When I Grow Up...

Last week Miss R graduated from Kindergarden.

It's a big event in a young person's life and marking it with a party is very appropriate.

Something weird with my computer- but you get the picture

In our small community there is only one class of Kindergarden but Miss R's is a healthy size of 22 busy little people.  Miss Hammond & Miss Ogle have done an amazing job of keeping everyone moving in the same direction and everyone is moving onto 1st grade!

Let me just start off by saying Miss R wore an amazing outfit- I personally think it made it in the TOP 5 on her Kindergarden fashionista list. It had sparkles, flounce and matching flip flops. Plus it was a good hair day.

What really caught my attention at the event was this simple display of each child in Miss R's class holding a sign to complete this sentence:

7 out of the 10 boys in her class want to be farmers.  Wow, I'd say that is a pretty good percentage of future farmers in our community! I was a little surprised at that many kids who see their future in farming but on the other hand -- Proud that so many of our kids see themselves walking in their mom and dad's footsteps to carry on the tradition of raising food.  It would have been fun to dream about being a baseball player,  race car driver, police man, hunter-- all popular boy jobs.  But no, instead they want to be FARMERS! 

I can't wait to see how these kids grow and become their dream. 

Now for Miss R- the sign she is holding-  Ballerina. 

I was surprised by this, since for over a year now she has talked about being a Doctor. She goes into complete detail every time she talks about it; explaining that she wants to help people and make them better. When I questioned her about her profession change she said that she'll "make her final decision when she's 18"

...stay tuned, it could get interesting.

Where I Come From We Rode In Trucks

It’s no secret that I have a crush on Luke Bryan but I also relate with this song. Pickup’s have been an important role in my life. 

I learned to drive on an old Blue Chevy ranch pickup. My dad felt it was absolute must that all ranch girls learn to drive ‘stick’ before leaning automatic. I had to put my foot under the clutch peddle to lift it off the floor and shift with two hands all at the same time.  Oh, and the shifter knob had long been replaced with a cue ball so I really had concentrate to remember what gear I was in. 

Certainly I think my dad did have an alternative motive for teaching me to drive the ranch pickup. There were plenty of times he would make me drive the 1 ton dully with glass packs and sometimes a trailer to high school to run errands for him after school. There was nothing more embarrassing to a girl hiding from her cowgirl legacy then driving that thing to school. Letting off the gas and hearing that BROOOM, BROOOM, BROOOM noise always made me just cringe. 

When I got to college, my sorority sister drove a little pregnant roller skate manual car, I was the only other sister who knew how to drive it and at times when she had too much at the bar and I didn’t, I would drive us home. I was amazed at how much fun it could be to drive a manual...this was not the ranch pickup!   I impressed by many a boy at college with my driving abilities. 

I have to tell you that when I met my Cowboy it was probably his cool pickup that may have sealed the deal with us. I had never dated a boy who drove a pickup and although he didn’t let me drive it, I was still impressed. 

The pickup tradition continues with my children. This spring during breading season the kids spent many an hours entertaining themselves in the back of the truck. This particular day the girls with their cousins were pretending they were in a pirate ship sailing the 7 seas...

Young Mr. Hadrick has the farmer drive already down. He is allowed to move the pickup around the yard from time to time. Look at the casual arm out the window and one hand on the wheel. Must be a dominate gene in the male farmer, this can’t be taught, its natural ability. 

Sometimes we clean our pickups up and take them to town. It’s a common occurrence to see a ranch pickup pulling a float in the 4th of July parade.

We also use the pickup for our office on any given day and sometimes I feel we live in it. Here I’m using it as a prep station for breeding cattle this spring. We are out on the prairire, It may be crude but it gets the work done. 

To this day some of my favorite memories as a child is in that old blue Chevy pickup and there is always a smile on my face when I’m driving my Cowboys 1 ton Dodge pickup and I hear that turbo windup...

One Less Wise Man in the Hadrick House

The animals & Wise Men surrounding the manger. Created by Miss R

Long before I had children I purchased this beautiful hand painted nativity set. The key phrase here was before I had children- as many of you know these words are used by people who have children-in our house it is BC (before children) and AC (after children). Had it been AC, I would have spent the money on something that was kid proof.  But alas, every year I drag out my precious barn and figurines and try to place them where they will be safe. Now, I'm happy that my kids love to touch and play with them but over the years there have been a few tiny fingers broken off and the shepherds hook is a little bit shorter (there are only 2 sheep so he can handle the herd).

Today, there was a major accident occurred just outside the manger. I was passing by the set and noticed that one of the Wise Men had lost his head. I'm not sure how this tragedy happened for sure but I did question the 2 suspects- Miss O and Miss R. They both claimed that they had no idea how it happened. I don't believe them but nevertheless I am one Wise Man down now.  I think he is fixable but I'm not sure he will ever be the same- certainly not going to be leading the charge that is for sure. For now he is in the glue sickbay with the elves I talked about before.