Gone, But Never Forgotten.

This week has been a sad week for us. While I have thoroughly enjoyed being home in Kentucky with my family this week, I have missed being with my husband, especially this week. Monday May the 16th marked 14 years since Dallas's mom had passed away from cancer. Even though I never got to meet Deanne, my heart still breaks for Dallas and his dad, who have spent the last 14 years with out her. I have heard many stories about her and just from that I know she was an exceptional woman. Dallas was 10 and Denton was 7 when she passed. Dwight, Dallas's dad, did an amazing job devoting all his time and energy to those two boys trying to keep their life as normal as possible. Then Wednesday, May 18th, marked two years since Denton, Dallas's younger brother, passed away. And boy do we miss him. Some days I still don't believe it, maybe because I don't want to. Sometimes I catch myself just tricking myself into thinking he's just away at college and he'll come back. But I know in the bottom of my heart I won't see him again until the good Lord calls me home. The day before Denton was killed in that car wreck he had made 3 CD's for me to take home for the summer and I gave him a hug and told him I'd miss him. When I said it I didn't realize the meaning of how much I'd miss him. I meant it just for the summer, but now I realize I meant it a lot more than I knew. I remember what he had on and his goofy smile. That night I texted him to make sure he had made it back to Alva safe. I get that from my mom, being motherly to both Dallas and Denton, we always checked in with each other. He told me he was there and in bed, told me sweet dreams and good night. The next morning I got a phone call at 7am from a friend telling me there had been a wreck and she was positive it was Denton. He had fallen asleep at the wheel at around 4am. He stopped to see some friends on his back back to school and left a lot later then he had planned. I look back and wonder why he told me he was already home, I'm sure it was just because he didn't want me to worry. Either way I know there was a reason for it. God doesn't make mistakes. Denton missed his mom so much, sometimes him and I would set and talk about her, he'd tell me all about her and tell me how he missed her. I know he's with her now and couldn't be happier. Dallas and I have his saddle setting on a saddle stand in our living room on display. Sometimes I set in the living room and think how unfair it is and how I feel like we've been robbed. But I know he wouldn't want us to feel that way. I know that one day when Dallas and I have children we'll set them up on that saddle and tell them all about their uncle Denton and their grandma too....


"..and he flew up to heaven on the wings of angels, where the clouds and stars and passed are, where no one sees, and he walks with Jesus and his loved ones waiting, and i know hes up there sayin, dont worry bout me..."

Me & Denton
Right before the Stoney Larue Concert

Brothers

Graduation

Finally, the day I had been waiting for was here! Graduation!!! I was soooo excited to finally put on my cap and gown and walk across that stage to receive that empty diploma folder! haha. Yes, the folder was empty, but it was still a good day! The school mails the diplomas, and since our respiratory therapy class has to do an 8 week critical care rotation in Lubbock this summer, we wont actually get our diplomas until July 31st. But, graduation still meant a lot to us. It meant we actually made it! We started the program off with 24 Respiratory Therapy students, and saturaday, there were only 11 Respiratory Students in the program to graduate. This meant we were one of the 11 students that set through all the long classes, took the aweful tests, and drove a million miles to clinicals every week. We had made it through all of that, and that was exciting enough! I can remember two years ago setting in class thinking to myself how in the world am I ever going to make it through this! It seemed near to impossible! But, I made it!!! And it probably has to do a lot with my clinical partner. If it weren't for her, I dont know how in the world I'd made it through all the the getting up at 2am to drive over 3 hours away to work for free for the day, and the tests that nobody ever made an A on. We kept each other motivated and we made it!!! So maybe we didn't get out diplomas just yet, but, we're done with the class work that we thought would never end! We passed our classes and now we'll pack our bags and head to Lubbock Texas for 2 months! And then WE ARE DONE WITH SCHOOL and we can TAKE OUR BOARDS! and thats exciting!

Abbey & I
Clinical Partners!

Dallas & I before graduation!

Me at my seat at Graduation!



Getting my diploma!



Dwight, my father-in-law, me, and Dallas :)

My Dad, me, and My Mom!!!

