Christmas Cards via technology this year!!

This year for Cody and I has been interesting. As you all know we got married in October of last year. Separated in December…no not really but felt like it. We always knew we wanted to get closer back to our families. The opportunity arose for Cody to accept a job for Kossuth County at the end of December so he packed his things and moved back in with his parents and started looking for houses for us. One of my co-workers so graciously took me in for 6 months. The plan was for me to find a job and then move north...life happens and things don't always go as planned, but everything happens for a reason...read on.

December went something like this…packed, packed and packed. Cody thinks I have too much shit…Blah Blah Blah. We went with Cody’s family to Florida for Christmas it was hotter than well ya know…but it was fun and of course Todd provided us with many great laughs. He found out Gold Bond medicated burns. Then we got off the plane in Des Moines and went to Indianola to finish moving out that day. I was exhausted.

January came and went, Cody plowed roads…I drove back and forth every weekend.

February came and went, Cody plowed roads…I drove back and forth every weekend there wasn’t a cattle show. Went to cattle shows, per previous statement, got to watch one of my favorite little girls on earth show her steer at the age of 6 and win her division at the Beef Expo.

March came and went, Cody plowed roads…I drove back and forth every weekend. Cody and I went to Chicago to watch the Cyclones play in the sweet 16. Sadly they lost and I cried but we had fun while we were in Chicago.

April came…Praise the LORD…Spring is in sight.

May came it was a horrible start to the month. Grandma Smith suffered a stroke on April 28^th, and she didn’t’ pull through it. Being the stubborn strong lady she was she hung on for a week and we all got to say our goodbyes. She could respond the first few days by squeezing our hands. She passed on May 5^th, losing a grandparent is never easy but losing a person that is so full of life at the ripe age of 89, and who you spent most of your childhood with on a daily basis is even tougher. I know she is with grandpa and they are resting high on that mountain watching over us all and probably watching cattle shows and basketball games.

June was the month we became husband and wife again…HALLUJUAH!!! Things were rocky at my last job, with the economy and all and being able to create your own websites on various sites now a days. Knowing that I was going to leave anyways I was one of the ones that got laid off. It really didn’t bother me much. However, it was hard saying goodbye to my coworkers that I had spent the last 8 years of my life with. So I moved to Lu Verne as well and started the job and house search.

July I was still searching for a job but we had found a house…yippee I thought whoofta we will be in there by end of August at the latest. Boy was I wrong it was in an estate so we had to wait till they could get it out of the estate and for us to purchase. County Fairs came and went(Cody clipped a lot) it was hot, we went to the lake. Oh did I mention I had inner ear infection over the 4^th of July. Right I know I mean who gets sick with inner ear infection in the summer and 103 degree temp…well this girl did. I no longer use q-tips apparently I’m a little too aggressive with them.

August is state fair time. So obviously we had that going on. However with trying to repaint the whole inside of the house and Cody not having a ton of vacation we only went for steer show day and not the whole fair. We actually debated missing the whole thing but I hadn’t missed one since I was like 2 and he probably has never missed one. August consisted of painting and painting and painting and using muscles I didn’t know I had, there were times I thought I was becoming Picasso himself. I helped in the dog barn, did chores around the farm when everyone was in Des Moines. Which included but not limited to…2 potbellied pigs, a few cattle at the time, way too many sheep, a goat that had polio at the time, a ram that had kidney stones and a catheter coming out of it (needed treated daily), show pigs that needed walked daily and rinsed oh and one had fungus so it had to have an iodine bath twice a day none the less, a dog in the dog barn that had some severe issues ended up not being able to walk. A sewer that was backed up in the in-laws basement, three dogs in the house, oh there are lots of cats but I didn’t feed them in hopes they would migrate somewhere else to get food or perhaps get hit by a car while looking for food, don’t worry when they are hungry they just pester the crap out of you till you feed them. AHH I hate cats. Not to mention Ava the dog had a diabetic attack and scared the crap out of me more than anything. Thank goodness Deanna came home in the middle of the night before this happened. OH happy State Fair time!!! Ended the month in Sioux Falls as dad gave us a scare that he had a stroke luckily it was just TGA (ya don’t worry we had never heard of it either) Google it. Luckily he came away with a clean bill of health.

