The County Fair

Raise your hand if you like bacon, ham, pork chops, or pulled pork BBQ. I'm sorry. I'm so sorry.

My Ryan is doing Ag this year and we have pretty much decided he is raising a pig. Now we are city folk turned country so we know absolutely NOTHING about raising most any animal besides dogs, birds, or lizards. So as my dad would say, "It'll be an adventure!" Yes! An adventure it will be for us Tarvers.

So we thought we'd hit the County Fair to see what all the hubub is about. Of course there were steers, goats, sheep, and of course...PIGS! (I will try to refrain from calling any of the following pigs after a certain cute piglet in a certain movie that made plenty of people cry but I can't promise anything).

People...these pigs were HUGE!!! Can you see that the pig is almost to this kid's hips? Ryan's Ag teacher is what the locals around here call a "pig man". He knows all about pigs. And I must say "his" pigs were usually winners. They were good lookin' pigs! I know nothing about pigs and I could usually spot out the ones he helped raise they were that good lookin'.

Would you look at the rear on that pig? Good eatin'. Can I just point out for a second that if you have never seen live pigs...they are filthy animals!!! This is the only rear shot I could post because of...well...because the animal is clean in the picture. Can we just leave it at that? Oh! And sorry I showed a pig's butt on here...

We are now trying to decided on what type of pig we are going to raise. I'm not even sure of the significance at this point but there are so many different types.

It's BABE!!! Okay see???? I'm sorry...I just couldn't help myself. And just look at those pink boots to match!!! Goodness!!

After the pig show, they had a Frog Jump contest. They take flour and make a circle and set the frogs in the middle. The first one out of the circle is the winner. I was so syked about the Frog Jump and let me tell you...it was over in like 3 seconds. I'm not kidding! Thank goodness they did 2 different ones because I blinked and missed the first one!!!

You can barely see where I marked the little froggy. The kids were pretty excited.

Then the turtle race. Now I don't know who got started on the whole "turtles are the slowest animal on earth" lie but these guys are fast! Not as fast as the frogs but fast!

Then we went to see the other contests. There were entries for EVERYTHING. Canning, crops, art, photos, quilts, and...SCRAPBOOKING! Nobody entered for the scrapbooking but guess what I'm entering next year? Not because I'm any good but it's a sure win! No one else entered!!! Hahaaa!! Look at the size of that melon! Seriously???? It's huge folks! That is a normal size wagon...not a kiddie size.

This gorgeous quilt! There are no words. I can't imagine how long it took to make this.

Garden produce. Yum! I wish we could have tasted them.

Gourds and squash....awesome!!!

So...harvesty!

Peanuts!!! I didn't even know they grew those up here. I just knew there was a lot of wheat and cotton. I want to grow peanuts!!!

And speaking of cotton! I have never seen "raw" cotton before. It gets everywhere and probably one of the culprits of my son's asthma flare ups lately.

Isn't it neat? Anyway. The county fair was fun and we are looking forward to the slightly larger Spring County Fair. We didn't make the State Fair but my Ryan did. He got to march in it! Maybe next year we'll make the trip!

Friday Night Lights

First off, please don't stop checking the blog from time to time. There are lots of adventures going on but no time to post. I keep waiting for things to slow down but now I'm thinking with a girl in college and 3 boys in school activities, I might be waiting until I'm in the grave before things "slow down". Not that I'm complaining. Busy is good. Busy is healthy. Busy is...tiring.

Friday Night Lights. Of course when we lived in the Big City we had high school football games. My girl was in flags and my Brandon was in percussion so football games and half times shows were part of our lives. Our weekends were planned according to what time they had to be there and what time they had to be picked up and where they were going afterwards and what time they would be back.

Here in the country is pretty much the same. Oh, except for...well...a few differences.


In the country, the stadiums are THE place to be on a Friday night. Pretty much shop closes down so the towns folk can catch the game. The game is super important and the kids are under ALOT of pressure. The whole town's counting on them. And when you go to the game, you see everyone you know in the town.

The color guard is a little smaller than we're used to. But when you come from a school with close to 4000 students and a band with 300 students, and move to a school of less than 300 students and a band of about 30 students there's going to be some staggering differences! Just to put this in perspective: the town we are living in currently has roughly 200 people and the band we were in when we lived in the Big City had 300 members! Capiche? Some schools around here don't even have a band so we feel lucky we have one!! The school we played last night didn't have a band and I was thankful we have one. Can you imagine a high school football game with NO BAND????

Here's my Ryan. He's in 8th grade and because of the number of students, 8th graders are part of the high school band. I think if it gets low enough, they will pull the stronger players from 7th!!! Can you imagine 2nd year players with Seniors???

Here they are on the field playing the Star Spangled Banner. Cymbals Rule!!!!

He's having a good time. A fun thing the town does after football games is they offer a "5th Quarter". This is where a restaurant sponsors the kids and opens up after the games and allows the players, cheerleaders, and band to eat free!!! The local banks help sponsor that too!

