Scarey Alligator

You never know when spontaneous fun will happen! Check out this scarey alligator with Addie inside!

February Sweetheart Night

In February Terry suggested that the High Priests in the Branch put on a Sweetheart Dinner to honor their sweethearts, then he proceeded to organize and put on a super night for all the women. He bought little teddy bears for everyone and small boxes of chocolates. Dinner was great (with the help of Veronica) and everyone took the opportunity to tell everyone about their wonderful sweetheart. Here he is giving his sweetheart a kiss. Isn't he wonderful?

Life with Terry is a field of daisies

This picture was taken in July, when our field was totally white with daisies. God has given us beautiful flowers to enjoy, free.

Well, here are the pictures of our kitchen after we finished the remodeling!

The really cool part is that our field out back becomes solid daisies (see later entry), so one day I went out and picked wild flowers from our field and our 20 acres and made a bouquet, complete with ferns from the forest. What a beautiful day that was!

Please note that the yellow counter top is now changed!









Here is a view out of the side kitchen window. I changed out the curtains and we love it!

















Another view of the kitchen. Terry put the microwave above the stove, freeing up some counter space. Love it! He is wonderful!

Remodeling The Home Place

Well, it was time for the 1983 yellow and gold to go! If you know me, you know pastels are not going to stick around too long. First I started painting the walls "Woodrow Wilson Putty", that was nice, but against the yellow, well it looked kind of lavender! Not good! So, next I thought, well maybe I can paint the brown trim white, that will help.

If you ever think of doing that, let me just tell you, you are in for a bunch of work because you probably think, "This won't take long. How long could it take? Those are just little pieces of wood." Well, what I didn't calculate was painting everyting with primer (2 coats because I wanted to do a really thorough job.) Then I wanted to paint everything again with two coats of paint. Of course you have to tape everything off so you don't make a big mess. Thankfully later I bought a really good brush and was able to paint so well that I did not have to tape too much.

Aha! More yellow! It has to go! I painted all of the cupboards in the house a country green. (Read next entry) Of course the counter top had to go along with the floor. Well, that took awhile too! But we are so happy with the way things turned out. Needless to say, this took about three months of continuous work. I painted so long, my fingers seemed to be frozen around a brush. We changed out the doors and lights, carpet, flooring, mop board. Terry did a great job on the mop board, now it is all white and looks so nice!

Well, this is how how it looked during the process.

Life in Montana

Well, we've been in Montana now about 5 months. We came here in June and enjoyed a glorious summer. Two of our kids and eight of our grandchildren came out right away. That made it so nice, to share with them. Those were fun days and we hope they can come again next summer with our other son and his wife and family. Maybe they can all come at the same time!

The days were so long. The sun came up a little after 5 a.m. and didn't go down until nearly 11 p.m. We had four animals, none of which required care. There were Tank and Bay, horses from the farm up the road. The owners already had 19 horses, so they asked if two of their horses could stay in our field. Cool, we could pet horse noses and not have to feed them or care for them!

Then there were the cats. We didn't know we had cats until one day I saw a mother cat carrying a baby kitten in her mouth from the planer shed over through the woods out front. I watched her carefully, stealthily and saw her take them to the barn. Since that time, I have only seen her twice. Once, a few months later still carrying a kitten in her mouth, looking for a way to get into the wood shed and another time sitting out on the lawn looking very intently at the grass, probably hoping to see a mouse since we don't feed them.

Our last pet is the dog that lives across the road. It actually belongs to my husband's uncle, but when they are gone or when we are outside, it comes over to our house. It is a wonderful dog, perfectly mannered and it only barks when it sees a wild animal, which can be a very handy feature out here.

I have to mention one other wonderful part of living here. In about June, the entire field behind our house grew daisies all by themselves. The field was entirely white and we didn't have to plant them at all. Daisies have always been one of my favorite flowers. It was absolutely beautiful to see Tank (the Clydesdale), running through the daisies. I thought I was watching an old romantic movie.

God has been so good to us. This has been a haven for us and we have grown to love it more than we thought we would.

Lest you think we just sit around and pet horse noses and watch for stray cats, let me asure you that I have been extremely busy here living out my childhood dream of cleaning up a junky yard. There is junk and wood (or should I say, "was"?) everywhere.

We have now taken 5 trips to the dump with our trailer full of metal, cement, etc. and have burned four piles of brush which were huge. It has been so fun. It made me remember that as a child I was given a book about Donald Duck and Mickey Mouse being given an old neglected home, which had grass up to the windows and assorted junk all over the yard. They worked and worked and worked and soon it was beautiful and clean and organized. I loved that book. In fact it may have spawned a recurring dream I have always had of being given an old house that was full of old neglected furniture. Funny, I found out a few years ago that my sister has the same recurring dream! Interesting....

Anyway, now I can live out that dream. I just love going outside and cleaning and pruning and throwing junk away. I can go out under a certain tree in the yard any day of the week and dig with a large nail I have and find at least 6 pieces of metal buried in the dirt in less than 5 minutes. I have a new compulsion now, of looking down and hoping to see some brown rusted metal object poking up. It is like a giant treasure hunt. You never know how large the object may be that you find! I have found axles, old car jacks, logging chains, etc....all buried in the dirt out under the tree.

My next dream is to go out and prune more of the bushes and trees by the road. With 20 acres to clean, there is no end of projects here. It also helps with a goal of mine, to avoid "old lady arms". So far I have developed a few more muscles in my arms. Yipee.

Well, I have rambled on long enough. Life is great here, but we are heading into winter. The sun goes down before 5 p.m. now and comes up a little after 8 a.m. But I have plenty of things to amuse me, like quilting, genealogy, selling things on eBay, accounting work, cooking, and snuggling with Terry. Not necessarily in that order.

Here is a video of a long time dream of my husband and I, removing a chain link patched fence from around the front yard! This was the first of many happy days I spent in Montana...

Queenie Gets Her Doll

Awhile back, our oldest granddaughter, Faith, asked if I knew how to sew. I was shocked! I actually laughed out loud! I, who had sewn our kid's blue jeans, golf shirts, swimming suits, ski jackets, dresses, quilts galore, etc. etc. etc. In fact, many years ago, late in a day of sewing, my young children asked what was for dinner, to which I think I suggested they go find a roll in the kitchen. Then I knew I had a problem and had to back off so much sewing and take care of other duties, so I weaned myself from so much sewing. I loved sewing, I could forget the whole world while I was sewing. However, I realized that my grandchildren had never seen that side of me, so I attempted to show them that yes, grandma could sew.

My plan was simple, I would just sew a doll for all six of my granddaughters. I had started them four years earlier, and since traveling and genealogy are my new pastimes, they were not finished. I also realized that I had best make something similar for the boys, then I remembered that I had made 25+ bears for Victory Junction camp for sick children, so I decided to make those cute bears for my 5 grandsons.

After much time and effort, I finally finished them. Queenie, our six year old granddaughter was the first birthday of the year, so I sent her doll to her in the mail in a very pretty box. Her clever father, our son Brock, took a video of Queenie opening her present and sent it to us. Here it is for your enjoyment: