Monday, March 19, 2012

Life Lessons

Best Friends
Feeling of Being Loved
Family
Memories....

Just to name a few things that money can't buy.

TIME.

That is something that can't be bought, but with TIME you can make all the other things I listed happen. With Time you will learn Life Lessons, with Time you make Best Friends, with Time your heart can feel the warmth of being Loved, with Time Family becomes closer, and Memories come from someone special in your life giving you just a little bit of their TIME.

We are very grateful to live a life where we can spend time together, to raise our kids, and take the time to teach them along the way. Its not because of luck or anything in that nature. It doesn't come cheap. It doesn't come with out sacrifices. There are things I dream about having..... a place of our own, nice fancy things, a bank account full of money..... But at the end of the day when I set back to give thanks for all the blessings in my life its hard to imagine the days with out......

Brushing Carlee's hair before school each morning

Being here when Chris stops by for a glass of tea

Watching the kids jump off the school bus and run to catch them a horse

Making goodies and helping at the school parties

Spending the extra time to teach Colt his school lessons

Seeing the smile on the little ranch kid faces when we show up to shoe their horse and to hear them say

"You want to come see my baby chicken eggs?"

The list of reasons why I love Chris so much is endless, but at the top of the list is his willingness to give his Time. When we first met I didn't have a clue about the ranching life, heck I was a rodeo hand. But after long hours in the feed truck.... 159,873,421 questions answered by a man that could go ALL day with out saying ONE word.... and lots of funny looks over the years I'm starting to learn some. Only because he gave me a minute... or two.... okay a lot of minutes.... even years!!

Colton draggin with the big boys.

It didn't stop with me. Now I get the chance to see him teach Colton and Carlee. He has been taking them with him since the day they were out of diapers. Six days out of seven you would see him with 2 horses in the trailer..... one packing a big saddle and the other packing a saddle in which the stirrups didn't make it past the saddle pad. It has always bugged him to hear other men talk about not having the time to take their kids or their kids being 10 and just now getting to tag a long. Lots of time it will take him twice as long to do something just for the simple reason he has to explain himself 100 times or for the fact that he let them try it first before showing them the best way of doing it.....

Fred's first time to drags calves...... Chris is in there making sure everything is just right with the rope, horse, calf, and all those pretty little fingers while she dallies

Colton riding Midget for the first time, no joke... Chris was nervous too.

Talk about make a Momma's heart melt in a hurry..... Nothing beats the look on a Dad's face when his son is scared to death to get on a colt and he assures him that everything will be okay..... and with in 10 minutes they are moving around the round pen as if they had been partners for years. All it took was a little TIME..... time to teach the importance of a colt, time to teach how to ride and handle a young horse, and time to teach how to trust someone.

Along with our kids there are several others that have touched our lives as we have theirs.

Here is Jack...... Jack, along with her family hold a very special place in our hearts. Both young families with the desire to keep the ranching heritage in the family. But for Jack's family.... Her Daddy has his work cut out for him, Jack has two older sisters and NO brothers. So long live the Cowgirls. Jack and Chris go way back, for the last 3 years she has been trying to get Chris to shoe her horse. Just so happens that the horse Jack has been riding never gets shoes, BUT she has now upgraded to another horse and he gets shoes.... Talk about a PROUD moment for her..... She has stood beside, underneath, got shoes, counted nails, and held horses for Chris.... Now its her TIME!!! This is something neither of them will ever forget..... even over time.

There are several people in my life that made me who I am because of the money they didn't give me, for the things they didn't buy me.... Most importantly it was the Time they invested in me. That is something I couldn't ever replace or buy more of. So as you plan out your day, think about someone that has given to you or maybe even someone that you could give to... Never know, your TIME might just change their life forever.