Hello everyone! I know, I know, it's been some time! I just got back from a road trip, a rather long one! I was in Iowa, and I know why they call it the corn capital of the world! I attended the National Junior Simmental Classic in Des Monies. It was a lot of fun being their and capturing moments for work. I was able to reunite with old cattle friends that I haven't seen in five years. While I was down there working, I did a few assignments. One consisted of going to a restaurant and eating. Don't you love your job when you can do that? I wrote a review for the Cattle Business Weekly on Rube's Steaks...look for it in the Aug. 4 issue! It was mighty delicious!

So after my couple of days in Iowa, I headed north to my home state, Minnesota. It was a good feeling being back. I saw the lambs, pigs, and calves! An important detail that I took care of while being at home was my mom and I conquered dress shopping once again. Let's just say, we had a successful day! It was fun to have some girls time! Besides that, I got to see friends and experience a storm, well not really but rain for the first time since a month!

While being at home, I got to see my grandparents, you know them, the garden wizards! Right before church I made a visit and my grandpa had to show me his garden, while in the back of mine I was thinking what mine looked like. I'm so jealous of my grandpa. He even has WATERMELON growing out of a pot! I did learn something from him though...ever heard of potting everything? Well that's what I'm going to do next year...no more weeds! But I'm impressed with my grandpa's achievements!

Now that leads me to my own garden! Since I've been gone for five days, my wonderful love, Dustin took care of everything, even weeded a section! Anyways, I mentioned about the grasshoppers last time...I was crushed when I visited my garden this morning and I have nothing left of my bean plants. :( However, Dustin sprinkled this "Seven" stuff on the garden and I didn't see anything so maybe with a little MircleGro they'll come back! Fingers crossed!

Well, that's my update for now. I'm back on the road tomorrow for a work field trip and then onto Sioux Falls on Sunday. Doesn't my schedule sound like May? I think so! I'll be back to update again...hopefully soon again!

Greetings fellow readers! I have probably lost all of you now. I know its been over a week since my last post. Don't worry, I've gotten harassing phone calls from my family wondering about my existence! The reason: at work they tell me that this is the slow time of the year. I think filled me with a lot of nonsense...I'm extremely busy! So here is my load-down, brace yourself with a lot of ramblings!

Since my last post, Dustin and I were debating on what to do over the 4th of July weekend. Well we made an appearance at his hometown, in small town Bristol. A couple of his buddies were home that he hasn't seen for awhile, so it was just a given we would drive there. Funny thing, since we haven't been on the road for about a month, it was weird getting into our new car again and taking off! It was a fun time like usual and being with family was a blast!

Once our arrival to home, our yard need desperate help! With our lawnmower being out of commission for awhile, we finally got it back in ship-shape order to create our yard into a masterpiece...well not really! My garden is doing wonderful! I'm not sure if I have told you this already but I finally bucked up and pulled an onion out of the ground. It was just a tiny little thing! The cucumbers and beans should start producing some goodies soon, hopefully!

One thing that is driving me nuts about nature at the moment is....those dang grasshoppers. I didn't know that grasshoppers loved South Dakota so much. They cover the front of the house like crazy. I just got new flowers for my basket and I hope they don't kill them because I hear rumors that's what they do. I'm done ranting about them now!

Before I leave, I should let you beloved readers know that I'll be hitting the road for work now so I'll try to keep up with my blogging. Next week, I'll be driving to the corn country, Iowa to capture the National Junior Simmental Classic moments. I'm excited to see all my Simmental friends again! From there, the company is taking a field trip to visit the companies that print our weekly paper in Watertown and annual magazine in Aberdeen. Then after being home for a couple days, I'll be conquering the big city of Sioux Falls (haha!) for the Young Guns conference that is put on my the American Simmental and Red Angus Associations. I'm stinkin' excited for all this traveling! So if you want me to call you, let me know--I'll be up for a good chat while driving across the state by myself!

Well anyways, I think I've taken up much of your time now! I better get back to fun things, like thinking about what I'm going to cook or bake next! Yay! It's my favorite thing to do! Next time, I won't leave you high and dry so I'll post again sometime soon! Toodles!