Knolltop Farm Wife

It's been way too long since I posted here. I can't believe it's taken me this long to get to the computer! Needless to say we had a great time at the National Holstein Convention and enjoyed ourselves way too much. Between meeting and greeting, shopping and eating...I had no time for anything! Now I'm back home with more than one woman should ever have to face on a Monday morning and I'm feeling very overwhelmed. So...if you could just pray a little for me...I would appreciate it. The convention was a riot and on the way home the kids were busy making plans for heading to California next year. I'm ready but I'm not sure the budget is. None of the kids place in any of the competitions over the week, well, at least none of them placed in the top three....but they are all first place in my book. I can't say enough about how wonderfully behaved each kid was and how enjoyable it was to be with them all. They were game for anything as you can see below with ...

Good Morning from Wisconsin...still. The convention is going well, everyone is having a great time and the kids have been the best group I've ever dealt with! Yes, you can take farm kids off the farm and they know how to behave, get along and enjoy their time away from the work. I'm so impressed with every single one of them....can you tell? This morning Brittany Westendorp and Keith Kramer were in the fitting contest, they did well and it was a great experience for them both. We will find out how they did today at the luncheon. So until then I will sign off and report the results this afternoon when I sit down to write my column. More later!

It's been a busy couple of days here in Wisconsin at the National Holstein Convention. As you can see I haven't had time to post anything. So let me give you the condensed version of the last two days. Sarah's speech went well. She is one of these people who has bad rehearsals and then when the spotlight turns on, she goes to town. She was great! She lost her place a couple of times because she was being so animated, but she looked like she was having a great time. I know she was nervous, but she did well. We will find out just how well she did on Thursday. Last night they had a Junior mixer and the band Catchpenny played. Since two of the guys in the band were from Indianhead, a Holstein farm in Wisconsin, I decided I would go meet them. So I sat down at the table with the band and started into my reporter interregation mode and found out everything I wanted to know. What I found out is that they are a great group of young men and are very talented. Today we tour...

Good Morning from a sunny Wisconsin Dells! JW , Sarah and I are on the convention trip in Wisconsin and having a good time so far. We got through Chicago without any trouble or even much traffic. In fact we were on the west side before I heard the question, "Are we in Chicago yet?" This morning we will head down to the convention where Sarah will compete in public speaking, Levi and CJ will compete in Dairy Jeopardy and we have a few other things on the schedule. While walking back from the fitness room I heard a familiar laugh and it turned out to be Patty Hyde. Rumor has it she's here with the president of the Michigan Holstein Association....in the same room! Don't worry, they're married! Well, it's almost time to go, please pray for Sarah today, this is the first time she's done this, although she doesn't seem nervous, I'm sure she is. And thanks in advance! Later....I have a great story about four farm boys and the hood of a van!

It's another beautiful morning here on the Knolltop ! Luke is gone to his last day of basketball camp, Bobby and JW are fixing fence and Sarah and Jake are doing housework and aren't happy at all about it! Oh well. Last night Jake's team beat Pittsford by a lot! And JW and Luke's team took both games of their double header last night. Luke got to pitch the second game and after he ran out of gas in the fourth inning, JW came in to relieve him, but he had the National Holstein Convention on the brain and had to be relieved in the last inning. At least that was Luke's rendition of the game. Actually Luke went into greater detail about JW's performance last night and I'll just say this; I'm glad I wasn't riding in the truck with the two of them on the way home from the game. It must not have been too bad, they were joking around by the end of the evening. Today we are scrambling around getting ready for to leave and to be gone for a week. Yo...

Fun was had by all who promoted one of natures most perfect foods....MILK! With our black got milk? background and our milk musctaches we donned everyone we could with a white sticker over their lip, snapped their shot and gave them a chug of milk before they went on their merry way to investigate other interesting venues all for kids. With Lori from Knolltop Morgans and her brood we had a great time giving away free stuff and providing keepsake pictures for those brave enough to stand still for a sticker shot. Of course the workers had to get in on the action with their own poses. Sarah shows off her muscles while Jake tries to pose for a serious shot. His giggling got in the way and his mustache kept falling off! Then I wanted JW and I to get our mug taken and he generously sat on my lap! Of course the story behind that is, when he was younger and actually fit on my lap, I would ask him if when he was 16 years old would he still sit on my lap and let me hug him. He promised me he wou...

It's a cool, clear morning here on the Knolltop . And it's going to be a great day! For those of you who have wondered and have been praying for my dad, I want to say a big thank you! He is headed for surgery on his back on Friday. I don't know what the procedure is called, some big long name no doubt, but it sounds like it should be successful. So, three weeks ago he was nearly comatose from pain and now he's out driving the tractor, in pain, but not as much. You know when a farmer has hay to bale there is no such thing as pain. Keep praying for him and I'll let you know how it goes. Jake's team won last night by a big margin. Needless to say he was thrilled. And University of Georgia beat Stanford last night too in the NCAA baseball playoffs. Since Big Daddy is an alum of UGA we have to cheer for the Bulldogs! Luke's first day at basketball camp was fun. When he got home we were headed to Jakes game so at 10 pm last night he was sitting on the k...