Mid-Week Surprise

Ok, so I'm not going to lie, I really liked having Thursday off.  Today felt like Monday, but it was Friday!  What a fantastic present!  Daddy got here tonight and we were able to go to dinner with him.  We look forward to a great weekend of working on the house and bonding!  He is such an amazing teacher!

I surprised him tonight with my chickens:  June (blonde-in middle), Helen (lighter red-leader of the pack), Henrietta (darker red-pulling up the rear).

*W~a~t~e~r* and Monumental Day in Stateline History!

Amazing!  Teamwork!  Yesterday I had a safety meeting at noon that I needed to prepare for and we had a pea grading session in Gering Tuesday morning.  After the meeting, Heath and John headed out to the farm to see if we could receive the water from the ditch rider.  Unfortunately, I had to stay at the office.  Heath had the thought of pea trucks coming into Bridgeport when his guys called and said something broke down while he was knee deep in mud and water at my house.  What an amazing man!  Afterall, we did plan better than this as our water was supposed to arrive Monday evening but the ditch rider got busy.  Heath got it all done in one day, oh and he was in the boot pit all day.  He came to the house smelling like rotten beans, but he had a big smile on his face.  Awesomeness!

Heath calmly took care of it ALL!  Him and Johnny Boy got the water by setting dams and setting tubes (thank you Craig again for the tubes)!  P.S.  The dogs *LOVE* this irrigation opportunity to frolic like little kids in the ditch water, unsetting dams and not knowing the difference!

As we were irrigating tonight, Heath and I were walking back to the house and all of the sudden Briggsy made a yelping noise and we saw his silhouette on top of the hill, against the blue sky, flipping something up into the air.  Do not fear, Mya killed it.  It was a mole....it appears that it bit Briggs, so the woman had to take care of it.  :)  You go girl!

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Monumental day for Stateline as we accepted our first delivery of dry edible yellow peas from Double BJ Farms, Inc. from Holdrege, Nebraska on July 3rd, 2013.  How exciting!  Great work on everyone's part as we have reached this point and will continue to grow!  Congratulations!

:)

A Day in the Life

Today, I decided to take it easy and work on physical therapy in the pool today.  First, I got into the really hot therapy pool to get all stretched out and then I went to the big pool.  They have these cool foam “water weights” that add resistance to your workout and it really works.  Later, as I was aqua jogging in the big pool, Heath was swimming laps.  I am working with him to help him with his stroke as he is learning how to swim competitively.  Go Heath!  Learning how to swim is no easy task.  I started swimming a year ago January and I can remember wondering how I was ever going to swim a ½ mile in open waters.  I just had to keep forcing myself to get into the pool and practice.  The biggest thing for me was to keep struggling through it and not give up.  Most things that I put my mind to, I have been able to do, but this whole swimming thing was a humbling experience.

At work, we sat through another insurance seminar which was, again, excellent!  The topic today was ‘OSHA Inspection Training.’  We had seven guys from Stateline attend the conference.  Since, I am on a first name basis with our insurance rep (I guess this is what happens when you talk every day because something new always arises), we got a lot of our questions answered by the guest speakers.

I got to see the tail end of Andrew’s track meet tonight as I arrived in Mitchell a little later than I expected.  I saw him in his last race of 5, the 4x200 meter relay.  Tonight, he told me that his three favorite things are:   1. His mom and his dad 2. Track 3. Basketball.  Supper with the boys and off to my Home Sweet Home in God’s country!  J

Right before I left Mitchell, I got a text from a very good friend of mine from vet school, Mr. Nick Henning.  I called him on my drive home and we got to get caught up.  It was so great to be able to do that.  They are entering a very intense time of the year as spring break just ended and they are getting back into the groove of things as the semester is rapidly coming to a close.  I am so proud of my whole class for sticking with it day in and day out.  Don’t ever give up!  Call me anytime you need support!!

S.P.I.N.N.I.N.G.

First day of spinning for the spring session.  I have been looking forward to this since I moved back to the area.  Roger and Wendy are our instructors for the morning session and they are so fun and inspirational.  It’s fun to do group workouts, especially since I already know most of the people in the class from before.  I waited to start this spring session because I wanted to allow my hip some time to rest/heal.  After 6 or 7 weeks of physical therapy, nothing seems better.  It did feel better for a short time period, but it’s BACK!  I found out this weekend, that the more time I take off and don’t use it, the more it hurts.

Soooo……I went to spinning this morning with the intentions to not push it very hard and to just stay seated the whole time.  Well, I did not push it to the max, but I sure did not stay seated!  It felt so good to be back on the bike with the music pumping and being surrounded by old friends.  Heath let me use his heart rate monitor that his son got him for Christmas!   I don’t know if he will ever get it back; it is awesome!  I’m kidding, I couldn’t do that!  It was a great way to start my day!

More of the same at work, dealing with “big girl” things and having to deal with confrontation and sometimes uncomfortable situations, but I feel like we are making big strides.  This is my cheering squad!  :)

Thursday Conference

Today, Heath and I went to a Food Safety conference with our insurance company.  It was held at the Hampton Inn in Scottsbluff, the lunch they served was excellent, by the way.  We both learned alot and realized how important food safety is to our business.  We have lots to do, but we will get it accomplished because we have the backing of our board and our management team.

