Too much to say!

Last night I was looking through photos and saving the ones I wanted to use for my blog update in a folder on my computer. That way they would all be in one place and I wouldn't have to keep switching cds or whatever when I wanted to add them. By the time I got done it was late and I had 51 photos in the folder! Yikes! That would be a huge blog post! And I left out a bunch of stuff I wanted to share and just chose the recent stuff! I decided to save my posting for today and closed up the laptop for the night. So, here I am today, with that giant blog post waiting patiently to be written...I've decided that it will be 2 posts. Hopefully I will get them both written tonight but if not, hopefully within the next few days. I know, you've heard similar words from me before. I REALLY need to update more often and it wouldn't be such a huge job! Anyway, not making any promises. Hopefully when you read this post you will have one above it to read the same day. And hopefully I don't bore you to death. :) In mid June, Jerry and I went to Milwaukee for Milwaukee Fest, an Indy car race. Jerry has been to a few of them but this was my first one. I do occasionally watch Nascar racing on tv but have never been to a race. Jerry watches the Indy races but I never really had much interest in them. I have to admit the race was a lot of fun and I enjoyed it much more in person than on tv. We walked around for a while, entered drawings, putted for a prize on a hole-in-one thingy (I did it!) and had a picture taken in an Indy car. The photographer guy told me to look like I was driving. I didn't know he told Jerry anything until I saw the picture! Lol!

There were a few drivers signing autographs and we got there just on time to see my favorite driver Helio Castroneves (anyone see him on Dancing With the Stars? He's coming back this season for the All-Stars season!) was just leaving. I was able to get a great pic!

Before the race started, it started pouring out! It lasted about an hour. We were able to stay dry though. When it quit we went to our seats and had to wait while they dried the track.

Here's Helio during one of his pits.

Jerry's favorite driver is Dario Franchitti (Ashley Judd's husband). He did really good during the race and with just a few laps left he hit the wall.

Here's a pic of the cars when they were lining up for a restart after a caution. It was almost impossible to get a pic of them going by! They were just a blur to the camera.

And here's the winner, Ryan Hunter-Reay!

Even though we got rain that day in Milwaukee, and it's only about 75 miles away, we didn't get a drop here. We went from the very beginning of May until mid July without a drop. On top of that, we had day after day of weather like this.

Just like in many other parts of the country we are under a severe drought. We have gotten some rain recently but it came too late for the farmer's crops. :( On July 14th we went to the fair in a neighboring county to see Dierks Bentley in concert. It was one of the best concerts I've seen in a very long time. The crowd was HUGE and the fair broke attendance records that day. I'm glad we went reasonably early to get a decent seat in the grandstand!

It was almost the end of the show and all of a sudden the skies opened up and it absolutely poured! The crowd started cheering and I'm not sure if the band knew how thankful we all were to see the rain! They loved the crowd reaction and continued to play until their equipment started crackling! I was SO glad we were in the grandstand and staying mostly dry!

On July 26th we went to our local county fair to see Mickey Gilley. I wasn't sure how many of his songs I knew because I don't like the old country music as much as the newer (90s till now) stuff. Turns out I knew quite a few of his songs. I didn't know that about 3 years ago he fell backwards while helping a friend move furniture, and woke up 2 days later paralyzed from the neck down. Within 9 months he was walking again! Not bad for a 70+ year old man. Doctors aren't very encouraging about him playing piano again but he's working on it. He did have to sit through most of his show but he still sounds the same as always.

Before the show, we decided to indulge in some fair foods that we enjoy each year. Dinner that day was Wisconsin deep fried cheese curds with ranch sauce and lemon shake-up.

Dessert was frozen cheesecake on a stick-cherry for me and tequilla key lime for Jerry. YUM!!!

A few weeks back Jerry and I got together with some school friends of mine. We went to the bowling alley here in town to listen to a band that one of my classmates plays in. We all had a good time. After the band was done, several of us headed up to the high school to do something that is tradition here-we painted The Rock! Most of the painting gets done during the school year, especially during Homecoming week. But it also gets done sometimes when different classes have their reunions. I haven't been to any of my reunions yet (2010 was my 30 year class reunion!) and never painted the rock in school. (I was extremely shy!) As the spray paint cans were being distributed, a police car pulled up to the stop sign. He didn't bother stopping. Probably saw all these old people and figured how much trouble could we be? Lol Jerry took part in the vandalism but I can honestly say my hands did not touch a spray can. So I still haven't painted the rock! But I did get pictures. :)

Oh, by the way, the first year my class was at the high school, the senior class gave us the name 'Wombats'. We aren't really sure why, but it stuck. Also, for those that don't know me, I am on the far right (the short one) in this next pic. :)

Ok, time for some crafty stuff! These are some lunch baggies I made for Jerry to use when he takes his lunch to work. They were super easy and don't need a button, snap, anything! The flap folds over. They wash up great. We have been using cloth napkins at home for a while now. Just trying to do our part for the environment. That and hate buying baggies & napkins all the time.

