Be Ready For The Ride

2009-12-17T20:22:00.000-08:00

I haven't been on here forever and couldn't think what to post. So I decided to just put pictures taken from our front porch. My kids took most of these. They love the view too.

Fair Week Again.

2009-09-01T21:19:00.000-07:00

I can't believe the fair has already come and gone. It doesn't seem like a whole year has passed since last years. CRAZY.
This year Mercedes was old enough to show an animal in the fair. She chose to show a steer. That meant way back last October we had to pick one out and start feeding it. We put the halter on it for the first time Thanksgiving day and worked with him on and off through out the winter and spring. Come summer time he wasn't gaining as much weight as we would like so we put him in a stall with fans on him and really started working with him. Mercedes would usually get him out twice a day and walk him and then spray him off. She quickly realized that steers are a lot more work than pigs are. He was the best little steer for her. When we picked him out we just told the guy it was her first year and we wanted something small and gentle. That is what we got. Man I am getting all teary eyed writing this. It is bringing back memories. They just both did so good.
Josie chose a pig again. When we went to pick her's out she chose a little white one because of her pig last year and a black belted one. They were both on the small size and I really wasn't looking forward to pushing one again. I had seen a really cool looking pig and I kept saying to her that I thought she should get him. Finally the guy we get them from said why not get three. So we did. It turned out that that third one is the one she showed. I swear what ever his genetics are they should use them more. That pig could gain weight on air. For two months before the fair we had to hold him back. The week before I was getting a little concerned thinking he was finally showing that we were holding him. He hit his prime a whole month before the fair. Pigs are really hard to get them to that ideal weight. One of these years we might reach it.
This year there were 205 pigs entered. Josie won her class and got to go back in for the grand champion class. They had 20 pigs in there that had all got star choice ribbons. She ended up 16. That was great for us considering he almost was too big to even be there.
Last year we were so busy every day of the fair. This year we were really busy too, just doing different things. I didn't go to the speed events, bulls broncs and barrels, the parade, the horse show, any concerts, or most of the booths. We did show a pig and a steer on the same day. STRESSFUL. They both showed in the fitting and showmanship. The steers were a seperate day which means getting the steer ready another time. Selling the animals, which means getting them both ready again. I was a little nerved having two different kinds of animals, but it was a lot of fun and I didn't have any meldowns like last year. Yea for me.
The worst part is selling them and then leaving on Saturday night. I balled like a blubbering fool in front of a couple of people. Including the guy in the yellow shirt down below. My kids never saw me cry though. They both cried that night too. It was heartbreaching. J.C. even had to pick Mercedes up and carry her away from Bucky when it was time to go. Oh I can feel the tears welling up right now. I'll have that picture in my mind for a long time now. It is crazy that after all of that we will probably go through it all again next year.
Ok this is long so I am going to end it here. The end.

Mercedes and Bucky

2009-09-01T21:05:00.001-07:00

These pictues really make me so sad that we had to sell the animals after. This is Mercedes and Bucky a few days before the fair. He is all clipped up, just not really washed this morning.My heart was thumping so hard here. They are coming in and I was hoping he would be good for her and she wouldn't get trampled by him or another steer. I don't have to worry about these things so much with the pigs.
Lining him up and getting him squared. Notice in these pictures the guy in the yellow. He was in there to help if the kids steers got a little out of control. He stayed pretty close to Mercedes. I thanked him later.

She ended up fourth in her class and got a blue ribbon. I was so happy. First that she showed him good. Even though Bucky did get a little frisky a couple of times. Second that the judge liked him. There were 90 steers and 4 were red, 1 was white, and 1 was tan. The rest were black. Because he was red I didn't think he would do so good, but the judge only had good things to say about him.

Josie and Gumdrop

2009-09-01T20:51:00.000-07:00

I took this picture of the two of them a couple of days before the fair. I used this picture on the board hanging above his pen.This is them in the fitting and showing class. Josie didn't win anything, but she did a ton better than last year. That means she is learning something right?
Here they are in the grand champion class. The pig to the left of them is the pig that eventually won grand champion. I liked this pig the first time I saw it too. It was some pig.
And here they are showing in their class. It was the fatty class. We had to put Gumdrop on a diet before the show so he would make weight. Wednesday when we weighed him he was 284 lbs. The top is 290 lbs. which he was the week before. He won his class hands down. That's what the judge said anyways. That made us all so happy because we worked with him hard. For 2 months before we had to really watch what we fed him and get him out twice a day to exercise him. I was so proud of Josie and how hard she worked this year.

Josie's Fast Pitch

2009-08-11T21:26:00.001-07:00

Now I really messed these up. They are not in order at all and I'm too lazy to even want to change them around.
This was the first game of the tournament. Josie's team was the first place team. Because of that they had a buy for the first round. This was waiting to see who they would play. That was the never ending game so the team was looking for ways to pass the time. It was so fun watching them laugh and get along so well.This was after the last game. They ended up second. BUMMER. BUT.....they really all played so good. They just had a rough first inning and they couldn't catch up after that.
Stealing was a new concept for her this year. She caught on pretty quick. Both running the bases and when she was catching. I wasn't good at getting pictures of everything, but she stole from 1st base to home and scored.
Josie is the best at tricking people we decided. She looks like this little, tiny, unsure of herself player when she gets up to bat. But bamm, she could hit it good and far.
This was the best part. At her first practice she volunteered to catch. That made my heart swell. I caught, J.C. caught, all my cousins caught, and his causins caught. So really what else could she be better suited for. The other fun part was how truely good she was at it. Being the mom I get so technical and all, but everyone from her own team and those parents to the other teams kept telling me how good she was. She also made the All Star team, but of course I didn't get any pictures. That was really fun. They had the games during the Tremonton 24th of July celebration. They really made a big deal out of it. All the girls had their names announced at the start of the game and then when they were up to bat. They also got a really neat little award at the end too, getting their names announced as they were getting them.
So do I sound like the proud mamma or what?
The sad thing is Dixon also played this summer. But I never got any pictures of him. Boo hoo. Bad mom, bad mom. It got a little stressful. All three had games on the same nights and sometimes at the same time. J.C. and I were always having to divide up and take turns going to their games. Next year I am so happy the girls will be able to be on the same team.

