Iowa State Fair, part 1

So, Ian and I went to the Iowa State Fair last Friday, one of the largest fairs in the United States. It was a fun day, with a lot of walking, and we were pretty tired when it was finished. There were many very interesting elements, so I took some pictures to let you all know some of the things you can see at the fair.

That's right, folks: it says "Hot Beef Sundae." Mashed potatoes with meat and gravy over the top, and cheese sprinkled on top of that. Ian had one, and it was actually quite good. Reminiscent of shepherd's pie, of which I am fond.

This large fellow was advertised by a large sign outside his barn that said, "SuperBull," complete with the Superman logo and everything. Of course, after seeing that, we had to go inside and take a look.

And here are his stats. He must have terribly strong knees to do much of anything at 3400 pounds. Also, it's true that there is a town in Iowa named What Cheer.

I thought this reindeer was pretty exciting. Look at his antlers! (I almost typed "horns," but Ian is always on me to be more precise with my language.)

Ian and I like to show our support for Iowa and pork whenever possible.

Ian makes some new friends.

The draft horses were amazing! I don't think you can really tell from this picture just how huge they are, but up close they are very scary. Well, at least to someone like me, who has no idea how to control horses.

Anyway, apparently one of the things the ISF is known for is the variety of food you can find on a stick. They have chicken on a stick, pork chops on a stick, salad on a stick, frozen bananas dipped in chocolate on a stick (the Bluths, anyone?), and other things on a stick. They also have the usual fair fare (ha ha!), including deep-fried Snickers and Twinkies.

Our tour guide was a girl from our church. She is very involved in 4-H, has horses, and her dad teaches agriculture, so she knew a lot about the various reasons for why animal owners would groom them in certain ways for judging purposes. Apparently it's good for sheep to have a completely straight-across back and large hindquarters (indicating strong muscles) and for cows to have a bit of a peak at the top of their tails before they hang the rest of the way down. I was glad she was there because there is nothing like having an expert with you to increase your appreciation for completely foreign territory.

More pictures will follow soon!!!

This Is What Love Looks Like

When Ian picked me up at the airport on Tuesday evening, I noticed right away that he had cleaned my car. Upon arriving at home, I discovered that the house was neat and these were waiting for me on the kitchen counter:

(The roses are self-explanatory; notice the popcorn is the caramel-flavored kind and not the butter toffee.)

My man knows just what I like!

Madison County Fair

The air outside our house smells faintly of dung, and Thursday morning I woke up to the sounds of cows mooing, horses neighing, goats bleating, pigs oinking, sheep baa-ing (is that a word?). I felt like I was living next door to a farm. So what was it?

The Madison County Fair! The fairgrounds are only a few blocks from our house, and I don't know if it's because Iowa is so flat, or maybe it was just that the wind was blowing the right direction, but that morning I could hear all the animal sounds, and often the air around our house smells a bit like a farm.

The fair reminds me of those movies where people in the 50s go to a little county fair, and they see the quilt and baking entries, and walk through barns and look at all the horses and cows and pigs (I discovered this week that a barn full of pigs smells TERRIBLE-it made me never want to eat pork again). The only thing is that it's not the 50s, and there is no old-fashioned ferris wheel, only other carnival rides that look unsound.

I did enjoy watching the 4-H kids demonstrate their horsemanship, although I was a little out of the loop on some of the 4-H jokes. The announcer would say something, and the crowd would burst into laughter, while I had no idea what was going on.

Sadly, I did not have a chance to go to the mud run, the rodeo, or the demolition derby. I was somewhat disappointed, but those were extra money and I did not feel like paying. Maybe next year this will change. I feel like I shouldn't let my cheapness keep me from experiencing Iowa.

Too Long

Yikes!

It's been so long since I posted. So, just to catch everybody up, here's what I've done in the last two months.

MAY: My parents and brothers came out for a visit. We had a really nice time, eating a lot of good food, watching good movies, hanging out, and enjoying all the fun that Madison County has to offer. Speaking of which, I did not realize how exciting the Madison County Historical Museum would be (I am not being sarcastic, I actually like museums. Ian says it's the homeschooler in me). And we saw all the bridges of Madison County, because my mom is goal-oriented and likes to be thorough.

Then, we spent two weeks playing parents. A couple in our church took a mission trip to Uganda, so we watched their house, three kids, and two dogs. One of the dogs ran away for three days (some might say that I lost it), so there was much searching, praying, and tears, at least on my part. I think Ian only participated in the searching and praying. No tears.

JUNE: Ian went to Reno/northern California for almost two weeks. I would have been lonely, but I had Abbie and Kimi, the two summer missionaries (who were teenagers here back when I was a summer missionary) to hang out with. Petey became very attached to Kimi, and we wondered if he thought she was the new Ian. I did miss my husband, though.

When Ian got back, we participated in running a day camp in Des Moines at the Friendship Center, an inner-city ministry. It was fun, but very tiring. I liked getting to know the kids and discovering that I had retained many of my basketball skills, in spite of not playing at all for the last three years.

Also, I've been doing a lot more freelance writing and a lot more fiction writing, which is fun but resulted in my letting the poor blog go by the wayside. But now I'm back! Hopefully for good.

Worlds of Fun

This last weekend, Ian and I and several other adults took a bunch of kids from our church to Worlds of Fun, a theme park in Kansas City, Missouri. The park was hosting a few Christian bands (including Skillet and Switchfoot), so we left early Saturday morning and drove south for three hours. I was quite excited to go to Kansas City and to be in Missouri, since that's one state I still hadn't visited. (Now I have completed the whole column - Minnesota, Iowa, Missouri, Arkansas, Louisiana.)

We had a great time! It was fun hanging out with the kids and getting to know them better. There were some really good rides, particularly one called the Mamba. It was so fast that my eyes were watering, and I was completely terrified the whole time (in the good way, of course), so the thirteen-year-old I rode with accused me of crying at the end and laughed at me. (Let the records state that I was not crying. It was windy and I was laughing hard from terror.)

The concerts were good, and we spent the night in two guest apartments at Midwestern Baptist Theological Seminary. We were expecting to sleep on the floor, but they had provided several mattresses in the both the girls' and guys' apartments. The next morning we went to a small church there that a friend of ours attends. It was really neat because the community was from a lot of different cultures and we got to sing "How Great Thou Art" in Swahili. Then we drove home, and everybody was absolutely exhausted by the time we arrived in Winterset.

All in all, a good time.