It's a Cow...

My Soap Box :: Part I - Money in America

Here I go, I warned you two weeks ago I would be stepping up on my soap box and I'm going to start by sharing today. I have a serious and legitimate concern with the way people in America regard wealthy people, businesses and money in general.

People look at corporations today with disgust. If your company is successful don't count on anyone congratulating you for a job well done -- nope you can plan on getting backhanded by the government on taxes, regulations and badmouthed by the media and general public. Why? Is it because you created jobs? Is it because you added to the local economy? Is it because of your generous donations to the community? Nope, I think it's because you earned a buck with hard work, sweat and tears. And frankly, people are apparently disgusted with that fact.

A couple weeks ago I saw on the news there was a "flash mob" at a local 7 Eleven {I think, it could have been a Circle K or mom and pop joint} - and not the kind that danced a jig and sang a tune. Apparently, a large group of what I will call hoodlums proceeded to bombard the store with 30+ people and in under a minute came, in grabbed various items and stole them red-handed. They have this on video people! Now, what in the Sam Hill gave those kids the idea that stealing from a convenience store was okay? I have to assume that the complete lack of respect towards the business owner and/or corporation stems from this mentality that I keep seeing again and again that is, frankly, scaring the utter beejeezus out of me, "Well, they have plenty of money so it won't matter." EXCUSE ME?! Last time I checked when something wasn't yours you didn't take it. You went out and worked for it and then bought -- the honest way. This attitude that it's okay to steal, bash or vandalize someone else's property just because they have plenty of money is 100 percent not-freaking-okay people.

I have friends that are vegetable and produce farmers. In the Yuma area it gets to be a bit of a problem at times, not with hoodlums but with elderly, white-haired, snowbirds for goodness sake. Literally, I have friends that have stopped them and say, "You can't be picking that {insert lettuce, broccoli, etc. here}. And they say, "Oh well, we're only taking a couple." First of all, your stealing. Second of all, you're trespassing. Thirdly, YOU'RE STEALING. And just think if every dang person in town "only took a couple" there wouldn't be any left for that hardworking farmer to make a profit on!

I do have a question for you: Why is it that "these people" I talk about with their disdain for the wealthy don't have the same disdain for the millionaires in Hollywood? I mean seriously, those folks are filthy rich. They get paid to show up to parties. For some crazy reason I find that "these people," instead of despising Hollywood Fat Cats, adore them and want to be like them -- no, even more disgusting is they think they can live like them. They see the $1600 Gucci bag on so-and-so's arm in the latest issue of Us Weekly and save up their pennies to emulate their style. You have to let me know if I am out in left field on this one people. I mean, it begs a serious question here of our social standards and mindsets.

Let me break this down:

Businesses who create jobs and allow for others to make money are frowned upon and hated.

Celebrities who albeit work hard on the movie set {some} and have boatloads of money are adored.

I do not understand it. I can say that I personally respect and appreciate the hard working entrepreneurs who have built this country. I admire and respect the risk they took to make something bigger than themselves happen. I'm thankful for the jobs they've created and the economic value they've given to our society. I apologize to them that my fellow Americans do not see what I see in them. I can only hope that people continue to take risks and try their hand at living the American Dream. And I pray that we don't regulate them out of business...

Miscellany Monday

link up with Carissa over at Lowercase Letters!

one.

Tomorrow is the big ultrasound day! Will update you first thing on Wednesday morning, perhaps with a "wordless wednesday" photo to give it away...

two.

on my pandora listening this morning I have already rocked out on my Celia Cruz station and am now loving my 60, 70, 80's channel...

three.

I've been adjusting and unpacking as much as I could this past week. Considering I had my September magazine to finish which then caused me to miss a conference in Tucson I really haven't done much. I did work all day yesterday on unpacking and getting more things put away. I get impressed when I see the number of empty boxes I create and then I see how much I have left and I'm not very impressed...more overwhelmed.

four.

Saturday night my wonderful SIL/BIL took us along to the Cardinals game. It was my first time in the "new" stadium...they've been in there since 2006. Here's the hubbs and I

I don't know why I look exhausted...oh wait, yes I do. There is a baby growing inside me! Which according to my lovely thebump.com emails every week, Baby A is the size of a mango now!

