About 2 months ago, I happened on an interesting news story at the end of the nightly news.  It was about a car auction in Nebraska.  A small town.  A field full of old cars.  I hadn't heard the beginning of the story so I went on a google hunt that weekend.  I knew that the auction was to be in Pierce, NE.  So, a-googling I went.  What I found was thrilling!

We have always wanted an old car.  In particular, a pre-war Willy, but those are extremely hard to come by, so we had set our sights on a 1955 Chevy.  The auction site was still in the beginning stages of getting the inventory online, but we soon discovered that there were several '55's to be had.  Most of these cars had sat in the field and trees for over 50 years, but they claimed they were in decent condition.  It was worth a shot!

Hubby spent several weeks pouring over the online auction portion, watching as the bids crept up a little.  There were about 500 cars, mostly Chevy's, it was really amazing!  We decided that we were definitely going to make the 4 1/2 hour trip and go see what we could see.  Best buddy and her hubby went with us.

What a weekend we were in for!

We knew it was going to be big, but the sea of humanity was incredible!  We couldn't even get near the auctioneer's trailer, let alone see any of the vehicles when we got there.

It was a pretty cool morning with quite blustery winds, but that did not deter the over 10,000 people who came that first day.  A and I decided to plunk down in the center of things and let the guys go digging through the people.  It was a people watching extravaganza, which always makes me happy, so we chatted with folks and watched as the auctioneer's trailer inched closer, along with the massive crowd.  They had already sold off the most expensive cars.  There were several that had never been titled before and had been stored in buildings.  A couple were extremely rare.  Several still had the plastic on the seats!!  A Chevy Cameo pickup sold for $140,000!  Several others were in the $90,000 range and on down the scale.  We were in no way in the market for those cars, but it was fascinating to watch it happening!

Most of the cars that hubby wanted to bid on were going to be on Sunday, we weren't really holding out hope for one of the ones on Saturday, so A and I weren't really paying to much attention.  I would usually hear what was up and then hear the "Sold!" from the auctioneer, but we were enjoying watching the crowd and meeting people.

Late in the morning, I heard them get to some 1957 Chevy's.  I listened with one ear, but since I no idea where hubby was in the crowd, I doubted I needed to be paying attention.  Then...I heard them mention a '55.  My ears perked up a little.  I knew there was one on Saturday he was particularly interested in, but he didn't think he'd be able to get.  I could sort of hear the bidding going on, but it was a little ways down the row from where we were, so it wasn't always clear.  However, clear as a bell, I heard, "Sold for $3000 to bidder number 3890!"  The auctioneer was on to the next car, but my heart was suddenly beating out of my chest.  $3000 was what he wanted to pay and I knew that our bidder number started with 38, but was unsure of the rest.  We grabbed our chairs and took off searching for them.  The crowd was so thick, we couldn't see a thing.  Finally, we went back to our central location to let them find us.

A short time later, they came walking towards our spot. A grin on hubby's face.  He had done it!  He had gotten the car!

We know that it was a blessing from God!  All the other cars in that row went for significantly higher amounts and many were not in as good of shape as ours!  What a gift!  

Proud new owners!

To the untrained eye, it looks like a bucket of rust, however, to the trained eye, it's a dream machine!  For sitting outside since 1961, it is in phenomenal shape.  The chrome is perfect, no pitting.  There is no rust on the fenders (through the metal) which is amazing, I'm told.  We plan to take it back to it's original turquoise and cream beauty, but with a bigger motor and wider back tires!

The rest of the day was spent just enjoying people watching for us girls and car heaven for the boys!  We came back on Sunday just in case we could get another bargain, but people were choosing to spend way more than we were willing to.  Here are a few more highlights from the weekend.

The original dealership

Cars, cars, and more cars!

A 1939 we were interested in, but it ultimately sold for $6000!  Way out of our price range!

Really cool trim inside the '39.

The auctioneer.

It really was one of the most enjoyable weekends I've ever had (apart from family events).  To be able to just sit back and people-watch.  To wonder about the previous owners of all those cars.  What stories could those cars tell?  Some were used by state and federal agencies.  Others were first cars.  Cars they went on their first date with their future wives in.  In fact, one fellow actually bought back the car he had traded in many, many years before!  Another fellow had looked at the car he bought on the show room floor many years ago!  It was a step back in time.  A time when technology didn't rule.  A time when a cruise on a summer's evening meant something.  The open windows, the open road.  Things moved so much slower.  

Maybe we can recreate a bit of that as we restore our '55 beauty!    

Having a hard time finding the energy and the words to blog.  Life has been very busy and I will blog about our uber-cool weekend last weekend soon, but, for now, two little announcements....

Our son and daughter-in-law are expecting!

