Yesterday...

Yesterday was an early, busy, emotional, fun, crazy, and disappointing day. Why you ask?!?!? We were up at 5:00 leaving at 6:15 to take the youth to the temple. They were complaining about it being 2 hour drive until we reminded them about what used to be a 2 days trip for us when we were in Norway!! We had two young men with us and they entertained us the whole way with their stories, and music.

There were 19 youth. We did 75 family names for people in the ward, plus some others that the temple needed us to do.

This couple is one set of our old friends from when we lived here before. They are the type that you can rely on at any time and you know they will be there for you.

Then we dashed home because our daughter had a presentation at her school. The school was celebrating it's 50th anniversary. She is giving a presentation in Spanish on Columbia. She had only had one semester of Spanish prior to moving here. But they only had Spanish 2 available to her here so she jumped in with both feet. She actually sounded just the her presenting partner. Not bad for a beginner.

Then we dashed to another part of the school and she played the keyboard for the jazz band and their presentation. There are some rock and rollers in the band. The drummer, and bass guy. So our daughter really has to work hard to rock and roll with them. But she loves it.

Then we were off to a volleyball tournament at the church. As soon as we walked in they needed our daughter. So she dashed off the change clothes and jumped right in. The youth from church get together once a year for a volleyball and basketball tournament. They have alot of fun and get to know each other.

Our final task for the day was to buy a car. My husband has been shopping and had finally thought we had a deal. We got to the dealership to pick out the car, waited around, did the paperwork, was signing the last paper which was that we were being informed that a hail storm had come through and that there might be damage to the car. We quickly said if there is damage we will not take it. Yup you guessed it there were 4 dings in the roof. So the guy got another car that was identical and before we did the paperwork they washed it and yup you guessed it had hail damage also. Our town got hit with a storm a few days ago. This is the third car that we have turned down because of damage. So we headed home tired, and still only with one vehicle. So my taxi days are far from over because it seems that almost every car dealership in our area has damaged cars. The funny thing is though they don't want to sell them for a reduced price either. So who knows what we will do.

All in all it was a great day. It ended coming home to a dinner fixed by my son!! I am one lucky lady.

The most talked about thing...

As people enter our home they are drawn to this beautiful piece. What is it you ask?!? Well it is a Tine. In norway when people used to go to other people's homes for dinner or a party and were asked to bring something they would put it into this a bring the goodies. This one has the most unusal story. Let me tell you it!! I had purchased one from my favorite Rosemaling lady Hildegard. When my Uncle and Aunt came to visit me one time my Uncle feel in love with it. You see he is a very creative, crafty, handy person. (I always have a list of things to fix when he comes!!) He traced my orginal one and took some pictures. Then he ventured home. That Christmas when we went to spend Christmas with them he showed us the starting of making the containers. (I wish I had those pictures now so you could really understand the whole story) well after much experimenting he devised a method from bending the wood and not having it crack or break. He made a goal to make 9 of them. He started out and then would send me through UPS two or three. I would take them to Hildegard and then she would paint them and I would return them back to my Uncle. The process was going well until Hildegard mentioned that she was retiring. I immediately called my Uncle and he kicked it into high gear!! The Tine project was Hildegards last big fling. She finished the last one and then her daughter in law passed away and she took on the responsiblity of helping raise her 3 grandchildren ages 6-1 1/2 years old.

Hildegard loved doing this project with my Uncle. She said she loved to paint on his things because they felt like velvet!!! This is my keep sake that he made for me. Notice the many different kinds of woods and the colors. Hildegard usually painted the background the traditional norwegian red or black but she said the wood was to beautiful to cover up with color.

Everyone who comes into our home is so drawn to the beautiful piece. It is definately the most talked about thing in our home. So I decided to share this beautiful thing with you!!

Winter time at the ranch...

I talked with my brother a few days ago. He is the one who runs the ranch. He said they still had a couple of feet of snow on the ground and that people are still feeding with the teams and sleighs, so I went back to my old photos and pulled up some of a couple of winters ago. I am thinking these were taken 3 winters ago. The pictures are out of order but I hope you will enjoy them.This is almost at the end of the process and he is hooking up the front pair of horses to the back pair of horses.

