Dentists Appt.

I think everyone gets reminder cards in the mail. It could be from the veterinaries office for the family pet. Or the dentist, reminding you that your teeth need to be cleaned. Or maybe from your doctor about a yearly physical. Regardless, I think everyone is very familiar with walking to the mailbox and finding a cheery "We miss you! It's time for a check-up!" postcard in the box. Well I'm no different, except that I HATE going to the doctors!! So in my way of thinking, why drag it out all year? I have all my check-ups, physicals and cleanings done so that they fall within the same week. Get it over and done with!

Very recently I made the walk to the end of the drive and found three separate reminder cards, so I took out my calendar and started the calls. I had to do the Yearly at the Gynecologist Dr. N---, and my 6 month cleaning at the dentist Dr C----, and Maggie needed her shots. GREAT!! So I start dialing and here's what happened;

Receptionist: "Good morning! Thanks for calling Dr. N---'s office. How can I help you?"
Me: Yes, I received a reminder today about my 6 month cleaning and I'd like to set that appointment up with you."
R: ".......Uhm, Ma'am! We don't do that here."
M: "Yes you do! I got the reminder today."
R: "Have we ever seen you before?"
M: "You sure have. About 6 months ago for my cleaning."
R: "Ma'am we don't clean those here!"
M: "Wait! Who's Office is this?"
R: (Laughing her butt off by now) "Dr. N---'s"
M: "I thought this was the dentists number"
R: (Still laughing) "Is there anything else I can do for you?"
M: "Uhm.... Yes, actually I need to set up my yearly with you. But I don't want to tell you my name now."
R: "Oh Honey. I have caller I.D. and I'll never forget this call."
M: "Crap!"

I hate living in a small town! I see that lady everywhere now. She just laughs and laughs.

Tree Hunting

So this is a little bit delayed, in that our tree stands have been up for months! But I just want to impress upon you the difficulty of finding the right tree. It sounds so easy in theory. Noah will tell you that the only thing I worked hard at was getting in his way. Somehow I can remain totally calm and composed, level headed, and able to do pretty much anything I want to do. But you throw us together to do a project, and I loose my mind. Between standing in the way and making him trip over me, asking 1,437 questions, telling him a better way of doing something and generally being as loud as I possibly can. Then you add Nature to the mix, I somehow always get attacked by fire ants, or small animals (seriously this really happens every time!) and I wander around taking very random pictures of things. I really am not much help, I'm more moral support you could say.

On TV if you have ever watched any hunting show, the person is always in a big tall tree and it looks like it's 40 feet to the ground from the stand. The tree normally is huge, big and fat, and straight. I thought I could just walk out, grab the first tree that I came to, climb up and wha-laa!

I didn't take into consideration that I live in Central Texas! If it's not a mesquite, then it's a live oak and maybe if you're really lucky, a real oak. None of those types are very tall, straight or huge. So finding one that meets requirements, as well being where a deer trail cuts close to or passes around is not always easy. Luckily my husband is awesome! He takes a long time picking a tree, setting up the stand and clearing shooting lanes. But I have never fallen out of one, had problems getting into it, or had a branch in my way. I have had a squirrel jump almost on me, a Racoon climb up the tree and onto my stand with me to get away from a bobcat, and an army of tree ants crawl inside my clothes. But that couldn't be avoided, I think I have bad luck. Noah found some really good spots this season.

You might have noticed that Noah is in all these shots. Like I said, I wander and take random pictures. He was the only one of us working.

"By the grace of God"

Can I just thank God right now that
1. I'm alive!
2. I'm not paralyzed.
3. I'm not in a coma.
4. I'm at home.

This past week one of my many sisters and I were texting. We were talking about our relationships with God and or my lack of one mainly. So we're talking, and She's asking some questions and I'm being my normal obnoxious self and telling her why I don't have a great relationship and don't care to. I think I even threw in a few "because I just don't care".