Since it's summer vacation and the kids are getting bored, we had Louie (my grandson) over here last week so he and Emma (my great niece that I babysit) could have some time to play. We also made stamped coasters. We bought stone tiles at Home Depot (about $5 for a box of 9 tiles)and I let the kids dig through my rubber stamps and choose some. We used the permanent ink stamp pads so we didn't have to put any kind of finish on the tiles. That way they absorb the excess water from a glass sitting on them. We put the clear silicone half dot things on the back for 'feet'.

Emma and Louie each made 6 to take home with them and Jerry and I each did 3 for our house. It's hard to see some of the images in the picture, but you can see them in person.

It has been several years since I've entered anything in the fair. It's the same fair we saw Dierks Bentley at. Our own county fair is for 4-H kids only. There are no open class categories. The one I entered them in allows entries from any neighboring counties. I decided to enter a few pictures just before the entry form was due. Photography is their biggest competition. I did about as well as I expected with my pics. I think I'll stick to my stitching from now on. :) In the photo catagory sunrise/sunset I didn't place at all.

In macro photography I placed 4th

In stitching I received all 1st place. :) I entered : Counted Cross Stitch-larger than 8x10

5x7 to 8x10 (this piece is longer than 10 inches but very narrow. Using square inches, it fit in the catagory)

Smaller than 5x7

Seasonal less than 5x7

and Home Furnishings-counted cross stitch

Emma also finished something several months back and decided to enter it. She even made it into the little pillow. She turned 9 about a week before the fair but I entered it in the 8 and under category because she was 8 when she stitched it.

I think getting a 1st place encouraged Emma to do another one. She has started Blue Mr Monster from the new Just Cross Stitch Halloween magazine that just came out. She's doing very well so far!

The last thing I have is very sad. For about a month we were back and forth to the vet with our kitty Punkin. We thought at first she had a urinary tract infection but after 2 rounds of antibiotics, she wasn't getting any better. After lots of trial and error and way too much stuff to go into, I took her to get a quick blood draw one day and the vet noticed something we had noticed earlier in the day -Punkin had a huge lump at the top of her hind leg. It was about the same size as if you cut a baseball in half and stuck it on her thigh. She only has 1 back leg and of course it was on that one. She had been to the vet the day before and it was not there at all! He said it was a very fast growing tumor. It explained all the test results that he had been unable to explain. It was also the reason she had not been eating or drinking for over a week. We could have brought her home with us but it only would have been for us. She had been meowing very loud earlier in the day also so I'm sure she was in pain. She would look right at us and meow as if she was asking us to do something to help her. We had tried for our baby! We have almost $700 in vet bills, including the last visit. We paid each time we went so all are paid except for the last $140. We knew what we had to do so Jerry came home to get Josh so he could say goodbye. We have been through this before and it never gets any easier. I'm still not over it and sometimes break down and cry. Our furbabies are more than animals to us. They are a member of the family. We were lucky to have her with us for almost 9 years. I hope she's with our other furbabies and running and playing now. Here is the first pic I ever took of her along with the sign that was on her cage at the Humane Society when we brought her home.

One of my fave pics of her

Late last year a picture I took of her won a spot in the Humane Society calendar for 2012. It just so happens that July was her month on the calendar. So she didn't even make it through the month she was featured on. :(

And this is the last picture of my furbaby. Jerry took this on my phone the last day we were in the vet's office.

Well, another blog post that took way too long to write, over 2 hours! I guess the 2nd one won't get written tonight. I promise to do it tomorrow night. That one will be all about our weekend in Door County Wisconsin. The ups...and the downs. If you aren't on my Facebook and don't already know, you won't believe what happened! Seriously, only to us would this happen! Lol If you've read this far, thanks for hanging in there with me! Please leave a comment so I know the last 2 hours weren't wasted. :) (((Hugs)))