Mercedes Coach Pitch

2009-08-11T21:13:00.000-07:00

Oh boy. If you look really close the ball is right underneath her bat. I believe that means STRIKE.

She was always wanting to catch. Which of course made me smile.

This was Mercedes last year of coach pitch. I am so excited for next year when she gets to play fast pitch with Josie. She didn't want to even play this year, but I signed her up anyways. She loved it. She was so good during her games. Always paying attention and moving wherever the ball went. She just plain had lots of fun.

Good Ole Kanab

2009-08-08T20:03:00.000-07:00

While J.C. and I were home working on the floors my kids were in Kanab with my parents. I have officially decided that life is not fair. My parents now only live a house and a road away from the best park and swimming pool. Why wasn't it like that when I was growing up?
The pool is great, but it can be cold. This is Dixon trying to get warm.
Having a blast in the pool.

Mercedes giving me "the sad pouty look" when I told her it was time to go home.See what I mean. LIFE IS NOT FAIR.

An Update. FOR REAL

2009-08-05T19:58:00.001-07:00

So sorry if I caused anyone any grief over yesterdays post. I just couldn't help myself. We have had a very busy summer. Working on the house and the yard. Kids baseball, and getting the girls' pig and steer ready for the fair. Which is only a few weeks away already. It seems like I just posted about last years fair too. We had a combined birthday party for Josie and Mercedes on Saturday. Josie's birthday was the first of June, but due to horse camp and the end of school plus moving we never had a party for her. Poor girl. Here is a picture of her at the party. I put it in here so everyone could see my nice particle board floor. Beautiful isn't it?
Well we finally got our real floors in. J.C. and I did it ourselves. Mostly J.C. I just helped hammer some planks, hold the boards while he cut them, and vacuum. ALOT.
Here is a picture of the finished product. The sun was starting to go down so the picture isn't the best and there is a ton of dust on the floor, but owell.
And here is J.C. enjoying a break after all his hard work. I was so proud of him. The floors turned out so beautiful. We still have to put the baseboards down and do the trim around some other edges, but it is finally coming together. I also had the electricians wire my living room so I can put a ceiling fan with a light in there. There were no light in there before. I'm still looking for a fan that I really like though. I want kind of a rustic/western light, but most of the ones I have seen so far are really cheesy.

UPDATE....

2009-08-04T14:25:00.000-07:00

Blah blah blah. The End.

Behind the scenes.

2009-05-31T14:39:00.001-07:00

These 3 gals are such good friends. They are Josie, Jocee, and Mercedes. Jocee is Bradie's daughter and she had just barely sang the National Anthem for the start of the rodeo. She is so cute and did a wonderful job singing. When the night was over they had conspired to have a sleepover at Jocee's. They had lots of fun and J.C., Dixon and I went over the next day for a Sunday dinner and to watch Madagascar.
This was J.C. watching the guy who ended up winning the bareback riding. I love the big smile on his face. Just goes to show you that cowboys like to watch a good ride no matter if it's going to beat them.The girls hanging out behind the chutes just being girls laughing and chatting.
This is where we found my boy and his 2 friends. When they weren't running around the bleachers causing all kinds of hate and discontent they were climbing underneath them to get an up close view of the action. Gotta love them boys.

Spur the hide off his neck honey.

2009-05-31T14:22:00.000-07:00

Last Saturday J.C. got on a bareback horse at a rodeo in Logan. It was a benefit rodeo for the Cache County 4-H. His good friend Bradie was one of the pickup men, so he talked J.C. into riding.
Here he is behind the chutes before getting on. Sorry all the pictures are fuzzy. I was standing on the fence to take these pictures, plus I was a little nervous. Climbing on.
Look at that great mark out.
Supposedly this horse has never been rode past the first few bucks....
The horse got a little confused when the guy was still on his back and he just went to spinning. Once again sorry about the pictures, I was trying to watch and then I would think to myself take another picture. It's so hard.
This is after the buzzer, when I thought he almost got his head stepped on, but it ended up that his butt got stepped on instead.

Summer Pasture

2009-05-25T18:19:00.001-07:00

When the colts were just a couple of weeks old J.C. and the kids took them up to Franklin, Idaho (aka Heaven if you're a horse). I haven't seen them since. It just so worked out that Saturday J.C. had to meet someone up there to get stuff for his truck, so all of us went on a drive with him. The first picture is when we found the horses. It kind of reminded me of Man From Snowy River. We have a total of five horses up there. The rest belong to a couple of friends of ours. We counted 36 in all and I believe they were going to bring a couple more up later. This colt is a crack up. She loves people. I hope she doesn't get to be a pain later on. When I would rub her she would turn her butt into me and back up just so I would scratch it.
This is our 2 year old. She is a full sister to the roan colt with the stripe down her face.
Notice the roan colts ears. They got chewed up right after she was born. Boo hoo

Soccer....and a little bit of skunk

2009-05-14T07:04:00.000-07:00

These pictures of Dixon aren't in order, and he did really good it was just funny to see him trying to do cartwheels when he was goalie. Check out Mercedes going for the ball against two boys. Notice who got the ball too.

Soccer is over for the season now. It was a normal spring soccer season. Very cold and lots of rain. Mercedes and Dixon both did really good. I think next year we will have to get Mercedes on a competative team. She has some good soccer moves. Plus she loves it too. Josie didn't play this year, she is holding out for softball. I'm excited for that too, she is really good. She can even switch hit.

Onto other skunk news. As I am laying here this early morning my hubby walks in from feeding, reaking like a skunk. Supposedly only the dogs just got sprayed out back. He is now in the shower and my room smells. Agh.......

