a day of gratitude

it's november 13th already, so i guess it's about time i do some "official" posts about what i am so grateful for in my life right now. on monday i detailed my gratitude for our country's veterans through my late grandpa shoaf and everything that surrounded his passing back in february. i am beyond glad i recorded all those memories to never forget. 

yesterday wasn't a typical day. you see, farm boy, flew out of the salt lake airport for a job interview that morning and flew back in that afternoon, so i took the chance i had to hang out in a different valley for the day. 

my very first stop was a quick breakfast of my favorite french toast at kneaders. oh so good! and then i made the short drive down the road to this beautiful place in jordan. 

it was my first time doing a temple session alone. i was a little nervous at first and hesitated to commit going since i've been sick the past few days, but man oh man i am so glad i went. being in the temple gives me such an amazing feeling. i feel loved, important, known, and that i am doing great work for the Lord! i have missed that feeling so much, and being in the temple reminded me i need to go more often. and that got me to thinking. here in logan, utah i live literally less than five miles from the temple. while i was in salt lake valley yesterday i could have drove to over four different temples in 30 minutes. and it hit me, i am incredibly blessed here in this region of the country! temples surround me everywhere. i have the opportunity to go to work eat dinner, and go to a temple session and still be home at a decent time for bed. growing up in indiana, a temple trip is almost an all day trip since our closest temple is in louisville kentucky. soon to be indianapolis once it is all finished in a couple years, which will make a temple trip much easier.

i am beyond grateful for temples. and the availability i have to attend them whenever i desire.

and before i sign off this here blog today, i have one more thing (or person, really) that i was reminded i am beyond grateful for in my life. farm boy has been working so so hard these past couple months. and not just in school, and work, but with our future after he graduates. he has put countless hours into researching companies, perfecting his resume, applying, practicing for interviews and so on. i don't know how i could ever do everything he has done. i know he gets so nervous over it all, and feels a lot of pressure, but he has done amazing things these past few weeks, and we're not even done with it all yet. i can't say much about all the details here and now, but i can say no matter what direction we end up going i have the brightest future ahead of me with this hard working farm boy.  

veterans day, and the shoaf legacy

veterans day has always brought back so many memories for me. and with this being the fist veteran's day since my grandpa shoaf passed away, it holds an even deeper spot in my heart.

as a young boy in the 1940s, my grandpa lied about his age and joined the Navy. he served as a seabee during the korean war. 

every year my high school invites the elementary school next door over, and puts on a veterans day program. my grandpa and grandma would attend every year. i remember as a young elementary student walking over to the high school and scouring all the seats in the center, which were reserved for veterans, to find my grandparents. when the program ended, all my cousins and i (and most often my dad would be there with them) would instantly run over to them to talk as long as we could before going back to class.     

on february 11, 2013 my grandpa, paul franklin shoaf, left behind the greatest legacy i know. farm boy and i were just dating when i got the news that morning, but we quickly made the necessary changes to be with all my family later that week. this meant making the 24 hour drive from utah to  hope, indiana on valentine's day aka my 22nd birthday. it was unbelievably worth it though.    

my mind is so scattered as memories of that weekend home, as well as the 22 years i was blessed to know and spend time with my grandpa. so instead of trying to sort them out perfectly for this blog post, i am just going to ramble a bit, and get all these memories recorded here so i don't ever forget them.

as soon as word spread, several family members worked tirelessly to gather photos of my grandpa throughout his life. i loved looking at these, and hearing all the crazy stories.

my absolute favorite photo of my grandpa is shown on the very bottom left of this display.

and here it is much larger. this is my grandpa with his brother ike, and sister (not positive which sister though). they rigged up this cart and harness for their goat to take them around town. 

my grandma has a large print of this in her home (along with many other great family photos, that i love to look at every time i visit), and when my little sister frances was younger, she would try to do this herself with goats my parents bought her at auctions.

my grandpa was always so proud of his service, and often told some really great stories about those days. my favorite is his story of getting a mermaid tattoo on his arm. 

my grandparents have 13 children, so my grandpa worked hard year round doing constructions work mainly. my parents bought an old foreclosure house when i was in high school, and i worked along side him the whole summer to fix it up as a rental property. he's also worked on the gazebo in our town square, and countless farm and house projects on my parents farm.  

