Elk Picnic???

The company I work for decided that in order to improve their bottom line for the quarter, all employees had to take 6 days of vacation between Jan 1 and mid-April. Not that I don't enjoy vacation but I only get 17 days a year so kind of like to take it when I want to. But insteady, I had "forced vacation" this week. JW isn't working so had to think about him when trying to plan what to do this week. He didn't want to go south to visit family - he has this attitude of "if they won't come and see us, I'm not going down there". Course, money is a little tighter this year so couldn't plan a big trip - or would have went south without him.

Springtime in MT is not exactly the time of year to be playing MT tourist. Too much snow to go to Glacier Park. Too many museums and other things are only open from Memorial day through Labor day. We've had over 2 feet of snow in the last 10 days. Beartooth Pass is still closed for another 6 weeks.

So Monday, I got this bright idea that we would drive to Gardiner (the Northern gateway to Yellowstone National Park) the next day and spend the night. Then Wednesday, we would drive into the park and do some snowshoeing. We knew most of the park is closed but they do keep the 53 mile stretch from Gardiner to Cooke City open year around.

We got to Gardiner about 3:30 Tuesday afternoon. JW had physical therapy in the morning and then we spent a little time in Livingston and the Backporch Quilt Shop. (was looking for some yellow and orange fabric to use for flames for the campfire in my Packin' In quilt.) We walked into the few open junk stores in Gardiner to see if we could find any little treasures.

We then checked in to our room and walked across the street for dinner. I ordered the tri-color pasta with portabella. I'm beginning to think that most little restaurant's don't actually know what a portabella mushroom is because the last 3 times I've ordered a dish with portabella - it has had only regular little mushroom slices in. The "tri-colored" pasta isn't exactly what I had pictured - it was ravioli - about 1 1/2" x 3" squares that were brightly striped white, red and green. Not really bad - just not something I would order again.

Wednesday morning, we got up, ate breakfast and headed into the park. When you go in through the north entrace, the first thing you get to is Mammoth Hot springs area. So we had to drive up past the terraces.

My favorite part of going into Yellowstone Park this time of year is that it is so peaceful - you can pretty much pull off the road anywhere you want without worrying about causing a big traffic jam.

We were surprised at how little snow there was in the park so we figured out very quickly we weren't going to be doing any snow-shoeing.

In the summer, most of the buffalo can be found in Lamar Valley towards Cooke City but this time of year, they go anywhere to find food. We saw at least 1000 of them in various little groups - since there was a little snow, they seemed to find it easier to walk down the pavement.

We got to Cooke City around 10 - I was thinking we could go into the "junk" store and look around but they shut it down for the winter. Good thing cause not too many places to pile snow except in front of buildings. Whoever owns the car below is going to have fun digging it out as it may be staying snowbound for a few more weeks.

We turned around at Cooke City - mainly because the road is closed just past the town so had to drive back the way we came.

When we got back to Mammoth area, we found that the elk who had been eating when we had entered the park were now settled down for their mid-day rest.

The weather was gorgeous and it was a great day to drive through the park. Especially enjoyable when we get up this morning to another snowy day. Oh well, what's Easter without snow.

The Real Jenny or is that Ginnie????

And that is the banana girl at the end

I'm not going!!!!

Well a couple of weeks ago when I posted the information regarding Flat Stanley - we thought we were going to be making major changes around here within the next week as we were going to have to decide what to do.

At that time, JW had a good job offer in Gillette, WY - they would even buy our house here, pay for all our moving expenses, put us up in temporary housing for 60 days while we got settled, give us $5000 cash to use on whatever expenses we needed to pay for in regards to moving such as autoregistration, utility deposits or whatever.

He also had his old boss in Nome saying that he thought someone from the care and maintenance team that they kept on was going to be leaving and if that happened, he wanted JW back up there.

I definitely did not want to move to WYO so was glad there was this 2nd option that might work out - otherwise, JW was pretty adamant that we were moving.

March 9 is when the boss in Nome was supposed to be back in the office. Mar 13 is when we were going to be in WYO to check out the place and make a final decision.

