Tuesday, July 31, 2007

Parades and a Tractor Pull

So, I'm a little behind in posting. I guess a few days at the lake will do that to you!

A couple of weeks ago, our town had its summer celebration. It seems to be something every small town here does. Ours is themed Christmas In July and some of the activities were a 5K race in the morning, garden tours, craft fair complete with the same train that was at Hot Dog Night and finally, a parade!

That same Saturday happened to be Brewster's Fun Day. Brewster is the town where Britney's mom grew up and her brother and sister-in-law still live on the farm there. Britney's grandpa has an antique tractor and drove it in the parade, so we went over to Brewster to see that. Yes, another parade...

Carter and Ashlyn were so excited! Two parades in one day? Does life get any better than that? Apparently, the only thing better than watching the parade and catching the candy that is thrown is EATING the candy! We have a HUGE bowl of candy on our counter right now - more than Halloween provided last year. I think our next stop will be to the dentist :)

But wait - life DOES get better than that! In Adrian, after the parade, there is a kids pedal tractor pull. Guess who wanted to try her hand at it? Yep, Princess Ashlyn in her dress and flip flops got out there and tried to pull the weight on the pedal tractor. She did just fine for never having tried anything like that before, and pulled a whopping 13+ feet!

You can check out pictures from the parades and tractor pull here.

And update from the lake will hopefully come soon!

Tuesday, July 24, 2007

Off to the Lake!

The kids and I are off to the lake with Britney's aunt Kris for an impromptu short vacation. We're just heading to Okoboji, Iowa, which is only about an hour from here, but, hey, it's a vacation - in a condo - on the water!!! If you need me, call my cell phone! We'll be back on Friday!

Thursday, July 19, 2007

RAIN!

We finally got some rain yesterday. It hadn't rained here for weeks and all of the crops were starting to look pretty sickly. We live in a HUGE farming/agricultural area with a lot of corn and soybean farms. My stomach would knot up when we would drive somewhere and see how bad the fields looked. I can only imagine what the farmers were thinking!

But, the Lord is faithful and answered the prayers for rain yesterday! Some areas got over an inch! Hopefully my flowers and yard will perk up a little too :)

I was also praying for rain for a different reason. Our house here is over 100 years old, so we don't have central air. Most of the time the house is cool despite that. I know those of you who live in Georgia couldn't imagine living in a house without air! I couldn't when we first moved here either, but I have been pleasantly surprised! Well, the last couple of days, the temps were in the 90s with 90-95% humidity. It was like living in a sauna upstairs. We have a small window air conditioner downstairs that kept that part of the house cool, but no such luck upstairs - yet!

You'll be pleased to know that we're taking a trip to Lowe's this weekend to buy a second air conditioner for upstairs :) So, when you come to visit, no worries - the house will be cool, even if the weather outside is hot and humid!

Saturday, July 14, 2007

Hot Dog, Hot Dog, Hot Diggity Dog!

So, Hot Dog Night is apparently a big deal in Luverne, MN. We got there around 5:30 and people were already lining up for the free dogs. We picked a spot and got in line. All of the businesses on Main Street were giving away hot dogs in front of their stores. Some were just basic, with ketchup and mustard and some had all the fixin's.

Ashlyn got to enjoy a pre-race "train" ride. It's a contraption we've seen many times since living here. There's a riding lawn mower with all of these little "cars" attached behind it. To me, they look like 55 gallon drums turned on their sides and painted to look like little airplanes with a place cut out for a child to sit. They charge $1.50 per ride and can hold 20 kids. Britney and I have decided that it's a very lucrative way to make money here!

Anyway, Ashlyn rode and Carter got scared so he got out before the ride began. BOYS!

After our hot dogs and train ride, we walked around a little and then headed to the bleachers to get a good spot for the race. Folks, this is serious business. People have strategies about how to get their dogs to race. There were over 40 wiener dogs in the races. Kielbasa, last year's winner, didn't do so well. He was out after his first heat.

This year's winner was Kali. I think she's a 2 year old whose owners bribed her with a t-bone at the end of the race.

All in all, it was a pretty fun night. And amazing to me how grown, mature adults will sit on the side of a road and yell for their favorite wiener dog to run, run, run!

You can click here for pictures

Or you can click here for the complete story from the SPORTS section of the paper!

Thursday, July 12, 2007

Hot Dog Day

Every Sunday we get a free newspaper called the Luverne Announcer. Britney calls it my "crack" (as in the drug). I grab it off the front steps as soon as it's delivered and read it all the way through. It's basically just a little local paper that advertises everything that is going on over the next week - special events, garage sales, auctions, etc.

So last week I was reading it and came across something called Hot Dog Days. Apparently tonight in Luverne the businesses are giving away free hot dogs. There are other activities too, but the one that stuck out to me (aside from the free food) is the weiner dog races down Main Street. Yes, apparently they race actual weiner dogs!

I'm curious to see how it goes. I'll post an update and pictures about it tomorrow. Who knew that there ever was such a thing as Hot Dog Day!

This weekend, Hot Dog Day will be followed by the Edgerton (another small town close by) Dutch Festival. The kids are excited about another parade and more CANDY! Maybe this time we'll be more prepared and will take a bag of some kind to catch all of it. Maybe I'll remember the camera for this one too. Life shouldn't be complete until you've experienced a small town parade and gotten to see the Beef Princess and Dairy Princess :)

The Singing Bee

Did anyone watch this on Tuesday night?

We did and loved it! I was surprised at how many of the songs I actually knew the words to, although there were at least a couple that I had no clue about.

Anyway, it's a pretty fun show and thought I'd share! I think it's on NBC at 9:30 (ET) on Tuesdays. Enjoy!

Tuesday, July 3, 2007

Fourth of July!

Doing anything fun for the 4th?

We're planning to take the kids to Pioneer Village in the morning. It's a place in Worthington that reminds me of the plantation at Stone Mountain, except on the 4th, they have the village "working." There will be all kinds of activities there and you can do things the "old way" like shucking corn, grinding flour, etc. Britney and I went there one 4th several years ago, and I really enjoyed it.

I'm sure we'll see fireworks somewhere tomorrow night - we just haven't decided where yet. A few years ago we were at the farm for the 4th and you can walk just up the road and see fireworks from 3 different towns. Maybe we'll do that again or we'll go to Worthington to see the ones over the lake. Whatever we decide, I'm sure it will be fun and I'll have pictures to share!

Monte and Matt got here late last night (or early this morning actually), so I'm sure the next few days will be full of visits to other family and probably some races in South Dakota.

Have a safe and happy Fourth of July!