State Fair Adventures!

This was Zach's first trip to the Iowa State Fair, so we tried to see all the most important things in...5 hours.

This robot was dancing and singing, and look how tall he is!!! I had to take a picture, but then I kind of ran away because he was scary. He's the coolest robot I've ever seen though!

We caught someone taking an unusual nap in the horse barn...

Can you believe this huge arena is air conditioned? It was amazing. (ignore the lady in the red shirt...unless you know her)

Lemonade! That was the closest thing to a smile I could get out of Zach.

Watching the horse show (see earlier picture of horses pulling wagons in air conditioned arena).

Dr. Seuss!
Miniature cow, and baby miniature cow~ I took a picture of the cows alone, but then it just looked like they were regular sized.

Zach by the very large sheep. The one in the next pen over is about 30 pounds smaller, but see how tall they are?

The giant slide! I was winning at the top, but somehow he passed me. That gravity, always getting the better of me...

Surveying the flowers and vegetables:

Waiting for the llama limbo to start. It was a warm wait. :)

Llama limbo! The people could duck under, the only important thing was to keep the llama from knocking the pole off. One lady had a really big llama and she got second place. She was really good at getting her llama to duck!

We did stop at the dairy goat obstacle course before going home, but my camera's batteries had died. They (a 4-H'er leading a dairy goat) had to run through a tunnel, over a tarp with swimming noodles on it, over a PVC hurdle, zig-zag through some cones, up on a wooden bridge, and finally jump up on a milking stand and lock the goat's head in the...head lock thing. I don't know what it's called. Anyway, I think that would be a really fun addition to the Lucas fair.

We had a great time at the State Fair! I just can't believe I didn't take any pictures of the food we ate. A corn dog, 3 lemonades (one honey lemonade from the bee stand), a fried Snickers, a chili cheese dog, and a pickle dawg. Yummy!

Some random pictures...

I found frames for the cool artwork our pastor drew on his table at our wedding reception.

I missed the question marks he had in front of our roller coaster, maybe I should draw some in?

Our half-eaten peach pie! I love peach pie.

And our lovely spaghetti dinner with caesar salad-it was a salad kit, my new favorite thing to get. It makes us a lot more likely to eat something green!

Okay, now I'm hungry. :)

Back to the Books!

I finally went to the library last Friday and got a library card, after living here for five months! That is probably the longest I have ever lived somewhere without having a local library card, shameful, I know. (Except for when I was a newborn. I wasn't really that interested at that age.)

I started out with "The Help" by Kathryn Stockett. I kind of thought it would be an easy read, and it was, but it really made me think! It made me think about what I think about people, how I treat others, and wonder if my perception of my behavior is even close to the behavior the people around me are experiencing.

It's easy to look at the behavior of others, especially when they were living in a different place and time, and say "I would never do that. I couldn't be that awful." But what if I grew up in their shoes? What if I was told every day that I was better than someone else just because of the color of my skin? Would I believe it?

The novel is about the relationship between well-off white families and their underpaid and quite often mistreated help in Jackson, Mississippi in the 1960's, when civil rights are starting to become a reality for some, but remain a dream for most.

I would definitely recommend it. It will challenge you to think and examine your own life, and provide some humorous entertainment at the same time.

Our new refrigerator! It turns out the French door style was too wide for the space in our kitchen.

The winning washer!

And matching dryer! What a fun time we had shopping for appliances...and then we drove home through an incredible storm. We heard on the radio that there were flash flood warnings in Des Moines county, Henry county, and Jefferson county...the three counties we would be driving in.
Lightning lit up the sky and the rain came down in sheets, but it did not rise to cover the roads before we made it home.

Appliance Shopping

Appliance shopping! I've been looking around Lowe's website, trying to figure out where we should drop a whole bunch of money to hopefully last us quite a few years.

This is a pretty washer! But expensive. And unnecessarily blue.

This is the Roper washer: low price, functional, simple so maybe not as many things to break down?

And the matching Roper dryer. They're not beautiful, but they'll be in the basement anyway. I would like to go for Energy Star appliances though, so I'm looking at this Whirlpool washer. I didn't find any Energy Star dryers, but that Roper dryer is energy efficient.

The Whirlpool Side-by-Side refrigerator, black to match the dishwasher.

And the Maytag french door refrigerator. These two are my favorites so far, the Whirlpool more favorite because it's...cheaper!

My next step, measuring the spot for the refrigerator in the house, and seeing what kind of outlet is there for the dryer. Fun, fun, fun!

Carnation for the Day

Thanks for the flower buddy! I think it was a "yay, our appraisal is done and we're one step to closing on a house!" flower. And this is Zach sticking it in my face.

Pretending to ignore me...

Prentending to be annoyed...okay, maybe he actually was annoyed.

Me, all ready for work. Oh, then I got called off. This is why I have all this time tonight to upload pictures! Just waiting to see if they need me to work at some point tonight... We thought about renting a movie, but every time we rent a movie they call me in right away! So that would be a waste of money.

Cheddar bacon bratwursts were on sale at HyVee, so that was a delicious supper! And my car window got fixed today! Yay! I don't have a picture, but it looks like it did before it was broken...so use your imagination. :)

Fun Sun Gun Run Yum Weekend!

A line of spectators watching the gun show! I did a great job of uploading all these pictures in random order, so it's going to be an interesting story.Kaella's planning something with those handcuffs I think...oh yeah, handcuffing her cousins to each other. Pretty entertaining!
Isn't this the most adorable puppy you've ever seen? I want one!

Okay, Angie was cooking bacon for BLT's on Sunday...

Here's Zach getting ready for his weekend away in Waverly for choir all state camp. This is why I went to my parents for a couple days and got to partake in all the fun gun shooting, sweet corn eating, horseback riding, and puppy petting!

The targets. It smelled really good-cucumbery-we kept saying we felt like we were sitting at a spa.

Kaella showing off her sharpshooter skills.

Tom shooting...I think this was the really LOUD gun. Bouser...bowser...something like that. From World War I.

Mom's going up to shoot the "cricket gun" (it's tiny). Tom just told her it doesn't shoot straight. :)

It was a great weekend! And this seems like a great place to stop.

Broken window!

Unfortuneately, something happened to my car's rear window last Friday while I was sleeping! Poor thing, it seems to be an accident-prone car. At least it's only been accident-prone while parked so far!

I had to get my parking pass out of the front window for work, so when I closed the driver's side door, the window fell in! Oops.

Zach did a great job covering the window with a garbage bag, and had already called the insurance company and scheduled an appointment with the glass repair company by the time I woke up. Thank you so much!

And we still have beautiful flowers blooming nearby to cheer us up!

Kansas City in the Sun!

A great weekend of camping (in an air conditioned cabin) in Kansas City and playing 7 1/2 frisbee golf courses in 3 days (and getting 40 bug bites) ended with my 23rd birthday party back at my parents house. We managed to fit a Royals vs. Orioles game in too.

All in all, it was a great time!