Back on the road.

So after a weeks hiatus, I hit the road again!  I was scheduled to do 8 miles this weekend and I feared that after taking a week off, that I would fail miserably, especially in the heat.  I went to my favorite running park and had a pretty easy run!  I really wonder if my body is better suited for running 2-3 times a week versus 4-5?  My biggest running issue is my ability to breathe.  I have no lung capacity at all.  It sucks being out of breathe when your legs and body want to keep going.  I did the first 5 or so miles at a 10 minute mile pace and then slowed down for mile 6 and 7.  I walked the last half mile trying to cool myself off before I had to pick the girls up.  I don't think I have ever sweated that much before! 

I am so excited that I found my old track/cross country coach on FB!  We had lost connection a couple years ago and I didn't know her last name anymore.  It was so nice catching up to her and I hope we can meet up soon.

Both girls are attending two different VBS's this week.  Our church has VBS during the morning and the church connected to their school has VBS at night.  They are having a blast at both of them.

I start church coed softball tonight!!  I am a little excited.  My best friend's church no longer has a team, so I think her and her husband are going to play with us if needed.  YAY!!

We got to baby sit my adorable niece and great nephew on Saturday!  The girls were big helps and even changed diapers!

Saturday night we had a birthday party and then a swim party.  Chloe and Bg finally decided to be brave in the water and had so much fun!

Sunday was church and then work around the house.  I did a lot of weeding in my garden and my tomatoes are starting to ripen up.  The girls and I drove the go-cart down the road to check out a car that wrecked Friday night.  We don't think anyone was seriously injured, but please slow down on gravel roads!!!

 

We ate at Subway, Chloe's favorite place before VBS last night.  She refused to sit with me and Bg and instead sat by herself looking sad and lonely, even though it was her own choice.  I think she liked the attention from the other customers.

Mondays are my rest days, so even though I really didn't need a rest day, I try to follow the schedule.  Instead Sally and I took a walk to check out the wet crops.  And we found a freaking sofa that someone threw in the creek.  Nothing ticks me off more than people too lazy or too cheap to properly dispose of their trash.

Standing water in the fields- not good.  Those aren't ponds.

 

I had a yummy and healthy snack straight from my garden last night.

 

This was my view this morning.  Cute butt, but would be cuter in her own bed!!!

Fair Fun and picture overload!

Yea......so I haven't ran all week.  We were at the fair late Monday night and it was so freaking hot that I just didn't have it in me.  Chloe made three projects for the 4-H Fair and here is a picture of her telling the judge all about her projects.  This is one of my many FAVORITE things about 4-H.  Those who know Chloe well know she isn't very outgoing and can ignore people completely (sigh....it stresses this extrovert out to no end!).  But in 4-H, it gives the kids a chance to get in front of a person (often a stranger) without their parent and learn valuable speaking skills that will stay with them for life.  When I peaked in the room, Chloe was animated and talking to the judge.  I was proud!

After presenting her exhibits, it was time for Clover Kid Super Farmer, where it is a bunch of fun farm related activities for the kiddos.

Tuesday night I had to work at the big kid Super Farmer contest and it was again a VERY hot night!  But the kids had fun and Bg even got in on some action.

Wednesday I started a two day Hedging and Options Training.  Sounds kind of boring, but it was an excellent class and I think I learned something!

Thursday night, on behalf of the Chamber, I help with our Farmers Appreciation Dinner.  This dinner is awesome.  With a very SMALL budget, we feed anywhere from 400-600 people hamburgers, hotdogs, beans and chips as a thank you for all our local farmers.  In addition to being on the committee that puts on this event, my work provides and serves watermelon.  Since I have a HUGE aversion to watermelon, I put my kids to work in my place. 

After the dinner was the auction and awards.  Since I was busy bidding and buying animals, my kids were left to roam (such a great benefit of our small town).  Bg got a little dirty...the bathtub was pretty nasty when she got out!

