Random

I wish I had some pictures to put up.. I don't have a camara, just my phone so its hard to take good pictures when I want to.

Anyways now that thats said....

This past weekend we went to T's parents for his nephews birthday. It was a short trip, too short, but it was good to get away from here for a bit. It's that time of year when the wind start a howling at night, blowing dirt everywhere. I don't like the wind, it's annoying and it makes my ears ring. I can't ride in it and it gives the world a dull, plain look thats kind of sad. I didn't like the wind in Wyoming either. Ya'll think the wind blows here? Just go to Wyoming and you will think different; it blows about 100 miles an hour for days!

Anyways back to the trip. I know T enjoyed getting to see everybody but all I had to listen to on the drive home was how much he loved where he is living know. I guess his allergeries were bothering him. Boo hoo.

I was bored the other day and so I got to looking at some pictures from a long time ago. I thought I might share, since I don't have any new ones to put up!

This was the front porch of our house! Look at that snow!

In the daytime

Hank,before he got fat and after playing in the snow!

Mom, LJ and I feeding cattle!

Those are some winter pictures because I love the snow and its the one thing I miss most!

My Parents

Snowy in Laramie Wyoming

Can you guess who that is? My grandma absolutly loves this picture of me! I don't know why though.

That would be little LJ!

Someday I will have to add more but I'm being told to go to bed so good night ya'll!



A Woman's Place

I received a letter in the mail the other day from some friends of my grandparents with a poem inside that I really enjoyed so I thought I would share it.

A Woman's Place
"A woman's place is int he home." That always has made sense.
They're just not built for riding broncs, nor fixin' barbwire fence.
The "woman's place" is well-defined throughout the cowboy West,
Besides, it's our tradition. Our old ways have stood time's test.
There's lots of thing that women do way better than a man.
They're a whiz at washing diapers, or with a frying pan.
Those ladies are a comfort when a man ain't feelin' prime.
So, for cookin' or for lookin', give me a woman every time.
I've always advocated the old values of the West.
I believe, just like gospel, that the old-time rules is best.

A few years back I put things off, like I'm inclined to do.
When branding time come rolling 'round - I didn't have a crew.
And this girl, I'll call her "Laurie," said she'd agree to lend a hand.
I thought she meant her husband! See, I didn't understand
That she meant her, you savvy now that I was in a bind.
I didn't want to break her heart. I couldn't be unkind.
She said she had these horses that needed lotsa miles.
I said we'd start at daylight. She says, "Great, And thanks," and smiles.

'Bout three o'clock next morning, while I'm still snoring hard,
I starts, and hear a creeping gooseneck ease into the yard.
We invites her in for breakfast, but she's already ate.
It's an hour and half to daybreak 'n I'm already late.
The crew shows up, but she's the one who gives me an assist
When Old Ranger trys to buck me off. She gathers cows I missed!
While I gees and haws Old Ranger, her horse rolls o'er his hocks.
She cuts us cowboys seven ways, 'n does it orthodox.
There ain't nothin' that that girl can't do! I'm feelin' like a dope.
At last in desperation, I says, "Laurie, wanta rope?"
She keeps six rasslers busy. We're all abustin' gut.
She even finds a branded bull that I forgot to cut.
For four long days she shows us how a real hand operates.
She rassles and gives shots and brands. She even "casterates!"
When we gets done I offer up to ride, to pay her back.
In the nicest way that she knows how, she lets me know: I lack
Some basic skills I never learned. My horses ain't the best.
They got more help than they can use. I prob'ly need a rest.
So:
"A woman's place is in the home," to me don't seem so strange,
Because I finally figured Laurie's "Home (is) On The Range."

-Wallace McRae



I hope you enjoy this poem as much as I did!

One more thing before I go, our trip to Stephenville was a blast. We had lots of fun and the horse show went great!  I'm not sure how I placed but out of 25 riders I placed in the single digits in every class. Curly and I still have some work do before the next show. Hope ya'll have a wonderful day!

