What a busy but good day!

Our day was rather busy. Brittanie and I headed to the school for her rifle team and drill team competition at 7am. I worked the canteen till 1:00pm, which is when everything was over. Brittanie's rifle team took second place but Brittanie got first place in individual prone position. She set yet another school record by shooting 183 out of 200. What's sad is that she is in danger of being removed from the rifle team because of her job. Until she turns 16 (on September 25th) South Carolina state law says she can't work during the week after 7pm. So she is scheduled to work 4 to 7 starting Monday. We don't know yet how often she will work. But the manager told her they would work with her. Hopefully her rifle team coach will too because he admitted today that had she not shot today, our school would not have placed at all. She is their best shooter. But anyway, here is the medal she won for getting top shooter. (For those keeping count....that makes 6 medals, 19 ribbons, 5 semicircles, and 3 cords....but she can only wear 2 at a time.)They wore class B's today but didn't put their awards on because it makes things easier when it comes to drill team inspection.

Unfortunately, Tom couldn't be there today to see her get her award because you just can't take Katie to a place like that and keep your sanity. So he took her to the Collard Festival parade and she was able to see her "best friend" Daniel. Daniel is actually her cousin, Daniel Sightler. I think Daniel is in K4 at Grace. They stand in car line together and have gotten to know each other and Katie just loves him. Daniel's dad is Tom's first cousin, Tripp. Tripp and his wife have two wonderful kids. Katie loves them both. After the parade, Tom walked down to the festival grounds to let Katie ride some rides. But she thought it was too hot and wanted to go home. So she ended up not riding anything.

I wish my mom could have come up here this weekend. She really tried but nobody could drive her. She wanted to drive herself but I wouldn't allow that. She's 800 miles away and 75 years old but she would have been there to see Brittanie today if I had allowed it. But that's typical of a grandparent that loves her grandchild. My girls are lucky to have at least one grandparent who loves them unconditionally. She may not agree with the way they dress, the music they listen to, or the school they go to but she loves them wholeheartedly and my girls know it and appreciate it. If she lived in South Carolina, she would be at all of Brittanie's competitions like she was at Brittanie's softball games when we lived in Louisiana. Actually she has been to one of Brittanie's drill team competitions last year. The only family she had there today was me. My mom always at least calls after her competitions....just like she and my dad have always done after her softball and basketball games.....to see how she did and how things turned out. So at least Brittanie knew that even though my mom couldn't physically be here (even though she tried) she is thinking about her and wishing she could have been there to share in the joy of her victory.

After the competition, I headed to the Collard Festival for the last half of the day. I just HAD to see the Elvis impersonator I booked. He was great. I'm not a big fan of Elvis but if you closed your eyes, you would have sworn Phil Urban was Elvis. He was GREAT!!! He even did the scarf thing that Elvis did...ya know giving women in the audience a scarf and kissing them on the cheek. Here are some pictures.
Well Elvis is not the only celebrity at our festival this year. We also had my friend, Red Fraley, as Willie Nelson. I absolutely HATE Willie Nelson. But Red is incapable of singing anything bad. He only did one Willie Nelson song....On the Road Again. But of course he had get in character for the song......Red and his band are GREAT!!! They sang "Chicken Truck" by Jon Anderson. I thought I was the only one in the world that even knew that song. Well if they can sing that song by Jon Anderson, surely they can sing the most popular Jon Anderson song.....Swingin! They did it! It was so cool!!

I met Red's wife this weekend and she is very nice and very pretty. They make a great couple. I like them both so much. Red helped me to make this year's entertainment for the festival the best ever. I thought this year was the best but I'm not alone. The festival goers were all talking about how great the whole festival was this year.....especially the entertainment.

So we are all very tired but it is a good tired. This year's festival was a great success!