Wedding photos

Lady Gaga....

...seriously, if I could talk to you, Lady Gaga, first of all I would call you by your real name. Life isn't a big virtual reality video game where you can choose a screen name. We should have something to call you that doesn't make us giggle or want to puke. Secondly, I would scold you for admitting to a national publication that you intend on doing drugs again to boost your creativity!!!! Are you aware that young girls are heavily influenced by your every move? Do you care? Nope? That's what I thought. And when you dress yourself in meat to protest, there are many hard working ranchers who labored with difficult conditions to produce that good FOOD you're wasting to make your "look-at-me" cry for attention. It makes me want to eat meat even MORE! I get the fact you're talented. I also understand that you're wasting it being a freak and gathering fans (mostly young girls) to follow in your foot steps. Shame on you! Seriously! Shame on you! Fame has a responsibility. Be a positive leader!

Ten days!

Just ten days til our wedding. I get asked all of the time..."how are you? are you nervous?" There's actually never been a point in my life when I've felt more calm.
I just have to remember to pack everything in the car when we leave for the wedding...there will be no just running home...the wedding is in rural Lincoln County. LOL
I think everything will be just fine.
Check out our wedding website at http://www.mywedding.com/anneandchad

The fourth! Just one month to go!

I have exactly one month from today until our wedding! Just about everything is done from here on out....there are last minute things. I think you never really count on how much money you could be spending on those last minute things. I'm sure nothing will be perfect and I'm trying hard NOT to become bridezilla but there are some things that are bothering me. Like the RSVP....I gave my guests TWO options on how to do this......choice is good, right? a phone number OR our website http://mywedding.com/anneandchad
So it didn't occur to me that people wouldn't read the invitation and just toss it aside. There was no reply card for a reason, I didn't want all of those coming back to my very inadequate and often "high" mailman to try and get into the correct box (we have those little community boxes like in college). So I included the RSVP info on the invitation (saved paper too....economical and GREEN). Oh well. I guess people just don't pay attention, read or have manners anymore. Personally, because of my etiquette minded Aunt, I got manners pounded into my personality, my upbringing and deep into my soul! For the love of Jesus, you just didn't behave accordingly because if you just didn't know, you were about to learn! LOL
I've heard rumors that at similar weddings in this family, 100-something RSVPed and nearly 400 showed up. It's maddening! Seriously! The stress could bend metal that has "sploded" in my little head. I'm learning to breathe deeply and try and chill. It's hard. I sometimes want to scream but all in all, it is exactly one month away. I will survive this and sometimes look back on it all and laaaaaaaaaaaugh! right? :)

arghhhhhhhhh!

I am about five weeks away from being married and the wedding stress has officially turned me crazy. Nuttier than a squirrel....I feel like...well, not myself! Things are coming together but it's killing me. Is this normal? I'm hoping that someone will post that it is.

I love the Fourth of July! I love to see the stores with red, white and blue decorations, t-shirts, the bbq displays, an abundance of hot dog buns on the store shelves....it means we're getting ready to really have a good time, we're getting ready to party. I had no idea what was in store for me the evening of July 4th, 2008.
I had spent the day on top of the Peak vehicle (sister radio station with Tammy Oakland) in the Monument parade. My little girl was with her grandparents in North Carolina so I was totally alone. I decided to call a guy I had been on a couple of dates with...Chad. He answered and I expected to just talk...he invited me to a dance with him that night. "I'll meet you there", I told him. "No, No I'll meet you in the parking lot of the Fuel B in Ellicott off Highway 94". "Ok, I say", and I quickly threw on some jeans, boots, perfume, brushed my hair and I was off. Driving out past some of the farms and fields, I'm starting to think....uh, what am I doing?
Well, I met him there and we drove and drove and drove so far EAST that I thought he was taking me home to Oklahoma. He drove dozens of dozens of miles to come and get me to take me to his home town of Karval, CO. It was a fourth of July dance in the garage of the fire station. There was a local musician, kids, dogs, older people, younger people, dads dancing with daughters, moms and sons, cousins etc. I was hooked. I was so taken that he would drive all that way, risk inviting me into his life a short month after meeting. It worked and from that moment on we've not been apart. That night we danced and danced. I felt so alive! So Chad wants our first song at our wedding reception to be Brad Paisley's "We Danced".

