| Jennifer,
I just read your email to my family, we all had a pretty good laugh. I remember very plainly dad taking pictures and then driving 60 miles over to Cedar to get them developed, waiting the hour it took to process them and then going through them in the car and rushing to making copies of the ones he wanted then hurrying to get them overnighted to all the different publications. My bedroom growing up was right by my dad's office, one of my favorite sounds was waking up to his typewriter. He still types on it and then we retype everything, it's amazing how much I cherish those pieces of paper now.
He just said this morning what a lovely lady you are and told us all about you being an FFA officer, how you met your husband and even into your college. He appreciates your friendship so much, he has me do most of the calling on advertisement but you are one of the few that he really enjoys calling and visiting with.
Maggie is doing wonderful, she is almost a year old. It is amazing to me where the year has gone. She is ready to be done with advertisement! We have been able to be out in Utah while we have been working on this so it's been nice so she has someone to play with her.
Thanks again for everything!
Jeannie
--- On Tue, 1/15/13, Jennifer Dahl <dahl@xmission.com> wrote:
|
Wednesday, January 16, 2013
The good parts of advertisement:)
My little piece of paradise
Well it’s four in the morning, I just had my first and
probably one of my only night checks. We
had our first little baby here at home tonight.
How familiar I am with that walk out to the barn, pushing open that old
sliding door, flipping on the light just inside the door, quietly walking up to
see if the new calf has sucked so you don’t make her mother to nervous. Walking through the other heifers who at
this point are still a little skittish, after about four or five nights they
start to realize the are heavy enough bred, they are going to get checked
anyway and it’s not worth the effort to get up, it’s to hard and to
uncomfortable. They grunt and groan,
after being pregnant I realize why.
I was going
to turn the heat lamp off of the poor little thing but it’s below zero so we
opted to leave it on. It went -19 the
other night with a high of about five, yes that is way to stinking cold, and
yes you can imagine dad HATES it:) It
was a Final Answer out of L53 that calved, (Maternal sister to Mahogany). The
little thing was just up and sucking, wagging it’s little tail, how glad I was
to see that. A1 how crazy is that, it was just yesterday
that we had all our old A cows, I still remember the old A1, pretty darn well
in fact, I remember her calving several times, A144, A84, B78, Z100, X93, in
fact L60 was one of our very best old cows, we still have a heavy influence in
our herd out of her, I remember she died up in 9 when she was about 11 or 12 or
so and for some reason dad saw she still had every tooth in her head, she had
been babied pretty good and never spent any time out on the desert, I had him
pull one out of her head for a good luck charm, yes I know rather morbid, I do
though wish I still had that tooth:)
Those cows that are forever stamped in my memory, how fast the years
have flown. The girls of my childhood
are being replaced by the Girls of Maggie’s childhood now. I pray they can offer her so many good
memories.
The ditches
are swollen and frozen and have filled all of the corrals with ice, there is
still quite a little bit of snow and more out on the dessert. They have been taking out hay everyday, I’ve
really wanted to go out but it’s been to cold to take Maggie out in the
elements and then both of us got sick:( ya big yuck, it was terrible. Poor Emily is in bed now with about ten
layers and the heat turned up to 100 degree’s because she is chilling and
freezing to death. I was between her and
Maggie in bed and I thought I was going to roast, literally. Em is doing good, she is so much more of my
old Emily I can’t even put words to it.
She laughs a lot more and talks a lot more, she’s just Emily again. I hope and pray with all my heart that she
can find someone that will just let her be Emily, someone that she doesn’t feel
she has to mold to what they want that she can be now what they want.
They are
going to come and clean out the barn a little tomorrow and then bed it down
heavier, it’s pretty dang nippley for anything to come into this world. It has been so good to be home, I love
everything about it minus one fact, my one true love isn’t here with me and
because of that I’ll leave:) I’ve came to a realization that my happiness is
tied close to his heart strings and where he is. I never thought I would be able to make a
life anywhere else, I NEVER wanted to.
Yet I’ve found how happy I am, how content with a man that is beyond
words more suited for me than I ever could have dreamed. They broke the mold after they made my Johnny
G, there really isn’t anyone in the world like him and for him I would travel
to the ends of the world (South Dakota just about fits that bill). I have loved being home so much yet I’m
yearning for him, all the little memories made, Maggie walking and laughing,
sunsets and sunrises, new calves, just everything I want him there to share
it. I spent so many years alone,
wondering why I couldn’t find someone.
There was a lot of cold bitter nights that I remember coming in from
that barn and going back to a cold empty bed.
It was a pretty worthy thing to pray for, and I couldn’t figure out why
it wasn’t working out, why I was still single, alone checking heifers in the
middle of the night by myself. I have
since came to the realization that I had to be old enough that society wouldn’t
think it was any bigger of a scandle then they did when I married the man that
Heavenly Father had sent to this earth for me to find. Everything that’s happened that was heartache
led me to my greatest joy. We fly into
Denver to meet up with John tomorrow and even though I’m going to miss home
like mad I’m like a giddy little school girl that I get to see him.
Maggie has
went from little baby steps to bigger toddling steps, how crazy is it that a
year has passed? She got the flu while
we were here and has been so sick, poor little thing. Being sick has made her rather cranky and
clingy. She has bit one of my nipples
until it’s so stinken sore I can’t hardly stand to let her nurse. My dad always said there was nothing that
made him more mad then a heifer that kicked her calf, he has never
breastfed. It is getting time to wean
her but it about breaks my heart to think of the poor little thing and how sad
she is going to be, nursing is her greatest comfort and I’m not sure what we
are going to replace it with. While she
was sick pretty much all she would do was nurse, she wouldn’t take any
solids. I was glad that I could at least
still get something in her tummy.