 

 

And our hay has finally been cut- hooray!!

Start of the 4-H Fair!

Yesterday started the 2015 county 4-H/FFA Fair!  The fair is one of my favorite times of the year.  I served on our fairboard for many years and am amazed year after year at the talent, skill and knowledge of these kiddos. 

I was asked to judge at Exhibit Day, which is where all the kids with non livestock projects show what they have done.  There is many categories- foods, sewing, crafts, photography, robotics, Aerospace, child development, knitting, entomology, produce, just to name a few.  I judged all the grain crops, bees, entomology and animal classes.  I wasn't sure what to look for in some of these categories (I had a kid with a hamster project!), but the kids were eager to show off what they have worked hard on all year.  As always, I learned something new from each kid!

Today I went to the ham auction and part of the cattle show.  It makes me really sad how few cattle there are in the barns.  When I showed, the barn was overflowing with steers and the show lasted all day and into the evening.  Today, the show was over by lunch.

Garden Goodness

It was finally dry enough to get into my garden to pick my green beans.  I didn't have as many as last year, but I did have enough to can.  I think I got about 10 pints and 7 quarts.  Due to a busy weekend, it took me longer than normal to can.  I picked beans Saturday morning.  Saturday evening I washed and began snapping them.  Jeff finished snapping them on Sunday morning, while I packed them in jars.  However, I didn't begin the pressure canning process until about 7pm Sunday night and finished up around 10:30.

 

I also power washed my potatoes.  See my red neck dryer- a mini trampoline!

My filters on my vacuum were a little nasty, so I vacuumed my vacuum with a shop vac.  Thank goodness for spell check as I spelled vacuum wrong each time. 

I was scheduled for a 7 mile run on Saturday and knew I needed to make no excuses (like the heat), so I waited until 5 and headed to Confederate Park, my favorite place to run.  My legs and lungs actually felt good, but man, it was hot and I was sweating bullets.  My time is slower than I would have liked (way slower), but I did it.  And I treated myself to some expensive ice cream after.

I have been married to a Lutheran for almost 8 years, but went to my first Lutheran Baptism on Sunday for Jeff's cousin Ashley's daughter Dixie.  My girls LOVE Dixie and it was good to see Jeff's family.

We went to the pool Sunday afternoon and Chloe had several friends there.  She finally got brave enough to go down the slides and that is all she wants to do now.

Sunday evening two of Chloe's friends came over to work on their foods project for the 4-H Fair.  They made Granola Bites.

 

Pee Wee Pig Show

I took the girls to a PeeWee Pig Show today.  They got to practice showing a pig, but we didn't have to bring out own!  It's a lot less work and the girls get to better prepare themselves for the upcoming State Fair.

Chloe made this cake on some app on my I-phone earlier.  I thought it was so sweet and am very proud of her spelling.

I am ready for future dog attacks.  I dare you dogs- come and get me!

 

I got a good 3 miler in last night.  I ran in town and took a hilly route, but was happy with my time.  Average pace was a 9'35  for 3.33 miles, which is consistent with what I have been running all week.

Dog trouble day 2

So I have been running faithfully since March.  Not a long time, but luckily haven't had any encounters with dogs until two days ago.  And then again last night!

I don't normally like running with my dog Sally.  She doesn't know how to pace herself, so we go balls to the wall the first few miles and then she is dead tired.  We ran the first two miles at about a 8:30 pace (which is fast for me!).  She jerks me around a lot when she spots a rabbit or car or a figment of her imagination.  She tripped me twice and once jerked my arm across my body so hard it knocked the breath out of me.  But isn't she cute...

 

We ran down to the Davis Creek bridge south of my house where Jeff and the girls were watching the flood waters flow through.  The water made Sally nervous so we didn't stay long.