That night after I got off work a few hours early, I drove up and met Noah close to the Oklahoma border and we spent the night with some friends. Early the next morning we all drove to Red River and were riding some 4-wheelers around. Maybe 3 or 4 hours into our day of riding I am still not sure what happened, but I wrecked the 4 wheeler I was on. I'm not sure what happened 'cause I don't remember any of it! The last thing I can remember is pulling over and letting one of the guys pass me and then getting back on a trail and following them.

Noah said that he was #2 in line, and the first guy almost wrecked and was flagging him down when Noah almost wrecked. Noah turned to #3 in line (the guy who I let pass me) and #3 was holding his wrist from were he had almost wrecked and gotten banged up. Noah said he looked past #3 and saw my 4-wheeler in the air. He said I was just laying there, face down, not moving and just took off sprinting to get to me.

I was going over some little rolling hills and just tootling right along, following the guys while they were all jumped dunes. The trail changed, (FYI sand does that you know) and I hit this huge dune that came out of nowhere! I panicked, let off the gas and hit the brakes, which makes the nose go straight down. And I did a front flip on a 450 Grizzly. It hit on the handlebars, slammed me face down into the ground, and rolled over me landing like it was going back the opposite direction.

They said I was out cold for a couple of minutes before coming back around, spitting sand out of my mouth and asking what had happened. They said I immediately asked if any one got pictures and was pretty upset no one had. I got up and was moving around, I started asking the same questions over and over again, I couldn't remember where we were, what day it was, what had happened (they said I repeated that one a lot). I didn't remember Thanksgiving at my sisters, shooting my turkey, I started crying when Noah said I got one. I felt so confused! Noah was flipping out! He said he honestly thought I was dead. He drove me back to the truck and got me some water and made the decision to go to the ER. Even now I can only vaguely remember being in the truck and Noah telling me to stay awake, and tasting sand in my mouth.

Most of the first day and a half at the hospital is fuzzy. I know they tried like four times to draw my blood and couldn't. My veins kept blowing or something, They ended up drawing from my femoral artery, which hurt SO BAD! After they got the IV in, and a DR checked me out. They gave me morphine and I was in between hurting like hell, and telling Noah to write down a shopping list. "Milk, bread, cereal, and don't forget the listerine" (Give me a break! I got knocked out and had sand in my mouth) Noah said that as I was being wheeled out the door going to go have a CT scan done that I kept reminding him to make sure and get listerine. I was going from table to table for my CT and accidentally flashed the male tech and I think I said "Whoopsie!!" I was really embarrassed! They moved me from then on. All the nurses that were taking vitals and blood were so sweet! I can remember that I kept telling Noah that they were cute and nice and we should try to set up our friend Travis with one of them. I think I was saying it in this horribly loud stage whisper while they were right there.

After a bunch of x-rays and CT scans, the official word was that I had a concussion, some amnesia and my brain was bleeding, giving me the worst headache I've ever experienced! I hit my elbow on something and hyper extended it, tearing the tendon some and giving it a huge massive bruise. I also knocked a few ribs out and bruised my sternum and when the 4 wheeler rolled over me, it rolled both my ankles and made them swell and bruise and hurt to walk on. Luckily, I work for a Chiropractor and he can fix or adjust everything but the bleeding part. All things considered, I got off really lucky! It hadn't really hit me how much so until my family doctor and my boss both were going on and on about how they couldn't believe I didn't have my neck broken or anything else for that matter, and that I was fully functional. I had problems for about a week with bad headaches, but both doctors assured me that this was pretty standard with having a concussion. I got a nose bleed while I was in the hospital and have one still, it hasn't stopped yet. This apparently is caused by swelling and pressure in your skull. All in all, I'm fine!

