Iowa State Fair Winners/ Empty Nester

The boys took their heifer down to the Iowa State Fair to show in the FFA Show.  I really  like doing the FFA show,  because you take your heifer down on Wednesday, the day before  the State Fair  starts, than you show on Thursday in the FFA Show.  It's pretty fun to be down at the State Fair and see alot of stuff getting ready for the first day of the fair.  I love sitting in the cattle barn and watching  all the people go by, it's a great  way to meet other people that show cattle.  The only bad thing it does make for a very long day. 

This is what we do in our down time.

Thursday was another long day at the State Fair. I got up at 4am to get a run in before I headed on down to the State Fair.  Had a great 4 miler with Rachelle.  Than headed home to get ready to head on down to the  State Fair again. 

Parker's girlfriend Mackenzie was showing her pigs at 8:30.  Mackenzie got 4th place with one of her pigs and 6th with the other.  It was a lot of fun watching the pig show.  Mackenzie did a great job.












The FFA Show started at  2:00.  Their was 42 different classes of cows to show. We just happen to be in the 41st class. We got Sami ready  as Parker has named his heifer.  I love watching the heifer getting fitted to show. It amazing to watch how they make this heifer beautiful.  This heifer is prettier than me when it is all cleaned up.HA HA 






Isn't she pretty



So Mike, Grandma and I headed on down to the ring to find a place to sit.  We don't know how this is all going to turn out, but no matter what it has been a great summer. 

Parker comes in  the ring and we can see the judge is looking his heifer over real good.   Now for me all the heifers look good. Hell they smell good to, as far at that goes.   Parker ended up  winning  his class for Commerical Breeding Heifer. Boy we were so excited.   Than after all the commerical heifer classes had  been shown, they bring all the 1st and 2nd winners of each class into the ring  to choose a Supreme and Supreme Reserve Heifer. That is a lot of heifers to look at.  The judge picked the Supreme Heifer and when the judge said that the heifer that won the Commercial  class is the Supreme Reserve Champion Breeding Heifer, we all started yelling and clapping.

We thought winning the Grand Champion Heifer at the County Fair was great, but winning Supreme Reserve Champion Breeding Heifer at the  Iowa State Fair was unbelievable.  It literally took us several days for it to all sink in.  All the boys hard work through out the summer had paid off BIG TIME. 



Supreme Reserve Champion Breeding Heifer



Normally you can  take your heifer home that night, but if you win Supreme or Supreme Reserve they want you to stay and walk in the FFA Parade of Champions on Saturday, so that meant we had to go back to the State Fair on Friday and Saturday. 
Saturday morning I was able to meet  up with Rachelle and Tree for a 10.50 mile run.  What a great way to start my Saturday, than it was time to get ready to head on down to the State Fair again, for the FFA Parade of Champion.  The Parade of Champion was pretty cool.  I'm  so darn  proud of our boys. 

On Sunday Mike, Grandma, the boys and I all went out for a late lunch.  We wanted to all go out together before the boys left for college.  We had a great time.  After lunch we stopped by to see Parker's apartment. Parker's  been home off and on because he's had to take care of his heifer.  So I really haven't had to deal with  both boys being gone yet.  The boys  were out cleaning the barn before they take off to college, as I'm sitting at the computer surfing the web I get this over whelming feeling, knowing that both of my boys will be off to college this year. I just start to cry, thinking about my boys leaving to go to college.   I  didn't think  it would be this hard. The whole time they are growing up you can't wait for them to leave for college and start their own lives. " That is what we say," but when it comes to  reality we want them to stay home for ever or in my case I do.  I love having my boy around. Now, if I could just stop crying all the time.  I know as  the days go by it will get alittle easier, but right now it hurt like hell. I want to pick up  my phone and just call them just to see how they are doing. I won't because,  I don't want to be a nagging mom.  I'm trying so hard  to refrain myself from doing that. 

             This is going to be one HELL of a long school year.


                                       ARE YOU AN EMPTY NESTER YET?

               HOW DID YOU HANDLE BEING A EMPTY NESTER?

July in Review

It has been a crazy month.  I've had so much going on, I haven't had time to do much blogging. 

July 4, Earlham Freedom Fest 5k. 

 Before this race got started my stomach was doing flip flops and  my heart was racing.  I kept trying to figure out why I was feeling this way, than it came to me.  I  was feeling under pressure to perform well. I was running a race where I new almost everyone and that was kind of stressing me out. I know that sounds weird.  I did a marathon in June and my stomach never did  do flip flops or my heart rate go up. It's crazy, that we put so much pressure  on ourselves sometimes.   I got through the race and had a great time running it. I wish I could of done better, but all in all a great race. 

