More Like 8 to 4:30

Helene and Sarah are back at it again for another round of #totalsocial and this month they want the scoop about our 9 to 5 j-o-b.  Well here's some details for ya on that...

• I work for University of Illinois Extension.
• Extension was established 100 years ago as an outreach organization to bring information discovered at the University to people throughout the state.
• We offer educational opportunities in five areas: health, food security/safety, environmental stewardship, wise use of Illinois agricultural land and maybe our most well known, 4-H!
• I proud to say that I actually use both my animal science (BS) and agriculture education (MS) degrees.
• I generally roll in to work at about 8:05am and only work 'til 4:30pm.  You can bet that I'm out the door at 4:30:01!
• Each day is different, sometimes it's meetings, programs, meetings, programs, but other days it's just brainstorming for the coming months.
• I work with some awesome people, one of which I'm related to!
• My favorite programs to bring to the community are horse related (obviously) or ones that introduce people to something they might not have ever learned about without our input!  Recently, we've had huge success with backyard beekeeping, encouraging women to take a more active role in farming and local foods and small farm tours!

Do You Remember Your First Love?

Mine was horses.  Surprised?

I wasn't into boys, I was more into geldings.  And a few mares I suppose.

Since before I can really remember, horses have always been my thing.  There has never been a time in my life where that passion ever diminished.  It wasn't one of those activities that I would 'grow out of' once I discovered boys and to this day it still hasn't been replaced by some other hobby!

I've been blessed to call a lot of good horses mine over the years...

But the first, the very first was Big B.

B was white with specks of brown, horseman call that flea-bit grey.  He wasn't a fancy horse show horse or anything of the sort.  If I remember right he was just a grade horse that my parents bought from some friends of theirs.

What was he though?  Safe.  My parents were sure that big ol' grey horse was going to take care of their baby girl!  So maybe there was that one time that he took off at a dead run for the barn and I had to duck against his neck or risk being plastered against the side of the barn as he flew into his stall...  That memory is forever etched in my brain!  My poor mom was hysteric, but I survived!

Time passed and my family sold B, but there were lots of other wonderful horses that came through our barn.

Stormy.  Joey.  Charlie.  Sammy.  Sonny.  Cody.  Another Joey.  Brandie.  Leo.  Scotch.

If Big B was my first love, my horse Fred would probably compare to everyone's favorite elementary teacher.  The one who taught you so much and who you will always be grateful for.

Fred was the first real barrel racing horse I owned.  He was the best!  My parents bought him for me when I was in seventh grade and I competed at every county fair, open horse show and rodeo I could find.  He was a gorgeous red roan that put up with a silly adolescent girl who was convinced all her tack needed to be purple and his mane must be braided.  A little glitter on his hair never hurt either!  Poor guy was probably always questioning his manhood.

Fred is gone now.  Buried at my family's farm.  He was one of the few horses that lived out his life with us.  I sobbed like a baby the morning my dad called to tell me he was gone!  I look at all the pictures of us over the years and I'm still so thankful that he was mine!

Then there's Six.

As much as I love this horse, he was and still is a bit of a challenge.  Always a bit spooky about silly stuff like a dried up corn leaf blowing across the road, but in his day he was a damn fine barrel horse.  He also put up with me wanting to ride him in western pleasure classes and teaching him showmanship.  To this day, I could probably pull him out of the pasture at my parents and he'd kick some butt in showmanship!

Two years ago, I made the decision to retire him from competition because I couldn't keep him sound.  That's horse speak for he was sore and the medicine to make him feel good enough to run at the level we had been at was just too expensive to maintain.  Currently, he's happily munching grass at the farm.  When I go home to visit, I always make a point to stop and see him.  9 times out of 10 the little stinker will run away from me in the pasture! I love you too, pal!

And now, as you know, I have Louie.

He's certainly got some mighty big horseshoes to fill, but he's well on his way!

I'm linking up today's post over with Carly for Thankful Thursdays.  

And also Helene and Sarah for their first #TOTALSOCIAL.

Ten Favorite Things

I'm not always the best good, okay fine... the truth is, I'm not good at ALL with vocalizing how much I love him and why.  It's not my Love Language.

I love the man dearly, but I tend to not express it in a way he, or anyone else for that matter, understands.  I really need to work on that!

Ten Favorite Things: About My Special Someone.
 

 

one:  He mows the lawn!  Okay, I started with an easy one, but I've never once mowed our yard and frankly, I don't ever want to.  On top of mowing he is also in charge of most of the outside duties that home ownership bestows on a couple.  Gutters.  Tree-trimming.  Weeding the garden.  Not the landscaping, that's mine!

two:  Matt is satisfied with the here and now.  I admire his level of contentment with just being.  I'm always striving to 'be better' and 'do more', but Matt finds appreciation in how far we've come not how far we have yet to go!

three:  The guy is tenderhearted.  He LOVES Bella more than words can express.  He snuggles with her, not me, in the recliner every night!  He'd rather watch a funny or dare I say a romantic comedy than most gory movies.  Which is fine by me!

four:  Matt has a very strong work ethic.  I remember being so mad at him for returning calls to customers on our way to the airport for our honeymoon so that he wouldn't be leaving them hanging while we we're gone.  Looking back, he was just putting in a little extra effort and not trying to drive me crazy!

five:  I love his hair, right before he calls his barber for a trim, when it has grown out just past his ears and the ends are starting to curl!  I beg and plead for him to leave it long, but he says it's too "unprofessional".

six:  He is exceedingly tolerant.  He eats all the new recipes that I find on Pinterest without complaint, dresses up every Christmas for our annual party and puts up with my desire to travel even thought he's more of a home-body.  And he just goes with the flow as I try to plan out every adventure, weekend and bathroom break from here to kingdom come! 

seven: Matt is independent and is totally cool with the fact I am too!  Our hobbies often take us in opposite directions and I appreciate him being okay with me not wanting to sit in a duck blind on a cold morning, just like I'm okay with sweating my rear off at a horse show in the middle of August and him being at home to greet me at the end of the day!

eight: The hat tip.  You know when Matt has had a few or a few too many when his baseball hat gets pushed up and farther back on his head.  I don't know when it started, long before I came in the picture.  His buddies even make a game out of being the last one to notice when it's happened!

nine:   He's handy.  I can come up with countless projects and he tries his absolute best to comply with my sketches and ramblings.  We may or may not almost come to blows about the feasibility of what I picture, but he darn sure tries to make it work!

ten:  The guy has backbone.  If you couldn't tell from the level of snark and sass in this post, I can be bossy, opinionated and I tend to think my way is the right way.  Most days he puts up with all I have to dish out, but there are times when he calls me on my BS!  While I might not like it at the time, I couldn't imagine being with a guy who let me walk all over him all the time!!

eleven: Look at me go, I'm on a roll!  Matt is also faithful.  While he is a Believer, I'm not necessarily talking about faith in God here.  Matt is one of the most faithful Chicago Cubs fans I have ever met.  He is always looking forward to 'next year' and hopes to one day see them win a World Series!  I hope for his sake, they do too!

Welp, there it is.  Ten+ reasons why I love my 'special someone'!  It wasn't as hard or painful as I thought it would be to get that out... 

Love you, babe.