Undefeated.....and Overlooked

"Don't worry when you are not recognized, but strive to be worthy of recognition." ~ Abraham Lincoln

Okay....question to the blog world. How many of you watched the NCAA Women's Basketball tournament? How many of you watched even one game? Did you know that the women from UConn completed the perfect season? That's right--the went undefeated to win the National Championship over Stanford. Isn't it sad that they get such little recognition for this? Although, they did get at least one pretty cool phone call. Here's some quick UConn info--the ladies ended the season with a perfect 39-0. They are riding a 78 game winning streak. Think about how unbelieveable that is! They are just 10 games shy of breaking the men's win streak record, which was set by UCLA in the early 1970s. The team is lead by stand-out and tournament MVP, Maya Moore and coached by the legandary Geno Auriemma. The Championship Game wasn't a romp--in fact--UConn was down 20-12 at halftime. But the team rallied and beat Stanford 53-47.
This is good stuff and people should be watching. I'm as guilty as everyone else. I am a huge sports fan. I played basketball. There is no excuse for why I will watch every single Men's NCAA tournament game, but won't tune in for any of the Women's tournament. So I wanted to take today's blog and give a shout out to the UConn Huskies and their perfect season. And to vow that next year, I will be watching BOTH tournaments!

April Updates

"In golf, as in life, it's the follow through that makes a difference." ~Unknown

Do you feel like sometimes I start something on the blog and never finish it? I know some people are annoyed that I blog about something I will be doing soon, but then they don't get to hear any follow up on how things went. So I've decided that every month I'll do a blog of updates---sort of filling you in on the events that have occurred related to the prior month's blogs.

Sheep Sale As I told everyone last Friday, our family lamb sale was last weekend. It went great--best one we've had. We sold 38 lambs. We even broke a goal we set for ourselves....twice. And on top of that, we got to visit some great time with our customers, who are really great friends as well. It's always like a little show family reunion.

My New Cow One Family Farm Friday Blog told you about my new cow (and calf). I have finally seen them, and little brother is still hired as my cattle buyer. She looks pretty good! I'm very excited and plan to spend some time deciding which bull I want to breed her to--which you all probably remember me discussing previously. The calf looks pretty good as well....so I'll have to decide if I am going to keep her or sell her. She may end up being a little fine boned, but we'll see.
NCAA Tournament Well, my Cinderella Stories blog almost was the ultimate preminition. Tiny underdog Butler almost beat college basketball powerhouse Duke. Butler was the smallest school EVER to play in the Championship game. Their coach is only 33 years old. They were the total real life Hoosiers (great movie if you haven't seen it) who were playing for small schools everywhere. They came within on basket of pulling it off. One of my favorite parts of this was College Roomie who had me help her with her bracket. We were filling it out and she said "Butler. I'll pick them. Go Big 12." I laughed and informed her that Butler was not in the Big 12. She was thinking of Baylor. Had I kept my mouth shut, she probably could have won a lot of money. Note to all of you--apparently basketball conference knowledge does not equate to bracket selecting ability!

Bay to Breakers Training Well, I've officially registered for the race, which you have previously read about. Their website has a countdown, which officially freaks me out and motivates me to go on runs most nights! So far my farthest run has been 3.5 miles in 30:45. Not great.....but I'm getting there! Cross your fingers that in 32 days, I will be able to do the full 7.5!

West Virginia Miners The prior blog was sad enough, but the tragedy got even worse. The four missing miners for whom they were searching for and hoping against hope they would find alive in the mine's refuge chamber were found dead. In all, 29 miners lost their lives in the worst mining disaster in our nation's history. These are 29 fathers, brothers, sons, cousins, friends..... Please continue to keep these families in your prayers.

Family Farm Friday #15: We've Come a Long Way

“You don't make progress by standing on the sidelines, whimpering and complaining. You make progress by implementing ideas.” ~ Shirley Hufsteddler

This weekend is my family's annual show lamb sale. As I am preparing to go home for the sale, I was thinking about the very first sale that we took lambs to. Looking back, it's safe to say that we've come a long way!

