Snow Day

Sunday morning I woke-up to see that we had received 4-5 inches of snow over night......I didn't even know we were supposed to get any! Caleb later told me that the night before the weather had said less than a inch...I think someone was a little off on that! When I was about ready for church we get the call telling us that it was canceled because of the nastiness that was on the ground. I was sad we didn't get to go but it was probably for the best, cause when we went to do the cattle chores it took quite a bit of time.

Since we were all dressed up I thought that I would get good picture of Caleb and I.

When we get a lot of snow like this we usually roll a bale out for the cattle and boy do they like it when we do this.

It's great to see the creek still running in a few spots.....this means we don't have to cut ice

Caleb rolling out a bale while I was off takin' pictures.

I made Caleb take some pics of me while we were out there....cause I never get pics taken of me

This was our newest baby that just came running up to Caleb.....his momma is crippled and she is running after him.....it's probably a good thing she is crippled cause I don't think she liked the idea of Caleb petting her baby.

Here we are waiting for Calvin to come and pull us out cause Caleb got stuck trying to get a bale...once again.....he underestimates the snow drifts that he is running into...

I'm pretty sure Calvin should open a towing service, cause every time it snows Caleb gets stuck and like clock work Pop gets stuck at the same time and Calvin ends up pulling everybody out.

Since all the ponds are frozen over the geese and ducks are all hanging out on the old corn fields....there were probably 4-500 snow geese on this field.

Snow does add some beauty to the wonderful outdoors....but I will be happy when it all melts away and the flowers are back!!

Cyola Jean (Shoemyer) Ratliff.....what a beautiful woman!!!

So about three weeks ago Caleb and I made a mad dash trip to Columbia to see my aunt Cy (pronounced Ky). Her full name is Cyola (ky-o-la) Jean Shoemyer Ratliff.....I know some of you out there might think that Cyola was a made up name....well you are right. My Grandpa...Cy's dad...made it up.... and the story that I have always heard is that on the night Cy was born he heard some coyotes howling and from that came the name Cyola. Well, in 2001 or 02.....can't remember which year.....she was diagnosed with cancer. It took the doctors a while to figure out what kind she had....but honestly does it matter when it's cancer. They figured out that it was a rare form of sarcoma. I can't remember the specifics but it was attacking the internal organs, epically her lungs....when it would get worse she would cough a lot. The summer of 2004 she was given 6 months to live...but as my mom would say she was stubborn and wasn't gonna go down with out a fight....now five years later it looks like the cancer is gonna win, and on January 4th at 3:50 in the morning I got the call telling me that the cancer did win....but just the small battle on earth, ultimately God won and has taken her home to a place were there will be no more pain, no more tears and even no more cancer....how great is that. I am sad that I will never get to talk to her again on this earth....I will never get to hear her say "well there's Miss Janet".....but ultimately I rejoice cause she is in a much better place than here!

Febuary 18, 1956 - January 4, 2010

    For those who don't know Cy she was one of the kindest people you would ever meet. The story my mom would always tell about Cy is that when the would younger and one of the siblings would be getting in trouble Cy would start crying cause she didn't want them to get the spanking and she would have to get a spanking so she would stop crying....but that's Cy, she would give you the shirt off her back ar anything you needed because she wanted to help. So when this happened to Cy it was hard to for all of us to sit back and watch. Not because we're afraid what will happen to her, because there is no doubt in any of our minds that she will be in Heaven with our Father. She will be in a place of no more pain and no more cancer....and she will be better off than we are here. The hard part for me is to see her in all the pain. But you know through it all I never once heard her complain...and I don't know that anybody else did either. Every time I would see her she would always have a smile on her face. You'd ask her how she was and she would say she was fine. She might have been quitter and softer spoken than her siblings, but she was anything but quite. When she didn't agree with some or someone she would voice her opinion. When she did I learned it was always best to listen cause she usually said something that was worth remembering. She was a tough woman as well...but then again she would have to be...to be married to a Ratliff for 33 years and to raise four Ratliff children....being a Ratliff child myself, I know we aren't easy. She was a very special woman....I know why God wanted to take her so early.