Sigh

2009-05-03T17:12:00.000-07:00

All I know right now is I'm happy this week is over. We are all so tired. We also got a lot accomplished too. The bathroom is done minus the baseboards. The carpet upstairs will be done tomorrow morning. Then all I will have left to do is finish painting 2 ceilings and the trim everywhere upstairs. I will be so happy to move our furniture in and especially have all of our cloths here. The last couple of days we have had cloths in our old house, in the garage in the new house, and in the trailer behind the new house we have been staying in. It's quite an adventure figuring out where stuff is right now. My mother in law took a day off of work to help me paint. She also helped me scrub the kitchen cabinents. Thanks so much Janet. My father in law has been around to help out with anything and everything. So thanks to you too Randy. J.C. is enjoying this home improvement stuff. He put in the new kitchen sink and plumbed the toilet after he tiled the bathroom. All that was done without much cussing too. He's even going to let me paint one wall in the living room blue.
Yesterday and today was my barrel clinic. It was so much fun. I learned a lot. and Terri and Norma were great teachers. Needless to say I am tired and going to sleep early tonight.

Demolition. Day 2

2009-04-26T21:23:00.000-07:00

Holy cow, I was just typing and everything erased. Now I will start all over again.

Today is my sister in law Stacie's birthday. I almost just typed told how old she turned. hee hee. We went to their house and had hamburgers and other yummy treats. We also got to listen to 5 little kids running around screaming. Fun.
Anyways happy big __ Stacie.

Back to the demolition, we didn't spend too much time out there today. I hauled a trailer load of stuff out there and then I put the kids to work. They are great workers. They chipped away at that dang tile for a solid 2 hours. And by george they have almost got it all out of there. I puttered around changing light bulbs and then I unclogged the sink we aren't changing in one of the bathrooms. That drain had my number too. It should have taken me maybe 10 minutes, instead I fiddled around with it for 30. I finally called my dad. Within 2 minutes It was fixed. Then Josie cleaned out the bath drain. Talk about gross. Yuck. Then the kids and I pulled the border down and scrubbed all the glue off the walls.
Tomorrow I plan to prepare the walls in the bathroom and then get to painting.

Demolition

2009-04-26T08:34:00.000-07:00

Ok so I'm too tired to post pictures right now. Yesterday we had our first day in the new house. We ripped all the flooring out. Except the tile. That stuff is hard to get out. I'll be chipping away at that for awhile still. We pulled everything out of the half bath and laundry room. Also we took the toilet out of the kids bathroom. The linoleum doesn't come up too easily in there so I will be putting the new floor right on top of it.
Tomorrow the carpet guy is coming to measure and then I will pick the new carpet out for the upstairs. I'm also going to try to get the kids bathroom painted so I can start the flooring and get the toilet back in there so we will have a bathroom to use.
My father in law parked their trailer in the backyard for us to use until the house is done. Therefore I will be moving all of our stuff out of the house we are in now and sticking it downstairs until the house is done and we can move all the furniture into it's rightful place.
My life is crazy busy right now. It seems everything has to happen at the same time. This week is birthday table (my last one ever). I just did a huge cheer. I also signed up to go to Norma Wood and Terri Wood Gates barrel clinic this weekend a couple of months ago. At the time I signed up I had no idea I would be in the middle of redoing a house. So wish me luck I get all I need to done including riding my horse to keep (get) him in shape for this weekend.
I'll post more as it happens and hopefully get in a few pictures here and there. I'm bad though cause I'm working and forget to take pictures.

Finally

2009-04-07T18:42:00.001-07:00

What a long process this has been(and it's still not totally over). But we got good news today. Is it ok to start a sentence with a but? Anyways the underwriters finally came back with an approval on our loan. Thank goodness. I was getting a little stressed. We've already got a lot of money into this house and I was worried that if we didn't get it J.C. would not let me even try for a long time again. I don't know if I would have wanted to either.
Here are a few more pictures of it. These pictures don't do it justice on how filthy it really is though. At least now my dad can be happy to finally see what it looks like. Like I said "It's a fixer upper." I am so happy though and I can't wait until we close in a couple of weeks to start really working on it.

In other family news the kids start soccer this week. Tomorrow Dixon and Mercedes have their first games of the year. Josie is not playing this year. I think she is holding out for softball. She got to go on a field trip today. They went to the bird refuge. I think it's like her 3rd or 4th time going there for a field trip. Owell with the times were in now I think it's good they even got to go there. Plus I don't think the kids care, they're just happy to get away from school for the day. J.C. and a friend spent the weekend in Kanab lion hunting. How unfair is that? I got to spend the last week preparing the house we are in now to sell. The realtors did their tour today and I must say it looked great. I had a lot of help from J.C.'s aunt and cousins getting it ready. Even my brother in law Joe spent a couple of days here working his magic in all things carpentry. I got a little choked up after I found out we are really getting to move. I really love this house and our neighbors and ward. It's going to be sad to leave, but I'm going to be so happy to have land again. Yea

TWO TIMES THE FUN

2009-03-30T19:10:00.000-07:00

Last year when we got our two mares bred I would have never thought they would deliver on the same night. This morning when I showed up to feed we had 2 new babies. Yea. It was a little confusing at first trying to figure out which filly belonged to which mare. It was a bad idea, I have figured out, having them in the pasture together. Both fillies were nursing off of one mare this morning and one filly's ear was chewed up and bleeding. I figured out that that filly must have been chewed on by the non-mother mare. Tonight all seems well though.
Once again I have no idea what order these pictures will be in. I really could use some technical support here.
Oh yea, the big blue stud(literally) is the dad to these two beauties. He's a shire and I absolutely love him. J.C. has wanted half drafts to use when he goes hunting so we bred our 2 quarter horse mares to him. I have visions of loping him bareback along a beach somewhere. I know that sounds korny, but couldn't you just see his beautiful mane blowing in the wind.

This Could Be My View

2009-03-26T20:16:00.000-07:00

Ok I can't not talk about it anymore. We are trying to buy a house and I am so excited, but nervous at the same time. Nervous because I don't know if it will go through yet.
The house is a repo and it is so gross. I don't even understand how people can be so dirty. The first time J.C. went inside he said he didn't want anything to do with the place. It probably wasn't helping that I was dry heaving. Even with all the gross, disgusting stuff I still could see so much potential.
Long story short the price was a steal so we made the bank an offer and they accepted. This week we had an inspection done and I am getting the septic tank pumped tomorrow. The only thing holding us back is our financing. There is an itty-bitty chance we won't get approved and it's driving me crazy waiting to know for sure. I've already been picking out the new flooring, sinks, paint, toilets, dishwasher and many other things. (It's really bad I tell you)
So I was out there tonight measuring and I decided to take some pictures of the view. I don't know what order they will show up on here, or if they'll be below this or above it. So try to figure out which picture is my front view and which one is my back view.
So far the views are the best part of this house.

RATS...

2009-03-09T21:00:00.000-07:00

Yes rats. Uck.
We tend to get them, especially in the spring, and especially when there are pigs around. Right now no pigs, but a few rats here and there. Tonight I came up close and personal with one big, huge, gross tail of a rat. No, really it was just a teenager, but still.

This reminded me of a time last spring when they were abundunt. Every time I turned my head when I was in the barn a rat would be scurrying by me. I even had them run right over my boots. We don't like to use poison because of the dogs around so they tend to get out of control sometimes. I started to put the hose in their holes to try and drown them, but it could run forever and not fill up.

One day J.C. and Josie decided to have their turn. Josie had the hose sticking it down a hole until a rat would come out. We had a big ton bale of hay against the wall of the barn and the rat was trying to climb up it to get away. J.C. stuck my dog on top of the bale so he could snatch it when the rat climbed over. But the rat kept falling down before he made it to the top. Finally J.C. had enough and he got a cattle prod to push it out. Picture a concrete wall with a bale of hay pushed up to it and a rat in between. J.C. stuck his prod underneath the rat and popped it out.

I was standing back watching and I see the rat come flying out doing somersaults through the air. J.C. on the other hand had no idea where it had gone. Until....it landed on his shoulder. Ha ha ha. I about peed my pants. He jumped and screamed like a little school girl. Then he flipped it off his shoulder and wacked it with the prod. I seriously have not laughed that hard in a long time.

Sometimes I'm so easily entertained.

Awards Assembly

2009-03-05T20:03:00.000-08:00

Last Friday at school was an awards assembly. I was such a proud mama. Dixon struggled so bad in kindergarten. I was not looking forward to the next 12 years. Really, it was bad. A couple times his kindergarten teacher even had me crying when I left after telling me how bad he was. This year is a whole different story. I just love his teacher. She expects a lot out of Dixon, but she also knows he can do it. At the first of the year he wasn't even on grade level with his reading. Now he is reading in the second grade level. Yea

Josie also got an award for always being prepared and willing to help others. She is creative and willing to share. I didn't know she was getting one too and I wasn't there for hers. I was sad, but she has also always been a very good student so I have seen her get a couple before.

HAIR TODAY....gone tomorrow

2009-03-05T19:56:00.000-08:00

A couple weeks ago the girls and I went in for haircuts. I know I'm so slow to post this. Josie decided to take the big leap and cut hers off. She donated it to Locks Of Love. I was so proud of her. Here are just a couple of pictures from the experience.
P.S. So I really don't know how to post these pictures in order(obviously since they are totally backwords)

I used to be Italian, now I'm Irish

2009-02-22T17:28:00.000-08:00

Really, I did think I was Italian. FOREVER. I thought gosh I have a big nose, all the Italian maffia guys do too, I must be. Plus for some reason Gillespie sounded Italian to me.

My hubby thought it was his great mission in life to make me come to know I was Irish. He pointed out that Gillespie is in fact an Irish name. I have red hair and a temper like nobody's business also.

I fought him tooth and nail for quite awhile until we were visiting my parents and he brought it up with my dad. They both had quit a laugh over me. But I did come to realize that I am Irish. At least now I can say "Kiss me I'm Irish."

That year after I finally realized my true heritage he bought me a cute little shirt for Christmas. It say "Everyone loves an Italian girl" Ha Ha.

P.S. Like the picture of me. I thought I would show off my big nose. My girls took this picture of me. They got bored after sitting at a barrel race for 2 days. I have to say I look bored too.

High School Tag

2009-02-19T18:25:00.001-08:00

I've been tagged a few times, but never did it. So Kilie here goes my dark secrets from my young stupid days.

1. Did you date someone from your school? Oh yes. I changed often too. I wanted to get a good sense of the selection that was out there. Ha Ha My senior year I did date one guy until halfway through my first year of college.

2. What kind of car did you drive? A 1970 something Ford F100. Kilie the red and white one you guys have now. It was a beauty. It even won the Junctions ugly ford contest.

3. Did you pass your drivers license test on the first try? Heck yea, but I don't think ole Hal would flunk anybody.

4. Where you a party animal? What if my mom reads this? Ok a little, but I just liked to have fun and boy did we have lots of it.

5. Where you considered a flirt? No no no no. Could anyone tell me any different?

6. Where you in band, orchestra or choir? No way. I was too emberassed to look like a nerd. I quit playing the trumpet after 8th grade.

7. Where you a nerd? Um I hope not, look to comment number 6. I probably was though.

8. Where you on any varsity teams? Yes. Softball all 4 years, basketball my senior year and cross country.

9. Did you get suspended/expelled? I was supposed to get suspended for sluffing seminary, but we had a softball tournament that week and we didn't have anyone else to play catcher so Coach Henderson set up a little meeting with me, the principal, and the seminary teacher. After we all chatted and I promised I would never sluff again I got to go to school and play ball. Ha ha

10. Can you still sing the fight song? No, maybe if there was a whole crowd to help me out.

11. Who were your favorite teachers? I really liked all of them. Even ole Lorin. He was a big fake. Anyways Mr. Quarnbergh, Mr. Hamblin, and Mr. Walker really stand out. Mr. Hamblin even married J.C. and me.

