44 Ounces of Glorious Crack...

...also known by the street name Yuban coffee.

This is what my Montana sister sent me for my birthday.

An attempt I'm sure to get me completely hooked on a coffee that is very difficult to find here in L.A. Hmmmmm....I wonder what her ulterior motive is?

Roger's Bad Day...

Poor Roger. Yesterday was just one bad thing after another.

It started off with a stressful exit...we all hate rushing out the door to work. But it happens sometimes & we just move on.

Fast forward to yesterday evening. He comes in the door looking exhausted and with his usual workday dirt (it happens when you work in restoring old homes ;-)....but he had a new addition to his wardrobe....he had "accesorized" his forehead with a couple of poorly placed bandaids! What happened to you?!?! He said he smacked himself between the eyes with the prybar when it slipped. Ouch! So he has a 1"+ vertical split right between the eyebrows....We got it cleaned up & put some butterfly closures on it so hopefully it will be OK, and the imminent scar will just add to his craggy good looks :-)

In the course of the day, he also slipped with the hammer & knocked a hole in some siding or something. Geesh.

Just when you think things can't get worse, he was filling up his truck (yeah, I guess that could be considered "worse" too....hehe), he looked down and there was a KITTEN sitting on top of his rear wheel! What the ---- he mutters. He reached for it, but it scurried back up under the truck and settled into the spare tire. He spent alot of time trying unsuccessfully to retrieve said kitten, and finally gave up. He drove home & looks....and there is that blasted kitten! Still hanging out in the tire compartment.

He finally manages to get it out....a cute little kitty.....not sure how old, but a playful little orange and white tabby. Now what? First of all, we are not.....repeat NOT....equipped for another cat. Simon the cat is now a housecat & we're fine with just the family we have. But then again, we don't want the kitten harmed either. We know that it would be iffy for the kitty's future if we took it to the animal shelter. And the animal rescue foundation was full. So we ended up putting some canned food and water out on the porch & letting it out of the cat cage. It was so sweet and playful....after it ate a good bit of cat food from a spoon.

Needless to say, kitty was still on the porch this morning and was incredibly adorable...playing with each of our shoes as we walked out. Anna thought the kitty was so cute...that is until it started playing with the hem of her dress! She freaked with that and I had to pick her up to save her from the vicious kitten who tried to eat her dress! :-)

Anyone want a cute little kitty?

Anna's 3rd Birthday Party

More from Montana

Here are a few more photos from our wonderful trip to Montana.

For Natalie, one of the highlights of every trip is going to visit Dragon Hollow and A Carousel for Missoula http://www.carrousel.com/about.php . This carousel is amazing with all the hand-carved ponies. One of the few remaining in the country. Her favorite pony has always been "Paint". As the caroulsel spins, riders reach out to grab colorful rings from the dragon's mouth. There is always one brass ring inside....the lucky person to grab a brass ring wins a free ride! Natalie did not get the brass ring - this time - but she did grab 9 rings on one ride! This was her first time riding that she was tall enough to reach on her own! Way to go Natalie!!

Some of the other photos are of the kids at Splash Montana. This is one of the many parks in Missoula and we are amazed at how clean and fun it is. And SO reasonably priced too! Aunt Laura took the kids without us....I was watching her pack some things to take to the waterpark....You know, the usual sunscreen, snacks, hats, magazines...Wait! Magazines?? I laughed!!! "You REALLY think you're going to have a chance to read those?" I asked. "Sure!" sayeth Laura. Well alrighty then, if you can, you're a better woman than I!! Needless to say, the magazines never made it out of the bag with water-crazed Anna around! I guess it has been awhile since she's taken a tot to a water-park :-) But I give her points for giving it a whirl.

3 Days at Seeley Lake, Montana

I've been working on getting some pictures ready, but between working, trying to catch up on sleep (ha!), laundry, and everything else associated with returning from vacation, it has been laborious. Here is one group of photos I took when we were at Seeley Lake, MT for 3 days, including 4th of July. We had a wonderful time and the lake was perfectly gorgeous while we were there! It was warm during the day, but when the sun finally set (after 10:30!) it was so incredibly cool. And downright chilly each morning when we got up to drink our coffee on the beach. All 9 of us shared a wonderful cabin just off the swimming beach. We were joined by our friends Reese, Eamon & their 2 children (they brought their RV). It was alot of fun having a campfire each evening & making s'mores & just relaxing and being mesmerized by the flames. This was a particularly memorable Montana vacation for us.

What a beautiful place.

105

That's what the temperature is here in Montana right now.
Leave it to us to leave the miserable, sweltering south to come to "cool" Montana for a record-breaking heatwave!!! It is 105 degrees at this writing....but I must admit, I have not broken a sweat once since we've been here! Not even on a 2-hour hike to a beautiful waterfall a few days ago. I feel like I should take a batch of cookie dough outside & let them bake! The hot breeze makes it feel like a convection oven, but only 11% humidity (compared to the current 79% in Mobile!)

I haven't had time to blog, but have just a moment, so I'll hit the highlights & hope to get pics on later or tomorrow. I spent the first 2 days dealing with doctor visits for Anna. She managed to get a respiratory infection just as we were leaving town. And she gets hives all over when she gets a fever, to further complicate matters. So the first doc says, oh, it's viral.....just give her benedryl & motrin. Humph I say, so I take his advice & move along. That night, she was coughing most of the night & crying with the pain of the miserable nose & throat. So the next day, & call & as mama bear who knows her child says "give me antibiotics NOW!" (Montana is one of those places that is all peace, love, happiness, and no antibiotics :-) I had to go back to see yet another doctor, who after a very thorough examination "concurred" with me that an antibiotic was in order. duh. Yesterday was the first day she was in great shape & she's been doing fine & loves taking her meds.

Also, within one hour of our arrival, Natalie was stung 2 times by a hornet. One below her lower lip and once on her back.....geez....her first stings & me not knowing if she was allergic or not....lucky for me (and her?) I had a handy dandy benadryl melt-in-your-mouth strip, so I popped that in while she was screaming her lungs out. Her lip swelled up much larger two days later, prompting me to thing another doctor visit was in order, but it finally subsided.

Let's see.....I'm in pretty good shape, Roger is allergic to some weed out here & mom is dying with am infected tooth or something that requires a root canal, so a dentist here kindly prescribed an antibiotic for her to get started on, but she'll be suffering the next few days.

Other than all the medical issues, we've had a wonderful time & just love it here in big sky country. We're out the door in a minute to go to some friends home for dinner. They live about 20 miles from here in the country....which reminds me, I must take pictures! I have not taken nearly as many as I wanted, but oh well...

Cheerio from the land of buffalo and pie!