Fifteen Ways

Tags

cattle, differences, donkey named Penelope, fifteen ways, hereford cows, Kentucky, my someone, Oklahoma, pets, Pioneer Woman

Pioneer Woman started it, I swear. I saw a picture of Hereford cows and was sucked in immediately to whatever else was in the article.

But… it wasn’t about my favorite bovine breed, it was about mush stuff. Her article “15 ways Marlboro Man and I are different” was exactly what the title leads it to be and ended with a challenge of how are you and your love different?

Far be it me to turn down a challenge, especially from a fellow Okie, so here goes…

Fifteen Ways My Someone and I are different:

1. He sees land in Kentucky and devises a plan of how he would clear it and have it logged in order to create optimum pastureland.
I see land in Kentucky and exclaim: “OMG TREES!!!! I JUST WANT TO KEEP THEM ALL!!!” Hey, we don’t have as many of those where I live.

2. A turtle is crossing the road, he swerves to miss it and spare it’s life.
Same situation, I pull over and carry the turtle the rest of the way across the road. (traffic permitting) We all need a little help sometimes.

3. He doesn’t drink coffee.
I move the speed of the turtles I help, until I’ve had 1 to 2 cups of coffee.

4. He likes his cattle based on characteristics, rather than by breeds.
I like Hereford and Brahman cattle, an opinion I voice more often than not.

5. He likes Mac & Cheese.
I’m not a fan, at all.

6. He’s “talk about your feelings and what you’re thinking” guy.
If there was a book on “Bottling it all up 101″ I’d be the author.

7. He’s a ‘front row’ Catholic.
I’m a ‘middle row’ Methodist.

8. He LOVES Mexican food.
I LOATHE Mexican food.

9. He’s outgoing. (Understatement)
I’m a reserved/outgoing/shy combo.

10. He’s laid back and ‘whatever’ about most things.
I’m OCD and a ‘list-maker.’ (Much like this post)

11. His idea of reading is his Facebook newsfeed.
I read anything and everything I can get my hands on.

12. He is particular about ‘pets’
I see anything soft and furry and feel like I need to bring it home and become its mother.

13. He’s blonde haired/blue-eyed.
I’m green-eyed with dark brown hair.

14. He has a Kentucky drawl.
I have an Okie twang.

15. If it doesn’t have beef, chicken or pork it isn’t an actual meal in his eyes.
I’m perfectly content with “bird food” (his words).

This is what a good portion of our pictures together end up looking like…

…and then we get it right.

 

There you have it. We’re different, but we’re alike. I’m keeping him either way. I’ll even compromise on Mac & Cheese and *occasional* Mexican food, if he’ll just give in and let me bring home a rescue donkey and name it Penelope. I feel like that’s a fair trade.

 

 

 

So your turn… what’s a difference between you and your special someone? This will really make you think.

Year One of Blogging

Tags

anniversary, Blogiversary, circle the wagons, Cowgirl Crush, giveaway winner, holy cow, life moments, one year of blogging, personal posts, pitchforks, plant hanger, wedding

It’s been a year (and a day) since I first began my blogging adventure. 

A year ago I had just graduated from college, had just made the move to Middle-of-Corn, Kansas, my job title was associate editor and I was very much happily single.

In a year, I’ve settled into Middle-of-Corn, made some awesome friends, my title was changed to editor, there was that two weeks as a vegan, traveled a lot and I’m very much happily engaged.

Um, holy cow.

Looking at my stats today, I figured my top posts throughout the year would be something like Dani B. Home Security or Monday’s post, since, when I hear back from people, the personal posts are usually the favorite, BUT I was wrong… It turns out of the top five, three are Ag posts and two are vegan posts.

1. Be aware of what you share
2. Blame it all on my roots, I wanted to show up in boots
3. Rural Vegan
4. Can I pet your cow?
5. People should be more like cows

What I’ve learned, put a cow in it and y’all will read it.