This shows them all hooked up to the sleigh, the hay loaded, and my brother in the drivers seat ready to pull out in the field and feed the hay off to the cows.

This is my brother and my son hooking the horses up to the wooden tongue that extends from the sleigh. Notice the piece of equipment in the background. This is used for stacking hay in the summer, digging up pipelines, digging holes to bury garbage, digging holes to bury animals, you name it it digs it.

I love this shot of my brother. The horses had gotten restless and he quietly moved to the front and was talking to them. Me I would have turned around and run the other way. I have never really liked the work horses. They are too big and scary!!

This is my son leading the work horse pair from the barn. They are put into the barn to have their harnesses put on them. That is my brother's dog in the background. He was accidently hit by a car this past summer.

My brother is fine tuning the harnesses. My son is holding the cross bar (not sure if that is the name) the hooks up to the harness bridles and then hooks onto the wooden tongue.

My son leading the second team for my brother to hook up. When you are loaded with a big load of hay you sometimes need 4 horses to pull the full load. The dog you see as the front of the picture is my brother's other dog. He is very old but can't stand to miss anything that is happening on the ranch.

This is another great picture of my brother doing what he does best. Ranch work. I love the snow covered mountains in the back ground. There is such a different beauty to the valley in the the winter. But you had better love the beauty because they get about 3 feet of snow and sometimes it gets down to 30-40 below zero!! The entire hook up process only takes about 30 minutes. Then it takes about 2 hours to feed. You feed the cattle out back and then take an hour trip through the field to feed the second set. When we were kids we would ski behind the sleigh or ride our metal saucers.

My fondest memory of going to feed with my Dad on saturday was we would start through the field and then he would pull out the hard stick licorice that nibs used to make. Then he would pull out homemade jerky and widdle us of a piece. He always made them so thin and the tasted so good. Then when we came home mom always had a great lunch fixed!! Those were such great times. We had some real quality time with just our dad with him working right to the side of us, sharing goodies with us and just having a fun time. I still wish he would have made the slices of jerky thicker though!!!!

Rosie...

Meet Rosie. The lady who lived in this house before us loved to collect turtles. She has about 30 that have been in her yard now for the past 12 years. When she moved out the turtles had not come out yet. She had a favorite one named Rosie (because it's eyes are red, not sure if it is a female or male). She asked if we found them to just let her know. Well yesterday our daughter threw a ball to Rooster(actually our daughter and Rooster were playing chase the basketball together) and the ball went into one of the flower beds. Our daughter went to get the ball and found this turtle. The famous Rosie. So she and our son started looking for more and they found three total. We loaded them up and took them to the family. They were so excited. I jokingly said I hope they aren't like dog or cat and that they try to find their way back to our home. It is only about 5 miles to their home, but it would take those turtles a life time to travel that distance.

This little guy was really agressive. He wasn't scared at all and stayed out of his shell while we took pictures and played with him. We think he must be a snapping turtle because he kept opening his mouth like he was going to bite us!!

The building you see in the background is a building that the previous owner built for reloading his guns. It has a heavy metal door and reinforced walls. We are thinking that this will probably be our Tornado meeting place because it is so reinforced in how it was built. It is that time of the year for us to get our 72 hour kits packed and a tornado plan in place. But in the mean time it is our son is using the building as his leather working shop!! It makes it really great for him to have all his tools spread out, tables with marble slabs. He has even set up his cowboy cot just in case he decides to take a nap. The best part is he can work until the wee hours of the morning and he doesn't keep us up with the tapping of his hammer!!
PS DON'T LOOK AT THE LAWN TOO CLOSELY!! The previous owner had 3 lab dogs and the back yard was their hang out so the lawn is dead. That is one of our first projects after we get the other 500,000 projects done!! In the mean time Rooster is using it as a race track!!

Today...

Here is the dinning room. Isn't it lovely, so organized, almost decorated (trying to decide what will go over the buffet a mirror or painting.) Fresh flowers on the table (from a very dear friend). I bet you are saying man have they put it together fast. Well trust me this is the only room that looks like this!! So I go into there and just sit and imagine that a fairly god mother is waving her wand through the rest of the home and making it like this room!!! Hey a person can wish!!
ACTUALLY today I will...

fold many baskets of laundry that came from boxes and the rent house. Remember that was almost two weeks ago!! So I am a little slow what can I say.

