While I'm Away

Enjoy a picture of my picturesque surroundings... Evergreen, CO is GORGEOUS place to get married!

Until next time,
~ Buzzard ~

Why My Husband is NOT My Best Friend

This is why we can't be friends.

Disclaimer: Before you read on, please keep in mind that my husband, marriage, friends, family, circumstances and life are all different than yours.  Also, I've been married 3.5 years - those of you who have been married 5, 10 ,15 years or more will probably have a different opinion. So, your spouse/significant other might really be your best friend. I'm just sharing my opinion because, honestly, it's my blog. Thanks for reading and laughing along!

You've seen it in your Facebook newsfeed - a young lady's wedding day is rapidly approaching and she's excited to be showered with attention [that was a downside for me, actually], marrying the one her soul has chosen and generally just having a huge party. So, she continues to declare "I can't wait to marry my best friend!" to all her followers.

No offense to anyone who calls their significant other their best friend but I don't now, nor have I ever, referred to the Ninja as my best friend (If you have proof otherwise, please produce it because it has slipped my mind). I just don't think it's realistic. My opinion may change once I've been married for more than 20 years, but right now I just don't use "best friend forever" to describe the Ninja.

Why have I never called him my best friend? Well, that's easy - he isn't.

Yes - he's insanely smart, [bitter]sweet, supportive and caring. Yes - he listens to me gripe about [insert occasional life-frustration], keeps me grounded, walks with me in Christ and buys dinner most of the time. But that doesn't make him my best friend. Allow me to explain...

My best friends knows stuff about me that the Ninja NEVER will [ladies, zip those lips]. There are just some things I am not ever going to feel comfortable talking to my husband about and there are other things that I just don't think are any of his business. Call me crazy if you must but romance and marriage strife, body image/issues and past relationships/ex-boyfriends are just not great date night conversation topics in my humble opinion.

Communication is just one aspect of a relationship. Another important component is behavior and sometimes my husband's behavior makes me want to, quite honestly, hit him in the groin with a baseball bat. Sometimes, I don't really like him even though I love him more than words can say. Truth. Examples of said behavior:

• After ultrasounding sows all day at the hog farm he comes home, shoves his hand in my face and asks if his hand "smells piggy." Yes, it's been up a pig's butt for eight hours.
• On more than one occasion, he has vaporized on me
• He mispronounces Buzzard on purpose
• He drank my last Dr. Pepper - multiple times

My best friends would never do this - especially that Dr. Pepper one. In the words of Bon Qui Qui "I will cut you."

Lastly, I have built stronger-than-steel bonds with several of these women and ALL of them have been in my life before my husband. He's basically playing catch up. Some of the experiences we've had have formed a lifelong bonds and unfortunately very few of them can be listed on this blog but some safe ones are:

 

• Innumerable rodeo road trips
• Jesus holding some cheese
• A spring break trip to Europe with lifelong lady friends

 

• 21st and 23rd birthday parties in Manhattan, Alva and Durant
• Claremore/Hinton rodeo weekend in 200?
• San Antonio 2010
• NWSS 2010
• Cinco de Drinko Mayo
• And even a bunch of memories from middle and high school

It is for all these reasons that the Ninja can never be my best friend. Don't mistake that for not being a friend, period. Of course he's my friend and he will be by my side until the day I die but it takes more than a ring to make someone a best friend.

OK - I'm prepared for your thoughts and criticisms. Those of you who have been married for longer than the Ninja and I have been, did you feel the same way I did at this point? Am I the only woman who is not best friends with her husband? Again, mad props to you if he is your bff in addition to being your soul mate but such is not the story at the Frobuzz Ranchero.

I leave you with a quote that describes the Ninja and I pretty well.

"You're an ass. You can never make up your mind. You always mock me. I never seem to like you. But all at the same time, I am completely & madly in love with you."

Until next time,
~ Buzzard ~

The Next 101 in 1001

So, earlier this week we examined my inability to do simple math calculations like figuring out the end date for 1001 days. Today, I start the next chapter and get to work on my next 101 in 101. This list will be permanently hosted by the 101 in 1001 tab but I wanted to share it here first. Give it a read - what do you think?

Start date: January 30, 2014
End date: October 26, 2016

Healthy Living
Complete 30-day shred
Workout 3x/week for 3 months
Workout 3x/week for 6 months
Run 10 - 5Ks

Ten more 10Ks - no problem, right?

