Rock it

Haven't put any songs on here in awhile, but these are a couple i'm liking today. (honestly I could probably put about 10 on here, but here's 3.)


It is what it is, Lifehouse--
Buy it. Listen to it. Love it. You won’t regret it. (Mellow and awesome)

Little House—Amanda Seyfriend
This girls not messing around, she can really sing. (A little sad, almost haunting)

Baby--Justin Beiber
Yes, I realize he’s 14. I held out for as long as I could without jumping on this band-wagon, but let’s be honest, this little guy sings like an angel. I got sucked in… “baby, baby, baby no… baby, baby, baby no…” (Good clean, bubble-gum-pop fun)

Anne Says it Best...

I’m a huge Anne of Green Gables fan. Kind of funny considering I’m not your typical girly-girl, who usually likes those types of movies. I’ve never read Jane Eyre, I haven’t seen the 7 hour version of Pride and Prejudice, and growing up, I never dressed up and threw ‘tea parties’ for my stuffed animals.

I got hooked on Anne when I was little, and borrowed the VHS (yes, VHS) tapes from my grand-parents just about once a month to watch them. Recently as a gift, I was given all of them (Anne of Green Gables, Anne of Avonlea and Anne the continuing story) on DVD, best gift ever.

I sat down to watch them, and was immediately sucked in. It was so comforting, almost like a breath of fresh air. Oh how I had missed Anne and her gang--Anne with her flowerly superfluous language, Marilla, gruff yet loving, Matthew in all his kind-hearted shyness, and dear sweet Gil plucky and as handsome as he always was.

Through-out the 6 hours of blissful enjoyment on my part --yes it was about 6 hours worth of DVD’s, and no I didn’t watch them all in one sitting. I watched over the course of about a week and a half, and I still haven’t watched Anne the Continuing Story—Anyway, while watching, I took the time to write down a few of my favorite lines. (There were about 15) Luckily I’m only giving you 5 of them below. :) Here they are:

‘Oh Anne, does life never frighten you with its bleakness?...’ –Katherine Brook

Let’s be honest, life can be bleak sometimes, but the way Katherine say’s it, makes you really feel her pain. I particularly like to throw this line out in conversation with siblings or friends, when they have had a bad day. (obviously I insert their name in the line instead of saying ‘Anne.’)

‘I’d like a man who could be wicked, but woudn’t…’ –Anne

This is the exactly the man I’m looking for. I want a guy that has that glint in his eye, a little bit of edge, but chooses to be good instead. Is that possible? I blame my single-hood on Anne. She has me looking for something that might not exist.

‘Wrap your arms around me Marilla, the tears don’t hurt, but the ache does…’—Anne

I happened to watch this part of the series when I had had a bad day. It just struck home. Let’s be honest, when you are crying it’s not the tears that hurt. It’s that empty ache that the tears bring with them, and leave behind after they are gone.

‘I hope he breaks your heart. Whoever he is, I hope he breaks your heart. Maybe then you will come to your senses.’—Gilbert Blythe

This one stings a little, or a lot. Anne just turned down Gil’s wedding proposal—she claimed she would never get married. You have to feel for Gil at this point though because he has stuck around forever, hoping that she would someday love him. Maybe I like it so much because there have been times in my life when I would love to say this to a guy I’ve dated, that’s moved on to someone else… ‘I hope she breaks your heart, whoever she is, I hope she breaks your heart...’

‘I don’t need sunbursts or marble halls Gil, I just need you…’ --Anne

This line is actually really cheesy, but I put it in here because it’s at the very end of the movie when Anne and Gil FINALLY get together. It’s about time. Anne finally realizes what everyone has known all along. She loves Gilbert.

Anyway, there you go. There’s my Anne of Green Gables epistle. Probably not that enjoyable for anyone that’s not a fan of the movie, but oh well. It’s my Blog, sheesh. :)

Should Have Been a Cowboy...

This past weekend I had to chance to head up to Inkum Idaho and Brand cattle. (yes, you did read that sentence correctly—Adrienne DeHart branded cattle.) The entire weekend a song by Toby Keith was running through my head; ‘Should have been a cowboy’--I thought it only appropriate to make it the title of this post.

Let me just explain, my friend Lacey’s family has a farm up in Idaho, each year she takes a couple of friends up with her for the ‘branding’ extravaganza, and then a rodeo that night. (apparently the best rodeo in the state.)

I’ve included pictures. I was afraid no one would believe what I had done, unless there were pictures to document.

What happens--all of the cattle get hustled down into this valley area shaped like a bowl. There are rock walls on one side, and then men and women on horses with ropes riding around keep them contained on the other sides. (I really wanted to be a horse rider, but apparently you have to know how to use a rope--go figure.)

The riders with the ropes go into the herd, and rope a small calf, dragging it out from the group. This is where I stepped in, my job was a holder, along with most of my friends. The holder intercepts the cow grabs it, wrestles it down onto it’s right side, and takes the rope off it's hooves. Then, someone would take the top, and someone would take the bottom (I preferred the bottom) you would hold one leg and pull it straight, then use your left leg to hold down the other leg. (As i'm demonstrating in the pictures up above.) The person at the top would have to hold down it’s upper legs, and head.

