A Bit about Me!

This is my happy place. Ranch wife, ranch mama. Raising cows and a feral ranch baby on the shores of the Laramie River. If you would have asked me in 2021, where I saw myself in 4 years, I can guarantee you I wouldn’t have said I would be living out my dreams in the Southeastern Wyoming desert. But here I am. A little about me...I was born and raised in a beautiful town in Northeastern Wyoming and I never in a million years thought I would ever leave. My hometown was quite picturesque all year round, with the Big Horn Mountains looming a short distance away, the town had lush green ranch lands and mountains filled with wildflowers in the spring time, mild but fun event filled summers, golden aspen filled autumns and snow globe style winters complete with the big fluffy snowflakes that are perfect to try to catch on your tongue as a kid…or even as an adult! I was raised in a middle-class family of four with an older brother and two wonderful parents, a coal miner and a stay-at-home mom. I spent my early years trying to be a cowgirl on our small country property close to town. When I was younger, I always knew what I wanted to be when I grew up... A ranch wife. People always looked at me a little funny when I would say it, but I knew it in my heart that it was what I wanted.

Fast forward to 2016, I was a registered nurse and landed my dream job as an Intensive Care Unit RN at the local hospital. I worked several different positions for the next few years and made the decision to put down roots in my hometown and purchased my first home in 2018. It was a house in the middle of town, and I reluctantly let go of my horses and my dream of becoming a ranch wife. I packed up my cowboy boots and cowboy hat and tucked away my saddle and bridle so to speak. Even though it was tucked away, it continued to burn deep inside me. Little did I know that my world would be turned upside down just 4 years later. After several not great relationships, I took the advice of a coworker and signed up for E Harmony dating.

About a month after signing up, I had a new match float into my inbox. A handsome cowboy from Southeastern Wyoming. I mulled it over, oh…for about 3.5 seconds and decided to send him a message. I found out he was a 4th generation rancher who owned and operated his family cattle ranch, and he was looking for a woman to help make his house a home. From our first chat in late January 2022 to making the decision to uproot my life and move south took only about 3 months. I guess, when you know, you know. I felt like I had known him my whole life and when we met for the first time and he wrapped his arms around me, I knew he was my home. Finding a job and moving down came quicker than expected as a nursing position had just opened in that area. I accepted the position in April 2022 and made the move home to my man in May 2022. I moved into the house that his grandmother had built in 1978, a beautiful ranch home nestled in a valley with the Laramie River snaking through the front pasture. Talk about paradise!

May through October was hectic but we made the most of the time together and made it through our first Thanksgiving. November 29, 2022, we woke up to our first blizzard since I moved down to the ranch. Lots of snow and wind created drifted roads and I got my first snow day in years! We spent our day side by side, tending to the cows, feeding and watering them. That evening the roads had cleared enough for me to run to the local bar to pick up taco Tuesday supper. We had date night in our little bar at the ranch. After supper, we wandered back into the house where in front of the fireplace, he took my hands in his, got down on one knee and with his great grandmother’s ring, he asked me to spend the rest of my life with him. With tears in my eyes, I said yes! His proposal was perfect. The ring was perfect. Just the two of us, after a day of ranching, beside the fireplace, in the house his grandmother built, was perfect. 10 months exactly, from the day that we had first talked, we were engaged. We spent the next month, celebrating the holidays at the ranch and getting started on wedding planning!

Fast forward to the end of May 2023…it was only a couple days before our wedding, and everyone was arriving at the ranch. Over the last 6 months, I had planned our dream wedding down to the last detail. We would be exchanging vows and getting married on the banks of the Laramie River, in front of a smaller group of our close friends and family, with a reception in a neighboring town. Waking up on 06.03.2023, I was extremely excited! This would be the day that would make my dream of being a ranch wife come true. The wedding and reception were perfect and after a quick 1-night honeymoon in Colorado (where my husband spent 95% of the time soaking in the jacuzzi eating steak and lobster from room service), we returned to the ranch to gather and brand calves. It was the perfect time to get it all done as we already had everyone in the area for the wedding. Plus, I had thought ahead and ordered extra food for the reception so I could use it to feed everyone at branding.

The next several months flew by and before we knew it, we were already to autumn again. Between work, gathering and shipping cattle and travelling around picking up auction buys, we kept busy! Fast forward to the Thursday before Thanksgiving 2023 when I decided to pee on a stick, just for the heck of it. Not 20 seconds later, 2 pink lines were staring back at me. Telling my husband was so much fun and a story for another time! The pregnancy was mostly easy and uncomplicated but after some higher blood pressure, we were induced 2 weeks early. After 30 hours of hard labor and 3 failed epidurals, it was determined I needed an urgent C-section. So off to the OR we went. At 1155 on 07.12.2024, we heard our little girl cry for the first time! She was perfect. When they wheeled us both out of recovery back to our room, my parents and my brother were waiting in the hallway to see us. It was such a great moment watching my parents become grandparents and my brother become an uncle. But the most incredible part of the whole process was watching my husband become a dad. He settled right into it and you could tell he was made to be a girl dad from the start!

Over the next 3 months, I prayed on whether I would be returning to work. With a month left of maternity leave, I made the decision to offer remote work to my job and after some back and forth, I was told it wouldn’t work. I took it as a sign and resigned from my position the 2nd week of October and have officially been a stay-at-home mom since then. And as hard as it is, I am loving every second of getting to be a part of my little girl’s life. She is my mini me and is the little one who made me a mama. If you have stuck with me this far, you are pretty well up to date on my life and hopefully you have an idea of who I am. I can’t wait to share tales of the ranch wife and stay at home mama life with you all and even offer up some yummy recipes to top it all off! Until next time, this is the Laramie River Ranch Wife, signing off… From my happy place.