Speaking of cows… since over 100 people entered the giveaway, I bet there are a few of you reading this waiting for the name of the Cow Plant Hanger winner, and/or might be heading to Middle-of-Corn, Kansas with torches and pitchforks to hunt me down for being a day late… *cough* Country LINKed and Circle the Wagons *cough* (kidding)

So are y’all ready?

Drum roll please…

Or not, whatever you prefer.

This dragging it out business is fun!

Well, for me it is…

Here’s a picture of a Corgi licking a camera lens.

Okay, fine. I can feel the glares coming through the computer screen.

Let’s ignore the fact that as I typed that, this was currently not published.

…and the winner is…

Erica Carroll

Erica, my email is on the Cajun Born, Okie Raised page so give me a shout and I’ll get it sent your way, and thank you to Cowgirl Crush for sponsoring this giveaway!

As I said before, when I started this — blogging — it was just for myself, just a way to document what was happening in my life. I didn’t picture people outside my family and close friends to actually read High Heels and Shotgun Shells, but I’ve met some really awesome people because of this, really, you all are truly fantastic.

So here we go, onto year two… there’s going to be a wedding, a move across several states, My Someone is going to have to fork over that closet of his that’s designated for hunting apparel only — my shoes need space (lots of space), yo. Oh, and I’ve got to find another job as fantastic as the one I currently have.

No big deal, right?

*twisting hair nervously*

Where Memories are Made

Tags

Yoda, my someone, west Texas, Lubbock, Canyon, State Parks, engagement, Palo Duro Canyon, Palo Duro Canyon State Park, engaged, road trip, mexican food

This past weekend, Yoda, My Someone and I headed to west Texas to visit our friend Garcia.

Since My Someone had surprised me by showing up early in Middle-of-Corn, Kansas the night before, our road trip was able to begin a little earlier, but after three hours in the car from Kansas to Stillwater and then a seven hour drive from Stillwater to Lubbock… The Haydens were starting to get a little restless, and I was completely over sitting in the backseat.

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So, as you can imagine, I wasn’t tickled pink the next morning when I learned after breakfast all 5 of us would be loading up back into the car for another all day road trip.

I’m not a fan of Mexican food, unless Garcia is cooking… which she did. All weekend. And I considered never leaving.

At the exit for Canyon, Texas the billboard stated, “Welcome to Canyon, where memories are made!”

“What kind of memories can you make in Canyon, Texas? I mean, really?!” I said.

To which Garcia and Yoda quickly added, “You’d be surprised” and “Trust me, all kinds!” Meanwhile, My Someone sat quietly in the front seat increasingly fidgeting with a practice epee-pen.

We ended up at the Palo Duro Canyon State Park. Which is absolutely beautiful, and makes you wonder if you are actually still in west Texas.All of us were tourists. To the extreme. Garcia and I were equipped with our Canon’s and camera bags with extra lenses, while the boys and Garcia’s sister, Dre rocked the iPhone camera.

Yoda decided to take a picture of a fake Indian…

…and My Someone decided to photo stalk a real one.

A few hours into the adventure, Yoda found a trail he wanted to explore. We had all hiked a little ways when My Someone and Yoda hopped off the trail and started climbing up the side of a hill. There seemed to be no changing their course so the rest of us followed.

When Garcia, Dre and I caught up, the boys were goofing off on the side of the incline, trying to scale it and then both crouching down to look at the soil.

“Good Lord, you two are the biggest nerds!” Garcia yelled.

The boys up on the incline, exchanging something Garcia had given Yoda to carry.

“Danielle, come here and see this rock!” My Someone called to me.

I climbed the rest of the hill expecting to be given a lesson in canyon rocks, but instead when I got there, he stood up kissed me and said,

“Do you know I love you more than I’ve ever loved anything? *kisses me*
“Do you know you make me happier than I ever thought I could ever be? *kisses me*
“… and that I am the luckiest man of Earth to have found you.” *kisses me*

“OH MY GOD! GET ON WITH IT ALREADY!!!” Yoda interjected.

(At this point I was extremely confused as to what in the world was going on, and was beginning to think the heat had gotten to My Someone)

“I want to spend everyday for the rest of my life proving all that to you,” My Someone continued.