Hope you all have a wonderful week!

WYB :: Healing the Effects of Wildfire

Another wonderful post and documentation of how cattle can be utilized to restore damaged lands. Please go check out this post by Dan Dagget. There are lots of before and after photos so go and see them!!

Have a wonderful weekend!

Turquoise Thursday - New Mirror

My lovely sisters, {technically in-law but we're not that technical} Carmella and Rachel, got me a beautiful turquoise mirror to add to my new home and I just love it! Rachel actually text me a picture of it months ago when she saw it in the store and I just adored it.

It was a wonderful surprise to the end of our move and the start of decorating.

I know the image is small, I actually googled "turquoise rustic mirror" and found it online so I could share it today! I'm thinking I will put it in our entryway but haven't decided just yet...thanks girls!!

The Latest & Greatest

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Good news, we got moved this weekend!! We couldn't have done it without the help of our wonderful friends and family. Truly they rocked it and I'm fairly certain we broke moving records. Literally, our construction guy told us what one of his employees said...Matt told Eric to vacuum and finish cleaning up since we were on our way, Eric finished vacuuming and went to grab a bite to eat he came back and was shocked to see what he saw, he called Matt and said, "Dude I left for a sandwich and  I came back and the WHOLE house was full, there's like four trucks and trailers and 15 guys, these people know how to move!" Seriously people we unloaded a huge U-haul and a couple trailers in no more than 30 minutes it was nuts, I also use the term "we" very loosely, the boxes/furniture were coming in so quickly I had to stay in the walkway and direct people to the proper room. Oh it's rough being in charge :) kidding.

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Had a doctor's appointment yesterday, got to hear the heartbeat for the first time, 150 beats per minute. The radiology place called today and we have an ultrasound set up for the "fetal test" aka "find out what we're having ultrasound" for next Tuesday. I'm pretty anxious to find out cowboy or cowgirl.

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Back to this whole second trimester rant I started last week...I'm still a little disappointed in the rumors and lies I was told. Seriously, people, when someone says the word "boost" I relate that to a "significant uptick or change" what I'm feeling as far as energy levels is pretty much the same as I felt in the first trimester. Okay, I understand everyone is different and I shouldn't be complaining especially since I haven't been sick once but still, I feel lied to. :)

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We're still sorting through boxes and waiting for a couple appliances to arrive but once I get a little more settled I will be cooking up a storm and sharing some new recipes and perhaps some of my decorating skills that I don't really have...Hope you all have a blessed week!

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Huckleberry Heaven

So I landed in Spokane, WA on Monday afternoon my cousin's lovely wife Shannon picked me up went downtown walked around then waited for Brandon to get off work. They took me to Tomato Street  for dinner where I enjoyed some delicious Italian food. But most importantly I enjoyed a huckleberry lemonade for my drink and a huckleberry vinaigrette on my salad.

In less than 5 hours I had already consume two huckleberry products and I was on a mission to eat as much as possible in the week I spent in Montana.

For those of you that are not familiar with the heavenly berry called huckleberry, yes--it's a real berry and no--I didn't make it up. I kid you not, when I've told people about huckleberries in Arizona they thought I was making it up...they are a wild berry that grows in places like Montana, Washington, Idaho and not Arizona. Did you know huckleberry is the state fruit of Idaho? Now you do, you can thank me when you get that question on Jeopardy. They are similar to a blueberry but distinctly different in taste.

Anyway, when I head up north I have to stock up on my stash and bring some home to share with others. While in Montana I enjoyed several huckleberry smoothies and shakes, jams, lemonade, licorice and candy bars. 

One of my favorite treats besides jam/jelly/preserves is huckleberry honey. It's just honey and huckleberry juice mixed to make a creamy dessert-like-decadence. Seriously, when I put this on my toast I feel like I'm having dessert. There are lots of places online that you can pick up Montana Huckleberry treats and I don't necessarily recommend one over the other but here are some of my favorite products...

