Random Ramblings

Ever get that feeling that there is so much going on in life and you just HAVE to write it down, but when the time comes to do just that nothing comes to mind? Yup, I've got it. Not that we've done a whole lot the last while, but maybe I could've written it all down while it was still fresh and made whole story about it and made it look like it was cool.

Like the time last week when a friend and I decided to start going to an indoor riding arena during the winter and work with our horses because we don't like to ride in the snow when the ground is slippery, so we head out and of course the ground/roads are slippery so going down the Andy Martin Hill the truck starts to fishtail and gives us a scare of our lives little thrill. What good does it do to go to the arena to avoid weather if we have to go through all that weather to get to it? Its not like its any warmer in there, everybody knows that being indoors away from the sun like that is colder than being outside. Oh, but I WANT to go back!! I could use the fact that we'll be out of the wind for an excuse :D

Or maybe I should write about the time I decided to hook my skis up to the miniature pony and have her pull me in the snow. She pulled me in the snow all right...head first! Instead of going straight she kept wanting to go back to the barn. She'd do a 180* turn bucking and running home while my skis and I were facing the opposite direction. Needless to say...that adventure wasn't even fun. Even when she did go the right way it was a little boring skiing at 2mph :p

Speaking of face in the snow...we decided to go sledding the other day. My sister and I went up last year and had a ball! So we loaded up the little ones and headed out. The place we wanted to go was like an hour or more there, but seeing our options are pretty much limited to just that place (What other hill is there in Wyoming that isn't totally covered in sage brush?) after getting there I realized how cold I really was! It was so sunny I didn't really dress up to much. Anyway, my younger sisters started complaining about how little the hill was. "I thought you said we'd be going down a steep hill!" "It IS steep once you get to the top!" "This is so stupid...it's not even going to be fun." Well, after they got to the top it took them five minutes to get the courage to come down! haha I literally forced my youngest sister onto the sled and told her I was going to let go whether she hung on or not. After forcing her fingers to hold onto the sled I let her fly! Needless to say, that one ended in tears. Yeah, I'm pretty much the meanest sister ever now. After going down only three times we decided to head home. We were cold, and my sisters brand new inter tube she bought popped on the second time down. It was fun though...

I'm looking forward to a break from keeping such a busy schedule with Christmas coming up. I love going to BSF, but doing my homework everyday gets to be a lot sometimes, and I do feel a little pressured when I don't have it all finished. I think that's why I learn so much from it, because I'm actually forced heavily encouraged to get into scriptures and study and learn so much. Every week I am amazed at our Almighty God! I can feel His Spirit in me so much more when I'm actually spending time in His word. It's awful that I'm looking forward to a break, really.

Speaking of Christmas, what do you all think about celebrating Christmas? I've seriously had my doubts as to whether we should celebrate it at all because of its pagan origins, and I can find lots of scripture to support my facts, but is it worth making a stink over whether we should celebrate it or not? I don't know...at times I think we should stay away from it, because what harm would it do to stay away from it? Where as, it could bring sorrow to God if He sees us trying to mix paganism with Christianity. Other times I think of it as an absolute good, and as long as our hearts are right, and we keep in mind the true meaning of Christmas. I guess I'm like the double-minded man spoken of in James--driven with the wind and tossed :)

Oh, and that reminds me that I desperately need to put a new background on my blog! I stuck the present one on early this spring thinking I'd change them as the season changed. Julie, you can be such an idiot! Wish I knew how to make my own backgrounds :D (Not that I would do them! haha)

Well, apparently I have nothing important to say on here, so maybe I should get off the computer and do something profitable. Yes, I know this post is just a lot of mixed up brumble...I have no mind whatsoever today!

Until next time let us continue to run our race with patience, looking to the Lord for direction, and look forward (without fear) to the journey set before us!

Deer Hunt

This is a testimony of how God answers prayer, but not always in the exact same you expect it!

I had a deer and antelope tag this year. And because of trying to juggle my hunting schedule with my work and BSF volunteering schedule I couldn’t seem to really be able to have the ambition to try to bother taking a lot of time off work for hunting. Especially since I’d been taking a lot of extra days here and there off the last while. So, I decided on getting off work one day, and ONLY have that day for hunting my deer. We had plenty of meat already, so I didn’t want to get something terribly small just to butcher when we didn’t really need it, but I didn’t necessarily have time to go hunting every day and wait for a big one either. So, in my mind I picked out about the size of deer that I would shoot. And if a bigger one happened to come along…great! Haha

So, remembering how much work I put Joe through last year when I shot my elk in the foot and had to track it on foot for 10+ miles and ended up shooting the wrong deer, plus the fact that I only had one day to hunt, and that I since it would be the first time Duane was going to take me out by himself and I wanted it to be easy on him. I prayed that I would get a deer right away if possible, or at least that day…and that I wouldn’t miss it and it would drop on the first shot so we wouldn’t have to worry about it. (Sounds like a selfish prayer doesn't it?)

I prayed and prayed that it would be the perfect, quick hunt. (It was--as far as the hunting part was concerned)

So, we got up early that morning and drove the truck back to where we were going to go in a foot so we wouldn’t spook the deer. We had to hike in about a mile. So I follow Duane in. We got there a little early and it was still extremely dark and I got a little bored walking in so I practiced my ‘Indian walk’ being as quiet as I could. Then I’d realize that I was getting behind so then I’d do a few big really loud pounding steps to catch up on, and then continue on bragging to myself how much quieter I could walk than Duane when I got back to my ‘Indian walk’ :p

I realized how extremely out of shape I was when we had to climb a little bitty hill and I started sounding like a big steam engine almost imediently after we started to climb. No wonder all my younger sisters win me when we wrestle!

