Who Pooped?

Now anyone who has spent time with my family would know that my parents are two very different people.  My mom’s sense of humor is the polar opposite of my dad’s. While growing up my brother’s and I knew exactly what we could joke with my mom about and what my dad would have reprimanded us for. (Seriously, I remember once Matt was very gassy and he was told he needed to either use the restroom or go to his room. Those were the options my father gave him) so, when it comes to bodily functions, they were not to be talked about any further than a simple, “Excuse me”. My dad and I can joke about a lot of stuff, but that was off limits, no question.  (I know, those of you who know my brother this might come as a huge shock to you)

Fast forward to the Smith home now.  We have an almost 2 year old yellow lab that is technically a service dog for 4Paw for Ability. The deal is we could train her to be a service dog, but if we loved her she would stay at our home and become a breeding dog for more service dogs. It took about 2 seconds for our family to fall in love with her, so needless to say, she is sticking around.

The only problem with this dog, she doesn’t listen. At.All.   She has been through professional training and even spent an extended period of time at what we called “prison” being trained. Nothing has worked.

This dog, Miss T, loves to carry around treasures. Unfortunately, now that the ground is frozen her treasures have become none other than clumps of frozen poop. And we aren’t just talking about dog poop, cattle and horse poop are major finds for her. She picks it up and tries to bring it into the house. Never in my life would I think I have to check a dog for clumps of frozen poop before I let her in the door.

The other day, she snuck some in. My mom found Miss T, on their bed (on top of the beautiful comforter set I got her for Christmas last year), and she was playing with none other than frozen poop. Mom flipped out. Now, I wasn’t here at the time, so I don’t know exactly what was said, but  the dog got in so much trouble that now, whenever anyone says “Poop” around her, she tucks her tail and stops whatever she is doing.

Out of everything we have tried, saying the word, “pooped” gets this dog to calm down.  Are you kidding me! How is that for irony? In a house where passing gas wasn’t even discussed, the sentence “Who Pooped” must be said in order to control the dog. Now it gets said all the time around my house. My mom and I can’t stop laughing about it, and it’s become so funny that even my dad has cracked a smile while saying “Who Pooped” to her.

A word of warning if you ever stop by, don’t take it personally if we ask, “Who pooped?” We aren’t directing it towards you!

God Bless 'Murica!

Man, sometimes do you ever just laugh to yourself? I spend most of my day laughing at the stupid stuff that comes into my memory. I was walking with Cara (and maybe Cory) Lawson back from and OSU football game and we saw a sign hanging up outside a apartment on Lane Ave. and it just made me laugh and laugh. So, of course I am going to use it as a blog post title, right!

Have you ever thought through the path to how you got to a certain point? This morning I was thinking about how I met me friend, Mike. Well, I met Mike through Adopt a US Soldier, which I found one day while I was looking on the internet. I was looking on the internet that day because as I was reading “Angel from Hell” by Ryan Conklin.  He is the incredibly hunky prankster who was a cast member on MTV’s real world. Ryan is really the only reason I watched the Real World that season, because as I mentioned earlier, he is incredibly hunky.  I could go keep going about why I watched the first episode of the Real World Brooklyn, (which is because of an episode of “The Soup” that I watched with John Shaw, but I think at this point, it would just be better to stop J )

So back to the glue that holds this all together, Ryan. Ryan is also Iraq War Vet. Let’s call a spade a spade here and admit that in my eyes that only adds to his hotness. So, of course I would read the book he wrote about his first tour in Iraq. I really enjoyed his book. It’s the first Iraq memoir I have ever read, so I don’t really have much to compare it too. I can say this, he’s a guy who wrote about his day to day life for the first year he was in Iraq. He’s not polished and he’s not fancy, but I really enjoyed his book.  In his book, he talks about how one of the greatest gifts he got in Iraq was a guitar he received from a stranger. This got me to thinking, I could be stranger who sends people stuff. So, I started to look on the internet on how to go about that. I ran across many different sites that explained how you could write letters to soldiers, how you could send care packages to soldiers, even sites that are specifically for dating soldiers. But the site that got my attention the most was www.adoptaussoldier.org. Basically, you “adopt” a soldier for their entire deployment. They could be deployed anywhere, but most soldiers are in Iraq and Afghanistan. As I read all of the posted information I knew I wanted to be apart of this. So, I signed up. I waited patiently as I waited for my soldier’s information. I wondered a lot about who my soldier would be. Would I get a male or a female? Would they be married? I worried a little about being assigned a married man. Not that anything in appropriate would happen, but I would rather not be sending a married man that I don’t know care packages. If I was married and this was something my husband and I were doing together, I would feel differently, but whatever. I also didn’t want to “request” an unmarried man, because it is plastered all over the website that this isn’t a dating service. (Go to those other website for that J ) After a few days, I received an email about my soldier, Mike. It always wigs me out a bit to say, “My Soldier” but whatever, that is what people say.