NOW, you know why I LOVE the fourth of July. Bring on the Fireworks! All kinds of them!

11 miles and a seven year old....

"Are we there yet?", didn't hear that....."I'm tired!", didn't hear that either.
Over the weekend my seven year old and I went on an 11 mile bike ride in 95 degree heat. We rode down to Springs Spree, a local park festival, because I had to work for the station on Saturday. Anyway, with parking being difficult we decided to make a day of it and brave it on the bikes. Chad picked us up in the truck later and took home the bikes. It was fun, and an adventure. We stopped for water when we needed to. We stopped to have the lunch I had packed for us. We crossed carefully with traffic and she listened well. It's good to teach kids that cars haven't always been around. It was amazing to see how much you really notice when you're not stuck in an air conditioned car with the windows up. You take in smells you'd never smell. You see little details about neighborhoods, flowers, people working in their yards, broken fences, fences being fixed, dogs barking, cats in windows....you see the world. Every now and then it's not a bad thing to go back to the simple things. We're getting away from the little things, and those things can bring us joy if we seize the opportunity to let them!

Traffic and other thoughts

When did people start running late to everything? I say this as some jerk sat behind me fuming at the fact I was in the right lane AND obeying the construction zone speed limit. He was swerving back and worth, right on my bumper and jamming his fist on his steering wheel. As if this action was like a magic button that would make the old lady in front of him step on it.
With all of the convenience gadgets and devices in our world to make it easier, why it is increasingly more difficult for folks to cope? We don't iron anymore, wrinkle-free clothes are a god-send. There's five minutes you get back in the morning. You can get news text alerts delivered right to your phone, Coffee literally makes itself with new single cup coffee makers. My point is there are so many amazing things to make it easy and happy for mankind...and mankind is NOT happy. Why?
It's not only that people aren't happy, they're unusually cranky. Ok, let's see the economy could take some of the blame, the oil spill in the Gulf brings us terrible images of sick wildlife and people are losing their livelihood, a lot of folks are not happy with the leadership of the country...but does it really need to be exasperated with angry moodiness inappropriately displaced on others?
So get over yourself! Deal with it! And treat others with respect and kindness, it's not their fault you're in an unfortunate mood. Remember....what you put out there will come back to you!

Fly fishin and more...

Back from a wonderful vacation to the Ozarks, I did NOT want to leave. Our family packed the car like gypsies and headed East last week to Branson, Missouri. My aunt has a home there and invited us to come and stay. The winding hills, lush green trees and grass and cold, clear streams and waterways were unbelievable!! It was incrediably pleasant. The weather was gorgeous too. It was a little humid but I pulled the crazy curly hair back in a ponytail, put on a hat and dealt with it. If you ever get a chance to go to Branson...you must ride a Duck, an old Army vehicle that goes on land AND in the water. Our little girl loved the "duck", little giggles and squeels of joy came pouring out of her. My aunt always hosts with greatness too! She authored a cookbook so you can imagine the eats are good! Really good!!! We canoed in a small private lake, hiked and learned to fly fish. I did NOT want to leave! It was a wonderful experience. We're planning next year's trip back!

So I put away the fleece...

..actually, if you live in Colorado you know that's not true but rather wishful thinking. It's finally getting warmer! Today, it's going to be sunny and 67 and it doesn't get much better than that. I will, at last, put my tomato and pepper plants in the ground. I will walk barefooted in my grass, I will soak up the sun on recession beach.....(uh, my deck) and enjoy it, that is until next week. That's when we could be digging out the snow boots. Naw, I'm kidding of course but it IS Colorado. It's where you can experience three seasons in twelve short hours.
:)

Crock Pot, how I love thee....

There's nothing better than putting a big hunk of meat in a big pot add a few ingredients and let it cook. Coming home to the smell of crock pot wonder is a wonder in itself. If you don't have a slow cooker, you should really consider getting one. Here's why, it took me about four minutes to assemble a complete dinner for my family of three tonight. Roast, two cups of broth, three onions, four potatoes, a pinch of garlic, some basil, peppercorns and a beer. Set it on low or warm and leave. Come home later to wonderful, home cooked goodness. The whole meal probably only costs me about seven dollars. It will last for two meals, at least. I love my crock pot. This is my thought of the day. It saves me time and money, two things that are very precious today.

