SHOT show 2012

Good Ole South Carolina!

I am back from Las Vegas.. and glad to be back.. Like my cowboy said "a few days in Las Vegas lets me know how much I'm glad to live in South Carolina" and he's 100% right...  I have decided I throughly enjoy People watching... and let me tell you what.. people watching is the BEST in the hotels.. hahahaha

I'll hit the high points..
while I was at the seminar.. I was walking around and checking out all the vendors... after some chinese dude told me I had a high chance of developing cancer.. and I said "no crap sherlock 1 out of every 2.5 will get the disease" I was pleasantly surprised by Elvis.  I was walking away from the crazy chinese doctor and I get caught by this Green scarf and I turn around.. and what does my little green eyes see????? ELVIS!!  I screamed "OH ELVIS!!!!!!!!!!!!".. yeah I'm serious.. and he's all talking to me.. and we took this picture.. and he starts asking me all kinds of questions like, where I'm from and what I do... and what kind of ranch I live on.. etc... then he dumbfounded me... he says "what are you doing for lunch?"  I was like.. HOLY CRAP!!! hahahah
but, I told him I was married to a very big tall handsome retired Marine cowboy that I loved... and He said that was too bad..
hahahah... casa nova Elvis is what he was :)
But, that was awesome..

After the seminar was over on saturday.. we decided to rent a car.. since the plane didn't leave until 11:00 p.m. (pacific time), we caught the red eye...

Nevada

well we go up to the car people and we were all asking about cars. and she's like.. we have a corvette. I said "oh I want that" and my cowboy looked at me and said "you drive one everyday".....  I just nodded.. so we got a Camaro!

Test driving the Camaro

Nevada

we headed off towards Hoover Dam... and I'll tell you what... Nevada is Gorgeous.. just absolutely beautiful.. and then after we passed through the hoover dam, we were in Arizona!

Arizona

OHH MY MY MY that place is prettier than Nevada.. we couldn't go far because it was about 7pm when we made it to Arizona.. so maybe we only drove 20 miles into it...

Hoover Dam Bridge

Lake Mead

but, not before we were brake torquing the Camaro to test it out... hahahah  I like the camaro a lot.. but, I love my Corvette...

Hoover Dam

and We caught the red-eye back to Charlotte... and then picked up my Corvette. :) Check out her new side pipes!!!

And Monday after I got off of work... I came home and opened the door to the house..

and my cowboy said.. "don't look anywhere but in my eyes" I said "ok" and he said "come closer" so I walked over to him and he said "how much do you love me?" and I said "a lot.. why what did you buy?" he said "look down and to the left " and I did.. and what did I see??????? My baby bottles were out... and A bag of calf milk.. I started jumping up and down screaming "I got babies!!!!!!!!"

and I did.. I have 3 baby boys.. 

I can't explain the happiness I feel when I have to feed babies... I just love little calves so much...  It brings back many great memories of my Biscuit and Dennis the mennis.. and wild bill...   :)

I'm a happy girl..

One more thing

When we got to the airport.. My cowboy suggested we get us a limo!!
We rode in style to our hotel... Now.. I also want to say.. We left south Carolina at 8am.. Then found ourselves in Vegas at 1:15 their time.. I was about ravenously hungry..
We found our friends Eric and Sharyl and headed to the buffet.. And I know!
I know Big Ugly Fat Folks Eating Together and all... But....
They had prime rib.. I told the lady I wanted prime rib.. And held out my empty plate.... She cut me this small little sliver and I was like whaaaaaaat? So I said look lady you ain't gonna hurt my feelings.. Give me a hunk of meat... So I got two of those and a piece of turkey...
Finished that plate and went back for more... Man it was good...
I'm just sitting here people watching now...
And let me tell you.. There are some mental midgets here...
I better get back to making fun of people...