When we got to the top of the hill we pretty much had to wait till it was light enough to legally shoot. It was cool though because we seen deer right away, and right close there was the Antler Ranch that had a bunch of buffalo grazing. I kind of enjoyed watching them! I didn’t realized they ran a round so much just for the fun of it. Most of the time I see them I don’t watch them long enough for anything. They’re pretty much always eating. It was cool to see them move like a big ol’ cloud all over the hillside straight towards us.

Anyway, as soon as it started getting light we could see that some of them were bucks! And, the good Lord answered my prayer. It was the most perfect hunt you could ask for. As soon as it was light enough we snuck up on them pretty close --175 yards. I shot and he dropped =) Wasn't that an answer to prayer! I quartered him out and drug him to the road while Duane went back to get the truck…now that we didn’t have to be quiet anymore :p

As soon as he got there we loaded up and I started driving home. It was perfect! I was like amazed at how He answered my selfish prayer! It was still early enough that we could’ve gotten home, butchered and I could went to my night job at 8:00. Did you notice that I wrote could’ve? It didn’t quite happen that way!

Apparently God decided to show me that He can and does answer prayers, but I didn’t build up a reputation of being accident prone for nothing! Driving back the road came to a Y in the road. I asked Duane what road he came on. He said to take a right…then as soon as I passed he said “Oh, I guess it was a left, but keep on going this road will probably meet up.” So I went a little farther and noticed that the road just kinda ended. I was still trying to decided if I should stop and back up, or just go a little further and meet up with the road when I noticed I hit mud. Me, being the intelligent person that I am decided to keep my speed so I wouldn’t get stuck. Yeah right! After about two feet all of a sudden the whole front of the truck sank down the axles in mud!

We tried EVERYTHING to get that truck out. We gathered all kinds of rocks, and stuck wood blocks. Pretty much anything we could think of. Finally Duane decided he had to hike back down to the road to get cell phone service and call Joe to come and get us out of our predicament. I sure felt bad for him! I could tell he was regretting ever agreeing to take me!

Joe was busy mounting a deer, so he called our ‘adopted’ brother Bryan and asked him to take his (Joe’s) truck and come pull us out. It really was sweet of Bryan to agree to do it, since we were hunting like 2 hours away…

Anyway, to make a long story short. After waiting a couple hours and gathering a bunch of rocks Bryan comes along to the rescue…bringing Karissa who was laughing her head off at me and making fun of me because I was the one driving and its just to typical of me to get into those kind of fixes.

The main thing Bryan didn’t want to do was get Joe’s truck stuck. So once we realized there was no way we were going to be able to get Duane’s truck unstuck we decided to all pile in Joe’s truck and go back and get help or something. But, we HAD to try one more time- and guess what? Yup! We got Joe’s truck stuck too! Clear down the the axles! Oh no!

We tried everything we could do to get that unstuck! They even tried my dumb idea of jacking up the truck and sticking rocks under the tires…which didn’t work cause the rocks just sunk. By this time we’re pretty sure that both Dad and Joe would kill us!

After a couple of hours trying we decided that all we could do was pretty much go back to the road and call a tow truck or something. We weren’t even sure a tow truck could get up there on them roads!

At this point Karissa is still laughing her head off and telling me to cheer up and think of it all as an adventure…which would’ve been fine if it was for the fact that I knew I was going to get killed when I got home, along with the fact that I knew Duane felt bad and Bryan convinced me it was going to cost 2 k to get it out. IF we could get it out all all before winter! “Just be happy it’s not worse!” Karissa said. “Karissa, it CAN’T get worse” Bryan said “Both trucks are STUCK! There’s no way it could get any worse.” Yeah, right…we had to remind him he said that….after it got worse…

Walking down the road we came upon a ranch hand from Antler Ranch. We knew he probably had seen our strange sight and was checking up to see what in the world was going on. He told us that driving up we crossed like 35 feet of private property, and that his boss was really mad! Yup, things can ALWAYS get worse! Believe me! So he was going to go back to his boss and tell him a little bit on what was up, and told us to keep walking down to the highway. So, we walked to the highway and still couldn't really get cell phone service--much to Bryan's annoyance because he was supposed to take his girlfriend on a date at noon and had no way of calling her and telling her he wasn't going to make it :/

When the ranch hand came back he said that his boss was hopping mad and that he called the sheriff and said that if we had a tow truck or anyone else drive up that road they were going to charge a trespassing fee. Now what? We didn't know what else to do he recommended us to wait along the road for the sheriff and try to explain things to him before the boss did, and asked Duane if he felt good about that... Duane just told him he didn't feel good at all. haha 

Poor Bryan! The whole sheriff idea scared the living daylights out of him! We were trying to convince him that the rest of our family would come and sing to us while we sat in prison but it didn't seem to console him one bit. I tried to tell him that when he's 80 it'll give him something to tell his grandkids about, but he wouldn't believe me :p (Karissa's not laughing anymore either)

I'm sure we were quite the sight! Here Karissa, Bryan and I are all like super short and look way younger than our age. So there are 4 little kids out there with two trucks stuck to the axles in mud and the wind was blowing, so at least my hair looked quite the sight!

