....Think BBQ means cookout, and there is something there wrong about"
We spent our Friday and Saturday at a BBQ competition and fund raiser. It was fun, and definitely interesting. I got my first taste of a gypsy lifestyle, and, well, I smelled like BBQ smoke when I got home.
I brought my camera along, because, frankly, I go nowhere without Camryn. Especially if it is over night. Think of it, someone might break into my house and steal her! So, Friday night, I was all over the place, snapping photos like the crazed photographer I am. And I was extremely happy when one of the other contestants walked over to our cooking tent the next morning, asking, "Where is the photographer girl?". They needed me to take pictures of the teams, and, well, they saw me running everywhere with a semi-professional camera, and sought me out. I tell you, it was a small matter, but it felt wonderful. My heart was going, "FINALLY! acknowledgement!"
Our cooking tent looked really cool. It was just a normal festival canopy, but, thanks to having a brother who desires to be a electrician, ours was the most well (And safely) lit. And it looked positively magically gypsy. Except it used electricity.
I experienced with night Bokah Friday evening. The Competition location was right next to a extremely active road, and there were cars going by all night long. And the drivers kept yelling at us. From cat calls, to compliments on the smell, to garblish we couldn't understand.
Evan sat up here for a good thirty minutes, claiming it to be his 'Hawkeye' perch. Ok, Katniss boy.
Friday night wasn't all that eventful, we set up our tents, unpacked our equipment, and ate a extremely late dinner (Who has ever tried to make a soup on a smoker? Me!). And then we had to work out where everyone was going to sleep. There wasn't room for a real camping tent, so the boys and Daddy (And a Firefighter friend, Mr. Mike) all stayed out in camp chairs and hammocks. The little girls laid blankets out in our equipment trailer, and me, Mama and Shiloh bunkered down in our van. We laid all the seats down, and thus started a pretty long night. Vehicle chairs were made for over night sleep. At least, not ours. I'm still bruised. But, it was fun. I've never really gone to a sleep over, and this, between my Mom and I, was the closest thing. We talked and giggled for a bit before we finally started falling asleep while the other one was talking. Morning came early, and after 5AM, I just couldn't sleep anymore due to my side being so sore, I thought I was going to die.
A rare moment of Shiloh actually playing nicely with her baby doll, instead of tormenting it. I swear, this kid could be the female incarnation of Sid from Toy Story sometimes...
When a bunch of Firefighters get together and compete for anything, its bound to be 1) Fun. Most firefighters are so funny, and light hearted. I guess you have to be, if you run into burning buildings, and your job requires the possibly threat of death. I'm proud to be a FireFighter's daughter. And 2) Very competitive. They might joke around, and congratulate each other, but you don't dance around a competition between Firefighter's.
And, in case you were wondering, the fund raiser was for a Children's burn camp called 'Camp Amigos'. Its motto is, "Healing burns from the inside out". It is a really cool camp, it helps children who have been burned, and is run by firefighters.
And of course, there were Firetrucks. Titus was clearly enthralled.
And a paramedic helicopter made a guest appearance.
Titus waving to the 'copter as it came down. He kept trying to unpuzzle how something so big could fly. No, really. I asked what he thought about it, and his reply, "I like it, I just don't un'erstand how it flys"
And a horse. Wait, let me rephrase that, *clears throat*...
AND A HORSE.
Ok, much better. I went to pet him, and had to chide myself. As I approached him, my stomach got all in knots, I started getting strangely excited, and yet nervous, and realized, "I'm acting like a girl approaching her crush". Yep, that's me. The Horse girl.
And horse lashes, aren't they beautiful?
We had to do something much different this time, we had to use garnish. Now, that might seem to be a very small thing, but my family has had no practice on this, and it took all 5 of us (Me, Mama, Daddy, Evan, and Mr. Mike) to arrange these. But, it was a requirement to use garnish, and so we did. I don't think we did half bad. What do you guys think? ;)
Titus did not like Sparky the Dalmatian, and this was the closest thing I could get him to do close to a hug. And when Sparky 'asked' for a high five, Titus told him, under no uncertain tone, "No". And laughed cruelly when Sparky 'cried'. But, I might be scared of a huge dog too...And then again, I always loved Santa pictures....