A typical day on the ranch

Well it's Wednesday, the middle of the week and the one day I have any time to go out the ranch and see my fiancee. After three classes, (Psychology, Zoology, and Algebra,) it's nice to just jump in the truck and make the 70 mile trek to the ranch. Today was no different than any other Wednesday. I stopped to get some fuel, buy some last minute groceries for supper and off I was. 50 miles later I was at the dirt road that leads to T's house, I stopped, got out and checked the tires like I always do and kept on. Everything was good, so I turned up the music and kept on rolling.
After a while I heard something funny, like a grindnig sound but I didn't think anything of it. I thought it was just the road. But pretty soon after that I hear a loud "pop" and I look and my rearview mirror and one of my hub caps is rolling off into the pasture. So I stop, checked the tires on my side of the truck, nope nothing. Went around to the other side and sure enought... a flat tire. Not just any flat tire but a FLAT tire, all tore up and everything. You could have thought I had been going a 100 miles an hour.. it looked terrible.
 The first thing I did was look at my gps and it said I had 2 more miles to go before I got to the house. Great. I was faced with several choices; change the tire myself, walk to the house, or wait until T showed up. (I call him everytime I head out the ranch and when I don't show up he usually comes looking for me.) I decided that I would just change the tire myself. So I got behind my seat and retrieved all the right tools and with a determined demeaner I got busy. I loosened the lugnuts on the tire with quiet some effort, but when I went to jack my truck up, the handle to crank it was missing. I proceeded to jack the truck up using a screwdriver and after about ten minutes and both arms going numb from lack of blood I had had enough.
 After that I decided to go with choice two.. walk to the house. 2 miles isn't bad, I used to run 3 miles everyday for fun so this should be no problem. Or so I thought... I put my tools away, locked my truck, grabbed my pistol and headed east. After about a mile, I was tired! I was wearing boots so my feet hurt and I was walking up hill which didn't help the situation, and, the pistol was heavy! I was thinking to myself how much I wished T would drive over the hill and come rescue me.. but he didn't. Instead, I looked to my right and low and behold, my favorite little mare PD was standing at the fence wathcing me. By this time I see the house but it was about a mile off and, like I said, I was tired. Call me a baby but if you were in my situation you would understand!
PD just stood there looking at my as I crawled through the fence, took off my belt, put it around her neck and hopped on her. Thank the Lord for gentle horses! I didn't fully realize how tired I was until I was sitting on her as she walked to the house. I had made it about half way to the house when a cloud of dust comes over the horizon. T was on his way to the house! I think I startled him when I rode up to the house with a pistol in my hand. After I told him what had happened he busted out laughing!
Once I had recovered and got some water, T and I loaded up and went back to my truck to change the tire. It turned to be more trouble that I had thought and I'm glad I walked to the house instead of changing it myself.
The moral of the story: always be prepared to change a tire! I think I'm going to have to get a new jack for my truck and a new set of tires...

T G I Friday!!!

In case you didn't know it... It's Friday!!!!

I am excited for many reasons on this Friday afternoon.. One being that the west coast travelers are on their way home! They sold 14 tools and 2 compressors. 14 tools!! They went up there with 15 and I told them couldn't come home unless they sold them all. They were pretty darn close though. Now it's just the long two day journey home ahead of them! That is one of the reasons I was glad I didn't go. Last year we spent the night in the truck...

Reason #2 why I'm glad it's Friday! After this weekend it's Valentines Day! Yay! If all goes well I'm supposed to have a date with this cute cowboy (Aka my fiancée) we're thinking dinner and a movie.. Or we might have to visit the Marfa lights. But we did that last year so we shall see. I received a phone call this morning from my cowboy saying he didn't think he would be able to come in, but that doesn't stop me from being excited! The ranch is still having trouble with busted water pipes I guess.