12. Where did you sit during lunch? At Jennifers house or the Junction.

13. What is your schools full name? Kanab High School.

14. Schools mascot and colors. We were the cowboys. Clancy is his name. I got to dress up like him a few times. I rode my horse in the homecoming parade and cheered with the cheerleaders a few times too. Our colors were red, white, and silver.

15. If you could go back and do it again, would you? No, but if it ever happened I would do a few things differently. Like study more.

16. Did you go to homecoming and with who? Yes, but it's not a big formal thing in Kanab. We always went with just a bunch of friends.

17. Did you go to prom and who with? Yes. sophmore-Sean Douglas, junior-Billy Johnson, senior-Jared Farnsworth.

18. What do you remember most about graduation? Talking all through the ceremony with Jen and having the video camera right on us. Bawling so hard I couldn't even talk. Going to Lake Powell afterwards.

19. Where did you go senior skip day? To Lagoon. We left Kanab at like midnight and got there before they opened. Spent the whole day there and then drove back home. Oh yea, a few of the guys showed up drunk and had to pee about 15 minuts out of Kanab and the bus driver wouldn't stop. ha ha

20. Where you in any clubs? rodeo club, foreign language club, and art club. J.C. laughs at me cause I can't speak any other language, but my spanish teacher really liked me so I was the La Reina.

21. Have you gained some weight since? Oh yea, the freshman 15, but I think it was more like the 30 for me. Then I lost it all and more, but now this winter I've gained some again. Poop

22. Are you planning on goind to your reunions? YES. I missed the 5 year cause I was very pregnant, but the 10 year was great. We were all so close. I can't waite for the 15.

23. Did you have a job while in high school? Yup, Kanab Mission Inn-cleaning rooms, Houstons-washing dishes, Junction and Best Western. I think I'm missing something though.

Wow talk about memories. Now I tag all my friends who happen to read this.

Men, they'll always be boys

2009-02-05T19:28:00.001-08:00

I need to remeber next time I go anywhere with J.C. that has anything to do with dogs I'm in for it. (Whatever "it" is)
This is us stuck in the snow coming over the hill between Cache Valley and Tremonton. J.C. wanted to take a different road to see if there were any lion tracks. As you can see I got to see a lot of wild turkeys. There were even lots more, but I didn't get my phone out fast enough.
There was also lots of snow. I know this because we were stuck here for 3 hours. A couple drunk, but very nice guys on 4 wheelers tried to pull us out. No luck. Finally after lots of digging and cussing, (no, not me, my hubby) we were finally out.
My brother in law came up on his ranger to save us and he said it looked like we were digging a grave. Maybe J.C.'s.

Sledding fun

2009-02-01T21:04:00.000-08:00

Our good friends the Kaiserman's have a team of draft horses and Saturday they invited us over to go sledding. We brought Dixon's friend with us too.
It was a blast. The boys were hilarious. Dixon couldn't stay in the tube. He kept falling out then running back to it and diving in. Then out he would go again.
John also would get the tubes in an irrigation ditch and make the horses go fast and turn in a little circle and the tube would sling shot around. I have Dixon on with me in one of the pictures and this is after the circle when we crashed back into the ditch. Thanks John for stopping the team on time. (I know he did it on purpose)
It was a beautiful sunny day for such an activity. Thanks Kaiserman's for the fun memories.

Redhead Ramblings

2009-01-17T20:46:00.000-08:00

So this morning I wake up, turn the t.v. on and watch Bathroom Renovations on the DIY channel. I love that channel. I also think Amy Mathews rocks. Man, I would love to be able to do all she does. Finally I decide I best be getting up and getting on with the day. I go into my bathroom to shower and I start to look around at my ugly wallpaper in there. Then I get a brilliant idea. I'm going to paint my bathroom today.
I get busy taking down the towel racks, cleaning out my cabinets, and doing whatever else a person does to get a room ready to paint. This was at 9 am. Fast forward to 9 pm and I am sore, my fingers hurt and my bathroom is scary. I am barely done stripping wallpaper and scrubbing glue off the walls. I must say I had a couple of good helpers though. Josie liked to pull the paper off while Mercedes liked to scrub the remaining glue. My hubby on the other hand told me I needed to give him warning before I started a project like that. In other words so he could make sure he was far from here.
My project I thought I could finish in a day is going to turn into a few more days I'm afraid. I wonder if I can get the crew from Over Your Head to come help me finish. Because I think I am over my head once again.

wahoo, yippee, finally, hee hee, can't wait till Monday

2009-01-10T22:24:00.000-08:00

Only have a couple of blurry shots from the night, but guess what I got tonight?

For all the crazy Gillespie's

2008-12-06T08:38:00.001-08:00

I have to tell my family how much I really love them all right now. I mean I don't just love them right now, I always do, I just have to tell them now. I wish I could have been there with everyone to tell sweet little grandma goodbye. It was good to get to hear all of the stories from everyone. We are planning on driving down to Kanab on Thursday and then heading the rest of the way Friday. I don't know when the last time I was in Arizona even was. I think Dixon was pretty little so it's probably been around 5 years now. I really hope that's not right, but I can't remember.
Kilie my email is trispokebuty@yahoo.com. Now Shelly I know you don't update very often too so get your butt in gear so I can keep up on my family that I don't ever get to see.
Love you all
Steph

Fall Guiding

2008-12-04T14:22:00.000-08:00

Now for some pictures from J.C.'s trip to Wyoming this fall. It's hard to pick wich pictures to put on here. In fact right now J.C. is telling me he needs to pick the pictures so I will have the good ones. At least this gets the point across that they had a good year. J.C. has also been back to hunt lions with his friends and they have killed one every time he's gone. (which is 3) I have a little bit of a hard time with all of this hunting stuff, anyone who knows me knows how much I love animals. I have to always tell myself there is a whole circle to life. Last week we had our pig done (I hope everyone knows what I mean by done) I let it out of the pen to say goodbye and brushed him for awhile. Then I had to leave. He was a good pig. Ok, enough for now, I started this by just wanting to add hunting pictures and now I'm going on and on.