Have you met Mike?



I wrote Mike an e-mail. Then I printed off the e-mail and put it in the mail along with some other little tid bits of info. Some soldiers will give a lot of information when they sign up, and some don’t. Thankfully, I had some information on Mike and could put things I thought he might be interested in. Thankfully, Mike is a sports fan, so that gave me plenty of things to talk about! One thing about Adopt a Soldier is you can’t expect letters in return. It’s nice, but they are a little busy and might not have time to get back with you. Christmas day I was so excited because I received my first e-mail from Mike! What a Christmas present!

Mike and I have exchanged e-mails back and forth for awhile now. I really enjoy reading his e-mails and learning more about what is happening overseas. I have never really had a “pen pal” per say, so this is defiantly something that I am all about right now. Mike in the Army Reserves and back in  Minnesota he is a police officer; He has a beautiful little baby named Shane. This is his second tour overseas and he is currently stationed in Afghanistan. I thank him greatly for his service both stateside and overseas.



Yeah, not gonna lie, I think this is cool!



I asked Alan Evans the other day (Amber Gilbert Evan’s hubby) if he got lots of letters from strangers back home. I asked if they were cool, or just kinda annoying? I wanted to know if me writing soldiers was really worth it, ya know… Alan actually told me something that I didn’t expect to hear. He said the letters really boosted overall moral and that they were really important. They were a constant reminder that people are appreciative of them. He talked about how family and friends are always going to say thank you and tell you how proud of you they are, but hearing it from strangers really makes a difference. I guess that just isn’t something I ever really thought about.

A lot of the websites I came across had the same basic message. These troops need our support. If you are for our actions overseas or against them, it doesn’t matter, there are still troops that need our support either way. I also think of troops that are deployed that don’t really have a lot of family or friends back home supporting them. Could you imagine being over seas for a year and not hearing from anyone? That just breaks me heart.

The more and more I looked into this, the more and more I learned about ways to support our troops. I even found an organization that helps soldiers preparing to deploy find temporary homes for their pets while they are gone. If you don’t really want to “adopt a Soldier” for the long haul, you just want to write a letter to “any soldier” from time to time, do some exploring and decided which organization fits you best and how you can help. There are so many organizations the help our awesome troops when they return home as well! (Expect a blog sometime this year about the Wounded Warriors Project and Warrior’s Wish Foundation, which both have taken my heart by storm)

Basically, there are things we could all be doing to show support to our troops. If you have friends who are serving, send them an email or even better, write them a letter today just to say hey. I am forming a really awesome friendship with a police officer from Minnesota, (If I am honest, I am getting more out of this than he is, but hey, that happens) which I never would have formed if it wasn’t for a trail of not so random things that connected us. Do something today!  Do some research and sign up too help! If you want more information on what groups I have researched, let me know, I will gladly share what I have learned.

To ALL of our troops, no matter where they are stationed, I thank you for service! I pray that you are very dangerous and that you do your jobs well. Know that people are praying for you and for your loved ones! To my friends who are currently serving (and those of you who are trying to figure out where the arny will take you next) I wish you well!  I also want to wish Dusty Clement the best as he is preparing to leave for the Army in March! Thank you all for all you do!

You Want Me to Run How Far?

In June of 2010 when I decided to run the Columbus Half Marathon I knew it would be a lot of hard work. I started training on my own and I am not gonna lie, it sucked. It was hot out last summer, really hot. Training in 90+ degree heat isn’t ideal. I was way overweight, completely out of shape and I had just paid money to go run 13.1 miles. I would go to the Y, try to run just a simple 3 miles and I would be out of breath and would have to walk. I hated it. After my first couple attempts at runs, I really knew how hard it was going to be for me to complete the 13.1 mile trek that awaited me.

Us after the race with our finisher's medal. The fishisher's medal
might secretly be the  only reasons I run races, the hardwear!
I wore my medal all day, which is something I do after every race!

