Just like the State Fair

One week before my due date with Veronica I decided to take the kids to the Texas Livestock Show and Rodeo. It runs for 2 weeks every March and it's always a good time. Texas has a tradition of raising livestock. 4 legged animals that give back in some way... milk, beef, wool, or animals with 2 legs, also giving back, eggs mostly. They have competitions where farms or individuals (often young adults or children) can enter their animals in contests and win prize money, usually spent on another animal to raise and show off again the next year. So, for 2 weeks, all the winning animals and some of the 2nd and 3rd place as well, are kept in a big barn for everyone to see. There are also rides for the kids, exhibitions on milking a cow, petting zoo, these types of things. Exposing the city kids to a little farm livin' is never a bad thing... see below...

pig race. they race around to reach the oreo at the end. very cute.

Yes, yes, that's all very cute and we're making memories, etc., etc.

In REALITY, we all know why we really go to the State Fair and Rodeo...for the food...

Deep Fried anything

"Italian food" on a stick

  

There is an entire category of food that is "Fairground Food" (the first two photos) and a sub-culture within that which includes all kinds of foods on sticks. One hand for your beer. One hand for your food. No utensils needed, and if you're super careful, you won't even need a napkin.

Oh, how glorious was the day man invented food on sticks.

One such beloved food on a stick is called a 'corn dog'. This is a hot dog weiner, beef, pork, unidentifiable meat in tube form on a stick, dipped in a special cornmeal batter. It usually looks like this...

Picture taken from Sonic, the king of fast food corn dogs.

We would go to Sonic occasionally as kids. And I would always order one of two things. Hamburger - meat and bun only (no veggies or condiments - I know you Poles are just cringing at this ;)) OR a corn dog - plain.  Heaven.

Poland doesn't have Sonic or Texas State Fairs. So when the corn dog can't come to us... we create it ourselves...

This is what happens when you let your children take the pictures to "document corn dog making." Little goobers. I used Popsicle sticks ( I have tons now, thank you very much!) stuck into some short and fat parowki and followed this recipe for the batter.

They. were. amazing.  

I am only allowed to make these once a year says Martin, because they are the definition of heart attack inducing deliciousness. But goodness, it's worth it.

Summer time - Picture Dump

Martin and I took advantage of having Babcia living downstairs for a while and went out on the town by ourselves.

She came too.  Fancy European baby. "What's that?, Europe?!, I live in Europe?!!... I was not consulted!"

Swimmer #1

Swimmer #2

Swimmer #3

Fancy tired European baby.

Spectator. Who dresses this kid?

I do exist, after all.

Unsupervised 3 year old.

My first and only completed knit of the summer. Sigh.

This reads: We welcome you to a festival of hot dogs. Sounds good to me! Hosted by...your local gas station.

4th of July faces.

Who am I kidding? It's summer, I have a new baby plus 4 other kids and I have never claimed to be super mom, the laundry piles and half finished sewing projects are proof of that. I like blogging but it has taken a big back seat to other things right now. Sporadic posts are what we get.

In case you're following along...we got our loan approved. It's a conditional approval which means that we must meet a condition before the money is released but it is a step in the right direction. We are hesitantly excited. If you have a chance and some extra space on your prayer list, send some up for Martin. He is working so hard to get all this put together. We have been told by every other person how hard it is to build a house in Poland, how all the contractors will tell you you're doing it wrong and how every neighbor will have an opinion. At this point, I welcome those comments because it means there is actually a house to criticize! Plus, then I get to wear my "Jestem szefem" shirt! (if you know what I'm talking about here you have definitely been paying attention ;) )


If you happen to come across this blog, or have been reading from the very start, please don't hesitate to shoot me an email if you're in Krakow and would like to meet up!

Cheers!

Building a house in Poland: Frustration

Here is where we are now...



and here is where we were a month ago...





If you're thinkin' they look similar, you'd be correct. Because they are similar, the exact same in fact. And no, here in Poland, foundations do not have to sit for a whole month before you can build on them.

Banks, man. Banks.

BAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAANKS!!!!




I'm not going to go into detail. It's been a long and arduous task, compiling all the paperwork, submitting all the forms, translations and more translation, and waiting, and waiting, and waiting..... and waiting. Martin, to be more specific, has been doing all of this, on top of his other, real job, which actually makes the money so we can even have what you see up there in those photos.

And we didn't start this process a month ago, no ma'am, we started it almost 6 months ago.

Don't. even. ask.

I know all the arguments about how Poland weathered the worldwide recession by being fiscally conservative and blah, blah, bah... but c'mon, man.

C'MON.

We just want some money. That's all. Just some money.