After awhile the game and fish guy came along with the ranch owner. He seemed super mad at first. We tried to tell him we thought the highway right of way covered the 35 feet, and so we didn't realized we were trespassing, along with the fact that we were driving on a road up until the time the road ended. Which we had no proof of, since it ended like right where we sunk. The two men conversed for awhile after they left us and the ranch owner decided he would pull us out with his track hoe for the fee of a normal 3 hour rental. It only took him about 20 minutes but I was tickled pink with that deal! It was a lot cheaper than trying to get some tow truck from Cody to come up! The game warden had decided to give Duane a ticket for driving off the road because he said obviously if a road leads to a swamp, and its not as used as the other one its not a road anymore! (He later told me the ranch owner confirmed that the place we were driving had been a road last year) I'm assuming he had to stick us with something just to show the ranch owner that we couldn't get by with nothing. The funny thing was that I was the one driving when we went of the road. He just thought it was Duane because he asked Duane who was driving when we (Supposedly) trespassed, and at that time it was Duane. So, poor Duane got my ticket! He never told the guy a word about it. They decided to let Bryan off since he was just trying to be a good buddy and help us out. When we first started talking to the G'&F he asked us if we were all siblings. I told him we all were except Bryan, and he didn't WANT to be related to us :p He was sure quick to agree with that!

All in all they were all very good to us. The sheriff arrived and the first words he said were "I know you all-- you sang at my church." Wow, that was kind of embarrassing for this group of outlaws! The ranch hand told him that we just made a stupid mistake and he wouldn't press charges. Then, while Karissa and I were trying to shovel the ruts back in the G&F guy start asking us all about our 'religion' since we were in skirts and such. Yeah, I'm starting to feel kinda like a hypocrite by now. :-p

They all chewed us out a bit, but I suppose we deserved it. I kinda liked them all. I could see they were all a little tickled at the strange situation. I could just see them trying not to outright laugh. When they gave us our 'talking to' we were like scared little 5 year old kids, nodding our heads saying 'yes sir' I don't think they quite knew what to do with us! Bryan had already admitted by then that it pretty much sucked being a good buddy to us! Ha ha

Anyway, it all ended up getting worked out. Duane and I were still pretty scared of Dad and Joe's wrath though. We had gotten a little heads up that Joe was pretty upset, along with the fact that we got like 15 text messages saying "Get service and call me now" The only problem was that we didn't get service to get the messages, and even if we got the messages we couldn't get good enough service to call! It wasn't like we could drive down the road a few miles....

What a huge relief it was to find out that Dad and Joe both thought that it was a public road too. Dad actually went to the courthouse and (Thinks) he found out that it was legal access. He went to the ranch owners place and told him that he was the one who told us to go there, and showed him the maps and GPS boundaries and all. The ranch owner never did admit that it was public access, but he did tell dad that there was a certain guy that had been poaching on his private land, and he thought we were that guy, so called the sheriff cause he wanted to 'get' this notorious guy. After he found out it was just a bunch of stupid kids he wasn't quite so mad! He was a very nice guy, and told dad that we were welcome to come back to that area anytime we wanted. I think dad kinda like him :p

Apparently what made Joe so mad was that mom got the message all mixed up and told everybody that I shot a deer on private property and decided to sneak and use the road so it would be easier to get out, and then got stuck in the mud. She sent all these texts out telling all these people that. They were all praying that we wouldn't go to jail and the trucks and guns wouldn't get confiscated. Yeah, I would be really mad if I was Joe and heard all that too!  (In fact, I did get mad when I heard that!)

So, that was pretty much the most expensive deer hunt I've ever been on. I just couldn't help but wonder..."Didn't I decide last year that I was never going to make my brothers take me on a hunt again?

Homesick

I read my text and close my phone. Tears come to my eyes as I think of all the events that is happening at home; events that I used to enjoy being a part of. Not that it was anything out of the ordinary, it was just plain good ol’ home life. Mom had texted me that Joe got his moose, and Duane was heading home with a nice deer. I remembered how it was to have someone come home from hunting, and we would all run out and crowd around the pickup to see what they got. Or the nice supper that would come afterwards with the comfort that comes with being with those you know and love.

I walk into the living room. Harvey had accidentally changed the channel from his normal Sunday morning Mass to the Hallmark movie channel. It shows a happy family scene, and I tear up again. I am engulfed by loneliness, and thoughts of unfairness start to try to enter my mind.

My phone rings - its mom - I don’t answer it. Most of the time I don’t answer my phone while at work, but today its just the mere fact that I don’t think I can talk to mom and hear all the news without crying, and its not fair to put that on my mom - she’s been trying to get me to quit my job for months.
“So why don’t I quite?” I think. I guess the answer would be that I don’t feel that Its God’s will for me to quit right now. Maybe later I’ll share why, and how I feel about my job. Right now I don’t feel like writing a whole book on it, which is what I’ll probably end up doing! :p

I started to think of the book I read the other day about a pioneer girl who got married and moved out the west, and how she missed her family. I couldn’t understand why I started crying reading about that! I remember when my older sister got married and moved out of state. She said every time she got a letter from the younger ones she would tear up. Although I knew she missed the younger ones at the time, I still had in my mind that she was married to a man that loved her dearly, and had TONS of friends out there, she never really was home much anyway, why does she miss them?

Although I’m not married, and still spend a full day or two home, I STILL miss not being able to be there for the ‘normal life’ that I had growing up. I think of how nothing will ever be the same as it used to be. The oldest two siblings are gone and I miss them! I miss everything about them and wish they were still around to add their imput to my memories. Not to say that I would change things! I love both of my in-laws like crazy, and am so glad that they are now a part of my family. There are new memories…and challenges, and I am looking forward to them. I just have a fear that my old memories will disappear…

Hmmm, dreary day! My eyes are red, and my nose is running…

In all this though, I do know that I am doing the right thing. Sometimes I wonder because I know that family is the most important thing in the world, but what is more important than that is doing the Lords will, and even though I hate to admit it, since working I have grown so much more spiritually. I’m not saying that is the case for everyone, or that it will always be the Lords plan for my life…but with all the
(sometimes selfish) prayers, I do feel confident that this is where God wants me right now. It may change tomorrow, and it may be the same for five years. Whatever the case, I want to be willing to do what HE wants for me…After all, there is no place better to be than in the center of HIS will. (The hard part is knowing what His will is at the moment!)