he didn't just work on houses or construction sites though. he was an amazing wood worker. and the proof is in all the pictures below. he often made picture frames and filled them with arrowheads he'd found around their farm property. he even made bassinets for several family members. my mom, sister, and sister-in-law all received one when they were pregnant with their first child. i wish i knew how many he has made total.   

my grandpa left behind such an amazing, and very large legacy when he passed. he, along with my grandma had 13 children (11 boys and 2 girls). according to the obituary in the paper, he had 69 grandchildren, and 41 great-grandchildren at the time (and since then there has been at least a few new great-grandchildren born, and more on the way).

with a family so large, the "shoaf" name is known by everyone in our small town of hope and the surrounding area. my grandpa was very well known for his family, service, work, and for being an all around kind man to anyone he was in contact with. 

this photo is the most recent family reunion that was held during the summer of 2011.

and all the children with grandma before the funeral. 

as soon as farm boy and i arrived in indiana that week, we instantly went over to the local high school in town. the same high school my dad and siblings all attended, as well as myself and my siblings, and several other grandchildren and even great-grandchildren now. we went to help set up chairs for the viewing and funeral that would occur there the next day.

my grandpa was actually great friends with the family of the local funeral home in hope (heck, my grandpa was great friends with everyone in hope). however, when just your family alone easily totals over 100 people, the small local funeral home doesn't quite cut it. the high school administration was very kind though and rearranged athletic event locations so we could use the large main gym for the services. and we did just the next two days. 

i remember the gym quickly filling up with family members arriving from all over the country. 

i remember looking at all the beautiful flowers so many friends and families sent.

i remember staring at the amazing flower arrangement on my grandpa's casket, especially the robin's nesk, and bees that are such a special tough reminding me of my grandpa.

i remember my grandma who was so strong. i mean, she has to one tough woman to raise 13 kids in some really tough days. (and just so you know that's my grandma, and beautiful older sister, christa)

i remember going to hug her the morning of the funeral, and i honestly didn't even want to. i knew i would break down and not be able to handle it at all, but farm boy pushed me towards her and pretty much made me confront her. and i'm so glad he did. she was the only one that could comfort me at that time, and i am so grateful for those few moments we had together.  

i remember the night of the viewing so well. family and friends all gathered in the gym to pay their respects. the line of people wound around most of the gym the entire night. my siblings and i staked out a section of the seats and hung out together the whole night. we recounted memories of grandpa, grandma, dad, and the farm. we laughed, and joked. we played with my nieces, and nephews. we brought in close friends and family to talk and laugh even more. i won't ever forget those moments with them that night. 

i remember after several hours, we took a quick pizza break and went to a local pizza shop for their buffet. they were close to closing, and had little pizza left, but when a group of shoafs came in they asked us what we wanted and quickly filled our stomachs up so we could get back to the high school.

i remember the last hour or so of that night, which was probably my favorite. the crowd died down, and most people headed home. some of the family hung around though, including my entire family (minus a few tired nieces, and nephew). in those last moments that night farm boy and olliver became new best friends again. they used the giant aisle down the middle of the gym as a race course and proceeded to race each other what seemed a hundred times. family members slowly started saying their goodbyes to my grandpa since it was the last few moments before his casket would be sealed forever. my grandma said a few words, one of my cousins gave a prayer, and then it was time to go home till the morning. leaving the gym that night was hard. saying goodbye to my grandpa and leaving him behind was beyond hard for me. and the thousands of tears running down my eyes, and all my siblings showed just that.  

 i remember the music sang, the words spoken, and the stories retold.

i remember the long, long, long line of cars in the procession that made a loop around our town square before heading to the cemetery.

i remember the folding and presenting of the flag to my grandma and then the playing of the Taps.

i remember grandma telling all the grandchildren to grab a flower from the arrangement to keep.

i remember the luncheon so many friends put together for our very large family to enjoy after a busy couple of days. and getting this sweet picture of farm boy, grandma, and myself. i love this picture so so much, because farm boy is just lit up with happiness. farm boy has taken to my grandma quite well in the past couple of years. he loves her like his own, and looks out for her in any way possible. even more though, grandma loves him back just as much. they have a sweet little relationship between the two, and i am so grateful for them both.

