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??

Sweet Souls

Sometimes I have a hard time making sense of things. This week when I heard the sad news that my friend Trish Mooneyham had succumbed to a brain tumor, I really wanted to punch a wall or throw dishes across the room. Who thinks it's fair that a 35 year old woman with 3 school aged children is gone from this earth so early? What makes sense about that? Not understanding it all makes it hurt all the more deeply and if I'm really honest,  knowing it's not my place to ask why makes me even madder. It really makes me want to scream.

I first met Trish when she lived in Wrens and I was the chair of our Relay for Life. Trish was the youth chair. Children naturally gravitated to her and it was a perfect fit for her. Trish devoted a lot of time to the youth ministry at Wrens Baptist. After her health began to be more and more serious, she moved to Waynesboro and I lost touch with her. Luckily she came back into my life when her son Ethan played on Addie's Upward Basketball Team. During this time I really got to know Trish better. We spent many hours on those hard wooden gym bleachers complaining about our numb backsides and talking about things mamas talk about. Never once did Trish mention her cancer, her dim prognosis, or anything of the sort. She knew I knew how grave her condition was, but cancer was not the most important thing in her life. She was so proud of her children but never spoke of them like they were prodigies or geniuses. Rather, she was more proud of their character and their kindness. Addie was the only girl on the basketball team and Ethan was always kind to her and included her. He got that quality from Trish I'm sure. Trish often talked about the love she had for God and how happy she was about her children growing in their own faith. She admired her husband Joel's work ethic.We'd sometimes complain about our husbands leaving dirty socks around the house and just about general things husbands do to irritate their wives. We had a few chuckles over that. However, I remember her telling me once that Joel was the glue that held them all together. I can't think of a better way to describe a good husband. We talked about politics and our insecurities as wives and mothers. Through all of our conversations, Trish never uttered one single word indicating she felt sorry for herself. Although, I'm sure she had private moments where she struggled to understand it all, just like her family and friends are right now, she never showed that to me once. Cancer wasn't nearly as important to her as fully living her life was. I'm glad I knew Trish Mooneyham. I'm a better person for it.  So I know Trish wouldn't want me to be angry, throw dishes or punch walls.  She'd want us to live our lives as she did. With God and our families in the forefront and our troubles and baggage in the secondary. I'm going to do better about that. Farewell, sweet lady. I'll see you on the other side.

Because our family is weird and all...

Evidence of our weirdness... we wake up to an occasional goat on our front porch peering in the window.

I have always loved words. My family loves words. Writing them, speaking them, even inventing them... remind me to tell you all about the first time I heard my daddy use the word "RI- DAMN- DICULOUS"... yes when my daddy uses an expletive that's one thing, but when he inserts a 'cuss word" right in the middle of a perfectly good English word, you better scatter like scalded dogs. While we were at the beach in sunny Florida this week Ali Grace looked at me and said "Mama I know we have better summers than everyone else, because our family is like weird and all."  Well truer words have never been spoken. Especially at such a young age! I was a quiet kid and didn't really participate in all the story telling that went on whenever my family would get together either at large gatherings or just a few of us frying fish in the backyard. I probably couldn't have gotten a word in if I'd wanted to! It wasn't until I went to college and met people from other parts of the country, and from vastly different backgrounds than my own, that I realized not every family sits around telling stories and reliving moments of epic hilarity. Not every family is even blessed with "epic hilarity" on such a regular basis.  I assumed everyone sat around telling stories like "y'all remember when mama hooked the water hose onto the back of the station wagon and pulled the pump out of the pumphouse and dragged it all the way to Otis Skelton's store?"   Well let me tell you- not everyone was blessed with such an upbringing.

So when Ali exclaimed what a fabulous summer it had been- not because of the beach trip or the week at the lake or the summer camps- but because she really enjoyed our family's "weirdness", my heart leaped. Both Ali and Addie have a way with words. I can see it early. They have a wit about them that will carry on our weirdness. I'm happy about that. I'm happy that they both seem true to themselves and that truth comes with a clever wit that's being expertly honed by listening to the rest of the nuts in our family tell tales.

We did have a fabulous week at Clark Hill Lake....

And a great 4th of July...

We loved our few days at Jekyll Island...

And an amazing week in Florida with my Aunt Bonnie and Uncle Carlos...

Addie had a great week at Camp Hope with her friend, Lillie. It was hard to let her go since she'd been gone the week before to VBS at Red Hill with Gran.

Ali helped Poppy on the farm. This was her first experience driving the truck in the field. 

These kids are lucky ducks. I just hope they realize it. 

So here you go.... top 5 ways to tell if you're blessed with a family who's "like weird and all"...(other than the occasional goat peering in the window)

5.  Your grandmother has at least 3 stories about her wig that will make you wet your pants. One involves a wig being hung up in a sweetgum tree while she's riding a horse underneath a branch...One involves roping a horse with a bra..

4. You've ever had a random goat not only peer in the window but walk right in the front door...

3. Everyone in the family knows how PaPaw lost his right eye and can retell the story in such a way that makes you laugh about someone losing their eye.

2.  Your children don't require a stuffed animal or a special blanket in order to sleep at night but they do crawl up in your bed and beg you to tell "an uncle Ernie story"...

1. You're perfectly happy with your family's weirdness and even if you don't fit in anywhere else in your life, you know you've got a place right here. You'd rather fit in here anyway. The "crowd" is highly overrated. 

Here's the "weirdness" photo of the day.. Addie gathered eggs using a walking stick and wearing her easter dress.

It's a helluva life...

On the 10th anniversary of my 29th birthday...

