Just a little something to calm the nerves. . .

So I have a job interview today & I am sooo excited. . .& pretty nervous. I'm meeting with a local photographer today. She needs an assistant & even though I'm a longshot (she's probably looking for a design student who has more experience with this), I couldn't not try. So I'm giving it a shot & I hope she's looking for someone with the work ethic & passion that I know I have. So to try & calm my nerves a bit, I decided to post some of my absolute favorite photos that I have taken. . .

(This stands outside Jack Trice Stadium as you leave the field.)

(I took this as a 4-H project. My judge didn't like the sunspots, but I think it adds character.)

(I love the colors of this early morning sunrise over a frosty barnyard. It was therapeutic for my broken heart at the time.)

(Tay-Rae took this one last summer. It was my idea, but I was the only one Diesel would sit beside & stay still.)

Good Old Fashioned Sick Day

Oops, didn't mean to abandon my posts, but spring break was crazy & I've been feeling under the weather for the past couple of days. I spent all day in class, since I couldn't miss it without missing out on much needed points. (It's safe to say that college has definitely screwed my all A's streak. sigh.) but I got out of work tonight & have been catching up on my sleep. I feel better all ready!

Anyway, not much has been going on up here in dreary, rainy Ames so I was listening to my iTunes, resting  when I decided I should dedicate a post to my first love,  music. . .specifically country music.

Oh, how I love the guitars & the twangs, the ball caps & worn out jeans, songs about trucks, lost loves & the sunny days of summer. (Speaking of which, I hope that hurries it's butt up.I have concerts to get to.)

Anyway, crazy music fan that I am, the past 2 summers have been spent roadtripping to various concerts with some of my best friends, especially Sarah Marie. She's been with me to all of them & is my designated concert buddy. Whenever one of us finds one we want to go to we call the other screaming. Seriously, we scream when we're excited. Anyway, we've been to several concerts & every single one have been amazing & have made some pretty amazing memories.

So here's a quick review of my summer concerts:

We got to see Lady Antebellum at the Burlington Steamboat Days & we may have accidentally snuck in as the soundcheck was going on. Yeah, I'm not quite sure how we managed it either, but it was awesome & as good as they sound coming out of the radio they sound just as good in person.

But anyway, they were awesome & I strongly suggest seeing them if you ever get the chance. 

Here I am with my girls Sarah Marie & AllieBeth, right before the dehydration, vomiting & fainting spell. It was a super warm day & it's safe to say we learned our lesson after that. Plenty of water & food before spending hours standing at a crowded concert.

Next up: My main man, Eric Church

So I was a pretty big Eric Church fan before I saw him at the Davis County Fair, but the minute he stepped on stage I was in love.  I listened to him nonstop that summer & by the next year he was filling up stadiums instead of tiny county fair race tracks.But here I am with  Sarah Marie, Tay-Rae & our friend, Kels. We had an amazing time that night & I hope to see Eric again soon!

Now it's time for Easton Corbin. Sigh. 

This cutie sang his way into my heart with a voice that just makes me melt. Too bad he's married, otherwise he would be mine all mine. Anytime I'm feeling a bit blue, this kid cheers me right up & that's all I really need in a man. :)

Sarah Marie & I made a pretty long trip to Southern Illinois to see him, but it was well worth it, even if we did get a little lost in Macomb on our way there, but we made it & it was amazing.

So not long after Easton, we made a short trip to see Justin Moore at the Lee County Fair, well lucky for us, an up & comer Dustin Lynch was opening for him. Dustin had just about the cutest smile I'd ever seen & an amazing voice to match. It won't be long until he's out on mainstream radio, that boy knew how to sing.

& then there was Justin. We waited in pouring rain & mud to see this man & he certainly didn't disappoint. He is a true country boy through & through, from his name on the back of his belt to the fifth of Jack he kept on stage with him. 