 
grandpa and grandma on their wedding day. they haven't changed a bit since august 7th, 1952.

when all is said and done, i am beyond grateful for this great man that i call grandpa, and the great man he raised to be my father.

i am so grateful for his service for our country at such a young age.

happy veterans day to all that have served, are serving, and will serve. we live in such a blessed country with so many men and women willing to serve for our freedom.  

flashback friday: the proposal i'll never forget, part 2

if you missed part 1 of this crazy proposal story, check it out here!

so after finishing my morning job at the farm, and getting the okay from my boss on campus i headed to preston for the day to help out farm boy.

and i guess i need to back track just a tad, because as i was hesitating to go to preston for the day farm boy pulled out a secret weapon and offered lunch at mis amores (which is only the best mexican joint in cache valley), and we all know i can not turn down good food so i was in for sure after that.

after thirty minutes in the car i pulled into the driveway, and found not only farm boy but his mom, grandma, and sister all hanging out in the house. farm boy and i decided to go get lunch before working on anything, and before i knew it we had convinced everyone else to come along as well. they all acted pretty busy, and his little sister had just barely eaten lunch, but in the end they kind of reluctantly decided they would come, and i thought none the wiser about it.

we all piled into his mom's car and headed to lunch, and farm boy quickly started telling me about a "new addition" to the farm that i had to see asap. he proceeded to direct his mother to one of their family's barns where this "new addition" was located, so i could see it before lunch.

it was a muddy wet day and us ladies didn't exactly wear appropriate shoes to walk through a barn. we gave the suggestion that this wasn't the best idea, but farm boy insisted we see, so we all headed into the barn, and at first i was super confused. i didn't see a thing new or different, until farm boy directed me to the other side of the barn where a small baby jersey calf was hanging out in a pile of loose straw. and i was ecstatic!

 

you see farm boy is a holstein cow lover (he even has a shirt that is solely covered with a giant holstein cow face) while i on the other hand am a jersey cow lover! don't know the difference? see below...you have a very younger version of me showing a jersey calf at the indiana state fair, and then a slightly younger farm boy posing with his favorite holstein ladies on his families dairy in preston.

  

we've had many debates during our relationship of which breed of dairy cows is better, and we have just decided to agree to disagree. 

i digress though. back to this crazy story. as i was freaking out and going crazy because of my excitement, farm boy's mother decided to grab her camera from the car to take pictures. now you're probably thinking wow emma you should have seen that as a clue, but nope it wasn't at all since she loves jersey cows and taking pictures of them. i was still clueless of what was about to go down.

after i caught my breath and controlled my excitement, farm boy told me that he got the baby calf for me, which sent me into more excitement and curiosity. i asked him why and where he got it from since his family only deals with the black and whites, and he went on to tell me this long crazy story. he informed me that he had told the organic jersery dairy in a nearby town that if he ever had to treat a calf (and no longer be able to use on an organic dairy that does not allow certain treatments), he should call him so he could buy it from him. and apparently that had happened this morning, so he bought just for me and said we could raise it on his family's dairy.

since it was my calf, farm boy decided it was my job to tag her ear. and this seems like the perfect time to stop talking and show you lovely video that his mother was taking the entire time (and i had no clue about till later that day)! please ignore all my craziness in this video. i was in complete shock. i mean yeah i knew i was going to marry him and that meant he would be proposing soon, but i had no clue it was happening then. 

and since i'm not on top of the ball today i don't have the official video to put right here on the blog, but you can go to facebook and watch it here, or just copy and paste the link below.

https://www.facebook.com/photo.php?v=10152647441610486&l=2474736748391038987

watch. enjoy. and don't laugh too hard when i ask for the millionth time "is this real?".

fridays are always the best

i think about everyone in this universe will agree with the title of this post because we all know fridays really are the best. in the swainston household friday night means one thing...date night. date night always includes dinner out, and on the really lucky date nights we go to a movie, or some other entertainment. farm boy and i are pretty simple though and love food so eating out together is our usual date night routine. so we hit up cafe sabor in logan this past friday (which we had never been to together), and then headed home to watch a movie and relax...about thirty minutes in though i looked over and found this...

yep, this is farm boy dead asleep at 7 o clock on friday night. we had quite the friday night, didn't we?

he is probably going to kill me when he sees this. he was so deep in sleep he never even noticed me get out of bed to take pictures, go to the bathroom, and bake cookies. yeah, i was so bored just watching tv that i decided to bake some of the halloween chocolate chip cookie dough i had leftover from the night before.