      Cancer is a strange thing....less than a year ago Cy was feeling good enough to paint her house, and now she is gone. Life is a very precious thing...you never know how long you have with someone until they are gone. That’s the reasons why three weeks ago Caleb and I went up to Columbia. Ya see, Cy was like another mother to me...I would spend half of my summer over at her house playing with my cousin Jeanna. I think it was when my mom was finishing up college that my brother and sister and i would spend a lot of time over there playing with Cy's four kids. She would watch all 7 of us....with the oldest and the youngest being only 5 1/2 years apart.....I don't know how she did it but some how she kept us all inline and nobody had any broken bones or lost any fingers or toes.
      It was a good trip up there...we got to hang out and see all the family and I got to visit with her when she still had some energy. All of Cy's kids had made it back to see her and we all just had a really good visit.
      Ya know when it's all said and done we only have one life to live and so do all those around us so make the best each of the days that you are given and tell those that you love that you love them. As I said I know Cy will be in heaven, and i know I will see her again when the Lord calls me home, I hope that each and everyone who reads this can say the same thing. If you can't or you’re not sure find some one you can talk to about it because you never know when it's will be too late.

Here are some of the pictures I took from that quick trip up to Columbia

Cy with Papa in the background eatin' some spaghetti

Cy visiting with Jeffery and his wife Heather

Grandma and Papa

Troy and Scott playin' with Ethan

Papa, Brent, Grandma, and Caleb playin' some pitch

Caleb attempting to shuffle the cards...he's starting to get the hang of it!

Grnadma giving Caleb 'the look' ....I don't know what he said but 'the look' says it all!!

Here's some of the pictures of Cy from Thanksgiving

Cy with two sisters and a sister-in-law

My Mom and Cy

Cy visiting with Aunt Susan

My dad and aunt Cy visiting while dad was waiting for me to stop talking and get ready to go

Here's some pictures from mine and Caleb's wedding last year.

Cy helped with some of the decorating

Cy visiting with her son's and daughter-in-law

Brother and sisters!!!

now add the parents

Cy with her grandson Ethan

Cy was a beautiful woman and I, along with many others, will sorely miss her.

The Ratliff Christmas

On Saturday the 26th after a long morning opf messing with cattle, Caleb and I finally make it up to my parents house in Northeast Missouri.  As soon as we got there we scarffed down some yummy food and then it was time for the crazy maddness of present opening! 

Here are a few pictures I took along the way

Dad and Amber are scarfing down some of the Christmas candy I made....it didn't last long so it must have been pretty good!

Passin' out all the madness.

I gave the camera to Caleb so I was actually in a couple of shots

I hope we didn't lose anybody under all those presents!

Logan showing off his new K-State monster truck....I don't think he will be a future wildcat

Landon thought it would be a good idea to use some of the wrapping paper scraps to tie Logan up

Brotherly love

Caleb enjoing a late night snack

Amber showing off her new jewlery

December 24th, 25th, & 26th

Dec 24th

So the day started out by waking up a few hours late, because Caleb and I didn't get home and into bed till almost 1am and I didn't get my alarm set. So when I finally do wake up and see what time it is, I jump out of bed and get moving cause I still need to put together a few things for the Christmas Dinner we are having at Caleb's parent’s house. At least I am relatively fast in the kitchen...but I'm not very neat when I have to move as fast as I was moving that morning.....so needless to say it looked like a tornado had went through my kitchen when I was finished. In the mean time Caleb had left to go and do the cattle chores. As the morning went a long the weather started making a mess out side....and by the time I left to go over to Caleb's folks house it was sleeting outside....and to make it worse the wind was blowing like crazy and the sleet would pelt you in the face! Well I made it saftly overther and we got to eat and boy was it good....Karen (Caleb's mom) did such a great job with all the food!!