Tree and Me before the race

Me and Nickle before the race

  Brook, Teia, Me and Nickle

July 14, Warrior Dash 4.3 Hellish Miles
 
I didn't know what to expect doing this race. I only new it sounded like a lot of fun.  This race wasn't a piece of cake like I thought it would be.  This race took place in  a pasture with a whole lot of hills.  The running was  tough with all the hills.  We were literally running in paths that the cows had made.  You really had to watch your step or you might be rolling down the hill. I loved all the obstacles.  Some of the obstacles were jumping over cars and running through tires, climbing a wall. crawling under a barbwire , running through a mud pit.  These are just a few of the obstacles that we got to do. We all had a great time.

At the starting line. Ready to run

Running to the finish line

Tree and Me 

WE ARE WARRIORS NOW

We had so much fun we've already signed up to do it next year. Same place and same time.


July 18- 23 was the Madison County Fair.

We finally got the TROHPY

Parker won Supreme Champion Breeding Heifer.

The boys have tried to win a trophy every since they've been going to the county Fair, but they  have always come up short.  The boys decided to  spend alittle more money on a heifer in hopes of bring home the BIG TROPHY.  All their hard work had  finally  paid off. YAHOO.  When they won,  it brought tears to my eyes.  This is our last year at the Madison County Fair. We started at the bottom and have worked our way to the top.  Adversity has made my boys stronger.  They know getting to the top is not always an easy road, but with some hard work and determination you can do anything.

Harrison and Parker pulled all their resource together to make this happen. I'm so proud of my boys.Harrison  does all the grooming of the heifer and steer and Parker is the one that shows the animal.  They work really well together.  LOVE MY BOYS

Parker won Champion Chi Steer.

Parker got 1st in the Senior Livestock Judging Contest.

Parker excepting his plaque

What a way to finish our last year at the County Fair.

July 14-29 VACATION

As soon as we got done at the County Fair, we were off to the Ozark for a vacation. We haven't had a summer vacation since the boys started showing at the County Fair.  MacKenzie's Dad and Mom rent a house down at the  Ozarks every year. They also have a boat that they take down .  We got a lot of sun and alot of boating.  We had an awesome time. Thanks to the Felt Family.

Going tubing 

Ya, for Hubby. He's up and water skiing. He hasn't done that in a long time



Parker water skiing.



Parker and Mackenzie ready to go out on the boat

Parker and McKenzie 

Me, Parker and Mike.  I think I should of been on the upper side of the incline. I look  way out of proportion to these two guys

Mackenizie and  Parker



Me and Mike ready to race 



        

  How has your summer been?                            

 

                                                     

Winners of the Chike Energy Protein Shake

 Congrats to Teamarcia, G, Jordan,  Suz and Allan, Laurel C.  Please email me at
pinkhatrunner@hotmail.com with your mailing address and phone number. I'll forward them  on to  Chase over at Chike Nutrition.

Thanks everyone for participating in the Chike Energy Prtoein Giveaway

Chike Energy Protein Shake giveaway ends- June- 27

The great people at Chike Nutrition are offering 5 winners a chance to try
 Chike Energy Protein Shake for themselves.   Chike Energy Protein Shake Giveaway ends 6/27.

This is what you'll be winning



Grandma's Marathon Recap

This was  my first out of state marathon. I was so excited about it, but a little apprehensive about it to.  My two running partners and I  were going to be riding up to Duluth with another friend of ours that runs alot of marathon and two of her friends that are newbies.

We were staying at the UMD college  in their  suites .  It had four single beds a kitchen, refrigerator, living room and bathroom. Only one person had to sleep on the floor and that wouldn't be me. I can't sleep on the floor. I've slept on the floor at my parents  house and I don't get any sleep.  Stephanie, said she could sleep anywhere,so that problem was solved.

Most of us girls met up Thursday night and got some of the bags packed, so we wouldn't have so much to pack when we met at the park and ride.

I got up at 4:30 on Friday, so I could make sure I had everything ready to go.  Harrison was going to take me to the park and ride, because he had to get up anyway  and get his heifer washed and fed. We all arrived on time at the park and ride.   We got in the van and headed to Des Moines to pick one more rider. We picked up  Lori and than we were off to Duluth, MN. 

Going  up we had to make quite a few potty stops, because we were all trying to hydrate for the marathon, so it took alittle longer to get there.  Once we got there we found the UMD college, so we could  unpack and get  settled in.  We all  got freshened up and headed downtown to the DECC for the Expo. I was so excited, they  were having alot of vendors that I've been stalking  on the Internet.  We had an awful time finding a parking space in the parking ramp, their were so many people.The Expo was great.  I wasn't disappointed in the slightest.    I came across these shirts at the Expo  that felt so soft and smooth. Low and behold it  was Raw Threads.I had entered a bloggers giveaway for Raw Thread a couple of months ago.

