Let's get up close and personal with what made me who I am today!!

I was posed a question on my last post by GP over @ http://manker.wordpress.com/, she asked me "do I sometimes look at the stuff I'm doing such as horses and trucks and think how'd get here"? As I started answering her question I thought to myself that you all probably wonder why I call myself "City Girl turned Country Girl"...So today I am going to tell you some things about myself that you might be surprised to know!!

As a child growing up I lived in the city, however I had a grandma that owned a dairy farm and I spent a great deal of time on her farm..Some of the best memories I have some of you may think WHOA she's crazy LOL!! But seriously as kids I think the things we do are done with different thoughts of that which we have now, obviously!! So do you want to know what my FAVORITE thing to do on the farm was????? Well when we would bring the cows in early in the morning we had about I'd say 15 milking stations on each side, and where do the rest wait??? Well outside we had a huge sloped holding pen, and everyday after the hundreds of cows were run through Grandma would always need someone to clean that holding pen...Well take a wild guess what is in that pen...Cow urine and feces!!! So my cousin and I would put on our knee high boots and get our big shovels (kind of like snow shovels) and we would race and run and slide all over in that crap!! So much fun I tell you LOL!! The we spent many a days feeding calves, driving grandma's old trucks around the huge pastures she had...Matter of fact that is were I learned alot about driving!! Another one of my favorite things to do there was go down to the creeks that were crystal clear and catch craw-dads and pinch their pincher's off..I know mean right?!?!

So aside from the farm roots I had there I also have a second cousin who taught me how to ride horses and she always let us ride when we came out!! I loved them, that is where my passion for horses began. Even though I was a "city girl" I have always loved everything country. Especially country music, the '80's for me just brings back so many memories...I loved Ricky Van Shelton, Randy Travis, The Judds, Tanya Tucker just to name a few. When I hear music from that time era I think about my childhood and how much that music meant to me. It got me through some rough times...

My folks divorced when I was a year old, so I never had my "family" together. It was pretty hard, I loved my daddy (and still do) he to me was the best hero in the world!! I loved my mama too we just didn't have the best relationship, it wasn't just her I just didn't get along with my step-dad and he didn't get along with me so that caused for some pretty rough times. I lived with my mama until my freshman year of high school, she was going through a divorce and I finally got to go live with my daddy. I loved being there, it was so different...But you see my daddy lived his life for me and my brother, he didn't date. He was single for 17 years simply because we were his whole world, so I got all of the attention there. It's not that my mama was so wrong I just needed more I guess..

Well at the age of 14 I started dating a boy that was 2 years older than me and of course as a young and stupid girl I believed many things that were not true. We dated for a year and a half and I got pregnant...Yes at 15 yrs of age I was pregnant...My daddy found out not because I told him but because I had went to the Dr to get checked out and he obviously got the "prenatal appt bill", that's how naive I was I never even thought about that LOL!! Well of course my daddy was upset and hurt but he was also there for me...We did not tell my mom right away, as a matter of fact one of my aunt's told my mom for me on Christmas day...When I arrived and she walked out of my granny's house with "that" look on her face I knew I was dead!!! She eventually calmed down and did her best to support me. I of course even at that young age would see no other option than keeping my baby! But that is me being kind of selfish I'm sure, I admire the young girls that have the guts to give their babies up for adoption IF it is the right choice for them. For me it wasn't..My dad and my boyfriends parents got together and of course discussed things and they helped out where they could. I would like to throw something in here, the step-dad that I didn't get along with well he found out I was pregnant and he was living in Italy at the time for work and he called me and said he wanted to meet with me when he got home, so I did. I was never so shocked in my life when he picked me up that day, he told me that he had always loved me as a child but didn't want to interfere with my daddy's place and he was sorry for how he had treated me. He had a friend who had a crib, changing table and a bassinet and he took me there and bought those things for me and my baby. It was the nicest thing he ever did for me..My daddy took our spare bedroom and made it into a nursery for my baby and my mama threw me a baby shower, yes a baby shower for a 15 yr old!! My family is very close and they were all very supportive of me. My baby boy J was born July 14, 1994 on my daddy's Birthday and just 2 weeks after I turned 16. J was 4 days over due but I didn't care because aside from the circumstances of how he got here he was the best Birthday gift my daddy ever received, he told me so..

