Before I gallivant on telling you about our Christmas highlights, I would like to share some pre-Christmas moments. Earlier, I mentioned how we traveled to Pierre (the capitol of SD, for those who don't know) to meet up with my fiance's parents and see all the beautiful Christmas trees decorated at the Capitol. We went specifically because some trees that stand so precious with many meanings are donated. Well, small town Bristol (where my honey is from) had a tree placed and our family photo was hanging so brightly. Pictures will make you feel you were there!


Also, I mentioned how I put on my first cookie exchange. Just a few girls and I gathered to taste cookies, pack on a few calories, and share our goodies. This was truly a fun event for me since I don't know many people in this small town.

Okay enough with my updates, I'll get to the juicy stuff! First, I just want to mention I can't believe that Christmas is already over. I just remember thinking on Dec. 1 that Christmas was so far away and I didn't have to fret on my gift shopping because that was all accomplished on Black Friday. This Christmas was truly amazing for us. We ended up making all three family Christmases!

Our adventures started in MN where I'm originally from. I grew up on a farm and I enjoy going back when I can. When we reached our destination, boy, oh boy was there snow. Mounds of snow just filled my parent's yard. While our stay was busy due to wedding planning, I was able to capture a few pictures of our snow-covered Simmental cattle.

After a couple days with my family, we headed back to SD where we spent a couple of hours with Dustin's dad's family and then hit the road to his mom's home. Now before I left for our holiday adventures, I blogged about heading to the frozen tundra. I wasn't joking about it either--when we left to come home on Sunday, the temperatures where in the negatives and the wind wasn't so nice. To note, when we got past Pierre, our car told us it was 30 degrees, HEAT WAVE!


So after much rambling, I ponder what 2011 will bring us. We have so much to look forward to. I'll continue to be busy with work while traveling and writing article. As well as putting finishing touches on our wedding plans, as that is only 6 months away. As I sign off for the night, we would like to wish you and your families a prosperous New Year!

I'm very excited for this day and of all things, it's Tuesday. Now who would be very excited on a Tuesday? I AM! The reason why is (drum roll, please!), I'm heading home and get to spend time with all my families, that includes my soon to be families too!

There is something about that holidays that just give me the warm fuzzies! Usually, I'm in frantic mode because I still need to get gifts. Not the case this year, I fortunately got all my shopping done on Black Friday which is a first for me! I love the holidays because it allows us to spend time with families, especially now since I live 8 hours away.

I don't have a favorite Christmas memory because I think they all have a special meaning. The one Christmas-related story that I enjoy the most is listening to my mom explain to people when I was a kiddo and we went to take Christmas photos. Let's just say I didn't want anything to do with someone taking my picture so I ripped down the photographer's backdrop AND I wasn't put on the naughty list either!

So anyways, I'm going to keep this brief. I'll be back to post pictures from the wonderful cookie exchange on Saturday as well as Christmas at the Capitol hopefully tomorrow! If you don't hear from in a week or so, I froze to death in MN! Have a wonderful Christmas with all your families!

So it has been a couple weeks since I last posted and I thought since I've been crazy, I'll make time in my evening and stop listening to Christmas music 24/7 to informing you on my madness!

Honestly you won't believe what I've been doing besides working and finding wonderful people to interview for articles at work. I've been baking, imagine that! Haha!

No really, our house has been filled with yummy smells and between Dustin and I, we have gained at least 20 pounds. He keeps telling me that he's trying to keep his "boyish" figure, and I'm not helping!

Last week, I was occupied by getting Christmas goodies together to give to our new neighbors as well as former. Then I treated my coworkers to a goodies sack also. After finding out who are new neighbors are, we are truly blessed. They are some wonderful people!

Here is what I've been up too...the pictures will tell it all! In my divine goodie baskets, there are gingersnaps, white chocolate covered pretzels, chocolate dipped peanut butter balls, and peanut butter blossoms!

So today, I'm going to speak from a different angle today. I won't be sharing any recipes or why my house is so dirty or even why the Weather Man lied to me this morning. But anyways, let me get on my way on hoping to make an impact.

Through my whole life, I have been impacted by one thing–agriculture. I have been impacted by agriculture through many different aspects, if it was through the cattle industry and being part of a wonderful cattle organization or through the FFA and 4-H programs. The experience I gained through the many organizations I have been involved has allowed me to have a voice for the best industry–agriculture.

I speak about agriculture today, not only because its my job but there is a meaning. I don't know what spurred the idea to blog about this, but after being somewhat in tuned with social media and hearing how agriculture has impacted many people, I thought I would do my part and share my story.