Crazy Call Kids

2008-12-03T19:17:00.000-08:00

Just some random shots. See what you started Shelly.

This is for Shelly

2008-12-03T18:57:00.000-08:00

Since my cousin Shell Bell gave me a hard time today about updating my blog I decided to add something. Once again these are old pictures, I still don't have a new camera, so bear with me.

My cute (I mean handsome) boy Dixon cracked me up the day we tagged bucket calves for the fair. I still don't know what he was trying to accomplish, but he wanted to wear his chinks, cowboy hat, and he stuck something plastic in his mouth. (I really hope he wasn't pretending like it was a stokey or something. Please help me)

The other couple pictures are the day we got the calves. They were a day old and one didn't want to nurse from the bottle too well. It didn't make it after a couple of weeks. I tried all kinds of concoctions, even putting coke and pepto in the bottle. I didn't make that up, an old dairy farmer told me those tricks.

Last, but not least is the picture Dixon took of me cheesing it up at Josie's musical last year. I tried to take pictures of her, she even had a solo, but I was too far back and the only thing that wasn't black was the one of me. Great.

Ok Shelly are you happy now?

Redhead Ramblings

2008-11-06T18:11:00.000-08:00

Ok this is a big one. You know what I really hate? When I am just doing my thing, which happened to be hauling hay this morning, and I get a phone call. It was from someone from Doctor Johns calling to confirm my husbands order. What, are you kidding me? They had my cell number, but his name and a California shipping address. Talk about red flags popping up all over. Well I told them it wasn't us and to not put the order through. She then advised me to call my credit card company to put a hold on the card. Oh yea, another thing is it was J.C.'s card and he happened to be lion hunting in Wyoming today so I couldn't even get a hold of him.

Fast forward a couple of hours and I get a call from Victorias Secret to confirm an order. Right away for the second time today I am on the phone with my bank trying to figure this all out.

So anyways I spend all day on the phone trying to get this mess worked out, which sucked because the cc company wouldn't even talk to me because I'm not on the card too. I had to call the Oakland California police department to file a police report. I know they won't even do anything about this. Why should they? They are so tied up with pretty major crimes that somebody having a little fun on our expense is not high up on their priority.

Ok so let me get to the good part. I'm really excited about this. I used to want to be a cop so I like to sleuth around a bit.

Let me introduce you to Michelle Gerrero. 107th Avenue Oakland California. 1-510-969-5988. Do you think she'll be a little surprised when she gets a call from me?

How I feel

2008-11-04T21:09:00.001-08:00

Sometimes I just feel like burying my head into something and hiding or sticking my tongue out at everyone. Does anyone else feel this way?

The Bull Rider "once upon a time"

2008-10-16T19:19:00.001-07:00

These are pictures of my hubby at CSI. This is where he went to college and he won the All Around Cowboy at the College National Finals way back when. This mural has been up for awhile, but J.C. hadn't had the chance to see it. He was stuck in Twin Falls between cattle loads so I drove up there to spend the night with him and we went for a tour. Unfortunately there was a car show going on at the time so we couldn't get close to everything, but it was still pretty cool.

The last picture is my ex bull rider of a husband putting his daughter on a rank brahma bull calf. This picture was taken with my phone about a millisecond after he got kicked in the thigh. Ha ha. He deserved it for putting her up there.

My Father in Law, Randy

2008-10-15T22:35:00.000-07:00

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So I just downloaded these pictures from my cell phone and it brought back memories.

You see when my father in law gets in a tractor you'de better watch out. Last winter he was feeding the neighbors cows and horses and he had to come get me to help him. When I got there I saw the tractor in the pond. It seems instead of using a shovel to break the ice for the livestock to drink out of he decided to use the tractor. Well that didn't work out so good. The tractor was stuck. I tried to pull him out with his truck at first, but that didn't work. Next we went and got another tractor. He let me(notice how I say let me) get into the tractor that was in the frozen pond to drive out while he pulled. Well I didn't know the gears and I accidentally put it in a forward gear and drove it further into the pond. So we traded and I finally pulled him out. I later found out that there is a 30 ft drop right in front of where I was. That would have been cold.

The next picture was just this fall. Randy decided to move this shed we have. The tractor wasn't quite strong enough so he kept "rearing up" with the tractor. I tried to get a good picture with my phone, but it was really hard to get it at the right moment.

So moral of this whole post is when Randy is driving a tractor, watch out.

P.S. Randy if by chanced you ever read this, I know it's not always your fault. It would help if the tractors ever had any brakes or kindof important things like that.

REDHEAD RAMBLINGS

2008-10-11T09:36:00.000-07:00

You know what I hate? Snow in October. Doesn't mother nature know not to do this until Thanksgiving? At least waite until November. I'de like to have a chat with her.

2008-10-07T09:23:00.000-07:00

So I haven't posted for awhile again because my camera is not working. I think I have dust in my lense that won't let it open. Anyways I decided to go through old pictures and see what was on them. I found these ones of the kids. I had caught a snake this day and I took it into the house to show my kids. I thought they would freak out. Instead Mercedes and Dixon loved it. Josie kept her distance, but these two wanted to hold it. My neices were there too and they both held it also. I was way impressed.

J.C. is still guiding in Wyoming. He came home this weekend for a couple of days. He has been gone for 4 weeks and has 2 more weeks left. They have done really well this year. Almost every hunter has filled their tags and J.C. even had one hunter who might get in the record books with a bull elk he shot. He shot it with a bow from 10 yards and it is an 8 point nontypical bull. I will post pics as soon as I can download them from his camera.

