Back from Six Months away :-)

Special Report!

Finally.....I have a job!

It has taken a long time and alot of resumes, but finally, I have a great job that I'm looking forward to beginning on Monday. And the funny thing is...I didn't even apply for this job...they found ME!

I've actually been working two part time jobs for the past couple of months...one at a law firm and the other at the University of Montana's MBA school. My new job is also at the University & I think it will be just the challenge I need.

So now of course all the things that I should have had completed while I wasn't working are still looming. Oh well. Isn't that always the way it is??

Montana's "spring" isn't quite what I consider spring should be like! Last week we had 3 days of GLORIOUS 80 degree blue sky days....absolutely stunning. Followed by snow the very next day! And we've had two solid days of snow the past couple of days. One place not too far from here even got 4 feet of snow. To say spring here is different than on the Gulf Coast would be putting it mildly!

Anna has a sudden yucky case of the sniffles & is down for the count (no, I don't believe it is swine flu....she's not oinking ;-p

And my baby is now officially pre-registered for kindergarten! Hard to believe it. She may be a tiny-mite, but she's so smart.

Her big sister was in a play last month & really enjoyed it. She has lots of camps lined up for the summer. And maybe even swimming if the temp ever gets over 50! ha!

We're planning on going camping in a couple of weeks. It seems a little early to me, but Roger wants to get alot more camping trips in this year....he is ready for summer. I just hope the bears have been awake long enough to be satiated! The last thing I want is a hungry grizzly hovering nearby! Cuz you KNOW I'll be the slowest (and tastiest!) one in the group & therefore devoured.

I'm too lazy for pictures right now...but who knows....tomorrow is another day!

Nine years ago today

Nine years ago today we met this lovely lass. Of course, she was only a 15 pound infant who couldn't even sit up or grasp anything. But it didn't take long for her to grow strong and healthy and become the lovely daughter she is today.

Sometimes I think back to that fateful day on the other side of the world. I was terrified with a capital T! I thought surely she would take one look at me and head for the hills. But she didn't. The photo I have is of her shyly smiling as she peeked at her new mommy. She was cool with us. Well, until she got hungry....then all bets were off! It didn't take long to learn "her ways"....you do whatever it takes to appease a screaming baby! I really do miss those baby years. I longed to hear her voice and often wondered what her voice would be like once she began to talk. Ha! Those of you who know Natalie know she has a loud booming voice, with a bit of huskiness....must have been all that screaming she did as a baby!

I'm so proud of her. She gets so many comments on her pleasant and helpful nature (which isn't always the case at home...normal I suppose). She excels in her schoolwork and reading and loves to play basketball. She is even becoming much more adept at Guitar H&ro.

In some ways I can see our baby slipping away into the netherworld of tween & soon enough the teen years. But lucky for us, she is the one daughter who always loves to be called "my baby", no matter her age and is always willing to cuddle up and snuggle just like she did nine years ago.

Happy family day Natalie.

We love you with all our hearts and are SO happy to have you as our daughter!!

Out of the blue

OK....it has been almost a month since my last gloomy post. It's been a rough month, but I'm beginning to see the light at the end of the tunnel & I'm emerging slowly from my blue funk.

And no....I really don't think it has anything to do with the weather here (it has actually been mostly sunny...not gray). Actually, I wish winter would stay a bit longer & snow alot more. I'm not ready for spring! (But who knows...I might change my mind in a month!) Here a a couple of shots of last weeks quickie snow. Not nearly enough to satisfy me.






So...check this out. Is this not THE most patient cat ever? Honestly...I think he's a dog at heart. The other day, Anna moved on from performing her beautyshop work on her dad to the cat. Simon patiently accepted all the brushing, "blow drying" and barrettes.


BUT.....I did not see this until late that night as I removed his collar.....but see those little clippies on his chest? Yeah...those pink, silver & blue clippies in the photo below? Well those dang little things were actually clipped more to his skin than his silky fur! Poor kitty had been wearing those little darlings all day without complaint. Ouch!! He's an amazing little fella!

Blue skies ahead! Watch out! ;-)

i.just.don't.want.to.

I'm just plain blue in blogland.

This economy simply has me down and I've been battling a cold so I don't feel like exerting the energy to post some cute kid pics and blather on about whatever. But who knows, tomorrow I could be a perky turkey and just post pics and blog like nobody's business! But today.....well, let me just continue to address the tasks on my colossal "to do" list and see what tomorrow brings.

