One Tough Mudder

There's something truly satisfying about challenging yourself and then overcoming that challenge.
Two years ago I undertook a new challenge when I signed up to do my first half marathon in Nashville. Last year I competed in the same half marathon, but this year I tried something new.

Last weekend I participated in my first Tough Mudder. A Tough Mudder is a huge, frequently muddy obstacle course laid out over 10-12 miles. The goal of this obstacle course is not about the time required to finish it, but rather more about working together as a team to finish. Myself and two other girls I work out with were on a team with a group from another gym. My mother-in-law also came to cheer us on.
When I signed up to compete, I looked over all the different types of obstacles the courses may have. Some of them made me a little nervous, but I was excited to compete and see what I could do.

Since the Tough Mudder was in Topeka my mom, my sister and my niece were able to come watch as well. Spectators couldn't see the entire course, but they were able to follow some shortcut routes to see a lot of the obstacles.
It was great to hear my little two-year-old niece cheering me on saying, "Go Lyndee!" And it cracked me up when she started to cry because her mom wouldn't let her do some of the obstacles, too. She kept saying "I do it! I do it!"
When we got to the course, one of the first things we had to do was have our participant number written on our forehead and arm with permanent marker so we could be identified in pictures. You can't wear any bib numbers in this race - it would get too wet and muddy to read.

Our course was 10.9 miles long with 26 obstacles. Here are some of the pictures from the course.
The first obstacle was "Balls to the Wall". Here we had to do a rope climb to get over a tall wall.

These were the funky monkey bars. Rather than being level, they inclined and then declined.  

Here I was going off the "Walk the Plank" obstacle. You have to jump off a 15 ft. ledge into cold, muddy water. My friend Carole said we should jump at the same time. As soon as it was our turn, I looked at her and said "You ready?" She said "No." But I told her, "Too bad we're going any way." I didn't want to give myself any time to get nervous by standing and looking at the jump. :)

After we climbed out of the water, we had to slide down a mud hill. Sliding down/climbing over  muddy slopes was a very frequent occurrence during the race.

This was my friend Carole going through the electric eel obstacle. You had to belly crawl through the water and do your best to avoid the wires hanging above you - otherwise they'd give you a really good shock.

This was after I finished the electric eel. Luckily I made it through without getting zapped. Sometimes being small/short has it's advantages.

This obstacle was called Everest. We had to run up and over this sloping wall. I don't know if I ever could have made it up by myself, but thankfully other mudders are there to give you a hand.

This obstacle was called "Just the Tip". We had to make it across this wall hanging on by just our fingertips. The first part and the end weren't too bad - the boards were built out from the wall just a bit, so there was a little more grip. But in the middle a 2X4 was drilled directly into the wall so the only grip you had was your fingers across the width of the board. The fact that I can't stand to have long fingernails was very helpful here and gave me as much grip as possible, and I was able to make it across.  

This was the final obstacle - Electric Shock Therapy. You have to run through but the wires hanging down can shock you. At this point I was feeling pretty good about how I'd done throughout the course - but Tough Mudder got me in the end. I truthfully have no idea what happened - all I know was I was running through and the next thing I know, I've  face planted in the mud. Whether I slipped and fell or got shocked and knocked to the ground, the result was the same - A face, mouth and nostril full of mud.

I can honestly say this is the dirtiest I've ever been in my life.

Once you make it through Electroshock Therapy, you earn your Tough Mudder headband, shirt and a Dos Equis. :)

There were a lot of other obstacles, too, but these were some of the ones with the best pictures. We had a blast, and I may have to try my hand at another Tough Mudder in the future.

Call to me in times of trouble. I will save you, and you will honor me. Psalm 50:15

The other day I was reminded of how true this Scripture is. Prayers are powerful, and God loves to answer them. He might not always say yes, but if we go to Him, we give Him the chance to work in our lives. He will use our prayers to show us that He is always with us and always listening to us.

Happy Mother's Day! Hope you all enjoy your Sunday and have a good week.

