New Puppies

If you have ever read the post A girl and her dog, you know that we had three sweet dogs.

Lady – the dog the post is about and Micky and Buck the dogs Andy and I each had when we got married.  Well almost a year and a half ago we lost our sweet Micky. I could not talk about it here when it happened. It was pretty sad around here for several days. But we had Lady and she did soften the blow of losing Micky some.

Sometime last summer Lady took up with Papa. She started riding the Kubota with him and she started staying at their house. When it got cold Nana started letting her sleep inside. The long and short – Lady moved out and moved in with Nana and Papa. She still comes to visit sometimes and will sleep on the porch. Well after she moved out, Andi Beth started asking for a puppy again. To make matters worse her cousin M adopted a sweet little dog named Daisy.

We spent part of mother’s day weekend with my sister-in-law, B and M and the new dog. All the way home Andi Beth asked for a puppy, and finally I gave in. I had seen a picture of some cute shelter puppies on Facebook, and decided to call about them. Those puppies were gone, but they had some Chorkie puppies. Part Yorkie, part Chihuahua.

After Andi Beth left for school Cooper and I, along with my mom, went to the shelter to look at the puppies. The mistake I made was to take Cooper with me. We ended up bringing two puppies home. We named them Addie Rose and Sassy.

As luck would have it Sassy got sick and did not make it, so I went back to the shelter and got the last puppy from the litter. A boy, we named Rocky.

Addie Rose and Rocky had made themselves part of this family. I am not sure what we would do without them.  They go with us whenever they can. The kids love playing with them!

Here are a few pictures of them

Cooper is trying to get to Rocky to ride in the back of his truck

Sister is trying to tell him how to do it!

He gave up on the back and decide Rocky should ride in his lap.

The puppies really want to cuddle with Buck, but he is not happy about it.

This is the two of them in the car going to the 4th of July party.

All of these pictures were taken with my iphone. Not something I usually post, but it was all I had

What I Would have Missed

Normally I get up about 5am four (or three) morning a week to go to my boot camp class at Genesis Fitness. Sometimes, when I don’t feel like getting up, I will go to the evening class. Yesterday when my alarm went off, I did not want to go work out. I told Andy I would just go to the evening class, and I rolled over to go back to sleep. About 60 seconds later I heard the puppies start to move around and knew they needed to go out. At that point I knew I might as well get up, get dressed, and go because taking the puppies out would take a few minutes then it would be about 40 minutes until it was time for Andy to get up. So, getting any extra sleep was really out of the question.

So, I got dressed, let the puppies go potty and put them back to bed, and got in the car. All this time I was telling myself that the only workout I ever regretted was the one I did not go to.

I made it to the gym only about 2 minutes late, which really is normal. We had a great workout. Joseph is amazing. It was great to see the ladies I work out with as well. As I was heading home, I was thinking, “I am so glad I did not miss that workout!”

Then I looked out my window, the sun was coming over the trees and I saw the most beautiful sunrise.  I see the sunrise most mornings, but somehow this morning seemed different. It was like God was saying, “See what you would have missed.” No I did not manage to snap a picture; I was too busy enjoying the sunrise

I continued my drive home. When I turned on the county road I saw the two doe deer that I see most mornings, and with a closer look I saw their fawns.  We see fawns from time to time, but this morning I got to see this pair pretty close up. I love seeing fawns, I have seen deer all my life and they are really common here on the farm, but I was grown before I ever saw a fawn in the wild. Just another thing I would have missed if I would have slept late.

When Andy got home yesterday afternoon and asked if I wanted to go check the cows at the lease pasture. Of course, I said yes! Andy asked if I was sure I didn’t need to go work out, and I told him I was glad I had gone this morning. I had also done my endurance workout earlier in the day, thanks to the energy I had from going to boot camp.

Cooper decided he would ride with us. So we all loaded up and headed to check the cows. We had lots of fun. I enjoyed watching Cooper and Andy together. Cooper loves the cows.

It was good family time. All family time I would have missed if I would have waited until this afternoon to work out!

And it was inspiration to get up this morning and go.

I love the way working out makes me feel. I love that I have a trainer that offers a class so that I can work out and stay fit and not interfere with my wonderful family time!

PlayTri Race Recap

I am about a month late writing this……Wasn’t going to write a race recap, but changed my mind.

Left home to meet my taveling partners at Kroger in Nacgdoches about 9:45, I was running a bit late. It was storming pretty bad at home and Andy had gone to Timpson for a few minutes. I wanted to make sure he was on his way home before I left, in case the power went out. We had 42 day old chickens and Steve was fishing, the reasons why Andy was not going with me.

