Do more of what makes you happy!

Do more of what makes you happy! I have been looking at that sign in my kitchen kind of a lot lately. I am someone who goes through phases of things. Its funny because Ryan does the same thing. Maybe that's why we are such a good match. I have gone through painting, scrapbooking, blogging, vlogging, etc etc. I have been in a rut lately. So I am going to do more of what makes me happy! I am going to start back to blogging again. I love it. I don't know why I stopped. Life just seems to get at you sometimes and you are so busy you kind of forget to do YOU.

I am doing me! I am still taking care of my family of course but I am putting a little more attention into myself. The happier I am....the happier my family will be.

My life is good don't get me wrong. I just would like to do some extra stuff while I have time. While the kids are in school. So this is my little get back to daily blogging notice.

So please subscribe! You will get an email every time I blog and can read it....or even choose not too. I mean seriously sometimes the only thing I have a chance to read is my bible app or yah...Facebook. I am a junkie in both of those apps. I cant see if you subscribed but I surely would feel great if you did!

Up and coming....tons of pictures of my family, what we do, and just real talk with all of you. So if you are going to read this remember I write like I talk. :)

Our Crazy Week!!

How much can you pack into a week? With four teenagers and moving from one Ranch to the other….You can pack a lot in. I might actually sleep a little while I write this blog to catch up ha. ZZZZZ…okay back! I am awake. What was I saying again? Oh yes! We had a crazy fun week.

 We have had two baseball games with Jason. They won both games and he was able to steal home. I love watching him play especially because he enjoys it so much.

 Joshua turned 15! I still can’t believe I have a 15 year old that is 6’2’’. He is by far the tallest in our household. He has outgrown Ryan and I by the time he was 14 ha! I still can’t believe he is already 15. He had a great time with his friends the weekend before with a slumber party. He was beyond excited when he got his present of his headphones that he has been wanting forever. On his ACTUAL birthday we were moving and let me tell you he used that to his advantage ha! Plus that got all the kids more snacks and soda which we don’t normally have in the house. The other kids were grateful for that too. Right now is the only time of the year that I have a 17, 16, 15 and then 14 year old. At different times of the year it ends up being two 17 year olds and two 15 year olds. That’s what happens when you have an amazing blended family.

 Side note! Four teenagers. In just one week we will have a Freshman, Sophomore, Junior and Senior. What was I ever thinking? In four years it’s going to be so quiet. I am SO NOT looking forward to that.

 Then we had the FFA event. Future Farmers of America where Cassie and Joshua both won awards. It was a nice Tri tip Dinner and seeing what they have been doing this year. It was a good event. Jackson was in FFA last year and Jason is in 4H this year. It will be interesting which kids decide to do it next year. Joshua won his Greenhand Degree and Parliamentary Procedure Career Development Event Award. Cassie received her Chapter FFA degree. I was very proud of those two.

 The kids had a field trip couple hours away to an Aquatics Center also. They had a lot of fun with their friends. Pretty neat to be a small school so everyone could all go. Love how they do this at the end of the year.

 Then on top of all of this we were moving. Yep! We moved a whole house of stuff from one ranch to another. I am so grateful for my husband and kids. I have to give extra kudos to my oldest Jackson because he really used a lot of strength. We got a HUGE U-Haul, loaded it in one day and unloaded it the next.  Then had to bring all the animals up also. It was just the 6 of us and Jackson’s good friend Mateo.  Thankfully it was a three day weekend. We were all beat. The kids set up their rooms and I worked on the rest of the house while also feeding them every 5 minutes it seemed. You know teenagers get…they are NEVER full.

 I absolutely love this house. Love Love Love it! Its beautiful inside and out but the views are glorious for as far as the eye can see. This was one crazy week! Next week is even more. 8^th grade trip, Baseball games, Academic Awards Ceremony, Ortho Appointments and Maybe a Bull riding event if the double header gets done in time. Oh and did I mention Finals and Graduations? Man this time of year is crazy busy but its so worth it. I really should stop beating myself up for not blogging this week huh? Now that we are all set up in the new house I will be more on top of it. Its hard to blog when your stuff is in a box. J