Lyndee

Absence Makes the Heart Grow Fonder

At one point when my little sister, Annie, and I were growing up, we made a pact that if we didn't get married, we would live together in an old farmhouse with a big garden and barn raising pigs and cattle.
I thought this plan was the most magnificent idea ever. Annie and I were best friends, we loved all of the same things, worked well together, and always had fun… who needed to get married when this option was available? Honestly, how could being married to any man compete with the awesome life Annie and I could have?
…And then I met Taylor. With him in my life my ideas of "not needing a husband" flew right out the window (sorry Annie). :) Last week reminded me of just how much I do need him.

Last Saturday Taylor and I both had our bags packed to leave on a trip, but it wasn't a trip we got to take together. Taylor was headed to Vegas for his soon-to-be brother-in-law's bachelor party. I was headed to Denver to catch a plane to Orlando. My sister-in-law Eryka had chosen to go on a short cruise with her bridal party, mother, mother-in-law and aunt instead of having a specific "bachelorette party".

As cool as it was to be able to go on a cruise with them all, and as good of a time as we had, I gotta say I had a really hard time being gone from Taylor for a week on a boat in the middle of the ocean without the ability to call and hear his voice.
The worst part was leading up to our departure - the time while I was moving farther and farther away and knew that soon I wouldn't even be able to talk to him. Thankfully it got easier once we were on the boat. After we sailed away, there was no going back, so I was able to relax a bit and enjoy a cruise through the Bahamas. :)

One of our stops had to be cancelled because of bad weather, but otherwise everything was great. We spent time laying out on the boat, dancing at the club, watching shows & comedians. We watched "Frozen" while laying by the pool, climbed the rock wall on the boat, and went snorkeling in Nassau. I even got a massage at the spa on the boat.  The gentle rocking of the boat on the ocean made the massage even more relaxing.

A "Silent Party" - one of my favorite thins on this trip was the silent party. On the first night instead of playing the music over the sound system at the club, they had headphones for you to put on and you could pick which of the two DJs you wanted to listen to. At first I didn't know what to think of it, but it was A LOT of fun. My favorite part was when us girls were doing the Wobble, and everybody else busted out in YMCA.

It was a great trip, but by Friday I was chomping at the bit to get home to Taylor. Getting to be with him would have been enough, but I got some extra surprises since I'd been on the boat on my birthday. By the time we got back, he'd been home for a couple of days, so when I got home, there was a beautiful arrangement of flowers on the counter and a pair of diamond earrings to match the style of my wedding ring. The next morning when I went out to do chores, I found that Taylor had cleaned out the tack room of my calf shed, and bought me some shelves and cabinets and organized my calf supplies for me. I couldn't have asked for better birthday presents. He's a keeper! :)

Maybe I'd rather not take trips without my husband but, on the positive side, I guess absence makes the heart grow fonder. I can truly say I've appreciated each moment with him this past week.

Western Kansas Fact: Spring and green are not synonymous.  Growing up I took for granted that when spring time rolled around, things would turn green. We don't always have enough moisture for plants and grass to automatically green up as soon as the weather turns warmer.

Love suffers long and is kind. 1 Corinthians 13:4
This Scripture lesson made me think about how often I place my own needs and desires above those of others. I neglect the opportunity to show God's love through my actions. I pray that in the future I would recognize when my outlook and actions have become selfish, and then make an effort to change them.

Have  a wonderful weekend!
Lyndee

Old, Positively

On certain nights I wonder if people who drive past our house, but don't know Taylor and me, wonder if our little house on the hill is home to a 90 year-old couple.
After trying it for the first time last year, Taylor and I decided to give up TV for Lent again this year. However without TV taking up a portion of our evening, there are times when after supper is done and the kitchen cleaned, we go take a shower and crawl into bed. Taylor will usually stay up for a while reading before he goes to sleep. I love to read, too, but (since I inherited my mom's ability to fall asleep) it takes me a maximum of 30 seconds to enter a REM cycle once I'm laying down, so I don't finish books very quickly in bed.