So a few of the things I've learned; Wear a helmet! It might look retarded on, cost $50, and give you "hat hair", but it might save you a lot of pain or even your life. Don't ever take anything for granted, I can't handle morphine very well! Most importantly, Don't mock god! He doesn't like it and he will smack you down. Or in my case, smack some sense into me. I think I have taken for granted a lot of what I have and not been thankful at all. More expectant, and demanding. Basically acting like a spoiled child. I hate when people act like that and here I am, doing that which I despise. I was telling my Aunt that I got really lucky and her reply was that it wasn't luck at all! It was the grace of God. It made me think about how right she was and really has made me take a deep long look at myself and my actions. Turns out, I'm not a nice person sometimes, I'm not humble and I don't deserve any of what God has allowed me to have in my life. He is a gracious and loving God who forgives us of our sins and for that, I am most thankful.

My after Thanksgiving day Turkey

Well, I'm still deer hunting! I've gritted my teeth and passed on some deer that at the end of the season, I'm liable to regret passing on. My problem seems to be that I have seen the deer that I would like to take, but haven't gotten a shot or seen Him since.
I did shoot a turkey a few days after Thanksgiving. He was a big old bird! I'd seen him a few times and he was mean! He chased some smaller bucks one cold morning. It was pretty cool!as well as one of those things you don't see every day.
The morning I shot him was pretty cold! I look like a small child bundled up in every single piece of camo clothing that Noah and I own. My arms don't go all the way down to my side, they just sort of stick out to the sides a bit. So it was cold, I shot him and after waiting a little bit to go collect my prize, I walked down to pick up this turkey. He was laying head on the ground, not breathing, DEAD!! On the ground DEAD! I grabbed his leg, and rolled him over to grab the other one and this thing jumped up! Feathers flying everywhere, Me still holding one leg, and took off running! Luckily, I'm only 26 so I didn't immediately have a heart attack. but I was screaming loud enough that the land owner could hear me a mile and a half away! They always say your first will always be the most memorable. Mine sure was!