Ranching Easter

Easter was a ranching Easter with lots of friends coming together. Love love going to the Albaughs for Easter. It's becoming a tradition. Lots of food and fun. I thought I would just show it in some of my favorite pictures since I am late getting this blog out and already onto my newest adventure which you will hear about soon enough :)

Yes this is real and where we did our egg hunting at our friends ranch

Guys putting the eggs in barn in the snow...Lamb Following

Ryan coming back after loading up barn with eggs

Cooper posing in the snow with his Easter Basket

Yes its snowing in California on Easter

Looking for eggs and of course all parents are taking pics

So Darn Cute

The Amazing Hostess and Host of Easter

Eggs with $ in it

Cassie, Austin and Ms. Lewis

Trying to stay warm but got a lot of eggs (Jason)

Having fun with my hubby

The lamb so adds to this event

All the Easter Egg Hiders and the Easter Egg getters lol

Jason and Cassie pretty happy

Austin loving his stash of candy and money

Look Grandma!

Chillin and having fun!

Josh and Seth chillin and talking up a storn

Long Amazing Day and even the teens are out cold

Thank you to the Albaugh family for the fun at the Ranch. Its become a tradition that we love. The teens always feel like they are too old to hunt for eggs and yet.....they run around like chicken every year with smiles on their faces. I have many more pictures but these were just SOME of my favorites. I hope everyone had an amazing Easter. One filled with friends or family and lots of smiles. Remember your kids are never too old for an Easter basket, dying eggs or Easter fun. 

Subscribe to my blog by Google+, Bloglovin or email. Have a Blessed Day and watch out for my next post. My daughter and I drove 11 hours today.....stay tuned for when, where, why and how!

My Anniversary and VivoSmart

Happy Anniversary to us! Most couples probably give each other jewelry or flowers or something. Not us....we decided to get Garmin VivoSmart ! Ok Ok! We were more romantic than just that so I will tell you about our day first and then about the present we decided to get each other.

We had to wake up mega early! Earlier than normal to feed the animals and leave because I had a Dr appointment 2 hours away. I am Not a 5am riser usually but so be it...it had to be done. We had everything in place for our amazing neighbor to take the kids to school and for our other amazing friend to do the next feeding.

Our drive there was romantic as it always is because we were alone and just talked about our relationship. We do the whole "What could we have done better and what was awesome this year" thing. So many great things and memories!

We always have our own style

After the Dr appointment we went to a couple of stores to get Easter stuff for the kids and for me to get a couple of outfits and even looked at a hunting shop. Then we went to BestBuy to ask about my hubbies computer that he has in there being fixed and then that is when we decided to look around because I had been wanting a new camera lens and saw the Garmin VivoSmart. *Side note...they aren't paying me or anything for this*.

Hers and His!

Ryan had talked about getting it before but I was not that into it at the time. We had heard about them but I was still recovering from Bronchitis so it wasn't an option for me. We saw them and had the BestBuy guy come over and explain them to us. We want to have many more years to go together as a couple and part of that is being healthy. I have suffered from Cushing's as many of you know so I am gaining strength after my Brain Surgery. My muscles have depleted and I am carrying a lot of excess weight from Cushing's on my body. Now that I am in remission I am working to get my real self back.  It was MY idea to get them and to do this together. Ryan was into it if I was into it because he hikes a lot while hunting or just walks a lot while irrigating. It was going to be a present for us as a couple to do together and also to help us live longer to be together longer.

So what is a Garmin VivoSmart you ask? Its like a Bracelet you wear that monitors how many steps you take in a day. Its cooler than that though because it gives you a goal by your height, weight and activity level. My Goal for the first day is 5000 steps. Ryan's is 7500 (he is more active than I am so it set his goal higher). It also monitors your sleep and how well you are sleeping. This interests me a lot because I do a lot of tossing and turning. Trust me....when you see my hair is the morning you know I am not staying in one spot. It also tells you the time, date, gives you text messages from your phone so you can decide if you want to look at your phone or not. Tells you how many miles you have walked in a day with your steps, lets you control your music, and the best thing I think is when you have been inactive for one hour it vibrates to tell you to get up and move for a bit. Makes you really think about moving. Even if it is in the house. For Instance I have already walked a mile and that is just from cleaning up the house and tending to my two sick kids today. I haven't even gotten my day really started yet.