Once this past week Taylor and I were both tired, so by 9:45 p.m. all the lights in the house were off, and we were asleep in bed. Yeah, we might have some habits of 90 year-olds, but I'm ok with that - I felt very rested the next day. :)

Rather than just giving physical things up for Lent, I wanted to do something that could have a more meaningful impact on my life. So I am working to give myself a more positive attitude. I decided that when a circumstance has a severely negative effect on my mood, I have to stop and list several positives about the situation. The other morning I had to tryout my attitude-adjustment approach.
I went out to do chores one morning before going to workout, but as I stepped into the garage, I was concerned to find the floor of the garage was rather wet as well as some of the ground outside the garage door. Water/plumbing issues can put me in a pretty sour mood. Later we figured out that there is a leak in our radiant floor heating system, and it was coming up out of the floor in the seam in the concrete between the garage floor and the concrete pad outside. Not exactly the best news to have, but I was able to find several positives points.

1. If there had to be a water issue, at least it wasn't in my house
2. The water didn't quite make it to the bag of milk replacer I had in the garage, so it didn't get ruined.
3. At least it happened when it wasn't extremely cold, so the water didn't freeze and mess up our concrete.
4. Some of the water that leaked outside went into my flower bed and will be good for my plants.

I, truthfully, was rather surprised at how much better I felt after finding some good things to focus on. For the rest of the day, whenever I thought about the leak in our radiant floor heating, I was able to counter it with a positive thought. It was nice to keep my entire day from becoming tainted by one bad event.

Last weekend, I went home for my little sister's bridal shower that us bridesmaids were hosting. We had  Mom's kitchen and living room packed full of ladies, and Annie got some great gifts! What made it really fun was that several of Annie's roommates (past and present) came up the night before and stayed at Mom and Dad's so it was like a big-girl slumber party only with a little less giggling and a little more sleeping throughout the night. :)

Annie & her roomies!

Annie & Grandma Patterson at the shower

The weather Monday was absolutely AMAZING. It was mid 70s with hardly even a breeze, and it's too early for any bugs to be out. I spent most of the afternoon outside cleaning calf pens, going for a run, and that evening Taylor and I worked in the garden doing a little prep-work to get it ready for planting. The next day was not nearly as nice because the wind was blowing like crazy - but I didn't let it ruin my attitude -  windy days make me really enjoy the nice days, and I was able to accomplish a fair amount of book work because I wasn't tempted to go outside instead.

A Scripture I really like recently was Matthew 25:40.
Anything you did for even the least of my people here, you also did for me.
I really liked the lesson that went with this Scripture. It reminded every person on earth is important to God, but often as I go through life, I frequently overlook people. I prayed that God would help me to see people the way He sees them and to show them God's love through my actions and attention.

I hope you all have a wonderful weekend!
Lyndee

My Enabler

I realized recently -  my husband is my enabler. He feeds my habit.
"Hi, my name is Lyndee, and I have an addiction to baby calves."
It started with two calf hutches. Then, this past spring Taylor got me a 3-pen calf shed.  And rarely do any of these pens sit empty because Taylor brings me baby calves from the feedlot. In the past two years I've taken care of 37 different calves.
And, just last evening Taylor brought me number 38 - a sweet little black brockle-face heifer I named "Alice" off of Seven Brides for Seven Brothers (or for my grandma) :)

Sunday afternoon was absolutely beautiful, so after church Taylor and I decided to work on a few projects that needing doing outside.  As we were working, I realized nearly all of our projects were created by/for my calves:
- Taylor getting the loader to move hay bales that helped block the wind from my calf shed when it was really cold earlier this winter
- Using the loader to pile up the old straw and manure I cleaned out of my calf pens
- Digging dirt out from my calf hutches to limit any bad bacteria
- Leveling off the dirt from the line that was dug to get electricity and a water line out to my calf shed

"The first step is admitting you have a problem" - well, this theory doesn't apply in this situation. I may have an addiction (and I know it), but I have no intention of trying to overcome it. :) I love taking care of little baby calves that would otherwise not have a chance. And I couldn't do it without Taylor. He gets me hay and straw, helps me doctor and work them, and on those sad occasions when a calf gets really sick and is suffering because it isn't responding to the medicine, Taylor puts them down for me. I'm so blessed to have a husband who gives of his time and effort simply to make me happy because he knows how much I enjoy my hobby of caring for baby calves.