After we ate Aidan finally got to do what he was waiting for all day....OPEN PRESENTS!!! After he and Lexie opened all of theirs Aidan helped open the presents of anyone who would let him.

Lexie wasn't to worried about opening her presents she just wanted to push them around in her new little cart

Aidan was way excited about the new drill that he got from Uncle Andrew and Aunt Holly

Holly showin' off the new hat and scarf that Caleb and I gave her.

After opening all the presents Caleb went out to check on a cow that earlier he thought was getting ready to have a calf....and since the weather wasn't letting up he wanted to make sure she didn't have problems and that the calf didn't freeze. When Caleb got over to the pasture he discovered that the cow still hadn't had the calf and there should have been some sort of progress, but there wasn't....so we were gonna need to get her in and pull it. So Caleb heads back to his parents to get the 4-wheeler and pick me up, and luckily I just happened to grab my bibs when I was leaving our house, so I put them on, then I change into a pair of old tennis shoes that I keep over there for times like this but not before borrowing a pair of socks from the sock basket in the laundry room....cause all I had on was a pair of no-show socks and when I went out side that wind shot strait up my leg....and boy was it cold!!! I first put on a regular stocking hat, but then Holly reminded me that there should be a ski mask in where they kept the stocking hats, so I search it out and put it on. Caleb then came up with the idea to wear safety glasses since it felt like you were getting pelted with be-be's when you walked outside....of course there wasn't a pair that I could wear so Caleb gives me a pair of goggles instead.....by this point I was looking good.....I got my bib's on, a huge sweatshirt, a ski mask and safety goggles! Well Caleb and I head off to the pasture in the chore truck and as soo as we turn on to the black-top road and are less than a mile away....the truck starts acting funny and the 'service engine soon' light comes on and the truck dies...great, this it just what we needed, it's sleeting we have a cow having problems calving and now truck problems. About a week or two ago the gas gage on the chore truck quit working and we had been gauging when to fill up by how many miles we would go....but you have to include driving in 4-wheel drive and idling...both of which we failed to take into account so we are now sitting in the middle of the road waiting for either Calvin or Pop to come and help. While waiting some guys stop and ask if we need help and then proceeded to call me a boy....ouch that hurt....but in their defense I was wearing a ski mask and looked like a big pile of clothes so the really could tell what I was. Finally help arrived, in form of Pop, and pulled us up to the farm we were trying to get to. Calvin arrived when we did with a little gas but once he got there found out that he need a funnel....so he went off to get that and Caleb, Pop and I headed off to get the cow. We didn't have much trouble getting her in...I mean we did have to chase her, but not for very long...Pop almost ran into the old creep-feeding pen and I had to crawl through a fallen down tree but we made it!! Once we got her in the ally we figured out that she wasn't that close to having a calf....she was still a day or two off. so we decide to lock her up in the barn for good measure and call it a day....cause we were sick of being out in that nasty weather.

      Well in the mean time we were suppose to be heading down to Caleb's Grandparents house which is about 20 minutes south of Caleb's folks in normal weather conditions. While we were gone messing with the cow Caleb's mom and sister's were suppose to be deciding if we were gonna go down there or not. Well since no body was ready to go and there were all sitting around....except Karen who was cleaning in the kitchen and constantly asking 'if they still wanted to go' and getting no reply....well I figured that we weren't going, cause it was 6 and we were suppose to be there at around 5:30. After being around this family for almost two years now one thing I have learned is that they are terrible when it comes to making decision. So at 6:30 there was still no decision made so I suggest that we stay cause I really didn't want to get out in this nasty weather again. Well about that time everybody then decided that we were going....soo 30 minutes later at 7 we finally leave to go down there....and 40minutes after that we finally get there! It was a longer than normal trip but we were sure glad we went!!! We had a great time with the Thompson family....there is never a dull moment when your down there!!

Well after we spend a good amount of time there and then decide to leave and make the 40 minute trip back to Caleb's folk’s house. Then Caleb and I head home and for the fourth night this week we didn't get to bed till after midnight.