Lincoln 5K Run

On Saturday, one of my best friends, Patricia, came up to Nebraska, and we ran in the State Farm 5K race in Lincoln, along with my Seward friend (and carpool buddy), Shelley. It was a cold, rainy day…but luckily the rain subsided just in time for the race to start!
We’re in the pack there somewhere! We wore chips on our shoes so our time didn’t start until we crossed the start line.

Here we are running away…wearing our PURPLE in BIG RED country! Looks like we’re in the lead! ha ha
We got a little muddy along the way, but we finished! (Actually our time was about 30 seconds faster than that shows because we didn’t cross the start line right away.)
After the race with Shelley and Patricia.
And the guys worked hard drinking their coffee…thanks for coming to support us though!
After the race when we were getting ready to leave, we walked by this vet clinic, and had to take the opportunity for a K-S-U!!!

Here are my race stats…I know, nothing to be proud of, but at least I beat some people!!
Distance:  5K
Time:   31:10
Pace: 10:02
Overall Place: 308 of 767
Place in Gender: 148 of 482
Division F2024 Place: 31 of 72

Happy Ag Week!

This week is National Ag Week!

With that, I have a fun video to share that features a friend, Jennifer Johnson, who went to Princeton, and is now earning her Master's at the King Ranch Institute of Range Management. Pretty unique cowgirl!

Additionally, it shows different facets of agriculture throughout the U.S.



During this Ag Week, remember to thank a farmer for your meals and discuss the role ag serves in your family's life.

Beaches times four…

Laguna Beach x Newport Beach x Huntington Beach x Long Beach = Beautiful views!

While in California, my co-worker, Janet’s husband’s uncle (or simply Shaun’s uncle) who lives in Orange County took us for the day looking at the beautiful views, some great seafood and my first time on an auto ferry…it was totally cool. Here are some pictures of the beaches.

A view of a harbor first thing in the foggy morning before the sun came out:

A view of Catalina Island:

Laguna Beach:

There was some great vegetation & wildlife:

These palm trees were SO tall: 

The rocks were beautiful and so smooth from the ocean:

Newport Beach:

These houses were lined up so tight to one another, and each one was over $5 million dollars! Kobe and Tiger’s beach houses were right up the street. :)  
Huntington Beach:

Long Beach (great sand beaches):

This was the auto ferry we took across the island to eat lunch:  

These were two wedding yachts where the couple get married at sea and have the reception on the boat as well. Pretty fancy!   

The Queen Mary ship:

A beautiful view from our lighthouse lunch! 

Technorati Tags: travel,beaches

One-year old...Go Green!

A year ago I started my blog. I wasn't really sure what it would turn into, but it has been a great outlet for me to share photos and stories with my family in other states.

It's also been a great venue to share my love for agriculture, and since it's National Ag Week (March 14-20) with National Ag Day being March 20 and coincidently the week of St. Patty's day, I wanted to highlight some reasons to sport your GREEN during March to show thanks and appreciation for all our farmers and ranchers. Here are some reasons (thanks to agday.org) why agriculture is critical to everyone:

•We all eat - yes big and small, young and old we all need food for fuel!
•Agriculture touches all of us on the planet.
•A strong agricultural economy provides jobs for many.
•It is more than farming..agriculture involves marketing, management, food science, banking, finance, biofuels, forestry, architecture, processing, research, engineering, legislation, education and much more!
•Agriculture demands increase with world population growth, and the U.S. can help meet the demands!

For more information on how to celebrate and why, please visit http://www.agday.org/ for more details, information and resources.

Go Green for Agriculture! I will be wearing green all week!

More from California...

I guess Disney was not the only cool thing I got to see in California. I really enjoyed the Commodity Classic Convention and Corn Congress. I learned about what the National Corn Growers Association (NCGA) is doing to help farmers in Nebraska, as well as on a national level. Also, I like the resolution session where Delegates discussed changes to NCGA legislation.

I also got to know some more Nebraska folks pretty well!

Here is the NCGA trade show booth with two of our board members and my co-worker, Janet.

There was a super-cool redone tractor "hot rod" style. I know this guy who redid this tractor (in the green) is famous, but Janet and I didn't know who he was. :)

Corn cake!

Palm trees and mountains from the convention center!

The whole gang (minus Don, my boss) at Bubba Gump Shrimp, Co.

The Nitty Gritty Dirt Band!!

And then we got a tour of Laguna Beach, Newport Beach, Long Beach and Huntington Beach from my co-workers uncle! I have lots of pretty pictures of that, so I'll save it for another blog post. :)

DisneyLand

Here are some fun pics of my trip to DisneyLand in California. As I was working most of the trip, this was a fun treat to run to Disney to have some fun!

The castle is not quite as magical as DisneyWorld, but the flowers and atmosphere were amazing.

They had a Finding Nemo ride where we went in a submarine under water! It was too cool.

Of course we had to go on It's A Small World and I was so excited to see farmers and ranchers!

And Space Mountain is the coolest indoor roller coaster!

Minnie-n-Me

This one is for Mom...there were real floral arrangements everywhere!

But the best part was seeing the amazing fireworks show with a real-life TinkerBell flying above the castle and live music!

California Sun

I’m in California!

Actually I’ve been in California since Wednesday, but have just now had time to sit down and share a post. When I got here on Wednesday, the sun was shining and the palm trees were swaying, and I thought I landed on another planet. I was beginning to wonder what the ground looked like without snow!

The reason I’m out in California is to represent Nebraska’s corn and livestock industry at the Commodity Classic Convention. This is a huge event where producers and industry leaders in the corn, soybean, wheat and grain sorghum industries gather for meetings, workshops, awards, banquets and a little fun.

I've also been experiencing some of California's agriculture and relieving the stress of work while here:

And I’ll also leave you with a teaser of my fun trip to DisneyLand...more to come:

Pork, Beans and Apple Pie

When you hear, Pork, Beans and Apple Pie, you're probably thinking of a meal with Pork....Beans....and Apple Pie. Well I tried a recipe that included all three ingredients into ONE and it was the best sweet and savory delight that has touched my lips.

This recipe, which was created to be served as a main dish, won grand prize in the New Pork & Beans Recipe Challenge sponsored by the Nebraska Dry Bean Commission and Nebraska Pork Producers Association. It was submitted by a gal in my town of Seward, too! I really need to meet this gal.

Being a supporter of the Nebraska livestock industry, I felt I had to do my part and try this recipe out for myself to see if it really was worth the grand prize. And it was. You have to think of it as a main dish and not as a dessert. This wonderful recipe just melts in your mouth with the savory deliciousness mixed with sweetness. Everyone in the office devoured it, and Ronny even ate thirds! I challenge you to truly give it a try!!

Also, here is the pdf version online. It also has four other winning recipes that I have yet to try!