A Goat or two or three or five, A Fair, and a Mobile Home

 Since I was Ali's age, we've been going to the Georgia National Fair in Perry. I LOVE a fair in the fall and this year's fair didn't disappoint. We took my parents' motorhome for the first time this year and it was AWESOME. We all get a kick out of Addie Belle referring to the motor home as the "mobile home". But, I guess if you're going to a goat show at the fair, a mobile home is as good as any! I so much enjoyed having a place to go and rest between classes and we grilled out both nights.  My daddy is a heck of a cook and the food and company was fabulous. If you didn't stop by "Camp Cooper" during the fair, you really missed out. You'd feel real stupid knowing you paid 12 bucks for a turkey leg when you could have eaten with Al Cooper for free. Pete was loading up the livestock trailer and wondered why in the world my daddy was carrying so much ice. I had to respond, "Ummmm honey that's not all ice. There's food in all 4 of those super sized coolers."  I'll be running every day next week to work all of it off but man was it all delicious.  Addie took a 4th and an 8th place. I was so proud of her!

Ali Grace didn't have her best show, but she looked beautiful, and that's very important at a goat show!

Colten enjoyed a little mutton bustin'...

The weather cooled down nicely and we had a great time. I can't believe my own children are showing livestock at the fair. I also have several former students who have children now showing livestock. If I wasn't so confident in my youthfulness, I'd feel downright old.

Ali Grace has had a lot of success with the 4H forestry team so far this year. They won first place at the regional competition. They compete again at the Georgia Carolina Fair at the end of the month. We always enjoy that competition because Ali competes against her daddy's FFA Forestry Team. Winner gets bragging rights for a whole year.

She also started Social II back in August. She and her partner, Christopher just looked fabulous at the first lesson! I looked back at last year's pictures and couldn't believe how much both of them had changed since they first began Social I a year ago.  Love that girl to pieces. Not that many middle school kids can Foxtrot!

A couple weeks ago I spent the weekend tent camping with the Teacher of the Gifted and my cousin, Leigh Anne. Leigh Anne and I have known OF each other forever I guess but we've never had a chance to really know each other. Our fathers are first cousins. Well, let me say this- we spent the weekend with the South Carolina Wildlife Federation and paddle boarded, cooked outdoors, canoed, and had a blast. Leigh Anne hiked the entire AT a few years ago and I thought she would have a better plan for getting the dank smell out of my tent than to spray glitter body spray inside it but nope. When I opened the tent box to get some supplies for the motor home this weekend, glitter poofed out everywhere. Good times!

Addie has been burning it up on the Edmund Burke Cross Country team this fall. I am so proud of her I could eat her up. I always tell her I don't care what place she finishes. I am so proud that she gets out there and practices and then competes. The fact that she finishes a mile and a half race over the river and through the woods is really something to be proud of. I am amazed at how well she and the other elementary team runners have done! In the most recent race at George L Smith, Addie's friend Sidney was running close to her in the race. Addie said she heard Sidney fall and looked back. It looked like a bad fall so she stopped and helped Sidney up. Addie and Sidney finished the race a second apart. They got ribbons for 9th and 10th place out of 25 or so elementary runners. I could not be more proud of Addie if she broke a world record. In this rotten world, if you can raise kindhearted children who care about their friends, you've really done something. Jacqueline Kennedy is credited with saying "If your children don't turn out well, nothing else really matters."  Indeed.

Though she be but little, she is FIERCE! -Shakespeare

Other than that, we've been enjoying football season, small town livin', and just life in general. Anyone as happy as I am about the cooler weather??