Now I want to make one thing very clear, even though I was so young I did not act as though I was. I took care of J on my own, now of course if it was early morning time and my daddy was up and J woke up he would get him out of bed and not wake me, but that was his time with him and he enjoyed that. I also want to make clear that we had real medical insurance, my son's dad and my daddy paid for all of J's formula, diapers etc. My point is, I did not make my circumstance worse by not paying my way. I too had a job, but my daddy wanted me home with J more than he worried about money. I had a friend that was one of my best friends since kindergarten and after I got pregnant her mom wouldn't let her be my friend anymore because I was a bad influence. Well technically what I did was wrong but I had the same boyfriend for yrs, I wasn't tramping around (excuse my lack of a better word) I just didn't use my head. But I am glad I didn't because then I wouldn't have J. And just a note here; that mom that wouldn't let my friend see me talked to me at my friend's house about 7 yrs ago and told me she was sorry for how she acted and she see's now that I am one of the greatest mommies she had ever seen!! Talk about feeling proud!!

J's dad and I went our separate ways when J was a little over a year old, he was getting into drugs and partying and I can say those are somethings I never did because I had a responsibility to my son. And I worked very hard to be the best mommy in the world because I had something to prove. Just because I was young doesn't mean I couldn't be a good mommy..

So moving on I met my Hubby Thanksgiving day of '95, and I promise you I am a firm believer of love at first sight (well now I am). The moment I locked eyes with him I knew he was the one!! So sure enough we married November 15, 1997, we have been happily married for almost 12 years!! And I am only 30 yrs old LOL!! (well I'll be 31 in a couple of weeks). But after Hubby and I got married we moved in together in our own house that we had rented and waited till we were married to move into. And my Hubby is like me he is country to the core!!

So for many years we lived our life in the city, and all the while Hubby was begging me to move to the country. But I just couldn't wrap my head around not living within 10 minutes of a Walmart LOL!! So I continued to say no, no, no!! But even though we lived in the city we drove "redneck rides" you know lifted trucks, suburbans, basically anything Hubby could tinker with LOL!! Now I did have a few cars in there but mostly we have always been truck people!! Hubby raced cars on a circle dirt track and that kind of drove me crazy because it wasn't safe in my eyes and he did that for many years. Then when DD was about 6-7 yrs old she started getting really interested in riding horses, well immediately I had her in lessons. Simply because I wanted her to experience that, horses to me are something we cherish. Their beauty is a gift to us, and if we get to ride them then we are greatly blessed!! So soon after she started riding Hubby brought me a proposal and said, "OK I will stop racing cars if you will agree to move out into the country" well I didn't have to think long on that because I was already on the road to coming to that decision myself LOL!! So I said let's do it!!

Just had to throw this in here...This is what I mean when I say "redneck ride" LOL, lifted with big mud tires!! Can you imagine, I had to lift a baby carrier into this thing and no kidding when I was standing next to it my shoulder was about even with the bottom of the door!!



From there we spent some time researching area's we wanted to be and really you couldn't get diddly squat for a reasonable price!! So we started looking a little further out and finally when we found our house it was an obvious YES this is where we are supposed to be!! We had already purchased our first 2 horses and over the years the numbers have just grown!! On top of the 8 horses we now have, we also have 2 steers, 3 pigs, and of course cats and dogs LOL!!

So the answer to your question GP is yes, I often think about my road to here. And I am so amazed that God has blessed my life so greatly. I can't even put into words how I feel when I'm here on the ranch...There is no place on the earth I would rather be, and there is no way I would EVER move back to the city!!! One of my favorite things about the town we live by is that we have 1 stoplight and it's actually just a crossing zone!!! How much better can you get!! Oh and just to let you know the answer to "how would I survive being more than 10 minutes from Walmart", I survive GREAT!!! Actually I hate having to go there now LOL!!!

So when I say "City Girl turned Country Girl" I mean that my heart is finally at peace because I am where it always wanted me to be!!