There is an online community for it too and it can be attached to your other apps that count calories etc so you can put your movement on it. I am not into that but some of you maybe. We are pretty excited! I had to get the Green inlay one because I love that color. Ryans is blue. We were excited to try it as soon as the morning started and it was charged. Oh it lasts 7 days before you have to charge again and you can shower or swim with it on.

After coming home, feeding the animals again, talking with the kids and seeing how their days went we decided to go out to a romantic dinner at Crumbs while the kids ate at home. Its cute because our kids like that we go out every once in awhile to have dates. They even tell us that its important which I think is good. They got their chores done and were in bed on time. Jackson called me to ask me something about our calf and he started the convo by saying "I am sorry I know its your romantic evening but Minnie only drank half bottle is that okay" LOL!

Dinner was amazing. I had Blackened Ahi Tuna which I love and Ryan had a Steak. The atmosphere was great and it was nice to be out as adults at a restaurant with a table for two instead of six ha! We talked about all sorts of things but mainly how much we loved each other. Yes we are gross like that! We ate and laughed a lot. After dinner on the way back was probably my favorite time though because its a bit of a drive to come home as we don't have dinner restaurants in our town. Ryan was cold as usual, I was hot as usual so I said to him "Happy Anniversary crank the heat up" ha! He cranked it up but about 10 minutes from our house we were getting so tired. It was only 930 but we were! I started looking around for something to help keep him awake like a Candy cane or something to chew on. He keeps those year round its weird. I found a Coyote call in the center console and started using that so loud. He jumped and laughed. He found a turkey one and there we were squawking and honking and howling for the next ten minutes. We were laughing so darn hard! This was totally us. Our weird selves! It was the best part of the night!

We got home safe and that's what mattered with smiles on our faces walking hand and hand back to the house. It was a great evening. I am glad that my husband is just that... my husband! More than that though he is my Best Friend. He is one amazing guy who I love with all my heart. I could never really express to him what he means to me. I am one lucky gal!

Subscribe to this blog by going to the home page and putting in your email. You can subscribe on Google plus or Bloglovin also. Many, Many ways! I hope you have a Blessed Day!

My Small Town VS Big City

Being an Army brat I went to 22 countries before I was 20 years old. It was an adventure that I wish now I would of paid more attention too. We lived in big cities like Tokyo, Japan or Munich, Germany. Stateside we were always in big cities too. Funny how I should end up in a town of 250 people that is actually big in size because of all the ranches. I thought I would write a blog about the difference between this small town and a big city so all of you see what we do here.

1.When I moved here seeing the stars at night was amazing! If it wasn't cloudy there were a billion of them. The moon was so bright we could almost walk around using that as our light source. There are so many stars to be seen that once a year many travel here to go to a Star Party in our town. People bring telescopes that are larger than I am. Its pretty neat to be able to see Saturn's rings up close. I love that you can at least weekly see a shooting star.

2. Small towns means everyone know each other. When you go to get gas at Juniper Junction (our only gas station) you are met with a smile and a hello. Its not fake....Shari and her crew already know your name and genuinely care when they ask how your day is going. They also do flowers, balloons, gas and its our only place in town to rent movies.

3. We only have one restaurant which is really good. Its open for lunch and early dinners. They have good home cooking BBQ on the weekends. Its a small town so most of us have a tab there and pay weekly or monthly. Great service and again....everyone knows your name. Its kind of the place to go too. Its packed a lot of times especially on Friday nights and Sundays after church. The Oney Frosty is the ONLY place to go! Love the girls that work there! They know your drink before you even ask for it. If you go there though try their milkshakes!

4. Living so far out we don't have mail service to our homes. No one in town does actually. Everyone has a PO Box. The only time we will get mail at our homes if you order something and FEDEX or UPS brings it to you. Even then you know you live in a small town because they bring your dogs snacks and know them all by name. No one is afraid to leave it on the front porch if you aren't home because who wants to drive down the 5 mile dirt road to get to your house to even look.

5. Traffic....When I first moved here we made a video of the "traffic" because we found it so different. Let me show you a pic of "traffic" in the hussle and bussle middle part of town. If two cars are on the road then its normal. If three cars are on the road then you start to wonder if everyone is going somewhere and you didn't get invited ha!

