State: Day Three & Four

 All of our meals on Thursday were hosted by the campus. That is, we were allowed free reign of the cafeteria. There were more competitive events and workshops until lunch, and after lunch we could either attend a meeting with university staff while they talked about college admissions, or tour the campus.

At three o'clock we had our first assembly, during which we had speakers, door prizes, and elections.

After assembly #1 we were left to ourselves during dinner, and until seven pm, when the last assembly was held. This assembly was similar to the first, but we also had election announcements, an awards ceremony for all the 1st place winners, and recognition of our new, current, and retiring 4-H ambassadors.

And then we had the traditional Ceremony of the Jackets.

Our 4-H State Officers are given a uniform, and part of the uniform is a green dress jacket. As they retire, and the office is passed to someone new, the old Officer gives the jacket (temporarily) to the new officer who has just been elected. It's an emotional time for all of us, as we say goodbye to old friends.

After some tears we all headed over to the Arkansas Union, where our last dance was being held. We stayed there for two hours, and many of us attempted to stay the song stopped playing, screaming the lyrics so that it wouldn't really end. You gotta love us.

Curfew was a twelve again.

There's really nothing to say about Friday, other than it was filled with, "Goodbye's," and "I'll see you soon's,". None of us really wanted it to end. But, all things do end eventually. We all packed up and headed home.

And so ended the Fayetteville 4-H invasion. See you next year!

State: Day Two

The schedule for State O'Rama, Day Two, looked something like this. Technically speaking, it was the first official day of O'Rama, even though several counties arrive early on Tuesday. (Like mine did.)

Registration began at 9am and lasted until 12:30. During this time we picked up our tee shirts, received our information packets and name tags, assisted several of our friends as they campaigned for various positions on the Arkansas 4-H state officer team, ate lunch which I believe was provided by the U of A Bumpers College, and just generally hung out and had a bit of a catching up period with all of our friends, some of whom we hadn't seen in a while.

Also during this time up until the first round of competitive activities we had a live aquarium viewing provided by the Arkansas Game & Fish Commission, as well as county pictures and judges orientation.

The first round of competitive activities began at 2pm. Those of us who were not competing attended various workshops, such as:

• Bumpers College Student Showcase
• Scholarship and Financial Aid
• 4-H Yoga for Kids
• Salsa Dancing
• Make a stand against Bullying
• Community Service
• Electric Car

Nothing else was scheduled, and we all hung out until it was time to prepare for the Awards of Excellence banquet, given in honor of certain 4-Hers who have been awarded scholarships and/or been given a State Journal award.

Those who were scholarship or journal winners departed about an hour before the rest of us to attend the banquet reception.

Also during this time the annual Governors Award nomminees were announced, and they were Sarah Mills, Meredith Williams, and Janee Shofner.

Their video profiles can be found at these links:

Williams:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=zBBNqoGKfL4&feature=youtu.be

Shofner:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=4-eF11y6vK8&feature=youtu.be

Mills:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=gBYnVb0xXCo&feature=youtu.be

I believe that Janee ended up being the recipient, however.

After the banquet the entire O'Rama attendees were given free reign of the Jones Family Center, located in Springdale, AR.
We could ice skate, swim, dance, watch a movie, all while eating pizza. Big thanks to the Jones Center for letting us do this for free.

 Curfew was at midnight, although many of us stayed up much later.

Squash Pickels

I spent the afternoon in the kitchen.

Cleaning up, and pickling some of the many squash that came out of our garden. Believe it our not, we still have six big ones left even after I did a double batch.

I used a very simple recipe that only required mustard & celery seed, vinegar, squash, and onions.
Want the recipe? Go to this link:

http://www.food.com/recipe/bread-and-butter-squash-pickles-11208

I double the batch an got six pint jars out of it. They tasted pretty good to.