I have still been going to barrel races every week. Right now I am in the lead to win a saddle. There are 2 races left so a lot can still happen. The funny thing is the girl I haul with is only one point behind me. We laugh about how close we are. I just hope if I don't win it that she does. We would both be really bummed if someone else snuck in there and beat both of us. I'll keep ya all posted about this as it goes along and I am going to scan a picture of me running someday.

Ok I better go ride, I've been on this computer for way too long this morning.

Redhead Ramblings

2008-09-12T18:04:00.000-07:00

You know what just drives me crazy? When people put up holiday decorations way way before that holiday. Today I was driving my kids to school and a neighbor down the street has their house decorated for Halloween already. What? Last year a few other neighbors had their Christmas decorations up the day after Halloween. Are you kidding me? I love the holidays, but can we just enjoy one and get it over with before we move on to the next?

Ok. So that is my little rant for now, but be prepared for many more to come. As a redhead I have a reputation to upheld. And if any of you other redheads out there have anything else to add I'de love to hear from you too.

Yellowstone trip over Labor Day

2008-09-08T15:49:00.000-07:00

So this past Labor Day we went to Yellowstone with my in laws. I have never been there before, so I was way excited. We camped out in their trailers North of West Yellowstone in a campground and drove into Yellowstone everyday. It was so nice just to be away from town for awhile. Sunday we just hung out in the campground and the kids cought frogs in the river. Also as you can see my 145 lb. of twisted steel and sex appeal husband decided to be brave and take a little swim. This is only after all the kids had already dove into the river. For those of you who know him at all know what kind of a wuss he is with cold water.

After we got home I had to hurry and fulfill part of my duty with the PTA. I am in charge of birthday table. This includes writing all of the kids names and their birthdays on a little thing, like a tree or a sun or a four leaf clover. It all depends on the month. Then I cut them out and I have a big board in the school I decorate and I put these on them. Next I make invitations for all these kids each month and I write their names on them and sort them out into each teachers box. Then I order cupcakes and on the Friday of birthday table I decorate the cafateria for them. I also ordered for their prizes this year a really cool cougar paw cup, and a zipper pull with a paw that says McKinley Cougars on it, and some paw erasers. Then all the kids come eat with their parents or whoever comes and they get their prizes and cupcakes. This month I had 101 kids to do this all for. We have just under 600 students in the school, which means I get to write a lot of names down. Thank goodness that is over, well until about two more weeks when I get to start October's birthdays.

Well I'm also a widower for the next month and a half. My hubby is off to Wyoming to guide again. He just loves this time of year, and looks forward to it all year long. He would love to buy one of the hunting camps there. I get a little queesy thinking about it. The camp he wants you have to pack everything up there and it is a four mile pack trip. Argh.

Anyways, did anyone notice the paragraphs? J.C. gave me such a hard time about my last post. So I will now put paragraphs in.

A Crazy Fair Week

2008-08-25T08:43:00.000-07:00

I am sooo happy that last week is past us. It all started with Josie's region 4-H horse show in Ogden on Monday. We drove down Sunday and set the trailer up. Kaiye was freaking out. I rode him for awhile first then Josie did. We had to give him a bath and get him ready to show early Monday. Josie did really good at the show. There were just one little thing in each class that kept her from getting a blue ribbon, but overall the juniors from our county were second. Next we hurried home and loaded 2 more horses for the speed events that night at our fair. Mercedes ran poles and barrels. She did really good, it is so fun to see her and Ole Buck do stuff. Then I ran barrels on 39. He ran really good. We won the barrels that night. I also tried to run Kaiye, but I thought he got hurt turning the second barrel so I pulled up and then just finished the pattern loping. Tuesday was just spent preparing all the animals and weighing Josie's pig. Wednesday morning we came out and fed her pig a gallon of milk. Then loaded it in the trailer and headed to the fair. I ran and bought a huge watermelon to feed it in the trailer. We were really worried it wouldn't make weight. There were a lot of pigs that weren't and the sad thing is you can't take them home once you unload them. Well her pig was 230 lbs. so it made it by 5 lbs. It probably had at least 10 lbs. of water weight though. Next I had to hurry and make the signs to put over the pig and calf. Then we went home and brought Sadie's calf to the fair. I know this is getting really long, just imagine all the stuff we did this last week. Anyways I went back to Ogden to run barrels. My friend and I talked the lady in charge into putting us first so we could hurry back to Tremonton to run barrels at the Bulls, Broncs and Barrels that night too. I had a good run on 39 in Ogden considering he got the crap shocked out of him on the way down. I had a short in my trailer so every time I touched the brakes it was shocking him, and I just thought my brakes were adjusted to high. Anyways he was all cut up on his legs and pretty shook up, but he still ran good. What a good pony. Then we made it back to Tremonton just in time to watch my friends daughter run in the pee wee barrel class. She kicked butt too. It was pretty exciting, we actually could only see the top of her head though, because we were on the other side of the fence behind the bleachers, but we could tell she was going fast. She won it and won a really nice buckle. Next I got my horse saddled again and got changed and got over the the arena as they were doing the open barrels. I didn't know when I was up so I started to warm up. I loped a couple of circles in each direction then got off to tighten my cinch right when they called my name. I didn't even have time to get nervous. I jumped back on and trotted up to the arena and ran. We did ok considering everything that happened, (horse getting shocked and cut up, and not warming up) Also it was the first time 39 had run in front of that big of a crowd, and a long time for me. The next morning it was up and early to show Josies' pig, Oh yea, J.C. and Josie had washed it the night before. She was in the second class that came out. The judge kept looking at her pig and then going on to the next. It's kindof nerve racking because he sorts out all the red ribbon pigs firs. Well she made it into the blues and then about halfway through them he finally sorted her pig out. He was a really nice pig, but he was at least a month younger than every other pig, we had to push him really hard that last month. Anyways he was just smaller framed than the judge liked. Hence his name Pee Wee. Next up was Mercedes calf. We washed it and clipped it and sprayed it and ratted its tail. Just for her to get in there and have in waller all over her. She placed dead last in her class. It was sad and I was soo mad. J.C. just wanted me to go home for the night. I was really sleepy, but we needed to get out to the horses and get them washed for the show the next morning. So early Friday morning we load the horses up and head back to the arena for the horse show. Both girls were in the fitting and showmanship class. Josie ended up fourth and Mercedes, poor girl, ended up dead last again. Buck even reached over and bit her on her shoulder when they were out there. The little rascal. But to make it all ok Mercedes went in and won her next and last class the walk trot. She got a blue ribbon and $15. Then Josie was in the Western pleasure, reining, and trail. She and Kaiye did so good they won all of them. She took home $45 big ones. It cracks me up because this big time horse trainer that we know came up to J.C. to tell him how good Josie did, and then he goes man that is a fancy horse she is on too. If he only knew it's my 21 year old old barrel horse. Hee Hee. They all did look good though. Next we just hung out and the kids all went and rode rides the rest of the day at the carnival. Saturday was the big livestock auction. The pigs sold first this year and Josie's pig was 90. There were 220 pigs, 300 and something lambs, and 90 steers. Her pig sold for $550. A friend of ours bought it so Thanks Show Pony. That's what I call him. After that we could finally relax. I was so nervous her pig wouldn't sell good, that nobody would bid on it so I was happy. I stayed in the auction barn and ended up buying J.C.'s cousins lamb. We tried to buy a couple steers, but they both ended up selling for $2,600, way over our budget. That night J.C. and I snuck over to the rodeo. We took the kids to the trailer and started a movie, and we went to watch a little rodeo. We just stood on the track at the gate were the barrel racers go in. My friend ran barrels that night so I wanted to watch her and cheer her on. She did good and then we left before the bulls even started. We had to load the calf up to take it home. And sniff sniff say goodbye to Pee Wee. That's the only part I hate. You get so attached to these animals over the year and then they have to go. I thought a pig would be the easiest thing, Oh no. I didn't just cry a little, I sobbed. I bet I looked pretty silly to everyone around, but if you know me you know how I get. Anyways it was a long, but fun week. Now today my kids are in school for their first day. Dixon is even in first grade so he goes all day this year too. I won't know what to do with myself. Well J.C. has already lined me up to work tomorrow, so that's what. Anyways I know this is long, but so was the week. Bye

