Baaaaa-uuutiful Day at Fiber Festival!

The original plan: Leave Friday night with the girls, the dog and the camper. Set up camp at state park near fiber festival and enjoy a bonfire before going to bed. Saturday, enjoy the fiber festival, return to camp for nice meal with the girls and a campfire. Sunday, have a nice breakfast at camp and leisurely pack up to go home.

What ended up happening: Thursday night.... allergies descend like an iron curtain. Head pounds, sinuses fill, and I fall asleep on the couch at 6:30pm without having packed a thing for camping. Girls cry at unfairness when I tell them we may not be going because Mamma doesn't feel very good.

Friday: I drag my sickly body out of bed and take a shower, hoping that the steam will open up my sinuses and maybe I can still have the energy to go camping. At work, I feel "pretty good", if "pretty good" means pounding headache, body aches, runny nose and itchy throat. At least my asthma hasn't kicked in yet. I arrive home and decide that no, we won't go camping. This is a MAJOR disappointment. I was really looking forward to a "girl's camp". I bribe the children with the option of going out for a nice dinner instead of camping. They are not pleased, but accept the bribe. DH buys me some sinus medicine and begins to get ready for his trip to St. Louis for the Rams game.

Saturday: DH kisses me goodbye at 4:30 am and I immediately realize that 1)I am really not feeling good. 2)I may not be going anywhere today, and 3)my asthma has just kicked in. At 7:00 I get up (we were planning to leave at 8:00), shower, and begin drinking coffee. At 8:00 I'm not feeling much better and now the girl's have gotten up on their own, excited to hit the road.

"Are we going? I thought we were leaving at 8:00?" the oldest asks.
"Uhhhh, I really want to go but..."
"Mamma, this was supposed to be your birthday present. I really want to go," she tells me.

We hit the road at about 8:30 with the kleenex box, inhaler, nose spray, sinus medicine and a huge cup of coffee in the front seat. The girls' had decided that their gift to me was that they would not fight all day. Hmmm, can miracles really happen?

We got there and....

FIBER, SHEEP, and BORDER COLLIE GAL'S HEAVEN!

I lived in New Zealand for a year as a high school exchange student. While I was there, sheep became my favorite animal and border collies (stock dog trials) were my new favorite sport. I think that NZ came to Wisconsin yesterday! We watched the stock dog trials (I have also watched One Man and His Dog on BBCAmerica. We watched the border collie dog show (very cute), the girls wanted to see sheep judging (not that exciting when you don't understand what is happening, but still cool), we walked around to see all of the sheep and both girls wanted to buy Max, a shetland ram for sale for $200. He was sooooo sweet! We sampled grain-fed and grass-fed lamb (grain fed was our favorite), watched a sheep shearer (who of course got his training in New Zealand!) and walked around the country store.

Country Store makes me a future spinner!
Who knew roving could be a reasonable price? Who knew that so many people spin and love to talk about how to do it. Everyone was so friendly, I can't wait to learn how to spin. I know someone at work who has a spinning wheel, hopefully we can come up with a trade for me to borrow it and learn. I can't wait! Roving...... what a cool thing!

After six hours, the girls didn't want to leave, but I couldn't walk anymore. The sinus medicine was wearing off (a note about my allergies: I am allergic to EVERYTHING environmental EXCEPT.... pigs and... you guessed it... sheep! so only the dogs could bother me and I didn't pet any of them.) We climbed into the car, and after I used up some of my pharmacy store located on the front seat, we went off in search of good food. We had spent a little more money than I thought (food, gas, entrance fees, root beer floats and 3 pencils cost $40 and I only had $65 to spend), so we ended up at one of our favorite inexpensive restaurants... Noodles & Co.

We got home at about 8:00 at night, and put in a chick flick (Kate & Leopold), but I had forgotten that the ending had been taped over. At about 9:30 the girls woke me up to complain about not being able to see the ending of the movie and I went to bed.

They did not fight with each other all day!

What a great birthday present!

This morning I woke up at 8:00 and I feel a bit better, but still fighting those seasonal allergies that have caused a slight sinus infection. I have spent the entire morning looking at spinning and fleece websites. I can't wait to talk to my co-worker tomorrow and see about her spinning wheel!

Off to watch for DH on the television! Go Rams!