(i have to give you a little background though. you see farm boy has been working his tail off with early morning work everyday, class and homework all day long, and then on top of that he is working extra hard on job hunting for when he graduates in may. this past week included a lot of everything, especially future job opportunities, so i was not surprised one bit when he was fast asleep...he deserved the break after working so hard and non stop all week long.)

don't worry though i wasn't alone all night long. he woke up around 9 and was rested and ready to go. at that point i was getting really tired, but stayed awake long enough to watch half of the movie, o brother where art thou. i hadn't seen that movie in so long and farm boy had never seen it so it was quite entertaining to see his reactions to all the different scenarios that play out for the main characters throughout the film. he was quite disturbed with the gangsta bank robber shooting up some cattle along the road.

don't worry though it's not all crazy bank robbers, so check out my favorite scene from the movie which includes the signature song, "i am a man of constant sorrow". and next time you're in the market for a movie to watch, check it out.

flowers on a cold winter day

sometimes when you're walking towards your bosses office to turn in your time card for the week, you see your husband.

and sometimes you ask him what he is doing and he gets all weird and awkward, and just tells you that one of your boss has your car keys (because you forget them in the car that morning), and he proceeds to walk away and not really say much else.

and then sometimes you walk in the bosses office to grab your keys and see this huge vase of flowers sitting there, with a lovely little card with your name on it, and you get that little school girl feeling in your heart and can't stop smiling because you are reminded yet again that you got the best husband a girl could ask for.

farm boy does sneaky things like this every once in awhile and i am still completely surprised every time. and what girl wouldn't be. i mean look at those flowers. once i picked my jaw up off the ground from shock, i got to carry these across a small corner of campus back to my office with a huge smile on my face, and realized this cold dreary autumn day in cache valley just got a whole lot brighter and happier. 

and not only did i get a surprise of flowers and a sweet note, but that sweet note included a dinner date tonight of my choosing (and dessert as well, and we all know how much i LOVE dessert), and even after dating slash being married to my handsome farm boy for over two years i am beyond excited for an impromptu date with him tonight.

flashback friday: the proposal i'll never forget, part 1

before farm boy and i could get married, he had to get down on one knee and make sure i was in for the long haul. well to be honest he had known for a long time (over a year actually) that i was ready and willing to marry him, but protocol includes an actual proposal. and this boy's proposal did not disappoint one bit.

this story begins way back on the first day of 2013. i had flown back from christmas break at home in indiana (which farm boy was lucky enough to join for a few days as well) with my family. farm boy had picked me up from the airport and as we were finally rolling through cache valley he decided we needed to stop at a local hispanic market. as he continued to drive i proceeded to argue with him about where exactly it was at. i knew he was going the wrong direction and did my best to explain that to him, however he continued on his course and we ended up a couple blocks away from the market, but conveniently parked right behind logan's most marketed jeweler, se needhams. and you can just imagine my excitement when he proceeded to lead me into the jewelry store and casually tell the worker we were there to look at engagement rings!!

now before this outing we had never looked at rings...together. (i had previously looked with both my older sisters at two different jewelry stores in indiana the summer before. nothing ever came of the rings i had picked out there though.) i was a giddy little school girl checking out rings with him and finally saw a glimpse of light at the end of this dating tunnel. because at this point we had been dating for about 19 months, and i was beyond ready to marry this kid!

after i tried on as many beautiful rings as i possibly could, it was down to two gorgeous rings that were very similar. i turned to my handsome farm boy for thoughts and together we chose the very ring that is on my ringer today. now, i wish i could say a couple weeks after this visit he got down on his knee and popped the big question. i mean we had finally looked at rings together, picked one out, and even had chatted about getting married around the time of spring break. i had mentioned to my family, and some close friends of our new year's day outing and even tried on some wedding dresses just a few weeks later. unfortunately, the weeks started to roll by with no appearance of any such ring.

