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?

For Kathryn...

This post is for dear Kathryn.....whom I wouldn't want to go into labor while living vicariously thru us! Kat, I hope this finds you doing well...I think of you often!!

As usual, there is no good excuse for not blogging more often, so I won't even attempt to explain.

We are all doing fine and I've been happily anticipating colder weather....which I'm sure I will regret immensly once it is here! The weather has finally started cooling off (50's for highs & 30-40's at night).....and later this week will bring highs only into the 40's. Hmmmm.....what was I thinking??? It snowed up on Lolo Peak again this weekend and it is so pretty so see. I have been buying lots of winter duds for all of us.....QUITE different than what we would wear on the Gulf Coast during the winter! ha!

Natalie is really doing well in 4th grade & loves her new school & classmates! She's in a great class & she'll be starting basketball next month. Anna is in preschool & also loving it.....she has lots of friends & love to run and play all day there.

Roger has been working & enjoying the new people he meets (and also stocking up on winter clothes!) And I've been busy for the past few weeks trying to find a job. Not the easiest thing in the world, but I have a 3rd interview with a local company this afternoon.

I really miss my friends and co-workers in Alabama....and I wish you would just move here! But I do love the Montana lifestyle & the scenery is so amazing...I still feel like I'm on vacation.

Kat, you'll need to get that baby bundled up for a trip to visit us next year in Montana....but I warn you.....you will never want to leave! xxooo

4th Grader - Natalie

Well, here it is....the first day of school for our Natalie....the 4th grader! Oh my, how I'm going to miss the old school uniforms!! Life was so easy without having to worry about what she had to wear for the past 4 years!

I need to do a lot of catching up with the posting....the problem is there is SO much to catch up on, I have been putting it aside. But now that I only have Anna at home, life is easier & I can gather my thoughts for an update.....there were 2 birthdays, biking, hiking, floating and all kinds of fun stuff during the past month!

Thanks for hanging in there with me!

Sunday morning hike

We enjoyed a morning of hiking to the Bear Creek Lake area yesterday morning. It was only a short drive (10 minutes!) and it was so beautiful...as you can see by the pictures. Unfortunately, the kids got whiney because we hadn't reached our destination after 1.5 hours, so I decided to take them back down the trail. A few short minutes later, I got a picture from Roger on my cell phone of the beautiful pond we were looking for! Darnit! Oh well...now we know exactly how far it is & we'll pack a nice picnic lunch for the lake!

Slip Slidin' Summer Fun

What could be more fun than a sunny summer day slip slidin' away?

Four Days of Tent Camping ...a first!

We spent the 4th of July tent camping this year.....this is a first for us! It is way too hot and muggy to ever tent camp in the south. We went to Lake Alva, MT for this adventure. Roger and Nick's first task was to go up a day early to scout out a site that would be spacious enough for 4 tents. They wound their way north of Seeley Lake (where we normally go to the lake) about 10 miles to Lake Alva. It was SO nice there and much more secluded. We had a great camp site (which would have been perfect, had it not been for one inconsiderate bunch of Maggotfest fans who partied until the wee hours (like 3 or 4 a.m.) Ugh. But all in all, we really had a blast and we are looking forward to our next camping trip. Unfortunately though, right after this trip, they banned campfires (due to the threat of wildfire)......so we sure dont want to go camping if we can't have a fire....we may just have to wait until later in the season.

Our next adventure this Saturday will be to ride the Hiawatha trail! This year we can use our own bikes, and I even bought headlights today so we don't even have to rent lights. This will be fun!!!

10 Things I Love About Montana

10 things I LOVE about Montana:

1. Folks are genuinely NICE here.
2. Towelling off only once after a shower and actually staying dry.
3. Bright, sunny, cloudless and endless days of summer.
4. Pie. Yummy, scrumptious pie!
5. Hiking or biking anytime, without even having to drive anywhere.
6. Clear speech.
7. Kids being able to ride bikes, skateboards or scooters anytime.
8. No humidity.
9. Knowing that summer will actually be ending in about 6-8 weeks.
10. My loving, generous family....without whom we wouldn't be here.

Greetings from The Last Best Place!

Finally! This was the sign we wanted to see for so long! And aren't you impressed that I was able to take this clear shot from a car traveling at 75 mph??

Entering the beautiful state of Montana....the road leads to such amazing beauty it can take your breath away sometimes. And what they say about the weather is so true....it changes every 15 minutes. It has been so gorgeous here the past few days, but this time last week, we were watching the snow fall and driving thru slushy ick.

This photo of the Bitterroot Mountains (which are visible from our home) was taken a few days ago on our drive to Hamilton, MT, which is about 30 minutes from here.

I love this photo of the family taken when we visited the Badlands of South Dakota. More in a slide show later.

Of course, every kid needs to have their picture taken while riding the giant Jackalope at Wall Drug in South Dakota! ;-)

Natalie: Earning her Jr. Ranger badge at Mount Rushmore

It was a bitterly cold and foggy day at Mt. Rushmore...you probably can't see their faces in this photo too well.

And in case you were thinking our road trip was all sunshine and rainbows, I leave you with these parting shots of the little one (the one who was insisting "I'M NOT TIRED!!") ;-p

We're official Montanians!

Hey there! We made it safe and sound to Missoula last Thursday afternoon. We really did have a great trip and so much fun to see the country....but we were READY to get to our destination. I PROMISE to post pictures, but we've just been so busy having fun that I haven't had time to collect my thoughts enough to make a decent picture posting. (Sorry! I know I'm bad!)

The weather here changes constantly, which is actually nice because if it is chilly and rainy, it doesn't stay that way for long. And also, just because clouds may be hovering all around the mountains, it could be perfectly sunny where we are. It is great not to be hot all the time! (Refer back to this post next February when my arse has been frozen for months ;-)

I kept my promise to Roger and we purchased 2 really nice mountain bikes and all the acoutrements within 24 hours of our arrival (pics later). Roger has been doing research for months on bikes, as that was his "cherry on top" for this trip. I would have been happy with something from T*rget, but no, he insisted I have disc brakes, etc. So he has a "Specialized" brand bike & I have a "Giant" brand. It was worse than car shopping, as Roger wanted to discuss every aspect with the bike guy....oy. I was getting bored after 3 hours, so I went to the car to make a couple of calls. Roger comes out to the car without bikes & said he thought he'd sleep on it.....duh...I don't think so! I told him to get his hind end back in there & buy the blasted bikes & we could go riding that day!!! Yeesh. So he "obeyed" and we came right home and took a short ride. Yesterday we rode a really nice bike trail for an hour & it was a perfect day for it. Ahhh, Montana.

Today we enjoyed our 2nd Little League baseball game....our nephew has been doing a great job & it has been alot of fun.

Simon the cat has been busily attacking the black lab, Duke....who wants nothing more than to play with Simon....Actually I think Simon likes attacking the poor dog & is happily asserting his dominance. Ha!

I cannot get over how nice in general people are. It is an incredible change for us. I really really love that part. But I also really really really really miss my friends :-( And I'm sure as each day passes I'll miss them even more. I think it helps alot knowing that so many friends and family want to come for a visit (and who knows.....they may take a page from our book and ....
LEAP!