But, I still did it. I worked hard, I made it a priority and I set my mind to accomplishing this task. Thankfully, the Lord blessed me with Ashley Stalling, who I have no doubt is the only reason I completed my half marathon without walking. A running buddy made all the difference. I was so proud of myself last October when I crossed the finish line. It was something I had worked hard for and I had finished my task better than I thought I would have been able too. I’m not a fast runner, it still took me 2 hours and 28 minutes to finish it, but I finished it. During that race I remember a girl wearing a T-shirt that said, “Dead last is better than did not finish which trumps did not start”. What a great way to look at it! After the race Ashley and I, along with another member of the Marathon for the Cure Team were interviewed about the race. We were interviewed by an Olympian, but no one bothered to tell us that! Have no fear, you will all be getting an email challenge to join the Marathon for the Cure Team later in the year :)

Since I started talking about “The Year of Awesome” I have had a lot of people say that would like to run a race…. Any thing from a 5K to a full marathon. Well, this is what I am challenging you all to do! May 7^th the Cap City Half Marathon will be happening in Columbus. There is also going to be a ¼ marathon as well as a 5K (3.1 miles) and you should do it! Decide today what distance you are going to do. If you have to walk, who cares, no one is judging! It’s the middle of January and that gives you plenty of time to accomplish this goal. I would love to see as many of my friends at the Cap City Half (or whatever distance you decide to do) as possible.

My dad gave me an article to read the other day about these two guys who are in their 90’s who run marathons. One of them walks with a walker, and he is still doing marathons. A read another article recently about a man who has cerebral palsy who pushes himself with one leg going backwards in a wheelchair and had completed over 16 marathons. Most of us have 2 good legs and are just too lazy to do it. My dad asked me the other day something along the lines of “Do you think you can do that?”, as we were talking about my desire to want to complete a 70.3 (Half Iron Man) and I said, “Well, I think there are lots of things I can do if I just train myself to do it”. His sneaky reply was basically, “Well, I can’t put a computer together,” I just replied, “If I tried hard enough and learned how to do it I could”. He just smiled that smile of encouragement I have been blessed with my entire life. I am honestly starting to believe when it comes to things like this, most people can do most things, as long as they work hard enough to do them.

So, will you join me? I will be glad to have people join me on runs or answer any questions people have. I’m not an expert, but I bet we could figure something out. There is a local running club at the Y that meets on Saturday mornings. Its free, you don’t even have to be a Y member. It has people who are all out trying to accomplish the same goals that you are! Decide today what you are going to do, then do it.  

http://www.capitalcityhalfmarathon.com/ - Check it out and get signed up! This is a reasonable race that is going to be flat. There are all sorts of distances you can run.You are way more likely to actually do it, if you are signed up and training for it. If you don't have a date picked out, it will never happen.

"The hardest part about running is putting on your running shoes and walking out your front door." - Mike Coder

Some people go to Hair Shows, I go to Grazing Conferences

On Monday, my dad and I took off on an awesome adventure to the south. Yes, the south being Louisville, Kentucky for the 2011 Grazing Conference, sponsored by DFA and Dairy Grazing Services. Yes, I went to a conference completely focused on grazing cattle. Something oddly enough, turns out to something I think is rather interesting. Boy, there is a lot to talk about when it comes to grazing cattle. A.Lot.

 This is seriously the face my dad
gave me as I explained my blog.

My dad and I have never actually gone on a multi-day trip, just the two of us. Once arriving in Louisville and checking into our hotel we decided to get some grub. Staying in downtown Louisville offered a large variety of eateries, but we picked the ever so popular “Hard Rock Café”. At dinner, I explained my blog to my dad, which is now refers to as my “blob”. I could see by the expression on his face he isn’t near as excited about my “blob” as some of you might be. 

The threat of the massive snowstorm turned out to be just as much as a flop in Kentucky as it was in Ohio. We were staying on the 14^th floor, so we did have a fun view of the city. The snow that did actually fall created a beautiful white blanket across the rooftops.

Since the conference didn’t officially start until noon, we decided to make the most of our morning and head to the Louisville Slugger Museum. I looked up the directions and it turned out it was only about 9 or so blocks from our hotel. Louisville has this really neat skywalk system called the Louis Link. Thankfully, as I was asking directions from the Starbucks baristas, they let us in on the nifty Louis Link. It made me feel like I was in hamster tubes going from building to building as we walked. It was a nice way to stay dry and slightly warmer. My dad only took a light spring jacket, which was the main source of several jokes along the way. I was dressed like I was going out snowshoeing, while my dad was dressed for picnic in the park. So, the Louie Link let us see a side of the city I wouldn’t have seen from my typical 5’2” view.

As we walked through the tubes of the Louis Link, my dad spotted the handle of the giant baseball bat the stands in front of the museum and factory. I had been to the Louisville Slugger Factory once in high school, but I don’t really remember much about it. Our tour consisted of a family of 4, plus dad and I. We walked through the factory, got our tiny little souvenir bats and took a few photos inside the museum. Since there weren’t a lot of people in there, my dad let me take a few more silly pictures than he typically would have let me take. Enjoy these fun filled photos. J

Dad and I by the big bat. Love his
spring jacket. It started to snow
a lot harder as we walked. 