Later on, we saw Steel Magnolia at the Davis County Fair, the couple who won Can You Duet? on CMT not long ago. These guys were my favorites on the show & I was so excited when they won. They have amazing chemistry & everytime Megan sang I had to say AWWWW, because of the way Josh looked at her. Needless to say me & my girls had a good time & knew every song, even though the people around us didn't & weren't appreciative of our dancing & singing. It's a concert for God's sake. That's what you're supposed to do. I guess nobody told them. Oh, well.

My last concert of the summer was Jason Aldean at the Iowa State Fair. He was great, but our seats sucked & needless to say we won't be going to concerts at ISF again, unless they're of the free variety.

Lucky K-dawg wasn't even in the country for 24 hours before we took her to see Jason Aldean. She loved every second of it! 

Artists I have to see before I die:1) Miranda Lambert2) Luke Bryan3) Blake Shelton4) Brantley Gilbert5) Jake OwenWe'll have to see how many I can cross off after this summer. :) P.S. Sorry for the janky  format. Apparently blogger wasn't feeling like cooperating.

Spring Babies

Just a quick post, I came home yesterday to start off my spring break. There's no place like home.

It's a beautiful Saturday here in Southeast Iowa, so after running some errands with Mama this morning, I helped Dad put out some hay.

 The light was so gorgeous I decided to grab my camera & get some adorable pictures of the babies.

This little guy already has some attitude. I have several pictures of him posing like this. He was practically begging me to take his picture.

My little heifer, Ruby. Her mama's red & her daddy's black & she just can't seem to decide what color she wants to be.

Tay's been calling this one Big Hoss. He's fairly new, but he's been boss hog out in the pasture. This was as close as I was going to get to him too. This is the one cow that I have serious issues with. She tried to charge me not long after this picture.

The girls enjoying their new bale.

Jordy spoiling our farmdog, Diesel. He's spoiled rotten (that might be my fault), but he's the best cowdog around. He hasn't even been officially trained to herd, but he usually knows what we need him to do.

Usually he's a pretty good model, but he was too excited today.

While we were outside Jordy's cow had a little 83 lb. bull. 

These kinds of lazy days are the best, where I get to just hang out on the farm & watch the babies play with their tails in the air. Hope everyone is having as wonderful a day as I am!

Violet's Lucky Chance- A Story for a Snowy Sunday

Tay-Rae came to stay with me for the weekend on Friday! After church this morning & some lunch we got ready to head out to meet Mama, to get Tay home. Old Man Winter had other ideas though. It's snowing like crazy out there. It just started & we already have 2 inches. 

Is it really March? I'm starting to wonder. . . 

Anyway, this is us, stuck in my dorm for the day. Maybe we'll try again tomorrow. She isn't very happy.

So, last time I promised to tell you the story of this little guy: 

Well, this is my baby boy Chance, more formally known as Violet's Lucky Chance. He's the last calf out of the very first Simmental cow that came to Triple H Simmentals & started it all, Violet.

( I know. I just look adorable in this picture, but she decided to moo in my face. That's my story & I'm sticking to it.)

We bought her from Cason's Pride & Joy Simmentals at the Hawkeye Simmental Heifer Sale the fall of my 5th grade year. I'd already been in 4-H for a year, but both of my parents had shown cattle & they wanted me to give it a try. (Little did they know, they were gonna be in over their heads before long. Daddy didn't know how hard his little girl would fall in love with Simmentals.) So my dad & I headed to the sale barn & picked Violet out. Denny Cason quickly became one of my absolute favorite people in the world & was there whenever we had a question or just needed a little help. 8 years later we still go to him first to buy our heifers & bulls. I'm sure you'll here more on him, later.

That first year I showed Violet at our local fair & took her to another local show. Then at the end of the summer we took her home to the pasture to help start off our Simmental herd.  