I don't really FEEL 39 and I guess you're only as old as you feel right? I had a fantastic low key birthday today. Never been one to make a fuss over birthdays and so my mama coming over to help clean my screened porch today was the perfect gift.  I LOVE my back porch but it'd never really recovered from the ice storm mess with tools and gloves and all sorts of leftover junk that mysteriously appears when a house has to run on a generator. Ugh. Flashback. Not happy. Breaking out in hives. Wait it was 91 here today. I for one could not be happier about it. I will not complain about the shake and bake this summer. Bring it. 

May was very busy leading up to the end of the school year. The girls racked up...

The barn burned down.. 

Well sort of... the equipment under the hay shed burned. Luckily the barn is metal and is still standing..

Addie got new Legos for earning all As on her report card. 

Ali did great in her spring dance recital..

Since school's been out we've had some fabulously lazy pool days...

Some goat chasing...

and a great camping weekend with friends and family...

And I just have to say this... a couple weeks ago I had a friend on facebook make the comment "I hope one day to be as good as you."  Ummm I'm not sure what she was referring to.. Like as good as me as a mother? Please. My kids eat popsicles for breakfast and I sent my youngest off to her grandmother's without her toothbrush this week. Like as good as me as a housekeeper? Ummm have I not mentioned I had a goat running loose in my house recently? Look- I might look like I have it together, but if it's all together, it's just by zebra print duct tape. I've got just as much fool going on around here as anyone. Right now I have dishes in my sink that may or may not get loaded into the dishwasher tonight. I'm past the point in my life where I worry about such minutia. God bless you if you do. I just don't. Maybe it looks like I have it all together from the outside looking in. I don't. But I AM happy. Happy as I've ever been in my life. Maybe that's why life looks so good even when you're enjoying brunch by the pool and a baby goat is laying on your feet. Maybe that's why everything still seems wonderful despite the fact that I spent this evening scraping macaroni off the ceiling because one of my daughters thought this an appropriate way to test whether the pasta was "al dente".  It's about perspective I guess. When life is good on the inside, it looks beautiful on the outside, even if it's not perfect. 

I saw this quote on Pinterest yesterday while looking for some porch ideas. Love it. I wish I had a canvas of it to hang on my porch! Aren't we awful about glorifying busy? As if busy is better than sitting under the ceiling fan reading a book on the porch? When it gets down to it, I don't like busy. I like slow, wake up when I want to, nothing to do but be home kinda days. I like home.

 And finally, thanks to some great friends who've made this week wonderful. Besides creeping ever so close to 40, I've had a lot going on this week with some personal decisions that had to be made and even though the issues resolved themselves quite nicely, I'm thankful for this experience because some true friends have really shown up this week. Y'all know who you are.

Indeed.

Savannah, Social, and Smiles

You all know small children make me nervous right? Give me a bunch of high school knuckle heads any day. Third graders? Mercy. I had to suck it up though when Addie begged me to go on a field trip to Savannah and Tybee Island with her class. I mustered up the courage, asked for prayer, and loaded the bus! Thank goodness her teachers are great organizers and her classmates are just precious. Not one problem. Here they are acting silly on the beach. Apparently this is a Savannah trip tradition!

Addie and her classmates were able to sift through the tidepools and find all sorts of funky ocean critters..

Here's a picture of Addie and her friend Lillie just after arriving on River Street.

Addie and her friend Noah Kate had a big time at Old Fort Jackson.

The "corporal" in charge of our tour was fabulous! He had the entire "regiment" walking the line. The kids learned so much!

More Tybee tide pool exploring...

We were up and at school by 6am and didn't get home until almost 10pm, but it was worth it. Addie and I had a blast. She really is blessed with great teachers and such a great group of friends.

And then there was Saturday... and NO. I was not watching the Derby. I LOVE the Kentucky Derby.. but no.. not today. 

Ali Grace's Spring Social in Augusta. Lawd mercy I wasn't sure I was going to make it. We had to get up early to be at grand march practice by 10am. Not an easy task when you live in the sticks. We made it though and then had to run all over Augusta getting all sorts of things.. You see one does not simply "run into town" to get a blinged out hair clip, a pair of dancing heels, a gorgeous necklace and earring set, or a Caesar panini for lunch for that matter.. nope not in the bird dog capitol of the world!  We are an hour out of Augusta so there was no way we could get back home and get hair done and then back to the arena by 5. So, in rides the cavalry. I'm telling y'all I have the best family in the world. My sister in law, Jessica agreed to do Ali's hair and so we used her house in Harlem as a staging ground!  We got Ali all jazzed up and then Nanny and Poppy drove up and met us. Jessica went with us to the formal while poor Uncle David was stuck with Addie, Emma and Sarah! He was a champ though and I don't know if I could have done it without them.

This is Ali and Christopher during the grand march. Ali is in purple. 

Although it was stress to the max, I wouldn't take a million bucks for it. Ali Grace had a ball and her dance partner was fabulous! They did a waltz, then a fox trot, and many more. I was thoroughly impressed and I'm so thankful she was afforded this experience. 

These two have grown up so much since their very first Social class back in late summer last year.

We finally got home around 11:00 last night. Pete came home from the Georgia FFA Convention last night too. Hey did I mention I conquered this weekend with my husband out of town?? Yep. I rocked it.

Since David and Jess were coming down to bring Addie home anyhow, we decided to fire up the smoker and break in the swimming pool. Luckily it FINALLY started to hit 90 degrees today!

Emma, Sarah, Addie and Ali all had a great day playing together in the pool. Today was just what I needed to recover from the past two days of INSANITY!  Fourteen and a half days until Summer Break! I think I can I think I can!