And for those of you awaiting travel in the next few days to meet your children, I wish you safe and speedy trips. For those poor souls who have been awaiting referrals for YEARS and who are "this" close.....I'm keeping my fingers crossed that the stork will soon be flying. I check your blogs (as I have been for 2 years now)....waiting along with you.

Hoping for a better tomorrow.......

Anna's Baptism and CNY

Well, phooey. This is the kind of photo you get when you ask someone to snap an after-baptism photo...and when they say "that looks good!"....you accept it as such. Oh well.....one blurry photo of Anna and her baptism day at church. At least it is something. It was definitely different than what I had anticipated for her baptism. It was very sudden. We had planned to join this church & have her baptized here, which was fine, but last Sunday when we knew today was "joining day", we discovered that it was also baptism day. Oh sure, we could have waited & planned a baptism affair, but we decided there's no time like the present and after all, she's been home over 2 years now and is almost 5 years old! So here we were with less than a week before the big day. And you know me....the southern girl....whose girls USED to be dressed up all nice and pretty in the south...but here in Montana they wear jeans (GASP!!) to church! Can you believe that? Anywho...I digress.....Uh oh....what would Anna wear? Note there are NO FRILLY DRESS STORES around here. Nope, not one where a beautiful smocked dress or something like that could be found. So I scoured the closet. Hmmmm size 4 smocked white dress...perfect except for all the red & green Christmas bows around the collar. Nope that won't do. And then there's that size 2 cream smocked dress...no way that would fit a kidlet who is almost 5 but hey, what's the harm in trying it on? Can you believe it fit? Normally she would wear it a bit longer, but hey, at least it is frou-frou enough to wear to a western baptism. So here she is in Natalie's old size 2 smocked dress looking as beautiful as can be!






And then after church we were off to the house for a quick wardrobe change......Chinese New Year lunch at a local restaurant......We spent an hour last night going thru the selection of chinese clothes..... too big, too small, too tight, snaps needing to be sewn on.....luckily we settled on matching red dresses....which are actually my favorite because I think these girls look SO pretty in red.

And a RARE, ELUSIVE photo of me. I'm always behind the lens, but decided to come out from hiding momentarily. OK, now you won't see me again for awhile (lucky you).

Cool dragon hats, huh? One of the mom's brought this craft for all the kids to do....they all loved it and we got lots of roars. And she also read a book we all enjoyed. Now I regret not buying it at the bookstore last week when I was there. it is called "The Seven Chinese Sisters" pretty cute.

Natalie is out selling more girl scout cookies.....she is quite the salesman....she has already sold nearly 200 boxes of cookies! Whew....I dread actually getting all the boxes, but I'm so proud of her.....she really take it seriously & is out there with Roger in this frigid weather selling as many as she can. Bye for now.....thanks for stopping by for a visit.

Camping in January in Montana....

....what could be more fun than camping out in January in the mountains of Montana with an arctic cold front whooshing over you? ? ?

....Why nothing could be more fun of course! Especially if you're camping INSIDE the house next to the fireplace :-)

The girls have been hounding poor daddy for quite some time to have a camp-in. So he finally gave in & here is the result. They are now reading bedtime stories (after a bit of ghost story telling). Oh and the best part about this is that I get the whole king-sized bed all to myself tonight.....ah....pure bliss!

On another note, Anna had her first field trip today. Her class went to the library & had a wonderful time.

Hmmmm......the photo below shows just how petite little Anna is! The other kids are basically the same age...maybe a few months older. She's a little spitfire.

And here she is checking out her very own book. We do love books in this house!

GO GATORS!!

Go Gators Go!!

Tonight the Florida Gators vie for the BCS Championship against Oklahoma. Roger is a huge fan (I would say fanatical) and he has taught his kids well. (Note Simon's great "Gator Chomp!")

Let's hope the Gators win! Otherwise my normally calm husband will be -- shall we say -- unbearable?? (And that is putting it mildly -- and kindly!)

Oh happy day! I'm thrilled to know that SOMEONE else around here likes banana/mayo sandwiches too! YUMMMMMMM!!



I'll leave you with these shots (this is what I see as I'm at the computer) of an extraordinarily sunny morning. The sky was so blue and crisp!

Patience Personified (Catified??)

"Hey, what's a guy gotta do to get some of that tuna salad you're making??"

Not exactly what I want to see sitting at the kitchen counter, but I have to admire his persistence and observance that when some big dumb humans sit in these seats, they get food!