I don’t want to be complaining about how things are because in reality things really are quite wonderful, and life is still an adventure. Its just that (even though I still live at home) I DO get quite homesick at times! Maybe the Lord is planning something for the future, and is slowly preparing to break away (Africa, here I come! Ha ha) Or maybe He just wanted me to have more quiet time with Him to grow spiritually. Maybe there is a reason I never have or will know, and maybe it’s a combination of everything put together. Whatever the case I just want to be willing to serve the Lord, and if it comes with loneliness than whoop-de-doo! Life is lonely! There has been many times I was just as lonely at home too!

Going au' natural

I’ve come to the conclusion that Wyoming has some of the best sliding boards EVER! I’m not talking about them crazy man-made plastic sliding boards that shock you every time you go down. Neither am I talking about them factory-made metal ones that get so hot in the summer you can take a little butter and fry an egg on them…I’m talking about NATURAL sliding boards! It is the ‘in’ thing to do…go all natural/green isn’t it? Heehee

God has given us many many ways we can have fun. I can’t even imagine all the different styles of slides that he invented for our imaginations :p

My favorite of them all is the snow-filled mini canyons in the mountains. They vary is size, and during the summer half of them turn into little water runways that run into the brooks, which runs into the creek. Its crazy fun to sit down in one of them in the middle of summer…spread your skirt out like a sled and wee wee wee all the way down the mountain! It can be very adventurous, as there are lots of little nooks and turns and quite often you will run into rocks, as I did when a group of us all went hiking with some young people after Kims wedding. We climbed the backside of Sheep mountain and coming down we came upon a nice looking ‘slide’ A guy who’s name will remain anonymous went first to ‘scout’ the slide followed by me. Now maybe I should mention that it had been pretty warm, and the snow in this particular place had melted halfway then frozen over, creating a super rough icy-type of snow. So anyway, heading down it got to be a little bit more icy than I had though. Here I am sliding down at a super crazy speed trying to turn my body with all the nooks and crannies that this particular place had. I couldn’t put my hands down to slow myself down because the snow was so rough, and had I put my hand down it would be sanded down to nothing in no time flat. I try to use my feet to slow myself down which then enables my skirt to become a natural parachute (Which did absolutely nothing to slow me down!) When Mr. Scout stops because there is a huge rock with a foot and half drop on the other side. Here I am speeding down the mountian with my feet trying to dig into icy snow, my skirt flying, and my fingers frantically clawing at the sand-papery snow. I got slowed down a little…but not enough. Lucky for me our scout decided to stop me before hitting the rock…Whoosh! Before I know it, there I was sitting practically on his lap squishing his poor hand under a rock. I have no idea how I looked but I imagine my face was quite red. How is that for a little excitement?!?!

Another well-known-to-me slide is the neck of a horse. What? You’ve never slidden down the neck of a horse? Its really quite easy. All you need is a horse who loves to eat! Start running him/her bareback through the grass (alpha-alpha is the best recommendation) you can bet pretty soon he’ll see a piece of grass that he just HAS to have! He knows that if he starts to slow down he just get told to speed up again, so he waits till he’s about 6 inches away, slams on his breaks with his head down (He’s getting ready to eat, remember?) Of course those on his back will one of two things. They will either do a flip through the air and land on their backside in something nasty like a cactus, cowpie or something else of that nature. OR the more experienced ones will not-so-gracefully slide right on down the neck of your trusty steed without a scratch but looking extremely more sunburnt on the face than they did 10 seconds before…

Our most popular slide (One that we take all our company on heehee) is rockslides. Yeehaw! Of course, it requires a terribly exhausting hike firsthand because you have to climb a really loose shale type rock covered mountain. You know, the kind that you climb three feet up and slide two feet back (In my case its two and a half feet back :p) When you get to the top after resting and declaring loudly how ‘so not worth it’ it was you can slide down the whole thing! It really is quite awesome and fun. Of course, you want to be a little careful because it can imitate a really large type of sandpaper which can be quite painful at full speed, which you never notice till you get to the bottom anyway, and by then its to late.

There are many more great slides out here. But I think I’ll leave them for the imagination of those who are tough enough to find them themselves, either by accident or on purpose.

Come to think of it, maybe I should become a designer for six flags and make the worlds biggest slide-- imitating natures best--think it will make people stop and think about how awesome our God really is?!?!

Through The Eyes Of My Boss

So...I started a new job recently, and thought for the dumb of itId put myself into my bosses shoes. Or maybe more accurately, put my bosses brain into my skull for awhile ;)

Please note: Quotation marks in regular print is THINKING, and quotation marks in bold is actual quotations ;)

*ZzzzZzzzZzzz* *Snork!* "Oh my! I must have slept pretty well, the TV is being re programed so it HAS to be past 3:00am!" *Drinks a sip of water and stretches her arm* "I can't seem to get comfortable, maybe I'll have the new girl stick some cream on my knees and feed me. Come to think of it, I don't think I've had my night pills yet." "Julie! Put some of that cream on my knees." "Julie?!?!" "She must be sleeping on the floor."