At this point all of the gross stuff happened. While being held down by us, the cow would be branded. I’ve got to be honest, there are few things in my life I have smelled that were worse than the smell of burning hair and flesh on the cow as it was getting branded. Yeeuch! Sometimes now, days later, I still get whiffs of it. It makes me wonder if the smell got imbedded in my nose somehow.

After the brand, the calf got immunized with two shots given with a large needle, it’s ear would have to get clipped or tagged, and the best part… You would have to look at the cow and shout out ‘Heiffer’ or ‘Bull!’ If it was a male cow--a bull if you will, someone with a knife would come around and castrate the cow cutting its… er, um... you know what's off. :)(Apparently they save those and cook them up later to eat, frying them into a delicacy called ‘Rocky Mountain Oysters’)

"Adrienne, care for an 'oyster?' Um, no thanks, I’ll stick with my chicken fingers, or hamburgers please."

Needless to say, this was quite the experience. By the end of the day I was covered in mud, blood and a greenish-grassy substance I would prefer to call mud. It came out of the cows though, and sure didn’t smell like mud. We were all exhausted, bruised and ready for a shower, but we had survived. (One friend even got kicked in the upper thigh by a mother cow not too pleased with the situation…ouch)

The rodeo that night was a lot of fun as well, it was a little hard to get too excited about it though, all of us were so tired we could barely stay awake. Probably one of the more subdued crowds that rodeo had seen.

Throughout the day of branding, I had implemented a few phrases into my dialog; ‘Well I’ll be…’ and ‘There’s a snake in my boots.’ I felt these phrases were only fitting considering the nature of what we were doing, and where we were.

Here are a few other phrases I think I will be slipping into casual conversation over the next few weeks:

• -Don’t squat on your Spurs
• -Dang, Young Whippersnapper
  
• -Never drink downstream from your horse
  
• -Well Butter my Butt and call me Biscuit
  
• -He's All Hat and No Cattle

I feel like I’ve earned this right to say them. Heck, I’ve branded cattle, I feel like I could do anything after this. I’m well on my way to moving to Panguitch Utah, buying me a horse, and settling down with my rancher husband to raise our chitlins' :)

The Wonder That is Holly Scott:

I’ve had a blog for about 4-5 months now, and up until about 2 weeks ago, it had been a ‘secret’ blog. I didn’t tell anyone about it, I would just post here and there, and be the only one reading my posts.

I kept meaning to tell people, but didn’t. Early on I had kind of made a stand against blogs saying I wasn’t going to have one. My reasoning being, who would want to read my blog? It’s not like I have cute pictures of my kids to post or anything.
Needless to say I caved, and created one. In the process of slowly telling people about it, I told my good friend Holly. She was somewhat angry with me because I had kept it secret for so long... Whoops.

Anyway, she told me I could make it up to her by dedicating a blog post to her, hence the title of this post. As she calls it, here is my “Holly-Amony”

Here you go…

As you can see from the above pictures, Holly and I have had a lot of fun together throughout the course of our friendship. She is a fantastic friend, and excellent travel buddy. We have been to Costa Rica, Nicaragua, San Diego, Moab, Jackson Hole, The Subway and other various places together.

We were roommates for over a year—special shout out for Marty’s Manor, and my other fellow roommates Whitney, Heidi, and honorary roommate Anne! Aah… a moment of silence for that house, those were good times. Sigh… :)

Quick run-down of favorite memories and Holly-ism’s:

Holly came to my work once and ‘worked’ half of the day with me in my office. We called it ‘bring your friend to work day’ (Instead of the proverbial, ‘bring your daughter to work day’) She was self employed at the time, and we thought it would be funny--Obviously it was-- People at my work kept asking me who was in my office. I just told them it was a ‘client’--Funny

Holly once wrote me an agenda, and word-for-word script on what I could say to the guy I was dating at the time who I needed to break up with. I was really stressed out and worried about it, and at a loss for things to say. Her script totally helped me out. She is a conversational wizard.

Driving home from a Real Soccer game stuck in traffic at a light surrounded by hundreds of cars, I dared Holly to get out of the car and dance in the middle of the street. She did… totally rocked out to the music blaring from the car speakers for a full minute. It was fantastic, she got a lot of honks and cheers. No fear.

She puts her make-up on in the morning while sitting in the sink right next to the mirrow, one of the pictures above illustrates this fact. (Holly, don't be mad I posted a make-up less picture of you via open forum. Just remember, 'no make-up, no problem')

Holly is kind, and genuinely cares about people. She always wants those around her to be having a good time. In a crowd, she finds the person who is off to the side, draws them out, and brings them into the group to make them feel involved.

Holly is funny, she is sarcastic and witty. We both claim that some of our best humor is done via IM or email. This is true… Holly is an excellent word smith, and her humor shows through in emails, letters, and other various forms of communication.

Holly is social, and fun, and likes to have a good time. She throws great parties, she is wild and crazy—in a good way.

Holly is a great friend, she listens when you need her too, she gives good advice, she tells the truth and doesn’t sugar coat. When I need an honest opinion she gives it to me. When I’m feeling down on myself, she builds me back up. She is numbered among some of the few people I let myself cry in front of, and she doesn’t make me feel stupid for doing so. Holly Scott has a lot of friends, and I consider myself very lucky to be one of them.

*Holly, thanks for being you.

*With this post, in no way do I mean to alienate any of my other like 4 blog readers. If you need me to post a ____-Amony (fill in the blank with your name.) about you, let me know.