Our daughter and son-in-law are expecting their third!

Life is good!

I cut my teeth, on the back of an old church pew
I learned to walk in the ways of light and truth
And I was told not to speak til I was spoken to
I heard it preached, what I should and I should not do
And the choir sang
Woh oh oh oh oh oh oh Woh oh oh oh oh oh oh

I tried to be a good boy but I ain't a boy no more
I've seen somethings that a man just can't ignore
And this world's gone see what I am standing for
I've kept my peace, I can't hold my tongue anymore

You can't buy my silence, you can't steal my voice
You can't keep me quiet, I will bring the noise
Try to beat me down, tell me to shut my mouth
But there's a time to speak and the time is now
Woh oh oh oh oh oh oh
Woh oh oh oh oh oh oh 

The squeaky wheel is always getting greased
Well, I've been sitting still
Park here on the side of the street
Always tip-toeing trying not to wake the beast
Oh but here I come
All you monsters had better run from me

You can't buy my silence, you can't steal my voice
You can't keep me quiet, I will bring the noise
Try to beat me down, tell me to shut my mouth
But there's a time to speak and the time is now
Ooh It's the time and the time is now
Woh oh oh oh oh oh oh
Woh oh oh oh oh oh oh

You can't buy my silence, you can't steal my voice
You can't keep me quiet, I will bring the noise
Try to beat me down, tell me to shut my mouth
But there's a time to speak and the time is now

You can't buy my silence, you can't steal my voice
You can't keep me quiet, I will bring the noise
Try to beat me down, tell me to shut my mouth
But there's a time to speak and the time is now
Woh oh oh oh oh oh oh
Woh oh oh oh oh oh oh
Woh oh oh oh oh oh oh
Woh oh oh oh oh oh oh

         ----Warren Barfield

My new rallying cry!

Geesh, it's been almost a month since I last posted.  Life has been very busy the past few weeks, it's been hard to stay on top on anything.

Slow progress is being made on the house.  We've almost got it completely insulated with the blue foam and then a follow-up wrap.  Hopefully, then, in a week or two, my wonderful construction crew will be here to finish the roof, siding, and put the new porch on.  Some days I'm so excited I can hardly stand it!

I've been a race (cars) fan the majority of my life.  When I was in third grade or so, my Mom and Dad took me to see the sprint cars at Knoxville, IA. I was hooked!  I loved the sound, the dirt, the smell!  It was a rush even for an 9 year old!  Thankfully, my best friend and her dad were avid fans, too, so I was able to start going with them every weekend.  I rarely missed a weekend until after I was married and couldn't really afford to do it every weekend anymore.  Times were different then, we didn't need to be bubble-wrapped to protect ourselves from ourselves, you know, so the rule was that when you were 14, you could go to the pits for the evening.  You had to pay a little extra and sign the liability waiver, but then you were good to go.  No parental supervision needed!  So, when I was 14, I started spending most of my time in the pits, helping out a local driver and his crew with simple things like changing the tear-aways on his helmet and picking up his gloves off the ground when he'd had a bad run. I loved it!

So....in 1985, when we got the chance to go see the big boys race in Daytona, Florida, we took it!  Not only was it February in Iowa, dreary, cold, grey, but it was NASCAR!  Big motors and big personalities!  We drove down there several days early and did the tourist thing.  St. Augustine, the ocean, and Disney World.  On Sunday, we headed to the track at about 4 AM.  We had passes to get us into the pit area before the race and we wanted to get an early start.  Oh my!  Amazing!  I got very close to Richard Petty and several other drivers.

We were blessed to have amazing seats.  There are very few sections at Daytona where you can see the entire track, but we got to sit in one of them.  Daytona is a long race and the middle can get pretty boring, so the other fans around you keep you entertained during the long stretches of green flag racing. We were fortunate to have a few doozies!  One lady literally pulled a batch of fried chicken, wrapped only in wax paper, out of her purse!!

The end of the race was very exciting!  Bill Elliott won his first Daytona 500 that day!  I was ecstatic.  He and Darryl Waltrip were my favorites.  Bill was/is such a gentleman, so gracious, and that southern drawl of his was just great!  With that, and a horrible sunburn, we headed back to cold, dreary Iowa.

Fast forward 20 years of so.  My step-dad, who is a dead ringer for Bill Elliott, gets to finally meet him at the Knoxville Nationals one year.  I was jealous, but just didn't have the time to go stand in line for an autograph or picture, but I was happy for pops!

