Living at the rodeo....

Since we missed going to the Four States Fair and Rodeo last week due to rain and doing other things instead, I promised the kids we would go to the Southwest Arkansas Region Livestock Show and Rodeo (and Fair).

The fair was great! Lots of rides for kids and for 'older' kids. Shan and Emily rode the carousel. Then, Tyler and Emily rode in the spinning strawberries (what us 'older' kids would call a modified version of tilt-a-whirl). Then, Tyler and I rode the Tornado. The Tornado is like the Octopus, if you remember that ride, but not quite the same... The biggest difference is that you can control the spinning... It is like the Octopus and Tilt-a-Whirl had a vomit-inducing child... :-) It was great! Though, I did find that I had to concentrate on watching Tyler if I was to keep from losing my head (or lunch perhaps!). We had a blast!

After that, we ate some fair food and walked around the fair checking out the exhibits until it was time to head to the rodeo...

The PRCA has an AWESOME Dodge Ram truck... (I'll post a picture later)

The kids had fun - Emily especially! Of course, being four, she had lots of questions, and her own interpretations of the answers....

Question: "Are the Texas ones the Tex-Bulls or Tex-Cowboys, or what?"
Answer: "These cowboys are from all over - Texas, Oklahoma, Arkansas..."
Response: "Arkansas?? Hey! We live in Arkansas!"

Question: "Is he from Arkansas?" (Asked while pointing at one of the riders)
Answer: "Yes, he is! And, he is from Hope! We are *IN* Hope! He lives here!"
Response: Emily's eyes grow to the size of silver dollars and her mouth drops open. As she looks around, she asks, "He lives HERE?? In the RODEO!?!?!"

It took some explaining before she understood that the poor man did NOT live in the arena.... Of course, I'm not sure that she entirely convinced... :-)

Exchange rates at the supermarket...

While shopping for groceries, we were walking down the cereal aisle (one of my favorite aisles!!), and someone had decided that they no longer wanted their healthy food. On the shelf with the Reese's Cereal was a discarded package of Centrum Silver... So, I got to looking.... A few aisles over, someone had decided that instead of a bag of prunes, they wanted Wheat Thins (a VERY good swap in my book!). And in another aisle, someone had decided they didn't want their black beans anymore, and swapped it out for chips (I believe).

So, I wondered how this worked... You take your list... Ahh, yes, I need some tomato sauce... After grabbing a couple cans, you spot something else... Say, oregano... You put one can of tomato sauce on the shelf, since you don't REALLY need two cans, and swap it out for the large plastic bottle of oregano... A few aisles later, you see it... The oft-coveted box of Hostess Ho-Ho's! Oh yeah, who needs oregano? I can get Ho-Ho's! So, there goes the other can of tomato sauce... Now, you still want sauce for the pasta you're having later, so you rationalize buying Ragu. Well, you still need something healthy.... Let's grab a bag of prunes... Okay, no... Bags of prunes are there for the sole purpose of grocery swapping... Trust me. You put prunes in your buggy and they are the free-for-all swap item of the month! Chips? Candy? Slim Fast? Heck, I'd trade a bag of prunes for Preparation-H for crying out loud!

Which, no self-respecting person is going to check out with Prep-H in their buggy... No way... That's what spouse's are for! Or better yet - KIDS! "Here Johnny, go pay for this for your Mother... Yeah, I know she sent me to buy it, but cant you see my buggy's full of Ho-Ho's, Ragu, and a new socket set??"

CDLRTX Training...

I haven't posted on here in a few days because I have been in training in Little Rock with the Center for Distance Learning Research in Texas. The group that hasbeen going through an online class all met in Little Rock for the face-to-face component of the training.

It has been interesting, and certainly entertaining! I'll post more after things end here later today.

In the meantime, have fun!

Truly, one of the most unbelievable stories....

Shan came in and told me about this story:
http://www.cnn.com/2006/LAW/09/24/killed.fetus.ap/index.html

This is probably one of the most bizarre stories I have ever heard in my life. To summarize, a woman called police, saying that she had just given birth, but that the baby was dead. At the baby's funeral, the woman told her boyfriend that baby was not his, and instead was the baby of a woman she had killed. He called police. The murdered woman had been found with her body cut up (evidently with scissors) to extract the baby. The dead woman also had three children. When questioned, the accused woman told investigators to check the washer and dryer for the missing children. Apparently, she had drowned the children then put them in the washer and dryer....

I am still trying to figure this one... I know, you cannot rationalize the irrational.... But this is just... unbelievable....

Just My Luck... and the Steelers.. :-)

Well, the Pittsburgh Steelers lost to Cincy... Lots of problems there for sure. Some were Ben's fault, other problems were just stupid mistakes... "Miscues" the pros call it... Ironically, even though they lost, my All-Steeler fantasy team did pretty well this week.. :-)

Last week, I got a call from the movie store in Hope because I hadnt been there to rent a movie in a while. they offered me a free movie. Turns out that we were also there on free movie night, so we got 3 movies for the price of one! Very cool!

We rented Wedding Crashers, Just My Luck, and Bringing Down the House. Wedding Crashers was funny. It was, "Hey, I don't have to think" funny... :-) Silly, stupid, but a good time anyway. :-) Just my luck was cute in that "Nickelodeon" kind of way, though the language was not pre-teen. Yes, I know it is a PG-13 movie, but still...

So, after the movie, we decide to have pizza. I turn the oven on to pre-heat it, get the pizzas out of the box and put them on the cookie sheet. After setting the timer, I came to sit down. After watching some of the Giants/Seahawks game, the timer went off... So, I went in to see if the pizzas were done cooking or if they needed more time. I turned off the timer, opened the over door, and was suddenly reminded that I had NEVER PUT THE PIZZAS IN THE OVEN! Yes, exactly. Nice hot oven, nice cold pizzas on the counter... DUH! I have NEVER forgotten to put pizzas in the oven! The first thing I do after watching "Just My Luck?" Forget to put pizzas in the oven! I'm not saying there's a connection there.... I'm just telling my story... :-) Maybe I shouldn't drive....