Nada Profound...just March

So I don't have anything profound to say in this posting...just thought I'd share some of our March going ons. Last Friday night, we had a fun night out at a place we call Comanche Hill. The property belongs to my uncle now, but it was the place we always had Easter growing up. I remember we always went to church and wore our Easter best. We then were so excited to head out to Comanche Hill to have glazed ham and my grandmother always had fun fun activities for all the grandkiddos including bubbles, pinatas, confetti eggs, Easter egg hunts, and so much more. I have GREAT memories from those Easter celebrations. My brother, Jason, owns and operates a company called Texas Precious Metals (www.texmetals.com) and his business partner, Tarek, lives in Argentina. Tarek and his family had the opportunity to come to the states for a month and we hosted his family out at Comanche Hill for a yummy shrimp boil (well for me yummy = the sausage, corn, and potatoes...icky shrimp!). We brought skeet shooting stuff and four wheeler and bubbles and built a campfire for stories and memories. Tarek's lil ones, Marianna and Sebastian, are SO cute!

Say hi to my parents!

The mighty men with great smiles - Tarek, Greg, & Jason

Cutie patootie Marianna cheesin with our yummy dinner

Fellowship!

Pretty girl....oh yeah, and a pretty sunset :)

Then this past Wednesday, we had the opportunity to see Blake Shelton at the Houston Livestock Show & Rodeo...which is weird because I'm watching Blake coach on The Voice right now. ha. Anyway, that trip was a colossal failure. We left at 4:30 thinking we'd get there around 6:30....wrong! We got into the arena at 8:30 because of horrible, terrible, horrendous, awful TRAFFIC! 4 hours in the car and we arrived at the very end of the calf scramble, which is the end of the rodeo :( They then set up the stage and Blake Shelton performed for an hour or so, which was great...and then we walked around the carnival for a little while and then drove home...and got stuck in traffic for about an hour trying to get out of the Reliant Stadium area....so, we drove 7.5 hours for a one hour concert. Probably not worth it...but at least we have that memory :)

Houston Livestock Show & Rodeo - Blake Shelton's stage

You'll be my honeysuckle
I'll be your honey bee!

Hali & Jason

I hate buying overly expensive food...but I told D that we had to get one cotton candy!
I was obviously very excited about it :)

HUGE carney!

How did Skye make it to the rodeo??

Nice fella offered to take our pic

This past weekend, we went to the Belmont Social Club in boondocks Belmont, Texas for dinner. Its an old restored BBQ joint that and they play live music on weekends and we got to spend some quality time with my Uncle Doug, Aunt Laura, Jason, & Hali. We then went back to their lakehouse to play Rummikub and Monopoly and make s'more in the fireplace since it was rainy rainy all day.
The next day, we headed down to Rockport and ate at Hammerheads and Moondogs.

We had a very relaxing overnight stay and got to hang out with my parents and watch "Forever Strong." We had never heard of this movie, but found it in redbox and it looked good....it was SO good! I truly believe that every father and every coach should see this movie. It was so inspiring.
Next day we slept late and my parents cooked us all a yummy brunch and then we headed home to get some work done.

Like I said, nothing profound...just our past couple weeks in a nutshell :)

Change is the Only Constant in Life

So today was a new day in the Ratliff family as Derrick started a new job this morning. This is kind of a brag blog on my husband, so please excuse my pride :) Yet again in his life, he was pursued by someone (fairly randomly) and offered a wonderful job. What a blessing! He's never actually applied for a job in his life...he's always been offered them while he was employed by someone else. To me, that just speaks of his character and competence.

He has been co-marketing manager with me for Ranch Hand Truck Accessories for a while now which has been awesome as we get to see each other all day every day. We worked together, shared projects, lived day by day. With the TV show added on top of that, needless to say, we spent A LOT of time together. Now he has vacated my office and his desk is so empty and sad looking, but he's got big opportunity ahead of him which we're excited about.