I had agreed to ride with some other girls that train with NET, this was a chance for me to work on not being completely in control all the time. (I don’t do well not having my car.)

Left for Los Colinas (Dallas) about 10:20 or so. Robyn was a great driver, but I still go a little car sick – so not her fault. She very sweetly stopped in Canton for a potty break and a snack. I also took some medicine then felt a little better. The only reason I noted that I got car sick was this should have told me that I was going to need to take medicine before the swim the next morning.

We got to the hotel, finally. There was tons of road construction plus the professional race, so we got a tour of Los Colinas. We checked in to the hotel and went to eat a late lunch. I was starving, so I ate probably more than I should, but it was good. We walked back to the hotel, picked up packets and I went to the room to rest until supper. I feel asleep and almost missed supper, partly because I was tired and partly from the medicine for motion sickness. We went to Jason’s Deli. I could not eat much because of the late lunch, but I took my left overs with me. We went to target to get a few last minute things. We returned to the hotel about 7:30. I walked down to transition to check it out. The race staff told me where they thought my rack would be. I went back to my room, ate a few more bites of my supper. I checked on the kids and Andy. Made sure all of my stuff was ready. Put on my tattoo numbers.  I laid down, turned the tv on and fell asleep pretty quickly.

At a little before 12 the chicken houses started calling, and calling, and calling. I tried to call Andy, text Andy, nothing. Finally after about 30 minutes, I acknowledged the alarm and went back to sleep. At 2 am Andy decided to respond to the text, I think. I ignored it and went back to sleep. Transition opened at 5:30, so I got up at 5:25 through on a shirt and went to rack my bike. It took me a while to find my spot because I wasn’t were I was told it would be. I was able to get an end spot on the rack. I set my stuff out, picked up my timer and went back to my room. I was still pretty tired from the lack of sleep so I sent an alarm on my phone and laid back down. My start time wasn’t until 8:15 so I did not need to eat just yet. I got back up about 6:30. I ran down to catch the last of the Olympic athlete meeting, check my transition stuff and watched our Olympic athletes start the swim. I was about 7:15 so I went to the room and ate my bagel with peanut butter, drank some water and took my 0₂ gold. (Should have taken motion sickness meds, but did not). Kind of chilled out, but I could not call anyone because I had left my phone in transition. I went down about 7:45 for the sprint athlete meeting. Sat with some of the other NET girls, watched the Olympic athletes finish. Finally it was time for our start.

For the sprint waves you line up by assigned cap color. I was in the 3^rd to last group, I think. I got in the water when it was my time; the water was a little cool right at first but not bad. I moved to the front left of the start group. You had to tread water a minute or two. I started my watch at about 20 seconds to start. When I started the swim I was determined to swim, not breast stroke or something like that. About ½ to the first buoy I started to feel dizzy and like I could not breathe well. Not as bad as last year, but I was still struggling. I still had to breast stroke more than I wanted to, but I never felt like I was drowning. The swim was also longer than it was last year.  I was out of the water in 13 minutes and on the bike by 17 minutes. Transition took a little longer than I wanted. I am really not sure what slowed me down.

When I got on the bike and looked at my watch and saw 17 minutes I was pretty bummed. I was on the bike in 12 minutes last year. So…. I really wanted to make up some time. The bike was a two look course and basically the same as last year. I was feeling pretty good, drinking my electrolyte drink. My nutrition plan was electrolytes in my water on the bike and a gel every 30 minutes or so. I made the first loop of the bike in little less 30 minutes. I was very happy! All the riding on the hills and bad roads at home was paying off!! I wanted to pick up the pace on the 2^nd loop, but somewhere about halfway in to the second loop I could tell I was slowing some. I finally hit the big downhill stretch and tried to push hard. I pushed hard back into transition ready to get off the bike and go pee. I racked my bike, changed my shoes, and grabbed my belt. Last year they had portapottys on the run out. This year, they had two turned the wrong way and they were full, so I figured I was just push through. Ugh big mistake. This made the run miserable, and I started trying to not drink as much - ?? bad plan. The run was hard. It was an out and back twice, there was a little bit of an uphill, and NO shade. Any way I kept pushing. Tried my best to run/walk. After the line to divide those that were looping and those that were finishing I found a little more energy and did my best sprint to the finish!!

