The State of the Fair

I love looking at scrapbooks, because each page holds so many memories. I haven't scrap booked my pictures in a long time, but for awhile I was pretty good at keeping up with it all. I don't know about you, but I re-live the moments when I look at pictures I have taken of our family. I think that's what appeals to me about Blogging, it's a little like an online scrapbook. As I finished downloading my State Fair pictures, I had to laugh, because looking over the pictures made me remember the day...

Here we are in front of "Jack's French Fries" one of our favorite haunts

The State Fair is an annual event for our entire family, and has been for many years. My Dad (now 76) used to tout the fact that he hadn't missed a State Fair since he was in 4th grade (because of health reasons, he missed for the first time last year).

We usually start at one end of the Midway, ride a few rides, and eat our way towards the exhibit halls, craft tent and finally the car show.

Every year they have the "new" food...this years new food was fried coke. I didn't try it, I stuck to the old favorites. The kids on the other hand, had a bit of almost everything, candy apples, corn on a stick, cotton candy, Fletcher's Corney Dogs (of course), French Fries, Hot Dogs, Grilled Cheese, Nachos, Chocolate dipped cheesecake on a stick, chocolate milk, you name it someone in the group had it. It wasn't long before the heat and the smells got to "the inventor". I have to admit he is prone to this type of behavior. We were leaving the food court when he announced the he needed to go to the bathroom real bad.

This is "the inventor" with a mouth full of cotton candy, just minutes before his "I need to go to the bathroom real bad" announcement.

I am apparently incredibly dense about these subtle hints of impending doom, because I turned around to him and said that classic mom statement, "why didn't you go before, when everyone else went?", and with out another word, everything he had eaten came up and out. Well we couldn't have been in a worse place, right in the middle of a crowd of people in a food court trying to buy their lunch, while my child was in the process of loosing his lunch. I'm sure sales plummeted at the Gyro stand, which we were standing in front of, when this calamity broke forth. He had that wild eyed look on his face, like there was more where that came from. So, I hurried him outside to finish up, and he did.

This is "the inventor" about 5 minutes later( notice the new shirt, moms think of everything)

As you can see within moments he was back to his usual self, and having fun, but sadly no more snacks for this boy, or for the rest of us for that matter, we were all sufficiently "grossed out". Except for that one little tiny, itsy bitsy incident, all went well at the Fair and I look forward to next year.

It was a recipe for disaster, a tablespoon of one big mess!

Hubs, the kids and I were heading down the road today with the radio blasting, the windows down, singing at the top of our lungs to a silly song that reminded me of something that happened this year, that I laugh about now.

Our Girl Scout troop had gone on a weekend camp out. I was driving, because I had just gotten a brand new car and it could hold a lot of Girl Scouts. This car was so new that my own kids had not even eaten as much as a cracker in it. It smelled good, and it was as clean as a whistle. I was glad to finally have plenty of room and a clean car to haul kids around in. Anyway, the Girl Scout camp out was fun. The girls hiked, played games, cooked food that really only they liked (because they had planned the meals); Coca Cola Chicken, yum, macaroni and cheese, yum, s'mores, yum. You get the picture. By the end of the day, they were all dirty, tired and tanked up on sugar. After all the campfire songs had been sung, and the last of the s'mores had been consumed, I packed up the car with my daughter and one of her little friends. We had to head back a day early.

We hadn't as much as gone around the block when the two little campers began asking to stop at Sonic. Well, being the kind and generous mother that I am, I stopped and bought them drinks and snacks, thinking, oh they're just tired of roughing it and want some artery clogging fast food to help regulate their little systems. Besides, what could sipping on a cherry limeade hurt anyway. It's not like these responsible little Girl Scouts will spill anything in my new car. We finally got on our way and seriously, we had not even gotten a mile from our campsite (and the Sonic) when my daughters little friend began asking "How much longer?". I thought to myself, this is gonna be a long car ride.

It was an uneventful ride home, except for the occasional inquiry of "How much longer?", which I noticed had become increasingly and alarmingly more regular. We had traveled almost an hour and a half when the announcement came. "I'M GONNA TROW UP!", declares my daughters little friend. " What?" I said, not really believing my ears. We're in my brand new car that still smells good and no one, and I mean no one, has even eaten so much as a cracker in it! "Hold on hun, we're almost home", I yell from the front seat, frantically looking for a place to pull over. There was no place to stop, and the palms of my hands were gettin' sweaty. Did I mention we're in my NEW clean car that still smells good. We're on the highway, there's traffic all around me, and no shoulder. Further more, I look out at the exits and the neighborhood is full of unsavory businesses and liquor stores, and I'm not about to let a little Girl Scout out in a dark liquor store parking lot to throw up! So I tell her in the cheeriest voice I could muster up, "roll down your window Hon, maybe a little fresh air will help". But before the word "help" was out of my mouth, up comes the Coca Cola Chicken. Eeeew, all over her lap, and my daughter was now sitting as close to the window on her side of the car as she could with out actually falling out. By then all of the windows were down, so I tell her "Hang your head out of the window, maybe you'll feel better", and up comes the macaroni and cheese. Mac and cheese sprays all over the inside and outside of the window. The wind catches it and blows it back into the car at 60 mph. Not just back onto the nauseated little camper, but onto the seat she is sitting on as well as the row of seats behind where she is sitting. Now I'm frantically looking for a place to pull over, and really, there is not a spot. Sadly, my searching for a safe spot to stop was all in vain, because once again up comes another "Heave Ho", the "Last Hurrah" in football you'd call it a "Hail Mary",...everything she had for dinner sprayed towards the window, coating the outside and inside of my once clean car, beginning at the door where she was sitting, all the way back to the rear bumper. I'm thinking to myself, she must have eaten the whole pot, I've never seen so much macaroni and cheese! I was in shock, all I could think to say was "Sweetheart, did you have seconds at dinner tonight?"

6 Seconds

It may not seem like much, but 6 seconds is a long time when your talking about a race that lasts less than a minute. Our last swim meet of the season was this past weekend, and my "I don't want to be the last one out of the water" daughter was less reluctant to compete, than she has been in the past. She is actually quite a good swimmer, much better than she realizes, but she's scared of coming in last (which she has never done), she thinks everyone is looking at her (and they're not, just me, everyone else is watching their own kid) and she's afraid she'll lose count on her laps or get disqualified (DQ'd) . In past swim meets, all of the aforementioned fears have paralyzed her, sometimes to the point of tears. On one hand she loves being on the team, but she does not like to compete. Until recently...and that's because prayer is powerful. I got some of my favorite BSF prayer warriors (thanks girls) all over it, and nothing can stand in the way of praying moms. So you can see how I was pleasantly surprised this past weekend when my child comes running up to me all smiles, dripping wet, and says "did you see that mom, I knocked off 6 seconds in the 100 Free!" Of course I saw that, and I was thankful. Thankful she was no longer afraid, thankful that she was not comparing herself to others, thankful she was working to obtain her personal best, thankful that I have friends to pray with, and thankful that God answers our prayers. And here is the verse that has been on my heart through all of this:

Do not be anxious about anything, but in everything, by prayer and petition,

with thanksgiving, present your requests to God. Philippians 4:6