And it was at that point in the Palo Duro Canyon State Park in Canyon, Texas that My Someone got down on one knee. And it was also at that very moment when all oxygen I was trying to breathe, completely disappeared from that same Canyon.

“Oh. My. Goddd,” were the not-so-poetic words that came blurting out of my mouth.

“What I’m wondering is if you will do the honor of marrying me,” he said

…and I hyperventilated.

Seriously, where in the world did all the oxygen go? Every single fiber of my being was screaming YES! YES I WILL!! But none of that came out. In my effort to find some air to get the word out, I turned away from My Someone (which I found out later made him panic), gave up on trying to get oxygen in my lungs and starting shaking my head yes, and smiling so wide it hurt my face, finally squeaked the words, “Of course” out and handed him, my very shaky left paw, and he slipped the most perfect ring onto my finger.

There was then lots of kissing, Dre covered her eyes, Yoda yelled and jumped up and down in excitement, Garcia took play-by-photos and then I continued to look for oxygen.

Seriously people, where the heck was it?

It all made sense then, My Someone had gotten into town earlier in order to take my dad to dinner for “the talk.” Why he had been fidgety all day. Why Yoda had been on a mission to find an extremely scenic place off the trail, and why Garcia had referred to me as a “Honorary Hayden” during a picture with the boys earlier in the day.

We spent the rest of the afternoon sending texts and calling family and friends to share the news, and the evening celebrating with the group at a Piano Bar in Lubbock. Because nothing says, “Yay! We’re engaged!” quite like singing ‘Friends in Low Places’ at the top of your lungs.

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You may be able to watch your dog run away for days, but memories are made in west Texas, trust me, I know.

Cowgirl Crush Giveaway

Tags

Blogiversary, clothes, clothing, cow, cow silhouette, Cowgirl Crush, Giveaway, home, lifestyle, rafflecopter, style

Remember how I said we would be celebrating when I reached my One Year Blog-iversary? Well the countdown is on. June 12, 2012 was my very first post. Knowing myself, with my fear of commitment and extreme procrastination tendencies, I’m as shocked as anyone that I’ve consistently kept it up for a year.

But this past year has been one for the books, it’s one where I look back with big eyes and wonder how the heck I managed to cram all that I did in 12 months. I would say it’s been full of change and growth, but really, that’s an understatement, this past year has a complete 360° of personal and professional growth and change. So June ’13-’14, bring it! I welcome you with open arms.

Alright, enough of the sentimental, on with the announcement. I have a something to giveaway. Yay!

Now, remember a couple of weeks ago when I wrote about rockin’ the hanging plant? Well, Cowgirl Crush sent me another cow silhouette hanger to giveaway to my lovely followers. Now men, it’s a cow, it’s perfectly acceptable for y’all to have this too, you don’t HAVE to hang flowers on it after all, or maybe you could just enter and surprise an awesome lady in your life. Either way, this giveaway isn’t a complete gender pigeon hole.

Here she is, ready to be yours… we just have to find a winner.

While I’ve only discussed this one piece from Cowgirl Crush, their whole Website is cute! A couple of things I’m a fan of are:

This “Fancy Meeting You” top is soon-to-be mine. (I may or may not be stalking UPS tracking)

…and these “Pocahontas Fringe Sandals” need to be mine. Notice the ‘need’ not ‘want’

So how can you go about adding a little Cowgirl Crush to your life? It’s easy-peasy. I created an entry form through Rafflecopter that will walk you through the different ways you can enter. What’s also great is that it will randomly select a winner for me Wednesday, June 12th.

All you have to do is click the link below and you’ll be on your merry way.

So ready… set… ENTER!
a Rafflecopter giveaway

WW: Bowfishing

Tags

boat, bowfishing, dani.b.photography, fishing, flat bottom boat, friends, night, night photography, outdoor photography, outdoors, outdoorsmen, river, silhouette, spotlight, wordless wednesday

Silver Lining

Tags

donate, Moore, Oklahoma, pray for Oklahoma, Prayer, silver lining, Tornado, Tornado Alley

“Oklahoma is the heart, it’s the vital organ, of our national existence.” – Will Rogers, 29 May 1926

Over 50 tornadoes touched down in my home state yesterday. Lives were lost, many were injured.