Atomic Bowling

My parents came out on thursday for my graduation which was on saturday. I love when my parents get to come out to stay with us. My dad always enjoys getting to shoot prarrie dogs and whatever else he can find that we don't have back home. And my mom, well, I usually put her to work cooking, cleaning, and ironing!!! She just does such a great job at it! haha! But we always all have a great time! Friday night we decided to go bowling, none of us had been bowling in years! We invited Kyle and Sam (which are like a hair short from being professional bowlers or something!) and went to "Atomic Bowling". Atomic Bowling is every Friday night, they have the lights off with black lights on and loud music! its $12 a person for shoe and lane rental for all you can bowl from 9pm-midnight. It was already almost 10 when we got there, we just wanted to bowl 2 games but since it was Atmoic Bowling night you had to just do the $12. We got two lanes and did the guys vs the girls. And I got smoked every time!!! Aparently there is like some special form you're supposed to do when you bowl and I definately didnt have it going on!! But we had a lot of fun and ended up bowling until almost midnight!!!

 Sam's form.

Kyles mad bowling skills.

Kyle, Dallas, and my Dad.
(No, my dad doesn't usually wear his hat backwards!!!!)

My mom's intese form.

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And then theres me.
where I got these moves..... no tellin.

Flood or Fire?

Yesterday was a hectic day for Dallas and I.

        Dallas recieved a phone call from the sherrifs office letting him know that there was a wild fire burning right beside our pasture and that they were sending fire trucks out there but he should probably head that way just in case. Well, before he could even step foot in his truck his phone started ringing again. The fire had crossed over to our pasture. Dallas was already headed that way and called me, so I got in the car and headed out there. This is what I saw as I got about 10 miles from the pasture:

My heart was pounding driving the rest of the way there. All of our cows have recently calved so there were there cows plus the baby calves out there, and three of our horses. But the thing I was most concerned about was Calf #2. She's a little heifer calf that has recently been crippled. She's doing okay but she doesnt get around as good as the other calves and she cant run. So in my mind I'm picturing this sweet baby calf struggling to get away from the fire. Thankfully my husband knows me well enough and has a wonderful heart :) One of the guys that called him about the fire got there before he did and called Dallas back to see what needed to be done. Dallas made sure to tell him about #2 and to make sure she didnt get left behind! What a great husband! By the time I got there Dallas was helping put out some smaller fires and there were 6 fire trucks taking care of the big fire. The cows were moved and pinned up and safe! I moved the horses to get them out of the smoke and they were okay too. we were really lucky. It could have been so much worse. I'm not sure how much in total was burned, but our pasture alone was 110 acres and its all burned. I had never experienced wild fires until this spring, but never first hand until yesterday. We have only had an inch of rain since last fall. This makes it so dry that any little thing can cause a fire. Then the wind blows 60mph and it spreads like crazy. The night before our pasture burned 22,000 acres burned about an hour from here. Yes, I said twenty two thousand. Thats insane.
Then I call my mom and they've had so much rain its flooded. Everything is underwater. She said they were closing the flood gates around the town I'm from. Thats crazy. Her and my dad are coming out to my graduation next saturday, I told her to start filling up buckets! haha!

Fire truck keeping the fire down

This is what used to be our pasture....

Dog Days..

Well, yesterday you caught a glipse of whats going on in our life, today I'm going to introduce you to two very important things in our life, Meeka & Bella.

Meeka is almost 4 years old and she is a rare breed of mut! I found her in a parking lot in the winter time in a card board box. How could I not take her home! And when I say home, I mean, I lived in the dorms and Dallas had an apartment which had a no pet policy. So... by day we hid her at Dallas's apartment and by night I smuggled her into my dorm room. The following summer she some how managed to get in the road and was hit by a bucket truck and basically pronounced dead at the scene. Hours later my dad found her to burry her and found that shes alive!!! But just barely. Several broken bones and surgeries later she came home and has been a miracle every since!

Bella is a two year old salt and pepper miniature schnauzer. She may be small, but she has an attitude out of this world. Dallas and I went to the pet store to look at a rabbit and came home with her! And of course, a month after we bought her I took her to the vet to find out that she was born with an enlarged heart. Of course she was. So a couple vet bills later we got her on some medicine and shes doing okay now! Her and Meeka get along so good! I can't imagine not having both of them now!

Well those are the house dogs that mean so much to us! I'm sure you'll hear them mentioned a time or two in the future!

While we're on the topic of animals I'll go ahead and introduce you to the other "pets" in our life!

Shy is Dallas's Border Collie but I don't have a picture of her for some reason!!

This is Molly, she's my mare :)

This is Roxy! This was Denton's Filly.

This is Piper, one of Dallas's mares:

And the cows :)

Troy & Denver are two of our other horses but I couldn't find pictures of them either!!

Catchin' up!