He has taken a sales position with Kaselco which is an industrial wastewater treatment company. http://www.kaselco.com/ Currently, its a world above and beyond my knowledge, although I'm sure I'll learn a lot about it in the coming months. Basically, the company technology is based on the concept of electrocoagulation, which is an electro-chemical process that simultaneously removes heavy metals, suspended solids, emulsified organics, and many other contaminants from water using electricity rather than expensive chemcial reagents. He will start off with the company LEARNING (a lot) and helping them develop some marketing platforms and when ready, will be launched into the sales world and will be doing quite a bit of traveling. He is now leaving home before I wake up, no longer sharing an office or lunch with me, and returning home after I get home...so its definitely a culture change in the Ratliff household. However, we have figured out lately that the only constant in life is change, and we are embracing that concept as we welcome change. We get bored with the status quo quite easily, and we know there will be much more change in our lives, sooner than later, before it is all said and done.

So, that is the skinny on our current lives. The TV show is wrapping up...we can taste and feel the freedom that that will provide, and Derrick will be eagerly diving headfirst into his new gig. I will be home alone in my Ranch Hand office continuing the work set before me, spreading the Ranch Hand brand nationwide, which has been rewarding and quite engaging. Lots to be done, which is a good thing, as I like to be busy!

So for now, here's to change for Derrick! Prayers are appreciated for him...I'm so very proud of him!

The Weekend Report

So to follow up on my last sappy love letter blog, I figured everyone would want to know how our weekend went. :) In one word...awesome! Derrick planned a wonderful weekend for us and for the first time in SO long, our goal was exclusively to have fun! We didn't have anything we needed to do hanging over our heads which was a wonderful feeling. The TV show is about 80% done, so we are finally starting to feel the relief of the stress of that that has lived with us for almost a year. 

We got to Fort Worth about 10:30pm on Friday night and pulled in to a beautiful hotel Derrick had booked for us. 

We got checked in and then headed down to the stockyards to get the lay of the land to figure out what we wanted to do the next day. The next morning, we headed out at about 10 and got to see all that the Fort Worth stockyards has to offer. Unfortunately, it was raining the whole day and got pretty darn chilly, but it was still fun. We ate at Riscky's BBQ and saw all of the cute shops as well as the 11:30am cattle drive. Derrick loves Texas history and his dad and granddad both actually sold livestock at the stockyards when they were operating auctions so it was pretty special for D. I LOVED the beautiful furniture store and rustic features everywhere...totally our style!

Standing on the railroad tracks that has held many a train with many an animal.

The biggest longhorns you've ever seen!

Yummy lunch! 

So many cute shops! This was the Candy Barrel...we didn't buy anything, just liked the barrels :)

 After we saw everything there was to see at the stockyards, we headed to Braums to burn an hour so we ate ice cream and talked. We then went to the movie theaters to stay warm & cozy while it rained away. We saw This Means War...which on a moral level, I cannot recommend, but it was pretty darn funny. 

Yes, my ice cream was blue. It was birthday cake :)

After the movie, we checked into our new hotel and then headed back to the stockyards to Billy Bob's because Derrick had bought two awesome tickets to the sold out Band Perry concert!!! It was SO good and such a neat place and we watched the nightly bull riding before the concert. So much history there and so many Texans! :) One of the most well known dance halls in the world!

Such a great concert! Favorite songs were their rendition of Amazing Grace/My Chains are Gone and If I Die Young.

After a late night at Billy Bob's, we slept late the next morning and then drove the 45 minutes west to Granbury to spend the day with our incredible friends, Trent & Kelley. It has been WAY too long since we have last seen them and we finally got the chance. I LOVE those friendships that pick up right where they left off. Trent and Derrick were roommates for 3 years in college and we have so many great memories with them. They are a special, special couple whom we love so much and are so very grateful for. We spent the night in their beautiful home and we got the tour of Granbury and of their schools. Trent is a football and baseball coach and 10th grade history teacher and Kelley teaches 3rd grade. Seeing where they live and what they do was so much fun. Then they introduced us to a neato restaurant called Babe's where you order your meat (smoked chicken, fried chicken, pot roast, chicken fried steak, or friend catfish) and then they bring family style bowls of mashed potatoes, green beans, corn, and the best darn biscuits you've ever tasted and you pass them around and then just ask for more when your table needs more. There was tons of meat and the sides were unlimited and they were SO good. It was such a cute place and a brilliant concept for a restaurant! 