 (Maybe I should mention here that my boss is bed-fst, and can only lay down on one side, facing the opposite of the chair I normally sit in, so she couldn't turn around and see if I was there or not)

"Julie! Help! Julie!" "Ah, she is sleeping good! Wonder what makes her think she is allo
wed to sleep when I'm paying her to work for me!" "JULIE!!" *sigh* "I wish she'd get up! My throat is getting horse" "Julieeeee! Wake up!!!" "Maybe if I throw this box of dirty Kleenex's over the bed it'll land on her and wake her up. Its light enough it shouldn't hurt her." *Tosses the Kleenex's over the bed, hears it bounce around and hit the trash can. No movement from Julie* "Stupid new girl. Can't get ANY decent help around here now days! I can't believe this! "Juuuuulllliiieeeee" "Its hopeless! First thing I do in the morning is fire her! I can't have someone who falls asleep on the job, let alone someone who can't wake up!" "Julie?!?!" "No, I got that wrong, first thing I do when she wakes up is fire her NOW!" "Julie, wake up!" "Well, if SHE won't answer I guess I'll have to call my husband. Hope he hears me! I'm horse now." "Honey!?!?! Honey, can you come in here! Please?" "He probably is in bed" "Honey?!?! ANYBODY!! please come in here!" "Grrr, I can't stand that new girl. I'm so mad I could kill her right now! *Sigh* (This continues on for around 20inutes)
"Well, I guess its hopeless to try calling anybody. I might as well lay here and hope to fall back asleep"
"Hello! Mrs____ how are you doing?" "There's Julie! Wonder what she was doing outside my room, looks like she just came in the door" "So you FINALLY woke up! Its about time!" "Me?" says the new girl "I wasn't asleep, I just got here" "What?!?! She JUST got here? Surely she was supposed to come in at midnight" "What time is it?" "11:54" The new girl replied."Oh! I thought it was 4:30 or something. The TV is doing its 'circles'" "Oh, says Julie That's just on rest mode because you didn't change channels or anything for awhile, it thinks you're asleep" "Well, Where is my husband?!?! I've been calling for somebody for a half an hour!" "Your husband fell asleep in his chair, I passed him in the living room coming in here and he was sleeping with Roo (The cat) on his lap." "Oh, well my pillows don't feel good, and I'm hungry, I need my blood sugar checked, and I"m freezing! Turn off that fan first thing! I've been yelling to my throat hurts trying to get someones attention, that stupid TV tricked me into thinking it was later. Will you put the blanket on me? I got so cold"....*And thus continued the night/day*

Just a simple misunderstanding, and the accidental falling asleep of her husband. She was pretty upset when I arrived, but she realized that all the noise and Kleenex's didn't work because I wasn't even there...

It was nobodys fault, just something that happened. No harm done.

I still have a feeling that she was put out with me for the rest of the night though!!

My Style Of Huckleberry Picking

All of my siblings know that I have a very big 'Huckleberry Tooth' anything with huckleberrys has GOT to be good! (Have you ever tried huckleberry ice cream?!?! Good stuff!)

Sunday afternoon my brother and I decided to go riding in the hills somewhere. We couldn't go too far because it was 2:20 till we got to the trail head, but I was sure excited! This is the only time I was able to go in the mountains this year :D Other than going on the BLM up behind our house.

Heading up was absolutaly BEAUTIFUL! Down at the bottom it was very woodsy and brushy. You can imagine my surprise when I seen huckleberry plants, with lots of ripe huckleberries!! Other than seeing them once in Jackson I haven't seen any since we were in Idaho! Whew! I was excited :D :D

Getting to the top was also beautiful. There were hillsides of flowers of all kinds of colors. Even pink! Is it just my imagination, or does it seem like pink flowers in the rocky mountains are extremely rare?

Oh, but here I am getting off the subject. Oops. Time to get back on track.

Growing up I always thought it would be 'so cool' to live in a place where you could go berry picking. Other than being tons of wild raspberries around (Which I don't need cause I grow my own) I never seen other berries. So, I decided I was going to go berry picking the next chance I got! Yeehawww!

Monday evening I got of work early. Great! It would be a nice time to meet my siblings in town and head up for a few hours. Turns out they didn't get the house clean and supper ready in time, so they weren't going to be able to go. What a disapointment! But, what if the berries dry up before we get to go out again?!?! I decided to cowgirl up and do it alone.

But, a well known fact is that where there is berries, there IS going to be bears. I decided to be smart and err on the smart side, so I stopped on the way out to buy a flashlight in case I stayed out too long, and bear spray. "Isn't my parents going to be so proud that I'm a cautious person, and wasting my time buying bear spray? They are going to be pleased with me tonight!" I thought.

Yeah right....

JUST when I was going to head out mom called. Apparently when dad heard I was going up there he said HE sure wouldn't do it! The more he thought about it, the more he didn't want me to go...anyway, he thought it would be better to err on the smart side and just not go at all. Especially since you really don't get that many berries anyway.

So, after cancelling a horse date, and getting off work early, and buying two flashlights and a $50.00 can of bear spray I decided to err on the smart side and just not go at all. :-)

So then I was able to go home and have a wonderful time messing around outside with the little ones, picking raspberries--and not having to keep a look-out for bears.

 And the next time I think about going huckleberry picking I'll just stop by walmart and buy a pack of blueberries :D

The Perfect Day For A Sarcastic Optimist

So far today it has been such a wonderful day! :D

I woke up later than normal, so I was able to get out of doing my chores for this morning; that way everybody can get mad at me for having to do my work. I just LOVE making them all do my work! Then I remembered that I forgot to get my kennel down from the top shelf for a friend to pick up tomorrow. Yup! I get to make them do that too :D

Getting to work my computer wouldn’t get internet. Yippie!! I have other things I needed to get done anyway.

Later mom texted me and wanted to know if I wanted her to stop by at work. My boss was sleeping, so I got to tell her that she couldn’t come see me. Yeehaw…I just love it when I’m lonely and bored at work and I get the chance to tell my loving family that they can’t come see me…

Today is Tuesday--aka shower day--so I had the privilege of getting to try to force him to take a shower. Its just so fun being the hated one because shower days always end up being on my day, so I get to be the one to play the ‘mind’ game and see if I can’t make others ‘think’ that they ‘want’ to do something. I always enjoy a challenge now and then!