We went a different way than normal on our run, as I was trying to avoid certain parts of the gravel road due to mud.  We went by a house where the owner was outside flying Frisbee with his dog.  I am more nervous around short haired dogs and this was a long haired, Australian shepherd looking dog, which don't really bother me.  This dog ran out to Sally, they sniffed around each other and then the dog attacked!  It lunged at Sally and clamped down.  The owner comes running yelling at his dog and Sally got loose.  I got brave and got between the dogs until the owner caught his dog.  He was so apologetic and I examined Sally and it didn't appear that any skin was broke (there was no blood).  I still needed to go about another 1.5 miles at this point to get my 4 miles in, but poor Sally's pride was hurt and with her sprinting the first 2.5 miles, she was tuckered out.  I basically had to drag her home (about a mile away), so I cut my run a little short (got in 3.57 miles).  I examined Sally again at home and she was fine. 

I got a little muddy on this run...

I posted my dog troubles on Facebook and got a few suggestions on what I need.  These suggestions include: a little old lady with a dirty mouth on a golf cart, a gun, this electronic dog deterrent and pepper spray.  Although I like options 1 and 2 (1 is my favorite), I think pepper spray is my best bet. 

 

Terror turned to laughter!

Oh boy, what a crazy run last night!  It has been raining again so my gravel road is way too nasty to run on, so I took the girls into town to my MIL's house so I could run on solid pavement.

But first, a little backstory.  When I was 13 or so, I went out running down my gravel road.  About a half mile from my house, a family lived with their two sons who went to school with me.  The boys came out to say hi, along with their HUGE Rottweiler.  13 year old Stephanie was teeny tiny.  I doubt I weighed over 100 pounds.  This Rottweiler easily outweighed me by 50+ pounds.  I wasn't scared of the dog and I guess it was trying to be friendly, but it jumped on me.  The dog was way too big to be jumping on me and I staggered under the weight.  As I started to fall back, I shoved the dog off of me and I guess the dog took that as an aggressive move on my part and attacked.  It clamped down on my arm with all it's teeth.  I ripped my arm out of his mouth and took off running towards the boys with the dog hot on my heels.  Luckily they caught the dog before it got to me again.  I had multiple puncture wounds in my arm and needed stitches in 3 of the holes.  So, needless to say, I am not a huge fan of dogs while running.  Actually, I am usually terrified of dogs but have actually been doing much better in my fear of dogs the past few years.

Anyway, back to yesterday.  I get about a quarter mile into my run and a mean looking dog comes after me.  I knew where the dog came from and it wasn't a huge dog, so at first I wasn't worried, but when the dog lunged at me with teeth bared, I froze.  I was terrified.  This dog was barking, growling and snapping at me.  I tried to talk calmly to it but every time I moved an inch, the dog was back lunging and growling at me.  I knew the dog owners were home so I yelled and yelled for them to come get their dog, but they couldn't hear me.

I wasn't sure what to do.  I was NOT moving so we were at a standoff.

Then my Knight in Shining Armor arrived in a blue golf cart!  Kay, my MIL's neighbor, is an awesome awesome lady.  I am not sure how old she is, but she has grandkids the same age as me, so I am guessing at least in her 70's, but man is she a spitfire.  I cant repeat word for word what she said, but it involved lots of cuss words directed at the dog.  She zoomed by me, told me to jump in and took off after the dog.  She reached across my body, grabbed me tightly and told me, "don't worry, I got you baby."  She chased that dog up and down the street in her golf cart all the while holding onto me.  She cussed that dog out up and down.  It was the most funny experience I have had in a long while!  Meanwhile, the owner came to get the dog and told me that it wouldn't have bit me.  But then he said that it must of somehow got off it's choke collar and should not be roaming loose (why the choke collar if it isn't dangerous?). 

I was able to continue on my 3.18 mile run but I swear I laughed the entire way.  When I got back, some of the neighbors told me that this dog has been a menace to the neighborhood and has tried to bite some of them.  Kay told me that this dog would be gone in a few weeks.  Not sure what her plan is, but I am sure she will follow through!