Fair Week

I feel like things are moving forward this week.   The client approved the design for the book.  The front cover looks spectacular and I love the interior design.  The printer will also do fulfillment.  She is firm in her decision to print 3000 books.  So if they move slowly, it’s her decision.

I picked up a little story revision job and need to work on a proposal or two.  Probably need to redesign a website, too.

Tom helped a new family move into the ward.

Monday night we went to our usually Empty Nester activity.  This one had a conservative bent.  We had a speaker talk about getting involved in Arkansas politics and being an informed voter. For the first time in my memory, Arkansas has a national presence as our Senate race is one of the swing states that could go Republican.  I’m hoping for a change.  But even if it occurs, I don’t know how much change we’ll see in the national government.

Tuesday I had the last of my Circle of Success calls for AWAI (my writing).  It was a peer review of headlines and leads. Good review and learning.  Then I quickly gathered things for the fair.  I took Anaheim, Bell, and Cayenne peppers, green onions, and some grape tomatoes.  I also took peach jam, applesauce, dill pickles and canned peaches.  And I took one piece of pottery.  I had to be there before 2pm because I volunteered to help check in photographs.

It was mostly busy. There were 13 classes in color and the same in black and white. You could only have one photo per class, except the “other” category could have 3 submissions.  Occasionally we had people with 30 photos to enter. With each entrant you had a process:

1. Check all photos to insure correct matting and no duplicate entries. If there were 2 in a class, gently explain they’d need to choose which they wanted to enter.  Check to see if they were in the youth, Jr, or 4-h category and tag appropriately if so.

2.  Write on their tag- division, category, class, entrant’s number and name.  Then you gave them the middle of the triplicate form, folded the back paper up and over the name on the front paper and clipped it to cover it from the judge. 

3. Paperclip the tag to the photo and take the strings from the tag, fold them over to the back of the photo and tape them to the back.  At the same time, check to see that they’d written their name on the back.

4. After a stack collected, file them in the proper bin—child, adult, b/w or color, and class.

It took several minutes to do each entry.  There were about 6 of us working.  In the few lulls, we chatted.  I finished about 7:30. 

Tom worked at the house most of the day and oversaw the chopping down of a GIANT tree in the yard of one of Rebecca’s rentals.  He got home about the same time I did.

Wednesday I went with Tom to work at the house from 9:30 to 3:30.  While he tiled the tub surround, I painted shutter wood slats and scrubbed the wooden floors in the bedroom and hall.  I also cleaned the Pergo floor in the laundry room and straightened that room. It looks pretty good now.  Came home and fixed dinner.  We had a new family that moved into the ward and they came over to dinner.

Thursday Tom gathered a truckload of wood and brought it home. One of our rentals came empty, so he checked that out and started cleaning it up.

I did some writing and worked on the Relief Society program for Saturday. Picked beans. In the afternoon we went to the fair.  The weather has moved to fall weather.  Cool and drizzly.  It was very nice. I was almost chilly!  We enjoyed the exhibits and chatted with people we knew.  We even watched the baby beauty contest for babies from 0-6 months old.  But didn’t stay long enough to see that Jen Bogart’s granddaughter came in first!  My entries into the fair got about ½ reds and ½ blue ribbons.  Perhaps next year I should give myself more than a half hour to pull my entries out of the garden and off the shelves.

When we came home, Tom wanted to empty the bed of the truck, so we tossed and rolled the logs off the truck. Tom split about 1/3 of them and I stacked them.  Friday we stopped by the house to see how much was left.  A lot!  I think the bottom round is about three feet across.  Tom thinks renting a log splitter and splitting them on site is the most manageable route.  Then there are leaves to rake and general debris to pick up.

Friday was our 44^th Anniversary and we had a nice time. We drove to Branson.  I activated the phone I got on Adam’s plan. It’s a sprint phone and we are in the roving area, but I think it will work here.  New cell phone: 870 565-7700

We did some shopping, ate lunch at a Mexican restaurant and then shopped some more. We had ice cream at Andy’s and then headed home.  We took a scenic route.  We stopped in Harrison at Aldi’s for food, and came home about dusk.  The wood called to Tom and he split and stacked another 1/3 of the truckload.  That evening we watched another episode of Eureka.

Saturday I picked beans, pulled the last of the beets, and worked in the garden.  The weeds are winning, but it’s hard to care when most everything is winding down.  We have some GIANT sunflower heads that are bent over.  Hope we actually can harvest the seeds.

I cooked and pickled the beets.  Tom worked at the house a bit grouting the tub surround.  I got some essential oils ready to take to my counselor who has been sick with that viral cough and lung thing going around.

Then we drove to West Plains for Super Saturday. It was the Trek reunion.  We saw pictures from the Trek and each “Ma” and “Pa” got a minute to share their thoughts on the trek.  Then the youth had a dance.  It was fun to reconnect with our “children.”

At the Super Saturday, I ran into my RS president who said she had not yet received invitation for the Stake RS Woman’s Retreat for next Saturday.  AKKK! This Sunday was the last day to get them out.  I came home and recreated the design and printed them off on cardstock and then just paper. They looked nice, although not as elegant as the expensive Vistaprint printed ones.  However, the sisters were glad to get them.

We had good meetings today. I passed out the invitations at the door to Sacrament meeting.  I collected George Forman grills to cook the chicken with and platters to serve the salad.  I have men to help set up and serve on Saturday.  One by one things seem to be falling into place.

I hope and assume that if I do the best I can, the Grace of Jesus will take me—and the program-- the rest of the way and it will all work out so the sisters have a wonderful time.