  Raw Threads  clothes are :
-Anti-odor technology
 -UPF 50+ Protection
 -55% Organic Cotton/40% Viscose from Bamboo/5% Elastic
                                                                                                       
I love this shirt.

                                                 I also picked up this sweatshirt

We found this sweatshirt at the Expo. One of the girls took a picture and sent  it to her husband . 

After we all got our feel of the Expo we headed to Grandma's Garden for some pasta.  The weather was beautiful.  After we all got our bellies full, we decided to head on back to the college. As we are walking we came across a Chocolate Factory.  OK, we literally couldn't pass up chocolate.  Tree and I split a homemade Carmel and let me tell you I savored every bite.  I didn't want a lot of chocolate before the marathon, but we all new we would be coming back downtown to the Chocolate Factory after the marathon. We all figured we worked that hard, we deserve some chocolate.

Great Pasta

We got back to the suite and we all hit the hay. We all woke up at different times to get ready for the marathon.   I kept checking to make sure I wasn't forgetting anything.  We found where the buses were loading, to get us all to the  starting line. We get there and we all head straight  to the kybos, because lines were starting to form.  It's my turn for the kybo and all I can do is pee. WHH.   Not more than 10 min after I used the kybo the first time, I look over at Tree an say  I  think I need to go wait in line again things are starting to work.  Yahoo   I new she would go with me because she always has to pee.Ha Ha.

It's 7:30 so we start to move over to the staring line. Tree and I were going with the 4:30 pacer and Rachelle, Stephanie and Amanda were going closer not sure what pace they ended up at.  Tree and I leave Lori with the 5:30 pacer.  Lori is a newbie.  As were walking away Tree  looks back at Lori and says Penny, Lori is  tearing up. I felt awful, so we decided to stay with her till we started running to keep her from getting to anxious.  This being her first marathon an all has to  be scary.
                   

Sea of people at the starting line

 When the race started it was humid and in the 60's already.  Those first 7 mile were tough, I was  already drenched in sweat by the first mile.  Once we reached around 7 to 9 it started to get cloudy and the wind picked up alittle, but it was a tailwind thank goodness.  It actually was starting to get a little chilly, but for running it was great weather. The spectators had sweatshirts and jeans on, some even were wrapped in blankets. 

We stopped at every mile marker and took a picture with one of us in it. We were having so much fun. We are not fast, but on the last mile we passed  this guy and he says, "Gee you two were even taking picture and your still passing  me".

Penny, Tree and Lori 



Amanda,Penny,Rachelle, Stephanie and Lori waiting for the race to start

How could we forget our signature pose

After everyone got finished, we headed back to the UMD  college to get showered and take a nap.  After our nap we all got ready to go downtown for some meat. All of the girls I'm with are steak eater, but I on the other hand I'm not. I new we would be going to a steak place for supper.  We ended up at Timber lodge Steakhouse.  Like I said all the girls order steak. When it got to me, I of course order fries with ranch dressing please.  They all looked at me like, "Your not eating any meat" Nope that would be right. I'm sticking with my fries.  The fries were awesome to. 

Now time to celebrate, bring on the meat

 After supper we headed off to find the Chocolate Factory, so we could get some chocolate.  I got a bear cluster, I thought I had died and went to heaven it taste so good. Several of the other girls got chocolates to take home to their families.  I think the girls were broke when they walked out of they that place, it was pretty pricey.

Penny and Amanda all done and on our way  back to college

Stephanie and Lori with Grandma

Great group of girls to run
a marathon with.  We all finished.

Duluth, MN is a beautiful city

 

25M	5:17:15
23.1M	4:51:56
19.3M	4:02:23
16.2M	3:18:28
13.1M	2:33:16
10K	1:05:11

25M	5:23:03
23.1M	4:57:44
19.3M	4:08:11
16.2M	3:24:15
13.1M	2:39:03
10K	1:10:59

12:42 per mile (view kilometer pace) 7:54 per kilometer (view mile pace)
47percent (view time) 4:45:23  (view percent)
5313 out of 5788
2082 out of 2363 Females
187 out of 213 Females in the F4549 Age Group
                                     (See complete F4549 results)

I've come to the conclusion I'm not running marathons for the PR, I'm running for the BLING.








Before Tree and I finished  Grandma's  marathon, we were already talking about another one.  Since I'm all about the BLING, we're going to register for the Little Rock Marathon in March, 2013.  I've heard this BLING IS HUGE. 

Don't forget to enter the Chike Energy + Protein shake giveaway.

                          Their will be 5 winners- ends 6/27