Singers. They also had dancers, but I wasn't sure if the dance Mom's would like if I snapped pictures of their daughters, most who were under 13.
I've heard some pretty terrible singers at festivals and cook offs, but these guys weren't half bad.
Titus might have held Sparky in great disdain, but he loved the giant bear in a hat, AKA, Smokey bear. As soon as he saw him, he started yelling, "Mr. Bear-man! Mr. Bear-man!" in which I gave him the correct name of 'Mr. Bear-Man' and then Titus proceded to laugh and call his name while running towards him with his arms wide open. Ok then.
And he requested I get his picture with 'mokey, I had a hard time keeping Titus from following him all around the park.
And even shy Bitsy got a picture.
(I'm sorry, Smokey's face reminds me of the pedo-bear meme....).
And then, we won 1rst place in the pulled pork, 4th in Chicken, and 12th in ribs (I still don't know what to say, the ribs were GOOD). And, me and my brothers won tshirts, mugs, a $20 gift card to Winn-dixie, and a mini shop vac in the raffle (We are somehow good at raffles) and then packed up, and went to our Grandparent's, where I photographed that lovely tom cat.
I had fun, it was busy, and we were all exhausted afterwards. And, it was pretty cool when in the middle of all these country songs, they started blasting PSI's Gangam Style. The desire to dance was pretty overpowering. Very overpowering. But, they must've decided that having a sudden, impulsive dancing crowd wasn't a good idea, and they stopped playing it. Dang. I was getting excited. XD
So, yeah.
And has anybody looked at the calander? October 28th people! The days till NaNoWriMo are quickly becoming shorter. I want to do a vlog before I start, but, lets see how that works. Also, I think I'm going to try to do weekly vlog updates during November, but lets see how that works out, hmm?
So how was your Weekends, guys?
Oh, and in case you were wondering what I was quoting in the Title, and first line of this post, Here ya be:
Ok. I'm done. Goodnight.
The girl who rambles,
The girl who sings songs that hold no symbolism to her life,
The girl who takes pictures of every thing that crosses her path,
Ashley.
I've been reading the Redwall series by Brian Jacques, and LOVING them. yes, loving in caps.
I love the Rabbits, Honorable (Hon, for short) Rosie, Who always laughs deafeningly; Basil Stag, named himself Stag because stags are such wonderful creatures; Torque, who is always singing ballads, and loves Hon Rosie with all his big heart; Brigadier Thyme, Wot wot!; and all the rest of Salamandstron's long Patrol. Who can't help but love Warrior Rabbits?
The Moles. Ah, they stole moi heart away first off. They're strange way of talking, ah, makes me smile every time. I would repeat it for you, but I just can't do it justice!
And, THE Badgers. those wonderful creatures. Lords of Salamondstron, Caretakers, Wise ones. Leaders, Warriors, and powerfully strong. If you find a creature daring to go hand to hand against a Badger, he is a sure to die fool. Boar the Fighter, Bella of Brockhall, Mother Mellus (The big hearted, and stern Mother to all), Sunflash the Mace, All of them. I love them. The Badgers make the book 100% better. Without them, a whole lot of fire and adventure wouldn't be there. Of course, without Martin the Warrior, who has a mouse, there'd be no story at all.
Oh, our great Mice of Redwall Abbey. Most are kind hearted, helpfull, and gentle animals. But, you will get some.... Dandin, Mathias...and surely more that I haven't yet come too.
Most of them, however, are like this docile fella below:
A gentle Brother, Abbot (or sister or Abbess!).
Oh, I wish I could go to Mossflower Wood. I'd hug a Mouse, Talk and eat with a Mole (did I mention, if there is one thing Mole's like better'n diggun, its uh eatun? Thats mole language, BTW.), Admire a Badger, fight a Rat, Weasel, Stoat, Wildcat, Ferret or Fox, Hold Martin's famed sword, Laugh with a Rabbit, Wot Wot! I've been practicing my Rabbit talk, ya see. I think I can 'Wot Wot' nearly as well as Brigadier Thyme. Yes, oh, yes. Redwall Abbey would be such a restful place!!