Dad has
been wonderful while I have been home, everyone has. I come more and more everyday to the
realization of how lucky I was to grow up in the home I did, to know right from
wrong. Everyday it becomes more and more
black and white how that they way you live is in direct correspondence with
your happiness, I will forever be grateful for my parents for setting that
example for me. Dad is so cute with
Maggie, he coos to her and smiles at her, I pray she will be able to get to
know him well, that is one of my greatest wishes, that is perhaps the hardest
part of not living here at home. Everyone has been good with our little Maggie,
she squaks quite loud though when ANYONE tries to take her to far from me. She does love Jessica and remembers her. She played with her so stinken cute yesterday
I wish I could just capture those moments and push pause in my life. She has turned into the bossy little thing
and has a way of getting her way. Mom
has been great here at home to, she is the mom that I knew growing up. For awhile I don’t know what was all going on
but our relationship was stressed to the point that I didn’t know if it would
ever heal. She is truly and Angel woman
and I’m so proud to call her my mother.
Well I
better get after a little advertisement while I’m still fresh enough to do it
my eyes are starting to get heavy again.
Many smiles and laughter,
Jeannie
Thursday, January 10, 2013
Life is Good!
My little princess peach, where has this past year gone? I get all teary eyed thinking about how fast my little baby has grown. You are learning how to toddle around right now, your a pro at crawling and soon you will no longer creep across the floor but run. I wish that I could just freeze these days and keep you my little precious baby forever. When I think of happiness i think of you:) You are saying “YAH” and you are quite the little copy cat, you love to copy breathing heavily and sometimes I can get you to say mamma, and dadda, those where officially your first two words. You love to be chased right now and be played with, you giggle as we chase you from room to room and you try your hardest to make us play. Your favorite book is Jamberry, you will sit perfect while we read it to you and both your dad and I have it pretty well memorized. Your little hair is coming in more and more but it is quite the little fuzz and sticks straight out:) You are just cutting your eigth teeth and you bite me while you nurse quite often. You still have yet to spend a night away from my bed, it almost makes me anxious not to have you near me when I sleep. You demand to be carried facing forward and you are quite the little tornado if we try to face you towards us. You love to empty out everything and anything from the wet ones, to the suitcase, to grandma’s drawers. You are so perfect. I never envisioned just how much I would love you, I can’t even quite explain how deeply in love I am with little perfect you. Your daddy is crazy about you, he calls you about eight times a day just to hear your voice. We put you on speaker and you smile and jabber just a bit every morning when you wake up. We are in Utah right now and Johnny G is missing us pretty bad. We read you Jamberry over the phone and he would tell you every other line from memory. You are his get away and his happiness. We have both said how complete you have made our family, and we never really knew happiness until we knew you. Your grandparents on both sides think you are quite wonderful. Grandpa Joe always says “Hello Girl” Grandpa Yardley calls you his little princess. You are bossy right now and say “eh” loudly and forcfully and get you way, you can communicate quite efficiently like that. You hate socks, you can take them off faster than anyone I know. Your daddy is sure you need them on every night and you lose them as fast as you can:) You demand that we take your pants all the way off when we change your diaper and that in itself is turning into quite the little challenge because you love to see what is going on around you and you wiggle and worm. You love to shower and your daddy is sure that you get one everynight. You look up at the water and try to poke the little holes shut with your finger. You balance with one leg on your dad’s tummy. You nurse like a little monkey, you have to stand and crawl over the top of me, you are quite the little goose. You want to be near me, it makes me feel so loved:) You are a cover kicker, you can’t stand them on you and you will wake up in the night just to kick them off, they drive you crazy.
We took you to Beaver Oklahoma this past month for our cow sale. The floors were tile and we had to push two beds together so you would have someplace to crawl. We had raisons and goldfish all over that room by the time we left:)
You have been on 13 airplane rides so far and in 12 states. You are sure that everyone in the world is made just for you, you talk, and yell, giggle, and smile, reverent is not your nature, you are Miss confidence and we wouldn’t have it any other way. I just pray you can keep that confidence through your whole life.
I took you to Lori’s to see Whit, Little O, and the new little baby Bridger, you loved him, you would coo to him and look up at me and smile, you have such a kind little heart.
Your dad loves to take you with him, it doesn’t matter if it’s in the feed truck or on the four wheeler he is so proud of you. He had such a hard time letting us leave to Utah, it makes me love him all the more at just how much he loves you. He waited at the gate until he couldn’t see us anymore and cried a little because his girls were leaving. He called when we got to my parents to make sure all the toilet lids were down. He comes in the door and yell’s hello Pumpkin Pie, you hurry to crawl to him as fast as you can. You do no wrong, you have officially broke two pairs of glasses, well the new pair he just ordered bends so that he can for sure let you still play with them:) He is so proud of you, I can’t even quite tell you just how much he swells when he has you. He bought you a little pink coat, pink hat, and quite a few little outfits. He loves you in that pink hat. You have the perfect Papa Maggie, don’t ever forget it.
If you can’t tell I love my life, i love my baby girl, I love my husband. I have awesome sisters, great parents and I live in the most blessed nation on earth. Heaven truly has smiled down on me and i’m so thankful for all I have. Life is good.
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