Shoeless Joe Jackson's Bat. I first
learned of this man as a yongster watching
one of my favorite films "Field of Dreams".

I didn't know Louisville Slugger made gun stocks during WWII.
A new fun filled fact I  just learned. 

I was really excited to see this! I wish I could convince my buddies
Kat and Brecken that we could make
these as our High Ball costumes. 

"What are you looking at?"
Ok, I made dad take this one.

Once the conference started the fun really began. Let me tell you. In all seriousness, I really did learn a lot at the conference.  I am kinda a nerd and really enjoy learning about why something works or why something won’t work. I also enjoyed listening to other farmers talk about their operations. That is something I really enjoy about my job in general, farmers love telling people about their farms, and I love listening to their stories.

The real excitement came when it was time for door prizes. As I turned in our raffle cards, I made sure everyone knew that “The Smith’s are Winners”. This of course turned out to be true. My dad was one of the second names called and he won a Leatherman tool. Hey, you can never have too many of those. The next set of give-a-ways I was hoping I wouldn’t win. They were gift certificates for $200 worth of semen. Granted, to almost anyone else at the conference, that was quite a prize, but really, what am I going to do with that? I know my desire to start a beef herd could have started with that prize, but I didn’t want it. After a large variety of items I have no use for were given away, a $100 visa gift card was up for grabs. I watched as they pulled my crinkled up raffle card out of the pile and I knew it was mine! I was so excited. The only raffle prize I could really use and it was mine! Yes! My dad and I weren’t the only winners, Mike Van Winkle won the “Grand Prize” of a visit from a grazing consultant to come evaluate his farm and give him a few pointers. A day with a grazing consultant will add to Mike's "Year of Awesome.", no question. He said he was going to take the consultant to breakfast at Burger King.  Knowing Mike, I wouldn't put it past him. He was given a day with a grazing expert and he treats him to some greasy hash browns and a crossantwich. Have fun, Mike!  

Overall, the conference was a great time. I met some really interesting people and learned a lot while I was there. Sometimes I guess Awesome comes when you least expect it. J 

Dad and I with the conference sign. Dad did not want to take this picture. 

Dad, Mike and Dave. Yeah, Dad wanted to take this one. Mike was really excited about all of the free stuff he was given at the conference.

Vest Bumps and a Homeless Dude.

Vest Bumps and a Homeless Dude…. Columbus is starting out “The Year of Awesome” on a great note!

This blog isn't just about me, but about other people out there who are doing awesome things!  

Wow, I am so excited about both of these posts, I’m not even sure which one I want to talk about first!!!! Ok, I flipped a coin, Buckeyes won! And did they!!!!! 

Ok, I’m no football analyst, so I am not going to pretend to be one. But I am a buckeye fan, so I feel that is something I can throw my own two cents into.  Last night was an emotional roller coaster. I have to admit, my attitude toward the game was a bit lack luster during the day. It’s a Tuesday, for goodness sakes… I know, excuses, excuses. But either way, when kick off came around I was ready to cheer on my beloved Buckeyes. The loom and gloom “Sugar Bowl” commercial that aired right before the game didn’t put a good taste in my mouth. It just made OSU look like their entire program was about to crumble over the NCAA investigations. It was stupid and I feel blessed I only saw it once.

As for the game itself, I am not going to go into detail. If you care enough to know specifics, obviously you would know of much better blogs dedicated to the topic than this one. This blog is about AWESOMENESS, the follow are items that I personally saw as Awesome last night:

 

Photo from the Internet.
Good job to who ever actually
captured this awesome pic!



1)      Vest Bump! Any true Tressel fan knows the importance of this, unlikely, burst of excitement from our clean cut leader. As the song says, “And he’ll keep his hair in place”

2)      Gameball goes to... Cameron Heyward, who led Ohio State's impressive defensive performance, keeping Arkansas' offense in looking battered and bruised. He should get more than a game ball, he should have the MVP trophy. Hey, maybe Pryor will sell it to him…. (I know, I know he said he was sorry…. Over and over again)

3)      King Solomon! Wow oh Wow! Solomon Thomas brought tears to my eyes as he intercepted the ball with 58 seconds remaining.  As I stood in my living room watching what looked like OSU getting ready to lose to, yet again another SEC team. he came out of nowhere becoming an instant hero to the Buckeye Nation.

