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!!

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!

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. :)

Whip My Hair...?

Christmas Version!!

The Hatmaker housebold (cool, huh?) has been anticipating the arrival of Christmas. Is it just us, or does it seem like the Christmas season came WAY early this year? Halloween was over and it was Hello, Christmas! We decided that we would not do any decorating until after Thanksgiving.

Last year, Drew and I decided to do something each year to get us into the Christmas spirit. Last year it was Christmas lights at Dollywood and going to see the Radio City Rockettes. This year, we decided to take in the Trans-Siberian Orchestra in Lexington. Drew loves Christmas music and had been telling me about their cool Christmas music. I wasn't sure what we were in for, but I did ask if there would be singing. To which Drew told me no...lights and music.

Our seats were in the Upper Level and some people (uh-hum in the wrong seats) were taking up way to much room on our row. After stuffing ourselves into a very small section we were ready for the Christmas spirit.

Enter the Trans-Siberian Orchestra (or the TSO as they like to call themselves)




Let me just set the scene for you. 3 long haired (I mean long)men playing the electric guitars, 1 long haired drum player, a long haired girl keyboardist, and a medium length keyboardist. Plus, let's not forget a medium length crazy Chinese violin player who runs fast while playing. Overall look: 80's Rock Band. No joke.




The Christmas music; which included lots of singing, circled around a story that started in a bar then talked about a dad and a girl, then back to the bar, and something with an angel. It was confusing, but the story teller was AMAZING. Great voice plus during the music he danced. Hehehe

Trans-Siberian had been playing for about an hour, we thought. They started announcing the singers and talking about the second half of the show. Whoa...we looked at each other. Second half? Yes, minutes later they came back to play another hour of rock music. Christmas was over. Sorry to the old ladies in their Santa hats. I leaned over to Drew and asked him what he thought all these people who came just for a Christmas show were thinking. He responded probably the same thing we were.




Back to the hair... the long, free flowing hair was to whip it. Everywhere. They ran...to the left...to the right... up... down....into the crowd...up the stairs. All the while, whipping their hair just like they were in Willa Smith's video. Even the singers, who became dancers in the second half, whipped their hair. We went from Christmas to sexy Valentine's day in a matter of minutes. The show ended up lasting about... 2 1/2 hours.

Needless to say... this was a very interesting experience. While the music was pretty cool, it wasn't the Christmas show we had been hoping for. It was highly entertaining though. Afterwards we went to Wal-Mart listened to Christmas music and bought more decorations. That put us in the spirit. :)

Looking forward to the holidays!

Red Hot Reads

I know.. I know... I have been non-existence in the world of blogging recently. Drew reminds me daily of my lack of writing. It isn't that I don't have things to write about.

With the weather turning chilly, I find there is nothing better than to crawl into bed or curl up on the couch with a good book. I would totally start my own book club if I could.




I don't know about the rest of you, but I LOVE the movie The Blindside. I found the whole story very inspiring and longed to know LeAnn Tuhoy. She is pretty much kick ass! I highly recommend picking up their book and curling up with it. It is defintely a feel good read.

The Tuhoy's were givers way before Michael Oher came into their life. Selfless giving, no matter who, no matter what. They didn't always have the money to give to others in their community, but they gave and they let lots of young people come and stay with them. We all could be more like the Tuhoy's no matter in what capacity. We don't always have to give money, but we can give in our time and most importantly, in our love and compassion.

Drew and I recently went to our local Barnes and Nobles with a list of books to purchase. I tried to get them from our local Paris library, which I am a card caring member of, but sadly, they didn't have them.



My first read out of the stack was "I Do, Now What?" Now, I know not everyone is married and this book might not be for all readers, but if you are married, I highly recommend. I love Guilanni Rancic on E! News and I think her and her husband Bill Ranic are TOOO CUTE!

I wasn't looking for marriage advice, but I was interested to see what they had to say. Guilana and Bill are very open from everything to in-laws, gift giving, and of course, sexy time. They give tips, not do this, do that advice, but also share their personal experiences, struggles, and adventures in love, marriage, and friendship. All which should be there to make a beautiful, strong marriage. It's funny, insightful, and full of love.

I am now on to "Dirty Sexy Politics" by Megan McCain. I have heard some great reviews on it and am excited to crack it open tonight.

Stay warm and happy reading!!

Diners, Drive-In's, and Dives

At the Hatmaker residence we watch a lot of Food Network. Because we are frequent travelers as well, we love shows that showcase restaurants across the U.S.; in hopes that we will be in the same place as one of these establishments. One of our favorites to watch is Guy Fieri's "Diners, Drive-In's, and Dives.

On a recent episode there showcased a place in Kentucky that just so happens to be a short 35 minutes from Paris. Since we didn't have a sale this weekend, Drew and I decided to embark on an adventure and check out a famous place.

Our destination was Wallace Station's nestled in between Versailles and Midway. It is really convienient to get to off of I-64. We arrived at about 2:00 p.m. hoping to miss the lunch crowd. There was a small line when we arrived, but it got longer behind us. Everyone in line had never been there before and had seen it on DDD.



The building is super small. There are maybe 15 tables/booths in the restaurant, but there is a patio out back with live music on the weekends. While waiting for your food you can check out the simple decor of horse farm hats and featured magazine and newspaper articles. One of the coolest things stenciled on the wall lets visitors know that Guy Fieri was here.




I ordered "The Big Brown" which is the best burger. Guy Fieri named it one of the top 5 burgers he has ever eaten. It is like a Hot Brown on a burger with ham, tomato, and White Cheddar Mornay, which they make. Oh yeah, and they make their own bread. Drew order "Sammi's Pimento Cheese Burger" made with homemade pimento cheese. The burgers come with chips and to complete the Kentucky experience we ordered Ale-8's. A Peanut Butter cookie and Cheesecake Brownie completed our order.



The Big Brown might be one of the best, messist burgers I have EVER eaten. With every bite their was ooey-gooey cheese all over my face and hands. It took me 11 napkins to clean up the mess, but it was well worth it.



After our delicious, T.V. worthy lunch we went to historic Midway where they had a cute, pricey little antique area that was perfect to walk off our lunch.

View from the Block

Well, it is official. The start of the fall sale season is officially underway for DP Sales Management. We have finished up the Georgia/Alabama Simmental Solutions sale on Saturday.

The start of sale season means back to living in a suitcase and fitting laundry in Monday-Wednesday. For some people, it might not be the life, but we wouldn't trade it for anything. Drew was actually saying a week ago that he was ready for sale season to start because since the wedding, we haven't had anything to get ready for, plan, or go to. He was itching to hit the road again.

I personally love sale day. All the adrenaline and action that goes into making a sale successful. I also love my view. I get to sit on the auction block and run the computer. I import all the sale data into the program so that we know who bought what and for how much. I like to think I have one of the most important jobs. :)

As I have done this for quite sometime, therefore I have become quite accustomed to how things are run on the block. I highly enjoy listening to a good auctioneer. Some that I have worked with a lot I even have their tricks of the trade down. I took this picture today while listening to Colonel Tommy Barnes sell.



The view from the block is second to none. You see everything. The ringmen. People's bidding habits. All the cattle that enter the ring. It truly is the best seat in the house.

So here is to a awesome, successful sale season no matter what breed you might be in. Let the madness begin!