Memories & Writing

I started this blog because I enjoy writing about life on the ranch, people that I love, things God lays on my heart, and funny stories that hopefully brighten your day.  I will have posts on my childhood, motherhood, being a teacher, falling in love, crazy horse stories, crazy people stories, and crazy animal stories.  I love to sit around and tell stories so why not write them also. lol

Memories… mine all started on a Canadian wheat farm.  Our land skirted the edge of the prairies near the foothills of the Rocky Mountains.  Dad was a fourth generation farmer, his Russian Mennonite great grandfather homesteaded 160 acres of free Alberta land near the town of Didsbury.  My parents were wheat farmers until I was ten years old, that is when my dad gave up farming in Canada for the dream of becoming a dentist in the United States.  We moved back to Oklahoma where my mother’s relatives were located.  After finishing high school 1995 I began college at Northeastern State University where I earned a bachelor’s degree in Elementary Education.  I also fell in love with a young man who was a dairy farmer named Troy who I married in 1997.  In 1998 we were blessed with our first daughter Lindsey.  In 1999 I began teaching 6th, 7th, and 8th grade full time.  In 2000 my husband and I had our second daughter Hannah, and I started teaching 5th grade.  In 2007 I started teaching 4th grade and we had our son Tristan, who is now 15 years old.  I started my master’s degree two years after completing my bachelor’s but I had to drive seventy miles for a class in the evening, stay for two hours, and drive home seventy miles.  At that time NSU did not offer any online classes.  I took three classes this way and then quit because working full time and raising a family did not leave enough time for evening classes.  Three years later with the encouragement of my principal I decided to explore ways to continue my master’s degree.  I checked into online learning, which was almost unheard of in my rural area of Oklahoma.  I decided that I could not be away from my family three evenings a week, so I started my masters online through Walden University.  In 2006 I graduated with my master’s degree in Reading and Literature.  This was my first e-learning experience but it certainly would not be the last.  In 1995 my Dad achieved his dream of becoming a dentist.  This inspired me to believe that if a determined, hardworking 38 year old wheat farmer could become a dentist then I could go on to work on my doctorate and teach at the university level.  I started working on my doctorate in education in 2010 and graduated from Northcentral University with an EdD in e-learning in 2017.  At the same time I was working on a principal and superintendent certificate degree in administration at NSU (which I finished in 2016).  My goal of teaching online at the university level was met when I was hired as an adjunct instructor in 2014 at my beloved alma mater Northeastern State University.  In the fall of 2017 I was hired as a freelance writing for Ozark Farm and Neighbor magazine, I love meeting new people and taking pictures of their farms and ranches.  The stories in my blog will be about my childhood, my crazy life, raising three kids, ranch and rodeo life, and teaching elementary school for the last 23 years.  Who knows maybe someday I will write a book... not another dissertation, but a book that I can pour my heart and soul into and enjoy doing it.  I love writing, so I hope this blog blesses and inspires you and you learn from the stories I write during your journey through this exciting, wonderful life.