I was little disappointed in my time overall, but was very pleased with my bike time. After I thought about the race some and talked to Becky I felt better. I feel that the swim was probably longer than the 500 meters as compared to the swim last year that was likely short. Also the run last year was very short. So, overall I have decided to be happy with my time!

My Running Story in 250 words

This is not my normal type of post, but I have joined a blog link up hosted by a blog I LOVE to read – The Lady Okie – I found her through Pinterest. She is really funny. Go check her out as well as some of the other blogs that linked up! On to the story

I tried running in the 7^th grade, my coach put me in the mile and the mile and half runs. Every day in practice he said, “Go run.” So, I would run as far and as fast as I could which was about 200 meters, and then I would walk for the next 30 minutes.  I went to two track meets and thought I would die during my events.  I vowed to NEVER run again.

Fifteen years and 2 kids later I desperately wanted to lose the baby weight. I started walking and joined a boot camp class. About 3 months later a friend I was working out with said she was going to do a 5K, so I said I will TRY one! The race was fun. I kept running and did several 5K’s other the next year. I wanted to do more, but I really did not want to run more than 3 miles. I sometimes get bored with running.

I checked into Nacogdoches Endurance Training and they were starting Triathlon training, so I signed up. I completed my first triathlon in June 2013.

I still run as an addition to my boot camp class, or sometimes I run when I can’t make it to boot camp. I am not training for anything specific now.

Sometimes when my hubby gets home I have my running shoes on and I tell him, “Watch the kids, I need to go run!” I always come back in a better mood!

These are my running shoes that I use when the county road is muddy - Like today!

Unstoppable Mom

Live with Kelly and Michael and Children’s Motrin is sponsoring their 2nd annual Unstoppable Mom Contest. For the second year I have nominated a very special Mom in my life. Jessica Hester.

Jessica Hester is my nomination for Live’s 2014 Unstoppable Mom. Jessica lives in Chapman Ranch, Texas with her husband Beau, who works security for the King Ranch, and her two sweet children Brooke, age 6 and Benjamin, age 6 months. Jessica is a phenomenal mom, as I am sure are ALL of the moms that are nominated for this contest. However, Jessica has some special circumstances, you see on November 18, 2010, her daughter Brooke was diagnosed with stage 4, high risk Neuroblastoma, which is a form of nervous system cancer that had spread to her bone marrow. Three and one half years later the whole family is still fighting. Jessica is a scientist and researcher by nature, so she is always looking in to the most cutting edge therapies for her daughter. She is willing to do whatever is necessary for her daughter. They lived for a year in the Ronald McDonald House in New York City so the Brooke could receive cutting edge treatment at Memorial Sloan Kettering Hospital. Currently Jessica, Brooke, and Benjamin are in Michigan so that Brooke can receive treatment, and they are planning to be in Houston, Texas in March for more treatment.

At times the family faces difficulties with Brooke’s treatments. You see, these are such cutting edge treatments, at times the medicines that Brooke needs will not be approved by insurance for Brooke. This does not stop Jessica; she spends countless hours on the phone with insurance companies, pharmacies, hospitals, and doctors to do whatever is needed for Brooke to have the medicine she needs when she needs it!


In case you overlooked that Benjamin is 6 months old, let me tell you about this sweet boy. Jessica was due to deliver Benjamin last September, and spent most of her pregnancy traveling back and forth between south Texas and Michigan. Jessica has told me when you have a child with cancer you live your life in 21 to 28 day cycles and that you never really know where the next cycle will take you, so Jessica was prepared to have the baby in Texas or Michigan, where ever the cycle took her. Five weeks before her due date, Jessica, Brooke, and Jessica’s mom were driving to Michigan for Brooke’s scans, when Jessica started to experience cramping and bleeding. She knew that something was terribly wrong and that she needed to get to a hospital soon. Jessica googled a hospital in St. Louis, Missouri, and directed her mother there. Jessica arrived at the hospital at 2:30 pm and just before 10 pm Benjamin Eric was born. Five weeks early, but wonderfully healthy. Jessica spent a couple of days in the hospital in Missouri, while Beau who had arrived just after the baby was born, and took Brooke on to Michigan. As soon as Jessica and baby Benjamin were release instead of going home, they headed to Michigan as well to continue advocating for Brooke.


Jessica, is not content with just finding treatments for her daughter, but is committed to a cure for Neuroblastoma and all childhood cancers. Jessica is the founder of Brooke’s Blossoming Hope for Childhood Cancer foundation. The foundation helps children directly by providing them with headwear during the difficulties of hair loss, but also by raising awareness for the serious need to both find and fund cures for pediatric cancer.


