Hmm, long freaking day.... got up, showered and mostly just bummed around my room. Had such a good time last night. Woke up just thinking about it all and listening to TobyMAC some more (new album: Tonight = awesome). Then after awhile Jim came upstairs and said they were planning on going to either or both of the county fairs in the area today.
I had to pick up some stuff at the library -- really, really, really wanted to watch Elizabethtown, so I was hoping it would still be available when I got there, and I really wanted to have it to watch on Sunday after church because I'm going to be super, super, ridiculously bored when Josh leaves for Minnesota after church on Sunday. Because after then, there will be no random outings or drives, or random shenanigans to look forward to. Lame.
Anyway, after dropping off a few items and picking up Elizabethtown, the first Narnia movie and another book, we headed out to Clarinda via Hwy 2 to hit up the Page County Fair. There was hardy a crowd, no parking fee, and you park on the street (or wherever), but there were animal barns galore! First off we walked through the cows and then tried to find the open class building to find John's (Dr Bowery) photographs, because apparently he'd won "best in show" of sorts. We finally found it in the 4-H building - actually, the only building with static things... it was super small, which kinda made me sad considering the fair should be about the same size as the Hood River County Fair. We found his pictures, which were definitely the best ones there, and he'd won a "champion" award on one, and the rest "blues" which is awesome. Best in his category/class. Not bad :) Then I looked around more at the rest of the displays in the building, but Jan and Jim were itching to get out and look at the animals. Once out in the barns, Jim asked just about everyone if they had a Dexter cow, which is the breed he wishes to purchase for the farm here eventually. I figured that no one did, and that the kids wouldn't likely even know what he was talking about (yup), but it was worth asking about, I suppose. We walked through the pig barn, the small animal barn with chickens, turkeys, ducks and rabbits, and the cattle and sheep & goat barn. They have a really nice show ring. Only one, but it's super tricked out. I was having show-ring envy, haha. But it had to be covered and super nice for the risk of rain that they get out here during the summer, whereas the Hood River fair doesn't need such a cover because it pretty much never rains much during the fair.
Then we felt like we'd seen everything there was to see. Jim asked if we wanted to stay for the carnival, but really, it was just two really, really small rides for little kids, so we headed out. Once in the car, Jan suggested we stop for something to eat on our way out of town, so we stopped for Chinese food there in Clarinda. It was quite good, but I actually think that Jan and I were given the wrong plates of food - not much difference, really, chicken, spicy, good... yeah, we didn't really care, and I didn't say anything and I don't think Jan even noticed, lol. whups. There was and advertisement for The Snoopy play which would be showing in a few weeks - we might just have to try to go to that here in Clarinda when it's playing.
After lunch we headed all the way over to the Fremont County Fair over in Sidney. This fair was about the same size (?) maybe a bit smaller. The sun was shining over there though, unlike when we were out at Clarinda. Same, only one, small building for all the static displays (I think Hood River has like... three, yeah?), building for horses, another for cows, and the last for small animals. It was really pretty there. The fairgrounds are in the same location as the Sidney Rodeo (which is in like, a week!). There was a talent show going on after awhile, and all the 4-Hers were dancing and goofing around on stage. It was cute.
We drove home after that and I just kinda bummed around for awhile. I was super tired, but didn't want to nap in the car... just because I didn't want to. Got home and was no less tired, which was lame. I knew that Josh might text me around the hour of midnight to help him work on his car because he was up in Sioux City alllll day talking to people about
JSAW (Jesus: Snow-Asphalt-Water) schtuffs (to start skate ministries and get the word out about their organization and to raise funds). So, I bummed around on my computer for a bit before picking up a few snacks in town before all the stores closed up for the night and went home and took a nap at like, 8 for a few hours. Got up again later to the dogs barking at... goodness knows what and bummed around on my computer for a bit and then texted Josh for a bit because he was still on his way back town from Sioux City but wanted me to run by the church to see if the garage was still open because that's where the Fiero was parked and needing to be worked on (he'd taken the Impala up to Sioux City). Locked. No bueno. Tried all the doors. Drat. So we went about deciding if we should wait til morning, or try to see if someone was up and would open the door for us. I ended up getting ahold of someone - felt kinda bad for the late hour, but we got the door open, which was awesome. It was to be a long night working on the car, but I was down for the epic adventure (as I called it, because, I mean, as hard and stressful as things can be when you're doing them all night can be fun... somehow, don't ask for a better answer to that, lol).
Josh was still around an hour out of Shenandoah, so I went back home and read Captivating for awhile before he called because he was super tired on the drive and only about 10 minutes out from town. Poor guy, he'd been up since seven that morning from driving up to Sioux City, was up super late the night before from having gone to Blue in Omaha, and was up the night before that when we went to Tarkio and skating around town after we got back. So we talked for awhile and then I headed over to the garage to help him with the car.
We go in the garage and move some stuff around to make more work space around the car and set up my stereo system to help us work by rocking out to some awesome music (Phil Wickham anyone? yes please!). He was kinda grumpy from the drive and being frustrated about the car in general needing the work, but after I handed him a Pepsi I'd picked up earlier (snacksss) he improved, lol. Oh the miracles of Pepsi late at night. But then we were both bummed out when we couldn't find the part we needed to get the car apart. Really frustrated, actually, because this would mean that it would delay his departure for Minneapolis til later. As it was he had been hoping to leave Sunday right after church, but this would put him out several more hours to go to the store to get the part during church (as stores in town are really not open on Sunday here in SmallTown, Iowa, with the exception of a few hours mid-day) and then work on it after finishing up worship at the end of service.
So, frustrated about that, and tired, we call it a night - to be continued the next morning... we were at the garage til around 3am trying to get various different ways to work, but the spindle is so busted and bolts are broken which is majorly no bueno, so we have to get the new ones on before he can drive up to Minnesota.