we quickly rolled through january, and then february. our original plans of a "spring break wedding" were long gone, and i was starting to loose hope that we were getting married any time soon. as march began, we were two weeks away from spring break, and just nine weeks away from my college graduation. and as i had told farm boy several times before, "if i wasn't married when i graduate, i was going back home to indiana to work with my dad." and he knew i wasn't kidding.

well wednesday march 6 i woke up and headed out to the USU south farm to feed my furry little calves before going into work my second job on campus for the day. farm boy had been milking cows in idaho that morning since 1 am, and as soon as he knew i was up feeding calves he sent me a desperate text asking that i head to idaho as soon as possible to help him for the day. i had to work on campus though so i hesitated, but he pleaded saying he was swamped with so much to do, so i emailed my boss explaining there was an "emergency" i needed to attend to in idaho and would not be in the office for the day. luckily my boss is the coolest, and there was no problem, so as i finished my calf feeding i headed to idaho for what i thought would be a normal day, but little did i know that there was a whole slew of sneakiness going on behind my back.

to be continued...

a night of emotions

sometimes i am a full on emotional women and have one of those crazy spur of the moment, where-the-heck-did-this-come-from kind of emotional explosions. when i was single i would just drowned my sorrows in ice cream, chinese food, and some gilmore girl episodes, but i'm married now. this means that my poor unassuming husband gets hit with a tidal wave of emotions from he's usually sweet loving wife.

well, the other night i sent out one of those tidal waves of just pure crazy emotions (with full on ugly tears everywhere) and farm boy was the sole victim. you see i just had one of those days where i get into deep thought about a subject and it doesn't quite sit well and then i finally explode with all my feelings in the worst way.

maybe one day i can get put together all the right words to explain all my bizarre feelings i had that night, but until then it all just makes me realize how lucky i got to marry this boy.

he knows exactly how to pull me in, and catch all my crazy emotions. i love how he doesn't just sugar coat everything and tell me all will be okay (even though in the moment of craziness that's all i think i want or need), but that he is straight up honest and tells me the good hard truth. and how i need to buck up and be stronger. he may not always understand all my emotions, but he is always there to talk me through it and remind me that we're a team...no matter what.

and that is what i thank my Heavenly Father for every morning and night. that i was able to find such a strong, kind man to be my partner in this crazy thing we call life. and it doesn't hurt that he is easy on the eye either. 

  

weekend recap...and farm boy's mission

why is it i never get around to recapping our weekend until a new weekend is about to start? i'm too busy or just think i'm too busy, but we have too many great weekends to not recap them. and this past weekend was definitely a great one.

we started out with a trip down south to provo. now provo is home of the unspeakable university that we don't like to give any time of day to, but every once and awhile we grace "the bubble", as is it often referred to, with our presence (and then we quickly leave and get back to God's Country in cache valley). so as all the crazy cougars made their way north for the big football game we headed to their turf for pretty darn good reason if you ask me.

you see at the young age of 19 my amazing farm boy slash husband devoted two years of his life to spreading the gospel in the san bernadino area of california. in the church of jesus christ of latter-day saints it is often called serving a mission and many young men and women leave their home every year to completely give of themselves to the Lord. actually in our church conference this past weekend it was reported that the number of missionaries serving is currently 80,333 compared to 58,500 just one year ago. how incredible and exciting! for the duration of their mission they are wholeheartedly focused on spreading the word of the Lord with no contact with friends or families other than letters, emails, and two phone calls a year (those calls always happen on mothers day, and christmas day). men serve for two years, while women serve for 18 months. this past friday was farm boy's mission renunion. it was the first one he has ever attended and i'm so glad he went and that i got to go along of course.

farm boy served his two year mission from may of 2008 to may 2010, and only says the best about his experiences from those two years. him and i didn't meet until the spring of 2011, which means i wasn't around close to his mission days, but i have heard so so much in the past two and half years. i love love love to hear all about his experiences walking through the streets of cali, eating so much authentic hispanic food he thought he would die, and preaching the true gospel in what he calls the "celestial" language of spanish. he goes on to tell me all about the crazy times he had serving with other young men, but his eyes really light up when he is telling all the details of the amazing people he met. he has nothing but absolute love and adoration for those people of the san bernadino mission, and i love to hear him reminisce about it all.