Return goodies that didn't work, but hey they looked great in the store.

Venture into the pit of the office/craftroom/and try and make something of this room. It is the last one that needs to be unpacked and as you can see it isn't moving very fast. This is the the room I wish the fairy god mother would appear on. Where is she when you really need her. It isn't like I am asking for a total make over, just a room to be made over!!!

Shuffling bedroom furniture. Alex is finally after all of these years getting some bedroom furniture that wasn't Deana's, then mine, then I am not sure whose, then Alex's. She is so excited. Please contain your anxiousness about the green room that you got a sneak preview of. It was Alex's bedroom and once it is done we will be offering a full showing. But tickets are limited!! So arrive early, feel free to bring your chairs and camp out for guaranteed views!!! If you will be tailgating in the front yard while you wait, please let me know what you are having because I am getting sick of cooking. Actually would you please get with each other and decided who is cooking what on the days leading up to the preview. That was I won't double up on what I am fixing.

Oh yeah I also am doing laundry today. I haven't done it since we moved in so what is that about two weeks now. No wonder my closet has a funny order!!! All those dirty socks. But I told each child that they had to do their own laundry now. I have showed them how and presto they jumped right to it and are wearing clean sparkling clothes everyday. Not!!! the son strolled out in a wrinkled shirt and filthy jeans yesterday, Alex has on pants she has worn I think a couple of times already, and a wrinkled golf shirt her father gave her (she made such a fuss about not liking it when he brought it home to her, she loves to push his buttons, but now it is one of her favorite shirts) but I am still hoping they will see the light and get after their own laundry. Maybe I need to change my angle and talk about presentation in going out into the world. So if you see two children wandering around in dirty clothes that are wrinkled and have a funny order or else really smell strong of cologne that are my children. Feel free to stop and lecture them on the importance of wearing clean clothes and appearances. Just don't tell them I sent you with that message.
Well I must close or I won't get any of the above things done today!!

Happy Birthday Son...

Twenty years ago tomorrow the world changed drastically. Our son was born. Of course it wasn't until 19 days later that we found out about him. But the world has not been the same since. And why you ask well just let me tell you.

He has always been a firecracker and in constant movement. The only time that he held still was when he was asleep which usually happened very late into the night, when he was in his car set or when he was reading a book.

He has always had two really unbelievable loves in his life. His Grandfather and his horses.

He has such a big and kind heart. He is so loyal to those who are important to him. He will go to any length to protect his sister, even blooding a guys nose because he drug his little sister into the boys bathroom.

He never seems to stop surprising us with his many different talents.

You can always tell when he is up to something because he gets that mischievous look in his eye. Then you know you had been look out.

He loves to rope almost anything at anytime but especially his sister and Rooster.

He has such a keen sense of humor and keeps us laugh constantly. It is really fun to listen to him banter back and forth with his sister.

We have been so blessed to have him be a part of our lifes. Some days have been easier than others, but everyday I have thanked my Heavenly Father that he is my son. I have enjoyed him so much these past few months. He has truly been a blessing to us and has helped his sister adjusted to the many things in life with his teasing, pep talks (actually just blunt talking of just get out there and do it). Where would we be without our son!!! Long lost, sides not hurting from laughing, nothing would be critiqued, and we would become a slack not on our toes to keep up with him family.

Happy Birthday Son!!!

Switzerland cousin ANNE HELP...

Anne, this one is for you in all of our moving I have misplaced your email. Tried to get it from your husband and father in law. Am drawing blanks. Need help with the funiture North Carolina thing!!!

Thanks

We are still alive...

Yes we have not been buried in boxes!! But it almost feels like it. We are in the house and only have about 30 more boxes to unpack. Hey but it seems like we have already unpacked hundreds. The bedrooms are functional, the kitchen is functional, the tv room is functional so we are part functioning!! Hey I heard all of you say man thoses guys are always only part functioning so what else is new!! Be careful I know where alot of you live!!!

We have been without internet but hopefully will have it by this weekend and be able to update you with photos of the move in. No house pictures yet because everything is still a mess and I don't want you to think we live like pigs!!! Hee hee ha ha!!!

See you in a few days.