Reason # 3: I have a practice on Sunday for a horse show that I'm going to at the end of the month. I'm going with some friends up to ft. Stockton to work on my patterns. The show is a SHOT/ASHA show in Stepehenville Texas and consists of four parts: reining, trail, ranch pleasure, and working cow horse. We have rented the indoor arena in Stockton all day on Sunday so we can perfect everything. I'm so excited! It's time to redeem myself after the show in Amarillo. I'm planning on taking my cowboys horse up there because my mare is turned out to pasture And it would take forever to get her in shape. I think Curly will do great though!

I think that's about it for why I'm glad it's Friday and I should say that this post is the result of too much caffeine! In other words I'm hyper!

Home alone

Have you ever spent the night at a different place and woke up not realizing where you were? I did that this morning and it kinda freaked me out. My parents and brother are in California for the week so I'm staying with my grandmother. I like her house, its neat and tidy and the way she has it set up really makes it comfortable, but for some reason I was just out of place this morning. When we first moved here to Texas my brother and I lived with my grandparents for about six months, till my parents bought a house so it's not like it's strange to me... I don't know what the deal was.

But anyways, yes, my parents are in California! Early Saturday morning they got up and made the 2 day trip to Tulare, California for the World Ag Expo. I went with them last year to the show and it was a lot of fun, too bad I had to stay and go to college. Someone has to take care of all the animals though. It's just my grandmother and I here, my aunt and uncle are in Las Vagas for another show.

Here are some pictures from last year.

 The couple from Australia who manufactures the tool that we sell here in the States. They came over to help out with the show.

 My dad working on a tool and my uncle talking with the Aussie.

 Our booth was a 40x40 painted off square filled in with wood chips. That's a lot of space, until you park a four horse trailer and truck in it, then it's about half the size. We made do, but when there were 50 people standing around looking at the tool it was a little packed.

It made me laugh because the first day we were there no one was really interested, so my dad fired up a compressor and drove a t-post into the ground and what do ya know... instantly people were attracted like flies! It was quite amazing and every time it started to die down, Dad would drive another post and it would start all over. At about the middle of the second day we would get mad at him for doing it because we were so tired!

That's me selling Cowboy Yoyo's! I don't know if I will do that again, Ha!

 The day after the show was over we decided to take some time and have a little fun. We had stayed at a little cabin about an hour out of Tulare in a little city called Three Rivers. (Let me tell you something, there were over 1600 booths if I remember correctly, at this show that has been coming for years and years so we could not find a hotel to save our lives!) Three Rivers was actually a neat little town. When you drove through it, it was about 3 miles long because it was in the mountains. So, it was like driving down one big street with a row of houses on either side, if that makes sense. But anyways, the entrance to the Sequoia National Park was about a mile from our cabin so we had to visit!

Those are some big trees! It was too snowy for us to go all the way up the mountain but we still had fun!

This year they are staying in the same cabin but there are only five of them. Last year there were eight of us and we could have used some more help! Next year I'm going for sure, and so is my fiancee.. even though he doesn't know it yet!

Thursday Morning

It's Thursday morning and I'm finding it very hard to get myself up and ready for class. It has only been a week and I can already feel college wearing me out. I guess I shouldn't complain..,

On a higher note, My fiancees sister came down this past weekend. She is leaving for Europe pretty soon weeks and she wanted to come and take some engagement pictures for us. Saturday morning I got up early and made my way out to the ranch to "pick up" the house. It wasn't as bad this time as it has been before! No old milk left setting in a cereal bowl for three days! That was rather disgusting if you ask me..

The past couple of times I have gone out to the ranch I have been working on the garden.

Those are not very good pictures.. I took them with my phone. It is actually a very large garden, but there are just so many weeds in it. I spent at least two hours piling them all in the middle for my fiancee to burn and I didn't even get them all. I told him that I would plant him a garden, but he will have to water it so we will see how that goes..