Fast forward 7 years to the winter of my senior year of high school. A couple of days before Christmas, Violet went lame in the feedlot. Dad called out the vet, who said she was just low on energy & we needed to get her to the barn, where we could feed her on her own & give her some propylene glycol, which would help get her energy level up. Sadly, Violet never got back up. Around the middle of January, I told my mom that we had a decision to make. Violet was deteriorating fast & she was in pain. We knew she was pregnant, we just didn't know how far along. The vet said that if she was within 30 days of her due date, we had a pretty good chance of saving the calf. So a couple of nights later, on Tuesday, January 18th, the vet came out, quickly put Violet down & performed a C-Section to pull out the 80 lb. bull calf. 

We quickly fed him colostrum replacer (colostrum is the first milk a calf gets from it's mother that has important nutrients & antibodies to help protect the calf from disease at the beginning of it's life.) & dried him off. He was premature, we figured about 2 weeks. His hooves (which are the last part of a calf to form in the uterus) were fully formed & he had all his hair. However, he wasn't able to regulate his own body temperature, he wasn't able to suck the bottle on his own & when he tried to get up, it was like his legs were too stiff, so he had to have a bit of help.

Chance lived in our laundry room the first week of his life. I fed him every 6 hours & since he couldn't suck the bottle we would have to put a tube down his esophagus to get the milk to his stomach. Every day, he started to fight the tube a little more.  Finally, when I fed him after school on Friday, he was able to drink an entire bottle without being tubed. I was so excited that I called Mama at work!

The next day, we set Chance up in his own little corner of the barn & within 2 days he was walking on his own, bucking & kicking & playing like a normal calf. This is my baby a couple days after we moved him to the barn:

When he was 6 months old, I took Chance to the fair as a bucket-bottle calf, where he won his class, then was named the Bucket-Bottle Calf Champion.

Now, he's back on the farm. Dad & I talked it over & decided that he would be staying a little bit longer. This spring we're planning on selling his daddy, our old bull & pretty soon Chance will take his place as the head of the herd.

 Well, I think that's it, folks. I better get back to my homework. Tomorrow is Monday, after all, plus I think Tay-Rae needs a little entertaining. She's complaining about being bored. Oh, well. Such is life. 

I'll leave you with this pretty picture of a summer sunset at home. Should be here before we know it! (Hopefully!)

See you later, y'all!

The Lowdown. . .

Hey y'all! So here it is my very first post so please excuse me if I get a little carried away (which I have a tendency to do).

So my name is Brooke (that's me in the top corner!) & I'm currently a freshman studying Ag Communications at Iowa State. I was born & raised on a small acreage owned by my parents where they have survived the rearing of 3 stubborn, high-strung girls. I happen to be the oldest & if you ask me the wisest. Just don't ask the other 2 (Tay-Rae & Baby Sister), they might disagree. 

This summer we welcomed K-dawg, a Norwegian foreign exchange student into our home & it's been one hell of a ride since then. We're going to be sad to see her go this summer. (Oh, & that's Sarah Marie on the right. She's a family friend & during the summers, she's another sister.)

Like I said, I am enrolled at Iowa State & I am loving every minute of it. (Except for the dorms which I'm sure you'll get more on later.) While here, I met my twin, DJ. She just so happens to be my roommate & now one of my best friends. (Yes, that's Tay-Rae in the background trying to eat my head)

I come from a big family & all of us (except a few traitors) are HUGE Cyclone fans. GO STATE!

This is a few of us tailgating on a FREEZING November morning. Tailgating since 7 AM, now that's dedication.

I also grew up with as a 3rd generation 4-Her. I was actively involved with 4-H for the past 9 years & this year I was crowned the 2011 Wapello County Expo Queen. This is right after my hometown's big parade this fall.

So basically, I'm just a farm girl stuck in a big city.

I plan on sharing my ups & downs, the homesickness, the bad grades, the great memories, but with a little country flair. I can't stray from my roots after all, it's in my blood. 

Well, I guess that's about it. I'll leave with this photo of my bucket-bottle baby, Chance. My sisters did this at my graduation party in May & he of course loved all of the attention. He's a spoiled little boy. Stay tuned for the next post where I will talk more about my baby boy.

 Night, y'all!