"Let 'em eat cake"

Oh, boy. Oh boy. I just wanted a chocolate cake for my wedding with chocolate icing....not traditional, I know but I don't care for cake much to start with so there has to be something to hook me. This was met with some opposition. In the end we decided it wasn't worth having words over, however I just have to draw the line at eating YEAR old cake (YUCK) on our one year anniversary. That's just nasty. And I'd much rather the extra cake go to the guests.

My favorite things...

You'll remember the song if you ever saw "The Sound of Music", I recently thought, what would my favorite things be...? We all have things we love and here are a few and why.

Spring grass right after a rain on bare feet, the smell of coffee in the morning and of course it always tastes better in a chair on the porch watching the sunrise. I love bluegrass music for its simplicity and tradition. I love big band music too. There's Greek food..good BBQ and very cold beer, not necessarily together. A ride on a four-wheeler, a horseback ride on a relaxed and laid back horse. A trip to a museum that I never appreciated but now do. Seeing an old friend and seeing them with the happiness they deserve. Fresh, hot sourdough bread when I'm sick and knowing that Fiance Chad will know that. The way my eyes look when I wear plum eye shadow, the way my running shoes make me feel sporty and cool. Catching just the right moment to take a wonderful photo. Having Hannah hand me something new for her art gallery. Listening to her learn guitar. And my favorite things list could go on and on....but "these are a few of my favorite things".

"Is this what they eat in prison?..."

...I heard this come out of the mouth of my sassy seven year old daughter. When her grandmother visits it's always cookies and ice cream at every meal. I'm totally surprised dessert hasn't been introduced at BREAKFAST for heaven's sake. So when Grandma leaves there are tears and complaints of NOT wanting to eat the meal I've prepared for the family. I am NOT a short order cook. I do NOT believe in asking the child what they'd like for dinner. They eat what we eat...end of story. We make it a habit of drinking ice water or tea without sugar. We limit the sugar and fat as much as possible. That being said...I'm not against cooking with a little fat every now and then, I am, afterall from Oklahoma. But the recent whines had become too much.
Finally one night at dinner, Fiance Chad told the "little" that we could eliminate meat for an entire week. Chad is the son of a cattle rancher and loves beef, it's what's for dinner after all. Han loves meat too....loves it.
So on night TWO of "No Meat" week...she asks "Is this what they eat in prison?"
Wish us luck...we have two more nights of this.

Wh What?

Call me old fashioned! I can take it.
It's ok.
I don't claim to be hip and cool anyway, after all I have a daughter I'll need to embarass soon as she becomes a teen.
So the grandmother (not my Mother) is visiting and took my "little" who is seven, to get a manicure...fun, plain girl fun right? Well, they came home to present their beautiful hands....Grandma wearing ballerina pink and grandCHILD wearing RED HOT hooker, porn star RED!!!!!!!!!! eeeeekkkkkkkkkkkkkkkkkk woooonggg woooonggg That is the sound of my head spinning around backward and my eyes popping out (wh-wooga wh-wooga).
The response I got was....."she wanted green...or purple....so I said YES to red" . Ok, how about a little NO every now and then? It didn't hurt me! I heard NO NO NO all the time....I also heard the non-commital "we'll see" which you know means NO.
I think Nancy Reagan said it best...."JUST say NO!"

Countdown to the big day...

...well, not the big wedding day but my birthday....which is Wed. March 17th.
I look forward to it now more than I ever have in my life. This is why...

Thursday, March 23rd, 2006 I spent a week in the pulmonary intensive care unit on oxygen and coumadin following a diagnosis of pulmonary emboli or blood clots in the lung. I've blogged about this before but I re-visit it to stay thankful! I've recovered since and done well but I lost a career over it. I had been in the Colorado Springs Police Academy as a recruit. I lost my peace of mind over it for awhile. Anytime I had a leg cramp, I worried it was again another clot. I've recovered from that too.

So Birthdays are extra special to me now! And I'm not sure how I'm going to spend it--- I DO know that I will spend it being thankful to God and the great things he does. It just wasn't my time.

Branded!