Not much going on around here except a round of weird weather....snow, followed by rain, next incredible wind, and now sunshine. And this all within the last few hours. Temps will be falling now & more snow and back into the single digits. And for those naysayers that think we southerners will never make it here due to the weather, I say "nanny nanny boo boo". Yeesh, it really is not bad at all! I'll take this over humidity, hurricanes, palmetto bugs (aka giant flying cockroaches! eewwwww!!) and mosquitos the size of chickens! I say BRING ON THE SNOW and BELOW ZERO TEMPS!!!! We can take it! hee hee

Goodbye to our year of chances...

Maybe you remember this picture from my last new years eve post.....well, we took some BIG chances. We changed our family's life big time. We moved 2,400 miles across the country.

Without jobs.

Without a house.

Without a specific plan.

Without very much money.

But we're here. The girls love their new life. Anna remarked today how the falling snow makes her happy. And that little remark made ME happy. So during these last few hours of 2008 I'll remember all the changes and chances we took.....and remember the reasons we took those chances and have faith that it will continue to work out.

And I'll leave you with Anna's smile from breakfast on this last day of the year.....And also I want to share these beautiful photos I took this afternoon from our living room window....I had just walked in and saw these precious does two feet from the window.....foraging thru the snow.....feeling THEIR faith that they would continue to find food....they knew what to do and so do I.

Wishing all of you a lovely 2009!

2008 Christmas Memories

Merry Christmas from the "two yoots"!

Hope you all had a nice Christmas...we did. The girls were very happy with their gifts, Santa brought Natalie the much-desired Nintendo DS and Anna finally got her guitar (oh joy ;-) One of the really neat gifts for Anna was a dance cam that connects to their TV.....it is really easy to use and she has so much fun dancing to the different selections they have and she sees herself on her own TV.....cute idea! (And bonus, she and Natalie can burn off all this energy inside!)

They both LOVE playing "Rock B@nd"





TM and N had a nice quiet time decorating the gingerbread house (while Anna took a nap)...each side is decidedly different! I liked it.

We went ice skating for the first time on Friday. Yeesh. The injury count was 100%. R sliced his finger on a skate. Anna hurt her sides. Natalie has a "sprained butt". And I injured my pinkie pretty badly (broken? jammed joint? I don't know....but it is still swollen like a link sausage and purple around the joints....oy) And the funny (ha) thing is I didn't even fall! Pitiful. I banged it on the glass as I was trying to catch myself. Next time will be with the kids in their own lessons with instructors who can actually TEACH them, instead of us trying to help them. Oh well.....another lesson learned!

We took N to a Lady Griz (University of Montana) basketball game last night. They are really good and we had so much fun watching the girls play basketball who really knew what they were doing. It was a great venue & N enjoyed it immensely. We'll do that again for sure!

It is snowing like mad here today....big, fat, heavy snow. Just the kind I'm really looking forward to shoveling later today (NOT!) And it is really icy to boot. They had to close the road that leads to our house today due to ice & accidents. I'm not going anywhere today or tomorrow. But the snow is very pretty ;-)

Goodbye 2008! It has been a great year.....
I can't wait to see what 2009 has in store for our family.

Ouch!

I have Wii butt! (too bad it isn't "wee" ;-) And Wii arm and Wii hand. Yeesh....a wee bit of Wii bowling and I'm falling apart!! Ouch, it hurts, but it sure is fun....I especially like our family of Mii's......particularly R, who sports really fab grey dreadlocks and quite a smirk. N's Mii looks just like her with rose colored glasses & a big smile. (She is also the crack bowler...who knew?) And Anna has really picked it up so fast! Thankfully my Mii looks a little hotter than I do in person....but who knows.....if I keep up all these lunges, maybe I'll be more fit too!

Hope you all had a great Christmas....we sure did!

I (was) Dreaming of a White Christmas....

And boy howdy do I have it! Enough already! It is WHITE for cryin out loud! And still snowing....even though the forecast & current conditions say "cloudy" and there isn't anything on the radar.....however, I can tell you with certainty that it HAS been snowing beautiful fluffy flakes for more than 24 hours. I even (Foolishly) single-handedly shoveled the entire driveway (for the 2nd time yesterday) in the late afternoon to be sweet to the hard working souls coming home from work last evening. Duh! THAT won't happen again. So there we were....6 a.m. reveille shoveling this big @ss driveway. And of course 5 hours later you can't even see that it was done....except for the telltale snowbanks....growing ever taller around the edges by the hour.

