Finally

This is where my trip started. The bus station. It was my first time buying bus tickets, riding a bus on my own and riding out of state. I was excited. I felt like an adult. :) Preacher was laughing at me in amusement. He took this picture of me and Mrs. Rowell with my bag and tickets.


So the first day of the Iowa State Fair (ISF) they had this. You had to come early and eat a corn dog to get free admission to the fair. They wanted to get the most people to eat a corn dog at the same time for the Guiness World Book of Records. Well, they could only make like eight thousand corn dogs. 11,000 people showed up. Then after 11,000 they couldn't fit anymore in the stadium. If you made it by the deadline they still let you in so 31,000 people were wandering around the fair grounds in addition to that. 5,000 people were in line to get in at the deadline. Crazy huh? This was my number.


My corn dog!


Molly's mom and Molly.


Me and Molly.


Molly's dog, Cookie. I fell in love with her! I was outside playing with her. They told me she would growl and bark at me when I first got there. She didn't, she walked right up to me tail wagging and happy. She liked me too :)


Butter Cow. Cool huh?!


I know their are tons of cows around, but I had never seen one up close. So I had to take a picture.


This was taken merely because it was amusing. Elvis is so ancient. Talking about back in the day. Who new T.V guides were around back then? :) The building this was in was called pioneer hall. It was my favorite. They had old books and record players and dolls and stuff. They even had old pictures of John Wayne. :( I don't really like westerns. I found a canning guide for Mrs. Rowell from 1965. They also had someone dressed up as a blacksmith making things. They had old printing stuff too. It was just cool.


This is what me and Molly got to ride for free. Someone gave us their tickets. We had been walking around all day and needed to get to the other end of the fairgrounds so it was greatly appreciated.


It's the ISF, what do you expect? I took pictures of some animals just because it was all a new experience for me.


Who knew a llama could be in Iowa?


This was the winner of the big boar contest, weighing 1259 pounds. Or maybe it was 1258?

It's hard to see people you love go through hard things. It is especially hard to see your young nieces and nephews go through things. I wish that they didn't have to grow up the way that I did. Or experience some of the same things I did. I hate to see them suffer because of choices their parents make. I don't have favorites but two of my nieces have very special places in my heart. You love them all the same but in different ways. Shalyn has a special place in my heart because I see so much of myself in her. Because she was the first niece. Because she had me wrapped around her finger the first time I saw her. She made me want a little girl just like her someday. I hate seeing the way she has to live, a lot like the way I grew up. The other niece that has a special place in my heart is Lydia. She is sweet, naive, cheerful and perky. She is also a first. She was the second niece, but first child of a different brother. Lydia has a much happier safe life, not without problems though. Her daddy never ever payed attention to her and now has left. Doesn't care enough to be a part of her life. Her dad is not a bad person but something just went very wrong in his heart. She acts up now because her "daddy" is gone. She thrives on attention, and I have heard her say she misses her dad many times. I think that her behavior has a lot to do with the absence of her dad when he was around and the complete absence of him now. I just hurt for her because in a way I understand. I hate that her seven year old innocence has to be ruined by the D word. She's seven, she doesn't understand.

I pray for my family and things always seem to go from bad to worse. Sometimes it's hard to have faith when you feel like your prayers aren't being answered. It's hard to have faith when you look at your nieces and nephews all under the age of seven, who suffer because of their parents. It never helps either when I get lectures about having faith and never stop praying and etc. It doesn't make me want to have faith anymore than before. It just makes me want to scream. I do still pray and I am not giving up, I am just saying.

I know how God has worked in my life and I am sure He can do the same with my family. In HIS time. It makes me want to raise my kids the right way. I never want my children to experience the things I or my family members did.