Sometimes there just aren’t words to say what you want to say.

As I spent, my afternoon yesterday glued to the weather radar, and then over an hour in the basement of the municipal building in my town, along with anyone and everyone, while we waited for the tornado warnings to expire, I thought back to my childhood.

As a kid, my favorite part of severe thunderstorms and tornado watches was right after they passed. Not because everything was suddenly safe, but because everything was so green, there were puddles to splash through in my bare feet and frogs everywhere to catch. It was pretty common to see all the neighborhood kids outside with buckets, after a storm, collecting as many frogs as we could gather — for bragging rights purposes.

I was trying to travel to my parents house last night and ended up having to pull over and wait, since they were under a tornado warning. This is how crazy the sky was near the Oklahoma/Kansas border.

As a kid, it was always easy to find the silver lining in something that ten minutes before was completely terrifying.

So as I stood in the basement yesterday, knowing what had happened in Moore, knowing how much destruction was occurring all across the state I love, and even into my Middle-of-Corn, Kansas I wondered where was the silver lining in all this? Collecting frogs and splashing through puddles wasn’t going to make this better.

My answer came in the hours after the storms passed, and into this morning. News stations, Websites, Facebook, Twitter, Instagram all completely covered with people showing their support, prayers, love, donating money, blood, clothes, water, their own time. What surprised me most was that is wasn’t just the state of Oklahoma banding together, it was the Nation.

Wow. This just goes to show even in a time when our country is so divided, people can put aside everything and the majority can come together in the aftermath of destruction.

There really is a silver lining in every dark cloud. If you are looking for ways to help, donations can be sent to the Red Cross by texting REDCROSS to 909-99, or to the OKC Food Bank by texting FOOD to 32333. But most importantly continue to keep the those involved, their family and friends in your thoughts and prayers.

WW: A family that prays together, stays together

Tags

capturing moments, Christmas, Christmas 2012, dani.b.photography, family, Prayer, togetherness, wordless wednesday

Controversy Bandwagon

Tags

Angelina Jolie, Breast cancer, current-events, entertainment, haters gonna hate, prevenative, society, todays news, women's health

Yeah, I’m jumping on it…

In case you haven’t heard, Angelina Jolie recently had a double mastectomy. Now before everyone jumps to tan my hide for glorifying celebrities, I was actually trying to do my morning ‘catch up on the news’ by visiting all the major media Websites. There’s the Benghazi scandal, AP reporters controversy, updates on the three Ohio girls… but today covering all three as a headliner was Jolie.

So I read. And I read as many different versions as I could get my hands on. Which I do, on every topic. One reoccurring theme on each was the comment section. The hateful, slanderous, bigotry comment feeds.

It disgusted me.

Personally, I applaud Jolie on sharing her story and reasoning behind her actions. As someone who has watched family members battle breast cancer, and who has a mother who is a RN in the women’s unit of a large hospital, I’ve heard the stories, seen the results and even know women who have undergone the same preventative procedure for the exact same reasons.

This topic wasn’t foreign to me. But apparently, to a good portion of the population it was and WOW did they have a lot of opinions on it. Calling it selfish, “she can do it because she’s wealthy,” unnecessary, paranoid, etc.

Well, we’re all entitled to our opinions, but genetics and cancer aren’t discriminatory to social status, and if it takes someone famous to get the word out, so be it. In no way would that ever be an easy decision, while I’d like to sit here and say I’d make the same one — “What?! Extremely high chance of developing breast cancer? Heck yeah, chop those suckers off and build me a set of perfect ones!” — but I’m not faced with that predicament, so I really don’t know what I would do.

All I’m saying is, no one was harmed in her decision. She shed some light on a topic no one talks about, but thousands of women have to deal with and she did her part to help ensure her children get to keep their mother. If you ask me, that’s pretty dang courageous.