Coach Phillips...I love that!

Trent & Kelley in Trent's element. They had beautiful facilities! Go Pirates :)

We had Monday off of work for President's Day which was really odd for our company, but we didn't get anything for New Years so they dropped a holiday randomly into the year. It was actually kind of nice because there really aren't any holidays between Christmas and Easter so a day off in February was nice. That made our weekend even better as we got to fit in a day with the Phillips without worrying about anything. They did have school on Monday though, so making ourselves going to bed amidst great conversation was a hard thing to do! 

Thank you to my sweet husband for making the weekend possible. It was wonderful!

Love is...My Husband

So a lot has been going on in our lives that has caused a lot of stress and turmoil. Just lots of upcoming change and the stresses that go along with growing pains. We had a rough night last night with some tears and comforting, but went to bed together knowing we loved each other and that good and exciting things were ahead. This morning, I woke up and Derrick handed me a cute Charlie Brown card and a Russell Stover candy heart and I thought it was the fairly typical lil Valentine surprise, but no, no...that was just the beginning. After the sweet and loving note he wrote to me, there was a Clue.

Clue 1: You are so beautiful and hot and you really light my fire.
        (sorry if too much info but important to the story) :-D
He told me it was a clue to another clue upon which I made my way to our fireplace, which has been a favorite thing for us lately during the cooler weather. Inside, buried in the ash was an oddly shaped piece of wood with the following...

Clue 2: With you, I always feel safe and confident and you always have my combination.
To which I responded by making our way to our safe which contains our valuables...glad I remembered our combination! :)

Clue 3: I love how you always have my back as we drive down the road of life from that first drive we took on our wedding night.

See below for a little flashback to our wedding night....and upon the steering wheel of Derrick's 1950 Chevy truck I found the next one.

Clue 4: I love how I know you will be with me in this window of time we have together and how that makes me feel. Knowing that is all that really matters to me. 

And in the window sill of our living room, I found...

Clue 5: Now you have all the parts to I love you. Put them together and with Google's help you'll see where we are going! 

Now, embarrassingly, I actually had a really hard time putting the puzzle together :) but to my defense, one of the pieces was upside down which was really confounding haha.

And wah-lah!

He sawed out the heart and then cut it into pieces

And upon turning it over....Valentines Surprise!

On the back, was "2520 Rodeo Plaza 76164" which upon googling is Billy Bob's Dance Hall in Fort Worth, Texas, where he bought front row seats for The Band Perry for this weekend along with an amazing hotel in downtown Forth Worth!! Wooooooohoooooooooo! I can' wait!!

Today is mine and Derrick's 10th celebrated Valentines together....whoa!! A friend pointed out to me today that 10 years is a DECADE (yikes...that's what getting old must feel like :) We had our first Valentines in Temple, Texas, at Pignetti's Italian restaurant, which is where Derrick chose to take me back to the night he proposed to me....Again, a flashback...

December 2006

There are many skeptical people around Valentines Day, which is understandable considering the amount of pain and lost love in the world...but I know in my heart that true love exists and that men like my husband do exist...and I love him for being him and for loving me unconditionally. 

1 Corinthians 13:4-7  Love is patient and kind; love does not envy or boast; it is not arrogant or rude. It does not insist on its own way; it is not irritable or resentful; it does not rejoice at wrongdoing, but rejoices with the truth.  Love bears all things, believes all things, hopes all things, endures all things. Love never ends. 

To top off my Valentines blog post, I'd like to share a poem that my Dad showed to me today that he found in a collection of poems written by my great-grandmother, "Honey." She wrote this for my grandparent's 25th wedding anniversary in 1977, but I think its appropriate for any couple who shares love like ours...


