Wordless Wednesday

Mr. Peddle Puller Himself--

Weekend Update

Have you ever noticed that by blessing others you recieve a blessing? Sometimes, ok, most of the time it feels that you get an even bigger blessing. Such was the case this weekend.
Our church has a free garage "sale" every year, where the church body brings in unwanted items from home on Thursday and Friday, takes whatever they want those two days and then we open it up to the public on Saturday for the community to come and take what they need.
Now, I have never shown up on Saturday during the sale. I have gone to clean up, but my dislike of crowds have kept me away. Until this year. One of my friends talked me into working the kitchen with her giving out coffee, milk, bars, muffins, etc. Friday night one of the leaders saw me taking pictures and put me on camera crew.
I have heard the stories of the crowds but to see it for myself was amazing. The first people arived to stand in the cold at 6:30am knowing full well that the doors did not open until 8am. When I got there at 7:25 the line was substantial. And it had gotten below freezing that night. Brrrrr!!!
What a fun morning! We left the sale to go to J-Birds state peddle pull. He was so excited to be a "state champion"! It took f.o.r.e.v.e.r. for his time to pull. During that time we were able to sit and visit with family. Knights parents and sisters showed up, along with my parents and spouses, and my sister. One of my favorite parts of that day was when J-Bird asked to go be with Grampa. I asked which one, since there were 3 around and he pointed to his 3 grampa's sitting on a bench talking. I really don't know if my kids have seen the two sides of the family in the same vicinity in their memory so this was extra special for them. I love this family!

One of the farmers in our church has an annual corn roast. We have not been able to make it often but this year our schedule permitted and we were able to go for the first time in years. They just don't have roasted corn, grilled chicken, and a potluck but they also have horse powered wagon rides, volleyball and football set up, and last year they started a peddle pull. This is an annual event that has hundreds of people show up. Not just from our church, but different churches and with different names on the door. But we can come together and enjoy fellowship as one. What an amazing event.

This is the first time I have seen a peddle pull. For those who don't know, the rider peddles the "tractor" as far as they can as the weight moves on the pulley system making it tougher and tougher. The full pull is 40 feet and if there is a tie they add more weight and the ones that tied do it again.

All that to say that most of the family participated in the peddle pull. All but me and Rara. Knight was pleased with himself that he was right in the middle of all the men that participated. J-Bell and Desti didn't do as well as they hoped for, but they tried.

J-Bird is the one who couldn't have been happier with his pull. He had a full pull, the only boy in his age group that did that, and took home the gold, or at least the JD tractor set he picked out as his prize. And he made it look easy. This was a sanctioned pull, and therefor the top 3 in the age groups are able to go on and compete in the state competition in a couple weeks. And since it is not too far away from my house, and J-Bird REALLY wants to compete at the next one, we signed him up.

We did have plans for that weekend in particular, but how many times does your son have a chance to put "tractor peddle pull state champ" on his resume? So, if your available Sept 15th at 11am come cheer him on.

*Pictured--Upper left-J-Bird (sorry, can't really tell he's pulling)... Upper right-Knight...Lower left-J-bell...Lower left-Desti