I am sure that you can imagine how physically and mentally demanding being the mother of two children, one fighting for her life, a wife and the founder of a non-profit foundation can be, but Jessica NEVER complains. She only thanks God for the good things in her life and keeps going.


One page is really not enough to tell you how unstoppable this wonderful woman is. If you would like more information you can visit www.brookesblossoms.org. I urge you to consider Jessica Hester for one of Live’s Unstoppable Moms.


The above is the article that I wrote for Jessica’s nomination. I am posting it here so that anyone that wants can read it. We are one week after the nominations close and have not heard anything from the contest, so I can only assume that Jessica has not been chosen. If you would like to keep up with Jessica, Brooke, and Benjamin visit www.caringbridge.org/visit/brookehester


If you would like to donate to the family directly or to the foundation please email Jessica at jessica.hester@yahoo.com


Finally, to stay updated on the wonderful family please “LIKE” Brooke's Blossoming Hope for Childhood Cancer Awareness Foundation on facebook!

Big Heifers and Baby Calf Feeders

I FINALLY got my internet up and running!! Thanks to DSI Systems and Exede Satellite internet! They are amazing and if you need internet service and you are in my area, for my money, they are the best.

A lot has been happening on the farm – more baby calves born, we got baby chicks, as always feeding and hay, and ice storm!

Today, we are home missing our wonderful church family.  My sweet girl is a little under the weather and my hubby is trying to repair the chicken house drives. The rains and the ice have made a complete mess of them.

I am hanging out on the couch right now writing and catching up on the Olympics (GO USA), with the boy playing cows under my feet!

We are still in the middle of our busiest time of the year still feeding cows, waiting on the last few calves, starting our spring breeding, and chickens. As well as everyone being in and out of town several times over the next couple of months.

We spent Thursday, the first warm and pretty day in a while, putting the finishing touches on the fall breeding season by pregnancy checking the cows and turning them out. Then catching and grouping our spring breeding cows. We now have a new group of cows in the trap; this includes a few heifers that have been enjoying the big calf feeders in the big pasture. They can get in and out of these feeders pretty well. In the traps we have smaller baby calf feeders and the big heifers are not supposed to get in them!

This was taken with my iPhone, the other day. This is one of the heifers that is NOT supposed to be in this feeder.

Friday morning, while I was getting ready for the internet installers to be here, I heard a crazy noise outside. When I first looked I could not find the source of the noise, but finally I saw it. This baby calf feeder was moving across the trap with a heifer half in and half out. Not the heifer in the picture, but a bigger one. Unfortunately, I was worried about the heifer so I did not get the chance to snap a picture or video. I wish I could say that I did something amazing to get her unstuck, but all I could do was watch. The heifer finally got herself out. Then she turned around and was going to fight the feeder, but I guess she figured it was not worth it.

This is a picture that Andy snapped yesterday afternoon of another heifer in the feeder. She was able to get out on her own. Andy lowered the bar on the feeder in hopes we can keep the big girls out!

Missy's New Baby

It is calving season at the farm. One of my favorite times of year! I love going out every morning and seeing new baby calves everywhere. What I don’t enjoy in getting a phone call or a text that says, “Heifer in trouble, I need help.”  That is what I happened Tuesday around lunch, except the text said, “Missy is in trouble.” Now, we do not name all the cows on the place, but there are a few that are show heifers and they usually get names. Missy is one of our heifers that was shown by a local high school student. Of course, we watch all our cows and heifers closely when it is time for them to have their calves, but the heifers that have been shown are watched more closely. These heifers are usually fed more, so they are at higher risk of having bigger calves that can cause trouble.

So, when I got the phone call I took off running. When I got to the barn I found Papa and Cooper with Missy, who did not seem to be in any distress, but Papa wanted to make sure!

Cooper kept asking, "Papa what you doing?"

First moments of life - AMAZING. You can the calve's tongue sticking out, what you can't see is the calve was flicking its tongue. Funny.

Its tough being born.

We moved the calf over to some fresh hay, and brought Missy over to see her new calf. Missy was pretty happy and went to work cleaning the new calf up.

Missy gave birth to a very pretty, 70 lb heifer calf. She was very proud of her self and so were we!

Andi Beth just told me she named the calf MK, as in Mary Katherine, from the movie Epic. If you know anything about our family you know that we watched Epic for 6 family movie night in a row. (6 Weeks) Andi Beth is obsessed with the movie Epic.

Did anyone notice the pigs photo bombing ALL this pictures?