Mr. Jacques, I know your dead, I wish I could've gotten addicted before you died, but thank you. You are a masterpeice writer, an epic storyteller, a stringer of wonderful yarns, and a legend in your self.
This Saturday we were BBQ vendors at a local festival. We did kinda bad on the selling side, but on the learning experiance (this was our first fest of this size) can't be traded. Here are some pictures of the 'gala'.
Ever wonder what it looks like BEFORE you get to the tiny tent shops at festivals and fairs? I can tell you, like a Gypsy camp. Our tent had string lights all around the top, making it look quite, gypsy, if you don't mind,
PIGS! There was a pig chase (greased, pig chase, really) and these are just two of the many poor piglets who first get greased and chased before the day is over. Poor little things.
Goatie eye. I love goats. Like, love goats as I would own as many as a yard could hold. They are the sweetest animals, and MUCH more smarter then cows. I can't stand cows. Or, at least bulls...bad memory there...
One of the booths we visited. This was an foster/adoption awareness booth, and they had free candy and coloring for kids. Shauna, Kyla, AnnaRuth and Ruby all enjoyed the acorn coloring sheets, but Titus just wanted the candy. ☺
Free balloons from an insurance agency booth. They were giving out balloons to kids, and info to adults. I'd much rather be a kid.
Titus with his third piece of candy. At this point, he was hopelessly sticky.
The highlight of Titus' day. Some people were just going around dressed as Woody, Buzz, Cowgirl Jesse, and Spider man. Titus kept asking me, "Go see sheriff 'oody!". So, once the other fans had slowed down a bit, I grabbed Titus, and snapped a picture of him and his 'oody'. Titus was thrilled, and did better then my Evan did with Santa Clause...{cough cough}, lets just say, Evan wasn't as happy as Titus was, to put it plainly...
So, Saturday was fun, I bought a scentsy bar for my pot, and it is now scenting up the house tropically. And got a pink cross necklace, which I got reduced from $10, to $5. It is ALWAYS best to shop right before the vendors pack up. They'll cut you awesome deals. Shauna participated in a Chicken chase, where, unknown to us, the prize was keeping the bird you caught. Great. So, now we- to say, Shauna- is the proud new owner of a gorgeous banty Rooster, named LaForge. Guess where we got his name?
Bingo! You got it right, From Geordie Laforge, Chief Engineer on the Enterprise! We put one of our hens in his cage, and now must find her a name as well that goes with Laforge's...Ro?...Larren?...Leah?...OH! Guinan!? I dunno...must think longer.
Then, on Sunday, we visited our friend's home church as one of their boys were getting baptized.
Since their church doesn't have a true 'pastor' Josh's Dad baptized him. I think that is awesome. How many of you readers got baptized by your Dad?
The location. This creek is actually pretty neat.
Into the water.
And the witnesses.
It was such a good Sunday. I LOVED the home church, and the way it flowed. It was so open. All the men led, and read from their Bibles. It wasn't like normal churches were you sit like cows, and listen to the one Preacher talk.
After the baptismal, and service, we fellow shipped. Which means, Eat lunch (Tamar, I really liked the fish you cooked!!), Talk a bit. Listen to Caleb's bass speakers play the Pirates of the Caribbean theme song, (which sounded AWESOME), Watch your brothers box, and hike about a mile down the creek, getting sopping wet in your jeans, and being wet after wards because you didn't bring extra clothes. But it was fun. We visited an old Whiskey Still, and collected a few cool looking bottles, got bit by floating ants, Planned to set up a cabin lodge down the creek, and name it 'Diamond Creek' or 'The Village of Villy Age". And rode back in your bestie's Mustang (Car, not horse). It was an AWESOME weekend. It was jam packed full of fun, and...more fun. I was thoroughly tired by Monday, but what is some lost sleep when you're having a blast? ☺