By now if you follow my blog or just read it from time to time, you know my boyfriend Chad--now Fiance Chad and I spend a lot of weekends on the farm. His parents operate a large cattle ranch in Eastern Colorado, Lincoln county, and that's the next one over to the East of us here in El Paso County.

This past weekend, my little seven year old girl helped her soon-to-be cousins with branding the Taylor calves. My friend responded to my Facebook page as "she'll be a well-rounded" girl. I believe she will. The actual branding skill will only come in handy should she decide to become a rancher but she learned more than that this weekend. You learn teamwork. One person takes the front of the animal, the second pulls the hind leg so no one gets kicked. There's a person stepping in to vaccinate, one stepping in to do the branding. The calf kicks like a three year old throwing a temper tantrum like you've never seen! It's hard to continue to hold such an obstinate beast. They want UP, and NOW! Anyway, I feel as though hard work and getting dirty is good for kids. At the end of it all, they realize they can do amazing things. They can deal with emotions and fears. And the love and support of family who are right there with them. It was bonding of sorts for Han and her "cousins". She finished up and took away a great deal from the experience. I'm proud of my little "cowgirl in training".

Once you've restrained an angry bovine beast, you're on your way to being ready for almost anything!




-Branding at the Taylor Ranch in Lincoln County. March 7th, 2010

A lot of BULL!

"Never approach a bull from the front, a horse from the rear, or a fool from any direction".

Don't know who said that but it's good advice. Speaking of bull, we'll be seeing them from the front, the rear and every direction. Saturday will be spent at the La Junta Livestock Sales Arena for the Reid Bull Sale. The Reids will soon be my relatives.

If you've never seen a livestock auction it's interesting. It's not a whole lot different in theory from art auctions. Well, ok, the BULL isn't exactly as serene or still as the still life you might see at an art auction. He's usually well "full of it"! They parade him into an arena and announce his attributes. A few hands go up, and so does the price, a few more...sometimes the auctioneer stops his chanting to pitch him up a bit. "Now, folks, this is a great bull, you'll be very happy with him. His offspring have good birth weights..." etc. etc.

My little girl loved watching this last year. She was glued to the action like it was a kid-tastic Disney presentation. It gives you an appreciation of what ranchers go through. You choose a good bull, you get good calves, you get a good price, it's good. A good life. It's a gamble. We take for granted just how much work goes into that steak on the dinner table.

I will post photos next week after the sale. For now, I must get going I have a lot to do.....and that is NO BULL! :)

The wedding dress fiasco!

I'm no spring chicken! I was married before but I'm excited about tying the knot with Boyfriend Chad or uh, now Fiance Chad!

Chad's never been married. So we're doing the big wedding. I actually like the idea of it because I never had much family. He's related to half the county and I think he's inviting them all. Yep, all of 'em. I jokingly refer to them as the "Kennedys of Cattle", mostly because everyone is related to someone who does the same thing for a living. They're ranchers and farmers. Don't take politcal offense please.

Yesterday I experienced a very frustrating, almost exasperating moment. I went to try on wedding dresses.
eeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeee YIKES!

My helper was a nice girl who was fairly down-to-earth but it was obvious she'd been groomed in training to work the bride-to-be's ego. She brings me a size 10. I am one, usually. But at 5'10" tall and a muscular build, I'm usually on board with the idea of needing to go BIGGER! I'm a grown up girl and can take it. Go ahead and bring me your best double digit size cause I'm not going to spend my day feeling like a sausage.

She explains they run "small". I know...they are often European designers of wedding dresses and those women smoke and do NOT eat!

So bring it on out...the big one...yep...I want to be pretty but comfortable, is that too much to ask?
I ended up going with my first choice. Usually the gut knows...now if I could just get rid of mine....LOL!

Annie had a little lamb...