Brandon plays percussion too but is not able to be in band this semester. He moved in the middle of the school year last year and didn't take the state history class and has to retake a semester of Algebra so he didn't have room for his band elective. But he goes and hangs out with them for a bit and will be back next semester!

The concessions are a bit different too. They offer burgers that someone is grilling behind the stand! Seriously!!! The grill is going and making every one's mouths water and you can't help but step up and buy a $3.50 burger!!! They also let the band members mingle and go buy food from the concession stand too which was a BIG NO NO in the Big City!

My boys aren't playing football yet but people scratch their heads and ask with bewilderment, "Not playing football? Why would they not play football?" Hahahaa. Not to worry though! They are in Wrestling, Track, Band, and Agriculture so we're not THAT scorned! Besides, I've heard my boys talking about maybe playing next year so they might catch the football bug yet!

Guess we'll see.

Traveling

We just got back from a long Labor Day Weekend. We packed up and left Friday morning, picked up my girl from her college, and headed to the Big City where we moved from. After an uneventful trip (my favorite) we made it to our destination 10 hours later. You see, we had to travel pretty slow and follow all the speed laws because with it being a holiday weekend, the law enforcers were out in full force! I counted 44 total there and back...and that was what I saw! I'm sure there were plenty more I missed. I know what you're thinking....you're thinking that I am so aware of what's going on around me right? Well...really, everyone was sleeping pretty much the whole way and I don't have a stinkin radio in my car!! Some punk decided he wanted it more than me and stole in from my car. So here I sit a year later without a stereo! I needed something to occupy my time okay?? And there were plenty of em to count!

So anyway, after dropping off everyone who had plans that evening, I spent the evening with my parents. It was nice to see them. It was a wonderful visit, a sweet wedding and we had a great time with my family! I really miss them. The whole reason we travelled to the Big City was because my sister was getting married. So with only a few days in there we also planned to go see my husband's family. So after the wedding, the next morning we packed it up again and spent another 5 1/2 hours heading north. Our 17 yr old nephew had just returned home from basic training, (not camp) from the National Guard so the whole family got together to celebrate his return!!

As I write this post I realized I didn't take many pictures. Well, I sorta forgot my camera card (long story) but my sweet husband replaced it. Still didn't get as many pictures as I should have. I guess I was so busy I didn't have much time or opportunity to take many. I should be shot!!! Not really!!! It was a very fast paced weekend with lots of traveling. So fast in fact, we didn't get to see many of our friends. And for that I am sorry! It may be awhile before we make it down again but we will try to fit in more people next time!

Here are all the cousins playing a game. This is what we do when we get together: play games, visit, eat, play more games. It can get brutal at times. I did take more pictures than this but Dennis' aunt was threatening to sue anyone who put her on the internet...so....I thought I'd leave her out. Sadly, she was in most of my pictures!!! Hahaaa! Oh well!

I also got like, 3 pictures of my sister before the wedding but she would most likely kill me if I posted them so I decided I'd leave them off and go with the safety of my life. Besides, my words are just as entertaining as my right? Right? Hello????

Anyway, we had a great trip and got home safely. We managed to avoid driving in all the bad weather around the state.

But we certainly didn't miss it before we left. A storm blew in Thursday night shortly home. By then the wind was blowing around 65 mph-- I'm not kidding-- and it was hailing and raining and lightning and thundering...well...it was just a mess, so I called him to tell him to stay at the hospital until it blew over but he was already half way home in the middle of it! He made a short comment on having to go find his bumper and while I laughed nervously and told him to be careful, he said, "You think I'm kidding but I'm not!!! My bumper just flew past me!!!" He got home safely but without his bumper!

He did go back and find it after the storm let up under a bridge!! So we were all safe thankfully!!

And then we saw this! Thank you Lord!

Down Time

In the time since I posted pictures bragging of my scrapbook area, I then lost access to my laptop which carries the software for my Cricut and most of the pictures I use for blogging. My power cord ceased to provide power to my laptop so I ordered another one and waited patiently for it to get here. Then I updated my laptop and antivirus and lost access to my Internet! But now I'm up and running again!

So after a hot, melting summer, we have experienced a little bit of a reprieve from the heat. And that means my boys actually got off their behinds and went outside...and I didn't even have to tell them!

So here is what they did. Shoot their BB Guns and hit a racquetball!

They interacted with each other and I didn't even have to tell them!

They played together without any nudging from their mother!

Anyway, we've been really busy here! I got a new job! And so far I love it!! WooHoo!!! So the hours are great and aside from me being totally swamped in learning all the new stuff for my new job, we've had track meets, early morning practices, meetings at school and all the normal stuff that comes along when summer ends and school begins. Plus I'm sick and so was Ryan. Already! Pretty much all the same things you guys are doing also.

We are also getting ready for a trip back to the Big City! I'm excited to see my family again but am trying my best to see friends too. I want to make sure we all get to at least say hi to our friends and family we left behind.

I can't promise I'll post before then, but I will certainly post when we get back!