he often says that serving his mission was the best decision he ever made (besides marrying me, of course), and i will have to agree with him. his mission is not only the best experiences of his life, but i know that is the best addition to our lives as well as our children.

i have been lucky enough to meet some the amazing people from his mission by returning to the san bernadino area with him, which is a whole another post in and of itself, but this past weekend i was able to meet his mission president and fellow missionaries from those two years. the mission itself was casual and low key with local hispanic food, a pinata and a get to know you game for the dates/spouses. i played along with all of the above (especially the food of course), after a little encouragement from sister sanchez (mission president's wife) for the pinata and game. the pinata was much tougher than i imagined and i had not luck, but the young feisty children did. i gladly joined in grabbing the scattered pieces of candy on the floor though. i can never turn down sugar in any form.

while i was worried about grabbing candy to satisfy my sweet tooth, farm boy enjoyed reminicsing with all his buddies about their good ole days in their slang title of "san b". they hooped. they hollered. they asked how so-and-so was, and when they had been back to the mission last. and at the end of the night everyone parted their ways, but what a great night is was to remember the past, catch up on the present, and look towards the future of not only the missionaries that were there, but also all the people back in san b that have been touched by such humble, selfless and dedicated men and women.

and what deep deep love i have for this nineteen year old boy that spent two years of his life to serve the Lord and truly fell in love with the hispanic people of southern california. his face lit up all night friday while he relived the days of san b with his close mission friends, and i couldn't help but light up with excitement, love, and laughter as well.

that fun filled friday night was just the start to a spectacular weekend. we made the long drive home that night and got a good nights sleep before heading to preston the next morning. saturday and sunday consisted of watching our church conference that was nothing short of amazing and i hope to pick out my favorite parts to show on this here blog. when the conference wasn't airing we were cooking up delicious meals, running or walking around the beautiful country side of idaho, and just spending time with farm boy's little brother. oh, and we fit in a pumpkin pie shake from big j's, preston's local fast food joint. i was skeptical at first, but man it was just another great addition to our weekend.

it's hump day already and the weekend is fast approaching. can't wait for another fun weekend with the farm boy!

alas! the day of change

"alas" seems like such a funny word when you think about it, but it was the first word that came to my mind when i thought of this post. so attention everyone...big news! i actually gotten myself out of bed early this past week and completed some workouts! yeah buddy! (that's my favorite saying when i get all happy...it may or may not appear on this blog frequently.)

to be honest i first wake up most morning at 3:50 am. yep i said that right 3:50 am. don't all wives wake up at this time to take their husband to work? nope? i guess it's just me because i'm crazy in love with that boy, and if he asks i can't possibly say no (and he knows that).

once he is dropped off at work i get home and jump right back in bed, and usually never want to wake back up. i finally found some determination and will power though and have woke up with enough time to work out in the mornings which is so much nicer than exercising after work when all i want to do is cook dinner and hang out with my farm boy. him and i have enjoyed some great evening runs together lately though. i absolutely love just getting outside and enjoying the fresh air with him! hopefully cache valley will keep the cool weather around a little longer so we can keep spending great quality time outside together.

and all these runs have another great reasoning behind them! somehow my farm boy has gotten the itch to become and runner. and he isn't aiming small when it comes to his goals. he has his eyes set on running a marathon! i was a crazy person once and ran the top of utah marathon last year in september, with barely any training at all.

farm boy wants to do it right though so we are going to keep running and over time work our way up to a marathon. our first rung in the marathon climbing ladder is a 5K and what better time to do a 5K than on thanksgiving day when they are commonly called a turkey trot. 

and it is official! we are running the holiday turkey trot in smithfield this thanksgiving day! let the training begin!

farm boy's big 2-4 celebration

way back on may 17th of this year, my favorite farm boy turned the big 2-4!