Our next item on the agenda today was a house inspection on the potential largest purchase of my life so far. Heath came with me after work to meet with the home inspector.  I was not impressed by the inspector because he did not inspect up to code, but other than that, all the big things checked out well.  I am so excited to keep moving forward with this purchase!

Last, but not least, we went back to the office to eat leftovers from lunch today that they gave us.  Then, we headed over to Connie and Ernie's house for our Crazy Love Bible study.  Embarrassing as it was, both Heath and I were blatantly falling asleep while Ernie was speaking.  I felt so bad, Ernie even said extra prayers for us because he knew how tired we were.  Heath and I both made it to the gym for the morning session three of the four days this week so far!  Makes for an early morning, but is so great to get up and get it out of the way early and feel good all day!

Month End

February being a short month, we already are doing inventory!  Here is a picture from atop our bins in Gering.  It was a bit chilly but I am glad that I got to observe the process.  I suited up in coveralls and my Carhartt complete with my new hard hat.  It was really good for me to get outside and see what is going on in the mill and chat with our guys.

Crazy Love Bible study with Connie and Ernie tonight.  Yay!

Stateline Safety Initiative

Cleaning out!  We are really getting serious about getting things organized and up-to-speed.  Our Stateline Safety Initiative is going to be a complete success because everyone is getting on board.  So exciting.  Big changes coming!

I went over to Heath's house tonight to cook supper for the boys.  They had a pre-season track meeting for parents, so I cooked while Heath went to the meetings.  I think we had a winner...Chicken Fajitas!  Andrew was a big fan!  I forgot and put mushrooms in it which Justin isn't a big fan of, but he was able to pick around them.

Swimming

Well, I did it.  I was told on Friday in my physical therapy appointment to go ahead and try running, so I did that on Sunday.  So I decided swimming would be ok today.  My physical therapist has not put any restrictions on my motion at this point.  I set out to swim a mile (36 laps or 72 lengths) and to be leaving Gering at 6:45 am so we could get to Bridgeport to load a container.  I did it!  I was a bit late, which I told my chauffeur would not happen again.  I am working on it!  I have my 'getting ready' down to a mere 15 minutes which allows me more time to work out...but sometimes I am 30 seconds or a 2 minutes late.  Today, I was about 5 minutes late.

Briggs was pretty tired today.  He didn't even want to chew on the bone Auntie Liz so graciously gave to him.  Holding down the carpet at the office.  Great security!  :)

Speaking of Auntie Liz, she really wanted to see my potential new home.  We met Delton out there and he showed us around.  He is so SUPER sweet.

I had a great evening at my house.  I got home by 6:30 pm and had the whole night to myself with Briggsy and Miss Penney!  Ahh life!  :)

Week In Review

Wow, time slipped by me this week very quickly!  Here is a quick snapshot of the week:

Monday-First safety meetings of the year at work.  Heath presented and I demonstrated safety harness assembly and use as well as confined spaces and bin entry permission forms.  We worked on my house after work.

Tuesday-Lots of progress being made at work.  Everyday goes by quickly because there are so many projects!  It's awesome!  (On the way to work, the boys were bonding....)

Wednesday-Tons of snow geese landing in the field outside of the office...just teasing us!  They were mixed in with the Canadians.  This is a picture mainly of the Canadian (phone pic....not very clear, but you get the point!).

Thursday-Difficult times at work as we work through some encouragement for motivation and acceptance.

Friday-Visits from John, Liz, and Tyler.  Hang out with Liz after work, brainstorming.  I took this beautiful shot right outside the office doors in Bridgeport as I was headed home, reminding me that God is Great!  :)

Stateline

New Safety Manager hard at work.  Heath and I have to demonstrating a "confined entry" at our safety meeting coming up on Monday.  We just got new full body harnesses for this procedure and we were trying to figure out how to work them.  We finally got it figured out.  Safety here we come!

1st Day of Work

Today, I returned to Stateline Bean in Western Nebraska.  I have been looking forward to this for a long time.  Did I ever think this would be happening?  No sir.  I had planned on being in Manhattan, Kansas for the next 4 years of my life pursuing my DVM.  God works in mysterious ways.

Trust in the LORD with all your heart and lean not on your own understanding, in all your ways acknowledge HIM, and HE will make your paths straight.  Proverbs 3:5-6

Rock, Paper, Scissors

A few photos I snuck in with my phone....

Day 4:  Today was not a structured lecture day like the past few days but rather a more practical approach.  This was a great way to conclude a great week at AIB.  We were given photos of various real life situations around the country and we were asked to work in our groups to see how we would handle these situations.  This was an excellent way to hear lots of different perspectives as we presented to the whole class.

Later we were asked to challenge our neighbor (Heath for me), to best of three in Rock, Paper, Scissors.  We had several ties until he finally advanced.  He actually advanced through several rounds with other members of our class.  At the end, all the winners went to the front to play a game.  They were sent into the room next door to do an inspection and  find "violations" which were written on the back of several different business card.  They were each given a "tool" to use for this inspection.  For each "violation" they found, they got a dollar.  Heath won $3 and took the game overall!  Watch out world, we are going to have one heck of a bean plant!  Team Stateline!