Monday, January 31, 2011

Where in the world are the Hatmaker's??

Because sometimes we have to ask ourselves...

Growing up, I always felt very fortunate than when my friends at school were here at home, I had the opportunity to travel all over the United States showing cattle and going to sales. Luckily, I married a man who loves to travel like I do and likes my family's business.

After a crazy busy 2010 with sales and wedding stuff, we thought of the idea of keeping a travel journal. We saw one of the cooks on the Food Network keeps a journal about places they eat and what they have. Not only food, but we wandered how many nights in 2010 were spent in a hotel room.




Therefore, for 2011 Drew and I decided to keep a travel journal. It is nothing fancy. It is a craft book I got when I was making Drew's wedding present. I decorated it myself and the pages are all blank inside, which I will fill with our travels. It will include all of our trips, restaurants visited, what we ate, and the hotels we have stayed in. I am really excited about this, and think it will be a great piece of our history and memories to have for years to come.

So far, we have Nashville for New Years, the National Western Stock Show, and a upscale little restaurant we tried out here in Paris.

So here's to all the wonderful places and people we have the opportunity to visit with in 2011!!

Thursday, January 6, 2011

Year in Review

2010 might have been the best yet!

I know everyone says it that last year was better than before, as it should be. Though for me, I feel like 2010 was defintely the best year yet. So many things happened that made me so thankful for the wonderful people,places, and experiences that are in my life.

One of the things I loved most about 2010 was having Drew to share so many great moments with. It always special to have someone to share all of life's moments with.

Let's start with the most important:

I married my best friend!


After months of planning, the big day was here! I was so ready to become Mrs. Hatmaker and spend the rest of my life with Drew. We were so blessed that so many of our out-of-town friends came in to share in this special day with us.

Traveled out of the U.S. for the first time!


Yes, it was for our honeymooon, but traveling out of the country was a very exciting experience. We flew out the morning after our wedding to the Bahamas. The water was so incredibly blue and clear; we didn't want to come home.

I'm becoming a better cook!


Drew and I love to cook together, and since we travel so much it's nice to be able to cook at home. We love to watch Food Network. I try really hard to cook new and different things plus we have all these fabulous wedding gifts to try out.

I graduated from college!


It might have taken some time, but I finally graduated from college. Sometimes it is easy to get discouraged, but I'm lucky to have great support from Drew, family, and friends.

There are so many great moments that happened in 2010, but I know that 2011 will be just as great. Year one of marriage is around the corner, my best friends are getting married and having babies, and hopefully somewhere out there is a job for me.

Here's to the New Year! Cheers!

Wednesday, January 5, 2011

Can I see your stick??

My dad has been in the Simmental business for over 30 years now. He's been the manager of some outstanding Simmental operations, then went on to begin his own business. His knowledge of the Simmental industry and cattle within our breed is unbelieveable. We often tell him he is the walking dictionary or phone directory of our breed because it seems everyone calls to ask him questions. I find every time he gets on the sale block on sale day that I become very proud.

CNS Dream On...(real)


But perhaps, one of the coolest moments was when he, Chris Schick, and Jon Janssen were awarded bronzed statues of CNS Dream On at the National Western Stock Show by ABS. CNS Dream On is the most influential and most used bull in the Simmental industry in the last few years, and has sold a lot of semen. Semen distributor ABS "bronzes" bulls that have sold record amounts of semen. There are five or less bulls that have been bronzed, mainly Angus, and Dream On was the first Simmental.



Dream On spent much of his life in stud, and sadly died last year. Due to the fact that he had such an impact on the breed, the owners decided to keep parts of him. Chris got his hide, Jon got his head (which is massive), and my dad got....(drum roll)... his penis and scrotum. Of course, due to his massive amount of semen sales, these were the most important parts.

Now you might wonder what you would do with these parts. You can utilize the penis of an animal to make a Pizzle Stick. There are dried and made into a cane. It is super cool and very interesting. And it arrived!!!



It has a small plate near the handle that has the bull's name, date of birth to date of death, and my dad's business on it.



He hasn't received the scrotum yet, but I'm thinking that a candy or nut bowl would be useful for it. :)