This picture is the canyons in Arizona.. Took it in the airplane :)

Monies won so far

Viva Los amigos! No viva Las Vegas

Well all last week I have been thinking about my late puppy Vegas.. I keep dreaming about him and catching glimpses of him out of he corner of my eye.. It's been hard. Even this morning I woke up about 4:30 and found myself looking for him then got all sorts of upset reliving memories of him... The time past and my alarm clock went off and my cowboy and I hopped a plane to Charlotte then 5 hours non stop to las Vegas.. And here we are.. I wanted enough money for a new sink.. Won that it's in my pocket right... Now.. My cowboy is playing a Texas hold em tournament.. This place is a freak show.. Some foreigner was taking pictures of me so I started taking pictures of her.. Apparently cowboy hats are novelties in her country... A lot of people stare and ask where I'm from.. I like to tell them things like.. Brooklyn... Boston etc and then look at the stupid look on their face... At least they ain't asking if I'm from Texas.. That right there irritates me to no end... Anyways let me explain why I'm here.. As if 6 years in graduate school wasn't enough I have to get continuing education credits.. And here I sit.. In las Vegas to get smarter... I'll tell you what I'm getting smarter at.... Counting freaking cards... Started out with 50 bucks.... And now I'm up :)

The New Year So far...

For New Years we went to a competition.. Saturday I won my class.. and Moved up to another class..
Then Sunday, I finished 3rd over all and My cowboy was 4th overall.. and we were both Reserve champions..
so we were happy with that..
My business has started to boom like crazy.. so I have some front desk help now.. and she is amazing..
I'm really thankful to have her and have her  helping me like she is..
That is really it on the professional front..
on the Ranch side.. now we've been rockin' and rollin'... Last Friday after I got out of the Clinic.. we left for Clinton, Tennessee.. right outside of Knoxville.. and bought a hay rake.. well we get to this guys house right at dark. and he wants us to drive through the front yard.. haha.. and he said "foller meh", and we did... so he got this really nice rake loaded up on out trailer and then he starts asking questions.. like "are you going to resell this?"  My cowboy said "No, we've got a lot of land to work" and this fellah says.. " yeah I got about 350 acres.. I did a lot of baling" then he goes into the fact that pork is 4 dollars a pound and he's raising all these hogs and crap...  so right then and there I realized he's a exaggerator....   so we let him talk.. while we were ratcheting down the hay baler... got that crap all squared away and hauled off towards West Virginia..
But first we stopped at waffle house for supper.. then drove off towards Bristol..
now let me tell you about the peoples from north of Bristol... they are all weird.. in fact the Mason-Dixon line should probably be drawn there and not above Virginia...

anyways.. we made it Wytheville Virginia.. and stopped at the best western.. and stayed the night.. they are pet friendly and American owned :).  Once we awoke.. we got ready and left and crossed into West Virginia and sat down to have a nice country breakfast at the cracker barrel...  well that didn't work out to good.. the people around us got their food first.. then my sausage wasn't cooked all the way.. and my bacon was floppy.. the woman never came back to give me more coffee..
I complained... and my cowboy and I decided right then and there.. that if grits are a novelty.. it's not someplace we want to be.. we got to Bilington West Virginia.. and loaded up this big ole' Case hay baler.. in the middle of the road mind you.. because we couldn't make it down the people's driveway in our truck and trailer... but, they were nice.. the lady was telling me about all the crazies in her town.. :)
We left there and headed out back to South Carolina.. a few hours into this trip.. we got hungry.. and the first main thing we came to on 77 was applebee's.. so we stopped there... again..odd people and odd service..
we sat there for about 45 minutes before they brought food.. but they had mountain dew on tap.. which I was thoroughly happy with :)

Anyways.. we got back in the truck and continued back towards the promised land..
When we hit North Carolina.. I was so relieved to start seeing Waffle House's at each exit..
there is something comforting about that...
I was pretty tired by the time we hit Charlotte.. so I started flipping through the XM channels.. and came to the Elvis station... and about the time I was singing along to Elvis tunes and eating pork rinds and drinking a mountain dew.. and my cowboy turns down the radio.. looks at me and said "honey, you might be a redneck" I was like seriously?!!? hahahah
so we made it back around 10pm.. pulled into the driveway left everything and went in the house and went right to sleep..
the next day we woke up and unloaded everything.. then worked the cows.. we brought 9 to the sale..
and one of those was my baby biscuit... apparently I got a little teary eyed.. and my cowboy said.. "honey.. this is a business"... I understand.. but, Biscuit was my baby... I went through so much with him.. but, I do understand the hazards of him being a bull... I am sad.. and I was looking for him yesterday in the pasture.. but, hopefully he's somewhere nice..
I banded two calves and tagged them and wormed them, and set them back out with the herd..  and that was about the end of the weekend..