Remember to take the time to enjoy the beauty around you!

Catching Up

Wow! I was reading over some of my past blogs and realized the bad thing about blogging is you have things in writing that never go away. Accountability. So here's a catch up blog. There have been lots of going on's around here. Days go by before I even think about blogging until family members call and demand that you update the blog. "We need more Tarver Tales!!!" "Get off your lazy bum and update us with your fascinating lives". Just kidding on that last one.

So here is our "everything" room. It's also called the computer room, Brittany's room, my scrapbook room, and the lizard's room as well as the storage room with the fake fireplace. It's pretty much the...well.... Everything room. As humiliating as it is for me to post this, please remember this image towards the end of this post. Thank you very much!


It was so crowded in here for awhile that my daughter opted to just sleep on the couch. You see, when we moved up here, we knew she would be going off to college within 2 months so we didn't see much point in getting it all fixed up for Brittany just so she could abandon....uh...I mean experience her new adventures as a college student. So we pretty much just left it all junky. Besides, there was sooo much chaos going on here anyway (just read my older posts for proof) that I hardly had time to organize this room. And yes. Okay. I am a procrastinator. Are ya happy now???

Then we had school start. I know. He's wide-eyed and bushy tailed. Ready to go to school. He's a 7th grader this year. He's in cross country and band.

Here's Ryan my 8th grader ready for his first day in a small town school. He's still working on getting used to it. He is in band this year as well as Ag. The Ag part was a pure accident and he is actually liking it.

Good grief!! Here's my garbage disposal 10th grader. He is why I'm working. Not really. But they sure do eat alot of food. I don't know where he puts it all. Brandon is in Wrestling and will be in the band 2nd semester. We had a few...uh...scheduling issues from his missing some credits due to moving up here the middle of his freshman year.

And I was also reading how I promised to post on Brittany getting her license. As momentous as it seemed at the time, now she's in college so that totally out weighs it. Let's just say it took us a little longer than we thought it would. But she is driving now and her mother has stopped sleeping nights. I doze when I get a chance but a child driving is one of the most scariest things that happens.

See? She got her license. Notice the change of clothes. She is a good driver...just inexperienced.

So here is her dorm. She's on the 6th floor.

Here is the waiting room. It's very nicely decorated. We waited here while her Residence Assistant came down to meet us.

Here we are waiting. Patiently. After a 2 hour drive.

So here is her dorm room. She is right by the door and is lucky enough to get a window. And yes. Our whole family went. It was a huge ordeal! We are so proud of her. Her poor roommate is an only child and I hesitate to think of the damage we caused her while we tore into that room like a tornado.

It comes with a mini fridge and microwave which was nice. We hit the nearest Walmart to stock her up!

Brittany and her roomie seemed to hit it off. They have been texting each other all summer so they pretty much knew each other by the time they actually met face to face.

Here's Brittany's bed all set up. It was getting late and we still had a 2 hour trip home so after we celebrated Ryan's birthday at Chili's and stocked up Britt's room, we headed home. I'll spare you the sob story of me leaving my first born baby and only daughter.

Now...do you remember this?

After a little bit of work and packing it started to look like this. I know these pictures are out of order because Brittany was actually enjoying her freedom from prison....uh...I mean from home by now but we are packing her for her move here.

And little by little, it transformed. I decided that a way for me to feel better about leaving one of my children at a school 2 hours away was to create a little space for me to spend time doing something I love.

And even though we still have a few things to find a place for, I now have a room in which to blog and scrap book in peace. Well...not really. I share it with my boys when they are on the computer. And I share it also with the lizard and computers and all the stuff Brittany left behind but didn't know what to do with. But!!!

It's good enough for now!

And that is all that matters.

Ryan Is 14

Wow! Time flies ya know? I'm talking about the last time I blogged as well as my children and how fast they are growing up. Bear with me please. It's been an emotional week. We dropped my daughter off at college (more on this later) AND my middle boy is 14!!! 14!!!!

Even though Ryan is not technically my "middle child" he is my middle child. I have four kids and he's the third but he's the middle boy so that makes him my middle child. He acts like a middle child that's for sure! And I love it! I love everything about this boy. He's so different from each of his siblings (as they all are) and he is the carbon copy of his father!

You can't tell by this picture but he is my monotone child. He doesn't get too riled up. He takes things slow and cautious and he doesn't get excited about too many things. He's quiet too. He can sneak up on you like no body's business and scare the tar right out of ya! Thinks that's the funniest thing too!

Goodness just look at that face!!! When he was in elementary school the teachers told me that girls fought over who was going to sit next to him. He used to pull their chairs out and hold the doors open (hope he's still doing that) and they just flocked to him! Can you blame them?? He's the only one of my kids got my light complexion, freckles and blue eyes.

When he was a baby, he loved for me to rub his head and arms. This was the only way I could usually get him to fall asleep. This still relaxes him.

Man I love this boy! He has stolen my heart...

And I don't think I'll ever get it back.