September…in case you were wondering I was still painting, ripping up carpet, tack strips they hurt like a banshee, I wouldn’t recommend running one up under your fingernail; helped rinse calves for the boys to clip and watched it pour buckets I think we got like 2 inches in an hour that day. It rained some more, and well it basically rained every day for a week or 2. Since I’m not Michael Phelps there were days I debated if I should put a life jacket on before I went outside to fight the tsunami. Cody spent most nights working on the house. I went home a couple weekends to help my parents and brother with our sale. The end of September I took a seasonal job at Five Star Co-op and I loved it. I helped in the office during harvest.

October…we survived year one of marriage. It was a wild and crazy year but we are here to tell about it. Moved into the house the first week, whoop whoop FINALLY! It was a lot of work and well let’s get real $$ in improvements too.  Cody continued working on the house some and on the sale cattle at nights. Have you ever dreamed what it would feel like to be showered in corn, falling from hundreds of feet above you. Ya, me neither but I learned, and it feels like nails did I say it feels like nails and yes a bin over flowed. Like they say s%$^ happens though, we cleaned it up, living so close to the elevator I ran home got Cody's 4-wheeler and I got to play on the four wheeler for the rest of the afternoon. Working at the co-op, was long hours, which I liked (some did not); but honestly once we went back to leaving at 4 I was so bored, I didn’t know what to do with myself at nights. Can it be harvest all year long…no not really but really.

November… sale month again. Cody spent nights clipping!! I was at the elevator still but knew my time there was coming to an end…insert sad face. You see I was informed the lady that worked there was leaving after harvest…well that didn’t happen. So lucky me I get to look for a job again(sarcasm folks, sarcasm)!  Things I learned…common sense isn’t a natural thing for more people than you think, men can be more moody than women, some truckers have no clue what the cleanup sign in the bathroom means. When the elevator is a small confined space…everyone can hear everything if you are close enough to the door and toilets don’t clean themselves. One day was awful and well us two women have to use the restroom to go potty we can’t just go around the truck and go. I thought I could clean it, I have a fairly strong stomach, but nope, walked in there looked in the toilet, literally puked in my mouth you know like the acidic puke and had to exit immediately. Thank goodness one of my favorite truckers (trust me I have my “A” team truckers) came in and cleaned it even though he didn’t make the mess. I could have kissed that kid that day, and he reinsured me why he was probably my favorite. So if you weren’t on the A-team (a little over a handful of them) you were one of the others or you were the weird ones(about two of them), or you were Happy Ass (he literally had a happy face tattooed on his butt and you got to see it every time he opened the hopper; so I named him the above). Like I said a confined space, we all know that I get a little Closterphobic but not to worry I was surrounded by windows and went outside to sweep the bay at any given moment or help the guys with whatever they needed.

December hasn’t been that interesting I mean it snowed and it’s cold, you know things that are par for the course in Iowa this time of the year. Cody's parents went to Vegas for the NFR so I got to help with chores again. Trust me no need to go to gym when you throw 40 buckets a day, gets my arms back in shape a bit though. Chores this time were not nearly as extensive as it is when its fair season. Still way to many sheep, lots more cattle per the 40 buckets of corn a day, 10pm's in dog barn and now these darn alpaca's (let's not even get me started on them). Let's just say Danielle likes having the most random ass animals around, bless her little heart. Kip now has a fungus on his side, or what looks like a fungus I'm blaming it on the sheep, it could be from the cattle but ssshhhh, we are blaming it on the sheep. I'm just praying I don't get it, last time I got a fungus it wasn't pretty, if you want a good diet plan I will send you the picture of my hand; it'll make you loose your appetite real fast like. I miss the co-op and everything about it especially my Galbraith co-workers and my A-team! I haven’t started Christmas shopping yet, totally not like me, so I should probably get started on that, (going to Mason on Thursday with one of my best friends Nicole, shall be a trip of lots of laughs. So if you see two brunettes out bbopping around its just us know worries...just carry on with your day). Cody loves his job which makes things nice and we only live a block from the county shed, he is excited to start plowing roads and he is clipping for the next round of sale cattle.

Kip is adjusting to the town living thing, although he can't run like he used to and his barking is going to need to stop, ahhh!!. Well lets be honest we are all adjusting to it. I mean if you even call it a town (200 people its more of a tribe or village). We only live a mile from his parents so that has been nice as well; to just buzz out to the farm. However, we do have two amazing bar/eating establishments; one has good burgers and steak, the other has awesome pizza. So if you ever make it to Lu Verne give us a shout, especially if you get over served and need a place to crash for the night.

Our year has been a crazy road…but I wouldn’t trade it for the world. If your blessed enough to have me on snapchat you get to see some of the above shenanigans!

I hope 2017 bring you the best year yet.

THE HOLMES’
Cody, Jen and Kip.