Agriculture has been the backbone for my family's operation. I love hearing stories how our farm used to be and how my mom showed horses and pigs with much dedication. (That's probably where I got my dedication from!) Or, about how grandpa's parents made a living in agriculture. The information I learned from my family has benefited me, as well as them to educate others about cattle or how crops grow. The people we have told about how a calf is born or what causes bloat and let me tell you, they find a new appreciation for the term agriculture and want to learn more.

To help me share more of my agricultural stories, I just recently applied to received my Masters in Beef Advocacy. It's a free program that after 4-6 weeks of online training, I will be able to serve as an everyday advocate for the beef industry on issues such as animal care, environmental stewardship and the role of beef in healthy diets. I'm very excited to learn more information to help educate others about the beef industry!

Like I said before, I love my social media such as Facebook and Twitter. Twitter has allowed me to connect with other agricultural enthusiasts from afar! One thing that I wish I got more actively involved with and I know I need to do this, is to be a regular on AgChat. The AgChat Foundation is designed to help those who produce food, fuel, fiber and feed to tell agriculture's story from their point of view. Well on Twitter, every Tuesday night they have a chat night where everyone over the nation joins on Twitter to conquer agricultural topics and bounce ideas off one another.

One topic that I was hoping to join, but didn't, was about mentoring in agriculture. A very good topic! Mentoring has been the focal point in my life. I love the mentors that I have and I hope the mentorees that I have feel the same way. I enjoy teaching others about agriculture if its from how to show a lamb (my personal favorite) to a calf being born.

Check out this website for the AgChat discussion on mentoring: http://agchat.org/2010/06/archives.html

Anyways, I hope I was able to shed some light on how agriculture has impacted me. Many people don't know the importance of this wonderful industry and people need to let them know why it is so important. I know that this blog isn't necessarily called for agriculture but trust me, I will be talking about it more as I have been impacted by my fellow ag friends to have a voice and share!

It's only the second day of December and I'm exhausted! I hope everyone had a wonderful Thanksgiving because I had the absolute best Thanksgiving I could ask for.

My grandparents, parents, brother and sister-in-law, and Dustin's dad piled into the house and engulfed a lot of turkey, mashed potatoes, stuffing, and the whole kitten-kaboodle! I was so blessed to have my wonderful grandparents here a couple days before the grand day. I asked my grandma on Thanksgiving, "How in the world did you manage to prepare all this food by yourself?" I was wiped when all the cooking was over with.

With plumped bellies, we somewhat gathered in the TV room, where Dustin and Jay busted out the Wii and played some games. It was a time to laugh and join in conversation like every year, but usually there is more room and we watch a holiday movie where I fall asleep. This should not be a surprise because I'm known to fall asleep during movies!

Instead of joining in the Wii festivities, I mapped out my Black Friday shopping. The week leading to this significant day, I studied up on my Black Friday knowledge since this was my first time going as an adult. When we were kids, my mom would take us the day after Thanksgiving and Christmas. That is something I will not forget. Speaking of this year though, I LOVED my Black Friday shopping experience, however, I was not one of those yahoos that were camping out hours before the store opened. I did wish we would of left earlier because some things that I did want to purchase were sold out. This day will be on my calendar for years to come for sure!

As my grandparents took off on Friday and still left with my parents, brother, and sister-in-law, we spent the night in Rapid City. We did some wine tasting in Hill City and after much debate where to eat, we stayed in Hill City to have supper. A popular restaurant called the Alpine Inn left us standing outside for an hour and half but to listen to music, enjoying roasted chestnuts, and the parade to our surprise. However, when we were called for our seats, we thought we would be browsing over a lavishing menu but to our surprise, they only serve Filet Mignon! It was rather tasty but people talk about their desserts being superb and I will not disagree as I added 2o more pounds to my waste line!


The big highlight of this whole blog is that Dustin and I ended up moving homes in town. I know my family wasn't really thrilled to being moving us when it was their weekend of rest but this transition has been the best. We have much more room and a bigger kitchen. That's the only thing that makes me happy about this house!

Even though its the second day of the month, I have a feeling that this month is going to go by super fast so I better enjoy it as much as I can. A sneak peek in the next couple of blogs will be about Christmas goodies! I'll let you ponder on that thought!

I'm coming to you from a cold and snowy, yet sunny town of Philip! Last night after being home for an hour from our Rapid City shopping excursion, it started to snow. I mean it was snowing, completely white outside! Yes, I'm ready to put up the Christmas tree and start playing Christmas tunes at work but this snow business is way too early.

I made a phone call to my mom this morning says, "Don't worry! We only got three inches! I think you can still make it out here!" I'm really looking forward to having my family visit us and the small, but warming town of Philip. I realized though while walking to work this morning, this town doesn't have snow plows. They use rather larger skidsteers! And, they don't do a very good job of clean the roads in town, let's just say they only do two giant strips down the middle of the road and call it good! The town must be lacking snow removal funding this year, it's just a guess! But, this is what I dealt with this morning!