Fast forward another 8 years or so...........this weekend was the NASCAR truck series race at the Iowa Speedway.  We weren't able to go, so we thought we hit our local Mexican restaurant for supper.  I had my glasses off to read my menu but, out of the corner of my eye, a lanky man comes in that looks really familiar to me.  I didn't think much of it so went back to perusing the menu.  We placed our order and I put my glasses back on.  They had seated the man and his wife and son just catty-corner from us, perfectly in my line of vision.  The back of this man continued to look very familiar to me, but I couldn't remember his name!  Finally, I googled who won the Daytona 500 in 1985 and it all came rushing back.  I still wasn't 100% sure, so since his son was wearing logo wear, I googled "who drives for Aaron's in the truck series?" and low and behold, it came back Chase Elliott!  And, to top it off, he had just one his race the previous week, making him the youngest driver ever to do so!  I couldn't believe it was really Bill Elliott!  Chase didn't have to race until the next day, so it seemed that they came out to enjoy a bit of time away from the track.

I politely introduced myself and told Bill that I had seem his win the 500 in 1985.  He said, "Whoa!" We chatted for a minute and he said he'd be happy to have a photo with me after our meals.  So gracious!  What a southern gentleman!

He told me to be sure to get a picture with Chase, too, so Chase was gracious enough to agree!

I see this young man going places!  Looking forward to watching his career grow and mature!

Stuff like this rarely happens to me, but the timing of this meeting was such a blessing!  I had had really hard news about a dear family earlier in the day and it helped to ease the sting a bit.  God is so good!

We had a wonderful day at the state fair the other day!  The weather was perfect!  In the 60's with a light breeze to begin the day followed by low 70's and sunshine!  Couldn't have asked for anything better!

Looking at the ducks at the DNR building.

"I don't really care about the ducks!"

Zebra!

Feeding the young camels.

Getting her first "tattoo".  Iowa State Cyclones, of course!

We found Floppy!  He is a beloved puppet from my childhood.  The state historical museum created a huge stir earlier this summer by retiring his display, but the governor brought him for the fair.  Tons of people just a bit older than I, through my generation, and just a bit younger have been having their photo taken with him.  E seemed a bit curious about it, and maybe a bit scared, but I'm hoping to get some dvd's of the old shows and introduce her to the joys of The Floppy Show!

"Eh, I don't care about Floppy, either!"

She did, however, enjoy the calf!

Strolling along the avenue.

There was some yarn bombing going on!  Fun!

Sweet!

Gma and L!  Life is good!

It has been a busy couple of weeks!  Since putting in the french doors, we have begun the process of getting the old siding off of the house.

It was a beautiful day to start working on it and I got some adorable pictures of the girls.

Yes, I love my baby sister!

Beyond adorable!

Pretty!

The sweetest faces ever!

Of course, working on the outside has spurred on some changes on the inside and we've been doing a bit of rearranging and purging!  Hubby's desk has now joined mine in the craft room, freeing up room in the bedroom.  A couple of trips have been made to the Salvation Army and I'm beginning to feel like I'm getting ahead, finally.

Disorganization and change are a struggle for me. It makes me feel all scattered and overwhelmed, so I'm very thankful to be on the home stretch with it.  The outside won't be as big of a deal, well, other than having to get up pretty early and be all dressed and prepared for people, but it will be so worth it in the end!

Saturday was a big day! One of dreams, since we were married 26 years ago, was to put french doors in the south wall of the house.  We live down in a valley and have a beautiful view of the timber, but the little window we had really didn't let us enjoy that view.  Now.......we have one dream fulfilled!

The before outside shot.  We had to strip off the yucky old aluminum siding to the yucky old wooden siding!  In a few weeks, all of it will be gone, replaced with new cement board siding!

The before inside shot

What a mess!!!!!

The hole from the outside.  The dormer above the back porch, which will come off and be replaced with a smaller enclosed porch and a wrap around to the front porch, is what the finished siding project will look like.

Getting it ready

Moving it in

All set!

After outside shot!

After inside shot!  We just love it!!

Today is also a melancholy day for me.  It is the 1st anniversary of our little Adley dying in the womb at 6 months gestation.  She was beautiful and her short life meant the world to our family!  

Psalm 139:13-16 (NASB)
¹³ For You formed my inward parts; You wove me in my mother's womb.
¹⁴ I will give thanks to You, for I am fearfully and wonderfully made; Wonderful are Your works, And my soul knows it very well.
¹⁵ My frame was not hidden from You, When I was made in secret, And skillfully wrought in the depths of the earth;
¹⁶ Your eyes have seen my unformed substance; And in Your book were all written The days that were ordained for me, When as yet there was not one of them.

Sorry about the ads.  I don't like 'em, but I'm not sure what to do about them.  Trust me, the eucalyptus radiata from Young Living will work far better for your sinuses than anything advertised here.

