Cookies, Auction and The Oak Ridge Boys!

What do cookies, a consignment auction and the Oak Ridge Boys have in common? 

They were all planned on Saturday the 24th and kept our family busy from morning 'til night, that's what!

Its not very often that we are busy because we have things planned.  Josh is always busy doing something; whether its livestock work, crops, repair work or maintenance... if you ask him what he's up to, he'll give you a list of things he's got to get done and when he's got to get them done by.  And I stay busy, too; between taking Caleb to school and picking him up, my town day for groceries and "stuff", the occasional Bible study and church activities, farm wifey errands and bookwork, and housework, I stay busy.  BUT its very unusual that we are busy all day long because of scheduled events... which what makes this past Saturday unique!

It all started when we realized that the ladies event at church coincided with a consignment auction that Josh was interested in, both in Oskaloosa.  And with the price of gas being what it is, we don't just go in separate vehicles.  SO after choring.... in the car we all piled to start the day, Josh and Caleb being dropped off at the sale and Sarah and I headed to church....

At the church for cookies:  Our ladies group meets every month, with every other month being a fun/ outreach event alternating with a work day event (I think... I'm still kinda new at this!).  This month was the fun month.

Sarah's ready, complete with her birthday apron!

We started with devotions by Mrs. Ann.

And then an introduction to cookie/cupcake decorating by Ann's sister, Emily... a real life decorator of all things bakery!

Waiting for cookies!

But a cupcake will do!
I did explain to Sarah Rose that we were going to be decorating cookies and cupcakes... and then she could have one for a snack.  But the decorating part must have slipped her mind, because as soon as a cupcake landed on her plate she dived right in!  She was enjoying herself immensely until....

...someone pointed out to her that she didn't have frosting on her cupcake! 
"Frosting, please?!"

Emily explained several techniques to us and then we tried our hands at them!

And had times of fellowship between turns with the piping bag!

Sarah Rose was the sprinkles master!

First a cupcake, then a cookie.  Not too long after this, us ladies got a chuckle from her cute "My tummy hurts" complaint :-)

After decorating, we had to rush out because we had promised Caleb and Sarah a picnic lunch.  So, we grabbed a sandwich in town and headed to find the fellas...

And this is where we found them.  After the kids had their picnic lunch (Josh and I opted out because we knew we had big plans for the evening!), us girls joined the boys at the sale.  Let me explain a consignment sale:  a sale date is scheduled and anyone who has anything to sale is invited to bring the item to the sale location.  This particular sale was a farm sale (obviously) so only farm things were sold, but anything really can be sold on consignment.  Anyway... the salers bring their items and on the auction date they are auctioned off, with the highest bidder taking the item home.  The saler gets the majority of the money the item brought, but a percentage goes towards the sale manager (not sure what his official title is), which is how he makes his money.

The items that are brought to sale are lined up in rows, with items from each owner grouped together.  The auctioneer truck goes up and down these rows until he reaches the last item.  A sale can last a couple of hours or all day, and if you're one of the "lucky" ones whose item you're interested in is at the end of the line, then you are assured for a long, long day of waiting!

 

The auctioneer sits in an "office" that has been built into the back of a truck.  If you look at the very first auction picture, you can see the auctioneer's truck in the center of the picture.  The auctioneer just sits in there, being driven from one item to the next.  Inside the truck is the sound system he uses to project his voice, as well as the lady who keeps up with the paper work of who bought what.

Sarah Rose was pretty happy to be reunited with Daddy!

In this picture, I think the kids are scheming up ideas of things they could do while they waited and asking Daddy for permission to do them because they know Mommy is more strict and will probably say no! 

Among some of the things the kids found to do to pass the time were...

 

Playing in the middle of a dual tire.

Playing see-saw on a tractor weight.

Finding treasures in the grass.

Playing in the mud.

And then playing in some more mud.

