Bryan & Brittney Austin

Well being that Valentine's Day falls on a Tuesday this year, Bryan and I are stuck not being together this holiday. It gets harder every week to be away from him. He makes me so happy. I know we have our disagreements but they are all worth it. No matter the disagreement we always make it through. Every time I am with Bryan and look and think how did I get so lucky? He is kind, caring, considerate, always happy, always doing little things to show me he loves me. Even with simple little things as getting me a glass of water before bedtime makes my heart sing. He still to this day opens my door for me when we go places. I even stand and wait for him to open it without even realizing it. I love that he still shows me that love and respect and it is something that seems rare nowadays. I have the rarest thing in my life and it is one that I love with my whole heart and soul. The very thing that makes the days easier to get through and make it possible to be happy as much as I am and that is the love and devotion of a good man, Bryan. He is there for me when I cannot take the stress, loves, and supports me through it all. I would go to the end of the earth for Bryan, and I know he would do the same for me. Since finances are tight (like always) and we are apart this year, I made a playlist. I know. Corny, silly, and just plain lame but these are the songs that no matter where I am and I hear them, the first thing that pops into my head is Bryan. I have even tried to sing them to him a few times. The love I feel for him is greater than any I have before and I hear the best is yet to come. So to the love of my life, the everything that makes me whole and completes the empty spaces of me, Happy Valentines Day to my love, my husband, my pumpkin bear.... Bryan. Enjoy your ohh so awesome, corny, and thoughtful playlist.

Well I have survived the first week back to school in Logan. It has not been easy coming back and leaving what I had gotten used to over the break. Seeing friends, family, and of course my loving husband. Which is pretty dang amazing. I love him so much. He shows me all the time that he loves me. He still opened my door for me, lets me take bites of his food, and he still waits for me to get my food when we go out before he will start eating his. Sunday night was one for the memory book. I had washed and though I had fully dried the comforter that goes on the bed. We realized it was still damp and not thinking about it put it on the bed to dry out. Well it dried a little but also wet the sheets and pillows under it. It was still damp too. So when we went to go to bed the bed, blankets, sheets, and pillow were wet. We did not have another set of everything to replace it with so Bryan and I slept out in the living room. Bryan was kind enough to let me have the couch while he slept on the floor. I know we really need to invest in an air mattress. I love that he still has chivalry present in his character and he loves how happy and excited it makes me that he still does these little things. He does not know it but I see that little gleam in his eye and the smile on his face when he does those little things for me. It makes him proud it seems in a way. I miss him right now and I only left to come back this morning. It is not as lonely in my room though. I have brought a picture of our lovely friends and their little family. It is a great picture and helps me to feel not so far from home. I can thank my best friend Brie for that. She is so thoughtful like that. She gave it to me to help me not feel so lonely and it has helped.
This last weekend was a fun one. We went and saw my cousin Larry play with his band and the Copper King in Magna. They were great and played some great songs. We got on the dance floor and shook our butts a little. It was also my mom's birthday and she wanted a simple dinner with her kids and their spouse at her favorite restaurant and so we went to La Puente and had some kick ass yummy food. Tamale power!!! It was so good but it made us really tired afterwards. We also went to the Tea Rose Restaurant in Murray. It is so yummy and they have good curry. Bryan is not a fan of curry but he always seems to find good things on the menu anyways. It is such a hole in the wall place but really yummy :)
Sadly, Bryan's grandma passed away on the 4th of January, 2012. Grace Austin is now with her love, Elden, at age 90 passed away of natural causes. She had a simple yet elegant funeral and it has been hard for Bryan. He still is sad about the loss and will be for a while but she really is in a better place. She was in so much pain at the end and we just did not want her to suffer anymore. They played taps and the 21 gun salute at her funeral because she was in the navy. It is actually where she met her husband, Elden. The 21 gun salute and taps being played is my favorite part of military funerals. It is such an honor to hear the guns fired in remembrance of the fallen and to hear taps played always brings a tear to my eye. It is so beautiful. I got to meet some of Bryan's distant relatives and a lot of them were great to get to talk with and meet while others I hope stay a little distant.
That's is all for now. I have to get ready and head out to the south farm for my horse health care class which has to be my favorite class. It is so much fun and interesting. I am glad I get the opportunity to take it and learn more about horses.

