Weekly Wrap Up - Fair Week

I spent some time this week harvesting and drying purple basil from my garden.   This is the second time I've harvested this year, and the photo below is less than 1/3 of what I have.  Needless to say, I'm giving basil to everyone I can.

Since the public schools here start back on August 6 (which is CRAZY), it's caused our county fair to get bumped up as well...because the kids showing animals at the fair have to be there during the day to tend to their animals.   So, this was county fair week.   Olivia decided to enter several pieces of artwork and photography this year. She earned three (3) second place ribbons, and one (1) third place.  Photo coming next week since we can't pick up her entries/awards until Saturday night.

We always buy the ride wristbands ahead of time ($15) instead of at the gate ($30), and then go on Wednesday night when it's not so crowded.  We have a group of friends that meet, the kids go off together to ride, and the parents walk around, chat, watch the corny shows and randomly do a head count on the kids.  Here are some photos that my friend Yvette took (it's nice to have friends with smart phone photography ability).

Thursday evening, around 5pm we had a horrible storm stall out over top of us.  There were sustained winds of 50-60mph, and sheets of rain swirling (swirling had me concerned) around, so much so that it was like white out conditions.  The neighbors had a tree come down on their house (we heard the thud), down the street another big tree went down and took out the power for our neighborhood; we were in the dark until just before midnight.  Other than some damage to my tall flowers and veggie plants, we were unscathed.   God is good!

Olivia continues to work several days a week at the farm, and Lindsey's still working two days a week at the museum.  We have one more week before school starts, two weeks before college starts.  I was going to wait until later in August, but with it being Olivia's senior year I figured she'd rather get done earlier than later, and it gives us more wiggle room for random field trips and other opportunities.

Both girls were scheduled to play varsity volleyball at the private school where Olivia played last year.  We paid their fees, and got their physicals done back in May.  Trying to get practice schedules and information from them from that point on has been like pulling teeth. I've been hearing rumors about some underhanded things going on in their athletic department, and have been in contact all summer trying to get information.   We finally found out this week that practice starts next week, but that the school is no longer allowing homeschooled students to play.   So now we're in the position of having missed the opportunity to find another school to play for over the summer, and are now trying to get our fees back.  This is Olivia's senior year, and we already had college volleyball coaches lined up to come see her plat.   We are not happy camper's about this turn of events, but some things are out of our control, so we just have to accept what we cannot change...even when it's underhanded, ahem.

How has your week been?