March 9, we sent Flat Stanley back to AZ and waited to hear from D Jarvis the guy in Nome. Weird thing is that the guy in WYO was named M Jarvis - not exactly the most common name in the world. Felt like a big conspiracy.

Monday March 9, a big blizzard was raging in Nome - very few planes were getting in or out.

Tuesday March 10, JW sent an e-mail to DJ to let him know we were going to have to decide about WYO.

Wednesday March 11, finally DJ got back to Nome and had a chance to talk to the guy he thought was leaving - nope he isn't. He e-mailed JW and told him that he thought he should take the job in WYO.

Thursday March 12 - we went for a long walk up the road and over the snow-covered hills - it was very peaceful except I had to rush back to a 4:00 meeting with my boss ( a meeting that she cancelled at 3:00 while I was out walking). When we got back here and found out I didn't have a meeting, we sat down to discuss what to do.

I had thought he was anxious to get started on this new job while in fact, he didn't want to move away from our spot. He thought I was anxious to get him back to work while in fact I too did not want to leave this fabulous spot in Montana. I had spent the past two weeks trying to think of all the things I hate about this place - couldn't even come up with 5 things. And moving to WYO definitely was not going to fix any of these.

We then decided that we would go to Gillette - we would be open-minded while looking at houses and if we thought we could do it, then we would.

Friday March 13 after I got off work, we headed southeast. Stopped in Sheridan and had a way toooo expensive dinner - which definitely wasn't worth the effort. Pulled into Gillette about 7:30.

Saturday March 14 we went for a leisurely breakfast (since someone decided we needed to get up at 6 o'clock to meet the realtor at 8 - it never takes us more than 20 minutes to get ready in the morning and 20 minutes to eat breakfast) We met up with the realtor and went to look at the 3 houses we had agreed to check out. All 3 were modulars on acreage. There is a boom over there right now with all the coal mines so houses are outrageous and you can't even find a stick house to buy.

The first house we checked out was too old. It was on 122 acres which was nice but was in very poor shape and had actually been moved twice so financing would not even be possible.

The second house was brand new. Two bedrooms but our bed would not even fit in the master bedroom and I don't know why people think you need a big bathroom with a huge tub in - to me that is a total waste of floor space.

The third house was okay but 4 bedrooms - 3 of which were about 9 x 9 (if that large)

We went back to the town and got our truck, then we drove out past the mine (which is 54 miles from Gillette) then another 50 miles to Newcastle where some people stay. It was a strange little town but at least it was kind of in the pines. We drove on over through Spearfish, SD and then back home - knowing that JW would be turning down that job and he'd keep looking.

If we were a lot younger, maybe we would have went ahead and gone but at our ages and knowing that we hope to retire in a few years, we didn't want at the "end of the day" to be in a mining town with a house that we may or may not be able to sell. It would be starting all over again and I guess we're too old for that.

For now, we'll stay here. JW will keep looking for a job and they are still talking about reopening the mine in Nome. If they do, he's at the top of the list for going back - this time, I'm going with. If not, we'll be able to pay the bills as long as I keep my job. While they are waiting to do that, he's signed up for Archery Guide service so in July will go to 4 week camp for training. Then they have a list of people wanting guides so he can go straight to work. It will be fun for him and good experience since that's what he was hoping to do when he retires.

Here's the view from one of the houses in Gillette and my view. Hmm let's see - an oil rig running day and night with a diesel engine making noise 24 x 7 or a peaceful view of the Beartooths - obviously not hard to pick between those two.

A very unexpected visitor

So last Monday, JW went to the post office to pick up the mail and came back with a guest. Abenanna's grandson sent Flat Stanley to visit Montana.

This is Flat Stanley getting acquainted with a very indifferent Tinkerbell.

Flat Stanley made a little snow man. It was pretty warm that day so in the sun it melted, melted, melted.

We took Flat Stanley on a hike and a few other places.