Huckleberry Creamed Honey {I've actually bought this brand last time I was up there and loved it}

Huckleberry Licorice {I bought this brand this time and it is AMAZING and great price compared to what some retail stores were selling it for, this site it's on has a huge selection of goods.}

Huckleberry Chocolate Bar {In gift shops there are always a couple chocolate bar options and the brand shown here is always the one I buy and am always very pleased with}

I haven't ever purchased a jar of the pie filling but I did this time so I plan to make one of those. If I was feeling really ambitious I would have bought fresh huckleberries at the farmer's market just before I left and trucked them home on the plane but I didn't...

If you ever get a chance to try some huckleberry-anything do it! I promise you will love it!

A List...

hello, my name is Anna

Hi friends. I know it has been roughly three weeks since I have said hello. The last week in July had me in beautiful Prescott, Arizona for our annual cattle growers convention. It went super smooth and was just a great time. Hubby even made it up Thursday night/Friday before he headed back to work, basically in the middle of the night, on Saturday morning. Next, my travels took me to gorgeous western Montana to enjoy my lovely grandmother and family. I will be sharing more about our adventures in upcoming posts. Last week was my catch up week and I wanted all week to write something but couldn't find the energy.

energy, what boost?

Speaking of energy, it is still limited. I have heard rumors about this "second trimester boost of energy" I think it's just false advertising. To be honest, I felt like I only had a couple weeks of life altering exhaustion, like.nothing.I've.ever.experienced. Then it was just kind of the "usual" tiredness I had been feeling. Here's the deal people, I try and go to bed between 8 and 9 each night, sometimes it happens, sometimes it doesn't, but typically I wake up at 5am so I feel it is a pretty substantial amount of sleep. Don't get me wrong, I would enjoy at least another hour of shut eye, but I gotta work! So what I'm saying is life is going on and I am pretty normal but I have gotten better at not over-committing because I know I will be too tired and not to mention I have turned down several social gatherings to sleep instead *gasp* not typical for this little social butterfly.

soap box

Brace yourself. I intend on jumping a ginormous soap box in the coming weeks. There have been some thoughts stirring in my brain about life and this country we live in and the mentality of my fellow Americans and I'm ready to rant and rave. 

meet & greet

Last Sunday evening we were able to attend the Eric Church concert in Tempe. A friend of ours from the Maricopa Mafia {a group of wonderful people in the "Copa" we hang out with and MM is the nickname, they have generously allowed us to be included in the "club" :)} works for a beverage company that happened to have a certain beer sponsoring the event. Eric was very polite and nice. We did have to sweat it out in the Phoenix heat for over 30 minutes and stand by the exhaust of giant tour busses/semis in the parking lot before getting our photo with him...to say I was sweating is an understatement. Thus, black and white...

I don't know what hubby is doing with his lips but I don't care, I think he always looks good :)

moving

This Friday is D-day as in deliver my possessions to my new casa. As in, die in the heat of August in Arizona while loading boxes and furniture into many vehicles. As in, dump anything left unpacked at the other house in a trash bag and jump on the road. I ran out of d-words related to moving. Anyway, I am seriously grateful to the family and friends who have committed to helping us. If it weren't for them I believe the proper saying is we would be, "up the creek without a paddle." I believe there is another word used in place of "the" but this is a family show folks. My sister and her hubby are having their lamb auction on Saturday, I will be the auctioneer and hope to bring in the big bucks for them :) Should everything get moved on Friday {Lord willing} I plan to unpack on Saturday and Sunday and sleep in my heavenly bed on Sunday evening for the first time in over four months. I tell you what, that bed of ours, I've missed it. And our couch. Can you tell I just want to lie down and rest? Because this mythical "boost" has yet to come in to play...

random

As if this post hasn't been random enough for you...in the mornings when I get on the freeway and 345 cars are merging onto Interstate 10, when I look in my rear view mirror and see that one impatient driver illegally cross the v shaped lines to try and beat the other cars in front of it I get very irritated. I think, "Why are you trying to kill yourself and other innocent drivers for no reason?" Yes, I saw this today and thought, I'm going to randomly let my bloggie friends know how much I despise this kind of driving. I will be honest folks, I haven't always been a calm driver and I still have my moments of complete-craziness-fly off the handle rage but for the most part {which is a lot considering how many miles I spend on the road} I just take it easy and wish everyone else in the rat race would just turn on some KLOVE and calm the heck down...

Peace & Blessings,

Crazy lady at LBD