More on Music

A link to this video was in my mailbox yesterday, along with a newsletter about Chris Filer, the musician we met at Farm Bureau. Apparently this little single is on the charts nationally (not number one, but hey!). The kids are his kids (well, not the Asian girl...) so it was fun to see them, but the funniest part was watching Chris's face. He was telling us about making the video and he said they kept telling him not to look angry. His reply: "You put make-up on me. I am angry." I actually don't think he looks mad, but it made me laugh anyway.

Looking Good

Duct tape will fix anything. Electric tape is nearly as versatile and looks much better. But today, today I have discovered the greatest tape of all.

Last night Brian attended the February board meeting for DeKalb County Farm Bureau. At the meeting the office secretary requested a new binder for the checkbook. Being farmers, they turned her down flat. Who needs a new binder when the old one works just fine? I mean the three rings still open and shut, who cares that the cover has fallen off.

And, of course, the farmers had a suggestion. Use tile tape.

Tile tape?

Apparently tile tape is black tape, similar in looks to electric tape, but wider and stronger like duct tape. Not only will it fix the binder, it will look good too.

Naturally, "looking good" is a relative term. Especially if your relative is a farmer.

Weekend

What a weekend! Brian, little guy, and I all just got back from our last conference of the season-- Farm Bureau Young Farmer and Rancher. It was great! My Valentine's gift from hubby was an extra day at Tan-Tar-A, so we left early Friday morning (although not as early as we would have liked!) and played at the pool and stuff in the afternoon. Then Friday night at the opening meeting we sat with two other families who were so much fun!

Valentine's Day morning I woke up and went to the bathroom to take a shower. Instead of a bottle of hotel shampoo on the counter I found a bouquet of beautiful pink roses! Brian had gotten up after I'd fallen asleep and driven to the store to buy the flowers, a glass vase, and some pretty pink (plastic) diamonds to put in the vase! It all looks so nice together I'm suspicious he had help! It's either a really sweet story about the lengths my husband would go to make Valentine's Day special, or a mark of how long he will procrastinate. I'm going with the first...

Then Brian attended four seminars, mostly about farm economics and commodities futures, while little guy took a much needed nap. In the afternoon we went to two outlet stores and found everything on our list, making me happy that we accomplished something and Brian happy that we did it quickly :). Saturday night we had the opportunity to listen to an amazing speaker. His name is Chad Hymas (pictured at left). At age 27 he was injured in a farm accident and is now a quadriplegic. His story was amazing. You can see video footage at this website and see for yourself.

Sunday we heard Chris Filer sing for our church service. If you haven't read my blog from the December Farm Bureau meeting you can check that out and read about how much I love his music! It was great to hear him again, and even little guy was totally interested in his performance!

The best part of the trip back was that the toddler fell asleep for almost two hours and watch Franklin the Turtle quite happily after that. Brian and I watch Fireproof after he went down for the night-- which is something else I'm going to have to highly recommend.

Hope you had a Happy Valentine's Day too!

Birthday for a Farmer

Happy Birthday honey!

Today my hubby turns... well, the important thing is that he's older than me ; ).

And, like everything else, his birthday revolved around the needs of the farm. This morning he got up early and hauled corn to town. He did this partly because the corn is contracted for December, partly because its what we do on the farm this time of year, and partly because we need more space in the bin because we're NOT DONE HARVESTING!!! Then he went to the bank to work out some details about end of the year finances, taxes, and other non-fun, non-birthday type stuff. Then he hauled more corn.

For his birthday dinner though we did something really great. We went to a meeting.

I will state that this was not a typical meeting, but a Farm Bureau Christmas party/December board meeting. And we ate a very nice fried chicken and mashed potatoe meal. Then he got to lead the meeting, as he is president, and dicuss the fasinating subject of next year's budget.

Then, poor guy, instead of coming home and putting a little guy into his (really adorable) train pajamas and getting good night hugs he had to move equipment so they can harvest early in the moring. (Side note: in the winter you get up early and harvest before the sun turns the frozen field into a muddy mess. This is different from normal, sane, harvesting proceedure during the normal, sane months of Sept., Oct., and Nov..) And now that it is 9:30 I hear him walking in the door.

Happy Birthday honey.

And We're Back!

Hi all! We got back last night from our trip to Farm Bureau annual meeting. We had a great time! There were a few snags, such as leaving our hanging clothes hanging in the closet, but that just opened the door to a shopping trip ;-).

One of the highlights was meeting the singer who preformed at the President's Dinner and at the church service. We have attended this meeting for several years now and there are always entertainers. Never before have a felt like I was listening to tomorrow's radio hits. This guy, however, was so GOOD! And his family was great too. We sat with them at dinner on Saturday night (kind of by mistake, but oh well) and we really enjoyed it. His wife's name was also Kelly and she taught first grade before her kids were born. They farm soybeans and corn and have a seed business so there was lots to talk about. Anyway, check out his website at www.chrisfilermusic.com. Listen to "Not to the Grave." I have been all morning.

Our county also did well this year. DeKalb got top county in District 1 so Brian was able to accept several plaques on behalf of our board. Last year we were cheated out of two of our six stars. I thought we'd have mutiny on our hands. The board threatened (in jest-- I think) to only send in 4/6 of our dues since we only got 4/6 of our stars. They were really upset. So to get all six stars this year, first place in special projects, and top county felt good.

We also had a representative compete in the Ambassador Contest. Even though she didn't make it to the top three we thought she did well! And our talent show entry did great! Two little girls, barely old enough to be in their division, knocked 'em out with their production. They got second place but I think the crowd liked them best!

So, all in all it was another successful annual meeting.

But it still feels good to be back.

Annual Meeting

Yea! I'm so excited! We leave early tomorrow for Farm Bureau's annual meeting! Besides being a great place to meet other "farm folk" it is also a wonderful vacation for our family. We also go to YF&R in February (That's Young Farmer and Rancher to ya'll) which is actually aimed more at families and family time, but this one is lots of fun too. Mostly because its all about policy meetings and I am not a delegate. Therefore I must spend my time profitably by shopping for Christmas presents at the outlet mall! And swimming at the indoor pool and channel surfing the million options available on the TV (we don't have TV at our house, so this is a BIG deal).

The hotel is actually a resort on the Lake of the Ozarks and they go all out on the Christmas decorations. There are elves who meet you as you drive in, snowflakes hanging everywhere, and a GIANT tree in the lobby. Must be 30 feet tall. No kidding. Its huge. And they hire a wonderful pianist to serenade you with Christmas carols as you eat-- which I love. Last year we took our family Christmas card picture in front of the decorations on main platform. So much holiday spirit! Did I tell you how much I'm looking forward to this?

So provided we don't drive down at three o'clock in the morning trying to outrun a blizzard we are actually caught in (true story) or forget the bag with the underwear and make-up (no one at this conference seems to sell Mary Kay...) it should be great!