don't let the young stud in him fool you, he is starting to get up there in age now. i mean he is almost half way to 50. ouch! the giant chocolate shake he is enjoying below was our way of "celebrating" his birthday after a day of working on the hog farms (which is a whole another story for some other time). we had actually drove 45 minutes to the "big city" of cedar city to run errands, but all the birthday boy wanted was to eat his birthday dinner at beaver's local little town diner, el bambi. and i do not blame him one bit, because they cook up some amazing comfort food, diner style of course. 

and that my friends was the extent of our celebration...until the end of july when we could finally enjoy the birthday gift i had bought for him way back in march.

jason aldean is one of our favorite country singers, so when i heard he was coming to salt lake, i knew it was the perfect surprise birthday gift for my farm boy. 

it was quite the show with not only jason aldean, but his opening acts thomas rhett and jake owen. we had heard a few songs by thomas rhett, but loved him so much more live. he was a great opening act! we loved the entire show, especially since jason aldean played his song flyover states, which includes some great shout outs to indiana. who wouldn't love that!

happy belated birthday to my favorite farm boy, and my best friend. hopefully we can celebrate your quarter century birthday even bigger next year!

30 minute drive turned 2 hour

farm boy and i are quite the country loving couple. we would much rather go visit a dairy farm together than go spend a night hanging in the city. don't get me wrong we love a good night of eating out and catching a movie, but some of the best times we have together are when we just cruise around the back roads.

we made a quick trip to preston, idaho (cody's homeland) sunday to watch his cousin open her mission call, and i say quick because it is only a 30 minute drive from where we live in logan, utah. once the celebration was over, farm boy and i headed back to logan. he decided to take a few back roads (quite a few actually since he didn't exactly know the correct roads to take) and show me a local elk farm they have in preston. so neat! they raise elk there and then move them onto their hunting property for trophy hunts. i had never seen one before and always enjoy seeing any kind of farming or agricultural operations. (and of course i didn't take any pictures!)

we continued our journey back to logan by taking as many back roads as possible which i loved! giant fields of grain, open pasture of cows, and farm equipment everywhere is my idea of heaven. and as we cruised around sunday night admiring the beauty we came across several hoop barns on a farm. and typical of us we debated what was in them. i suggested hogs especially after we noticed a small hog barn right next door to several of the hoop barns...farm boy was skeptical though. so i suggested he pull over and i would run over to the nearest barn and put the debate to rest. it seemed like a very logical idea to me, but farm boy had an even better one. he pulled right up to the house and knocked on the front door.

yep, that's him just chatting it up with the hog farmer and his son (and yes, i said hog farmer! my assumption was correct). 

after their good chat about the hog industry we continued our way home. and although it may seem mundane or odd to some people, i loved every minute of our drive home. farm boy and i sure do miss the country, but we keep reminding ourselves that our short 8 months here in logan is necessary if we want to spend the rest of our lives together in the agriculture industry. until then we will keep taking the long way home and talk about all the big dreams we hold so dear to us. 

farm boy's hidden talent

every wife loves to brag about their amazing husband. i always thought it was a little too mushy for me, until i got engaged, and all the mushy posts began. i mean, how could i not gush about the wonderful man i call my husband?!?

                            

so what caused this somewhat mushy post you ask? well my hunk of a husband is not only a cute goofball, but he is an amazing singer! and i love love love to listen to him sing all kinds of country songs. he is often bashful about showing the world his talent, but today he actually posted a video on facebook for all his friends to see. and as his loving caring wife i decided to broaden the audience a little and post a link to it here on the blog for all to see.

so please check it out here, encourage him a bit, because he clearly needs to be doing this more often.

i sure do love my farm boy :)

my attempt at keeping everyone in touch

so here i go again....trying this whole blogging thing one more time.

this time it's not just my boring old life but my married boring old life! yep that's right if you know me at all then you know i got married to my best friend over four months ago already!

this is me and my farm boy right after we were married in the idaho falls temple on may 3rd.

                                              

yep, that's a chocolate milk toast you see! we dairy loving kids don't mess around.

it has been a crazy four months since we got married (i just happened to graduate from college the day after we were married), and with this blog i am hopefully going to recount it all, while also keeping everyone up to date and keeping a "journal" of our lives together.

here's a little sneak peak of what we've been up to:
                     
(i just scanned fb for pictures from our summer and only found these...i need to get better at this picture taking thing, if not this blog is going to be very plain! wish me luck!)