NCBA-San Antonio, TX 2010

This year's NCBA Convention was in San Antonio, TX. Ben and I headed down on Monday to kick of the weeks activities with Masters of Beef Advocacy (MBA) training and commencement. We were trained by some great people: Troy and Stacy Hadrick from South Dakota and Amanda Nolz also from South Dakota. These young agriculture enthusiast are and inspiration and I look forward to working with them in the future. For dinner Tuesday night the Simpson's, Reece's and Neale's headed off to Fogo Chao a Brazilian Steakhouse and the atmosphere and food was great.

NCBA's Opening Session was held on Wednesday and it was awesome. The speaker was Chris Gardner author of "The Pursuit of Happyness". His story is amazing and I can't wait to see the movie starring Will Smith. After the Opening Session we headed off to the trade show to meet up with friends and meet Chris Gardner at his book signing. I can't wait to read the book. The coolest thing in the tradeshow was the sand sculpture.

   

  

 For dinner we meet up with Dr. Devin (aka A-Dad) at Mortons. We all enjoyed our prime steaks!

 

Thursday was a rainy and windy. Ben, Michael Simpson and Robby Reece headed off to tour Graham Land & Cattle Company in Gonzales, TX. Jay Gray general manager gave the guys a tour of the ranches 30,000 head capacity feedyard. I went shopping with Michael's wife Stacey, Robby's wife Brandi, and their little boy Colby. We went down to Market Square to shop and eat authentic Mexican food. On the walk back Colby and I had fun out running each other and playing in the water fountains. Thursday night was the Fiesta Party which consisted of many receptions for different organization. The food and fellowship was wonderful.

 

Friday was a day of committee meetings for Ben so I took off to tour the Alamo. While, there I tried to donate blood at a blood drive, but failed the iron test by one point. One would think after a week of eating beef for every meal my iron would be just fine. The south represented itself well at the Alamo especially Tennessee. Over 20 Tennesseans gave their life to help Texas gain their freedom from Mexico.

Friday was an eventful evening of PBR bull riding and a country music concert. We attended the bull riding and this was my first PBR event. The bulls are big and powerful!

We left sunny TX (it was above 70 degrees most of the week) on Saturday and flew into a cold and snowy Nashville. The officially yard reading says we have 4.5 inches. We had a great time and I hope spend the year promoting the consumption of beef and dairy products!

Christmas 2009

I'm a little behind on updating the blog, but didn't want to get to far from Christmas without posting some pictures. The holiday season started early for us as we went tree shopping the first weekend of December. We has a great time and found a great tree.

I sang in this year's Christmas Choir and loved the music....it was Have No Fear.

In the middle of the month the Band of Brothers had their annual Christmas party. Ben did a lot of planning for this and it was a wonderful evening. We had over 75 people attend. Santa dropped by to read the Christmas story!

On Monday Dec 21 we headed to the Carolina's for Christmas. We had a good time and we really enjoyed the time we got to spend with my Grandmother Iristine. Eva Lynne was a prefect angle even through she was scared of the toy we got her. The Peeler gathering was big as usually... most everyone was able to attend. It's amazing to see what two people (my grandparents) can produce. To date there are 4 children+ spouses, 10 grandchildren+ spouses, and 5 great-grandchildren. All because two people fell in love. I love a BIG family. We drove back home on Christmas Eve and spent Christmas together around our live Christmas tree!