Just now the best part of the day happened. I went in the back room with a large cup of juice and pills to administer to my boss. After taking the pills there was still a nice 3/4^th glass of grape juice left. Walking out the door I decided it would be fun to drop the glass of juice and see how far I could get it to splash on his white carpet. Whoopie!! Did it ever splash! It splattered in a full ten foot circle. I always enjoyed cleaning a ton of teeny tiny drops all over the walls and white carpet.

Luckily it took me a full hour and half to get it all cleaned up. I was hoping I would be able to find plenty of things to do today J I got to use up a full spray bottle of carpet spot cleaner--who else gets to use a whole bottle in one day? Its only going to cost me around 15 bucks to replace it.

Not only that…but in a few minutes I get to email his daughter and tell her that if the spots still show after the carpet dries then I’ll be happy to pay to get his carpets professionally cleaned. Its always so much fun to spend money on something that I wouldn’t get to spend it on if I wasn’t so smart as to find ways to spend it! After all, I’m making way more money than I want to, so its been extremely hard to find ways to spend it on. Who wants to buy a stupid set of horse training DVDs anyway?!?!

Its been GREAT! Now if I can just get the day to stay the same way its been going then I’ll be happy and content all day. Its good to be happy and content. Your nerves has a way to rest that way……believe me I should know!

Little Pleasures In The Midst Of Chaos!!

The last couple weeks my life has been-in my mind anyway- a complete chaos! Not because anything traumatic, or even drastic happened. Its just life in general has been so busy! When I think of the times I work and the time I have home you wouldn't think I would feel so overwhelmed. But with irrigation season in now, and starting up a second (Or third) job I feel so pressed all the time. And (Be prepared for the the truth!) It makes me grouchy! At least when I allow it to.

But, there are still some little pleasures that I've been enjoying! The other day it was a beautiful full moon out. And it just happened to be right at the time I had my Saturday of the month off. So, I packed my sleeping bag on the back of my trusty stead and headed to the hills. It was GORGEOUS out! After riding a couples hours I picketed my horse beside the road, climbed in my sleeping bag and tried to sleep. (Saying tried because my horse felt ultra lonely that night and felt it necessary to keep calling out to his friends in hopes of and answer) The next morning I rode till like noon...just enjoying the time I was able to do this. I know its crazy but other than when my cousins came out, and going to a week-end horse clinic, this was the first time I was able to ride longer than like 30 minutes this year. It was great! I was starved by the time I got back, as I wasn't planning on riding in the morning. But it sure was nice! (Later I found out where I camped was within a mile of where a grizzly sow with three cubs has been hanging around )

The rest of my pleasures wasn't nearly as fun, but still a little refreshment :) A day of softball or volley ball here and there. A few moments of holding one of my siblings on my lap, (One of my favorite highlights!) Ice cream sandwiches, seeing two little bitty baby deer playing on the road, picking and eating tons of my fresh garden strawberries, and the last two days--sneaking off and drivings dads truck twice...trying to learn how to drive stick shift :p Okay, I didn't sneak off...I just did it without permission! LOL Call it my adventurous side...

Anyway, even though I pretty much dread doing irrigation for an hour of my precious time a day; life has been good this year! Next year I hope to get to do more (I said that last year!) Until then I'm going to enjoy every little pleasure I can get! (You'd never think a person could get so giddy at being able to pet a kitten for 5 whole minutes!)

Hopefully I'll be careful not to speed to much to enjoy the view as I continue to go on my journey through life on this earth :)

Note: My intentions for this post was not to complain about being busy. I realize there are some things I can cut out to make more time. I think busyness has been and is good for me. Otherwise I find myself getting lazy-sleeping in and not getting a whole lot done during the day. This post is meant to be a 'thankful' post because I AM thankful for all the little sweet things that happen so that I can have a busy life without wanting to kill myself over it! (The temptation is always there though! lol j/k)

I'm Thankful For A Higher Power!

Have you ever been really REALLY mad at somebody? So mad that you actually shook?

I hate to admit it, but a couple years ago that was me. :-( There were a couple ladies that truly wronged my sister and I. These were ladies that I really liked and thought a lot of, and what made me so mad was that I went way out of my way trying to make sure that I treated these ladies as best as I could, and they knew that they were deliberately planning to do this to me.

Now I think I can honestly say that I've never really had a problem loving everybody. I like normal people, and I like weird people, I admire those that keep silent, and I admire those that can think of things to say. There are some people that I feel that I can't connect to as well, but I still like them :)

But, after these ladies did what they did to us, I was MAD! I didn't 'hate' these ladies, but I was super mad at them (So mad in fact, that I shook!) And the sad thing is that I WANTED to be mad. I had a REASON to be mad! THEY were the ones that wronged us for no reason, and everybody knew it!

One day as I was driving to work (I love driving to work, that's when I get most of my thinking done!) I got to thinking about my anger. I knew I had a decision to make...whether to let my thoughts lay in anger, or to forgive. I KNEW what the right choice was (duh!) but in my mind I didn't think it would ever be possible to love these ladies again! Even if I forgave them (Which I kind of thought I already did at that point) I didn't think I could ever talk to them again without being super angry at them. And oh boy! Did I ever feel like being angry!! I just wanted to hang on to that anger with all that I had! However, I knew that this was NOT of God, and if I didn't listen to the Lord I would be listening to Satan.

I already knew that there was no way I could forgive these ladies on my own, but in my car that day I just BEGGED for the power to not only forgive, but to want to forgive (Because I knew it was not right) and to be able think about these ladies without feeling like my heart was being cut out from inside me. In MY mind it was impossible, and it would have been without the Holy Spirit living inside me! He answered my prayer :-) With His help it really wasn't that hard... I still felt that pang of hurt for a long time (And still do at times) It had to be Him because there was no way I could!