Sorry that I have literally sucked at updating this blog lately. I have not been able to take any pictures and life has been a little crazy the past few weeks. We had our last show in Bozeman, MT for the equestrian team for the year. It was a blast. I only got to ride once on Sunday but it was still fun. Everyone on the team is so much fun to be around and I have been able to make some good friends. I took 5th in my class. I felt like my ride though, was awesome. That was seriously the best ride I have had yet. I feel like I have improved some since joining the team and learning a little more horse control, balance, and leg strength that it is becoming more natural for me to ride English saddle. I have loved it. I am excited for the next semester as well. It will be interesting and I have more classes that are animal based which will be more fascinating to me. I still have to take the second semester of organic chemistry and physics which sucks but I also get to take animal anatomy and physiology (which I have already passed with flying colors human anatomy and physiology, so I have a good system down for those subjects), sheep/ovine production, and hopefully if I can add it a horse health course which would be awesome and give a total of 17 credit hours next semester as well. Also I will get to ride more with the team too so it will be fun. I am definitely looking forward to the break though. Finals are next week and needless to say Bryan and I are starting to cram and stress out to prepare for the exams. Bryan has done great this semester in making sure that all of his assignments have gotten turned in and studying for his exams. I am so proud of my husband. He has stepped it up a lot in the school department and I am so happy to be with him. He is so great to me even when he keeps me up until 2 am helping him with a paper he needed help writing. He is trying so hard and I can see it. I hate so much being away from him and it will be so nice to have three weeks with him. Assuming I survive the next week okay. I have my organic chemistry final and physics final on the same day one right after the other. It is starting to stress me out a little at this point. Those are my two more intensive courses this semester and it is hard to make such a huge transition in just ten minutes. We will see how I do and all I can do is my best. I am excited for Christmas but not so much my birthday. I will be 26 on Christmas day and it is a little weird to think I am closer to 30 now than 20. Time flies when you are happy. That is right I am happy. I know that I am sad all the time while I am away from Bryan but I love being with him and how supportive him and my family are and I could not ask for more. I feel like my life has more meaning and everyday I love them all more and more. Darcy is expecting and her belly is starting to get bigger. I cannot wait to find out what she is having. Her and Danny are just stringing us along and waiting until he last minute to find out what they are having which is silly because I would so buy the baby Fisher a Christmas gift if I could. I guess I will just have to wait. I wish so badly that Bryan and I could start our own family but with finances tight and me living in Logan and Bryan in Salt Lake, it would not be wise to start now. I cannot wait to though. I think about it all the time and I want to be a mom so bad. Just to have such a blessing in our lives. We are so happy I know a little bundle of joy would complete the happiness. Well I will update on how we do on our finals when grades post.

So Montana was good but a little disappointing for the equestrian team trip. I have made it a goal to try and improve at each show to place better in the show from the previous one, have better rides, and learn new things. I definitely learned new things with this trip to Mizzoula, Montana. Montana is beautiful. I got to drive and it was in the afternoon as we were making our way through beautiful Montana. I have never seen so many different places along the side of the road that were ideal for fly fishing. The mountains were breathtaking and they were surrounding. The cold was worth the trip for sure just to get to see and experience all that is Montana. The hotel we stayed at was better from previous years from what I understand but our room was a little questionable. We had no hot water, a broken lock on the door, and the fan in the bathroom would growl at you as you went to the bathroom. Also dust particles and some other kind of particle would fall down from the light every time you were in there. It was crazy. The shows were okay. We did have one jumper fall off but she was alright other than some crooked glasses and a sore body for the following week. I did okay in my shows. I felt like I could have ridden much better and I hate that feeling. I like succeeding and riding to the best of my ability. Something I learned in the following practice was horse control. I have been lacking on the horse control subject to this point because I have not ridden any horses that had any problems. But on my first horse I got for the show, since we were the first ones to ride, he did not want to slow down. I needed to learn how to hold a horse back and is something that I have now mastered thanks to Trixie, the teams paint horse that I got to ride. My second horse was part of a draft pair of horses and the other paired horse was in the same class being ridden so every time she got up right next to her partner she would slow down and fight me if I wanted her to move on. The last horse I had was great and I had a wonderful ride. Until some silly girl from another college would not stop riding right behind my horse. Etiquette at horse shows that if a horse has a red ribbon tied in the horses tail that means the horse kicks if you get behind it and my cute little pony had a red ribbon so when she kept riding right behind me and even though I tried to avoid her, my horse bucked. I almost ended up on the ground and then my horse was upset and kept backing up trying to kick more. She would not move forward and that hurt my chances I feel a little because I had a great ride before and even after the incident. Some judges will judge on the horses performance as well. It was a fun trip though and I really enjoy everyone that is on the team. We all have fun and they are all really great to be around. I have made some fun and excellent friends and I am so glad I decided to join the team.