Now the trick will be to always recognize all these gifts Taylor gives me, and make sure that I'm giving back to him as well. I want to put him above myself, the way he has for me.

Bently cuddling up with new baby, Alice

I'm also extremely grateful for friends like Jim and TJ, both of whom work at the feedyard. Jim frequently takes care of my calves for me if we're gone, and TJ, along with many other things, helped us build my calf hutch  pens and put in a water line to my shed. (It's a good thing they like cookies, pies, and quick breads and will work for food, or we'd be broke from how much I'd owe them for their help.)

Besides messing with calves, Taylor and I recently went skiing with his family at Crested Butte. It was such a blast! It was really cold while we were there, but we bundled up and had a great time. Because of when we went, there was hardly anybody else on the mountain. It was awesome not to have a ton of other people on the slopes at the same time. I like doing a few nice runs, but my favorite thing to do is to try and follow Taylor down some blacks. I'm about as skilled at doing the moguls as a house cat is at swimming, but I like to try. I'm sure I'm horrible to watch, but at least I skied down those parts more than I fell this year. :)

These are what moguls look like - (until I started skiing with Taylor I had no idea what they were)

Western Kansas Fact: We need moisture, VERY BADLY - please pray we would get some. But if you're going to pray, please be specific - ask for snow that would come without wind.  Blizzards kill cattle in a hurry.

 I was thirsty, and you gave me something to drink. Matthew 25:35
I needed to be reminded of the lesson that went with this scripture. A lot of times when I think of working or doing things for God, I feel like I need to accomplish something big for it to count. But this lesson reminded me that this scripture doesn't say "I was thirsty and you dug me a well." God doesn't ask us to perform miracles. That's His job. All He needs is for us to show up and offer our lives for Him to use. God can use the simplest acts that are done in His name - like offering the thirsty a drink - to make a difference for His kingdom.

Hope you all have a wonderful week!
Lyndee

The Magic of Christmas

There's nothing more special than the magic of Christmas. When I was little that magic woke me and my siblings up on Christmas morning about two hours earlier than normal. Then we'd go downstairs and traipse into Mom and Dad's room to wake them up so we could go see what Santa had brought (at this point Mom and Dad would inform us it was entirely too early to open presents, and they'd make us lay down next to them and rest until it was a reasonable hour - like 6 a.m.  It was torture). :)

Now the magic comes from different things - like shutting off all the other lights and enjoying the beauty of our own Christmas tree, or picking out the perfect gift for someone, and even though you know they'll love it, you're more excited to give it to them than they could ever possibly be to receive it. One of my personal favorites this year was sitting in the living room lit by soft Christmas lights, wrapping presents, drinking hot chocolate and watching the Polar Express. It doesn't get any better than that.

We did Christmas a little differently this year. Instead of spending Christmas Eve with one side of the family and Christmas day with the other, we spent both with Taylor's family, and then we spent a long weekend with my family. It was nice not to have to rush around trying to get from one place to the other and really get to spend time with each side of the family.

My favorite ladies in the world!

I think one of the best parts of my time back home was on Friday me and my sisters took my niece and nephew to their first movie at the movie theater. We watched the new Disney movie, Frozen. Oh my goodness, folks, it was ADORABLE!  I absolutely loved it! (I'm pretty sure the kids did too). :) I would recommend it for anyone to go see, especially those people who are lucky enough to have their sisters be their best friends.

We were beyond blessed this Christmas. I got a lot of wonderful gifts I know I'll really enjoy. Yet sometimes I think it might be better if we didn't worry so much about buying gifts for each other. What if we just spent the time together or offered ourselves and our time as a gift to someone else? One of Taylor's gifts to me this year was something along those lines, and it meant more to me than anything else I received. How great would it be if we brought more of that back into Christmas?