Now, Stanley is upstairs in a box - awaiting to be taken to the post office for his return trip to Arizona tomorrow - he has to be back in Cool-town by March 16 and we don't want him to be late getting back to school.

Pretty sad life when a paper boy coming to visit causes excitement on the crick. JW was feeling a little displaced by the "Flat Guy".

Oh well, changes are a comin' - so life will be totally turned around 7 days from now ---- stay tuned.

Yeah for HAPPPPPPY HOLLY DAYS!!!

So for several months, I looked forward to Christmas. The kids were going to be here even if JW wasn't going to make it home for the holiday (the only silver lining on the dark cloud of the mine in Nome shutting down is he got to come home. I spent way too much money on some new decorations. Bought a new tree for the "man cave" so I could put a bigger one upstairs in the living room - one that I could put more presents under. Bought a little white flocked tree to put in the girl's bedroom. I even scooped up some frozen deer poop in a plastic bag and sprinkled in a little red glitter so we could leave it as evidence that Santa had been there. Broke down and bought Christmas dishes, silverware and napkins that I had wanted for years. Bought special Christmas mugs for the girls to drink from and some cheapy ornaments so I could put them on a tree out on the front deck.

Even Tinkerbell loved the upstairs Christmas tree and is finally getting a little used to the girls. For the first time, she did not hide in a dark hole in the basement all day while they were here.

I bought too many things for my favorite little girls - so many in fact that a few days before Christmas, I hid a couple of presents deciding to wait for Easter to give them some pink building things - similar to tinker toys. I arranged for a flight for number one child so she could spend Christmas with us for a change. I bought socks, socks and more socks since that is tradition - everyone gets socks for Christmas.

I cooked and cooked and cooked - way too many cookies and every kind I made, I had to make a few and bake them before I added nuts since youngest granddaughter is very allergic to nuts. Then I added nuts and baked more. I made caramels (with and without nuts) and some dipped in chocolate. I made fudge and spiced pecans and chocolate covered cherrys. Terrible thing is that I'm the one with the major sweet tooth - I think everyone else would have been just as happy if I had only baked a little.

We made tamales and after the girls got here, we made sugar cookies and decorated them so we could leave some for Santa. They helped mix the dough, cut the dough and then decorated. Jules had to do more than her half of the decorating, because Madison like to put lots and lots of blue sugar on her cookies - she says purple is her favorite color but I think she really prefers blue.

The girls got to spend some time sledding down the hill along the side of the house. But when they returned Christmas eve, the wind had blew all the snow away or into big drifts. So Christmas morning, they tried to sled down a big drift in the front yard. It was a short trip and Jules kept heading into the tree.

The day after Christmas, Nana and Tata hike out back to the other side of the hill to find a place for sledding. It was a little windy and awfully cold out. But, we found a perfect place and came back to get the rest of the family. We then all hiked out across the hill and spent the morning sledding down the hill. Even this old lady went down the hill twice. First time I've ever really sledded. I've secretly been wanting to go back out there and can almost guarantee that if we get another nice snow, I'm going to sneak out back and spend some time on that hill. At least back there, no one could see me.

Saturday evening, we took a lot of photos of the family. Wanted at least one decent picture (considering the subjects) of the whole group since it's been so long since we've all been together here at "my" house. We also decided that next year, we're going to go back to doing charity gifts instead of buying for the adults in the family. Even got the son to agree to that. However, the sock fairy is not happy that I've been told I cannot even buy socks and I cannot buy Happy Thanksgiving socks or Happy New Year socks.

Next year, Christmas is going to be very quiet wherever we are since we have to let the grandkids spend the holiday with their Grama Toni. But we are planning to all meet together in 2010 for another holiday (but I'm thinking less candy and cookies the next time around.

Not sure what new adventures await us this year. But whatever happens it will be okay. JW is applying for every job he thinks he would qualify for. We probably won't jump into moving somewhere until he works there a while and it looks like something that will last. The house is still up for sale and if someone snaps it up this summer, then we'll have to decide where to go. But until that day, we continue to work on the house and enjoy life here on the crick.