I am SO THANKFUL for the POWER that we can have in the LORD! He is so awesome and powerful!

And looking back, I think this whole ordeal was good for me, because I was able to see and feel Him working in my own life, and feel His power. As well as know that when I put my trust in Him He will not fail to keep His promises and give me the ability to overcome sin when I oh, so long to hold on to it!

And be ye kind one to another, tenderhearted, forgiving one another, even as God for Christ's sake hath forgiven you.

Lost Camera!!

I LOST MY CAMERA!!! *sniff* *sniff*

Right before Kim and Kevin came out I lost my camera, so I have absolutely NO pictures to remember their trip by! And Kandis was soo stinking cute!

That was also right before July 4th, which is my favorite time of year.

It was also right before my beloved cousins came out!

Argh! I could pull all my hair out! (But then if I DO find my camera I'll look stupid)

So yeah, I haven't posted anything on here for awhile because of that. My posts just seem so blah if I don't have pictures to add to them. And its been missing for awhile. I even offered a reward for it, but to no avail :(

That being said. It was GREAT to get to see Kevin, Kim, and Kandis again. We went rafting, and got to babysit Kandis a whole morning while they went 4-wheeling :) She is such a sweet and good baby. I love baby smiles and she smiled a LOT!

We had a good 4th too. Some of our cousins came out that day, so we went to the rodeo, then watched fireworks.

We also went horseback riding (Which is always a highlight for me!!) It was so awesome. Our horses were really energetic and we ran full speed a lot! It was super fun! I SO WISH I had a couple pictures of it!

Guess I'll have to look a little...uh I mean a lot...more for my camera!

Just thought I'd pop in and complain a little about my missing camera :p

Drive up the Beartooths

The Beartooth Highway finally opened up for the year :-) And, fortunately for me, it was the weekend that I didn't happen to have to work Saturday night, so I was able to spend the whole day Sunday with my beloved family. :-)

We usually go for a drive up there every Memorial Day weekend, which is when they generally open. However, this year it opened up late because of all the snow. The pictures just don't do justice to how beautiful it was! Also the fact that I didn't get all the 'good' ones because all the good stuff happened when I didn't have my camera 'ready' (Not to mention the fact that my camera is a really cheap SLOW one, so most of the stuff I tried to get ended up being just a blur...)

We heard that there were medicine wheels all over in these mountains, so we thought we seen a medicine wheel, but in reality it was a big 'peace' sign! Okayyy, so that wasn't made by the Indians!

Feeding the rock squirrels

We were fortunate to have the Kisers go with us. After like 5 trys I finally got an OK picture of Heath feeding...only I was hoping for one that had the little guy actually taking it out of Heaths hand. After that the little guy was to full to want to take anymore! Haha

David was enthralled with getting to throw snowballs at everybody again ;-)

There were like 30 feet drifts along the road. Also, in some places there were 60 feet ones. I heard it was the most snow they had since 1986 :D

Oh! This was so cool! There was a guy with some type of para-sailing type thing skiing. It was so cool to watch. He would go everywhere and anywhere he wanted.  It would be so much better than waiting for 15 min on a ski lift, only to get to come down for like 2 minutes. He got to go all day long!

That's a big waterfall type thing in the front...not snow :)

I LOVE my native state of Wyoming!!

*Hearts* Spring!!

Spring is here! Spring is here!! YAY :D

With it warming up outside we've been able to go out more without freezing our tails off! (By the way, you DID notice that we don't have tails, right? We obviously had a cold winter!) Heehee

Time to get the horses and and have some ranch style family time ;)

Isn't this where they ALWAYS stop?!?!

Apparently David ditched the horse riding idea, since he's not as strong as the stuborn, food-loving horse :-p

Ready to go!

Letter writting

Last Sunday I went bear hunting with Dad, Joe, and Duane. I rode my new mare, but because she still needs a lot of sacking out in the saddle I decided against turning around in the saddle to get my camera out of the saddlebag so I only got ONE picture of my perfect day :-(

My (new) mare getting ready to head out :-)
She doesn't look wild does she?!?!

 With summer coming on I'm sure that we will have many more beautiful Wyoming days. Hopefully we will take time to smell the roses and enjoy it <3



Ranch Rodeo

I love going to ranch rodeos!! Especially since they're free :D

I also love the fact that they don't have the loud music, or the clowns stupid jokes that 50 years ago would be considered outrageous, but now are supposed to be funny.
I do go to the Cody night rodeo sometimes, but its nothing like the close 'everybody knows everybody' down home type ranch rodeos.

We had the Cody Wild West days a couple weeks ago and I got a few snaps of the (ranch) rodeo :-)

Going through the rules

One of the two teams I was rootin' for...mostly because they had two girls :)

Shooting balloons

Cutting

Unfortuanatly I didn't end up getting very pictures, and totally missed out on all the really exciting stuff like the wild cow milking and wild cow riding. But, it was fun!

The horses are so amazing. I would just LOVE to learn how to train and ride like that. It reminded me of how little I really know, and it kind of gave me a temporary determination to learn more...I say temporary because after I got my head out of the clouds and realized that it takes time and money that I don't have it would have to be 'cut out' but it still looks super fun and maybe some day...yeah!

Feelings of Failure :-(

I'm starting to realize that a lot of my main goals in life is become quite a failure :( I had intentions that I thought were for the good, but with the business of life I tend to forget to persue all of what I really wanted in the first place! Ahh, today has been such a discouraging day for me! First off, I found one thing that I all of a sudden realized I was not paying attention to, and then came the avalanche of the many many things that I wanted to accomplish or learn, or be that have been on the back-burner. Now I can't seem to get rid of the guilt for loosing sight of what was most precious to me.

