Sharing some of the rest of my daily life

It's easy to type about the festivals and I always have plenty of nice photos to go with that. This post will be about the rest of our daily activities.

Maddie...yeah her schedule is packed. She got her driver's license on her first try had more than her needed hours and had been driving on her permit for almost a year. (That being said my insurance is insane now.) Yes, I have let her drive alone since she got them. Here is how it works: she takes me on a "qualifying" trip, as long as she does fine she's aloud to drive that far without me. So at this point I let her drive to norwalk, oberlin, and amherst. Route 2 still freaks me out, and Sandusky she might have to "qualify" with her dad. One step at a time (for me). She has a full class schedule that she's struggling with, and of course let's not forget about the boyfriend.

Brandon...oh my lovely 14 yr old son. He will argue with me about anything. He has all honor classes this year. He works hard IF there is something he wants in return, any yard work or outside work he's your young man. If it's in the house forget it. He's super smart and talks over my head a lot. He started shaving, and that deep voice keeps getting deeper. He's breaking out of his quiet phase slowly. He's turning into a young man, and to be honest I'm in uncharted territory. He is my child that likes to discuss and even debate topics. He constantly keeps me thinking. He's trying out for the freshman bb team this year and has been conditioning for it for months now, we'll see how that goes.

My spouse...working, working. His new thing is attending auctions. Him and Brandon go as often as they can. I think they like being at these things more than actually buying things, which is okay with me.

Me...exhausted. The shingles returned again, and I'm just now coming off the anti-viral. They think they may have returned so quickly because of "stress" yeah okay. I was able to start weening off my bp medication, so far so good. My weight loss is maintaining nothing additional to report. My couponing is a stress release at this point. On average I'm able to save at least 50%, and have freebies rolling in the mailbox daily. I have quite a bit of Christmas shopping done, and even started wrapping already. My daily planner is full constantly, since the latest shingle out break I have entered in "rest" time slots even "rest" days.

Antique Festival

The Antique Festival was held in Millerburg. It was on the same exact day as the Wollybear Festival. The original plan was to "split" the court, meaning half go to one and half to the other. The Wollybear is so close that the rest of the court attended that one, and Maddie, myself, and the director attended The Antique. It is located in Holmes Co. in the heart of amish country. It was a beautiful autumn day! All the colors were in bloom. The rest of the court had the float for the day, and the local car dealership was having a huge sale that day so we were out of a convertible. So in true Maddie fashion we took good ole "Bertha" the pick up truck with some hay bales in the back with a blanket over them and off we went.

We are starting to rotate the dresses...or simply put each dress speaks for itself and depending on the weather, the day, and the festival we pick. The blue dress wore only once for the basket festival has a train with it, and Maddie got sick the day she wore it (so she thinks it's bad luck for now) so it hasn't been let out of the closet. If the day has bad weather or Maddie has a lot of walking etc to do she will always pick the purple one. (She says she can move in this one) The day had lots of walking and most of the girls would be wearing "the hoop" dresses, so she going against the grain picked the purple one.

The day started with a tour of a historic Victorian house (amazing), and then we went to this ranch that reminded you of anything but a ranch. (There were no animals, only scenic views and a gorgeous lodge) One of the highlights to the food menu was this insane cinnamon roll (that I should have passed on). It tasted like a pastry. It looked like a large cinnamon roll, but didn't taste like anything I've ever baked. This festival she was able to meet royalty from more of your southern towns in Ohio.

The parade was a lot shorter than the previous ones we'd been too, which was great. This was my first parade that I've drove in. (Just my opinion, but I think throwing candy at a parade should be done away with) I've never felt that way before, but constantly stopping because children are running in front of you scared me to death. I had "the ladies in red hats" float in front of me which is always my favorite. The float behind us was comical. It was for "the rooter man" (plumbing) and it was an old fashion out house with a clothes line on it and everyone dressed in overalls doing some type of jig dancing. I had a hard time not laughing seeing them out my rear view mirror, Maddie had an even harder time keeping her royal smile and wave without busting out laughing.

Needless to say we made it back home to start resting before the wollybear parade even ended.

Grape Jamboree

The grape jamboree...beautiful. I posted previously about the free rooms we got on this trip. Now here's the rest of the trip. The grape jamboree was held September 24 in Geneva On The Lake...now I stress the on the lake part because onstar directions had to be very exact. It was an enormous festival. The parade itself was 3 1/2 hrs. long. There was courts that traveled more than 4 hrs to attend this festival. Since it was an 1 1/2 for us we decided to spend the night and make it a little get away. (Great choice) My darling son stayed out home with Grami staying with him and popping in and out throughout the day on Sunday. This trip was a battle with him all the way. His best friend was having his belated birthday party and EVERYONE was going to be there, so in the end we caved in and let him stay at home and attend the party with Grami in charge.

Maddie was joined with her 1st attendant so they were able to hang out and have a good time. The breakfast was this lavish affair with the works served. Each girl was given a complimentary bottle of grape juice from one of the local vineyards, which they got to tour after the breakfast. The breakfast was at this gorgeous lodge overlooking the lake. Now I've seen the lake my whole life and for some reason it looked amazing that day. It wasn't dirty and yuck like I've seen it so many times before.

The parade was divided up with the royalty based on who belonged to the Ohio festival committee and who didn't. We didn't (the cost to belong to the organization is out of our courts budget). Some of the breakfast/luncheons you must belong or can't attend. So with this lovely divide it was nice to see the festivals we can attend with no hassle.

It was a long day, but worth it. It was the first parade besides our own that Brian was able to attend, which made it even that much more delightful. After the parade we snagged some homemade grape ice cream, that was really good. (Kinda like the cantaloupe ice cream at the melon fest, but in grape.) Me and Maddie slept all the way home thanks to onstar being my husband's co-pilot.

Volunteering and donations

Madeline is not a stranger to volunteering, and donating items or time she's great at. Asking for donations is a whole other ball game. Part of her job as queen is to do just that, but now she wears crown and sash to do these things. She doesn't like to draw attention to herself at these events, but it goes with the territory. We try to get as many family and friends involved as we can. Some of the recent things were the breast cancer walk, buddy walk, pumpkin donation drive, family fun fest, and the quick ten minute phone calls that say " I need help doing....".

Catching up on some of the festivals

I feel the need to try and catch up on a few of the festivals we've hit in the last month or so. I know there seem to be little or no pixs of Brandon. He's going through that I don't want my photo being taken phase AGAIN, and a lot of the festivals lately he has been opting out of. He's uses his alone time to catch up on homework, help me out with laundry, and from the looks of things when I get home pretty much relax.

Moving on to the festivals...first up after melon fest. was the Clyde Fair. The rest of the court was busy doing other commitments that day so it was just Maddie & I. They had this insane breakfast that was all southern cooking...that's right gravy & biscuits were there. It was a smaller breakfast meaning only a handful of courts were there that day. The festival itself was very laid back and had a racing theme to the day. There was so much hay and straw bails that I'm convinced that I'm allergic to one of these. By the time we left my eyes were puffy and I sneezed all the way home.

This was one of those festivals that next year we as a family will probably attend.

Another thing that I'm picking up at these events is ideas...when I leave these things my mind is racing with hundreds of ideas for all sorts of things. (I started carrying a small notepad just to jot some of these down.) Maddie is starting to make friends with a lot of these girls that she sees over and over again. One of these is the queen from Brunswick court Maria. The other picture is her and the Clyde queen, Hailey.