"Two Birds"
I saw two wild birds flying
At dawn, across the sky;
I heard their voices mingled
In a solitary cry,
And though the dome of heaven
Stretched endlessly and blue,
And the sky was wide about them,
Still wing to wing they flew.
Then as their forms diminished,
And in distance disappeared,
I knew that they were not alone,
And knew not lonely fear.

At eve, I saw them coming,
On the waves of darkness tide.
Like white winged ships they beat their way,
Still flying side by side.
And when their wings were folded,
And their wandering forms at rest,
I heard their drowsy chirping,
In their warm and cozy nest.
And then I thought, my dear, if I
Could take your hand in mine,
And lead you through the ways of life,
'Twere happiness divine.
Your face would be my guiding light
To cheer my each endeavor,
I'd know no fear or failure then,
If we were but together.
And when at last our tasks were done,
And we were safe at home,
In cottage small or castle hall,
I'd never be alone.
And tho I drooped from weariness,
I could not seek my rest,
Until I felt you nestling
Close against my breast.
And if some day, my feet should stray
To heavens golden strand,
I would not care to enter there,
Unless I held your hand.

-Mary Elizabeth Welhausen aka Honey
         my great grandmother

Why are they called Wisdom Teeth?

February...whenever I think of February I think of pink and red. Amazing how a month can get a total stereotype. Although I suppose December lives with red and green and November with orange and brown and July with red and blue. I love holidays! Although in our lives, one February day received the red and green crown as we got to have Christmas in February. Our Goddaughters who we talk and blog about often had some Christmas presents awaiting them which they were supposed to get before Christmas, but due to a terrible outbreak of hospitalizing stomach viruses in the Mader household, they got postponed. Then other plans fell through and we weren't all able to be together until February 4th...so being the great momma that Brittany is, she pulled out the mini Christmas tree and the Christmas jammies and baked cinnamon rolls and found the Santa Claus hats and we had ourselves a very merry Christmas morning :)

We got the girls a super cute growth chart for their room as well as box of 100 cookie cutters. The girls are learning their alphabet and numbers and animal noises and such so we figured they'd start out being played with on the living room floor (and scattered all over momma's house) and then someday turn into a fun activity with play-doh and then cookie baking. Who doesn't need cookie cutters! :)

Such a cute pic of my favorite girls

Derrick & sweet Karis

Daddy Ian couldn't believe the Hippopotamus made another appearance before the next December. :-D "Again" "Again" is the girl's favorite words in reference to this singing hippo haha

The girls kept referring to their new growth chart as "book!" "book!" That's one almighty big book :)

cooke cutters to spread out all over the house!

We had a fun time with the Mader crew and then got home in time for the Super Bowl.

Then I had a wisdom tooth extraction consultation on Monday. I've been putting this off for a very long time but really needed to go as my 4 wisdom teeth all came in more or less greyed out and dead. One of them chipped off a quadrant of tooth while eating lunch and I knew I needed to take care of them. Well lo and behold, the doc had an opening for extraction on Thursday so I decided to go for it. I have never been sedated so I was a little bit nervous just because you never know once you go down if you'll come back up, but I tell you what...if that was a way to die, it'd be the way to go. I remember her giving a shot into the IV thingy and her telling me it was to make my mouth and tongue really dry so they didn't have to deal with spit (jiminy Christmas did that stuff work! when I woke up, my mouth was the Sahara desert!). Then she gave me another telling me it would keep me from getting nauseous. Then she gave me another telling me it would make me sleepy and my vision would get a little blurry. I told her I'd never been sedated so what should I expect and she said it would just hit me. Well I remember watching the heartbeat monitor and it getting a little bit blurry, and then I don't remember ANYTHING else. They woke me up at some point and I assumed it was to tell me the doctor was coming in...no, no. It was to tell me I was ready to go home. What?! Whoa!! That is so weird to me that I fell asleep and the doctor came in and cut out my teeth and messed around in my mouth for a while and stuffed gauze into my mouth, etc and I had NO idea. I then stumbled down the hallway where my sweet mom was there to take me home. I remember opening an eye twice on the way home but totally slept the rest of the way. Then I remember Derrick being on our doorstep to greet me which made me very happy as I didn't know he'd be home nor did I know what time it was. I then stumbled into bed and slept the afternoon away.