He is also fixing up the floor bed by the front door!

Hopefully the dogs won't get into it.

When my fiancees sister came down, she also brought this little guy!

Isn't he just adorable! His name "Diablo" suites him just right! Yesterday when I went out there I was folding sheets when a wash cloth dropped on the floor. He snatched it up and ran off with it and he wouldn't give it back! He is going to be a hand full that's for sure!

So I bet your wondering about those engagement pictures I mentioned earlier! I have picked out a few that I like because I can't really put all of them on here.

 I like this one because he is smiling for real. It was so hard to get him to smile.. I was actually tickling him in the picture!

This is my favorite, even though he looks cold, which it was!

As soon as I get the cd with all of them on there I think we are going to pick a nice one and put it in the paper! (Ssshh don't tell him that thought)

Busy busy

Well I haven't blogged here in a while, so I thought I might and bring everyone up to speed on the latest and greatest.

First of all, it's Sunday night and I'm enjoying eating my favorite kind of cheese, Asiago! I know that sounds strange but I love the stuff: makes everything better sometimes!

Today was a good day! My boyfriend, Oh wait, my Fiancee came into town last night and we watched a movie with my parents, the most ridiculous movie by the way. It was the Tooth Fairy! Who would of thought watching a grown man dress up in a tutu and tights would be entertaining! After the movie my brother commented, "I think I just lost some IQ points." I had to agree...

Church was wonderful this morning even though it was freezing cold! You see, our church services take place in an old wool and mohair warehouse, with half of its windows busted out, so it was a tad chilly! It's amazing that so many people showed up today! Anyways, I have to share a story with ya'll, about my father! He just upgraded big time by getting an iphone and he is still trying to figure it out. This morning he was trying to figure out how to turn the volume down and he had gloves on so it was not working out for him. So, instead of taking his gloves off, he proceeded to use his nose to turn down the volume! I don't know how many of you are familiar with iphones but it's just like having a touch screen ipod. I was trying my very best not to bust out laughing. After church we went out to my fiancees house and did a little quail hunting and spent the evening visiting over supper. It was a good day!

Now, I bet ya'll caught the slip I made earlier. Well, if you didn't.... I'm engaged!! It is the most wonderful feeling, let me tell ya! He "popped the question," early in the morning on December 31st, right before we made our long journey to the panhandle of Texas to visit his family for New Years. Honestly, it wasn't that much of a surprise, but I wasn't expecting that early. It was 4 in the morning and I was not really awake. The ring he bought is the most elegant and gorgeous ring, I tried to put a picture up but it didn't work out.

I know we are kind of young, I mean I'm 18 and he is 21, but we both feel, and agree that this is what we are supposed to be doing. There have been many distressful nights, many spilled tears, and many Bible passages read in the last 3 months. I feel so blessed to have found a man who is a rock solid Christian with a good family behind him. I think that is the single most important thing in any relationship, no matter who you are. We are trying to do everything right, even though it seems hard. I'm starting college next week, which I am not really looking forward to but I know it is something that I have to do. He has a really good job that would be foolish to let get away from him. We have a plan and with God's help I know we will be alright.

But anyways, on a good note! Many people are been asking me when the wedding will be or if we have set a date. Well we really have no clue when the time will be right but we do kind of have a date in mind. We're just going to wait and see how things are looking closer to time. ( I have been so excited lately that I can't help but start thinking about the wedding!!)

One thing I have been worried about it making my parents happy.  Both of my parents, well most of my family thinks I should go to college, (which I am starting next week remember..) and get married after I have earned that little piece of paper that hangs on the wall. That's all fine and dandy and I wish to make them happy, but I think I will be miserable for 4 years trying to do that. We want to be married by the end of the year... It has been especially frustrating for me trying to get my family to understand what I really want.

I just hope things work out..

Well, it is late and I have a long day tomorrow so ya'll have a blessed week!