Good Monday Mornin! May the 2nd? Already!?!?
        It seems like time is flying by.. and honestly, I'm excited about that. This is what I've wished for, for quite some time now. Graduation is a week and 5 days away!! I can't even begin to explain to you how much I've looked forward to college graduation! After graduation I'll spend the summer in Lubbock Texas to finish up clinicals.... Okay, Rewind! This is probably going to be the longest blog everrrrr!
      Catchin you up to speed #1. I am from small town Kentucky, born and raised, and my roots run deep :)  I grew up on a farm with two older brothers and the best parents I could have ever wished for. After finishing my freshman year at college at Western Kentucky University, a friend and I decided to venture west... We ended up in Alva Oklahoma at Northwestern Oklahoma State University. This is where I met Dallas.
     #2. Dallas. Dallas is from even smaller town southwest Kansas. He grew up on a ranch with his dad and younger brother Denton. His mom passed away from cancer when he was in elementary school, after that his dad devoted all his time to him and his brother, taking them to rodeos, football, and basketball games. After high school he went to school for a year at Conners State in Eastern Oklahoma. From there he went to Northwestern Oklahoma State in Alva Oklahoma to persue a degree in Ag Business. After his brother graduated he also moved to Alva to go to school where Dallas and him shared an apartment.
     #3. Dating. Dallas and I hit it off from the beginning... and that was that!!!
     #4. All the things before, after, and inbetween... Come spring of 2009 Dallas was about to graduate college and wasnt really sure where he'd go from there. I had just decided to change my major to respiratory therapy and Alva didnt offer that so I was looking to move back home and finish school there. Dallas was interested in getting his masters so he thought it might be fun to move back to kentucky to finish up school too! Well, his dad was diagnosed with cancer that march. This made me stop and think, maybe now isnt a good time for Dallas to up and move. We decided to wait to see how his surgeries went and go from there. We were up in the air on the decision come graduation time. A week after Dallas's graduation, his younger brother, Denton, was killed in a motor vehicle accident. Needless to say, now was not a good time to move. I looked at schools close to where Dallas's dad lived and found a respiratory school in Liberal Kansas.
     #5. Moving to Liberal Kansas. Fall 2009 I moved to Liberal Kansas, where the wind always blows and it never rains. But none the less, there I was, 800+ miles away from home. I wasn't too found of the move and had never been homesick until that point in my life. But I knew it was the right thing to do. Dallas got a job in Liberal that summer working for Conestoga Energy. Its an ethanol plant that takes the biproduct of ethanol(grains) and turning it into a feed source for cattle. Its called distillers grain, thats what he sells to feedyards in this area. I started school in the fall for respiratory and loved it!
     #6. Engagement!! October 7th 2009 was not only my 21st birthday... but the day Dallas asked me to marry him! It was quite the birthday surprise!! Also- right before our engagement, my oldest brother, Nathan, proposed to his girlfriend!

     #7. Wedding Fever!! Nathan and Jasmine got married May 22nd 2010! It was a beautiful outside wedding! Our wedding date was July 10th 2010. I told Dallas if he can remember the numbers 7 & 10 for the rest of his life he'll be fine! (7-10 our annivesary, 10-7 my birthday!) After our wedding we honeymooned in Negril, Jamacia. Needless to say, you wouldn't have to twist my arm to make me go back !!! It was gorgeous!!!!

     #8.  So here we are!! Still living in Liberal, Kansas. Dallas is still working for Conestoga and my graduation is less than two weeks away! After graduation I'll spend 8 weeks in Lubbock Texas, working for free :) (that smile was sarcastic!) I'll work three 12 hour days each week at University Medical Center and Covenant Hospital. Working for free and being 6 hours from Dallas for most of the the summer isn't what a dream summer looks like, but I'm honestly kind of excited! I'll get some amazing experience in a Level One Trauma Center and a Level 3 C Neonatal Intensive Care Unit. This is what I've been dying to do through out the last couple years! I love critical care and thats all I'll be doing this summer! I dream about being a NICU therapist and being on the neonatal transport team! So hopefully this experience this summer will help me get my foot in the door! Next on the list, applying for jobs...

     So... thats all for now! Hope I was able to catch up on most of the important things... I'll fill in the cracks in the next couple of days!

                           ...Dont let your hearts be troubled. Trust in God, and trust also in me. John 14:1

Here goes nuthin!

      Many of my friends have started blogging and I've always enjoyed reading them and keeping up with them through thier blogs, I just never decided to start one of my own, until today!

Since moving 800 miles away, people are always telling me how hard it is to keep up with me or want to know what state I live in now and where I'm going next. No, I'm not quite a gypsy, but close :) 

Over the next few days I'll play catch up and get you up to speed on the life that Dallas and I share and the fun and chaotic, but simple things that go on in our life.
                       Enjoy!