Taylor was very excited to wear the Santa hat. :)

I think this December went by more quickly than any other has for some reason. At the beginning of the month Taylor and I went to Vegas for the NFR with his parents and brother, one of our friends, as well as my sister and her husband and my cousin and his wife. It was the biggest group we've ever had go, but it was a great time. For me one of the most memorable moments was one evening after we'd gone to the rodeo, we were walking around the casino floor. As I walked by the roulette table, I saw a guy turn around and look at me. Then he stuck his hand out to me and said, "You're freakin' cute. I'm Rodney Carrington." You never know what will happen in Vegas. :)

A random picture with Rodney Carrington

From there the rest of the month flew by in a haze of Christmas preparations and trying to stay caught up on my articles for the Kansas Livestock Association.

Western Kansas Fact: When people in far western Kansas say "river." They probably don't actually mean "water."  The Arkansas river is just south of Lakin, but it almost never has any water in it. When anybody in Lakin says "the river," generally they really mean "the river bed" or "the place where the river used to be."

I want nothing on earth besides you. Psalm 73:25. 
I think this is a beautiful Scripture. It is true in my life, but sometimes I let that desire become covered up by earthly wants. I pray that each day God will help me grow in my faith so this phrase can be the most important desire of my heart.

I hope you all had a wonderful Christmas, and I pray 2014 will be a wonderful year for each of you!

Love,
Lyndee

The Same Thought

They say great minds think alike.   True or not, I don't know, but my whole life I've pretty much felt that the only other mind that had a thought process similar to mine, was the mind of my little sister, Annie.

We'd get ready for school together in the bathroom and have great conversations. At some point we made up a game where when one of us had mouthwash in our mouth, we would try to continue our conversation through a mixture of sign language and vocal tone inflection. The crazy thing was we could nearly always figure out what the other person was saying (I've tried this with Taylor without success).
Annie and I have also practically been banned from being on the same team when our family plays Taboo. We can always get each other to quickly guess the word on the card.

Apparently, Annie is not the only person I've shared a common thought with. In college I lived in a house with three other girls. One of these girls also married a boy from western Kansas and they live in the next town north of Taylor and I.  Recently I saw a blog post she had put on Facebook telling that they are expecting a baby.  The crazy thing to me was that her blog was also titled "Life in Western Kansas" and after I looked, I realized that she had started her blog 4 months before I had started mine. I had no idea; I didn't even know she had a blog. But after thinking about it, I decided to change the name and website address of my blog. In case you didn't notice, it's now called "Home on the High Plains" and the address is www.highplainsofkansas.blogspot.com

Lately Taylor and I and his family have been busy with one thing - milo. Pretty much the whole month of October was spent in the fields cutting milo. Yesterday we finished up the last field. Honestly I love harvest. I love being out in the fields, working with family, and seeing the results of our labor. Even so, we all were ready to finish cutting and get back to the normal routine.
We still had about a third of the field left when we started yesterday morning, and we figured we might be able to finish it up by mid afternoon. At about 12:30 the guy we were cutting for had finished the fields he was on, so his three combines came to help us. About 45 minutes later we were done. With five combines running, you can really cover some ground!

Western Kansas Fact: A handkerchief is an essential part of a wardrobe. 
We get some windy days out here (kind of in the same way Death Valley has some hot days). :) So maybe it's not quite that bad, but all together, there are probably a couple of weeks worth of days that are super windy. On these days if you're outside you may find that if you clench your jaw you're going hear/feel a lot of "crunch"-ing because of the dirt that has gotten in your mouth. A handkerchief tied around your nose and mouth is the way to go.

This is a video I took on one of the windiest days we had this year. We had gusts around 70 mph. No, it wasn't cloudy - that's dirt blowing around

Don't praise yourself. Let someone else do it. Proverbs 27:2
I really like this Scripture. It is simple and true. We need to be humble, and if we have to tell others about the "good work" we're doing, it probably isn't that good.

Hope you all have a great week!
Lyndee

New Eyeballs

"Lyndee" and "risky" are not synonymous. I don't like to push limits. I tend to be more of a "better safe than sorry" type of person.

That's why last Monday was kind of a big step for me.
Since about 2nd grade, I've had glasses. I can remember sitting at the kitchen table before school one morning trying to make the oh-so-important decision of what glasses frames I would wear for the next several years of my life.