My Girls, My Queens. Well almost

2008-08-04T09:43:00.000-07:00

Oh my, I know I am a nerd, I just had to show the picture of me that gets to be in our fair book this year. I help out with the queenies, well I don't feel like I do much, but Lola that is in charge thinks I do. Maybe she just says that. My girls decided to try out again this year. They were in the Little Miss group. That is the 7-9 year olds. They did so good. Josie won the horsemanship and Mercedes won the photogenic. Really everyone wins something, but I was so proud of them. Only a year ago they barely dared ride. Now, watch out. It is so fun to go ride and just watch them. It makes my heart swell.

I still have so many more pictures to post. I have been taking pictures forever thinking I would put them on here, so bare with me when none are organized or have any captions with them. I don't know how to do that yet.

2008-08-03T20:28:00.000-07:00

Here we all are for Mercedes big day. Both girls wore the same dress to get baptized in, I thought that was pretty neat. I'm not much of a writer, or thinker for that matter, so I don't have anything more profound to say. See ya

2008-08-03T20:17:00.000-07:00

2008-08-03T19:52:00.000-07:00

These are pictures of Josie's baptism from last year. I just have one question? What am I doing wearing a sweater in June?

2008-08-03T19:31:00.000-07:00

Josie 4-H horse show

2008-08-03T19:22:00.000-07:00

Ok, so I haven't done this forever and I finally decided I would really try to get into all of this. I have a ton of pictures to post, someday, when I can find the time. Josie has been able to show in 4-H this year. She is riding my old horse Kaiye. He is 21 years old now. She did so good. She qualified for the state show in September in Vernal. We also go to region in 2 weeks. That show is only in Ogden.
Mercedes got baptized yesterday. It was a really special day. My parents were up from Kanab, and then there were a few of J.C.'s family there too. I will post those pictures as soon as they get downloaded on the computer.
I'm going to end this short for now just to see if I did it right.

Home again

2008-03-29T17:54:00.001-07:00

We got home from Kanab on Monday at midnight. I have been so busy since then so this is going to be really short and no pictures yet.(I'm not sure how to do that on my own yet so I will have to call Jen again.) Tuesday I had to finish my part in the yearbook for Mckinley School. I was in charge of the 3rd grade pages, I really hope they turn out ok. Then I had my first barrel race of the year in Farmington. The best thing I can say is I didn't fall of my horse.(I came really close.) I have another one next week in Ogden, then the big one is 2 weeks away in Salina. I am way nervous, but excited too. If I get a good picture I will try to post it. I also have been reading the books by Stephenie Myers, the Twilight series. I finished the 3rd one last night and now I have to wait until August for the next one to come out. Ugh. They are so good though. Ok Jen if you read this call me so you can walk me through the picture thing again. I think this is probably boring to just read everything.
Jon, Janice, and Tavi too that was so cool to see you saw this. My e-mail is trispoke@sisna.com. Please e-mail me so I can check yours out too.
See ya

Jen gets me started at this blogging stuff

2008-03-22T16:51:00.000-07:00

Ok, so first off I am so clueless on computers so I hope when I don't have Jen holding my hand I can figure this out. We are all in Kanab for Spring Break enjoying the warm weather. Jen is teaching me how to do this, along with the rest of us poor souls. Here are some pictures from the trip on the Rhino's and the Easter egg hunt at the park.

At Peekaboo with the rino's

The goodies from the easter egg hunt