So educate yourselves people, hug the women in your life, because being a chick is hard — one word: childbirth. — and haters gonna hate.

That’s all.

Rockin’ the hanging plant

Tags

colored flowers, Cowgirl Crush, flowers, hanging plants, new black, Orange, plant hanger, plants, spring

I’m going to be honest, when I think hanging plants, I think the back porch of my Magoo’s house (Grandma, not a code name, that’s what she goes by — to me at least) brightly colored flowers in plastic containers, possibly with little clay racoons hanging off the side and next to the outdoor freezer holding the Holy Grail of popsicles. In other words, not me.

That was, however, until I came across a cow silhouette plant hanger from Cowgirl Crush. And well I slipped, tripped and fell head-over-heels for it. With a couple clicks of my mouse, I snagged one of the last available cow silhouette hangers and clapped my hands excitedly from my work office.

To make things even better, on a Sunday afternoon trip to SAM’s, mom decides to purchase both my sister and I a cute little flower arrangement of our choice for our homes. My sister, picks out a respectable and very pretty porch planter …and I made a beeline to the hanging plants.

Looking at me strangely, she asked if I was planning on transplanting them. “Nope!” I said. “I have something to hang them on.” Cue even stranger look from my mother.

Haters gonna hate, I’m rockin’ the hanging plant.

Excuse the iPhone photo, it’s all I had on hand.

It even has orange flowers. (Go Pokes!)

Since installing mine, I’ve come across several other 20-somethings with similar displays of suspended flower prettiness.

So in conclusion, hanging plants are the new black.

That’s all.

Finding my blogger identity

Tags

backwoods, blog identity, buffalo, cookie cutter, dolly parton, me, Oklahoma, people pleaser, random

I’m rapidly approaching my one year blogversary, and what a year it has been. But we’ll get to that in June, when I’ve actually reached a year.

When I started this blog I wanted to encompass who am I as a person — High Heels and Shotgun Shells — City turned country, small town homecoming queen turned professional, tomboy/girly girl, and the brunette version to Dolly Parton’s Backwoods Barbie (I mainly just like the expression)

I wanted to write posts people could relate to, maybe put a little sunshine in someone’s day or even simply just to let my family know what the heck is going on in my life. As an agriculture writer and editor for a living, I wanted my blog to reflect me outside of the ag scene.

But agriculture, I just cain’t quit you. So the topic leaked into my posts from the beginning and I accepted it. It’s a pretty big part of who I am after all.

And somewhere in all that, y’all started actively reading, interacting and giving me feedback (Which I love!). I found myself suddenly, very conscious of what I was writing about, and began tailoring my posts to satisfy others. By nature, I’m one hardcore people pleaser, and it turned into this:
•Don’t be controversial.
•Write more about agriculture.
•Don’t write so much about agriculture.
•Everything must be butterflies and unicorn poop.
•Educate.
•Don’t educate, just be fun.
•Filter yourself.
•That will offend your family.
•Don’t be the obnoxious, twitterpaited girl who always refers to her boyfriend.
•Be yourself.
•Don’t be yourself, give the people what they want.
•Uhh… what do “the people” want?

I was desperately trying to fit this “blogger identity” and I didn’t know what that identity was exactly. So I’ve decided to forget trying to blog please everyone and carry on with my random all over the place writing.

My blog is my outlet, to discuss what I want to discuss, and to be me. A year ago I would have never EVER imagined almost 100 people would email subscribe to my blog, or that my Twitter followers would jump from 80-something to 477. Never EVER. Because of HH&SS I have met some AWESOME people, received some great advice, opened new doors of opportunity, gotten closer to distant relatives and in a very random way it brought me My Someone…

So I’m just going to keep on keeping on writing about outdoorsy/super-girly/redneck-tendencies/ag-nerdy/religious/love-mush/Okie/Kansas/Cajun/life-as-I-know-it/random things, and make no apologies for it.

Here’s a picture of a buffalo…

Have a fantastic day!