Up again before the sun.

I've been up now since 5:30. One of these mornings I am going to smash that alarm clock to little itty bitty pieces! Woke up at 3 this morning with a horrible, nauseating headache on one side of my head. Knew right then I was on the beginning end of a migraine. I woke John up to go with me downstairs to get some ibuprofen and go to the bathroom. After that passing out incident on Friday night I don't get up alone. When we got back in bed my head was hurting worse and my stomach was very upset. I asked John to get the peppermint oil out. We keep it next to the bed. So he got that out and rubbed it on my head. He hadn't even finished putting it on my head when I felt my forehead getting warm. As usual, when I have a bad headache the smell of peppermint became very strong. It seems the worse the headache the hotter the oil becomes and the stronger the scent. So the bedroom smelled an awful lot like Christmas. It was only a matter of less than five minutes until enough pain had left me to allow me to fall back to sleep. John held me close and I cleared his nasal passages with the strong peppermint smell arising from my head. At 5:30 when the alarm went off I was extremely tired, but........NO HEADACHE! I don't know how that peppermint oil works but it certainly does the trick for me. I was extremely worried about developing a headache today. I have a busy one ahead. This morning I have to take Amanda to the dentist for a cleaning. Actually now it will be my mom taking the both of us. My Dad has my van to put new brake pads and rotors on it. It started making a horrid groan on my way home from town yesterday. I only drove it home but that 14 miles through construction did the rotors no favors. This afternoon we are having our one day at the county fair. I used to go every day, but they raised the prices so much that we can only afford the one day. It used to be $3 to get in. Now it has gone up to $9. So with 4 of us we don't go as often. They made more money off of us when the admission was $3. The kids were under 12 then so they were free. Kids over 6 pay full price now too. But when the prices were lower we went every day. We went early and stayed late. We ate all our meals there and we bought things. Now we wait until after lunch so we only have to buy one meal. And we only do the things that are included in the admission price. They have included more events in the admission price though. It makes a really nice day though. It is usually hotter than hell, but for that day we tolerate the heat and enjoy the fair. Amanda can't wait to see the chickens with the fancy feathers and the draft horses. Jenny is going to go MIA in the carnival. I am looking forward to some major junk food and all the free pens , notepads, keychains, etc that I can pick up. John won't join us until later for the bull riding. We thought we would surprise him by entering him! LOL---No, we would never really do that, but the look on his face would be something! Taylor, my nephew is in the kid's tractor pull event today. It is where they keep loading more weight to the back of a pedal tractor. The child that can get that tractor to go the farthest without taking thier feet of the pedals while carrying the most weight wins. He was a runner up last year. He pulled 50 lbs of weight. He won a pedal tractor race the other day. He lives for the fair. So I expect to come home tonight sweaty, dirty, tired, sunburned and happy. (and full of junk food) I hope they have the mechanical bull at the fair this year too. Amanda likes to ride that. And the operators just love it when she does. They really razz all the men standing there watching that are afraid to get on it. Every year she rides it you can hear them say, "Look at all you chicken men out there afraid to get on the bull. Here's a handicapped little girl with more guts than you. You should be ashamed of your big chicken selves." Of course the bull doesn't buck very hard for her, but she does it with one hand in the air like a real bull rider. My brave little girl. You wouldn't catch me dead on the mechanical bull. I'll just stand by the chickenshit big men out there and watch. Well I am off to get ready for this big day. Hope we don't have too much trouble finding Miss Jenny today. She will probably be off running from ride to ride. God those fair rides scare me. I just don't watch her go on them and say prayers. I put her in God's hands and go about doing other things. I am so glad she is old enough to run around on her own now. When she was younger I was a nervous wreck. I much prefer stationary parks to mobile carnivals. Well, on with the day!