Mr. Franklin, cousin Whitney and I loaded up into his silver Ford truck, hooked onto his tan gooseneck trailer and away we went. The trip was pretty typical for a Franklin-style outing. The dashboard was full of snuff cans, hauling papers for the last 30 years, and a half-eaten bag of chicken gizzards. (Poor cousin Whitney may not have seen this as typical, but I didn't blink). We drove the endless road to Capitan.....aka the middle of nowhere. It was freezing, snowing and not pleasant. There were very few buyers there, our chains on the lamb rack kept breaking so we were continuously catching lambs as they were trying to run away (probably back home where it was not negative 57 degrees) and we were not having fun. We sold a few lambs....we may have actually sold all of them because I don't specifically remember bringing any home. I'm sure we averaged about 125 bucks a head.

To give you an idea of how enjoyable this trip was, on the way home Mr. Franklin said, "Girl, if we have to do that again, it's going to drive me to drink." As it was, it drove him to stop at a convenience store to get a Swisher Sweet cigar and puff on it the rest of the way home.

Now, thank goodness, we no longer trek to Capitan. And we no longer have to use that stupid lamb rack. And we no longer have to wash the lambs before the sale. Hallelujah! Our families rent out the fairgrounds and have the sale there. We usually have around 200 buyers on hand, we feed everyone lunch, give out door prizes and sell some lambs. Last year, we sold around 70 total between the two families. Not too bad.

Hopefully this year will go just as well. Sheep sale weekend is one of my favorites of the year--I love getting to catch up with our friends and customers. It's sort of like a showing family reunion.

Yep, we've come a long way since Capitan. As much as I enjoy and prefer our current sale format over that chaos, I would go back and re-do that first sale in a heartbeat now. The sale this year won't be the same without the little man in the golf cart running into everything and everyone in sight. So much of why we've been able to come a long way can be credited to him....in the sheep sale context and in life.

Maybe I'll buy some chicken gizzards to put on my dashboard for the drive home, for old time's sake.

Throwback Thursday #19: Where It All Began...

“The road of life twists and turns and no two directions are ever the same. Yet our lessons come from the journey, not the destination.” ~ Don Williams, Jr.


I have gotten several questions, both since the Throwback Thursday topic switched to my summer in San Francisco and before that, about how I ended up in San Francisco for the summer. I figured, why not blog about that?



When I was done with my first summer clerk job (at the firm where I now work), it was time for look at jobs for the next summer. I knew that I loved my firm, and said that if I already knew that if I stayed in Albuquerque, I wanted to work there. So, because working at a different firm in Albuquerque seemed like a waste of time, and because I was craving some adventure, I went a different route. I thought I wanted to work at a large firm to see what I thought.


I asked around, and one attorney I knew suggested that I get an Am Law magazine and send cover letters and resumes to all of the top 50 firms in cities I might want to work. Being young, dumb and not realizing what a long shot this really was, I followed his advice. Somehow, I started getting phone calls asking to set up interviews. My first call was from...the San Francisco office of Paul Hastings.



Getting recruited for summer associate jobs by Top 50 firms is super fun. I was flown out to San Francisco and put up in the fanciest hotel I have ever stayed in. Then I interviewed with five or six attorneys in one day, had a fancy lunch, and then got to do some shopping/sightseeing before I head home. That should be the end of the story. However, because it's me....we have to throw in a little drama.
Have I mentioned that I get car sick before? Yea, I realize you are supposed to grow out of it. I didn't. So I got super sick on the plane to San Francisco. Then I got sick again in the cab. Then again once I got to the hotel. By this point, I pretty much feel like crap. However, to make matters worse, I had already rented a bike to go biking across the Golden Gate Bridge (bucket list checkmark ahead!) that afternoon.

Well, because I really wanted to check that item off, and becuase I'm cheap and had already paid the 20 bucks or whatever it was for the bike, I decided to go biking anyway. I'm lucky I didn't die. I as so deyhdrated I got out to the bridge and just turned around. I didn't have the energy to get across. I did, however, get to see the famous skateboarding dog and snap a few other pictures that day.
The interview went well, although when they took me and tried to feed me really fancy food on my poor sick stomach that was a mess. I loved the people and the city and the firm. Somehow, they decided to give me an offer and, as they say, the rest is history. I had an offer with a great firm in D.C. as well and, although I really wanted to experience living in both cities, I chose San Francisco. Speaking of, I read interesting blog this week about this very issue.


