Masquerade Party!

Jenny recently attended a 16th birthday party/masquerade party for her friend, Shaylynn. Jenny wore the French Revolution time period dress she made last fall. She was in a literature group studying "The Scarlett Pimpernel", and made the dress as part of the study.

This is the front view. Luckily, we found a huge crenoline slip/skirt to wear under the dress that helped to really poof it out. Apparently the goal back then in the late 1700's was to show how small your waist was by expanding the hips!

Just to give the full idea, here Jennifer is showing just how full the dress is! I remember Jenny saying how hard it was to gather all the fabric together. No wonder! The girls had a great time and even went for a stroll about the neighborhood. Well, not to sound biased, but I thought Jennifer did a great job with her costume, and even made a neat mask from paper mache - complete with feathers. Great job, Jenny!

Posted by Pam

House for Sale

Well, it is official now. We have a "For Sale" sign in the yard and we will be glad to show our house to anyone interested in buying it. It is a 4 bedroom, 2 and a half bath ranch home on a full finished basement.

This is the living room. It has a gas fireplace, vaulted ceiling and beautiful car siding. That last thing means it has wooden boards on the wall. There is also a nice deck from the living room.The kitchen features a tray ceiling, ceiling fan, gas stove, lots of oak cabinets, plenty of counter space, and a beautiful view of the tree tops out of the kitchen sink window and the bay windows at the dining table. I personally love watching the squirrels play in the trees, and you can see the brook in the woods at the back of the house.The lower level is bright and sunny with windows all across the back side. It has a concrete patio out the back door, a wood stove, and TWO large storage rooms. I call them "His and Her" storage rooms since I have one and Walter uses the other. You can see the new wood laminate flooring and the new carpeting we did this spring. There is a long family room, a side room for whatever you want, and also 2 bedrooms and a full bath on this level.

Outside there is a small creek in the woods behind the house, just right for exploring, a pond with catfish, peach trees, blackberries, a nice garden spot, and plenty of space for playing. The pasture is about 7 acres, and has electric fencing. Our land is actually three 5 acre lots put together, so we are willing to sell it with 5, 10 or all 15 acres. Oh, and we also have very nice neighbors, and that is worth more than you might think.

So, for more info, let us know! (And help us spread the word. We are trying to sell it without a realtor first.) :) Posted by Pam

A 4-wheeler, Tenor Sax, & a 'For Sale' sign...

Well, I haven't posted in a while. With the Rolla Fair 3 weeks ago, to a youth rally in St. Louis, to Six Flags, to The Pirates of Penzance DVD release, to my best friend, Desi's 17 Birthday (Old, I know =) to a week at LPBC, to volleyball starting up, to cousins from IN coming to visit this week (What a fun bunch! ).... I have been a little swamped. =)
But, you are still probably wondering about the title of this post. So without further ado:


"I had been at camp all week. It was such an awesome week! The lessons were good, the food was good, the fellowship was great, and the heat was ridiculous! The hottest day of the year we spent outdoors. It. Was. Intense.

My mom had just picked Cordell and I up, when we pulled into my uncle's driveway and see a 4-wheeler sitting there. Since, we were on my uncle's driveway, I assumed it was his. Ryan, however, could hardly contain himself and blurted out that we bought a quad while Cordell and I were at camp! This news made me happy. :) This 4-wheeler is alot smaller compared to the one that died last year, and it is a stick shift, but it is a nice camo color and once I learn how to shift it to it's full potential, I know that I am going to enjoy having it. :)
The End Of Part One. "

Here is the second story:

"I had been at camp all week. It was such an awesome week! The lessons were good, the food was good, the fellowship was great, and the heat was ridiculous! The hottest day of the year we spent outdoors. It. Was. Intense.