Derrick came and checked on me often and the first snack I got was vanilla pudding. I was thinking this whole wisdom tooth thing would be a good calorie intake inhibitor but I think I was wrong. Your body is still hungry, but you can't eat normal things. So instead you eat ice cream, pudding, macaroni and cheese, juice, etc lol....which probably all has way more calories than normal food! Plus, when you have a sweet aunt like I do who brought me Blue Bell homemade vanilla ice cream, how can you help but eat it!!

Anyway, its now Friday afternoon and I'm home laying low. I had some vacation days I had to burn before Feburary 22nd or else I'd lose them...what a great way to burn vacation hours! :) So, we'll see if we make it out anywhere this weekend....I have a feeling I'll be totally bored by the end of the weekend :) Totally not used to 4 days at home in a row.

But since I have 4 days at home in a row, you get to read about boring ol wisdom teeth extractions :)....why are they called wisdom teeth anyway? Glad you asked! According to deardoctor.com:


Third molars have been referred to as “teeth of wisdom” since the Seventeenth Century and simply “wisdom teeth” since the Nineteenth Century. The third molars generally appear much later than other teeth, usually between the ages of 17 and 25 when a person reaches adulthood. It is generally thought among linguists that they are called wisdom teeth because they appear so late, at an age when a person matures into adulthood and is “wiser” than when other teeth have erupted.

Lately, science has added some credence to the idea that the third molar does indeed erupt when a person is “wiser”. Recent research has shown the brain continues to grow and develop right on through adolescence: in fact, most researchers believe the brain does not reach full maturity until the age of 25. Perhaps, then, our ancestors weren't so far off the mark — that the eruption of “wisdom teeth” is a sign that the carefree days of childhood have given way to the responsibilities of adulthood.

You learn something new every day!

Back to the Basics

So I've had an annoying amount of creative energy wanting to be released, but seemingly as usual, I don't have any place to put it right now! Christmas helped a lot as buying and wrapping gifts and all the festivities that go along with Christmas helped spend that energy in a positive way, but now that things have settled back down again, I feel like I'm living someone else's life as the things that are important to me just haven't really fallen into place yet. I've been in writer's block mode for a while now...really since Christmas...as there is so much complication that I really don't have anything I can simply write about.

A lot of change is happening, but none if it is clear enough yet that I can share.

In a brief summary of the rest of our lives, we are about 70% of the way through finishing up the show. Still a lot of work to be done, but we're definitely past halftime. We've got one more travel trip to Colorado on the horizon and Derrick is currently in north Texas filming a 24 hour coyote competition, but other than that, the traveling is wrapping up. The show has aired 4 weeks, and all the episodes have been great. Once 6 weeks is done, the whole 6 weeks will rerun and then a new 7 weeks will begin and then rerun through June. I'm not going to lie, we will be so happy to finish up this project. It has taken every ounce of our energy and way more of our money than we'd planned. I'm ready to have a life and husband back. I'm sure we will look back on it as a positive thing in our lives, but we're ready to go out to dinner and a movie without feeling guilty that we're not spending our evening editing film or filming interviews or something. The reality of making a TV show is 20 million times harder than you'd think. Derrick is grateful he had this opportunity though, and therefore, I'm excited for him. He always tells me "Just think about when I get to tell our kids that their mommy was on National TV before they were even born. They won't believe it!" haha

Other than that, we're just plugging along at work where our company is setting records every month and growing faster than manufacturing can keep up. In a world where there is so much instability and financial distress, we're grateful for that blessing. Most companies can't say that their supply can't keep up with the national demand!