These pictures are even from yesterday, so they don't show how much more snow there is right now. I do admit it is SO pretty. And I do admit that I would be more excited about it if it weren't for the small fact that I HAVE to get out & drive myself & 3 kidlets to the store because there are a few essentials I have to have to continue with the feast. But I am not going far & it will be better to go now before everyone else in town is shopping. So wish us luck and a little less snowfall for the next few hours!

6 Weeks....

Wow. Has it really been 6 weeks since my last post? And didn't I post something about trying to post more often? Yeesh. Pathetic. I know!!






OK....let me do a quickie bullet post since my last posting. Obviously alot has happened!

• Right after that post, we mad a quick decision to move (only into "town" 8 miles north), so it was a whirlwind of activity.



• Natalie had to transfer to a new school, which we thought would be tramatic for her, but alas, she has done a great job of transitioning and making lots of new friends.



• Anna left her beloved preschool to stay home with me for awhile, but she starts a new part-time preschool in January. And she'll even have a friend she knows already in her class.






• Our new home is amazing....the views we have of the surrounding mountains and valley are so lovely....we're very fortunate.




• It is also wonderful to have our own furniture out of storage & it feels like "home".



• We had a very fun Thanksgiving with a big family/friends gathering of 14! Boy what a difference. And lots of fun (especially playing "Snorta"!)

• Here we are after Christmas tree hunting in the woods (I was singing "Sloshing thru the mud...." to the tune of Jingle Bells. It was the week before we finally got snow....it was incredibly muddy and yucky!





• The cold weather finally arrived about a week ago. It has been basically below zero every night and low single digits for high temps. Boy howdy what a difference from the Gulf Coast! But really we do like it & it is SO SO pretty with all this white snow. It has snowed most of the day today. We already shoveled the driveway once this afternoon, but it has snowed pretty heavily this evening. I guess that means another 6:00 a.m. "muster" of the adults to clean off the dang driveway again ;-)

• Can you find the real Simon in this picture? He likes to nest on Anna's bed with all the other stuffed animals. He can't get warm enough!






• The girls have been sledding for 3 days in a row. Anna got kinda bent out of shape today when she plowed face first into the snow....yesterday she was amused by that, but today was another story. A short sledding trip for today!



• The snow has finally accumulated enough to consider a ski/snowboard trip sometime soon.



• I plan to take the girls ice skating for the first time this week. (Say a special prayer for me that I don't bust my @ss on the ice ;-)



• We learned quickly that we can't worry about the weather. We just toughen up like everyone else who has chosen this life and get out there and go places. So what if the roads are covered in packed snow and ice? Just slow down and bundle up!

Here's wishing all of you a very Merry Christmas and a loving holiday season. xxoooo

Weekend Update

Natalie won 2nd place with her character pumpkin at school. Her pumpkin is "Violet" from the Boxcar Children series of books. I thought she did a great job!

See the "M", just to the left of the tallest green tree? This was taken from the Univ. of Montana campus. And below is a pic of us sitting on the "M". Notice the steep angle? Yeesh.

We hiked the "M" yesterday and I lived to see another day.
And that is a miracle in itself! Hiking the "M" (Mount Sentinel) is something I've wanted to do for months and we finally managed to round up the gang & cruised to the University of Montana to get to the trailhead. This is one amazing hike in town....as you can see from the pictures, you really get a birds-eye view very quickly.

Needless to say, the girls & their dad scampered up the steep trail (with 13 switchbacks) like mountain goats. Alas, I, did not. Gotta work on these lungs (and other parts). I made a horrible mistake at switchback # 11.....there was a bench...I thought a few minutes resting on the bench would be just the ticket...NOT! Big mistake for me. I immediately got nauseous, faint & clammy. Once I figured out that I needed to lay down & stretch out, I felt better. I told myself that I was going to touch the "M" or die trying. And truthfully I wasn't quite sure which way it was going! ha! But I lived to make it to the top & now I'm inspired to make it a regular hike. Although I don't think I'll ever be able to run up (and down!) this trail like some nuts do.

The Grizzly stadium is really nice, although a far cry from the size of the "Swamp" ;-)

The snow will be falling soon & the weekend hikes like this will be over for awhile. Next up...learning to sled pictures! And COLD Halloween photos (where we won't all be SWEATING and batting away mosquitoes!) I've become one with my new ice scraper/snow brush. And I'm learning just how long it takes to defrost & scrape the windows before heading out to drop the kids off for school! The first few times was slow, but boy can I scape like a pro now! I even scraped Roger's truck windows for him this morning! Aren't I the sweet wife?