When I started playing sports, I got contacts, and it was awesome not to have to wear glasses.  I thought that was about as good as it was going to get, but for the past year I've been thinking about LASIK eye surgery.  The risk-averse side of me said to just stick with the contacts. They allowed me to see without glasses with practically zero risk to my eyes. But the thought of not needing anything to see was just too enticing.

So after going through some tests to make sure I could have the procedure, I was scheduled to have surgery on Monday, October 14. My mother-in-law came with me to be my moral support and chauffeur.

When they took me back, one of the first things they did was give me a couple of Valium to help me relax. Then when they took me into the procedure room, the first step was to put me under a machine that went down onto one eye. Mostly it just felt like a lot of pressure on my eye, but if I remember correctly it kind of created a suction to my eye and then a laser was used to cut a flap on the top of my eye. Then I was shifted under a second machine. Under this machine, they just told me that I had to hold still and focus on the orange light above me. Then a laser would be used to correct my vision.
Even with the Valium in my system I was still very tense during this part of the process.  When they moved the flap to make the correction, it made it very difficult to see much of anything, so I was focusing every part of my being on that orange light and not moving underneath that laser (no worries, if I had moved too much the laser would have automatically shut off).
Thankfully this process only took about 20-25 seconds, and then the whole process was repeated for the second eye.

One of the things that I think stood out the most to me was the smell similar to that of branding cattle (although slightly less pungent) as the laser corrected my vision. :)

In less than 10 minutes I was out of procedure room.  From there Roshel took me home and put me to bed. They tell you to go home and go to sleep afterward to help your eyes heal more quickly, so I spent the majority of the afternoon in bed asleep.  And when I woke up later that afternoon, I was able to open my eyes and see clearly without glasses or contacts.  It was a pretty awesome feeling!

Before the procedure I was kind of nervous and felt like it was a bit of a risk to have LASIK eye surgery, but now that I've had it done, I would do it again in a heartbeat. And I would absolutely recommend Fry Eye in Garden City, Kansas. They did a fantastic job! Their patient care was superb, and they are very good at what they do.

By my follow up appointment the next day, the flap on my eye was already half-way healed and yesterday at my weekly follow up today, it had completely healed, and I now have 20/20 vision!
Now the only thing left to do is to delete the bi-weekly reminder in my phone to put in new contacts and take my glasses to the eye doctor to be donated to someone who actually needs them. :)

You were good to me glasses, but I have to say, I won't miss you!

These were the goggles I had to sleep in for the first week so I didn't accidentally rub my eyes without knowing it. Attractive, I know!

Earlier this month Taylor and I went back home for a nice, relaxing weekend with my family. On Saturday night, we had a weenie roast in front of my dad's machine shed. There's nothing better than simple family time around a campfire together.

Mmmm.... Chili dogs!

We've been looking for a used 4 wheeler to check our cows, build fence, etc. Taylor went to a consignment sale while we were at my parents and was able to find one.  Kolden had fun trying it out with Taylor that night while checking Dad's cows.

Annie taught us how to make a cinnamon fire bread that she had while in Austria this summer.

On a rather random note, while I was at Mom and Dad's, we drove by one of Dad's fields and a car was stuck in the ditch right next to the gate.

No one was in the car, but as we got to looking closer we could see that they had run off the road several hundred yards earlier, drove across my dad's fence, taken out a fence post, drove through the corn field, ramped a steep incline into the bean field, finally drove out of the field along the fence and as they went to get back onto the road, they missed the turn and ended up stuck in the drainage ditch. We were pretty ticked about the amount of crops that they ran over. But thinking about it now, I just would have really liked to have seen the whole thing happen. It must have been a heck of a ride.

Western Kansas Fact: Who knew there'd be a great place to have LASIK eye surgery done in Garden City, Kansas. I sure wouldn't have guessed that a lot of people travel to Garden City just to have this procedure done.

"Come to me, all of you who are tired and have heavy loads, and I will give you rest."  Matthew 11:28
When I'm feeling stressed this Scripture always brings me peace.  I love knowing that God doesn't want to watch us stumble and stagger beneath the weight of our lives. He wants to carry it for us.  He wants to give us peace in this life even when things are hard.

I hope you all have a wonderful week!
Lyndee