Run 3 - half marathons (yes, you read that correctly)
Go to the damn dentist
Get Lasik surgery
Give up soda for a month

Spiritual Growth/Paying it Forward and Marriage (because, clearly, these go hand-in-hand)
Tithe 10% of every paycheck for 6 months
Read the Bible from front to back (Old and New Testament) - Sharita showed me this great guide
Attend church regularly for a year (2x per month is regular for us since we're gone so much)
Pray out loud
Pray for strangers
Give until it hurts
Give a homeless person all the cash in my pocket (*note to self: start carrying cash)
Pay for next person's meal
Donate hair to Locks of Love
Read a marriage strengthening book with the Ninja
Finish our engagement, wedding and honeymoon scrapbook
Volunteer in my community 5 times
Donate to the foodbank

Learning New Skills and Trying New Things
Learn the basic of fitting a steer
Learn to change the oil in my truck
Take piano lessons
Teach myself one nice hair up-do for weddings and special occasions
Try 5 new foods
Take an online history course

Nurturing Relationships
Visit 5 [more] friends who don't live in Kansas
Engage in 3 father/daughter activities
Plan 3 mother/daughter things
Attend 5 more of little sister's events
Go out on 10 girl's nights
Go to a concert with little brother
Plan a tailgate
Host a dinner party
Write 20 thank you notes (handwritten)
Friendship photoshoot - rock the dress, KSU pride
Send Christmas cards at least one year

Domestication and DYI
Try one new recipe per week for 8 weeks
Complete two separate full-day sessions of cooking to fill the freezer
Make a perfect omelet (not a scromlet)
Make homemade bread without a bread maker
Learn basic sewing machine skills
Make a set of curtains using the sewing machine
Make some decorative pillows
Refurbish a dresser (or two)
Learn to make Grandma Buzzard's divinity candy, chicken n' noodles and other select recipes
Make and freeze/store my own salsa and red sauce
Plant a garden every year (if location permits)
Create a really cool DYI/craft project from scratch
Make/create 3 Christmas/birthday gifts
Make a cheesecake and an angel food cake from scratch

Financial Improvement
Save 10% of every paycheck for 6 months
Triple the amount of $$ in my 401(k)
Have zero credit card debt
Cut my student loan debt in 1/2
Take the Dave Ramsey finance course with the Ninja
Create a family budget and stick to it - evaluate and adjust after 3 months
Once every six months (for entirety of the 1001 days), complete a no-shopping month

Organized and Decorated Home
Frame and hang B.S. and M.S. degrees (as soon as my M.S. diploma arrives...)
The next time we move, organize and purge unneeded items
Organize and clean office so that it's functional for two people
Buy and hang wedding photos and select Kansas photography for the walls
Hang either a photo collage or cross collage on one of the walls

Adventures
Go whitewater rafting
Go rock climbing, hiking etc
Travel internationally
Go camping
Visit 5 states I've never been to before
Take a yearly family vacation
Meet someone famous
Go to an amusement park
Go pheasant hunting

Motivatated Thinking, Career and Writing/Blogging/Social Media
Write six chapters for my book
Have an article or blog post picked up by Huffington Post or similar outlet
Get a RT from someone famous - Peta doesn't count (been there, done that)
Make a 'Recipes' section on the blog and post 50 recipes
Blog at least once per week for an entire year
Fill a journal

Thanks for the nifty journal, Target. Oh, and of course what's a journal without a purple K-State pen?

Meet 5 social media friends IRL
Get 1,000 likes on Buzzard's Beat Facebook page
Speak on behalf of agriculture 3x
Get Twitter verified

I want that little checkmark

Stuff Just For Me
Read one book per month - revise and update book list to reflect what I've read
Add 10 more books to our library (an actual printed copy)
Buy myself a designer handbag
Create a coffee-table book out of my travel photos
Go to another K-State football bowl game
Check off some more concerts on my old soul music bucket list
Attend the KSU basketball game when they retire Jacob Pullen's jersey
Write myself a letter to open in 5 years
Go vegetarian for two weeks - blog about the exhaustion
Buy a barrel saddle
Finish Friday on the barrels - exhibition and enter at a rodeo

Friday, the soon-to-be barrel horse

Start another young horse on barrels
Get inked
Buy a new [to me] Chevy
Eat mind-blowing steak at 3 premier steakhouses
Beat the Ninja at Scrabble 3 times (this will be a miracle)
Go to an away KSU or Chiefs football game, or away KSU b-ball game or away KSU baseball game
Make a new list when this one expires

 

Do we have any common goals? Am I crazy?