Pretty sure that was one of the best decisions of my life.....

The Faces

"Next to love, sympathy is the divinest passion of the human heart." ~Edmund Burke

It's really easy to watch tragic stories on the news and not really think about the fact that actual people are involved. It's hard to stop and really think about them---putting yourself in their shoes. When we see this kind of stories, most of the time I think we feel a momentary sadness for the people, and then just go on with our day. I'm as guilty as anyone. I'm busy--so I might see a headline on MSN and say a quick prayer for the people and go back to whatever motion I'm working on.
Today I was reading about the mine collapse in West Virginia. I was looking at the pictures of the families and friends of the miners who have been killed, or who are still missing. When you look at the faces and remember that there are actual people--wives and mothers and sisters and children--it's a lot harder to just go on with your day. With these faces, I really tried to think about how that would feel if I were in their shoes. It could be any of us....
Please take a moment today to think about the people, and to look at their faces. You can read about some of the miners who lost their lives. Pray for peace and comfort for the families today. One day, God forbid, it could be our face that people are looking at. I would hope they would return the kindness.

State FFA Week - Don't Tell Me I Can't

"The turning point, I think, was when I really realized that you can do it yourself. That you have to believe in you because sometimes that's the only person that does believe in your success but you." ~ Tim Blixseth

It's State FFA Judging week in Las Cruces, so I figured a blog on something judging related was appropriate. I've always been a person who hated being told she couldn't do something. If there was any sure-fire way to motivate me, it was to tell me I couldn't do it.

For those of you who were not in FFA, the way judging works is that once your team has won state and judged at Nationals, those team members are not allowed to judge that contest anymore. So, usually you just find another contest and give that a try. My freshman year we won livestock, which was "our contest" so to speak and went to Nationals. So, sophmore year we won Dairy and went to Nationals. Junior year rolled around. Judging season started and we were signing up for which contests we would be competing in. Mr. Franklin puts our names on the board for Poultry. He had lost his mind.

Now, you have to understand, we were livestock kids. I had never touched a chicken in my life. Kyle didn't even EAT chicken. And Mr. Franklin thought we would judge, and not just judge, but win the Poultry contest? We suggested other contests, I tried to pull the "I'm allergic to feathers" line, Kyle said he'd never even seen raw chicken. We tried to explain this to him, but anyone who knew Mr. Franklin realizes this was akin to talking to a fence post. He calmly informed us not only were we going to be judging Poultry, we'd be winning poultry. So, we started learning about chicken parts, pigmentation loss, and candeling eggs.

Our first invitational contest rolled around and we were in Clovis. The Poultry contest was set up in one of the barns, so off we went, clipboards in hand, eyes ready for our first Poultry experience. As we were entering the barn, a whole group of ag teachers from other schools were laughing at us. It seemed like they all had comments about the livestock kids judging poutry and how funny we looked and then one of them made a crack about our winning streak being over and how his team had been training for years to win Poultry. He had implied that we couldn't do it--bad mistake.

Kyle and I both saw red, and it was on. I remember getting off that bus that night and going to the freezer to unthaw chicken parts to practice. The next week at night after we had been judging at district all day, it was the same thing. All along we could do it, and now we knew we were going to. To this day I can look at most any cut of chicken and blurt out what it is in about .25 seconds. I could analyze a problem with a fried chicken patty like no one's business--they really should have hired me at McDonalds. I guess if the lawyer thing doesn't work out...
Life is full of people telling you that you can't do something. You have two choices--you can listen to them, or you can prove them wrong. Most of the time, people don't know what you are made of. They underestimate your abilities and try to get you to sell yourself short. Don't listen. Prove them wrong. Put you head down and go to work. You know what you're capable of. Show everyone else.

Oh, and in case you were wondering how the story ended? We ended up holding a big red State Championship banner in Gerald Thomas hall. We went on to be holding big scholarship checks at the National FFA Convention a few months later.

I don't think I ever thanked that ag teacher for his assistance with achieving these goals.....that was unthoughtful of me.