Sept mule deer hunt

So my mule deer hunt finally came! Noah and I packed everything we might need into the jeep and hit the road. We drove to just past Hobbs NM, and made our first days camp just off the caprock. I spotted about 6 does feeding their way up the side pretty early so we were all pretty pumped up. The only buck we saw that night ended up being a little spike that we didn't think was legal. We did some scouting the next morning and Noah and I found this little place that was pretty cool. When you buy a hunting license, you pay for a habitat stamp. Well this place was corraled in, and had a water reservoir and a watering trough for deer and small animals. It was posted on the fence that it was paid for by hunters and fisherman buying that stamp. It was pretty cool, but I forgot to take pictures. we also snuck within 40 yards from the does we had seen the night before. But still no buck.
So we pushed on the next day and went to Artesia. On the way there, we stopped and scouted an area called Cedar Lake. It was gnarly! I loved it! Lot's of sand dunes, scrub brush, and tracks everywhere! Since we had already seen some big bucks near Artesia, we decided to push through and make camp where we knew there were bucks. Where to camp at was our next obstacle, we drove and ended up off finding a water hole we wanted to glass that night. Once again, we laid camp. That night glassing, I saw about 12 does working a fence line about 300 yards from camp. They weren't bothered by us much, just munching away. Mule deer are so much bigger than whitetails. Looking at these does through my binos, they looked like cows they were so big! We saw some other deer a long ways off, but at a mile or more, it was really hard to tell if it was a buck or not. We packed camp again the next morning, went to town and had breakfast. I swear those were the best eggs I've ever had!
We made camp a few miles away that day, but we started doing some scouting. Noah talked to a pumper and the guy said he'd been seeing two really large bucks every morning in the same place, and that we were the first hunters he'd seen in that area. Score! We were pretty excited and decided to glass that valley that night, we'd been there for about two hours and nothing! I saw a huge yellow coyote and three smaller ones hunting the opposite ridge line, but that was it. Noah said to pack it up, we were headed in early. Headed back to the jeep, we had to hike about a mile through some pretty rough terrain. We still had about 45 minutes of light when we drove over a hill and right in front of us were those two bucks! I though Noah was going to freak out! We were both so excited! The only drawback was they took off running. Oh, that and we were in the damn jeep! So we drove about a mile down the road and ditched the jeep, and started running. Noah had the binos in one hand and the range finder in the other. Those deer had stopped in a little valley and had started feeding again. So we started moving to a position to head them off. Of course it wasn't that easy though, they headed off a different direction and it was to dark to follow.
On a side note here. When Noah and I are practicing shooting, He likes to give me all these scenarios of what might happen. He'll make himself get pumped up to shoot, and tries to make me do the same. I've been running to help get myself in shape, and He always tells me to control my breathing. In fact, just the other day he said "learn to control your breathing, 'cause you never know when you're going to have to run a mile uphill and when you get there, you are going to have to be ready and able to take a 40 yard shot at a monster." ALL I could think about while we were trucking it up there was, "this is happening! This is Happening!"
So now we have seen some huge bucks, Noah and I are not going anywhere! We got up at 5 AM again, and glassed where we knew these boys were hanging out. Nothing! We did some scouting that day, following some tracks.We saw a badger, it ran at us until we stood up and he realized we were much bigger than he first thought, we didn't see deer for 2 more days. By Friday, Noah and I were both ready for a shower and our bed so we packed camp for the last time and started home. On the way we had to drive past Ceder Lake, and the more we both thought about it, the more we both wanted to hunt it. We pulled off and did some driving around looking at fresh tracks. It had rained late the night before, so everything fresh was from that day. We drove across some huge tracks crossing the road and when the road dead-ended, we turned around and headed back the way we came in. I was talking to Noah, and turned my head, and in that instant locked eyes with a huge 3x3! He'd just been watching me drive on by, and when he saw me look at him, he jumped up ready to spook. I told Noah not to stop and keep driving, that it was a shooter buck and "Let's give 'em hell!" So we ditched the jeep again, grabbed what we needed and took off again! About 50 yards from where we had seen him, we started working our way through the dunes trying to sneak up and get a shot. It was so loud, every step crunching. Noah kicked off his shoes and told me to do the same, so now we were both in socks putting a stalk on a nice 3x3 in September! The month everyone told us that we'd be lucky to even see bucks! Can I just say that I felt pretty bad ass and salty! OK, so socks! We're creeping forward and there's just tracks leading off, and there are two sets. So we take off trailing them. I must have stepped on every thorn out there, Noah had them everywhere too. This trail just sort of meanders through the dunes, it was some pretty slow going but our wind is good. When Noah just stops and dropped all of a sudden and is freaking out! The buck I saw is the smaller of the two and Noah just spotted the more mature one, they had bedded back down and that old salty cuss is bedded on top of a dune, on top of a salt cedar tree! He'd gotten up high so he could see. Since Noah has a better view, I get some details and am getting ready to draw when that buck stands and just watches us. He didn't know what we were, and he must have sat there for 4 minutes before he dropped his head and gave me a chance to draw. So I come to full draw just as the younger one is starting to walk off too. All I had was his neck and the top of his back, no vitals. So I let back down and wow, my adrenaline started pumping. We followed those two bucks for about 2 miles still barefoot, till they winded us and took off. We hiked back to our shoes, gave them an hour and tried to track them again. We didn't have any luck.
So back in the jeep, we drove to the caprock and decided to glass again and see if we saw anything bigger than that spike from day one. Noah and I were walking to the truck and I almost stepped on a rattlesnake! He coiled up and started buzzing and striking. (If you know me well, then you know how I react to snakes) I was screaming, jumping, and pretty much lost my ever loving mind! So Noah makes me stand in front of it, to distract it while he circles it. He was trying to talk me into catching it and putting it into the rubbermaid box we were storing our food in so we could take it to Jerid to mount for us. This was hands down, the worst idea of the whole trip! Thankfully the snake had other ideas to, because he took off (I'm still standing in front of it) scared me all over again and Noah was trying to pin its head down with one of my arrows (which I still haven't touched) so he could pick it up. Every time he'd try to pin its head down that snake was striking, and it was so big that it was almost biting Noah. Noah ended up killing it, but that thing was HUGE! It's rattles were 10 and a button. After that, we just went home. I told Noah I was cool with camping till I saw that snake and that's about all I could handle. So we got home, and I've been wishing all week that we were back in New Mexico still. I'm pretty anxious for January to get here for another chance at a mule deer.
Saturday is opening day of whitetail archery season, so that should help tide me over till then. I'm hunting a new location this year, and haven't had a trail camera up so we'll have to just see what this season is going to bring our way.