The holidays are coming up and it will be so much fun. Since Thanksgiving is next week I do not have school on Wednesday through Friday. I get to spend time with my friend Brie and her kids on Wednesday and we are going to do crafts, get lunch, and just hang out which will be nice. I miss seeing her and her adorable family. She is so much fun to be around and I am happy she is going to be hanging out with me. Being in Logan is hard and I miss everyone so much. I get to spend Thanksgiving with my family and my grandma, aunt and uncle, and cousins will be coming down for Thanksgiving. It will so much fun to see and hang out with Grandma, Pat, Bryce, Nick, and Andrea. I am excited too because it will be the first time that Darcy will be cooking for us. Well we are all bringing something and I am not sure what Darcy has left to cook but it will be great. I am looking forward to the end of the semester and it should be a good one.

Well once I have photo shop back on the laptop I will post some cool pictures of the jumpers at the show.

 A weekend ago Bryan and I got the opportunity to go up to Blackfoot, ID and shadow the ranch owner, Rance Butler. Rance is a beef cattle owner who makes his living off of the cattle he raises, breeds, and cares for. My aunt Pat is friends with Rance and organized the whole trip for us to go. I got to ride Weezie my aunt's horse. The trip we got to go on was a trip up to the reservation land that is just outside of Blackfoot. Rance was pushing the cattle from the reservation land that he pays to have his cattle on for the summer to his land in Blackfoot. We first got on the horses and rode through the land sweeping for any cattle that had gotten missed from the day before ride. We then pushed the cattle down to the road and to a corral just off the road. The cows were actually mixed with another ranch owners cattle and so while the cows were in the corral they went through and separated the cattle. They then drove the cattle further down the road to more land that Rance was leasing. After we drove the cattle from the hills I actually joined Bryan in the truck since the horse I was riding was a little hyped up and my aunt Pat needed to ride her down. We then went home and had dinner and slept. We really did not get a lot of sleep so it was nice to go to bed early and sleep in late the next day. We then had some excellent breakfast at Stan's and it was oh so good. It was two big scones, 5 pieces of bacon, hashbrowns, and two eggs. It was so good. We then came home after getting a call that the dogs had gotten out of the yard again. It was a great trip for sure.

Well have not blogged as soon as I wanted to this week but it has been a crazy week. Monday had an assignment due so I got up at 7:00 am and spent the whole day at the school until 8:30 pm with classes, research, and getting the assignment done and turned in. Tuesday I got to sleep in a little because I took an exam last week so that I would not have to take it this week. But the day did not end early, instead it went straight from 12:30 pm to 10:30 pm. I had classes until 4:30 pm and then dashed like a mad woman to riding practice at where I got to be a part of the group that had to stay late and wait for the horses that we rode for practice to cool down. Since it is cold outside we cannot just ride them and then let them out into their outside stalls. But instead we have to keep them inside the area until they completely cool down before turning them out. Wednesday I had class all day, went straight to work, and then I came straight back to the school for a review session for the Organic Chemistry test I had today. This is some confusing stuff for sure. Which then I got home about 9:30 pm and started studying for the midterm exam that I had in Animal Science on Thursday. I got up at 6:30 am to study for the midterm, went to classes and took the midterm, stayed after my last class to attend another review session for the organic chemistry test and went home to study more and more for the organic chemistry test. It is crazy how much studying it took to get prepared for the exam. I even got up at 6:30 am again today to study before going in for the test. I still do not feel like I was completely prepared but I felt like I did alright on both exams. I will have to find out for sure before feeling too good about it.

Last weekend was a total blast for sure. I got some pictures and I will have to post them later because I do not have my camera with me at this time but I got to go to Idaho and ride with my Aunt Pat and her friend Rance Butler. I got to follow Rance around and asked him all sorts of questions. I got to ride Weezie, my Aunt's paint horse, and after a while I ended sitting in the truck with Bryan and my Aunt rode Weezie for a while. It was so much fun and so cool to get to ask and apply questions to everything that I have learned already. I have learned so much from my animal dairy and vet science classes that I have got to take this semester and it was interesting to see it applied in real life and see some of the hands on. I really want to go into bovine (cow) science. I have changed from horses just because I love horses but I have fallen in love with cattle too. I think they are so interesting and complicated. It is crazy to think of all the processes that take place in a cows place and I would love to get to work with these gentle beasts. Bryan got to come with me as well and it was great to have him there. I love getting to spend any time that I can with him. I am excited to see him again this weekend. I only have two more classes today before I get to drive home, see Bryan, see my doggies, and hopefully maybe get some work done in the back yard.