 

Until next time,

~ Buzzard ~

Avoid Eye Contact

This past weekend I got to check and feed cattle with my dad. In the rain. and mud. with no raincoat. on a horse that has two speeds: fast and flying.

and it was downright glorious.

prior to blazing across the pasture

The silent man and his introverted daughter; talking only when necessary and communicating mostly with the wave of an arm to signal "move up", "get around 'em" and "whoa." I enjoyed the entire experience, even when we had to fix a five-strand barbed wire fence that broke because of my poor judgement. oops

Growing up, I made a lot of mistakes. I'm relatively clumsy and I like to ride fast horses - not the best combo when moving heifers. So I learned quickly that if I made a mistake, making eye contact would only bring about the lecture I was going to get much more quickly. Avoid eye contact, prolong the lecture; if only a few minutes.

Head down and shoulders slouched, I got the wire stretchers, pliers and extra roll of wire from the back of the truck.

"Sorry - I didn't mean to."

"It's alright darlin' - I should have told you better."

Not the response I was expecting. No lecture, just understanding.

Make no mistakes, tough love and quick lessons were my childhood. Lessons I wouldn't have learned had I not been able to work on the farm with our 4-H livestock, horses and roping cattle. Lessons that are learned quickly and after only one mistake. You only let the steers get out once before you remember to ALWAYS shut the gate, even though you're only going to be in the lot for a few minutes. Responsibility - check. Additionally, you only get frapped once by a mean-spirited steer before you learn not to stand beside them. Cow-kicking is not a laughing matter, especially when you're seven. Attentiveness - check.

On a highly related note - I'm thankful that the Department of Labor withdrew their proposed regulations regarding children working on the farm. I know that my husband and I can raise our kids on the farm while instilling in them the values that we gleaned from our upbringings. We can throw them on a gentle giant and turn them loose in the arena or pasture to bring up the calves. Send them out the door with a bottle of milk replacer to nurse a new baby. Trust them to drive the feed truck when they're only 12. Memories and lessons, hand-in-hand.

"There is something about the outside of a horse that is good for the inside of a man" - I reckon that's just about right Mr. Churchill. Sometimes what the heart needs is some time in the saddle.

Until next time,
~ Buzzard ~

p.s. Thanks to EVERYONE for the birthday cards, texts, messages, phone calls and tweets. You are all too kind!

also - I'm not a photographer and don't claim to be, but I'm hopelessly addicted to the wonderful things that Instagram can do and that's what I used to take the pictures in this post. I take a lot of pointless pictures that you can see by following me (@brandibuzzard)!

Meeting Fellow Birdies

Also known as tweeps.

It's no secret I'm addicted to Twitter (@brandibuzzard) - I recently said it in an interview with Cattle Network. Through my addiction, I've had the opportunity to 'meet' a lot of great people in the "twitter-verse" but haven't actually met many in real life.

I am excited to say that I finally got to meet one of my fave tweeps on Sunday night. Kelly Rivard - agriculture agvocate and communications extraordinaire - (@kmrivard) had to come to KC for business and decided to visit MHK the weekend before. Kelly, Jodi Oleen (@jodioleen), Sheridan Wimmer (@Sheridan_W) me and a few boys got together Sunday night at Little Apple Brewing Company for beef, beer and fellowship. It was fantastic fun - BONUS: I got to have dinner with Kelly on Monday night at Hibachi Hut. She's uber smart and creative, hilarious and sarcastic - we get along pretty great. It's nice to know there are people out there who think just like me, whether that's appropriate or not isn't up for debate.

The Little Apple Gang:

l-r: Brandon, Jodi, Kelly, Me, Sheridan and Randell

(check out Randell and Sheridan's cute prom pose)  ;)

Everyone in this picture is awesome - even the boys because they put up with our random chatter for a few hours. We all appreciate ag, sarcasm, good food, beer/margaritas and we all love MHK. Tell me if there is a way to be more awesome.

For all you non MHK folk, feel free to hit me up if you visit Kansas!

Until next time,

~ Buzzard ~