OSU Family Easter

"I've learned that your college friends become kind of family, you eat together, you take naps together, fight, laugh, cry, and do absolutely nothing together until you can't remember how you ever lived your life without them in the first place." ~Anonymous


This Easter I was thinking back on the holiday and I decided a blog about my favorite Easter may be necessary. It was my senior year of college at OSU. We never got off Good Friday (shame on OSU....being in the Bible Belt and all!) so it was just too far for us out of state kids to make it home. Instead, we had our own "family" Easter dinner. So there we were....our hodge podge group of New Mexicans, our token Texan, and our city boy Okie.

I can still remember everyone getting all dressed up and meeting at our apartment to go to church. We all piled into my car, like one big happy family, and then all piled into a pew where there was probably room for about 1/2 of us. Sorry people who were squished in the process--but family sits together for Easter church! I seem to even recall Cole threatening to pull the car over if the bickering didn't stop in the back seat.


When church was over we all went back to the casa and had a huge dinner. I don't remember what we had--my guess is mexican food since that's really the only thing I know how to cook. I do remember that I had to make deviled eggs especially for Christopher, because his mom always made deviled eggs on Easter and I was like his college mom, and in his head, that logic made complete sense. I made his stupid eggs.
The saying is true that your college friends become like a family. These boys (and College Roomie) were there for me no matter what--good, bad and everything in between. I could always count on them for anything. From taking the dead mous out of a trap, to a place to sleep when our apartment almost exploded, to the craziest nights ever at the Penny, to golf lessons that ended up in screaming matches, to saving the worst birthday ever.....they were there.

They were, and will always be, family. Even if that means making deviled eggs to go with enchilladas.

Happy Easter!

"Easter says you can put truth in a grave, but it won't stay there." ~Clarence W. Hall

Family Farm Friday # 13: All Hat, No Cattle

"There's nothing like sitting back and talking to your cows." ~Russell Crowe I had a professor in law school who would randomly, about once a week, come dressed in western clothing. Wranglers, button up shirt, belt, and boots. In undergrad at Oklahoma State, I would never have thought twice about this. But at UNM, this is a little bit more rare. One day I was meeting with him on a day when he was in his western wear, so I asked him if he owned a horse or something. His response? "Oh no honey, I'm all hat, no cattle!" Anyway, recently I felt his pain. My family has always raised cattle and sheep, and I've always had some of my own cows. I bought my first heifer when I was 10 years old from our neighbor. She was a Hereford cross with a red circle over one eye. I took the money I had made from selling my first lamb at the county fair (2nd place, lightweight blackface) and invested. Over the years I've pretty much always had some cattle that were my own, or belonged jointy to me and my brother. However, my 7 years of higher education (I know, I know....I'm a nerd) tended to tighten the budget, so I hadn't been able to keep replenishing the herd. I, like my professor, found myself in the "all hat, no cattle" situation. Until yesterday. I sent my brother to the cattle auction. Now, you have to know a little bit about my brother. He's one of those people who could sell ice to an eskimo as the saying goes. He knows everyone, talks to everyone and is friends with everyone. He also has a great eye for livestock. We both grew up judging in 4-H and FFA, and both judged in junior college. He easily has always had more natural talent than I have when it comes to livestock evaluation, so I trust his judgment. (Although, I suspected him of trying to make a "finders fee" so I insisted that I be on the phone during the auction to see how much he was really bidding!) Anyway, I am now the proud owner of a cow and calf. They were sold as a pair--which is a pretty sweet deal. The calf is a heifer, so that means I will either keep her to breed (which you remember I'm super excited about from my prior blog about bull semen), or I'll sell her and end up getting a big chunck of my investment back! Sounds like a win-win to me. I haven't seen them yet, but I'm hoping that when I go home for Easter this weekend, I'll be able to scope out my purchase. I'm debating naming the cow Bonus (since that's what is paying for hre!). We'll see if it fits when I see her.

Throwback Thursday Failure

"Don't make excuses - make good." ~Elbert Hubbard





So....I didn't get my blog written for this Thursday. Bad blogger, bad!



Anyway, I have had several people ask me how I ended up in San Francisco for the summer, so I decided I'd start from the beginning and explain how I figured out where to apply, talk about the highlights of the interview process, that kind of thing. Dont' worry, I'll have some fun stories thrown in. Including one involving this little guy......





So stay tuned. Next week I'll be sure to blog ahead of time so it's ready to go on Thursday morning!