4)      Breaking Curses! Yes, not just one, but two curses were broken last night. 1 being finally beating an SEC team, the other being watching football at my house. For the past several years, every game that has been lost I have watched from my living room. I was starting to freak out yesterday as I had cancelled my plans with BFF, Cara Lawson. I just wasn’t going to be able to head to Columbus that late. (Remember, it’s a Tuesday) Nor did I want to watch it in Bellefontaine. I decided to chance it and watch with it at home. Thankfully, the curse of the living room was also broken last night!

This win means a lot more than a simple “W” on the list. There was a lot riding on this game. And tonight, one hell of a football game was played. As my head hit the pillow last night, I actually said to myself, “As visions of bowl games dance in their heads” – Great night to be a Buckeye, great night indeed! Never Graduate. 

The other AWESOME cbus story to report is of the “Golden Voice”. All together this is an awesome story, feel free to google it to get all the details. I am just proud that this story is coming from the streets of Columbus, literally. I don’t know if I have ever passed this man while driving my jeep around Columbus. I do know the amount of help that is being offered to this guy is so cool. There have been so many things offered to Ted Williams in the last 24 hours, including a full time job with the Cleveland Cavaliers! Hey, at least someone appreciates a job in Cleveland. Hopefully Ted sticks around and doesn’t take his talents to Miami Beach. It’s just a great, heart warming story straight out of Columbus. Hats of to the Columbus Dispatch who originally posted the story, then WNCI picked it up, and it spiraled from there! I hope that people who have offered to help that won’t get the opportunity to help this man directly, take their offers to other needed people in their communities.

Ted Williams - Early Show - Check out this clip from the CBS Early Show. I love to his pictures of him from just yesterday, to the good looking man with a sharp hair cut and clean sweatshirt that was one the news this morning! (Oh, yes, I used the word “Sharp” my mother would be so proud)

Here is to second chances Ted! I will gladly share "The Year of Awesome" with you!

Happy New Year!

I am so excited to officially start "The Year of Awesome!" I started out this morning running a 5K named "The First on the First" A simple 5K in the rain is a great way to start out the year.

It was great to see so many racers out on this rather warm New Year's Day.  I had two lovely ladies racing with me today, Miss Ashley Stalling (Alice) and Miss Mamie McGuire. These ladies celebrated a bit more than I did last night... This made for some great comments before, during and after the race. This was the first race Alice and I didn't run the entire thing together.  But her and Mamie did just fine, as they were only a few short strides behind me.



Something I am starting to love in about racing is the amount of encouragement that is shared between runners. Sure there are running clubs and neighbors etc, so people know each other, but even more so I love the encouragement from strangers. Twice today we were taking walk breaks and both times strangers encouraged us to keep going. It makes me think the of the time last summer when I was running a 10K with Brecken Farnsworth in Idaho. I was running up this hill, which really wasn't all that bad except for the elevation, but I started to walk. Just as I started to walk, I heard a stranger say, "Come on you got this" I figure she was talking to the man who was wheeling his hand crack wheelchair up this hill. I joined her in encouraging him, but she turned around, pointed at me and said, "I was talking to you... you got this!" Its so crazy have just hearing those simple reminders can really change the outcome of the race. That girl was probably the same age as I was, and that sentence is all I needed to hear to get myself going.




Our new gadgets! I have the Timex, Alice has the Garmin.



While we were walking to the starting line, we heard a woman say, "Hey, that girl has the same shirt as I do." Alice was wearing her COAR shirt, so I had to investigate. :) It turns out this lady and her husband had been at the last Adventure Race we did in October. She said, "Wait, you are the girls on the website"... Of course, this made Alice and I both smile, its nice to be recognized, no doubt. We are going to be the racers spotlight for just a while longer, so check it out.    http://www.race-coar.com/   While you are there, you might as well get out your calendar and decide which adventure race YOU are going to be  doing this year! I have only done one so far, but I am planning on dragging Al to as many as I can.

All smashed into the car after the race!


Once today's race was over, we all headed in doors (which was a huge relief because indoor refreshments hardly ever happen at races) had ourselves each a pork sandwich and continued with our day.

Once I was all done with my race, I headed over to the McCutchen Home to make little Nora a TuTu. This TuTu was promised to her several years ago, as a bribe to get her to stop an annoying habit. She earned the lovely dance wear a while ago, but she just reminded me of my promise this Christmas. I was able to make this adorable   TuTu with an old wedding vail and ribbon. I had a few not so tiny anymore hands helping me out along the way. I am rather proud of my handy work and I have been told Nora has been a dancing queen all evening!

One of the best parts of the day was just sitting around playing apples to apples with some of my high school friends (and a few other bonus people :) )

Overall, it was the perfect way to ring in the New Year! So, here's to the start of "The Year of Awesome"