Besides the snow, there have been a few other things that have happened since I last blogged.

1. I won a turkey through the town drawing!
2. We went shopping in Rapid City.
3. I baked on Saturday, only because we were gone yesterday!
4. Did I mention I won a turkey?!?!

So to elaborate on my list of happenings. Yes, we went to Rapid City yesterday. I THINK I got everything for my Thanksgiving cooking plan. It's going to be a feast! Later last week, I talked over my game plan with Grandma and she informed she was going to buy pies instead of make homemade ones. And, after I got off the phone with her and told Dustin, he had a hard time pondering on the thought of eating store bought pies. So Grandma, I know you are reading this but I'm making semi-homemade pies and you don't need to worry about it!

With us spending money yesterday and Sundays are usually my day to bake, I decided to do it on Saturday. I made pumpkin creme pies. They are ubber delicious! It's like a pumpkin bar with cream cheese frosting but only better. Since Thanksgiving is upon us, I'm going to share my recipe because if you are thinking out of the box this year on desserts, I suggest to bake these.

Recipe: Pumpkin Creme Pies
Ingredients:
FOR CREME PIE:
1 cup Brown Sugar
1 cup Sugar
1 cup Vegetable Oil
1 can Pumpkin (15 Oz.)
2 whole Eggs
1 teaspoon Vanilla Extract
3 cups All-purpose Flour
1 teaspoon Baking Soda
1 teaspoon Baking Powder
1 Tablespoon Cinnamon
1 teaspoon Ground Ginger
½ teaspoons Salt
½ teaspoons Ground Nutmeg
¼ teaspoons Ground Cloves

FOR FILLING:
1 package Cream Cheese Softened (8 Oz.)
1 stick Unsalted Butter, Room Temperature
1 package Powdered Sugar (16 Oz.)
3 drops Vanilla Extract
2 dashes Cinnamon

Directions:
1. Preheat oven to 350 degrees.
2. Pumpkin Creme Pies: Beat together brown sugar, sugar, oil and pumpkin. Add eggs one at time, mixing well after each addition, followed by the vanilla.
3. In a separate bowl, mix together the dry ingredients.
4. Slowly incorporate the dry ingredients into the wet until just combined.
5. Cut 3 inch squares of parchment paper, about 24. Using a pastry bag with a round tip, or a big zip top plastic bag with one corner snipped, squeeze out concentric circles of batter, starting from the middle and working outward until the circles are about 2 inches in diameter. (Note that the squares allow the baker to move the square while keeping the bag in the same spot. Just squeeze for easy circle making!)
6. Transfer each square to a baking sheet. Bake for 11 minutes, or until firm, and cool on a rack.
7. Cream Cheese Filling: Beat together cream cheese and butter. Add powdered sugar, vanilla and cinnamon. Frost flat side of half the pies and top with another piece.
8. Enjoy right away, or chill overnight. These keep very nicely in the fridge for at least a few days.


Anyways, I think that's about it! I hope the weather gets a little bit warmer so we aren't having a completely cold winter. I wouldn't mind it because it would give me a reason to cuddle up with a cup of coffee, or hot coco, or maybe apple cider (depending on the day), and watch Christmas movies! Have a wonderful day and I'll be back soon to tell you something interesting again!

Good evening everyone! I hope you guys have experienced beautiful weather today. For me, not so much! Currently our temperature gauge tells me its 41 degrees out and I don't think it peaked 50 today. It was a chilly one here in Philip!

However, I have something to share with you that warmed me up today and hope to warm your hearts up too. Dustin and I have been together for four years today! It's amazing how the years go by and the laughter, smiles, tears, joys, and arguments we have shared will keep on continuing. Not many realize that we just met out of the blue at a rodeo dance. Now, how fitting is that?

I know it's lame to say that we are having our anniversary but its a date for now that we can share together until we are united in marriage. And I know we have been engaged for a while, but we wouldn't have any other way. I think I would be a basket case if we didn't wait so long. We are still learning to adapt to one another and we'll just keep learning. I think waiting has helped us grow into a unit and sort things how before we convert to being one.

So anyways, Dustin and I very excited to being tying the knot in June after two long years of being in engaged. We have been blessed with such wonderful families who have supported us through these past four years. Let's just say I'm happy to become Mrs. Koepke. I just need to work on my new signature because nothing like Thissen!

To remember the past four years, here is a photo collage of Dustin and I and the many memories we have shared!

Well I hope we have warmed your hearts tonight! I would like to mention that I have had wonderful role models to show me what a true loving relationship is, and that's my parents! I have been fortunate enough to have been brought up in a wonderful family and know the true meaning of love!