And looking for four leaf clovers.  This picture was towards the last part of our wait at the sale and I was getting desperate for entertainment!  Caleb had been reminded of four leaf clovers during St. Patrick's week (I think during preschool), so I thought we would try our hand at finding some.  We didn't have any luck on this day, but in the past we have found many!

Take a look at this picture.  Notice anything peculiar?  The grass is very green for March, yes... but there's something else.  There's a girl selling drinks off the back of a pickup bed... sure a little different, but not unusual for a sale.  But notice the driver of the truck in the middle of the picture.  Can you tell how old he is?  This is the best picture I could get of him (really zoomed in!), but he can't be any more than nine years old!  He drove from one end of the auction items to the other end and then backed up to a piece of equipment so his kid sister (just slightly older) could hook him up.... and did a good job doing it!  Now yes, I did grab my kids and made sure he had plenty of room between us and him when I saw him coming, but still... 

After the sale, Josh and I had plans for the evening.  The sale lasted quite a bit longer than we had anticipated (the item Josh was interested in was towards the end of the sale), so we had to scurry to get everything settled in time.  But we did and we had a great evening.

It started with supper at the new Pizza Ranch in Ottumwa.  Very nice!

The big event for the evening started at 7:30 at Bridge View and promised to be quite a big crowd.  So we planned to eat supper and then park at an exit point in the parking lot so we would be able to 1) be somewhat close to the building and 2) not get stuck in traffic for hours trying to get home!.  To do this, we had to eat early (hence the reason we skipped lunch when the kids had their picnic) and park a little over two hours before the event started.  All this we did and everything went as planned.  But that left us with two hours of "what to do?"

We opted to just walk along Ottumwa's walking/bike trail. The day was lovely and it was nice to just walk and do nothing!  First, we walked by the dam.  Quite the sight.

Then we retraced our steps and made our way to the old railroad bridge turned pedestrian bridge that spans the river and walked it.  This was pretty neat, too. 

The front bridge in this picture had no walkway on it (the railroad bridge is beyond this), so we had to retrace our steps again from the railroad bridge to this bridge this picture is taken from and walk it to get back on the correct side of the river for the big event!  We walked quite aways and over the river twice...  it was really nice!

Just a view of the walkway on the bridge back to the right side of the river.

Just in time for the big event...

In February, a local radio station held a call in radio contest to win tickets to the Oak Ridge Boys.  And Josh actually won a pair of tickets!  He enjoys his old country music and was super excited when he won because this is not something we would have spent extra money on!  Although I'm not the biggest fan, I can enjoy their music and it was a lovely evening out and gave us something to look forward to! 

When we finally were able to be seated, we discovered that the ticket master had misprinted the tickets.  We were in Row T (yeah, that's kinda high and far back... but hey, they were free tickets!) in seats 10 and 11.  But there were no seats numbered beyond 10 and what seats were there were already taken by people whose tickets were misprinted too!  So, per the instructions of the lady helping, we just sat wherever there were empty seats.  We ended up many many rows farther towards the front and had a great view.

As fun and great as the evening was, this picture captures one of the highlights for me.  There was a group of about six or seven boys, highschoolers that looked they were barely old enough to drive, that came in late. Obviously, they hadn't anticipated the crowded parking lot and having to park far away and walk to the building.  They sat a few rows behind us and had a great time singing along and dancing... yes, dancing.... to the songs.  I watched them for a while with a smile on my face:  they didn't really know the words to the songs and they were horrible dancers, but they were dressed nice, respectable and at a concert that wasn't full of songs about drinking, swearing, drugs and/or sex (which, ironically, is why  Josh and I went!).  They were having a great time and it was just fun to watch!

Which brings me to another story before I close:
I noticed right away that Josh and I were in the minority:  the place was full of old"er" people and here we were in our early 30s!  We joked about it and had a good laugh with each other and even some of our fellow ORB older fans noticed and laughed along with us.  There were a handful of people our age and several youngsters brought by their grandparents, but all in all, we were in a very small minority.  :-)