Mom had picked Cordell and I up a couple of hours earlier and we were at home unpacking, talking about the week, and such. When, randomly, I ask mom if she had been looking for instruments for us kids to learn at Ms. Kay's this fall. ( I wanted a Tenor Sax. Cordell - Alto Sax. Ryan - trumpet. ) She replied, "Actually, we have been. And, actually, we bought a tenor sax for you to use. We found it online and had Uncle Mike look at it since he used to play. He said that it would be a good one to learn on, so we bought it. I took it to Ms. Kay and she was able to get notes out of it and said that some of the pads needed replacing, but that it should be fine. So it is currently at the repair shop." This news made me happy. :) really happy!
Now, since it is still at the repair shop, I haven't seen it yet...I hear that it is not shiney-shiney, but looks better than my trombone, which is pretty tarnished... I don't really care what is looks like though. :)

The End Of Part Two"

And for part three:

"We put up a "For Sale" sign in front of our house! This means that we are ready to start showing our house to potential buyers. We are actually still painting Cordell and Ryan's rooms, but everything else is ready! So, if you know anybody who is looking for a house in Rolla, send them our way! I will probably post more about everything that we have done to get our house "ready to sell" later.

The End Of Part Three"

Till next time!
God Bless y'all!

~Jenny

Fair Time!

Once again, we found ourselves at the Rolla Fair during a very hot week in July. The rides and entertainment were lots of fun, especially the bull riding, tractor pulls, and demolition derby. But let me (Pam) tell you. The real excitement for us was in the livestock barns! This picture doesn't really do justice to the impromptu pig wrangling that often occurred. Here Jenny is helping to push a pig down the isle to be loaded into a waiting trailer. If you have never "wrangled" (for lack of a better word) a pig, you never know if you are going to be stepped on, slobbered on, get your clean pair of pants dirty, or even go for a ride when the pig chooses to go between your legs. Let's just say it can be rather entertaining to watch!
Ok, as you have already guessed, Jenny and Cordell both had market hogs at the fair as part of their 4-H Swine project. This involved raising them since April, and keeping track of their feed costs.

Here is Cordell sitting on his pig, Hippo. Hippo weighed 43 pounds in April, gained 172 pounds in 103 days for a rate of gain of 1.67 pounds per day. To do this, Cordell fed her 425 pounds of food! His pig was purchased by The Butcher Shop for $1.20 per pound, and Intercounty Electric boosted everyone's price up to $1.40/pound. I think Cordell will be rather pleased with his profit margin!

Jenny with her pig, Eugene. Eugene weighed 78 pounds in April, gained 177 pounds in 103 days, for a rate of gain of 1.72 pounds per day. She fed him 425 pounds of food costing $67. Her pig was purchased at the Livestock Auction by Intercounty Electric Co-op. Jenny will also be pleased with her profit margin!

Part of what made the fair extra fun this year was having our cousins showing bucket calves and a market hog as well. Here Jenny is braiding Jessie's hair before the Bucket Calf show.

Here is David with his market hog, Toa.

Brook with Coudy, her Charlais breed calf.

Washing the calves.

David with Jessie's calf, Dolly, a Hereford breed.

I also have to mention that the kids participated in a frozen T-shirt contest, and Brooke won a cool bicycle at the kids games!

Lots of great memories.....

Posted by Pam

4-H Club paints a mural...

Last month the Lucky Ducky 4-H Club worked on a community service project at the Rolla Fairgrounds. It took many days of careful work, but you can see the progression. Jennifer and Desi were the primary painters of the quilt border and the star design. It has a rather patriotic red, white and blue theme. The fairboard staff were very pleased with the club's dedication to the project, and especially that they were being so careful.

Funny Story. Mr. Nadalski, a Fairboard member, was talking to the club about how pleased he was with how careful the club was being with the paint. Practically in the middle of his sentence,

Desi somehow tripped over the can of brown paint and spilled it on the ground. It was just too funny, and Mr. Nadalski was very cool about it. We just let the paint puddle dry up and peeled it off the ground later.

Here Desi & Jeni are working on it.

Cordell and Mrs. Cureton stretching to reach the high squares.

Will, Markus and Erich Baur, along with Ryan show off their hand print squares.



Getting closer to completion...

I just realized that the final pictures are on Jenny's camera - who is away at camp this week. So, I will have to leave you in suspense as to what was painted on the final 2 squares.

This was a great project for our club and 16 different members and 2 moms worked on it.

Look for it when you visit the Phelps County Fairground - you can hardly miss it!

Posted by Pam