Last week I had a mini-meltdown.  I had reached the breaking point with being criticized, talked down to, and just the general nastiness that seemed to be running rampant, not just in my own family, but everyone I talked with.  Not a good word about anything (maybe not such an absolute, but it sure seemed that way).  People were being critical of people being critical, it seemed to be reaching epic proportions around here.  I ended up hanging up on my daughter, the one I almost never fight with.  I spent several minutes crying and pouring it out to hubby.  He was supportive and understood where I was coming from.

I resolved at that point to really work on my own tendency to criticize and to try to seek to build up, rather than tear down.  God confirmed my struggle with all these negative attitudes with a song my beautiful daughter-in-law sang in church on Sunday morning.

 

Holy Spirit, living Breath of God,
Breathe new life into my willing soul.
Bring the presence of the risen Lord
To renew my heart and make me whole.
Cause Your Word to come alive in me;
Give me faith for what I cannot see;
Give me passion for Your purity.
Holy Spirit, breathe new life in me.

Holy Spirit, come abide within;
May Your joy be seen in all I do—
Love enough to cover ev'ry sin
In each thought and deed and attitude,
Kindness to the greatest and the least,
Gentleness that sows the path of peace.
Turn my striving into works of grace.
Breath of God, show Christ in all I do. 

Holy Spirit, from creation's birth,
Giving life to all that God has made,
Show Your power once again on earth;
Cause Your church to hunger for Your ways.
Let the fragrance of our prayers arise.
Lead us on the road of sacrifice
That in unity the face of Christ
Will be clear for all the world to see.

Holy Spirit, Living Breath of God
Words and Music by Keith Getty & Stuart Townend
© 2006 Thankyou Music

"In each thought and deed and attitude, kindness to the greatest and the least, gentleness that sows the path of peace. Turn my striving into works of grace.  Breath of God, show Christ in all I do."  Amen and amen!

I cried through the whole thing!  Then the pastor's sermon was on judging others and building up and not tearing down.  God had a message for me last weekend and it came in loud and clear!!

Today, I'm just trying to not get in a panic.  We are putting in french doors (pics will come later) and I am not good with the destruction part.  Gets my heart to pumpin'!

July, but.....

I do love July, but.....I do begin to miss routine and quieter schedules (although, in reality, I'm not sure what that is).

When you live in a geographical area that has pretty distinct seasonal changes, summer is a wonderful thing, however, a lot of activities tend to be crammed into the short 3 month period (more like 2 1/2 if you go from the end of the school year to the beginning).  I tend to be a fairly routine gal, but I've had to adapt to having a lack of routine since I've been married to my farmer for almost 26 years now.  There is very little routine in the life of a farmer, especially if you have livestock.  Anyway, it's been a busy past few days and the week continues to be busy.

E and I put this together Saturday morning.  She helped me clean up the sawdust after we got it in place.

 

The finished area.  So much better than the pile we had there before!

We had chips and dip with lunch and she decided that the dip would make a lovely moisturizer!

Our first trip to the county fair!  She loved it! 

L was a little bored with the "Barnyard Battles", but when we headed for the animal barns, she perked up.

Watching the kids do their thing.  We were close to the lasso area.

The fair was fun.  We enjoyed the free meal they always have on Sunday, provided by livestock producers.  I enjoyed a lamb burger!  Both girls loved the animal barns.  I think the farm is in their blood!

Monday was another trip back to the fair to look over the knitted items.  There are some very nice pieces!  

Tuesday was a trip to the Iowa Girls Softball tournament 2 hours away.  My niece's team lost their first game, but get to play for 5th in state today.  A is quite the ball player!  She gets my adrenaline pumping!!

The kids spent part of the evening picking produce from the garden.  The cucumbers have gone crazy!!

The haul!

Today's very Iowa summer dinner!  BLT's (with the best turkey bacon I have ever had!), fresh corn on the cob, picked last night by my bestie, and watermelon!  Yummo!!!

She loves the corn!!

Looking ahead to the weekend.......it's our 26th anniversary and there's a good chance we'll be putting a big hole in our living room!  

Oh, and that post about sinus headaches a couple of posts back.......

God brought me an answer to prayer! Young Living's Eucalyptus Radiata essential oil!  One swipe on each side of my nose and across my sinus each night before bed.  I have not used Mucinex in 3 weeks and I haven't used nasal spray in almost 2.  My sinuses have not felt this good in years!  We slept with the windows open last night and I woke with a bit of the beginning of a sinus headache.  I put more eucalyptus on and some peppermint essential oil on my temple and it brought sweet relief!!  I have prayed for years for a natural solution to my sinus issues and the pray has been answered.  So thankful I didn't give into the surgery as a friend of mine had it done just a couple of weeks ago and she had to be readmitted into the hospital just the other day because she was hemorrhaging.  I'm having wonderful results and nothing invasive is happening!  Praise Yah!