...ok, so that's just...well, dorky but the story is very sweet.
We spent the weekend at Fiance Chad's family's ranch. They have cattle and sheep and they're having babies now. So the gigantic Lincoln county maternity ward has sickness like any other.
Sunday morning a tiny lamb was brought in from the cold, weak, small and not doing well. We put her near the stove in a box and allowed her to warm up a bit. She looked helpless and alone so I couldn't resist picking her up wrapped in a towel to hold her close to me. If this was her last moment, she shouldn't be alone...no one should..but that's another topic for another day and frankly can't be handled in ONE blog. Back to the lamb.
I can't describe how it feels to hold a fragile life in your arms and I can tell you it feels like the best feeling on earth when you feel it makes a difference.
About twenty minutes later, she started to perk up and nibble on my neck and ear. She was looking for dinner. Along with my little girl, I gave her a bottle. She devoured it. When we put her down on the floor, she stretched her too long for her body legs and stumbled about. She followed me around the kitchen, almost like I had become her "mommy".
It was precious and sweet! If she didn't make it, she gave me something I'll remember always. Everything has a purpose on this earth only if for a short while.
And "Ewe" know it's true! ahhhhhhhhh that was probably just plain dorky....like me! :)

And there it was...

...the call in the middle of the night that most of us have received.
"Mom......I don't feel well!", "I'm sick".
My little girl is seven and has been very healthy all of her life so this is frightening.
I stayed home from work because it is ME and only me who can take her to the military medical care facilty to which we are assigned. It ended up being stomach flu and after a day of gatorade, rest and an OTC remedy, she's fine.

There's another woman involved....

...and her name is VISTA!
So Fiance Chad brought home a new computer and monitor, a much bigger monitor! This should be a good thing. Unfortunately, it wasn't. Windows Vista OS was such a disappointment and frustration it caused us to fight...really fight. I'm the webmast for KVOR so I need to be able to task that computer to do many things at once at fast speeds. I thought I had stepped into my time machine back to 19-97....wait, what's that sound.. grrrrrrrrrrrr beep beep beep, beep beep beep beep!
FREAKIN DIAL up! That's what trying to get anything done on Window's Vista reminded me of. URgh!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
Today we are considering taking the computer back and trying to get something that we can use. Not to sound like one of those people...maybe I do, but if Microsoft wants to gain customer loyalty they'll create a product like they did with XP and stick to it. We don't need fancy upgrades, we need consistency and reliability. No wonder so many people will agree with me. I have yet to find someone who is not bad mouthing VISTA!

Back to running!

After taking some time off for injuries and various other excuses, I'm back to running. I bought a new pair of running shoes yesterday and took off for the Y. The first three-tenths of a mile came easy and then....not so much. I had friends and family offer some great advice on training...thank you very much. I'll keep you posted on my success!

Happy Birthday

So it just seemed like yesterday she was born. You'll hear moms say this time and time again when it comes to the Birthday of their littles. Hannah Elise will turn 7 this weekend! I cannot believe how time flies. When older people say this to you when you're little, you think it will never come. Time does not fly when you are a child. It stands still.

Maybe it's when our worlds get bigger that it all picks up speed....maybe it's just that NOW we are responsible for so much. There are many demands on our time and our attention. It makes it easy to look up and say "wow, where did it all go?". I took Monday off work to spend time with my daughter on her special day. Because there will ONLY be so many!

Plan NOT to plan!

Jim Arthur often asks me when I'm doing the traffic in the morning...Anne Boswell, what are you planning for the weekend?
I usually respond that I plan NOT to plan. Weekends are usually are catch up for errands, chores, cleaning, organizing etc. I usually go into Hannah's room and proclaim that I cannot find the floor which turns into a whole morining of "now, why are we keeping this?" LOL. If you are a parent you're nodding along with me on this one. She sighs in her "practicing to be a teenager tone" and cleans it up....a little.
I would love to tackle cleaning my desk today but like most Saturdays, I will cherish time spent with family. We'll cook together, maybe watch a movie, go to church tomorrow and have family game night playing Wii or the new Boggle game Han got from Grandma for Christmas. Plans for the weekend don't have to be expensive or require a lot of plan. Planning NOT to plan is the best plan. Now, are you confused? LOL!

Happy New Year!

So it's back to normality for a lot of us. What I mean is...time to take down the tree and put it all away until next year.
A lot of folks make new year's resolutions. I have before but I now look at it this way. If you need a starting point to do something differently in your life, fine, use it. Make a new year's resolution. But if there's something you want to change, change it any time of the year! There's no better time to do something than right now!
A friend of mine said he was resolving NOT to resolve. Good move! Make your positive life changes any month of the year, any time of day and tell someone about it. Research shows if you announce your plans you're more apt to hold yourself accountable!
Good luck to you...you know, in case you made those plans!
And Happy New Year!