One Down

A year ago today I was sitting in Aruba enjoying my honeymoon. Actually, a year ago today I wasn't enjoying my honeymoon because Sean went missing. You can read about that here. It really seems like the longest year of my life. I don't know if that's a good thing or a bad thing.

I've heard people say that the first year of marriage is the hardest. I've also heard the first year of marriage is the easiest. I don't have any other years of marriage to compare my first year to but let me tell you it was pretty darn hard. We went through a lot of ups and downs: From moving to a rent house infested with fleas (and then having to move out a month later), to living with his parents for six months, to finally getting our own home.
Sean moved home from Houston to Arkansas right before we got married. In Houston, he had a great job and made great money. He moved because I hated it there. We had trouble finding him a job back home. We finally found one a few months into our marriage and now at one year of marriage we're job hunting again.
We've raised and trained one dog and are working on another. We've made a beautiful home together. We've been to one million and three rodeos and spent countless hours in the practice pen. We've been apart a lot of the times due to S having to travel with his job. We've fought like crazy and we've had some of the best times of my life. The first half of our year was rough. When two stubborn, selfish, hardheaded people try to live together it doesn't work very well. We've learned a lot about our selves and a lot about each other. We've both learned what the word compromise truly means. We've both learned what it means to love someone. I don't know what tomorrow brings for Sean and me. But I know God has an amazing plan for us. I can look back at the past year and see that some of those things that I thought were so horrible at the time worked out pretty great. I can also look back at my life before Sean and see how God prepared me for marriage to Sean. It excites me to actually see Gods work in progress.
I'm very thankful to have married my best friend.. He teaches me a lot and I'd like to think I teach him a lot. One thing I've learned from Sean is to take life day by day. God can end our lives at any moment.

So, a big pat on my back to me and Sean to making it one year! I don't know what tomorrow brings, I'm just gonna get through today!

One down, many more to go!

Praise Hiim

Well It's been awhile since I last posted and a lot has happened. I could talk about a lot of things like..

• How I got so sunburned on Saturday at the Lake that I still can't wear pants. (skirts only)
• How Adam Lambert admitted he's gay. (shocker)
• How I decided to use my camera money to buy my Husband a really nice Grill for our first anniversary.
• That Birdie turned 4 months old and is growing by leaps and bounds.
• How Dad is donating a filly to Rance's Benefit Auction that I am helping halter break.
• Or how I got stuck crawling through a gate in a skirt and unknowingly gave the world a peak at my undies.

..but I guess I'll just leave those things for the rest of the week and talk about something else today.

Today I wanted to take the time and tell everyone how much God has blessed me in my life. Although I've been through a lot of tough times lately, God as seen me through all of it. If you will just open your heart and your mind to Him, he will keep you safe, humble, and happy at all times. I'd like to ask whoever is reading this to stop and praise God for all the things he's given you. I'd also like for you to keep in mind a couple prayer requests. I've been praying for Sean for awhile because he hates his job and is very miserable. Monday he was one of the many who were laid off due to lack of work. Please pray that he finds a job that he will be happy with. I'm looking at this lay off as an answer to a prayer, now if Sean can just find a job he's happy with!

Also, I have a few family members who are going though some trying times. One of my cousins just lost her husband to a long battle with colon cancer and they have two kids, and Sean's grandpa could possible have lymphoma, again. If you get down on yourself this week, just remember all the wonderful things God has blessed us with. Just being alive is a miracle in itself!

I'm especially thankful for moments as peaceful and as beautiful as this...

Who's your Crawdaddy?

Saturday Night after the Jackpot we had tons of people come over and we boiled Craw fish. I was given the duty of cooking the craw fish and it was my first time. I had a little help from Shannon who has done it a million times. I didn't realize how easy and fun it was! We got a little carried away with taking pictures... We started by adding the seasoning and bringing the water to a boil. Then we added the potatoes and once they were soft we added corn, onions, mushrooms & sausage. As soon as we added the vegetables the burner went out and wouldn't start back up! We had to wait for someone to bring us another burner so the veggies got to sit in the seasoning for awhile and were extra extra spicy but delicious.

Banjo and Birdie weren't quite so sure what to think of the craw fish. Banjo took one sniff and then said no thanks. Birdie got very close to one and it bit her lip she shook her head and the craw fish went flying onto the ground. Banjo stood over it and barked at it for about five minutes until I finally got rid of the craw fish.

More Pictures to come Later!!

Saturday Jackpot

So I bush hogged the front yard Sunday. It was about waist deep in weeds. This is not due to the fact that I am lazy and do not want to mow. This is due to the fact that our front yard is really low and since it rained every day in May we were forced to sit and watch the weeds grow in the two inches of water that sat and hatched the biggest mosquitoes in Saline County. It finally quit raining and the water dried and I was able to mow. There was only one wet spot that I almost got stuck in but other than that it was pretty dry. Below are a few "before" pictures. These pictures just don't show how deep it really is. This was also taken last weekend so it had a week's worth of more growth on it. Banjo could walk out into the front yard and disappear in the grass and still be standing up.

If you'll notice I have no after pictures yet. This is because it got dark on me and I didn't get to go back over the yard with the finish mower. The next day Jim took the mower to his mothers to mow and left it over there. So now I have to wait until it comes back to get after pictures. Right now it looks like a Blind Man cut my grass because it's so uneven and has a few missed spots. I had to mow with the small tractor and bush hog, this was my first experience driving a small tractor with a mower on the back. It was quite interesting. I'm not so sure Jim should've trusted me with it.

So anyway to continue posting about my weekend.... Saturday we had a Jackpot at the house. We had tons of people over and really had a good time, despite the 150 degree weather. Due to Sean's rib injury he sat out of the Jackpot and just flagged for the timers. Shannon (the girl with the awesome camera that I'm jealous of) was there and she let me play around with her camera, here's some of the pictures we took...

Sean flagged on Zero! Sean is working with Zero and trying to make him into a Hazing horse which is funny because Zero is around 13 and he's never run before in his life. He's a lazy horse. He'd doing pretty good though.

Sean bringing the steers back

Jason and Jim about to leave the box. (my brother-in-law and father-in-law)

Jason, catching his steer. The white horse, Frosty, looks like something you see in the movies in this picture.

This camera even makes a bird house look good!!

If' you'll notice my camera ticker at the bottom of the page I'm up to 22.7%!! Only 77.3% until I have enough money for my new Camera!!