

Michelle: Thank you for being a faithful reader. And I love that you always think my kids are so cute. ;-)

Lisa! Get on over here and read all the nice things I said about you! ;-)

Kate: Thanks so much for sending the bathing suit information. I still haven't bought myself one... I know. I'm a loser.

Christine: I just love you. I hope you're sitting by the lake sipping a margarita or something.