Lastly, I am reading Basic Christianity by John Stott. Through a really odd but really awesome friendship I've been forming long distance with a girl from Chicago, I've been provided the challenge of digging into the basics of my beliefs and going back to the groundwork of what Christ has done for me. Through the confusion of my life and the confusion of some of the things the Lord is doing in my life right now, this has been a positive thing. He knew I needed to remember what I believe and WHY I believe it; therefore, I believe He has provided this friendship for me that has both encouraged me and challenged me. I've also been spending some time with The Evidence that Demands a Verdict by Josh McDowell which was written by a pronounced atheist whose goal it was to research in order to prove Christianity a farse. However, through his research, he came to the undeniable conclusion that Christianity could only be true. Basically, the book is kind of like a text book. An 800 page compilation of his years of research. Definitely one for the bookshelves to have as reference material. Excellent stuff.

"You have made us for Yourself, and our hearts are restless until they rest in You." -Augustine

Christmas has come and gone. Always a bittersweet moment as Christmas is FUN but I'm sad when its over. I'm that person that leaves their Christmas tree up until January 15th or so...until we decide its kind of ridiculous that its still up :) Christmas was BUSY but FUN as usual. We had the Hiller family Christmas on Friday night and got see cousins we haven't gotten to see in a long time. Good times!

My cousin, Kheili, bought Jason a pair of his goofy glasses since he lost his others when they were hanging out together in Austin. He was a little bit too excited haha

Grandpa & Grandma with Will & Megan's kiddos...Eli, Layelah, & Lily

The remote control car Eli got was the hit of the party. Addi decided that she really did need one too :)

Ryan, Amy, & Addi

Mom did a beautiful job decorating the house preparing it for Christmas!

Saturday morning was Christmas with my family. Its always a nice, low key time with my parents and brother. Santa (my parents) were awesome to us this year. We got lots of beautiful things for home!

Lots of BIG gifts this year! 

Can't have Christmas without eggnog! :) (I know I just got a bunch of ewwwwws lol)

Jason's wrapping job. What's wrong with Wall Street Journal wrapping paper? 

My wonderful parents...they blessed us this year for Christmas!

The 3 of us...

Christmas Eve night was spent at Daddy Don's...my dad's dad's house. This is always one of my favorite Christmas get togethers as I love to catch up with the Kaspar cousins. We've always all got a long so well and its great to see everyone. And, now we have a baby to add to the mix and Baby Arthur is so incredibly cute!!

My beautiful mom with Baby Arthur and my Aunt Josh (now Mama Josh) :)

Settlers of Catan! A new time consuming hobby for many of us

Uncle David's crew....Claudio & Baby Arthur, Carli, Aunt Josh, Uncle David, Joey, and Russell

Christopher always treats us to beautiful Christmas carol piano music every Christmas!

Me & My Love

One of my favorite families in the whole wide world! What a special crew!
Christopher, Aunt Laura, Kyle, & Uncle Doug! 

OK...so what's next. Ah yes! We left Daddy Don's at about 10:30pm and started our 5 hour drive headed north. Derrick drove for a while then got sleepy so I took over for only about 45 minutes then he woke up and was wide awake so he took us on in...arriving in Boyd at about 3:30am. Fortunately, we got to sleep late. We had lunch at Nanny's and then came home to open Christmas gifts since Logan & Kelly had Christmas morning at her family's house. 

The original Ratliffs :) What a cute family!! 

Logan & Kelly! Adorable!

Me & My Man...isn't he handsome?! :)

And last but not least.....Austin

Looks like a golf club and golf ball, but it was actually a wrapping paper cardboard with CDs taped to it. Creative Austin...

Derrick got a weed eater! He was so excited!

The coolest gift of the weekend! Logan, Kelly, & Austin worked together to make us these handmadeAggie washerboards. Soo cool!

Remote control helicopters for all her boys was a huge hit 

What a fabulous Christmas. So many blessings...both tangible and intangible. Thank you to all who helped make it special. Merry Christmas & Happy 2012!