6. The cost of living is lower here. More so I mean in the sense of rent. There aren't apartments to rent or apartment buildings anywhere. Its either a house, Mobile home or a trailer. Most houses are nice ranch houses with lots of out buildings, barns and sheds. Some are extremely nice but most are modest nice houses! Cost of renting a house though is much lower. Probably because there aren't many people who don't live here for a long time. I will give you an example. A four bedroom 3 bathroom house with acreage goes for less than 1000 a month. Most cities that would be a one bedroom apartment. When we moved here we stayed at THE LAST RESORT IN ADIN for two months while waiting on our house to open up. Its a motel that has 6 rooms. Its super clean and we were treated like family. Kerri who runs it makes sure that all is good for you in every way. She even helped us find the church we go to and when we were at a basketball game made us dinner. Dave and Linda the owners were fantastic. We were really blessed. Everyone is so hospitable.

7. The school is pretty neat here. Every teacher pretty much knows every student in the whole schools name. If the kids do something at school you better believe I will know what happened before they even get home. News travels fast in a small town. There are about 200 students K-12 grade here. Its 4 towns together that go to this school. The classes are small and you really get that one on one attention that you need. It would be really hard for you to try and hide and not be known. The kids have a lot of sports even though its small. Football, Volleyball, Basketball, Wrestling, Baseball, Dance, Softball and Track. Kids can stay pretty busy. There is a lot of clubs also like Science Club or 4h, FFA and leadership etc. Its not just the parents that are involved. The whole community comes out to these events and really support all the kids. GO CARDS!

8. Cooking. Planning meals is something you really had to do. We do have a corner store that has meats, milk, canned foods etc in it. Its high priced though so its really for going to grab something if you ran out of it. They do have pizzas and sandwiches there which is cool. Mostly though to get to a real grocery store its 70 miles away. Also that's our nearest Starbucks. When you go shopping you really stock up. Its not going to buy food weekly but usually bi weekly or monthly. Most people with large families freeze their milk or bread and thaw it out when its needed. A lot of people but not all have gardens during the summer and some can their foods. It seems like everyone has a deep freezer for meats. You really do have to plan your meals out if you want to follow a recipe. We have to stock up being a large family. We have one deep freezer and are purchasing our second next month. One is filled with lamb and chicken and the next will be full of beef. That leaves the inside freezer in our fridge for ice, ice cream, etc.

9. Its pretty cool because you get to see land for miles  without any obstructions even. I love it here because I love all the animals that are all over and I have a fondness to Barns. Don't know why I love them but I do. I take pictures and paint them a lot. Just on our ranch we have cows, horses, lambs, dogs, cats and soon to be chickens. Usually we have a couple pigs also but we haven't picked them up yet. I love driving on the country roads. Breathing in the fresh air and being able to see for miles. It was funny when my nephew came to visit ( he lives in Maryland) because he just could not get over the fact that their weren't buildings everywhere. He also though it was too quiet. I personally love the quiet.

10. Everything does seem to be far away but that's what makes an adventure. If your child comes home the night before an event and says, "oh Mom I need black pants and a red tie tomorrow I forgot to tell you". Its not like you can just run out and get it. You can call up your friends which happens a lot between the parents to see who has what. Home Depot is 2 hours away which makes it difficult sometimes. If you want sushi that's two hours away too! A movie theater is about 45 minutes away. The nearest stop light is about that far too. We do a lot of planning. When we go to the city we have a list a mile long and fill up the truck to capacity when coming home. You better believe I have a Starbucks in hand though. When someone goes to the city they also call their friends to make sure they don't need anything that they are missing. I love this town.

There are a lot more differences of course. Probably millions....okay probably just hundreds but those are the top ten that come to my mind. I love living here. Our friends are amazing and so so kind. The town itself is cute and every one waves as they drive by one another. Their are some downfalls but not many. Things may be far away, people know everyone's business, the bus stop is 5 miles away so its not like the kids can walk home, and ohhhhhh I don't have DSL and it drives me crazy that I have to be on satellite and there is a cap each month so that does drive me crazy. The rest of it though I love! Wouldn't trade it for the world. Still am going to travel a lot because its good to get out and experience the world....no matter where you live.