bow-hunters therapy

So in preparation for my upcoming mule deer hunt and deer season, I've made some upgrades to my bow. I bought a custom string, a new peep sight, and made some overall changes in how I'm shooting. I found out that when you order a new string, you can request colors! (Can I just add here that I'm probably the wrong person to let know that everything can match! I like pretty!) So everything is yellow, grey and black. Don't laugh until you see it! It is very cohesive, and pretty, and I like it.

So back to my story. When you change things on a bow, everything changes. You have to re-sight in, let your string stretch. It's a lot of work! But in the chance of disaster, you have a fully sighted in back-up string ready to shoot. I changed my string just a few weeks ago, and since haven't been shooting well at all. I went from shooting a three shot group that could fit in a quarter, to not being able to group. This might not sound like any big deal, but for me, this is HUGE! Noah has been so great. He's spent all week working with me, trying to get me fixed. I changed everything from how I grip the bow, my anchor point, my body stance, we moved my sight pins, nothing worked. This was the most frustrating week of my year. I'm not the most emotional person, but I have to admit. I cried like a baby a few times.
Nothing I've tried felt right and I was starting to worry that if whatever was wrong didn't get fixed. I was not going to chance taking a shot that I didn't feel was ethical or that I felt I couldn't make or control. So today, I took some things for Noah out to the bow shop we use. Jerid Lawrence was asking how everything was going, if I was ready to hunt, yada, yada, yada. I just unloaded on the poor guy! I pulled up a chair, poured out my little heart, teared up and just about bawled! He's obviously married, because he didn't run screaming for the door. He told me to get my bow and let him see what was wrong. So he gave it a look over and noticed that it was off in a few places. We re-sighted in my peep, adjusted my loop, and then had to re-seat my sight. After all of this was finished, he had me shoot at some targets and low and behold! Everything works, I'm shooting awesome groups again, my broad heads are dialed in, and I'm ready to go hunting!
I feel like I've been to a therapy session. Jerid gave me some breathing exercises to try while I'm shooting. He fixed my bow, I cried, and a huge weight has been lift from my chest and I feel great! I'm quite positive He was relieved when I finally walked out of his place without falling completely apart.

First timer

I've been talked into starting a blog, so I guess my first step is to tell you about me.

I'm Mia, and I'm married to a wonderful, amazing guy named Noah. We're a pretty typical couple, we live in Central Texas, we have a house and a dog named Maggie. I take pictures of her like she is my child! Between Noah and her, They hate it when I break out the camera.

Unlike anyone I know, We both bow hunt and fish quite a lot. Instead of having school and summer dictating what we do, we have the hunting and fishing seasons. Well there's not really a fishing season, for us it's more of a filler. Sort of a between the deer season to deer season gap, it gives us something to do.

We target practice a lot, which entails shooting in our backyard at targets we have set up. We also bow fish during the spring and summer. It's great practice and lots of fun! (I hold the record for falling off the boat more than anyone else)

Currently Noah and I are getting ready for a bow hunt in New Mexico for Mule Deer. We've gone and scouted out locations. I'm hunting first so come next Monday, We'll pack up the Jeep and drive away. I'll keep you posted on what takes place.

Well, that's about it for now.