Yo, blog! Sup?? Long time, no write here! I’ve neglected you and my 17 readers, and for that I do apologize. But yet, a hiatus (wow, finally had a chance to use that word!) was needed.

As we looked through our June schedule, we found we have 5 days, 5 DAYS of free time. No fairs, no events, no parades, no appointments, no PD, no nothing.

#WTH

So, my writing has suffered because of this. Last week, in Dubuque, the KPAC conference, a gathering of the best and brightest in region is going on. I’d love to go, but couldn’t get myself to sign up. Why? Very few teachers from our building go anymore, and that disappoints me. I love the sessions, I love (kind of – introvert here) meeting new people, but I just couldn’t go. That and I knew there was so much other stuff scheduled.

#Ugh

We went to the University of Iowa for two days of orientation in preparation for our daughter’s arrival! She met her roommate (a 5’10” version of herself – scary), signed up for classes, and tried to figure out what “pre-business” means. Our hope, that some of what they were told sunk into her brain. This is an expensive place to find yourself, and if she’s not lazered in her goals, she’ll distracted by everything around her.

#pleasefindaquietplacetostudy

We went to our first show over Father’s Day weekend, a small fair to our north. We took our three heifers up Friday afternoon and brought them back Sunday afternoon. In between, they were washed, clipped, fed, and shown with temperatures in the mid-90s and a heat index well over 100 on Saturday. Hot, sweaty, sometimes gross work, but we got to hang out with our showing friends, and there’s not anything wrong with that. Sunday night, we kind of collapsed in a heap! 🙂

#airconditioninghasspoiledus

And finally, tomorrow, we spend four days away from home for the National Brown Swiss Convention, being held in Coralville, Iowa. Normally, I wouldn’t have too much of an issue with this since we go to the State Fair and do the same thing, but this is June, my “gotta catch my breath” month. And I haven’t. Since the only things we’ve ever done that’s remotely close to this is the state fair, we have no idea what to expect. Some of these national conventions have crews who are on the clock 24/7, cleaning up after animals, others, you get to hang out with your animal like any other fair. We are hoping for option one, but guessing we’ll get option two. Four days away from home where we don’t get to do anything fun.

Our local farmer said “sure, I’ll help you get your heifers down to Coralville” which turned into “did you talk to the other guy from our area to get your heifers moved?” At this point, I’d love to cancel and say screw it. The weather is going to be ridiculously hot again, and there’s never AC in these places, so hot, sweaty, and gross is the name of the day.

*sarcasm on* Whoopie!! *sarcasm off*

However, it’s the farewell tour. I really don’t think our daughter will want to come back and show next summer. She may be Brown Swiss Princess again (no girls her age are in our association, and she’s enjoying it so far), and if we do show, it may be just showing a cow, which means we come in one day, show the next, then leave. I could deal with that. I’ve come to accept that these are the last time through many of these events, with people we’ve come to enjoy and look forward to seeing. Older parents just drift away, and I can see that in our future, and it’s not a bad thing.

Besides, we’ve got some pretty awesome years ahead of us as well. 47, finally feeling healthy again, and no kids at home. Our first trip in September is up to Minneapolis and the Minnesota Renaissance Festival. We’ve wanted to get up there for years, but between cross country and swimming, weekends were pretty well booked. No more. We’ve got tickets to two Iowa games this season, so visiting Iowa City will become more common. I need to see about Iowa State tickets, because while I’m no ISU fan, it’s a pretty campus for sure!

I’ve worked on this dang blog for a week, never quite getting down, adding to it, deleting other stuff, so if this my only blog of June, to the educators out there: Happy Summer Break (though it feels like it’s all slipping away)! 🙂