On the other hand- other than today- I have been feeling extremely blessed!! Life has been good to me. In so many ways I have the perfect life. A great home, family, and lifestyle, along with a steady(for now) income in a job that allows me the flexibility of getting other misc. hobby's done at the same time (blogging :D) My family has certainly spoiled me ;-) For instance, this past couple weeks my dad has agreed to let me have a dog, agreed to let me go to a week-end clinic, brought home a couple corral panels that I've been dreaming of getting, mentioned fixing his packsaddle I broke (guilty look), had me check my tires because ones going flat...that's just to mention of few of his ever-watching kindness. Of course, the rest has been wonderful to me too! Doing my chores while I'm at work, helping me do things at home, getting excited about my dog :p Basically supporting me and spoiling me more than I deserve!

I do feel that the Lord has blessed me immensely. Now if I can just work a little on becoming a *lady* that I should be, without loosing out on the *fun* <3

May Challenge

May Challenge:

Oh be careful little eyes what you see,

Oh be careful little eyes what see,

There's a Father up above,

And He's looking down in love,

So be careful little eyes what you see.

Oh be careful little ears what you hear,

Oh be careful little ears what you hear,

There's a Father up above,

And He's looking down in love,

So be careful little ears what you hear.

This was probably one of the first songs I learned when I was a little girl. It goes on to say for the feet to be careful where they walk, and the hands what they do, etc. but this month I'm going to focus on the eyes and ears. Its called using your head!! :D

Satan has so much ways to tempt us, and he always has and always will use whatever tool he can to get us to falter. The last while Media has been a HUGE tool in his hand I think. I'm not saying media is wrong, but as a tool in the wrong hand it can do major damage.

I have decided to follow Christ, and as part of that decision I have decided to OBEY Christ. When He said not to take the name of the Lord our God in vain He meant it! I think the Jews had a good idea when they decided not to use His name at all, rather than the chance that it be taken in vain. His name is so Holy-so majestic- how DARE we even listen to others take it with such little regard?!?!

I'm not just talking about swearing here either. There are many things that God has given us, that the world has turned around and desecrated. Or that Satan has given us, for reasons you very well know why.

As Christians we should NOT put up with this! Imagine the huge difference we could make to Hollywood if everybody who CLAIMED to love God put their action into words and threw a huge fit anytime a movie came out that did not honor Him. A large percent of population claims to be Christians, but the name Christian should only belong to those who follow Christ, in word, in spirit, truth, and charity. Are there some good movies? Yes, but the majority is not. So, how do you tell the difference? There are times when I've turned on a movie that was supposedly a good christian movie and I've had to turn it off during the middle. DON'T BE DECEIVED INTO ALLOWING YOURSELF TO 'JUST FINISH THIS ONE, ITS NOT TO BAD' If we aren't willing to turn it off, what will keep us from 'trying the next one to see if its good' and then, of course, not turning it off because you started the story and want to finish it.

This months challenge is just focusing on DVDs, but I would highly recommend that you keep track of every DVD, every music CD, every book, and any other thing that uses language or scenes not pleasing to God. He created us for HIS glory, not to be entertained by life and our own imaginations. :-)

This months Challenge:

Go through all your DVDs (even your books and Cd's if you can) and get rid of anything and everything that isn't 100% free of any swearing, cussing, or sexual scenes. In some cases you might want to check out violence as well. I'm not quite as picky about violence myself, but pray about it, and get rid of ANYTHING that isn't pleasing to the Lord.

Keeping our minds clean as possible of this will help us as we journey on through life, believe me, it will!

My Man--Harvey

 One and a half years ago I started working for a wonderful gentleman-Harvey. Me being almost the only one that was available for days at that time, I ended up spending a lot of time with him. Like any job, there can be ups and downs, but all in all I have REALLY enjoyed working for this man. He, like everybody else, has had such an amazing and full life. Anyway, the other day I realized that after me being with him all this time, I didn't have ONE picture of him! I happened to have my camera in the car and snapped a few pictures of 'my man' :p

In the first picture Harvey (He doesn't like to be call Mr. anything) was closing his eyes, unaware of my sneaky little tactic to get a picture taken of him.

Second picture, after the flash went off he told me he'd show me the way the 'real' cowboys like their picture taken...covering his eyes with his hat.

Third picture, I promised him this would be the last one, since he isn't a bragger, and doesn't care for his picture to be taken. Alas! His eyes were closed...again!

I love this man, he is such a kind and considerate man. BUT he IS a jokster! He gets me quite often, and loves to make people laugh.

In a way he is so much like my dad...just the personality. I told my dad that I knew exactly how he was going to be when he was 92!

His family called me at a time when I had no job, and really needed the money, and at the time I was DETERMINED to never do a home-care job again! But, somehow the Lord provided me with this job, and although I'm not saying I will or won't do home-care in the future (I'll leave that up to the Lord and try to be willing to do whatever He calls me to do) I do feel like this is where God wanted/wants me at the time, and I am grateful that I can get to learn more about this gentleman/ farmer/ cowboy/ railroad man/ historian/ horseman. Jokes and all!

Moving horses

I LOVE rounding up the horses and moving them from the fields!

Only, instead of the old-fashion cowboy way of riding up close enough to them and roping them with a lasso we cheat and use grain and 4-wheelers :/

Its a lot faster that way...

 Horses behind us

 Going down (Or should I say up?) the road

 Lead horse #1

Lead horse  #2

Joe's horse (above) is my absolute FAVORITE horse out of our whole herd! I use to think he was super ugly, but his trusting laid-back personality, as well as his spirit and endurance has made him top on my list!

He's a TRUE Tennessee Walker <3